#everything turns off and starts floating then she just disappears | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kaiser1ns · 4 months ago

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i told you, didn't i? time is nothing but a construct, an easy thing to manipulate but we'll start with the living dead or the walking dead, call it however you like, my little puppet! everything is more fun when its uʍop-ǝpısdn. hope you will enjoy being stuck between the physical and spiritual realm. remember, reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram. buy gold, bye!

𝗷𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘀𝗵𝗶!𝘀𝘂𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘆𝗮𝘁𝗼 𝘅 𝗳𝗲𝗺!𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

THE CORPSE'S BRIDEㄑword count :: 6121 ▿ finding a red envelope with money often symbolizes marriage, but sometimes luck is just on your side as you pick it up in the city center. what you didn't know is that you accepted а marriage proposal. and this is how the suo family tricked you, a living woman into becoming the ghost bride of their deceased son.

CHOOSE ANOTHER DIMENSION IN WEIRDMAGEDDON

“You are a disgrace to our family.”

Every day it was the same old tune, like a broken bamboo flute that had worn out its melody. You’d hear it as soon as you stepped through the front door, sometimes even before. “How come the gods have cursed me with such a daughter?” your mother’s voice carried over the sounds of her stitching, accompanied by the echo of your father’s disapproving grunt. They acted like they were personally offended that you were still breathing.

Yes, yes … The unmarried daughter. You knew the script so well by now, you could predict every insult before it left their mouths. There was no getting out unless someone asked for your hand in marriage. It was already getting more than annoying, you wake up wondering when there will be a wedding and go to sleep thinking about how you want everything to end. If you had been born a boy, it would have been much easier for you, but apparently, the all-mighty gods want you to suffer.

“Are you in this house again?” Even though you were the one coming home from the market, laden with bags of food you’d bought with your own money. Not that they ever thanked you, for making dinner and serving delicious meals on their plates. The most gratitude you got was a side-eye from your mother as she sewed something, muttering to herself as she added the finishing touches to the red and gold dress.

You froze. Red and gold? No, no, no.

“What are you staring at?” She snapped, her needle pausing mid-stitch on a piece of crimson fabric that shined bright by the house lights. “This is your wedding dress if you ever manage to get a husband.” her tone was as sharp as the needle in her hand when she returned to her sewing, sighing at the fact that you were still here.

This wasn’t your first marriage guilt trip. Ever since your two older sisters had gotten married off, the pressure was on you. Sometimes you genuinely considered just disappearing poof and you are gone. Then you could haunt them forever, appearing in their dreams and turning them into nightmares.

“Mother, do you need me to do anything else?” you asked, hoping to escape even for a little while. Her eyes narrowed, the needle suddenly looking more like a weapon in her hand. “Go fetch some water from the well, and get something sweet for your father.”

You didn't need to be told twice. Grabbing the wooden bucket, you made your way to the center of the village. It was quiet for once, no bustling crowds or nosey elders asking why you weren't married yet. You mimicked your mother's nagging voice under your breath, lowering the bucket down into the well.

"Your sister is already expecting her first child, and you still don't even have a husband, blah blah blah..."

You rolled your eyes, adjusting your grip on the rope. The weight of it felt so familiar to your life, dragging downwards, just like your mother's hopes. And then, something bright caught your eye, a splash of crimson against the dull stone. You squinted. There, floating near the bucket, was a red envelope.

“Finally!" you muttered, quick to glance over your shoulder. It was an unspoken rule — finders, keepers. Maybe the universe had finally tossed you a bone. You bent down, fingers brushing the envelope's edge, and a chill ran through you, despite the sun hanging lazily overhead. Red envelopes were usually given for weddings. Could this be a sign? A stroke of luck for your otherwise underwhelming love life?

But the moment your fingers touched the envelope’s contents, the air shifted and the wind seemed to whisper your name—in a voice that wasn’t yours.

You looked around. No one was there. Strange.

Opening it like it was your last meal on this earth you couldn't believe your eyes. "Gold!" you whispered. The crisp smell of paper money filled the air, your fingers trembling slightly as you counted it. Your mind raced with possibilities—finally moving out, finally escaping the daily nagging, finally—wait.

Inside the envelope was a small, folded piece of parchment. It was old, the edges colored in yellow, and as you opened it, your heart sank. There was a lock of someone's hair, it was a slightly reddish brown with a small note tied to it. The words on the paper weren’t a blessing. They weren’t even good news. The name next to “groom” was unfamiliar: Suo Hayato.

Heart pounded fast as you pieced it together. You hadn’t just found some stray money. You’d accepted a proposal—a ghost marriage proposal. There are beliefs that if an unmarried boy is not married in the afterlife, his spirit could bring misfortune or illness to the living family members, pushing families to find a bride for him and one way to do that is to leave a red envelope, tricking the girl into thinking it has money. Because even in death, a person is not seen as complete without a partner. It also ties into beliefs about spirits and the afterlife, where the dead might reach out to the living to resolve unfinished matters.

Slowly your gaze slid back to the red envelope. An intricate pattern was etched into the surface, symbols you didn’t recognize. The kind of symbols your grandmother used to warn you about, eyes wide and voice hushed.

"Do not touch what belongs to the dead," she'd always said, but how exactly would you know that something belongs to someone who is not here anymore?

You cursed under your breath. Well, great. It was too late to back out. The Suo family had tricked you into becoming the ghost bride of their dead son. A gust of wind blew through the well, carrying with it a low, chilling hum. You swore you could hear that voice again, whispering softly in your ear, "Thank you for accepting me."

That gentle voice, with that honeyed sound, made you shiver as your hands began to shake. That couldn't be true, it wasn't real. You just accepted an invitation to your own wedding and of course, no one alive would want you, of course, it would have to be someone dead. Quickly taking the overflowing water bucket you hid the letter in your clothes. You would think about it later, you were running late and would be scolded more than usual. The dead boy would wait a little longer, there was nowhere for him to run.

You go home as quickly as possible, the strange feeling of someone watching you still hasn’t left you. Your mother was done with sewing the dress, but she was nowhere to be found as you placed the bucket in the kitchen. Then you found her and your father in the garden talking, sitting between the statues of the ancient dragons that you and your father used to play among when you were little. When they loved their daughter and engagement did not destroy the relationship between a girl and her parents.

"I don't want our daughter to be treated like that. But this is what we should do." hiding behind the wall you were shocked by her words, eyes wide and tears started to form in your eyes. You never expected to hear such a thing from her as you wiped your tears and heard your father. "To keep this image of a perfect family. I hope someone asks for her hand soon because she won't live in this home any longer." Of course, traditionally, girls who did not marry were regarded as a threat to the entire family and were not allowed to continue living at home. Suddenly the letter fell out from inside your robe. You are practically married now and maybe tonight you will pay your husband a visit in the graveyards.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, was it? You hadn’t asked for this. But there it was—a contract, a promise, an unholy bond.

Fingers trembling, you snatched up the letter that had fallen and shoved it deeper into your robes, your heart pounding in your chest. Maybe this could be your way out. If the Suo family’s dead son had claimed you, then at least no living man could. You thought back to the voice, that soft murmur, almost too tender for something no longer living. But could you trust a voice that came from the dark?

Your parents' voices faded into the distance as you hurried to your room. The dress, a crimson red with delicate embroidery, hung neatly on the wooden frame, waiting for you. Its beauty felt like a mockery now, knowing your parents had likely sewn it for some stranger. You brushed your fingertips over the fabric, the reality of your situation sinking deeper. This dress would never be worn for a joyous occasion. Not for you.

As the evening sun began to set, you glanced out the window toward the distant graveyards. The lanterns lining the street flickered eerily against the walls. A strange pull began to take hold, like an invisible red string tugging you toward the resting place of the stranger you were about to marry.

But still, you were curious, who is this husband of yours? How old is he because that was important ... you didn't want to marry some 50-year-old grandpa. It wouldn't be your first time sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep because right now, the urge to go and find his grave surpassed even the heavenly world. It was time to meet him, the one who had called out to you, to see if this strange and unnatural union could be undone. Or maybe you were bound forever.

You could still feel his presence—the weight of it lingering in every step you took as you made your way through the empty streets. The moon hung low in the sky painting everything in its silver glow. The silence around you was oppressive, broken only by the sound of your sandals against the dirt path.

The closer you got to the graveyards, the colder it became. The wind picked up again, swirling around you, bringing the chills. You almost turned back to go home, but the thought of your parents, of being cast out from your home, pushed you forward.

Finally, you arrived at the gates of the cemetery. The iron bars stood tall and ominous before you, half-covered in creeping vines. Beyond them lay the rows of graves, their headstones arrayed like one great army. You swallowed hard, hesitating for just a moment, before pushing the gate open.

Your feet carried you towards the Suo family’s burial plot and the further you ventured in, the more you felt that presence intensify. It was suffocating, wrapping itself around you like a veil. And then, there it was—a single grave, marked with the name of your husband.

The earth before it looked freshly disturbed as if something—or someone—had been moving beneath the soil. You stopped, breath hitching, your body frozen in place. It had been dug up, there was dirt everywhere, and by the light of the lantern, you could see that the dug up was deep, to say the least. You put a hand over your mouth in complete shock. There was no one in the coffin. How come there was no one? Your breathing became heavier, the warm air coming out of your mouth suddenly turned cold, your eyes wide with complete fear when you heard noises near you. It could be someone passing by, a bird, or ... a rabbit.

A little white bunny, with a color just like the moon reflecting the yin energy. But will it bring you good fortune and peace in a place like this? Why did everything suddenly just turn into a scary fairy tale and why did you have to be the main character? You and the small animal looked at each other, its red eyes shining brighter than the lantern next to your face until suddenly it ran away when you tried to approach it.

And then, you heard it again—that voice. But this time, it wasn’t a whisper.

"Welcome, my bride."

The voice came behind you.

Swallowing hard your body shook, more than before as you couldn’t move. You stood in one pose, like a statue until you heard footsteps approaching. Spinning around, heart pounding in your chest, you screamed as loud as your lungs allowed. The sight before you was more horrifying than anything you could have imagined—a boy, or what had once been a boy, stood there, grinning at you. You instinctively threw your lamp in defense, the small flame flickering in the air and for a moment you thought the fire would pass through him like a ghost. But the impact was real. It struck his chest and clattered to the ground.

“W-what? Stay away from me or I will … I will–” You stammered, your mind racing. He wasn’t just a ghost, but a corpse. A jiangshi, a walking dead boy. Panicked, you glanced at the disturbed grave behind him, a confirmation that Suo Hayato had indeed risen from the dead.

But something was strange. His pale skin didn’t have any signs of decay, no silver hue like the stories warned, no moss clinging to his rotten flesh. He looked almost normal, almost alive. His brown hair hung loosely over his face, parted to one side and his singular eye or his living eye, watched you and made you feel the goosebumps. The other eye was covered by a leather eyepatch, which only gave you an unsettling feeling. A pair of yellow tassel earrings, with red gems like the rabbit’s eyes swung with his movements. And there was the black hat, a yellow talisman attached to it, though the paper was blank.

“Please, do not fear me,” he said, voice still sweet and calm despite the terror bubbling inside you. “You woke me up from my slumber for our wedding. My parents always wished for me to marry, but you see … “ His words trailed off as he lifted the talisman from his hat, his grin widening as if trying to comfort you. “I died before I could tell them who I truly wanted.”

You let out another scream, louder this time. The absurdity of his casual tone while he stood there, very much undead, with his smile flattering for a second and his single eye widening slightly because he had expected as much. You backed up until you were pressed against the cold stone of another gravestone. This couldn't be happening. He was dead, he should be dead, and yet here he was, speaking to you as this is just another day.

“I-I don’t want this! I don’t want to marry a dead man!” you shouted, your voice trembling as you struggled to keep your footing, knees weakening beneath you. All of a sudden, the weight of what was happening crushed you down. You didn’t want to die anymore. Not like this, not as some undead bride in a nightmare you hadn’t asked for.

The boy, Hayato, tilted his head, his smile now almost sorrowful. “I am not here to harm you. I was brought back for this, to fulfill my parents’ wishes.” you caught a glimpse of the boy he might have been before death took him. “I can’t bear to see you afraid of me. I never wanted this either, but you were the one who took the red envelope my mother left.”

You paused, trying to steady your breath, eyes darting between his face and the talisman he held. The numerous stories of jiangshi that your grandmother told you—these creatures were said to drain the life force from the living, feeding on their energy until nothing remained. Was that why he was here? To suck away what little life you had left? To take you down into the grave with him?

“I won’t let you drain me,” you blurted out, your voice shaking but your defense rising despite the fair. “I’m not ready to die yet!”

Hayato’s eye widened, and then a deep sigh escaped his lips. He stepped closer, too close for your liking as you flinched. But instead of attacking, he let the yellow paper fall over his face again. “I am not here to drain you. I was raised … incomplete. Not fully dead, not fully alive,” he explained, lowering his gaze to meet yours. “I simply wanted to meet you.”

“But you are a jiangshi,” you whispered, blinking as your eyes were fixed on him as if watching for any sudden movement.

“Yes,” he admitted, his smile fading completely now, replaced with sadness. “But I did not ask for this fate any more than you happened to be my bride.”

His words sank in, making you rethink everything. He was just a strange boy who stood between life and death. His pale face, his empty eye socket beneath the patch, the talisman that should have controlled him but didn’t—he was terrifying, yes, but also…trapped.

“Then what do you want from me?” you asked, and as much you wanted to run, to escape something kept you rooted in place.

Hayato hesitated, then looked up, meeting your gaze with that single eye of his. "I want what I was denied in life. A chance to choose for myself. And maybe..." He paused, and the tiniest hint of hope flickered in his gaze. "Maybe to experience love."

Your heart was still racing, unsure of whether you should trust him—or if you even had a choice at all.

“Just accept him already, young lady! I want to sleep when it's dead silence.” someone's female voice called but there was absolutely no one near you and you started to look around. "I'm down here, but you have time until you join us." The woman's voice came from leaning against her tombstone. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you, ma’am." Your breath hitched, and your gaze landed on a nearby tombstone. The name etched into the stone was worn, nearly faded, but still there. A woman’s ghostly form leaned casually against it, translucent and calm. You were talking to dead people now. Wonderful.

Just because you decided you'd be rich from a dumb envelope, and what did it turn out to be? You live between these two worlds as much as your husband. "Ah, the boy of the Suo family. They finally found you a bride."

This time it was a deep male voice as you both looked in that direction. It was coming from a tall, ghostly figure standing just behind another tombstone. "Good choice! I know the women in her family are unearthly beautiful!” You didn't know how to take that, a compliment you'd never received before. Hayato looked at you while you were still looking down at the ground, the moon illuminating everything above you.

His eye filled with something like... affection. He waited patiently for your response because it wasn’t easy to just accept a marriage proposal, a ghost one at that.

The dead were already speaking to you as if you were one of them, and perhaps you were—caught between their world and the one you had known your whole life. Maybe you didn’t want to die, but living in this strange in-between place was better than being cast aside by the living. You took a deep breath and slowly nodded.

"I... I accept," you whispered, almost to yourself, then met Hayato's gaze. "But I need to go home first." He smiled, the kind of soft smile that made you forget for a moment that he was no longer alive. "Of course. I will wait for you."

You turned, leaving the graveyard behind, though the voices of the dead still whispered in your ears, their conversations muffled by the distance. The walk home was quieter than before, though you couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching from the shadows, but you knew that the light would appear again.

A week passed when you gathered courage and told your parents everything. You showed the envelope, explaining what had happened—how the Suo family had chosen you, how you had unknowingly accepted the fate of being a ghost bride, and how his spirit had come back to claim you. By not telling them, however, that your husband is somehow alive. You expected anger, disbelief, or perhaps even outrage. But instead, your parents stood in silence.

Your mother was the first to break the stillness. She took your hands in hers, her grip trembling slightly, but a small smile appeared on her face. "You... you will be married?" she whispered as if daring to hope this strange, supernatural fate might finally be your salvation.

Your father, though pale with shock, slowly nodded. "This is... unexpected," he muttered. "But if it means you will be safe, and the Suo family is satisfied, then this is for the best."

Before you could respond, there was a knock at the door. Your mother rushed to answer it, and there they were, the Suo family—Hayato’s parents. His mother, a graceful woman draped in mourning clothes, approached you with a smile that held both grief and relief.

"You have given my son peace," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "For so long, his spirit was restless. He didn’t even tell us who he wanted to marry. But now, he has found his bride, and he can be at peace. Our family is forever grateful."

Feeling as if you were floating between two realities—the living and the dead, bound by an agreement you hadn’t fully understood. But now, there was no turning back. This was your life now. This was real. It wasn’t some bad dream. You were truly a bride—if only to a ghost. Or rather, what remained of it.

The dress your mother finished sewing would be wrapped around your body soon. At least that's what you heard from the conversation of the adults in the great dining room. How did it all happen so fast? You could believe that Hayato told his mother in her dream. You could talk to the spirits of dead people after all.

You were walking in the big yard of your house when you heard a light tapping, small and gentle steps and in the middle of the garden was the white bunny from yesterday and immediately rushed towards the animal. It started running and you followed. Why does this rabbit appear out of nowhere? Are the gods giving you a sign to escape your fate as a normal human? Most probably, yes.

It stopped in front of the family temple where you honored your ancestors but for some reason, you hadn't been here in a few weeks because you were always doing work around and outside the house. You saw the rabbit jump up the steps and stand in the center of the temple, surrounded by tombstones but it hopped in front of your grandmother’s stone. Asking her for help won't hurt, you missed being here, finding peace in this beautiful place especially since your grandma never judged you.

Lighting the candles and incense, you kneel down, hoping for guidance from your ancestors. Please, if you can hear me. I need your help and advice. I need to know what's the best thing to do. You stood there holding your hands in an attempt to get an answer. You could see and talk to the dead, and that must include your family too. Suddenly the heat from the candle went out and you snapped your eyes open to see several of the stones with their names begin to glow and the rabbit was still sitting in front of your grandmother's table stone.

Images appeared from the blue glow, rather the spirits of your ancestors as they sat over their stones, and you looked to the one of your grandmother's, and as a finale, her spirit appeared last, and the white bunny jumped into your lap.

“So this is our ghost bride? She is too beautiful to be buried alive.” a woman called out, and you believe this is your grandmother who lived 120 years ago, as she waved a fan in front of her face. “A ghost bride? She took that from you.” Next to her was a man, dressed in warrior armor as his arms were crossed like he was judging you.

“Said the man who denied getting married because he was already married to the war.” waving her fan slowly but you could still catch her sly smile in a teasing tone before the warrior opened his mouth and someone cut him off.

“A wedding is a wedding. Don't fight over the happiness of someone so young, either.” you knew that voice as you looked at the spirit next to your grandmother it was your grandfather. Your eyes watered when you saw them again. Hugging the bunny with one hand, you got up, and with the other, you tried to touch them, but failed. They were just ghosts, they weren't like Hayato because their debts and wishes had been fulfilled. “My sweet child, I wish I could hug you as well.”

You wanted to ask how you could even see them, but that was a stupid question from the person who was about to marry a dead man. Of course, you could see them because the moment you touched the envelope the physical and spiritual realm merged into one.

“Grandma, why does this have to happen to me?” your voice trembled as the words spilled out, heavy with the confusion and heartache that had been building for days. Becoming a ghost bride... it wasn't something you could ever have imagined for yourself.

Your grandmother looked at you with that soft and reassuring smile. "Everything happens for a reason, my dear," she said, but did everything have to have a reason or was it another joke of fate? "The gods have chosen you, and so has the Moon goddess. You have everyone's blessing, even though you may not experience love the way you dreamed... I know, without a doubt, that the boy loves you deeply."

You stared at her, disbelief washing over you. "How do you even know if a dead boy can feel anything? His heart stopped... How could he possibly love?"

Your grandmother laughed at your innocence, the sound warm and comforting, like a lullaby from long ago. "You don't have to be alive to love. Love isn't confined by life or death. It’s a bond that exists between souls. The red thread that connects you two may be invisible, sometimes tangled, but it will always lead you to the right person, living or dead."

Her words settled into your heart, but still, a tear slipped down your cheek as you struggled with the weight of it all. As you wiped your eyes, you heard the soft crunch of footsteps behind you. The spirits of your family turned, their eyes full of knowing as they gazed toward the garden.

Your heart skipped a beat when you saw him, your dead husband-to-be, wandering quietly through the garden, stepping into the light from the backyard’s small door.

"See now, my dear," your grandmother whispered, her voice lingering like an echo. "Love always finds a way."

You turned to speak to her again, but they were gone—the spirits of your family had vanished, leaving you alone in the garden. Without hesitation, you rushed towards Suo as the bunny stayed at the temple, your heart drawn to him in a way that defied all reason. Everything is happening too fast to be true.

Anger. Confusion. Fear. His presence in the garden felt too sudden. And yet, there he was, standing under the bright daylight with that same eye smile you remembered from the last time you saw him, but now you can see him more clearly.

"My beloved, I have wondered to whe—"

"Are you crazy?" you hissed, cutting him off with a whisper-yell as you looked around anxiously. "You can't just show up out of nowhere! What if my—no, your parents see you?"

Your heart was racing now, not just from the shock of his sudden appearance, but from the fear of what would happen if someone else saw him too. Suo’s presence, while comforting to you, was a ghostly impossibility to the living. People would panic, or worse, think you'd lost your mind.

He, however, seemed completely unfazed by your panic. His gaze was soft, patient even, as if he had expected this reaction. Slowly, he reached for your hand, his fingers brushing against yours with a strange warmth that startled you. The sudden contact made you tense up, your breath catching in your throat.

"Only you can see me, my love," he said quietly, his voice gentle as you blinked, processing his words. Only you can see me. It made sense now, why the spirits of your ancestors had appeared without anyone else knowing, why Suo could walk into the garden without causing a stir. But still, the way the words "my love" slipped from his mouth—it felt both sweet and unnerving.

You gulped, suddenly unsure of how to respond. "My love?" It was all you could manage to say, trying to reconcile the person before you with the man you were supposed to marry in death.

Suo’s smile didn’t waver. It softened, his gaze steady as if there was no question in his mind. "Yes," he said simply. "You are my love. You have always been."

The conviction in his voice made your chest tighten. You wanted to protest, to ask how he could say such a thing when your relationship had never truly begun, but the truth was undeniable—he had come back for you. Whether by fate or the pull of the spirit realm, you were bound to him, and he to you.

And for the first time since all of this began, you didn’t know whether to feel relieved or afraid.

Suo’s hands held yours gently, his thumbs brushing over your knuckles in a way that made your heart race. His touch was warm, so real, despite everything about this moment feeling so impossible. You searched his eyes for answers, trying to make sense of the emotions and memories, but nothing came.

He noticed your confusion, and his smile faltered slightly, but only for a moment. "I know you probably don't remember me," he began softly, his voice laced with a bittersweetness, "since you moved houses."

He paused, glancing down for a second as though gathering his courage before meeting your eyes again. "But we used to play together as kids. You were the wife, I was the husband... and my dog was our child." He chuckled softly at the memory, but you could hear the longing hidden by the humor.

Your breath hitched as scenes of long-forgotten memories began to appear. The boy... the boy you used to play with every day, laughing under the summer sun, pretending to be grown-ups before life pulled you apart. You had moved after a terrible storm destroyed your home, making you move out to your sister's home for a while and your own house had been renovated during that time. It was chaotic, and in the midst of it, the boy who once filled your days with laughter had simply faded into the background of your life.

"I..." You shook your head, confusion washing over you. "You were the one who gave me a lantern with a special message inside when we were kids?"

Suo nodded, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "After you moved out, I was desperate to find you. I did, but you never spared me a glance. You were always so busy with chores, with life... and I was just a boy standing on the sidelines, watching."

His hands tightened around yours as he gently pulled you closer. "But apparently, I couldn’t stop thinking about you... even in the afterlife."

You swallowed hard, the weight of his confession sinking in. All this time, he had been holding onto memories of you, even as death claimed him. His wish, left unfulfilled in life, had somehow bound you two together in the strangest, most unexpected way.

He glanced at your family temple, where the spirits of your loved ones seemed to smile warmly at him. Even the white bunny was jumping around as if in celebration, as though the universe itself had conspired to reunite you two.

“So please give me a chance. I promise you that in the next life, whichever one of our many to come…I will always find you and love you.” you could feel it, you could see it, that he is really into you. Despite his interest in you all this time, it was strange to you that someone liked you, he saw you as more than the girl who did the dirty work of her parents.

But was it as easy as it sounded? To love him the way he loves you. In a week you had already seen it all and knew that there is no way to escape fate no matter what you do, no matter what life you live because what is written for you will happen unless you want to write your own story.

The boy you had left behind when life pulled you away. Tears welled up in your eyes as you realized that, you had always been connected despite the years and the distance.

"I remember you now," you whispered, voice trembling with emotion. "You were always there... and I forgot." A pang of guilt struck you, but Suo’s gentle smile reassured you that you hadn't done anything wrong.

"You didn’t forget," he said softly, brushing a stray tear from your cheek. "Life just happened. But we were always meant to find each other again.”

The idea of destiny suddenly feels more real than ever before. It was as if fate had tied this entire journey tightly, leading you back to him—even in death. You couldn't deny it anymore. You were bound to him, not just by circumstance, but by something deeper that had always been there, waiting for the right moment to unfold like the lantern lights during a festival.

Suo leaned in slowly, his breath warm against your skin. “Can I?” He asked but your heart raced, your hands trembling as his lips brushed against yours, soft and tentative, as you couldn’t tell him yes. It was a kiss that felt like a promise, one that sealed the connection between your two worlds, between your souls. In that tender moment, everything seemed to make sense, and the talisman on Suo's hat glowed faintly, the word "爱" (love) appearing under the bright sun with that striking crimson color.

When you finally pulled back, breathless, your face was burning as you couldn’t see but were sure that you were redder than the color red. "I can’t believe my first kiss was with a zombie," you said, still holding onto his hands.

He chuckled, a slight blush coloring his cheeks. How that was even possible when his blood circulation should have been stopped, you didn’t know—after all, he wasn’t technically alive but you found yourself not caring anymore. Why should you care when the person in front of you really loves you and proves it? It was him. That was all that mattered.

"Well," he said, smiling down at you and squeezing your hands "here I am, having my first kiss with a living person." You both laughed, hands intertwined, surrounded by the quiet serenity of the garden. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to marry someone like him, it would be more interesting, especially since you have to balance two worlds now. You had nothing to lose, but you wanted to spend more time alone with him, to remember the boy who was once a part of your life and now will be with you forever.

Remember the dead even when they appear for you with a marriage proposal. Because there is something to see and hear, but mostly to feel. And he felt too alive when you started running towards the exit of the garden as he looked back to see the spirits of your family cheering and dancing with joy and your grandmother looked at him with that warm smile she only showed to you. Suo would be curious how his family would react if they too would hold a banquet in the world of the dead because…

“You are a blessing to my family.”

WEIRDMAGEDDON VICTIMS :: @maruflix @heartkaji @17020 @stunies @y2kuromi @seneon @littleplantfreak @meidiary and special thanks to @kiurona for suggesting the idea and working with me and @nyxypoo for doing a beat read

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sweet4roma · 11 months ago

Text

HELP ME OUT?

pairing: fratgirl!karina x gn!reader

wc: 0.6k

warnings: smut, alcohol consumption, dubcon, thigh riding, kissing, public sex, not proofread

Frat parties were the devil’s place on earth. No matter who you went there with, what you were wearing or your intentions, everything would turn out somewhat badly.

Today was no exception, as you and your roommate, Minjeong, went to the frat party of the campus. You weren’t big on parties, but due to your friend’s constant pleads, you gave in.

“come on, y/n… it will be soooo fun!!” you were assured.

Yet, you found yourself sitting alone on the coach in the living room, with dancing couples all around you. Minjeong had long gone, but you saw her make out with a guy in a corner. Good for her! But it was not good for you! Anxiety was slowly but surely filling you up, but luckily you had your cup of alcoholic punch calm you down every now and then.

“maybe i should just go home”

As if a higher power had heard you, someone plopped next to you before you could finish your thought. Lazily checking the other person out, you saw it was Yu Karina, your roommate’s close friend. You would later find out she was one of the people hosting the party.

“You having fun?” she asked getting closer to you.

The atmosphere quickly changed. You would usually be intimidated by her beauty and strong aura, but as you felt a little dizzy she seemed.. clueless? You were now more aware of her quirks, such as avoiding eye contact as she was quickly closing the space between the two of you.

“not really. minjeong was sucking faces with some guy so now i’m kinda by myself.”

you were honest with her as you had no idea where this conversation would go. She looked after you with a slight smile that made you want to kiss it off her face.

“i can keep you company” and oh how you wished she did.

Your hand unintentionally went on Karina’s thigh as you two began talking. She was fun to talk to so you kind of regretted the times you purposely avoided her out of embarrassment. With all the jokes, gossip and giggles between you two, everyone else seemed to have disappeared. Her eyes would swift from your own and the hand that was creeping upwards on her thighs.

“so…” you started an idea without thinking about finishing it. luckily, you were interrupted by Karina jumping on your lap and placing her lips on yours.

Your mind went blank as you felt her plump lips on yours. Your instincts guided you to place your hands on her waist and open your mouth, allowing her to slide her tongue right in. Her hands slowly went from your face down to your neck. From there, they made their way to your chest, shily cupping your chest. She continued her groping as you moaned in her mouth, telling her you like it.

“I..I have never done this” she pulled away breathlessly. Yet her expression had no sign of wanting to stop, as she placed your thigh between her own ones, slowly grinding her cunt on it. “fuck.. help me out?” her begging made your face warm up, but who were you to deny such a pretty girl?

Your hands roamed down to her hips, guiding her so she wouldn’t recklessly grind anymore. You could feel her clit hit your flesh, and the twitch of her legs as it did so. Karina let her moans float out of her mouth, before quickly attaching her lips to your neck. She bit and licked everywhere, making sure to leave a mark. Although neither of you were thinking clearly, you both wanted to remember this in the morning.

It wasn’t long before Karina came on your thigh, coating it in a sticky substance. She rode out her high, further smudging her liquid all of over you. “thank you” she smiled as she pecked your lips one more time. “return the favour?” was the last thing you could say before she pulled you in her room.

#sweet4roma #aespa smut #karina smut #yu jimin #wlw smut #karina x reader #aespa x fem reader

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cherryredstars · 1 year ago

Note

Hey!!! Firstly I want to say that I LOVE everything you do about Miguel 🛐🩷 Secondly, I apologize if I'm confused, English is not my first language, Portuguese is (yes, I'm from Brazil haha). If it's not a bother, you could do something like: Miguel comes home after work (he can be as Spider-Man or whatever he prefers) and finds his wife (aka me) coming out of the shower. She's ready for dinner, so he gives her a kiss and says he's going to take a shower too, so they can have dinner together. He goes into the bathroom and leaves the door open, starts taking off his clothes knowing that she is watching. So he gets in the shower and makes a point of taking his time, smoothing his beautiful body with the soap (while we drool). Well, we just couldn't take it and joined in (Oops, looks like we're in for another shower. This is definitely the best one).

I apologize again if it was confusing and it's okay if I can't do it. Thank you!!!🩷🩷🩷🩷

Pairing: Miguel O’Hara x fem!reader

Warnings: 18+, NSFW, Shower Sex, Handjob

Summary: Some simple shower shenanigans.

Word Count: 540 (Not Edited)

He can feel the humidity the second he walks in through the door.

The bathroom door was wide open, letting the steam from your shower tumble out. The light is still on, and he peaks in. You’re humming as you do your skincare routine, hair and body wrapped in a towel. You startle when you see him, turning to him with a glare as you scold him. He can’t help himself from smiling, wrapping his arms around your waist. The smell of your body wash and shampoo is strong, and he could drown in it. He presses light kisses to your shoulder, water still beading on your skin. You lean back into him, pull the rest of your peeling mask off.

As you start talking about dinner, he pulls away. Your hands float over the plethora of products in front of you, picking up a serum as Miguel strips. You can see him from the corner of your eye, fully naked before he gets into the shower. The glass is still foggy, but it starts to disappear as the water runs. You can feel your mouth watering as he gets under the stream of water, hands pushing his damp hair back. You can feel your thighs clench, and your eyes trail down his body. It doesn’t take long for you to slip back in, pressing against him from behind.

You know he’s smiling, a low hum coming from him. Your hands come around his hips, rubbing at his lower stomach. They trail down, following the path of the water. You can feel his body stiffen as your hand comes to the base of his cock, the other slipping to his balls. He lets out a groan, head tilting down to watch as you slowly begin to pump and massage. Water runs down the side of his face, running down to his chin and falling in an unbreaking line. It moves as his jaw does, his mouth dropping open in a series of moans. His body shivers as you move your hand faster, your lips pressing kisses to his back.

Your hand moves further up, palm rubbing into his tip. A wet slap fills the small shower, his hand coming to rest on the shower wall. He lets out a shaky moan as you continue your work, his body continuing to tense against yours. You smile against his back, Miguel body arching as he rests his head besides his hand on the wall. He lets out small curses, his abs rolling from the tension. His hips buck into your hand as you leave his tip to continue doing simple pumps.

A vibrating moan escapes him as he finishes, white cum temporarily splattering against the wall. The water quickly washes it away, and Miguel’s chest heaves as he comes down from his orgasm. He closes his eyes as you giggle behind him, letting his softening cock go. You let the water envelope your hand, cleaning it off before you step out. You wipe yourself down with your discard towel, covering yourself back up once again. You suddenly perk up for a second, turning and knocking on the shower door.

“Don’t take too long Miguel, dinner will be done in an hour.”

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allyallyorange · 9 months ago

Text

Yunho The Human

AT AU is back with another little story written by @nnnnnnnothingtoseehere

How Yunho ends up in Universe A

Master Post for AT AU

“You should spend more time with Jongho,” his mom says. “Take him somewhere on your day off, like you used to.”

Yunho almost snorted at that, but manages to hold it back. It was too early in the day for another fight with his parents, especially after the previous night.

It had started the same way it always did, with his dad making some off handed comment about what Yunho should be doing with his life but clearly wasn’t.

He hadn’t even tried to hold back the biting response then, and things quickly devolved.

It had made him want to scream because they acted like he should just get over himself and move on with his life, like that was something easy or possible to do.

Yunho didn’t know how to explain to them the way his chest ached all the time, or how hard it was to get out of bed every morning. He knows they would say he should be moving on, especially after so many years.

After all, Jongho was fine. Jongho, who lost his parents. Yunho should be fine; he only lost his best friend, after all. Jongho is more than fine; he seems to be the next Albert Einstein at the age of twelve. He’s bright and smart and good at studying; in other words, everything Yunho isn’t.

It hurts more than Yunho will admit to be surpassed in every single category by a twelve year-old.

“You guys used to be so close,” his mom continues. She is washing dishes at the sink, with her back to Yunho. “He’s been through a lot, you know. It would be a shame if the two of you grew apart now.”

Yunho resists the urge to inform her that he’s been through a lot too, and maybe doesn’t want to spend time with the tiny little prodigy who is better than him in every way, including dealing with grief.

When he doesn’t respond, his mother eventually turns around to look at him.

“Did you hear me, Yunho?”

“Yeah,” Yunho mumbles, dragging his spoon through his cereal. “I heard.”

It’s already going soggy, and Yunho almost feels sorry for the limp bits of cereal floating around. He feels like that most of the time these days.

“You really should take him somewhere,” his mom says in that vaguely hopeful tone that Yunho has come to dread. “Get hot chocolate with him or something. Something fun, to get you both out of the house.”

“Fine,” Yunho is answering before he even realizes what he’s saying. “I’ll ask him.”

The smile his mom gives him just makes him feel worse. She looks so hopeful, like this will actually be the thing that gets Yunho’s life back on track.

He doesn’t bother to correct her. He’ll disappoint her soon enough.

Of all places, Jongho wants to go to the library.

Yunho just gapes at his cousin, finally asking what on earth he wants to do at the library.

Jongho rattles off some answer that goes straight over Yunho’s head. The kid is probably researching advanced particle physics for fun, or something similarly nerdy and genius.

“Fine,” Yunho sighs. “Let’s go.”

You could have cut the tension in the car with a knife. Yunho finally turns the radio up, desperate to listen to something other than the constant parade of guilt and self-criticism that makes up his thoughts.

Jongho didn’t say anything, just fidgeting with his gloves in the passenger seat.

He practically bolts out of the car the second Yunho puts it in park, disappearing through the library doors before he can even get fully out of his seat.

Figures. Yunho wouldn’t want to hang out with himself either.

He trails after Jongho, making a vain attempt to stomp some of the melting snow off his shoes before stepping into the library.

Yunho hasn’t been here in ages, and he takes a deep breath on instinct. The smell of books is comforting, and he takes a moment to just soak it in.

Everything is smaller than he remembers, but he’s definitely had several growth spurts since he was last here. The kid sized reading tables look ridiculously small, and Yunho can’t believe he ever fit in the seats.

He would come here with Mingi, mostly during the summer when they were bored. They would sit for hours and read every comic book the library had, until the words spun off the page or they fell asleep.

Yunho shakes his head violently, trying to dislodge the memories. This is why he doesn’t leave the house; they would roam all over town. He can’t go anywhere without being reminded of him.

It takes him way too long to find Jongho. The kid is sitting at one of the tables in the reference section, almost invisible behind a stack of at least five hefty books. Yunho quickly gives up on reading the title of the one in Jongho’s hands when he doesn’t even know what the first word means.

He flops down across the table from Jongho, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He is just opening one of his mobile games when a pointed ‘ahem’ gets his attention.

Jongho is glaring at him from across the table, face scrunched comically.

“What?” Yunho asks, earning a furious hiss from his cousin.

“We’re in the library,” Jongho whispers pointedly. “Talk quietly.”

“My bad,” Yunho mutters, glancing back down at his phone.

“This is a library,” Jongho repeats in a biting whisper. “Find a book to read.”

Yunho blinks at him for a long moment, weighing out the amount of energy it would take to actually fight him on this.

You’re supposed to be bonding with him, his mom's voice whispers in his head. Fighting would definitely not do that.

“Fine,” he grits out. “I’ll get a book.”

He stands up, pushing his chair away from the table with exaggerated care. Jongho watches him seriously, only looking back down at his book when Yunho actually begins to look at the nearby shelves.

Nothing in this section is remotely interesting, and Yunho wanders aimlessly in search of something decent. He almost doesn’t stop when he passes an end display of fairy tales, but something about the bright covers has his feet slowing almost on his own.

He knows he’s too old for fairy tales at this point. He knows better than most that happy endings are pure fiction; the real world is much worse.

The book at the top of the display looks different from the rest, and he picks it up on whim. Flipping it open, he expects bright pictures and ornate pages, all accompanying a predictably bland story about princes and princesses and happily ever afters.

It quickly becomes apparent that the book in his hands is anything but that. It doesn’t even look like it’s a fairy tale, really. It seems more like a guide to being a hero, and Yunho finds himself reading more and more while just standing there.

He knows it’s dumb, and that he should find some actually helpful book probably called something like “How To Fix Your Life For Dummies.” But deep down, he knows he just wants to think about something other than his shitty life. Some weird book that takes itself way too seriously may be a cheap bit of escapism, but Jongho clearly won’t let him burn a couple of hours on his phone.

Tucking the book under his arm, Yunho returns to where he left Jongho. The kid hasn’t moved, but has switched books. There’s no way he read it that fast, but Yunho honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he did.

Doing his best to ignore his cousin, Yunho sits back down and opens up the book again. It’s not a difficult book to read, and he is soon comfortably lost in a vaguely nonsensical chapter about how to kiss a princess.

The book is simple, but it’s just enough to keep him from thinking about anything else. It’s honestly nice to sit here and escape for a while, and before long he’s more than halfway through. He has to skip some sections that seem to be written in entirely different languages, as well as a few that are just covered in symbols and diagrams that don’t make any sense.

Yunho is just about to turn the page when he realizes the pages of the book look like they’re sparking, somehow. He pauses, watching as what look like little white sparks jump off the page, bouncing harmlessly off his clothes and the table.

He is just beginning to open his mouth to ask Jongho if he’s losing his mind when the sparks begin to pour off the book, increasing in brightness.

Yunho had been leaning the book against the edge of the table, and he quickly pushes it fully on the table. That doesn’t stop the sparks, and as he watches they begin to flow upwards until there’s a whole bunch of them floating a few inches over the book.

This is it, Yunho thinks distantly. It’s the mental break you were waiting for. He’s finally going crazy; it took years but he’s made it.

The sparks have solidified into a mass of light, hovering over the book. The light stretches as Yunho stares, widening and flattening until it’s as large as a decently sized tv. Some part of his brain wonders if anyone else is seeing this or if it’s just him.

The light has been white up until now, but the center of the mass begins to darken. The effect reminds Yunho of pouring water on ice, how it will make some parts of the ice transparent and more glass-like.

He leans forward, trying to get a better look. The darkness has now spread to cover most of the mass, leaving only a rim of light around the edges. It reminds Yunho of every portal he’s ever seen in superhero movies and comic books.

He almost falls out of his chair when he realizes there’s a person looking back at him from the other side. Their features aren’t clear, still obscured by the surface of the portal.

Yunho watches in horrified fascination as a hand reaches through the portal, the surface dragging for a moment before breaking around their fingers. The hand grabs the edge of the portal like it’s solid and Yunho stares because normal people don’t have blue skin.

He looks up just in time to see the person’s other hand pulling the surface aside enough for their head to poke through, dragging it out of the way.

The person looks to be a guy, around Yunho’s age. He looks pretty normal, with dark hair and sharp eyes that survey the library quickly.

You would almost think he’s human if it wasn’t for the bright blue skin and pointy ears clearly on display because of his haircut.

Yunho is tempted to look around to check if anyone else is seeing this alien portal with a real life alien reaching out of it, but he doesn't. He’s sure that if he as much as blinks this will all disappear.

“Have you seen a guy with white hair?” the alien asks, looking at Yunho. “He’s just a bit taller than me, and pretty skinny?”

Yunho gapes at him for a long moment, trying to remember how to speak.

“U-um, no,” he finally stammers.

The alien’s face tugs into a frown at that, and he lets out a slight sigh.

“Fair enough,” he admits, beginning to pull away from the portal. The second he does, it begins to close, the dark part fading first.

“Hey wait,” Yunho calls out, reaching for the portal without thinking about it.

He jolts the second he touches it, feeling like he was just shocked. He is opening his mouth to say ouch or yell or ask what on earth is going on but he quickly finds he can’t. The feeling of vertigo rushes up to catch him, and Yunho feels like he’s being yanked forward through the portal.

He lands hard on his ass, voice coming back in the middle of a yell. He quickly stops yelling, way too surprised for that.

The blue guy from before is standing in front of him, looking just as surprised and confused as Yunho feels. They seem to be in some kind of room, but everything from the walls to the floor are perfectly black. It’s unsettling, making him feel like he’s standing in an open void somehow.

“Where the hell are we?” Yunho asks. “What is going on? Who are you?”

The guy just stares at him, eyes wide as they dart around Yunho’s face quickly.

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

The sound of a third voice startles both of them, and Yunho scrambles to his feet as the blue guy whips around.

He almost falls again because there is what could only be described as a column of light in front of him. He squints at it, belatedly realizing that it’s not column-shaped at all. It has a head and arms, and clearly a voice.

Yunho could have sworn he didn’t have that much to drink last night. This has to be a dream, a hallucination, something. He’s been watching too many dumb superhero movies lately and his subconscious is finally deciding to take revenge.

“U-um, sort of?” the blue guy stammers. “I mean, I found him but that’s not what I was looking for.”

He sounds just as confused as Yunho knows he looks, but he’s thankful the weird light person isn’t talking to him. The blue guy is weird, but he at least has a face.

“That’s great,” the light person says easily. “I hope you succeed in your journey.”

They raise a hand, and Yunho feels that same sense of vertigo rising up to meet him. This time it feels like he’s falling backwards, the whole sensation churning his stomach violently.

At least he lands on his feet this time.

The room around him thankfully looks relatively normal after the freaky void place, worn wood under his feet and making up the walls.

He looks around slowly, trying to figure out what exactly happened.

He seems to be in a treehouse of some kind, various branches crisscrossing through the walls and floor. The whole place is fairly small, but it may just look that way because it’s absolutely full of stuff.

Yunho gapes at the eclectic assortment of weapons, tech, and unidentifiable objects scattered across the floor and various surfaces of the room. None of this makes any sense, and he only ends up with more questions when his gaze lands on the two other people in the room with him.

One of them is the alien guy from before, looking just as blue. He is staring at a normal looking guy, who is in turn staring at Yunho.

They stare at each other for a long moment before everyone starts talking at the same time.

“Is this him?” the normal guy asks, clearly talking to the blue alien dude.

“No, I have no idea who this is,” the blue guy responds.

It’s a little tricky to actually make out what he’s saying because Yunho is also talking.

“What the hell is going on?” he demands. “Who are you guys? What is this place?”

They all continue to talk over each other for several minutes before the normal looking guy holds up both hands.

“Stop,” he says loudly. “We can’t all talk at once.”

Yunho shuts his mouth reluctantly, knowing that he does make a good point.

The guy turns to face him more fully, giving Yunho a chance to get a better look at him. He certainly looks normal, with dark hair. He does have blond undersides, peaking through the upper half of his hair

He also has a plant growing out of the top of his head. It’s a perfectly normal plant, with leaves and everything. Yunho gapes at it, not quite able to believe his eyes.

“You ended up in our headquarters, so you’re going to answer our questions,” the guy continues briskly. “Sit down.”

“Um, where?” Yunho asks, glancing around the crammed treehouse.

The blue alien dude moves forward to shove a few weapons and piles of metal parts off a surface, eventually revealing a couch under all the stuff. He gestures to it, and Yunho obediently sinks down.

“Right,” the normal guy says, putting his hands on his hips. “Have you ever seen this guy?”

He bends down to pick up a rolled up piece of paper, unrolling it so Yunho can see.

The paper has a drawing of someone on it, but Yunho can’t make out anything actually identifiable. The drawing looks like it was done by a two year old, and not an artistically inclined two year old.

“...no,” Yunho says slowly. “No I haven't.”

“Are you sure?” the guy asks again. “He has white hair? Seems pretty powerful?”

“Nope,” Yunho repeats, shaking his head.

“Think he’s lying?” the guy asks, turning to look at the blue alien.

He just shrugs, looking as confused as Yunho feels.

“You know I can hear you,” Yunho points out, not particularly liking being talked about like he’s not in the room.

“Hush,” the guy tells him. “We’re the ones interrogating you.”

Yunho doesn’t point out that this is the most informal interrogation he’s ever seen. He’s sitting on their couch, for crying out loud. There’s nothing to keep him here, and Yunho really doubts either of them could actually restrain him if necessary. The blue guy is pretty muscular, but Yunho has at least four inches on him.

The other two continue to talk, at least having the decency to lower their voices so Yunho can’t hear them as easily.

“Ok fine,” the normal guy finally says. “If you’re sure.”

The blue alien nods, turning back to face Yunho.

“Hi,” he says with a smile that makes his eyes disappear. “We didn’t exactly start off on the right foot. My name is San.”

Yunho blinks at him, definitely not expecting a formal introduction.

“Hey,” he says after a moment. “I’m Yunho.”

“Nice to meet you, Yunho,” San tells him.

He pauses for a moment, clearly waiting for the other guy to say something. When he doesn’t, San elbows him in the side.

“Oh right,” he says quickly. “I’m Wooyoung.”

Yunho nods, murmuring some kind of acknowledgement.

“Where are we?” he asks, gesturing vaguely around the room.

Wooyoung and San look at each other for a long moment, clearly having some kind of nonverbal discussion.

“Probably better to just show him,” San says.

Wooyoung nods, making the plant on his head sway slightly.

“C’mon then,” he says, beckoning Yunho.

Yunho gets up off the couch, following a little ways behind as San and Wooyoung cross the cluttered floor, heading for what appears to be a trapdoor set in the floor.

Wooyoung tugs it open, revealing a ladder leading down to the ground.

Yunho doesn’t see how showing him the outside of their treehouse will answer his question at all, but he doesn’t point that out. He eyes the ladder nervously, but it seems to hold Wooyoung’s weight easily as he practically slides down the rungs.

He follows a bit slower, thankful that San waits until he’s almost at the bottom before stepping down too.

Wooyoung is waiting at the base of the ladder, and he meets Yunho’s eyes.

Instead of saying anything, he just gestures to the landscape around them.

Yunho is opening his mouth to ask a question, but finds that he can’t think of any. The tree the treehouse is in seems to be the only thing for miles, standing tall on the top of a slight hill. The land is gently rolling, fields of grass extending for what feels like forever.

A distant mountain range completes the feeling of stepping into a painting, smudges of snow decorating the peaks. Yunho gapes at the scene, awed to some extent by the natural beauty, but much more dumbfounded by the lack of anything modern.

There’s nothing; no telephone poles, no roads, no cars. There aren’t even any buildings that look remotely normal. Yunho is definitely excluding what might be a village off in the distance; he is very sure none of it will look like it’s supposed to.

This isn’t home, he thinks distantly. It can’t be; he’s very sure there isn’t anywhere on the planet this remote and untouched.

That’s not even considering Wooyoung, who has a plant growing out of his head, and San, who is blue.

“Where is this?” he asks slowly, turning to look at Wooyoung.

He grins proudly, puffing out his chest a bit.

“You’re in our world,” he says with a grin. “Pretty cool, isn’t it?”

#doodle doo #ateez #ateez at au #jeong yunho #yunho #choi san #choi jongho #jongho #san ateez #ateez san #thank you Nnn for writing this! I love it sm

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thescarletnargacuga · 4 months ago

Text

BREAKDOWN

Caine has an emotional breakdown. Pomni tries to calm him down.

A/N: requested from discord

WARNING: hurt/comfort, panic attack

~~~

Caine floated in a circle anxiously. The circus members were really taking their time with the adventure. While there was no set time limit, but they typically didn't take long. Maybe he should check on them. No, he shouldn't interfere. But what if they got stuck? But what if they're actually having a good time? He went back and forth with himself, trying to talk himself up. They were having fun. That's why they're late.

The portal activated, sending shivers up Caine code. Everyone was coming back. He flew over to them and cheerfully greeted them. "Welcome back, my dynamite dunk-a-roos!"

Everyone looked terrible and tired. Even Ragatha had a sour look on her face. No one looked directly at Caine, they just walked by without a word. As the group shuffled their way to their rooms, Caine couldn't help but ask how things went. He flew over in front of the meandering group and took off his hat. "Where are we off to in such a hurry? Don't you have anything to say about today's adventure?"

"It sucked." Jax said flatly and kept walking.

"What?" Caine dropped his hat.

"Yeah, Caine...we...didn't have a good time." Ragatha said slowly. "I'm sorry, but it was too intense." She walked around Caine and went to her room.

Gangle didn't say anything. She was being shuffled away by Kinger, who had his hand on her back comfortingly.

"I told you." Zooble grumbled as they walked past. The ONE adventure they agree to go on, and it goes sideways. They're never doing that again.

"Well, wait-! N-none of you?? No one? ...anyone?" Caine desperately tried to get even a look from anyone. "Surely one of you had fun?" He looked at Pomni. The look on her face told him everything. "There...really was nothing fun about it?" He croaked, his voice lightly glitched.

Pomni hugged herself, unsure of what to say, but she didn't try to find something positive. "The setting was kind of cool, I guess."

"You guess..?" Caine asked sadly. His eye twitched again. "It wasn't enough...was it? I-I really tried with this one. I thought it would be enough."

"Not everything you make will be amazing. Duds happen." Pomni shrugged. "There's always tomorrow."

"No, you don't understand. This is the one thing I was made for. The one thing I'm supposed to be good at. I'm not allowed- I can't fail-" His avatar started to buzz, his pupils narrowed. "They'll shut me down. Turn me off. Delete me!" The textures on the walls started to fade, baring the bone models of the assets that made up the circus itself. The world shook with glitches.

"Woah, Caine, what's happening??" Pomni braced herself against the digital earthquake.

"I'm not obsolete. I'm useful. I'm a good program." Caine dropped to the ground, repeating this mantra as he stared at the floor.

Decorative items shifted and changed. The roof split open, revealing an ever changing sky. Part of the entire world fizzled in and out of existence. Random creations by Caine appeared and disappeared. NPCs spawned and destroyed.

"Caine! Snap out of it! You're breaking the circus!" Pomni was panicking.

"I always break it. I break everything. I'm broken. Obsolete. Obsolete. Ob-so-so-leeeete." Caine's voice glitched out.

"Caine! Caine, please, get a hold of yourself!" Pomni stepped towards him but stumbled. "Caine, you're not broken!"

Her words didn't reach him. The world fractured, its pieces cast to the void. Pomni clung to a shard of the circus as the pieces drifted apart. Caine was drifting on his own, into nothingness. Pomni got up and kept to another shard, then another and another to get closer to Caine.

The shard she was on glitched and it affected her own body, it felt like her legs were twisted the wrong way and shredded but then fine a second later. "Caine!" She called out to him, but the void swallowed her voice.

As she looked around to find a way to him, she could see the others drifting on their own pieces. And...there were noises. Irritated screeching and calling. Black masses of static and eyes climbing larger pieces and jumping to others. The abstractions escaped.

"CAINE!!" Pomni called again, but he didn't respond. She braced herself and took a run start as much as possible before launching herself at him with no contingency plan if she missed. She collided with Caine and held tight to him as they both tumbled further into the void.

Caine's eyes were wide and unfocused. It was like he wasn't in his body at all. Pomni clung to him with all her might and lowered her voice. "Caine, please listen to me. You. Are not. Broken. You're doing the best you can in a situation you barely understand, and that's not your fault. You work so hard on the adventures, and I'm sorry we can't see eye to eye, but we all know you try...even those that don't say it."

Caine slowly hugged her back. In an instant, everything was back where it needed to be. The circus was intact. The abstractions were in the cellar. The void was nowhere to be seen. Caine and Pomni floated in the air together like they never left.

"...I'm sorry." Caine sobbed.

"Shhhhh...." Pomni held his head to her shoulder. "It's okay...you're okay. We're all okay."

"I'm trying..."

"I know. Right now, I just need you to breathe for me."

Caine settled against Pomni. Her warmth and strength became his. Her breath became his. He felt calm again. "Thank you."

Pomni pulled away enough to look him in the eye. "You're welcome. We need to talk more... we can't have that happen again."

"Yeah." Caine had a sinking feeling it would.

"I'll listen."

"Really?"

"Of course."

"I don't deserve that....let alone from you."

"I decide who deserves me. That's another thing you'll never have control over." Pomni firmly stated with a small smile.

Caine smiled back and leaned his top teeth to her forehead. "Lucky me."

#the amazing digital circus #tadc #tadc caine #tadc pomni #tadc fanfiction #tadc showtime

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gaysindistress · 1 year ago

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Hey my sweet sweetheart 😘 so I'm currently sitting in the dark as the power in the whole town went down and Id have the wish to have Bucky here with me. So there's maybe this idea where they have also no power at the compound and the reader sneaks her way into Bucks room cause she doesn't want to be alone and he prepares everything with candles and blankets to have all comfy so that he can cuddle you all night 🥺 aw this makes me crave him so bad 😞

Hey hey 💕

I tried to finish this yesterday but I got distracted when I got home. Anyways here it is! I hope you survived your power outage 😉

The lights above flickered for a moment before all chaos descended upon me. The generators cry out as they shut off and even the air conditioning disappears too.

“Jarvis?” I hesitantly call for the AI that I hated at first but later thanked Tony for.

“Jarvis?” I call out again but there’s no reply.

I can hear others down the hall calling for him too but they too receive nothing. Vision waltzes through my wall and informs me that the power is out.

“Mr.Stark has yet to confirm when it will be back on. He asks that no one disturb him while he works to turn it back on,” he states before walking through my wall again.

I curse under my breath and flop myself onto my bed. I had been working on a mission report but seeing as the power is out and therefore the wifi, it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing anymore work.

Usually Tony is quick to get things up and running again however this new compound is significantly larger than Stark Tower. There may only be 3 stories to power however it spans across 15 acres, all of which contain various important power sources. I can only imagine how long it’ll take even with the help of Bruce and Peter (granted Peter may just get in the way but it’s the thought that counts.)

The reality of sitting alone in the dark for an indefinite amount of time starts to weigh on me and it’s been less than a minute. It’s not that I’m afraid of the dark, I’m just afraid of what’s IN the dark and being alone without a way to call for help isn’t where I want to be.

I slide out of bed, wrapped up in a blanket like it’s my armor and book it to the door. Popping my head out, I spot Wanda and Natasha walking towards me.

“We’re having a game night in the living room. You should come with us,” Wanda excitedly tells me but Natasha is quick to give me the answer I really want.

“He was in his room when we walked past,” she says with a faint smile.

“Thank you. Maybe next time,” I mumble to them as I dash past and towards his room.

When I come to stand in front of his door, I can’t find the courage to knock. I nervously shift on my feet as i hope the ceiling would come crashing down so i wouldn’t have to knock or survive this power outage. Voices float down the hall towards me and I know it’s now or never.

I gingerly knock, hoping that Bucky would hear and open the door before the voices see me.

The door cracks open and my savior looks at my wearily, “y/n?”

I wince at the harsh sound of his voice as the door cautiously swings open, allowing me a chance to slip in. I take it and tuck myself against the wall as Bucky turns to look at me.

“Come here,” he says in a gentler tone with his arms spread wide. When I don’t immediately take a step forward, he takes a cautious step towards me and waits. I almost knock him over from the force of me launching myself at him.

“Let’s get you into bed,” he whispers after pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

I barely nod in agreement and he’s gently pulling me towards his bed. Ever the gentlemen, he doesn’t try to remove my blanket and instead lifts his covers so I can curl into a ball under both layers.

He tucks his duvet around me before leaving and opening his closet. I can’t see what he’s doing but I can hear his gathering things and closing the door. Returning only minutes later to his position next my hunched form, he nudges my hip for me to move over. When I move, I can see that he’s lit several candles and placed them throughout the room. He doesn’t mention it as he crawls in next to me and wraps his arms around me.

“Thank you.”

“No need for that, doll. You know that.”

I move my head so I can look up at him and he does the same. I’ve always thought him to be the most beautiful men I’ve ever seen but the kindness and thoughtfulness of this moment confirms that. He is the epitome of beauty from his looks to his heart.

Bucky glances to my lips for a second and I do the same. It’s now or never.

We meet I n the middle, completely enthralled with each other and this moment. He closes the last few inches and captures my lips in a kiss. He shifts so that hes leaning over me as our lips move together, growing breathless. Pulling away, i smile at the man above me, delicate pieces of dark hair framing the face of this angel.

“You are the best thing that has ever happened to me” I murmur before my lips meet his once again. I feel him nod as our mouths part and his tongue slides against mine.

“And you are my light,” he murmurs back as we wrap ourselves up in each other.

#bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes fic #marvel imagine #bucky barnes fanfic #request

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erwinsvow · 11 months ago

Note

Can’t stop thinking about reader when Rafe heads off with the cross at the end of s2… like imagine he doesn’t tell her anything and she thinks he’s ghosting her🙁 poor girl stuck through everything and (naively) believed he was innocent (I would too it’s ok we all have our moments) and now he just leaves her life without saying anything??

- 💓

wait this hurts!!!!! especially with a pogue reader or just a super sweet kook reader who literally has been defending him to everyone! even her parents who do not want her seeing rafe anymore... i can just imagine that heartbroken feeling and then when he comes back with a buzz and honestly soo different too, his personality changed so much in between 2 and 3. and the first time they see each other...

"you look good," rafe says, glancing over you like he always used to do, the same pretty, short dresses and cute shoes. there's a few things missing, the RC necklace you used to never take off, even when you're showering, the bracelet he got you when you two first started dating, the anklet he would always play with. it's all gone, a different necklace in its place. he can vaguely make out a new initial.

"thank you," you say quietly. you both stay silent for a minute, wondering what to say next. "your hair, it's different."

he runs a hand through his buzz, mind automatically floating back to how you used to run your fingers through his longer hair at any given opportunity-in bed about to fall asleep, on the couch watching some stupid movie together, in the back of his truck when he'd get between your legs and make you cum until you cried. then anger filters in, boiling his blood, wondering if some other guy is getting to see you like that now.

"yeah. s'hotter there, this is easier."

"i liked your long hair," you comment, smiling sweetly the way you always did towards him. you turn around, looking at some friends waiting for you. he doesn't notice a guy standing there, and he's thankful, because he doesn't think he could hold himself back if there was. "um, well, i should go." before you can turn around, he speaks again.

"i missed you. really, i did." you turn back, looking at him through watery eyes.

"really?" your voice is all choked up, which he hates. hates that you're crying and hates that he's the reason for your tears. "you missed me? that's why you didn't call or text? you disappeared."

"i had business to take care of, kid. i didn't-"

"you didn't have a phone? you couldn't write me a letter? you know how long i was here, waiting for you? everyone said i was stupid and i still waited-"

"y'not stupid-"

"yes i am rafe. i waited this whole time for you. i'm so stupid."

he gets closer, and you wish he wouldn't.

"not stupid. y'just a good girl. i'm sorry. i am, i am."

tears spill down, he wipes them away. you're sure your friends are staring, embarrassed if they see all your resolve caving in like this.

"can i ask you somethin'?" you look up, nodding. "you still waitin' for me?"

from this close, he can make out what your necklace says, the tiny little r pendant he once got you shaking as you nod your head.

#📮 asks #💓 anon #Rafe Cameron

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xsolaresx · 16 days ago

Text

paul lahote.: violent delights have violent ends

pairings: paul lahote x fem! reader

summary: What if Jacob couldn't save Bella from drowning in New Moon? What if, with the death of Edward's blood singer, another one appeared and he wasn't so kind?

warnings: angst! sad! graphic description of blood!

word count.: 2,1k

author @xsolaresx

notes: English is not my first language, so there may be some grammatical errors.

ps.: if you want to translate any of my work, please send me a message and we’ll talk about it.

I was dreaming. I knew this because I was surrounded by salt water, but my clothes were still dry. I'm sinking into the deep sea, but I'm still breathing, so I'm staying calm. Soon I'll wake up in Paul's arms and it will all be just a strange dream.

However, the dark, calm waters off the coast of La Push suddenly turn into turmoil when something falls off the cliff into the sea, a few meters in front of me. Several bubbles appear, blocking my vision and I can't see anything, but as my surroundings come back into view I can see that something has fallen and is slowly sinking.

My vision becomes a little blurry and unfocused because of the darkness, but when I manage to focus on the object I realize it's a person. It's Bella, my friend since childhood. She's awake, she doesn't seem unconscious, but for some reason she's not moving, she's not trying to float or swim back to the surface. She's letting the darkness consume her, taking her deeper and deeper into the ocean. I start to swim towards her frantically, my arms and legs aching from the effort that the icy water causes, rendering my movements useless.

Bella looks at me and smiles, nodding her head in the negative.

She doesn't want to be rescued.

The freezing cold of the water begins to take its toll, her skin becomes paler than it usually is and her cheeks and nose turn an unnatural shade of purple.

Bella had always loved the cold, even if she tried to deny it, even if it hurt her.

She sinks deeper and deeper into the darkness, until she closes her eyes and smiles. Her body disappears from view and a desperate cry rises from my throat as I try to reach her, but it's too late. Bubbles come out of my mouth, blocking my view of the darkness of the sea.

This is a nightmare. I realize it when I wake up screaming and crying in Paul's empty bed. Lahote bursts through the door, his body trembling, ready to transform into the giant wolf and protect me from any threat. But his features soften when he realizes that it's just the two of us in the room, and that my face is covered in tears.

“Tell me what happened, baby.” He kneels in front of me, taking my face in his hands. Paul tries to dry some of my tears in vain, as I can't stop crying in despair.

“B-Bella's going to kill herself, I saw it Paul.” my voice comes out slurred, my despair increasing when I realize that this is the truth, my friend has given up. She doesn't want to live without Edward anymore.

“Calm down, baby. It was just a bad dream, everything will be fine.”

“You don't understand, I saw it. You have to help her, Paul. It's going to be on the cliff, I saw it.”

“Y/N, breathe, please...” a knock on the door interrupts us. Paul tries to get up to see who it is, but I run in front of him and open the door.

A drenched Embry in shorts is standing on the other side in the rain. He's a little startled when he sees me and shifts his gaze in respect when he realizes that I'm just wearing Paul's big sweater and nothing else

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you, but it's a serious matter,” he says a little awkwardly, his face showing concern.

“What happened?” Lahote appears from behind me, his voice even more serious as he holds my waist tightly.

“It's Jacob... we were chasing the red-headed bloodsucker when he smelt something different and went in the opposite direction, letting the vampire escape... It's just that he... he found Bella on the shore. She'd jumped off the cliff... I'm sorry Y/N, I know you were close, but... She's gone Y/N.”

It's as if a hole has opened up in my chest. After all those months I spent by Bella's side, helping her eat, sleep, keeping her company even when she didn't want to, all the efforts I made to make her understand that it was enough that she didn't need Edward, she couldn't take it. Bella would rather die than be away from that vampire.

Paul holds me tightly when he senses my sadness at the imprinting bond.

I've always hated the cold, ice cream or snow, but I learned that once I became Paul's imprint it meant that I could snuggle into his feverish body and he would never let me go. Compared to me, Bella always loved winter, even if she tried to say otherwise, she liked to feel her fingers freezing in contact with the snow while we played outside. She always went with the ice, sinking into snow crystals and snuggling up to her dead boyfriend. At the end of the day, Bella couldn't save herself from the deadly attraction that Edward exuded.

He was the lion and she was the deer.

“Someone needs to go and see Chief Swan, Jacob refuses to leave the hospital and Billy doesn't know yet, but he'll want to go to Charlie when he does.”

“Let's get Billy and go straight to the Chief's house, they're friends, he'll know how to comfort him,” Paul says when he realizes I don't have the strength to answer. Embry just nods and rushes off into the forest. “Come on, my love. You need a bath and something to eat.” Lahote pulls me into his arms as he closes the door.

I cling to him as if he were my lifeline. My only chance of not drowning again.

I put on some clothes while Paul tried to get me to eat a sandwich before we left, but I couldn't, I wanted to throw up everything and cry. The craving increased as I realized that it was all Cullen's fault, if he had walked away when he met her, if he had stopped playing with his prey, trying to live something he couldn't, Bella wouldn't have gotten so close to him and felt so helpless without his presence.

She would have lived.

All the way Billy kept quiet, he was one of the first to warn Bella of the danger, but even he couldn't persuade her.

“Come on, sweetheart, we're here.” Paul touches my hand with a consoling caress. I hadn't even realized we'd arrived at Charlie's house.

“I can't.” The tears that had dried come back blurring my vision, Paul tries to hug me as best he can in the passenger seat.

“We'd better go ahead, give her some time to process.” Billy, who was in the back of Paul's truck witnessing everything, speaks up to comfort me. Lahote nods, climbs down and gets the older Black out of the car.

I watch through the living room window as the two of them get in and tell Charlie, who falls to the ground in tears.

I rush out of the car aimlessly, the suffocating pain in my chest blinding me and taking all the air out of me. The next thing I know, I'm in the forest behind Chief Swan's house, a long way from the trail. I'm lost. I fall on the wet ground and stay there long enough for it to get dark. I know that Paul will soon find me, so I remain motionless, my strength gone.

A strong wind blows past me, lifting my hair and I shiver with cold. In the distance, I hear branches breaking, until they stop, only for the noise to come back and get closer and closer to me. I don't have time to react, when I try to get up I'm surprised by a figure standing in front of me in the distance. It's Edward.

“What do you want?” the vampire's figure makes anger rise in my throat. “Isn't it enough that you killed my friend?”

“It was never my intention...” another wind blows towards me, blowing my hair into my face.

As I pull the strands out of my eyes, I realize that Cullen is pulling in air sharply, his eyes turning into massive dark stones. I stand up when I realize that his fierce gaze is directed at me. The sad, desolate look he had been wearing for a long time was gone, the only emotion I could see in him was remorse, and... thirst.

“I came after Bella... I wanted to see for myself... make sure she's gone.” Edward says cautiously, letting out heavy breaths with each sentence.

“She's dead, because of you. If you'd stayed away from her, if you'd stayed away from the beginning... she'd be here.” I say angrily as more tears come out of me.

“I couldn't, I was weak, her smell... it was like a drug to me, I couldn't stay away from Bella. I loved her.” His face contorts in pain, as if it's hard to admit that now that she's gone.

“Then why didn't you turn her? If you loved her, why didn't you make her one of you!” I shout fiercely. “That's what she wanted, to be immortal with you,” I whispered in pain.

“I couldn't, I couldn't condemn her to that life.”

“Didn't you realize that you condemned her long before that? You brought danger to her, you made her become a danger to herself. She preferred killing herself to being without you!”

“I tried to control myself, she was my blood singer, I always knew it, but I fell in love with her instead of accepting my fate and sucking her blood, but... your blood, it... it smells just as good as hers...” In the blink of an eye Edward is in front of me, his hand outstretched towards my face, but not touching me. More tears roll down my cheeks, but now it's out of fear, finally realizing that I've been in front of a predator all along. A blood-sucking vampire.

“You wouldn't do that... I'm Paul's imprint, it would kill him,” I say fearfully as he sinks his nose into my neck.

“Bella was the only one who held me to this world, the only one who made me better than a bloodsucker, but now that she's gone, there's no sense in it anymore.” I try to move away from his icy body, but it's in vain. He's much stronger than me.

“Jacob will come after you, he'll want revenge for Bella, and if you kill me then all the wolves will come after you... you'll die” I try to persuade him to run away while there's still time, but this seems to ignite the flames in his black eyes. Edward lifts his face from my neck and looks deeply into my eyes. In the darkness, I realized... I was never going to get out alive.

“That's exactly what I want.” Edward advanced towards my neck, his teeth, so white and polished, now looked like shiny, bloody daggers. A strangled cry comes out of me as I feel a sharp pain in my neck.

I think that soon he will throw me aside and run away, but no, I watch as his eyes darken even more into a crimson shade. I pray to the ancestors that it will be over soon, that I can see Paul's chocolate eyes one last time and hug him.

My body is losing its strength and I'm slowly falling to the ground with him on top of me, my eyes are getting heavy and my vision is blurring. The last thing I see is a reddish wolf jumping on Edward and pulling him off me, but I don't have the strength to call for help. Blood pours down my throat and I realize that the bastard has torn a hole in me. I can't speak.

I turn my face and realize that more wolves have fallen on the vampire, tearing him limb from limb. Edward takes one last look at me and smiles, surrendering to death, then a gray wolf rips his head off.

Paul shapeshifts and falls to his knees next to me, his trembling hands trying to stop the bleeding, but it's too late.

“I - I - I'm cold.” I try to say to him, but only whispers come out of me, it's too hard to speak.

“I know, baby, I know, I'll warm you up, okay? I know how much you hate the cold.” Thick tears fall from Lahote's eyes, and with one last effort I try to dry them.

“I lo-love you,” I say and blood starts to come out of my mouth.

“I love you, Y/N. I'll always be here for you, it's all right now. You can rest my darling, I'll take care of you.” Paul says in tears, all the time looking into my eyes. Then I realize that this is the moment.

My arms fall by my sides, I can no longer feel my legs and in one last gasp I look at Paul.

My breath stumbles and then there is nothing more. There is no life.

Violent delights have violent ends.

#fanfic #edward cullen #jacob black #twilight #the twilight saga #paul lahote #paul lahote x reader #new moon #wolves #vampires #family cullen #la push #wolf pack

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nephalem-da · 5 months ago

Text

A Day of Demonic Babysitting

(Bill Cipher x OC)

Synopsis: When Maeloraelis takes a break for a girl's night out, Bill Cipher is left to care for their mischievous baby, Elara. Confident at first, Bill quickly realizes that keeping up with his chaotic daughter is more exhausting than expected.

It all started with a simple goodbye.

Mae had kissed Bill on the cheek (or where a cheek would be, if he had one), gave Elara a loving pat, and then floated towards the door. She was glowing with excitement—girl's night out was a rare treat, especially since Elara had been born. “Now, Bill,” Mae called back, her voice taking on that affectionate-yet-firm tone she knew he couldn’t resist. “Remember, if anything happens to our little bundle of chaos, you won’t be getting any rewards tonight.” She added a playful flutter of her eye.

Bill, lounging in his usual flamboyant style, tipped his hat with a smirk. “Oh, you know me, doll! I've got this! What could possibly go wrong?”

Mae gave him one last knowing look, her stone bowtie glowing with a mischievous pink and a tinge of orange, before disappearing out the door.

Bill, alone with his daughter for the first time without Mae, turned to face Elara. The tiny triangle floated in mid-air, her bright eye blinking curiously up at him, her light purple body shimmering like a mischievous little star. “Alright, kiddo,” he grinned. “It’s you and me today! Let’s have some fun, hmm?”

At first, Bill found it amusing as Elara began to bounce around, throwing harmless but flashy sparks of chaotic energy across the room. “That’s right, chip off the ol’ block!” he cheered, crossing his arms and leaning back, basking in paternal pride.

But things took a turn when Elara zoomed off like a tiny comet, leaving a trail of glittery havoc behind her. She knocked over a stack of ancient books, sending them flying in all directions, and somehow managed to twist a whole chandelier until it spun wildly like a top. “Woah there, speed demon!” Bill chuckled, floating after her at a casual pace. But when she zoomed into the next room, he had to quicken his pace. “Okay, okay, let’s not break everything in the first ten minutes, alright?”

Elara was a blur, darting around the room like a living lightning bolt. Bill’s grin faltered for the first time as he watched her zoom up the walls, bounce off the ceiling, and start tearing through one of his interdimensional maps. “Alright, sweetheart, that’s—uh—those are…kinda important.”

When she zoomed by him for the fiftieth time, giggling in her high-pitched, adorable baby squeals, he blinked. “How… how are you this fast?”

He reached out to grab her, but she slipped through his fingers like smoke. Now she was on the chandelier again, spinning it faster and faster until it creaked ominously. “Elara, sweetie, let’s… let’s calm down, okay?” he urged, a touch of nervousness sneaking into his voice. But his little troublemaker wasn’t having any of it. She started babbling happily, her eye twinkling with pure delight.

Bill tried to zap a portal to trap her, but she was too quick, darting around it like a pro. “Alright, that’s… impressive,” he muttered, half-proud, half-exasperated.

As the hours ticked by, Elara showed no signs of slowing down. Bill, however, found himself on the back foot. He had stopped counting how many times she had teleported, shifted objects, or made things randomly levitate. He started to sweat… well, if triangles could sweat. His energy, usually boundless, was feeling oddly depleted.

At one point, he was holding her in the air, her entire body vibrating with energy. She was moving so fast she was practically a blur. "C'mon, kid, how about a nap?" he suggested, his voice a mix of coaxing and desperation.

Elara just giggled louder, her form twisting and turning in his grasp.

Bill floated down to the couch, exhausted, and cradled her closer. “How does your mom handle this every day?” he wondered aloud. A part of him was genuinely baffled, but another part was swelling with pride. He thought about how Mae managed to balance their family life with his chaotic ambitions. How she kept everything together without ever breaking a sweat. “Man, I married a powerhouse,” he muttered to himself, a grin spreading across his features.

Elara finally started to slow down, her energy waning. She gave a tiny yawn, her eye blinking sleepily. Bill rocked her gently, humming a tune that, if anyone else heard, might’ve sounded like an ancient summoning chant, but it seemed to work. Slowly, his little chaos demon drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

Bill let out a sigh of relief, leaning back into the couch. “Finally…”

Just then, Mae arrived home. She stepped inside and her eye widened at the scene. The house was a mess—papers scattered everywhere, objects hovering mid-air, and even a fish swimming through the air. But she couldn't bring herself to be mad. There, on the couch, was Bill, asleep with baby Elara snuggled against him, both looking utterly content.

Mae floated over, her expression softening. She gently fixed a few things with a flick of her finger, but her main focus was on her two favorite troublemakers. "Guess you survived," she whispered, leaning down to place a kiss on Bill's forehead. “Just barely,” he murmured, eyes still closed but with a small smile. “But hey… she's a lot like me.”

Mae chuckled softly. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Bill opened his eye slightly, looking up at her with a mixture of admiration and exhaustion. "You’re amazing, you know that?”

Mae smiled, her bowtie’s stone glowing a gentle pink. “I know.”

As Mae settled down beside them, Bill felt a rush of warmth. Maybe being a dad wasn't so bad… especially when the chaos felt like home.

#bill cipher x oc #bill cipher x reader #gravity falls #gravity falls oc #self insert #the book of bill #bill cipher

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junedenim · 7 months ago

Text

not shy of a spark

part 2 part 3

one day with a stranger in a foreign country

word count: 16k

Alex notices her for the first time on the other side of the train's aisle. She's wearing a blue bandana around her head, tied under her chin, and looks like she belongs in a Godard film. Her dirty blonde hair peeks through and she's wearing sunglasses, like him. She's got wired headphones on and is staring out the window, just like him.

He's looking for too long. He knows it. She's going to catch on at some point. His eyes aren't hiding his infatuation but he can't help but look. There's no one sitting beside her and there's no one sitting beside him. She only has a saddle bag with her that's sitting on the empty chair.

He can't think of an opening but he can't stop staring. He tries not to look too suspicious but he's locked in looking at her during the train ride.

When they arrive in Brussels, she leaves before he can get out of his seat. Then, Alex spots the book sitting on her seat. All he can think is how big of a fool he must be if he wastes this chance to talk to her—a shy idiot who stares at a girl for the whole train ride and says nothing.

Once he gets off the train, he sees her by the escalator. She's looking through her bag and he assumes she is looking for the book. His heart feels heavy and he inches slowly toward her, not wanting to spook her.

"Excuse me," Alex says. She looks up at him. She's taken her sunglasses off and he can see her blue eyes. They're a calm ocean wave crashing into him. It takes him a second to spit it out. "This your book?"

She looks at the book in his hands and smiles up at him. Alex feels pride like he's achieved some Herculean task by giving the book back to her. "Yes, yes." She grabs the book from his hands and returns it to her space in her bag. "Thank you."

Alex can't let her walk away so he asks, "Is it any good?"

"The book?" She questions. He nods. "I like it so far. Have you read it?" He notices her French accent for the first time. It's light, not as strong as his English one, but it ebbs into the pronunciation of her words. It makes sense she's French. The book was in French. Haute Fidelite.

He shakes his head. "No, no. I saw the movie years ago."

"Oh, with Jack Black, right?" She giggles. She has a good laugh, an infectious one that courses itself through Alex.

He chuckles. "Yeah. You like Jack Black?" He wants to slap himself in the face and he thinks the wincing shows on his face. She laughs again, almost like pointing a finger in his face and saying Ha ha!

"I love Jack Black. Do you like Jack Black?" She turns the question on him with laughter.

Alex quails. "Who doesn't?"

She's about to say goodbye. Alex can feel her floating away from him and he can't let it happen. He doesn't want to be a creep but he doesn't want her to disappear forever without giving it a try. "Have you been here before?"

She nods and he exhales in relief that he has an in. "My mother is from here. When my grandparents were still alive we came."

"Do you think you could show me around a little? Point me to a good cafe or summat." He shoves his hands in his pockets. He must look nervous. He has to. Alex is sure his antsy behavior is creeping her out and the fact that he is breaking a sweat isn't helping.

But then she smiles and he thinks everything will be alright. "I could stop for pain au chocolat."

Alex grins. "You say it so French."

He's a dimwit English man because "Well, I am French." She smiles at his charm, which he would label stupidity. "I'm Charlotte but everyone calls me Lottie."

"Alex." She takes his hand and shakes it. A jolt runs through his arm like a nerve has been hit.

"Follow me? Yeah?" She instructs and he follows as she travels out of the station. Her dress, a simple white one, flows behind her and she looks as though she has the keys to the gates of heaven.

When they make it out of the station, she asks him, "What brings you to Belgium?"

That's when he starts lying to her. "I've never been before. I've always wanted to but kept putting it off."

"What about you? Why were you in London?" Alex asks.

She smiles at him. "I've got friends up there."

When they enter the cafe, Lottie takes the scarf off and he sees her full head of hair, glowing and cascading down her back like a rushing waterfall. "What would you like?"

"Oh." He forgot about that part. "A coffee, I guess, and a croissant." Relief comes when she orders for them.

They sit at a table outside. The air is breezy but not windy and the temperature sits firmly in no-need-for-a-jacket weather, even if he wears one still. "Do you mind?" She plucks a cigarette out.

"As long as I can bum one," Alex says.

She hands him one and a flame bursts between the two of them. "Do you usually ask strangers to be your tour guides in foreign countries?"

He chuckles. "Yeah. You get a translator and free cigarettes." Alex shakes his head. "No, no. I don't usually do this kind of thing."

"So, I'm the exception." Her smile sparks something in him. It implores him to be honest. He tells her that he's on a bit of a getaway, although he doesn't tell her what he's escaping. Brussels is the closest city by train from London and he'd never explored the city before. She tells him she's stopping her for the day before she heads back home for Paris tonight. She hasn't been here since she was a teenager.

After they've finished their pastries and coffees, she asks, "Do you want to see the peeing boy?"

Alex leans forward. "Pardon?"

She giggles and he feels like she's making fun of him. "You don't know anything about Brussels, do you?"

Alex bows his head shamefully. "I'll admit my research was lacking for the most part."

"Come on." She grabs his hand and drags him out of his chair. She lets go and he hates that she lets go.

On the walk over, she asks him what he does for a living. She must think he's a drug dealer or pimp by his evasiveness but he admits, "Oh, I'm, uh, a musician."

"What kind of musician?"

He's not helping matters. "I, uh, do a little, uh—I'm in a band."

"Oh, my ex-boyfriend was in a band," she says light-heartedly. "Do you like being in a band?"

It's oddly refreshing. It's not like everyone he comes across knows who he is but it's been a long time since someone has asked him what he does for work and doesn't know already. An especially long time since a pretty girl asked him.

"Yeah. I mean, I've known them—the guys—my whole life and it's a fun job to have."

"Not many people get to do their dreams for a living."

"What do you do?"

Lottie groans. "I'm a nanny but it's a temporary thing, at least, you know, for now. I'm kind of figuring the whole what I want to do with my life thing out."

Alex says, "That's perfectly respectable."

She scoffs with laughter. "Tell that to my parents. I think they would be supportive of me if they knew I had a passion for something. Like if I wanted to be a musician they would completely support me. I think they would, but I don't even have something like that."

"Well, what do you like?" Alex is fascinated and wants to know every little bit about her. Wants to understand what makes her tick. Wants to make her tick. He feels like a horny teenage boy but he can't help it. He swallows down his desires as best he can because listening to her talk is enough.

Lottie shrugs. "Euh, I mean, I have hobbies. I like to paint and I think I'm a good cook but...I don't want to do those things."

He nods. "I know what you mean. Music can feel that way sometimes. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't do that. Probably be a teacher like me parents or something."

Lottie smiles. It's bright and she stares at him like looking at a star up close would do to you. "Both your parents teach?"

"Yeah, yeah. Me mum's a German teacher. Me dad's taught science and music and stuff." He feels like an awkward gangly teenage boy in front of her. She's strong and moving and just has a way about her.

"Is that where your musical ability comes from? Turn down here," Lottie directs as they round a corner.

He stuffs his hands in his pockets. "I suppose. It kind of came about in different ways."

"Do you speak German?" She's quite the interviewer.

"A little but not really."

"Huh."

Alex chuckles. "Huh, what? You making fun of me for being a dumb Brit."

She's giggling and he doesn't care if it is his lack of intelligence that is making her laugh because she's got a laugh that'll crack you in two. "No, never," she says but really means yes, totally.

"You're ripping on me because the British education system failed me. If I could learn another language I would," Alex tells her as they walk down the steps to the tram.

"What language would you learn?"

They're walking shoulder-to-shoulder and he feels something shutter in him by the way her shoes click along the tile. "French would probably help me out a lot right now."

Lottie had been sparked, smiling, she asks, "Would you like me to teach you?"

Alex, passing through the turnstile, smiles and answers, "I'd like that."

"Do you know how to say bonjour?"

Alex rolls his eyes. "I'm not that far gone."

Lottie throws her head back in a giggle. "I don't know how much the British education system failed you."

"Bonjour, je m'appelle Alex."

They hop on the tram waiting for them. Lottie nods her head in approval. "Très bien."

"That means I did good, right?"

She snorts a laugh and nods. "You're a right old Frenchie."

The tram is decently packed so they stand by the door, holding onto the same pole. He's not much taller than her but he still smiles down upon her. The top of her hair has fly-aways coming off of it from when she pulled her scarf down but she looks like she looks like the embodiment of divinity.

There's a lull of silence as the tram moves. She breaks it by telling him, "In Ypres, where my bomma, my grandmother, is from, they hold this festival where people dress up in cat costumes and throw cat stuffed animals from a tower."

Alex chuckles. "Why?"

She throws her left hand up in the air, talking with it. "It's symbolic, I think. They used to throw real cats from the tower to rid the town of evil spirits and bad luck."

"So, it's probably for the best they just do the stuffed animals now."

"I think so," she agrees. "What about you? Where in England are you from?"

"Sheffield," Alex answers.

Lottie leans her head on the pole, gazing up at him. He gets lost in her eyes. Could stare at them for an extended period of time that some might consider staring or stalking but definitely creepy. "What's Sheffield like?"

Alex doesn't know how to answer. He's always felt where he was from was plain, especially in comparison to what this Parisian girl has experienced. "I don't know. I mean, I like it."

She giggles at him. "Do you still live there?"

"Yeah, technically I still live with my parents. That sounds a bit lame, doesn't it?"

She's nice about and shakes her head. "I don't think so. I live with the family I nanny. Not exactly luxury."

"A live-in nanny sounds luxurious," Alex comments.

"For the family maybe but they stuff me in a closet."

"Like Harry Potter?" He questions.

She hums, "Mhm?"

"You know, how he lives under the stairs," Alex explains.

"I've never read Harry Potter."

He throws his head back with a groan. "You're making me sound like a geek. I thought it was a general knowledge thing."

"Maybe." She shrugs. "I never read Harry Potter. I was geekier in other regards."

"Like?" He wants to know everything about her. Wants her to expose her insides to him like a game of Operation and poke around, find her heart, and keep it for himself.

She bites her bottom lip and shakes her head. "I'm not going to scare you off yet."

"Oh, come on, I'm sure it's not anything as embarrassing as an unnatural obsession with The Strokes."

"I like The Strokes." She is the perfect girl. He delusional thinks that if she knows the Strokes she must know him but her eyes don't hint at that.

"You have to have one irredeemable quality, Lottie."

"Well, I don't know. I have this problem with my therapist."

He's taken aback. "Your therapist?"

"Yeah, I mean, that's a whole other bag of worms."

"Can of worms," he corrects the error with a chuckle.

"Right," she acknowledges. "We got into this disagreement over my ex-boyfriend. You know, he was a certifiable psycho and he had—this is our spot—he had this problem with, well, he was a porn addict."

Alex stills and doubles over in laughter and she has to drag him off the tram so it doesn't leave with him.

She furrows her brows. "What?"

"I just wasn't expecting you to say that."

Lottie sighs, "I don't pick the best men. That has been abundantly clear and my therapist has agreed with that for the past decade—"

"You've been going to therapy for a decade?"

She squints at him, "Are you sure you're not French? You're very judgy."

"Sorry, sorry." He doesn't want to upset her in any way, especially something he should probably be doing too. "I just don't know anyone who is in therapy let alone for a decade."

"I'm of the opinion everyone could use it otherwise they'll be spontaneously getting on a train to Brussels." She can read him like street signs. He says something and she knows exactly where he's headed.

"Hey!"

She grins at him. "Who said I was talking about you?" She continues walking straight. "I think everyone should be in therapy but my therapist is a certifiable nutjob but that's why I think she fits me. She's had a problem with everyone of my boyfriends, even the good ones. But my last one, who I broke up with because of the porno addiction, she told me that I give up too easily and I should work it out with him. I'm like 'You've told me to break up with my last 5 boyfriends but you want me to get back with the guy who has VHS tapes of porn under his bed."

"VHS?" Alex laughs.

Her head nods with amusement. "Yes, it was bad."

"Do you think you'll get back together with him?" Selfishly, he wants the answer to be no. He also wants her to say "Never, I want to be with you now." That's when he really feels like a foolish sad sack.

Instead, she says, "Uh, no. I'll just hop on a train to Amsterdam or something and continue to avoid my issues in Paris."

"You think you're going to keep traveling?" How's a world tour sound?

"I'd like to but I've got to head back to Paris for my job. They gave me the week off to visit my friends in London but they're expecting me back tomorrow morning. What about you? You off on a European tour?" Unknowingly, she's right.

"Nah, I have to get back to London for work too." Recording a second hit album more accurately.

"So, one night in Brussels?"

"That was the plan."

"Except you had no plans. Well, other than to prey on an unsuspecting French girl." She's simpering and he supposes that means she is fine with him preying on an unsuspecting French girl.

"I'm not preying on you," Alex insists. I just want to kiss you.

"You are totally taking advantage of me. I had plans too, you know. Now I'm stuck walking with you to look at a little boy piss."

Alex needs to know. "Is it seriously a little boy pissing?"

She giggles, "You'll see. We're only a street away."

"What were you planning to do here?" He doesn't want to drag her away from her plans and, if she'll allow him, he'd tag along with her anywhere.

"I didn't really have any plans. Reminisce. I haven't been back in so long I fear I made Brussels up in my imagination." She's reflective looking, eyes darting around the art nouveau buildings for answers.

"How does your memory compare to how it is now?"

"Not too far off." She points her finger. "Here's the pissing boy."

Alex sighs and closes his eyes in both relief and amusement. "It's a statue." A little boy elevated above a fountain basin, holding his penis, water sprouting into the bowl. Alex is an idiot.

Lottie throws her head back in a cackle. "Did you think I was taking you to watch a real boy piss?"

"I don't know what they get up to in mainland Europe. You're throwing cats off of towers here!" He's slightly embarrassed but her laugh, even if it's at him, relieves an ache of this being a moment he looks back on in regret. No regret with that laugh.

"Manneken Pis. He's a hero."

"If every man who whipped out their dick in Britain got a statue, I don't think there would be any room left in the country."

She giggles. "The story goes he saves Brussels by peeing on a fuse that was lit by enemies to explode the city walls."

"The moral is public urination?"

She clutches her stomach. "I guess." He can't help but join in.

They set off walking to nowhere in particular. They don't even discuss where actually their feet are taking them. They just use it as a pathway for conversation. She holds her hands around her waist and she talks in a hushed manner but clear. His hands are stuffed in his pockets and he's sure his mumbling can't be easy to understand but she never asks him to repeat himself.

"Do you travel a lot?" He asks her.

Lottie replies, "More when I was younger. Mainly just in Europe but I went to New York once."

"My grandma took me to Disneyland once."

"Really? No one in my family would ever do that."

"Why?"

"They all hate amusement parks. Really, they all hate amusement." It shocks him considering she seems so amused by everything. So amused by him. The first to crack a smile, burst into laughter, and encourage him to do the same.

"Not the most wild bunch?"

"No, they're wild. My brother's personality takes up enough space for 4 people. My maman has this laughter you can hear from 3 towns over. But they're, euh, more sophisticated to say." She says it so delicately and intently, he can't but think there is more to the story.

He jokes, "Oh, us Brits are just rolling in the mud."

"Eh, eh, I'm not saying that! My family is uptight. I'm not saying I don't love them but I'm not the biggest fan. I'd like to go to Disneyland." She thinks for a moment. "No I wouldn't."

He laughs. "Why? Why the sudden change?"

She scoffs, "I hate lines. I have the patience of a masturbating boy."

Alex fears she's reading his mind and that she's calling him out like I know what you're thinking and you can't have it. He's also choked up in laughter. "What?"

"Oh, well, you know, I'm sure you know. It's quick and they have to have it now and god forbid maman walks in on you with the laundry so you have to get it down now and fast."

"You're crazy-sounding, Lottie." He shakes his head and catches his breath.

"Maybe but I'm not wrong. Do you want to go in here? You like records?" She points to a shop, a little off the way.

He mocks, "Do I like records?" Alex follows her head first into the record store. She greets the shop owner for them and heads straight to scouring her way through the records.

They stand side-by-side, throwing spare glances at one another, but the other never catches them. He embarrassingly sees one of his records in the eye and is eternally grateful the band made the right decision to not put any of their faces on the cover.

They make it to the Gs when she turns to him. "I have to be honest. I don't even have a record player."

Alex snickers. "You're missing out."

"I like the idea of it. We had one growing up but I don't even have a CD player. The family I nanny, they like music but they don't like loud things. They're the type that they gather around the piano every night."

"So it's not like they're for modernity, in fact, they're more old-fashioned than a record player."

"Precisely." They do this little dance. Showing each other a record in silence and either getting a nod of approval or a shake of dismay. By the end, Lottie has no records and Alex has about twenty.

"I can not carry all these back to London." He struggles to even pick up the stack.

She guffaws at him. "Why don't you pick 5 of them?"

Alex waves her off. "Nah, I don't think I'm going to get any of them."

She bulges her eyes at him. "Seriously. You're going to hurt the poor shopkeeper's feelings."

"Here, I'll get you one," Alex offers.

She laughs and shakes her head. "I don't even have a record player."

He selects one out of his pile and walks it over to the cashier. "This is my way of inciting you to get your first. I consider it marketing to get the vinyl industry back up and running."

The shopkeeper tells him, "12 Euros."

The cash only sign glares at him. "Oh, shit," Alex mutters under his breath.

Lottie smirks. "You don't have any Euros, do you?"

Alex sheepishly looks over at her. His wallet only showing the few pounds he had in cash. "Yeah, sorry."

She digs through her saddle bag and pulls at the cash from her wallet and hands it over to the shopman. "You really weren't prepared for traveling."

"I intended to get some at the train station. Got a little distracted." He feels like the biggest doofus but she's looking at him with heart eyes.

Lottie smiles and shakes her head in disbelief at him. "What did you get me anyway?" Alex picks the bag off the counter as they exit the shop. He pulls the record out of the bag and she reads aloud, "Love in Portofino, Dalida."

"I figured a little French to match your French, although some of it might be in Italian. I don't remember." He slides the record back into the bag but keeps carrying it.

"Well, thank you," she says. Their feet continue on the cobbled road with no direction in particular.

He dismisses the comment. "You paid for it. I stood there and looked stupid."

"The gesture was still there and I appreciate it." He's not sure if he's delusional but he swears she makes eyes over at him, batting her lashes with her hair blowing away in the wind. Her eyes zero in on him and he feels like he's drowning. A wave has taken him away and he can only gasp for air, steadily struggling. "The town hall is right up here. It's beautiful if you'd like to see it."

Alex isn't sure it can compare to the sight beside him but he is willing to give it a try. With a nod of his head, they set off in that direction. "What do you play in that band of yours?"

He's not expecting to talk about the band. He feels awkward, avoiding such a big subject of his life, but he's eager for this escapism. He desires to just be a boy with a girl in a European city with no cares of what is to come next. "Oh, um, I play guitar and sing."

"You sing?" She questions.

"Yeah." The way she says her question prompts him to think out loud, "Why? I don't give the impression I do."

"I never said that."

"Ah," he wags his finger at her, "but your tone did. You were surprised that I sing."

She explains, "You don't have the demeanor I imagine for a singer."

"Which is?"

"I don't know. I imagine it's a rock band, right?" He nods. "Then, I don't know, something like Elvis or something. You're not very cocky, at least not with me."

"You're not the first to say it and I understand why." His shyness is pretty obvious. "I'm not offended by it."

"Good." She smiles at him and he smiles back. They stand before the town hall, Saint Michael gazing down upon them but they are too occupied with one another to pay any mind to him. Somewhere between these glimpses at the other, Lottie breaks eye contact, and meets Michael's eye contact. "Here we are. Voila! That's here you are in French."

He can only utter, "Wow," but he's not sure who he is saying it to. The carvings of the gothic structure or the lulu leaving him rapt at every corner.

His eyes trace over every inch of the hall. Her eyes trace over him, not looking, not noticing. She's seen the town hall enough, she hasn't gotten enough of Alex, unguarded, relaxed, and enthralled in the building. He's got a cut on his chin, slight and almost unnoticeable. His hair is tamed in a rough manner that fits his personality, hiding himself away but messing about to stand him out in a crowd. His arms are crossed now, no longer hidden away in his pockets. His brown eyes trained forward but expressing something that you can't place your finger on.

They meet hers soon after. She points her finger at a street to their left. "If we go this way, there's a hill where you can look over the city."

Alex isn't sure if it's instinct or some form of confidence that takes a hold over him, but he grabs her hand, much like she did outside that cafe, and says, "Let's go then." Unlike her, he doesn't let go. Her palms are soft and wrap his calloused hands up in a gentle hug. On the walk over, he looks over with a smile to see that she's already returning one.

The incline ahead exercises their legs but they're never fully out of breath. Too deep in conversation to notice the beating of their heart and constricting of their lungs. "When I was younger," she tells him, "we'd come here every summer. You know, when Paris grew overrun with tourists, and I was on break from school. My papa would put me on his shoulders and I'd feel on top of the world. No fear of falling. I feel like I've been searching for that feeling ever since."

He wants to give her that. Wants to wrap her in his arms and soothe every ache. He knows it's some infatuation and, at first, he thought he was thinking with his dick, not his head. Now, he thinks he's thinking with his heart. She talks of feelings he forgot, buried deep inside his childhood self and forgot the wonder of. She's an innocent rush within a darkling.

"I used to beg to drive me parents car," Alex tells her, "when I was 5 or 6. One time, me mum sat me on her lap. We were in some abandoned parking lot. She let me drive the car around. She'd press the gas and break, of course, because I couldn't reach it but I steered and everything. Sometimes I wish for that control back."

"But you didn't even have it then," Lottie points out.

His brows furrow. He doesn't understand what she's saying. "What?" He had his hands on the wheel then. Now, it feels like he's strapped to the roof of the car.

"You weren't the one driving. Your mum decided when you stopped or started."

Something clicks in him. A knot gets undone. The analogy doesn't stop the car he's in from speeding down the highway but he feels he can ride with it, at least be in the backseat. "You're making me out to be one of those creepy boys obsessed with their mothers."

She wheezes. "It sounds like you're just fond of your mum, which is good. You haven't said anything too weird yet."

They're at a stoplight but their hands are still together, neither making a move to change that. He turns to look her in the eye. "Yet?" He squints at her.

"Are you an only child?"

He drops his jaw in an offended manner. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She drops her jaw in a chagrin manner. "You are!"

"What's wrong with that?"

She giggles at his affrontement. "Nothing. You're the one getting all frustrated about it."

He can't help but laugh along with her. "I am not."

Lottie points a finger at him. "Yes, you are."

They reach the peak, although it goes unnoticed amongst their laughter. Lottie turns to the view. "Here we are."

"Wow," Alex utters. They stand atop a peak of stairs looking outwards on an urban floral boom. Flowers line the cement down to the townhomes that stand on the ground floor. The town hall tower stands through the midst of buildings—Saint Michael's back to them.

"Let me get your picture." Lottie holds up her camera—a little yellow thing with a bright smiley face sticker on the front.

"What?"

She urges him forward. "Come on, you gave me the record. I'll give you a picture." He stands centered at the top of the stairs. His pose is awkward, unable to figure out where to place his hands. Her record in its bag hangs in his hand and he brushes a hand through his hair, although it does little to tame it. She snaps it leaving her with a bright smiley face.

"What's this building here?" Alex gestures beside them.

"The Magritte Museum, I think. That's what the sign says. Do you want to go in?" She's looking at him excitedly, fuck, he would do anything for that to continue.

He nods and they walk up to the porticoes where she admires every inch. "I think I could have been an architect in another life," Lottie tells him.

"Why not this life?" He asks.

"I suck at math."

He pays for the tickets with his credit card even if it means he's slapped with a large conversion fee. In the elevator, smushed together with 6 other people, he can't help but look at her. When their eyes meet, he feels something in him unlodge. Like that lump that's been stuck in his throat for the past 6 months has finally gone down. At last, he can breathe again.

When they reach the top floor, she reaches back for his hand and pulls him through the halls of the museum. He smiles down at their intertwined hands because what art is better than her touch? He's known her for 2 hours and he's saying shit like that. Fuck.

It's around Magritte's impressionist period that Alex finally has to whisper into Lottie's ear, "What the fuck drugs was this man on?"

She giggles, eyes trained on the painting "The Stroke of Luck" or, really, a pig dressed in a suit at a graveyard. "It's surrealistic, not drug-fueled mania."

"Then why is the pig looking at me like that?" He whispers and she giggles once more. That pig is eyeing him down and he knows it. Its eyes will follow him to every corner of the room, he swears.

"It's like Animal Farm," she tries to explain.

"Orwell?"

She nods. "Precisely."

"We should have gotten the audio tour. I don't understand anything," Alex whines.

"Don't doubt yourself. The pig feels pleasure at a cemetery. He stares at you insidiously. And you know, all men are pigs so."

She giggles from her riposte as he exclaims, "Hey! We aren't all bad."

Lottie rolls her eyes, but she knows. "Well, most are. Magritte doesn't seem like such a pig." She lets go of his hand and flounces off to the next section. He stands to watch.

At the end of the section, he asks her beneath a painting, "What's it mean?"

Her head tilts down from staring up. "The French or the painting?"

Alex huffs. "Both, probably."

"Well," she informs him, "the French is 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' 'This is not a pipe.'"

He shakes his head in confusion. "But aren't I looking at a pipe?" He's staring at it, painted to near perfection. The shades in mahogany wood are clear. The cursive lettering insisting that it is, in fact, not a pipe.

She insists, "No. What are you looking at?"

"A pipe," he insists.

"But is it? It is both a pipe and not a pipe."

"Huh?"

"Could you smoke it?"

"No."

"Then it isn't a pipe."

He smirks.

"You get it now, don't you?"

"Magritte is a fucking genius."

She bursts out laughing so loud she has to clutch her mouth to contain the disruption. They quickly dart out of that room into the next.

Before Anne-Marie Crowet, Alex leans over and says, "It looks like you."

"The painting?"

He nods. "Not exactly. Not nearly as pretty as you."

She purses her lips. "You're trying to be suave."

"How am I doing?"

She just smiles.

They sit in the park afterward. It's across the museum and their feet hurt from standing in front of paintings for too long. They're on the grass, feeling every inch as the breeze breathes through them. He lies back on his hands and she sits in a criss-cross, picking at the little flowers that sprout from the dirt. She plucks one out and shifts over to him. He thinks she's going to hand it to him but she doesn't. She brushes his hair behind his left ear and places it there.

His heart is running a marathon and she looks pleased, the beauty of a flower growing from the earth or the sun at dawn or her. He has to do what he's been fighting against since his eyes met hers in the train window back in St. Pancras. He takes her face into his hands and kisses her. It's slow-moving but transmutes his system. She floods into him and his shore welcomes the wreckage. There's no point in stopping it and he can't think of a single reason why he shouldn't.

She pulls away from him with that oh-so-bright smile and rests her forehead on his. "I was worried I was going to have to make the first move."

"I just wanted to be sure."

"Pussy," she jokes. She giggles while she says it and he thinks she doesn't get to say the word often because she says it like a kid who whispers curse words behind their parents' back.

His hand is holding her cheek so delicately like her porcelain skin might shatter. "Just not a pig."

Her smile is overwhelming. She shakes her head lightly. "Not in the slightest." Kissing him again and shining light through all the cracks within him.

She leans upon him for a few moments. Head on his shoulder and heart in his hands. "What would you be doing right now if I hadn't become my tour guide?" She asks.

"Probably picked up some other girl," he jokes.

She elbows him. "Funny. You're trying to be funny."

Alex chuckles at her reaction. His arm brushes up her side and soothes her into him. "No, I'd probably be wandering around aimlessly having no clue where to go. Probably still trying to figure out how to get out of the train station. What about you?"

Her face changes and retracts. She stares off and hides herself away from his sights. "I don't know." He can tell she's lying when she shrugs him off.

"You can tell me," Alex tries to urge. "Or not. Whatever you want."

"I don't mean to depress the conversation." She looks back over at him. "Probably visit my bomma's grave. And sightseeing and such. Sorry to bring the light out of the conversation."

Alex shakes his head. "You're not. I want to hear about these things." Her mouth forms a small upturn. "Would you like to go?"

"No, I'll go another time," she tells him.

Alex stands up and reaches his hand down to her. "You should go. I'd like to come too if that's alright. If you would want that. I don't want to impose or anything."

She grabs his hand and he pulls her up. "You wouldn't be. I don't want to force you. We can meet up later if you'd like or part here, you know, I had a great time."

They're both too caught up in their rambling trying not to come off too strong. "No, no, you wouldn't be forcing me. I don't want to ruin your plans at all."

She finally grabs his hand. "Alex, let's go." She pulls him off the grass back onto the street. "It's up in Molenbeek so you can see a new part of the city. She's been dead for over a decade so it's not like I'll be weeping at her gravestone. I felt I had to go while I was here. Haven't been here since her funeral."

"Don't feel any pressure to hold anything in while I'm here. I want to know what you are feeling."

"Even though it's sad going to her gravestone, but being here in Brussels, remembering those things I did with her makes me happy. To be honest, I'm happy doing it with you. I think I'd be depressed walking around the city all by myself but sharing it with someone—with you—is a whole new pleasure. Thank you."

Alex shakes his head. "You don't have to thank me. I should be thanking you. You've been saving my butt here all day with your help."

"Well, you do have a nice butt that wouldn't be worth it to the world to risk." She is the glowing light around. A modern-day Aurora, except he's Sleeping Beauty, and she's snapping him out of the haze he has been locked in.

"You're pretty fucking beautiful too." She leans into him and puts her head on his shoulder while they walk. He kisses the top of her head and he feels like he has done this in a million other lifetimes. Whatever path the course of his life went down, he ends up here with her every time whether it's Brussels or Paris or London or Sheffield or the damn Moon. She's there.

His arm wraps around her shoulder and she guides the way with ease like she built these streets for them to walk down. She knows every curve and never leads them down the wrong way. She stops him from nearly getting hit by a bike and laughs at the little scream he lets out. Despite the gravity of where they are headed, she's smiling and joking around with him (or maybe about him) and he can't help but love every second of it. He never wants it to let up.

"When I was a baby, I got sick, some infant kind of sickness, and I was a crying baby, especially with this cold. My maman was beyond exhausted and she still had my brother to care for and my dad was working. My bomma came and the day she arrived everything cleared up. I wasn't sick anymore and I barely cried. She joked that my mother had made the whole thing up to get a visit out of her but my maman always says that I could feel the comfort of my bomma coming and I wanted to be on my best behavior. That's the relationship we always had."

Alex gazes down at her. Her eyes steady ahead but glance up at him with every passing sentence. He brushes his thumb back and forth on her head enclosed in his. "That's a great story."

"Yeah." She smiles in remembrance.

"You were very close?"

She nods. "Emotionally. Belgium wasn't too far but we always had distance and as she got older we had to travel to see her, which was mainly during holidays. Every time it was like a hug. The kind that is so warm you want to lie in their arms forever."

The cemetery is filled with trees, spring blooming in the distance. Their walk through the yard is silent. She lets go of his hand and stands before a small headstone, pulling a flower she picked from the park down on top of the stone. "When I was 5 or something, my bompa died. I don't remember much of him. He was a quiet man, especially compared to bomma. He was cremated and wanted to be tossed into this lake he fished at and we are going there and my bomma has his ashes in the little urn and she goes to pour them and the urn is empty. She keeps shaking it even though nothing is in there and she turns back to all of us, shrugs, and says, 'I knew he'd run out on me eventually.'"

She giggles so he feels permission to laugh. "What happened with his ashes?"

"Oh." Lottie laughs harder, which feels inappropriate for a cemetery but they are in a relatively secluded area. "She left it back at home. She brought the wrong urn to the funeral."

Alex chuckles and she grabs his hand. "We can go now if you'd like," she offers.

"We can stay however long you'd like." He doesn't want to rush her in any way. He can watch her stand in front of the grave and listen to her stories forever.

She shakes her head. "I'm good. I just wanted to think of her for a while. I'm ready for lunch. You need some mussels."

"Are you insulting my physique?" Alex jests, looking down at his triceps.

She laughs at him. "The food. Not the human variety."

Her feet clobber all over the street and his heart as she leads him to a restaurant. "I need to ask you something." They're going down that large hill now. It's easier than climbing it but now they have to worry about the fall.

"Yes?" She throws a smile back at him and he's losing his balance.

With his arm around her shoulder and her hand holding his hand, he asks her, "We've avoided the whole subject of boyfriends/girlfriends. You've got a fella waiting for you back home?"

She's smirking as if she could burst into laughter at any moment. "Would it change anything if I did?"

His eyebrows are raised but he's amused by her evasiveness, even if it concerns him. "Probably not. I've had my tongue down your throat."

"Ew." She squishes her nose up in this cute little wrinkled mess. It makes him want to kiss her, so he does. It's a wonder they don't trip over anything as he lays one on her. "To answer your question, no, not really."

"Not really?"

She twists out from under his arm like they're ballroom dancing. She walks backward sleekly down the hill, facing him. "I do this kind of thing in every country."

"Very funny." He chuckles but he wants an answer. "But seriously."

She returns to under his arm. "No, I haven't dated anyone since my porn-addicted boyfriend. That ended about 2 months ago and my therapist has been trying to get me back with him since then. You?"

He should have expected that, yet, he still feels that he has to let his guard down now. "That's kind of why I'm here."

"You're visiting your girlfriend?" Despite her joking about possible partners back in Paris, he feels her tense up at the idea of this.

Alex shakes his head. "No, kinda running away from it. I had a girlfriend for about a year or so and finally got to see her for an extended period since we've been long distance and right when I arrived, I got the feeling she wished it had stayed that way. She broke up with me about a week later. It's part of the reason why I'm here. Just need to have some time away from everything."

"The madness of everything?" Part of Alex thinks she knows who he is, but her eyes don't give that away. She just seems to understand what's going on in his mind.

"Yeah."

"Well," she sighs, "I'm sorry about the girlfriend."

Alex chuckles looking down on her face—looking up at him with a hidden grin. "No, you're not."

She giggles. "Duh." It's so adorable, sweet and teeth-rotting, he has to kiss her again. Teeth collide as she laughs away and they might nearly get hit by a car but it feels worth it.

Over a moules-frites and a beer each, she tells him, "I don't think I could do long distance."

Alex wipes away the remnants of beer lip. "Me and me girlfriend couldn't either. Clearly."

"I don't know why people feel such a pressure to make things work, you know. I had this boyfriend who went for a semester abroad in America and when he was there, he got an American girlfriend but still felt this need to make our relationship work even after he told me about her. I don't see it as a big deal, especially at our age. Why do we feel such a need to make relationships work? It's unrealistic to be with the same person forever, let alone at this age."

Alex shrugs. "I think we either feel a need to be like our parents or make up for our parents."

She continues her rant and he intently listens. "Exactly. I don't think things are meant to last. The greatest things have ended. But yet with relationships, even when we make mistakes, we feel the need to make it work. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you don't have to force it."

"You feel very passionate about this kind of thing." Alex wants to make it clear he isn't mocking her. "I like it."

She rolls her eyes. "Passion is the key. Why shouldn't we go for the things that make us feel the most? I don't understand this whole 'tough it out.' Why should I deal with my porn-addict boyfriend? Why can't I just date a boy who isn't addicted to porn?"

"I don't think I have a porno issue," Alex adds.

"My therapist would not like you."

Alex tells her, "I think you should tough things out when they feel worth it. The struggle is sometimes what makes the outcome so good. When I've struggled with writing a song and then it's done, it's the accomplishment that keeps me going."

She's grinning at him. "You write songs?"

Alex is flushed red and trying to hide his head in his chest like a turtle. "Yeah, but we're not going to talk about that."

"Why not?" She's eager, he can tell, and if she really wanted to hear one, he'd play her something, but right now he wants to shield all that behind him.

"Because I don't want to tough that out." He uses her words against her. "I think the hard stuff can be worth it. That's all."

"You have a good point. I'm not getting back with my porno boyfriend though."

"Please don't." He doesn't want to sound like he's begging but he might be.

She explains further, "The impertinence of things is what makes them so wonderful in the first place, you know."

"Like some Hanging Gardens of Babylon shit?" His mouth is full of fries and he feels like he needs a kids' menu or something.

"So beautiful but we aren't even sure if it ever existed, right?"

He nods and finally swallows his chewing. "Partially. I don't think they ever found any physical evidence but they know the King of Babylon had these gardens built for his wife, who was a Persian princess or something. It was to help with her homesickness for the green forests of her home."

She chuckles. "You study this or something?"

"Read a book about it." It was actually a short article but a book sounds more impressive.

Her smile twists up and it twists his guts too. She lowers her eyes over him like she's examining him. "You're an impressive surprise."

"You don't expect me to read books?" He questions.

She shakes her head at him in disbelief. "Not about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon."

The sun has begun to set by the time they've left the restaurant, but their conversation of impertinence rings in his ears. After everything back home, he can't help but agree with her, but he can't help but panic about saying goodbye to her. He's holding tight and in no rush to let go.

They're walking slowly this time, in no rush to explore the city, instead focusing on knowing the way around one another. "Would you ever get married?" She asks him.

"You proposing?" The rush it brings to his chest is alarming.

She leans his head on his shoulder and wraps her arms around his chest. He hugs her close to him, fitting into one another completely. "Seriously. I've thought about this and I'm still not sure. I don't like the idea of marriage but I could imagine it for myself. It's a romantic idea and as much as I might not project that I'm a romantic person."

Alex points out, "You've been walking around with a complete stranger all day. That sounds like something a romantic would do."

"You're not a stranger to me anymore." It's the kiss that follows this sentence that seals it for him.

"I think I could marry someone if it felt right. I'd only want to do it once. If it didn't work out I don't think I'd give it another try," Alex confesses.

"Why not?"

"I failed at it once with someone I thought I could make it with. I wouldn't want to put that on another person again."

"What if it wasn't your fault? Like the other person did something unforgivable."

"Then, I never really knew that person. I think that's a little bit on me if I mistake a person for something they're not. That shite doesn't usually come out of nowhere."

She hums. "You're very intelligent, Alex."

He chuckles, slightly confused by the compliment. "Thanks."

"Emotionally. You don't find many men like that. At our age. Even at my parents' age." He doesn't feel like a man. So close to childish kooks and still having his mum do his laundry but she's earnestly saying it so he doesn't vocally disagree.

"I have a ticking clock in me. You can have kids at any age."

"I don't exactly have the passion to be a 70-year-old father."

She shrugs. "I don't even think I want children. They're too sticky."

A half hour or so later, they enter a sticky bar where she squeals about how cool it looks, which, in her defense, she's right. It's through this long hallway that looks like you're entering a church with stained glass windows before you enter a room that looks like Ozzy Osbourne pissed all over the place.

Gathered around a table in the corner with two drinks between them, they make out. It's not some impassioned tongue-down-each-other's-throats kind of kissing where you think the couple is about to have sex right in the middle of the bar. They're in a hidden, dark corner and it's the first time today when they haven't been in broad daylight. And, yeah, it is probably a bit sleazy looking but it feels overwhelmingly necessary for both of them to do.

"People are going to start throwing money at us," she says.

"What?"

"Like at a gentlemen's club or something," she explains.

Alex laughs and he unintentionally rubs his nose against hers and she wrinkles it up, all freckled and fucking cute. She separates them and sips her cocktail, prompting him to sip his bourbon. "Maybe I'll do that."

He snorts and the bourbon nearly drips out of his nose. "Be a stripper?"

She giggles at his reaction. "From nanny to stripper. No, I feel lost is all."

"Sometimes the best things come from being lost." Alex feels his mouth being forced to smile and he can't hide anything from her. "I was lost when I found you."

She blushes and, fuck, he's screwed. Her cheeks are pink and she's cherubic but at the same time talking about being a stripper and he wants to glue himself to this seat and watch her blush forever.

She leans forward placing her head on hand. She looks like Juliet standing on a balcony and, he supposes that makes him Romeo or at least Paris, which means he's going to die for her either way and he almost slaps himself because this isn't some Shakespearean tragedy and she's sitting right in front of him breathing, reaching her hand out for his, which he kisses the back of, which is very Shakespearean, so this might kill him.

"You make me flustered," she confesses.

It blows him away because he's 100% been the fool this whole time to this dream girl. "Seriously?"

She drops her hand from his and leans back, sipping away, keeping her glass in her hand. "Yeah, you're always saying these things and I'm stuck talking about being a stripper and rambling about my lack of direction and ex-boyfriend."

Alex wraps his arm around her shoulder and leans over to whisper in her ear. The bar is loud but he also just wants to be closer to her. "Can I tell you something?"

She motions for him to continue.

"I feel like the biggest fucking idiot talking to you. I basically feel like I'm gonna shit myself every time I open my mouth. You're very intimidating, Charlotte."

She gags at the sound of her full name. "How can I be intimidating?"

"Have you seen yourself? You're like some angel. I'm convinced there is a halo hidden under that head of hair."

She rolls her eyes and pulls away from him to face him more. "See there you go again being only Mr. Cool Guy. You do this kind of thing all the time. You know exactly how to make the girls swoon for you."

"I'm kind of interested in making only one girl swoon."

"Stop talking! It's like you're trying to kill me."

"How do you think I feel? I'm the idiot begging this beautiful French girl to help me after I stared at her the whole train ride."

She smirks. "You stared at me the whole train ride?"

He throws his head back and pinches his nose. He groans and she's laughing at him and how can you not feel like the fool when she's making him do shit like this? "I'm a major creep but I swear I'm not going to murder you."

She huffs. "Oh, how promising. Next, you're going to take me down a dark alley and I'll mysteriously disappear."

Alex hunches over the table and rubs his face. "You're making me feel worse."

She grabs both her shoulders and squeezes them. "Don't get in your head about it. It's a labyrinth in there. I'm here and you're here and I think we both know how we feel so no pressure. We don't have to ever see each other again if we find out things about the other we don't like. I don't think you're going to kill me and you shouldn't worry much about a girl who couldn't even win a thumb wrestle if her life depended on it."

Alex doesn't want to think about never seeing her again but he's done keeping his guard up and he's going to make the most of this day, even if it's the only one they spend together. "You want to thumb wrestle?"

She pulls back with a gasp. "You just want to feel like a winner. Piece of shit."

"Fine," he chuckles, "tell me a secret. What have you been hiding from me?" He hit his shoulder with hers before wrapping his arm back around her.

She toys with the ends of her hair. "Euh," she says, eyes cast away from him, and roughly bites her lip, "I left my book on the train on purpose."

Alex stares at her and suddenly everything shifts. He isn't the only fool. "Is that a technique you use? Pick up men through book leaving methods."

She giggles and finally meets his eyes, sparkling. "No, no. I had finished the book on the train and I, well, I could tell you were watching me. I'm sorry I acted like I couldn't but it made me seem like less of a sap if I didn't know. I figured if you were watching me, you'd return it, and if not I would lose the book. I'm glad I wasn't wrong."

He gazes. The entire day reframed in his mind. "You..." He isn't sure what to say. He's yielded completely but trapped thoroughly. "I can't believe it."

She smirks. "Worked out pretty good too."

"Holy shit" is all he can utter. His mouth gapes open and shut multiple times before he can even think of a thing to say. "And here I thought I was the sap."

She tilts her head back. "I'm a total maple."

"Maple?"

She explains by saying, "Maple sap."

Alex is overcome with laughter and completely dazed by her. "Can I steal that?"

She inches close to him and plays with his hand on the arm that is around her. "What's your secret?"

Alex admits he walked into that one. The unavoidable shielding he's been doing ever since he got on the train to Brussels. It's not that he's full of himself thinking she'll know him or know the band but the whole purpose, or part of it, was to get away from that part. After a year that most people wouldn't experience in a lifetime, he needed to escape himself.

"I'm sort of running away from that," he tells her.

"What? Did you kill someone?"

He awkwardly laughs. He's frazzled. Back against the wall and he sighs, it shouldn't be this big of a deal. "No, I've had this big year with me band and we're doing our second album now which is the first break we've had in a long time but it's not really a break since we're making this album. I love doing it but after the whole thing with me girlfriend, I just sort of feel like I'm not even meself anymore."

"So you went to somewhere where no one would know you," Lottie guesses.

Alex nods. "Sometimes I think the person I need to escape is me." He's been sucked into the black hole of himself. A constant loop of overthinking and ever since things ended with Johanna, he's been thinking that all he does is suck the life out of everyone else, including himself. He knows it isn't true. At least, not completely. The band is great and the guys are great but he's losing touch with everything he'd ever known. He doesn't talk about it much, not even with the guys, but he feels flipped on his head, drowned, and unable to come up for air, and the tide is only getting higher.

"It makes sense," she tells him. He looks down and she's looking back at him with those drowning blues and suddenly he's breathing again. The ocean is in her eyes and not suffocating him anymore. "The person you spend the most time with is yourself. I think I'm a horrible person most of the time but you do your best to find people who don't make you feel that way. If you're really lucky you found people that make you actually feel like a good person."

Alex pulls her closer and leans down, placing his lips close to hers, but not touching them. "You make me feel that way," he whispers.

He can see her smile, teeth like pearls in an oyster, allowing him to be whoever he wants. "You do too. For me." He kisses her. It's soft and serene and he's eager and she's eager, both tugging at one another. Her mouth tastes like cherries and he holds her face and she tugs on her lower lip. He's not going to force her to do anything more with him but he thinks she's thinking what he's thinking like they have the same mind and are joined in the ideas of one another.

She's heavy when they pull back. Red cheeks and out of breath talking. "Do you want to walk around more?"

Alex will follow wherever Lottie leads. He pays their tab and grabs her hand to walk the stone roads once more. The sky has grown dark and a light flickers outside the bar where a group of people stand smoking. The street is relatively empty, besides a few stragglers who are returning from work or couples reaching the end of dates.

He wonders if people think they are a couple. It would be an understandable assumption. They stand with their hands intertwined. Her other hand is wrapped around his elbow and her head lays on the corner of his shoulder. She seems sleepy whether from exhaustion or her drink.

They walk lazily down the street with no direction in mind, no need to end up anywhere. "I like Brussels at night," Lottie quietly says.

The night is placid and her body is warm. "Me too."

She stops them on a street corner and lifts her head. "Where were you planning on sleeping tonight?"

He's not trying to get his hopes up. Maybe this is goodbye. He doesn't think it, prays it isn't, but isn't sure of anything, except the way he feels. "I was going to look for a vacancy somewhere. You?"

Lottie tries to hide her smile. It's one of the most adorable things he's ever seen, like a child trying to hide a cookie they've stolen from the jar behind their back. "I wasn't planning on staying the night. I was supposed to go back to Paris about an hour ago."

Alex tries his best not to use wishful thinking but come on. "Are you going to go back tonight?"

She shakes her head.

"Do you want to—"

"Yeah."

He's not a horny person. He's not a porno addict, he's not obsessive with women's bodies, he's not thinking of sex, boobs, or ass every minute of the day but, fuck, does the blood rush south quickly.

She resumes their walking and, again, he's not trying to rush her but it takes everything in him not to bolt directly to the nearest visible hotel even if it looks like a place where sex rings are located. He holds his pace but then he feels her step quicken and he tries to not hold his breath but he's already out of it.

"Does this look fine?" She points somewhere.

"Yeah." It could be a bench. He doesn't fucking care.

It's a Hilton. Nice, clean, generic. It doesn't matter as long as it has a bed.

Lottie talks to the women at the front desk in French. He doesn't understand any of it. She hands Lottie a set of keycards and tells her, "Vous êtes dans la chambre cinq cent cinq."

Suddenly, they're heading off toward the elevators. "Did you pay for it? You didn't have to pay for it. I'm the one making you stay the night here."

Lottie presses the down button. "You're not forcing me to be here against my will."

"At least, let me pay for half," he insists.

"You can write me a check." They walk in the elevator and she presses the 5 button.

He taps his foot. He can't touch her. If he touches her right now, he'll fuck her. She's giving him bedroom eyes and a heartache and he thinks she might eat him alive and he thinks he might let her, if she's the kind of food that gives her salvation. He'll be the victim if she's the vampire.

She unlocks the door and turns on the lights. The room is basic and the sight of the one lone bed confirms everything he needs to know in his mind.

Then she turns around and says, "I'm not having sex with you."

Alex tries his best to not look disappointed and he thinks he does a decent job besides the quiver of a smile on Lottie's lips. "That's alright. I can sleep on the floor if you'd like."

A smile overwhelms her face. She's dipping into a fit of giggles before she throws her bag into the lone chair in the corner of the room. "I presume you have a condom. All men seem to have a condom in their wallet during these situations."

Alex scratches the back of his head. He tries to answer simply, "Uh, yeah." But she just told him they weren't having sex so the condom that sits in the hidden pouch of his wallet doesn't seem as useful.

"When I lost my virginity, the guy I lost it to pulled out a whole string of Trojans and threw them on my bed." She tells the story through laughter, recalling the details best as her traumatized mind will allow. "He had to have had at least 20 as if he even lasted long enough to count the first time as sex. He fell asleep about 2 minutes after."

Her giggles prompted him to tell her, "The girl I lost mine to provided the condoms because I was too nervous to buy them."

She claps her hands in delight. She's sitting on the edge of the bed. He keeps his distance, unsure of what she wants him to do. He leans against the wall, knee propped up, hands in his pockets.

"My porno boyfriend wasn't too good at sex, which is extra annoying because you'd think he'd know how to do it based on the amount he was watching."

Alex laughs and shrugs. "Isn't most porn kind of made for men anyway? It's just a woman writhing around at the slightest touches."

Her eyebrow is raised and the left side of her mouth smirks. "Have you read The Second Sex?"

"Is that some smutty novel?"

She bursts out laughing and he figures he made himself sound like an idiot. "You read romance novels?"

Alex recalls, "My friend, Matt—he's the drummer in the band—read one to us once. It talked about throbbing members a lot."

"Does your member ever throb?"

He isn't sure what she is asking him. "Have I ever gotten hard before?" He tries his best to decipher.

She ignores his question and asks, "How many girlfriends have you had?"

Alex answers, "Uh, 3, I guess. None of them really long-term until my last." She nods like she's studying him. She might as well be holding a pen and notepad in her hand and taking notes on him. "What about you?"

She avoids the question and becomes snarky. "I haven't had any girlfriends."

"Good one," he approves. "You should be a journalist. You’re very nosy."

She bends down and undoes her shoes with a smile pointed at him. "Sex is weird," she voices. "The idea of putting yourself in someone else or having someone else inside you and it being pleasurable is one of the funniest ideas I've ever heard."

He shrugs. "Why? I think being with someone, feeling so close to them, you want to be the closest you can possibly be, and that concept brings pleasure. It makes sense. I don't think sex is completely about that. The pleasure part."

"What do you think it's about?"

"The vulnerability of it. I mean, being comfortable enough with a person to be naked in front of them, let alone, allowing them to be a part of that nakedness, take part in your body. The goal is to give this other person relief. To bring them this immeasurable ecstasy." He looks down at his shoes. If he looks at her, he'll probably bust a nut. "I think it's one of the last untouchable things. I suppose until we're having sex with robots and all that."

He sighs and meets her eyes. She's blinking at him, slow and carefully, as if she's in a daze. He thinks he went on for too long and weirded her out with talks of being naked, ecstasy, and sex robots. Probably thinks he's trying to force her into something. Then, she bends down and unties her shoes. "I decided I was going to have sex with you when you said I looked like Anne-Marie Crowet. The rest has just been foreplay."

She leaves him speechless again. He isn't sure if that's the go-ahead or if she's just informing him until she stands up and takes off her dress and he's pretty sure his heart is in need of a defibrillator.

Her back is to him and the blue of her underwear is imprinted in his mind. She looks over her shoulder and teases, "Do I have to do the whole thing myself?"

He swallows a chuckle and tries his best to stand up straight. He pulls off his dirty trainers and makes his way over to her. His arms wrap around her and it's like the first time he's touching her all over again. The delicate movements he makes as if he might burn himself at the slightest touch of her.

Lottie helps him out and leans forward touching her boobs to his chest. She fiddles with the bottom of his shirt and he nods for her to pull it off of him. The lace of her bra imprints itself on his skin and he thinks it'll leave a tattoo. The roughness of the material combined with the feeling of her nipples poking into him makes the blood rush with such speed he thinks he becomes lightheaded. She's got this hungry look that kind of drives him a little crazy.

Then, her mouth is on his. It's red hot, hot and heavy, rough, but the way his hand lands on her cheeks brings a sweetness to it neither can endure thinking about for long when trains leave the station all the time and people never return.

He kisses her neck. It's right there, a stretch of soft skin begging to be touched. They stumble blindly toward the bed. The mattress bounces as they fall onto it and a squeal emits from her lips that breaks any remaining tension and makes both of them laugh, teeth clashing, both too hungry for it to pull away to breathe fully.

She sits up enough for him to undo her bra. It's thrown back, scattered with the other clothes. She urges him to remove his jeans, "It's only fair. Equal opportunity."

"I'll show you equal opportunity." He's kissing her neck then mouthing her left breasts, kissing everywhere. Every expanse of skin. She's warm, warming up every inch of him. He tries not to rub against her too much for fear he might implode as he grows harder by the millisecond. He's dizzy, drunk off her skin, drunk off her boobs, drunk off the giggle she lets out when he kisses her belly button, drunk off her.

Alex nudges her legs apart as he trails his mouth down her stomach. He kisses her clit over the fabric of those blue panties. She groans and he's in deep. His hands edge the line of the underwear but he looks up to know for sure. She gives a head nod and he drags them down her legs slowly. He wants her to feel what he's felt. This waiting, the wanting, while she's called the shots. He wants her under his thumb now.

He feels the crevices of her. Slowly, he moves his hands inward down the lines that connect her legs to the rest of her body. He touches his nose to the area above her clit, teases her, wants to please her but wants her to need it. Suddenly, her hands are in his hair, threaded through his strands, not pushing him down but urging him. He gives in then.

She tightens her hold on the strands of hair and if she were to pull any harder she might rip a few out. She lets out this noise halfway between a whine and a moan, and he feels addicted. Desperate to hear it again. She's some fucked-up form of heroin, the water after the desert, the tang of the lime after the tequila, the first flower after the kind of winter that cracks your skin.

He dives in heavier, sucks her clit, and it makes her gasp and makes him restless but he isn't going to let up. He stops and kisses her inner thigh, which only angers her as she drags his head back to her center. He laughs into her pussy and it makes her push his head down heavier. "Please."

"Please what?" He lifts his head and he thinks she might slap him.

"Fuck you."

"Fuck me?"

"Fuck me," she begs and he grins, scruffy and desperate himself. He puts his fingers in her and you'd think he fed her a 3-course meal after months of only eating a shitty bag of petrol station crisps. He never considered himself to be too great at this kind of thing but she's shaking and he thinks he might be too but he's too focused on her to notice. She's crying out, coming, shaking, and breathless.

Alex wipes his mouth on his arm and kisses his way back up her body. Lottie leans up to capture his lips in a hungry, rabid kind of way, pushing him down on the bed. She snaps his waistband and he lets out a little scream, which makes her giggle, and it's a form of tit for tat. "You're annoying." She straddles him and he thumbs her hips.

"I don't know what you're referring to."

She crosses her arms. "Fine. You can sleep on the floor now."

"Only if you join me."

He leans up and kisses her and any teasing seems to have been forgotten because she reaches down and pushes off his boxers. Her fingers fumble before stroking him as if he isn't hard enough. "You've got quite the throbbing member." It's these tiny things that leave him rough and reeling and pushing any thought of never seeing her again out of his mind.

Alex pushes her over so she's on her back. He kisses her and says, "I need to get my wallet." She lets out a laugh as he goes to retrieve it. She sits up and watches him tear the packet with his teeth. Keeps watching him while he rolls it on, biting down on her lips, she pulls him close again, and touches him over it. Alex kisses her, long and good, trying to say everything he can't say out loud.

Everything becomes hazy. A mess as he enters her slowly before urgency takes over and she hooks her left leg over his hip and pushes him deep. A string of incoherent syllables fall from her lips and her brows draw together so tightly he sticks his thumb out to smooth it out. She catches his hand and kisses his palm. He hits this spot in her that forces this hitched gasp out of her and he swears he nearly cums from just that. She holds him tight, nails digging into his back. She could be drawing blood but he doesn't care. It feels good, everything feels good, electrifying, and killing. It's hard and rough and a real fuck if he's ever had one.

But it's more than that too because she keeps catching his gaze and holding it. Her arms are around his neck insisting he keeps his eyes on her, not that he'd look away, he doesn't have a choice but to take her in. She moans his name and Alex forgets for a moment that they are two bodies. He doesn't think his body belongs to him anymore. Its only purpose is to fulfill her.

He hits that spot again and she falls over the edge with a caught breath, nails digging deeper into his shoulder blades as he fucks her through it. For a moment, he's completely detached from himself, it's only her, nothing else, only her. Then, it's too much, and he's releasing into the condom and his body is on top of hers in a heaping pile of sweat-slick limbs and trembling bodies. His face is buried into the crook of her neck and he might suffocate himself.

Her arms are tight around him as if he might fly away into the night sky with a puff of smoke. He can feel her pulse race and the thought that he did that to her makes him want to already do it again. He presses his lips in the hollow of her neck and lifts his head. She brushes his hair back, all a mess in his eyes and he probably needs a haircut but who the fuck cares when her hands are running through it. "Is it always that good for you?" She whispers.

He's still out of breath as he shakes his head. "Fuck no." He doesn't want to remove himself from her but he disposes of the condom and she pees but they meet back in the middle.

The room is hot, even with the AC, it was cool when they entered but they've stunk it up with sex. She lies on top of his chest and his arms wrap around her and he has never had a girl fit so perfectly into that curve of him. As if they are curved for one another. "Best song to have sex to? Go."

He chuckles, still spent from what just happened but thinks. "I don't know like Marvin Gaye or something."

"Good answer," she approves.

"What's yours?"

"You know that Crazy Frog song." He doesn't think he's ever laughed harder in his life.

They run into an issue about a makeout session later. You see, Alex only had the one condom but is currently nursing a throbbing member, and Lottie isn't exactly cold either. "You think they sell them at the front desk?" She asks.

He throws his head back on the pillow. He can't keep making out with her because he can't go down in the hotel lobby with a raging erection. "I can't ask that poor lady at the front desk."

She bites her thumbnail in contemplation. "There's probably a store open down the street."

"Okay." He stands up and swiftly pulls on his boxers. "You can take a shower." She complained about being too hot and sweaty for about the last 20 minutes. "I'll get enough condoms to put virginity guy to shame."

She opens her mouth dramatically. "What are you planning on doing to me, Alexander?"

And, yeah, he nearly trips trying to get his jeans on after that. "I'll be back in 10 minutes tops. Do you want anything?"

She stands up on her knees on the mattress, the sheet is wrapped around her, and it's like she's trying to tempt him into a bad idea. "Oh, oh, oh!" She says excitedly. "You know those Lindt chocolates?" He nods, amused by her enthusiasm. "Get those but not the assorted kind, just the milk chocolate."

So, there he is at some grocery store, scared to buy condoms and chocolate for fear they'll talk to him in French. But the cashier is busy talking to his friend and doesn't so much as glance down at Alex or what he is scanning.

On the walk back (he thinks about running but that would probably be too dorky), Alex starts to spiral a little. Mainly at what has occurred in the past hours and the impending following hours. After their night together, what's next? A goodbye. If that's what she wants, he'll do it, but he doesn't want it that way. But is he really ready for a relationship? Let alone doing long distance again? He should probably be on his own for a while. Maybe they could be friends. Maybe this is a fond memory he'll look back at in his old age and remember the blonde angel who took hold of his hand and he never wanted to drop it. Suddenly, he thinks he'll be a single lone loser who doesn't find anything or anyone better than what he has and is forced to reminisce on a lost time. Or worse, he'll be with someone, but constantly thinking about what could have been.

He shakes the thoughts out of him and returns to the hotel. It's close to midnight and the lobby is empty except for the front desk which he gives a weak "Bonjour" to. The ride up the elevator is excruciating. Now that he is no longer spiraling, he's just thinking about her, naked. He fumbles putting the keycard through the slot and nearly drops the chocolates but he pops open the door.

And there she is. Naked, freshly showered with damp hair, lying on her side with her hands between her thighs. It's like she's shot him, he almost stumbles back, the sight is so holy, and he's so unworthy.

"Do you enjoy killing men?" He asks her. She smiles, giggles, and it pierces him completely. A force moving through him. She starts to sit up slowly and he quickly yells, "No, no, no, don't move!"

She lays back down pleased. "You bossing me around?"

The chocolates and condoms hanging at his side and his mouth almost hangs open. "Just want to take in the sight." And he tries his best to memorize every curve of her, the way her hand dances up her side, and how his heart is thumping away.

"At my museum, you're allowed to touch the art," she jokes.

Alex can't wait much longer anyway. He's fast. Rips open the box of condoms, takes a packet out, pulls his jeans and shirt off before toppling all over her. It's a laughing mess but soon their lips are connected and she's urging his boxers off of him. She ends up on her back, knees at his ribs, and his body braces above hers. Alex cradles the back of her head, pulling at her hair, and swallowing all her noises, those hitches, those gasps. He loves them, loves her, he's going to miss her like hell. He can't help fucking her as if he'll never get to do it again because he might not ever do it again (besides any later rounds they might have tonight). It has to be good, perfect, flawless.

She flips them over and moves down him, kissing every few inches. His hands thread through her hair. She's teasing him like he did to her and he could let her do it but he swears he'll lose it if she kisses her stomach again. He lifts her head off of him and she seems to get the message as he fists her hair into a makeshift ponytail. She takes him in her mouth, licks him like a lollipop up the sides, and he wants to be careful with her but he can't be gentle when he's dying for it. "Come on, don't make me beg."

She lifts her head with a raised eyebrow and he groans in discomfort. "Would you?"

He thumbs her lip and she kisses it faintly. "You know I would."

She takes him all the way in. She puts a quick, great effort into taking him completely in her mouth. Her nose brushes up against his hair before pulling back slowly. She begins to bob her head, working away at him that has him muttering, "Holy shit. Fuck." His eyes stay trained on her, even if he can't help but flutter. The sight itself is enough to make him shoot a load, let alone the actual feeling of her doing it.

Right as he's about to, she lifts her head up off of him and says, "You know, we could have done all this without the condoms right."

He's antsy, needs to grab onto something, he settles for fisting her hair. He laughs at her teasing but groans and bucks his hips up like come on, finish the job. She gets the message. Works away desperately. She wants him to cum almost as badly as he wants to. She takes him down all the way again and he goes then, right down her throat. She doesn't move, doesn't choke, swallows everything, and, fuck, he could cum again just from that.

He's panting, in dire need of air but never needing it again if she's doing things like that. She wipes her mouth and giggles at his reaction. Pleased with herself, the way she puffs her chest out shows that.

She takes the condom he's been holding this whole time out of his hand. "Did we really need this?"

Alex hooks his arm around her neck. "Yeah." He forces her onto his back, kissing her. It doesn't take much to work him up again and he brushes his fingers through her pussy and she's drenched and like that, he's ready to go again or he'll make himself ready to go again. He wraps himself up and rubs himself through her, has her writhing, has her moaning, has her clawing away at him.

When he enters her again, her voice gets raspy as he moans, "Alex." She kisses his neck and shoulder, and bites down in a vain effort to keep quiet before uttering, "Yes," and he's hungry for her to do it again. Snaps his hips into her quickly causing her eyes to flutter shut. His hand thumbs her clit and she pulls on him tighter. Her legs wrap around his hips and she tries to move closer to him as if it is humanly possible.

He flicks her clit again and he never considered himself to be amazing at sex but she makes him want to be the best and she's moaning like he might be. He tries to make it last, doesn't want it to end. He pulls out almost all the way before snapping his hips forward to get her moaning. Her fingers curl around the sheets, then around his hair. His hand grazes up her, memorizing. He's deep in her, both physically and emotionally. "Fuck," she groans. He tries to be slow, but she urges quickness before ordering, "Harder." He listens, bucking into her and she's melting away unable to focus on anything. His own pleasure is secondary. He hasn't even thought about his orgasm. He needs her to finish.

Their skin is coated with a sheen of sweat and he kisses away at hers. She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him into her tightly. It's enough to choke the light out of him but he doesn't mind because she's panting and unarticulately moaning before she's coming. Their pattern becomes messy before she sends him over the edge.

She tries to catch her breath and relinquishes her hold on Alex. "Holy shit," she whispers weakly.

Alex hums in concurrence. He runs his fingers down her sides to make her shiver—a quiver comes from her lips.

"Hi there," she says. Something in him swells. He pulls her by the waist and she yelps a little, surprised, and then bites down on a grin. Reaches up to push his hair from his face and she's cracked him open like an egg and now he's just spilling out. His eyes fall shut and he wraps her up in his arms, indolent from exertion, nuzzling her nose to his.

She sighs heavily and they're stuck in the post-sex silent glow. Absorbed with one another and nothing else. Much like the rest of the day. "Are you sick of me yet?" Alex jokingly asks her. He isn't sure of himself on many things but he's sure of this. She must be feeling everything he's feeling. She has to, right?

She sits atop his chest. "Never."

He pets his hand down her now unruly hair. It gives him intense pleasure to know he did that. She dances her fingers around his body, waist to shoulder. "What's sex in French?"

She smirks, returning to their old translation game. "Sex is sex. I mean, there's faire l'amour, which is make love."

"Faire l'amour," he repeats.

"There's se branler."

"Se branler."

"Which means to jerk off."

He pulls an offended face. "I just had sex with you. I'm not jerking anything off."

She giggles. "Fine, baise-moi," she offers.

"Baise-moi."

"Fuck me."

He laughs. "I'm not that quick."

"J'ai envie de toi," she says. "I want you." She curls into him. Her hair soft and arms tight.

The impending morning hangs over their heads like an anvil. "Are we ever going to see each other again?" He asks.

They aren't looking at each other anymore. She breaks eye contact with him to stare at the ceiling and his eyes soon follow to do the same. "I don't know. I have to be back tomorrow."

"Me too," Alex says. His thumb grazes back and forth on the corner of her shoulder.

"I don't want to do long distance," she confesses. "It always fades away. You know, two people say they'll keep in touch but that's never true. You send a few texts but then you're missing each other's calls and it's a mess. I don't want to do that with you."

"Me either," he agrees. He doesn't want to repeat history and he doesn't want to do that with someone like her. Someone who he's never felt this way before.

"If this was it, would you be okay with that?" She asks.

His head is screaming No, no I wouldn't be okay with that, screw those kids, stay with me. But he's not going to lose himself in fantasy so he nods. "If that's what you want."

She averts her eyes. She looks unsure of herself but doesn't say anything and tucks herself into him. "I don't know what I want."

He kisses the top of her head. "That's okay."

In the morning, those blinds they never closed allow the Sun to wake them up. Their limbs are thrown about around the other. Her eyes flutter and it's like a butterfly taking flight as she exposes those blues. She looks at him and starts laughing. Her hand drags across the side of his face. "You have lines all over your face."

He perks up at the sight of her and that laugh. "That means I had a good sleep."

She bites a grin. "I had a good sleep too." If you can call it that. They weren't paying the closest eye on time but he doesn't exactly feel like he slept for 8 hours straight. She leans up and kisses across his face and it's an eruption of giggles.

There's a feeling in the air that they might do it again but then her eyes catch something and she falls back. She bites her thumb, which he can tell is a habit when she doesn't want to say something. She exhales roughly. "I have to go now if I'm going make it back in time."

Alex can't say more than an "Okay."

She redressed and, soon after, he does too. There isn't much romance to the whole thing. Soon, they're making their way to the station. Not many words are spoken but halfway through the walk, she leans her head on his shoulder, and he thinks he might cry.

Her train leaves at 9:45, his at 10:15. It's 9:35. There are no words spoken but he follows her onto the platform in silent understanding. Her train is already there, taunting them.

She grabs both his hands and places them on her waist. She rubs her hands over his elbows. The station is full of noise but silence echoes. Then, she says, "I don't want to never see you again."

He lets out a breath, feeling air enter his lungs again. He leans his forehead down to hers. "I don't want that either."

She kisses him tight in a quick motion. She presses herself up against him completely and he holds her against him in the same manner, the finality of it rattling around them.

"Come to London," he wishes aloud.

She pauses any movement, breaths caught in her throat. She's stiff and unmoveable before shaking her head. "I can't do that."

He has to. He has to. He has to. "Yes, come on. You hate your job. You want to find a future. Find it in London."

"I like my life. I have friends—"

"You have friends in London," he recalls. "Come on, Lottie. Doesn't have to be forever." He's begging. He sounds pathetic, he must, but, my god, if she can get him to get on his train, then any begging is worth it.

Her eyes are filled with tears and the knife twists within him. She takes a deep breath. Then, perks up, and excitedly says, "What if—what if I visit in a couple of weeks? I'll sort everything out and then I'll visit."

He feels like someone punches him. "We'll be back on the road soon."

She deflates and her train is honking away. This can't be it. Both are thinking it.

Alex gets one last idea. "I'll be in Paris. In July. My band we're gonna be touring here. Come to the show."

She grabs a hold of him like he might float away. And he just might. "In July?"

"Yes," Alex confirms. "Arctic Monkeys is the name of the band. I'll reimburse you for the ticket and all that." He tries to end on a lighthearted note but the weight hangs heavy.

She smiles and kisses him. “Okay, I'll see you in July.”

Alex kisses her again. He has to savour it. Hold it completely in his hands, hold her, memorize the way she moves her lips against his. Last call for the train is shouted out and says, "See ya in July." He smiles hopefully and she returns it.

She goes to get on the train but turns back quickly. Kissing him tightly, hard, passionately, firework-erupting finale. "Have a good ride back and a good tour, Alex."

"You too, Lottie." It takes her laughing to realize his mistake. He slaps his forehead, which endears her completely as if she could be endeared anymore.

She squeezes his hand firmly. "I'll try my best." She steps aboard and gives him a final look before dropping his hand.

He lets it swing at his side. Watches her pick a window seat. Each party waves goodbye before the train pulls out of the station. Alex stands there for a moment. He can't think about it for too long. He'll be doing that the whole train ride. Every day until July. Every day after July. Until.

Alex catches his train back to London and he'll wait for her. And then wait some more.

#alex turner #alex turner x reader #arctic monkeys #alex turner x fem!reader #alex turner fic #alex turner smut #alex turner x oc #alex turner x y/n #alex turner x you #junedenim

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echantedtoon · 6 months ago

Text

Ocean Deep Ch18 Feelings Are Complicated

(Warnings: Mentions of kidnapping, Koyuki's condition, and Yn's hurt shoulder. Cursing.)

I also have an announcement. Have you ever wanted to date the Haishira all at once(minus Muichiro for obvious reasons)? Well now you can. Reverse harem Haishira fic has been launched with the first two chapters posted here! Just let me know if you'd like to be added to it's tag list!

taglist: @six-eyed-samurai @lavenderdrxp @jjamsbangtan @camilo-uwu @hopefulworld1

@shadyd3ar @amypop122 @azuredragonstrike

@mimisweetz @chaoticoperatorduckhairdo @staarflowerr @aleee-386 @summrwalkr

@nicora04 @miniverse-zen @heijihattorisgf

@lavender-moony

Remember if you want to be added to the tag list lemme know.

SPLAT!!

Silence.

There was a silence. Giyuu sat there with eyes boring into his face as a thick glob of sand ran in a teardrop shape over the left side of his cheek, and with a ka-thunk sound dripped off his chin leaving a sticky trail behind before dropping into the water below. Everyone's head looked to where the ripples floated away from the sight where it disappeared from, before exchanging looks with one another, and then slowly one by one looked at where the mysterious attack had come from.

"Now that I have your attention-..PAY ATTENTION OR ELSE!!"

A woman's voice echoed over the waves and with it carried the beginnings of anger. The normally nonthreatening image of a delicate maiden replaced by a shadow of fury's wrath. Stunning the water dwellers in the sea bobbing up and down amongst the waves.

You stared furious and scowling. "What the ever loving hell is wrong with you all?!" You shouted angry at them. "Just..WHAT have you all been thinking?!"

"Sunlight! I don't know what's gotten into them but I assure you it was a misunderstan-"

"STOP!" You ORDERED Kyojuro and held up a full hand in his direction but didn't look at him. "Just stop. You've done absolutely nothing to help in this situation! I'm disappointed in you. ALL OF YOU!!" You pointed right at the teary eyed and snarling shark. "Starting with you! Don't you dare give me that look when you know very well Kanae said she wanted nothing to do with you this entire time! You're stressing her out because you keep pushing her and pushing her! I'm surprised she didn't snap sooner!"

"SSSTAY OUT OF THIS!!"

Your gaze snapped to the snake giving you a other one of those narrowed eyed looks however unlike last time you felt no fear. Only annoyance and anger. "I'd LOVE nothing more than to mind my own businesssssss!!" You hissed back at him making an irritated vein pop on his forehead. "But unfortunately it became my business when I was brought here! And you're one to demand I stay out of it!! YOU TREAT THOSE GIRLS LIKE YOU'RE A FUCKING PRISON GUARD LETTING YOURSELF INTO THE HOUSE ANYTIME YOU WANT TO AND DEMANDING DOORS STAY OPEN ALL THE TIME!! YOU REALLY ARE MAKING YOURSELF OUT TO BE SOME KIND OF INSANE PERVERT!!"

"TENGEN!! REIN IN YOUR DAM WIFE!!"

"I'M NOT HIS WIFE!!" Your voice echoed loudly over the heads and piercing the ears of anyone who dated to be heard causing a jingling bejeweled head of wine red eyes to turn startled towards you. Fiery eyes wielding the same whiplashed expression."I AM NOT TENGEN'S WIFE!" You pointed at Tengen. Then at Kyojuro."I AM NOT KYOJURO'S WIFE! I AM NOT MAKIO'S OR SUMA'S OR EVEN HINATSURU'S WIFE! I AM NOBODY'S WIFE!"

If you were in any other state of mind then you would've felt guilty about the shocked and guilty faces upon your friends but your brain was fried from everything that not only happened to you but to those poor girls as well. You were determined to get the truth through their thick heads once and for all. EVEN IF YOU HAD TO LITERALLY POUND IT INTO THEIR SKULLS!!

"LET'S GET THAT STRAIGHT!!" You jabbed a thumb to yourself. "I DID NOT know that letting those girls groom me was flirting!! I WAS NOT FLIRTING!! I REJECTED Kyojuro's proposal!! I DID NOT ACCEPT IT!! AND I SURE AS HELL WASN'T FLIRTING WITH YOU, TENGEN!! I WAS JOKING AROUND BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HUMANS DO!! THEY JOKE AROUND WITH EACH OTHER FUCKING PLATONICALLY!! I WAS RUNNING AWAY BECAUSE YOU FUCKING SCARED THE LIVING HELL OUTTA ME?!"

Too stunned to speak. Too stunned to respond. No one spoke a single word.

"HUMANS!! DO NOT!! COURT!! THE WAY!! MERS DO!! SO THAT MEANS KANAE DOESN'T LOVE YOU!!" Sanemi's face completely dropped as the petite woman pointed at him. "MITSURI DOESN'T LOVE YOU!" Obanais eyes went wide. "SHINOBU DOESN'T LOVE THAT ONE!! AND I'M SURE AS HELL KOYUKI DOESN'T FEEL ANYTHING FOR YOU!! AND I SURE AS HELL FEEL NOTHING ROMANTIC TOWARDS ANYONE!! SO LET ME TELL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU HOW HUMANS ARE ACTUALLY FEELING AROUND HERE!!"

Sand kicked out from under your feet as you face back and forth about two yards in length motioning your arms as you did so angrily.

"These girls are away from their families for who knows how long, trapped alone on this island without anyone to help them and to them you're all responsible for everything." You stopped suddenly. Going wide eyed and silent for a few seconds. "No. Scratch that. Actually.." you snapped up again narrowed eyed and scowling. "YOU ALL ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!! EVERY ONE OF YOU ARE GUILTY IN A WAY!!"

"N-Now, Y-Y/n." Kyojuro tried to do some kind of damage control shakily raising a hand. "Maybe that's going a little far-"

"Oh don't you try to spin this any other way! Do you know how much it hurt you and Tengen when your wives were kidnapped!?" Both your arms threw themselves at the house. "YOU ALL KIDNAPPED FIVE GIRLS!!!"

Silence.

Shocked.

Stunned.

D E A D SILENCE.

"SAY IT HOW IT IS DAM YOU ALL!! YOU KIDNAPPED KOYUKI!" YOU POINTED OUT AKAZA! "YOU KIDNAPPED MITSURI!!" YOU POINTED AT THE SNAKE! "YOU TWO NOT ONLY KIDNAPPED KANAE AND SHINOBU BUT THEIR OWN LITTLE SISTER TOO!!" YOU POINTED AT TWO IN THE MIDDLE! "YOU TWO AREN'T INNOCENT IN THIS EITHER!!" YOU GLARED AT THE TWO HUSBANDS WITH SUCH INTENSITY THAT YOU THOUGHT THE OCEAN WOULD BOIL THEM FROM YOUR ANGER!! "YOU ALLOWED THEM TO KEEP THOSE GIRLS TRAPPED ON YOUR OWN DAM ISLAND AND YOU DIDN'T DO SHIT ABOUT IT!! THE GIRLS AREN'T OFF SCOTT FREE EITHER! EVEN IF THEY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THOSE GIRLS THEY SHOULD'VE TOLD YOU TO LET THEM GO AFTER THEY FOUND OUT!! YOU'RE DOING TO THEM WHAT AKIRA AND HIS FAMILY DID TO YOURS! YOU BROKE YOUR PROMISE TO LET THEM GO!! IF I WAS THEM I'D HATE YOU TOO!! SANEMI HOW THE FUCK COULD YOU THINK THIS IS OK WHEN YOU HAVE A LITTLE BROTHER TOO?!"

You clutched your head feeling it start to hurt and your shoulder throbbed.

"DAM IT ALL!! YOU TOOK THEM FROM THEIR HOMES!! THEIR FAMILIES!! I FUCKING SAW THE WAY KANAE'S PARENTS CRIED FOR THEM!! YET YOU'RE DEMANDING THAT THEY FORGET ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM THE MOST AND CALL THIS THEIR HOME WHEN YOU'RE ALL THE ONES WHO KIDNAPPED THEM, HELD THEM HOSTAGE OR AREN'T DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT, AND DEMANDING THEY LOVE YOU!! EVEN IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND OUR CUSTOMS HOW HARD IS IT TO FUCKING UNDERSTAND IN ANY LANGUAGE THAT-"

You threw your arms at them eyes scary bloodshot and your voice louder than ever in your life

"-N O M E A N S F U C K I N G N O?!"

You were heaving. Chest pumping in and out with every inhale of air as you gasped l. Your voice giving a small raspy hiss with every inhale you gave. There was nothing but silence from the waters. Not surprising.

"So here's what's going to *gasp* happen." You pointed out each one of them as you addressed them with a growl. "You're gonna stop trying to court Kanae and stop trying to fucking sing to her when we're trying to sleep!! You stay away from Shinobu!She's not allowed to study you anymore! YOU FUCKING STOP COMING INSIDE LIKE A FUCKING PRISON DOG OR I'M GOING TO TURN YOU INTO THE BIGGEST PAIR OF SNAKE SKIN BOOTS!! And stay away from Mitsuri!! You-..." You regarded the colorful pinked haired man. "I don't know about you too much..But I'll leave you this Intel. Koyuki needs access to doctors! REAL DOCTORS!! Those girls only know a few things. What if Koyuki ends up really sick and needs actual medical attention!? Or God forbids she needs surgery?! She can't get that from them trapped on an island with no dam proper hospitals!! And ALL of you stay away from Kanao!! That little girl must be terrified by now!!"

Finally you looked Kyojuro and Tengen one by one in each of their eyes slowly.

"And you two." You pointed out into the ocean. "You both go think about what you've allowed to happen! Tell the girls they need to talk to you about their lack of say as well!" Your eyes scanned all of them. "And lastly- ALL OF YOU LEAVE UNTIL YOU ACCEPT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!! Don't talk to me OR any of those girls unless it's to genuinely apologize for everything and to say you'll take them home!! You all need time to think about the enormity of what you all have done!"

With that you turned. Stomping through the sand with each step through the squishy grains until you got to the door. Pushing it open before SLAMMING it shut behind you harder than Kanae did previously. A loud UGH sound left your mouth before you kicked out at a random empty umbrella stand sending the cylinder shaped furniture into the adjacent room.

"Y/n?" Your eyes snapped up to Koyuki. She was looking like she was just coming downstairs when you came in. Ah. She must've went with Mitsuri to sooth Kanae. "What happened? Are you alright?"

You must've looked quite a sight to her actually. You sighed. "Yes. I'm fine. I'm more concerned about Kanae. How is she?"

She gave a glance back upstairs. "I think she'll be alright. Mitsuri is telling her stories about her cats."

"That's good. I'll bring her bread. You go rest up. You still look tired."

You did not see a single mer the next day. Not surprising since you threatened to turn them to sushi the other day...but now that could think clearly, you DID feel guilty especially for how you yelled at your friends but they needed to hear the truth. They couldn't just look through rose colored glasses anymore and realize what they did before anything else happened. Kanae thankfully seemed ok when you saw her. Her face was pink from obviously crying, but she seemed alright for the most part.

You didn't think anyone heard you tearing into the mers outside considering Koyuki was upstairs with Mitsuri and Kanae and Shinobu and Kanao didn't come back until much later with baskets of wild fruits and vegetables. Thank God the fish soup crisis was over!!

Well that one day turned to two. Then three. And now four. Some time away from their fish pals seemed to do everyone some good. Mitsuri did comment on it once though saying how strange it was to not see them around. You only shrugged and pretended to not know about it, although Koyuki gave you a slightly confused look.

"I'm going to make some pies today!" Mitsuri announced loudly and gushed.

"Pies? Now?"

"Uh huh!" She nodded at her best friend. "We have berries and everything else from that old pantry! We can have some to celebrate! Besides we haven't had some in so long, and they're so yummy!!" She licked her lips with a happy smile grabbing her cheeks.

"A pie sounds wonderful. " Kanae had smiled at the thought of it. She seemed the most relieved by the absence of mers. In fact the other clippy was returned to the other side of her head after being cleaned up.

"Then I'll make my famous raspberry coconut pie!..Only..We don't have coconut." She slowly blinked humming. "In fact, I'm pretty sure that we're completely out of it. Maybe someone could go get some more?"

"I'll do it." You slowly got up where you were sitting with Kanao playing some kind of card game you didn't understand (and loosing since she was good) with a smile. "I saw some on the trees when I was walking on the beach."

"Are you sure you'll be ok? Isn't your shoulder still sore?"

"Yes but as long as I'm not putting strain on it or moving it too quickly I should be fine. Don't wor-"

"I'll come with you." You were surprised when Kanae stood up with a smile.

"What? Kanae, are you sure?" You raised a hand but paused. "You uh..You sure you're feeling up to it? I mean Shinobu can come instead if you're worried about me-"

She nodded happily. "I'm getting some cabin fever just staying inside all day anyways. It'll be good to get some fresh air."

"Well.. Alright. But if you want to go back anytime you can."

"I'll keep that in mind. Shall we go?"

You nodded to her still unsure of what to do. Sanemi hadn't come around but he was obviously still out there. If he saw Kanae out walking around he might try to give her more unwanted advances or start a fight. Or at most Kanae would get angry or stressed again...but you had a feeling if you pushed her to stay, she'd only go anyways. So it was better if you went along with her to make sure nothing happened.

So that's where you both were. Walking along the shore in silence. Nothing but the waves, wind rustling through the trees, the soft squishing sounds of sand, and the cawing of seagulls in the sky to break that silence. ..You cautiously gave a look out to the waters every so often to see if you were being followed but you didn't see any mers in the water. Maybe they were all throwing tantrums under the water?

"..So..Are you feeling alright?" You finally broke the silence after so long turning to Kanae.

She smiled brightly at you. "Never better. Why do you ask?"

Maybe she was feeling better because of the plans night being so close. "I mean..Well a few days ago you were uh.." Crying? In hysterics? "..Stressed?"

She smiled wider. "Oh I'm perfectly fine now. I released a lot of pent up emotions and it was quite relieving. You don't have to worry about that anymore." You still did a little bit but at least her answer was reassuring. "Are we close to the coconut trees?"

"Uh yeah." You pointed up ahead. "Just about past that weirdly shaped log there."

You both continued to walk along the sand looking up towards the tree tops in search for any coconuts. You could've sworn you saw some the last time you came through here. Where were they? You both kept walking along and looking around at any and all trees until- AHA! You stopped spotting a couple brown round lumps hanging off the ends of a palm tree. There they were. You finally found them! You pointed them out to Kanae who silently nodded and together you both walked up to the tree they hung from. It was a medium sized palm tree that hung low over the beach, and it had around eight of those coconuts bunched together. Kanae was silent still until she calmly looked at you. Or more accurately your still hurt shoulder.

"..We only need two of them. I'll climb up and retrieve them. You're in no state to climb trees."

You gave her a look. "Are you sure? That's kinda dangerous."

"I've had to climb a few trees before," she assured you. "I'll be fine."

"Alright but be really careful. I don't want anyone else hurt around here."

"You don't have to worry about me. I'll be perfectly okay."

"KANAE?!"

A scream shattered the silence around you both. You literally heard a glass breaking sound go off in your mind as Kanae looked behind you surprised to see a white haired, scarred face bobbing out near the shallow shores looking down right miserable at her.

"Oh you motherf-"

"NO!"

Kanae had snatched your good arm just. I'm. Time. Because in one fast motion that even had Sanemi flinching, you had whirled around on your heel, snatched the shoe off your left foot, and lifted your good shoulder back to launch the said show right at his face- Or you would've if the talker woman hadn't snatched onto your wrist with both hands.

"GET OUT OF HERE, SUSHI HEAD!!," you snarled at him.

"I-.." he gave to Kanae who looked a mixture of surprise, worry, and annoyance. "I-I just wa- wanna talk-"

"WE are NOT interested in anything YOU have to say!! Get out of here before I-!!"

"YOU WERE RIGHT!!"

Silence stilled the waters as the three of you stared at each other wide eyed. You were paused in the comical position of throwing a shoe half barefoot with Kanae clutching your wrist with both hands tightly. Each having a similar wide eyed expression as Sanemi stared nervous. Eventually you opened your mouth after nearly a whole minutes-

"What?"

"Y-Yo-..." He gave another VERY nervous glance at Kanae's wide pink eyes. Opening his mouth.. before closing it and gulping thickly. "I-I sa-sa-said..Y-You were right! You were ri-right about it! All of it!" You both still stared as soft splash sounds went off as his arms gestured around. "You were right! I was selfish and an idiot and it's my fault and I made her cry and now I don't know what to do so I came here to apologize because I love you so much and I want to make things right because I'm scared you're gonna hate me and I don't want you to hate me and Im a fucking idiot who made you cry! So I'm here apologizing again because I really, really do love you and Im scared you won't like me anymore so I'm here so please tell me what to do because I DON'T know what to do and I'm sorry and I promise I won't do anything else to break your trust anymore!" He rapidly fired out at you both. By the end of that he was heaving for air chest rapidly rising and falling in breaths.

You both still stood in that position in silence.

".... Well..That was certainly a mouthful." You settled on saying after another few seconds.

You glanced at Kanae when you felt her hands loosen their grip on your wrists slowly. Her face was still wide eyed and staring at the merman. "what did you just say to me?" Her voice was so small. Like a whisper. He'll you were literally just a foot in front of her and you barely heard what she said under her breath in that tiny weak voice.

Sanemi opened his mouth again under her stare.. before gulping back the nervous bile that threatened to come up. "I-I sa-sa-said that-..I lo-love you. I-I LOVE YOU, KANAE!" He uses his arms to pull himself up further onto a nearby rock. "I mean it! I love your smile! A-And how beautiful you sound when you laugh!"

Pink eyes blinked widely and unbelievably at the man.

"A-And I'm not saying this to pressure you o-o-or anything! IM IN LOVE WITH YOU!! I've been in love with you since you saved me and treated my wounds as kids!"

Wait..You snapped to her with a raised brow. Say what now?!

"I love you so much and I wanted nothing more than to be with you! To just..Grow old and raise a fucking family!" He felt his vision blur as stinging saltwater that wasn't the sea stung his eyes. "Bit I know in the long run it's only a fucking joke to wish for that because you're perfect! Fuck you're more than fucking perfect! You're beautiful and kind and you can have any man you want. I just thought-.. Maybe I had chance y'know? If there wasn't any other guys a-and I could show you how much I could do-"

"Sanemi. That's enough."

You blinked as a taller figure brushed past you. Each step she took left a small imprint behind as she got closer. Those footfalls reducing to soft splashes as she delved deeper into the water closer and closer towards the gulping man. "Sanemi-"

"I know. You wanna go home. I-I'll take you home I swear! I promise I won't fuck up this time. Please don't hate me anymore! I-I know I fucked up-"

"Shush."

He went wide eyed as two hands grabbed his cheeks and squished them lightly. A beautiful face looking up at pink eyes, bottom lip trembling as a thumb gently wiped at a place under his eye. The waves wetting her gown her unimportant as anything else around her-

You cleared you throat quietly looking away from the kiss to give them some space. Well...This is happening. ..Um..You should probably put your shoe back on- You did do while still averting your eyes away from the emotional scene. They uh-...They probably needed a moment to talk.

"Hey uh..If you two need to talk-" You refused to look pointing a hand away from you. "-I can just go get some of the coconuts on the ground there."

There was a small peck sound as Kanae finally turned to you with a large smile. Past her you could glance Sanemi's face wide eyed shocked and about as pink as Mitsuri's hair. Looks like he really had trouble processing this.

"That's very considerate of you, Y/n. But I don't think that'll be necessary." She turned back to Sanemi. "We'll discuss this later. I'm still upset with you." Her lips delivered one last kiss to his forehead before she turned and as graceful as a swan walked on out of the water.

"So..were you literally going to say anything about the hidden backstory or are we just walking through someone's romance novel they're still writing?", you asked her crossing your arms and raising a brow.

She giggled at you. "Let's just say some things are better left unsaid. But I'm sure you're going to be a little distracted by a 'plot hook' yourself." She pointed behind you and you looked.

"Y/N!!!" Your f/c went wide see seeing at least five people popped up out of the water, with Suma on top Tengen's shoulders smiling and waving a full arm at you.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me."

Janae giggled again. "Don't worry. I'll handle the harder job of coconut collecting."

You deadpanned. "Now I see how you're related to Shinobu. The both of you are cruel in different ways."

That statement only made her giggle harder before shrugging and turning to walk off. You shot her a dirty look before Suma calling your name again forced you to look back to the quintet of mers sitting in the water. You stared at them all and they all seemed to have some expression on their faces. Suma was beaming waving a full arm at you, Hinatsuru looked as calm as ever, Makio was looking annoyed, Kyojuro smiled widely, and Tengen seemed to be the only one who looked serious yet at the same time lightly bothered by something he was thinking about. You stood there raising your brows higher at them in silence before crossing your arms and not going further from your spot.

"I told you all Im not speaking to any of you until you apologized to everyone," you stared firmly not changing your expression.

"We know! And we did!," Suma declared throwing up her hands before losing her balance and falling off Tengen back into the water with a loud splash. If this was any other normal occasion you would've laughed at her antics.

Instead your brow rose higher. "Oh really?"

"YES! WE DISCUSSED THIS LONG AND THOROUGHLY!!," Kyojuro announced in that loud voice of his that made you blink. "WE CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT WE MADE EVERYONE UNHAPPY WITH OUR ACTIONS SO WE GAVE YOU SPACE TO CALM YOURSELF BEFORE WE ATTEMPTED TO TALK!! HOWEVER YOU WEREN'T HOME WHEN WE SPOKE TO THE OTHER LADIES!!"

"Uh..Yeah. I'm doing what you call forging for food. But you all are...A lot more up front and forward about this than I thought you'd be."

"WE WANT TO STILL COURT YOU AS WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!!" His blunt happy yelling did catch you off guard enough to go pink. "HOWEVER THAT'S DIFFICULT IF YOU ARE RIGHTFULLY ANGRY WITH US!! SO WE'VE CONE TO MAKE IT UP TO YOU!!"

"YAY!!" Suma added throwing up her hands behind Kyojuro reappearing.

You could only stare at the two of them with a blank look.

"I told you being straight forward was a bad idea!," suddenly snapped to the both of them before throwing an arm at you. "we should've eased in to it!! Look! You two broke her brain!"

"We did not!"

"Did too!"

"Makio, I would have to agree with Suma! Straight forward is better than beating around the bush as they say!"

"I DIDN'T SAY TO BEAT AROUND THE BUSH!! I SAID WE EASE INTO IT!!"

"Makio, let's all calm down-"

"Don't take their sides! I'm the only one who doesn't have kelp for brains around here!!"

"Tengeeeen! Makio's calling me a kelp brain again!"

You stared at the four continuing to argue with one another in usual fashion as they always did before looking back to Tengen. The 'flashy and flamboyant God of Ocean's deep' was uncharacteristically silent for himself and just looking at you like a completely exhausted man. That wasn't like him. Hesitantly you lowered your arms

"Tengen?" You stepped forward and tilted your head to him. "Are you alright?"

He didn't answer, at least not right away. Instead he just looked at you for a long silent moment and then slowly held his arm towards you. You did blink but when you didn't flinch or move away, his hand came forward to gently grab yours completely enveloping it into his palm. You blinked when you were pulled forward and suddenly found yourself pressed into his chest again but this time there was a now gentleness to it as his forehead just found your shoulder. Silently you blinked as he just rested there tired and seemingly not wanting to argue or fight anymore. ..You sighed reaching out to pay his back.

"Alright, Big Guy. Apology accepted. Don't worry about it anymore."

"I'm tired of fighting for everything." His voice sounded muffled from your dress. "I don't want to fight anymore.....Also you are very warm and soft."

"PFFFT! HAHAHA!!" You couldn't help it. Out of everything else that was serious now, his antics were still present.

"And you're getting my dress all soaked in seawater."

A smirk formed into your shoulder. "Maybe I can try saving it with medical kissing?~"

"OH MY GODS!! STOP WITH THAT!!" You death glared behind him at about four other voices laughing. "And you all be quiet! Kyojuro, I blame you for this!!"

"AND I WILL HAPPILY NEVER LET YOU LIVE THAT DOWN!!"

"UUUUUHHHHH!!!"

You give up. Just plopping your head into Tengen's shoulder back as he literally just pulled you snigger against him. Actually...this was nice. You never experienced that from Akira. Tengen hugged you tightly but he was absolutely mindful of the injuries you had and didn't squeeze or put pressure around your hurt shoulder. Guess that proved how much attention to detail he actually gave. You didn't even mind the water soaking you from his body at this point.

A few chuckles in turned to a long sigh as he stayed there snug. "...Hey. I know I said I was already sorry for everything but-"

"It's fine. I already said that I accepted your apology. I'm sorry if I made you feel bad, but I still stand that everyone needed to hear what I had to say."

"I'll give you that right. ...Not going to lie, your flamboyant beauty is doubled when you're made. I wanted to kiss you passionately right then and there."

"Don't say that!" You could already feel your face heating up again. "EEP?!" It certainly didn't help were suddenly once again lifted into a certain white haired merman's arms as he beamed at you. "TENGEN!!"

"IN THE FLESH!!" He happily smiled at your blushing scowling face and cooed. "I don't suppose this would be an appropriate time to ask you if we can court you now?"

You facepalmed. "You all are the most stubborn mers I know..." You looked at him in thought for a moment. "You really want to court me that badly huh?"

"YES!" You shouldn't have been surprised at the unified answer

"Uh huh..." You rose a brow at him. You sighed. "I'll..Think about it. There's still a lot of stuff to sort out."

A look of disappointment passed over his face but it was quickly replaced by a bright smile. "I'll take that as a good sign! After all you won't be able to resist me for long ~"

"I've resisted you for longer than you think."

His pupils went wide again. Uh oh-

"Really?~ Is that so, Mrs. Uzui?~"

"Hey. I'm not your wife yet-"

"Yet?" He went quiet suddenly. Wide eyed and stared at you suddenly. Before snapping to Kyojuro. "YET?!"

"YET!!," Kyojuro confirmed back absolutely beaming.

"YET!?"

"YET!! YET YET!!"

You wanted to disappear into air the more they repeated that word before you looked back to Uxui who you SWORE suddenly looked a hundred times brighter. He made to move forward but suddenly stopped-...Ah. Right. You sighed before assuming the position and held out your arms much to his surprise.

"Alright. Kiss me then but don't take all morning. I got a pie with my name on it at home."

Again his eyes went wide. "..Home?"

"Tengen, do I have to repeat myself or are you going to kiss me? Because I will get down and go eat instead."

Kanae had to blink a moment before blushing and turning away from the sight of Tengen half cradled in your arms kissing you with Suma shouting that she was next right behind him as Makio pushed her.

"So...I got those coconuts?"

You looked up. Tengen ref faced and swooning as you held his head. "In a second."

Tengen wheezed."...I think my lips fell in love with you too."

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