#hes like ???? WHY DOES HE HATE ME ? WHAT DID I DO? and sil is like the guy is older than me and doesnt do change well

[sqlmn]

OC RNG stuff.

-Lucinda is engaged to the oldest prince in a family of nine where there are 8 brothers and then the youngest is the only girl. She adores her future husband. -Ink Blot is a really dumb mage who acts as a street performer using fake magic despite being an actual mage. He just wants to be the center of attention. -Ruby and Luce are from the same plot (thank you RNG I love the dream wardens). They're part of different pairs and basically just patrol to keep dreams in check. Ruby and Luce also don't really meet each other in canon. Their routes don't overlap but they both interact with the main duo which is Colette and Marcus. (Ruby wants to beat Marcus up while Luce wants to kiss Marcus for what it matters.)

[freshunknowndreamland]

Helena Aphrodite Swan is the younger twin sister of Isabella Marie Swan. Isabella or Bella, as she prefers to be called, hated her sister because she believes that she attention seeks and is out for everything that she wants. But that is Helena she is sweet, and she is kind and always trying to help everyone even if she is hurt in the process.

I do not own any of the characters or the scenes from Twilight that go to the author/creator of Twilight. And pitcures are from google. I only have my oc Helena.

Part 3

...................................................................................

The Turning

There was almost silence apart from the faint heart beat of Helena who was still being held in his arms with a bit on her neck and blood on Marcus' lips.

"Why is she not screaming?" Caius asked his voice even but feeling a little worried for the young girl although he will not admit it.

"I do not know. But I must take her to my room. I shall wait for her to wake up." Marcus' voice was void of emotion as he stood with his mate in his arms and left the throne room.

The other two brothers looked on in concern as they watched their brother leave with his mate. They prayed she would wake and soon for they don't think they can watch Marcus eat himself alive if she does now make it.

~In Marcus' room~

Marcus gently places Helena on his bed before he quickly shut the door so no one will come in. (Or so he thought)

He sat in the chair next to his bed holding Helena's hand, looking at her face as appears peaceful as if turning into a vampire did not hurt.

"per favore, torna da me amore mio. Farò del mio meglio per proteggerti. tu sei la mia seconda possibilità. non posso perderti. se non ce la fai ti seguo amore mio." Marcus said loud enough for Helena to hear. Praying she can hear him and that she will come back to him. (please come back to me my love. i will do my best to protect you. you are my second chance. i can not lose you. if you do not make it i shall follow you my love.)

~Time skip~

It's had been a week and still Helena has not woken up and Marcus has not left her side not even to feed. His eyes were as dark as Vantablack. His brothers and guard has tried to get Marcus to leave his room even to feed or check and clean his mate. But he still did not leave, he only allowed Jane to come and check on his mate under his close supervision. He also allowed her to clean and change her. He may have been in the room but he turned his back to give them some decency. But after that he would growl at anyone who knocked on the door or spoke to him, even if it was to see if he was ok or wanted to feed.

~Time skip~

Two days later as Marcus looks out the window to the garden glowing under the high sun when he heard it.

Helena's heart had finally stopped. Marcus turned around and within a second was next to her waiting for her to open her eyes and look at him.

Just a few minutes past then an hour and Marcus thought she was gone from this world, and that shattered his undead heart and he let out a mornful roar as he clutched to Helena like a life line and ran as quickly as he possible could to the throne room where his brothers and elite guard where sure to be.

~In the throne room~

The King's and elite guard heard Marcus mornful roar knowing that Helena must not have woken up. Everyone put their heads down in sadness. Felix and Demetri tries to hide their whimpers for the lose of a soul-sister they just got to meet. Jane and Alec where beyond angry. How could her own twin be so hateful to her? What did she ever do to her? It pained the twins to think of hating each other, so how could Isabella hate her twin? Caius and Aro where saddened not only for the lose of a sister that could have been, but also a brother as they know what he will ask and they know they can not deny him this, not this time for a true mate to be left behind will drive them to insanity and Marcus was not far from that now as he had not fed in almost two weeks.

All was silent waiting for the doors to be opened. And only a moment passed and the doors opened revealing a grieving king holding on to his queen with tears that will never fall. Falling to his knees infront of his brothers laying his mate softly on the ground, moving the hair from her face.

"EVERYONE LEAVE NOW!!" Caius belowed at the guard.

And within a second all the guard had left and it was just the four of them left in the room in silence. Until Marcus spoke up.

"I can not live without her brothers, please do not make me you know what happens when one half of a mated pair is killed and I can not and will not live without her." He sounded weak as he pleaded for death but he did not care. He was ready to face death to be with his mate again.

Caius and Aro looked sadly at their brother as he knelt infront of them begging for death.

Aro walked slowly to his brother and spoke gently to him. "As much as this pains me, pains us, I will grant you this, but first shall we have a funeral for your mate before you meet her again." You could hear the grief and pain in Aro's voice.

Marcus looked up at his brother and gave a slight nod of his head before holding his mate once again to take her to a room to prepare her for the funeral and Marcus left for only a few moments to change to look his best to put his mate to rest.

But while he did this Helena woke up alone looking around being able to see everything alone clearer than she had ever done before. Slowly getting up looking down at what she is wearing. It was a beautiful black and red dress.

Slowly Helena walked to the mirror across the room not realising how fast she moved gasped as she saw herself with red eyes. That was when she felt it, the burning in her throat the hunger for blood but she didn't know that so left the room to find the kitchen surly they will have something to eat right and wouldn't mind to much.......

[romanticatheartt]

Ok hear me out... Has anyone read twisted series by Ana Huang? because I was thinking an ACoTaR x Twisted crossover... but not like a full fanfiction just a description (?) of what it can be cuz I can't write for the life of me (I can't write in my mother language let alone in another one!)

Twisted Love x Elucien Twisted Game x Gwynriel Twisted Hate x Nessian Twisted Lies x Feysand

What do we think?

I mean Twisted Love is my least favorite of all the books (like very least) so I have to change many things of it to fit Elain and Lucien. Lucien is going to be so sassy and cocky (not like Alex who has a personality of a rock) and Elain is still a florist but ALSO a photographer. I'm pretty sure a modern AU Elain would be a great photographer as well!!

Twisted Games is my favorite out of all of them if I'm being honest. So Gwyn is a princess who likes to sing sometimes. She has a sister who's is about to be the future queen but is she? (yeah we're not killing Catrin in fact we give her a wife!!) and Azriel is her bodyguard.

Twisted Hate is my second Favorite and also the first book I read from this series (don't ask why I did that lmao). I always see Nesta in a modern au as lawyer!! She's studying and getting ready to become a lawyer. And Cassian is a sports massage therapist and a gym owner and happens to be her colleague and her trainer... he's a menace of course!!

Twisted Lies... well let me tell you the only reason I didn't liked this book as much as I wanted to, is Christian being so much like Alex but I liked the story in general and you can't tell me Stella and Christian doesn't give of Feysand vibes... Feyre has a art therapy degree and her dream is to open an studio but she's also a blogger on social media and tries to save money from their earnings but she has difficulty to reach a decent engagement. She also has a crazy stalker of an ex boyfriend that she still hasn't manged to get rid of (which is Tam/in). Rhysand is her landlord of the most secure apartment (she used to share it with Ressina, but now she's alone), and he's accepting the payment of her rent, which is way lower than the original price because she happens to be Nesta's sister who is his SIL and also Cassian's and Mor's BFF and you have to believe him that these are his only reasons... He has a security company and does other things as well... (and it's not illegal at all)

I mean as I go I'll defiantly add to the plot of each couple. But I'll start with Gwynriel because Twisted game was almost without any connection to the other books (and I love that book the most... and Gwynriel week is near) and from what I have in mind each one is going to be long lol

Lucien is a billionaire... cuz why not? Bat boys are adoptive brothers (Rhys' mother adopted Cass and Az) Azriel works for Rhysand but Cassian took a different road as you can see. Archeron sisters have a shaky relationship specially after their mother's death. Valkyries are bffs and went to collage together. Feyre, my baby, will go through it here as well. I'm not sure if I should keep Rhys' sister and mother alive and kill his father or kill them all... we'll see hehe

[feuqueerfire]

A Shop for Killers Live Blogging

I almost started watching My Stand-In (8 eps out) but am feeling a pull for this instead. I knew this had Lee Dong Wook when I came across it but forgot until right now when looking at the poster again haha. I'm hoping it's fun and action-packed and interesting.

Ep 1 (June 18)

that was pretty interesting intro, some guy trying to kill Jian and the woman in the house seems a danger too and maybe also the other guy who was lying down

They don't write Jian's full name in the subs even though the characters are clearly saying Jung Jian

머더헬프 = Murder Help? Mother Help? the translations say "murthehelp" but what?

so is the intro going to come up later? I don't think it said anything about "_ ago" or "_ later" when this scene started...

he's dead?! well i'd like to see his body to make sure it's not a fakeout

1 year ago

Her uncle is 1) expecting some sort of attack and preparing for it and 2) terrorizing people who wrong them/Jian

the last thing he said to her was her student number? but that was a 1 year ago, they haven't had any contact since then or what

ayo what the hell, we're getting to see the body? and it's actually him, not some other guy to pretend he died?

Is the synopsis that the uncle dies? idk why I thought her parents died, so she started living with her uncle

what does the tattoo say

oh lmfao it says murthehelp, I suppose the episode title was correct indeed

Does Bae Jeongmin know anything? or involved in any way? he's offering to clean the bathroom where Jinman died and he could be just being nice or hiding something

Comrade Lee Yonghan - name to remember?

Jeongmin found a (burner?) phone hm

drama at the funeral

Jinman was helping out everybody with money troubles in secret?

lived together for 10 years? so 1 year ago, did she move out?

aw, Jian breaking down alone at home

gun selling website behind the hose business

how many ppl are on her ass bruh

Ep 2 (June 18)

jinman's name 3 times to the sky

bro wtf did Jinman do for everybody to be hating him or seeking revenge or somethingggg? Did his enemies kill his mother and come to kill his brother and SIL?

the same burner phone a decade ago

[Linguistics] They keep using 금방, which I didn't know meant soon but that's fun. it's the syllables switched of 방금, which means just now/a moment ago. short time in the future vs past.

this guy who knows the password reminds me a bit of Wi Hajoon for some reason. I should watch a show with him soon

I've had recurring nightmares as a child and pre-teen about home invasions and such people coming to our house and having to escape like this. so proud of little Jian for escaping

who did the car hit? Jian? why'd it seem like a grown man running towards the house though, it wouldn't be Jinman, right?

this is so fucked up man, her escaping the hospital room and having to hide in the morgue in a little space beside her mother's corpse and she didn't even fully know that the parents are dead

why is he so mean to her lakjdf let's kill him, especially cuz he's the reason her parents and grandma are dead anyway

can't go one korean show without some terrible bully children

fuckkk this bringing her back to that day and getting mad that he came so late despite saying he'd be right back and finally speaking again

hm, the woman with the bob left but she's gonna be back to get caught in the fire with her and Jeongmin later

Ah, a shop for killers; he has a shop where killers can buy

is Jian Code Green?

well, they killed him and are now coming for her, so much for code green

What's up with all this? They banded together to kill Jinman, I'm assuming? And now that he's dead, they're getting rid of their codes (literally in their bodies), and going to kill his niece? Why?

Ep 3 (June 18)

damn, he's on some drugs. and he's faking it to see what Jian would do or something I guess? what are the chances he's doing it again right now by faking his death?

What was that? Does Jeongmin also have a code thing in him? or ig not since it said Error

oh, is the woman actually here to help/protect Jian? I'd noticed that she wasn't with all the men who were planning on killing Jian at the end of last ep

does this woman speak Korean with an accent?

So we aren't counting bullets with the little pistol ig

close the workshed door at least

Brother... also a helper?

Ep 4 (June 19)

damn

name to remember: Bale

oh, is that "Brother" guy the same guy? I couldn't see his face

oh, that's Pasin

Is Pasin also dead, hope not

yesss Jian Muay Thai expert

pls the karaoke guy always singing at the restaurant while watching TV -> singing on TV is so fun

The Minsook girl seems like she could do so much better than hanging out with those bully, cowardly boys (i think it's funny that she stole Jinman's watch but after getting stared down, returned it and apologized). i hope she'll show up again

Damn, Pasin ran off with people's money?

D: these cameras

Brother's working with Mihye

Oh, Jeongmin suddenly becoming bolder/harsher and stopping Brother guy from speaking... just as he's about to give more info...

Brother says to not trust Jeongmin... but Jeongmin doesn't trust Brother... I don't trust either fully

Brother says Jinman's died because of Jeongmin but he doesn't know how

Brother and Jeongmin at each other's throats and Jian's guy pointed at Jeongmin. who to trust?

why would clicking on 0404 kill them... Jeongmin...

Weapon shopping mall

Mihye does know Brother, though I assume she met him as a child

...choosing Jeongmin?

ah, I did wonder for a second whether at least Jinman wouldn't think that Jeongmin had locker her in because how would Jeongmin know where she was even at night + not go get anybody?

well, Jeongmin turning out to not be good isn't a surprise, especially the way he started behaving once Brother was here but from when I suspected him at the start + started suspecting him again in the middle of this episode, they were good at making me go like hm, perhaps he's not evil

good parallel with Jinman being like you must be responsible for your choices and Jian's decision to keep it meant she witnessed the cat's death and also her decision to trust Jeongmin over Brother resulted in her current predicament.

Jian was dumb to trust Jeongmin but people are seriously being too mean and flippant about her in the reddit on-air thread, makes me frown.

Ep 5 (June 19)

a manual labour part-time job, not website-making

he's not working on his own obviously, he's got some other people he answers to. seems like the big draw is money?

oh yeah, I'd wondered if he had somehow known about the site already when he was first "finding" it with Jian but it was a passing thought

hmmm these people who recruited Jeongmin basically, are they the ones who killed Jian's parents and grandma? And are they ones who were at Jinnam's funeral? Because those people didn't seem to be the weapons buyers who were trying to kill Jian

Damn, the other guy really just got shot in the head

I guess Jeongmin's actor cute baby face helps sell this sort of role because I think they said he was a killer in Blind or something too

cameras everywhere, including seeing Jeongmin mess around

so those people want access to murthehelp?

Naur, how could Jinman fall for a fake recording of Jian? I don't even know if she'd call for help from this like that... wouldn't it be Jeong Jinman x3? Maybe he's playing bc girl what. I think he'd at least just call her phone straight up just to see

damn that's wild, he just believed that 5 second recording and killed himself while believing that the people who supposedly kidnapped his niece would let her go if he dies? doubt it. i think he's still alive or Something bc wtf

right, so the show also knows that's way too easy...

btw where are Mihye and Brother?

oh lmfao they just left her there to fend for herself

oh yeah, I was wondering what he'd done secretly when he remodeled the house

hm, so Babylon also came? and the two teams are working together now or what?

hilarious "[the killer robot dog] is gonna steal our jobs later, you know"

this fight/shooting scene is so video game-y to me

why didn't Brother get the gun from the hallway and sneak up on the guy or something? good thing Pisan got here at the perfect time ig

We found out stuff behind Jinman's death and who's behind it but I still found this ep boring somehow...

Ep 6 (June 20)

ngl I wanna just finish this show and be done with it today so maybe I'll watch at 1.25x (I did that for the second half of ep 5 last night) unless I start Really liking it and wanna savour it

So seems like backstory is: Jinnam was doing stuff and killing people or whatever in a big team, which included Bale. Then 14 years ago he saw Bale kill a child in cold-blood because "there can't be witnesses." The killers here all seem trained and capable. He probably leaves/runs away and that's why he finally goes to his family but Bale and the people are all chasing him and killing his family and want to kill him. because of him as a witness or some other reason? I think 13 years ago Jian was living with Jinman so it makes sense ig

oh, so they were mercenaries and the mission was to take that guy to safety but Bale killed civilians.

damn, Jinman lied on the stand for Bale

Bale is scary af

Enough scantily clad women in vulnerable positions i feel ill and upset every time

is this Mihye?

ah, Bale literally saying that he'd kill all of Jinman's family and friends if he's still alive

he said he'd take out Jinman last... but Jian is still left... idk I'm just looking for clues that he's still alive somehow lmfao

ah, no more bullets to properly take out Bale but they assumed he was dead

Who is the person who's supposed to be tailing Jinman?

Bale didn't give Jinman time to Breathe, mans went back to his family and Immediately they started dropping like flies

I liked this ep, action, backstory, and answers. and also perhaps a more engaging story or maybe just the sort of story i'm more in the mood for rather than the other episodes.

Also, Lee Dongwook looked good whenever he had his hair down like toward the end of the ep when he's out of uniform and has the bandaid on his face.

Ep 7 (June 20)

is the guy who Mihye's staying with the same guy who went to save Jian but then got killed + his arm chopped off?

ohh, it must be him because I'm remembering that he also typed the answer on the phone to show Jian, right? and he uses sign language here too. though is he the one who called Jinman when his brother died? probably not

ohhh these fuckers orchestrated that murder-suicide story for Jian's parents

wait the deaf friend who I've been thinking has a nice face is named Honda here and he was also the main character in The Director Buys Me Dinner?!

so even the guy who gave the warning actually did it so that Jinman would leave and be ambushed

oh yeah, I'd wondered if the car broken down lady was actually part of the plan and seems like yeah

so not just Bale's conspiracy but entire Babylon wants Jinman dead because he lied about what happened and how Bale "died"

He needs a long-term plan... and that's why he's either not dead or died knowing exactly what was going to happen after

Aw, Pasin, Mihye, Brother, Jian all in that house

I'm liking the backstory episdoes. I liked the backstory in earlier episodes of young Jian when people were dying and how her and Jinman interacted but then I got bored of the backstories in the middle of when she was a teenager because it felt like we weren't getting scenes that needed half the episode to itself but these two episodes were interesting to see why everything was happening and the story just interested me more. Interesting use of flashbacks though because in the earlier eps, we were doing 50-50 flashbacks and current time, both in Jian's POV but now we've done 100% flashbacks in Jinman's POV.

Last ep, 1 hour left, we'll see how they wrap it up.

Ep 8 (June 20)

parallels with her hiding in her room while this fucker's out to get her

oof, Brother dead

It's really not fun to have everybody fighting and dying while Jian just stands and watches in horror even while everybody's telling her to run, thus also distracting them. either help or escape bruh

okay I defended Jian from people calling her stupid in like the ep 4 reactions or whatever but she's so frustrating now. i get she Wants To Know What Happened but just giving away her position and trying to talk to this guy is so... like he literally has a gun

dying, the way the guy was talking about and to Jeongmin before and after killing him was really funny

oh lol Brother was wearing a bulletproof vest. but on that note, what about Mihye? and also I can't believe it's seeming more and more like Jinman truly just offed himself over a fake recording like actually wtf, like he actually would not do that he can't be so stupid

okay she did it, clean bullet through the head, good job Jian

ah, so every killer came to kill them all because Babylon was offering bounty for their deaths. but what about Bale? or is he just fine w Jinman dead or thought dead or whatever

so funny, they're all like yaaas tax-free prize + sales on weaponry

thought the bus would have Jinman lol

okay, duh. ofc he's alive duh and comes right after Jian has managed to escape/survive/etc.

Kind of anticlimactic but tracks with what we've seen in the earlier eps I guess. Also, no Bale? Some people on the on-air thread said we're supposed to assume that maybe Jinman was fighting with Bale and that's why he's weak and bruised? idk.

Overall:

Interesting premise + interesting execution with all the flashbacks, especially because it was like eps 1 - 4: about half is flashbacks to Jian's childhood/growning up with Jinman/teenagehood in her POV, ep 5: Jeongmin's POV flashback for about half, eps 6 - 7: almost entirely Jinman POV flashbacks, ep 8: almost no flashbacks. I think I liked some of the early Jian's POV eps (ep 2 comes to mind) and quite enjoyed eps 6 - 7 which gave us more backstory. I do have to say the flashbacks cutting through the current action was sometimes bothersome, especially after we'd established important stuff in the first few eps and were showing stuff in the middle episodes that didn't need as much screentime, specifically Jian's teenage life. I thought ep 5 was also weak af.

I found Jinman intriguing and mysterious and understood him despite being frustrated with how he treated Jian at times. Jian I liked way more at the beginning but then started being kind of annoyed toward the end at times. Mihye was soooo cool.

It was a surprisingly funny show, especially in regard to how this is just a job for these mercenaries and killers lol

The ending was a bit anticlimactic in terms of how things were resolved + there was a bunch of important threads that were unfinished (aiming for a season 2?). I wasn't surprised by the ending but I don't know if they were aiming for that anyway, I think they knew the audience to predict it and were okay with it.

idk what to rate it, like it's fine, I liked it well enough, likely will never think about it again, but may watch season 2 if it ever airs. I guess I liked it more than Killed Paradox (I actually barely remember that show, esp the second half? nothing in my brain)

Rating: 6.5/10

[runespoor7]

So after Soldier's Peak and some gossip in Denerim we're going to Redcliffe!

Redcliffe village is very...

Teagan is not making a great impression after Greagoir. Yeah he's in the Chantry to protect the people there, but also he's in the Chantry, you know. The Chantry that must be defended from the outside. That Chantry.

But okay, Daphnis is not going to argue the point, whatever.

Helping around Redcliffe is also very... the mayor comes off as a misogynistic ass and all around unpleasant. The dude whose daughter might be dead makes the first "you didn't sound like an elf" remark, but you know, he thinks his daughter might be dead and he's drunk off his ass, so at least he's got an excuse. The other one or two people who comment about Daphnis being an elf don't have that excuse.

Is it surprising that given the xenophobic atmosphere of the village the dwarf trader has locked himself up and doesn't want to participate? Who could have seen it coming. Daphnis is shocked. ...but there are still villagers to be defended, so she convinces him to help defend the village. She'll put in a good word for him with the Bann. Or something.

She wishes she could do something for that Berwick dude in the tavern (the most mind-boggling placement for a tavern, too), because yeaaaaaah Redcliffe! The guy is so scared! And he didn't do anything wrong!! (Also, was he hitting on Zevran there, or on her, or on both, was he hitting on both of them, was that what was happening)

Ser Perth is refreshingly polite and pleasant for Redcliffe.

Zevran takes the opportunity of his first banter with Leliana to ask her about companionship when she was in the cloister. Priorities. (Look, Zevran thinks everyone in this team is very attractive, and he has not only two hands but also a lot of imagination about how to use things that aren't his hands.) Leliana... isn't flirting. Yet. Daphnis is walking in front of them and listening and also her cheeks are warm. giggle giggle, I think.

We don't get the stupid helmet for saving everyone despite restarting the combat once, because one of the stupid militiamen died like an idiot, and I spent the entire second part of the fight annoyed as fuck and being even more annoyed that I was still making an effort to keep everyone else alive for RP reason. The dude didn't even have a name! Teagan was all "we suffered enormous losses" and no dude, we didn't, we lost ONE guy whose name no-one can tell me, I hate all of you.

Then we meet up Teagan at the mill, and he's about to show us a secret passage to enter the castle when his SIL Isolde shows up. She's distraught and the story she tells seems super patchy, but what catches Daphnis' attention is: back up why didn't she use the secret passage.

Teagan, does your brother's wife not know about the existence of the secret passage? did you guys not tell her about it?

It's also possible she knows and chose not to take the passage on purpose, because she doesn't want to attract the attention of whoever allowed her to leave the castle to it. In case it's needed later. That's possible too, in which case it's good thinking from her.

In Daphnis' opinion, it's okay if Teagan is going into an obvious trap and risking his life, because he spent the night safely inside a chantry while others were risking their life. His turn now! /Greagoir-shaped bias

[sothas]

👪 FAMILY - what is their family like? what is your ocs relationship to them? does your oc have any siblings?

🍧 SHAVED ICE - do they still have any objects from their childhood? what significance does it have to them? what would their reaction be if they lost it?

🌌 MILKY WAY - what was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

📎 PAPERCLIP - a random fact

For Nils! Btw, I love your oc; I find Dunmer so beautiful, and my very first character in Skyrim was a Dark Elf, so I'm emotionally attached to this race! 💕

Thank you so much for asking about Nils!! And for your kind words, it makes me so happy to know that people love her as much as I do :,) ❤️

👪 - This might end up being a bit of a hefty answer but I’ll try and shorten it :,D Nilonii doesn’t have any siblings, and her relationship with her biological parents is pretty poor. She was a child prodigy in her home of Sadrith Mora, and her parents only really cared for results (this is partially tied to House Telvanni politics, and is part of the reason why she hates it), so Nils was emotionally neglected during her time at home. Around the age of 18 she successfully (with injury :,)) transported herself into the Clockwork City, and shortly after became Sotha Sil’s apprentice, which is where their father/daughter bond formed! She sees him as her real father and he sees her as the daughter he never had. Nilonii has never treated him as a god so it was easy for more of her real personality to come out as she healed. Can you tell I’m a sucker for found family tropes haha

🍧 - Nils has had the same staff pretty much her whole life, with the Telvanni motif on it. I like to think it serves as a reminder of how far she’s come since her time in Sadrith Mora, and that she’s still (in a way) proud to be a Telvanni despite not agreeing with a lot of their beliefs. So she’d be really upset if she lost it, since it’s such a sentimental item :)

🌌 - The first thing I decided about Nilonii, even before I knew her name, was that she was going to be a Telvanni :,D When I first started properly playing ESO I wanted to have a Dunmer character for each Great House, and I did Telvanni first. Originally I wasn’t going to go in depth for her character, but then I did! My first draft of Nils’ character/personality was inspired by Neloth’s, but just a bit more agreeable. And then over years (and more recently in past months) she’s become the character she is today :D

📎 - Nils is actually really good at hand to hand combat! She learned a lot of it from Luciana Pullo, who was pestered non-stop until she agreed to teach Nilonii some moves :,)

Here’s the ask game, for those who are interested!

[stormclouds-chainmail]

[Image description: several Reddit screenshots. Image 1 and 2 described here. Images 3 to 5 have alt text which I've included here too as Tumblr sometimes loses alt text.

Image 1: Reddit user Dependent_Top_4425: Robins see their reflection in your glasses and go into attack mode.

Reddit user RazorFlea: Why the fuck did Batman teach them that

Image 2: Reddit user MyCatCalledLuna on Dec 26, 2023: My favourite Reddit post is someone whose sis-in-law is pregnant with a girl and her brother wants to name her Stephanie which SIL doesn't like (brother will not accept another name). You then find out they have two boys already, Richard and Jason, named by brother. Someone asked if he liked batman and it ended badly for the brother.

Reddit user gibbsith on Dec 27, 2023: @ MyCatCalledLuna i'd never seen that post before so i looked it up and Yes its crazy but my fave comment was on the update post where someone was like "i cant believe someone was a big enough robin stan to fabricate this lie and keep it going!" to which someone rightfully responded "tim drake behavior"

Image 3: an AITA post by u/JustBeingHonest4 titled AITA for telling my SIL that no one in our family is named Stephanie?

Verdict: Not the A-hole

I can't figure out if I did anything wrong, or if so, what, because I honestly have no idea what's going on. Hopefully someone here can give me a clue. Here's the relevant info, as far as I know.

My brother and his wife are expecting their first girl after two boys. I love Ricky and Jace, and so does my SIL, but she has always wanted a girl and is very excited to be having one. She also wants to name the girl Chloe, as she loves that name. My brother hates the name Chloe and really wants to name their daughter Stephanie. They have been arguing about it for a few weeks, since finding out the gender.

I got to my parents house late last night and my SIL was the only person still awake. We talked for a little bit, and she asked me the weirdest question. She asked me if I knew any stories about great aunt Stephanie. I was so confused. I literally said "who?"

SIL clarified that she was talking about our grandmother's older sister that died when grandma was a little girl. Our grandma had two sisters, but their names were Judy and Lynn. There's no one in our family named Stephanie, as far as I know. I told as much to my SIL. She changed the subject after that, and we soon went to bed.

This morning my brother and his wife were both sulking during breakfast. Even the kids could tell. Ricky kept saying "stop being grumpy on Christmas." So it wasn't just my imagination. I got my brother alone and confronted him. He snapped at me for "meddling" and told me to stay out of his marriage.

My brother is pissed at me, and my SIL won't even talk to me. I'm afraid to say anything to my parents and drag them into this, especially since I still don't know what this is. Either my grandmother had a secret sister that I don't know about but my brother does for some reason, or my brother lied to his wife to convince her to name their baby Stephanie. Both options seem equally weird to me. Maybe there's a third possibility I'm not seeing?

Reddit, am I the asshole? If so, please explain to me why. I don't want to be the reason Christmas is ruined.

Update: Most awkward Christmas Eve dinner ever. Gotta keep this short; lots going on. Everyone now knows what my brother was doing with the kids names(except the kids obviously). They are pissed. Weirdly my mom is the most pissed. A Christmas truce is in place for the kids, so no fighting on the holiday. However the baby is definitely going to be named Chloe. My brother very quickly backed down when my mom said some few choice words to him. The topic is completely banned for the rest of festivities, so, for now at least, they've tied a bow on the situation.

Image 4: Christmas morning update: Aside from some glaring over a couple of the boy's stocking stuffers (Robin Funko pops) everything went well with the gift opening (as well as being woken up at 5:30 AM by being jumped on by one's nephews can). I think my brother realizes he crossed a line and has been very attentive to his wife. He mentioned getting Chloe's name embroidered on some stuff when they get home. He even told mom he would do the Christmas breakfast so she could have a break and he gave me an "I'm sorry" grin when I opened his gift. I think everything is going to be fine.

Image 5: Comment from Chandak562: Your brother is a comics fan, right? Is he by any chance a big Batman fan, because I'm seeing a kind of pattern with these names.

Reply from op: Yeah, big time. How did you know?

Reply from FKAlag: Let's just say that if this baby had been a boy he would have suggested Tim.

Reply from op: That was the name he wanted if they were having a boy! How did you know that?!

Reply from FKAlag: These are all the names of former Robins. As in BATMAN & ...

Richard Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown and Damian Wayne.

EDIT: In all fairness, it was u/Chandak562 who figured the Robin connection out.

Reply from op: I am going to confirm this on Wikipedia, but if you're right, and I can't imagine why you would make this up, my brother is about to be in so much trouble.

End description]

i’ve always thought reddit is a hellscape but my friend just sent me this and yk what maybe i’ll give it a chance

[protokirby]

Had some kind of unusual dream. I think-- in the dream, instead of myself I looked like some kind of fusion of Drayton and Leon but wearing a white gown for some reason,

Also it took place in a school that was on an island type of thing. Like- not really the usual kind of island. It was a tall piece of land in the middle of a crater. It had a flat top and that's where the school was. There was a bridge to what I think was either mainland or another island of similar nature but instead of being flat, this other island had lush greenery and raised land with plenty of smaller flat pieces of land randomly placed on the walls of this raised land. The walls were otherwise just completely steep and unable to be climbed unless you had video-game-like jumping abilities to get up by the flat places. At a certain height, the flat pieces of land were much further apart but there were cave systems to reach the higher ones from that point and pretty flowers grew in them.

Anyway the only enjoyable part of the dream was the location and probably the character fusion (it looked cool)(but like. despite being a fusion of two of my favorite characters, the vibes of the location were much more appealing. dunno why. just. i think if there was a video game with a location exactly like what was in my dream i would play it with no questions asked)

The dream itself was riddled with horrors.

First of all, it was school. Biggest horror right there. A huge stain on an otherwise beautiful location. Hate how pseudo-hell still shows up in my dreams even though I graduated all the way back in 2020.

Second, there were bullies at the school. Those are the creatures that made me want to forego existing privileges so many times every single day back then. But I wasn't the target in this dream. Some small person who looked like he wasn't born yet was. Also his eyes were on the side of his head like a prey animal and his head was very tall. And he had teeth just like a piranha's.

Those bullies were going hard on the poor little dude and he snapped at like- everyone except for me. There was some dude who had the personality of broken glass covered in loud noises that just got on the little dude's last nerve and because teachers do literally nothing, little dude with the piranha teeth just started ripping the bully limb from limb. Soon it was a mess of blood (couldn't even tell there was a person there) and guess what. The teacher chose now of all times to pay attention to the little dude except in favor of the guy who's been harassing little piranha dude extensively. I'm super against violence but in the state of things, I didn't blame little piranha dude from destroying the teacher next. The entire time I was just like- blankly staring as this chaos was going on.

Soon the whole classroom was ravaged and I was spared. I remember little piranha dude, before he left, turning to me saying "You were the only one who was ever nice to me. Thank you" and that is giving me the feels. Poor little piranha dude.

Also at some point during this dream I fell off a cliff and the cramps I was dealing with irl that made it hard to fall asleep before all this worked themselves into the dream and it hurt to fall off the cliff and I was like "oh that's what falling off a cliff feels like" but the shock of falling didn't wake me up. I "respawned(?)" at the top of the tall place on the other island. I did wake up soon after that but not by falling off another cliff. What actually woke me up was a mysterious smoke smell and I called mom to deal with it before going back to sleep. Crisis averted I think. I don't know how serious anything actually was but mom did somethin, smoke smell left, and I went back to sleep afterward and my perception of time became even more blurred than it usually is because I was so so sleepy but had difficulty sleeping from cramps.

All in all, I'm not in the best of moods today. I think fantasy social interaction would fix me rn does anyone want to send some silly anon messages to my roleplay blog?

[boyinafandom]

It’s golden hour somewhere

JeffxNina

Requested by @immortalwoman2

Rich Jeff au

In this au there will be:

A HEALTHY relationship dynamic between Jeff and Nina

Jeff is still an ass (don’t worry) just not to Nina or their kids (yes they have kids shhh)

(Nina)body dysmorphia

Nina’s poc. And I don’t want to hear a single thing about it.>:(

Past sh

There children are:

Silas 8

(Adopted) Rico 12

Aliyah 17

Yo momma 🧍‍♂️…🕺

___________________

Jeff was an ass. We can all admit that. But when it came to Nina and the children they made,it’s like he didn’t have a single mean bone in his body.

________

*~{Nina’s point of view}~*

As I sat there, getting Silas ready for bed, my youngest, I let out a hushed sigh.

“You all ready sil?”

I say, smiling.

“Mhm! All ready momma”

She had a smile on her face, she had her father’s smile, wide. With many pearly white teeth. It was almost an uncanny resemblance, it was kind of scary.

One time, as I remember it now, while I tuck her in, and make my way down the hall to my middles room,she somehow figured out how to open a pomegranate (which is odd, considering that I only left her alone for five minutes)and got the seed juice all over her and her clothes, so when I walked into the kitchen and only saw her in a puddle of what appeared to be blood. I freaked out, and in the process of me trying to make sure she hadn’t hurt herself all she did was look at me wide eyed and flash that thousand dollar smile, truly terrifying stuff when I think back on it.

As I finally get to Rico’s room (in the overly large house that I told Jeff we didn’t need, I mean, we already own like 5 others,so why would we need this one(???)) the door was open, so I knocked on the frame.

“Hey Rico? It’s time for bed honey.”

“What why? I don’t usually have to go to sleep this early?”

“Because it’s a school night..?”

The best part about my other two being at a reasonable age is that I can be deeply honest with them without hurting their feelings…mostly

“Uhhh huh…”

“Are you high”

I say, not in an accusatory way of course, but his sister has had a weed problem for a minute now, and if I find out she gave him some again, I’m sending her to military school.

“No why?”

I squint

“Just..wondering…”

After tucking him in and kissing him good night

I finally went to bed, knowing that my oldest was at her boyfriend’s house.

___

After getting out of the shower (looking like a wet rat😔😔) I grimaced at the reflection in the mirror , not because of my wet hair, or the scars on my arms, or the cracks in my hips, but my stomach. God how I hated it. I loved my kids, I really did. But no amount of working out would fix what they did to my body.

In the middle of me staring down the loaded gun that was my body, I heard Jeff enter our bedroom.he must have finally got done working in his office. Not like he’d care enough to leave work to see me, I mean look at me. I’m fucking disgusting.

____

Jeff’s pov

I lightly knocked on the bathroom door, I knew what she was doing, that thing she did, where she stares at herself until she can’t look anymore and she huffs a sigh, gets dressed in her hello kitty pjs and goes to bed like nothing happened.

“Nina..is everything ok?”

I hear her suck in a breath

“Mhm.”

She says, like she’s on the verge of tears. My poor love..

“May I see you?”

“Mm-mm”

I feel my face darken

“Your body is beautiful. And nothing will ever change my mind on that”

“If only I could tell you how stunning you are. If only you could see that your more then just your physical appearance. Your more then a flat stomach, a hour glass figure, full lips, so so so much more.”

I hear her shuffle around the bathroom. Presumably getting clothes on. Then the door cracks open:

“You think so?”

She looks like she’s about to cry, and then I finally get to see her again, without the white face paint and poppy eye makeup. Her stunning chocolate skin, her two toned lips,her large doe like hazel eyes, her pupils dilate as she sees me.

“More than anything.”

We smile at eachother, god how I love my wife

____

Have another half ass ending because I’m gonna pass out (for many reasons)

[merskrat]

Reblogging my own post for easy access when another separatist tells me “that never happens!!!” because tumblr’s search feature doesn’t work well.

And yeah, I wear mascara. Sometimes I even put on sparkly eye shadow. It takes about five minutes to apply and I like it. I don’t wear any other makeup like foundation, because I wore it all through high school (after it was gifted to me by my narcissistic stepmother when I was 12) and never want to feel uncomfortable looking at my natural skin again. I do other things too, like shave my legs, and once or twice a year I will paint my toenails, or even get a simple manicure with my MIL or SIL as a bonding/social experience (no acrylics for me thanks). Sue me.

I’m deeply conditioned by the patriarchy. I’m also deeply in love with the man I married, who started hating porn at the same time I did (although I’ve never liked it and never watched it, I had to learn the unethical nature of it by reading feminist literature like most other radfems) because I explained why it’s unethical and degrading to women, and how it turns people into cum brained idiots who can’t get it up in bed.

I’m not here to defend my relationship to anyone, but yes, my marriage is often priority because I literally live with the man and he has done more for me and shown me more devotion than any other person in this world, including my parents. He physically saved my life multiple times, the first time being within twenty minutes of meeting me when he gave me CPR and held up a bus to get a phone to call an ambulance. I’ve watched him do similar things for other strangers who were overdosing. I never felt like I owed him anything for that, but it’s a great story to tell at parties when people as us “How did you meet?”

I don’t live with any radical feminists and don’t have the option to. I’m not going to divorce my husband and move to a Women’s Land to prove my political purity. I have radfem friends over for birthday parties and tea parties and they watch him do all of the work while I get to socialize and play hostess, and the straight ones have been caught saying “damn, where can I find a man like that?” and the lesbian ones like him just fine as a friend too. If we’re here working on Backbone, or sitting around talking feminist theory, he’s in the background boiling water for tea and serving up snacks. Radical feminism isn’t his interest, but he agrees with it and lives by it, and he is in the background supporting everything I do.

And yeah, I suck his dick. Rarely. He eats me out twice a week though, and I have an orgasm every time we have sex, even if he doesn’t. The orgasm ratio in our relationship leans slightly in my favor. In fact, I should suck his dick more. Maybe I’ll do it today. He does a lot of nice things for me and I feel like he’s deserving of something nice in return.

I’ve organized and led a radical feminist group. I’ve been putting out a radical feminist zine when I can since 2019. I wrote a book about historical feminists. I’ve used what talents I have to do what I can to further the cause. It’s not much, but I have a whole life to live, other interests, other causes I care about, and many daily tasks to complete.

None of us are free from internalized misogyny, not me and not the woman who said this to me. I might wear mascara and shave my legs, but at least I’m not out here telling women to suck a dick. And for the record, I didn’t shave or wear make up for about eight years of my adulthood, and that was before I even discovered radical feminism.

But that really doesn’t matter. If I ever had a daughter, I might stop shaving and wearing makeup in order to not give her a complex, but I don’t, so I don’t see any reason to stop doing what I prefer. It changes nothing, nothing about my life or the radfem cause. You just find it icky and want to tell me that. I wonder what you have done in your free time other than posting on tumblr and refraining from wearing make up. I wonder if you’ve organized with other women in real life. I wonder if you’ve promoted radfem owned businesses/projects, like Backbone, so that they can keep going. I wonder if you’ve done anything at all besides being vile.

I love how women on radblr get mad at you and are like “you just like DICK. Go suck some more of your gross boyfriend’s DICK.” Like why are you using such sexually charged, honestly gross language? That’s literally exactly the kind of misogynistic shit that TIMs and men in general say to us—“stick a cock in your mouth, maybe that will shut you up.” I will never understand how women don’t feel gross and ashamed saying these things. You guys keep telling me that I’m personally holding up the patriarchy by being with a man, but I see you using this language and it seems like you only have respect for women if they agree with you.

[psychedelic-ink]

hey sil!!! for your drabble weekend 💕

i’m in the mood to be hurt perhaps in an au where elektra survived & matt is in a relationship with reader, and he breaks it off to go and run away with elektra 🥲

if you don’t vibe with this don’t worry AT all but this does play on my mind way too often 😵‍💫

gosh this is just such a sad thought, yet it was so nice to write 😭

– no romeo.

pairing: matt murdock x fem!reader

genre: angst with no happy ending

word count: 622

summary: matt leaves you for electra.

☕️ drabble weekend (open)☕️

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” 

You stare at him, unblinking, as he stands idly by the door, his fingers clenched around his duffel bag filled with the stuff he had left at your apartment during the months you’ve been together. His body’s facing you and his head is tilted to the side as if he’s watching but you know that can’t be true. Surely he wouldn’t act so casual about it if he could see the tears glistening in your eyes. 

“Matt,” your voice trembles, oh how you hate the way that it trembles. “You…you just can’t leave me without even saying a word…Did– Did I do something wrong?” 

“No,” 

“Then why?” 

“Things just got complicated,” he lets out a sharp breath. “There’s someone else,” 

“What?”  

You can’t hide the shock in your voice, you take a step forward, eyes wide and a sole tear escaping when you blink. You weren’t even aware Matt knew anyone else besides Foggy and Karen, pain settles in your heart and it’s painful, it feels like someone is actively squeezing it. It hurts. It hurts so bad and you don’t know what to do to make it go away. 

“You should sit down,” his voice echoes, a hint of worry laced in his tone. “You’re going to faint,” 

“And how could you possibly know that?” you hiss. “You were cheating on me?” 

“No, it’s just,” he sighs, scratching the back of his head. “I don’t know how to explain it but I need to go. I can’t leave her,” 

“What about me?!” you finally reach your breaking point, tears streaming down your face and your fists clenched. “You were my everything Matt, I’ve shared so much of myself with you– How…how can you just leave me behind for someone else? Am I that worthless to you?” 

You look down, warm tears sliding down your face as you begin to tremble. You hear Matt walking towards you, his steps hurried and silent. He cups both of your cheeks, it hurts even more now, how can he be leaving you when his embrace still feels like home. 

“You were never worthless to me,” he says, thumbs drawing slow circles. “Is just that my priorities lay with someone else,” 

Even if he can’t see it you glare at him, you roughly push his hands away and take a step back. You hug yourself, becoming smaller as you try to forget the warmth of his fingers against your skin. 

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” you whisper, shaking your head. “Just go Matt, I’ve never thought you could hurt me like this,” 

You don’t look at him, your gaze glued to the floor until you hear the door close. The beating of your heart rings in your ears, your breathing uneven and fast as you stumble towards the couch. You collapse immediately, tears now freely flowing down your cheeks. Your vision becomes blurry and you cover your eyes with your hands, you couldn’t believe he had left. You couldn’t believe he tried to console you by saying the absolute worst thing. So in the end you were never his priority, whoever that other woman was, she was more important than you, she was worth the trouble. 

You only feel the unbearable pain. A heavy weight sitting on your chest as you sniffled into your palms, the tears seemingly never ending. 

You hate him. Hate the way you love him. Hate the way you still feel the ghost of his touch across your cheeks. It was like a twisted parting gift. You would feel his last lingering touch for months, years maybe. 

You hate him so much, yet, your heart still flutters when you think of him. 

[can-i-write-well-yet]

The Truth About Your Heart P2

P1/P2

Part two here we go! I had most of this written out when I put part one out, but thought it needed just a little more before posting it, so it got saved to drafts where I thought I'd work on it later, and then i had to get ready for a trip to visit my parents and my SIL's chiropractor F'd up her back and I had a frightening couple of days where i thought i might've had a malicious cyst and well...

It's later now I guess...

Anyways~ To Part TWO!!

Chapter Two.

King was face to face with Ban, and he hadn’t seen the Fox Sin of Greed this pissed since fighting the literal king of demons, even then it was never aimed anywhere near King so having it happen now was unsettling to say the least.

“Why King? Why the fuck is Captain asking for the kids to join us? He’s never asked before.” He started to pace around the room, picking up bags and various items while talking, “This has something to do with that prophecy the old man spat out doesn’t it? It already involves one of my kids, is he trying to drag one of the other two into it?” 

“Ban.” King grabbed his brother-in-law's arm to turn him to look at him, “Calm down, lest you forget that you’re not the only person with a child of prophecy.” King took a breath before continuing, “And you said yourself, this might not be anything more than the Captain being bored and wanting to see us. I know you’re worried but accusing the Captain of foul play when he has no control over it won’t help anyone.”

Ban looked back at his old friend, his brother now, and closed his eyes, slumping into a chair and placing his face into his hands.

“I know,” He spoke softly, “I know it won’t, but I can’t do this King. I can’t live with this fear of my kids being sucked into a fucking apocalypse, I don’t know whether I want to be dead before we figure them all out or just know and have it be over with.”

King nodded solemnly, when Bartra invited all the sins to meet, they never expected to be given a vision of those Four Knights, who would either stop the apocalypse, or be its cause.

When Gowther used his magic to share what exactly Bartra was seeing. That was his first mistake.

King saw Meliodas fall, just for a moment, as if the shock had taken away all his strength. King would’ve fallen too if he saw his own son in that vision.

Seeing Tristan, an adult Tristan, shocked all of them to say the least, King could only imagine what was going through his Captain's mind. And either Meliodas had purposely shut King out or his mind simply went blank from fear, but King couldn’t read his heart. All he could feel was bone deep fear emanating from his once fearless Captain.

He was just glad that Elizabeth hadn’t been with them, he didn't think he would’ve been able to stand hearing her heart, which had always been a painfully open book. 

Tristan was the Third of the children of the Seven Deadly Sins, with King's own son being born right after his and Diane’s wedding, and King's nephew (Lancelot, the poor lost boy, his first nephew, who he was afraid might’ve been his last) beating Tristan by just one month.

King was close with all of the children, he never expected to have such a natural talent for child rearing but he was glad he did, whenever the girls would need a day off and the boys would take the kids, Mel and Ban would always be rushing to King for advice, which was new.

‘How do I heat the milk up? How hot does it need to be? What if I burn him!?’ 

“Just warm it up a little, it doesn’t need to be hot, it just needs to not be cold.” 

‘I’ve tried bouncing him and feeding him and changing him but he’s still crying! Does he hate me!? What do I do!?’

“He doesn’t hate you Ban, he just needs his chewie, he’s teething and his teeth probably hurt a little.”

‘King, what's a Binkie? Eli left me a note saying Tristan needed it for sleep but I don’t know what it is!’

“Probably a blanket, didn’t he used to drag around that old purple one Lady Veronica made for him everywhere? It’s most likely that one.”

‘King I will pay you whatever you want if you’ll give them pillow rides.. Please, that's all he wants to do and he says he won’t breathe until he can.’

King was proud to be the one who knew what he was doing while the others were standing around clueless for once in his life. So he never complained whenever he would be given the kids to watch, he loved being with them, Lance was the calmest child he had ever met and would spend most of his time following around King’s children to ask them to play, and Tristan was just in awe of most things King did, and would ask him to tell him stories while sitting on Chastiefol.

King adored Tristan for who he was and what he represented, Peace. Finally after 3000 years, a child of Meliodas and Elizabeth was born, they had waited so long for a child but never risked it before their curses were broken.

Seeing Tristan in that vision, with cold eyes and a war-torn look on his face, covered in heavy armor and riding upon a white horse shocked them all to their very core. They had never thought their kids would be dragged into war, not after all they had done to stop the last one, they had worked so hard for peace. 

They knew something was wrong, after what happened to Lancelot they were all on guard, but they thought after they found him it would be done. 

‘Five years isn’t that long’ they all had thought, ‘Surely after we find him and fix this we can all go back to living peacefully.’ 

Seeing Tristan had painfully reminded them all that while five years isn’t that long for them, five years was a third of their children’s lives. They’ve barely lived a decade and are already being thrown into war.

Yes, they were all distraught by seeing the young prince as the Knight in that vision but nothing could’ve prepared them for the knight that came next.

Ban hadn’t said anything when he saw the adult Lancelot standing there, he hadn’t said anything or moved at all, looking back, King realized that was probably due to the fact that he couldn’t breath. 

To have not seen his first born for so long and then seeing him grown up in a prophetic vision warning them of the apocalypse? That must’ve hit hard, it apparently hit Gowther hard enough to have him make his second mistake, accidentally knocking them all unconscious. 

It was dawn when they had gathered and midnight when they all awoke. 

Gowther apologized profusely and tried to get the rest of the vision, but Batra’s mind was old, and his memory was shaky at best. He remembered that the other two knights would have Golden Magic, and Verdant, Wing-like hair.

The knight with the hair would be rather easy to spot, so they all quickly gathered that he must be out in the world somewhere, and wasn’t any of their children.

But the knight with Golden Magic could still be one of theirs. 

King knew that Ban would be upset by the summoning, but he still wasn’t prepared for the rage and fear he felt from his brother-in-law's heart. 

“I’m gonna go make sure everyone’s ready, calm your heart before coming out please? Everything will be fine, and I don’t want Deidrick or Ellie to pick up on anything.”

“Yeah yeah, I got it. Just go, I'll be out in a bit.”

As King left he spared one last look to the Fox Sin before leaving.

Ban was now left with nothing but his thoughts. And that was never fun. For anyone but especially not him.

This prophecy business was irking him, that fact that three knights were unaccounted for was problematic, the fact that they only knew who two of them even were wasn’t great either, and the fact that they only had one defining trait for each of the unknown two was fucking irritating. 

They could literally be anywhere and anyone. The green hair wasn’t that bad because they could be easily identified. But the Golden Magic? Any child that hadn’t yet developed magic became a candidate. And since a large amount of the children he knew were still young, it was concerning, to say the least.

Ban was particularly concerned as neither of his youngest children had developed any innate magical abilities yet.

His daughter could float slightly and was growing healthily, Elaine’s best guess was that would likely inherit her magic, so he was less concerned about her.

But his second son, Gustav. That child worried Ban.

Gustav hadn’t displayed any magical abilities at all, and when Ban had asked around, none of his friends or acquaintances had sensed any innate magical ability within the boy.

Ban should feel relieved, but he wasn’t.

Despite most people believing that Ban was “A brute who couldn’t appreciate a good book if he was beaten to death with it, in fact they weren’t sure he could read at all”, (These were Gowther’s words to Ban after The Fox Sin had spilled Ale on Gowther’s Brand new Book, ‘A Week Spent With Fredrick’. Ban had apologized but Gowther was still bitter for about a month afterwards) Ban read quite a bit. 

He had read about heroes who were a part of prophecies, and “The child without magic suddenly gains powerful magic and becomes a tragic hero” was a frighteningly common troupe.

So every day his son walked around with no magic, Ban would pray the child stayed that way.

The fact that the hero in the stories would always be from a long line of heroes or had some sort of tragic backstory, that only made Ban worry that much more, because he had adopted Gustav when the boy was seven. 

And seven years is a lot of time unaccounted for.

Lancelot had been missing for two years when Ban made that journey to the edge of Benwick. It was a cold rainy night, in the middle of December. Elaine was waiting at home, heavily pregnant with their second child, and he had been extra paranoid since she was so close to her due date, and the rainstorms had started.

They had been tracking the weather like madmen ever since Lance and Jericho had disappeared that night, at this point Ban could feel the storm's arrival in his bones.

Even so, Ban couldn’t take any chances, so he was determined to do one quick check before heading back to his wife.

He was just about done when he heard it, a small cry of a child, how he had managed to hear it, let alone realize what it was through the tumultuous rain he didn’t know. But he hoped upon hope that maybe that cry belonged to Lance, that after two years his son had finally returned.

He dashed across the field to the middle of the valley in front of Benwick, calling out for someone to hear, he could barely see through the rain, he was soaked from head to toe. 

He searched and listened but could hear nothing, see nothing. 

He was almost convinced he had some sort of auditory hallucination when he heard it again, louder this time. 

He pinpointed the sound coming from the stone near to where he and Jericho had last talked about the disappearances.

As he made his way there his hopes soared, finally, maybe he had found him. His son, his Lancelot.

His hopes were dashed almost as quickly as they had built. As he was ten feet away, there was a child there, behind the stone, but this child was just that, a child.

Lance would’ve been thirteen by now, and much larger. 

As his hopes faded away into a despairing thought that he may never see his child again, his thoughts quickly turned to panic when he got closer and saw the child there, soaked worse then even Ban was, and the worst of it was the child wasn’t shivering. 

Now Ban’s not the smartest but he knows that being that wet and cold your body should be moving trying to warm you up, that’s what the shivering was, the fact that the child wasn’t moving was more than concerning.

Ban began to walk to the child, ‘He has to be alive,’ Thought Ban as he approached, ‘He had called out to me, and I came here so fast, he couldn’t have died that quick.’

He put his hand on the kid's shoulder, slowly so as to not frighten him. The shoulder was as cold as he expected, when he turned the child’s body towards him, he nearly had a heart attack at what he saw.

Sunken in cheeks, and his frame was slim, too slim for a child, he had pale skin that stood out, even in the dead of night, Ban couldn’t even tell if the poor child was breathing or not. 

Throwing caution to wind, he picked up the kid into his arms and removed the ripped, faded, useless, blue shirt to put his ear to the boy’s chest.

He had seen something like this before, a child that was cold, slim, and pale, (His sister had looked like this before she died) and he knew that no child could’ve survived a night like this all by themselves. 

He knew that most likely what he heard was either the poor child's last hurrah, or the wind playing tricks on his mind. but still he hugged the cold child closer to his ear, hoping against all he knew.

‘Let me be wrong,’ He prayed, ‘Just this once, please let me be wrong.’

And for the first time in his life, it seemed God was on his side, for he heard it, the soft ‘bump-bump-bump’.

It came from the boy’s chest, and Ban swore he had never heard a sweeter sound in his life. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around the boy before taking off into the night, making a beeline for his home. 

That night had been one of the most frightening, heartstopping, painstakingly slow nights of his life. He had brought the child home in a panic, holding him as close as physically possible, trying to warm him up.

Bursting into his home he had called out for Elaine, when she saw what he was carrying she immediately got to work, drawing a warm bath and breaking the emergency spell bead that had originally gotten as a way to summon Elizabeth to help with the birth.

To say Elizabeth was confused was an understatement, seeing as Elaine was still two months away from her due date. But she had quickly gathered what was going on and had chased Elaine and Ban from the washroom to focus on the poor boy.

Elaine and Ban had waited the whole night in the living room, waiting.

Elaine had fallen asleep two hours in, but Ban didn’t sleep that night, couldn’t sleep, not until he knew the boy would make it.

At midnight Elizabeth had come back down to them, looking as exhausted as Ban felt, and had told him that she had done all she could, and that the rest would be up to the boy.

She had offered to take Elaine to lay down while he watched over the boy, he had thanked her profusely for that.

He walked into the room with deep fear in his heart, as he saw the child lying there he had two conflicting emotions trying to settle within him.

One was a bleeding worry.

The child looked two steps from death’s door. Their breathing was erratic and heavy, interrupted with horrid coughs, their face was flushed a bright red, and he swore he could see tears leaking from the squeezed shut eyes. He was adrift with concern that the child might not make it through the night. He couldn’t take it, this child had barely lived. How old were they? They looked to be about five, but they were so thin, were they that small or starving? He didn’t know their age, he didn’t even know their name, he didn’t want to carve out a blank gravestone Goddamnit.

The second emotion was a deep, warm, fondness. 

He looked at this child, so small, and saw his tiny eyebrows furrowed in anger, as if they were fighting against their sickness with all their tiny might. He looked at their small hands, clutching the blankets so tight they turned red, so small and so strong. He pushed back their bangs that were sticking to their head with sweat, he briefly wondered what color his hair would be when they got it cleaned? He had known this child for less then a day but he knew that he would protect him with his dying breath.

He had picked up a storybook Gowther had gifted him for Lance, deciding to read to the boy. As he read the book he could hear the boys breathing starting to settle into even breaths, no longer wracked with coughing. 

When he finished the seventh story, a tale of two parents and their baby being saved by a ghostly warrior, the sun had begun to rise out the window, shining onto the small boy. That was when he heard it.

“P-please…” The child had spoken, Ban had barely heard it.

He got closer to the child, brushing his hair back and asking what he needed, water? Food? Was he cold?

The boy had furrowed his brows as he struggled to respond, but had managed to utter softly,

“Please… turn the stupid sun off… it’s hurting my eyes.” 

Ban had never cried so happily in years.

The boy had taken months to fully recover, (He still had breathing problems to this day) but had been quickly inducted into Ban’s family. He couldn’t remember who he was, or where he came from. The last thing he remembered was walking through the rain looking for shelter, and calling out for help before collapsing, he didn’t know how far he had walked. He couldn’t remember what his name was either, so Ban and Elaine had decided to just call him their Boyo, just in case he remembered.

When Beru was born the boy had been quick to help wherever he could, making sure Elaine could rest comfortably and cleaning up around the house so it was easier. Elaine still recounts how helpful he had been to this day.

There was this moment, about four months after Beru had been born, when she was trying to roll onto her stomach while lying down on the bed, and she had somehow managed to wiggle her way out of her blanket pile and scoot near the edge of the bed without attracting Ban or Elaine’s notice, but she hadn’t escaped the boy’s.

She had nearly rolled herself off the bed but the boy had flung himself towards her and had caught her at the last moment, Elaine and Ban had rushed to the both of them to find their Boyo red faced, chastising the small baby about how she should’ve stayed in her blanket pile and had no reason to throw herself off the bed.

Beru just giggled, having no idea what the boy was saying but seemingly amused by him all the same. The boy wasn’t as amused but still carried her to Elaine, Beru still overcome with giggles.

Watching the scene, Ban had been reminded of something, a long memory buried deep back in his mind, of the only time he had ever seen Jericho’s older brother talk to her.

He had gone to check on her, mostly because he was told by Merlin to double check that he had actually fully removed the demon seed from her, but partly because he had felt slightly guilty for unintentionally driving her to become a demon host by purposely humiliating her at the prison, but you’d never hear him admit that outloud.

When he had finally found her, she was already in a heated discussion with someone else, her older brother.

He was apparently chastising her for ‘running herself ragged’ to which she countered with ‘walking down the street to get something to eat wasn’t running herself ragged, she was just bored for God’s sake!’ to which he then responded with ‘It’s running yourself ragged when we literally have people we pay to do that so you can rest you incorrigible dumbass! You had a DEMON residing in your body feasting on your emotions for months! AND YOU CAN’T REST FOR A WEEK!?’

His entire face had gone bright red with anger at his sister’s nonchalance for her own health, which she had apparently found hilarious because she had started laughing hysterically. 

Her brother wasn’t as amused but he helped her back to her feet and they started the other way, Jericho laughing the whole way.

Ban stared at the children in front of him as he was reminded of that day, the only clear memory he had of his foster sister and her real brother, and remembered his name.

“Gustav.”

“Yeah Dad?” The boy had responded. 

That one response had shocked both of the boys in the room into silence, the only thing anyone could hear was Beru, still giggling.

After trying to coax the boy out from under the bed, where he had hid in embarrassment, Ban had decided to talk with him about how he would adore if the boy wanted to call him Dad, and had asked why he had responded to the name. 

“It felt right? I don’t know, you said it and it sounded like you were talking to me, sorry.”

“Kid, you don’t have to apologize, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Ban was lying down next to the bed on the floor on his back, talking to the child as he rested his small chin on his crossed arms.

“Does someone else already have it?” The child questioned.

“Have what?”

“The name, you said it. Does someone else have it or did you make it up? Like you did with Master Hawk?”

Ban fixed the boy with a slightly annoyed look, “Number one, Master Hawk is very real-” The boy fixed him with an equally annoyed look and scoffed slightly, “AND, no. I didn’t make it up, he was my-” He cut himself off there, were he and Gustav anything?

Jericho was Ban’s sister, and he was her Brother, you could pry that title from his cold dead hands, but he and Gustav were never close, had they ever even spoken to each other? Or was Ban just a stranger that had known Gustav’s sister and attened his funeral?

“He was your what?” The boy had scooted slightly out from under the bed, enough to lay his upper body on Ban’s chest to look him in the eye. And as Ban looked at the boy, he decided that he had already claimed Jericho, he was sure Gustav wouldn't mind if Ban decided to claim him too.

“He was my little brother, his name was Gustav, and he was an annoying older brother, seeing you nag Beru reminded me of him.” 

The boy puffed his cheeks out in anger, “I wasn’t nagging!”He said fervently, ”She needed to know she can’t just roll herself off of places like that! She could get hurt!”

“She’s like three months old.” 

“If you treat her like a baby she’ll never grow up! You gotta talk grown up like and then she’ll copy you! And besides, I know she knows better, you can tell from her eyes.”

“See? Naggy~♪” 

The boy had then smacked Ban on the head before fully laying down on top of him.

“If he’s your younger brother, how could he nag like an older brother?”

“... He didn’t nag me, just our younge-” He choked up a bit at this point, he hadn’t really talked about Jericho since she and Lance had disappeared, he cleared his throat before continuing, “Our younger sister, Jericho…”

“Oh… D-do… Do you think he’d be… Okay with it?”

“Okay with what?”

The boy had curled up into the crook of Ban’s arm, he did that often, whenever he was unsure of things and needed comfort. 

“With me using his name? Will it get confusing? Would he be mad?”

“No buddy, I think he’d like it. I think he’d like it a lot.”

“Okay… Then I’ll use it good, so he’s happy, I’ll grow up big and strong, so his name gets a good story.”

Ban broke into a wide grin at that, “Sounds like a great idea~♪, Super smart like.”

“Thanks… Dad.”

Ban was glad the boy had curled himself into his arm, he didn’t like letting kids see him cry.

“No problem… Gustav.”

[lokihzra]

The Drugs Will Never Love You

Chapter 2: We Are All Just Prisoners here, Of Our Own Device

Pairing: Loki x Tony Stark

Warnings: sex work, mentions of gangs, slurs

Word Count: 1.6k

Read on AO3

It was silent the whole ride, all the way up to the hotel room.

It was a nice hotel, one of the expensive ones. Everything was gold and Tony hates it. Theres a queen bed with two nightsands, a tv on the wall adjacent to it and a desk right beside the tv, on the right side of the bed was a closet and a door to the bathroom. On the left side is a giant window and a kitchen.

That’s how rich people liked to do this. He thinks that the fancy environment distracts them from the fact that they bought a hooker, like it somehow covers up their own lies.

And Loki seems to be very adamant on covering this up. He instantly locks the door behind them and runs through the room to close all the blinds.

Tony sighs loudly, pushing back the unease settling in his stomach.

Let’s get this over with.

Tony pulls off his shirt lazily, “hundred for a handjob, blowjobs one-sixty” he starts unbuttoning his pants “if you top its two-fifty-“

Loki suddenly steps in front of him and grabs his hands, stopping him from shrugging off his jeans “how much is it to just sleep?”

Tony blinks at him, but Loki’s expression doesn’t shift. He just keeps staring at Tony with that concerned look “what?” Tony asks dumbly as shame starts to break through

“sleep” Loki demands as he lets go of Tony and the latter instantly puts his shirt back on. “I can already tell that you’ve been up for days” he doesn’t mention Tony’s tiny ass pupils.

Tony frowns, He’s a sex worker, a prostitute, a junkie. This shit isn’t supposed to happen to people like him “I can’t” he mutters “I need the money”

“I will give you five hundred right now if you go to sleep and eat something”

Tony doesn’t say anything, not believing this is real. Stuff like this doesn’t happen in real life. “well that’s enough money for tonight I guess”

Loki was serious about not wanting to do anything.

It’s been over three hours now and Loki stayed the entire time that Tony was sleeping. He even went and got food for them.

Burgers and fries, his favorite and Loki remembering that does not make him want to cry. “thank you” Tony mumbles quietly as he stares down at the take out, “for all of this” Loki simply nods and hums. “why are you doing this?”

“what?” Loki mumbles through his mouthful of fries.

“why are you staying? why aren’t you using me?” he keeps asking questions “why are you being nice to me? why do you care?”

“you’re my friend” Loki states and takes a sip of his drink before stating that “friends help each other”

That’s true, too bad Tony can’t help Loki out to pay him back. He asks “how did you guys get into this?”

“my dad created this” Loki says quietly, obviously hating the fact that his family runs the biggest business in town “he didn’t give me much of a choice” he mumbles quietly, hoping Tony didn’t actually hear him. “How did you get into this?”

“mom died, spiraled and now here I am”

“hows Pepper and Rhodey?”

Tony shrugs “I havent talked to them in a couple years” he would just get in the way anyways “they’re together now”

“that's..” Loki blinks as he thinks of a word “unexpected”

“more unexpected than me being a hooker?” he asks lightheartedly and Loki takes a bite of his burger to avoid answering.

Tony wants to ask him, so badly but he knows how this shit works. Loki can’t get him out just because Loki asks, they have to earn it.

“I’m in charge of the drug part” Loki blurts out “Thor is in charge of the gangs and my father is in charge of-“

“me” Tony finishes “there’s no way he’ll let me go” that’s clear from how fucking happy Odin was earlier. “he’s probably going to use this against Howard”

“I paid for you for three days” Tony wants to throw up again, “you can stay here, there’s room service and no one should bother you”

“why?”

“you asked Morgan for a break”

Tony sits up in a jolt and instantly examines the room. Only to find nice silk blankets and the golden interior.

For once he woke up knowing where he is.

He looks beside him to find no one. No random guy or girl and Tony can’t help but sigh in relief before laying back down.

His bones fucking hurt and he can feel himself sweating, his body trembling even though he feels hot as shit.

Stupid fucking withdrawals are starting.

He rolls out of bed and groans when he forces himself to stand up. His entire body feels like lead, and he could swear his head was an inlfated balloon ready to pop.

He leans against the desk and sighs, gathering the strength to function– He freezes as he sees a note, with money underneath it.

I had to go to work and I didn’t want to wake you. I told the staff not to bother you, even told Morgan and mt dad that you’re with me, so do not leave unless it’s necessary. There’s 1500$ here, do whatever you want with it just please don’t go and see Morgan. I’ll be back around 7.

He picks up the stack of cash and counts it, out of habit. All fifteen hundred is there and Tony gets the urge to burn it. He puts it down with shaky hands and sighs, he can feel his heart beating harder, struggling to function properly after a week of staying up and taking every drug he could find.

He could either dig himself a deeper hole right now or start building himself up.

So he goes to see Morgan

Loki was trying to figure out a way to get Tony out. He lied about work because he knows Tony, if Tony knew he was trying to do this then Tony would have stopped him.

Plus Loki isn’t the only one who wants him out.

“only dad could let him go” Thor states the obvious “you could clear him from the drug debt but dad won’t let him go, he’s the biggest-“

“I know” Loki growls, not because it disgusts him but because it pisses him off. Tony’s too deep in this to get out without some collateral damage.

“where is he anyways?” Thor asks, because he knows that Loki doesn’t utilize the business like that. “Dad told me that you said he was with you”

“he’s safe”

“dad thinks that yo-“

“I know he does” Loki interrupts, he fucking hates himself for it. But if Odin knew that he was just paying for Tony to take care of himself then Odin would be pissed. “and he needs to keep thinking that or else he won't let Tony near me anymore”

Tony earns them more money than any of the other workers and Odin would not let that go.

And he would definitely not let Loki waste money.

“he might let Tony out if we do something for-“

“no”

“it’s the only way” Thor says softly.

“I can barely stand this life already, Thor” he states seriously “you really think I would be able to fucking kill someone?”

“not you” Thor corrects “him” he says happily, meaning Tony. And Loki has never wanted to punch Thor in the face this badly before.

“he was crying in his sleep” Loki blurts and that seems to make it click for Thor, because the latter recoils in surprise “full on balling his eyes out, kept asking for a break, he’s covered in bruises and needle pricks so no I’m not going to let Tony kill someone for our stupid dad”

“if he heard you say that-“ Thor shuts up as Loki’s phone starts going off, no one ever calls him, only Odin.

So he has no choice but to answer.

He takes a deep breath, knowing this isn’t good. “hello?”

He flinches away as Odin is screaming in his ear, “I shouldn’t have thought so highly of you boy-“

“dad-”

“-you lied to me, you said the whore was with you”

Loki lies easily “I just needed to deal with something really quick” Odin pauses a sign that he bought it. But he quickly asks “Why did Morgan say that he showed up with fifteen hundred dollars?” harshly and both of the brothers freeze “you better not be paying him”

“probably went a did some jobs while I was here” Loki’s a great liar, that’s the whole reason Odin wants him in this shit “you know he makes good money”

“If I found out that you’re wasting the money-“

“you’ll skin me alive, I know” And Loki gets a beep signaling the line cut off. He drops his phone, literally drops it and buries his face in his hands with a large sigh.

Thor comments “he just screwed this up” like Loki didn’t already know.

Tony was so fucking proud of himself. So proud. He didn’t buy any drugs, not a single hit. Well he did buy a pack of smokes but that’s better than his usual preference.

And he couldn’t wait to tell Loki.

He hears the sound of a key in the door and he instantly gets up. He was so fucking happy, but he couldn’t say a word to Loki before he fucking pushed Tony.

Tony curls in on himself as he stumbles back from Loki’s force “what the fuck is wrong with you?”

[soukokuwu]

Hewwo~ Can I request a smutty/fluffy scenario(with a dash of angst) with Dazai and an overweight!reader, like the reader thinks that Dazai is 1000 times better than her and is super shy whenever sexy times start(like she would close the lights etc etc) and Dazai absolutely does not understand what's going on with reader because he thinks that she's beautiful , sorry if this is much I just really need Dazai to tell me I'm pretty 🥺🥺 Thank you so much! love your writing -daffodildazaiwrites

ADA!DAZAI OSAMU

》 fluff (a little angst and just a slight touchiness)

》 dazai x overweight!reader

》 word count: 1.1k

》 hi sil, this is such a cute request, definitely not too much i love this idea— also, i think you’re an amazing person so you deserve to know how beautiful you are, i will not hesitate to remind you everyday~ i hope this is okay! ♡ඩ⌔ඩ♡ @daffodildazaiwrites

Through My Eyes

Dazai looks at you as you fiddle with your fingers, quietly sitting on the guest couch in the ADA office waiting for him. He makes a mental note to apologise later for making you wait, seeing as how Kunikida is adamant on not letting him go until he finishes this last paperwork.

He looks up as an intern awkwardly passes him a file for his case report, face beet red as she does so. Dazai laughs at her expression, telling her a simple ‘thank you’ before sending her on her way. She stays for a few moments, seemingly having an internal conflict, before deciding to leave him alone.

Sensing someone staring, he turns to look at your direction only to have you look away immediately. He notices how your brows are slightly furrowed and your lips are downturned into a slight frown. You are... dissatisfied? What for? Dazai certainly made it a point not to flirt or give the girl any hints to advance. Was this... jealousy? But he quickly shrugs it off.

No way that my belladonna is jealous. No one can compare to her.

On the way home later, he realises you growing quiet as you pass a group of girls who are seemingly gushing over him. They give you the side eye though, sneering at you somehow, although you did nothing wrong. ‘Someone with her body?’ is all he manages to hear before they start shushing themselves.

As the two of you pass by them, Dazai pulls you in by the waist and gives you a kiss on the cheek, causing you to turn a bright red. His stoic expression turns into that of tenderness, his thumbs grazing your cheeks as he admires how innocent you look.

“I love you, my belladonna,” Dazai murmurs. He had planned to make this a show to shut them up, but he realises that in this moment, that is exactly how he feels.

Disgruntled, the group of girls saunter away, talking amongst themselves in hushed tones. That doesn’t surprise Dazai at all, but what he did not expect is for you to be upset all the way back home.

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Dazai finds himself relieved when you seem to have relaxed a little after dinner, although it was partly due to a lot of coaxing and acting cute on his end. A lot of “won’t you talk to me, my love nugget?” and “I know you wanna talk to this idiot, my precious sugar bun.”

He knows you can’t handle the sheer ridiculousness of his pet names, and he’s right. It got you out of your head enough to enjoy the moment. But it came right back out again in the bedroom.

Your lips are locked with his in a passionate kiss, his hands fiddling with your shirt, just one button away from baring your body.

“Turn off the lights,” you tell him, pulling away from the kiss, your hands trying to cover as much of your already exposed belly.

Dazai gives a throaty chuckle and teethes your earlobe, eliciting a moan from your lips, his left hand moving up to cup your breast in response to your welcoming mood. But he couldn’t get any further before you snap at him.

“Dazai, I’m serious! Is it so hard to turn them off?”

Startled, he sits back up and just blinks at you, unsure of what he did that deserved such a hostile remark from you. Yes, the lights always had to be switched off whenever the two of you got a little touchy, but he never really thought of any possible reasons behind it. Dazai had just attributed it to a weird habit, not that he bothered to think of what caused it.

“What’s wrong, my belladonna?” he asks, voice dripping with concern as he spots the tears welling up in your eyes.

“I know I’m not as hot as those skinny girls that Iike to throw themselves at you, and I’m not beautiful or desirable like they are—”

Dazai pulls you into a tight embrace as he hears you out, not believing his ears. Where is all this coming from? Sure, he had considered this a likely cause for your frustration earlier, but for you to be crying this much and having so much to say about it— you must have been thinking about this forever.

From the intern who had been struggling to make her feelings known to him to the group of girls maliciously poking fun at her, he realises why today is especially rough on you. The situations just amplify what you’ve been feeling about yourself all along.

Then he realises how selfish he must have been. Each time he shrugs your feelings off, each time he avoids talking to you about it, each time he tries to compensate it with goofy jokes, all he’s done is make you push your feelings down, leaving you alone to try and get over it yourself.

And this is the result of your pent up frustration.

This is his first time being in a proper relationship, and though he has barely had any truly romantic experience, he does know that he should be someone you could count on to share your problems with. He internally scolds himself for not figuring it out faster, but for now he settles with holding you and stroking your back, getting you to calm down.

Maybe sometimes, I really do have to actually say how I feel about you...

“I think you look ravishing just the way you are, my belladonna,” he murmurs in your ear once your sobs get quiet enough. A hand makes its way under your chin to tilt it up to face him. The corner of his lips upturn into a soft smile. “My little love muffin.”

That attempt to make you smile does not escape you, and you concede, giggling slightly, his earlier words seeming to have an effect on you.

“Your smile makes me glad I’m alive to see it,” he ponders out loud, eyes widening as soon as he realises he’s said it. Dazai never really admitted it to himself until now.

It’s you. You make him glad to still be living. In the sea of humans where everyone blended in together to him, you stand out. And he’s never seen you as ugly or undesirable, which is why you feeling that way about yourself has never crossed his mind until now.

How can he make you see yourself through his eyes?

“I think you’re unrivalled in your beauty, belladonna,” Dazai begins, eyes never leaving yours. “I love you, your curves, your person. You are beautiful just the way you are, and I wouldn’t trade you for anyone else in the world.”

You suddenly start tearing up again, burying your head in his chest as you begin sobbing once more. But Dazai knew that this time they aren’t tears of despair, but those of relief; elation.

“I will support you through anything you decide,” Dazai assures you, embracing you tighter and resting his head on top of yours. “And about earlier, I’m sorry... I’ll turn off the lights whenever you ask, until you’re ready.”

Your arms find their way around him and hug him even tighter— your way of showing your gratefulness, seeing as how you can’t seem to get a word out without choking on your tears.

Dazai hates how he can never find enough words to tell you how much he adores every single bit of you, but he knows he wants to at least spend the rest of his life trying.

“Even if you’re never ready for that, I will still love you, my wonderful belladonna, just the way you are.”

[this-tumbleweed-surecan-fish]

Poison the Well

Word count: 3.554

Warnings: Mentioned murder and explosion mention, guns used to threaten people, murder talk, grief, death mention, self-injury and a bit of blood.

Ao3

First, Previous Chapter

--

Chapter Eight; In which Grian gets banned from the Library

The desk in the guest room was still covered in papers Grian didn't understand, so he settled at the dinner table to sort his information.

There were a few question marks he wanted answers to.

Who was Avery Morrison exactly? Did they have any friends or family that could help him to more information? Surely they'd want Avery's murder to be solved.

What was the symbol in Avery's pocket watch? What did it mean? If it was the symbol of a community, then where could he find them? Who did they have a conflict with, who might want Avery dead?

Which community did the medallion belong to? Was there a way to track them down?

And what was Red Death? He'd seen it mentioned a dozen times, rendering plenty of limbs as 'Unusable' according to the Undead, and while it didn't seem to be relevant to the case as far as he could tell, he was curious.

Grian tapped his fingers against the table, pondering over the questions.

He had to start somewhere.

But where?

He shifted to lean his chin on his hands and tap against his knuckles instead.

What could he even do at the moment?

Grian didn't hear the footsteps coming up behind him until Iskall suddenly leaned over his shoulder.

"So- calm down, it's just me," they pushed his fully puffed up wing out of their face. "So are you going to move this mess or am I going to have to eat on the sofa?"

Grian stared at them confused.

"When did you get home?!"

"Like an hour ago," he glanced at the clock. "And dinner's ready, so are you going to move, or not?"

"I- I can move," Grian picked up his notes and cast a glance at the clock himself. How had he spent two hours on this already? Where had the time gone?

Iskall picked up the other papers and helped him move them to the sofa. They hesitated before setting down the watch again.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked.

"Uh, it belonged to the victim, Avery. Why do you recognize it?"

Iskall frowned. "I'm not sure. It seems familiar. But I don't know where I could've seen it before.

They shrugged.

"Huh," Grian made and took the watch from Iskall again. "You've been holding it upside down," he noticed and turned it. "Though... It does seem familiar this way around..."

"Well, you can look at it again after dinner. I'm hungry and it's getting cold," Iskall left him standing.

Grian frowned at the symbol a moment longer. Where had he seen it before? There weren't many places in Mountark he'd been, so where-?

Mumbo fell asleep nearly as soon as he laid down, leaving Grian alone with his thoughts as he preened his feather. His mind wandered back to counting days and depressingly high numbers.

He hated it.

Preening was beginning to be his least favourite part of the day.

He was almost tempted to skip it. Just for a day. It wasn't like he'd get to fly anytime soon.

His pride shut that line of thought up quickly.

3.629 days, his mind supplied.

Grian tugged harshly at one of the broken feathers.

He barely stopped himself from ripping it out.

---

When Grian woke up the house was empty.

The clock in the living room had started ticking backwards again and it took him entirely too long to remember that he could check the time on Avery's watch. He wasn't sure why he kept forgetting about it.

It was nearly noon.

He wanted to go back to bed.

With a tired sigh he went into the kitchen and made himself a small breakfast. Or lunch. He wasn't all that sure.

As he ate he read over his notes again. Most of them actually made sense, to his surprise.

He didn't really want to go out searching for anything today. But there wasn't much else he could do to be productive.

An hour later he left the house, slamming the door shut behind himself.

The fog was still thick and he couldn't see further than maybe five metres before all he could make out were vague silhouettes and dull lights. The Heart was a dark and red shape in the sky.

Grian followed the streets where they took him not really paying attention to anything while trying to find something to think about that wasn't depressing.

In a tiny road leading under a house he found a phone booth and stopped before he could think it over.

He stepped inside.

A dull orange light illuminated the dusty telephone and Grian dug through his pocket for a few beak.

He didn't remember Taurtis number if he'd even told him after moving away - what did it say about him that he didn't know -, but he remembered a few others.

"Hello?" a slightly distorted voice answered the phone after just a few moments.

"Hi, Pearl," Grian said. "It's me. Grian."

For a moment she was silent.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"In a phone booth. In Mountark."

She knew that last part. She'd either read it in the newspaper or maybe she'd been at the trial. He didn't know. He hadn't dared to look around. He'd barely looked at the jury

"Why are you calling me?" Pearl asked. In the background, a cat meowed.

"I... I don't know. I miss you."

"... I miss you too," she answered. "And I don't know if I should because you killed over a dozen people and blew up half the town."

Not half of it, he wanted to defend. It really didn't make it better and he'd tried his hardest to forget the details. Unsuccessfully, but he'd tried.

"How's Mountark?" she asked after a beat of silence.

"A shit hole."

Pearl chuckled.

"I'm trying to solve a murder," he continued. "I know, kinda ironic but... This town is weird."

Another beat of silence.

"Why did you do it?" Pearl asked.

Grian opened his mouth and closed it again. He didn't know how to explain. Where to begin for it all to make sense-

A sharp beep startled him.

The call had ended.

Grian dropped the hearer, letting it dangle on its cord, to pat down his pockets for any more change. He had to finish this conversation, he had to take this opportunity to explain-

He came up empty.

There was no money in any of his pockets.

Defeated he leaned back against the icy glass of the phone booth.

"Fuck," he whispered. "Fucking dammit."

For a few moments he hoped she'd call him back, but the phone stayed silent, swinging back and forth with the last of its momentum.

With a sigh Grian stepped out into the fog again.

He should've explained. He should've asked how she was doing. He should've asked and said so many things in the time he'd waisted on uncomfortable silence.

Muscle memory carried him to the lift and down the streets leading to the Barge. At the library he glanced at the clock - it was past noon now - and turned down towards the-

Grian stopped short and turned back around.

The clock over the library door ticked on innocently.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Grian scrambled to pull out Avery's watch and opened it.

On the dial of the clock someone had painted the very same symbol with delicate brushstrokes.

They ticked in unison.

Grian shut the watch again.

He hadn't really been looking, but he guessed he'd found it anyway.

Grian took a deep breath, pushed the phone call to the back of his mind and stepped inside.

The library was warm and the smell of old wood filled the air.

At a small counter sat an elderly woman, sorting books onto a small cart.

There were a few other tables where people sat either reading or talking in low voices.

Grian went up to the counter and cleared his throat.

"Excuse me," he said quietly. The librarian looked up from the books. "Do you recognize this, by chance?"

Grian pulled out Avery's watch and let it dangle from its chain.

The woman's eyes widened.

"You-," Grian barely noticed her reach under the counter. "How dare you?"

With a movement far faster than he'd expected off a human her age she pulled a revolver from under the counter and pointed it at his face.

Grian flinched back.

"How dare you waltz into my library?" a few heads turned their way.

"What?" was all Grian managed to say. The only thoughts going through his mind were all centered around the fact that there was a gun and again and this time he was definitely going to die.

"What's going on?" someone stood up from one of the tables, but Grian didn't dare take his eyes off the gun.

"You kill my child and then you have the gall to rub it in my face?" the woman hissed. "Not with me. You've taken enough from us!"

"Wha- I didn't kill Avery!" Grian exclaimed. "I didn't, I swear! Just please, put the gun down!"

"Sibeal, calm down," someone came closer cautiously.

"I didn't kill Avery," Grian repeated. "I'm trying to find who did!"

"Prove it!" she demanded, still not putting down the revolver.

"Sibeal, please," the other person tried again, falling on deaf ears.

"I don't- How do you want me to prove it?"

Sibeal studied him for a moment.

"Who do you belong to?" she asked.

Grian hesitated, slightly unsure, and slowly reached into his pocket for the medallion. He made sure it was his own, not the one with the leather string, before pulling it out.

"Is- You mean this?" he offered it.

Sibeal narrowed her eyes at it and for a split second, Grian feared that that had been the wrong thing to do.

"A Hermit," she glanced at him and - finally - lowered the gun. "What business do you have with our conflict? What does X want from us?

Grian lowered his hands slowly, too aware that she could still shoot him whenever she wanted to. At one of the tables that had fallen silent earlier people began to whisper. Grian ignored them

"Me investigating has nothing to do with the Hermits," he clarified. "Avery was killed in the shop I work at and the police are convinced that my boss did it. I'm trying to prove that it wasn't him. I didn't know it was a bigger conflict when I started investigating."

She watched him for a moment as if trying to figure out whether he was telling the truth.

"Aren't you the kid Willy picked up?"

"Uh, yeah."

"You're right, he's not the type for murder," she frowned down at his medallion again.

Grian wished she'd give it back.

"Where did you get the watch?"

"From Mother's Garden. I can give it back if you want," he added quickly.

Sibeal's expression darkened again.

"Please do," the other person said.

Grian looked at them for the first time.

They were about his height and their skin looked weirdly like old bark. Their eyes glowed a dull green. They reached one hand out and Grian gave them the watch.

"Thank you," they said, feeling it for dents.

"Why should I believe you that you're just here on your choice?" Sibeal asked.

"I...," Grian shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what to tell you. I don't think X even knows about this?"

"Prove it," she picked up the revolver again.

Grian shook his head desperately. "I have no idea how! I really don't! What do you want from me?"

Sibeal clicked her tongue in annoyance and lowered it again.

"Fine, then have you at least made yourselves useful? What do you know about who killed my kid?"

"I found a medallion that I'm pretty sure belonged to the killer," Grian answered. "I don't know whom. Uhm, imaybe you know who it belongs to?"

He offered it and she took it, turning it over a few times.

"This isn't Ol' Nelly's symbol," she frowned.

"Do you recognize it?"

"No, I don't think I do."

"So it's not the people you've been suspecting," Grian concluded. Then it wasn't part of whatever conflict he'd stumbled upon he wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Can I see?" someone spoke up from one of the tables.

Sibeal flinched, as if she'd forgotten that there were more people in the library than just the three of them.

"Mind your business," she hissed. "Don't you have better things to do than watch us?"

There were three people at the table, with a large stack of books between them.

"Not really," one of them shrugged.

"So, can I see?" the other repeated, stretching out a hand.

"If you try to keep it I'll shoot you," Sibeal threatened and tossed it over.

"You really shouldn't," the man barely managed to catch the medallion and turned it over a few times. His companions leaned over the table to get a glance as well.

"Hey, I've seen this before," one of them said. "I'm not sure where but I've definitely seen it before. I think it was somewhere lower down? Not sure though."

"Very helpful," Sibeal said sarcastically.

The guy shrugged and the first guy tossed the medallion back. It fell short and the person who still held the watch barely managed to catch it. They handed it over to Sibeal.

"What makes you think I shouldn't shoot you," Sibeal asked, glancing at the medallion. Perhaps she was making sure they hadn't done anything to it.

"Well, first off, it's four against two - "  Grian frowned. There still were only three people at the table. " - and also X really wouldn't like that."

Sibeal's face fell.

"Hermits."

A nod.

"Damn you. You're just like cockroaches, aren't you? Always there when you don't need them," she hissed.

"Thanks?"

Sibeal sighed deeply and rubbed her temple.

"I don't suppose you're gonna let me ask you some questions?" Grian asked hesitantly.

Another sigh before Sibeal glared at him again.

"Out," she commanded suddenly. "Out, all of you."

"We didn't do anything!" one of the Hermits at the table protested.

"I said, out! I don't want to see any of you for at least twelve months!" she picked up her revolver again, gesturing at the door with it.

Grian didn't waste another second and he heard the other three follow him out.

"We didn't even get to check out any of the books," one of the three complained. He had thin horns, beginning just behind his temples and curling backwards. One of the others also had horns, smaller but thicker and growing out of his forehead. Grian was pretty sure horns were uncommon for humans. At least he hadn't seen many with them back at home.

"So, who are you?" the third guy asked. The most notable thing about him was his eyes. They were deep red and glowed slightly. "I don't think I've seen you at any meetings before."

"I haven't been to any. I'm new. You can call me Grian," Grian answered. "Who are you?"

"I'm Tango," the one with the red eyes said. He didn't seem to blink, or if he did it was way too infrequent, making him even more unsettling. Grian was also fairly sure that humans didn't have third eyelids that could maybe explain why his eyes didn't seem to dry out.

"Impulse, nice to meet you," the one with the short horns smiled.

"I'm Zedaph," the third one said, slightly distracted by pulling out a few books from under his jumper without dropping any of them.

"Did you steal those?" Grian asked.

"I'll return them. It's a library, not a bookshop," Zedaph waved off.

"It's still stealing if you don't check them out, I think," Grian tried but Zedaph didn't seem to care.

"I can't believe she banned us for a year," Tango frowned. "You, I can understand, but us?"

"Thanks," Grian said sarcastically.

"You waved her dead child's watch in front of her nose, what were you expecting?"

"I... I didn't know Avery was her child."

"Even if they were just friends, that doesn't make it any better."

Grian shrugged uncomfortably.

A streetlight they passed flickered to life for a moment before turning off again.

"Sorry," Tango mumbled under his breath.

"So, are you new in town or just new to being a Hermit?" Impulse spoke up before Grian could ask what he was apologizing for.

"Both. I came here almost three weeks ago."

"You know, most people wait a bit before they get involved in murder cases again," Impulse joked. At least Grian guessed that it was a joke. A weird one maybe, but this was Mountark. The people were weird. If not, then he'd really like to know why people kept guessing that he'd been involved with murder.

"As I said, I'm just trying to prove that my boss is innocent. I'd rather stay far away from this stuff."

"And then you joined Hermitcraft?" Zedaph said it in a joking tone, but Grian felt like it was more serious than that.

He wasn't sure how to answer.

"X asked," he finally said. "It seemed like a good offer."

'I didn't know that there was this much death involved', he didn't say. The conversation with Etho came to mind. The fact that all three of them had killed before. If Etho could be trusted.

"Obviously," Impulse said. "If it wasn't a good deal nobody would say yes."

Another street light came to life and turned off again.

Grian was fairly sure that that wasn't supposed to happen. The lamps were controlled by the heart. And from what little Grian knew about it, he was fairly sure that it wasn't supposed to fail.

"Do any of you know Redstone?" Grian asked, watching the next lamp, waiting to see if it would flash.

Tango snorted.

"We're in Mountark," he answered, gesturing around. "Who doesn't know Redstone?"

"I mean on a technical level," Grian frowned. "How it actually works."

"Oh, yeah," Zedaph nodded. "Impulse and Tango work for Hester Inc, I'm an independent mechanic."

"Independent?" Grian echoed.

"He got fired and stole Redstone on his way out," Impulse clarified.

"It's not my fault Mr Hester has no imagination," Zedaph defended.

The streetlamp flickered, just as they passed it.

"Do you know why that's happening?" Grian interrupted before any of them could say anything else, stopping.

It flickered again.

"Uh, that's my fault," Tango smiled uncomfortably.

"What do you mean? You're not doing anything."

He gestured at his eyes. "Redstone. It sends a small pulse when I blink. Don't worry about it. It doesn't mess with the lamps, really."

"How- Why are your eyes Redstone?" Grian tilted his head sideways.

"Red Death," Tango answered and began walking again. Quite literally trying to move on from the subject.

"What is that?" Grian asked following closely.

Tango sighed.

"It's just another name for Redstone, really. Just, once it's inside your body. Like through a cut or something like that. Then, it can grow inside of you, and when it was first discovered it killed a lot of people, so they named it Red Death. I got some in my eyes a few years ago, was lucky enough that it didn't spread from there."

"And it didn't kill you," Grian added.

"It's been forever since people actually died from it. Doctors learn."

Grian didn't mention the cards he'd seen in Mother's Garden.

"Thanks for the answer," he said instead.

They reached a small lift and Grian quickly apologized for getting them banned as well, before taking it up.

Mentally he checked off a few of the questions on his list.

He'd found Avery's community and family - hopefully Sibeal would be willing to talk to him at some point -, he'd found out a little bit about the killer's amulet and he'd even learned what Red Death was.

If he ignored his attempt at calling Pearl, he could almost call the whole day a success.

Grian wrapped his wings around him and buried his fingers in his feathers as the conversation he'd pushed to the back of his mind came back to him.

She probably thought he'd hung up on her.

He wanted to try again, maybe convince Mumbo or Iskall for some spare change, just to be sure he had enough time for the call, but he also had no idea what to say if he did call her back.

He started to tug at his feathers.

Maybe she wouldn't pick up again.

What if she didn't want to hear him out?

He could try to call someone else?

But who?

A sharp pain pulled him out of his thoughts and Grian flinched as his feathers ripped out of his skin.

He stared down at the bright yellow feathers in his hands and slowly managed to loosen his grip. They fluttered to the ground, landing in the dust.

Grian tried to swallow down the nausea that built in his throat.

When the lift finally arrived, its floor was covered with colourful feathers. Red, orange, green and blue. Among them small drops of blood.

A small bird landed among them and watched their owner hurry away.

It didn't follow him this time.

Next

[whattodowithace]

My Diamond in Red; The Rival’s Prize (Donghun)

Title: My Diamond in Red; The Rival’s Prize

Pairing: Donghun (A.C.E) x Reader

Genre: Action, spice, thieves AU.

Word count: 3693

Writer: Kpopmadness (Ju)

A/N: After reviving some sweet requests for a Part II for My Diamond in Red, here it is! I hope you all enjoy! ~Ju

I zipped up my jacket as a shiver ran down my spine from the rain that was starting to fall down around our van. It hit the roof of the van with several hard splats, making it impossible to hear much of anything outside the van.

“We’re really doing this?” Changmin asked, his eyes full of excitement, but also slight hesitation due to us pulling off a robbery last minute.

I smile up at him, a slight sting on my neck reminding me of an earlier run in with a rival a few hours ago. The party had long since ended, the guests clearing out as the staff started cleaning up the mansion before getting ready to leave themselves. My black dress hung up in one corner of the van. I had changed out of my red, form fitting dress into a black outfit that hid me with the dark shadows the night casts. The only thing giving me away was the street lights and the half moon in the sky.

“We’re really doing this.” I answer, excitement filling me. “We’ll have our diamonds in just a few minutes. Once Ara is all done filling hacking into the computer system to shut it down.”

“You know this guy is a real idiot.” Ara piped up from the back of the van. “He basically asks for these diamonds to be stolen. His security system isn’t worth two cents.”

“I worry about that.” Daejung says, his voice low as he sits in the drivers seat now, his eyes scanning the rain stained road in front of him.

“He knows how expensive those diamonds are and yet his security system is poor. Why leave your defenses down like that?” He asks, glancing back at us three.

“He’s rich.” I answer him, shrugging. “He probably feels he can afford more if they ever are stolen. You saw his mansion. He had more artifacts in there than just the diamonds.”

Daejung grumbles under his breath and keeps watching the road. We had parked a few blocks away from the mansion, far enough they wouldn’t see us, but far enough we could see them.

“There’s another worry we should be thinking about.” Changmin whines. “A.C.E showed up before us. Which means they have a plan.”

I rest my head against the vans wall, my neck and thigh throbbing from encountering their leader, Donghun, earlier. My face immediately heats up when I remember his lips on mine and how strangely good it felt to be close to him. Even though we were all rivals.

Daejung looks at me, his dark eyes examining me, only making me feel warmer. I knew what he was thinking. He didn’t have to say it. He was wondering if I could complete this mission after everything that had happened. If my mind would be clear enough.

“So what if they are here?” I speak up, making all eyes fall on me. “We’ve stolen from them before and we’ll do it again. It’s no big deal.” They stay silent, as if trying to decide if I really meant my words.

“I’m fine.” I sigh, silencing their quiet doubts.  “Let’s suit up. We have to leave in 10 minutes.”  I say, changing the topic all together.

Ara puts our mics in our ears and any tools we may need into the several pockets littered through our dark clothing.

“The camera’s are off so they won’t see your face, but keep your hood up.” She tells us sternly, turning back to her laptop. “Also make sure you spray around the room once your inside. I don’t know if the old man wised up to turn on some kind of alarm system. And if he did you may not be able to see any laser beams that will sense your motion.”

We both nod, listening despite knowing all this. You never could get cocky in this business. We had seen too many thieves loose their freedom due to getting too smart, thinking they wouldn’t get caught. That ended in their downfall, making us vow to always be careful.

I clap my hand on Changmins shoulder, smiling widely. “You ready?”

Changmin pulls his hood over his eyes and gives me a thumbs up, a bright smile on his face. “Ready Freddie!” He beams, making me laugh. Excitement washing over me at the prize just before us.

Changmin opens the doors to the vans quickly when a loud thump comes from one of the doors hitting something.

“The living heck!” A male voice curses from behind the door. Making my heart sink. “You hit me!” Seyoon whines, rubbing his nose feverishly.

Changmin narrows his eyes at him, “Well maybe if your face wasn’t so big I wouldn’t have hit it, dummy.”

“You’re the one that opened the door like a demon was chasing you!” Another member, Jun, says from around the van.

“You shouldn’t be snooping around our van!” Ara yells, standing up from her place.

“Ara, shut up.” Daejung warns, his voice low as his eyes narrow at the members of A.C.E.

I grab the back of Changmins shirt and pull him back, “China can hear you idiots.” I snarl.

“How about you all be quiet and get in the van?” Another voice pipes up. Making my heart skid.

Donghun shoves Jun and Seyoon inside the van with us. All of us squished up along the walls as we stand inside. All of us wearing similar black outfit attire.

Donghun gave me a sideways glance, our eyes locking for a moment before he looked away. Rain water dripping down his hair and onto the floor. Making it slick.

“I hate saying this,” Donghun grumbled. “But I think we need to work together on this project.”

I hear the rest of my team scoff at the idea. “We are not pairing up with you.” Ara snaps, crossing her arms over her chest.

“It’s not exactly a happy thought for us either, sweetheart.” Jun snaps back, making them both glare at each other.

“The diamonds have been moved.” Donghun announces. Making everyone turn their attention to him, shocked. I feel my own jaw go lax.

“How would you know that?” Daejung asks quietly, eyeing Donghun carefully.

“Because we were smart enough to be waiters at the party.” He snaps back. “Byeongkwan saw them move it. The old man decided he was too tired to move tonight.”

“Which means?” I ask, my chest tightening.

“The old man moved them into his bedroom. He decided to sleep in the same room as them to keep them safe.” Donghun admits.

“And i I want her to help me get the diamonds.” Donghun states boldly. Making my body heat up.

“Why?” Daejung asks, defensive.

“Because we want that diamond you stole from us.” Jun pipes up. “The one in Chicago four years ago we had until you took it.”

“And me and her can work together on this one to be faster.” Donghun added.

Donghun wasn’t just the leader. He was fast at getting in and out of tight places like this. He was fast at shutting down security and taking whatever it was someone loved most out from under them. Donghun knew how to break security. I knew how to charm someone into letting their guard down, but I also knew how to get us out of there. I memorized every possible exit and curve and dip to every heist we did in the past.

I let out a laugh, raking a hand through my hair in frustration.

“We don’t have it!” Ara yells.

“If we help you, will you stay clear of us?” I ask quietly.

Donghun stares at me, his eyes meeting mine. A gleam of sadness shines in his dark doe eyes, making me feel a twinge of guilt.

“Promise me, you will leave if I help you?” I ask him. I wasn’t addressing his crew, I wasn’t addressing mine. I was only asking him.

I wanted him to leave because no thieves could ever be together like how he wanted us. It was too dangerous. I wanted him to forget me, and me him.

“We split the diamonds, we give you back yours from four years ago, then you leave.” I tell him more sternly. Trying to keep the shake out of my voice. “Promise me?”

Donghun stares down at me, his eyes searching mine as if he would find a joke hidden behind them. But I wasn’t.

“I promise.” He says quietly, looking away from me.

~~~~

We were in. The cameras off thanks to Ara, the house quiet as its inhabitants slept peacefully unaware.

Me and Donghun stand on the balcony connected to the old mans room. Heavy rain still beating on us and drenching us the longer we stood there motionless. It was safer than walking through the front door. Which Donghun had recklessly suggested we do since cameras were off.

He grumbled as he climbed the rope up to the balcony, letting out a quiet hiss once his feet hit the concrete.

“I hate this.” Donghun whispers. Shooting me a glare as I press my back against the wall to check into the sliding glass door.

“You wanted my help.” I remind him, not meeting his eyes.

I jump when I feel warm breath on my neck, making me come face to face with him. Rain water drips down his face and onto my own.

“Did you really mean what you said back there?” He asked quietly. “About not wanting to see me again.”

I sigh and rub my temple, thankful the heavy rain drowned out our hushed voices. “Donghun, now isn’t the time.” I tell him.

“Just answer the dang question.” Donghun growls, frustration lacing his words. “Do you really not want to see me again? Because with how you kissed me back on the balcony your actions said otherwise.”

I glare at him, “I tricked you on the balcony. You could hardly stand.” 

Donghun narrows his eyes at me, “You still kissed me back.” He snaps.

I stare at him a moment, my heart lurching in my chest. “Donghun, this would never work. Thieves don’t have a romantic relationship for a reason.”

Donghun’s eyes lose their fire and sadden a bit. The heavy rain only adding to his wounded look. “What if I wanted to break those rules?”

I feel my heart drop into the pit of my stomach. We had always been rivals but there was always an undeniable pull between me and Donghun. The team always teased me about having a soft spot for him, and I always denied it. But deep down, I knew they were right.

“Just get us inside.” I tell him briskly. Desperate to change the subject.

Donghun looks me over for a moment before sighing heavily and working on unlocking the door. His fingers would steadily as he slowly picks at the lock, careful not to jostle the handle too much.

A silent click is heard from over the rain, signaling we were in. Despite the tense circumstances, I couldn’t help but bite my lip in excitement. There was a thrill that came with this job, the thrill of adrenaline that pumped through you and made your fingers itch. It was a thrill we all lived for.

Donghun pushes the door open slowly, peaking inside. In the center of the room was a king sized bed with lush carpet covering the room. In the bed was a small still form. His breathing steady as soft snores escaped his mouth.

“At least the old guy sleeps soundly.” Donghun mumbles under his breath.

I let out a soft chuckle, but quickly silence it. Not wanting to joke with him as much as possible to avoid contact. Donghun slips inside first, his movements slow as the darkness of the room engulfs him. I follow close behind him.

I hold my breath slightly once inside. Even the drops of rain from our clothing that hit the carpet seemed loud. But the old mans snoring never stopped as we made our way to the glass case that held the diamonds.

I smile, thrilled to see them again. My fingers itching to touch them and show them to the rest of my team.

“We don’t have them yet.” Donghun whispers in my ear. His breath fanning against my cheek and neck.

I nod and watch the old man a moment, making sure he wasn’t awake while Donghun knelt down to disarm the alarm system inside the case. I stay silent as he works, not wanting to break his concentration. The only sound filling the room was deep breathing and soft snores from the bed and gentle rain hitting the roof and windows.

Donghun taps my leg, making me bend down to his level so he could whisper in my ear. “I can’t disarm the censor that the necklace is resting on. We need something to replace it with so the alarm won’t go off.”

I nod my head and look around the room. Looking for something not too heavy, but not too light. My eyes land on a small deceptive vase in one corner of the room. I crawl my way over to it and gently pick it up to bring it back to where Donghun was.

I hand him the vase, my job coming up. Donghuns gloved fingers brush mine, making me pull away from him quickly. He grabs my wrist, however, and intertwines our fingers together until their linked.

I feel a shiver go down my spine as Donghun leans in toward me, his face inches from mine. “I don’t think you want me to leave.” He whispers. Not bothering to hide the smirk in his voice.

I can barely make out his features in the dark but there’s enough glow from the moon outside that I can see his eyes.

“You have the worst timing.” I hiss at him, but I don’t pull my hand away from being linked with his.

“It’s just us, princess.” Donghun smirks, “You don’t have to be shy.”

“Donghun.” I warn, heat rising through my body like fire.

Donghun’s face is close enough that I can feel his breath across my lips, his nose brushing mine gently. “Tell me you don’t want this and I’ll stop.” He whispers.

I bite my lip to keep from making a sound as his hand pulls me closer to him. “Tell me to stop. And once this heist is over I’ll leave you alone.”

His lips trace down my neck slowly where all the bruises he had left on me earlier had formed. I let out a shaky breath into his ear, making him let out a deep growl against my neck.

“Tell me to stop, princess.” Donghun whispers, placing a small bite on my jawline.

I rest my head against his shoulder, my head spinning and my heart pounding. Donghun pulls away from my neck and rests one hand against my cheek, making me eye level with him. Our lips only centimeters apart when a loud snore from the bed behind us makes us snap out of it.

“We’ll finish this later.” I promise him, making him let out a soft whine as I stand up slowly.

The alarm on the case was off, but we needed to lift it slowly to not move the necklace and trigger the censor. Donghun takes one end of the case and I take the other as we gently lift it. I hold my breath as it comes off, and I don’t exhale until it’s placed on the floor gently.

The diamonds sparkle in the soft light, making me smile at their beauty. Donghun stands behind me as he whispers, “I don’t think the vase will stay on the stand.”

I dig in my pocket and bring out a small stick with a silver wrapper on it. “It will if you chew on this for a minute.” I tell him.

Donghun chuckles softly as he pops the chewing gum into his mouth. I examine the stand the necklace rested on carefully while he chewed. The necklace was laid across a flat surface, in the center was a circular piece that that looked like glass. It was the censor. The center piece of the necklace, being the biggest diamond that dangled from the chain, rested on it.

Donghun takes the gum from his mouth to slide it underneath the vase, ensuring it will stick. I place my hands on the necklace gently, while Donghun stands ready with the vase to replace it.

Slowly, I start sliding the necklace away from the censor. Donghun follows the necklace closely with the vase, ensuring that pressure never left the censor. We hold our breath the entire pain staking process.

After what felt like an eternity later, the necklace is in my hands. I smile gleefully down at it, Donghun’s smile matching mine.

“Guys, get out of there.” Daejung’s voice says into my earpiece, startling me.

My heart immediately drops, “What happened?” I ask.

“You must have tripped an alarm. The cops are here. Hurry up.”

I stare at Donghun, he had an earpiece on like mine and heard the conversation. “I know I turned of the alarm to the case.” Donghun says defensively.

“It wasn’t the case.” I hiss, walking over to the door and kneeling down to let my hand run down the wooden frame. My fingers land on a small object just between the door and the frame. I let out a frustrated sigh. “He had a motion censor on the door. It’s silent and calls the cops as soon as anyone opens the door.”

Donghun let’s out a hushed curse. His eyes scanning the room. “Give me the diamonds.” Donghun says, holding his hand out to me.

“Why?” I hiss, clutching them tighter to my chest.

“Just... let me take them. We’re splitting them anyway and I don’t want you running off on me with them.”

I stare at him, not trusting him. Donghun must read my thoughts because he quickly adds, “I promise I won’t take off with them. But I have to have insurance you won’t run off.”

“Guys, hurry up! The cops are bringing out the K-9 units.” Changmin whines in our ear pieces.

“Please, princess.” Donghun begs quietly. His doe eyes holding my gaze.

I let out a frustrated growl and hand him the diamonds, a gleeful smile on his lips when the diamonds touch is hand. I grab Donghun’s other free hand and pull us out the bedroom door, we couldn’t leave the same way we came in. I pull him down the hall as silently as I could, a map of the mansion pulled up in my head.

I open a door at the end of the hall that I knew to be a empty guest room. I pull him inside quickly and go over to the window. It put us directly in line with the van that was only a few blocks down. I smile and open the window quickly, seeing Jun and Seyoon jump out of the van to help us out.

Blue and red lights flash on the other side of the house. From inside, I can hear the doorbell being rung multiple times, waking up the house. I quickly swing my legs through the window and jump down, Jun catching me and steading me as I stand on shaky legs. Donghun jumps down beside me.

I quickly start for the van, Changmin opening the door for me as I run up. His eyes darting around nervously. Donghun and the others on my heels.

I just get in the van when I hear Seyoon say behind me, “Wait I minute.” I turn around to see that Donghun had handed him the necklace. “These aren’t real.”

“What?” Donghun and Jun say in unison, quickly going to look more closely at the diamonds with Seyoon. I let out a dark chuckle, making Donghun meet my eyes. His eyes wide with shock, his jaw lax.

“See you around, sweetheart.” I wink at him before slamming the van door shut, Daejung immediately throwing the van into drive and driving down the road away from the flashing lights. I look out the window to see Donghun and the others racing to their van a few blocks away. All of them looking furious. I let out a laugh as I sit down on the vans floor and rest my head against the wall. Daejung drives quickly and soon we hit the Highway.

“Did you get them?” Changmin asks excitedly. His eyes sparkling.

I chuckle and pull out the red diamond necklace from under my shirt. I had swapped it out for a fake necklace when I went to check the bedroom door for a censor. Donghun never saw it coming.

“Of course, I got them.” I smile at him, making him and Ara squeal in excitement as they take the necklace from me.

“So we don’t have to give them anything? We don’t have to split this?” Ara gushes, her hands shaking in excitement as she runs her fingers along the red stones.

I giggle and shake my head. “We never were.” I tell her.

“This is why she’s our smooth talker.” Daejung calls from the drivers seat. “She makes people let down their guard. And she did it to A.C.E twice now.”

I take a deep breath and take the necklace from Ara, examining it in the light. It really was beautiful.

“Yeah, well, that’s not the last time we’ll see A.C.E. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of them.” I say quietly, smiling to myself.

Me and Donghun couldn’t be together how he thought of us being together. But we could always be rivals in this twisted game of cat and mouse we played with each other. Fooling each other, chasing, always playing for a checkmate. The K4 and A.C.E would always be competing for the best spot as thieves. But the prospect of seeing their leader again kept me looking forward to something until we met again.