#elves X caffeine

[modern-inheritance]

Random thought.

Arya’s just lounging in the office Brom claimed in the elf embassy post farthen dur, chillin while Eragon showers or something, and is feeling a bit petty and childish and that she needs a pick me up so.

Brom walks in a few minutes later.

“Feet off the desk.”

Arya just wiggles her eyebrows at him, keeps her feet up, swaying the roller chair seat side to side, and lifts a mug.

“Arya….”

*devilish slurp*

“Arya that had better not be my mug from this morning.”

*eye tic*

“You are going to be the death of me. You, and Eragon, and Saphira will have a front row seat.”

Arya:

Brom just sighs heavily and makes himself a fresh pot of coffee so he can watch the show and inevitable literal running into walls that’s about to happen. “Saphira, want a front row seat to the genetic short stick the elves got from the original dragon bond?”

[luna-redamancy]

I Promised- Soulmate AU! Modern AU! (Thranduil x GN! Reader)

Warnings: Angst, mentions of reader burning to death. 

Word count: 933

“Thranduil!” You shouted out, pain in your voice as the fire drakes from the North came upon Doriath in swarms, the screams of fellow Sindarian elves filling your ears as you instinctively turned to run to your soulmate, to ensure that he would be okay throughout all of this. 

“(Y/n)!” Thranduil called back, grabbing your attention as he ran toward you, desperate to pull you from the path of the fire, your body illuminated from behind. In any other circumstance, he’d find you beautiful. 

“Thran--” You gasped, hand lurching out to grasp his as he desperately threw his hand out to try and pull you out of the way. 

The scream that erupted out of his throat felt like it didn’t come from him, echoing in his skull as he watched your body become engulfed by flames, so close, yet so far that he couldn’t save you. 

The side of his face was singed, but he couldn’t bring himself to care as nothing could compare to the scorching fire in his heart from the loss of his soulmate. As his father, Oropher, grasped his shoulders to pull him to safety, Thranduil began to speak. “In the future, I promise, I w… will find you and I will protect you how I should ha--” He couldn’t finish his sentence as he sobbed, pressing himself into his father’s embrace. 

“Ionneg,” Oropher held his son, his heart breaking as he felt his child crumble in his arms. 

“I couldn’t save them!” Thranduil cried out as Oropher brought him to the other survivors, where salves and bandages were applied to his scorched face. 

“Coffee break!” Thranduil called out as he left his office, tugging on his coat, tapping his pocket to ensure his wallet was where he left it. His brain felt like it was turning to mush as he continued to look over plans for his company, Mirkwood Wines, and thus needed to get out for awhile.

“Have a good walk, Mr. Oropherion!” He waved back to them as he strode into the elevator, clicking the lobby button.

Thranduil was not having a good walk. 

The day was brisk, icy winds passing through Thranduil’s black trousers as he walked down the city sidewalk, his hands shoved into his maroon coat. The weather had definitely taken a shift to the worst, where clear sunny skies shifted into gray, and Thranduil wasn’t ready for it. Not knowing the area very well, Thranduil decided just to walk until he came across something.

Spotting a cafe, Thranduil grinned with satisfaction for finally being able to get out of the cold, his hand reaching for the door handle as it was abruptly pushed open. Gasping, you lurched back, desperate to not spill your coffee. The action alone caused the poorly placed lid to lurch off the cup, dousing the two of you in the scalding liquid. 

Hissing through your teeth, you tried to ignore the possible second degree burn on your abdomen, your eyes flickering up to the stranger. “I am so sorry,” You nearly whimpered as you saw a rather expensive champagne dress shirt now stained with the caffeinated liquid. 

Thranduil sighed through his nose, as if his day could already be getting worse,  “It’s alrigh--” His voice caught in his throat as you two made eye contact, thousands of years flashing through his mind. Years as peaceful farmers, huddling under a blanket in the winter, then royalty to a human kingdom, and then the most painful, your voice whimpering out for him as your body was turned to ash by flames. 

“T-Thranduil?” You whispered, eyes shimmering with tears as he cupped your cheek, “(Y/n)...” He breathed out, tears filling his eyes as he relived how you died, so close but so far from him.

Pulling you into his embrace, Thranduil ignored the odd sensation of your coffee soaked abdomen against his. All that mattered was getting to hold you, to ensure that you were okay, as years of agony and trauma filled his soul. 

“I’m so sorry,” He said after a few moments, not moving to stop holding you, “I am so so sorry I could not protect you---”

“Thranduil,” You whimpered, hearing the pain in his voice. “It wasn’t your fault--”

“I couldn’t protect you,” He spoke through clenched teeth as he inhaled your scent, it was familiar, yet different, swirling with scents of your shampoo and body spray. 

“You couldn’t have prevented it, and you certainly could not have protected me from a raging dragon, love,” You spoke softly, trying to comfort him as he practically glued himself to you, you holding onto him with your good hand, the other having a grip on the almost empty, quickly chilling, coffee. 

Remembering you were in the doorway, you pulled Thranduil into the cafe and to a table. As you began to take a seat, a displeased voice released from your throat as you felt the dry part of your sweater drag on the sensitive burned flesh of your abdomen. “Seems like I keep getting burned,” You hummed, trying to lighten the mood.

Thranduil frowned at that, grabbing napkins off the dispenser before carefully placing them over the soaked fabric.

“You don’t have to do that,” You laughed a little bit at his serious expression. 

“I made a promise to you,” Thranduil said softly, “After you died, I promised to your soul that I would protect you how I should have.” 

A chuckle left Thranduil’s throat as he looked up at you with fond eyes, “At least this time, when you got burned, it wasn’t life threatening.” 

Tags: 

Forever tag: @lady-of-lies​ @all-things-fandomstuck​  @fizzyxcustard @izzydaelleth @aquaangel18@raindancer2004 @love-colorfulglittercollection @underthemoon-n @ladylouoflothlorien @ten-tenya-iida @legolaslovely @bthtallmadge2 @abesottedlass @wilhelmyna @tigereyesf @aspookybunny @keijibum @moony-artnstuff @sirkekselord @guardianofrivendell @fluffymadamina @izbelross @fandomhoe101 @anjhope1 @kitkatd7​ @moosetex

Thranduil tag: @indelwen-of-mirkwood @sapphireduck @ashleygrrrl @katiegoddessofmischief  @queenofmankind @moony-artnstuff

[thefanficmonster]

Late Nights

Andrew (The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope) x Reader (Female)

Warnings: Swearing

Genre: Fluff, a bit of Angst

Summary: Late nights are famously accompanied by deep conversations. The type to keep you up like a full dose of caffeine. Those are the best, most relaxing and freeing conversations you’ll ever experience. Good thing Andrew and Y/N are the perfect company for each other when it comes to those exact talks.

Requested by Anon. Hello! I’m sorry there is no specifications on your request. You requested for some Andrew x Reader fluff and this idea immediately dawned on me haha. I hope you like it and I’m so terribly sorry for the wait. Hopefully the final product makes it worth your while. Looking forward to hearing your feedback and receiving any other requests you may have! Love, Vy ❤

A random notification sounds from my phone, scaring me out of my peaceful, dreamless slumber. Oh wait, I’m not in my bed. I’m sitting at my desk, surrounded with sheets of paper with notes I’m supposed to memorize by my 8 AM exam. Speaking of that exam, it’s in less than five hours. I’ve been studying for what feels like days, but my head still feels as empty as it was at the start of the semester. The way I see it, I have two options: I can either die from a caffeine overdose or from the heart attack this exam will cause me. No in-between and no other options. Just death. Maybe not in the literal sense, but if you ask me, burn-out should be considered death and that’s exactly what I feel right now. And the fucking exam hasn’t even happened yet, for fuck’s sake! 

I lift my head to look at the clock on the wall and instantly get dizzy. Thankfully, I’m still seated. Damn, this calls for more caffeine.

“Hey T, can you -“ I look behind me in search of my roommate who’s supposed to be pulling this all-nighter with me. Needless to say, she has perished. 

I already have an idea of where she might be, but the sticky note she has left on my dresser confirms it.

~ Daniel has more notes. Come to the floor lounge 

Oh, hell no. I am not that committed to passing this exam. I am not about to be a third-wheel for five hours and feel miserable afterwards. Correction: More miserable than I’m already going to feel. Good thing there are two staircases on either side of the floor so I don’t have to pass through the lounge in order to get to the dining hall. That’s the only place I could obtain coffee and if I don’t I might just die right here on this desk.

I put my slippers on, throwing a jacket over my pajamas as well. It’s January and the dorms could not be colder. I swear to God, they are trying to build our immunity and resistance to cold one freezing night at a time. The heating doesn’t do much even if it’s on, which is a rare occurrence considering it’s faulty and doesn’t work 80% of the time.  I leave the dorm, quietly shutting and locking the door behind me before taking the right hallway instead of the left. I wander around the dimly lit hallways, some of which don’t have lighting at all, my arms folded over my chest in a pointless attempt to bring myself more warmth than the jacket is able to provide me. No matter what I do, I can’t get rid of the intense shaking that started from my torso and has now spread as far as my bottom jaw.

I navigate the halls, mumbling curse words to myself while doing so. Having taken the long way, I have an extra two minutes or so of freezing before I can find myself in the warm and cozy dorm. Taylor and I bought a small heater for Christmas cause we were not having it with the shitty heating system. Must say, that’s a better investment than all the money I threw to be here.

The dining hall is dark as usual. The only lights are the exit sign and some small lights on the vending machines. And the glorious coffee machine! I can just imagine myself turning into a heart-eyed emoji looking at it. 

“All-nighter?“

The voice is so sudden and so out of place, it startles me to the point of letting out a half-scream and immediately backing away towards the entrance of the dining hall. 

“Hey, it’s ok. It’s me.“ A light appears at one of the tables, illuminating the person holding it.

I sigh in relief when I finally get a good look at the person opposite me. It’s Andrew - a classmate and friend of mine. We have creative writing together and a few other classes. We’re in the same friend group as well. I started hanging out with him more through Taylor’s boyfriend Daniel who’s roommates with him. I’m glad I met them both, they are really fun to be around. However, recently, Andrew hasn’t been himself. It might be a stretch, but I think it’s because of the upcoming field trip our creative writing professor John has organized. I have tried asking him what has been bothering him but he always brushes off my concerns by claiming nothing’s wrong.

“Jeez, Andrew. You scared me half to death.“ I place a hand over my racing heart, taking a deep breath to calm myself down, “You’re lucky I didn’t chuck anything at you.“

He has the audacity to laugh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out.” He puts his phone on the table, flashlight facing up at the ceiling, “What are you doing here, anyway?”

I return to my previous task, “Getting coffee, can’t do without it. What about you? Do you just hang out here, waiting for student-zombies to scare?” I get my four cups of coffee, balancing them in a very risky way to where he’s sitting. “Want one?”

His eyes widen, “These are all for you?” I nod, “And they are all just straight espressos?” I nod again, “Are you trying to kill yourself?”

I scoff, “That’s plan B. For now, I’m just trying to stay awake.” I knock back one of the cups, trying hard not to cringe at the unpleasant flavor due to the lack of sugar. “You didn’t answer my question.” I say after getting over the initial battle to get the coffee down without puking.

He hesitates, rhythmically tapping his fingers on the tabletop. I can tell he has spaced out, leaving me unsure of weather I should nudge him again or let him return to reality at his own time.

“I, uh....I had a nightmare.“ He says despite his eyes still carrying that thousand yard stare. “Daniel wasn’t there, and I didn’t want to stay alone in the dorm, so I came here. A lot more open. Not so suffocating.“

I frown, “What was the nightmare like?” I don’t try to hide my concern, there is no reason to do so. I want him to know I care, that I am and I always will be there for him. Even if it’s just as a friend, I will take what I can get. This is not the time to be thinking of anything more than being a good friend and helping Andrew.

He shrugs, his eyes slowly lifting to meet mine. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last cause he shakes his head, breaking eye-contact again, “You’ll think it’s ridiculous.“

I put my hand on top of his, stopping the repetitive tapping of his fingers. This causes him to reconnect our gazes. After a two second confirmation that he won’t look away, I speak up, “You could tell me elves chased you around with axes and I still wouldn’t say that, Andrew. Come on, talk to me.”

He sighs, nodding his head. I take this as a positive sign and give him an encouraging smile. Instinctively, I start withdrawing my hand as I lean back in my seat. To my surprise, he turns his hand, taking a hold of mine when he begins to speak.

“They started a week ago, when John told us about the trip to Little Hope.“ he still hesitates, but I still consider it progress. “It’s always one of two nightmares - it’s either a housefire which non of us survive or...I can’t even explain the other one.“

I give his hand a comforting squeeze, “Take your time. I know it’s tough.”

“Um, we are at this ruin of a house and we, well, you guys get attacked by these deformed, demonic monstrosities. I can’t get to you. I can’t save you. Darkness takes over my brain and all I hear is horrified screams and calls for help. And then I wake up. Terrified.“ 

I am terrified just picturing it, let alone experiencing it. I’d probably sob like a baby and refuse to go to sleep ever again. “That’s horrible, Andrew. I’m so sorry you have to go through that.” I pause for a second, “Little Hope is a place with terrible history, I can’t blame you for being so hesitant about going. I’m a sucker for these types of places, but I completely understand your angle.”

He chuckles, “Yeah, I believe I overheard you saying you’d like to visit Centralia.“

I can’t help but smile, “Oh, I’d love to.”

Suddenly, completely out of the blue, he gets a spark in his eye. He becomes livelier, almost like new life was breathed into him. Pushing back his chair, he stands up and takes the remainder of coffee cups. “Well, that’s not gonna happen if you kill yourself.” Without batting an eye at my baffled expression, he throws the cups in the trashcan near by. “Let me help you with the studying. Two work better than one, after all. I’m sure you’ll grasp everything better if you have an actual person explaining it to you. Also, I’d like to make up for the time you wasted here with me.”

I get up as well, “No need, seriously. I can figure it out. Apart from feeling so energized I could run a marathon, my brain is working a lot better now. You go try to catch some z’s.” I wave my hand dismissively but he catches it mid-motion, mumbling a quick ‘come on’ before leading me out of the dining hall and towards the staircase I took earlier.

                                                           *  *  *

It’s been about two days since that night and history is over here repeating itself. I am, once again, pulling an all-nighter, this time alone because no one else from my friend group shares this class with me. You’d think I would have learned my lesson and would start studying at a reasonable time, granting myself both peace of mind and a better functioning brain, but NOPE. Actually, I’m beginning to think I can’t study at any other time of day. The late nights/early mornings give me the best atmosphere. Those hours before dawn are the quietest I’ve ever had the chance to experience - for studying and just chilling on the roof of the dorms. The dining hall is still a place I frequent. I can’t help but hope to run into Andrew every time I walk in that big, eerie room. I haven’t been so lucky, though. We got the results of our last exam today and I was, and still am overjoyed for the grade I got. Not only was it a passing one, it was a SOLID passing one. I can swear, if it wasn’t for Andrew’s help, I would’ve failed it with the lowest score in the class.

“How does this work...?“ I mumble in frustration, reading through the poorly written notes I’ve made. Full disclosure - this is my nap class. This is the class I spend spacing out and - as its title suggests - taking naps. I am surprised I have as many notes as I do. 

Taylor, being the great friend she is, refused to budge from our dorm, determined to help me in any way she could. I appreciate the gesture, don’t get me wrong, but having another person would defeat the purpose of being up this late, so I talked her into sticking to her original plan - hanging out with Andrew and Daniel at their dorm while I fry my brain cells.

Just as I’m about to take a sip of my third coffee for the night, my phone starts ringing. I look at the phone screen that’s displaying Andrew’s name and straighten up in my chair, ready to launch myself out the door in case he needs my help. Screw the exam.

“Hello? You ok? What’s wrong?“ I blabber into the phone after picking up the call

“Hey, sorry for bothering you. Hope I didn’t wake you up. Um, I had another nightmare....never mind. Sorry for calling.“ His voice is shaky and hesitant, almost as if he’s speaking with zero air in his lungs.

My concern shoots through the roof, “Don’t you ‘never mind’ me! And don’t apologize! Meet me in the dining hall in five minutes.” I jump to my feet, pulling my jacket on with my unoccupied arm.

He sighs, “I’m already there.“

I nod distractedly, momentarily forgetting that he can’t see me, before leaving the dorm. I power walk the familiar hallways, the only reason I’m not running being the late hour and the trouble I’d get in for the noise.

I stop right outside the dining hall doors, giving myself five seconds to compose myself so I won’t look absolutely unhinged when I walk in. I get that it’s pointless, considering I have massive bags under my soulless eyes, but a girl can try.

Pushing the door open, I am met with small, flickering dots of light hovering over one of the tables. The outline of Andrew’s silhouette is also visible, but nothing more. It takes me a second to realize the lights I was looking at were three small candles.

“Andrew?“ I whisper-call his name while I’m still at a distance of about ten feet, cautious not to freak him out by approaching without making my presence known.

As I near the table, the candle-light illuminates his face enough for me to be able to see that he doesn’t look at all like what he sounded like over the phone. Something about his gaze when his eyes meet mine screams ‘I’m so glad you’re here’, but then again, that might be wishful thinking. Apart from that, he looks rather normal - not like someone who just had the most horrific of nightmares. Actually, I think I can see a hint of a smile forming at the corners of his lips.

“Hey Y/N.“ He greets me, “Ready to study?“ He points to the several notebooks and sheets of paper neatly stacked on the table. Next to that pile is a similar one of snacks. 

My eyes widen, “Wait, what? What is this?“ I narrow my eyes at him, “Is this your way of dealing with the nightmares or something? It’s completely ok if it is, don’t get me wrong...“

He shakes his head, the smile now fully formed on his face, “No, Y/N. I actually haven’t had a nightmare since that night you found me here. This...” he motions to the table, “...is several things. First of all, a celebration for your passed exam. Second, a thank you - cause I believe you’re the reason the nightmares stopped. I just needed to talk to someone about them and you were the only person I could do that with properly. And third, I know you have an exam in a few hours, so I wanted to help. We make great study-buddies, don’t you agree?”

I’m honestly speechless, “You schemer.” I’m smiling and blushing like crazy and I couldn’t be happier to be surrounded by darkness at this moment. “How did you even get these notes? You’re not in that class.”

He gives me a conspiring smirk, “That’s classified info.” He hands me a coke can, “No more coffee for you tonight.”

“You interrupted me on my third cup, but better late than never I guess.“ I giggle taking the handed soda and taking a seat on the chair opposite him. “Thank you so much, Andrew. Really, it means a lot to me. How am I supposed to repay you for this?“ I can tell he’s about to protest so I hurry to stop him, “No, no, no. You can’t change my mind on that.“

He sighs in defeat I can only guess is fake, taking the smirk on his face into consideration. He contemplates whatever’s on his mind for a second, buying himself time while he opens a soda can for himself. I copy his action, opening mine as well. “Um, well, there is one way I can think of....” he trails off, avoiding eye-contact. The brief moment I manage to catch his gaze I give him a nod, encouraging him to go on. “How about calling this a date?”

I am shocked. No, ‘pleasantly surprised’ is a better term to use. ‘Overjoyed’ an even better one. 

The blush I thought couldn’t get any darker or more wide-spread just proved me wrong. Despite the chilliness of the dining hall, my face, neck and ears are on fire. Once again, a big thank you goes to the darkness that surrounds us.

Instead of showing off how surprised and happy I am, I lift my soda can in the air, “It’s a date then.”

His smirk turns into a relieved smile as he takes his can, clinking it against mine, “It’s a date.”

@sparrow-gg  @artlovingbre  @chairtiger

[renegadepisces]

Bright Imagine: Kandomere accidentally meets your family Part 4 FINAL

Fandom: Bright Pairing: Kandomere x reader Tags: slow build, fluff, eventual nsfw Note: also on AO3 as Serendipity & Caffeine

A/N: Thank you all so much for hanging in there. It’s finally finished!

If anyone had told you in the miserable weeks since Kandomere kissed you and fled your apartment that he’d be sitting on your sibling’s couch watching a Disney movie with your nephews and niece curled up between you, you would have started the paperwork to have them committed to a psychiatric facility right then and there. 

Weeks had slipped into months since Kandomere kissed you in your apartment. It was enough time for you to be fairly certain that he hadn’t filed a complaint with human resources or asked for you to be transferred to another division. As grateful as you were to still have your job, the time had underscored another, more uncomfortable point. Unfortunately, it was also enough time for you to really miss whatever your relationship had been before that night. 

Overnight, he’d stopped coming by your desk and making friendly conversation. In meetings, he always put himself in the seat farthest from you. Almost all work-related communication came from Montehugh now, because apparently even calling you was a mistake. 

The word haunted you. With the exception of a few curt greetings and orders, those were the last words you’d heard from him. But you hoped tonight’s plans would take your mind off them. Your sibling and their spouse were taking a long weekend to celebrate their anniversary. You’d agreed to move into their home while they were away and take care of your nephews and niece. Tonight was the first night of what they’d called ‘the long sleepover’, and you were excited to spend some time with them after weeks of pressure at work. 

And your mind had admittedly been pleasantly distracted until you’d investigated some suspicious noises coming from the back patio and found two would-be burglars trying to reach a second-story window and break in. Thankfully, yelling loudly that you were a federal agent and waving your stungun at them had been enough to subdue one and send the other fleeing into the night. 

Even without discharging your service weapon, the incident still created a bureaucratic headache. Any kind of police response to a law enforcement officer’s home was a cause for alarm. Both the LAPD and the county sheriffs committed units to patrolling the area and checking local hospitals. Your sibling’s supervisor had even volunteered to station a patrol car outside the house all weekend in case the suspects came back. 

Most shocking of all was watching Kandomere arrive in furious style in his polished black sportscar. He barely paused to put the vehicle in park before stomping up the drive toward you. Even the most senior officers on the scene had rarely crossed paths with federal agents of his rank, much less the elven commander of the Magic Task Force. 

You were pretty sure damn few people had ever seen him quite like this. His usual scowl was harder and more deeply etched into his otherwise handsome face than usual. He seemed to have forgotten his blazer. His vest hung open, unbuttoned and slouching against his expensive button down shirt. His sleeves were rolled up, highlighting his bare forearms and the lack of cufflinks or his watch. He’d also seemed to have taken off his tie. 

Had he come from his home? Had he cut his night short to rush over to your sibling’s home? He seemed so disheveled that the horrifying thought that he might have been on a date sent your heart plummeting into your stomach. 

You nearly spit out the swig of water you'd taken when he fixed the ranking officer on scene with his most polite and unsettling smile and told them he’d personally keep watch. It was irregular, but no one was going to argue with him. Except you, of course. 

You were tired. More importantly, Kandomere’s rejection still stung and you weren't keen on being near him in an otherwise comfortable and private space. But all your arguing was futile. Between his infamous intimidation and mentioning that he’d been invited into the home before while casually dropping your in-law and all the kid’s names, he’d convinced the ranking officers to let him watch the house. 

As the last squad car pulled away, you whirled on him. Your tone was polite - he was still your coworker after all - but your rigid shoulders and crossed arms practically advertised your displeasure. 

“Coffee?” you asked curtly.

He nodded, his eyes seemingly grazing over yours rather than really looking at you, and followed you into the house. 

Your nephews were thrilled to see him and you didn’t want to think too hard on why that made you unhappy and, more importantly, what kind of relative that made you. If Kandomere was at all put off by your frosty behavior, he didn’t let it show. Halloween was approaching, and you and the kids had been immersed in Hocus Pocus before you’d heard the would-be burglars’ shoes scuffing against the side of the house. That felt like hours ago. The perfect ease with which Kandomere inserted himself into what was otherwise a perfect slice-of-life snapshot from the suburbs was alarming. 

Movie night? Check.

Blanket and pillow fort? Check.

Three excited kids fighting sleep as the TV flickers in front of them? Check. 

Hot elven boyfriend staying the night? Not quite. 

Soon enough, the boys lost their uphill battle with their own weary bodies. While they didn’t fully comprehend the potential danger of what you’d prevented, the excitement of so many strangers coming to the house had worn them out. Your niece had been put back in her crib about twenty minutes after you’d resumed the movie. 

That left you alone with Kandomere, despite the two tiny bodies laying in their make-shift fortress of pillows and blankets. You didn’t dare look at him. For all you knew, he probably found this movie offensive. You knew Halloween was a human holiday linked to Samhain, which was a big holiday for elves. You’d heard plenty of elves complain about hating Halloween and about it being a watered-down version of Samhain. As the final credits finished rolling across the screen, the living room was engulfed in still and silent darkness. Kandomere was the first to break it.

“Seems a shame to move them,” he said, “They’re sleeping so well.”

You kept your silence, considering the options. The boys could sleep through the night in their pillow fort. That wasn’t the problem. But you had to deal with Kandomere. You had planned to sleep in the guest room, but you could hardly let him sleep in your sibling’s bedroom. That was simply too intimate a space for your coworker, who had met your sibling a total of two times, to spend the night in.

“They’ll be fine here. The guest room is made up. It’s the last door on the left,” you told him as you gingerly rose from the couch to avoid waking either of your nephews. 

Without saying another word, you gathered up the handful of cans and juice boxes scattered on the coffee table and made your way to the garage. You needed some privacy - just a minute of privacy - to collect yourself. The near break-in was bad enough, your nerves were too frayed to let you sleep tonight. Having to interact with your Kandomere after he rejected you was the gritty, bitter icing on an awful, lumpy cake. 

After gently placing the cans and cartons in the recycling bin, you braced yourself against the wall. It was covered in a layer of soundproofing material, which felt soft against your fingers. Your sibling had told you once that the previous owners were musicians and used to practice in the garage, hence the soundproofing. Screwing your eyes shut tightly, you inhaled deeply and exhaled in a huff. 

Your frayed and frantic nerves, aggravated by the night’s earlier adrenaline, ensured that you heard Kandomere’s footsteps approaching from the hallway. You hadn’t turned the light on, so you couldn’t see him. It was childish, but you harbored a dim hope that he wouldn’t speak to you.

“We need to talk,” he murmured.

“No, we don’t,” you countered.

“Y/n,” he chided, “I don’t want things to be like this between us.”

“Like what?” you retorted, “There’s nothing between us. Which is why I don’t understand why you’re here.”

“That’s not quite true, and you know it,” He sighed, grimacing.

“Really? I’m surprised we even have a work relationship anymore given how hard you’ve been avoiding me Kandomere.”

You couldn’t see his face in the dark, but his voice wavered enough to tell you that your words hit their mark. Hurt lingered in his tone when he answered. 

“I owe you an apology. I handled it poorly. But I’m here because I - I heard the call and had to see you. I care about you, and I had to know you were okay.”

“Didn’t take you for the kind of man to make the same mistake twice,” you hissed. There was less venom in your voice than you’d intended, but you still weren’t proud of it. 

Instead of replying, you heard him draw closer. You could feel warmth rolling off him as he neared, despite the general chill that always lingered in the garage, which was less insulated than the rest of the house despite the soundproofing. 

His lips crashed into yours as his arms wrapped around your waist. You wanted to argue - this was just as bad an idea as it had been weeks ago in your apartment. But you found yourself leaning into his embrace instead of pushing him away. Finally, you tore your lips from his, panting breathlessly into the nape of his neck. 

“The mistake was mine. I should have been more honest with you about my feelings. But I was worried you’d put in for a transfer or file a complaint.” he whispered, not loosening his grip on your waist. 

His words brought you out of the reverie of his touch and back to reality. How could he possibly not know?

“Kandomere, you’re not actually my boss. You lead the MTF, but I don’t actually report to you. I was appointed by a completely different division of the FBI.”

He blinked, as if to clear his eyes from some intrusive debris. They glinted like stained glass in the dim light spilling in from the corridor leading into the house.

“What do you mean?” he rasped. 

“We work in two different departments of the FBI. The MTF is part of the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services branch. I was appointed to the MTF to represent the intelligence branch, and I still report to that side of the agency,” you explained. 

“So, you don’t actually report to me at all?” He quizzed, pinning you with a sharp, serious gaze that made you feel something like a butterfly pinned to a display.

You nodded. 

His features broke into a wide grin. His teeth - sharp and glinting in the dim light like ice under moonlight - were fully visible. In a flash, his weight settled against yours and sent you backward a few inches until you were leaning against the wall. 

“This isn’t any less of a terrible idea than it was in my apartment,” you whispered as his lips descended on the soft, delicate skin beneath your jaw.

 “Actually, it’s an even worse idea because there are three children in this house.”

“Then you’ll just have to be quiet,” he teased, and put his warm, deft fingers over your mouth before attacking the waistband of our jeans with his other hand.

[remmyswritings]

caffeinated confessions// theodore “teddy” nott x reader

THANK YOU @peeves-a-legend​ FOR SENDING IN THIS REQUEST! I ABSOLUTELY LOVED WRITING IT AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT!!!!

If any of you ever have any Theo ideas, just send them my way pretty please :))))

taglist: @curious-curios​, @summer-writes​, @willowbleedsonpaper​, @strawberriesonsummer​, @jenniweaslee​, @cherrycolakxsses​, @peeves-a-legend​, @booksmusicteaandanimals​, @heart-of-tempered-steel​

*Not my Pic, found on Unsplash*

It started off little by little. He would see you occasionally throughout the day carrying a coffee mug in your hand. Then the two of you started sharing more classes and he became more intrigued. He would see more and more of the famous coffee mug especially in your morning classes and he couldn’t help it. It seemed as though every day there was a new smell that originated from that mug. Somedays, it was vanilla, other days it was cinnamon. He also swore that one day he smelled chocolate. He wanted to ask what it was that you drank in that mug, but he was always too nervous to even approach you. Until one day it seemed like fate was on his side, Prof. McGonagall had decided to change the seating and have students from different houses sit next to each other and placed the two of you together. That day you (and your mug) smelled like peppermint. 

Seeing you struggle to pick up all your books to move, he quickly grabbed his bag and rushed over to the seat next to you. “Hello,” he smiled bashfully, “I’m Theodore, but you can call me Theo.”

“Hello Theo,” you smiled brightly at him, “I’m Y/N.”

Sadly you and Theo didn’t talk much that day but it didn’t matter to him since after that you made sure to wave and smile every time you saw him in the hallway. The next time you two had class, you smelled like cinnamon and pumpkin and that time he made sure to ask you about it. 

“Y/N,” you nodded your head telling him to continue, “what is it that you’re drinking in that mug of yours? I can’t seem to figure it out since it smells different every day.”

“Oh, I hope the smell isn’t bothering you…” you felt your cheeks heat up out of embarrassment. Theo merely shook his head, “Well today I’m drinking a pumpkin spice latte, so you can probably smell the pumpkin and some cinnamon since I sprinkled some on top. And that day we switched seats, I was drinking a peppermint latte.”

He motioned to your mug with curiosity, “Do you mind if I try a bit? It sounds delicious.”

“Of course!” You nodded your head, “I have a couple sips left so if you’d like you could have the rest.”

You watched as Theo grabbed the mug and took a slow sip. After he swallowed he turned and looked over at you, “This is amazing. Where do you get this?”

“Oh, the house-elves help me make some every morning. I guess that’s one of the perks of being in Hufflepuff,” you chuckled a bit. “Why don’t you join me tomorrow… like a date? Well if you want it to be a date, if not it could just be us hanging out as friends you know… and now I’m rambling, I’m gonna shut up now.” Your eyes looked everywhere around the room except at Theo.

He grabbed ahold of your hand that was resting on the table prompting you to look back at him, “I would love to meet you tomorrow morning for our date.”

“Ok,” you whispered as you felt your cheeks warm up. Finally, McGonagall dismissed the class and as you finished packing up your stuff you turned to Theo, “Meet me in front of the Hufflepuff common room, let's say around 9 am since it’s Saturday.”

Theo nodded his head and tried to return your mug to you only for you to refuse, “There’s still some leftover. Why don’t you finish drinking that and then give it to me tomorrow?” With that, you rushed out of the classroom hoping you weren’t late for DADA with Prof. Umbridge.

The next morning you woke up to see the sun was still rising so you decided to take advantage of that extra time to yourself. You went and took a nice, long shower and even washed your hair, letting it air dry as you stood in front of your closet looking for the perfect outfit. Then you found it, a golden yellow crop top that matched perfectly with your favorite high waisted jeans and a leather jacket. Then when your hair was finally dry, you picked it half-up with your favorite (and only) yellow scrunchie. You still had some time to kill so you went down to the common room and got ahead on some reading for next week’s homework, hoping that it would help the time go by faster. You hadn’t even realized it did until some first-year came up to you to let you know that Theo was waiting for you outside the common room.

You rushed out the door. “Hi,” you went and gave him a quick hug not even paying attention to see if he returned it, “Thanks for waiting.”

“Hi,” he pulled out the mug from a small bag he had over his shoulder, “Figured I should give this to you now before I forget.”

Then he turned and pulled something else out of the bag, a flower crown, “I saw you wearing one the other day and it looked beautiful so I figured I’d try to make one for you.”

Your hands covered your mouth in shock, “It’s beautiful. Can you put it on please?”

You felt a tiny bit of pressure from when Theo pressed it down on your head, and then again when he pulled the half-up so that it wouldn’t be covered by the crown. Instead of pulling away from his hands, he merely brought them down to your face, and caressed your cheeks slightly, “You look beautiful,” he whispered.

Just to make sure the two of you wouldn’t stay there for too long, you grabbed Theo’s hands as you walked backwards towards the kitchen, dragging him with you. You stopped just before the portrait, still holding one of his hands, as you reached out and tickled the pear allowing the doorknob to appear. 

You walked into the little hallway that appeared and turned around to see Theo just standing there, “Well you coming or what?” you teased him slightly.

He shook his head, as if he was coming out of a dream, and grabbed the hand that you had reached out to him, “Are you going to lead the way,” he teased back.

A couple seconds later, Theo and you found yourselves in front of the hustle and bustle that is the Hogwarts Kitchen. After seeing the two of you arrive, one of the house-elves that worked with you a lot approached, “Miss Y/L/N, Rosie is very happy to see you here today. Who’s this that you brought with?”

You motioned for Theo to come over, “Rosie I’ve told you, call me Y/N, please. Anyway, Rosie, this is Theo. Theo, this is Rosie.”

Theo then took out his hand, beckoning for Rosie to shake it, “It’s nice to meet you, Rosie.”

Rosie then pulled the two of you over to some plush chairs that are always set up in front of the fire, “What can I get for you today Miss Y/N and Mr. Theo?”

Theo merely looked towards you to answer, “Rosie, Theo and I were wondering if you could make us one of those drinks that I love so very much.”

“Of course!” Rosie nodded her head, “What flavor would you like to taste today?”

You looked over at Theo and then remembered which flavor he hadn’t mentioned yet, “Let’s go with vanilla.”

The two of you sat in front of the fire for who knows how long, chatting about whatever crossed your mind. Rosie then returned with two mugs of what you had asked for plus some pastries that you had seen the other house-elves working on when you entered the kitchen. 

“Rosie, you didn’t have to bring us anything else,” you looked down at the rather large plate of pastries, “We would have been just fine with our drinks.”

Rosie shook her head, “No! Miss and Mr need to eat, so Rosie brought you extra pastries that were left over.”

“Well,” Theo looked over at you with a cheeky smile, “we can’t really refuse them if they happen to be leftover.”

You sighed, “Ok. Thank you Rosie for the pastries.”

The two of you then sat together in silence, drinking your vanilla lattes and eating the various sweet pastries that Rosie had practically shoved at you. When the two of you were finally done, it was close to 5 pm so you decided to take a walk around the castle before returning to the Hufflepuff common room. 

“I had a really nice time today,” you turned to Theo as the two of you slowed down, knowing that you would approach the common room soon.

He looked down and grabbed a piece of hair that had gone to the front of your face, placing it behind your ear, “I had a wonderful time with you, love. I say we do this again… that is if you want to?”

“Ya,” you nodded your head, “I would really love that.”

Theo cupped your face in his hands and leaned in, taking his time so as to give you space to back away, “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes,” you whispered.

It was a nice and slow kiss and even though you had to go on your tiptoes to reach, you still loved it. 

Theo pulled away and chuckled, “You taste like vanilla.”

“Well,” you wrapped your hands around his neck, “you sure that wasn’t you cause you also taste like vanilla.”

The two of you stood there, wrapped in each other’s arms with only one thought running through your minds, I need to do this again.  

[welcometothemaraudersspam]

hiya i’m the blaise zabini anon, can I request a blaise zabini x gryffindor reader where she comes down to hogwart’s kitchen for a late night snack just to meet blaise there, she was hesitant of course because she’s not in a mood to be taunted at such a late hour but blaise turns out to be a total gentleman and they even discovered their shared love of food and just spoon feed each other before professor snape discovers the two of them and forced them to go back to their respective dorms

Late Night Snack | Blaise Zabini x Reader

Word Count: 1,521 words

Warnings: slight cursing, tons of fluff

December 12th, 1996. The Gryffindor Dorm Rooms. 11:56 pm.

You cursed at yourself after you had tripped going down the stairs, hitting the wall quite loudly. Stupid fluffy slippers, looking at your poor outfit choice closing the portrait door behind you running down the stairs.

You had snuck out of the Gryffindor Tower countless of times, whether it was with the twins, with Harry or even sometimes when Hermione needed some caffeine to stay awake, so this night wasn’t any different.

You were craving something sweet, something salty and just needed something in your mouth.

The evening air felt cool on your skin, shivering lightly as a gust of wind washed over you hurrying your pace to the kitchens.

At night, the castle looks just as haunted as you would expect any castle to look, which didn’t help when there would be ghost just laying around everywhere nearly giving you a heart attack.

You grinned as you came in front of the portrait, proceeding to tickle the pear waiting for the giggling of it as it cracked open. The tickling of the pear made you smile every single time because of how silly it seemed, opening the door parting your mouth to greet the elves before coming face to face with a Slytherin who looked to be rather happy eating his pudding. His face looked just as surprised to see someone come in, his hands halting mid air setting the pudding filled spoon back into the bowl.

“I-I’m so sorry. I didn’t think anyone would be here, I’ll just come back once you’re gone.” You rambled, feeling your face turn a light shade a pink already turning on your heel to walk out the door.

“You can stay. I’m not going to bite,” Blaise hummed, scooping some chocolate pudding into his mouth staring up at you with his big doe eyes.

Nodding at his words, shutting the portrait door as you took a seat on a stool nearby immediately being swarmed by 3 elves who looked giddy to serve you.

“Hello, Miss! What can Winky get for you?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” You hugged the short elf, who was beaming up at you, “I want something sweet, but I also want something salty. Do you guys have anything along those lines?”

They stood pondering for a moment before a soft voice broke the silence.

“Get her a yogurt bowl with a bunch of fruit mixed in it, along with some granola. Oh! And some dry pretzels to dip into the bowl.”

“Yes, Mister Zabini. Coming right up!”

They hurried off, huge smiles on their faces. The clattering of them moving around the kitchen was all that was heard, as you eyed the boy out of the corner of your eye before you turned to face the Slytherin who flashed you a small smile setting his empty pudding cup down wiping his hands off onto a nearby white napkin. “Thank you. That actually sounds perfect. How’d you know what to ask for?”

“I come here quite often. On days when I’m not sure what in the world I want, Winky would usually prepare me a fruit bowl with no granola. But since you wanted something other than sweet, I added that and the dry pretzels.” You let out a soft chuckle, moving your tousled hair away from your face resting your face on your palm as you focused all of your attention on the boy whose voice sounded like honey. “How come you’re out of bed, love? Is everything alright?”

“I’m good! Thanks for asking, but no, I just really needed a little late night snack,” You smiled your skin hot from the nickname, feeling your heart soar as the Slytherin boy laughed at your comment adjusting his position on the stool facing you his eyes flickering down to your glossy lips. “I um... what about you? Were you also hungry or were you unable to sleep?”

“Draco is an absolute nightmare to sleep with. He has hundreds of girls in his bed, it’s kind of impressive. Tonight, he brought Pansy, again, and I just couldn’t even bear to be in the same room as them knowing they were going at it like rabbits,” You choked on your water, nearly spitting it out as you let out a snort.

You broke out into a laughing fit at the thought of the two of them going at it, shivering in disgust downing the rest of your water. Blaise hummed in agreement, taking a sip out of his water as well just as Winky showed up with your food a little freckle of yogurt on her cheek. Your small fingers wiped off the pink stain, giving the elf a small thank you setting your bowls down careful not to spill them.

“This looks delicious. Wow Zabini... you have good taste who would have known,” You teased the boy, who had gradually ended up at your table as the two of you had talked instead of several feet away nudging him playfully. He tossed you a joking glare, stealing one of your pretzels and dipping it into the pink yogurt happily eating the desert. “Hey, you asshole.”

“Well that isn’t very lady like,” Poking fun at some of our professors, a snort leaving your lips.

“Oh sod off, Zabini.” You chuckled trying to cover your bowl, scooping a spoonful of the yogurt that was blended nicely with the blueberries and the granola so you didn’t have too much of the other. Moaning at how creamy and tasty it tasted, shoving another spoonful into your mouth.

“That good, huh?”

“This is bloody orgasmic, what the hell did you ask her to put in this?”

“Oh you know, just a little bit of my heart.” You rolled your eyes at his statement, the smile on your lips growing wider as Blaise relaxed as the night drew on. It was around 3 am, after the pair of you had began playing a game of hide and seek, where you guys had gotten a bit loud. Zabini currently had you thrown over his shoulder, having ended up there after he caught you hiding in the pantry loud laughter leaving your lips.

"Blaise! My ass is hanging out of these shorts,"

"Oh really? I had no idea, " He chuckled at the sound of you whining, letting out a yelp as you smacked his bottom at the sarcastic jest he made adjusting his grip on your waist. "Ouch! That hurts a lot more than you think, love."

“Mister Zabini! Put her down this instant,” Blaise practically threw you onto the ground his face going red as he came face to face with Professor Snape who looked like he was about to explode. You adjusted your shorts, shifting your weight out of habit as you waited to see what the dark haired man would say.

“15 points from Gryffindor. Get out of the kitchens before I double it,”

“Professor? I find it only fair if you remove points from our house as well. She’s not the only one found out of bed after curfew,” You and Snape both shared the same ridiculous look, eyeing the boy who was staring rather intently at Professor Snape. The professor looked conflicted, letting out a heavy sigh.

“20 points from Slytherin. Now... get out.” You grabbed your scattered wand, hurrying out of the kitchens walking alongside Blaise who looked like he had just won the lottery.

“Zabini, you are unbelievable. You purposely lost your House Points? What for?”

“I was pissed off. I understand that Slytherin is his house but that shouldn’t stop him from punishing us. Especially after punishing you in front of my face. If he wouldn’t have taken those points, I would have stomped on his foot.”

You felt your heart swell, eyeing the flustered Slytherin boy who was currently walking you to the Gryffindor Tower. Once the pair of you had arrived in front of the portrait, you spun on your heels to face Blaise giving him a warm smile.

“Thank you for tonight, this is the most fun I’ve had in weeks. Even though I still think you’re absolutely crazy for asking for House Points to be taken, I think it’s the sweetest thing anyone has done for me.”

Zabini grinned his award winning smile, taking your hands in his larger ones pulling you close to his tall frame, the height difference between the two of you seemed almost comical as you barely came to his chest having to peer up at the boy.

“It was my pleasure... I have one question before you go.” You nodded, feeling your chest flutter at the millions of questions racing through your mind, “How would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?”

“I would love nothing more, Blaise.”

You practically beamed up at him, pressing a soft kiss onto his cheek waving goodbye to the boy as you squealed to yourself after you shut the door behind you.

Blaise felt his face flush, grinning down at the floor cheesily as he rushed back to his dorm in a hurry for tomorrow to hurry on by so he could take you out. The night was unexpected, and you had never in a million years expected it to happen but you were glad it did. You had a date on Saturday, and for once, you weren’t dreading for the weekend to end. Thank the heavens for me and my late night cravings.

send requests! i’m always up for writing anything, just send me a quick inbox and i’ll make sure to write it as quickly as possible. and if any of you have any suggestions or criticism, feel free to make it :))

a/n: this was so much fun to write! i’ve never written for blaise, and i wish i could have done a whole fic on him so i might start working on one. thank you for requesting this! i think i fell for blaise zabini just after this <3 i hope you like this, don’t be afraid to send feedback or specific details if you’d like. lots of love :’)

[soundofseventeen]

Ice Cream (Lee Chan)

Hello! Quick Dino post today! (I’m sorry it’s not that great I’m between jobs right now and wanted to post something I’m sorry)

Hi, Erin’s been really busy and lowkey stressed with work and her vacation planning so she let add on to this so I hope it’s okay with y’all!! i may have added a few extra prompts. Okay, back to my stuff!! Enjoy!!! -Bee

Requested

You used to be extremely close to your older brother. You and Chan did almost everything together, and he took his job as your big brother extremely. If someone teased you at school, he always backed you up, then took you for ice cream to make you feel better. Even when he wanted to hang out with his own friends, he’d still let you tag along, keeping an eye on you so you didn’t get lost. He was your best friend for most of your childhood. 

As you got older, you kept that closeness, but still had to grow apart a bit. Started to make your own friends, have your own lives, do your own things. He still tried to keep an eye on you though, just to make sure that you were doing okay. If he felt like something was wrong, he’d randomly toss your shoes at you and tell you to follow him. He’d take you for ice cream again, just to see if you’d talk to him about it or even just smile a little bit. 

Things started to change when he went to be a trainee. At first it was extremely difficult, not seeing him every day, not being able to talk to him or hang out with him. You missed him so much. Part of you worried that this would all be for nothing, and he would never debut and come home heartbroken. But, you knew better. 

You were a proud sibling when he debuted, showing everyone you could your big brother and his group. You admired him so much and everything he was able to accomplish and wanted the rest of the world to see him like you did. 

Of course, as time went on, he kept working with his group, and you kept living your life from home. While his schedule got crazier, it got so much harder to be in contact with him. He’d still send you updates, especially from tour. You always got excited when he would send you things on tour, knowing it was some cool or bazaar photo of him or one of his members. 

You tried to visit him a lot, but it was difficult to find good days for it. Between your two schedules, it rarely seemed to work out. But it always made you smile when it worked out. You’d get to hear dumb stories about him from his members (who all adopted you as their little sibling as well), and even had them all try to teach your their dances (and laughed when you failed). 

While you tried to make these visits, it only became harder still to see him. His free time seemed to always be filled with something he could do for his group or his career. You couldn’t blame him, this was his dream and you knew he had to go for it. You were usually able to let things go, knowing that he never wanted to miss things or forget things, it just happened. 

The first time it really hurt was when he missed your birthday. You had spent the day celebrating with your friends and parents, but you still found yourself checking your phone all day for that message from him. Some years he sent a video just from himself, some years with some members screaming in the back, sometimes he actually called you. But this year... Nothing. You didn’t want to ask him about it, but you also wanted to hear from him. 

Your parents were confused when you went to bed upset, not wanting to make them feel like they didn’t celebrate your day enough. You knew Chan was busy, but he always, always remembered your birthday. 

You were even more confused when your dad knocked on your door, telling you there was someone at the door for you. Thinking it was Chan, you quickly ran to the door, heart falling when it was some random delivery dude. You took the package, walking into your kitchen. 

You were started to pout again when you looked at the box, seeing it was sent from Pledis Entertainment. Your eyes widened, knowing that was Chan’s company. You quickly opened it, pulling out a smaller box and a card. You opened the card, quickly reading. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I’m so sorry I couldn’t celebrate with you today. We had an unexpected travel day today and I couldn’t find a chance to call you. I hope you did everything amazing you could today and didn’t suffer too much without your big brother. 

I just wanted you to know that I appreciate you, and miss you the most (don’t tell mom and dad). Love you. x Chan 

PS, I know you’re probably upset at not hearing from me today, so I gotta make it up somehow.

You grinned to yourself, opening the box, seeing an ice cream cone charm along with a coupon for a free cone at your local ice cream shop. You shook your head, of course he would get you ice cream. You snapped a picture of yourself that night, imagining he was there with you and it made you feel a little better.

The second time was around Christmas when he pinky promised you he’d be there at home, waiting by the tree so you could open one gift before the clock struck midnight. So you had brought all the blankets you owned and made a makeshift bed a couple of days before his flight landed and slept there every night in hopes you’d wake up to the familiar face. Christmas Eve came and with the most devastated expression you’d ever seen on a human, he apologized on the other end of the video call, explaining the latest thing that had come up and promised to make it up to you. 

“I’m trying to cheer you up,” he said when you shook your head, as if telling it’s okay. “I will fight you, and I’m not hanging up until you either smile.”

“Chan, you’re busy and I’m not gonna take up more of your time. Go, be a choreographer for your friends. I have to go to sleep now.” You had felt the energy leave your body with the bad news and all you wanted was to curl up into a ball and sleep the sadness away.

“Can you at least open my gift to you? I wanna see your reaction.”

“Chan, they’re waiting for you. I’ll open it and, stop doing that face! I’ll open it if you stop. Is it this one?” You held up a gift wrapped with little elves you saw he labelled after his members, which made you smile involuntarily. It had your name on it, so you assumed it was. You shook it, surprised by the rattling noises it made. 

“Yeah! Open it! It isn’t much, but it was the best I could do.”

 It ended up being a puzzle of a picture you had taken once upon a time where he had taken one of your toys, making you cry and him smiling evilly. (Just because he was also your best friend didn’t mean he didn’t play the his role of the older brother tormenting the younger sibling and inside the box you had found another coupon for the ice cream place. There was no explanation but you also didn’t have the heart to use it this time, so you let it expire.

The more time passed after that, the more empty promises he made, each time making it up with a coupon as if it solved everything. Sometimes you used them, but you’d only take a few licks and then throw it away. Ice cream, you realized, didn’t taste as good when it was bought under the pretense of a guilty conscience.You hated the distance, despised the consequences of Chan being an idol, resented Chan for not being here like he used to be. All you got were “I’m sorry,”s and lousy pieces of paper for ice cream and even after awhile, those stopped too which hurt more than anything. And suddenly, Iksan frustrated you and you knew you had to get out soon, so after begging your parents day and night, you snuck out and took bus by bus until you landed in Seoul City.

 It brought a strange sense of comfort to you, despite being here a handful of times. The streets were always different but it always smelled the same: fried rice and steamed vegetables mixed with smog and dog shit. It wasn’t a long trip so you weren’t exactly tired, but you needed food before you became irritated. You settled for a ramen place that you’ve been to a handful of times just because you could already taste it in your mouth.

It took a particularly long time to get food, especially with the staff running and forth with takeout plates and writing on the Styrofoam with markers what each little box contained and how it was customized but you forgot about it once someone acknowledged you and apologized for the delay, explaining that is was a common order for a big party of people, though two or three only showed up, despite it all. You smiled and shook your head, placing your own order and patiently waiting for your number to be called, thankful that yours came out relatively quickly. You watched the employees throwing whatever they found on the counter that contained the meals, packets of sauces, extra chopsticks, and the drinks. You counted 13 of them. It did seem like a coincidence, but then again small gatherings with caffeine addicts was a common practice nowadays. You texted your parents who you knew were gonna ground you when you got home, but that’d be a problem for later, and scrolled through social media, seeing the antics and lifestyles of everyone you followed. 

A moment later a little bell sounded, signaling a customer followed by a pair arguing over which brand had the better soda...in Chinese.You looked up at them curiously, eyes widening you recognized Junhui (arguing Pepsi) and Minghao (defending Coke). They broke their squabble long enough to tell the cashier they were there for an order and resume it, this time in Korean.

“Coke is a classic. Coke has been around longer than Pepsi and you can go just about anywhere to eat and they serve it.”

“Coke also has a disgusting aftertaste to it. And you can taste the cheapness of it. I figured a refined man such as yourself would know that by now.

”Minghao stared at him, debating whether to stay quiet or to fire back; he chose the latter. “Bold words coming from someone who wanted to buy a Rubik’s cube from a street vendor for the price of three.”

“That is not relevant. You know what...Y/N, please come here. Yeah, don’t think we couldn’t see you. Let me ask you this. Thank you. Have a nice day.” They waited for the shock to wear off your face and cupping the bowl in your hands, followed them out to hear Junhui’s question. “Is Coke or Pepsi better? Say Pepsi because I’m trying to prove a point here.” You slid into the backseat, Hao driving and Jun turning around to keep pestering you.

“I still say Coke.You will never go to a store that doesn’t sell it. By the way, brace yourself when we go inside Pledis. Your parents called Chan earlier and he’s been freaking out all morning. I told him not to worry because you’re smart enough to know what to do by now, but what can you do? Jun, be careful! You’re tilting the plates. Never mind, I’m calling Wonwoo. He’ll help us.”

“Beat you to it,” Junhui smiled broadly. “He’s already waiting for us outside. We just have to show up. Okay answer me Y/N! This is life or death. Your answer determines the fate of the universe.” 

You saw Mingaho staring at you in the rearview mirror. “What brought this on?”

“I wish I knew. He’s been asking everyone since we woke up. Jihoon hyung is the one who refuses to answer because he thinks it’s all the same. So I guess you’re the tie breaker.”

“It’s soda. You’re gonna drink it either way.”

“But what if you’re at a party that offers both? Which are you gonna take?”

“The first one I pull out.” Your eyes narrowed at the driver who snickered. “What’s so funny?”

“You said ‘pull out’.”

“And I’m the child.” Junhui snorted.

*

“What were you thinking?” Chan ran his hand several times through his hair, waiting for you to respond to his questions.“I got tired and wanted to do something different.”

“By running away?” He put his chopsticks down, trying to make the pieces connect in his head. “That’s not like you.”

“You left Iksan too, remember? And no one said anything about it.”

“I left because I have a job. I can’t just come and go as I please, you dummy.” He stopped, nodding slowly and letting the biggest smile you hadn’t seen he got the news he’d be debuting in Seventeen. “I get it now.”

“What?”

“You miss me, don’t you Y/N?”

“...Among other things,” you confessed after a moment. “It’s not the easiest thing to forget I had an older brother that was always there.”

“This is hard for me too. I have to constantly remind myself that Jisoo hyung is in the room next door, not you.” He remembered something that made him smile. “The other day I jumped on Jihoon hyung while he was asleep because I thought it was you. Apparently you’re not the only one who covers yourself with blankets. He locked me out until Mingyu hyung came home but I’d do it again.”

“You look like you have so much fun.”

“I do but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss you either.” He stacked his your plastic bowl on top of his takeout box, getting ready to dispose of them. “You know, if you didn’t want ice cream anymore, you could’ve just said so.”

“How’d you…”

“Dad.”

“Figures. It’s not that I was tired of it; it just seemed that they always showed up when you couldn’t and I hated that. It was never a random day when the rain was falling and watering the plants or when the sun was out, making it too hot to go outside.”

“Come on then. Let’s go have ice cream, just you and me and then I’ll take you home.”

“That’s a two hour commute though! You don’t have to do that.” “You should’ve thought of that before you came all the way here. Now let’s go. We have an overdue bonding session waiting for us.” His phone went off and he read the text message and rolled his eyes, the corner of his lip quirking up.

“What?”

“It’s just Jun hyung.”“What’d he say?”

“He wants to know if you’re team coke or pepsi.”

“Just tell him Coke.” 

You managed to hear a “Nooooooooo,” echo through the wing as you walked out, you and Chan laughing as you passed by. You hadn’t expected to see your brother today, but you were glad you did.

[olivesilverlock]

mush | amajiki tamaki x reader

a super, super, SUPER late fic a.k.a. part 2 of @denkis-kaminari‘s secret santa gift

summary: a drabbleverse of your relationship development with tamaki, from middle school to a rather unique confession of sorts over the phone a few years later

themes: high school au, friends-to-lovers, reader likes to make tamaki laugh… and blush :’-)

warnings & notes: there’s some crack in this, you can easily tell ahdsdjaklkal but other than that, please enjoy??? // also gender neutral!

(i.)

It was in homeroom that you learned that Amajiki Tamaki got into U.A. High School. The reason you knew about this was because of one Togata Mirio. 

Mirio was loud and big in everything he did and right now his big hand was patting Tamaki’s back, supposedly in reassurance that his decision to go to U.A. with him was a good one. But Tamaki was having second thoughts.

“Can I just return my letter of offer? I don’t want to go anymore; I want to go home,” Tamaki said.

“Ya can’t go now because we’re in school and I don’t think you’re the type to skip school, right? And you’ll be fine anyways! I mean, you did get one of the most-improved scores in the cohort.”

Being Mirio’s friend was both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because he was really good at getting people out of their shell and a curse because he was a little bit too optimistic sometimes.

Tamaki quietly sunk his head onto his desk and mumbled. “Ok,” he sighed. “If you say it will be fine then maybe it will be fine…”

It was not fine.

Lunchtime came around and Tamaki wanted to hurl (himself into the trash can). He felt like garbage and oddly enough, you were the one student to witness him like this. At first, you panicked. Mirio was nowhere to be found and usually he was the one who would be comforting Tamaki in a crisis like this. But this time around, there was only you and you had never really spoke one-on-one with the timid boy.

Fortunately, your nervousness was short-lived when you realised that Tamaki’s face was getting paler and paler. As cautiously as you could, you cleared your throat.

“Amajiki?” Tamaki was startled to say the least and when he looked up through his bangs to see your furrowed eyebrows and slight frown, he retreated further into his seat. 

“Is it okay if I sit here?” You gently asked. Tamaki could only nod, too shocked at the interaction to speak up. Though you didn’t expect him to respond immediately anyway.

You tried not to stare directly into his eyes, just in case you sent him into overdrive, and settled for unpacking your lunch as you spoke.

“Hey, um, are you okay, Amajiki?” You asked, gulping down a mouthful of food. Tamaki’s eyes locked onto yours and you were taken aback by the brief intensity of them. Just one look had made you a flustered mess already. 

“Uhh, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, Amajiki,” you said quickly.

Tamaki looked down at his food and said something that you didn’t quite catch.

“Sorry, what was that?” You leaned a fraction closer and Tamaki gulped. 

“I’m fine, just tired,” he said softly. You leaned back into your chair and nodded.

“Ah don’t worry I understand. It’s a very tiring process, preparing for high school and all. But for you in particular, Amajiki,” you paused, sighing before you continued, “you must feel like a heavy burden has been placed on you to uphold the school’s reputation, right?”

Tamaki was puzzled about how you deduced that from the way his body seemed to curl into itself. His lip quivered as he struggled to find the right words to respond with while you tapped your chin and kept nodding to yourself.

“Mm, I think it’s okay to be nervous about things like this, Amajiki.”

Tamaki actually felt a little calmer now that you were sitting there casually talking with him.

“Ahh, about earlier, I-I’m better now,” he said. You simply smiled at him and continued eating in companionable silence. “Also, thank you for asking me if I’m ok.”

Tamaki sent you a small smile that made your heart quicken at the sudden movement.

“Amajiki…” you started.

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at you with a small smile.

“Um, you can call me Tamaki, if you’d like.”

Your face heated up at the sudden burst of confidence. Tamaki really didn’t know how much of an effect he had on you.

“Ahhh I don’t feel like I know you well enough to use your first name though,” you croaked. Tamaki looked back down, his shyness returning in full force.

“It’s okay, y-you can use it.” And when he looked back up again, it seemed as if you were radiating warmth from your entire being. 

(ii.)

Tamaki really loved heroes and he really loved talking about them with you because you would nod excitedly and listen for hours to everything he gushed about. It was rare to see Tamaki unabashedly talk without stuttering or slipping one bit and you were glad to be one of the people he felt comfortable being around.  

When he met the pro-heroes from U.A., he would call you up first to gush about every single encounter he had, and today it was about All-Might.

“All-Might really does smile all the time. It’s cool and kind of scary. I don’t have a lot of classes with him though so I wouldn’t know for sure. But from what I’ve heard, he can get pretty fired up too.”

“Kind of like Mirio?” You suggested.

“Now that I think about it, yes. Exactly like Mirio.” Tamaki chuckled and your cheeks hurt from grinning. You could get used to this; talking on the phone with Tamaki after school and making him laugh without even trying… that hard.

“Ugh, I miss you guys. Nejire too. I think we need to catch up soon so I can be revived from the hell hole that is work-study.”

“I think you need more than just us to be revived.”

“Excuse me, all I need is to do is be around Mirio for at least five seconds and absorb his energy; only then will I feel completely rejuvenated,” you deadpanned.

“Are the rest of us just extras?” Tamaki sounded like he was actually offended by the seriousness in your voice.

“No!” You protested, then added, “I love each and every one of you equally.”

“H-hey now, that’s just cheesy.”

“It is, but seriously, can you ask Mirio to send me some of his energy? I’m dying here and I really need him.”

“Are you serious?” spluttered Tamaki.

“Yeeees, I can’t live on caffeine alone. I’ll have whatever Mirio’s having.”

“Ok, I’m hanging up now. Bye.”

“Are you jealou—”

Beep.

And that was the very first time that Amajiki Tamaki had ever hung up on someone.

(iii.) It had been a while since you last caught up with ‘The Big 3’ and Nejire wanted to buy enough snacks so that you’d all be full (of junk food) by the time you reached her house. After today’s workload, cooking was the last thing on Nejire’s mind.  

“Is Mirio coming?” You asked Tamaki, who had his back against the wall. 

“Mirio can’t make it because he has work study today,” Tamaki replied.

“Ah, fair enough.” You sat down on the curb outside the convenience store and patted the space next to you.

“Sit next to me?” You said, smiling up at Tamaki. He didn’t reply and instead seemed preoccupied with the ground beneath his feet. He’s overthinking again, you noticed. It was clear to you that Tamaki was subtly calculating where he should sit and how close he would be next to you. 

You wanted to guide his hand downwards and make it clear that you wanted Tamaki to choose to sit just close enough so that when either of you slightly moved, you would bump shoulders. It was a mushy thought, but you couldn’t help it, you just liked being next to him. But you wanted to pretend for a bit longer.

You sat and watched patiently as Tamaki slowly lowered himself down onto the curb… a whole lot further way than you expected. In fact, Tamaki was exactly two seats away from you and judging by the conflict on his face, from the anguish at his miscalculation to his reluctance to change his seating position, he didn’t mean to be.

Tamaki was regressing back into his thoughts again, so you took this opportunity to snap a photo of him but didn’t realise the sound was on. You jumped at the noise, your eyes finding Tamaki’s slightly panicked expression mirroring your own.

You laughed nervously, “Sorry! It was really good lighting and I didn’t want to waste it.” Great cover, you internally groaned.

Tamaki, whose face was slightly pink, muttered, “You always take bad photos of me.”

“They’re candid thank you very much and anyway, at least they’re not as bad as Kirishima’s.”

Tamaki giggled and you grinned at the lovely sound. You were glad that you could get him out of his head for a bit.

“Anyways, that’s not entirely true,” you said as you got up to take a nice photo of the sunset behind you. “I have some cute ones of you too, I’ll send them if you’d like.”

And with your back turned to Tamaki, you had failed to notice how his blush deepened.

 (iv.)

Tonight you could not stop thinking about Tamaki. He was in every corner, shop window display and person you came across. It was Christmas and the elves were EVERYWHERE. Every time you saw an elf, you would stare at their ears, and then your brain would automatically associate them with Tamaki’s slightly pointed ears that were the exact same shape, only cuter. You didn’t know how many times you’ve freaked out a Santa’s little helper elf by staring at their ears and blushing every shade of red. You didn’t know what to do about it. Though one thing did come to mind.

You grabbed your phone out of your pocket and dashed out of the shopping centre after collecting a pair of complimentary elf-ear headbands for you and your little sister.

“Can we eat ice-cream now?” Your sister whined as you fumbled about with the headband. When you got it to sit as perfectly as it could on her small head, you clicked your tongue and replied.

“Wait!! I have to take a photo first and send it to my friend.” You snapped several shots of your sister, who posed for them despite her eagerness for the ice-cream you had promised her several hours ago.

“Ok that’s cute enough,” you said and sent the best ones to Tamaki.

“I’m always cute,” your sister bragged. You snorted. That was true, but you didn’t want to tell her that again just in case you made her ego bigger than it already was.

You took your sister’s hand and navigated through the packed crowd for some well-deserved ice-cream. As you waited in line, you couldn’t help but check your phone every ten seconds for a reply from Tamaki.

“Are you waiting for your boyfriend to text you back?” Your sister teased.

“Ha-ha no. I’m waiting for Tamaki to reply.”

“Same thing,” she muttered back. You glared at her but rolled your eyes when she shrugged her shoulders in response.

Ping!

The notification rung and boy you had never unlocked your phone so fast in your life.

Tamaki 🐙💞: she looks like she was forced to wear that

You had drawn little hearts around the elf-ear headband on your sister’s head and sent it without context.

You: ummmm it’s cute. plus it reminded me of you

Tamaki 🐙💞: how??

You: you have the same ears as the elves i keep seeing everywhere. tamaki… i think i may have found your long-lost family

Tamaki 🐙💞: okay weirdo

You scoffed. You were glad that you could banter with Tamaki without him getting self-conscious now. But sometimes the easiest way to get a reaction out of Tamaki was to compliment him. And you could never get sick of that flustered face of his.

You: don’t worry tamaki, you’re still the cutest elf boy in my eyes 🥰🥰🥰

Tamaki took a few seconds longer to reply to your message. You could tell by all the backspacing he was doing with whatever he wanted to respond with. You could already picture him blushing while reading your text and it made you smile at your cringey text in satisfaction.

From the corner of your eye you could see that your sister was judging you silently, but you paid no mind.

 (v.)

“You know, Tamaki, you’re pretty consistent with the people that you choose to interact with,” you said over the phone. Tamaki had called you, saying that he couldn’t sleep because he felt worn out. When he asked if you were busy, you had reassured him that you were definitely not busy even though you were stuck on closing duty at your part-time job. No one else was on the closing shift with you, so you had decided to put your earphones in and talk to Tamaki to pass the time.

“How?” He asked.

“Tamaki! Haven’t you realised that you tend to gravitate towards people with, well, sunnier dispositions than yours?”

“That doesn’t really narrow it down though because that could be anyone.”

You cracked up laughing. Tamaki seemed to be funny when he wasn’t supposed to be.

“Okay, I’ll give you that. But, ok, I mean Mirio is basically sunshine personified and although he’s laidback, the guy is a hard worker! Then there’s Nejire, who has pure confidence and honestly, I would too if my speed, technique, intelligence and communication statistics were so well-rounded. How is that even possible? I don’t know. Her resilience knows no bounds.”

Though you couldn’t see it, hearing you talk about his friends with such enthusiasm and admiration caused a faint smile to appear on Tamaki’s face.

“And they’re both so weird!” You sighed deeply, “Tamaki, I think you have a thing for weirdos.”

Tamaki tried to suppress his laughter. “Does that mean you’re a weirdo too?”  

“Oh no,” you mumbled to yourself, pretending to have a dawning realisation. “What have you done to me, Tamaki!?”

This time, Tamaki couldn’t stop the giggle from escaping his lips.

“Oh, wait, Tamaki, I’m putting you in my pocket ok?” You heard an ‘ehh??’ right before you stuffed your phone into your pants and finally locked up for the evening.

You talked on the way home, while you washed up and right until you winded down for bed.

“Tamaki,” you began.

“Mm?” He yawned softly. He was getting sleepier now which was a good sign.

“Um, how are you feeling now?”

“I still can’t stop thinking about what happened today,” Tamaki answered wearily. You felt your heart ache.  

“If you keep worrying about what other people think of you, you’re going to make yourself sick.”

“I know.”

“Yeah, sorry. I know you do, and I know it’s hard as well when your mind is just constantly buzzing. I would offer you my bed, but I don’t think you’d be comf—”

Tamaki made a strangled noise from the other line, “U-Um, that’s okay.” You waited patiently for him to continue, eyes bulging in anticipation for what he was going to say next.

“But can you stay on the phone with me?”

Your heart soared at his request. “Of course, Tamaki, I’ll stay on the phone with you for as long as you need.”

Tamaki thanked you and there was a brief pause because he couldn’t think of what to say next. Lucky for him, you picked up on this difficulty a while back and easily slid into the next topic of conversation.

“You wanna know something, Tamaki?”

“Mm?”

This was it; the point of no return from where your harmless crush on Tamaki would change for better, or for worse.

“Back then, I wasn’t one of the people who ignored you on purpose.” You could feel your cheeks heat up the more you thought about what you were going to reveal to Tamaki. “I noticed you all the time…”

“W-what? Why, or how? I, uhh, huh?”  

“Are you sure? You better brace yourself, Tamaki.”

“Uhh yes? You’re the one who started this conversation?”

“Tamaki!!! Are you ready or not!?”

“Yes, yes, I’m ready.”  

“This is going to sound so shallow and cheesy, or both, oh my god, ok. OKAY,” you raised your voice for no reason in particular; the excess energy in your body screaming to be let out. Tamaki laughed softly and that sound eased your nerves for about a millisecond.

“Tamaki,” you began again, but in a stern voice this time.

“Yes?”

“I always thought you were cute—like really, really, really cute, especially when you played around with Mirio. You always had this small smile on your face when you were with him and I—hold on a second.” You really felt like you were going to tear up for some stupid reason and so you paused to take one deep breath and exhaled… a jumble of sentences.

“I felt so lucky to have always seen that smile up until middle school. Tamaki, you don’t understand—I even thanked Mirio at some point, for being your friend and whatever else, I don’t even know or remember what I fully said. Oh god. Maybe it is selfish of me, but Mirio’s friendliness towards you helped me to become your friend too.��� Your voice had barely held up the sternness it begun with; instead, it had turned to mush once you started gushing about Tamaki.

“But then you transferred to UA and I didn’t realise just how much I had missed seeing you in person. And Nejire used to say that I had a ‘thing for shy boys’ and I didn’t know what she meant by that! I only told her that I liked you so much and that I COULDN’T HELP IT. Or maybe I did think you were cute because you were also shy, but you’re more than the sum of your parts, Tamaki. I think I’ve always known that. I just—I just wish I had known you sooner.”

On the other line, you could hear almost every single breath that Tamaki took.

“Maybe I do have a thing for weirdos,” Tamaki contemplated.

Now you were confused. “H-huh?”

“I think it’s like you said; I admire the same kind of people. Y-you and Nejire don’t really have a filter when it comes to discussion topics; you both tend to speak your mind.”

You nearly choked on your saliva. You did not expect this response at all. Maybe a rejection or something but this? You didn’t know what this was.

“What about Mirio?” You managed to whisper.

“You and Mirio are both very warm people. Literally though, the both of you are like walking heaters.”

“TAMAKI WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?”

“Umm, well, these are things you have in common with the people I like, as you said before. B-but what I’m actually trying to say is that high school isn’t the end of the world. It’s only a short time so you aren’t missing much, except… m-me.” Tamaki’s breath nearly caught in his throat at the prospect of staying on your mind for the past year or so.

“Besides, I’ll still be there with you after high school i-if you’ll have me.”

You cupped your mouth in an attempt not to squeal at the cheesiness coming from Tamaki’s mouth instead of yours this time. Once you calmed down as much as possible, you cleared your throat and replied.

“Tamaki, does that mean you accept my long-winded confession?”

“Yes?”

“YES?” You repeated in mock outrage.

“I mean, yes—I like you too AAAHH.” The tips of Tamaki’s ears were burning now.   

You burst out laughing. “I’m surprised you could understand what I was trying to say.”

“I always understand what you’re trying to say.”

“Aww Tamaki, you’re so cute,” you gushed once again. “I’m glad you like me too! Now please go to sleep before I come over there and put you to sleep myself.”

Tamaki passed out instantly. 

[prettywordsyouleft]

Sanctuary

Summary: Life was too stressful and when you returned home for a break, you found yourself entering the forest you had spent most of your childhood within, looking for sanctuary.

Characters: Moonbin x reader

Genre: supernatural au / fantasy / fairy au / fluff

A/N: Another bias, another birthday! Ever since watching All Night I’ve been imagining Moonbin as an impish fairy and so I decided to write him as one!

Word count: 3823

You hadn’t visited in some time.

As a child, you had grown up near a forest and you loved walking through the land of varying hues of green, playing hide-and-seek with your siblings, and when older, simply plucking out a book from your shelf and setting off to read in a world of serenity. You often felt as if your books came to life more whenever you read within the forest and soon you believed the woods were a sanctuary from everyday life. A world of its own that you could escape into whenever the stresses of school and family were too much.

But as you moved into adulthood, you went to the city to study and got a job there too. It wasn’t as easy to go to the mystical woods anymore, and soon you were dealing with stresses like everyone else did. You lived for caffeine and you lacked sleep as most functioning humans did. You rolled out of bed and off to classes day in and out, whilst filling the night with endless part-time jobs to make sure you could pay your rent on time.

How you managed to study enough was a mystery, though the dark circles under your eyes were a tell-tale sign of what you gave up in order to most nights.

You couldn’t remember when you did anything for fun, and when you finally had a break long enough to head home, you decided to take a week’s rest. To let your mother smother you in her attentive nagging and feed you the home-cooked meals you hadn’t tasted in forever. You planned to laze about the house and do absolutely nothing, in contrast to doing absolutely everything in the city.

Being home was nostalgic. You had missed the simplicity of the countryside, and the slower pace where the sun dictated what you did with your day. And despite it shining brightly for the first two days of your time back home, you had spent it indoors, catching up on much-needed sleep, and just lazing around as you had hoped to. By the third day however, you were feeling restless. Your body was accustomed to always being on the go, and you decided to go for a run. It felt good to pound down the quiet country lane whilst listening to your music, singing out loud at points because no one was around. You took a break when you noticed an entrance to the woods beside you. It had been so long since you had entered and you hesitated for some reason, as if you didn’t have permission to wander in like the free-spirited child you had once been.

“It’s just a forest,” you told yourself, shaking your head at your nonsense and jogged into the dense greenery.

The air was different once you were in far enough and you sucked in deep breaths to truly inhale the pine scent. It felt like a home you hadn’t visited in some time. You let out a laugh, surprising yourself with how light you felt afterwards. You wandered for about an hour, mesmerised with how things had changed in some areas, and others were still the same. You found the tree you always chose as your favourite spot to lay upon as you read. You almost regretted as you sat down on it, that you hadn’t brought something to read today.

And then your smart-watch on your wrist starting beeping, sounding foreign within this environment. You looked down at it and noticed you had a missed call from your mother. It surprised you that you got signal so deep within the forest and with a sigh, you hauled yourself off the tree and back out the way you had come in, unaware of the eyes watching your departure forlornly.

The next morning you rose with renewed anticipation. You had been distracted ever since you got home yesterday, feeling compelled to turn back and go into the woods again. As you laid in bed that night, you decided you would return better prepared today.

After dressing in your active clothes, you grabbed a small backpack and filled it with items you would need. A book from your shelf was the last thing to be placed in with the assorted snacks and a drink bottle, and you put your earbuds on as you turned on some music outside your home.

You started with a run again, just like the day before, but today you ran with purpose. You didn’t stop running even when you entered the forest again, leaping over the fallen trunks and other debris as you went. If anyone were to have been watching, you imagined them to see you much like a deer frolicking, there was so much joy within your steps. And when you reached your favourite spot, you patted the tree trunk fondly before you sat down on it.

“Now, for the best part of my day,” you proclaimed to the forest, slipping your watch off your wrist and your earbuds out of your ears. Every piece of technology that had accompanied you into your sanctuary was put away in your bag. You didn’t want the outside world to interrupt you, instead, you wished to get lost in a tale you had read many times over.

It seemed fitting to read about fairies and elves in this scenery and you were instantly hooked in reading the book. You moved around at points to get comfortable again, and you spoke out your moments of questioning or laughed when it was needed. You stopped to eat your lunch, mindfully popping each part in your mouth and focusing on the texture and taste. You felt intoxicated by the freedom and the quiet. You wondered if you could forgo leaving when it was time to return to reality altogether on Sunday. There was something magical about this place and no money or a successful career could compare.

After lunch, you returned to your book, getting lost within it again. When you finished it, you were disappointed you hadn’t brought anything else with you for the day to read. You had believed you wouldn’t even get through half the book given how little you had read lately outside of textbooks. Now you were pouting, looking around yourself for something to do.

A stream of sunshine had started hitting the tree earlier on as the afternoon sun infiltrated through the canopy above. You had been enjoying basking in the sun and decided to lay back down, feeling yourself grow sleepy under its warmth.

“I’ll just take a small nap and then head back home,” you murmured out-loud, closing your eyes and drifting off into a deep slumber.

When you stirred, you weren’t on the tree anymore. The scent had changed around you and you inhaled deeply, confused by the floral fragrance that hit you immediately. You opened your eyes and blinked rapidly.

You were still near the tree but instead now rested upon a bed of flowers. At first, you were stunned that something so beautiful could exist. You stared around yourself in wonder, at the drastic change of your once monochrome of green now being various hues of pinks, purples and yellows.

And then you put rationale into the situation. You were still dreaming.

“No, you’re awake,” a voice said then, and you let out a shriek, not noticing the pink-haired person until he had spoken. He turned to look at you over his shoulder and grinned.

You had never seen someone so captivating before.

“Why thank you,” he continued, and you shook your head in confusion at how he was answering your thoughts when you hadn’t spoken out loud. He nodded once. “Ah, I’m a fairy.”

“Fairies don’t read minds, and further, you just told me I was awake. I’m definitely still dreaming,” you told him, sitting up and blinking at your clothing. Before you had been wearing your active clothes but now you adorned a simple beige dress made with thick yet comfortable cotton. You smiled. “See, I’m totally dreaming.”

“Call it as you must, but I cannot lie. Surely this book here told you that much,” he mentioned with a sly smile, holding up your novel. You soon realised that he was rummaging through your belongings and you leapt up, letting out a startled cry.

“What are you doing?!”

He folded his arms across his chest. “Going through your bag.”

“Yes, I know that but you can’t just go through my things!” You threw your hands up in exasperation. “Those are mine.”

“And this forest is mine yet you came in without asking for my permission,” he countered, giving a little shrug before holding up your earbuds in confusion. “What do these do? You had them in when you came in earlier but I couldn’t understand their purpose. Why would you want to block the sounds of the world out?”

You stared at him incredulously, trying ever so hard to ignore how handsome he was. He was still crouched by your things, yet you could tell he was tall and slender, and he had an air about him that was graceful. Although he sported candy pink hair, you felt he suited it immensely, and it brought out the golden glow of his skin. He smirked. “Yes, I know I’m beautiful, but I asked you about these things here.”

You rolled your eyes heavily and grabbed your earbuds out of his grasp. “They don’t block out sounds, they play music.”

“Music?” he repeated, frowning. “But where is the instrument?”

You giggled involuntarily. “You use your phone to play it.”

“Phone?” He glanced around himself, looking lost. “What is that?”

You reached down into the neat pile of your belongings he had made and held up the device. He took it from you and flipped it over carefully. His eyes then landed back on yours. “This is not an instrument.”

“How long have you lived here?” you asked in amusement, shaking your head at his lack of knowledge. Pulling the device out of his grip, you almost dropped it when he answered.

“Eighty years, I believe.”

“I thought you said fairies can’t lie,” you told him once recovered and he nodded.

“I can’t. Why don’t you believe me?”

“Because you look the same age as me and I’m no where near thirty yet.”

“I think I should take that as a compliment, you’re saying I look good for my age.” He completely disregarded your gaze you shot him and pointed at the phone. “How does this makes music?”

“It doesn’t make it, look let me show you and you’ll understand.” You unlocked the phone and he flinched at the small bubble sound it made and then gasped as your home screen appeared.

“Is it magic?!” You ignored his wonder and went into your music app, pressing play on the song you had been listening to before you turned it off. He flinched again as you moved an earbud close to him. Tentatively, he placed it into his ear and then noisily gasped. “How does it play this?!”

You turned it off and he blinked rapidly. “It’s what we humans use to listen to music these days.”

“Ah, you acknowledge I’m not human,” he said gleefully and you rolled your eyes again. “I get it; it’s been a long time since you visited this forest, Y/N. You’ve forgotten all about the magic that kept you coming back as a child.”

You glanced up at him, aghast. “This isn’t funny. How do you know my name?”

“Because you used to sing it out all the time as a child when you played here.”

You wanted to refute it, but there was something genuine in his chocolate brown eyes. He was smiling again at your gaze and you looked away. “I don’t know your name.”

“Moonbin.” You looked at him again at his easy introduction and then to his ears. He laughed but allowed you to further examine him as if he appreciated your continued gaze. He even angled himself so you could look at him side on. “Satisfied now?”

“So, you’re a fairy?” Moonbin nodded. “Who came to this forest eighty years ago, and has been here this whole time, yet I’ve never seen you once, why?”

“You have too,” he refuted with a melodic laugh and you wondered why it sounded familiar. He grinned. “When you played hide-and-seek as a child, you once found me instead.”

You tried to remember and gasped when you saw a child with similar pink hair within the hollow of a trunk in your memory. You snapped your focus up to his. “I wasn’t a child.”

“You looked like one.”

“My appearance changes on my mood,” he admitted. “Sometimes when I feel young at heart, I play in the forest like a child. But most of the time, I look like this. See, you think I’m handsome.”

“I think you have a bit of an ego,” you muttered and Moonbin chuckled.

“Most fairies do.”

“So how does this work then?” you wondered and he looked at you, puzzled. You wondered why he wasn’t reading your mind anymore.

“Ah, you’re not openly letting your thoughts out. Normally I can hear them as if you spoke them aloud if you’re actively thinking them. But right now, you’re only sharing your confusion at me not knowing what you’re thinking.”

He sounded too logical and your brain started to hurt. You sighed. “How did the forest suddenly fill with flowers?”

“It’s like this all the time for me,” he answered, gesturing to the beauty that surrounded you both. “It blooms year round.”

“It’s always green,” you corrected and Moonbin pouted. “So I’m asking how it’s not green for me anymore.”

“Being an adult has made you lose your wonder, Y/N.”

“Don’t remind me,” you agreed and Moonbin grinned. “And stop smiling, it’s too dazzling.”

“I’ll try my best to damper it down,” he told you in a small voice but you could tell he was pleased with how you reacted to him. “I guess, my world and your world don’t always meet up. To you, it’s green, to me it’s not.”

“How am I here?”

“You called out to me,” he answered simply as if you should’ve realised this already. You blinked slowly. You didn’t recall saying anything after resting back to nap. Moonbin groaned exasperatedly. “As you fell asleep, you wished not to return back to the city and stay here forever instead. You called out for a sanctuary and so I allowed you in here.”

“So I am dreaming.”

“But you really are not,” he confirmed, sighing at your refusal to believe him. “If you were asleep then you’d be still laying there, not talking with me.”

You went to refute him again but you felt like it was pointless. Moonbin seemed to have an answer for everything in this strange environment. He smirked. “I do.”

“Okay, so how do I leave?” you asked, bending down to retrieve your things hastily. You knew it had to be getting later in the day and your parents would be worried about you if you didn’t return home in time for dinner.

Moonbin, however, became sullen. “Why don’t you want to stay?”

“Because I have people waiting on me.”

“What about me?” he asked and you stopped moving, glancing up into his sombre expression. “I’ve been here all this time waiting for you and you only returned now. Can’t you stay a little longer? Please?”

In any other situation, you would have run away. Moonbin was a stranger. A very attractive one but still he was someone you didn’t know. The longer you stared at him, the more you felt as if your initial thought was wrong. You had seen these eyes far too many times as a child. It slowly dawned on you that he was no stranger at all to you.

“What if I return tomorrow? Will you let me in again?” you asked and Moonbin chewed on his bottom lip in hesitation. You smiled at him and gently reached out to hold onto his lower arm. He looked at your grasp and then back at your face. “I’m not saying this to escape you.”

“You remember me.”

“Kind of,” you admitted and Moonbin smiled at you so much that you thought your knees were going to give way. He gripped onto you with a laugh and shot you a wink. Your cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

“Okay, but on one condition,” he mentioned, and you looked up at him expectantly. “You allow me to walk you home.”

You nodded and together you packed up your belongings, your bag now seemed out of place against your dress. You looked at it again and then at Moonbin who grew sheepish. “It’s the dress you once wore when younger. I liked it on you, so in my world, it’s what you wear.”

“I guess that makes sense,” you replied, though you weren’t sure any of this would make sense when you stepped out of the forest. Yet for now, you were at ease in his company.

You walked side by side slowly until you reached the forest edge. You went to step out but Moonbin grabbed you, shaking his head. “I can’t leave. I’m bound to this place.”

“Bound?”

“All fairies are placed somewhere, to fulfil their duty of protecting the flora and fauna in their jurisdiction. I guess you could say I have a job. Like you.”

“Sounds like a lonely one,” you admitted and he diverted his gaze.

“There aren’t many children left in this area, and adults rarely come in.”

You felt a pang of familiarity. Although you were surrounded by people in the city, it wasn’t down to it being out of want. You were merely another person in a sea of humans there. You were only talked to if you were needed, and friends only existed to fulfil study sessions and the odd night out at the local club. You stepped back from the edge of the forest and instead turned to walk along the edge of it beside him. Moonbin smiled brightly.

Conversation was easy when you established that connection. He told you of the trees and their changes, and you told him what the city was like. He seemed in awe, much like you were of his world. Both wanting what you couldn’t have. Somewhere, perhaps when you stumbled over a tree branch, Moonbin had grabbed a hold of your hand. And he still held it within his now, swinging your linked arms loosely in the evening breeze. You liked the feeling and found yourself staring up at the tall man often, little smiles playing on his lips whenever he caught you. He was strangely addicting and you wanted to keep staring at him forever.

You could tell you were nearing your home as Moonbin’s feet began to drag. He didn’t say anything about it and you allowed the change in pace, your own feet reluctant to step out and make you decide if this was all a hazy dream or not. Eventually, you both stopped at a cluster of trees and he let out a heavy sigh. “I wish I could walk you to your door but this is as far as I can go.”

“I’m glad you walked me this far,” you told him honestly and Moonbin smiled, looking down at your still linked hands. You followed his gaze, sighing softly at the need to let go.

“I don’t want to let go either. I trust you though; I know you’ll remember me now.”

“You reckon?” you asked, not quite trusting in yourself. Moonbin nodded firmly and you smiled. “I promise I’ll come back every day until I have to leave.”

“I’d like that, Y/N.” Bending down, he plucked a purple flower from the floor bed of the forest and then tucked it behind your ear. “A little something to make sure you come back.”

You were stunned as he gently caressed your cheek before letting his hand fall away from your face and without thinking about it, you stretched up to plant your lips over his briefly. You pulled back in shock, embarrassment flooding you both. You coughed before you explained yourself. “I figured I should leave you something too.”

Moonbin raised his hands to hide his flushed cheeks. “I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight now.”

“I better go.”

“I can wait,” he assured you as you stepped back. “I’ll wait.”

“I’ll be back,” you repeated as you slowly walked backwards, not wanting to let him out of your sight. It was funny to go from wondering how you got into such a world, to not wanting to leave it at all. But when you turned to climb up onto the road, you blinked several times, feeling yourself to be coming out of a daze. Looking around yourself, you wondered where all the flowers and the calm air had gone, and when you couldn’t spot Moonbin anywhere, you were certain you had dreamed it all.

Slowly walking up to the house, you looked dejectedly at your active clothes and felt the coldness that consumed you. Had it been chilly all day? You had been warm within the forest.

“There you are, I’ve rung you twice!” your mother chortled as you stepped inside and you sighed heavily, placing a smile upon your face as you tried to shake off your lingering dream. It felt too real. Moonbin seemed so vivid within your mind still.

“Were you in the forest again?” your Dad asked as you sat at the table and you nodded, suddenly feeling exhausted. “You must have worked up an appetite wandering around in there.”

“Yes, you should have come home earlier. Look at you; you’re covered in moss on your back. And where did you find this?” She plucked something out of your hair and you gasped when you saw the purple flower, a smile crossing your face as you remembered his words. A little something to make sure you come back. You parents stared at you with concern for a moment and then continued on with their constant stream of chatter.

After dinner, you excused yourself to your room, placing down your things before taking a shower. Once ready for bed, you went over to your window where you had left the flower earlier. Picking it up, you glanced out into the night sky and over to the forest edge. You searched deep within the dense trees for something to show you that Moonbin was still out there. But you couldn’t find anything. Looking down at the flower you held though, it gave you promise that what you had experienced all afternoon wasn’t a dream at all. You smiled, staring back out to the forest again.

Somewhere in there, Moonbin was waiting for you.

And you couldn’t wait to return.

_________________

All rights reserved © prettywordsyouleft

[ASTRO Masterlist] | [Main Masterlist] | [Request Guidelines]

[jasleh]

Get to Know Me: OOC

1. Dogs or Cats?

Cats! Dogs are very sweet and all (and I would die for every single golden retriever, specifically), but they’re generally just too high-energy and messy for me

2. YouTube celebrities or normal celebrities?

uh... neither? I don’t really follow celebrities at all

3. If you could live anywhere where would that be?

Somewhere in the middle of a city such that there is at least one of each of the following within my walking distance:

yarn store

cafe with comfy chairs that’ll let me hang out for several hours on very few drinks

restaurant with good but not too expensive food

alternately

in a castle with electricity and high speed internet somewhere in europe with the whole Crown fam - ideally without any stairs between me and where food happens (we were talking about this recently and oh man did it sound nice - also Luma was selling Germany specifically very well)

4. Disney or DreamWorks?  

uh... hm... DreamWorks I think. Although it’s asking a bit much of me to know which one did which movies

5. Favourite childhood TV show?

uhhhhhhh.... oh! Inspector Gadget. I fucking loved that show as a kid

6. The movie you’re looking forward to most in 2020

I... have no idea what’s even coming out in 2020 8D

7. Favorite book you read in 2019?

The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison

and yeah, I know what you’re thinking, but I read this book entirely because of the title and 100% did not know what I was getting into with it. The “goblins” are honestly just elves of a different color, and it’s all about elf court politics. But look, look. This book is fantastic. The main character is this sweet kid who’s been thrown in way over his head and just tries to do his best and watching the people around him slowly come around is absolutely delightful. Also, there’s like... hints of absolutely massive world building that you don’t really get to see much of ‘cause you’re stuck in the court, but it makes me want to know so much more about this world. Also I want a book about his lesbian royal-bastard ship captain aunt, because she sounds fascinating.

8. Marvel or DC?

I don’t... really know anything about comics, sorry

9. If you choose Marvel favourite member of the X-Men? If you choose DC favourite Justice League member?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

10. Night or Day?

day. My natural sleep cycle has me as a major night owl, but my night vision is absolute crap and I’m afraid to go outside after dark

11. Favourite Pokemon?  

I don’t know much about pokemon, but I love charmander because dragon and it’s cute :’)

12. Top 5 bands:

right, any top x is gonna depend heavily on what I happen to remember at the time, and I can’t swear to ordering, but

Charming Disaster

Abney Park

Lindsey Sterling (does she count?)

Nightwish

Blackmore’s Night

13. Top 10 books.

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The Goblin Emperor by  Katherine Addison

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The City of Brass and The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan 

14. Top 4 movies

The Princess Bride

Dragonheart

Treasure Planet

How to Train Your Dragon

(also Megamind but I ran out of spots ;-;)

15. America or Europe?

Europe :’)

16. Tumblr or Twitter?

Tumblr - fuck twitter, I refuse to use it

17. Pro-choice or Pro-life?

CHOICE

18. Favorite YouTuber?

I don’t... I don’t know any YouTubers? I don’t really... watch things much

19. Favorite author ?

Terry Pratchett

20. Tea or Coffee?

Tea. I miss coffee so much, but I can’t drink it anymore :< also I can’t drink real tea, so I live on herbal tea. Caffeine, why must you hate me so?

21. OTP?

gonna say... Razai and Kyoto. Also Teledji and Tulala. And a bunch of pairings that exist only inside my head for daydream purposes >_>

22. Do you play an instrument/sing ?

not really. got piano lessons as a kid, but don’t remember any of it. Wish I could play the violin tho, I love those

Tagged by: @righthererightzao

Tagging: let’s see... @dragonwithgoggles @uppestoftownchics @dennydraws @sunnyluma @east-to-the-sea (and feel free to ignore if you don’t want to do it!)

[qobiin]

golden

pairing: drarry (draco x harry) 

genre: fluff | slice of life 

word count: 946 

summary: it's too early in the morning for draco to be awake right now, but it's for something important at least. 

it's an early morning and draco doesn't know why he is awake.

he tries to bury his face deeper into his pillow until he realizes that would probably hurt harry's shoulder. he sighs under his breath and lifts his face up, taking in his surroundings.

harry is asleep, face looking peaceful for once. his skin glows in the little slants of sunlight that come through their open blinds, his dark skin contrasting greatly against draco's. his hair is a mess and his mouth is parted open, drool dribbling down his chin and onto the pillow. draco grins at the sight of his sleeping husband, lifting himself up slowly as to not wake him up.

he's wearing clothes for once (harry will argue that briefs do not count, but draco thinks he can just suck it really) and stretches his arms above his head, rolling out of bed as quickly and as quietly as he can. harry mumbles something under his breath and turns over, hand thrown out across draco's side of the bed, but does not wake. draco leans down and presses a kiss on his brow, moving towards the bathroom now to get ready.

he checks his watch as he brushes his teeth and finds that it is much too early for him to be up, but when he remembers the date, he's glad he is up at this ungodly hour on a tuesday. he shaves and showers after that, casting a few drying charms on his hair before he styles it and walks back out into their bedroom. harry is sprawled out like a starfish on their bed, deep in sleep and draco bites back a laugh, turning towards their dressers to find a clean pair of briefs. 

getting changed takes up less time than it usually does and draco shoots harry's sleeping form on the bed one last glance before he steps out into the hallway and makes his way towards the kitchen.

cooking is easy for draco. after he moved out of the manor and no longer had house elves waiting on him hand and foot, he took to cooking and quickly learned that he wasn't spectacular at it like harry is, but he's decent enough that harry trusts him with dinner on those nights when he is too tired from his duties as an auror to cook. draco's a barrister like his father and sets his own hours usually so he is always home first, always the one to clean no matter the day or how tired he may feel. cleaning is something he is much better at than harry, especially since he has always been better at charms then harry anyway.

breakfast doesn't take too long for him to make and the waffles come out alright. the eggs and bacon are simple, and he loads up the coffee with sugar for harry, not understanding the point of drinking it when harry always drowns out the caffeine with sugar anyway. he sets the dishes to wash while he uses a levitation charm on the food and walks back down the hallway where harry is sitting up in bed, his expression clearly confused.

"you made food?" harry asks, hand outstretched beside him as he blindly reaches for his glasses.

draco laughs and uses the same levitation charm to drop harry's glasses into his lap while he steps more into the room. "thought i should, seeing as i was already up and it happened to be someone's birthday and all."

"birthday?" harry mumbles as he fixes his glasses on the bridge of his nose, brow scrunched up in thought before it smooths and he smiles wide. "oh! thanks, love."

"you're welcome," draco returns snobbishly, nose up in the air as he brings the food closer.

harry grins and summons a tray to put over his lap. draco leans down as he sets the food gracefully down on the tray, grinning in return.

"happy birthday, you arse," draco murmurs between them, not caring about harry's morning breath as harry leans up towards him.

"yeah, i love you too," harry snickers, his eyes sparkling before they flutter shut when draco grips his chin and lets their lips meet for a kiss.

it's gentle and soft, neither of the two men really putting any effort into it. harry's hand comes up to cup draco's cheek and although they've been together for many years, draco still shivers every time he feels harry's wedding ring against his skin.

they break apart not too soon after and draco is all smiles when he presses another kiss to harry's parted lips before pulling away and meeting his dazed gaze once more. "i love you. now eat, we have much to do today."

"yes, love," harry responds without missing a beat, grinning and shrinking away when draco pinches his side.

draco watches as his husband eats the food he prepared for him, but soon enough his own stomach is growling and harry laughs at him as he holds out a forkful of waffle. draco rolls his eyes and leans forward to take the food into his mouth, smiling when harry tugs him down for another kiss.

and another. and another until the food threatens to fall across their sheets and draco pulls away with a half-assed lecture on the tip of his tongue. harry only laughs and continues to eat, summoning another fork and scooting to the side to make room for draco on the bed. they sit and eat between them after that, harry's dark skin and wedding band glinting in the sunlight.

draco's heart tugs at the sight of it, unable to resist kissing him again and again and again.

[xxkellsvixen19xx]

You Light Up My Life David x Andrew AU

A/N: a request for David & Andrew from ACS Versace, did as an AU/holiday theme hope you don't mind please enjoy!!

As beautiful and as clichéd it sounds, Andrew and David's lives had problems underneath the surfaces. Their relationship had been pushed and tested to its limit, binding them together closer than before.

It wasn't always easy and their love wasn't a fairytale, though the way they met and the memories they created - and continue to make - may just feel like something from a bestselling romance novel. It was something for people to see and for people to read, but no one would ever truly know the deeper secrets and the deeper meanings of the story. Those were for David and Andrew only.

- - - - - - - - - -

THREE YEARS AGO:

Over the winter months, the Starbucks in which David worked at only got busier.

Men, women, children, teenagers, elderly - all types and all ages of people showed up to purchase anything that'd keep them from freezing in the harsh English winters.

David and his other co-workers,  worked their asses off serving these people. From the time of frosty sunrises to the time of chilly sunsets (unless it was a school day, then it'd be from the moment school ended until the moment the shopping centre closed), they worked as a team to provide each and every customer with overpriced caffeine from a mainstream chain of coffee stores.

As Christmas grew nearer, David noticed the amount of workers in the shopping centre starting to set up all the decorations. The tallest Christmas tree he'd ever seen was put up in the main centre, covered with festive baubles, tinsel, lights, fake snow and the traditional gold star on the very top.

Other decorations covered the square and Christmas music played, putting David in a more festive state of mind. More families came to the coffee shop and they even bought in a brand new stock of Christmas themed cups. Call David overexcited, but he loved Christmas more than anything.

Especially when 'Santa' and the 'helpers' came.

Every year, a workshop was built in the centre by the Christmas tree. Santa, or who the kids thought was Santa, came every year, and the children would go into Santa's workshop to talk to him about what they wanted for Christmas before Santa gave them a small gift each and sent them away with their families again.

The 'helpers' were always lovely too. The girls dressed up in elf costumes would often come to the coffee shop after their work shifts, and David would serve them and talk to them. This happened every year, and it was the period of time when David loved his job the most.

His favourite year though was three years ago.

David was working his shift on a Saturday – the first day that 'Santa' and the 'elves' came that year – when he looked up to see them walking in.

One of them, he noticed, was shoved to the side. He also noticed that this particular one was male unlike the others, which made him warm to the boy almost straight away.

He served the girls first, making small conversation, before serving the boy.

He noticed the painted blush on his cheeks and the red on his nose. He noticed the elf hat he was forced to wear and the stupid but cute costume. But, he also noticed his feathery brown hair and the way it poked out of his hat; covering his ears, forehead and constantly falling into his eyes, which were a bright shining brown.

And David liked him as soon as he laid eyes on him.

"I'll just have a hot chocolate..." he said, voice high but soft and innocent. He sounded shy, unlike the other girls. David thought it was just because Andrew hadn't been to the shop before.

He nodded anyway, and put in the order.

"Name?" David asked him, and Andrew swore he completely forgot his name at that point, as well as forgetting to breathe.

“A-A-A Andrew.." He stammered.

"You sure?" David  joked.

Andrew  just nodded quickly in response, blushing redder than the face paint on his nose.

He watched as David wrote his name on the cup and made the drink for him, taking in the sight of the bright blue eyed, lanky, blonde haired boy behind the counter. Andrew  wanted to pounce on him.

"Here you go..." David smiled warmly as he handed Andrew his drink.

He then handed David the exact money and nearly fainted when their hands touched. Andrew smiled awkwardly though, taking the drink and the receipt before brushing his fringe out of his eyes and glancing at the name on the cup.

Written on there was his name, spelt in the only possible way that annoyed him and in all caps:

ANDREW.

After Christmas was over, Andrew still came to the coffee shop every day. It turned out that he worked as a waiter in one of the restaurants on the other side of town, and worked in the mall's centre extra hours at Christmas.

Andrew and David started dating at the end of January. It turned out their feelings for each other were in fact mutual, and Andrew happily agreed to be David's boyfriend after their first two dates.

After that, Andrew and Davif both came out to their families. David's father was extremely happy for him and accepted them. It was lovely to see and experience, and gave Andrew a boost of confidence for coming out to his own family.

But, he wasn't so lucky. His mother turned her nose up and gave up making effort to talk to them on a regular basis  which took an indescribable toll on Andrew.

However, David then decided it was best for them to move in together. They both found a small apartment building to suit them, and moved in as soon as possible. They were both a lot happier after that.

️- - - - - - - - - -

Over time, David left his job and struggled to find another. Andrew was the only one to bring in any money and David was under a constant strain to find a job.

He eventually got a job as a cashier at Tesco, but with rises in energy and water bills and even taxes, the money they both brought in was barely enough.

After moving into a cheaper apartment building, they both found it a little easier and payed off their debt, but still had little money for food and other things they wanted for themselves.

Sacrifice after sacrifice they made, and eventually they both fell into a routine of non stop exhaustion. David was stressed, and Andrew blamed himself.

They both lost contact with their families, who wouldn't have been able to help them anyway and it got to the point where they had one phone between them both and one laptop they had to share. They couldn't afford a TV and sometimes had to sing in the shopping centre to scrape in some money so they could afford food.

Andrew was often reduced to tears every night and David's sweet nothings were the only thing that could calm him.

It was tough, but they were both still happy when they were together. Because, sure, getting by and having to deal with a crippling financial stability was difficult, but it didn't stop them from being in a happy relationship. They were content together, and neither could get by without the other.

They were like a unit, and one couldn't progress without the other. Without each other, they were like broken machines waiting for a purpose, and when they were together the machine would come to life again - fully functional and strong.

David loved Andrew endlessly and Andrew loved David more than anything.

David was determined to ask Andrew to marry him some day, but knew he couldn't afford it. He just knew that he had to get them on steady feet first, and decided that Christmas was the perfect time to propose, supposing that he could manage.

[exyghouls]

secret santa time!

this is my TFC-Net Secret Santa post for @julianlavelle!! merry christmas!!

on ao3

-

Christmas had never been something that Neil had really experienced. For a while he felt no desire to take part, but being around his family as they prepared for the holiday season piqued his interest.

“Andrew,” he asked on the roof the night after their last finals, “do you want to do Christmas this year?”

He looked over lazily, smoke drifting from his mouth. It came out in a puff when he replied, “Do you want to?”

Neil shrugged, feeling sheepish at best. He took the cigarette from Andrew and took a short drag before handing it back. “I guess I want to try. Who knows, maybe I’ll hate it.” He kicked his feet over the edge of the roof and leaned against Andrew with a sigh.

i. 2007

Andrew had never exactly liked Christmas. He liked being able to disappear without his foster parents getting calls that he skipped class. He liked that he could shovel the driveway without the possibility of missing the bus. Later though, it became a nuisance.

Nicky had been big on Christmas when Andrew and Aaron had first moved in with him. The first year, he told them they wouldn’t be doing present exchanges but used some of his savings to decorate and cook a big dinner. Aaron was mortified by the amount of effort he had put in but Andrew was unaffected. They didn’t do as big of a celebration the following years, but Nicky always liked to do something.

If Neil wanted to do something, he could arrange that. Christmas was a bullshit holiday with bullshit intentions, but he could give Neil a couple gifts and get cinnamon rolls for breakfast or something.

Only a couple freshmen stayed behind for the break. Neil stuck back too with the intent to keep an eye on them, but he and Andrew went to Columbia on the 24th and left the kids to Abby.

They went shopping before going to the house. The first stop was to a department store, much to Neil’s apparent confusion.

“I thought that when you said shopping you meant for food and liquor,” he said.

“We’ll get to that,” Andrew waved off as he led them to the PJ section in the back corner. He motioned to the racks and shelves they stood between. “Pick some pajamas.”

Neil cocked his head to the side. “What about you?”

“Pick mine too.” Andrew was thoroughly bored with Neil’s ignorance. “Santa, elves, reindeer. Christmas shit, yes?”

He smiled, just a little, and went about trying to find anything in a small. All they had left on Christmas Eve was extra small and double X’s, but he managed to find plaid pants, one pair in red and the other in green, and matching shirts with penguins and lights, respectively.

Food shopping was easier, though Andrew was remembering all of Nicky’s past attempts to make a holiday meal. He was a decent cook but the man was no good under pressure.

Something about the disgusting amount of domesticity must have amused Neil, because he broke into a smile and looked at Andrew like he had put each star in the sky.

“What?”

Neil paused for a moment, smile not faltering. “Nothing.”

He snorted a little. “Nothing.”

Neil swayed to nudge him as they walked out of the store with their bags, that small smile still on his face.

This makes Neil happy, Andrew noted, keeping it in the back of his head.

ii. 2007

Once they got back to the house, Neil helped with putting all the groceries away before vanishing into Andrew’s--their--bedroom to put on his new pajamas.

He walked out in red pants and the penguin shirt, looking half giddy. He pulled out a baking sheet and preheated the oven while Andrew poured them drinks. He put premade cookie dough on the sheet in chunks, standing hip to hip with him. Neil bumped into his side and put the cookies into the oven. Not wanting to waste time, Andrew set the timer before crowding him against the counter.

“Yes or no?”

Neil jumped up to sit on the counter beside the oven and leaned down. “Yes.” He took the initiative to kiss Andrew, keeping his hands to his hair.

They got interrupted sooner than they ought to have been by the timer. Neil moved away and took out the cookies, busying himself getting a plate and searching for a spatula. Andrew stood patiently to the side, taking long sips of his drink. He made them weak.

It was ambient once they were in the living room with cookies and some channel marathoning Christmas movies. Andrew let Neil swing his legs onto his lap and lay against him at the same time, curling around him.

Andrew refused to let his heart race. He refused to acknowledge how cute Neil was like this, how happy silly shit like pajamas and cookies made from premade dough made him.

iii. 2008

Neil broke out the pajamas they had gotten last year. He wore the pants on occasion, but the rest of the set stayed shoved into the back of Andrew’s drawer.

Nicky insisted on having a Christmas dinner with the Foxes. The girls had graduated and it hit him harder than usual when he realized that family dinner no longer included them. They were always family, but it was harder for them to all be a part of it. Renee hadn’t had the room in her schedule, Allison had last minute company obligations, and Dan’s flight got snowed in.

They had managed to slip away without a trace. They drank and blew smoke out the bedroom window and locked out the rest of the Foxes.

Neil wanted this. He wanted to feel giddy off witty comebacks that Andrew shot at him, wanted to feel warm and then burning hot as Andrew brushed lips over his.

His mood worsened again when he came to the violent, sudden realization that he only had one of these left with Andrew before they graduated.

“Is it no?” Andrew asked, pulling away as soon as Neil tensed.

“It’s still yes,” he said, but the unsure tone made Andrew shoot him a questioning look. “Just thinking about how many holidays we have left. I think I’m starting to like Christmas, if only for the culture. Just thinking about how we won’t have many more like this.”

Andrew hummed and kissed him once, quickly. It stopped him from rambling, if anything. “They’ll be better when we have our own place and no noisy jolly fuckers around to ruin the night.”

He couldn’t help smiling at the implication. Neil reached up to pull him in for a kiss, tasting the future, tasting hope, tasting better things to come.

Neil liked the new feeling that replaced the cold, replaced the winter, replaced the holidays. He couldn’t stop thinking, our own place. It was a mantra, a pick-me-up, a promise. Even if Andrew dismissed any implication, it felt amazing.

iv. 2010

Andrew wasn’t coming to Palmetto during break. All new players were to stay for extra practice, orders of the captain. Neil figured, he would stay on campus too, taking care of the kids who couldn’t go home. He was the only fifth year senior and the team captain, even though Kevin came to practice over break because the Florida team wasn’t making new players give up their Christmas.

Robin stayed by Neil’s side for most of the break. She had stuck to Andrew like glue the year before--that is, once she realized he wasn’t going to kill her.

Just before noon on Christmas Eve, Neil and Robin were sitting in the corner of Abby’s living room, drinking coffee and hot chocolate respectively. The other kids were dispersed through the house or on the court for a Kevin-ordered conditioning. A sophomore striker was out for the first half of the semester for a broken wrist and still couldn’t get her throw right, so Kevin was helping her to switch hands.

He got a text from one of the freshmen that he was being asked for on court without specification. He showed Robin and she shrugged, getting up to follow him to the car.

When they walked into the stands, Neil saw Kevin instructing the sophomore on how to angle so he could make it past the goalie. Neil couldn’t see his face, covered by a helmet, and he was wearing light padding, but Neil’s heart nearly stopped when he realized that Andrew was standing in the goal.

Neil raced down the stands and Robin trailed behind. Another player on the court who was doing footwork saw him and unbolted the door--a freshman, the only one that year.

Andrew noticed too. He called off Kevin and dropped his stick in time for Neil to half-tackle him in a hug.

“You left Chicago?” Neil asked after thinking about who’s around. The only one who didn’t know about them was the freshman, but Neil didn’t give a damn.

“Yeah, I’m here to see Kevin,” he drawled.

He drew back from the hug. “Yes or no, Andrew?”

“Yes, idiot.”

Neil pulled off his helmet, holding it at his side as he kissed Andrew, not minding the sweat. They were interrupted when a ball was shot at their feet. Robin stood at mid court, handing Kevin back his stick.

“Don’t I get any sugar?” she asked.

Andrew rolled his eyes and held an arm out. Robin ran forward and was sandwiched between them.

“Ew, you smell,” she said, wrinkling her nose. Neil burst out laughing. The other Foxes on the court came and hugged them too, but Kevin abstained in favor of making a wall so Andrew had a way out. He liked this, liked the family he had made. The holidays had been feeling bleak, but they made him feel at home.

v. 2014

Neil Josten was twenty six years old and playing for the US Olympic team and the Seattle team beside Andrew. Robin had already gotten offers from them in her fifth year. Unlike the last two years, she passed up their offer to go to Washington and spent the break with her parents instead.

Seattle was snowy but less dull than Chicago had been. Andrew had lunch with his press manager, so Neil went for a run. He came back and got out of the shower only ten minutes before Andrew’s car rolled up. It was snowing and creating a picturesque holiday scene.

He had hot chocolate and tea made for them--his nutritionist was getting on him about drinking so much caffeine--by the time the door opened. The suite was big enough that he couldn’t see the door from the kitchen.

“Took a little longer than expected, huh?” he asked. Andrew turned the corner looking pissed and dripping wet. He was hugging something close under his coat, right on his chest.

“There’s a situation.” Neil raised an eyebrow before he saw Andrew pull a kitten out of his coat, looking only a couple months old and damp. He set it on the counter and stripped his coat, not paying attention to the look on Neil’s face or how he scooped it up and slipped it under his sweater.

Andrew vanished for a second, coming back with a fluffy towel and some thinner ones. He put them on the counter and let Neil figure it out as he left for another minute. He fumbled to get the little thing wrapped up, listening to it mewl, only looking up when Andrew put a cardboard box on the counter and began lining it with the towels.

“We have to take it to a vet,” Neil said.

“We can Google things.”

Neil rolled his eyes. “We need to get it tested and shit, make sure it won’t drop dead on us.”

Andrew paused for a second. “You assume we’re keeping it?”

Narrowing his eyes, he said, “Were you planning on not?”

He stayed silent for half a second before regaling Neil with the tale of how he saw it on the side of the road in the snow. He looked around with it in his coat for half an hour and couldn’t find any siblings or mother, so he drove home with it.

“All that, and you wouldn’t want to keep it?”

“Cats are almost as much work as you.”

Neil stuck his tongue out and put the kitten into the viable nest Andrew had made for it. He filled a little dish with water and stuck that in there too. It immediately started drinking, even if it seemed hard on walking.

When Andrew left to get properly warm, Neil looked up a vet with good reviews. He found one in uptown with a high enough rating and called to see if they had openings. The receptionist started drawing on about how they took some walk-ins and they didn’t have a packed schedule and if he wanted to come in that would be fine. He said he would be in soon and thanked her, hanging up as soon as he could.

Andrew walked out in different jeans and a fresh shirt. Neil looked down to the box. “We’ll go now if you don’t have any other plans,” he said.

Andrew nodded. He took the kitten out and handed it to Neil, who put it neatly into his sweater, and took the box out to the car. Neil pet the kitten’s head during the whole drive and cooed at it, to Andrew’s disgust.

They went home knowing it was okay if slightly malnourished and probably, eighty percent chance, a boy. They were given instructions on feeding and general care. Neil checked the pet policy on their building and promptly convinced Andrew to keep it.

Maybe, when they found another, hairless cat outside the court, they took that one in too. Maybe Andrew half-joked that it was ugly just like Neil. Maybe they ended up with two cats the day before Christmas and spent the holiday curled up with them. Maybe Neil was going to be alright. Maybe Andrew was the reason that every Christmas was good.

[renegadepisces]

Bright Imagine: Kandomere accidentally meets your family part 3

Fandom: Bright

Pairing: Kandomere x reader

Tags: slow build, fluff, eventual nsfw

Note: also on AO3 as Serendipity & Caffeine 

Dread wasn’t quite the right word for how you felt about Friday’s dinner. You could never dread seeing your sibling and their family. Your family wasn’t the issue. 

It wasn’t Kandomere’s fault though, you chided yourself. Your sibling and their spouse had invited him. He was more than welcome to attend. 

And the problem wasn’t necessarily that you didn’t want him to attend. You didn’t dislike him. In fact, he’d grown on you since you’d run into him while out with your family. As intimidating as he was - he had to intimidate to do his job - he clearly had a soft spot for children. He’d taken not only to stopping by your desk on his way to his office in the morning and asking how you were, but asking about your family too. 

No, your family wasn’t the issue. Neither was Kandomere. You were stunned on Wednesday when you shared the time and location of the gathering and Kandomere assured you he’d attend. It wasn’t his assurance that shocked you, or his willingness to spend a prime Friday night eating lasagna with a suburban family of 5 (6, counting you), or even the professional uneasiness of going to a family dinner with your superior. 

You felt relief when he said he’d be there. A strange flutter rose in your chest when he insisted he’d pick you up and drive you home too. He offered a practical explanation of course - one car is better than two and all that. It finally dawned on you that you wanted to Kandomere to come. 

And that was the problem confronting you when you slipped through the door of your apartment on Friday afternoon and prepared to tackle the absurdity of your evening plans. It was a familiar dance. You did your hair, freshened up your face, agonized over what to wear, and finally paced through your living room while stealing fervent glances at the digital clock displayed on your ancient coffee pot as you waited for Kandomere to pick you up. 

It felt too much like a date. The careful choices for your appearance, the waiting anxiously by your phone, the hoping that your family would like him - these were date rituals. These were boyfriend rituals. 

But Kandomere was not your boyfriend. Kandomere was a walking, talking, sneering elf gorget-wearing visual definition of the word unattainable. Having a crush on your coworker was stupid. Having a crush on your stupidly handsome elvish coworker? That was delusional. 

You’d consoled yourself over the telenovela-level disaster you’d somehow gotten yourself into by baking. You liked baking in general and often overindulged in the hobby during particularly stressful periods. You found something therapeutic in kneading bread dough and whisking cake batter. 

You’d baked something every night since your sibling invited Kandomere to dinner. Two dozen blueberry-lemon-poppyseed muffins on Tuesday, your favorite coffee cake with cinnamon bun glaze on Wednesday, and a layered chocolate cake with dulce de leche buttercream icing and mocha drizzle on Thursday. 

Okay, you’d meant to make the cake. You always brought desert to family dinners and this one was your sibling’s favorite. You’d deposited the muffins in the breakroom at work early enough that no one knew who’d brought them. Overhearing the steady stream of compliments whenever you made another cup of coffee or refilled your water bottle had been uplifting, even if you didn’t take credit. You’d kept the coffee cake for yourself at home. The dulce de leche cake was neatly and securely packed in a portable cake stand, waiting on Kandomere to pick you up. 

Your heart leapt into your throat when you heard a knock at the door. You’d expected the innocuous buzz of a text message, but the sound of knuckles tapping lightly against the door pierced the tense silence of your apartment like a dart.

Cautiously, you crossed the living room and pressed your eye to the peephole. Kandomere, continuing to astound you in all the worst ways, stood in the harsh fluorescent lighting of your apartment corridor. It wasn’t a bad place to live - certainly nicer than a lot of other complexes in LA - but Kandomere still looked equally out-of-place and breathtaking. 

“Sir,” was the best greeting you could come up with as you stepped out into the hallway.

“So formal,” he said, his eyes sweeping across you appraisingly before settling on the cake carrier clutched in your hands. 

“Dessert, I assume?” 

“By my sibling’s personal request. I hope you like chocolate,” you teased. 

“Not your nephews’ choice? I didn’t expect you to miss a chance to spoil them.” he said, gesturing toward the end of the corridor, where the elevator was, in an obvious invitation to get going. 

“I make whatever cake they want for their birthdays and any time I babysit. The younger one comes up with some weird flavor combinations and I’m waiting with baited breath to see what he asks for this year.” 

“A boy after my own heart.” Kandomere chuckled, “I have a horrible sweet tooth.”

You hadn’t meant to tell him more than he asked. The words just slipped out. You liked talking about the boys. More alarmingly, Kandomere seemed to like listening to you talk about them. Why else would he stop by your desk and make small talk about what school they attended and if their hobbies kept you busy on your days off?

The drive to your sibling’s home was mostly quiet. You traded inane details about cases you were working on and swapped MTF office chatter until Kandomere’s GPS brought you to your destination - one of those cookie-cutter suburban starter home communities. It was nicer than your apartment complex, but not nearly as luxurious as what you were sure Kandomere was used to.

Ordinarily, you wouldn’t have bothered knocking, but you wanted to give your sibling and their spouse some warning before you brought a guest into their home. Your hand never made it to the door though. 

It jerked inward, startling you and throwing you off balance as the solid surface you were reaching for fled from your outstretched hand. A hand gripped you by your shoulder and steadied you before gently pulling you back to your feet. Kandomere, with the lightning fast reflexes and grace common among elves, had kept you from falling face first into your youngest nephew.

“Are you supposed to answer the door by yourself?” you chided him gently. 

Completely unfazed by your correction, he looked up at you and Kandomere and asked, “Why are you holding hands?”

Your face burned as you realized you’d brought your hand up to your shoulder when Kandomere kept you from falling a few seconds before. Instinctively, you both pulled your hands away, breaking the contact. 

Your sibling burst into view, holding your niece in their arms and telling their middle child not to be rude and keep you and Kandomere standing outside. 

As you suspected, everything was perfect. The lasagna was already on the table and had cooled to the point that it could be eaten without scorching your tongue. Kandomere had brought flowers as a gift instead of wine, not knowing if your niece was breastfed. She was, and your sibling and their spouse appreciated his thoughtfulness. Your nephews even ate most of their vegetables without needing to be pestered. 

Kandomere had been positively gregarious all evening, so it didn’t surprise you when he complimented you on your cake. You were a good baker after all, and knew a few secrets to making boxed cake mix taste like it was made from scratch. Covering it with heaps of homemade buttercream icing was one of them. 

“This is truly excellent. I never knew you were so accomplished y/n,” he praised. 

“Oh this isn’t even their best cake recipe. Y/n, you should bring your coffee cake into the office some time.” your in-law said.

“I should have known your best work would feature coffee.” Kandomere laughed. 

Before you could respond, the baby monitor crackled to life in your sibling’s hand. Your niece had slept through dinner peacefully, but now wanted attention. Your in law started to get up from the table, but you stopped her. 

“Let me get her. Sit down and eat your cake,” you insisted.

They didn’t argue. You’d done just about everything that babies required with all three of their children. From diapers to vomit, you’d handled it. Besides, Kandomere seemed to be having a good time. You wondered what embarrassing stories your sibling might try to tell him and if their spouse would them. 

Your niece was working herself up into a sobbing tantrum when you tiptoed into her room. She screeched indignantly when you picked her up and fisted your shirt in her chubby hands. You didn’t smell anything that pointed to her needing a change, but it was better to be safe than sorry. 

You noticed her onesie was wet near the neck and touched your finger to her mouth. Now you had a sneaking suspicion as to why she was so irritated. Quietly, you retreated to the kitchen and reached into the freezer. Clutching your prize in one hand and holding your niece on your hip with the other, you returned to her room. Hopefully her teething ring and a few lullabies would get her back to sleep. 

By your second refrain of Frere Jacques, her sobs were quieting as she sucked almost hungrily at the cold teething ring. You sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star until you saw her eyelids drift closed. If she could make it through a round of Danny Boy, you could be sure she was asleep and put her back in her crib.

“And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me. . .” you crooned the final line, looking down at her for any sign of stirring. 

She was sound asleep. 

In the hallway, Kandomere’s ears twitched as he caught the sound of your lullabies. You didn’t have a great singing voice, but it was soothingly steady and soft. Clearly, it was good enough for the kids because even the oldest of your nephews was nodding off in his seat. 

It seemed that your lullaby affected the whole house, because you hadn’t been out of your niece’s nursery long before the process of saying goodbyes began. First the boys, who needed to go get ready for bed. Then your in-law, who always left you and your sibling alone together at the end of these nights. Your sibling always walked you to your car and waited until you disappeared from sight before turning out the lights and joining their spouse in bed. 

This all made it incredibly strange to experience your sibling walking you and Kandomere to the door. It only got weirder when you remembered that Kandomere had driven you both there and would therefore be driving you home. The whole affair seemed so intimate. You’d dated men who didn’t meet your family even after months, and yet he had met them less than a week ago and was already eating lasagna and getting goodbye hugs from your nephews. 

“I didn’t think you’d be so good with kids.” you blurted out, motivated equally by curiosity and desperation to break the mounting silence filling the car. 

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” you assured him, “I just mean that most people who do that well with kids have experience. Either they grew up in a large family or they have kids of their own. I didn’t think either was true of you, so I didn’t expect you to be so good with my family. I meant it as a compliment Kandomere.”

He remained silent far longer than you liked before answering. 

“Elves usually don’t have large families. Most of us are only children and plenty of us don’t have children at all. Growing up, I always wanted a large family.”

“Well, you can still make that happen.” you said, and you regretted it as soon as the words came out your mouth. It sounded like you were flirting. You definitely hadn’t meant for that to sound like flirtation.

“With our hours? I’m not holding my breath.” he scoffed. 

“Oh come on. You’re an intelligent, attractive elf in LA. There are plenty of people who would date you. You just don’t meet them because you practically live at your desk.” you retorted. 

“Alright then y/n, why are still you single if you’re the expert?” His tone was playful, and his lips parted just enough for you to catch the glint of his sharpened canines through his smile. 

“Well, this may surprise you but the number of sane, available men attracted to human female cops with a background in martial arts and behavioural profiling is a statistical aberration.” 

You both erupted into peels of laughter. The mood in the car shifted suddenly, dispelling the tension as the suffocating silence fled in the wake of your laughter. You found that carrying on a conversation in such an intimate and personal setting as Kandomere’s car came much more easily when he was smiling at you. 

“And my family doesn’t like anyone I date. Not a single one.” you said, “Though they seem to like you.”

“Your nephew did tell me you were single.”

Your eyes widened in shock and you choked back a startled noise. You were tempted to ask which one, but were silent for the rest of the ride to your apartment. Your face burned in embarrassment. 

Despite that, now that you faced the possibility of ending the night, you hesitated. As much as you hadn’t looked forward to tonight, it had been pleasant.

It had been a while since you’d asked a man up to your apartment. And that wasn’t really what you were going for. You wanted Kandomere to come up with you but not like that. 

Fuck it, you decided as he puled up to the curb.

“Would you be up for a second dessert course Kandomere?” you asked. 

You heard his breath hitch. The dim light of your complex’s parking garage and the inscrutable curtain of his lustrous hair made it impossible to gauge his reaction. 

“I happened to make that coffee cake my in-law mentioned on Wednesday night. You said earlier that you have a sweet tooth.”

Silence welled up around you like a rising tide. You were about to give up and get out of the car when he seemed to make a decision. Kandomere turned his crystalline eyes toward yours, and shifted the car into park. 

“I’d love that.”

As nerve-wracking as having Kandomere in your sibling’s home had been, inviting him into your tiny apartment was even worse. You kept it tidy thankfully, but you couldn’t help but feel self-conscious about your modest lifestyle. 

He didn’t betray the faintest hint of judgement though. He seemed genuinely more interested in the promised coffee cake than scrutinizing your home. You had a stovetop espresso pot, and quickly set it to work on producing two cups of liquid caffeine. You’d worked with Kandomere long enough to know he never said no to coffee regardless of the time of day. 

Somehow, he looked less out of place on your couch than he had in the corridor at the beginning of your evening together. Maybe, you thought, it was the way he looked with his suit jacket removed, or the way he reclined into the plush cushions of your oversized second hand sofa. 

The coffee pot sang, signalling that it was time to cut the cake. It still looked and smelled as good as it had the night you’d made it. You brought the plates of cake and cups of steaming hot espresso to the coffee table and took a seat beside him on the sofa. 

Kandomere glided a dainty forkful to his lips, passing the fork between his perfectly white, pointed teeth. You watched him savor the bite like it was a gourmet morsel from some elftown patisserie. He even closed his eyes, as if to focus more on the taste. 

“I’m not complaining. I truly appreciate your talents y/n,” he said around a mouthful of cake, and your heart plummeted through the floor as you prepared to hear what you assumed would be a critical review of your very best cake. 

“But I have to know: why did you bake so much this week?”

“Excuse me?” You asked, not following his logic. He should only know about two desserts. Unless-.

“The muffins in the breakroom on Wednesday morning. Outside of the breakroom, the smell was strongest at your desk but I never saw you eat a single one. So the smell must have gotten on you a different way, like when you brought them into the breakroom.”

Sometimes you forgot he was a real federal agent with impeccable deductive reasoning skills and enhanced senses.

“Listen,” you blurted as your brain hastily tried to piece together a narrative that would adequately explain the situation without embarrassing you even more. It failed. 

“Oh, I am.” he said, smirking and leaning forward. 

“I had no idea how to handle tonight. It’s fine but it’s weird right? You’re not my direct supervisor but you are a senior agent and I work with you but we’re not close. But you’re invited to my sibling’s house for a family gathering and you have to understand that I have dated men for months who have never met my sibling’s kids. And I bake when I’m stressed, so I just kept baking things. I wasn’t even done after the dulce de leche cake. I’ve got dough in the freezer-”

Suddenly, his hands darted to your shoulders and pulled you toward him. You were cut off by his lips crashing against yours. You closed your eyes, leaning into the kiss. As one of his hands roamed upward from your shoulder to settle at the nape of your neck, the other wound itself in your hair, pulling you even closer.

You shuddered as his tongue swept across your bottom lip. The pressure of his teeth followed shortly behind, gently worrying your flushed and steadily swelling lips. He painted featherlight, teasing strokes against the roof of your mouth with his tongue, earning him a low, breathy moan.

He broke the kiss as quickly as he’d begun it. His hands and lips - along with their giddying warmth and attention - withdrew sharply as he tore himself away from you.

“I’m sorry,” he panted, snatching up his jacket, “This was a mistake.”

He retreated into the corridor, not casting even a split-second glance behind him as your front door slammed shut.

[revasnaslan]

if you didnt already do thulaz then obvi you have to do thulaz. also kidge. if you have done both of those then do branwen x solas!

i can do all three :> ty vox!!

Thulaz

who’s the werewolf and who’s the hunter: i really can get behind werewolf!ulaz and thace accidentally stumbling upon him… i could really get behind that xD

who’s the mermaid and who’s the fisherman: i actually have an AU (which also has kidge) in the works where they’re BOTH mermen, because mer!galra yes pls… but if only one of them was the merman, I’d say Ulaz just cause if Thace was the merman, he’d never fucking actually approach Ulaz cause he’s a careful floof 

who’s the witch and who’s the familiar: I really dig Druid!Ulaz AU’s tbh… so he’d be the witch and Thace is a shapeshifter who’s his “familiar” who constantly tells him “y’know i hate to be the voice of reason here bUT–” whenever Ulaz tries to do some stupid spell…

who’s the barista and who’s the coffee addict: Ulaz as the coffee addict and Thace as the barista :>

who’s the professor and who’s the TA: not answering this one

who’s the knight and who’s the prince(ss): if you think i don’t already have Ideas about an AU like this you’re wrong lol xD obviously Thace is the prince and Ulaz is the knight (except he probably uses magic or rogue tactics… his blade reminds me more of the type of a sword a rogue in a fantasy setting would use, rather than a standard sword a knight about use)… i know there’s a fic out there where Thace is a prince and Ulaz is his druid bodyguard but it hasn’t updated in a while…

who’s the teacher and who’s the single parent: Ulaz as the teacher and Thace as the single parent (feat. bby keef obviously cause Thace as keef’s parental figure is my kryptonite)

who’s the writer and who’s the editor: Thace as the writer and Ulaz as his editor

Kidge

who’s the werewolf and who’s the hunter: I would make Keith the werewolf and then Pidge isn’t a hunter she’s… a biologist?? like she’s the person who puts the trackers on the animals who come through the rehabilitation center and makes sure the trackers are working properly

who’s the mermaid and who’s the fisherman: I have an AU in the works where Keith is a merman and Pidge is a marine biologist, so similar premise and i think it works out well lol xD

who’s the witch and who’s the familiar: give me an au where keith is a witch (wizard??? warlock??? w/e) and pidge is his snarky familiar shapershifer person who sits on his shoulder as the smallest angriest looking bird you’ve ever seen… i have no idea what kind of bird she is but i like the idea of some type of finch…

who’s the barista and who’s the coffee addict: pidge as the coffee addict (does my bby girl sleep ever?? no she lives off caffeine) and keith is the barista who has her order memorized and if she doesn’t show up when she usually does he gets kind of worried

who’s the professor and who’s the TA: nuh uh…

who’s the knight and who’s the prince(ss): Keith as the Prince and Pidge as the Knight… duh :P

who’s the teacher and who’s the single parent: I like Pidge as the teacher and Keith as the single parent

who’s the writer and who’s the editor: I like Keith as the writer and Pidge as his editor :>

Solwen

who’s the werewolf and who’s the hunter: pls solas is totally the werewolf and bran isn’t a… hunter, not really… but she’d probably accidentally run into him in the woods…

who’s the mermaid and who’s the fisherman: wot if the ancient elves were merpeople, so solas can be the merman and bran is the “fisherman”?? XD

who’s the witch and who’s the familiar: gimme solas as the mage who has this ill tempered snarky raven always sitting on his shoulder making unnecessary commentary and annoying him when he’s trying to work

who’s the barista and who’s the coffee addict: bran is the coffee addict (cause solas canonically does not like caffeinated stuff) and solas is the barista

who’s the professor and who’s the TA: nope not answering

who’s the knight and who’s the prince(ss): solas as the (snooty) prince and bran as the knight who doesn’t put up with his bullshit ever

who’s the teacher and who’s the single parent: solas as the teacher and bran as the single parent

who’s the writer and who’s the editor: solas as the writer and bran as the editor

send me a pairing and i’ll tell you these au ideas

[what-the-fel]

(For Ilgisa): 6, 7, 9, and 18 from the writer's prompt! I'm sorry I'm really bad at finding the Ask box on other people's blogs :X 6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now? Well, my absolute favorite thing in literature in general is that moment when you're rereading an paragraph or just skimming a chapter for the fourth time and your eyes are sort of pulled to this line and all of the sudden, you're like, "Oh my god. That makes so much sense now???" And I think I could always go back and add in more of those moments. There are never enough. Don't get me wrong, outlining certainly helps, but sometimes I wish I would've gone back and worked a couple more in. 7) when asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write? Hahahahaha. Depends who. My family always used to ask what always kept me cooped up in my room, and I was happy to tell them that I was writing a story, even to elaborate on some vague plot points. But I always left out the part with the gay elves. Something tells me they wouldn't think to kindly about that. 9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration? Um, I don't usually think about it, but I think there's a bit of a pattern - if you squint. I like to keep my senses occupied so there's less room for distraction. I've burned incense, lit candles, the like - but I live in a 10ft by 10ft box for now, and the dorms don't allow anything that's on fire tbh, so I stick to lavender oil in my humidifier or large quantities of coffee. Do recommend. I'll need some music ready and caffeine on hand - coffee, Monster, anything. And a clean desk, so nothing catches my eye and sucks me down a rabbit hole that inevitably leads me to this site where I've started to spend way too much time. Not much of a ritual, but it definitely works, in my experience. 18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they? My style? Um. If anything, "Lolita." Which is an odd one, I suppose, considering the subject matter and all. But Nabokov's prose always has me drooling. I try not to adopt anyone's style - not that I'm much of a fan of mine, but my attempts at mimicry often ring hollow, and just sound fake - but his wit and his descriptions and just...all of it??? Thanks for the ask though! These are deceptively difficult, okay? Witness my introspection. Behold, my fail.