#he thinks he's freeing everyone. not to bow down to him but to find peace and connection with each other and with him

[asgardian--angels]

pls stop characterizing viktor as angry and violent i s2g fdsgfgdfh

[starkidmunson]

glitter & crimson

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

“Marry.”

“What?”

“Marry. He’s hot, I’m not gonna kill him.”

“Eddie, we’re not playing FMK; you’re supposed to be telling me his name.”

“Oh. That’s…. Joe Jonas.”

“…he’s literally from Hawkins. And he’s holding a hockey stick.”

“Nobody from Hawkins is that hot, man, no way.”

~~~

Gareth posts the clip to his personal TikTok. Before he can get around to reposting it on Corroded Coffin’s band account, it has more than 100k views. Things only spiral from there, because once the band shares it, the video goes more viral and ends up on the screens of the right people.

chiblkhwks: harrington94 is social media challenged, but we’re going to make sure he sees this. Will keep you posted.

The comment is immediately overshadowed by a busy day of PR. A photoshoot to an interview to a radio show to the green room at the Fillmore in Boston, before an intimate pre-album release show for members of their fan club. Eddie has completely forgotten about the video entirely, but Gareth’s phone pings with a text notification.

“A response has been issued!” He declares to the room, still grinning down at the screen of his phone.

The rest of the band shares a collectively confused look, all seeming pleased to find they’re not alone in whatever they’ve missed.

“What?” Jeff asks for the group.

In lieu of an explanation, Gareth just flips the phone in his hand around to show a TikTok, stitched with the clip they’d made earlier that morning.

~~~

“Marry. He’s hot, I’m not gonna kill him.”

#Stitch

“Is… is that supposed to be a compliment?” Steve asks, making a pinched face as he laces up his skates.

“You watched the whole video. He compared you to Joe Jonas.” The girl behind the camera responds, but he levels her with an unimpressed look. She doesn’t respond, and after a beat, he sighs.

“Yeah, alright, I guess Joe Jonas is hot. I’ll take the compliment.” He huffs, standing to his feet and moving from the bench he’d been suiting up on toward the ice. The girl follows him, gliding toward the net once they're in the rink, never falling out of pace with him.

“Do you know who it is talking in the video?” She presses, and Steve looks unimpressed again.

“You mean the other hot guy?” He asks with a grin, then nods. “That was Eddie. I’m surprised you don’t know him, the Party listens to Corroded Coffin all the time.”

The video loops back to the stitched clip from Gareth’s initial TikTok then. Everyone in the room processes what just unfolded.

“The Party? Did… did Steve Harrington just make a reference to DnD? Or is that some sports thing I dont understand?” Jeff asks.

Freak raises his hand, indicating he’s next to speak. “Not only that, but his nerdy DnD friends listen to us all the time?”

“Did King Steve call Joe Jonas hot?” Eddie asks, visibly still trying to connect the wires in his brain that fried at Steve’s agreement. “Did he call me hot?”

All three turn toward Eddie, whose face is still reflecting the long form math equation his brain is trying to work out, and Jeff sighs.

“Well, boys. I think we’ve officially lost him.” He says, bowing his head. Freak and Gareth join him solemnly, making Eddie huff and cross his arms over his chest.

“You’re all so dramatic.”

“Gee, I wonder who encouraged us to be this way,” Freak exaggerates through a grin, before shoving a guitar into Eddie’s chest, just in time for Paige to open the door and summon them.

“We can have a meltdown over Harrington after the gig,” Gareth promises with a pat to Eddie’s back as everyone moves around him, exiting the green room and heading for the stage.

~~~

Riding his post-show high, Eddie makes a bold move in the CC band TikTok, commenting under the video Steve had stitched.

corrodedcoff!n: we’ll be in chicago 1/26 if harrington94 and ‘the party’ are free 🎫

He only gets about 20 minutes of peace before Gareth is jumping around, proclaiming himself the greatest wingman in history.

“It’s an offer for free concert tickets made over social media, and he hasn’t even answered, Gare Bear.” Eddie tries to get him to relax, but he, too, is eager to see how the other reacts to the offer.

He wakes up the next morning to the answer he’d been waiting on, and his stomach flips as he reads it over.

harrington94: only if you guys come to the home game 1/27 🏒

__________

Steve doesn’t even bat an eye when Max shoves her way into the locker room, b-lining straight for him.

“Can I help you?” He asks without looking up, unhooking the padding from his calf and letting it drop to the ground in front of his locker.

“Are you using TikTok to publicly flirt with Eddie Munson?” She asks, voice quieter than he’d typically expect from her, but he just scoffs.

“I’m just being friendly! You’re the one who started this in the first place! What, you didn’t expect me to log on and check if they’d responded?” He asks in response, freeing his foot from the skate, before placing a cover over the blade and letting the boot drop into the lower shelf beside his locker.

“I’m just confused because you’ve been super weird about coming out, and now you’re out here hitting on a rockstar all over social media, that’s all.” Max says, and Steve freezes for a moment.

“Do you…” he trails off, before closing his eyes and rubbing a thumb into his temple. “You really think I just accidentally came out?”

“You called Joe Jonas and Eddie Munson hot, encouraged this rockstar to come to your game when he’s in town and also accepted tickets to see him perform, Steve.” Max was monotone, and held her hands up defensively when he groaned. “I’m not starting anything, I’m just saying that this could get blown out of proportion now.”

They discuss a little further, deciding neither of them will publicly acknowledge anything that’s been posted to the account for now, until they actually come up with a plan.

Once he’s in his car heading home, Steve calls Robin.

“Dingus,” she greets, as always, and he lets out a grumble. “Uh oh. What happened?”

“I think I accidentally came out on the internet, and it’s Eddie Munson’s fault.” He’s met with several seconds of silence as he starts his car on the path to him and Robin’s shared apartment.

“Eddie, the drug dealer from high school?” Robin eventually asks, confused, and Steve groans again.

“Yeah. He uh, also is in a band?” He supplies, and Robin’s quiet for a moment as she processes. Then, he hears the tapping of a keyboard. “What are you doing?”

“Looking Eddie up, obviously.” Steve can practically see her eye roll, even though they’re not FaceTiming. “You’re nothing if not consistent, I guess. Doe-eyed curly brunet.”

Steve scoffs. “You say as though you’re not the one currently waking up beside Nance every morning.”

He’s met again by a short silence, before Robin lets out a little puff of air, in a small laugh. “Thank you again for being so cool about that, by the way.” She says, before he hears clicking on her end. “Apparently, Eddie is out as bi. Corroded Coffin does a charity show for the Trevor Project every year, and he’s been to a lot of Pride events.”

Steve’s stomach twists with each new bit of information she provides, because a part of him wants to be that out, wants to be like Robin or apparently Eddie, freely sharing that part of themselves with the world and having no one give a shit. But that’s not how it works on so many levels for Steve. Beside the shit he’d have to deal with on the ice from certain other players, he had no idea how it would impact the team overall. There’s no way to gauge how fans would react, when there’s never been an openly gay player in the NHL. And that didn't even begin to touch on how his parents would react.

“Hey,” Robin breaks him out of his spiral and he realizes he’s been chewing a hole into his cheek. “I can hear how loud you’re thinking right now. Do you need me to come home?” She asks, gently, and he sighs.

“Please.” He mumbles after a long pause, and is grateful when he hears the jingle of car keys from the other end of the phone.

~~~

Robin scrolls through article after article once she gets to their place, pulling Steve onto the sofa with her and laying his head in her lap. Her fingers twist through his hair, doing her best to keep him calm as she reads up on the situation playing out to try and help gauge how big of a hole he’s dug himself this time.

“I don’t think there’s really anyone who thinks you were flirting with him. Not seriously, at least.” She tries to assure him, but he’d already seen the twitter posts to contradict that before she came over. He sighs and rolls onto his back, so he’s looking up at her, and shrugs.

“I kind of don’t think there’s any avoiding it, at this point.” He mumbles. “I’m not… I’m not ready to come out, not like this. Not on this scale. I think the only thing I can do is carry on and hope it doesn’t get turned into any bigger of a deal.”

Robin hums down at him, and continues to brush his hair back out of his eyes. “Okay. So you don’t come out yet. But don’t overcompensate for it, okay?” He scrunches his face up at her, and she types something into her phone before turning it back into his face. He immediately pales, met with a photo of him out with Heidi last year. With a black eye on full display, he looks miserable behind a fake smile.

“Low blow,” he grumbles, pushing himself away from Robin to sit up beside her, and she raises her eyebrow at him, still holding the photo pointed in his direction.

“‘Maybe they won’t notice or ask why my literal teammate punched me in the face at practice if I take a fucking supermodel out to dinner.’” Robin’s imitation is a little too good, a sure sign of too much time spent together.

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it!” He asks, taking the phone off of her and closing out of the image before locking it. He drops it back into her lap with a sigh. “I just don’t know how many times I can keep getting away with hiding it.”

“Well, it helps that Billy got traded out to LA. He would be insufferable about this, and would absolutely make everything 10 times worse.” Robin muses.

Steve sighs and hesitates for a moment before dropping his head back into her lap, curling into her. “I just want it to be on my terms, when I’m ready.”

“We’ll figure it out, and it’ll all be okay, no matter what. Okay?” She assures quietly, leaning down to press a kiss to his cheek.

His phone dings with a new notification; Max texted him a screenshot from TikTok.

corrodedcoff!n: you’ve got yourself a deal 🤝🏻

[lavandulawrites]

Autonomy Of a Free Soul ch: 1

Chapter 1: Wonderland

Repost

Chapter 2

This is an yandere genshin men x reader that will have multiple chapters. This will be cross posted on ao3. It will partially follow the plot of genshin impact.

Synopsis: You find yourself in the meadow by the giant oak tree at Windrise. You have faint memories of falling into a well which is deeply hidden inside a cave by your home. You get captivated by the tune of the green clad man as he strung lyre high up in the tree.

Alone in a foreign world with hazy memorises, you are sure to encounter various obstacles you would never dreamt of facing. With some admirers with emotions and devotion deeper than what would seem possible, can your journey turn out peaceful?

Masterlist

Warnings: female reader

Word count: 4227

Light peered through your eyelashes as your eyelids fluttered. A pleasant warmth enveloped you. The fresh breeze caressed your cheeks. The surface underneath you was soft and you would have thought that it was a bed had you not smelled the fresh air of the outdoors.

You slowly opened your eyes and blinked at the sun. You slowly sat up and let your eyes roam your surroundings. You were laying on a green meadow filled with various delicate wild flowers. A few birds flew across the clear sky. A few dandelion seeds blowed with the wind towards you. To your right were a huge tree, who’s branches reached for the blue endless sky.

After a while you rose to your feet and began following the little stream up to the tree. A couple of fishes swam happily along the stream and a few frogs hopped in front of your path.

Despite your confused state, you were filled with tranquility. Had you not known better, you would have thought you had reached heaven.

As you stopped by the large tree you heard the soft melody of a lyre. You walked around the thick trunk in search of its source.

On one of its thick branches sat a light green clad man. His long and slender fingers gently strummed the strings of his lyre, creating a beautiful melody. Though the melody had no words, you could feel the heavy emotion it carried.

You had no idea how long you stood underneath the tree listening to his song. The man opened his eyes and revealed his stunning cyan irises. He was around your age, early twenties, but his big eyes revealed wisdom beyond your imagination.

His gaze met yours and you were stunned by his beauty. He hopped down from the branch with playful elegance.

He bowed before you, his lyre behind his back. “Hello my beautiful maiden. What an honour it is to have such a stunning lady to be my audience. I am truly a lucky bard” he smiled and winked at you playfully.

You were taken aback by his flirtatious words. “Hello” you smiled back. “Your music is really beautiful. Does the song you just played have a name?”

“Not yet” he shook his head. He tapped his chin in a thoughtful manner before he lit up “What if I name it after you? What’s your name sweetheart?” his tone gleeful.

“[Name]. What’s yours?”

“Oh my, what a lovely name! I am Venti the bard” he took of his hat and bowed deeply, with his feet crossed. He spun his hat in the air before he put it back on. “I haven’t seen you around before and believe me when I say that I know everyone in Mondstadt. So [Name], where exactly are you from?”

At his question your eyes widened. You had almost forgotten how you woke up suddenly in the flowerbed. Before you had woken up in this unfamiliar landscape, you had been on a walk in the woods by your home. You had explored a cave and had tripped on a root and fallen down into an ancient well. When you opened your eyes you found yourself here in the meadow.

“You are right I’m not from around here” you sighed. You hesitated. Was it wise to tell him about the well? You couldn’t be too sure if he was to be trusted or not. After a moment of thinking, you chose to tell him all the details. Maybe he could help you? “I fell into a well inside a cave back home, but strangely I can’t remember everything else. My memories from my home is there, but they’re glossy” you prayed that he wouldn’t think that you were crazy.

“I see…That’s really unfortunate. I don’t think I can help you with returning home” Venti smiled sadly.

“It’s okay. I guess there is no helping it…”

His hand slipped into his shorts and pulled out a cloth that was round in shape. He opened the flowery cloth and revealed the reddest apple you had ever seen. “Do you like apples? I myself absolutely love them. I can’t ever seem to get enough” he laughed.

“I love apples” you nodded and returned his smile.

Venti skilfully broke the apple in half with his fingers. He gave you one of the half’s. The aroma of the apple reached your nose and you hummed in delight.

“Smells good? It will taste even better” he took a bite himself and closed his eyes in delight.

You followed his example. The taste did not disappoint. The apple was juicy and sweet. It was perfect.

“Do you know where you’ll stay tonight?” he asked as he wiped his fingers in the cloth. His apple completely vanished.

“No…” you smiled sheepishly.

“I see… The city is quite far away. A couple of hours walk in fact.”

His eyes got a certain glint in them. “But I have another way of transportation” he winked.

You tilted your head at his implication. “Another way of transportation? What might that be?”

Venti turned his back slightly towards you and pointed at a round crystal decoration. “I’ll use this! The power of anemo sure is amazing!”

“Anemo?” you blinked at him.

Venti quickly spun around. His expression one of shock. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what visions and elemental powers are?”

“Umm… I don’t… Sorry” you winced in embarrassment. You really didn’t understand a thing.

“I guess you really aren’t from around here. Worry not! Visions are amulets that let people control the elements. Anemo is the wind element. Mondstadt, where we are now, is the nation of anemo”

“Ohh… I see” you nodded, but you found it difficult to believe in amulets and elemental powers. Was he playing tricks on you?

“I can sense your hesitation. Let me demonstrate”. The bard held his hand of for you to take. “May I?”

You nodded as you took his hand. His skin was soft and warm.

Wind engulfed you both as Venti wrapped his arms around you. “Hold on tight!”

The wind lifted you both up high in the air. You two soared fast in the air and you clutched your hands at tightly as you could onto his arms. “Don’t be scared! Trust me! We will not fall down!”

The landscape became almost blurry underneath your feet as you moved as fast as the wind. You had never felt as free as you did soaring high in the air with a man you just had met. It felt like a scene from one of the fairytales your mother used to read you.

A city could be seen in to horizon. When you two got closer, you could faintly make out three large windmills and a large cathedral.

“That’s Mondstadt city. The city of freedom. Home to many bards such as myself” Venti’s breath ghosted your air softly.

“It’s beautiful” you said in awe.

Venti laughed at your comment. “It really is isn’t it?” he sounded almost like a proud father.

The two of you landed in front of a big stone bridge which led up to the city.

The cobblestone clicked underneath your shoes as you made your way over. A small boy was standing by the edge of the bridge feeding a couple of pigeons. The birds fled at the sight of the two of you, earning you both an earful from the little boy.

When you reached the gates, you were greeted by two knights. Venti only smiled and greeted them, which they returned.

The city was lively and music filled the streets. Multiple street vendors were littered across the streets.

Venti led you up to a more quiet part of town. “This hotel is both cheap and nice” he told you as he opened the hotel door which was painted a lively red colour.

The walls were of dark brown panesl and the red rug with a forest motif that led to the staircase was well-loved. The lobby was decorated with different nicknacks. On the walls hung paintings of the city.

The owner of the hotel was an elderly man with blond hair with greying streaks. When he smiled his eyes crinkled with crows feet. He looked like someone’s grandfather. He smiled at Venti from behind the reception desk that was cluttered with various papers and an comical large flower vase filled with tulips in the colour of the rainbow. “Hello Venti. What can I do for you today?”

“Hello Meier. Do you have any rooms available for this young lady?” he smiled at the man. Venti had told you on the way to the hotel that Meier owed him a favour. “She doesn’t have anywhere to stay tonight and I thought since you owe me, that maybe you had a spare room for her?”

Meier’s smile turned sheepish. “I’m sorry Venti, but I really don’t have any spare room. The whole hotel is booked. You see a couple of diplomats from the other nations have come here and they have taken all the rooms in the finer hotels”. He turned his eyes round you “I am really sorry miss. Perhaps you could try some of the ins close to the city?”

You bid your farewells to Meier before you exited the hotel.

You sighed as you sat down at a bench near a fountain. You were far from home, in a whole different world given the unfamiliar city and the weird creatures or rather monsters you had seen, and you had absolutely nowhere to stay the night. Money was also something you completely lacked.

Venti was staring of into the distance, deeply lost in thought. After a while he turned towards you. “As Meier said, the other hotels are absolutely packed so it’s not worth to even check. ” he sighed. “I’m sorry. Here I was trying to be a good Mondstadt guide too” he shook his head, causing his braids to gently flap against his cheeks in a rather cute manner.

“No, no. Don’t apologise. This isn’t your fault. Not in the slightest” you tried to reassure him. “But what about the ins? Maybe they have some rooms available?”

“They might have some rooms available, but the roads outside of the city is filled with monsters lately. It’s simply to dangerous for someone without a vision. And I take it that you don’t have any training in combat?” his voice was serious and his eyes intense.

“I see. I don’t have any combat skills” you sighed.

After a moment of silence Venti spoke up again. “What if you stay at my place? There’s space and I will sleep on the couch” he looked at you with something you recognised as hope. His large eyes glittered and the way the soft light from the sunset hit them made them absolutely breathtaking.

You were so in awe of his beauty that you almost forgot to answer him. “I would love to. Thank you very much Venti. I really hope it isn’t too much of a bother for you” you smiled at him with gratefulness.

“Not at all! Let’s get going before it gets too late.”

Venti’s home was in a apartment building in the livelier part of the city. His apartment was on the top floor (the fifth floor). The walls were covered in a pale green wallpaper with dandelion seeds motifs. It consisted of a bathroom, a bedroom with a queen bed, a open kitchen and living room, a closet and a balcony. The balcony overlooked a little stage with rows of chairs in front of it. Venti told you that it was a place where amateurs could preform, be it music or plays.

Venti led you to the kitchen which he began rummaging through the cabinets. “It’s late so I’ll cook us some dinner. It won’t take long.”

“Do you need any help?” you asked as your eyes trailed hai movements. Despite his human appearance, he moved like he belonged in the sky. His every movement was fluid and his movements looked like dancing steps.

“No. Sit back and relax. You’re my guest after all” he smirked.

You hummed at the delicious taste of the pasta bolognese. “Wow Venti! You’re a really great cook!”

“Thank you, though I’m only an amateur” he smiled as he took a bite himself.

The dining table was of light wood. It was cowered with a white table cloth with embroidered light blue flowers. A candlestick was lit in the middle of the table, creating a cozy feeling. At the end of the table were various note sheets which Venti had tried to hastily clean up when you first entered the apartment.

“How does one obtain a vision?” you asked as you took a sip of the dandelion wine he had poured in your glass.

“It’s a favour from the gods. Those that reside in Celestia. It’s a sing of great ambition. The anemo vision is given to those who value freedom in a great deal” he nodded towards his vision that were laying on top of the countertop.

“Ahhh I see. How many types of visions are there?”

“Seven. All the seven nations are the homes of different elements. Mondstadt as you know is the nation of anemo, Liyue is the nation of geo, Inazuma is electro, Sumeru is dendro, Natlan is pyro and Snezhnaya is cryo” he spinners his fork in some spaghetti before he lifted the fork to his mouth. “Each nation have their own archon, god if you will. The one in Mondstadt is called Barbatos.”

“I see” you nodded. “Quite fascinating.”

“Yeah, I guess you can indeed say that”. He noticed your empty plate. “I’ll go and clean the dishes, then I will make your bed” he rose form his seat and collect the empty dishes.

“I should help you” you stood up and carried the empty wine glasses to the sink.

“No it’s okay. You’re my guest” he said reassuringly.

Venti’s bookshelf’s were filled with various works of poetry, fiction, song lyrics and historical books. You ran your fingertips over their backs. Your fingers were coated in a light veil of dust. You took out a book on Mondstadt’s history out of the shelf. You sat down in the light teal sofa. A few strands of treads were sticking out of the seems, making it clear as day that this sofa was well loved.

Your eyes went to the kitchen were Venti was humming on a tune while he scrubbed a pot clean. His voice was angelic and you hoped you would be so lucky that you would be able to hear him sing sometime. Venti was so kind and welcoming. He had told you the history of Mondstadt as you had walked among the streets of the city. He had told you so much that you felt like you knew Mondstadt like one would with a childhood friend. Yet, you knew absolutely nothing about Venti. You knew of his profession and his love for dandelions and wine, but that was it.

Venti’s voice broke you out of your thoughts. “I’m finished” he stood in front of you on the soft rug. “It’s getting late, so maybe we should get some sleep. I have made your bed. Don’t worry, I changed the sheets too” he smiled. The sun from the sunset casted a warm light on Venti’s features. His eyes glittered more than ever before and he looked like someone straight out from a fairytale. He didn’t look human.

“Yes we should. Thank you Venti. Thank you for your hospitality. I’m extremely grateful” you smiled sweetly up at him.

He chuckled. You swore that you could see a faint blush lightly dusting his cheeks.

Venti’s bed was comfortable and the duvet soft. You quickly drifted off into a deep slumber.

Your dreams were of wells and deep caves. You tried to wake up, but to no avail.

After a long night filled with night terrors, you finally woke up to bird chirping. Sunlight were shining through the white curtains, warming your skin.

You lazily sat up and stretched your limbs. You still felt helpless regarding your situation, but it was little you could do. At least at the moment.

You turned on the shower and let the warm water hit your skin. Venti’s soap had a slight smell of apples and you welcomed the faint fragrance.

After your shower you got dressed and went to the kitchen.

Venti was sitting by the kitchen table while reading a newspaper. His black brows furrowed in concentration. On the table were a basket of bread and strawberry jam and apple jam. He had poured two glasses of apple juice which looked refreshing. His eyes flickered up to meet yours. He smiled gently. “Good morning sleepyhead. Slept well?”

You took the seat opposite of him. “Good morning. Not really. I had a nightmare” you sighed. “But thanks again for staying here. I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t” you laughed slightly.

“Nightmares are an awful thing. Unfortunately I can’t seem to get rid of them myself” he smiled sadly before his expression changed into a jovial one. “You’re very much welcome.”

You two talked about everything and nothing while you ate. Venti was easy to talk to and you felt you could tell him everything. It was almost like you were compelled. It was a peculiar feeling.

“We need to get you some new clothes.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have any money…” you sighed. Your situation really was unfortunate.

“I will pay. Consider it a gift from me” he smiled.

“But you have already done so much for me. I feel guilty.”

“Please don’t. Believe me when I say that it’s my pleasure.”

“Okay. Thank you” you smiled at the bard.

He returned you smile. “I know of another outlander that is here in Mondstadt. I can introduce you to her. Maybe she will be able to help you with your predicament? And if not, you will have made a new friend. Friends is something you never can get too many off.”

Angle’s Share was rather empty given how early it was. Some patrons were playing a game of cards as they sipped on their beer steins.

The bartender by the counter greeted you as you entered. His hair was red as fresh blood, giving a stark contrast to his pale skin. He was handsome and you could easily understand why he was the bachelor of Mondstadt (that was Venti had told you on your way there).

He grunted at the sight of Venti. “Here to pay your tab?” his voice deep and velvety.

Venti laughed awkwardly. “No, I’m actually showing my friend here, around Mondstadt. Diluc this is [Name], [Name] this is Diluc” he gestured to each of you.

“Nice to meet you [Name]” the red head smiled.

“Nice to meet you as well Diluc” you smiled back.

“Oh by the way. Have you seen Lumine today?” the bard asked Diluc who was polishing a wineglass.

“She’s upstairs” his answer curt as he continued to work.

Venti nodded before he led you upstairs.

The second floor was empty save from a blond girl and a fairy-like creature that was floating beside her. The girl turned around and smiled when she saw Venti. The fairy followed her example. “Tone deaf bard!” she said she waved her little hand. Her voice was high pitched and nearly gave you a headache.

“Hello ladies” Venti playfully greeted. “This is [Name]. [Name] this is Lumine and Paimon. Lumine was the one who saved Mondstadt from the incident I told you about.”

“Nice to meet you. Though I couldn’t have done it on my own. I got help from my friends” Lumine smiled. Her topaz coloured eyes shone in the sunlight that peered through the open window. “Why don’t you two take a seat?”

“Nice to meet you Lumine. I must say your strength, from what I have heard, is truly admirable” you smiled as you took a seat on the wooden bench. Venting followed suit and took a swipe at besides you. His knee brushed against yours as he made himself comfortable. You could smell his scent which smelled of fresh apples and wildflowers. It was a pleasant scent that suited him perfectly.

“You flatter me” Lumine smiled. “Should I order anything for you? Some dandelion wine? Or maybe some freshly pressed juice?”

“Dandelion for me if you would be so kind” Venti said. You could see his excitement from the mere mentioning of dandelion wine. His love for the wine was kinda cute.

“I would love some orange juice” you said.

Lumine nodded before she rose and ventured downstairs. The stairs creaked under her steps.

Paimon turned her gaze to you. “So, how did the two do you meet?” she tilted her head in a a childlike manner. Sparkles sparkled around her.

“We met at Windrise” Venti answered.

Paimon nodded. Her brows were furrowed in thought. She was about to say something more when Lumine came back with two glasses. One with orange juice and the other with dandelion wine.

You and Venti thanked her before you both took a sip. The orange juice was fresh and a little sweet, but not too sweet. You hummed in delight.

“So where did you two meet?” she asked as she took a sip of her half full glass of grape juice.

“Windrise” Paimon answered. Lumine shot her a look. “They told Paimon while you were ordering. Don’t give Paimon that look!” the little fairy stumped her feet in the air.

“Windrise… that’s quite far from the city. What were you doing out there?” the blond woman asked you.

At her question you froze. Venti noticed your hesitation. “She’s an outlander just like you Lumine.”

Lumine’s eyes widened. “Oh really? I have never met another outlander. How did you end up here in Teyvat?” her eyes curious.

“I am not too sure actually… I just woke up in a field of flowers by the oak tree” you fidgeted with your fingers.

“Ah… I see. I myself lost my brother. We were travelling from world to world before we ended up here. I am on a mission to find him again” her voice filled with determination. Lumine was a truly remarkable woman and you found yourself in awe at her. You wished you had her bravery. “Paimon here is my companion and guide” Paimon smiled wide at her words.

“Maybe you want to join our journey?” Paimon asked.

“Maybe… I am not too sure yet. I’m still trying to process everything” you smiled sheepishly.

Lumine nodded. “Understandable. We are gonna stay here in Mondstadt for a while before we go to Liyue.”

Your conversation with Lumine and Paimon was pleasant. Paimon had a lot to say and her eagerness was quite adorable. After a while you and Venti bid them goodbye as you headed two a boutique in search of some new clothes for you.

The boutique’s interior was pink and rather feminine. The walls were cowered in murals of pink flowerbeds. The owner was a sweet young woman who was quick to help you find something that suited you.

You ended up with a couple of different outfits and some underwear. You thanked Venti for his generosity. The bard only smiled gently. His eyes brimming with an emotion you couldn’t quite place.

As the blue sky turned a pinkish colour you ventured up to the cathedral. The building was massive and you felt at its mercy as it towered over the city. In front of the cathedral stood a statue of Barbatos. The statue was tall and made of marble. It was clad in robes and it had large wings on its back. His hands stretched out in a form of prayer. He had two twin braided on the said of his head. You admired the statue for a while. It looked familiar. There was no doubt about it. It looked an awfully a lot like Venti. You turned to look at the bard which was staring out at the city. He was lost in thought and did not notice your staring.

“This statue is really beautiful” you said as you gazed up at its face.

Venti turned to face you. “Yeah… The sculptures did an excellent job.”

“The same goes for the cathedral. Its architecture is absolutely breathtaking. Do you often attended services in the cathedral?” you ask the dark haired man.

“I agree. The craftsman is extremely impressive”. He shook his head “I usually don’t, but I sometimes swing by. The organists are really talented.”

“I want to attend a service some time. Just to see how it is” you gazed up at the looming building.

“We can go together sometime” he looked at you softly.

The soft bed was welcoming after all you walking. You pulled the duvet over your shoulder as you burrowed your face into the pillow. Venti had insisted on you staying as long as you needed. He would take you to the Adventures Guild tomorrow in search of some jobs you could do in order to earn some Mora.

Sleep wrapped you in its warm embrace and you feel into a deep slumber. This time your dream was filled with cyan coloured eyes and white feathers.

[yukizme]

meet the residents . . .

. . . of SUNFLOWER SQUARE ! — a two-building complex that serves as a residential as well as a commercial centre located in the very heart of the city. sunflower square pride itself on supporting various businesses such as a flower shop, a law firm, a security company, a tattoo studio and their very own café on the upper ground floor; all while maintaining a tranquil and peaceful environment for its residents and patrons. for more details and information about housing plans and/or lease agreements, contact sunflowersqadmin.jp.

yn yln — apt. 444 ; 11th floor.

( art deco by lana del ray // pressed flowers // knowing it's for the better // glitter on the floor )

runs the super freak tattoo shop and routinely cries over the two headed calf as if it were her own child. has a pinterest board named "poems that made me cry on my kitchen floor" and when she has a bad day, scrolls through it to make it worse.

has a cat called coochie and the name has been subjected to many, many, many debates held by her social circle and her only argument has been that it is synonymous with pussy.

would've happily dated sukuna had he not called her baby ugly and lowkey felt it when yuji said that sukuna and her act like a bitter divorced couple who never even dated.

has an nth number of tattoos and piercings and doesn't remember how she got most of them and at this point, she's scared to ask. (she isn't allowed to drink more without supervision anymore because she almost got a face tattoo the last time they all went clubbing.)

sukuna ryomen — apt. 609 ; 12th floor

( ivy by frank ocean // wilted flowers // pink dye // finding escape in escaping )

runs the flower shop, "i'm so thorny." and has never elaborated why he named it that. he thinks it's hilarious. yuji thinks it's fucking stupid.

hates the girl who owns the tattoo studio below his shop in the commercial block, because a. her demon cat ripped apart his expensive as FUCK dahlias, b. his (half) nephew works at her studio and he cannot stand that betrayal and c. he's tired of explaining that he actually runs the flower shop while that witch with pink bows in her hair is the tattoo artist.

deep, deep down he wants that fucker of a cat to like him so bad but he once pspspspspsps-ed at it and it hissed at him and he's been bitter ever since.

really hates his nephew giving out free flowers every time she stops by their floor; the fact that he keeps those ugly fuckers in stock is completely unrelated.

satoru gojo — apt. 382 ; 9th floor

( christmas kids by roar // getting to know someone again and again // clear blue skies // violet nail polish )

part time model who has way too much free time and makes it everyone's problem. he's temporarily (nanami is working on making it permanent) banned from the building common area without supervision because one very bad day, gojo was bored.

is filthy rich and isn't humble about it. everyone hates having him as their pick in the building's secret santa which is mandatory — thank you, utahime — because he's impossible to shop for solely because of how expensive his daily stuff is.

no one mentions the Thing he has going on with suguru, mainly because they value their peace of mind but it very much is a Thing. everyone is sick of their Thing.

he's also coochie's dad (he sent yn increasing unhinged texts until she agreed to co-parent) but yn refuses to call him anything but a deadbeat because she walked in on him and geto making out and it wasn't even 9 a.m.

suguru geto — apt. 193 ; 9th floor

( smoke signals by phoebe bridgers // broken lighters // if you go, you have to stay gone // purple skies )

is an artist and he's so fucking good at it. has his own art gallery a few blocks away and his paintings are so targeted yet so open to interpretation and he has his own little fan base consisting of girls in their 20s and art students and people seeking god.

has to have a required amount of alone time or lay in bed at least once during the day or he starts to follow through with the various threats he has made. (once gojo tried to annoy him but setting alarms on geto's phone to go off every 5 minutes and the next day, gojo was seen wearing a bucket hat that seemingly stayed glued to his head. everyone bet on it being a bald patch.)

has a few piercings that he got done by choso and lets yn decide which one he's gonna wear whenever he changes them.

watched the haunting of the hill house and the haunting of the bly manor with the girls and nanami and cried.

utahime iori — apt. 396 ; 10th floor

( falling behind by laufey // alone with their loved ones in the past // cherries // pink and white )

owns the café on the upper ground floor, "we have coffee" and runs it like the navy. the sign outside the glass door says "these freaks are banned" along with a photo of gojo and geto and another picture of gojo with bright blue sunglasses and geto with a neon green wig.

met yn and shoko in university and they've all suffered through the horrors i.e the 20s together.

loves jewellery and gets matching stuff for her girls, yn, shoko and yuki, whenever she can. her favourite the set of matching pendants all four of them have; a kiwi (shoko); a cherry (yn); an orange (yuki) and a strawberry (for herself.)

once brought in nine kittens and managed to keep them hidden for two weeks because they all escaped and she has been mourning them ever since. prime number 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 and 23 have their own photo album in her phone.

shoko ieiri — apt. 103 ; 10th floor

( last night's mascara by griff // expired makeup // fluorescent lights // forever being eleven years old on that playground with no friends )

teaches biotechnology at the local university and is easily the most liked professor over there. calls off classes because she saw a cat and got lost trying to pet it or because she took too much ibuprofen and can now hear colours; there's no in between.

once went to a couples counselling session with utahime to see how long it would take for the counsellor to realise that they weren't together. the session was over in an hour and a half and they had been advised to talk about their problems and communicate their feelings explicitly. yn has not let this go.

knows the most about everyone in their circle and she's mad at someone, she just casually drops the most insane piece of information and watches everyone argue. everyone likes her.

tried to confess to utahime but she just replied with "thank you!" and shoko doesn't think she can get drunk enough to dissect that interaction or confront her again.

yuki tsukumo — apt. 288 ; 11th floor

( arabella by arctic monkeys // silver jewellery // never existing until someone asks you how you are // animal print )

joined yn's studio because the ad said "hot people with decent drawing skills required + we have a cat" and was hired on the spot after she drew yn a perfect five-pointer star.

tried to bake cookies for her friends one day and managed to cause a blackout. ino still hasn't forgiven her because his essasy was due at 11:59 and his computer crashed and it did not submit; yuki thinks it's his fault for starting to write an essay at 11:27.

has multiple piercings, mostly in her ears and yn and her facetime every morning to decide her earrings for the day.

tattoos yn all the time along with choso. cherries, hearts, stars, dinosaurs, flowers, anything she can think of. her favourite is one with a small cherry shaped like a heart; just like the one on her own middle finger.

choso kamo — apt. 492 ; 12th floor

( strawberry wine by noah kahan // handwritten letters // missing the sunset by a few minutes // choosing to stargazing but it's cloudy )

works at the super freak tattoo shop and has been solely responsible for all the plants around the studio; his personal favourites are christofern, salad and prick.

his texts to yn include photos of plants followed by "look (o゜▽゜)o☆", "yuji asked u to stop by the shop because he has a new combo of flowers for you :D"; "sukuna just called coochie something from pandora's box btw can we slash his tyres ?? !!!!!!!!" and variants.

has a tiny crush on yuki but thinks that yuki and yn have a thing because they're always calling each other very affectionate names and choso thinks that he connected the dots.

sukuna yelled at him for two hours when he learnt that choso started working at the studio part-time and choso went back the next day with cacti and sheer willpower and made his position permanent. choso's mantle photo was placed on the side table by the couch that very evening.

kento nanami — apt. 307 ; 11th floor

( too sweet by hozier // beige and blue // time passing isn't an apology // blueberries )

works in finance. truth be told, no one from the circle knows exactly what his job is or his designation, they just know that he's very serious about his job and that he truly hates someone named "matthew" because of the phrase he often says, "matthew for the love of god — !"

cried when he spent four weeks tutoring ino for his physics paper and he got 3/100.

gojo hangs out so much at his office that they had to put a sign that said "no gojo allowed inside"; the said sign was promptly ignored and nanami had to visit the hr department because of some very interesting words thrown around in his office when he saw jack frost's cousin swirling in his chair.

has only one tattoo but will never ever disclose where it is and what it is.

hiromi hiruguma — apt. 203 ; 11th floor

( lover's grip by them & i // love letters // forced to be the one who got away // banana bread )

has his very own law firm and his office is on the same floor as yn's studio in the commercial block. it's both his worst nightmare and the best thing because the only other choice was next to sukuna's flower shop and he Cannot have that.

his number is saved as "sexie lawyer," "sex c attorknee" and variants in everyone's phone and he has given up on trying to change that.

has a group chat with nanami, shiu and kusakabe and all of them talk so much shit about their work and the other tenants. one time, they were so in deep figuring out the truth behind the divorce of apartment 105 that hiruguma had to make them sign an nda.

since his office is on the same floor as yn's studio, she sometimes hangs out there when she doesn't have any clients and he doesn't have any cases and they watch buzzfeed unsolved.

takuma ino — apt. 338 ; 6th floor

( cherry wine by grentperez // splintered skateboards // but i miss you like a little kid // temporary tattoos )

works as an intern in nanami's company but he might as well be working at the tattoo studio with how much time he spends there. he has his own small desk and a chair in their backroom and he nearly cried when he first found out.

once pulled the fire alarm because he forgot the papers nanami asked him to get and he'd chew on glass before disappointing his mentor. nanami had to make it very clear that he's allowed to forget things but he's not allowed to pull the fire alarm for the hell of it.

he once intentionally placed bread crumbs outside kusakabe's apartment and then procured a few ducks to give the older man a surprise because he insulted ino's hello kitty tank top.

once fell down 28 stairs because there was a double rainbow and he had already downed three red bulls. he regrets nothing.

atsuya kusakabe — apt. 299 ; 6th floor

( softcore by the neighbourhood // fog in winter mornings // i am not a violent dog, i don't know why i bite // cocktails with tiny umbrellas )

no one knows where he actually works; it could either be with nanami or with hiruguma or it could be somewhere entirely different. (it's actually with shiu and toji, he's the head of their marketing department and he has no intention of telling the others where he works lest they bother him there too like they do at his apartment.)

surprisingly likes coochie and takes her to work with him if shiu doesn't have her already. she's their mascot and he'd never admit it to anyone but she has her own small desk with toys and her own name cards.

got forced to dress up for halloween by ino for the party and showed up as the grinch, only to find out that it was just a normal get together and he was only one in costume — he has hated that kid ever since; his hair was green for two fucking weeks.

his most played song on spotify last year was symphony no. 7 in a major, op. 92: iv. allegro con brio by beethoven and shoko gave him so much shit for it that he never ever asked for aux again.

shiu kong — apt. 692 ; 7th floor

( into it by chase atlantic // chevy corvette // always borrowing grief from the future // sunlight on water surfaces )

owns a security firm that he built from the ground up and is probably the most laidback guy ever. babysits coochie when yn goes out and is secretly coochie's biggest fan.

comes from old money but never tells anyone about it outright. casually mentions stuff like "the old manor" or "the private school i went to" and then proceeds to drop the most insane lore when asked about it.

lives in the apartment complex only because he was bored in his penthouse on the other side of the city and watching yn and sukuna argue has got to be the most fun thing here. he once saw sukuna spray yn with water and then proceeded to watch yn push him into the lobby fountain. no, he did not intervene.

has been babysitting megumi since forever and the teen has his own room in his apartment. toji is jealous because his kid actually enjoys shiu's company while he just gets called "shit clown" by his own blood.

toji fushiguro — apt. 375 ; 6th floor

( party monster by the weeknd // half finished whiskey // something other than time that heals all wounds // headlights on the ground when it's drizzling )

works right under shiu at his security firm and does not treat shiu as his boss at all. shiu threatens to fire him every hour but never does. no one is surprised why.

has a fun ton of money due to his job but he's stingy as FUCK. megumi pretended to not know him once when toji had a breakdown over which cereal to take home with him while standing in the aisle.

lives in the apartment right below shiu and calls him when he's out of creamer for his coffee and has shiu pour it from above. yn, who lives right under toji's unit, is sick of them.

will literally never answer his phone, so if someone needs something, they have to either ask someone on his floor to ring his bell (continuously) or go to yn's apartment and throw stones up at his fire escape. (shiu banned them from his apartment after ino fell out the window and on the fire escape; on a completely unrelated not, ino is now banned from standing/sitting/laying down/dilly-dallying/attempting to catch pigeons near any window without adult-er supervision).

[gallusrostromegalus]

Soul Society is top heavy when it comes to power. With rare exceptions (Ikkaku), the gap between captains and rank-and-file troops, let alone normal citizens, is astronomical. How does Soul Society handle the reiryoku classism problem in and out of the Rukongai? Do the lower seats think of themselves as cannon fodder? Are there any major political factions that try to tackle the issue (ethically or not)?

So the gotei-13 is actually kind of a solution to this problem on accident.

The thing is, as powerful as the captains are, there usually only about a dozen of them, and a maximum of 2600 shinigami total. They are VASTLY outnumbered by literally everyone else, and because they need drastically more food than others (everyone in soul society needs to eat, but shinigami are at a drastically higher calorie demand and risk of starvation), they are VERY dependent on the rest of society. Zaraki made a fair fist of being a roaming menace but even he had to bow to the economy and work jobs to eat.

Hence, there IS reiryoku discrimination but it's largely in the other direction- shinigami are extremely exploited as workers, and that's the GOOD job. Other psychics are frequently drafted, kidnapped, enslaved for imprisoned so the rich and politically powerful can exploit their abilities. Even if a captain class individual were to say, take out a whole clan in self-defense, the rest of society would come down on them like a hammer and kill them or let them starve.

Yamamoto didn't found the Gotei-13 all at once. Originally it was just him, Sasakibe, the 200 spiritually aware students in his dojo, and the dojo was there to train the postal workers how to defend themselves against people trying to kill them for the messages they were carrying, but secondarily so spiritually powerful people didn't get press-ganged into serving the noble houses.

The first organization for psychic souls Yamamoto ever made was a... Relatively Safe Haven. He was also up against a wall dealing with the noble houses and other political factions so he needed anyone who could push back to do so, so a psychic would be expected to serve in at least some capacity. But the souls under his care were free to marry who they chose if they wanted or have children or not, or travel if they felt safe doing so, and even to just be weird without major repercussions, which was a vast improvement over the way they'd be treated as livestock by the noble houses. Even 1000 years later, Byakuya had to fight his family to marry who he wanted. Imagine what a psychic born in a random village and no legal protections would be facing.

So everyone with even an ounce of spiritual capacity was joining the postal service for his protection. It was a boon to the non-psychic messengers too- not knowing if a random Mail carrier could set would-be attackers on fire with their mind made all carriers safer.

...and them the Quincy attacked.

Yamamoto was now even more up against a wall because while having a united front had been helping him it was now a problem-the Quincy were attacking psychics specifically, something that endangered his ENTIRE organization.

...so he hired every spiritually powerful person he could find, including thriteen real bastards directly off of death row and organized them into an army to fucking deal with Yhwach.

Once yhwach was gone though, he had an army. And a lot of nobles looking to exploit or destroy that army.

Fortunately, one of the real bastards he'd hired had fallen for his peculiar charms and become his wife, and what Lady Tsubaki lacked in battle prowess, she more than made up for in political shrewdness. Be magnanimous, she explained. Be generous and speak of peace in our lifetimes and extend the olive branch to those who harassed you for so long. They won't realize it's bait.

So with her help, Yamamoto proposed that his army become the COURT GUARD in charge of protecting the very real and definitely alive Soul King, as well as all the people of soul society from the hollows and other misfortunes that may befall them. Finally, *proper* employment for all those spare heirs and potentially dangerous village psychics, doing the noble work of protecting society.

Why, he even helped found the central 46, a council of sages and scholars and general brain trust to work on the greater problems of soul society (a problem later but at the time, a VAST improvement over the eternally warring clans), that Yamamoto himself would be beholden to, just to show how civic-minded he was.

And just to finally, fully bury the hatchet- Yamamoto offered five of the captain's seats to the five remaining great noble houses, to be passed from scion to scion, ensuring each line would have a place in the direction of this army... Not realizing it was a trap to trick them into handing over any psychics they had, but also the high mortality rate of captains would kill scion after scion and gradually weaken the clans to the point of irrelevance.

And it WORKED.

By the time Ichigo turns up, the scion of the Shihouin clan is in exile with no plans of returning, the Shibas are reduced to a roaming band of pyromaniacs, the Tsunyashiro clan has been gone so long they don't even appear in the manga, and while the ISE and Kuchiki clans still both have representation within the captainacy... The Ise clan only has a brother-in-law and the Kuchiki are at a genetic dead end, and both those men are FAR more loyal to Yamamoto than their own clans.

Yamamoto has done what he set out to do- make a safe haven for the spiritually powerful to work the (not great but still best) protected jobs in the afterlife, destroyed his enemies the great noble houses, and largely wrested government control from them.

It's not perfect, but you can't fault the man for his accomplishment.

[eco-lite]

I’m once again returning to do god’s work by bringing you delightful moments from Spock’s World by Diane Duane.

[Text ID: “Spock was bent over [the Science Station], making some adjustment. ‘Readout now,’ he said, straightening and looking over his shoulder at the large, shaggy-fringed rock that was sitting in the center seat. Some of those glittering fringes stroked the open circuitry of the communicator controls in the seat’s arm. ‘Point nine nine three,’ said a scratchy voice from the voder box mounted on the rock’s back. ‘A nice triple sine.’ ‘Nice?’ said Spock. Jim raised an eyebrow: you could have used Spock’s tone of voice to dry out a martini.” End ID]

There’s a Horta crewman on the Enterprise now and they’re great!

[Text ID: “Still working on her doctoral thesis, Jim thought. Uhura was busy working on improving universal translator theory, mostly by taking the old theory to pieces and putting it back together in shapes that were causing a terrible furor in academic circles on various planets. Jim vividly remembered one night quite a long time ago when he had asked Uhura exactly how she was going about this. She had told him, for almost an hour without stopping, and in delighted and exuberant detail, until his head was spinning with phoneme approximations and six-sigma evaluations and the syntactic fade and genderbend and recontextualization and linguistic structural design and the physics of the human dextrocerebral bridge. The session had left Jim shaking his head, thoroughly disabused of the idea (and ashamed of how long he had held it) that Uhura was simply a sort of highly trained switchboard operator.” End ID]

Uhura continues to be a total badass and is amazing at what she does.

[Text ID: Chatroom title in all caps: “COMMON ROOM OPINION, INFORMED AND NON- RANTING AND RAVING PERMITTED NAMES NOT NECESSARY” Regular text: “It was one of the places he came to find out what his crew was thinking. Messages did not have to be attributed to a name or terminal, but they could not be private. The office of the common room system operator rotated through the crew, offered to various members on the strength of their psych profiles in areas like calm reaction to stress and anger. The common room syops tended to be closemouthed and dependable, the kind of person that others refer to as ‘a rock.’ (Once it had actually been Naraht, to the amusement of just about everyone.) Here tempers could flare, awful jokes be told safely, suspicions be aired, rumors be shot down. The common room was sometimes a peaceful place, sometimes a powderkeg. Jim never ignored it.” End ID]

The Enterprise has a dumpster fire chat room that has just as much shitposting and vitriol as twitter.

[Text ID: “Jim bowed over her free hand. ‘It’s been too long,’ he said. ‘It’s good to be back,’ Amanda said. ‘And in the middle of a party as well.’ She looked a little wry. ‘A little entertainment will be pleasant before the deluge.’ Sarek’s eyes flicked to Kirk, a considering look. ‘My wife speaks figuratively,’ he said, ‘in the tradition of her people. Deluges are not common on Vulcan.’ ‘My husband speaks circumspectly,’ Amanda said, just as dryly, ‘in the tradition of his.’” End ID]

Amanda and Sarek are as charming as ever.

[Text ID: “Jim was mildly surprised to see that to his other rank tags and decorations, McCoy had added a small, understated IDIC. ‘If I didn’t know you better,’ he said, ‘I’d think you were going native. When did you get that?’ ‘Today in the gift shop, when you were looking at the snowball paperweights with Mount Seleya in them. Tackiest things I ever saw.’ ‘Yes,’ Spock said; ‘they were imported from Earth.’ ‘You be quiet. We can’t let these people leave the Federation, Jim. At least not until they teach us how to make tasteful souvenirs.’” End ID]

Just this.

[Text ID: “There was Sreil, the burly, brown-haired biologist from the Academy, and T’Madh, a little bright-eyed woman of great age and curiosity, a computer programmer; and her son Savesh, who when asked what he did, said, ‘I am a farmer,’ with a sort of secret satisfaction that hinted he thought his job better than any of the more technical ones that the people around him held. Jim had to smile; the thought of a Vulcan farmer was slightly funny, even though there naturally had to be some. But the image of a Vulcan in coveralls, chewing on a stalk of hay, kept coming up and having to be repressed.” End ID]

I love Savesh the Vulcan farmer!

[Text ID: “’Jim,’ he said, ‘the best translation of nehau would be an old word: “vibes.” The feeling-in-your-bones that something gives you. It’s highly subjective.’ ‘Right. Go on, Savesh.’ ‘Well, Captain, I have heard numerous Vulcans say that losing the Federation and the Earth people would be no particular loss, because they had bad nehau, and that could not fail to affect us sooner or later.. But I must tell you that I find your nehau not objectionable at all; pleasant, even.’ End ID]

Vulcan wanting to leave the Federation because the ~vibes~ are off.

[Text ID: “His grasp of dialect and idiom as amazing for anybody, off-planet or on. He once reduced the President of the United States—then a ceremonial post, but one much loved by the people who lived within the old borders—to tears of laughter at a state dinner, by delivering a learned dissertation on computer data storage technology in a flawless Texan accent. The lady was later heard to propose an amendment to the Constitution to allow off-worlders to hold high public office, so that she could have him for her running mate in the next election.” End ID]

I would give anything to hear Sarek do a perfect Texas accent.

[Text ID: “—but when Amanda became annoyed over what she perceived as his smugness about being right, her eyes would flash and she would become splendidly insulting, usually in bizarre Anglish idiom that Sarek found as refreshing as it was annoying. She caused him to laugh out loud for the first time in many years when she told him, after a disagreement over the translation of the word for war, that he should only grow headfirst in the ground like a turnip. Later that month, when he was right about something again and made the mistake of not immediately down-playing it, she issued him with a formal malediction, wishing that the curse of Mary Malone and her nine blind orphan children might pursue him so far over the hills and the seas that God Almighty couldn’t find him with a radio telescope. Sarek laughed so hard at that that he entirely lost his breath, and Amanda panicked and started to give him cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which was useless, because his heart was somewhere other than the spot on which she was pounding. It took him nearly an hour to recover: he kept laughing. He had never been cursed like that before, not even by union leaders, and it was very refreshing.” End ID]

This dynamic is perfect, no notes.

[Text ID: “The next night they sat in the Rec Deck again, in the middle of a large impromptu party that was going on around them by way of celebration. The sense of relief in the ship was palpable. A group of about a hundred crewfolk, mostly human, had surrounded Spock earlier in the evening and sung ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow,’ accompanied by twenty crewmen on kazoos. Sarek had been given champagne.” End ID]

I really hope the TOS Enterprise has crew performances like on Next Gen. This kazoo band needs to be heard! Also, I can perfectly picture Spock’s annoyed-but-tolerant expression as he resigns himself to the kazoo serenade.

Thank you @dianeduane for making me laugh!

[mischiefmaker615]

Hii, i absolutely love your work!!

I was wondering if for your song one shots if you're still doing them, if I could maybe request Jackie and Wilson by Hozier. I can just imagine a very sweet Loki being absolutely infatuated with reader and wanting to start thinking about having kids and it's all just very fluffy and sweet. I understand that you probably get loads of asks and if you're too busy don't worry about it.

Love your work!! xx

Summary/Inspiration: Jackie And Wilson by Hozier

Rating: PG13

Note: never to busy love :D always taking requests as long as my brain says it's possible LOL more Musical Mischief one shots here

Kitchen Care

It has been quite a long time since Loki’s had a skip in his step, a smile on his face and his usual ‘don’t bother me’ mood gone. Most fear has left those of the palace- still upholding their respectful places as they bowed and continued his bidding upon his request, but even they could tell that Loki was down right happier. Ever since..

She arrived.

She was a royal, sent from another realm very much like Asgard where she could live as an ambassador to be the bridge between each culture when messages needed to be sent. To everyone’s surprise, she was young, as young as the royal princes actually and by how peaceful the nine realms have been, she was very rarely called to work upon matters; leaving her much free time within Asgard’s palace. Furthering everyone’s surprise, she and the prince of mischief took a liking to each other instantly and have grown with a secret intended courtship throughout the years.

She was what distracted Loki from his royal duties, the one being that could calm him down and the very person he looked forward to see every waking day. They almost acted like children, his mischief being inspired by her laughter and swayed farther away from its usual chaos- to everyone’s relief. A simple prank was much preferred that utter chaos to everyone’s schedules.

Loki’s fingers would tap at his writing desk, almost edging off his seat as his instructor took his blood time wrapping things up before he would seek out Y/N. most of the time their secret meetings would be in the library, where they would share and compare while they shared the same seat, Loki very much preferring her to take his lap than requiring him to scoot over.

Upon finding her in the gardens, he would sneak up behind her and give her ass a playful smack before he would run ahead with her yelping behind him. it would then follow by her running after him, scoldings turning into laughter as he would run to Asgard’s mazes in which he would hide before surprising her once more with his arms around her waist.

Although they weren’t openly romantic per say in front of others, thinking they were doing a well good job keeping their courtship a secret, everyone could tell they were in love. How his stares would always linger whenever there was a court meeting or she would merely pass by. She was always at his arm whenever festivities would occur- almost every night where, of course, she was the only one he would dance with.

With Thor around, It was the only time he would get defensive, jealous, back to his old self as his mood would harden and he would insert himself between them protectively before he would have to lead her away.

The center of his happiness. Today, he stayed quiet as he crept into the palace kitchen and a grin tugged at his lips to find her there.

Although she was shooed and advised against it, Y/N would always sneak and help the servants out whenever she could. Many, even the maids would tell her there was no need but she would insist and take great pleasure in conversing and lessening the load upon them throughout the day. Today it would seem she was helping out with baking, her dress and cheeks lightly covered in flour while her hands worked at kneading the dough.

Loki’s eyes softened as he watched her, completely mesmerized as he leaned himself against the doorframe undetected before the mischievous glint shined in his eyes. It was to good of a chance to pass up. With a light flick of magic in his eyes, he transformed his appearance into a young maiden, looking like the female version of himself but with a servant’s dress and a bit of wrinkles to the fabric.

Trotting in, he smiled happily as he began washing his hands just behind her before he joined her side, taking the dough from her delicate hands, into his dainty ones.

‘’a royal such as yourself shouldn’t stoop low as to do our duties, allow me my lady,’’ Loki said, his voice feminine as he continued to roll the dough in his hands while she looked at him with a raise of the brow.

‘’do not think of yourself low my friend, everything that you all do it quite important to the palace and appreciate should be better shown from us.’’ Y/N shook her head and added more flour to the wooden board before Loki began rolling it out.

‘’and we are quite grateful in the opportunity to serve you, but you should let us take over,’’ Loki nodded over his shoulder to the other servants busy working behind them. ‘’there is more than enough hands to speed things up-‘’

‘’more hands make fast work, I would hope that would lead you all to your enjoyment pauses within your day faster’’ she smiled and started moving some of the seasonings a bit closer, holding some of the bottles up to try to identify them better before she separated some on the counters.

‘’I would just hate to see a princess like you to get herself dirty..’’ Loki tsked and began flattening some of the dough on the board.

‘’I could always wash up- though I am not a princess-‘’ she shook her head.

‘’you are not betrothed?’’ Loki raised a brow, glancing at her as he worked.

‘’what has your way of thinking such things?’’ she questioned, her movements slowing as she turned her back on her to retrieve a tray from the shelves beside the counter.

‘’pardon my lady.. it’s just you spent quite a large amount of time with the younger prince of Asgard.. one could only assume such things and it’s clear on how he feels towards you..’’ Loki said with a bit of shyness as he spoke, the humor in his heart a bit difficult not to show as he kept his eyes down.

‘’how he feelings?’’ Y/N pressed, coming slowly back to set a tray beside him before going through the drawers for varies shapes of dough cutters- decorative ones she’s managed to fetch from Midgard during their holiday seasons.

‘’he stares quite a lot, he rushes through things so he could keep up with your whereabouts..’’ he then lowered his voice, putting on secretive and gossip look as he grinned. ‘’I even heard he looks forward to possible heirs that might arise-‘’

Y/N cheeks reddened as she quickly turned, going to the counter across from Loki to pick up another bowl of fresh dough that needed to be rolled as well. ‘’no we’ve never- I mean.. you shouldn’t listen to idle gossip from those unless it’s coming from the individual themselves.. we are in love and will do things in a proper manner we see fit..’’

‘’ah, so you are a traditionalist?’’ Loki couldn’t help but grin and upon hearing no response, raised a brow of her whereabouts- fearing he might have teased a bit to much. As soon as he turned around to face her, a dollop of fresh, moist dough hit him square in the face, splattering on most of his features as he stumbled back and a flash of light made him drop his disguise by his distracted mind set.

‘’I was wondering how long you were going to keep that up Loki but was surprised you bothered bringing up such topics even you blush when I try’’ Y/N laughed and watched him wipe his face with an open calm, a sly look on his features as he stared her down.

‘’I enjoy putting you to the test darling, you detected me faster than most times. I was quite tempted to see if you were open to interacting with the opposite sex while I was at it’’ he winked and ducked when another glob of dough was thrown towards his head, missing him.

‘’why bother if you could shift into either anyway?’’ she laughed, embarrassment in her voice as she looked up from scooping up more, only to have a glob land at her chest, squeaking as it fell into her cleavage and Loki smirked as he gave his finger a small taste from the remnants of his throw.

‘’oh dear, allow me to retrieve it for you darling,’’ he smirked as he prowled forward, causing her to practically squeal and move herself to the other side of the table.

By now the rest of the servants have hidden their grins, quickly disappearing momentarily from the room as soon as they discovered the royal prince had entered and figured it best they weren’t in his way. Loki quickly made a move, chasing her around the table as they laughed and ducked as more dough was thrown, some missing and some landing and soon had both their faces and chest covered in flour and dough. Finally Loki gave up the chase and merely teleported himself in front of her, causing her to run into open arms before he engulfed her, squishing the dough more into herself as she pressed against his chest with a giggle.

When they both recovered from laugher, Loki’s smile hesitated and he leaned back a little so he could look into her eyes. ‘’so you were thinking about it at least?..’’

Y/N raised a brow at his question, resting her hands against his chest as she felt his arms rest around her waist. ‘’about what my prince?’’

A smiled gently at his title, knowing she was only teasing since he’s given her permission to call him by name years ago, but diminished when he clarified with a clear of his throat. ‘’you know.. baring children? Some day..’’

Her cheeks reddened with shyness at the topic, seeing how he was serious and nodded her head a little as she pressed her forward to his chest, hiding her eyes. ‘’I have- some day of course.. although we are still within our courtship where we are yet to come out publicly.. I wouldn’t wish to bring heirs unless it was with you.. I love you Loki..’’ she whispered, bringing her eyes back up to him with a loving smile where his heart fluttered.

Those words.. those sweet words he loved to hear as if it were the first time hearing them every time she said it.. it tightened his hold on her, bringing her close so he could brush his lips against hers. Her fingers gently tangled in his hair, feeling his head tilt to lean into her touch as he pressed more into her mouth. Knowing this moment will only make things.. strain a bit more, he made himself pull back and catch his breath as he smiled.

‘’shall we get cleaned up darling? It would save water usage if we both go together..’’ he winked and she laughed.

‘’as if the water usage problem would be yours.’’ She paused and glanced around ‘’we should clean up the mess first for them-‘’

Loki chuckled at her concern for the servant’s work, having a softened heart himself ever since she practically taught him to care and he rose a hand. ‘’you’ve always worn your heart of your sleeve darling.. allow me,’’ and with a flick of his wrist, the room was clean and back to normal.

‘’I appreciate it my prince, especially since apparently we’ll be one servant short now’’ she teased and he laughed.

‘’at least we won’t be short a princess..’’

Tag List: @foxherder  @asgards-princess-of-mischief @fire-in-her-veinz

[george228732]

Dededark Matter 2

Day 6:

The funeral came sooner than anyone expected, obviously without a body, because nothing even remained of Dedede, besides that black substance that was pitiful to look at - and they’d find it disrespectful to use that substance for the funeral procession, so they left it in the deceased’s room in an urn, to try and make it seem like he’s still there, even though no one would dare to open that room due to the sheer sadness it would evoke.

Everyone was prepared with funeral clothing, all with somber faces seeing how one of their people was no longer with them - it was so sudden too, with an illness that couldn’t be figured out until it was too late. At the very least they were happy that their king wouldn’t suffer anymore. 

Hyness was the priest on that day, blessing the site and then allowing his closest friends to say their final goodbyes in a more formal passion.

Everyone was on the verge of tears, or at the very least, couldn’t find the words for someone that passed so quickly - he had a long life ahead of him, but it all went crashing down for seemingly no reason other than life being unfair - death is like that sometimes; simply unfair, and out of nowhere.

Meta Knight was the first one to say his final goodbyes towards Dedede, and it was clear that he was doing his best to hide his grief, due to how slow he was talking, even slower than usual - he thought that he had already shed enough tears when the king passed in front of him, but it was clear that he wanted to cry more - not that his sense of duty would allow him to do that, thinking that he needed to be strong for the rest.

“...Goodbye, my king. May Hades, or wherever you go, be kind to you, for you have been kind to me, and I am sorry that I can’t accompany you this time in your journey. May you rest in peace.” Meta said before the grave of his lover and backed away.

“You were always the best person I could talk to, understanding my problems and always being free to talk with me - sure, you may have been a little mean at the start, but your pure heart is the thing that I’ll always keep in mind. May you rest in peace.” Bandee followed, similarly reserved like Meta.

“I-I’ll always remember all the gourmet races we did together, and our friendly battles! Please, wherever you are, please make sure to remember those like how I am doing now, I beg you. May you rest in peace.” Kirby was crying, but gained the courage to say those words before backing down with tears streaming down his cheeks like a river.

Soon, people started to give their blessings - some quiet and reserved, and some others sobbing until there were no more tears left in their system, and so, the funeral service continued, being as somber as it was from the start.

“...If only I had noticed sooner…” That was the sentiment Susie (and everyone else at the funeral) had at that time; perhaps if they knew what was going on earlier, they could’ve prevented it somehow - even though it was most likely a disease that couldn’t be cured, blaming themselves for their king’s death was the only thing they could do.

Soon enough, the funeral service ended, with everyone doing their best to honor Dedede’s memory, and to do so, the Star Allies decided to stay in the castle like yesterday, trying to feel as if the king was there with them, but obviously, he wasn’t and it was clear from the start, since the place had never felt so empty, without Dedede’s voice to cheer the Waddle Dees up, and speaking about them, they clearly had been taking his death the worst, not even deciding to work, or to make dinner for the rest, a thing everyone could understand perfectly.

“...” Meta Knight started to walk towards the empty throne, bowing as if someone was occupying it, and then got closer to it.

“What are you doing?” 

“Since the King has passed, someone must take its role to keep order, and considering my relationship with him, the one most appropriate to do it would be me, even if I think it’s dishonorable to do this just now, someone needs to take responsibility. 

“...Makes sense…” Kirby spoke up before walking away towards the kitchen, where the Star Allies were making the food themselves. Even though they didn’t have the strength to eat, they thought that it’d be a good way to distract themselves from their grief.

Lastly, everyone went to sleep in their respective guest rooms, hoping that the heavy atmosphere of today wouldn’t remain for tomorrow, even though it was clear that it’d take a while to adjust to the idea that one of their best friends wasn’t with them anymore.

Overall, it wasn’t a good day.

Day 7:

Fylass, sharing the bed with Kirby and Bandee was the first one to wake up, seemingly not even sleeping an inch thanks to yesterday, and not even bothering to take their funeral clothes, but at the end, it only reminded him of what he lost.

“...” He left the room as silently as possible to look at the morning sky - on days like these, Dedede would come here to comfort him about whatever dark feeling he might be going through, but obviously, that wouldn’t happen now. 

He now wanted to find someone that could comfort him during such dark times, but most people were asleep, and he didn’t want to wake anyone up, so he walked down the hallways, looking at the Waddle Dees doing their daily patrols, even though they were still sad thanks to Dedede’s departure.

Oddly enough, though, he found someone at the end of one of the empty hallways, carrying a lot of research with them.

“...Jade?” Fylass said, approaching her. She quickly took notice of Fylass’ presence and quickly came to look at him.

“Ah, hello…! Did you sleep well…?” She said, until she realized that the kid had clear eyebags and his way of walking made it clear that he barely slept yesterday, so she started regretting asking that question.

“...Not really… I guess you know why…”

“Yeah… he will be missed.” For someone like Fylass, he found it impressive that Jade seemed to be taking the whole thing better, or at least, that’s what the little bird thought.

“...Yes…” Fylass hung his head looking at the ground and started shedding some tears, but quickly tried to cover that up with his arm. 

“So… What are you doing…?” Fylass asked, looking at Jade’s research.

“I am just… trying to investigate more about Dark Matter… To prevent a repeat scenario and such… I still don’t really get how it happened so fast, but it was clear that Dark Matter was involved, so I must investigate the why before someone else goes through the same…”

“I see… Can I help? I should know something about it, right? Sure, you made some groundbreaking discoveries with some of your other research if I remember correctly, but I still want to be of some use for this… Dad is dead, so I want to prevent any more tragedies related to it…”

Jade pondered for a moment about what to say, but she finally reached an answer.

“No, it’s fine… Don’t worry, I wouldn’t want to burden you with my work anyway…”

“...Can I at least get a hug from you? No one’s awake at the moment…”

“Of course…”

Fylass received a hug from his older sister, but from his back, he felt something wet, like droplets of water falling down his clothes - he paid it no mind though, since he felt too gloomy to care.

—

Soon enough, people started to wake up, putting on some clothes and going to the dining room to see if there was any breakfast there for them. 

Gladly enough, there was breakfast being prepared, but it’s not like there was any appetite left within them for now, but for mere courtesy, they decided to sit down and eat.

“...” Fondue was the one in charge of preparing breakfast, and even though there was no energy left within him, it was at the very least appropriate to keep on working under the new rule under Meta Knight they knew was coming.

“...If Meta was going to end up being a king anyway…” He thought to himself - he didn’t have any hard feelings towards Meta, obviously, but he felt empty knowing that his beloved king was gone and would never come back…

The breakfast was done with love, like always, but it still felt hollow, due to the grief of today and yesterday - it was as if the food didn’t even want to taste good, or even bad, just… nothing.

Soon, when they had finished eating, they all simply left after saying thank you. 

Fondue just simply went back to his room, and simply sobbed on the other side of the door - Dedede was one of the most important people in his life after all.

“Why…? Why did you have to leave us like that?! I’ll never forgive you for that!” He said, obviously not mad at the dead, but simply sad that he was even unable to tell him goodbye when it all happened.

When he had stopped sobbing though, he realized that the sobbing continued, even though it wasn’t his - it was odd for sure, so he went out of his way to try and find the source of the crying in his room, to check if some Waddle Dee was in here somehow. 

Soon, though, he realized that the source came from directly outside his room, so by not trying to be disruptive, he placed his cheek on the door to check who was crying in his place; sure enough, he almost missed it, but it was immediately clear who was the one crying. It was Meta.

“Oooooh… Dedede…” Those were the words Meta muttered behind the door, seemingly not realizing there was someone nearby, which made sense, not many people went to this specific area of the castle; Meta perhaps thought that he would get some privacy here.

“Why did you leave me alone? I’ll never forgive you for it!” Meta said, sniffling. “Now I have to take the place you left behind! Long ago, I would’ve wished for this moment, but now, I only want you to come back…”

“...” Fondue just kept on listening, not wanting to interact with the conversation Meta had with himself, but deep down, he wanted to help, since both were probably feeling the exact same thing in terms of grief - Dedede was the most important person of their lives, after all.

—

Day 8:

A new day followed, still with some of the gloomy feeling from the past two days, but at the very least, it was more tolerable… 

Magolor walked towards the hallways of the castle due to having lost something on the way, when he realized something was off. These were oddly emptier than usual, and felt some sense of foreboding down his spine. 

He kept on walking to see what was happening around here, and that’s when he realized something - Dedede’s room was open.

“...W-What?!” Magolor entered the room to see who was intruding in there - it had been an agreement between them that no one would enter this room to honor Dedede’s memory, at the very least for now, so who would be there? 

“Who’s there?!” Magolor asked.

Then he realized sooner than later who was on the other side - it was Susie, and Taranza as well…

“W-What are you guys doing here?! I thought we agreed to never touch this room!”

“Magolor! Er… W-We can explain!” Taranza said to Magolor, and the latter realized that they were not only inside this room without permission, but were also taking Dedede’s urn with them.

“Huh?! What are you doing with that! Leave it there, you might break it!”

“Listen, we’re doing this for the greater good, just let us do our thing!” “What are you even doing?! It seems that it wasn’t enough for both of you to annoy him in life, now you have to do it as well when he’s dead?!” “Oh, that’s rich coming from you, Magolor, but listen! We are planning to bring Dedede back to life!”

“Yeah, as if I-... Wait, what did you say?!” Magolor demanded an explanation.

“Look, I know that we might need to move on and all, but how could we when we found a solution to bring Dedede back from the dead?! It’d be beneficial for all of us! Most of us barely ate yesterday and Fondue told me that Meta was on the verge of having a breakdown, one of the many he witnessed! It’s clear that we need to do this, or else the Star Allies might crumble into despair!”

“...And how are you planning to do that?”

“Remember when I came down to this planet to use its resources? And one of the things I did to try and stop Kirby was making a clone of Dedede using his DNA? What if we use that to bring Dedede back?!”

“Huh? And how?! Dedede doesn’t have a body anymore where we could use his DNA, there’s only black goop!”

“Well, that black goop is Dark Matter! I already cloned Dark Matter before! What if we try to use my techniques again to try and revive Dedede?! It might not be the regular Dedede we know, but it should be fine! He’ll be back!”

“And how are you so sure about this?!”

“...Please, trust us. We know what to do. When we lost Sectonia and Haltmann, we tried our best to move on from that, and it’s safe to say that we did do our best, but it was only with the help of the Dream Team and the Star Allies that we found a better life together. We need to do this, we know how to do this! So, please… let us go back to how things were back then…

“...”

@moonmacabre01 Creator of Fondue

@turquoisetuber Creator of Jade

[k-hotchoisan]

Hongjoong x fem! Reader

Rule #4: got you wrapped around my finger babe, you can count on me to misbehave. Swamped with exams and finals, it was hard not to feel stressed. Thank god your new teaching assistant was there, right?

The finale of the guide—the rules of being a heartbreaker are simple, but whether or not anyone is able to implement them without letting themselves falter is another thing. So do you falter against the four men you entangled yourself with?

Word count: 6.2K

Warnings: general smut, dick sucking, dom!hongjoong, creaming, multiple orgasms, spanking, choking, studentxteacher

A/n: THE FINALE!!!!! Ngl I was struggling to find a way to tie loose ends together on top of thinking of a smut scene. And as we buckle up for the final ride, I want to thank everyone who has been interacting with this series, giving it so much love! ❤️💞 MAY YOUR TOILET SEAT BE ALWAYS COLD!!! THANK YOU FOR WAITING!

Tag list: @yourfatherlucifer @inniesworld (from twt!) 💌

❤️ how to be a heartbreaker: main guide ❤️

You couldn’t stop thinking about Seonghwa. When you thought about him, San flashed through your mind, then Wooyoung. You bit your lip. You simply wanted to have some fun, obviously, but at this point you were having way too much fun, being dicked down by three different men, and all of them able to send you to different realms of pleasure. You wondered if you had struck gold or entered a beast’s cavern by doing this. Nonetheless, one thing was for certain—you fucking loved the attention and how each of them fucked you so well, in their own unique ways. You could get addicted to each of their tastes at this point—as long as you didn’t get emotionally tangled with them.

Seonghwa had sent you back to your apartment before leaving for his work, and you stretched, still dazed over the sex you and Seonghwa had. You slapped your cheeks, keeping yourself in check. This was lowkey dopamine-inducing.

You left your laptop to charge in your room as you headed into the shower to freshen up. You only had one class today and you could come back to clear the remainder of your assignment.

The next few days you were stuck on campus, as the semester was ending, so were the deadlines, and for a good while, that took your mind off the three men, since you didn’t have the time to reply to their messages anyway. Miyeon barely had time to meet up with you, only doing so during her pockets of free time because she was caught up in her own deadlines, and sometimes she had to stay overnight in school to finish up. Being a fashion major was a lot more harder than you realised.

You started spending more time at a smaller campus library since it was a lot peaceful and quiet , despite being slightly out of the way. You did ping Seonghwa that you’d be pretty busy to meet him (well, if he wanted to meet) as well.

On some days, you stayed in pretty late and you’d see a boy with his nose in his books as well. He seemed to be always dressed in casual-formal clothing and he had stacks of papers beside an open laptop, his face hidden behind a pair of glasses and his laptop. But you didn’t have time to bother with the identity of that male because you had assignments waiting to be completed.

The next day, you attended your tutorial class and you spotted a new face standing beside your lecturer. Your professor briefly introduced the male as teaching assistant Kim Hongjoong, and you overheard whispers and squeals of how handsome the new teaching assistant was. Yeah, he was really good looking—all his features fitted all perfectly—even if the thick, black-framed glasses hid most of his features. He bowed slightly and walked over to the teacher’s desk, taking a seat. He scanned the class before beginning shuffling his papers before him, beginning to be engrossed with them.

The class quickly ended and you caught Hongjoong staring at you for a spilt second before breaking the contact. You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion—for some reason it was as if you saw him around before. You shook your head at the insignificant thought, because you had deadlines to fight with, and your main worries were if the library still had seats.

On the way, you spotted a familiar figure from a distance and it seemed like he spotted you as well, as he stopped in his tracks for a moment before jogging over to you, his smile spreading across his face. His arms wrapped around you as you had to process the sudden physical affection from him.

“Wooyoung!” You greeted. “Don’t you have class?”

“Yeah, I’m on the way”, he replied. “But genuinely y/n, it’s so nice to see you around. I hate to be cheesy but I really missed you.”

You smiled sheepishly. “Sorry for kind of ghosting you and also for the things I said. Had a lot of stuff going on too.”

Wooyoung shrugged it off. “No, you’re probably right about it. I shouldn’t be an ass, going around and playing with girls like that. What you said kind of hit a sore spot for me though.” He paused for a moment. “I heard about what happened with San from him though. Dick move from him honestly.”

You took a sharp breath, tucking your hair behind your ears. “It’s whatever. It’d be stupid to keep on harping over this. I made it clear to him too anyway.”

“That’s great to know”, and he stepped closer, and your breath hitched. “I really, really missed you though. Let’s play again sometime, please?”

You felt your cheeks flush a little at how direct and flirtatious he was being. He didn’t stop there, as his fingers snaked in between yours, and he continued, “I stopped breaking other girls’ hearts already. I promise.”

You somehow found that so endearing and borderline adorable. He was pretty fuckingwhipped for you. You lifted both of your intertwined hands up close to your lips and smiled. “Of course. But after my deadlines and finals okay?”

Wooyoung’s contagious smile appeared as he nodded, releasing both of your fingers. He jogged back to his friend after waving bye to you. You stood there, swimming in your thoughts, thinking of when to meet Wooyoung again because truthfully, he was really fun, both on the streets and between the sheets. But you decided to hold that thought for another day as you picked up the pace to your usual library spot.

The library was pretty packed and that was starting to irritate you. It wasn’t Wooyoung’s fault that you didn’t make it in time because you willingly entertained him, but it was annoying that you couldn’t find a seat. You walked down each aisle, hopping to see a vacant spot at least, and you do—one seat left within a long row of occupied ones and was facing another student. You brisk walked over, approached the person sitting opposite it, asking if the seat was taken. His face looked vaguely familiar but you couldn’t put your finger on it.

When he gave you the green light, youplopped your stuff onto the vacant table before sinking into the wooden chair, switching on the table lamp and pulling your laptop out.

The long table started to empty as dusk fell and your mess started to expand across the next table. Man, it felt never-ending with churning out the study notes. You stood up and stretched a little to get the blood circulating through your body, and your eyes landed on the male sitting opposite you. He was still engrossed with what it seemed like marking assignments? You glanced at his face and it clicked. It was the new teaching assistant! He blended too well into the ambiance of the library, that’s for sure.

“Ms y/n, I can feel your boring a hole in my head, you know”, he stated, still not looking up, and your gaze immediately travelled elsewhere after being caught red-handed. He finally looked up at you and you side-glanced him, soaking in his features. Shit, he was really quite the looker, and him staring right into the windows of your soul—even through the glasses—was starting to make your legs feel like jelly.

You plopped back down onto your seat, hiding behind your laptop screen. This time you felt Hongjoong’s stare right onto you.

As the evening dragged on, you began packing up, feeling the hunger pangs since it was dinner time already. You glanced at Hongjoong one more time, and this time he’s very engrossed in his work, tapping away vigorously at his keyboard. You decided to leave him be, considering he seemed to look determined to finish whatever he was up to. Pulling your bag up to your shoulders, you pushed the chair in as quietly as you could. But even that caught the male’s attention.

His eyes flickered to you. “Going off already?” He asked, and you could see the slight eye bags under his eyes.

“Yeah I’ve got other stuff to do”, you replied, forcing a small smile.

“Well, I’ll see you in class tomorrow”, Hongjoong responded, as his gaze goes back to his papers.

“See you Mr Kim,” you said, before adding, “try to get home early and eat something okay?”

And you swore you saw a glint of smile on Hongjoong’s face as he gave you a small nod before returning back to his papers.

“Assistant Kim has marked your assignments and I’ve checked through them. Should you have any questions regarding your grades or the assignments, feel free to approach either one of us”, your professor announced as he passed half of the load to Hongjoong to hand out.

As you waited for your name to be called out, you began getting lost in your daydreams, which got interrupted by your name being called by Hongjoong, who had to repeat your name twice. You snapped out of it and quickly rush to him. You met his eyes, expressionless, and then you glanced to your assignment.

It was a decent grade, but you wondered about the comments that were marked in red by Hongjoong’s rather messy handwriting. You turned to the teaching assistant, “Assistant Kim, could we go through the assignment together?”

Hongjoong raised his eyebrows but nodded. “Let’s meet at the library in the afternoon when you’re done with your remaining classes then. See you then.”

For some reason, your heartbeat quickened. Never in your years in uni did you approach your professors one to one. You walked back to your seat, and you classmate tapped your shoulder as she gushed, “oh my gosh you’ve got guts asking Assistant Kim for a one on one consultation!” You scoffed.

“It’s nothing. It’s not like he’s gonna eat you up.”

She sighed dreamily. “He’s so cute though. I’m too shy to approach him.”

It was pretty valid though. Truthfully, you just wanted to ask about your grade and assignment, you already saw a whole line of students choking the queue with your professor, so you deduced that it wouldn’t hurt to just approach the teaching assistant.

Surprisingly, Hongjoong barely took up spaces in your mind as you were trying to keep up with your classes. During your hour break, you went to catch up with Miyeon, who despite her endless amount of assignments, still put in the effort to look flawless. Nonetheless, you could tell her finals were wearing her down quite a lot.

“Hi bestie”, Miyeon greeted, giving you a tight hug. You returned the hug, hoping it’d energise her. The both of you linked arms as you stepped into the food court.

“What are the chances of a really cute guy as my teaching assistant?” You brought up, knowing she loved that kind of gossip.

“Oooh who is it?” Miyeon hummed as she poked the chicken with her chopsticks.

“This teaching assistant named Kim Hongjoong. The girls in my module have been fawning over him since the semester started.”

Miyeon shook her head. “Don’t think I’ve heard about him before. Got a picture?”

You pulled out your phone, attempting to search the student portal for his teaching profile, and Kim Hongjoong’s profile popped up, albeit his photo seemed pretty outdated, looking a lot more, um, nerdier than how he looked now. You flipped you phone over to let Miyeon see. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“That’s him?”

You turned your phone back to you to inspect the photo. “Damn, that’s probably an old photo.” And the both of you snickered as you finished your food and catching up.

You were dreading to get back to the library, having to bury your nose in books again until dusk broke, or however quickly you were able to finish your study notes. You reached your table and you felt someone staring right at you. You glanced to the side and Hongjoong was there already, sitting beside you instead of opposite you. “Hi sir”, you greeted hastily, hoping you still looked presentable. You were about to at least settle down and apply a layer of lip balm or two and fix your hair but there Hongjoong was, with indifference in his expression as he greeted you back with a soft voice.

“Do you want to take five before we dive into your consultation?” He asked, his focus back on his laptop screen. You started wondering if it was gonna get even more awkward, so you declined. “It’s fine, we can get started right away”, you replied, taking a seat beside him, and his cologne hits you instantly. The session was barely starting and you felt yourself spiralling a little already.

“So,” Hongjoong began. “You actually did pretty well for this assignment. What did you want to consult about?”

You tried to best to focus and forget about the scent of Hongjoong just whirling around you. You glanced at your paper, and pointed out a few parts you wanted to clarify. Hongjoong, despite only a teaching assistant, was probably a hidden gem of some sort because even though you were fighting for your life trying to get his scent out of mind, you still managed to understand what he was saying to you.

When he finished, you beamed, pleased as you scribbled down his pointers, finally understanding.

“Thank you Mr Kim!” you smiled, meeting his gaze. Despite his professionalism, you saw a glint of satisfaction in his eyes. “Anything else?” He asked. You shook your head.

“Do you want to go through the exam guide then? The exam is coming up, isn’t it?” Oh right. That’s what you were studying for as well. Prof had handed out the exam guide like two weeks ago. You pulled out the guide from your bag, remembering you had scribbled down on the paper what you wanted to clarify but gave up immediately when you saw the snaking line of students.

Hongjoong gently took the paper from your hands as he studied what you wrote, and you suddenly felt self conscious of your hand writing. But Hongjoong simply pulled out a pad of sticky notes seemingly out of nowhere and started to tunnel in parts of the exam guide to take note, on top of going over your scribbled questions.

Time passed more quicker than your expected and you were able to cut your study notes down since Hongjoong was able to answer your questions.

“Thank you Mr Kim~ if I ace this exam, I’ll treat you something nice”, you hummed as you studied your study notes. Hongjoong only smiled in reply.

The next few weeks your spot in the library was beside Hongjoong. At some point, half way through your study session, you suddenly questioned him, “Sir, don’t you have an office? Why spend time in the library?” Things became more lighthearted the more you spent your time with him, but of course you were cautious since he was your teaching assistant.

“You can call me Hongjoong,” he corrected you. “And I do. I just don’t really like how cramped my desk is, since you know, I’m a teaching assistant.” You nodded slowly in acknowledgement. You went back to finishing up your notes and a sigh of relief escaped your lips as you slowly shut down your laptop. Holy fuck, you were set for the exam. Hongjoong only glanced from the sidelines as a smile smile spread across his lips. He knew you were gonna do fine anyway.

The exam days came and went, and if it wasn’t the exam anxiety eating you up, it was Kim Hongjoong. His smell was starting to be very familiar—almost comforting, given you spent almost every week together. Even during the examinations, he’d sneak you small smiles as he gaze met yours while he walked around the classroom.

Sprawling your upper body as you laid onto the study tables outside class, you were relieved that the exams were over, only the final assignment left. Footsteps stopped at the bench you were at, and you, thinking it was Miyeon, automatically went, “hey babe-“ until you looked up. Hongjoong’s had an eyebrow cocked, and you slowly looked away as your hands slapped over your mouth.

“Babe?” He reiterated, almost smiling. You turned your head right back at him, hiding your embarrassment with the fakest smile.

“I thought you were my friend. I am so sorry”, you apologised, eyes still widened in embarrassment. He moved and took an empty seat beside you, and you realised how close he was the moment his familiar smell hits you. It registered even more the moment he turned to face you, your faces almost inches apart.

“Can I help you Hongjoong? The students are gonna say something if you’re this close to me”, you teased, the embarrassment from before gradually fading.

“Class ended like fifteen minutes ago, and this place is pretty far from our class, isn’t it?” Hongjoong teased back. Fuck butterflies, you had a whole ass zoo in your stomach.

You tilted your head in amusement, unknowingly inching nearer to his face. “Very funny, Hongjoong”, you humoured him. “What do you have for me?”

And Hongjoong was almost lost in your eyes for a good second, and if one wasn’t eagle-eyed, they’d miss the speed of how quick Hongjoong’s glaze flashed to your lips before going back to your eyes immediately.

“I’ve got news”, he announced as he slowly backed away from you, taking you in full view. “Your grades are out.”

You expression immediately switched over, scrabbling to open your laptop to log into the student portal. Hongjoong was leaning in, still smiling.

You logged into the student portal and your cursor flew to the ‘Grades’ section as you clicked. The webpage loaded and your grade was splayed across the screen. You had passed with flying colours. The dopamine rush hits you as you squealed. You turned to look at Hongjoong, who was staring at you fondly the whole time. “I knew you’d do fine, y/n”, he reiterated.

“And now I owe you a meal. Well the semester’s almost over. I’ll treat you when I submit my final assignment”, you promised. Hongjoong nodded, satisfied with the agreement. Of course , he wanted you to clear this semester with a peace of mind.

With a final click, you push the submit button and your hands went up in the air in relief. “Fucking finally,” you cried out. Miyeon laughed. She was a lot more chipper since she was also finishing her semester. You felt a weight lifted from your shoulders, that’s for sure. The sudden reminder of having a meal with Hongjoong bubbled to the surface and you feel your heart racing. Right, you promised him.

“Oh look who’s here. Is that the teaching assistant you were talking about?” Miyeon whispered. Your gaze followed hers and you spot a gorgeously dressed male walking over. It was definitely Hongjoong. He was evidently in good spirits as he approached.

Miyeon’s smirk grew wider as she pretended not to notice and held her phone at her ears, pretending to be in a call. You couldn’t help but laugh at how shady she was looking

“Hey, y/n”, Hongjoong called out, his hands only carrying a leather briefcase. He’s dressed in a shirt, tie and trousers today, he had forgone his usual glasses, and your breath was almost taken away by how fucking good he looked. Almost.

“Hi Hongjoong”, you greeted, already used to calling him so casually. “What’s up with the look today?”

“Had a presentation so I needed to dress up a little”, he replied. “I think I aced it.”

“Mmm. Right. You sure would have”, you observed, eyeing him down. He did the same to you, looking at how your outfit was hugging you at the right places.

“Right. You haven’t forgotten our little arrangement right?”

“Well, you found me at the right time when I just submitted my report”, you hummed.

He placed his bag on the bench table and leaned towards you. At your peripheral vision, Miyeon’s eyes widened in disbelief as she was doing her best to suppress her laughter.

“Excuse my friend here. She’s having a whale of a conversation with her other friend”, you waved off before Hongjoong started to catch onto something.

Hongjoong gave Miyeon a tiny nod and she smiled back politely before glaring back at you.

“I’ll steal your friend for a date she promised me,” Hongjoong smiled as his hands grabbed your shoulders gently. And there it was—his scent again. Miyeon blinked twice before feigning laughter, telling the both of you to go ahead.

As the both of you settled into his car, a “damn you look good without glasses”, slipped past your lips. Hongjoong’s smile spreader over his face and you see it in its glory—his teeth were perfect and his smile fitted his face so fucking well.

“So you’re saying I look ugly with them on?” Hongjoong laughed as he begins revving the engine. You rolled your eyes. “You know what I meant, Kim Hongjoong.” Playfulness only danced in the glint of his eyes.

You tell him the location of the restaurant and the both of you set off, carrying your conversations in the car.

Unable to decide on a place to eat, the both of you ended up settling on eating at a local kimbap place. The conversations were mostly about school and assignments.

“So Hongjoong, why don’t you have a girlfriend? You know you’re like, insanely popular with the girls in our class right?”

Hongjoong almost choked on his food at the suddenly statement. “I’m flattered to hear that”, he coolly replied as he downed half a glass of water. “I think I just think my tastes are pretty, um, specific. We have really good looking girls in our class, but I don’t know, I just don’t think about them.”

You nodded in acknowledgment. For the most part, you observed him during consultation sessions right after class, and he would always have that virgin ass gap when a female student would approach him. It was pretty ridiculous now that you thought about it. Then your mind wandered when he had interactions too close for comfort during your study sessions and that one time when you called him ‘babe’ by accident.

You pieced things together quite quickly, but at the same time, you wondered if he realised it himself—or if he was just playing dumb with you.

“What about you? No boyfriend?” He asked, passing the baton over to you, snapping you out of your thoughts.

“Nope. I haven’t really decided on committing”, you answered. Hongjoong didn’t seem fazed by that answer, probably because he knew you were still pretty young.

The dinner went on pretty smoothly, the conversation finally drifting past mostly school-related to more personal things from there.

“It’d be a waste to just end the night here, especially since it’s the last day of the semester”, you hum into the night.

“What are you trying to insinuate?” Hongjoong asked suspiciously.

You turned to him and rolled your eyes playfully. “I’m saying, that I’m not done with the night yet. So I’m going off?”

“To where?”

“I don’t know. All I know that it’s too early to go home”, you replied, gently bumping into him.

“Alone?” He asked in disbelief.

You nodded. “Why not? Might get a couple of drinks on the way.”

“I have beer at home”, he spilled, almost immediately. “You don’t need to wander around by yourself.”

You turned to Hongjoong, and you realised he’s eyeing you up as his body stiffens.

“I don’t drink beer”, you answered, a smile curling to your lips, and you saw him slowly getting frustrated.

“We can buy on the way”, he quickly replied, inching closer to you. You let him stay on the fence of suspense for a second before blinking and agreeing. Hongjoong lets out a rather loud exhale.

He brought you to his car and the both of you drove off, stopping at a nearby convenience store to get your liquor of choice, then going back to Hongjoong’s place.

Hongjoong told you to make yourself at home while he went off to freshen up a little, and you go ahead and sink into his soft couch. It didn’t take him long to come back and he spotted you lying on his couch comfortably, your head craning over at his presence.

You sat up and he walked over, taking a seat beside you, your knees bumping against his. He cleared his throat and reaches for the alcohol in the plastic bag. The cap is popped open and you take the drink from, humming “thanks” as you take small sips. He stares at you in disbelief.

“I…was gonna drink that”, he said, blinking. You stared back at him.

“Are you saliva conscious?” You asked, before tipping the bottle upwards, your lips touching the tip again.

He shakes his head, something else clouding his mind as he stared at you lick the rim of the opening. He took the bottle from you after you offer and took a big gulp, telling himself not to over think.

But it only got worse from there. When you came back from a bathroom break, as you tried to walk past him, you trip on air and landed right onto his lap. As you tried to squirm back, it only got more complicated as you end up grinding against his crotch on accident, and Hongjoong’s patience was running thin. He tried to get you up, but that only caused a soft moan to escape your lips as his touch around your waist sends you small electric shocks.

Hongjoong snaps.

He grabs your shoulders and pushes you against the cushions, his gaze digging into yours.

“You’ve really had fun playing around with me, huh?” Hongjoong whispered as his fingers ran up your waist to your chest, then to your shoulders, and finally your neck.

You smirked back at him, inching closer to his lips, and he was ready to dive in, until you pulled away, a sly smile flashing across your lips. Hongjoong couldn’t decide if he loved it or not, but he’s done with your teasing, because before you knew it, his fingers were grabbing your jaw, and you saw something spark in his eyes as he turned your head to face him. His hand slowly traced down to your neck, and his grip tightened, sending electric shocks down your spine.

“But you love it don’t you?” You hummed as his grip relaxed, staring at him directly in his eyes. Hongjoong takes a deep breath, evidently unable to control himself.

“Well, you certainly made things a little more interesting for me”, he replied, lust taking over his gaze, and that only made you shiver in anticipation.

You loved how Hongjoong had his fingers wrapped around your throat, like he owned you, hitching your arousal. He gave your throat another squeeze, and your eyes rolled back a little more, stars splattered across the inside of your eyelids.

“You seem to be in bliss, darling. You like my hands around your neck that much?”

Your eyes rolled back to meet his, and your lips curled into a smile. “Yeah. I’d love it even more if you fucked me while you choke me like this”, you replied, your hands snaking around Hongjoong’s. You see hints of rationale snapping in his eyes and his breathing grew heavier. He dived in for a hungry kiss, licking and consuming every part of your mouth. You could barely keep up, especially since he still had his hands around your neck.

He removed his hand from your neck, staring at the soft pink imprints his fingers left on your neck. He wanted to paint it even more, mark it even more, like his own canvas, and the thought of it only went directly to his dick.

Of course, you were always there to be the instigator.

He unbuckled his slacks and pulled it off, leaving on his boxers and his erection painfully pressed against the fabric. You wondered how much more you should push him, because it was getting pretty evident that he loved it rough.

He tugged his tie loose, trying to undo it, all while his gaze never leaving yours. Since he enjoyed looking you so much, you wanted to rile him up even more, so you climbed on all fours and tugged his boxers down, and his cock freed from the fabric, a thin string of precum staining his boxers. Hongjoong’s significance wasn’t really his length, but definitely, definitely, his girth. You tucked a lock of hair behind your ear, soaking his tip with your saliva. He groaned, his hands immediately travelling up to your hair, and tugging. Fuck, the electricity that travelled down your spine felt so good. You continued to go in deeper, taking in as much you could, feeling his cock twitch in your mouth.

“Fuck, y/n, you’re really a cockslut huh?” He grunted, bucking his hips, pretty much fucking your face at this point. His precum and your saliva were pooling at the corners of your mouth as your the vibrations of your moans only encouraging him to fuck your face even more. You fluttered your gaze right up at him and he almost loses it—you looking up at him innocently, with his cock shoved in your mouth. He pulled you hair back, and your lips leave his cock uncovered, now completely soaked, a string of fluid connecting from your mouth to his cock. Even that sight was driving Hongjoong up the wall—and he hadn’t even started fucking you yet.

His fingers stroking your chin as you looked up at him, you found yourself getting lost in his wild gaze. His hands found your hair again, and he pulled as his lips starved collided with yours, his kisses more aggressive than ever. The sensation of your hair being pulled tingling your pussy, the way Hongjoong’s tongue was soaking yours with his spit.

You managed to pull away slightly to speak, “Hongjoong”, you breathed, “need your cock in me, please.”

Hongjoong cocked an eyebrow. “You’re already begging? But since you asked so nicely” His grip releases, and he lets you fall back on his office couch. He slipped his tie from his neck and tightened a knot on both of your wrists. The flashback of you doing that to Seonghwa flicked into your mind, suddenly remembering how fucked out and desperate he looked withering before you, and now you were below Hongjoong, in Seonghwa’s position now.

Hongjoong‘s fingers wrapped around your neck now, and you felt your sanity slipping every time he squeezed your throat gently. Before you could even prepare yourself, Hongjoong already pushed his tip into you, and then his whole length so quickly. The fact he was thick only made things a whole lot more mind-breaking for you, his cock stretching you out on top of stuffing you full. You threw your head back in absolute bliss, your legs shaking as he bottomed out on you, his cock just filling up every space in your cunt.

“Look at you, taking my cock so well. You’re squeezing me so much. Too big for you?” He teased, lightening his grip around your neck for you to respond to him.

“Hongjoong”, you cried out. “Fuck, your cock feels amazing.” Hongjoong smiled as his ego inflated.

“That’s a good cockslut. I’ll make sure you’ll see stars for the next few days even after today’s fuck.”

He pulled out almost completely, and slammed right in, the nerves in your walls feeling every part of Hongjoong’s cock, the sensation had you fighting against the restraints, and a voiceless moan escaped, the arousal heightening even more with his hand around your neck. He continued fucking you into the couch, releasing his grip from time to time to soak in your pleas and moans.

He released his grip around your neck, his lips diving to your neck, biting and sucking, leaving a wake of bites on your neck and shoulder as his hands travelled to both of your thighs to hold them up, and he continued fucking into you.

“So good. So fucking good, Hongjoong”, you whispered into his ear as he continued to litter more hickeys across your bare skin. “Fuck me deeper, please.”

He smirked as he slammed right into you, sending more sparks behind your eyelids. Your legs trembled from the pleasure, loving how deep Hongjoong’s cock was driving into you.

“Hongjoong, I think I’m gonna cum”, you cried out, the knot in your stomach tightening.

“That’s my good girl”, he hummed, gently combing your hair back behind your ears. You were spiralling—how the fuck is he so aggressive and so gentle at the same time?

You bursted into pleasure as your orgasm consumed you whole, loving how he fucked you so deep as you creamed on his cock.

He began rutting into you, desperately trying to reach his orgasm. “Cumming… fuck”, he trailed off as he pushed in deep, spurting his cum right into your quivering hole. Your body was shaking from the pleasure as he released in you, whining and whimpering.

Hongjoong pulled out, and grunting at how sensitive his cock felt as he pulled out of you. His cum leaking out of your pussy only made you shiver even more, as he stared at your pussy quivering and pushing out his semen. He looked proud.

Hongjoong then walked over to grab a box of tissues after releasing his tie from your hands. He kneeled down, in front of your spread legs.

“Don’t move”, he instructed as you were still trying to catch your breath. He pulled out a handful of tissues and gently wiped you down. When he deemed that your pussy was not overflowing with his cum at least, he discarded the used tissues into the bin. He rubbed your thighs as you slowly sat up, then taking your hand into his, looping his other arm around your waist as he led you to his bathroom. Your heart fluttered how gently he was treating you, especially after fucking you so hard.

“Thank you Hongjoong”, you couldn’t help but say, avoiding his gaze. For fuck’s sake, he was the teaching assistant. And you just had sex with him in his apartment. His place was really out of the way, so when he offered you to stay the night, you agreed.

Only you realised it was a mistake when you changed out to one of his dress shirts, with only a pair of underwear underneath, Hongjoong couldn’t help himself, towering over you the moment you sat on the bed, trapping you between his arms before hungrily kissing you. The sight of you in his shirt had turned him on so much that he insisted you leave the shirt on when he pulled down your panties, and fucked you senseless with his shirt on—twice. He made sure that he unloaded everything into you, panting about being getting hard again the moment he pulled out and seeing you with cum leaking from your cunt while your face was flushed with pleasure, in his dress shirt. For some reason, that set him off.

Mingi was around your apartment with Miyeon, and he jumped as he read a message from his phone. “Y/n, I think you best prepare yourself.” You turned to him, confused, “for what?”

“It seems like San, Woo, Hongjoong and Hwa found out you slept with all of them and Hongjoong wants to meet you.”

“I mean they were fucking good though, like, no lie.” This only earned Mingi’s eye roll.

“I don’t know how you did it but, you definitely got these men hooked. You’d better find a way to settle this.”

Sure enough, a message pinged on your phone from Hongjoong, asking to meet up at a nearby cafe.

You entered the cafe, already knowing what to expect, as you neared a table with four familiar men. Wooyoung had his arms crossed with a pout on his face, San was looking up at you with thinned lips as he scratched the back of his head, Seonghwa with his usual smile, giving you a polite bow as you approached, and Hongjoong pushing his glasses up.

“Right. I forgot you all knew each other,” you huffed. “Can I help you all?”

“Y/n, I know you’re still kinda upset at me for what happened but Seonghwa?? I knew I saw that bike from somewhere”, San sulked.

“That’s what you get for being dick, San”, Wooyoung scoffed, earning a shove from the other male. “I still really liked being around you.”

Seonghwa cleared his throat. “Y/n, I know you weren’t looking for anything serious but what are the odds of it being all four of us?”

You had your hand on your hip, and you shrugged, “Maybe it’s fate.”

Hongjoong spoke up, “we called you here because we wanted you know your plans moving forward.”

“What plans? I thought it was like a fun thing yknow?” You played dumb.

“We…want you to choose”, San asserted.

You stayed silent for a moment, the four boys were nervously awaiting for your answer, even if they didn’t show it.

“I mean I would but that’s only if I lose the game,” you responded.

Wooyoung looked the most confused out of the bunch and he’s the first one who spoke up, “what game?”

“First who falls in love is a loser”, you smiled, already celebrating your victory as you leave the boys staring after you, realising they’d lost, terribly.

[teneleven12xiii]

Loscar Red String of Fate AU

Logan can see the red strings that connect people to their soulmates.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ.───

inspired by a picture of me and my ex with red string tied around our fingers...........

Logan can see the red strings that connect people to their soulmates. It’s a tale as old as time really, the red string fate in hundreds and thousands of stories, one end tied around a person’s pinky or ring finger the other end tied around their soulmates. Logan can tell you that it’s all true, he remembered the first one he saw tied into a nice bow on his mother’s pinky, spread out across the floor where his older brother was sprawled across, the string doesn’t move as Dalton ran his toy cars over it, on one seems to notices it expect for Logan. The front door clicks open and he can hear the tell tale signs of his father entering their home. One end of the string moves, slowly shortening until it becomes no longer than a few inches as his father wraps his arms around his mother, the other end tied around father’s pinky. The string seems to be magical, shortening and lengthening as two people move closer or further from one another, and no one seems to notice them except for Logan. 

Everyone around him has one, his friends, his family, everyone except for Logan. His fingers blank, free of the red string everyone else has. 

Oscar’s string was another strange one, there’s one tied around his finger but Logan could never see where the other end goes, it also shimmers fading in and out of view the further it is from Oscar’s body. 

He came to accept it, took him a while, but he finally made peace with the fact he would never have a soulmate of his own. No one who is truly his. So he helps the people find their special someone, little words of encouragement here and there, a nudge in the right direction, isn’t that girl pretty, I think that boy likes you, I think this person has a crush on you, after years of this he had gotten pretty good at it. 

When he entered Formula One alongside Oscar he could have asked for anything more, him and his best friend living out their dreams together just like they talked about as kids. The red strings seem to connect everyone here, a big tangle mess on the ground, everywhere Logan steps scatters everywhere. Logan watches and observes, he wonders if Max and Charles know why they’re so drawn to each other despite being in a relationship with other people, why their arms are always around the other, why they’re always in their own little bubble, Logan knows– he can see the red string tied neatly around their fingers. He wonders if Alex and George treat him like their child because they feel bad for him or because Logan was the one who made George realize he was in love with Alex back when George was his coach. 

“Do you think Lando likes Carlos?” Logan asked one day while making their way through the Mclaren hospitality to Oscar’s room. 

“I think so. He was Lando’s first teammate” Oscar replies, throwing himself onto the couch and gesturing to Logan to sit down next to him.

“I meant like, do you think Lando’s in love with Carlos?” 

“Oh. I guess,” Oscar glances down at their hands, he seems to be looking at something invisible that Logan couldn’t see, then he looks back up at Logan. “You like setting people up, don't you?”

“What? No I don’t”

“Yeah, you’ve been doing it since we were kids. You never go over the top so people don’t notice but you just sorta push them in the right direction. And none of them have broken up yet, do you know something I don’t?” Logan lets silence fall over them for a few minutes, he watches the string around Oscar’s finger shimmer and fade like it usually does, then back down to his bare fingers.

“Do you believe in soulmates?” Oscar scoffs, 

“Don’t change the topic”

“Answer the question, Osc, do you believe in soulmates?” He presses,

“Well, kind of” 

“You’re going to think that I’m crazy–but have you heard of the red string of fate?” Oscar was quiet for nearly a minute, eyes glued onto his hand, then he nodded. “I can see it, the string. I’ve never told anyone before but I can see everyone’s string, where they go, who they’re connected to” 

“Oh,” Logan knew he shouldn’t have told anyone, and the quiet response almost made him immediately regret it. But then Oscar looks up, “can you see yours?”

“No, I can’t– um I don’t think I have a soulmate.” 

“Can you see mine?” Oscar asks again,

“Well, kind of. The closer to your body it is the clearer I can see it, but I can’t see where the other end goes, the harder I stare the more it fades. I’m sorry Osc” after another beat of silence, Oscar whispers,

“The other end’s around your finger” He almost didn’t hear it, Oscar's voice was so soft and quiet he had almost missed it. 

“What?” He watches as Oscar lifts up his hand, the string dangling in front of him, then Oscar grabs it and gives it a little tug. Logan’s jaw slacken in disbelief, no one has been able to feel, much less touch the string before. “Osc! What the fuck? You can see it too?”

“No, just mine” he paused, “It connects to you” he gave it another tug and Logan can feel finger jerking slightly. He traces his eyes from Oscar's finger and the string becomes much clearer, bright and red, it doesn’t shimmer anymore, it is as solid as everyone else's and it leads right up his once bare hands, wound tightly around his pinky in a lopsided bow. He nearly burst into tears. “Lo, you okay?”

“My whole life, I thought I didn’t have a soulmate, no one for me. But it turns out, you’ve been here this whole time. I—” his chest swells with more happiness than had ever experienced in one lifetime. “I’m so glad it’s you,” 

“I’m glad you’re my soulmate too, Lo” 

“Is it a good time to tell you that I’ve been in love with you for a while?” Oscar blushes a deep red, refuses to look up at Logan as he mumbles something under his breath. “What?”

“I love you too!!” 

[newnevermind-sanity]

This is probably going to sound more like word vomit but I have a lot of thoughts on Grimm and the Radiance and I would love to get it on paper. The difference between the Nightmare King and the Radiance are night and day, and I find it fascinating that the one with control over NIGHTMARES is the one that's way more approachable and inviting than the main baddie who burns as hot as the sun. Maybe in seeing their differences too we can start to understand (though I doubt we'll ever get an answer) why the Nightmare Realm is now apart from the Dream one.

The difference is the willingness to come down to a Mortal's level.

Grimm has a mortal form. It's one that embodies the cycle of life and death. Burn the father, feed the child. I think however child is not a correct word for what Grimmchild is at first, but simulacrum. A vessel for the new Nightmare King. Much how we were supposed to be a vessel for the Radiance, Grimmchild is a vessel for the Nightmare Heart in a cycle of life and death that fuels it until the ritual fails one too many times and the final embers go out. Whether or not that's willingly is up for interpretation and there's a lot that can be played with here.

The Nightmare King is how he is in dream, with the Nightmare Heart being, well, his heart: his source of power, tucked away in a realm he allows only a select few in. But most won't see that. Only the ones chosen to aid the ritual get to see it. Most people just see a polite troupe master that, while a bit unsettling and creepy, puts on shows to wow crowd, bows before any opponent, and gives kindness to those helping him. He's the one that treats us with the most respect. He disarms our perception of a Nightmare King by coming down to a mortal's level, by being kind and approachable. It's through this method that he's been able to keep going for so long. While others reject him for his nature and for being, well, the Nightmare King, those who are kind and most likely outcasts themselves, are more than willing to help a fellow outcast.

He does show however his real power in dream, but by then you know damn well to expect it. You know this is where he thrives. This is him fueling the fire before you throw him upon it for the child you carry. He is still the Nightmare King, he burns hot and bright, almost untouchable, but he dims that fire in the real world. Instead of an inferno, he's a warm crackling fireplace.

Furthermore he's not an all powerful god, he's a scavenger. He takes the flames of an old dying kingdom and burns them for his ritual, allowing for something new to be reborn from the ashes. He cleans up the last of the mess and leaves a blank slate for the next kingdom that he will one day return to. It may seem as gross and invasive to some who rather peace for the dead, but to others, they're just glad it's gone and can move on in their lives to build something new.

The Radiance on the other hand, is a blinding, burning sun, that can never be touched without serious repercussions.

She doesn't have a mortal form, only appearing in dreams. As such, she requires people to worship her in order to keep her godly form. She needs people to remember her. We're not told too much about the Radiance before she began to infect everyone, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that her moths left her for a reason. The Pale King is a much softer, more gentle light, that encourages thought and free will. Who wouldn't want that, when your previous god is oppressive and intrusive to your own thoughts?

It's hard to forget something like that, even through the generations. Told in whispers around the campfire of the previous god, they unwittingly keep her on life support, enough that she could concoct her scheme of revenge.

She appears as a blinding, burning light in dreams, offering unity at the cost of free will and thought. It burns, it's hard to resist in dream. It smells so sickly sweet that you want to throw up, permeating the senses and blocking all else. Even Void beings that are heavily resistant to this light can give in with enough prodding. There's no sense of humanity or kindness in it. There's no turning it off once it's there.

It's also very clear that she would not have stopped, not until everything was hers in Hallownest, or perhaps even beyond. In her own terror of being forgotten, of facing death in every sense of the word, she clawed her way back violently, not at all caring for the mortals destroyed in her wake, not at all caring about the repercussions to her living jailer, or that she's taking away others autonomy for the sake of being remembered and worshipped like the old days.

She is blinding, intrusive, hot, and at a distance she's warm and radiant. Up close, it's too much for any mortal. It hurts too much to stare into her and become blind to all else. It hurts to try and hold her at bay.

The only thing that can get anywhere near her and swallow her up, is the very Void itself, and the Lord of Shades who controls it.

With all that being said, what we're left with is two very different gods who don't talk about each other. Whether it was because there was no good place to put it, or whether it was on purpose, this is what we got. So then, what happened to make Nightmare split from Dream?

There's three options here as to what caused the rift.

It was a mutual split between two sides that never liked each other or thought it better to not have it together. (Possible, but unlikely. We do not have enough information to know their previous relationship. Friends? Siblings? Lovers? Absolutely loathed each other from the start? No damn idea. They're just connected through Dream with two very different ways of doing things, and I doubt they approved of one another once those were set up.)

Grimm began a conflict leading to the split. (Also very unlikely, unless his personality was different back then and this humbled him into what we see now. Grimm does not pick fights unless they help his ritual, and the only other time he would fight is in self defense, most likely.)

The Radiance began a conflict leading to the split. (Most likely with what we know, unless her personality wasn't as controlling and overwhelming back then. We don't have enough information to be sure.)

In the end it's left to us to speculate, and there's a lot to play with here. It's just important to remember the distinct difference between the two.

TL;DR: Grimm is terrifying and powerful, a swirling inferno, but he dims himself down to be much more approachable and welcoming to mortals like a campfire would be. Radi is terrifying and powerful, but doesn't dim herself down at all, and is just a blinding, burning sun that will melt your face off if you look at it wrong.

[a-killer-obsession]

Thinkin a lot about this recently so here is my predictions for One Piece. Or at least what I hope, based on the theories I like. I'm not up to date properly with the manga but I see spoilers so I kinda know where it's at.

I am a firm believer that Law and Kid's crews are at least mostly alive, and will be relevant again

Trying to think of what the potential conflict in Elbaf could be and I would like to see that Kid's crew are locked up, and since Luffy considers them friends he would be upset at that. Maybe he allies with Kid to take down Shanks, but the fight wouldn't be immediate. I feel like Law and Kid are supposed to be on equal footing, but Law travelled with Luffy for a pretty considerable time, so without a ship of his own maybe Kid will too. I can also see another sort of splitting of the crew, with some looking for the road poneglyph and other information while the rest go to Shanks. I think everyone is expecting Luffy's time in Elbaf to be peaceful but something has to happen surely

In my mind, Luffy is slowly gathering power for the final fight (see further down). He has allies with multiple kingdoms (Fishman Island, Alabasta, Dressrosa, Wano, not to mention the grand fleet, revolutionary army and SWORD) and if you think about it, he could have multiple emperors behind him as well. I have no doubt Whitebeard's old subordinates would fight for Luffy, Yamato has control of Kaido's crew, and I think Luffy can get control of Shank's, Big Mom's and Blackbeard's as well

For Shanks, I think we all know a fight is inevitable. It'll be maybe the last fight before the final one imo, but it won't be a fight to the death. More of a student surpasses the teacher thing, after which Shanks would show his respect by answering Luffy's call in the final fight

For Big Mom, it goes hand in hand with Blackbeard. First, Luffy finds out what happened to Law, collects him, helps him get his crew, and teams up to take down Blackbeard, perhaps with Kid at their side as well. I think this would be a fight to the death, and afterwards a lot of pirates would bow to Luffy. This would also allow for the rescue of Pudding. Katakuri is the most likely person to be in charge of the Big Mom pirates now, since he was the first mate, and we know he respects Luffy for defeating him, and that Katakuri has a sweet spot for his siblings. I think returning his little sister would do a lot for Katakuri's respect, maybe even enough to lend his forces for the final fight

The last hurdle is the man with the burned face, who has the last poneglyph. We already know Blackbeard is looking for him, and since it seems like the road poneglyphs have all been with emperors (assuming Shanks is protecting the Elbaf one which it seems like he is) then I can see Blackbeard managing to get it, and then Luffy fighting Blackbeard for it, which would make four for four on road poneglyphs being with emperors. Either that or the man kills blackbeard, becomes a emperor, and luffy fights him instead

But what is the One Piece I hear you say? I think its information, and that information is pertaining to what the World Government did to change the water level, aka the creation of the Red Line, and how to destroy it using the ancient weapons. This would tie in with the All Blue (as all oceans would be connected if the Red Line was destroyed) as well as the vision of Luffy destroying fishman island, since it's right underneath. This is where the arc in fishman island would come in, and be used by Shirahoshi to evacuate everyone. Its the one piece of information missing to take down the world government

I think Zou will also be a part of this. We know Momo spoke to him about opening Wano, and we know the weapon Pluton, which is a ship, is under Wano. I think Zou will be responsible with breaking down the walls around Wano to free the weapon (this bit seems like a pretty set theory). Perhaps he even tows it like Hancock's snakes, allowing it to travel through the calm belt. I think his punishment hes been going through has something to do with not releasing the weapon when he was last asked to

Luffy is allied with two out of the three ancient weapon's keepers, so the last step would be getting control of the last weapon, which is most likely something sky based and could potentially be what we see destroying islands. Obviously this is under the control of the World Government, so this is where the final fight would come in

Luffy would call in all his allies from throughout his whole journey, and together they'll get the weapon, destroy Mariejois and the red line, and unite the world. He'd also be King of the Pirates by now for finding the One Piece but I think the irony would be that he's basically king before even finding it

I also think cross guild are likely to join. Buggy and crocodile have already lost to Luffy, as well as allied with him before, I think all thats left there is for Zoro to defeat Mihawk. Again, I don't think this would be a fight to the death, much like Shanks and Luffy

Honestly I don't think Luffy even wants to be king, its just a means to achieve his actual dream. We saw how he acted when the strawhat grand fleet was formed, he doesn't want subordinates he just wants friends. For this reason I think Luffy, Kid and Law can all get what they want. Luffy unites the world, Law gets knowledge, and Luffy gives Kid the title of King. After all, Luffy is a fucking god, so what does he need the title for?

I think Kid is also probably changed after losing his ship. He probably feels a lot of regret that it was his immediate jumping to violence that made Shanks attack and put his crew in danger, and I think this would humble Kid and make him rethink how quick to jump to violence he is, making him a better king. I also think it'd be a interesting parallel to Sabaody since he had the highest bounty, so everyone likely assumed he would be the one to find the one piece, and in the end it happened but it wasnt his brutal violence that got him there, it was friendship, despite how against friendship he was, claiming they'd be enemies next time they saw each other.

Other shit i think is likely/theories I like:

It doesnt make much difference but i like the theory that D. Stands for dawn and those with the initial are descendants of joy boy's crew aka the Dawn pirates, with vivi's ancestor being honorary for turning against the government to hide the poneglyphs, just like vivi is a honorary straw hat. Idk i just think thats nice

All that shit with enel coming back from the moon. Honestly its gonna go one of two ways: either the moon is the natural partner of the sun, aka more allies, or the moon is the natural enemy, and maybe enel will be the enemy luffy deals with in elbaf or thereafter. It could well be that the last ancient weapon is on or part of the moon. Idk but i agree that enel will still be relevant

Dont get me started on the links between the emperors, elders, luffy and the aztec gods. Its a whole fucking thing okay but i think theres something there. Its the start of a new sun cycle okay? Luffy is bringing the dawn of a new sun!!!

Why did joyboy, or roger even, not use the weapons? I think he just didnt have enough allies tbh, or the ones he had weren't strong enough. The great pirate era forced everyone to get stronger and fight for one thing, and i think that was purposeful to boost the overall strength of those who hate the world government. I dont think its a coincidence that roger announced the one piece's existence and then after 900 years Luffy's devil fruit finally shows up, it was waiting for that call

Anyway idk shit about shit so take this all with a grain of salt, this is just my personal thoughts

[yanderecookierunkingdom]

Yo too, saw your requests open, and I really want to request this since no one have written for clotted cream cookie!

Might I ask for La signora!reader x (preferably yandere) clotted cream?

Here a little idea if you still confuse!

-reader cookie works for DE, and been handed the task of ruining the cream republic. Being the fairest lady, she was able to charm everyone on an opera which clotted cream was at watching their act, and falling in-love.-

The Lady Of The Opera

There were many things running through Clotted Cream Cookie's mind when he entered the opera. He was glad to have some peace and alone time to himself, for one. Running the Republic was a tiring job, even if he didn't show it. He was glad to find some entertainment as well, with Cookies who wouldn't speak of the fact that the Consul was present.

But the most prevalent thought was upon seeing the Cookie upon the stage, singing her song, was that she was beautiful. She captivated his mind and soul the instant he saw her walk out on stage, and her beautiful yet powerful voice didn't help how he felt at all.

As he watched her walk around the stage, methodically and serenely, her song was clearly one of sorrow yet hope. She sung of how times had been dark so long ago, but a new age was upon all Cookies. One where they'd be free of strife and anguish, free to fly like the birds in the sky.

Clotted Cream Cookie, as he listened to you sing, was captivated more and more. It was as if he was in a trance, and he wanted nothing more than to be down on that stage with you, taking you into his arms and dancing with you.

He didn't care if he looked like a fool. He wanted to make your future come true. By his side, ruling over the Republic with him.

You didn't think it'd be.. this easy, in all honesty. You thought you'd have to work to earn the trust of the Cookies of the Republic, but so easily they came flocking to you. Your first performance, and it was filled. Listening to your enchanting voice, as you sang of the better future Dark Enchantress Cookie could provide.

They all seemed captivated, but it was no doubt thanks to your little crystal butterflies, enchanting them to stay.

As you walked back behind the stage, letting the next Cookie take their place for their performance, a knock sounded on your door.

You turned your head, surprised. "Hm? Come in."

You weren't too worried. You could take on nearly anyone.

In walked a Cookie who would very important, especially by the guard by his side, eyeing you warily.

He smiled as you approached and dipped into a bow. "Greetings, I am Clotted Cream Cookie, the Consul of the Crème Republic."

Your eyes widen before you smile, hiding your smirk. "Oh, Consul, it's so nice to meet you. I'm sure you already know my name.."

"And a beautiful name it is." Clotted Cream Cookie smiled. "I hope you have some time to talk. Your performance was just so.. enchanting."

You gleefully nod. How easy this would be.

You had him trapped cagged like a bird! Completely unaware, however, of how soon that could be flipped on you..

[lavandulawrites]

Autonomy Of a Free Soul ch: 1

Chapter 1: Wonderland

This is an yandere genshin men x reader that will have multiple chapters (I don’t know how many just yet). Every genshin male will be a part of this “harem” sooner or later. This will be cross posted on ao3. It will partially follow the plot of genshin impact. 

Chapter 2

Masterlist

Synopsis: You find yourself in the meadow by the giant oak tree at Windrise. You have faint memories of falling into a well which is deeply hidden inside a cave by your home. You get captivated by the tune of the green clad man as he strung lyre high up in the tree.

Alone in a foreign world with hazy memorises, you are sure to encounter various obstacles you would never dreamt of facing. With some admirers with emotions and devotion deeper than what would seem possible, can your journey turn out peaceful?

Warnings: female reader

Word count: 4227

Light peered through your eyelashes as your eyelids fluttered. A pleasant warmth enveloped you. The fresh breeze caressed your cheeks. The surface underneath you was soft and you would have thought that it was a bed had you not smelled the fresh air of the outdoors.

You slowly opened your eyes and blinked at the sun. Your slowly sat up and let your eyes roam your surroundings. You were laying on a green meadow filled with various delicate wild flowers. A few birds flew across the clear sky. A few dandelion seeds blowed with the wind towards you. To your right were a huge tree, who’s branches reached for the blue endless sky.

After a while you rose to your feet and began following the little stream up to the tree. A couple of fishes swam happily along the stream and a few frogs hopped in front of your path.

Despite your confused state, you were filled with tranquility. Had you not known better, you would have thought you had reached heaven.

As you stopped by the large tree you heard the soft melody of a lyre. You walked around the thick trunk in search of its source.

On one of its thick branches sat a light green clad man. His long and slender fingers gently strummed the strings of his lyre, creating a beautiful melody. Though the melody had no words, you could feel the heavy emotion it carried.

You had no idea how long you stood underneath the tree listening to his song. The man opened his eyes and revealed his stunning cyan irises. He was around your age, early twenties, but his big eyes revealed wisdom beyond your imagination.

His gaze met yours and you were stunned by his beauty. He hopped down from the branch with playful elegance.

He bowed before you, his lyre behind his back. “Hello my beautiful maiden. What an honour it is to have such a stunning lady to be my audience. I am truly a lucky bard” he smiled and winked at you playfully.

You were taken aback by his flirtatious words. “Hello” you smiled back. “Your music is really beautiful. Does the song you just played have a name?”

“Not yet” he shook his head. He tapped his chin in a thoughtful manner before he lit up “What if I name it after you? What’s your name sweetheart?” his tone gleeful.

“[Name]. What’s yours?”

“Oh my, what a lovely name! I am Venti the bard” he took of his hat and bowed deeply, with his feet crossed. He spun his hat in the air before he put it back on. “I haven’t seen you around before and believe me when I say that I know everyone in Mondstadt. So [Name], where exactly are you from?”

At his question your eyes widened. You had almost forgotten how you woke up suddenly in the flowerbed. Before you had woken up in this unfamiliar landscape, you had been on a walk in the woods by your home. You had explored a cave and had tripped on a root and fallen down into an ancient well. When you opened your eyes you found yourself here in the meadow.

“You are right I’m not from around here” you sighed. You hesitated. Was it wise to tell him about the well? You couldn’t be too sure if he was to be trusted or not. After a moment of thinking, you chose to tell him all the details. Maybe he could help you? “I fell into a well inside a cave back home, but strangely I can’t remember everything else. My memories from my home is there, but they’re glossy” you prayed that he wouldn’t think that you were crazy.

“I see…That’s really unfortunate. I don’t think I can help you with returning home” Venti smiled sadly.

“It’s okay. I guess there is no helping it…”

His hand slipped into his shorts and pulled out a cloth that was round in shape. He opened the flowery cloth and revealed the reddest apple you had ever seen. “Do you like apples? I myself absolutely love them. I can’t ever seem to get enough” he laughed.

“I love apples” you nodded and returned his smile.

Venti skilfully broke the apple in half with his fingers. He gave you one of the half’s. The aroma of the apple reached your nose and you hummed in delight.

“Smells good? It will taste even better” he took a bite himself and closed his eyes in delight.

You followed his example. The taste did not disappoint. The apple was juicy and sweet. It was perfect.

“Do you know where you’ll stay tonight?” he asked as he wiped his fingers in the cloth. His apple completely vanished.

“No…” you smiled sheepishly.

“I see… The city is quite far away. A couple of hours walk in fact.”

His eyes got a certain glint in them. “But I have another way of transportation” he winked.

You tilted your head at his implication. “Another way of transportation? What might that be?”

Venti turned his back slightly towards you and pointed at a round crystal decoration. “I’ll use this! The power of anemo sure is amazing!”

“Anemo?” you blinked at him.

Venti quickly spun around. His expression one of shock. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what visions and elemental powers are?”

“Umm… I don’t… Sorry” you winced in embarrassment. You really didn’t understand a thing.

“I guess you really aren’t from around here. Worry not! Visions are amulets that let people control the elements. Anemo is the wind element. Mondstadt, where we are now, is the nation of anemo”

“Ohh… I see” you nodded, but you found it difficult to believe in amulets and elemental powers. Was he playing tricks on you?

“I can sense your hesitation. Let me demonstrate”. The bard held his hand of for you to take. “May I?”

You nodded as you took his hand. His skin was soft and warm.

Wind engulfed you both as Venti wrapped his arms around you. “Hold on tight!”

The wind lifted you both up high in the air. You two soared fast in the air and you clutched your hands at tightly as you could onto his arms. “Don’t be scared! Trust me! We will not fall down”

The landscape became almost blurry underneath your feet as you moved as fast as the wind. You had never felt as free as you did soaring high in the air with a man you just had met. It felt like a scene from one of the fairytales your mother used to read you.

A city could be seen in to horizon. When you two got closer, you could faintly make out three large windmills and a large cathedral.

“That’s Mondstadt city. The city of freedom. Home to many bards such as myself” Venti’s breath ghosted your air softly.

“It’s beautiful” you said in awe.

Venti laughed at your comment. “It really is isn’t it?” he sounded almost like a proud father.

The two of you landed in front of a big stone bridge which led up to the city.

The cobblestone clicked underneath your shoes as you made your way over. A small boy was standing by the edge of the bridge feeding a couple of pigeons. The birds fled at the sight of the two of you, earning you both an earful from the little boy.

When you reached the gates, you were greeted by two knights. Venti only smiled and greeted them, which they returned.

The city was lively and music filled the streets. Multiple street vendors were littered across the streets.

Venti led you up to a more quiet part of town. “This hotel is both cheap and nice” he told you as he opened the hotel door which was painted a lively red colour.

The walls were of dark brown panel and the red rug with a forest motif that led to the staircase was well-loved. The lobby was decorated with different nicknacks. On the walls were paintings of the city.

The owner of the hotel was an elderly man with blond hair with greying streaks. When he smiled his eyes crinkled with crows feet. He looked like someone’s grandfather. He smiled at Venti from behind the reception desk that was cluttered with various papers and an comical large flower vase filled with tulips in the colour of the rainbow. “Hello Venti. What can I do for you today?”

“Hello Meier. Do you have any rooms available for this young lady?” he smiled at the man. Venti had told you on the way to the hotel that Meier owed him a favour. “She doesn’t have anywhere to stay tonight and I thought since you owe me, that maybe you had a spare room for her?”

Meier’s smile turned sheepish. “I’m sorry Venti, but I really don’t have any spare room. The whole hotel is booked. You see a couple of diplomats from the other nations have come here and they have taken all the rooms in the finer hotels”. He turned his eyes round you “I am really sorry miss. Perhaps you could try some of the ins close to the city?”

You bid your farewells to Meier before you exited the hotel.

You sighed as you sat down at a bench near a fountain. You were far from home, in a whole different world given the unfamiliar city and the weird creatures or rather monsters you had seen, and you had absolutely nowhere to stay the night. Money was also something you completely lacked.

Venti was staring of into the distance, deeply lost in thought. After a while he turned towards you. “As Meier said, the other hotels are absolutely packed so it’s not worth to even check. ” he sighed. “I’m sorry. Here I was trying to be a good Mondstadt guide too” he shook his head, causing his braids to gently flap against his cheeks in a rather cute manner.

“No, no. Don’t apologise. This isn’t your fault. Not in the slightest” you tried to reassure him. “But what about the ins? Maybe they have some rooms available?”

“They might have some rooms available, but the roads outside of the city is filled with monsters lately. It’s simply to dangerous for someone without a vision. And I take it that you don’t have any training in combat?” his voice was serious and his eyes intense.

“I see. I don’t have any combat skills” you sighed.

After a moment of silence Venti spoke up again. “What if you stay at my place? There’s space and I will sleep on the couch” he looked at you with something you recognised as hope. His large eyes glittered and the way the soft light from the sunset hit them made them absolutely breathtaking.

You were so in awe of his beauty that you almost forgot to answer him. “I would love to. Thank you very much Venti. I really hope it isn’t too much of a bother for you” you smiled at him with gratefulness.

“Not at all! Let’s get going before it gets too late.”

Venti’s home was in a apartment building in the livelier part of the city. His apartment was on the top floor (the fifth floor). The walls were covered in a pale green wallpaper with dandelion seeds motifs. It consisted of a bathroom, a bedroom with a queen bed, a open kitchen and living room, a closet and a balcony. The balcony overlooked a little stage with rows of chairs in front of it. Venti told you that it was a place where amateurs could preform, be it music or plays.

Venti led you to the kitchen which he began rummaging through the cabinets. “It’s late so I’ll cook us some dinner. It won’t take long.”

“Do you need any help?” you asked as your eyes trailed hai movements. Despite his human appearance, he moved like he belonged in the sky. His every movement was fluid and his movements looked like dancing steps.

“No. Sit back and relax. You’re my guest after all” he smirked.

You hummed at the delicious taste of the pasta bolognese. “Wow Venti! You’re a really great cook!”

“Thank you, though I’m only an amateur” he smiled as he took a bite himself.

The dining table was of light wood. It was cowered with a white table cloth with embroidered light blue flowers. A candlestick was lit in the middle of the table, creating a cozy feeling. At the end of the table were various note sheets which Venti had tried to hastily clean up when you first entered the apartment.

“How does one obtain a vision?” you asked as you took a sip of the dandelion wine he had poured in your glass.

“It’s a favour from the gods. Those that reside in Celestia. It’s a sing of great ambition. The anemo vision is given to those who value freedom in a great deal” he nodded towards his vision that were laying on top of the countertop.

“Ahhh I see. How many types of visions are there?”

“Seven. All the seven nations are the homes of different elements. Mondstadt as you know is the nation of anemo, Liyue is the nation of geo, Inazuma is electro, Sumeru is dendro, Natlan is pyro and Snezhnaya is cryo” he spinners his fork in some spaghetti before he lifted the fork to his mouth. “Each nation have their own archon, god if you will. The one in Mondstadt is called Barbatos.”

“I see” you nodded. “Quite fascinating.”

“Yeah, I guess you can indeed say that”. He noticed your empty plate. “I’ll go and clean the dishes, then I will make your bed” he rose form his seat and collect the empty dishes.

“I should help you” you stood up and carried the empty wine glasses to the sink.

“No it’s okay. You’re my guest” he said reassuringly.

Venti’s bookshelf’s were filled with various works of poetry, fiction, song lyrics and historical books. You ran your fingertips over their backs. Your fingers were coated in a light veil of dust. You took out a book on Mondstadt’s history out of the shelf. You sat down in the light teal sofa. A few strands of treads were sticking out of the seems, making it clear as day that this sofa was well loved.

Your eyes went to the kitchen were Venti was humming on a tune while he scrubbed a pot clean. His voice was angelic and you hoped you would be so lucky that you would be able to hear him sing sometime. Venti was so kind and welcoming. He had told you the history of Mondstadt as you had walked among the streets of the city. He had told you so much that you felt like you knew Mondstadt like one would with a childhood friend. Yet, you knew absolutely nothing about Venti. You knew of his profession and his love for dandelions and wine, but that was it.

Venti’s voice broke you out of your thoughts. “I’m finished” he stood in front of you on the soft rug. “It’s getting late, so maybe we should get some sleep. I have made your bed. Don’t worry, I changed the sheets too” he smiled. The sun from the sunset casted a warm light on Venti’s features. His eyes glittered more than ever before and he looked like someone straight out from a fairytale. He didn’t look human.

“Yes we should. Thank you Venti. Thank you for your hospitality. I’m extremely grateful” you smiled sweetly up at him.

He chuckled. You swore that you could see a faint blush that lightly dusted his cheeks.

Venti’s bed was comfortable and the duvet soft. You quickly drifted off into a deep slumber.

Your dreams were of wells and deep caves. You tried to walk up, but to no avail.

After a long night filled with night terrors, you finally woke up to bird chirping. Sunlight were shining through the white curtains, warming your skin.

You lazily sat up and stretched your limbs. You still felt helpless regarding your situation, but it was little you could do. At least at the moment.

You turned on the shower and let the warm water hit your skin. Venti’s soap had a slight smell of apples and you welcomed the faint fragrance.

After your shower you got dressed and went to the kitchen.

Venti was sitting by the kitchen table while reading a newspaper. His black brows furrowed in concentration. On the table were a basket of bread and strawberry jam and apple jam. He had poured two glasses of apple juice which looked refreshing. His eyes flickered up to meet yours. He smiled gently. “Good morning sleepyhead. Slept well?”

You took the seat opposite of him. “Good morning. Not really. I had a nightmare” you sighed. “But thanks again for staying here. I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t” you laughed slightly.

“Nightmares are an awful thing. Unfortunately I can’t seem to get rid of them myself” he smiled sadly before his expression changed into a jovial one. “You’re very much welcome.”

You two talked about everything and nothing while you ate. Venti was easy to talk to and you felt you could tell him everything. It was almost like you were compelled. It was a peculiar feeling.

“We need to get you some new clothes.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have any money…” you sighed. Your situation really was unfortunate.

“I will pay. Consider it a gift from me” he smiled.

“But you have already done so much for me. I feel guilty.”

“Please don’t. Believe me when I say that it’s my pleasure.”

“Okay. Thank you” you smiled at the bard.

He returned you smile. “I know of another outlander that is here in Mondstadt. I can introduce you to her. Maybe she will be able to help you with your predicament? And if not, you will have made a new friend. Friends is something you never can get too much off.”

Angle’s Share was rather empty given how early it was. Some patrons were playing a game of cards as the sipped on their beer steins.

The bartender by the counter greeted you as you entered. His hair as red as fresh blood, giving a stark contrast to his pale skin. He was handsome and you could easily understand why he was the bachelor of Mondstadt (that was Venti had told you on your way there). He grunted at the sight of Venti. “Here to pay your tab?” his voice deep and velvety.

Venti laughed awkwardly. “No, I’m actually showing my friend here around Mondstadt. Diluc this is [Name], [Name] this is Diluc” he gestured to each of you.

“Nice to meet you [Name]” the red head smiled.

“Nice to meet you as well Diluc” you smiled back.

“Oh by the way. Have you seen Lumine today?” the bard asked Diluc who was polishing a wineglass.

“She’s upstairs” his answer curt as he continued to work.

Venti nodded before he led you upstairs.

The second floor was empty save from a blond girl and a fairy-like creature that was floating beside her. The girl turned around and smiled when she saw Venti. The fairy followed her example. “Tone deaf bard!” she said she sage waved her little hand. Her voice was high pitched and nearly gave you a headache.

“Hello ladies” Venti playfully greeted. “This is [Name]. [Name] this is Lumine and Paimon. Lumine was the one who saved Mondstadt from the incident I told you about.”

“Nice to meet you. Though I couldn’t have done it on my own. I got help from friends” Lumine smiled. Her topaz coloured eyes shone in the sunlight that peered through the open window. “Why don’t you two take a seat?”

“Nice to meet you Lumine. I must say your strength, from what I have heard, is truly admirable” you smiled as you took a seat on the wooden bench. Venting followed suit and took a swipe at besides you. His knee brushed against yours as he made himself comfortable. You could smell his scent which smelled of fresh apples and wildflowers. It was a pleasant scent that suited him perfectly.

“You flatter me” Lumine smiled. “Should I order anything for you? Some dandelion wine? Or maybe some freshly pressed juice?”

“Dandelion for me if you would be so kind” Venti said. You could see his excitement from the mere mentioning of dandelion wine. His love for the wine was kinda cute.

“I would love some orange juice” you said.

Lumine nodded before she rose and ventured downstairs. The stairs creaked under her steps.

Paimon turned her gaze to you. “So, how did the two do you meet?” she tilted her head in a a childlike manner. Sparkles sparkled around her.

“We met at Windrise” Venti answered.

Paimon nodded. Her brows were furrowed in thought. She was about to say something more when Lumine came back with two glasses. One with orange juice and the other with dandelion wine.

You and Venti thanked her before you both took a sip. The orange juice was fresh and a little sweet, but not too sweet. You hummed in delight.

“So where did you two meet?” she asked as she took a sip of her half full glass of grape juice.

“Windrise” Paimon answered. Lumine shot her a look. “They told Paimon while you were ordering. Don’t send Paimon that look!” the little fairy stumped her feet in the air.

“Windrise… that’s quite far from the city. What were you doing out there?” the blond woman asked you.

At her question you froze. Venti noticed your hesitation. “She’s an outlander just like you Lumine.”

Lumine’s eyes widened. “Oh really? I have never met another outlander. How did you end up here in Teyvat?” her eyes curious.

“I am not too sure actually… I just woke up in a field of flowers by the oak tree” you fidgeted with your fingers.

“Ah… I see. I myself lost my brother. We were travelling from world to world before we ended up here. I am on a mission to find him again” her voice filled with determination. Lumine was a truly remarkable woman and you found yourself in awe at her. You wished you had her bravery. “Paimon here is my companion and guide” Paimon smiled wide at her words.

“Maybe you want to join our journey?” Paimon asked.

“Maybe… I am not too sure yet. I’m still trying to process everything” you smiled sheepishly.

Lumine nodded. “Understandable. We are gonna stay here in Mondstadt for a while before we go to Liyue.”

Your conversation with Lumine and Paimon was pleasant. Paimon had a lot to say and her eagerness was quite adorable. After a while you and Venti bid them goodbye as you headed two a boutique in search of some new clothes for you.

The boutique’s interior was pink and rather feminine. The walls were cowered in murals of pink flowerbeds. The owner was a sweet young woman who was quick to help you find something that suited you.

You ended up with a couple of different outfits and some underwear. You thanked Venti for his generosity. The bard only smiled gently. His eyes brimming with an emotion you couldn’t quite place.

As the blue sky turned a pinkish colour you ventured up to the cathedral. The building was massive and you felt at its mercy as it towered over the city. In front of the cathedral stood a statue of Barbatos. The statue was tall and made of marble. It was clad in robes and it large wings on its back. His hands stretched out in a form of prayer. He had two twin braided on the said of his head. You admired the statue for a while. It looked familiar. There was no doubt about it. It looked an awfully a lot like Venti. You turned to look at the bard which who was staring out at the city. He was lost in thought and did not notice your staring.

“This statue is really beautiful” you said as you gazed up at its face.

Venti turned to face you. “Yeah… The sculptures did an excellent job.”

“The same goes for the cathedral. Its architecture is absolutely breathtaking. Do you often attended services in the cathedral?” you ask the dark haired man.

“I agree. The craftsman is extremely impressive”. He shook his head “I usually don’t, but I sometimes swing by. The organists are really talented.”

“I want to attend a service some time. Just to see how it is” you gazed up at the looming building.

“We can go together sometime” he looked at you softly.

The soft bed was welcoming after all you walking. You pulled the duvet over your shoulder as you burrowed your face into the pillow. Venti had insisted on you staying as long as you needed. He would take you to the Adventures Guild tomorrow in search of some jobs you could do in order to earn some Mora.

Sleep wrapped you in its warm embrace and you feel into a deep slumber. This time your dream was filled with cyan coloured eyes and white feathers.

[scribomaniac]

forward, always

Spiritual sequel to 'back and then forward' by fencesit

(written with original author's blessing)

The Senju arrived three days after Sakura had stabilized Izuna. A messenger had run in, eyes wide and frantic, to deliver the news that not only had the Senju arrived, but that they had arrived carrying the white flag of peace. Sakura had a good guess as to the reason for their visit–she’d been a diligent student of all subjects during her time at the academy, after all, and knew a truce between the Uchiha and Senju came not long after Izuna’s death–but the historical dates during the warring periods were not exactly a well documented thing.

Sakura had been sitting with Madara at the chabudai in the main room, each sipping on their respective cups of tea. Madara had informed her of his plans to survey the boundary lines and Sakura had updated him on Izuna’s health. All the while, Madara had held Sakura’s free hand in his own atop the table, his thumb gently stroking across her knuckles. 

“The Senju?” Madara’s brow furrowed. He looked over at Sakura, frowning, then looked back towards his attendant. “Who all is with them?”

Bowing deeply to his lord, the attendant informed them, “Senju Hashirama, sir, and his brother Tobirama, as well as five clansmen.”

“Very well, I will meet them momentarily.” Madara turned away, effectively dismissing the other man, and redirected his attention to Sakura. “If the Senju are truly here with peaceful intentions, then I shall send them away swiftly, but if not,” he paused. Madara’s eyes flickered down to her hands, so small and delicate looking, but he’d witnessed first hand that Sakura’s appearance was deceiving. “I will keep them at bay long enough for you to escape. Find somewhere safe to hide, and I will find you when I can.”

Sakura almost scoffed, and instead she reached out and cradled his face. “I will do no such thing. I will stay with Izuna and wait for your return.” 

And protect Izuna if necessary, went unsaid. 

Madara was still for a long moment, then he exhaled harshly through his nose and turned his face into her touch. Reaching up to squeeze her hands once, he removed them from his face and pressed a kiss to both sets of knuckles. “I won’t be long.”

Izuna’s room was on the side of the house, and if the shoji window was opened even just a sliver, then the voices from the front carried well into the room. For all Sakura has memorized her textbooks, she had to admit this was all new. For her, for Madara, for everyone. Sakura had already meddled with history by saving Izuna. Now that Izuna was not, in fact, dead, there was a growing worry in the back of Sakura’s mind. There was no telling what ripple effects that one action had caused.  Perhaps the truce would no longer happen. Perhaps that by saving Madara’s younger brother, she had already changed the future beyond recognition. If there was no truce then there’d be no Konoha, and then where would that leave Sakura? The logistics and ramifications were too much to think about and she quickly pushed those thoughts away. 

Instead of making assumptions or thinking about the what-ifs, Sakura waited and listened.

The first thing she heard was Madara’s voice, deep and hard and as unfeeling as she’d ever heard it before. “Senju Tobirama, you dare to show your face to me after what you’ve done? I should kill you here and now for the impertinence; white flag or no.”

“Please Madara, I have brought my brother here not for more bloodshed, but in the hopes of ending it.” This had to be Hashirama then, Sakura decided. “I am so sorry for the loss of your beloved little brother. Had I been on the battlefield that day I would have stopped it. I cannot imagine the pain you must be feeling, losing your final brother. If I were in your position, I’m not sure that I could bear it.”

Sakura looked down at Izuna and brushed some hair away from his brow. If his survival was the only change she ended up making during this time, then it would be enough for her. To spare Madara the pain Hashirama described, it was enough. 

Just as much the optimist as all the textbooks described, Hahsirama continued, “Why don’t we put an end to this war? We made a promise, remember? To make an ideal village where we could protect our loved ones, where children could be cherished and not forced to fight.”

“I’m sorry, Hashirama,” Madara said after a long pause. Sakura wondered if he was thinking back to his childhood, of the time he’d spent with Hashirama before they learned which clan the other hailed from. “I just cannot bring myself to trust you.”

“But isn’t there any way I can convince you?” Hashirama asked, his voice sounding tense and almost desperate. 

“I suppose,” Madara said slowly, and Sakura recognized a certain level of dryness in his tone that she’d come to learn as one he used in jest, “you could prove your sincerity to me by either killing your brother or killing yourself right now.”

A new voice spoke up, “You dare say such an outlandish–”

“You’re insane! So what now, elder brother?” Another–Tobirama, it must be–began hotly, “Are you going to kill me? Or are you going to die in order to win this man’s trust? It’s madness! Don’t bother listening.”

“You truly are kind hearted Madara, by sparing me the death of my own little brother. Please Tobirama, carve into your heart these final words of mine. Words that I will be exchanging with my life. You too, fellow clan members–”

“Brother . . .”

“After my death you must not kill Madara. I forbid any more fighting between the Uchiha and Senju. Swear this right now upon our forefathers and our unborn grandchildren. Let my death be the end of it. Farewell.”

There was a pause of silence, one that Sakura’s mind filled with horrible scenarios. Konoha needed Senju Hashirama. The ninja world needed him—he was the God of Shinobi! Madara didn’t know that, but given that Izuna was safe and breathing and would recover with time, surely he didn’t intend to let Hashirama kill himself. Knuckles white and breath caught in her throat, Sakura silently begged for someone to do something. Say something. 

“While I appreciate the gesture, Hashirama,” Madara said, his voice surprisingly soft and thick with an emotion Sakura couldn’t place. “There is no need. Izuna is alive and on his way to becoming well again.”

“That’s impossible,” Tobirama spat. “That wound was fatal. Not even our best healers would have been able to save him.”

“Then it is very fortunate for you, Tobirama,” Madara said slowly, dangerously, “that I did not call for help from one of your healers.”

Once again there was a pause of silence. 

“The Uchiha are not known for their healing abilities,” Hashirama finally said. 

“No, they are not,” Madara agreed easily enough. “Thankfully, the world has all kinds of people in it.”

A small smile pulled at Sakura’s lips as she thought back to the day she’d said those very same words to him. She’d offered it to him as vaguely as he offered it to the Senju now, though she doubted the Senju would be as comforted by the words as Madara had been at the time.

“A new healer then?” Hashirama asked, his voice light and brimming with curiosity. “What wonderful news!”

If Hashirama and Madara were left alone, Sakura was sure that the two would be able to part ways peacefully, perhaps even begin the creative process behind founding a hidden village, but, and unfortunately for everyone, Tobirama was present. 

“Bring the healer here,” the younger Senju demanded. 

“Tobirama,” Hashirama chastised. 

“I will do no such thing.” Madara told him firmly. “The medic is the Uchiha’s honored guest. I will not allow for you to interrogate them for the sake of curiosity.”

“I do not believe this mystical medic exists, brother,” Tobirama stated. “I wouldn’t put it past the Uchiha to have made up this ruse to lull us into a false sense of security and then reap their revenge for Izuna when our backs were turned.”

“It was you who sought me out, was it not?” Madara asked. “If you’re to continue calling me a liar then I will ask that you leave now, while we can still call this meeting a harmonious one.”

There was a bit more of quiet, tense and uncomfortable, even for Sakura, and then Hashirama asked, “Please, Madara. If I may, I would like to see Izuna and pay my respects to him. I won’t lie and say I’m not curious about your new medic as well, but if you’d prefer to keep him hidden away then I will understand.”

Izuna would be furious if he knew the Senju were here, much less allowed into his sick room. Sakura wasn’t sure what Madara was thinking, or what his motives were, but after Hashirama’s recent attempt to prove himself in Madara’s eyes, she wasn’t surprised to soon hear two pairs of footsteps creaking upon the porch’s steps entering the home. 

Closing the window softly, Sakura turned to kneel beside Izuna and placed a hand upon his brow. Pushing a bit of chakra into him, she ensured he was deep within his REM cycle and wouldn’t wake during Hashirama’s visit–so long as everyone kept their voices down. She thought about sneaking away before they arrived, but if Madara wanted her to disappear, he would’ve sent her some sign or signal to leave, but none came so she stayed put. 

She wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the Shodaime, but based on the stories she’d heard about him from Tsunade, Sakura didn’t have that much faith in his ability to keep quiet. Hopefully he’d at least have a bit more decorum entering a sick room than Naruto. 

When the shoji door slid open, Sakura had just finished placing a damp towel on Izuna’s brow. As with her initial meeting of Madara, Sakura was shocked by how young Hashirama looked. Whenever she thought about these legends, she always imagined them so much older than herself, so much greater. Seeing him before her, looking not that much older, was jarring to say the least. 

“Ah!” Hashirama gasped as he switched his gaze from Izuna, to Sakura, then back again. “How absolutely amazing. May I?” He took a step forward, looking to Madara for permission to venture in further. 

Madara looked to Sakura, silently asking for her thoughts. Giving him a nod, Madara passed the gesture on to the Senju head. The sequence of actions did not pass Hashirama’s notice. 

Kneeling beside Izuna, Hashirama hummed softly as he surveyed the patient. “How wonderous,” he whispered. Madara had settled beside Sakura, but Hashirama looked straight towards her as he hesitantly reached out a hand towards Izuna’s blanket and asked again, “May I?”

Sakura pursed her lips in consideration. If Izuna would hate the man’s very presence, she could only guess how he’d feel upon finding out he’d been examined by him as well. Still, something in her was adamant that this moment was important. Following her gut, but still trying her best to protect her patient, Sakura raised a hand to stop Hashirama. “Allow me,” she told him, pulling down the sheet herself. 

Deciding to treat this moment as she would any standard examination–just with the addition of two extra pairs of eyes–Sakura tenderly pulled open Izuna’s yukata. His chest and stomach were covered in bandages, covering his still raw wound. Pulling at the knot tying everything together, Sakura slowly unwound the bandages and began the process of surveying the wound. 

When she had first arrived, Izuna’s stomach had resembled that of a gutted fish with a deep line extending from beside his navel up to his right shoulder. The worst of the strike had been the initial puncture in his gut. Wounds near the stomach and intestines were always the trickiest to handle, due to bacteria and stomach acid leaking out and leading to infections or worse. It wasn’t anything Sakura couldn’t handle, but it hadn’t been anything to snuff at, either. 

Now the tear across his chest was nothing more than a thin, pink line, and the puncture beside his navel, while still very red and irritated, was healing quite nicely as well. Sakura placed her hand over his stomach and pushed the smallest bit of chakra into Izuna’s body, checking for any infection. Finding none, she removed her hand to add more of the healing salve she’d created over the stretch of healing skin. Once she was done with that, she reapplied his bandages, straightened out his yukata, and smoothed out his blanket. 

Looking back up, Sakura found the future Shodaime’s attention was solely focused on her. 

“I’ve never seen such impressive work,” he admitted freely. Looking up at Madara, he added, “You’ve found yourself a miracle worker, my friend.”

Madara’s face remained unchanged, “I have been lucky in that regard.”

“Indeed.” Hashirama’s gaze returned to Sakura. “What is your name, miracle worker?”

This time it was Sakura who looked to Madara for guidance. When he nodded his head, she gave Hashirama a small bow and answered, “My name is Haruno Sakura, sir.”

Hashirama waved her off, “Please, call me Hashirama!” The bright smile adorning his face dimmed to something more gentle and his gaze dropped to his hands in his lap. His voice turned soft and quiet as he continued, “I am glad, Madara, truly. When Tobirama told me what he had done, I feared for you, my friend. We have both experienced enough loss to last a thousand lifetimes, losing the last member of your family–your last brother–I would not have wished that on anyone, least of all you. If I were to ever lose Tobirama . . .”

It was no small feat for Sakura to curb the flinch that tried to break free from her body. Before coming to this time, Sakura had been no stranger to loss, either personally or professionally, but now everyone was gone. She thought she’d been doing a good job of not focusing on it–and she was , dammit!--not letting it drag her down and under into a vortex of depression and anguish, but damn it if Hashirama’s words didn’t just cause the void inside her heart where her loved ones used to reside to tear itself open a little bit more.

Madara shifted beside her, the heat of his arm slowly seeping through their clothes and into her skin, dragging Sakura out of her thoughts and back into the present. The movement was brief, but the message was clear. She wasn’t alone, not anymore. Looking at the Uchiha head out of the corner of her eye as he spoke to Hashirama, Sakura felt her appreciation for the man grow. 

The power of loss was undeniable. Its devastation could ripple throughout families and communities like earthquakes devastated valleys. She remembered what Madara had been like, in her own timeline, during the war. He’d been so empty and cold, so unwilling to consider alternative solutions to the one he’d deemed viable, and all of the havoc he had wreaked against the Five Great Nations had been the result of just one loss. Izuna. 

“I must ask, Sakura,” Hashirama’s use of her name drew her eyes to his, “are you related to the Uzumaki clan?”

Tilting her head, Sakura didn’t bother to hide the confusion on her face. She thought of Naruto, of his bright blond hair and ocean-blue eyes and mile wide smile with a not so small pang to her heart. “No,” she answered slowly. “Why do you ask?”

Madara’s shoulders stiffened at the question. Had Sakura not been sitting right next to him, she probably wouldn’t have even noticed. But she was, so she did. 

“The clan is known for their healing abilities,” the future Hokage answered easily, his smile turning almost charming as he spoke. “I know a good deal of their members have red hair and thought that perhaps your color shade was an offshoot of that.”

Red hair, like Kushina and Mito Uzumaki. Women that Sakura had only ever seen photos of. Mito, from her history books and maybe once or twice in Tsunade’s home, and Kushina only once, from an old wedding photo between her and Minato that Jiraya had unearthed for Naruto when the old Sanin felt he was ready to learn about his parentage. 

Comparing her rose colored locks to their red, Sakura could vaguely understand how Hashirama had come to this conclusion. 

“I’m sorry to disappoint, Hashirama,” she said with a small shake of her head. “I have no Uzumaki blood to speak of.”

“Well then,” Hashirama’s gaze returned to his one and hopefully future friend, “Thank you for letting me see your brother. I am glad that he is doing well and that he is in capable hands. Madara,” he paused, his next words struggling to make their way past his lips. “If I could encroach on your hospitality for a bit longer—I was hoping to discuss an important matter with you.”

Madara’s dark gaze flickered between Hashirama and Sakura. With Tobirama and several other Senju just outside his door, Sakura could make a good guess as to the cause of his hesitation. She could also make a good guess about what Hashirama wanted to talk about.

Giving her betrothed a small, reassuring smile, she told him, “Go on. I’ll see to everything here.” 

Madara looked like he wanted to argue, but in a show of trust in Sakura—which wasn’t so much surprising as it was pleasing—he merely sighed. “Very well.”

The two titans of shinobi walked out of the room together and Sakura felt herself release a shaky breath. 

The sky had turned a beautiful, pale orange by the time Madara returned and the Senju took their leave. Sakura had just settled down on the engawa to watch the sun set. Her legs dangled freely off the edge and a nice cup of tea kept her hands warm as the temperature slowly began to drop. 

Madara took a seat beside her, his knees tucked in properly beneath him, and with him came the weight of the world. A servant came quickly to provide the clan head with his own cup of tea, and left them with an even quicker bow. A thousand and one questions ran through Sakura’s mind, but she recognized that small furrow in Madara’s brow and the tightness in his lips from their days protecting that lord’s wife and child. The signs had appeared often enough, when he was thinking up strategies and ways to keep those in his care safe. This time, he was preoccupied with whatever Hashirama had said to him. When Madara was ready to talk, he would. Sakura and her questions could wait. 

From orange to pink to red, then to blue and then black, the sky settled into night. Sakura had long finished her tea, but still cradled the cup in her hands to give them something to do. She worried that without it she’d reach for Madara mindlessly, as she’s been doing more and more often over the past few days. Doing so while out on strolls or sitting for meals was one thing, doing so while he was deep in thought was another, and with this thing between them still so new and fragile and precious, Sakura didn’t want to risk it with a misstep. 

Looking up at the dark sky, Sakura found the same constellations she knew from her own time. It helped to settle something in her bones, made her feel more stable and confident with her place in this world. If the stars could survive in both her time and this one, then perhaps she could too. 

“Hashirama is a fool.” Madara’s words, so quiet and muttered they could’ve been lost in the wind, roused Sakura from her existential musings. Without looking at her, Madara reached over to place his hand over her wrist, his fingers pressed against the thrumming line of her pulse. 

“What did he want to discuss?” Sakura asked as she leaned, ever so gently, into his warmth.

“A child’s dream,” he scoffed, not elaborating further. 

Sakura hummed in response, waiting for the rest of the story to unravel in its own time. It took only a quarter of an hour more. 

With a slow slump to his shoulders, Madara closed his eyes tightly and told her, “I met Senju Hashirama first when we were children. We didn’t know who each other were and we,” he paused. His eyes opened and he blinked heavily. “We became friends.”

Wearily, and with a heavy heart, Madara told Sakura about his and Hashirama’s past. Their days spent playing by the river, their mutual dream of creating a better world, their shared pain over having lost brothers needlessly and so young, even his own growing pessimism and eventual desertion of those dreams and his friend. 

“I want to believe in a peaceful world,” he confessed so, so quietly Sakura had to strain to hear him. “But after everything I’ve seen, everything I’ve done , I just can’t. I don’t know how to dream anymore.”

Sakura thought back to what he said to her after she’d arrived to heal Izuna. “If there’s anything you can do—even if it’s just to ease his suffering —” Even then, the most he had hoped for was a painless death for his remaining brother. 

Pulling back so that their shoulders were no longer touching, Sakura placed her teacup to the side and tugged on her wrist until Madara let her go. Then, boldly, and with full eye contact, Sakura told him, “Lie your head down, Madara,” and patted her lap. 

Dark brows shot up, disappearing behind his raven mane. He looked down at her lap, then back up to her, his jaw dropping at the idea of it all. “Sakura,” he said, his voice hesitant. 

Placing her hands on his shoulders, Sakura guided him down to where she wanted him. “Just close your eyes and try to relax.”

She carded her fingers through his hair. The thick locks were silkier than she had expected, but she was still careful not to catch a tangle as she dragged her fingers through it. Madara’s muscles, which had stiffened against her man-handling, slowly loosened and his breathing evened out as she continued with her ministrations. His eyes, however, stayed open and alert. Smiling softly down at him, Sakura figured she’d take what she could get. 

With her free hand, she took one of his into it and laid them both atop his chest, just over his heart. 

“I had a friend, once,” she started, her eyes not straying from him, “who was the biggest dreamer anyone could ever meet.” Talking about Naruto would be hard, she knew, but she hoped it would also be worth it. 

“He inspired everyone around him, even cynics like you,” her smile widened with the tease. Madara’s hand tightened around hers, his own face unchanging. “All he wanted was for the—for the clan to respect him, to take him seriously and to not dismiss him.”

Pressure built behind her eyes and she had to look away. Sakura remembered back to her Academy and genin days, when she thought Naruto was annoying and a pest because he was loud and played pranks. As an adult with hindsight, she could see him for what he’d been; a child desperate for attention. She wished she could have been kinder to him, more patient. He was one of her most precious people, and she knew he never harbored any resentment towards her, but she still carried around a great deal of guilt when it came to Naruto and her treatment of him in those early days. 

Blinking away some of the moisture in her eyes, Sakura looked out into the night as she continued her story. “No matter what anyone said or did to him, no matter how lost he felt or how bad things looked, he never gave up on his dreams. Instead, his dedication to them seemed to grow. So many people doubted him, but you know what started to happen?”

Madara stayed silent, knowing the question was rhetorical. Sakura’s fingers continued trailing through his raven locks, her nails gently scratching against his scalp. Her eyes remained focused on the trees before her, but her mind was in the past. 

She thought of Neji, who’d been inspired not to accept fate as a fixed thing; of Gaara, who’d never known love or friendship, but who’d leapt towards it the moment a sincere hand was outstretched; of even Tsunade, who’d forsaken the village and her vow as a medic, only to have that desire to help people reignited. Sakura thought not only of them, but also of the hundreds of other people who’d been touched by the radiant light of hope that was Naruto Uzumaki. 

“He turned their hearts,” she said finally, looking down at Madara with a watery but bright smile. “Every single time.” 

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Sakura tried to circle around to her point. “There are good people in this world, Madara, people who share in this dream of a better future. You may not believe yourself worthy of it,” she gave his hand a squeeze to silently tell him she disagreed, “and you may not be able to believe in it yet, but that’s okay. All you have to do now is to try. Take it one day at a time, one choice at a time, one action at a time. Before you know it,” she shrugged, “all those little changes, those little thoughts and actions, will have built themselves up into something solid and real that you can believe in.” 

Madara looked up into Sakura’s eyes, an expression of wonder and incredulity on his face. Holding her one hand tight to his chest, he brought up his other one to cup her cheek. A hesitant, hopefully smile played at the edge of his lips. His thumb brushed away a tear that Sakura hadn’t noticed escaped. Turning her face into the palm of his hand, she breathed in deeply.  

“This friend of yours,” Madara starts, his words slow and cautious, “he’s gone too, isn’t he?”

Breath hitching in her throat, Sakura nodded her head. “His name was Naruto,” she whispered, feeling as if she were sharing a greater secret than just a name. “I miss him every day.” 

Sitting up, Madara pressed a kiss against her forehead. “His spirit lives with you, Sakura. You serve his memory proud. Because of you, I feel a newly sprouted sense of hope within my chest for the future. I feel that I can begin to try.”

Inhaling shakily, Sakura hid her face in the crook of his neck and whispered, “Thank you.”

[bleachanimefan1]

Inu-oh Part 13

The Wedding,

Inu-oh and Hana waved and to the cheering crowd, along with Tomoari and his troupe. Two of Ashikaga's bodyguards walked over to them with the shogun and his wife. "That was a splendid performance!"

"What are you talking about! That was amazing!" Nariko disagreed with him.

"Thank you." Inu-oh smiled and bowed his head a little to them. Hana smiled as well.

"Yes, thank you for having us." she replied.

"How would you two like to come to the castle for an exchange of drinks? Maybe next week?" Ashikaga asked the two.

"Actually, we have something important planned that week. Would the week after be okay?" Hana spoke.

"That will be fine."  

However, a scream filled the air.

"Help! Someone's been murdered!" One of the shogun's guards cried out as he found Inu-oh's father's remains, well whats left of it. "There's blood everywhere!" 

"I think that's our cue to leave." Hana spoke. The troupe quickly left and headed back to the village. The group split up and Tomoari went back with the priests while Inu-oh and Hana were left to themselves and they continued to walk back to Inu-oh's home.

"I wonder what happened to your father?" Hana wondered. "I mean, nobody can just spontaneously explode like that."

"Is it bad to say that I'm glad that he's gone?" Inu-oh asked her. Hana stared at him. Inu-oh was finally free from his father's torment.

"No. He was a horrible man." Hana told him. "Maybe he'll find peace in the afterlife after all he's done, but I doubt it, especially making a deal with a demon. You're free from him."

"Not just me." Inu-oh told her. "My brothers as well."

"Your brothers? Yeah, I never actually got to meet them. They were always hiding when your father was around." Hana said. "Hey, how about we invite them to our wedding?" Inu-oh's eyes widened, looking at her, before he smiled at her.

"Yeah, let's do that."

The next week came fast as everyone was preparing for the wedding. It was going to be a small ceremony held in private field surrounded by budding cherry blossom trees, near Inu-oh's estate. The two picked Tomoari to be the bridesman. Inu-oh and Hana invited Tomoari and the rest of his troupe, along with Inu-oh brothers. Inu-oh was dressed in a black kimono, hakama and haori. He stood at the alter with a priest, patiently waiting for Hana to arrive while she was getting dressed. Tomoari was standing beside him, along with Inu-oh's brothers as they waited as well.

"You're not getting nervous, are you?" Tomoari teased Inu-oh.

"N-No, why would you say that?" Inu-oh smiled.

"I can sense you shaking a little." Tomoari smiled back.

In a room in Inu-oh's estate, Hana was sitting down with several handmaidens as they helped her slip into a white kosode kimono. 

"I can't believe that you are marrying Inu-oh!" One of them exclaimed.

"He has such an amazing voice!" Another one sighed.

"Yes, he does." Hana pulled down her kimono to put it on, revealing a small barely noticeable baby bump forming on her stomach. One of the women noticed while one started to braid Hana's hair, putting up into a high bun with some red and white flower ornaments.

"You're pregnant, already?" She questioned. Hana smiled, nervously.

"Yeah, we couldn't wait." Another one began to apply lipstick onto Hana's lips while one placed a white silk wataboshi headdress over Hana's head. Then placed a white uchikake on Hana and slipped on geta sandals.

 "You are ready!" 

They led Hana out of the estate and slowly walked with her, heading to the field. Hana felt her heart beating fast when she saw Inu-oh up head, waiting for her at the altar. He looked so handsome! Inu-oh felt the same when he saw Hana slowly walking down to him, completely speechless at a loss for words. She looked like a goddess; it was the only way to describe her. As Hana reached the alter the priest began speaking out the vows for them to say. Inu-oh took Hana's hands and she took his and the took stared at each other, repeating the priest's words.

"This woman, I marry No matter what the health situation is. I will love this person. Respect this person. Console this person. Help this person. Until death Protecting fidelity I swear." Inu-oh spoke.

"This man, I marry. No matter what the health situation is. I will love this person. Respect this person. Console this person. Help this person. Until death Protecting fidelity I swear." Hana spoke. 

"Inu-oh, this woman you marry and become her partner. Will you in peaceful times, during sickness, this person you love, this person you respect, this person you comfort, this person you help until death, do you promise to fulfill?" The priest asked once again.

"Yes, I promise." Then the priest turned to Hana.

"Hana, this man you marry and become his partner. Will you in peaceful times, during sickness, this person you love, this person you respect, this person you comfort, this person you help until death, do you promise to fulfill?" He asked her.

"Yes, I promise." Hana spoke.

The two embraced each other and pressed their lips upon each other, kissing passionately. Tomoari along with his troupe cheered for them, along with Inu-oh's brothers. Several of Tomoari's troupe were drinking and eating some of the food.

"It's official now, you two are married!" Tomoari laughed.

"Yes, we are." Inu-oh spoke. "It feels like a dream."

"Well, it's real and I'm right here." Hana smiled at him, lacing her arm around his then she glanced over at Inu-oh's brother's who were standing near Tomoari, getting a better look at the two of them. One was taller than the other, had a longer chin. The second brother was a little chubby and heavyweight.

"You two must be Inu-oh's brothers. We haven't properly met, have we." Hana told them.

"I just can't believe that our little brother is getting married before us!" One of Inu-oh's brothers cried.

"How come you're not drinking?" Another one questioned Hana when he noticed that she wasn't drinking sake with the rest of them. Hana smiled, placing her hands on her stomach.

"Well, it wouldn't be good for your niece or nephew." She replied. Both of Inu-oh's brothers eyes went wide in surprise and their mouths dropped a little and looked at Inu-oh.

"You're going to have a baby!?" the tallest brother shouted.

"We're going to be uncles!?" the second one exclaimed in shock as well. Inu-oh nodded.

"Yes, and I've been thinking for a while. I forgive both of you. I want you two be a part of my life, Hana's, as well as my child's." He told them. His two brothers teared up and both of them lunged at Inu-oh, hugging him.

Soon night fell upon the sky as many stars shined above. Everyone continued to celebrate, Tomoari helped Inu-oh and Hana slip away by distracting everyone with a song. He began to strip down, revealing his chest, continuing to sing out loud. Inu-oh pulled Hana with him until he stopped by a cherry blossom tree and laid against it. Hana sat down beside him, leaning against his shoulder. Inu-oh pulled her closer to him.

"Well, my dear wife, we finally managed to get away. What do wish of me?" He spoke. "Name it and it's yours."

"I already have everything, dear." Hana smiled up at him. She laughed a little and so did Inu-oh. This was going to take some time to get used to those words. The both of them couldn't believe that they were married. "I just want it to stay like this forever."

Inu-oh pulled Hana into his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist and the two of them stared up at the sky watching the stars. Then Inu-oh frowned, startled, when he felt something strange underneath Hana's stomach and so did Hana. A kick? It was small but the two of them sore that they couldn't have imagined it.

"Was that-" Inu-oh paused still surprised.

"The baby kicked." Hana spoke softly.