#fae! kihyun

[tuwam]

@urianius

“having second thoughts?”

kihyun doesn’t have a reason for his words, most of the time he never does. they’re usually just to get a reaction and from that reaction he will find a reason. however, there’s really only one person that he both chooses and doesn’t choose to pick his words around. ahyeon is that certified person. he chooses because she makes it so that he needs to be careful - as well as care to be careful. for most of his life he’s known that words come with consequences, and he hasn’t cared much for those consequences, whatever consequences kihyun can always face head on and come out on top. 

not to mention the only people to ever stand against him with said consequences - and not just with fists were ahyeon and daniel. though technically speaking - kihyun went out of his way to make sure he didn’t face physical consequences with daniel, he’s smart not suicidal. he does get kicks out of teasing the older though, just as he gets kicks out of teasing ahyeon. she however, always provided a challenge, a fun to the entire game, and he never found himself being able to anticipate what she would say or do.

it was stupid, but it’s how they became friends. and now when he knows he should be serious, despite his best judgement, he’s approaching the situation as unserious as he can. so, he’d said the words with a smile, with another slide of his blades against the needles sticking from his pores. they’ve been on stakeout duty, one of the more - boring aspects of the job they’ve set out to do. although, the versatility of the task they’ve taken on, makes for quite an exciting set of events.

‘no. i’m just assessing the situation.’ 

watching a human - half-human at that, is not exactly his idea of an exciting time. but ahyeon had been sure about this one and if kihyun trusted anyone’s judgement it was hers. the person in question, was their prince candidate for the spring court, who was desperately trying to cover up the fatal illness befalling their current leader. their queen, the damned woman had so much hubris, she waited until there was a timeline on her last breath before giving them the whereabouts of the only one who could ascend the throne. not after kihyun and ahyeon accosted every sentry, advisor and aide in the court from years past about the rumored information. everyone knew once they set their minds on a set of information - though they had different methods of getting it, they got it.

a bastard heir - but a legitimate one. she held onto the secret until they’d assured her the winter court would be at their steps the very second she shut her eyes. that and - the sound of kihyun scraping blades against his own needles - was persuasive enough. an heir she hoped to protect by keeping him in the human world - kihyun had scoffed that his royal blood was enough to never fully separate him from his duty. upon observation the prince to be was - a strange one but when had the spring court been anything but strange. one look at him and kihyun could see the heavily applied glamour as well as the foolhardy spring court sentries trying to keep their distance and keep an eye on him.

“if you ask me,” he begins. ‘i didn’t.’ ahyeon stops him. “because you will - i think he’d be happier with us.” ‘but i didn’t ask you, because i knew you’d say that.’

kihyun’s wings are unruly, excited at whatever prospect they have in this half-breed and how much ahyeon seems to be thinking of a decision he’d thought they were sure about. 

“does he look happy to you?” ‘you’re concerned about his happiness?’ “aren’t you? isn’t that why you’ve been standing there?”

they’d agreed to approach him faster than planned, what with the summer king already announcing marriage plans of his daughter to their very own court monarch, ahead of schedule. they’d been forced to forfeit their initial plan of engaging with the soon-to-be spring prince delicately due to their timetable getting ripped from underneath them. following the trail of faerie dust spring fae always forget to clean up, they’d found the routine of this - haneul between going to a fae-owned coffee shop, to meeting with his singular heavily glamoured fae friend. it was hilarious how the boy seemed to already only keep company of fae creatures, even in his ignorance. kihyun had wondered if the shop owner would be a problem and why he seemed so familiar but declined to think about it. 

they had bigger issues.

‘i’m not standing here i’m waiting.’ “for what...” kihyun’s questions are answered when one of the sentries who’d been following haneul around changes course and heads right for them. he doesn’t have time to react because he can clearly see the remnants of the winter court’s own dust circling under his eyes. a pale white that looks like tiny snowflakes circling around the sentry’s nose. kihyun snorts a laugh as the male sentry makes him way to ahyeon, determination in his step.

‘did you deliver the note?’ the man can’t form words, but he nods so hard at ahyeon’s question - they get their answer. ahyeon’s smile is easy, and with a curl of her hands, the dust starts to drift, and the sentry stops, blinks, turns, and walks back to his group as if he’d never left. kihyun blinks, watching the group continue to leave, no sign that they’d seen their friend gone or that they’re intent on following haneul for the remainder of the day. 

“you used dust...you?” ‘we don’t have time.’

he blinks, tool not frozen in his palm as he watches his friend. most people - if not anyone who knows of their reputation, knows that they’ve had to do unsavory things under the command of the winter court, things that yielded very specific to who they were. they don’t talk about it but between everyone they know, kihyun and ahyeon know each other’s tactics the most. still. he’s not blinking out of anything like surprise, or disgust. in fact, he’s blinking because he sees the red that starts to collect around her nose and around her cheeks. 

“oh i’m so telling daniel.” ‘not if you die you won’t-’

‘hey? did you write this?’ for the moment kihyun is surprised at the speed of the events around them because standing before them - is haneul. haneul - looking right at them with kihyun’s needles still sticking out his pores and him wings on full display. he hadn’t even noticed ahyeon had started to don her glamour, too engrossed in teasing her. haneul however, doesn’t bat an eye, kihyun for the moment decides that he doesn’t care when the boy’s eyes run over him, from his wings down to his combat shoes.

‘yes, haneul right?’ ‘yeah, do i know you?’

there’s an awkward kind of silence in the air and well - seeing as the boy hasn’t asked the normal questions that any human would - and seeing as ahyeon said they have no time. kihyun jumps at the opportunity like a shark after blood.

“your mother, the spring queen, is on her deathbed. and we need you to come with us.”

ahyeon actually smacks him at that. like literally, hand across his head, wing across his head, smacks him. she even made a point to forsake her glamour just to make sure to smack him with her wing.

“i thought you said we didn’t have time?!” ‘we have time to ease him into it you idiot.’ “like you eased that sentry into giving the note.” ‘like i’m going to ease my foot up your-’

‘do i need to come now? i’m meeting a friend.’

both fae stop in their tracks, ahyeon’s hands seconds from yanking kihyun’s hair out his scalp. they stop mainly because - they can’t believe what they’re hearing. kihyun takes the moment, to detangle his hair from ahyeon’s hand and take a look at the kid that’s supposed to take over the spring court. he’s taller them him ( duh ), taller than both of them actually but when he looks at them kihyun wants to snap in his face because the boy looks like he’s going to fall asleep. like he’s bored! even when his eyes have scanned the wings, the needles, the lack of glamour, he looks - unfazed. 

‘you - you what?’ ‘i can come by after, i don’t want her to wait up.’ ‘did you hear what he said? do you see his wings?’ ‘it won’t take long.’

ahyeon is floored. kihyun has the nerve to cackle, suddenly thoroughly interested in whatever this kid has to say.

‘uh. yeah sure - can you meet us at the coffee shop?’ ‘yeah of course. um - will your -’ the kid - haneul - is addressing kihyun directly now. more importantly, looking and trying to gesture at the wings that are moving freely about him. “will my...” ‘will you be comfortable - we can just meet here.’

kihyun cackles again allowing the needles to retreat back into freckles  that don his skin in response to the boy’s question. spring fae are always overly concerned with the wrong things. but somehow - it always tends to be endearing. 

“i’ll be fine.” ‘okay! i’ll be - i’ll see you there.’

he scurries off, both of them unable to tell what kind of expression is on his face and even if they could, kihyun’s sure they’d both be stumped by what it means. it’s silent for the moment, ahyeon getting her glamour ready properly and kihyun doing the same. 

“this’ll be fun.” ‘kihyun----’ “i’m still telling daniel you know.” ‘i hope you’re allergic to the pastries.’

[intuwam]

Courts:

Autumn: Seoyun, Seojun

Summer: Jules, June

Spring: Haneul, Miyoung, Guard

Winter: Ahyeon, Kihyun, Noori, Daniel

I think, summer and winter courts, because of their power, have features that can easily be masked in the human world but for spring and autumn courts it’s a lot harder, each court holds festivals and dances that are related to that. That's why, spring and autumn court fae are more likely to hold dances and celebrate within in the veil of the human world, easier for people to get trapped and entranced, winter and summer court fae, are more likely to blend in the human world but less likely to venture out. Their dances are reserved for high fae and their court only. I think summer and winter fae might see themselves as the true fae, more regal and the autumn and spring fae might be seen as more animalistic, some even going far to say they’re the deformed ones.  

Seoyun.

Seoyun and Seojun probably retain some of the same features but all in all they might be opposites of one another. They both have the same eyes, white with a single circle or film in it, seoyun’s are more on the browner side than her brother, think the color of wood and oak trees. I think she does retain some of the broadness in her shoulders as well because in autumn things are strong and grow out, but she still has feminity to it, it’s seoyun for crying out loud she’s always been rather imposing but still feminine. While seojun’s veins are gray and silver hers are brown and silver, her skin tone isn’t as warm as his though, it’s a little more on the pale side, which makes the brown and silver stand out more. While Seojun’s got antler fixtures that extend from his eyebrows, I think seoyun has these fixtures extending beyond her shoulder-blades. They start from her clavicle and just branch out and down, almost exactly like branches and her ears point and are darker in the way a female deer’s would. Her wings are silver and brown, with speckles of light blue. Her wings definitely have more of the texture and structure of wood and branches but like her brother, aren’t used for much flying because of how thin they hold against the wind. I don’t think a lot of royal autumn faes fly with their wings, they’re more grounded so their wings tend to be heavier and thicker.

Haneul.

My son. So spring is strange because it has the coldness of winter but the hopeful rain and then warmth to bring summer.  Anyway, still going with the concept that the autumn and fall courts are quirky and beautiful with distinct changes in the anatomy. Haneul I’m almost positive has fair skin, it’s not too warm actually but it’s got traces of green, silver and blue in his veins, most specifically near the corners of his eyes, in the human world it probably just looks like heavy eye bags like he doesn’t get sleep, but in the fae world they shine. Same with his eyes, they’re probably clear but have specks of pinks, green and blue in them, it might cause someone to get dizzy if they stare too much. His hair’s teal and green, really shaggy and full, but not too long it stops at his shoulders. His hands are probably the most distinctive feature, on his knuckles flowers and ferns can sprout depending on his mood or depending later on, on the state of the court. They bloom flowers and sprout when he’s good, when he’s not anything bloomed will wilt and wilted weeds will start falling from his hair. Way back in the day, before his time, the old spring court royalty could sprout new fae from the buds that grew on their skin. I wanna say royal fae are the only ones who can produce life/elements from their body, the members of their court are just born with the variations on them. Haneul’s wings, aren’t big at all actually, opposite of the autumn court, but they help to flit around a little bit, they’re not heavy and really don’t extend past his shoulder blades much, but they get the job done. They're a softer color, silver and teal.  

Most spring court fae have a little bit of teal in their veins, and it almost makes them look like they have a cold, but the brightness and warmth in their skin can help to alleviate that, I also hc that as the seasons get closer to summer they start to look duller, because they’ve spent all their energy helping things grow and bloom, and when its just pulling from winter, they look their brightest and liveliest. Spring fae also are on the shy side, they prefer to tend to the lands, flitting about with forest animals and such, and are mischievous, prefer hiding in brush and fields than the other fae.  

Guard.

Ah yes. Haneul’s favorite person. So the spring court guard are tricky, they’re not built as the winter guard but they’re not as thin as the summer guard. They are quick, but excellent at masking themselves and blending in their environments. Their weapon of choice are long range as they prefer to attack from the brush, much like autumn court, autumn court has more brawn in them however.

Haneul’s guard wears the colors pink and teal and black, this particular fae has more colors of blue in his veins than anything else, but his skin is noticeably warmer toned than that of their prince. His ferns grown from his wrists and are quick to sharpen when he thinks there is danger around them. His wings droop, long below his shoulders and are black and dark blue in color. His most noticeable feature is the green of his eyes that match the ferns in his wrist and his stature, a little more built than the others.  

June.

MY BOY.

OH BOY THE SUMMER COURT. Obnoxiously bright and stressful for all those around them. I hc that way back when, in old days, the summer high court was downright painful to look at up close because they literally shone, like the sun. But now their skin just has a glow to it. It's also quite terrifying if the court isn’t doing well, the fae look dull, dead. Anyway june my boy.

So June, god the boy is the epitome of the summer court, one look at him and you know he’s the summer court, the only difference is that most summer court boys have smaller frames, their diets aren’t like the south, fruits, veggies, beans etc. The southern winter court, prides on rices, potatoes and meats. Anyway broad shouldered bright eyed junebug.  

His eyes are a clear brown, they look dark until you get closer and they look like the shine, in the way that hazel eyes do, nothing crazy really. The film that falls over it is just to prevent it from boring into others, most summer court fae have this so that when looking at other fae, it doesn’t feel like staring into a mirror. Anyway yes brown hair, full and pretty long, usually in a ponytail bc its hot. Most summer court fae pride themselves in their hair bc it grows so full and can be sold as if it’s spun gold. High court fae rarely cut their hair, unless for special occasions. Im doing all these hc and im supposed to be writing about june. Anyway. Anyway, no matter the color of their hair, in summer court light it’ll always shine like gold.  

I think because the summer and winter fae are a lot to look at regardless, their wings can be a little on the tamer side, but they look more how you’d expect wings to look, they’re big and they’re flowy, typically burdened with the flowers that grow on them, june’s wings are big and bold in a way a butterfly’s wings are, a mixture of orange and brown but they don’t have flowers on them. The most notable thing for june is that the flowers for him grow around his eyes, little petals that shed, when they feel like it.

Jules.

OH yeah.  

So, basing off of all the headcanons I wrote about the summer court just now.

Jules is a little scary looking, in the sense that her skin is more tan and has that golden sheen to it, her hair is pale yellow and has silver in it that’s strong on the eyes, super long and goes down her back, always has to be pulled up in some kind of do. Her eyes, are the same color as her hair, that pale yellow with silver flecks in it, almost impossible to look at for too long. Her wings are just as bold as june’s big and because of her frame they tend to overtake her a lot, they’re orange and green, much brighter than his and the flowers that flowers that grow in her hair often help her to tie it up and arrange it. She's got more of the lithe frame that more summer fae have and both her wrists and the bones across her her clavicle are adorned by flower petals that grow and bloom, and annoy her on a constant basis. Summer royal court are always high and regal looking and jules is no exception, her brother holds some of the more wilder aspects of summer, where she holds the shine and beauty of it.  

BOY OH BOY THE WINTER COURT.

Here we go lads.

So yeah, okay okay okay it’s so easy to say that the winter court look dead, but they DONT, in fact they are direct foils to their summer couterparts, stll as hauntingly beautiful, in the way that countries that have more snow than summer are still so beautiful even in their cold and life still exists. Still, the conditions are harsher and the fae here show it as such. While sumemr court fae might shine some form of golden, bright or yellow, in reverance for their sun, winter court migth shine the colder, darker colors of night, they can be variations of crystal colors, midnight blues and even whites and blacks. Their wings are smaller but they’re strong, they have to be thick to last winter and cold but they don’t need to fly about much so they’re relatively useless in the way autumn wings are. I also think they have simpler, cleaner cut looks, and drape themselves in garment to stay warm when need be, but they’re quite used to the cold. Summer court probably has lighter clothing, or – none if they want, more flowy, extravagance in their hair and wings.

Noori.

but her skin is midnight blue, like cobalt, like the night sky and it shines a diamond glitter when the moonlight hits her, she’s probably also very cold to the touch I would assume. It can either be cold that its burning or cold that its soothing to a burn it depends on who she feels. her eyes are a crystal white and coupled with how dark she is, its quite the contrast, as there’s nothing in them no flecks, no specks, just white. her hair is white and a pale pink, and the most noticeable feature is the crystals protruding from beneath her eyes, almost like frozen tears, like they started as lashes and blossomed into more taking over her cheeks and going across her nose. the crystals are a mixture of blue, green, white and purple and they glow with every emotion. I think the one thing about the winter court is that depending on where you live and how you get your spoils your frame is either really lean or very built to last the winters, noori is one whose frame is a bit smaller. Her wings are just like her hair, white, but they hang pretty low as well, and are littered with the same crystals the cover underneath her eyes. They are a bit bigger than her frame, so they hang because her body cannot support them as well.

Kihyun.

Like brother like sister, they're not related but you know. kihyun’s most striking thing is definitely his wings. They're not large but they protrude out in the way spikes are, they’re black and bright blue and they make a statement. Despite his smaller frame, his wings make up most of his height and his frame. I think his skin is pretty fair, he’s not pale or anything but he’s got rather noticeable flecks of black all over his body, they look like freckles almost or kind of like charcoal bits. His eyes are black. That's all. And his hair is a lot shorter, it’s in an undercut style and is pale blue, the color of his wings. The most noticeable thing about him would be the wings honestly. In the same way that his wings protrude out like spikes, the freckles on his skin have tendency to spike out, almost like porcupine, but they’re harder, tough like cave crystals, and they hurt like fuck if they stab, and they hurt like hell if he snaps or pulls them out.  

Daniel.  

Danny boy.

So daniel is quite interesting, he was previously a member of the winter court and a feared member. He is well built, but more on the leaner side than some of the guard. Basically, he’s fit but he’s got the bulk in his arms to land the blows, the speed to move faster than other court guards might expect of a winter guard fae. He's taller, and his wings aren’t as extravagant, they’re dark blue, almost a deep green and they’re thick like wood, without much to show for the decoration inside. They extend more horizontal, than they extend vertically and he tends to fold them in to his back more often than not. Daniel's not as fair, he’s got much more noticeable tinges of blue in his veins, enough that his skin can sometimes take on that sheen, and his eyes do the same, they’re deep blue, almost black but not quite. For him, the icicles protrude from his elbows and his calves, main reasons why he’s such a feared member of the guard, he would sneak up and strike with a quickness before the enemy could realize he had weapons attached to his body. These icicles protrude from the ends of deep blue tattoos that ride up his arms to the tips of his shoulders.  

Ahyeon.

Lets start with this beauty right here.

Ahyeon! God I know the most piercing thing about ahyeon is her wings. I want them to be big and imposing, I want her unable to hide them, I want people to see them and fear that its her. Im kidding, but her position as well as kihyun’s means they need to hold their ground wherever they go and that when people see them, they know its them. Anyway ahyeon’s wings are white with black wires in between them and the pattern is noticeably commented upon. They're quite strong but they’re also quite heavy for her. Ahyeon's hair typically stays short, at her shoulders but the wires that thread through her wings also thread around the back of her head and around the back of her neck so they make it seem as if she’s got more hair than she does. Ahyeon's fair skinned, but her eyes follow the same swirl pattern as her wings, it can be a bit off-putting. The main point is that they’re white but the iris is the black swirl instead of the darker circle of a pupil. Because of the heaviness of her wings, they tend to fall low, almost drooping unless she needs them to stand proud. Sometimes, more often than not, those same wires will collect ice on them, and in the snowier seasons for the winter court they’ll hang around her wings like icicles or like she’s covered in snow. Closer inspection would reveal those thorn like wires cover around her body.

[itsakpopalypse]

Lost In a Dream

moodboard made by @memoiresofaneternaldreamer (thank you again for inspiring this fic with this beautiful moodboard and collabing with me, you're the ABSOLUTE best!!!)  Original post is here please go give love also!!

Cold sweat mats your hair to the back of your neck and around your hairline. Your breath comes heavy and hot, barely flowing out between quivering lips. 

 Kihyun.

His fingers so gentle, so soft, lips pulled back over pointed teeth gleaming in low light, flickering fire in the corner- playing orange and yellow on his skin. The air is full of him. The world is glitter and holographic rainbows and silken sheets and desire. It’s unheard of, the spark within you, far from mundane and far too perfect to explain.

You’re rolling at his gentle direction, granting him the entirety of your bared soul and silky skin from your shoulders to the widening of  your hips. His hands follow a path made for them, slowly trailing across  your burning body. “Petal, the sun will rise soon. The fog will wipe this from your mind.” His voice is resigned but sure. You know he’s right and the panic builds in your chest at the reality.  Flowers and moss surround the bed, the smell in the air is so fresh, it always is like this near him. Alive. Clean. Meaningful. The air nearly sparkles when he speaks. 

“Don’t leave me.” You whisper into the pillow, lips touching feather soft against the nape of your neck have you reeling, his fingers loop into your hair to pull it away, granting him further access to the expanse of skin beneath. His breath is warm and damp, you can feel the desperation in his touch. 

“You have me.”  He replies. True to his kind, you will  get no solid answer. “You have me and I have you. What is a little distance when your heart beats between my ribs?” 

You roll over, pulling him to hover above you so you can see the sincerity  you know is there. 

“I want you whole. Real. Not pieces stuck in my imagination. "

"I am real. This is real.  The only thing you are imagining is that-" his finger points to the door which is opening, streaks of morning light cutting through the darkness. "That is a distraction. " 

You can feel tears teasing your lashes. "I don't  want to. I don't  want to." 

You are a petulant child and you fight  the slow  slip into reality, you grasp the fullness of his cheeks,thumbs  brushing under his eyes.  

His eyes are warm and his smile is gentle,  and he holds your soul inside his as he murmurs soft promises and bids you farewell. "You must wake. But you're still mine. "

The soft rumble of his voice pulls you away. The edges of heaven slip  out of your grasp and the real world crashes down like cold water. Reality is hateful and dull, leaving you weighed down and burdened. Your skin itches with memory. You cannot see a face, you cannot  recall the substance of the dream  but you're on fire with longing. Someone is missing you as you miss them. Someone is out there. A sweetpea sits beside your bed,one that was not there when you fell asleep. Delicate, pleasure, bliss, departure after having a good time. 

It never made sense, but you had been receiving flowers with similar messages for as long as you could remember.

Soulmates weren't  anything new, but most people remembered the face from their dreams. All you remember  is fog and velvet kisses. Promises and a whisper.   It's not fair, honestly.  It's unheard of. Everyone sees their soulmate and when they meet them, it clicks. You're scared to tell anyone  you can't  see their face when you wake, so when asked you avoid it or act as though you're too shy.  The flowers also, were inexplicable. 

There's services to contact to look based on description  but you don't have one to give.  So you deflect and hope when you see them you'll just know.  

You begin getting yourself ready for work, knowing another boring day awaits, and wish you could return to the world that lives in your mind.  

------

“Y/N! There’s a customer downstairs, can you check in please?” Your boss calls from the hallway, poking his head in to catch your attention. You look up from the plants your misting gently. 

“Got it Sebastion.” You reply with a smile, setting down the spray bottle. “I’ll be right back.” You whisper to the plants, fingers gently tracing the edge of a leaf as you leave your favorite part of the job for a few minutes.

“Hello, welcome to Dream Blossoms, can I help you make a selection?” You ask as you approach the customer. He turns, and your momentarily struck. He has light pink hair, shaggy around his eyes which are warm and smiling. The corner of his lips tick up in greeting, and some warm tingle runs down your spine. You can’t explain it. It’s not the bolt of lightening you have heard is from soulmates, but the tingle is far too strong to go unnoticed. 

When he speaks, his voice is quiet but firm and it draws you nearer, your feet following a path you don’t yet know yourself. 

“Hello. I do think I could use your help.”  The base of your neck feels hot, like someone is breathing on it. It isn’t unpleasant, as it would normally be, instead it’s welcoming. 

 “I am looking for a flower that expresses sorrow. Maybe one for longing… “ He pauses pursing his lips thoughtfully in a way that is far too attractive and makes the apples of your cheeks color. “Something about incandescent happiness.”  His hands are in his pockets, but when he turns his body toward you, the draw pulls harder. 

“I can throw something together, is it, for a lover?”  You pass by him, and notice vaguely that the air near him smells less like a person and more like freshness. Clean and lively, and so so inviting. 

“It’s. For someone who is very special. They’ll understand it all together. Perhaps you can incorporate forget-me-nots?” His eyes wrinkle when he smiles, and for a moment, the very edges of his teeth seem sharper than they should, and his eyes, did they change color? 

The dreams must be getting to you, in your lack of sleep you are imagining insanity.

You eye him for a moment, desperate for a read on him. Deciding the bouquet is likely for his soulmate, you continue in your job, pushing the strange longing away.  “Okay, give me  a moment I think I can convey a feeling for you.” you incline your head to the chair in the corner flanked by orchids. “Have a seat please.”

You’d need white tulips, lily of the valley, blue bells,  cutting and arranging various flowers to fit his description. Something appeared off. Unbalanced, without a thought, you grab some white sweet pea and add it into the bouquet, pulling the entire message together .

Upon returning a short while later, you gesture to the man. “Here, I think this should be right.”

He hurries to your side, something sparkling in his eyes as he looks over your work. He looks more excited than you’d expect, his skin brushing against yours a few seconds longer than you would expect. It feels natural and you want to sigh when he pulls his hand back and clears his throat. “It’s lovely. Can you.. Tell me why you chose what you did?” 

“Of course. White tulips are best for a sincere apology, lilly of the valley indicating the return of happiness, and the blue bells for devotion, and you asked for the forget-me-nots so I assume you know they have several meanings. It’s sort of what inspired the others I picked. “

“Remembrance, connection even over time and distance, loyalty… Yes.” He nods, there's something sly in his smile, but you continue. 

“Yes.”

“And the sweet pea?” He steps a little closer, “ Why that?” He seems nearly out of breath when he asks, leaning close to you, invading the bubble you kept to yourself. You shouldn't  be okay with it, but you allow it, unable to bare backing away from the warmth that radiates from his being. He feels like life and happiness  and it sends a rush down your limbs that you can’t describe, and he hasn’t even touched you.

“It was more of a haunch. You’re apologizing but trying to show your affection. It didn’t seem like it was something too heinous, more like you had been lost to them but are coming back. Did I assume too much?”

His smile widens, his eyes wrinkling and cheeks nearly covering his eyes. Oh. It’s a beautiful sight, and one that doesn’t belong to you, you remind yourself. 

“It’s better than I could have hoped.” He replies and after paying, gives you a final smile and wave on his way out. 

You wish you understood the way your heart followed him through the doors. It was silly, and wrong. You shook off the feeling and got back to tending the flowers. Your dreams must be altering your expectations.

---

“You nearly had me.” He whispers into your neck, trailing gentle kisses across your collarbone. “This will all be better soon, I promise.“

You heave a sigh into his hair. Casting your gaze to the bouquet on the silver side table, engraved and ornate. Fireflies dance in the air around you and the skylight lets in the moonlight. You don’t know where he has taken you but you know you trust him with your everything.

“Why must we go so slow. If you found me, isn't that all there is?”

The tinkle of his laughter fills your ears, a  sound you will never get tired of. “Not so simple, Petal. You are a woman of much distrust. I have to snatch you up the way my kind always must, if I’m to have you.” His nose scrunches as he meets your eyes with another light giggle. 

"Remind me why you won't  just tell me? After all this time and you've finally  found 'day' me, but you won't just tell me who you are to me?"  

 You know you're pouting but it doesn't  feel fair. You're getting to an age where people are going to wonder if you're undeclared… if your someone is already  gone somehow. A cruel twist of fate before you'd even met. 

You don't  remember those things, of course, only the concepts around them, since your days slip from your mind at night the same way your nights slip your mind during the day.  It's unfair,  but loving Kihyun is worth it, will always be worth it.

"I'm sure you'd respond  wonderfully to 'Hello, I'm Kihyun. I'm  a fae living in the  woods past a ‘glamour and I help bring the flowers.  Oh, also I'm the man of your dreams.’" He poked your cheek gently with a laugh. "Oh! Literally. "

You scrunch up your nose in distaste but can't help the small huff of laughter. "Okay. Fine. If I heard that line I would likely never speak to you again. Cheesy." 

"You love the way I am. You have to. That’s what soulmates mean.”

You shudder as the room begins to fade, and fear clouds your eyes-you reach for him. “Not again. I’m not ready to forget you.”  

He gives you the same saddened, resigned face as every night. “You must wake. But you're still mine." His fingers begin to lose warmth against your cheeks as everything blurs.  “You’ll be with me again soon. When this is over there will be no end to us.”

The streaks of light cloud your vision and you rub your eyes. The smell of fresh flowers sours. 

You wake, and all is gone. 

----

“I never thought I’d see you sneaking around. Aren’t you supposed to be the good son?” 

Kihyun turned to meet his brother’s eyes, unsurprised he had been followed by the light footed prince. He wore a teasing smile and his dark prowling outfit, no doubt on his way into a colony somewhere to experience the nightlife without the guards. Byeongkwan was a bit more… Outgoing, than himself. 

Kihyun preferred to follow the rules, but the current situation was getting desperate. He was tired of the empty ache in his stomach when you weren’t there. He was tired of waiting for you to figure out something that was a bit too mystical for the human mind, and he was a bit too excited to hold you in the day time. It wouldn’t kill him to bend the rules a bit, just this once. After all, he was going to visit an artifact maker, not overthrow the Sirens.

“Yes well. Priorities.” He replied finally, watching his younger sibling’s smirk grow as he stepped into Kihyun’s space. Byeongkwan’s eyes sparkled and he genuinely looked full of glee at the discomfort Kihyun felt about disobeying. It wasn’t like he couldn’t do what he wanted… he was next in line for the throne… but there was a way things were done, to keep the glamour safe, and he wasn’t used to messing with the tried and true methods. 

“Priorities,” Byeongkwan replied, stepping back with mischief in his eyes still, hand raising to show the dangling chain he had unsurprisingly picked off of Kihyun. 

Always did have incredibly quick hands, that one. 

“So it’s related to your lady, then isn’t it. Y/N.” He sat in the windowsill, holding the necklace up for inspection. The royal jewel pendant on the end glittered with a rainbow prism when the light filtered through it, something akin to moonstone but with more magick, more fire. 

He squinted at his brother and held his hand out to receive the necklace. “Yes yes, you are a master of whispers and a knower of all secrets. I am suitably impressed. You can return it now.” 

Byeongkwan sighed, placing it directly in Kihyun’s palm. ”Taking it to the enchanter, hm? You want her to know. Everything. I think it’s nice.” He smiled, wholesome and for once without a hint of teasing. It would have been a pretty smile, if he hadn’t ended it with one flicked up eyebrow, closing Kihyun’s hand around the pendant. 

“Don’t lose this again.” He leaned in closer, this time with a glint that left Kihyun a little worried. “They won’t like this, and they already know.” His lips didn’t move, and his voice was too low to be picked up, it was likely he had used an enchantment of some kind, one without an incantation, which meant he genuinely believed they were being watched at this moment.

It took everything in Kihyun to not react or look for the source of the spying. Instead he smiled back in his most warm way. Nodding as he stepped back.

“She means everything, I won’t let this opportunity pass me up.”  Kihyun watched Byeongkwan’s smile take on the knowing edge that made him as dangerous as he was. The message had been received on both sides.  Kihyun needed to see you tonight, after dropping this necklace off. 

----

 “Loosen up, Y/N. You never know, you might meet your soulmate here! It’s not unusual for you to run into them in places like this.” Your friend laughed as she made a gesture to the rest of the dimly lit bar. It was open mic night and the person singing now was… less than fantastic.

Your head hurt and you wanted to leave. It was smelly and crowded and there were too many bodies in the tight space. “Right. Soulmate.” You nodded, knowing that wouldn’t happen. You couldn't even see his face how would you see him? You didn’t want to let out your secret so you forced a smile and lifted your drink to your lips. It was sweet, something that your friend had picked. It didn’t feel great going down, somewhat burning and the tingles it left in your fingertips were the only blessing. Perhaps with a buz it wouldn’t seem so sad that  you were in this place when you wanted to be at home under your fuzziest blanket in your biggest shirt. You tugged at the hem of your dress, something a bit tighter than you were used to,  but more than fitting for the scene.

“Yes. Soulmate. We are getting to be an age where we should and could meet them anywhere!” Your friend loved the idea, her smile sparkly and genuine. You matched it best you could and nodded to the change of singer, an older woman in her mid 50’s singing off key to Journey.

“Maybe there's yours.”  you teased and your friend rolled her eyes, laughing off your joke as she motioned that her glass was empty and made her way through the crowd and from your table to get a new one. 

You focused on the inside of your glass, uninterested in the crowd pushing in, when the song changed again and a voice that could only be described as hypnotic hit your ears. You looked up, shocked to find the man from the flower shop on the small stage, and somehow, his eyes found you as he sang. It stirred something in your chest, aligning the same as the other day. This time you would blame the combination of loneliness and alcohol, though. What you couldn’t explain away was the way his eyes burned into you as he sang, drifting closed only to hit notes that seemed far outside the average person’s vocal range. 

Something about him was too enthralling to miss a second of, so you drank him in thirstily, unable to quench the longing in you. When he finished and the entire bar erupted into applause, you swallowed thickly at the lump that had formed in your throat. You heard someone sit opposit you, and fully expected your friend, but were met with someone else's eyes. 

This guy… you’d seen him here on other nights. He was attractive, but he was a bit smoother than your tastes desired. His middle part exposed a regal brow set with a stud, eyes piercing and strong beneath them. He was far prettier than someone who belonged here, and he prowled the joint enough that you knew what he came here for. 

“Did you enjoy the song?” He asked voice so deep it resonated in your chest, banging around like a caged bird. His eyes flitted from the low neckline of your dress back up to your lips before settling on your eyes. 

“I think everyone did.” You replied as nonchalantly as you could. “He belongs on a real stage.”

For some reason, that amused your guest. He grinned, eyes sharp suddenly, leaning forward, all aloofness suddenly gone. 

The room felt fuzzier somehow, when he neared. “He certainly doesn’t belong here. You are right about that.”  He seemed to say it more to himself than to you, and it was strange that you felt the air a bit tinglier than before.  You glanced at your still half full second glass… you shouldn't be feeling this much this quickly.  You'd eaten.. and you'd been here over an hour…

"I.M. I think I saw your friends looking for you. Maybe you should go and meet them.”  It was him. He had come your way, the man from the shop, who sings so beautifully.  However, this time when he spoke, instead of a gentle voice, it had a sharpness to it that was unfamiliar. He seemed... Irked? Jealous? His handsome face was tight and lacked the soft smiles you had grown to love far too fast. Any trace of the pleasant wrinkles and endearing nose scrunches far gone. 

The man in the other seat, I.M as he had been called, was smirking knowingly at the Flower Guy. They stared silently at each other, one stoic, one amused. It wasn’t a cruel smile but there was an edge to it, like they were silently exchanging a conversation you weren’t privy to.  After a moment, his smirk turned to a full, bright smile, and he turned back to you, grasping your hand gently and placing a soft kiss on the top. “Pleasure to meet you, I’m sure we will see each other soon.” His deep voice had not lost its charm. 

You nodded back, “Perhaps.”  Was all you could think to say, your cheeks were burning but it wasn’t because of I.M’s low tones or flirty smiles, or even the way his lips had grazed your hands. It was the intense, unwavering stare of the Flower Guy. You felt nearly aflame under his gaze. As I.M departed you bit your lip, almost afraid to meet his dark eyes. 

When you did, you were pleased to see the darkness had seeped out, instead replaced with a different type of intensity, but his lips were turned up at the corners now. You’d have sighed in relief but you didn’t want him catch on.

“Petal. Pleasure to see you here.” His voice was soft again, as it had been the first time you met. It sent tingles down your spine. Or was that still the drink? You didn’t know. The air was too full, too full of oxygen and you were nearly heaving from the high of it.  

“Is it? I don’t even know your name, nor do you seem to know mine.” 

An eyebrow lifted in response, tongue darting to the corner of his lips momentarily as he considered his response. “Mh. I know your name, Y/n. Petal fits you better.”

Oh. Oh. Why did that make the inside of your chest feel so full? Your head was still light and silly. It didn’t make sense, but the closer Flower Guy got, the more grounded you felt. 

“Whole.” You murmured to yourself, slipping between your too loosened lips.

“What was that, Petal?” His teeth looked sharp again gleaming behind his lips. It must be a trick of the light dancing on their tips, and the fire water flowing in your veins. 

“Nothing. Just thinking about something.” You replied, licking your lips and hoping he wouldn't inquire further. 

Your phone buzzed on the table, blessedly giving you reprieve from his eyes. 

I’m leaving with Matt. You good? 

Your friend had rekindled with her on again off again fling clearly, and while you didn’t begrudge her a good time, you also weren’t sure you were going to sober up in time to be safely home. It was best to call for a car service, because you weren’t sure walking was a great idea in your state either.

“Everything alright?” His voice dragged you out of your thoughts, a finger gently unwrinkling your brow- you hadn’t even known that you had furrowed. 

“Yeah. My friend is leaving, so I should probably try to find a way home too. I didn’t come here for me.”  Flower Guy started to look concerned, his own brows so beautifully creasing. “I’d rather curl up in bed anyway, dreams are the best part of my day.” Your teeth dug into your bottom lip, realizing the whimsy in your voice was perhaps uncalled for with a new acquaintance. 

Inexplicably, it seemed to please him though, his eyes darted to the table top and he covered his smile behind one hand, clearing his throat before smoothing his face into a more neutral position and asking you. “Soulmate dreams, then?”

“Ah.” you frown, unsure how to answer. “I suppose. I can never remember. But I wake up happy. Happier than ever.”

Something indiscernible crosses his face and he smiles again, it’s one of the extra dazzling ones where his cheeks cover his eyes and his nose scrunches. “Oh. I should assist you in getting to your bed then. So you can be happy.”

Your eyebrows shot up in shock. He-What? His hands were already rising in defense, shaking them back and forth as though to push your thoughts away, his face panicked.

“NO! Oh. No. I meant.”  His cheeks puffed as he sucked in too much air and scratched the back of his neck. “I meant it in the way where I help you get a driver and make sure you get home safe. From outside. I won’t go in... to your bed. Where you sleep that's. Uh. That’s not what I meant and…” He was cute flustered, cheeks tinging pink and words rushing out on top of each other. You couldn't help but laugh, placing two fingers on his lips to stop the babble. 

“I got it. Thank you.”

He nodded, clearly still embarrassed. It didn’t stop his lips from pouting out slightly into the pressure from your fingers, so soft and…

No. Not a safe line of thought.  You had to admit that while you had initially found him attractive, every time you saw him it intensified. You were starting to wonder what made him smile. What made him infinitely happier. Was it the person he had gotten the flowers for?

 Why were you still touching him??

He didn’t speak more as your fingers dropped from his lips, instead he stared at your hand in your lap and stood, clearing his throat again. Then he took your hand in his own to help you to your feet. It would have been suave, and gone perfectly, had not some very intoxicated patron bumped directly into you and set you off balance as you lifted yourself, so instead you stumbled and fell on Flower Guy fully. He caught you, gripping you in a sheltering way to his toned and warm chest. 

When you looked into his eyes to thank him, the room seemed to slow. Nothing made sense for a moment. The entire universe took a moment to stem the tides of time and the only thing you saw was the shine within his gaze. The truth lay there, something about fate.

“Ah! Y/N!” 

.....And just like that, the spell was broken, you righted yourself, pushing gently against Flower Guy’s chest to do so. 

“Simon.” You nodded in the direction of the interruption.  

“Why are you here? You hate going out.. You have always hated going out. It’s part of why we didn’t work.” Simon looked smug and you just wanted to turn and walk away. He didn't deserve your time, after sleeping with other people in clubs because you were ‘no fun’.

Before you could defend yourself, Flower guy smirked, that hardened expression back. Instead, he replied for you. “That’s why we are headed home. If you’ll excuse us.”  You weren’t sure how he had so quickly read the vibe, but you were thankful, and now he had rescued you in some way or another, three times within the night. 

Simon stood back, fumbling to reply as Flower Guy entwined your fingers and cast you a sultry smile, the type you had yet to see, but very much hoped you’d see more of, because it forced your heart into your throat.. “Let’s go, Petal.”  Before leading you out onto the sidewalk.

He hailed a cab and still got inside, but not until assuring you he was only doing it so he could pay and take it to his own home. 

You thanked him as you got out in front of your building, and asked him for his name.  He only smiled and said. “Next time, Petal. Third time is always a charm.”

You weren't sure why, but as the door to the cab slammed shut before you, you knew your dreams were going to be more... intense this time. 

----

 "You're impossible.  Irredeemable. I do not condone it." Kihyun is half serious and his scolding comes with the lightest of taps on your rear, as though punishment for your so called crimes.  It doesn’t last though, and as gentle as it was to start with, he runs his hands over the spots he swatted  reverently.  “It’s naughty. You are in trouble.” His lips pout prettily with the words and you want to be serious but you can’t.

You're laughing, cuddled into his embrace, you don't take offense because his voice has that teasing note that means you're about  to be complimented. 

"Am I?" You ask with softly pouted lips, gazing up into his eyes through your lashes.

"Yes. You're in a lot of trouble, Petal. You draw others to you like wil o’ whisps to a lost traveler. AND those you draw are of my people, dangerous and seductive. " he is trying to frown, and you can tell worries lie behind his eyes, but he's  too full of love for you make  to you feel any true shame. 

"Seductive? Are you being jealous?" You crave his jealousy. You know what nights it brings you when he is on fire with  it. The way it makes his movements less careful and adoring, more desirous and heady. 

You love it when he devours your love like the sweetest dessert. 

"Jealous? Perhaps. Worried? More than I can say. Impatient for you to come to me? Ardently. I want to steal you away.  Scoop you up into my arms and drag you to the veil. When I  finally get you,  you'd better be ready."  Danger sparks in his eyes. The exact type of danger that makes your skin too tight and your fingers itch to wrap around him. You love it when he pushes you to the brink of desire… 

"You're a silver tongued seducer on your own. Why would  I ever turn to another?" You question, breathless and leaning in to him as a reed sways in the wind. 

"You won't." And you know he's right.  The words drip off his sweetened silver tongue so full of promises you know he will keep. After all… fae can't  lie.

He's  laid his soul bare for you so many nights, that games aren't what  he wants. There isn't  a riddle in the way between you. Just circumstances.

 All deception would do is complicate your arrival  and his impatience is too overwhelming. 

"Because I'm still yours."  You remind him, as the fog begins to roll in with the sun, and he nods, bittersweet and determined. 

"I’ll make it right." He whispers.

You gasp awake, clutching your heaving chest and wondering why your skin felt alight.  You swallowed and gazed at the sun coming up.  For some reason, you felt so loved. Someone out there felt things for you that you could hardly fathom. You still couldn’t see a face, but some missing piece clicked now. You felt the emotions. Longing, happiness, affection, impatience.  Something was different, this morning. 

When  you saw fresh  sweet peas by your bed again you couldn’t bite back your grin.

 It would be a new day

----

The line at the cafe was a bit shorter than usual and you considered yourself lucky, hustling inside before your shift at the flower shop.  Your apron was hanging out of your jacket pocket and you were very ready for your daily cold brew. The wind wasn’t quite cold enough to bite your fingertips and force you to switch to your winter drink. 

The jingle of the bell behind you didn’t catch your attention until you smelled that strange floral freshness that drew you in. Flower Guy, it had to be, no one else could elicit the same response, your heart quickening pace and your fingertips buzzing. Should you turn around and greet him? No isn’t that strange, considering you shouldn’t recognize him by smell?? 

Stay cool, y/n, stay cool. Instead you go up and order your drink, lightly sweetened and stand off to the side pretending not to see him out of the corner of your eye. Hiding behind your hair as you lift your phone as though you are texting someone. He’s watching you, and biting his bottom lip to hold back a smile. His head tilts to one side and you notice his hair has changed a little. It’s still soft pink, but now it also has an undercut, and the way it’s swooped away from his brow bone has your heartbeat quickening, even without a solid look at him. His eyebrows lift and he seems about to say something to you, but instead goes to the counter to order since the line has moved. You notice him settle in standing beside you as he waits for his drink. 

“Petal. I told you there would be a third meeting, didn’t I?” His voice is as honeyed and smooth as ever, and you have to bite back the little noise you so desperately want to make.  

Trying to act as though you are surprised it’s him, you look up and smile gently. “Oh. Hello. You also told me that on the third meeting you would tell me your name, didn’t you.”

He does that beautiful, breathtaking smile again, the one that causes creases to form beside his eyes and lights your soul up like the sun. 

“I did. And I will. Let’s sit for a minute.”  He tilts his head to indicate a nearby table. You check your watch, unsure if you have time to sit before work. 

You have never been late before though, and your boss wouldn’t scold you if it wasn’t very late…

You meet his eyes and nod, taking a seat as he slides across from you. “I’m glad I saw you here… I was going to go by the shop soon in fact, because there’s something I needed to talk to you about. I thought it would entice you into coming somewhere with me.”

You want to blurt out that everything about him is enticing, alive, and enchanting but you manage to control it. Instead you laugh a little and look at your hands on the table, where his fingers slowly, and with plenty of time for you to stop him, gently lace in between yours on the table. Your palms don’t meet, and it’s not quite holding hands, but it means something and you can tell. 

You don’t want to be conflicted but you are, because those flowers were for some one. 

“What about your…” You search for the right word, eyes darting from his fingers to his lips to the fringe that tickles the side of his brow. “Person? The one you got the bouquet for.” You clarify.  

He giggles. 

Giggles. 

“What if I told you that was a ploy to talk to you?” Mischief sparkles in his eyes and he brushes up and down your index finger with his thumb, the tiniest touch is making your chest feel tight and full and you are realizing it is getting harder and harder to deny that this feels what people explain. This feels like soulmates? But it was a slow fall, not that instant dunk into a freezing tank of water, instead, it was like you had been in water that was warm, and it was slowly getting hotter and hotter, and you had  barely realized it before it began to boil. 

It didn’t fit the descriptions, but it meant something, it had to. 

“I would-" but you were cut off by the ringing of his phone. He gave you an apologetic smile and checked it. The frown that crept onto his face told you that it wasn’t good. .

“I have to take this.”  He said, but he looked torn and hurt by it. 

“It’s an emergency. We’ll catch up next time. Maybe fourth time is the real charm, for us.” You said with a small smile, trying to convince him you were okay with it. He squeezed your hand in his reassuringly before scuffling out of the coffee shop, forgetting his drink on the counter as he did. You got up to grab both drinks and saw a small blue box on the chair he had been in.  As you returned to the table to investigate, you saw there was  “Petal” written on it in neat handwriting.  This was for you? 

You picked up the box and put it in your jacket pocket, and hurried out in the direction he had gone, hoping to catch him in the parking lot with the coffee. 

The wind was blowing your hair into your face and making it hard to see, but you were rushing too much to care. It took a moment to go through and realize that he was long gone, and you held the two coffees and chewed your lip, trying to figure out what to do. 

“Look! A lost flower in the big city.” A deep familiar voice was too close, causing you to jump forward and spin to meet their gaze. I.M  Strange, but he seemed to know your Flower Guy.

You greeted him with an uneasy smile.  “Oh, hi, did you see… I-I don’t know his name?”

A smile slowly stretched across his face, eyes sparkling with some mischief.  “Your darling? I can help you find him. For a price.”

You squint for a moment, something about the situation felt a little.. Off?  “What kind of price?”

“Oh don’t worry. It won’t seem like much. But I may have need of a favor from you. No money or tricks. Just a no questions asked favor.” I.M looked  more honest but you still felt uncertain. Flower Guy hadn’t seemed to like him so much, unless that was just jealousy… You didn’t have much of a choice, something inside you nagged at  you that Flower Guy needed you for something. An inner calling that began beneath your ribs and wrapped into each one like a vine. The constriction was suffocating. You didn’t know why, but you knew you needed to go to him… Was it worth the price? 

Deciding that it was better to give a favor to this man than to have something bad happen, you nodded. “Alright. One favor. Within REASON.” 

The smile that slid onto his face made you question your decision but you stayed resolute.  Something was wrong, and you needed to help. 

He extended his hand to you in a deep bow, you scoffed but took it, and he lead you away. 

----

The greenery around you was lush and vibrant, and the smell in the air was the same as that ozone smell before a storm. You felt uneasy but at home all at once, and it made your skin itch as you drew your arms across your chest in defensive posture. 

Coffees long forgotten, the box in your pocket felt heavy for some reason, the air around you grew still. You eyed I.M as he turned around finally, eyes unreadable. 

“We approach the faerie ring. Once you get inside, we will have to activate it, and that will get us through the veil.” He was explaining, but it didn’t make sense. 

“The what? What are you saying?“ Your head was shaking and your hand instinctively went to your pocket again. The box was.. Vibrating?

He fully tuned to face you, heaving a sigh. “All right I will make this fast and lover boy can flesh out the details when everything is better okay? Let’s start here.” He waved around to indicate the area. “This is a portal. I protect the portal.” He points to the small grassy patch that while untouched with light, is brighter than the rest of the forest floor. It is  a perfect circle lined with flowers of exotic beauty and the air around it shimmers a bit in the dim lighting. “Your lover boy and I are both fae. I don’t need to explain that do I?”

“Ah. Maybe? I don’t know. Magic is real?” You squinted in confusion but his face fell to full deadpan in response. 

“Soulmates are basically magic, but fae are a stretch? Don’t be silly. Just like. Ground rules. Don’t give anyone your full name. Fake name or partial name only, understood? Also We can’t lie but we are really good at deceiving with words so be careful. The rest is less important. Anyway. Your darling is in there-” He points back to the ring again. “And he is probably in trouble. He gave you something today right?” 

You nod. “Well, he was going to but he got a call and left. Which you saw. He dropped it on his way out.” You fish the box out of your pocket. “It’s buzzing. Is this magic?” 

I.M looked slightly envious for a moment, tongue darting out before he replied. “Yeah. Open it. Now. You’ll need it.” 

“I wanted to ask him about it before I-” You began but when his eyes met yours, steely and serious, you decided to listen. Opening the box gently, you pulled a chord inside. It was silvery but a bit heavier than one would expect for how thin the chain was. It was a necklace of some kind, with a stone hanging from the end pendant style that seemed to be shining with inner light. It was almost opalescent, rainbows sparking inside. When it touched your skin you gasped, and electricity leapt through your body in arcs that should have left you stunned but instead left you gasping and awakened. 

The air got even more shimmery, and when you looked  at I.M he looked startled, his mouth fell open and he pointed at you while you slowly rolled your shoulders against the thrumming in your veins.  

Slowly, your regained your normal footing, realizing things felt different, inside and out. You felt different. 

“Sly.”  I.M said with a giggle. “You are one of us. Or partially. Guess my favor is even better now.”

“I don’t.” You began before things began to shift and bend around you, almost as though you yourself had a bubble around you refracting light… “I.M, touch me.” 

His eyebrows raised, but he did as you asked, lifting his hand only to have it forcefully blasted back as he reached your bubble. Sparks arched from the place he touched, sizzling as though it would burn him if he tried again.

“You absolute… This is great, turn it off so we can go and get him?” 

You nodded, concentrating on bringing the bubble in closer to your skin, then pressing itself back into the gem. You didn’t know HOW you knew to, but you knew it was the thing to do. 

As you stepped inside the fairy ring, reality itself seemed to shift. You closed your eyes and when you opened them, you were in a forest much thicker, much more foriegn. 

The wildlife was exotic, and shimmers danced into your vision.

Flashes of silk and skin kept playing in your head. Ki.. His name bounced on and off the tip of your tongue in the most irritating fashion. But you knew how he tasted, how he felt flush against you. How his lips felt pressed against the crown of your head. You knew he brought you flowers.

You knew he was yours. 

But it wasn’t time to revel in memories, so you turned to I.M who was still regarding you carefully.  “By now, they’ll have him cornered. Come on.” 

You nodded and followed but still called out to ask him who has him and why. 

“Usurpers. Your sweetheart is the 1st prince of the Seelie court, and word got out about you. You being human and all. It caused the already more tricky members of court to stage a coup. That’s where we come in. “ He waggled his eyebrows and it occurred to you that  he genuinely was a good person, if a little feisty. You liked him more each moment. 

“And how do YOU know about this plot?”  

His smile was jagged at its edges as he cut through a passage and lead you further along. “Oh. I know people, you know?”

You didn’t know, but there wasn’t time to dig into I.M’s world too deeply when you were still recovering memories as they slid into place on their own.

Laughter in sheets and silvery moonlight, nicknames and promises. Years of it, years of being his without knowing. 

You two kept mostly quiet as you slid through the tunnels. The air felt colder, but not quite damp, still, some pressure on your skin akin to humidity, but with more life set you on edge.

I.M motioned for you to come close, and pointed out into the opening ahead.

There was a ring of creatures, shades of blues and purples some with wings and some without, all surrounding Ki-, the man, your man. 

Your prince

You corrected. He didn’t look overly concerned, in fact, he almost seemed confident even surrounded as he was. You couldn’t make out the conversation but there were weapons pointed at him, and panic filled your gut.

“What can I do?”

“We’re cloaked best we can be. You’re going to have to get right in the middle of all of that and activate the gem. Do you think you can?”

His laughter soft and happy in your ear, breath bouncing off your skin sending shivers down your spine. The way his fingers traced the sides of your face. Your soulmate, yours all along.  

 You nodded with firm conviction. You would have to.  “I can do whatever I need to.” 

I.M smiled back at you, gave your hand a reassuring pat and pointed. “Then go get him.”

----

You sucked your breath in and held in on approach. You could hear your heart beating in your ears but you knew there wasn’t a choice. Thinking quickly,  you pretended to fall, the noise drawing the attention of the entire group.

 Kihyun looked up at you eyes widened,  alarmed and upset.  His head began to shake and mouth formed an “O”. The panic in his eyes made you feel guilty, but he didn’t know your plan.  

“Who is that? Is that her?”  A blue skinned creature that stood roughly 6ft tall asked with a graveled voice. 

Kihyun’s eyes were steely and angry, he looked ready to make a move and you wished you could calm him. There were too many of them and they were heavily armed. You needed to goad them into getting you closer to him.

“Aren’t we lucky.Now they can watch each other die.” A smaller one with sharp jagged teeth said, chuckling. 

“If you even-” Kihyun began before a harsh slap rang out and he fell to the ground. You lunged towards him without thinking, only to be stopped suddenly.

“Please. Let me see him.” You begged, you needed to be sure he was okay.

When a pale fae with purple hair and sharpened claws grabbed your arm you winced, he was dragging you to your feet and into the middle.  “You’ll see him. You’ll see him bleed out.” 

You were pushed towards where he was getting back to his feet, he stumbled but he caught you in his arms, trying to wrap his body around you and check you for injury. 

Electricity traveled inside your veins immediately, and for a moment you were lost in memories, lost in dreams... 

Silver moonlight in pink hair. Giggles and secrets and kisses. Hot skin on cool nights and promises made between glistening lips. The feather soft beat of his eyelashes against your cheek as he sings softly to you. The way your heartbeat syncs into his and drags you home. Home is him, and it’s all real. It’s a blur, but then it’s part of you, he’s part of you.

You see him, much younger, much more excited.

“You belong here as much as I do, this power is as much yours as it is mine. You are one of us, even if it’s just a little bit.”  His scrunched nose makes you weak with happiness and you feel the air sparkle with your combined magick. That little bit in your veins is enough to feel the words he says are true. 

“So I really won’t remember you in the morning? We only just met!”  You want to stay in this place with him.

“You won’t. Because I am not human, and neither are you. Or at least not all of the way. We’ll make it work, I’ll find my way to you.”

When you opened your eyes again, Kihyun was panicking, saying something to you, but your ears were still ringing. You smiled reassuringly and touched his face, cupping his cheek with one hand as you squeezed tight to the necklace in your pocket with the other, and the shimmering light enveloped you both.

He was smiling, then, and holding onto you as the fae outside began trying to attack, only to be bounced back by the shield that surrounded you.

“Hi,” you said to him, ignoring the ruckus, “It’s nice to see you again, Kihyun. My Kihyun. My soulmate.” 

His eyes were watering and he was laughing, holding your face in both his hands as he realized you had returned to him. “It worked. It worked and you remember don’t you?” He peppered kisses across your forehead and cheeks, with giggles. “This is real! This is real and you’re mine.”

You didn’t think before you acted, only knew that he had to be closer to you. Gripping the back of his neck, you tugged his face closer to yours and tilted your head to press your lips to his. Softly, at first, and then firmly when he breathed into the kiss and tightened his hold, hands pressing into your lower back and pulling you up into him. You swear you had never felt so full and so alive at once, his lips the perfect blend of soft and harsh. This was the kind of kiss people wrote songs about, the kind of fairy tail nonsense that was fed to you as a child. But here, in his arms, there didn’t seem to be a single thing in the world more magical than the press of his lips desperate to  know you as well in reality as they had in dreams.

You eventually pulled back, albeit unwillingly, your foreheads joined as you both caught your breath.

He glanced up, reluctant to look away but knowing the threat was still present. You followed his gaze when a huge smile lit his face.

“You didn’t have to wait so long to help out, but you always did have a flair for the dramatic.” He’s speaking to a smaller man outside the bubble, silver hair and a sneaky smile. He’s handsome too, with round eyes that tilt up at the ends. 

“We had a plan. You should trust us more.” He insists as I.M joins at his side, there’s others in hoods and robes also all around, apprehending the group

I.M looks slyer than ever, “You still owe me, highness.”

“I’m not-” you begin, only to be cut off by Byeongkwan who is smirking and Kihyun.

“You will be, pleasure to meet you, sister in law.” He winks at you and turns to make a hand sign at the group around him. “We’ll take care of this. You guys head back.”

You slowly let go of the jewel in your pocket, retracting the shimmering light. Kihyun refuses to let you go, clutching onto your hand and lacing your fingers. 

You walk off knowing that things will be okay, that whatever is next, together you’d figure it out.

----------------------------------------------EPILOGUE----------------------------------

The sheets are silken. The bedside table is silver. The room has a skylight.

You smell life and flowers and  Kihyun and the scent of your skin combined. 

There’s no fog to usher you back into the day, there is nothing rushing you away from this dream. 

You snuggle deeper into his hold, he murmurs in his sleep from you shifting, eyes fluttering open to regard you blearily. 

“Hello Princess.” His voice is lower and thick with sleep, you’re nearly overwhelmed with love,the way your skin tingles and your breath quickens at his touch.

“Hello, Prince.” You respond as his lips brush yours lovingly, starting soft and deepening as you tightened your grip. 

His fingers danced along the skin of your collar bone, drifting down your arms to stroke your skin lovingly. The heat between you was always present, but as he grunted into the kiss and rolled you onto your back, teeth glistening in the dark, you knew that this was going to be a longer night. And you had all night...

This time, you weren’t lost in a dream, you were lost in him, and that was perfectly alright....

[illneverrecover]

WIP& Ask Game!

rules: post the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. then let people send asks with the title that most intrigues/interests them and you’ll post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it!

I was tagged by the always lovely and amazing @xjoonchildx , thank you for thinking of me bb!

I was semi avoiding this tag game because the amount of WIPs I have y’all 💀💀💀Don’t judge me! These are all in various states of being WIPs - some of these have a decent amount written, others only have outlines or a few bullet points, some just have the general premise of the fic.  Almost all of these are planned with smut unless otherwise stated. I’m leaving them kind of vague so if you’re curious, ask away!

Works in Progress

Untitled Yoongi Fic - rockstar!Yoongi x reader

Untitled Yoongi Fic - two brothers who are both Daechwita!Yoongi x reader

Epilogue for Make It Right - taehyung x reader, brief namjoon x reader

Untitled Jimin Fic - male escort!Jimin x reader 

Untitled Chanyeol & Changkyun fic - college AU, childhood bestie!Chanyeol x reader x moody college student!Changkyun

Untitled Yoongi Fic - a continuation of ‘The Sweetest Thing’, florist!Yoongi x baker!reader

Untitled Changkyun Fic - based on his Goddamn MV, angsty Changkyun x reader

Untitled Lucas Fic - still playing with this one, either CEO/co-worker or Assassin!AU - sub!Lucas x reader 

Untitled OT7 BTS Fic - zombie apocalypse AU, zombie!BTS x reader, Warm Bodies AU (likely no smut, maybe implied smut)

Untitled Seonghwa Fic - royalty/fae AU - consort!Seonghwa x Queen!reader

Untitled Taehyung Fic - neighbors!AU - Taehyung x reader

Untitled Taehyung Fic - a continuation of The Point of No Return, taehyung x reader

General Ideas/Plots/Early Stages WIPs

Taehyung x reader x Jungkook threesome

Other member/werewolf perspectives from the Swear Not by the Moon universe

Idolverse Kihyun fic filled with angst (and smut)

Gang!AU Jungkook x reader from Take Me to Church ; side stories, continuations

anime x multiple idol crossovers because I cannot stop THINKING ABOUT IT 

Honestly, this is just what I could find in my docs - I know there’s way more that I’m forgetting because I am a constant mess. Anyway, send me an ask if you’re curious or what to know more about any of these potential/hopefully-one-day stories! 

Tagging (only if you want, as always): @taetaesbaebaepsae @ditzymax @taegularities @quinnkoo @jimins-ass-eater @jungkookiebus @ditttiii @ddaechwita @imyourhobiii @aroseforyoongi

[vampiratesgrl]

Kinda was playing around and made the boys into mythological creatures plus Jackson caus3 I also love him!!

[  ] Werewolf - Wonho

[  ] Vampire -Jooheon

[  ] Succubus - Minhyuk

[  ] Witch - Kihyun

[  ] Kitsune - I.M

[  ] Shapeshifter/Berserker- Shownu

[  ] Dark fae - Hyungwon

[  ] Dragon Shifter - Jackson

[kpopisthereasonihavenolife]

BTS Masterlist

ALWAYS UP TO DATE!! 

--------------------------

Fics:

Food Blogger Identity [F]

His Epiphany of Her [Curse AU, A, Rom.] 

Ships and Seas and Mermaids [mermaid/pirate au, rom.]  ((WIP))

Too Good For Us (Yoongi+Hobi) [F- Poly. Relationship]

Protect Her from Nature ( Yoongi+Kihyun) [F- Poly. Relationship Ft. MX]

Broken Communication (Yoongi+Jungkook) [A, F, Poly. Relationship] 🌸

Just to Get to You [Soulmate AU, Longing, Rom.]

Thank God [Drabble, Myth/God AU]

Always [Drabble, Mafia AU]

Fury of Their Scales [Dragon AU] ⭐️

Evacuate [scifi/alien au, crimial/prison au, drama, rom., angst] ((WIP))

Paper Airplane [NetFriends AU, F] 

Kitsune [Demon Hunter AU, Action, Rom. Adventure] ↴  ⭐️ (ONGOING)

i. demon | ii. winter | iii. spring | iv. summer | v. autumn | vi. weapon 

Kitsune Series Index

Just, Turn it Up [dance/college au]

His Desperate Pleas [Elven Prince!AU, Rom.] ⭐️

Bee Stings [Fluff, Drabble]

No. 0121994,  Buggy? [Andriod AU, Drabble Series]

Oberon [Fae au, rom., drama, angst] ⭐️⭐️

Years END : ↴ [dystopian, scifi, two-shot]

  pt.i | pt.ii 

I Think I’m… [F]

Love Me Now? [Devil AU, Rom. Smut] [COMPLETE] ↴ 🌸

1 / 2

He’s Scared [Drabble]

Unconscious Intimacy (Vmin Poly.) [A, F]

ASSests [F, Drabble]

Glock [Mafia AU, Drabble]

Promise Me an “I Love You.” [Drabble, Magic AU, Fluff] 

Enrollment [Demon Au, Drabble]

Rosebud [Drabble, Dad!Jimin, Fluff] 

Dandelion [College AU, Enemies->Friends->lovers, Fluff]

Eden [God AU, Angst, Drama, Romance] ⭐️

Call and Fold [Drabble, Mafia Au, Strangers-Lovers]

Taboo Attachment (Demon AU, Arranged Marriage?, Fluff) ↴ 🌸

 Drabble: Authentic | Moodboard

Through the Mirror [Soulmate?AU/F]

Unconscious Intimacy (Vmin Poly.) [A, F]

Retracted Claws [Mafia, Hybrid, Fluff] ↴  (DISCONTINUED) ⭐️

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | important, pls read!! |

Moodboard | Moodboard 02

Bi-Racial Traitors [Vampire/Vampire Hunter AU]

Hold Your Breath,  Now Exhale,  Breathe [Drabble series, Sea Prince AU]  🌺

I Can’t Quit,  With You  [High School Au, A, Violence?, Rom.]  

Don’t Listen [Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff]

Little Omega [Drabble, A/B/O AU]

Strawberries and Next Time [Fluffiest] 

Payment [Drabble, Mafia/Cop AU]

I Am a Dog [Drabble, Fluff, Tannie POV] 🌺

His Trigger-Happy Lady [Drabble, Mafia Au, Friends->Lovers]

Lucky Cat [Miraculous Ladybug AU]

Midnight Reassurance [Drabble, Pure Fluff] 🌺  

His Prophet [Sun God AU]

hey, my alien [ongoing drabble series/hiatus]

Sorceress of Lisha [royal/magic au] 

Priestess and Serpent [royal/fantasy/arranged marriage au] 

Colorblind [horror/action au, artist!taehyung]

2 Years of Lost Time [Hanahaki AU, A, F] 🌸

Broken Communication (Jungkook+Yoongi) [A, F, Poly. Relationship]

Won’t Let Them Break Us [A, F]

Watchdog [Mafia AU] 🌸

Bracelet Bells & Teddy Bears [Paranormal, Thriller, Ghost Hunter AU] ⭐️

Blight [Dragon/Shapeshifter, Magic, Enemies to Lovers] ↴ (Complete)⭐️⭐️

0 | I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | Epilogue

Warlock Yoongi Moodboard, Hellhound Jimin Moodboard

Summer A/C [Neighbor AU, Drabble]

Take 3... Action! [Drabble, Fake Dating/Highschool AU]

Love You Like a Tattoo [Soft/Badboy, Fluff, Drabble-ish] 

30-Love [Tennis AU, Fluff, Idiots to Lovers] 🌸

Favorite Human [Hybrid Au, Childhood Friend, Fluff]

bts smau/text series:

Miss BioChem (College!Jimin Text Series) ↴ (DISCONTINUED)

Masterlist

——–

I’m Not That Easy Mr. Kim (CEO!Taehyung Text+Fic Series) ↴  🌺

Complete Masterlist

stand-alone texts:

Bangtan when they find your secret YT Channel

Reactions:

BTS when you’re foreign and innocent and unknowingly sing a dirty/suggestive song

BTS when their child wants a sibling

When their S/O has naturally red cheeks

When they call you cute, but you're not used to it

When they walk in on their child fighting w/ you

When their child doesn’t want to be in the spotlight

When they accidentally hurt you whilst playing

When you walk out after they say something hurtful

When you’re the 8th member and a ‘95 liner

BTS in a horror movie

[multifandom-kpop-scenarios]

Masterlist

Hello! Thank you for checking out our masterlist! This masterlist is specifically for the seasonal specials we have been doing! As this post will be pretty long, our masterlist will be below the cut! For any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Admin REX

P.S. If you still want to request outside of our specials, you absolutely still can. In fact, we would appreciate if you sent in more of your requests.

Halloween Special 🎃

Day  1 - Kihyun (Monsta X) / Vampire

Day  2 - Jihun (KNK) / Vampire

Day  3 - Jun (SVT) / Couple’s Costume

Day  4 - Jaeyoon (SF9) / Superhero

Day  5 - Jacob (The Boyz) / Scary movies

Day  6 - Xion (ONEUS) / Werewolf

Day  7 - Hanse (Victon) / Haunted House

Day  8 - Hwanwoong (ONEUS) / Costume Party

Day  9 - Jaemin (NCT) / Vampire

Day 10 - Yugyeom (GOT7) / Hybrid

Day 11 - SF9 (Guess the Member!) / Zombie Apocalypse

Day 12 - Dongmyeong (ONEWE) / Pumpkins

Day 13 - Young K (Day6) / Grim Reaper

Day 14 - Seungwoo (Victon) / Haunted Tour

Day 15 - Bang Chan (SKZ) / Werewolf

⋆ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ⋆

Holiday Special / Christmas Special 🎄❄

Day 1 - Sejun (Victon) / Snowfall & Mistletoe

Day 2 - New (TBZ) / Christmas Cafe

Day 3 - I.N (SKZ) / Gift Shopping

Day 4 - Moonbin (Astro) / First Snow

Day 5 - Mingi (ATEEZ) / Aurora Lights

Day 6 - Harin (ONEWE) / Snowball Fight

Day 6.5 - Yonghoon (ONEWE) / Snowball Fight

Day 7 - Ravn (ONEUS) / Mittens

Day 8 - Wonho (Monsta X) / Baking

Day 9 - Yeonjun (TXT) / Snowman

Day 10 - Seungwoo (Victon) / Snow

Day 11 - Jeno (NCT) / Gingerbread House

⋆ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ⋆

Valentine’s Day Special 💋

Story 1 - Bang Chan (SKZ) / Fluffly Date

Story 2 - Donghun (A.C.E) / Missing You

Story 3 - Sejun (Victon) / Confessing

Story 4 - Jae (Day6) / Valentine’s Party

⋆ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ⋆

3.14 Special 💖

Story 1 - Jae (Day6) / Sunshower

Story 2 - Sejun (Victon) / Sharing your soulmate’s pain

Story 3 - Minhyun (Nu'est) / Flowers

Story 4 - Jun & Wow (A.C.E) / Soulmates

Story 5 - Seoho (ONEUS) / Soulmates

Story 6 - Seungwoo (Victon) / Soulmates with Matching Tattoo Halves

Story 7 - Seungwoo (Victon) / Vampire Soulmate

⋆ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ⋆

Spring Blooms Special 🌹

Story 1 - Leedo (ONEUS) / Sunflower

Story 2 - CyA (ONEWE) / Roses

Story 3 - Hwanwoong (ONEUS) / Poppy

Story 4 - Sanha (Astro) / Lily of the Valley

Story 5 - Youngbin (SF9) / Tuberose

⋆ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ◖ ◐ ○ ◑ ◗ ● ⋆

Fae & Bots Special 🧚‍♂️🤖

⚠ Under Construction :) ⚠

[hungline]

a budding relationship

pairings: yoonkook, side showki and past jinkook  genre: fluff, light angst, fae au, flower shop au, rated pg13  warnings: past character death  a/n: written as a birthday gift last year for the baby of our ot7 @joonsvalentine​! <3 check the replies for links to the rest of the series words: 1500 

summary: Maybe Jeongguk doesn't know what love is or how it's supposed to feel, but he knows for certain that one day soon, Yoongi will be making flower crowns for him and him only. 

⇢ part two of a love as strong as you 

Yoongi closes up shop like he always does, sweeping away twigs and stray petals from the floor as soft music plays from the radio.

He loves this part of his routine. The time stuck between day and night, twilight where all the nocturnal flowers he keeps in the shop are preparing to bloom. Sometimes a wind will whoosh past the windchimes, creating twinkling sounds to accompany the swish of his broom and the low crooning from the radio. Other times the outside world is silent and Yoongi hums to the radio as he works, creating noise of his own to keep him company.

There are times rarer than the others when Yoongi can hear the distinct sound of bells ringing in the distance, the noise so low and quiet that it'd be incredibly difficult to catch. But Yoongi has always paid attention when it came to sounds and he'd tucked this specific one firmly into the forefront of his memory where he wouldn't be able to forget it very soon.

And right now, Yoongi can hear the distant bells. He smiles, lowering the volume of the radio so that he's able to hear them more clearly.

He continues to sweep and follow his closing routine because he doesn't want the noise to vanish so soon after he's paid attention to it. So the ringing continues, becoming smaller and smaller as the sun slowly goes down and Yoongi pulls a few tarps covering parts of the ceiling out of the way, allowing the steadily brightening moonlight to shine down into the greenhouse. He goes back to work, smiling at the tiny pinpoint of light he can see flickering about in the corner of his eyesight. Yoongi pretends that he can't see it though and double-checks that the doors and windows are locked, recounts the register, drops money into the safe, sweeps in the back room so he won't have to do it tomorrow, and then turns off the radio as he makes his way upstairs to where his apartment is. He knows how things are and how they will go so the only thing for him to do is follow along and enjoy.

His apartment is small and old and smells funny sometimes but Yoongi would never complain about it. The apartment is home, with its too-loud humming refrigerator and bathroom showerhead that has perfect water pressure. It's where Yoongi took his first steps, where he learned to talk, where he learned how to read. Where he learned how to grow and nurture things like the plants in his mother's shop below. The flower shop is hers and he grew up above it. It's his roots. There are too many memories here for him not to love it.

Now that his mother is gone though, Yoongi took responsibility for everything, doing his best to keep the little business afloat.

He's done great so far. Most of his mother's old and regular customers still visit the shop and Yoongi has been able to snag many new ones as well. It doesn't feel the same as when he was growing up, but he's proud that even after death, his mother's vision is still alive.

Kihyun always made fun of him for knowing so much about flowers. He's always been the one who'd pipe up and make a dig at Yoongi. Since the very beginning, that's how their friendship had gone and Yoongi doesn't mind all that much. Especially since he knows that's how Kihyun shows affection and Kihyun has been there for Yoongi through a lot.

Yoongi really doesn't know how he would have been able to pick himself back up after his mother's death if it hadn't been for Kihyun's tough love, homecooked meals, and Kihyun's quiet, but sturdy, boyfriend Hyunwoo helping him re-establish the flower shop for business once more. Surely, the shop would have been sold and Yoongi would be crashing on Kihyun's couch while jumping from job to job. Kihyun has been his backbone during this rough part of his life and Yoongi's grateful to him for being there and for knocking sense back into him. He's the real reason his mother's flower shop is still open.

Business has been booming too! His fingers still twitch just thinking about the four weddings he catered flowers to these past seven months alone. Handling the orders hadn't been as rewarding as Yoongi initially thought, but the flowers had been delivered on time and in good condition and that's really all that mattered when it came down to it. The venues for the weddings were beautiful with his flowers decorated all over them and Yoongi has the piece about the latest wedding that was published in the local newspaper pinned to his fridge with a magnet. Proud doesn't begin to cover how he feels.

Yoongi puts a kettle on the stove as he flips through the catalog he keeps on all the flowers below. In the margins are notes on new orders, new flowers, and new arrangements, but there are also reminders about calling the plumber, buying more of that juice that Hyunwoo likes to drink every time he comes over to help Yoongi with the shop, and folding the laundry. This book holds practically everything.

The kettle begins to whistle once he's flipped through a few more pages, making a note here and there, and Yoongi takes it off, quickly grabbing a tea bag and pouring water into his mug. He lets the tea bag steep as he jots down a few more tidbits of information on the new arrangement for the Shin funeral before he lets the book close and cocks his head to the side, waiting.

Soon enough, the tinkling can be heard near his closed window and Yoongi smiles to himself as he takes the teabag out of his mug. He pretends to wander aimlessly as he makes his way towards the window, setting his mug down as the tinkling stops and he slides the windowpane up, grabbing his mug again. Yoongi sits in his mother's favorite rocking chair by the window and sips his tea, waiting again for the tinkling to begin.

It doesn't take long before it does and Yoongi grins into his tea, rocking himself slowly to the beat of the tinkling.

  Jeongguk knows he shouldn't be here.

He knows and yet it changes nothing about the fact that he is here again.

He's been coming here for months.

Taehyung had advised him against it and Taehyung never advises against anything.

That's enough for Jeongguk to know that this is stupid and dangerous. But he's in love.

He falls so easily really.

When he closes his eyes, he can still see Seokjin smiling at him and gradually letting his guard down around Jeongguk. But he can also see Seokjin flying away with their home in tow, flying away due to fear. Due to cowardice.

Seokjin left him and took everything and now Jeongguk is flitting about a florist's window, trying to do something he's positive will come back to bite him in the ass.

And maybe Jeongguk has no idea what love is, maybe he has no clue about it. But when Yoongi hums behind his counter as he strings old flowers together to make crowns, Jeongguk's heart flutters as rapidly as his wings. When Yoongi greets his customers with a gummy smile and flower petals around his feet, something in Jeongguk buzzes through him. And when Yoongi waters his plants, talking to them in silly voices sometimes, Jeongguk knows he's gone.

Yoongi isn't Claimed. Jeongguk can tell because Yoongi owns no cats and no other fae has ever visited him apart from Jeongguk. So Jeongguk leaves him gifts, little things that he can carry: bells, nuts, ribbons, berries. Simple gifts by most standards but something tells Jeongguk that Yoongi would like them better than any of those fancy gift Taehyung or Jimin would be able to come up with (not that they would since they're both happily committed anyway). Sometimes, Jeongguk will hide a few of Yoongi's things and then watch as Yoongi smiles when he finds them again.

Yoongi's smile is beautiful.

He isn't Claimed, but Jeongguk hopes that Yoongi will allow him to claim him in the future.

And Jeongguk knows that Yoongi can guess what's happening, all the gifts, his things missing, the way he purposely leaves his window open during the night and always lowers the volume on his radio. Yoongi isn't dumb and as a florist, he has to know that a fae would eventually show up to try and win him over.

Jeongguk might almost have him too. At this point, he can't be sure, but as he watches Yoongi continue to drink from his mug, Jeongguk finds that he doesn't care all that much.

Maybe Jeongguk doesn't know what love is or how it's supposed to feel, but he knows for certain that one day soon, Yoongi will be making flower crowns for him and him only.

[airsignvenus-remade]

i forgot the exact thing but i was tagged in “10 songs youre obsessed with right now” or something like that by @nctlife

1. trust me baby - empress of

2. oh! my mistake - april

3. you’re not good enough - blood orange

4. w$ boi - sir

5. reasons - snacky chan

6. so low - naomi scott

7. im a fool - wable

8. backwood - ari lennox

9. johnny bravo - dizzy fae

10. katchup - dalsooobin

im tagging but u dont have to do it 🤷‍♀️: @yejiswife @opgemini @kihyuner @girlsday @azcendant @handshake @adoringhours @nazaremoji @baekloveday @92s

[tuwam]

traces

@urianius

very rarely does the winter court offer time to breathe. there’s something about the air there, tense, like they’re always on the brink of something. like there’s something ready to snap, similar to the way the weight of icicles and snow can pile atop a branch for years or seconds before it gives. the winter court for all it’s beauty in snows and whites, is always shrouded in a quiet silence that leaves other son its edge. it’s why daniel had kept his distance, he doesn’t mind the cold but he minds always being on edge. he likes to relax these days, and he likes to be lax in how he approaches things.

as a captain he’d been quite the hard ass, not to the point of making it hard for his men to follow him but the respect he’d garnered came form his tactical ruthlessness and efficiency. he was still quite lax on any other day opting to kick back when they didn’t have practice sessions and ordering his men to take breaks on watch when they needed. but - still, like any other person in the winter court, he checks his back more than he’d like to admit.

so. for reasons that shouldn’t be hard for anyone to guess, his extended vacation to the spring court had been expected. he trusted those who led the winter guar din his stead and though daniel worries about how they get along with that pompous of a leader, he’s got faith in them and he’d rather his orders come from afar than from the siphoning hell the winter court has turned into. 

the autumn court, in all its occasional muddiness and fog, has a heaviness that’s allowed him peace of mind. they’re a proud race, the autumn fae, political to a fault, but they are peaceful, not as mischievous and wishy-washy as the summer and spring courts. they’ve allowed his presence for what he can teach their sentries and for his own diplomatic prowess. not to mention daniel has it rather good with the royal family here, having spent time making sure he made more friends than enemies during his king’s own tyrannical path. he’s here on diplomacy, but really this extended vacation became cemented when he realized much of the winter court would rather not venture out to find him, what with how strict the autumn court could be about their borders. 

there is some residual of the winter court found in the autumn court and that’s probably why he finds more peace of mind because it’s not home but it’s close enough. it’s not as big a scenery change and he doesn’t have to check every corner for a spy, the autumn fae now just scurry when they lock eyes with him, laughing, giggling rather than out of spite or mistrust. in the winter court, he would get the giggles, the fear, and a bit of mistrust from those he didn’t trust on his guard, those who followed his king too close and he worried he would have to expunge at his own hand. he grew tired of that.

it’s because of the peace of mind here, that daniel thinks he’s become quite soft. not because kihyun hasn’t stopped letting the comment slip each time they run into each other, but because he can feel it. because - despite knowing the presence of kihyun meant his peace was disrupted he acknowledges it was a form of peace. because he finds himself slipping into habits that would’ve never crossed his mind back home.

habits like - getting lost in a romance he’d have previously denied himself. not just him but - back home, with the positions he held and the positions of the one who held his heart, he wouldn’t have dared. and now he dares. peace makes him dare. he dares to sneak in moments like this - despite knowing ahyeon has come to rip him from his haven and into another conspiracy - he’s stealing her from her chaos for a second. 

he’s not sure how long they’ve rested here, the autumn court has quite a few groves full of branches and stumps covered in moss, little caves they like to carve into rotted trees and underbrush. it’s quite homey, sometimes covered with a morning dew that’s either a cold fog or a warm dew. today it’s warm, and daniel has taken it upon himself to drag ahyeon towards it under pretense of showing her something that will help win over the autumn court to their cause. they had that in the bag, once they sweet talked the summer court’s prince, the autumn court would follow them.

that is a situation for another day. right now, ahyeon isn’t fussing against him, she’s talking he’s sure but somehow it’s lulled into nonsese as they sit in one of the mossy groves. she’s going to notice that he isn’t listening much, probably call him out on it, threaten to leave, but daniel still feels the press of her wings against his chest and he knows that latter isn’t the closest option. ahyeon prefers keeping her wings low and tucked down, so when she’s allowed to rest them on someone who won’t mind the weight - she always chooses too. plus, a lot of autumn court clothes allow for a more comfortable material, so when they rest against his vest, he knows they’re cushioned and less of a burden. 

he never minds the weight.

‘you’re not listening are you?’

he laughs, something he’s found is quite easier in the autumn court. their jokes are a bit dry, dark even but it’s still easier to laugh and he quite likes it. he likes how ahyeon’s brows furrow the first time she hears it and then watches as they soften. here - he has more time to study the subtleties in her expression and if he won’t call her out on it, he’ll still do something about it. like hold her closer, try to kiss her.

“i’m listening.”

‘daniel.’ “your hair’s getting longer.”

she stops whatever she was going to say - but it’s probably because his hands are flitting through the strands. most winter court keep their hair long but because of her travels, he’s assumed she’s allowed it to grow out a bit more. he’s grown used to seeing past the fringes that stop at her shoulders and the wires that take up most of the space. now, because of the length, they’re getting caught and fed through the wires that make up most of her. as his hands find the wires he’s struck with a sense of familiarity. they’re cold to the touch, as most things from their court tend to be but daniel finds a strange calm whenever he touches them.

there’s some newer ones. 

“did the pattern change?” he asks without really expecting an answer. ‘what- what are you talking about.’ daniel snorts, she always finds a way to sound so defensive. but - that’s a very winter nature. daniel can always find the breaks, and shakes in her words that affirm why she even allows him to touch them. he’s sitting up among the moss, ahyeon shifting as well with the movement, and its so he can lean closer, press a kiss to her shoulder that she doesn’t shake off.

“this one right here, used to be shaped like a spiral.” he doesn’t need to point out which one, because he’s hands have been tracing that same spiral for years. it’s his favorite, because it looks like the shape of her eyes, though he’s sure he’s never told her that. the heaviness of the autumn dew almost makes him want to. he bites the words instead by keeping his lips to the cool wires that circle atop her shoulder blades. there are quite a few spirals on her back but the one in the middle is his favorite by far, it falls right where her wings meet and it would be dwarfed and hidden by them on almost every meeting. when he’d seen it - it was when they’d both stopped lying about the way they fell for one another, and well - more intimate circumstances had led to him discovering it.

‘what....what is it now?’

ahyeon’s voice is lower, strained and daniel tries to make sure she doesn’t feel his smile when he places another kiss to her shoulder. instead he sits back to get a look at it, fingers still tracing the lines that lead to it, being careful not to agitate her wings.

“can’t really tell.” ‘what do you mean?’

now she’s irritated, but maybe it’s more out of fear. daniel does know what the symbol is, it’s almost identical to the tattoo that wraps around his wrists and starts the slew of tattoos up his arms, but, ahyeon is stressed, they’ve got quite the mess of meetings today and he doesn’t want to burden her with that. not now. so he presses another kiss to the collection of jagged diamonds, the spiral still visible between it all, and feels her shiver between him.

‘daniel.’ she only uses his winter name, and winter fae language under specific circumstances. daniel smiles, feeling a bit wicked at his sole ability to get this reaction. instead his arms wrap around her, allowing enough space for her to fall back again as his chin hooks onto her shoulder.

“found the spiral.” ‘you’re insufferable.’ “you choose to suffer.”

she makes no comment but he can see the smile curve around her cheek.

‘we have to get back.’ “five more minutes.” ‘daniel...they’ll look for us.’ “just five ahyeon. i promise.” 

he’s being wicked again, using the same language and her own winter name to get her to fall pliant against him, with a sigh she makes sure he hears. they’ll hear it form kihyun, boy will they hear it. but he’ll put up with it for the way the warmth starts to settle around them.

[intuwam]

things happening in space and time | fantasy au.

@consilian aka how minjae is fucking up the rotation! currently!

minjae & hyuck are trapped in the dungeon of the southern seelie king yunho who has kidnapped the head of the institute kwon mina. they have been in the dungeon for almost a week after their ambush team was ambushed by the king’s spies.

humans interfering in seelie affairs is not only forbidden but is punishable by any law of the territory being encroached upon. as minjae and hyuck are in yunho’s territory he holds the bargaining chip regardless of whether he kidnapped mina first or not and he can very well kill the two with no fear of repercussion. 

his reasons for kidnapping mina stem from a childhood infatuation that was deemed forbidden by the previous southern court, fueling yunho’s rage and need for power and control.

soyeon, now head of the institute in mina’s absence is working on a solution, a loophole to ask the human realm to help rescue mina, citing the efforts the institute has taken to protect human kingdoms from supernatural uprisings and the war between vampires, witches, faes and dwarves that somehow they always end up caught between. soyeon was very persuasive in citing that without the institue, they had no protection other than freelancers in need of some coin. she’s received approval and was PLANNING on meeting with the emperor first and then forcing yunho into a meeting that would allow mina’s safe return.

minjae’s plan effectively ruined that but the king still needs to know the status of things so kihyun ( a freelancer ) and jaehyun are tasked with meeting the acclaimed emperor whose existence is forever shrouded in mystery. though soyeon is unsure, there are rumors that they might need to make a show of the rumored knights to help bend king yunho’s will.

meanwhile in the human realm, the challenge to prince - soon-to-be king soohyun weighs on julee’s father. the king has given a timespan of fourteen days until the duel should take place. no one says anything but the way the days tick by, things won’t be the same for either kingdom afterwards. time is running out, increased activity has made human kingdoms desperate for protection and alliances to protect themselves from treachery in the form of witchraft. smaller kingdoms are rising up, larger kingdoms are nearing corruption and even the emperor’s name won’t be enough to hold loyalty for long.

[little-chimchim]

YO Let me know how you guys like the character concepts for Winter's Kiss

Autumn Fae. Prince Hoseok and Lord Kihyun

Spring Fae. Prince Jooheon and Prince Changkyun

Summer Fae. Lord Hyunwoo

Winter Fae. Prince Minhyuk and Prince Hyungwon

[dreamscript]

The Fires Within: 9 - final

a hellhound au twist on this request

Yoongi’s still recovering, but in more ways than one. Now if only he could stop sending murderous glares towards your sparring partners...

Prologue | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 (M) | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 (final)

8.2k words, yoongi/reader, hellhound au

You hack and slash viciously at the air, at the wind sprites that Jihun keeps on sending after you. He manages to just barely deflect a potentially fatal blast of magic you send his way before he’s dashing towards you at blinding speed and you’re revving your fist for a good old fashioned punch in the gut.

Luckily for him, Jihun notices and blocks it with his forearm, but grunts harshly. He backs away.

“Man, who the hell pissed you off today?” he asks, panting.

“I don’t know, maybe I’m just feeling the extra energy from my afternoon coffee,” you reply, assuring him that you’re fine and not about to blow up, both figuratively and literally. But of course, what you really mean and what Jihun doesn’t--and shouldn’t know because that would be weird and awkward--is that you’re actually replaying the entire conversation you had with Yoongi an hour prior, irritation and anxiety and worry and concern building up by the minute.

// ONE HOUR EARLIER

He calmly sips at his half-finished coffee, looking at you boredly, expectantly, as you try and slow down your desperate panting. You eye him murderously as you slump into your seat, sweaty, barely giving the waiter a glance before ordering a nice, ice cold drink. Yoongi makes no comment on your current state of disarray.

“You know, you could’ve at least chosen a closer meeting spot, for those of us who are not gifted with the ability to travel at high speeds,” you say, irritated.

“I’m sure you’ve travelled greater distances before, _________,” Yoongi replies, taking another sip from his cup. You realize that it’s been enchanted, from the way it twinkles and keeps the liquid inside from sloshing about too much. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be admitted as an active member of the League.”

You glare at him even harder. “That’s different. You know that. Typically I don’t run a full six miles just to go to a coffee shop. Sure, I’m more about damage over time rather than slip in, blow up shit, and slip out, but that doesn’t mean my body is capable of working overtime for extended periods.”

Yoongi shrugs. The waiter returns and sets down a tall glass of juice, sorbet-yellow blending into a rich fuchsia. The condensation conveniently moves away wherever you put your hand on the glass. You take a huge gulp, eyes trained on Yoongi, waiting for his response.

He sighs. “It’s a nice shop,” he justifies. “Anyways, what did you want to talk about?”

If you could glare at him any harder, you would have burned holes straight through his stubborn thick skull. “You. And stop playing dumb.”

He merely raises a brow. “I’m pretty sure we’ve advanced beyond being mere acquaintances at this point, but if you insist… My name is Min Yoongi, I’m from the capital, I’m currently registered as an inactive assassin in the League--”

“I said stop. Playing. Dumb.”

He sighs. You look at him. Waiting.

After a minute of silence, he finally speaks up. “My friends… you met them. And I’m pretty sure during this time period you’ve become close enough that they’ve become your friends as well.”

You nod.

“...did they not tell you anything about me? Were you not scared? The League is full of dangerous people, you know. Just because you’re all under the same umbrella doesn’t mean you’re safe.”

“Jimin told me you were a murderer,” you reply. “And of course that threw me off. And I obviously was wary, though admittedly still naïve… regardless, things turned out fine. Call it intuition, I guess. Fae are good at that.”

“You’re not Fae. I’d call it beginner’s luck instead.” Yoongi drums his fingers on the table, coffee untouched. “And regarding what Jimin said...did you not see? What happened?”

“What’s happened has happened. You cannot change it,” you reply carefully, but after thinking briefly of Hoseok and the lanky veteran Tao, add, “at least not in this timeline.”

He sighs, off put. “Still happened. Even though the hound’s gone I still feel like a monster. It’s actually still really hard to think that it isn’t… there anymore. It’s been with me so long that I guess I just got kinda used to it. Being there.”

“You’re not a monster. That’s gone. You, Yoongi, never were one.”

“I was.” He insists, still looking a bit defeated, lost. “Anyways, about you,” he continues, diverting the conversation, “Did you go on any missions.”

It doesn’t even sound like a question; his tone is so formal and tight it almost sounds like he’s being forced to ask about you, or maybe he’s too embarrassed to admit that he cares.

“N-no,” you reply, still trying to decipher him. “I only just got cleared to do solo missions. Like, I could’ve done group ones but I never really… found a suitable group to party up with. Most of the squad are still above my caliber in terms of experience, and Kibum hasn’t tried cajoling me into doing any so…”

“Oh really?” He looks strangely… pleased? Satisfied? by your answer.

“Yeah. Everything’s been paperwork up until now, really.” Yoongi hums in understanding. The past few weeks he’s been in and out of the hospital and the mental ward, filling out forms and talking about his current condition.

“So…” you say, deciding to bring up the part that you’ve been really wanting to ask this entire time, “are you going to tell me why you’ve been so deftly avoiding me, or are we just going to continue this anti-me zone that’s been going on around you?”

Yoongi presses his lips into a thin line. “I’ve just been busy, is all. I needed some space to find my footing again, by myself. I didn’t realize that such a zone was even a thing. My apologies.”

The answer is clearly not entirely truthful yet not entirely false, but Yoongi looks so stubborn and irked by your question that you bite back the accusatory remarks and physically restrain yourself from busting out an entire list of his actions the past week that would turn his statement upside down. He’s in a mentally fragile state, you remind yourself. Over and over and over again. He can’t do well under pressure; he’ll break.

“...I see. Well, in that case, I suppose it was just a… misunderstanding. If that’s all, then I’ve nothing else to discuss. I’ve got to go, anyways. Training with Jihun today,” you say, with a grimace. In reality you could have probably skipped, but you’re done here, and the lack of answers really makes you want to beat shit up.

He raises an eyebrow. “Jihun? How did that happen?”

“Um, he asked me?” You give him a look.

He narrows his eyes. “Be careful around him.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I figured that out within the first day of our pre-training with him, but thanks.”

“I’m serious,” he continues, “I don’t trust that man.”

“Yoongi,” you say, feeling your annoyance start to get the best of you, “you don’t trust a lot of people, so that isn’t really all that convincing.” You pause, study him, the equally irritated look on his face. “Anyways, I’ll let you decide whether or not you want to continue… taking time off, or if you want to actually sit down and… talk. I know there’s a lot on your mind, but I’m not going to hunt you down and corner you until you spill your thoughts out to me. We’re both adults, so we’ll handle this like adults, yeah?”

He says nothing, just looks away.

You clear your throat. “Anyways, sorry for taking up your time. I’ll be going now, can’t leave Jihun waiting, right?”

// PRESENT

Jihun manages to use his free hand to wipe a stray bead of sweat from rolling into his eyes and makes one last thrust toward your body before sheathing his sword. Even though you know it doesn’t do shit to his legendary blade, you blast magic at it anyway out of spite. He gives you a look.

“Well, we all have our days I guess.” He studies your face, still catches the fire behind your eyes. “Unfortunately, we have to end the session here, though.”

“Yeah. It’s getting a bit late anyways,” you reply, looking at the horizon, where the reddened sun sinks ever lower, bleeding into the sky. “Will you be down for, say, two days from now?”

He shakes his head. “Actually, I’m coming off my post as trainer tomorrow. From then on I’m just a regular member of the League, so I’m taking a couple of missions that’ll have me busy for the next month at least. Gotta get out while I can, y’know?”

“Oh,” you reply, disappointed. It’s not that you can’t spar with anyone else; it’s more of like Jihun is simply a great sparring partner, being a registered trainer and all. Instead of just throwing stuff at you, he’d also give you tips and guidance.

He notices your frown and gives you a wry smile. “I’m surprised you’re not taking any missions yourself, actually.”

“Y-yeah,” you reply. “There aren’t any that caught my eye.” The reality is, you haven’t exactly been looking. Ever since Yoongi woke up, you’ve been caught up with him, and the thought of leaving the area even for a bit seems out of question. There was this fear of just completely missing out that was particularly gripping.

“Well in that case--” Jihun taps his chin thoughtfully “--I could hook you up with a colleague of mine who’s been itching for a new sparring partner. We mostly just spar with each other--my friends and I--but lately we’ve been trying to expand out of our circle to, y’know, grow our abilities. We all kinda know each other’s fighting styles by now so everything is getting a bit monotonous. What do you say?”

You perk up. “That--that sounds great, wow! Who are they?”

“His name’s Kihyun,” he replies. “A mage, kind of like you, though he does also use weapons. That is--if you can call cards weapons. It wouldn’t be the strangest thing here, but it is still unconventional, if not extra. But trust me--he uses them well. And he also used to be a trainer, I’m pretty sure.”

“That sounds fantastic,” you gush, already getting giddy from the thought of finally sparring with another mage. “Can you send me his contact details?”

“No problem,” Jihun replies, shouldering his sweat-soaked towel. “I’ll ping them over to you later--I gotta run now. See ya!”

And then he’s gone, figure warped and blown away in a sudden cyclone of wind. You sigh. People at the League really did have a penchant for sudden and dramatic exits.

//

What was it, really? That feeling--it controlled him from the bare edges of his mind, made him feel jittery and sick and fearfully moody all at once. Maybe it’s a result from the phantom pains, or the mental scarring that still has yet to heal over, or something that’s always been there from the start and he’s only just noticed until now.

The therapist discards his gloves, jots some notes down in his tablet. “Well, it looks like your mental health still needs some improving. You’ve been taking the supplements prescribed to you, correct?”

Yoongi nods wordlessly. Although he hasn’t always been particularly consistent with it, he still takes them relatively often. They taste good.

“Interesting…” More notes. “Well, at least you’re healing, I suppose. At a slow rate, but it does tend to progress at a crawling pace, particularly at the beginning. Mental wounds are always so difficult to heal, much more so than physical ones. Those are done automatically, but these… require a lot more conscious effort.”

“Yeah.” Yoongi purses his lips, wondering when the man was going to stop blathering and repeating just what every single healer has been saying to him since he woke up.

“I managed to repiece and mend some scars from your mind today, but as you probably know, a lot of the actual work also depends on your own body. Have you tried talking about your feelings or opening up to friends or family? Most of our struggling patients find that talking to a close confidant helps them cope.”

Yoongi shakes his head. “I tend to keep things to myself.”

He hums. “That may be why--you see, when you do that, you let all those negative emotions build up, and essentially pit yourself against yourself. With someone else to talk to, even if it’s just a little bit--and it doesn’t necessarily have to be all personal--it could definitely help ‘purge’ those feelings, if you will, or at least make them more manageable. Humans are still social creatures, not matter how reclusive. They tend to crave the comfort of another… but of course, not as much as yordles, oh god, those things--”

“Does it actually help?” Yoongi interrupts.

“Wha--oh, yes, sorry. Yes. I would highly recommend it. Try giving it a go before your next check in? I’ll make a note here for whoever checks up on you next.”

Yoongi purses his lips again. In all honesty, he’d rather not. But… the logical side of him berates himself, telling him he’s better than this, that he’s worth it, that he can’t fall back into that vicious cycle again, promising himself that the road to actually feeling normal will be worth it, although it’s been so long he isn’t sure what that actually feels like.

And also…

This time, there’s nothing holding him back. Instead, all there is are wide open arms from his friends, all trying to reach out and help. He’d just been too blind with fear to see it before. He sighs.

And he can’t stop thinking about you. It feels almost a bit wrong, to turn to you for help when he’d been avoiding you so deftly before, but…

“I’ll let you decide… I know there’s a lot on your mind…”

“Yeah. I’ll try it.”

//

The blow dryer smartly snaps itself back into its place on the wall, collapsing neatly into a small disc. A part of you almost wants to say thank you to it, but you stop and hold your tongue when you realize it probably doesn’t have a conscience advanced enough to articulate human speech. So you don’t, feeling suddenly over-conscious about talking to an inanimate object.

You turn to the mirror and quickly fix your hair, eyes glossing over the different bruises and cuts from the day, tug at your towel, and take two butt-naked steps towards the door where your bathrobe hangs. It’s cushy and soft and if you could fall backwards into it you totally would.

Instead, you find yourself jumping slightly from the sudden ping from your messaging system. Startled, you reach for your communication vox that’s been sitting on your small coffee table, and see that it’s a message from Jihun.

From: JIHUN [ attachment (23k) ]

From: JIHUN Sorry this is late lmao almost forgot nd got caught up w stuff

You open his message with a roll of your eyes, settling down into your cushy couch.

CONTACT CARD

[ K ] kihyunnie - id: 3-239 - ext: 566-284

You tap on the little popup and select “yes” when it asks if you wish to save him into your contacts. Immediately afterwards, you hear an additional two pings and see that he’s already sent you a couple of messages earlier in the day.

From kihyunnie -- you make a mental note to change his name later-- Hey what’s up _______ it’s kihyun, jihun told me u were interested in sparring

From kihyunnie I’m free in a couple of days if ur down

Excited, you prop your feet on your table, sit back, rename him, and type out a response.

To Kihyun Hey! That sounds fantastic! What time? I was thinking of going to the proving grounds if it’s the morning/afternoon. They’re always empty then

From Kihyun Ever been to the bilgewater themed one? It’s p new

To Kihyun Wait that one opened?! I had no--

You’re interrupted by a terse knock from your door. With a frown, you set your vox down, adjust your bathrobe so it doesn’t accidentally fall off, and pad over to peep through the eyehole.

To your utter surprise, it’s Yoongi. He’s staring soullessly straight through the small opening, as if he knows you’re on the other side, shocked. You open the door.

“Yoongi?”

He doesn’t say anything, just looks at you, eyes immediately zeroing in on the bruise at the base of your collarbone. To be fair, it’s in a fairly… questionable place and could definitely pass as a hickey, but you roll your eyes nonetheless and wave your hand in front of his face to pull his attention away from it. When he looks back up at you, there’s a burning, deeply suspicious look reflected in his eyes.

“Listen, you’re like the tenth person to comment on that, and I swear that it’s a legitimate bruise from sparring,” you say, rushing ahead of yourself before he can possibly get accusatory or form some weird fantasy of you and Jihun randomly hooking up in the midst of beating each other up. “It’s from all the flying rocks that got caught up when Jihun summoned his mini-tornado-thing. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s still fucking terrifying, and if you get knocked up in there you’re done for. I’m serious. I think I almost died.”

Yoongi blinks at you, the look fading. “I didn’t say anything.”

You give him a pointed look. “Your actions spoke for you; I totally caught you staring.”

He shrugs. “Was it really that bad? I know Jihun can get kind of cruel, but I didn’t think he’d go all out. Not to be demeaning or anything--but he is a longtime veteran of the League, and his abilities are probably far more… advanced than yours. For now.”

“Oh--totally. He was definitely still holding back on me, but not too much. Guess he’s a trainer for a reason.” You shrug. “In any case, I wouldn’t want to spar with someone who’s any less than me. It doesn’t create much room for improvement.” You rub at the bruise, once again aware that Yoongi’s back to staring at it again, as if trying to burn it away.

“Next time let me participate,” he says finally. There’s an unsaid sentiment that hangs in the air, one that reminds you of early mornings and burning lungs and sweat-drenched clothing. Of old times.

Still--“Yoongi, you know you can’t just do that!”--sparring has always been a sort of invite-only thing. Like a friend date. With respectful violence. And like any other one-on-one meetup, bringing in an uninvited third party without prior notice just… is not… okay.

He scowls. “Che. Whatever.” You narrow your eyes; you can’t tell if he’s being jealous or upset or both.

So instead, you feign ignorance. “Anyways, what are you actually here for? Not trying to be rude, just genuinely curious. I didn’t know you had a clue as to where I lived.”

“Namjoon,” Yoongi replies easily.

“...okay, that answers my second, implied question, but it would definitely but beneficial if you could answer my first one. Directly.”

“Yes.”

You stare at him. “Yes? Yes you’re going to answer it? Or what?”

He sighs, as if cornered and pressed to find a way out. “My answer is yes.”

“Okay, so, why are you here?” His vagueness is mind-boggling. Sure, there was being ambiguous, and then there was Yoongi.

“No, what--not that. I’m saying yes to your… earlier question. From the cafe.”

You give him a confused look. Yes? To what--oh. Oh. You remember it now; you’d asked if he wanted to continue the talks (as opposed to giving himself “space”).

“So…. you want to continue the talks? Is what I’m getting?”

He shrugs. “My therapist recommended it.”

You raise a brow. “In that case I would be an asshole of a friend to decline.” You pause. It’s a bit disheartening that he’s doing it because his therapist said so, but it’s progress nonetheless. “So I’ll see you again next week? I know I’ll be free during the weekends…” And, despite it all, you find yourself biting your lip hopefully as he deftly avoids eye contact.

“Yeah.” And, in classic Yoongi fashion, he shadow flashes away, disappearing into the darkened corners of the hall.

//

It becomes a routine. A sort of mending therapy, eating pastries and making small and big talk.

“You know,” he says, tapping on the glass. “I’ve eaten these things before.” It’s probably the fifth? Sixth? Maybe seventh? Talk that you guys have had and each time he insists on going to a bakery, commenting on how you seemed to enjoy the food selections and you go along with it since you know that he’s too awkward to admit that he actually has a major sweet tooth. But also--he’s right; the food is actually quite good.

“Really?” you lean closer to inspect the pastry. It’s neatly cut and adorned with pastel decorations. “What is it?”

“It’s like a half-cake, half-cheesecake kind of thing. Fluffy sponge cake topped with creamy cheesecake, and in this case covered in ganache, it seems,” Yoongi explains. “It’s good.”

“In that case, I’ll have one.” Gently, you slide open the glass and fiddle with the magic pastry box. “Where’d you eat it before?”

He gets so quiet that you almost think that he didn’t hear you. You’re just about to turn around and ask him again when he opens his mouth to speak. “Back at home. When I was a kid. They were a specialty back in the Capitol.”

“Oh.” You try hard to suppress your smile--not because you found what he said funny or anything, but rather because this is the first time he’s really brought up his personal life. His past. The part he prefers to keep buried in the back of his mind. There’s an indescribable feeling of relief and joy at the sign of Yoongi becoming more open, where instead of hiding his feelings, he actually makes to share them.

“Here,” he says, holding out his hand. “I’ll pay for it.”

“Bu--”

“I said I’ll pay,” he says, this time a bit more forcefully. You pout at him as he cracks the slightest of grins and turns around, heading to the cashier. Because between the lines, held between his tongue and the roof of his mouth is the unsaid phrase of gratitude, of thanks, thanks for listening, thanks for reaching out…

He never tells you that he loves you, at least not verbally, but tries his best to show how he feels. There are a thousand ways to say “I love you” and Yoongi seems to explore nine-hundred and ninety-nine of them to the best of his ability. His gestures are so genuine and thought out, it’s nothing but a passing thought to forgive him for the countless other times he’d pushed you away, shut you out, ignored you.

He sets the cake down in front of you and gives you a gummy smile. You smile back and accept the fork he hands you.

There are these days, in which Yoongi is nice and less like a dick and almost almost seems normal and less haunted. But you know that underneath it all, Yoongi is still broken. It’s just that when things are good, they’re so good and well-masked that it’s hard to believe or even want to dwell on the fact that you’re still treading on eggshells and broken glass.

//

Kihyun is a bit shorter than you thought he would be. For some odd reason, you’d thought that he’d perhaps be around Jihun’s height, but in retrospect, Jihun is abnormally tall for an Ionian, but also...

“Just wondering--where are you from?” you ask, stretching out your arms.

He looks up briefly from where he’s bent over, stretching his hamstrings. “Serpent Islands.”

You wrinkle your brows. “Serpent Islands?”

He sighs, as if he’s used to people being confused. “Bilgewater. I’m from Bilgewater.”

“Oh, oh,” you say. No matter how much you studied the geography of the outside world, you always forgot that Bilgewater is, in fact, an archipelago island nation. On the other hand, that probably explains why he was so interested in visiting the new Bilgewater-themed branch of the League. “I’m sorry I woke up a bit late and all the grounds at Bilge were taken up.”

...he’s pretty average height for someone hailing from the malnourished slums.

Kihyun waves his hand dismissively.

“It’s fine. About Bilgewater--I know what you’re thinking,” he says, as he lifts himself up again to stretch out his calves, planting his foot backwards. “And you’re probably right. It’s every bit as raunchy and filthy and swashbuckling as you can imagine and then some. We also got haunted during The Harrowing, if you didn’t know.” You laugh although you have no idea what the Harrowing is while he quirks a wry smile. “But the place really does make a fighter out of a good lot of us, if I do say so myself. What about you?”

“Oh I would know. One of my friends is from there--Jimin, if you know him. Anyways--I’m from the Glade.”

Kihyun wrinkles his nose at the mention of Jimin. “Oh, I do. We’ve got some serious history--but that’s for another time. Wait--the Glade? That place actually exists? Wait--are you a fairy?!”

He stares at you in amazement, switches to stretch out his other calf. You laugh. “Yes and no. I was raised there, but I’m still 100% human, I can assure you of that. I’m surprised people actually have heard of the place… but I suppose we all have a fascination and insatiable curiosity with the mysterious.”

“Well,” Kihyun says, standing up fully. You’ve finished stretching, taking the time to roll your wrists around. “That makes it all the more interesting. Jihun’s told me a lot about you--and I can’t say that I’m just a bit excited to see this fabled magic happen.” He draws a card and you see him begin to twirl it slowly. Magic begins to hum in the air, half from Kihyun’s channeling, half from you. You cock a grin.

“Are you ready?”

“Come at me.”

//

“I’m tired,” Yoongi says, lying on the bed. It’s a lazy evening, in that time right after supervised his training and before the Hall opens for dinner. Freshly showered, he smells of tropical beaches and something refreshing, hair wet and towel draped over his damp shoulders.

“Me too,” you agree. The reality is, you’re actually on a sugar high, having just consumed an entire pint of Avarosan-style Freljord ice cream after a particularly rough spar that has your body aching and joints creaking. If you thought Jihun was cruel… Kihyun is heartless in battle. Not that Yoongi needs to know, of course. Might just try and invite himself again.

“No, not in that way. I meant I’m tired of not feeling… good enough, you know?”

You turn, narrow your eyes. “What do you mean?”

He pauses and takes a breath so measured and lets it out so carefully it feels as if he’s made of paper-thin sheets of glass, waiting to break yet keeping himself together in such a delicate perfection it’s hard not to admire.

“No… I just… don’t feel like I deserve this,” he replies, finally.

“What’s ‘this’?” you press, wanting answers, wanting confirmation, wanting more.

Yoongi turns his head to the side to look at you before facing back up at the ceiling. You keep your eyes trained on him, watching. Waiting. Searching for answers in his expressions.

The situation is awkward at best but it’s not like either of you have been painstakingly hiding your feelings--or at least, not as much as before. Rather, it seems now that the both of you have been skirting around them. Aware of their existence, but never acknowledging.

“All the support. And forgiveness that I’ve been getting.”

He doesn’t specify who and you suspect he’s referring to all his friends in general but then you catch how his eyes flick over to your briefly, as if sending a small, tiny signal that his words were more directed towards you than anyone else. The small downward set of his mouth molds into a distinctive frown of self-disappointment.

“Yoongi, stop being ridiculous. You’re perfectly human. A flawed perfection, as they say.”

“That’s a paradox,” he mumbles, “And perfection doesn’t exist.”

“Then why do you?” you joke, but also not really because you’re actually truly meaning every damn word you say, doesn’t he get it--

Yoongi laughs, and the sound is enough to have you laughing right along with him and thinking that everything was going to be okay.

//

You’ve come to the conclusion that one major downside to sparring with Kihyun is that you could never figure out how to sit, or lay in bed, or arrange yourself in such a way that you wouldn’t be lying painfully on one of the twenty-two cuts all over your body.

You groan as you accidentally roll on your side, applying unnecessary pressure on two particularly deep gashes. Damn Kihyun and his fucking enchanted cards. Of course, most of the cuts were made just enough to bleed but not deep enough to do anything other than itch terribly as the new skin formed underneath, but still. It’s annoying and almost a bit embarrassing to be covered in so many bandages--replacing them was a nightmare--while Kihyun prances around with just a couple numbing patches neatly tucked under his clothes.

“...and--are you okay?” Yoongi stops telling his story briefly, looking concerned as he sits in your chair.

Reflexively, you sit up despite the pain on your thighs. “Wha--no, I’m fine, just sore. Anyways, sorry, continue. I was listening, I promise. So, what were in Namjoon’s ‘secret scrolls’ that so scarred Jungkook?”

It’s probably the second time you’ve seen Yoongi ever get this animated, this enveloped in conversation. It takes extra concentration to just process his words when all you want to do is stare at his handsome face and smile at the way his eyes glimmer.

He laughs. “So we opened it up and Hoseok like, fucks up of course, and the whole lot of them come tumbling down and they unwind, and it’s just nude pictures, scrolls upon scrolls of them, covering the entire floor, and Jungkook is just standing there like oh my GOD this is unholy and uncalled for and holy SHIT and I swear to god he almost had an aneurysm.” You laugh out loud, picturing Jungkook’s wide eyes. “He was only a visiting member of the League at the time, so trying to convince him to join only got harder after that.”

“Oh-oh god,” you say, laughing even harder, trying to imagine the group attempting to convince Jungkook to join them after witnessing… that. Deadly or not, at heart Jungkook is still a child.

“That totally reminds me of when I first came out of the Glade,” you say, rolling up the sleeve of your hoodie, beginning to sweat slightly, “and tried to play ‘pretend’ with another girl. The look on her dad’s face when he came to pick her up and instead saw me having tea time with an alarmed, sparkly pink unicorn plushie was priceless. I didn’t know any better back then--I thought randomly transfiguring things was normal. And I was utterly baffled when no one wanted to even walk near me after that incident.”

He laughs and you raise your arm to brush away a strand of hair, feeling the slight droplets of sweat forming along your scalp. Maybe choosing to wear a hoodie during the midst of summer was not the best idea—in your defense, the AC did get a bit too much at times. With a grunt, you pull off your jacket, letting out a sigh of relief when your sweaty skin can finally breathe.

You almost miss it when Yoongi’s laughter abruptly stops; you catch him staring at your exposed arm--that’s covered with cuts and bandages.

“Oh--my bad,” you mutter. Normally, you wouldn’t care; after all, it wasn’t like you were trying to hide it. Cuts and bruises and bodies beaten out of shape are normal sights within the League. Only in this case, he seems particularly taken by them.

He grabs your hand, points at the cuts below it. “What is that?”

“Um, my forearm?”

“The wounds.” He gestures at your other arm.

“Um, yeah. They’re cuts. On my forearm.”

He ignores your snarky remark. “Where are they from?”

You make to put your hoodie back on again, but he swats your hand away. You don’t contend; after all, it’s fucking hot.

“No--don’t. Let me see. How many?” Gently, he taps your cuts, fingers skimming lightly over the deeper ones, the ones you’ve bandaged more carefully than the others.

“How many what?”

He narrows his eyes. “Who’s the one playing dumb now, ______? How many cuts did he leave on you.”

“Uh, I counted twenty-two.”

“Yeah?” He grits his teeth as his eyes trace your body, taking mental inventory of your numerous cuts, all patched up and neatly dressed. Yoongi grits his teeth. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

You laugh, tired, half-forced, thinking it a joke in bad taste.

“I’m serious,” he says, firmly. “I’m going to kill that card-wielding rodent.” And that’s when you notice a murderous look in his eyes, his blades just forming into existence. You immediately snap back into it.

“Wait what--no, Yoongi, it’s fine, I’m fine, I swear!” You wave your arms around in the air frantically to demonstrate that you are, in fact, alive and well. For the most part. “He felt pretty bad about it too but I said not to worry about it! It’s a spar, the whole point is to get roughened up so shit like this doesn’t happen in actual battle. It’s not supposed to be some oh-I-hurt-you-I’m-so-sorry kind of exercise, it’s supposed to be a let’s-beat-the-shit-out-of-each-other-but-somewhat-respectfully sort of thing!”

“I don’t care,” he says, darkly. “He shouldn’t have hurt you like this. Ever. You’re not getting close to him again, or any of Jihun’s friends. I told you--they’re dangerous--”

“Yoongi. It’s a SPAR,” you say, now angry, annoyed. “And also, you don’t fucking own me. Like, I appreciate your worry and concern and all, but I assure you, as you should already know, being a longtime member of the League, that this kind of outcome is far from abnormal. And Kihyun’s still a certified trainer.”

He seems slightly taken aback by your words, and takes a moment to recover. “Yeah, like his certification means anything,” he sneers. “I would know. Whatever--I’ve already belabored the point. Sorry for caring so much. I’m leaving.”

You send one last glare at him before he disappears.

//

If there was one major flaw of most fae, it would most definitely be their naivety. It didn’t quite matter that you weren’t a blood-born--you were typically categorized as a changeling, not that it actually mattered--since everything that had gone into your childhood, the way your foster parents raised you, what your masters put into your education, was all in the culture of the fae.

And so, like your brethren, you are naive, someone naive enough to think that despite all the chains holding him back, dark memories, post-traumatic stress, phantom pains and mixed emotions, that Yoongi was going to be okay.

Despite your best efforts to reach out and talk to him and apologize for the snappy remarks and also coaxing him to just come out and discuss your differences, things just… don’t work out.

You learn that nothing ever truly is “okay” in this kind of situation when Yoongi reverts back to his old moody, dark self by the next morning. When you go to greet him he avoids eye contact, rudely brushes past you. When you try to sit with him he deliberately gets up, goes to another table. It’s almost as if nothing during these past months has happened at all.

While your feelings--how you love and care for him deeply--haven’t changed, sometimes you wonder if his have. He loved you. You know that. If he didn’t, then the whole hellhound fiasco wouldn’t have happened, and you wouldn’t be here in the first place. But now you wonder if he’s moved on, consumed by a strange sort of disgust and horror over the kind of wreckage love has left in its wake.

“Maybe I was too harsh,” you mumble, sitting with your legs crossed on your bed. A warm mug of tea is clutched between your hands, steaming hot.

“Perhaps,” Namjoon says. “You cannot allow him such freedoms. If he hurts you once, and you don’t ever sit down to talk about it or anything, there’s a higher chance he’ll hurt you again. And vice versa. You keep on letting him act out and then not pressing him harder to talk about it, so he eventually will learn to just do that. He will learn to act on his feelings instead of thinking and talking about them first.”

You think about all those times when there would be an argument, how the next day you two would be getting pastries and drinks, awkward, but easily gliding over the shattered remains of yesterday. How you kept on giving him excuses, both too scared of yet another confrontation, both wanting normalcy.

“But, I do believe he too is also at fault here,” Namjoon continues. “After all, you are both adults now. He should know it in himself that he is acting irrationally, and that this is no way to treat a friend, especially one who is tirelessly reaching out with a helping hand.” He sighs, shakes his head. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Are you sure?” you ask, hopeful.

“Of course. Someone needs to step in and fix this mess before it becomes any worse.” He gives you a firm, reassuring smile. You look down into your tea, staring at your distorted reflection.

“Thanks.”

//

“To make this really work for both of us, Yoongi, you’re going to actually start talking. I know you can do that much--I’ve seen you do it before. You can’t have lost your tongue so easily, just yet. I know you’d much rather not have this conversation, but you also need to learn you have to face your problems. And this is one of them, and a major one, at that.” Namjoon sighs, rubs his temples. “Both of you… need to come to terms with each other. All this wishy washy, back and forth, push and pull… you do realize what it’s all doing right?”

Yoongi stares blankly at the wall, seeing Namjoon shift just slightly at his peripheral. He’s been here for what seems like an eternity, droning on about responsibilities, problems, proverbs.

“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” Yoongi mutters, not really hearing what Namjoon’s just asked him. He’s tuning him out the best he can. If he ignores it, it’ll go away--or so that’s how things generally work for him. Usually.

Namjoon sighs, crosses his arms. “You could at least try and contemplate the answer, you know? Ah, no matter. When you do something like that, you’re sending out so many mixed signals that it’s damaging, you know?”

Damaging. “How so?”

“Well, we can put it in perspective: how does it feel to have something you really love, suddenly turn against you?”

Yoongi hates these types of questions. “I don’t know, it would suck I guess,” he grumbles, after much deliberation. The guilty feeling suddenly makes itself clear, and he fights hard to suppress it, too proud to admit wrongdoing.

“I know you hate it when I do this, but it’s the only way,” Namjoon comments. “On the flip side, how would you feel if something you’ve been pining for is suddenly within your reach?”

Yoongi remains silent. The answer is obvious, so why the hell is he asking? Does his answer really matter that much? Namjoon clears his throat. Yoongi rolls his eyes. If he didn’t have so much respect and owe so much debt to Namjoon, he’d be long gone from this room.

“I’d feel better,” Yoongi bites out in his grumpiest voice. “I guess.”

Namjoon sighs once more. “And so imagine that cycle, of sadness and happiness, going on and on--it’s enough to really wear and tear at one’s feelings.”

“Yeah.” Yoongi falls silent again, though he knows Namjoon is watching. He wonders if he can tell that he’s thinking of you now, wondering just how much his shittiness has done to your heart. He wonders if you’d ever loved him, and if you could even stand him now. Especially after the last spat…

He purses his lips. The sight of the cuts--they made him so livid, it was hard to think, to reason. He couldn’t stand the thought of you being hurt, even more so by someone he didn’t already know...

“She just wants to see you recover,” Namjoon says. “But she’s at ends. She doesn’t want to hurt you, so she keeps on giving you all these excuses for you to hurt her. Don’t you get it? She’s hurting herself so that you can finally find yourself. Not many others would go down that path, for so long, Yoongi. This is a once in a lifetime chance. Take it, or leave it. Doing this is only going to tear her down, and you know that she doesn’t deserve that. She deserves better, and a part of you inside is feeling so conflicted about your feelings, yourself, which is why you keep on going back and forth. You want to leave her, get away from it, but you keep on coming back because you’re inexplicably drawn to her… because you—”

“Shut up,” Yoongi interrupts, already having heard enough. He can already guess the next words to come out of Namjoon’s mouth: because you love her, because you can’t live without her. And he hates hates having the truth spit out to him, hates having to face his problems, hates the awful guilty feeling he gets whenever he has to sit and think about all the pain he’s put you through when really, it was the last thing he wanted to do, which is why he wanted to leave in the first place…

Namjoon finally reaches out to tap his shoulder. He doesn’t know how much time has passed, but it feels like a while. “Well?”

“I’ll talk to her.”

Namjoon hums. “You both have had many talks before, but none of them have actually hit on the actual subject at heart. This had better be the last time--afterwards, I’m going to manually intervene, and for good. So you’d better make this one count, Yoongi.”

Yoongi swallows, hard. “I will.”

//

Whatever it is that got into him, it seems that Yoongi never quite found out. He keeps on switching between pushing you away and drawing you back in, until he finally remains static, just pushing you away.

While Hoseok calls it a dick move and Jungkook calls it PMS, you call it a defense mechanism--mainly because you’ve seen him do this before. To you, to his friends, to everyone around him. Back when he still had the hellhound in him, he did his best to push others away for fear of hurting them, all the while holding back his own desire to interact with others and live life the way he wanted to.

It’s the only way he’s known.

If you had to describe him, you’d say that he was–is–like a cheerio that had been poured into a bowl with other cheerios and milk, and then someone ate all the other cheerios and drained the milk and then–and then forgot. About that one last cheerio. And left it out for a day.

(You’d found a few of those at the bottom of a bowl on his counter, shrunken and sitting pitifully in a pool of their own wheat grains. The milk that was once there had caused the sugar inside them to melt, making them stick firmly to the surface. After some struggles, you’d managed to peel them off, tossing them into the trash can.)

He’s the type who would get caught up in the little things and let them wash over him like a tidal wave, up until he’s drowning and six feet under. But even after everything passes and things change, he’d still get stuck there, the only one still lingering on the issue.

It’s almost as if he can’t get over things. Like how he thinks he isn’t ever good enough.

But the thing is, he just doesn’t understand–or maybe doesn’t want to–how much you love him, want him; at times, you find yourself practically begging him to shut up and just get it. That what you want and need is him, and not whoever, whatever he’s thinking.

If anything, he’s just deluding himself in his own thoughts. Sitting pitifully in a puddle of his own self-doubts.

As you said, he is very much like a day-old cheerio from a drained bowl of cereal.

Which is why you knew that despite all the hurt and pain, you had to be the one to pull him out of there, from the bottom of the bowl. Namjoon seemed to understand this fact, particularly after your conversation earlier, and even more so after his own with Yoongi. He’d told you, with a firm warning, that this would be both of your last chances, that this had gone on for far too long.

And so now, you’re sitting here, leaning on Yoongi’s dusty couch and staring at his hunched over figure, waiting for him to utter a word. He takes a deep breath. You suck one in.

“Maybe we should stop this.”

But unlike the cheerios, you aren’t so eager to toss him away.

“Or maybe we don’t have to.”

“I’m not the man that you should end up with. You deserve way better. What you need is someone who I could never be.”

The AC kicks on, causing the generator to emit a low hum. On any other day you would be catching your breath, cheeks burning, heart pounding in anticipation. The fact that Yoongi would ever openly acknowledge your mutual feelings for him and address them would send you reeling--

“If only you knew,” you reply to him, soft.

“How?” You don’t miss the way he clenches his fist, furrows his brows even more. He’s raging inside--not at you--but at his own inability to understand how you could ever possibly love someone like him. “Why?”

You look at him serenely, then place your hands gently on either side of his shoulders. Inhale, exhale. You lean in close, slowly, waiting for a reaction. He simply stares into your eyes, searching for answers.

“Because,” you say, your voice a mumble, “I love you. That’s why. I don’t just date someone out of necessity, I have a relationship with them out of love. I don’t need anyone; it’s not about what I do and don’t deserve; it’s about what I want. And what I want is you. Not ‘some other man’ or whatever you’ve got in mind.”

“But,” he says, voice deep and throaty. He doesn’t take his eyes off yours, not for a second. “I’ve hurt you. So much.”

You shake your head. “That’s in the past now Yoongi. We don’t live there. And we’ve hurt each other, and will hurt each other. That’s life. And that’s what makes a relationship all the more meaningful: that we learn from our pains and let them serve as a bond that we grow from. We’re in this together, okay? It’s not just your pain or my pain anymore--it’s our pain.”

Yoongi stares at your some more before sighing, breath hitting your cheek. Gently, he removes your hands from his shoulders and turns away, figure hunched.

It takes you a second to realize he’s crying.

“Y-Yoongi? Are you--”

“Stop,” he says, voice thick. “Stop. It hurts. I love you so much it hurts. God--what did I do to deserve you?”

You smile just slightly, stepping back towards him. “I told you already, it’s not about deserving--”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it now. You and I--we’re going to walk this road together from now on, okay? No backing out.” He still doesn’t face you because he’s still crying and it almost sounds like he’s trying to convince himself to hold on, keep it together.

“Yeah. You and I.” You reach out to him again. At first, he does nothing. But then, after another moment, he abruptly tugs you into his arms and then kisses you.

Sweet, loving.

You pull away but remain close enough to breathe each other’s air.

Hot, passionate.

A love that keeps on burning from within.

a/n: AIWOEJFEW IM FINALLY DONE WITH THIS IT TOOK LIKE ALMOST TWO YEARS ITS FINE BC IM DONE YAY also i’ve had that last paragraph written since forever and yes it used be a drabble but now its Upgraded

ANYWAYS THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND LOVE <33

taglist: @babydanixox @lookinalittleblue 

[kreacts]

Kpop Idols - Lost World AU [Moodboards]

To prepare for an upcoming series I will be posting, I have collected all of the Moodboards I have made for the Lost Girl series. I will be adding to these as I make more of them!

The TV show Lost Girl is about fae (magical creatures) living in secret amongst humans. The show has taken all kinds of creatures from myths, tweaked them a little bit, and turned them into modern beings. Your favourite K-Pop idols will be features in this story as these strange beings, the moodboards give a little introduction to their species.

I will make italic the links of the idols who you will meet/learn about in the upcoming chapter, and I will make bold the links of the idols you have already met/ learnt about in the chapters.

Big Bang G-Dragon | T.O.P | Seungri

BTS RM | Suga | J-Hope | Jimin | V | Jungkook

EXO Kai

GOT7 Jaebum | Jackson

Mamamoo Solar

Monsta X Shownu | Wonho | Kihyun | I.M

NCT Yuta

Seventeen S.Coups | Jeonghan | Joshua | Jun | Hoshi | Wonwoo | Woozi | DK | Mingyu | The8 | Seungkwan | Vernon 

Pentagon E’Dawn

Iris

[ao3feed-ateez]

by HongjoongsRightSock

Hyunwoo never felt at home in this world, not in a depressed way. He did love his life! It was just, he didn’t feel as if he belongs here. What happens when he gets brought to another world where he feels at home? Is it his home?

Words: 621, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Monsta X (Band), ATEEZ (Band), M.O.N.T (Korea Band), Stray Kids (Band), TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Son Hyunwoo | Shownu, Yoo Kihyun, Chae Hyungwon, Lee Hoseok | Wonho, Im Changkyun | I.M, Lee Jooheon, Lee Minhyuk (Monsta X), Bang Chan, Lee Minho | Lee Know, Seo Changbin, Hwang Hyunjin, Han Jisung | Han, Lee Felix (Stray Kids), Kim Seungmin, Yang Jeongin, Kim Hongjoong, Park Seonghwa, Jeong Yunho, Kang Yeosang, Choi San, Song Mingi, Jung Wooyoung, Choi Jongho, Choi Soobin, Choi Yeonjun, Choi Beomgyu, Kang Taehyun, Huening Kai, Kim Sangyeon | Bitsaeon, Jung Hyunwoo | Narachan, Shin Joongmin | Roda

Relationships: Son Hyunwoo | Shownu/Yoo Kihyun, Chae Hyungwon/Lee Hoseok | Wonho, Im Changkyun | I.M/Lee Jooheon/Lee Minhyuk, Jung Hyunwoo/ narachan | Kim Sangyeon/ bitsaeon | Shin Jungmin/ Roda

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, i still dk how to tag, Hyunwoo is gay for Kihyun, Demigods, Mermaids, fae, elfs - Freeform, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Vampires, Satyr, Centaurs, Wicca, Wizards, please help

[soooldout]

tagged by @hannahshouyu to do this tag, thanks!

Rules: answer 8 questions & write another 8 for people I tag to answer

1. what was the last good book or series you read?

what is a book (jk jk that is blasphemy...I used to be a huge book nerd but the past two years just havent read much at all) hmmm let’s see the last one I remember liking was All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

2. do you collect anything or want to start a collection of something?

I collect biases? lol

3. if you won the lottery tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d buy?

a ticket out of this hell hole

4. what’s the very first username you remember having online? 

just my name with my year of birth lol so original

5. what’s that one (or more) song/movie/show/book you can just listen to/watch/read over and over again without getting tired of it? 

Songs (there are so many tho! but off the top of my head at the moment): Miss You by Gabrielle Aplin, Tiger Moth by Kihyun, Daydream by Sunggyu (or like all of his songs), Snow Patrol - If there’s a rocket tie me to it, Coldplay - A Sky Full Of Stars or any coldplay discography really

Shows: The Office and Parks and Rec

Movie: I barely watch movies more than once or twice even if I love them so not sure

Books: Harry Potter series, Anne of Green Gables series again I haven’t read books in a while but I used to re-read those a lot

6. what are 5 of your fav b sides, lesser know or non-title tracks?

wow too many how to choose :(

B.A.P - Its All Lies (there are so many amazing non title tracks though I just put down the first one I thought of...Rain Sound was my first thought but its title I guesss)

BTOB - Melody Song

AKMU - Melted

Nell - Tinnitus

Day6 - I Need Somebody (fuckin love this song its so goooddd, new fave)

p.s. didn’t choose any Infinite songs because - unpopular opinion I KNOW DONT @ ME - I much prefer their title tracks to b sides not that I’m saying I dislike the b sides (they are vocal kings after all) just that their title tracks are superior for me, they have done a great job picking amazing title songs every time (OK I’LL SAY JULIA I LOVE THAT SONG)

7. if you could live anywhere in the world for one full year, rent paid, where would you move? 

ooh. this is hard. Hawaii probably

8. (i’m gonna steal it from mine bc it was fun) if you could have any creature (real or mythological) as a pet with the guarantee that it would not kill you, what would you want?

PANDA PANDA PANDA (baby one that would stay baby forever)

fukcing love pandas

My eight questions:

1. What was the best dream you ever had, or most interesting one (a good story)? (this one for @gotinspirit especially although I know many of your wild dreams already)

2. Which celebrity/idol do you think you are most like in terms of personality?

3. (stealing this Q from hannahshouyu coz curious) -  what are 5 of your fav b sides, lesser known or non-title tracks?

4. Any show/drama you’ve watched that you would recommend?

5. Do you have any phobias?

6. What is your favorite thing about your best friend/favorite person in the world?

7. What, in your opinion, was the worst thing to happen in kpop in 2016/17 (pain as I type this question ofc)

8. Worst and favorite hairstyle/hair color on your bias/biases?

tagging @feelsogukk @diamond-4-luna @whiteconfession @anna-something @fae-hyun @daestopiaa @gyu-booty @glorioushowon @leesungjongg @ohsunggyu @puppynamu @becuzgyu @vefh @bapofficial @eternalsquee @gotinspirit @jdw-juseyo @lauraslm @baby-mylove-beautiful