#especially proud of Maru's hair

[jellyaris]

Maru and Harvey at the flower dance 🥹 Even though he practices on his own, Maru still leads him through the steps. Maybe next year he'll have the courage to ask the farmer to dance.

I made this for the Flower Dance event @runawayface is hosting on the Harvey Lovers United discord server!

[pariahofpelicantown]

NSFW ABC (Maru)

(Minors DNI)

A = Aftercare

* The level of closeness and vulnerability that comes with intimacy is still sometimes overwhelming for her, so cuddles and gentle kisses are sure to follow.

* Lots of gentle caresses, soft words and tired smiles. 

* She loves when you stroke her hair, or run your fingers along her skin while she cuddles up close to you.

B = Body part

* She is really proud of her forearms. All of her tinkering and building has left them firm and toned, and she’s proud of how dexterous her fingers are. They come in handy when you become intimate and she’s able to show off how skilled they can be.

* She loves your eyes, especially when you are kneeling in front of her, looking up at her and pleasuring her. She loves seeing how much you love her and want her when she looks into your eyes in the moment.

C = Cum

* She’s a little embarrassed at how quickly she cums, especially since she has so many back to back. It only takes a few moments after the first time before she’s cumming again, repeating the process multiple times.

* She was really self conscious of this at first, but she’s learned to be less embarrassed by it after lots of reassurance from you.

D = Dirty secret

* She built her own sex toy. It started out as a normal dildo at first, but after some experimenting she was able to attach it to a motor and make her own fucking machine.

* She only used it once, since she nearly blacked out from how hard she came, and quickly disassembled it to return to a normal sex toy.

E = Experience

* You are her first sexual experience. Before you she had never even kissed anyone, so she is experiencing everything for the first time with you.

* It’s not surprising that she is a fast learner though, and after a few notes she’s proven to be a great lover.

F = Favorite position

* She likes sitting on the counter in her lab or the kitchen counter with you standing between her legs fingering her.

* Similarity, she likes to be on a counter or sitting in a chair while you kneel in front her and eat her out.

G = Goofy

* It’s important for her to feel comfortable with you, so making her laugh is essential to dispel any tension or apprehension.

* She needs to get out of her own head, and needs you to help her relax and lighten the mood to be able to be at ease and enjoy the moment with you.

H = Hair

* She’s completely shaved as she doesn’t want to bother worrying about it. Grooming is just one more thing to deal with and she prefers to get rid of it completely and not have to think about it.

I = Intimacy

* She is very loving and romantic with you. She wants to love you, and be loved in return, and prefers it to be a gentle, loving affair.

* She loves to praise and be praised, and would never what things to be degrading or rough.

J = Jack off

* She has definitely fucked herself, making her own sex toys and being very familiar with her own body. But she much prefers being with you as the emotional connection makes the act all the better.

* She loves machines but they can’t satisfy her emotional needs the way you can. She needs the emotional high much more than the physical high.

K = Kink

* She likes wearing her nurses outfit for you. You told her so often how hot she looks in it that it’s become a bit of an ego boost for her, and loves the way you look at her while she wears it.

L = Location

* She does prefer to keep it to the bedroom most of the time, but she also likes having sex in her lab, especially on her lab table.

M = Motivation

* She loves when you gently nibble her earlobe, or takes her bottom lip between your teeth. A little gentle biting or nibbling from you and she’ll be putty in your hands.

* Whisper how sexy she looks into her ear and she will be completely at your mercy.

N = No

* She’s still experimenting different things with you, so she’s still learning what she does and doesn’t like. But she knows she’ll never want to explore pet play or anything overly degrading.

O = Oral

* She is on a very level playing field. She loves giving as much as receiving, feeling a hint of pride each time she makes you cum with her mouth.

* She loves the taste of you, and loves when you cum on her tongue or in her mouth, loving to taste her accomplishment.

P = Pace

* She’s perfectly fine if you get a little rough with her. Pull her hair a bit, leave bite marks, dig your fingers into her sides. As long as it’s done with love and you don’t actively try to hurt her she likes it a little rough sometimes.

* She also loves when you love her gently and worship her body. Either way she loves the way you make her feel and knows she’ll always be left satisfied.

Q = Quickie

* She has no reservations about it. She’s perfectly happy to go a quick round if it’s all there’s time for as long as you don’t make it a habit.

R = Risk

* She’s a scientist, so she’s always down to experiment. But only after she has researched the topic. If it’s something she feels she will enjoy she will bring it up and be more than open to trying it.

* On the flip side if it’s something she finds distasteful she will stay away from it and not even entertain the idea.

S = Stamina

* She has a pretty high stamina, and has multiple orgasms back to back.

* She has a high endurance, and has no problems taking care of you and making sure you’re as satisfied as she is. She loves the feeling of knowing she wore you out and her strong forearms and hands means she doesn’t tire easily.

T = Toys

* Apart from the ones she made herself, she never bothered to acquire any. She didn’t feel the need to spend money on something she could make herself and they proved to be quite efficient.

* She’ll never admit this to you though and you are none the wiser about it.

U = Unfair

* She tries to tease you, but she always ends up caving first. She’s gotten better and holding out but she’s still not able to outlast you.

V = Volume

* She moans a lot, but isn’t super loud to the point everyone knows what’s happening. It’s just loud enough for you, as that side of her is reserved for you alone.

* She’ll moan your name into your ear, and whimper so only you hear how good you’re making her feel.

W = Wild card

* She has a tattoo of her favorite constellation on her left hip.

X = X-ray

* Her body has the sexiest curves, giving her a gorgeous full figure. Her soft brown skin makes her look like a goddess and she loves the way you look at her when she strips for you.

Y = Yearning

* She wouldn’t consider herself to have an overactive sex drive, but she’s also nowhere near a prude.

* She falls in a normal range and is just as happy to have sex as she is to cuddle up with a movie.

Z = Zzz

* It takes her a while to fall asleep afterwards, as she needs to come down from the high before she can settle down enough to relax and fall asleep.

* She loves pillow talk, and loves snuggling up to you and holding you and feeling that connection with you.

[valriety]

SDV: Bachelor Physical Touch HCs

Post Type: SFW, Fluff, Platonic/Romantic x Reader, Mentions of Family In Alex, Shane, and Sebastian. Characters: Sam, Elliot, Harvey, Alex, Shane, and Sebastian. GN Reader (You/Yours).

Hi! Felt a little sad today so figured i'd write some short and cutesy non-sexual phys touch headcanons for the SDV bachelors. Just a few lines each :P - Enjoy! Also, all characters would absolutely ask before touching!

'SDV: Bachelorette Physical Touch HCs' can be found here.

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Sam:

Touchiest bachelor in town, loves physical touch so much - practically thrives off of it.

His favourites include hugs or wrapping his arm around his friend's shoulders. But he also really enjoys high fives, or having his hair played with (when it's not gelled anyways).

Abigail and Sebastian are a little touchadverse, but they don't really mind at all when it comes to Sam - they're who he'll initiate physical touch with the most.

If you're friends, he'll do a lot of the same things he does for Abigail and Sebastian, but if he has a crush on you... suddenly, everything's ramped up tenfold.

This guy will make every excuse under the sun to touch you - patting your hair when you make a good shot, or offering to walk you home and hold your hand, even though he knows perfectly well you've made the trip alone safely before.

Ball of sunshine and contagious about it - when he's particularly excited he'll hold both your hands in his and jump around.

Will think you're so cute if you're shy about asking to touch/hold him <3

Elliot:

Very casual with his physical affection, but will save some things (like hugs or kisses) for those he cares for the most.

His favourites include anything to do with hair, loves patting it, ruffling it, or brushing the strands away from the face. In return, he likes small, comforting touches the most, like having someone trace a small pattern somewhere into his skin.

Closest with Leah in terms of physical touch, and will offer to redo her braid every chance he gets.

He also tries his best to be close with Harvey and Shane too - gently slaps their shoulders whenever a joke is made. It took a long time for Shane to warm up to this.

If you become friends, he'll offer out his hand for you to hold often. He'll also want to do your hair for you, asking if he can braid some seasonal flowers in.

If he develops a crush on you, he'll try to be a bit obvious with his skin ship - starting off by asking for hugs before you part ways, or placing his hand on the small of your back when he's leading you somewhere.

Despite his coolness and charm, he's quite flustered by you. So, in those moments where he manages to gather the courage, he'll take your hand in his, and bring it to his lips for a chaste kiss. Makes an effort to make eye contact with you the entire time in hopes that it'll help get his feelings across <3

Harvey:

Way too shy for it. He's calm and professional on the job, but the second he's off the clock, he's antsy, even if it's one of his friends. Don't take that to mean he doesn't like it though! He's just shy.

His favourites by far are handshakes or placing a firm hand on another's shoulder - especially when he's trying to make a point. He really likes it when his mates give him a friendly pat on the back.

Not really close with anyone in terms of physical touch, though Shane and (moreso) Elliot, will sometimes attempt the odd contact. Wants to be closer to Maru.

If you become friends, it'll take him a long time to work up to courage to initiate anything. Honestly, you'll probably end up asking first.

This will be overidden if he's proud of you though - giving you a curt pat on the back when you come to him excited about a particuarly good harvest, or something else.

If he develops a crush on you, and especially if he knows you don't mind physical touch, he'll hype himself up in hopes of inititating something, even if it something minor, like a stiff shoulder pat. Would love to give you a farewell kiss on the cheek one day, but has to work out how to ask first <3

Alex:

Another casual toucher, but a slightly more reserved. Doesn't really properly hug anyone, except maybe his grandparents.

He loves holding hands and intertwining them together the most, but would prefer to save it for someone really special. Also likes recieving high fives, or anything that involves a show of strength, like arm wrestling.

He's closest with his grandparents, but is a bit embarrased about it. Pretty casual with his guy friends, and Haley will occasionally initiate/accept a high five with him when he's particuarly excited about something.

If you become friends, he'll treat you similarly to his other friends. He'll also want to play a game of gridball with you, or at least a game of catch. High fives you after.

If he realises he has a crush on you, he'll reel it back for a bit, worried that he might get too flustered if he tries anything. But once he calms down a little, he'll try to be casual about it again.

Isn't as casual as he would like to be about it though. Ramps up the shows of strength - challenging you to an arm wrestle, or bragging about how easy it would be to pick you up, and trying to fluster you by picking you up bridal style when you say yes. Would probably like spinning you around in his arms later on too <3

Shane:

Not big on touch at all. Highkey hates it from most people, and will get properly mad at anyone trying to cross any boundaries. Won't mind it from certain people though, so long as it's in private and he's in a good mood.

Prefers firm touches if absolutely necessary. Will tolerate more from Jas and Marnie, and occassionally his drinking friends during their nights at the saloon. Gives plenty of pats and cuddles to his chickens.

Will hug Jas and Marnie once in a blue moon. No one else though. Jas is also the sole reciever of headpats.

If you're friends, it's pretty safe to assume that you won't really get a good chance to initiate any physical touch. It takes a while for him to get comfortable with anyone, and even then, he'll need to be in a good enough mood for it. Most of it will be brief, or accidental.

Even if he develops a crush on you, it might still take a while, because while he does find himself thinking about it more, he'll need to work up the courage first - especially since physical touch wasn't really a thing between the two of you prior.

Probably took him brushing his fingers against yours as you were passing him a can one day for him to realise just how much he likes it. Will try to playfully initiate more after this - gently pushing you as a joke, or messing up your hair but playing it off as if he just wanted to annoy you <3

Sebastian:

Touch-adverse, he has some sensory issues and can get pretty shy sometimes, so he doesn't really like it most times. Kinda touch starved tbh.

Accepts affection the most from Sam and Abigail, and will hestitantly accept it sometimes if Robin and Maru ask. Absolutely will not allow Demetrius to though, and will outright rudely deny him if he ever tries.

Actually really likes hugs, and REALLY likes cuddling. He's a big spoon, but will occasionally want to be the small spoon. Prefers gentle touches rather than firm ones. He fidgets a lot, so he'll often be seeing fidgeting with his friend's clothes or even playing with their hands and fixing their nailpolish.

If you're friends, it might take him a little while to warm up to any physical affection with you, but he's spurred on if he sees you engaging in it with others - he's shy, but he doesn't want to be left out!

Will really ramp it up if he can use it to tease others, like if you beat Sam at pool, or if you team up with him during the egg hunt to beat Abigail.

If he has a crush on you, he'll start initiating subconsciously a lot more - not moving away when your arms or legs touch, or playing with your hair when you're close by. Will get flustered when he realises what he's doing or if someone points it out, but it'll eventually just become the norm for him. Grabs your sleeve to get your attention sometimes <3

A/N: That's it! Hope you enjoyed, lemme know if you liked these.

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[stella-welly]

Karaoke night at Star-drop saloon anyone?

Some of the residents that frequent the saloon(Minus Haley; she got a call from her sister and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shine) decided to do an impromptu karaoke night! Here are their song choices!

(I just went based off popular karaoke hits. Hope you like!)

________________________________________

Abigail, Leah, Emily, Haley start the night off with Wannabe by the Spice Girls. It’s fun and flirty and surprisingly good for agreeing on it 2 seconds before picking up the mics. They have so much fun and definitely start the night off strong!

This encourages Robin and Demetrius to get up and sing Summer Nights from the Soundtrack of Grease. It’s a duet and Robin and Demetrius have a flirty look in their eyes. The crowd singings the part “ tell me more tell me more!”. Maru thinks it’s adorable and Sebastian is gaging in the back.

Pierre goes up after and picks to sing Sweet Caroline by Neil diamond and surprise surprise, dedicates it to his wife, Caroline, who is sitting close by. It’s cute and sweet (not as cute as Robin and d but whatever.) They share a small kiss at the end.

Harvey chooses to go next and picks Don’t stop believin by JOURNEY. He is nervous. Realllllly nervous. He starts to second guess himself as soon as all eyes are on him. Just as he’s about to back out, when Maru runs up to grab a mic and starts singing. She encourages him to keep going, moving the mic away to say “ it’s all for fun!” It works and he gets the courage to finish the song with her. Everyone cheers; their favorite doctor and nurse singing a classic. The two walk off at the end with smiles on their faces.

And you know who decides to go next? Mischievous grins on their faces? Sam and Sebastian. Song choice? I will survive by Gloria Gaynor. It’s silly and fun as the two turn it into a duet somehow. Theatrics are turned all the way up. Once they finish and receive their applause, Robin runs up and hugs Sebastian and sam like the proud mom (as sam calls her “second mom”) she is.

Shane surprises everyone by going up after and his song choice is Tiny Dancer by Elton John. But! He dedicates the song to “ The tiny dancer behind the bar” Looking over at Emily, who goes beet red. Everyone whistles and whoops but Shane calms them down, “Relax, relax everyone, it’s not like that.” He sings and it adorably playful (he sings blue haired baby instead blue Jean baby). When he finishes Emily goes out to give him a hug. They embrace and everyone claps for them! (I think the two are really good friends! I can elaborate if need be lol)

Now this…this is where it starts to go south. Clint decides to go up and sings Mr.Brightside by The Killers. He keeps glancing at Emily and Shane who are sitting at the bar watching in confusion. It’s dramatic and Safe to say…Clint made things a little awkward by the end.

But not as awkward as Marnie was about to make it for someone else! She storms up after Clint, practically shooing him off and immediately picks Irreplaceable by Beyoncé. She clearly thought this through. The song starts and Her eyes are locked eyes with Lewis the entire time. Singing from the GUT. There is small whispers amongst the uninformed and nothing but “ You tell him Marnie !” & “YEAH THAT’S RIGHT!” By those who know ( especially the farmer). Lewis couldn’t be more embarrassed.

Gus then decides it might be time to end the night while it’s still somewhat tame.

The end!

[sdv-mostly-shane]

Hello! January is birthday month for my children, and now that we got the last one down, time to get right back in ~ In the spirit of parenthood, here’s some Stardew Parent Headcannons of all the marriage candidates -

Stardew Valley Imagines : Parent Headcannons

Bachelors

Alex

The kind of dad to be at every appointment/interview/inspection and cry at every point of progress “we’re one step closer to our beautiful baby”

Will absolutely cry once he holds that baby, and will have a hard time letting them go to his partner

Baby wearing extraordinaire- has multiple options for different occasions

Matching track suits to hide the fact that they were both a hot mess that morning trying to get out the door, but they did it, so time to celebrate

Would ironically have a brainiac child that he is absolutely enamoured with and admires - he sits at their little table, spilling out of the tiny chair, but refuses to budge because his baby is telling him about the water cycle of the Earth, and he doesn’t want to miss a thing

Elliot

A very ‘hands off’ parent - will observe them at play and not pressure them in any particular way

Probably a Waldorf dad

Sits his babies in his lap every night to read- they are the first ones he tests out a new limerick on, and respects their criticisms as much as their praise

Lots of evening walks down the sea shore and the forest edge.

Out of the bachelors, I think would be the most sensitive/attune to them, and would be great at breaking down their complex emotions and thoughts, and would especially be so with any neurodivergent children.

Harvey

The type to plop down a stack of parenting and pediatric books on the dining room table as soon as you two have decided to welcome children into your lives

Is the one to show the farmer how to change a diaper

In fact, just count Harvey as the one to be the party planning, baby book filling, milestone documenting professional. He’s got it covered.

Loves the newborn stage, is terrified of toddlerhood, but then back in control once they’re like 6. And then terrified again once they are teenagers (his kids actually consider him a friend as well as a father and actually enjoy hanging out with him (sometimes))

100% a helicopter parent, but more so the ‘I love you so much I don’t want you to ever experience any pain’ type of way

Sam

Probably has an accidental love child at one point

You can find him in bed with the baby, singing songs together, while he spikes the baby’s hair nice and tall

Do you honestly think this young man would not use every dad joke ever known? Because he would- and he would find them all absolutely hilarious

The fun dad that will also actively try to embarrass his kids in front of their friends

Keeps his kids home for “sick days” to sit on the couch together, no pants, no homework, and all laughter.

Sebastian

Would be stressed when they are newborns, but relax as they get older. By the time they’re teens, he would have cultivated a very trust and respect-based relationship with them where his kids are comfortable telling him anything

You’ll find him quietly at every event, game, recital, competition, imaginable. Supporting his children with his presence and then taking them out that evening to do something fun, crazy, or maybe even a little dangerous

His most fond parenting moments are when the baby is in their bouncer right besides him, happily babbling away and smiling at him, while he does his work at the computer. Quality time is his baby love language.

The type of dad to patiently and honestly answer his children’s millions of questions about anything and everything.

Will absolutely take them out to splash in the puddles when it rains (but then will also send them straight to the bath)

Shane

Is already pretty experienced in the parenting realm, but is thrown into a whole new adventure with the newborn phase. Finds himself to truly LOVE babies and toddlers

“Hm, can’t sleep? Let’s go get a snack.” “But dad, it’s 1AM” “I do this all the time, don’t worry. Just don’t tell [parent]”

Would let his kids roam free, but only if he is supervising, and is actually kinda strict/short. Absolutely fears losing his children and will do anything and everything to make sure they grow up safe and cared for.

A very stressed daddy but only because he loves his children so much that he would die if anything happened to them

The best cuddler out of all the bachelor parents. Wanna soft spot to curl up on the couch? He’s already passed out with his head back, snoring. His nice pudgy ‘dad’ belly makes the perfect pillow to rest baby heads on while he reads a book.

Bachelorettes

Abigail

The fun parent.

The kind that wakes up early on a Saturday with their kids, just as excited as they are, to eat sugar cereal and watch a show together.

Is always down to play (especially play fight). Will (endearingly) spook their partner a bit when they rough house because Abby has that wild feral look in her eye too often

The competitive parent that gets just a liiiitle too involved in whatever sport/organization/fair/et.al that the child is partaking in-all in good fun, of course.

I can picture her taking her child out to the forest, late at night, to lay on the soft moss. She’d tell them about monsters, lore, crystals, and everything supernatural and mystic. Whispering in the dark as they point up to the stars and laugh and laugh and laugh

Emily

Hippy granola mom to a T - have you seen her “organic quinoa and fresh goat milk” quote? She’d do anything to provide the best that nature has to offer her children

While her disposition toward her children is incredibly loving and free-spirited, she would probably be very resposible and stressed about doing right for her children

Would absolutely take her children by the hand, in various states of dress (jammies? Okay. Just a diaper? Alright. Ballgown? Let’s go), out to the forest with handmade woven baskets to collect all the gifts from the Earth that they can find

Absolutely the Craft Mom - she’d be all about enrichment, sensory play, and fostering a creative spirit

Tells the best stories. After bedtime routine, will sit with her children in thrir bed, and will tell stories of magic, of love, and of adventure. Her kids, eyes bright, won’t want the night to end, because mom is showing us how much wonder and mystery is in the world

Haley

So gentle and so sweet with her kids, but can send them running with just a ‘look’

Would be a nervous wreck the first go round, but an absolute master by the time the second comes around

Helicopter parent that obsesses over every milestone, growth, and accomplishment of their child. SO proud of them and can’t wait to praise them and brag about them.

The wonder parent that can do it all while looking absolutely breathtaking. She makes it look easy once she gets the hang of it

Can’t you just picture her and her baby girl in matching flowy Daisy sundresses dresses with pink ribbons in their beautiful blonde curls, chasing after each other barefoot in the fields, while the golden grass dances in the wind- gah I love this pretty pretty princess so much.

Leah

Cool Wine mom that drives a Subaru

Would absolutely read her child to bed every night, until they fell asleep.

Her transition into motherhood was flawless. She’s a natural parent who just loves in abundance

Soooo many nature walks, hikes, and camping trips. Always accompanied with a picnic basket, quiet peacefulness, and heart to hearts about whatever is going on in their life.

The definition of free-range parenting, encouraging self discovery and independence. Yeah, she’ll always step in when needed with some kind encouragement or advice, but would much rather watch her children learn about the world on their own terms

Maru

The do-it-all parent. Signs up for activities, projects, school boards, committees, and teams. Is actually on time, prepared, and succeeds in all of these.

The most prepared and responsible out of any of the parents. Always has snacks in her diaper bag and a first aid kit

Did someone say routine/chore chart

Would show love for her children through learning and new experiences-the best part about being a parent for her is watching her child’s brain turning and working as they think about the environment in front of them. At her best, her kids think she is incredibly fun and they have a blast doing anything and everything with her

Not exactly tender/overly affectionate with her kids, but absolutely concerned about being the best mom she can be by having balance of learning, play, discipline, and love.

Penny

Literally just Miss Honey from Matilda

Pinterest mom. All the crafts, DIYs, bento boxes with cute little caterpillar grapes-you name it, she’s already done it AND packed your backpack and laid your clothes out for you.

Can be heard saying “well the pediatrician said...” “hm well that’s not what dr alberts book said to do” among other “first time mom”things

Can be incredibly anxious worrying about their child’s development and well being. She’s been around kids her entire life, but this is HER child? This one doesn’t go home at the end of the day? Everything has to be absolutely perfect

The most sentimental-would absolutely weep going through the baby box to pull out the teeny tiny booties and smelling the baby blanket - “they were just SO TINY- we need another one NOW.”

[prfctparis]

In a Sweet Sunshower

AO3 Link

summary: He Who Brings Rain and The One Who Shines Bright are siblings. It’s fitting that there’s a sunshower during one of the campaigns when their legions team up.

a/n: a few things about Tatooine Slave Culture in this is borrowed from fialleril here on tumblr, so all rights go to them for that. except for the sunshower thing, i came up with it while driving and wrote this as fast as i could and actually kind of proud of the concept ngl. fun fact! zariza’s name mean ‘gold, brilliantly bright’ in hebrew so obviously it means something similar here in this star wars universe.

There’s an old phenomenon, here on Tatooine – from thousands and thousands of years ago back when this place wasn’t all dirt and sand – where the suns shone high in the sky, and voluminous clouds did little to darken the earth below, and rain fell from them, soaking the life on the ground.

It never lasted long, a few or so minutes at most, but it always happened during the hottest season of the year. It was said to be a beautiful sight to behold. The down pouring rain and the bright shining suns, together. Apparently it looked like liquid gold.

Everyone called it a sunshower. All of the Depur took it as a sign for there to be tricksters coming their way. Some of the Amavikka said that it was a sign of hope from one of the ancient prophets – Ekkreth, or Maru, or Tena, or Ebra – or even Ar-Amu to the slaves.

But most said that during it was when slaves became Free for good.

…We haven’t had rain in ages.

Zariza huffs and grimaces. Every single part of her is sweaty and sticky, and the humidity of this planet’s region might actually end up being the death of her. No, not the droids they fought earlier, or the damn Separatists, or even a stray blaster bolt. But the humidity. She knows that hate isn’t a good thing for a Jedi to feel, but she hates it, through and through. The air feels suffocating – the exact opposite of what it should be – and makes the heat of the sun feel hotter than it actually is. 

It’s horrible. She says as much to her Jedi Master.

“Yes, humidity does make what we’re doing harder. Unnecessarily so,” Mace agrees, sounding less annoyed and tired than his padawan but Zariza can hear the edge of the emotions in his voice. He isn’t fairing so well in this weather, either.

At least the battle is over. Now they just have to clean up everything.

The leaders of the planet had asked for clean up help once the fighting had ended and they had verbally agreed to officially join the Republic. Of course the 187th and 501st easily promised they would do so. Neither of the legions have somewhere important to be, except for maybe Coruscant or a High Council meeting, and so here they are. Sweating their asses off in the humid heat that somehow feels like a murder attempt.

“Take a break if you need it, Zariza – I don’t want you overworking yourself in this heat. It could be dangerous,” Mace says after a few more moments. Then to Commander Ponds, “Same goes for all of the one-eighty-seventh, Commander. Take as many breaks as you need.”

Zariza sees Ponds nod out of the corner of her eyes, followed by, “Yes sir, General. Lieutenant Spite and a medic squad are collecting bottles of water and setting up tents for shade. I’ve heard that the five-oh-first are doing the same as they work as well.”

“Good.”

Wiping her brow with the bare skin of her bicep, Zariza is glad that she had the foresight to leave her black cloak and outer tunic on the venator-ship. She now only wears the black boots, leggings, and the sleeveless white under tunic, which is now stained with dirt and a few specks of blood but she could hardly care. The troopers did earlier, though, especially at the beginning of the fight – lack of armor meant danger but Zariza wasn’t about to give herself a heatstroke. She at least still wore the braces for her forearms, and the chest plate that she has since taken off.

One of the troopers – Mayhem, she recognizes the armor – hands her a container of water hardly ten minutes later. She smiles gratefully at him and takes it, taking a few sips, and then hands it back. He caps the container, clips it on his belt, and they both get back to work cleaning broken droid parts and other various debris from the fight. Mayhem never strays too far from her. Zariza might have been annoyed by it if she didn’t know that he’s looking out for her.

On the other side of the large area that had been used a battle field against Seppie droids, are the 501st – her brother included. Like her, he has darker robes than the usual Jedi, and had also foregone the outer tunics because of the planet’s heat before battle started. Zariza won’t be surprised if he’s currently completely shirtless by now – a risk for a sunburn, no doubt, with skin much paler than her own, but that’s his problem. She also knows for a fact that Ahsoka is wearing the tube top outfit she wore constantly before Anakin corralled her into wearing something more covering, a few pieces of armor included, just a month ago.

Hell, even Master Mace Windu is shirtless right now, the weirdness of it be damned. Some troopers have started to disappear regularly, leaving in full gear, only to pop up again with the top half of their blacks and armor gone.

Yeah. Humidity karking sucks.

Needing a break, Zariza leans against a lone tree nearby. She can feel the Living Force flowing through it and focuses on that as she catches her breath. Mayhem spots her and brings her more water without question.

“Thanks,” she sighs, and takes another sip.

Mayhem nods, undoing a second bottle from his belt, right next to where his helmet it clipped. He’s shirtless just like many of his brothers, curly hair frizzy as hell. “You’re welcome, sir,” he says. Once he’s had a few sips of his own, he asks, “How much is left in there?”

She shakes it, and shrugs. “Half, maybe?”

He nods again. “I’ll go back to one of the tents and refill it for you soon.”

She smiles thankfully. “Don’t forget to get yourself some.”

Mayhem chuckles. “Of course not, sir.”

After taking another drink, she hands it back just like before. But she doesn’t move to get back to work just yet. Master Mace nudges her in their bond, asking if she’s okay, and she tiredly pokes back to confirm that she is, all the while eying what’s left of the field to clean up. They’re getting there, but it looks like it will take forever. At least Anakin, Ahsoka, and the 501st are tackling the other half; and they’re getting closer, slowly but surely.

Her eyes flit up to the sky, and she spots grey clouds nearby. But, ugh – they aren’t close enough for them to get rained on.

It causes a frown to tug on her lips. A pout, if she wants to be honest about it.

Mayhem chuckles for a second time, more amused than before. “Finally saw the clouds, huh, verd’ika?”

Another trooper nearby stops and looks as well. A wounded noise escape them. “It’s so close but so damn far,” they say, forlorn. What a Force-damned mood.

“This humidity will be the death of me,” Zariza mumbles.

“That’s not happening on our watch,” they say, firm yet exhausted, the sadness about the clouds suddenly gone.

“Damn straight,” Mayhem agrees.

She can only groan.

Once Zariza has rested for a good few minutes, she stands up straight again, but instead of getting to work, she unties the knot of the yellow bandana at the nape of her neck. The wild, dark waves of her hair are no doubt frizzy and wilder than ever; earlier she was positive that she felt the waves grow in size because of the friz and the humidity, and she honestly doesn’t want to know what she looks like because of it. Quickly, she works on putting her long hair into a nerftail and ties it with the bandana.

What feels like ages later, the planet’s sun is beginning to finally lower in the sky and the 187th has done most of their half of the battle field. Through the bond, Zariza can tell Anakin is close by yet she stays lying on the ground, taking yet another much needed break. The clouds are closer, too. Yet still no rain.

The sound of boots crunching the dry, summer grass as someone walks gets closer and louder, up until the person stops right at Zariza’s head, casting a shadow over her. She blinks and tilts her chin to get a better look at who it is despite already having a pretty good guess. Anakin stands over her, sweaty and shirtless, with red tinting his shoulders, chest, and nose. His dirty blond hair is matted with sweat and it sticks to his forehead and the nape of his neck, a few of the short curls frizzed up, and his face is contorted into a scowl.

“I cannot believe I’m saying this,” he says, “but I miss Tatooine’s dry heat.”

“Agreed,” she grunts.

Anakin huffs and steps to her side. He then sticks out his flesh hand, and Zariza forces herself to sit up so she can grab it. He pulls her to her feet and almost immediately lets go once he’s sure she’s balanced well. The humid heat has made the brother-sister who hug every time they see each other, want to not be touching another body in any way for the foreseeable future.

Anakin runs a hand through his hair, grimaces at the sweat, and wipes it on his pants. Disgusting. “Been drinking enough water?” he asks.

She sighs. “Yep. You?”

“Yep.”

“Ahsoka?”

“Yep.” A beat. “Master Windu?”

She almost says ‘yep’ again, but decides not to. “Yeah, him too. Don’t worry.” She smirks. It’s no secret that before Master Mace took her as his padawan, that Anakin couldn’t stand the man. The feeling might have been mutual, but honestly Zariza doesn’t know and doesn’t care to. For now.

Anakin just rolls his eyes and flips her off, walking off to help Captain Rex and a few more guys of Torrent Company.

Ahsoka comes up to her a second later. The younger teen doesn’t say anything, and neither does Zariza. Usually energetic and happy to get her to know her Master’s little sister better, the heat has zapped the togruta of most of her energy. So in silence, they work together on a particularly large piece of debris, and then immediately head to the nearest tent for some much needed shade. Breaks are becoming more frequent, and Zariza thinks that maybe she will have to stop helping if they don’t finish up cleaning soon.

Anakin is already in the tent, along with Master Mace, Captain Rex, and Commander Ponds by the time the girls get there, and the two padawans wave a short greeting to the men before beelining where other troopers are giving out fresh water.

It’s when one of the Boys In Blue (as the GAR has started calling the 501st) hands them both a fresh container when it happens.

The sound of rain pelting the top of the tent makes everyone freeze. It’s obviously still sunny, but that doesn’t stop Zariza or any of the others to turn to check for themselves. And it is – no clouds directly above them at all – yet the rain is falling down, gradually increasing to a steady downpour. She blinks a few times and inches closer to the edge of the tent, and hardly a second later Anakin is at her side, looking out as well, mouth parted in shock.

“A sunshower,” Anakin whispers.

Zariza numbly nods.

Her mind conjures up a faint memory of being told of a phenomenon from hundreds of thousands of years ago on Tatooine. Of sunshine and rain, together. Of liquid gold. Of tricksters visiting Depur. Of a sign of hope to slaves, or a celebration for the Freed.

It doesn’t look completely like liquid gold like Amu’s tales said, but it was close to it. It’s still beautiful. A stunning phenomenon that neither Anakin nor Zariza believed they would ever get to see. 

“They don’t last long,” she finds herself saying.

The Skywalkers turn their heads in unison to look at one another. Matching grins of excitement and mischief form, and without any prompting Zariza is taking off into the rain almost as fast as a blaster bolt, Anakin hot on her heels.

Zariza jumps into an already formed puddle. It’s right next to one of the 501st troopers, Jesse, and it splashes him. Zariza may or may not have used to Froce to make the splash bigger, but that doesn’t exactly matter. Just that there’s a sunshower, that her and her brother are both Free, and there’s a fucking sunshower and it’s amazing! 

Jesse lunges at her, wanting to retaliate for getting splashed at, but she slips away easily with loud laughter.

From him, anyway – Anakin catches her a second later with water from a puddle cupped in his hands. He promptly dumps it over her head with laughter of his own, then misses up her hair just for the heck of it.

“Wha– ugh, Anakin!”

“Tag, you’re it!” he shouts, as if they’re eight and twelve again in the Room of a Thousand Fountains instead of sixteen and twenty in the middle of a field post-battle.

Zariza gapes at him, but it quickly turns into grins and she chases after him without a second thought.

It doesn’t take long for Ahsoka to join, or even for the troopers. Within seconds, there’s a large game of tag, troopers splashing in puddles, and almost everyone running in the rain with the sun shining down on them, laughter ringing out into the open and so much Light seeping into the Force that Mace can’t help but shove his Commander into the rain as well.

…Yes, we haven’t had rain in thousands upon thousands of years.

But it is said that one day, when the twin suns shine hotly over Tatooine, that clouds will form once again yet they will not obscure the twins from sight, and a downpour of rain will wash over everyone.

All the slaves will be Free, and Depur will no longer have power over us.

We will have a sunshower once more.

[boxesandrings]

Hello!! I just recently got into the stardew fandom and I'm notice a severe lack of Elliot content ;-; could I please get something fluffy and/or explicit with him and an afab or gender neutral farmer?? Hope you have a good day!!

Hello! It took me a while to decide if I wanted to do a smut or a fluff, but ultimately I decided a fluff, just because I love Elliott so much and wanted to see his soft and lovey side (also, I just published a smut of him on my AO3, and if you want to read it you can click here). Hope you enjoy!

Title: Dedicated

Rating: G

Summary: Elliott dedicated his novel to the Farmer, but the Farmer gets confused and thinks it's for someone else. Reassuring fluff ensues.

Characters: Elliott, nb!Farmer, Leah, Maru, Lewis, Gunther

Words: 2741

Elliott was not a nervous person. There never really was a reason for him to be— things tended to work out for him. School came naturally to him, and any poor grades were often changed for him after pleading his case to his teachers. Elliott only applied to his dream school and was accepted easily, and excelled within his program. He slept with the people he wanted, because they always wanted to sleep with him too, and when he decided on a whim to move to Pelican Town, the breezy seaside town he frequented on vacations as a child, the cabin was already there, almost as if waiting for him. Things worked out.

The Farmer, however, made him nervous. They arrived a little over a year after he did, and Elliott couldn’t help but find the newcomer intimidating. They’d spend long days out in the sun, tilling the earth or wrangling chickens. Elliott would often step out of his cabin early in the morning to enjoy the stillness of the beach, only to find the Farmer already there, holding a fishing pole. They were non-stop, powerful. Elliott couldn’t help but feel inadequate around them, his stomach fluttered every time he spoke to the new Farmer.

Their short, shoulder length golden hair and long, muscular legs didn’t make anything easier either. The first summer after the Farmer had moved to town, Elliott had been so mesmerized by the way the Farmer’s back muscles looked as they helped Willy move some barrels on the dock that he hadn’t noticed the firepit in front of his house and tripped on the rocks, breaking his wrist.

He’d never had trouble flirting with other people before; Elliott knew he looked good and drew people in with his artistic vibe, and who would be able to resist his 10,000 megawatt smile? But for some reason the Farmer was different. He’d get flustered anytime the Farmer spoke to him, but for some reason the Farmer kept coming back.

He kissed the Farmer almost two months ago now, their stomachs both burning and heads dizzy from the homemade pomegranate wine the Farmer had made. Elliott had been bold and messy, and instantly had regretted how he had pulled the Farmer in, but they just smiled and kissed him again, over and over until the night sky grew bright. Elliott had bought a proper bouquet the next day, and the relationship had been going well since.

Elliott scanned the museum now, looking for his partner. After his book had been picked up and published by a proper agency a month ago, Mayor Lewis had insisted upon a proper book reading and signing event. The Mayor had told Elliott it was to honor his accomplishments, to celebrate Pelican Town’s first proper author, but Elliott had the feeling it was more about the potential revenue the tourists might bring in.

The Farmer walked into the museum, their arms linked between both Maru and Leah’s, the three of them laughing as they shuffled in. Elliott waved, and the Farmer waved back, face beaming with pride. The group slipped toward the back of the crowd, leaning against the display shelves. As if on cue, the Mayor walked up to the microphone on the makeshift stage Gunther had set up in the museum and addressed the crowd, introducing Elliott and reminding the tourists of all Pelican Town’s many amenities. Elliott rolled his eyes at the Farmer who giggled with their friends, and made his way up behind Lewis.

“Thank you all, for coming today. It truly is so exciting to see that in the short time my novel has been out how many people it resonated with, how many of you traveled to see me.” He bit his lip and scanned the room, attempting to gauge the interest of the crowd. A young woman up front threw him a look Elliott could describe as bedroom eyes, and he coughed, quickly looking away.

“Well, I’m certainly excited to start this, as I’m sure you all are.” A small laugh from the crowd, agreement. “The book, as some of you may know, is Camellia Station, a romance about a stewardess who falls in love with a travelling architect, and the great distances each would go for their love.” He picked up the book. “Shall we begin?

The crowd let out a small cheer, and just from listening, Elliott could tell it was mostly from his friends in town. He tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ears, and cracked open the cover.

“Camellia Station.” A small smattering of cheers, this time from a larger section of the crowd. He flipped the page, his breath hitching.

To My Love.

He had forgotten he had written that, almost eight months ago when he had sent in the final draft of his manuscript. The love in question, of course, was the Farmer, who hadn’t known how maddeningly in love he was with them at the time, and still hadn’t heard the words from Elliott himself. It was so quick, and they had only been on a few proper dates.

Elliott realized he had been silent staring at the page. Only for three, maybe five seconds, but long enough. He looked up, flashing a sheeping smile. “Sorry, it’s just hard to believe this is finally happening.” Some members of the crowd laughed, and Elliott cleared his throat.

“To my love.” He flipped the page quickly, and heard the young woman in the front row sigh dreamily. “Chapter One. 'Your ticket, sir?' Ticket collector Gozman extended a gloved hand towards the young commuter. 'Ah, yes. I have it right here,' he replied, reaching into his coat pocket. Mortified, he discovered that the ticket was missing..."

********************************************

The rest of the reading went off without a hitch. At the end of the second chapter, Elliott closed the novel and looked up at the crowd, a playful smile on his lips. “As much as I’d love to continue, we must return the museum back to its generous owner, who provided us the space to conduct this event. Thank you all so much for coming to listen and share this day with me.”

The audience began to clap, some more enthusiastically than others, and Elliott blushed as he heard the Farmer’s group being especially rowdy from the back. People began to line up to purchase copies of his book or to have him sign ones they already owned. After 20 or so minutes of signatures and well wishes, Elliott looked up to see Maru, Leah, and the Farmer smiling back down at him.

“Ellie! I’m so proud of you!” Leah practically leapt over the desk to get to him, pulling him into a hug much tighter than he would have ever expected.

“Leah! Thank you. I’m so glad you all came.” He wiggled his way out of her arms and smiled at Maru. “I’m glad you were able to make it.” Maru smiled back at him and nodded.

“Of course! Wouldn’t miss it.” Maru had been a surprising addition to their friend group. Before the Farmer, it had been just him and Leah, two aspiring artists against the world. It wasn’t that they didn’t like or get along with her, they just didn’t run in the same circles. The Farmer had quickly bonded with Maru after arriving, though, and as they moved their way into Elliott and Leah’s lives, Maru came along for the ride. Now, Elliott could barely picture the group without her.

“Congrats, El.” The Farmer walked behind the table now and wrapped their arms around him, planting a kiss on his cheek. Elliott smiled, wrapping an arm around his partner.

“Were you hoping to get an autograph as well?” The Farmer pursed their lips and looked up, a pantomime of thought.

“Actually, I know the author, so I think I can just get one whenever I want.” Elliott laughed.

“Certainly.” He looked back up at the two women. “Seriously, though, I’m so glad you were all able to come today. It really means a lot to me.” Maru nodded, but Leah came right back up to the couple and wrapped them both in her arms.

“Of course! I wouldn’t have missed it for anything!” Leah brought the couple into her, her arms around both, tears in her eyes. “I love you all so much! Maru, you too! Get in here.”

Maru sighed behind them but smiled and made her way into the huddle, Leah’s arms encompassing her as well. She stood for a moment, humming quietly as she held her friends.

“Leah? Not to be the buzzkill, but almost everyone has left and Gunther is staring directly at us.” Elliott shuffled uncomfortably as the rest of the group spotted the curator. Leah let go of her friends, and began to make her way toward the door, apologizing as she went. Maru followed quickly after, and the Farmer and Elliott made their way out hand in hand.

“Yeah! I think it went super. You sounded really good up there.” Elliott stepped ahead, opening the door for the Farmer.

“Do you think it went well?” Elliott looked down at his partner. The Farmer nodded, looking at Elliott through the corner of their eye.

“Thanks.” Elliott appreciated the praise, but something had seemed off in the Farmer’s tone. Was it not actually good? Did they hate the book? Elliott felt nervous.

“Everything okay?” The Farmer paused, then turned to face Elliott, a weary smile on their face.

“Yeah! I just had to get up a little earlier this morning to make sure I had everything taken care of before the reading.” Elliott nodded, but the pit in the bottom of his stomach remained. “Are you still down for dinner at mine tonight?”

Elliott cheered up almost instantly. How could he have forgotten dinner?

“Of course! Let’s go, straight away!” He grabbed the Farmer’s hand and began to strut, his chest puffed out in a caricature of strength. The Farmer laughed, almost tripping as they tried to keep up with Elliott’s stride.

Once at the Farmer’s home, Elliott pulled up his hair and began the task of preparing dinner. Without a proper kitchen in his cabin, Elliott’s culinary prowess was wasted. In the Farmer’s renovated kitchen, however, he relished any chance to show off his skills. The Farmer opted for a shower while he prepared their meal, claiming to be covered in grime from the morning on the farm, but something in Elliott’s stomach twisted again, unsure if his partner’s words were true.

Lost in his thoughts, Elliott didn’t notice when the Farmer appeared behind him, wrapping their arms around his stomach as they peaked around his shoulders to watch the action on the stove. “Whatchya cooking?” Elliott twisted to kiss the Farmer’s head and inhaled deeply, promising to commit the smell of the Farmer’s shampoo, cedar and smoke, to memory.

“I’m just putting the sear on some snapper that I bought from Willy this morning, would you be a dear and get the wine from the fridge?” The Farmer nodded, and their arms slipped away as they padded to the fridge. Elliott heard the pour behind him; the ting of the neck of the bottle against the glasses. The Farmer walked back up beside him, holding one glass between them.

“Do you want a taste?” Elliott nodded, expecting the Farmer to hand him the glass, but was surprised when the Farmer lifted the glass to his lips, a serious and intent look in their eyes. Elliott drank from the glass without breaking eye contact, attempting to play it cool, even as he gripped the handle of the pan tighter. He felt another tinge in his stomach, but this one wasn’t from nerves.

“Why darling,” he said, his voice dangerously low, “it’s not yet time for dessert.” The Farmer smiled, their lips still pressed together and kissed Elliott’s cheek and turned, making their way to the table. Elliott turned his attention back to the fish and turned off the burner and began to plate, unsure now if the meal would be eaten right away after all.

As he carried the plates over to the table, the Farmer smiled and scratched their head. “I feel bad, I really should have cooked tonight. It’s your big day after all.” Elliot sat next to the Farmer, kissing their forehead quickly on his way.

“Nonsense. I love to cook, and any day I get the opportunity to only makes the day better.” The Farmer smiled, but Elliott noticed that their leg continued to bounce quickly underneath the table. He bit his lip. “Darling-”

“El, did I— oh.” The couple paused, eyeing each other.

“I just wanted to ask if everything was okay.” Elliott pursed his lips. The Farmer chuckled nervously and ran a hand through their damp hair.

Elliott blinked and set down his fork, confused. “What?” The Farmer leaned forward, regret in their eyes.ing your reading today, did I… was I the other person, like did my presence impact your last relationship?”

Elliott blinked and set down his fork, confused. “What?” The Farmer leaned forward, regret in their eyes.

“I’m not saying something happened or that you cheated or anything, I would never imply that, but I know when I came here I was kinda flirty and obviously you were into that but I thought you were single.” The Farmer was animated as they rambled, their hands waving about. “And I mean I’m happy to be with you, I prefer it this way, but I’d feel terrible if I somehow caused stress in your relationships at all—”

Elliott grabbed the Farmer’s hands and pulled them in toward him, drawing their attention back in. He shook his head, confused.

“Darling, I don’t— What are you talking about?” The Farmer bit their lip and looked down again.

“At the reading, the dedication… I mean, it was sweet, but you sent in the final draft, what, almost a year ago now? And the story was very good, you know I think that, but I couldn’t help but think about that and how… if I was some kind of topic of stress in whatever… you know.” The Farmer looked back up, eyes misty.

Elliott laughed. He couldn’t help it. This is what the Farmer had been stressed about? He could understand if, certainly, but their own nerves almost seemed silly compared to his. The Farmer tilted their head, waiting for Elliott to answer.

When he finally calmed down, Elliott shook his head and picked his fork back up, studying his food as he cut off a piece of the fish. “No, it’s been… my last true relationship was many, many years ago, long before I came to the valley.”

“Oh.” The Farmer nodded, but Elliot could hear the confused tone in their voice.

“The dedication was for you.” He looked back up at the Farmer, smiling. The Farmer blinked and opened their mouth to speak, but Elliott cut them off. “I know, but… in all honesty, I truly think I’ve been in love with you for a long time, dear.” The Farmer smiled now, the misty look returning to their eyes.

“Oh, El.” They giggled and moved their chair closer to his, and slid a hand around the back of his neck.

“I really do believe from the moment I first saw you, I fell for you,” Elliott continued. “You had my heart.” The Farmer let out another small giggle and leaned forward, pulling Elliott’s head in toward theirs for a kiss, deep and soft and tender.

When they pulled away, the Farmer leaned their forehead against his. “I love you too, Elliott.” They chuckled and bit their lip, eyes scanning his. “I know I don’t have some grand gesture or… beautiful speech to tell you with, but I do.” Elliott nodded, and kissed his partner again.

Elliott stood up, his arms still around the Farmer, pulling them up with him. He pulled the Farmer in flush against him, their bodies pressed together as he tried to continue to kiss them, unable to maintain the connection as he fought his smile.

“That’s alright darling, your love is grand enough.” The Farmer laughed as Elliott tried to pull them into an even tighter embrace..

“My Love.” The Farmer smiled as they studied Elliot’s face. Elliott’s hand made its way to the Farmer’s cheek, stroking the skin with his thumb.

“My love.”

[cartoonfangirl1218]

EoA ships fluff headcanons part 6

Most unexpected compliments

Eleteo: Mateo praising Elena for her governing smarts. I mean Elena knows she’s smart but she tends to view smarts as in the stem-kind Isabel is or lots of book knowledge like Esteban. She’s more of impulsive type. But when Mateo praised her for natural talent in diplomacy and just the sheer amount of names she had to know plus their habits and quirks, that was a smarts all on her own. As for Mateo, the compliment she gave him would be almost anything about his muscles as minx like she is. Mainly because Mateo is such a skinny thing as a child, he can’t believe someone would call him an Adonis. Gababel: Gabe praises Isabel for her inquisitiveness and how interesting she is even though many people wouldn’t find science as fascinating, whenever she tells her about it, he thinks it’s the most interesting thing in the world. Isabel praised Gabe whenever he showed his emotional vulnerability. All his life he had been put down by Roberto to act like a man so Isabel giving him sort of “permission” to cry and be sweet and gentlemanly, it is another thing that he loves about her. Estenaomi: The time that Esteban complimented Naomi for being prettier than any noble lady was a secret thrill for her. Though she shrugs it off and pretends she doesn’t compare herself to those snobby royal ladies, she can’t help but worry that Esteban will go back to his own class. That praise lifted her spirits to the clouds. As for Esteban, he was over the moon when Naomi told him that he was always number one to her. After being El Segundo, just those words, as corny as he teased her for, he loved it. Estoma: The compliment Esteban loved was when Doña told him that she could see no else being a better Chancellor than him. After all, the circumstances of how he became Chancellor is somewhat undeserved so he never felt like he was truly good at it. Especially with the added guilt of hurting his family and having to fulfill Shuriki’s horrid orders. So for someone to say that he was a perfect Chancellor. That meant a lot. Anyway, once Esteban called Doña adorable. She had thought he was being sarcastic after all she had been called “Gorgeous” “Sophisticated” “Hostile bitch”- “Adorable”? Never. But he meant it. She joked that love was making him hallucinate traits that weren’t there but she secretly appreciated it.

What spirit guide would their SO choose?

Eleteo: I'm just gonna stick with what they have because I agree with the choices and I really liked how well they fit. Elena is like a fox, crafty, sometimes impulsive  and loves to be free in the world. Mateo is like a sloth being calm and patient in his doings and can be quiet good at insight to his surroundings. Gababel: Isabel would choose a wolf for Gabe because of it's fierceness, it's loyalty to it's pack/family and it can be quiet caring and nurturing. Gabe would choose a hummingbird for Isabel because of it's inquisitive nature, and the fact they both have a fondness for sweet substances. Estenaomi: Esteban would choose a sassy dolphin for Naomi and Naomi would say Esteban is a total preening peacock! No question about it. Proud of his great hair and clothes and can squawk quite a bit when he doesn't get his way which Esteban protests wholeheartedly. Estoma: I couldn't think of them saying nice ones so here it is. Esteban chooses Doña as a magpie. A shrill, annoying, chattering bird with a penchant for shiny things. Doña would say Esteban is a lapdog, enjoying luxuries people give him but is all bark and no bite when it comes to confrontation so he has to stew with what others decide for him. Whose more protective?

Eleteo: Since Elena inherited Luisa's mother hen tendencies, she's a lot more outwardly protective like when she gave Gabe those warning glares for dissing Mateo in Spellbound or getting a bit more distressed when Mateo is in danger even at the cost of an important jewel like in Jewel of Maru. But that's not to say Mateo is equally protective of Elena when danger comes calling. Spellbound and Song of the Sirenas is a big example of that. The sweet cinnaomon roll gets spicy when someone threatens his beloved shining light, and Ninjateo comes out with vengeance. Gababel: Gabe, obviously. It's part of his knight in shining armor charm. Isabel does want Gabe's protection but sometimes he can go overboard like when they are exploring an island and Isabel just needs to get these last few rock samples but Gabe thinks its too dangerous for her to trek through jungles even though she has done it thousands of times before. Estenaomi: Naomi is. Naomi is generally much more suspicious and streetwise than young!Esteban who wants to go adventuring everywhere and is willing to talk to anyone to get information even if those sources are less than reliable. Plus young!Esteban has a tendency to overestimate his own mortality so she has to pull him away from swinging over lava and crocodile invested lakes among other things even though he assures her he can totally climb that thousand feet mountain without proper safety gear. 

Estoma: Esteban is. Blame it on everything he lost, but he is a bit protective about making sure no one hurts his family again. Nor the ones he loves.

Whose more protective of their food?

Eleteo: Neither is particularly. But Elena can be possessive of her pan dulces when she has them. So when Mateo teasingly takes a few from her plate, then the food fight is on. Of course, that just leads to some licking off each other's cheeks and fingers. A bit like that Gababel drabble you did on the private group chat. But Elena would also totally put a strawberry in her mouth and taunt Mateo into kissing her. Or even do an orange smile and think it's incredibly hilarious. Gababel: Isabel is. We all know Gabe will do anything for Isabel, including sharing food. Isa would do the same. Except when it comes to the pan dulces. Isabel loves those pan dulces and will basically hoard them in her cheeks if she is able to manage it. Gabe finds the image adorable and always teases her for the chipmunk cheeks. Estenaomi: Esteban. Let's just face it. Pan dulces and Flores family are like inseparable. So, Naomi often teases Esteban by hiding the food or stealing it for herself. Esteban's "tortured" reaction to her "betrayal" is often amusing to watch but Naomi has learned to be careful because Esteban often retaliates with creative pranks that she never sees coming. Also it bugs him when Naomi sometimes obliviously double dips. Estoma: Doña. Especially if she is already in a bad mood. "IF YOU DARE TAKE MY DANISH, I WILL REACH DOWN YOUR THROAT, PULL IT OUT, AND BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH IT." (Not my quote. But it's such a overwrought reaction to food being taken that I had to use it). Whose more picky?

Eleteo: Neither really. Elena is very enthusiastic about experiencing new cultures which includes eating their foods and Mateo has never been picky, he just doesn't eat a lot due to his studying as you hc. But Mateo is the more hesitant of the two when it comes to trying things like a kelp taco. BUT he also can't resist Elena's puppy dog look and enthusiastic face when she urges him to try a little bit. And that's when he learned that Marisa and Elena have the right idea when it comes to the deliciousness of kelp tacos. (I still can't get over that food choice) Gababel: Isabel is. Not because she is scared of the food but let's just say biology has made a big impact on how she views salmonella and E. coli. But that's more with regular foods. She will say yes to about any sort of dessert. Especially if her handsome baker boy makes it just for her. Estenaomi: Esteban is. Naomi is more adventurous due to having to adjust to eating new foods. Sometimes she likes to taunt him about that like by shoving the fried squid tentacles in his face. But she has also tried to help him get over his pickiness by sometimes putting the food in her mouth for a kiss or dousing it with sugar or using some sort of new meat in a tamale.   Estoma: Esteban still is. Though Dona once tried to guilt him into eating new foods with this (not my) quote- "I had a pet goat growing up, Jenny. When I was eight, my parents ran out of food so they made me go outside and kill her. I had to skin Jenny, cook Jenny and eat Jenny. After that, I guess I just tried not to think too much about what I was eating anymore. And, well... I made damn well sure I wouldn't be in a position where I'd have to eat my favorite pet again." The plan backfired and instead of feeling grateful for food, Esteban lost his appetite completely.

Insecurity/flaw they help the other with

Eleteo: Elena tries to help Mateo with his insecurity and self doubt that eats him up inside. After years of hiding in the shadows of his basement (and okay partially inspired by Becky’s Mateo backstory from Magic Within) Mateo really doubts his worth, his ability and his value within the kingdom as a wizard and as a person. He berated himself for not being enough. Elena has a similar problem that though Mateo can see her greatness, sometimes Elena is too consumed with her failures as a queen. But moreover, he tries to help her ease the burden of when she tries to take on everything herself. That somehow all responsibility falls to her all the time. Gababel: Gabe tries to help Isabel when it comes to her perfectionism and need to have everything right. Though he adores how Isabel’s mind works, he gets concerned about when she overanalyzes and overthinks to the point of paralysis. Meanwhile Isabel helps Gabe with his need to repress his weak emotions and how no matter how much glory he achieves as Captain, the doubt in his head in the sound of his father’s voice that says he’s not doing enough and that he’s letting people down. Estoma: Isn’t it obvious what Esteban deals with. Survivors guilt. Big time. Also a overwhelming bouts of anxiety, depression and hopelessness along with a bit of a superiority inferiority complex coming from being “El Segundo.” She tries to help ease past the sins that make him an “evil man” and see that sometimes it’s okay to allow yourself to be loved. Which is almost like pot calling kettle since Doña has major emotional repression issues. Or asEsteban says emotional constipation since it annoys her. He tries to encourage her to you know, talk about her feelings at the moment instead of bottling it up for months, cracking and being an useless emotional  wreck for a week. First impressions and how they’ve changed

Eleteo: Mateo’s first impression of Elena was first like freaked out amazement that they lost Princess was alive. Then just awe because of how brave, talented, etc etc she was. Though that sort of hero pedastle stayed, Mateo slowly got over his amazement of Elena as his queen and princess and began seeing her as a friend. He appreciated her kindness and that song during Spellbound made him realize how much Elena truly trusted in his magical expertise and cared for him. I also hc that was when Mateo first started feeling signs of a crush. Elena’s first impression of Mateo was one of relief since he got her out of the amulet. And she mainly saw him as adorkable. He was blushing, geeky wizard and of course she saw him in a very kind way but that also began to change as they developed their friendship. She saw his bravery, his dedication and enthusiasm and his moral need to do what was right and she began to see him as a true confident and ally and friend and eventual lover. Gababel: Obviously Gabe’s first impression of Isabel was that she was Elena’s kid sister. Nothing particularly big. But he did find her enthusiasm for science and inventions to be amusing even when they had been younger and the gap mattered more. The change came after Isabel grew up, went to college and returned home. He began to see her enthusiasm and sweetness in a new light. He came to know her dedication to science that was so similar to his focus on become a guard. He learned how fierce she was when it came to those she loved and her sweetness was not because of any passiveness but because she cared. Isabel saw Gabe as Elena’s cool, brave Guard Captain friend when they were younger but she did also note his kindness to her even when he didn’t really need to. So when they grew up Isabel began to see that kindness even more. How Gabe’s sense of duty wasn’t a need for glory and control but because he cared too about the well beings of those he loved. She became to understand how his anger connected to how he was raised by his father, and that confident exterior shielded a more complex and strategic mind underneath that she admired. Estenaomi: Naomi saw Esteban to be a snooty, impulsive guy-guy that thought too much of his ill-planned out plans. Esteban saw Naomi as someone who was much too sassy and hellbent on annoying him in every which way. But as the two began to hang out more together they gained a deeper understanding. They both bonded over how they wished to become something special, to do something more and make a lasting contribution. They also bonded over some of their similar insecurities in just staying in the background, Naomi as a commoner and Esteban as a pity case. Besides that Esteban began to appreciate how Naomi tried to keep things grounded and her practicality while Naomi enjoyed Esteban’s overdramatics and sense for adventure despite the consequences as thrilling and fun. Estoma: Esteban saw Doña as universal retribution sent to make his life even more difficult with her judgmental comments and two default modes- disdain or superiority when pointing out his mistakes. Doña saw him as a know it all, unfairly entitled, incompetent royal (to be fair Esteban was working for Shuriki who probably kept a long list of demands and orders that Esteban had to do while dealing with all the issues of the kingdom that she was neglected so he was more than a little harried and couldn’t give it all his 100%). However, at sometime during all their talks about finances, Esteban decided it would be a challenge to break her ice queen act and started pointing out all her mistakes in order to get her to snap. It took at least two months but it worked  and then their great rivalry went off. And though it seemed like they never stopped bickering long enough to properly talk to each other, their first impressions did change a little bit. Doña saw that Esteban wasn’t incompetent, just overworked but that didn’t change just how much effort Esteban did put in when he was put in charge of something. He was methodical, dedicated, still too proud about his knowledge but he also had a soft heart. Esteban began to see that under the haughty arrogance was someone who valued hard work even above the amount of riches earned, still far too opinionated but also concerned with tradition and stability which he could appreciate after what he had lost. How do they handle disagreement between each other and making up afterwards?Eleteo: It would be tense I think with clipped words and some high emotions. But generally, they try to keep calm and they have a rule that they cannot walk away from the other in anger. The two talk out their disagreements and then have a cooling off period. By the time they return to the other, they both apologize and hug. Making up consists of extra time spent together so to assure each other that there are no hurt feelings and to calmly discuss that previous argument which means so little in the long run. Elena heaps up a lot of cuddles too. Estenaomi: The two usually separate after they have a major fight so they can cool off and think about things in a more rational manner. Then Esteban might come by her house with a treat or Naomi would stop by his room. Then they would try to talk it over like adults. Afterwards, they would spend some time on her ship, eating food and go back to their usual bantering since that is their version of normalcy and everything is okay again. Gababel: It would actually have a lot of yelling. Isabel is as stubborn as Gabe sometimes so they both refuse to budge on the issue. There would be a point that neither has anything else to argue so they stop, take a breath and return to the beginning. Most of the anger/passion is gone so they could approach things more rationally. Making up consists of lots of apologizing from both ends, hugging, and reassurances. If Gabe made Isabel cry, you can bet there would be some groveling too even if it goes a bit overboard. Estoma: In business disagreements, their general professionalism allows them to look past it to get a solution. In more personal disagreements, they are just very passive aggressive until one of them snaps and they start yelling at each other. Their make ups comprise of reluctant apologies and cautious small talk with a calming dinner afterwards. If one really feels bad, there might be a present the next morning. Gababel: It would actually have a lot of yelling. Isabel is as stubborn as Gabe sometimes so they both refuse to budge on the issue. There would be a point that neither has anything else to argue so they stop, take a breath and return to the beginning. Most of the anger/passion is gone so they could approach things more rationally. Making up consists of lots of apologizing from both ends, hugging, and reassurances. If Gabe made Isabel cry, you can bet there would be some groveling too even if it goes a bit overboard.

Nickname they give each other 

Eleteo: As taken from a fandom consensus, Elena calls Mateo, ““Wizard King” along with other endearments like mi amor and mi querida. Mateo does the same, but also calls her “Shining light” (Never while they’re in Paraíso of course).

Gababel: Isabel calls Gabe all the usual affectionate terms and he does too, but her significant one for him was “My Knight” both for the literal description of him and for how she admires his strength and chivalry. Gabe calls her his brain, and more often, his soul because she is able to help him come down from the stoic battle guard captain mask he had to take on when in a fight and remind him of the lighter sweeter things he is protecting Avalor for. 

Estenaomi: I put this under embarrassing nicknames but over time, Esteban comes to sincerely mean ““Miss Fiestypants” as an endearment since that feistiness is one of the things he loved about her. Naomi calls Esteban the Duke of Sin which she meant as a joke but he took as the highest of compliments and he insists on living up to it. Not that she’s complaining.  Estoma: Doña calls Esteban, “El Primero.” Well the full nickname is “El primero en mí corazón.” But El Primero is shorter and a nice reverse of his loathed El Segundo nickname. Esteban calls Doña the usual mí amor or mí querida. He’ll occasionally call her “Pretty Bird” or “Labia Plata” which means silver tongue. 

[stardew-imagines-me]

can we get some more of your high school au HC’s? i love the au❤️

My favorite au!!!!!!!!

• The garden president is a year younger than all the top 12 so GP will be seeing them graduate before they can

- they are often teased about it by Leah or Shane, asking if they’ll be missed when they leave and all you can do is roll your eyes

- but in all honesty, you’re kinda scared of being alone for your last year of high school, especially considering you’ll be the only remaining of the top 13

• of course you have ‘normal’ friends, but far and few in between. Really, you’ve grown very close with your three other garden mates

- so when you aren’t being scouted out by the other students or the top 12, you’re usually just hanging out with your garden mates and talking about something so outrageously irrelevant that it’s hilarious

- that’s not to say the 12 don’t get jealous of your garden mates from time to time

• Other than your natural nature ability, you’re really just an average student, if not super hardworking

- it’s not something you’re ashamed of when with Sebastian or Penny, and you know your gift isn’t as big as Shane’s or Leah’s, but you don’t mind, your proud of yourself and that’s what matters

• A lot of the time, 1 of the 12 will come check up on you either during school or at home ever since they found out you live alone

- initially they were flabbergasted, someone so young living by themselves, but you reassured them over and over again it wasn’t such a huge deal

- you weren’t all that much a people person anyway, so coming back from a long day of school activities was relieving... though kinda lonely

• Shane and Haley will often come by to cook dinner while Harvey and Penny help you study up for a very important test you have to pass

- usually Leah will be discussing whatever with Elliot and Emily at the table as well and from time to time you’ll hear Sam, Sebastian and Abigail yell at each other in the back

- Maru and Alex will be talking about more boring science stuff, Alex being a huge science nerd too

- it’ll be a pleasant night, just having the company of the people you enjoy the most right next to you in the most domestic way ever

• The amount of dating rumors involving you, your garden mates, the 12 and other random students are countless

- the 12 don’t make it easier when they get a little possessive when you’re overwhelmed by the amount of people around

- and neither do your garden mates when you’ll be sitting during free period and placing flowers in each other’s hair

• before you were accepted as part of the top 12, the garden would often be vandalized; crops dug up, flowers stomped on, supplies missing

- it was frustrating, but there wasn’t much you could do. You only let out a big sigh and fell onto your knees to clean up the mess the vandals had done

• Vincent and Jas absolutely adore you. Their nickname for you is “leaf”, noticing how you almost always either have a leaf or a flower petal stuck to your hair

- it’s cute, and once the 12 caught wind of it, you had become “baby leaf” to everyone

[utau-bowl]

Lillia Hokagane Pixie Review

An UTAU blog on Tumblr asked me to review their UTAU

Art by glicoloidpocky

Lillia Pixie Sample

Bio

Age: 14

Character item: cherry blossom

Height: 4"6

Weight: 70 lbs

Likes: cherries, flowers, soft fabrics, flowery perfume

Dislikes: hot pink, people with annoying laughs, scratchy wool clothes, sour foods (except sour cherries), overly sweet foods, wasps, and thunderstorms.

Personality:  Lilia is very vain and proud of her voice. She often overestimates her abilities, and only shows her sweet side to Nomu. She is probably the worst possible cross between himedere and tsundere, and worst of all she’s cute, so people feed her ego.

Voicer/Manager: Lillianna h. (maru)

Official Site

Lillia’s official site is on Tumblr. Her Pixie append can be downloaded from Dropbox.

Design

Lillia’s design is really adorable! The hair especially is very distinct and I love the colors of her outfits. Yellow and green together isn’t a combination you see in most UTAUs despite how common a color palette it is. I do prefer the normal outfit, only because the stage one is a little generic and the colors are more pleasing to look at.

First Impressions

Lillia has a mellow, midrange, feminine tone.  She is aliased in both romaji and hiragana, making using this voicebank easier to use than her older one.

Configuration

Pixie has a strong, clear tone with a dramatic flair. 

Her frequency map is incomplete, but most of it is there.

Her consonants are quiet and hard to hear, so using a high consonant velocity is usually required.

A bit of her oto is off, such as in the “ru” sample. There are only a few errors, however.

Pixie also has a few unique features, such as the regular “wa” sample being replaced with “uwa”. There also a few extra samples such as “ue” and “ui”. These aren’t necessary, but they make her stand out and make the voicebank feel more complete.

Ease of Use

Because of her oto and unique samples, you will likely find yourself editing the preutterance/overlap by hand a lot. She fits easily into fast-paced, energetic genres like rock. Her range is more flexible than you’d think, and she can sing in higher and lower octaves well.

Other Comments

There is a bit of background noise and a few crackles in the samples. There’s also a few volume inconsistencies, but they only rarely come up.

The default resampler doesn’t treat her voice very kindly and corrupts a bunch of the otherwise fine-sounding samples.

My recommended flags: consonant velocity >130, B0Y0C50F0E20H50 My recommended resamplers: fresamp12

Final Thoughts

Lillia’s Pixie append is an ok CV voicebank with a strong, mature tone. Her voice and character have a lot of potential, and I can’t wait to see where she goes next.

[wallsinner]

Title: Ruin the Friendship Pairing: Marco Bodt x Female Reader, Thomas Wagner x Female Reader, past F!Reader/Bertholdt, past Marco x Mina. Warnings: Smut, copious usage of the nickname Maru Words: 10,956 Summary: Marco's eyes flickered to the lamp next to his bed, before he climbed off it and crossed the room to the half-open window to look out. And there he saw someone – presumably you – standing outside the Bodt's house on the front lawn. When he moved his curtain to peek out, you looked up. He sighed. Okay, fuck. He guessed he was going to have to go down and talk to you or something. He threw his phone onto his bed and headed downstairs.  Notes: This is a rewritten old fic, had to do something for his birthday, duh.

Marco's brown eyes watched the girl next to him – also known as you – with an intensity that went unnoticed. All that you was really doing was texting, fingers flying fast across the screen of the phone in her hand, but as you reply to each text, you giggle in what Marco thinks is the most adorable way possible and smile as you type back. He doesn't know who you're texting, but there's a little nagging feeling in the back of his mind that hopes that it's just one of your female friends, but all he knows is that you look ridiculously pretty as you do it and all that he wants to do is reach over and grab you and kiss you in front of the whole cafeteria. Of course he'd never do it though, it would be too embarrassing, especially if you slapped him because of that whole issue of if he just grabbed you and kissed you then you wouldn't have given your consent.

And also he's worried that if you did that then you'd never talk to him again, which he would really, really, really hate.

You'd been one of Marco's closest friends for years. You'd met when you'd been five and he'd been a very mature six months older than you at six. It had been when your family had moved into the street where the Bodt's had lived since before Marco had been born and they were of course the favourite family on the block. Always welcoming in a neighbourhood full of people who didn't really talk to their neighbours and so your parents had become fast friends with Marco's and the pair of you had been thrown together. And Marco had liked you from the first moment he'd met you – not like liked you of course, no those feelings had come on when the pair of you had been much older – but he'd found your five year old self funny and charming. The more he got to know you he learnt stuff like the way you weren't scared to stand up to the other kids on the street who could be mean, the same people who would tease Marco because he was such good friends with a girl.

And besides, even if he hadn't wanted to be your friend, he wouldn't have really ended up having much say in it because of the way your parental units had become such good friends, your families had always tended to spend a lot of time together, like when both parents were off work for the weekend and the two of you would end up playing in each other's bedrooms or yards, whilst your parents enjoyed food and wine.

Though, ultimately, the dynamics of your friendship had changed over the years when you'd started to move up through school and through grades. It was then that you didn't see a lot of each other until weekends and occasionally after school during the early years of middle school, but once you'd reached high school your friend groups had started to meld together a little more. Mainly due to the inter-dating that had begun once you'd all realized that not everyone had cooties. Your friend Sasha had pretty much harassed Marco's good friend Jean into dating her for about a week before they'd had an over-dramatic break-up and she'd replaced him with Armin for three days and then later, Connie. Reiner had picked up something of a thing for Christa (though Reiner had picked up a thing for just about everyone they'd gone to school with over the years) and they'd made out once, which had caused Christa's realization into who she really liked and Reiner was still proud to be the first person that she'd come out to and had been her biggest support since. The list of couplings was ridiculous and interwoven, Marco himself had dated your then best friend Mina for quite some time until she'd moved out of the school district and lost touch. And you had dated your mutual friend, Bertholdt, for a few weeks, though nobody had ever really taken that serious because all that relationship was was you and him only communicating over AIM and ignoring each other when you saw each other in the flesh.

Though... Marco would quite like to pretend that that had never happened at all, because it would be easier to forget the memory of the night that you and Bertholdt had once reconciled during an alcohol fuelled party at Eren and Mikasa's that had led to him walking in on something that was still burned into his retinas that no amount of brain bleach would ever erase.

You'd remained friends all throughout the rest of your high school years and past graduation, you'd comforted each other when your friends had started to leave town and to go to separate colleges, but the bare bones of the group had ended up in the same community college, still hung out on a daily basis and were still a pretty tight knit group. And of course, you and Marco were still close, still lived on the same street and were still in and out of each other's houses. And as far as you knew, nothing about the two of you had changed.

You had no idea that Marco's feelings towards you had changed quiet significantly in the past couple of years. He wasn't quite sure when it had happened, it was like they'd changed overnight, but he knew that something must have happened to trigger it One day he'd been having a normal conversation with you and the next thing he knew he was thinking about how pretty you were and how much he wanted to tuck your hair behind your ear and make out with your face and never let you go. You weren't that cute little five year old girl any more, you were almost twenty and still cute but in a different way, a different way meaning that you'd grown into an intelligent, funny, selfless person And had he mentioned pretty? You were always putting other people and their happiness before your own, not really caring about your own feelings. Marco had watched you many times during the last year of high school giving your lunch to a homeless man who lived on the route to school, or sat with some kid from the elementary school next door who was upset because their parents had turned up to pick them up. All in all, you were good people.

And Marco wanted you more than he'd ever wanted anything before and it sucked that he couldn't just tell you that. Part of him wished that one day you'd just figure it out yourself that his eyes were always on you, that sometimes he lost his words around you these days, that he got protective and jealous when you were out with your friends and boys that you didn't know talked to you. Sometimes he thought that the easiest thing in this situation would be for you to just let him down gently and then the pair of you could move on with your own lives.

But of course, you hadn't noticed.

And of course – of fucking course – every other one of your friends could see right through it. But at least they had the sense not to say anything about it in front of you, and drop it when he denied it. Well, most of them at least, Reiner and Jean would definitely drop hints around you, hints that you thankfully never picked up on. In their own twisted minds, they thought they were helping, in Marco's mind he wanted to strangle them, or himself, just to get away from all of it.

“Hey, is there something on my face?” Your voice cut through Marco's thoughts and he turned to see that you'd looked up from your phone and your nose was wrinkled up in the cutest of ways as you looked at him curiously. You'd clearly looked up when he was spaced out and thinking and caught his eyes on you. He could hear Reiner on the other side of the table trying to hold in his sniggers and Jean wasn't even trying to conceal it. Your hand tentatively touched your face nervously. “...I knew you shouldn't have put ketchup on the fries,” she muttered staring down at Marco's plate, where you'd been eating from after giving your lunch away to someone who'd forgotten theirs again.

“Huh? Oh, sorry... I was just... thinking...” Marco trailed off, lying through his teeth. “And anyway, there's nothing on your face, you're fine.”

“Then why is Jean cackling at me like a demented witch?” You frowned, picking up another one of Marco's fries, but launching it in Jean's direction rather than her mouth. “Shut up, you sound like a freaking French hyena!” You pulled a little hand mirror out of your bag so that you could check. “Boys are ridiculous, why do I sit with y'all?”

Jean opened his mouth to retaliate, but Marco cut him off quickly. “Who were you texting?”

“Huh?” You frowned, looking up from the mirror. “Oh, just Bertholdt.”

And Marco felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. Bertholdt had been one of their friends who had left town for college, but he came back pretty frequently to see his parents and brother and hang out with his friends. Surely this wasn't going to happen again?  They weren't like... reconciling through text messaging? As selfish as it was, for now Marco needed you to be single, if only at least until he figured his head out and go over this pathetic, one-sided crush bullshit. Because until then he wasn't going to able to pretend to be happy for her. “Oh, he okay?”

Reiner snorted from across the table. “Oh God, is he asking you for tips now too? He's got it bad.. I keep telling him to just grow some balls already and talk to her, but so far he's rejecting my advice. I dunno why though, it's pretty good advice.” And wow Reiner was Marco's knight in armour on a white horse carrying a rose.

You laughed. “Yep, that's exactly it. He said that Ymir's up visiting Christa and they all went to get coffee last night after he'd finished his classes and found out that Christa'd invited her along.” She shook her head fondly in Reiner's direction before diverting her attention back to Marco as she fished a tube of lip cream from her bag. “He's met some girl, Annie? I think that's what he said her name was. Anyway, he's really taken with her but he's never actually spoken to her. Christa keeps trying to push them together... so far it's not working. He says that she just glares at him a lot, but he also says that he doesn't think that's because of him, she's like that to everyone. Anyway, I told him to just man up and tell her, or he'll never get anywhere with her otherwise.” You shrugged and shoved your phone, the lip cream and mirror back into your bag. “Anyway, I gotta jet. I promised Sasha I'd meet her before her next class.” You leant over and pressed a kiss into Marco's cheek, which of course he felt up up as a blush spread up over them. “I'll see you tonight, Marco. Bye guys!” You shot a wave over your shoulder to Jean and Reiner as you walked over to the door of the cafeteria, bag slung over your shoulder, Marco not missing the way your hips swayed.

“That was a hint.” Jean muttered, as soon as you were out of earshot.

Marco looked up and frowned, he was still basking in the feeling of your lips against his cheek. Could he not just... get a minute to appreciate it? “What are you talking about?”

Jean rolled his eyes. “Did you even hear what she said? God, open your eyes.” He cleared his throat and then put on a hideously high-pitched voice that sounded absolutely nothing like yours. “I told him he should just man up and tell her, otherwise he'll never get anywhere!”

“Well,” Marco swallowed. “Bertholdt's not going to get anywhere otherwise, if he wants that Annie girl he really should just ask her out and get it over with.”

“Can think of someone else who needs to do that,” Reiner chimed in. Oh no, not you too Reiner, not you too. Could Marco really not get a break from his so-called friends?

“See!” Jean spluttered, pointing exaggeratedly at Reiner. “It's not just me! He thinks it too! He thinks you need to man up and tell her you want her.”

“I don't want her, Jean!” Marco snapped back. “She's literally just one of my best friends.”

“Well, last time I checked you were calling me one of your best friends too,” Jean retorted. “And ohmygod, I really fucking hope you don't look at me the way you look at her because you look like you're going to bend her over the table... or eat her. Either way, it's creepy as fuck and you need to get this shit out of  your system.”

Marco pushed the almost empty plate away from him, shot a look at Reiner who was solemnly nodding to Jean's words, then pulled his backpack from underneath the table. “Yeah I think I'm gonna head to Psych early to try and get a decent seat. I'll talk to you later when you're not being ridiculous, see you later.” He shifted his backpack onto his back and grabbed his plate to drop by the rack of dirty ones.

Reiner simply said his goodbye, but Jean snorted. “Yeah and later I'll still be trying to get you to admit that in your mind you're married to her, with like four really annoying kids or something, you've got it bad. I know, Reiner knows, she knows and I'm pretty sure that that dude Eren's dating that we haven't even met yet knows.”

Marco didn't look back, trying to ignore Jean's words. You didn't know, did you? No, there was no way you could know... you probably just assumed he was being creepy or something and he felt kind of sick at the thought of her knowing but not saying anything. What if you were just being your normal sweet self and not saying anything to save him the embarrassment? God, if you did know could you just give him so sign that you did so that he could just die in peace? This was awful. He really did need to talk to you. To tell you.

But he wouldn't, because you were you and you were perfect and you could do better than stupid, boring, freckled Marco Bodt and you deserved so much more than he could give you. He knew it, deep down you probably did too. And he needed you, he needed you in his life because you were his friend and you'd been his friend for much, much longer than this had been an issue and he needed to get over it and get over it now so that he could move on with his life. Hell, maybe he should see if you still had Mina's number and text her, because if he remembered right then she was going to visit in a couple of weeks to catch up with you. Maybe she had some time to catch up with him too and he could see if he still had the ability to like someone who wasn't you. He put his plate down, a little heavier than he intended too.

“Hey, Marco, you okay dude?” Marco looked up to see one of the guys from his Psych class standing next to him, looking vaguely concerned. Oh, he wasn't that familiar with Thomas Wagner, but from what he did know about him he seemed like a decently cool guy, they'd only spoken a handful of times but they did tend to end up sitting near each other. “You seem a little... angry.”

“Oh, I'm fine, just a little stressed because I have a test later and I don't think I studied hard enough for it,” Marco lied through his teeth. Sure, he thought Thomas was decent but he wasn't about to spill his guts to the guy. Nah, Thomas didn't need to know about how he was in love with one of his best friends and the other one was in the running for douche of the year because he thought it was fun to play cupid. “You heading to Psych?”

Thomas studied Marco's face for a second, then shrugged, obviously believing everything that Marco had told him, after all what reason did he have to doubt? “Yeah, I'll walk there with you,” he followed Marco as Marco walked towards the door to the cafeteria, their footsteps falling into sync. “I kind of wanted to talk to you anyway.”

“Oh?��� Marco asked, because Thomas didn't usually miss class, so he wouldn't need notes or anything and he couldn't think of another reason for what Thomas would want from him. “Okay?”

“Yeah,” Thomas nodded. “You're always with that girl right.” And oh God, Marco hoped that it wasn't your name he was going to say, but of course, the next words that left Thomas' mouth were your name. And the way he said it was less than a question and more of a statement. “I was just wondering if you guys were... you know, together?”

Oh.

No.

Part of Marco wanted to snap at Thomas, tell him that yeah he was with you and that he should just not speak to you, or even look at you again. But what if Thomas ever spoke to you and told you what Marco had said? Yeah, you'd probably be pretty pissed off at him for speaking for you and for dragging you into a lie. You'd never appreciated that, even when yo0u were kids and Marco had tried to get you to cover for him for something he shouldn't have done. The other part of him knew that he should just tell Thomas the truth, that yeah he was always with you but he wasn't with you, but he was in love with you and could Thomas please just fucking leave you alone? “No,” is what he settled on. “We're not together. She's my best friend, I've known her since I was like... six.”

“You're childhood friends? That's cute.” Thomas smiled and Marco wanted to smack that smile off of Thomas' face. It was more of a smirk than a smile and Marco had changed his mind, Thomas was not a cute dude, he was a loser, a life-ruiner and Marco hated him. “So... I was thinking about maybe asking her if she wanted to go to the movies with me or something? I mean even you must have noticed what a hottie she is.”

A hottie? You were way more than a hottie, you had about a million amazing qualities and sure, the fact that you were pretty was up there but but that's what he decided to judge you on? Her looks. “I can't say I've noticed...” Marco replied, noticing how strained his own voice came out. “But I know that she wants to see Justice League.” Oh dammit, why had he told him that? Why had his brain volunteered that information without his permission, he and his brain were going to fall out.

Thomas nodded at the information as the two of them paused outside of the Psych classroom. “Cool, cool. I guess I'll ask her if she wants to go see it tonight or something.” He turned to walk into the room, but paused again to turn and face Marco. “Thanks Marco, you're a good friend.

Marco rolled his eyes, scrolling through the texts on his phone. He'd just gotten out of the shower and was about ready to go out with his friends, but no apparently that wasn't going to happen. This morning he'd received a text from Reiner who was supposed to be hanging out with Marco and Jean that night, explaining that he'd decided to take a last minute trip up to visit Christa and Bertholdt to do some serious wingman business. And since then, he'd received calls from not one, not two, but four more various friends, the most reason one from Jean saying that he was cancelling the planned video game night because Mikasa had found a place for him in her busy schedule. Now Marco knew that that this just meant that Mikasa was bored, rather than anything else and she knew that Jean would come running... but still, he'd had enough of being ditched by his friends other the last cuple of months. The second text was from Mikasa, letting him know she'd asked some people to come hang out if he wanted to come and he sucked, but he'd smirked because he couldn't help it and he he knew that Jean was going to be pissed if anyone else showed up, luckily for Jean he had he no plans to. The other two texts were from you.

Marco didn't want to think about you, because he knew that you were probably letting him know that Thomas had surprised you with flowers or something like that, after all Thomas was your favourite topic of conversation these days and he hated it. When she'd agreed to go out with Thomas, yeah it had hurt but he hadn't expected it to be like this, he hadn't expected the one movie date to turn into the two of you full on dating and for Thomas to commandeer a good percentage of your time. He hadn't expected that your lunchtimes would be hijacked by him and your weekends to be spent around him all the goddamn time. The more he got to know Thomas, the less he liked him and the less he considered him to be the type of guy you'd be into and he had no idea why you were still wasting your time with him.

It hurt, not only because he was still in love with you, that... that was a feeling he just couldn't shift or turn off. No, it hurt because the closer she got to Thomas, the less he wanted you around. He'd started drifting away from her the more that Thomas invaded their lives, but in the past month he'd barely even spoken to you. He'd reply to your texts, sure, he'd say hey if he passed you in the halls. But if you found a spare five minutes to come over and see him, he'd tell his parents to tell you he wasn't home. If you asked him if he was gonna come and eat with you guys, he'd tell you that he had something else to do and skip out on food entirely. He just couldn't be around you any more, he couldn't listen to stories about Thomas anymore. He'd always known that the two of you were never going to be something that was going to happen, but it had gotten to the point where he had to stay away from you for his own sanity, if he could stay away from you for now, then you might be able to save your friendship. Hell, in ten years you could be sitting around your parents table with your significant others and maybe a couple of kids running around, laughing at how he used to crush on you.

And the worst thing was, you'd noticed that something was up, you'd called him out on not hanging around with you so much anymore more than once and he'd just dismissed it and told you that you were imagining things, but he knew that you knew that he was avoiding you. And you were intelligent enough to realize that he'd started to drift away from you when Thomas had come onto the scene, so he didn't know why you just didn't address it and get it over with. He was sure you'd talked about it with Thomas because Thomas was someone who had definitely noticed. And that was one of the bigger reasons he'd decided to just... let you go. It wasn't worth the humiliation, the looks of pity that Thomas would shoot him when he reached out to grab your hand, or touch your arm. He always had to be fucking touching you, like he wanted to let everyone know that you were his property and his property alone.

Marco stared at the phone in front of him and swallowed, he couldn't ignore it anymore, he had to know what words you'd said to him, he knew that they were going to hurt him and he knew that he wasn't going to reply to them with more than a 'cool' or an 'okay', but he needed to know what they said nonetheless.

“Can't believe u ditched me last nite! Come on Maru, ur my best friend! Free 2night, T&Mina doing something...”

He frowned at the words. Did that mean that Thomas and Mina were doing something together or separately, because Mina was coming into town a hell of a lot more these days and it seemed like Thomas was always busy when she was in town... Oh God, what was he even thinking? As if you'd let Mina get close enough to your precious Thomas for something like that to happen. He scrolled down to the second text.

“Unless ur what Mina's doing 2nite? If so have fun and be careful ;)”

Marco had to roll his eyes to himself at that, of course he was being ridiculous, of course they were doing something separately. And he really wished that you'd just let his Mina thing go, yeah Marco had liked Mina once, he'd dated her once. But that was back in high school and to be honest, yeah he'd considered seeing if Mina wanted to be a distraction from his stupid crush on his best friend, but he'd ditched that idea about five minutes after it had occurred to him and you still bought up the idea of him and Mina every time she was in town.

He scrolled back to the beginning of the text conversation and looked through the meagre amount of texts you'd exchanged ever since you'd gotten together with Thomas. He should probably delete them, it did nothing but hurt him to see your name on the screen when he went through his inbox, scrolling through them he deleted some and paused to read the ones that stood out to him.

“Hey Maru!  Can't come over and help u study 2nite. That Thomas Wagner guy asked me out. Can u believe someone actually wants 2 take me on a date?! LOL! I'll see u 2moro” Had marked the beginning of the end, the first time you'd ditched him for Thomas. That was two months ago and he still didn't understand why you'd seemed so surprised that someone would be interested in you, how could you not know how perfect you were?

“Hey Maru! Forgot 2 tell u that I have another date with T tonight. How has someone wanted 2 take me on five dates?? Sorry 2 skip study date again, I'll see u tomorrow! <3 u!” Had comer a couple of weeks later, the second time you'd ditched out on him.

A month ago, when Bertholdt and Christa and Mina and a few other friends were in town for break and they'd arranged a huge night out together, you'd ditched then because “Apparently we've been d8ing for amonth now?! Ccan't come 2nit, surprise dinner. I'll c u tomorrow mayb? <3 u!” That was the night he'd decided that he was just going to let you go and avoid you until he could deal with things. Apparently you and Thomas had stopped by and met up with everyone after Marco had left and apparently Thomas had gotten kind of drunk and ditched you, leaving Jean to walk you home, that had angered Marco and he'd wanted to have words with Thomas but he'd decided that ultimately you were a big girl and you could look after yourself.

The text between that and this weekend were few and far between. They were mainly you asking if you could come over and hang out with him and him turning you down because he had other things to do. Or at least that's what he'd been telling you anyway. On Thursday he'd gotten “hey, mina gets in2 town 2night I gonna come hang out?? I kno she'd love 2 see u this time!” this had been something like Mina's third visit in the past couple of months and so Marco had replied and told you that he'd think about it and gone to Jean's to play Overwatch instead. And that night had sucked because Jean had decided to ask him if he realized how awkward he was making shit for everyone and then later on that night he'd gotten “Marco! I miss ur freckley face. Why didn't u come???? I feel like u never wanna hang out anymore. Did I do something wrong? :( Mina was disappointed and Thomas spent most of the night comforting her. Cant believe we've been2gether for 2 months now.” That one had hurt... he'd been really pleased to see that she missed him but then she'd thrown Thomas in there too and um, no.

Last night had brought “Hang out with me tonight?! T's is going out with friends and Minas doing something 2?? <3 u, text me back...2nite... don't reply with 1 word tmrw.” He sighed, looking at the 'maybe' he'd sent back at her. He was just hovering over the delete button to get rid of the conversation when the phone buzzed in his hand, indicating a new text.

You. Again. Damn.

Marco opened it and frowned at the words that appeared on his screen, an actual legible text and not in your stupid text talk so he knew it must be serious. “Guess you weren't what Mina was doing tonight after all...” And what was that even supposed to mean? Because he got the chance to reply, it buzzed again. “I swear if you ignore that, I'll throw rocks at your window.” He frowned and looked over at the window. What were you even talking about? His phone vibrated again. Another text from you. “I know you're there, I can see your light on and your window is open.”

Marco's eyes flickered to the lamp next to his bed, before he climbed off it and crossed the room to the half-open window to look out. And there he saw someone – presumably you – standing outside the Bodt's house on the front lawn. When he moved his curtain to peek out, you looked up. He sighed. Okay, fuck. He guessed he was going to have to go down and talk to you or something. He threw his phone onto his bed and headed downstairs.

“Hey.” You said as he opened the door. “Nice Spiderman boxers, you're still alive then?” Crap, he'd deserved that and double crap, he'd been so preoccupied by his phone that he'd forgotten to grab pants and then with you standing outside...

He crossed his arms across his freckled chest. “Hey,” he replied, trying to  ignore the nagging feeling of guilt at the bottom of his (bare) stomach at her second comment.

“Are you going to let me in or not?”

Marco stepped to the side, allowing you access to his house. Now that you were in the light, he could see the redness of your eyes, the tear tracks that had left their mark on your face. Wait, what exactly had happened between the initial texts shed sent him tonight and now. “What's going on?”

“Can we talk?” You asked, not actually waiting for an answer before you pushed past him and up the stairs towards his room, just like you'd always done, right from back when you were kids. He had little choice but to follow you and watched as you kicked off your flat and settled down onto his bed. You looked down at your phone and bit out a laugh. “Oh, look, he's sorry.”

“Who's sorry?” Marco asked you, though he was pretty sure that he already knew the answer to that was going to be 'Thomas' and he wanted to sigh, to tell you to just shut up about him and that he didn't deserve you. But he didn't, he let you answer.

You raised an eyebrow at him. “You mean you haven't guessed? With the text about Mina?”

Oh. Shit. Shit, it looked like he'd been right after all and something had been going down between Thomas and Mina. “Shit,” was all Marco could muster as he sat down next to her on the bed.

“Shit indeed,” you snorted. “How did I not notice that this was going on? Like, it was obvious from the first time she visited actually... they got on really well and he kept touching her and I just... ignored it,” you shrugged. “Actually, I ended up leaving to go get chips... I did ask him if he liked her and he'd said she seemed cool and then she kept coming into town and he kept getting busy and well... I didn't want him to dump me and so I ignored it.” You swallowed. “Guess I can't ignore it anymore though, because I went over to his house to pick up my Bio text book that I'd left there and she was there, so yeah.” You lean into Marco and rest your head on his shoulder and within thinking, his stupid brain sends notifications to his body parts again and he kissed you on the head and you close your eyes, a contented sigh slipping past your lips.

“I'm sorry.”

You sniffed, moving so you could look up at his face. “Are you sorry that I got cheated on and was too stupid to realize, or are you sorry that you've been an asshole to me for the past month?”

Marco paused. “Both?”

You rested your head back against him. “so are you going to be nicer to me and stop ignoring me now? I mean I knew you didn't like him, it was obvious from the way you looked at him... but I just didn't realize that me dating him would make you hate me.

Marco chokes out your name. “I could never hate you.... I just.... he was always around and I didn't like him,” he wanted to have the courage to tell you exactly why he hated being around Thomas, but he just couldn't. Not now that it seemed like he might be getting his best friend back.

You sniffed. “You know, I don't know why I'm so upset about this, because the weird thing is... I didn't really like him all that much either. Well, I guess I did, he was always nice enough to me. But I didn't like him the way that he wanted me to like him. You know, the way I thought he liked me.” Your phone buzzed next to you, you picked it up and turned it off. “But it was flattering that someone actually wanted to be with me... but I guess Mina does the things that I wouldn't do.”

Marco swallowed. He had no idea what was going on here – you'd put him through these two torturous months and you didn't even like Thomas like that? “I thought you were pretty into him,” he told you with a frown. “Actually, I was pretty sure you were falling in love with him.”

You wrinkled up your nose. “No! Well, I mean I guess I probably loved him in a way as like a friend? But no, I never said those words to him or anything. I don't say those words to people unless I mean it.” You rolled your eyes, your voice coming out sarcastic and bitter on the next thing that you said. “He wanted things to go much further than just occasionally making out, so I guess I'm lucky that I brought Mina into his life. Though, technically I'm still his girlfriend, but whatever, I'll deal with that tomorrow. Can I stay here tonight? Mina's staying with me and I don't want to go home.”

“Of course.”

“You're a good friend, Marco.” You smile at him, your eyes still teary and lean back into his pillows. “You mean so much for me, thank you for being here for me.”

“Hey...?” Marco couldn't help but ask as he watched you snuggle into the pillows on his bed, apparently you weren't planning on moving to the Bodt's spare room where you'd usually go. He knew he probably wouldn't like the answer to the question he was about to ask, but he had to know anyway. “What did you mean by it was flattering that someone actually wanted to be with you?”

That gets a light laugh out of you. “Oh Marco, if you hadn't noticed I'm not exactly... flush with suitors, am I? I've only ever really dated Bertl and that was because Reiner pushed him into it and we all know that was barely a relationship. So I guess it was someone who was you know... not super weird wanting to be with me was a step up and I felt like I had to take that opportunity? I'm not a catch, I know that, but it made me feel like I was.”

“You liked Bertholdt enough to sleep with him at that party at Eren and Mikasa's.” Marco pointedly told you. “And don't say that you're not a catch.”

“I was drunk enough to sleep at him at that party at Eren and Mikasa's,” you retort. “And don't get me wrong, I don't regret anything that happened with Bertholdt, because he was my first everything, but I'm so much happier being his friend and getting him to ask out  that damn Annie chick he seems to like so much.” You swallowed. “I guess I just liked the idea of someone liking me. All I really want is for someone to tell me that I'm perfect and mean it.”

“You are perfect.” The words had slipped out before Marco could realize what he was saying. “Come on, open your eyes.”

Your head snapped up, you opened your mouth to say something to him but your eyes met his and you closed your mouth. Marco wasn't exactly sure which one of you ended up closing the gap, but one second you were staring at each other and the next your mouths had met and the first few times your lips pressed together, the kisses were soft, quick, gentle pecks. He half expected you to pull away again, to laugh and turn it into a joke about the mistake you'd made.

But you didn't.

You were the one who pushed for the kisses to become longer, you were the one to ramp up the passion. You were the one to pull away, to press your hand to his cheek and to look at him for a long moment, before you pulled him back to you for more kisses, harder kisses, to nip at his bottom lip and then lathe your tongue against it begging for entrance, for sloppy, deep kisses.

You were the one who pulled him down on top of you after you'd wiggled into a comfortable position against his pillows, to break away from his mouth, to stutter out “Marco... I...” to shake your head and not finish your sentence , but to just mesh your lips with his again. He'd wanted this for so long, so so long but a nagging voice at the back of his head told him that he should pull away, before you fucked up your friendship completely, because you'd been so hurt and even if you hadn't been as into Thomas as he'd thought, being cheated on would still be so soul destroying.

But he didn't want to stop.

And then your hips ground upwards and Marco gasped into your mouth, remembering that he still hadn't put pants on and he was still there in nothing but his Spiderman boxers and there was no way she couldn't feel how goddamn fucking hard she was making him. But you bucked your hips up again., searching for some sort of friction. Yeah, he needed to stop this, before they took things further than... this level. Because there'd be no going back after that. No pretending that this hadn't happened.

You must have sensed his hesitancy because you tore your lips from his. “Marco...” you breathed out, your lips were kiss bitten and your cheeks were flushed and Marco would be a liar if he didn't make his cock twitch in his boxers. “I want this,” and those words made him fucking twitch again. “I need this. Please...?” You purred and pushed your hips into his again. “I need this, I need you and I know you want it too...” and then you fucked moaned.

Fuck. Marco swallowed, unable to make himself move, he just stared down at you, into her much darker than usual eyes, you r pupils were blown with... was this lust? You groaned in frustration and pushed at his chest, wiggling away from him and he considered that maybe his hesitation had made you change your mind, that this wasn't actually actually going to happen. And then you locked eyes with him as you pulled the dress you were wearing over your head and tossed it onto his bedroom floor. You kept your eyes trained to his as your hands reached up behind you and unclasped your bra, your breasts softly swaying as you threw your bra to the ground with the dress.

She stared. Waiting. Waiting for him to do something.

Marco's eyes drank in the sight before him, this was something he'd thought about in those dark recesses of his room at night with one hand around his cock and the other over his mouth so he wouldn't wake his parents, but he never expected to really get to see it.

Fuck it, just fuck it. If this ended up making things even worse than they were now, at least it would be a memorable goodbye forever.

You opened your mouth. “Marco... I...” but whatever she'd been intending to say was cut off as Marco launched at you again, smashing his lips into yours and you melted into the kiss and gasped into his mouth as he reached out to palm your left breast, tugging at the nipple. “Fuck!” you groaned as your mouth left his and he buried his face into your neck, kissing and nipping and biting. “Please Marco... I'm so... you're making me so... I don't want to be teased.”

And he groaned because you were begging him. You were fucking begging him. “Are you sure about this?”

“Maaarco!”

Marco pulled back, taking a moment to survey the body of the woman beneath him as he knelt over her, hooking his thumbs into the lace panties she was wearing (was she expecting this or did she just wear these every day? Either way... hot.) and tugged them down her legs.

And there you were.

Fully naked.

In front of him.

Lying on his bed.

As he drank in the sight before him, you lifted a leg and pressed your foot against his hard cock, dragging it down slowly. “Taje them off. Now.” You commanded.

You didn't have to tell him twice, he tugged the boxers down his legs, throwing them to the floor with your panties. You were both naked now and he moved back towards you, sliding in position between your legs, he leant over to press more kisses to your lips, one hand on your cheek and the other wrapped around his cock as he blindly lined himself up against you, running the head of his cock down your folds a couple of times before thrusting once, one shallow thrust and he was inside of your hot wet cunt. He was inside of you and you'd bit down on his lip as he'd slid inside.”Are you okay?” He asked, kissing you again.

“Move,” you whined back at him.

Marco groaned, moving his hips as he set a steady, even pace with his thrusts. He kept his lips on yours, swallowing each moan and pant that you blessed him with. You felt amazing, it wasn't a surprise, he knew you would... but God you were so tight and wet and he fitted inside you like you were made just for him. He pulled his mouth from yours, looking down at you as he ran his hands along your body, cupping and caressing your breasts, paying special attention to your nipples. He loved the sounds he was pulling from your body, the pants, the desperate needy moans.

“Harder!” You whined. “You feel so good inside me, Marco... please”

His hands settled onto your hips as he upped his pace, his thrusts become harder, faster, as deep as he could go. The noises he pulled from you were getting louder, more desperate, the words you were saying to him becoming more incoherent. God you were beautiful, hair fanned out beneath you, your legs wrapped around his waist as you bucked forward to match him, your tits bouncing with each movement. How could you think you weren't a catch? That nobody would want you and you had to go for the first person who asked. He gasped out your name and he before he could stop himself, those words came tumbling out.

“I love you.”

“Kiss me!” You gasped, your own hips working faster now, to take him so deep and her begging was something he would never forget, never get bored of.

His mouth met yours again in a wet, desperate kiss, hands still at your hips as he pulled you against him to help meet his thrusts. He closed his eyes, savouring the feel of her tight around him as you kissed him again, biting down on his lip. Fuck, you were making this so hard to not... and this was you... and so he couldn't, not before you did. And so he slid one hand from your waist to dip inbetween you, to press into those pretty pink lips of yours and find the little nerve filled bud he was so desperate to seek, to help you.

You squealed as you felt his fingers against you, heightening your pleasure. “Fuck!” You cried out. “Marco!” His fingers worked against you, rubbing the flesh in fast, circular moments and the more he rubbed and moved his hips, the louder, the more incoherent your gasps got. “Marco... I... please... you're going to... I''m gonna... Marco!” was the last thing you got out before his lips were on yours once again and you started to contract around him.

Fuck.

He needed to cum, he was going to cum now. He pulled away from your mouth to kook down at you, to watch you writhe beneath him as you moaned his name. He upped his speed again, slamming into you desperately, your name leaving his lips as he came apart. “I love you, fuck, I love you so much!” his hips twitched as he released inside of you, him repeating your name like it was a prayer.

The two of you kissed for a second as both of you rode out your orgasms, tried to stop shaking and then he collapsed on the bed next to you, pulling your sweaty body to his.

And you smiled, leaning yo to press little butterfly kisses across the smattering of freckles on his face. “Damn Maru, I didn't know you had that in you.”

Marco couldn't reply, he was too busy trying to pull himself together. Instead he just pulled you into a needy kiss. When he pulled away, he looked at you and he said those words again. He'd already told you more than once during your little encounter, there was no need to hide it anymore because he thinks you'd gotten the message. “I love you.”

“Shhh, Marco... you look exhausted.” You tell him. “Close your eyes.”

And he does as he's told, snuggling into you as exhaustion washes over him.

Sunlight hit Marco's face the following morning. He groaned as he rolled over, trying to prise his tired eyes open enough to look at the clock on the table next to his bed. “Morning,” he heard a voice say and he froze. Oh shit. Last night... that wasn't a dream he'd had, he'd really taken you to bed last night. His eyes snapped open and his stomach sank as he saw you sitting on the edge of his bed, sliding on the flats you'd kicked off the night before. He coughed to clear his throat. “Where you going? I thought Mina was still at yours and you didn't want to go back.”

You stand up, cross your arms across your chest and face him. “Yeah, I'm not actually going home. I got another text from Thomas, so I'm... I'm actually going to go talk to him.” You won't meet his eyes as you say any of these words, his bedroom floor becoming very interesting to you.

Marco felt like he might vomit. You were seriously going to go talk to Thomas? After all the stuff that had happened last night? After you'd explicit told him you had no romantic feelings for Thomas. After the way you'd begged him last night? “Don't,” he says. “Don't go, just... come back to bed, please?”

“Sorry Marco...” you shake your head. “I have some stuff to take care of.”

“I love you,” he tells you desperately, spitting those words out.

Your lips curled into a half-smile. “I know Marco, I know.” you leant in to kiss his forehead. “I'm going to call you later, okay? I promise? You just need to let me go do this.” You don't give him a chance to reply, you walk to the door and pause only to smile at him. And then you close the door behind you and you're gone.

He buries his face into his pillow, swearing into it. You'd been the one to start everything, why was it too much to hope that you'd felt the same away about him? He closed his eyes, remembering the night before, the words you'd said when he'd mentioned loving Thomas. “I don't say those words to people unless I mean it.”

And... it hit him.

Not once had you said it back, not last night and definitely not this morning.

Marco's brown eyes were fixed onto the TV, even though he wasn't paying attention to whatever reality shenanigans that were on the channel his mother had left on and he hadn't bothered to change. No, he was still trying to understand what the actual hell had happened last night and what this was all supposed to mean for the two of you. You'd wanted it, you'd wanted him, you'd pushed for it and then just left? But... if you didn't have any feelings for him either, then why? What had last night even accomplished? Besides stringing him along. Why'd you run away? Back to someone you'd openly said you had no romantic feelings for when he'd offered his heart up on a plate to you?

And you'd lied, you'd promised to call him and here it was, later, hours after you'd gone. And no call.

Marco had been so lost in thought that he hadn't heard the knock on the door of the Bodt house, nor had her heard his mother answer it, so it was quite a fright when Jean burst into the room and threw himself down on the couch next to Marco. “Hey, what did you do last night?” He asked and then without even waiting for a response, carried on. “My date with Mikasa was a bust, Connie and Sasha showed up and all Mikasa did was talk about Eren. We ended up having to talk Connie out of going to find out where Eren was so we could stalk him and this new guy of his and report back to Mikasa.”

“That's because it wasn't a date,” Marco replied, eyes still affixed to the TV screen. He really was not in the mood to talk about anything that was at all related to the confusing female species right now. “She invited me too, obviously it was supposed to be a group thing.”

Jean let out a groan of frustration. “So why didn't you come? We could have ditched and gone to the movies or something.”

“I didn't think you'd want me to be there just in case I was wrong and she hadn't invited anyone else butt he two of us,” Marco replied, finally pulling his eyes away from the screen to face his friend. “Besides, I got busy with other things last night.”

When Jean opened his mouth, Marco braced himself for the next comment, half expecting it to be related to Mikasa or Eren and how good he didn't know he had it, but it didn't come. “Well considering how pissy you seem, I'm just gonna ask. Do I need to be buying an engagement ring for She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and the dickhead?”

“Not exactly,” Marco bit his lip. “Okay, I'll tell you. She caught Thomas and Mina hooking up last night, basically he's been cheating on her. She came over in tears and we ended up having this weird conversation about how she just liked the idea that someone liked her and that's why she's with him and... then things got even weirder.”

“Weirder how?” Jean asked, before his face broke into a smirk as he saw the look on Marco's face. “Dude! No! Seriously? About fucking time! Was it... good?”

Marco nodded. “Yeah... it was good, well, more than good but... I told her I loved her.” He winces in embarrassment. “Repeatedly, actually and she didn't say it back once. She stayed all night though and when I woke up this morning she was getting dressed and ready to leave and I told her I loved her again.” he winces again. “And she told me she was going to go talk to Thomas.”

Jean's jaw drops. “Shit,” he lets out a low whistle. “You spoken since?”

Marco shakes his head. “She said she was going to call me later this morning and she... just hasn't. I'm wondering if I'll ever hear from her again. What am I gonna do now, Jean? It's not like we can come back from this now that she knows that I'm in love with her and she's making it clear she doesn't feel the same way. How am I supposed to see her all the time? It's not like I can avoid her, not with us living on the same street and our parents being friends and coillege. I'm going to have to become a recluse to avoid her.”

Jean is silent for a second. “No,” he tells Marco. “Don't avoid her. This is her problem, not yours, she made her bed and now she has to lay in it.” And Marco swears that if Jean bursts into that YouMeAtSix song he's gonna have to kill him. “You've done nothing wrong, she's the one who's gonna open her eyes one day and see how much of a fool she is.”

Marco doesn't say anything, he just picks up his phone and looks down at it hopefully, willing it to vibrate  in his hand and alert him of his incoming call, hell, even a text. Ring, ring, come on ring. At least let me know where I stand. At least let me know where your head is.

“Put the phone down,” Jean sighs. “A watched phone never rings, if she calls you... it'll make a sound and just let her sort her shit out. When she's ready to call, she will.”

And Marco's just about to tell Jean to hush, that he's just as bad, if maybe not even worse where Mikasa is concerned, but before he has much of a chance, there's a very feminine cough from the doorway of the room and both he and Jean whirl round.  

“Is this... a bad time?” You ask, clutching a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts to yourself and looking down at the floor, still as desperate not to make eye contact as she was this morning. Oh no, why had you come round? Marco would have definitely preferred if you'd just called. Seeing you standing there in front of him is making his stomach physically ache. You sheepishly hold the box up. “...I brought doughnuts?”

“I... uh,” Marco stutters. “No, it's not a bad time, Jean was just leaving.”

“Actually,” Jean crosses his arms. “Jean wasn't going anywhere.”

You roll your eyes. “Marco and I really need to talk Jean, please just do us a solid?”

Jean made no movement to leave, just continued to stare you down as you shuffle uncomfortably.

“Jean,” Marco warms. “I'll text you later, just...go for now okay? I'll call you and you can come back over and I'll let you talk about Mikasa as long as you want.”

“Okay,” Jean nods. “But are you actually going to contact me or are you just going to leave me hanging for hours and then just turn up with a box of doughnuts like that's going to make everything better?” He stands up, holding his hands up to the glares he's receiving from both you and Marco. “Okay, I'll go. But if I haven't heard anything in an hour, I'm coming back, because I'm a fan-fucking-tastic friend” He slings his backpack on his back and pauses at the door, tugging the doughnut box out of your hands. “And I'm taking the doughnuts.”

The two of you watch Jean make his exit and you take a deep breath, entering the room and sitting next to Marco. “Uh, hey...”

“I'm sorry about him, he's just... annoyed.”

“No,” you shake your head. “He didn't say anything that I didn't deserve.” You swallow. “I just didn't want to call, I wanted to come over and talk to you, but then when I got back from... his I had to pack Mina's stuff and leave it in the hall so I didn't have to speak to her when she came to pick it up.” Marco opens his mouth to say something but you shake your head. “No. Marco. Let me talk please? Just let me talk... and listen and then you can just... throw me out if you want to, but I need to get all of this out.”

Marco nodded, but he knew where this was going, you were going to apologize and tell him that you were so sorry and that you regretted it and you'd changed your mind and realized that you actually did have feelings for Thomas and you were going to save the relationship.

“I should have pushed you when I first realized it.” You bite down on your lip. “But sometimes when people have feelings for other people, they don't realize and so... I kid of didn't know if you'd figured out you were into me yet, or even if you were at all and when I saw you loom at me the way you did, I was just going crazy. I should have pushed you to admit it when Jean started unsubtley... well, I think he thought he was hinting. Or when Reiner started to join in.” Oh God, you knew. You'd known all along. “I waited for ages, Marco. I wanted you to figure out on your own and get your shit together, I wanted you to come to me and tell me that you liked me as more than a friend. I nearly brought it up like a thousand times, I swear, just to say how you'd answer and put me out of my misery so I knew I wasn't going crazy. But then I got scared, I got scared that you'd tell me I was being ridiculous and that I was just your best friend and then it'd ruin our friendship. And I didn't want to lose you, God I'd never want to lose you. So I gave up, I just figured you didn't feel the way I thought you felt... didn't feel the same way about me as I did about you, so I had to let you go. And then Thomas asked me out and part of me still hoped you felt the same way about me and that you'd... I dunno, come and steal me or something. But you didn't. And Thomas liked me, so it was easier and so I could get over you. But then you freaking drifted and instead of coming to tell me you didn't approve of me and Thomas, or didn't like it or whatever, you just stopped speaking to me really, pushed me away instead. That's why I kinda pushed the Mina thing to see if you'd bite or if you'd snap or whatever but you, Marco Bodt, are literally the most frustrating human being. Ever.”

Marco stared. What was even happening right now? You knew. You'd known all along and had you just confessed that you'd... he says your name to get your attention but you shake your head.

“No, I'm not done. I'm just... I'm sorry, I know I'm not making a great deal of sense right now but my brain is so jumbled and my heart might exploded out of my chest any minute.” You close your eyes for a couple of seconds and take a deep breath. “I'm sorry about last night, that wasn't my intention when I came over, I just wanted to feel like you still cared about me and I just wanted my best friend back. And then we kissed and I pushed things further than I should have. And then you said it was amazing and just everything about last night was amazing and I just couldn't bring myself to say it back because it wasn't fair on you. I nearly caved though, I nearly said it before you ever did. Am I even making sense now?” You groan and bury your face in your hands. “I'm such a fucking idiot.”

“Hey,” Marco tugs your hands down so you're forced to look at him. “You're not an idiot,” he says slowly. You'd just given him a buttload of information and he was trying to process it all and make sense of your ramblings. “But... you knew?”

“I had an inkling.” You replied.

“And... and... you have feelings for me too.”

“That's correct.”

Marco's heart felt like it might burst out of his chest. You liked him, you actually liked him back and he'd been too stupid to realize it. “And you have up on me and then Thomas asked you out and that's how you ended up doing that stuff.”

You just nod. “And I kept texting you 'bout Mina to see if you'd tell me you were into someone else or into me or whatever.” You look up and a smile graces your lips. “But you are into me and this morning... well...”

“So,” Marco asks. “You do love me?”

“That's also correct.” You nod. “That's... why I couldn't say it back last night. It didn't seem fair on you to start something with you, or say something like that while I was still with Thomas. Like, I wouldn't be able to properly mean it because I was still with him. All I wanted to do was get back into bed with you this morning, but I had to force myself to leave to go speak t him, because even though what happened last night happened, I was still with him. Not until I ended it with him, which I did by the way and we had a very interesting talk and apparently I'm a prude and he only liked me because of my looks.”

“I hate Thomas.” Marco rolled his eyes, where did he get off on talking to you like that. “But you're not with him anymore.”

“So...?”

“So...” Marco grins. “Say it.”

You lean into him and press your lips to his. “I love you,” you muttered. “I love you, I love you so much, I love you,” you pressed soft kisses to him inbetween each. “I love you. Am I all caught up now?”

“You could... say it again.”

You roll your eyes fondly, but you're giggling. “I love you. Are you happy now? If you still want me I'm yours. I guess I've always been yours. We're just idiots who had a lot to figure out.”

Marco leaned in and pulled you to him, pressing a longer kiss to your lips. “I've always wanted you and I'll always want you. No more Mina, no more Thomas. Just you and me now okay? Always.”

You smile and nod.

“Always.”

[admkatcornwell]

My Kobayashi Maru Exam

There seems to be a great interest in Academy Days lately and several times I’ve been asked about my Kobayashi Maru exam.  Though students were strongly advised not to discuss their scenario, decisions, or the outcomes of those decisions, it’s been so long and the test has changed enough, that I can now divulge this information.  That is, as much of it as I can remember.  It was a rather stressful day.

So, this is for everyone who has asked through the years, especially @currentlycaptainparis who bugged me for month after she had taken her own test.  I expect to hear the tale of yours next, dear.

First let me say, it was never my intention to go into command.  I was headed to be a psychologist, a counselor for Starfleet, and not a captain – certainly not an admiral.  So, while I did take the exam seriously, I never expected to ace it.  Or to have it ace me, as it were.  I went in thinking about the exam like a psychology study; I would have to know what goes on in the head of a leader if I ever expected to be able to help one.  But I was convinced that the extra time I’d spent studying Freud and behavioral modification techniques instead of tactical analytics would put me at a severe detriment to my peers.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.

It was a Friday afternoon at the end of an already very long week.  I entered the arena, received a canned briefing from the instructor, and a few minutes to familiarize myself with my crew and the vessel.  As with all of the tests in that year, I was in command of rather claustrophobic Hermes-class scout ship.  I should mention that we didn’t have the almost completely holographic environment that is being used now.  But we did have access to a replica of main engineering, the torpedo room, transporter room, shuttles… all of the major facilities on board.

The scenario began and we received a distress call from the civilian freighter, Kobayashi Maru.  They were completely defenseless, their engines had stalled and they’d drifted over the border into Klingon territory (what we now call ‘The Neutral Zone’ didn’t exist back then).  The freighter was carrying aid workers and medical supplies to a nearby colony suffering from some kind of plague.  There were thirty-seven people onboard, but it was made very clear that if these supplies were destroyed, an entire colony could perish.  No pressure.

I had my helmsman put the very tip of the bow of my ship on the line delineating the Federation border. The computer had displayed it as a giant jump-rope stretched out in space.  We weren’t close enough to transport the people or supplies.  It would be at least five minutes inside hostile territory before we could grab anyone.

I first hailed and took some time to speak with the captain of the freighter.  In hindsight, it was probably too much time. In the moment I felt like I was stalling the inevitable.  But I had to go by the rulebook and since there were no visible threats yet, I attempted to address their engineering situation from a safe distance.  It quickly became clear that this was not an issue we could solve remotely.  They were damaged beyond repair.  Just as my chief engineer advised me this was a futile course, a Klingon bird-of-prey decloaked off of freighter’s port bow.  

The Klingon vessel gave the Kobayashi Maru five minutes to get the hell out of their space before they would be destroyed.

Ah, the theatrics.  In real life the Maru would never have known what hit them, but, such was the simulation.

It was then that I had to think about my endgame.  Would I fire on a hostile, non-communicative vessel, risking destruction, to save the freighter, its’ crew and cargo - and thereby the diseased colony?  My heart was screaming that I had to fight.  But my head was telling me that my own people, and avoiding a potential war, came first. 

Negotiation, I knew, would be my strategy.  Everyone has a price, even Klingons, so what would it take for them to bargain with me? I wasn’t so naive as to think that they’d allow my vessel to cross over and tractor the Maru home, but with luck I might be able to buy them some time to escape.  The lives aboard were the most valuable thing about the Maru and I quickly gave up the ship and the cargo as lost.

While my communications officer tried in vain to raise the Klingon vessel, I advised the Maru to begin evacuating into escape pods.  They fervently reminded me that they’d need more than five minutes to make it across, a fact which I was desperately aware.

It was then that I solidified my course of action.  I had my op’s officer load data onto a chip for me - locations of our previous sentry-posts, some outdated command codes, that kind of thing.  At two minutes until the Maru’s deadline, three more birds-of-prey decloaked.  

Things were looking grim.

I left my crew with orders to beam out as many of the escape pods as they could, but to forget about me and to not – under any circumstances – cross into Klingon territory, and then I left the bridge.

As fortune would have it, I had been studying Klingon phrases that morning.  Though it would probably be useless, my strong suit was never languages, I practiced them as I ran down the corridor to the shuttle bay.  

I strapped in and did about five seconds of a pre-flight check.  Though, I wasn’t physically going anywhere, the sim shuttle played along. I piloted across the border, immediately broadcast on all frequencies so they wouldn’t miss it, and pronounced in my best Klingon – “Don’t fire.  I have. You need.”

I was almost sure that my simulation would be over.  I’d be dead, the Maru, destroyed.  But to my surprise, the Klingons responded verbally instead of tactically.  Their captain appeared on my screen.  And thank god the universal translators kicked in.

“Federation Scum,” he said. I’ll never forget the sound of his voice.  Thick and harsh, and his face dark as night with razor teeth and a scowl that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up.  

“We squash you as a ghew.”  

Apparently the translator didn’t know the word ‘bug’.

At this point my entire goal was to keep him talking.  The longer we talked, the more time I bought for the escape pods.

I proudly waved my chip into the air.  “I’m not willing to sacrifice my ship,” I said.  “And I will not fight you and start a war this day.  But, fair is fair.  If you let the escape pods cross safely, I’ll trade you valuable information, my shuttle, and myself.  And you may keep the contents of the stranded freighter.”

Perhaps I had given up too much, too soon - a fact that I would later think about.  But again, my first priority had to be the lives.  I would bargain with whatever else I could to save as many as I could.

The Klingon narrowed his broad eyes.  “We do not negotiate.”  He replied in perfect, over-dictated standard.  If I haven’t made this clear already, he was terrifying.

“I’m not allowed to negotiate with you either,” I said, bravely.  “But, those lives are valuable to us.  And I’m willing to bend the rules to ensure their safety.”  I paused a moment, made myself straighter and challenged, “It would be foolish not to at least see what I’m offering.  You’re not a fool, are you?”  He grunted at me, pointing his finger at what I assumed was his weapons officer, ready to blow me to bits, then I interjected as a last ditch effort, “Where is the honor in blowing up innocent, defenseless escape pods? It seems stupid to me, to destroy something of value.  You’re not honorless and stupid, are you?”

Yes, I know. I pushed it bigtime.

But, I was also keeping an eye on my secondary screen.  The pods were nearing the point where they could be beamed to safety. Unfortunately, with only one transporter room, the operation would be time consuming.  I needed at least another five minutes, which I was sure would be four minutes too long.

“I’ll fly to your shuttlebay if I have your word that you will let them go.”  I prodded.

The Klingon spit on the floor.  I guessed that was as good as I was going to get.

With one shot he took out my shields.  I’m pretty sure I stopped breathing. 

The next thing I knew, the data chip had been beamed out of my hands.  I saw it appear with the captain where he handed it to another officer.  At this point, my crew had begun transporting escapees to safety.  I think they managed six people before the Klingons realized my data was a scam, then they blew me, the Maru, and the rest of the pods to oblivion.

The end of the exam was not my finest moment, the shuttle rocked and everything went black.  Before I exited, I took a moment, let go a deep breath.  It was over.

My mock-crew members congratulated me with feigned praise and pats on the back, some whispered that I should go get a drink.  Then they moved on to the next cadet victim.

I walked around campus for the rest of the day feeling pretty well like a failure.  When dinner time came, I cancelled on Gabriel in favor of sitting under a tree where I remained until the stars came out.  He joined me there a few hours later, when he had started to worry.

I did a lot of thinking under that tree.  About what decisions I could have made differently.  About what it meant to be a leader.  About how any one of us might wake up in the morning and die by the afternoon.  There were other, more personal revelations I prefer to keep to myself.  But I will say that taking the exam, and then watching the recording, and discussing it with my advisor was the first step in a lot of steps that lead me to be the admiral I am today.

When it really mattered, I kept my cool.  I didn’t bargain with anything more than I was willing to lose.  I didn’t fly in on a half-cocked notion that I could blaze my way to victory.  I was… proud of my performance, eventually.  And more confident than I expected.  I realized that I wasn’t at a detriment just because I didn’t have the tactical skills of some of my peers, and that instead, my psychology training gave me an intuitive, compassionate edge.

Years later when I was asked to join the ranks of command, it was my Kobayashi Maru that made the decision for me.  I guess it wasn’t that bad of a day after all.

[athyrabunlord]

Here’s my reply post to @argentien’s lovely feedback for [LLSHP AU’s Interlude 2], and once again, this is put under the cut~  (not just due to spoilers but because athyra rambles too much blah blah blah XD!!!)

XD indeed I’ve been hinting Delphinus cuz Kanan and Mari (and kanamari) unfortunately don’t have that much of a role/scene in the story so far. However, their story would only be written after I complete the main one, since it’s a prequel/takes place prior to the main one.

I’ve always thought of KananMari as good parents sisterly friends for Ruby, older sister-figures who aren’t quite her ‘Onee-chan’ or ‘friends’ either. All those blank, unshown years in canon... gad, if only we could see more tidbits! I cannot see Dia leaving her bby sister alone in the house when she’s out on adventures with the incorrigible Awashima duo (unless ofc, she considered it too dangerous for Ruby to come along). Anyway, yes, so I try to build on and characterize their relationship based on this. I see Kanan and Mari being shit friends to Dia like canon while pampering Ruby because they care about the Kurosawa sisters, but also understand there will always be this intangible distance between them that prevents the two from being blunt(?) to Ruby like they do to Dia.

Thanks for the encouragement! I invest most of my efforts in characterization, especially for AUs like this. OOC is an intermediate turn-off for many people, myself included, so I try my best to make everything they do or say believable given the circumstances.

Grandpapa Kurosawa is a scary man. A formidable wizard whose personality resembles a combination of Barty Crouch Sr., Lucius Malfoy and Rufus Scrimgeour from HP. So... yes, that’s a very difficult home environment to grow up in. Understand that the Kurosawa Estate is very big, there are several Branch families that live there, hence some deviations are overlooked (such as Dia’s private wing when she’s older) and why Ruby isn’t under constant surveillance, allowing Kanan and Mari to slip through the house-elves’ guard. As Carbonado is told from Riko’s POV, I did not dive too much into how the House of Kurosawa is like, only showing what Riko perceives in the short time she’s there (and that’s only within Dia’s private wing too). More about the Kurosawas in Arc 3 though! (after all, both Dia and Ruby belong to that House)

RubyMaru bond is just as vital as the platonic parts of YoshiRuby and YoshiMaru. That unfortunately couldn’t be showcased more in the main story in Yoshiko’s POV, as the two Puffs are in a different House and do spend more time together without Yoshiko. So yes, that scene is intended to show a slice of how Ruby and Hanamaru’s life, and how the House of Hufflepuff is compared to House of Slytherin. Hanamaru first helped with Ruby’s new hairstyle, the cutesy pigtails, to encourage Ruby to try to find her new place here at Hogwarts instead of continuing to be just a Kurosawa Pureblood. Given what’s happened in the main story, Ruby decided to revert to her old hairstyle (letting her hair down) at the end of this interlude since she’s made peace with what she had to do, and vows to ‘wait’ for her best friend’s return.

\CYR/ \I love CYaRon!/ Not gonna lie, kinda biased towards them because CYR is my fav subunit and it’s unfortunate I’m unable to showcase them (and You & Chika) more in the main story. I definitely did invest in their scene quite a bit, to make Chika’s dialogues to sound like Chika, and ditto for You. took several rewrites Like Ruby said, she’s not sure why the duo are so attached to her, and she doesn’t fully understand her own fondness for them either, but some times, the simpler the better. Not everything requires a reason or explanation, it just is. Quoting Chika (from Ch11 I think? oi author how dare you don’t remember), “They are just meant to be friends!”

XDDDD The Gourmet Report drama track slayed me back then. Hilarious af I can’t. But yes, in terms of canon, they’re a pair I have trouble imagining interacting in any media (I mean we have rare stuff like You-Maru in the manga and Kanan-Yoshiko in SID), so that small tidbit in S2ep4 was a pleasant surprise, when Riko and Ruby ran away from the hungry seal and Dia saves the day bless that scene srsly bless that scene. Ahem, that said, given the circumstances in this LLSHP AU, I’ve always wanted to show a scene with just Riko and Ruby. Riko’s only ever shown her ‘vulnerable’ side to Dia, as well as Kanan and Mari to an extent. Here, once again, she’s shown as uncertain because she values Ruby’s opinion of her and Dia, hoping the younger sister would accept them especially knowing how important Ruby is for Dia. Ruby realizes and acknowledges that, hence she happily gives them her blessing.

Yes Yoshiko is deeeeeense. Indeed, in the main story, she still has no idea Kanan and Mari are a couple lmfao. Given the situation now, ofc she wouldn’t be able to notice, but even back in Arc1-2, she really, really has no idea. She spent the majority of Arc1 thinking KananxMaru is a possibility while being teased and spun around in circles by the shiny cat Animagus, so yup, Yoshiko is clueless.

Ruby wasn’t told about kanamari - she just knows XD and fully accepts them for who they are. Ruby definitely noticed the YoshiMaru early on (as early as ch4) and tries to be helpful. She loves Hanamaru and Yoshiko , her two best friends, and their feelings seem mutual, so there’s no reason not to help out <3

Dia and Ruby have been unable to truly interact as how normal siblings do most of their lives, but they’re still able to feel each other’s love. They just never had the chance, so when they have the opportunity to do so in the Room of Requirement, the bond manifests easily because, it’s always been there.

I try not to show too much of the aftermath in the last scene of this interlude because, it’s still an interlude and not a ‘main chapter’. Hence, all those hints and minimum description of post-ch14. More will be shown in ch15 ofc. The House of Kurosawa invested too much in Dia as the heiress to disown her outright, hence the withdrawal from Hogwarts and the house arrest to see if she’s still ‘salvageable’, if she could still be corrected and molded again. Had the same situation happened with Ruby, then she wouldn’t have been given such lenience. Like she mentioned, she would’ve become one of the many blacked-out names on their family tree.

Dia and Ruby, in spite of the heavy responsibilities and stifling expectations they had to endure, are proud of their lineage and would do anything to protect the Kurosawa honor. Unless, of course, the choice is between their family name and their precious sibling. Ruby’s made such resolve, thus she’s able to ironically summon a Patronus that represents her family.

Welp, the two interludes have always been outlined, but the original plan was to upload them after finishing the main story, to fill in the gaps and whatnot, but as I’ve said when I uploaded Carbonado, I cannot wait that long LOL and it adds to the story more if I post the interludes where they’re supposed to be. So... yes, maximum pain effect is intended. It’s a good breather for me as a writer too, to write another character’s POV.

Further to above, yes there’s always been a scene between Ruby and Hanayo planned. I did say there wouldn’t be any big teacher-student interactions in the story - hence only a Maki-Yoshiko scene in ch13, as a flashback, and here Hanayo-Ruby within the Interlude. The main story would not have that, though there will be more Professor cameos in Arc3, given the situation (that the investigators from the Ministry allow the remaining Aqours members to retain their freedom as regular students only if the staff keep an eye on them).

As said somewhere (or did I? don’t remember lmao oi author pls) in Ch13′s upload, All-Stars did prompt me to ‘upgrade’ the Maki-Yoshiko scene from simple narration to actual dialogue-interactions. In HP, there have been meaningful moments between Professor and student too, so that’s what I intend to do here for Ruby. She does need a maternal figure and a refreshing outsider view of her situation. μ’s student days... *far away look* I hope I’ll get the chance to showcase them after the main story. As hinted in ch9, they did start the Yule Ball competition XD

As said in my A/N of this Interlude, it only had 5 bullet-point outline like this:

pre-story, kanamari & ruby at kurosawa house, the patriarch and the black jaguar

post ch3, house of hufflepuff! maru and ruby, pigtails and yoshiko

post ch7, \CYR/, quidditch, \CYR/, Chika being chika You being You

mid ch11, RikoRuby bonding, carbonado’s meaning, DiaRuby

post ch14, Greenhouse with Prof rice, YoshiRuby scene with black jaguar patronus and wingardium leviosa

These grew in to the 10k interlude... Orz very minimal points but most of the stuff’s in my head so I just needed these keywords as reminder XD;;;;

And yes I OP’d my rice bby cuz she’s mah bby!!! Hanayo, as stated on her profile, prepares for a gourmet feast monthly with produce cultivated from the Greenhouse. She’s been prepping for sweet potatoes, knowing Ruby likes them and meant to bring those to the Infirmary for her and Hanamaru. just so happens Ruby is at the Greenhouse, so Professor Koizumi gives the sweet potatoes to her after baking them with a spell. Herbology was never explored or showcased much in HP, so I took liberties for Hanayo to use spells that would help the growth of plants (hence the extending vines) etc. It’s also why I chose to give her a staff instead of wants like other chars, because she’s more attuned to Earth than anyone.

Ah, I’ll digress on commenting on the YoshiRuby scene. Yes, Ruby does sense something off, but Yoshiko is closed off.

Yes Ruby made a girlfriend in Hakodate I’m so proud of her, unfortunately no Saint Snow cameo in the main story as explained in this post here OTL

My bby woobie is strong, she’s gone through a lot and grew up so much, no longer the uncertain, meek Kurosawa secondborn, but a Black Jaguar sworn to protect her territory, her friends-family, and is ready to hunt.*also has maternal pride but thankfully I’m not old enough to be her mom LOL*

This interlude is the longest chapter yes, though that’s actually Carbonado - I just had to split in two parts because it got too long XDDDD

In conclusion, thanks again for your lovely feedback, it’s always so encouraging to hear what readers think, especially when you notice the little details and nuance here and there. Glad you like the early Xmas gift though! I hope I can finish ch15 before Xmas *crosses fingers* Please look forward to Arc3!

[valriety]

SDV: Bachelorette Physical Touch HCs

Post Type: SFW, Fluff, Platonic/Romantic x Reader, Mentions of Family In Haley, Emily, Penny, Maru, AND Abigail.

Characters: Haley, Penny, Maru, Leah, Emily, and Abigail.

GN Reader (You/Yours).

Hiya again! As promised, here is the second installment of my physical touch HCs with the Bachelorettes. Also, all characters would ask before touching!

'SDV: Bachelor Physical Touch HCs' can be found here.

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Haley:

Not the biggest fan, and prefers when people ask before touching her.

Her favourite is handholding, but she also doesn't mind hugs. Prefers fleeting touches, like those you get when you briefly brush past someone.

HATES having her hair touched, not even because she styles it, she just hates how it feels.

Behind closed doors, Haley and Emily will intentionally tease/rile eachother up - this never causes any problems as they're both pretty aware of eachother's physical boundaries. Alex and her will often meet each other in the middle with their physical affection.

Also really likes doing makeup and nails! Let Seb do her nails once, and was pleasantly suprised when they ended up being one of her favourite sets ever! Has a photo on her socials.

If you're friends, one of the first big gestures she'll make is offering to do your nails - even if it's just a clean up and clear coat. Will want to take a photo of them if they turn out cute.

If she develops a crush on you, she'll make an effort to hug you even more. She'll also invite you over sometime to take photos together, and will want to make a whole production out of it - makeup, nails, snacks, and cute matching outfits to boot.

May even let you help her with her hair. This is a very exclusive club.

Wants to match nails and outfits with you casually too, because she thinks it'll look cute when you hold hands and walk together <3

Penny:

Really likes it, and is quite used it due to being friends with Sam and teaching Jas, Vincent, and Leo.

Her favourites are high-fives and giving headpats, but REALLY likes being picked up. Something about being up that high is really fun to her. Hardly ever happens though, and doesn't know how to ask.

Holds the children's hands when she picks them up/drops them off - and often finds herself in the middle of the children fighting for who gets to hold her hands next time.

Closest with Sam and Maru, though whilst Sam's affection is more general, Maru's is more directed. The pair will often be seen hugging and leaning on eachother as they read books.

Alex is her only friend who realised she likes being picked up, and will offer sometimes when they hang out together. Not close with Pam in regards to physical touch at all.

If you're friends, she'll give you high-fives and headpats all the time, especially when she's proud of you. Will also want to read books close together with you.

The type to fix your outfit up subconsciously - brushing leaves from your hair, or fixing your shirt tag if it's out.

If she has a crush on you, she'll make an effort to see what kinds of physical affection you like best, and do those more.

Will be so incredibly happy if you try to pick her up, and may even try to reciprocate <3.

Maru:

Loves it! Unlike her brother, she doesn't share his sensory issues or touch adverseness. Still prefers that only her close friends and family touch her though.

Her favourites involve her leaning on someone, like resting her head on her friend's shoulders, or their laps. Knows a lot about pain and pressure points, so will often be seen massaging her friend's hands subconsciously or helping them with hard to reach knots.

Closest to her parents and Penny in terms of physical touch. Gets hugs from Robin and shoulder pats from Demetrius, when she does something they're proud of. Hugs Penny everytime they meet up, but they're also just pretty comfortable with eachother in general.

Misinterprets Harvey and Sebastian's anxiety towards touch as simply not liking it, so even though they're semi-close, it doesn't happen often.

If you're friends, it won't take her long to warm up to you. Will talk about her day while she leans on you, and if you come over to help out with any of her projects, she'll brush her fingers against yours as you pass her tools.

If she develops a crush on you, she'll start craving your touch a lot more, but she'll also worry that she'll be too obvious and give everything away.

As a compromise, she's taken to surprising you and sneaking up on you from the back whenever you two meet up. Likes giving you a hug then, and hiding her face in your shoulder if she gets embarrassed at all.

Wants to give you a kiss on the cheek right after she gives you a surprise hug too. Thinks it'd be cute if you got flustered.

Leah:

She doesn't really care honestly. She'll crave it occassionally, but otherwise, it's hardly ever on her mind. Pretty casual.

Unlike the other bachelors and bachelorettes, who have a few touches they like to give and a few they like to recieve, Leah is the type to enjoy it because she knows others get something out it. Tends to do to others what they do to her. Out of everything, though, she really likes when Elliot does her braid.

Closest with Elliot and Emily in terms of physical touch, doing eachother's hair, and having fun getting drunk together in the saloon. Pretty casual with the rest of her friends too.

Will go and pet the animals at Marnie's ranch from time to time as well, she mostly likes how the fur feels on her skin, but also how eventually they started recognising her and coming to her for pets.

If you're friends, she'll establish a pretty casual relationship with you very early on. Will keep in mind what you seem to enjoy, and will try out things she knows others like, to see your reaction. Makes her happiest when you're happy.

If she develops a crush on you, she might start desiring that connection even more and go out of her way to see you more, so she has more excuses to touch you.

Does want her feelings reciprocated, so she'd love it if she ever got you to blush or fluster <3

Emily:

Opposite of her sister, she's very outgoing and friendly, and rivals Sam with how much she thrives off of it.

Loves anything playful, like ruffling up other's hair, or gentle play fighting. Also really likes hugs, but especially likes it when others initiate these. She's the type to stim and sway gently from side to side, so she loves it whenever someone else casually joins her.

She's closest with Haley, though they'll both pretend to hate it - Haley because she's embarrassed that she likes it, and Emily because she thinks it's funny that Haley's so embarrassed about it.

She's also pretty close to her patrons at the saloon, and will often actively engage in conversations throughout the night. Gives Gus a handshake at the end of every shift.

If you're friends, it's safe to assume that physical touch will become a large part of your friendship. She'll often ask if she can tailor or mend your clothes, and will show you round about how it'll look with you in front of a mirror. Gives you a short hug across the counter when you first arrive at the saloon if you're really good friends.

If she has a crush on you, you actually won't really notice any differences with how she touches you. A lot of it is internal for her, like how much she's looking forward to it, or happy it made her feel. But if you're observant, you might notice her smiling a little brighter afterwards.

Really wants to take a nap with you whilst cuddling sometime <3

Abigail:

Because of her interest and engagement with adventuring and fighting, she's become a little jumpy over the years to people suddenly touching her.

Doesn't trust most people to respect her boundaries, but is fine when asked first. Gets annoyed when other's choose to assume she doesn't like it, instead of trying to understand her.

Loves physical touch the most when it's active, like playfighting, or skipping whilst holding hands, but is always down for anything chill too, like cuddling.

Closest to Sam and Sebastian in terms of physical touch, for different reasons. Sam because he also really likes those active sorts of physical affection and can often match her energy and Sebastian because he's the most understanding of her touch-adversity and has a calmer physical touch pattern.

If you're friends, she'll probably start getting closer to you right after Sam does. She'll also playfully brag about you and the cool things you do if you have a close relationship, wrapping her arm around your shoulder, and proudly announcing your friendship to whoever will listen.

Freaks out when she realises she has a crush on you and suddenly doesn't know how to touch you anymore. Takes a pep talk from Sam (unhelpful), Sebastian (somewhat helpful), AND Caroline (finally some good advice) before she works things out.

Pretty obvious that she wants to touch you more after this, and will often make herself flustered and make excuses for it even if you don't point it out <3

A/N: That's all the physical touch headcanons done! Let me know if you enjoyed these :D

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[omgwtfdondake]

85 things about LL Sunshine S2 02

77. I feel like the title of the episode should have been ‘The Sound of the Leaky Roof’...

Oh, sad faces.

WHY IS THERE A CHANDELIER-?! Shiina: Because it’s Mari.

Ah so 100 students this time.

Tsk tsk Dia, nothing is impossible if you’re a school idol~

Chika jumps really high...

I think Shiina must have said more during the OP than anywhere else...

DIA’S SO PRETTY- calm down.

Wait I got distracted, what are they talking about? Songwriting?

Please stop having close-ups of Dia, it’s really distracti-

Okay, Riko works too.

Maru don’t just take people’s notebooks.

HAHAHHAHAHA CHIKA’S DOODLES OF RIKO ARE 10/10

THE DUCK FACE IS 11/10

Okay, that can’t be good for Chika’s back...

Oh yeah, the third years were idols before too.

Of course Dia took care of the costumes.

The Kurosawa sisters are powerful...

Look at the proud onee-san...

Oh no, don’t make it a competition...

This will only end terribly......

DIA IS SO GORGEO- shut up.

Oh? First years and third years? WILL I GET MY DIAMARU?!?!?

Yeah Mari’s rich.  Go to her hou-

HOW DO YOU KNOW KNOW MARI IS LOADED, MARU? Like... SHE LITERALLY OWNS THE DAMN SCHOOL?? HELLO??

Kanan and Dia look equally uninpresse-

DOES SHE HAVE A FUCKIN’ STATUE OF HERSELF MARI WHAT?!??

THat’s not a fuckin house?! THAT’S NOT EVEN A FUCKIN’ MANSION--

THAT’S A FUCKIN HOTEL RESORT OR SOMETHING???

THE DOOR HAS A DAMN EXIT SIGN-

Wow that is a literal tower of food.

Oh no I really wanna try macarons someday...

Yoshiko... sweetie... just eat the damn macaron- HAHAHAHHA

“What was that about?”

THERE’S POPCORN- wh-- WHO EVEN EATS POPCORN LIKE THAT?!

Are they watching the fuckin discrovery channel or something? WHat is that?

ALSO, Why is the screen so small even?  Shouldn’t Mari have a fuckin 90-inch plasma?

Dia taking charge is 12/10

Maru what? ‘Nothingness’? 

Dia’s “Hah?” and Mari’s “What?” was 13/10

....Hanamaru has been hanging out with Yoshiko far too much...

Oh no, Mari has an idea...

DID SHE JUST NINENBURIDESU AGAIN?!?!?? FUCK ME-

.................Rock hard.

I don’t know how I feel about Dia because totally okay with Mari’s taste in music..... Like don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against hard rock but like... Dia? Really?  idk...  itdoesntmatterthoughitjustprovesevenmoresheisbestgirl.

HAHAHHAAHHA poor baby first-years can’t handle the rock-

lel no worries Chika, I highly doubt you have to worry... about... yeah...

You can’t use rock for Aquarimu, Mari.  Who do you think you are, Saint Snow?

I kinda like how the idol-nerds are the mediators in this situation...

Ah yes, the dreaded miscommunication.

Ah... kouhai-senpai bonding.

Kanan no you do not bond with dodgeball-

ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU THROW AT FUCKIN’ MACH SPEEDS-

Yoshiko’s gonna die. She hasn’t even finished her... “chant” and I know she gon die.

OH RIP MARI GOT 3-COMBO-

“Stigma”

PLEASE GIVE ME SOME DIAMARU INTERACTION I BEG YOU-

Dia what.

Dia without her... hair things is.... interesting..

Yoshiko what the literal hell...

Convenient Maru censo-

CONVENIENT SHAMPOO CENSOR- OAJWUFEAHHAHAHHAHAH HOLY SHIT HAHAHAHHROTFLMAO I CANNOT THERE’S MY DIAMARU CONTENT I’M HERE FOR OH MY LORD.

Shiina: Hanamaru knew Dia was going to stand up so she moved the bottle. EXACTLY.

Hah, I love how Kanan, who is usually the one that’s wet and dripping all over the place, is the only one drying over this time.... This sentence reads... questionably.

Mari might have a resort, but Maru has a temple.

Oh, spoopy temple.

Spoopy Maru.

“Really?!”

Kanan is a scaredy-ca- Waht the fuck are you hugging, dolphin?!

Scared dolphin is 10/10

MARI’S FACE IS 20/10

HANAMARU HOW TF DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO GET YOUR HANDS ON PEOPLE’S NOTEBOOKS?!??

Oh? Who dat?

Oh, it cat.

“Zura?”

Relax, children pls, y’all are gonna be fine.

“So... bad...”

I feel like the title of the episode should have been  ‘The Sound of the Leaky Roof’...

Man, Sunrise and their shiny eyes-

AHHHHHHHHAUOWEFAWEFH; DIA LOOKS SO PRETTYYYYY FUCKKK YOUUUUUUUU I have a problem- AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

MORE DIAMARU AJO;IWJEFOwefo//chokes-

Chika what are you doing on the roof-

Shiina: YOURIKO!

Chika please don’t stare into the fucking sun-- that’s terribad for your eyes...

EVEN MORE OMINOUS PHONE-CALLS.

Wow these idol write-ups get too out of hand, too quickly ==;;

I don’t care. Look at her.  LOOK.