#domestic route au

[stevyguts]

Domestic Route ref sheet, will add more eventually.

Domestic Route is a Pizza Tower AU set 6 years after the climax of Pizza Tower, they’re all living their lives and settling down with their partners/friends. 

[cheswirls]

for the third time in a row i have come up with an insanely good fic idea at the end of the year but before the end of the semester so i can't even attempt to write it. hopefully in december i'm still sold on it or maybe next week on break if i'm not too busy playing catch up w course work

[leighsartworks216]

First Love and Deepspace Masterlist

We finally did it boys. We finally have too many links on the main masterlist and have to make a brand new one

Main Masterlist

Second Love and Deepspace Masterlist

The Raven Masterlist

AO3

Request Rules

Tag List Form

All

How they react to some of my favorite games - AO3

Warnings: crackfic (kinda?), one horror game, slight angst with Zayne, swearing

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Sylus

One More Chapter - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: teasing, pet names, fluff

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Deal with the Devil - AO3 - Sylus x AFAB!Reader

Warnings: bruises, body dysphoria, chest binding, unsafe binding, teasing, pet names, possibly ooc

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Spring Wedding - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: past relationship, minor references/implications of emotional/mental abuse, backhanded compliments, protective Sylus, fake relationship

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But they cradled me, yes? - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: blood, vague refs to Sylus's route, slight angst, bittersweet

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Kitty Cards - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: losing, frustration

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Omniscience - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: unwanted advances, alcohol mention, protective Sylus, Mephisto keeping an eye on you, pet names, swearing, established relationship

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Sweet Tooth - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: biting, kissing, established relationship, fluff, food/baking

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A Waltz Of Blood And Blades - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: sparring/fighting, blood, injuries, minor knifeplay, mild/implied sexual content, kissing, no smut

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There Is No Love Purer Than Mine - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: kissing, crying, declarations of love, mild hurt/comfort

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All This And Heaven Too - AO3 - Demon!Sylus x gn!Angel!Reader

Warnings: heavy angst, angels + demons au, major character death, unhappy ending, hurt no comfort, blood, injury, crying, kissing, drugs + smoking, underage smoking, pet names, religious imagery + symbolism, swearing

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You Have Me - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: major character death, love confession, unrequited love, blood, angst, hurt no comfort, forehead kiss

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Blood Washes Out - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: hurt/comfort, blood, injury, murder, swearing, vomiting, panic, pet names, sharing clothes, cuddling, crying, guilt, broken bones, guns

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Nyctophobia - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: hurt/comfort, crying, kissing, nyctophobia (fear of the dark), embarrassment, fear, pet names, swearing, implied sexual content, established relationship

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Pumpkin Patch - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: pumpkin carving, fluff, cuddling, Halloween, sleepy Sylus, soft Sylus, established relationship

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By Such A Little Taste - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

SMUT Warnings: smut, fingering, cunnilingus, cumming untouched, hand/finger kink, marking, biting, kissing, teasing, dacryphilia/crying, swearing, praise kink, choking, breathplay, pet names, nipple play, embarrassment, shyness

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Clair de Lune - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: none, just fluff

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I Want You - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: insecurity, kissing, alcohol, swearing, crying, embarrassment, not proofread

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Sleepy Kitty - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: fluff, silly, cat ears and tail, cuddling, panic, some sort of a relationship going on, Xavier cameo

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And It Is All That Matters - AO3 - Sylus x gn!Reader

Warnings: fluff, domestic fluff, cuddling, kissing, classical music, playful banter, established relationship

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Zayne

The Best Medicine - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: chronic pain, descriptions of pain, kissing, fluff

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Water in the Sink - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: medical inaccuracies

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Strawberry Thyme Blondies - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: food/eating, kissing, bakery au

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Protocore Syndrome - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader (Platonic or romantic)

Warnings: death, grief/mourning, medical inaccuracies, angst, emotional hurt/comfort, canon divergent

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Angel, Please - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: sensory overload, anxiety, avoiding a mental breakdown, emotional hurt/comfort, fluff, established relationship

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In Sickness And In Health - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: medical angst, hurt/comfort, medication (pills), bittersweet, pet names (love, my love), established relationship

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Break The Fever - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: hospital/hospitalization, sickfic, needles, light angst, established relationship

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My Love Mine All Mine - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: kissing, declarations of love, references to past mental/emotional abuse, communication, blushing

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Search and Rescue - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: hurt/comfort, some angst, blizzards/snowstorms, blood, injury, minor character death, self-sacrifice, hypothermia, dialogue heavy, established relationship

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Rises The Moon - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: fluff, kissing, cuddling, workaholic Zayne, established relationship

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Doctor, Doctor - AO3 - Zayne & gn!Reader

Warnings: medical trauma, hospital, anxiety, swearing, crying

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I Love You More Than I Can Say - AO3 - Zayne x transmasc!Reader

Warnings: making out, nipple/chest worship, grinding, no smut, implied bisexual Zayne

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Linger Longer - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: domestic fluff, food, alcohol mention, dancing, established relationship

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Perfect First Date - AO3 - Zayne x fem!Reader

Warnings: fluff, blind date, first date, kissing

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Broken Glass - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: blood, injury, feet, guilt, self-deprecation, insecurity, swearing, kissing, established relationship

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Antiseptic and Latex - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: hospitals, established relationship

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Writer's Block - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: established relationship, swearing, domestic fluff, writer's block, food, eating, cuddling, forehead kisses, references to Clopidogrel the squirrel

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Oh, Hold Me Now - AO3 - Zayne x AFAB!Reader

Warnings: menstruation, period fic, lots of domestic fluff, reader has a uterus but no other gender-defining things

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My Heart Will Always Belong To You - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: established relationship, fluff, domestic fluff, cuddling, kissing

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Good Girl - AO3 - Zayne x fem!Reader

SMUT Warnings: smut, established relationship, grinding, thigh riding, light bondage, kissing, pet names, praise kink

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Next To You - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: fluff, domestic fluff, established relationship, sleepiness, literal sleeping together, cuddling

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Happy Birthday, My Jasmine - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: bathing, implied nudity, kissing, established relationship, very very vague reference to his myth, birthdays, domestic fluff

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Let Me Help You - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: hurt/comfort, mentally/emotionally abusive parents, crying, communication, food + cooking, domestic, established relationship

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Cinderella - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: fluff, domestic fluff, married life, established relationship, food/cooking, kissing, implied sexual content

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Yes This Fear's Got A Hold On Me - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: angst, hurt/comfort, fear of death, overthinking, domestic moments, established relationship, rain/storms, recklessness, self-sacrificing behavior, cooking/food

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The Goddess of the Moon - AO3 - Zayne x gn!Reader

Warnings: fluff, domestic fluff, literal sleeping together, established relationship, cuddling, kissing

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Rafayel

Self-Portrait of the Soul - AO3 - Rafayel & gn!artist!Reader

Warnings: mischief, heavily implied exploitation, misunderstandings, pre-relationship, possibly ooc

[harunovella]

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ safety net; t.f.

synopsis: when toji decided to be a good man and rescue two puppies for his son... content: canon divergence (I want a happy story for the fushiguro's!), fem!reader, reader is mamaguro, in this world your last name is fushiguro and toji took it bc f*ck the zenin, megumi is ur son (he's just a baby!), domestic bliss, not beta read (sorry for any errors!) note: seeing how successful my gojo anthology series is going (only two parts but going strong), I wanted to do one for toji bc I've always wanted to write his story with mamaguro (aka you!) and do a bunch of one shots that can be read as stand alones or together! pls lmk if you want more and if u wanna be tagged in the future <3 p.s. the divine dogs are actual dogs that inspired megumi's later manifestation of his shikigami in this au

It was one of those late nights for Toji. A summer evening with a heavy downpour to blur his path before him. The windshields were moving as fast as they could, swiftly clearing his vision with every wipe across the glass. He was quite used to this, running around town in the wee hours of the night, nothing new to him. It just annoyed him how difficult it could be driving in the rain when his windows fogged up and the headlights could only do so much. 

He wasn't too far from home, running a quick errand before returning to his abode, wanting nothing more than the warmth of his bed. 

A bed... A home...

Toji couldn't help but sigh and lean his head back against the car's headrest. Had this all been a dream? Was it real? Him, Zenin Toji, living a normal life? It had been quite some time now where he left it all behind to be domesticated—as if he were a wild animal. He didn't mind, though, a part of him was begging for a simple kind of life. 

Sat at a red light as his pointer finger tapped away against the leather steering wheel, his eyes wandered the environment around him—well, as much as he could see during an evening shower. From building to building, the empty sidewalks and dim storefronts, his eyes suddenly bounced back to a bus stop. Squinting, he leaned in before turning on his blinkers. 

This was very unlike him, his curiosity getting the best of him... Maybe it was because he was a changed man. Maybe it was because he had someone to go home to. Someone who made his deflated heart triple in size; someond who made him care about little things that he never did before.

Pulling over and parking his car next to the bus stop, Toji pulled up his hoodie and reached for the small umbrella that sat on the floor of the passenger seat. Rushing out and popping open the coverage, he stood before a small, cardboard box. 

It was falling apart, the rain tearing at the flimsy material as the little towel beneath was completely drenched. Hearing the faint whimpers and cries of the tiny creatures that stared up at him, Toji took in a sharp breath and shook his head. He was a good man now. Better than he ever was before. He had a heart. He had a home. He had someone who loved him. These little bodies did not. 

Lifting the box, he quickly maneuvered it underneath the umbrella before carefully placing it in the backseat of his car. "I hope she won't mind..." he said before making his way to the front, closing the umbrella and shutting the door after, resuming his route. 

The drive home was quicker this time around, zooming to gather the bags and box he had within the car, shutting the doors and locking them behind him before he made his way towards the front door. Taking the steps and fumbling with his keys, he unlocked the door and slipped inside before kicking off his shoes and making his way towards the living room. 

Settling the box down before moving towards the kitchen with the bag, he washed his hands and emptied the contents within it. Pulling out the small device, Toji made his way upstairs, ruffling his dark hair as he pressed a few buttons on the gadget. "Babe, this one should be fine," he spoke as he approached one of the two bedrooms. 

"Oh, good," the voice responded as he entered the room. You were sitting on your son's rocking chair, holding him close to your chest as you caressed his little back. He was about six months old and the constant change in weather was getting to him, causing a slight cold to disrupt his immunity. It pained both of you to see your boy anything but happy and healthy... but, he was such a little trooper. Both of you weren't sure where he got his calmness from, seeing as you nor Toji were such a way, but you thanked the heavens for blessing you with a child like him. 

"How's Megs doin'?" Toji asked as he handed you the new thermometer, squatting and gently caressing his son's head. His hand practically engulfed it, always entertaining him how tiny his boy was. It brought a small smile to his face. "Doesn't seem so fussy."

"A bit better, I got him to fall asleep. You weren't gone for too long, thankfully," you sweetly smiled, settling the small device down before caressing Toji's face. "Raining hard, huh?"

"Yeah," he nodded, only to widen his eyes. 

"What is it?" You furrowed your eyebrows. 

Scratching the back of his head, Toji stood up. "Got a surprise along the way... hope you don't mind."

"What do you mean?" You tilted your head. 

"Let's go downstairs," he nudged his own, waving you to follow him. 

Standing up carefully as to not wake your baby boy, you followed your man down the hall and staircase, towards your living room. You were confused at first, unsure as to what surprise he could've gotten you. But then you heard it. The faint cries and rustling coming from a box. The box in front of you. "Toji..."

"You've changed me, y'know?" He said. "I wouldn't have cared back then, would've left them suffer... but, guess it's because I'm a father now and I have you... I couldn't let them die out there..." rubbing the back of his neck as he stood by the box, you curiously peeked over before gasping. "Thought it would be nice to keep 'em... give Megs something to grow with."

"Toji... there's two," you nearly whispered, eyeing the puppies. One in pure white and one in all black, both equally precious. Tiny, scared, cold... you couldn't deny them either, even if you were currently raising your own baby. 

"Yeah..." Toji sighed. "I was thinkin' about giving them a quick bath now and take them to the vet early tomorrow. Don't have much to feed them but we can make it work, right?" He said, keeping his eyes on them, a bit afraid of your reaction. 

As upset as you should've been, seeing as it was two more mouths to feed, instead, you felt... elated? You weren't sure why, maybe it was because you were seeing more and more sides of Toji you didn't think would exist. Or maybe you loved the idea of giving your son two furry best friends to grow with. It could've also been that you were just happy that your son was okay and getting through his cold that you couldn't be as bothered. 

It also didn't help that you may or may not have mentioned a few times (while taking your strolls during your pregnancy) that your little blessing should have some furry friends around. You just didn't think it would happen... this way. 

"So?" Toji asked, looking at you with timid eyes. "Can we keep 'em?"

"Toji," you chuckled. "I'm not going to abandon these poor babies. You brought them here, you're gonna have to do a lot of raising. You're now a father of three," you teased as he nodded. 

"I'm well aware."

"I'm surprised you're okay with this, let alone, brought them," you pointed out. 

Shrugging, he looked back down. "Like I said, it's cause you changed me and I'm a father now. As scary as that is... I dunno... guess I want that normal life and normal people have dogs, right?" Seeing you nod with a small smile, Toji couldn't help but reflect your facial expression. "I wanna give him everything I've never had," he nudged his head in Megumi's direction. 

"Such a good dad," you softly spoke, caressing your sons back before stepping closer and kissing Toji's arm. "Then I guess we have two puppies now. What should we name them?"

Eyeing the two, Toji hummed. "Kuro and Shiro."

[kquil]

POLY MARAUDERS | HEROES IN TATTOOS ⏤LOVE EYES

SUM. : you don't see it but the boys have love eyes for you

G. : fluff ; modern au ; muggle au ; tattoo artist james ; tattoo artist sirius ; piercer remus ; oblivious, innocent reader ; love eyes marauders ; sirius is a womanizer ; he doesn't care to notice though ; snack runs with sirius on his motorbike ; shoulder massages for remus ; james loves picking you up ; james is so silly ; domestic baking with james ; wolfstar moment ; lots of hugging

LENGTH : 2.7k

Sirius watches lovingly as you balance your laptop on your thighs and work through an essay you had to complete by the following week. When you had time away from final year lectures, seminars and practicals, you would usually occupy the private office and lounge room of the studio’s top floor in order to work through your uni assignments. The university libraries were quite suffocating in that they pressured you into unhealthy productivity mindsets, which often lead to unhealthy eating habits and a shortcut to burn out. However, you had found solace in the calm of the tattoo studio’s office that usually remained empty throughout the day when the boys were attending to clients. The calm silence was welcome and helped with your personal productivity and pacing of assigned workload. 

Usually, Remus would accompany you, doing mundane admin tasks that helped manage the parlour and its clients but he had to leave as he had several appointments today. You’ve made some decent headway with the essay in Remus’s absence and you were using some of the momentum to get even more ahead when you felt a familiar presence take a seat beside you before throwing their arm over your shoulders. 

“Hello, dollface,” Sirius whispers and presses a gentle kiss against your temple. 

“Hey Siri,” you acknowledge him with a sweet smile and tilt your head against him briefly before continuing with your essay. Focused with your brows furrowed and gently gnawing at your lip, Sirius silently admires your concentration; it looks good on you, a meritorious contrast to your usually soft features and expressions.

However, as much as he loves this side of you, he loves your attention more, “...are you really gonna just ignore me?” he whines in his usual playful manner, prompting you to roll your eyes. 

“Sirius, I have to finish this essay—”

“Not until the following week, so you have time right?” you don’t answer him. He was right but you still needed to work on the essay. Grumbling under his breath, Sirius leans his weight against you and sighs and huffs and whines in between minutes of silence. Even though this type of selfish distraction would typically irritate you, you know that you could afford stepping away from the essay so it was more than entertaining to hear his fussing. You also thoroughly enjoyed Sirius’s floundering and adorable attempts to guilt you into paying him some attention; it was almost adorable, like a puppy wanting attention. 

It wasn’t until Sirius gave a significantly frustrated whine that you exaggerated a sigh and saved your progress to close your laptop screen, “...I’m all yours, Sirius,” you finally conceded, reaching a hand up to lift his hair out of his face. 

With a wide grin, Sirius leans his forehead against yours, his eyes sparkling with content and satisfaction at having finally won you over, “Snack run?” at his suggestion, you almost jump out of your chair in excitement. 

“Yes please!” 

With perked ears, Remus and James smile to themselves at the sound of you and Sirius giggling down the hallway and outside to the leather-wearing tattoo artist’s motorbike. They knew you both made a ritual of going on snack runs for them and, although they appreciated the snacks, they adored your happy laughter echoing in the halls much more.

As Sirius helped gear the two of you up with a helmet for the ride, he whispered his usual promise of taking a longer route than needed to get to the store all while you spotted a group of girls eyeing him up from behind. They looked to be in high school and weren’t subtle about their puppy love for Sirius at all, ogling him with lovestruck doe eyes, whispering amongst themselves and playfully hitting each other’s shoulders over their musings. You couldn’t blame them for their admiration, simply because Sirius was very physically attractive, with his inked skin, sharp features, steel grey eyes, sultry hair, seductive smile, toned physique and nefarious leather fashion—the man embodied an elegant but evil beauty. And, when you got to know him, he became all the more attractive; he was just the perfect amount of chaos and sensual audacity to pair with the softest heart —a dream come true for girls, especially those in their high school years.

Nevertheless, their giggling and kittenish gossiping were like nails on a chalkboard to you, although, that may just be the excuse you came up with for what you were about to do next.

“Woah!” Sirius chuckles, his arms going up as you suddenly wrap your arms around his waist and hold him close, smiling smuggling into his white vest when the group of girls immediately silence their gossiping and giggling at the sight, “what’s wrong, dollface?” Sirius asks dotingly as he lifts your gaze up with a finger under your chin and presses a soft kiss to your forehead, “feeling needy are we?” you pout at his teasing, which he laughs at and finally wraps his arms around your shoulders. One hand holds the back of your head and gently presses your face further into his chest, “anything you need, dollface… anything at all, I’ve got you,” he whispers and pulls away to stare fondly into your pretty eyes. You realise that, not once has he noticed the group of high school girls behind him, in spite of all their gossip and ogling. 

“Siri-”

“Such a pretty face,” he coos, lifting a hand to tenderly cup your jaw, “pretty eyes, pretty nose, pretty lips, pretty heart, pretty everything,” just so pretty… sirius completes in his head, resisting the urge to give into his desires and take from you something he knows isn’t meant for him but desperately wishes was his…

His stare lingers on your lips long enough for you to notice but not enough for you to verbalise as the leather-clad tattooist quickly places the spare helmet over your head. 

Remus groans gratefully as he tilts his head back with closed eyes, smiling at the giggle you emit, “That’s just what I need, dove,”

The tall brunette feels your gentle lips against his forehead for a brief moment and sighs pleasantly once more, “you need to better your posture when sitting Remmy,” you softly scold, continuing to massage his tense shoulders and the back of his neck as he slowly opens his eyes to admire you.

Ignoring your reproach, Remus loses himself in the feeling of relief easing into his tense shoulders and stiff neck through your pressing fingers and palms, “heavenly…” he utters in bliss. 

“Don’t ignore me, Remus,” your tone is a little more stern but rather than make him nervous, Remus continues to smile at you. 

“I assure you…” Remus turns his head and presses a kiss against the skin of your wrist, “that I never and will never ignore you, sweetheart,” his words and the look he gives you makes a heat crawl up your neck and spread across your cheeks. 

“Then tell me you’ll aim for better posture when sitting for too long,” at your request, Remus spins in his chain and pulls you close by the hips. His head is at level with your xiphoid process as he looks up at you with a relaxed smile. 

“You have my word,” he brings your hands from his shoulders, holds them together and kisses the knuckles that touch. Almost instinctively, you move your soft hand to hold his face and smile down at him from where you stood. 

It’s a promise he keeps as you often find him squaring his shoulders and straightening his back when sitting in the office too long. It makes your heart flutter to know that he was proactive with your advice but his shoulder massages didn’t stop, which he appreciated greatly. He never said thank you but he always kissed your hands, wrists and knuckles during or after you ease some of the tension off his shoulders and neck. 

“You truly are an angel,” Remus said one day as he buries his face into your stomach, arms wrapped around your hips as you softly squeeze at his shoulders, “James was right,” he chuckles under his breath which you join him with in a brief but twinkling giggle, “are you truly not hiding a pair of wings, dove?” 

“Nope~” you chirp with another giggle as he leisurely stands, pushing his chair away with the backs of his knees. Remus keeps you close, holds you closer even, and sighs into the crown of your head. 

“Lies…” you feel his big hands move up your back slowly, pressing his fingers into your taut muscles and arched spine as if to return the favour you’ve done for his rigid shoulders. Unable to help yourself, a soft sigh escapes you and you fall further into his embrace, “that…or you’re really good at hiding your wings —i feel nothing there,” with one final knead of his strong fingertips, he winks at you with a mischievous glint in his eyes, similar to the kind you often find in Sirius’s grey pools and James’s hazel jewels. Though different, they were all the same in other ways. 

“I guess you’ll never know,” was your impish reply not registering how Remus’s expression subtly softens into adoring fondness when continuing to stare down at you. 

It’s like she belongs there… Remus thinks to himself, playing with the ends of your hair while you turn your head to rest your cheek on his chest for comfort, perfectly suited to be in my arms.

“There you are!” James cheers with a laugh as you squeal in surprise. Not only did he sneak up on you but he had effortlessly lifted you into the air by your waist, a merit to his muscular physique.  

“James!” you laugh, hands on his broad shoulders as he spins you around, “Put me down!” grinning widely still, he carefully lowers you, grinning wider when your face gets closer and he can press a kiss to your cheek upon finally setting you down. 

“I have everything already, angel, ready to go?” 

“As I’ll ever be,” he links your arms together and leads the way to his and the boys' flat as you try to hold in your eagerness and nerves. 

The flat the boys share is more spacious than you expected, cleaner too, which you suspect is primarily because of Remus. You were shocked to find, however, that Sirius tended to be the clean freak out of the three. 

“I just grew up with clean habits, I guess,” Sirius quickly shrugs off your questioning eyes before ushering you into the kitchen where James was helpfully laying out all the ingredients the two of you needed in order to bake some fruit tarts together. 

“We’ll be in the living room if you need us,” Remus offers with a cordial smile. In his hand is a rather small book, though you’d guess it’s because his hands were so big that the book just looked petite. The pages appeared relatively worn, as if he had flitted through their pages multiple times already despite his pointer finger marking the page he was at being quite early on in the book. 

“With James in the kitchen you may be needing our help sooner rather than later—“ Sirius begins to chuckle but is forced out of the kitchen when James throws a rolled up kitchen towel at him. This makes you giggle as Sirius gives a shout of mock pain and makes his way into the living room with a journal full of sketches in one hand and a pen in the other.

“Right! Let’s get baking Jamie!” You chirp, missing the adoring eyes James looks onto you with, loving the nickname you call him by. Before the two of you get started, James helps tie up the back of your apron as well as your hair. Upon doing so, you do the same thing for him and he makes a show of asking you to tie up his hair for him despite its relatively short length. Even so, James got to work with a scrunchie holding up a small, short tuffet of hair —it made you giggle multiple times but James would just flutter his lashes at you comically and make you laugh even more. 

Regardless of the occasional shenanigans James pulled, the activity was very domestic and made your heart flutter in your chest, not realising that James was experiencing the same sensations ten-fold. 

Everything begins well enough with James obediently following your instructions, helpfully preparing the dough before moving onto the pastry cream. It was when you had to prepare the summer fruits while blind baking the pie crust and chilling the pastry cream that things became a little more chaotic. James had innocently offered you a slice of a strawberry and enjoyed your elated reaction so much that he started feeding you an entire array of fruits. Fearful that there won’t be anymore fruit for the tart, you begin to pull away from James’s kind offerings. 

“Come on, princess,” James pleads with you, offering up a small slice of mango, “one more, you look so cute when you chew your food,” he coos adoringly as you bring your hands up to cover your cheeks and pout at him. 

“James you better not—“ 

“You’re like a baby chipmunk!” He offers the mango once more but you quickly run away, which initiates a playful chase around the kitchen island. A mischievous look is sparked in James’s eyes as he laughs at your feeble attempt at running away from him. He plays easy with you, however; he doesn’t want the game to end too soon.

“James is at it again…” Remus chuckles and sets his book aside to sink back into the sofa, smiling at your squeals of fun from the kitchen.

“Trying to read was a lost cause, Moony,” Sirius laughs to himself, a warmth blossoming in his chest at the sound of your joyful activities. Nevertheless, he continues to sketch in his journal of potential tattoo compositions for a client, “we both knew this would happen,” 

“Which is why,” Remus stresses, “I chose a book I’ve read multiple times already,” 

Sirius looks up with a smirk, “always such a smartass,”

“You love this smartass,” Remus shoots and leans over to kiss the tattoo artist sweetly with light fingers lifting his chin up. 

“I’m not denying that…” Sirius answers with a smirk before realising that the noise had significantly died down in the kitchen. They didn’t have to wait long until it began once again, however. 

“James stop!” You squeal in delight and laugh airily. 

James swings you around and places you on the kitchen island, not too far away from where the pie crust was cooling off on a drying rack. Standing between your thighs, he holds you in an embrace and laughs into your shoulder, “I caught you, love,” 

“You have an unfair advantage,” you huff with a pout that doesn’t linger for very long when you lean back to adjust James’s glasses with a soft smile. Loving the gesture, James squeezes his arms around you and a dopey grin stretches across his face. He’s the image of bliss and summer fun. 

“Not true…deep down, it’s you who has an unfair advantage over me,” and on Sirius and Remus too James was tempted to add but neglects to when he is overcome with the urge to kiss your cheek at the sight of your loveliness, head slightly tilted, lips adorning the sweetest smile and eyes alight with boundless mirth. 

As the three admire you from their seats on the sofas, they share a similar look. All smiling with a hidden secret as their eyes twinkle with agreement. Many times they’ve discussed their relationship with you, knowing full well that they wanted the same thing and that there wasn’t a chance on earth they’d let you go without a fight. 

It’s too cruel to have met a sweetheart like you only to have you drift away so easily. You bring about a softness in them that is typically hidden away, masked by their inked skin and piercings. You are a missing piece and an essential cog in their system that they can no longer live without. 

“Tea’s ready!” you call and turn to them with a tray loaded with mugs of the steaming beverage accompanied by biscuits and cookies. Their gaze isn’t on the tea, however, it’s on you. And their eyes are flooded by a feeling that can only be love. 

A/N : i have several requests for this au but i need to do a little build up on the storyline first, hopefully my lovely requesters don't mind the wait and that this can satisfy you for now (┳Д┳)

NAVI. | HEROES IN TATTOOS SERIES

TAGLIST : @melinajenkins @astonishment @until-i-found-you @corp0real @celestcies @lovelydoveval @inlovewithremusjohnlupin @calums-betch @futurecorps3 @hihihi1112 @simpingforthe80s @yrluvjane @neeezza101 @chaosofmanyfandoms @susyelectra @fangirlninja67 @pagesfalling @thepunisherfrankcastle @axeofwars @imarimon @justkiyomi @in-love-with-4-marauders @chicken-taco-burrito @valencia-rou @feast0nmeee @lestat-whore @hvmxjjk @twilightlover2007 @diaryofabiwoman @woohoney @celestialfantasiess @willbedecided @lovelyygirl8 @iiirhiane-g @ghostgardn @mess-is-my-aesthetic

[enden-k]

Just out of curiosity, if the things were to be reversed (fear Vika/human Saran), what do you think Vika's characteristics would be? I'm intrigued! Do you think their personalities might change? Maybe Saran would be less closed off? The fear itself (you mentioned it was like phobias? Iirc?) Would change?

Totally not trying to get you to talk more about lore and what goes behind fears/Saran turning into one, no sir-

"fear" is just the term used for any type of paranormal being that manifests due to intense negative energy (most often resentment, anger, hatred, sorrow,...) : theyre ranging from ghosts of deceased, manifestations of fears and phobias, nightmares and spirits etcetc and some are harmless and neutral (they can always evolve into smth evil tho) while others are harmful and evil

saran is not a phobia/fear manifestation like mogu is for example; hes a special case of vengeful ghost who went through a mutation (dont wanna disclose too much or i spoil a good chunk)

if their roles would be reversed...thats such a fun question!!! i think i might do an AU of it even AHHAKJSBCK i thought up a whole changed, alternative storyline now

warning for tiny (non descriptive tho) suicide mention, just in case

if their roles would be reversed, half of it would basically be like "if saran didnt die" scenario. their reversed story wont go exactly like the canon story goes tho bc theres no vengeful saran, no fear seeker eyes, no azais questionable methods

sarans life would go exactly how it did before his death (just the 7 years later, in the current present); hes in his early 30s, finished his studies to become a doctor and doing the amygdala stuff as a side job as azais partner since he still refuses to mingle w the ghost world again tooooo much bc of his upbringing in the cult (he always wanted to be just a normal guy instead of constantly interacting with the paranormal)

amygdala isnt a big exorcist organization like it is in canon story but rather a smaller group of exorcists now (basically, just one elite now instead of 10). azai and saran never had the argument that led to his death and azai didnt go the villainous route (lol) which makes saran still one of the only ones who can see the unseen all clear like he sees the living (like in canon story when he was alive)

which also makes him the first to notice and see vika who is a sorrowful sad puppy ghost full of regret bc he was enticed into suicide by an entity and still young and new to the whole paranormal world. its the first time saran feels for a ghost and doesnt exorcise them. vika ends up haunting him instead of the other way around (bc of course they fall in love with each other <3 in every universe) and sticks to him while saran keeps an eye on him to make sure his pure soul wont get corrupted and he ends up an evil ghost. he wants vika to have the chance to enjoy the life that was ended so quickly so early (vika is around the same age as canon) and vika wants him and only him to exorcise him before sarans life comes to an end one day

basically, less dramatic than canon story i guess? just saran and his puppy of a sorrowful ghost living a more or less domestic life bc theres no amygdala doing shady shit in the background and no certain vengeful spirits eating eyes and trying to take revenge kajscbjk

their personalities are still the same, altho saran has less of a "creepy evil" side since hes no evil ghost anymore and vika is even more puppy i think??

[somepsychopomp]

King of Ogygia

So yeah this is my AU where Calypso successfully brainwashes Ody into being her pet man. I'm hoping to post the full fic to Ao3 at some point in the future but for now, here's the first 3 chapters condensed into 1 part. Also this is a rough draft so if u see any typos, no u don't.

+++

Summary: Every day for the past seven years, Odysseus had spent his time living in paradise with his beautiful wife. Calypso provides all that he asks and he gives his whole heart to her, as well.

Yes, she's a bit... demanding. But she is a goddess and he is only a man. It must be expected that, in exchange for such a wonderful life, there's some discomfort along the way.

Word Count: Approx. 5.8k

(WARNING FOR: on-screen SA, though brief, and some other depictions of domestic abuse.)

+++

Ogygia was a beautiful island, if not small. One could wake up at dawn, walk along the soft, white sand that met the sea, and return to the spot he started at by dusk. 

Which was what he was doing. He’d asked his kindly wife to let him wander the shores on his own for once, wasn’t he finally ready?

When asked why he felt compelled to do so, he merely said he’d like some time and silence to think and to enjoy all the sights their home had to offer. After all, while she had gardens to tend to and tapestries to weave, he had little in terms of industry to keep his hands occupied. Whenever their sprawling home was damaged, he did not have to take up nails or a hammer to mend it, for his wife could repair any damage from rain or wind with a deft flick of her wrist. Nothing in her paradise could ever be broken.

She let him go, on the condition that he return by nightfall and not a moment later. 

He understood her warning well, that there would be punishment if he disobeyed his dearest wife. So he packed a rucksack with enough food to serve as a midday meal and a waterskin, his sandals at the bottom of the bag, and set off at dawn. 

It only took about half a day to reach the far side of the island. Here, the sand was still soft and white, but it grew cold under the shadow of the island’s mountain. 

What Ogygia lacked in size, it made up for in splendid geography. Beyond the beaches, there was a ring of wooded land where all sorts of strange plants bloomed and where beautiful birds sang. And at the center of the island, a small mountain peak. The most magnificent thing about it was that the mountain was hollow; within its sprawling caverns hid a beautiful palace adorned with marble columns and balconies overlooking the sea from every angle. The mountain’s face was adorned with neat stone paths, creeks, fountains, gardens, gazebos and arches. Though it was a struggle to memorize all the routes, once he had them in his mind, he found it quite easy to go anywhere he wanted on the island. 

This side of Ogygia though… it held somewhat less of a splendid sight. 

A massive series of cliffs rose high over his head, nearly as tall as the mountain itself. The sheer rock, exposed to the wind and other elements, was a dull gray color. For the longest time, his wife had refused to bring him here, insisting there was nothing worth looking at. But he saw. 

He saw the nests the seabirds made on the cliff ledges, could occasionally hear their cries. He’d yet to find any fledglings, leaving him to wonder if they had their offspring somewhere far away. 

And there were tide pools in the shadows of the cliffs, who hosted an endless supply of little creatures to find. He had to be careful, though. At low tide, it was easy to walk out and find the secret entrances to underwater caves where more adventure awaited. Though they tempted him, his wife told him firmly to never venture there. She would not let him be caught by the high tide.

So he sat with his back to the sheer rock as he unwrapped and ate his salted fish, fresh bread, and honied dates, sipping his water as he watched the seabirds glide toward the horizon. Though he’d been walking for hours, he didn’t wait to pack away his belongings and continue on his way. If his wife found out he’d lingered on the far side of the island, she’d surely grow upset. 

After about an hour, his feet began to ache from walking barefoot all day. He stopped to pull a hefty branch from a wiry tree by the beach and used it as a walking stick. His discomfort wasn’t to the point where he would want to don his sandals, so he kept walking. In truth, he wasn’t sure he’d done much thinking on this little trek of his. Mostly he thought of nothing, observing the lapping waves and enjoyed the silence that came with isolation. 

After another hour or so, he shivered and came to a stop. He glanced over his shoulder, unsurprised and yet relieved to see no one there. 

What was this strange feeling that compelled him to stop? 

It almost felt like he was being watched, but he knew what it felt like to have his wife’s eyes on him. Beyond gardening, weaving, cooking, singing, dancing, and reciting poetry, his wife’s most favorite activity was to keep him within her sights. 

Maybe if he had more time, he’d investigate. The forest, while lacking much complexity in its design, had fewer pathways than the mountain and it was easy to feel lost among the trees and foliage. He would’ve liked to venture outward. Perhaps there was some curious little creature his wife had yet to mention to him…

Making his choice, he tapped his walking stick against the sand and kept walking along the beach. He knew his wife would have dinner ready by sunset and did not want to disappoint her. 

He kept rubbing the back of his neck as he walked, still bothered by the thought that something was watching him. Which was likely, all things considered. A number of animals also called the island their home. Some, like the rabbits and wild goats, he used to hunt freely. Ogygia was fully under his wife’s control, so the populations never seemed to dip as a result of his hunting. Though lately, he set traps and pursued prey less and less. There wasn’t much thrill in it, not like his occasional dream of a massive, wild boar charging at him. 

With the sun sinking beyond the horizon, the air much cooler than midday but not unbearably so, he came around the final bend and upon the pathway that’d take him up the mountain at a gentle slope. 

He stopped dead in his tracks and dropped his walking stick. “What?” 

And then he was running. 

He ran past the pathway that would take him home and dropped to his knees before the prone figure lying face down in the sand. Whoever they were, they didn’t respond as he touched their shoulder. Their face was obscured by long, brown hair and most of their body was covered by a ragged, wet chlamys. Fearing that, somehow, a corpse had washed up on their isle, he turned the body over with a grunt. 

His eyes widened. It was a woman. Even with her hair a tangled mess, her skin having taken on a sickly pale pallor, he could tell she was beautiful. She had the angular nose and jaw of a proud, stately woman, coupled with a kind of serene grace to her soft lips. 

He pressed his ear to her chest in the hopes she was alive. For a moment, he wasn’t sure he could hear anything. But faintly, very faintly, he made out a dull beat like a distant drum. He breathed a sigh of relief and fetched the water skin from his bag. Gently, he brushed the sand from the woman’s face and hefted her head and neck onto his knees. He was careful to let only a thin trickle of water into her mouth to avoid choking her. He stroked the length of her throat to coax her to swallow. 

At last, the stranger stirred. She coughed, then groaned. He could hear the rasp in her voice and said, “Please, drink more.”

Though she didn’t open her eyes, she slowly drank more water. 

“Don’t worry,” he said softly, unsure if she could hear him, “My wife is a healer, she’ll be able to mend you.”

He hurried to slip on his sandals before hefting the woman into his arms. Though he wasn’t a strong man, he found strength enough to hurry up the path toward home. He followed the sound of singing until he came upon the outdoor kitchen where they often dined in the evening. 

“You’re nearly late!” a voice called, “It’s almost dusk. You had me thinking I would have to go out and-”

His wife turned around. Her supple smile fell from her face as she took in the sight of her husband, breathing hard and brow beaded with sweat, as he set the strange woman down on their dining table. 

“Calypso!” he said, “Come-”

She was in front of him before he could blink, her hand wrapped around his wrist. She pulled him even closer, eyes narrowed and cold. 

“Please,” he said, voice lowering to a murmur. He felt the hand around his wrist tighten. He knew what it felt like when his bones were on the verge of breaking, she did too, and she was merciful enough to spare him the pain. 

“Who is she?” 

He answered truthfully, “I don’t know, I found her on the shore. Can you help her?”

Calypso narrowed her eyes. She was always wary of strangers. 

“Why would I do that?”

He stifled a flinch as he felt the pressure begin to build. He was losing sensation in his fingertips. He said, “I was once a haggard stranger on your shore. You spared me, won’t you extend the same kindness to another lost soul?”

Calypso dug her nails into his flesh. Thankfully, she kept them short so she could do her work more easily. 

She asked, “You promise you only found her just now?”

He nodded. “Please, my wife.”

At last, she sighed and let him go. Calypso waved her hand and the chairs flew from the table. She turned the woman’s head from side to side, frown deepening as he fetched her jars of herbs and ointments from the storeroom inside. Calypso, ever the healer she was, rubbed some sort of salve on the woman’s chest. 

It was so pungent, it made his eyes water. But he stayed, curious to see how his wife would tend to someone else. Once, maybe a long time ago, she nursed him back to health as well and saved him from the brink of death.  

Using some hot water from the pot over their fire and a handful of herbs, she crafted some kind of herbal tea. Calypso blew on the surface as she delivered it to the table. 

He tucked one hand under the woman’s head and raised it ever so slightly so she could drink more easily. Calypso drip fed the woman, her face laced with disinterest. 

“My dear husband, if this doesn’t work, then this poor woman should be considered a lost cause. You might as well get to work chopping some trees for her pyre in the morning.”

After a moment, Calypso added, “Or we could bury her in the garden, put her to good use.”

The stranger surprised them both by sitting up of her own accord to go into a coughing fit. Her coughing had a wet quality to it, though he couldn’t tell if it was from the sea water or the tea. He winced in sympathy for her. 

“Where-” she began. Tears laced her eyes from how fitful her coughing was. 

He quickly said, “It’s alright. You’re safe here.”

Calypso shot him a look that he knew very well as a silent warning. He urged the woman to lay back down. 

As she blinked her eyes, he could see that they were the loveliest shade of green. Verdant like a field in early summer. Of course, not quite as lovely as his wife’s golden, immortal eyes, but fair enough for a mortal. 

“Thank the gods you’re alive,” he said, glad to see the woman was not as close to death as he was when he first arrived at Ogygia. 

His wife cleared her throat. “There’s only one goddess here.”

“Of course,” he said, daring to hold out a hand. Calypso took it and squeezed, refusing to let him go. “My apologies.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at them. “Who are you?”

His wife pressed her other hand to her chest, “I am the divine Calypso, queen of Ogygia. And this is my dear husband, Odysseus.”

Since his wife, wise in ways beyond that of mortals, didn’t seem interested in speaking further, he asked, “Tell us, where have you come from? Who are you?”

The woman’s eyes shifted from Calypso to meet his own. She sat up slowly, unblinking. 

“My name is Penelope.”

A lovely name. 

“Well, Penelope!” he said, “We have plenty of food here. And rooms, too. If my wife and queen is willing to oblige.”

Isn’t that right, Calypso? 

But his question died on his tongue. Odysseus had seen his wife in all manner of moods. He’d seen her happy, calm, solemn, and furious. He thought he knew her well by now. 

But the sheer venom in his wife’s eyes as she glared at Penelope was unrivaled by anything he’d ever seen before. Her hand squeezed tight around his own and Odysseus didn’t even have a spare second to warn her, to plead, to calm her before–

Not a sound passed his lips as a clear crack sounded through the still air. 

Odysseus only turned his head away so that their guest could not see him grimace. A sharp, throbbing pain began to radiate from the side of his hand, running from his thumb to his wrist and quickly spreading.

Calypso blinked and schooled her expression, but she didn’t let go of him, seemingly content to ignore the fact she had broken his hand. Perhaps that was for the best. He knew she didn’t mean it and it would be preferable to not scare their guest. He was sure she had survived horrors of her own on the open sea and did not need to witness more. 

Odysseus cleared his throat and put on a smile. “Ah, so, who else is hungry?”

+++

(SA starts here)

This was his punishment. 

Nothing needed to be said. Nothing needed to be explained to him. For all the ways he was a fool, he knew what he’d done. 

He brought another woman into Calypso’s house, even carried her in his arms.

Odysseus went through dinner without complaint, ignoring his injured hand even as it throbbed and hot sparks seemed to shoot through his arm every time he flexed his fingers. They were silent throughout dinner, Calypso uninterested in entertaining, Penelope hungry and reserved, and Odysseus trying to not mind the pain. 

They gave their guest a room, one far from their own wedding bed. He was grateful for this. 

Almost as grateful as he was for the sight of his beautiful wife over him, the curve of her bare breasts and soft hips visible in the moonlight. She’d let her hair down, her delicate braids flowing over her shoulders. Calypso devoted so much time to her hair and it showed; her braids were dressed with beads of gold, pearls from the sea, and streaked with a rich, lavish violet dye that came from her own garden. 

He felt the weight of her golden stare upon him and attempted to reach out to her, to pull her into a kiss, but she would not be cajoled. Instead, desperate, he touched her waist. She let him, but didn’t do much else. 

His other hand, his injured hand, was pinned to the bed by his head. 

Calypso moved effortlessly, rocking herself on his cock as she pressed her thumb into the flesh of his palm. Not enough for it to hurt, but just enough that it was a constant reminder. 

He was never certain if it was a trait of the divine or just his wife, but she could do things to him. Make him do things, too. She could manipulate his body to her liking, just as she was doing now. Odysseus had no idea how long he laid under his loving wife, only that it was late into the night and he was tired.  

He craned his head back, taking labored breaths as he remained throbbing, leaking, wanting, even though he was exhausted and Calypso’s ministrations had begun to hurt.

He whispered, “Please…”

They’ve gone at it like animals until sunrise in the past, though that was mostly back when he was new to her island and still learning how to please his wife. She could be ravenous when she wanted to be. And while she could stir the lust within him with no effort at all, just a snap of her fingers, he was just a man. 

He caressed her hip. “Calypso...please…”

Finally, she spoke. “But doesn’t it feel good?”

Odysseus’ head swam. He wanted to rest. He wanted his wife to take pity on him. 

The thumb against his palm pressed ever so slightly harder, sending fire through his veins. He choked out, “Of course it does.”

“Don’t you love me?”

The pressure was unrelenting. Her hips had slowed to a ceaseless grinding. He gasped. “I do.”

At last, Calypso leaned down. He tried to meet her for a kiss. 

Her lips brushed against his ear. “Then act like it.”

She twisted her thumb into his palm. His hips bucked as his teeth clenched and his wife hummed in satisfaction. He felt so wet and hot, and tired. Despite the pain in his hand, a disorientating numbness had also settled deep under his skin. The air smelled of sweat and lust. 

It took a while longer until she was satisfied. When she was, Calypso settled against his side, her bare body against his own. He cradled her close. She traced her fingertip in circles across his chest before splaying her palm flat against his skin. He had so many scars and yet she still loved him, still called him handsome. 

Her fingers trailed up to his throat and caressed the side of her neck.

She closed her radiant eyes and sighed, “This is why I shouldn’t let you wander on your own. You always get into trouble.” 

“I’m sorry.”

She didn’t respond. Odysseus exhaled slowly and closed his eyes, sinking into a fitful sleep as his hand and body continued to ache. 

+++

When morning came, he knew she had forgiven him. 

Odysseus woke up and was met with no pain and the ability to freely flex his fingers. The rest of his body was free of any discomfort as well. 

Such an amazing healer. He rolled over and kissed his wife awake. 

The sun was only just rising. Their gossamer curtains fluttered with the gentle breeze. Some days, they were both up early to tend to whatever needed tending. Other days, Calypso willed a soft rain to befall the island. The cool, sleepy weather would compel them to stay in bed all day long, lounging and feeding each other fruit and whispering sweet nothings. Such was life with a goddess. 

Calypso’s eyes fluttered open and she smiled at him. 

He whispered, “Morning, sleepyhead.”

She yawned and stretched her legs. She suggested a bath together and he agreed, thinking he should clean himself up before facing their guest. 

There were multiple options when it came to bathing in Ogygia. There were a number of mountain springs where the water was always clear and clean of debris. Or they could venture deeper into the mountain, where a system of hot springs awaited them. There was also a plain old bath house a short walk from their chambers, it held a rather nice view of the island’s south side. 

Calypso took him to her favorite waterfall carved into the side of the mountain. As she stood under the spray, letting the water run over her face, Odysseus pressed his chest to her back and kissed the nape of her neck. They were nearly the same height. She stood a touch taller than himself, his gracious and buxom wife, and he only loved her more for it. 

He felt her hand reach back to caress his hair. He grinned softly. 

Without warning, she forced his head forward until he was under the fast-flowing water. Odysseus sputtered and murmured his protests against her shoulder. When she let go of him, she was laughing as he pushed the wet hair from his eyes. 

“Very funny,” he said. 

But the important thing was that she was laughing. Nothing mattered more to him than his wife’s happiness. 

When it was his turn under the waterfall, Odysseus had that strange sensation of being watched again. He glanced around but found no one else present, not even their guest. It was just him and Calypso, wasn’t it?

He soon waded out of the water as Calypso finished drying herself off. 

“So…” she said, donning a beautiful emerald peplos trimmed in white. “How are we going to get rid of our intruder?”

Odysseus froze as he rubbed a towel through his hair. He stared at her. 

“What do you mean?”

“Her,” Calypso said, as if even speaking Penelope’s name was beneath her, “We can’t have someone else on the island with us. You know that.”

Well, it was true that wherever Penelope had come from, she was never going back. 

Calypso fitted a golden band around her wrist and said, “Now, if you aren’t willing to kill her, then I’ll have it done by sunset. What do you say, Ody?”

He used the excuse of dressing himself to hesitate. Odysseus donned the iris colored chiton his wife worked so hard to weave and dye. Such a color was typically reserved for royalty only, but even the finest and rarest dyes could be made in abundance here. 

“Odysseus,” she said. 

He sighed. “It seems cruel to kill her while she’s helpless.”

Calypso approached him. He leaned forward without being told as she tied a silken strip around his head to keep the hair out of his eyes. One by one, she slipped the leather bands over his wrists and laced them tight. 

“My tender-hearted husband, then what are we going to do with her?”

He wanted to ask why she was so against someone else staying with them on the island. Perhaps Penelope was god-sent to provide them with companionship. Why refuse her refuge when Odysseus was given endless kindness? 

But he knew the truth. Penelope was a woman, and Calypso as the resident goddess-queen had no interest in female company. 

“She might not recover from whatever she’s been through.”

Calypso gave him a skeptical look. “So you’d rather she have a long, slow death?”

“I’d rather see what the Fates have to say about her, before we do anything.”

She didn’t seem very happy with his response. If she wanted to kill the newcomer, Odysseus would have no way to stop her. 

Calypso sighed. “Either way, her life ends.”

“As you wish,” he said. It was getting to be mid-morning now. He should bring Penelope something to eat and drink, at the very least. Hunger was a terrible beast, and thirst just as wicked. 

Odysseus ventured down to the storerooms and filled a tray with bread and spiced olive oil, fresh figs, and ripe olives. He knew the water on the island was safe to drink without intervention, but thought it’d be more polite to offer their guest the opportunity to drink according to her homeland. He didn’t know much of the outside world, but was aware that the water was unclean and had to be mixed with wine to make it potable. He filled a larger pitcher with water and a smaller cup with wine. 

Penelope’s quarters consisted of a guest house at the foot of the mountains, shaded by the lush forest and complemented by a pond where a pair of white swans were known to frequent. He entered the front exterior, climbing the marble steps and venturing inside, where the far wall was hewn from the mountain’s very stone and dotted with uncut gemstones. 

“Penelope?” 

He set the tray down on the nearest table and ventured farther inward. He was surprised to find her on her feet, examining the tapestry upon the wall of her bedroom. Threads of sapphire and silver mimicked the crashing waves at midday. Her hair hung in loose tresses around her face, still stiff from saltwater. 

Penelope met his eyes and didn’t seem startled to find him in her quarters. 

“Good morning,” he said, “I’ve brought you something to eat.”

A little songbird had settled on the windowsill above the front entrance and was warbling out its pretty melody. Penelope followed Odysseus and took a seat at the table. He sat across from her at a respectable distance and pushed the tray closer to her. She stared at him. 

“Does your hand not hurt anymore?”

“Hm?” he looked down at his hand, “Oh, no, no! I’m fine. Please, eat.”

She didn’t eat. Her green eyes seemed cold despite the sunlight streaming through the windows. She pushed the tray until it sat in the middle of the table and said, “I feel it inappropriate to dine while my host does not.”

It was true that he didn’t have anything to eat yet. Most mornings, he fixed himself a meal. Sometimes, his wife joined him. But being a goddess, she didn’t have quite the same need for food as he did. She simply ate when she wanted to. 

Then it occurred to Odysseus that maybe Penelope was afraid. He offered a smile as he took a bit of bread, proving that nothing had been poisoned or tampered with. 

Penelope finally plucked a fig from the small bowl on the tray. She took a bite of its supple flesh and chewed slowly, brows furrowed in confusion. Odysseus chuckled softly. He knew the food here was perfect. As an island paradise, every bite of every meal was without flaw. It was something that took time to get used to. 

For a little while, the two of them sat and ate in silence. Odysseus was amazed that Penelope had recovered so quickly, when he had vague memories of being bedridden for days, or even longer, when Calypso first found him. He was weak, malnourished, and suffering from multiple infected wounds. 

Penelope was first to break the silence, “Tell me something, o’ King of Ogygia.” 

Odysseus cleared his throat in surprise. “King? Please, you misunderstand! It’s only myself and my wife here. And while she’s certainly queen, I’m only her husband.”

Penelope was silent for a moment. She studied him, her eyes narrowing before her entire expression smoothed over. She leaned forward and asked, “Where are we? I’ve never heard of any island by the name of Ogygia.”

He was beginning to realize that Penelope might very well make a full recovery. Which meant she may have to learn of Ogygia’s true nature, that no one can leave. But why torment her with knowledge she didn’t need to know yet?

And if she was going to die, she might rest more peacefully having never known the full truth. He pitied her silently, as he would never age or grow sick while he called this place his home.

Odysseus gestured to the paradise outside, “Well, it’s Calypso’s island. Her paradise. You cannot find Ogygia by searching for it. As far as I understand, it’s simply a matter of fate if the island finds you.” 

Penelope nodded in contemplation. She continued to study him. Of all the questions he expected her to ask, she found one that nearly made him shiver in the warm morning sun. 

“Then… if you are no god, where did you come from?”

His smile began tighter, more pinched, as he tried to answer honestly, “I don’t know. Whatever life I had before… I don’t remember. Calypso tells me I was very hurt when I arrived. I assume whatever injuries I had led me to forget.” 

He shrugged and added, “Or perhaps I was bewitched!”

Odysseus chuckled at such a silly suggestion and stood. He was going to take a walk through the gardens and thought the fresh air might do Penelope some good. She agreed to accompany him. He walked at a slower pace than usual to accommodate Penelope's gait. She walked slowly, as if fatigued already. It didn’t bother him, he spent the time pointing out the many beautiful fixtures the island had to offer. 

Past the series of stone arches draped in vines and flowers, the pathway split into two. One led farther up the mountain while the other led to another guest house. Odysseus walked right past it, ignoring the building with its overgrown ivy nearly concealing it from sight. 

“The bath house is up ahead, if you’d like to… Penelope?”

Odysseus suddenly realized he was alone. He looked around and spotted Penelope making way for the neglected guest house. He jogged after her, confused as to what could be so interesting about this place. 

By the time he caught up with her, she was standing in the open doorway, gazing inside. He came to a stop next to her, but found nothing of interest. The house was as it always was, dim inside since the vines and ivy overtook the windows. The air was a little stale and musty, and cold. 

Penelope spoke softly, “You say this island is a paradise, but this place stands neglected and derelict. Why?”

Odysseus didn’t have an answer. “I’m not sure. It’s my wife’s will.”

This was the house she kept him in while he was recovering, however many years ago that was. 

“What are all the markings on the walls?” Penelope asked. 

He looked closer. He’d nearly forgotten. 

“Oh, I did that,” he said, embarrassed, “I suppose I was overcome with a little bit of madness at the time.”

The walls of the modest house were covered in thin scratch marks. Not erratic like an animal, but in neat rows. 

“I think I carved a line for every day I was here. I can’t possibly fathom why, though.” Odysseus laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m grateful for Calypso’s patience. I doubt most women would forgive their husbands for vandalizing their house.”

It was probably why Calypso did her best to hide this building from sight. She didn’t need it and Odysseus wasn’t comfortable being reminded of his confusing, maddening past behavior. 

“Come, there’s more to see,” he said, eager to leave. 

+++

What a coincidence it had to be, for a woman named Penelope to arrive on her shores. Calypso was certain it was his Penelope defiling her island at this very moment. The two of them acted as if they had never met before, but what if it was a ruse on that wretched woman’s part? 

Penelope could simply be biding her time, waiting until she thought Calypso’s guard was down to steal her man away. 

But Calypso was no fool. Odysseus was her love, her husband, hers now. 

It had made her stomach twist to see Ody carrying another woman in her arms the night before. It made her furious when he left this morning to fetch that bitch something to eat, believing Penelope was nothing more than a wayward traveller.

But Calypso knew better and it was up to her to protect her husband from any pains his past might bring. 

In a moment when she was alone, Calypso closed her eyes and concentrated her divine power. She was no mere nymph; she was the daughter of Atlas, a goddess of beauty and magic. Calypso searched her island for a host and found it in a songbird nesting in one of her branches. 

Ogygia was hers to control. All its inhabitants made up her domain. 

She poured her mind into the little bird and took flight, following Odysseus as he wandered down the path to Penelope’s quarters, bearing a tray of food as if he were a mere servant. 

Calypso watched her husband sit with Penelope and even eat together. It disgusted her, made her want to flood the island up to the guest house’s level so that Penelope could drown. But alas, her poor, foolish husband would be in trouble, too. 

Odysseus caught her attention when he said, “...and while she’s certainly queen, I’m only her husband.”

At least he knew his place. At least he remembered who he had to be faithful to. 

Penelope was a clever one, probing Calypso’s unsuspecting husband for information. She seemed curious about him and where he had come from. 

It could’ve all been a coincidence. 

But Calypso was no stranger to fate. She was stranded herself on this isle with no company for a century. The only other times she saw another face was when the occasional god came to visit her with stories in exchange for the ripe fruit or luscious flowers from her garden. But that was only once a decade if she were lucky. 

Then her Odysseus came. Her handsome Odysseus, who needed her hands to heal his broken body and broken heart. But he was a married man when she found him, another cruel twist by the fates. 

Now that he was her spouse, she was never going to let him go. 

Especially not when faced with her greatest challenge yet, another woman. 

Calypso took flight and entered a window high in the mountain where she landed upon the floor of her private chambers. She pulled herself from the body of the poor little bird, now dead from the strain of carrying divinity within itself. 

Her husband knew better than to venture here, to the zenith of the island. Calypso’s most powerful potions and charms laid hidden here, accrued over the many lonely years should she ever need them. 

Stained glass windows in shades of emerald, sapphire, ruby, and gold threw colorful, shifting beams of light across the floor, where a mosaic of the heavens resided. Marble columns lined the circular room. The tables and shelves here were all cluttered with sealed boxes and bottles, some glowing and others humming faintly with power. 

Calypso waved a hand and a heavy, wooden chest popped open. She rifled through its contents until she pulled out a bottle that fit in her palm. It looked as if it were filled with plain water, but she knew better. This was the end result of much trial and error until she had a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and lethal poison. 

She closed her hand around the bottle. 

“You can’t learn,” she said to herself, “You can’t remember. I won’t let you.”

All she had to do was mix this poison with their pitcher of water at dinner tonight and Penelope will be dead by morning. 

Calypso herself might have a faint stomach ache, but it was a price worth paying. Though she wasn’t quite sure of how it would influence her husband, she was more than able to protect him from death here. 

“I’ll keep you safe,” she promised. Safe from the world, from his past, from himself. It was what any good wife would do. 

+++

Alright! That's all I'm posting for now!

FYI, it's made pretty clear throughout the fic that something's up with Penelope & it's really clear after this part that something else is going on with her. Sorry to spoil the fun, but it's actually Athena in disguise. She's doing some recon on Ogygia to try and figure out wtf happened to her bestie bc she really thought for sure that Ody would recognize her.

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

The Arcana Drabbles: Explanation and Masterlist

I'm going to add examples below, but drabbles can range from several sentences to several paragraphs and cover everything from humor to angst to fluff! They're written more like train-of-thought fanfic, instead of the structured bullet points I use in HCs. What really sets them apart though is that drabbles focus on one or two characters at a time and are not limited to the M6!

Drabbles can be as oddly specific as you want, to as randomized as you want. Here's some examples of what you could request, and some links of past drabbles -

"I really like the idea of a cozy night in with Portia where she takes care of my hair, could you write a drabble for that?"

"Can I have drabbles of Selasi being just The Best to MC?"

"I have this really specific bittersweet moment in my head - [insert description here] - could you do a drabble of that with whichever M6 parent you think fits it best?"

"How about a drabble for [specific character]? Whatever you want to write about them!"

Julian and quill pens

Portia's hair

Asra and Muriel and campfire teamaking

Nadia and Favorite Foods

Scout's self care

Lucio's hair

Inanna and Muriel

Mercedes and Melchior and Lucio

Chandra missing Nadia

Malak and Julian

Pepi being a Cat

Faust and Asra and Faust's knife

Cuddling Birblian

MC transforms into a "monster"

Vesuvia Weekly: Baby Fever (M6 oneshot)

M6 building IKEA furniture

Lucio realizing the dogs are his familiars

Family-burdened MC and nothing-is-taboo Lucio

Asra's sweet tooth

Julian and his waterproof plague clothes

Nadia's poorly-worn clothes pet peeve

Portia's garden

Muriel's favorite colors

Vesuvia Weekly: Don't Wake MC!

Vesuvia Weekly: "Why are we hiding?"

Modern AU Pre-Prologue Setup

Work Lunches with Asra

Julian's Pirate Adventures

Prince!Lucio and Bodyguard!MC

Prince!Lucio and Bodyguard!MC, pt 2

M6 vs Mechanical Bull (oneshot)

Comforting Julian during a storm

Bodyguard!Muriel and Royalty!MC

Julian when MC gets tendonitis

Vesuvia Weekly: Learning (love) Languages

Vesuvia Weekly: Guilty Pleasures (poorly doodled)

Inanna protecting MC's stuffed animal

Malak upstaging Julian (on purpose)

Faust and Asra trying to learn MC's secrets

Chandra trying to share her puzzles with MC

Pepi sharing her secrets with MC

Mercedes and Melchior "helping" Lucio be a good boy

(Art prompt) Muriel's prosthetic proposal

Youngest Child Nadia

Honorary Grandma Portia

Big Brother Julian

Ageing Lucio angst

Resilient Asra angst

Asra's inherited fashion sense

Nadia the Countess Engineer

Julian as a castmate

Lucio's dental habits

Portia's domestic feminine rage

Muriel's bad posture

Julian and the canals

Asra and weekly dusting

Nadia and the South End Theatre

Muriel's pockets

Portia's to-do list

Lucio's bathtime

Post-upright route evening with Nadia, Asra, and Julian

Julian & Portia talk to Malak & Pepi

Knight!Muriel and Royalty!MC, pt 2

M6 all cook in one place

Asking Muriel to crush a watermelon between his thighs

Prince!Julian and bodyguard!MC

MC and Julian get arrested while Portia bails them out

When Muriel's kid is a walking heart attack

Mercedes and Melchior accidentally halfway merge

Julian getting used to normalcy

Asra sharing a bed with you

Nadia sharing her room for the first time

Muriel sharing his thoughts with you

Portia getting used to your attention

Lucio not understanding your love

Julian when you're stressed and quietly waiting

Asra when you've been wronged by someone

Nadia's fluctuating code of ethics

Muriel's scathing letter talents

Portia on AITA

Lucio realizing he can weaponizing his capacity to annoy

Vesuvia Weekly: A Date With Disaster

Vesuvia Weekly: To be loved is to be ...

Motorcycle Mishap

Julian with an MC who smells their hair to think

Vesuvia Weekly: MC is M6's embodied impulse control

Vesuvia Weekly: Sleepover Horrors

Vesuvia Weekly: One More Dance Before Bed (Julian)

Vesuvia Weekly: Moments of Reprieve

Trick or Treat: Khamgalai's coping mechanisms

Trick or Treat: Aisha and Salim's water lanterns

Trick or Treat: Palace Passageways

Trick or Treat: Bribing Mazelinka

Trick or Treat: Vesuvian Canal Culture

Trick or Treat: Selasi's Friendship

Trick or Treat: Courtier Meetups

Trick or Treat: Young Nadia's Pranks

Trick or Treat: Muriel's Splinters

[sneppu]

For Your Snirius/Snupin Consideration !!

I show up unannounced like a disheveled and unpaid intern interrupting a board meeting to pitch yet another unrequested idea, BUT:

Though I have made a wholeass post here describing ways in which Severus Snape is a little black shelter cat (real and true), I am here to talk about Snirius/snack (and snupin as well for that matter) and the alternate Raven Sneep approach (also extremely real and true).

Black Cat Sneep and Raven Sneep are very similar, but in my mind, they bring two distinct possibilities to the snirius/snupin table (both fun and good) The key difference is that Black Cat Sev has a more fiery and contentious relationship with Sirius/Lupin (the ye olde cat vs dog classic) but Raven Sneep has the potential for a more sympathetic relationship right from the start - a shared bonding over troubled home lives perhaps? because you see (and this is what this post has been building up towards all along, yes I ramble and never get to the point, big sorry.) there is one key interaction between Ravens and Wolves (yes, wolves and dogs are different but a canine is a canine is a canine and the grim is a very large boy, thus this applies to snirius as well as snupin.):

Ravens and Wolves share a Symbiotic relationship! Ravens have been known to create friendships and relationships with wolves! They will play together, and Ravens will lead wolves to prey so that they can have the leftovers - in fact, some joke that Ravens are "domesticating" wolves all over again.

Anyway, I'm saying that the implications are adorable, and so I see it like this: in the context where The Marauders are on the more horrible side of the spectrum? Black cat Sev makes sense - trust has already been broken before, and a level of enmity has already been established. The classic enemies to lovers type deal that we have come to expect from Sneep x marauder ships. but in aus where things go a different route before things get too bad? aus where things never went down that road to begin with? thats where Raven Sneep can truly shine! Those Aus where Severus is befriended by the marauders from the start to become a marauder alongside them work well with this especially.

These things are not rigid of course, a black cat flavored Sneep in an early friendship AU with the marauders can bring a lot to the table as well, making for delightfully sassy Sneep interactions; and for that matter, lategame Enemies to lovers Raven flavored Sneep has the potential to be truly devastating - nothing can hold a grudge better than a corvid, after all! and boy does Severus Snape have a LOT to be resentful for. (and if its Sirius x Severus x Remus?? thats when things can get REALLY interesting. I had a lovely conversation with someone last night and so Snirius/Snupin have been on my mind as of late.)

In the end, all flavors of Sneep are exquisite and good! There is always a perfect Sneep for every occasion, as per usual.

[stevyguts]

they fell asleep while watching bob l’esponge

+ small domestic pepstavo

[strawberrystepmom]

pokemon trainer au! gojo x f!reader. reader is a fairy gym leader and satoru is league champion and a flying type trainer. satoru arrives to start the journey and it doesn't go as planned immediately thanks to a trip down memory lane. just some relationship building, insane mutual pining, and fluff. wc 2.2k

part one, part two, part three (you are here)

divider by @/cafekitsune!!!!����

The expected start time of your trip has long passed and the pair of you and Satoru sit knee to knee on your living room floor. 

He arrived when he said he would, suitcases and bags sitting on the ground beside him, and you ushered him with a grin and offering of a snack. The snack was accepted and he made himself at home quickly, not that it’s difficult in your humble abode no matter who walks through the door, and now his bags sit in front of the door next to yours as if they’re a matched set and you have been anxious for hours because of it.

Despite your attempts to calm down, it’s almost suffocating being this close to him. His presence is so big, and not just his impressive physical body, his spirit, his aura, his personality. He’s larger than life and he’s smothering all of the oxygen keeping your heart pumping and mind clear. It’s embarrassing and you look around the room for something else to focus on despite your clammy palms.

Yes, you’ve had a decade-long crush on him but you are an adult. A grown woman with a job and house and life and you are actively fighting warming cheeks every time he looks down at your Espeon who blinks at him curiously and shoots her a smile. You stroke between her ears and she purrs, tail whipping against the floor below. The rest of your Pokemon are scattered in different spots across your home, your Ninetales curled up on the opposite side of Satoru, and the domesticity makes you feel even warmer despite attempts to calm yourself down.

All of this feels natural which is exactly why it’s terrifying. 

It feels like this is how things should always be, the two of you giggling over a travel log and map you found when you were digging out your old adventure gear in preparation for the journey that was supposed to begin at 5 o’clock sharp. The hours have ticked by without a second thought from either of you and the hour is nearing 9, solidifying that the two of you most likely will not be taking off tonight. 

You don’t mind, especially since that angry crowd never quite assembled outside of your home the way they thought they would, and the man next to you laughs when he holds the map very close to his face and examines the stickers you put on top of your favorite routes. 

“I can’t believe you have this,” he mutters after his laugh dissipates into a pleased sigh. Pressing his thumb to the Leppa berry shaped sticker, his brows furrow and you silently wonder what he’s thinking about. Despite your curiosity, it feels uncomfortable to ask so you move the conversation forward and continue stroking between Espeon’s ears.

“I’m sentimental, I couldn’t bear to throw it away.”

A nod sends his white hair forward, slipping over his eyes and down his forehead, and he points to another stickered location on the map. A little yellow star shape covers this spot and he looks at you quizzically, his head tipped to the side. 

“Do the stickers have special meanings?”

You shake your head, scanning over the folded paper. 

“Not particularly, they’re just places I liked to be.”

If they had meanings back then, you struggle to remember them now, but you know every spot was significant to you in some way. The star shape indicates where you met your Pichu who will be joining you on your journey, the Leppa berry sticker indicates where you planted a tree after nabbing your fair share of berries along the way, and the others that are scattered across the Sinnoh map have meaning to you. 

You aren’t from Sinnoh but you’ve made it your home thanks to the history documented in front of you and there is a map in your bag of each of the regions you’ve visited, marked in very similar ways. Glitter gel pen, silver felt tipped marker, stickers, folds - evidence of the previous roads you’ve traveled. It’s hard not to smile looking down at the raised appliques dotting the map and you do, eyes flitting from place to place before settling back on Satoru who is gazing down at you.

You don’t want to wrap both of your arms around the glimmer of hope that particular gaze is stirring in you but you metaphorically wrap an arm around its shoulder to welcome it anyway and look down with a smile. His voice draws your attention and you look up, blinking as slowly as the lazy creature next to you.

“So where are we goin’?”

You snort and shake your head, folding the map up into a tidy rectangle. Leaning forward, you tuck the map under your folded legs to keep track of it for later.

“What do you mean?”

Gojo’s shrug is flip and he leans backward, stretching his long legs out in front of him and resting his weight on his elbows. Your cheeks heat again and you look away, toward where Ninetales sleeps across the room.

“Are we using this map as a guide or do you have another one somewhere?”

Realization hits you all at once and you laugh, still blinking slowly out of confusion despite understanding what he’s saying. You were supposed to plan the trip despite him being the one who invited you along.

“Satoru, usually people plan their own trips. Have you never done that before?”

Shaking his head, his hair flops over his eyes again and you sigh but it holds no contempt or anger. It’s not his fault that his life was literally planned out for him from the time he was a child, his destiny to follow in the legacy of his father and grandfather before him as inherited as his big blue eyes. Some people need a little more guidance and you don’t mind being the one to shove him into some semblance of normalcy.

“Why don’t we just use your old maps and recreate the trips?”

His suggestion is viable and you hum, pretending to mull it over while he looks around your home. It’s certainly quaint compared to his apartment but it strikes him how cozy it feels to simply be here. It looks lived in unlike his home which is comparable to the sterile environment of a hospital or Pokemon Center because frankly, it has tended to be unlived in during the time it has belonged to him. 

Most of his nights have been spent in the Pokemon League building in individual suites offered to himself and the other members of the League, leaving little time to make his house a home. Satoru lets the warmth of your environment seep into his very bones and has since he walked through the door, eyes catching pictures of you and various friends scattered across regions and photos of your family with your Pokemon. 

Would you ever have photos of him hanging in here? 

The way you finally hum affirmatively catches his attention and makes him focus back on the task at hand - you. Shifting his gaze from the walls and mantle, he looks back at you and grins when he catches sight of your smile.

“That’s such a good idea I can almost forgive you for expecting me to plan your trip.”

He tilts his head to the side.

“Almost?”

Rolling your eyes, you shift where you sit and rest your cheek on your shoulder.

“Okay, okay, I forgive you.”

He sighs and drops his weight from his elbows, flattening them out and laying on the ground. Ninetails looks up from where she rests and lifts her head to put it on his stomach and you tut at her. The interaction makes Gojo chuckle quietly to himself, lifting his hand to pet the creature who doesn’t flinch at the touch. 

“Don’t be rude, he’s a guest.” 

She glances toward you but it only lasts a moment, her eyes closing while she settles in. Another roll of your eyes and you laugh incredulously, Espeon moving and wrapping her tail around your folded legs.

“I’m sorry, they have no boundaries and it’s my fault.”

Your Pokemon are so friendly and loving it almost makes the former Champion feel guilty when he thinks of how his behave in comparison. They’re his companions and their relationship is trusting and strong but it isn’t this affectionate. He certainly struggles to envision his Skarmory putting their head in his lap.

“It’s not your fault, if anything it’s your gift to them.”

Tilting your head to the side you shoot a sidelong glance at Satoru. You’ve never viewed the spoiling of your companions as a gift but if he sees it that way, it can’t possibly be a bad thing so you smile. It’s soft and serene and you can’t tell from where he lays on the ground but his eyes are glued to how you look just like this. Now it’s his turn for sweaty palms and he plays them off by wiping them across the slumbering Ninetales who opens one of her eyes and huffs at him before shutting it.

“I’m glad they like me. Our trip would be much worse if this one started growling at me,” he nods toward the sleeping creature resting on his torso and you laugh. 

“They’re all going to lo-,” you catch the word leaving your lips and stop yourself. “Like you. They already do, especially this one.”

Nodding toward Espeon he chuckles again and lazily kicks his feet out, tapping his heels against the rug. You’re certain another hour has passed and the fatigue of a busy day mixed with your body’s weariness from being anxious all day makes your shoulders sag and he looks as tired as you do, rushing from his television appearance this morning to your front door which is no small journey.

“It feels a little late to ask but I take it you’re spending the night?”

Gojo’s ears perk up at your words and he cradles Ninetales’ head while he sits up, legs still straight out in front of him. He assumed he would be but hearing you say that sends blood rushing to his cheeks and he clears his throat, pretending to pick a stray piece of fur off of his sweatpants.

Two can play at this game and it’s one you will not beat him in.

“Is this a clever way to get me in your bed?”

Now it’s your turn to fluster, stuttering as you struggle to find a rebuttal to his flirtation. One does not come and he just laughs, reaching to comfortingly pat your shoulder. Your posture slumps again and he wants to correct it but stops himself, letting his large palm cup your shoulder blade and then smoothing it down the back of your shirt which makes you straighten out anyway. He takes the hint and removes his hand, smirking boldly.

Winner winner.

With your back ramrod straight and stiff, you turn awkwardly to the side and nod your head toward a shut door adjacent to the living room. The accommodations aren’t luxurious but they’re comfortable, a bed made up with pretty linens you found during your last trip to Galar behind the door.

“That’s the guest room but you’re going to have to fight Pichu for the good pillow, he has a tendency to hide it.”

Satoru shrugs, his own exhaustion catching up with him now that he has been promised a comfortable place to sleep. Dramatically sighing, he flutters his lashes and pretends to be exasperated, keeping that damned smirk on his face to let you know that he’s joking.

“I’d rather it be the luxury accommodations of your bedroom but I suppose it will do until we go.”

Laughing awkwardly, you slowly rise to standing and hold your hands out to help him do the same. You grunt when he grabs your hands and you heave to pull him up, almost knocking yourself backward in the process, and his hands find your shoulder naturally as soon as he’s on his two feet to steady you. Looking up, you see him glancing down at you tenderly again and you’re too caught in the moment to make a single move, instead letting him gaze at you as though the future he tried to planned for is nothing but you. 

Perhaps that’s why he didn’t bother with any of the actual trip planning itself.

“I’m gonna head to bed, I’ll catch you in the morning.”

Without another word, he winks at you just like he did ten years ago and withdraws his hand from your body, offering you a half wave while walking toward the room you indicated was his for the night.

You practically float to your own bedroom a few moments afterward, riding the high of his touch and his flirtation, and you wonder if you have what it takes to last one on one with him for the length of this journey. 

Can your heart take it or will it explode from the weight of your rapidly deepening feelings? Time will tell, you suppose while you roll over and make room for Skitty and Espeon.

Across the house Satoru asks himself the same question.

Does he have what it takes to make this journey with you without surrendering his heart in the process?

[missmarveledsblog]

i'll show you different ( Joel miller x reader) part 8

summary : it all started there and now it was going to end there while joel and the other were hoping they weren't too late ...

warnings : mention and involves domestic abuse , knife and guns mentioned , its a violent ass part so if any of this is triggering to you please skip take care of yourself , no outbreak au

previous part

She should be scared of him , she should be terrified at how tight his grip was on the wheel knowing what damage those hands were like. The force of them on her skin when she�� breathed the wrong way , how those hands have made her cower and fear for her life. She wasn’t scared , she wasn’t anything but pissed off , the rage of her  ex husband one that told her things she believed for some long . how she blamed herself for his action like it justified it all . now her grandfather lay fighting for his life because this asshole just couldn’t take no and her leaving . a child throwing a chaotic tantrum to get his own way or a rabid dog that wasn’t going to stop til it was stopped forcefully.  She wasn’t scared til she noticed the road they were taking the one she would actively avoid , one she would gladly take the longest route to avoid .  He was bringing her home ,  the one where life fell apart , one where the walls held nothing but haunted and tortured memories and the one that her mom perished in. 

“ how the hell did  no one see her leave “ sherif stomped around the room . 

“ because she didn’t want to be caught i think she wants to face him “ tommy scoffed. 

“ i didn’t hear that “ the sherif growled. 

 “ why the hell would she do this ?” joel gritted his teeth . 

“ because she sick of being the victim , she has been one all her life “ a voice called from the door . “ i was afraid of this happening  nathan barnes , her lawyer and friend “ he held his hand out as the sherif took it . “  how hell you find out so fast “ . 

“ knowing he knew where she was i had to make sure she was safe only to see he’s escalating  how is her grandfather” he asked more quietly. 

“ not completely out of the woods but stable for now “ joel finally spoke. 

“ who are you two?” he asked. 

“ worlds shittest bodyguard her father sent” tommy scoffed. 

“ her father?” nathan eyes widened. 

“ he trying to make sure she safe his way of making amends and hey we were giving lover boy the chance” mike glared. 

“ lover boy … i guess we can talk about all that once we found her , if she not afraid he’s going to want to be  since he already he took her grandfather out of the picture where else would he take her?” nathan asked. 

“ we’ve no idea she not shared much which us “ joel spoke up . 

The time withered walls , that sick feeling in her stomach as strong as it was that night and others before it . she tried to fight him off , tried to pull from it walls only for him to hit her hard  and again and again til anger turned into submission . she felt the chill in her bones as she could hear their yelling , the smashing off places and glass . she could see if as if it was happening right there and then when she ran to push he away only for his anger to turn to here . how the face of the monster and her fathers merged into one . til her mother attacked pushing him away from her child and to save the one thing she loved most in the world . how her mother pleaded and pleaded with her to run and never look back , the smile when she agreed before she was gone hearing the anger in his voice and the sound of her own mother leaving the world . now she could see it repeating this was were it was going to end whether she was walking out this house or being brought out of it . 

“ why can you just listen , why did you run away from me” he spat pushing her to the torn up sofa as she looked at the blood stained floor  , it was just soaked in the wood aged with years and years but she could tell , it was last place she seen her mother , that teary eyed smile and almost relief in the tears as she ran out the door .  the whole thing was too much , too much pain of past and present in her head as she drowned out the voice of her current monster between what he was calling an apology and yet in the same breath  blaming her .  like it was all build and building til something snapped within her and the voice of her inner child and past self was coming to the surface and the merciful scream that she unleashed that was already pushing the border of her vocal cords. It was sure to reach the house nearby as she pushed him off of her and kicked him away . 

“ you think they will come , you think they would bother helping you” he gritted trying to get ahold of something to shut her up on for her boot to hit him straight into the mouth sending him crashing to through the coffee table . 

“ whether anyone comes or not it ends here whether i kill you or you kill me “ she stood pushing her booth on his chest as his eyes widen . “ you monsters have took over every part of my life hurt those i love most and i let it happen  by not fighting back , i tried doing it the right way and well law sadly isn’t always on the victims side but if it stops it all i will be the law and i’m not letting your stupid child self centered arrogant and cowardly ass to have control on me or my life  again so if i need to go to your level then you bet your fucking ass i will “ she stood pushing her boot down. 

“ you don’t have my connections darling you’ll go to prison like daddy” she could hear the waver in his voice. 

“ i’ll smile in the fucking mugshot” she leaned down  her fist pulled back before it collided with his face.  

“ FUCKING BITCH “ He growled diving on her  “ you think you can take me down “ he spat  hitting her hard she could taste the metallic liquid fill her mouth  , his hands wrapped around her throat and her lungs begging for the oxygen . hands scratching any and everywhere fighting to get him one way or another.  The world slipping away before it went black . 

“ no but i can “ a gun cocked as they looked to see maria standing shotgun in hand . “ now off of her “ she held firm , anger in her eyes , she couldn’t save her best friend all those years she sure as hell wasn’t going to let her daughter suffer the same fate . “ get out of here or i swear to god almighty i will blow your head off of your shoulders “ she turned as he held his hands up  watching him leave as she ran to the girl . “ come on baby wake up “ she shook her only for her eyes to slowly open . 

“ maria” she croaked. 

“ he’s gone “ her voice cracked as she lifted her leaving the gun on the ground as they walked to the door only for her ex to run at them this time something in his hand the metal as she could see pushing maria out of the way  feeling it pierce and burn in the skin . as she fell back he pulled it out  hitting the ground she looked up to see him turning ready to attack only this time it went so fast . 

They pulled up outside of the house the door held open it didn’t help the sherif visibly shudder at the sight of the place .  they barely got a chance to even register what was happening when the booming bang went off sending joel out of the car only for tommy and nathan to pull him back . 

“ shots fired i repeat shots fired” the sherif called into his radio giving the address before pulling his own gun . just as he got to the ends of the steps he heard the footsteps coming. 

“ d-d-don’t shoot” the voice called as the men stood seeing her hanging weakly to a blood covered maria. 

“ he’s dead i think “ she gritted holding her side . 

“ peach shit “ . 

They rushed to her side before tommy could even get to her side joel was lifting her up  and carrying her to the cruiser . 

“ sherif come on “ was all he said . 

“ stay here and wait rest of you “ . 

“ i’m coming she needs her lawyer” nathan rushed. 

“ i’ll stay with maria “ tommy wrapped his jacket around the woman . 

“ h-h-he stabbed her and tried to stab me , we thought he was gone  i-i-it it happened so fast” she murmured as tommy led her to the steps to sit . 

“ keep us updated” was all he could get out of his mouth . 

“ you had to fight back huh “ joel whispered as her eyes began to get heavy crying out at the pressure being put on her wound. 

“ i’m tired of being afraid  , i tired of running “ she cried .  “i thought i would be ok  … i-i-i’d be ok going down with the fight but i don’t wanna go joel” she sniffled. 

“ hey we’re gonna get you to the hospital and they’re gonna stitch you up and then i’m gonna give you hell for scaring me like that” he wiped her tears . 

“ not too loud .. i-it-its a hos-hospital still” she gave a weak smile as they chuckled . 

“Not too loudly “ he smiled hand on her reddened cheeks , her beautiful face all cut and red surely to bruise hell if the prick wasn’t dead either of them in that car would gladly finish them off.  It felt like hours but it was minutes before they got to the hospital it went in slow motion then so fast as he held her hand before she was gone behind the doors , her blood evident on each man .  each pair of eyes locked on the door as until the sherif radio went off . 

“ i’ll be back but i’ll make sure this is clear cut “ he spoke up yet he didn’t want to move. 

“ i got box of evidence in my car “ nathan finally spoke a bit happy it wasn’t the outcome he thought was coming well least at the moment it wasn’t . 

“ drop it by the office when you get chance call me if … if anything happens “ was all the man said as left. 

 “ she’s a fighter even when she was scared  … she’s gonna be ok” nathan said but he didn’t know if he was saying to himself or the stranger who looked like his life was hanging in the balance. 

part 9

taglist: @harriedandharassed @missladym1981

[verystrxxwberry]

hi there! ok, my request might be a bit strange, but: what would the guys in moonlight lovers be like as modern young people? i mean., knowing the seven adults who are in the age range from 30 to 2380 y/o, their personalities, styles and how they relate to each other, let's change the canon. 8 university students (including MC), living together in a dorm, studying different majors.

what do they study? how do they dress? what kind of young people are they? what are their tastes? i'm intrigued by the youth version of Vladimir, Neil or Aaron in the 21st century. i ask it as headcanons, but if you are more comfortable with an OS, whatever💗!

thanks in advance

MOONLIGHT LOVERS university AU

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𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭: sfw, only routes (except Neil, I have a curse against him it seems…), routes living the 21st century, they’re humans, pics of the outfits, long!! ↝ 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: It’s not a strange request! I genuinely found it pretty cool and I have lots of ideas for this. I hope it is entertaining and you like it! I did it in a general way, both in University and also their normal lives in the 21st century, in headcanons.

♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•. ♪¸¸.•*¨*•.

AARON

Before going to university, he was just a regular student who passed stuff but without being brilliant at it. That’s fine for him, he didn’t want to get straight A’s but he didn’t want to fail either. He just wanted to do what he enjoyed.

His grades on math, history and sport are effortlessly good, getting all A’s. But that’s why he likes practical stuff instead of those subjects that have a lot of theory to memorize. History is an exception for him though. He likes to learn about past times.

It's canon already that his handwriting is a mess, but not only that, his notes ARE a mess.

When he reached university, he decided to study something that allowed him to be practical and to memorize less theory. This man loves both human and animal biology. He loves animals. That’s why he was raised with a few dogs who he took care of with all the love of his life. So he decided to study in a Veterinary school to specialize to be a veterinary surgeon.

He doesn’t like seeing animals in pain, and more than once during the practices he had to leave the room because it was too much for him to see an animal in pain. 

Aaron is good with animals and has all the patience when it comes to stand the smelly and noisy environments of farm animals (because veterinary surgeons are usually the ones in charge of diagnosing and treating domestic pets, farm animals, zoo animals and horses). He also knows how to keep animals calm and expects to be attacked more than once as they are also nervous living beings.

He had to move from the camp to a dorm in the city to be near that vet school and do his 5 or 6 years of major, which he achieved to do for his passion in healing and taking care of animals.

In that dorm he got really close to Raphael and Vladimir since they two were calm and had a lot of interesting stuff to talk about with Aaron. He also got along with Ivan since he sometimes needed help with math or other subjects (also some life advice). With Beliath things got slightly different and he got a mate to go drink with after work since they worked in the same restaurant for a few months.

To pay the rent and also his own needs he got to work in several places. 

His job career started by working in a restaurant, in which he worked for a few years. The first years living in the dorm he worked with Beliath in another restaurant, as mentioned before, but he decided to change and work in an Ikea after it.

He’s a big fan of music and some mythological literature. And when he gets to see some shows on Netflix thanks to Ethan, he becomes obsessed with Blood of Zeus (same). They all pay for Netflix together, the ones who use it at least.

About music… I hc he likes imagine dragons, hozier, adele, abba and glass animals. He got some influence from Ivan and Ethan and started liking Avenged Sevenfold, even if it’s not the kind of music he’d actually listen to.

He is the taxi driver for Ivan, Raphael and Vladimir. 

He doesn’t use his phone too much, and ALWAYS has the volume on. He doesn’t know how to use social media, only twitter and only because Ivan showed him. He is a dry texter and probably uses the thumbs up emoji 98% of the time.

He has a simple style and doesn't put much effort on it, as long as it is comfortable for him. He doesn't really like colorful stuff to wear.

BELIATH

This guy had to repeat a whole year of high school because he didn't put his effort at all. He wanted to have fun instead, making friends and going to parties, so he skipped classes to go somewhere with Ethan and other people, or maybe he was simply going through a terrible hangover. 

He is the kind of guy who is effortlessly smart but has no interest since he finds studying boring. He is too good at biology and physics though. When he repeated the year, he started getting very good grades at those two subjects because he decided to put in a little bit of effort just because Ethan motivated him. He basically got told “if you don't get a job of something you do enjoy, you will be enslaved in a restaurant and will suffer.”

Every challenge for him is accepted. So he will search for a restaurant or bar to work in to challenge himself. He would meet Aaron there and after it go to get some beers after their night switch.

He worked in a nightclub but got kicked after flirting with his customers. Sigh…

His grades were mainly Bs but he got As on biology thanks to his big knowledge<3.

He got stressed when he had to pick a career and didn’t really have it sure, he just decided to study something related to biology and did deep research to see what was more amusing for him. So he decided to pick simply biology, and then end up working as a pharmacologist, which seemed interesting and not so hard for him.

Still, he did not finish the major because he got tired of the same routine. Then he dropped but begged Vladimir to stay in the dorm now that he found a little family to live with.

He knew Ethan from the same work and thanks to Aaron they both could get into the dorm due to the need of being somewhere close to the universities where they did study.

Beliath loves to travel a lot and whenever he has a holiday, he goes on spontaneous trips to other cities or countries. He definitely has been to Spain, Poland, Finland, Italy, Norway and Germany. He aims to travel further and visit other continents as well. He would love to go to Canada and Australia.

He is a big Lady Gaga fan and has gone to concerts of her. His insta stories were a big evidence of how he yelled and vibed to it. Next day he had no voice.

He also likes Britney Spears, Bad Omens, Melanie Martinez, Michael Bublé, Childish Gambino, Ricky Martin…

He is always calling for taxis, and definitely late to everywhere he has to go.

He is pretty obsessed with his phone to send tiktoks and shit to Ethan. His messages are good to understand, he uses the typical :) and :P, uses lol and lmao a lot and definitely answers to stuff with memes… cringe memes… Ivan teases him for that…

Has a very well organized spotify for each mood of his day. And he has NO shame in putting up nasty ahh songs every time he showers and sing them out loud.

He posts suggestive pics on twitter… yet his instagram is very friendly. He still receives flirty messages from people because he is always handsome in his pics. He posts the worst pics he has of Ethan too though.

He probably has an onlyfans.

Big eurovision fan.

Casual yet formal and attractive.

VLADIMIR

He had to put effort on classes no matter what since his family was pretty strict with that topic. Still, he developed the habit of using his free time to study something so he didn’t forget the topics and he was able to understand the lesson better. He even went to a language academy thanks to his parents, where he discovered a big passion for learning languages. He started with French and then learnt Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, German, Italian… and he definitely knows a little bit of Russian and Arabic.

The subjects he enjoyed the most were English literature, history and language. He got all As except in sport, since he has had a weak physical condition since young.

Deep inside he never wanted to focus all his time on studying, yet he obeyed his parents. He didn’t plan on going to college and he was forced to get into a computer science major since it is the most advantageous university major. But he did NOT like it at all.

Even if in this AU he has grown in the technology century, he still does not like it at all, even if he owns a phone. He owns it, but never uses it. 

Even though he comes from a rich family, he decided to produce his money from a very young age with the idea of being independent sooner. He worked as a dog walker, as a teacher for younger kids that needed help with school, as someone to take care of the gardens of his neighbours… And thanks to this last job, he found out how much peace he got from being surrounded by flowers.

As soon as he turned 18, he moved into a dorm and searched for more roommates so the rent was cheaper and he didn’t have to explode himself that much. That’s how he met the other guys.

He didn’t finish the computer science major, he didn’t want it at all. He changed then into a horticultural science degree which he enjoyed the most and really had him in a good mood instead of studying something he didn’t like at all. During the years of the degree he achieved to open a flower shop in the city! 

It was notorious the amount of effort and excitement he put into his small business, which helped him for the economy. His flower shop is really well organized by types of flowers and their colors, then he has a section for medicinal and legal herbs, and a section of tools for gardening. He also made a catalogue for those spiritual people who believe in the meanings of each flower (and he explained it truly well in there). 

After the major, he went to a small course of herbs and then, once he was bored of not doing anything, he decided to do a major in a literature major, which he also truly enjoyed.

He has gone on small trips with Beliath… and not because he was going to enjoy the company of Beliath, but because he wanted to see the world.

Aaron, Raphael and him traveled to Egypt and enjoyed it a lot. Vladimir received a lot of calls from Ivan because Ethan and Beliath were making chaos in the dorm… He made video calls with Ivan to explain what they did on the day, just like a father-son relationship.

He has a blog where he writes his own self, expressing himself through writing. With this I mean that he posts poems and short narrative stories. He is planning to write a book :). But he also does book and movie reviews! Because he only likes seeing movies whenever Ethan, Aaron or Ivan are going to (as long as it isn’t terror). 

He has his own garden in the dorm and had to argue Ethan a lot to avoid getting weed plants in his PRECIOUS garden.

He likes classical music and jazz, not rock or noisy stuff. He likes Mitski, Amy Winehouse, some songs of beabadoobee and not much from the actual era. He prefers classical playlists that can be easily found on youtube…

Whenever he texts someone, it seems more like a letter from the 15th century than a casual message.

He keeps his style as formal as he can, no matter the context. He doesn't even care if his dressing code seems old for the century, he likes it and that's what matters.

RAPHAEL

As he grew up, he wasn’t a blind kid, so he had the chance to see the world around him and find out his passion for art. He is a person that truly does admire the effort of artists, writers and musicians. So even if everything in school went well for him, literature and art subjects always went good for him due to the extra passion he placed on it.

He begged his parents to get classic books to read and some of them mainly focused on art, finding a true devotion for art history.

He was a big fan of Raffaello Sanzio, getting some of his paintings in his bedroom such as The School of Athens. He also got some paintings to decorate the walls of his bedroom such as The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, Mystic Nativity by Botticelli…

He really wanted to study art history and be able to teach people about historical paintings. Not only that but he went to an academy to learn deeply about the methods to paint on canvas, since he also liked that kind of stuff. He sold his own paintings for not much money, but simply to get something. He even did some commissions to people around him that needed it.

Raphael has an old twitter account where he posted his art and offered commissions to others.

since in this AU vampires aren’t seen, I’m gonna change a little bit of his canon history. In this AU, the way Raphael got blind was due to a car accident on a trip with his friends, where Margarita was human and she unluckily died. 

He went to university late since he decided to first recover from the emotional shock and the depression he got sinked in. After it he decided to learn braille, and luckily he didn’t find it so hard, so he needed only weeks to be able to read, even if it was at a slow pace. He devoured braille books thanks to this, so it was a plus that he got to finish some books he had on his list since long ago.

He wanted to do something with his life that wasn’t simply reading in braille and being careful whenever he went outside to not get hurt. 

If he couldn’t see and analyze more paintings, thing that saddened him, he could rely on the musician side of him. He decided to focus on his musician side and improve his skills, now that his hearing would be the most developed sense in his body after touch.

He decided to get into a major in music theory and composition, where he was able to express himself thanks to music.

Thanks to Ivan he was able to find out about audiobooks, so whenever he decided to lie down and rest, he heard an audiobook of any book Vladimir told him about. He also listens to podcasts and some of them about philosophy, which he finds truly interesting.

He likes soft music such as jazz, something that is calm and it isn’t too loud for him.

Every time he goes out with Aaron and Vladimir, he takes a grip in any of their arms to not get lost. Then they three go to drink a coffee and talk about some stuff related to their lives.

He is the therapist friend… If you want a school motivation speech, he knows how to give it properly. He is good at teaching other people, listening to them and advice them.

To pay the rent he luckily got to work in a library, which he loved as it was almost always quiet. But years later he got to do his own compositions and thanks to Ivan, post them on some platforms to get money from his effort!

Vladimir would hire him in his shop :3

We know he is a sweetheart, so he gets along with everyone in the dorm, adapting to their likes. Whenever Ethan watches crime documentaries, he listens to it with all the attention.

He owns a phone but doesn’t use it, only to answer the calls of others.

When Vladimir or Beliath go to buy some clothes, he always asks them to pick something nice yet comfortable for him to wear in home. He definitely has the cutest style of all of them.

ETHAN

He is a regular student with regular grades who barely puts effort on it but never fails. He is the clown classmate, and many people can’t stand him, but he is smart. During class he puts attention only on those stuff he finds interesting, which is biology and maths. He dislikes history but is really good at it.

He skipped some classes to go smoke something with his group of friends or to go gossip somewhere with Beliath.

He put effort the last year before university just because he started finding interest in being a doctor thanks to some shows he watched on Netflix. So he was pretty clear on choosing a major in medicine.

And he achieved it! He surprisingly put a lot of effort on it because he wanted to take good advantage of those years. But that doesn’t stop him from going to a party and having an exam the next day…

Still, he was passionate about the idea of being a doctor, so he tried pulling for jobs in hospitals mainly. The first years there was no response, but later he managed to get into a hospital as a clinical radiologist. He often took pics of some broken bones of his patients and sent them to Ivan or Beliath… (ivan is traumatized)

He goes to parties with a black eyeliner which makes him fucking gothic n handsome because he loves it. He isn’t an edgy like Ivan, he is just a low level of punk. He loves to wear rings and a unique dressing code.

He has a spotify playlist with anime openings which he vibes to. And it is thanks to Ivan actually.

Ethan worked as a delivery man for certain companies before being a clinical radiologist, as he knows how to drive a motorcycle. 

Definitely dyed his hair several times.

Loves to take the guys to Finland so they can go skiing whenever they are bored. He loves adrenaline and those adventures which makes him feel it constantly.

He absolutely adores crime documentaries and terror movies. 

He has a few tattoos around his body, and some of them were even made when he went to some parties. He won’t have many tattoos that actually mean something to him.

During his free time he plays some of the games he has on steam, and you can also tell that the soundtrack of any game or movie he likes, will be on his playlist. He has a small library on steam and the games which have more hours are definitely risk of rain 2, terraria and devil may cry. Even though he plays lethal company with Ivan and other friends. He simply pays for those games he knows he will like.

Loves slipknot, glass animals, the neighbourhood, onerepublic… and basically anything that has him humming the melody afterwards.

His twitter is filled with memes and definitely things that will get him into a cancellation thread… he has to learn to shut the fuck up more often.

His instagram is made in revenge to Beliath, where he posts the worst pics of him. He has no fear in posting funny videos with Ivan, Aaron, Beliath and other friends. Even though he got scolded by Vladimir when he heard that Ethan posted a video of Vladimir talking to his roses in the garden and writing on a corner “he’s becoming psychotic”.

Probably opens a youtube channel to post vlogs, paranormal videos in which he goes to explore random places, tasting weird food…

IVAN

He is the kind of student who sometimes puts his effort but unluckily doesn’t get the grade he expected. He isn’t the best student, but he isn’t the worst. He hates the idea of needing the help of others to understand some subjects, but at the end he feels like he doesn’t know anything after studying almost all the noon. 

He was mostly late to class and that was because of Loic and him going to parties as teens (Constance joined most of times, yeah…), so he had hangover most of the times. Luckily that only was his teen years until he met Ethan near his campus and got a new friend group. Even if Ethan dragged him to parties, it was a way more healthy than with Loic and Constance.

His best grades were mainly on language and technology, maths and other shit were much lower than he ever expected. Still, he decided to do something he was more excited about: studying a major in computer science.

Even though the first months he found it difficult to be organized and did see it as a must, he learnt to like what he was doing and he became really passionate about the practical part.

It was currently something interesting for him as he was in constant touch with computers, a thing that he truly enjoyed.

He worked in a McDonald’s to pay the rent, and thanks to his knowledge through the years on the major, he was able to work in one of those stores where you can fix your computer and stuff. He enjoys it and he knows how to set up a computer piece by piece.

Edgy and freaky tastes in music huh. He goes from my chemical romance, slipknot, deftones, mindless self indulgence to The living tombstone, some k-pop groups (I need to make someone like aespa in here, but he also is an og EXO fan), and game soundtracks…

His steam acc is definitely filled with games, and some of them haven’t been touched yet. He spent all of his credit card in most parts of the games… (He is proud even if Vladimir and Aaron aren’t)

He is also an emo with his dressing code. 2010 emo vibes but modern at the same time… Vladimir has to scold him every now and then so he can wear something decent and regular to go to public spaces, but he doesn't actually have formal clothes actually… only the job ones..

He is a big jojo fan. He made Ethan and forced Aaron to watch jjba. He is always talking about jojo references and everyone around him see him as a weirdo -he is-

Bro is obsessed with brawl stars.

His twitter is filled with literally shitpost, just as his instagram. 

He and Ethan decided to share the youtube channel so both of them had the chance to do their craziness ft. Beliath around there. 

✰; remember to reblog and like to support my content, I hope you enjoyed it!

[sufferu]

MASTERPOST

Check the tags for quick and easy navigation. (this will no doubt end up being updated repeatedly lol)

Cool Tags

Reading the Light Novels for the First Time: At this point it’s more like reading the Web Novels for the first time, but it’s basically screenshots of quotes + commentary.

Reading the Side Stories for the First Time: Screenshots of quotes + commentary — this time from the side stories.

Re:Zero Brainworms: Cool thoughts/theories about Re:Zero.

My Inbox: Asks that I have actually answered (I am so sorry to everyone stuck in Inbox Purgatory —)

Fanart: Re:Zero Fanart. And also official art.

Fanfiction: Mostly commentary on popular Re:Zero fabric tropes tbh

My Fics: Completed fanfiction of my own. (Or. Completed chapters.)

My Ficlets: Small snippets of fanfics I am working on. I hope to add to this somewhat regularly.

Fan-made IF Routes

Nameless Wanderer AU: Julius loses his Name in Priestella and strikes out on his own, aimless, only to end up getting dragged along by the mysterious possibly-the-Archbishop-of-Pride named Schwartz who claims to be another victim of Gluttony.

Crusch IF: Reinhard brings Subaru to Ferris after Elsa’s assassination attempt, where he ends up being hired as a worker in Crusch’s mansion. Everything goes pretty well for the first month, until about two days before the Whale is scheduled to hit — at which point Subaru’s mind shatters.

Nect Reveal IF: Julius sees into Subaru’s memories when they link souls during the fight against Petelgeuse, where he 1) concludes that he is a couple months old, as he cannot see into his time from beyond the Great Waterfall and 2) figures out RBD in its entirety.

Housecat IF/Chewtoy IF: Everyone is an animal hybrid and housecat!Subaru has developed a complex where he has started to think that he was summoned here as a domesticated cat to serve as a chewtoy for all the wilder and more dangerous animal hybrids of the Re:Zero world.

Whale IF: Subaru dies during the Whale fight and resets to moments before it begins, where he spends about two months continuously looping in order to get every single person out alive. Everyone figures out that he has some sort of time travel ability behind his back. He has no idea.

Omegaverse IF: Omegaverse.

House Arrest IF: Reinhard kidnaps Subaru alongside Felt due to him being a suspected Witch Cultist.

Amnesia IF: Instead of Joshua and Julius losing their names in Priestella, Subaru loses his memories. Everyone gets a front-seat view to Subaru’s second spiral into madness as he rediscovers RBD, one loop at a time.

Natsumi IF/Homosexual IF: Crack AU where Subaru has internally accepted Natsumi Schwartz before the start of the series but is now consciously repressing her anyway due to fears of how crossdressing might be seen in this medieval-style fantasy world. He is so bad at this that everyone thinks he’s gay. This does not stop him from trying to present himself as a Man at every opportunity and giving everyone — especially the traditionally masculine men he is attempting to emulate — massive amounts of psychic damage.

Kintsugi IF: Reinsuba Soulmate AU where traumatic events show up as golden scars on your soulmate’s body. Reinhard has no idea who his soulmate is or what the fuck could be causing all of these horrifying injuries and he is trying desperately to find out whoever’s responsible.

Feral Subaru AU: Subaru is Isekai’d at ten years old and is immediately traumatized by Capella before being taken in by Emilia. He bites people sometimes.

Runaway IF: Subaru and Emilia have a miscommunication post-Petelgeuse that leads to Subaru (wrongly) concluding that he is unwanted, and for the very good reason of painting a target on everyone’s backs, and so he leaves in the middle of the night and accidentally kicks off a manhunt that lasts for an entire year.

Back to Zero IF: Everyone learns about RBD in its entirety, and then everyone except for Subaru gets sent back to Subaru’s duel against Julius. Chaos ensues.

[lol-jackles]

First off, big fan of your blog! I read it like a newspaper every day.

What I wanna know is, if the SPN revival ends up happening, what route do you see them taking where they don’t mess with the canon? I think it would’ve worked out fine had Jensen not ret-conned quite a bit with the prequel. Now what? Will TW be considered canon? Is it better to let Sam and Dean rest and just base the revival between 15x19 and 15x20 so the endgame is not impacted? Wanna hear your thoughts specifically.

Also, a lot has happened between SPN’s end and now, and a lot more will happen still before the revival takes place. Speaking in terms of J2 and their friendship and their dynamic, particularly post prequel gate, should we expect to see slight changes in the SamDean dynamic come the revival as well? It can’t possibly be the exact same as how we got used to seeing it s11-s15 with this domestic bliss, we-are-eachother’s-endgame bliss.

Thank you friend.

The Winchesters was retconned to take place in an AU, so it is irrelevant to the main SPN-verse. Think how the Apocalypse World where Sam and Dean were never born has very little impact on the main SPN-verse. There is a pair of AU Sam and Dean running around in Brazil but again, no impact in the main SPN-verse.  So while TW is canon, it is entirely separate from our SPN.

Jared seem to like the idea that 5 years passed between 15x19 and 15x20 so I think there is a fair chance the revival could take place during those 5 years, Since Jared actually looks younger now than he did in season 15, then it can work.  (Sidenote: Jared started out looking normal in season 15 but midway through he trained for the marathon and gave himself the gaunt "runner face" that significantly aged him in appearance.)

 With Jack remaking heaven and keeping the angels away from earth and Rowena keeping demons away from the Winchesters, the brothers’ hunts return to the simpler days of monster hunting and explore new urban myths.

During these so-called simple monster hunts, Sam and Dean could go deeper into dealing their personal issues, which will draw them even closer leading up to the fateful Barn Scene day. Among the drama I would like to see closure to unresolved arcs, like what happened to Sam power?   Where are all the demons that Dean made during his apprenticeship as hell’s torturer?   Belphagore opened up that opportunity in season 15, which we also saw clues that not all demons are going to follow Rowena. Then we can have queen Rowena seeking help from the Winchesters to wrangle wayward demons either back into hell or into the Empty.

I expect we will still see the same Sam and Dean dynamic. First, based on the first and second convention after the prequel mess, the J2 magic was still there. Think of the times you haven't seen friends or family members for years and as soon as you re-connect, you immediately fell back into the old dynamics out of habit. Second, Hollywood is like an endless high school.  You may not have liked your high school but you find yourself going to every reunion because nobody else in the world know what you’ve experienced other than your classmates even if you hated them back in the day.  Many deep and casual relationships are based on shared experiences rather than actual compatibility. 

[artsycervidae]

Untitled #1

Summary: Gyutaro helps his sister out of a tight situation at school. But their troubles reach beyond the bounds of education.

Word Count: 4.5k

Author's Note: I don't have much explanation for this. I was playing in the hoodie-based daydreams and the 'repurposed' jacket. I've also been listening to a lot of YA lately. So I respun their snow scene for a modern AU angle. This is like a flashback chapter I guess? Have fun.

Warnings ahead: delinquent behavior, parentalization of children, domestic violence, extreme bullying, implied sexual harassment of a child (Ume's tragic backstory being foreshadowed), and Gyutaro's whole everything (self-harm, briefly considers kicking a puppy, patronizing misogyny)

Crack!

A volley of cheers chase the ball as it soars into the outfield. High school players scramble, red high-visibility jerseys flashing in time to sprinting steps. The player in blue lowers his bat, disbelieving and frozen for a moment. "Run Monjiro!" a loud command explodes from the pit. His other teammates clap and holler as he bursts into action. He bolts for first base and, a wild grin on his face, dares to steal second. Even from the middle school building, the athlete's exerberance is palpable. But the middle school sits uphill from both the field and high school-- it's easy to see anything from that vantage point.

Gyutaro watches, his own bat tapping the ground in impatient count. His empty hand idly scratches the spot behind his ear and his uneven nails rake thin lines into his scalp. He should recognize the name but he doesn't. Only the voices, attributed to faces that he passes on a near-daily basis in droning hallways. The cigarette hanging off his lower lip burns down to the filter. The acrid taste used to bother him more than the smoke. Now, what he wouldn't give to have a whole pack for himself-- but then, he couldn't help but imagine the rich tobacco rolled in yen bills. Burning through money when they had so little of it was something his mother did. He would rather smoke every butt off the street for the rest of his life than deprive his sister of a single cent.

The loudmouth is up next. He rolls his shoulders and gestures grandly to his second base comrade, pointing with a blue steel bat and declaring intentions to bring everyone home and end the game early. It's hubris in the disguise of kindness-- the overcast clouds have become fat and white, and the wind nips at everyone's cheeks and noses. Gyutaro prepares himself, spitting the litter back onto the ground and crushing it under his heel.

The blue team ambassador steps up to the plate, and Gyutaro mirrors the behavior. His feet spread to shoulder width, his hips cock, and his arms pull back. Even now his posture is wrong, and he knows it. The acute, tugging pain between his shoulder blades deters correction. His spine won't--can't-- twist that way. No matter. Gyutaro only needs a single, powerful swing. The batter cackles, and the blond pitcher shouts something that sounds admonishing. But then he reels back and throws the ball.

Crack!

A flawless home run, right over head of the second base runner, who predicts victory. He runs for it. The crowd goes crazy. The ball has been launched so high that even Gyutaro loses sight of it in the snowdrift sky. He finishes his silent count anyway. He swings.

SMASH!

His bat crashes into the nearby window. Gyutaro moves with the swing and breaks into a run for the school's front yard. It had been clear only two minutes ago-- he made sure of it-- but suddenly, there's someone there in the form of a smudge, barely there in the corner of his vision. He doesn't know if they spot him as a dark blur before he darts for his escape route. He kicks aside the rock that served as a makeshift doorstop and yanks the service door closed behind him. The card-reader outside won't stall the mystery person if they're a school employee, though. So he doesn't stop.

He runs down the hall to the locker room and begins opening lockers. Upon his first two pilferings, he pushes the bags around in exasperation. He pockets the spare money sitting unguarded before leaving them be. The third is empty. In the fourth locker is a giant, ugly red jacket. It must be sentimental or one of the adult's. It's far too big for a child or teenager. It's old too-- the cotton is rough on his dry skin. Too many hot water wash cycles. The black pattern on it is erratic, rivulets of ink crookedly dripping down between bold gutters.

It's an ugly article. But it's unlike the dark denim he currently dons, and something about it strikes a sympathetic chord with him. He empties his pockets into the red hoodie and takes it, abandoning the denim one in one of the dozens of lockers to be lost then found. He leaves the baseball bat propped against the bench then moves on, leaving through the gymnasium and toward the hallway.

This time, he opens the door carefully and peers through the crack first. His objective is four doors down the hall, but there still stands an obstacle. The teacher lingers outside the door, a flash of bandage obscured as he methodically smooths the fabric over his forearms. He moves so slowly and easily that Gyutaro mentally swears at him. 'Go on. Hurry up, bastard. Move! Check it out, you asshole.'

With pursed lips and a presentable appearance, the teacher finally obliges. He strides for the closest exit, which is a more direct route to the side of the building that overlooks the baseball field. Gyutaro planned it this way. The seal cracks-- a sudden flood of shouting voices, near and far-- and when the door falls heavily back into its frame, silence settles again. Gyutaro slinks from the gym and quietly jogs down to the open classroom.

Ume stands suddenly, her hands pushing off the desk she was pouting at. He can see the flash of fear in her eyes, so he clasps his hands jovially. "... Weather check. Snow's coming, so I'm taking you home." Her jaw unclenches. "Get ready," Gyutaro commands and she nods obediently. As she pulls her outdoor shoes and jacket from her gym bag (she slyly kept her belongings on hand-- smart girl), he stands guard and strains to listen. Nobody comes for them. Neither the gym nor hallway exits are disturbed.

"Ready," Ume announces. Gyutaro leaves his post as sentry, wheeling around desks to meet her at the window. She opens it as he takes her duffel bag, lugging it over his shoulder before he swings himself over, bag and all. She tosses her backpack out and perches on the windowsill. He holds his arms out for her to steady herself, and then she drops to her feet.

"Hurry, hurry," he whispers as she picks up her bag, and they hustle. He tugs on her arm to slow her when he sees the small crowd forming at the southeast corner of her school. Thankfully, nobody is looking their way at all. Everyone seems preoccupied with a sports-related mishap. He's scrawny enough that he could be mistaken for an oversized preadolescent from afar. But one look at his face-- his bruised eyes, broken teeth, and cynical scowl-- betrays his true nature as an abominable creature... the godforsaken teen. He wants to maintain that distance, and the upper hand. "Did they already make you call Mom?"

He can feel her bicep tense as she grimaces. "Yeah. I got her voicemail. We were waiting for her to answer, so they could arrange a meeting."

This wasn't so much a problem. Their mother had a habit of vanishing for periods at a time, leaving her personal phone in a drawer by the front door as a sign for her children to figure shit out on their own. Gyutaro had a system for this by now. "I'll listen to it when we get home and smooth it over," he promises. They pass the fence dictating the school yard property-- they are home free now. He releases his hold on her and they fall into a natural pace. "What the hell did you do to that guy?"

Ume sticks out her lower lip and her eyebrow twitches.

"Better yet," he amends, "what did he do to deserve it?"

Her attitude unexpectedly strikes him. "None of your business," she snaps.

He blinks and curls his upper lip with dismay. "It is my business when you get held after school," he bites in return. "Let me tell you the rumors: he's already saying you stabbed him unprovoked, talking some trash about how you came to ask his kid for lunch money. And when the kid wouldn't give you any, you threatened him with a pencil but stabbed the teacher instead."

"That's not what happened!" She glares at him, as if he had anything to do with this mistake. "He was the one who came to me! He wanted me to eat lunch with him again, so I told him to give me money so I could get it for us. But he said--" She stammers over the words twice, thrice, then abandons them for her previous thought. "I just wanted him to give me the money. Since he paid for yesterday's lunch, too, remember? And he kept saying no, so I... I just wanted to scare him. I didn't know that the teacher was going to grab me. I freaked out."

It makes more sense to him now. "Settle down," Gyutaro soothes. "I don't blame you. I just... hate what's happened." Namely, he hates that she was sent to school without food and that he was being nagged at after class when he should have been the one shaking kids down at lunch. She wasn't supposed to accept unsolicited kindness to begin with. But that was in the past-- he couldn't blame her for being hungry or for trusting someone who offered good intentions, the son of a teacher, no less. She still lacks the valuable insight her brother tried to instill her with: Authority isn't a title so much as it is a threat and a weapon.

"I didn't even stab the teacher," she adds, "... too much. The lead broke off in him but that's it. The nurse said it probably didn't need stitches. It's not like I used a knife or hairpin."

"He didn't involve the police, did he?"

"No." She swallows, but even that doesn't stop her from choking up halfway through her explanation. "But... that stupid kid wouldn't stop smiling when I was getting yelled at. When the teachers looked at him, he would pretend to be all serious and hurt... if it weren't for all those adults, I would have hurt him for real."

Gyutaro swears to remedy this injustice. He doesn't know how yet, but he will. "Let's get home and warmed up first," he schemes, "and then I'll handle everything at school." He takes his sister's hand and squeezes it, receiving a lackluster pulse in response. His thoughts are torn. A part of him has to acknowledge that he's only just begun his high school career. With two more years to go, he's already landed a spot on most teachers' shit lists, without physically fighting them thus far. If he tries to intimidate another educator-- one from a school Gyutaro had already been evicted from--he may get kicked out for good.

His mom always insisted that her eldest son would one day throw his future down the drain. During the worst of their arguments, this terrible truth cut him down to the bone. Now, it twinges at his heart like an old injury foretelling a storm. If he proves their mom right, then what will that mean for Ume? He needs all his focus and willpower to plot his sister's vengeance and get clean away with it.

Something is wrong, though. Ume stares into the distance with an uncharacteristically pensiveness... like all in her mind is muted. She shivers and it's only then he realizes how cold the temperature has gotten. They're nearly home, but he doubts Ume can manage the rest of the trek without a break. Her shoulders are drawn in tightly, hugging herself and trying to turtle into her own denim jacket. It was a bleach-splattered hand-me-down she had patched up, bedazzled, and marked excessively with a rainbow of permanent markers, making it entirely her own. She clearly picked it this morning in hopes of looking good, not for its insulation.

"Come here," he sighs, jerking his head to a nearby bus stop. Its cover from the wind alone will make all the difference. Soft, white flurries drift into view by the time Gyutaro's skinny ass falls on the bench. He heaves air in and out of his lungs, feeling the ebb and pull of his diaphragm, watching vapor appear and vanish before his eyes. He unconsciously moves to straighten his posture fraction by fraction; the familiar pinch of pain escalates until it's a hand grasping him by the spinal column.

Ume disrupts his ritual. She slouches and leans into his clavicle as her arms snake around his waist. He scoffs out a laugh-- he doesn't know what body heat she's searching for, but the gesture is one so familiar that it takes him a moment to push her away. "You're too old to be cuddling me, Ume."

"Please."

The cold finally settles into his body, and somehow he hears the fear and hurt in her voice at the same time. All resistance leaves him and he instead unzips his jacket, ceding one of the sleeves to her. She tucks into his chest and zips the hoodie up as high as she can without misaligning its teeth. He feels silly for not expecting her clinging after the bad day she's had. Another thing she never outgrew: the animal need to be held and comforted when uneasy. In that way, she will always be his baby sister.

The proximity rings reminiscent to other pin points of their shared lifeline: a toddler and infant laid down for the same naptime in the same laundry basket under the same blanket; two elementary kids sharing a futon because Ume still believed in nocturnal cannibals and wanted to be protected; two students lounging on the couch, a blanket thrown over their legs as she reads a beauty magazine and he plays a game, killing time while the heater was broken.

His sister sniffs and picks at the hoodie. "Where did you get this? It smells like cigarettes."

He doesn't have a magazine to distract her with. But he reaches into the jacket's large pocket and withdraws the very same portable game system he had stolen from a schoolmate years ago. "Here," he tells her, then as she boots it up he says, "Beat this guy for me."

As the brass horns of the soundtrack play through tinny, aged speakers, Ume hums at his in-game decisions. "Can't you just brute force your way through?"

"I could. I don't want to though. I want to beat him using this team."

She goes to the in-game shop--

"Don't spend all my money."

"I won't!"

-- and splurges on items she doesn't need. Gyutaro withholds from sighing in exasperation. He watches her assess her starting point and begin the trial. Her first opponent is easy, but she struggles because she didn't check her team and their moves and abilities. The second opponent wipes her team out, erasing her progress and sending her to the last respawn. She pauses at the beginning of the trial again.

"... Am I a bad kid?"

The question takes the breath out of Gyutaro. "What? No. Of course not. Who said that?"

She didn't need to give him a direct answer: instead she released a shaking sigh. Pearl-like tears bead at her eyelashes before falling down her cheeks. "I don't know why everyone was so angry at me." Her voice creaks, and a whine starts in the back of her throat. "We were both a part of that fight, but he got to go home on time. I missed lunch and dinner, and nobody would listen to me.

"They kept saying I should have been polite because he was doing me a favor. But nobody asked why he wasn't being kinder. Like, why did he start a fight if he was going to have to call for his dad?" her voice warbles. She swallows hard and tries to clarify: "I was so alone. It was unfair. Nobody was on my side. And I wished so badly that you were there... They kept saying that bad kids like me could lose their families... and that if I didn't act better, then I'd be taken away from you and Mom."

Gyutaro studies her. She's supposedly unhurt, and yet he recognizes the way her brows knit together and her lips peel away from her teeth. It's an expression he only ever saw on himself, in brief moments when his bullies would snap embarrassing photos of him beaten down and crying: evidence of him at his lowest. In text chains and email posts, he bore witness to a simulacrum of his cornered self through the lens of how everyone else viewed him. A figment that held no autonomy or freedom to fight back, and who should have done things differently--or simply not been his own self-- if he didn't want to be so pathetic. A sad sack. Wretch. Coward.

He seizes Ume around her middle, squeezing all that fear and worry out of her. She squeaks the air out of her lungs, but before she can complain he overwhelms her. "You're not alone, Ume. I'll never leave your side. Even hungry and cold, you're not scared at all, right? Look at you, standing up to a room full of idiot adults, and then breaking out! You're the bravest person I know."

She's startled, but allows herself to be squeezed and rocked by him. With each little sway, fear is filtered out of her, leaving only the surreal relief that comes from a good hug. Fluttering agony in her ribcage becomes a warm, singing fondness. "Says you. I can't believe you snuck into school for me. I was so scared I was going to have to tell them Mom was gone. I knew they wouldn't let you come to get me."

At the same time, she knew all along her brother would come for her. With their mother off on another one of her long absences, he is the one responsible for her. When Ume is hurt or scared and the whole world is collapsing around her, it is her big brother who puts the pieces back together, reminding her that nothing is ever a big deal as long as they have each other.

Her defenses melt away, until he pushes her out of his jacket, determining that they had warmed up enough to make the walk back home. Even then, she clings to his back by balling her cold fingers into the excess red and black fabric, ignoring her brother's complaints of her dragging him down. Everything she's been holding back threatens to burst out of her. "Will you come back to middle school with me?" she asks.

Gyutaro guffaws out loud.

"I mean it!" she wails, even though she can hear how stupid she sounds. He already walks her right up to the middle school yard before making his long, lonely route to the neighboring high school. (He'd been caught trespassing through enough times that there now stands a proctor in the yard at most times of day.) He sneaks out at lunch time to make sure she eats, then passes on after-school activities to walk her home. He's done everything short of turn back time so that their ages could match as lifelong companions.

"How about you hurry and grow up?" he suggests before he's yanked to a stop altogether. He frowns and pulls his limbs to no avail-- she's captured him in a sudden hold. "Ume?" She's hurting him, seizing onto his arms with a vice grip that makes him worry initially that somehow he is the one hurting her.

"I don't want to go back without you," she confesses. "Can I call out sick tomorrow? Please?"

He hesitates and looks down at her big, watery eyes before saying, "Sure... we'll say you got sick from the weather."

She doesn't need to explain it to him--the hum of a live wire hangs in the air between them. But her brother thinks of her as brave, so she swallows down her uncertainty and tells him: "He was my boyfriend."

That stops Gyutaro's brain in its tracks. "... You have a boyfriend?" He can't help sounding hurt that she didn't trust him with this knowledge before its ugly fallout. She was getting older. There were steadily less milestones to celebrate, and her first crush had come and gone without a single ounce of fanfare. No sooner than he says this, Ume's displeasure twists her face. "You have a boyfriend," he repeats, letting that argument go.

"Had," she corrects. "I broke up with him because..." She teeters on the edge of another secret, but shakes her head dismissively. "I don't want to see him. I don't want to go to school anymore."

"Don't say that," says Gyutaro before she can consider running away. "I'll get you a sick day tomorrow, but you're going back after that. He's not going to retaliate, and you're not going to get in trouble. Don't let him win by scaring you off."

Ume jerks Gyutaro around by the back of his jacket again, clinging to him like a little spider monkey. "But his dad is a teacher!"

"I'm aware." He raises his arm and loops it around her shoulders. She stumbles, but he doesn't let her fall. Instead, he pulls her along in his stride. "And you're a student. You should get to go to school without worrying about how boys will treat you, Ume. I told you. I'll handle it. Now, do you wanna take the bath first while I make us some ramen?"

Of course she does. She loves to take her time and all the hot water, experimenting with exfoliants and perfumes and lotions like a little mad scientist. Gyutaro jolts as if to race her, and she abandons him, zipping up the stairwell in a flurry of shouts and fast-flying feet. Sometimes, he would overtake her and push her out of the way in a last-second display of brotherly cruelty. Not today. A glance over her shoulder confirms he's still making his way up the flight behind her, weighed down by her duffel bag; she twists to swing her backpack off her shoulder before she screams to a halt in front of the only door with a huge dent in the bottom corner. She finds her key among the mess of her supplies and hurriedly shoves her key into the lock. Ume has to yank it with all her body weight to dislodge the crooked hinge. It groans but relents.

She bursts in, tearing through the apartment and into her room like a hurricane. Then she's blockading herself in the bathroom while clutching her basket of shower goodies like a prize.

Gyutaro enters shortly after she's sequestered herself away, his chest heaving. This is not a symptom of his exertion as his sister would believe. He stumbles into the kitchen and grips the counter, baring his teeth and trying to tamper down the rising tide of bile. His hands shake, incapable of holding in so much hate.

He barely keeps his shit together until Ume's pop music thumps from the other side of the door. Then he drags his uneven nails up and down his throat, wishing he could peel the skin away and wash it down the drain. The trickle of a snarl cracks his throat, and the loathsome noise brings him to the full peak of his anger. Keratin rips his skin and he feels his neck flush hot. Swearing, he twists the tap to full blast and cups his hand under it, splashing himself. He soaks his new jacket in water and blood. Ume yelps from the other room, and he shuts the kitchen faucet off quick. He tenderly taps at the self-inflicted cut, hissing through his teeth and seething.

He refuses to accept any of this: Some brat thinks he can sully Ume's childhood with his own selfish agenda, as though his delights and joys were more valuable than hers. And there was the father's audacity to use his beneficial position... Fuck broken windows. Fuck the disembodied threats of an invisible parental figure... it was due time for them to pay for taking advantage of Shabana Ume.

But he had to deliver a real message. He wouldn't settle for something basic like kicking the boy's dog while out on a walk, or holding the teacher up with a knife in some dark corner at night... why hope for a fated meeting when he could strike them at the heart? Break into their house. Take whatever looks pricey before ransacking and destroying the kitchen. See how they like it, being starved of peace of mind. He needs only their address. He pushes himself away from the sink, steering right for the drawer holding the family laptop and Mom's phone.

The phone is an afterthought-- when he yanks the drawer open, it slides out into view. The charger port bangs in the corner which lights up the screen.

Three missed calls from Ume's school. A voicemail from Ume's school.

A missed call from an unknown number.

Plots of vengeance vanish from his mind. Something far more dangerous and sinister takes its place. It's too soon for anyone to be looking for her... no way. No way someone actually gave a shit enough about their mom that someone wanted to check on her.

He sucks air into his lungs and straightens his spine-- the slight curve strains against him, threatening to break if he doesn't bend. His fingernails rake through his hair, across his chest, and down his arms. He's trying to breathe, but his head feels too light and his vision is going red. When would they ever catch their breath?! Why is the universe conspiring against them so?

'... bad kids like me could lose their families... and that if I didn't act better, then I'd be taken away from you and Mom.'

He had bought them three months. For nine weeks, he and his sister evaded the government's prying eyes and the foster system's needling fingers. Failure after failure, Gyutaro sees the worst case scenario laying itself before him. The investigations. The police. The questions. What if they find the body? What if they blame him? What if he says he found her dead?

... It's inevitable. Nobody will believe him. There is no shortage of neighbors who can attest to the shouting matches that the Shabanas could have. The dent in the door was testament to the son's brutish rage-- a superhuman strength paired with delirious decision-making, the lengths to which he would go to in order to get what he wanted. At first glance, he was a sick boy. At second, a deeply misguided youth... but to all those who could bear a third look, there was something else lurking under his skin. Even his mother had been long convinced that 'Gyutaro' was only a disguise for a demon. Nobody who knew him ever afforded him the benefit of the doubt.

What if even Ume learns to look at him with horror and distrust, the way everyone else does?

Unacceptable. He won't allow it. He has to buy them more time.