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author-morgan · 3 years ago

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"I won't let anyone hurt you, you're safe with me" with eivor please... Maybe he rescues reader from the order after they had been used for different experiments or something

i am so sorry for how long this took, but I had to come up with the right plot bunny to pair with the prompt for some angst(tm). here you are, i hope you enjoy and don't mind the touch of Havi and Frigg, or in which Havi makes a promise to his sweet Frigg and keeps it even in the next life.

m!Eivor x fem!Reader

SÝNIN CIRCLES IN the clear sky above the longhouse of Ravensthorpe, and then you know your husband is not far now. Soon Eivor Wolfsmal will be back in your arms, where he belongs. The raven descends, coming to perch on your shoulder, nudging his beak against your temple —as much as you’ve missed Eivor, you’ve missed Sýnin in equal measure. Things could get surprisingly lonely without a tetchy raven around to croak at all hours of the night, steal your hairpins, and beg for treats. Reaching up, you scritch the blue-back feathers on his belly and are rewarded by a low, gurgling croak. “Have you been behaving yourself?” Sýnin bobs his head, but you have a gut feeling he’s lying for the chance at a few extra treats.

Taking to the docks, you watch along the river bends for the sail and masts of the longship. The blue-and-back sail and shields turn from the west —squinting, you can see him standing on the curved scorpion tail, looking onward to home. With a nervous smile, you rest your hand over your belly, knowing soon it will start to grow. You’ve much to tell him since he’s been gone the past weeks, building alliances with Saxon nobles across England.

“Eivor, my love,” you call, meeting him at the edge of the dock as he steps off the longship. His smile is tired but relieved when he looks upon you with Sýnin perched upon your shoulder —the best ‘welcome home’ he could ask for. You open your arms, embracing him as the crew disseminates among the settlement. Eivor pulls back, his hands —rougher than you remember— cupping your cheeks.

There’s something different in your expression, a new glow surrounding you that he cannot place. Regardless of his racing mind, he leans forward as you urge him down with a hand at the nape of his neck. It’s been weeks, and he sighs against your mouth, the burdens of the world washed away by your touch and kiss. “Walk with me?” You ask, holding fast to his hand. He nods, offering his arm. Word of the recently secured alliance can wait; he has been parted from his wife too long.

You lead him past the longhouse, the people of Ravensthorpe smiling as they see Eivor has returned and know what it is you’re going to tell him. Once Valka confirmed your suspicions, it hadn’t taken long for word to travel by way of two mischievous children.

Everyone is happy; and happy for you and Eivor, knowing you two had tried to conceive many times. Stopping beneath the great tree past the Seer’s Hut, you turn with a smile —hand settling on your middle. “I’ve good news to tell you.” Eivor lifts his brow, and your smile only widens as you reach for his hand, pressing it against your belly. He sucks in a deep breath, heart thudding in his chest and ears as he looks to you, his clear blue eyes wide with joy and surprise. You nod, resting your hand over his. “I am with child.”

Eivor is silent for a moment, gathering his words and emotions. He looks down at your belly, then back to you —overjoyed and uncertain. This is a moment you’ve only ever talked about; that he’s dreamt of when the gods were kind enough to let him have a good dream. “I’m going to be a father?” Eivor breathes, though it sounds more like a question. You nod again, eyes gleaming with tears as he rests his other hand on your stomach too. His smile too large to be hidden under his shaggy golden beard. There’s another moment’s pause, then Eivor slips his arms around you, bringing you into a tight embrace —his face tucked into your neck.

You lose track of how long Eivor holds you in his arms as if it all is only a dream and he may wake at any second. Stepping back, he takes your face into his rough hands, brushing away the tears streaking your cheeks. Eivor dips his head down, his nose brushing against yours before your lips meet —gentle and loving but still burning with fervor from the weeks of being parted from one another.

“You’ve made me the happiest man in Midgard,” he admits. You lean into him again, taking another kiss before he settles onto one knee in front of you, level with your belly. Eivor rests his forehead against your front, his hands loosely holding onto your hips. “Rest easy, little one.” Smiling, you brush back his golden hair —half-unbound from his warrior’s braids and knotted. “I will protect you and your mother.” It’s a promise.

“EIVOR,” RANDVI CRIES as he enters the longhouse, tears still fresh on her cheeks. She should not have let you go riding outside of Ravensthorpe alone, especially knowing you were with child. He clasps onto her shoulders, steadying her so she can gather her senses. “It’s Fulke.” The script is fresh in her memory, having read it a dozen times over to be certain of the ill-boding tidings. Randvi shakes her head, unable to meet her friend's concerned gaze. “She’s taken more than just Sigurd.”

“No,” Eivor breathes, but Randvi presents the scroll as proof. He skims the words —his worst fears coming to fruition. Not only did Fulke hold his brother captive, but now the conniving bitch had stolen you away too. You. His wife. The mother of his unborn child. He’d sworn to protect both of you with every breath in his lungs, and now it is an oath broken.

The sudden anger boiling under his skin is so hot it burns the fear freezing him, turning to determination. Eivor crumples the parchment, his expression twisting —no god can save you now, Fulke. “Send word to our allies.” Randvi nods, stepping back to the writing-table at the edge of the map room. “I will burn all of Wessex if I have to,” Eivor grits out, hands turning to fists at his sides as he leaves the longhouse to gather his men —a part of him feels as though he has walked this path before.

HAVI STRIDES THROUGH Fensalir with a deep sadness in his heart, but his agony cannot compare to that of his sweet Frigg. For three days and three nights, his queen has asked for solitude, and though it pained him to keep away during such times, he and the others respected Frigg’s wishes. Though Havi would not leave his dear wife to grieve alone, sending Huginn and Muninn to keep a watchful eye over the Queen of the Æsir. The two ravens are perched upon a stone bench at the edge of the fen. Thor glances over his shoulder at the approaching footsteps —his expression is weary and grief-stricken as he looks upon his father.

Gently, your son releases you from his tight embrace and rises, stepping back with a silent promise to return soon as he greets his father with a solemn nod before leaving. Havi pushes back his hood, seeing the white flowers spring from the earth with your tears. Baldr will be remembered —in deeds and songs and the blossoms brought forth by his mother’s tears. He kneels, reaching for your hands, and slides the bloody sprig of mistletoe free from your grasp. Through weary eyes, you look upon your husband —his expression twisted into the same display of forlorn grief. It makes your heart ache even more to have pushed him away, for he too lost a son. “Frigg,” he sighs.

“Havi,” you cry, falling into him. He swathes you in his black cloak, tucking you against his chest and holding you tight —a vow of retribution on his tongue. Loki would be punished for this crime. For all the realms felt the bitter void left by Baldr’s absence, and all wept, save for a giantess whose unshed tears doomed your son to Hel. The grief and anger simmering in his blood turn to something else —determination. He will not have his sweet Frigg endure this pain again; his one-armed embrace tightens as he cradles the back of your head. “I will not let another of our children fall,” Havi swears, lips brushing over your temple. “Not until our twilight has come.”

HE TWISTS HIS hands into Fulke’s leather-and-cloth armor, throwing the madwoman to the muddy and blood-slick ground. Fulke spits blood, pulling herself away from Eivor Wolfsmal on hands and knees only to find herself surrounded by his men and allies. All their weapons drawn, trained on her. The price for taking the Jarl of Raven Clan and Eivor’s wife is one to be paid in blood, and there is nowhere for her to run. She will have to suffer the wrath. “Where is she?” Eivor roars, kicking Fulke onto her back. He kneels, knee pressing into the bloody gash on her side, one of his throwing axes withdrawn and held high above his head —ready to strike.

There is no fear in her eyes, only bliss. Her work in this world now complete. “You made a choice,” Fulke laughs, choking on blood, “you chose Sigurd.” She coughs, blood-tinged spittle spattering against Eivor’s face, washed away by the pouring rain.

He roars, teeth bared and eyes burning hot with the rage of the gods. Lightning splits open the sky, thunder cracking like a great whip against the earth. “I will flay the skin from your bones and feed your eyes to my raven,” Eivor hisses.

Her smile is bloody —victorious. She knows you are leagues from here, and now the only ones who know are dead or dying. Eivor Wolfsmal could search the land for years and never find the seaside cave on the shores of Cent. “You’ll never find her,” Fulke says. One final victory before relinquishing herself to darkness and her wounds.

Eivor rises, his shoulders heaving and expression twisted. There is no time for a reunion when Sigurd limps from the fortress —clutching the stump where his hand and wrist once were— reinforcements from Wincestre draw nigh. The cry of war horns and drums echoing above the storm. He turns to Dag and Hrefna, eyes flitting over to his brother, unfit to fight in the coming battle. “See him back to Ravensthorpe,” he tells them before shifting his attention back to his allies. The day is not won yet, and Eivor will not rest until he has his beloved back in his arms.

ABOVE THE BREAKING waves of the sea, there is a whisper on the howling wind. Eivor looks to the sea below, then to Basim —his scouts working tirelessly since the siege of Portcestre nigh a fortnight ago to find leads. The culmination of their work leads him and Eivor to the southern edge of Cent to a cave guarded by Fulke’s acolytes. Eivor knows the gods are with him this day, as plain as if the Allfather whispered the affirmation into his ear.

The echoes of battle fill the air, and through the slivers of light above, you see shadows moving and hear the unmistakable cry of a raven growing closer —Sýnin. Rousing from uneasy rest, you clamber to the upturned bucket at the cell’s center, dragging chains behind you. Trembling, you clutch your swollen belly, then step up onto the bucket, fingers finding purchase on the metal grate above, slick with blood and excrements. Sýnin appears at the edge of the grate, his beady eyes staring down at you in the darkness, tilting his head this way and that. He hops up and down —talons clinking against the metal— before squawking wildly.

Eivor’s focus shifts from the dead littering the beach when he hears Sýnin inside the cave, and for the first time in weeks, you hear your name in his voice —a desperate plea. “Eivor!” His name is only a soft, airy rasp, not strong enough to carry with the raven’s calls. “Eivor!” You cry, this time louder, but your voice is broken, throat raw from days screaming and crying at the hands of Fulke and her enforcers. Sýnin’s squawks grow louder, mingling with footsteps.

The wave of relief almost shatters him when it hits and washes over his body and mind when he sees you —alive. Eivor reaches through the lattice, his fingers brushing against yours. “I’ve got you now,” he breathes, the torchlight showing the tears glistening in his clear blue gaze. You nod, smiling with cracked lips —thanking Frigg and Freyja that your prayers did not go unanswered. Eivor urges you to step down and aside, and when you do, he rears back, slamming the butt of his axe against the rusting lock, breaking it. With a sharp cry, he throws open the grate, sliding down into the darkness with you.

Hands trembling, he unlocks the manacles around your wrists and the shackle around your ankle. Each has left your skin red and raw beneath. Eivor gathers you in his arms. “Let’s get you out of here,” he says, lips brushing against your temple. You nod, eager to be rid of this damp and foul hole in the earth. Sýnin takes to your shoulder as soon as you are free, nudging his head against your temple and cheek. With a tired smile, you lift a hand to scritch the dark feathers of his underside as Eivor pulls himself free of the cell.

Eivor kneels, reaching for your hands, his thumbs brushing just above the broken skin on your wrists, and as you lean toward him, he swathes you with the coarse wool of his cloak —forehead pressed against yours. He feels the dampness on your cheeks as you press your face against his scarred neck. "I won't let anyone hurt you again,” he vows, “you're safe now.” One of his hands settles on your stomach, and you cover it with yours, holding him tightly with the other. “You’re both safe,” he whispers, and it’s only when he feels a light twitch against his hand that the realization breaks him. “I’m so sorry, my love,” Eivor chokes.

You draw back from his embrace, seeing the tears streak his face and the guilt clear on his expression. “Don’t blame yourself,” you plead, cupping his scarred cheek. “Please, don’t.” Eivor nods, though guilt still weighs heavily on his heart and will until he sees you safely returned to Ravensthorpe and tended to. He turns farther into your hand until his lips brush the center of your palm —a soft kiss, another promise.

Sýnin croaks, splashing in a puddle, and breaks yours and Eivor’s trance, reminding you both that you’re still in a cave, far from home and where you belong. He slides his arms beneath your knees and around your shoulders, rising with you. “You’re safe,” he repeats, more for himself to hear than you. Eivor breathes a deep sigh when he steps onto the beach, holding you close in his arms. Sýnin flies overhead, as do a pair of ravens — the same pair Eivor has seen in dreams of late. He smiles as he sets on the path carrying you up the cliffside, knowing Havi and Frigg had both heard his prayers.

[taglist: @angstygunslinger @vanillabeanlattes @withered-poppies @ananriel @itseivwhore @maximalblaze @dynamicorbit @theelvenvalkyrie @xxdearlybeloved @elizabethroestone @elluvians @letsloveimagines @finick94 @wallsarecrumbling @kitkitvm @thedragonqueenfan @callmemythicalminx @edelae @darkravenqueen98 ] if your name is italicized, tumblr would not let me tag you. if you’d like to be added to my Eivor taglist, just let me know!

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nillegible · 4 years ago

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the JGY amnesia Fic

[AN: Someday I will come up with decent titles for my fics... but not now XD I hope you like this fic, the premise is that the issue with XY and NMJ happens before JZX’s death, and so the argument and the stairs moves up in the timeline! And JGY hits his head and gets TV-show amnesia, and remembers no one, not even himself, but is otherwise his sharp, suspicious self...]

He wakes up sure that he is dying, nothing else could hurt so sharp, agonizing pain radiating out from the back of his head, stabbing sharply every time he is swung, and he forces his eyes open. The light burns, but he can make out an earth green and brown collar, and a strong jawline. He is being carried by this man.

He doesn’t know who this is, but he feels… safe. Even though every step this man takes makes his eyes water.

He blacks out.

His name is Jin Guangyao. It rolls smoothly off his tongue, but sits wrongly in his mind. “Temporary amnesia,” the doctor had informed him, when Jin Guangyao could not tell him the answers to any pf his questions; not his name, or the date, or where they were.

A fancy young master in white-and-gold robes, who introduces himself as Jin Zixuan, is the one who sits by his side and tells Jin Guangyao the basics of his life. There is such an obvious lack of detail that it leaves him intrigued. And Jin Zixuan looks ashamed when Jin Guangyao asked if he was Jin Zixuan’s uncle. “No, I’m your older brother,” he says. “We… we share a birthday, but you’re a day younger.”

Jin Guangyao watches him for a moment, and wonders at the source of his brother’s shame. “I’m a bastard, aren’t I?” he asks.

“My father legitimized you!” Jin Zixuan protests. “You’re my brother.”

Jin Guangyao smiles at him. This man is clearly naïve, but has no ill-intent. The man who had named Jin Guangyao Jin Guangyao, however? He is yet to ascertain that.

Jin Guangyao’s memory doesn’t return within the first week. With his head injury healed, though, he’s allowed to leave the infirmary which allows him to collect a lot more useful data.

There is a lot of work piled up in his room. Disorganized, as if someone had gone through it to take the important paperwork to work on while he is <infirm>. That he was assigned so much work that was non-essential makes him wonder if he was actually pretty low on the social ladder, here. He goes through all of them anyway, most of it is useful information, painting a picture of Jin sect’s activities, and the sorts of projects that they allow to drag on for weeks. Jin Guangyao has left meticulous notes in a separate notebook about how to put everything into a more sensible order. That such reworking was required

His accessories, or lack-there-of, are even more enlightening. There’s also a scholarly-sort of hat, and only a few cheap hair ribbons. Nothing at all like the intricate jade hairpins or crowns with intricate metalwork and precious stones that Jin Zixuan and Jin Zixun wore daily.

Jin Guangyao’s place here is… obvious.

He wonders who the man who had picked him up after his injury, was. No one tells him, not even Jin Zixuan, he just pats Jin Guangyao’s hand and says, “Don’t worry, you’re safe now.” The implications of that are obvious, of course, that the stranger was the one who had hurt him. And yet it’s a subject no one speaks of, of how Jin Guangyao had fallen down the thousand steps of Koi Tower, and he hadn’t asked after the first two times. He stays wary, watching everyone. Someone had tried to kill him, and he doesn’t even remember which of his acquaintances might want him dead.

Lan Xichen arrives two days after his release from the infirmary, Lan-Zongzhu, according to everyone else. He’s beautiful, the most beautiful person that Jin Guangyao has ever seen. Since he remembers all of a week, this doesn’t sound like a compliment, but Jin Guangyao could probably search for decades and not find anyone more beautiful. It would not be fair.

They have tea together, after Lan Xichen – “Call me er-ge, you are my sworn brother, A-Yao,” – has checked him over worriedly, and checked his meridians, and pressed his fingertips gently to the back of Jin Guangyao’s head, to where his head injury had been, and ascertained that he truly is well.

“They did not tell me you were injured,” he says. “Da-ge had to, and this is the week of new students for the summer lectures, I could not leave. Jin Zixuan promised me you were well, though,” he says. Sincerity shines through him, and Jin Guangyao wonders what on earth he, an unwelcome child in his own family, could have done to make this man care for him.

So he asks.

Lan Xichen describes a heroic young man, who gave him shelter when he needed it most, who had smiled and laughed at him, and helped him with chores he could not do, and gave him the strength to fight a war. Lan Xichen tells him that this kind young man had gone into a war that did not affect him, only to help, that he had turned spy against a raging mad man, and finally taken off his head.

“So that is why my father took me in,” says Jin Guangyao. There’s a flicker of pain on Lan Xichen’s face as Jin Guangyao tells him what he’s surmised about how he’s treated here. “Did you know?” asks Jin Guangyao.

“I suspected,” Lan Xichen says softly. “But you were too proud to tell me. You insisted you were happy here. I visited when I could, but I never… I’m so sorry.”

Jin Guangyao reaches out to pat Lan Xichen’s hand, it feels so familiar, even if Jin Guangyao can’t remember doing it before. He must have, Lan Xichen’s sad face cannot be borne. “I’m sure I didn’t want to bother you, er-ge. You’re overworking yourself even now.” The signs are there, even behind his flawless composure. “You look so tired.”

“I had to come,” says Lan Xichen. “I was so scared that you…” He trails off, then turns his hand, holding onto him tightly. “If you don’t remember your place at Koi tower, do you want to return with me until your memory recovers? We’re still reconstructing, but Cloud Rececsses is still an excellent place to ”

“This Jin Guangyao is honoured, but what if it doesn’t?” asks Jin Guangyao practically. “I can’t just leave my home like that.” More quietly, he adds, “There must have been some reason I didn’t leave before.”

“You never said, exactly, but I believe it was because of your mother,” says Lan Xichen. “She wished that you would gain your father’s recognition, and a place at Koi Tower.”

“Do you know anything about her?” Jin Guangyao is not an idiot, he knows from the snide remarks, the way that people try not to touch him that he is of low birth, that his mother’s occupation was. That. He wonders if Lan Xichen will lie to him.

“She was an educated woman,” he says. “A renowned beauty. You’ve told me that you take after her, in many ways. She was skilled in the arts. She never taught you art but she was your master in calligraphy and music. She loved you very much and wanted you to have a good education because she knew… she knew that A-Yao is so incredibly smart and destined for greater things.” He squeezes Jin Guangyao’s hand. “Her life was not easy. She suffered, but she loved you. She would be proud of you, to know how much you achieved.”

It should matter, it does matter, Jin Guangyao’s heart squeezes, but it is from sympathy for what Lan Xichen is feeling. The dark honey-gold eyes are bright with tears. Clearly Jin Guangyao had loved her very much, before. But Jin Guangyao cannot find in him any love for a woman that Jin Guangyao cannot imagine. A woman with his face, a prostitute, but educated, talented. And ambitious to have Jin Guangshan’s son.

“My father did not take her in, I gather?”

“He did not. She died of illness shortly before I met you.”

“Thank you for telling me,” says Jin Guangyao.

Lan Xichen stays an entire afternoon, and readies himself to leave at dusk. Jin Guangyao accompanies him to the sky-pavilion on Koi Tower that the Jin disciples use to take off from.

There’s a last nagging question that Jin Guangyao hadn’t managed to slide into the conversation, as it meandered into cultivation theory and Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen had tried to piece out some kind of pattern in what kinds of cultivation knowledge he had retained, and what he had forgotten. It had been an interesting exercise.

“Er-ge, before you go,” says Jin Guangyao. He looks around cautiously, but no one is near enough to overhear. “You’re older than Jin Zixuan, aren’t you?” he asks, and Lan Xichen nods. “So our da-ge… you never said. Is he… did he die during the war?”

“No!” cries Lan Xichen. “A-Yao no, he’s not. He’s fine, he just could not find time to visit.”

Lie.

It’s the first time Lan Xichen has lied to him today, but Jin Guangyao is certain of it.

“No one talks about him, and I couldn’t find any letters from him. I did find a few of yours. No one even says his name. Who is he?”

“Nie Mingjue,” says Lan Xichen, sounding defeated. “Of course you would think to ask, but his name is Nie Mingjue.”

Everything falls into place. Jin Guangyao has seen some Nie disciple couriers on their way to private meetings with his father and the Jin council of elders. Hard faced and angry looking, they kept to themselves and departed the moment they could, without staying for a meal or entertainment.

“You think he pushed me down the stairs,” says Jin Guangyao.

“No,” says Lan Xichen. “We know he did. He kicked you down the stairs. He–”

“And you believe that?” asks Jin Guangyao.

“Of course I do,” says Lan Xichen. “Da-ge was the one who told me. I knew that things were difficult between the two of you, recently, but I had not imagined… It does not matter, we are looking through the records now, so that you can be free of your vows to him, and even if we can’t find something, he won’t visit Koi Tower again, Jin-zongzhu has forbidden it.”

“Oh,” says Jin Guangyao, mind whirring. “Okay then.”

“Is A-Yao afraid we’re covering something up?” asks Lan Xichen. Jin Guangyao is not sure what gave it away, he thought he’d kept his face smooth.

“Naturally I trust er-ge,” he says, smiling up at him. “I just remember him, vaguely. He picked me up. He saved me.”

It’s Jin Guangyao’s first memory, pained and fragmented though it is.

“He did take you up to the infirmary right after,” Lan Xichen agrees. He looks faintly puzzled, like he’s not sure why that matters to Jin Guangyao.

“I understand,” says Jin Guangyao. “Nie-zongzhu would of course regret his action after his moment of anger.”

“He does,” Lan Xichen assures him. “You should write to him, if you are willing to accept his apologies, but Da-ge is terribly sorry.”

“Thank you er-ge, I will,” Jin Guangyao promises. The relief on Lan Xichen’s face is too pure for this world.

He waves goodbye after Lan Xichen takes off, and steps back into the maze of Koi Tower, mulling over all the new knowledge that Lan Xichen had brought with him. He was right, he should write to Nie Mingjue.

But after some more research.

What could they have possibly quarrelled about so badly?

Jin Guangyao makes his way back to his rooms, keeping his face expressionless at the gilded opulence and overt unfriendliness of his home. He doesn’t understand his past self at all.

Why does he still live here, where he’s so clearly unwanted?

Why did he even care for the acknowledgement of Jin Guangshan, who from even just Jin Guangyao’s few interactions this week and the gossip he’s picked up, is a selfish, disgusting pervert who wouldn’t spit on Jin Guangyao if he was on fire.

Just because his mother wanted him to?

She was a good woman, he hears again, in Lan Xichen’s sincere voice. But Jin Guangyao doesn’t get it. She had to have been a fool, to believe in Jin Guangshan, or terribly cold and cruel to send him to Jin Guangshan knowing exactly what kind of derision would await him here. He is a war hero, and yet he’s treated like a servant.

Jin Guangyao is in the mood to be charitable, so he picks the former.

He still doesn’t know why he stayed.

[You can now read part 2 here!]

#meng yao #jin guangyao #nie mingjue #lan xichen #3zun #fix-it #JGY revaluating his own life objectively #amnesia #the fictional kind

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hobidreams · 4 years ago

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march 1867.

she is beautiful in ways you could never be.

pairing: joseon king!yoongi x reader genre: drama, angst words: 1.3k contains: longing.

moonlit throne index. this is drabble 18. start from the beginning?

Her name is Beom-su.

Her carriage arrives just as the sun reaches its highest peak in the sky, two measly days after Yoongi becomes king. The sole, precious daughter of the Minister of Taxation, as you will learn that evening from Jin-young over a dinner that is tasteless on your tongue. And because fate seems to have it out for you, you are witness to Beom-su’s welcoming procession. Castle ladies and eunuchs alike bow to her as she is helped out of her opulent gama by the servants that carried her all the way here. You hate the twisting in your stomach when you realize for the first time that she is beautiful, and then you can’t seem to stop.

She is beautiful in the corridors, practically gliding down them in her elaborate skirt with steps kept delicate and elegant, befitting her high status.

She is beautiful when she smiles at you whenever you happen to pass by each other, acknowledging you with a polite “su-uinyeo-nim” that makes you feel ugly and small when you can only muster a meager, fake grin in return.

But she is perhaps the most beautiful on certain afternoons when, with her makeup carefully done and perfect, she is escorted to the royal tea room to meet the king, her betrothed for a proper, private break. There is always an entire throng of excited maids who accompany her there, chatting merrily about the prepared menu and tea selection of the day. You are horribly aware that it is a far cry from the brief pockets of time you stole with the prince before he became too far for even your greedy reach.

You haven’t seen the king since his coronation. That is to be expected, of course. It’s not like you had much time with him before the ceremony either; the frenzy following his father’s death in early January had swept Yoongi up in its wake. A royal death so soon after the French invasion threatened to create mass panic among the people, and a strong leadership had to be presented to quell the fears. Thankfully, Queen Jeonghui was able to help with that front, standing strong beside her son with her ever-steady smile, giving him advice on the decisions now left up to him. And with news of the royal marriage to take place mid-May, things have settled even more, which perhaps had been the late king’s intentions when he arranged the match.

Wonderful. Just… wonderful.

You miss him.

You have no right to miss him, especially now since he is promised to another in a match that will do so much for the country, but you do.

You don’t want to admit how many times you’ve gone to the private library at your usual time and found it locked, empty. The hidden key hasn’t been moved from its hiding spot though, meaning you are still the sole other person to have free access to this space, whenever you please. You take that fact and all the hope it swirls up in you, and hold it somewhere near your heart. (He just hasn’t had the time to move it yet, says some irritating part of your mind that won’t shut up, especially at night when you’re trying to sleep.) The most pathetic thing is that even though you can, you haven’t mustered the courage to actually step inside the library in a long time, afraid the loneliness might really overwhelm you if you do. Afraid you won’t read and absorb a single word, and instead just wait for him to push open the door even though you know better. Or at least you should know better.

(You think he might even be purposefully avoiding you, which is the only conclusion you can extrapolate from the three separate times he meets your eyes by chance on the palace grounds only to snatch his gaze away and take the longer way around.)

But today, you have decided you are stronger than this. Today, you manage to enter the sunlit room and leave without much hesitation with The Myth of Flowers hugged close to your chest. The well-worn book’s weight is familiar and comforting, and you already foresee a late night poring over the words you have half memorized, perhaps with some yakgwa cookies and a cup of hot tea. The thought pulls a small smile on your face. After all, you cannot spend your entire life pining after a man who has never been, and could never have been, yours. It’s time you take care of yourself, even if that is more easily thought than done. Even if you are already feeling the absence of the bracelet you hesitantly left behind today, tucked inside a drawer with mother’s gifts of hairpins.

Caught in these thoughts, you should have been paying more attention to reality.

“Oh!”

A flash of scarlet robes. Too close, you leap back and your eyes swing up to see who you almost just bumped into so you can apologize and—

The king.

Your king.

Yoongi.

These last thoughts, you banish from your head as soon as they come.

“Jeonha!” You voice is surprised, but automatically too warm and too fond. Thinking back on it later, you will smack your forehead and sorely regret how palpable your delight at seeing him was. “I am very sorry. I almost hurt you.”

His eyes widen for a fraction of a second, his hand slipping up to the back of his neck briefly before he lets it drop to his side. “It is of no consequence. Nothing happened.” He sounds formal, so detached it makes a discomfort rear its head in your stomach.

“Su-uinyeo-nim. Good afternoon,” comes a voice from beside him, and you realize that he is not alone. Beom-su smiles at you, her hands gathered politely in front of her skirt. You see that Eunuch Kim trails behind them too, though a little way off as is his habit.

“Good afternoon.” You force yourself to bow, and not quiver all the way through. “Please enjoy your walk.” You have to leave here. “Please excuse me.” You cannot let yourself be trapped in this conversation when nothing good can come of it.

You’ve taken maybe five steps past them when the king says something that sounds a lot like the first syllable of your name before he cuts himself off. “Su-uinyeo-nim,” he says instead, and you grit your teeth before slowly turning around.

“Yes, jeonha?”

Be strong. Be strong.

Wordlessly, his stare holds yours and you think that you can see something in his eyes so reminiscent of that day he came to you in the infirmary, confused and heavy with a loss he had yet to admit. The day he let a few more walls crumble down, only to rebuild them all mere days after.

“… Never mind. Good day.”

You swallow disappointment and nod, bowing deeply so that he can’t see your face as you hear him turn. Still, despite yourself, damned by your curiosity or maybe just stupidity, you can’t help but see them off when you come back upright. They walk side by side, pace matched down the length of the garden, soon to disappear among the lush trees.

The worst thing is, you know too well the expression on Beom-su’s face as she looks at him. It’s the one you’re certain you’ve mirrored for so many years, right down to the nervous smile and the subtle tucking of hair behind your ear because you want to look perfect for the man you’ve fallen for.

She does lovestruck better than you.

She has the privilege to give him those soft, longing glances. You can only stare at his back as he walks further and further away.

#ficswithluv #yoongi angst #bts angst #bts imagines #yoongi x reader #min yoongi #historical au #bts scenarios #rain writes #moonlit throne #desire is a fickle thing #and so is chance #you can never hold the position she does... can you?

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sixteenthshen · 4 years ago

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Episode 1 Notes/Meta

Contains minor spoilers up to Youtube's schedule and references to the novel

Since I don’t have any new episodes to watch until Friday, I decided to watch the drama all over again, very closely, to see if there’s anything new to discover.

Zhou Zishu's character:

Drama immediately sets the backdrop/tells us why his character is kinder, more compassionate than in the novel. We don't know that drama!ZZS is kinder yet at this time, but we can see that he's schemey and sneaky

He wears a mask of indifference as the Window of Heaven's leader (sorry ZZH, I was wrong. I thought your acting was stiff during one scene, but now I know better). It's one of the many subtle faces of ZZS.

Wen Kexing's character:

He must be a highly-skilled martial artist based on how easily he kills two ghosts and that he can spot another skilled martial artist from a distance (beggar Zhou)

He's quite schemey. First, when he orders all his subordinates out to hunt for a man he just killed. Next, when he lets Gu Xiang go to check on the beggar, he's also subtly using her to test that unknown person's martial arts skills.

Why they're soulmates:

WKX understood immediately what "beggar" Zhou was doing (suntanning)

They're both well-matched schemey bastards

Behind the cut, geographical details and some details about the supporting characters. This is a very text-heavy post FYI

In chronological order:

20 years ago, Rong Xuan was killed by the Five Lakes Alliance and the gathered heroes.

Prince Jin is based far away in the North (Hedong 河东), where he holds power. It implies most of the story later takes place closer to the south of China.

Prince Jin ordered the Window of Heaven (TC in short, for Tian Chuang) to assassinate the Military Governor of Zhenwu (Officer Li). The Zhenwu Army is located somewhere around Inner Mongolia today.

Prince Jin falsely claims the Military Governor is a traitor to the country and has him assassinated. Prince Jin harbours treasonous thoughts, and in turn, makes ZZS and TC traitors.

Officer Li recognized Zhou Zishu by sight (calls him Officer Zhou), which means that they must have met previously somehow. He is shocked to know that ZZS is the leader of TC, so TC must be a secret assassin/spy organization (like an ancient CIA)

Zhou Zishu gets a drop of blood on his sword and flicks it off – he does not like blood.

Princess Jing An knows ZZS and first calls him Zhou shixiong (her first instinct is to use a familiar address). She later changes it to Officer Zhou when she realizes what he did.

Princess Jing An quotes, "The flowers blossom in all four seasons, knowing everything in the world", which makes ZZS turn to look at her - he sees the hairpin that his shidi Qin Jiuxiao made for the one he loves. ZZS gets super sad.

This line of poetry refers to the Four Seasons Manor (ZZS's martial arts sect)

ZZS, during his time as a court official, intentionally has a blank mask, so his emo is seen only in his slightly teary eyes. Removing this mask is also part of the freedom he seeks. Possibly symbolic that he feels freer living behind a physical mask than he does with his face.

Prince Jin ordered ZZS to personally nail the seven nails into Bi Chang Feng (Uncle Bi). It seems somewhat cruel of the Prince. ZZS walks with 2 of his commanders – Duan Pengju and Han Ying.

Uncle Bi calls ZZS Manor Lord (庄主)*. He says he cannot help but suspect the motives of Prince Jin. ZZS shows a slight reaction to this. He knows the motivations of Prince Jin by now. Not only is he a traitor himself, but he dragged all his 81 men down with him.

This is the root cause of ZZS's different personality traits in the drama and novel. I think his character in both the book and drama adaption is similar, but his additional compassion stems from being placed in different circumstances.

Novel!ZZS did terrible things for the right reasons. As a result, he won't feel as guilty and has less reason to be so compassionate.

Drama!ZZS followed the wrong master, and the awful things he did were for treasonous reasons. There's no justification for the lives he took. Because he did worse things, he's better able to "see the light" and understand things in life better. Therefore, kinder.

The motto of the Window of Heaven (as requested by Prince Jin):

The members are to carry out their missions without leaving a trace (shadow without traces)

Once a person enters TC, they're never to leave (entry without exit.)

To know everything and to be everywhere.

When the camera cuts to ZZS's two senior officers, Han Ying shuts his eyes sadly while Duan Pengju has a slight smile on his face 🤨🤨.

Nails of Seven Torments (七窍三秋钉) – seven nails, each to be driven into the seven primary acupoints (for martial arts) in a person's body. After that, a person won't get to see more than three autumns. They would lose their martial arts ability entirely, and their five senses deteriorate over time, preventing the secrets of TC from being leaked. (see #2 of their motto)

ZZS does not like anyone who's not from his sect to call him Manor Lord, as it's a reminder of his failings. He doesn't think he has the right to be called that any longer since he ruined his sect.

Prince Jin calls ZZS by his name directly (Zishu); it implies a certain level of familiarity. However, ZZS hasn't been presented himself in front of Prince Jin in some time, suggesting he has already distanced himself from Prince Jin (and a certain level of disrespect)

From Duan Pengju, we learn that ZZS hadn't taken up his sword much in the past year due to a lingering injury; this time at the Military Governor's residence was the first time he wielded his sword in a while.

DPJ also uses this word again (又) in Chinese to describe ZZS aggravating his injuries again (that isn't in the YT subs), which implies that he has suffered other internal injuries before, not solely from QJX's death. DPJ is subtly suggesting to Prince Jin that ZZS is no longer very fit and not suitable for his role (shows us his ambition).

ZZS's current injury (that Uncle Bi refers to and why he coughed up blood in the snow) came about after Qin Jiuxiao's (shidi) death. He coughed up blood then and fainted.**

ZZS's residence is called Chongming Garden (重明苑), where he has a mural of 82 white flowers and the line of poetry about the Four Seasons Manor. He paints each flower red when one of his original sect members pass away. There's only one white flower left --- himself. See this link for a more detailed translation.

ZZS scolds a vision of his shidi not to cry. ZZS's assertion that men shouldn't cry comes up several times later. His eyes only get teary after this scene, and not a single tear falls again (still canon for now).

ZZS has an official court position. He's an Imperial Guard with some seniority, and it's likely why the Military Governor calls him Officer Li. (A governor would not call a low ranked Imperial Guard “Officer” 大人 daren)

ZZS has several battle wounds from a blade, but the ones on his back (shoulder blades) look messy. Not sure what they are yet, but I think it could become relevant later.

Prince Jin appears unstable when he talks about everyone leaving him. Yunxing and Beiyuan are both characters from Lord Seventh. Beiyuan is the titular character of that novel. When Prince Jin said, "Beiyuan is gone too", ZZS displays a minute reaction because he knows Beiyuan isn't actually dead.

Prince Jin says ZZS is ruthless, but he's even more so to himself (recurring description).

Here, we see that ZZS knows of DPJ's ambition to take over his job when he says they both get their wishes today. DPJ becomes the new TC leader.

Prince Jin lets ZZS go. As he watches ZZS leave, he recites two lines from a poem, which title roughly translates to "on one's deathbed/imminent death".***

“涓涓江汉流，天窗通冥室。谗邪害公正，浮云翳白日。” Small streams can become large rivers; even a window as small as a skylight can brighten a dark room. Rumours and evil can harm the public good; clouds can block the bright light of the sun.

There's some foreshadowing here. Prince Jin sees ZZS leaving as a threat. It could be that one person leaving TC "standing" may lead to an exodus or that ZZS knows too much to be left alive outside for long. Prince Jin sees himself as the righteous and the sun here. He follows the recital by saying he's only letting ZZS go for now.

ZZS's beggar styling is supposed to juxtapose his strict and neat dress as the leader of TC, including his hair and overall CBAssed-ness of how his clothes hang.

Hanged ghost died super quick. We see an arm covered in a red sleeve strangle him to death. Red sleeve dude seems to be the head of the Ghost Valley (yaaaaa we know who you are)

WKX lies to the masses about the Hanged Ghost and tells them to set forth out of the Ghost Valley. We can see that all of them are scared of him. He has a scheme -- but we don’t know what it is yet.

WKX and ZZS meet (yay!!!) in Yue (modern-day Zhejiang, in the south), far away from Prince Jin. We should note that this is very far away from the North, where Prince Jin and TC hold power.

ZZS would rather be a beggar than the Emperor. The freedom to live and do whatever he chooses is more important to him than riches or power.

WKX understood what ZZS was doing right away (while GX thinks he's a beggar). This is why they're soulmates!

Gu Xiang's cuteness comes off as a little forced here, but upon re-watching, I believe it's because she hasn't been out in the "human world" before. Her mannerisms are all learned from her life in the Ghost Valley. She's also about ten years younger than WKX, so she's supposed to be more energetic.

WKX allows GX to go down partly because he is curious about the beggar, who seems to be very skilled at martial arts. GX is quite a straightforward and innocent person. She's unaware that she's helping to test the beggar's skills for her master.

WKX notices the ZZS's martial arts and stands up right away. This scene is also more important than it seems to be at first. Later in episode 2, it's revealed that he recognized the beggar's particular martial arts as unique to the Four Seasons Manor sect. I think it's the first hint that beggar Zhou may be "Zhou Zishu". (We find out that WKX knows ZZS's real name in episode 6.)

ZZS intentionally hits himself to make himself seem like a poor injured beggar and GX a bully. It shows that ZZS is sneaky – and again, ruthless, even to himself.

* ZZS is not a real lord. He's the sect leader (Manor Lord comes about because his sect's name ends in Manor, and the address "my lord" comes from Manor Lord). ** This is a fictional type of injury, where people in Chinese historical dramas cough up blood when they suffer severe emotional shocks that cause some unexplained internal injury. *** 《临终诗》

#word of honor #word of honor meta #wen kexing #zhou zishu #not lying about text heavy #1800 words wtf

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carminite-wyrm · 3 years ago

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Running Onwards, To the Hope of a New Day (Part 3)

Part 1 | Part 2

(Thank you to everyone who's been reading this fic of mine so far! I've really appreciated all your comments! Also, this will eventually be up on AO3, just not yet because I haven't been able to get an account just yet.)

In which Nyx tries his best, realises a few things, learns a new skill, and commits a minor case of arson.

All in all, Nyx was feeling pretty good about his chances, on his ninth run. He’d learnt from his eighth run that, no, setting the black-market dealer’s place on fire, stealing both the explosives and the phoenix down, and quietly dumping the explosives into one of the rivers that ran through Insomnia wasn’t enough to stop the rebels from bombing the signing ceremony. Considering there was more than one cell, he was sadly unsurprised by this. He’d also figured out that whatever was attracting the daemons was attached to the tracker in the hairpin in a way that he couldn’t just remove, which was a shame.

He learned that he needed to give Crowe a phone in some sort of blast-proof container or casing, because while he’d managed to give Crowe the means to contact him and Libertus sooner, the phone would be severely damaged without one. And, because the phone would be broken, Crowe wouldn’t be able to get in contact with them soon enough to stop Libertus from joining the rebels and giving them the vital information that they needed to launch their attack on the Citadel.

He had also found out that if he told King Regis about the traitorous Glaives he knew would survive the Princess’ extraction, that the King would be able to sever their connection to his magic before they encountered them on either the bridge or the overpass.

Unfortunately, its effectiveness was limited by the fact that there were still Glaives that he hadn’t known were traitors, and so they still had ended up rocketing off the overpass when another Glaive, who Nyx belated recognised as Isra Solis (and Crowe had cursed her out even more viciously than Nyx had, because Isra was as talented with frost magic as Crowe was with fire, and the two had been close, before everything went down).

At this point, Nyx was pretty sure that as soon as they got to that first attempt to escape the city, it was almost guaranteed that they’d be crashing the car sooner or later.

At the very least, Nyx thought to himself, as he finally found an old camera case which he hoped would be enough to hide the phone, this should help with stopping Libertus from leaving. Hopefully.

A day later, he awkwardly held the box of Crowe’s things, waiting for Drautos to move out of earshot. As Libertus raged at Crowe’s apparent death, Nyx took a deep breath, and quickly grabbed Libertus, warping them into one of the nearby alcoves (why there were so many alcoves by the morgue, Nyx had no idea, but he’d take it).

“Nyx, what the hell?!” Libertus gasped, nearly losing his balance at the sudden movement if not for Nyx’s steady grip on his arm.

“Lib…I don’t think Crowe is dead,” Nyx said, mustering the most serious voice he could, which was actually pretty serious considering how much potentially hinged on him getting Libertus to listen. “Look, you know how I gave her some of my curatives, right? Well, I also gave her a phoenix down and an extra phone.”

“…Why? What has that got to do with any of this?”

Nyx rummaged through the box in his hands, searching through for any of the items in question. Thankfully (for the point he was making, at any rate), he could not find any of the things that he had given Crowe.

“They said they recovered everything, right?”

Libertus nodded slowly.

“The phone isn’t here. Not even parts of it.”

Nyx was gratified to see the dawning realisation on Libertus’ face, and silently congratulated himself for finally convincing him of Crowe’s continued survival. And hopefully now, Libertus wouldn’t have too many reasons to leave, or at the very least, no reason to give information to that rebel cell.

“So, what you’re saying,” Libertus said, slowly, almost as if he couldn’t believe it. “Is that Crowe could still be alive.”

“Yes, exactly!” Nyx internally was jumping up and down with joy, this was exactly the reaction he wanted.

“We need to go find her.”

Wait, shit. Celebrated too early.

Nyx wasn’t even certain that Libertus would be able to find Crowe, if he went haring off now. And if he lost track of Libertus, then he wouldn’t to be able to assure himself of Libertus or Crowe’s safety. And if Libertus went running off, then that would alert the traitors that their plan hadn’t gone exactly to plan, and Nyx…couldn’t risk them changing the script that drastically.

“With what resources, Lib?” Nyx hissed, holding back Libertus with a hand on his shoulder. “We don’t even know where she is! She still has the phone, presumedly. We should wait for her call.”

“But what if she can’t call? What if she’s been captured by the Niffs, or- or.”

“…Give it a day, Lib. 24 hours, and if we don’t hear anything, we’ll go find her. But don’t you dare leave without me.” Nyx scowled, hoping that his mild concession wouldn’t be necessary. He didn’t exactly want to show off the fact that he knew the approximate area that Crowe would end up in, two days from this point, but 24 hours would give him time to come up with a reasonable excuse. He hoped, at any rate.

“Fine,” Libertus nodded. “24 hours’ll give us time to prepare, either way.”

“And don’t you dare try and resign, we’re going to need the King’s magic for this. Probably.”

“Alright, alright, hero.” Libertus shook his head, patting Nyx on the shoulder. “Worry about Crowe, not me.”

“I am not going to risk losing you as well, Lib.” Nyx scowled.

Libertus’ expression softened, then, and he drew Nyx into a hug.

“You won’t, Nyx.”

But I have. So many times, Nyx didn’t say, basking in the warmth of his best friend’s embrace. So many times, Libertus. I wish I could tell you.

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

When Nyx’s phone rang early the next day, showing the contact for the phone that he had given Crowe, Nyx was unashamed to admit that he broke down sobbing. Frantically hitting the answer button, he listened to Crowe tell him that Luche had nearly killed her, that she’d been rescued in the nick of time by the combined efforts of the phoenix down and a pair of hunters, and that (this time), for some reason, she was actually all the way at Hammerhead.

Why she was all the way there, Nyx wasn’t quite certain, but Crowe had explained that the phone had actually been slightly damaged after the fight with Luche, but when Crowe had been trying to get it to actually make a call, one of the hunters had said that there was a mechanic over at Hammerhead, who could repair it.

Nyx wondered why Crowe hadn’t gone to the outpost last time, surely an outpost as well-established as Hammerhead would have been the ideal place to take an injured Glaive to contact her allies. Then he realised that in the last run, the phone had been completely toasted, and perhaps the hunters had not realised that Crowe was a member of the Kingsglaive, until they had spotted the Imperial dropships and Crowe had gone racing off after them.

Still, he did have some other questions to ask her.

“Wait, hold up, why couldn’t the hunters call us for you? Don’t they have phones of their own?”

“Batteries died.”

Are you fucking kidding me?! Nyx thought. What were the bloody chances of that happening?!

“What.” He said instead.

“Yeah, apparently they were going to head to one of the smaller, nearer outposts because there’s some spares there, but when I told them I needed to get in touch with a member of the Kingsglaive fast, I think they broke like four or five road rules to get me here as fast as they could.”

Nyx couldn’t help but laugh at the image, before slowly managing to calm himself down.

“Can you hold for a moment? I need to get Libertus here before he does something stupid and tries to rush after you.”

“Sure, Nyx. Get him in here, I bet the big guy’s worrying his ass off about me. I sure won’t be going anywhere, the hunters said it was risky enough bringing me all the way over here in the first place.”

Nyx sped down the hallway, and raced for the stairs, almost knocking Luche down the stairs (if only) in his haste to reach Libertus. He slammed open the door, having only wasted a few seconds fumbling with his own set of keys beforehand.

“LIB!” He yelled, as he shut the door behind him.

“What?!” Libertus yelled back, from inside the bathroom, where Nyx could hear the sounds of the shower running. “It better be important, I only just got the hot water running!”

Oh, whoops.

Three minutes later, Nyx was awkwardly sitting on Libertus’ couch whilst Libertus talked with Crowe, the other man significantly less irritated at Nyx’s interruption when Nyx had told him he had Crowe on the other end of his phone. He didn’t mention to Libertus later, when the man had finally re-entered the main area of his flat and put the phone on speaker, that he had definitely heard the sound of Libertus sobbing even with the continued sound of running water. Nyx was honestly just happy that Libertus was still here, still with him, and that Crowe was still alive.

“Shit, Nyx.” Libertus finally said, after Crowe had fully retold her story. “Luche’s a fucking traitor. We should…we should tell the Captain.”

Nyx froze, from where he was preparing to head off to be part of the Princess’ escort into Insomnia.

“I…I’m not sure we should.” Nyx admitted, trying not to make it apparent that he absolutely distrusted anything and everything Drautos said or did. “The details of Crowe’s mission should have been confidential, as soon as she left the city. But despite the precautions that were taken, Luche was still able to find her, and nearly kill her. If Luche’s a traitor, what’s to say there aren’t any other traitors in the Kingsglaive? What’s to say that the Captain’s office hasn’t already been compromised?”

“Shit, is there anywhere else we can take this?”

“What about the Crownsguard Marshal? The Crownsguard deal with internal affairs, right?” Crowe chipped in.

“We could…but I’m due in for Citadel duty in ten minutes, and we can’t afford any possible traitors knowing something’s up just yet.” Nyx scowled, frustrated at how things had lined up. “Lib, can you see if you can talk to the Marshal?”

“Nyx, you know how I feel about the Crownsguard,” Libertus shook his head. “With my luck, I’d end up just pissing them off, and that’s the opposite of getting them to listen. Chances are, I’m not even going to make it anywhere close to the Marshal’s office.”

“Damn it.” Nyx sighed. “I’ll see if I can find him, when it gets to my lunch break.”

“I’ll see if I can think of any way to get Crowe back here soon, I’m certain Crowe showing up alive will lend support to our whole ‘Luche is a filthy traitor’ argument.” Libertus nodded. “Best of luck, hero.”

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

If one were to inquire as to why Nyx Ulric of the Kingsglaive was currently sitting with his head in his hands, barely an hour after his shift had ended, on the steps just outside the Kingsglaive barracks, he would tell them to politely ‘fuck off’.

It was, perhaps, not the most diplomatic of responses, but Nyx felt it easily summed up how he was presently feeling, after the utter shitshow that was his attempt to find the Marshal of the Crownsguard.

The actual searching and inquiry itself was quite fast. He’d only had to step into the Crownsguard building asking to see the Marshal, only to find out one little thing. One key thing he honestly wished he’d known far sooner, because it explained so many things.

The Marshal was not in the damn city.

Apparently, the man was off on some sort of confidential mission, due to return the bloody day before the signing ceremony for some Astrals-damned reason.

That was too late for any of Nyx’s current (and possibly future) plans.

And there was no way he, a single Kingsglaive, could even get the Marshal to return sooner, it simply wasn’t within the bounds of his current abilities.

So that avenue was closed to him, for the time being. Perhaps there were other people in the Marshal’s office he could approach, but Nyx simply did not know who would be a trustworthy, reliable person he could talk to in that branch of the military.

He briefly considered Fortis, before shaking his head. That man could be relied upon in a crisis, he had to admit, but…to most people, the only crisis happening at the moment was the political nightmare of the ceasefire. To most, it was a matter for diplomats and Kings, not foot soldiers and guardsmen.

Scowling off into the distance, he wondered whether it might have just been best to get Crowe back into the city, so that he could at least go to the King with direct evidence of Luche’s treachery. With any luck, Luche would have spilled everything, and then they could have killed Glauca when he inevitably fought back.

It seemed a bit late to try that this time around, though. Tomorrow, Insomnia would be invaded, after all.

Nyx sighed, before readying himself for his night shift guard duty, and the Princess’ inevitable kidnapping. Time to see if he could, at the very least, keep all his friends alive for longer this time around.

The next morning, he let himself back into Libertus’ room, to kick his plan of ‘Keep The King and My Friends Alive At Least’ into motion.

“Lib, I’m…I’m going to go talk to the King,” He said, and had a moment of amusement at Libertus nearly dropping his bowl of oatmeal in shock. “Crowe’s still at Hammerhead, yeah? Presumably heavily injured, but not injured enough to be unable to hold a call, right?”

“I would assume so,” Libertus nodded, after regaining his composure. “You sure you can get the King himself to listen? He’s a Lucian, and a noble to boot. You know how the combination of the two tend to treat folks like us.”

“…I think he’d listen. We have proof, now, and the next highest-ranked person isn’t even going to be here yet.”

“I still think we should tell the Captain-“

“No!”

Nyx winced as Libertus levelled a critical eye at him, the force of his disagreement clearly a bit…too much.

“Nyx.”

“Yes, Libertus?” Please don’t ask what I think you’re about to.

“Why are you so adamant about not telling the Captain?” Libertus put down his bowl, and crossed his arms, a pose familiar enough to Nyx that he knew Libertus wouldn’t take a vague answer. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I- I think the Captain is also a traitor.” There. He said it.

Nyx waited, as the seconds ticked by, as Libertus seemed to turn the thought over in his head. He waited, for the inevitable doubt, the claims of paranoia gone too far in the wake of Luche’s betrayal.

“I’m guessing you don’t have any evidence, do you.”

Nyx raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t a complete expression of doubt, even if Libertus did still seem highly sceptical of his not-theory.

“No. It’s just,” Nyx fished around for the right word that wouldn’t cause more suspicion, considering he still wasn’t sure he could just outright say ‘yeah I’ve watched Drautos murder King Regis like three times by now’. “A gut feeling. An instinct.”

“Well, your gut instinct hasn’t led us astray much at all, has it,” Libertus sighed, his stance loosening dramatically as he sat down heavily. “Astrals damn it. And considering Drautos is actually respected by the Lucians, they won’t be likely to take your word without actual evidence to back it up.”

“And obviously, I couldn’t exactly break into his house or office to look for evidence.”

“Well, you could, it’d just be difficult.”

“What.”

Libertus shrugged, before gesturing at himself and Nyx.

“We’ve both got magic, idiot.”

“Yes, and? It’s not exactly conducive to breaking and entering, you know. Security cameras exist, and I can’t exactly fireball my way into his office.”

Libertus blinked up at Nyx, before vanishing in the slightest glow of crystal-blue.

“Oh.”

Nyx sat down, on the floor of Libertus’ shoebox of a flat, and laughed into the palm of his hand. He laughed, until he registered Libertus (now visible again), shaking his shoulder.

“You good?”

“I. Yeah,” Nyx wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye. “I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me. Six, it was so obvious all along!”

He looked up at Libertus, and grinned. “Can you teach me?”

“What, now?!” Libertus looked around, before sighing once again. “You want to go searching whilst the Signing Ceremony happens, don’t you? Fuck, of course you are, you reckless piece of shit.”

“Well-“ Actually, I was more thinking it’d be good for a future loop.

“Fine. You’ve got forty minutes before your next citadel guard shift, you better be listening closely, hero. The others in my squad took at minimum three days to hold this for longer than a few seconds. You might be a warp-spammer, but this shit takes more focus than a shield, for all that it drains your magic slower.”

“I’m listening, Lib.”

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

By the time Nyx had to leave for the citadel, he could hold the invisibility for all of two seconds, a feat that Libertus had briefly praised, before going right back to fondly complaining about Nyx’s aptitude with all things magical. It wasn’t enough to be truly practical, but Nyx figured he’d have time to practice it more, next loop.

“You’ll call me, yeah, if anything goes south?” Libertus had asked, grabbing hold of Nyx before he could leave.

“Yeah,” Nyx nodded. “I will.”

An hour later, he was hastily calling Crowe with the coordinates he had by now memorised, as he made his way to the rest of the Kingsglaive with their orders to mobilise. As for Libertus, he’d updated him as to the situation, tasking Libertus with keeping an eye on the situation within the city, and calling him if anything happened.

Obviously, Nyx knew that things were definitely going to happen, but the point was that he wanted Libertus to not run off and potentially get himself killed. Nyx had a plan, this time around, or at least the makings of one, and he was fairly certain he’d be able to keep his friends, the Princess, and the King alive this time around.

First off though, he had to survive the Princess’ extraction.

With a deep breath, he launched himself up onto the Niflheim ship, experience allowing him to stick the landing instead of the awkward crash his first time around. With expert motions, he directed the Glaives through the ship, right up to the point where Pelna found the Princess.

“Pelna, get out of there, now. Don’t go down that corridor, I spotted a really nasty daemon that way.” Nyx said, hurriedly, as he sprinted down the hallway to meet them. He easily ducked under a traitor’s attack, ripping off their mask just before he slit their throat.

He’d forgotten to check their identities the first few times around, too busy with trying to survive and keeping his friends alive, and while he knew he wouldn’t be able to get all of them in one run, he sure could at least find out who a few of them were.

Distantly, as he expertly tripped another traitor and killed them before they could even try and attack Pelna from behind, he wondered how much he had changed, already, with how many times he’d already replayed the past five days. Before this hell week, before the ceasefire, before the time loops, these Glaives had been his fellow comrades-in-arms. He’d saved them, and been saved in turn, on countless missions, in countless fights. And yet here he was, barely batting an eye as sisters and brothers turned on them all, as he cut them down within seconds of them raising their blades and spells against their former friends and allies. Their movements were so familiar, so scripted, he knew exactly how to move to counter their attacks, how to slip under their guard and slice them apart. The only true dangers, it seemed, would be the daemons, Luche and his posse, and General Glauca.

He shoved Pelna back with one hand as they rounded the corner, tanking a fireball from Tredd with his own shield, before retaliating with his own rapid blasts of lightning. He could hear Tredd curse, ducking around his own corner just as a tentacle from the octopus daemon began to tear the ship they were on in two.

He quickly directed Pelna and Lunafreya onto the ship they would escape in, nodding to himself as Crowe suddenly warped onto the open deck with a gasp, mirroring the events of Loop 7. He quickly shoved a couple of hi-elixirs into her hand, before turning around and seeing if he could spot Luche’s escape ship. Sadly, he couldn’t, and resigned himself to seeing those assholes again later, during the overpass chase.

“Shit, Crowe!” Pelna called out. “You’re alive?!”

“Yeah, no thanks to fucking Luche.” Crowe spat, and Nyx mentally noted down that two hi-elixirs were so much better than just one single elixir. “Nyx, you need to call Libertus, let him know what a shitshow this has all turned out to be.”

“And it’s gotten worse.” Pelna agreed, pointing out the falling Wall.

“We need to return to the Citadel-“

“Yeah, I know. The King and the Ring, right?” Nyx sighed, already calling Libertus.

“Yes, exactly- Wait, how did you know that?” Lunafreya suddenly appeared in Nyx’s field of view, eyes bright with concern, just as Nyx had finished talking to Libertus.

“You’re talking to the Glaive who’s pulled the most Citadel duty out of everyone, I picked up a few things,” Nyx said, suddenly aware of the fact that the importance of the Ring was…probably not the most common of information around. He hastily changed the subject. “I let Lib know we were coming back, he’s going to be waiting for us in the Citadel garage.”

“You sure he’ll be alright? What with that leg of his?” Pelna inquired.

“He might not look like it, but Lib is a very good driver.” Nyx thought back to the past loops. In every single one where he’d actually made it to that plaza, Libertus had, without fail, successfully crashed a car into Glauca. And on top of that, he’d also successfully navigated his way through a city in the midst of getting razed, whilst Nyx and the Old Wall had been tearing up the city in their respective fights. Libertus was the best damn driver Nyx knew, broken leg or not.

The four of them made it to the Citadel in what felt like record time, running into the signing room just in time to once again see Ravus’ arm on fire. Pelna and Lunafreya quickly hustled the King out of the room, whilst Crowe and Nyx did their best to harry Glauca with alternating blasts of fire and lightning. As they ran out of the secret tunnel and into the garage, Nyx grinned as he Libertus waved at them all. As Crowe rushed to give Libertus a one-armed hug, Nyx quietly relayed the identities of the rest of the traitorous Glaives he could be certain of, as well as his suspicions about Captain Drautos, to the King, who nodded even as he paled considerably at Nyx’s revelations.

“Astrals, but am I glad to see you, Crowe!” Libertus called out.

“You too, Libertus! Better not have done anything stupid whilst I was out.”

“Cool catch-up, but we’ve got General Glauca right on our heels,” Nyx said, slamming down another shield over the tunnel that they had just left. “We’ll take two cars. Pelna, you’re driving that car over there. Crowe, you and King Regis can get into Lib’s car. Me and the Princess will be with Pelna. We’ll exit together, and Pelna will take the lead. Lib, I want you to stay as close as possible to us, me and Crowe will be taking charge of killing anything that gets in our way, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to clear a path, so stay vigilant. Make sure your comms stay open.”

“Got it.” They all nodded, Crowe even giving him a thumbs up as she slid into Libertus’ car.

The drive out of the Citadel went exactly as Nyx had expected, and he quietly cackled to himself even as he leaned out of the window to throw a handful of lightning at one of the MT Armours chasing them. As he spotted the ship carrying Luche, Tredd, and the rest of their group slowly coming into view, he threw a fireball at them, before ducking back down into the car. Hastily, he grabbed the Princess’ hairpin from her, the woman too shocked by the suddenness of his action to protest.

“Pelna, hand me the wheel.”

“Nyx what-“

“You’re still good at warping, yeah? I need you to warp the Princess to Lib’s car,” Nyx sighed as Lib predictably began to also protest. “Lib, get someone to hold that door open.”

“Nyx, you fucking-“

“Pelna, now!”

To his credit, the man didn’t hesitate even with his protests, throwing his dagger in a shower of blue as he tugged the Princess along, leaving Nyx alone in his car.

Not for much longer, of course, because just as Luche and Tredd leaned out of their ship to try and shoot at them all, and just as Petra Fortis in his armoured van appeared in Nyx’s rearview mirror, Nyx turned his car to face Luche and Tredd.

The look on their faces as he drove the car straight at them would be one Nyx would savour for a long, long time. Luche’s string of curses as Nyx warped out of the car just before impact, would also be on the list of things that gave Nyx so much joy.

He landed on the side of Fortis’ van with a quiet oomph, clinging onto the kukri now lodged into the metal. A few moments later, he’d managed to swing himself into the front seat, after Fortis had rolled down the window for him.

“You’re insane, Ulric. Actually insane.” Fortis said, staring at him with wide eyes even as they caught up with Libertus and the others.

“Best warper in the Kingsglaive.” Nyx replied smugly, and winced as the yelling over his comm reached an even louder level.

After that, they somehow made it all the way to within view of the West Gate, even with the occasional daemon or magitek soldier that they ran into. It seemed Nyx’s gambit with the crashed car and the hairpin had paid off, for now, and he quietly let himself relax a little, though he kept an eye out for anything else that might stop their escape.

It was that caution that had him spotting the glimmer of silver and purple before it hit the ground in front of Libertus’ car, his yell of alarm all that they needed to grind to a halt just in time to avoid General Glauca slicing their car in two.

“Shit, Fortis, you and Lib are gonna have to guard the King and Princess, we’ll try and hold him off. If you see an opening, get out of here.” Nyx said, as he chucked a kukri out of the window, and began doing his level best to once again kill Glauca.

As Crowe covered the King and Princess’ retreat to Fortis’ van, followed by a very worried Libertus, Nyx threw himself headlong into the fight, Pelna darting in and out where he could, the two of them trying to keep Glauca’s attention long enough for Crowe to be able to join in.

“Why do you fight, for a King who would abandon us all to save his throne and his son?” Glauca roared, as Nyx warped out of the way of his sword, flinging a blast of flame to hide Pelna’s approach. “Walk away, Glaives, and you will see another day in peace, the Empire has promised it!”

“The way I see it, whatever Niflheim promised you isn’t enough to justify the utter destruction laid in its wake, Drautos.”

Glauca actually froze, momentarily, as Nyx called him by his actual name. And then cursed, because Crowe had apparently figured out how to properly stash the King and the Princess away, and had now joined the fight as well with a blast of flame that Nyx could see had melted part of his helmet.

“So, you know, then.”

“Yeah, I do, you traitorous bastard.”

The three Glaives did their best to fight Glauca, a blast of lightning from Nyx actually causing the armoured man to stumble backwards a little. This…wasn’t going terribly, Nyx thought, warping past Glauca’s shoulder and swinging back down, Pelna trying to go for Glauca’s knees at the same time. They were both flung backwards for their efforts, but Crowe had used that opportunity to slam another two fireballs at Glauca, only one of which the man was able to deflect.

In the corner of his eye, he saw a daemon making its way to them, ambling towards Fortis’ van. Nyx cursed, and launched himself at Glauca, trying to herd him out of the way so that Fortis could make a break for it, before the daemon got to them.

“Crowe, Pelna, we need to get Glauca out of the way!”

Pelna nodded, grunting as he parried a punch, before warping away from Crowe’s attack. Nyx dove forward immediately after, hissing as Glauca’s sword drew a sharp cut across his cheek, but it was worth it as he managed to get close enough to unleash a pulse of lightning strong enough to send Glauca back a few vital steps. He warped out of the way of his retaliation, letting Pelna take over briefly as he cracked an elixir onto himself.

They just needed to get Glauca a little further away, and then Fortis could, hopefully, get out of the city.

But Pelna was tiring, and so was Nyx, the fighting from earlier having already taken its toll even though they had come out of that mess mostly unharmed.

Glauca, on the other hand, seemed to be fuelled by whatever cursed shit made up that armour of his, and probably a few other things as well.

At this rate, Nyx had the feeling he’d be needing to put that damn Ring back on his finger. Again.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Pelna yelled as he dodged several swings of the sword, managing to avoid getting skewered only for Glauca to catch him around the waist and fling him across the road.

“Pelna!” Nyx yelled, unable to check on his friend as Glauca was now attacking him, and thank the Astrals that Nyx had already seen some of these moves and knew how to counter them, because it should be illegal how fast Glauca could move, in armour like that.

Nyx managed to blast Glauca in the way of one of Crowe’s fire blasts, just as he heard the screeching of tires. He grinned, even as Glauca doubled his attacks at him, Nyx holding up a shield just as he felt the van fly past him, the vehicle close enough to almost him.

“You do realise that you will die here, that nothing will stop me from killing that coward King.” Glauca growled, as he batted Nyx away.

“Your armour’s looking real bad, you know that?” Nyx quipped back, nodding to Pelna as the two of the charged at Glauca, Nyx aiming a blast of frost at Glauca’s feet whilst Pelna tried for a headshot.

They both missed, Glauca almost managing to get a kick out at Nyx, but they both managed to distract him enough to take yet another gout of fire to the head.

“You. I knew I should’ve had you killed when I had the chance!” Glauca roared, charging suddenly at Crowe, a sliver of skin visible along his collarbone.

“No!” Nyx yelled, warping after him, only to get a fist straight to his chest, winding him as he crumpled to the ground.

He could see Crowe warping out of the way, but she’d never fought Glauca in melee combat before, and melee wasn’t even her specialty-

The axe that lodged itself in Glauca’s collarbone surprised them all.

Glauca’s yell of surprise and pain was nearly drowned out by Libertus’ warcry, as the man suddenly appeared, his axe in both hands as he braced himself and completed his swing, turning that sliver of collarbone into a bloody gash, although Nyx could see the silver of the armour already trying to repair itself.

“That’s my sister you nearly killed, you bastard.” Libertus spat, and ducked as Crowe tossed fireball after fireball at Glauca, before she turned and set the approaching daemon alight as well.

“How-“

Nyx didn’t give him time to finish, letting Pelna use him as a springboard to launch right at Glauca, the man plunging a dagger right into that open wound before he landed in front of Libertus and Crowe, ready to help defend them.

“Damn, he’s still going?” Pelna shook his head, flinging up a shield to briefly deflect Glauca’s next attack. “That should’ve at least slowed him down significantly.”

Nyx warped back into the fight, giving the three time to reposition themselves as he tried his best to carve out more of Glauca. This fight was just as frustrating as it had been all the times before, as even though he had his friends with him, it was balanced out by the fact he didn’t have the extra power from the Ring. For all of his experience, Glauca was the worst enemy he had to fight, and it showed.

Drautos had been their commander, their beloved Captain. He knewall of their moves, or at least most of them, their fighting styles, their habits and their weaknesses. And that meant that he could counteract them with more ease than he should have.

Which meant that Nyx had to do something unpredictable, something so utterly insane not even Drautos could predict it.

His gaze skittered over the road, looking for something he could maybe use to his advantage. He couldn’t see anything, just broken concrete and asphalt, Libertus’ by-now trashed car, the corpse of a daemon smouldering behind them-

He looked back at the car, where there was a puddle of fuel slowly leaking from its side.

His first thought was that it was a wonder it hadn’t caught alight, what with Crowe’s flames. His second thought was that surely Glauca wasn’t completely explosion-proof, even with that armour of his.

“Guys!” He yelled, sprinting back into the fight. “I’m going to try something, I need you to herd him backwards, to the car!”

“What are you going to do, trip me?” Glauca actually sounded a bit amused, even though he was, in fact, getting slowly pushed backwards by their combined assault.

“No, even better,” Nyx watched as Glauca was finally backed up to the car, and probably as far as he’d get before he’d clue into the petrol leaking from Libertus’ car. “Everyone, get back!”

Pelna’s eyes widened in understanding, as he warped away and grabbed Libertus with him, and Nyx tossed as large a fireball as he could at Glauca and the car.

The resulting inferno wasn’t quite as impressive as the explosion Nyx had been hoping for, but the screaming from within was.

“Do you…think that’d kill him?” Pelna asked, as they all stared at the flaming wreck, from a safe distance away.

“I’m…not actually sure,” Nyx admitted. “Actually, are cars supposed to catch on fire like that?”

“If they’re a good quality car, no.” Libertus growled. “Cheap piece of shit.”

“Eh, better safe than sorry.”

The three men looked at Crowe as she began to hurl more fireballs at the car (and presumably Glauca), her barrage only pausing when she had to crack an elixir, before continuing on. Nyx shrugged, and joined in, except with lightning bolts. Her logic was sound, in his opinion, even if Pelna and Libertus were staring at them with increasing amounts of fear.

There was one slightly harrowing moment as they watched Glauca actually stumble forwards a few moments later, but Nyx and Crowe’s panicked blasts of lightning and fire respectively quickly had him crumpling to the ground. They stayed where they were, for a few moments longer, to see if he would get back up, before Nyx sprayed the flaming wreck with a light blizzard, and they moved closer to see whether Glauca truly was dead.

“Oh, yikes.” Crowe muttered, staring at the body on the road.

“That’s a lot of- I don’t think a burned body is supposed to smell like that.” Pelna commented, holding a hand up to his nose.

“Must be the armour, that shit was magitek. Must’ve had a bad reaction to all that fire we were hurling at him at the end.” Libertus reasoned.

Nyx simply marched up to the body, and stabbed what he assumed was the head. Twice.

“Alright, he’s definitely dead.” Nyx concluded. “If he wasn’t before, by some miracle, he is now.”

Crowe cackled, a little hysterically.

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

A little later, Nyx trudged behind his three friends as they headed for the nearest haven, presumably to rest and recover before they tried to meet up with any other survivors of the Invasion.

Dawn was breaking on the horizon, and he was simultaneously relieved by the sight, and dreading its arrival.

On one hand, as far as he was aware, he’d managed to keep all of his friends, and the King and the Princess, alive. Even Fortis was alive, and that was something Nyx hadn’t expected. But on the other hand, Insomnia was still a smouldering ruin, the Empire had gotten away with that Crystal, and Nyx was pretty certain the fatality count was up in the hundreds of thousands.

Up until now, he hadn’t managed to live past the dawn, had always died as soon as the sun had fully risen above the horizon. What if his survival now meant that the loops were finished? The thought scared him, somehow. He’d gotten used to slowly inching his way to figuring out the multitude of things that had led up to the city’s fall, and the destruction that came with it. What if he could’ve had more chances to try and stop everything from happening in the first place, if only he figured out a way to die before the dawn? What if there were parts to this puzzle he didn’t yet know about, vital pieces that could ensure everyone’s survival without the destruction of the city?

But, if he looped back now, then wouldn’t all the fighting he had just done be for naught? He looked at his friends, at their tired, but cheerful, expressions. To them, they’d just survived one of the greatest tragedies since the Fall of Galahd, and had even managed to kill the legendary General Glauca, the man responsible for the destruction of not only Galahd, but also Tenebrae, and now Insomnia.

He couldn’t- He couldn’t take that away from them.

And so, Nyx Ulric watched as the sun rose above the horizon, Pelna cheering as one of the imps that had been about to approach them almost instantly melted away into daemonic miasma.

And stopped.

He shuddered, clutching his head as a sudden spell of dizziness overtook him. He vaguely heard Libertus’ cry of alarm, as he stumbled backwards, something tugging on his chest even as the world around him seemed to flicker in and out like a bad television signal. Nyx had the abrupt sensation of the ground beneath him giving way, before his vision fragmented, like a broken mosaic almost, and he fell, dragged along by an unseen force. The swirl of colours that his vision had devolved into was nauseating, and Nyx shut his eyes, the sensation of freefalling continuing until-

He sat upright with a shout, as the world snapped back into place, and he was greeted by the familiar sight of his dimly lit apartment, sunlight streaming through the cheap curtains.

#ffxv #ff15 #final fantasy 15 #final fantasy xv #ffxv fanfiction #ffxv kingsglaive #nyx ulric #libertus ostium #crowe altius #pelna khara #carminite writes #Running Onwards (A Timelooping Nyx AU)#Loop 9 or as I like to call it #the one where Nyx finds out what it feels like to get yeeted back in time

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yellowsuitcase · 4 years ago

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Snowy Dances // Draco Malfoy

Request (from wattpad) - Could you write one where the reader is a half-blood Ravenclaw and is going going meet Draco's parents, then, Draco proposes to marry the reader and Lucius and Narcissa approved? Thanks, I love your stories!

A/N: Omg I did NOT expect this to be so long. I literally just started writing and couldn’t stop. I’m absolutely in love with this imagine, I think it’s one of my favorites that I’ve written. I really hope you enjoy it!

Summary: Draco takes Y/N to meet his parents for the first time and proposes to her. So much fluff.

Waring(s): Mentions of death

Word Count: 4.2k

Draco examined the little black box in his hand. Today was the day he was going to ask his girlfriend to marry him. He pocketed the ring box and called out to her, “Are you ready, love?” from their downstairs kitchen. He and Y/N had been dating since their fifth year at Hogwarts. They’d bought a little cottage in Godric’s Hollow. They'd been living there since 1999, a year after the Battle of Hogwarts had ended. It was now 2003, and Draco thought it was about time for Y/N to meet his parents. The half-blood Ravenclaw, however, thought otherwise.

“Not quite,” he heard her yell from her upstairs bathroom. Draco sighed and put down his cup of pumpkin juice, a beverage he’d always been fond of from his time at Hogwarts, and began walking up the stairs. When he reached the top, he cautiously walked to the bathroom door and knocked. “May I come in?” he asked. A few moments later, the door opened to reveal Y/N. She was wearing a velvet blue floor-length dress. Draco thought she looked stunning, but before he could tell her so, she spoke up.

“I just need a few more minutes; my hair isn’t cooperating,” she said softly. It seemed as though she was having a hard time pinning her hair to the back of her head. This was a hairstyle Draco had seen Y/N pull off many times, so he knew that she was biding her time by pretending to have trouble with it. He watched as she got more and more flustered as she reached behind her skull and weaved the pin through her locks. Draco gently took her hands in his and swiftly took the hairpin from her grasp and slipped it into his. Y/N let out a sigh and watched in the mirror as Draco lovingly took some pieces of her hair and tucked it underneath the pin, then clasped it with a snap.

He met her eyes in the mirror. “You’ve been stalling,” he said. She averted her eyes, giving Draco more evidence that he was correct. “There’s nothing to be worried about; they’ll love you,” he assured her while stroking the back of her neck. He could feel the tension in her shoulders begin to fade as he did this.

“But what if they don’t? You’ve said a million times how much they value blood status, and my mother was a muggle. Surely they already have reservations about me,” Y/N said. She knew that when Draco had written to his parents, he’d told them she was a half-blood.

“My parents may have their beliefs, but they also are aware that I am an adult who can make his own choices. And if I choose to be with a half-blood, then they’ll just have to accept it. And even if they don’t, it’s not going to change anything, alright?” Draco asked as he grasped Y/N’s shoulders and turned her around to face him. “I need you to understand that no matter what anyone says, whether it be my parents or a stranger on the street, nothing will change the fact that I love you,” he said. His eyes never left his lover’s. A blush crept up her neck and onto her cheeks. His words made her heart squeeze.

“I love you too,” she said softly. Draco smiled and pressed a kiss to her temple.

“Ready to go now?” he asked. Y/N inhaled deeply, willing the butterflies in her stomach to fly away. She nodded as a determined look emerged on her face. “That’s my girl,” Draco mused. “Now, shall we apparate to my childhood home?”

Y/N bit her lip and rocked back and forth on her heels. Draco raised an eyebrow, questioning what was going on in his woman’s head. She looked up at him, and he could see the look of mischief in her eyes. “Well, I was hoping we could take the bus,” Y/N said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“The bus? As in the muggle bus?” Draco asked. He was visibly puzzled as to why she’d want to ride the bus all the way to his family’s manor. It would take a good four hours to get there that way.

“No, silly. The Knight Bus. I haven’t ridden it since I was sixteen, and I thought it’d be fun,” she said sweetly. But the sparkle in her eyes began to fade when she saw Draco’s apprehensive expression. She lowered her head and mumbled, “We don’t have to, though; I’ve probably made us late already.”

Draco’s hand found her chin and tilted it upwards. “I’m sure my parents will live even if we’re a few minutes late,” he said. Y/N’s face lit up at his words, and she grabbed his hand. Before he could process what was happening, he was being dragged down the steps and through their front door. He hardly got the chance to lock it since Y/N was yanking on his arm, eager to hail the bus.

When they got to the sidewalk outside their home, Y/N immediately raised her wand hand to summon the bus. It came barreling down the street and then to a screeching halt in front of the couple. A thin man greeted them with a smile and said, “Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this afternoon.”

Y/N flashed Draco a smile and ran up to the stairs of the bus. She ran inside the bus while Draco passed Stan a galleon and five sickles to pay for the both of them. Stan took them and pocketed the coins into his breast pocket. Draco didn’t miss the disgruntled look Stan had given him, but he didn’t care. The only thing his mind was focused on was Y/N, and the night ahead of them.

When Draco entered the bus, he saw his lover settling into a cozy armchair at the back of the bus. The day was still young; thus, the beds were nowhere to be found. Draco took a seat in the blue chair next to Y/N’s green one. Once his bottom touched the cushion, the bus propelled forward at a ridiculous speed. Draco felt like he might puke. Meanwhile, Y/N looked like a first-year student in Honeydukes.

“Where are you two headed to?” Stan asked.

Y/N noticed her boyfriend’s face turning green, so she spoke up. “Malfoy Manor,” she said. Stan raised an eyebrow, and suddenly, Y/N realized her mistake. Malfoy was a well-known surname, and not for good reasons. She felt the eyes of other passengers turn to her and her boyfriend. Her hand found Draco’s; she clenched it tightly and silently prayed that they wouldn’t be kicked off the bus. Draco saw the look on Y/N’s face and was filled with anger. He knew that because of him, she was now scared. His family name was powerful, yes, but in all the wrong ways. And now it was causing problems, something it seemed to do quite often nowadays.

Draco lifted her hand to his lips, where he planted a tender kiss. He lowered her hand but began to stroke the top of it with his thumb, hoping to soothe his girlfriend’s anxiety. She gave him a sheepish smile. “Maybe we shouldn’t have taken the bus,” she said softly. Draco’s heart sunk. He felt so guilty. Today was supposed to be a good day, the best day. It was going to be the beginning of the rest of their lives, and he’d be damned if he let his past ruin it.

“Hey, look at me,” he said. Y/N removed her eyes from the floor. “They don’t matter. We have every right to ride the bus as they do, alright? Don’t let them get in your pretty little head.” Y/N couldn’t fight the smile that was creeping onto her face. She nodded and reached forward to give her man a kiss. He welcomed it with open arms.

Suddenly, the bus took a sharp turn. It made Draco’s chair slide to the left and bump into Y/N’s, causing her to giggle. “What’re you giggling about?” Draco asked bemusedly. Y/N continued to laugh before answering.

“It’s bumper chairs,” she stated plainly as if it was apparent.

Draco raised an eyebrow. “Bumper chairs?”

“Well, in the muggle world, we have an activity called bumper cars. It’s a fun little game that they have at carnivals and fairs, and what it is is you sit in these little buggies and drive them around and try to crash them into other people. It can get really competitive, but it’s a breeding ground for laughter. My mother and I would always take a spin in them before leaving the fairgrounds,” Y/N mused, her voice growing sad at the thought of her late mother.

“That does sound quite fun; we’ll have to try it one day,” he said. He really did wish to try this muggle activity.

Y/N smiled at him. “She would’ve loved you, my mother. I wish she could’ve met you.”

Draco frowned at her words. He knew Y/N’s mother had been a significant person in her life. He was with her when she’d gotten the news of her passing. He remembered sitting in front of the fireplace that night. She had stayed curled up in his arms, sobbing the night away. By the look on Y/N’s face, she remembered the memory as well.

“I wish I could’ve had the pleasure of meeting her as well. She must’ve been an extraordinary woman considering she made you,” he said comfortingly. Y/N let out a chuckle. “She was. But I’m sure your mother is equally as lovely, considering she made you.”

Draco laughed, “I see what you did there, you sly dog. But yes, she’s lovely, and she’s going to adore you. I can feel it.”

Y/N grimaced. “You sure?”

“I’m certain. I’m beyond excited,” Draco assured her. Just then, the bus came to a halt, which launched the pair off their chairs and onto the floor. “Malfoy Manor!” Stan called. Y/N and Draco turned their heads to look at each other. They burst into laughter as they clambered to their feet. Ignoring the stares from fellow passengers, they hopped off the bus, but not before giving their thanks to the driver and Stan.

Once they set foot on the road, the bus zoomed away in a flash, leaving the couple alone in the street. Y/N’s anxiety had already returned; Draco could sense it. “Just breathe, darling. They’ll like you.”

They began walking down the long concrete pathway to the front door. “But what if they don’t?” Y/N asked, her eyebrows furrowed with uneasiness. “You’re the wittiest woman I know, not to mention your creativity and fast thinking. You’ll know exactly what to say to charm the hell out of them. Believe in yourself like I believe in you,” Draco said encouragingly.

Y/N let out a big breath and nodded. Draco grasped her hand and led her up to the tall black doors. “Whenever you’re ready, love,” he said while reaching his other hand into his pocket to make sure the ring was still there. It was. Y/N held her breath and raised her fist to the firm wood. She rested her knuckles on it for just a moment and then knocked twice. “Oh god,” she mumbled. Draco squeezed her hand. Then the door opened. Lucius Malfoy had his hand on the doorknob, his wife, Narcissa, stood behind him. She was clothed in a luxurious black dress, silver decals lined the collar. Lucius wore a long-sleeved leather suit paired with a long black robe. They looked like the definition of intimidating.

“Draco. Welcome home,” Lucius said as he opened the door wider and motioned for the two of them to come inside. Draco squeezed Y/N’s hand again and led them through the doorway. “This must be Y/N, of whom you’ve told us so much about,” Narcissa said calmly. Draco looked at Y/N, urging her to speak. Fear swirled in Y/N’s stomach, but she pushed past it and said, “Yes, that’s me. It’s so good to meet you at last. You’ve raised a wonderful son.”

Narcissa smiled softly and glanced at her husband, who had a smug look on his face. “Well, I should hope so. He was quite a handful as a boy. Frankly, he still is a handful,” Lucius said. Narcissa lightly patted her husband's arm as if to scold him, but it was apparent she had little to no say over his actions. “I couldn’t have been that bad. Right, mother?” Draco asked. Narcissa smiled at him and reached up to caress his cheek.

“You were quite the young boy, but you’ve grown into such a handsome young man. It’s been too long since we’ve last seen you. Why did you never visit sooner?” she asked her son. Draco inhaled sharply and looked at Y/N briefly. He went to reply but was interrupted by his mother saying, “Let’s have a seat, and you can tell us all about what you’ve been up to these past years.” The couple nodded and followed the Malfoys to their grand dining room. Y/N felt the air turn cold as they entered. Luckily, Draco’s parents led them through that room and into a living room. Black leather couches surrounded a massive white marble fireplace. Narcissa and Lucius took a seat, as did Draco and Y/N. Once they’d all gotten comfortable, Draco began to speak.

“Well, these last four years in Godric’s Hollow have been really nice. We’ve spent a lot of time traveling. I think I sent you both an owl with a photo of us in America. We visited amusement parks, skyscrapers, and we even stayed in a little beach house.”

Y/N cut in to comment on their travels. “We also visited Asia. Japan was incredible; we got to ride flying carpets! It was so different from brooms; you felt as if you would fall off at any moment,” she laughed. Draco snickered along with her. “I almost did fall off,” he stated. Y/N’s laughter grew, “Oh my gosh, you did. I’d forgotten all about that.” The couple kept laughing and failed to notice the fond expressions on Lucius and Narcissa’s faces.

“Sounds like you’ve had quite an eventful time together,” Narcissa mused. Y/N turned away from Draco to look at his mother. “Oh, yes, we’ve had the most wonderful trips. I’m glad I’ve had him by my side all these years,” she said fondly. Draco smiled at her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “And I, you,” he said. They were caught off guard by Lucius’s question.

“So you’re in love then? With a half-blood?”

Y/N’s heart sank. This was what she was afraid of. She wouldn’t be able to look at Draco the same if his parents disapproved of her, and Lucius’s brutally unfiltered question made her panic. Draco puffed up his chest and looked into his father’s eyes. “Yes, father, I am. I love Y/N so much, in fact…” he trailed off as he got to his feet and reached into his pocket. Y/N looked up at him in confusion and apprehension. And then he lowered his knee and held up a little black box. Slowly, he opened it to reveal a ring. Y/N felt tears spring to her eyes.

Draco’s heart was pounding against his ribcage, sending pulses of anxiety through his entire body. He’d been planning this proposal for months, even though he knew he wanted to marry Y/N since the first time he saw her. He still remembered that moment. It was during their fifth year at Hogwarts. Draco had just left potions class and was walking past the courtyard when he saw a Ravenclaw tie on the ground. He didn’t bother picking it up but still lifted his head to look around for who might’ve lost it. And then he saw her. She was standing in the middle of the courtyard, arms outstretched and mouth open wide for snowflakes to fall into. It was as if time had stopped ticking when he laid his eyes on her. She was so effortlessly beautiful. Ethereal, almost. Her laughs echoed through the courtyard as she twirled and twirled.

Draco knew he had to talk to her, so he reached down to pick up the tie. When he had it in his grasp, he began walking towards the girl. He called out to her, “Did you drop this?”

She turned towards him. Her eyes flickered to her tie in his hand. “Yes,” she replied plainly. Draco was at a loss for words. He’d been expecting a bit more words than just one.

“Uhm, would you like it back?” he asked.

She shook her head. “That’s alright. I knew it was there.”

Again, Draco didn’t know what to say. Why wouldn’t she want her tie back? “So you don’t want it?” he asked once more.

“No, thank you. You can leave it where you found it,” she said softly. “Would you like to spin with me?” she asked. Her big doe eyes gazed at the blonde boy who was positively puzzled by the girl in front of him.

“Spin with you?” Draco asked. The girl nodded and smiled. “Yes, spin with me. I promise it’s fun,” she said. The young Slytherin was perplexed. Who was this girl?

“Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” Draco asked. She smiled.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in class, Malfoy?” she retorted.

Draco’s heart leaped. “You know who I am?”

“Of course I do. Everyone in our year knows who you are,” she replied as if this was common knowledge. It caught Draco off guard. She rolled her eyes. “Well?” she asked.

“What?” Draco replied. The Ravenclaw sighed. “Are you going to spin with me or not?”

Draco studied her for a few moments. She was looking at him with a slightly annoyed expression. Her hip was cocked to one side, and snowflakes were embedded in her hair. The strands were growing damp. Some had even begun to stick to her forehead. Her eyes seemed to sparkle, and her lips were bright red from the crisp air. She was almost otherworldly. Something about her was… different. Draco liked it.

“I’ll spin with you…” he trailed off. “Y/N Y/L/N,” the girl replied. Draco nodded and watched as she lifted her arms to the sky and began to twirl. The blonde boy hesitantly joined her. He was unsure at first, but after a few circles, he was already feeling lighter. When he began to feel dizzy, he stopped spinning and shifted his eyes to Y/N. Her eyes were closed; she looked peaceful. Draco was absolutely mesmerized.

She looked as ethereal and beautiful as she did on that snowy day in the courtyard, even with tears in her eyes. “Y/N Y/L/N, I’ve never been so enamored by anyone in my life as much as I am enamored of you. You are the most intelligent, pure, generous person I have ever met. I admire you more than I care to admit. I’m so glad that I saw your tie in that corridor. I don’t know where I would be right now if I hadn’t picked it up. You make me feel whole, Y/N. You’ve been the center of my life for eight years and... I’d like to ensure that you stay in the center for the rest of my years. The rest of our years. With that being said, will you marry me?”

Tears were streaming down Y/N’s cheeks. She could see the overflowing amount of love in Draco’s eyes when he looked at her. He looked at her as if she was the only person left on earth. Slowly, she glanced up at Draco’s parents. Narcissa was crying as well. She smiled at Y/N. Lucius was stoic, but there was tenderness in his eyes. When he made eye contact with Y/N, he nodded. She looked back at Draco and smiled. “Yes.”

Draco let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He took the ring from the box with shaky hands and held it between his thumb and index finger. He grasped his now fiancé’s left hand and gently slipped the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly. Draco sprung to his feet, took Y/N’s face in his hands, and without hesitation, pressed his lips to hers. Their salty tears mixed with each other as they silently celebrated. When they pulled away, Draco turned to his parents. His mother welcomed him with open arms, and he rushed into them. Y/N watched fondly. And then Narcissa opened her arms once more for her. Tentatively, she walked forward and allowed herself to be embraced by her future mother in law. When Narcissa’s arms wrapped around her back, she felt a sense of peace overtake her. It felt good to have a mother’s hug again.

Lucius stared at Draco intently. Draco stared back just as firmly. Y/N was afraid of what might happen next. What if he was angry? What if she had only imagined that nod he’d given her. Her fears dissipated when Lucius laid a hand on Draco’s shoulder. “Well done, Draco,” he said quietly.

Draco’s chest swelled with pride. His father’s opinion and approval was something he’d been chasing for more than half of his life. So to finally hear those words fall from his lips was an exhilarating and freeing feeling. Both couples smiled and retook their former spots on the couches. Everyone felt lighter; the afternoon’s previous tension was now gone.

--------

Later on in the evening, Draco and Y/N were getting settled in Draco’s old bedroom. Narcissa had convinced them to stay the night so they could begin wedding preparations at once the next morning. They’d been shocked by her eagerness at first but shrugged it off when they remembered that her only son had just gotten engaged. Of course, she was excited.

“I can’t believe this is the first time I’m seeing your room,” Y/N said as she wandered around his room. She stopped at a mahogany desk facing a window. “Is this where you wrote me all those love letters?” she asked teasingly. Draco rolled his eyes. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her, giving her a back hug. They stared out the window at the starry sky, and Draco pressed a kiss to Y/N’s nape. Then he pulled away. “Come, I want to show you something.”

Y/N looked at him skeptically but followed him out of his room and down the stairs anyway. He led her through twists and turns. They passed the kitchen, Lucius’s study, and a dark green living room before arriving at two tall doors. Draco smiled at her before placing both hands on the handles. Wordlessly, he turned them and pushed the doors open to reveal a magnificent marble ballroom. A gasp fell from Y/N’s lips.

“Oh, Draco, this is beautiful.”

Draco smiled and sneakily plucked his wand from his pocket and cast a charm on the piano in the left corner. It began to play soft classical music. He stuck his wand back in his pocket and turned to his fiancé. “Care to dance?” he asked while holding out his hand to her. She smiled lovingly at Draco. Her hand grasped his, but before they could dance, she reached down to grab her shoe. She removed one black heel and then the other. Draco wasn’t surprised; she’d never been one for fancy shoes.

“My mother would have a heart attack if she knew someone had put their bare feet on this floor. In fact, I think you might be the first to do so,” he said. Y/N shrugged. “It’ll be our secret,” she said. Draco smirked and pulled her out to the middle of the ballroom. His hand found her hip, and hers found his. And on a count of three, they began to waltz. The music grew quiet as the presence of one another took center stage. Their eyes never left the others. The two of them were so entranced by one another. So in love, they were.

They danced, and they danced. The music seemed to guide their steps as they moved forward and backward. For each twirl, Draco held his lover’s hand tightly, never wanting to let go. She looked breathtaking. Her eyes sparkled with the reflection of the grand chandeliers hanging overhead. Her skin glowed with joy as she twirled, and twirled, and twirled.

Suddenly, something in the window caught Draco’s eye. It was snowing. He felt his heart jump, and he quickly grabbed Y/N’s waist. She looked at him, confused as to why he’d unexpectedly grabbed her. But she didn’t have a moment to ask him any questions because he bent his legs and lifted her up onto his shoulder. “Draco!” she squealed. He paid her no mind as he began to run towards the balcony. When he reached the glass doors, he pushed them open and walked himself and Y/N out onto the stone terrace. He set her down and watched as her confusion was replaced with awe. Snowflakes had already begun to embed themselves in her hair. She gazed up at Draco and smiled.

“Would you like to spin with me?” she asked.

Draco grinned and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, eliciting a giggle to escape her. “Yes, I would.”

The couple lifted their arms to the sky and began to spin.

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chalkrevelations · 4 years ago

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Episode 31 of Word of Honor, and in many ways OH MY GOD YES, but also, no, show, wtf?

As in, wt actual f is going on? Literally, what is happening?

(Spoilers, so scroll away and come back later, if you need to.)

So, first thing’s first: I feel like this one may end up a bit short, because a lot of it is likely to be just a bunch of keysmash flailing? (EDIT: No, I just came back up here to the top from the bottom, because this is NOT AT ALL any shorter than usual.) I’ll attempt a bit more than exclamation points and worry over whether my poor heart is able to take this, but we’ll see how it goes, because the first thing I’m going to do is say I knew it! and I told you so! I knew you weren’t planning to die, Zhou Zishu. I did call you a liar after Ep 30, and I was right. I mean, what’s the point of having the terrifying master of the Ghost Valley as your boyfriend husband if he’s not going to rescue you after you’ve been kidnapped for attempted ravishment by the evil prince? And get you the best wedding present ever, i.e., a bunch of new disciples? Omg, Zhou Zishu’s face when Wen Kexing finally calls himself a disciple of Four Seasons Manor! (I think he’s so overwhelmed, he doesn’t even realize when WKX calls him “shixiong” a minute before that!) Wen Kexing’s tiny pained smile that he just can’t seem to help when ZZS lays his hand on WKX’s head! That long shuddering breath ZZS lets out, and the way his shoulders just drop, like he’s finally let go of a huge weight! (The worry this brings me, because there are five and a half episodes left, my dude, and your husband is a troublemaker, and I would not be getting complacent, if I was you.) The fact that WKX has knelt to ZZS and called him zongzhu in front of the Ghost Valley contingent – there’s gotta be some political implications to that. Horseback riding! The way WKX keeps holding (up) ZZS! Lol at WKX being all, you all can leave now, we can take our honeymoon alone from here! ZZS knew he would come (I told you so)! Their smiles! Their soft little faces! (Merciless killers! How so fucking adorable?) The hairpin! MARRIED, Y’ALL. Censorship? I don’t know her. ANYWAY, that’s all just a bunch of flailing reaction to the first almost 20 minutes of emoporn. Also, Zhang Zhehan, you should not do suffering so pretty. It makes me feel like a bad person for still enjoying your face so much when your character is in so much physical and emotional distress.

Secondly, show. We need to talk. You should not be this opaque. I’m trying to piece together everything that’s happened in (vaguely) chronological order:

Sometime before dying (before breaking his heart meridians?), Han Ying tells Wen Kexing about the Four Seasons Remnants back with Prince Jin. All of Ep 30 happens, with Zhou Zishu and Xie Wang both making a mess of Awful Prince’s/Yifu’s plans. Xie Wang, the rest of the Scorpions, and the Ghost Valley team retreat back to a lair. Which lair? Who knows, at this point. Cao Weining talks to Fan Shishu. (He explicitly tells this to A-Xiang.) But does he also confront Mo Huaiyang? Because I feel like it must be significant that we get the same turn of phrase to describe Zhao Jing’s relationship with Xie Wang – asking a tiger for its skin – from Mo Huaiyang to Fan Shishu, and then attributed to Cao Weining when A-Xiang quotes it to WKX in the same ep. The show even emphasizes this for us to catch by drawing attention to A-Xiang’s use of it via her struggle to remember the idiom properly. (A. This episode’s convo between Mo Huaiyang and Fan Shishu, which is when we see Mo Huaiyang actually use the idiom, happens AFTER Cao Weining and Gu Xiang leave Gentle Wind Sword Sect. I went back and checked, and it is Mo Huaiyang who uses it, not Fan Shishu. B. In this same convo, Fan Shishu says he still needs to explain all this to the disciples somehow, so C. Was there a prior, unseen convo between just Cao Weining and Mo Huaiyang in which Mo Huaiyang practiced his excuses on poor, hapless Cao Weining first?)

Anyway, Cao Weining then goes to A-Xiang, who’s lit. and fig. in the dark at this point, in her rustic cabin outside the gated community. I notice Cinnamon Roll already has his bag packed. He is done. He lays out the current political web, and A-Xiang seems pretty sure of Liu Qianqiao’s ultimate loyalty to WKX. This is probably important in what happens next. Gu Xiang and Cao Weining decide to run away and elope but then … get captured and taken to the lair. On purpose? A-Xiang did see Liu Qianqiao with Xie Wang in the Secret Cave, standing shoulder to shoulder with Du Pusa as an apparent top-tier henchwoman, and she probably expects to be protected, but this seems like a pretty big gamble. I suppose you don’t survive the Ghost Valley without learning to take some risks. A-Xiang then leads Xie Wang and the Ghost Valley contingent to WKX (at burned-down Four Seasons Manor?) to, she says, let WKX take down Xie Wang. She notes Xie Wang’s use of some potion to control everyone – I assume the Drug Man potion, and I assume the monthly antidote is what’s keeping everyone in the Ghost Valley from going full Drug Man?

WKX and Xie Wang confer in secret. Probably about how much they both hate Awful Yifu. I mean, I assume Xie’er still hates Awful Yifu at this point, but who knows what tomorrow will bring? Probably a key point here: WKX is hiding whatever this was about from his husband. My dude, why are you still like this? I guess that explains the pained cast to that tiny little smile earlier. WKX then takes some of the Ghost Valley contingent and coordinates with the Four Seasons Remnants back in Prince Jin’s territory to rescue ZZS. Husband safely rescued, WKX now heads back to Ghost Valley, to … abdicate? He promises A-Xiang he’s going to come back safely, and my dude, I’m trying to believe you. I really am. I’m trying to have as much faith in you planning to be back all along as I had in ZZS not planning to die in Jin Palace all along, but here’s a key difference: HE LET YOU IN ON HIS PLAN. Which you were a key part of. I find your secrecy, by contrast, concerning.

Other things:

Love the little moment between Gu Xiang and Liu Qianqiao and Luo Fumeng when Beauty Ghost and Tragicomic Ghost turn to Xie Wang in righteous indignation and want to know what the fuck he thinks he’s doing to their little girl. Compare the reaction of these two moms to Happy Ghost being all, “Nope, this is a complete and total in with Wen Kexing right here in a pretty pink dress.” The show continues to draw a fairly bright line between the characterization of the women in the Department of the Unfaithful - who are terrorizing certain people, true, but also watching out for each other after ending up down on their luck – and the general run of men in Ghost Valley, who are basically rotten sociopaths straight out of Batman’s rogues gallery and will sell you out in a minute for their own gain. Yes, this has been made fairly explicit in Wen Kexing’s and A-Xiang’s commentary in past eps and later in this ep about trying to get the Department of the Unfaithful out of the line of fire while not caring if the jianghu burns down the rest of Ghost Valley, but this isn’t just favoritism or a whim, just some fond memories of Luo Fumeng being kind to them a couple of times in the past. I think there’s some commentary here on the kind of men who are so far gone they find themselves outside the bounds of “civilized” society and the kind of women who do – how much easier and quicker it is for a woman, that it could be any woman in the wrong circumstances, and how much further gone a man has to be than a woman to be considered a “devil.” We’ve seen these supportive interpersonal relationships among the women since Gu Xiang “adopted” her two girls in the first handful of episodes and told off Lovelace with the threat of Tragicomic Ghost – and the show is continuing to show it, not just tell it. It’s one of the things I’ve found frustrating about Wen Kexing a couple of times in past eps, when he’s trying to get A-Xiang’s two girls, or other women from the Department, to just leave and go do something else – I feel like even though WKX realizes their circumstances and their personalities are different from the rest of his Top Ten Devils, he’s not fully comprehending that they literally have nowhere else to go, that if they had any other options, they wouldn’t have ended up there in the first place. He called the two girls “puppies” when he talked about A-Xiang having to take care of them, but as Ghost Valley master, who’s enforced the independence of and protections for the Department of the Unfaithful, he’s walking away from his own basketful of puppies. Not to mention, this is one of the vanishingly small places in this particular version of the jianghu that we’ve seen women have any autonomy and power. I … think there may have been a few young female cultivators in Yueyang Sect, but while I’d have to go back and watch to be sure, I remember the Hero’s Conference being a whole bunch of men throwing their … weight around. Anyway, I also love that it looks like A-Xiang tries to kick Happy Ghost in the shin, because of course she does.

Visually, they had a cool thing going on there with the Tian Chuang behind WKX falling in concert with WKX lowering his fan, but they didn’t quite coordinate it enough, and then they cut away too soon. Bah. It was set up to be a very cool visual, if only they had committed to it. Meanwhile Duan Pengju, this asshole, omg. He’s trying to pull off the Collar of Evil and is not succeeding. Srsly, his Collar of Evil is droopy. It doesn’t stop him from monologuing like he’s the actual villain and not some sad-sack lackey. You showed the correct amount of amused disdain during your interaction, but I can’t believe you left him alive at the end of it, Wen Kexing.

I wasn’t really feeling Jing Beiyuan and Wu Xi up until this ep when Jing Beiyuan was teasing A-Xiang about her lack of shame over running away with her lover. OK, fine, you can stay, Qi Ye. Also, wow. Speaking of lack of shame, I can’t believe you just accused your husband of bride kidnapping right in front of everyone’s salads, because that is totally what just happened there.

So the band is (almost all) back together, minus Chengling, who has definitely found out in the worst possible way that one of his dads is the terrifying master of the Ghost Valley that massacred his family and sect. So, this should go well.

Lol at Xie’er lounging in Wen Kexing’s Ghost Valley master seat like some kind of consort. He’s already got a husband, Xie’er. One that would not be happy with a concubine running around, I think. I do wonder what the full scope of their plan/understanding is, bubbling away under this stare-down.

A note – WKX’s hair is styled differently in this ep in the Ghost Valley master scenes than it has been before. Previously, those side bangs were further forward and a little bit chunkier, which, I think, narrowed his face and also helped emphasize the wild-eyed look. They’re wispier and back further, now, which I think softens his face, even when he’s trying to look imposing. Makes him look more, dare I say, human.

And now, I’m going to go have a few Han Ying/Bi Xingming thoughts, actually. God, those months after ZZS left, can you imagine what that was like for them? Han Ying having watched those nails placed in Bi Xingming’s shifu in the first ep, and then having to turn around and go to Bi Xingming and tell him that ZZS was gone, with the seven nails in him? Both of them trying to hold the Four Seasons Remnants together – and then Ying-ge comes back one day and says he’s found ZZS? Mutual aid and comfort, my dudes. Also some projection. I’m just sayin’. Meet me, I guess - this kind of sideline action and extremely rare pair thing is how I tend to roll.

#zhou zishu #wen kexing #gu xiang #cao weining #liu qianqiao #luo fumeng #xie wang #jing beiyuan #wu xi #zhang chengling #han ying #bi xingming #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

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crimson-snowfall · 4 years ago

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One Big Happy Family, pt. 2.1/3

Word Count: 1315

Genre: Crack/Comedy

One Big Happy Family, Part 2.1/3: Hideyoshi & Mitsuhide edition

Additional Notes: Hi! Sorry this took a really long time, but I’ve been going through a lot irl so yea idk if anyone was actually looking forward to this but nonetheless sorry for the wait!

Hideyoshi choked on and spat out his tea.

"Lord Hideyoshi! Please maintain your composure!" The reporting vassal cried out as he hurriedly retrieved a rug to clean after his lord's unexpected mess.

Hideyoshi took a few deep breaths to recover from the initial shock, then wagered to hear the news again. After all, quelling a rebellion on one of the Oda territories left him without adequate sleep lately, and he considered the possibility that he might've just heard things wrong.

"Yeah, I'm sorry for that, but can you repeat what you just said?"

The vassal shifted about uncomfortably on his spot. Saying it for the first time already took a lot of courage, and having to repeat the news after seeing his lord's reaction wasn’t certainly any easier. However, he cannot keep him waiting forever, so swallowing the lump of fear in his throat, he repeated,

"It's about Lady Hikari. Yesterday, she was spotted holding hands with--"

"Father! Sorry I'm late!" The lady in question, Hikari Toyotomi, burst into the room just before the vassal could finish his statement. The vassal let out a sigh of relief as his opportunity to get out of his current predicament came into the room, because knowing Hideyoshi, almost everything else is irrelevant when one of his daughters is within his presence. The vassal wasted no time in getting out of the room, and his lord let him.

"Were you running in the corridors again? You know I would rather wait than have you running around," Hideyoshi gently scolded his eldest daughter. He hasn't seen her for weeks, and he honestly didn't feel like starting their tea time with the unpleasant rumor he'd probably misheard to begin with.

"You're such a worrywart, Father. I'm no longer a child, you know," Hikari said as she took out the snacks a certain someone had given her that morning. She had begun pouring tea for both of them when her father noticed her new hairpin.

"That hairpin suits you very well, Hikari. Did your mother pick it for you during the festival yesterday?"

"No, mother didn't accompany me to the festival this year," she replied nonchalantly, and Hideyoshi's worries began to resurface.

"Then did you go to the festival alone?" Concern was evident in his voice, but deep down he hoped that that was the case. Sure, he'd still end up scolding her for going alone, but at least, it wasn't as bad as the alternate scenario. Hideyoshi silently prayed over and over in his mind to hear a 'yes,' but alas, he wasn't meant to hear such a comforting response in that situation. Not being the type to beat around the bush, Hikari braved the situation and went straight to the point.

"No, I wasn't alone. I attended the festival with Mitsuyoshi, and he's the one who gave me this hairpin," Hikari confessed as she touched the ornament affectionately, a faint blush on her cheeks.

Hideyoshi's abstinence from drinking tea or having any of the sweets after asking such questions quickly paid off, because he certainly would've ended up repeating his reaction from a while ago upon his daughter's confirmation of his worst nightmares.

"What do you mean-- I mean, why are you with Mitsuyoshi? Didn't I forbid you from going out with him? Don't you know there's been rumors going around that the two of you are lovers because you went to the festival together?" Hideyoshi was starting to get riled up, but Hikari knew her father well enough and she had been mentally preparing for this moment for quite some time now.

"Those were no mere rumors, my dear father. Our feelings for each other are mutual, whether you like it or not," Hikari calmly stated before taking a sip on her tea, hoping that the warmth of the drink would reinforce her nerves for the scolding she knew her revelation had warranted.

"Is that so, Hikari? So you're not even going to try to deny the rumors that you two are… are lo… lov-"

"But you were the one who raised me to be an honest person," she didn't want to cut her father off, but Hideyoshi looked like he was in pain just trying to get the words out of his mouth.

"Exactly! That's why I don't understand why you're so taken with that son of a snake! What's so great about--"

Hikari just silently hung her head as her father went on a tirade against her lover. She thought that the least she could do for her father was to let him scold her to his heart’s content, but at the same time she also had an upcoming appointment with her lover, which meant that she needed to go soon. After finishing her tea and listening to her father just scold her for another half an hour, she finally decided it was time to go.

"I'm sorry father, but I have somewhere I need to be right now," Hikari apologetically said as she stood up to leave, bowing her head as deeply as she could, before running out of the room.

Of course, Hideyoshi wasn't just about to let his eldest daughter run off again and so he gave chase, but Hikari thanked her lucky stars when she spotted her little sister as soon as she turned a corner. Pulling out a small pouch of the younger girl's favorite candies from the sleeves of her kimono, Hikari bribed her with it. She leaned down and placed the pouch on her sister's hands, then gave out a quick instruction,

"Hitomi-chan, won't you cool father's head off for big sister? I'll get you more candies if you do, okay?"

Hitomi gave her older sister a cheerful nod at the mention of more candies, before Hikari took off once more. It didn't take long before their enraged father came into sight, and in retrospect Hitomi thought that her father would have definitely accidentally run her over had she not called him out the way she did.

"No running in the hallways, Father!"

Hideyoshi froze on his tracks upon hearing his younger daughter's high-pitched voice, and he was greeted by her cute, albeit frowning face as he looked down.

"But your sister is off to meet that--"

"No buts! You told me so too yourself!" The little girl huffed indignantly at her father. Whereas Hikari was a perfect blend between him and his wife, Hitomi was quite the spitting image of himself. Hearing someone who looks like him scold him for not following his own teachings, even though that someone was a little girl, had quite the effect on him. Hideyoshi sighed in defeat, before picking up his younger daughter in one arm.

"Father is so sorry, Hitomi-chan. Now, will you tell me what's that you're holding in your hand?"

"Candies! Now, will you help me with them? I know you won't let me finish all these by myself anyway," Hitomi asked her father earnestly, and the moment Hideyoshi saw his little Hitomi flash those pleading eyes on him, he knew that there's no point in even trying to argue about the candy.

"Okay, okay. Will Hitomi-chan join her stressed out father for tea then?"

"Yes, I'd love to!"

Tea time with his younger daughter went off smoothly in comparison to the one with his older daughter, save for the time the little girl tried pouring tea for him and almost ended up scalding him with the hot water. Watching Hitomi as she is now reminded him of how Hikari used to be when she was younger and more obedient, but now he had to accept that she might have entered her rebellious years.

"And since when did she learn to be so sneaky anyway, using her sweet little sister to escape me like that? That Akechi boy is really a bad influence on her…" Hideyoshi groaned under his breath.

Anyway, this is part 2.1 of 3 because this one turned out longer than expected so I decided to just split it into two parts, which means there will still be a part 2.2 to this before part 3 (which I’ll keep a secret as to who will be involved in it for now)... also yea I know the name Mitsuyoshi is just a mash-up of Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi’s names ahgshghaf pardon my lack of creativity lmao

See also: [[Part 1: Ieyasu & Mitsunari edition]]

#ikesen fanfic #ikesen hideyoshi #ikesen mitsuhide #ikemen sengoku #ikemen sengoku fanfiction #ikemen sengoku hideyoshi #ikemen sengoku mitsuhide #ikesen crack

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sai-teru · 5 years ago

Text

Together with you (C-4)

Chapter IV: Hear me out!

Summary: What if, on chapter 271/272 of the manga where Saiki removes his left hairpin device. The device that once removed… people of the world will know of his psychic ability. And what if, when he removes that device, it did really shows all over the world about Saiki being a psychic user? And that shocked even Kuusuke because he thought he de-activated it a long time ago. I want to start this story on that very scene and we'll see what will un-fold.

And by the way, this is a SaiTeru fanfic so what I'm saying is the story will focus on both of them. We will see what their relationship will go through. I'll stick to the manga's story as much as possible but of course, all scene will not be exactly as what the manga/anime goes.

Warning: And also, spoilers for those who's just starting to read the manga or watching anime. If you just started and saw this story because you ship Saiki and Teruhashi then you'll be spoiled. Just a warning for you guys but, if you don't care about spoilers… then go ahead and read this story of mine.

Disclaimer: All characters are not mine they belong to Asou Shuuichi-Sensei. Though the plot of the rest of this story are mine.

read the rest under the cut :)

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Chapter 4: Hear me out.

After several minutes of quietness coming from the room, Saiki eyed the girl beside him.

So… why are you still here? Cocking his eyebrow at her as she shrieks at his sudden voice.

Placing her hands over her chest “You startled me there, Saiki-kun” she exhaled. Still, Saiki remained stoic as he waits for an answer. Scratching her cheeks shyly “Well you see…” feeling uneasy and shy avoiding his wondering eyes as she scans through nook and cranny in Saiki’s room.

Sighing apathetically. Yare, Yare. If you're having a hard time expressing your thoughts, you can always remove the ring. In that way, I can hear what you want to say. Through your mind. Easy. He expresses naturally as if it was nothing.

Nonetheless, to the blue-headed girl, her cheeks flared up in crimson red upon hearing that. W-what?? Does… does Saiki-kun badly want to hear my thoughts? Slapping her cheeks, erasing the thoughts away and slowly glanced at the psychic, observing his facial expression.

As you can see, Teruhashi took Saiki's word in the wrong way and adding some misunderstanding to the situation. Again, and this time, without Saiki knowing it. And that’s because he can’t read her mind. But, seeing the maiden acting strange, he thought she was thinking of nonsensical and troublesome things. Yare, yare.

I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding on my part. As always. I should be wary about what he says and does. Sighing deeply. She faces the psychic.

“Ne, Saiki-kun!” she called but no answer was heard but still, she continues. “About what you said earlier… you know,” scratching her chin absentmindedly. “about my feelings that you mentioned a while ago, you said I misunderstood and took it the wrong way!?” she tilts her head to stare at the pink-headed boy right beside her but, the guy in question is not uttering nor answering her back still, she knows that his all ears. So she decided to let her thoughts all out.

She coughs to get his attention. “I mean, do you really thought I misunderstood it?” she finally asked. And by that statement alone, she grabs the attention of a certain psychic and now glaring at her with furrowed eyebrows. It frightened Teruhashi a bit but, she held her breath and act bravely as she needed it to face him head-on.

Tilting his head confused as he continued staring daggers at the maiden who’s now in front of him. What do you mean?

She coughs again. “You see…I think you are the one who misunderstood me? Or my action!” she uttered with a low voice in the middle of her statement. Still, her companion was just staring dumbfounded at her.

He let out a long breath, ruffling his hair annoyingly and as stared at her. I?? Misunderstood… you? Me? Of all people? I’m not misunderstanding anything or whatnot. You are! Because in all honesty, I'm sure—

When Teruhashi was about to open her mouth to disagree, Saiki beat her to it. Sighing exasperatedly. You are the one misunderstanding the situation! He muttered gritting his teeth.

Vein pops on Teruhashi as she listens almost calmly at the same time, almost annoyed at how Saiki is being irrational. Clenching her fist as she shouts “NO!” Saiki was completely taken aback by her sudden outburst. But, he let her continue while keeping his calm in check.

“I'm not! I know well enough what I feel!” she said in a low tone enough for him to hear.

Inhaling deeply while pinching the bridge of his nose. Seriously! You just want me to say that pathetic lines your admirers saying to you! But whatever the circumstances are… I won't say it! Rather, I will and never will say it! And also, that is the whole reason why you're fixated to me! I’m telling you this, so you should st—

“NO!” She burst out stopping Saiki on whatever his about to say.

Taking a deep breath. Placing her hands over her chest to calm her beating heart. “I agree with you wholeheartedly! At first, that was my main reason why I want to get your attention but, as time goes by, I learned what kind of person you are all these days that past. You are nothing like them, you see me as just a normal person though, that annoyed me nevertheless, I’ve come to understand that, that just your personality; you’re quiet, expressionless person, ordinary guy… well, that’s how you look like to us back then, but even so, I like every part of that about you. I know, it’s hard to believe but honestly, I’ve come to accept it. All of it, the real you.” She pants while letting her thought out. Still, she’s not done and continue on her speech.

“Still, I want you to say that pathetic line you mentioned earlier because even if just once… I want to hear it through your voice. That’s my selfish wish” Looking straight in his eyes. “I’ve come to accept my true feelings towards you as day past. With Chiyo’s help of course. So, please, don’t say that I misunderstood my feelings towards you, I’ve had a tough time realizing and accepting it on my own. And now that I know and sure of it, don’t you say casually that I misunderstand everything. It’s actually your fault…” she stops mid-sentence seeing the dark expression on Saiki’s face. She flinched but, that won't stop her from telling him her thoughts loud and clear. She inhales deeply and starts again. “It’s your fault to begin with, that I felt this way towards you, so you should take responsibility by acknowledging it. You don’t need to accept it right away, I’m just asking that you-

But I can’t! Averting his eyes towards the maiden as he shut her off and he started to pay attention back at the window without any interest.

Teruhashi was looking at him with eyes wide open, mouth almost open. She didn’t expect that Saiki will make a sad and uncomfortable face. She wanted to ask why but, seeing his stern look was enough to silence her. Choosing to close her mouth she also glances at the window without knowing what to look at and sighed exasperatedly.

Silence took over the room for a couple of minutes until Saiki breaks it by saying something that startled the maiden.

Still, upon hearing his voice she’s back at staring at him. I can't accept your feelings or acknowledge them. He decided to face her seriously this time. Seeing that she was facing him as well with a sad expression on her face. Still, she was brave enough to hear his thoughts on the matter. Because it’s not every day that he can express himself to others.

Saiki sighed. Look, as you see, I’m a psychic and that’s why I can’t accept you. You, of all people! You know very well how others viewed you. And if I associated myself with you, there’s a chance that somebody will learn my secret. And as you said, you are here to help me with that! And by associating with me, there’s also a high chance your life may put in jeopardy so… please… this time, just forget the emotion you're harboring towards me-

“I can't!” shutting him off, which causes her lost for breath, clenching both her hands placing it over her chest, with tears overflowing her eyes. “I can’t do that! I don’t want to! Call me selfish but… but this time, I can't, I don’t want to do that! Saiki-kun, this… this is the first time I chose someone else towards my own selfish goal. I don’t… I can’t…” snipping and rubbing the salt tears flowing through her eyes.

Saiki was just staring at her without doing anything, confusing the hell out of him. And as this moment on, he was now regretting giving her the germanium ring because of how anxious he was. And he badly wants to hear what was running through her mind. If she really was saying the truth or manipulating him because she’s good at doing that to anybody. But, he’s different from the rest, he was a psychic; he knows better if anyone is trying to manipulate him. Nevertheless, he’s facing the most troublesome and most fearless enemy he got. And that was Teruhashi Kokomi who’s God's favorite.

Saiki was feeling indifferent to the situation they were facing, he felt anxious that unbeknownst to him, he suddenly holds Teruhashi's shoulder tightly that startled and made her skip-a-beat. She looked at him strangely at the same time confused with a flushed face.

Uneasy at their position, she called his name with trembling voice “S-Saiki-kun?” but it seems Saiki's mind was in disarray that he didn’t hear her calling him.

He was just staring straight in her eyes absentmindedly, lost in thoughts. Teruhashi was beginning to lose her mind at the sudden proximity and her face was now redder than tomato. Also, her stomach was starting to twist in a knot. She was confused at him, she wanted to ask him many things and what was he doing now. And also, she doesn’t want to think of this as something special to cause more misunderstanding.

Silence took over that moment, no one was speaking the only sound that can be heard in the room was the ticking of the clock, the sound of their breath. But that soon came to an end when Saiki decided to speak.

You… He called that made the pretty girl shriek, and she hummed to answer him. Is what you say the truth? He asked with seriousness evident on his voice that made Teruhashi shivered. Answer! Ordering her.

Startled. She answered quickly but stumbled on the way. “Y-yeah… It’s… It’s true!” she swallows and calming herself. Because being nervous now will not help in this situation. “Yes, everything I said is the truth!” she answered bravely and took a deep breath as she stared at his eyes.

Saiki smirked that made her heartbeat fast. Now, noticing that he was holding her shoulders so tight he release it and bowed apologetically which she didn’t mind at all. And all of a sudden, he grabbed her hands were the ring was. Teruhashi, again, surprised at the sudden touch of the pink-headed guy that made her face flushed in crimson red, her heart was beating fast and any minute now, it will burst if Saiki decided to do weird things. And at this moment on, she was just staring at him with adoration. Lost in thoughts.

And all of a sudden, the ring fell out from her finger that startled her and brought her back to reality. Seeing the ring that blocking Saiki's telepathy was now on his hand. And she finally understood why Saiki suddenly grabs her hands, he wanted to remove the germanium ring that was placed on her finger. And upon realizing it, she felt uneasy because now, there’s no way she can’t block her mind from thinking about him. She felt embarrassed because her mind is filled with nothing but the guy in front of her and it made her face flushed gazillion times already and the one who causes her this so much distress is the guy in from of her. She can’t even show her face to him. And out of embarrassment she covered it with her hands.

Saiki for the second time grin. Playing with his germanium ring twisting it around his finger. Okay! You convinced me… so, you really are saying the truth? Teasing the pretty girl.

Still hiding her face. “That was uncalled for. Give me back the ring.” Removing one of her hands from her face to snatch the germanium ring on Saiki.

If you can snatch it away from me you can have it. Grinning mischievously and teasing her strangely amuses him. He really was enjoying this unbeknownst to him.

Saiki stretches his arms upward so Teruhashi won’t be able to get it. So, she tiptoes her foot trying hard to get the ring from him with her eyes close and not noticing that their body was clashing towards each other but because the pretty girl was so absorbed into getting back the ring she didn’t notice it. While the other individual was smiling at how hard she was trying to get the germanium ring back.

This jerked, this rude boring guy is being so childish, so annoying! Reading aloud what Teruhashi’s inner mind was telling. She immediately stops her movement because of embarrassment.

Slapping his arms lightly. “That was uncalled for! Don’t read my mind.” She pleads desperately.

What! As if I want to read your mind willingly. I can't help it you know! He sneered.

“Wha… what the heck… Saiki-kun, if you don’t want to read my mind give me back the ring!!” still hiding her face towards him and grabbing the damn ring on his finger.

Told you, snatch it from me, if you can… then you can have this!

If Teruhashi was not so embarrassed at the moment she can see that unusual happy face of Saiki, because Saiki at the moment was having fun teasing her. Until he notices someone was approaching the room. He stopped playing and gave the ring back to the embarrassed girl that startled her with his unpredictable and playful actions.

“What? What now?” She asked confused.

You want the Germanium ring, right? You can have it for now. When she’s about to protest Saiki speaks again silencing her. My mom will be here any moment now, so fix yourself and make sure your swollen eyes are gone. Don’t want her to think I did something to you. Go back and seat on my bed or that chair or whatever. He ordered the pretty girl which she obliged without a fight.

She walks at Saiki's bed and sat on it, placing the ring on the bedside while fixing herself, waiting for his Mom to come as what Saiki informed. And soon they heard a knock from the door and slowly opening, Kurumi peeking through the entrance as she waved at Teruhashi.

Smiling genuinely. “How’s the talk? Did Ku-chan told you everything, Kokomi-chan?” asking Teruhashi with a smile plastered on her face.

She nods in agreement. “Y-yes Auntie, thank you for letting me in,” she answered back.

“Good to know then. And of course, I also want to express my gratitude to you for accepting my son even though he is a psychic!” she told with affection. She was feeling grateful to Teruhashi.

Shaking her head. “No, it was us that needs to be thankful for your son.” Kurumi arched an eyebrow at her. Teruhashi smiled and continued. “I mean, Saik- Kusuo-kun helps us several times already. Thank you for giving birth to him Auntie” she bowed and Kurumi felt overjoyed hearing someone appreciating her son and how he lives his life. She wanted to cry out of happiness but she held it in as she side glance on her son seeing what expression his making.

And to her shocked, it was the first she saw his son looking so out of it, that confused look he’s making made her giggle at the sight of it which she earned harsh growl coming from him. She smiled and looked back at Teruhashi.

“Thank you again, Kokomi-chan!” bowing her head to show appreciation to the pretty girl which made her uneasy and she bowed and thank Saiki's mother to ease the situation.

And unbeknownst to her, she forgot to put the ring back on her finger. With that, Saiki knew what was running through her mind and that made his stomach feel strange and he was also confused at himself.

Teruhashi clapping her hands. “By the way, auntie, do you need some help? Is that why you’re here? If so, I can help you, in whatever I can!” that snap Kurumi from her thoughts. Shaking her head disapprovingly.

“No, no Kokomi-chan, I’m here to let you know that Kuu-kun, Kuusuke; Ku-chan's big brother asks me to relay a message to you” She informed which earned a questioning hummed towards the girl.

Tilting her head “oh! What might that be?” remembering Saiki's older brother made her soar.

“He asked me to tell you that you should stay for the night here because…”

While Kurumi was still explaining, Teruhashi with wide eyes, slamming her hands in the bed. “W-WHAT?? A- DO-“ Wa-wa…What did she say??? Me staying here… the whole freaking night? With Saiki-kun? Wa-wa-what??? It’s fine but… what should I do, can I sleep together with… kyaaaa Kokomi get a grief. A perfect pretty girl doesn’t act like that! Getting flustered and having a hard time forming her words.

Smiling at Teruhashi, she repeats. “Kuu-kun wanted you to stay for the night because it might be dangerous for you to go outside!” informing the still flushed maiden. She giggles at the sight of it while Saiki moaned tiredly.

Inhaling deeply, she made sure she’s calm and looked back at Kurumi “Auntie, I can’t, my brother will be worried and it might be more dangerous if he sees Saik- Kusuo-kun here!” she informed.

Kurumi places her pointer finger on her chin as if thinking, “Hmm… well, you can call your brother and just make an excuse? Kuu-kun said that there’s a high chance that someone has seen you go here so, if you’ll go outside it might be dangerous for you and he also said… It will be too troublesome if Ku-chan will teleport you to your house. Because it will cause another commotion.” Teruhashi nods at her and still waiting for more explanation.

“If we let you go outside or even if someone will fetch you from here, it will still be chaotic. Also, Kuu-kun said that you need to keep this a secret from everyone, don’t contact your friends that you speak with Ku-chan.” Teruhashi wants to ask more questions but letting it slide because she knows that they were doing this for Saiki’s sake so instead, she remained silent and wait until Kurumi is finished.

“Lastly, kuu-kun also mentioned that he has a major plan and—“

Eyes wide open, what do you mean? Asking her mom only through her mind but, Kurumi didn’t pay attention to him as she continues with her speech. Which she earns a low growl coming from her son.

She coughs. “As I mentioned, Kuu-kun said he has a plan in motion and will be here tomorrow morning before you go to school.” She said with a smile.

“He already made a plan? That’s a good news Saik- Kusuo-kun” Clapping her hands cheerfully as she stared at Saiki with a smile on her face.

“That is also the reason why you need to be here Kokomi-chan, because Kuu-kun has something to say to you. But, if you'll ask me… I don’t know the answer! I'm sorry” Kurumi informed and at the same time apologetic to the young girl.

Shaking her head. “It’s alright Auntie, Don’t worry about it! If it’s a plan to device how Sak- kusuo-kun will be free again, I’m willing to help.” Clasping her hands energetically.

Saiki also frowned upon knowing that Teruhashi will stay here the whole night. It’s troublesome and it’s also freaking him. Knowing he’ll be with her the whole freaking night his mind was in a different kind of haze and also, wishes that somehow he can get through this without any more trouble. And to say, the Madonna forgot to put the ring on her finger and that is why he is restless because he can read what is running through her mind. And to say it’s all troublesome stuff. Yare, yare.

Kurumi claps her hands that warrant the attention of the two as they both look at her “Okay, now that I’ve said it, I’ll go on ahead and continue my work downstairs. I’ll leave you two young ones alone and continue your conversation.” She smiled knowingly.

Teruhashi nods unsurely while Saiki grimaced. Kurumi waves her hands to them and leaves the two alone in the room with awkward silence.

We’re alone again. Oh, my gosh! With her hands cupping her face Get a grief Kokomi, it’s not like something will happen…

Saiki sighed exasperatedly. (Yare, yare) I thought you don’t want me to hear your thoughts? Then why are you not wearing the ring I gave you?” Saiki uttered between his breaths as he breaks the ice between them.

Teruhashi was taken aback at his sudden voice and realization hit her seeing the ring place on the bed. She forgot that she places the ring there a while ago to fix herself. And a sudden wave of embarrassment occurs her knowing all this time Saiki knew what her thought was. Blood rush to her brain and she immediately grab the ring place it on her finger. Her face was flushed due to embarrassment. That was embarrassing… I’m the worst. AAAA… what will I do? How can I face him directly? She wanted to glance at the pink-headed guy but was too embarrassed to see his face instead, she covers her face with his pillow.

What are you doing now? He decided to approach the maiden. But because Teruhashi was busy with her thoughts alone, she didn’t hear him.

He sighed and poke her head repeatedly until he gets her attention back. Oy—

She suddenly jumps on her feet that surprised the psychic himself. With her face in a deep shade of red, she immediately announces that she’ll go downstairs and help Kurumi in whatever she needs.

“A… I’ll go downstairs and help Auntie” she states as she runs through the door without waiting for his response.

Ruffling his hair as he stared at her running form. Yare, yare. Finally some peace!

When Teruhashi was now out in his sight she suddenly felt relax; resting her head on the wall as she inhaled. “That was nerve-wracking!”

Now that she felt relaxed, she reminisces what happened a moment ago. It was embarrassing, even so, she felt great because she finally conveyed her true feelings and so she felt at ease.

“Now, it’s up to Saiki-kun!” smiling to herself, she started to march to find Kurumi and help her in her needs.

Upon reaching the lobby up to the kitchen she found Kurumi humming a song, she went to her and greeted her.

“Hi, Auntie! Need some help?” she suddenly approaches the middle-age woman.

Startled at Teruhashi’s sudden approach. “Kokomi-chan! I’m fine here alone, you can accompany Ku-chan upstairs” smiling at the girl whose face is now crimson red.

Waving her hands frantically. “No, ah… I mean” rubbing her cheeks shyly. “It’s alright Auntie, I mean, I talk to him and we settled things on our end so there is no need to talk anymore, I want to help you prepare dinner for the night. That’s the only way I can help.” She informed, smiling at Kurumi.

Smiling at her back, she nods. “Okay then, let’s prepare dinner together!”

“Right!” agreeing cheerfully. And they began to do their jobs until it’s dinner time.

A few more hours later Saiki's Dad, Kuniharu came and went to greet his wife, upon reaching the kitchen he was surprised to see Teruhashi there helping his dear wife.

With wide eyes. “Kokomi-chan?” he said questioningly.

Both girls look up to the place where they heard the voice came in and to see Kuniharu there, Kurumi rush towards her husband to hug and greeted him welcomely and Teruhashi bowed to express her gratitude.

“Papa, you came home!” Kurumi welcomed her dear husband happily.

“Welcome home uncle!” Teruhashi beam welcoming Saiki's dad whose face is still shocked.

Scratching his chin “E… Why is Kokomi-chan here? Honey” whispering to Kurumi who’s all smile to him.

Slapping his chest lightly. “Oh! Don’t worry about that papa, Kokomi-chan already know about Ku-chan!” she informed her husband with a knowing look. Upon hearing her statement Kuniharu gasped in total shock, he stared at Teruhashi confirming if what her wife said was the truth. When Teruhashi saw the looks of Kuniharu and at first, she didn’t understand what he wanted to convey but soon realize that Kurumi might inform her husband about the reason why she’s here. So to answer his silent query she nods in agreement.

“Seriously? Th-that’s good then…” He stops mid-sentence upon realizing that the pretty girl knew about his son and still here happily chatting with her wife not afraid of kusuo.

Now that he realizes that he made a ducked-face. “Ahyuuuuu!!!!” Kurumi look at him weirdly even Teruhashi was alarmed.

“Papa?” “U-uncle?” both arched an eyebrow as they stared at Kuniharu.

“Aaahyuuuuu!” he went and grab Teruhashi's hand to her shocked. “I’m just glad that you still accept Kusuo even though he’s not a normal person!” still crying out of happiness.

She chuckled and squeezed kuniharu’s hand. “Don’t worry uncle. At first, I was scared to know the truth but, upon realizing how great and kind Kusuo-kun was.” She pulled her hand gently and walk beside the table to remove the ring on her finger placing it at the top of the table. “I mean, on the times he was beside us, without knowing his true self; I felt relieved and I know he is to be trusted. You have a good son Uncle” smiling the whole time she also stared at Kurumi and bowed her head. “And Auntie as well, you both are the reason why Kusuo-kun grew up to become the man that he is now” she expressed warmly and the two parents were so delighted hearing that and both cried out in so much happiness.

Making a ducked-face “Ahyuuuuu!!!” the both uttered.

“Thank you, Kokomi-chan!” Kurumi was the first to thank her by clasping their hands together. “I’m really glad that Ku-chan has you as a friend!” She claims. And Teruhashi got shy and scratch her cheeks and smiled awkwardly.

“Me too! The first time I saw you on the shrine… I knew you would be perfect for Kusuo” he informed the pretty girl that got startled at his remark now waving her hand in the air with a flushed face.

“Uncle!!! Th-that’s… I…” can’t utter her words correctly, she was embarrassed and started to pick the ring that she places on the table to block her mind so a certain someone can’t read her embarrassing thoughts

“Aww… Kokomi-chan, you don’t have to get embarrassed!” Kurumi teases her more without ulterior motive. Teruhashi, on the other hand, felt restless and embarrassed at this situation, hoping Saiki will not hear any of this.

On the other hand and to her luck, Saiki was there eyeing there every move as he listen to their nonsense conversation. He was standing at the doorway sometime now and they haven’t noticed him there. He was staring at the three with his usual deadpan expression. Yare, yare. How did it turn out like this?

Sighing at the sight he was seeing, he stood to where they are to grab their attention. And upon seeing him there, they all gasped.

“A! Kusuo you’re here!” his dad said.

“Sa-sa-Saiki— Kusuo-kun” Teruhashi exclaimed with her face flushed reaching her ears, wishing that he didn’t hear anything but she knows he has.

“A! Ku-chan, dinner is ready, go seat with Kokomi-chan!” his mom uttered. That made Teruhashi flushed even more.

“A-Auntie!!!” she cried.

(Yare, yare.) He thought. What the heck are you two saying a while ago? Enough of that, your joke is not even funny! He muttered to his two meddlesome parents directly through their minds. While they both grin at him. He only sighed staring at his own parent’s dumb faces.

Kurumi then, clapping her hand cheerfully. “Okay! Now that dinner is ready, let’s go and eat!”

They all nod and agreed and went to their seat, and by the way, their seating arrangement was Saiki besides his Dad while Teruhashi with flushed face facing Saiki and besides her is Kurumi.

“It's hard to eat if I'm facing him! But, I’m glad I can see his face up-close!” grinning at her own statement. While the one facing her was annoyed at how his parents are grinning at him.

Yare, yare. How troublesome!

______________________________________

-End of Chapter IV-

#disastrous life of saiki k.#Saiki Kusuo no PSI Nan #saiki kusuo no sai nan #saiki kusuo no ψ nan #the disastrous life of saiki k.#saiki x teruhashi #saiteru #saiki kusuo #teruhashi kokomi #Together with you chapter 4 #Hear me out #Dont forget to review!!!!!!!!!

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the-saitou-hajime · 4 years ago

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Continued from HERE

Saitou was quite pleased to see the Lady’s enthusiasm in doing such simple things with him as ordering food. He also placed a small order for himself -another anko daifuku-. This was turning out better then he had thought. “Interesting… ‘Chocolate and caramel’? They must be sweet.” These weren’t things he himself was closely familiar with but lately he had been hearing about them as western goods and his own exposure to the culture was becoming more frequent; things like milk and butter haven't been traditionally used in Japan. Perhaps as a man with a pallet for good foods and as a cook it was something he secretly wished to learn about. “It may be the types of beans specifically? Only azuki beans can be used and they must be cooked a certain way. I couldn’t fathom doing such with normal beans would have the same result…” He made a muted face of disgust, thinking about what that would actually turn out like. “The vines must not be found overseas then, -that yield azuki beans,” he more stated that then asked. He watched as she took out her coin purse. Although he knew it was a courtesy for a guest not to pay, who was he to question her drive to fend for herself when he was only an escort? “…” Though it did bother him, he thought protesting about it would seem far more rude to her then accepting it, considering her status above him.

He wondered if not outright assumed his topics of conversation were dull to the average woman…but Sonia seemed to have varied and interesting tastes and a flair for learning. He didn’t feel too judged by her thus far with his thoughts/opinions and questions he had about her either. If he had the time to consciously think of this, he would be surprised.

Seeing Sonia interact with the old woman so easily was…refreshing. Yes, that’s the word. Normally people would be put off with such a presence (and status) but Sonia, on the other hand, took things in stride and with confidence. He smiled ever so slightly at Sonia’s quiet question to him: “I would lean more on the side of ‘friend’.” It was a little humorous to him she didn’t know who or what the woman was. “She also seems to have taken to you, I would say. A good sign. Not that I thought she would not.” He couldn’t answer her other question right away, as the waitress had returned with their order. “Thank you,” he gave the woman a polite bow. “Would you prefer to take a seat and fully enjoy these?” He didn’t wait for Sonia to answer before leading her to a quaint little table in the back; they actually had a few proper western style tables and chairs where she, in her large dress, could more easily place herself down. He pulled out the seat, emphasizing it to her, “I assumed you would not show protest to this…” They had been walking around awhile after all.

He then sat in a chair across her with intention to answer her other question: “I want you to take a look around this establishment.” Behind him you could see the room clearly. It was an older looking place, clearly up-kept and cherished thorough many years. Wood-block paintings, prestigious and as far as the eye could tell, expensive in nature hung around as well as a few floral arrangements which, if you looked closer at, where made with unusual types of accent flowers; also a conspicuous mask hung above the door: it looked menacing with yellow eyes and had 4 sets of horns on it (representative of a demon in true form). He sat there, inconspicuously eating his daifuku as she looked around. “That painting…towards the left over the sweets counter… Does that person look like anyone to you?” In the particular painting he spoke of, was a beautiful young woman wearing an older-style kimono and many hairpins, surrounded by golden-lacquered flowers standing by a tree. “Look at it more closely,” he encouraged her. …The more you looked at it, the more you could spot hints of something more…’other-worldly’ and almost ominous about it. Did she have horns? Were those ‘spirits’ in the for-ground? Plus, it bore a small seal, the same of which was on the ‘special order’ he had placed; it was that woman’s ‘symbol’. He was curious how she would answer.

@more-than-a-princess

#more-than-a-princess #(Think you're getting the hint about oni here)#(And that the older lady might be the one in the painting)#(Hope this is okay!)#(Sorry for the wait)

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ancientechos · 4 years ago

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“my one and only contribution to sinday” hahah hah hah ahhah hah....

This is sinday and nsfvv and very bad I’m very sorry uwu

It’s also a direct continuation to the butler au fic “Playing With Fire” but there is literally 0% plot so there’s no need to read that (or this either)

Emet-Selch/Arianna ♡ 2916 words ♡ Butler AU

Emet’s limo is waiting for them as they leave the building, his arm hooked through hers while her both her hands grasps at his. The driver had arrived a few minutes prior, having been informed by Emet that they were leaving.

The architect opens the door for her and she slides in first, gently removing her hairpin as he gets ready. There’s a mild silence in the car before he finally speaks first.

“Did you enjoy yourself?”

“I — ” She stammers a moment, averting her gaze with a mild flush. “I-I enjoyed dancing with you...and the art pieces were pretty. Hyth is nice...”

“Hmm. I’ll be sure to pass on the message.” She can hear the smirk in his voice without having to look at him. “I am sorry, though, for Carlin’s behaviour.” He clicks his tongue. “He won’t bother us again, I’m sure.”

It‘s difficult to argue with him, remembering the absolutely damning things he’d said about the other man. And the way his wife had reacted...

“Th-thank you, again, for...d-defending me...” Ir seems a little selfish to phrase it like that, but — as long as he doesn’t deny it.

“You’re welcome.” He pauses a moment, as if considering something. “I think I’d like a kiss, as a reward.”

Arianna raises a brow as she blinks, looking at him. “I-I kissed you. At the party.” After his nap.

“That was only on the cheek.” He had no right to pout at her as he taps his cheekbone. “I want a proper one. And I’m so lonely over here all by myself.”

She looks at the distance between them, unconvinced. “We’re sitting right beside each other...?”

“But I don’t even have a beautiful lady in my lap.”

The hyuran woman bites her lower lip in consideration, glancing about the car. The windows are darkened...and there’s a panel between them and the driver, not to mention a good few rows of seats...

He’s told her before she can speak as she likes here, no one would be able to hear her.

Normally, she wouldn’t even consider this, but...

But she *wants* to. And, after earlier...he’d...

Before she can think herself into *not* doing it, she inhales sharply and unbuckles her seatbelt —

“Oh? Really?”

— and slides herself along the seat, turning to face him as she swings a leg across to straddle him awkwardly.

“I only asked for a kiss, but I’m not going to complain,” he murmurs, his mouth curving as he settles his hands upon her hips.

She can feel a deep flush rising to her cheeks. She smells his cologne and the champagne they’d partaken in earlier; before she can manage to think better of it, she tilts her head to kiss him. He’s warm and soft and heady and she tangles her fingers in his hair as he runs a hand up her back to pull her closer.

It’s “supposed” to be a chaste kiss, though she supposes she’s lying to herself if she says she thought it would remain that way, especially with the way she’d thrown herself at him.

He’s quick to try to deepen the kiss, pulling her closer, his tongue sliding against her lips. And she’s just as quick to oblige him, signing into the kiss as she clutches at him. When they break apart, he smirks lazily at her, brushing a hand through her hair, watching the strands fall from his fingers for a moment.

“I think I haven’t been rewarded enough,” he has the gall to purr. “I think I’l have to keep you here until I do.”

She bites her lower lip in a bid to keep herself from smiling, shaking her head gently. But instead of saying anything, she simply leans and presses a kiss to his cheek. She’s about to lavish him with yet another when one of his hands leaves her to rub bemusedly at the spot she had pressed her lips against. Oh, right — the...lipgloss? Lipstick? She’d forgotten —

“I’m sorry — “

“Hmm? Oh, no, if it’s you, I don’t mind.” His mouth quirks as he lets his hand fall to the side. “Continue.”

For some reason, she can’t quite push aside the image of a king waiting to be pampered, which only amuses her further. She’s unable to quell the tiny giggle that rises to her lips. Despite being certain this isn’t the reaction he’d wanted, she watches his gaze soften slightly -- which does threaten to fluster her further, so she busies herself with cupping his jaw with both hands and pressing yet another kiss to his cheek. And another, until she’s peppered his entire face with soft kisses, his eyes shut.

When he opens them again, he wears a self-satisfied smirk. Instead of speaking for the moment, he finally reaches to touch her again, drawing her close for a soft kiss.

“You know,” he murmurs as he drags his mouth along her jaw and up to her ear, “I could make you mine here, too...”

She shivers slightly, swallowing nervously against the flutters of butterflies in her stomach. Then shakes her head and mumbles a quick no.

He clicks his tongue. “You’re such a tease,” he grumbles, rubbing fingers along her hip.

“W-well, how else am I supposed to g-get back at you for how much you tease me?”

She can feel him smirk against her ear.

“True. But...” He bites at her ear lobe, pressing a hand to the small of her back as he growls, “Is that really a game you want to play with me...?”

“Ah...” Shivering, she squirms her hips against his unthinkingly, causing him to gasp against her ear before he dips to kiss at her neck. Arianna can’t help but whine at the sensation, running her fingers through his hair as she grinds against him again -- though this time the motion is far more deliberate. He answers with a soft nibble to her skin, rubbing his hand up her back and slipping his fingers into her dress, stroking her side and moving up.

Though she’s been clear about not continuing activities here, he’ll go as far as he’s able to without her growing cross. His long fingers and warm palms explore what he can, raking over her clothed body while he presses kisses and tiny bites to her neck and shoulder. Finally, she tilts his head to coax him to kiss her properly, and they kiss and kiss and kiss until her head spins and she feels enough like jello that she doesn’t think she could get off him even if she had to.

But nevertheless they somehow manage it once the limo finally comes to a halt outside his doors, though admittedly it likely takes them a minute or so to realise or care. Once they’re finally in the house, Emet tugs her by the hand up the stairs, though instead of relocating to the bedroom, he leads her into the far closer lounge.

“This spot will do nicely,” he rasps abruptly, throwing himself onto the sofa and all but pulling her onto his lap, in the same position as earlier. He’s kissing her again before she can speak, and she all but melts atop him, clutching fingers at his hair.

He slides a hand up the skirt of her dress, wasting no time in hooking fingers around the side of her panties. “I do think we need these off,” he purrs before giving her a hot kiss as he tries to pull her undergarments away. She nearly allows him to before she seems to remember something.

“W-wait,” she says as she pulls away from him, grasping at his arm to tug his hand away.

“Hmm? Why?” He sounds vaguely confused though mostly unimpressed.

“Um -- ” Yes, how is she supposed to put this, exactly? “Y-you...you first...” Shyly, she pushes her skirt away to touch at his belt. Though it probably shouldn’t be possible, Arianna thinks she feel her face burn all the more once she actually looks at the evidence of his desire. Whilst he’s bemused, he doesn’t complain; instead helping her remove his clothing with a sharp smirk.

“Oh, wait,” he says abruptly when she’s halfway to pulling his pants down his knees, as if remembering something. She sits next to him on the sofa as he fumbles with his pocket. He pulls out a square packet and grins widely at her.

She simply blinks at him while he pulls the rest of his pants and boxers off with a mild, contented hum.

“Why do you have that...?”

“For this, obviously.”

“Y-you had no idea we would be doing this?”

“Maybe I hoped we would. Am I not allowed to have dreams?”

Arianna has to resist the urge to roll her eyes even despite her vague amusement -- or perhaps fondness? Should she really be experiencing silly warm feelings about something like this?

Regardless, she doesn’t hesitate to climb back on top of him again, biting her lip as she does so. This time, she doesn’t stop him from pulling her underwear off, and he tosses them carelessly to the floor as he continues to explore her inner thighs. She gives a tiny whimper when he brushes his fingers against her wet folds, and his to close her eyes against the smug expression he grants her.

“You’re all soaked for me,” he purrs aloud, leaning to kiss her on the cheek as he slips a finger within her. She gives another soft whine, head spinning as she presses herself into his palm. “What a good girl,” he coos as he adds a second finger, biting on her earlobe when he feels her walls tighten around her.

She already feels him curling his fingers against that spot within her that makes her feel stars, his other arm pulling her closer against him. She can feel his hardness against one of her thighs, though she can barely give it much thought against the pleasure flooding her body. Automatically, she rocks her hips into his deliberate motions, tiny sounds of bliss leaving her. Her eyes slide shut as she buries her face against his neck, giving him soft kisses when she remembers.

“You look beautiful, my dear. So lovely...I could watch you all night...” If he had the patience. A pity they hadn’t taken their clothes off entirely; she would look even more a vision squirming nude against his fingers, though there’s a certain appeal to her disheveled look like this, too. Something left to the imagination, though he’s already seen her before, he can still pretend.

His other hand travels to her shoulder, gently pulling. “Let me look at you...” He has half a mind to bring her to release like this and watch her fall apart completely from his fingers -- her face is always pretty -- but watching her leaves him compelled to ask, for better or for worse.

“Is this enough for you, Arianna?” he purrs, kissing at the corner of her mouth and her hot cheek as he nuzzles closer, his hand sliding through her hair and raking fingers gently against her scalp. “Or would you like me to fuck you?”

“Ah...” She always likes it when he talks, even when he sometimes uses such words; whilst typically something she would frown about, in the right mood they merely stoke the fire he brings about in her. Her body halts as she tries to focus enough to give him a response, her darkened eyes meeting his for a moment before the knowledge of what she wishes to say has her glancing away skittishly. “I-I want you, Emet...”

She can’t put it another way, and he doesn’t ask her to, either; he knows what she means, and her bashful admission is enough to excite him further. He adores her reactions, from her eagerness to her coyness.

“All right...” Carefully, he pulls away from her. To her mild mortification, she can’t stop the whimper that leaves her at feeling suddenly empty. Her head spins as he tilts her up to look at him.

“Don’t worry, sweet girl, I couldn’t bear to disappoint you,” he murmurs lowly, sealing her lips with a heated kiss. Her fingers dart to his hair, eagerly clinging to him as the kiss deepens, his tongue sliding against hers.

Beneath her skirt, Emet positions himself for easier entry, breaking the kiss to press lips to her jaw.

“Sit on me?” he asks lazily, his other hand at her hips now to support her. Swallowing nervously, she nods with a flush and slowly lowers herself upon him. A soft, blissful sigh leaves her as he enters her, and he emits a pleased purr of his own. Though he’d resigned himself to allowing her to pick the pace, he can’t help but give a shallow thrust at the sensation of her hot, slick walls fluttering around him. With a contented hum, he nuzzles forehead against hers. He has the sudden, belated realisation he can’t actually see himself enter her, and for one absurd moment grows just a bit more annoyed at their state of dress.

Well, it’s his fault, really, so he has nothing to complain about.

He gives her another languid kiss as she settles upon him entirely, her fingers trembling lightly upon his shoulders. Smirking, he runs one hand up and down her back encouragingly.

“Good girl,” he says with a wide leer.

“S-stop that,” she stammers even as the deep flush rises to her cheeks and she feels herself clenching around him.

“What? Calling you that?” Emet moves his other hand to her other hip to hold her properly. “But you like it. Why should I?” He doesn’t give her room to respond as he begins to move her carefully, lifting her up to pull her down on him again.

“Ah -- ” But she tries to speak anyway, only resulting in what she perceives as an embarrassingly loud sound that has her clamping her mouth shut. Arianna’s fingers curl upon his shoulders as she does her best to control herself.

He clicks his tongue in annoyance.

“I did ask you not to do that.” Though perhaps he shouldn’t have tried to move things along. He lets go of her to instead drag fingertips along her jaw. “You’ll hurt yourself. And I do so enjoy listening to you moan for me...do you know how sexy you sound?”

“N-no -- ” At least she has the capacity to argue. “I don’t sound -- like that -- ” Her brows furrow.

“But you do.” He smirks softly at her. “I do think I’m somewhat of an expert.”

Instead of giving him a verbal response, she opts to lift herself instead. She’s not sure whether she’s simply frustrated or doesn’t want to engage the conversation anymore --

Or maybe she just wants to chase that nice feeling from just a few minutes ago --

But for the moment she lets herself do as she wants, even watching him watching her bounce in his lap with narrowed golden eyes. He caresses her hips and sides and back, a quiet sigh leaving him as he moves his hips shallowly into her movements.

It’s not long until he takes matters into his own hands, however. Grasping at her hips, he pulls her into his harsher thrusts, making her gasp and moan atop him as he slams just so into her, leaving her a squirming and moaning mess.

“E-Emet, please, please -- please...”

“Yes, sweetheart...”

At first she tries to move with him, though she quickly finds her legs tiring in this position. He has little issue moving her himself, allowing her to clutch heatedly to him as he brings them both to their completion. Her lovely yelps and whimpers echo with his groans and purrs in between their kisses as he thrusts into her.

With one last, desperate calling of his name, Arianna’s entire body grows taut as she spirals over the edge. The vicelike grip she has about him has him finally nearing completion as well, releasing as his hips twitch erratically.

Gasping, the two cling to one another, her face pressed into his neck as he rubs fingers up and down her back. Finally, he tips his head backwards to rest against the back of the couch, blinking up at the ceiling.

“You know,” he says finally, breathless and somewhat wistfully, “we could have done this in the car, too...”

She has to scoff in amusement as she draws herself closer, lying against him. “N-no, we couldn’t.”

“Hmph...and why not?”

“N-not private enough...”

“But no one can see or hear us.”

“And too cramped.”

“Ah...then I shall have to invest in a more spacious one, then.”

For a while, there’s nothing but the sound of their breathing as they nestle against one another, their highs slowly coming down.

At least until he trails a hand to her hip again.

“Want to do this again upstairs...? I still haven’t gotten you out of this dress...”

#hahahahah h #im not tagging this properly either #so just have a look at these weirdo tags #and wonder why i wrote this awful thing #sinday #emet selch x arianna #arianna rowen #arianna #w: the dreamer and the architect #fanfic #my writing #other verses #butler au #gonna go regret this and work on my actual write entry bye #nsfvv

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thisoldquill · 4 years ago

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The Wedding

An original fanfiction, rated G

Please do not repost my work. All original work of the Harry Potter world is not mine, just this piece.

This scene from the Deathly Hallows really inspired me to get re-acquainted with my OC, Charlotte Yang, that I made ages ago. Now that I am older, my character has grown with me and I wanted to explore her path as she becomes an adult during the Second Wizarding War. There’s a lot of backstory I didn’t explain in this fanfic (like befriending Fleur Delacour and George Weasley, or moving to Paris) but I’ll get there, I promise! I wanted to focus more on her post-Hogwarts journey mostly because we’re the same age now and both navigating our lives after school. If literally none of this interests you, skip it! But please do not send me rude comments about my work.

-Ms. Cinnamon

~~~

Charlotte checked herself once more in the mirror beside the bed before reaching for her traveling cloak. She had decided on wearing a pretty sapphire blue sheath dress with a matching bolero jacket and heels, her hair pinned back into a neat chignon with a glittering jewel hairpin; surely this ensemble wouldn’t upstage the bride, although, that would be very difficult to do. Quickly striding to the door, she plucked the large wrapped gift box from the coffee table and locked the door behind her. Charlotte was headed off to her old friend’s wedding and made sure to book a room at the Leaky Cauldron as soon as she’d gotten her invitation. It was much easier to take a Portkey from Paris to Diagon Alley, then Disapparate to the Burrow, than to attempt Disapparate over one long trip (which might increase chances of splinching!). Not to mention it had taken many weeks of persuasion of her head of Department, Madame LaFlamme, to allow her to visit Britain for a few days. Tension had been brewing between the French and British Ministries of Magic ever since You-Know-Who had returned, so many employees alike were being restricted in non-essential travel. Her heels clipped purposefully on the cobbled road as she walked to the central courtyard, then she steadied herself to concentrate hard on the Burrow. Charlotte felt herself contort uncomfortably for a few seconds, and with a loud pop!, arrived a short distance away from the Burrow.

There were several large white tents being hoisted up to stand erect in the field around the sloping house and she could see several red-headed people magicking the finishing touches on them. She picked up the pace to the house as to avoid running into a certain one of the red-headed men… Now at the front entrance, she rapped on the door and was met with a harried looking woman, Mrs. Weasley.

‘Hello, welcome! I’m afraid the wedding isn’t until later, but do come in for some tea,’ she invited Charlotte, her eyes roaming over her face in vague recognition. Charlotte had met Mrs. Weasley before but it was all very long ago now.

‘Do not worry, Molly,’ Fleur spoke while appearing from around the corner, ‘I asked ‘er to come a little early to ‘elp me.’ Mrs. Weasley looked relieved to not have to entertain Charlotte and bustled off. Fleur stretched her arms out and wrapped them around Charlotte in a warm embrace.

‘’Ow was ze journey?’ she asked and pulled back. ‘I ‘ope you didn’t ‘ave too much trouble.’

‘Oh, not much. I did have to remind Madame Laflamme several times that I was leaving though,’ Charlotte replied, ‘this is for you.’ She passed the pretty gift box over to Fleur, who’s eyes lit up with curiosity.

‘Ah merci! May I open it?’ she asked, eyeing the box in her hands. Charlotte smiled and nodded, to which Fleur unwrapped the box carefully and took the lid off. Inside sat a set of 12 glistening crystal goblets, a large crystal bowl, and a ladle with a long gold handle. Fleur gasped in delight and picked up a goblet to admire it.

‘Oh, ‘ow beautiful! I cannot wait to use zis!’ she gushed. Charlotte beamed back at her delighted friend; she had searched high and low along Champs-Elysée for the perfect wedding gift and knew that this set was the one when she saw it.

‘I’m glad you like it. Gives me an excuse to come visit more often.’ she joked. As Fleur stowed the goblet away, her fiancé, Bill, entered the room.

‘Bill, come meet my dear friend Charlotte!’ Fleur called out and Bill strode over. He held out his hand and Charlotte noted how confidently he shook it; Fleur had chosen a fine man indeed.

‘Hi, I’m Charlotte, I think we may have met before?’ she inquired as they shook hands. She’d only visited once before, but the man looked familiar.

‘Oh probably, one summer or another ago, it’s hard to keep track of who’s been here over the years,’ he smiled kindly then left to go help with the preparations. Fleur took Charlotte’s arm and led her upstairs to her makeshift bridal suite. It was Charlie Weasley’s old room and white curtains had been hung up all around to cover old posters and create a more bridal atmosphere. There were bouquets of flowers sitting in their vases on the window sills with notes of congratulations and Fleur’s wedding accessories were laid out on the vanity (‘a gift from Bill,’ Fleur had explained). Charlotte was led inside and saw Gabrielle Delacour and Mrs. Delacour sitting on the bed, now set in white bed linens, and chatting in French.

‘Maman, I ‘ave brought Charlotte,’ Fleur announced and Mrs. Delacour looked up. Although Charlotte had become more acquainted with Fleur’s family during her time in Paris, she still felt dreadfully inadequate trying to speak in French to them. Before she could try to string a horrible sentence together, Mrs. Delacour glided over and bestowed a kiss on both of her cheeks.

‘Eet is so lovely to see you again,’ Mrs. Delacour said warmly in a thick French accent, ‘please come visit us once we are back in Paris.’ Gabrielle came up and gave her a friendly peck on the cheek before going over to admire her sister’s dress. After pleasantries were exchanged, Charlotte turned to Fleur,

‘How can I help?’ she asked as Fleur began running a silver comb through her long hair.

‘It is quite alright, Maman and Gabrielle will ‘elp me dress later on,’ Fleur caught her eye in the mirror, ‘I wanted to catch up with you before I become Mrs. Weasley.’ Mrs. Delacour tactfully stood up to leave the room, with a complaining Gabrielle in tow, and shut the door behind them. Fleur paused her combing as she watched the door securely shut after her mother and sister, then rounded on Charlotte.

‘So? ‘ave you gone to talk to George yet?’ Fleur whipped her head around, her eyes gleaming with mischief. Charlotte felt herself blush immediately and crossed her arms. She had been strategically ambushed.

‘What do you mean? Why would I talk to George?’ she retorted defiantly. Fleur tossed her hair and went to stretch out on the bed.

‘Oh please, Bill told me everything about zis predicament. Not to mention ‘ow you couldn’t even speak to ‘im after ze Yule Ball,’ Fleur sighed and made herself more comfortable on the many throw pillows. “I think ‘e likes you too”. Charlotte shrugged and kicked off her heels to join her friend among the mountain of throw pillows. There was no use in hiding these things from Fleur, she usually had a way of finding them out.

‘All that’s in the past though. The Yule Ball was, what, 4 years ago? I am totally over him,’ Charlotte murmured. ‘Besides, it’s too late to bring up all that, especially at your wedding.’

‘Nonsense! It is never too late for someone as wonderful and kind and intelligente as you!’ Fleur said fiercely and several throw pillows rolled off the bed as she jerked up to look Charlotte hard in the eyes, ‘I will make certain zat you ‘ave a chance to reconcile!’ Charlotte felt a rush of affection as she watched Fleur get more worked up and jam the pillows back onto the pile. She knew it was hard for Fleur to make friends because of her blunt nature, but she was deeply loyal to ones she kept.

‘Besides, if you become my belle-soeur, it would be much easier to visit each other,’ Fleur added as an afterthought and settled back onto the pillows.

‘Yeah, and then we’ll get sick of each other,’ Charlotte laughed and the two of them fell into comfortable conversation; it was as if they were back at Hogwarts, relaxing by the lake after a long day of classes. At last, it was time for Fleur to get ready, and Charlotte slipped out quietly to leave the Delacours to prepare as a family. She descended the spiraling staircase and into the landing. There were people everywhere now, and the mountain of wedding gifts by the fireplace was so large, it was spilling into the kitchen. She tried to help Mrs. Weasley but was shooed out to the garden with the other guests. It was late afternoon now, with the sun still shining over the white tents making them dazzle and a few wayward gnomes were starting to crawl back into the bushes. Charlotte was going to walk right up to the entrance of the largest tent, then stopped; she was suddenly very aware that she’d come without a date. So, she stood awkwardly to the side, as couples began to file in, and debated if she should wait until she could enter unnoticed (‘I really should have brought Axel with me,’ she muttered to herself), but felt a soft tap on her shoulder. She spun around to see Luna Lovegood and her father smiling at her. Both were wearing garish marigold-yellow dress robes that clashed horribly with their blond hair; though once you got over the shock, their ensemble actually looked quite festive.

‘Hi Charlotte, fancy seeing you here,’ Luna greeted in a dreamy voice, her huge eyes gazing up at her.

‘Hi Luna, Mr. Lovegood,’ she greeted back and blinked, recovering from the visual assault that was their dress robes. Luna had been her fellow Ravenclaw, and although they weren’t in the same year, it was still nice to see a familiar face.

‘We’re about to go in, care to join us?’ Luna asked and Charlotte nodded, grateful. They approached the entrance of the tent and a grumpy looking red-headed boy greeted them.

‘Hello Harry,’ Luna said and the boy seemed to be caught off-guard. Charlotte eye her incredulously, that was not Harry Potter at all.

‘Luna! How did y-,’ he sputtered while Luna smiled serenely at him.

‘You’ve got a certain aura; I can tell it’s you because of it,’ she replied calmly. Harry seemed to regain composure and mumbled something about Polyjuice potion, then lead them to their seats. This had startled Charlotte. If Harry Potter couldn’t even show his face at an extremely protected wedding in the middle of nowhere, then they must be preparing for the worst. Surely the Death Eaters wouldn’t try to come here? She made a mental note to ask him about this, in case she could offer insight from the French Ministry, not that it would be extremely helpful. The current rumor going around the office was that the French Minister was going to decline partaking in the looming war against You-Know-Who in Britain. Still deep in thought, she sat in her seat and was awakened from her reverie when the lights dimmed. She didn’t have time to chat to the other guests around her when music began playing. Everyone looked around to see Mr. Delacour proudly standing with Fleur, their arms looped together. They began to walk (Fleur more so gliding) down the aisle while Gabrielle and Ginny Weasley followed behind, looking pretty in gold colored dresses. Charlotte gazed at her friend, who was normally so beautiful, but now was exceptionally so as a bride. She didn’t notice that tears had welled in her eyes until one slid down her cheek. It was Fleur who was so caring and sharp-witted once you got to know her, who comforted Charlotte when her parents moved away from England, who made sure she was looked after upon moving to Paris… If anyone deserved to have a beautiful wedding, surrounded by wonderful family and friends, it was Fleur. Charlotte wiped her eyes hastily on her sleeve when she saw someone hold out a handkerchief to her.

‘Thank you-,’ she whispered but the rest of her sentence dried up in her throat as she looked at the person offering the handkerchief. It was George. The man she had avoided for so long, standing beside her in the dark, offering a damn handkerchief to her with a stupid grin on his face. Charlotte snatched her hand back as if burned, then turned to face Fleur and Bill, stiff as a board. It became very difficult to listen to the couple profess their love to each other and she thoroughly wished she could Disparate right then and there. Finally, the tiny wizard at the front finished speaking and waved his wand with a flourish, asking guest to please rise. The chairs vanished and a glossy dance floor was spreading out beneath their feet. With everyone letting out gushes of excitement and shuffling to speak to other guests, Charlotte used this commotion to slip away from George and into a crowd of middle-aged wizards.

‘Right, if I just go congratulate them, I can be on my way,’ she thought and made up her mind while working her way through the crowd towards the newlywed couple. It was quite difficult with everyone dancing and merry-making, that she ended up sidetracked on the way to Harry’s table. Charlotte then remembered she wanted to talk to him about the Polyjuice potion (and Death Eaters), so she took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter to look like she just wanted to sit down for a drink. Settling neatly into the chair adjacent to him, she noticed he was staring intently at Ginny and cleared her throat politely.

‘So, why the different look tonight?’ she asked cautiously and Harry’s eyes widened in surprise, ‘I suppose you’re expecting something bad to happen?’ Harry sat still, and she could tell he was debating on if he could trust her or not. As he hummed and hawed, she took a sip of champagne; it fizzed pleasantly in her mouth and went down easily as water.

‘Well actually, yeah,’ he finally spoke. ‘I don’t want to cause any trouble.’ He motioned to the festivities and Charlotte bobbed her head as neutrally as she could. Harry was always up to something it seemed. She had not had a single peaceful school year since he’d shown up at Hogwarts in her third year and trouble always seemed to follow in his wake. A silence ensued as she pondered what to ask next.

‘I’m sorry about Dumbledore, I know you had meaningful relationship with him,’ she said carefully, she didn’t want to seem to nosy. ‘And I’m certain he’s left you something to do, like the other times.’ This much was true; Dumbledore, while kind to all of his students, seemed to take a special liking to Harry. He turned sharply to face her and leaned in forward to whisper.

‘That’s none of your business!’ he said through gritted teeth. Ah, so there had been something. Charlotte set her glass down and leaned forward.

‘I know it’s not, and I’m sorry that I pried into private business. I work at the French Ministry of Magic, and I want to warn my colleagues about anything fishy going on here,’ she apologized, trying to soften her voice. ‘I wanted to know if Death Eaters were on the move to France and if I could be of assistance to you.’ Charlotte saw Harry relax and uncross his arms.

‘S’all right, just private matters. I don’t think Vol-, You-Know-Who is interested in France at the moment,’ he replied gruffly but looked more at ease. ‘And so far, Death Eaters haven’t fled anywhere.’

‘Well, send me an owl to Paris and I’ll try to help you if I can. The French Minister is being maddeningly stubborn on this,’ she scoffed at the last part, ‘he wouldn’t be too pleased if Death Eaters started popping up like weeds in France, would he?’ This last quip earned a laugh from Harry and she drank the last of her champagne. Charlotte didn’t want to ask more questions and make him uncomfortable, so they sat and watched people dancing and laughing, surprisingly taking comfort in each other’s company. Suddenly, as if the Red Sea was being parted in front of them, Fleur glided through the crowd towards their table. She beckoned for Charlotte to take her outstretched hand and follow her, which Charlotte did and she said good bye to Harry.

‘Don’t worry about ‘im, Viktor will keep ‘im company,’ Fleur said breathily, the excitement of the wedding leaving her a little hoarse, ‘come and dance!’ They weaved through the crowd until they stood in the middle of the dance floor. Fleur dropped Charlotte’s hand and went off to speak to the band, leaving Charlotte quite stranded and embarrassed that everyone was watching what would happen next. The wish to Disapparate was growing stronger the longer she stood there, then when almost lost her nerve, someone touched her arm gently.

‘May I have this dance?’ George smiled at her and bowed gallantly for extra effect. Charlotte was going to decline when she saw Fleur glaring at her with a look that said I-set-this-up-for-you-so-don’t-blow-it. Gulping, she took his hand and felt his other hand settle lightly on her waist. The music had now changed from swift, upbeat songs to a slow, romantic waltz. George had been, apparently, practicing dance for several years now judging by the way he waltzed her around the floor as if it was the most natural thing for him. Round and round they went while other guests clapped appreciatively and began joining in. Here, under the lights of the wedding, Charlotte could finally take a good look at her dance partner. His hair, flaming red as usual, was combed back smoothly and his eyes shone with something deeper than having fun with an old friend. Her eyes flicked to the smattering of freckles on his left cheek (which looked very much like the constellation Leo) and grazed slowly up to the rather bloody mess of the missing ear at the side of his head. George caught her smile and grinned,

‘Like my latest injury? I think it becomes me,’ he joked, Charlotte was not laughing.

‘What happened? Oh, George,’ she gasped. ‘Did one of your products blow up in your face?’ Momentarily forgetting that she should be avoiding him, she almost tripped over his feet as she was too busy staring at his missing ear. George shook his head playfully, still smiling, and pulled her off the dance floor. He led her to a more secluded table, away from the crowd with his hand still tightly holding hers. He glanced around, checking for eavesdroppers, then said in a low tone,

‘Snape’s work. He cursed it off when we moving Harry here.’

‘What do you mean?’ she asked, quite puzzled. Snape was literally awful to be around, but would he really attack a student?

‘Sorry, can’t tell you much about it, but I’ll be fine. Top priority is to keep Harry safe until he goes back to school,’ George said casually, as if he was having a chat about the weather. ‘Anyways, what have you been up to these days? I heard you left London.’ Charlotte was slightly taken aback at this sudden change in topic, but pushed her questions about the incident to back of her mind.

‘I left for Paris. Who told you?’ she asked back.

‘Oh, I have my sources,’ he winked in such a George-like way that a rush of repressed emotions of her school-girl crush on him flooded back. How she had come to love that wink, paired with that charming smile! Her sixteen-year-old self used to turn to mush whenever he would indulge her in one of the two during classes. But then the Yule Ball happened, and things weren’t quite the same between them after that. Charlotte shook her head to clear her thoughts and saw George had an uncharacteristically somber expression on his face now. This was probably the first time she’d ever seen him be serious.

‘Why didn’t you write to me?’ he asked quietly. ‘Why didn’t you come visit me when we first opened the shop?’ Charlotte knew the truth of course. She had been hurt that he didn’t ask her to the Yule Ball (even as a friend) and the second blow came from when he left school suddenly without bothering to tell her. They never actually dated but she thought he had felt something for her as she did him; it had been like a breakup at the time and it had been a relief to her that he was no longer around.

‘I-I was busy with N.E.W.T.s you know, getting ready to leave Hogwarts and all,’ she lied pretty unconvincingly. George’s hands gripped hers even tighter so that it hurt a little and she yelped.

‘Don’t go back to Paris!’ he pleaded and she was shocked at the intensity of his voice. ‘Please, stay here, I’ll take care of you,’ George now looked like he was on the verge of tears. Was this all a hallucination? When had George ever pleaded with anyone for anything? Charlotte’s pulse quickened as she considered the possibility that he may like her back. After three years of resigning herself to the fact her old friend would never love her, it was quite earth-stopping to hear this confession. Her heart leapt in hope, but quickly sank. She couldn’t just abandon her career, her sister, her life that was waiting back in Paris for the chance at long-waited love. It was extremely tempting, but deep down she knew now was not the right time. Unfortunately, she never got to answer when a chorus of loud gasps erupted from the crowd on the dance floor. They watched from their seats as a shimmering lynx Patronus landed silently on the floor. It opened its mouth and Kingsley Shacklebolt’s voice rang throughout the tent,

‘The Ministry has fallen. Scrimegeour is dead. They are coming,’ and then it vanished as quickly as it had come. The whole tent went silent, then pandemonium broke out. People were scrambling everywhere trying to Disapparate, trampling over fallen dishes and broken glass. Charlotte leapt from her chair, wand ready, and went to find Fleur. She saw her huddled with her parents and sister, trying to soothe them in French.

‘Fleur! We’ve got to leave,’ Charlotte shouted above all the noise. Fleur looked up, her body relaxing with relief.

‘I must stay ‘ere to protect ‘Arry Potter and ze Burrow,’ she yelled back, ‘take my family with you back to Paris!’ Charlotte nodded then turned to the Delacours, panic on their faces. She grabbed Gabrielle’s and Mrs. Delacour’s hand roughly and pushed through the crowd to the garden with Mr. Delacour following closely behind. However, people seemed to be going more insane outside than in and she gripped hard on the hands she was holding.

‘Quickly, grab onto me and don’t let go!’ she ordered and concentrated with great difficulty on the Leaky Cauldron. They were plunged into darkness, squeezing uncomfortably through space and arrived with a loud pop! in Diagon Alley. The Delacours stumbled to the ground from the force of arriving but Charlotte landed easily on her feet.

‘Is everyone alright?’ she asked but the Delcaours looked rather pale and shaken. She looked around the deserted alley; no Death Eaters had shown up yet.

‘Oi! Who goes there? It’s past midnight!’ a voice chastised through the night. It was Tom, the innkeeper, and Charlotte rounded quickly to face him.

‘Thank goodness you’re here. Tom, will you please show the Delacours to my room?’ she asked while pulling out her room key. ‘Take this, please make them as comfortable as possible and I’ll pay the difference later.’ Tom seemed to understand the urgency of her request because he herded the frightened family into the inn without question. Charlotte watched them disappear inside, the turned quickly on her heel to the exit of Diagon Alley. Now she had to focus on contacting Fleur somehow and arrange for the British Ministry to take her family home. They were probably tracking every magical movement in Britain by now, so sending an envoy from France would raise alarms. As Charlotte walked along the Muggle streets, she thought with a pang of sorrow that she hadn’t said goodbye to George or Fleur or anybody for that matter. Charlotte knew a war was coming, she wasn’t stupid, and she had trained rigorously to react accordingly if this kind of situation ever happened. But this wasn’t a simple test she could pass, it was real war; the time had come to test her skills, cleverness, and most of all, if she had the bravery to face what was coming.

#harry potter #fleur delacour #george weasley #fanfic #harry potter oc #orignal character #harry potter fanfiction #charlotte yang #luna lovegood #ravenclaw #deathly hallows #ms cinnamon #the burrow

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siennahendrix · 4 years ago

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need someone dead? here’s your girl!

sienna ava hendrix intro.

tw: murder mentions, tw: kidnapping, tw: touches of abuse, tw: violence

her work is mostly long distances, in another state, in another country and so on..

favours the wolves more than she does the devils, however that does not mean she’s strictly loyal to the wolves, the only person she’s loyal to is herself.

is emotionally vacant and is incapable of forming any personal relationships.

she can be adorable, kind, funny, playful, frightening, chilling and vulnerable.. anyone you want her to be. she loves to play the part.

she has multiple passports and licenses all in different names to her own. you will only know her by the name she gives you. not everyone will know her by sienna. she likes to completely mind fuck people so don’t be offended.

she has an accent that can’t be placed, she’s very well travelled and capable of speaking in six languages. she puts on different twangs to the tone of her voice to further that little thrill seek of messing with her peers.

she lives outside of the human moral code and was trained to be a purpose built killer. she’s a contract killer, she’s independent and she gets the job done. her kills are creative and she leaves no traces of herself behind. she’s highly intelligent but she’s impulsive.

at twenty nine she’s killed her fair share, she has a hefty figure in her bank account which funds the lifestyle of luxury. she usually fixates on her targets as their life fades away, each and every time she does so to try and gain some form of emotional reaction and each time she feels nothing.

snippet of her history.

she grew up in a large family, age six she was left abandoned and isolated due to her ( at the time ) minor violent tendencies. her birth parents were old fashioned and strict and their negative reactions to her outbursts only made her worse. she was picked up by the care system and later was taken from the borstal she was in. her upbringing from then on was harsh, she was pushed beyond her limits and warped and twisted into the ideal assassin.

she was home schooled, never really having much room to form attachments and relationships outside of the training circle she was in. any chance of her feeling was suppressed.

as she was raised she was beaten until she no longer winced, she was trained to take a hit and hit back three times harder, no matter the size put before her. she was forced to train with a broken elbow, broken ankles and so on. she feels pain but her tolerance is through the roof.

she was given her first assigned case after killing one of her trainers--- the ‘nicer’ of the two, her name? ava. sienna’s middle name? ava. it’s there for memory. whether that’s a subconscious hint of an emotion or just a sick trophy.. we’ll see.

extra.

sienna is not her birth name, it’s carmen. she does not know this and will not. hendrix is a name her trainers plucked out of thin air for her, as well as sienna.

she has an interesting taste in fashion, it can be simple, it can be bold or it can be weird. there’s no in between. she likes what she likes.

when her hair is tied up, she generally has a sharp hairpin holding it together. she has killed a number of people with this pin. namely through the eye.

she is extremely good at entering a household unwelcomed without being detected.

she can sing and she can play the piano.

she does not have any form of social media.

she currently has a number of aloe vera plants in her apartment, she doesn’t like them, she just can never keep them alive despite them being one of the hardest plants to kill. so she’s currently buying loads until one lives.

her passports, her licenses and birth certificate are forged. she does not have anything that connects her to her birth family and this is not through choice. it’s just how it is for her.

wanted connections.

‘friends’ -- this will always be one sided. whilst she might like you she doesn’t have a clue what a friend is, or what it’s like to be one.

people she cannot stick -- she hates them because she thinks they think they’re better than her, she dislikes a certain look they give her, something petty such as she thinks they smell... something so stupid.

enemies.

someone she’s hooked up with more than once or once w/e

people she enjoys winding up.

people that pay her to kill--- targets outta town that sorta thing, or in town if plots allow. wolves/devils/non-gang related

up for any type of connection so don’t be shy!!

#charming.intro #intro

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kkachi95 · 5 years ago

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New canon information from The Rise of Kyoshi

Alright, so I’m little bit over 42% through The Rise of Kyoshi and I’m HOOKED.

This book does a lot of worldbuilding and the new characters are well-developed.

I’ll be consolidating new information I find from this book on this post. I’ll keep updating the list as I progress through the book!

SPOILERS, obviously

1) KYOSHI

Kyoshi was abandoned as a child by her parents, who were leaders of an underground criminal organization.

Her mother was a rogue airbender hailing from the Eastern Air Temple. Yep, you heard it right, Kyoshi is half air nomad. Her mother apparently became a master at young age and fell in love with Kyoshi’s father, an outlaw, while traveling. Kyoshi’s mother modified her arrow tattoo into a serpent and her airbending ability lost its power due to her attachment to worldly concerns. She compensated with a pair of fans, which Kyoshi inherited.

Kyoshi’s father is from a family lineage that traces back to Royal Theater School in Ba Sing Se. Kyoshi inherited her make up and headdress from him.

Kyoshi was very tall even in her young age. In her teenage years, she is constantly described with terms like “giant,” “massive,” and “towering.” Since she’s taller than most men, I’m going to assume she’s at least 6 ft.

She spent her early childhood as a street urchin in Yokoya and was neglected by the villagers until she was discovered and taken under the care of an air nomad named Kelsang, who was a companion of Avatar Roku. She was, and still is relentlessly bullied by other children in Yokoya.

Kyoshi is initially very shy, non-confrontational, has very low self esteem, and inept at earthbending. Kyoshi is extremely strong for her age as she lifts a man by his neck without any trouble. Also, she has distinct freckles!

She is an extreme clean freak with a constant urge to “maintain order and minimize clutter." She starts out as a serveant assigned to clean up after the (misidentified) Avatar.

I believe Kyoshi is 16+ years old in this story.

Kyoshi’s outfit has chailmain armor underneath it, and she started wearing gloves after suffering major lightning wound on her hands.

2) KYOSHI’S COMPANIONS

As a teenager, Kyoshi has two friends: Yun and Rangi, who are both her age. I won’t go too much into their plot.

Yun is the ‘misidentified’ Earthbending Avatar who is a former street urchin. He is said to be handsome, playful and flirty. He has brown hair and jade green eyes.

He is extremely talented in earthbending and is loved by everyone. He ships Kyoshi and Rangi but also flirts with Kyoshi too (and basically everyone)

He was discovered ‘late’ as the Avatar and genuinely wants to do his best as the new Avatar.

Rangi is a Fire Nation noble girl who is sworn and honor bound to serve as the Avatar’s bodyguard. She is military-trained in the Fire Army Junior Corps. She is intimidating and hot-headed, but also very protective of her friends.

She is said to be beautiful, with delicate skin, porcelain doll face and jet black hair. She has a “charred rasp” voice and “dark bronze” eyes.

She is the "straight man" character of Kyoshi's entourage and takes things very seriously, but she's also the unintentionally funniest character of the group. She eventually becomes Kyoshi's swon bodyguard and depite her best judgement, she's dragged into many questionable situations by Kyoshi. Rangi is definitely my favorite new character. Think of her as a more sane, less murder-y version of Azula.

Her nickname: topknot, hairpins, and hotwoman

Rangi’s mother, Hei-Ran, was a companion of Avatar Kuruk, who gave up her commission in the Fire Nation Army, then later her position as headmistress in the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, to teach the Avatar. Hei-Ran and Rangi are said to be spitting image of each other.

Kyoshi is romantically attraced to both Yun and Rangi.

Kirima is a young female waterbender from the outlaw group Kyoshi’s parents founded.

She has wolf-like features and piercing blue eyes. Kirima is also said to be lithe and light on her feet.

She’s easy-going and likes to tease people, especially Rangi.

Wong is a huge male earthbender in his 30s from the outlaw group Kyoshi’s parents founded.

He is very tall, thick, and has smooth, clean shaven face. He has a very prominent protruding gut and isn’t the most loquacious type.

Lek is the youngest male Earthbender member of the group and is said to be 14-15.

He is from the Si Wong desert and was brought into the group by Kyoshi’s parents, whom he thinks very highly of. This caused Kyoshi to resent him initially.

He values his family and likes to tease other people just like Kirima. Lek has very precise control of small earth projectiles, which he uses as bullets.

Lao Ge is an old, mysterious Earthbending assassin who is said to be hundreds of years old. He pretends to be a drunken fool and only Kyoshi knows of his true identity.

He travels with the group and goes off on his own to kill people he deem unworthy of living. Kyoshi asks him to be her Sifu.

3) THE AVATAR CYCLE

Avatar Kuruk died at the age of 33. He was said to be one of the greatest Pai Sho players in history and a highly-skilled bender, but lacked leadership and diplomatic skills. He spent his time traveling around the four nation seeking pleasure. He was also one of the best hunters to have ever lived.

Two of Avatar Yangchen’s friends and teachers died protecting her from the enemy.

Each nation has its own way of discovering the Avatar and identifying a toddler’s ability to bend

Being the Avatar’s companion was considered to be an honor beyond reckoning that only few got to experience. Those who taught the Avatar held massive influence over the world.

Period between the death of the previous Avatar and discovery of his/her successor is often filled with political turmoil. The Rise of Kyoshi is set in a politically turbulent time as Kuruk died in young age and the new Avatar was discovered much later than usual. This led to the rise of many opportunist criminal factions.

4) BENDING

Unlike the show, bending is openly depicted as being LETHAL in this book. People are impaled, burned, crushed, buried, sliced, and so on.

Seismic sense is a skill shared by all earthbenders, not just Toph. Most people’s skills are extremely rudimentary, though.

‘Dust stepping’ and ‘mist stepping’ are abilities practiced by certain earth and waterbenders to create floating platforms that move with them, which allow them to run through thin air. Rangi mimics this move with firebending after having witnessed it.

Firebenders have naturally warm bodies and they can project heat, which allows them to do things like increasing a room’s temperature by several degrees.

Firebenders' "inner fire" allow them to resist poison.

People in the Fire Nation identify bending ability of their children by placing a bowl full of highly-flammable materials to see if their children can resonate with it. This is done as early as possible to prevent accidental fires as young children don't have good control over their flames.

Lightning bending is a skill so rare that people thought it of it as a folktale or a long lost knowledge. Barely any living witnesses who can confirm its existence exists.

Airbender are seemingly immune to the weather.

5) EARTH KINGDOM

Earth Kingdom is highly fragmented and has multiple kings. This is attributed to Ba Sing Se’s failure or unwillingness to actively assert control over the continent.

Bandits and pirates plague the countryside. Small settlements and towns have to form militias and fend for themselves as the official Earth Kingdom military seems to neglect their plight.

Earth Kingdom’s Northern and Southern dialect are said to be so different that they might as well be different language. People of the Si Wong Desert barely share any culture or custom with rest of the Earth Kingdom.

Beifongs were known for their wealth even in this era.

Kyoshi Island was originally known as Yokoya. Farming yields little and people scrape by to meet end’s meet. People here are said to wear blue clothes despite their earth kingdom heritage. Kyoshi was left here as a child and initially grew up as a street urchin because the villagers neglected her for being an outsider.

6) FIRE NATION

Apparently, firebenders are notorious for always talking about honor.

Fire Nation was involved in a conflict with the Earth Kindom in the distant (?) past.

Fire Navy is the most capable Navy in the world.

Royal Fire Nation Academy for Girl holds Agni Kais and there are many “accidental” kills.

Firebending instructors used to maim their students for insubordination.

Hair is heavily linked with honor. Losers of Agni Kai would shave parts of their head bald as sign of humility but would leave the top knot alone since it’s considered sacred. It was never touched except in circumstances akin to death.

7) WATER TRIBES

The Souther Water tribe is said to be poor, undeveloped, and vulnerable. It’s significantly behind the rest of the world in terms of development. Southern Water Tribe doesn’t have a legitimate Navy because it doesn’t have trees necessary for shipbuilding. It is a peaceful nation, though it is involved in a territorial dispute over an island with the Earth Kingdom. It’s ruled by multiple chieftains.

“Tui’s gills!” - Water Tribe equivalent of ‘Oh my god’

8) AIR NOMADS

Air nomads are regarded with great respect and reverence for their wisdom and spirituality.

Head nomad of an air temple is referred to as an Abbot.

9) DAOFEI (BANDITS)

Daofei plays a huge role in the story. A vast underground criminal scoiety with its own code of honor run deeply throughout the Earth Kingdom, which is "too big to police" for the Earth Kingdom Army.

As mentioned earlier, Kyoshi's parents were leaders of a prominent Daofei group and Kyoshi herself officially swears her Daofei vows to learn bending skills from her parents' old colleagues. Kyoshi absolutely despises Daofei, though.

Several years before the novel’s start, these bandits staged what is known as the Yellow Neck Rebellion, which is an analogue of the Yellow Turban Rebellion (184–205 AD) during Han Dynasty China. In real life, the rebellion led to the tumultuous time period known as the Three Kingdoms Period, where various warlords fought over control of China.

#the rise of kyoshi #Avatar The Last Airbender #avatar #atla #the last airbender #kyoshi

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