#have a good day or... night see tou guy in 5 days because I take a break from art and Tumblr by everyone.

[star-23s-world]

[thescreamingraven]

Promise 3

Dabi x reader

Genre/warnings: Fluff and angst, mentions of injury, swearing.

Words: 7 510

Summary:  Trying to fix what’s broken is not always easy.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

Hey, hey, so sorry this took so long I had a bit of a writers block but here it is, I’m thinking of doing part four soon. I think this turned out pretty well tho.

≿————-　❈　————-≾I

It was already quite dark  outside, bright street lights added to the scenery as small snowflakes began to slowly decorate the sidewalks. Inside the cozy home, the smell of deliciously cooked food still lingered. It would’ve been a peaceful night if it weren’t for your loudly pouting son, who refused to listen to you.

  “Enji told me I’m strong enough to come…” your son pestered you.

  You put back one plate in the sink, looking down at the boy in front of you if you could call him that… he was soon going to be fourteen and in agreement with Endeavor will be starting U.A in only a couple of weeks. He was so eager to get into action that he wouldn’t stop pestering about letting him start patrols early.

You saw Hawks walking out of the bathroom with his hero suit on.

  “Give the kid a chance Y/n, it’s not like he will be doing it alone.” he chirped.

  “See, even Hawks agrees with me.”

  You crossed your arms, and leaned on the kitchen counter, giving Hawks a death stare, which he tried to soften up with his casual smirk.

  “It could be an early birthday present?” Your son suggested.

  You sighed and let your hands fall in defeat, his puppy eyes taking a toll on you.

“Be back by midnight or you’re grounded.”

  You could see his face light up with joy as he gave you the tightest hug imaginable.

You gave him an encouraging smile, before gesturing him to go get ready, as he was rushing to his room you shouted. “Don’t forget your jacket angel, it’s quite chilly tonight.”

  “He’s grown up so fast…” Hawks walked closer to you and leaned on the counter.

  “That he did…” you smiled before looking back at him. “Are you sure it’s safe? Criminal activity has skyrocketed recently and-”

  “He’ll be fine, we won’t let anything happen to him… promise.” He gave your hand a light squeeze.

  You both stayed silent for a moment before Hawks spoke yet again.

  “So… when are we going to tell him?”

  Your smile slowly faded away as you slipped your hand away from Hawks.

  “Soon…”

  “You’ve been saying that for almost 5 months now-”

  Hawks was interrupted by an opening door from your son’s room as he quickly rushed back to the kitchen.

“Sorry to keep you waiting Hawks, you ready to go?”

  Hawks concerned look was replaced by his usual wit and charm as he yammered.

  “Always ready for you, kid.” He turned back to you. “We’re heading out.”

  You nodded, saying a quick goodbye and getting back to the dishes you were doing.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  Hawks quietly closed the front door and caught up to S/n, who was casually standing near the sidewalk. “Ready to fight crime?” Hawks asked as he approached him.

  “Hell yeah I am, I still can’t believe she allowed me to go.”

  “Your mom’s just worried about you, kid.”

  “I know, but she can be a bit overbearing sometimes… I’m not five years old anymore, I can fight now…”

  “It’s better to have that kind of parent than none at all.” Hawks murmured.

  “I know.”

  “Anyway… ready to go?”

  “Hell yeah.” your son grinned.

  “I like your enthusiasm, kid.”

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  It’s been fourteen years since that day….

    You were sitting on a nearby chair near the receptionist, patiently waiting for Endeavor to arrive with your daughter. You thought about your conversation with Dabi and silently prayed that he would only make the right choice. Your thoughts were interrupted by your daughter’s excited screams as she dragged the tall figure across the hall.

She let go of Endeavor’s hand when she saw you and leaped into your arms with a huge grin on her face.

  “Mommy, daddy’s not asleep anymore.”

  You gently brushed strands of hair from her face, softly purring.“I know angel… and he can’t wait to see you.”

  You looked up at Endeavor.

“Will you-”

  “I think I’d be better if I stayed back for a bit…. I don’t want Tou—Dabi to get the wrong idea.”

  You gave him a nod, setting your daughter down on the ground, taking her hand in yours as you took a deep breath before opening the door. Your eyes wandered to the bed Dabi was lying in moments ago, but yet you found nothing.

Your daughter stood there confused, tugging on your hand and asking for her father.

Endeavor saw the way you froze and came to investigate, when he saw the bed empty he called the nurses to ask if they’d seen him leave. But you assured him you were sitting near the door the whole time and didn’t see him leave, the window wasn’t open either.

You walked over to the nearby stand and found a brief note with only two words on it.

  I’m sorry.

Ever since that day, your daughter changed. She became closed off and cold, whenever you tried talking about her father you were met with silence until one day you mentioned his name, and she responded with a shocking answer.

  “Dabi… who’s that?”

  The doctors said it was something called dissociative amnesia, and that’s why she couldn’t remember her father, her brain blocked him out, it being a traumatic event. You were scared that she may forget everything else, but the doctor quickly calmed you down.

After her amnesia started she became her old self again, the same warm, hopeful person you once knew. She never asked for her father’s whereabouts, she just enjoyed life, spending the days with Endeavor, completely forgetting about her father's quirk.

Endeavor had suggested for her to become a hero like him, but your daughter just brushed it off. Instead, your daughter left the country  to follow her dreams, she got into a good college and made her own life… she even met someone special...

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  After you had your son, life became a bit more complicated, him being born with your quirk and having the number one pro hero as his grandfather really boosted his confidence; he began to train in secret when he was only seven years old, but it didn’t stay hidden for long. At first, you were a bit skeptical about the thought of him becoming a hero... but when you saw how your son’s face lit up when Endeavor suggested training him, well how could you say no?

  Your son hated Dabi, ever since he first saw one of his victims appear on the news he vowed to himself to at least destroy him if not all villains.

So when he asked about his dad…it got a little awkward, you would brush it off saying you’d explain it to him when he’s older. After a few years, he just gave up accepting the fact that he didn’t have a father… well, not a biological one.

  Ever since Dabi left, Hawks stayed glued to your side like a magnet, attending to your every need and satisfying your every craving. He even took some time off work, of the last few weeks of your pregnancy, whenever you would ask him about his generosity he would just brush it off with “I guess it’s my bird instincts” But you knew it was something deeper than that, he never had a normal family before maybe this was his way of establishing one.

When your son was born, Hawks didn’t leave his side, you didn’t know why he did what he did, taking the father role in his life as he did, he was there when he said his first words and took his first steps. He used to get up in the night to feed him and babysat him while you worked. While his actual father was doing god knows what... you tried calling him and texting him several times yet to no avail. Endeavor suggested to go out and find him, yet you declined the offer. If a villain is what he wanted to be, then so be it.

  You were furious at him for being such a stubborn person that he was, if only he would’ve stayed and actually solved the problems together rather than taking them on himself… maybe things would’ve been different...

Your thoughts were interrupted by a notification from your phone, you stood up from the couch and walked over to it and were met by a concerning message from Hawks.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  Hawks and S/n were walking through an empty valley, dim street lights barely lighting up their path.

“So… this is patrolling, huh.”

  “You don’t sound very excited, what... is this too boring for you?” Hawks leered.

  “I just thought there would be more action is all.”

  “The league has been really quiet recently, they’re probably planning something big.” Hawks stated before he caught a glimpse of curiosity from the boy beside him. “Don’t look at me like that…if your mother learned that I put you in danger in any way, she would make me a flightless chicken with that death stare of hers.”

  “You’re such a sap, ya know.” S/n chuckled.

  “Sorry?”

  “Y/n this, Y/n that… just go kiss her already.”

  “I don’t think you understand how relationships work.” Hawks scratched his head nervously.

  “You’ve been doing this for years, Hawky it’s time to make a move.”

  Hawks coughed, speeding up his pace, trying to hide the embarrassment so clearly written all over his face.

  “Is it because of him?” S/n wondered, catching up.

  “Him?”

  “My dear old dad… you shouldn’t be discouraged, he’s probably dead, anyway.”

  “Wh—why do you think so?”

  “Well, I assume since neither one of you are telling me about him.”

  “He’s—it’s complicated-”

  “And we’ll tell you when you’re older, right, right. I know the poem.” S/n mocked.

  “But isn’t it the perfect reason to confess soon? If the guy is still alive, who knows she might get back with him… so you should make a move while she’s still single.”

  “Ya know, when I thought about what I’d be doing with my life, I certainly did not imagine getting dating advice from a kid. Have you ever even seen a girl?” Hawks teased.

  “Of course I have, you ass…”

  Both of them walked in silence for a while, before S/n mumbled. “I think you’d make her really happy… and I-” Hawks saw the way S/n hesitated before continuing. “I wouldn’t mind having you for a father.” he quickly added.

“If you tell anyone I said that I’ll make sure you suffer a worse fate than being a flightless chicken.”

  “Kid I-”

  Hawks stopped himself from speaking any further when he heard a noise coming from behind them. He turned around shushing S/n and trying to listen in to the noise, which now became clearer...

At least 10 figures appeared from the shadow covered corners surrounding the two of them.

Hawks stepped closer to S/n, pulling him against himself, and mumbled.

“Stay close kid.”

  The pursuiters stayed quiet, letting out a few maniacal laughs.

  “Why are we not attacking?” S/n whispered, his question being ignored by the hero as he scanned the situation thoroughly.

  Suddenly another shadowy figure appeared, yet this one was a bit taller and muscular than the others.

  “Well, colour me impressed, here I thought you were dead already.” Hawks remarked as the figure slowly stepped into the light.

S/n froze upon seeing the scared men clearer, he looked even more monstrous in person.

  “The league wants to have a word,” Dabi spoke, looking at Hawks who was trying to keep S/n from his piercing eyes.

“They always do, sadly I don’t have time for a tea party at the moment… how does next Tuesday sound?”

  Dabi only rolled his eyes and gestured to the goons. “Get the bird, I don’t care what you do with the kid.”

  The ten figures let out several chuckles before slowly beginning to walk closer.

“It seems it’s your lucky day, kid. I’ll take the right side and you take the left.”

  “This will be fun.” S/n grinned.

  It all happened very quickly, the five figures on the left attacked S/n. He could tell they were inexperienced, so it didn’t take that long for him to defeat them, yet Hawks had a more tough time fighting, trying to dodge Dabis attacks which were thrown randomly for his amusement, no less.

Yet he wasn’t careful enough, one single slip up, caused Hawks to lose balance as he tripped and landed near S/n. He tried to get up again, but his muscles weren’t complying. He looked back up to Dabi who’s blue fire seemed to get uncomfortably closer by the second. He closed his eyes, shielding himself with his wings for the upcoming attack…. And yet nothing came, he quickly let his wings fall onto the ground and saw S/n standing before him with his arm raised, fresh steam coming from it, his hand burnt, now purplish and Dabi standing there frozen.

Dabi let his flames dive down, slowly walking forwards.

  “You’re-” S/n mumbling was interrupted by sharp, throbbing in his hand, he fell to the ground screaming in pain as Hawks rushed to his side.

Endeavor must have heard the commotion as S/n could hear his voice in the distance yelling something he couldn’t comprehend. He saw Dabis eyes hesitate before he slowly backed away, back into the shadows he came from; he saw Hawks who was shouting for Endeavor to hurry and restrain the remaining goons and he slowly fell into darkness.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  The two heroes quietly sat in the waiting room, anxiously looking at the staff that were passing by, before a familiar voice casually spoke. “He’ll be fine mister Endeavor, whatever caused his hand to burn up like that did some serious damage but with some stitches, we were able to fix it.”

“Thank you, doc we appreciate it.” Hawks sighed. “Could we… see him now?”

  The doctor gave them a quick nod before walking away, both of them followed close behind as Hawks tried to calm down his shaking heart.

They walked over to one of the rooms on the right wing before the doctors opened the door.

  “He should be awake soon, and whatever you have the time, there are some forms that I need you to sign.”

  “That’s fine, just give us a minute?” Hawks asked, walking over to the boy’s side.

  The doctor mumbled something under their breath before walking out.

Hawks scanned the boy’s hand, which was now heavily bandaged. “Y/n is going to kill us.” he looked back at Endeavor. “Did you call her already?”

  “No… not yet.”

  “Good, let’s… just wait a little while longer…”

  Both were quiet for a moment before Hawks mustered up the courage to ask.“Do you think he knows…?”

  “I’m sure he does, it isn’t that difficult to figure it out.”

  “So what do we do about him ? If he tells the league-”

  “He won’t, you and I both know that.” Endeavor cut him off.

  “We don't, he isn’t a very predictable person Enji and even if he doesn’t, those goons of his will. Didn’t you tell me one got away?”

  “Yeah… I’ll take care of it, in the meantime...I think we should postpone his U.A training…”

  Hawks looked down on S/n unconscious body remembering the endless tiring training sessions the two of them had.

“There has to be another way… he worked so hard for it, maybe we can take certain precautions-”

  “We’ll talk about this at home… I better go and tell Y/n,” Endeavor declared, pulling out his phone.

  “I’ll do it, you’re not exactly too subtle with words, you stay here.” Hawks stood up from his seat, pulling his phone out of his pocket, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

  Endeavor sat there quietly, thoughts racing of what he should do, a thought of moving you two out even further away from the city flashed his mind, but he quickly shook it off. When he lifted his gaze from the ground he saw S/n laying awake, examining his hand.

“It’s good to have you back, son… how are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine… can we go home?” He asked with a gloomy sigh.

  “I don’t think that’s…”

  The door suddenly opened, revealing a slightly irritated Hawks, with the doctor following behind him.

“He’s all free to go if he wishes, just try to be careful with that hand of yours… it will sting for a while…”

  “Thank you, doc.” Hawks asserted. “What would we do without you?”

  “Do you seriously want me to answer that?”

  Hawks chuckled, walking over to S/n bed and giving him an apologetic smile.

“Ready to go home, champ?”

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  You sat patiently waiting on the couch as the door finally opened and your son walked in holding his bandaged hand. You rushed to his side, pulling him into your arms, trying not to squeeze too hard. “S/n… are you okay? Does your hand hurt?”

  “How… how could you keep this away from me….” he mumbled, pulling back.

  “Kid-” Hawks tried putting a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

  “Don’t touch me, don’t you fucking touch me.” your son choked.

  “Angel...”

  “Shut up, you’re no better.” he snapped. “I need an honest answer and you’re going to give me one.”

  “Is he—Is that sociopath, murderous bastard, really my father?”

  You and Hawks looked at each other before murmuring “I… yes he is....look I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I just-”

“We didn’t want you to overreact,” Hawks added.

  “Oh… oh… you thought I would overreact? Yeah, okay, so instead of just straight up saying hey you have a sociopath for a father, you hide and keep it a secret from me. Well, you got your overreaction, I hope you’re happy, bursting with fucking joy no doubt.” S/n mocked.

“So for how long were you planning to keep this to your deary selves?”

  “We-”

  Endeavor finally decided to join in the conversation.

“As long as we had to… if the public found out--if the league found out you’d not be only putting all of us in danger but yourself as well. The league could use you as their trumpet card.”

  Your son stood silent for a minute, thinking if he should continue to stand his ground or walk away, he decided he needed to cool off first before continuing this conversation and walked away, shutting himself in his room with a loud slam.

“I need to go talk to him…”

  “No, what you need to do is give him some space… he’s confused and hurt, adding more fuel to the fire won’t make it go out faster.” Hawks reassured you, wrapping one of his arms around your waist and leading you into the kitchen.“Let’s sit down and I’ll make you some tea, alright? Enji do you want some?”

  “Can’t... I need to go to my agency, explain what happened and all.”

  “I… alright try not to take too long.”

  Endeavor only hummed before walking back to the entrance.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  “I’m sorry…” Hawks said with a sense of guilt.”I should’ve listened to you. I feel like such an asshole for convincing you to let me bring him along.”

  “You’re not the one to blame, I should have told him sooner.” you stammered.“What if he never forgives us… what will we do… I’m so scared Keigo… I-”

  He pulled another kitchen chair beside yours, wrapping his wings around and holding you close. “He will... just give the kid some time.”

  “How can you say that so confidently, look at Endeavor, and… he never forgave him.”

  “Different situation.” Hawks assured. “What’s the saying? Time heals all wounds.”

  You hugged him tighter and mumbled into his shoulder. “How did—how did he look?”

  Hawks sighed. “He hasn’t changed much… maybe a bit more scarred.”

  “I see… did he… you know...”

  “No, he didn’t say much.”

  “Why was he even there? You told me that area was secure.”

  “The league really wanted to have a word, whatever that means.”

  You pulled away from his warm comforting embrace and cupped his cheek

“I’m… I’m glad that you’re okay, you are okay, right?”

  “Yeah, a few cuts and bruises here and there but I’m fine… I should probably go clean up now that you mention it, don’t want them to get infected.”

  “I’ll help,” you muttered.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  When S/n slammed his door, he immediately fell against it. He sat there, his hands on his knees, staring at the mirror in front of him, his mind racing empty but at the same time full of thoughts.

He sat there for a long time, listening in on your conversation with Hawks. He sighed, finally getting up, and walked up to the mirror. Standing there, he looked over his features. He looked at his face and couldn’t help but finally see how similar the two of them actually were; he remembered Dabi's sharp eyes smiling at the amusement of Hawks struggle... how did he not see it sooner . He looked down at his hands, flashbacks coming back, the blue flame consuming it, consuming him.

You’re just like him.

  How could you ever be a hero?

  Murderer…

  Monster….

  His mind raced to every possible possibility of his future, is he destined to become like him?

  It’s in your blood…

  That will be you someday, and everyone will hate you.

  Your family hates you, that’s why they lied.

  They fear you...

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud shattering noise, as he looked up, he saw his fist covered in blood, the mirror shattered, shards all scattered around the room. But yet there was still one small piece hanging up. He looked at it, and when he did, he didn’t see himself; he saw a broken, battered figure that so clearly resembled him.

S/n stumbled back, his breathing becoming quicker and quicker. He reached for his phone that was laying next to him on the ground and tried calling the only person he thought could help. It was already almost two am, so he could only pray to get a response in return.

After a few tries, the person finally picked up, with a sleepy undertone in his voice.

“Hello?”

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  S/n walked through an almost empty street when the playground finally came into view. On the swings sat a slouched figure, slowly rocking back and forth, his head was fixated on the ground, as he tried to push the sleepiness away.

The figure’s gaze quickly left the ground as he heard someone's footsteps approach his direction. He gave S/n a small wave and gestured for him to take a seat at the swing next to him, and so he did.

  “I’m sorry I called so late…” S/n mumbled.

  Shoto looked over at the kid, who was tapping his boots nervously. His eyes quickly made their way to the freshly bandaged hand.

“It is quite alright, you didn’t sound good on the phone… Did something happen?”

  S/n shook his head as he stayed quiet, trying to muster and find the right words to say.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  “And done…” you chirped, gesturing Hawks to stand up from the chair.

  “Thanks… see I told you it wasn’t that bad,” he replied, putting his shirt back on.

  “Yeah…”

  You put away the bloodied towel and looked back in the direction of your son’s room.

Hawk’s eyes softened as he approached you. “I’ll go check on him, okay?”

  Your eyes snapped back to Hawks as you let out a sigh.

“I’d appreciate it,” you muttered.

  Hawks mustered a smile as he stood up and gave you a few pats on the head, before walking away and heading to your son’s room direction.

It was only but moments before he was standing at your son’s door, trying to listen in on any movements from his side. Not hearing a sound, he took a deep breath in and slowly turned the doorknob.

  “S/n…”

  He stopped, freezing up as he scanned the room. The window was open; the mirror laid shattered, shards scattered around everywhere, he saw S/n phone lying on the floor, and a few drops of blood on it.

  “Y/n we have a problem, ” He yelled, running back to the kitchen to pick up his phone.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  S/n told Shoto everything that happened in great detail, trying to muster the strength against his bottled up emotions. After the whole story was told, the both of them remained silent, before Shoto finally spoke.

  “I know how you feel.” he trailed off. “I’m sorry this happened to you S/n… But you have nothing to fear, the two of you are nothing alike, you might have his quirk but you’re still your own person.”

  S/n stayed quiet as he kept his eyes on the ground.

  “You should go home now, the others might worry where you’ve gone.”

  S/n sighed before, humming in agreement, he got up from the swing, stretching out his arms. He turned back to Shoto.

“Can you… not tell them that I was here?”

  “I don’t think-” Shoto stood up and glanced at S/n who seemed exhausted from the evening’s events.“I… alright, let’s go I’ll walk you home.”

  “Nah, It’s fine, it’s just 10 minutes away I’ll be fine,” S/n reassured.

  “It’s still quite late. I don’t think that it would be safe to let you go home alone.”

  “Oh cmon, I have a murderer’s quirk on my side, what can go wrong?”

  “S/n…”

  “I’m just joking Sho, trying to brighten the mood a bit, anyway I’ll be fine.”

  Before Shoto could disagree, S/n was already walking away and waving him off.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  He walked on a nearly empty street, the cars around him rushing, while he kept his hooded head down on the road.. His mind became a little calmer, like an ocean after a storm everything was calming down. He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn’t notice a quiet figure following him like a cat. He stopped near a crosswalk, looking up and waiting for the light to change, before he suddenly got grabbed and pulled roughly, a hand covering his mouth, he didn’t have any time to respond, everything became fuzzy as he was fastly pulled into what looked like a portal and thrown out the other side.

He moved onwards before quickly getting up into his fighting stance, ready to use his quirk on whatever or whoever grabbed him. Yet he wasn’t met by his kidnapper, only by a white haired man, who had some sort of hand on his face. S/n stood there for a second, trying to figure out if he should make a run for it or attack.

The quiet man poured another glass of whiskey, lifting one of his fingers from it, careful not to dust it. After the glass was half full, he murmured something under his breath before taking off his mask and giving the kid a creepy grin.

  “Come, take a seat…” the man gestured to a nearby bar stool.

  “Who are you and what do you want?” S/n hesitantly asked while he looked around the room.

  The man stopped his drink halfway to his mouth.

  “Ah, where are my manners, I’m Shigaraki… and you are?”

  “I’m-”

  “I’m joking, I already know who you are, you’re Dabi's little creation…” Shigaraki grinned. “You know, as Endeavor's grandson, he didn’t do a good job of protecting you… I mean you were just wandering around like a lost puppy.”

Shigaraki once again gestured to the empty seat next to him.

  “It’s not nice to reject a drink ya know.” Shigaraki looked at him, his grin slowly being replaced by a frown “Anyway, you must be thinking, why are you here? Well, I have a very appealing proposition for you, a deal of some sorts.”

  “Let me guess, you want me to join your evil boy club, is that it?”

  “Don’t call it that, ” Shigaraki snarled. “But yes, I want you to join the league ... now I can tell you’re hesitant, but think about it you’ll be accepted here.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Why do you think they kept it away from you for so long?”

  “How do-”

  “They’re afraid of you like everyone else will be when they learn the truth…”

  That will be you someday, and everyone will hate you.

  “Shut up.” S/n hissed.

  “What about your dear old dad? You wouldn’t want to disappoint him now would you?”

  “He’s no father of mine.”

  You’re just like him.

  Shigaraki spun around on the chair, drink still in hand.

  “You might deny it now, but you’ll be crawling back here in no time… it’s in your blood, the hero society is broken enough, help me make it better.”

  It’s in your blood…

  “Shut up.”

  S/n wanted to walk away, he tried blocking out every word thrown his way, his eyes desperately looking for the exit, Shigaraki only stared at him, wondering what the kid will do next when the door of the hideout suddenly opened and an irritated Dabi walked in the room “Shiggy I’m back from-” he spotted his son in the room and immediately hissed. “Why is he here?”

  “Oh, him? I just wanted to have a brief chat with the kid, welcome him into the family.” Shigaraki grinned, turning back to face the bar.

  “I’m sure you did.” Dabi scoffed, making his way to S/n, grabbing him by the color and dragging him away while he struggled.

  Before Dabi could open the door, he heard Shigaraki quietly mumble to him.

“Didn’t think you were so soft Dabi.”

  Dabi rolled his eyes while his son kicked him and babbled. “Let go of me you freak.”

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  Dabi followed S/n close behind, stealing glances at the unfamiliar place he was leading him to, before he suddenly stopped on some old bridge, not budging to go any further.

  “Why did you stop?” Dabi asked, looking around at the old factory.

  “I’m not going to show a villain where I live.” your son returned going near the rails and leaning on them. “So leave me the hell alone, alright?”

  Dabi took a deep breath in, feeling slightly irritated, yet he couldn’t contain the drip of proudness rising in his chest, the kid might be stupid but at least you taught him well he thought. He approached S/n calmly, not trying to start a fight, as he could see the kid was on edge before he leaned against the rails next to him.

  “Listen-”

  “I don’t want to hear it…” S/n responded immediately.

  A painfully awkward silence filled the air as the two stood under a poorly light street light looking at the slowly moving water.

“I hate you”  S/n murmured.

  “I know.”

  “So that’s it? You won’t say anything else?”

  “I don’t think it will change much even if I did,” Dabi said casually.“You look… a lot like Y/n… is she—how is she doing?” he added, gripping the railing a bit too tight for comfort.

  “She’s doing good, a lot better without you no doubt.” your son smeared.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  Dabi's heart painfully ached, after so many years the memories of your warm touch still lingered in his mind. A few days later after he left the hospital he came back to your old burnt house, your future home as you used to call it, he walked around the ashed trying to calm down the stinging feeling in his chest, he could’ve gone back, hell part of him screamed and begged him to, but he was too much of a coward, running away seemed easier them facing his father and facing the reality of crimes he committed, going back to that house filled the shadows of the past. Part of him also knew that betraying the league never ended well for anyone, and no matter how far or how long he would run, they’d always catch up. So he decided to suffer in silence and finally do something else than be selfish with his life.

  He walked around in ruins of what was once his home, spotting a cabinet that was badly burnt but still standing in what seemed to be your bedroom. He carefully opened it and shivered, looking at the slightly burnt photo. He recalled the event like it was yesterday; it was your daughter’s sixth Christmas; she was babbling and rambling all day, while you both tried putting up Christmas decorations, Christmas music played in the background and the smell of cookies filled your small little home. At the end of the day, you pestered him into taking a photo with the three of you. He so desperately wanted to disapprove but your daughter’s puppy eyes convinced him otherwise. You printed it out, and kept it close, calling it a good luck charm, and here it was still okay. Dabis hands trembled as he reached for it, carefully wiping the ashes from the photo, trying not to make it dirtier than it already was, and put it in his pocket, walking away with his lost treasure.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  “I’m glad,” he whispered, a sad smile plastered on his face, before looking back at his son. “Whatever you think of me, it wasn’t easy for me to just leave.”

  “Mhm, right, because you care so much.”

  “Watch it,” Dabi growled before softening up once more. “How’s… D/n?”

  Your son froze, looking back at him before mouthing. “Wait… you’re her father too?”

  Dabi didn’t say anything before pulling out and carefully showing him the photo.

S/n hesitantly took it and mouthed, looking over it. “Are you kidding me…?”

A revengeful thought came to him as he looked it over, still trying to comprehend it. He could see this little picture meant a lot to the poor villain who was carefully observing him, anytime S/n would move it, he could see him grow a bit on edge. Yet he took pity on the monster standing near him and shoved it back into his hand.

  “Well, you can be happy then, she doesn’t remember you,” he murmured, returning his hand on the railing.

  Dabi froze, giving him a doubting look.

“Yeah, she has some sort of traumatic amnesia or so I’ve heard.”

  “Amnesia… what happened?”

  “I don’t know I wasn’t told much,” S/n remarked. “But hey now you have one less burden to worry about, don’t want to mess up your future plan.”

  “Is that why you think I left?” Dabi spoke, tightly gripping the photo which remained in his hand. “I did it to keep all of you safe and give you a good shot at life, not because you’re some burden.”

  “No, you left because you’re a coward, stop trying to justify it with some sacrificial bullshit.”

  “Listen here-”

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  Hawks has been flying around the city for almost 2 hours now, frantically searching every nick and cranny he could think of, he felt like ripping his feathers out, how did he not pick up the mirror breaking, how could he let S/n leave, or worse, maybe he was taken?

So many thoughts were rushing through his head as he finally allowed himself to breathe. He landed on a nearby rooftop pulling out his phone with intention of calling Endeavor to report the update, before he spotted a familiar figure on a bridge near an old factory, the bridge was on the brink of collapsing so no one bothered to light it up properly. Two figures were standing under a badly cleaned street light, which now began to frantically flicker.

Hawks quickly dialed Endeavor, explaining his suspicion and telling his location. Endeavor asked him to wait, not knowing if it could be a trap, but Hawks with a foggy mind and his protective instincts didn’t listen, he murmured a simple “see ya soon” and hung up the phone. He looked back in the direction of the bridge and let himself glide off the rooftop.

Dabi stopped talking when he saw Hawks approach them, he only looked at S/n, stuffing the photo back into his pocket, and mumbled. “Looks like our time is up.” before S/n was fastly carried by Hawks feathers away from the dangerously close villain.

Hawks landed near S/n, surprising him as he frantically searched for any kind of injuries.

  “You okay kid?” he looked back at Dabi with a nasty look. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

  S/n pushed himself out of Hawks grasp. “I’m fine.”

  Hawks looked at him with sadness and guilt in his eyes, which turned into fury and hatred when they fell on Dabi, who was now casually leaning on the bridge railing. Hawks pulled away from S/n and approached Dabi with a feather blade in hand and pointed it at his throat.

  “Why did you take him?” Hawks barked, trying to search Dabi's cold demeanor for any kind of tricks.

  “I didn’t take shit, he was the one that found me.”

  Hawks looked back at S/n, who only looked away with guilt running across his face. Hawks gave him a disappointing glare before turning back at Dabi, who was unfaced with the deadly weapon pointed at his throat.

“I know what you’re trying to do.”

  Dabi cocked his eyebrows. “Do you now?” he jeered.

  “S/n doesn’t need a screw up like you for a father nor does he need your baggage, leave him be.”

  “Playing the father role well I see,” Dabi responded ignoring Hawks’ sudden outburst.

  “I couldn’t let a child be fathered by a scoundrel like you, now could I?”

  How Dabi wanted to tear down the oversized chicken limb from limb, finally take his revenge for ruining his family, for taking you away from him. His hands were beginning to itch and beg him to give in to his little temptation. He looked past Hawks at his son, god he looked just like you , his mind replayed your voice trying to calm him down as the temptation quietly disappeared into a pile of mush.

Dabi furrowed his eyebrows, turning around from the confrontation, and stepped back.

“I don’t have time for this.” He stoically stated, trying to hold back any kind of resentment towards Hawks.

  “Running away like always?” Hawks remarked, getting no response from the grim figure who slithered away in defeat.

  After he disappeared from view, Hawks turned back to S/n, who was standing nearby, tapping his feet nervously. Hawks approached him, throwing his jacket over the boys shoulders, and growled.

“We’re going home.”

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  You were pacing around the living room, phone in hand, waiting for any news on S/n whereabouts, when suddenly the front door opened up. You rushed to the door.

  “Did you—Angel hey are you okay? You’re not hurt, right?” you blubbered, scanning his face for any cuts or bruises.

  “How’s your hand?”

  “It’s fine, mom,” he responded shamefully, looking at the ground.

  “You really scared me sweetheart… where were you?” you hugged him tightly, massaging his back, and mouthed a quiet “thank you” to the heroes patiently standing nearby.

  “I don’t want to talk about it… can I go now? I’m really tired,” he mumbled, pushing you away.

  “I…”

  “Good night.” Your son said as he walked off to his room, quietly closing the door behind him.

You looked back at Endeavor and Hawks, who moved over to the couch.

  “What happened? Where did you find him?”

  “He was with Dabi.”

  “Dabi… what? Why? Did he kidnap him?”

  “No, it seems the kid found him first.” Endeavor tried calming you down.

  “Why would he-”

  “We’re not sure...but right now we should all go rest it’s been a tough night.” Endeavor stated.

  Hawks stood up and got ready to head to S/n room to give him the speech he thought of in the car before Endeavor stopped him.

“I’ll talk to him, you go rest.” He looked back at you, nodding to Hawks, who hesitantly took a seat next to you, wrapping one of his wings around you, slowly massaging your back.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

  Endeavor approached the door and knocked a few times, not hearing a response he pressed on the handle and the unlocked door opened with ease.

He stepped inside closing the door behind him, spotting your son, laying in his bed with his back turned, as he was slightly shaking behind the covers, clearly trying to calm himself down.

Endeavor sighted, not bothering to turn on the light, and sat beside him. He sat there for a while, his mind racing with all the things he wanted to say, or should’ve said, yet nothing came up.

  “You won’t be going to U.A.” he finally stated.

  Your son froze, and quickly sat back up, now facing Endeavor. “You can’t do that.”

  “I already called the school.”

  Your son ran his hand through his hair trying to come up with a valid argument.

“I also think that you should stay homeschooled for a while, seeing as there is a high chance of probability that the league knows you exist.”

“I know you worked hard, but your safety is far more important,” he added tapping S/n gently on the shoulder.

  Your son was too tired to answer but gave Endeavor a little nod.

  “Good, now get some sleep.” Endeavor said as he stood up from the bedside. He walked over to the door and looked back with a serious gaze.

“Don’t run away again, am I understood?”

  “Yes sir” your son responded letting his head fall onto the comfortable pillow.

  “Good.” Endeavor muttered closing the door behind him.

≿————-　❈　————-≾

It’s been almost a week and your patience was starting to run out, six days with only blunt responses from your son, him denying to eat your food or even come out of his room, and tonight you decided enough is enough and walked over to your son’s room with Hawks following close behind.

You turned back to him, trying to justify your sudden outburst. “I just want to see if he’s doing alright…”

  “I’ll go with you,” he reassured, giving your hand a light squeeze.

  You gave him a thankful nod before gently pressing on the handle and cracking the door open. Your son was sitting on his bed, with his earphones on, listening to something, paying no mind to your sudden entrance. His cheerful demeanor now became grim, dark circles under his eyes were too big for comfort, his bandage hand now bare.

Hawks hand fell on your shoulder as he gave you an encouraging glance. You took a deep breath in, before approaching his bedside and sitting next to him. Your son immediately looked up to you and Hawks who was leaning against a nearby wall, looking at him with his soft eyes. S/n took off his headphones and mumbled. “Please leave, I really don’t want to talk to any of you.”

“It’s been a week, kid, you can’t just keep ignoring us like this.” Hawks lilted.

  “Honey…” you tried reaching for his hand but he pulled away instantly. “I know--it's hard and I shouldn’t have kept something like that from you… and I’m deeply sorry.”

  “Good to know, the doors right there you can leave now.” your son jeered.

  “Can you at least come out of your room and eat something? I don’t like when you hurt yourself like this,” you said, once again reaching out to him.

  “Don’t touch me,” he said, pulling away. “You kept it from D/n as well didn’t you?”

  “D/n… her situation is different from yours…”

  “How?” he asked, not sparing you a glance.

  “She knew who he was… but after your d—Dabi left she couldn’t handle it, so her brain locked him out of her memory,” you explained in a simple manner.

  “And you let her leave just like that... “ your son scoffed as he got off from the bed. “Were you going to do the same with me?”

  “We-”

  “You know what, don’t answer that… I don’t think it’s good for me to hang around you two right now.”

  Your son walked towards the door but Hawks moved, blocking it. “You need to calm down, kid.”

  “Get out of my way Hawks.” your son warned, his sleep deprived, and angered mind getting the best of him.

  “You need to stop throwing tantrums and listen-”

  Hawks was interrupted by a loud explosion, he felt like he was falling before he hit something hard, his ears began to ring, he felt limb trying to gasp for air and he desperately fought to keep his eyes open as he felt warm like wood liquid falling down his face. He could see you desperately run to him, tripping over the fallen door, your soft touch masking the terrible pain he felt, he slowly reached for your cheek, accidentally smearing it with his blood, trying to wipe away your tears that wouldn’t stop coming.

He slowly shifted trying to spot the boy he carefully tried to father throughout his life, only to see him, standing there in the smoke of a now destroyed corridor, dark smoke surrounding him, as his sight got worse he could swear the little boy turn into a monstrous shadowy figure, who was now darting away. Hawks tried reaching out to him but he seemed to be getting further and further away by the second, he mumbled something under his breath as he let his body and mind succumb to the dark slumber he so craved.

[bubblestheraccoon]

Music Mixes

Lumberjanes ���Arts and Crafts” Program Field

Treble Maker Badge

“Some Risks are worth the Reward”

Music fuels the mind and thus fuels creativity. A creative mind has the ability to make discoveries and create innovations. The greatest minds and thinkers like Hildegard von Bingen, Barbra Strozzi, and Florence Mary Taylor all had something in common in that they were constantly exploring their imagination and creativity. As a Lumberjane it will be vital that we not only enrich our minds, but enrich those around us. Music is just one of the many mediums that can create an empowering environment, it is one of the few mediums that can be enjoyed at any time.

Finch’s Notes:

This post is based on a section from the bonus content from Lumberjanes: To The Max Edition Volume One. I did not create these playlist, their titles, or the blurb at the top of the post. If any of the links are wrong or broken, or if I should add any more disclaimers for song content, please feel free to let me know!

*D-Slur Warning.

**Only version of the cover I could find on youtube, here’s a version of song without the extra audio but it’s on a Russian website that overwrote my adblocker a little bit so visit it at your own risk. Here’s the song it was covering if you want that instead.

***Could not find cover on youtube. Link instead goes to band camp.

****F-Slur Warning.

Fox Fight Jams! By April!

Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks

Bad Reputation by Joan Jett

Run the World (Girls) by Beyonce

Northshore be Tegan & Sara

Woo Hoo by The 5 6 7 8s

Wilderness by Sleater-Kinney

Wolf by Now, Now

Spin Around by Josie and the Pussycats

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Theme

Jet Pack by Dog Party

Pirates by Jenny Owen Youngs

Dance Apocalyptic by Janelle Monae

Bamboo Bones by Against Me!

Push It by Salt-n-Pepa

I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift

Up All Night by One Direction

Roar by Katy Perry

Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor

Say You'll Be There by the Spice Girls

Ribs by Lorde

Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks (”Best Song Ever”-April)

River Adventure Mix of dooooom by Mal

I Was An Island by Allison Weiss

Shark In The Water by V.V. Brown

Let's Submerge by X-Ray Spex

Eyes Open by The Gossip

Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill*

Giant Kitty by Shonen Knife

I Won't Follow by the Secret Someones

4Ever by The Veronicas

Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne

Take Me Away by Fefe Dobson

Borne On The FM Waves by Against Me! & Tegan Quinn

Ain't It Fun by Paramore

3 Small Words by Josie and the Pussycats

Anchor by Letters To Cleo

That's Not My Name by The Ting Tings

Independent Woman Part 1 by Destiny's Child

Crush by the Sleigh Bells

Oh! by Sleater-Kinney

Tropical by Plumtree

Rhiannon by Best Coast or Fleetwood Mac 

The Con by Tegan & Sara

The Competition by Kimya Dawson

Cave Tunes by Molly

I Have Confidence by Julie Andrews

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

Tightrope by Janelle Monae feat Big Boi

Just A Dream by Taylor Swift

Heartbreak Dream by Betty Who

Corner of the Sky by the Jackson 5

Valerie by Amy Winehouse

I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston

Call Your Girlfriend by Robyn

Let It Go by Idina Menzel

Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations

Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash

Jolene by Dolly Parton

Rock ‘n Roll High School by Shonen Knife

Don’t Save Me by HAIM

The Cave by Dia Frampton**

She Keeps Me Warm by Mary Lambert

This Is For by Ingrid Michaelson

Cut It Off by Mal Blum

Smash Into You by Beyonce

Jen’s Perfect Camp Mix by Ripley

Gravity Falls Theme Song

Summertime by Audra McDonald

Strong Enough by Kina Grannis

(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care by Cee Lo Green

Waterfalls - TLC

Just A Girl by No Doubt

Nobody Knows Me At All by The Weepies

I’m Beginning To See The Light by Ella Fitzgerald

Bad Girls by M.I.A.

Spice Up Your Life by the Spice Girls

Magic To Do by Patina Miller & Ensemble

***Flawless by Beyonce

Come On by Josie And The Pussycats

Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey

Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles

Jo’s really rad! Mix by Jo

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Theme

Androgynous(Live) by Joan Jett and Against Me!

Tous Les Memes by Stromae

Sunshine by Rye Rye feat M.I.A.

L.E.S. Artistes by Santigold

What About Your Friends by TLC

Just One Of The Guys by Jenny Lewis

Melody by Kate Earl

Red Cape by Priscilla Ahn

No Wow by The Kills

I Found You by Tilly and the Wall

Do You Remember the Morning by Kid in the Attic***

Cheerleader by St. Vincent

Concrete Wall by Zee Avi

You Can Count On Me by Panda Bear

Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac (”<3″-Jo)

Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds

Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie

Oblivion by Grimes

Q.U.E.E.N. by Janelle Monae and Eryka Badu

Rapid Decompression by Against Me!

Roanokes Rule: The Mix[!][!][!] by April

Rattlesnake by Saint Vincent

Transgender Dysphoria Blues by Against Me!****

Amazon by M.I.A.

Another One Bites The Dust by Queen

Art-I-Ficial by X-Ray Spex

Separate Rooms by Now, Now

What’s Mine Is Yours by Sleater-Kinney

Sci-Fi Wasabi by Cibo Matto

Tennis Court by Lorde

Son Of A Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac

Desire Lines by Deerhunter

Hot and Cold by Ex Hex

White Daisy Passing by Rocky Votolato

Misguided Ghosts by Paramore

For The Best by Gregory and the Hawk

The Hymn Of Acxiom by Vienna Teng

Capture The Flag by Broken Social Scene

From A Shell by Lisa Germano

Rosie’s Turn

Feeling Good by Nina Simone

Annabelle Lee by Sarah Jarosz

Terrible Things by April Smith & The Great Picture Show

You Can’t Be Told by Valerie June

Wild Geese Blues by Gladys Bentley

The Day Is Short by Jearlyn Steele

One Dime Blues by Etta Baker

Hard Way Home by Brandi Carlile

The Devil’s Paintbrush Road by The Wailin’ Jennys

To The Bone by Okou

Panic Cord by Gabrielle Aplin

Cups (You’re Gonna Miss Me) by Lulu and the Lampshades

Crayola Doesn’t Make A Color For Your Eyes by Kristin Andreassen

Complimentary Me by Elizabeth & The Catapult

Blue Spotted Tail by Kina Grannis

Sorry About The Doom by Slow Club

You Know I’m No Good by Amy Winehouse

From Texas: Big “D” by Julie Andrews & Carol Burnett

Finch’s Notes Cont:

Hi! I made this post to avoid work. But mostly I made this post because Lumberjanes is something really important to me, and these playlist are a part of my enjoyment of Lumberjanes I don’t see people talking about a lot! So I decided to make a post in order to share them with y’all. I remember hunching over my phone making a spotify playlist (here, though it’s missing a few songs that aren’t on spotify) while on a trip to California in the summer of 2018 when I first got into Lumberjanes. I probably listened to these songs while I made my first ever Lumberjanes fanart. These mixes helped me to discover artist I really love, like Janelle Monae and Mal Blum. I hope you enjoy them as well!

Other notes: Sk8r Boi is crossed out as that is the way it appears on Mal’s playlist. Also, I tend to shy away from music videos as a personal preference, so that’s why there are so few included on this playlist, though I’m sure many of these songs have beautiful music videos. I might reblog this post in the future with some youtube playlists of these mixes, but if you want to find them yourself there are a lot of playlists of these songs made on youtube already! Or you can make your own playlists using this post. 

And, just for fun, have one final Lumberjanes themed music recommendation:

Lumberjanes by Various

[ehstarwar]

flesh stays no farther reason (2/6)

It takes three weeks for him to contact her again.

A one word text after only one night of fucking (albeit, glorious, life-altering, religion-defying fucking) shouldn’t make her heart flutter the way it does now.

-

Five times Ben looks for Rey and the one time she finds him.

-

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 4.7K

Read on AO3

2

rank sweat of an enseamed bed

It takes three weeks for him to contact her again.

She’s just gotten home from what is, quite possibly, the most draining shift she’s had this year, when the notification brightens her phone, and subsequently, her day.

From u/KyL0_R3N

Hi.

A one word text after only one night of fucking (albeit, glorious, life-altering, religion-defying fucking) shouldn’t make her heart flutter the way it does now. 

From u/R3yoflight

hey

From u/KyL0_R3N

How have you been?

From u/R3yoflight

good, for the most part

work sucks, but thats just the way it goes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

hbu?

meeting go well??

From u/KyL0_R3N

I’m glad you’re doing good. Sorry about work. 

I know how that can be, unfortunately.

The meeting did go well. Thank you for asking.

I’m sorry I didn’t call you after our night together.

Rey stares down at her phone, not knowing how to respond. 

The morning after their night together was a point of contention in Rey’s mind. On one hand, it was a hook-up. An old-fashioned, wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am hook-up that just so happened to be between two thoroughly compatible people. They had barely even talked to one another. She hadn’t made fun of his stupid, clearly made-up name, hadn’t teased him for his large ears that she found too endearing, she hadn’t even gotten his actual phone number. 

But… it was so, so sweet.

The way he had handled her was not that of an impassive man looking to get off and get going. It was of someone who knew how to take care of another, who wanted to take care of her. The gentleness of his lips from the last time they kiss will forever be burned into her brain.

Part of her had expect get a call the next day, with Kylo confessing that he had the same butterfly feeling she did. After a few days past and she hadn’t received so much as a new post alert on reddit from him, she decided to push back the feelings into a tight corner of her mind that was slowly filling up with emotions she wasn’t ready to unpack. 

From u/R3yoflight

it’s nbd, i know how hook-ups go

don’t feel bad

From u/KyL0_R3N

I think it is a big deal, but I know what you mean.

I would like to see you again.

Would you like to see me?

Would she? Would she even survive being with Kylo Ren again?

Rey decides its all comes down to attitude, and she’ll go in with a better one this time.

From u/R3yoflight

yeah, i would

u have another big meeting u need to prep 4?

It takes him a whole 10 minutes to respond, a first for him.

From u/KyL0_R3N

Sure.

What about the 8th? 

Does that work for you?

From u/R3yoflight

i work the 7th and the 8th, but the hotel we 

were at last time is p close to my job

i could meet you there and just pack stuff

for work

From u/KyL0_R3N

We can do another date so you don’t have to do that.

From u/R3yoflight

nah 

i don’t want u to have to move ur meeting

so im good if ur good

From u/KyL0_R3N

Of course.

I’m good, too.

From u/R3yoflight

🤗🤗🤗

-

Rey bounces the ball of her foot on the hard concrete beneath her, watching the clock with rapt attention. The minutes seem to slow the further she got into the day, making the last hour and a half feel like an eon. Plutt had already barked at her to make herself useful somewhere, but there’s only so much to do when they’re down cars for the day. 

The moment the clock strikes 5:30, Rey is out of the shop like a bat out of hell. She thinks about stopping in some bathroom and changing into a skirt or dress or at least some clean underwear, but she can’t bring herself to waste that much time.

She want’s to see Kylo. Desperately. 

The wall she’d constructed around all her curiosities from their last meeting had come crumbling down with the promise of a second one, and this time, she was determined to know a little bit more about the man in question.

He’d sent her the room number a few hours ago, letting her know to meet him there whenever she got off work. Her mind had already begun reeling in the possibilities of tonight by that point, and it only added gas to the flame.

There’s a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead when she walks into the lobby, and a few things become apparent at once.

One, the hotel is full to the brim with people who look like they make in an hour what she makes in 5 years.

Two, she absolutely should have taken the time to change into something that wasn’t the grease-stained overalls that had seen much better days, probably long before she’s fished them out of a bin at the goodwill.

Three, the doorman (with white gloves) looked moments away from calling the cops on her. 

“Excuse me, miss,” the doorman says, walking up to Rey. She gulps and prays with every fibre in her being that he’ll just inform her she dropped something and let her go on her merry way. “May I ask if you’re staying at this establishment?” His tone isn’t accusatory… yet.

“Um… sort of? I’m meeting someone,” She explains. A few of the posh guest are trying to remain inconspicuous as they attempt to hear what’s going on. It makes her cheeks burn red.

“Ah, well, the bar is downstairs and… there is a dress code.”

Rey has felt small plenty of times before in her life. This is nothing new.

“He’s in his- our room, already,” She tells him, keeping her eyes on the doorman and actively ignoring the now-open stares of the lobby. The doorman’s eyes narrow.

“Why don’t you check in with the front desk to make sure you have the correct room number, shall we?” Without waiting for her response, the man moves his arm and begins walking her to the far end of the lobby, where beautiful women in black blazers stare on at her.

“I really don’t think that’s necessary. I’ll just call Kylo and tell him I can’t-“”

“I beg your pardon?” The blood runs out of the face of the doorman. “What did you say your friend’s name was?”

“Kylo. He’s upstairs but I don’t want to bug-”

“My apologies, Miss. I had no idea that Mr. Ren was expecting guest. Allow me to escort me to your suite-”

“That’s really not necessary. I’ll just go now-” 

“Rey?”

Her whole body freezes as his voice cuts across the lobby. She doesn’t turn to look at him, instead still focusing on the now queezy-looking doorman. She feels his presence come up beside her, and the warm, large hand come to rest on her lower back.

“Is everything alright?” He asks.

The doorman looks at her with wide eyes and a pleading stare.

“Everything was fine, I was just coming upstairs.” The lie rolls off her tongue and she hopes she sounds convincing. Rey finally glances upwards to look at Kylo, maybe to flash him an ill-advised smile and silently say ‘lets go please.’

It is striking just how beautiful he is, especially after so long without seeing him. His hair looks even more perfect now than she was remembering it, but Rey assumes that her imagination will never quite compete with the real thing. 

“You we’re taking a while and I got nervous. I’m glad I came down when I did.” His eyes shoot over to the doorman who looks moments away from passing out, so she acts quickly.

“Well, I’m here. Let’s get going, please.” Rey takes both her hands and pushes against the solid bark that is his chest, and Kylo eventually complies, but still sending a death glare the the rest of the hotel staff.

When she’s finally pushed them into the elevator and they’re blessedly alone, Rey takes a deep breath of relief. For as poorly as that interaction went, it could’ve gone much worse.

“What did he say to you?”

Kylo’s voice is low and sends the wrong kind of nervousness to her gut. 

“He was just making sure I was in the right place. He had every right to ask what I was doing here. I mean, I know how I’m dressed and how I look, so if we could just move on-“”

“No one should speak down to you, no matter how you’re dressed, Rey. It isn’t okay.”

“But it is!” She snaps. “Because I know people in the service industry are just doing what their told and that guy is probably underpaid as is and his boss would have reprimanded him if he’d said nothing, so it’s fine!”

Kylo stays silent beside her and she can’t bring herself to look at him. The elevator takes it’s time, crawling to their floor, but blessedly does not stop to board anyone else.

“You were going to leave, weren’t you?” He asks, voice suddenly much smaller than it was a moment ago.

“I just don’t want to be a problem for anybody. For you, for the doorman, for… I probably should leave, even now,” Rey admits. For an evening she was so looking forward to, it really is going sour.

Rey feels a hand come around her cheek and gently guide her to look up at him. His expression is softer now and his lips have that delicious pout that she should absolutely not be thinking about kissing right now.

“You’re not a problem.”

Kylo stares down at her with such intensity, she thinks she’ll melt right then and there.

The elevator chime breaks them from their reverie and Kylo steps out into the hallway. He holds his hand out for her, looking at her with a question. Giving her an option. You can go back down and leave right now and just remember Kylo Ren fondly for the rest of your life or you can go with him right now and see whatever else this bizarre experience will give to you, her mind says. 

Rey makes up her mind and takes his hand.

-

She’s on him the moment he closes the door behind them. No warning, no hesitation; just Rey pouncing on Kylo. She kisses him so deeply, the way she’s thought about for the last 3 and a half weeks, that she can feel it in her toes. For his part, Kylo doesn’t seem all that surprised. He scoops her up in his arms the moment she’s between them, making Rey’s heart flutter.

He holds her up, not pinned to anything and just lets her make out with him. Suspended in air, only holding onto him, hands touching any part of him she can reach; it’s delicious. 

“We should… go to… the bed…” He says between kisses. Rey whines into his mouth (why, she’ll never know).

“No… here…” She breaths against his lips. 

Kylo immediately lowers them to the floor, and holds himself above her. The carpet is plush against her back and is almost softer than the old futon she’s been using as a bed for the last few years.

“You… deserve a bed…” He says, while quickly undoing the buttons to her overalls. She’s trying to help him, but her hands get distracted by the growing hardness between his legs. 

“What this… here is good…” She tries to say. She’s not sure if this would make sense to anyone outside of the two of them, but she’s can’t care at the moment. 

The second the last button comes undone, Kylo focuses on getting her completely bare. He practically rips off every piece of clothing on her body, until she’s left only in her tube socks. When her hands go to take them off, he stops her.

“Leave it,” Kylo orders. Rey feels herself gush. 

Once she’s in the perfect state of undress, Kylo doesn’t even bother taking off the rest of his clothes. He just opens his belt and fly, taking out his beet-red cock and pumping it a few times. 

“… Missed your cunt…” He says against her lips as he slides the head of his cock over her core. She’s squirming under him, trying to force him to put it inside of her. “… so tight and wet for me…and you’ll just… let me make a mess of it, huh? Let me fuck it ‘till it’s… molded to me… full of my come…”

She arches her back, pressing her chest into the coarse fibers of his shirt. His hands go to hold down her abdomen as he slides himself into her, stretching her out every bit of the way.

The drag of him makes Rey delirious; like Kylo is reaching a part of her that hasn’t existed until he came into her life. If she thought that her body would be more accepting of him since last time, she would be wrong. 

“… take me so fucking well, baby…” Kylo breaths, making Rey clench. He whimpers at the sensation. Her hands go up to his neck, one holding him there and the other rubbing the shell of his ear. His whole body trembles beneath her touch. He grips the underside of her thigh, as a warning almost, before pounding into her. 

Full force, no hold-backs, pounding her right into the floor. She’s sure he’ll have to tip housekeeping very well this time around. 

With every stroke, Kylo make Rey feel split in two. He bumps her cervix more often than not, and her clit rubs deliciously on the metal of his belt buckle. The hard, cold metal feels so good and so rough that Rey is reduced to muffled cries and moans agains his skin. 

He bites more hickeys into her chest and shoulders, deeper and harder than the ones last time. Her chest will be covered in purple marks of Kylo for a long time to come and she loves it. Her legs wrap around to his back, squeezing him. His movements become messy and uncoordinated and she knows he’s close, just from the sounds he’s making above her. Rey does nothing to stop her oncoming orgasm, just letting the feeling wash over her as she convulses beneath Kylo.

He with her the next moment, come spilling out of him like the grunts spilling from his mouth. His hips still thrust, harder and more infrequent, like he’s making his final claim on her body. She lets him manhandle her as she feels a warm, sloshing heat in her core. 

Kylo rest on top of her as their breathing slows. Rey feels a twinge of carpet burn on her back and her ass but ignores it. Kylo’s hands have found their way to her sides, nearly engulfing her waist. They slide up her arms until they find her hands, and interlocks their fingers together. 

He plants warm, wet kisses on her sternum, up her throat, and eventually her lips. Rey smiles into the kiss. 

Then, as if called, her stomach growls so loud, Kylo stills. He pulls back to look down at her with a quirked eyebrow. She bites her lip and her cheeks would be red from embarrassment if they weren’t already red from their fucking.

“… would you like dinner?” He asks. She nods. 

-

The wet ends of her hair tickle the back of neck, so she pushes it out of the robe. The water pressure in the massive shower was enough for Rey to sell her soul, but the burger she’s currently devouring is coming in at a close second. 

After their entryway tryst, Rey had happily jumped into the shower while Kylo had ordered them dinner, assuring her that she could order both the Tomato Bisque and french fries as her side.

When she’d gotten out and into the plush robe, Rey had found Kylo on one side of the bed, some nascar race on the TV, and him biting into his too-raw-for-her-taste steak. 

It was a beautiful sight. 

She’s sitting at the edge of the bed, Kylo on the other side and a few feet away from her, both watching the television. It’s too quiet for how loud her head is right now, so she can’t help the word vomit that forms.

“What do you mean when you say you’re in tech?” She asks, eyes still on the television screen.

“I work in research and development for a technology company,” he tells her, unhelpfully.

“What does that even mean?” She can’t help but sound exasperated. 

“My job is to come up with the next best gadget or update and figure out a way to make it work,” he says as he shifts on the bed. Rey still hasn’t looked at him.

“Must be hard to be successful in that field right now… I mean, First Order pretty much has a monopoly on any techie thing out there.”

Kylo chuckles.

“I wouldn’t exactly say monopoly… but yeah. But I still make do.”

Rey hums while chewing.

“Do you like working at an auto shop?” He asks, after a few moments of silence between them. She shrugs.

“I like fixing things, so that parts nice, but… my boss sucks.”

“Why don’t you go work somewhere else?” Rey can’t stop the sharp ‘ha!’ that escapes her.

“I’m a young, female mechanic, with no higher education degree, who’s immigration status is tenuous at best, who can barely afford her half of a shithole of an apartment. I’m not the bright, shining pupil that most places would want to take on.”

She finally looks back over at Kylo, who seems to be in thought while polishing off the rest of his food. 

“If you’re struggling financially, I could-”

She cuts him off. “No. That’s not what this is about.” The burger suddenly taste like ash in her mouth, so she sets the rest of it down. “I make due on my own. I don’t need a… benefactor.” This makes him chuckle, causing Rey to give him an incredulous look. 

“Sorry, sorry…” He chuckles, “It’s just… benefactor? I at least think I would be deserving the title of sugar daddy.” Rey rolls her eyes and throws a soggy french fry at him. He catches it and eats it right away.

“I don’t need a benefactor or sugar daddy. But… thank you.”

They fall silent for a while before Kylo gets up and removes the trays from their room. Rey scoots back, laying herself in the middle of the bed between the mountain of pillows. When Kylo returns, he stays at the foot of the bed, watching Rey. They say nothing, just keep heavy eye contact with one another. 

Her eyes rake down his form, shirtless with some joggers on. She doesn’t see a band of underwear so she hopes that means he’s going without. 

Feeling bold, she pushes herself up and craws her way across the bed to him. When she’s finally in front of him, she goes on her knees so that they’re eye level. Her hands trace the muscles in his arms and chest, dipping down to his toned abdomen. Rey feels his eyes on her face the entire time, but looks down to wherever her hands go to next. 

“I didn’t get the opportunity to ride you, last time,” her eyes flick up to his, “I think we should rectify that.”

Kylo doesn’t say anything, just keeps looking at her with that intense gaze that could kill a lesser woman. His hands come up to push the robe off her shoulders, pooling around her calves and revealing her naked body. 

His hands brush up her sides as they make their way to her jaw, and when he’s finally got a hold of her, he kisses her. It’s slower than any of the ones they shared earlier, and reminds her of that goodbye kiss from last time; the sweetest nectar that she’ll never be able to perfectly replicate with anyone else.

The kiss deepens and Kylo crawls into bed with her. They move until she’s situated over him, straddling his stomach. His hands kneed her ass, pushing the flesh until she’s sure it’ll bruise. She allows herself to grind on him, making his abs slick with her want. His hands suddenly let go of her, and she feels him go to push off his joggers. 

Rey kisses his neck, remembering what he said in all those earlier messages about liking both giving and receiving hickeys. So she bites. He gasps. 

When he’s finally naked, Rey reaches around to pull at him. He’s already so hard and dripping that Rey gets a little swell of pride. She takes him in hand once she scoots back, and holds him center with her. She glides down on him, slick enough to take him in one go.

His whole body is flushed, his lips even poutier than normal, his breath coming out in spurts. 

“Why… do I aways feel… like you’re holding back… whenever you… get your cock… in me,” She asks between shallow thrust. Kylo tips his head back as his hands go to hold her hips.

“Rey… your cunt… I could fucking come right now. I don’t care if we have sex every day for the next year… your cunt is like a vice. I could come in you right now… fuck…” Rey smiles down at him, proud to see this big man reduced to the puddle he’s currently in. It’s as endearing as it is hot.

She starts to move in earnest, riding him with her whole body. She eats up the sounds he makes, his praises of ‘good girl’ and ‘riding daddy’s cock so well.’

Without her asking, Kylo brings a thumb to her clit, moving in time with her thrust, making her yelp. “Need you… to come… with me…” He breaths. Rey nods as she adjust her angle, making him hit the spot in her that’s guaranteed to get her there in no time. 

Her hips can’t keep up with his thrust, so their movement become sloppy, until Kylo takes charge and starts guiding her and slamming up into her.

“… So perfect… riding my cock like a good girl… you’re so fucking hot… like this…” He says, but his praises are lost on her as she’s thrown over the edge. Rey complies into him and Kylo catches her, still pistoling his hips into her. He comes after a few more thrust, biting into her skin like last time.

Rey rides out the last of her orgasm while he’s still pulsing inside of her. Her hands still grip at his shoulders and Kylo wraps his arms around her back and hold her there. She feels the warm rush of fluids dribbling out of her, and Rey knows he can feel his own come dripping back down his cock, but he makes no indication that they need to move. 

They stay like this so long, Rey cradled against Kylo’s chest, feeling so safe and warm and wanted, that she falls into the deepest sleep.

-

She’s groggy when she wakes. Kylo has maneuvered them so that she’s tucked under his arm, halfway covering his torso. He’s snoring lightly and the rise and fall of his chest is oddly soothing. She lays there for a while, hours maybe, but isn’t able to fall back asleep. 

Rey busies herself by looking at him unashamedly. Kylo is built, to say the very least. His arms are thick with muscle, and even relaxed, his stomach looks well toned. 

Why did he need to post that on reddit? She thinks. He’s beautiful. He could get anyone just off his looks, let alone his wallet. 

Eventually he stirs, hands instantly seeking her out, and head going into the crook of her neck and nuzzling there. His hair tickles her, making her giggle lightly against him as he holds her even closer.

“What time is it?” He asks, voice muffled by her skin. She glances at the clock across from her.

“6:27… I’ll need to leave in an hour,” she says. Her voice is quiet and she feels a slight, almost imperceptible shift in his body language. She brings her hands up, running her fingers through his hair, hoping he’ll relax back again. 

Neither of them say anything for a while, and it’s becoming very clear that their form of intimacy is best experienced in silence. It should concern her how quickly they’re forming habits. It’s probably one of the first things he wanted to avoid when making that post.

But the sound of soft rain hitting the window, the warmth of the expensive sheets, the feel of Kylo’s body pressed against hers, makes it very hard for Rey to feel sorry for anything. 

They shower together, after she came up with some half-hearted excuse that it would save time and water, but he makes no sexual advances on her, so she doesn’t try and pester him. Would it be nice to end their tryst with some wet shower sex or even mutual oral? Sure, but Rey didn’t want to push her luck. She was glad enough to spend this time with him, even if neither of them were getting off.

When they’re both dry and dressed, him in a perfectly tailored suit and her in the same greasy overalls from yesterday, he takes her hand. She had been reaching for her bag, but lost momentum halfway through when he touched her.

“I… don’t want to go another three weeks without seeing or hearing from you again,” he tells her. 

“You can call me? I’ll give you my number. I work usually six days a week, but sometimes I’ll have a few days off in a row, so… we can meet up then, if you’re… up for it?” She tells him. Something in his face falls, but she doesn’t quite know where to place it.

“…That would be… yeah. We should exchange numbers.” 

He passes him her phone as she does the same, putting in her number with the little purple devil emoji beside it because he probably doesn’t have any emojis in his contacts and she wasn’t him to remember her. Not that she’s overly concerned with that happening, but, it’s always better to be safe.

When they exchange phones again, she looks down to see the contact he’s placed, but looks back up at him, confused.

“Ben Solo… what’s that?”

“Me… well, my real name. I haven’t gone by it in a while but… I just wanted you to know it,” he tells her. Rey’s lips tremble. You are not going to cry because he told you his real name, she chides herself. It is the absolute bare minimum to do, so you will not read into it more than you should.  

“Well…” She begins, looking down at the phone again because looking in his eyes is too much right now, “It is a very nice name. Certainly more realistic than Kylo Ren.”

Ben has the wherewithal to look a little sheepish at her teasing. He brings a hand through his hair and smiles at the floor.

“It was something I liked when I was a teenager and became too rebellious for my own good. It was my first aol email,” He says. Rey laughs as she imagines a gangly 13-year-old Ben running home to his computer every day after school and changing his AIM status to some moody-angst ridden lyric of a bad he thought was too cool for mainstream.

When the laughter dies down and Rey is able to look at him without bursting into giggles, she thanks him.

“Thank you for last night. And for… telling me your name.” He smiles at her, and puts a hand on her jaw, tilting her head further up. Before he can bring her into another soul-melting kiss, she speaks again.

“Ben is a very nice name but… I think I prefer calling you daddy.”

His grin is wolfish. 

[dudeandduchess]

Sweetest Sin [Rengoku Kyoujuro x F!Reader] Chapter 3

Rating: SFW Characters: Rengoku Kyōjurō x F!Reader Chapters: 5/5 Summary: A written collection of all the times when Rengoku proposed to his then-lover, who eventually gave in and became his wife. Chapter Word Count: 3,167 Tags: Smut, Fluff, Short Series, Fingering, Creampie, Established Relationship, Marriage Proposal, Mild Manga Spoilers (Very mild, I promise), Impregnation, Finger Sucking, Praise Kink, Dirty Talk, Light Dom/sub, Light Bondage, Tsundere Reader, Angst

Note: Hello, everyone! This chapter has a different tone compared to all the other chapters. I guess you can say that it's a bittersweet chapter. So, just a word of caution if you're not feeling up to reading something angsty. Thank you so much for reading! Hope you guys like it. <3

***SFW***

It wasn’t like Oyakata-sama to have made a mistake, so surely (Y/n) believed that he had sent her there for a reason. She had heard that he had the power of foresight, and even if that weren’t true, he would never willingly put her in danger.

‘So there must be a logical reason,’ (Y/n) thought to herself, as she looked up the snowy mountain that used to be her home.

Fear immediately gripped her heart when her crow told her to head to the eternally snow-covered mountain, and she couldn’t help but think that the worst had happened while on her way there.

Because she might have been estranged from her family, but that didn’t mean that she stopped caring about them. And to have been sent there because of a demon attack was enough to shake her to the core.

She had wanted to talk to Rengoku before she left, as she lived close to his home, but he wasn’t there when she arrived at his house. Senjurō was the one who had answered the door and, with a blush, she accepted the letter that her lover had left for her.

In the letter, he said that he had to leave for a mission of his own, and that he regretted not being able to say goodbye to her. But that was usual for him; what was very different with that letter, was the fact that he had included an omamori with it. 

She had to suppress a smile when she saw that it was a charm for a healthy pregnancy.

True to her answer, she had been seriously thinking about his proposal. Of course she wanted to get married to him, but she had to figure out a way to make it happen— even without her father’s approval. 

And that was when it clicked inside her head: she never would have come back to her home, had Oyakata-sama not sent her there on a mission. So, after steeling her nerves, she marched towards the thicket of trees— back to the little snow-covered town where she grew up. 

The trip up the mountain was longer than (Y/n) remembered, or maybe it had to do with the fact that the last time she was there, she had been running down the steep slopes, hand-in-hand with Rengoku.

She could still remember that day like it had just happened yesterday, even though it had already been three years since that day. She was seventeen back then, and very in love with the boy she had practically grown up with.

During the harshest winter storms, she and her siblings— along with their mother— would go down the mountain to live with her mother’s parents; in the same town where the Rengoku family lived.

At first, she tried to avoid the exuberant blond who kept following her around, but he inevitably wore down her defenses and wormed his way into her heart. Years passed and they were practically glued together when (Y/n) stayed with her grandparents. 

And eventually, she had to move in with her mother’s parents so that she could get a proper education— which only brought her and Kyōjurō even closer. She thought that the attraction she felt towards him was merely nothing more than that but, eventually he confessed to her and asked her to choose him.

To stay with him, so they could grow old together. 

And of course, she pleaded with her father to let her be with Kyōjurō; but things didn’t exactly work out in her favor, so they opted for their last option: to run away together.

They didn’t get very far until (Y/n)’s grandparents and Kyōjurō’s father caught them. But (Y/n) was adamant about staying with her young love, so she was put in her grandparents’ care. Until they passed away three years ago.

She thought that she was going to have to permanently move back to Yukiyama because she would no longer have caretakers, least of all a house to live in, but she was proven wrong when she found her grandmother’s will. 

The house and all of their other possessions were all handed down to her. Not her mother, but her.

Because, as her grandmother had said in her letter, she deserved to be happy with someone who loved her just as much— if not more— than she did them.

Slowly, the faintest of smiles tilted up the corners of the (h/c) haired woman’s lips, until it was wiped away by the putrid stench of a demon nearby.

Instantly, (Y/n) got her naginata from where it was strapped across her back, before ducking down into a defensive stance. She didn’t know what kind of demon she was up against, but it couldn’t have been a weak one if Oyakata-sama had to send a Kinoe to dispose of it. 

Yet, she was proven wrong when she wrapped up the demon in practically no time at all. One stab at it with the spike at the other end of her naginata did the trick, as the sharp end had a small chamber where it was constantly being fed with wisteria poison. 

So, it seemed that she wasn’t there for the demon, after all; but for a much riskier challenge. 

The challenge of talking to her father.

(Y/n) wanted to turn tail and run, but was tethered to where she stood by the motivating idea that she could finally say yes to Rengoku, after she finally renounced herself from her family.

It was the only solution she could think of, as securing her father’s approval would be more difficult than defeating Kibutsuji himself.

And so, with a determined stride, she traversed the familiar path towards the temple at the edge of the town.

 ***

 Everything looked to be the same as it was years ago. The courtyard was still well-maintained, and the winter garden crops were still in the same order. It seemed like nothing had changed in the time that (Y/n) was gone; she was the one who had changed.

For a few minutes, she stayed rooted to the spot— just surveying the area and taking every detail she could to her memory; because she knew that it was the last time that she was going to see them. Even if the last memory she was going to have of that place was of it being bathed in moonlight, then she would take it.

“State your name and business,” A chilling voice from behind (Y/n) hissed out. And she, in turn, raised her hands up to the sides to show the person that she meant no harm. 

“I’m here to talk to (L/n) Daichi. The name’s-” She was about to utter her own last name, when she remembered that she was there to renounce that last name. So, she went with the next best thing: her future last name, “Rengoku (Y/n).”

The new name left a pleasant tingle on her lips, one which almost made her smile— had it not been for the fact that the tip of a knife was pressed against her back.

“Walk,” The man behind her instructed, and she followed suit— walking towards the main house that she knew like the back of her hand.

The lights were still on, which meant that everyone was still wide awake. It came as a surprise to the (h/c) haired woman, as she used to have a strict lights-out policy enforced upon her when she lived there. 

“Seiji-dono,” The stranger called out towards the closed front door. And not even a minute later, the exact male copy of (Y/n) came bounding out of the house in a yukata. It seemed that he was about to turn in for the night, as his hair was already in a top knot— which (Y/n) had taught him all those years ago. “Kneel, woman.” 

(Y/n) scoffed at that, before answering, “Why would I kneel to my own brother?” 

With that, she quickly whirled around and knocked the knife out of the man’s hands, as it had been getting annoying with the constant poking against her back.

“(Y/n)!?” Immediately, the aforementioned woman was tackled into a tight hug from the side. Seiji tried to gather her closer to him, as if to make up for all the lost years, but she merely smiled and patted his back softly.

She would never tell him, but she had missed him. “You’ve gotten taller, Seiji. How have you been?” 

“You’re asking me? I should be asking you that! I haven’t seen you in years!” At that point, tears were streaming down her twin’s cheeks, and it was made more evident by the thickness in his voice. “You just disappeared! You didn’t even say goodbye.”

“Well, I’m here to say goodbye. For good, this time.” The wistfulness in (Y/n)’s tone wasn’t lost on Seiji, who pulled away from her to look into her face. When he saw nothing but seriousness in those features that were identical to his, his expression fell as more tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Why?”

Slowly, a sad smile tugged at the corners of (Y/n)’s lips. She then moved to cup her brother’s face in her hands, and proceeded to wipe his tears away. “You’re still a crybaby, I see.”

“Why are you leaving again?” 

“Because I want to marry Kyōjurō. And I can’t do that if tou-san doesn’t give us his approval.”

“(Y/n)…” Seiji’s eyes widened, and his expression fell even more as he stared at his sister. He didn’t want to have been the one to break it to her, but it was necessary at that moment. “Otou-san passed away a year ago.”

Wide-eyed, (Y/n)’s hold on her brother fell until her arms were pressed awkwardly between their bodies. “W-what?” 

In response, the younger of the siblings relinquished his hold on his sister, before taking her suddenly-clammy hands in his own. Her hands were even chillier than the snow around them, yet he still pushed himself to tell her what she needed to know. “He suddenly got sick, and he tried to get you so that he could say goodbye, but you always seemed to elude whomever he sent to get you. 

“So he gave up on that idea,” Seiji continued, “But he did leave something for you.”

“What about okaa-san?” The words left the woman’s lips in a hushed whisper; as if she was afraid that voicing them out would ultimately give her the answer that she dreaded to hear. “She’s already asleep.” Seiji rubbed her hands to warm them up, before pulling her along with him. “Come in, it’s chilly out here. I’ll prepare some tea for you.”

(Y/n) was stuck in a numb state; she could do nothing but stare blankly down at the cup of tea in her hands, as her brother told her about all that had transpired while she was gone. 

Apparently, he had taken over their father’s job as a kannushi, and he and their younger siblings still tended to the place. A handful of aspiring kannushi were employed at the temple as well, and a few of them served as guards at night— especially since the demon attacks started.

And when he had slid over the pristine white envelope bearing their family’s crest, the tears that (Y/n) had felt bubbling up inside her started to prick the backs of her eyes. 

With unsteady hands, she picked up the weighty letter and opened it.

Once she unraveled the folded sheets of paper inside, the first page made the tears in her eyes slide down her cheeks.

Because that first sheet was an unfinished marriage registration form for her and Kyōjurō, which bore his seal of approval.

 ***

 The trip back to her home was slow, because she felt her guilt weighing her down— even though her father specifically told her in his letter to not feel guilty for the things she had done. 

She had read through the letter so much that she had already memorized it word for word: 

 My Dearest (Y/n),  

I hope this letter finds you well.

Seiji must have already told you what happened to me. You can call it anything you want, but I would like to consider it as karma.

I wasn’t the best father to all of you, and I deserve what I have been dealt. And you have every right to be wary of the men I send to take you back.  

But (Y/n), I merely wanted you back so I could apologize for all the wrong things I’ve done. You and your siblings are all special to me, but I never realized it up until it was too late. I was a horrible father, and I will own up to that fault eternally.  

Enclosed in this letter is a marriage registration form with my seal on it. That boy, with the flame-hued hair, came by three years ago to ask for your hand in marriage. Of course, being the close-minded man that I was, turned him away and told him never to return.

But he was back the next day, and the day after that.  

He was nothing more than a mere low-ranking Demon Slayer, so I thought he would not be able to protect you. But he proved me wrong by coming back as a Hashira. Yet I still said no. 

It wasn’t until a month later that I came to realize that he had finally proven himself worthy of you. And this is my way of admitting that I was wrong.

You are not to blame for any of this happening. I hope you will never regret the choices you have made up to this point. Some may say that you have sinned, but to do things that would make you happy, while not hurting anyone, is not a sin.  

I’m sorry, my darling daughter, for not being the father you deserved.  

With all my love,

(L/n) Daichi

  Her father’s words kept running through her mind, which pulled her even deeper into its tight clutches. Her feelings were so suffocating that they were physically weighing her down; making her movements reluctant and sluggish.

She almost wanted to sit by the side of the road to try to compose herself; but the thought of seeing Kyōjurō again and being in his arms motivated her to keep walking.

And when she did manage to arrive at her home, she almost cried at the sight of her lover standing by her front door, with that ever-present smile on his face.

Only, when Rengoku saw the state she was in, his smile immediately dropped, as he hurriedly gathered her in his arms. “What’s wrong, (Y/n)? Are you hurt?” 

It wasn’t like (Y/n) to lose her tight leash on her emotions but, at that moment, she couldn’t care less as she let that tight control slip. She wrapped her arms tightly around her lover’s torso, before burying her face in his chest. 

Kyōjurō didn’t know what to do. It was the first time that his lover had ever reacted that way, and he was at wit’s end trying to find out what was wrong with her. Instead of pressing her though, he wrapped his arms tighter around her shoulders, then nuzzled his cheek affectionately against the top of her head. 

Her tears and quiet sniffles were practically wrenching his heart open, but he knew that he had to let her cry everything out first; before he tried to understand what had her so sad. 

His usual enthusiasm and boisterous words of encouragement would have worked on any other person, but not with (Y/n). Despite her tough exterior, the Hashira understood just how delicate the love of his life really was. She didn’t require jovial reassurances, but a gentler approach. 

She required his silence and empathy, and he was more than happy to give it to her.

 ***

 “How are you feeling, my Sweet Flame?” Rengoku asked softly, as he set a cup of tea in (Y/n)’s hands. He leaned down to get a better look at her face, and frowned when he saw her puffy eyes, and red-tinged cheeks.

He wanted to make something heartier for her— like nabe— but he didn’t want to risk burning down her kitchen. The full extent of his cooking knowledge ended at tea; and that was only when he was lucky enough to not scorch the tea leaves.

(Y/n) eyed the tea in her hands, before taking a dainty sip and snapping her gaze up to her lover. Softly, in a raspy voice, she commented with the beginnings of a sad smile on her face, “This is horrible, Kyōjurō.”

The Hashira chuckled in turn, then moved to get more comfortable from his seat beside her. “I’m sorry, (Y/n). I’ll try to be better next time, okay?”

Gone was the loud, boisterous tone that Rengoku usually held. And in its place was an equally jovial, but quieter tone, that served to make (Y/n)’s heart race. It was a tone that was reserved only for her, which was pretty damn special in her book. 

“What had you so sad earlier?”

(Y/n) hesitated, before setting her tea cup down on the tatami mat and fishing out the folded letter from her right pocket. “It’s from my father.” 

Rengoku’s eyes widened at the letter she held out to him but, nonetheless, he accepted the wrinkled envelope and leafed through its contents. His heart raced inside his chest, yet his face was a mask of impassiveness as (L/n) Daichi’s words sank in. 

He remembered the strict man perfectly. Only an idiot would forget what such an imposing man looked like. He looked nothing like his daughter, except for those sharp eyes.

A chill ran down his spine at the memory of him practically begging for (Y/n)’s hand in marriage. The (L/n) patriarch had immediately shot his question down, and asked him the very words that urged him to become a Hashira sooner.

‘How would a low-ranking slayer like you be able to protect my daughter? Simply having a blade is not enough; you need the skill to prove it. Come back when you’re actually worthy of her.’  

He wasn’t a bad man for wanting to marry his daughter off to someone who was more capable of taking care of her; he was just a father who wanted the best for his daughter.

Rengoku understood that now; and it seemed that (Y/n) did as well.

With a simultaneously heavier and lighter heart, the Hashira folded the letter and stowed it back into its envelope. When he looked up at his lover, it was to see that she had more tears in the corners of her eyes.

And when one of them escaped and rolled down her left cheek, he reached out and wiped it away with his thumb. “Don’t worry, (Y/n). I’ll take care of you.”

“You’ve been doing that for years.”

Rengoku chuckled. “I’ll take better care of you, then.”

At that, a small smile tugged up at the corners of (Y/n)’s lips, which made the Flame Hashira’s heart practically blaze with fire. Even with her tears, she was still the most beautiful person in his world. “I’ll be in your care… goshujin-sama.”

“G-goshujin-sama?” Kyōjurō’s tone rose up in incredulity, which (Y/n) couldn’t help but grin at. “You’ll marry me!?”

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

[layce2015]

John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum (John Wick x Reader)

Chapter 5: The Elder

Chapter 1 / Chapter 4

Sofia drives you guys all through the night and a good chunk of the early morning out into the desert. After stopping at one point, the three of you get out of the car and Sofia goes to the back and opens the back up to let her dogs out.

She gets a bowl then sets it on the sand and pours water in it while you lean against the car and watch this and John looks out at the desert. "Here you go." Sofia said to her dogs and they gather around the bowl and started lapping up the water.

"You're gonna die, John. Whether out here on this desert. Or somewhere else down the road. But you are gonna die. And so is your wife." Sofia said when John comes back around and pulls out the marker from his pocket. He opens it, pricks his finger on the needle at the top and places his bloody thumbprint inside of the market next to the one Sofia made.

"Consequences." John said as he hands the marker to her. "Consequences." She said as she takes it and she holds out a bottle with a very small amount of water inside of it. John goes to grab it but she pulls it away from him and starts to drink the water. Then she swishes it around her mouth then spits it back in the bottle before handing it back to John. "Better get going." She sneered and you rolled your eyes as you move away from the car and John takes the water.

"Sofia." John mutters, in a manner of saying goodbye, and you nod at her and the two of you began to walk out into the desert while she and her dogs load back up in the car and drive off.

Hours and hours go by as you and John continued to walk through the day and night and into the next day. But you couldn't take it anymore and you started to stumble along, your feet were hurting and couldn't hold your weight anymore.

You let out one breath of air before you collapsed and fell into unconsciousness. John tried to catch you but he was feeling tired and weak too and ended up falling into the sand with you, both of you out cold.

Minutes later, a couple of men with some camel come across your bodies. They pick both of you up and placed you on one camel and John on the other before they take you two away.

Your eyes started to flutter open as you started to come back to conciousness. You groaned and started to move your head then you look up to see you were laying next to John, who also started to wake up. Then you noticed you wete in some kind've tent. "Drink." A voice said and you gasped as you turn your head to the right and see a man sitting a few feet in front of you and John. You and John started to reach in your jackets to make sure your weapons were still there.

"Don't worry, your weapons are still there. Please drink." The man, which you figured had to be the Elder, said and both of you sit up and see a couple of cups. "My son, how have you come to be so lost?" The Elder asked John as you two take the cups and you began to drink. "I'm not lost. Looking for you." John replied then he takes a drink. "You think I speak of your location? Never seen a man fight so hard to end up back where he started." The Elder said and he stands up then walks over to you two then kneels down to John to look at him.

"So tell me, Jonathan. Why do you wish to live?" He asked John. John turns to you and takes your hand in his and looks into your eyes. "My wife, (y/n). I've hurt her so much these past few weeks. I've lied to her and I've put her through hell...and yet she still stands by me. I want to live to make it up to her, to prove my love for her, to earn it, and to live a peaceful life with her." He said and you smile, fondly, at this. You almost wanted to cry and kiss him right then and there but you didn't think it would be appropriate in front of the Elder, so you just squeezed his hand and he smiles at you.

"I can give you one last chance to earn a life. However, it might not be the life that you wish. Complete a task for us, and your excommunicado will be reversed. The open contract closed. You will be permitted to continue to live. However, you won't be completely freed from under the Table; but bound to it doing what you do best for the rest of your days." The Elder said and you slightly frowned at this. 

Good that John would get to live but now he'd have to work for the High Table the rest of his life. You're not sure if it's a good idea but what choice do you guys have?

"The choice is yours. Die here and now, or continue to live and remember through death." The Elder said. John looks over at you for a moment before he gets up to his feet. "What must be done?" He asked the Elder. "The cost of your life will be the death of others. The first of which will be the man they call Winston." The Elder said and your jaw dropped as John looks at him, confused.

"What?" John said, shocked and confused. "He has forgotten his fealty. Neither the open contract nor the excommunicado will be lifted until you complete your task. So, if you wish to live, and if you wish to remember, this is the choice you must make." The Elder said then John stands there and thinks. Then he gets back on his knees and bows his head.

"I will serve. I will be of service." John said and The Elder nods at him. "Very well, my son." The Elder said as a couple of men come inside, carrying a table. They set the table in front of you two where there was a place mat and a chisel and hammer. "Reaffirm your fealty to the Table." The Elder said to John, who looks at the tools then places his hand on the mat. 

"Not you, Jonathan." The Elder said and John looks up at him, confused. Then the Elder looks over at you and points at you. "Her." He said and your jaw dropped a bit as John looks over at you in shock then towards the Elder on anger. "No, I'm not doing that. Not to her." John said as he shakes his head. "We all must make small sacrifices." The Elder said and you look down ar your hands and twiddle your thumbs as you think this over.

"You're doing all of this for her, I want to see if she's willing to go just as far, or even farther, for you." The Elder said to John. "I've already hurt her so much, I don't want her harmed any further." John said as you sighed and made your decision.

"John..." you said but he doesn't hear you as he continues to argue.

"I'd rather be the one that got harmed..." 

"John..."

"There's got to be another..."

"Jonathan..."

"You can do anything to me, but not to her..."

"Jardani!" You shouted and John turns his head to you, quickly. He was shocked that you said his real name and that's what you wanted. You wanted to catch him off guard to at least shut him up.

You let out a heavy sigh and give him a determined look. "Just...just do it." You said and John stares into your eyes and shake his head, his tears were starting to form in his eyes. "(Y/n), no..." he whispers but you continue to hold his gaze. "John, if doing this let's you live, then I don't mind. I would do anything to make sure you were alive, just like you would do the same for me." You said and you place your shaky right hand on the table. You spread your fingers out and John looks at you in despair.

"Fascinating. Looks like she's made her choice, my son." The Elder said and you take a deep breath. "Now, Jonathan, you must be the one to do it." The Elder said and John looks at the chisel then, reluctantly, grabs it.

Both of you share a look and you give him a look that says It's okay. He takes a deep breath then looks down at the chisel and then your hand. "Mr. John Wick." The Elder said and John looks up at him. "I want to see. Show me." He said and John looks back over to you.

He raises the chisel up but then looks over at you, a tear running down your face. "I love you." He said to you, his own tears running down his face. "I love you too." You said then, after letting out a yell of anger and frustration, John brings the chisel down onto your right hand ring finger, chopping it off. You screamed out in pain then clenched your teeth to hold back any more cries you were about to let out, the tears rolling down your cheeks.

You let out some deep shaky breaths as John goes to hug you and hold you close to his chest. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He whispers to you as The Elder watches. "Good. I accept this offering and your fealty." The Elder said and John looks over at him just as a man picks up an Iron poker and warms the tip over a fire.

"I wish you good luck on your path." The Elder said as the guy comes over to you and stamps the poker on your newly chopped off finger, to stop the bleeding. You whinced in pain then looked at your hand and John looks at it as well, his heart was shattered as he sees this. 

"Zair will help you and your wife prepare for your departure." The Elder said and John stands up then helps you up to your feet and the two of you began to walk away. "And Mr. Wick... Welcome back." The Elder said as John stops then turns to him, glares at him, then leads you out of the tent as you hold your hand up to your chest.

As you two were escorted back, you winced in pain as you looked at your hand and John stares at it as well; anger, frustration and hurt were all swirling in his heart.

He goes to hold you against his chest and ran his hand up and down your back, trying to help sooth the pain he had inflicted on you. He couldn't believe he'd brought harm to you. Again. It was like you were being punished for being with him.

"I'm okay, John. I'm okay..." you whispered.

John wanted to believe you. He really did, despite the pain tou were in, but he couldn't. He had chopped off his wife's finger, he wished it was him who had his finger chopped clean off instead of her. John hated it, he hated bringing pain to you, it was like a never ending cycle and he hated it with all of his being.

This wasn't supposed to happen, but it did. Both of you knew you had no other choice, because there was no other way.

[rdesai19]

How I got my first job

It was 2 months into the summer of ‘88. I had still not found a permanent job. Here I was, squeezing time from my summer teaching job at the college for a 3-day trip to St Louis for a couple of interviews. I will do a car trip in the Midwest. It will be a bit hectic since I have to be in three cities hundreds of miles apart in three days. 

The first evening, I went from Sr Louis to St Joseph. I remember a beautiful moment of Americana -  I am driving West, into my future, the sun is low in the large blue sky and the prairie is swaying all around me. I promised myself that I will take my time the next time.

I checked into a motel at St. Joseph, late at night. Next morning, I do the whole day interview for adjunct CS professor. I got to see the town on my way in, during lunch and on my way out. The town must have been quite a celebrity in its time - it is where the pony train started. To my untrained eye, It looked like the kind of place where one lived in America, Cute, pretty, prosperous, open, happy. And, to put the cherry on the cake, I would be close to my closest cousins. The winters would suck, the pay would be lower than I expected. But, at least - I won’t be forced into the minimum wage that was PhD.

The interviews went well. I liked the people. They seemed to like me. I could see myself in the role. I could be good. Teach fundamentals to fresh minds. Maybe being an adjunct will inspire me to stay in academia and apply for a PhD, like Vic. Not sure if I can invent something new, But, it would be fun if I really did.

I had not done well in the hiring season. I had been rejected a few times already. A friend had got an awesome package from DEC - one of the best computer companies in the world. Me, I did not even get an interview call from DEC.This interview, even if it was for much less money - was a welcome chance to hope in my luck. Of course, this hope could also turn out to be a mirage.

After the interview, I got on the  road again. I had a long haul - it will be well past 1, by the time I get into chicago, for the interview next morning. But, like many well laid out plans, this plan unraveled. Dilipbhai and bhabhi were supposed to let me in. But, they were so exhausted with new baby - they slept right through the phone and the bell. I spent the night in the car - cold and hungry. Chicago nights get very cold, even in the middle of the night. I tossed and turned. Finally, bhabhi came and poked curiously at the car in the driveway. 

I took a short nap since the interview place was nearby. But soon, I had to get ready and leave.  The interview was a disaster. I was not well versed enough in hardware for their company. And, the lack of sleep did not help either, I am sure.

After the interview - I head to St. Louis. But, being so young and brash, I decide to take a detour to drop by on a girl who went to school at Notre Dame - a 4 hour detour. By the time I hit the road to St. Louis - it is late at night and I have to do an all night drive. I cant even stay over since Tushar needs his car the next morning.

I am so sleepy. I doze in the car. I pull off at a truck stop and slept for a few hours. I remember driving into St. Louis during morning commute. I could barely keep myself awake and drove really poorly. Totally like a DUI. Cars swerved around me. Horns honked around me. But somehow, I managed to avoid an accident and I reached home safe and sound. Tushar rushed off to work, I crashed out.

I had lunch with the kids. Parents were in India or somewhere else. Looking back on it - that was pretty rash behavior. I could have damaged their car, created huge liability, may have even killed someone or injured myself. But, even they did not dwell on these finer details. We had a good lunch and then they dropped me off to the airport.

While waiting at the airport, I get a phone call from St. Joseph’s - offering me $24,000 for a 9-month position. My first job offer. I was thrilled, even though I knew this was much less than what my buddies were getting in industry. I had not done as well as expected. But, hey, it was a job offer :-) Finally after 4 rejects.

I called my parents from the airport, early morning in India. My family was jubilant. Thankfully, they kept the disappointment unspoken. We all hoped something better shows up but no one wanted to say it - at least that’s what I felt. But, it was 5 times more money than graduate school. And I could keep looking for a job. At least, this is not a reject.

Thar summer, I sent my resume to hundreds of positions I found in the classifieds. I managed to get called for 5 job interviews. First one was in Ithaca. A research place. Very academic. Quite prestigious and well-paid. I had technical interviews and gave a well attended talk. I was feeling confident. Over lunch, we talked about our technical passions and I, feeling a bit too much camradarie - went a bit over-board with the truth about my attitude towards programming. They cited that as a reason why I was not a match for their company. I felt quite sheepish.

The second interview was at a real-estate software startup in some small town on the outskirts of Boston. They were two young men looking for a computer guy to build the PC package for them. They knew just enough CS to ask me what a pointer was. But, they could see that I was not going to cut it. 

St Joseph’s was my 3rd interview and it had yielded my one and only job offer so far. The job at St Joseph started in 2 weeks. So, it looked like - those were my two options - St. Joseph or grad school at RI. And then, out of nowhere, I got a call from one of my IIT CS class mates, who was working at HP in California . We talked, he passed my resume and had a word with the hiring manager - Beth about my time constraints.

I got a a phone screen the very next day.I passed and they wanted an on-site interview next week. I said - can we do it this week instead? I will buy the tickets and take care of my hotel. They can reimburse later, if they hire me. They were gracious enough to accommodate my unorthodox request. I had my interview scheduled for that Friday. 

The interviews at HP were the best technical interviews of my life. I remember a long design conversation about showing large outputs with Jeff Vance. Chris Mayo also interviewed me. He was just like the old men in Woonsocket, but younger. He seemed so happy and deeply technical.The hiring manager took me out for dinner after the interviews. Anil had got the offer during dinner. I was hoping for the same. Halfway through the dinner - Beth set my expectations straight. HP would get back to me soon. No offer tonight.

That night, I was dejected. My string of rejects continues, I thought. But, we decided to put it away and make a night of it anyway in Santa Clara downtown. The next day we went to the city. Anil and Narinder gave me the tour of SF. Golden Gate bridge had a special connection for me because of my brother’s pictures from when he lived in SF in 1970. Next day, I flew back to RI.

Over the next few days, I lined up a car and the auto loan. All the paperwork was ready. The plan was ready to be set into motion at the last possible moment. I had till Wed. morning. If I do not hear from HP by then - I have to start spending money. I had the details worked out - sign the papers at the bank, drive to the dealer with Deepak, pick up the car, come back home - pack up the car and start driving West. I would reach St. Joseph by Friday - and start my job on Monday.

I had not heard from HP till Tue afternoon. Only 18 hours left. And, then Beth calls. She congratulates me and makes me an offer. I remember considering negotiating the pay, before realizing my straits and blurting my acceptance.

The long ordeal of job hunting had come to a happy ending. I had met the expectations..I had landed the job I “deserved”. I was on the road to Green Card. I will not have to be a poor graduate student for another year. Now, I can cancel my plans for being on the road. Instead, I can plan a vacation. Oh, happy times.

My starting date was a month away - two weeks after the start of school. I had a bunch of money saved up for the move. Money I did not need now, since HP will move me and put me up. I decided against going to India and instead stayed at home. Ganesh and Ramesh were around and soon enough the new year will start and everyone will be around. There are too many anecdotes about that month. There was a reunion with my high school friends. There were all night teen-patti nights. Ganesh and I got thrown out of a bar. I will write another story around that. 

The good times were here finally All that studying and watching planes fly and dreaming had completed. The final chapter of the dream had become real. I had everything I had been planning all my life for. 

I was lucky to have these connections. People who made if affordable to go job hunting. People who lent me their car; people who put me up at their homes; People who put me in touch with other people; people who intervened on my behalf. It took a village. And, of course - the Asian Immigration Act.and the civil rights movement. 

[mindofhills]

Night In the Woods // Isaac Lahey Imagine

Pairing: Isaac Lahey x reader

More characters: Scott McCall

Plot: Isaac is the bad boy next door. One night he jumps to your roof and you have an amazing night.

Word count: SORRY THAT IT’S SO SHORT

Warning!: basically none..

Age (recommended): 13+

A/N: This is new to me so bare with me pleade. Also I didn’t read it over or anything so there might be some spelling or grammar mistakes, but it shouldn’t bother you. I hope you like it and tell me if tou want a part 2, I would love to write it for you guys to read. Enjoy x

***

I’ve lived here in Beacon Hills for as long as I can remember, because I was born here. My neighbour, his name is Isaac, is hot as hell. He moved here a few years ago and since then he has been nothing, but trouble and that sounds good to me.

I’ve never actually talked to him. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even know my name or the fact that I even exist. We go to the same school. Beacon Hills High School. I’m not very social, as the matter of a fact I do not have any friends.

My mom is dating the Sheriff here so his son basically lives with us, but I’ve always been abel to avoid him. i’m good at avoiding people, the last time I saw Stiles was 3 months ago. Never have I ever said a word to him.

*** I got up my bed, put on my clothes, brushed my teeth and crabbed my bag. I looked myself from the bathroom mirror and said: “Another day being invisible.” I live in a house with my mom and the Sheriff and his son. Our house is huge, it has 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 floors. My room is on the last floor and I own it. No one else lives there or even goes there. I’m alone.

I crabbed my phone and put it to my backpack. I opened the window and jumped to the roof. To avoid being social I don’t use any doors. My classes start at 8AM and it’s 2AM right now. I don’t sleep at night. I just sat there and watched the sky, it was clear and I saw all the stars. It was beautiful.

Maybe it would be good to have some friends, but I don’t like people in the way normal people do. You see, I’m a vampire. I like peoples blood, but I don’t want to be around them. I don’t drink human blood, it’s gross. I like deer, it’s sweet and tasty.

As I’m looking to the sky I hear a window open and I know it’s not mine. “Hey, Lola.” I turn my head around and there he is. Isaac Lahey. HE KNOWS MY NAME!?!? Am I dreaming? “Hey.” I respond, trying not to be creepy. I know that Isaac is a werewolf. I know it, because he smelld differently. “What are you doing?” asks me and jumpes to his roof. “Looking at the sky. Why aren’t you sleeping?” I asked him and looked at the sky again. I was hungry and I needed to hunt. “I could ask you the same thing.” he said smiling. “Well you didn’t.” I respond and smile back at him. “Can I join you?” he asks. I nod “Don’t kill yourself, when you jump.” I say, he laughs and jumps to my roof. “I practice a lot.” he says, trying to explane, why he just jumped like 2 feet without any struggle. I look at him and laugh. “What?” he asks. “Nothing.” I respond and look at the time. “Okay, well I should get going. It was nice talking to you, but I gotta run.” I say and slowly start packing my things. “Where are you going? It’s 2 AM. And why do you have your backpack with you?” “You ask too much questions, Lahey.” I say and I take my knife from inside. “Can I ask you something?” he asks me and I look at him. God he is hot. I smile and sit beside him. “Go ahead.”

“Why do you avoid people?” “The same reason, why have to keep your heartbeat low.”

He looks very suprised and tries to come up with something, but he’s lost for words. “I know, Isaac. Don’t worry about it.” I say to him, pat his shoulder and jump over to the lower roof. “That’s way too high, you’re fonna break your leg!” he shouts at me. I laugh and jump beside him. He looks scared. “I trust you. Come with me.” I say and jump directly down to the grass. I look back at him and start walking.

Next thing I know he’s right next to me. “What are you, Lola? I’ve always known you’re different, but this is oddly strange.” I smile. Maybe this was a mistake, playing with him. When I’m hungry I often do things I’m not proud of. This could possibly be one of them. “Show me your eyes.” I say and he shows them to me, but not his werewolf eyes. “We’ve been through this beeta. Don’t be afraid.” and then he shows me his yellow eyes. They shine so bright. “How the hell do you know? Do you spy on me?” he asks me being kinda annoyed.

“I can smell you, wolfie, from a mile away.” I say and turn my head. “Are you supernatural?” he asks me and I start laughing. “I’m a vampire.” I say and he laughs. “Yeah right and I’m Edward Cul-” I cut him off by showing him my black black eyes. “Don’t play me buddy, I’m hungry.” I say and he steps back. I laugh again. “Don’t worry. You need to relax. I’m not gonna hurt you. I just need to hunt and I could use some company. I don’t know why, but you don’t make me that kind of nervous.” He looks at me with a spark in his eyes. “So. You ready to run, wolfie?” I ask him and he turns around full-on werewolf mode. I smile and start running. He comes right behind me.

I jump up to the trees and stop to look around. “You need to slow down, Lol. I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but I’m not as fast as you are.” I giggle and jump down facing him. “Slow down even more? Okay then, but wait here. I’ll go and catch a deer.” I say. “I want to see you do that.” he says, I smile. “Okay, but keep up. We’re not going to catch anything if we jog like this.” I say and he looks kinda dissappointed. I place a soft kiss on his cheek. “Don’t you worry, beeta. I’ll be as slo-” his lips cut me off.

Isaac Lahey kissed me, I pull off. He looks suprised. “Sorry, I didn’t mean-” “Relax, babe. I need to hunt.” I say and run off, but slow so he could catch me. I look at him, wink and then add more speed. He stays a bit behind, but keeps up with me. I jump up to the trees and see a deer 6 feet away from me, I whisper. “Stay here and be quiet. I promise you can see.” He hears it and stops. I keep running and climbing on trees then I jump off my fangs are out and I bite into deers neck and drink. I see Isaac looking at me.

You can say I’m a softy. I drink only that much so I don’t kill the animal. I drink so that it’s good for him and me. I stop and the deep runs off. “You don’t kill them?” He asks me and I shake my head. “No, I don’t want to hurt anybody. I drink only that much so it cleans their blood in an healthy way and don’t kill them. I bite so the woond won’t be huge and it’ll heel quickly.” I say and wipe my mouth. He smiles. “You suit perfectly into Scott’s pack.” He says and I shake my head again. “No. I want to be alone. If you guys ever need help, I’m here for you, but I don’t want to join. Yet.” I say and then jump to a tree.

“You coming?” I ask. As soon as I see his smirk, I jump off the tree and start running again. “I’ll speed up. You stay here, baby.” I hear him stop and I sneek low. I see a wolf, but it looks weird. I smell it. It smells like Isaac. I jump to it and I hear a small growl. I jump back and help him up.

“Sorry! I thought that you were a wolf. Not werewolf a real wolf.” Isaac comes up to me. “Hey, Scott!” he says , but Scott looks angry. “Who the fuck are yo” he asks me. “Do you ask my name or do you ask who am I?” I hear Scott giggle. “Both.” Scott answers a softer look in his face and in his voice. “I’m Lola. I’m a vampire.” I say and Isaac puts his arm around me.

“The Lola?” Scott asks Isaac and he nodds his head. A huge smile appears on Scott’s face. I raise my eyebrow. “Well it was nice meeting you, but I’m hungry so. I gotta bounce.” I say and run off. What did he mean my ‘The Lola? Is something going on that I did not know about. I hear them running behing me.

I jump up to a tree and then see an actual wolf. I jump and bite into it’s neck. As I’m drinking I see Scott from the corner of me eye. “Don’t worry. She doesn’t kill them.” Isaac says to him. I stop drinking. Wolf looks scared. I scratch him a little to relax him. “Thank you, litlle guy! Go on now, go!” I say and the wolf runs off.

“That was very sweet of you.” Scott says and I smile. Isaac hands me a towel and I wipe my mouth with it. “The Lola?” I ask them and they look at each other. “So…um…Amy. Yes, we… I..I mean I. You-” Isaac tries something and I just laugh. “Fuck it. If you one day come up with something then tell me.” He smiles.

***

We run up to my house. We say our goodbyes and I jump up to my window. I put mu backpack away. “This didn’t go as planned so I guess I ’ll just go to sleep.” I speak to myself. “You talk to yourself?” Isaac says sitting on my table. “No. I heard you coming in here. Why are you here?” I ask him turning around.

He has this huge amile on his face, when he looks at me. “I figured it out.” he says. I smile. “Shoot.” I say and sit on my bed. “Lola. I like you. Actually I’ve been crushing you since I moved here, but I never had the nerve to talk to you, but tonight, when I saw you sitting there again I thought fuck it I’ll give it a try and when Scott said ‘The Lola' he indeed ment you, because I’ve been talking about you non-stop.” when he said his last words he was standing right in front of me.

“That’s cute.” I say standing up. I crash my lips onto to his. This is our first kiss.

[busybeinglg]

10 Questions People Ask After Semester Abroad

1. OMG SO HOW WAS IT?

- The number one question. OMG HOW WAS IT. The answer in most cases is “it was unreal”, “it was amazing.” Because it absolutely was. I was in Tel Aviv, Israel for five months. Being abroad in a place I had already been gave me a slight advantage because my family lives there and I had already been about 12 times so I knew my way around a lot of the time. But being in Tel Aviv is so different than being with family. You can explore on your own, you can grow, learn and mature and flourish in being independent. I was able to meet so many people and go to so many new places that I didn't even know existed. The trip was unreal. Abroad was unreal.

2. Did you miss your friends?

- Obviously! This question is legit such a pet peeve. Ive been having a hard time with people asking me this since I've been home. Like of course I missed my friends. I plucked myself right out of my sorority, social circle, college life and placed myself in a new college environment with completely new people in a new atmosphere. The thing with abroad that most people don't realize is that its literally the biggest jew fest in the world. Its jewish geography. Its the one time in your life that you can go somewhere for college with all of your home high school friends and camp friends all at once if you choose to. everyone knows everyone so no matter what, there are always familiar faces. So with that in mind, I was comfortable and content with where I was but that doesn't mean that I didn't miss my friends at home. And if you're one of my best friends and you're reading this now and think just because I miss abroad, I didn't miss you, you guys are so wrong. Im so happy now. 

3. Did you go out every night? How many nights a week did you go out?

- LOL. I don't even know. I think so? Unless we had to be up early the next day or had to study, or even just wanted a chill night walking in TLV eating froyo or movie and popcorn night, we were legit out I think every night. There were clubs so close by to where we lived so it was impossible to not go out. The guys got a table almost every time we went out so you knew all of our program was going out. Thats one thing about abroad. You have to be prepared to go out non stop. It turns you into a temporary alcoholic and you learn how to control yourself through the nightly experiences. As the weather started to get much warmer, Shalvata and Litzman on the Port of Tel Aviv started to open and we were basically there every single night until we went home. Kulampo Mondays and Magical Wednesdays is what we lived for.  

4. What was your favorite place to visit?

- Mykonos, Greece hands down. Greece was literally life changing. We stayed at the Tropicana Hotel which was located right in the center of Mykonos. We picked that hotel on purpose because it was on the beach, close to so many places and restaurants, came with attractions, had a pool outside the back door, and had darties and clubs at the bottom of the hill. I don't think we knew what we were getting into with that but we were at that club for hours and hours. It would start at 4 and go to 12 and we did the best we could do to do all that there was to do, see all there was to see and then get drunk at the parties. We did ATV’s for the day and we explored all of Mykonos and even drove ourselves to an insane lunch on the water. We did a happy hour with a sick view and then did dinner on the beach. I had some of the best meals abroad from Greece. We met these two guys at brunch when we were eating at a restaurant in town. We ended up inviting them to our hotel room to pregame for the Party and then the next day they paid for all of us to go on the boat that sailed around the island for 6 hours. We got super drunk off of white wine on the boat and were having ourselves an absolute day before flying back to TLV. 

Some reccomentations if you are ever in Mykonos

- Sunset Bar for Happy Hour

-Avli Tou Thodori- Restaurant on the beach- Cake Donut balls for dessert

-Princess Hotel or Tropicana Hotel

-KiKis for Lunch- Get the fish and all the salads from inside

-ATV/BOAT

- Go into town and walk around for the day

5. Did you meet any guys?

- The answer is always yes. If its not the guys on our program who we know and have class with, its the smooth Israelis in the club. The first night we went out to a club called MAD, I was so sure that the guy that was eye balling me and I was eye balling back was Israeli and so as an American girl, if you kind of just wink over at an Israeli you have that shit in the bag. So I proceeded accordingly and he came over. I go “hey” and he said “hi” and grabbed me. We started dancing and in a perfect American accent he goes “Im Dex whats your name?” And thats when I died laughing. Of course my luck, the guy who I thought was israeli ended up being an American from Texas! HAHA. Jokes on me whatever. So we made out the entire night and everything was great. We met a bunch of his friends and started inviting them all to pregames etc. They were like our crew. Then as abroad progressed, we started to mingle and meet more guys. Between my group of friends and myself, we certainly got around making out with so many different people. I definitely don't regret any of the decisions I made. but yeah, if we met any guys, the answer is YES, we sure fucking did. 

6. Are you happy to be home?

-If were being honest here, not really. You take yourself out of reality and you place yourself in what seems like another reality yet its the biggest dream. Sometimes when you're sleeping, you have a really good dream and you don't want to wake up from it because you want it to finish. That was kind of like abroad for me. It was a bitch to wake up from. I am happy to be back to a routine and to be back in my car and to drive around to wherever I want and see my friends but overall no I am not happy to be home. I miss my family there, I miss my friends I made, I miss my roommates, the places we ate and went out. I just miss the life. Not that the life will ever be the same as it was abroad if I was to go back but its the concept. Its the place. I just don't enjoy being back home and I really get upset when people keep asking me that question because when I say no, they get offended. 

7. Did you even study?

- Yeah actually I did. I got all A’s and one B in my classes. I took 19 credits and had a month long class of Winter Ulpan continuing to learn Hebrew and I passed all my classes. All the people that say Did you “study” abroad? STFU. Yeah we did. We were drunk and we studied. We were on the beach and we studied. We were sitting in aroma and we studied so yeah we studied, bye. 

8. Why are you so miserable?

-Because I woke up from a dream I did not wish to wake up from. 

9. Do you miss your abroad friends?

-YES. Cant talk about it. I legit can't talk about it. 

10. Would you do it again if you could?

-100%

[drtanstravels]

When we lived in New York we made a lot of good friends, one of whom was Anna’s colleague, Jesse McCann. In fact, it was Jesse who first found me work as a writer by showing my blog to his sister, Maia, who then offered me a job at littlethings.com and was my editor while I was working there.

Fast-forward through the 12 months since we returned to Singapore and Jesse had decided to relocate to Tampa, Florida, but was doing a bit of traveling; first, he looked around Ukraine, spent some time with family in Italy and was also planning to see some friends in Australia so it just made sense that he stop over and see us in Singapore. It was his first time in Southeast Asia so he also wanted to check out other places in the area and neither Anna nor myself had ever been to Laos, so we made a plan — Jesse would have a layover for one day in Taipei, Taiwan and then would arrive here on the night of Thursday, August 3. There were no direct flights to Laos from Singapore so Friday evening we would take a short flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, stay there until Sunday afternoon and then fly out to Luang Prabang, Laos, from there and stay there until the following Thursday, August 10, and he would fly to Perth, Western Australia, from Singapore on Friday afternoon.

But we had something else on our plate on Tuesesday night; In July, Anna had been asked to film a segment for the TV health programme Body and Soul on channel 5 here in Singapore. Unfortunately, the only way I had of recording it was filming our television with my phone, but it still turned out alright. Anna said she was quite nervous during the taping, but I think she did a great job, she even had to do her own hair and make-up. Her segment was at the very end of the show, if you want to watch the whole episode you can do so here, otherwise this is what I recorded with my phone. It came out quite well, all things considered:

After it aired, Anna let out a great sigh of relief. Hopefully she gets to do a lot more TV work in the future. Anyway, on to the adventures.

Fake licences!

Thursday, August 3 Jesse arrived bearing gifts including a bunch of different cheeses from Italy and a fake Donald Trump Ukrainian driver’s licence that he bought off some guy in the street while he was there. He also tried to bring in Italian pickles, but they got confiscated by Taiwanese customs when he was in transit due to them containing liquid. Because he wouldn’t be spending much time in Singapore, we took Jesse to a Peranakan restaurant near our house so he could try some food that is pretty much impossible to have anywhere else in the world.

Friday, August 4 Jesse was a still battling jet-lag so we took it pretty easy. It was a slow workday for me, but Anna had to go in and operate so the two of us just took care of what needed to be done before we flew out that night. We walked Kermit down to the dog hotel, grabbed some noodles from Tiong Bahru Market, had a bit of a look around the neighbourhood and before long it was time to make our way to the airport. As per usual, getting through Changi Airport was smooth and completely hassle-free, but that is where the simplicity ended, as once we boarded the plane we knew we were in for an uncomfortable ride. Jesse is not much shorter than me and also has disproportionately long legs too, however, our seats were the very last row, which meant, not only could neither of us fit in the seats, they also didn’t recline. We would both be spending our albeit short flight sitting side-saddle and bolt-upright, a position that doesn’t make for a comfortable trip, but does lead to intense lower-back pain.

My view for the bulk of the flight

Anna took great pleasure in our discomfort

We just had to share the aisle

At least there was something worth reading on the flight…

Before long we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, walked several kilometres through the airport to go through immigration, jumped in a cab and made our way to the Wolo Hotel in Bukit Bintang, the same one we’ve stayed in the last few times we’ve been to Malaysia, including when I went over to hang out with my mate, Owen, at the beginning of the year. We checked in, then made our way down to Jalan Alor for dinner, which wasn’t too busy as it was already midnight, and then out for a couple of drinks and a shisha as we always do.

Saturday, August 5 Saturday was to be our only full day in KL so we wanted to do it properly, however, we had had a pretty late one the previous night and my back was killing me from the flight, a problem that is really starting to develop into a pattern. Still, complaining doesn’t make it any better so we hit the street.

First, we wanted to get coffee, however, the cafe downstairs in our building had closed down. I kind of felt responsible because last time I was there I found a dead snail in my salad and wrote about it here. I know nobody except for friends and family really reads this thing, but it is possible I may have contributed to the demise of Tous Les Jours. Then again, last time the service was shit, I received a deceased gastropod in my food and we really only wanted to go there this time out of sheer convenience. No great loss. Instead, we went to the huge hawker centre in the bottom of Lot 10 shopping mall and ordered a bunch of great local stuff for lunch, as well as coffee.

Once lunch was done we just walked around the area, looking at the shittier malls, cringing at some of the horrendous stuff for sale and laughing at the ‘Cheese Chicks,’ girls who were trying to look sexy while seductively trying to get people to buy cheese in the street. A few sights from the afternoon:

The entrance of the hawker centre

Anna tucking into lunch

Me battling with a chicken’s foot

and another

A small portion of the hawker centre

Who over the age of six would actually wear this?!?

Kuala Lumpur has been cleaned up a lot recently

“Do you come with the cheese?”

After wandering around the city we were starting to get a bit thirsty so Anna arranged for us to go to Sky Bar on the 33rd floor of the Traders Hotel. It was a nice place and had a great view of the Petronas Towers, but it is a little troubling when you are drinking and you need to navigate a very narrow walkway in order to get to your table and avoid falling in an indoor swimming pool. After the Sky Bar, we went back down to Jalan Alor and had dinner, this time when it was exceptionally busy so Jesse could see how it really is. After that it was back to the same bar as the previous night for drinks and a shisha again. It turned into an interesting night as what appeared to be a buck’s night showed up with a bunch of guys wearing dresses. One of them managed to get lucky and started making out with some girl while the live reggae band played so Jesse’s first full day drinking in a Muslim country concluded when a guy wearing a dress got it on with a girl in a bar while the band played song after song about weed in the background. Actually, the bands they had both nights were really good.

The view from the Sky Bar

Looking one way up the food street…

…and the other

Finishing dinner with a coconut each

Again, we couldn’t go too crazy, we had a flight at midday and we would need to give ourselves about an hour to get to the airport due to the unpredictable traffic in KL. Probably best to call it a night.

Sunday, August 6 We checked out of the Wolo, AKA. The Gothic Mariah Carey Insane Asylum, on time and called an Uber, but it kept changing direction on the map and the time until it would be arriving continued to increase, rather than become less because we realised some of the roads in the area were blocked off, but there was a taxi parked near where we were standing. Anna walked over and spoke to the driver, but we had a problem we hadn’t encountered in Kuala Lumpur in recent years — The driver flat out refused to use the metre. In the past, for some ridiculous reason taxi drivers in Malaysia wouldn’t use the metre, instead just naming an exorbitant price, especially when they saw a white passenger. They would rather just sit there and not make any money, all the while waiting to cash in on someone naively or desperately willing to give them more than they would normally make in one trip. It was so bad that I used to have to hide and let Anna do all the talking with the drivers, only to emerge once she had found one who was willing to do things the legal way, as opposed to just blatantly trying to rip us off. That all began to change when apps such as Uber and Grab came into play and the fare was pre-determined, because dodgy taxi drivers just simply didn’t get customers any more. This driver, however, assumed that we were desperate, as we were going to the airport and said he would only take us if the trip was a minimum of RM100 (approx US$23.00). Anna explained to the guy that we wouldn’t actually know that until we arrived and to stop being a dick and just use the metre unless, of course, he wants to just sit there, earning nothing whatsoever. He eventually relented and he was insane. This driver started bizarre conversations with me in the front seat about things he must’ve known I would have no idea about, such as random taxi driver dilemmas. His phone kept ringing with the most annoying ringtone, but at least he eventually pulled over to answer it. It was someone who wanted a ride in 10 minutes, but he was on his way to the airport and was absolutely flummoxed as to why the caller didn’t know that. I considered explaining that if he did indeed know what the driver was doing, he was either already in the cab or was able to telepathically communicate with him, thus ruling out the need to make a phone call, but I didn’t want to enter another conversation with this guy, I just wanted to get to the airport.

Looking at the Mekong as we approached the airport in Luang Prabang

We eventually arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport unscathed, checked in, ate, and boarded our flight, this time allocated seats we could actually fit in. The flight took about three hours, plus Luang Prabang was an hour behind Kuala Lumpur, so we would have plenty of time to check the place out once we were out of the airport. That was our next worry. We could apply for a Laotian visa in advance or get one on arrival and Jesse and myself opted for the latter option, Anna didn’t need one due to possessing an ASEAN passport. The process was a strange one, not so much for us, but for other people entering the country, costing US$30 for Australians and US$35 for United States citizens, all accompanied by a US$1 processing fee. I have no idea what Canada did to piss Laos off so much, but they had to pay US$42 for a visa, which was even more than Afghanistan! Another potential fee was if you didn’t have a passport-sized photo there was a fee of US$1 to copy the one out of your passport. We came prepared, but plenty didn’t, with the customer in front of me breaking a $20 note to pay this fee and receiving 19 $1 notes as change. Further problems arose for those that didn’t have any American dollars, as the airport didn’t accept the local currency, Laotian kip, or any form of electronic payment. The only ATM was located outside the airport, but fortunately the employees were quite trusting because they just let people walk right through immigration and customs, exit the airport, past the taxi stand and go to the ATM, only to re-enter the arrivals area and pay for their visas.

Getting our visa’s was relatively hassle-free and Anna had planned ahead and called for a driver to take us to where we would be spending the next few days, the My Dream Boutique Resort. When the van arrived the interior had that weird datedness that affects things made in the past that were intended to appear futuristic, which is always amusing. The ride from the airport to the resort was only about 10 minutes and when we arrived, My Dream Resort was better than we expected, located off the road and backing on to the Nam Khan river, away from the main town so it was nice and quiet. This should give you the general idea of our first impressions of Luang Prabang:

Luang Prabang International Airport

What we flew in on

A small portion of the ceiling of our weird van

Inside our room

The view from the balcony

We would end up walking across that bridge several times a day

People working near the river

Our view of Utopia Bar

We’ve traveled around the surrounding countries to a decent extent, but we didn’t really know a whole lot about Laos, but here is a little background information about Luang Prabang:

Louangphabang or Luang Prabang, literally meaning “Royal Buddha Image”, is a city in north central Laos, consisting of 58 adjacent villages, of which 33 comprise the UNESCO Town Of Luang Prabang World Heritage Site. It was listed in 1995 for unique and “remarkably” well preserved architectural, religious and cultural heritage, a blend of the rural and urban developments over several centuries, including the French colonial influences during the 19th and 20th centuries. The centre of the city consists of four main roads and is located on a peninsula at the confluence of the Nam Khan and Mekong River. Luang Prabang is well known for its numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries. Every morning, hundreds of monks from the various monasteries walk through the streets collecting alms. One of the city’s major landmarks is Mount Phou Si; a large steep hill which despite the constrained scale of the city, is 150 metres (490 ft) high; a steep staircase leads to Wat Chom Si shrine and an overlook of the city and the rivers. Currently, the population of the city as a whole is roughly 56,000 inhabitants with the UNESCO protected site being inhabited by around 24,000.

When I initially posted on Facebook that we were going to Laos, Tim Howard, a friend of mine who had lived in Laos for about a decade, told me to enjoy the good food and cheap beer so we decided that would be the first thing we would do. Directly across from the resort was a dingy old noodle store that was closed, but we knew we would be going there for breakfast on an almost daily basis. Instead we crossed the extremely rickety bridge on the way into town, of which we had to walk along the outside and would’ve been condemned in most counties. Jesse wasn’t used to this type of thing so he was a bit nervous crossing it, but you just need to tread carefully. We made it across safely and stopped off at a store along the way for roasted pig’s ear, roast duck and noodles. Pig’s ear is one of those things you shouldn’t knock until you try, I have eaten it a ton of times and love it, but this was one of the best ones I had ever had! After the ear we made our way into town and just wandered around, checking out the area, looking at the temples and just generally seeing the sights, including Mount Phou Si:

Mount Phou Si is a 100 m high hill in the centre of the old town of Luang Prabang in Laos. It lies in the heart of the old town peninsula and is bordered on one side by the Mekong River and on the other side by the Nam Khan River. The hill is a local religious site, and houses are several Buddhist shrines. Halfway up the hill, overlooking the Nam Khan is Wat Tham Phou Si, a Buddhist temple. At the summit of the hill, overlooking the town and surrounding countryside, is Wat Chom Si, which is also a Buddhist temple and is a tourist highlight of Luang Prabang.

A taste of what we encountered:

The scenery as we walked into town

Making Jesse spend more time than he wanted on the bridge

We had to walk down the side, I can see how some would be intimidated

Where we got the pig’s ear

delicious!

The gateway to a wat

One of many old temples

Not sure if falling or just not built straight

There are plenty of sculptures like this, too

In front of a wat with Anna

Giant gong

Monks just doing their thing

Anna on another bridge

Looking down from Mount Phou Si

After walking around and climbing hills for a couple of hours, we were a little parched so we pulled up a seat in a bar and just watched the world go by. We hadn’t been in Laos long, but there were already quite a few things that we found surprising. First of all was how clean the streets were, especially when compared to those in many cities in other Southeast Asian countries. Sure, there were some stray dogs walking around, but they weren’t going through garbage bags, mainly because there weren’t any, and they also seemed quite clean and well-fed, even the one with the exceptionally long nipples that swayed in the breeze. Another thing that struck us was how well many people here spoke English and, for some inexplicable reason, how many signs were translated into Korean.

We felt rejuvenated after a couple of beers so we decided to get moving again, this time to the Night Market. The night market is like most night markets, it opens every night and sells local clothes, souvenirs and has a massive food section. We looked around the never ending rows of cheap t-shirts, baggy pants with elephants on them, and ugly ornaments aimed at tourists to prove that they’ve been here so we decided to check out the food, even though we weren’t overly hungry after eating only a couple of hours earlier. Jesse had heard about Lao sausages, local sausages made from coarsely chopped fatty pork or buffalo and seasoned with lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, shallots, coriander, chillies, garlic, salt and fish sauce. We had intended to pick some of these up from the start, they weren’t difficult to come across and they were spectacular! We had one spicy pork and one buffalo, just wandering through past the food stalls as we ate slice of them. We would be back at the market to eat properly at some stage, that’s for sure. We decided to finish our night at Utopia Restaurant and Bar, the giant outdoor bar across the river from where we were staying. We walked through the endless laneways of backpacker dormitories and private residences to get to the open-air haven for hippies and the great unwashed, pulled up some seats at a table near a bunch of mats on a cane floor jutting over the hillside, with our view of the river unimpeded by any type of rail or barrier and kicked back with some drinks, Beerlao poured directly out of a cooler for me and cask-wine for Anna and Jesse. We came to learn over the course of our trip that a lot of wine in Luang Prabang comes from a cask and they have no qualms at all telling you that it is goon. I felt like a teenager again! A look back at dinner and drinks:

Our view from the bar

Okay, so Tits McGee here didn’t seem all that clean, but the other dogs did

Lao sausages…

…and the woman who made them

More food options

Might get these next time

Our view of the river from Utopia

Seems a little hippie-ish

What looks like a tiny Anna holding my arm in the back of the tuk-tuk on our way home

Another thing we came learn was that bars close at 11pm. A couple of young, drunk backpacker chicks threw their floor mats toward the river in protest at the curfew, but we were a little tired anyway so we happily walked back to the road, grabbed a tuk-tuk and made our way back to the resort.

Monday, August 7 Anna sometimes tends to have a tough time relaxing and Jesse was still a little jet-lagged so we decided to have an easy day on Monday. Jesse woke up early and went to gym in the town in the morning so Anna and myself grabbed a coffee each and just kicked back in the hotel bar. When Jesse returned we walked down to the noodle place across the road from where we were staying. We knew this place was going to be great for several reasons, the first being that it didn’t really have a sign or even a name, there were no menus, the local police eat there, and they only made one dish — Pork noodles. We certainly weren’t disappointed, however, there is no way to recommend the place to anyone that might be visiting Luang Prabang other than saying if you are staying in the main city, cross the small red bridge across the Nam Khan river, take the first street on the left and about 50 metres down the road it will be on the right.

We were now fuelled up and ready to go into town for a bit of a saunter around the place with no real itinerary or purpose. We checked out a few other temples, a cool local art gallery and then went to a fish spa. If you have ever been to a fish spa before, you will know it is one of the most ticklish experience you have ever had, but if not, this will give you an idea:

Garra rufa, also called doctor fish, is a small species of cyprinid fish that is native to rivers, streams, ponds and lakes in the Anatolia and Middle East. Since the early 21st century, Garra rufa have been integrated into a spa treatment where they feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis. While the doctor fish treatment has been found to alleviate the symptoms of psoriasis, the treatment is not curative, and no cure for psoriasis currently exists. The use of the fish as a spa treatment for the wider public is still widely debated on grounds of efficacy and validity. The practice is banned in several of the states in the United States and Canadian provinces as cosmetology regulators believe the practice is unsanitary, with the Wall Street Journal saying that “cosmetology regulations generally mandate that tools need to be discarded or sanitized after each use. But epidermis-eating fish are too expensive to throw away”.

Anna and myself had both had a fish spa before, although I had only had it done once before our wedding six years ago so I had completely forgotten how much it tickled. Maybe it was because I was closest to the sunlight, perhaps it was just because my feet were the most disgusting, but all of the fish flocked to my hooves, leaving me wriggling, squirming and giggling for a full 10 minutes until the procedure was finished. The only way I could minimise the feeling was to let my mind wander and think about things like why toothpaste isn’t called ‘teethpaste,’ but soon enough it was all over. I noticed afterward that my feet were a little too smooth, making every step I took look like the beginning of Tom Cruise’s shirt-and-socks dance scene in the film Risky Business. Anna and Jesse decided to get a foot massage after the fish spa so I just kicked back and relaxed, then we went and grabbed a coffee across the road at the 3 Nagas hotel.

Besides that, we really didn’t do a whole lot. Jesse was still suffering from jet-lag so he went back to the resort after dinner, but one of my drinking buddies in Singapore, Tom Cargill, recommended a place called Icon Klub, his favourite bar in town and one which just happened to be directly across the road from where we had been eating. Unfortunately, it was closed due to the owner dealing with a medical emergency, so Anna and I just went back to Tangor, a great bar to enjoy a few quiet ones.

Waiting for our noodles while the local police eat

Anna in the noodle store

How they arrive

How they look after I add chili and vegetables

Glad we just ordered bottled water

The store from the outside

Royal Palace Museum

A temple

One gold-plated wall inside the temple

The other gold-plated wall

A monk just doing his thing

This painting in the gallery looked brilliant up close

Fish love my feet

Outside 3 Nagas

The banner for where Tom told us to go

Anna’s choice of goon carafes

Mine and Anna’s view for the night

Yet again we were kind of thankful for the town’s 11pm curfew on this particular night because we couldn’t go crazy; we had a lot planned the following day and had to get up reasonably early if we wanted to fit it all in.

Tuesday, August 8 We had had our relaxing day yesterday, now we needed to have one of those days where Anna plans to cram as much as possible into one day. The first thing we were going to do was take a rather long boat ride down the Mekong to the Pak Ou caves so let’s check out Wikipedia once again for a little background information:

Near Pak Ou (mouth of the Ou river) the Tham Ting (lower cave) and the Tham Theung (upper cave) are caves overlooking the Mekong River, 25 km to the north of Luang Prabang, Laos. They are a group of two caves on the west side of the Mekong river, about two hours upstream from the centre of Luang Prabang, and have become well known by tourists. The caves are noted for their miniature Buddha sculptures. Hundreds of very small and mostly damaged wooden Buddhist figures are laid out over the wall shelves. They take many different positions, including meditation, teaching, peace, rain, and reclining (nirvana).

We were driven to the part of the Mekong where the three of us would board our long but narrow boat upon which a man and a teenage boy in a Korn t-shirt would take us on our lengthy trip up the river, past beautiful mountain scenery with farmers working the land and wild goats, poultry and buffalo grazing in the pastures as bloated dead pigs floated past us in the water. When we eventually arrived at the caves we made our way up the steep steps, high-fiving local children along the way, but I have to admit, the caves were somewhat anticlimactic. Don’t get me wrong, the Buddha statues were impressive, but the way people spoke of these caves led us to expect an entire cave network like we ventured through in Hungary, but instead we were taken to two large crevasses in a cliff face. The ride out there was nice, but it was a long way to go to hang out for 15 minutes while backpackers with dreadlocks posed with their tongues out for photos in front of Buddha statues, as botoxed and collagen-injected women who wanted to give off a similar vibe while being physically unable to rough it took endless selfies. We took a look around and a quarter-of-an-hour later we were once again on the boat to make our way back, our buttocks now aching from the hardwood seats. Still, it was nice and here are some photos:

This is the type of boat we were on

We had a long trek ahead of us

Looking upstream

The scenery was breathtaking

I don’t think I’ve ever seen wild chickens before

Arriving at the caves

Looking back at the boats

Following Anna up the stairs

Just some of the Buddha statues

More…

Still more

Further in the cave

Jesse taking a breather on the way to the upper cave

Local kids just hanging out

on our way to the upper cave

Looking out from the cave

On our way back

We got back to the town for lunch, went back to the resort to grab our swimming gear and then it was on to our next touristy mission; a long and bumpy tuk-tuk ride in the opposite direction of the caves to relax at the Kuang Si Falls.

Our tuk-tuk ride took us through small towns and farmland that looked like it hadn’t changed at all in over 100 years and when we arrived at the falls we were surprised to find that the first thing we would encounter there was a black bear sanctuary. There were quite a few bears in there too, some just hanging out, relaxing on platforms and one laying on its back in a puddle, playing with a large log. It was only when the log hit it in the head that we realised that particular bear was missing one of its front legs. We made our way to the turquoise waters of the falls where we noticed a direct correlation between the further the pool was up the hill and the number, age, and weight of the swimmers. I’m not a fan of crowds or kids so we decided to play the role of the fatter individuals in a pool closer to the top of the falls. I hate it when people say the water is nice “once you’re in,” but that is exactly how it was. It was initially freezing and generally I take a long time getting into water, letting each of the five areas most sensitive to cold water, being the back of the knees, upper thighs, testicles, ribs, and nipples, all have ample time to acclimatise equally. That wasn’t to be on this occasion, however, as I stepped off a hidden underwater ledge and went straight from knees to neck, my penis resembling a press-stud immediately as a result. Anna and Jesse can swim, whereas I can’t, but I have the gift of height so I was able to walk around to the rock where they were hanging out next to the rapids.

The three of us were gathered around a rock in the water, Jesse on it and Anna and myself holding onto tree roots and branches in the water, just chatting and discussing the people around us, such as the guy with ridiculous facial hair who put on a go-pro and decided to dive into the water without checking how deep it was or the Korean men who all wore fluorescent life vests and took hundreds of selfies, their phones encased in waterproof covers and tied around their necks. We were having a great time when in the blink of an eye, Anna and Jesse were a lot further away than they were before, swiftly getting smaller and disappearing into the distance, Anna pointing and laughing the entire time. I had somehow managed to lose my grip and got swept away by the rapids, the only thing stopping me was the rock I eventually washed into. I regained my composure and made my way back to the other rock, where we would stay until dark clouds started to come over. We got out and I went to get changed in the only vacant change room there, only to be greeted by a used sanitary pad on the ground. Traveling back to the resort in wet shorts was a small sacrifice to make.

A bit of what we saw that afternoon:

Passing a farm on the way to the falls

Out the other side of the tuk-tuk

A small town at the entry-point for the falls

Some unexpected companions

The three-legged guy

Just taking in the view

More of the general area

Hanging out with Anna

If you want to relax, just go to this place

Seriously

We made our way back to the resort and decided to eat again at the market. It was at this time that Jesse and I decided to take part in…

The 100,000 Kip Challenge

I’ve mentioned not only in this one, but also in previous posts, about how backpackers and hippies in these type of places are kind of annoying. If it’s just people that are out for a good time and traveling on a budget, then that’s cool, more power to them. It’s the irritating ones that are trying to “find themselves” that give me the shits. If you’ve traveled around anywhere tropical before, but especially this part of the world, you’ve almost certainly encountered them. They’re the annoying, usually wealthy ones who got tired of the life of luxury they were dealt and went to discover and immerse themselves in how the other half live, think they are more knowledgable about where they are staying than the locals, meditate, go on spiritual journeys, teach yoga classes, play hacky sack, that type of thing. These people tend to have a kind of “uniform” so over the course of this trip we devised a point scheme for identifying them:

Baggy pants such as the ones Anna is wearing in the cave pictures = 1 point 

*Same pants, but with elephants printed on them = 3 points

Plain singlet = 1 point

Local souvenir t-shirt or singlet = 1 points

*T-shirt or singlet advertising local beer = 2 points

Headband or bandana = 1 point

*Yellow headband or bandana = 2 points

Hair in braids = 1 point

Wooden beaded bracelet =1 point

Low slung backpack with similar pattern to baggy pants = 1 point

Henna tattoo = 2 point

Unkempt beard = 2 points

Manbun = 3 points

Tribal tattoo = 3 points

Birkenstocks = 3 point

Traditional Thai tattoo similar to what Angelina Jolie has on her shoulder blade = 5 points

Dreadlocks = 7 points

Hacky sack = 9 points

A score of 10 or more equated to the uniform of these annoying assholes. Obviously, some variations of certain objects, marked with an asterisk, are worth slightly more than other versions of the same item, but that’s just the sad reality of life.

4

  The local currency in Laos is kip (LAK), US$1.00 is currently equal to roughly 8293 Kip, so Jesse and I set ourselves a limit of 100,000 kip, about US$12.00, to purchase what we could from the market to come as close to that 10-point threshold as we could and wear around on our last day in town on Thursday. After eating more sausages, some chicken wings and a fish at the market, we walked around through all of the clothing stalls trying to find attire that would make Jesse and myself look irritating, but the best I could muster up was a measly score of four, one that could have been a seven had any of my tattoos been tribal or a possible nine if I could actually grow a beard, as is evident in the photo Anna took of me modelling my new apparel in the bathroom when we got back to the resort (right). As you can also see, the story is the same in Laos as it is in other parts of Asia in that I can’t buy clothes that fit, thus my pants aren’t particularly baggy due to them being too small, not even reaching my ankles, however, my yellow headband does feature elephants. Still, not a bad deal, the headband, t-shirt and pants for a total of exactly 100,000 kip, it’ll be interesting to see what Jesse managed to find.

Wednesday, August 9 Wednesday turned into another relatively easy day. Anna and myself aren’t particularly morning people and we all wanted to visit the Royal Palace Museum, but it only opens from 8:00 – 11:30am and then again from 1:30pm – 4:00pm so we just hung out in the pool until Jesse got up, then we went across the road for noodles again, eating while chickens roamed around us.

Inside the shisha bar

When it was time we made our way to the Royal Palace Museum, however, when we arrived Jesse and myself weren’t allowed to enter due to the fact we were wearing shorts, which was a little strange because there were a lot of tourists from mainland China wearing shorts in there. Oh well, we’d just have to return the next day in the gear we bought from the market, they’d have to let us in wearing that. Instead, Anna and Jesse opted for a 90 minute massage which equated to about two hours of beers for me. They both eventually joined me, then we moved on to another place for a few more drinks before dinner. We found a place after dinner that had shishas and cheap drinks so we went and hung out down there when we had finished eating. My stomach was feeling a little strange, but  there was a private toilet in the bar so I went about business, dropped a Loperamil tablet and forgot about it for the night. We just sat back, had a few drinks, smoked our shisha and chatted to the locals on the next table while some overweight guy wandered around outside in nothing but his underwear, looking somewhat like a Laotian version of Randy from Trailer Park Boys.

Randy

Laotian Randy pimping himself out for cheeseburger’s again

The bar was fun, but as usual it had to close early, but this time it was at around midnight. That was probably a blessing in disguise for Jesse, as he had slightly overdone it on the soju and had somehow gone from zero to shit-faced in no time at all. He took a tuk-tik back to the resort, however, Anna and myself wanted to keep going. Luckily for us we had heard about a bowling alley out of town that can stay open until the early hours of the morning so people just rock up there, get drunk and go bowling. That sounded like a great way of spending our final night in town. We took a tuk-tuk out there and when we went in it was exactly what we expected; cheap, rundown, and a lot of fun. There were no shoes my size and most of the ones for hire looked like they had been there since the 1970s so we just went barefoot, chugging beers as we went. We had time to play three games, over which neither of us was able to crack 100. Yes, we are phenomenally shit at bowling, but worse when tipsy.

Pretty grimy

The bar where you pay for games and buy beers

I’m glad none of them fit

Anna attempting to hit something

God, we’re bad at bowling

Another gutter-ball

Others in the same predicament

Good thing she doesn’t have a thing for bowlers…

…because I’m terrible

I’m just glad I was Player 1 (this was our third game at about 2:00am)

In the tuk-tuk home

It was pretty late when we took a tuk-tuk home, but we were still prepared to tackle that museum the following day before we left, resplendent in our backpacker gear.

Thursday, August 10 It turned out that the museum plan wasn’t to be for me. No, I wasn’t hungover, but whatever was messing with my stomach the night before had turned into a full-on illness, most likely some type of virus, as opposed to food poisoning, which left me with no energy, aching legs and the ability to shit through a sponge for more than a week afterward. I had been careful, not drinking the water, brushing my teeth with bottled water and avoiding salads, but this thing knocked me off my feet and the rest of the day is a blur.

Jesse (sans headband) and the reigning champion 

Anna and Jesse still made it to the museum and Jesse kept up his end of the deal on the 100,000 Kip Challenge, scoring a solid 5, however, a point should be deducted due to the fact that he forgot to wear his headband. He also decided to take the opportunity to have his photo taken next to a person who was essentially the benchmark of what we were trying to achieve, scoring at least a very respectable 12 from what I can make out in the photo, he just has the wrong kind of backpack. Anyway, we flew out from Laos that afternoon direct to Singapore and that was the end of our trip. Jesse stayed that night at our place before flying out to Perth, Australia, the following morning to meet up with a few more people while he was on this side of the globe.

It was great catching up with Jesse, thanks a lot for the Trump ID and the cheese, it’s delicious, and if you want to go to a Southeast Asian country that is nice and relaxed, clean, and not yet corrupted by tourism, check out Laos.

Taking a Friend Around Southeast Asia When we lived in New York we made a lot of good friends, one of whom was Anna's colleague, …

[opepin]

may: week three

15: i stayed in bed until i had to get up. i was so tired. kevin made me a breakfast sandwich and then headed to work. i ate it and then did some work and then at around 12 pm i decided to fit in my work out. it felt pretty good. there was sweat and only one rash appeared on my forehead. it wasn’t itchy or anything though. then i showered, worked a bit more, and hopped on stand up. oh, i also picked up our travel adapters and i got my medium-sized bombas gripper socks. they fit better than the small ones :) yay! thank you for awesome customer service! it was a pretty productive work day at home. i managed to get through a part of the work but i need some feedback before moving on. i did the second half of my exercise, showered, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, and made rice with steamed egg. kevin came back from climbing and cooked himself some cabbage stir fry and finished off the steamed egg with oil and soy sauce. the steamed egg just tasted like the chinese broccoli that kevin has been making... lol this cookbook.

we ate and talked about random things. then we made time to cuddle and spend some time with each other -- it was nice :) then i played some bravely default to end the night. i ended up dying and i didn’t save so i lost all of my grinding progress -___- so i stayed up and got it back to about the same spot and then i slept at like 1:15 am. oops. i was gonna work form home tomorrow but i did want to get macarons and just enjoy the weather without being holed up at home or in the office.

16: it was a nice morning. i got up and did a hiit workout. then i showered while kevin ate breakfast. i took it easy this morning and commuted to south station with kevin (: he went to work and i walked over to tous le jour to get some macarons. the macarons were like $2.50 each but i i bought a few anyway. i got the pistachio, green tea, and grapefruit flavored ones. then i got a milk bread bun and a curry croquette for kevin. i realized that i’ve been to this store before in santa monica with toby, chris, and jeanne...and i got he same exact bun LOL. the bun is still good though. i walked back to south station and bought brioche buns for burgers and our favorite focaccia bread from a local bakery stand in dewey square (right outside of south station). then i got meimei’s for lunch. i got their chorizard market bowl without cheese. i was going to drop off the treats with kevin, but it was around lunch time so i just took the train home.

the chorizard bowl is interesting; i think kevin would like it tbh. it had an apple-ly vinegar dressing and it had pickled carrots in it too. you could smell the vinegar when you took off the lid. it contained chorizo and beans with leafy greens too. i couldn’t finish all of it because it was so filling. i finished the bun and the two macarons. they were delicious. then i worked on my project and just soaked in the nice weather. what a nice sunny day. i love it. i also ordered rothy’s flats because my size was back in stock and i didn’t know when they would restock again so i asked my mom to get it for me for my birthday and she did! haha. thanks, momma. <3 i worked until a little past 5:30 pm and then did my back exercises, showered, and washed the dishes. then i cut up half of the sweet potatoes, seasoned them, and popped them into the oven. with the three leftover ones, i poked holes into them and then put them into the oven as well.

i made one successful poached egg and melted cheese on top of the sweet potato discs and topped it with scallions. i made myself a non-cheese version of this with the separate poached yolk failure LOL. it was pretty good! then i took out the whole potatoes and halved one of them, scooped out the sweet potato, and then kevin and i put eggs in the holes, topped them off with cheese, and baked those. with the last two sweet potatoes, i took out all of the “meat”, mashed it, and froze it -- hoping to make sweet potato and banana ice cream tomorrow! so, i made sweet potato like 3-4 ways today for dinner and i completely forgot that i needed to save some for lunch tomorrow so i guess i’m going to get food from food trucks tomorrow. then i cleaned up a bit, kevin read, we cuddled, and then i washed the dishes while kevin showered. then i got into bed and went to sleep at like 11:45 am.

17: i was tired when i got up and during exercise but i felt pretty good when i got on the train. it was such a nice day! it was only me, mathew, and jim in the office today and it was pretty nice. i had a busy morning but i got through it and everything went swimmingly. then i waited in line for like 20 minutes for the moyzilla food truck. i got their pork dumpling plate and chose to garlic noodles, added on a spring roll, and got their oolong mango iced tea. i didn’t see the small text until after i paid with credit card but they added on a 7% tax for use of credit cards T___T i am pretty disappointed by the food too. the noodles just tasted like lo mein -- it wasn’t as garlicky as shaking crab, the spring roll was a damn egg roll (it was fried), and the slaw had a good dressing but it was just ok overall. the tea was nice and refreshing though. eh, wouldn’t come back here. the rest of the afternoon, i worked with mathew and phil and then got on stand up and continued working on creating icons ;D yassss. i stayed until around 5:15 pm taking damn surveys -- the site kept crashing. i also wanted to wait for kevin to get off work so we could train home together.

i made the decision to walk over to his workplace anyway and then i picked him up for work. my flats started killing my heels on the way there so i wore them like flip flops during the walk to south station. it was hot and both of us were thirsty and our eyes and noses were kinda dry hahaha. we got back home and ate delicious bread. i got real upset over my medical bill because i went in for a check up and then it turned into a physical and then i got blood work done and i got charged for that. my bill was $1000 without insurance, wtf. it was around $65 after but wth? i went into this hole of why america’s healthcare sucks and how patients are supposed to know how much each blood test costs and what is in their coverage and out of their coverage. wtf is this bullshit? anyway, kevin and i made sweet potato banana ice cream and it tasted like cold pumpkin pie filling haha. he liked it! then kevin fell asleep on me while we were on the couch and this is when i looked up all this stuff on healthcare. i got real upset and stressed about finances again and kevin calmed me down very patiently and gently <3 thanks, kevin :<<<< then he cooked while i did my workout. we had a very late dinner and then i showered and stayed up waiting for my hair to dry. i talked with jeanne for a bit and then slept at around 1 am?

18: it felt a bit humid in the apartment and i was tired because i slept late LOL, but i carried on and exercised, made some rice for dinner (we would be out he entire day), showered, curled my hair, and ate breakfast. i knew i was going to be later than usual (probably get to work at 9:30 am) but at that point, there was no point in rushing x__x; i got to work and the office was still pretty empty except most of the dev guys were there. i think not having haowei, dave, and the marketing crew makes the place feel a lot emptier? idk. well, i talked with cole for a bit and then started working on icons again~ it was a pretty quiet day and i was tired from not getting enough sleep. i worked on another project when i was done with the icons and then the guys had tech time so i microwaved my food and ate. then i got a craving for something sweet and looked to see if the zinnekin’s waffle food truck was nearby... AND IT WAS! so i asked cole if he wanted to go with me after tech time and away we went! it was pretty hot outside but there was no line and i was just so excited. cole got the chocolate banana liege waffle and i got speculoos, chocolate, and strawberries on mine.

we ate them when we got back and boy, they were so delicious. it was hands down the most delicious waffle i’ve ever eaten. i went on a tangent from work and started looking up the best food truck cities and stuff like that. i would definitely get this again. i’m a fan. the rest of the day was hard because i kept dozing off (weather + waffle + lack of sleep baby). i got pulled into a meeting that was a bit confusing, but it happened and we’ll figure everything out tomorrow. then i did some outlining work and called it a day at around 4:45 pm. cole and i walked over to cvs and he got himself some sour patch kids gum??? and a drink LOL. then i walked over to fitbit because i was meeting up with kevin and matt to go to the rock climbing gym to do yoga! so apparently we were walking there and by the time i got to the office, my back was hella sweaty. i just took off my cardigan and we walked! i met mv, their other climbing buddy, and then we talked about random things like cat shows and our work day on the 30 minute walk there haha. kevin kind of regretted walking after realizing he could get a sunburn and it was super hot.

good thing the place has a/c! kevin paid $12 for me to attend the yoga class (wasn’t included in the bring someone here free for the first time promo that we thought i could use) and then we changed and cooled off and got in there. it was a different experience... it was definitely not as calming as the other times we’ve went. it was harder and more strength-based i would say. i almost hurt my wrists by doing a pose i knew i could not do but tried doing it anyway with the block...gg. the isntructor was rowdier than i’m used to but at the end of it all, it was a good yoga session with kevin <3 thanks for bringing me~ kevin did some problems after and both mv and matt had left already. we stopped by the doughnut store nearby and got a coconut doughnut and a cinnamon raisin crueller. they were pretty heavy doughnuts with subtle flavoring. we took the train home and then i went straight into doing my leg workout and then we showered and chilled for the rest of the night. i caught up on youtube videos while kevin read fanfic haha. we finished the loaf of bread and ate leftovers for a really late dinner. then i got on the phone with hillary and then me and kevin knocked out at like 1 am. zzz. what a long hot day.

19: i talked with hillary in the morning and then got up and made breakfast. then i did some internet errands and talked to phil and got a new project to work on. after that, i called cigna and asked about my medical bill and it cleared up a good amount of things. i called tufts to double-check and i figured out what i was actually billed for LOL. then i exercised a bit and worked on the new project. i felt bloated in the morning and realized i got my monthly gift today ahah. i spent the rest of the day working. then i talked with hillary on the phone for a bit and then did my 30 minute back workout for today while kevin made ketchup spaghetti for dinner. after i showered, we put on supernatural and then ate and watched. today was a crazy day @_@; i ended up falling asleep while waiting for kevin to shower and come back to watch the other new episode of supernatural. i think i just fell back asleep with him next to me while he read his fanfic. i woke up semi-grumpily and then brushed and moved to bed where i again fell asleep next to kevin while he read fanfic and/or watched a dota game (tournament is going on right now). i was exhausted.

20: i woke up at around 10 am and then bummed around in bed with kevin until he woke up. then i ate breakfast and watched some ‘jane the virgin’ and gamed a bit. i also threw in a good amount of youtube videos. kevin read fanfic and gamed for the day. we didn’t have anything planned except to relax and do nothing ahha. i ended up falling asleep on the couch two times. i woke up to pee and checked the time and i had enough time to sleep again. i thought kevin was going to wash the dishes at 5:30 pm but he didn’t so my body woke me up at 5:45 pm or something like that and i rushed to get up because i still needed to curl my hair and get ready for dinner. i held us up this time because i didn’t wake up in time T_T and then we had to take a shuttle to jfk/umass because the trains weren’t running today at our station. poop. i was grumpy from waking up from my nap and rushing into getting ready. i was liek half asleep awake and grumpy.

i called the restaurant to let them know we’d be around 20-30 minutes late but i got sent straight to voicemail every time. they did call me and i informed them and they said they’d do their best to get us seated asap but there was a line. it was no worry by then. the train ride was shorter than i expected but there were a lot of talkative groups of people and babies @_@; so i just put my earphones in and listened to music to zone them out. we got there and had to wait for a bit. kevin went into a grocery store that was selling cheap cuts of meat and seafood and i just waited outside. when we got our seats, kevin’s eyes went straight to the drink menu LOL. he got a lemon drink with bourbon in it and i got the summer melody which was raspberry wine with all these other fruity flavors. it was super light and refreshing! we ordered three appetizers: chili pork belly, scallion pancakes, and pumpkin croquettes. they were all pretty good. my favorites were the pancakes (so crispy) and the croquettes because of its sauces and just the subtle floral taste. 

i got the beef bibimbap and kevin got the steak ddukboki for our entrees. i think our server forgot about entering it in because we waited about 20 minutes until asking our server where our food was and she kind of freaked out and apologized. we waited another 10-15 minutes or so to get our food and they were just aiight. my bibimbap was bland af (because it was rushed?) and kevin’s dish was too saucy and needed rice. we weren’t really hangry or anything because we ordered another round of drinks in between. he got a fruity syrupy soju drink and i got a very nice cider. we obviously tipped less and then commuted home. my stomach hurt a lot the rest of the night ;( periods and alcohol don’t mix well -- it was a great date night with kevin though. <3 i think i ko’d again and got up and brushed my teeth and then went back to sleep after grumpily dealing with kevin reading fanfic and all the damn lights on in the room. he turned off all the lights and then left me alone in the room. still, i slept at around 3 am because the lights and everything just woke me up again.

21: merp. i woke up at 9 am and then went back to sleep and woke up at like 12:30 pm. x__x; then i got up and bothered kevin for a bit. i ate leftovers from yesterday and i made sure to put some salt and pepper on it lol. then i chilled by playing bravely default and watching some youtube videos while kevin read his fanfic... it’s been annoying me recently because kevin ends up just reading the entire day and ignoring the hell out of me and being unresponsive most of the time. i just don’t want to talk to him when he’s like that, but i do it anyway because it’s the weekend and i want to talk and spend more time with him. idk, ugh. we meal planned and then i ended up waiting for kevin to finish up his chapter of fanfic before we left to grocery shop. at this point i was annoyed af. we stopped by kam man and then roche bros. we bought three different types of jams at roche bros... and some pasta chips... LOL we always get snacks and stuff from there x_x; we got a cinnamon apple jam, tangerine cranberry marmalade, and a good old solid blackberry one. the pasta chips are aiight -- would not get again.

we got back, unpacked, and then kevin went straight to reading again and ignored me again when i was talking to him. so i just went off and cleaned angrily. then he finally got up and prepped to go grilling outside. he asked me if i was mad and i didn’t respond at first because it was super obvious and then i told him i was. i changed and left to the yoga studio to exercise, which i wasn’t planning on doing but i needed a release. i did 15 minutes or so of cardio and then came back to the apartment to do 15 minutes more (kevin was still outside grilling). i was planning on going out there but kevin came back and i was still waiting for the clothes to finish washing before transferring them to the dryer. i wanted go outside and lay on the hammock but a bunch of bros were sitting out there. oh well. i ate dinner with kevin and then we made up. he said sorry and i also apologized for being kind of needy and pms-y this week. x__X; i think it might have to do with not drinking the pms tea i bought (first week not drinking it since i got it). i just didn’t want to drink it this week because i felt nauseous just thinking about it. i wanted to drink fruity teas.

the rest of the night, i folded laundry and then showered and washed my hair~ i played some bravely default before going to sleep and i was right about who to the antagonist is LOL. i actually went to sleep at like 11:30 pm... i was super tired.