#every time i open the door a crack to c3 again this is what comes through and it's like. okay. we've made no progress.

[mycenaae]

i would love for orym to properly snap one of these days because i'm so tired of hearing the same goddamn debate rehashed all over again. "is ludinus da'leth good actually? i think he is because religious zealots are bad people and therefore all gods are bad". as if ludinus is not himself a zealot. can we get a little nuance. caduceus clay and pike trickfoot you are so needed in these trying times

[mypoisonedvine]

Getting In Tune | Chris Evans x reader fluff

summary: taking house calls as a piano tuner doesn’t usually mean meeting hot guys… mostly just old ladies who offer you lemonade, which is great and all, but did not prepare you for an appointment to tune chris evans’ full grand.

word count: 3.7k

warnings: swearing, dirty jokes about pianos, allusions to nsfw things?? vaguely?, mostly just fluff and flirting and awkwardness

Checking that the address on your worksheet matched the one on the door in front of you, you reviewed the nature of the appointment as your boss had written out for you: 

Customer: Christopher Evans

Appointment type: Warranty tuning and check-up

Arrival time: 10 a.m. 

You checked your watch and saw that it was 9:58, but hopefully that wouldn’t bother him too much.  Leaning forward, you knocked on the door and waited.  You could hear a dog barking inside, running up to the other side of the door as someone unlocked the bolt and cracked it open, poking his head out while he held the dog back with his leg.

He seemed a little surprised to see you standing there, made even more apparent by the fact that he was obviously wearing pajamas— specifically, a baggy tank top and gingham flannel pants.  A few tattoos were visible on his arms and collarbones, though you tried not to stare at them or anything.

“Did you not know you had an appointment today?” you asked him.  When he didn’t answer, you tried to give a bit more of a prompting.  “I’m here from Boston Steinway…?”

“Right, right,” he agreed, “uh, let me put the dog out, and… put on a shirt…”

“Good idea,” you suggested, “I’ll be here!” 

He smiled at you one more time before shutting the door again, his footsteps shuffling away as you waited for his return.  Thankfully it was a nice day out so you weren’t too cold in your work uniform (yes, you felt like a total dork having to wear a polo with a nametag on it, but such is the life of a piano tuner).  When you heard the dog run into the backyard, and the sound of Chris coming back to open the door, you took a moment to straighten yourself in hopes of looking like you’d been waiting patiently.

“Come in please,” he offered as he opened the door one more time, wearing a navy sweater and jeans now (and a NASA ball cap, for whatever reason) and stepping aside to invite you in.

“I hope I didn’t scare you too much,” you smiled as you stepped past him, letting him shut the door behind you, “a lot of people forget when I’m supposed to show up, trust me.”  You shuddered as you remembered those times you caught people in a lot worse than pajamas.

“No, I knew somebody was coming today, I just… wasn’t expecting…” he trailed off.

“A girl?” you finished for him with a smirk.

“I… yeah, I guess I wasn’t expecting a girl,” he laughed, looking a little embarrassed.

"Well, piano tuning is a real boy's club," you joked.  

"Is it?" he asked sincerely.

"Um, no, not particularly."

"Oh."

After an awkward moment passed while you cringed internally at your failed joke, he finally guided you across the house to where the piano was; you set your toolbag down beside it, stepping back to admire the instrument.  “It’s gorgeous,” you told him.

“Oh, thanks,” he smiled a little.  “Yeah, she’s a beaut.”

“How long have you been playing?” you asked.  “Or are you one of those people who keeps it mostly for decoration.”

“Decoration?” he repeated incredulously.  “Do people do that?”

“Yeah,” you nodded, “more often than not I end up doing cosmetic repairs instead of internal ones because families are basically using this as the most expensive object possible to put framed family photos on.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he scoffed, “I mean, I’m sure I’m not using this thing the way it deserves, cause I’m still not very good at it but… yeah, at least I play it a few times a week.”

“Good, it deserves that,” you agreed.  “Mind if I…?”

“Oh, go ahead,” he prompted, stepping back and motioning for you to touch the piano.  You didn’t sit down, just leaning over to do a quick scale up and back down.  "Anyways, I think it's mostly fine but those higher notes are getting kinda squeaky…" he mumbled.

"Right,” you noted, messing around with the keys near the top to check what he’d said, “well, they do that, especially out here with these cold winters making the strings tighten up.  Should be fixable."

“Great,” he smiled.

“Alright, pretty girl, let’s take a look at your guts,” you grinned, groaning a bit as you lifted the heavy lid to see the strings inside.  "It's in great shape,” you observed aloud, “this can't be more than a few years old."

"Yeah, I got it pretty recently actually.  It's never been tuned before."

"Oh, this is its first time?" you smirked, leaning in to whisper to the strings: "don't worry, I'll be gentle."

He blushed a little as he laughed, making you pretty sure your joke hadn't gone too far.

“You, uh, don’t have to be around for this part,” you informed him.  “I mean, unless you want to, but it’ll just be me messing around in here for a few hours.

“No, I’ll give you some space,” he decided, “just let me know if you need anything.  Do you want, like, water or something?”

“I’m fine, but thanks,” you dismissed, “just continue as if I wasn’t here.”

“Oh, you don’t wanna see that,” he disagreed, looking like he regretted saying it as soon as he finished his sentence.  You felt your face warm and hoped he just meant that he’d be eating cheetos out of the bag in his underwear and not anything more… mature.  

As he awkwardly shuffled away, you opened your toolbox and got to work.  Your first task was to get a pitch reader so you could figure out how well-tuned each string was— you set that on the soundboard and got to work testing keys and reading the little digital display of your device.  Once that told you how much work each key needed, it was easy to just put your tuning hammer on one pin at a time, loosening or tightening until the pitch was just right.  You couldn’t just start at one side and tune all the way up to the other, oh no, there was a very specific ideal tuning order that you’d memorized by now: first the middle strings of the octaves from C3 to C5, then the one of each of the unison strings in the double bass section, then the middle strings from C5 to C8, then the lower single bass strings, then every left string of all the unisons from C3 to C8, then the rest of the double bass section, and finally all the right strings from C3 to C8.

Easy peasy, right?

It actually sort of would be, if you hadn’t gotten stuck on the unison bass string of E flat 3, your tuning hammer suddenly unable to turn even when you tried to brace yourself against the piano for some leverage.

"Um, Mr. Evans?" you called out.

"Yup!" he answered, swinging out from the entryway instantly— he must have been waiting just outside, which made you feel a little like you were being spied on.  

"Would you maybe come over here and use your manly-man strength on this?"

"My what now?" he laughed, walking towards you.

"You know," you explained by flexing your biceps and making a sort of serious face; your charades version of what a muscular man looked like, apparently.

"Oh, I see," he nodded, "my—" and he repeated the charade, except it made your face warm and your eyes all but bulge out of your head.  That was him jokingly flexing?!  What did he look like when he was actually trying to show his muscles?

You tore yourself from that train of thought as he leaned over the edge of the piano, gripping the tuning hammer you'd left on the pin there.

"This one?" he asked.

"Yeah, just give it a little nudge counter-clockwise, please."

He did it like it was no trouble at all.

"You could've at least pretended it was difficult," you rolled your eyes.

"No, you loosened it up for me," he winked.  WINKED.  Was he trying to kill you or something?  "Chris is fine," he said abruptly.

Chris is fine indeed, your brain supplied instantly.  "I'm sorry?" you choked out aloud instead.

"You can call me Chris, I mean," he explained.  "You called me Mr. Evans before."

"Oh, right," you nodded.  "Chris.  Thanks for your help with that, Chris."

"Sure thing," he smiled.

Just as the conversation began to lull, you could hear the dog whining and scratching at the back door, and you felt so guilty that he had been left outside.  “You can let the dog back in, you know,” you suggested, “I don’t mind.”

“I shouldn’t,” he shook his head, “he’ll jump all over you and stuff…”

“No, really, it’s fine, I love dogs,” you assured him.

“Alright, just prepare yourself,” he chuckled a little as he slipped over to the back door to let the dog in.  Running past his owner instantly and straight to you, you knelt down to let it lick your face as you laughed.

“Hi puppy!” you greeted.  “Oh, thank you for the kisses, it’s nice to meet you!”  He calmed down a bit when you scratched behind his ears, wiggling and putting his paws up on your knees.  “What’s his name?” you asked, turning your attention to Chris who had his arms crossed and a prideful smile on his face.

“Dodger,” he informed you with a nod.

“Aw, hi Dodger,” you cooed at the pup, “I’d sit here and pet you all day, but your dad’s not paying me to play with you— apparently.”

Chris laughed a bit as you stood up, and Dodger actually took it pretty well, dashing to curl up on the nearest couch as you got back to work on the piano.  

“I’m just about halfway done,” you informed him as you started to move on to the next string, occasionally plucking the string to test that the pitch was right.

“I’ve never heard a piano plucked before,” he observed, leaning in to watch you work.

“Yeah, probably better to just stick to hitting the keys,” you smirked.

“Psh, anybody can do that,” he scoffed, “you could invent a whole new genre of music!”

"I'll leave the musical experimentation to you," you decided, "and I'll stay on this side of the action board."

"See, I didn't even know that was a part of the piano," he admitted.

"And that's why you're on that side."

You two chatted while you worked— he asked some questions about you, you asked some questions about him, classic small talk sort of stuff.  He managed to keep it interesting, though, and keep you laughing throughout the whole conversation.  It was significantly more fun than you usually had during house calls like this, and instead of distracting you it actually seemed to help you keep your focus.  It was easier to talk to him when you could keep your eyes on the strings anyways: looking right at him was sort of overwhelming.

With the last string adjusted, you slipped the tuning hammer into your back pocket and dusted off your hands as you stepped back to admire your work.

"That's it?" he asked as he stood up from the couch, noticing the signs of completion.

"It is if it sounds good!" you smiled.  "Go ahead, take it for a spin," you suggested.  "Play something and tell me if it sounds how you want."

"Okay," he nodded, slipping around the bench and sliding onto it.  He took a breath before he placed his hands on the keys, but then suddenly stopped and set them back on his lap with a sigh as he turned to you.  "Um, it's a little weird with you watching me."

"Oh, are you not used to performance?"

"Not outside of my family and friends and stuff, no."

"I don't really have to be here for this part, as long as you're happy with it then that's fine," you shrugged, "but you know, I wanna be able to fix any issues while I'm still here—"

"No, it’s not a big deal," he shook his head quickly, "I should get over myself.  I guess it's just scary cause you've probably heard people a lot better than me play…"

"Don't worry about that," you laughed, "just play something, really, I won't judge."

He spun back to face the keys, placing his hands on them— for a second you wondered if he struggled to hit just one key at a time with those thick fingers, but you pushed that thought away quickly.

As he started to play, you found yourself focusing on the music more than the sound of the keys like you should've been.  He was good, actually, although you could hear the hesitance in the way he played.  He didn't rush as much as most people did, though; he was savoring the piece, one note at a time, and you let your eyes fall shut as he continued to play.

You broke from your trance when he suddenly stopped, repeating the phrase he'd just finished and stopping on the same note.

"Does this one sound kinda… off to you?" he asked.

"Um," you paused, "play it again?"

He poked the key with one finger a few times, and you frowned.  "I can't really tell." You stepped forward and leaned over his shoulder, caging his body in accidentally as your arms wrapped around his shoulders to fiddle with the keys in front of him.  You rested your knee on the bench beside his legs, not even realizing that it was a massive invasion of his personal space until you were already in it.

He moved his hands out of the way so you could repeat the phrase, and although you didn't hear anything wrong, you felt the key sticking.

"Oh," you mumbled to yourself, "it's the key, not the string."

"Can you fix it?" he asked looking up at you.

"Yeah, I—" you stopped in the middle of your word as you looked back at him because his face was really close, so close that his bright blue eyes were burning right through you; so close that you completely lost your train of thought.  "I can fix anything," you finished softly.

"Great," he whispered back, eyes seeming to glance down to your lips quickly before moving back up to meet your gaze.

You cleared your throat as you stepped back, giving him space again as you nervously crossed your arms.  "It's probably just something stuck under there or whatever, but I can order a replacement key if not."

"Right," he agreed with a nod, sliding to the side of the bench to give you room to fiddle with it.  You grabbed your smaller toolkit and sat beside him, starting with your flashlight to see if there was anything hiding underneath there.

Moving to peer behind the action frame, you realized it was a problem with the hammer hitting the string— or, more specifically, with the mechanism that kept the hammer balanced.  All you had to do was reach in with a long screwdriver and shift some parts around, and it seemed to be back in working order.

“Play it again?” you requested, and he slid back to the middle and started the piece over.  He grinned when he reached the part he’d stopped at before, flying through the phrase without stopping.

“Hey!  You fixed it!” he beamed.

“I’m a genius,” you shrugged, smirking a little.  He stopped playing and you found yourself a little disappointed by that, unexpectedly.  “Any other musical ailments I can magically cure for you today?”

“Unless you can make me a better sight reader, that’ll be all,” he smiled, standing up from the bench.

“Ah, if I could do that, I’d be using that power on myself.”

He shrugged; "Fair enough."

"Well, I'll leave you to it then," you announced as you put the last of your tools away and picked up your bag.  "Hope I didn't disrupt your day too much."

"You did, actually— in a good way," he grinned.  "I definitely learned a lot more than I was going to just watching TV and drinking beer."

You followed him back to the front door, which he opened for you.  "You can always give us a call if you need anything.  Um, anything piano-related, that is.  Tell the dog I said goodbye, okay?"

Chris smiled a little, softer than his normal expression.  "I'll be sure he gets the message."

As you got back in your car, you took a minute to just catch your breath for the first time since you'd gotten here.  Trying to be funny and cute and charming when all you wanna do is stutter and gawk and melt is exhausting!  As enjoyable as it was, in a certain sense, you were relieved at the idea of returning to your routine— which typically did not include super hot dudes chatting you up at work.

//

“This must be a mistake,” you shook your head as you showed the work order form to your boss, “I was at this address two weeks ago, the piano’s in perfect condition.”

“Well, he has an unlimited warranty, so either something happened since you were there last, or you fucked something up when you were there last, or he’s just determined to get his money’s worth out of us,” she explained without looking up from her computer.

You sighed and left, heading back to the same address and hoping you weren’t about to get chewed out for somehow ruining Chris’ like-new piano.

Knocking on the door, you found yourself chewing your lip as you waited for him to answer the door.  You were a little surprised when he answered in a button-up and slacks— entirely opposite to pajamas, although you sort of missed that get-up if you were being honest.

“Hey,” he greeted with a grin, stepping back to motion for you to come inside.

“Hi,” you responded awkwardly as you stepped past him.  “Is... everything alright with the piano?  I didn’t damage it, did I?”

He cleared his throat as he shut the door behind you, the size of the hallway forcing the two of you to stand slightly closer together than you would’ve personally preferred; it was hard to focus with him so close, sometimes.  “No, no, it’s not that,” he answered, “the piano’s fine, I just…” he stammered a little, starting over.  “Uh, there was something I wanted to ask you about last time, and I called the Steinway store but I couldn’t figure out how to call you specifically, so I just had to make a new tuning appointment.”

You furrowed your brow with confusion, not sure why someone else on the phone couldn’t answer whatever question he had, but decided to let him go through with his thought.  “What did you wanna ask me?”

“Uh, I just wanted to ask you… out,” he finished plainly.

You paused as you processed that.  “Out?”

“Like, I was wondering if you’d wanna… go out, with me.”

You hoped your face didn’t give away all of your shock, but at the same time, you figured it probably did.

He winced as you continued to stare at him in silence.  “I’m kind of out on a limb here,” he reminded you.

“Right, I’m sorry,” you shook your head, “um, I guess I’m just sort of surprised because you’re, like… hot, and stuff.”

“And stuff?”

“Yeah, like… nice…” you explained.

“Hot and nice?” he laughed.  “Slow down, you’ll give me an ego.”

You laughed, too, and less nervously than you expected.  Feeling the rare urge to be spontaneous, you scratched your neck as you prepared to propose an idea.  “Listen, so, this might be crazy but... I have another appointment today, at the Symphony Hall— it’s a final tune-up on the pianos and harps before this massive concerto thing and they always let me stay to watch the performance afterwards.  If you came with me, I could get you in for free.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, you probably have better things to do today—”

“I don’t,” he refuted.

“And if you just wanted to, like, get lunch some time then that would be great, I just thought I might as well invite you to hear the chamber orchestra from the best seat in the house,” you shrugged.

“The best seat?” he questioned incredulously.  “And where is that?”

“The rafters,” you laughed.

And that was how you and Chris ended up sitting on the steel catwalk suspended on the ceiling of the Boston Symphony Hall, dangling your feet over the edge as the sounds of the concerto echoed out from the stage, over the silent audience and, finally, up to you two.

The music was incredible, if a little quiet from where you were listening, and so soothing that you felt compelled to close your eyes and focus on the sound.  You were partial to the piano, as always, but the violins and cellos in harmony made your chest warm unexpectedly.  Or maybe that was from the feeling of Chris’ gaze on you, as you opened your eyes to find him looking at your face rather than the performance below.  

“What are you looking at me for?” you asked him with a nervous laugh.

“For fun,” he shrugged.

“Doesn’t seem very exciting,” you scoffed, looking back to the stage.

“Oh, it’s exciting,” he mumbled his reply as he returned his gaze to the performance as well.  

Your cheeks burned when you heard that, in spite of the fact that it was actually a bit drafty in the auditorium.  Even though your nerves were buzzing with anxiety, a rush of bravery struck you and suddenly you were leaning your head onto his shoulder.  Just the warmth of him through his shirt— hell, even the smell of his cologne— somehow managed to relax you and energize you simultaneously.  His hand gingerly slipping around your waist was even better.

After this many years of tuning pianos, it felt like you were getting yourself in tune for the first time.

[katzkinder]

Strawberry Madeleine

Tsurugi used to use Mikuni’s old uniform as pajamas. 

He’s aware of how pathetic it is. How it sounds. How it probably would have been more subtle to shout that he missed him through a megaphone, for all of Tokyo to hear.

Of course, it doesn’t smell like his old roommate anymore. It hasn’t for a long time, especially not after having been washed and given to Mahiru to run around in for a whole week, over a year ago now. Especially not after it needed to be bleached, and deep cleaned, because of all the blood and dirt and dust that had been practically ground into the white fibers. 

Frankly, it’s a miracle that old thing is still around.

He never expected to get it back, but he did, and he’s only a little ashamed to admit that he held it the same way someone would hold a cherished stuffed toy, inhaling the smell of fabric softener chosen with Kuro’s delicate skin in mind. He had called himself creepy, and Yumikage… Had flicked his forehead. Called him an idiot.

The way he had explained it, it made such perfect sense. 

Mikuni... Was a familiar pain, like a bruise that never quite faded and you press your fingers to it just to remind yourself you’ve been hurt.

Yumikage, Junichiro, Freya, Mahiru, and Kuro are a comfort he never thought he deserved, and that old uniform, one of the only few possessions of his that had survived, the new softness of it and the new smell, are proof that whether he deserves them or not… They are his.

Anyone would cherish that, wouldn’t they?

***

One day his phone lights up in the evening twilight.

“I made too much. That offer to join us for dinner is still valid ☀︎”

Attached is a picture of a simmering pot of curry that makes his mouth water so much he nearly drools all down his front. There’s something familiar about it he can’t quite place, but it’s easily ignored and Tsurugi wipes his mouth on the back of his hand, thumbs flying eagerly over the screen.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes ☆” he replies, then, after adjusting his course accordingly, practically skips off down the sidewalk.

Two minutes from his destination, his phone buzzes again.

“I left the door unlocked for you. Come right in!”

Tsurugi... Tries really hard not to cry in the middle of the street as words half remembered while his soul was tangled with Mahiru’s filter back to him.

If the window is shut, we'll just go through the door.

***

Sometimes Tsurugi goes to Mahiru’s house to play.

It’s a childish way to put it, like they’re both in elementary school and he’s showing up at the front door to ask his friend’s uncle if Mahiru is home, but it’s also the only proper way to describe it, because he is playing.

He’s free now, or about as free as he can be with those debts looming over his head, and he wants to play. Kuro, meanwhile, wants to show him lots of different games, so if he has a day off, and the both of them are available… To the Shirota apartment he goes.

It’s always a mess.

Not the apartment, no, never the apartment. He doesn’t think even C3, with its white walls and white floors and white sheets and everything, everything, white, was even half so clean as that little apartment where three people lived.

What’s always a mess is himself.

This time, though… It’s Mahiru.

***

Tsurugi knows he’s a messy person. Tsurugi knows he’s not very good at cleaning up, though he often tries. It’s overwhelming though, sometimes, looking at it all, all the trash and garbage that had accumulated, all the things he didn’t need anymore, didn’t want, and maybe part of the problem was that his mind hardly ever stayed “adult” long enough to make any real headway.

It’s not like anyone went into his room to begin with, anyway, so why bother?

Mahiru, though, is different from him. Mahiru likes to clean up as he goes, so he supposes it shouldn’t be a shock that he gets frustrated with him and with Kuro, who have their little area in front of the TV set up with snacks, and drinks, and piles and piles of games to try out, and a third controller for Mahiru because sometimes instead of watching, Mahiru will join them, tempted by their cajoling and whining and Tsurugi’s bright, high pitched yelps.

This is not one of those times.

This is a time when Mahiru got frustrated and stormed off, and… Well, Tsurugi isn’t quite sure what to do.

A single look at Kuro shows he doesn’t either, wide eyes watching the hall his Eve disappeared down and slowly the umaibo he had been munching on disappears into his mouth.

“Should we… Clean up?” Tsurugi asks, hesitant. Their characters on screen continue to idle, the timer ticking down. Kuro hits pause. Stands, stretches, cracks his back and Tsurugi can’t help but wince because that can’t be healthy…

“...Yeah,” the Servamp finally says, and bends down with a muffled groan to start gathering chip bags and drink containers. “It’ll give him time to cool down.”

“Does this happen often?” Tsurugi stands, too, and casts his eyes about for something to pick up, but there really wasn’t much. Kuro’s already got it handled. 

It makes him feel just a little useless.

He was a grown up, wasn’t he? … Wasn’t he?

***

Giving Mahiru space to calm down seems to have been the right choice, because when they find him, curled up on his bed and looking just the slightest bit ashamed of his outburst, he looks ready to apologize at any moment.

But Tsurugi doesn’t want an apology.

He wants Mahiru to come play with them.

So he speaks first, apologizes, sincerely, and promises that he and Kuro will clean up after themselves properly, but when they are done.

“You don’t need to keep everything nice and neat all the time, y’know. Part of being a grown up is knowing when it’s time to play and when it’s time to put your toys up.”

Mahiru makes a face at him, buries his chin deeper into his knees. “Tsurugi-san, no offense, but I don’t wanna hear that from you of all people.”

“Ouch, haha.” He sits, plopping down gracelessly next to the still pouting teen, making him bounce and emit a startled noise, and Kuro shuffles forward, slides down on Mahiru’s other side. “...You’re right, though. I never really learned how to clean up and put my things away all nice and neat like you do. No one ever taught me.”

Mahiru shifts, glances at him curiously. Having seen Tsurugi’s room at C3, he definitely believes it. 

“...I guess,” he starts, slow and picking his words carefully. Kuro makes an encouraging noise beside him. “Because I never really felt like the apartment was ‘mine,’ I always ended up cleaning after every little activity. Because having it be messy... Made it feel more lived in than it was.”

“... Mm. That’s exactly it. The illusion of company...” A self deprecating little chuckle. “Guess we both learned to handle that feeling in different ways. If Kuro-chan and I make a mess, we... Might need your help to clean it up properly. But... Can you trust us to clean up when we’re done?”

“... I can try.”

“Good!”

Kuro finally speaks up, because this was a conversation for them, not him. But the moment has passed, and it feels safe to say something a little stupid, a little funny. “We’re serious about the needing your help on how it’s done, thing.” 

“Ugh, I believe you. Tsurugi-san, one time I put this guy in charge of loading up the washing machine and you know what happened?”

“Wait, Mahi, no—“

“Ohh, do tell~!”

“Bubbles. Bubbles, everywhere. My downstairs neighbor had no idea where all the suds dripping onto her balcony were coming from!”

“Pfffhahaha! Kuro-chan, seriously?! There are directions on the box!”

“And I followed them. Our washer is small, though, so it was too much...”

Kamiya Tsurugi was an adult.

Shirota Mahiru was a kid.

But, if they could teach each other the things they had missed out on…

Perhaps it was all for that reason, huh...

Tsurugi wonders if Mahiru will be able to make good on that promise for a cake this year.

***

The end of August comes again, and, just like he had hoped, Mahiru bakes him a cake. Covered in glistening, sweet strawberries, with loads of white, sweet cream, it’s almost too much, especially when paired with how Freya and Iduna had come by, are each sitting in Yumikage’s living room while Freya’s subclass play some noisy game with Takuto.

Some part of him didn’t think Mahiru would really do it. But not only did he keep his promise, he’s pressing a wrapped gift into his hand, a small one that rattles when it moves, this grin on his face as Tsurugi turns it over in his hands, this perfectly wrapped gift with yellow paper and citrus themed washi tape keeping it together. Mahiru’s Servamp lingers back, a noisemaker hanging unenthusiastically from between his lips. And yet, despite his carefully practiced indifference, there’s no denying that Kuro is also eager, just as eager as his Eve.

“Go on. Open it.”

So he does. It’s... A cellphone charm. “...Cinnamoroll...?”

Mahiru beams at him and shows off his own phone. Tsurugi snorts, a smile cracking at the sight of the Pompompurin character charm that dangles merrily from it.

“How’d you know my favorite~?”

“I asked around~”

“Thank you, Mahiru-kun,” Tsurugi answers him, feeling his throat close up, just the slightest bit. His eyes sting, and he holds that little charm close to his chest. “I love it.”

It's such a small gift. A tiny one, one perfectly suited to a high schooler’s budget, but it means so much. 

Because it didn't have to be given.

Mahiru takes his wrist and leads him back to the core of the party, where they are all immediately mobbed by Tsurugi’s own homegrown family.

Vampires, magicians, humans. Adults, children, immortals.

People his own age. People who aren’t.

Tsurugi is loved.

He’s happy he was born.

[forkanna]

WARNING: Very N S F W. Includes sisterly incest, cunnilingus, anal play, tickling, foot worship, and as you probably expected... food kink.

Notes: HAPPY CORONATION DAY! I've been hanging onto this since I posted chapter 5 both because I wanted to make sure it was just right, and I thought it deserved to be released on an important day in the fandom's history: the date Elsa was crowned Queen of Arendelle in 1844. (We know this thanks to some smart cookies on Reddit haha)

So I know this should technically be from Elsa's POV if I continued to follow the convention I set up for myself, but I decided to keep writing it as Anna. It's been her story from the beginning and it should end as her story. Plus it's an epilogue, so it doesn't have to follow the rest of the fic's format! So there! AHAHAHAHA… I don't know, I'm tired.

And YES, this is the end. No sequels, no Epilogues-To-Epilogues; the MSB grand finale. I know a lot of you may have not seen my mention of an epilogue in the notes for last chapter, so hopefully you'll see this! If any of you want to continue Elsa and Anna's story in your own spinoff fanfics, be my guest (but please credit me); otherwise, I consider MSB to be at its natural ending. Hope you all enjoy the last slice!

In all seriousness, thanks to everyone who has waited this long for what is essentially a one-off smutty fic about D*sney sisters to be finished. I owe so much to this story; it changed my life in a very literal, very unexpected way. Elsa and Anna's true love thawed my jaded heart and encouraged me to keep writing, even when I was sank deep in the darkness of a miserable life, and to explore who I am in ways I never felt brave enough to do. I'm in such a better place now than when this began. It's been a pleasure being part of this fandom, and hopefully I will continue to enjoy it for a long time to come.

Until we meet again,

Jessex

[AO3] [WATTPAD] [QUOTEV]

                                                 EPILOGUE

                              Min Søsters Bursdagsmadrass: Anna

                                         ~ Five Months Later ~

Okay, okay, not quite five months have passed since we saved our kingdom from my sister's magic. Closer to four-and-a-half. But the time has flown by so much that it feels more like a week.

Kristoff and Sven came galloping up to the gates just as we were exiting. The ice boy was a lot less shocked that I was arm-in-arm with Elsa than I expected; probably because he pretty much already caught us in flagrante delicto before. He tried to offer congratulations, and I gave him a big hug to cut through all that awkwardness.

Olaf showed up not long after. Well, we came across a puddle that used to be Olaf; I'd know that carrot nose anywhere. Before I could start sobbing, Elsa calmly created a little ice-flurry and rebuilt him as easy as if she were breathing; he was disoriented, but didn't take long to be back to his cheerful self, hugging us and congratulating us on figuring out that we belonged together. That made sense the more I thought about it. Seriously, why wouldn't our snow-baby always know his parents should stay together?

Naturally, there were a few people who came to the levee that didn't condone our love. I wish I could say differently. Most of them were either too afraid to speak out against us — probably because my sister was some kind of ice witch, that tends to make even the bravest of men need a change of underwear — or they were genuinely happy we were happy, and summer was back. But one or two tried to shame us. Didn't go well, considering we were the monarchy and surrounded by supporters. More insisted we needed a king, at the very least for the purpose of heirs. I tried to tell them that Olaf was our heir, which got a lot of weird looks, but Elsa insisted that it was our decision if and when we crossed that bridge. I guess that's why she's the queen, right? I mean, can you imagine me as the queen of Arendelle? No way!

Hans was tried and convicted of treason against the kingdom. I didn't even go; I didn't want to look at him again if I could help it. But I watched from the castle walls with my sister as they led him away to a ship bound for the Southern Isles. We figured his family would make sure the sentence was severe if they wanted to maintain a good trade partnership with Arendelle. Plus, we wouldn't have to deal with him still being in our home. Win-win.

We also shipped old Weaseltown out. He can peacock-strut and backstab on his own turf.

Everything flew by a lot faster after those first few days. Kristoff was our new icemaster general — totally a real title, thank you — and Olaf's cheery presence got everyone used to the idea of magic. The people slowly grew to accept that their queen had a queen of her own. At first, we tried not to be too open with our relationship, but even though everybody thinks of me as the free spirit, it was Elsa who decided we should begin taking walks through the kingdom, hand-in-hand. At first, we got a few stinkeyes, but little by little, they saw we were happy, and not hurting anyone with our taboo love, and… it just became normal, I guess.

Which is fantastic! I mean, if they didn't I would have bought a whole collection of lutes to start smacking them with, but that didn't turn out to be necessary. Good thing; a co-queen shouldn't brawl with her subjects. Looks kinda bad.

As we hit the middle of December and the weather was turning colder without my sister's influence, I started scheming. We had enjoyed four wonderful months of getting to know each other all over again. Even though I'm basically a big ball of libido, somehow Elsa convinced me that we shouldn't just start banging each other's brains out every day. How dare she! But I have to admit, having that sex-free courtship time was somehow a magic all its own.

Because we were behind. By thirteen years. I found out just how well-read my sister was, since she had ploughed through book after book when she wasn't trying to practice controlling her magic. That was something we had in common, since I was often equally bored; it turned out we had read a lot of the same books, and we could compare our thoughts and feelings about them over many, many cups of tea. She never did start talking to paintings like I did, but when I introduced them to her, at least she was bemusedly giggling behind her hand instead of openly mocking me, or telling me I needed medical attention. And we went horseback riding, and swimming, ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. Started going through our parents' things at last, painful though it was. Learned about the kind of adults we had become since we last knew each other as children.

And kissed, sure. Just because we didn't start rolling around in the bed sheets right away didn't mean I was going to let us be complete prudes.

However… my sister's birthday was fast approaching, and I knew I had to do something big. Maybe in a literal sense. So the scheming turned to plotting, and the plotting turned to planning. And then the plans got put in motion leading up to her big day.

                                                      ~ o ~

"Alright, alright, Olaf! I'm going!"

"Sorry, Elsa, but there's no time to waste!" I could hear him replying to her from the other side of the door. I could just barely see her slippered feet and his snow stumps through the crack underneath. So weird doing that from the inside this time… "I guess. I've never had a birthday, but Anna told me this is your biggest one yet, and we got a schedule to keep!"

"Okay, little guy," she laughed at him easily. Even though I couldn't see, I could just picture her petting over his head. "Thank you."

"Yep! And oh, I was supposed to do something else, it was… yeeeessss! Anna told me I should 'get lost for the rest of the day'. So I guess my question is, does that mean until sundown? Or midnight? And how lost do I have to get? I can get lost just in this castle, it's so big, but she was pointing at the gates when she said it…"

"Tell you what. Why don't you go pay Kristoff and Sven a visit? That should be far enough."

"But I won't be lost if I know where I'm going," he told her in a patient tone, as if she were the one who was missing something instead.

"My mistake," she laughed fondly. "Just have a little adventure outside of the castle and we will see you in the morning."

"Okie-dokie! Have fun, don't do anything I wouldn't do! Or do, because you're not me, so you should be doing things I wouldn't do? Maybe? Especially if I'm going to be getting lost and you don't need to be lost. I don't know if that's exactly…"

He was still talking by the time his voice started to fade around the corner. The rest of the sentence was cut off by Elsa knocking on my door.

"Go away, Elsa," I called back at her in an exaggeratedly pouty tone.

"Anna," she sighed. "Yes, I know I was the one saying that to you for a decade of our lives, but this joke is starting to get a little old now."

"Whaaaaaat? No, I don't think so."

"It's officially old as of today. Now, may I come in, or will you be coming out?"

"Think we both already did that last part," I giggled. "Did you, um, prepare?"

"For the love of- yes! Though I don't know why, I let Gerda bathe me thoroughly, and now I am standing outside your door, scrubbed raw and regretting that I listened to her, because you are being a pain in the-"

She didn't finish that thought because I unlocked the door just then. But I didn't open it for her. I was too busy scampering across the floor of my chambers to stand by the bed, grinning from ear-to-ear like a loon. And don't judge, okay? I'd been planning this for a long time.

"Um…" The door creaked open, and one of her baby blues peered around the inside of the darkened room. The sun had already set, so it was only the moonlight and the single candle on my bedside table providing illumination. "A-Anna?"

"Please enter," I said in a pretentiously royal tone.

"Oh, your robe is like mine," she said with a small smile as she eased the door shut behind her.

"Yep! Silk, from the East! I mean, you fill yours out a little better — especially up top. But that's one of the gifts. And I figured, hey, might as well get one for me, too!"

Barely glancing down at the blue silk covering her sizable assets, she shook her head with a small laugh. "It's very nice, thank you. But I thought I told you I didn't want you to make a big deal about my birthday; we should be focused on the Yule festivities for the kingdo-"

"No, no, no," I teased her with a wave of my index finger, bouncing on my heels excitedly. "This is the first time in thirteen years I have been able to celebrate this with you. Give me this one, okay?"

"When can we stop saying the number thirteen and start really enjoying our lives again?"

"When it's been fourteen years. Now… can you take that robe off and hop up on the bed for me?"

Oh, that shrewd little smirk that blossomed on my sister's face. It was both breathtakingly beautiful and super sexy. She was all the time, anyway, but there were moments that it stood out a lot more. "Ahhhh. So that's what all this is about, is it? You think tonight we are going to break our courtship."

"Mmmmaybe. But even if we don't, I still want more with you tonight. If that's okay," I added hastily, fidgeting with my hands behind my back.

"I see." Elsa stepped forward to smooth her hands up and down the green silk covering my chest, teasing her fingernails over my neck. Definitely not making it any easier to stop my lady parts from launching a hostile takeover of my brain, I can tell you! "And… this is very important to you, isn't it?"

"Y-yeah." Clearing my throat, I said, "And I understand why courting was important to you. And it's been great! Really, I loved getting to know you all over again, and we have been having so much fun. But… maybe just a little playing tonight? Please?"

As she glared across into my eyes, I brought my thumb and forefinger up between our faces, half an inch apart. That was all it took to make her burst out laughing.

"That little, hmm?" she finally chuckled as my cheeks burned. "Okay. I assume once I am in position, you will tackle me on this bed?"

"Yeah. Well, not 'tackle', but I'll join you. I just want you to feel how soft it is first."

That got Elsa's eyebrows raising in slight surprise. "Soft, hm? Did you get yourself a new bed for my birthday?"

"I dunno, did I?" I gasped. Hoping my acting skills were at least good enough to hide how excited I was.

Not quite. But at least Elsa hadn't fully figured out my cunning scheme. She pointed at my face and hissed under her breath, "There had better not be anyone hiding in here."

"Hiding? Wait, why would I stick anybody else in here and then tell you to take off your clothes?"

"How should I know? Sometimes you have a really strange sense of humour, Anna."

"Not that strange! Surprise creepy people sounds plain old mean!" But before she could say anything else, I placed a hand over my heart and raised the other one. "I do hereby solemnly pledge that nobody is going to jump out of the wardrobe at you. Or anything else like that."

"Fine, I believe you," she laughed as she stepped from her slippers and let the silk fall from her shoulders, exposing her smooth, pale back. Even now that we had been going for walks and rides, she was still white as alabaster, despite the alternating tans and sunburns I had.

"Mmm…"

"Again, my birthday seems to be full of gifts for you," she accused playfully with a little glance over her shoulder at me as she approached the bed, moving to climb atop it. "Little pervAAAHHH?!"

SPLAT.

Nope, I definitely couldn't hold back anymore. I wrapped my arms around my middle and burst out into gales of laughter, shaking all over and trying my best not to fall down. "ELSA! Your face — you should see your face!"

"I'm- what is- ANNA!" my poor sister finally burst out as she slipped and slid everywhere, defiling all my hard work. "What is the meaning of this?! What IS this, where did- is this CAKE?!"

Cackling and bouncing up and down as I clapped my hands, I finally crowed, "YES! Isn't it incredible?! Doesn't it look just like my bed? I mean, it did before you jumped on it, but even still, the rest of it!"

God, she looked hilarious. I was laughing, but was doing my best not to actually point at Elsa while I did it. And anyone would have laughed; her face covered in so much chocolate and frosting, a huge chunk falling from her chin to splash onto her right breast even while she blinked at me in wonder. Never had our regal queen looked so un-regal.

"You… made… a bed-sized cake… just to play this prank on me." She scraped some of the frosting from her eyelids and flicked it away, turning slightly so she could kneel on the layers of confection. That only made me laugh so hard I snorted like a pig. "This is… I have no words. I literally have no words, I could never have anticipated this."

"Aww, don't be grumpy," I teased breathlessly as I got rid of my own robe, dropping it right next to hers. "Just because I got you good this time! You freaked out, it was the most amazing thing I've watched in my whole life!"

"Yes, well, the show is ov- Anna, what are you doing now? Don't tell me- are you going to jump into this cake with me?! That's insane!"

I hesitated. "Well… I was before you called it 'insane'…" But then I approached the edge of the bed, hands on my hips. No way was I going to chicken out that easily. "This wasn't just a prank. I really wanted to do this for you."

That finally got her to laugh, and when she started she found it hard to stop. I laughed with her, watching her slap her caked thigh a few times. But before I could join her on the bed, she suddenly breathed, "Insane… but beautiful. I've never seen a woman more lovely in the entire world."

My heart skipped over a beat, and I hoped she couldn't tell how hard my nipples were in the low light. "Ahhhhh, now you're just lying. We both know you own a mirror."

"Nice try," she laughed, biting her sugar-coated lip for a moment to weather my counter-compliment. Then she tilted her head slightly while asking, "Why? This is the strangest surprise I have ever received — and that includes that certain birthday of yours. But I can tell it means a lot to you, so could you help me…?"

Great. Now I had to actually face the music, and it was going to take a lot of exposing of feelings. So I took a deep breath before throwing my inhibitions to the wind... and letting my knees sink into the cake.

"That is so wrong," I groaned, feeling one of my eyes twitch.

"I know. But once you get used to it, it's… still wrong, but interesting." She was leaning slightly on one arm, moving her legs out to one side. Always so ladylike, even in a big mound of baked sweetness.

"So here it is," I sighed. "You and me, even when we were really little… chocolate was our soft spot. We could never resist it. And especially after my birthday, when we bonded over it again… I knew your birthday had to be something big, since I could finally celebrate it with you. Something that mattered to both of us. And fun! I thought fun was really important, too. Took me a while to figure out just how I wanted to do this, but once I had this idea, I just… I knew. This was the only thing that would be good enough."

Though she had been listening with a small smile, my last sentence wiped it away. Why? What did I say wrong? Her cake-slicked hand lifted to caress my cheek.

"Anna, anything would have been good enough. Even if this had turned out to be a normal bed, I would have been so happy. How much you spend, how much you plan these gifts, it's sweet but you don't have to go to so much trouble. Don't you know my favourite gift is you?"

My lips only got the chance to part very slightly — when she booped me. She booped my nose with frosting on that finger. The Queen of Arendelle, everybody.

"You little stinker." But her words kept me from retaliating. "You… you mean that, huh? That I'm enough?"

"I do." Her lips pecked mine. "You always have been. I'm just sorry I wasn't able to show you until these past few months. But now, I get to make up for lost time."

Sliding closer, I whispered, "Same here."

And that was as far as I could get before I was attacking her mouth. Elsa welcomed me gratefully, humming as she pulled my body closer. I knew she was getting cake all over me, but I had kind of resigned myself to that when I concocted this whole crazy scheme. Literally concocted.

Which was what she asked about next. "How long did this take to bake?"

"Oh, a couple of days. The trick was keeping the parts we already made fresh so they wouldn't spoil before we finished the rest of it. Kristoff helped me with that, grabbed me a few blocks of ice; normally I would ask you to do it with a little magic, but I mean, since it was a surprise for you that would have been pretty stupid."

"Yes, I suppose so," she giggled, rubbing her fingertips against each other experimentally. "Smooth frosting… buttercream?"

"Of course! And I wanted to add a bunch of berries, but then it wouldn't have looked like my bed, because I don't normally have a bunch of berries on it." While Elsa laughed again, I slipped my arms around her waist. "And yeah, I know you still think it's weird I wanted to be in a cake like this. Plus it's a big waste of food. But for just this one birthday, the first one since we reunited, I wanted to give you something so big it was literally all around us. Like we're part of the cake instead of just the other way around."

Her voice was so gentle and warm when she responded, "I believed you the first time, Anna. But thank you for elaborating. I love knowing how you think, how your mind works. My amazing, clever sister."

Again, we kissed, deeper and longer and with no inhibitions. We tried to restrain ourselves when we were out in public, of course, but alone in my room? Nobody looking over our shoulders? Free as wild horses.

By the time we came up for air, I was no longer the clean one because we had been rolling around in the cake-bed. Sure, I still felt guilty for putting the castle cooks through so much work just so we could wreck it, but at least Kristoff and I gave them a hand — and I gave them the day off once they were through. Anyway, basically the only places where chocolate and frosting hadn't accumulated multiple layers was our faces, because they were so close to each other that nothing could get in between them.

"Are we supposed to be eating any of this?" Elsa laughed, running her finger through some on my shoulder.

"Well, yeah. I wouldn't have done this if it was just for show; this might as well have been a big frosted mud pie." Then I held up…

"Anna, where could you possibly have been hiding that?!"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Elsa merely blinked at me for a few seconds until I caved. "Okay, I had it in my butt."

"What- that sounds incredibly painful!"

"No, no, I was just clenching my cheeks on the handle. Obviously! Like I used the handle outside your door that first time. Come on, do you really think anybody would stick the pointy part into anywhere that sensitive?"

"Well, it is you," she laughed as she reached for the fork. Our fork. "Though I suppose I admire the control you have over your muscles back there." Then she hesitated, her brow furrowing. I could figure out what was holding her back.

"I also took one of Gerda's very thorough baths," I informed her to put her fears at ease. Which made her finally take it with a slight shake of her head. "Oh — and I helped one of the servants mop the floor before we got started in here. Trust me, when I say you can eat off the floor, I really mean it this time."

"You really have thought of everything; such attention to detail. It's almost a little scary."

"Love makes you a little scary sometimes, I guess."

"I guess." Then she slid the fork through some of the cake that we hadn't already rolled in, bringing it up to my lips. "After you."

"Oh! Wait… you first, it's your birthday."

"Diving into it counted as me going first," she chuckled. "Besides, I tasted a little on your lips once they caught some from my lips. Go on." And since I had no argument against that, and she was looking at me with those bemused, insistent eyes, I took the bite into my mouth.

"Ohmyghob, ibzo goob!"

"Anna, manners." Which I could appreciate the irony, since there were very little manners involved in rolling around in a giant cake. Probably. Maybe they do that more often in Corona…

"You have GOT to try this," I gushed once I had swallowed, grabbing the fork and scooping up another big bite for my sister.

"Can't I have a different fork?" But I wasn't budging. And she knew how important that particular utensil was to the both of us. "Gerda bathed you the same way she bathed me, didn't she?"

"It was like standing in a geyser."

"Fine." She accepted her first proper bite. Her blue eyes slid closed in ecstasy as she hummed her approval, eventually nodding after she had chewed for a moment.

"Amazing, right?" All she did was nod, raising a hand to give the okay symbol. So I helped myself to another bite, clutching my hand to my chest as tears welled up in my eyes.

Seriously, it was that good. Best cake I ever had in my life, up to and including the one with my sister's extra frosting.

"Okay," Elsa panted a couple minutes later when we had eaten our fill for the moment. "I was teasing you before, but I take it all back; I do want to live here and sleep here."

"Surrounded by layers of chocolatey goodness?" I giggled as I flopped onto my back, spread eagle in piles of sweet perfection. It was like Heaven, or Valhalla or whatever you believe is the good afterlife.

"Exactly. Fun and function." I glanced over to see she was lying on her side, propped up on one elbow so she could look down at me with a smile full of so much affection that my heart skipped a beat. "So very you."

At first all I did was chuckle a little and smile up at her. But then when she leaned down to kiss my chest, I let my eyes fall closed as a little sigh escaped my lips. "Mmm…"

"You were after something like this, I believe?"

Opening my eyes again, I was just in time to see her tongue slide across the meat of my right breast, the one closest to her. The track of freckled skin she revealed by cutting through the chocolate confection gleamed from her saliva, and it was somehow both offensive and arousing at the same time.

"Y-yeah. Something like that." I cleared my throat and caressed along her back, through cake and hair. "But you don't have to. If that whole courting thing is so-"

"We can take a break," she interrupted with an impish smile. "One night, for both Yule and my birthday. And for you, because I know how hard it has been to keep your hands off me."

A blast of air exploded from my lungs as she licked again. "HAH! W-wow, somebody's conceited in here, and I think her name rhymes with… with, uh…"

"With what? Jelsa?"

"No, that's not a thing."

I was still trying to think of a rhyme for her name when she found my nipple, and my squeal blasted every thought out of both of our minds. My chest was a feast for my sister for the moment as my conscious thoughts faded, simply letting her enjoy me. Because I enjoyed it just as much. A few times, she hit the nerves just right that I twitched, digging my nails briefly into her back and making her hiss in response. Some extra added fun.

Then she started moving down my stomach. I knew where she was going; this wasn't our first time trying this particular activity. But the butterflies were as fresh as ever, and my thighs tried to trap her head there.

"Oh, not tonight?" she purred.

"Reflex," I panted shortly, trying not to laugh at the cake all over her face now. Because even though it was funny, it also wasn't… since she was about to go to town on me.

Oh, she did. She really, really did — and it blew my mind so much more this time, somehow. Maybe it was because for the past few months, I only had that fork handle for company in my bed. Being pent up and needy tends to make the release ten times stronger, you know.

"Elsa!" I whined after a few hours. Okay, it was probably a minute or two, but it felt like so long! "You're really… how did you… get this good?!"

By the time she came up for air to answer me, she was gripping my ass cheeks to hold my pelvis closer to her face. "You're worth trying my best for, Anna. And… I may have practiced on an ice-replica." When I laughed at that, a frosting-smeared eyebrow arched. "Ooh…"

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Your backside is so firm, and I felt it flexing in my hands. Powerful."

"Y-yeah, I exercise a lot. Could probably pick up a gold coin with it."

"Really?" I felt her poking around back there, and I clenched — again, reflex. "Wow. Do you think… you could squeeze this?"

Before I had any chance to ask a question or protest, I felt a finger sliding between my cheeks. What in the fjord was Elsa doing?! It felt wrong, and disturbing… and hot? Was it hot somehow?! Maybe, but only because it was her, and she had already been going down on me, I'm pretty sure; if anybody else had tried that, especially when I wasn't already chomping at the bit to get off, their hand would be kindling for the fireplace in the corner.

So don't let anybody tell you Elsa is a prude who would never do anything like that. That whole regal facade is just a smoke screen. She can get just as wild as me.

"Wow, your muscles really are strong," Elsa breathed in honest surprise, not just teasing me. "I'm impressed."

Freya, I tried so hard to hold it together. To control my reaction. But as she dragged her finger back from my crack, brushing the little forbidden spot that I had been trying not to think about, I shivered and let out a little moan. Dooming myself.

"Anna?"

"Yes! I m-mean, hello, yeah, you can… you can start back in on the goods now! Remember my goods? Right there in front of you?"

"No, wait. Did you enjoy…?" Probably trying to spare me some embarrassment, she didn't finish the sentence. Instead, she raised her frosting-covered finger and flexed it in my field of vision.

"Oh, did I really get cake in there, too? Sheeze, we've really been going crazy!"

My nervous laughter made it way too obvious I was just trying to distract my sister. Why was I so bad at that sometimes? She looked at me suspiciously for a moment, then glanced at the finger, then back at me.

"Anna-"

"Please, can we not-"

"Anna, it's okay. If you want me to leave that alone, I will; I was only asking how you felt about it. That's all."

Though her words didn't dial back my embarrassment, it soothed away the anxiety spike. "Oh. Well… no, I didn't mind that much. Not really. It's just because… like, after all you've been doing to my clit and tits, I'm kind of sensitive… everywhere. So it was pretty interesting, but I would never ask you to do it again! That's too big a favour!"

Elsa thought that over for a moment, and I finally started to relax. Then she kissed my inner thigh. "Just relax, my love. My Lord Anna." I groaned, thinking back to the coronation ball. Even though it all worked out okay. "I'll take care of you. And all you have to do is ask, and I will stop or change what I am doing. You can always talk to me, alright?"

"Okay," I said, completely relieved. My queen was so sweet to me, always taking care of me as much as she could. Making me feel safe.

Well, I did feel a little less safe when she started kissing closer to my behind. And then when I felt two thumbs pulling the cheeks apart, I wriggled all over and gasped out, "WHOA! Elsa, are you- you're not gonna-"

"Just going to try to get the cake in here," she laughed softly. "Unless you have objections."

Did I? The whole thing was too weird to have any objections. And while I was still trying to come up with one, I felt that wriggling tongue press somewhere I had never wanted or needed it to go. Was Elsa really doing this? She really didn't mind? We did enough wrong and taboo things already that this just seemed like one step too far! But the way she was going at my ass suggested she didn't agree.

And it was… different. Not good, not bad; just unsettling even while it was stimulating. When she was still at it a minute later with no signs of stopping, one of my hands started trailing the handle of that trusty fork down my stomach. Maybe, if I could take care of the main attraction, a little sideshow in the back room wouldn't be so bad.

"Mm?" she hummed, tongue still sliding over my taut skin. She must have seen my fingers moving, because she drew back with a chuckle. "Oh, did you need me to move along?"

"Y-yeah, Elsa, I… we could try that again later, but right now I'm…"

With a solemn nod, she went right back to going down on me. Who could complain about a girlfriend like that? Just takes care of my needs without any complaint. What an angel.

"Oh ffff- MMM!" Yeah, I had to scream into my hand to let out some of my energy. Luckily, it wasn't the one holding the fork or I might have stabbed myself in the face. A minute later, I gasped, "Elsa! I'm almost there! Almost there!"

My sister did not slow down until I actually was there. It felt like she had six tongues instead of two — which she might actually have been able to pull off if she used her ice powers, but I didn't feel her mouth get any colder. I came so hard and shook all over, and the whole time Elsa just held onto my hips and devoured me like I was the best cake she had ever tried. Which was probably how she felt.

Once my heat faded, she lowered me into the cake again and smirked. "That happened awfully quickly for someone who didn't like me playing with her a little lower than usual."

"Y-yeah! Well… you… let me get pent up for multiple months!"

"That is fair. I hope my apology was satisfactory."

Pretending to think real hard about it, I screwed up my face and tapped my chin. Elsa laughed. "Weeeeeelllllllllll… on one condition."

"What condition?" She started when I moved to pin her to the bed. "Oh!"

"This one." My chosen target was her neck. She shivered a little when I ran my tongue along it, enjoying the rich chocolate mixing with the light purity of her skin. I wanted to eat Elsa whole.

"Anna… you… make it hard to breathe."

"Elsa…"

"N-no, I… I'm really-!"

With a shock, I realized she meant the way my hand was pushing into the middle of her abdomen. "OH! Shit, Elsa, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" As she took a deep breath, I caressed her side. "Better? Man, I am just really dumb sometimes…"

Elsa pulled me down into her embrace. "We already covered that. You are not dumb. You have never been dumb."

"You sure? I mean, not that I'm trying to argue with you, but you keep saying that and then I keep doing dumb things."

"Because you're excited. I am, too; I've just had a lot more practice... controlling myself."

For good reason. But since she wasn't judging me, I pushed myself back up to begin devouring the cake covering her ribs and stomach. She giggled a couple of times, and I smiled at the way her abdominal muscles flexed under my lips, bumping up against my nose. I could have kept eating off her and exploring her for hours and never got bored. Not once.

"Mmhhh, this really is so good," I sighed as I got closer and closer to the finish line. "The cake, you… who could ask for more?"

"I'm glad you… approve." But I could tell she was nervous. Why? It's not like this was the first time we had done anything like this; just the first in a little while.

"Elsa?" She didn't answer right away. Watching her bite her lip and look anxious was cute, but I still prompted her, "Hey. You okay?"

"What? Oh… yes, I'm fine." My face must have looked extra unconvinced, because a second later, she relented. "I'm still a little afraid of losing control of my powers when I…"

"When you what? Oh, wait, you're- right, got it, you don't need to explain. But hey, even when you've done that before, all you did was give me a little extra blast of snow. I don't mind a cold cake."

Tittering the slightest amount, despite the fear in her eyes, she reached down to run her fingers through my sugar-matted fringe. "Neither of us do. And I know you're probably right, but I can't help but worry I will hurt you for a third time. I don't think I could take that."

"Me, either. But you won't. I hear you, I do, but I know you have a handle on this now. You've been doing so good! Nobody in Arendelle is scared of you anymore. So just… let me do the magic this time."

That was that. Even though she was still biting her lip, her brow still creased, she didn't protest further as I kissed the inside of her thigh, devouring the frosting I found there. But I still didn't like that she was wound up so tight. So I figured hey, why not try to loosen her up?

"So, if I get a couple of fingers in you and really start going to town… does that make this pound-cake?"

Oh, now she looked mad. I barely had enough time to register the movement before her foot was pushing into my face, trying to shove me off the bed entirely.

"Hey, whoa whoa, Elsa! Come on, I'm sorry!"

"Why don't I believe you?" she demanded in a would-be stern voice. The answer might have been because I was laughing up a storm. But I caught sight of her smile, which told me she was just trying to mess around with me. One of the many things I had been missing over the past thirteen years.

"Truce! I'll keep my corny jokes to myself if you don't shove me the rest of the way off this bed!" Really, I already had to whip one leg back and brace against the floor to keep from falling as it was. But she slowly began to relent. "Thank you."

"I ought to put my finger back in your 'fork holder' for that one," she grunted.

"It was one time! I don't go around carrying forks back there all the time, you know!"

"Actually, no, I don't know that. Because I never inspect the back of your dress when you are casually walking down the halls."

"You could, though…" As she just shook her head at me, I decided to get a little more playful.

"AH! Not my feet — don't bite my feet, you know how ticklish iyyyahahahhaaaa!"

Too late. My teeth were nibbling all over her chocolatey toes in retaliation for almost being knocked on my butt. The way she began kicking was extremely dangerous, but at least now my childhood memories were intact; I remembered learning by watching our father that you had to hold her leg steady when you tickled her, or you were asking for an eyeful of flailing heel.

"STOP!" she cackled. "I'm- I am about to ruin this cake! Anna!"

Right away, I broke off with a laugh. No matter how much fun I was having, it wasn't worth ruining an entire cake-bed by making her wet herself. "Okay, okay. Yellow frosting is as bad as yellow snow, I guess."

"You… monster!" But she was still laughing a little, cheeks flushed, chest rising and falling in an attempt to regain her breath. Which looked like she had been doing something else.

Flawless. I was head over heels, alright.

"Sorry. But do you know how cute you are when you get tickled?"

Clearing her throat, she pushed up onto her elbows before answering me. "That is… because I didn't get to run around outside the way you did. Not after my ninth birthday. So my feet are…"

Oh. Well that was a sad reason for them to be extra sensitive. But I decided to simply kiss the one I had been attacking and say, "Perfect. You were gonna say 'perfect' right? Because that's the only answer I'm accepting right now."

Shaking her head a little at me, she let out an exasperated sigh that was followed by a small smile. "You're too kind to me."

"Nah. Just know you deserve the best."

Again, I kissed, and she hummed as her smile grew. When my lips parted to let my tongue slide between two of her toes, she rolled her eyes and pulled her foot away. "Fine, I get it, you love every inch of me."

"Glad we got that straightened out. Now, I have my eye on a couple of pastries… one sec."

Her hand raised up to rest on the back of my head when I attacked her chest. I figured she would probably appreciate having some time to recover before I went back between her thighs. The sounds floating out of her lungs were every bit as enthralling as if I had gone straight for the crux of her thighs, of course, but at least this way I could enjoy my cake a little longer.

"You are… so persistent." I switched to the other peak, my hand wrapping around the mountain below and kneading just enough to add pressure and pleasure without causing pain. "Mmmhh, and I almost want to ask if you have been practicing on someone else!"

"Maybe I made an ice-replica," I shot at her as I moved back down. Her grin was so huge. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's do this."

"You make it sound like you're about to go cliff-diving!" she laughed.

"Oh, I am. I'm about to dive down deep into your sound."

Elsa's lips parted, probably to reprimand me for another corny line. But all that came out was a moan when I pressed my mouth tightly against her soft folds through the frosting and chocolate. And I intended to clean every speck of that from her by the time I was finished.

My Elsa. My queen of snow and ice, grace and beauty and power. The only woman in the world. My mind and heart were full of desire for the goddess I was making writhe with my every teasing touch. And it wasn't just that she was the most beautiful girl in Arendelle, not that she had given me an orgasm so recently. This was about way more than repaying a debt or physical beauty; it was my sister. The one person who had always been a part of me, and who always will.

"A-Anna!" she gasped — well, she had been doing that for a couple of minutes, but this one was louder and stronger. Somehow, I just knew what she meant. "I'm… I'm still scared! I love you!"

I loved her, too. But I wanted to show her in some way besides slowing down to tell her with words. So I moved one hand from her hip to push our fork into hers, which had been clutching uselessly at another pile of birthday cake. And wow, did she respond! My hand was caught with the fork between our fingers, and it was such a tight grip that I felt like she would never let me go again.

Which did as much for me as I might have been doing for her.

There was more snow this time. Somehow, I had kind of expected that; I mean, when you tell an ice witch that she shouldn't hold back with her power, you're going to get more power. Makes sense, right? But even while I was still feeling her flesh pulse against my lips and tongue, her juices running down my chin, tiny pinpricks of cold were dusting my back in the spots that weren't covered by chocolate.

"Oh," I panted when I finally came up for air, satisfied that she no longer needed little licks for little aftershocks. "Snow! See? I told you everything would be fine. And this isn't even that bad!"

Though of course, we were both looking around at the winter wonderland filling the room. It was only a couple of inches deep, but spread over that large an area it still added up to a decent amount.

"It's… a lot," she panted. "But at least there aren't any… nothing dangerous."

Scoffing, I crawled up to lay my head on her shoulder, curling my entire body around hers as tightly as I could. Needing to be that close to her now. "Dangerous? You? Come on, you're a big pussycat."

"We both know… that's… a stretch." Finally, she cleared her throat and simply took in a couple of deep breaths so she wouldn't be so winded. Then she turned to look into my eyes with a smile full of afterglow and affection. "Thank you. For that, for all of this; for my perfect birthday night."

"Yeah. You got it. I'm always going to show you how much I love you, no matter how big I have to go to get the point across."

"Anna, you don't have to. I already know." We shared a firm kiss. Then she crinkled her nose. "Oh, that's… did you really enjoy me adding that to your cake? It's so strange."

"Maybe I wouldn't have if I didn't know what it was," I admitted with a giggle. "But knowing? Oh yeah. Totally hot."

"If you say so." Then she suddenly looked horrified. "Oh no — my lips have- you were kissing-"

"All I tasted was Sister-Queen and cake," I headed her off before she actually said it out loud. "Don't have to make it even more gross. Seriously, you didn't run away from my butt? I thought that would be a fate worse than death!"

"No, no," she reassured me, completely contented now that we had both enjoyed ourselves and could relax. "I wasn't lying for your benefit; it wasn't that bad. Especially when mixed with chocolate cake. Though I agree with you about my essence on this subject; probably wouldn't have enjoyed it not knowing what it is, or by itself. Well…"

Running my index fingertip in small circles on her stomach, I prompted, "Well?"

"I could try it by itself. Maybe. Someday."

"Go ahead. I won't… well, I might judge a little, but since we're already sisters who knock boots, it's not gonna hold a lot of water."

"Mmhmm. I suppose that's a valid point."

"Ohhhhh, I just wanna lay here forever!" I burst out as I curled even harder around Elsa, and she laughed again, nuzzling into my hair. "Though I do have another bath ready in the next chamber. I'm no doctor, but it's probably not the best idea for us to leave cake in some of the places we have cake right now."

Nodding, she whispered, "In a minute. This is so comfortable. Actually, I'm surprised we're not sinking all the way down to the floor."

"Oh — yeah, that's because we took a bed-sized wooden box and made the cake on top of that. Like, it's pretty much a bunch of little cakes smushed together in a grid pattern to make one huge sheet cake, and then we just put the icing all over it and down the sides with the right colours and patterns. So it looked like a real bed, with a quilt and all."

"Clever," she chuckled, scratching at my rib cage just enough to prompt a giggle from me before she stopped. "Really, I was flabbergasted at first, but now I really admire all the work you did for this. Because it turned out to be a lot of fun."

Her praise made my heart glow. "It did, didn't it? Chocolate cake slumber party. Go me."

We both fell into the kind of comfortable silence you can only have with family. Lover, sister, friend… Elsa was all of those things to me. And we had beaten all the odds and found our way back to each other, and we were alive, and our lives were wonderful. There wasn't much else I could ask for.

"I love you, my Anna," she breathed into my hair before rolling over to prop herself up on her elbow and look at me. I mirrored the gesture, gazing into her eyes.

"Love you, too, Majesty. And I always will."

Elsa kissed me hard and long, and held me close for such a long time that time itself ceased to hold meaning. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill anniversary of being born, but I finally knew: what we had? Different-good. The best kind of different a princess could ask for.

                                                      ~ Takk for Reisen ~

[pocket-luv101]

Just a Kiss || Chapter 1

Fandom: Servamp Ship: KuroMahi (main), LawLicht (side), Tetsono (side), Jekuni (side) Characters: Kuro, Mahiru, Hyde, Licht, Tetsu, Misono, Mikuni, JeJe, Snow Lily

Summary: Mahiru discovers a battle between demons, humans and ghosts. He wants to help defend the city so he makes a contract with a ghost to fight against demons. He didn’t know that Kuro’s power could only be activated with a kiss. (Kigurumi Guardians AU)

A/N: This AU is based on an old shoujo that I haven’t read in years and I’m honestly writing this based off the vague memories I have of it.

“Misono, are you sure we should be spying on your brother like this? This feels like an invasion of privacy. Thinking simply, you should speak with your brother if you’re this concerned about him.” Mahiru whispered to Misono. They were hiding in a closet with their friend, Licht, and the three waited for Mikuni to enter. “What do you think he’s hiding?”

“I don’t know. Lately, I’ve been hearing him talk with someone in his room and I don’t recognize the person’s voice. I asked Mikuni who it was but he told me not to worry. Lily wouldn’t answer me either.” Misono opened the closet slightly to peer into the classroom. His family had always been secretive but his instincts told him that they were hiding something important.

He noticed that Mikuni would enter the abandoned photography room at the same time each day. With the belief that his brother was meeting with the strange voice, Misono decided to sneak into the room and spy on him. He asked his friends to help him. Beside him, Licht said: “Maybe your brother is on a secret angel mission and he doesn’t want you to know.”

“I hope the answer is something simpler like he’s having a secret relationship or something.” Mahiru suggested. His friends were prone to have wild imaginations but he didn’t suspect anything more than regular high school drama. They heard the classroom’s door open and Misono quickly shushed him. The three friends had to huddle close together to see through the small crack between the closet doors.

Mikuni and Lily entered the room. The first thing Mahiru noticed was the three stuffed animals they carried; a black cat, a white bear and a golden hedgehog. He thought he saw the cat doll turn its head in their direction but he reasoned that it was simply his imagination. He strained to hear the two’s conversation. “C3 sent us three more ghosts but I don’t know what they expect me to do with them. I don’t have time to find more guardians. My hands are already full searching for vessels and fighting those demons.”

“A person with strong spiritual energy and a pure heart is rare.” Their conversation was confusing to Misono. While Mikuni would often pretend that his doll was alive, Misono would be able to understand his imagination slightly. Lily went on to say: “You can’t continue to fight them by yourself, Mikuni. More are coming through the gate. Let me find people who can be potential guardians. We should consider Misono since he—”

“I’m not involving my brother in this! Don’t ask his friends for help either. Mahiru and Licht can’t keep a secret and they’ll tell Misono about this.” Mikuni rejected his suggestion before he could finish it. His brother rarely showed his true emotions and Misono wondered what they were discussing. He placed the three stuffed animals into a cupboard and said: “Let’s hide these ghosts for now.”

Mikuni and Lily left the room. The door barely closed before Licht jumped out of the closet and went directly to the cupboard. “I want the gold hedgehog!”

“Wait, Licht, you can’t take something that’s not yours.” He said as he followed him. In Licht’s haste to play with the stuffed hedgehog, he knocked the other two to the ground. Mahiru picked up the black cat and gently brushed the dirt from its fur. He studied the doll and he thought he saw a faint blue glow in its chest. “Mikuni said C3 gave these to him. I’ve never heard of a store like that.”

“I don’t see anything special about these stuffed animals so I don’t know why Mikuni would try to hide them from me. Do you think these are for a fantasy role playing game? He mentioned demons and ghosts.” Misono held up the white teddy bear. He couldn’t stop thinking of Mikuni’s outburst and the worried look Lily had. They weren’t the type of people to become so serious over a simple game. While he had a weak body, he wished his brother would rely on him. “What do you think, Mahiru?”

“Your brother is eccentric so I don’t know what he’s thinking most of the time. He likes to carry around his doll, Abel, so I don’t think he’ll hide these dolls out of embarrassment.” Mahiru ringed the bell that hanged around the cat’s neck. “We should ask Mikuni directly.”

“I think I was right earlier when I said your brother is on an angel mission. These three animals could be magical familiars like in the movies.” Licht concluded confidently. Most thought that he was delusional because he called himself an angel. Yet, he found two friends who accepted him. He thought it would be nice to have one more person who believed he was an angel. Licht looked down at the hedgehog and decided. “I’m going to adopt you and name you ‘Hyde’.”

His two friends were doubtful of his idea but they knew that it was pointless to disagree with him. Misono laughed softly and decided to humour Licht’s fantasy. He joked, “Then I’ll name mine ‘Tetsu’. I can finally have a friend that’s shorter than me.”

The door opened behind them and the three jumped with the worry that Mikuni had returned. A student entered the room and Mahiru let out a breath of relief. Since people rarely went to the photography room after the club ended, he wondered why the girl came into the room. The student didn’t say a word as she walked directly to the three. She grabbed the cat in Mahiru’s arms and tried to pull it out of his grip.

“Excuse me?” Mahiru asked but the student didn’t respond to him. He thought he felt the cat hug his hand as if it didn’t want to be taken away by her. While he was confused, he hugged the cat to his chest and backed away from the student. She kept a tight grip on the cat though. “This belongs to my friend, Mikuni. I can’t give this to you. Hey, let go!”

A gruff laugh caught the three’s attention and they looked up at the ceiling above the student. Mahiru’s eyes widened at the sight of a pitch black circle in the ceiling. He couldn’t see what was in the hole but smoke flowed into the room. His attention was pulled back to the student when she tugged on the cat again. He noticed that strings were attached to her hands and they led to the hole.

“I want to play, Brother.” A deep voice ordered him and it was clear that it wasn’t the girl who spoke. A boy descended from the dark hole and landed behind Mahiru. He didn’t know who he was but the person’s crimson eyes made him gasp. Then, he saw the glint of the boy’s sword. He was still trying to make sense of the escalating situation so he wasn’t able react quickly enough to defend himself.

The stuffed animal in his arms suddenly grew and Mahiru was forced to let go of it. He had to question if he was having a bizarre dream as he watched the large cat block the man’s sword with its paw. Mahiru scrambled to his feet and ran to his friends who were equally confused by the situation. He tugged on Licht’s arm and then grabbed Misono to pull them away from the fight.

“Mr. Cat came to life?” Licht said in disbelief and then looked down at the hedgehog plush in his arms. He wondered if it could do the same and an idea came to him. He hurled the hedgehog towards the fight and screamed: “Go, Hedgehog! Defeat that demon.”

“What are you doing?” Misono yelled in disbelief. He was more shocked when Licht’s hedgehog changed size like the cat did. Hyde tackled the demon and pinned him to the ground under his weight. Even with two animals holding him down, the strange boy only started to laugh. He turned towards Mahiru and stretched out a hand to the sky.

“The gate is growing every day and it feeds my power. You two can’t defeat me in the form you’re in.” A powerful swing of his sword forced the large cat and hedgehog to jump off him. He slowly stood again and faced them. Despite how scared the situation made him, Mahiru ran in front of the man to protect the two. The cat had rescued him and he didn’t want to see it be hurt because of him.

Mahiru grabbed a broom to defend his friends and the cat. He stood in front of the cat and faced the demon. “Who are you and why are you attacking us?”

“My name is Tsubaki and I’m here to collect human hearts for Sensei. Yours smell ripe.” He answered with a confident grin and walked towards him. Mahiru knew that his broom was useless against hi’s sword but he couldn’t run or else it could endanger Licht and Misono. Tsubaki adjusted his grip on his sword and Mahiru braced himself for a fight.

He was suddenly pushed aside and he grabbed a table to catch himself. The cat had protected him again but the sword pieced its shoulder. Mahiru blindly swung his broom at Tsubaki and forced him away from the cat. He didn’t try to attack him again because his focus was on the injured cat. “Are you okay?”

“You should be more worried about yourself.” The cat grabbed his shoulder and moved Mahiru beneath him. He protected him with his own body. “Sendagaya, can you transform yet?”

“Shit, we can’t do anything in this state.” Hyde cursed as he watched Tsubaki casually attack their brother. He was powerful enough to kill them yet he only toyed with them. His mind raced to think of what they could do to defeat Tsubaki. Their toy bodies were useless in a fight though. If only he could use his full power. He ran to Licht’s side and tugged on his shirt slightly. “I’m sorry, Angel Cakes, but I need your help to stop my brother. If you kiss me, I’ll become stronger. Don’t worry, this will only be a temporary contract.”

“Kiss? Like the frog prince?” His words caused Licht to think of the fairy tale. Hyde couldn’t read his expression and he thought he wouldn’t believe him. Unexpectedly, Licht pulled him closer and kissed him. Smoke exploded around them and their vision was blocked for a moment. After the air cleared, he found a blond boy standing in front of him. Hyde’s hand hadn’t let go of his arm and he realized that his adorable hedgehog had transformed into the handsome boy wearing a suit. “Hy—”

He placed his finger on his lips before he could say his name. “Don’t call me by that name, Angel Cakes. It’s better for both of us.”

“You’re not a hedgehog. What are you?”

“We’re ghosts sent to protect your city. It’s time to do my job.” Hyde winked at him. He loosened his tie as he stood straighter and prepared to fight. Clovers floated around him and they became blades once he snapped his fingers. He explained: “Humans can’t fight demons. Ghosts can’t sustain their human body in this realm. We can solve each other’s problems though.”

“I don’t like when you play mean, Brother Greed.” Tsubaki clicked his tongue and dodged the torrent of clovers Hyde had flung towards him. Hyde had expected him to unleash another attack and created a wall of clovers to shield Licht and his friends. Yet, Tsubaki said, “I already captured another vessel so I’ll be returning home. It was fun to meet you again, brothers. Next time, I’ll take the hearts of your human friends.”

Tsubaki took the girl and jumped back into the dark portal, leaving everyone in the room in confusion. The danger was gone and the cat transformed into a small plush again. It landed on Mahiru’s lap and he hesitantly picked it up. Mahiru didn’t know what to make of the situation but it was impossible to explain it as a dream.

“What happened to you three?” Lily gasped when Misono and his friends entered the student council room. His brows furrowed when he saw the white bear he had in his arms. He knew the toy all too well and he gave a worried glance to Mahiru and Licht. They all had various injuries and he quickly pulled out a first aid kit from the cupboard. He prayed that the worst hadn’t happened. “Did you three get into a fight with bullies? I’ll treat those scrapes and bruises.”

“This madman with a sword attacked us and claimed he was collecting human hearts. We know this sounds crazy but we also know that you can tell us more about this. We overheard you and Mikuni talk about ghosts. Please, tell us what’s happening!” Mahiru pleaded. With their eyes on him, Lily struggled to find an explanation. He didn’t want to pull them into danger but it was impossible to lie to them after everything they saw.

Licht placed the hedgehog onto the desk and said. “This one kissed me and transformed into a person. He fought off the madman but then returned to this form. Is this hedgehog truly a demon?”

“How am I going to explain this to Mikuni?” Lily groaned and sat down. He gestured to a bench nearby and the three sat across from him. He picked up the hedgehog and explained, “The person with the sword was a demon. Very few people know about demons invading our world and stealing people’s hearts. An organization called C3 has been formed to stop demons.”

“Is my brother a part of this?” Misono asked. The solemn nod Lily caused his stomach to twist into knots. He looked down at the white bear on his lap. While the other two animals had grown to fight Tsubaki, Tetsu hadn’t. “What are these stuffed animals?”

“They’re not toys but spirits. Since humans can’t fight demons, C3 has enlisted the help of ghosts like the three you see.” His words caused Licht to remember what Hyde told him earlier. Unconsciously, he touched his lips and thought of the kiss. Lily noticed his action and asked: “After the hedgehog turned into a human, did you call its name?”

“No.” Licht shook his head and Lily let out a breath of relief.

“Spirits can form a contract with a human to regain their original body and fight the demon. But forming a contract is rare since the human must have a strong and pure heart.” Lily explained. “To form the contract, the human will give the spirit a new name and share a kiss. Luckily, your contract is only temporary because you didn’t call his name while he was human. Your contract was broken when he returned to his toy form.”

“Good. I don’t want my heart linked with a demon like him.” Licht glared at Hyde. “But I want to help fight the demon. It’s my job as an angel to protect innocent people. There must be a way for me to fight that demon without the help of this guy.”

“You three are teenagers so it’s too dangerous for you to fight demons. For now, please forget everything you’ve seen today. I’ll take these back and keep them in a safe place.” Lily said and took the three stuffed animals from them. “Go home.”

Mahiru entered his empty house and he turned on the light. He placed his backpack on the table before he went to his room to get his sewing kit. For once, he was glad that his uncle was out of the city. He was certain his uncle would have questions for why he was returning home in the middle of the night. He set down the sewing kit and then pulled a black cat out of his bag.

He had sneaked into the high school and stole the cat.

A part of him was still in disbelief of everything he learned that afternoon. Demons were slowly invading the city and the people he cared about were in danger. He stared at the torn fabric over the cat’s shoulder where Tsubaki had stabbed it. Mahiru was careful and gentle as he moved the cat into a sitting position in front of him. “Hyde spoke when he transformed. Can you talk in your toy form?”

“It’s troublesome.” The cat answered him with a lazy drawl. Mahiru was waiting for the response but a small gasp still escaped him. He collected himself and then smiled softly down at him. The kindness in his brown eyes was surprising because he expected Mahiru to be scared of him.

“Thank you for protecting me and my friends from the demon. You were hurt in the fight, weren’t you? I don’t know if I can repair you like a normal stuffed animal but I thought I should try. You’ll lose a lot of stuffing if you run around with a hole in your chest. Will it hurt you if I use this needle?” Mahiru asked. After he shook his head, he threaded the needle. He grew in size again so Mahiru would be able to stitch the wound easier.

Mahiru leaned close to him so he could stitch his chest close. Even though he assured him that he wouldn’t be hurt, he was careful. He placed his hand over his heart and he looked up at him. “There were a lot of reasons I went back for you. I wanted to thank you and tend to your wounds. My second reason is a little selfish though. I can’t simply forget about the demons like Lily asked us to.”

The determination in his brown eyes reminded him of how Mahiru tried to protect him with a broom. He could already guess what he wanted to ask him. Mahiru wrapped his hands around his paw and he looked up at him. “I don’t know if I have a strong heart but I love my friends and family. I want to protect them in any way I can. Will you lend me your strength to do so?”

“I came back to Tokyo to stop the demons but I wasn’t planning on forming a contract. I planned to fight alone. This situation is dangerous.” He warned him. Mahiru bit his lips and looked down at the ground, worried that he wouldn’t help him. Then, he heard him sigh. “It was my intention to fight Tsubaki alone but I didn’t expect my body to be so weak. Can’t deal.”

“We can be strong together.” Mahiru turned back to him. He cupped his face and thought of a name to give him for their contract. “You protect me today but we’ll be fighting together from now on, Kuro.”

They leaned towards each other and Mahiru closed his eyes. Their lips met in a simple kiss and Kuro’s warmth lingered for a few moments. He opened his eyes and he found a teenager sitting in front of him. He didn’t pull away and stared at Kuro’s familiar features. Gently, he brushed his light hair from his red eyes and repeated his name. “Kuro.”

With just a name and a kiss, both of their lives changed.

“You know, you could’ve kissed my cheek.” He told him and there was a slight blush on his cheeks. Mahiru wondered if it meant that the kiss made him feel shy and flustered as well. The sight endeared Kuro to him and a small chuckle escaped him.

“I’ll prepare the guest room for you to use.” Mahiru said and stood.

[rockshortage]

*Cracks knuckles* Ow. Let's see, how about: A6, 16. B1, 12. C1, 2, 3, 5, 8. D4. E2, 3, 7. F2, 5, 10, 12 (Sorry, but also not sorry) I6. L1, 2, 4, and 9 :)

hoo boy that took a while

A6) Does your OC tend to assume their interpretation of events and reality is correct, or do they question it? I.e., “I’m sure that’s what you said” versus “It’s possible I misheard you.”

Ah, he questions himself a lot. Maybe he wasn’t listening well enough because he was too distracted by being anxious? Maybe he misinterpreted this event, because his background knowledge on it was lacking, he doesn’t know the full story and opinions from all sides, he’s not sure he can form a well educated opinion on this--

A16) Does your OC have to go through their own trials to learn a lesson, or do they listen and learn from observation and lecture? I.e., does your OC listen when someone tries to tell them the importance of budgeting, or do they have to go experience what happens if you don’t budget first?

Hector needs to do it himself for Science, because how else is he to truly know, if not from his own personal experience? Trusting what people tell you is good and all but gathering data yourself is better.

Unless we’re talking about raider politics, in which case there’s not really a good way for Hector to gather data without seriously endangering him and friends, so he’ll just listen to Gage.

B1) Do they believe you have to give respect to get it, or get respect to give it?

Generally, he believes it’s necessary to give people respect before you can expect it in return. He learns that many people do not in fact think the same way. He’ll still want to extend basic courtesy to them even if they’re assholes, unless they disrespect/piss him off to the extremes, or if their actions threaten his position and in turn the well-being of himself and friends.

B12) Your OC orders something to eat and gets their order done in a pretty wrong way, something they can’t just pick off or whatnot to correct, or something major is missing. What do they do?

Have a back and forth about it in his head – ah it’s not so bad it’s still fine, but then again he really wanted it differently… but he doesn’t wanna bother them and be entitled about it, but man… :( Might get close to pointing it out but chances are slim that he’ll actually get someone to correct the order. It’ll be disappointing but he’ll eat it.  

C1) Does your OC have a moral code? If not, how do they base their actions? If so, where does it come from, and how seriously do they take it?

Eeeh, not a super strong one. His baseline are general societal morals and norms, like… help person good, kill person bad. Most of the time he’ll base his actions on what feels right for him and for his friends. He’ll consider: will doing this make me feel bad afterwards? Will it have a negative impact on other people, who don’t deserve it? Is that consequence worth it because it saves my own skin or helps/protects my friends?

C2) Would your OC feel bad if they acted against their morals? If not, would they find a way to excuse themselves for it?

Bringing back the point about sacrificing for the greater good. He’d consider that the morally right thing to do because it impacts fewer people negatively. But making that sacrifice endangers his friends, whose lives for him personally are worth much more than an abstract crowd of people. So he chooses to not do the thing for the greater good and save his friends instead, and yes, he would feel very bad on the one hand, because oh boy. As far as most people are concerned, he did a horrible terrible thing and was extremely selfish and absolutely chose wrong. But on the plus side, and that’s a very big huge plus- he still has his friends. And still having his friends makes him feel less bad than how he would have felt if he didn’t have his friends anymore.

So uh… yes and no.

C3) Is it important for them to be with people (socially, intimately, whatever) whose major ideological tenets align with their own?

More or less. He can’t hang out well with people he completely disagrees with in every way, of course that’s not going to work. But Hector is… how to say… kinda boring when it comes to ideals and opinions and all that stuff. He just doesn’t have very strong ones in general. Which can make him a little bland and potentially spineless, but also pretty agreeable. As long as they don’t constantly shove their great big opinions in his face, they’ll get along well enough.

C5) Do your OC’s morals and rules of common decency go out the window when it comes to those they don’t like, or when it’s inconvenient? Aka, are their morals situational?

I think I kind of answered this in C2. Basic morals do get thrown out the window if friends are threatened, or if he gets pissed off enough. He’d have to be really pissed off though. As well as being post having-grown-a-spine(-at-least-partially). Hurting people bad but being insufferable to Hector also bad so guess what fucker

C8) Is your OC more practical or ideal morally? I.e., do they hold people to high expectations of behavior even if it’s not realistic for the situation, or do they have a more realistic approach and adapt their morality to be more practical?

Again a little tricky because I’m having trouble coming up with a scenario that would help me make up my mind with a definite answer. I’m leaning more towards a practical approach 1) because Hector is more of a realist/pessimist in general, 2) he doesn’t want to like… be overly demanding

D4) Would they like to be immortal? Why, why not? If they are immortal, would they rather not be?

The more he thinks about it the more meaningless life seems to get for someone like him. Solution: don’t think about it! Repress that shit because it’s not like you can do anything about it anyway. Also an involuntary solution but one that helps nonetheless: have shit memory so that you don’t feel like you’ve lived too many lifetimes.

If you were to ask him, the answer you get completely depends on the headspace he’s in at the moment. If he’s just vibing, going about his day and things are going well then yeah! Immortality isn’t so bad. If you catch him on an off day, things aren’t going so well, maybe he just thought about having to deal with losing his friends eventually… then you obviously get the opposite answer.

E2) Which of the nine types of intelligence is your OC strongest in? Weakest? (Linguistic, existential, naturalist, et cetera)

I know I talked about this before and I grouped them from strong to medium to weak but I can’t for the life of me find the post anymore (thanks tumblr for your useless garbage search and tagging features). So I can’t even check if I’m still on the same wavelength with past me :v

From strongest to weakest we have…

Logical-mathematical

Spatial

Linguistic

Bodily-kinesthetic

Musical

Naturalist

Interpersonal

Existential

Intrapersonal

E3) How many languages do they speak?

Three… and a half.

The half language being Swiss German, because I don’t know what the fuck it is even after graduating from language uni

The others: Standard German, English, and French, from strongest to weakest.

E7) Are they a good note-taker? Are they a good test-taker? Do exams make them nervous?

Yes, yes, and yes. He’s very good at taking notes considering most of science is documentation. And even now when he’s not doing a lot of Formal Science things, he still writes in his journal almost daily, summing up events and making notes of important things. He gets nervous with tests with all the self doubt if he really prepared well enough and the unpredictability of the questions that will be asked, but once the pen is in his hand, he just blazes through it.

F2) What’s their ideal home look like? Where is it?

Someplace underground, safe and sturdy like a vault. Industrial aesthetic is welcome and he wants to have plenty of space, but it shouldn’t feel huge and empty. Needs to be homey, even if it might feel a little rustic to the average person. Having it built into a mountain would be sick, so he still has the perfect protection from the sun, but he doesn’t have to crawl out of a hole in the ground like some kind of worm – instead he opens the door and gets the most amazing view immediately.

… and I promise, only after writing the above did I remember that he pretty much lives in a mountain already, just a plastic one. Close enough.

F5) How handy are they? Can they fix appliances, cars, cabinets, et cetera?

Quite handy indeed. He can fix most things, he usually just needs some time to (re-)familiarize himself with the object and its functions. A lot of it also involves trial and error, but he’ll figure it out eventually.

F10) Do they engage in any of the arts? How good do you intend them to be? Would they agree they are?

He’d actually be really good at pen/pencil drawing, what with making technical illustrations and blueprints of Science Stuff, but it’s not a skill that’s applied in an artsy setting. When the goal is to draw for the sake of drawing, evoking emotion, or paint with a brush, that’s probably when shit would fall apart. I can’t remember who the artist was, but it reminds me of this little comic about Paladin Danse – in which he’s extremely good at technical drawings but then he attempts to draw a dog and it just looks…wrong.

Now with music, he’s more likely to engage in it in an artful way. He likes to sing, even if he very rarely does it now that he has people around him more often than not. Before, he’d just be alone in his lonely place and sing and scream to his heart’s content, but now he’s too awkward to do it, because someone might hear him. He is pretty good at it though, considering how much alone time he’s had to practice.

F12) Would they enjoy a theme park?

The rides and junk food? Yes absolutely. But the giant crowd and every little consequence it entails, nope, no thank you, he’ll just leave it be.

You bet he’s gonna go on the rides at nuka world though once they got them back up and working, because the crowd isn’t as big as pre-war and he’s the fucking overboss and can skip lines and restrict access to others however he damn pleases.

I6) Could they eat the same thing they enjoy over and over and not get bored of it quickly?

He can, but that doesn’t mean he enjoys it. The first month or so at nuka world he almost exclusively lives off of some shitty nutrient bars. In some scenarios, food just exists as sustenance and not as something to be enjoyed.

In a preferable scenario though, it is to be enjoyed. And I think while he would get bored of it after a while, it’d take longer than for the average person. And even then, he’s just happy he can eat something enjoyable at whatever pace he likes instead of having to scarf down Compressed Nutrient

L1) How have your characters changed since you created them?

He stopped existing in a void, which is a pretty damn big change. Now he has a whole world and other characters to interact with, that contribute to shaping and developing his personality.

L2) What do you consider the biggest themes in your character, if any?

Oof, this is hard. Maybe… getting to know yourself? Accepting change, personal growth?

L4) Would you hang out with your OC if you could?

I’m actually not sure sjdfsdnsv

Like yes he is sweet bean who must be protected, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is a weird little old man. I guess if we can just chill listening to music and he can go off about crustaceans or something and we speak The Horrible Language, why the fuck not

L9) How did you come up with your OC?

Masks cool. Me especially like gas masks. Unhinged science characters also cool. Make generic but still sliiiightly unique design and make it a point to not have him be a young pretty boy character despite having immortality. Add lots of weaknesses to compensate for the immortality. Add science personality things and complete the picture with projections of my own personality. Boom, you’ve got yourself the beginnings of a Hector

[kimkymury]

Blue Rose Tears - Chapter 8

Hey everyone, another chapter of Pascal x Carl fanfic is here, I hope you like it!

I’d like to thanks @depressedoverdrawings​ for  for reviewing the history and help fixing grammatical errors.

Warning:  Just a little warning, some characters have distorted views about sexuality, and those views do not represent what I think in real life. This was written on purpose to suit the environment and the time that the story takes place, since at that time people were more closed minded.

The Portuguese Version of this story is avaliable on Wattpad:  https://www.wattpad.com/955909044-as-l%C3%A1grimas-da-rosa-azul-cap%C3%ADtulo-8

Under the cut!

Chapter 8

P.O.V Narrator

The moon was shining in the sky during a dark night at the Lacombrade Academy. It was the only source of light that illuminated the rooms with open curtains. It was past midnight, the silence was deafening. All the students were already in their rooms resting after another day. The nights of the school used to be very different than its mornings, which were always busy and noisy. The corridors that were full of students running during the day now were empty and dark. There were few boys who dared to go out at night in the middle of that darkness.

In the midst of all that peace and silence, someone was having trouble resting peacefully. Carl's expression was no longer tired or relaxed as in the early evening, it was more like discomfort. His blankets had become messy and tangled because of his unending tossing, it was as if the boy was being disturbed in his sleep. His expression was frowning and agonized, his breathing was more intense.

Inside his head, he dreamed that he was alone in a blank space that had no beginning and no end. The place was empty and quiet, and of a shade of white so bright that it made his eyes hurt. The silence was agonizing, he always walked in a straight line but it was as if he did not move. Despite being an empty place, it gave him a feeling of sadness, or even of being trapped. But it was at that moment that the tranquility of the blank space disappeared. 

Carl kept walking, but as he stepped ahead, cracks appeared on the floor. The seemingly infinite white floor began to crack and break, causing pieces to fall into an endless dark limbo. The boy was scared and started running in the opposite direction from which he came, only to see that more and more pieces of the floor were breaking and falling. What would happen if he fell into that chasm? The answer was uncertain, and it scared him. There was nowhere else to run, the only blank space was gradually being destroyed, the sadness and emptiness he felt before had turned to fear.

Now only a small piece of the ground remained, where he could barely balance himself to keep from falling. It was inevitable, the last piece broke, taking him to what he believed to be an endless fall. But Carl didn't feel the impact of the floor or the sensation of falling, the only thing he felt was something holding him by the forearm. The boy had his eyes closed preparing to face the abyss, and after feeling himself being held by the arm, he raised his head to face what prevented him from falling. It was someone's arm, probably a fellow student, as the jacket's sleeve was easily recognizable. However, he had no idea who could have saved him and even how that was possible, his first impulse was to ask.

"Serge?" - The dark haired boy asked without thinking, to him it seemed a little obvious that the pianist would be the one with the attitude of so readily helping him.

He received no answer, and that's when he looked more closely at the hand that held him. It didn't look like Serge's hands, its skin color was lighter, and it wasn't thin and delicate as the Gypsy's hands. Carl had no idea who it might be, he tried to recognize the mysterious figure, but the more he looked up, the blurrier his vision became.

The only thing that he could see were unclear shapes, only colors were recognizable. The last thing he saw in the fog was the dark blue of the school uniform and some warm colors just above, they looked like orange or red. That feeling was excruciating, Carl's vision was slowly fading as he heard his name being called several times, the distant sound seemed to be getting closer and closer. He felt something on his shoulder, like a shaking that tried to wake him up.

"Carl, Carl, wake up!" - A voice called him, making the eyes of the boy still in bed shoot open, leaving him with a frightened expression.

The dark haired boy was breathing fast, he felt every quick heartbeat. Standing next to him was Necroix, who was already ready for classes and was carrying some books in his hand. Carl quickly sat up on the bed, while his breathing slowly returned to normal.

"The alarm clock went off and you didn't wake up, what happened?" - The boy standing beside the bed asked, surprised from never having seen his roommate in that state before.

It had been just a nightmare, that relieved the boy who had just woken up, bad dreams were common when he went to bed worried about something. The fact that he had a nightmare didn't bother him, he was more concerned with the possibillity of being late for breakfast.

"I'm fine, I think I was just really sleepy...What time is it?" - Carl replied reassuring his friend, who did not believe much in what he heard, as he'd seen Carl's agonized expression before waking him.

"It's twenty to six, I went down to breakfast, but as I didn't see you I thought I'd better come back and wake you up." - Necroix said as he went towards his desk, setting the alarm clock to the next morning.

"Thanks for waking me up, I'll be going soon." - The dark haired boy thanked his roommate, getting up from the bed to make it up.

Carl couldn't believe he was almost late because of a dream. If he said that the reason for being late to the first class was a dream, he would be punished for presenting such a stupid excuse. The blankets were folded in the correct order, it was as if they were not messed up. But he couldn't waste time thinking about it, probably his friends were already waiting for him and would be worried about his delay. He was the Class Representative, his reputation and credibility could be affected if he was late.

"I'll see you later." - Necroix says before leaving the room, leaving the boy who was still in pajamas alone in the room.

The hands of the clock were moving. He changed his clothes quickly, taking care that he was well groomed and not seen as sloppy. Carl opened the cabinet that had a mirror on the door. He looked at himself at first to comb his hair, but ended up staring at his reflection longer than he should have. He was looking intently at himself, analyzing every little aspect of his appearance after running the comb through his dark hair. He did not consider himself handsome nor ugly, he had a normal appearance, so normal that he found it tedious to look at. He did not have a very striking physique, but he was not considered strange. How could anyone be so normal in every possible way? By what criteria was he considered normal?

He quickly closed the closet door and took the books he needed, he would only waste time by thinking about nonsense. After leaving the dormitory, it was possible to hear the voices and footsteps of several students, Carl went quickly to the Dining Hall and hoped they would not notice his delay. Unfortunately, that's just what happened, in the way to the Hall he could hear comments from other students who realized that he was in a hurry. Ignoring them was the only thing he managed to do, he had neither the time nor the courage to confront them.

The dining hall has less students than usual, probably due to the time, since most had eaten breakfast and now enjoyed the last few minutes before classes started.  After entering the Hall, Carl grabs the meal of the morning on a tray; he would have to eat quickly to get to class in time. He imagined that he would eat alone, since his friends wouldn't have been able to wait for him for so long, but he was mistaken. At a table with few people who all sat some distance away from each other, the red-haired scientist sat alone with a somewhat bored expression. It looked like he was waiting for someone. Seeing this, the dark-haired boy decided to sit with him, wondering if he too woke up late. Carl placed the tray on the table and sat across from Pascal, who was happy to see him.

"I heard you had trouble waking up. Let me guess, you kept thinking about what happened yesterday, right?" - The redhead asked ironically, starting to eat together with his friend.

"How did you know that?" - The religious boy asked a little confused, since he had not discussed it with anyone.

"Necroix told me earlier, everyone was worried that you were late. The class representative is always so punctual.” - The scientist responded, before taking a bite of his slice of bread. As with almost everything he said, he used irony as a way to add humor to any situation.

Carl was a little surprised, he had already imagined that his delay would generate a little concern, but there was still something that he wanted to ask.

"At least I wasn't the only one to arrive late. Did you stay up late studying again?" - The dark-haired boy replied, indicating the fact that his friend was still having breakfast.

"Not this time, I woke up on time and I thought you wouldn't want to eat alone." - Pascal replied, this time without sarcasm, explaining why he was there.

Simple words that meant a lot to Carl. To think that his friend had waited for him so he would not be alone was a gesture of kindness. He knew that the other boys wouldn't do that, in fact he couldn't imagine anyone doing this but Pascal, not even Serge ... That simple and ordinary act was enough to brighten up his day, even if he didn't show it much. The two continued to eat in silence, until Carl asked a question.

"And the others, where are they?" He asked, before taking a sip from the cup of tea, wondering where his friends would be.

"Kurt and Neka went out to play football before class, Serge went back to his room to try to get Gilbert to go to class, and Necroix joined Liliath to do something, I think your brother was with them." - The scientist replied, easily remembering the details.

Carl had expected all that, the boys always did the same things, so their routine was already etched in his mind. He was only bothered that Sebastian was hanging out with Liliath, he knew it was not good to leave his brother with older boys, especially those of questionable reputation. The concern in his eyes was visible, he feared for his brother's safety in a place like Lacombrade, but he had to accept that he would not listen to his sermons.

"Don't worry so much about him, Sebastian is young but very independent, he'll be fine." - Pascal reassures his friend, who felt as if he could guess what he was thinking with just a look.

"I know that, I just wanted him to interact with the boys his age." - The religious boy says, exposing the real reason for his concern, just before taking the last bites of the slice of bread.

The two boys finished eating quickly, soon the bell would ring and they should go to the first class of the day, which would be the same for both. With great effort Carl convinced Pascal to attend the first class, which was the one he liked the least: Latin. He knew that his friend did not care about his grades, as he had the hobby of repeating grades, but Carl worried that he would be punished for excessive absences. The way to class was ordinary, there were no signs of their friends, who were probably in other classrooms of Lacombrade. When they entered the room, there were already some students, most of them having conversations or trying to stay awake.

Although the night before was cold, the sun shone and illuminated the room, the large windows created a friendly, inspiring atmosphere. That room brought a certain nostalgia to Carl, he still remembered his first years studying there. As they went up the steps of the room to get to where they wanted to sit, Carl observed the place and felt happy, in a way.

How can a place as beautiful as this have such a sad atmosphere?

It was true that Lacombrade had excellent teaching methods, but that school gave him such a sad feeling in his heart, he'd felt it since the first time he stepped into the school. Maybe it was due to its cold walls or its secluded location, or it could also stem from the horrible things that happened when no one was around. His thoughts are dispersed when the boys sat down side by side while they wait for the class to start; Pascal looked bored and unwilling to be there, going to class only because of Carl's requests. Some students were surprised to see him in class so early, especially in one whose subject he couldn't stand. Carl knew that Pascal saw no sense in studying Latin, its words and grammatical rules could confuse even someone as brilliant as the redhead. It was precisely in this aspect that they differed.

The dark-haired boy turned to look at the friend who was sitting on his right, he calmly flipped through the pages of a book, as far as Carl could tell, it was something related to Biology or Chemistry. He then noticed a detail so simple that he had not noticed it before: Pascal's red hair had a shade similar to the one he saw in his dream, before waking up. He spent a few more seconds watching his friend, no words were exchanged. Oddly enough, the situation was not awkward. They could stand side by side for hours without talking and would be fine with it, just enjoying each other's company without worry.

That was a quality present in the best friendships, wasn't it?

It was only a few minutes before class started, and Carl found himself thinking again as a form of distraction. His first thought was of Pascal, his best friend, who was right beside him. He analyzed and remembered all the times they were compared with each other for being extremely different. Pascal was certainly nothing like the ideal model boy that people admired, he was just the opposite. He didn't care about grades or a good reputation, his appearance was considered careless, he didn't care about fixing his hair nor was he bothered by his eternally wrinkled clothing. He was constantly late, missing classes to do experiments, and he was kind but did not behave like a gentleman. As much as it was considered a defect, the dark-haired boy admired the fact that his friend could always be so detached from the opinion of other people and be focused on his goal.

He had no more time to think about it, the class had just started and the whole class was silent. Some were concentrated, and others were frightened by the possibility of being punished if they did not know how to answer a question. Carl opened the book he brought with him on the page ordered by the teacher; he followed the explanations carefully, trying to memorize each verbal conjugation. On the other hand, the boy who was sitting next to him did not take his eyes off the scientific book, he did not bother with the possibility of a punishment, and seemed very focused on what he was reading.

A few minutes passed and the scientist calmly closed the book that made him so interested, the truth is that he'd already read it so many times that he'd memorized the whole thing. Pascal, bored and with no interest in continuing to listen to those explanations about Latin, decides to turn his attention to Carl. He seemed focused on what he was learning, although the source of his concentration was the desire to get a good grade, not genuine interest in the subject. But Carl's attention is taken from the book when he sees a small piece of paper folded a few times being left close to his hand by the boy who sat beside him. Pascal gave the paper to him discreetly, without raising any suspicion. While he was curious to know what it was about, he was still afraid of being discovered and punished for not paying attention.

Continued in the next chapter.

Written by KimKymury, thank you for reading!

[jekunitrash]

Chaos in the Alicein household_Chapter 4

It had been two weeks since Mikuni and Jeje came back. Everything was slowly returning the way it was before, the two brothers would play games in the afternoon and when the time would come for Misono to do his homework, the blonde would either talk with Lily and Jeje or play with the children. Surprisingly enough, they never questioned him too much on where he had been this whole time and what he had been doing. They were happy just listening to him talking about random things, and Mikuni made them laugh by listing all the pranks he played on Jeje. Said vampire wasn't amused. 

They also thought about closing the shop but the blonde said it would be a waste, and that he would just open it when Misono was at school, like a part-time job. He didn't want to stay home doing nothing of his days, eventhough everyone told him it was fine. Jeje for his part just complied to whatever his eve said. Besides, he could make bottled ships which was kind of a hobby to him. 

So everything was going well in the Alicein household except from the fact that Mikado wasn't at home very often because of "family affairs", as he said. But it wasn't much of a problem for the others since they were used to it and Mikuni wasn't that comfortable around him. They still needed some time to adjust to their new situation, it seemed. Anyways, the servamps and eves were having dinner when Misono brought something up. 

-"Hey, I was thinking. How about we throw a party and invite the other pairs? It's been a while since we last saw them and it was after the war against Tsubaki. It would be nice to see each others for something else than battle. " 

"Oh, great idea Misono!" Lily exclaimed, " I'm so proud of you for suggesting that, you always act like a tsundere-"

"Shut up Lily!" The teen yelled at him, visibly embarassed by the vampire's comment. Mikuni chimed in, feeling like teasing his cute and blushing brother.

"But he is right though, Misono! It's so unexpected of you to suggest something like a party, I mean, you're shy and all-"

"YOU TOO, SHUT YOUR MOUTH !" Now he was really annoyed. 

Jeje sighed at them but he was admittedly amused. Seeing his eve laugh like this was satisfying and he briefly felt flutters in his stomach. It was a strange but not displeasing feeling, and he found himself unable to put a name on it. He was pulled out of his reflexion when more yelling erupted in the room. 

-"Why the hell would you want to invite this bastard Tsurugi, little brother ?!"

'Ah. This is going to be troublesome...' the servamp of envy thought. He knew how the C3's hound dog ( well at least he wasn't being used by Touma anymore) and his eve acted around each other. Incessant banter and death threats, that was it. 'Why did Misono have to bring him up, ugh.'

-" Oh come on, Mikuni. Don't you think it's about time you two start interacting normally ? Besides, you agreed that we invite the Melancholy team, why not the C3? Well except for  Touma of course. I can't forgive this bastard." Misono tried to reason his brother. However, his efforts went to waste as Mikuni seemed to have already set his mind.

"Forget it, I'm not going to see him even if you're the one to ask. We could never understand each other anyway. " he declared before leaving the room. 

The lust pair sat there dumbfounded while Jeje stared in the void, thinking hard. It wasn't new that Mikuni and Tsurugi didn't get along but his eve's reaction was excessive, even to him. And it wasn't that bad when they worked together. Sure Mikuni was opposed to his methods and often said he found him disgusting but he was also worried when he got hurt. That's why he didn't understand how the two men's relationship had deteriorated that much. 'Something must have happened, but what?' Jeje was always with his eve, surely he would know if anything serious happened. 'Well it won't help to stay here'. He stood up and quietly apologized to the other two before going to his eve's room.

As expected, the door was closed. Jeje knocked on it, not willing to upset the blonde more by entering without permission. He got a hum from Mikuni and took it that he could come in. The door creaked when he opened it, which at least made the blonde look at him. He even cracked a smile and if Jeje didn't know better, he would have thought he had already calmed down.

-"Want blood?" Mikuni asked, it was obvious that he was trying to avoid any conversation regarding Tsurugi and himself. 

Jeje merely growled at this before coming closer to the bed in which Mikuni was lying. He wasn't in the mood for jokes, eventhough the perspective of drinking blood later in the night was rather appealing. But first he was going to make his eve talk.

-"Why are you upset?" 

"I'm not-"

"Yes you are." Jeje cut him before he could give any fake excuse to his behaviour. Maybe he was being assertive but he didn't care. It was Mikuni who had said he trusted him, and that he wanted them to act like real partners. He wasn't going to let him come back on his word.

"I'm going to stay there until you tell me what is wrong." God he was speaking a lot lately.

Mikuni snorted at that and turned on his side so he was facing the wall.

-"Oh please. I'm the master here, remember ? You don't have to order me about. Besides, what does it matter to you?"

And that was it for Jeje. 'What does it matter to you',  those few words made him incredibly angry. Not at Mikuni himself but because his feelings (whatever they are) were being doubted by the person he cared the most about. He grabbed him by the shoulder, turned him on his back and pinned him to the bed, firmly holding his wrists. The blonde gaped at him, he clearly wasn't expecting that. 

-"Jeje, what...?"

The servamp didn't answer, he didn't understand why he reacted like this either. His eve drove him crazy in every possible way. One minute ago he felt angry because of what he said and now that the blonde was looking at him, eyes filled with surprise and uncertainty written on his face, he almost regretted. 

-"Jeje..." 

Crap, he should say something. The problem is, he has no idea what. What's worse is that he can't even look away from him. His gaze is locked on Mikuni, only Mikuni, to the point where everything else ceases to exist. He feels the same flutters as earlier during dinner, and unconsciously lets go of his wrists while bending down. He comes back to his senses when he feels Mikuni's forehead against his, and freezes when he realises his body has been moving on its own. 

'What the hell was I going to do?' 

-"Jeje."

They make eyecontact and it's as if Mikuni wasn't bothered by this in the slightest. He is staring at his servamp intensly, and the latter can't tell what emotion is reflected in those beautiful eyes. Wait, did he really think that just now?

-"Jeje" Mikuni says for the umpteenth time tonight. 

-"I'm sorry, Jeje. I didn't want to sound mean." He says that while caressing the servamp's cheek and Jeje is astonished by the fact that once again, he was able to understand him eventhough he hadn't said anything. He shakes his head before placing his hand on top of Mikuni's, enjoying the warmth emanating from him.

-"It's fine... I wasn't angry at you... I  thought you would tell me what was wrong." His voice was almost a whisper but the other man could perfectly hear it.

-" I know... it's just that I don't feel ready to talk with him. We're nothing alike, and he used to do horrible things under Touma's orders. And also..." He pauses, not sure if he should finish that sentence or not. He doesn't know how will Jeje react. 

-"Also what?" The vampire asks. 

Mikuni takes a deep breath before answering.

-" One time he used his spells too much during a mission and I went to visit him in the infirmary. He was really out of it, I think he didn't recognize me. He must have had mistaken me for an enemy because I totally thought he was going to kill me. Other sorcerers restrained him but it was hella scary." He said all that looking to the side so he didn't know what kind of expression Jeje had.

-"... And you only tell me this now?"

-"Huh ?" He turned his head to the servamp who clearly wasn't pleased.

-"It's my job to protect you. How did you even think it was a good idea to go by yourself in the first place?!" Jeje was frustrated. He wanted to protect his man-child of an eve but right now he felt useless. What if Tsurugi had hurt him that day?

-"It's okay, Jeje. I didn't get the tiniest scratch. And he didn't do it on purpose. I was just scared back then and never knew how to make things better. I guess that's another thing I will have to work on." He finished with a small smile and intertwined his fingers with the servamp's. Said vampire squeezed back before resting his head on Mikuni's shoulder. He wouldn't mind sleeping like this, the blonde's smell was relaxing. It seemed his eve shared his opinion as he whispered to him: 

-"Jeje... can we stay like this, just for tonight?" 

-"I thought you were the master." He said teasingly.

Mikuni huffed but chuckled. A sound Jeje loved. He was going to have a serious talk about feelings with Lily tomorrow morning. For now he just wanted to give his eve the attention he needed. He adjusted their position so they were both lying on their sides, Mikuni's head against his chest. He wrapped one arm around his waist, bringing him even closer. The blonde sighed in content, he felt safe in his servamp's embrace.  

-"Mikuni."

"Mmh?"

"Don't you ever think I don't care about you again. " Jeje said, and there was no contesting it.

-"Okay. Thank you Jeje. "

 They fell asleep together this night, both with a satisfied smile on their faces.

So, I reposted chapter 3 and 4 today and will most likely publish them two by two from now on. I actually have 34 chapters of this story on my Wattpad account but won't put them all at once because... well, because. (I'm a prick btw)

[ladysnausages]

Where There’s Smoke_C4

Pairing: NaLu

AU ~ bodyguard/heiress

Cover photo courtesy of @fainttwinkling

Summary

Lucy, a cynical heiress, longs to find meaning in life. At a party, she meets Natsu, a strange man who drags her into a world she never knew existed and never expected to be a part of. Greed, espionage and organized crime, it becomes a three way battle for her life -- one to kill her, one to exploit her and one to save her.

Chapter Links

C1 C2 C3 C4

Where There’s Smoke

Chapter 4

Tabula Rasa

              Lucy was pulled from a dreamless sleep by the low murmur of a television and a muffled conversation. She sat up, the loud creak of springs protesting against her movements. She looked around the unfamiliar room, noting the torn and peeling wallpaper and a television with crooked antennas that she assumed was taken straight out of a time capsule. There was an empty twin bed next to hers, the blankets disheveled from someone occupying it recently. The room smelled musty and slightly salty and it felt as if the stench was clinging to every part of her, desperate to permeate everything it came into contact with.

              Where was she? And how much did she drink?

              She flung the limp comforter off of her, noticing she was still in her evening gown. She removed herself from the bed, touching her bare feet to the dingy shag carpeting.

              “What did you expect me to do?” A familiar, hushed voice was barely distinguishable through the door that she assumed lead to an equally quaint bathroom.

              Her face flushed as she recalled the party’s events of the night before, focusing on the details that led her here. From meeting Natsu and then Bora to Bora threatening her and Natsu defending her. But when and how did she end up here?

She took cautious steps towards the door, intent on eavesdropping on the conversation to gain any useful information. Carefully, she pressed her ear to it.

He was on the phone and it sounded like he was arguing with someone.

              “Well it’s too late to turn back now. So she’ll just have to stick it out.”

           He said nothing more until a gruff “yeah, whatever” and almost immediately followed by the door swinging open. She jumped back.

           He looked caught off guard for a brief moment before turning to the rickety kitchenette. “Hungry?” He shuffled through the mini fridge, pulling out two items wrapped in plastic.

           Lucy ignored his question for one of her own. “Where are we?”

           “Hargeon.” He tossed her one of the mystery meals. She clumsily caught it.

           Hargeon? She thought as she unwrapped the food. It sounded familiar but she couldn’t quite place it. She examined the sub sandwich, silently doubting its edibility. She pinched the top of the cold, stiff bread and wondered if people actually ate this stuff and if they did, if they lived to tell about it. The sparse amount of ham and cheese didn’t look much safer to her eyes. She took a small, tentative bite.

           “It’s a fishing village about a six hour drive from your home.”

           She nearly choked on the sandwich, looking up at him in surprise. This was the farthest she had ever been from her home alone. If she didn’t have a small army of handpicked guards watching her every move and reporting in on her every ten minutes, her father would have kept her locked away in her home.

           “I don’t remember falling asleep.” She muttered, still trying to absorb the new information.

           “That’s not surprising.” Natsu said, eating his meal without a second thought as he scrolled through his phone. “You remember I told you that Bora tried to poison you, don’t you?”

           Lucy paled. “Wait, I was poisoned?”

           “That drink he gave you. But it was just something to knock you out apparently. Which is good because I did not have an antidote handy.”

           “I didn’t drink it though.”

           “But you had some. Even that little bit did quite a number on you, can’t imagine what you’d be like if you drank the whole thing.”

              She was appalled by how casual he was treating the entire scenario, as if getting poisoned was just another way to spend Saturday night.

              Although she did wonder if she should be surprised.

           Here she was, in this unfamiliar motel in an unfamiliar town after she ran off with a complete stranger who was apparently skilled in martial arts, capable of striking fear into the hearts of dangerous men and talked about being poisoned as if it were just as normal and mundane as brushing your teeth in the morning.

Brushing your teeth.

           She was suddenly self-conscious and she quickly brought a hand to her mouth, trying to trap any morning breath from escaping any further.

           Natsu looked at her curiously. “What are you doing?”

           “I need to brush my teeth.” She said, voice muffled by her hand.

           He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, “then go do it. There’s a toothbrush in there.”

           She rushed to the bathroom, slamming the door shut.

           “Weirdo.” He mumbled to himself.

After vigorously brushing her teeth, Lucy looked at herself in the mirror, judging how unpresentable she appeared and imagining the meltdown her father would have were he to see her like this. Hair a tangled mess, eyeliner and mascara smeared under her eyes and her dress wrinkled from tip to toe. She groomed herself to the best of her ability, combing her hair with her fingers, wiping her face with a damp rag and smoothing the delicate material of her gown with the palms of her hands. It wasn’t exactly pretty but it would have to do.

She thought about how out of place she not just looked but felt. This was nothing of the pampered, lavish life she lived. She knew her life was not the norm for people but to what extent the difference was, she hadn’t the slightest clue. A life beyond the gilded gates of the mansion she was confined to. She could see more of the world – the real world – that lay right beyond this room. Or so she assumed – she highly doubted Natsu’s grand plan of protection was to hole her up in some musty motel for days on end.

And that brought reality crashing back down on her.

Just what was she getting herself into? She still didn’t know if she could actually trust this Natsu character, if that even who he actually is. He could likely be using a pseudonym. As far as she knew, he could actually be an extortionist or a murderer. Or worse, married.

She cracked the bathroom door open, staring him down incredulously.

He sat at the end of the bed, vigorously texting someone. He still wore his attire from the previous night, that scarf still draped over his shoulders. Why did he seem so indifferent about this whole ordeal?

Who exactly was he that he could whisk her away like this, using those sugary words to sweeten whatever lies he spoon fed her. She probably shouldn’t trust him but she has already chosen to. But maybe, just maybe, she could use her womanly charms to lure some information out of him. He seemed like he might be a tough nut to crack but between the low cut neckline and high cut slit of her attire, she figured she had the advantage.

He never looked up at her. “Now what are you doing?”

She swung the door open, trying to act like she hadn’t just been caught staring as she walked over and sat next to him, her leg pressed slightly against his. Still not even a glance her way. She was irritated that he didn’t acknowledge her proximity but she stayed quiet, instead taking this time to observe him.

He was still the Natsu she met last night but there was a tension around him this morning that was easy to discern but not decipher. His eyes were sharp and intense, portraying a strength unfamiliar to her and hiding a mystery that she was curious to unlock. But despite the severity of them now, she knew the expressions they were capable of were soft and inviting, offering her the very gazes that ushered her along with him to this place.

She could see now the faint scars that marred his exposed skin, the worst of them, from she could tell, was the one on the side of his neck that she wanted to ask about but knew she shouldn’t.

What kind of man was Natsu actually?

The faint sound of the news caught her attention.

“Heiress to the Heartfilia Conglomerate, Lucy Heartfilia, was allegedly abducted last night from a charity event hosted at the Heartfilia Estate by a mysterious man. Eyewitness accounts from the evening say they did not recognize the suspect and it has been maintained by Jude Heartfilia that he was not an invited guest. More to come on this developing story.”

Lucy was stunned, eyes fixed on the small television screen. A picture of herself and a distant, barely recognizable security camera image of Natsu had flashed across the screen during the relay of entirely false information.

She was bewildered but Natsu was, as expected, entirely unfazed.

All of her thoughts came tumbling out in quick succession. “I-I have to call my father. I have to tell him that that isn’t what happened. That you didn’t do anything wrong, that you’re innocent. That I’m fine. It’s all just a misunderstanding. He needs to know.” She stood up to make a call on the landline but as soon as she lifted the phone from the receiver, Natsu’s hand was over her own, securing the phone on its resting place.

“No can do. You can’t call under any circumstance.”

“Why not? They think you kidnapped me!” She was adamant. Was this really no big deal to him? Just something to brush off like it was no big deal to have whoever was watching this think of him as some common criminal.

“Well…I kind of did. So it’s fine.” A completely flippant response and it left her dumbfounded.

She slipped her hand out from beneath his, voice shaking in a barely contained rage. “No, you did not! I came with you willingly.” Once again, he was making her crazy. All of the engrained decorum out the window.

He placed his hands on her shoulders. “For your sake, I need you to listen to me.” He leveled his gaze with hers, severity hanging heavily around them. “Under no circumstance, until I give you the okay, are you to contact your family or friends or dentist or whatever.” He tightened his grip on her. “Please.”

She was silent, looking into his burning eyes as she slowly nodded.

He stepped away from her, going and grabbing a duffel bag and shuffling through it, tossing some clothes her way. “Get changed. We have to leave here.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’ll explain on the way just go change.”

She looked at the oversized clothes and then looked at him. “Are these your clothes?” She really didn’t need to ask.

“Obviously.” He replied as he went digging around the bag more. “Sorry but it’s all I have for you. This wasn’t exactly planned.”

“These won’t fit me.” She said, feeling slightly awkward.

He tossed a belt to her. “Now they will.”

She frowned. “I’ll just wear this.” She motioned to the crumpled evening gown she was still wearing.

“That’s too conspicuous. No one casually wears getups like that and people around here will be looking for you. You can’t stand out.”

“And wearing oversized men’s clothes isn’t conspicuous.” She countered, completely straight-faced.

“It’s at least less than what you have on.”

Huffing, she reluctantly obliged and headed back into the bathroom.

She stripped herself of her gown, folding it carefully. It was pointless, she knew, but it made her feel better. She pulled the shirt over her head and pulled the jeans on. Even with the aid of the belt, she was swimming in the jeans and the shirt wasn’t much better. Not to mention she had to tie the whole absurd look together with the same strappy heels she wore last night. She rolled the cuffs of the jeans and tied the shirt at her hip so at least it wasn’t so bad but it could hardly be classified as an improvement. She certainly looked as ridiculous as she felt, which wasn’t exactly an easy feat to match.

Accepting her fate of world’s worst dressed, she picked up her folded gown and stepped out of the bathroom. She glared, her irritation directed straight at him. His back was to her but she had an odd feeling that he knew she was looking at him – and that she wasn’t happy.

“If you’re that irritated about what you’re wearing, feel free to wear nothing.” He said without turning around.

“Won’t that attract more attention?” She retorted sardonically.

He stood up, the duffel securely on his shoulder. “Nobody would be looking at your face so I’m sure it’d be fine.”

The blush covered her face instantaneously, creeping down her neck and up her ears. He’s so…frustrating!

She turned her nose up, feigning superiority, a futile cover to her obvious embarrassment. “I expect a change of clothes wherever we’re going.”

He waved her off. “Yeah, yeah, princess. I’m sure someone will have something for you.”

She grimaced at being called princess but said nothing.

“C’mon, let’s get moving.” He opened the door, looking left and right before motioning for her to follow along. He opened the passenger door of a compact SUV and tossed his small amount of luggage to the backseat and went to the driver’s side, leaving the door open for her. She climbed in, securing her seatbelt.

The engine revved to life and Natsu drove them out of the parking lot.

“So, where are we going?” She asked for the second time.

“Do you know,” he began, “much about the world outside your home?”

She hesitated, taken by surprise by such a loaded question. She wasn’t certain how to even begin to answer. She knew what she read about but as far as firsthand experience, she really had none to speak of. All the parts of the world she had seen had been just as lavish and sheltered as her home. She knew she was wealthy, there was no question about that. She knew she had more than the average majority but she didn’t know to what degree. She was fully aware of the shallowness and loneliness of the world but as far as the cruelties and evils, she had not the slightest clue. And if she tried to answer then she feared she would come to realize her ignorance was greater than she ever imagined. She took it to be quite shallow to want to spare herself that thought so she answered in the most plain, sincere way she could.

“Not really…”

Natsu nodded, apparently figuring that would be her answer. “I’m not really the best one to explain it. A lot of that stuff goes way over my head.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “I won’t really go into detail. The boss can handle that.” He paused, trying to figure out how to phrase his next sentence. “I just wanted to mention it because you may be surprised by some of what you see and hear. Just how hard it is for the people out here. So I just,” he rubbed at the back of his neck, clearly awkward, “I just wanted you to be prepared.”

She hadn’t known Natsu long at all, she hadn’t picked up his nervous tics or the subtleties of which expressions reflected which moods. She had grown accustomed to reading people from a business standpoint, using that to gain the advantage in transactions and relations. And though Natsu was still difficult to read, she could see, if only slightly, that this was the most open he could comfortably be.

And so she decided to keep her response simple. “Thank you.” He nodded and she smiled. “So that’s something to remember as we head to wherever it is we’re going.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Which is…where?”

He grinned. “To meet my friends.”