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momomonstera · 3 years ago

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.:Ballpit:. Molten Freddy x gender neutral reader

Hey guys this is my first fanfic. I hope you like it!!

Key

*(Y/n)- Your name

*(N/n) Nickname

Notes at the end.

The reader decided after work they were going to go to Walmart to get food for dinner and saw on the clearance rack that there was a ball pit on sale and decided to get it for their roommate Freddy.

It was a long day of working and (y/n) was tired. On the way home from work, (y/n) decide to stop at Walmart to get some already made food from the deli and some sweets for him/her and him/her roommate Freddy.

They and Freddy have been living together for good six months. And during those six months to get along with each other pretty well there were like peanut butter and strawberry jam. It's an odd combination, but both still taste good together. When (Y/n) stumbled upon the wired bear they brought him home and soon moved to a house where they could both live together in comfort.

(Y/n) grabbed a handbasket and went to the deli and got a bag of chicken wings, fried and baked fish. They also grabbed sides of rice, okra, and dinner rolls. The deli cashier questioned why they were buying so much for only two people and they only responded with leftovers. Putting the leftovers in the basket they went over to the deli and got three dozen chocolate chip cookies.

They walked over to the self-checkout and passed a clearance rack with not a lot of good looking stuff on it until they bumped into a big box for a ball-pit. They went to go and get a regular push basket and came back and got the ball pit. Freddy will probably like it.

(Y/n) packed everything in their car and traveled back home.

*Time Skipped*

(Y/n) got out of the car. The air was getting chilly with fall starting to turn into winter. They grabbed the dinners out the back sit, and started to head to their front dinner until they heard yelling from the window.

"(Y/n)! You're home!" (Y/n) quickly turned to look at the window, but all they could see is the wires of the animatronic disappear behind the shaggy curtain or the upstairs window. (Y/n) chuckled to their self closed the car door "That silly bear" They made their way to the front door, and as expected the front door was unlocked.

Whenever Molten Freddy sees (Y/n) pulling back into their driveway, he always races to the front door and unlocks it for them. It was a very nice thing to (Y/n) so if it was a bad day at work or something they can just walk in the house without having to dig through their bag to look for the house keys. (Y/n) walked to the front door with the dinners in hand. (Y/n) walked into the home and was first greeted with the metallic signature grin of their dear friend.

"(Y/n)! Your home!" (Y/n) shut the door behind themselves and came face to face with their noodled animatronic roommate. Molten Freddy.

Molten Freddy wore his signature sharp toothed grin never failing to show off his pearly whites, as (Y/n) looked up at him. His face was chipped, dented, and split into many places. Wires stuck up almost anywhere and everywhere on the bear's head, Freddy still somewhat looked like a cute, but scary bear.

He wore his usual top hat and matching bowtie with a newly added rustic orange sweater. The weather was starting to get cold and it was hard for Freddy to hold any heat that he produces, so (Y/n) had a sweater customized just for him to be comfortable in. It helped a lot to hold the wires of his upper body in, but his lower was still everywhere like spaghetti. It was fine with Freddy though as long as he can move confront and didn't have to ruin the sweater it was okay.

Well, it was okay until the eyeballs hanging off of Freddy started complaining about not being able to see, so he had to make a sacrifice to cut a couple of holes in the sweater so his still attached friends Ballora and Funtime Foxy could see.

Molten Freddy leaned down and wrapped his loosely wired arms around (Y/n), who also tried to hug back but couldn't because of the bags in their hands. "I'm happy to see you, Freddy," they said. The tattered fur on the bear's face was a bit ruff but still soft to the touch as Freddy leaned in some more to deepen the hug. "How was your day?" they ask to let go looking up at the bear. Freddy slid off of (Y/n) and took one of the bags out there hands, "It was the same as usual," he slithered into the kitchen with (Y/n) right behind them."...I watched some tv, played some games, and watched all the cars pass by until you came home." Freddy sat the bag on the counter and turned to (Y/n) who put their bags down as well.

(Y/n) looked up and smiled at Freddy "I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long Fred, I wanted to stop and grab us something for tonight's dinner and maybe tomorrow's lunch." (Y/n) explained. Freddy smiled back at them and shook his head in understanding, "It's fine (n/n)," Molten Freddy spoke as he leaned down to bury his face into (Y/n)'s head softly sniffing. "I missed ya." he whispered into their hair.

It was one of the many daily things Freddy enjoys doing when (Y/n) comes back home from work, and he always gets the same response from them. A deep blush and a small giggle. The broken bear didn't know why, but he enjoyed the little responses he got out of them. Whenever he hugs or nuzzles, buries his face in their hair (sometimes sniffs their hair to regain their scent), or maybe just a peck on the cheek, if they were gone for too long or even of a stressed-out workday, Freddy always greets them with affection and when (Y/n) does it back, It makes Freddy feel like he is loved or needed by someone. It almost gets rid of that lonely and missing someone feeling, whenever Freddy was left alone. Yes, he has friends that are stuck with him, yeah, but it's only so much they could do for him and with him.

(Y/n) released from Molten's embrace. "Okay silly bear now let's get started with dinner. "Yay! Let's get dinner started." Freddy cheered as (y/n) started to up the containers of food they bought. "Whatcha get for tonight (n/n)?" Freddy leaned against their shoulder. "I got fried and baked fish, with rice." Freddy hummed as a response. "I'll get the plates and the drinks ready." Freddy moved back. (y/n) grabbed a spoon to dig out the rice, and Freddy sat the plates right next to them. "What drink would you like?" "Umm is there still tea?" Freddy opened up the fridge. "Yes there is." he sat the pincher on the counter.

"Ok, what would you like, Freddy?" Freddy leaned above them "Umm..." (Y/n) looked up at Freddy who couldn't decide on what he wanted. "Ehh I don't know." Freddy put his face into their hair and sniffed it. (Y/n) blushed a little. "How about I get you a little bit of everything?" Freddy jumped up "Of course, yes please" He finished making the drinks and you both sat in the living room.

*Time Skipped*

Dinner ended about less than an hour ago. Both (y/n) and Molten were laying on the couch. Molten found himself quietly talking to the eyes of his friends. Trying his best to keep his voice down, so they wouldn't be disturbing (Y/n) as they watched tv. (Y/n) didn't mind at all. They enjoyed watching Molten interact with himself, but (Y/n) was slightly in their own world until they remembered something. "Freddy..." (Y/n) jumped up and startled the bear."W-what! What is it? I'm not hurting you am I?" Freddy quickly moved off the human in fear, but he quickly got confused when (Y/n) started laughing.

"I'm sorry.No you're not hurting me, but I just remembered I got you a present. Molten's face lit up in less than a second. "A present for me!" Freddy yelled."What is it? What is it! What is it?" (Y/n got up from the couch and laughed at his eagerness of his present. "I'll show you" (Y/n) laughed and answered his question finally "Actually yes it." Freddy squeaked "oh boy!" (Y/n) opened the front door and jogged to the truck of the car, while Freddy stayed at the door not wanting to be seen by anyone even if it's night time. (Y/n) pulled out the box of the ballpit. 'I hope he likes this, or take offense to it.'

(Y/n) quickly ran back inside, and Freddy's head slightly twitched as he giggled wondering what his gift was. "You ready Freddy?" (Y/n) asked while holding the box behind their back. Molten Freddy shook his head excitedly, making his wires jiggle and click together. (Y/n) pulled the box from behind their back and Freddy squealed in excitement. "No way..." he took it out of their hand and held it in his paws in the air like a child. "... a ball-pit!" Freddy hugged the box tightly and held an adorable face. "How'd you know I always wanted one of these?" a goofy grin never left the bear's face, and (y/n) laughed at his foolishness. "Well I know you have like this... um" (y/n) tried to think of a word that wasn't going to offend the bear "...child-like side of you so.. I saw this and I was like 'Hey my best friend Freddy will love this so I should get it for him'" (Y/n) blushed as she tried to mock herself. Freddy bursted out laughing as he found it amusing "You were right about that! I love it so much. "

Molten Freddy put the ball-pit down and slid over to (Y/n) he leaned down to nuzzle his nose to their nose and (Y/n) happily nuzzled back with a blush. "Thank you," Freddy said with a hushed voice. (Y/n) giggled "Anytime Fredd, how about we go sit this up in your room hmm?" Molten Freddy gave them a toothy grin.

(Y/n) and Freddy ripped the box open. "Ooo.." Freddy leaned into the box grabbing a large bag of multicolored balls. "There's so many of them.'' He tried to open the bag up, but was stopped by a slap on his hand. "Hey don't open those yet.." Freddy let a small 'ow' before letting go of the bag of balls, putting it down next to him. " You can play with those after we set up the pit, okay?" (Y/n) pulled out inflatable walls. Freddy watched as they took everything out of the box. He quietly wished to himself that they'd hurry up so he could play in the pit. What an impatient bear. "This will be a pretty big pit.." (Y/n) looked at the items in front of them. It was mostly just a pit that all you had to do was pull some corners out and it'll assemble itself. "where do you wanna to set it up at?" Freddy peeked up.

"Hmm..." Freddy looked around his room. All the sides and corners of the room already had decorations and stuff in them, so the middle of the room was the only choice. "how about...how about just in the middle of the room right now. I need to clean and redo my room anyways, so it'll do fine in the middle." "Of course"

(Y/n) sits up the pit in the middle where Freddy wanted. With the help of both the pit was pulled out fairly quickly. Freddy was finally able to take all the balls out of the bage and and dump them into the ball-pit. The ball pit was set. "There you go Freddy, your new ball pit. Freddy stared at the ball-pit for a moment, which kinda worried (Y/n) a bit, but that was washed away as Freddy started giggling like a schoolgirl and jumped in the pit.

For a moment all you could see was the wires of Freddy moving around in the ball-pit, until he popped out of the pit with a huge smile on his face. "This is amazing!" Freddy dived back into the pit making some of the plastic balls fall on the ground. (y/n) laugh at the bear's enjoyment. They love making and seeing the bear happy which wasn't hard at all. They grabbed a couple of the fallen balls and was about to put them back into the pit, until wires began to wrap around (Y/n)'s waist. (Y/n) looked down to see Freddy staring at them smiling. "Join me!" Freddy pulled them closer into the pit. (y/n) giggled and gave grabby hands at Freddy who then happily picked them up and sat them in the ball pit. Freddy huzzled under (Y/n)'s chin. (Y/n) chuckled.

They grabbed each side of Freddy's cheek, bringing Freddy to eye contact. "I'm happy you love your gift Fredd. It means a lot to me that you like it." (Y/n) gave Freddy a soft kiss on his nose. Freddy froze, but soon nuzzled his nose against (Y/n's) giving a return kiss. The moment was sweet until Freddy drugged (Y/n) under the ball-pit. "Ah! Freddy no!" (Y/n) screamed in surprise. They squirmed to get out of Molten Freddy's wire, but Freddy did nothing but laugh and tighten around them.

"You're not going anywhere. Not just yet." Freddy nuzzled their ears.

Word count: 2306

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Hello peepers. I hope you enjoyed my first fnaf x reader story. Molten is one of my favorite Freddy. He needs more love.

Criticism is welcome, please tell me what needs to be approved on. Request are open!

Until next time. Stay safe and be great.

#molten freddy x reader #molten freddy #fnaf reading #fnaf x reader #fnaf au #fnaf #fnaf pizzeria simulator

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thatslikely · 4 years ago

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passenger seat - s.s.

passenger seat - stiles stilinski x fem!reader

warnings: eating food, pure fluff

word count: 1.3k

a/n: I blame ocean for getting me hooked on teen wolf and loving stiles ! ugh this man....

The interior of Stiles’ CJ5 wasn’t exactly comfortable.

Sure, the seats’ upholstery was somewhat pliable, sinking slightly when you climbed into the passenger seat eagerly. And yeah, the muddy mats lining the floor of the jeep weren’t the worst thing to rest the soles of your soft socks on.

But the dash was solid metal, a conductor that never failed to scorch your skin on steaming summer afternoons and nearly turn the tips of your fingers purple on a snow-speckled winter day. In addition to that, some days, whenever the Jeep chose to spite you, the seatbelt slung across your chest would jam, trapping you in the robin-egg colored vehicle.

Without fail, though, looking back at those days spent in the Jeep, your left hand tightly clasped in Stiles’ right, those were the best days of your lives.

Whether it was flooring it down to the woods on some paranormal adventure, heading over to someone’s -anyone’s- house for a party, to feel like real teenagers again, or just driving until your head fell drowsily onto Stiles’ flanneled shoulder, signaling to him that it was time to turn around, abandon the beams of moonlight for the pockets of streetlight that enveloped your neighborhood.

So, tonight, with the security of the new moon invisibly hanging overhead, Stiles decided that tonight was your night, to be spent, exclusively you and him, basking in each other’s heartwarming company. Just two normal people in love.

The screech of weathered tires in your driveway echoed through your house around six-thirty. You delightedly leaped into the passenger seat, not waiting for Stiles to give you anything but a goofy wink before your lips melded with his’. They were soft and familiar; the soothing feeling of home prickled your senses, only magnifying the waves of pleasure Stiles’ touch emitted.

The kiss, abounding with mutual love and compassion, was only broken when Stiles could no longer contain the grin that accompanied the small giggles that emerged from his throat.

“Nice to see you, too,” he said with a smirk, adorably combing his fingers through his chocolate brown mop of hair. The idle engine of the Jeep roared to life as Stiles turned to you, his eyes unwavering from yours’.

“What’re we gonna do tonight?” The golden headlights of the vehicle drew oblong ovals on the expanse of empty, otherwise blackened road. It was a sight you had been treated to numerous times, as the Pack was always on some late-night escapade, but now you and Stiles’ nerves, as well as the speed of the beloved Jeep, was relaxed and leisurely.

He replied, with a knowing smirk still etched onto his face, “You’ll see.”

“You’re so vague,” you jested, snaking your hand up his back and onto the nape of his neck, twirling strands of his hair in your fingers.

“Well, I don’t wanna ruin the surprise.” While an almost sarcastic tone dripped through his words, his cheeks were burning and he was beyond flustered.

The Jeep continued to tread around the twists and turns of Beacon Hill’s streets, only increasing your curiosity as the night-lighted shops came into view. Neon signs emitting a foggy, almost nostalgic glow lined the roads, beckoned you inside.

But instead, Stiles pulled into the drive-thru of your favorite local burger joint. The driver-side window rolled down with a hum and squeak. Before you could inform Stiles what your usual order was, he promptly recited flawlessly it to the employee through the speaker.

“And I’d like one large chocolate shake, two straws.”

As he pulled up to the next window, reaching for his wallet, you asked with a coy smile, “How’d you know my order perfectly?”

“What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t even know my girlfriend’s go-to at her favorite restaurant?”

“I still think you’d be a perfect one.” As he rummaged through the paper bag containing the food, his head downturned, you wrapped your arms around the back of his neck, pulling him so close that his warm breaths fanned your face and fluttered your hair.

He awkwardly stuffed the sack down, almost reflexively, noticing how close your face had gotten to his’. Fuses were bursting in his brain, as they did every time your soft skin graced his’. It was a feeling he’d never get sick of.

He tilted his lips to be level with yours’, but before you could kiss him once again, let your senses be overwhelmed with nothing but ecstasy, the blaring honk from the car behind you snapped you from your trance. Stiles didn’t press the gas immediately at the noisy interruption, incurring even more repeated, staccato horn blasts.

“Okay, okay!” he said, raising his hands, more of a sarcastic compliance than a relention to the annoyed driver. He rotated the steering wheel, maneuvering out of the largely vacant lot.

“Where are we going to eat such fine cuisine?” you asked, biting your lip lightly with excitement. Every moment you spent in Stiles’ presence, there was always some sort of adventure, planned or not.

“I know a spot,” he slyly said. “You’ll love it, I’m sure.”

It only took a blink of an eye to finally arrive at the ‘spot’ your loveable partner in crime had so vaguely eluded to. When the Jeep halted and the engine purred to sleep, his plan was revealed. He had driven you to a gorgeous lookout spot perched atop a particularly tall pike- Beacon Hills did live up to its namesake.

Glimmering city lights flickered in the distance; the golden twinkles were shrouded with tall trees that in the darkness, were reduced to inky black outlines. It was silent and calm, a rejuvenating contrast to your regular adventures. It was amazing, but your company was even better.

“You like it?” Stiles queried with a boyish smile.

“I love it,” you replied, grabbing his warm hand and giving it a squeeze. “How’d you find out about this place?”

“Oh… y’know, when you’re out in the woods all the time, you just find little spots like these.” His teeth lightly bit into the flesh of his lip -almost goofily so- as he handed you your burger, neatly wrapped and stained with spots of grease.

As you bit into the soft bun of the burger and its internal components, your face scrunched with disgust. You peeled the top bun off, inspecting it. “D’you want my pickles?”

He nodded furiously, though a perplexed look rested on his features. “How can you not like pickles?”

“Everything about them is horrible!”

Stiles took an exaggeratedly large bite of his burger, which was stacked with pickles, saying with his mouth full, “Nuh-uh! Evwrything about thwem is amazing!”

A giggle hitched in your throat, despite your best efforts to only sarcastically roll your eyes.

Once the two of you were done with your food, save for the large chocolate shake that had nearly turned into chilly chocolate milk by the time you two were ready to share it, he removed the straws from their paper wrappings by poking them on the dash almost pitifully.

“Ta-da!” he exclaimed proudly once the two striped straws were submerged in the chocolate shake. You both moved your heads to try a sip of the milkshake, which was a bad move since your foreheads ended up bumping into each other painfully.

“Oh, sorry,” Stiles sheepishly apologized, angling the shake so you could take a sip first. You tried it, smiled, and then pushed it back to him so he could taste-test it as well.

“Why did I think it was a good idea to get one milkshake?”

“I thought it was pretty sweet.” You grinned widely before taking another drink.

“Oh… well” -his cheeks were burning- “that’s all that matters.”

And with that, your hand passionately traced lines across his chest as you pressed your lips on his’, tasting the deep chocolate flavor that still lingered on his tongue.

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castlevania-afterdark-imagines · 4 years ago

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Halloween Headcanons

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM MOD ROSE AND MOD SOVIET! Thank you guys for continuing to read the blog! We hope to be releasing some of the character matchups soon, but for today please enjoy this quick post covering the crew's holiday activities! Assuming modern for this post, kids probably aren’t trick or treating at Drac’s castle.

Trevor

Costume for this year: Zombie, easy to make and fun to overdo when you've got the time.

Favorite candy of all time: Snickers, he actively buys the fun sized ones for himself instead of full size because he knows his lack of self control.

Favorite autumn treat: Baked apples, with a pint of whatever fancy autumn ale the local brew pub is trying out this year.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Leaves the candy in a big bowl on the front porch, which he guards by blending in with his ridiculous amount of decorations and scaring the daylights out of anybody who tries to take more than needed.

Sypha

Costume for this year: Mad Scientist, complete with fake green blood spattered robe and pipe cleaners shaped into *electricity* coming out of her floofed out hair.

Favorite candy of all time: She loves all the tart and fruity things, but if you forced her to pick one she'd say Nerds.

Favorite autumn treat: Pumpkin bread, homemade and covered in a maple brown sugar icing. She tried incorporating the seeds into some sort of crumble on top but nearly burned the kitchen down trying to toast them.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Answers the door, gushing over the kids who dress up and closing the door on teens who show up without costumes. She also keeps a small stash of allergy sensitive alternatives in case a parent asks for it.

Alucard

Costume for this year: Werewolf who just changed back to a human again, or at least that’s what he calls it when he realizes he forgot to get his costume together and wears a torn up shirt and pants with a little makeup to make him look haggard. (Offer to add on a dog collar and cuffs to sell the costume and watch him be really fucking prepared for next year)

Favorite candy of all time: Redhots, or any other cinnamon candy. They were always super easy to trade for, in that most kids didn’t want them so he just got to take them all home for free.

Favorite autumn treat: Hot and fresh apple cider, with a splash of brandy if he’s feeling particularly chilly that night.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: He’s not a big fan of answering the door every 5 min, but he manages a smile and a few pieces per visitor. Lights go off as soon as the sun goes down though.

Dracula

Costume for this year: He just fucking hauls some old ass armor from his closet and goes as a warlord and has won every costume contest every year. Cheater.

Favorite candy of all time: Dark Chocolate pieces, not too sweet and also no kid is going to complain if he fishes all of them from the candy bowl.

Favorite autumn treat: Homemade toasted pumpkin seeds, they’re infinitely better than the basic store bought ones you find year round, and he adds a little bit of extra spice to them in the form of ghost pepper powder. He can handle it, and it keeps people from filching them.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: His is known as the house that only the bravest kids go to, for no particular reason. The decor is pretty standard, the handfuls of candy are GIGANTIC, but Vlad is more than aware of the tall tales kids spin for each other about the giant who lives there.

Lisa

Costume for this year: She tosses a doctor’s coat over a long body hugging black dress, dawns a black big and dark makeup, and goes at “Morticia-n” Adams. It doesn’t matter if no one gets it, she knows and is smug as hell about it.

Favorite candy of all time: Caramels, just by themselves but she won’t turn down a caramel apple if one happened across her path.

Favorite autumn treat: All the fun autumn coffee drinks, she needs that caffeine hit for long hours at the doctor’s office and hey, gotta spice it up now and then.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Loves answering the door, hypes up the kids over their costumes and kneels down to their level to hand them their candy. She doesn’t give them a ton though, doctor’s guilt and all.

Hector

Costume for this year: Elf, very much inspired by Lord of the Rings styling. It fits in well at the vet clinic with all of the animals and keeps him looking normal enough to not spook them.

Favorite candy of all time: M&M’s, they’re simply and easy to just fill a bowl with and munch on throughout the week of Halloween. Plus no extra individual wrappers that he was to worry about Cezar trying to munch on.

Favorite autumn treat: Caramel corn, again a simple and sweet finger food. But this one he much prefers to get at a festival booth when it’s still hot and you have the smell of it cooking lingering in your nostrils.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: He’s not a huge fan of answering the door, but he’ll put on a brave face since he knows for many kids this is a big deal. If he notices any kid getting bullied or jeered at he unceremoniously dumps the entire bowl in their bag and tells them to head home early to avoid any more issues.

Isaac

Costume for this year: Grim Reaper. It’s literally a robe and a scythe, super easy and minimal effort, but just enough effort to avoid being called out for not trying harder.

Favorite candy of all time: Not really a candy person, it’s all high processed garbage to him. But he does have a soft spot for butterscotch and strawberry hard candies like his grandparents used to have around all the time.

Favorite autumn treat: Pecan pie, he’s not a huuuuuuge sweets person but a slice of pie with a dark roast coffee to offset the sugar and he is instantly in a good mood.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Always conveniently ends up away from home that night, mostly so he doesn’t have to hear the doorbell constantly. He’ll leave some candy out to avoid getting his house egged but that’s about it.

Godbrand

Costume for this year: Pirate, then he can make all the booty jokes and drink all the alcohol he wants.

Favorite candy of all time: He likes the chewy things, like taffy or Twizzlers but will honestly eat anything. More specifically, he will eat EVERYTHING if you don’t hide the candy meant for the trick-or-treaters.

Favorite autumn treat: Cinnamon rolls, cake for breakfast? Fuck yeah. (Nobody tell him you can have them year round)

Trick-or-treat etiquette: Is of the mind a kid has to go through a fuckin gauntlet of spooky yard decor to earn their sugar rush. Yes he is going to jump out and scare them in the yard, yes he is going to get nearly punched by a few spooked fathers, but he always rewards the kids with a decent candy haul.

Carmilla

Costume for this year: Banshee, it’s dramatic, dark, and scares the sweet jesus out of men.

Favorite candy of all time: Godiva chocolates, she buys a whole fancy box for herself at the beginning of each month. And then pretends she doesn’t eat them all in the first two days.

Favorite autumn treat: Cranberry things, like bars or jams. People have tried to argue with her that it's more of a winter thing but fighting with her over other things has never worked either so...her opinion stands unchallenged now.

Trick-or-treat etiquette: She’s hosting a very lavish party at her house, to be honest she probably rarely hears the doorbell. When she does answer it she lets the kids grab a handful from the ONE bowl she keeps by the door and when that’s gone she just turns off the outside light and stops answering.

-Mod Soviet

#trevor belmont #adrian tepes #Sypha Belnades #Vlad Dracula Tepes #Hector #isaac #Lisa Tepes #Godbrand #carmilla #holiday imagines #Halloween #gen #mod soviet #imagines #Castlevania

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even-after-a-millennia · 4 years ago

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Winter Wonders

Hey all! This is my fic for the Andromaquynh Secret Santa exchange! This fic is a gift for @kayivy so I hope that you like it! Happy Holidays!

Read it below or on my ao3 account here.

When Andy and Quynh awoke, the world outside the safe house was blanketed in white. Andy stretched, then pulled Quynh closer to ward off the chill in the air. Quynh hummed, nestling her face deeper into the crook of Andy’s neck.

Andy took a moment to revel in the feel of her love tucked next to her. It had only been a few months since they had been reunited. A fraction of time, compared to their time apart. It still felt so new. Every moment of eye contact, every touch, every kiss, felt like a gift.

They’d had to work through the pain they had both gone through and come to terms with Andy’s mortality. There were still times that Andy jerked awake, reaching for Quynh and half expecting for the bed beside her to be empty. But she was always there, reaching back.

“Hey,” Andy said quietly. “It snowed.”

“Hm?” Quynh murmured, still mostly asleep.

Andy kissed her temple, hoping to entice her to wake. “It snowed last night. The whole world is white out there.”

Quynh’s eyes blinked sleepily open, her brow furrowed at the light coming in from the window. “I’m sure it’s pretty,” she muttered, putting her face back in the safety of Andy’s neck. “But it is far too bright.”

Andy laughed softly. “Take your time.”

“Food would help me wake.”

“Is that a not-so-subtle hint that you would like breakfast in bed?” Andy asked.

Quynh hummed again, seeming to fall back asleep.

Andy carefully maneuvered out of Quynh’s embrace, so as to not disturb her. She threw a sweater over her pajamas and shuffled out to the main room, where Nicky was puttering around the kitchen as Joe sipped a cup of coffee at the table, barely looking awake himself.

“Nile still in bed?” Andy asked.

Joe nodded.

“Why aren’t you still sleeping?” Andy demanded. “You are basically asleep sitting here!”

Joe shrugged and looked over to where Nicky was making him toast. Nicky smiled softly at him, then turned back to the counter.

“Sap,” Andy told him as she got two cups of coffee ready.

Nicky raised an eyebrow at her, looking between her and the two cups without comment.

“Shut up,” she said with a laugh, pushing his shoulder.

Nicky’s eyes went behind Andy, her only warning before Quynh, wrapped in the quilt from their bed, wrapped her arms around Andy’s waist from behind.

“Andromache, it’s too cold in the bed without you…” she whined, pressing her cold nose into the spot right between Andy’s shoulder blades. “Come back.”

Loosening Quynh’s hold on her with one hand, Andy spun around in her arms to face her, cup of coffee in her other hand. “Here, this will warm you.”

Quynh took the coffee and took a sip. “I still like you better.”

Andy laughed. “Good to know I make a better personal heater than coffee.”

Quynh hummed, shuffling towards the table and sitting next to Joe, still cocooned in the blanket. Joe stole a corner of it to wrap around his feet and they sat there together, sipping their coffee with their eyes mostly closed.

Nicky smiled at the scene and revealed the truly prolific amount of toast he had made. Andy began to dig in the cupboards and fridge for toppings, grabbing everyone’s favorite. Strawberry jam for Nicky, apricot jam for Joe, peanut butter with honey for Nile, butter for herself, and Nutella for Quynh. She liked the sweetness and the novelty of it.

They ate in silence, though Andy did notice that Joe and Quynh’s eyes were slowly widening more as time past.

Nile came to the table as the others were finishing and scarfed down her food.

“Any plans for today?” she asked.

Nicky shrugged as Joe shook his head. “Stay somewhere warm,” he added, pulling more of Quynh’s quilt toward himself.

Nile snorted.

“I would like to go out in the snow,” Quynh said resolutely. She looked over at Andy. “Will you come with me?”

“Of course.”

Which is how they found themselves out in the snow covered world outside not much later. Joe had nagged them until they had bundled up. Nile cackled when she saw them and said, still giggling, “I can’t put my arms down!” She waved them away as they looked at her curiously.

Ah, it must be a reference to something.

The moment they stepped outside their warm safe house, Andy was glad of Joe’s aversion to the cold. The only exposed part of her were her eyes and they watered as the cold wind hit them. She glanced at Quynh, wanting to see how she was doing, dealing with the cold. It had been cold at the bottom of the ocean. She still shuddered when the shower’s temperature was too chilly and baths were out of the question.

Quynh’s eyes were crinkled in a way that Andy knew, through thousands of years of memorizing Quynh’s facial expressions, meant that she was grinning hugely underneath her scarf.

“It’s so beautiful!” Quynh exclaimed before charging forward into the snow.

It was deep, almost up to her knees, and every step flung the snow to the side and behind her. But still, she ran on, laughter echoing behind her as she went.

Andy grinned then chased after her.

Their safehouse was in the middle of the woods, so Andy had to dodge trees and be careful of roots hidden under the snow as she ran, but she loved it. She loved the sensation of the cold wind against her cheeks, the cloud that every breath made in the cold air, the crunch of the snow under her feet.

She caught up to Quynh and grabbed her around the waist, twirling her around as she giggled and wiggled in her grasp. Andy put her down only to push her against a tree and dragged down both of their scarves so their mouths could crash together. At first, it was desperate, very fitting after the chase that had preceded it. But in time it slowed. Deepened.

Andy pulled away to breathe, then whispered against Quynh’s jaw, “Anh yêu em nhiều lắm.”

I love you so much.

Quynh brought her in for another, quicker kiss. “I love you, my Andromache.”

Andy saw the shift in Quynh’s eyes from loving to mischievous and had a bare moment to jump away before Quynh was flinging snow where she had just been standing.

“You little shit!” Andy said, laughing.

She had been laughing so much more since Quynh had come back into her life.

Quynh grinned at her and grabbed more snow, creating an arsenal of snowballs in a pile as Andy ducked behind a tree to do the same.

“Ready?” she heard Quynh called. “It will be no fun unless it is a fair match.”

“One more minute!”

“Hurry, then!”

Andy shook her head, grinning, as she made snowball after snowball.

“Ready!”

“First to surrender loses! Three, two, one! GO!” Quynh shouted, immediately firing off a volley of snowballs at Andy.

Andy ducked and blocked most of them, but one did hit her in the shoulder. She threw some back and the fight was on.

The back and forth attacks lasted a good ten minutes more until Quynh rushed towards Andy and tackled her into the snow. They wrestled for a bit, trying to get the upper hand, until Quynh finally got Andy’s hands under her knees as she knelt on top of her. Andy tried to buck her off a few times, but it was no use.

She relaxed into the snow, trying to ignore the huge amount that was now inside her winter clothes and slowly melting against her skin.

“I yield,” she said, gazing up at Quynh.

Quynh grinned, then leaned down to kiss the tip of Andy’s nose.

“I like you like this,” she said, smiling down at her.

“Usually, I would agree, especially if you were seated a bit higher. But I have snow melting down my neck and that is very uncomfortable.”

“Wimp,” Quynh teased, though she did get off Andy and helped pull her to her feet. “Come on, let’s go get warm.”

They held hands as they went back to the cabin, all the way to the bathroom, where they began to strip off their frigid clothing.

“You got me good with one of those snowballs,” Andy said, looking in the mirror to see where she had been hit. She stared at it, trying to reach it.

“...Quynh?”

“What is it, Andromache?”

“It’s healing.”

“What?!” Quynh demanded, whirling around to stare at Andy’s back.

As they watched, the bruise on Andy’s back became green, then yellow, then faded to nothing but smooth, unbruised skin. They turned to stare at each other.

“Do you think-?”

“Maybe?”

“Here,” Quynh pulled out Nicky’s shaving kit. “Just a small cut, my love. I have to be sure.”

“Of course.”

Quynh drew the blade over the tip of Andy’s finger. They watched as the blood welled. Glancing at each other, Quynh reached out to wipe off the blood.

The cut was no longer there.

They stared at each other, stunned. Then, slowly, a smile grew on Quynh’s face even as her eyes welled with tears.

“My beautiful Andromache,” she said, her voice choked with tears, “I think we get to have a bit more time together.”

Andy began smiling too, then laughed. Quynh joined and threw her arms around Andy. Andy buried her face into Quynh’s hair and realized that Quynh’s laughter had turned to sobs.

There was a knock on the door.

“Guys? Everything okay?” Nile asked.

They pulled away from each other and opened the door, both not wearing shirts and not caring a bit.

“She’s healing!” Quynh sobbed, beaming.

“She’s-” Nile’s eyes widened. “Nicky, Joe, get over here!”

They clambered over each other in the haste to get to the bathroom.

“What? What is wrong?” Nicky demanded, eyes darting around, looking for a threat.

“Andy is healing,” Nile stated, still staring at Andy with wide eyes.

Joe and Nicky rounded on her. “WHAT?”

Andy nodded, grabbing the razor again. She dragged it across her fingertip again, put down the razor, and wiped the blood. She had expected for it to not be real, but when she wiped away the blood, the wound was gone.

Her immortality was really back.

She got to have more time.

#andromaquynhsecretsanta #andromaquynh #andy x quynh #fanfic #my fic

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the-angst-chronicles-fanworks · 4 years ago

Text

Draco’s Wish [Pt 1/14]

> | >>

WORD COUNT: 4411

PAIRING: Drarry

TAGS:

hidden identity

Down and Out Draco Malfoy

Pretty Draco Malfoy

Talented Draco Malfoy

Auror Harry Potter

Smitten Harry Potter

Harry Potter Being an Asshole (just for a while)

Angst

Fluff

Angst with a Happy Ending

Falling In Love

Torture

SUMMARY: Draco does a good deed and is granted a wish - 12 days of anonymity in a world that hates him

COMMENTS: This was supposed to be my take on a Christmas romcom, but I missed Christmas so now it's just my take on a romcom. This chapter is very angst, but it will get much more fluffy later on I promise

I tried new things with my writing this story. Hopefully it works out well.

CW: Sexual Assault

on FF.net

on AO3

STORY:

December 4th, 2007

Draco wakes up to a day like any other in the dull mundanity that is his life. He opens his eyes to a barren ceiling with cracks and spots in the plaster and sun shining in through the holes in his tatty curtains. His tiny apartment is freezing, containing neither a fireplace nor a built-in heating charm. Winter is Draco’s least favourite time of the year, the cold seeping into his bones and threatening to freeze them still for eternity.

There is no desire to curl up under his cover – his single blanket is too threadbare to offer any meaningful warmth, and the two minutes of warmth that his shower can manage is a much better option. Draco gets out of bed quickly and goes about his morning routine of a quick shower, his bath a race against the limited hot water. He gets out, dries off as quickly as he can before the water on his body freezes in he cold air of the apartment, and pulls on his baggy oversized clothes. He dresses fully, fingers shaking as he does up his ragged winter coat and slips on his holey gloves. Only once he’s dressed does he go back to brush his teeth, carefully avoiding getting anything on his clothes.

He glances over at his ‘kitchen’ – a battered old stove that only works half the time, a tiny ice box, with a folding table as a counter – but the only food he has left is a half-frozen loaf of bread. He weighs the effort of toasting some on the stove, but there’s no guarantee that it will turn on and he’s has limited time before he is due at work. Besides, he’d had breakfast yesterday – eating again so soon would be wasteful.

Draco slips his money pouch into his boot and gives his apartment a quick once over to double-check that he hasn’t left anything behind, then slips out into the dank hallway. He pulls his door closed firmly, jamming it as much as he can to assuage the fact that it doesn’t lock. It’s expected that the resident will use a locking charm, but Draco doesn’t have a wand. His had been lost to Potter and there was no-one willing to sell him another. When his mother died, he’d been too caught up in grief to consider asking to keep her wand, and it had been buried with her. So now he’s here, unable to lock his door or heat his apartment.

Draco shakes his head, forcibly banishing the thought. There’s no use dwelling on things that he cannot change. He tugs his hood up over his head and turns, making his way downstairs into the lobby and out into the street. It’s a cold day, and blustering, and Draco fights the wind as he makes his way down the street. It stings at the skin it finds through the holes in his gloves and lifts the ends of his coat. Draco sticks his hands into his pockets with a huff, lowering his head against the stinging snow blasting against his face in tiny pinpricks.

Then the wind catches his hood and whips it away from his head. Draco panics, grabbing at the fabric to pull it back over his head but it’s too late. From behind, he hears a snarl of “Filth!”, and then hands are suddenly shoving him roughly from behind. Draco yelps, flinging out his hands to catch himself and he lands hard against the cold cobblestones.

He feels his gloves tearing more, palms scraping against harsh stone. Draco can’t help his yelp of pain, looking wildly over his shoulder, but nobody is looking at him. With an inhaled hiss, he pulls himself to his feet, double checking that his hood is back up before bringing his hands up for inspection. As he’d suspected, the gloves have ripped and the scrape against the ground has broken through the skin and drawn bloody scratches across his palms.

He flexes them, and bites back a whimper at the pain it brings. There’s nothing he can do about it now, though, so he steels himself and braces against the wind, leaving his hands to get blasted so that he can hold on to his hood and prevent it from being blown off again.

Thankfully, it is not too much further to his job, and he’s soon slipping into the back door of Forsythe’s Potions and Apothecary. He releases a relieved breath as a wave of warm air hits him, and just takes a moment to stand and relish the feeling of comfort it brings. The sting in his palm makes itself known again after another moment, and spurs Draco to action.

He slips off his coat and gloves and hangs them on a hook on the back wall. He takes a moment to lean his head against the wall, exhausted already though the day has just begun, then turns and goes up to the door separating the backroom from the front of store. He pauses there and draws a deep, fortifying breath, steeling himself – facing his boss is never a pleasant process – and raises a hand to rap sharply on the door.

There’s a moment of waiting, then the door is yanked open and Draco is face to face with his boss, Edgar Forsythe Charles, a short, squat, beady-eyed man with a pencil thin moustache and oil-slicked black hair. “Malfoy,” he barks. “What have I told you about disturbing me?”

“My apologies Mr. Forsythe,” Draco says, making a tone to keep his tone deferent. He holds up his hand, displaying his bloodied palm. “I don’t want to handle the ingredients with bloodied hands, so I was hoping you could heal them?”

Forsythe scowls deeply. “Do you think this is St-bloody-Mungoes?” He rages. “I’m not your personal servant Malfoy. You can bloody well deal with this shit yourself!” Draco stares into his reddened face and swallows down his frustration.

“If I have to go out and buy a healing potion it will take up time. Surely it would be better to just –“

“Don’t tell me what’s best!” Bellows Forsythe. He steps forward menacingly, and Draco can’t help his own step back. “Your inability to cast a simple healing charm is not my problem Malfoy. Deal with this.” His face twists into a mean sneer. “And don’t think I’m going to pay you for any time you miss,” he hisses.

“Yes sir,” Draco grits out, vividly imagining hexing Forsythe to bits.

Forsythe gives an oily smirk. “Get to it then,” he says, “and don’t think of shirking out. If you’re not back by noon you’re fired.” Then he sweeps off back into the front room, leaving Draco standing there trembling with anger.

How he wishes he could just tell Forsythe what for and leave this ignominious job behind, but the truth is that he’s lucky to had it. When he’d been released from Azkaban, he’d found a world that had no place for him – he was hated from both sides, both for being a Death Eater and not being a committed enough one. He’d been at wits end, on the brink of starvation, when he’d found Forsythe who had been thankfully more enticed by the idea of exploitable labour than he was turned off by who Draco was. He may hate Draco, treat him like shit, underpay him – but he’d given him the job, and that was more than Draco can say of anyone else.

So, he swallows his anger and turns with a sigh to return to the chilly street. With the requirement to return by noon, there is no time to go to St. Mungo’s, and neither is there a guarantee that he’ll be seen there. It depends on who’s in front when he goes in, and which Healer he ends up with.

No, there is only once place that he can go – the only shop that will sell to him at only moderately extorted prices. It’s also Draco’s least favourite place to be.

The trudge to the shop is long, as it’s all the way at the other end of Knockturn right on the corner of Diagon. Draco spends the whole walk with his head down, hands thankfully tucked in his pockets as the wind is to his back, steeling himself.

The shop is not very large – tall and narrow and unassuming. A faded sign above the entrance declares it Ugbert’s Emporium. Draco pushes inside, the bells above the door tinkling to announce his arrival. The dark room is empty of another human presence, but a shout of “I’ll be right with you!” echoes from the back room.

Draco takes a steadying breath and walks up to the counter as the curtain to the back room is pushed aside and the shop’s proprietor enters. He is a long, spindly man with rich, thick chestnut hair and a well-groomed beard. His dark, sunken eyes dart to meet Draco’s, and a greasy smile crosses his face, revealing several gold teeth.

“Little Malfoy,” he says in an unctuous voice. “What a pleasure to see you.”

“Ugbert.” returns Draco, keeping his voice as bland as possible. “I require a healing potion.”

Ugbert steps closer, around the counter so that he can see Draco fully. “Aww, you poor thing. Are you hurt?” He asks.

Draco digs his nails into his own bloodied palm and forces down his disgust. “It is just a scratch. Nothing to worry about,” he answers shortly.

Ugbert is not dissuaded by his aloofness. “Good, good,” he says instead, running his knuckles down Draco’s cheek. Draco twitches, but resists pulling away. He’s learnt that lesson, knows what is expected of him here if he is to get anything he’s looking for.

Ugbert pulls him in closer, a hand sliding down Draco’s torso and hip to cup his behind. Draco raises his chin, fighting to keep his expression neutral. “The potion, Ugbert,” he reminds him. Ugbert leers at him.

“I will need to see the injuries, so I may determine which potion will be best,” he says. His hands are now massaging at Draco’s ass, and he shudders in revulsion.

“If you show me your stock, I can pick out what I need,” he tries.

Ugbert chuckles. “I don’t think so,” he says right against Draco’s ear, grinding his hips forward. Draco feels his erection pressing against him and shudders. He quickly brings his hands up and turns his palms to Ugbert.

“Here. It’s just scratches, as I’ve said,” he says. Ugbert pulls back, looking down at his palms. He looks almost disappointed.

“Very well, let me check my inventory,” he says, stepping around the counter. Draco waits impatiently as he ducks down and inspects the wears in the lower shelves. “I can sell you a Minor Wiggenweld for twelve Galleons,” he eventually offers, straightening up with the bottle of potion in hand.

Draco stares at him in disbelief. “A Minor Wiggenweld? That’s overkill Ugbert. Don’t you have just a Healing Potion?”

“I might have one at home,” Ugbert leers, and Draco grimaces in disgust. It’s way too much, a huge chunk of his salary that will leave his food budget for the foreseeable future considerably lowered, but –

“I’ll take it,” he says hurriedly, pulling his coin pouch from his boot. He counts out twelve Galleons, inwardly wincing at the amount as he places them onto the counter.

Ugbert slides over the potion bottle and collects his Galleons. “A pleasure doing business with you,” he says with his sleazy smile.

“Likewise,” Draco answers stiffly, collecting his potion and money pouch to his coat pocket. He tugs his hood over his head and hurries back out into the street, relieved to be away from the old pervert.

He makes it back to work with no incident, and just a single sip of the potion is enough to heal his scraped palms. He looks at the expensive and mostly full bottle dejectedly. What a waste of money. He tries to look at the bright side – at the very least he will have a stock of healing potion at home now. It doesn’t make him feel much better.

With a sigh, Draco puts away the potion and goes to wash his hands in the little sink in the corner. He stops by the door to the front room, rapping on it sharply once to alert Forsythe that he’s back. He waits for the answering thump – signalling Forsythe’s annoyance that he’s being disturbed, but now he can’t pretend he doesn’t know that Draco’s back and withhold pay – before making his way over to his desk beside which a pile of boxes sits waiting. It’s a new shipment of ingredients for him to sort and package, and with a put-upon sigh Draco pulls on his Nugskin gloves and gets to work.

The work requires practically no mental input, and Draco finds his mind wondering as he counts and packs ingredients. In the front room, Forsythe has the wireless playing as he often does, and Draco hums along to the muffled melodies he can hear through the door. Customers come in sometimes, but they rarely provide interesting conversation.

Draco does listen to their questions though, mentally criticizing where Forsythe’s answers could be improved, either with the potions he suggested for their issues or – more rarely – the brewing instructions he gave them for potions.

By late afternoon, Draco has finished sorting through the new shipment and moves on to preparing the ingredients Forsythe with need for the list of potions he’d left on Draco’s desk. There is a lull from the front of house, no customers having come in for the past forty or so minutes. The wireless fills the silence, now into a newscast about the case that Potter and Granger have presented to the Wizengamot.

The case has been on the wireless often in the past few months. The pair have been championing house-elf rights or some such, and the case has now apparently been presented and the Wizengamot is in discussion. The witch briefly recaps Potter and Granger’s journey on this objective this far, and then Potter is brought on. His voice is rich and warm, and still sends shivers down Draco’s spine as he talks about how he is confident that the Wizengamot will make the right decision.

Then a customer comes in and demands that Forsythe change the channel. She and Forsythe begin wanking each other off about how very insulted they are about Saintly Potter trying to take away their servants. Draco rolls his eyes, but he can’t help feeling a little relieved that they’ve changed the channel. It’s hard for him to hear Potter’s voice – the feeling it brings up is mostly shame at how low he’s fallen while Potter is a shining beacon for the wizarding world, but there’s also the lingering feeling of lust that thoughts of Potter always arise.

The new channel is recapping this weeks Quidditch scores, and Draco half listens as he ferries ingredients over to the cauldrons, each with their own long table on which Draco sets the ingredients for the night’s potions in the order they’re needed. It seems it’s been a good week for the Falcons and, predictably, Forsythe soon starts gloating.

“I always knew the Falcons had potential!” He proclaims loudly. “They just needed the right push. Good job that new bird joined and whipped them into shape.” Draco rolls his eyes. The ‘new bird’ – Ginny Weasley – has been with the team for over three years now. The customer opines that the Magpies are going to take back the title, and Draco tunes out the conversation as light bickering ensues.

Finished with the ingredient prep, he tidies the work area, sweeps and mops the floors and locks up the ingredient cases. As he’s finishing up, he hears the customer leave and Forsythe locking up behind him. He pokes his head into the front room and calls “I’ll be off then Mr. Forsythe!”.

Forsythe glares at him and snaps “Just go, how many times have I got to tell you not to stick your pointy little nose into my store?”

Draco pulls his head back and closes the door, rolling his eyes. It’s not like anyone will see him now that the store’s closed, so he doesn’t bother heeding Forsythe’s request. It’s in his best interest to ensure that Forsythe can’t pretend that Draco’s ducked out early.

It’s warmed up a little, so he takes his time walking back to his apartment, enjoying the fresh crisp air. He takes a little too long, because by the time he gets to his apartment Mrs. Doxley, his next-door, has also arrived home and is standing in her doorway arguing with her husband as she does every day.

Draco groans inwardly as he sees her, his steps faltering a moment before picking back up in resignation. Mrs. Doxely looks up and sees him, her face twisting in disgust. “If It isn’t Lucius’ boy,” she spits. “It’s your father’s fault I’m living in this shithole you know!”

So she’d told him every time she saw him, although he had yet to learn what exactly his father had done to cause her predicament. He likely wasn’t going to learn it this time either. “I’m sorry Mrs. Doxley,” is all he says, not wanting to antagonize her further. She leans close and spits at his face in response, and Draco doesn’t quite duck out of the way in time.

He does avoid the kick though, and she glowers at him before storming into her apartment. Grimacing in disgust, Draco lets himself into his own apartment and tiredly goes to the bathroom and scrubs his face clean. Then he returns to the main room to slump onto the bed, feeling properly downtrodden.

His life really has gone to shite, and it’s not as though he doesn’t deserve it but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. He thinks about his past self, that carefree spoilt child that he’d been, and mourns for him. He wishes he could go back to that time and stay there, suspended in cruel ignorance forever. Some days, he wishes he’d died at the Battle of Hogwarts, gotten caught up in the Fiendfyre after all or perhaps caught by a stray curse on the battlefield, or sentenced to death by the Ministry. Surely it would be preferable to struggling to eke out the miserable existence he had now.

But he hadn’t died, he was here, and so live he would. Draco forces himself to his feet, putting his potion and money pouch on his bedside crate before changing into his pyjamas and washing his clothes for the next day.

December 8th, 2007

“I’ll be heading out now Mr. Forsythe,” Draco calls, poking his head out into the front of the store.

Forsythe whips around. “No, you won’t,” he snaps. Draco stiffens, half expecting a reprimand, but Forsythe just says “I’ve got an appointment to make. You’ll have to close up front too.” He starts to leave, then pauses and turns to glare at Draco. “Don’t mess anything up or it’s coming out of your salary.” He barks, and then he’s gone.

Draco sighs but obligingly steps into the front room. He’s not allowed here often – Forsythe doesn’t want customers seeing him and doesn’t half trust him besides. But the man had always been self-serving first, so if it was in his best interest to let Draco close the front he would do so, trust or not. Draco locks up the cases here too, sweeps and mops the floor, and wipes down the windows, door, and case-fronts. He knows that Forsythe doesn’t do all of this daily, but it’s expected when Draco’s the one closing the front. He doesn’t mind, and he works languidly – he has nowhere to be after all, and the shop is warm.

He locks the front door then returns to the front counter to count the till and put the money into the safe under the counter. This is the special Draco-safe of course, here for the specific case of Draco closing the front. He isn’t to know the combination of the actual safe, or even it’s location. He isn’t complaining though – the less he knows, the less Forsythe can blame him for if there ever is a robbery.

That done, he turns to his final task of wiping down the counter, humming a tune that had been playing on the wireless earlier as he works. He picks up a crumpled-up bag that Forsythe had left on the corner, expecting it to be garbage, but to his surprise he finds that there is some weight to it. Confused, he peers inside and finds that Forsythe has discarded a pair of bagels.

Draco can’t believe his luck. Fresh bagels? All he has to look forward to at home is frozen bread – he could jump for excitement at this find. He carries them to the back room and tucks them carefully into his back pocket before returning to the front and double-checking that everything is in order. Finally, he shuts off the lamps and returns to the back, donning his coat and gloves and stepping out into the Alley, locking the door firmly behind him.

It’ s a cold evening, but not windy. Draco briefly considers the thought of going back to his apartment, but quickly discards it. He’s tired of looking at those four cracked walls, and it’s not like the apartment will be any warmer than out here. He’s been trying to learn wandless heating charms, but he hasn’t quite gotten the hang of them yet.

Instead, he sticks his hand in his pockets and walks down to the dead end of Knockturn, pushing on the slightly off-colour brick near his left kneecap to open the portal to Muggle London.

The Knockturn entrance is not quite as nice as the Diagon entrance. This way opens out to a rundown little street with cracks in the road, small houses with chain-linked fences, a brightly lit little corner shop, and a small park that was scarcely more than some grass and three trees. Nevertheless, Draco makes a beeline for the park, enjoying spending some time in the outdoors. It’s peaceful and serene here, the world blanketed by a layer of snow that seemed to insulate him, making it feel like he’s the only person in the world.

In moments like this, Draco can forget who he is and just exist.

He opens his eyes after a moment, sighing into the calm of the night as his stomach rumbles restlessly. He smiles slightly. He’ll have something better than stale toast tonight at least.

Turning, Draco makes his way to the only bench in the park so he can sit and eat his supper. When he gets there, however, he finds that it is not empty for the first time in the years he’s been coming to this park. There on the bench are a woman and a little girl, shivering, huddled together under a blanket for warmth. They are gaunt in a way that Draco recognizes, that he’s seen in the mirror during the bad months, and they’re clearly no more equipped for winter than Draco in his threadbare coat.

The woman looks up and catches sight of Draco. “Excuse me,” she says. “do you have any money for food? Please, we haven’t eaten in days!”

Draco hesitates. He has no muggle money on him, only the bag of bagels in his pocket, and he doesn’t want to give that over – he rarely gets much to eat and something so fresh is a treat. He has the last of his frozen bread at home, yes, but with the expensive purchase of the potion earlier he wasn’t going to have to reduce his food spending for the next little while. He has so little – surely the plight of these people shouldn’t be his to reduce?

He opens his mouth, about to tell her “No, sorry,” when something in her eyes stops him. It’s the desperation, something he has experienced so often in his own life – how often had he wished somebody would just give him a helping hand? Now it appears that he’s in the position to give the helping hand. He has little, but he has enough to help.

Draco curses quietly but stops and turns to her. “Here,” he says brusquely, shoving the bag of bagels at her. He doesn’t wait for her thanks – he doesn’t want it, not really. She calls it after his back anyway, and the sincere gratitude in it gives him pause. Somehow, he doesn’t feel too bad as he goes home and toasts the last of his frozen bread.

The night is still thankfully not too cold as he tucks himself in for bed, and he has a deep, uninterrupted sleep. The dream that comes to him is strange – he’s alone in a black place, or at least seems to be alone. His instincts ping though, with the feeling that he’s not alone.

“Hello?” He calls out, turning in a circle. “Is someone there?”

Before him, a figure blinks into existence. It at once looks human and not, bright and glowing with a shifting iridescence. Draco startles and stumbles backward.

“Who are you?” He asks.

The presence answers, but not verbally. Its answer seems to reverberate all around them, and within Draco’s own head. “I am a wish,” it says, “made by a child in her hour of need. You have fulfilled that wish. We thank your generosity Draco Malfoy.”

Draco blinks. A wish made manifest – a child’s tale from his bedtime stories. Merlin, he’d done one good deed and now his subconscious was dragging up a fairy-tale reward for his dreams. He rolls his eyes at himself.

“Great,” he says, not wanting to entertain this but also not wanting to waste time arguing with dreamt-up wish magic. “What are you here for then?”

“A wish granted is a wish given,” answers the light. It floats closer. “And your wish, Draco Malfoy, shall be anonymity. Twelve days, I grant you. During this time, you shall be recognized not, even by those looking plain upon your face. After this time, memories made of you shall not be connected to you unless the recaller lays eyes upon you. This you are given.”

Then the light grows, bright and brighter still, until Draco is surrounded by white.

#drarry #Harry Potter #Draco Malfoy #Harry Potter fanfiction #Drarry fanfic #writing #draco #harry #angst #fluff #Draco's Wish

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themockingcrows · 4 years ago

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Two Fates, Two Kingdoms Ch. 20: Reaching Sun, Healing Moon

Jake&Aradia, JohnDave this chapter is sfw ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2606711/chapters/64558639

With Jake attempting to warm Dirk up to him on one hand and finding a new Alternian friend on the other, it would be easy to assume he had more than enough on his plate. Yet when you add in John and Dave's affairs, as well as the issues in Prospit that continue to hang over his head, it's anything but easy to keep up with it all.

“Sire, wouldn’t you be more comfortable wearing a cloak? It’s a bit nippy in here,” Jake asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between himself and Dirk, silence gained through effort and careful work for the last few days. Dirk looked up immediately from his book to appraise the Prospitian, now dressed in a proper tunic and trousers, thick, warm slippers made for the pair of them till proper shoes could be made and fitted to them both. Green suited him as much as the white sleeves did, brought out his eyes, made his warm toned skin even more rich looking, his hair even darker than the raven’s wing it already was.

Anyone else would find this man handsome.

Dirk found him troublesome. Handsome, but troublesome.

“I’ve no need for a cloak. There’s a chill, yes, but it’s refreshing and keeps me plenty awake.”

“All the more reason for the cloak then, don’t you think?” Jake teased. Dirk raised a brow at him as he gestured to the fireplace with its dying flames. “Or perhaps another few logs on the fire?”

“Are you trying to subtly tell me you’re cold and that you’d like the room warmer?” he asked, closing his book on his hand to keep his page so he could rest his chin on his upturned palm.

“Ah- Well. It is a bit chilly. I just assumed with your pro-. ...difficulties as king, that you’d prefer to be cozy,” Jake said awkwardly.

Dirk sighed. “You’re doing the eager puppy thing again, Jake.”

Jake worried his lip before exhaling a sigh, taking a breath, and trying again. “I merely thought a man of your standing would enjoy having something to warm him that was handsome as himself. Surely your wardrobe has plenty on offer?”

Dirk lifted a brow.

“It does. But I’m enjoying the chill, as I said. It’s keeping me awake.”

“Surely a bit more rest wouldn’t hurt, you’re enjoying some spare time reading as it is so that means there’s a bit of free time, yes?”

“If this is a ploy to make me lower my guard, it’s not working,” Dirk said as he went back to reading. “I want to read right now. I can sleep when I’m dead.”

“Dying young and leaving a handsome corpse for reading a book?”

“Who said I was dying young? And that’s twice you’ve called me handsome in a very short amount of time. Mind your tongue or people will talk like fools.”

Jake’s cheeks colored a bit, but he went to help himself to the fireplace, crouching down and adding a few logs till it was going nie and steady once more.

“How about some tea then, at least?” he asked, perking up. “Tea and snacks?”

“I’m reading, Jake. If you’re hungry go feed yourself. You’re aware of where the kitchens are now, just have Dave accompany you.”

“I’ve gone once myself and haven’t had any issues yet,” he said with a cheeky grin. “But if you insist. I’ll return with some snacks for the both of us.”

“I’m not hungry, Jake. Nor thirsty.”

“Pish posh, there’s always time for a spot of tea! Especially in winter, it’s practically a law,” Jake chuckled, waving his hand Dirk’s direction before he took off from the library, mind working quickly as he went down the halls. He was making headway with Dirk, he could feel it. If he could just keep this flow going, keep edging his way into his good favors, surely they’d be bosom buddies soon enough. If not buddies, then at least on better terms personally, which would make things far better for John and Dave’s issues with wanting to be wed. Hopefully. Maybe. If he was lucky.

Damn it, Jake, stay positive!

It was hard to stay positive in this chilly damned castle, though. Even with the long sleeves he felt the chill all the way to his bones and had to keep reaching up to rub his arms while in the halls. How the Dersian soldiers he saw here and there survived, hell how the work staff survived in their shorter sleeves, he couldn’t imagine. Maybe it was just being used to the environment, and his people’s habit of practically hibernating during the winter months that was prompting his sluggishness and desire for warmth. Even if he was pressing that desire for coziness onto others. Well. One other. With the ulterior motive of making the man rest a bit more often to make his fangs less potent towards others and grease his wheel of usefulness towards other causes he was disinclined to naturally pursue.

Dirk’s attitude seemed to be more positive after he’d rested or eaten enough, but it was looking like a full time job to coerce the fellow into taking proper care of himself. Jake felt he was up to the task, even if it was just in tea, pastries, and warm blankets leading to a potential nap time for the royal. It was much like taming a wild beast, Jake thought, though the comparison drew a bit of his ire after all the rude things people had said about Dave in Prospit.

Little did they know the true beast was his brother.

Dave in comparison was a normal, upstanding fellow, mild in temperament and sweet in general disposition. Though, then again, Jake had also never seen him very angry before. Perhaps the monster lay in him as well, lurking in his blood waiting for the proper time to strike. Dirk’s rested at the surface, what you saw was what you got, but Jake couldn’t help but wonder if there was something… softer beneath those scaly hides.

The kitchen was easy enough to find for him, following his nose as much as the general direction of Downwards towards the warmth at the heart of the palace. Being allowed access was also easy, given nobody wanted to tussle with someone his size, but getting what he needed was a chore. Everyone chose to ignore him save for curious staring and murmurs, gestures to their own necks as they discussed him in whispered Dersian.

“Where uh. Where might I find a teapot? And tea?” he asked the room at large in Common, unsure who to personally ask. “And.. oh, bother. Where is anything in here?”

The previous visit down here had been for some milk and to grab some things that had been left in baskets for storage as excess. At least, he hoped they’d been excess, since he’d grabbed several for himself and Dave and John to nosh on. This required several more steps and some decorum. He was no master of tea, but Jake was certain he could manage the pot properly once he found the damned leaves he needed.

And the pot.

And the water.

And th-

Ugh this was going to be complicated, wasn't it. When Jake got no response from anyone in the kitchen, he finally bit his lip and mimed pouring tea and drinking it, then mimed eating food and wiping his mouth, hoping to get the point across.

“We can understand you,” one brave soul finally said, stepping forwards. Jake realized from the accent she was likely Alternian in origin, dark hair sweeping down to her knees in waves despite being tied back at her neck, rich red on her lips and the corners of her eyes. It was a bit of an outlandish appearance compared to what Jake was used to, but it suited her fine features perfectly. “Let me help.”

Someone else nearby hissed something to her, and even in his limited understanding of Dersian, Jake could understand a No when he heard it.

“I’d hate for you to get into trouble by helping me,” Jake said with a shake of his head, glancing to the person who’d hissed.

Aradia grinned a broad smile that showed dimples in her cheeks before shaking her head. “Oh, no, I won’t get in trouble. Everyone seems to think you’re dangerous, so they’re concerned for me to do anything with you,” she explained, dusting flour off her hands before going around to a cupboard and getting a tea set out. “Is this just for you?”

“No, I’m ah. I’m bringing it for the king,” he explained. “And for myself.”

“An audience with the king over tea? How very unlike him.”

Jake couldn’t help but chuckle as his assumption was proven correct. “Please, tell me where things are and I can help you out.”

“I’d just as soon do it myself,” Aradia admitted. “Buuuut…” she trailed off, glancing to the others in the kitchen, “if you don’t mind bumbling a bit amid people who are afraid of you, I wouldn’t mind the help at all.”

“So long as they don’t think I’m trying to maim them when I’m simply grabbing bread, then by all means,” chuckled Jake, taking a few steps to come closer to her side. “My name is Jake, by the way.”

“Oh, I’m well aware,” she said. “My name is Aradia.”

“Well aware, eh?” he asked, chuckling. “Has my name preceded me, then?”

“You could say that,” chuckled the maid. “Here. The hot water is over there, warm the pot for me? The tea leaves are here. Which blend would you prefer?”

“Something popular here,” shrugged Jake, “I’m sure it’ll be delicious either way.”

“There is a tea here that is less tea than hot drink. You should try it some time,” she explained, ignoring the nervous shuffling of her coworkers as Jake rounded on the heated water, pouring some into the pot and swishing it around before letting it set to warm. “You take jam and put it into hot water.”

“...And then?”

“That’s it, that’s the drink,” Aradia chuckled.

It was a strange feeling for Jake. Here was this woman who was by all accounts lovely as could be, and yet he didn’t feel attraction towards her. He felt a pull, a strong one, but there was no desire to flirt or even be overly witty. He settled for watching her move about, sorting tea and bits of berries into a strainer for him, charmed with how her hair moved and how every gesture seemed to have a story behind it. He wondered at her life, how she came to be in Derse, what her hobbies were, but kept coming back to the strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Why. He hadn’t felt this since he was a lad, trying to befriend the stableboy.

“It should be warm enough,” Aradia said. “Dump it and add fresh, and we can set the tea inside now.”

“Certainly,” he said, doing just that with fluid motions. “While it steeps, would you mind telling me abou-”

“The pastries are over here, there are a few to choose from,” Aradia interrupted in a matter of fact tone. “I’d recommend the ones on the left, they have honey custard inside.”

“That’s wonderful, but I was wondering abou-”

“If you’re wanting something savory or more filling, though, we’ve go-”

“Miss, really, it’s not the food I’m wondering about!” Jake laughed, interrupting herr. “I was going to ask about you a bit, that was all!”

Aradia blinked, then grinned that same broad smile. “Really now? You stand in Castle Derse and you want to know about one of the maids? I’m not that kind of girl, just to let you know. I’ve already someone I’m sweet on.”

Jake lifted his hands quickly and shook his head. “Oh! No, no, miss, that’s not my intention at all!”

The smile didn’t diminish at all, though she drew closer. “Oh? You seem quick to say that. Are you telling the truth, or are you saying I’m not worth it? I’ll have you know: I’m more than worth it.”

“I. ...I’m not-. Oh, bother, I’m not certain how I’m meant to answer that without sounding insulting,” Jake admitted, stumbling over his words as he grew more and more flustered. “I’m sure you’re worth it, I’m just. I’m not. I mean I AM but not with YOU but not because you’re- I MEAN IT’S-”

Aradia laughed at him, head tipping back and pearly white teeth showing. She laughed till tears formed in the edges of her eyes, and shook her head. “Jake, please. I’m playing with you, relax before you strain something important.”

“Playing with me. Right. Yes. Of course,” he said as he started to settle down, face flushed. He adjusted the collar around his neck as if it were suddenly too snug, causing it to jingle as he pulled his hand away. Aradia looked at him for a long moment as if considering something… before going to pick up a plate. The remainder of the waitstaff was either keeping their distance still or had vacated the area entirely to tend to other business linked to the upkeep of a busy castle.

“I came to Derse when I was small,” she said. “My family were indentured servants, and I was a servant as well from the time I was very young. I used to clean the ashes from the fireplaces.”

“Ashes from the fireplaces?” Jake said. “That sounds like a miserable time.”

Aradia shrugged. “It’s what happens when your family is lower class. We were the lowest of the low even in Alternia, so Derse was a big improvement. They were patient here while we learned to speak Dersian, didn’t complain that we spoke Common so often to get by, and didn’t skimp on our food or water. When our contracts were up, we were hired properly and started earning wages.”

“Are your family still here?” he asked, curious just how many attractie red lipped women may be running about behind the scenes, curious if another of them would light the spark that this one was fanning in a different way.

“No. My family returned to Alternia and were killed,” Aradia said as simply as if she were reporting on the weather. Jake’s throat went dry and he shuffled, tall and awkward and bumbling. The steeping tea smelled sweet and delicate on the countertop, the thin jet of steam pouring from the spout like dragon’s breath. Aradia blinked at Jake’s suddenly somber attitude and smiled. “It’s alright, they had a lovely funeral I’m told. They’d have been happy.”

“That’s. ...I’m sorry, mis-”

“Please, enough with the Miss talk, call me by my name!”

“...Alright. Aradia, I’m sorry to hear that, you must be quite lonesome. But I’m not sure how much of a consolation a nice funeral is when you’re already deceased.”

“Oh, they enjoyed it,” she said matter of factly. “And it’s not as if I’m alone anyway.”

Jake frowned, furrowing his thick brows in confusion. “Didn’t you just say your family, ah…?”

“Died? Yes.”

“Then how are you not alone? Oh! Friends! You mean you have many friends, yes?”

A woman that must have been the head chef piped up then, interjecting loudly enough that Jake nearly jumped out of his skin despite her being half his size.

“You shouldn’t bother talking to her, she’s crazy. Thinks she can talk to her dead parents.” A scullery maid giggled from behind a soapy plate before ducking her head and returning to her labor of scrubbing out a particularly stubborn pot in the sink.

“And others!” Aradia added, nonplussed by the commentary. “There are many dead in Derse. Many old dead. I don’t always understand them, but I can hear and see them. My beloved hears them too, sometimes, though… he hears those who are going to die, instead. Wails and cries of souls tha-”

The chef lifted a large ladle from the soup she was working with and wielded it like a weapon Aradia’s direction, frowning aggressively. “No, none of that talk! None! Not in my kitchen, you quiet your trap girl! Damned crazy Alternian girl cursing my kitchen, dredging up hauntings and who knows what else,” she hissed in annoyance, before cursing for a moment in Dersian. At least, Jake was fairly certain it was cursing. It definitely didn’t sound very happy, and she kept shaking her head while speaking as she went back to work on the food.

Aradia, still unbothered, set a plate loaded with treats down beside the teapot and lifted the lid to peek at the liquid inside. “Ah, it’s bloomed out plenty now, fully steeped. Dump the leaves in the trash for me?”

Blinking slowly, Jake did as she asked before coming close to her side, leaning down to whisper to her. “Are you quite alright with her saying such awful lies about you?”

“Lies? What lies?” she asked, canting her head to the side. “She said the truth, except for the cursing and the hauntings. There’s nothing to dredge up, I just notice what’s already there. And Sollux hates what he hears, so it’s not as if he cares what some older woman says.”

Jake gaped at her till she made a noise and pointed towards the trash, reminding him to dump the leaves. He dumped the leaves mechanically, pivoting, and trying to make up his mind about the situation.

“So you mean to tell me you can hear spirits.”

“And see them!”

“And you’re not just saying that.”

“Nope.”

“And you’re not crazy.”

“Last time I checked I wasn’t, but there’s no telling if that will remain the same forever,” she said, lips curling into the same red bow of a smile. Jake felt something in his chest warm as she did so. There was the same strange feeling as earlier once again, though this time Jake was finally able to understand what it was. Or, at least, what he was fairly sure it was. Friendship. The strange bonding feeling that one had when a new instant friend was located, as if you were bosom buddies in a past life that had just been reconnected at the drop of a hat in the new world. There was just an instant connection, and Jake found himself anxiously hoping that she felt it too somehow.

How did one even explain that feeling to someone? “Hello, I feel we should be chums, embrace this new friendship with me”? No, that was foolish.

“You can come speak to me again you know,” Aradia said suddenly. “I’d quite like it actually, Jake. You’re strange.” It wasn’t an insult, how she said it, but more as a form of endearment that made him as happy as he was to hear she wanted to see him again.

“Certainly, the pleasure would be mine,” he said. “It’s always good to have another friendly face when you’re somewhere new.”

“Yes!” she agreed, and set the tea pot and a few cups onto a tray, adding the dish of treats afterwards in a neatly balanced arrangement. “Here, now. Take this back to the king while it’s still plenty hot. He drinks slowly, if you pour it while it’s this hot, it should be perfect temperature once he actually drinks it.” As an afterthought, she shoved a tea cozy onto the pot to help trap the warmth, a gaily colored purple thing with tassels that just made Jake smile even more with how silly it looked.

“Yes, certainly. Thank you!” he said, lifting the tray and… immediately setting it down again without releasing his grip on it. “Erm. Where, ah… where am I meant to go again? The direction?”

“Where was he last?”

“The library.”

Aradia stepped to Jake’s side and turned him to face a specific direction as she spoke, visually steering through the air with her arm to help explain the idea more thoroughly so as to help him avoid getting lost. With more thanks on his lips, Jake leaves in an excellent mood, returning to the familiar looking surroundings of the library with ease. It was only upon his arrival, however, that he realized just how much he’d really missed.

John and Dave were standing in the library speaking with Dirk about something, with speaking being the ideal state compared to how many things there were to yell or argue about potentially. Jake cleared his throat when he entered, lifted the tray with a grin in offer to the others, and came to set it by Dirk’s side before pouring a cup full of the tea for him. The conversation didn’t so much die as quiet for a moment, before beginning again.

“Surely it wouldn’t be missed that much,” Dirk said. “You can’t keep it forever. You’ll already have marks from the damned thing, the fewer you bear the better off you are.”

“I don’t know how to explain it to you,” Dave said slowly, “but I can’t take it off. Not right now. Not yet.”

“But when, Dave? If not now, when?”

Jake realized they were discussing Dave’s collar, the slender piece of equipment that had graced his throat the entirety of the time Jake had known him. It was a symbol of many things by now, none of which were good, but both Jake and John knew better than to try forcing Dave to do anything he wasn’t interested in doing. If he wanted to keep it on, whatever be the reason, it would remain on. He reached up to toy with it, holding it securely in place with both hands as Dirk murmured something in Dersian to him, and quickly shook his head.

“No, thank you, just. Later.”

“Dave. Please. For my sake, then, take it off.”

Dave cringed visibly at the wording, and gripped the collar tighter for a moment before putting his hands down as if ashamed, fingers curled into fists. The tension in the room was suddenly rising, and Jake wasn’t sure there was enough tea or treats to help bring it back down to a suitable level. Dirk sets his book aside and ignores the tea in favor of standing. He reaches out slowly, as if approaching a wild animal.

“Easy now,” he murmured. “This will make you feel so much better,” he promised.

Dave flinched when he set his hands on the collar, back seizing up, body trying to subtly lean away from the source of the discomfort. He looked like a cat avoiding a bath, eyes widening, mouth thinning to the barest line. It wasn’t until Dirk found the mechanism that held it together and tested it, tugging on either side, that Dave shouted and pitched himself down to his knees. He curled forwards bodily, hands resting on either side of his collar, shoving it as if he were the only thing keeping the sturdy item in place against unyielding forces, shouting in Common as he shook.

“NO. NONONO. NO. NO.”

Dirk appeared startled and took a step back, while John knelt down, touching Dave’s back. Or trying to at least. Dave flinched back from his touch as well the first time he tried, only yielding when he touched further down on his lower back, far from his neck.

“It’s alright,” John murmured. “Nobody’s taking it off.”

“Nononono,” repeated Dave, this time in Prospitian.

“What is the meaning of this?” Dirk asked, looking between John and Jake before gazing at his kneeling brother, confusion mixing with traces of… what was that emotion? Disgust? Concern? Jake found him hard to read, but with John trying to calm Dave down, he decided it best if he took up the reins to answer.

“He doesn’t want it off,” Jake said, realizing how unhelpful that sounded.

“Yes, fool, but why? Or are you going to start screaming if I remove yours too?” Dirk snapped. John glowered at him before looking back to Dave, hugging him when it was finally allowed.

“Ah.. I mean. I’m thinking it has to do with some trauma,” Jake said cautiously, measuring his words. “That collar was put on during his training, I assume. There was likely a lot of er.. Training. That went into teaching him to keep it on.”

There was the disgust, Jake could put a name to the emotion. The earlier one must have been concern if this was disgust.

“Your people treated my brother like a dog.”

“They did,” agreed Jake. Before everyone had warmed up to him, before they’d realized more about their own beliefs, he was ashamed to realize even he’d thought of Dave as a little beast at first. “...We did,” he said softly.

“And all this time, you’ve never gotten him over this?” Dirk demanded, looking to John this time. “You wish to marry him and yet he’s still unable to bear having that thing removed from him? Are you mad?”

“I’m not sure how to go abou-”

“I’ll say this now, so listen well, John: until he can handle taking that off, and KEEPING it off, I’m forbidding so much as any talk of marriage. If you flee and try to do it, I’ll have you hunted and Dave returned home. If a fucking Prospitian cannot remove this curse from him, his family will instead,” Dirk said, tone grave.

John was silent, but Jake knew the look on his face. It was the face of a man challenged.

“Get him to his chambers and calm him down properly,” Dirk muttered. “I’ll not have him kneeling and shivering and panicked somewhere he might be seen.”

“Are you ashamed of him?” John demanded. “It’s not his fault he’s like this, you know.”

“I know,” Dirk said. “It’s yours. Spare his fucking dignity and take him to his room, now, or I’ll take him myself!”

Setting his jaw, John carefully moved position and settled into a better crouch before grasping Dave beneath the arms, lifting him till he stood bent over. It made it easier for him to grasp behind his knees and his upper back then, carrying him bridal style so he could curl up, turning after a moment to bury his face against the skin warmed metal around John’s own neck rather than see his brother as he continued to shiver. With one hand he opened the door, and with his foot he slammed it shut again behind them upon leaving.

Jake wrung his hands anxiously, looking from the door to where Dirk still stood, nostrils flaring in rage as he tried to control his breathing. When he failed, he wheezed before beginning to cough, grabbing his handkerchief from his pocket to catch the mess he was no doubt coughing up once more before slowly sitting down in his seat again. When the fit passed, he rubbed his face with one hand, slowly coming to rest on the bridge of his nose, pinching away a migraine that was trying to form.

Unable to think of what else to say, Jake sighed and reached for the cup he’d poured, lifting it towards Dirk in offer. “Here. For your throat. It can’t be good to keep coughing like that.”

“It’ll be too hot, I’ll drink it later.”

“It’s the perfect temperature,” Jake assured him, smiling slightly when Dirk took the cup. “I was assured by the maid I met. She was quite the intriguing woman.”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t flirt with my servants while you’re essentially under arrest,” Dirk said with a tired sounding sigh.

“It’s not like that!” Jake cried, squeezing the tea cozy as he pulled it off of the pot. “Augh, she thought the same thing at first, but it’s really not like that! She’s a beloved of her own, and I just want to be her friend very badly!”

Dirk lifted a brow at him as Jake poured his own cup of tea, a bit confused, but took a sip. Surprisingly, it was indeed the perfect temperature. “Hm. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man so dead set on friendship before, servant or none. Fine. Tell me about this maid friend of yours.”

“I’ve no idea if you know her,” Jake said. “She was in the kitchen and knew her way around very well. She speaks to spirits. Alternian girl, wh-”

“Pardon?”

“Spirits. And she’s from Alternia and-”

“Spirits.”

“Yes, spirits,” Jake said, taking a sip of tea and immediately burning his mouth a bit. “Ah! Ow ow ow, oof. Oh I shouldn’t have done that..”

Staring at him, Dirk sipped his own drink, savoring the taste and letting it soothe his throat. Jake had been good to bring the tea, perhaps it had been a necessity after all. “...Go on.”

“Oh. Yes, right. She’s an Alternian girl who can speak to spirits, and she’s rather funny and quite charming, and-” Jake said, stopping suddenly. He stared off into space for a moment before lifting his brows. Somewhere, deep inside his mind, thoughts had connected. “THAT’S IT!”

Startled, Dirk nearly dropped his cup. “What? What’s what?”

“HOW TO TALK TO THE GIRLS!”

“...What did I just say abou-”

“No! No, no, no, my girls! My sisters!” Jake said excitedly. He set his cup down and jumped up towards the center of the room with a jingle, pacing like a tiger in its cage as he talked, gesticulating with his hands. “They’re on our side, my sisters. They looked the other way when we left, when we took Dave and escaped. They’re next in line now, should anything happen to Father. Far as John and I can tell though, their best bet is a coup if they want to stand any chance of ending this damned war. Or at least talking with you directly about ending it. I know how to contact them now!”

“How in the fuck do you plan to do that?” Dirk asked, genuinely curious but just as unnerved by Jake’s outburst as before. “It’s not as if you can just send a letter. ‘Hello girls, nice to hear from you, by the way I’m at castle Derse! Send the army!’ hmm?” he said.

“Aradia!” Jake said, turning around and gesturing to Dirk with two pointed fingers, thumbs up, one eye closed in a wink. “She has contacts in Alternia. She knows Alternian. We were also close friends with the seamstress, and on good terms with the librarian at home, who are also Alternian! Nobody would suspect to read a message from home.”

“...Even if it wasn’t sent from home,” Dirk mused, catching on. “And you’re certain nobody would check? How many Alternians are loyal to your father?”

“I’ve no idea but the librarian would likely be the one to get the message. If it’s sent with a book, all the better. It’d look more official.”

Dirk gave a snort and sipped his tea once again. “Look. If your plan is for your sisters to stage a coup, that’s one thing. If you’re planning on assisting that’s another. You’re still my captives. And I’ll offer no help to my enemy.”

“My youngest sister is the darling of the military and her men are loyal to her. If she rose up, they would support her, even if it was to put Jane on the throne. It’s just a matter of them doing it…”

“What would a message home do then? What purpose would it serve?”

“To let them know we were alright. And that we supported them, if they needed any extra egging on,” Jake admitted. “They’re capable women, I believe in them. But letting them know we aren’t at risk or rotting in a dungeon would be grand and maybe let them carry on any plans they may already have in the works now that we’re not dangling in the cosmos.”

“If there’s word of a coup… I may call a pause to my men to allow them time,” Dirk said, closing his eyes to take a drink of tea. “I will not help an enemy. But helping by giving them time to sort their affairs and put someone more willing to discuss their surrender on the throne, then all the better.”

“Surrender?”

Dirk glanced over blandly. “You don’t expect me to yield, do you?”

“...No, I suppose not.”

Pensively, Jake finished his tea before setting the emptied cup down. “I’ll be just a short time, I need to go tell John about this, he’ll be thrilled to bits. Please, help yourself to the treats.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Try them anyway, I’m assured they’re delicious,” Jake said. “Aradia was right about the tea, I’m certain she’s right about the treats!”

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

Though back in his own room, Dave still hadn’t quite settled down. He lay curled on his side in his bed, knees tucked to his chest, one hand over his blinded eye to cover it as he groaned.

“Did you see the way he looked at me,” he murmured softly. “I’ve never seen Dirk look at anything like that before. Or anyone. He looked horrified. I can’t really blame him, I mean. Look at me.”

“I am.” John promised. He wasn’t certain what to do to help aside from be there, resting up against Dave’s back and gently stroking down his side and over the slight swell of his hip. “And I see someone amazing who’s survived a lot of hardships to be where they are right now.”

“John, if your family looked like that at you, you’d understand what I’m feeling right now,” complained Dave. ‘At least my hair hides my eye mostly, or else he’d probably have been staring at that instead. Hah, maybe that’s a new reason to keep the collar on: something to stare at other than my fucking awful eye.”

“You’ve got a world in your eye,” John murmured. “Whether you see it or not, and whether it can see or not, you’ve got a world in your eye that I can see.”

“What about my sighted eye, then?” he asked. “What does it have?”

“My heart reflected back to me.”

“And if it went blind too?” probed Dave. “What then? Would you settle for a blind man for a spouse?”

“Proudly,” promised John. “Dave, your eyeballs could fall out and roll into a lake and I’d still want to wed you.”

Dave reached behind himself to swat at John. “Don’t be gross, be serious!”

“I am being serious, Dave! I don’t know what to tell you, there’s nothing you can do that would make me not want to marry you. ...Well. Short of one thing I guess.”

“What’s the one thing?”

“...Telling me you’d be happier with someone else and meaning it,” John said. “I couldn’t live with myself if I were making you sad. If you were happier with somebody else, I’d have to leave so you could have that joy. And I’d do it.”

All at once, Dave rolled over to face John, grasping around his middle in a tight, clinging hug, burying his face in his chest. “Not allowed. You’re stuck with me, John, there’s nothing else to say on the matter.”

“Then stuck I am,” John said, kissing Dave’s forehead, “with the world’s most handsome man as a husband to be. ...No. You’re practically my husband already. I meant every word of that vow we took.”

“Me as well, but I want it official,” Dave murmured, lifting his chin up to peer at John’s face from beneath his mussed bangs. “I want to have a party to celebrate. I want to give my kingdom hope. I want to do all the things I always thought I’d do for a wedding, should I ever have found a love like this.”

“You know what that means, then. That we have to stay instead of flee,” John pointed out.

“Yeah...”

“And that the collar will have to come off someday,” John added, hugging Dave when he began to stiffen anxiously. “Ah ah ah, I said someday, none of that.”

“You can say that all you want, but all I feel when I hear that is fear,” admitted Dave with a soft hiss. “What a prince of Derse I am. The youngest moon, raised for the blade, raised for knighthood, and I’m terrified of having a slave’s signs taken off.”

“I could write a novel about all the reasons you’re still a brave man of your kingdom, but that would stroke your ego so much your head would explode,” John said.

“Try me.”

“Someone’s in a mood to preen.”

Dave smirked, and finally it looked normal on his face. Calmer. Present instead of in some dark room in Prospit having his spirit broken in memory. The fear had lessened its grip once more. John hummed, closing his eyes in thought, trying to decide what to say first. Before he spoke, he rolled, pressing Dave down into the mattress solidly to protect him from whatever else his mind tried to throw at him. At the new angle, he had the perfect position to kiss at his cheek, his ear, his neck.

“You survived in an enemy kingdom, despite all odds,” John said, kissing the round of his ear. “You won the heart of an enemy prince, as well as the admiration of all his siblings, and have the prince wrapped around your little finger,” he hummed, kissing at Dave’s neck as he felt his hands lowering to the bottom of his shirt, beginning to stroke at his skin with his nails in gentle waves. “You survived an accident that could have killed you. You fled a kingdom, essentially got married while being pursued by soldiers, and got the enemy princes into your home in one piece.”

“Go on,” Dave murmured softly, tugging up the bottom of John’s shirt till he wiggled it off over his head with a jingle of his collar.

“You charmed the prince into your bed and made lurid advances to him,” he said, suddenly blowing a wet puff of air against the side of Dave’s neck, making him squirm and laugh.

“Don’t ruin the mood, damn it!”

“It’s already ruined,” John said, propping up enough to grab Dave’s shirt, yanking it off of him suddenly enough that he yelped and started laughing after. “But that’s the best part,” he added as he decimated Dave’s laughter with kisses. “I love ruining moments with you, I always get to kiss you when you’re smiling that way.”

Dave grasped at John’s shoulders and hugged him tightly. “You’re a fool...”

“I’m your fool, and I’m right, and no I am not accepting criticism,” John said softly, biting Dave’s earlobe gently till Dave shifted his legs, parting them to hug around his hips.

“Are you ah… accepting anything else?” he asked, squeezing with his legs briefly, crossing his ankles. “Because word is that I’m offering something that isn’t criticism for the next while.”

“...I may be able to be talked into accepting things that aren’t criticism,” John said, snaking a hand down lower towards Dave’s trousers.

When Jake opened the door some time later, the exciting news died in his throat. The door closed quickly, quietly as it could be closed, before he slunk back to the library.

It could wait a while, he decided.

#my fic #homestuck #johndave #john egbert #dave strider #jake english #aradia megido #dirk strider #lmfao i lied its 130 instead of 2am

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virtuesmh · 6 years ago

Text

Adlock Songfic - Sweater Weather

All I am is a man

I want the world in my hands

As always, Sherlock Holmes' mind was restless. Even in the midst of 'vacation', it was urgent to keep his thoughts flowing, mostly by using strangers around him as experiment objects. He wouldn't want a jam in the machine inside his head, would he?

I hate the beach

But I stand in California with my toes in the sand

Unlike London's chilly weather, California's weather surprised his body's axiom. Then, his eyes stung in the bright sun, a horrible tan had colored his pale skin, from arms, torso, to legs. He clenched a handful of sand and watched it fall tediously through the gaps between his fingers.

Use the sleeves of my sweater

Let's have an adventure

He had heard the last sentence and it successfully hooked him across the world. Meaningless words, yet when spoken by a particular person, turned into an effective charm.

Head in the clouds but my gravity's centered

Touch my neck and I'll touch yours

You in those little high-waist shorts

Before his head could wander further, a sudden pressure weighted his thigh. Sherlock opened his eyes, revealing Irene Adler herself, seated beside him, one hand on him and the other holding a glass of Moscow Mule on rocks.

A slight smile slipped into his lips, mirroring hers.

"Didn't bother getting me one?" He asked.

She knows what I think about

And what I think about

"This is yours, dear," She replied, a tad melodious, "I finished mine when you're . . daydreaming."

Sherlock snickered under his breath. His observation frenzy immediately stopped, a more effective focus-gatherer had come. His fast deductions and crippling anxiety would perish in the presence of its queen. His fingers were still wrapped around the cold glass as he glanced to Irene, who had her eyes on the mouthful ocean waves.

Before his mind could tell him what to do, a forcing need pulled him closer to her. Irene turned behind and froze bewildered, yet she didn't move an inch nor looked away. Before their skin could make the slightest brush, Sherlock breathed in sharply and pulled away. Stern and harshness had returned to its place as he gulped the pleasurable beverage down his throat, sending relief to his dried lips and thirst. Yet, it didn't, and nothing ever did answer his questions about the woman and their confusing, out-of-the-world reverie.

One love, two mouths

Then, the sandy beaches, blue oceans and limitless horizon turned into a different sphere.

The bright sun was hidden behind thick, moody clouds. Cold breeze rushed up their spines, signing an imminent winter.

Sherlock shrugged his coat tighter as he left his hotel room. He rushed out of the elevator towards the lobby and stuck his hand out to hail a cab.

Along the ride, Sherlock's heart thumped unfamiliarly. Luckily, the side of city wasn't too crowded as no traffic jam occured, the opposite of London's bright, red lights.

Vast buildings changed into narrower ones, and gradually into green trees and meadows. Orange and pink clashed into the skies' soft blue as the sun slowly dropped low. An almost impossible giddiness rose within Sherlock as a familiar entrance came into hindsight.

The cab drifted right and dropped the detective off in the concrete pavement. Sherlock went on with his walk.

He paced on a stone path, leading to a well-remembered destination, the last lodge on the rows of residences, just by the lake.

One love, one house

Soon, he arrived. He halted just by the doorstep and wrapped his fingers around the doorknob tightly. With the other hand, he gave two gentle knocks before entering.

By reflex, he took off his shoes, remembering the last time he didn't, the woman wasn't too pleased. His coat was hung by the door and he was already sprawled on the long couch.

"Hullo!" A voice called from the kitchen.

A grin made its ghostly way into Sherlock's lips as Irene strolled from the kitchen, her long, raven hair tousled in a bun with a few strands falling messily.

An appealing aroma filled in the air and Irene stood silent, while Sherlock knew exactly what she wanted to hear.

"Smells brilliant. I expect it will be a wonderful new year's dinner with-" He breathed deeply, his eyes gleaming in thoughts, "Shrimp scampi with pasta, fried Serrano ham along with fried olive, and-"

He inhaled sharply once more, though this time, he was absolutely uncalled for. In realization, the smile on his lips grew wider and he clapped his hands together.

"Bless cinnamon buns!" He laughed, "How did you even know?"

"Says the man who never accepts complementary food, except anything related to it," Irene said pleasantly, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"I have flaws, woman," Sherlock said, lowering his tone on a particular word.

"I got you another book," he added.

Sherlock pulled a thick novel from his clasp and put it on a drawer on his left.

"Thank you, dear," Irene shortly said before disappearing into the bathroom.

With that, Sherlock was left in silence. It gave him no other choice but to wander in the depths of his mind. Invisible information was being presented in an unfathomable speed, hands rested in a prayer, eyes flickering behind shut lids.

No shirt, no blouse

Suddenly, a creak awakened his consciousness. His eyes gradually opened as the water tap stopped running, the bathroom door was slowly opened, steam-coated glass revealed the woman herself, putting on a show through a simple walk to her bedroom. Soon, she stepped out and joined him in the living room. Her wet hair was wrapped with towel and her toned body was hugged a silk purple nightgown.

The points of his lips quirked into a smirk as she sat beside him, legs resting on his lap.

"You don't mind, do you?" She said as she undid the towel wrapped on her wavy, raven hair.

"Oh, I insist."

A fit of chuckle went out from Irene's lips,

"Mr Holmes, you are terrible in disguising sentiment."

Just us, you find out

Sherlock's eyebrows rose to his hairline and a frown formed on his expressionless face,

"I've often been informed I don't feel any."

"But we both know it's not quite true, isn't it?"

"How would we know?" He said with a low hiss, emphasizing the rare use of we.

"Look at where you are now and your decisions for the past two years, look around and make a deduction!" She said, her tone rising in every word. Her thin, rosy lips were shut tightly, the insides bitten hardly, probably wounded and bleeding by then.

Sherlock's heart sunk as he noticed a different glint behind her eyes and a strange tremor racing down her fingers. A familiar yet unknown feeling started filling his chest, disheveling his breathing and pulse.

Irene closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. She fixed her posture and regained control of herself. Bravery, accompanied with a hidden timidness brought back her reserve; a puzzle Sherlock Holmes had never been able to solve.

Nothing that wouldn't wanna tell you about, no

"Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Why do you stay, Sherlock?"

Irene crossed her legs with her arms stretched around them. Sherlock noticed the sudden defensive shift, only making his thoughts run faster and harder to comprehend.

"You need protection from . . past vices."

"I can protect myself," She said with pride, thick in her tone.

"I know."

"Then why?"

"I-"

His lips parted to speak, yet for once, he was baffled. The rocketing atoms inside his head turned out to be fear of the unsolved, for his head was speechless and empty in such dire situation. His breath hitched and became sharper, as if his lungs were overrun by poisonous emotions, taking over the throne of himself.

"I won't leave," Irene suddenly said. Sherlock snapped his head to her, gazing confusedly.

"I won't leave, even when your reason isn't the same as mine."

A weak smile entered her face. She rose from her seat and walked towards the kitchen. Her muscles stiffened as they struggled to walk away. Her fingers clawed against one another in her balled, whitened knuckles.

Sherlock immediately tailed behind, assisting to set up their dinner. This time, it carried a different vibe. Sherlock's lips trembled silently, the childish annoyance which usually happened was nowhere to be found. Irene's mocking and little games wasn't conducted too, not even her mischievous zeal surfaced.

Whether they wanted to admit or not, big chances it would probably be their very last dinner. From time to time, domestic life washed away fear of the end. Suddenly, just then, reality would slap hardly and dragged them down, begging for time to go slower and the moon to forget falling away into morning.

Despite the heaviness of their hearts, not a hint of truthful pain came upon their faces. Sherlock and Irene chatted joyously as they dawned on dinner.

Hours passed by unlikely to their prayers. When the clock struck 11, Sherlock offered his hand to lead her into their last waltz. Another half an hour was spent in warmth and comfort as their cab drove from the country side to metropolitan downtown.

Cause it's too cold

For you here, and now

The two swayed close as man in megaphone started the new year countdown. Everyone around started cheering in foreign languages they didn't fathom, either correct numbers or drunk, slurred words. Yet Sherlock and Irene put no matter to their surroundings, as if the world itself was made for them only, everyone else was simply irrelevant.

Suddenly, Sherlock circled his arms around her waist. Irene narrowed her eyebrows in confusion, staring into the man's in hope for answers. Even though, she played along. Maybe there was someone suspicious preying on them, or a danger Sherlock had reckoned before her.

Above all probability, sentiment was placed at the very bottom. Irene learnt from her mistake, playing feelings with the detective would turn out just to be delayed disappointment. Yet what she let slip, sentiment wasn't just a reason in her demeanor, but also the things in her unconsciousness; the heaviness to part ways and the chains to stay close to the other, when all she had been doing for her whole life was running away. Sherlock Holmes had turned out to be the anchor she never knew would accept.

5 . . 4

Not a word escaped from Sherlock's mouth. Instead, he pressed his forehead against hers. The bridges of their noses met, breath hitching, pupils dilated, hearts beating rapidly as if they were barging through flesh and ribs. Irene's fingers were clutched tightly to his coat and she lifted her chin high to meet his gaze, as she could initially reach his chest.

"Is there another vatican cameo?" She asked.

A tender smile grew on Sherlock's lips as he shook his head.

"No, we're safe and sound. Just, bear with me."

So let me hold

Both your hands in the holes of my sweater

3 . . 2

Though they had winter coats up to their necks, with snow falling on top of their heads and Budapest in its coldest state, quiver had struck Irene's lips. The former smile on Sherlock's mouth lifted into an amused grin as his hands moved down to reach hers. Their fingers were entangled tightly, Sherlock's radiating warmth into Irene's.

1, Happy New Year!

Fireworks launched high to the dark skies. Everyone around them cheered, some were dancing, some lifted the bottoms of their cold pints, ready to drink themselves off in the special night.

Yet the two chose to stay silent, communicating through the deep gaze and smiles they shared. It was a decision they had chosen without doubt nor the shortest argument; to start the first chapter of a new year together, in the presence, commitment, and fidelity of each other. Slowly, Sherlock lowered his head to her ears, lips parting to whisper:

"Happy New Year, love."

But before he could back away, Irene's palms cupped his jaw, holding them in place as she brushed her lips against him. Sherlock's eyes widened in surprise before gaining sense of reality again and deepened the caress.

Sherlock Holmes with his posture crooked to reach Irene Adler on her tip toes, people who knew them would drool in disbelief.

It was bizarre enough for hints of domestic growing between them for the past two years. New habits picked up from each other, late night confessions and soothing Sherlock when he got anxious over John and Mrs Hudson over countries, or when Irene would feel a cold blade behind her neck and relive Karachi over again.

Or the subtle panic when the other gets sick, or the fear when they bend over time. Of course, bickering, childish or serious, would occur over the months.

Yet, there they were, the posh boy and the dominatrix, falling deep in their own story about love, their quills were up and ready to write new chapters. However improbable, tedious, malingering, or devilish, they were to face life together, and that was enough.

Finally, the two parted away with mischief and dissatisfied longing in the look they shared.

"Is that your answer, Mr Holmes?"

"Apparently so," He murmured, a tint of light red coloring his cheeks as his eyes wandered around in embarrassment.

"Glad to know we're on the same page," Irene said with a grin as Sherlock dove his head, letting all the sentiment he had dammed for years into a tender caress on her lips.

#oneshot #sherlock aesthetic #sherlock x irene #bbc sherlock #fanfic #fanfiction #the adlock yacht #adlock #irene adler #new year

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kitwilsonsass · 6 years ago

Text

Since I’ve been putting it off due to lingering sicky feels, etc.

Here’s the far too long and far too unedited and written at 4am vacation rundown NO ONE ASKED FOR! (huzzah!)

So, yeah. I arrived at the new Amtrak station in the city which is a major upgrade from the trailer park reject of station the old one was. Way roomier. Could use a coffee stand or something but yeah. Improvement. Had to go underground under the tracks and back up to get to the very cold surface, it must suck in the winter.

About an hour, hour and a half into the trip I quickly realized that a.) all I wanted to do was sleep, and b.) that my throat was burning. I assumed this was due to the absurdly cold, non-stop dry ass air conditioning, but no. This bitch got sick for her entire trip. On the plus side I had the seats to myself for the majority of the trip, but still. I barely watched any CR or anything because I was miserable the entire time. Ya don’t wanna be miserable for 10+ hours on a train.

Got to Boston, to @conniecorleone‘s frightening apartment stairs. My bag was way too heavy and she troopered through taking it up them for me without dying. So if you ever need a tank in battle, call Rachel.

Hung out a little. Ordered some Five Guys. Watched a couple episodes of the first season of American Horror Story. I get the appeal but also never needed to see Dermot Mulroney’s ass.

Rach was busy with work stuff a lot early in the week, not helped by some dumbass school shooting threat the week before and kept apologizing while still going above and beyond as a hostess while I just felt guilty for getting snot on her sheets.

Day two I colored a bit. I can do a wicked water gradient with erasable colored pencils, for the record. Hung out. Relaxed. Used a lot of Zicam and Advil. Then we were on way to The Middle East for her conehead space boyfriend.

We waited like, an hour? In the chilly mist outside? The show started like AN HOUR LATE after that. The venue was nice but man, the mood was getting close to dead at points, especially since, again, FUCKIN SICK. But Planet Booty came on and while, a little on the bordering too raunchy side, put on a fucking amazing live show. Dylan has an absurd amount of energy that should be bottled and sold, but if it were it might result in the orgypocalypse. I saw a youtube comment that said he’s ‘very touchy lol’ and truer words never spoken. That man will grind on you and sing directly in your earlobe with his tongue if you are front row and happily, I was not. Yet somehow I still ended up with his sweat on my sweater sleeve thanks to someone being a dumbass and high fiving him after their set and not being able to handle the consequences. Ahem.

THEN TWRP TOOK LIKE ANOTHER GODDAMN HALF HOUR???

But I FORGIVE THEM because they were GREAT and played Daft Punk’s Celebrate in honor of motherfuckin Canadian Thanksgiving so... fine... I guess. My only complaint is they didn’t do The Perfect Product even though I get that’s probably a weird thing to do live. Also minimal keytar and Sung almost decapitated himself but you know... it happens. They DID do Tactile Sensation though which is a fucking jam. And Atomic Karate, ofc. And Meouch broke his fucking bass string which is like? Fucking hardcore? He came down like a foot away from us at one point. It was dope. They’re amazing live and have no right to be for dudes in ridiculous robot costumes playing synth in the year 2018 and rolling around stage on a hoverboard. Sadly I brought minimal memory cardage this year and didn’t get a lot of good video of them.

Afterwards, despite *someone* almost passing out, we hung out in the merch lines and did NOT accidentally cut ahead this time. I got a free signed poster because it was my birthday vacation ayyyyy and bought a couple EPs and the Together Through Time album. Then hopped over the PB’s line and got two hugs from Dylan who hung out and talked to/hugged/got selfies with every single person who got into line there and just? Good dude. Pure dude. Awful stache but... thumbs up human being. I got their Naked album and we headed out back to the apartment and some delivered Dominos (which was the only good Dominos I’ve ever had in my life.)

Day three I accidentally slept until like 4pm. Literally what else did we do that day? I cannot remember for the life of me. We might have went to Dunkin at like 9pm and she showed me a weird omnipotent plastic ear hanging on an electric wire? Was that this day? I have no fucking idea. Her Netflix and supply of Puffs tissues were my best friends this trip okay.

Day four she went to class and I relaxed and intended to walk to the mall. Unfortunately, my sick bleh hit and I didn’t feel up to going until about ten minutes before she got back. So we ended up heading over there together. I made her try Baja Blast, as is customary in my nation, and got her to try some green matte lipstick. Success. I was highkey hoping they would have a Build-A-Bear in the joint but they didn’t. They did have a Newbury though, that had the six-inch Roadhog pop which I’ve had a hard time finding locally, so I said fuck it and bought it.

That night was MST3k live! The theater was old as dirt. The kind of old as dirt where the flooring is bowing in. They had real strict rules on cameras and shit, which I get for the sake of spoilers but c’mon.... c’mon. Their merch sucked unfortunately though, so I didn’t waste any money on anything (for some reason they had 2017 tour stuff? It’s... not 2017?). The show itself was good, though I was wondering before it started how sick they must get of doing the same movie in different towns almost every other night. Pretty quickly realized oh, yeah, a lot of this show was likely pre-riffed. They did pull a kid from the stage at one point so he could guest riff off a script from Joel, which I’m thinking was a clever little insert fraction of the riff they did live between segments. I could be wrong, but on that front, it felt a little cheap. But it was still fun to see the boys and the bots live and have jokes cracked about not being able to afford the villains for the tour. And The Brain itself was........ I don’t know what I was expecting but..... it sure was.... something. The novelty was worth it and I will still gladly marry Crow T. Robot.

We went across the street to a little pub stop that was I think called Rock Bottom after that and got some much needed late night food. For some reason my brain was like “man, I could go for chicken fried steak right now” and don’t you know IT WAS ON THE FUCKIN MENU? WITH GARLIC CHEDDER MASHED POTATOES? Boston, much like with wings, does not know what country gravy is, but it was still everything I fucking wanted and did not expect to find, so A+. Also I was wearing a dress with shorts underneath it and stuck to the goddamn stool. Such is life.

Day five was rainy and miserable. I tagged along to university with Rach and it sucked, honestly. Being on a campus makes me feel awkward and the whole still being sick thing didn’t help. I ended up taking a walk way around the block to a Starbucks and getting the worst fucking frap I’ve ever paid too much money for. Went back around. Sat in the library. Felt even shittier. Started googling food places. Yard House wasn’t far but I didn’t want to deal with crossing a lot of traffic, especially if the rain started back up (it did, with a vengeance). So I ended up back around the block at some Olive Garden-esque fake Italian place with not an Italian in sight called Bertucci’s for some bland chicken-less fettuchini alfredo (because, as I’d reasoned with myself, I had chicken three times the day before). It was dimly lit, I had a booth to myself, and the water had the sweet skullet and braided beard combo I had liveblogged. People kept complimenting my tattoo. It was nice and no one seemed overly bothered that I was clearly killing time until I spent probably way too long in the restroom after trying to look alive. I tipped the dude ten bucks and left in the pouring rain with my umbrella.

From her school we took the world’s longest Uber to Parts Fucking Unknown in awful traffic and rain to find a Double Tree where @freakishlytallaustralian‘s parents were staying for a hot minute during their brief little US tour on their way to Europe. I’ve never met Mandi in person, but I’ve now met her parents who say she’s gotten to know a good bloke. She looks exactly like her mom. They were sweet. Anxious but sweet. And I am a freak who doesn’t talk and was sick trying to seem presentable at the bare minimum capacity.

Back ~home~ we ordered some JP Licks ice cream (BROWNIE BROWNIE BATTER!!! BROWNIE. BROWNIE. BATTER.), I watched CR and some stupid videos on the internet with her. Got some sleep. Sort of. Barely.

Despite Matt Mercer nearly succeeding at lulling me to sleep and eating my dreams, it didn’t happen, and I could not get comfortable for the life of me. The “coughing every five seconds in bed” started this night and was not having mercy. So I opted out of another day of hanging around campus to try and get some more rest. It didn’t really work, but I did eventually get a solid three hours or so, so it was something.

As the day progressed it was onward to the Science Museum to meet Ron the T-Rex. There was a wedding happening. How appropriate, for Bravier funko pops to have come along on the day of a blessed union. Coincidence? I think not. A turtle kept falling off a branch when he was trying to nap. There was some space stuff. It wasn’t great. But I got a little stuffed dinosaur and that’s Important.

From there we hit up the same movie theater we went to the year before and saw Bad Times At The El Royale. Do recommend. Chris Hemsworth as a Charles Manson was not something I ever thought I’d see, and I still don’t understand it, but it rather predictably works for me, so we’ll leave it at that. Good movie, good performances, good pacing and editing that could have easily not been. See it, it’s fun. Not perfect, but fun.

It was COLD AS BALLS after the movie and neither of us brought jackets or sweaters, so the walk to the train station and back ~home~ was a chilly one. We stopped in, got some warmth, and headed down the road past her old place to a bar. If we didn’t appreciate TWRP and PB enough already, the band she had to pay cover for us to get in for just to pick up food were about 8 upper middle aged men playing every instrument in the book. Afropunk, they said. No, we said. Offkey, we said. This place was dark as shit and loud as shit but you know what? They KNEW WHAT REAL, HOT CHICKEN WINGS WERE and for that, I am appreciative dammit.

Went back, got some more Dominos, and was finally introduced to John Mulaney’s (or two of) comedy specials. He’s genius and I *understand* it now, tumblr. I get it. We ate way too much and did my laundry.

The week had come and gone way too soon and I felt robbed of my good time by how shitty I felt. Hopping on the train the next day (after a godawful uber ride) was just as depressing as the time before. And even though I didn’t feel as miserable as the trip there, and once again had a window seat to myself, I found myself curled up against my hoodie crying trying to fall asleep again knowing I was already headed back home.

Once the initial depression passed, the trip wasn’t bad. The iced latte was good. The Albany stop not as confusing the second time around. The WiFi kept me company. Eventually my aunt texted me asking if I wanted to hit up Stevie T’s on the way home because they were 24hr and neither of us had eaten all night. It was a plan. Get off, get food, come home, faceplant on my own big comfy bed, vow to deal with my dad’s drama in the morning and call it a night.

Then *that* happened. Yeah. Last year? Every stop, regardless of time of night, they made announcements. They came by, checked the marker above your seat, and if you were due off at the next stop told you it was coming up, would help with luggage if needed, and directed you to the correct door to exit the train. This year? Nothing. They decided to stop making announcements right before the Rochester stop, and no one came by in our car to tell us where to get off. Stopped, myself and the other person due off at that stop, a late-teens girl, went to the door at the front of our car where every other stop had gotten off before us. We assumed since no one said differently, and no attendants were around, that must be it. We were idiots. Because by the time we realized hey, they’re not going to open this door and we should go to the far other end of the train, it was already moving again en route to Buffalo.

We found ourselves in the dining booths by the cafe car while the staff made vague remarks and the conductor acted like it wasn’t his problem. My aunt on the phone talked to the Rochester station, we tried to claim I didn’t even have a reservation until about two other people looked up my ticket. They said it was up to the conductor to get us a cab home, he laughed at us, claimed to know nothing about any of that, and asked if were were going to buy the bus tickets the other girl was looking up. The bus for 3am, in downtown Buffalo, nowhere near the station. When we got off the staff at the Depew station was a lot more sympathetic, and said since nothing else was being offered he would put us on the next train back home, but since it was a Sunday morning there was no train to Rochester until roughly 7:45am. It was about 1:30 at this point. I felt awful for encouraging the other girl not to pay for two ubers and a bus ticket with the only alternative being offered to sit alone in an empty, unstaffed station in the middle of the night for hours. And between the situation, being tired and still sick, and dealing with my aunt calling hotels only to get put on hold and lose the room she was trying to reserve - I put my bags in a corner, found the restroom, and had a panic attack. I don’t know why, but those tend to be stupid like that. It’s not even like I was scared, or confused, or that worried myself. I started out very ‘whatever, I’ll just get a room or stay in the station, I’m pissed but whatever’. But something about the constant calls and texts and my battery nearing 0 had me stressed and I was crying like a bitch. I just wanted to fucking sleep, and I knew that wouldn’t happen in a train station with nothing but some benches, a restroom, and a vending machine.

Rach suggested an alternative I felt guilty about taking but ended up going for: Get to her parents house just outside Buffalo, get their spare key, and sleep on their couch while they’re out of town with their blessing. So I called an Uber, and the first one passed me by, with the gps fucking up and saying I should be picked up ON THE TRAIN TRACKS. The second guy was smart enough to come to the cab pickup out front and was really cool. He said he was just thankful I wasn’t a fucked up drunk college party kid and the first all night. He didn’t comment on how I probably definitely looked like I’d just been broken up with in the world’s worst romcom. It was over 20 bucks and I tipped him the max. Found my way inside, set up the couch, and continued my momentarily on hold panic until I eventually passed out. My Aunt came to pick me up in the morning, I got carsick, we had mediocre diner breakfast and what’s after that isn’t news worth talking about. Isn’t it bad enough the tail end of the trip took up like a third of this post?

All in all... it felt like a disaster. I’m not gonna lie. In weird ways the stars aligned that TWRP would end up on Conan the night of their show and have to reschedule to the day I came to town, but I paid for it with otherwise bad timing and my body deciding against me having a good time. Fun was had, don’t get me wrong. The good was good and any chance to get away from... this, is appreciated, but it just seemed like everything went awry.

Mucho thanks to @conniecorleone again, for letting me crash on the futon and be my usual bland self, even blander while ill, and also buying me expensive cold syrup and a-many ubers.

We’ll see if Massachusetts and I ever cross paths again.

#sam does boston round two

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bdo-melesrp-olive · 6 years ago

Text

As the Heart Stirs

The day was chilly with the heralding of winter, the sky kissed with thick clouds that occasionally hid the sun from view as a light wind swept through Calpheon's streets. Olivette was out in her garden, gathering for her larder with a woven, tartan pattern shawl about her shoulders, wisps of loose strands from her braided hair rustled by the wind as she knelt amongst a row of carrots. She was taking a modest breakfast as she worked, a nearby try holding a jar of cider, a mixed berry compote, and a fresh sweet bun from her morning oven rested nearby as she worked, plucking fruit and vegetables from the soil and leaves to rest in her basket. She hummed softly to herself, the hustle and bustle of the busy streets of Calpheon a dull murmur today it seemed. She could feel the coming of rain in her bones and knew a storm was approaching but she was in no hurry, knowing she had time to complete her work before the first drops of rain would hit. She predicted by late evening the rain would start, the smell of moisture-heavy on the air and the clouds growing darker in the distance, preparing for their journey further inland from the sea.

Deoku stretched as he walked ridding himself of that last bit of early morning tiredness. The town of Calpheon still as busy as ever as he made his way through the hustle and bustle of the crowded streets. He looked up at the overcast skies as he let his mind wander a bit from Kenai, to the Macky situation a few days prior, future mission possibilities, and the letter from Olive that arrived the day of their planned date; further postponing it. The striker wondered as well about how some of his old friends were doing that he hadn't seen in a while. All these thoughts dancing through his mind as his body almost just moved along on its own, and before he knew it...there he was; just a few footsteps away from Olive's home to pay a visit. His green eyes glanced over the area noticing the half-elf out tending to her garden early this chilly morning. He approached and admired her focus on her work. "Ah..a lovely flower working in her garden.", he commented aloud to the elf. "Good morning Olive, do you need any help?" he smiled as he greeted her.

A small squeak of surprise slipped past full, pillowy lips as his sudden baritone gave her a small start, her body jumping a little as her lengthy ears perked up in surprise, clutching a bundle of skinny carrots to her chest as she blinked up at him with wide, duo colored eyes. She blushed but offered him a sheepish smile, "O-oh! Deoku... you surprised me." Her laugh was soft and meek as she placed her produce into her basket and pulled soiled gardening gloves from her hands, moving to stand so that she could greet him properly, dusting some dirt from the long thick layers of her skirt and gardening apron. When at last their eyes met, her smile was sweet and warm as always, fingers tucking back a stray strand of forest green hair that had slipped free from the thick braid woven at the back of her neck, falling down past her waist. "Good morning to you as well. I was actually just finishing up. Have you had breakfast yet?"

The tall man watched as she stood offering a hand to help her up from her kneeling position. "No, I haven't had anything to eat; not that I'm going to refuse a bite either", Deo chuckled. "I just wanted to get out and stretch my legs and breathe some fresh air. Sorry by the way if I frightened you:, he spoke. "I just wanted to come by and see you.", the striker smiled at her as he admired her eyes and full lips in the daylight. He reached out a hand offering to carry her produce filled basket for her. "How have things been?", he asked Olive as relieved her of the items temporarily.

She had timidly accepted his hand to help her up, her touch smooth and soft in his larger, rougher one but warm all the same against the chill of her own fingers. It brought a warmth to her cheeks she couldn't ignore and when he offered to hold her basket for her, she obliged. He was sweet in a way she had never known from a man and it was rather endearing. She couldn't help a shy but genuine smile whenever he was around. "It's alright. I tend to fall into my own little world when I'm tending to my garden." She flicked a pointed ear sheepishly. "But I have been well... forgive me for postponing our arrangement, I had so much work to catch up on before the winter snows hit. However, I am free now." She looked him over a moment, keen eyes ever perceptive, "You look like you have seen a rough couple of days yourself. Are you well? And how is Kenai? I admit I am quite fond of him." She let slip a soft, melodic laugh both breathy and sweet. "I have breakfast set up if you would care to join me. It is modest but it will do." she offered, gesturing to the tray she had out with the spread she had chosen for the day.

"I'd never turn you down, Olive. Of course, I'll join you.", Deo replied as they walked over to the table she had prepared. He found a safe place and sat her basket down gently, before pulling the chair out for her.. Once she was seated he sat down across from her; looking over the items she had on the table. He then proceeded to answer her questions, "Kenai is doing great. he was sleeping in last I saw him figured he could use a bit of extra rest. The job we were doing for the city guard took a lot out of him...both of us really. But it was worth it in the end if it will make things better for everyone." , he gave her a smile as he explained. "As for postponing the date; I don't mind. I figured something must have come up that required your attention. Unexpected things come up from time to time after all."

As they sat together, she listened to him speak, just as much intrigued by his voice as she was by his words. She uncovered the sweet rolls from the cloth they were wrapped in, nestled in their own basket and removed the lid from the mixed berry compote so that he could help himself, pouring another glass of cider for him as well. She regarded him curiously, "Oh? I didn't know you worked with the City Guard. I hope you both weren't hurt." Once her guest was seen to, she prepared another roll for herself, unraveling the layers like one would a cinnamon roll and popping chunks into her mouth. "Aside from the job, how have you been?" she implored, striking up a comfortable, casual conversation.

"Oh, we don't work for the guard in an official manner. They had a tough a task that was a bit much for them and let me a Kenai take care of it for them instead." , the man further explained to Olive as his green eyes watched her lovely delicate hands move about the table. "Neither of us was seriously hurt. Kenai took a little bump on the noggin and me one on the shoulder, but with a bit of care we're both fine now." Deoku grabbed one of the butter knives sitting nearby cutting open his roll smearing its soft fluffy insides with the strawberry compote. He took in a bite savoring the sweet taste and letting it melt in his mouth before chewing the rest and swallowing it down. "Mmm, that's really good stuff, Olive." , the striker nodded in approval. " Aside from the job we've been ok. Just keeping busy and getting to know the lay of the land, while taking time to stop and enjoy it; like now.", he gave the elf a light-hearted smile and wink. "It's important to give the body and mind time to heal and rest after all."

"Oh dear, poor Kenai." She gave a small concerned frown at the mentioning of his head injury, "So long as it is not serious... I am glad you both are alright." She took a drink from her cider and felt the tips of her long ears heat up at his compliment of her jam making skills, smiling sheepishly. "I'm happy you like it. My mother used to make jams and that's actually how she officially mat my father from what I understand." She smiled. "She was a sentinel stationed at Longleaf Outpost south of Calpheon. Despite the life of a soldier, she found happiness in little hobbies such as jam making. Father was running food rations from Calpheon to the outpost when his wagon was overturned and attacked by Cyclops in the area. My mother rescued him. When he was recovering from a head injury in triage, she brought him a jar of her famous peach preserve jam. That's how they met and fell in love, from what I understand." She smiled at the sweet story with a fond smile. "I learned how to make jams from her. All her recipes and secrets. It makes me happy to hear you like them."

"It's a great story. I can see why you became so good at making jam then..", he smiled. "And now here you are using strawberry jam to capture a man's heart as well.", Deo then playfully teased her. "Sometimes its the smallest of things that make people take notice of us. Some men and women think big things like tons of mansions, tons of gold and fur will get them what they want; and to some extent, it might. But then one has to ask is that person there for the items or for you?", he stated as he looked into the elf's beautiful eyes. "Well, earlier you asked how I was doing, but how about yourself? Aside from preparing for the winter have you been doing well?", he asked to avoid making her too nervous as he took a few sips of his cider.

She nodded lightly at his words as he spoke, managing to keep eye contact with him despite her bashful nature, chewing on a piece of her roll and swallowing before replying to his inquiry with an embarrassed smile, "I do not know about capturing your heart but I am happy to share what I have all the same. But... I have been well. Winter is always a busy time for me as I have to collect from my garden and restock my larder. Spring is just as busy, of course, replanting everything and what have you." She paused to sip from her cider, considering him thoughtfully from over the rim of her glass. "Was there anything you had planned for today? Or... is it a surprise?" she wondered.

"And here I was hoping that was your cunning plan all along... oh well.", he chuckled in amusement. "Hmmm....", thinking for a moment about how to answer her question as he ate another topped with the strawberry jam. "Some planned, some a surprise.' he grinned. "I like to leave a few things open and just seeing where it goes from there. I wanted to get in some training but I could help you get your winter supplies together as well; maybe mix the two together.", he gestured to her logs. "Good example over there. I'm sure you'll need those logs cut for firewood and cooking. I could help you with that if you'd like. Maybe it would free up your time if you had a hand to split your work.", Deo then took another drink of his cider looking back to her admiring the cute movement of her long ears.

The length of her ears perked up at his generous offer, her gaze shifting towards the small pile of logs she had yet to get around to splitting herself. She certainly needed them, especially with snow on its way. She looked back to him, hesitant, "Oh, but I couldn't ask you to do that- after all, you are my guest! I would be a poor hostess indeed if I had you doing my chores."

"Haha, it's not a problem Olive." , he reassured the lovely elf as he polished off one more roll and finished his cider. He wiped his hand with a cloth before standing. "Considerate it done.", Deo smiled to the kind woman before walking over tot he pile of logs. The tall man leaned over grabbing the logs moving them over beside the chopping block; placing one on to it. "This is a good chance for training too. Back at the temple, we had to do something similar to learn energy control and focus.", he mentioned looking over to Olive before focusing back on the log. The striker raised a hand and struck the log splitting it into two pieces cleanly. "We had to split wood, even stone, and steel cleanly without shattering it into numerous pieces or damaging the area under the item. Our control had to be precise.", he told the story while splitting another log. "As a striker, you have a lot power and destructive force but if you can't direct it and control; you could do more harm than good to the people and places around you.", he then split the third one cleanly sweeping the pieces off to the side with his foot before placing the next. "I remember when this was so difficult for me. I didn't think I'd ever make a good striker." he smiled a big smile looking over to Olive then chopped a fifth and a sixth. Deoku chopped four more and stopped for a moment. The man removed his vest not wanting to get it full of sweat this early in the day. He placed it aside and continued to cut the wood for Olive ensuring she'd have enough for winter without worry.

A grateful smile was offered his way as he insisted on taking care of the chore for her and when he rose to see to it, she too took to her feet, busying herself with clearing away the morning's breakfast items and dishes. While Deoku spoke, she observed him with a mixture of curiosity and awe as he parted the logs with but his bare strength concentrated through his hand, eyes wide as she marveled at him. She had never witnessed anything like it before. Whilst he continued to speak, she listened, nodding at length as she moved to her front door to deposit her burdens within, dishes to the sink and remaining jam to her shelves. "I see. It makes sense that such power has to be focused. It's really amazing." She disappeared inside for a moment then reemerged, dusting her hands off before collecting the basket of produce she had gathered earlier, letting the woven basket settle in the crook of her arm. For a moment, she allowed her attention to return to Deoku and his task, admiring the simple focus he had as he pinpointed his energy upon the desired spots and was rewarded with such precise results. Pointed ears perked with admiration. "It's amazing what the body can do when centered," she commented.

Deoku looked toward her smiling at her comment. "Indeed, and in the end, through all that hard work you become your own weapon and armor. The question then becomes once you have it...what will you do with it? Protector harm. I'm not sure I could teach anyone aside from Kenai with concerns of the worse of the two occurring", he said as he continued to split the logs in half for Olive; a nice sized pile accumulating at the side of the chopping block. "You know It's similar yet opposite to how elves draw power from the world and spirits around us to create their arrows. We strikers draw on something from within instead." , before he knew it, the majority of the logs were done with only a few left to go. The striker was sure this would at least cut a few hours off of Olive's list of task.

She listened to him as he spoke, always taking comfort in the sound of his voice, something about it resonating deep within her to make her heart stir and flutter. She offered him a soft smile as he finished up with her lumber, checking off a huge workload from her list of things that needed doing before the first heavy snowfall hit Calpheon. She offered him a dry hand towel from her garden apron pocket, a smock of sorts she always wore over her cotton dress when in her garden, offering him a means to wipe away any sweat he may have worked up. "Kenai is a kind boy. I admit, when I first met him, I was under the impression he was your son. May I ask how you met? He seems so young."

"Thank you.", the striker said as he accepted the towel from Olive to wipe away the sweat. He nodded as she spoke about Kenai and laughed a bit at her mention of him being Deoku's son. "Kenai is definitely a good kid, and while he may not be my son by blood I still think of him as one.", the man explained as he finished wiping off his upper body and walking over to a small tub of water Olive had outside for washing linen. Deo knelt down giving the towel a good wash not wanting to hand it back to the kind elf while it was still full of sweat. "When I found him Kenai was in a rough situation and had escaped an even harsher one before that. Though he was a mess at the time I could tell he was a great kid that just needed a chance and guidance. Someone to show him that not everyone in world is a bunch of users and abusers..", Deo told her his tale as he continued to clean the cloth. "So I sobered him up and took him traveling with me, and though it may have taken some time; eventually I started teaching him how to be a striker once he began to open up a bit more. "

Olive felt a tug at her tender heart for the boy's troubled past, watching Deoku intently as he spoke and after a moment, she offered him a kind smile, "He looks up to. I can see it in the way he regards you, especially when you are not looking." she remarked candidly. "It's a shame when the young suffer. But I am grateful to see he did not allow darkness to consume his heart." She turned to step inside her home, placing the basket of product from her garden upon her dining table. She began untying the tethers of her apron to remove it, revealing her simple chocolate brown cotton dress underneath, having always favored earthy tones as they complimented her complexion and hair. She cleaned up a little so that she was more presentable for whatever date Deoku had in store for them that day. Although her attire was simple, it certainly suited her.

Deoku hung the towel after he was finished washing it, and picked up his vest putting it back on now that he was clean again. "Yeah I can tell he looks up to me." he agreed with her observation. "Which is exactly why I try to be the best example I can be for him. Whatever he chooses to do I just want to make sure he's on the right path." , the tall man commented as he followed Olive indoors observing her removing the apron; eyeing the curves of the short lovely elf. He could feel a bit of the sweat return to his brow and wiped it away turning his attention to other areas of Olive's cozy home to distract himself. "Ah so gorgeous even when wearing something simple. That's when you know you're truly beautiful." , Deoku complimented turning his attention back to her with a bright smile. "Before we go do you need a hand with anything else Olive?", he questioned. "I wouldn't want you to fall too behind because of me."(edited)

His sincere compliment had a blush rushing to the tips of her elongated ears, his flattery always catching her off guard. Even so, she turned to him after she hung her apron on a peg in the wall by the door and offered him a sheepish smile, cheeks tinted rosy. "You are very kind. And very sweet... Thank you." She turned to face him fully then once she completed a quick mental checklist of the things she needed to do around her home, offering a small shake of her head. "No, nothing pressing. The most important of my chores are seen to for the time being. I appreciate your help." Her smile turned warm as her blue/green gaze settled upon him, noting his appraisal of her small home.

"I always love how welcoming your home feels." He looked down into the smaller woman's eyes noting her cute blushing ears and cheeks, "You're always welcome Olive; for the compliment and the help, but I'm just speaking the truth when it comes to the first." His green eyes scanned around one more time, "Well if you are sure that's all you need I guess we can be on our way. If you need my help with any of the smaller things when we get back just let me know." Deoku reached out offering a large hand to her with a smile, "Shall we?"

The heat seemed to only grow in her cheeks but her smile was soft and genuine. She followed his gaze about her humble home and beamed. "It brings back memories of my parents living in my childhood home. Mother always tried to keep it inviting so perhaps, in a way, I was following her ideals in that regard." she mused aloud. She turned to retrieve a shawl from the wall peg by the door before shyly accepting Deoku's hand, a brief shiver rolling up her back at the warmth of his hands, rough and calloused and yet surprisingly gentle around her own smaller one. They were hands that had seen battle and strife, untold hardships and yet they maintained a tenderness that made her heart swoon. "I'm ready."

"Well if your mother was anything like you then I'm sure she was a great woman and one worth picking up a few lessons from." Deoku smiled as he felt her small soft hands in his own. The two walked out of her home together and stopping to give her a moment to secure the lock on her door before continuing on. " I already told Kenai where I'd be so that shouldn't be a problem and left him with plenty of silver for the day.", Deo spoke casually as he walked with her along the ever busy roads of Calpheon. "I've waited a while for this. Being able to be with you like this," he remarked. "But I'd like to take you somewhere more special than this.", the striker spoke as he looked over to Olive. "Hopefully you'll enjoy it. It took some thinking but I have a feeling it was a good choice", he stated with a hint of delight and confidence.

She gazed up at him as they strolled casually beside one another, enjoying each others company. She felt her ears warm, realizing they still remained hand in hand but she didn't really mind it, much to her own surprise, content to let his warm ward away the chill of the winter air from her fingers. "I admit, I am a little excited. I've... never done this before," she admitted, abashed. She allowed him to guide her, a few citizens and guards they passed offering a greeting to the baker and she returning the gestures with warm ones of her own. It seemed she was a popularly familiar face among the city dwellers. They continued to traverse the city's streets and after a moment, Olive turned her gaze back to Deoku, hoping to learn more of him. "Might I ask where you are from, Deoku?" she implored, eyes inquisitive.

"What? Really?" The striker asked in a bit of a surprise. "I would think a woman as beautiful and nice as you would get asked out all the time.". "I don't know how all the guys in this city could miss such a jewel, but that's fine with me. It means I just have you all to myself." he teased with a warm smile. "I'm honored that I can be the first to do this for you then Olive.", Deoku gently gave the back of her hand a gentle rub with his thumb and they continued to walk and talk. Deo listened as her sweet voice ask him about his roots "Huh..", he thought for a moment. "You know I actually have no idea..", the man soon replied the further explained. "I was raised as a striker in Magoria; they even named me as far as I know. Beyond that, I have no clue where I'm actually from or who my parents are... Sorry if I can't give you a better answer on that one."

Despite the heat that settled, seemingly permanently, in her cheeks, she continued to observe him and listen as they walked, her expression softening as he revealed a bit more about his past. "I see. Forgive my prying... it must have been difficult growing up in such a manner." She frowned a little in thought, allowing him to steer her towards their mystery destination. Long pointed ears perked up then. "Tell me about Magoria? I admit I know almost nothing about it but I enjoy hearing stories from afar." She offered him another gentle smile, her duo colored pools alight with curiosity.

Deoku chuckled, "It's ok Olive you aren't prying and it's actually not that difficult for me. I don't mind that you want to know more about me", he assured her giving her hand a gentle caring squeeze. " I was a baby so the only family I ever knew was the strikers. Honestly, it's hard for me to be upset about people I've never met before. Between the strikers and our sister group of mystics I had plenty of brothers and sisters and few examples of what a father or mother would be like." , Deo explained. "Now as for Magoria it's a beautiful place and they are big on fishing similar to Euphoria except even more so. The land is full of a different type of natural beauty that you wouldn't see over here. I'd say the difference is like traveling from here and then going to Kamasylvia. Everything has a very unique look and feel to it.

" I think you'd love it if you saw it, and hopefully someday you will.", the man gave her a warm look as they finally reached their destination for the time being. It was the little flower shop tucked away around the corner from the inn. "Speaking of Magoria it's interesting that came up because I have a bit of a surprise for you." The shop keeper walked up greeting them both, "Ah so this is the lovely lady you spoke of Mr. Deoku. She's quite a popular one in our town." Deo grinned," Yes this is her. Olive this is Heather; Heather this is my date Olive." the man introduced them. "Did you happen to get them in today?" he then vaguely asked. The shopkeeper smiled and walked them over to some flower probably foreign to Olive but very familiar to Deoku. "Yes, here they are a few of Magoria's finest plant life. Here.." the owner reached for a few small bags she carried on her. "I saved these for you as thanks for helping me out." She gave Deoku a bag of various Magorian flower seeds as well as a few for one of its most recognizable trees. "Thanks a ton, I was hoping they'd be in today looks like luck came in my favor this time around.", Deoku said as he turned to Olive and gifted her the bag. "I know how much you love plants, and I wanted to give you something no one has on this side of the world. While it's still not Magoria it's least you can have a part of it over here with you."

Intrigue held Olivette's expression as she listened to her companion speak of what seemed like a whole other world, offering a small, warm smile as he spoke of the way he grew up. She desired to learn more in time, ever curious about the world beyond what she experienced herself. As they drew nearer to their destination, Olive's ears perked up, the fragrances of flora all too familiar as they came to the florist, a place she knew well enough as she often bought seeds from the woman now introduced to her as Heather. She smiled sheepishly in greeting towards the familiar face and waited as she and Deoku conversed before her and when her gift was placed in her hands, her eyes lit up with a mixture of surprise and excitement at encountering something completely knew that she could raise in her garden. A delighted smile graced her features as Deoku spoke, a glimmer showing in her blue/green pools. "This is wonderful! Thank you, so much- I love it!" It seemed the simplest of things was the best way to the half-elf's heart.

Deoku smiled at her reaction; happy to see the elf so delighted and happy. "You're welcome Olive. I figured something new for your garden would be a nice change for you." He then looked over to Heather, "Thanks for getting those for me, seems it was the right choice." The woman nodded to him, "Anytime Mr. Deoku, and if I need help with anything I'll be sure to look for you again." "Of course!", Deoku agreed before turning his attention back to Olive and softly took her hand to continue on with their date. "Anything else you'd like from here before we move on Olive?", the gentlemen asked his elven companion.

Olivette shook her head lightly, her cheeks flushed and warm from her happy blush, "No, this is more than enough." she promised, offering Heather a wave in farewell before Deoku took hold of her hand once again and they made their exit from the shop with a soft jingle of the bell attached at the door. "Thank you for such a thoughtful gift, I can not wait to plant it. I may start the small tree early in a pot on my windowsill." she mused thoughtfully with an excited smile.

The striker gave Heather a wave as well as the two of them exited and headed back into the busy road. "You're welcome Olive. I'm just glad that you're happy with it, which is all that matters.", Deo expressed looking into her bright appreciative orbs. "But the day is just getting started so hopefully you'll like the part as well.", he teased as the pair walked in the direction of one of the nearby city gates. "Out of curiosity Olive... I know you asked me about Magoria but how far beyond Calpheon have you traveled yourself?", Deo asked the kind woman at his side.

Olive contemplated as they neared the gates and passed through them, remarking after a moment, "To be honest, I've only been to Olvia, Velia, Heidel, and of course places around Calpheon. I've never really had much reason to travel further as I import the seeds I need through other means if it's beyond that. I was born in Trent and I have seen Longtree outpost once as a child but that's about a far south as I've ever been." Her expression turned sheepish, embarrassed by her own lack of adventure. "I suppose I'm just too shy and self-conscious to travel much. Poor experiences growing up but I've come to notice that as the time changes, folk are becoming more and more open-minded and inclusive. It's a pleasant change from the constant scrutiny and ridicule I endured as a child."

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," Deoku assured her. "There are people out there that have never even left the towns they're in. Never too far from the walls of Calpheon never outside of the town of Heidel and they are ok with that. Nothing wrong with living a simple life.", the tall man looked at Olive. "You're right though things have definitely changed a lot. You're definitely far from being the only half-elf out there these days. And even if you were I think once people get to know the great person you are they wouldn't care anyway." the striker gave a small shrug at the thought. "Despite what people think they should feel about you would be easily swayed." , the man explained as they finally reached the stable. Deo then approached the stable keeper, "Would you be able to bring Rain out for me? I'm going to need him for a few hours." The stable keep nodded and went to go grab the horse. After a few minutes of setting up the saddle, the man returned to lead the large animal out with is shiny greyish-black coat; like a living storm cloud.

Olive felt a smile settle on her face with his words. She knew he was right, folk nowadays didn't hold the same amount of prejudice they once did for half breeds like herself but old wounds left mental scars still in need of healing it seemed. Even so, she found that the more time she spent with Deoku, the more drawn to him she was. It wasn't an unpleasant realization either. Once they reached the stables her long elven ears perked up, curious. Once Rain was led out, she marveled at his beauty, holding out a hand in a gesture of peace and goodwill for the equine stallion to nuzzle so that she may rub the soft velvety flesh of his nose. "Should I retrieve Baylene from her stall as well?" She implored, clearly referring to her own mount now that it was made clear he wished to ride.

Deoku smiled as he watched her with his horse. "I think he likes you Olive. Though can't say I blame him. I kind of feel the same way." he gave her a playful wink. "If you want to bring your horse you can, but you're far more than welcome to ride with me. That was the only reason I didn't mention it before. He's more than able to carry the two of us.", he gave the faithful steed a nice rub along his mane. "Isn't that right buddy?" , the striker teasingly ask the horse to which it gave a bit of a snort in reply. "See! Even he agrees.", Deoku grinned to his female companion.

She considered it, her palm tenderly rubbing along the steed's muzzle. After a moment, she nodded, turning her attention to Deoku, "I don't see the harm in riding together...." She smiled meekly up at him. She had never ridden with another person before save for when she was a child learning with her father. She stepped back to let Deoku mount up first, admiring the stallion's coat. "he's a beautiful horse." she complimented.

"Well, I'm glad you're excepting my invitation ma' lady."Deo returned a smile back to her before approaching the horse to make his way up. Thank you. I'm sure he appreciates it as well. He was a gift from another elven friend I hadn't seen in a while. She loves breeding and caring for horses.", he explained as made his way up onto the horse's saddle. "Rain here was a gift for helping her out with a tough situation.", Deo finished as he reached out a large hand to help Olive up.

The lengths of her elven ears perked up at that as she accepted his hand, surprised by his strength with how easily he aided her up into the saddle behind him. She wasn't exactly the most slender of elves by any means, a fact she was always very self-conscious of. She settled in the saddle, arms going around his waist to hold on as the ride started and he would feel the ample mounds of soft warm flesh press in tight against his muscular back through the fabrics they wore in the process. "It sounds like you have known many elves... what were they all like?" she couldn't help but wonder, her natural curiosity seeping through with the mentioning of other elves, her own experiences having been rather bleak in the past.

Deo tapped the horse's sides with his heels setting it into motion. "You know Olive...I've been waiting forever for the day you'd hold me like this.", the striker teased jokingly. "And that's definitely not a complaint for the record. ",he stated, taking the horse into a mild jog as they headed southwest of Calpheon. "Other elves I've et tend to be a mixed bag. I've met a few really nice ones that are just people like you and I." Deoku began to then answer Olive's question. "Others as you may suspect that think they are better than everyone else though honestly, those are no different than the nobles you'd come across in Calpheon. There's also one really crazy one that I met but I choose to forget about that one. Out of sight out of mind.", he chuckled as they rode through Calpheon beautiful green landscape.

As Rain set off at a comfortable gait down the dirt roads of Calpheon's countryside, Olive held firm despite the deep blush she felt warm her face at Deoku's playful remark. The flush died away however as he spoke of the elves he had crossed paths with, once more intrigued. "Oh? I see... where did you meet them all? Magoria?" she wondered, her curvy figure bouncing in the saddle behind the Striker's firm, strong body. A bit of warmth returned to her cheeks as she realized how nice he felt, warm and sturdy against her and resisted the urge to snuggle against his powerful back as they passed through farmland.

"Oh no, I met all of them over in this part of the world. Elves are rarely ever seen over in Magoria." the man stated. "Actually Magoria doesn't get as many visitors as you'd think. The trip by sea can be dangerous if you don't know those waters well. All kinds of sea beast out there that attack boats and ships. The ghost ships are the worse. I wish I could say I was joking about those, but they are definitely real." Sensing the elf was in deep in thought Deo then mentioned, " Make yourself as comfortable as you want by the way. We still have a bit of a way to go. " Deoku steadily pulled the reigns having the horse take them more west after awhile on the trail. "The elves I met were in places as far as Valencia when dealing with some group of bandits for kidnapping and holding hostages for ransom. Others in Kamasylvia, and a few scattered about the land in Heidel, Velia, places like that."

She nodded as she listened, her gaze observing the land rush by as they continued on their journey, the sound of Rain's hooves upon the road rhythmic and steady. After a long moment, she spoke up again, "It sounds like you have seen a great deal of adventure. I would love to hear your stories." She sighed softly, "Perhaps one day I will have my own stories to tell. I'm afraid the life of a baker isn't all that exciting." she laughed.

"Sure I'd gladly tell you more about them sometime.", the man spoke over the rush of the cool wind breezing over them as they rode. "I'm not sure if I could say you not adventuring is a good or bad thing. If you're just traveling it's a great experience. In my case, it's usually more work related so sometimes it can be exciting but a lot of danger as well.", Deo explained to her. "As exciting as it may be to watch you toss explosive spirit cupcakes at some bandits; I think I enjoy you just the way you are. But don't worry if I ever get to travel with you I promise it won't be while I have a job to do." the man chuckled. Deoku took a moment while riding simply enjoying Olive's soft warmth of her chest and body pressing and rubbing against his back. Wishing he could feel her forever or pull her body even closer to his own. As adventurous and worldly of a man he may be he still loved sharing this close intimate moment with Olive.

Oliva laughed at his cupcake remark, shaking her head, "If I ever had to be in combat I assure you I wouldn't go in armed with sweets." She couldn't help but smile, the very idea was ridiculous. "Fortunately, I'm quite skilled with a bow. But if I can avoid it, I'd much prefer a peaceful adventure, I don't like violence." They now rode through the lush woodlands of Calpheon, an array of autumn colors rushing by as they rode onward. It was nice and quiet out save for bird song, the winter breeze prompting her to draw her shawl closer about herself, pressing closer to Deoku's warmth.

"Well, it's good to know you have that skill, especially in this world. The one thing I've learned about adventuring is you never know who or what you'll come across." , the striker remarked as they took one more turn; their destination coming into view in the distance. Deoku smiled to himself as he felt Olive press herself in closer to him and wished that the ride lasted longer than it had. "Ahh seems we are coming up on where I wanted to take you." Deoku slowed Rain to a trot as they approached Lake Kaia. He had the large animal walk them to an open area of grass by the lake. Tents and guards could be seen not too far away; with a few fishers on the pier In the far distance on the other side of the lake, Catfishmen could be seen going about their daily routine. As the horse came to a stop Deoku hopped off and reached up, "Sorry Olive.....", he stated kindly as he placed his hands upon her waist to help her off the horse. He held her close a moment as they made eye contact; not wanting to let her go before he gently places her down on the grassy land.

A smile graced Olive's face as they arrived at their destination, Kaia Lake still and peaceful with lush green of the woodlands surrounding the area. The Catfishmen paid them no mind and they were far enough away from both them and the camp on the opposite side of the lake to not be a bother to anyone. Once Deoku dismounted, she moved to follow, a blush blossoming on her soft cheeks as he caught her up in his strong arms and helped her down with ease, his playful remark making the blush spread to her ear tips. She met his gaze for a moment as he held her close but her shyness soon got the better of her and she looked away bashfully, settling with her feet now on the ground. "Th-thank you, Deoku..." she stammered.

"You're welcome pretty lady." Deoku replied to Olive as he set here onto the land. "Give me just a moment. I need to go grab something from one of the tents." , he said before quickly jogging over to one of the guard tents. One of the guards handing him what seemed to be rolled up linen. The striker thanked him and swiftly returned to Olive holding a rolled up blanket upon closer inspection. "We're going to need this," he commented to her with a smile. He sat the blanket down in a nice spot by the lake and unwrapped it. Inside was a brown picnic basket and two other smaller blankets; meant for keeping the two of them warm. "I brought this stuff out here earlier this morning before the sun rose and one of the guards promised to keep it safe for me." he grinned as he explained to Olive how he got these items to the lake.

She observed him with curious eyes as he moved to fetch the rolled up linen from the guard tent, her head canted to the side inquisitively. When he returned and revealed his intentions with the unfurling of the blanket, delight brightened her face. How long had it been since she had gone on a picnic? She couldn't even remember. Her smile was warm and happy upon her round features, the lengths of her elven ears perked high, "Y-you did all of this for me?"

"Hmm? Of course!" he smiled up at her as he removed some of the items from the basket. A bottle of cider, a couple of glasses, a few sandwiches and some delicious cupcakes. "You deserve to enjoy a nice day or be treated special too, you know.", Deoku couldn't help but notice her features as he spoke. "Haha Olive you have the cutest ears. Anyone observing can tell exactly how you feel. I love it." After getting the blanket set he patted a spot next to him."Hopefully, you'll enjoy it with me."

She couldn't help a soft, bashful giggle as he complimented her, her cheeks red as she sheepishly tucked a stray strand of forest green hair back behind an ear, moving to sit right beside him on the blanket, getting comfortable as she draped a second, smaller throw over her lap to keep her warm, a pleasant addition to her knitted shawl about her shoulders. "You are very sweet, Deoku. Thank you so much, this all looks so wonderful!" She smiled at him, a fond sweet smile at that, happy to be sharing such a moment with the striker at her side.

'You're more than welcome. As long as you're happy, and smiling that lovely smile of yours; that's all that matters.", he smiled a genuine smile enjoying having her near. Beautiful scenery and a beautiful lady made the setting complete for the striker. "I didn't want to overdo anything because you never struck me as being someone who likes things being overly extravagant.", he explained while grabbing the bottle of cider and popping it open. Deo then poured a glass for her and one for himself. He just wanted nothing more than to enjoy her company and nice view surrounding them.

Olive felt incredibly flattered. It was all so new to her and the fact he would willingly go out of his way to ensure all was perfect for her made her heart flutter. She beamed sweetly at him as she accepted her glass of cider, the rosy hue seemingly semi-permanent on her cheeks for the time being. It was clear she was more than happy with his efforts for the whole arrangement. "It's perfect." she reassured, "I lived a simple life for as long as I can remember and it honestly suits me fine. I prefer comfort to extravagance."

"Trust me, that is a nice change of pace. It's not easy finding a down to earth lady sometimes.", the striker stated as he took a sip of his drink. 'But out of curiosity if you could do anything, go anywhere or have something extravagant what do you think it would be?", Deoku wondered proposing the hypothetical question to Olive. He then looked out to the lake watching the calm movement of the water and gentle sounds of the water against its shoreline.

She sipped the tart and sweet beverage, thinking on the question. After a moment of careful contemplation, her duo hued gaze cast out upon the water she remarked, "If I could do anything, I think I would like to see the white tree of Grana. I hear its beauty is beyond compare... If I could go anywhere, I would like to see this Magoria you mentioned. It sounds so exciting and foreign. I would love to see if for myself. Perhaps gather some more seeds for my garden. As for something extravagant..." that gave a pause, thinking it over. "Well... I suppose I always wanted a little cottage someplace where the woodlands meet the countryside. Someplace out of town where its quiet and I can expand my garden and plant fruit trees. Maybe have a pond nearby. N-nothing too big or fancy mind, but someplace with just enough space for my children to play yet small enough to be warm and cozy."

Deoku stroked the hair of his chin a moment thinking on Olive's reply. "You know at first I figured the answers might be something most humans couldn't do in their lifetime.", the man chuckled a bit. "But I'm sure at least 2 of those I could do with you at any time and the third would just take some work and being wise with coin." he told Olive as he picked up one of the sandwiches that had seasoned chicken, lettuce, and tomatoes inside.

Olive looked to him, curious, "Oh? I felt those were pretty grand, to be honest." She gave a little laugh, sheepish, "But then again, I suppose elves have far grander ideals. I'm a child of a soldier and a baker so simplicity, comfort, practicality, and ideals for a stable future with a family always stuck out as prime goals to strive towards. I guess demands of golden elephants and crystal castles would be more along the lines of what you were thinking." she offered him a little smile. She reached for a sandwich as well, the length of one of her ears giving a casual flick as a tiny white butterfly chose to alight upon it as a perch. Deoku would perhaps also notice that a rabbit had strayed closer than one would expect, nibbling at a patch of clover not too far away and in a tree above them, a chipmunk sat grooming itself in the boughs overhead. It seemed creatures were drawn to Olive's presence even if she wasn't aware of it.

The striker's green eyes watched the lake as Rain wandered into his vision taking in his fill of water lakeside. Deoku laughed from Olive's comment," Something like that. I just expected whatever it was would be something unattainable by human standards." "But there's nothing wrong with those things. It just further shows the type of woman you are that even your biggest dreams are still humble ones." he smiled to her before taking a nice bite of his sandwich; savoring the taste of the well-seasoned chicken and fresh bread. "Hmmm?", Deoku noticed the rabbit close by nibbling its food. "Guess we aren't the only ones enjoying a snack at the moment." , he commented after swallowing his bite.

Olive smiled, seeming in her element, the butterfly previously pestering her ear now settling itself on her head. She enjoyed her sandwich, looking Deoku thoughtfully. "What of you?" she asked, further clarifying, " If you could do anything, go anywhere or have something extravagant...what would it be?"

"Well, the anything I'm already doing.", he answered as he looked to Olive. "As for anywhere...I've always wanted to visit the hot springs on Dreg. It's one of the few lands I haven't ventured to yet.", Deo mentioned as he finished off the last of his sandwich and drank more of his cider from the glass to wash it down. "As for anything. Hmm hadn't really thought about it. Probably it would be starting a family of my own. Or maybe a really nice set of armor...", the striker thought for a moment. "Nope, definitely the family thing." he commented again after remembering what he told Kenai about eventually having a family of his own and settling down.

Long ears flicked upwards as her interest was peaked once again, leaning in closer as she asked, "Have you and Kenai traveled far? It seems like the two of you have seen so much. Did he come with you from Magoria?"

Deoku nodded happily that the female elf he so admired was interested in him." Yeah, the two of us have traveled many places together over the years. Out to the as far as Valencia, and as far south as Grana. ' the man explained to the curious elf. "By the time I met Kenai I was already over here in this part of the world. I had finished a job for the Queen of Grana and a few other quests and jobs under my belt at that point as well.", Deo scratched his head in thought for a moment. "When I think about it's a good thing. The me that I was back then probably wouldn't have been able to take Kenai in. I was just starting out and far too inexperienced to have an apprentice."

Olive hummed softly, dipping her chin in a small, thoughtful nod. She tipped from her cider, her hand on the blanket beside her supporting her weight in a casual lounge, fingertips close enough to touch him without realizing it. Bird song overhead added to the peace and quiet of the area, a few ripples appearing on the calm waters surface evidence of fish feeding upon any insect that flew low enough. "The Queen of Grana... wow." there was clear awe in her tone. "That's... really amazing, actually."

"Well, it was amazing in some sense.."Deoku remarked in amusement. "You see it's not me that the Queen wanted but instead one of the senior strikers.",he explained as he sat in a more relaxed half Indian style position; one leg positioned in normal Indian style manner while the other was positioned more upright with an arm resting on his knee. The other arm supporting the rest of his weight as he was sitting. His fingers gently coming into contact with hers as he got more comfy to tell his story. "The senior striker made up a lie as to why he and the other more experienced strikers were too occupied to be the ones to take on the task. The reality was any of them could have done it, but it was to be my final test as a striker in training.", Deo spoke gazing over the elf's love facial features as he did. "I thought it was a pretty big task placed on my shoulders to be a test. Especially with others lives involved. I didn't really react outwardly when I heard it, but in my mind, I was freaking out.", the normally confident striker admitted. "I was young at the time having just turned 20 earlier that year, zero real-world experience, and THIS of all things was to be my first mission?! Is what I was thinking. ", the man paused a second..."But she reluctantly accepted since she was desperate to have the task done.", he chuckled remembering look on the Queen's face when he was her only option.

As the rugged man spoke, Olivette found herself subconsciously leaning in closer, captivated by his narrative, her natural curiosity lighting up her green/blue eyes. Their fingers touched without her realizing it, too interested in his story to notice. "A task from the Queen? I can only imagine how important it must have been. I don't blame you for being so anxious. It's a huge responsibility!"

He nodded in agreement to Olive's words," It was as important as it sounds. Two of her daughters were being held captive by a pretty large gang of bandits. " Deoku loved Olive's curiosity and the proximity that diminished between the two of them as they discussed the tale. "It was either pay the ransom, get them back, or neither have them sold into some form of slavery. And I could only imagine the cruel things they'd do to them and even worse when those bandits were done they'd probably end their lives just because they could.", the striker recalled the situation of his first assignment.

She hung on every word, eyes going wide. her eyes searched his handsome features expectantly as she distractedly raised her cider for a drink, "How did you rescue them? Were you alone?" She couldn't help herself as the questions boiled to the surface. He intrigued her and the more she learned of him the more he captivated her. She wanted to learn as much about him as he would allow and tales of harrowing adventures were a bit of a weak spot for her, having lived such a boring life as she had thus far.

"Ha, well...there was a lot to it. I wished it was as simple as rescuing them.", Deoku reached for one of the cupcakes as he continued his story offering the tasty treat to Olive's lips. "First there was the matter of tracking them down. We knew the region but I had to find people who things and since it was Valencia; getting cutthroats and thieves to talk isn't easy without either brute force or a lot of silver. And as a striker that just went out into the open world, I had very little silver.", Deoku looked into her blue and green eyes wanting nothing more than to lean in and place a kiss upon her lips but continued with the tale of his first adventure. "After getting a location of where the bandits held all of their newly found catches. I decided to sneak in during the night when many were tired or asleep. That part went pretty well. I took out the guards that were on night duty and got the princesses out of there." , the man stopped for a moment. "Everything that occurred after is where things kind of went wrong to some extent...Chalk it up to inexperience.", the striker explained with a sigh.

Olive paused to consider the cupcake a moment, color rushing back to her cheeks as he offered it to her but rather than bite from it, she raised a hand to accept it from him, offering a small smile of thanks. "I see. Was that how you got your thirst for adventure? Or was it more that you wanted to continue helping others that you continued on your path?" She canted her head at him, taking a little nibble from the treat, still far too distracted by him for much else.

"I'd say it was just more of me wanting to help others and less about the adventure.", Deo stroked the hair of his chin at the thought. "It's just that the two went hand in hand to accomplish that. Don't get me wrong though a sense of adventure was definitely there, especially since I spent my entire life in the temple training up until that point.", he smiled at her. "It was great to finally see what the rest of the world was like.", Deoku commented as he watches her full lips take a bite of the cupcake.

She nodded, thumbing a bit of frosting from the corner of her mouth, "I hope I too can see more of it someday. I've always found an excuse to stay in my home and garden whether it be having no one to tend to them while I'm gone, being unskilled, or even being afraid. It makes me both nervous and interested at the same time. I want to see more of the world but I'm afraid I won't be able to handle what such new experiences may bring."

"Well I'd gladly travel with you.," the striker smiled a sincere smile to Olive. "Not to mention with me and Kenai around you wouldn't need to feel afraid. We'd always look out for and I definitely know that I wouldn't let anything happen to you.", Deoku assured her resting a hand gently upon her own.

With her treat finished she hummed quietly at his promise, feeling his hand finally settle over hers, calloused and warm. A blush slowly rose in her cheeks as her eyes fell upon their hands and slowly rose to meet his green gaze staring intently back at her, compassion and sincerity in their depths. A light winter breeze ghosted past, rustling the loose strands of her hair, causing the forest hues to shimmer in the soft sunlight. "I... I know you wouldn't." she reassured, feeling confident in the statement with how certain he was. It made her feel unexpectedly warm and fuzzy inside.

Deoku gently brushed one of the lovely loose strands away from her face. His thumb giving her cheeks the most gentle of rubs as he did; something most wouldn't expect from someone such as a striker like Deoku. "You're so beautiful," he commented to the woman beside him. Olive's presence was so welcome and new to him. He found himself not wanting to leave elf woman's side. "I'm glad you trust in me to keep my word, Olive."

She couldn't help the soft smile that touched her full lips, keeping Deoku's gaze locked with hers. The brush of the pad of his thumb along her soft skin sent a pleasant tingle down her back, only making that warm feeling growing inside her, her heart fluttering in her chest. One could call the situation romantic as the two of them sat so close together, speaking soft words to one another, the surrounds picturesque and serene. There was a tenderness to him Olivette had not expected and the more she saw of it, the more she realized just how special he was becoming to her.

He returned her smile and gaze, enjoying the soft skin of her round cheeks. "We can't forget those sparkling blue/green eyes or that unique lovely forest green hair of yours.", Deo complimented her further with as his other hand lightly held hers. For him, it felt like time had just come to a halt and he was in no rush to see it start moving again. He still couldn't figure out how such a great woman had never been approached before. We're people really so hung up on her lineage that they let that stop them from seeing her for who she truly was? Or perhaps she was approached and didn't notice because others didn't make it clear to the innocent woman? All Deoku knew was that he wanted to kiss the woman in front of him but he didn't want to scare her away. Sharing this moment of closeness was fine with him, and made the man feel a warmth inside that he hadn't felt for a lady in years.

His sweet words made the tips of her pointed ears turn pink, curling slightly. His compliments flattered her and she couldn't help a bashful titter, elven ears quivering in response. Just as he noted before, it was easy to pinpoint her moods as her expressions reached more than just her face. Her cheeks tinted a deep rosy hue, momentarily averting her gaze from his but she didn't pull her hand away, content to feel his touch, the feeling from the brush of his touch fingertips against her cheek after moving aside stray strands of hair still lingering. She didn't know what to say. "Y-you are very k-kind...." she peeped, shyly.

"Just speaking the truth...", he said as he watched her various shy emotions play out in front of him. For the few times they've met so far it was always one of Deoku's favorite things about her. Not to mention fun to watch since she was so cute and timid. With some people male or female; one would often have to guess what was on their mind. In Olive's case, she was not only honest with her personality and words but her expressions as well. "Hopefully you've been enjoying our time and picnic together.", the striker said knowing the obvious answer.

Her smile was sweet and sincere as she nodded, meeting his gaze once again, pure happiness in her features. Olive had always been an open book, wearing her heart on her sleeve. It wasn't surprising the Striker picked up on the little cues and quirks that made Olive so uniquely telling with her emotions. "I am. This has been so wonderful... I can't remember the last time I got to enjoy something like this." She giggled sheepishly, "It's a bit romantic."

"Then if it's romantic; I'd say the mission was a success.", Deo teased his elven date. "Aside from wanting you to be happy everyone wants their date to have a bit of a romantic tone to it. ", he laughed lightly. "Makes it worthwhile to see those blushing cheeks and cute ears react to it as well. It's just a shame no one has treated you this way sooner.", the striker playfully traced a finger along the edge of her ear before returning to lightly caress her cheek. "Now that you have me around though I was hoping you would be willing to enjoy being romanced or treated special."

The feel of his finger brushing along the length of her ear was both a tickling and seducing sensation, causing heat to blossom in her face as she laughed, her ear twitching beneath his touch before those fingers returned to caressing her cheek. It was a devilishly tender grace of his warm skin against hers and she suddenly found her own hand rising to rest gently over his, holding it in place against her face. She couldn't help but lean into his palm, he was so sweet and candid, it was pleasant to finally find someone unbothered by her heritage, eager to learn more about who she truly was and desire to spend moments like this with her. She smiled tenderly up at him, the sunlight now catching the color of her eyes, making them almost glow with the richness of the color in their depths. "Yes... I think I would like that... very much so."

Deoku smiled, "So would I Olive..." He could feel the heat in her cheeks growing. The striker imagined the cool weather is probably not even affecting her at this point. Deo soon felt her hand come up and grasp his gently with her soft warm skin. That's when he felt slight snuggle into his hand. As the sun caught her dual colored orbs he looked into them; almost lost in their brightness and gem-like hue. Deo then scoots a bit closer to her so he could wrap his other around her. He wanted nothing more than to simply hold the beautiful woman close and enjoy her company.

Olive melted into his embrace, his strong sturdy body like an oak wrapping her in warmth and tenderness, captivated by the scent of him and his gentleness, the sincerity on his words making her heart flutter as it raced within her bosom. Her head rested against his shoulder, a sigh of soft contentment on her lips as she enjoyed being held for the first time. She would be soft in his arms, the scent of brown sugar and vanilla with a hint of cinnamon clinging to her hair and clothes, sweet but not overpowering.

"Mmm, You smell even better than your treats," Deo remarked once she was close enough to him. Enjoying the feel of her cuddled up against him. Loving her warmth and feel of her heart pounding away in her chest. The striker chuckled a bit with her in his arms, "I was thinking there was a time when you would have ran away from me like a timid bunny if I even thought about holding you." Deoku softly spoke to her as he gently held Olive allowing her to just sink in and enjoy the feeling.

Olive felt a blush heat her face but she continued to remain nestled against him, not wishing to part from just yet. "I... I trust you." Her voice was soft but certain. Her gaze rose to meet his, sheepish but earnest, long lashes brushing along the tops of her rosy cheeks as she blinked.

"And I'll make sure to treasure that trust you've placed in me.", he assured her as he looked down into her gaze. "All you have to do is just relax and enjoy the moments just as you're doing now." Deoku gently ran his fingers through the dark green hair resting along her back. Her cute face looking up at him is probably something he won't be able to get out of his dreams later tonight he thought while enjoying this intimate time with Olive.

A happy hum escapes her as they sat side by side on the blanket looking out over the river as the time crawled by. The bird song overhead was soothingly melodic and the gentle flow of water was like a lullaby. It had been a long time since Olive felt so happy.

Deoku relishes his time spent with Olive in his arms, taking in the view. His green eyes look over the landscape and watch eventually his gaze lands on Rain. The horse is slowly grazing by the lake enjoying its time out of the stables for a change but never roaming too far off. Things were simple and uncomplicated just the way it liked it. Good food and better company; Deoku would have it no other way.

Time seemed to slip away from them as they sat there together enjoying the feel of one another and the serenity of the land around them. His embrace was comfortable and loving, consuming her like a warm blanket on a cold winter's night. Her head continued to rest upon his shoulder, her frame now nestled against his side as they watched the land around them carry on. A soft sigh graced her lips as she looked up to regard the time of day by the position of the sun, which was already dipping past midday. The mornings ride too up some time and they had been picnicking in this spot for a couple of hours now. Where did the time go? she wondered.

[WIP]

#short story #deoku #IC happenings

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jungkookienoona · 7 years ago

Text

The Meme and His Tutor

Part 36: The Time The Bangtan Got Drunk

Co-written with @jiminieblush

Recommended Song: That’s My Jam by B.A.P

|All Chapters|Masterlist|

Summary:

Food shopping and Timberlands, what more could the day bring?

Genre: Fluff, comedy

Pairing: Jungkook X Reader (Y/N)

Warnings: Swearing

Word Count: 7143

Length: 36/?

With the album release happening soon, you were pretty surprised to find Jungkook outside your door with Namjoon and Jin in tow. Without an explanation, you were convinced to change out of your pyjamas and into warmer clothes; the weather was getting progressively colder as winter was drawing nearer. The three men entertained Miri while you bundled up and slipped on a pair of tired looking boots.

"Where are we going?"

Jungkook scratched behind Miri's ear, gushing over her cuteness with Namjoon. You were glad those two had patched things up.

"Shopping. I was thinking just food but it looks like you need boots too."

You looked down at the scuffed up toes of your boots and frowned at the peeling leather. "I've been saving up for a pair of Timberlands like yours, Kookie."

There was a groan from Jin as he rolled his eyes. "Of course Jungkook's girlfriend is also into Timbs."

Your nose scrunched as you scowled. "They're sturdy and good for winter! They also provide great ankle support."

Jungkook turned his attention away from Miri. "I’ll buy you a pair- an early birthday present."

You caught Namjoon nodding out of the corner of your eye. "There's a hole in your right sole. That'll be no good if it rains."

A glance at the bottom of your foot confirmed that there was indeed a hole in the heel, a stone wedged inside. You bent down and picked the stone out before glancing at Jungkook.

"You've already spent so much money on me."

He gave Miri one final pat before straightening up and making his way over to you. He wrapped the ends of your scarf around his fists and gave them a gentle tug.

"I'm buying my Jagi a birthday present even if you refuse."

You pouted. "You don't have to buy me expensive presents. I appreciate sentimental value over monetary value."

He smiled and pecked you on the forehead. "I'll get you a matching pair, a couples item."

Jin clearing his throat made you step away from each other, and you went about checking you had everything ready to shop.

Namjoon held your front door open, and you slipped your hand into Jungkook's as you walked down to the car. Idle chit chat happened between Jin and Namjoon as they discussed the upcoming comeback. Though they made sure not to go into too much detail as you had told them you didn't want it spoiled for you. You were still an ARMY, after all. Jungkook hummed quietly to himself, a small smile on his lips.

You squeezed his fingers to get his attention. "You seem happy."

He shrugged. "I am happy. Tired... But happy."

Down in the underground car park, Jin and Namjoon climbed into the front seats while Jungkook opened the backdoor for you.

"Well... after shopping maybe you and I can curl up and have a hot chocolate."

He beamed at you. "Can I sleep over too?"

You ran a mental check of the following day's schedule. The only thing that came to mind was an online lecture. But that wasn't until late afternoon.

"Sure. As long as you remember to pick up your pjs."

"I'll buy some bottoms while we're out."

You smiled and buckled yourself in. Jin started up the car and Namjoon connected his phone up to the stereo via Bluetooth, sparking a conversation between him and Jungkook about the artist which was playing. It was great to see they had patched things up, especially with Jungkook getting his own studio. Namjoon had always been someone Jungkook looked up to and admired so maybe Namjoon would take him under his wing and guide him.

Before you knew it, Jin was turning off a main road and into what seemed to be a more residential area of the city. Skyscrapers lingered a few miles away but for the most part you were surrounded by low rise businesses and housing.

He pulled into a supermarket car park and cut the engine.

"Alright everyone, masks and hats."

You looked around a little surprised, having forgotten that as idols they probably needed to disguise themselves when doing everyday stuff. Jungkook's somewhat carefree attitude towards your public outings had become the norm to you which meant you didn’t have either item. But you were once again surprised when Jungkook pulled out two of each. He slipped on a black beanie and handed a red one to you. Coincidentally, it matched your scarf.

You took one of the black masks and hooked it over your ears before pulling the hat on. You made a mental note to find the kitten mask Jungkook had given you many months ago.

"It’s sad we have to hide your pretty face, Jagi."

You shrugged. "I'm more upset I can't see yours."

You could just make out the signs of his bunny grin as his nose and cheeks crinkled.

"Okay, okay, split it up love birds. We got shit to do." Namjoon said, turning to face you, one hand grasping the back of Jin's seat.

Jungkook chuckled before settling back into his seat.

Jin looked to the leader. "What's the plan?"

Namjoon scratched his cheek in thought. "Y/N, you and Jungkook get the groceries for your apartment. Hyung and I will shop for the dorm."

You nodded, opening the door to hop out, swiftly followed by Jungkook and his hyungs. They fixed their masks into place and you began towards the entrance.

You took your phone out when inside and opened up the start of a shopping list you'd been compiling over the past few days.

"This is going to be expensive isn't it?"

Jungkook just silently patted you on the shoulder in consolation. You glanced behind you and pointed to the trolleys.

"That shall be needed."

Jungkook went over to get one and skid back over to you. "Hop in."

"No."

He pouted like a toddler denied of sweets. "Please~ Jagi."

You shook your head. He wasn't going to get you to sit in the trolley again like he had when you got the re-decoration supplies. He sagged against the trolley handle but didn't push you any further.

You looked down at the list then at the signs above the aisles. "First thing: milk."

He perked up. "You should get banana milk. It's cheaper than regular milk."

"I'm here to fuel my addiction not yours,” You mumbled, starting off away from the entrance.

He made a noise of complaint but followed along behind you until you reached the dairy aisle. You picked up your preferred choice of milk and quickly converted Korean won into British pounds.

"Jesus Christ! 2 pints of milk here costs the same as 4 back home!"

He pulled a face as if to say 'I told you so' and grabbed a carton of soy and banana milk.

"These are the cheapest. I suggest banana cause it tastes better."

You looked between the both of them and took the banana milk from his hand, placing it in the trolley with the regular milk.

"I'm willing to give the banana milk a try, but for today I'm still buying my normal milk."

He put the soy milk back on the shelf and turned to you with a cheeky grin. "Soon you will join me in the banana milk loving ways."

You scoffed. "I doubt it. It's full fat or nothing for me, baby."

You saw his eyes widen at the pet-name and you smirked beneath your mask. That reaction was priceless.

"Jagi, what's next?"

You looked back down at your list. Maybe you should've picked up these items as you passed them looking for the milk...

"I want to try and make my own Kimchi so the spice doesn't kill me."

Jungkook looked at you fondly, probably remembering your first trip to Korea. Your own mind went back to your near-death experience at the dinner table in the dorm.

"We don't want that to happen do we? I'll lead the way."

You followed along beside him through the store until he turned down the spice aisle. He slowed down to eye-up the shelves and shelves of product. You watched as he reached up and plucked a small, resealable bag of chilli flakes off the shelf.

"This should last you a while as you won't need much... at least to meet your taste requirements."

He smirked as you crossed your arms childishly. "It’s not my fault I grew up eating bland food."

He placed the packet in the trolley. "I'm sure after a while your taste buds will grow accustomed to it."

You grumbled to yourself as he led you down more aisles, picking up baechu cabbage, asian chives, spring onions, daikon radish and other necessities. He then led you to an aisle full of containers.

"These are what you make kimchi in nowadays. It used to be in earthenware pots but they're heavy and breakable. Though some still use them."

You put a few in the trolley. "Anything else you think I need?"

"Fish sauce though you could use a light soy sauce instead. And most normally have a small bit of meat or fish included."

You screwed your face up despite your mask hiding it from view. You added the bottle of soy sauce to the growing pile in the trolley.

"Definitely no meat for me."

Jungkook nodded to your phone, "Anything else you need?"

"Just some uh... feminine things..."

"Oh..." His hand went to the back of his neck as it usually did when he felt awkward. "I don't know where they are..."

You thanked god that your mask was covering your blush.

"Looks like we're going on a mini adventure... though you don't have to come into the aisle with me. I know it makes some guys...awkward."

He shifted on his feet but shook his head. "No, no. It's fine. You're my Jagi. I wouldn't be a very good boyfriend if I didn't know about those...things."

You were shocked to say the least. "O-oh! Yeah... true..."

The two of you looked at each other before looking away. He turned to grab the trolley. "Come on then..."

"It'll probably be near the shampoo section."

He wandered away and you followed behind, checking down every aisle until you recognised the colourful boxes and packets on the shelves.

"BunBun, wait! You walked past."

He skidded to a stop and spun in a circle, coming back over to you.

You gulped as you led him down the aisle. You had never bought or even mentioned feminine products around men before, only having heard through friends that the men in their lives didn’t care much or wanted anything to do with the ‘grossness’ of feminine hygiene. It seemed Jungkook was awkward, but willing to accept that fact of life.

You'd stopped to scan the wall of products to decipher what you needed. You were very much aware of Jungkook fidgeting, picking at the string of his mask.

"I'll try to be as fast as possible."

"D-d-don't worry about it. Take as long as you need."

Your need to translate the Korean slowed you down but you soon found what you needed among the large selection of choices. You went on your tiptoes to grab them but only succeeded in pushing them further away towards the back of the shelf. Fuck. You were too short. Typical. You let out a grunt of frustration but a hand on your shoulder and a warm body pressing against your back startled you.

"I've got it, Kitten."

Jungkook reached up and grabbed the packet with ease.

"Just one?"

"Two please." You always liked back ups.

He got another and tossed them into the trolley, mumbling to himself something too low for your ears.

"What was that?"

His head whipped around. "Hm? Oh, nothing. I'm singing."

You narrowed your eyes but didn't push it.

"Is that all you needed?"

You checked your list.

"Just a few more bits and bobs."

Jungkook gave your hand a gentle tug as he sped up towards the lit up store front. You glanced behind at Namjoon and Jin who were too busy chatting to notice you advancing.

"BunBun, slow down." You giggled when he picked up the pace.

He immediately slowed. "Sorry. I'm just excited."

"I'm just getting a pair of shoes."

He let out a scandalised gasp, eyes blowing wide.

"Just buying a pair of shoes? We're getting your first pair of Timbs."

You rolled your eyes with a giggle.

"How long have you wanted to do this?"

"Since I knew I loved you."

"Yeah right."

"Are you doubting me? I never lie about anything to do with Timberlands."

You gasped in mock shock, a hand to your heart.

"What about me?!"

He glanced around before quickly lowering his mask and pressing a kiss to your cheek before fixing the mask back in place.

"Or you, Kitten."

Your brief exchange gave Namjoon and Jin enough time to catch up.

"I wonder if the store staff are going to recognise you Jungkookie. You're a regular customer after all." Namjoon joked, nudging the youngest with his elbow.

Jungkook turned to you. "I'll introduce you, Jagi. They might give you discount if you go in again without me."

"And here I thought you did most of your shopping online."

He shrugged. "I usually do. But for Timbs I make the exception."

He sent you a wink and pushed open the door to the store. A member of male member of staff looked towards the entrance as you walked through and beamed.

"Jungkook-ssi! Nice to see you again! And you brought company!"

The staff member nodded to Namjoon and Jin who raised a hand in a wave. Jungkook gave your hand a light squeeze.

"This is my Jagi, Y/N."

They awed. "Aren't you both just adorable. What brings our best customer here today?"

Jungkook pointed down to your worn out boots. "I refuse to let her walk around in those abominations any longer."

You shuffled in the trusty boots.

The staff sighed. "So what are we thinking? Classic tan...black...something colourful and exciting?"

Jungkook pulled down his mask. "I was thinking maybe she could have a pair that matches mine."

"That still leaves a lot of options." They laughed as they gestured for you to follow them. He led you over to the back wall where every height and shade of Timberland boot was on display.

"How about a pair that matches your classic tan pair?"

Jungkook shook his head.

"What about a matching silver pair?"

"I was thinking about getting her a black pair. They'll go with most of her clothes."

The staff member turned to you, a black pair in one hand and the tan in the other.

"What do you want?"

You took a moment to think.

"Black. They'll go well with the 3 dresses I own and everything else."

The staff put the tan shoe back and asked for your size before disappearing out the back to find a pair. Meanwhile, the four of you wandered around the store. You giggled as Jungkook practically bunny bounced from display to display. Namjoon admonished him for behaving childishly in public.

"But Oppa, look at him.” You spoke up, watching Jungkook with a goofy smile on your own face. “He looks like such a baby. Those overalls, the glasses and that striped sweater!"

Namjoon chuckled. "He does look like an oversized toddler."

Jungkook turned and stuck his tongue out at his leader. His beanie making him look even more like a toddler.

"My baby boy."

Jungkook spluttered and Namjoon smirked.

"Aw, hear that Jungkookie? Your noona says you're her baby boy."

You smothered a giggle as Jungkook pulled his mask back up but not quick enough to hide his reddening cheeks. The staff member returned with a box to the sound of Jin and Namjoon's laughter. Your own cackles spilled out at the staff member’s confused expression.

"She's definitely the one for you Jungkook-ssi."

Your boyfriend walked back over and wrapped an arm around your waist, pressing a kiss to your temple.

"She is… Jagi sit down and try them on."

You did as he said, feeling rather self-conscious about how worn out your beloved boots looked. They were about to go into retirement. The staff handed you the Timbs and you slipped them on, standing up and stomping to make sure your foot was thoroughly inside. You wiggled your toes and paced around the store until eventually giving the staff member a thumbs up.

"Glad you like them, will you be wearing them out of the store?"

You nodded.

"Okay. If you could come up to the till please so we can get those paid for."

You hesitated for a moment. "How much will they be exactly?"

"Those are 247,500₩, miss."

Blood drained from your face as your brain did the maths. £170 for a pair of boots?! You looked up when you felt a hand against your lower back. Jungkook stepped forward already holding his wallet.

"I'm paying."

The staff member gave you a smile and nodded to the till point. Jungkook went to follow him when you grabbed his wrist.

"Kookie… they're too much."

He placed a gentle kiss on your forehead. "I don't mind, Kitten. Let me spoil you."

You pouted but let him walk away to pay and sat down with a huff.

The seat dipped next to you. "He said they're an early birthday present, Y/N." Jin said with a smile. "It's rude not to accept gifts from others."

"But he's already spent so much money on me. My two trips here, my moving here, all my signed merch and lets not forget my allowance is a portion of his earnings."

He rest a hand on your shoulder. "He's doing it because he loves you and wants you to be happy."

You sighed. You didn't need all the gifts and presents to be happy. You could understand the move. But all the rest was unnecessary.

"I feel so guilty about him spending so much on me. I wish I could repay him..."

Namjoon sat down on the other side of you. "Our Kookie isn't that good at expressing his emotions with words so he does it with actions instead. Your love, affection and reassurance is more than enough repayment in his eyes."

You looked between the two of them then down at your new boots.

"Thanks...I guess I'm not used to such generosity. I'm so grateful...for everything."

The two nodded in understanding but stayed quiet when they noticed Jungkook returning.

"All paid for! We can head back now."

Handing over your shopping bags to Jungkook, you dug around in your bag for your keys. You made a small noise of victory when you found them and shoved them into the lock. Twisting the key, you heard the lock click and turned the handle to swing the door open. You were met by a chorus of "Surprise!" causing your little group except Jin to jump in shock.

"Holy shit!" You shouted in reply before spotting a familiar but out of place face amongst Jimin, Taehyung, Yoongi and Hoseok. Chubs.

"HOLY SHIT!"

She stepped around Taehyung and practically skipped towards you with a grin.

"Hi~" She opened her arms for a hug and you walked into her embrace.

"H-how...what the fuck are you doing here?!"

"I'm here for your house warming... and for Jungkook-oppa and Namjoon-oppa's birthday party."

You turned to Jungkook for an explanation but he looked as confused as you felt.

"Surprise!...again." Shouted Taehyung and Jimin.

Jin ushered Jungkook and Namjoon into the apartment, shutting the door behind him.

"We felt bad that we never celebrated your birthdays properly due to comeback preparations. Yoongi suggested we throw one big party before the album release."

Jungkook still looked confused. "But we did celebrate my birthday."

Taehyung shook his head. "No, you celebrated your birthday. You didn't give us a chance to."

"And you said how you regretted not throwing a housewarming party for Y/N." Jimin added.

Hoseok continued where Jimin left off. "So Yoongi-hyung suggested we throw one big party. Jimin got Chubs’ KaKaoID off Jungkook's phone while he was asleep and had Jin-hyung translate the messages back and forth."

You looked to Chubs who had turned a light shade of pink.

"I wondered why you never replied to my messages last night."

She shrugged. "Sorry...I didn't have Wi-Fi on the flight."

From the corner of your eye you noticed Jungkook smile before heading off into the kitchen with your bags of shopping. Jin followed him while Namjoon went over to take a seat with the other members, leaving you and Chubs to talk.

"Thank you for coming all the way here. You must be exhausted."

She waved you off and explained how she'd slept a bit on the flight and in the car when Jimin and Yoongi picked her up.

You glanced aside at Jimin who was laughing at something Namjoon had said.

"I'm surprised you're as chill as you are stood in the same room as your bias."

"Trust me, I'm freaking out on the inside. Is this how you felt when you first came to Korea?"

You nodded. "Definitely. I thought I was dreaming."

Chubs sighed and glanced over her shoulder at the members spread out across the living room as if they owned the place. "You're the only thing stopping me from pinching myself right now."

"I think your lack of fluency in Korean would be another indicator that this isn't a dream."

Her already pink cheeks darkened a shade. "Oh god...I got lost in the airport 'cause I misread a sign. It was so embarrassing."

You laughed and patted her on the back in sympathy before confusion set in.

"Didn't they pick you up?"

She nodded pressing the palms of her hands to her cheeks in embarrassment. "This was on my way to baggage claim."

You started to laugh. "On your way to baggage claim? You just follow the crowd of people from your flight!"

"I don't even know what happened. I just got lost and had to be escorted to the baggage claim and was ten minutes late meeting them. I feel so embarrassed."

It couldn't be helped, more laughter bubbled out of you only interrupted by Jungkook wrapping his arm around your waist, obviously done in the kitchen. You caught sight of Jin also walking back into the living room.

"Guess what I found in there?"

He raised a bottle of peach flavoured makgeolli.

You grinned. "Is there more?"

He nodded and turned to Chubs. "Do you want one too, or do you already have a drink?"

She cleared her throat. "Uhm, no. That would be nice thank you."

The three of you went into the kitchen to find yourself drinks. You realised Jungkook had put most of the food away but left a bag in the corner away from the rest. You snuck a look inside and quickly put it in your bedroom. You didn't need the members looking for food and finding your feminine products instead. Upon entering your bedroom, you saw a ball of white fluff curled up on your bed. Miri. So that's where she was. You would have to bring in her food and water later.

You had to wonder where the alcohol came from, though that was answered when you walked back into the kitchen.

"We went into the corner store for snacks then Yoongi-oppa waltzed up to us with a basket full of alcohol... Is he the reason you're not allowed to through many parties?" Chubs asked as she looked through the fridge.

Jungkook got three glasses down from a cupboard and placed them on the worktop.

"Uhm, he's part of the reason..."

"Only part? What's the rest of the reason?" You asked, looking over Chubs' shoulder. Your eyes widened at the sight of a whole shelf packed with bottles of alcohol. Jesus, they planned to drink a lot.

You heard him hum. "We, uh, we've had noise complaints. Some of us can get a bit...loud."

Your stomach dropped, you didn't want any noise complaints...you’d just moved in!

"Maybe we should keep the alcohol to a minimum..."

Chubs hummed in agreement and closed the fridge. The two of you turned back to Jungkook who held out two glasses of the peachy drink.

"We've learnt our lesson. We'll be fine."

You side eyed him, somewhat doubting what he said but took the glass from him nonetheless. Chubs also accepted the drink and you both took a sip.

"Oo, it's fruity!" Chubs stated.

You took another sip, a little uncertain about the taste. Jungkook was watching you, eyes sparkling in amusement.

"Do you like it?"

"It tastes... nice..."

His face lit up in a smile, chuckles causing his shoulders to shake.

"I wonder if it cannibalism for a peach to drink a peach flavoured beverage."

You broke out into a fit of coughs which only made Jungkook smirk. Chubs shook her head while patting you on the back, seemingly unfazed.

"K-Kookie!" You choked out. "I-I'm not-t a p-peach!"

He raised a brow. "That's what you think. You don't have my view."

Your jaw dropped, momentarily stunned.

Chubs giggled. "Did you drink some of the makgeolli before asking us to try it?"

He made a pinching gesture to show he'd had a little. "I sipped it. Surprisingly, I've never had this before either."

You face palmed. One sip changed his behaviour already. You were about to reprimand him when the other members came barging in, locating the other bottles of alcohol effortlessly. Even Namjoon and Jin seemed to know where some were. Once everyone had a drink, you all began back into the living room.

Jin caught your arm just as you were about to leave the kitchen.

"Can I bring food into the living room? I thought I'd ask incase you were worried about us making a mess."

You could tell he was the hyung; when he wasn't messing around he was very responsible for the group.

"Uh, yeah sure. Just... be careful. I don't want stains on my carpet."

He nodded and proceeded to look through your cupboards. You noticed that some of the things him and Namjoon had bought for 'the dorm' were in there. Jin must've used the cover of shopping for the dorm to make Namjoon less suspicious too since the party was also for his birthday.

"Do you need any help?" He waved you off so you left him to it and joined the others in the living room.

Music blared as laughter filled the air. Jimin had collapsed over the arm of the sofa as Taehyung hugged your fake potted plant, calling it his wife. Namjoon was trying to talk to a drowsy Yoongi about the meaning of life. And Jungkook... Jungkook was clinging to you while you wiggled in his arms as his hands ran over the exposed skin of your stomach.

"You're so soft. How are you so soft?"

Giggles bubbled out of you uncontrollably whenever he touched a particularly sensitive patch of skin.

"BunBun~"

A giggle from a tipsy Chubs caught your attention. It seemed like Hoseok was trying to start a dance off with her. Though there was a language barrier, he was somewhat successful in getting his message across. Jungkook turned to look in the same direction, a smirk appearing as he looked back to you. He let go of you and wobbled before climbing onto your coffee table.

"Kookie, what are you-"

You were cut off by a loud whoop from Hoseok who grabbed the TV remote and turned up the volume of the Beyonce song playing on the music channel.

"Oh my god..."

You stared transfixed as Jungkook began to... twerk in front of you. His jiggling booty directly in your line of sight. His childish laughter was a clear sign that he was enjoying himself. You couldn't believe your eyes. There was your cute and dorky boyfriend, dressed in a striped sweater and denim overalls, shaking what his mama gave him like there's no tomorrow.

"Woo~ Go Jungkookie!" Taehyung yelled from his spot in the corner which only encouraged Jungkook to stop his booty shaking to swing his arms above his head as he spun around to face you.

"Kitten~ you should have a go!"

"No."

"But it's my birthday party!" Jungkook pouted.

"It's my house warming!"

He pushed his bottom lip out even further and made grabby hands towards you. He was an absolute baby. Your Baby Boy.

"Y/N! Y/N! Y/N!" Jimin began to chant from the sofa. He reached over and pushed against your shoulder. "Goo~"

Jungkook continued with his grabby hands and you couldn't help but give in. Once on the table with him, you noticed Chubs slipping into an empty spot next to Jimin.

The smile that had slipped on your lips disappeared the second you felt a pair of hands on your hips making you sway in time with the beat.

"Jagi~ dance with me."

"I-I don't dance."

"She's lying!"

Your head snapped around to see Jin shaking his head at you. "You danced at BigHit with us so you can dance now!"

"Is this not your kind of song Jagi?"

Jungkook reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The music on the TV stopped as YouTube came up. He must have connected his phone to your TV. His fingers danced over his keyboard for a second as he thought of a song before quickly typing in 'Black Out' by VIXX.

There was a cheer from someone, you didn't care to see who as the song began to play. A funky beat started and you felt your hips rocking to it of their own accord. Fuck. That boy knew you too well. Speaking of, his face nestled into your neck and you could practically feel his smile.

"Who knew you liked such a... sensual song, Kitten."

One of your hands found its way to the back of his neck and lightly pinched at his skin.

"Don't push it." You mumbled. "I'm only dancing because I can't say no to how adorable you look right now."

"Adorable? I'd rather you call me handsome but I'll take what I can get."

"You are absolutely adorkable."

He huffed in amusement, placing a kiss on your neck that had you squeaking in shock. He raised his head to giggle. A little tipsy yourself, you couldn't help but smile.

"Yah! Loverbirds! We're waiting for a show!" Namjoon shouted.

"Yeah!"

Your cheeks became heated as you shot a glare at Chubs. Jungkook's hands on your waist coaxed you into swaying with him. Your cheeks became even more heated as the chorus kicked in and the lyrics 'I'm thinking your body' rang out clearly through the room. Words couldn't explain how embarrassed you were, and if you weren't as tipsy as you were you wouldn't have even stepped foot on the coffee table to begin with. Your phone vibrating in your pocket temporarily distracted you, though you kept rocking. It was a Vlive notification. BTS had gone live? You tapped on it only to be greeted to the sight of yourself and Jungkook dancing on the table.

"You're broadcasting this?!"

Taehyung laughed, plant hugged to him with one arm while his other hand held up his phone. Jungkook stole a look at your phone before turning so you were facing away from Taehyung.

"How many people are watching?"

There was a pause. "Ten thousand- wait...thirty thousand."

Thirty fucking thousand ARMYs were watching you pressed up against Jungkook.

"Hyung!" Jungkook turned you around and pressed your face into his neck to try and hide you. "This isn't how I wanted ARMY to meet my Jagi."

The two of you stopped dancing and you heard the volume of the music decrease as the sound of voices grew louder.

You lifted your head to see Namjoon get out of his seat and head over to Taehyung.

"Make it front facing. Make it front facing." There was a pause, presumably switching the camera, "ARMY! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY PARTY!"

With Namjoon occupying the Vlive audience, you grabbed Jungkook's hand and pulled him off the coffee table. You fell onto the sofa next to Chubs who was giggling into her glass of drink.

"I hate you lot."

Jungkook once again wrapped an arm around you, his other hand stroking through your hair. That must've been an effect of drinking, he wasn't normally so... handsy. You snuggled against his chest, wanting to make yourself as small as possible so that if the phone was turned back to you they wouldn't see you.

Chubs groaned and pushed you back when your wiggling caused her to shove up against Jimin. Jimin gave her a shy smile while you mumbled out an apology.

"Yah! It's Jungkook's birthday party too... And Y/N's house warming!" Jin shouted, walking out of the kitchen with yet more snacks.

Jin placed the food on the coffee table and squished himself between Namjoon and Taehyung to greet the audience.

"Y/N, ARMY say they wanna see you!"

"They just saw me dancing against Jungkook." You mumbled, "I'm too embarrassed."

Jimin took Taehyung's phone and passed it to Hoseok who knelt down in front of you and Jungkook.

"Our Y/N-ie is shy~ And Jungkookie is hiding her face. I think he doesn't want to share her."

Jungkook's arms tightened around your frame and you felt his chin come to rest on the top of your head.

"She's my Jagi. No one can have her."

"ARMY aren't going to steal her." Jimin said before downing the last of his drink.

You felt Jungkook press a kiss to the top of your head and you giggled into his chest, still not wanting to show your face to however many fans watching.

"They can't steal her because I'm here to protect her."

There was an 'aw, cute' from beside you and you stuck your foot out to nudge Chubs.

"What was that Kookie? You just spoke in English."

"I said I'm here to protect her so she can't be stolen."

This time you were met with a chorus of 'aw's from the members.

"Look at the comments! ARMY really want to meet her officially."

A beat of silence.

"My Jagi has bad anxiety though... I don't want to force her." His voice had taken a childish tone, definitely pouting. He was your baby.

With a deep breath you raised your head and shifted so you weren't tucked into Jungkook's side but leaning against him.

Hoseok gave a small cheer and angled the phone so more of you was in it.

"Say hi to ARMY!"

"H-hi... hello. I'm Y-Y-Y/N.”

Hoseok made a noise of amazement when the comment section began to fly up the screen. Your stomach twisted anxiously as you managed to catch sight of your name in a few of the comments.

Jungkook leant forward. "Waaah~ They're all so excited to finally meet you! Even Japanese fans!"

Japanese fans?

"Really? Oyasuminasai minna-san (Good evening everyone)."

The room went silent as everyone turned to stare at you.

"What?"

"You can speak Japanese?!" Jungkook's eyes were wide, sparkling with amazement.

"A bit... I'm still learning."

"Jagi! We can learn together!"

You grinned at him and nodded, momentarily forgetting about the audience watching you talk. "That sounds like fun BunBun!"

"How much do you know?"

"Not a lot..."

A shit eating grin appeared on his face. "I guess I'll be the teacher this time... Until you catch up with me."

Your brows furrowed in confusion. "But you were my teacher when I was learning Korean."

"Oh... oh yeah!"

You laughed. He must have forgotten due to drinking. A whine from across the room drew you attention away from Jungkook.

"Hyung~ Gimme my phone~ I wanna talk to ARMY." Taehyung had since led down on the floor, but still had an arm curled around the plant pot. He really loved that plant.

A few bottles of Soju later and Taehyung was hugging the toilet as well as the plant, having dragged the thing with him across the apartment. Yoongi was asleep in the bathtub for some reason. Namjoon was asleep with his head in Jin's lap and Hoseok was collapsed in the hallway, one hand outstretched towards the door. A finger was pressed to your lips when you giggled at the sight of a sleeping Chubs slumped against Jimin’s shoulder, a bag of open snacks crushed between them.

"Jagi~ Shush." Jungkook whispered as you headed towards your bedroom.

"But whhhy~? We can... we can take pictures of them!"

"Shhhh~"

He twisted the handle and swung the door to your room open. You both awed at the sight of Miri still asleep on the bed, Jungkook entered the room first to move her off. You giggled again and leapt onto your bed, bouncing for a second at the impact. Turning onto your back, you made grabby hands at Jungkook.

"Come here KooKoo. Your Jagi wants you to join her."

He shut the door before crawling onto the bed. You let out a groan when he collapsed on top of you, wiggling to get comfy.

"Mmm, I love you~ So so much. I hope you had fun today."

He nuzzled into your neck, making a content noise while you huffed.

"Move. Need. Air."

"No~" He whined. "Wanna cuddle."

You managed to sneak a hand between your bodies and push against his shoulder. His drunken state made rolling him over easier than expected and then it was your turn to collapse on top of him.

"Jagiya~"

He was such a whiny baby. But he was your baby. The whining was kinda cute though.

You shifted to rest your head in his neck, mirroring his previous position. His hands were warm on your lower back having sneaked beneath your t-shirt to trace patterns on your skin.

"Did you enjoy your party too, Baby?"

He nodded. "Of course, you, Bangtan and ARMY were there!"

He pecked you on the lips. You pulled away with a smile and booped your nose against his.

"Your friends...they're funny...what if Tae-oppa runs away with my plant?"

He shook his head. "KooKoo will chase him down. And they're your friends too."

"I know, but they were your friends first."

Another peck. "Doesn't matter. We share them now."

"So you can share them but not me?!"

"I don't love them the same way I love you."

Your lips spread into a goofy smile which he mirrored, eyes scrunching up as his nose wrinkled.

"I love you too my adorkable BunBun."

This time you leant up and pressed a kiss to his lips, lingering longer than a mere peck. Your lips moved to his cheek as you took a breath before lightly kissing his nose. Giggles bubbled out of him as you continued to litter kisses across his skin, pulling back every few pecks just to see his eyes sparkle in amusement. Then your lips found his again, moving at a leisurely pace, enjoying the sensation. It had been so long since you felt like you could share this side of you with someone. That you could trust someone enough.

Your mind was a little fuzzy due to the alcohol, but you remembered a mental note you'd made while making out in his studio. You slipped a hand into his hair and gave the short strands a gentle tug. A moan slipped past his lips and you relished in the sound. It was music to your ears. You wanted to hear more of that sound, the sound that sent your heart into a flurry. Made your thoughts blurry. Some part of you, a part you buried out of fear of others, sparked up in the back of your mind. A part of you that had missed the physical intimacy. You hadn't wanted to seclude and hide yourself from those you loved but... but you had to keep yourself safe. Jungkook was a miraculous respite from that paranoia. You made a small noise of protest when he broke the kiss to catch his breath.

Wanting to hang onto the moment for a touch longer, you began littering kisses across his cheek and jaw. You gave his hair another, but slightly harder, tug so his head was at an angle that gave you better access to his neck.

"N-Noona..."

Beautiful. Just as beautiful as you thought it would be. You nipped harshly at a particularly sensitive area, teasing more delicious moans from him. This wasn't like you though. Sober you wouldn't be so hasty or careless. But you weren't sober in that moment.

"J-jagi, we... we need to stop. We're drunk."

You hummed but didn't pull away.

"Y/N..."

You pressed one final kiss to his neck before raising your head with a pout.

"But I don't wanna."

He ran his fingers through your hair, taking a deep breath.

"We're drunk. If you were sober we wouldn't be doing this... We both need to be sober and ready before we go any further..." He pressed a kiss to your forehead. "I want to keep you safe and happy."

"But I am."

"No. No you're not. You're vulnerable. We both are."

You held his gaze for a few seconds until you felt yourself start to get lost in those deep brown eyes of his. You shook yourself out of it. He was right. You were drunk.

"I... I'm sorry. God I'm sorry. I-I keep ending up in these situations. I'm such an idiot-"

"It's not your fault. It is never your fault." He shifted to cradle your head to his chest. "You are never to blame for the actions of others. If people can't control themselves around those who are vulnerable then they are less than people. Now let's sleep. I'm sobering up."

The two of you moved to lie beneath the duvet, pulling it right up beneath your chins to stay warm.

"You talk too much when drunk." You mumbled.

You felt his chuckle rumble in his chest. "You're pouty when drunk."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Look at you being adorable."

He'd lightly pinched your cheeks and jiggled them, making him burst into giggles.

You pushed his hands away. "I'm not adorable! I'm a badass!"

"I would be convinced if it weren't for your slight slur."

You slapped his chest and turned away from him. "Fuck you. I'm going to sleep."

"Finally."

You huffed and used the light streaming in through your open curtains to find your Kookie bear. You clutched him to your chest and buried your nose into his fur.

Jungkook wrapped an arm around your waist, pulling you back against him.

"Goodnight, Yeobo.”

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