#her email so i have to print it out for her anyway so i usually just fill both of theirs out in paper but my dad always argues about doing

[nerdie-faerie]

It's the fourth year in a row of me applying for uni maintenance loan and my parents arguing with me about how it works. But this year my brother is also applying to uni so the loan forms got filled out without me knowing but neither him nor my dad fucking read anything or understand uni so they did it fucking wrong

[petitelepus]

Can I have a academic kny reader thar is a person out side of school with tengen and with wife's and how that manage things

Id this is ok

Summary: You don't work in school like your partners do, but you all love and respect each other. You get off work early and decide to make something for your loved ones.

Warnings: Nothing, Reader is a lousy cook

A/N: Gender Neutral Reader, Tengen Uzui, Makio, Suma, Hinatsuru, Kozo Kanamori, Mitsuri Kanroji

You hummed as you tapped your computer's keys, focusing on your work as a simple office worker. It wasn't a glamorous job but it paid pretty well since you were one of the best there was. Other workers looked up to you and asked for your advice, so many relied on you and your expertise.

Speaking of expertise, you were almost done with work for that day. You glanced at the small clock on your computer's right bottom corner and you realized that you had tons of time before your partners would get out of their work at Kimetsu Academy.

You smiled as you finished your reports, sent them to your supervisor, and just in case printed them also. You picked up the papers, and walked up to the older woman's desk, making sure to clear your throat so she would notice you.

"Chief, I'm done with my work for today." You said as you placed the small stack of papers on her desk before her. The woman squinted her eyes at you through her glasses and picked up the paperwork.

"I see." She nodded, "You could have sent me reports by email, you know?"

"I did that also." You nodded proudly, "So, I was thinking, would it be alright for me to head home early?"

"Sure, you've been recently working late anyways so I don't mind." Chief said and you smiled happily as you bowed lightly, "Thank you!"

You turned to leave when the woman behind you called you by your name, "You're going back home to that partner of yours?"

"Yes, ma'am!" You smiled cheerfully, "Since I'm early, I'm going to somehow surprise them!"

"That's nice," Chief nodded, "Take care."

"Thank you!" You made your way to your desk logged out of your computer and grabbed your case before heading out of the office. As you walked, your coworkers wished you a good day and you returned their wishes with your own.

As you left, you wondered what you should do to surprise your beloved husband and 3 wives. Usually, Tengen, Hinatsuru, Makio, and Suma got off work earlier than you so preparing dinner was usually left to them to do, but since the 3 women usually handled the cooking you thought that a dinner would no doubt be a nice surprise for them!

My, you were such a good partner, as you were always thinking of your loved ones!

You were in a splendid mood as you made your way to the local supermarket to buy some ingredients for dinner… But as soon as you got the shopping basket, you were struck by total confusion. What should you make and how to prepare it?

Before you started dating and then ultimately married Tengen and the 3 women, you were living nearly only with instant cup noodles, frozen pizza, and such. You started to eat healthily and more diversely when you 5 became a thing.

Thinking about it, how hard could it be to buy something frozen and heat it in the oven or buy something and then fry it in the pan? You would need something healthy and delicious, so you grabbed a bag of frozen veggies and some chicken breast. They were no doubt healthy and delicious!

You paid for the groceries and made your way to your house. Despite being an art teacher, Tengen's family had tons of money so you had a pretty nice big house with enough room for 5 people.

As you unloaded the grocery bag, you started to set everything up for dinner. You turned the oven on, added the frozen veggies to the baking tray, and stuck them into the oven. After that, you grabbed a skillet, heated it and once it was hot, you added some butter and then placed the thick slices of chicken on it.

You were actually having pretty fun, no wonder Hinatsuru, Makio, and Suma did this all the time.

Time passed while you were cooking… And for some reason, your chicken was turning black? You realized that the pan must have been too hot so you quickly turned it off and put the skillet and the meat aside. You decided to check the veggies and thinking they were done, you pulled them out and placed them on the counter.

They looked good! You smiled as you grabbed a piece of carrot with a fork and tasted it… But they were so bland, damn, you forgot oil and salt!

They weren't bad… But they definitely were not good either.

You frowned as you swallowed and then you proceeded to cut open the chicken to check, and yes, it was raw inside. Nope, wouldn't be able to eat that, nope. You could stick it into the oven… But as you glanced at the clock, you realized that you were running out of time and you doubted that you would be able to save this dinner with your cooking skills.

Time for plan B!

You quickly grabbed your phone, pressed the speed dial, and waited for someone to pick up on the other end of the line…!

"Hyottoko Pizza, how may we help you?" Came a familiar voice and you nearly cried out, "Kanamori, I need your help!"

"Oh, hi there!" You could hear a smile on Kanamori's face as he recognized one of their best customers, "It's been a while! What would you like to order?"

"The usual pizza set for 5 and fast home delivery! My husband and wives are coming back soon and I don't have anything to feed them!" You cried out and the man chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll have Mitsuri bring pizza to you as soon as possible."

"Thank you, you're a lifesaver!"

"No worries, just be prepared to pay Mitsuri when she arrives!"

"I will, thank you!" You closed the phone and checked the time on the clock on the wall and you panicked. Your partners would be back soon but you couldn't do anything but wait for pizza to be delivered.

Well, you decided to get rid of the evidence of your bad cooking skills and threw the bland veggies and burnt raw chicken into the trash. You were washing the skillet by hand when you heard a scooter's motor park in your driveway and you realized it must have been the pizza delivery!

As the doorbell rang, you grabbed your wallet and rushed to the door.

"Good evening!" It was Mitsuri, the pizzeria part-timer who helped to deliver pizzas and such.

"Oh God, I'm so happy to see you!" You cried out as you opened your wallet and handed the money to the pink-haired girl and gave her a 1,000 yen tip for hurrying your order.

"Oh, thank you!" The young woman smiled happily, "I hope you enjoy your pizza!"

"We will, thank you so much for delivering them!" You both smiled and then she took off with her scooter and you headed inside with your pizza.

You just managed to place the pizzas on the table when the front door opened and your beloved husband and 3 wives stepped inside. They weren't used to you being home before them, so when you rushed to greet them, they were shocked.

"Welcome home!"

"Honey!?"

"You're home early!"

"How are you here?"

"I thought I saw Kanroji drive past us?"

"Ha ha…" You chuckled as you showed the 5 pizza boxes sitting nicely on the dinner table, "I got off early so I thought I might get us something nice?"

"Pizza!" Your partners smiled and despite failing at cooking, you smiled purely thanks to the fact that you managed to feed your loved ones.

"Get in here and let's eat!" You said cheerfully and the man and women took their seats and you all started to eat, you asked how their day at school was because there wasn't such thing as a boring day in Kimetsu Academy and your partners inquired how you were home so early.

It was honestly a nice meal with people you loved so dearly. After the meal, however, when you guys were cleaning, Suma noticed the dirty skillet on the sink, "Honey, did you try frying something?"

"A- I- Ah-!" You tried to figure out what to say when Makio noticed the food in the trash when she was taking empty pizza boxes, "Honey, you cooked!?"

"I- Uh-!" You swallowed as you nodded and slumped in defeat, "Yeah, but I failed so instead of feeding you guys my awful cooking I got us pizza."

The women shared quick glances with each other before smiling.

"That was an extremely sweet thought, Honey," Hinatsuru smiled sweetly as she walked up to you and kissed your cheek, "But please, leave the dinner and other stuff for us."

"But you guys work so hard at school…?" You asked and they smiled at you, "Yes, but you and Tengen work hard also. Feeding the both of you makes us very happy."

"Are you sure?" You asked and all 3 women hugged you, "We're sure."

You couldn't help but sigh in relief as you hugged your wives and then-!

"What's this?"

The 4 of you looked and saw Tengen return into the room from his trip to the toilet. The man looked at you guys and chuckled, "A group hug and I wasn't invited?"

You guys laughed as you opened your arms and the man stepped ahead, hugging you guys just as lovingly as you were hugging each other.

Yeah, all 5 of you worked in totally different lines of business, but you all loved each other just as hard and equally.

[batsyforyou]

I cannot express my joy at finding a blog that writes for Stargate! And active too! Can I ask you to write a letter from Sheppard? I am a girl, I have red-ish brown hair and blue eyes. I have a sweet personality, kinda soft and soft spoken. I LOVE to bake and cook. I also like to knit. I’m like one of those pink, soft, super girly people if that helps. In the letter, now you don’t have to do this, but can the situation be married and first baby on the way? If not that’s fine! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Tags: Love letter, hinted pregnancy 

Pairing: John Sheppard x fem reader 

Author’s Note: I gave this my best! I hope you enjoy anon! Side note I've been dying to use these ribbons so yeah.

Surprise!

You sat at the kitchen table eating your hard earned breakfast, an omelet, a smoothie and some cut fruits. You sighed and rubbed your swollen belly feeling the baby kick. Being alone on Valentine’s Day wasn’t ideal but honestly you were just glad to know that your husband was still alive. He sent messages weekly if not every two weeks giving you comfort when he could and apologizing for not being there. You sent messages back of course, sending him updates about the baby and telling him how much you missed him.

Today wasn’t an exception but instead of a recorded video or printed email it was a letter with a dried herb attached to the corner, dangling like some kind of key chain. You’d never seen it before but it was very pretty. 

Munching on a carrot you ripped open the seam and pulled out the folded paper. 

“Dear Y/n,” You read aloud, “As usual, I have no idea what to say to make things better... I hope you're doing well, and I’m sorry I can’t be there for you. I know things must be rough right about now, but you’ve always been strong in your own way. 

I would much rather be with you than listening to Rodney go on and on ‘bout his usual nonsense. Oh, you remember Teyla? The woman I mentioned before? Yeah, well, turns out she is pregnant too. I didn’t even know she was seeing anyone. 

Anyway, if this reaches you before or after Valentine's Day, happy Valentine's Day. 

Teyla sends her love and I send mine. 

John.” 

You grin and giggled, rubbing your belly, typical John. 

Startled, you heard a noise at the door, and got up to look. Turning the corner you gasp, John stood there with a sheepish grin on his face with his bags around his feet. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Masterlist

[nardonotes]

16 sep '24

8:18pm

IM SO TIRED!!!!! MY BODY HURTS!!!!!!!! I WANT TO SLEEP BUT I ALSO HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO DO!!!!!!!!!! (ᴗ_ ᴗ。) but today my alarm woke me up at 7am but i stayed in bed till 7:40... i slept well too and had a crazy dream but i forgot what happened,,, i just rmbr it being crazy (good-ish?) to the point where i wanted to go back to sleep to finish it but ended up just forcing myself out of bed,, fufufuff~ and THEN i went to class :< which is actually a :> cause it was fun! i did some black and white designs for design class and the two hours passed by so fast,, after that i had a 3 hrs break and just walked home, rest for a bit, then went out to town to send my cv to this photo printing shop (fujifilm) for my work experience. they said they dont usually take work experience (˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ ) but it's ok cause i have two other places i can apply for work experience (it's mandatory in my course) i been going to fujifilm for years now, literally since it opened too, they know my name and email off by heart cause i always get my film develop there so i really hope they let me in!!!! it's only till christmas sniff.... BUT ANYWAYS, after i gave them that- i went to buy a sketchbook cause my lecturer said it would be a good idea just to have one where i can draw whatever and i bought one (1) pencil LOL.

then had a 2 hours class right after, but it was chill. nothing too serious and just worked on updating my cv and cover letter :3 after class, I WENT HOME AND ATE :D i dont usually like chicken but THIS CHICKEN WAS REALLY FUCKING GOOD MAN,,, i had it with rice and it was so filling. and while i was washing my dishes, my sisters arrived home and AFTER THEY ate,, we went to the park with my sisters friend and her baby. he's so big now sniff,, i rmbr when he was literally a few months old and tiny af. now he looks about 3 years old but hes only 1 years old. they're leaving to live in amsterdam in a month or two and it's so sad cause i only just got closer to her. it's ok tho cause amsterdam is close enough, and her parents still live here so she'll be in and out i think :)) we got gelato before going home and i got kinder bueno flavoured (THE LAST SCOOP TOO) it was so good. i dont usually eat ice cream out of the blue like that, i usually get a drink instead but since it was just a scoop i had some.

⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

what a long ass day fr,, i know im going to sleep good tonight too. i bought Notes of a Crocodile, The Analects of Confucius, and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion on my kobo (ereader). I do plan to buy the physical copies of all three, but not right now and it was just cheaper to buy it on the ereader.. I've read a few chapters of the temple of the golden pavilion before but never continued but my bestiana spoiled the ending and now i want to finish it bc the ending was a good ahh ending (imo). i can't wait to read before i sleep tonight,, reading so fun huhuhhu..... (⸝⸝⸝╸▵╺⸝⸝⸝)

these days, i've been really into my lil tech stuff again and i really want to homebrew a ps vita. i homebrewed my old nintendo 3ds but sold it for a [REDACTED] reason lol. i think a ps vita is cooler anyways. i also been really into micro journalling and coding. btw i cant code but i do like listening to ppl talk about coding and what they've coded. i wish i was smart enough to do allat.. i think i could if i really put my heart to it but right now i'm really liking my course. ill probably talk about it some more in the future but for now, i have written a fucking book and nobody reading allat!!! so im going to do my little me time before bed time and then go to sleep ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-

goodnight to me, and my precious bed, and my precious favourite girl in the world and and and- [GUNSHOTS]

[itsohh]

Mission: Love Note

A/N: Female reader, Kali my beloved. I don’t think I’ve ever acted up so much for a woman like I have for her.

Word count: 4405

Warnings: NSFT, smut, boss / employee relations

AO3

Rule number one: don't get caught. That had been your first priority when you first started. At least not until you found out how she felt about the situation. If she didn't feel the same, then you could pretend the matter didn't exist. That nothing ever happened. You would simply never tell her and you wouldn't lose your job.

Rule number one dictated the way you acted. The way you worked. Over time you had made up a decently sized map of the main facility. There you found all the camera locations and their blind spots. Next was people. Most people on base had a rather typical regime. You figured out what people's patterns were and what their preferred paths were. For most, you didn't have to bother about lower operatives and staff. No one would question your whereabouts but people equal to you? They would. Anja was one of your biggest targets. She would immediately discuss something with Kali if it felt off or strange. Observant and smart, she was by far your biggest hurdle. Luckily for you, Anja was a person of habit. Which meant she could be predictable.

The first time had been a thrill. Anja would be very much in her lab as you slipped into Kali's office. While she kept the room unlocked, everything inside of the room was heavily secured. But you didn't need anything in her room. There was, of course, a camera right next to it but you discovered there was a three-second blind spot when it turned. One you abused to gain access.

Heart racing inside of you it was like you were a recruit on a first mission. The small note had been prepared ahead of time. Neatly printed words folded in half placed in the middle of Kali's desk. At first, you had been worried about handwriting but soon brushed the notion off as you realised it was very rare for you to actually write something at Nighthaven. Most things were emailed or typed up so Kali wouldn't recognise your handwriting when she came back and saw it  She wasn't due back for another day at least. Leaving the room would be a little harder but your watch helped you time exactly when the camera would move. When the time struck true, you would slip out without notice.

This is how it started. A perfected system that you started to do whenever Kali left base. You hadn't heard anything from her. A matter which you couldn't tell if it was good or bad. Each note became more and more daring, flexing from small compliments into something far more. For a while, you were perfect in your execution. For a while.

Nerves racked your body, the note had been heavy in your hand. A final note of sorts that fully told her how you felt. The hand on your watch ticked away and you snapped the door open. Yet the hallway hadn't been empty. "Ah fuck!" With wide eyes, you quickly closed the door behind you. There with his hands over his nose was Håvard. You had always thought Anja would be the one to catch you, but no, it was unpredictable Ace.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Mentally you kicked yourself over being caught. Your hands went to his side in comfort and he showed you his nose.

"Is it bleeding?"

"No, no. It looks as perfect as usual." The compliment worked as intended and a grin covered his pain.

"Ah, that's what I like to hear. What were you doing in Kali's office anyway?" If it had been almost anyone else you could have brushed him off with 'important work, mind your own business' but in all matters he was your equal.

"Looking for Kali. Have you seen her?" Your voice was deadpan and he nodded.

"You heard she was back early too?" What. She was back early? You hadn't heard this at all. Panic spiked inside of you but you didn't allow it to get to you. "You know what, I'm really sorry to have hit you. How about I buy you lunch out somewhere as an apology?" His face lit up at the thought of this.

"How about dinner? I'll pay." He leaned in towards you with a wiggle of his brow. Mentally you smacked yourself. This wasn't what you wanted. Yet it worked as a successful distraction as the pair of you started to walk away from Kali's office.

"That would defeat the purpose of an apology lunch." He rolled his eyes at this but still held his interest and light mood.

"You know, you didn't need an excuse to ask me out." You almost coughed in disbelief at this.

"It's not a date Håvard." You reminded him as you started to look for an escape from the conversation.

"Ah yeah, 'an apology lunch.'" He winked while he gave you air quotes.

How is it that you managed to get the attention of the wrong person, mentally you sighed. "Yes, an apology lunch. How about I take you out tomorrow?" It was better to get it done sooner than later.

"Sure- oh wait we have Jason's birthday party tomorrow at lunchtime." Oh that, you had forgotten all about the engineer's birthday. His 50th, it was a big deal.

"Um, Friday then?" Your eyes caught a group of people exiting the shooting range and your head lit up.

"Can't wait."

"Look as much as I would love to stay and chat…" A lie. "...I'm actually going to hit the range. I'll let you get back to what you were doing Håvard." You veered off your course from him.

"Alright I'll see you Friday for our date" He shouted and you were glad no one was near to hear it.

"Not a date!"

"I'll tell Kali you were looking for her if I see her." You swore under your breath and you simply waved a hand in the air in response. Now you had to hope he didn't come into contact with Kali.

-

It had become routine for her. To get back to base and find a single note on her desk. In a way, it had been something she was subconsciously looking forward to. In fact, she had gone back to her office specifically for it, knowing one would be there. Her lips parted as she read the message. It was a game in a sense and you had evaded all her attempts to figure you out but a part of her liked not knowing it was you. In a way, it felt more genuine. Most would compliment and praise her in hopes to get into her good books or manipulate her. But with this, there didn't feel like an alternative motive.

The words on the thick paper were memorized in her mind. They made her breath hitch as she leaned on her desk. For a brief moment, she allowed herself to be absorbed in the note. Eyes closed, her mind wandered with the possibilities. Sure she had her suspicions but there was only one person she actually wanted it to be from. That angered her. Just a little. The heat in her cheeks made her feel like a young teenager in high school. A breath escaped her lips as her eyes opened and she promptly hid the note in her locked desk with the rest.

The small time she had set aside and come to an end, she needed to get back to work. With the confidence of a goddess, she strode out of her office only for her door to make a loud smack when she opened it.

"My nose!" A familiar cry came and she stared at the person who held their nose. Håvard. Pain consumed his face as he hunched over, and the door closed as she stepped out of the way.

"You should be more aware of your surroundings." Her brows narrowed at him.

"Is it bleeding? My noooose." He whined and she rolled her eyes at his dramatics. Still, she checked when he showed off his nose.

"It's fine."

"This is the second time today." Her lips curled slightly in amusement.

"You should have learnt from the first time." She folded her arms.

"It's not my fault that door swings out." He gestured to her office room.

"Have you tried watching where you are going instead of being on your phone?"

"My peripheral vision is exceptional, boss."

"Evidently not. Who was the first person to hit you?" Curiosity had peaked her.

"That was Clover earlier today." He winced as he rubbed his nose. "At least I got a date out of it." He muttered under his breath and Kali stilled.

"A date?" Her brows narrowed at him, envy boiled inside of her but she punched down her feelings with ease.

"She asked to take me out for lunch as 'an apology.'" His two fingers bounced Kali let out a breath that she hadn't realised she had been holding. It was just Håvard being his usual self. "Speaking of her, she said she was looking for you earlier. I think she might still be in the firing range if you're lucky." This sparked Kali's interest. Why would you need her? Either way, he had given her an opening from the conversation and she wasn't going to waste it.

"It might be important. I should go find her. Go ice your nose... and Håvard, watch where you're going."

-

The arsenal of your usual weapons was set up behind you. A handgun, submachine gun, assault rifle and marksman, all available at a moment's notice. You were focused on the hand in your gasp. With both hands extended out you emptied the clip at the target. No flinching or hesitating. The music beneath your earmuffs kept you caught up in the moment. It wasn't until a movement in the corner of your vision occurred did you put down your weapon. Kali. Shit. Mentally you swore, had Håvard snitched and told her that you came from her office? You hoped to god he hadn't.

"Hey, Kali what's up? Good to have you back on base." You pulled the plugs for your ears alongside the earmuffs and placed them on the metallic surface in front of you.

"Håvard said you were looking for me." Your shoulders relaxed for a moment before you realized you now needed a reason to have been looking for her.

"Oh uh, yeah. Nothing serious. I just uh." You swallowed and your eye landed on the marksman rifle behind her. "I've been wanting to improve my long range. You know, sniping and there's no one better than you. If your free sometime I'd love to get your help." Saved it. Mentally you patted yourself on the back for coming up with something so plausible.

Kali weighed her body and nodded. "Sure, always good to learn from the best. I'm free now. How about you warm up a few rounds and I'll see how you do." She took a step back out of your way so that you could retrieve the weapon.

You could feel your heart race as you put the target at the max range before you leaned over. There was something different about practising with her watching. Almost vulnerable as all your imperfections would be up for scrutiny. The gun snug in your grip you fired it. Just like with your pistol before, you emptied the mag. Your shots hit their mark, almost all of them. A couple of shots hit the target's shoulder but regardless all of them hit. To most, the result would be great. Kali wasn't most.

"Hm, you're tensing your shoulders too much. It's making your movements to stuff and your jerking." There was disapproval in her voice but no mockery. Her hand electrified your back in an attempt to fix your stiff state. The gasp that escaped your lips was covered by the knock by the doorway.

"Clover! Oh and Kali too." A high-pitched voice was ecstatic to see the pair of you.

The pair of you turned to face the scientist who bounced their way into the room. In her hand was a comedically large card and a pen. "I was just looking for Clover but since you're here too, you can sign as well. It's for Jason's birthday. Everyone's writing a message and signing it if you're interested." Lisa was her name, a nice girl. Smart.

You turned to Kali for a moment before you placed the gun down. "Sure. I'm not the best with notes though." You nervously laughed. A lie. One that Kali seemed to tense up at.

"Awh, just say how you feel. And if you don't know then just say something nice. It's the thought that counts." She handed you the pen and card. Kali's eyes were one of a hawk as you wrote down a small message and signed your name and call sign in brackets.

The card was quickly passed to Kali and she did the same but there was a shift in the environment. Kali's eyes seemed to look into your very soul. Seconds ticked by and Kali handed the pen and card back. Lisa grinned and bounced on her way. Kali started to follow the woman but onto to close the door behind her and you noticed the lock that she activated. The viewing shutters were closed behind you and Kali turned back to you.

"So we don't have any more interruptions." She explained. With a nod, you picked up the gun and her hand resumed its location. Directly behind you, her other hand came forward to correct your position. "You know better than this." She tutted in your ear. Her lips were so close to it as her head locked over your shoulder. "Fire." At her command, your finger came on the trigger and you squeezed it. Kali moved with you and absorbed the recoil.

It clipped the side of the dummy's head. "Continue." Slowly you lost yourself in her arms, working on muscle memory you fired almost your entire clip save the last bullet.

"I know I shouldn't be, but I am so completely and utterly smitten by you." The purr of her words in your ear had you flinch, the bullet missing its mark by a decent margin as your lips gaped open. How? Håvard must have told her and she figured it out. The words that you had left on her desk earlier in the day now spoken in your ear. There was no playing it off. She knew, there was no going back now.

"You missed. A shame."

"Kali I-" Your face was flushed with heat and her contact with your body didn't help the pure embarrassment that had consumed you.

"You have been busy while I have been gone haven't you, little girl." Kali leaned into your body and you put the gun down.

"I-I look if- sorry." You finally settled, stuttering over yourself.

She laughed. Oh god, she laughed. It was like music to your ears even though it made the heat in your cheeks five times stronger.

"Why would you say sorry. You weren't lying were you?"

"No of course not I just… I'm sorry if I've overstepped a boundary. You are my boss after all."

"That I am."

"If you wish to forget-"

"Forget? Oh, but how could I? I have all those so lovely notes in my desk at this very moment." Your eyes shut as she continued. "But you're very right about me being your employer. Do you know what's so great about leading a PMC darling?"

"N-no?" Her fingers were soft on your chin, directing your face towards hers as your eyes peaked open. With a whisper, her face was millimetres from yours.

"I get to pick the rules." At the end of her sentence, at the end of her bite, her lips pressed against yours. Time itself stopped as her lips confidently moulded against your own. The taste of her lips mixed with what you presumed to be Chapstick consumed your taste buds. Kali's movements paused for a moment, happy to take in your tongue against her own. Then like a wave she hit back twice as hard. Her tongue against your own had you moaning while she fully turned you around and picked you up only for a moment to slip you onto the metal surface where your empty gun lay.

Thoughts gone from your head, all you could do is think about was her. She consumed every thought, every sense of your body as your arms wrapped around her neck. Kali's hands ran up your thighs and stopped right at the bottom of your shirt. With her eyes now open she pulled back and a line of saliva kept the pair of you connected. "I have to know, how did you get into my office without any cameras spotting you?" It had been impressive feet that had been stuck at the back of her mind.

Without hesitation, you answered her question. "There's a decent amount of spit second blind spots and most operatives and employees are creatures of habit. I have a plan written up in my room that I can show you later."  Her brow cocked and she graced you again with a swift kiss.

"Smart girl. But you didn't think that such an exploit could be used against us?" She hummed, his fingers playing with your shirt.

"Permission to speak freely?" She laughed as this, a full laugh that had her head tilt back for a moment.

"Oh, darling, you have permission to do a lot more than that. I assure you, however this develops?" She gestured to the pair of you with two fingers. "Is completely separate from our work. When it's just us, I may be your boss but I am not your employer. Now, I believe you have a question you were going to answer." Her eyes met yours.

"The last person who broke into Nighthaven can't even be seen on cameras and frankly I don't know how someone would manage to get such information without having decent access. I mean it took me a good couple of weeks of pure observation for people's schedules and habits alone." You were lost in thought, all nervousness gone as you both defended and explained yourself.

Kali watched and listened to you with such fondness. Only when you finished speaking did you bite your tongue.

"You put a lot of thought into this didn't you?"

"I uh- yeah." She seemed amused by the notion, but more importantly, she was impressed. Flattered. "How did you figure it out? Did Håvard tell you that he saw me leaving your office?" Her brows shot up in surprise and she laughed.

"Oh, he told me that you hit him with a door. I didn't realise you hit him with the same door that I did."

"You what?" Your voice was one of disbelief. She continued to laugh but soon grew incredibly close once again.

"You're a saint you know that sweetheart? You have put so much time and effort into this and it's only fair I reward you with such." Once again you were blessed with her lips, her hands now firm on your shirt and slipped the buttons undone. Kali's messy lips pressed down your neck in a line of kisses before she stopped at the crook of your neck. "Say the word and I'll stop. I may like to push but I want you to know that whatever you're comfortable with is perfect to me." She whispered into your neck in a way that was almost surprisingly vulnerable.

"Kali?"

"Yes?"

"Please touch me." Kali's lips spread into a grin against your skin and she but down. Hard. A yelp turned into a moan that echoed from your lips as her hands found your breasts.

"Such a polite girl for me. All mine aren't you?"

"From the moment I saw you." You mumbled back.

"I remember seeing you for the first time." Her hand found the back of your bra and undid it. The pair of you worked together as a team to remove it and your shirt. Kali's thumbs brushed over your hard nipples as her palms grabbed at the rest of your breasts. "You were training. Had that just adorable focused expression on your face."  She pinched your nipple and you let out a whine. One she ignored. "Then you made just the most perfect shot and I knew right away I had to make you mine." She chuckled at the memory. "Of course back then I only meant as an operative. This, this is a pleasant development. One I plan to make the most of." The flat of her tongue licked the side of your neck before her teeth grazed your jaw.

"Such a perfect darling girl for me." Her breath was hot on your cheek while her fingers left your chest in preference of undoing your pants. "To be honest, I'm not sure what I would have done if it wasn't you sending me those notes. My disappointment would have been immeasurable."

You braced your hands on the metal surface and pushed your hips up into the air. Kali pulled down your pants and underwear in one go. At your ankles, your pants wear bunched up and she quickly dipped in between them. On her knees, she fell, face perfect height with your cunt. "So wet already, I'm glad to know you like my touch as much as I like touching you." Kali had that cocky grin on her face and her two fingers spread your lips wide.

"Stunning." Her tongue came forward to make a long and precise taste, her first taste of many to come. A gasp left your lips which turned into a curse while you lay back, your legs over her shoulders. One of your hands flew to her head and in the process of trying to get a grip, you knocked off her glasses and scrunched up her bandana before they both fell to the ground. Not that she cared.  "Perfection." Her judgment came and she dove back in. Kali's salvia mixed with your juices as she first licked every spot, gauging and evaluating all your reasons. The small flinch you made when she came.into contact with your clit. The moan that joined it.

Mentally she was already planning how and when she would take you next. There was no way this was a one-way time, no, plans sprout in her head as she thought of what she wanted to do to you in the future, oh the things she would dress you up in, the things she would put inside of you. Lost in your taste her mind drifted away only snapping back when your thighs squeezed around her head. What a view. Her eyes looked up at your heavy pants, body wet and desperate as you rocked your hips against her face.

Kali's tongue focused on your clit, firm hard licks that had you practically shaking against her. Her nails dug into your thighs as she kept you from crushing her head. Like a prayer, you chanted out her name and it was pure music to her ears. How could she refuse you? Her motions continued until a long draw of her name whined from your lips.

Your nails clawed at her hair as your orgasm rocked your body, relaxing all tension that had built up. Eyes nodded, all energy had left your body as Kali started up at you. Her head rest on the side of your thigh when you finally sat up. "Back down to Earth are we?" She placed a kiss on your thigh before she dipped out between you and your pants. Her finger swiped up your leg where your juices had started to run. A wink was given to you before she stuck it in her mouth, humming at your flavour. Her new favourite flavour.

Slowly you shrugged your pants back up and she handed you your shirt and bra. "The card." She finally spoke up and you gave her a confused look while you did your bra up. Kali came forward to help button your shirt, her eyes flickering yours only for a second. "The message you wrote in Jason's card. I recognised your handwriting from your little love notes." She wet her lips with her tongue. "Speaking of, I hope this hasn't put you off giving them to me. I do rather like my welcome home gifts whenever I get back to base." Kali smiled and took your hand, leading you from the room, any gun practice long forgotten.

Bonus:

Kali finished making her speech at the birthday party, her eyes glanced over to you where you spoke to Anja. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and Jason certainly seemed happy. In the corner of the room Kali eventually retired, she knew that they deserved to cut loose a little and wouldn't under her keen eye. Håvard was the one to join her, his eye on you just like hers was.

"You know I think I would be happy to be hit in the face by a door more often if it means I get more dates with her. Not my preferred method but I'm not complaining."

"It's not a date Håvard."

"She's just being bashful, the shy type you know."

"She's being nice, it's a pity thing." Kali rolled her eyes at him.

"Call it a pity date, all I need is one to show her a good time." Fed up with the discussion Kali put her drink down on the windowsill next to her.

"You're not taking my girlfriend on a date." She bluntly spoke only for both you and Anja to turn to face them. Of course, Anja had been the first person she spoke to about the situation and Kali wondered what the pair of you were talking about, probably her. Any nervousness had seemed to be removed from your body and you were frankly the most relaxed she had seen you in a very long time. With a wave, you beckoned her over.

"Wait what?" Hävard spluttered out as he absorbed her words. "What do you mean girlfriend. Like a friend that's a girl?" Kali shot him an annoyed look but ultimately left him there.

"Friend that's a girl right?!"

[robinruns]

what a weird fucking couple days it has been.

yesterday i overslept BIG TIME, like i tried to wake up at 4:30 when my alarm went off, but i just could not do it. next thing i know, kyle's waking me up and it's already after 7 am and i'd slept thru at least his alarm (i think mine 6 am alarm is off actually). so that was a rush. then my mom calls me and says that she got a parking ticket in my dad's name downtown madison. for those who may be new, my dad died two years ago in april. turns out it's the penultimate truck my dad had and sold for cash in 2020. turns out the dude never registered it in my dad's name, it had no plates on it, and so when the cops looked up the vin number, it came up to my dad. so my mom's freaking out and like what the hell am i supposed to do ya know? so i told her to call the cops and be like "hey, here's what's up, what do we do". they called her back and explained what they needed to get the ticket out of my dad's name, told her to call the dmv and they told her what they need to get the car out of my dad's name. of course my mom can't get the document the cops emailed her so i'm like i'll stop by after my eye appointment tomorrow afternoon and do it then.

jump to today. i wake up about 15 minutes before my alarm because fuck me i guess, but i get to the gym earlier than usual. i got good enough workout in, and then stopped at dunkin for a big ass coffee. i got home, got ready for work, and got to work knowing i was leaving at 2:30 (2 hours early) and had a shit load to do. my mom texts me and decides i need to leave earlier and stop by her house first. uggghhhh fine whatever, i'll get it done early then back home earlier.

nope. of fucking course not.

but first i had to get that shit load of work done. i got... some of it done, not all of it because i lost an hour of work time. i'm going to have to do overtime this weekend to make up for it. not like i need to make up for my hours off, but like i need to catch up or try to get ahead ya know?

anyway, i head to madison. i get there and she's freaking out but i get it printed. then she wants to do the thing for the online form for the dmv, but needs my dad's drivers license number. this sends her into a full blown meltdown because she can't find it... just to find it about a minute later. turns out because the sale of the car was almost 2 years ago, we can't do the online form so she calls the dmv and explains the situation. meanwhile i'm like i need to leave in 5 minutes, sooooooo. so what does she do? freaks out that she doesn't know how to operate the dmv website and shoves the phone in my hand as i'm like "i need to leave!!" but luckily i find it in two seconds and get it opened/printed. but then as i'm leaving she's like "come back when you're done."

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucking hell.

eye appointment went fine. eyes a slightly worse than before but i knew that was coming. the person who was checking me out and ordering my contacts kept calling me girl though and i kinda wanted to be like "please don't assume my gender just because i'm wearing a dress". i head home and my mom's like about to leave. "i'm out of ink so i can't copy this form for my records." ugh. i try to scan it, scanner won't send the data to the computer. fine, go get the ink. so i sit in peace and quiet with shandy for the first time in AGES. she's all sleepy from going to the vet and getting her shots this morning. i love her.

anyway.

i don't know why i had to come back. but i did. she got her forms, i got a headache. whatever.

but i apparently won tickets to the badflower show, so i'm gonna see if jennifer wants to go again since she really likes them. i still haven't gotten my waterparks tickets that i won from the other radio station, but whatever. if they never showed up, then they never show up. no skin off my nose. so maybe that's my tomorrow night, idk yet. ugh. too much going on. and i need to do my taxes.

sigh.

[purplesurveys]

1677

What were you doing at 10:30 this morning?: Sending out my last few emails before we had an all-day workshop at work. We had a mock pitch presentation contest of sorts and my team won 1st place :)

Is there anyone else in the room with you?: Nopes, it’s just me here.

If you married the last male you spoke to, what would your initials be?: That was a barista at Starbucks and I didn’t even catch his first name, much less his surname.

What did you have for lunch today?: Skipped lunch as usual but I did have an iced Americano. Was too nervous to eat anyway as our turn for the presentation was right after lunch.

In your phone, who is the first contact listed under ‘L’?: Laurice.

How old is he/she?: 24.

What colour are your father’s eyes?: Dark brown.

Was your last Facebook friend requests from a male or female?: Male, it was someone from the family reunion we had two Sundays ago although I couldn’t remember which one he was at all haha. I added him back nonetheless as he’s family anyway.

What’s the 9th song on your iTunes “Recently Played” list?: I don’t think Spotify does a listening history per user but I wish they would. How do they still not have that feature?

What colour are the eyes of the last male you text messaged?: I can’t be bothered to check my texting history right now.

Who is the first contact in your phone? What colour is his/her hair?: Alex from high school. Not sure but if I had to guess it’s probably just in black??

How many tracks were on the last album you listened to?: 10.

Which one of your relatives is most likely to embarrass you?: My relatives know better than to fuck with me lmao but if anyone, probably my mom.

Is there a song you can listen to over and over and never get fed up of it?: Yes.

Do you have a friend whose name begins with H’? Describe him/her.: Hannah. I haven’t seen her since before the pandemic started, but she’s one of my lowkey friendships and we’ve always remained quietly supportive of one another even as we’ve started leading our own, separate lives. She’s very perky, loves David Archuleta, and is a great singer and also skilled at the piano.

Are there any songs in your iTunes library that you’ve never listened to?: I don’t use iTunes and it doesn’t work that way on Spotify.

So, how are you? Is there anything wrong?: I’m okay. Very tired from today’s events and I even had a TERRIBLE headache all afternoon, but I’m in bed now answering surveys with the aircon right in front of me and that’s all that matters.

How do you handle awkward situations?: Idk, it depends on the situation and where I am and what options I have lol. Most of the time my awkward situations happen at PR events where the person I’m talking to is shyer than expected – in those cases, I’ll pretend to get a text or be like, “oh sorry, let me just take care of something but feel free to go around the venue and take some photos before we start!” hahaha. Who is the most intelligent person you know?: Andi.

Who was the last female you were introduced to?: Ruthie, my newest teammate at work. She’ll be replacing one of my associates who’ll be having her last day this Wednesday.

What was your first impression of her?: I got super excited when I saw that her laptop bag has a big Tata print on it, but when I got to talk to her a bit more, she seems super quiet. Hopefully she gets to open up once we get to start working more together!

Who was the last male you were introduced to?: Celeste’s boyfriend.

What was your first impression of him?: It was like a 5-second encounter when I caught him video-calling with her yesterday haha, it was barely enough for me to have a first impression.

Name one of your favourite foods that starts with the letter 'F’. FAJITAS. Love those to death.

Do you have a close friend of the opposite sex?: Hans.

Would you ever consider being more than friends with them?: I’m not a homewrecker lol

Who is the 8th contact in your phone? Is he/she in a relationship?: Yes he got married late last year.

If you could travel back in time, which year would you go to?: 2015 so I can see my grandpa.

What were you like as a 12 year old?: Alone, anxious, angsty. Just a troubled kid for the most part who wasn’t getting the emotional support someone my age needed both in school and at home.

What colour are the eyes of the last female you text messaged?: Idk but dark brown probably as, like, all Filipinos.

When you woke up this morning, what kind of mood were you in?: Anxious. Are you hungry? Craving any food in particular?: Yeahhhh I am getting a bit hungry. Right after this I’ll get my leftover corndog, my leftover Starbucks cookie, and the leftover sushi bake we have in the fridge.

In the past week, how many times have you cried?: Too many times. I’ve been super vulnerable throughout May so far lol

On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being amazing), how good is life atm?: 6.

[tiikerikani]

All aboard the time machine

2024 Aug 18 – Utran Uittoareena, Joensuu

Funnily, 2 years ago, on this same mid-August weekend, I also saw Rautiainen on Friday and Vesterinen on Sunday. But that's not the only parallel, as you will soon find out...

The usual shore pic:

I cut short my traditional listen-through of Sorni Nai because I heard music coming over from the theatre already at like 4:15. I went over to the yard there and sat on the usual steps facing the restaurant. Turns out the audio techs were setting up their stuff using tapes from previous performances, which ... really confused me at first.

Regular Groupie drives through the yard at 4:25, followed immediately by Merch Table Guy and Merch Lady. Regular Groupie walks over to me a bit later to say hi (she'd ended up parking the car in the other lot outside). At this point (about 4:45) the band van shows up and the guests who had purchased the pre-show dinner go inside the restaurant.

When I went inside to get my usual mug of coffee, I noticed that there was a stack of paper tickets by the till. So they did exist, despite not having really needed to use them. Anyway, I found out on Friday that they do actually scan the ticket QR codes now (they might have switched to this last year, since my paper ticket then had a unique alphanumeric code printed on it), so I'd printed out the ticket email at the library the day before.

The same (I think) two fangirls who blocked me in the queue last year started the queue again this time, but I remembered from Friday that there would be a second lane so I took up position there instead. I was first to be let in at 5:55 (yay for QR code on paper) and casually jogged to my normal first row seat. The girls took the other side of the centre aisle.

It's also my tradition to read something sociology/philosophy-related while queuing/waiting.

The woman and her husband on the other side of me were local. They weren't able to snag tickets last year but were on the ball this year. I think they must be newer fans because they didn't know about my cape. She was really excited to practise speaking English with me (it happens, I don't really mind). She'd recently lost a family member, so she was in tears the whole time. Not to trivialise her grief but certain songs trigger a grief-like mood in me as well and I also wanted to cry but sometimes I just can't. It makes these posts really hard to write.

Pictures part, I guess:

These people in the boat hung around a bit. There were also some people sitting on the dock on the other side of the river almost the whole time. Hey, free entertainment.

People more proficient with their cameras or whatever can go ahead and take their portrait photos of his infectious happy face. I'll be in this corner trying to capture his other, less common, expressions. My pictures don't win any popularity contests and that's OK.

Oh hey got a good picture of Markus and his grin again (he was not wearing fun socks)

I tried to get a few more of these reaction shots but I need more practice with the iPhone:

Why is he gesturing at me again after a [checks notes] 15-month break? (I'm not complaining but I thought he was over it.)

The two fangirls hung around after and wanted the set list signed by whoever they were able to catch, such as Jukka-Pekka. Markus was talking with some couple, and the fangirls and I hovered trying to find a gap in the conversation. It just didn't feel like it was happening so when I did get a moment I just said "Thank you" and shook hands and went on my way.

Maybe it's because it was Sunday, but the place cleared out really quickly. Like all the guests had either disappeared into the bar or (more likely) gone away within at most 20 minutes. Even Regular Groupie had to jet because she had work the following morning and needed to drive like 6 hours to get home. (She's told me once but I don't remember where she's from.)

Merch update: In addition to the denim jackets with the back patch, they'd also printed the design on the backs of t-shirts. Which, in my opinion, is less fun because it isn't as self-referential that way. They were also selling the patch separately so people could sew it onto their own things, but they'd already sold all they'd brought with them this weekend. I'm not really sure where I'd sew it. Like it looks quite large but is it the same size as the big Nightwish patch on the bottom of my party overalls? It'd take up a huge chunk of the apron I got for Vappu this year, which I'd hoped would give me at least a couple years' worth of space...

Maailma palaa

Kohti sydänpeltoja

Samaan mutkaan kaatunut

Jamesin takki

Kolme hyvää vinkkiä

Ilman mua

Tummilla teillä

Rodeo

Turisti [intermission]

Exodus

Valot eteiseen

Kiljut riemusta

Faarao

Kanto (yes the guitar solo is improvised.)

Kukaan ei koskaan

Nuoriherra

Hetken ikuinen

// Arlandan portailla

[Concert write-up archive and master calendar]

[magicalsliceofpie]

Day 6-10

On day six I was so tired. All I remember eating was an omelet with cheese and some hot chocolate. I was stressed out because I was trying to finish up some final projects for class. I didn't finish them which stressed me out more.

On day seven I felt completely exhausted. I stayed in bed all day but I didn't do much. I tried to finish my final projects which were due the next morning but I was just so tired. I started feeling sorry for myself so I made some cookie dough and ate 6 good size cookies worth. I also made 2 packs of the cream carbonara ramen flavor from that spicy ramen brand. At the end of the day I almost finished the projects out of anxiety but I fell asleep anyway. I barely had any liquids that day. I did have a glass or two of milk.

On day eight I was woke up very sick. I finished my projects early in the morning and printed them out. I felt dizzy and disoriented but didn't have any other symptoms. Every time I get sick and think its something else I get told it was stress induced and I can't keep going to the doctor. So I just wrote it off and went to work and my late lab. At work I felt even worse and I just stopped by my lab to turn in my project and told my professor that I wasn't feeling good. He let me leave and I'm grateful for that. I could barely drive home. I also slept terrible with constant tossing and turning. That day I drank a cup of milk and ate a banana. I had one slice of pizza when I got home. I drank a lot of water and some sugar free Gatorade for the electrolytes.

On day nine I took my temperature and it was 100 on my forehead and 102 under my tongue. I didn't feel good at all and I called out of work and school. I drank even more liquids that day. Only water this time because the gatorade started to taste pretty bad. I couldn't stomach anything with sugar or even sweet after eating all that cookie dough on day seven. I ate two eggs and two prunes for breakfast. I puked up everything around lunch. For dinner I had clam chowder and a slice of sourdough.

On day ten I was starting to feel better. When I'm sick, throwing up signals the end of it. I ate one small pancake, I made a white rice with a bit of butter and salt, and I blended frozen blue berries, yogurt, and some local honey together. I went to my late lab to present my final project but I called out of work again. They don't mind calling out because they don't have a lot of staff and don't want anything to spread. One time something spread to half the company and from then on they rather you just stay home. One of my class professors asked for a doctors note and I don't know how to tell her that the doctors is too expensive for me right now and that this was likely stress induced anyway. So I just told her that I didn't have one but that I was unsafe to drive to work or school. That usually works but I haven't gotten an email back yet. When I got home I ate a handful of peanuts (lightly salted, no sugar) and a tortilla out of the fridge. My appetite hasn't returned quite yet.

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

I didn't exercise or do my routine for any of those days. I managed to shower twice and do my laundry but that's about it. This is what my health is like. I have given up on going to the doctors because they tell me the same thing. It's stress. And I have no choice but to believe them because they ran so many tests that I could barely afford. Blood tests and stool samples and ultrasounds. There's nothing but a bit of fat around my liver and even that shouldn't cause any symptoms since it is barley noticeable on the ultrasound. I would like to believe that I have some mystery illness and the doctors aren't listening to me but they are listening.

Everything just keeps showing negative. I feel like I'm going crazy. I was in lab on day ten and someone told me "It seems like you are sick every week. Did they (the doctors) tell you what's wrong?" and it just stuck with me. Even the people I barley know can tell that I'm just not healthy. I push and push and push but it just makes it worse. I know I'm just ranting now but I am happy that I made healthy choices with my food this week. I am going to keep trying to eat healthy and exercise. This blog and the food journal I have been keeping will help me in the future. If there is something wrong with me I can prove it by showing that I'm living a healthy life style. And if there is nothing wrong with me then I can see the patterns of what makes me sick.

I'm trying to keep a positive outlook. I'm going to get back into routine very soon.

[radicallow]

Interview between Jolijn Baeckelandt, Nienke Baeckelandt and Tamara Beheydt in the artists’ shared studio  

17 March 2024.

Tell me about your first experiences with Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and Radicale1924.

Jolijn Baeckelandt: The first time we went to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, in 2022, only Nienke was participating in the Parade. I just tagged along. I did take a lot of photographs there, and after talking with Chantal it became clear that I was going to participate the following year as well. I didn’t have the intention to make a work that first year, but I took photos – like a tourist would – and it turned out that they would come to play an important part in the work I would later develop.

Nienke Baeckelandt: Chantal (Yzermans) had contacted me, first via email. I found it difficult to create a work in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. I collected rocks, which we brought home. We stayed in the village during summer, but not during the Parade itself. That was impossible for me. 

read full interview below OR on Jolijn or Nienkes page.

Which work did you make that first year, in 2022? 

NB: I had collected rocks and Jolijn and her boyfriend brought them back to Belgium for me. I made epoxy molds from them and tried to cast them into ice. I made videos of how the stones melted, but I wasn’t completely satisfied. Instead, I decided to present a transparent epoxy version, merging with a smaller original stone, which seemed to ‘melt into’ each other. It was as if the transparent stone was desperately trying to conserve the other one. 

That seems very fitting for the Parade, which in itself is also a fleeting event. 

NB: My practice always revolves around themes such as melting, transparency, seeing and not seeing, ephemerality of moments. That’s what I like about working with ice. It’s transient, you cannot keep it, whereas other works of art are usually conserved, shown multiple times, maybe sold. There is a lot of beauty in making a work that is temporary. And indeed, it reminded me of the village itself. The stones also reminded me of typical souvenirs, like the crafted wood objects in Jacky’s shop in the village, or like minerals that you can buy in the museum shop at a prehistoric cave or archaeological site.

The work you created the following year, in 2023, is related. This time, you did use ice as your medium. 

NB: The work Tasteless came easier to me – I believe because I had already experienced the village once before. I created my own glasses, plates and cutlery in ice and let them melt on Chantal’s table in her garden, where we always sat. I wanted the visitors of the Parade to witness this melting process (and I filmed it). The village itself seems like a frozen memory, there is a strong desire to conserve the heritage, but at the same time, hardly any inhabitants live there all year round. This is contradictory: wanting to conserve the stones, the heritage, but letting the soul disappear from it. And it happens in different places around the world too. In Flanders, I see this contradiction between the will to conserve Flemish heritage, but letting contemporary artists struggle. Anyway, that is what I wanted to show with the work: a frozen memory melting, with the most picturesque view of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie as its background. 

Jolijn, was your work also inspired by your experience of the village itself? 

JB: It’s so striking, in the village, to see how people come by car in the morning, open their shop or restaurant and go back home to another town in the evening. There is only momentary life. The first time I visited Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, I took polaroid photographs, quite a cliché. Back in the studio, I started scanning and printing them, repeating this process with each new printed result. I often work with patterns and images relayed in different mediums. The photos became the first layer of many, combined with scenic postcards of the village. My printer was broken and this also added to the image. The photos are present in the work, but fade with every new layer. I keep on scanning and printing layer upon layer and ultimately, I draw on them. Finally, I reduced the drawings to the original first layer: the format of a postcard. I added another drawing on top of the reproduced postcards. So, it became an edition but with each copy being unique.  

Somehow, several things came together in this piece. I had this idea for a long time, since 2016 I think, to work around the contrast between ‘fiction’ and ‘non-fiction’. For me, this is also related to seeing and the contrast between green and red, which are contradictory colours, but also complementary. The have functions in painting, but also in our society. And I suddenly saw this idea perfectly fitting with Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, where there is a tension between the history and heritage on the one hand, an a kind of ‘Disneyfication’ on the other. I also created a pair of glasses, with one red glass and one green. The glasses are completely dysfunctional, made from cardboard and sticking together with tape. They make a kind of promise, of showing you what is real and what isn’t, but in fact, they’re useless. For the Parade in 2023, I presented these works, accompanied by a banner with the words FICTION / NON-FICTION, on a blanket in the street, trying to sell my work to tourists. 

At the same time, you also started a spontaneous collaboration with Corentin Canesson, a French artist who was at the time residing in Maisons Daura.  

JB: He was working as a resident at Maisons Daura and had an exhibition there. Chantal introduced us. Corentin’s project revolves around a collection of works, both his and others’. It’s a travelling project with works constantly being added due to spontaneous encounters, such as ours. So, I was invited to add my works in the show at Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and one work to his collection, which now traveled to Switzerland. I am still in touch with him. We are both painters. Content-wise our works are rather far apart, but we do relate.

In the threefold exhibition in 2024, you will both participate on different moments. What are your plans? 

JB: I am still developing the works. The ideas are forming, but works usually develop just by doing. I will most likely continue working from those scans and maybe translate them to posters. Again, working with the idea of advertising the village and its tourism, but it would be closer to my own medium than the postcards. 

NB: I will participate in the exhibition in May and I plan to show the video of the melting process of my previous work, Tasteless. I am doubting whether I will slow it down or speed it up. In any case, the experience of time will play an important part in it.

How would you describe the general impact of participating in Radicale1924, for your practice? 

NB: I especially felt the impact of being there during the Parade… What this project does – it brings you together with other artists, but also people of the village. I was already experimenting with ice, but I really developed it there and made a strong specific work there. It was like a test scene. It’s a Parade, but it’s also a safe environment to show your work. It’s not like in a museum or institution. And because of that, the works usually turn out really well. You do work towards something real and concrete, but you’re allowed to develop it organically. 

JB: As a painter, I often work alone and my practice is a bit isolated in a way. In Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, I am getting out. It is valuable to be surrounded by other artists, who are also there to create work. And remarkably, in this place, the ambiguity that I work with anyway becomes tangible, inherent to the context. It’s not neutral in that sense, like an exhibition space would be. And the idea can grow throughout several years of participation, that is a great gift. 

NB: We had really nice encounters there. It’s not like at an opening or event here, where you might not really talk to each other. In Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, we eat and work and talk, so you get to know each other on a different level. Just by being in the same environment as other artists, you have a kind of unspoken check-up of your work. You see it in the artistic eco-system, whereas in your studio, you often remain alone, in your own thoughts. Speaking with Chantal is also a good way to spar about the work. That’s rather rare.

Are the works that you created in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie still there? They stayed behind?

JB: Yes, it only seemed logical to leave something behind. 

NB: The work with the stones too, yes. It was created for that place so it makes sense. The stone especially: the real stone traveled from Saint-Cirq-Lapopie to Antwerp, and its copy traveled back. Just like the video will now come back one year after the work melting. It wouldn’t make sense to me to show this anywhere else. 

Do you feel that your practice is somehow related to surrealism or the practice of Breton? 

JB: For myself, my research or experience is really more empirical. I work from life, from the tangible contrast in the village between what is real and what is fictional. The idea of images fading and staying present only in the deepest layers… I think that might be the only link with surrealism. 

NB: My research was directed more towards the village and its demographics. Maybe the nature of my work is a bit surrealist, but not on the surface. Other artists worked directly with surrealism or Breton and I think it’s good that there is this balance. What is more important to me, is Breton being there, inviting his friends over. And the fact that his house has been annexed by tourism. It becomes something completely different, like the house of Ensor in Oostende. How do we deal today with the heritage of these artists? That’s what really interests me. Their legacy becomes inscribed in a kind of touristic, and often political narrative.   

[illustratorintheprocess]

WEEK 17: Back to Normality

This week I had a workshop booked in the Digital Space to learn Basic Video Editing using Premier Pro. Only 4 people showed up but the person teaching us made an exemption and held the session anyways. Usually workshops like this are cancelled if less than 5 people show up. I learned a bunch of useful tips and tricks although it was very basic stuff it made Premier Pro seem less daunting. We cut up a sample interview and had a good chat in our small group about our courses and external hard drives.

[I don't own the footage, we only used it as a sample during the workshop and I made this odd little edit]

I wrote down some of the recommendations he gave us and have since then bought a Samsung Portable SSD T7 with 1TB and up to 1.050MB/s. Needing to store tons of images and videos of the project processes and final outcomes for uni, my Computer is aching for more storage space. I don't know much technical stuff but it should help if I move Images, Documents and MP4s from year 1 and 2 from my PC to the portable SSD.

Furthermore I believe it was this Monday that Maisie, my group's usual tutor, couldn't make it and was replaced by VJ for the day. I described my idea for the Cryptid project to VJ and again he had no clue what Cryptids were and when I tied to explain he asked me if I was "one of those conspiracy theorists" which really annoyed me. I enjoy creepy stories, I don't think the government is brainwashing us or anything. Anyway, after a long time spent trying to explain I told him about my most recent idea of making a mini comic of only a few pages for the final outcome. This could be a cute little comic about what roles certain Cryptids play in an alternative modern day scenario in which they have surfaced to the public and become part of everyday life. The window cleaning Mothman, as an example, if you remember my previous post. VJ asked if I have done a comic before and I said no. Not really at least. The Element 2 for the CTS3 unit was just a one page spread. This is where VJ advices me against trying anything too adventurous and new for my final project since it weighs so much in my final grade (60 creds) and will be on display during the graduates exhibit. I was a little disappointed but adjusted my thinking. I have to come up with something else, more familiar.

This week we were sent an email by our year leader Angela describing an amazing opportunity of having our work hung in as part of an exhibition at the OXO Tower, London. It should be the outcome of our Minor Project and we had to submit a PDF detailing the work's size, material, name, etc. I sent mine off in the hopes of being able to display both, NAKED - the Normal and -the Nightmare but we were pressed for space and I could only fit all 3 Normal prints if hung underneath each other. Still a pretty neat opportunity though.

Finally, I attended a lecture by 2 alumni on Thursday, where they told us "What makes a creative". It was quite immersive and a nice little lecture. Afterwards I sought out Angela to collect my earnings from the Winter Fair in cash and to ask her a few more questions about the OXO exhibit.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful.

[kelsywrites]

Time & Space Colliding

Chapter 4

The Smiths played in the background. Buzzing of the computer’s fan was loud and rhythmic. Black and Mild wine flavor burned slowly in the ashtray, its smoke twisting and curling in the air. Edison’s fingers pounded away at the keyboard. There was a sense of urgency that made this lame assignment due in 40-something minutes worthwhile.

The ringing of her phone interrupted her thoughts and caused her fingers to pause. Should she answer? She was running out of time. Fuck it, she picked it up.

Silence on her end and a rattling breathing on the other end.

“Weirdo, can’t you answer the phone like a normal human?”

“Maybe I would if I was normal. What do you want? I’m on a deadline.”

“What do you know about watches?”

“They tell time, and according to mine I have 15 minutes to finish and print this shitty paper.”

“I have this weird watch that looks like it plugs into something.”

“Cool, try the Radio Shack or Best Buy.”

“Are you saying you’d rather go to class than hang out with an old pal?”

“Well, Terry Jr, I think it would be beneficial for you to take a few psychology classes and learn the importance of not putting words in people’s mouths.”

“Yeah, no I’m good. Meet me in 10 at the usual spot.”

The sound of her fingers typing away was the only response.

“Edison…”

“Terrence…”

“Stanley made Mexican Coffee.”

Click.

“This better be interesting.”

 “What happened to your arm?” She took the coffee cup he extended to her.

“Fell through a glass case. Nice mohawk…” he eyed her leather jacket and her spiked hair, “What was the inspiration?”

The way she glared at him in response caused him to realize he was in hot water with her. “Where’s this watch I’m missing class for?”

Terrence handed it to her as they began walking towards downtown.

Her eyes studied it as she twisted it in her fingers, her silence was unusual and bothered him. “What’s going on with you?”

“For real Terrence?” she glared at him.

“That’s the second time you called me that in one day. What’d I do?”

“What’d you drop your marbles in that glass case? Where’ve you been?”

Edison’s voice was sharp, and she picked up her pace. Racking his brain for what he was missing he stopped dead in his tracks. “Fu…shi…”

“Yeah, you’re an ass…”

“Eddi…”

“Don’t”

“Seriously, stop.” He grabbed her arm, “I’ve had a lot going on.”          “Yeah, I don’t want to hear it…It’s not like we’re living in the dark ages…you could have at least called…sent an email. Shit, I would have been touched by snail mail.”

TJ forced her to turn towards him, “Listen to me.”

“Can we focus on the watch right now? That’s the point of this meeting, right?”

“Forget about the watch…I fucked up.”

“Understatement of the year. Terry, I really don’t want an apology or explanation or whatever your pea size brain is drumming up right now. Obviously, this watch was important enough for you to call, and you were important to Scotty so I’m doing this for him. I’ll get over your douchebaggery another time…”

It was clear she wasn’t going to hear him. He swallowed and clenched his jaw working through the gut punch of emotions.

“I think I can MacGyver something to plug this watch in if you want to head back to my place.”

The gut punch left him struggling to form words or even find his voice he swallowed the lump in his throat, which wouldn’t go away, and nodded.

Edison’s place was dark the one window was lined with foil and cardboard, and the air was smokey and stuffy. She pulled on the chain to her lamp and lit the place enough to see. He sat on the stuffed couch across from the desk and stared at his hands.

“You going to start mopin now? Feels good to feel like a jerk, don’t it?”

TJ shook his head.

She turned her back ignoring him as she rifled through a drawer of wires and tools and began tinkering away. “Where’d you find this watch anyway?”

Scratching his brow he cleared his throat, “an old pawn shop on Rowe.”

Eddi scoffed, “Nice looking for trouble again? Been hitting the good stuff too?” When he didn’t respond she turned and studied him, “Terry?”

“No…” he glanced up at her and noticed that she was really looking at him for the first time today.

She stopped what she was doing and propped herself up on the desk. “Did you check out?”

“Not exactly…” he nervously picked at his thumbnail then stopped and scratched the back of his head as he met her gaze again, “I…something strange happened…I don’t even know where to start.”

“The beginning is usually good. Although I have found some stories starting with a flashback or some scene from the future is always a nice twist.”

“The pawn shop is where I found the watch. This girl asked for directions to it and when she was in there something weird happened and she got hurt pretty bad. I helped her, took her to Mira, and then when I was trying to find answers to what she had going on she said they took her watch…whoever was in there hurt her and took her watch and vanished.”

“And this girl?”

He sighed still feeling the sting of her sudden disappearance…as if he lost a part of himself…which didn’t make any sense to him but that’s exactly how he would describe it, he felt lost without her. Maybe he was crazy. Brain damage much… he could hear Eddi say what he knew she would be thinking if he said all this out loud.

“I don’t know. She vanished.”

Edison could tell this was all eating at Terry and turned back to fidgeting with the watch. “So, this girl’s watch was taken but then you found it where she thought it was taken?”

There was silence as he thought this all over again. “No…I don’t know…I don’t think this was the watch that was taken, but I don’t know for sure…I don’t really know anything.” He paused and muttered the f word under his breath and then got up and started pacing about. “I’m sorry Eddi I really am…”

“I know your rule Terry…your Pop’s rule, it’s like your stupid fucking anthem. It’s how you got tied up with us losers. This girl needs help, and we are going to help her.”

Terrence blew out an exasperated sigh, “Thanks Edison.”

“Don’t mention it. So, what’s her name? Is she prettyyyy?” Her voice taunted him as she plugged the watch in, “Jeopardy!”

He spun around on his heel, “You got it?”

“Don’t sound so surprised lovebird…of course I got it. Give it a minute to get some juice.” She stepped over to her record player and put Joy Division on. The record spun as Love Will Tear Us Apart began to play.

“Always knew this day would come but thought you’d be in your 30s at least…A girl coming between us. She’d better be gorgeous.”

Terry smirked at her. “It’s not like that at all Eddi and you know no one can ever come between us. We have a blood pact.”

“Fuck that shit, we were high out of our minds when we did that.”

“High or not we did it…can’t undo a blood pact.”

Shaking her head, she threw the rubber band ball she had been toying with at him. “I’m just glad you ain’t using again.”

“I really am sorry I bailed.” He stepped towards her setting the rubber band ball down on the desk and then pulled her into a hug. She wasn’t much for hugs but responded in kind.

“No sweat Kid. We’ll make up for it tonight.”

He could hear the emotion in her voice and squeezed her a little tighter.

After a moment she pulled away, “All right let’s see what we can get out of this watch.”

TJ leaned over her shoulder as she brought the watch to life.

“Did you see that? The time automatically adjusted. I wonder if it’s…” her voice wandered off. “How strange was this girl…what’s her name? sick of calling her girl.” She glanced over her shoulder at him.

“She said Deni and CJ…I was calling her Deni, and she was pretty peculiar.”

Eddi arched an eyebrow at him, “Deni hu? Fitting… where are we talking on the peculiar scale?”

“Where does green jumpsuit, never hearing dancing in the moonlight, magic eyes, an unplaceable accent, and possibly not knowing what a Rubik’s Cube is, land?”

“Noooo…wait did you say magic eyes? Hold up go back I’m unpacking this. Where can I get one of these green jumpsuits? Magic eyes?! What the fuck…you are in love!” She lost herself in her laughter, “Wait til Mira hears all about this…”

“Shut up Edison! Come on I didn’t mean it like that…she just has eyes I’ve never seen before. I don’t know how to explain it. Can we get back to the watch what were you getting at?”

“Well, it was dead. And when I plugged it in it charged and instead of just ticking from the time it died on it adjusted on its own to the current time.”

TJ shook his head, “stop speaking nerd… what are you saying?”

“Rocks for brains. I don’t know maybe it has a setting or it’s connected to a satellite or somehow the internet.”

“Flip it over.”

         The back side looked like some sort of screen but wasn’t responding to anything she did. “Might have to take it apart and study it some more.” Eddi sighed and sifted through her drawer again.

         “Don’t worry about it right now…I owe you and Scotty. Let’s get out of here. I need to clear my head, all this is making me feel crazy anyways.”

         “Love will do that to you,” she winked at him.

         “You’re making me regret all of this Eddi.”

         “Oh, you missed me, and you know it.” She grabbed her leather jacket and ditched her combat boots for high-top DC sneakers.

 ҉

 March 3, 2002, boldly etched into the tombstone, a date not easily forgotten, and yet somehow, he had let it slip by like just another day. It ate at him now as he stared at it under Scotty’s name. Hitting the skatepark before coming here had helped alleviate some of the remorse he was feeling, Eddi, helped too. But he was still beating himself up.

She sat crossed-legged to his right ripping at the grass and rambling on about funny shit Scotty used to say. “Nothing tops how he convinced us all to shorten our names during our blood pact. ‘We have to have a family name now that we are all blood. What if you go by Terry and Edison goes by Eddi and I go by Scotty…Eddi has to be spelled with an I though because you’re a girl and that’s how Spanish works right? You have to have the feminine version of the name’…shit, I hated him for that. You know how many people call me eeedie…gross.”

TJ couldn’t help but chuckle as he glanced back at her and then finally sat down next to her.

“Such a dummy when he got high but dumb funny shit…man, I miss that…probably the hardest part of sobering up. You know how many times I wanted him to get high just so I could laugh at his stupid ass.”

“He was still funny sober…”

“No, he was a smart-ass sober.”

“Look who’s talking.”

“I’m always a smart ass.”

He laughed and shook his head as he gulped his Squirt. “He once told me that the reason they have us learn about evolution is so that we don’t repeat it. I swear my nose burned for hours after blowing whiskey through it.”

“When I first met him, I swore he really believed half the dumb shit he said.”

“He was a true genius.”

Eddi twirled a piece of grass in her fingers. “Yeah, have everyone believe he’s a dumbass so they don’t expect much from him. Shit, how many assignments he got a B or C on when he should have fuckin flunked.”

“I’m telling you. Man, I wish I would have learned a thing or two from him.” Terry chuckled “I guess I had already set myself up for failure.”

“It never mattered what you did…Mira always expected more from you…not a bad thing. Her pushing you probably kept you out of more trouble than you got in.”

“Or pushed me into it…” He sighed, “No you’re right…I never wanted to let her down but when things got hard it was easier just to give up and shut the world out.”

“I don’t know how many times Scotty would ask me if I talked to you. I’d always give him the smart-ass remark that you were his friend.” Eddi sighed and laid back in the grass, staring up at the blue sky. “I’m sorry Terry…phones work both ways. I should have called you. But you know my hot head wanted a reason to be mad…mad at you. Blame you for how I was feeling. It’s just been really hard.”

A breeze picked up and caused him to shiver as he glanced over his shoulder at her, “I know and I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

“Scotty would be really proud of you. And as hard as it is for me to say I am really proud of you. Even if you are the bane of my existence.”

He grinned at her, “I love you too.” Her ribbing had lifted his mood and he was feeling lighter. “Thanks, Eddi.” As he laid back next to her, he thought about how Scotty had introduced them and how Eddi had resented him for the longest time. She didn’t like that Scotty had a new friend and didn’t like having to share him. “As much as you hate me, I’m glad that Scotty brought us together…”

“Yeah, you ain’t too bad.” She smirked at him before turning back to the sky. “Tell me more about this Deni with an I.”

Terry laughed, “how do you know it’s with an I?”

“Because she’s a girl. No, but really, I’m sure Scotty wants to know about her too. And start from the beginning this time, and don’t leave anything out.”

[mmm-amba]

i'm excited to write to you finally! i finished finals yesterday and had a picturesque morning --

it's gloomy out, raining. but that's perfect timing, really, because i don't have to walk to campus today. i really enjoyed my walks during finals week. the weather before today was chilly and misty so the walks cleared my head.

you know what i've been thinking about? i've been thinking about writing. and art, i guess. i don't think my dream job is to become a number cruncher or research statistician. i think my dream job would be to write. or maybe i mean like some form of expression. i'm just thinking of the things that i'm naturally good at and just ... innately passionate of. i love listening to stories, i like making jewelry, i like arranging my room for that peak feng shui. i try super hard in my studies, but if i think about my natural gifts that the people around me appreciate, it's usually things about artsiness/cozyness or like advice/writing or like... making people feel comfortable?

so anyway i've been having this idea of like a coffee shop / creative space in chinatown. i went to this white ass indie arts store where local artists can sell their art (jewelry, ceramics, prints, etc) at the store, and the store takes A 50% CUT. that's kind of a lot. so imagine like in chinatown, there's like a coffee shop that sells indie poc art where the artists get most of the profit (maybe like 75%? idk). and maybe there's a bookshelf of other people's book recommendations (of poc authors lol). and maybe there's like a community art supplies thing where you pay a lil to use some of the crafty supplies so you can make things. and maybe this coffee shop / community studio has a lil zine project and they come out with a zine every now and then. and maybe it's not a coffee shop but more like selling little drinks and snacks.

yesterday i hosted a potluck and my friends really liked my rice! i think it's funny because rice usually isn't something complimented. but this whole quarter i've been perfecting my white rice. i don't have a rice cooker so i make it on the stove, and it's been fun slowly figuring out how to prepare it! there were definitely a few batches of rice that were terrible like the texture was just baddd. but imagine if this coffee shop thing could have like simple things to eat. like a good bowl of white rice and furikake and seaweed! like, feels like home.

i also think it would be cool to work for quanta. or pitchfork. two very different publications. i should start reading them more. but there's this fellowship thing that was in my email, and it's like for people studying math but it's a writing fellowship? so for a summer you get placed in this organization and write about stem things for a non-technical audience.

things to think about during winter break ^ because i don't think i want to stay in academia. it's too much imposter syndrome and... theoretical research just seems really pointless? like you're working so hard to figure something out and guess what? it doesn't really make the world a better place and no one really cares and you have no money. i think i'm a creative person, and now that i'm wayyy less depressed than i was in high school and college, i can more clearly see my strengths and where i want to go. anyway...

back to my morning. i woke up and watched youtube in bed. so nice! and then i got up and did a face mask while watching more youtube. i was watching the pink pantheress boiler room set and holy shit pink pantheress is such an icon. her vibe is just next level and i love the confidence. she's imperfect and utterly confident. i love her lyrics. pink pantheress is -- there's just something about her.

and then i did my skincare and cleaned the kitchen. my breakfast was the same ol toast and egg with tea. i added honey to my tea! i don't know why, but this little detail was so incredibly luxurious for me. usually i make tea for caffeine, and i guess i'm too preoccupied with the work i need to finish after breakfast to think about honey. but i have this tiny, tiny tiny jar of honey that i got from a fancy restaurant my brother took me to. and i felt so luxurious drinking honey jasmine tea. and then i ate a costco madeleine with the tea.

also having tea and pastries together is so luxurious. it's almost meditative or like... a practice of intentionality? yin and yang in like texture temperature taste. i don't know. but i find the costco madeleines so funny. there's like 100 or something in my drawer. like what preservatives are in these things i don't know. the madeleines remind me of an old friend whose mom would buy them regularly.

[bomberqueen17]

turkey delirium

hokay 

so the turkeys the farm raises are all 1) processed, on saturday, which went smoothly, and was fairly exhausting but nothing we haven’t done before, lovely 2) packaged, which went.... well it was going sort of smoothly, none of us could remember how it quite works, rocky start because while Farmsister is the one who knows how it works best, she was off getting the vegetables set up because VegMan could not miss a week of church services to be present for the busiest day of the year but he said he’d be back by 11:30 which would be great because vegetable-only pickup was going from 11-1 and then 1-3 was turkeys for people with vegetable shares and we *had* to have the turkey package-and-sort done by then so if he’d be able to cover most of that it’d really super help. But he didn’t get back from church until after 1, as it happened, so that sucked and we had to just be short-staffed. Anyway, we were making reasonable progress and then I went to get more bags and the box had one more sleeve of 100 in it. And I didn’t know how many we’d already done but I knew our total number was around 180. So that precipitated a crisis of where to get more turkey bags, underscored by both Farmsister and BIL being absolutely positive they’d counted and determined there were enough bags for this year so how could they have been caught short like this??? 3) sold. We did get everything packaged-- some turkeys just had to go into kitchen garbage bags, clean ones, and not one customer batted an eye so that was good. The problem was that BIL ran in to do the sorting-- people are matched with their size preference of turkey in order of precedence of when they placed their order, so it’s really critical to know the weight of each final packaged turkey-- and when he did the sorting he worked into the wrong spreadsheet and so it was only the people who’d used the online order form and so a solid dozen customers who’d mailed in an order form or called on the phone or emailed separately were not included, and that customer base was most of the oldest and most loyal customers. So that was a fucking crisis. Also he printed out the spreadsheet and gave it to me to use as the customers came up to the table, and the sheet he gave me was not alphabetized, was not in order of when they placed the order, was not in order of size of the turkey even-- it was arranged by NO criteria at all, it was completely randomized, I didn’t even know you could do that with a spreadsheet. And it was four pages long. And the first customer, who showed up fifteen minutes early to stand there, elderly and tottering, shivering in the fucking 20 degree gale-force winds, was not on the list; she’s on the edge of dementia and literally never actually places her order but is always convinced she did. (She’s vaguely aware that she’s not quite getting things right, but that doesn’t change that she’s been buying things here for years and expects to buy things here and yet consistently forgets to actually make her arrangements.) (We had to have her come inside and sit down while we worked out what turkey we could give her.)

The other thing is that the spreadsheet is supposed to tell me whether the customers paid the deposit on the turkey or not. They’re supposed to pay a $20 deposit. Sometimes they forget, sometimes they’re sure they did but they did not, and sometimes, fucking obnoxiously, they pay a deposit of a different amount of money, which we then have to know about somehow. One of them I was like “why the heck did you pay a $39 deposit” and she was like “oh that was the money i had, it was easier for me” and i’m like “cool do you see how confusing that is though” and she went off on her way and I know next year she’s gonna put down a like, $43 deposit or something, why the fuck. Anyway, usually that’s on the spreadsheet-- and in fact it was, on the sheet he was supposed to use, but anyway. It was gale-force winds and 20 degrees and the turkey juices that leaked onto the table froze instantly into sheets of ice and the THREE DIFFERENT COPIES of the spreadsheet we had printed out (one that included almost all the customers, one that actually included all the turkeys but wasn’t in any order of any kind, and one that said whether the customers had paid a deposit and if so how much) all kept blowing away and had to repeatedly be chased down.

But we sold all the turkeys we were supposed to sell, by and large, and now that huge stressor is gone and done and packaged up and the checks are going to the bank today and that’s like. $20k.

Today I get to clean and re-set the slaughterhouse so tomorrow we can process 115 more turkeys, 90 for one farmer and 25 for another.

I think I have Wednesday off though.

As an aside, it’s 18F out, and I did finish insulating my cabin but we didn’t get the heater installed so instead I have a little propane heater that clips onto a 20-lb propane tank and has no thermostat, so i’m struggling to get it up above 45 so I can get dressed, as I type this. I think I gotta just give up and get dressed now, lol, and also, brr.

[ao3komorii]

Tangling with the Lifeguard (Pool Party Sett/Reader)

The Pool Party Sett story is done! I’ve gone with a beach!AU sort of setting where league races exist in a modern-day beach sort of place. Also sorry to any MF or Syndra mains, they don’t really come out the best in this xD Hope you enjoy, and as always, there is a smut warning for the end!

---

The sun was shining high in the sky, crystalline waters lapping against the shore as beachgoers took advantage of the perfect summer day. Taking in the scene from your place in the shade of a tree on the border between the beach and parking lot, you let a smile grace your lips as you mused on just how much this place seemed to not change, even after so many years.

The last time you had set foot on this beach, you had been twelve years old, full of excitement and unaware of the harsh realities of the adult world. Your parents had brought you here for that summer, now thirteen years ago, the beautiful beach an unforgettable experience. You had left after that summer with treasured memories, and a new friend, that same friend the very reason why you had returned to Port Navori beach after so long.

Taliyah had been the same age as you, with fairly lax parents who let her roam the beach by herself, even as the small twelve-year-old she had been. You had bonded instantly, spending almost every day together, and keeping in touch through letters, and later emails and text messages.

You had long said that you had wanted to come back and visit the lively beach town, but the timing hadn’t been right, not until this year.

You were done all your schooling, and had quit your high-stress, low-pay job, and as Taliyah had said on your last phone call, you had no reason not to visit. Her parents had been travelling the world since they retired, so you would have her house all to yourselves.

In your absence, Taliyah had become a fairly accomplished surfer in the local scene, working at an ice cream shop on the beach to support her expensive pursuits. She had been so insistent that you couldn’t find yourself able to refuse her offer; work in the ice cream shop with her in the day, and then spend the rest of your time catching up with each other. You had missed your friend dearly, and had accepted the offer without a second thought.

And now here you were, waiting at the beach’s edge for Taliyah to show up. She had told you to dress for the beach, sounding casual as was her usual, so you had worn a swimsuit with a short, flowy shoulderless dress on overtop. Unwilling to look like a lobster by day’s end, you had carefully layered yourself with sunscreen, and now all you needed was for your friend to get here already. Just when you were about to get out your phone to text her, an excited call of your name had you re-stowing the phone in your bag and looking back to see your friend bounding across the parking lot towards you.

Taliyah, dressed in a two-piece water suit and carrying a tropical-flower-print surfboard, came to a stop before you, leaning her surfboard against a tree to free her arms to tackle you in a hug.

“You’re finally here!” she grinned, surprising you with the strength of her hug. “We’re gonna have so much fun!”

“So what’s first?” you asked as you pulled back from the hug.

Taliyah hummed. “I guess I’ll show you the shop.”

You followed her onto the beach, recognizing the small bright blue building from the pictures she had sent you before. Taliyah took you around the back, fishing a key out of her pocket before unlocking the door and leading you into the small room.

There were large tubs of ice cream in the middle of the room, the walls lined with containers of various toppings and machines. On the back wall from you were two windows, glossy menus pasted to the doors that would display out when they were opened. Upon walking closer to the menu signs, you noticed something.

“Hey, it says we open at nine, but it’s ten-thirty…”

“It’s fine,” Taliyah replied with a shrug. “The owners are pretty chill. If anyone complains, I’ll just tell them I had to train the new employee.”

You playfully rolled your eyes. Sometimes you really envied Taliyah’s ability to be so carefree. Her calm energy was a big help for you, having got advice from her on numerous occasions over the years.

Taliyah came over to where you were, eyes flitting boredly to the menu boards before turning her attention back to you. “So I’m thinking we get you taking orders while I make them.”

“Works for me,” you agreed. It certainly sounded easier than figuring out what a poro float was supposed to be. You never knew ice cream stands had such fancy options now, used to the simple menus of ice cream cones and bars back at the shops in your hometown.

You were about to open the order windows when you were stopped by a rustling noise from the back of the store. You turned to see Taliyah digging in a cardboard box in the back corner, pulling out some folded-up fabric that was the same sky blue as the stand.

“Didn’t think you’d get away without an embarrassing uniform, did you?” Taliyah teased, tossing some of her fabric pile your way.

You caught the bundle, unfolding it to find an apron with Poro Palace Frozen Treats in pink bubble letters, little white fuzzy animals dotting the apron. There was an accompanying blue visor hat that looked like something out of a kid’s store. You reluctantly slipped both items of clothing on, looking back to find that Taliyah had done the same.

“Stylish, huh?” she smirked, striking a modelesque pose.

“We look like we work at an amusement park, Tali,” you laughed.

“Feels like it sometimes with all the annoying kids that come by,” she replied. “Okay, you can open it up now.”

Taliyah settled herself down in a chair in front of the section of ice cream tubs, and you reluctantly turned to unlatch and open the windows, unsure of exactly what you were getting yourself into.

The small room lit up with the outside sunlight streaming in from your window to outside, the immediate glare of the sun making you wish you had worn sunglasses.

Almost immediately, the masses were upon you. You noticed a woman with several children in tow who perked up as she laid eyes on you, striding over to you with her children right behind her, pushing each other as they scrambled to be the first one to get over to you.

You heard Taliyah groan behind you. “Get the pen ready. They always have the most annoying orders.”

You rose an eyebrow, but picked up the pen and notepad that sat beside the cash register as the woman came to a stop before you.

“You know, I’ve been waiting for an hour already. You young girls don’t know how hard it is for mothers,” the woman complained, not letting you get a word in edgewise. “Alright, tell her what you want.”

“I want a brownie sundae!” a small boy with blue hair who clearly intended to make full use of his outdoor voice shouted. “But with cotton candy ice cream and pop rocks and I want only blue candies!”

“Uh…” The kid was talking too fast for you to write, but luckily Taliyah had your back, a got it ringing out from behind you.

You weren’t sure how you had managed to get their orders out before they melted, messing up their total several times before Taliyah had to come and help you out. With a last snide look and a fistful of blue napkins, the mother and her little terrors left the stand at last.

“She’s the worst,” Taliyah said, bringing your weary gaze her way as she cleaned off an ice cream scoop. “I accidentally put one red candy in that kid’s sundae once and he screamed until I remade the whole thing!”

You winced. “Feels like we got off easy today.”

“Yeah,” Taliyah agreed. “Helps that they order the same thing every time, so I’ve got some practice.”

“Are they all this bad?” you asked, turning away from the window after seeing no potential customers nearby.

“Not all of them,” she replied with a strained smile. “I swear the heat just brings the jerk out in some of the people here.”

Speaking of jerks… your conversation was interrupted by an impatient-sounding throat clearing noise from behind you. You whirled around to see a redheaded woman with heart-shaped sunglasses and a revealing swimsuit leaning against your counter. She was staring at you like you were gum she had stepped in, flipping some hair over her shoulder when she knew she had your attention.

“Five cherry snowballs,” she said, dropping a few coins on your counter, some of which bounced and hit the floor. “To the red umbrella, thanks ice cream girl.”

Without any further interaction, she turned on her heel and strutted away, hips swinging as she went, leaving you wondering what had just happened.

You slowly turned back to face Taliyah again. “Um, do we usually deliver?”

“Nope,” she answered. “Not to people like that anyways.”

“But…” you protested weakly. You knew Taliyah got away with a lot here, but you didn’t want her to lose her job because some rude girl complained to her bosses. “I’ll just take them over and next time I’ll just say we don’t deliver.”

“Still tempted to put rocks in their snowballs,” Taliyah joked as she set about piling the scoops of red ice.

Soon you had a tray with five cherry syrup-coated piles of shaved ice in little plastic bowls with accompanying little plastic spoons stuck in the side of the dishes.

“I’ll be right back,” you said, heading past Taliyah to the back door, opening it to find yourself back out in the mid-morning heat.

The sand still felt uncomfortably hot underfoot, even with your flip flops on. With how hot it was out, these would have to be delivered as soon as possible to not be a puddle by the time they were eaten. Your only problem was that you had no idea where to go.

The redhead had said that she would be at the red umbrella, but of course nothing at this ice cream stand would be that easy. Standing just outside the hut, you were treated to a veritable rainbow of colored beach umbrellas. You counted at least ten red ones scattered across the beach, none particularly standing out to you. You didn’t have many options, and were forced to go with the most tedious one; checking every red umbrella until you found the girl and her group.

The first umbrella had been a bust, as had the next five. The sixth had led to a sweaty old man who told you that you were just in time to help him sunscreen his back. By the time you had hurriedly fled from that creep, it had been about five minutes of searching, the snowballs on your tray looking considerably droopier than they had been when you had left the shop.

You stared down at the tray of melting treats, unsure of what to do now. Should you go back and have Taliyah remake the snowballs? Try a few more umbrellas and hope you got lucky? You really hadn’t been anticipating this much stress when you had agreed to work here with Taliyah for the summer.

You frowned at the now-more-water-than-ice treats, your decision made. You couldn’t serve these, not as melted as they were. You would go back and help remake them and see if Taliyah had any insight as to which red umbrella was the right one. You turned around to head back to the stand, only to trip on your overheating flip flops and fall forward with a cry.

You had closed your eyes with a flinch as you fell, but opened them with a start as you heard a grunt from right in front of you. Looking up from your position in the burning sand, you felt like your heart was going to stop in your chest.

Standing before you was the most attractive guy you had ever laid eyes on, with fire red hair and a pair of black animal ears that looked soft to the touch. He was dressed in a tight pair of swim shorts, a lightweight red jacket tied around his waist. He had a flower lei around his neck, but that was the only thing that he wore on his top half, his insanely-well-built torso on full display, a torso you realized with horror was currently splattered with red syrup and shaved ice.

You looked from the hot guy to the ground, the sand around you speckled with plastic cups, spoons and napkins, your tray turned upside down in the sand. You slowly risked a gaze back up, only to see the guy staring down at you from behind his pink-tinted sunglasses as a clump of ice fell from his stomach to the sand just in front of your hands.

Embarrassment forced you to spring up, grabbing some stray napkins from the ground and dabbing them against the mess of syrup and ice on the man’s abdomen.

“I’m so sorry, I–” You looked up from your apologizing to see the man silently staring at you, your hand freezing in place as you realized that you were basically feeling this guy up through the napkins, the realization making your cheeks burn with shame and embarrassment.

“I’m really sorry!” you cried out, pulling your hands back. He still hadn’t said anything, and you realized that you couldn’t just stand here like an idiot, your flight instinct kicking in as you reached down to grab your tray before moving around the man and fleeing in the direction of the ice cream stand.

“Hey, wait!”

The man tried to grab your arm as you passed, but you were faster in your embarrassment-fueled retreat, and soon the hot stranger was far behind you. You didn’t stop running until you were back at the shop, the empty sand-logged tray clutched tightly to your chest, your heartbeat pounding in your ears as you shut the door, making eye contact with a confused Taliyah.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked, getting up to approach you when you didn’t respond. “Talk to me. What happened? If that snob said anything to you–”

“No, no, she didn’t,” you replied weakly, sinking to the floor with your back against the door. “I didn’t even get to her.”

“Then what happened?” she pressed, bringing you a glass of water and prying the tray from your hands at last.

She ushered you to your feet and down into her chair, taking a seat on one of the counters. You took a deep breath, taking a sip of the water before recounting the events of the past ten minutes to Taliyah, who listened silently.

“…I didn’t know what to do, so I just ran,” you finished, setting your water down to bury your face in your hands.

“It’s no big deal,” Taliyah replied gently. “Everyone has embarrassed themselves in front of someone. Remember that time I tripped over my board in front of that group of tourists?”

“I covered him in cherry syrup, Tali,” you groaned. “I don’t think I’m cut out for this.”

“It’s your first day,” she stressed. “You’re bound to mess some things up.”

She stood up, returning to the shaved ice machine. “Now how about we remake those snowballs and then I’ll–”

Taliyah had frozen in place, a plastic cup in her hand as she stared straight ahead.

“Tali?” you questioned, standing up. “Are you–”

“That guy you dumped the snowballs on,” she quickly interrupted. “Did he have majorly cut abs and animal ears?”

“Uh, why?” You felt a jolt of fear shoot up your spine as you followed her gaze to see the man from earlier currently approaching the shop, well-defined abdomen now minus the sticky mess you had spilt all over him. “Oh god, it’s him!”

You and Taliyah exchange wide-eyed glances before you dove down out of sight, hiding behind the tubs of ice cream like they were a fortress.

“Please get rid of him!” you begged. “I’ll do whatever you want, I just can’t face him!”

You heard Taliyah sigh. “Fine, but this means you’re coming stone hunting with me tonight.”

You agreed immediately, even if the prospect wasn’t overwhelmingly appealing. Taliyah was always eager to add to her collection of shiny stones, but was so picky that it often took hours to find just one stone that met her standards. But right now you were so desperate that you would have promised her anything just to make the angry hot guy go away.

From your position behind the ice cream tubs, you could only hear Taliyah’s voice clearly, the general noise of the beach preventing you from hearing what the furry-eared man was saying. You wanted to peek out from your hiding spot, but found yourself chickening out. You really didn’t need him catching sight of you and making Taliyah’s job even harder.

You had gotten so in your own head with panic that you had completely tuned out of your surroundings until a hand waved in front of your face and you realized Taliyah was crouching in front of you, calling your name.

“You okay?” she asked worriedly.

“Is he gone?” you replied quietly.

“Yeah, he’s gone,” she confirmed, standing up and grabbing your forearms to pull you up with her. “Now help me remake those snowballs and then I’ll fill you in.”

You bit your lip as you scooped shaved ice into a row of plastic cups as Taliyah readied the cherry syrup. Soon you had five pristine-looking snowballs on your slightly-sandy tray, the sight of them bringing you back to your moment of collision with the cute guy.

The tray was snatched from your field of vision by Taliyah, who headed over to the rear door. “Be back in a few. Try not to freak out too much while I’m gone.”

And then the door was closed and you were left alone. Looking over at the order window, you decided that you were probably safer to just resume your position behind the ice cream tubs, unwilling to risk being out in the open in case the guy decided to come back.

While she was gone, you couldn’t help but fret over exactly what had been said between your best friend and the mysterious hot guy. She didn’t seem to be upset, so clearly their conversation hadn’t been that intense. Or maybe it had; Taliyah was a fairly relaxed person, so it would be difficult for a random angry customer to really get to her. But that didn’t quite make sense either; if he had yelled at her, you would have heard it over the noise of the beachgoers. All you were doing was overthinking yourself to death, exactly what Taliyah had told you not to do.

And it was there you remained until Taliyah returned, closing the door behind her and placing the serving tray in the sink before she turned her attention to you at last.

“Calm down, it’s fine… I think,” she said.

“You think?”

“Well he didn’t seem mad,” she explained. “He asked if a girl that looked like you worked here and I said you went home sick. Said he’d come back another time.”

“Another–” Oh god. Was he really so angry that he was willing to come back just for the chance to yell at you?

“I can see you freaking out,” Taliyah scolded. “Don’t. You’re fine. Musclehead or not, he’s not going to kill you just because you spilled shaved ice on him.”

She was probably right; hot shirtless guys on the beach likely had more important things to do than yelling at clumsy ice cream shop workers. By tomorrow, he would probably forget you ever existed, and you could go back to enjoying your time working alongside your best friend.

 The rock collecting that night had been long and boring, at least for you. Taliyah hadn’t found any rocks she liked enough to take home, only ending the search after she had found some sea glass that she had deemed acceptable to add to her collection. You could only hope that you wouldn’t owe her any more favors any time soon, unsure if you could survive another late night rock hunt.

The next morning, you entered the shop alongside Taliyah, who put her bag down and began to set up the day’s supplies. Considering it was ten minutes past opening time and Taliyah had insisted that she didn’t need help setting up, you decided that you might as well just open the order window for the day, hoping that mom and her group of demon kids wouldn’t be waiting out there, only to unlatch the widows and see something arguably worse.

The window had only been open a peek, but it was enough for you to see the large figure of the man from yesterday standing ten feet or so from your shop, his back facing you as he stared out at the beach. In your brief glimpse, you also noticed that the jacket wrapped around his waist had a white plus sign in a circle as well as the word lifeguard in white blocky letters above it. Oh god, of course you had gone and pissed off a lifeguard on your first day here.

You shut the barely-open windows with a too-loud slam that made you wince before you quickly locked them again and rushed over to Taliyah.

“Tali, he’s here again!” you hissed.

“Huh?” she replied, pausing her task of refilling a container of sprinkles. “Muscle guy?”

You nodded frantically and Taliyah frowned, putting the sprinkles down and approaching the order window herself. You watched as she opened the window ever so slightly, peering out for a few seconds before closing it back up.

“Well… can’t say I was expecting him to actually come back,” she said evenly.

“What do I even do?” you asked, staring at the order windows like they would burst open at any second and reveal you to the clearly-determined lifeguard. “He’s a lifeguard, Tali! What if he bans me from the beach?”

She rolled her eyes in response. “He can’t just ban you from the beach. Lifeguards don’t have that much power. If they did, I would’ve been banned a long time ago for all the times I’ve surfed after hours.”

“Then what does he want with me?” you asked, looking away from the window.

Taliyah shrugged. “You’d have to ask him that.”

“But what if I… don’t?” you replied weakly. “He’ll give up eventually, right?”

“I mean, maybe?” she said. “But it might be easier to deal with him now and get it over with.”

You saw her point, but it wasn’t her that was being pursued by a tall, muscly lifeguard with a vengeance!

Taliyah clearly caught the reluctance on your face and sighed. “Fine, I’ll switch with you for today. Now let’s go over how to make the basic stuff before we open.”

True to her word, Taliyah had allowed you to hide in the back making orders, telling the lifeguard guy that you were off today. You watched him walk away from behind the shaved ice machine, hoping that your ordeal was finally over, but your hopes were quickly dashed the next day as you went to open the store again, only to see the same broad back facing you from just outside the shop.

Taliyah had reluctantly agreed to switch again that day, and the day after. But by day four, even the promise of helping her scavenge for rocks again wouldn’t get her to agree to switch.

You closed the window again, turning to Taliyah with pleading eyes, but she was having none of it.

“It’s been four days,” she said, arms crossed. “Clearly he’s not giving up. You should just see what he wants.”

“But…” The thought still terrified you. You knew you deserved to be yelled at for what you had done, but it was made that much worse by the fact that the subject of your plight was just about the hottest guy you had ever seen.

Taliyah shook her head at you. “Okay, but I’m not doing orders again today, so if you want to keep hiding from him, we’ll have to move onto plan B.”

Plan B, as it turned out, was a mascot suit of sorts; three fluffy poros stacked on top of each other like a snowman. A poro each made up your upper and lower body, the last poro being the head of the costume. You looked incredibly awkward, the arms and legs of the costume hairy and tipped with little brown claws. You were momentarily stunned by the sheer lengths you were going to just to avoid this guy, but you were already in the costume, so you reasoned that you might as well follow through with it now.

Taliyah put the costume’s head on you and your world was plunged largely into darkness, minus the mesh one-way view out of the top poro’s eyes. You were helped to the back door, some fliers for the store shoved into your hands.

Taliyah helped you walk out front, and you were pretty quickly swarmed by kids. You couldn’t see the lifeguard guy, but the relief that coursed through you was short-lived, swallowed by the immediate explosion of business brought on by your costume.

One thing you hadn’t considered in your haste was the heat. You weren’t sure if it was the costume or if today was hotter than usual, but very quickly you found yourself becoming a sweaty mess under the weight of the dense, furry costume.

The longer you were in the costume, the worse you felt, but you were determined to stick this out. So you handed out fliers and posed for photos with children while Taliyah ran the stand.

You wished that you could wipe the sweat from your face, but you weren’t sure if you could even reach up to remove the costume’s head yourself due to the awkward shape of the costume. So you endured the ever-increasing heat, only feeling wearier as the time ticked by.

You waved goodbye to a group of kids as they left with their ice cream cones, the sweltering heat really bearing down on you. As you went to turn and head back to the stand to ask Taliyah to help get the head off, a wave of dizziness crashed over you. You took one step towards the stand, and then another, and then it all went dark as you felt yourself falling forward, too weak to stop your descent to the ground.

 You woke up with a heavy head, feeling foggy with confusion. The last thing you remembered, you had been heading back to the stand…

Immediately, you realized that you weren’t at the ice cream stand, and you weren’t wearing the poro suit, or even your beach dress. Sitting up in the cot you laid in, you found that you were wearing only your swimsuit.

As you sat up, a blue ice pack that you hadn’t realized was there fell from your forehead and into your lap. Picking it up, the pack only feeling slightly cold, you turned to look around the room, still unsure what exactly was going on.

You were in a room of some sort, guessing it was afternoon by the minute amount of light filtering into the room, even through the closed curtains. There was a fan gently whirring above your head, but otherwise the room was silent.

There was another cot beside yours, and a table nearby with a few red first aid kits stacked on it, some bandages messily spilling out of one of them. There was a sign pulled over the door, the side facing you reading come on in, we’re open.

You got up from the bed, shuddering with disgust when you noticed just how sweaty your whole body was. The bed squeaked as you got up from it, your knees hitting a bedside table between the cots that you hadn’t noticed had been there. On the small table was a glass of water, as well as a white fan that was emblazoned with what looked to be a group of cats waterskiing.

You picked up the fan, letting out a small laugh at the silly-looking cartoon cats on the fan. It looked like something you could win at a carnival booth.

“If you can laugh, then I guess you’re feelin’ alright.”

A deep voice from behind you made you jump, fingers fumbling the fan, which fell onto the floor with a clatter that was only made louder in the quiet room. You turned to look behind you, only to fall off the cot in shock when you saw the very lifeguard you had been trying so hard to avoid standing in the doorway of a small office you hadn’t noticed was there.

“Hey, careful!” He quickly crossed the room to squat down in front of you, taking your elbow and helping you back up onto the cot. You were too stunned to resist and found yourself falling into his chest as a wave of dizziness hit you.

“You okay?” he asked, and you tried to nod, but your head was spinning too much to focus. “Hey, hold still.”

He placed his hands on your shoulders, keeping you steady against him until you were able to regain your focus. When he was satisfied with your condition, he pulled back, releasing your shoulders and instead reaching out for the glass of water on the table next to you.

“Drink,” he instructed, handing you the cup before standing up. “I’ll be right back.”

He stared at you for a moment before finally turning back and heading into the office at the back of the room.

You watched him go, feeling on edge, but complied, bringing the glass up to your lips and taking a long drink. The last thing you wanted to do was give this guy more reason to be upset with you. You were surprised at just how refreshing the water felt, and you had soon downed the entire glass, placing it back on the table when you were done.

“Alright, lay back down,” the lifeguard instructed as he returned.

“What?” you replied. What was he going to do to you? How had you even got here? Where was Taliyah?

He stopped before you, furrowing his eyebrows as he looked down at your shaky, terrified form. “Are you–”

“I’m sorry!” you exclaimed, bowing your head. “I didn’t mean to spill the snowballs on you! If you need to yell at me, go ahead. I’m sorry I didn’t just come out sooner and–”

It had occurred to you mid-ramble that he had yet to say anything, and you cut off your babbling, slowly looking up to find him staring at you with what you could only describe as a bewildered look on his face.

He blinked. “Is that why–”

“I’m so sorry!” you interrupted, bowing your head again. “If you want to ban me from the beach, I get it!”

“Ban ya from the beach?” he replied with a bark of laughter. “The only thing I wanted to do was get your number.”

“My… what?” You had to be hallucinating. There was no way he had just said that.

“Lay down first,” he spoke sternly, and you complied, still feeling stunned by his words.

Once you were laid down, he picked something up from the bed, which you recognized as another ice pack. He placed it on your forehead, the cool pack immediately flooding you with a feeling of relief. Closing your eyes, you let out a tired sigh, suddenly feeling fatigued.

“Get some rest, princess. We’ll talk when you’re up again.”

You took his advice, the cooling from the ice pack lulling you back to sleep, your eyelids too heavy to keep open.

When you woke up again, you felt infinitely better, your head clearer and body feeling less overheated. The ice pack on your forehead was room temperature, and it was now dark outside. There was a light illuminating your left side as you sat up in bed, turning to see the office in the back with its light on.

The cot squeaked under you, which was responded to by the squeak of a chair from inside the office, the red-haired lifeguard emerging from the office and approaching your bedside.

“Feelin’ any better?” he asked, and you nodded, biting your lip nervously. “Got you some more water.”

You looked over to the bedside table to see the water cup refilled and took hold of it, grateful to have something to focus on other than the intimidatingly muscular man before you.

You drank the entire glass before you forced yourself to finally address the situation before you. “Um… why am I here?”

“You passed out,” he replied bluntly, taking a seat on the cot next to yours. “Overheated yourself in that rat costume.”

“They’re not rats, they’re poros,” you replied, unsure of what to say.

He let out a huff of laughter. “Poros that important to you that you’re willin’ to fry yourself for ‘em?”

“No, that was…” you trailed off. Well, you might as well just admit it. If he had gone out of his way to care for you after you had passed out like an idiot, then he deserved the truth. “I was avoiding you. I was scared you were going to yell at me. My friend didn’t want to keep covering for me at the window so I decided to wear that stupid poro costume.”

“So that’s what that was about,” he replied. “And here I thought you were avoidin’ me ‘cuz you weren’t interested. Gave up on gettin’ your number and then got news that someone passed out from heat stroke.”

You were still having a hard time comprehending the asking for your number part, so you instead chose to focus on the other half. “Heat stroke?”

“Not sure what you expected, wearin’ that costume in this heat,” he said. “Can’t say nobody’s ever been afraid of me before, but giving themself heat stroke just to avoid me is a new one.”

He sounded somewhat self-deprecating, and you immediately felt bad. You had clearly misjudged him, and realized that he hadn’t even mentioned the snowball incident himself.

You forced yourself to meet his eyes, even with as awkward as you were currently felt. “I’m sorry for giving you so much trouble, and for spilling snowballs all over you. I’m just really sorry.”

He laughed. “Ain’t nothin’ for you to apologize for. I’ve had worse get on me since I started workin’ here, and usually it ain’t from a cute girl.”

You tensed in your seat, tearing your gaze from his to look down at your feet, your cheeks feeling warm.

“Hey, don’t go overheatin’ yourself again,” he scolded, standing up from the bed. “If you’re not interested, that’s fine, but I think it’s best if I take ya home. Don’t need your friend yellin’ at me again if you pass out on the way back.”

As much as you wanted to deny his assertion of you being not interested, you couldn’t muster up the courage, so you instead quietly accepted his offer of help. You would have to ask Taliyah what he had meant when you got back.

It was surprisingly cold on the beach at night, the icy breeze sending shivers along your skin. You stared out at the dark ocean waves, entranced by the water crashing against the sand, when your focus was broken by some soft fabric being laid over your shoulders.

You turned to look over your shoulder to see Sett just behind you on the steps of the lifeguard office, the jacket that was usually around his waist now laying on your shoulders.

He caught your curious look and raised an eyebrow. “You nearly cooked yourself to death today, I ain’t about to let you freeze yourself to death now.”

“Thanks,” you replied quietly, reaching a hand up to keep the jacket around your shoulders.

Your feet met the soft sand as you followed Sett towards the parking lot. The beach was totally empty, an odd contrast to how things were in the daytime. It felt weird to actually see the shape of the landscape unobscured by giant beach umbrellas and a sea of bodies. You only looked away from the empty scene when you realized that you had left the sand, and Sett was staring expectantly at you.

“…what?” you asked, getting the feeling that he had said something that you had missed.

“Which way?” he repeated with a quick glance at the street ahead of you.

“Oh right,” you replied. “My friend lives on Sandstone Way.”

Sett’s ears perked up. “By that tacky souvenir shop?”

“Yeah,” you laughed. “Right by there.”

You giggled at Sett’s assessment; you had noticed the eye-hurtingly brightly painted store when Taliyah had walked you to her house from the train station. She had rolled her eyes at the store as you surveyed the display of t-shirts with embarrassing designs on them, stating that sometimes they got some good rocks in, but it wasn’t worth the amount of tourists always asking for directions when she was walking around the neighborhood.

Looking over at Sett out of the corner of your eye, you were struggling to think of anything to say. He was dressed in just his sandals and shorts, his sunglasses forgone and giving you a clear look at his golden eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.

“So this your first summer here?” Sett asked, breaking the brief silence as you walked side by side. “I know I’d remember you if I’d seen ya before.”

“I was here for a summer when I was a kid,” you answered. “But everything looks so different now. Maybe I just saw this place differently when I was a kid.”

“Nah,” he dismissed. “It never used to be this busy here. Tourists bring money to this place, but it means it’s always loud around here.”

The conversation was slowly helping you feel more comfortable with the intimidatingly handsome lifeguard. You felt dumb for putting so much energy into avoiding him.

“So have you always lived here?” you asked.

“Born and raised,” he answered with a grin that you couldn’t help but feel looked a little sad. “Ma used to work at the boating shop… and the laundromat… and the candy store.”

“All at the same time?” you asked incredulously.

Sett shrugged. “Didn’t have much of a choice. Pa ran off on us when I was a kid, and it wasn’t like anyone would hire a fatherless runt to work for them.”

“Sounds like it was hard,” you replied. “Did you ever find out where he went?”

“For his sake, I’d better not,” Sett sneered. “I heard ma cry missin’ that scumbag more times than I can count. There ain’t a family here for that bastard to come back to.”

“How is your mom doing?” you asked as you turned onto Sandstone Way, passing by the tacky tourist shop, the flashy paint on the walls too bright even at night.

“She’s doin’ good,” he answered, finally looking happy with a satisfied smile. “Got her to quit her jobs when I started workin’ enough to pay the bills.”

“You’re a good son,” you complimented him. “She’s lucky to have you.”

You smiled at him, coming to a stop before Taliyah’s house. “Well, this is me. Thanks for walking me back.”

“Take care of yourself,” he said. “I don’t wanna see you passin’ out again.”

“I’ll try not to,” you replied. “No more poro costumes for me.”

“On that topic,” he purred, leaning closer to you. “You never gave me an answer.”

“An answer?” you squeaked, flustered by his sudden closeness.

“I’ve been tryin’ to get your number for days now,” he replied, and you did your best to supress a shiver from running up your spine. Was this real life?

You wet your lips with your tongue nervously, unable to miss how Sett’s sharp eyes watched the movement.

“I, um, I don’t have my phone on me,” you said, immediately realizing how dumb you sounded. You didn’t need your phone on you to tell him your number! You hastily made to amend your statement. “…but if you come by the stand tomorrow, I’ll give it to you!”

“Oh?” Sett’s grin was wide, gold eyes flashing dangerously. “I s’pose I could find some time to stop by. See you then, sweetheart.”

Sett turned to walk away, but you stopped him with a call of his name. “Wait, your jacket–”

“Keep it for the night,” Sett replied. “I’ll get it from you tomorrow.”

You reluctantly agreed, stunned silent by his bold flirting, his jacket sitting warm on your shoulders as you watched him walk away. You stared at his broad back until he was out of sight, only then turning to head inside, knowing Taliyah would be waiting.

 The next morning she was still on you as you spent some extra time getting ready.

“I still can’t believe he gave you his jacket,” she teased with a grin. “I mean, I figured he was probably into you, but–”

“You what?” you replied as you paused styling your hair.

“I kept telling you to talk to him,” she replied. “No guy like that is going to wait outside your work for days in a row just to yell at you for spilling ice on him. But I didn’t think you’d believe me if I told you.”

“I just feel so stupid giving myself heat stroke just go avoid him,” you lamented.

“Yeah,” Taliyah frowned. “If I had realized it was that hot out, I never would’ve let you go out in that thing.”

“It’s my own fault for being so dumb,” you insisted.

“But hey, it all worked out, didn’t it?” Taliyah grinned as she slipped on her water shoes. “You’ve got a hot lifeguard coming to visit you at work today.”

“Don’t remind me. I’m still super nervous,” you said, adjusting your beach dress over your most flattering swimsuit.

“You’ll be fine,” Taliyah replied. “He’s clearly super into you. You should’ve seen him when you passed out yesterday.”

“What?” You had been so tired last night that you had only told her the basics before crashing for the night, completely forgetting to ask her what had happened yesterday.

“Someone got him when you collapsed,” she told you. “You should’ve seen his face when he pulled off the poro head and saw it was you inside the costume! I tried to come with, but he told me he’d handle it. I maaay have threatened his life if anything happened to you, but just a little.”

You laughed. So that’s what Sett had been referring to.

Taliyah came up from behind you as you stared at your appearance in the mirror, resting her chin on your shoulder and meeting your eyes in the mirror. “Relax, you look great. Fuzzy ear boy isn’t gonna know what hit him!”

“Fuzzy ear–” you sputtered, laughing at Taliyah’s choice of words. “I guess his ears do look pretty fuzzy.”

“Well if he lets you pet them, tell me how soft they are!” she teased, pulling back from you to grab her bag. “Now let’s go. You’ve got a boy to meet!”

You somehow felt even more nervous today than you had the few days you had spent avoiding Sett. You were still having a hard time wrapping your head around the fact that a guy that looked like he had walked straight out of a fireman’s calendar was coming to your little beachfront ice cream stand for the sole purpose of getting your phone number. And his jacket, which was folded neatly on the countertop beside you.

You weren’t exactly sure when he was going to come. Usually, he would be there waiting outside in the morning before you opened, but all you had opened up to today was a sparsely-populated beachfront, no handsome lifeguards to be seen. By two in the afternoon, your anxiety had begun to get the better of you.

“Stop pacing,” Taliyah scolded you. “He’ll be here.”

“But what if he decided not to?” you said, taking a deep breath to try and calm yourself down. “What if this was just a joke?”

“Then I’ll go kick his butt,” she responded plainly. “He’ll come. Relax.”

You were about to reply, when a ding of the service bell at the order window had you spinning around, ready to take an order, only for the words to die on your lips when you laid eyes on the well-muscled lifeguard with the fuzzy black ears just outside the order window, sending a grin your way.

“Here to pick up my order,” he said, leaning an arm against the window.

“Your… order?” you replied, too entranced by his appearance to properly make use of your brain.

“A pretty girl promised me her number if I came by,” he replied, looking down at you through his sunglasses.

“I… right… I…” You turned back quickly to see Taliyah staring expectantly at you, mouthing the word number at you. Right.

With slightly shaky hands, you reached for the small notepad at the front counter, taking that and a pen in hand and trying not to focus on the fact that Sett was watching you as you began to write.

Double-checking that the number was right, you handed the paper to him, your fingers touching as he took it from you. Remembering about your other promise, you reached over to grab the lifeguard jacket from the counter beside you. You went to hand him his jacket, surprised when he didn’t take it from you.

“What time do you get off?” he asked, and you answered a quiet six. “Give it back to me then.”

With a short wave and a grin, Sett made a show of stowing the phone number in his pocket before sauntering off and leaving you standing there slack-jawed.

“See? Was that so hard?” Taliyah called from her seat at the ice machine. “Now you just have to keep it together for your date.”

“I don’t know if I can,” you said, leaning back against the counter.

“You did last night, didn’t you?” she countered. “He’s just a guy. A really hot guy, but still. Don’t freak yourself out. You deserve a nice guy. It’s just a bonus that he has more abs than spiders have legs!”

You let out an amused huff. Taliyah was right, as she always was. You needed to get over yourself and let yourself have a good time tonight.”

But for now, you had customers to deal with. You and Taliyah let out a shared groan as you saw the nightmare mom and her army of brats heading towards you. You both returned to your posts, hoping their overly-complicated orders would be right on the first try this time.

 Taliyah let out a yawn, stretching her arms high above her head before beginning the process of cleaning up for the day. After the last customer left, you hastily closed the order window, not wanting to give anyone the chance to come and beg about how it was only five minutes past closing and they’ve been wanting a banana split all day. You had learned your lesson from that mistake on day two.

Once the order windows were closed and locked, you joined Taliyah at the side counter, helping to return all the different containers of toppings to their rightful places. You found your hands moving slower, your nerves slowing you down in order to prolong the inevitable.

Taliyah eventually got tired of your pitiful attempt at stalling for time and gently removed the container of blue sprinkles from your grasp. “Just go, I’ll finish up here.”

“Are you sure?” you asked, and Taliyah sent you an unimpressed look. “Okay, fine, I’m going, I’m going.”

“I hope you know I expect all the details later!” she grinned as you made your way to the door, hesitating with your hand on the door handle for only a moment before opening the door.

It was mercifully less warm outside today than it had been yesterday, not to mention that you were also minus a heavy mascot costume. Yesterday hadn’t ended too badly for you, but you would still prefer to not end today in a hospital if you exacerbated your current heat-sensitive state.

You weren’t sure if you preferred if Sett was already there, or if you got there first to wait for him; neither option seemed to abate your nerves. But of course, the lifeguard was prompt as always, leaning against one of the beams that held up the awning above the order window.

You didn’t think you had been making much noise walking along the sand, but he seemed to hear you, turning to face you with a grin as you approached.

“Ready?” he asked as you came to a stop before him, tucking some of your hair behind your ear in an effort to keep your cool.

“Yeah,” you answered, impressed that your voice hadn’t come out squeaky with how nervous you were.

“Good,” he replied, before his grin turned teasing. “Was half expectin’ ya to come on our date in that rat costume.”

“Poro!” you corrected again, trying not to get flustered by his mention of this being a date. You weren’t sure what else it would be, but you couldn’t help the butterflies that fluttered in your stomach when he had acknowledged the obvious.

He surprised you by taking your hand, pulling you along with him as you tried desperately not to stumble and fall into the sand.

The beach crowd was beginning to thin out, people heading home or to one of the many beachfront restaurants nearby. Watching as a kid packed up his sand toys, you wondered if one of those restaurants was where you were headed as well. Sett hadn’t told you anything about what the plan was, and you found yourself curious when he led you to the bright white lifeguard office.

At first, you had thought that maybe he had forgotten something, at least until you followed him into the small building to see what looked to be the table that had previously held all the first aid kits, now decked out in a soft-looking purple picnic blanket. On top of the makeshift picnic table was a spread of various tasty-looking finger foods, the scene completed by two chairs pulled up to the table, cushions with a starfish pattern placed on the seats.

You were perhaps too dumbfounded by the sight, as you snapped out of it to Sett calling your name, looking over at him to see him looking surprisingly tense. You should probably say something, you realized.

“It looks great,” you said, meaning every word as you looked over the table. “Are those cabbage rolls?”

“Ma helped me make ‘em,” Sett explained, looking bashful for the first time since you had met him as he raised an arm to scratch at the back of his neck. “Helped me with all of this, actually. Never done anythin’ like this before.”

“You mean a picnic?” you asked curiously.

Sett chuckled. “Picnics. Dates. Not a lotta women ‘round here who wanted anythin’ to do with a fatherless half-breed.”

You had a hard time believing that; you had noticed several mothers checking him out as they packed their family’s stuff to leave the beach. But the hint of something sad in his eyes made you reconsider. You had no memory of seeing someone like him that summer you had spent here, but it wasn’t like that was a surprise to you. You and Taliyah had been in your own little world at that time, only ever spending time with each other.

“Well I’m excited to try your cooking,” you said, figuring a change of subject was for the best.

Sett grinned as he sat down. “Should be decent. Haven’t poisoned anyone since high school.”

Your eyes widened, hand freezing on its path to grab a cabbage roll, startled eyes darting to his.

Sett let out a bark of laughter at your alarmed face. “Relax. Wouldn’t poison ya. Maybe those kids that keep swimmin’ into the boating zone, but not you.”

“Thanks… I think?” you replied, biting your lip as you stared down at the cabbage rolls, weighing your options.

“Wasn’t real poison anyways,” he scoffed, taking some rolls from himself. “Not my fault sugar and salt look the same.”

You laughed, grabbing some food for yourself at last. “I suppose they kinda do.”

“Ma didn’t wanna hurt my feelings, but I knew when I tried some myself,” he explained.

“It was nice of her to try,” you offered.

“Too nice,” he said. “Ma is always too nice. Never said anythin’ bad about my old man, even after what he did. Had to work three jobs for years because of that bastard, but not a word.”

“Well I’m sure she’s glad she has you,” you commented. “Even if you give her food poisoning sometimes.”

“Once,” he corrected, taking a bite. “Learned my lesson the first time.”

You followed his lead, finding the food to be entirely poison-free, and actually the best home-cooked meal you had eaten in a long time. The conversation moved to swapping work stories, and you were unsurprised to find out that the mother and her the demon children had been a thorn in Sett’s side as well.

“They really buried sleeping sunbathers in sand?”

“Five times in a day one time,” Sett grouchily confirmed. “Last time Braum went to handle it. Said I would bury those little assholes under the sand if I had to go yell at them one more time.”

You sympathized with his pain. You felt lucky that you had only experienced the tip of the annoyingness iceberg with that group of little terrors.

“Braum?” you inquired as you both left the lifeguard office, the beach now fully dark.

“Fellow lifeguard,” he answered, nonchalantly taking your hand in his as you made your way off the beach. “Bald, giant moustache, even bigger than me. Better at the whole gentle-but-firm thing than I am.”

“Oh, I think I’ve seen him before. He comes by for poro pops sometimes,” you said, mind drawing a picture of the surprisingly friendly man in the small purple swim bottoms with a weakness for poro-shaped ice pops. “So are you the head lifeguard then?”

Sett considered your question. “Guess I am the boss of ‘em. All of the other lifeguards are always comin’ at me with problems to solve. The extra pay doesn’t hurt either if I wanna keep momma from feelin’ like she has to work.”

“Say thank you to her from me for the dinner. It was really good,” you said as you passed by the familiar tacky souvenir shop.

“She’ll be happy to hear it,” he replied with a soft smile that made your heart thump in your chest. “I know she wishes she had more to cook for than just me.”

You both came to a stop before Taliyah’s house, and you sneakily glanced over just to make sure Taliyah wasn’t peeking out from a window, which she wasn’t. You turned your focus back to Sett, only to find him closer than he had just been. How was he so good at sneaking up on you?

A large hand came up to cup your jaw, thumb brushing against your cheek, and your face was tilted up towards Sett’s. You were glad it was dark out, because otherwise you knew your reddening cheeks would be obvious.

“Still afraid of me?” he asked, voice low, lips so close to yours that you could make out a small scar that crossed over his bottom lip.

“No,” you answered, making no move to pull away as you stared up into his eyes. “Not unless I was about to taste your high school cooking.”

“Smart,” he replied with a smirk. “But I’m talkin’ about right now, because if you don’t turn and run into that house, I’m gonna kiss you.”

Your bag almost tumbled from your grasp, but you held fast as you stared at Sett, whose own had already become half-lidded. You had no words to describe how much you didn’t want to run right now, so you didn’t use any, instead angling your face further upwards, trying to make your willingness abundantly clear.

With a grin, he leaned down and kissed you.

Pulling back slightly, he dove back in, his other hand coming to your waist to pull you against him. You happily leant into him, your hands on his firm chest.

When he pulled back again, you opened your eyes at last, feeling almost as dizzy as right before you had passed out from heat stroke.

Sett looked content, and you were only hoping you looked half as composed as he did right now. He leaned back in to give you one more peck before pulling back from you entirely, the cold from the air outside immediately apparent as soon as you were minus his warm hands against your skin.

“Think I’ll stop by tomorrow,” he said. “Been cravin’ a cherry snowball for some reason lately.”

 Sett was a man of his word, you learned, though you were less happy to see him the next day when he asked if he could order a cherry snowball served like last time, and then laughed as you had proceeded to sputter like a broken machine.

His visits became daily, sometimes bringing Braum with him, who continued to surprise you with the sheer amount of poro pops he was able to consume in one sitting. Quite a few nights a week, you had found yourself all around Port Navori with the half-Vastayan lifeguard. You were surprised at how supportive Taliyah was being, considering you had originally come here to spend time with her.

“Gives me more time to surf,” she answered with a shrug when you had asked her. “And maybe that boyfriend of yours can convince you to stay here after the summer is over.”

“Boyfriend?” you yelped, and Taliyah raised an eyebrow.

“You aren’t? I thought he would have made it official by now. It’s been over two weeks… have you guys even done it?”

“Taliyah!” you scolded her, switching back to professional mode as a group of people approached the stand.

As you helped prepare their orders, you couldn’t help but think about what she had said. You and Sett had kissed quite a lot actually, but he had yet to do more than that. But it was far too embarrassing a subject for you to have the confidence to broach, so you had resolved yourself to just be content with things as they were.

It was just your luck that right then was when Sett had decided to make his daily visit to the stand, approaching the counter as the other group left.

Taliyah apparently wasn’t done pestering you for the day as she sped to meet him at the counter before you could get there yourself.

“Hey!” she greeted Sett with a sly smile as you stood frozen behind her, nervous about her motivations. “You’re on your break, right?”

Sett raised an eyebrow. “What about it?”

“Well,” she said, in the voice you knew meant that she wanted something. “There’s a surfing contest I entered, and it’s almost my turn and it won’t even take that long and–”

“Tali!” you interrupted, rushing over to the counter.

“All I need is an hour,” Taliyah insisted, before pulling you beside her at the counter. “And she needs some help while I’m gone since lunchtime is when most of the people come by.”

“I’m fine, I–”

“I’m in,” Sett cut in, eyeing you with almost palpable smugness.

“Awesome!” Taliyah replied, immediately shucking her apron and hat onto the floor in her haste to get out the door. “Have fun, see you after I win!”

“Taliyah!”

Your call of her name fell on deaf ears as she already had her board and was out the door, leaving you standing at the counter with Sett still leaning against the counter.

Sett reached up to pull his sunglasses off, tucking them into his packet, his golden eyes fully uncovered and sparkling with mischief, the sight alone making you feel weary.

“Well? You gonna invite me in?” he asked. “Not sure I’d fit through the window.”

You scrambled to meet him at the back door, not wanting him to try and get into the shop through the order window that was less wide than he was. It was a strange feeling to open the back door of the shop to a guy that was almost too tall for the doorway, and another thing entirely to try and corral him into behaving as you tried to keep the ice cream stand functioning while Taliyah was gone.

“Aren’t lifeguards supposed to set a good example for others?” you huffed, wiping ice from your apron. At least he hadn’t made things truly equal and put cherry syrup on the ball of shaved ice he had pressed against your neck.

“Not when I’m off the clock,” he answered. “Besides, it’s my once in a lifetime chance to see what workin’ one of these is like.”

It would definitely be only one time if you had anything to say about it. If the almost-hour with him here had taught you anything, it was that Sett was not cut out to work in an ice cream shop.

The scoops of ice cream he doled out were easily twice the size of the ones Taliyah did, which made for happy customers, but a less happy bottom line if he was here for more than an hour. He was also lacking Taliyah’s patience, and you were forced to sideline him when an especially picky middle-aged woman came by who insisted you remake her smoothie four times until it had an acceptable pH level. The woman’s complaints had miraculously stopped the moment Sett had approached the window himself, becoming so invested in flirting with the handsome lifeguard that she had snatched her next smoothie attempt from you without complaint, not even glancing your way as she batted her eyes at him, only leaving when he excused himself with an excuse of needing to make more orders.

You approached Sett to check on him and found yourself pulled down into his lap as he leaned back in the chair.

Huffing, he pulled you against him, nuzzling against your neck. “Don’t know how you deal with that. Couldn’t pay me to make her damn smoothie one more time.”

“You get used to it,” you replied. “Don’t you deal with worse as a lifeguard?”

“Yeah,” he grunted. “But nothin’ sayin’ I gotta be nice when I deal with ‘em.”

“That’s true,” you laughed.

“If anyone complains, they can go somewhere else. Ain’t another beach within a hundred miles as well-run as this one,” he bragged, kissing at your neck.

As much as you were enjoying his sudden affection, you knew time was running low until Taliyah would return. You made to pull back to tell Sett that, but were instead pulled into a kiss that took you a few breathless moments to find the strength to escape.

“This Friday,” he murmured, face inches from yours. “There’s a party at the pool. You should come with me.”

You had heard about the exclusive pool parties on this beach from Taliyah, but hadn’t expected to ever get an invite. The pool, which was at the far end of the beach from the ice cream stand, was as exclusive as it got. Gated with walls so high that you couldn’t see in, it was the membership-only place to be for all of the elite in the beach town of Port Navori.

“Is that… okay?” you asked hesitantly.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” he countered, and you didn’t really have an answer. “It’ll be fine. Come. Have some people I wanna introduce ya to.”

The door burst open at the same time as you nodded your agreement, revealing Taliyah clutching both her dripping board as well as a shiny blue ribbon.

“You won?” you asked, trying to disentangle yourself from Sett, who reluctantly let you up.

“Easily!” Taliyah gloated. “Nobody else stood a chance. So how were things here?”

“The money ain’t worth the drama of this place,” Sett griped.

Taliyah laughed. “Smoothie lady come back with a vengeance?”

“I’ll take kids buryin’ sunbathers up to their ears over this any day,” he replied with a grimace, standing up and stretching.

At his mention of ears, Taliyah had brought both hands up to her own head about where Sett’s were on his head, and you quickly waved at her to cut it out before he saw. Thankfully she did, but you could tell that you were going to get asked if you had pet his ears yet as soon as his fuzzy ears were out of earshot.

“I’ll text ya the time when I know it,” Sett said, giving you a quick kiss on the head and a two-fingered salute to Taliyah before heading out the back door.

“So?” Taliyah asked, pulling the chair up to the ice cream station after she had stashed her prize ribbon in her bag. “Are they as soft as they look?”

“I didn’t pet them,” you answered.

“It’s been over two weeks!” she complained. “Has he at least asked you to be his girlfriend yet?”

You shook your head. “He did invite me to a pool party with him on Friday at that fancy pool.”

“Really?” Taliyah responded, eyes wide. “You have to tell me what it’s like! I mean, I’ve seen satellite photos, but it’s not the same…”

“I’ll probably be too nervous to remember any of it,” you grumbled.

“This is your chance!” Taliyah encouraged. “By Friday it’ll be three weeks. You need to ask him if he sees you as his girlfriend or not.”

You reeled back, waves of anticipatory anxiety rolling over you. “I don’t want to scare him off. What if this is just casual to him and I’m too dumb to see it?”

“Then you’ll know,” she replied. “I know you. It’ll eat you up if you put this much energy into a guy without knowing how he feels about you. So ask. If he says no, then at least you’ll have an entire store’s worth of ice cream to drown yourself in after!”

Taliyah was right. She was always right. You knew that you couldn’t keep whatever this was up without knowing where you stood with him. The more time you spent with Sett, the more you wanted, and if he intended to keep things casual, you would rather know sooner so you could make an informed decision.

So that would be the plan then. Go to the party, have a good time (and get some photos of the pool for Taliyah) and then ask Sett about the state of your relationship. Sounded easy in theory. You could only hope you could muster up the courage to go through with the plan when the time came.

 After hearing that the party was to start at four, Taliyah had gone all out, closing the stand at two so she could help you get ready to impress the snobs. You hadn’t put up too much of a fight, happy to have her help and her company, as your nerves only climbed higher the closer it got to four o’clock.

“You’ll be fine,” Taliyah said as she styled your hair. “You’ll only feel worse if you don’t get an answer from him. And with how good you’ll look at the party, he won’t be able to say no!”

“Thanks, Tali,” you replied gratefully. “I promise I’ll get you a bunch of photos of the pool. And whatever else you want.”

“What I want is for you to stay here for good,” she said. “So really I’m just doing myself a favor by helping you. This place has been a hundred times more bearable since you’ve been here, and I want it to stay that way.”

“Still,” you persisted. “I feel bad that you’re going to so much trouble. If you want anything, just let me know.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Taliyah dismissed with a wave of her hand. “You should get going, don’t wanna be late to the fancy pool party.”

She practically shoved you out the door, and then you were alone, walking down the mostly-empty sidewalk. As you walked along the street, you couldn’t help but dwell on the possibilities. What would happen at the party? What would Sett say?

If he told you that he wasn’t looking for anything serious, what would you do? It was hard to have an answer for until you were in the moment, since a lot of it would depend on what Sett’s answer would be.

You walked through the parking lot, and then onto the beach, passing by kids building sandcastles and games of beach volleyball as you walked towards the end of the beach where the pool was. As you made your way to the fancier end of the beach, you began to notice the differences that marked the split between here and the side of the beach that you were usually on.

The shops on this side of the beach were much fancier, the sand littered with designer beach chairs and umbrellas. It was crazy just how different two ends of one beach could be.

The pool was noticeable from a great distance, or at least the wall white walls that surrounded it were. At least you weren’t going to get lost and miss the party entirely.

You approached the pristine white stairs that led from the beach up to the pool entrance, equal parts excited and apprehensive. The entrance was an open doorway, covered by a deep blue curtain and guarded by a muscled bouncer in white. The sight alone was intimidating; why hadn’t you just asked Sett to meet you beforehand?

You plastered a reluctant smile on your face before approaching the man. “Hi, I–”

“Name,” he interrupted, not looking up from his clipboard, sunglasses too dark for you to see his eyes.

Well it wasn’t like you hadn’t expected some level of standoffishness from the elite side of the beach. Keeping your smile up, you told him your name, waiting the prerequisite few moments for him to leaf through the list.

He seemed to have found what he was looking for, as his hand with the clipboard went to his side and he moved over to the curtain, pulling it to one side to allow you to enter. He had said nothing further, but seemed to be staring in your direction, so you took that as your cue and walked towards the now-open entryway and into the pool.

The entryway led into a hallway with pristine white walls, soft lighting hanging overhead. You could begin to hear chatter as you got closer to the end of the hallway, exiting into an explosion of sight and sound.

The pool was huge, and there seemed to be an intricate gold pattern on the tiles at the bottom. The pool was surrounded by lounge chairs and umbrellas, tropical foliage bordering the inner walls around the pool.

There were people all over, in and out of the pool. There was also a bar in the center which seemed to be very popular, as many people were carrying around intricate-looking cocktails.

More than the scenery or the people, your eyes were scanning the area for Sett. You checked your phone again to make sure, finding that it was the time he had told you to be here for. Maybe he was just running late or…

Your rising concern was broken up by the tap of designer wedges on the granite heading your way. You looked up from your phone to see two girls heading towards you, one of which you realized you had seen before.

The stuck-up redhead that had been the reason you had been out on the beach to spill the snowball on Sett in the first place was striding towards you, not a hair out of place underneath her likely-expensive sun hat. At her side was a lilac-haired woman in a swimsuit with a plunging neckline that was color blocked with various shades of purple. Together they made quite a striking pair, but your previous encounter with the redhead had you wishing that Sett would get here soon to save you from the impending conversation.

“Look, Sarah,” the purple-haired one sneered as they came to a stop before you. “So eager to pretend she’s one of us that she rushed right over.”

You took a step back, but that only seemed to embolden them.

Sarah lowered her sunglasses, staring at you like you were in her way. “Sad when they don’t know their place, Syndra.”

“Sett invited me here,” you replied defensively.

The women exchanged a pointed look before Sarah raised an eyebrow at you, a hand on her hip. “You ever think about why that was?”

“What?” you replied, unsure of what she was getting at.

“She doesn’t get it,” Syndra said with a cruel undertone in her voice that unnerved you.

“Look around,” Sarah said sharply. “Really look. Do half the people here look like they belong?”

You looked around, not sure what you were supposed to be seeing. A man with a hook-nose sat at the pool bar, flanked by women in skimpy bikinis. A humanoid form that seemed to be made of water conversed poolside with a large purple man in a ratty straw hat who was holding a ukulele. What were you supposed to be noticing?

“Sett is too nice to break it to you, so the job falls to me,” Sarah said with a smirk. “This is our annual loser fest. Charity case race. Bring-a-freak-to-work-day.”

“Pig party,” Syndra supplied.

“Yeah, pig party,” Sarah repeated, noticing your confused look. “Don’t know what that is? Poor thing.”

“I don’t–”

“It’s pretty simple,” Sarah interrupted. “We take half the summer to find the biggest freak we can, and then we bring them all together and crown a winner, and by the looks of you, Sett is really going for the top prize.”

You gasped, eyes wide, suddenly feeling like you were going to be sick.

“Aw, you really thought he liked you, huh?” Syndra mocked with fake sweetness.

“He didn’t… he never…” you stammered, clutching your bag to your chest.

“Well duh,” Sarah replied haughtily. “He wanted to win. Do you tell a pig when it’s about to become bacon?”

“What is meaning of this?” Braum accused, storming up to your group. “I have not heard of such a thing!”

“Need-to-know, Braum,” Syndra dismissed.

“And you didn’t need to know,” Sarah added.

You felt numb. This whole time… is that why Sett wouldn’t ask you to be his girlfriend? Why he never did more than kiss you? All this time, he had just seen you as a prize pig for an ugly date contest? It all made sense now, why he had been so desperate to get your number. He had never liked you… it had all been one sick joke. You should’ve known; nobody as attractive as Sett would ever see you as anything but a freak. And was too cowardly to come and tell you the truth to your face.

“Look, she’s crying,” Syndra taunted. “Don’t cry! Soon you’ll be queen pig!”

You couldn’t do this. You couldn’t stay here with all these people who saw you as less than human as your heart was breaking into pieces. You were so, so stupid, now wanting nothing more than to cry in peace. So you did, turning and running as fast as your legs would take you out of this awful place.

“Bye, piggy! We’ll ship you the ribbon!”

You heard Braum shout your name, as well as the cruel laughter of the women, but you didn’t stop running. Not when you got to the beach, nor the parking lot or the tacky souvenir shop, the sayings on the gaudy shirts too blurry to read through your tears. Your feet didn’t stop until you were at the doorstep to Taliyah’s home, out of breath, tears running down your cheeks.

The door opened, Taliyah’s face appearing in the doorway. “Hey, did you forget– wait, what happened?”

 “Settrigh, stay still!”

Sett frowned, but did as his momma requested, allowing her to tie the ends of his hair after she had finished arranging it. He loved his ma dearly, but he really didn’t have time for her to redo his hair ten times right now.

It was getting way too close to the start time he had given you, and with how nervous of a person you were, he had intended to be on time, but that was before his mother had discovered the reason why he was cutting their visit short today.

Ma was aware that he had been seeing someone, had been ever since Sett had needed help making food for their first date.

“You do intend to let me meet her, Settrigh?” she asked, stepping back once she had fixed his hair to her satisfaction.

“Yes, ma,” he answered, standing up from the chair.

He wasn’t exactly surprised by his momma’s eagerness, considering this was the first girl he had ever dated, let alone considered introducing to her. This world was shallow; he had learned that early in life, which may be why he found himself so drawn to a girl who had put her all into having nothing to do with him. You broke up the monotony in this busy beach town and gave him something to look forward to other than seeing his ma for the first time in a long time.

Sett knew he was working on a time limit. You had mentioned that you had planned on only visiting Port Navori for the summer, and the summer was half over already, which meant his chances to convince you to stay were also halved, which is where tonight came in.

He had been taking things slow, not wanting to come on too strong and scare you off like he had watched happen to many a beachfront pick-up artist. He had been unwilling to rush things and lose you, but the slip of the calendar into August had forced his hand.

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t a bit apprehensive as to how today would end. How would you take him asking you to be girlfriend? He could only hope that he hadn’t misread you entirely.

He didn’t go to the pool parties often, but it seemed like a good way for him to introduce you to his friends, as they didn’t often all gather outside of those parties. He knew you would likely feel out of place, but Braum would be there, and he intended to stick by your side the entire time. And then after the party, if things went well, then maybe he would end the night with you as his girlfriend, but the party would be the first step.

As he left his ma’s house, he found his mind turning to the party. If you were wearing that red swimsuit you had worn last week, then it was going to be a difficult night for his self-control. His desire to take things slow had really taken a hit then, his only saving grace being ma’s lecture on being a gentleman pounding in his head as he tried not to look at how your chest was half-busting out of your top as you leaned over to pick a thread off of his glove. You were really too hot for your own good, which made him all the more eager to see you.

He knew he was running late, the party having started at least ten minutes earlier. It wasn’t his style to be late, but he was also pretty helpless to defy his ma. He only hoped that you hadn’t given up on him and left.

He took the shortest route possible, which included a short trek through some bushes that left him more leafy than he would’ve liked, but it was all forgotten when he spotted the stairs that led up to the pool entrance.

He was able to bypass the doorman who was only half as big as he was and seemed to be wary of interacting with him, stepping out of the way as Sett approached. He pushed past the curtain, hurried steps heading down the hallway. You hadn’t been waiting outside, so clearly you had been able to get in. He tried to fight back the excited grin that wanted to take over his face, but it was a losing battle as he entered the pool area, eyes immediately scanning the area for you.

“Your cruelty is unimaginable!” Braum’s booming voice carried easily through the air. “That girl has done nothing to be deserving of such treatment!”

What had Braum so worked up? Generally he was an easy guy to get along with, easily Sett’s most tolerable co-lifeguard. Not much phased him, which was a little concerning. But Sett had other priorities, the most important being locating you.

You weren’t in the pool, and didn’t seem to be sitting in any of the chairs. Maybe you had gone to the bathroom and would be right back–

“Well how else was she supposed to know Sett is too good for her? She clearly wasn’t going to see reality without a little help.”

Sett’s ears perked up, his attention snagged by the mention of his name, but especially by the latter half of the sentence. He turned around to see Sarah Fortune with Syndra at her side, who had her arms crossed and looked bored. In front of them was Braum, looking more irate than Sett had ever seen him.

“What’s this about?” Sett asked in a warning tone as he approached, the fur of his ears standing on end, leaving him feeling like he wasn’t going to like where this was headed.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Sarah dismissed, flipping her hair behind her shoulder with a flick of her head. “We just showed a daydreaming little clout chaser the way out.”

Sett’s eyebrow rose. “A what?”

“Your ice cream girl,” Braum cut in. “These two have told her that this is a party for pigs. They have told her that you intend to bring her here to win ugly contest, and then she had run off.”

“What?” Sett growled dangerously, but the two women remained nonplussed.

“We did you a favor,” Syndra stressed. “If we get a reputation of letting just anyone in, then we’ll lose all status as members of the ruling class of the food chain. So we decided to throw this little pig party to make you come back to your senses.”

“You’re one of us, Sett,” Sarah added. “This pool doesn’t have room for little nobodies who don’t know their place.”

“Rather be a nobody than whatever the hell this is,” Sett snarled angrily, the full knowledge of the truth turning his bad feeling to a mix of simmering fury at the two women, and worry for you. He hated himself for being late and allowing this to happen to you. “Save your concern and don’t talk to me again.”

“But we were–” Syndra started, but Sett wasn’t in the mood.

“If you even look at her again, you’ll have me to deal with. And unlike that girl you just bullied outta here, I ain’t so nice.”

With that, Sett turned on his heel and stormed towards the exit to go do his best to fix this mess.

Braum quickly followed behind him. “My friend, I am sorry I could not stop them in time.”

“Ain’t your fault,” Sett replied. “Wish I’d have known. Gotta go see if she’ll even talk to me at this point.”

“I wish you luck,” Braum said as exited the hallway and emerged out into the sunny late afternoon.

Sett parted from Braum, taking the stairs two at a time as he surveyed the area, trying to see if he could catch sight of you. He quickly crossed the sand, making a beeline for the ice cream stand, even if it seemed like a longshot. He passed by a group of kids throwing sand on an older man sleeping on a towel, but ignored it and kept going. If anything was on fire, Braum could put it out. Sett’s sole focus right now was finding you and hoping you’d let him explain himself.

His chest felt heavy with anger and regret. How could he have let this happen? He hadn’t realized how cruel those women could be, and it had led to them making you believe he thought you were some freak he was using for convenience, which could not be farther from the truth.

Seeing those two talk about you like you were a pariah had brought him right back to when he was younger, to what he had endured at the hands of people just like Syndra and Sarah. People who had ostracized him, did their best to make him feel like he didn’t have a place here. Sett-the-beast-boy-bastard; the words had haunted him for a long time.

He had grown tough in response to the years of bullying, but you hadn’t. This was your first exposure to how awful this place could be. He and ma had dealt with it for years after pa ran off; he had nearly gotten expelled from school after a particularly bad fight with a kid that had made one too many nasty comments about his ma to his face.

Sett stopped, letting out a frustrated sigh as he saw the large closed sign on the front windows of the ice cream shop. So that was a bust. Without giving the store a second look, he continued on towards the rocks and then up to the parking lot.

There was only one other place to try. Chest tight, Sett followed the same path he had the night of your first date, the same path he took every time he walked you home. The walk there was one long blur, his feet unable to stop moving until the familiar house was in sight. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sett approached the front door, rapping his knuckles against the wood. When no answer came, he tried again, and after a few moments, the door opened to reveal Taliyah, who glared once she caught sight of him.

“What do you want?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Is she here? I need to talk to her,” Sett said, urgency bleeding into his voice.

Taliyah sighed, stepping outside and closing the door behind her. “You’re lucky I’m even talking to you after this. You don’t deserve to talk to her if that’s how you let your friends treat her.”

“They ain’t my friends,” Sett argued. “If I’d have known they were gonna pull that shit–”

A sly smile lifted the corner of Taliyah’s lips. “Good answer. If you had said anything else, then I’d be slamming the door in your face right about now.”

“Then can I–”

“Talk to her?” Taliyah interrupted. “Nope. Not a good idea.”

Sett’s face must have taken on a darker quality, because Taliyah retreated back a step, raising her hands in the air in mock surrender. “Relax, tough guy. I didn’t mean it like that. But she’s a little too upset to talk to you right now.”

The information only made Sett feel worse. He wanted so badly to talk to you, to do what he had wanted to do before this mess had happened and make you his girlfriend. You had never felt farther away than you did right now.

“Give me some time to calm her down. I can get her to be at the pier at seven, then the rest is up to you,” she said, levelling him with a stern look. “I know this wasn’t your fault. That’s the only reason I’m giving you a chance. She really likes you, so try not to make her feel any worse than she already does. Bye.”

And then Taliyah was gone, retreating back into the house and leaving Sett standing on the doorstep.

 “Brought you some water,” Taliyah announced as she entered the room, glass in hand.

“Who was at the door?” you asked.

She shrugged. “Someone looking for my dad. Told them he’s not here.”

You nodded. It was probably too much to hope that it would be Sett. You winced as you thought his name. You hated how much you wanted to see him, someone who had used you to win some popular kid ugly date contest.

So it had all been a lie then? All the things he had told you about his life, his family? Every time he had kissed you, was he picturing kissing one of those girls instead? Is this really what popular people did for fun? You felt stupid for falling for it, for falling for him. You were so stupid.

With some prompting from Taliyah, you took a sip of the water. After she had made sure you had drank the whole glass, she sat down next to you, taking the glass from you and setting it down on the bedside table.

“I should have known,” you croaked.

“Known that popular girls are bitchy? Maybe,” she responded.

“That it was too good to be true,” you corrected.

“You’re acting like you’re eighty,” she scolded. “There are other guys out there. Ones who don’t have shitty friends.”

“Yeah, I know,” you replied. “But I really liked him. And I didn’t even get to pet his stupid fuzzy ears.”

“Well if you’re joking, then you must be doing okay,” she said. “How about we go do something to take your mind off of things?”

You frowned, and she rolled her eyes. “Not right this second. I’ll give you until six-thirty to get yourself ready to go.”

Taliyah got up off the bed and headed towards the door. “I’m not gonna let your night be ruined because of a couple of snobs.”

She closed the door, leaving you alone with your thoughts again. You laid back on the bed, intent on taking some time before you got ready to just veg out. As much as the notion of going out didn’t excite you right now, it was probably better than being a mopey mess all night. There would be other guys; it was just a shame that you had liked this one so much.

Two hours later, you were walking down the street with Taliyah. Your getting ready to go had consisted of washing your face of all the smeared makeup from your crying, brushing your hair into a semi-decent state and then watching dumb cat videos on your phone until you felt like you didn’t want to crawl in a hole and die.

Taliyah had assured you that you didn’t look bad, which you might have believed if you hadn’t seen yourself in the mirror as you were leaving, but at this point you were beyond caring about how you looked right now.

Taliyah had refused to tell you where she was taking you, and so you were forced to follow her down the familiar path towards the beach, unsure of where it was you were being led. Part of you was worried that you might run into Sett, but then the more rational side of you took over; he was likely back at that pool, partying it up with those girls and lamenting that you had run off before he could win his ugly date prize. It was crazy to realize just how flawed your judgment had been.

You had expected to be walking onto the beach, as it was where you two usually spent most of your time, but Taliyah didn’t go to the parking lot, instead heading towards the rockier section of the beach. You hadn’t been over here before, only vaguely aware of the area as a prime fishing location, bait shops and the like lining the street across from this part of the beachfront.

She took you past the fishing spots, down to near the end of the beach, where there was a small pier that went about thirty feet out into the sea. Like most of the beach at this time on a weekday, the pier was empty, most of the fishermen also having headed out with their day’s catches.

Taliyah led you down the pier to the small bench at the end of it, pushing you to sit down. When she didn’t do the same, you looked up at her, confused.

“I’ll be right back,” she said. “I’m gonna go grab something to help cheer you up. You just enjoy the view for a bit.”

You decided to follow her advice, staring out at the water. There wasn’t much to see other than some boats in the far distance and some buoys bobbing in the water that marked the swimming section from the boating section.

It was kind of nice in a way, the calm waters helping you to relax as you watched the waves roll in and out. You stayed like that for a while as you allowed yourself to zone out until you began to wonder how much time had passed. Pulling out your phone, you saw that it had been almost twenty minutes, and yet there was no sign of Taliyah as you looked around.

You had assumed that she went to get you two some food, which likely was still the case. Some of the places here tended to have rather large dinnertime crowds, so a twenty minute plus wait wasn’t exactly unusual. You had no idea where she had gone, so all you could do was wait. If she wasn’t back by seven, you would just text her and ask what was up.

You let yourself be taken in again by the rolling waves as you continued to wait, trying to recall what kinds of restaurants there were on the beachfront. It couldn’t be that fish and chips place; Taliyah had spent a full half hour last week complaining about how stale their food was. Or the taco place, since it had been closed for renovations for the past week. You had been trying to think of a third option when your concentration was broken by someone taking a seat next to you on the bench.

You looked over, expecting to see Taliyah back with some food, but instead nearly jolted off of the bench when next to you was the very man you were out here trying to forget.

Just seeing him when you were feeling so pathetic sent a jolt of you weren’t sure what up your spine, your flight instincts screaming at you as you made to stand up, only to be stopped by a firm grip on your wrist.

“I know you don’t wanna see my face right now,” Sett said. “But I can explain.”

“Explain what?” you replied meekly. “Those girls explained enough.”

“I haven’t,” he insisted. “Just listen for a minute. Then you can leave, or punch me, whatever you want.”

You took a look around, still not seeing Taliyah anywhere. You weren’t sure what he could have to say that would make much of a difference, but you sat back down, and he let go of your wrist.

You turned reluctantly to face Sett, waiting for him to talk first.

“Never told ‘em to do somethin’ like that,” he said gruffly. “Didn’t even know about it ‘til I got there and you weren’t there.”

“But they said…” you started, taking a breath to keep yourself calm as you prepared to recount the hurtful words. “They said you were only spending time with me so you could win their whole ugly date contest.”

Sett’s eyes narrowed, the skin of his knuckles tightening on his curling fists. “First I’ve heard of it. Ain’t no way you’d ever place in an ugly contest anyways.”

His words threw you. “Wait, so you don’t think I’m ugly?”

He snorted, a grin playing at his lips. “Well I was plannin’ on askin’ you to be my girlfriend after the party, so nah, I don’t think you’re ugly.”

“You–” you gasped, pulse skyrocketing. This was not how you expected this conversation to go. You were half convinced you were experiencing auditory hallucinations until Sett reached over, pulling you into his side.

“This is my fault,” he spoke lowly. “If I hadn’t been late, I’d have been there to stop that from happening.”

“What happened when you got there?” you asked quietly.

“Braum told me what happened, then those two tried tellin’ me they did it for my sake,” he growled. “I thought I was used to seein’ through bullies from how I grew up. Doesn’t matter now, they won’t be botherin’ you anymore unless they wanna find out why momma says I got her temper.”

“Why were you late anyways?” you asked.

He groaned, leaning his head back against the bench. Even with the sun mostly set, you could clearly see a pink tone to his cheeks.

“What is it?” you pressed, curious about why the intimidating lifeguard was suddenly being so shy.

He let out a long sigh, finally meeting your eyes. “Ma was doin’ my hair.”

You looked him over, realizing that his hair did seem to be tied differently today. The only thing that looked the same was his ears, just as fluffy as they always looked. You could almost hear Taliyah’s voice screaming in your head to pet them. Speaking of Taliyah…

“Taliyah!” you gasped, trying to extract yourself from Sett’s grip, but failing. If Taliyah was to come and see you here with the guy she had taken you out to forget about… “My friend, she’ll be back any second and–”

Sett laughed, and you were immediately left with the feeling that you were missing something.

“She ain’t comin’ back,” he said amusedly. “I’ve got you all to myself for the night… if that’s what you want.”

“Taliyah set me up?” you breathed, not having suspected a thing.

“I asked her to,” Sett explained. “Wasn’t about to let you go ‘cuz of some shallow assholes.”

Taliyah was much sneakier than you had given her credit for, you realized, but you couldn’t bring yourself to mind right now. Though that didn’t mean you weren’t hungry, your previous stress melting away and removing the only distraction from your empty stomach.

“So,” you hummed. “Are you still going to ask me to be your girlfriend?”

You still had no idea what would happen by the end of the summer, but you really wanted this. You wanted him.

“Yeah, was plannin’ on it.”

 You had thought about it all the way back to Sett’s house. Was it really for the best to go back to your city when the summer was over? Back to your parents’ house to find an equally demanding and unfulfilling job?

The more you thought about it, the more you wanted to stay. Taliyah was here, Sett was here, and other than your brief nasty encounter at the pool earlier, this summer had been the best one you’d had in a long time.

Sett seemed intent on giving you more reasons to stay as he was on you pretty much as soon as you entered his house. You had been standing in the entryway, looking at a picture of what must have been Sett and his mother when he caught you off guard, picking you up from behind.

You yelped, turning your head back to face him just in time for him to dart forward to snatch a kiss.

“You’ll have time to look around later,” he said as he walked down the hall, nudging a door open with his shoulder and then taking you into what looked to be his bedroom.

Once again, you were scarcely granted a look around before Sett had overtaken your attention yet again. You were swiftly carried over and deposited on the bed, Sett eagerly caging your body down against the sheets with his own.

“I wanted to go slow,” he said against your ear. “Didn’t wanna mess things up. But that’s not what you want, is it?”

“No,” you gasped as he snaked a hand under your dress, and then under your swimsuit bottoms. “I… I want…”

“This?” he inquired, thumb brushing against your clit, causing you to jolt against him with a breathy moan. “Waited a long time to hear that.”

Seeking more room to work, Sett pulled back to reach down and pull down your swimsuit bottoms, tossing them to the side. You watched with reddening cheeks as he returned his attention to you, head disappearing under your dress next.

His first lick against your pussy felt back-archingly good, but you didn’t have a lot of room to move with Sett’s hands holding your lower half in place. His tongue felt slightly rough, bringing pricks of pleasure-pain along its path.

Closing your eyes tight, you tried not to squirm, but it was difficult as Sett’s tongue prodded inside you before moving back to sucking at your clit. It felt good, almost too good, but you found yourself wanting more than his mouth against you.

“Sett,” you moaned. “Please…”

You weren’t sure if he got the message until you reached down to grasp at one of his hands. He pulled back from you, wiping one forearm against the wet lower half of his face as he sat back. His position on his knees on the bed allowed you a good look at the decently-sized bulge in the front of his tight swim shorts.

Sett caught your eyes, reaching one hand down to cup his cock through his shorts. “All you, sweetheart. Still think I think you’re ugly?”

You somehow managed to shake your head, speechless from his ardent display of his body. Sett seemed to bask in just how speechless he had made you, a sexy grin overtaking his face as he stared down at you.

“Couldn’t ask for more than this,” he said. “But if you want more…”

He was such a tease. With a burning face, you relented.

“Could you just put it in me please?” you asked, too shy to make eye contact.

“Can do,” he replied, and you could easily hear the smug satisfaction in his voice.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sett stood up from the bed to pull his shorts off, wincing slightly when he pulled the tight fabric over his painfully-hard cock. Tossing the shorts to the floor, his attention quickly returned to you.

Giving his cock a few slow strokes, he watched you sit up on the bed. Feeling a burst in confidence from his display, you reached down to the hem of your dress’ skirt before pulling it up and off your body, Sett’s hungry gold eyes unable to look away from you as you moved onto your swimsuit top.

Once your top was off, Sett struck, pulling you towards him. Sitting at the edge of the bed, he pulled you onto his lap, reaching around to your front to cup your breasts as his mouth went straight to your neck. His hands were warm against the sensitive skin of your breasts, rolling your nipples under his thumbs as his teeth scraped against a sensitive spot on your neck.

You felt his hard cock under you and shifted yourself against it, Sett letting out a deep groan in response. You could feel how wet you were, but this wasn’t enough. You needed to fuck him, needed this building tension to come to a satisfying end for you both.

You turned in his lap, looping your arms around his neck and leaning down to kiss him. Sett was happy to meet tongues with you, one hand resting on your ass until you pulled back from the kiss.

You met eyes with Sett, who began to help you lift yourself up, lining up his cock with his other hand. When he brought you back down onto him, you both sighed as you were fully seated on his cock at last.

“Nothin’ else would feel as good as you,” Sett groaned as he began to help you move and up and then back down onto him. “Never wanted any girl as bad as I want you.”

You were much less coherent, moaning out his name as your hands grasped against his chest. With a further burst of confidence, you reached a hand up to his ear, running your fingers along the fur and enjoying the resulting groan, the next upward thrust of his hips hitting even better into you. Maybe you would leave this out at Taliyah’s interrogation later.

“There,” you moaned as he shifted you in his lap, his cock hitting even deeper inside you. “Right there, Sett.”

“You’re so tight,” he groaned, pulling you down into a rough kiss as he held you close, thrusting up into you as you eagerly moved along with him, needing to make this gorgeous man under you cum.

Sett came first, stilling for a moment before pulling you slightly back to put a finger to your clit, letting you cling to him as you followed him over the edge.

Once you had both come back down from the clouds, you were set back gently on the bed so Sett could run off to grab a cloth to clean you up with. You watched him leave the room, still having a hard time comprehending just how you had ended up this situation.

You definitely had some phone calls to make tomorrow. Your parents would be surprised, but you would probably focus on the Taliyah part rather than the new boyfriend part of your reasoning. Taliyah would be overjoyed for sure; you’d have to thank her for her meddling when you saw her.

As Sett returned, you realized something.

“Wait, is your mom home?” you asked in horror. You hadn’t made any effort to be quiet during sex, forgetting about his mother until he re-entered the room.

Sett laughed at your mortified face. “I don’t live with ma, so no.”

“Oh god,” you breathed in relief. “I was worried I was too…”

“She ain’t here,” he replied as he joined you on the bed, handing you the cloth he had grabbed. “You can be as loud as you want.”

You dropped the cloth, burying your head in your hands, Sett’s amused laughter ringing in your ears as you tried to content with just what you had signed yourself up for.

[cuttoothed]

A little fic for @jonsimsandcats and also inspired by some adorable art on discord! Featuring notes on kitten rearing, and of course some Jmart because it’s me.

Jon works at the Institute here, but a non-spooky version of it!

*

Martin is doing a final check on the fish tanks when he hears the bell above the front door jingle. He sighs; he knew he should have locked up first. Just his luck.

“This is your fault,” he tells the angelfish balefully. They don’t seem contrite, too busy nosing in the fine gravel for any food they’ve missed. Martin walks out to the front of the shop, preparing his best customer service smile to tell whoever’s come in at—he glances at his watch—three minutes past eight that they’re closed, and no, they can’t just wander around for a few minutes to look at the animals. Honestly, some people seem to think there’s no difference between a pet shop and an art gallery.

There’s a man standing at the front counter, looking around anxiously, a bundled up jumper clutched against his chest.

“Sorry, we’re—” Martin begins, and that’s as far as he gets before the man unleashes a frantic tirade.

“Please!” the man says, “I need your help, I-I’m not sure they’re breathing and they were out there for hours on their own, I know you’re not supposed to move them in case their mother comes back but I couldn’t just—just leave knowing they were still there, and all the vet offices nearby are closed, this was the only place I could think of!”

The man is wild eyed, almost panicked, and Martin lifts both hands in an appeasing gesture.

“Woah,” he says, “Uh, maybe start from the beginning again? Slowly?”

“Right, ah, sorry. Sorry. I spotted them this morning, under a bush just outside my work.” The man sets the bundle of jumper down on the counter, and unfolds it to reveal two tiny scraps of fur: one gray, one black. Kittens, Martin realizes, so small they can only be a week or so old; certainly not old enough to be without their mother.

“I left them alone, because I’ve heard that the mother usually comes back after a little while. A-and I meant to go and check on them again during the day, make sure.” The man sounds anguished now, his face miserable. “But I—I got caught up in work, forgot about it. It was only when I was leaving that I remembered. And they were still there, on their own. Barely moving. Please—is there anything we can do?”

Martin looks down at the tiny creatures in their nest of wool; he can just about see the shallow in-out of their breathing. All day outside alone, at their age, the odds aren’t great. But he’s met enough kittens to know that they’re shockingly resilient little sods, and he’s never given up on a so-called hopeless case before. He’s not about to start now.

“You did the right thing moving them,” he assures the man, moving to flip the sign on the door to CLOSED. “We need to get them warmed up and get some food into them. Body heat is the best thing for them right now—can you start warming them with your hands?”

“Oh—ah, yes,” says the man, turning to his bundle of jumper with a worried frown. Martin leaves him there while he rushes around the shop, grabbing kitten milk replacer and nursing bottles, and then into the back to heat two mugs of water in the microwave while he makes up the bottles. He pops them into the mugs to warm, and brings the whole lot out to the front. The man now has a kitten in each hand, and is holding them pressed carefully to his chest for additional warmth; his expression is still worried, but also desperately tender, and Martin feels a pang of something behind his ribs at the sight.

“One of them is moving,” the man says eagerly as Martin sets the bottles down. Martin can see the gray kitten wriggling weakly in the man’s grip, responding to the heat. Its sibling is still motionless, and Martin’s heart sinks a little.

“That’s great,” he says. “Hold onto her for another minute, and let me see if I can get her sister moving too.”

He holds out a hand, and the man almost reluctantly passes him the black kitten. Martin doesn’t try to notice that the man has lovely hands, with long, slim fingers, narrow wrist jutting out of his shirt sleeve, but, well, he notices a bit. He turns his attention to the kitten; he can’t make out the motion of its breathing anymore. He takes it in both hands and starts to massage it gently. It lies limp in his palms, head lolling, and Martin starts to feel despair crawling cold up his spine.

“Come on, sweetheart,” he murmurs, “You can do it.” The man is watching him anxiously, the gray kitten cradled against his chest, and Martin knows he can’t give up. He keeps rubbing the kitten’s small body, trying to will warmth and life back into the tiny, fragile form. At last, after what seems like an eternity, the kitten squirms in his hands and a faint, plaintive mew escapes it. An answering mew comes from the gray kitten, and Martin laughs, relief washing over him.

“Right, let’s see if we can get them to eat.”

After checking that they’re not too chilled to feed, Martin tests each of the kittens with a drop of formula on their tongue; thankfully they both seem able to swallow without difficulty. He shows the man how to feed the gray kitten, holding its body in a neutral position with the bottle tilted for a gentle flow. It doesn’t take long for the kittens to figure out the process, and Martin can feel the tug on the bottle as his kitten begins to suckle.

“Oh,” he hears softly from beside him, and turns to see the man gazing in delight at the gray kitten, whose tiny, unfurled ears are twitching as it sucks.

“She’s doing great,” Martin comments. “Good job.” The man gives him a tentative, pleased smile, and Martin still isn’t trying to notice but it’s a very nice smile. “I’m Martin, by the way.”

“Jonathan Sims—Jon,” says the man, and then gives a small, tense laugh. “God, I haven’t even apologized for storming in here while you were clearly trying to close up for the night.”

“That’s all right, I didn’t have any exciting plans tonight anyway. I’d much rather be spending time with these little beauties.”

Jon smiles again, more sure this time, and all right, maybe Martin deliberately notices the dimple in his right cheek. Just a bit.

Once the kittens are fed, Martin shows Jon how to stimulate them; both of them only pee a little—poor things are dehydrated—but it’s a good sign. They clean them up and tuck them back into the nest of Jon’s jumper, where they curl up into a small puddle of black and gray. Jon gives a sigh that’s somewhere between relieved and exhausted.

“Thank you,” he says. “I, ah, I think I forgot to say that as well. You know a lot about this.”

“I volunteer at a shelter, there are a lot of kittens. If you like, I can take them for tonight and bring them in tomorrow?”

“Ah,” says Jon. “Do you think that’s—I mean...I-I’m not sure I’d feel right, handing them off to someone else. Not that I think you’re not capable!” he rushes to add, and Martin finds himself smiling.

“No, I get it. You found them, you want to take care of them. I’ll warn you, though, it’s a big commitment. For the first couple of weeks you have to feed them every two hours, even during the night, and then it’s every three or four hours until they start weaning. It’s like having a newborn baby.”

“I don’t get much sleep generally,” says Jon. “At least this way I’ll have something to do while I’m up all night. And my work is—well, I’ll explain the situation.”

He looks set on it, brow furrowed with determination. Martin considers arguing more: that a shelter will be better equipped to care for the kittens, that there’s no guarantee they’ll survive in any case, that Jon doesn’t know what he’s signing up for. But the shelters are always crowded, and kittens this young have simple needs, and really, a dedicated foster parent—armed with the right knowledge—is probably the best thing for them.

“Right,” he says, “Let’s make sure these two are well wrapped up before you take them home.”

He scrounges a cardboard box from the back and they settle the kittens into it, still wrapped in Jon’s jumper along with a soft fleece blanket printed with cartoon fish. Martin gathers a couple of cartons of liquid formula and extra bottles to get them started, and shows Jon how to pierce the nipple so the flow isn’t too strong.

“It should be warmed to body temperature,” he explains, “But not directly in the microwave—put the bottles in heated water, like I did earlier. Do you have a hot water bottle?”

“Yes, I do,” says Jon, frowning intently as he listens. Martin nods.

“It’s better than a heating pad at this age, they’re less likely to get overheated. Don’t make it too hot—body temperature, again—and wrap it in a blanket so they’re not touching it directly.”

“Got it,” says Jon firmly, and Martin believes him. He bags up the formula and bottles and an extra pet blanket, and presses them into the hands of a startled Jon; the till is shut off for the night, but Martin can explain and pay for the items tomorrow.

“What’s your phone number?” he asks, and Jon looks even more startled.

“S-sorry?”

“Or your email. I’m going to send you some links—videos, a couple of good blogs that should be helpful.”

“Oh, ah, right. Of course.” Jon recites his number and Martin saves it under “Jon (Kittens).” He peeks into the box one last time before Jon scoops it up, and sees the kittens snuggled in the folds of the jumper, paws waving in little kitten dreams.

“Thank you again, Martin,” says Jon. “I honestly don’t know what I would have done without you tonight.” His tone is shy but genuine, and it sends warmth through Martin’s chest and up into his cheeks.

“Any time,” Martin says. “And feel free to text me if you need anything—if you have a question or...anything. Or call me if you like.” He’s aware he’s rambling a bit, but it’s not every day an attractive man says that he doesn’t know what he would have done without you, so he can hardly be blamed.

“I will,” says Jon solemnly.

*

He doesn’t text Martin any questions that night, but when Martin sends him the links to a youtube channel and three blog posts on kitten care, he replies:

Thank you :)

Martin spends most of the rest of the night wondering what that smiley face means.

*

He doesn’t necessarily expect to see Jon again, and certainly doesn’t expect to see him the very next day. But just before one o’clock in the afternoon the bell above the door jingles and there’s Jon, looking tired and more than a bit sheepish.

“I got all the way into work this morning before I realized I’d never paid for any of the things you gave me,” he says, reaching for his wallet.

“Those were gifts,” Martin tells him firmly. “Sort of a “welcome to foster parenthood” care basket?”

“No, I couldn’t let you—” Jon starts to protest, but Martin shakes his head emphatically.

“It’s no big deal, honestly. I get an employee discount anyway.”

“I...well, then I suppose I need to thank you yet again,” says Jon.

“It’s becoming a bit of a habit,” Martin jokes, grinning, and Jon smiles in return. He hesitates a moment before continuing:

“Maybe I could buy you lunch instead, then? To pay you back.”

“There’s no need, honestly,” says Martin, even as his brain berates him: What are you doing, idiot, he’s asking you to have lunch with him? Say yes!

“Please, I’d like to,” Jon says, and then gives a thoughtful frown. “Only if you want to, of course, don’t feel obligated—”

“I’m on lunch in five minutes,” Martin blurts out before he can overthink it.

“Great!” says Jon, sounding pleased. “If you have time, we could go by my office as well and visit the kittens. I just fed them before I came to see you.”

Before I came to see you, not before I came to pay you back, and Martin feels that warmth crawling up towards his cheeks again. Even if Jon’s intentions are purely friendly rather than...anything else, well, Martin could always use more friends.

“How were they last night?” he asks, and the smile that spreads across Jon’s face this time is pure delight.

“Oh I barely got an hour’s sleep,” he says, waving a hand. “And today they’re sitting under my desk reminding me every couple of hours that they need attention and that they are far more important than whatever I’m working on. They’re perfect.”

“Sounds like cat parenthood suits you,” Martin teases gently, and Jon laughs.

“I think it rather does.”

*

Lunch is...nice, and only slightly awkward in the “getting to know a new person” sort of way. Jon is serious, but also funny in an understated, acerbic way, and there’s a gentleness to him that wouldn’t be immediately apparent, if Martin hadn’t seen him cradling two tiny, fragile lives to his chest last night. He’s the kind of person Martin would like to know better, he thinks.

Afterwards they go to Jon’s workplace, which is extremely academic with a brass nameplate by the door and everything, and down to the basement office where Jon works; Martin doesn’t really know what archiving entails, but it looks like mostly a bloody great pile of paperwork. Jon’s two colleagues give Martin friendly and extremely curious glances as they pass; Jon pointedly ignores them in favor of directing Martin to his desk and the cardboard box sitting beneath it.

When Martin glances inside, the two kittens are curled up in the folds of the fish-print blanket, lying against the shape of what he assumes is the hot water bottle. Their bellies already look rounder than they were last night, thanks to regular feeding, and their limbs twitch as they sleep.

“I’ll take them to the vet for a check up after work,” Jon murmurs quietly, gazing down at them with a soft expression. Martin recognizes that look of adoration, and he knows this pair won’t be going to a shelter or anywhere else; they’ve found their home with Jon.

“They’re lucky you found them,” he says, and Jon smiles self-consciously.

“I think I’m the one who was lucky,” he says.

They spend a bit more time with the kittens, and then Martin realizes that it’s about time he got back to work if he doesn’t want to get in trouble. He excuses himself, waving goodbye to Jon’s still curious colleagues, and Jon walks him out to the grand front entrance of the building.

“Thanks again for lunch,” he says. “And—you have my number, right? The offer is open, if you need anything, just text me.”

“I will,” says Jon. “And, ah, let me know if you’d like to come and see the kittens again. Any day. Well, most days,” he corrects himself. “We could, ah, maybe have lunch again?”

“That sounds...really nice,” says Martin. Jon smiles, pleased, and Martin isn’t trying to notice the faint flush that spreads across his face, but it’s very cute anyway.

*

As he walks back to work, Martin’s phone vibrates with a text. It’s a picture of the kittens, curled up on top of each other, with the message:

Come back and see us soon!

Martin grins; the kittens, he thinks, weren’t the only ones lucky to be found last night.