#even though I’m sure it was heightening his negative emotions

[musclesandhammering]

Oooh this is so interesting.

You’re one of the few people I’ve seen who also thinks that Thanos’s… mistreatment, let’s say- of Loki was more subtle. And I think Loki had a tad bit more agency than just being kidnapped and used as a slave.

I always describe it as Loki going in kahoots with the scariest mafia boss in the galaxy (Thanos ofc). Like he chose to “ally” with him and he willingly went along with his plan, but he was terrified of him all the while.

And if you add this layer- that Loki actually came to see Thanos as a father figure at a time in his life when he desperately needed one- then this scenario makes even more sense.

Like he was hurt and lost and pissed so he started up this unequal partnership with Thanos, and even though he got put through hell in his time working with him, he never tried to break their partnership because- along with having his pain and lostness and anger heightened by the mind stone- he also was loyal to Thanos and looked up to him in this really twisted way. I just-

Wow. Emotions.

Loki attacking earth like his frost giant ancestors before him (I wonder if thanos knew he was a frost giant btw)

Loki really went "if you won't accept me as an Asgardian, I'll be as obnoxiously Jotun as I can" and I respect him for it.

Alternatively, one could say that in his quest to destroy that part of his identity, he solidified it, but that's slightly less great 😬

I definitely think that Thanos knew he was a Frost Giant. I don't know if there's anything to really back it up in canon or if it's just my headcanons getting the best of me, but I get the feeling Thanos knows a lot about Loki and his life and his grievances. I feel like The Avengers worked out too well for it to have all been a coincidence. In his grief and his anger and his confusion, it makes perfect sense for Loki to have latched onto that desire for a throne and that need to get back at Thor by taking over his beloved Earth, and the fact that Thanos chose Loki specifically for this task makes me think that he knew that. I know it's the common theme among Loki stans to say that Thanos did nothing but torture him and was a monster through and through, but I like to think that Thanos's manipulation was more subtle than that, and that while the Mind Stone was leeching away at what little sanity he had left, Loki almost trusted him. Because he was so desperate for a father figure and we know Thanos likes to play The Dad™ to orphans (usually after making them orphans but maybe he makes exceptions for people who latch onto him like lost kittens) and I think Loki absolutely would have confided in him because he thought he'd finally found someone who cares. And I don't think he realized until it was all over and he was free from the Mind Stone's hold on him that it was a bad idea, and by that point, there was nothing he could do but watch the world burn.

[foreverisntenough]

‘OURS’

Summary: You were his and he was yours but what would it be like adding one more? Thrust into a whirlwind romance you never could’ve imagined that became your forever love. You continue building a new life across the pond with a very beautiful Scouser. A sequel to the ‘You’re Mine’ fic.

INDEX

Warnings: This series is 18+ and will contain fluff, suggestion, SMUT (unprotected sex,) pregnancy, parenting, mental health struggles, eating disorder, self doubt, body image issues, daddy kink, angst, alcohol consumption - not sure what else really… if i miss anything please lmk!

Note: Thank you for reading! Please be sure to like, comment, or message me what you think of the series! Try not to nitpick with any real pregnant/ baby logistics it’s better if you just read along happily :)

Chapter 25 - Honeymoon Heartthrob | ‘Ours’

word count - 9.8 k

Your dad had slid the New York Times under your door. He read it everyday and refused to switch to reading online but today you were thankful for that dated quirk of his. There was a short article in the latest issue announcing your nuptials, it was the first of a few publications your wedding was about to be in but this was particularly special and something you’d always dreamed of.  A Page Six article profiling societies happenings covering it had been traditional in your family, a New York dynastic family and layering Trent’s profession only heightened the focus on your wedding. 

“Good morning to the most beautiful wife.” Trent yawned sleepily running his hands down your bare back. You laid on his chest and woke up slowly the day after your wedding, tangled in bed dressed in nothing but bed sheets and morning sunlight. You hummed nuzzling your face further into him, loving the feeling of his warm skin on yours. 

“Morning, Mr. Alexander-Arnold.” You cooed with a tired giggle. He tilted his head inquisitively towards you. “Just wanted to say my surname.”  You smiled shyly, pulling yourself up his body using your arms draped around his neck, bringing your lips closer to his. 

“C’mere baby.” He whispered bringing you into a soft lazy kiss. His lips felt like heaven. Your lips pulled into an uncontrollable smile though mid kiss as you fell into a childish laugh. “What? What’s up with you, silly girl?” Trent asked as his own lips curled into his signature devastatingly handsome smile.

“This is weird…” you whispered to him ghosting your lips over his. “Like my husband is in my childhood home. I don’t know I can’t explain it.” You smiled back at him pretty sure you did a poor job explaining the really strange emotions you were experiencing this morning. Nothing was negative, things couldn’t be further from that but it just was crazy you had a husband now in this house, often when you entered through the doors you reverted back to feeling 16 again. “… and you’re hard right now too, T!” You giggled like a school girl blushing over the handsome boy in bed with a smug teasing grin.  

“Well, my wife isn’t wearing clothes so that’s really on you innit? You didn’t even bother with the t-shirt of mine that I know you packed, which by the way yes, I’m also aware you stole it, pretty girl and while you may be beautiful, theft doesn’t suit you.” He flashed you a cheeky smile and kissed the bridge of your nose. 

“Stoppp!!” You continued your childish giggles when Trent dropped his hands to the curve of your ass, kneading it, pushing your core further into him and unavoidably so you could feel him growing harder beneath you. 

“You’re on top of me!! What do you want me to do here!?!” He laughed holding you to his body.

“T! Our families are in the house right now!” You squealed childishly as if you didn’t enjoy the feeling of him. There would not be a single day of your life where you didn’t get the slightest bit of satisfaction from turning him on. To be fair, your parent’s house was massive. No one’s bedroom was remotely near the one you were staying in. There was an unspoken decision made to put you and Trent over in the south wing, everyone else staying in the north.

“Two things, beautiful. One, that’s never stopped you before, not even in the first week of knowing you and two, that definitely didn’t stop you last night.” His tone dropped down an octave and into a whisper as he began nibbling on your neck. You hummed in pure delight, letting your faux opposition drop. “Just be a good girl for me, yeah?” He cooed softly, running his tongue down your skin. He groaned as you started to work your hand up and down his length with some of your spit. 

“Just the tip, okay?” You cheekily teased knowing that was never going to happen. ‘Just the tip’ had never happened once in the years of your relationship and it definitely wasn’t going to start day one of your marriage. Trent rolled his eyes.

You had spoken to Bentley Brown from GQ, the man you had run into at the airport what felt like ages ago at this point and what had originally been discussed to be an article about yourself in GQ had escalated into into not only that, but another colleague of his had tacked on the idea to do a spread in Vanity Fair for an inside look into your wedding day. Deciding to give publications inside access to the biggest day of your life took a load of convincing but ultimately it did seem kind of cool and surreal that some of the largest publications in the world thought your day, Trent and yours love life was worth covering, you thought it was, of course, but the fact that they believed other people would want to read and have a look was wild. To say your Instagram following had grown in the last few years would be an understatement, so the intrigue about the wedding day was obvious. Although, you kept it all fairly under wraps. No one except those working the big day or attending it knew anything about it. That said, ‘coverage’ you allowed them was maybe a bit too big of a word, you allowed fairly minimal access to the more intimate moments, it was more like just having an additional camera crew around that weekend.  After your cheeky morning with Trent you had a photoshoot scheduled for said Vanity Fair piece. The shoot would take all day but it wasn’t so much of an inconvenience. You and Trent went to the beach early with the film crew, no one else, not even Teddy. It was a simple concept… you in a white bikini, Trent in linen trousers cuffed to avoid the water, and shirtless. Naturally they had pitched that you’d have a classic soccer ball, like the black and white octagonal ones to mess about with on the sand. It was playful and cute but also gave off a real luxury, old money vibe and you liked that you’d have the these photos forever, they’d be timeless. 

“Just a reminder that Bentley from GQ is coming to the house after our honeymoon for the like actual interview for his piece.” You cooed to Trent as you let a woman oil your legs for the photos. You assessed your body in the mirror as she worked the product in as the sun got higher in the day. The photographer nearly ready all the security and confidence you felt in your wedding drained. You felt it all drag out to sea with the crashing tides. 

“Yeah, I remember, baby. It’ll be great. Don’t look so nervous or remorseful about it. You won’t regret this. I wouldn’t let you do something that would hurt you.” He spoke softly coming to your side pressing a kiss to your cheek. A younger girl capturing content for social posts for the publication catching the interaction. 

“Do you mind giving us a minute?” You looked sheepishly around the room at everyone simply doing their jobs. You could feel a panic attack coursing through your veins, aggressively bubbling towards the surface and you did not care for that aspect of you to be captured. Trent placed his hand low on the small of your back and moved you away from the crowd of people. “T… I don’t look good. I don’t want to be photographed like this. Like I get the look. If I hear ‘young, fit, and sexy’ one more time I think I’m going to start crying.” Your body began to shake. That was part of the creative brief the photographer had been pushing. The fact that Trent was a professional athlete naturally it was going to be an element of the story but your fitness, your body type, your sex appeal for the masses was being really honed in. 

“C’mere sweetheart. You say the word, we call this whole thing, alright?” He whispered, pressing his nose to yours. You shut your eyes gently and let out a sigh and shook your head. “You look unreal, baby, honest. You know Ty has already spoken with both teams and in any interview, any of the photos they can’t mention your health, no postpartum, weight loss, fitness regimes, your body, it’s all off the table. If this, though...” He paused gesturing around you two out at the horizon where all the lighting for the shoot was being finalized. “This if it is upsetting, or it’s too much, you tell me, I'll be the fall guy, whatever you want, I will do for my beautiful girl, the most beautiful girl. I got your back, baby.” He flashed his signature toothy smile back to you. You pouted up at him as he swiped his thumb over your cheek. You dragged your hands down his bare chest and gripped his waist. You dropped your forehead to rest against him. 

“Thank you.” You whispered out quietly. “I’m sorry. I just don’t feel like I look good. It’s just a lot.” You embarrassedly admitted to Trent. He picked up your face by taking your chin in his hand. 

“You… are absolutely stunning. Every second of every day. Alright? Do you understand me?” He smiled before kissing your pouty lips. You’d be lying if his words didn’t make you feel a little better but it didn’t change your reflection. You went back and got ready for the shoot comforted by Trent but plagued by your anxieties.

“Where’s Jay and Judey? Where did they go?” Lauren cooed with a laugh pretending to look for both Jude and Jadon outside at your parent’s pool. A luxury in your life was always having someone who wanted to babysit Teddy for you if you were busy. Right now you had about 20 people who would but Lauren and Winnie took today along with Jadon and Jude. At the moment, their much too large frames were obviously hidden behind a tree although that wasn’t all that apparent to Teddy.

“Don’t knows!” Teddy yelped desperately helpless. “Win Win help!” She cried out with a huff starting to dislike the game they had begun playing ages ago. 

“Hmm... did you look over there?” Winnie giggled seeing Jadon shove Jude slightly more out into the open.

“Judey!!!” She squealed, running over to him. He laughed and scooped her up swinging her around.

“Ah! You found me, you’re too smart f’me Ted. You’re much better at this game than your daddy.” Jude joked with her. He had never played a hide and seek esc came with Trent to be fair but he’d take the opportunity to take a jab at him but also knowing it would elicit some sort of response from Teddy. 

“No Judeyy!” She humphed with a scowl. “My dada best. Dada is best!” She told Jude with some real vigor before he naturally had to concede to her puppy dog eyes. 

“Okay, okay, you’re right, fine. Dada can be the best.” He laughed rolling his eyes. He’d never convince her otherwise. Trent was everything to Teddy and in turn simply the best at everything across the board. She nodded with a proud smile. 

The following day you were laid out on the beach on a towel over the hot sand. Winnie laid next to you, Lauren and Jude in two chairs off to the side a little bit more in their own world. Trent was out in the ocean playing with Teddy and he looked glorious. The way his strong back muscles flexed in the sunlight that reflected off the water. The way the water ran down his tanned skin. It was a sight and on top of that seeing your little girl giggling away in his hold as he tossed her around in his muscular arms had you just about drooling and evidently Winnie understood the attraction to the scene in front of you two. 

“Somedays I think I get the pregnant thing.” She cooed honestly tilting her head a little bit and letting her sunglasses drop further down the bridge of her nose to get a clearer view of Trent and Teddy. Jadon was up back at the house with Marcel and Tyler so she assumed she’d be in the clear to make the comment. You furrowed your brow and let out a snide laugh. Winnie wasn’t exactly looking to start a family anytime soon and she made that clear from her recent purchase of Plan B this month but to say she didn’t think about being a mum at all at some point would be a lie. 

“That’s honestly so sexy.” Lauren chimed in from further away overhearing the conversation, her actions reflecting Winnie’s, the pair of Celine sunglasses of Jude’s she had on falling down her nose just the same. Jude rolled his eyes unimpressed with the entirety of the topic and definitely with Lauren’s interjection. He reached over and moved his her sunglasses back up her nose to their place. She laughed and kissed the inside of his palm.   

“Go get mama!” Trent cooed plopping a soaking wet Teddy onto her own two feet on the sand after he plucked her out of the ocean 20 or so minutes later from your conversation watching them.

“Oh wow!” You let out a breathy laugh when that very wet but cute little girl ran up to you and laid directly flat on top of your back pushing your body further into your towel unexpectedly. “Hi my beachy girl.” You cooed, continuing your laughter, very aware the weight on top of you could only be your Teddy.

“Mama!”  She giggled as she wiggled more, getting comfortable wrapping her now sandy arms and hands uncomfortably around your neck. 

“You didn’t want to dry off? Daddy didn’t want to get you a towel?” You asked Teddy but more so craning your neck to find Trent. Teddy was smart obviously but she didn’t know being wet and sandy would be a bother. She just wanted a cuddle, Trent… Trent knew what he was doing. 

“No, mama.” She unfortunately adorably answered you with a giggle. You shook your head and pulled her to your side before sitting yourself up right a little more. 

“Of course he didn’t.” You finally locked eyes with him and shot him a glare purposefully brushing some sand off of you to emphasize your point of feigned annoyance. He winked back at you and you simultaneously loved and hated that your heart faltered. “Want to tell me what you and daddy have been doing in the water for so long?”  You asked her pulling Teddy into your lap. She clumsily sat on your thigh and smushed her cheek against your boobs. 

“Errmmmm.” She drew out her moment of ponder with a cheeky smile looking at Trent for assistance. He just shrugged with a goofy smile silently telling her to keep thinking. “Oh! Mama! Dada and I swimmy with fwishies.” She yelped excited to relay her activity. God knows what that really entailed because you were in the north east of the united states it wasn’t really a swimming with fish type of place but Trent was imaginative and silly with her so despite your adult realities you knew they were having fun. 

“Yeah, Ted’s a better swimmer than the fishies, aren’t you?” Trent cooed squatting to your level next to your towel. Your eyes immediately and unavoidably darting to his crotch. You bit your lip and tried to avert your gaze  but Trent was faster sucking at his teeth in mocking disapproval for the raunchy direction of your gaze while you were talking about swimming with your daughter. 

“Dada! Go wawa ‘gan.” Teddy pleading looked to Trent with big brown eyes and batting eyelashes. She fussed in your arms so you let her go and allowed her to stand up. 

“Okay, want to go back?” Trent asked with a fun smile back to her. It made you melt how good he was with her. It didn’t matter how tired, how annoying, or whatever it was,  the ask was, if it would make Teddy happy he’d do it. You pulled at her ruffly pink one piece swimsuit before letting her scamper off adjusting the bottom bit around her bum. 

“Coming back for you.” Trent whispered, leaning forward into your ear. His warm minty breath hitting the shell of it sending a shiver down your spine causing you to lose focus on your task at the moment. He kissed your skin a few times and not in a silly lovey way, it was in a ‘I saw you staring at my cock and now I want to give it to you’ type way. Your lips curled into an embarrassed but excited smile. 

“Tay mama!” Teddy huffed annoyed that your hands were still holding her back by the fabric of her swimsuit. You laughed and apologized finally fixing it to your satisfaction and letting go tapping her cute bum setting her off and on her way to run to Trent. 

The sun was close to setting almost entirely, it was far past when you should've eaten dinner but you just couldn’t bring yourself to leave the beach and definitely not leave your current position laying on Trent’s chest on a towel. You were still awaiting to have your fun with Trent, but at the moment the feeling of the warm sun, Trent’s skin, the terry cloth… and all of a sudden tiny grubby hands pulling at your arm draped across him interrupted it all.

“Mama share!!” Teddy yelped standing above you and Trent in a huff. She had been preoccupied playing in the sand and building castles with Marcel but per usual once she had clocked you and Trent were together without her, her focus shifted fast as did her emotions, they transitioned straight into envy.

“No, sorry. Dada is mine.” You annoyingly and cheekily cooed back to Teddy flicking your eyes to her then back closed knowing it would rile her up. Who Trent belonged to was becoming a bigger and bigger debate in your home especially as Teddy was getting better and better at expressing herself. 

“You’re so greedy. She’s barely two. Learn to share” Trent whispered in your ear joking with you smiling through his words, his juicy lips moving pressed against your forehead. “Ted, come here, baby.” Trent cooed, pulling Teddy’s hand off your arm and over to him. She awkwardly stepped over you and plopped herself to take a seat on one of Trent’s thighs. Your bodies were a jumbled Alexander-Arnold family mess.

“Mmm, I love daddy the most.” You hummed teasingly before you made the beloved ‘mwah’ sound kissing Trent’s cheek. You kissed him, keeping your eyes locked on Teddy in mockery. Her brow furrowing shocked you were being so blatant, usually you conceded to her quicker than this.  

“No! Mama, no!” She yelled moving herself a little further up him and letting her body fall forward onto Trent’s chest attempting but unable to wrap her arms around him in a hug. She stretched her neck out and pushed her lips towards him echoing your ‘Mwah’ noise. You threw your leg over his other closet to you, the free one Teddy was not on and subtly rolled hips only gaining his attention obviously. 

“Baby, relax.” Trent laughed, running one of his hands over his face covering his massive smile. It was a dumb game of possession but of course he loved the attention and the cheek of it all. 

“Dada!” Teddy squealed once more reaching for his face with her hands adamant she received a kiss in return. He of course gave it to her. He cupped her cheek and gently pecked her identical pout. “My dada.” She stuck her tongue out at you, wrapping her arms around his neck. Your jaw slacked in offense but you couldn’t stop your laugh. What had Trent done to your little girl that she was that competitive and not only that but that sore of a winner.

“Daddy pay attention to me too!”  Winnie teased watching the tug of war. Teddy whipped her head around with frustration Winnie was piling on. She ran over to her with a huff yelling an adamant ‘nooo.’ 

“You just need me so badly, yeah? Marrying you wasn’t enough for you.” Trent cheekily rolled himself over top of you. He steadied himself above you resting on his forearms before dropping his body weight onto you squishing your boobs against him, to his delight. He pressed messy kisses all over you before gripping his hands behind your neck and pulling you into an aggressive make out. For a moment where you forgot where you were caught in the haze of his kiss. 

“Okay, okay get off!” You giggled pulling away from the kiss with a stupid smile after you heard Lauren whistle making fun of you two. 

“What mama and dada doing?” Teddy asked Winnie, turning and pointing at you two nearing on rolling around in the sand. Winnie pickled her gaze off her and glanced towards you. 

“They’re gross. Your parents are gross." Winnie laughed, shaking her head with a smug smile, jokingly covering Teddy’s eyes with his hands. 

“Alright, fine, fine. Can I say my teenage boy comment of the day though.” Trent cooed rolling off your side bringing his nose to push against yours.   

“Shoot, T.” You giggled brushing your nose left to right against his giddily excited to hear what he had to share. It was kind of a running joke you’d fallen into lately. You had made fun of a cheeky comment Trent had said to you in passing ages ago that it was like something a teenage boy would say so he now would preface his juvenile comments.

“Your boobs look so good in this.” He whispered slipping two fingers under the strap of your bikini top. His warm hands sliding against your skin. “Just want to peel this off.” He quietly spoke just to you. You felt butterflies fill your stomach. His dragged his fingers up under the straps material towards the tie behind your neck.

“Mama!” Teddy yelled wrangling herself away from Winnie deciding that she was not done trying to prove her point who Trent’s was not happy his focus was soley on you.

“Her timing is so good.” Trent whispered to you pressing a chaste kiss to your lips. Your lips curled into a cheeky grin. You gripped his face with one hand preventing him from turning his attention to a running Teddy. 

“Can take this off later, daddy.” You hushed with a subtle wink before pushing off his chest to stand yourself up. “Come here my cutie girl. We can share daddy, okay?” You cooed to Teddy scooping her up in your arms spinning her around loosely. She nodded with a 'tay' wrapping herself around you. Trent puffed out some pent up air taken aback by your comment before standing up having to adjust his shorts.  

“Do you think we should just bring her?” You cooed softly in the night sitting on Trent’s lap around a bonfire. It was late half the house had turned in, half of you still outside, Teddy learning about the art of the perfect s’more from Tyler. You watched them with a smile but you felt a tinge of guilt and sadness thinking about leaving for your honeymoon without Teddy. 

“Baby… she’s our whole life, you know how important she is and you’re the most amazing, sweet, beautiful mummy to her but please give me my week of just my Y/N.” He cooed with an exaggerated pout.

“I can do that.” You turned to face him more, still seated on his lap. His hands slipping from your waist up your exposed back and under the sides of your top moving cheekily closer up to under your boobs.  

“I want days of the most ridiculously small bikinis, I want these tits in my face all day…” he hummed, squeezing his hands around your ribs momentarily trying to be coy. He pulled you back while moving his lips closer to your ear. “I want my sexy, slutty, horny Y/N just for me for a whole week please. Let me fuck you all day on the beach. Let me eat you out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I’m begging you.” He whispered with a deep breath imagining it all.

“You don’t have to beg, T.” You quietly giggled. “Trust me I will be there, all of that guaranteed. It’s not that big of a shift to make. I have something to ask though…” You whispered back to him brushing your thumb over his high cheekbone staring back into his big brown mahogany eyes. He hummed inquisitively interested in what your question would be. 

“Well you’ve never fucked your wife on a flight before so I was just wondering…” You giggled with a whisper.

“Baby, baby, baby.” Trent cut you off gripping your face with one hand smushing your cheeks together.  “You’re mad if you think that wasn’t already happening Mrs. Alexander-Arnold.” He pressed a kiss to your lips and you giggled shutting your eyes. The light from the fire pit warmed your face and as Trent watched your nose scrunch up from your sweet laugh, he knew that he made the best decision of his life marrying you. 

You boarded your flight to the Amalfi Coast for your honeymoon and eagerly cuddled up on Trent’s seat with him wrapping yourself around him. You took a selfie video on your Instagram stories pinching his cheek and kissing his face repeatedly with the text overlay ‘finally a holiday with my husband’ and posted it to your close friends… or so you thought. You did not. The internet set aflame knowing that the wedding had finally happened.

“Ready for tomorrow?” Trent cooed nuzzling into you on the plane tucked under a blanket with you sleepily holding on to him. 

“What’s tomorrow?” You whispered back, running your hand over his head. You looked at him with questioning eyes because while some days of your honeymoon were pre planned and reservations were made, others you just left blank to go with the flow of the day and relax. Day one was set to be that but evidently not according to Trent. 

“A day for you, organized by me.” He informed you with a sweet smile that you thanked your lucky stars you got to see everyday. It was so beautiful. 

“Mmm interesting. What’s that entail?” You hummed moving your arms to drape over his shoulders. Shifting your position from the side of him to perched yourself on top of his lap, straddling his waist. You tilted your head slightly to admire his perfectly crafted face and waited for his explanation. 

“Everything you love, baby.” He answered you with a cunning grin. You raised your eyebrows. It was really sweet he had taken the time to think of making plans for you two as a surprise but it did run through your mind quite quickly that you hoped you packed outfits for whatever his plans consisted of. 

“So just a day with you?” You teased him, leaning forward to kiss his shoulder. A day with Trent was everything you loved. Anything with him was always amazing. The best day ever but again and again in different fonts. 

“Well…” he laughed. “I’m a given, I’m included in the day’s package but just trust me, alright?” He cooed and you nodded. Once you had landed, you made your way to a luxe hotel nestled on the rocky coastline of the Mediterranean. When you first broached ideas of where to go for your honeymoon it was a little bit of a joke that you should go to Italy because you went to an Italian restaurant on your first date and had told Trent it was ‘regular.’ He had said he wanted to honeymoon somewhere 'regular' so he could just be with you, focus on you, not have to worry about anything but it wasn’t a joke for long when you started researching and found this surreal hotel to stay in. Your suite was secluded and discreet with large windows overlooking the sea. It was a chic space with a few rooms, a lemon grove, terrace, and pool, just for you two. You were ready for bed after your travels but of course not without some cheeky fun in the shower with your new husband first.

 

“Up! Let’s go, wife.” Trent popped out from his morning shower and tapped your ass a few times as you laid sleepily in the king sized bed surrounded by morning light.

“T…” you groaned. You could hear his snickering giggle. You rolled your eyes but couldn’t hide the smile it evoked on your face. It was quite possibly your favorite sound in the whole world. “What we’re not going to do is call me ‘wife’ again.” You quipped with a teasing yet sleepy smile. 

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry.” He laughed between a few kisses to your lips coming to sit on the edge of the bed next to your body. You knew he was kidding but so were you. “My beautiful, perfect, love of my life… can you please get up so we can get our day started and I can dote over you."

“That’s much better.” You giggled, kissing him before slinking off the bed and grabbing his hand pulling him behind you. He looked at you confused for a moment. “Well, you’re not going to let the beautiful and perfect love of your life shower alone are you?” You asked with a sly expression continuing to pull him into the ensuite. 

“Nah, I would never.” Trent responded, dropping the towel he was still in. He was still slightly damp but that wasn’t going to stop your morning plans. You had no intention of showering alone on this trip. Your day was perfect. Trent finally caved and did a pilates class with you on a rooftop, private of course, not a shot Trent was going to subject himself to embarrassment of not being spectacular at something out in the public eye but he’d do it for you. He wasn’t bad to his credit but he more so just was enjoying his view and it wasn’t the seaside he was so enamored with, it was you. You sported a Nike x Jacquemus white halter top and tiny shorts. Following your workout was a shower, not spent alone, a massage and a few other spa treatments interspersed with a breakfast.  You changed into embroidered, lace-trimmed linen mini-dress from Prada and gold heeled sandals after for some shopping. You went to Mui Mui for you and Louis Vuitton for Trent buying the latest collections, telling them to ship it all home for you, not carrying a single thing. After your spree you had a lunch at a beach club and despite a car being arranged you asked Trent to walk there which initially you had thought would be a nice time outside in the summer sun and coastal air. That changed quite quickly though. 

“The cobble stones are not my friend.” You pouted towards Trent after you stumbled for the umpteenth time. He shook his head at you. This was very much your idea but he would gladly listen to your complaints anyways.

“Nah, those heels you’re in are not your friend.” He quipped back with a smug grin. You only furthered deepened your pout and the crease in your forehead. 

“You said you liked them.” You looked at him with doe eyes only pausing to place one of your hands against a colored concrete wall on the side of the small narrow street to fix the strap of your shoe. Trent came to your side and bent down for you to fix them.

“I do, you look sexy in them. And I’d like if you would keep them on f’me when I fuck you later but right now your nails digging into my shoulder every 5 minutes so you don’t fall… not my favorite thing.” He cheekily laughed, standing up and leaning close to your ear. He rubbed his nose against your cheek.

“I’m sorry.” You apologized and you let go only to fumble once more. 

“Take them off.” He demanded with a silly expression.  

“They make the outfit, T.” Your pout returned in full force. You liked the fit and you didn’t want to ruin it. So what if you were late for the reservation at the restaurant that you’d been dying to try and had bookmarked on your instagram for a year… oh yeah… you did and he knew that.   

“Nah, take 'em off.” Trent’s smile dropped as he demanded as he squatted next to your feet again helping you undo your heels. You frowned but that changed as he guided you by your hand around him to climb onto his back. “Let’s go, pretty girl.” He grunted, readjusting his arms placement under your legs. You giggled and nuzzled your face into the side of his neck with a ‘thank you’ carrying your shoes in your hands now. You had lunch and then headed to the harbor to board a yacht late in the afternoon. To your surprise a few of the items from your shopping in the morning that Trent had pushed you to get were aboard already for you. You had gotten a metallic knit set from Loro Piana to wear with a white bikini underneath and a new pair of white oran Hermes sandals.  You stayed there for ages out in the sun until it set and then you had dinner on the deck of the bow. It was romantic and special. Plenty of flirty touches and sweet memories shared. You docked as the evening rolled almost into morning. 

“Now what we do is up to you, baby… I, yes, Trent Alexander-Arnold, your husband will take you to a club to dance and get drunk and make out with you in the middle of crowds just like I know you love or I can take you home just like I know you love." He explained to you. You found yourself in the mix of an intimate private club not long after that question was broached. You could feel the too many cocktails you had coursing through you, intoxicating you more and more by the moment but you weren’t sure if it was them causing the warmness in your chest and tunnel vision or if it was just Trent's effect on you. You were falling in love with him all over again with every thump of the bass, every touch of his hands, every flash of strobe lights, every kiss of his lips, you didn’t feel like you were parents for the moment, you just felt in love. You turned in his arms and nuzzled your face into his skin before licking up the side of his neck and down his jaw.

“Wow, so it was a good drink?” Trent laughed into your ear for you to hear. You had just finished a cocktail Trent had ordered but wasn’t loving. He said it was down to the flavor but the pink color and floral garnish was what you believed that he didn’t want. 

“I want to have your babies.” You hummed ignoring his initial question just in your own world.

“That’s good because you already got one.” He continued his laughs looking at you in wonder. You looked gorgeous clinging to him swaying in the club lights. There was a slight sheen to your skin from the warmth of the evening making you glow and little glimmer of lust in your eyes. You were in an impossibly scandalous GCDS dress you nabbed earlier and Trent was fucking really happy you had. 

“I want more.” You giggled, ghosting your lips over his. You attempted to drop your hand to palm over his growing bulge. 

“Nah, we’re leaving. I need you all to myself and in absolutely nothing but your jewelry, baby. Let's go." He gripped you with his hand on the back of your neck with some aggression. You felt your heart palpitating and you felt your pussy throb as he kissed you one last time in the club.

You caged him upon entry into your suite back at the hotel. You dropped to your knees in front of him. You felt the carpet settle under your knees as you ran your hands up his thighs before undoing his belt. He leaned back into the wall behind him letting you get to work. You let some spit drip from your mouth onto his hard cock as you played with his pre cum already leaking from the tip. You tapped your finger over his slit, drawing his arousal away creating a string of it connected to your fingertip. 

“You’re a fucking phenomenal wife.” He grunted as you moved to slowly take his whole length at once in your mouth. You cupped his balls and gently massaged them. He uncontrollably let out a moan he couldn’t control as you sucked his cock, letting it hit the back of your throat again and again. “Shit, that feels so good, baby... I remember when you sucked me off for the first time. Fucking hell.” He whimpered, letting his head drop backwards. You knew exactly what he liked now. You didn’t that first time but you figured it out quickly. You knew just where he was most sensitive. Every moan, choke, and gag coming from you taking him had him fighting for his life to not cum. “Good girl, just like that. Baby, I gotta cum. I can’t. “ You nodded running both of your hands up his strong thighs again. Trent knew that queue, something he had learned you liked since that first night. He ran his fingers through your hair and gently but securely grabbed your face letting him self fuck your mouth. You could feel your own wetness dampening your panties more and more until your focus shifted to the sensation of his warm cum filling your mouth and running down your sore throat. In swift succession you found yourself on top of the dresser in the room, legs spread open, Trent now on the floor between them. He had pushed your dress up your thighs before peeling those already soaked panties to the side teasing you relentlessly before his fingers found there way to play with your pussy.  His name fell from your lips in a hoarse moan the moment you felt his fingers running through your wet folds. With his fingers between your legs now, you were practically dripping for him. You looked down at him with your jaw slacked and lidded eyes. He unraveled you with each movement. 

“That feel good, baby?” He mouthed moving his mouth from your knee, dragging his perfect, dreamy, pouty lips closer and closer towards your core. The anticipation alone had you reelling. 

“Please, baby. I want you.” You begged with a whine. Trent wasn’t going to make you wait. He was on a high after the head you gave him. His fingers making quick work sinking knuckle deep inside you, his luscious lips finding your clit with a suckle. His fingers hit the perfect spot inside you with every thrust and curl of their tips. Your back arching uncontrollably. A puddle on the surface of the dresser you were sitting on formed, your juices running down his hand. The way his breath felt against you, his skillful tongue, the force of his fingers, it all had you rushing towards your first orgasm of the night. 

“Tell me baby. You gonna cum f’me? Am I gonna make you cum? You gotta tell me.” you could sense that his muffled words were said with so much smugness and self satisfaction. He knew you loved this and you knew he did as well. His big brown eyes flashed up to your shut ones and he let out a cheek laugh. The vibration only pushing you closer. You nodded, unable to say any words. You let out a pornographic whine though when he flattened his tongue against your clit letting out a growl tasting you. “You taste so good. Want this pussy everyday of my life.” Trent shut his eyes a little consumed by his own pleasure of your taste. He dragged his tongue through your folds again and again slurping you up. You were a complete mess. You could barely keep yourself propped up against the wall behind you. Your pussy clenched ruthlessly around his fingers. 

“T… T….” You whined. “Please. I’m cumming.” You whimpered with gasps of air and cried. Your pussy was dripping all over his face, you were absolutely soaked but you couldn’t think, your mind had gone blank.  

“Let go, baby. Be a good girl f’me. Cum f’me.” Trent said sternly instructing you and you wasted no time at all. He licked and sucked and toyed as you withered against the dresser. Your orgasm was never ending.  Trent persistently kept his finger at work inside of you, slowing slightly but drawing your high out.  “Good girl. So fucking good f’me.” Trent cooed as you attempted to hold onto his muscular arm to prevent him from moving any more. He gave way and removed his fingers as he worked kisses up your warm skin all the way up to your neck. He kissed your lips with his before he drew away and forcefully pushed his thumb in between your lips. You willingly opened them for him and looked at him doe eyed and desperate for more. He kept your lips agape as he slowly spit the taste of your cum into your mouth before hungrily kissing you again. Trent picked you up and you wrapped your legs around his waist. He carried you over to the bed and laid you down crawling on top of you. Not long after you were crying out his name again and again as he thrusted in and out of you. "Whose making you feel this good, baby, tell me.” He commanded you and you continued whining his name. 

“T… I’m gonna cum again. You’re gonna make me cum, baby. Trent oh my god.” You moaned pulling him down to you more by the back of his neck dragging your nails then harshly down his muscular back. He rested his forehead against yours sweetly as he continued to rail into you. 

“Cum f’me baby. Feels so good. Doing so well f’me.” He whispered between the lewd sounds of your squelching pussy. His thrusts sped up, rolling his hips into you as he chased his own orgasm. 

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I love you so much T.” You whined as your eyes rolled back. You inhaled a sharp breath feeling a lightheadedness come over with every stroke of his. He kept his beautiful brown eyes fixed on you. The pupils in his dark eyes dilated when he felt his cock pulse inside you. Every movement was slow, deep, and intentional. His lips curled into a smug smile hearing you tell him you loved him. You were completely his. You dragged your ankle down his back muscles. He was so gentle yet harsh all at the same time. Your pussy tightly clenched around Trent’s  cock and then fluttered. 

“Such a good fucking girl. Shit! Baby, I love you. Gonna cum. Shit. Take it all f’me” he sunk his teeth into his perfect lower lip. You silently begged him to. His head tilted back. Ropes of his cum filled the velvety inside of your pussy. He pumped you full gradually and slowly stilling. Your own orgasm crashing over you. Your pussy continued to flutter as you panted beneath him. Your chest rising and falling. He softly stroked your hair and gently kissed you. “I love you, baby. Did so good f’me.” You smiled breathlessly as he kissed you again in a way that you could feel just how much he adored you with each one. He loved you more than he could ever articulate with words but you could always feel it in the silences. He got off the bed and then cleaned you up before he tucked you neatly back in his arms. 

“Sleeping in?” Winnie asked with a coo and a laugh when Trent answered her facetime. She was looking after Teddy with your parents still out east in Montauk at their house. Your family didn’t get to see her as often as Trent’s did so she was a welcomed intrusion. 

“Yeah, yeah. You okay?” Trent asked through a yawn while groggily running his free hand over his eyes. 

“Yeah, good. Sorry, I tried to call Y/N.” Winnie explained starting to feel bad seeing Trent look so tired. 

“She’s still asleep.” Trent informed her through one more yawn. You were both naked under the covers of the bed. You shifted on top of him annoyed by the rumbling of his voice in his chest beneath you and the volume of it in the quiet late morning... well at this point it was essentially the afternoon. 

“Baby…” you groaned pushing your fingers to Trent’s perfectly plump lips. It wasn’t long until he heard a very familiar giggle getting closer to the phone. He could see your mum chasing Teddy in the kitchen corralling her over to Winnie.

“Can you wake up f’me?” Trent asked you likely for the millionth time of this trip and billionth time in your relationship. If you were in bed with him, you never wanted to move. He tapped your bare ass under the blankets.

“No, I’m sore, baby.” You whined pushing your face into him. Trent smiled down at you thinking your stubbornness was cute. Winnie’s eyebrows raised with a smug smile at your comment. Your mum less than impressed with the crude innuendo. Teddy popped herself up onto Winnie’s lap. Trent let out a gasp as did she. You didn’t put two and two together you were too tired so he tried to wake you once more. 

“Can you wake up for this cute girl on the phone then please?” He laughed, giving your daughter a silly smile through the screen. They caught up momentarily before situating yourself to lean onto Trent’s shoulder as you woke up more. 

“My baby girl!” You quietly sang. “You look so sleepy, did you just wake up?” You asked her with a pouty smile. She looked adorable. It was obscenely early for them and ridiculously late in the day for you. Teddy wasn’t great at sleeping when she was away from you and Trent and you could see it on her tired face. She was in her little pajamas and it made you want to just reach through the phone and squish her. 

“Mama…” Teddy whimpered out. It was mere seconds before she started bawling her eyes out. Teddy didn’t realize how much she missed you before she saw you, heard you. Winnie had kept Teddy diligently occupied since you parted ways. You worried that the days you had fled to New York after the final at Wembley before the wedding might have made things worse, her attachment to you worse, that she feared you'd leave unexpectedly again. You sat up in Trent’s lap some more. You shuffled and let him pull your back to his chest as you adjusted the sheets to cover your naked bodies. 

“Oh, it’s okay, Teddy girl. You’re probably having so much fun at the beach though and you can tell me all about it so soon!” You tried to console her from afar. You actually couldn’t wait to sit with her and hear her babbling away explaining to you all she’d done in her jumbled words. 

“We’re okay, right?” Winnie cooed, smushing a kiss to Teddy’s cheek reassuring her things were fine. She tried to tickle her tummy but to no avail, Teddy was upset. “We’re just tired and we miss you but tell mummy and daddy what we’re going to do today, Ted.” Winnie looked at her patiently waiting for her to speak up.

“Find my mama dada shell.” Teddy sadly mumbled with the most heartbreakingly cute puppy dog eyes and her lips rolled into an agape pout. She looked between you and Winnie making sure she was right about their plans to find shells to bring home for you and Trent, and that you heard her.  

“That’ll be so much fun! Can you find me and you matching shells on the beach?” You asked her and her pouty lips slightly turned upward, liking the idea. 

“Baby bear, you know what else you have to do today?” Trent cooed resting his chin atop your head in bed still. She looked at him with a tilt of her head before leaning back onto Winnie, getting comfortable. “You have to show Win how good of a swimmer you are!” Teddy’s eyes lit up. It was like she had forgotten that she was going to be able to swim this week due to how much she missed you both. 

“I heard Win is an even better swimmer than daddy.” You cooed cheekily. Trent dropped his head to come and bite your earlobe in retaliation to your remark. You let out a soft ‘ow.’ Winnie started to laugh. Teddy’s face pulled into a scowl not really believing you and for not really liking the idea that even someone she loved as much as Winnie was better than her dad. “Can you call me later and tell mummy who was better?” You asked and her scowl transformed into a greedy conniving grin excited to have something to do for you. Your phone call ended with a few more tears but it was okay ultimately. 

“I miss her…” You quietly whispered into Trent’s bare chest as you ran your hand up and down his warm skin.  

“I know, baby, but we're having a good time.” He reassured you, running his hands over your body. His hands on you always were comforting and were proving to be nothing less than that in this moment again. 

“Yeah, no, you’re right. Gotta make the most of our Teddy free time.” You laughed a little sadly. 

“Yeah, and we will. So what do you want to do today, beautiful?” He asked you with a smile after a sweet kiss to your shoulder after brushing some of your hair behind it. 

“You …” You cheekily responded with a little giggle rolling your body into his some more.   

“Yeah? Alright.” He greedily smiled and jumped up almost immediately at your words from the bed.

“Where are you going?” You laughed as his agile movements coming around to the other side of the bed and moving you towards its edge before picking you up. You wrapped your legs around his waist. 

“C’mere. Gonna make you cum on every. single. surface in this room.” He whispered to you between soft kisses. 

“That so?” You questioned his ability teasingly with a raised brow. “Wow, good luck to you.” You giggled with excitement, very aware he’d be more than capable of making that happen.

“Don’t need it.” He said softly with a wink pulling the straps of your tank top down. You gasped feeling his lips glide down your neck following his hands to your boobs. 

“That was cute.” You cooed after he kissed your cheek gently as you cuddled in the hotel bed after a very fun couple of hours messing about.

“Cute? I just fucked you for 3 hours, baby. Give me a little more credit than cute damn.” He quipped a little taken aback that was your response. You were more so just referring to the sweet kiss he just gave you after his more juxtaposed and rough way he just fucked you earlier. 

“Yeah, that was hot, sexy, dadddy, not this… this was cute mushy T.” You cooed in a softer voice cuddling into him.  

“You love when I’m a melt for you. Well don’t worry I am for the rest of my life. You’re like a witch.” He continued and at first you had a soft smile on your face but the latter of his words had your face twist in confusion. 

“Excuse me…?” You giggled not entirely sure what he meant calling you a ‘witch.’

“Nah, you know what I meant. I just don’t know what you did to me.” He explained with an adorably innocent face. His big mahogany brown eyes pooling into puppy dog ones just the way Teddy’s had earlier in the morning. He pulled them out of his arsenal as if to convince you had in fact done something.

“I didn’t do anything to you!” You squealed, whipping around out of his hold to face him with a playful expression on your face. Your cheeks started to hurt from being pulled so high and so filled. 

“You did. You do every day. Make me fall in love with you again and again and again.” He cooed, pulling you slowly back into him by taking your bottom lip in his hand. It was an unorthodox way to bring you in but it was sexy but simultaneously cute. 

“You’re cheesy…” You cooed with a soft kiss before tucking back into his arms getting settled again. You wiggled against his body with your back to his chest once more rolling your head back onto his shoulder. “I love cheese.” You giggled starting to get hungry all of a sudden. 

“You’re so fucking cute, baby” He leaned around you and bit your nose causing you to wince and shake him off after he kept his teeth bit into you playfully for a bit too long for your liking.  

“Do you ever feel like young when we’re like this… like alone, you know?” You asked him, falling into a more serious tone. You flicked your eyes up to him and waited for his response.  

“We are young baby.” He corrected you.  “Dare I say… we are ‘young, fit, and sexy'” He laughed a little. He was directly quoting and mimicking the way the photographer from your shoot with Vanity Fair had sounded and said again and again on repeat. 

“You know what I mean…” Your face fell a little. It looked less spirited in a way. “Sometimes I think like I get caught in a mum mode. With schedules and football and Teddy and I don’t know just life, it feels like… I don’t know, I probably sound stupid.” You got quieter at the end of your sentence starting to go shy moving a mere centimeter off of Trent but he caught your emotional and physical shift.  

“I understand baby. You don’t sound stupid at all. It makes sense. What can I do to make you see how much fun this ‘life’ really is though.” He cooed and you gave him a sad smile with a shake of the head. It was sweet but you head let your mind fall down a rabbit hole. “Come on. This is amazing. Let’s live a little, have some fun, fuck let’s have another baby.” Trent said it the same way he said ‘let's get the Mui Mui bag’ you had looked at and wanted the other day. 

“That’s fun to you?” You asked him a little surprised. You obviously weren’t talking about the ‘making’ component of babies but more so the home life with them. Yes, if you really deeped it it was so special, so perfect in it’s imperfection. Teddy’s face  alone made you want another baby but  the way she smelt,  the way she was developing a personality, when she asked you questions, when she first laughed, even ridiculous things like her hair getting longer or her growing out of her clothes, it was all beautiful and… maybe a little fun. 

“Yeah I’m having the most fun, aren’t you?” Trent asked you with a childish look on his face. You started to giggle. He was really fucking cute. It was hard to think the nights of no sleep were all that bad when they were with him.

“Yeah… I’m happy, T.” You cooed softly craning your neck upwards to come and give him a kiss. His lips were soft and pillowy like the always were. They were home.

“That’s all I ever want, all we ever need. Me and that cute little girl we made, that’s all we want.” He kissed you once more. You fell into a comfortable silence for a while cuddling in bed looking out the big open windows watching the waves of the sea crash into the cliffside and the breeze ruffle the long curtains framing your view. 

“Thank you, baby.” You softly whispered, breaking the quiet lull in the room.  

“I mean I really enjoy that as well so no need, baby.” He let out a breathy laugh, kissing the top of your head. You slapped at his still bare chest. “Alright, alright. Tell me for what, beautiful, what are you thanking me for?” he asked you more sincerely looking around you to make full eye contact.

“Our life, what you’ve given me, the whole thing. Everything.” You cooed softly cupping his cheek feeling yourself get a little more emotional than you thought you’d get today. You adjusted your place in bed and felt your body brush against his and while there was a sliver of your brain that was turned on, the majority of it felt all of the solace Trent had ever given you through that touch.  

“I mean I could say the same to you.” He quietly responded, keeping one of his hands tightly wrapped around your waist making sure you knew he had you. Literally and figuratively keeping you safely nestled with him. “I’d do anything to make you happy, baby” He pressed a kiss to your forehead. 

“Like call room service?” You cheekily giggled with a smiley that just about shattered Trent’s heart. It was perfectly innocent and yet filled with seduction. He didn’t have a shot in hell against you.  

“Wow… so you get to make jokes now. I see. That’s how it is now, baby? What do you want? The usual even though we’re in Italy?” You nodded before he rolled his eyes causing you to laugh like a little kid loving that you had him in the palm of your hand. “Honestly… An absolute melt. An absolute melt for you.” He muttered, reaching for the phone to order for you.

“What should we bring her?” You asked Trent seated on the terrace of a gorgeous restaurant high up on the coast. You and Trent had a game you did to find Teddy things on trips as gifts. It wasn’t about what she liked the most but a game solely between you two, to rile the other up about ‘winning.’  

“Oh I already won… I’m bringing mummy home.” Trent cooed with a boastfully proud face. You shut your eyes and shook your head in disapproval. 

“That is not how the game works. Mum and dad are off limits as gifts. Also, haven't you won enough today? Do you need to just rub it in my face? you won straight sets… twice, T!” You laughed making fun of his rare ability to be a sore winner. “Don’t you want to be nice to your wife, let me win a game or two, huh?” Trent’s face scrunched into a thinking expression.

“Erm.. nah, think I’m nice to my wife in other ways.” He cooed with a cheeky laugh sticking his tongue out at you. 

“Absolutely intolerable.” You giggled with a massive smile. 

“Absolutely beautiful.” He echoed following your faux jab at him, reaching his hand out to stroke your cheek.

“You’re beautiful… it’s the only way you get away with all your bullshit, baby.” You laughed, taking his hand in yours. “Beautiful beautiful boy.” You cooed. Trent shot you a cheeky wink before taking a big bite of his pasta chewing his obnoxiously big bite. You stuck your leg out under the table towards him hidden by the tablecloth and glided your foot up his thigh eventually to his crotch gently played around. Trent coughed, his eyes going wide, choking on his food a little. You laughed a little and shot him a cheeky wink of your own in return.

•

Thank you for reading! Please like, comment, or message what you think of the chapter 🤍

Next part - Chapter 26 xx

[seoul-bros]

Back to the eighties with Like Crazy

I woke up early last Friday to watch the Like Crazy premier and promptly disappeared down the rabbit hole. I only emerged again today. I have debated about writing this post. I'm still not sure people will understand or even want to hear the associations I have made with this song. All of it makes me respect even more the beautiful, talented, endlessly brave and honest Park Jimin.

I really had no idea about the emotions that I was going to experience with this song. I am listening non-stop to all five versions of the song today (interspersed with other Jimin and BTS songs as required for streaming) and I still can’t quite work out why this song hits so hard.

Is it the synth pop style? Or the mullet and sparkly denim? Is it the bathroom wall stickers of British rock legends Queen and The Kinks or perhaps the Mapplethorpe pictures on his shiny leather trousers.

Intentionally or not this song and this music video, successfully evoked vivid memories of life in the late 80s and early 90s in the UK. It was a time of serious political and social conflict. The threat of nuclear war was ever present and our government was busy trying, and in many cases succeeding, to drive wedges between different groups of people: rich and poor, young and old, black and white, gay and straight. Student protest was alive and well and fighting on many fronts. Here are some of the badges I had pinned to my big coat at the time as I marched through the streets of London to Westminster.

But there are some important ones missing from that collection.

The AIDs crisis of the early eighties created a climate of fear and hate towards the LGBT community and homosexual men, in particular, which led to the passing of Section 28 in 1988. Section 28 stated that local authorities "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

This had an immediate negative effect on groups that were trying to fight for LGBT rights and develop better public understanding of AIDS. What I remember most though, was the bravery of those that stood up to this government promoted intolerance risking public ridicule and hate in their campaign to change the law. This was sometimes people in the public eye like Ian McKellen.

But more commonly it was just ordinary people trying to live their lives in the most honest way possible and facing an extremely hostile social climate head on. The devastating series It's a Sin did much to capture the feel of 1980s Britain and reflect the lives of young people at the time.

The vibrancy of the nightclub scene and the glittering fragility of beautiful young men and women determined to live life on their own terms seems to me to also be reflected in Jimin's video.

“I tried to express the feelings of that movie (Like Crazy),” Jimin told Rolling Stone in a recent interview. “You know, the somewhat complex, somewhat lonely, somewhat happy emotions. I tried to express all these ambiguous and subtle emotions in a slightly sexy way, but I’m not sure how it’ll end up being received by people.”

Anyone who has been clubbing can probably recognise those heightened emotions, the feeling of getting lost in the music and the moment. It is unforgettable, visceral and totally life affirming.

But it can also be fleeting and when it is passed sometimes what is left is the feeling of acute loneliness. Lost in the crowd. Alone again.

Jimin seems to know all about these feelings and has chosen to express them in Like Crazy. In referencing Mapplethorpe we can also assume that he knows something about LGBT history and has chosen to pay homage to it and to the people that fought and continue to fight for LGBT rights. He is showing us what is important to him and he is being as open as he can about who he is and what he believes. Jimin is giving us all a lesson in self realisation.

Post Date: 28/03/2023

[tenth-god]

Normally, Hermes might have laughed, despite the genuine irritation in her response; he surely would have, were it anyone else he were teasing, but this wasn’t just anyone. Truth be told, even if it was just her injuries heightening her negativity, Hermes was unused to this reaction from Brunnhilde.

“To know is to understand,” he agrees with a sigh, once again reaching out to pat her hand; this time, though, it’s in apology. “And to understand is to be able to help accordingly. Surely you don’t expect me to assist in creating a suitable lie without first knowing the truth?”

And this, in itself, is part of the apology, though it also doubles as being an extension of a helping hand—one that he hopes doesn’t hurt her pride, as he means for it to actually bolster it. As unwilling as she is by the prospect of telling him anything, he imagines she won’t want to let anyone else know, and with the two of them being well-versed in the art of deception, he’s sure they can come up with an air-tight story should the situation call for it.

As she, too, sighs, however, he can’t help but to take another glance at her—it is not uncommon, for any of them on high, to feel as though they have the weight of the world on their shoulders, true, but in this moment it seems to be crushing the eldest Valkyrie. It makes him frown, just a little, and want to extend his empathy sympathies to her. He knows what has her feeling this way, knows it’s not just her injuries now, but he won’t wound her pride further; at least, not intentionally, so he keeps his words to himself. She will have to understand, hopefully, through his silence.

So that’s the case, is it? He thinks to himself as Brunnhilde finally explains, expression growing cloudier by the second. He supposes he should have expected such, really, as true to her words, there were many deities whose patience was growing thinner and thinner with each battle. Lord Zeus, Lord Odin and himself had been keeping their eyes on the situation for awhile, had even doled out warnings as much as they could, but it seems there were some who had slipped through their fields of vision.

Hmph. No matter the how of it, at least they’ve been taken care of, now.

And yet, the one who’d taken care of the situation was now in need of assistance—this one who happened to be highly regarded by one of the Twelve Olympian gods, who were known to retaliate quite fiercely in situations like this. Quite unfortunate, really, that it is Hermes finding out about this, most especially because he is the one holding Brunnhilde in high regard, for his own reasons.

But he can’t be careless with his rage; to do so would not only damage her pride, which he doesn’t want to do, but it would also be foolish to act too hastily. He is duty-bound as Lord Zeus’s right-hand, so for him to do anything brash...

Perhaps, though, he won’t need to be—a plan already is hatching within his rabbit-quick mind. So instead of letting his anger show, he bows his head to her in another apology.

“To have wasted your own time and efforts on such trifling matters,” he laments...though, if she were to listen carefully, there would be pure loathing in the tone. “I’m getting rusty, if I’m one step behind anyone in keeping the heavens free of trouble. My sincerest, deepest apologies, Brunnhilde, to have troubled you so.”

He sneers, then, the expression one so completely different than the ones he’s been giving up until now. It is one of his baser, truer faces being bared.

“Truthfully, there are no shortages of we who grow too impatient with our more...debased emotions, if you will, so please rest assured; those who attempted to disrupt Valhalla’s peace will be dealt with accordingly by their Lords Zeus and Odin, should they still live. Your involvement in the matter inconsequential and thus going unmentioned, of course.”

Because of course that’s what this was, instead of a targeted attack intended to punish Brunnhilde over Ragnarök! For any to be so brazen, when she’s already slated to fight in the matches just as her sisters before her, and thus is sure to be ‘punished’ already for her actions? Oh, he’d guffaw at the mere notion, if he weren’t already stopping himself from such!

It’s not enough to say he’s fucking pissed.

🗡️ "You know what I meant, Hermes. No one in Valhalla would ever question your abilities.", she retorted crabbily. If anything, it was perhaps her fault their encounters were not as private as she'd like. After all, her time leading up to Ragnarok and presently, were overwhelmingly occupied. All she could do was take what she could when the opportunity presented itself. While she always did try to be discreet, sometimes it was difficult to escape the eyes that were always lurking.

Brunnhilde was perceptive enough to know he had been teasing and while usually such things would be fine..she permitted her grumpiness to answer in her stead. Not that she wasn't ordinarily open with her varying degrees of emotions--though one could question whether those moments were purposeful acts of hers--but this was a little snappier than she intended, with an expression of exasperation.

"Tch. You always need to know everything, don't you." Not that it was surprising or something she did not understand. Knowledge was power. And given Hermes role and disposition, it made complete sense. Brunnhilde could not fault him for inquiring --but it didn't mean it wasn't frustrating. It was frustrating more so for her pride than anything else. Somehow she did not envision the God blabbing about what transpired to any other. Out of all the Gods, he was the best at keeping secrets after all.

'This is tiresome..'

Brunnhilde sighed audibly, relenting as she did not have the endurance to continue deflecting the inevitable. Not just the injuries were wearing on her but everything pertaining to Ragnarok, the Gods, her duties. Everything. She was so exhausted. The soul crushing tiredness of centuries escaped in that one sigh.

It was a small glimpse into what lurked beneath the layers of the eldest Valkyrie.

"What do you think happened, Hermes? When one challenges the Gods, hurt their egos and threaten their way of thinking..it leads to some showing exactly what they are. Piss poor excuses for deities that have forgotten what it once meant to be a God..", she answered with a light scoff. It simply proved that her judgement of many of the Gods were accurate.

"I went to investigate an odd report I had received, only to be met by a few pieces of trash." While typically Brunnhilde showed reverence to most Gods as her station dictated, these particular wretches did not deserve it once she realized their intentions. Brunnhilde also was not the type to take any shit without fighting back--with certain circumstances being the exception. And even in those instances, she always found a way to respond and retaliate..even if it meant at a later date.

Such like suggesting Ragnarok.

"I dealt with them accordingly and thus, here I am." The bastards were fortunate she let them off with a warning after reminding them of the power of Asgard and Valhalla. If they learned their lesson, they'd keep their heads low. If they continued to cause problems such as claiming Brunnhilde attacked them, then the next time would be far more worse and unpleasant.

"Has your curiosity been satiated?"

[1994sunflower]

Hi, I absolutely love your writing and I think you're amazing! Could you do something where y/n has a nightmare and Mickey is there to comfort her, maybe with some cockwarming.

in which you have a nightmare

It was like your mind had found the perfect torture. A mix of horror and stress that combined just perfectly to at once scare you and leave your mind in scrambles of what-if scenarios that just seemed to heighten the fear.

When you finally snapped your eyes open, it was like a bubble popping. Sudden and jolting. You even took a breath that sounded dangerously close to a scream as you sat up, jerking away from the strong arms around your body that had held you tightly into a sleeping Michael’s chest.

Taking in your surroundings with a relief that it was a dream - it wasn't real. But still, you were shaking and breathing heavily. You didn’t even realize you were crying until you heard your gasping breaths in the silence of the night.

It was still dark, you could only see the light of your clock on the nightstand and the outline of Michael’s body next to you in your bed. But the dark didn’t help you in the situation where your mind seemed to remind you of every terrifying detail of your nightmare that refused to be forgotten.

It was almost like you were frozen at it. Until you heard Michael groan groggily before slowly leaning up on his elbow. He yawned cutely. “Baby, what are you doing?”

His voice was deeper than usual, sleepy. And it wasn’t until he took hold of your wrist, as if to push you back down to lay down and go back to sleep that he became more alert. Specifically, when you flinched away from him. That’s when he noticed you were trembling and saw the glint of tears on your cheeks.

It wasn’t his fault. You were just sensitive right then. You were glad the dark hid your face, how pale with fear you had woken up.

Michael sat up then, quickly forgetting his sleep and letting the cover fall down to his waist as he moved closer to you. He would always put you before anything else. His hand moving gently to your cheeks, only touching you when you didn’t pull away. He was still tired, you could see it now that he was closer but he suddenly had an intense look in his eyes. Worry was held there, along with the protectiveness you were used to feeling from him.

“Y/N.” He said seriously, “What happened?”

Your bottom lip stuttered as you shook your head, “N-nothing. I just had a bad dream.” It sounded stupid when you said it out loud.

But Michael didn’t roll his eyes or laugh. But he did push you closer to him. Until you were close enough to hide your face in the crook of his neck and for him to rub circles gently into your hips.

You weren’t sure if it was the early morning that had him being so gentle and comforting like he usually struggled so much to be. But you were thankful nonetheless. Your breathing was still fast and your heartbeat even more so, but you felt your trembling start to subside. Taking in a shaky deep breath, you couldn’t help the comfort he brought you or the gratefulness that he was there tonight, with you.

“What was it about?”

But you shook your head even before he finished his question. You didn't want to talk about it. You were already embarrassed on the effect your own mind had on you, let alone repeating your deepest fears.

And Michael didn’t push you. “It was just a dream. I got you.”

He was right. You both knew it. But it didn’t stop the very real reaction the dream caused you. The intranquillity, the anxiety. And it didn’t even long after your physical symptoms stopped.

Nearly half an our later when you were still in his arms, sat up, but you were no longer trembling or crying. Your mind was still wandering, your body still tense. Even as he littered sweet kisses on your face and whispered sweet nothings under his breath. You were as far from sleep as you would have been in the afternoon. A part of you was scared of what you would be confronted with if you closed your eyes again. Would it be the same nightmare or even worse this time? You were already betrayed by your mind once, what’s to stop it from happening again?

Sure you’d be in Michael’s strong arms just like you were when you went to sleep in the first place. But even his comfort was gone when you were in dreamland. You didn’t want to stop feeling the safety and warmth you felt right then at all.

Part of you felt bad, especially when you could feel Michael wanting to go back to sleep. So you let him slowly move you two down back to laying on the mattress. He was on his side and collected you against his chest and you stayed there, still and evenly breathing. But your eyes were wide open.

For so long you lost track.

And you felt alone. Even with him right in front of you. It felt like the dark was just taking advantage of your fragile state and prickling your skin.

You squeezed Michael for a moment, head resting on his chest, your body suddenly feeling colder until you whimpered. “Mikey, I can’t sleep.”

You weren’t sure if he was asleep by then but he was right there when you needed him either way. And he would always be attentive to you, forgoing anything he was doing to tend to you.

His arms tightened around you, protectively. “Still scared?”

You didn’t answer him, just nuzzling further into him. But you wanted more. You needed more. To feel so fully surrounded by him that he could physically repulse away any straying negative thoughts and memories. You just wanted to feel him.

His fingers played with your hair, moving from your back to your scalp in a way that was soothing. You felt your eyelids droop but your shoulders were still tout and your mouth set in a frown.

“Tell me about it.” He said, referring to your dream and though you hesitated, somehow his calmness in his tone led you to giving in. You trusted him and though you were crying by the time you were done telling it, somehow sharing in your feelings made them feel a little less overwhelming.

But also somehow more real. More possible now that you brought your dream world into the real one.

“I just-I just want to feel you, right now."

Michael never stopped running his hand up and down your figure, humming as he listened, as if there was nothing more important he could be doing; he cared. He held you closer when he felt your emotions start to overtake you. His delicate little girl. He wanted nothing more than to protect you from whatever bad thoughts were plaguing you. Bringing back the bright, happy girl he loved.

That’s why he tugged you up, though your eyebrows furrowed at him in confusion, you knew he couldn’t see your expression. Until he moved you completely on top of him. Your head was right below his chin and he held his arms around your waist, keeping your tiny form on top of him.

You inhaled, this close to him you could smell his comforting scent and you couldn’t help but close your eyes in content. It felt good to be so close to him, felt cocooned in his arms. Your sigh was bittersweet and somehow, your boyfriend picked up on that.

One of his hands left your body and you weren’t sure why until you felt him tug at your pajama shorts. Even if you wanted to spring up in surprise, as if you weren’t used to his hands removing your clothes, he kept you pressed against him.

“Just gonna fill you up.” His voice was sleepy and relaxing, “Let you feel that I’m right here.”

He said it as if it was the most logical conclusion. It wasn’t what you meant when you said it. But you didn’t stop him either as he got rid of your shorts and panties, tossing them to the side of the bed into the darkness that was the floor.

You were reminded of how you felt in the many - many - times he had been inside you. The way your mind focused solely on him and how full you felt with him. Rarely did you ever even want to think of anything else, let alone anything negative. It put your mind is a calm state. Because it was such an intimate moment with him. With your other option seeming to be to wait until your calmness in the moment finally tires you out, hoping nothing else triggers your mind, it couldn’t be so bad to try.

So you nodded and stayed still as he lifted his hips to pull down his own basketball shorts and took out his dick with his hand. He was only semi-hard but still, he had no difficulty with guiding himself into you.

You heard him groan under you as he spread you open, even half soft he was still so big, and felt you hug him tightly. You couldn’t help the breathy moan that you let out either, never opening your mouth but closing your eyes as he filled you up.

It was everything you thought it would be. You felt the same fullness, the closeness, as you two were connected. The unity had you so lost in how good it felt and how, on top of him, you felt more balanced and rational. You were okay. You were with Michael - of course that meant you were okay. You felt loved and taken care of. You didn’t have to worry when Michael was with you - he would take care of you. And there was little more you believed in other than your big, strong boyfriend.

It still felt so good. It was a feat for you not to wriggle in his grasp and attempt to make more friction between your bodies. You weren’t used to doing anything else when he was inside you other than enjoying the pleasure. He was the same way, you could feel the tautness of his body as if trying his hardest to hold back the urge to pound into you like he always did when he was in you. But he stayed still for your sake. This was about you and making you feel better in an intimate way only he could, nothing more.

You clenched around him without even meaning to and he let out a grunt under you, “Fuck, don’t-this is not going to last if you do that again.” In the cold of the night, he felt so warm inside you.

You weren’t used to having him inside you and having that lead to nothing more than that. Part of you wasn’t satisfied with just this. But for a larger part of you, it felt nice to have such intimacy - it felt romantic. And you felt as if you could stay there for hours. You tried not to move much because of the jolt of need that would creep into you if you did.

You only reached slightly below his chest in the new position but his body felt so much better than the mattress had in that moment. And maybe when you snuggled your face into his chest, you knew that because when you heard him mutter something to you, you just nodded even when you weren’t exactly sure what he asked.

You only heard a low, "I love you."

Your mind a little fuzzy, not even sure what you were so scared of earlier. You were finally relaxed - completely and totally. Nothing but Michael was entering your mind. He was overtaking every single one of your senses. And after all the tenseness of the night, it felt good to be unable to think of anything else. That just helped mask of sleep to slowly overtake you as the two of your remained connected.

Listening to each other’s breaths and enjoying each other’s company - the safety and comfort that company brought. You weren’t alone and you felt stronger knowing he was there, he cared about how you felt and wouldn’t let anything touch you. Especially as he was slotted between your thigh, reaching your every crevice as he filled you up completely, like the missing puzzle piece to your body. Even with how much smaller you were compared to him, you fit so perfectly.

It was something you could feel, even when your mind slowly drifted off.

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Turns of Phrase

Prompt: I'd like you to consider: all the sides in the mindscape have the "way too literal" problem, like for example, Virgil actually grows taller when his anxiety is heightened, Patton actually grows wings when Thomas has a 'heart aflutter', e.c.t. But Roman just has a huge stack of negative ones. Creative block, bruised ego, shackled creativity, e.c.t. And then there's h/c when somebody (Logan) sees 👀👀

Thanks for the prompt babe!

Read on Ao3

Warnings: self-doubt, self-esteem issues, Roman whump

Pairings: LAMP, DLAMP, DLAMPR, can be platonic or romantic you decide

Word Count:  5722

 This is Roman’s fault. Really. It is. He’s the one who works the closest with the Imagination, which means he’s got control over how Thomas interacts with his own imagination, which means that he’s got control over how Thomas sees the Sides.

 So yeah. This is his fault.

‘Heart all aflutter.’ ‘Heightened anxiety.’ ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire.’ All the little innocuous phrases that are just turns of phrase, not supposed to be literal, well…they got into Thomas’s head when he was younger, and since, the Imagination has never quite gotten rid of them. Shouldn’t be too bad, right, this should be something they can deal with.

 And for the most part, they do.

Patton wears the hoodie tied around his shoulders to block the chill from the slits sewn in the back of all of his shirts in case the wings decide to pop out again. When they do, everyone crowds around to make sure he doesn’t fly off into the sky or accidentally twist one. The feathers are the softest things you can imagine and work great for stuffing pillows or plushies.

 Virgil’s clothes are made of stretchy, baggy material and the doorways are much, much higher than they need to be. There’s a special cupboard tucked high up in the pantry that just has Virgil’s comfort foods in them so he can reach comfortably when he’s tall.

 And, well…there’s a reason Janus wears such a long cloak.

 For the most part, these are just minor inconveniences. Listen, when you live in a completely imaginary world where you can summon anything you need and change anything you don’t like with a snap of your fingers, things like new clothes or snacks are easy.

 Then there’s Roman.

 Roman, who is tied most closely to the Imagination.

 Roman, who represents not just Creativity, but romance, motivation, desire.

 Roman. The Ego.

 The problem with throwing around these types of phrases is how easy it becomes to dismiss them. And for Thomas, who has a creative profession, that’s good. For Thomas.

 Not so good for Roman.

 “Hey, you’ve been having some trouble getting ideas out lately, you doing okay?”

 “Yeah, I’m just going through a bit of a creative block at the moment.”

 Roman’s fists ache as he pounds on the door, heaving sobs trailing off into hitched gasps as he slumps against the unyielding wood. As a desperate last resort, he throws himself at the door, barely making it shudder in its frame. It’s as if he weighs nothing, not an ounce, unable to make so much as a goddamn dent in the world around him.

 “Let me—let me out, please, let me out, I gotta—I want out,” he sobs, over and over, as his room grows smaller and smaller, the walls pressing in around him, blank, sterile, cold, “I wanna—out, let me out, let me out, let me out please—“

 He’s not even in his room anymore. He’s in a pure white cage, on the wrong side of a door that will not open.

 “Dude, like…reign it in a little bit.”

 “You sure?”

 “Yeah. That’s…like, way too much.”

 “I dunno, I think it feels weird if we weren’t doing this.”

 “C’mon, it won’t kill you to shackle your creativity a little.”

 Roman wakes up to the quiet clinking of metal against metal. He goes to wipe his face and a bolt of pain shoots through his arm. The shackles spread him so far his chest aches, wincing as he tries to turn just a little to avoid the rush of agony that would come from having his arm trapped in the wrong position. At least he was lying down this time, and he’s on his bed. He isn’t being forced to stand the whole time, strung up on the ceiling.

 They’re so cold.

 The shackles sap the warmth from his body bit by bit, draining it until the weight of the cold pressing down onto his chest is enough to make him gasp. On instinct, he pulls, trying to get a little more of himself wrapped up, warm, safe, but the chains barely make a groan as they wrench him back apart. He grits his teeth and holds still.

 He learned not to try and break these. He used to rage and slam against them like a brute, trying to pull their fastenings out of some mystical holder, embodied in his wall, only to come away with bleeding and scraped wrists from his pains, rubbed raw and chafed horribly by the cruel shackles.

 For the most part, he’s able to keep the others from noticing. They can’t hear a thing when he’s trapped in the creative block. He’s careful to always wear long sleeves to hide the scrapes and burns from the shackles. They don’t know the true extent of what happens to him when Thomas decides he doesn’t want his creativity.

 But he can’t hide all of them.

 ‘Bruised ego.’

 Patton knows. Patton somehow always figures things out and doesn’t tell anyone, least of all Roman. But sure enough, after the audition, Patton showed up outside of Roman’s door and knocked, quietly asking to be let in.

 Roman had let him, splattered as he was with blues and purples and greens and yellows, all the colors that didn’t belong to him, and yet here they were, painted on him. He’d kept his undershirt on, letting Patton feed him the soup that was sure to end with Roman lying on his back in the bathroom, panting, until the bowl had run dry and Roman’s smile had come back.

 After Patton had gone, the smile had slid off, the paint cracked and chipped. Roman had stood, leaning against the bed for stability, and made his way slowly, oh, so, slowly, to the bathroom.

 Getting his shirt off had been agony. Every time he moved skin had stretched, bruises had protested, even his muscles cried out. The undershirt was soaked in sweat and a light sheen had clung to Roman’s body as he stood there, panting, wincing in the mirror. He couldn’t look.

 That had been the last time it had gotten very bad. Very bad.

 They only ever seemed to notice when it was very bad.

 His prince costume hides the shackle marks. His undershirt hid the bruises. No one cared to look for him when he was trapped in the creative block. No one could see. No one wanted to see.

 No one knew.

 Roman’s been lucky lately.

 They’ve all been happening one at a time. The block never has shackles strapped to the wall. The shackles are never clasped around bruises spilling beneath his skin. The bruises are never from both beating on a door and from the outside world. He can deal with them if they’re like this. One at a time.

 He’s had a few close calls, though. He almost missed a meeting with Logan because the block had him trapped. It squeezed him so tight it felt as if he hadn’t any room to breathe, not until the door and opened a crack and he’d hurled himself out, panting harshly, rushing to Logan’s. He was caught at his desk recently too. The shackles had formed and dragged him over to the corner where he’d bitten his lip to try and stay quiet as he desperately tried to draw himself away. He’d accidentally made too grand a gesture and his sleeve had ridden up, exposing the edge of a mark or bruise and he’d have to pull it back down quick enough so that no one would notice. And so far, it’s worked.

 No one has noticed.

 And what would he say? That this is just some dumb stupid thing he has to deal with? The others know about this whole ‘taking things too literally problem,’ look at Patton, look at Virgil, look at Janus. They all understand and they receive the same amount of attention Roman does. Honestly, they’ve been receiving what they’re entitled to. Their stuff actually runs the risk of harming Thomas. Fire, wings, banging your head, sure, that’s fine, but they—look.

 Having your heart flutter signifies great emotions, the potential for love, you should pay attention to your emotions!

 Heightened anxiety? It’s not great! It means we should be listening to Virgil and what’s going on, what’s upsetting Thomas, how to help.

 And everyone should always be worried about spontaneously combusting pants.

And even if they did find out, what is Roman supposed to say? That it’s his fault they all have these issues? That Thomas’s psyche takes certain liberties with the hard-and-fast rules of what happens to metaphysical people? It’s his fault, after all, he’s the conduit. It’s fine. He can handle this stuff. It’s all fine.

 He should’ve known his luck would run out.

 Roman blinks awake to feel the walls pressing in on him, tighter, tighter, tighter. His breath catches in his throat.

 No.

 No, no, no, he’d been doing so well, so well, they’d just had a conversation about how he’d been so good, the ideas had been good, he’d had—he’d had so many he was ready to work on, he just needed to—

 Roman squeezes his eyes shut, racking his brain. He knows he has ideas. He had them a little while ago. It wasn’t that long. They can’t have vanished so quickly. Wait, what time is it? How did they—how long has he been here? What is—how long has it been? Have the others realized he’s here yet?

 What if they look for him and they think he won’t come out? What if they start to hate him because they can’t find him? What if he can never get out again? What if they realized they never needed him in the first place?

 He—he’s not wrong, he can’t be wrong, he has to be right, he has to—he has to find a way out of here.

 Quickly, Roman squeezes his eyes even tighter, mouth making random shapes as he tries to think. If he can just think of a really good idea, he’ll get out. If he just thinks, if he just does his job, if he’s really good he’ll get out. He can do this, he can do this, he can do this. He can—

  Clink, clink, clink.

 No.

 No!

 Roman snarls as the shackles encase his wrists, forcing to his knees, still crouched in this room that is too small, too pale, too awful. He lunges for the door as he hears the chains slowly start to tighten, their long lengths slipping over and over each other in coils.

 The chains pull taut and he’s suspended there, in the dank air, snarling like a mad dog at a door that is just out of his reach.

 For the first time in a long time, he slams against the chains, raging and bloody as he thrashes back and forth trying to just get to the door—

  Roman, you’re on thin fucking ice.

  Look I don’t wanna just hate a side but roman you royally fucked up bud

  Yeah I’m definitely mad at Roman

 Roman barely suppresses a whine when he realizes where the comments are coming from.

 His nose breaks open and blood pours down his face. His eyes swell and darken until he can only squint through it. One of his fingers breaks and the shackle pinches.

  Roman I have revoked your rights.

  Roman shut the FUCK UP challenge please

  After one line making fun of janus is enough to be cancelled, Roman

 Even without looking down, he knows red and purple are blooming across his ribs. Roman winces pain as he howls again, trying frantically to get to the door, he’ll wrench his arms out of their sockets if he needs to—

  I just hate roman!!! i don’t need a deep reason to hate roman, or anyone else

  oh boi did Princey drop to least favorite side REAL FUCKING QUICK

  It’s not that I don’t despise Roman he’s just never been my favourite. He’s too prideful, rude and while he does have his insecurities the way he hides them makes me uncomfortable since it’s at the expense of other characters. His treatment of the other sides is so awful.

 …is he really that awful? Is…does he…is this…

 Is this how it’s supposed to be?

  I'm gonna spread my anti-roman doctrine. Fuck Roman. Hate that man

  I genuinely hate Roman so. Fucking. Much. Like, can't stand him. Fuck him, I hate him

  It’s always roman-hating hours.

 A dry sob chokes its way out of Roman’s throat as he curls in on himself, another bruise leaving him gasping on the floor like a gutted fish. The chains let him fall to his knees, chest bared to the merciless door. He coughs. Blood flies out of his mouth and spittle drips down his chin. He coughs again. And again. And again. It hurts. Everything hurts.

 He coughs.

 The room presses in on him.

 The shackles trap him.

 Bruises bloom over his body.

 He coughs.

 This is all his fault, isn’t it? He’s the one in charge of the Imagination. He’s the one who makes sure the sides exist and can interact with Thomas. He’s the one who controls how they respond to turns of phrase.

 He’s the one who’s awful to the others. He’s the one who didn’t tell them the truth. He’s the one stuck in this room, in these chains, taking a beating from words and thoughts that he can’t see.

 This is his fault.

 And he doesn’t know if he can fix it.

 Roman gives up.

———————————————————

“Has anyone seen Roman?”

 Patton looks up from the floor as Virgil rolls over. “No, I haven’t. Virgil?”

 Virgil sniffs and shakes his head. “You asked Remus?”

 Logan frowns. “I can’t find them anywhere. Do you know if—“

 “Where the fuck is my brother?”

 “Nevermind, I found him,” Logan mumbles as he turns just fast enough to avoid Remus barreling into him. “I was just coming to ask you.”

 “He was supposed to meet me by the Imagination,” Remus says, bouncing up and down, “we were gonna go exploring. He hasn’t been by all day. Where are you hiding him?”

 “I’m not hiding him,” Virgil yawns, “and neither’s Pat.”

 “Nope! No princes here!”

 “Pocket Protector?”

 “No, I need to ask him about tomorrow.”

 “Ugh.” Remus throws himself down on the couch. “Where’s Snakey? Maybe he knows.”

 “What do I know?”

 “Ah.” Logan turns to see Janus striding out from the shadows near the staircase. “We seem to be unable to locate Roman.”

 Janus raises an eyebrow and flicks a speck of dust from his gloves. “What an unfortunate situation. My deepest apologies.”

 “So you don’t know where he is.”

 “Of course I don’t, why would I?” Janus rolls his eyes. “It’s not like you’ve checked everywhere for him.”

 Logan pinches the bridge of his nose. “Janus…please.”

 “Have any of you even tried his room?”

 “Of course we have, that’s where I looked first.”

 Janus shrugs. “Then I guess our little prince has wandered away. What a shame.”

 Virgil rolls his eyes. “Maybe he just stepped out for a minute. Why don’t you go look again, L, we’ll check down here.”

 “Oh, will we?”

 “J, I swear—“

 Logan quickly heads back up the stairs as Virgil and Janus start bickering. He turns the corner and is soon faced with Roman’s big red door. He reaches out to knock.

 “Roman? Are you in here?”

 Silence. Logan sighs and goes to turn away when he hears it.

 He stops.

 Goes back.

 “Roman?”

 He puts his ear to the door.

 A soft gasp.

“Roman, can you open the door please?”

 “L-L—Lo—“

 Logan swallows heavily. “Roman, I’m coming inside.”

 “L-Logan…”

 Logan pushes open the door.

 He can feel his face go sickly pale.

 Roman is lying on the ground, collapsed in a pool of what looks like blood. His face is swollen, his nose broken, his mouth barely forming the shapes to say Logan’s name. His prince costume is mangled. His wrists are rubbed raw. Even from this far away Logan can see the bruises forming all over his body.

 “Roman!”

 There are shouts from downstairs. The others are worried. Good. Logan’s going to need all the help he can get. He just has to move first.

 Oh, Roman…

 “L? L, what’s going on up there?”

 “First aid,” Logan gasps, then clears his throat, “we need the first aid kit! Roman’s hurt!”

 “What? How’d he—he hasn’t even been in the Imagination yet today!”

 “We can figure that out when we’re up there, Remus, go go go!”

 By the time the others are already rushing up the stairs, Logan has already crouched down next to Roman’s head, trying to figure out the best way to get him up, off the floor, or at the very least figure out what happened.

 “Stay with me, Roman,” he murmurs, petting Roman’s head as his other hand starts to carefully test where it might be hurting, “stay with me, come on…”

 “Lo? Lo, are you in here?”

 “No, wait, don’t—“

 Patton’s cry of dismay quickly followed by Virgil’s curse means he’s too late to warn them. Logan looks up to see their faces drop in absolute shock.

 “Where are the others?”

 “Uh…” Virgil tears his gaze away from Roman’s crumpled figure. “Remus said he…he has some stuff that would help.”

 “And I am of course more than eager to see what our favorite little prince has gotten himself into this time,” Janus drawls, still out of sight, “I’m positively brimming with anticipation.”

 Patton still hasn’t recovered. Virgil carefully takes the first aid kit from his hands and rushes it to Logan. An instant later, Janus appears in the doorway.

 “My, my, Patton, you look so startled, what could possibly…”

 Janus trails off as he finally spots Roman. His eyes widen as he takes in the bruises, the blood, the marks of what look like prison cuffs?

 “Oh, god…” Logan blinks and Janus is crouched beside them, his hands hovering over Roman’s broken form as he starts crooning to the prince.

 “Oh, honey, what happened to you,” he murmurs, his hands starting to pull away the fabric cutting into Roman’s throat, “you poor, poor thing…”

 “Got it.”

 Remus appears in a flash, crouching down as well as Janus and Logan start to help Roman unwind from the bloody mess he’s in. Logan glances over; it’s a kit that has more medical supplies than the first aid kit. Bandages, he can see antiseptic, surgical towels…

 He catches Remus’s eye and they exchange a nod.

 “Where does he need to go,” Janus asks as they start to get Roman upright, “you want him downstairs?”

 “Let’s get him to our bathroom, J,” Virgil suggests, carefully getting his arms around the prince’s shoulders.

 “Do you think it’s safe to sink with him?”

 “Presumably he had to sink out to get back to his room, but I’m not sure it would be wise.”

 “So we’ll carry him,” Virgil says firmly, “all of us.”

 As it turns out, Remus and Janus can help Virgil just fine. Logan snatches up Remus’s kit as Patton grabs the first aid kit, hustling down the corridor to keep up with the others.

 “Lo, what happened?”

 “I don’t know,” Logan mutters back, “but I…I don’t think it was…the Imagination’s been closed all day, hasn’t it?”

 “That’s what I thought too. You don’t think—“

 “I don’t know, Patton, I…”

 Patton’s firm grip on his arm speaks volumes as they finally get to the bathroom.

 The tile is already warm as the others carefully lay Roman down in the big place near the edge of the shower. Logan takes a moment to check what they might need.

 The bathroom is one big open space with a tub in one corner, a large walk-in shower area at the other, and two sinks with a wide counter. Patton and Remus have already started setting up the first aid kit as Janus pulls on a different pair of gloves. Virgil still has Roman’s head in his hands, murmuring softly to him.

 “Is he awake?”

 Virgil shakes his head as Logan sits down. “I can’t tell. He’s looking around but I—he’s not saying anything.”

 “That is not completely unexpected,” Logan murmurs, “we have to get him out of his clothes. They’re making it harder for him to breathe.”

 “Someone needs to stay by his head,” Remus calls, “in case he wakes up and starts freaking out.”

 “I’ve got him.” Sure enough, Janus slips two of his hands gently under Roman’s head as he unclips the back of his collar. “Shh, shh, easy, sweetie, you’re safe now.”

 Virgil scoots back and starts tugging on his hoodie strings. Patton, still hovering by the medical supplies, catches it.

 “Hey, Virge,” he says, shooting a quick nod at Logan, “why don’t we go make something to eat? Something small, and something to drink.”

 “Yeah…yeah that’s a good idea.”

 As the two of them leave, Remus kneels by Roman’s feet and curses. “We’re gonna have to cut them off.”

 “You mean cut the rest of them off,” Janus mutters, “what happened?”

 “You think I’m not beating myself up asking that same thing?”

 “We have to get Roman stable,” Logan says quickly, “and that means we have to see what—“

 “The damage is,” Remus growls.

 “Quite.”

 “Alright. Be careful by his wrists.”

 “We will.”

 “Jan if you drop his head I swear to—“

 “I won’t, I promise.”

 “…I know.”

 “You’re worried about your brother,” Logan whispers as they start peeling the clothes away, “we understand.”

 Janus keeps his promise, cradling Roman’s head as the work to get the rest of his prince costume off. Under any other circumstance, Logan admits this might actually be read as amusing. Peeling Roman out of his clothes, however, has never been less devastating.

 Every inch they pull back reveals more bruises. Roman’s torso is warm, throbbing, carpeted with horrible wounds. Every so often a piece will stick and Roman winces, prompting Janus to stroke his face carefully, murmuring reassurances that they’re here, everything’s okay, Roman’s safe now.

 Remus chucks bruise cream at Logan and they start, methodically applying the cream and bandages. Janus gives them an extra hand where they need it, while keeping up the constant litany of reassurances. Logan comes away confident that nothing is broken, just very badly bruised.

 “So what now?”

 “He has to rest.” Logan pulls off the gloves, running his hand over the ground to make sure they haven’t spilled anything. “I…I don’t know how long that will be.”

 “I don’t want to leave him.”

 They look around, eyes wide at the strangled whisper coming out of Remus. Remus stares down at Roman’s bruised form, thankfully clear of blood now, his hands trembling as they rest on his knees. Remus looks up at them, his eyes glistening.

 “The last time I left him like this it was bad.” He swallows and looks back down. “I’m not leaving my brother.”

 Logan looks at Roman. Brave, strong, sweet, kind Roman. Bruised, scared, exhausted, broken Roman. His hand tightens and without thinking he tucks a stray hair behind Roman’s ear.

 “He hates it when his hair is out of place,” he murmurs as Janus raises an eyebrow at him.

 “We’re not leaving our prince,” Janus says firmly, glancing back at Remus. “Would you like to come sit up here with us?”

 Remus shakes his head. “If something comes through that door trying to get him,” he says in a low voice that Logan has never heard before, “it’s going to have to get through me first.”

 Logan nods. They take up their watch. Remus’s hands twitch every so often, and Logan sees him lay his hand on an unbruised part of Roman’s ankle when they do with a tenderness that takes him a little aback. Janus can’t seem to stop running his hands through Roman’s hair, making comforting noises every time Roman winces as he breathes.

 Logan, well…Logan is trying desperately to figure out what happened.

  Roman hasn’t been in the Imagination today. Remus was waiting and he hadn’t seen him.

Roman hasn’t been seen by anyone else all day.

The last place Roman was seen was in his room.

No one else has been in Roman’s room today.

 “Logan,” Janus calls softly, “Logan, you’re shaking.”

 Logan looks down. Oh. So he is. He takes a deep breath and takes Janus’s offered hand. “I’m…thinking.”

 “About…?” Janus indicates Roman.

 He nods sharply. “I’m having trouble coming to anything but a most troubling conclusion.”

 “What?”

 Logan explains. Janus goes pale.

 “You don’t think…”

 “I don’t want to think that, no.”

 “R-ro-Bro,” Remus whispers, “oh, Ro-Bro, you gotta tell us something when you wake up.”

 He sniffles.

 “Please wake up, Ro-Bro. I gotta…I gotta kick your ass for blowing me off and getting into a fight without me, I gotta—you gotta tell me what kicked your ass so I can go put it in the fucking ground…” He sniffs again, his whole body tense, even as his hand remains gently on Roman. “You just gotta wake up, Ro.”

 After a little while longer, Virgil and Patton return carrying snacks and drinks. Remus doesn’t even look as Virgil sets his octopus water bottle at his elbow. Janus murmurs a thanks and eats a little. Logan eats and drains about half of his bottle. Virgil sits at Remus’s side, Patton at his other.

 “Has he woken up yet?”

 Remus shakes his head.

 “He’s probably just sleeping, Remus, he needs to rest.”

 “I know.”

 “Do we know what happened,” Virgil asks quietly, “at all?”

 Logan winces. “Well…”

 “…don’t like the way you said that.” Judging by Virgil’s expression, he likes it even less after Logan’s finished explaining.

 “Oh, shit.”

 Everyone’s gaze instantly snaps to Patton. Listen. Patton doesn’t curse. It’s a thing. When Patton curses it’s bad.

 “Patton?”

 “Roman…Roman has a thing,” Patton explains, “you know like…like my wings? Or how Virgil gets taller?”

 Virgil nods. “Yeah, okay, but those don’t…hurt us, why would Roman’s…”

 Janus is the next one to curse. “Of course…the bruised ego.”

 Patton nods sadly. “Roman takes, well, it’s not really his choice, Roman is forced to take the brunt of the negative reactions Thomas has. That’s part of his thing.”

 Logan’s eyes widen. “Wait, but if this has been happening since…well, since Thomas has had an ego, and we didn’t know about this, then…”

  How many times has this happened?

 Remus growls. “New rule: no one is allowed to fuck with Roman.”

 No one dares disagree. Logan scans over the injuries again. He frowns.

 “Hold on…some of these seem…consistent with that judgment, but then why…”

 A faint groaning sound snaps him out of his musings. A tense silence falls in the bathroom as Roman starts to stir in Janus’s hands.

 “Roman,” Logan calls softly, “Roman, can you hear me?”

 “L’gan?”

 “Yes, Roman, I’m right here. Don’t try and move too much right now, you’re very hurt.”

 Roman blinks up at them, his eyes focusing glassily on Janus, who smiles. He tucks another piece of hair away from Roman’s face.

 “Shh, shh, my prince, hold still,” he coos, “you’re awfully banged up, sweetie, just hold still…shh…”

 “J’nus? What’s…where is…” Roman’s face swivels back to Logan. “Where am I?”

 “You’re on the bathroom floor, Roman, we had to see to your injuries.”

 Roman’s eyes go wide and immediately all of them reach out to hold him still as he tries to move.

 “Shh, shh,” Janus shushes, “none of that now, sweetie, you’re hurt, calm down…”

 “I’m—I have to—“

 “You’re not going anywhere,” comes Remus’s voice from behind them.

 “Remus!”

 “What? He’s not!”

 “Yeah, but there’s no reason to scare the shit out of him.”

 “I can’t see,” Logan hears Roman’s frantic whisper as he turns to glance at the others, “I can’t—let me—“

 “Logan, is it safe for him to sit up?”

 Logan nods. “Just take it slow, nothing too fast. It will probably be the best if he can lean against someone.”

 “Jan—“

 “I’ve got you, sweetie, I’m not going anywhere.”

 When Roman is upright, his back against Janus’s chest, only then do Virgil and Patton relax the slightest bit. Remus doesn’t. Logan’s gaze switches anxiously between the two.

 “Remus—“ Roman swallows— “Re, are you—are you mad at me?”

 “A little.”

 Roman shrinks under Remus’s glare. “I’m sorry.”

 “Jeez, Ro, it’s not—I’m not mad at you like that,” Remus mumbles, “it’s mainly just—well, our thing is…you know, cat pile.”

 “You’re—you’re mad because you can’t lie on top of me right now?”

 “Yeah! It always makes you feel better! And now I can’t help you feel better!”

 “R-Re—“

 Remus lets out a wounded noise and surges forward, careful to avoid barreling into any of the others as he wraps his brother in a protective hug. Janus huffs lightly but stays upright. Roman’s eyes close and his head drops to rest against Remus’s.

 “I’m the only one allowed to fuck with you,” comes Remus’s muffled voice, “no one else.”

 “I know,” Roman whispers, “I know.”

 Logan swallows heavily. “Roman,” he prompts softly, “we aren’t mad at you. We won’t get angry with you.”

 “...promise?”

 “I promise.”

 “I promise.”

 “I promise.”

 “Promise.

Janus just squeezes Roman’s shoulder gently. “I promise too, sweetie. Now, will you tell us what happened?”

 “I, um…” Roman’s gaze flickers over to Patton. “Have you—um…”

 “I’ve told them a little, sweetheart,” Patton says when Roman can’t finish his sentence, “we’ve figured out the ‘bruised ego,’ is there anything else you’d like to tell us?”

 Roman nods. He turns his head back towards Remus, his face contorted. Logan carefully reaches out to ruffle his hair.

 “Take your time,” he whispers, “we’re not going anywhere.”

 “I have three,” Roman blurts out after a moment.

 “…three, honey?”

 “Patton has…the wings, Virgil has the height, Janus…Janus…”

 “Has the pants.”

 Janus lightly flicks Remus’s head, shaking his head fondly.

 “Are you saying you’ve got three turns of phrase, Princey?” Roman nods. “Okay. Is one of them ‘bruised ego?’”

 “Mhmm.”

 “Okay. Are you comfortable telling us the other two?”

 Goosebumps rise on Roman’s arms and Janus carefully positions them so Logan can help rub them away. Remus growls protectively and huddles closer.

 “…creative block,” Roman murmurs, only for Remus to tense. Remus raises his head slowly.

 “Ro-Bro?”

 “I, um, my room—my room shrinks and I—I can’t get out the door, I can’t move anything, I can’t breathe, I—“

 “Shh-shh-shh,” Janus soothes instantly, “you’re safe, my prince, you’re in the bathroom with us, you’re not there, you’re not there.”

 There are a few tense seconds of deep breaths.

 “…what’s the third one, Roman?”

 Roman looks at his wrists, turning them over as if he doesn’t recognize them. “…shackled creativity.”

 Patton clenches his fists as Virgil muffles another curse. Remus follows Roman’s gaze, the line of his shoulders growing tenser by the second. Janus carefully laces his fingers through one of Roman’s hands, Logan lacing his through the other.

 “Thank you for telling us, Roman,” he murmurs, “and…I do not know how much this is worth to you, but…we are so sorry this happens and that we could not do anything about it.”

 “It’s okay,” Roman murmurs, “it’s my own fault.”

 The bathroom falls silent.

 “…Roman, it’s not your fault.” Virgil scoots closer. “How—this isn’t your fault.”

 “Isn’t it? I’m the one that’s the closest to the Imagination,” Roman says softly, completely convinced of what he’s saying, “I’m the one that makes it possible for Thomas to see us…the Sides, the Imagination…isn’t that my job?”

 “Not like that,” Logan says firmly, “never like this.”

 “Logan’s right,” Virgil says when it looks like Roman’s about to argue, “you’re the conduit for the Imagination, but you’re not responsible for everything that this place does, let alone how Thomas interprets and internalizes stuff.”

 “None of this is you, Roman.” Janus rests his cheek against the top of Roman’s head. “None of it. It’s not Patton’s fault he grows wings, it’s not Virgil’s fault he grows taller, and it’s not your fault that this happens to you.”

 “You’re missing someone off the list there, Jan-Jan.”

 “Remus, I swear to god—“

 Remus cackles, throwing his head back as Janus swats at him. Of course, the problem is that they all try and look mildly annoyed at Remus, and yet the instant it makes Roman giggle, even a little, they all have to break character because Roman’s smiling again.

 “Seriously, Ro-Bro,” Remus says after a moment, “this isn’t on you. You don’t deserve this or some other fucked-up shit. This is fucked up all on its own. You’re not responsible for this.”

 “We’ll talk to Thomas,” Logan says, “about…negative feedback and internalizing things, alright? This isn’t healthy, Roman, it’s not—it’s not supposed to be like this, and it’s definitely not your fault.”

 “…okay.”

 “Can you say that for me, sweetie,” Janus coaxes, reaching around to cup Roman’s face, “that it’s not your fault?”

 “I-it’s not—“

 Roman stops. Swallows heavily.

 “Go on, my prince, you can do it.”

 “…I-it’s not my fault.”

 “Good.”

 “It isn’t my fault.” Roman’s eyes go wide and something hitches in his throat. “It is—isn’t—I—oh, god—“

 They catch Roman as he starts to cry.

 “You did so well, sweetheart, so well, I’m so proud of you.”

 “It’s okay, Princey, it’s gonna be okay.”

 “I’ve got you, my prince, I have you.”

 “You’re gonna be fine, Ro-Bro, I’ll keep you safe, I promise.”

 “You don’t have to do this alone, Roman.”

 Roman rests there, in the arms of his family, bruised and exhausted, but not broken.

 Not anymore.

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[bassclarinety]

I want to psycho analyze the Madrigal’s gifts by the triplets’ line.

Bruno’s is the most obviously worse out of the Triplets. Physically taxing, mentally scarring in some cases, and drives a wedge between him and everyone around him. I think if Bruno had had any cannon children, their gifts would have been similarly bad. -100/10, the future is overrated.

Pepa’s line is interesting to analyze in my opinion.

Pepa has a difficult gift in the first place- she has to bottle up her own emotions to maintain a perfect weather cycle, has to force negative (in most cases) ones to change the cycle, and her bottled up emotions have a chance of exploding in a quite nasty way. I think we can see her gift’s difficulties reflected in her children’s. 2/10, I would be raining all the time, and I would give a big fat middle finger to anyone telling me “you have a cloud!”

Dolores’ is obvious in my opinion- she literally has a heightened sense tuned to what seems to be roughly a mile around the Encanto (give or take), and if she is able to concentrate on a certain set of noises, which in of itself is a difficulty, she’s left with the decision to either share or act on anything she hears. Her gift has slim to no upsides, and I’d go as far as saying that it has no upsides at all. -∞/10, even though my hearing sucks atm.

Camilos’ is a little more subtle, but certainly still prevalent- he/they literally have the ability to shift any part of their body into anyone he has a clear image of- or to even change things about his body he doesn’t like- hello, body dysmorphia?? And I can’t imagine that this ability isn’t taxing- so if he wasn’t constantly eating Tia Julieta’s miracle food, I would bet that his muscles would be sore ALL the time. And having to eat constantly to replace burned energy! -7/10, I already don’t like my face, but I don’t want to have a cure-all for it!

As for Antonio, I don’t honestly know if his gift would have huge upsides like his siblings- but I think it would be like Julieta’s side- subtle, but really serious. Antonio can understand any animal- and they’re probably more compelled to be nice to him (i hope) but that would mean that Antonio probably won’t be doing much socializing outside of his family. Possible social anxiety? He’s got a really good net of people to help him though, so I can’t honestly see much downside to his gift. 10/10, the only good rating, I want to hear gossip from animals about the humans.

And oh, ho, ho! We’ve arrived at Julieta’s side of the family!

At first glance, I think Julieta’s gift looks pretty much without downside- just eat some of her cooking and wow! No more seriously broken bone!

Two things immediately pop out to me- this hinges on Julieta’s cooking, nobody else! I’m obviously not sure how persnickety magic is, but assuming it’s extremely picky, Julieta has to do everything- that means from raw ingredients to fully cooked, and she has to make a LOT. No rest for the weary here!

Second- relying on a magical cure for sickness and injury is concerning to me in two ways. What happens in a situation where (like after Casita falls) Julieta’s cooking isn’t a heal-all? Does she know anything about identifying injuries or treating them? I’d wager very little- given how much time she has to spend preparing her magical food.

And lastly- we saw a pattern here! Julieta has no time (or very little) to do literally anything else other than working with her gift. I’d wager she’d kinda get resentful of having to cook so much- it keeps her from paying attention to people who need her, not her food! Julieta’s gift gets a -2/10 for me, and that’s with me considering that her food could remove nausea.

Isabella Perfecta- on the outside I’d see her gift as pretty damn amazing- grow any flower, make a tree speed run growing, make any garden flourish? Cool!

But I think before Isabella actively changes what she’s growing, I think she could cause more harm than good. Any non-native plant can become an invasive species, if left unchecked. Now I think this is where it gets more complicated- I have a feeling that at least a certain amount of Isabella’s abilities are linked to her emotions, and if she set her mind to it, Isabella could likely remove plants in a wide area, much more effectively than a regular person. So, meh on the oof scale.

However! Her gift is incredibly unique, and we certainly saw that she used it ALL the time, often to try to appease Abuela. Now I’m going to try not to rant about Abuela’s influence on this side of the Madrigals, but the sheer energy Isabella spent on appeasement must’ve meant physical exhaustion. On my scale I’d say 6/10, because I realized that her abilities would help curb deforestation. In terms of taxing, 5/10.

Luisa. Oh, wonderful, beautiful Luisa.

I don’t have a lot to say really, your gift means you’re expected to do all the heavy lifting. You’re taken advantage of to move a building (seriously why did they have her move the church? No enough godly light??) and other things that HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING MOVED! REROUTING A RIVER IS NOT A THING TO BE DONE BY ONE PERSON!

This also means you’re away from the people you want to spend time with- you can pry my thoughts about how much Luisa loves her little sister from my cold dead hands, I’m a last child, I know how older siblings (with 5+ age gap) really want to treat their siblings, and it’s to play/spend time with them at the drop of a hat.

On top of all this? Her entire mental image of herself is being able to serve others in increasingly over complicated ways. She lost her cool at the dinner because she couldn’t do what a GUEST asked her to do. If I was the head of a household and my guest asked my (overpowered and certainly capable) child to move a large object for their own whim, I would kick them out! (Seriously! Mariano is fine, but Señora Guzman is on thin fucking ice!)

In my terms, Luisa’s gift is a 3/10, and that’s because she’s gotta have a heightened balance ability somewhere in there too.

And finally, Mirabel. Oh Mirabel, I literally sobbed every time you felt the gap between you and your family members- as a third child, you are so relatable and it broke my heart!

As a giftless Madrigal, you were seen less than, maybe not intentionally- but the feeling of uselessness was constantly being projected onto you, just because those with gifts wouldn’t allow you to help.

Because of that feeling of uselessness, I think Mirabel overcompensated- tried to do things that would “make my family proud”, show that she’s just as special as the rest of her family, and she shouldn’t be pushed aside just because she has no gift.

However, in a way, I think the lack of a gift saved Mirabel a lot of pain- the pain of never being enough, not if she couldn’t stretch herself to her very limits just to make people happy.

My diagnosis? Mirabel’s lack of a gift is a 8/10, and it’s only an 8 because no gift caused her so much pain.

Long story short, I think that the Madrigal’s family followed a pattern in gift types/burdens, and in the end I would call the gifts the drawback of creating a safe haven. They might be cool, but I would not want a Madrigal’s gift for myself, not even if it meant clear skin.

[sunbeams-and-honey]

what are your thoughts and words of advice on/for these placements?:

Virgo Sun and Mercury (7h), Pisces Moon and Ascendant (1h), Scorpio Venus (9h), Taurus Mars (3h), Libra Jupiter (8h), Pisces Uranus (1h), Aquarius Neptune (12h), Sagittarius Midheaven and Pluto (10h), Capricorn Chiron (11h), and Leo Lilith and Saturn (6h)

Hi darling! Thanks for the question and sorry about the wait. I don't mean to sound weird at all, but we have so many similar placements, it's insane. I'm wondering if you were born a few days after me...

Anyways, I've already gone over the following placements! Click on each one to find each respective post:

Virgo Mercury

Scorpio Venus

Leo Saturn

Pisces Uranus

Aquarius Neptune

Capricorn Chiron

Moving on, your Virgo Sun Pisces Moon combination makes you logical and idealistic, with a strong and vibrant imagination. You are very opportunistic, so you know how to make the best of whatever comes your way. You are definitely someone who can trust in both your intuition and your intellect. You provide very deep and important insight on a variety of matters, so people often turn to you for advice. You are quite logical as well as a person who can trust your hunches. You are quite a wise soul; you can be thrust into almost any situation and you already seem to know what to do. You can deal with concepts and meanings that are difficult for most people to understand.

Your Sun in the 7th means that being in a romantic relationships is very important to you. Being with someone in that sense brings out the best in you as you can mirror and compliment the other person(s). However, this can make you miserable and feel as though you are without purpose when single. You only know how to base your personality and behaviours off someone else rather than being your own person and finding out who you truly are. You would like a career where you work with the public, but this may prove a challenge as you are heavily influenced by what other people think of you.

Your Mercury is in the 7th too, which makes you someone who prefers to solve problems by communicating and talking through what went wrong. You want to get the point of view of whoever else is involved in the issue rather than solely focusing on yourself. You are quite sociable and much prefer to be out and about rather than being stuck at home (I dread to think how you're coping with the pandemic, good lord). You easily become bored when left to your own devices. Your relationships tend to be very healthy and successful because you know how to properly communicate with the other person. You quickly come to an understanding with the other and frequently share ideas with them.

You have your Moon in the 1st House, which means you are rather emotional and delicate, not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you. You are constantly thinking of others and of how you can help them, regardless of how well you're doing in your own life. You are ready to jump up and lend a helping hand at a moment's notice. You aren't too worried about always having a plan to follow; simply going with the flow doesn't tend to stress you out much. You are honest about your feelings, not really one to hide them or be ashamed of them. Your heightened sensitivity can cause relationships issues as you have the tendency to overreact to certain situations and people.

Your Pisces Rising makes you a very optimistic person who also wants to share that positive attitude with the world. You may view things with rose-tinted glasses which can lead to you having expectations which are way too high. Just remember to stay realistic while keeping your optimism. You feel things very strongly but are rarely aggressive. You get along with pretty much anyone due to your friendly and relaxed manner. You assume that others always have good intentions, which may be a nice outlook to have on people, but can put you at risk of being manipulated or exploited by others.

Your Venus in the 9th means that you might be one to fall in love too easily, especially if its with someone who brings something new to your life. You are very appreciative and interested in others' cultures and want the people around you to be the same. You are very warm and adaptable, and love having freedom and independence in your relationships. You are definitely not clingy or needy. You will not hesitate to end a relationship if the other person is restricting you in some way. Your ideal partner needs to be open to adventure and new experiences. You don't tend to appreciate what you have now, always looking to the future and what it might hold for you. This can mean that precious moments slip right past you and you don't even realise it. Learn to love the present for what it is every now and then.

Your Mars is in Taurus, which makes you quite comfortable with who you are as a person. You prioritise the things in your life that make you happy, not too worried or focused on the things you do just because you have to. You're definitely here for a good time. Though that's not to say that you're reckless or anything like that. You also want a future that is stable and secure as well as fun and exciting. You're very driven to achieve this for yourself and are willing to work hard for it. You are a bit materialistic and can depend on your possessions too much at times. Comfort of the utmost importance for you.

You have your Mars in the 3rd House, which means you a pretty straightforward with your communication. There's no beating around the bush with you, that's for sure. You're not in the least bit afraid to talk about sensible and serious matters, and are also unafraid of expressing yourself how you see fit. You are always ready and willing to open other people's minds. You're very energetic, almost to the point where you have this kind of nervous energy about you. You find it very difficult to just slow down and rest. You have a strong faith in your own ideas and have enough ambition to want to pursue them. You always want to experience new things.

Your Libra Jupiter makes you have a deep desire to have everyone just get along. You're not really a huge fan of conflict. However, this desire can make you miserable as you feel guilty if you don't get along with someone. It's important that you understand that it's completely normal to not get along with some people and it doesn't mean that you're doing something wrong or that you just need to try harder. This placement can make you somewhat of a wandering spirit. You love to meet new and interesting people, partly just for the joy of it, partly because you're desperate to meet your soulmate.

Your Jupiter in the 8th means you are quite spiritual and sociable, and definitely someone who seeks pleasure from all areas of your life. Your intuition is on point and highly accurate, which makes you very good at determining the root of a problem. It's because of this that you may find that people often turn to you to help them deal with issues. You absolutely love solving complex mysteries, always happy to test your mind. You really do mean well but you can be overly emotional at times. You're also prone to manipulating others, whether you realise you're doing it or not.

Your Uranus is in the 1st, which makes you an eccentric at heart. You are someone who wants to support the people around you in becoming more confident in their identity and originality. People may consider you to be ahead of your time. You might find that a lot of unexpected things happen to you in your life; you'll definitely have a lot of stories to tell when you're older! You don't care much for rules, especially when they start to restrict who you are as a person and how you express that. That doesn't mean, however, that you don't want to help and care for the people around you.

You have your Neptune in the 12th House, which means that you're easily misunderstood by others. This is because while you do mean well, you don't tend to express your true nature. In reality, you are extremely kind and compassionate, you just struggle with putting this out there. You can be quite pessimistic, always focusing on what's wrong in your life and stressing over everyday issues. You should try to look after your own happiness and wellbeing more. You're very empathetic, but this can mean that others' negativity affects you deeply. Remember to put up boundaries if and when you need them; your true friends will understand.

Your Sagittarius Midheaven makes you someone who has a great love for life and everything it has to offer. You constantly want to learn more about anything and everything and then share that knowledge with others. People are attracted to you thanks to your friendly, sincere and energetic persona. You love chatting to people who are very different to you as you love learning about others' life experiences. You like to look at theories and then try to make sense of them, or to simply make up your own. You may often ponder the big questions of the universe and try to decide your point of view on it all. Despite this, your mind is always open to new ideas and you love to hear what other people think.

Your Pluto in Sagittarius means you are very spiritually attuned to the world; spirituality is just something that comes to you naturally. You can tap into your innate power with ease. You absolutely have the ability to help change the world for the better. You are constantly on the lookout for new experiences, always wanting to do things you can look back on and smile about. You are very free-spirited, not really one to be happy to just follow the rules as they are without good reason. You dream of a bright and happy future and you have to realise that you can absolutely make this happen.

Your Pluto is in the 10th, which makes you extremely focused and driven to achieve your goals. You are determined to overcome the close-minded views of the people around you. Your career is extremely important to you, always wanting to improve and advance within that area of your life. You are very good at devising goals and at planning your course of action. You assess and manage risks incredibly well and are confident in everything that you do. You research and search for knowledge that can improve your life in any way possible. You are quite the perfectionist, which is good because it pushes you to achieve your full potential, but can mean that you overwork yourself too often.

You have your Chiron in the 11th House, which means that the friends you normally attract want to help build you up as a person and want to see you do well in life. This means that you can absolutely rely on your friends to support you no matter what. They also provide you with close friendships that can run very deep. They may be a little insecure so make sure that you hype them up just like they would with you. Your friendships are mutually beneficial in that you help each other to become the best versions of yourselves that you can be.

Your Leo Lilith makes you extremely confident in yourself, almost to the point where you become self-centred and egotistical. It's important that you learn to dial this down without diminishing your self-worth. You might view yourself as someone who is generally better than most people, and regardless of whether or not this is true, you shouldn't let it influence your behaviour. Everyone deserves the same respect as you. It can be hard to talk sense into you sometimes as you tend to become very disillusioned at times. You constantly seek attention from others which can lead you to do some rather stupid things in order to be seen.

Your Lilith in the 6th means that you are somewhat of a workaholic, never knowing when to stop and just take a break. You are very composed so you're good at censoring yourself and stopping yourself from saying or doing something you know you'll regret. However this skill can also manifest as preventing yourself from expressing your true self, which can become very problematic. You love to record things that you've done, whether that's by keeping a diary or by filming everything at any opportunity. You may have the tendency to change your job the second you become bored, which can be good as it keeps you stimulated, but can be an issue as the boredom you experience might just be momentary.

Your Saturn is in the 6th, which makes you hardworking, disciplined, and mature enough to want to grow from your past mistakes. You're not someone to cover up or ignore your past failures as you recognise that they are always a good learning opportunity for you to improve yourself. You may tend to have issues related to your health, but of course I don't want to scare you or anything. Just remember to try and lead a healthy lifestyle where you can and you should be okay. You might face a few issues at work, whether that's something to do with your colleagues, environment or something else entirely. You do tend to have a bit of an attitude so just watch that and know when to dial it down.

Words Of Advice:

Don’t take everything for granted.

You need to learn how to put yourself in other people’s shoes every now and then.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Life is there to be enjoyed, so enjoy it!

Sometimes showing your emotions proves to others how genuine you are.

Identify where you need to change as a person in order to succeed.

Be more responsible when making promises.

Your value is not solely based on what others think of you.

Don't be afraid to try new things.

Do things that bring you satisfaction in a spiritual sense.

Learn to take more risks in order to creative more positive changes.

Make loving yourself a higher priority in your life.

Be careful when making financial investments and decisions.

You can express your opinions without offending people.

Don't force yourself to get on with every single person you meet.

Stick with your commitments.

Use your great taste to help others more often.

Prove to others that they can depend on you.

Try to differentiate your internal criticism from what other people actually think about you.

You can express your opinions without hurting others' feelings.

Keep close to those who you consider to be your family.

Learn how to communicate effectively with people who are different to you.

You can be self-confident without having a massive ego.

Think through why you're bored of something before doing something about it.

Remember to take breaks more often.

Thanks for the question darling and I hope this helped! Sending good vibes your way and have a wonderful rest of your day!

[warnadudenexttime]

Ok so swap aus, love them whole lot!!

Like personality swaps are interesting but the thing that gives sanders sides an edge to swap aus is the idea of the sides swapping traits!

Obvs dark side light side swaps are neat as well but that’s a whole other discussion so

Because I am a hoe for my ships ( that being moceit, analogical, Platonic/brotherly creativitwins ) let’s start off with the concept of

Logan - anxiety

Virgil - logic

Patton - deception

Janus - morality

Remus - light creativity

Roman - dark creativity

Now it’s important to note that listen you rarely see this type of swap, I’ve never seen it atleast??

It’s mostly logicality prinxiety swaps and I get the appeal they’re opposites, so it causes conflict, Same with Logince and moxiety is also a common swap

However!! I do have some ideas :D it’s not a fully fleshed out idea but still a concept!!

Commonly enough when people switch traits for the sides they honestly dont keep a lot of what that side was. For example patton is a hyper, kind hearted sad dad when anxiety he just loses that and just acts like a droopy Virgil yk yk?

So we are gonna try and preserve those personalities without making them not fit for the trait entirely, meaning we may have to exaggerate some details about them

For example:

Canonly, Patton can sometimes be manipulative so we may have to heighten that up a bit, stuff like that

So back on topic

I think we should still keep C!thomas the same, atleast in the beginning of me writing this, we work around the idea of him staying the same as canon and from there we can change him as needed

—————

Logan as anxiety

- a bit more confident as hes listened too more than logic!logan sadly enough

- I’d say hes a lot more open about his more negative emotions, while he does try and to still not show them his anger does slip out a bit much whenever he feels like his points are gonna get thomas killed, lmao insert tempest tongue falsehood joke here

- he’d have the look more that of a tired professor

- wrinkled black button up, he’d have a purple tie. Instead of just like makeup eye shadow, he’d have actual eye bags

- probably kept C!thomas up through many college and school nights for studying

- is always anxious YouTube is gonna fail and regrets not putting up more effort for Thomas to go into his chemical engineering degree

- obvs cause I’m an analogical hoe I’ll sneak this in, Logan really does like virgil as virgil too values thomas’ education and just kinda sits there while Logan angrily rants every single possibility of what could go wrong today

- “and there’s a highly probable statistic that we could end up dying participating in this activity! 75%, virgil!!”

- I think when overwhelmed with his mind racing through probabilities he’d end up messing with or loosening his tie, cleaning his glasses a lot, or chewing on the end of his sleeves

- I think he accidentally blurts out a lot of words especially when he’s trying to hold in his anger, like “THATS A BAD IDEA” then slaps his hands over his mouth and just kinda says, “apologies... I need to stop my sudden outbursts as they’re becoming a frequent problem” and hey the outbursts getting even more worse and uncontrollable could lead to Logan doing an ol duck like in AA

—————

patton as deception

- I think I myself would love a dark side who comes in sickeningly sweet but has “darker” intentions I suppose?

- I think Janus wouldn’t like Patton in the start because he knows how easily manipulated C!thomas can be and to see a seemingly innocent dad try and push some morals on you, he’s cautious

- so Patton when he first appears doesn’t hide himself like Janus did behind a disguise... well sort of?

- he comes in dressed as his outfit in the series, maybe throughout the whole time he’s redirecting the conversation in his favor so no one reveals him, which we’ve seen canon Patton do a good job of being able to distract the sides from fighting so we can say he has that ability himself as well

- maybe like Janus he can stop people from saying words he doesn’t want thomas to know, or well thomas himself doesn’t wanna know

- but instead of the obvious slams hand over mouth it’s more like, Virgil speaks up saying “Thomas, It would probably help you to know that, Patton isn’t exactly-“ and maybe either he tries to finish his sentence and can’t speak, he just lets out air instead of a noise. Or forgets what he was talking about all together, another form of misdirection?

- patton’s whole thing is he came up here, dressed in his lil innocent dad outfit, being sweet as all hell “kiddo, I heard about a certain show you messed of Joan’s? Now we don’t joan hating us do we? We love Joan to death and we wouldn’t wanna hurt them! Can you imagine the look on their face?” Which Janus just says, “are you asking him to lie? You and I both have the understanding that Joan hates being lied to.”

- patton’s like “ehhh I know, but I think saving the relationship is more important! We don’t know if telling the truth could end up hurting Joan more then just a small fib?”

- so blah blah Patton is revealed

- his cardigan is back to his cat hoodie which is the black variety, instead maybe tied around his waist? He could have fingerless gloves that kinda look like cat

- paws? Like, he’s the unlucky black cat. He doesn’t have snake makeup but maybe he has sharps canines/fangs like cats do. And maybe we could keep the polo just make it yellow? Not sure though, but I do wanna have his lil logo go from just a blue heart when first shown to a yellow one with it like, being broken with a claw mark, like someone tore through it

- and why he chose to come in blue in the first place maybe he wanted to show thomas he was similar to Janus or maybe he has a crush on Janus? 👀👀 who’s to say

- but he’s revealed and just ahHhwhaj OH NO THE CAT PUNS, “apawogies Thomas for deceiving you a bit there, I was just trying to help make sure joan is feline good in the end! I do think you should really reconsider- meow I better get on my way then ol’ creativity needs some pasta. Keep my ideas in mind kiddo!” Then leaves lmao

- and that could be a solid set up for Thomas to be like- wait is there two creativities? Yk yk

- I do have some ideas for how svs and svs redux could go but yeah

- overall Janus, not really that known for having an animal trait as much as Patton and Roman but Janus could turn into a snake for svs redux-

I’m getting a head of myself lol

- point is, lmao- Patton’s animal trait is a cat

- he’s still kind? He can be a bit more pushy then canon Patton. But his first method is always just a gentle nudge and, “oh come on kiddo, I think your father would probably agree with me on this one”

- he’s not so much for thomas’ self  preservation as more so he pushes thomas to help his friends and because he wants to make sure thomas looks good enough for them so they’ll stay he ends up pushing for lying

I have some more ideas for the other sides as well but just wanted to see what some thoughts are before I keep on developing this :D

[anfie-in-the-box]

Dreamtale_Not_Found Teaser

Notes

Nobody asked for this, including me. I never intended to participate in Aftermare Week (and I'm a bit late as it is). Furthermore, I never could figure this ship out at all; for me, it just didn't work. Until suddenly, it did. All thanks to this event. Not sure if I'd expand this idea, but have this teaser nonetheless.

。。。

Do you?..

"Well, that's new," Nightmare says out loud, unsure how to react.

To be fair, it's always something new unless he concentrates on a certain AU. There are too many of them, so it's only natural they come and go.

He's been through this so many times, yet it's as awe-inspiring and breathtaking as ever. He still remembers the first time. He couldn't put up with his life anymore, and he tried to change it. Only... He hesitated a mere second before making contact with the closest golden apple. After all, he never touched it.

There's no proof, but it felt like the whole world shifted, settling in a state completely different from before.

That night, for the first time in his life, Nightmare had a dream. It wasn't a good dream; quite the opposite actually. He remembered walking in a cold, empty world filled with what he thought was snow. Of course, it was monster dust. He learned that shortly after, right as he stumbled into a human murdering an armless lizard-like monster. The air was thick not only with dust but also with grief, horror, and pain. Nightmare's never felt so much negativity in one place.

As time passed, his lucid dreams have become more and more frequent. He explored a world he was dreaming about, invisible, untouchable. The worlds were different every time, each of them unique in its own way, and he craved to learn and see as much as possible in what little time he had. Need to hurry made him upset at first, but then excitement came, the thrill of a race against time, a gamble of what he discovers and what misses, what chooses and what discards.

He was so vulnerable back then, no wonder he'd fallen into a trap of escapism, sleeping more and more every day. Dream was so worried, and Nightmare... Nightmare couldn't care less. He just wanted to get out of the world where everybody neither loved nor accepted him. Or, well, he believed so. What a fatal fallacy that was.

Now, his life is balanced and bearable, yet, the dreams stay a welcome distraction and adventure that Nightmare awaits with eager anticipation. They never cease to surprise.

Like this time. He got thrown into so many different places, but this one is something else. There doesn't seem to be anything but a tiny lawn with two words above, and then, there's only endless darkness. "Continue" and "Reset", the words say. Nightmare is vaguely aware of the concept after visiting so many universes, but... Is this really what it looks like? Even if so, what is he doing here? His dreams always led him to monsters or humans, but this place is utterly empty.

Did something break? Was he abusing his power to travel between the worlds? Is this his punishment? Will he stay here forever? What about Dream? He's strong, he'd live on even if Nightmare never woke up or disappeared for good, but Nightmare doesn't want to bring that on his brother!

"Anybody here?" Nightmare tries, despite the anxiety building in his whole being, verging on panic. It's all for nothing, of course, he's invisible, untouchable, and inaudible during his dreams, he's never present enough in another world to interact with it. But doing something — anything at all — is better than giving in to panic.

Then, suddenly, a voice comes from the darkness, astounded yet wary, "the heck?!"

Nightmare shrieks, taking a step back and instantly going on the defensive. Ready to cover himself or dodge.

"who's there?"

Now that all Nightmare's senses are heightened by fear, he can actually see where the voice comes from. A distant figure coming his way in fast, big steps, running almost.

Wait...

"Do you... hear me?" he asks, not quite sure if he expects an answer or a lack of it.

"duh. see ya, too."

Okay. Alright. They're not attacking, only coming closer. No reason to relax yet, but perhaps he should show them he's not a threat. Ever so slowly, Nightmare raises both hands. For some reason, that earns him a... chuckle?

He doesn't even see there are two of them at first. The only thing he can focus on is those weird white things covering their heads. He's never seen anything like this before. What is this? Are they okay?

Then, he remembers what types of worlds he has access to.

Then, he sees a huge bloody slash across the creature's chest.

Everything falls into place.

They're really, really not okay.

Only then, he finally realises there isn't only one creature before him. A monster wearing his face — or, well, about a half of it, the other being covered by this strange white thing, — a Sans of this universe, if it even is a universe, it seems; and a kid sitting on his shoulders, covered by the whiteness as well.

"did we startle you?" Uncertain, Nightmare nods, his gaze glued to the blood dripping from the slash. It's rude to stare, he might make this Sans mad, but just can't get himself to look anywhere else. It doesn't help that there's nothing to look at. Definitely nothing as vibrant, not even the grass behind their back. No, Nightmare can't look away even if it'd be the death of him.

"so? mind telling me who you are? or how you entered this place, maybe? dunno, don't care, you choose what comes first."

The stranger's tone is nonchalant, but Nightmare can sense other's emotions, so there's no way that's fooling him. They're confused and distressed. And in so much pain that never ends.

"I'm dreaming," Nightmare falters. It suddenly hits him that he's actually talking to somebody from another world. One of those he's never present enough in. What changed? Could it be this place that affects him? If so, wouldn't that be a trap, a prison with no way out?..

Stars, please, anything but that. He doesn't want to leave his brother.

The stranger's only socket widens in surprise. He looks as taken aback as Nightmare feels, truly.

"but you're not..." he mutters, clearly talking to himself. Shakes his head abruptly, earning a huff from the child on his shoulders. "sorry, kiddo, didn't think that through. you good?" They nod. "then, do me a favour and go play with the blasters, 'kay?" He lifts them with magic Nightmare is all too familiar with and summons the blasters, although smaller than Nightmare's accustomed to. The child pouts but goes away without a word, settling on a lawn.

"okay, let's start over. first, put your hands down, that looks uncomfortable." Says someone with a seemingly eternally bleeding wound, Nightmare thinks but does as asked. It's not like he's in any position to choose. "seems you're more afraid of me than i'm of you if your shaking's anything to go by. relax, kid, i'm not gonna hurt ya if you're not gonna hurt me."

He's not a kid. Not anymore. He really is shaking, though. Haven't even noticed. But that's not surprising at all, he still doesn't know what to expect.

"I'm not a kid," Nightmare says before he can stop himself. The stranger just shrugs, "then give me something to call you, why don't ya?"

That's... actually reasonable. His name never came up.

"Nightmare," the stranger gives him a quizzical look, so he clarifies. "That's my name. Nightmare."

"wow. somebody has a dark sense of humour or something?" Nightmare's not sure how to respond, but he doesn't get the chance anyway. "no, sorry, that's kinda hypocritical of me. name's geno."

As in genocide?

Nightmare doesn't ask that. Maybe he just heard that word too much during his travels.

"so, nightmare. how did you get here?"

。。。

Credits:

Undertale © Toby Fox

Dreamtale © jokublog

Aftertale © loverofpiggies

Aftermare Week © @bluepalleteuniverse

。。。

Notes

I tried to explain as much as possible in this little teaser, but if you have any questions, ask away. Although some things might be spoilers, and I'm planning to do something with this idea. If not a full story, perhaps a collection of shorter ones would suffice. It's not set in stone yet.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and take care 🌻

[dreamescapeswriting]

BTS Reaction || He Accidentally Hurts You [Request] [TW]

A/N: I Do not condone the hitting of a partner unless you know it’s play fighting but please know that there are mentions of slapping and hitting BY ACCIDENT within this reaction post. Love you All. Stay Safe.

PS: If there are some spelling errors I’m sorry, I wrote these while I was sitting in A&E with my mum lmao (Everythings chill she just had an xray)

Seokjin:

The fight all started over something so microscopic that it didn't even need to be a fight but it was being blown out of proportion. You'd gone out shopping with Jin, and Jimin for an upcoming event when you decided to go for lunch, everything was fine right up until the moment you had to pay. You wanted to treat them both so you took out your own card getting ready to pay when Jin decided to rush before you and do it. Something that would happen quite a lot but it was what he said when you got back to your shared apartment that bothered you and started the fight.

"I know how much you struggle with money." Those eight little words that made you feel like your heart had stopped, you and Jin didn't fight a lot but when you did it was always about money. He saw it as his right to pay for everything when you were out and about and maybe it was because of how he was brought up or he was just stuck in his ways but it annoyed you.

"I can pay for whatever I want, I work for a living I have a good job." You told him as you went to get changed thinking the subject would be dropped but it only continued and now you were standing in the bedroom yelling about how you didn't need his money,

"I looked after myself before you came along." You told him and he scoffed at you,

"Barely, you got kicked out of four apartments because of late payments." You hadn't even told him about them meaning he'd done a background check on you or had someone find out more about you.

"How did you know about them?" He fell silent and turned away from you not wanting to get into it but you wanted answers,

"Jin?" You questioned getting closer to him but he wasn't paying attention and turned around too fast catching your cheek with his hand and it connected making a loud slapping sound.

"Shit." You yelled stumbling backwards and sitting on the edge of your bed as you held your cheek, Jin was in front of you in a second holding your face and trying to see if you were okay,

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know- I wasn't- I-"

"Jin," You warned as he tripped over his words trying to talk to you, he frowned and turned your face towards the light. You had a giant red mark where his hand had come into contact with your skin, he began swearing in Korean as he studied your face before going to look for a cold flannel.

"Don't you dare say it's fine." He warned as he walked back into the bedroom and laid the wet cloth across your skin, you stared at him and he was tearing up it was the last thing Jin ever wanted to do.

"It was an accident Jin, I understand." He shook his head at you dramatically which made you giggle softly,

"You should be mad, you should make me sleep on the sofa." He told you as he held the cloth to your cheek but you could never do that to him, you placed your hand over the top of his and he relaxed a little more.

"I was too close, you didn't know. It was an accident." He groaned as you were being so understanding it was one of the many things he loved about you, you always tried to look on the brighter side of things rather than dealing with the negative.

"You sure you're okay?" He questioned you and you nodded at him,

"Positive." You whispered snuggling your face against the cloth and his hands trying to make him relax, you knew what he was like he would think about nothing but this for weeks to come.

"I love you." You whispered leaning up and giving him a kiss,

"Love you too." He kissed you back.

Yoongi:

"Fuck sake! You could have done anything but that was too much!" He yelled at you for what felt like the 100th time that day, you'd gone out together that morning for a breakfast date and the waitress was flirting with him. At first, it didn't really bother you because people would flirt with Yoongi all of the time but this time it annoyed you, whenever she would come over to the table she'd flirt with him and ignore you and it got to the point where it felt as though he was flirting back. Though it was something Yoongi would never do to you because he loved you a lot,

"She was flirting with you, what was I supposed to do?!" You yelled back at him, you'd been in the fight all day and it was starting to get late. All you wanted to do was go to sleep but he kept bringing up that ''accidentally'' pouring a glass of water over someone was wrong,

"Yoongi let's just go to bed, I'm tired." You told him but he didn't care, he was mid-rant and continued yelling at you, at that point you weren't even paying attention to the words he was saying. You'd been fighting all day about something that seemed so insignificant now but Yoongi wasn't going to drop it, he never could. He always knew how to hold a grudge but you didn't see why he was busy defending the waitress.

"I'm going to bed." You mumbled getting up from the sofa and walking past him, you'd just gotten to the door when his hand clasped around your wrist to stop you from moving, something he did a lot but this time it was tight.

"Yoongi?" You questioned but he began yelling again,

"We have to talk about this, you can't walk away just because you don't want to." He yelled at you but you were too busy trying to get his grasp off your wrist, it was starting to hurt and it was like he hadn't noticed that every time he yelled his grip would tighten on you.

"You're hurting me." You whimpered and that was all it took, the fight ended and he pulled you close to his body rubbing your wrist in a soothing motion and checking it over as you sat on the floor together.

"I'll get you some ice for it." He rushed off leaving you alone for a couple of seconds before returning with ice in a ziplock back and a tea towel to wrap it around.

"Yoongi it's fine." You told him as you moved your wrist around but it wasn't about that to Yoongi it was about the fact that he'd just hurt you,

"No it's not, I hurt you." He mumbled as he iced your wrist that wasn't even hurting anymore.

"You didn't mean to." You whispered and he let out a sniffle so you knew he was crying about it so you took his face in your hands and made him look at you.

"Yoongi, I'm fine, it's fine. It was an accident." He nodded at you and he pulled you into his arm looking at the small red mark where his hand had been. Your head rested on his shoulder and he kissed your nose,

"Can we go up to bed now? I'm tired." You whispered to him and he nodded letting you get up from his lap and walk up the stair first while he put the ice away.

When he came up the stairs you were laid in the bed in one of his basketball shirts and waiting for him to cuddle you to sleep, he smiled softly at you and went to get ready for bed happy that you weren't going to hold it again him and you weren't, you knew it was a genuine accident.

Hoseok:

"You don't even get it do you?!" He yelled as you walked through the front door of your apartment, you and Hoseok had gone out for a drink and you ended up dancing together but someone else came to dance with you. You were too busy having fun to notice that it wasn't Hoseok until you turned around to see Hoseok wasn't there anymore but was being pulled out of the club for punching the guy in the face.

"Hobi, I didn't know it wasn't you. I didn't even hear you hit him!" You yelled back at him, he'd been scolding you like you were some teenager that had snuck out in the night.

"He was all over you." He grumbled pushing past you angrily as he wanted to calm down but felt like he couldn't,

"His hands touching you and you just let it happen." You watched as he walked into the kitchen to get himself a drink of water to calm down with but you following him wanting him to face you and talk to you.

"You trust me though right? You trust me that I didn't know it wasn't you?" He shrugged your shoulders and you felt your heart shatter,

"You don't trust me?" He turned towards the sink ignoring your question and drinking from the glass in his hand,

"Hobi?" You questioned but he continued to ignore you,

"If you don't trust me then what's the point in us being together?! I trust you to be halfway across the world surrounded by beautiful women and yet-" You didn't get to to finish your sentence because the glass he was drinking from was thrown at the wall behind you smashing and sending glass shards around the floor and into the back of your leg. You didn't even notice that he'd hurt you until he was on the floor in front of you and trying to stop some blood trickling down your leg.

"Oh shit." You giggled because of the alcohol and sat on the kitchen chair but Hobi was rushing over to the sink and getting the first aid kit you kept under there.

"Hobi, it's nothing." You told him as you saw the tiniest cut on the back of your leg,

"It's not nothing, you're fucking bleeding." He was mad at himself for being able to throw something even in your direction, he didn't mean to but every emotion he had was heightened because of the drinks he'd been having all night,

"Hobi, I've done worse when I've been shaving." It was true, the cut was so microscopic it was nothing compared to leg shaving accidents you had one a week.

"I hurt you." He was crying now and you dropped onto the floor in front of him and cupped his face in your hands,

"We're both drunk, or tipsy. It was an accident and it doesn't hurt." You tried to tell him but he was never going to forgive himself as easily as you'd forgiven him.

"It's not an excuse Y/n, I could have seriously hurt you."

"But you didn't." You pleaded but he was moving away from you, you watched as he got the blankets and pillows out from storage and began putting them on the sofa.

"I'll sleep down here tonight," You raised an eyebrow at him,

"We don't fit on the sofa together, we tried remember?" He stared at you and shook his head,

"No, you're going upstairs."

"No I'm not. I won't sleep without you." You folded your arms across your chest and he stared at you, he knew how stubborn you were when it came to these types of things.

"Fine, but I won't cuddle you will." He said as he put the blankets back into storage,

"You will." You called out as you walked up the staircase to your bedroom.

Namjoon:

It felt like Namjoon had only just gotten back and now he was leaving again, you didn't want to spend the last day you had together fighting but that's exactly what was happening. He was standing in the bedroom trying to pack up his suitcase when you questioned him about when you'd see him again, an innocent enough question but he was stressed out enough without you questioning him more about something he didn't have the answers to,

"I don't know." He mumbled as he folded up clothes and put them into the huge suitcase, it was one that you'd had painted for him. It was a black suitcase with his album art on the front and back.

"Okay, well can I call you when you get to the hotel?" He groaned at you and you looked at the floor, you didn't want to annoy him but you wanted to know when you could talk to him again.

"Fuck I don't know Y/n! Will you just back off?!" He yelled and you stepped away from him going over to the desk in the room and going to study instead of getting on his nerves.

"Why do you have to go on so much?" He asked and you stared at him, you hadn't spoke since the last question and yet he kept talking, it was as if he wanted to start a fight.

"I was just asking when I'd seen you again, I feel like I haven't seen you much."

"You know how it was going to be when we first started dating." He mumbled to you and you nodded in agreement, you were over it now and you thought he was too.

"Do you want me to cook tonight or shall I order something?" The next thing you knew Koya was thrown in your direction and he hit you in the eye. He swore in Korean and sprinted to be in front of you, you held your hand over your eye and he slowly moved it away wanting to see if he'd hurt you,

"I can't open my eye." You groaned as he sat you down on the chair behind you and then left, he came back with a wet cloth and held it over your eye.

"I can't believe I just did that-"

"It was an accident, you're just clumsy." You giggled but he shook his head at you, you weren't supposed to just forgive him like this, you were supposed to get mad at him.

"But I hurt you," You took the cloth from your eye and opened it looking at him with a smile,

"It's fine. He probably just scratched it, it's okay." But your eye was already turning red and Namjoon felt terrible,

"He slipped from my hand, I just got annoyed...I've been stressed in the studio-" You kissed him to shut him up,

"Don't worry about it, take out it is though. I don't want to cook and you definitely aren't cooking for me." He stared up at you as you smiled down at him and he wondered how he ended up with someone so understanding,

"Joonie?" You called out and he was snapped from his daydream.

"Can we get pizza? Or do you fancy something else?" You questioned and he stared at you,

"We can have whatever you want, my treat." You nodded and went on the hunt for a menu while he continued packing up his bag.

Jimin:

Everyone knew how Jimin got when he was drunk, he was like a child who'd had too much sugar and was always jumping around the place which is why you were the sober one of the group that night. Namjoon helped you drag Jimin into your apartment and put him to bed where he promptly passed out,

"Thanks, Joon." You said as you looked up at him he sent you a smile and nodded, you and Namjoon had been friends for years, long before you and Jimin began dating and it was nice to have him as a friend still.

"Anytime," He told you bending down and wrapping his arms around you, as he left you noticed Jimin was awake and staring at you from the bed.

"You hug everyone like that?" He asked in a dramatic tone, he got out of the bed and looked out of the window to make sure Namjoon was gone.

"He's a friend Jimin, your friend." You reminded him but he didn't seem to care in his drunken state,

"Do you hug all of them like that?"

"Like what?" You questioned at what he was implying and he slurred over his words,

"Like you're long lost lovers." You raised an eyebrow at him and he nodded at you,

"That's what I thought!" He yelled and you shook your head at him walking away since he was acting like a child with you.

"Don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you." He ordered grabbing your wrist and turning you around but he spun you around a little too quickly and you fell back into the wardrobe door hitting your back and crying out in pain. As soon as he heard your cry he sobered up and dropped to his knees in front of you,

"You okay?!" He panicked and you nodded at him and he reached to touch your back rubbing it gently and earning a hiss from you,

"You're not okay, you’re hurt.” He said in a rush as he realised just how hard he made you hit your back against the wooden door.

“Jimin, it was just a shock.” He helped you to your feet and you began walking towards the bed where he sat you down and lifted up the back of your shirt to see if there was any kind of mark from it,

“I’m such an idiot.” He grumbled but you pushed him to lay down so you could lay down beside him, it didn’t hurt you were just in shock from the impact and the door had brusied you the tiniest amount.

“You’re my idiot.” You whispered to him and he sighed at how easily you forgave him.

Taehyung:  

It didn’t take a genius to know that Taehyung was upset and mad about something but he wasn’t talking to you so you couldn’t determine what it was, he’d been like this all day. Whenever you’d ask him a question he would pass it off and ignore you or he would grumble something in reply and not explain anything.

“You have to talk to me sooner or later, we live together.” You reminded him but he kept his eyes locked on his screen as he type away at something, you were slowly starting to get more and more annoyed at him as time went on.

“Taehyung talk to me.” You pouted as you poked his cheek only for him to erupt into a rage,

“Why don’t you go and talk to Jin since he’s your best friend!” He yelled moving away from you on the sofa and going over to the kitchen, you stared at him wondering what he could have meant by that when it hit you.

“Tae, it was just a joke.” Jin had made a passing comment that morning about how close you and he were after spending the day cooking the day before but Taehyung didn’t like it.

“You’ve always found him better than me.” You rolled your eyes at how childish he was acting and that was all it took, he began yelling at you and you started yelling back, neither of you meant what you were yelling but it was just something that happened.

“Fuck off Tae! It was a passing comment, I love you not Jin.” But Taehyung brought up about the fact that Jin was your bias before you started dating and he kept talking about how much he knew you really wanted to be with Jin instead.

“Because you know I’m right, don’t you?” His hand swung backwards as he went to turn away from you and it came into contact with your cheek, the sound silenced the fight and both Tae and you stood there in shock. Your hand slowly went to your cheek and he panicked rushing over to you and checking you were okay,

“I didn’t mean to baby I’m sorry.” He forced you to look at him and you smiled softly at him, it didn’t hurt at all it was just the shock of him hitting you at all,

“It was an accident, I just swung out my arm and caught you.” He looked as though he was about to burst into tears so you shook your head at him reassuring him that you were fine and it was nothing but a little shock,

“I will never hit you again, ever.” He promised as he pulled your head against your chest rubbing the small of your back and kissing the top of your head over and over again.

“I’ll cook tonight, or we can order in. I’ll make this up to you.” You pushed him away when you felt a wet droplet roll down your back.

“Baby, it’s okay. I’m fine I promise.” He kissed you over and over again on the lips and he shook his head at you, he wasn’t going to let himself get away with it he felt terrible but you kissed him back and he relaxed a little more.

Jungkook:

Jungkook had been playing video games all morning and you were getting bored, it was supposed to be your anniversary and he’d clearly forgotten all about it which made you upset but you didn’t mind. You knew how busy he was and that this time was his break away from work and he didn’t need you weighing him down about it more so you forgot about it. Trying to push on with your day when you heard him screaming at the monitor, you looked up from the book you were reading.

“Stupid fucking game.” He grumbled before starting up another match and ignoring your looks from across the room, you were going back into the book when you heard him yelling again.

“Keep it down Kookie.” You giggled but he wasn’t in the mood, he turned to look at you and scoffed.

“Why don’t you make yourself useful and get me something to eat.” You stared at him from across the room book in your hand and your eyebrow cocked up to the side.

“Excuse me?” You questioned and he went back to ignoring you and concentrating on the game proceeding to yell about dying so much before you finally had enough and turned off the console.

“What the fuck?!” He yelled at you rushing to his feet and staring at you,

“What did you say to me?!” You questioned about before and he shook his head at how childish you were bing with him.

“I said to make me something to eat,” Then you began yelling back and forth at one another, you didn’t fight often which is why whenever you did eventually end up in a fight it was nothing but yelling and screaming before you finally both calmed down and talked about your problems instead of yelling about them.

“You’re such a child.” You yelled at him and he went to yell something back while flinging his arms in the air but the controller he was holding slipped from his hands and in your direction, hitting your wrist and making you curse loudly.

“Fuck Kook!” You yelled dropping your book and staring at the now red mark where the controller had hit you,

“Shit, I’m so sorry!” He yelled out, he’d calmed down from the fight and he rushed to your side turning your wrist over to make sure he hadn’t broken it or bruised you but it looked like it was just going to be red for a couple of hours,

“I didn’t mean to it just slipped” He told you as you held your wrist in your hand trying to ignore the throbbing pain that was coming from it.

“It’s fine,” You whispered back to him and he pulled you gently over to the sofa, both of you sitting there and talking about the problem, he was holding your hand the entire time and gently running his hands over your wrist in a soothing way to stop it from hurting so much.

Tagline: 

@yoongisdumplingcheeks @snowy-meowl @lynnthevirgo @kpopfanfictionhoes @yourguessisasgoodasminemate @btsiguess-kpop @lyoongx @mitzwinchester @rjsmochii @callingmyangel

[rbbalmung]

Pokemon SwSh GPL AU: Character Analysis P2

Hey all! I was going to call this “Gym Leader Analysis”, but I really wanted to talk about Leon and Sonia too. We’re just keeping this series going! Keep an eye out for P3 (It’ll probably be posted in the same night).

LEON:

AGE: 26

ETHNICITY: Half Hispanic, Half Black

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Leon is definitely cool uncle friend. I know he is a hot mess and can barely look after himself, but I just feel like he is so good at taking care of other people. 

Leon is a man of many faces. He can pump up a crowd one moment and rid his face of emotion the next. It is definitely jarring when someone first gets to know him. 

Leon is pansexual. He pretty much flirts with anyone (within his age range, of course). That being said, he isn’t out to the public yet. He isn’t ashamed of it at all; he just doesn’t want his sexuality to be the only thing he’s known for. 

Speaking of flirting, there is nobody he flirts harder with than Raihan ;) 

Leon was 12 when his dad died, and it hit him really hard. Since the rest of his family took it even harder than he did, he internalised a lot of his pain and focused on trying to help raise Hop. He doesn’t really feel like he ever got the closure he needed. 

Oh boy, is Leon protective over Hop. There is a 10 year age difference between them, so he will always feel like Hop is his “Baby Brother”. 

(Fun fact: He develops a similar relationship to Gloria when he becomes her Champion Mentor). 

Leon is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He doesn’t really process the fact that some of the things he deals with are incredibly dangerous, which is a bit concerning to his friends. On a more lighthearted note, this means that he will ride any roller coaster without breaking a sweat. 

Cannot cook to save his life. 

Leon, like Hop, has ADD. That’s why he’s always getting lost/seems to have trouble keeping focus. 

SONIA:

AGE: 26

ETHNICITY: White

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Sonia is the smartest out of our gaggle of characters and she knows it. 

She and Leon entered the GPL together, but she dropped out before going to Hammerlock. Sonia originally joined the league thinking it was something she wanted to do because she was good at pokemon battles, but she quickly learned that the rigorous lifestyle trainers live wasn’t for her. 

Sonia had an uncertain period of her life where her best friends had all become gym leaders and she was stuck in Wedgehurst helping her grandmother. She definitely had imposter syndrome when hanging around them, so for a few years, she kept her distance. Attending University really helped her start to find her footing, though she wasn’t sure what branch of pokemon studies she wanted to focus on (until the game starts). 

She has a strong pokemon team, but she doesn’t fight with them anymore. She mostly keeps them around for company and they help her with her research! 

Sonia is super close with Hop. After becoming champion, Leon asked her to keep an eye on him. They very much have a sibling relationship (though neither will admit it). 

She is the friend that is overly invested in everyone’s love lives. Sonia is constantly trying to set everyone up together because she “just loves love”. 

RAIHAN:

AGE: 25

ETHNICITY: Black

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Tall boy! Raihan is freaking huge, and being around everyone else in the League only heightens this fact. He jokes that the one thing he will always hold over Leon is their height difference. 

You would think Sonia is the biggest gossip, but we all know that Raihan is. You can trust him if it’s something serious, but you have to preface that. If you don’t, you may as well kiss your secrets goodbye. 

Raihan is the best person to go to when you need help. He has big Gryffindor energy and will literally do anything you need him to. If he doesn’t, you just have to call him out for “being a coward”. His pride will definitely be the death of him. 

Raihan has the biggest social media presence despite not being champion. He is really good to his fans and will try to interact with them as much as possible. Will always sign autographs or stop to take a picture. 

He met Sonia, Leon, and Nessa through the GPL (they were all in the same season). He beat out Nessa but lost to Leon in the finals. Raihan took the defeat pretty hard and made it his goal to dethrone Leon, so he fought Hammerlocke’s previous gym leader and the rest is history. 

He really wants to impress Leon ;)

Bede once challenged his for his throne, but lost. Raihan always brings this up to him now that they’re both gym leaders just to piss Bede off. 

He really likes egging on his friends. Raihan never crosses the line, but he’ll say just the right thing to make you challenge him to a pokemon battle. 

Puts on a brave face, but definitely lets negative comments get to him.

The chaotic one in the friend group. 

PIERS:

AGE: 22

ETHNICITY: White

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Such a pure, soft boy. Literally the nicest, chillest person. He just scares people off with his edgy demeanour. 

He cares a lot about the people in his town. Since Spikemuth is small, it definitely feels like everyone there is a family. It was the main reason he refused to move the Dark Type Gym to a different location to obtain a Dynamax hotspot. (That, and he hates Dynamaxing). 

Speaking of, he is fairly new as a gym leader! Leon nominated him to participate in the GPL after noticing his raw talent in the GJPL (Galarian Junior Pokemon League). Piers didn’t expect to make it as far as he did, but he was truly the dark horse of his season. He made it all the way to finals and wiped the floor with the gym leaders he went up against. He did end up losing, but he used the newfound fame he received from participating to kickstart his band.

Two years later, Leon approached him again and asked if he was still interested in becoming a new gym leader. It started as a small, non league Gym, but his notoriety quickly gained Spikemuth new attention. He joined the League only one year after debuting. 

Despite being crazy talented at being a pokemon trainer, Piers really isn’t interested in it anymore. He likes the freedom that comes with pursuing his music career. (It definitely helped that his little sister shaped up to be an astounding pokemon trainer herself). 

Coolest big brother ever. Marnie chastises him for pampering her, but they are definitely best friends. They’re the type of siblings that, if one of them goes to the grocery store, the other will just tag along. 

Dad Friend. 100% a Dad Friend. Literally adopts Marnie’s friends the second he sees them. (Who are these twerps? Ok, I guess they’re my children now). Would never admit to this fact. 

Vegan. 

Piers and Marnie grew up in an artsy family with three other brothers (he is the exact middle child). They weren’t rich, but they are all super close and supportive of each other. 

NESSA:

AGE: 25

ETHNICITY: Black

GENERAL HEADCANNONS:

Looks are definitely deceiving with this one. Nessa is good at keeping a serene face, but if she loses, she is definitely seething underneath. 

So pretty, oh my god. She was scouted by a modelling agent during her GPL season. Nessa only signed after she lost the Finals Tournament. Her career started as something to keep food on the table now that she couldn’t become champion, but she has grown to respect her craft. She likes to use it to promote small businesses and make political statements. 

Nessa was trained by the previous gym leader of Hulbury (another water type trainer), so it was no surprise to anybody when she tried to hand their title off to her. Nessa refused to take it without winning a pokemon battle, fair and square. 

She is super athletic! Nessa was on the swimming team throughout school and won several region championships! Sometimes during the off season, she’ll help teach swim classes to younger kids. 

Best friends to lovers with Sonia! They met during their GPL but didn’t start to get romantic feelings towards each other until 6 years later. Everyone knows that Nessa has a girlfriend, but she keeps the fact that it is Sonia private because she doesn’t want the crazy fanboys to target her. 

Nessa takes on a big-sister-role to all of the new female gym leaders (Gloria, Marnie, and Bea). She and Melody will literally strike down anyone who even looks at their girls funny. 

Her relationship with Milo is hilarious to anyone who isn’t them. Nessa is convinced that they are rivals and must constantly train against each other in order to get stronger. Milo sees her as his best friend and will bake her treats for when they meet up. (Also, Kabu is their dad. I’m just stating facts). 

[petri808]

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Inukag AU

As Kagome stood in front of the mirror getting ready for her date with Inuyasha, a slip of the hand landed her fingers against a small, raised scar hidden below the hairline. At least that one was hidden unlike the few she had on her arms from the metal pins surgery, or the worst, a scar near her brow line from hitting the steering wheel. Kagome frowned, her eyes zoning in on the angry horizontal line. It was indented front and center like a frown line, where no amount of makeup could cover it up. She’d even thought about growing out her bangs and changing her hair style, but everyone insisted it was barely visible.

‘Don’t worry about it.’

‘Scar? Oh, I didn’t notice until you brought it up.’

They could just be saying such things to be nice. Well, regardless of their efforts to cheer her up, Kagome felt like the scar stood out like a bright spotlight centered directly on her face saying look at me! Remember me?! No, she honestly couldn’t remember! Didn’t want to remember! Why would anyone want to remember a near fatal accident?! All she wanted were the good memories to return. Wouldn’t it be so awesome if she could choose which memories could return? Any broken bones she’d had from the accident were healed now, but the missing memories a constant reminder her brain still had a ways to go.

Mrs. Higurashi called her from downstairs. “Kagome! Inuyasha’s here!”

She sighed and turned away from the mirror, taking a moment to release the negative thoughts. There was nothing Kagome could do about the scar short of expensive cosmetic surgery, but she genuinely looked forward to their dates, so it wouldn’t be fair or fun to bring Inuyasha down too.

“Be right down!” Kagome called back making sure her tone was chipper. She quickly finished checking to make sure her sundress was okay before grabbing her purse and heading down the staircase.

The couple’s plans for the day included walking around Ueno Park Zoo after lunch, then meeting Sango and Miroku for a double-date dinner. It was meant to be a lazy fun day. Even the late Spring weather was in their favor with a breeze cooling down the sun’s rays. Four months have passed, and with each day, Kagome’s comfort levels had increased thanks to all the support around her. Being with Inuyasha felt exciting, almost electrifying, bringing out those giddy crush-like emotions when someone is developing romantic feelings for someone. All through college Kagome managed to stay away from any serious relationships, and even before that no one had ever made her heart skip the way Inuyasha did. So, this was the first time that she could remember ever experiencing such intense emotions. Any sadness she’d been experiencing always melted away the moment his honey-hues and smile flashed her way.

As they walked around the zoo, it was in one of those moments of elation that Kagome had reached out and taken Inuyasha’s hand. Her cheeks were on fire and rosy blushed but delighted when he squeezed it back. He never did anything to make her feel embarrassed for the move, just a natural gesture between two young people on a date. She’d figured he wouldn’t make the first move out of respect for her, but it was something she’d been thinking about for a couple of weeks. What would it feel like? Was his hands sweaty? Strong? Soft? Would it bring back any connections? It didn’t trigger a rush of express memories, only a sense of normalcy as if her hand just fit perfectly in his. Not in terms of size but as if it belonged there, meant to be there all along. It was a little weird akin to a deja vu moment. But such feelings definitely brought a new flutter to her stomach and wave of heat, coloring her skin like a young schoolgirl with her first love.

There was no rhyme or reason to the pathways they chose around the zoo, simply looking at the different animal exhibits and taking in the relaxing scenery. Sometimes Inuyasha made her laugh by teasing the animals or getting their attention. The funniest had to be the monkeys who didn’t take kindly to his teasing. Kagome even joked that maybe it was because of his heritage that some could understand him on a level. Of course, he scoffed playfully at such a notion even though it seemed true when it came to canine species like the wolves or foxes who’d cowed down before them in the enclosure.

When they reached a concession stand three-quarter ways through the park, it was a perfect time for a break. The couple sat down on one of the benches to have a snack and rest their feet. Inuyasha purchased a parfait to share, but after a few minutes, a man and a woman suddenly walked up to them, catching them off guard.

“Kagome?” The woman excitedly questioned. “Oh, my Kami is that you?! Inuyasha, have you been hiding her away all this time?!”

Kagome looked to Inuyasha with a mild concern flashing in her eyes. She clearly didn’t recognize the excited person. But it was a common occurrence, so he immediately switched into support mode.

“No, it’s a bit more complicated,” Inuyasha told the woman. He then took his girlfriend’s hand to explain further. “This is Ms. Tanaka, Kagome. You’ve worked in the cubicle next to hers at work for about 3 years.”

Kagome looked back at the woman, “Oh! I’m so sorry, Ms. Tanaka, I don’t recognize you. The accident left me with… temporary amnesia.”

“Oh, my that’s terrible, but,” Ms. Tanaka waved her hand, “please don’t apologize. We were apprised of the accident and I’m just glad to see you! You look really great!”

“Thank you,” Kagome smiled sweetly at the woman’s kindness. “I hope once I regain my memories, I’ll be able to return to my normal life.”

“The boss told us your position is being held for you. Oh, I hope you get your memories back soon too! We really miss you at work! Inuyasha,” Ms. Tanaka wagged a finger at the man, “you make sure to help Kagome, okay?! We need her.”

Inuyasha chuckled at the woman’s bluntness. “I’m doing my best. Wouldn’t you say?” He questioned Kagome who responded with a blushing smile and nod.

“Inuyasha’s doing everything he can to help me.” Kagome added. “I don’t know what I would do without his support.”

“Awww!” Ms. Tanaka squealed. “You guys are always so adorable together! Anyways, we should get going, but it was so great to see you! I’m gonna tell all the office girls you’re looking well!”

The couple waved as Ms. Tanaka and the man took their leave. Well, that was certainly unexpected but positive. Unfortunately, the last of their ice cream had melted away, so Inuyasha tossed the remnants into a trash can. Neither said a word about the encounter. They just sat quietly on the bench amongst the ambient noise of zoo-goers. Assuming Inuyasha was also thinking about something, Kagome went inward, reflecting on the brief interaction and Inuyasha’s role in it. How he didn’t take the lead or explain things, allowing her to give whatever information she was comfortable with. It mean a lot to her, supportive, and holding her hand to remind her she wasn’t alone. This encounter wasn’t the first time they’d run into someone from her life. Sometimes Inuyasha knew them, sometimes he didn’t to explain, but Kagome never once had to feel flustered about having to deal with people. Perhaps the air of protection is what kept her feeling so safe with him.

Inuyasha spoke up quietly, breaking the silence. “Did you really mean what you said? A-About my support?”

Kagome looked over to see a hint of a blush coloring the man’s face which brought some of her own to her cheeks. “I did— I do. Everyone’s support has been wonderful, but… well, the times I spend with you I can almost forget about what happened and just… be happy.” Inuyasha looked up as her voice softened. “It really means a lot to me.”

She could tell that her flushed cheeks and the soft embarrassment registering in her eyes communicated all he needed to know of the feelings behind her words. But Inuyasha must have been a bit surprised, and not knowing how to respond because he continued to sit there staring and speechless. Kagome’s gaze unconsciously moved to his lips. Maybe it was the emotions of the moment along with his lowered defenses all combining together into a heightened sense of curiosity on her part… or perhaps desire, because Kagome felt a pull.

Her hand reached out tentatively to his cheek. “May I… kiss you,” she slipped out like a whisper in a breeze.

He smiled, placed his hand over hers and leaned into it with a nod. Kagome inched in, eyes closing as their lips gently made contact. Oh, wow… her mind froze as an electric shiver raced down her body. Inuyasha’s lips felt… natural upon hers. So even though all her memories had been lost, her body remembered and gave into the muscle memory of lips she’d kissed thousands of times before. Kagome pushed further, harder, eliciting a small sigh from the man that sent even more riveting shivers along her skin. Ugh! The exhilarating feelings from the kiss felt so amazing! When they finally pulled apart, Inuyasha placed one last chaste kiss on her forehead. It’s specific spot wasn’t lost on Kagome, and it made the ending feel so much sweeter that he’d chosen it.

“Was that, okay?” Inuyasha tentatively questioned.

Kagome smiled all starry-eyed and breathless at him. “Mmm, more than okay…”

And if she got her way, definitely more will be requested in the future.

[fvrxdrm]

A Little Break Wouldn’t Hurt, Right? {NSFW} Leon Kennedy x Reader

Damnation!Leon x F!Reader

Warning(s): NSFW, Fluffy

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Orange and yellow flames danced around inside the fireplace you had set up just an hour ago to ease yourselves from the gelid air of winter night whilst being sheltered inside a cabin that you had found earlier as you ventured throughout the snowy land.

You and your partner, Leon, were sent on a mission to confirm suspicions of B.O.W.s populating the area. But seeing as nothing had popped out yet and the two of you were freezing to death despite the numerous layers of clothes you’d worn, you decided to stop by somewhere for the night until the potent raining of snow had calm down a bit.

The light from the fire that watched the two of you intimately touching each other caused an ethereal glow to light up on both of your exposed bodies and the heat that kissed your skin removed the numbing coolness that took over you two together with the warmth that radiated from each other.

Small whimpers and groans reverberated throughout the cozy house as Leon continued leaving wet kisses and dark bite marks on your skin, the tiny hairs that embellished his face adding more to the sensitivity your body was feeling. His hands felt like fire as they glided against the smooth surface of your skin, sweat beginning to form the more Leon continued his actions.

“Leon”, you softly muttered his name, your voice barely above a whisper as Leon proceeded to touch your slick sex to feel how wet you were. “Should we really be doing this?”

Sure, you got hots for your partner and you sure as hell wished you two were together but he was still your partner, your superior, your best friend. You didn’t want to destroy the great friendship you had just because you were simping over him. That’s the last thing you wanted to happen. What’s going to happen next if you gave yourselves to each other, you wondered.

Leon placed a tender kiss on your wet skin just below your navel before crawling up on all fours and gazed into your eyes that was filled with worry and a hint of lust contrasting with the majority of your emotions right at that moment.

“Y/N”, he began, his fingers finding their way in your hair as they stroked your H/C strands that were splayed across the carpeted floor. His eyes, burning with love and desire, reflected the illumination coming from the flames that were still holding on as if they waited for you two to finish what you started before they could even recede. “I love you. Thank you for the friendship that we have. Thank you for keeping up with my shit even though I’m sure you’re tired of me already. You’ve brightened my days, especially those days where I feel like giving up already. You made my entire life an adventure. You made me feel like the luckiest guy in the whole fucking world and that’s not even saying much. Fuck, I’m not good with cheesy speeches but all I’m saying is I really, really, really love you and I swear to my life I will protect you. I’ll be your Dante if you want to. I’ll be your Legendary Devil Hunter. Y/N, I’m willing to try if you want to but first…I really want to know if you actually feel the same way. I don’t want this to end up into a bad hook up just because we were bored”.

Leon looked at you with a hopeful look in his eyes, his blue orbs that made you fall in love with him focusing into your E/C ones and giving all his attention to you as if proving how much you really meant to him. 

Damn, if Leon really meant what he just said, what the hell were you thinking holding back just because you were scared of your own emotions? Loosen up! Don’t worry about the future so much. Focus on the present. Don’t let negativity get the better of you. Besides, who knows how your relationship would end up? There are only two options, am I correct? It’s either you’ll break it off and try to forget about each other or get married and live a happy life! And surely you wouldn’t want any other woman getting all over him, right?

With that being said, the corners of your lips tugged into a tiny grin as your hands found themselves on each of his prickly cheeks before pulling him down for a kiss. Slow and sensual it was. His lips felt soft while the surface felt rough due to them being chapped but the dryness only caused hills to form on your skin every time your lips would press and brush against each other.

Leon’s lips went lower, lower, and lower to the point where his hot breath had hit your soaking wet nub, causing your breath to shudder and for your hands to land on top of his head.

“Leon”

He proceeded to kiss the inside of your thighs, the ticklish sensation making you giggle a bit.

“I’m gonna show you how much I love you, Y/N. You wouldn’t regret it”

Placing one last kiss on the skin near your sex, he darted his tongue out before licking a long stripe on your nub, gathering the fluids that moistened your area before circling around the engorged pearl that made you go crazy.

Your head snapped up, your grip on his hair tightening even more as he began sucking on your clit. Your breaths became rugged, your eyes rolled to the back of your head; so much that you thought you saw your brain right there. Leon’s name came out of your lips repeatedly like a mantra along with a string of curses that had managed to sneak in between gasps and moans.

Leon hummed and groan as you continued to pull his hair and massage his scalp, the vibrations causing a delicious sensation to run through your nerves and your toes to curl tightly until your feet began to hurt.

“Oh, fuck!”

Two of his fingers joined in the party and penetrated your hole, imitating a come-hither motion to stroke that one spot inside you that turned you into a moaning mess.

Tighter and tighter the knot inside of you, the pressure and the pleasure heightened up even more as Leon’s motions became unbearable. Your pitch went higher and everything in your brain scattered all over the place until you felt warmth escape your body and satisfaction flood your brain.

Leon crawled back up to gaze into your eyes before placing his forehead on top of yours as your palms landed back on his cheeks, just like what you did earlier.

“Are you gonna be okay?” Leon asked as he teased the tip of his cock at your entrance.

“Yeah”

Leon slowly pushed himself inside of you, careful not to let his own excitement take over him and end up hurting you instead of making that the best night of your life…and he didn’t fail. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Ahhh *stretches*

Part 2?

[thevioletjones]

48. “You make me want things I can’t have.” 💜

Thanks for the inspiration! 💜

Prompt 3

Buffer

Ian Gallagher was starting to become a problem.

And the worst part about it was that he wasn’t even a problem that Mickey wanted to resolve. No. He just kept holding Ian closer and refusing to push him away like he should. He was just letting him ruin Mickey’s mediocre life. Because something about Ian was unshakeable. It wasn’t just that Ian kept coming back no matter what Mickey ever said or did, either. Ian was definitely persistent, but Mickey had formed an attachment too, even though he did everything in his power to hide it. It was still there, buried under layers of caustic remarks, aloof expressions, and occasional lashing out. He wasn’t proud of his behavior, but it was just who he was, and remaining unchanged in his ways was easier than the alternative.

Ian was definitely too good for him. Sure, he was hood trash too, but they were on two different levels. Ian was buffed up with a certain surface shine that Mickey lacked. Although, he would admit he’d come a long way in his style and hygiene game since his early days as an unwashed miscreant. Mickey was a gay man after all, and not immune to gaying certain things up, despite his tendency to flout homo conventions. If he wanted the ability to get a decent dick in his ass, there were standards that he’d learned to push himself to meet. This was the glossiest Mickey was ever gonna get, and it still came with a pinch of grime and hostility.

Maybe he’d developed enough sense to give a fuck, but he still didn’t give two shits either; a concept that walking contradictions the world over could likely comprehend.

The thing about Gallagher was that he was sweet. Not in an annoying, cloying, obvious way that was anathema to everything Mickey was about, but in a low-key, casual, incidental kind of way that somehow managed to be attractive, even to someone with Mickey’s abrasive nature. Ian played tough, and he genuinely was in many ways, but he had a gooey, marshmallow center that evened him out. Mickey didn’t see himself as having that sort of balance.

But there were these unsettling moments like this, usually in the middle of the night or early in the morning, when Mickey would catch himself watching Ian unawares. Unawares because he only ever did it when the redhead was deep in sleep. Suddenly, Mickey would be Mr. Contemplation, burning a hole into the face of the dude he was banging, daring to wonder what could happen between them if he wasn’t an emotionally stunted asshole. And then he’d reflect on what Ian’s life was like whenever he wasn’t around; the things Mickey acted like he didn’t care to know.

These circular thought patterns never led anywhere good, because at the end of the day, Ian wasn’t his. And Mickey could never be Ian’s. He’d long ago resigned himself to a certain destiny that involved long-term solitude until his dying day, which he’d always been fairly certain would come prematurely and most likely in violent fashion. It would be ridiculous to drag someone else into his vortex of apathy for life and the general traditions of living it. Especially someone like Ian, who was good; who helped people because he genuinely cared about, like, the well-being of humanity and shit. Despite the occasional soft look or revelatory comment that Ian would throw his way, he knew better than to think he’d want to be saddled with Mickey’s non-reciprocating ogre-y ass.

Usually when one of these intense, one-sided staring sessions would take place, Mickey would overcompensate for silently slipping by adding an extra dose of rudeness when he kicked Ian out after the fact. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure why Gallagher still bothered with him. It wasn’t like he couldn’t get laid elsewhere. Ian was the type that would never have trouble finding a willing ass. Yet somehow he kept coming back to Mickey and ignoring all the negatives thrown in his path. It didn’t make much sense on either of their parts… allowing each other in on any terms. Probably meant that Ian was just as fucked up as he was, really.

Blowing out the last hit off his smoke, Mickey glanced at the bedside clock and stubbed out the cigarette butt. 3:26 AM and he was wide awake, just gawking at his slumbering ginger fuck buddy, and trying to repress the multitude of emotions swirling within him. It was truly pathetic.

He could just get the hell up and drag his ass to the living room to play video games or watch late-night TV, but no. Apparently he liked suffering and feeling conflicted. What a pussy.

Not ten minutes went by before there was slow movement from the other side of the bed... Ian turning over in his sleep, reaching an arm out, and searching. Searching for the warmth of Mickey’s body, it would seem.

A big hand landed on his thigh, rubbing it softly as tired eyes blinked open, and a groggy voice sounded, “What’re’y’doin’?”

Oh, just fuckin’ lying here starin’ at your pasty ass for some reason. “Can’t sleep.”

“Didn’t wear you out?” Ian asked with a breathy titter, squeezing the sensitive flesh precariously close to Mickey’s groin.

Maybe it made his dick twitch a little.

“When did one round ever wear me out?”

“Pretty sure there were two rounds. Did you forget about the couch?”

“Random handies while watchin’ mediocre porn barely counts as a round, carrot-top.”

“A, it wasn’t that mediocre, and B, do you only consider it sex if penetration is involved?”

“I mean… it helps.”

“What about blowjobs, then? How would you classify them?”

“Sex act, but not sex, sex. Know what I mean?”

Ian laughed. “Not really. What about lesbians?”

“Definitely don’t wanna have my cock anywhere near those.”

“Har har. I mean, what would you call lesbian sex?”

“Gross? Boring? I don’t fuckin’ know. Never had it, don’t plan to.”

Ian laughed harder and it made Mickey feel good. “Pretty sure lesbians don’t want fuck all to do with you either, bottom boy.”

“Hey, likin’ what I like don’t make me a bitch.”

“No, but you seem pretty hostile toward anything but a real live human cock poking you in the asshole. I mean, naysaying getting your dick sucked? That’s a bold bossy bottom stance to take.”

“What can I say? I’m a simple man with simple kinks. Aren’t you glad I don’t need any freaky extra shit to get me off?”

“What kinda freaky extras are we talkin’?”

“Fuck off, Gallagher. Don’t act like you don’t just live for stickin’ that big red dick inside any tight manhole that’ll accommodate it. Does that make you a hungry top just begging for it?”

“I prefer ‘brutal top,’ since it’s so big, as you were so kind to mention.”

Mickey rolled his eyes into tomorrow. “Gotta remember to stop accidentally complimenting it. You get so fuckin’ uppity about it.”

Ian rolled over and boxed him in, nuzzling around his face and neck, while Mickey tried to bat him away.

“Come on,” prodded Ian. “Big hard cock seeks tight little hole for another round of deep penetration.”

Mickey could feel said big hard cock firming right up against his hip. “Ixnay on the cutesy man seeking man dirty talk, fuckhead. I will make you take that hulking boner elsewhere.”

“No you won’t,” Ian replied, humping down against him.

Of course he wouldn’t, but he had to front at least a little bit. That was the nature of his inner beast.

While they were fucking, Mickey could just let himself get lost in all the appropriate heightened sensations that really good sex immersed him in. Immersed him and Ian in. Ian and him. Them. Reveling in the pleasure of carnality was totally kosher… as long as it limited him from basking in that additional Ian stuff. That feelings stuff that he had no idea what to do with. That unfathomable connection that existed between them.

He let Ian kiss him a lot too. Like, a lot, a lot. That wasn’t customary for him with other dudes. In fact, it barely ever happened. It was just another habit Ian had slipped under the wire to form with him when he wasn’t paying enough attention. Mickey was pretty sure he’d kissed more girls in his life than boys, because that was always an easy, less disgusting way to publicly appear straight during the years he’d spent in the closet. With guys, there was nothing to prove and everything to hide, so it just wasn’t something he incorporated into his casual sex routine.

Before Ian, he hadn’t exactly attracted the kind of dudes that warranted sticking around for in any capacity, or who made any kind of effort to stick with him. There were never any near-miss boyfriends, or pine-worthy hookups. Sex was always transactional and he’d been perfectly fine with that arrangement.

The truth was that once he’d fucked up and invited Ian in for repeats over and over again, he started to figure out that the sex just kept getting hotter and hotter. That when two bodies really took the time to get to know each other, things fit better, motions got smoother, and orgasms got a thousand times stronger. Turned out that one-night-stands were not where the fuck it was at. Those were always crapshoots with odds that were at best 25/75 in favor of mediocrity. With Ian, it was guaranteed total fulfillment 100% of the time.

That was the only explanation he could find for this unexpected addiction he was stuck with. An addiction to Ian and his stupidly perfect cock. The rest of his body was alright too. And when he spoke, he wasn’t completely fucking annoying. His personality and his nature were tolerable. Mickey didn’t want to gouge his eyes out every time he got sucked into a conversation.

They didn’t really hang out, though. Outside of the bedroom, that is. It was like the whole game changed when they were in bed. They could fuck, they could goof around and have a laugh, they could wrestle, they could accidentally say something profound once in a while… but if Ian had a bag of food when he dropped by, Mickey wasn’t about to sit on the couch and watch TV with him while he ate it, and he definitely wasn’t going to accept a portion for himself.

Until tonight, that is. Or last night, or however the fuck time was identified when you were a natural night owl.

Tonight, they’d crossed another invisible line in the sand, and Mickey had found himself chowing down on tacos, while heckling some shitty 90s action film; his part-time lover chuckling next to him with a sloppy mouth.

It was fucking terrifying.

So as soon as he’d realized what was actually happening, and how much he didn’t hate it, Mickey had switched over to some hardcore porn. They’d cracked jokes about it at first, but it’d done the trick of quickly leading to the familiar comfort of sexual gratification. With that justification, Mickey could just sweep the whole ‘watching a movie and eating together like they were on a date’ thing under the proverbial rug without further examination.

At least until Ian had fallen asleep around 2 AM. Then it was dwell city.

By 4:30 AM, Ian had fucked him into the mattress once again, and promptly fallen back asleep without a care in the world. Mickey was more than sated, but felt even more awake than he had an hour ago, his brain full of fresh bullshit about the man next to him and what was happening between them.

He opened his bedside drawer and pulled out his stash, knowing the high would fog up his brain enough to go off on thought tangents, and eventually shut down for at least five hours. Within ten minutes, he felt a little better, or at least more distracted. He was still very aware of Ian’s looming presence in the darkness, though. He wanted to be comforted by it, but he just couldn’t relax.

There’d always been a buffer between them, which Mickey had been diligent in maintaining, and he could see it slowly falling away now. If he didn’t step up and push back, pretty soon there’d be no barrier left standing. Who the fuck knew what could happen then.

He hated it. He felt so fucking out of control, when it should be the easiest thing in the world to control. All he had to do was break it off. He knew exactly what to say and do to make that happen. Knew enough to be able to really hit Ian where it hurt, both literally and figuratively.

But goddamn it, he didn’t want to.

He didn’t want to make Ian sad, and he didn’t want to give into his own desire to try for more. He would always fuck it up, because he was a fuck-up by nature. His goddamn knuckles spelled it all out in block letters.

He wanted Ian, but he didn’t want the responsibility. Didn’t trust himself, because no one had ever trusted him before in his entire life. What kind of dumbass wanted that kind of damaged douchebag for a boyfriend? No sane one.

Against his better judgment, Mickey rolled closer to Ian and wrapped an arm around his middle, spooning him the way he secretly liked it when Ian spooned him. He held him close and breathed in his scent.

“You make me want things I can’t have,” he murmured to himself, exhaling heavily against Ian’s neck.

He fell asleep swiftly, and in the morning, he didn’t ask Ian to leave.

[uchihasakurawrites]

Manifest (1)

Rating: T for language & depictions of violence

Summary: Their soulmate bond is borne of blood. With war on the horizon and tensions rising in Konoha, Itachi and Sakura try to navigate their newfound connection while balancing the growing demands of their own worlds. [Non-Massacre AU; Soulmate AU; ItaSaku]

Word Count: 3,394

Warning: This chapter contains somewhat graphic depictions of violence, so please wait until chapter 2 if that's difficult for you to read.

Note: Itachi doesn’t actually appear in this chapter. Chapter 2 will focus more on Itachi’s POV while the events of this chapter are happening - if you’re looking for ItaSaku interactions right away, please wait until I post the next part before you start reading!

(Also, heads up that I’m studying for graduate school & changing positions at work right now, so my updates on any multi-chapter fics will be slow this spring/summer. Thanks to everyone who’s still sticking with me!)

Cross-posted on Ao3 and Fanfiction.net

_____________________________________________________________

Two careless hand signals from her captain telling the team to scatter and engage  bring Sakura’s pristine ANBU record crashing down in blood-soaked shards.

Every logical fiber of her being had screamed at the silent command, her near-decade of experience with Team 7 having seared the importance of teamwork into her mind. If not for the rogue nin on their heels, Sakura would have pressed the issue, arguing for a tactical retreat with the information they had gathered on the budding Iwa-Ame alliance.

Not that her rookie captain - a Hyūga with a superiority complex that could have easily topped Sasuke’s during his genin days - would have listened.

Staying together was the only way they stood a chance. Their mismatched ANBU squad was as well-balanced as Tsunade could manage with the current strain on Konoha’s ANBU forces. Impending war stretched ANBU thin, and those who weren’t assigned to diplomatic security details were saddled with near back-to-back missions; in the past six months alone, Sakura had almost doubled the number of missions she had completed in her entire first year with ANBU.

Intel of a meeting between Ame and Iwa leadership reached Tsunade’s desk when most of her veteran ANBU had already been dispatched. Amegakure, which had never fully recovered from the previous war, had remained neutral despite increasing tensions between the five great nations, and it was imperative that they remain so.

Losing neutral territory that bordered both Suna and Konoha would provide the enemy a staging area far too close to home, so Tsunade scraped together the best reconnaissance team she could with the resources she had left. Sakura knew from the grim look in her mentor’s eyes as she explained the parameters of the mission that she was assigned to this team for the sole purpose of dragging them all back home alive, as was usually the case any time she was assigned outside of her unit.

Sakura counted herself lucky that there happened to be a Hyūga and an Aburame available for the mission to make infiltrating the meeting undetected easier.

Out of her four-man cell, Sakura had the most field experience with just over ninety successful ANBU missions under her belt. The Hyūga had only recently been promoted to captain, and she could read his need to prove his worth in the way he carried himself: nose held a touch too high in the air, a smirk twisting his lips, and an arrogant sway to his hips as he strutted into the Hokage’s office.

A small part of her mind, the one that kept her entertained on particularly mind-numbing missions, absently wondered if punting him halfway to Suna would fix both his ego and his stride.

Pride had no place in ANBU.

The Aburame and the boy who looked as though he had been promoted three years to young were tolerable enough. She’d seen finer control of the Aburame Clan techniques during her occasional work with Shino, but Tetsuya still managed to get the job done and relayed enough information back for Sakura to record in a sealed scroll that she would deliver to Tsunade upon their return.

Kaito, who she discovered had joined ANBU less than a month prior, had surprised her with his fine-tuned tweaks to the strategy she had laid out once she’d managed to get their captain to shut the hell up  for two seconds and listen to input from his team. Sakura became rather fond of the younger boy during their two-week mission, perhaps because his personality reminded her of a teenage Naruto.

When she witnessed Kaito’s chakra control firsthand, she’d proposed the idea of recruiting him into the ANBU medical program. She could hear the grin behind his mask through the string of eager questions he endlessly chattered about as they sprinted home. With a laugh, she promised to file the request with Tsunade as soon as they got back to Konoha.

What she didn’t expect was for him to be slaughtered as they crossed the border into Grass.

With the odds stacked against her team 3:1, Sakura decides retreat is the cleanest option for their team and turns towards her captain, expecting him to reach the same conclusion and give the order.

His two hand signals and the team’s immediate obedience lock her muscles in disbelief; sure, taking a prisoner from this situation could provide another well of information, but that was only if her team somehow managed to win the fight.

Reporting back that their team had been pursued by Grass nin would have been enough information for Tsunade to work with. A different team could have been assembled to follow up, and Konoha would have at least been warned.

Her team is at a severe disadvantage fighting on unfamiliar terrain after a full day of running at top-speed to clear Earth’s border. Torrential rain means that they will have to fight almost blind, and the Hyūga seems to have forgotten that the rest of his team doesn’t have the same benefit of a dōjutsu.

Sakura won’t even be able to provide adequate medical support for her team if they scatter, as summoning Katsuyu would both expose her identity and require more chakra than she should expend with how much further they have left to go to reach home.

Well aware that her actions could give her captain adequate grounds to write her up for insubordination on the off chance they survive, Sakura takes off in the same direction as Kaito. He’s the most likely to accept her assistance, and the faster Sakura can drag him back to regroup with their teammates, the faster they can leave.

The third rule for all medical nin rings clearly in her mind: No medic shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon.

Sakura has yet to lose a teammate on a mission, and she’ll be damned if the Hyūga’s reckless call changes that.

She catches up to Kaito quickly, calling out a quick Doton: Doryu Heki to throw up a fifteen foot mud wall between him and an enemy lunging at his back. She adjusts the flow of chakra to her feet to use the slickness of the ground to her advantage, releasing some of her traction on the mud to slide underneath the swing of a sword and slash chakra scalpels across the assailant’s heels. In a single fluid motion, Sakura thrusts herself up from her crouched position and follows through with a fist into the man’s back.

The sensation of muscle and bone snapping underneath her knuckles is so familiar that she doesn’t falter when the ANBU’s spine snapps clean in half. At some point, she’d lost count of the number of shinobi she’d broken with her hands alone.

Sakura doesn’t have time to check their surroundings further, opting instead to shunshin to Kaito’s right and weave her chakra into a Doton: Iwa no Doomu jutsu. It’s a strategic move to conserve chakra, building on her last jutsu as she wrenches additional walls from the ground to enclose them in a rock-solid dome.

She grabs Kaito’s wrist before the chokutō he jabs in her direction can make contact.

Kaito’s emotions are again an open book, even with his cloak and mask still intact. She can read the fear in the trembling left hand that clutches his shoulder, where a katon has seared his uniform into his skin.

His hoarse “S-Sakura-senpai!” instead of her codename broadcasts his inexperience; it’s pure luck that none of the Grass ANBU have gotten close enough to guess her identity. They don’t need the bounty on her head further complicating the situation.

Sakura makes a mental note to personally track down whoever gave this kid the green light for ANBU. He’s talented but clearly needs more field experience before he’s ready for ANBU-caliber missions and the heightened risks that come with them.

They have just under thirty seconds before she needs to release her hold on the dome. The Grass nins’ lightning jutsu grate at the threads of her earth-natured chakra, and there are already too many negative strategic implications for staying in one place as long as they have.

“Monkey,” Sakura speaks in code in hopes that hearing it will snap Kaito back to his senses. “I’m going to cast a genjutsu over the surrounding ten square meters. Escape underground, and get to Ant. Regroup with taichou and retreat. Move!”

She punctuates the command with a chakra laden smack to Kaito’s uninjured shoulder, just forceful enough to startle him out of the daze he had slipped into. With a shaky nod, Kaito snaps through the signs for the Earth jutsu and vanishes into the ground. Sakura drapes her genjutsu over the area just outside the dome and follows right behind.

Tetsuya is spread across the ground in pieces when they arrive at his position.

Choking down the bile that rises in her throat at the gruesome display - most field kills are more clean-cut, partly for efficiency and partly out of respect, even for an enemy shinobi - Sakura forces herself to focus on nothing but strategy and the enemies fully prepared to kill her next.

The rate she’s been burning through jutsu isn’t sustainable, but there are too many enemies left for her to engage in close-combat, and the ground is too wet to shatter. She’s already having to direct additional chakra to both her eyes for visibility and her cardiovascular system to maintain body heat.

She and Kaito are going to have to make a stand here, at least until they can thin the enemy’s numbers enough to create an opening to their team leader. With what little she’s seen of his abilities, their captain should be able to hold on for another few minutes.

Sakura is painfully reminded of why she prefers to work with her regular team when Kaito dives toward the nearest ANBU, the faint glow of lightning-natured chakra humming down his blade.

Team 7’s battle formations were second nature; they discussed mission-specific strategy setting out, but their battles were almost wordless. In this situation, Sasuke and Naruto would have taken on the long-range fighters as Kakashi drove the mid-range fighters into close-range combat with Sakura. Sai would have provided aerial support focused on mid-range fighters if Sakura had her hands full at close-range.

She resolves to never complain about her teammates’ penchant for turning every fight into a damn competition again - even with their dramatics, she’s never once doubted that her team will be there at the exact moment she needs them.

She’s yet to feel that level of synchrony with any other team, and she certainly doesn’t feel it now.

Sakura keeps Kaito in her peripheral vision as she catches a blade with her kunai and tries to fit his style into one of ANBU’s standard formations. New ANBU squads typically operate on variations of a standardized set of battle formations, as the sets allow for more flexibility between teams.

Kaito’s style, however, is erratic, driven by fear as his eyes stray towards every piece of his teammate he manages to spot on the ground. His stilted movements are more focused on keeping the enemies closest to him back than coordinating an attack with her.

Sakura adds yet another resolution to her increasingly long list, but she’s viciously stubborn that she’ll get back to Konoha and check every one of them off. She’ll need to speak to Tsunade about integrating more teamwork scenarios into ANBU’s training regimen.

Lashing out alone is the fastest way to die in the field.

Sakura sweeps her thumb along the seals on the underside of her left wrist-guard and launches a set of poisoned senbon at the three ANBU closest to her. She doesn’t actually expect the senbon to hit, and they don’t as the ANBU either dodge or deflect. Instead, Sakura takes advantage of the split second distraction to shunt chakra into her feet and drive close enough to an ANBU to trace a chakra scalpel neatly across their jugular.

The body hasn’t hit the ground before Sakura has the ANBU’s katana out of its scabbard and moves towards the next target.

She manages to hold her own for several more minutes, exchanging blows and countering a handful of A- and B-rank elemental jutsu with her own, until a scream cuts through the air. It’s the desperation in the scream - a wet, terrified noise almost ripped from Kaito’s throat - that draws Sakura’s attention from her own fight.

Time seems to slow as she realizes she’s not fast enough to stop what’s about to happen. She can almost hear Sasuke’s constant harping for her to work on her speed over the rushing sound in her ears.

Kaito stands frozen, mask shattered to pieces on the ground, as he locks gazes with one of the Grass shinobi. Before Kaito even has the chance to realize he’s ensnared in a genjutsu, the Grass nin’s companion brings his sword down on the boy’s neck.

Desperation immediately overshadows any grief Sakura might have felt over Kaito’s death as she finds herself surrounded by seven of the original twelve ANBU. Her natural chakra reserves are just over a third full, enough to push out a few elemental jutsu with her level of chakra control, and most of the wounds she’s sustained are minor sans the two-inch deep gash in her thigh. Her eyes burn from the strain of the chakra she continues to circulate through them, and she can feel the rain leeching warmth from her body.

She’s not hopeless, not yet. Not until long after she’s tapped out her byakugō and the scrolls at her waist. She’s got plenty of hell left to give.

That same desperation begins to give way to mounting anger at the brutal way her teammates have been killed, but she shoves it back in hopes of finding her captain in this mess and getting out. If they can lose the Grass ANBU even for a few seconds, she can use one of her personal genjutsu to hide their presence until they can work out a safe route to Konoha.

Her strategy is promptly dropped when the same man who captured Kaito in a genjutsu motions to one of his own teammates. Hyūga Ryota’s body drops unceremoniously to the muddy ground, at the best angle for Sakura to see that his eyes have been taken.

She’s only slightly relieved to notice the weak rise and fall of his chest.

As the pieces click into place, Sakura realizes that the attack with this large of an ANBU force was too well-timed to be a coincidence. If Grass had known there would be a Hyūga on their squad, this was an inside job.

A Leaf traitor had cost her two teammates.

It’s all Sakura can do to keep her breathing under control and steel herself against the steady voice in her mind that calls for blood. She gives Ryota a quick once over and decides that he may not survive long enough for her to retrieve the Byakugan and get them somewhere she can provide proper medical treatment.

Kakashi’s first lesson to her team - that those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum - runs through her head to damn the decision she comes to, but this is war, and she’s confident she can accomplish both objectives if she plays this smart enough. Her mind is already running through every possible scenario in which she can find the eyes in time to get Ryota out of there.

Sakura shifts into a defensive stance and surveys the ANBU who form a staggered circle around her, but curiously have yet to move against her. She promptly discards that observation, as she’ll gladly take the first move. She doesn’t even try to pretend she has a chance against all of them at once, so she prioritizes.

She’ll start with the ANBU who had been carrying Ryota and work her way through the masks she doesn’t recognize from her and Kaito’s earlier fights if that one doesn’t have the eyes.

A low laugh catches her just as she makes her way into the signs of a suiton jutsu she’d intended to use to capitalize on the relentless rain. Again, the voice is there, edging closer to the forefront of Sakura’s mind and clamoring for her to make the man who finds this amusing bleed.

She’s not sure how much energy she cares to spend continuing to stifle that voice.

“Haruno Sakura - the Tsuchikage requests your presence back in Iwagakure. Come quietly, and I’ll have the Hyūga boy dropped safely back in the Land of Fire near a well-traveled trail so he’ll be picked up soon.”

Sakura slowly drops her hands back to her sides, one with an active chakra scalpel and the other resting on top of her kunai pouch, as she unpacks that one statement. It’s evidence that Grass has joined the long list of smaller countries aligning with the enemy and that the contact in Konoha is privy to sensitive information beyond ANBU, who don’t use those regular trails.

She also notes the implications of how the Grass shinobi, who she pegs as the leader, phrased his statement - the Tsuchikage seemed to want her alive, most likely to lure the rest of Team 7 into enemy territory. It gives her a bit more leeway, since she’ll be the only one fighting to kill.

Baring her teeth, Sakura bites out a tart response:

“You can tell the Tsuchikage to go to fucking hell. Keep each other company once I take you out, asshole.”

Another laugh. The circle of ANBU take a step closer. Red tinges Sakura’s vision as the leader twists his sword into Ryota’s palm, earning a broken whimper she can still hear clearly through the rain.

Sakura’s moving with a speed even Sasuke would have been proud of in the next moment, her kunai bearing down on the man’s throat. She meets his gaze head-on, wanting to see the life drain out of them, and instead sees the world melt into an inverted grey-scale before she can even nick his skin.

The lead Grass nin is a fucking Uchiha. A shinobi from one of the Leaf’s most powerful clans turned rogue.

“You traitorous bastard.”

Sakura’s low growl is met with a louder, clearer version of the laugh she’d just heard seconds before that echoes in the empty space around her.

“Just say the word when you’re ready to come willingly, Sa-ku-ra-chan. Or don’t.”

The world around her goes dark. It’s an empty, infinite blackness without the sharply defined edges that come with shadows in reality. This is a formless, all-encompassing sort of darkness that threatens to steal the air from her lungs and breathes a chill of terror down the back of her neck.

It’s a genjutsu. Focus, Sakura.

Over the course of what feels like days stretched into weeks stretched into years, Sakura watches as her friends, family, and comrades are taken apart piece by piece. She feels the phantom pain as Sasuke’s Sharingan bright eyes are torn from their sockets, all while he rages at her for being the same annoying, useless, pathetic girl she was as a child.

Escape, Sakura. Focus.

She feels the slicing and tearing of a hundred swords piercing every inch of her body as she watches the same happen to Kakashi until he bleeds out, all while he spits venom about having ever been assigned to teach such a useless little girl who has no business playing kunoichi. Dead weight, he calls her.

She screams through the torture of having her skin flayed from her bones as Naruto is stripped of his. The image of his bright smile faltering into a silent scream follows her even as she tries to close her eyes.

Lee. Neji. Shikamaru. Kankuro. Hinata. Chouji. Tenten. Shizune. Sai. Ino. Tsunade. Okaa-san. Otou-san. On and on and on.

Sakura snaps. Black lines twist out from her seal, etching themselves down her cheeks and arms. She doesn’t even notice as the force of her chakra and rage shatters the genjutsu around her, the mantra of kill kill kill ringing through her mind as she lunges to the first sign of movement.

Soaked to the bone in blood, Sakura doesn’t notice the red string that knots itself around her wrist as her hand plunges through the chest of her enemy.

_____________________________________________________________

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I was a little hesitant to post this since another one of my works starts with a fight scene as well, but hopefully I was able to convey the emotional difference between the two. A Lesson in Practicality will be a Time Travel AU (eventually), while this one is obviously a Soulmate AU! I've also never written ItaSaku, so fingers crossed.

Please let me know your thoughts if you have the time. Your feedback means the world to me. ^_^