#i also posted a chapter every single day specifically so no one would notice when i slipped in an april fools chapter
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What do you think your specialty area is in terms of fandom knowledge? I'm curious what everyone would say!
Oh god... I don't know...
I kind of generally focused on pure Canon when I was writing fics more often, tracking details.
I guess.... compared to other blogs... I brought up the timelines more?
Like, the best example of that is my fic Velaris. I think after the first 2 parts were up, I sat down and skimmed through ACOTAR (as in the first book, not the whole series) and actually made a full timeline of exact dates when things happened. Initially in relation to one another (assuming "couple" meant two and "few" meant 3 for things like "a couple days passed"), but you'd also get corrector lines like "it had been exactly three months" that helped fix where Maas had just said "several days passed" or other general terms.
I then reverse-engineered a timeline assuming Calanmai was May Day, established a general date (give or take a week) when Amarantha's deal was up, used THAT to reverse-engineer when the shields went up, and dialed the years, days, and months accordingly.
So like, in Part 4 especially, that's not a random number for years and days trapped, that is as exact as it's possible to get.
So, you could call it a specialty in terms of knowledge I had that I didn't notice other blogs featuring. But everyone was well versed in general Canon (I'm using past tense thinking back to when this blog was more active).
#ask#contrary to popular belief i do put unnecessary amounts of effort into fics#it started with my mega-series Project Echo#Part 1 I approached the villain in a new way#Part 2 I made the first letter of every chapter spell out 'never gonna give you up never gonna let you down'#i also posted a chapter every single day specifically so no one would notice when i slipped in an april fools chapter#and so for part 3 i decided early on i was going to have dueling timelines#one counting down to a disaster and one counting up away from the disaster#odd number chapters lead to the disaster and even away from it and both timelines have to work harmoniously to one another#and be hyper-accurate so the two lines of plot ignite at the exact same time#since clues to one direct the actions for the other#and that gave me an eye for locking in on timelines#project echo is the best thing i have ever written because the detail i put into that still surprises even me#it has over 300;000 reads and hundreds of comments across platforms#and i'm kind of finally at a place where i look back on it as a fan and not just as a writer#but yeah; my longform fics are where i really stretch and explore new ways of writing#short form fics i still do some experimenting#but it's more testing elements of a larger concept#what i've found is that when you're iron on a timeline; your story flows better for it
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much ado about nothing chapter 6 - plug!eren x reader - 18+!!!
DISCLAIMER: this post contains MATURE CONTENT that is intended only for those over 18. minors and ageless blogs, please do not read below the cut.
ummmmm HIII so sorry i know i still owe you guys a million drabbles and i haven't been posting as much but this chapter is just chock-full of drama and i'm so excited to share it bc hehehe it's a rollercoaster. also we should def stop listening to sasha. sneaky posting; have fun babies!!!! i cannot WAIT to hear your thoughts
specific cws: alcohol use, violence (like fist-fighting level not insane), mentions of drugs, swearing, incredibly awkward tension lol
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âThe course of true love never did run smooth.â A Midsummer Nightâs Dream by William Shakespeare (Act I, Scene 1)
Youâve done a lot of partying in your days, but you never thought a hangover could float over your shoulders for damn near two weeks. Then again, maybe that rancid taste in your mouth is regret instead of the practical gallons of liquor youâd guzzled that night.
Historia tells you to delete the evidence, have a glass of wine with your friends, focus on your studies, put meaning back into the happy distractions that make up life. Sasha tells you to suck it up, download Tinder, do something other than wallow in your bed with nothing on but the fairy lights along your ceiling. Ymir tells you men arenât worth embarrassing yourself for, maybe start swinging the other way, that she knows a few very pretty single ladies.
You meet all of their advice with a slow nod, sometimes a chuckle, put your head down, and go about your business, letting the shame follow you around like a little rain cloud from building to building around campus. Even your students have noticed somethingâs making you tick; Falco and Gabi left a package of Crumbl cookies in your office the other day, and for the first time, Zofia has begun to raise her hand in class. Itâs heartwarming, really, but it doesnât solve your problem.
Problems would be the better term for it. To start, there was your royal fuck-up with Eren. You had over-indulged and gotten a little too flirty to be âfriendsâ, sure, it happens, but something had snapped in you when you saw Eren with that leggy blonde hanging all over him at the club.
Breeze. Even wearing naught but a skirt and some thin tights with the early winter wind whipping around your legs, just the thought of her name makes your blood boil. She was perfect, all bouncy and easygoing and cool, hippie clothes. To be fair, she was the one with the true claim on Eren; you had dug your own grave, far too confident in your ability to be just friends with someone soâŠso Eren.
Your friendship had been growing closer and closer by the passing day before that night, texting at nearly every minute of the day and spending time together wherever you could fit it in your full schedule. You had made plans to bake Christmas cookies together, even despite Erenâs protests that Christmas was a âcapitalistic hellhole of a holiday seasonâ, had acted out your favorite Shakespeare scenes in your pajamas, much to Erenâs amusement, and had made a habit of staying up late into the night watching and rewatching your favorite animes, heatedly debating characters. It had been butterfly-inducing, dizzying, perfect. Until you had indulged in one too many shots and humiliated yourself, that is.
Seeing Breeze all over Eren had made you realize the severity of your mistake trying to keep Eren in your life, realize the warm feeling blooming in your chest every time he grinned at you, all teeth and his little chin dimple, was decidedly much more than a platonic appreciation for a new friend. It turned out that youâd been right from the start; you werenât his type, and to make matters worse, his actual taste in women had been thrust in your face unexpectedly.
When you had awoken the next morning, debating on whether to fall back asleep immediately or dash to the toilet, Historia had greeted you with a sorry smile, a cup of coffee, and a quiet word of advice to look through your phone. Knowing your drunken self, you pulled up your phone calls first, wanting to make sure you hadnât accidentally Facetimed your mom to tell her how much fun you were having or something cringe-worthy of the sort. But no, of course it had to be much worse than that.
There was a phone callâ to Eren. Your call log had recorded a one minute and thirty-six second phone call between you and Eren, one you obviously didnât remember making.
âPlease tell me you were with me when I called Eren,â you groan, so naive, âdid I completely embarrass myself?â
Historia blushes. âWell, he didnât answer, if itâs any consolationââ
âOh, thank godââ
âBut that didnât exactly stop you,â Historia fiddles with the edge of her t-shirt, âyou left him a voicemail.â
Even through your throbbing headache, you shoot right up out of bed at that. âWhat?! What did I say?â
âI donât know,â Historia moans woefully, putting her hands over her face, âIâm sorry, I tried to stop you, but you ran off as soon as you started talking. By the time I caught up to you, you were already hanging up.â
âSo, thereâs a voicemail from drunk me on Erenâs phone, and neither of us have any idea what it says?â
âCorrect.â
âMy life fucking sucks.â
âItâs about to get a whole lot worse,â Historia says, throwing your sheets back and snuggling beside you in the bed, burrowing her face in your shoulder, âcheck your texts.â
And oh, had it gotten worse. Your drunken, foolish text sat in your outbox, unanswered, unread, and inexcusable. Six months later and you were right back where you started, begging a ghost of a man to explain why he couldnât love you.
> hi luke, iâm sorta ficked up, but i misz you. why did yoi never call me???? you owe me at leasttg that. a fcking explanation,.Â
Storming through campus, coat tucked around your shoulders against the biting chill, you wince at the memory. You havenât deleted the unanswered text yet, keeping it stale in your phone as a reminder of what happens when you get too attached to people you know arenât good for you.
You thought youâd be more heartbroken over the text to Luke and its lack of an answer, but surprisingly, youâre not. Itâs Eren haunting your thoughts, Lukeâs just the placeholder for all of your anger at this point. Eren isnât to blame for all of this, you are, and thatâs why you canât bring yourself to face him, canât bring yourself to answer any of the hesitant texts heâs sent you since that god-awful night.
Youâre not in college anymore, you have to keep reminding yourself. Youâre twenty-four, and youâd like to think youâre past the phase of your life where youâre handing your heart out to anyone that passes like itâs a Costco sample. You arenât even sure if you want Luke anymore at this point, if you could even speak to him if you bumped into him these days. He had, admittedly, treated you like dirt, wrenched your heart out from your chest and left it on the sidewalk to collect dust. At least you can hate him, hate what he did to you, hate that youâre stuck on him like a broken record skipping to the same chorus every few weeks.
You canât hate Eren, though. You can be disappointed in him for entertaining his terrible ex-girlfriend, not aloud of course because he hadnât actually mentioned her to you himself, but you can do it internally. Even that isnât enough to make you feel better; not only had he not trusted you, not felt safe or comfortable enough with you to share the skeletons in his closet, but he was likely zooming full-speed down a dead-end street, the way Sasha tells the story. Your heart aches for him out of a painful mixture of pining and fervent concern.
Your only solution so far has been to dive headfirst into your coursework and your students; it hasnât done much to distract you, but with finals on the horizon, itâs not the worst method of coping youâve come up with in your days.
Your newly invigorated dedication to your work and your courses are the cause of you dragging yourself across campus to 104, desperate for caffeine and practically a corpse after two weeks of near-constant self-shaming keeping you up at night.
The smell of the coffee shop, earthy and warm, hits you almost as hard as the blasting heat inside, and you practically slouch upon entering, the weight of the cozy atmosphere cocooning you like a warm blanket. If thereâs one place that will always feel like a hug, itâs 104 Beans, your coffee shop of choice (and obligation, considering the small size of your campus) for the last six years.
Pieck, your favorite barista, greets you in her typical dreamy manner. âHi love, same as usual?â
âHey Pieck,â you greet her with a weary smile. As you dig around in your bag for your wallet, the extent of your exhaustion versus the amount of work you have left to do surfaces in your brain. âActuallyâŠno, not my usual. Can I get a quad shot Americano?â
Pieck pauses where sheâs scribbling onto a paper cup with a Sharpie, eyes flitting back up to you in disbelief. âA quad shot Americano?â
âA quad shot Americano.â
âJesus,â Pieck sighs, eyes wide, âworkâs that rough, huh? Black coffee not going to cut it?â
âThe shakes will be worth it,â you confirm, swiping your card through the machine.
âCan I please make it a cappuccino then? Youâre going to need something creamy to get all that espresso down,â Pieck looks back up at you, eyes pleading.
âFine,â you sigh, âbutââ
âAlmond milk, I know,â Pieck winks at you, sliding your cup down the assembly line of baristas working amongst the hissing of the espresso machine and the pleasant, folky music floating from the speakers. âWeâre a little busy, so give me five and Iâll bring it over to you.â
You smile gratefully and collect your things, turning to scout out whatâs hopefully a quiet table in the corner, when a pair of arms tossed around your shoulders stops you. The familiar scent of fruity perfume tickles your nose, and you slump against the tight grip in relief.
âYou made it out of the house!â Sashaâs eyes glow with pride, as if youâd just run a marathon.
âItâs not like Iâm a hermit,â you roll your eyes, âI have class five days a week.â
âYou donât go anywhere besides class or your house though, so you still get participation points,â Sasha grins, shaking your shoulders, âhow are you feeling?â
âWellâŠâ
Sashaâs expression crumples. âStill that bad, huh?â
âThe Luke thing was pathetic of me, but honestly, itâs not haunting me as much as I thought it would,â you admit, pausing for a moment to allow Sasha to grab her coffee from the barista when her name is called, âthe one thing thatâs really sticking with me is the Eren issue.â
âLike, the voicemail? Or Breeze?â
âBoth. I would give anything to know what that voicemail said, but whatever was going on between us aside, I just hope heâs okay, yâknow? With Breeze back in the picture and everything.â
Sasha bites into her bottom lip and glances around the coffee shop, checking every face at every table. You know that face; sheâs hiding something.
âWhat?â
âWhat?â Sasha cocks her head innocently. You nearly smack her.
âYouâre not telling me something.â
âUhâŠokay, yeah, Iâm not, but Iâm not sure if I should. I mean, youâre actually out of the houseââ
âI leave my house plenty!â
âYou know what I mean,â Sasha scoffs, âitâs justâŠif youâre feeling better, I donât want to throw you back into the deep end.â
You have no words for that, absolutely despising the way that she is completely correct. Whatever information lies behind Sashaâs bitten lip could either make you feel a hundred times better or a hundred times worse, and youâre stuck debating on whether you should gamble or not when Sasha makes the decision for you.
 âFine, you wore me down,â she sighs.
âI didnât even say anything,â you point out, raising an eyebrow.
âYou donât have to,â Sasha says, annoyed, âyou have this, like, fucking puppy dog look. Makes me sick. Get your coffee, Iâll find a table, and we can talk.â
Like clockwork, the moment Sasha steps away, Pieck grabs your attention and hands your coffee over along with an extra hot cup half-full of steamed almond milk. You look at her questioningly, and she merely shrugs.
âThatâs a lot of espresso. I know youâre in, like, your depressed writer phase right now, but I figured a little extra milk would come in handy.â
âYouâre the best,â you smile at her affectionately, thinking absentmindedly that you should invite her out to Scoutâs sometime. Before she can respond, Pieckâs gaze lands on something just over your shoulder. You can smell him even before you turn around, musky cologne and a little hint of weed. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
âHey Pieck. Usual?â His throaty timbre cuts through the thick air, sharp as a knife. Pieck nods politely and gets to work on his coffee, forgoing a trip to the cash register. That tracks; Pieckâs hooded eyes are bloodshot more often than not.
âExcuse me,â you mutter, trying to sneak around him, but Erenâs quicker than you, side-stepping to cut you off.
âHey stranger,â he smiles down at you, but itâs tense, nervous, âtrying to run off on me?â
âDidnât even realize that was you, sorry,â you lie, offering him a thin smile in return. You spot Sasha gaping at you across the cafe, waving her arms wildly and mouthing What the fuck?. You canât help but feel similarly.
âItâs been awhile, how are you?â
âMâfine, just really busy with school.â God, you hate this, this awkward small talk barely parsing its way through the jungle of things left unsaid between you two. âYou?â
âFine,â Eren looks around awkwardly, shoving his hands in his pockets.
âGood,â you speak directly into your coffee, unable to stomach the emerald green peering down at you.
âYou know,â Erenâs words come out quite like he canât believe heâs saying them, âI kinda thought you were avoiding me.â
âDid you?â Your voice is caught in your throat, coming out in a pathetic squeak. Has he heard the voicemail? The startling turn the conversationâs taken must be visible all over your face, because Sashaâs flailing arms beckoning you over to the table grow more urgent.
âYou havenât texted me back, havenât seen you in a couple weeks,â Erenâs incredibly focused on his shoes, kicking one Vans sneaker idly back and forth on the floor and making a squeaking sound, âso yeah, sort of.â
âIâm busy,â you deadpan, praying to any god you can remember the name of that youâll just disintegrate right where you stand. Eren meets your eyes again, smirks disbelievingly.
âYou said that.â
Something in his tone annoys you, something about his insinuation that he knows youâre blatantly lying, that heâs teasing you over your embarrassment, ignites a little flame in your chest. You scowl at him.
âI mean, you must be pretty busy too.â
âWhyâs that?â
âBreeze just got back into town, didnât she?â No going back now. Erenâs face blanches for a moment, features growing pale, but he manages to school his face back into that nonchalant pout that you want to slap right off his face.
âHistoria told you?â He doesnât sound surprised; in face, he sounds almost expectant, like he knew youâd find out at some point. It stakes the embers burning in your chest.
âSheâs my best friend, so yeah.â This feels like an argument. It shouldnât be an argument, but your clipped tone is pushing it in that direction. Youâve spent the last two weeks reminding yourself that you have no claim on Eren, no reason to be hurt or upset, but here you are, feeling that familiar rush of anger coursing through your veins.
âI mean, we havenât been hanging out or anything, if thatâs what youâre worried about.â
âWho said I was worried?â
Erenâs eyebrows knit together, a little frown playing at his mouth. âI donât know, I meanââ
âLook, Sashaâs waiting for me,â you point over Erenâs shoulder to the little two-top table, where Sasha has stilled within the blink of an eye, shooting Eren an innocent smile and a little wave. âIâd love to catch up, but maybe another time.â
âIt was good seeing you.â Eren looks confused, albeit, a little bit hurt, and you hate it. Why is that so much worse, even worse than the sight of him with Breeze hanging off of his arm? His little pout puts a needle through your ballooning anger, and you deflate, sighing.
âIâll see you around, Iâm sure.â
âYeah,â Eren takes his coffee from Pieck and ambles towards the door, sparing you one last glance over his shoulder. Unwilling to hold his eyes any longer, you scurry to your table, just having realized that Pieck forgot to put a coffee sleeve around your cup and that itâs been burning your hand for the last several minutes.
âOw! Shit!â You practically crash land across from Sasha, dropping your cups in synchronicity and shaking your red palms around in the air to cool them down.
âWhat was that?â Sasha hisses, leaning across the table so viciously that your drinks nearly topple over.
âHe just showed up!â
âYou didnât have to talk to him.â
âI didnât try to. He just, like, materialized behind me and started talking. What was I supposed to do? Run away?â
âLittle shit,â Sasha swears, glaring at the door as if her anger can shoot through it like a laser beam, cut Eren down where heâs surely almost a block down the street by now, âwhat did he say?â
âHe asked if Iâve been avoiding him," you say, twirling your wooden coffee stirrer through your drink idly and trying to look as if your heartâs not still beating at whatâs sure to be a dangerous rate.
âWell, havenât you?â
âYeah, but I wasnât about to tell him that. He got all smug about it,â you scoff, the replayed scene of Erenâs self-assured smirk wiping off of his face bringing you a little bit of petty satisfaction, âuntil I brought up Breeze.â
Sashaâs eyes grow wide, and she looks around the coffee shop again, as if Eren or Breeze might come popping out of one of the large potted plants in the corners. âThatâs actually what I wanted to tell you. What did he say about it?â
âWhat did you hear?â You narrow your eyes at her, and she narrows hers back.
âYou first.â
âHe didnât say much, just looked really surprised that I brought her up. Said they havenât been hanging out.â
âThatâs bullshit,â Sasha snorts, rolling her eyes. Something in your chest that had begun to glimmer, something akin to hope, feels like it just got a bucket of ice-water poured over it. You cock your head, furrow your brows.
âHow would you know?â
âBecause Hitch and I grabbed some coffeeââ
âHitch? I thought that was aââ
âOkay, donât crucify me, I know,â Sasha holds her hands up defensively, âit was supposed to be a one night stand, butâŠI donât know. Sheâs cool.â
âCool?â Even through your desperation for anything Eren-related after a two week drought, you smile knowingly at her. Sashaâs not hard to read, especially when her face goes bright red from chin to forehead.
âYes,â she hisses, âcool. Anyway, we came by a few days ago, and Eren was here. With Breeze.â
âI mean, I expected as much.â
Youâre lying, youâre so lying. The only consolation youâve had over the last two weeks that youâre not a complete moron is the hope that maybe, just maybe, Erenâs just as forlorn as you, laying around and wishing his phone would buzz with your name on it, wishing youâd pop up at his door with a bag of popcorn ready for movie night. Instead, your worst suspicions have been confirmed, and not only is Eren very much involved with Breeze again, but he had lied straight to your face about it. Ouch.
âThey werenât like, holding hands or anything. Honestly, it looked like they were fighting.â
âWell, what did Hitch say about it?â You donât even know if you want to know, but with your brain short-circuiting inside your skull, your mouth has free reign to seek out information that will be about as soothing as lemon juice on a papercut.
âEren wonât talk to any of them about her,â Sasha burns her tongue on her coffee and sucks in a sharp breath, ânot even Armin, apparently. She said heâs been moody lately.â
âWonder why,â you mumble, mulling all of this new information over in your head. Breeze is bad for him, makes him crazy, you already know that. But you didnât think it would start this soonâ you feel like if anything, he should be ecstatic that his long-lost love has finally come back to him. And he can stop trying to replace her, your brain adds helpfully, only doubling the watery ache swelling in your chest.
âWho cares?â Sasha rips open a granola bar, biting into it and continuing to speak with her mouth full. âThatâs why youâve got to stop avoiding him.â
âHuh? That seems like the oppositeââ
âNo,â Sasha cuts you off, an air of authority in her normally chipper voice, âyouâre not going to cower in the corner just because Erenâs back with his shitty ex girlfriendââ
âItâs not just because of Breeze,â you correct her, âitâs because of that voicemail. I have no idea what I said. Thereâs a lot thatâs contributing to my self-induced isolation, trust me.â
âRegardless,â Sasha mouths around another bite of her granola bar, âthe only thing that will make you feel better is being around him.â
âThat sounds a little contradictoryââ
âTrust me,â Sasha interrupts you again, âthe best way to make a guy come around is to be up in his face, flaunting how hot and single you are, and to not give him an ounce of your attention. Itâs a tried and true method, I promise.â
It turns out that you are a beacon for those with bad ideas, evidently, because later that night, youâve ended up at Scoutâs, cuddled up against the bar with Sasha despite Historiaâs fervent protests. If Historia shows up later, just to âcheck inâ (read: see whatâs come of Sashaâs terrible plan), you wonât be surprised. Sheâs prone to being the mom friend and the harbinger of gossip, but she hasnât shown face quite yet. Itâs just you, Sasha, and a handful of regulars, sipping unreasonably cold beers and trying to act as if the early December chill hasnât rattled you to your bones.
âThis is a stupid idea,â you murmur against the lip of your bottle, trying not to seem as unnerved as you are, even after an hour of waiting and sipping. Sasha scoffs beside you, picking through your near-empty basket of peanut shells in search of a full pod.
âItâs not. Heâll be here.â
âDonât get me wrong, Iâm glad you dragged me out. It only took a week for me to start missing this place,â you run a thoughtful hand along the varnished wooden bartop, âbut Iâm just still not sure about this whole seeing-Eren-on-purpose thing.â
Before Sasha can answer, the door swings open to reveal the man in question: Eren, accompanied by Armin and Connie, as always, and sporting his standard uniform. Black hoodie, slouchy khaki pants that are tightened around the ankles, and his beat-up Vans.
You nearly sigh into your drink at how delicious he looks, only stopping when the little voice in your head reminds you that the voicemail youâd left him exists. Friendsâ no, strangers now? The concept of labeling your bizarre, gray-areas-only relationship with Eren brings a chuckle up your throat, one that spills onto the bar.
You can feel him watching you, but to your simultaneous surprise and disappointment, he gives you space, sidling up to the bar a few seats down from where you and Sasha are occupying a couple of bar stools. When Connie throws up a cheerful hand in greeting to you, you tentatively wave back, only for Armin to grab Connieâs attention and turn him toward the bar.
âHa!â Sasha says triumphantly, looking at you with her eyes glowing like youâre supposed to have reached a revelation of some sort. âSee?â
âDid you plot this with Connie?â You narrow your eyes in suspicion.
âNo, Iâm just a genius, thatâs all.â
âI feel like your theory is being proven wrong, not right. Heâs not even sitting near us.â
âBecause you have the upper hand!â Sasha grins.
âThe upper hand?â
âYeah, heâs giving you some space so you can make the first move, get what you want out of him.â
âAnd what do I want out of him?â You nearly growl in your frustration, feeling silly sitting exactly four barstools down from Eren with him running through your mind as if he isnât close enough to just hop up and hug. Itâs a genuine question more than a rhetorical one; youâre not even sure what you expect out of him anymore. Another fuck? A fancy date night? A lifetime worth of radio silence, as if Eren isnât the person youâve connected better with than nearly anyone else in your romantic history?
Sashaâs brows furrow. âDonât you know?â
âNo! Thatâs what I was trying to tell you!â
âOh,â Sasha frowns, rubs her chin, âwe should have figured that part out before we came, I guess.â
âSasha!â You whisper-hiss, ever mindful of what youâre sure to be prying ears only a few feet away. âSo you have no plan?â
Sasha stumbles, stutters, and eventually, flushes bright red with a shrug. âOkay, fine, I have no plan. But at least itâs something to break up your routine of laying in bed eating chips and moping around the library.â
âYouâre such a bitch.â You roll your eyes, but you donât mean it, not really. Regardless of how things stand, at the very least you can sneak little glances at Eren, take in how good he looksâ no, you correct yourself firmly. You hopped off that train of your own accord, and youâre better for it.
With some verbal manhandling, you goad Sasha into a lull of small talk, classes, anything that comes to mind. A pair of eyes finds you, not the emerald that keeps you up at night, but a pair of hazel old-and-new eyes draw to you, and you can feel the scratch of an unwelcome gaze on your skin.
âFlochâs here,â you state the obvious, sipping your drink and giving no physical indication that youâve noticed him, staring straight ahead as you mutter to Sasha.
âChrist, this was not a good idea,â Sasha groans, face-palming.
âWow, I sure wish that someone had suggested this was a bad idea, wouldnât that have been nice?â
âShut up,â Sasha says, peeking warily over her shoulder, âI think thatâs Hitch in the corner, too.â
You frown, confused at the hunched, anxious change in her posture. âWhy are you being weird? Go say hey.â
âIâm not abandoning you!â
âOh, shut it. Why are you really being weird?â
âI, uhâŠâ Sasha twirls her beer around on the counter, blushing, âI havenât texted her back in like, four or five days.â
âSasha! You like her, I can tell. Whatâs gotten into you?â
âIt was supposed to be a one-night thing,â Sasha moans, letting her face fall dramatically into her hands, âand then it was movie nights and coffee and justâŠway beyond casual hooking up. I like her, butâŠI donât know! I panicked.â
You chew on her admission for a second, selfishly comparing Sashaâs situation to your own. Was that what you were doing with Eren? No, surely not, but was that what he was doing with you? You knew he had loved Breeze, that she had wrecked him, but maybeâŠjust maybe some small part of you wants to hope that heâs moved on, that the coffee shop sighting was a fluke.
You shoo Sasha in Hitchâs direction, demanding she run over to apologize and make nice with Hitch, partially to save Sashaâs first shot at a real relationship in years and partially because you want to stew alone with your thoughts. Before you can get too deep into your black hole of what ifs, a familiar presence is sliding into Sashaâs seat, grinning lewdly.
You sigh; it was only a matter of time before he sought you out.
âWhat do you want, Forster?â
âLast name only? Ouch,â Floch places a hand over his heart, drumming the fingers of his other hand on the countertop. You recognize his demeanor immediately: pupils blown wide, buzzing to the brim with nervous energy. Flochâs always dabbled in party drugs, part of why you could only stand to be around him in small doses back when you were hooking up.
âAre you coked out right now?â Mindful of Leviâs hovering presence behind the bar, you keep your voice to a low hiss.
âSo you canât call me by my first name, but you can ask such personal questions? Jesus, you really are full of it, arenât you?â
âFloch,â you nearly groan in frustration, âI thought I made it perfectly clear the last time I saw you that Iâm not interested.â
âWhy are you being so mean to me, hm?â Floch snakes a hand around your shoulders, jostling you until your face is mere inches from his. Youâre more than aware of a pair of green eyes nearly boring a hole in your forehead, and you feel a pang of regret that you sent Sasha away so quickly, remembering far too late that Hitchâs table doesnât offer a great view of where youâre seated at the bar.
âIâm not being mean,â you try to push at him, but heâs locked around you, âIâm just not interested.â
âStop being such a bitch, Jesus Christ,â Floch finally lets you shove him away from you, but heâs far from done, âwhen did you get so stuck up, huh?â
âFloch. Keep your voice down, and walk away.â You try to warn him; Floch may be a pain in your ass, but youâd like to believe that heâs not a bad guy, deep down. Youâre too late, however.Â
Erenâs materialized between you and Floch before you can blink, before you can even get another word out. His sudden presence forces you out of your barstool, stepping around him to get a better read on what the hell he thinks heâs doing. Eren seems not to notice you trying to insert yourself between him and Floch, and the look on his face makes you step back momentarily.
He looks terrifying. Erenâs nostrils are flaring, eyes blown wide and jaw clenched tight. Heâs taking full advantage of his height, glaring down at Floch with such menace that if looks could kill, Floch would already be laid out on the floor.
âGet the fuck out of here, dude. She said no.â
âWhat are you, her little guard dog?â Floch, infamous for never knowing whatâs best for him, scoffs at Erenâs incredibly intimidating posture.
âMaybe I am,â Eren sneers, âIâm damn sure not going to sit there and let you speak to her like that.â
âWhoâs this loser?â Connieâs to your right now, gesturing to Floch. You donât miss the telltale clenching of Erenâs hands by his side, and it hits your dizzied mind whatâs going on. Erenâs going to end up swinging if you donât interfere, and Connieâs there for backup.Â
âFloch, please.â You reach a feeble hand up to Flochâs chest, trying to gently push him in the other direction.
In the blink of an eye, Flochâs grabbing you by the wrist hard enough to solicit a yelp from your lips, throwing your arm away from him with a look of disgust.
âOh, so now you want to touch me, bitch?â
No sooner has Flochâs hand released your arm than Connieâs got his arms wrapped around you, yanking you out of the crossfire. Amidst a series of gasps, Eren grabs Floch around the back of the neck, pins him face-first to the bar.Â
âJaeger!â Levi barks sharply, darting over to the scene of the commotion.
âIs that what gets you off, huh?â Erenâs nearly nose-to-nose with Floch, whose busted lip is twisted in a grimace and dribbling little bits of blood onto the varnished bartop. âCalling women bitches when they donât want your little dick?â
âLet him go, Eren,â Armin tries to intervene, having already dashed over from his barstool. You want to back him up, but youâre frozen where youâre pinned to Connieâs chest, trembling in his arms. You know Erenâs a little rough-and-tumble, but this, seeing it in real life, is much more terrifying than you could have imagined.
âWhat the hell? Are you okay?â You can hear Sashaâs voice from beside you, close enough to touch but distant in comparison to where your vision is zeroed in on Erenâs grip on the back of Flochâs neck.
âAnswer me!â Eren rears Floch back a few inches and slams him against the bar again. Floch curses under his breath, wriggles fruitlessly under Erenâs weight.
âGet the fuck off me, Jaeger!â
âYou fucking wish,â Eren hisses, tightening his grip further, ânow apologize to my girl before you make me do something Iâll regret.â
âEren,â you find your voice again, shaking out of Connieâs grip. You fist your hands into Erenâs hoodie sleeves, tugging hard enough to get his attention. âHeâs not worth it. Let him go.â
âListen to her, Jaeger,â Leviâs already-deep voice is stained with warning.
When you pull at his sleeve a little harder, Eren turns to you, eyes still blown wide and teeth bared. It startles you, but you hold firm, setting your own jaw and shaking your head.
âLet. Him. Go. Now, Eren.â Youâre not sure how youâve managed to muster up the conviction in your voice, but youâre grateful for it, as it seems to shake Eren back into himself. Eren slowly releases Floch and in the same easy motion, he guides you behind him with one long, strong arm.
âYou,â Levi points accusingly at Floch, âout.â
Flochâs jaw drops. âI didnât evenââ
âOut.â Leviâs tone leaves no room for argument, and Floch seems to understand at least that. He turns his glare back to you and Eren, scowling deeply.
âThe next time I see you, Jaeger, itâs fucking over.â
âGet lost before you make me fucking embarrass you,â Eren says, voice dripping with venom. Floch shakes his head, lets his gaze land on you. A chilling smile breaks over his features.
âNext time, sweetheart.â
âGet the fuck out of here already, bro,â Connie snaps, pointing towards the exit. Floch takes his leave, sauntering towards the door with all the confidence of someone who hadnât just been pinned against the countertop. A heavy, staticky silence falls over the bar.
âIf I see you fighting in here again, itâs over.â Leviâs cold eyes fall on Eren, who nods curtly in understanding. Eren brushes his hands through his hair, rests a hand on the bun at the back of his head. Something strange is coursing through your body; something that tastes like anger, burns like heartbreak, falls bitter on your tongue like envy.
âAre you okay?â Sasha appears at your side again, wrapping an arm around your waist. âFlochâs such a psycho, Iâm not even surprised he picked a fight.â
You nod numbly, eyes never leaving Eren. He finally looks back down at you, none of the heat having left his eyes.
âWhat the fuck was that?â It takes you a moment to realize that itâs you speaking, you throwing those words up the inches from your mouth to Erenâs. Erenâs face contorts into a frown.
âWhat do you mean? He was bothering you, wasnât he?â
âSo you try to fight him?â You seethe. Maybe it is anger, this bizarre, foreign emotion tingling at the tips of your fingers. No, thatâs not quite it, youâre not angry youâre justâŠconfused. Hurt that Erenâs frolicking around with Breeze, doing whatever he pleases, and yet, heâs jumping into bar fights to save you from the tangible evidence of your past.
âWhat do you expect me to do when someone talks to you like that?â Eren hisses back, eyes narrowed.
Sashaâs backed away from the two of you now; youâre aware of your friends staring at you, noses scrunched as they try to figure out exactly whatâs happening now. You wish you had an answer to give them, but all you can muster is this heartache shooting out of your mouth in the form of daggers.
âI donât need you,â you spit, âI donât need your protection.â
âIt didnât exactly look like you had that handled,â Eren scoffs, rolling his eyes.
âOh, and what are you? My knight in shining fucking armor? Donât you have other damsels in distress waiting for you?â Itâs too far, you know that as soon as the words leave your mouth, but the liquid courage Sasha had insisted upon is making your tongue sharper than youâd anticipated.
Eren rears back from where heâs hunched to meet you on your level, nostrils flaring again. Before you can utter another word, heâs got an arm thrown around your shoulders none-too-gently, practically dragging your stumbling feet towards the exit.
âOutside.â
#hehehehehe enjoy#i love plug eren so much it hurts my head#eren jaeger x reader#eren yeager x reader#eren jaeger series#eren jaeger fanfic#eren yeager series#attack on titan fic#aot fic#much ado about nothing#much ado uni#much ado universe
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Idk if I'm ever gonna finish the refs for my redacted ocs, but here are their logos
I could make some doodles of their designs or smth idk....
I wrote some info about them under the cut if ya curious (that ended up being a lot longer than I expected so behold)
Taurus
I already made a ref sheet for Taurus so I already wrote down some info about him there so you can go see that if you wanna
I can only imagine since I established that he's friends or at least knows every single redacted de(a)mon and also is a part of the chorus that if he would be on the redacted channel he'd successfully force himself into practically every storyline.
Practically all redacted ocs that I made I more imagine as side characters than as "main" characters so they don't really have a listener, but I guess his listener would technically be freelancer.
I imagine he remembers the cacophony well, even though he wants to forget it.
Gin Asari
I'm very aware that Gin wouldn't really work as a character since, to be a sibling to a listener would mean to not have them have a distinct background, race or gender (or at least agab) since this is specifically an identical twin brother, because unless them and the listener are not blood related (and in this case they are) the characters background, race and gender would allude to the listeners background, race and gender which you're not supposed to do. But because I have already made up the listeners background race and gender as if they were an oc as most people do, I haven't really thought about this.
Anyways, this is Gin Asari! Lovely's twin brother! And if you haven't noticed they are the main character of the oc fic I wrote some time ago. I actually made 4 more chapters for that fic but didn't post it since I thought it wasn't good enough and also people hate fics written in first person for some reason.
I don't really remember why I made this oc either, I guess just because I wanted to explore the idea of a electro-energetic baddy, even though they don't really have their electric powers yet since they haven't experienced a traumatic enough experience and Lovely hasn't told them in fear that they would try to traumatize themselves on purpose to get them. I also wanted to explore Adam's backstory through them (btw I fucking struggled to make the timelines align to find out what age they are).
For those of you who haven't read the fic ("the fic" meaning also the chapters I didn't publish so I guess that's like all of you) here's a quick summary: Lovely's twin brother (who at this point isn't in contact with Lovely since Lovely ran away from their parents when they were 16) is chilling in med school with their roommate: Adam Jessup. That is, all until Adam disappears one day and is found dead in a car crash, except, Adam didn't really die and he just got turned willingly. Adam returns one year later by sneaking into Gin's room. There, Adam descides to feed on them and after realizing they're willing to let him feed on them, let's them live and starts a very unhealthy relationship where he returns to feed on them every week or so. That is until he gets addicted to their humanborn latent electro energetic blood and every week or so becomes every night. The induced anemia and stress from overworking themselves due to their parent's high expectations, Gin's mental state starts to decline. That is until they find out that Adam is a literal serial killer and he basically tries to murder them since they didn't want to continue their relationship. They run away to Dahlia, both from him and from their parents, until a couple of years later they meet Lovely, now a vampire, by chance, and they catch up and learn that Adam has been upgraded to a decapitated skeleton under a broken down rollercoaster.
I realize that I mostly wrote their backstory and not their current story, like I don't really know what happens after they catch up with Lovely. Do they descide to keep in touch with the Solaire clan or do they go back to their normal life? Does Lovely tell them about the whole electric energetic thing? Do they befriend the other vampires? I don't know! I haven't decided yet.
Methuselah
I'm trying to figure out what this fool's nickname would be besides just Meth.
I thought to myself "what was the first de(a)mon created like? What are they doing?" So I started brainstorming ideas until they eventually became an oc.
So Methuselah (named after the oldest known star, I wanted to be the first star given a name but all that popped up was the oldest star), an inchoate, the first created demon, the one who has lived for thousands of years, fought in the cacophony and created the chorus and serve as kind of a makeshift leader of it.
Some may say that Meth here is what you would call a mary sue but you know as they say when I create a character that's the world's best assassin, a science experiment possessed by a god of anger who has a corrupted form that slowly kills them when they use it, they get called a Mary Sue, but when Asagiri Kafka does it it's "I love Chuuya Nakahara!!"
If Taurus is jaded by his long ongoing life Methuselah is the most jaded of them all. Just basically barely cares about the things going around them. Even if they did care about keeping relationships everyone except some of the chorus members is scared of them due to their overwhelming power, both magical and political.
When the ruling council descided to include de(a)mons in it they were the first demon asked if they would want to join as a representative for inchoate demons their response was to spit in their face and say "was that the answer you were looking for?"
I imagine that they are currently dealing with the whole Hush situation, and that in the first time in thousands of years, they're scared of death. After the cacophony in which they almost died, saw many deaths including the death of their first and only friend, they thought that if another life threatening situation occurred they wouldn't be scared to die for the cause, but now that they're faced with a person that is not only stronger than them but could kill them in a second, they're scared of death after so many years of being untouchable.
Miles Deen
One time, my lovely mutual @cyc-chilla once said in a post about wether or not redacted characters get biches, that Frederick only seems to attract extremely shady and terribly shifty dumpster opossum men, and I thought to myself "he absolutely does"
So Miles Deen was born.
If you identify as a garbage dwelling raccoon trash goblin you obviously haven't met Miles
The icon of the two bandaids and the description of "the thrall" doesn't encapsulate him well enough, it should've been an icon of a garbage can and he should've been titled "the trash dweller" if I wanted to be accurate.
Basically, Miles is an informed unempowered guy who was a couple of years ago attacked by a shade, but instead of having all of his life force drained, he only got half of his life force drained and later found out via seer that he would only live to 27 (he's currently 25, 21 when he found out)
He's also homeless because he got kicked out of his parents house after he couldn't find a job due to his clinical depression, so as you can imagine his life wasn't looking too good.
But, he descided to keep living and use the fact that he's going to die young as a motivator to live without fear and also made a bucket list of things he wanted to do before he died.
One of those things was being fed on by a vamp, and that is how he finds himself on Solaire clan territory and is found by Fred. The rest is history.
Fred is convinced he is insane but he kinda likes that about him. Bright eyes does not like him at all.
He somehow always gets himself into trouble and then the clan is forced to protect him in all kinds of batshit situations.
If he was actually on the redacted channel, he'd probably never appear or would maybe be mentioned by name once, just because I descided to make a character for a deleted discontinued series.
Sadly, I think his story probably would end with him dying peacefully in his sleep, since he wouldn't want to get turned and him getting turned would be kinda a stupid thing writing wise since it's kinda stupid to build up the idea of a character dying only to have them live anyway (and his whole character is built on the idea that he's going to die young)
Ezra Solaire
One day, I thought to myself "Christian needs a gay awakening" and so he did.
Ezra is a cayote shifter and part of the Solaire clan, raised by William since birth.
He seems very sweet, and he is but he's also brutally honest.
He'd never let a vamp feed on him (William even set up that you are to be executed if you attempt to feed on him without his permission) but he does donate blood to the clan often. He has so many "I donated blood" stickers.
I imagine he's friends with Darlin', which is how he ended up meeting the Shaw pack
I keep thinking about what his talk with William would be like after the summit, cause it would be absolutely heartbreaking
Because I imagine Ezra was one of the people that wasn't told about the plan, so with Ezra who just wanted a normal life, now learning that the Solaire clan which they already didn't like being in since about 90% of the clan didn't like them, is/is going to become some sort of vigilante assassin squad and also feeling like their relationship with the Shaw pack is destroyed, the place where they actually felt like they had a normal life and a family, I can only imagine how upset they'd be.
But on the other hand, William is like a father to him and he couldn't imagine how it would be to leave him, and he'd also be leaving behind the few people he was close friends with in the clan (like Vincent) and he also wouldn't think it would be right to have William supporting him financially with a house and a job when he was leaving the clan, so he would have not only have his financial and social support cut, but also physical since, I forgot to mention but, he has multiple sclerosis and is disabled, so he sometimes needs a caregiver to help him do everyday tasks (which would usually be by William, Vincent or an assistant William hired). So yeah, I can only imagine how he must feel.
Atlas Madden
Watch out John I'm stealing your name or smth
To be completely transparent, I did create Atlas just to ship him with Scorpius. I know I'm cringe but I'm free
Atlas is a freelancer who works as a healer, but also has an interest in water magic and shifter magic. How is a non-shifter good at shifter magic? He isn't! He likes morphing into a disturbing half wolf half human creature and scaring people in it!
So umm I may have brainstormed Scorpiuses backstory on a whim by accident...whoops...hate when that happens
So going forward any Scorpius lore I drop is my headcannons and not actual lore
I swear this is important to Atlas
Okay so: I imagine that before being captured by close knit Scorpius worked in this kind of strip club where the whole shtick was that incubi were the strippers. The strippers weren't also escorts but if they chose you you could potentially go home with them.
That's how Scorpius and Atlas met.
Atlases friends brought him to this strip club mostly as a joke and Atlas was kinda uncomfortable the whole time.
Until he caught Scorpiuses eye, who then decided to enact his flirt persona and bring him home.
After that, Atlas eventually became his charge and they would meet every so often.
They both agreed for no strings attached, Scorpius didn't really like hookup culture but needed to get energy one way or another, but Atlas wanted him to know that he respected him as a person and wanted them to be at least friends.
One day, Atlas pushed the friendliness a little too far and Scorpius told him that he doesn't need to try to appeal to him so he could feel like a good person. Atlas got offended by this because he really just wanted to be nice, not because he wanted to pat himself on the back.
An argument ensued and Scorpius left without getting an energy feeding. He went on, trying to find somebody else to feed on, and that is when he gets tricked and captured by close knit. With no way to communicate to Atlas, Atlas believes Scorpius left him for good.
I have a lot more planned out for them but that takes place after Scorpius leaves the basement, which as you can see he hasn't yet, so I'm obviously waiting til that happens so I'm not writing lore for something that hasn't happened yet.
So um yeah
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Dr. Stone chapter 3D trivia post
Hello, um. I hope yall had a pleasant solstice celebration of your choice- I've been pondering whether what we just saw merits a triva post, but let's try to squeeze some for the sake of completion, shall we?
Check out also my trivia posts for chapters 1D and 2D.
They're the same picture.
It took me way too long to notice what was off in this cover, it seems to be nothing but an aesthetic choice. Other than these off colors, this specific suika melon design first appeared during the Treasure island arc, right after Ryusui punted her off the Perseus.
To directly quote what I wrote at one time on the wiki:
Too bad, the ship Chelsea shows up in is not the Perseus D. Monkey from chapter 214 (which itself is a One Piece reference, as Boichi is a big fan).
Interesting that we get a nearly identical shot, instead of Kohaku standing behind her, it's Ruri and Matsukaze.
This posture done my Matsukaze is called Namaste (with other names such as Namaskar), which is used both as a greeting and as an indication of reverence all over the southern parts of Asia, along with other similar gestures. I know this is familiar to many myself included but I had never looked into the deeper details until now.
Figurines showing this pose have been excavated from the Indus valley civilization dating to between 2700 and 2100 BCE, making this piece of cultural heritage at least 7800 years old by the time of this panel.
Xeno has clearly had his hand in the architecture of the Japan side of the KoS, with some new constructions resembling his own Evil Disneyland back home.
Hold back yer tears
Kaseki has lived well. It's hard to tell how old he is now, he lived longer than the timeline's consistency thats for sure, I blame time travel.
At the time Taiju got wed, he was around 70 years old.
Kaseki and Chrome go back way further than the KoS, the fanbook tells us that Kaseki helped Chrome build his shed when he was just a boy.
Feel your heart a bit shakey? hang on there, we now get to talk about whyman's sorrow, and a small observation that I've made
Whyman can have emotions, the circuits that process that can be switched on and off, but the fact that a message can, or needs to be "left" for themselves, as well as his farewell for all eternity, has an interesting implication: once switched off, whyman loses the recollection of any experience they had in the meantime. These circuits allow whyman to feel, and also to then forget. This is useful, as emotions help them survive, but forgetting prevents the emotional baggage from growing infinitely over a virtually immortal life.
"If we remembered every single parting person, it would only be a few generations before the sorrow would pile up to the point it became unbearable. Maybe it is a blessing to forget. Forgetting allows us to get even. Forget sorrows as new ones replace them. Life can go on, if tragically. No accumulating loss that would one day make everyone struggle to survive and eventually pass on; though that last thing does also sound very much like today."
(10B points to the ~2 people who know where this quote is from, I digress)
So that's cool, and heartbreaking, but so what, does it connect to anything we've seen before?
Well...
In ch. 232 we see that Whyman does not know what created them.
How could that be, if they can remember things over deep time?
Maybe it is that Whyman chose to forget their creators, and everything they felt about them. Beings that they may even have loved in the deep deep past, and could not cope with yearning for.
The blonde, bangs & ponytail lineage.
The village graveyard. Last time we saw it, Byakuya's gravestone was opened to reveal the glass record.
A lot of recognizable headstones are still up now, some appear to have moved.
Other headstones might be gone or be different... The one with four dots that was there originally can't be seen in this new shot but it can be seen later in the chapter.
Also, I hate to break this to you, but there's more headstones now than there were before.
I counted 45 in the original shot, 50 in the new one, not including any that Chelsea and Senku may be covering. Granted this is likely just an oversight.
(I should mention that in order for them to match bottom to bottom, the top image is flipped horizontally).
(omg look at the babiesss)
What Xeno is telling Chrome is that if whyman went and altered their own past, then what they are seeing currently is the result of that, since whatever changes they made, are in the past after all.
They already happened and they are part of the timeline that leads them to where they are now.
Assuming they actually found Byakuya (or a petrified time traveler) means that either whyman created some sort of causal loop that is self sustaining (ie, the ramifications of the changes in the past include whyman going back to do them in the first place), or more in line with the many worlds hypothesis, that going back to the past and changing it creates a new parallel timeline where the repercussions of that happen, with no effect in the first one.
In the latter case it means the timeline we see now was altered by the whyman from a parallel universe.
The stone axe is a bit dissonant with where they are, technologically speaking, yes? Thing is, that's the one Senku took to the moon with him.
He's had it since chapter 1.
A few people I've seen mystified about this structure they unearthed at the cementery:
This is a collapsed building just like the structures that the Tsukasa empire occupied.
(shoutout to that guy about to die in the back)
Interestingly, this means that Ishigami Village is established on top of a once urban area.
I am always pumped for any extra bits of village lore I can get.
Did Suika's handwriting trigger your AI generated image senses? it did for me.
We were bamboozled again. If it ends up happening it's gonna be like the tale of the wolf. The moment we stop taking it seriously, Inagaki is gonna smack us across the head with it.
We were actually preparing for the poop on a stick to hit the f.a.a.n on discord. What do I make about the ending? I don't know, I got no big analysis this time around but I believe it's very likely we'll see more at some point.
#dr. stone trivia#dcst#dr stone#dr. stone#drstone#dcst whyman#dr stone whyman#whyman dr stone#dcst suika#dr stone suika#suika dr stone#dcst chelsea#dr stone chelsea#chelsea dr stone#chelsea childe#dcst kaseki#dr stone kaseki#kaseki dr stone#dcst chrome#dr stone chrome#chrome dr stone#dcst senku#dr stone senku#senku dr stone#senku ishigami#dcst byakuya#dr stone byakuya#byakuya dr stone#byakuya ishigami#dcst ruri
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20 fanfic questions
thanks for the tag @randomfoggytiger!
1. How many works do you have on Ao3?
95.
2. Whatâs your total Ao3 words count?
368,619
3. What fandoms do you write for?
The X-Files, Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek: Picard, the Star Trek novel-verse, and I just posted a fic for The West Wing
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Platonic Procreation, Eden, The MSR Files, Mother Knows Best, and Though the Heavens Fall (also I need to mention my current WIP Security Questions bc it's only three kudos away from a tie with fifth place!)
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
Most of the time! I usually respond to friends/ people I know well, or if someone pointed out something specific in my fic they liked. And I responded to every comment made on my West Wing fic so far bc I want the fandom to notice međ
6. Whatâs the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
lol I donât write many fics with angsty endings (I do like writing angst sometimes but I need things to end happilyđ
) but I guess this would be Baby Blue, If I Could Only Break the Sky, or When We Were Whole (not sure which one would be the most angsty)
7. Whatâs the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
so many! lol but I wanna single out Coda bc it was my attempt at wrapping up the mytharc and giving Mulder and Scully a happy ending with William (and giving Samanthaâs storyline some actual closure lmao) and I think I did a decent job of itđ€
8. Do you get hate on fics?
I did get a hateful comment on a fic not long ago (ironically, it was and still is my most popular fic by almost every metric so someone was clearly jelly lmao) and Iâve had a couple of comments in the past on different fics that werenât quite hateful but more like critiquing/nitpicking character or writing choices.
9. Do you write smut?
no absolutely not never ugh
10. Do you write crossovers? Whatâs the craziest one youâve written?
I donât think Iâve ever written one! But I have ideas for TXF/Star Trek and TXF/SVU crossovers that I might write someday if I ever find the time/energy/inspirationđ
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
I donât think so but I hope not!
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
No idea!
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Yes! The gang and I have co-written quite a few fics, which can all be found in this collectionđ€
14. Whatâs your all-time favorite ship?
MSR of course!! But I will always have a soft spot for Riker/Troi and joshdonna is beginning to take up more and more space in my brain lmao
15. Whatâs a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?
I have a Riker/Troi amnesia fic that has been sitting in my notes for three years, every chapter either written, partly written, or outlined, but I just canât make myself sit down and sort it outđ« also I used to start publishing fics before I was certain where I was going with them, and For War Alone is a relic of that (and it has also been sitting there since 2020 lol)
16. What are your writing strengths?
I have been told Iâm really good at dialogue, and I choose to take people at their wordđ
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Iâm addicted to adverbs, also I just love reusing the same words and phrases over and over- one time in a first draft I used the word âactuallyâ four times in a single paragraph!
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I love reading that! I feel like it makes the setting and characters and everything seem more realistic, but for writing it I pretty much need to rely on google translate or multilingual moots lol
19. First fandom you wrote for?
I wrote a LotR fic a long time ago! But the first fic in my modern day stretch of fic writing was for the Star Trek novel-verse: Psi-Ops
20. Favorite fic youâve ever written?
Oh gosh this is so hard but Iâm gonna say Where A Million Stars Catch Fire bc I put in a lot of time and effort carefully constructing it as a tribute to Mulderâs birthday this year, and Iâm really proud of how it ultimately turned outđ„°
Tagging @tofuttim @katy-kt-katie @incidental-ao3 @cutemothman @mollybecameanengineer and whoever else who wants to do it!
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Fan/Reviwer Appreciation Post: Mention one or more fan(s)/reviewer(s) who brighten your day. We all know that all reviewers are special, but I'm talking about the ones who make you grin, giggle, and get thrilled when you read their review because it's so comprehensive, and you look forward to it every time. It simply motivates you to keep writing because they appreciate it so much.
Thank you to whoever submitted this. I can't express how happy it makes me to share my writing; every little piece of engagement brings a smile to my face, whether it's a heart or a comment or a kudos or a reblog or a smash keyboard tag. The idea that people out in the world have read and enjoyed something I've written is still truly crazy to me, so I genuinely appreciate every single one. Knowing what joy it brings me, I am trying to make an effort to make sure I reciprocate and spread that joy back. People in this community are so freakin' talented, and it continually amazes me at the quality of content that just is splashed casually across my dash on a daily basis. So, I appreciate EVERYONE, but particular shout outs to:
@takearisk-ao3 whose support has genuinely, genuinely made me want to write more and branch out to try writing different things; @sybill-the-seer who leaves the most thoughtful comments on EVERY CHAPTER; @nuatthebeach who has also sent the loveliest messages that have inspired me to write more, @theroomofreq who is such a positive force in the fandom and reblogged my stuff when I had barely posted anything. Also so many have been regularly engaging in my little hinny april microfics, i've noticed and it has meant the absolute world, (@corneliaavenue-ao3, @fizzyginfizz, @brightlybound, @redrobyn285, @narukoibito, @fairsquare16, @greyashowl, @whinlatter), your reblogs and tags and your own beautiful writings keeps people posting, myself included, and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to spread love the way you do. And if I didn't list you specifically it's not because I haven't noticed, it's because if I did this would be a novel.
TL;DR: I APPRECIATE U.
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i saw your post about chandler legacies, and unfortunately, i fail to see how it is aphobic. within a single book i think it is alright for all characters to have romantic interests. it is not put up as any sort of implicit objective by the author either, it's just how the course of the book went. it's a typical drama book, at the end of the day. i just don't know how it's against us on the aspectrum. could you elaborate?
It's not a major theme or anything, so I can see how you missed it, anon! But it's definitely there, once you notice it.
I'm not going to directly address anything else you said because it honestly sounds like you said it in bad faith to make me look like a petty asexual strawman who can't stand any media with relationships. I don't want to accuse you of lying about being on the a-spectrums though, so that's probably me assuming too much. (It's only been a few minutes and I feel bad about this, so I want to apologize in advance for doubting you... Situations definitely getting to me.)
I read it again and think my first post is extremely clear about the evidence and why I felt there was an aphobic message after reading, but here's it with direct quotes:
In the first chapter, Beth mentions she would like to âmaybe even date [a Chandler] girl.â She is a lesbian in the rest of the story, she says so by the end. In the 3rd chapter, Ramin thinks about his ex-boyfriend, Arya. Ramin is gay. He comes out as such later in the book, tries to kiss Freddie, and is dating a man in the epilogue. In Freddie's first chapter, he thinks about liking both girls and boys. He's bisexual, he says so later on. So it's fair to assume that the character's sexualities are established in their first chapter, right? Now read this paragraph from Amanda's:
She thinks about the things that donât appear broken that sheâd love to fix. Like her inability to fall in love. Everyone on campus gossiped endlessly about the reason she broke up with Chip Whitney last year, concocting absurd stories. But the reason was simple. She just didnât love him. And she suspects she just might not be capable of feeling that for anyone.
This book was published in 2022 and every other main character is queer. The language used here is EXTREMELY specific, not just a general "that she hasn't been in love," -- "inability to fall in love" and "she suspects she just might not be capable of feeling that for anyone." This is literally the definition of aromanticism.
I was actually excited when I read this passage! I thought, I should make an 'aromantic' shelf because I didn't see this book described as aromantic! So what happens with this during the rest of the story?
Well, Amanda never talks about thinking she can't feel love again, but she does say....
âI also told myself I wouldnât date anyone my senior year," she says. "Oh, why?" he asks, genuinely curious. She signs. "For starers, most guys are sex-obsessed jerks." Freddy laughs uncomfortably. "But also," she continues, "no one here really gets me. But with you⊠I donât know, I think maybe you do get me.â
âThe thing is," she says, "Iâve had three boyfriends, but I didnât really care about them." "You just dated them to be nice?" he jokes. But it doesnât sound like a joke to her. It sounds like a sliver of truth. "Honestly, kind of. I mean, yeah, I can be a people pleaser. I guess I stayed with each of them way too long because breaking up with them wouldâve made me the bad guy.â "That doesnât sound fun," he says. "It really wasnât. It was like I was waiting for each relationship to runs its course, like a bad cold or something." He laughs. "So the guys you dated were like viruses." "Basically." She stares into his eyes when she says, "But you feel different.â
This? How she talks about her past relationships? Not at all continuous with her original setup on dating-relationships. Her "inability to feel love" is changed into a "wrong person" thing, a "not yet thing", and "but you're the first, you're special" thing.
Her relationship with Freddie is explicitly a romantic relationship: On page 282, they say âI love youâ to each other. Amanda notes âIâve never said that to anyone else before.â And in the epilogue, on pages 320 to 321, Spence is dating someone else.
Given that there is an entire paragraph about Spence not falling in love (unlike Beth and Freddy's single sentence allusions), you are supposed to remember that she thought that way. So what do you take away? She was immature, she was overdramatic, she hadn't found the right person yet -- all things constantly used to discredit aro people, especially young aromantics around the age Spence is.
If this was an intent to portray an aromatic-spectrum story, it was a colossal failure, because that first paragraph is NEVER addressed again. There is already an epilogue set 7-8 years later! The author could have pushed it back a few more and had Ramin say, âFunny how it turned out that we were all [queer/not straight]. Spence emailed us just the other day explaining [the term âgreyromantic"/"demiromanticâ/the aromantic spectrum] and how a lot of things in her life fell into place after learning about it. I'm glad she figured that out.â
So, either this is an "accident", with unintentional aphobic messaging (because whether it's intentional or not, you cannot argue that the book does not have an aphobic message in Amanda's relationship arc), or the author purposefully wrote and designed these scenes so readers would take away the idea that if someone says they can't fall in love, they just haven't found the right person yet.
Why would I even think of the second possibility? Look, I've been around a very manipulative person lately who does stuff like this, and I encountered a very insidious aphobe online. (This is why I also had a very suspicious read of your ask, which is in all likelihood is innocent as on first appearance.) There are people out there who absolutely would do such a thing. I am not making the claim that the author is one, but I am saying it's a possibility.
Whatever the reason for writing Amanda's love arc this way, it will certainly sow unneeded doubt in many young questioning aromantics and encourage others to doubt any they encounter. Hench, aphobia, especially arophobia.
extra acephobic scene + analysis under the cut:
âYou know why I want to stay in bed." She changes tone, speaking more seriously. "But we donât have to do it if you donât want to." "Of course I want to," he says. "Itâs just, you said that you didnât want to date most guys because they only had one thing on their minds. And I guess I didnât want you to think that I only want sex or anything like that." She laughs. "You really are too sweet for your own good, Freddy. I didnât mean that I never want to have sex.â
I actually thought this scene was really sweet when I first read it! I thought it was a great portrayal of how people can have different wants in different relationships, and not want a relationship centered around sex but still want sex. But after realizing how arophobic the book was, this scene gets a lot more icky. It basically reads as, "Don't worry everybody! If your parenter says they don't want sex, you just misunderstood, or they're lying, or they're come around eventually, because everybody wants sex!" Respecting and not pressuring your partner when you think they don't want sex is "too sweet for your own good." Like, what?
In short, this book is trying to get its young readers to NOT believe or respect any future aro and/or ace people they may meet/become interested in.
#you're lucky i still have the book! for those quotes#the chandler legacies#abdi nazemian#books#YA#aphobia#aphobia cw#aphobia tw#sex cw#arophobia#acephobia#I said this#asks#anon#i'll probably copy this into my goodreads review now that i have it. put it under a spoiler as a bonus probs.#kinda long post
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This rant definitely pushed a lot of thinking on my philosophy with fanfiction. For the past two months, I've grown more conscious on commenting on other people's stories.
I think for me, every single step into using the platform was very slowly developed. The only thing I'm proud of is I've always used kudos. But you know, it took me a year and a half to ask for an official ao3 account because I never noticed you could even have one. I was just a guest the whole time. Then it took me another year to actually use any inclusion filters that weren't a word count and the completed filter. Afterwards, it took even a longer while to change out of the "recently updated" when I was looking for fanfics in very big fandoms like Harry Potter. Plus, it took me up until last year to finally start using exclusion filters because I didn't feel guilty anymore about maybe letting one fanfic slip through the cracks because I worded a tag wrong. To this day, I very rarely bookmark anything.
That said, at the end of the day, I've grown to understand the ao3 system a lot. It has let me engage with a lot of universes and characters and stories that I would have never thought possible. Fandom isn't the same to me without the experience of fanfiction.
But anyways... lately, I've been commenting more. I think it's for multiple reasons. I'm not exactly a stranger to commenting, because I have used (which means I recognized how it works which is more to say than the stupid amount of time it took to know what the fuck the subscribe button was for) the tool since 2020, but I've never been consistent with it. Almost never did I find myself impacted enough to write anything.
And the truth is, it's not because I read things that weren't good or things that were very bad. There's some fics I saved in my google doc rec list that I love to this day. I just didn't want to engage.
Now it's changing. I started to actually talk to other fandom writers and creators last July, and I've slowly grown more aware of ao3 people ever since. I almost never bothered to read the author notes before, because I never felt they were relevant to my reading experience. And I didn't care enough to write comments to someone I've barely noticed exists.
Now that I actually know people that write this stuff, it's a little strange. Sure, I've also posted a couple of things, but I don't care all that much. I encourage comments, sure, but I forget I post stuff most of the time. Probably because I'm super inconsistent despite having a lot of stuff written out and planned.
But when I read other's works now, and I actually get to think damn that was good, then I'll write something. And I'll say at least one specific thing that made me enjoy it so they know their strength.
I'm a long story reader, with the occasional one shot in my tabs. So most of what I read is multi-chaptered. But I will literally only comment at the end. Because for me, I like to have my thoughts put together and organized. I want to compliment the story as a whole, something that's put together, and recognize the development of the character arcs or the narrative choices.
So commenting is a selective and weirdly constrained process for me. Usually, I'll mainly just explain why I love the story. Very few times, but it has happened, I just comment something silly when it's a one-shot and it gets a big reaction out of me.
But at the end of the day, I've recently felt like I should engage as part of the audience because these people SHOULD know their work is good. They put a bunch of effort, and it pays off.
That said, as I read this conversation, I concluded that it's particularly important to note that it's my choice to comment. I don't do it out of guilt or necessity. I like to comment because I've found out how fun it is to let others know how good they're doing, and interact with people that love these characters just as much as me.
I know that some of my friends really want comments and kudos and bookmarks, because it can feel like a validation of all the work they've done. But at the end of the day, I think it's good to understand that not getting these things doesn't make the writer less of anything.
I've never felt like I needed strangers to tell me I'm doing a good job. I'm a pretty good self-critic, and I'm fine cleaning up my act one step at a time.
It's pretty cool when someone does tell me it's good. But I agree with the conversation that extends to how it isn't necessary. Good ol' self faith will have to do. Fandom is about giving your twist on the tale, and having fun with others while doing so. And as I've found throughout my years getting to know fanfiction, without including those same years playing with too many saved Pinterest boards and downloaded fanart pictures to scroll through in my gallery when I was bored, we don't need to talk to each other to appreciate what we've done.
I don't think I loved stories any less when I was starting out as a fanfic reader. I think that lets me know that whoever reads my things or anyone else's and gives no comment doesn't mean they don't like or love it. I think I wrote something for someone somewhere to enjoy, and maybe they did, maybe they didn't, and I'm okay with not knowing, because I love writing my stuff. And I love sharing it with my friends, and joking about how I can't remember my past vs present tense, and just plan stories out like there's nothing else in my schedule for the day.
I think it's fulfilling on its own.
Commenting is a tool for engaging with others, but it's important to remember that when it comes to fanfiction, where we use characters and worlds that are not our property, we are not creating to serve our egos. We're creating to either fulfill the visions we keep getting, or share our twists with others to discuss. But we're not owed anything, and we don't owe anyone. It's special that way.
Happy reading!
Why is the bsd fandom so awful at leaving comments on fanfictions or art? Like - seriously? I have almost 10k hits on all 13 of my bsd works. That is 10,000 people whoâve read my work! 10,000 people who have opened up my stories. And out of those 10,000 people, only 22 of them have left comments.
10,000 probably doesnât seem like a lot, right? Because itâs just another two zeroes added to 100. Here is what 100 looks like.
You probably think, 10,000 isnât that much larger, when in fact, 10,000 is ONE HUNDRED 100S.
That is how many people in the bsd fandom have read my fanfictions. And out of that 10,000, I have 670 kudos, and 22 comments.
This, frankly, is ridiculous. It takes, what, one minute to type up a comment on a fic to show you enjoyed it? Get it together. Show some goddamn appreciation for bsd content creators.
#this was a very good analysis on reader count and data like damn#i love fandom discussions#content engagement makes us feel good#but at the end of the day i dont think that's what it's abt and it isnt in my priority list all that much#kudos#fanfiction#bsd#fandom#analytics#writer development#long read#content creators#comments#fanfic#ao3
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farmer boy, i love you
â Pairing: Taehyung x Reader
â Genre: farming!au, lowkey e2l, smut, humor & tons of nagging
â Word count: 35k
â Summary: Needing change in your life you decided it would be a brilliant idea to move to your uncleâs small farm, helping him and your cousin Jimin with the daily work. What you didnât plan was to fall in love with your beautiful yet very annoying neighbour Taehyung, who seemed to make it his personal mission to tease you every chance he got. And what you expected even less was that he seemed to like you too.
â Warnings: includes smut, alcohol and mentions death of a father
â A/N: this is a rewritten edition of a fic i already posted before when i was still writing for got7 but i loved it too much to let it go <3
â Disclaimer: This is not proofread because I was too lazy, so you might find a few mistakes!
Walking the long but yet very pretty way towards the small village that, from today on, was supposed to be your new home you felt a bit indifferent. While you were convinced that it was time for you to start a new chapter of your life you still couldnât help but feel anxious about taking such a big step.
Moving to the farm that belonged to your uncle seemed like such a great idea when he first offered the plan he had to you â the place held such special memories and as a child you always wanted nothing more than to live there, working on the farm, supporting your uncle and his son, your super annoying yet lovely cousin Jimin.
Now that the idea wasnât an idea anymore but your reality you were scared and not so sure anymore that this was the right step, yet your second thoughts didnât matter anymore, it was already too late for you.
The big city you grew up had nothing to offer you anymore â so now, you wanted, or better said needed a cut in your life.
There was nothing you used to love more than sneaking out with your cousin at night, secretly meeting up with your friends, going for a swim in the small lake right next to your house. You wouldn't trade those memories for nothing, cherishing each and every one of them. So, you concluded that this town was the best option you had.
It had been such a long time since you visited, you actually felt a bit nostalgic when you arrived in the center of the town. The residents liked to call the marketplace at the beginning of the town âthe heartâ of the city.
Ever since your last visit many years ago nothing seemed different. Basically, it was a round and rather big circle, surrounded by a small café that has been there all your life, right next to it the library that was owned by the Jeon family, the parents of Jimin's closest friend, Jungkook. You couldn't help but smile as you remembered how you used to hide in the library, reading the same few books over and over again.
Opposite of the library was the old restaurant â every single rather important event was celebrated in that specific restaurant, no matter if it were birthdays, anniversaries, New Year's Eve or whatever other occasion there was.
It was so popular not only because of the delicious food they offered but also because it was literally the only restaurant around. Your uncle and your neighbors, the Kims, were providing them with the food they needed, so you usually always got food for free which lead to you and Jimin spending a lot of time at the restaurant, no matter how often your uncle insisted he could cook dinner for you â in hindsight you felt kind of bad for him because the two of you constantly turned down his meals.
And last, but certainly not least, there was the little pub that you never actually were allowed to spend time in since you used to be too young. The Mins, the owners of the place, were very strict about that. None of you and your friends were ever allowed to be inside the pub as long as you were minors â even their son Yoongi rarely ever saw it from the inside, probably because the adults didnât want the children around after work was done.
As you stood in the middle of the marketplace you couldn't help but smile as the last sunrays of this warm late summer day were falling right onto the pub, making it look a bit more beautiful than it actually was. The paint on the outside was splintered and the sign that simply said âThe Minsâ Pubâ was slowly falling apart â somehow all of this gave it a certain charm though.
The vibe of the village always made you feel comfortable. There were about 150 people living here if you had to guess and the next supermarket was a twenty-five minute drive away but the people seemed so happy, not worrying about a lot of things.
You decided that a short stop in the pub before youâd go home to your uncleâs house wouldnât hurt anyone. After all, you were way too curious to finally see the magical place from inside.
As you carefully entered the door you felt cheerful â it looked exactly like you always imagined it to be. Most of the furniture was made out of old wood, the bar was long and it was the first thing one would notice as they came in since it was on the opposite wall of the entrance.
Your smile was wide when you spotted the one man you hoped to find standing behind the bar. Of course, Yoongi was the bartender by now, it was always his plan to work here, to him it seemed to be the coolest thing ever to be a bartender, especially in his own bar â and turns out, he was right, he looked extremely cool behind the bar, washing glasses while chatting with villagers.
For a second you studied him, he looked dangerously handsome. Certainly a lot taller than the last time you had interacted with him and his face seemed more mature, a defined jawline but the same round cheeks, his hair long and falling in his face, making him look almost evil for a seocnd. If it wasnât for gummy smile you would have had to look twice to be sure it was the same Min Yoongi you spent so much time with as a child.
The expression on his face as he recognized you, the young lady from out of town, was priceless â his whole relaxed and cool facade vanished immediately as he stared at you with his eyes wide open, a questioning glance as he saw you. He was caught off guard, his slightly opened mouth giving him away.
âJust the man I hoped to find. Yoongi, you look good,â you playfully flirted as you walked towards the bar, âIâd like to have one beer please.â
Within seconds he was walking away from his place behind the bar to come and embrace you in a tight hug before mustering you, shortly studying your face to make sure you were really the person he thought you were.
â(Y/N), live and in color? I thought you forgot about us,â he joked, the surprise of you in his bar very pleasant to him.
A joyful laugh came out of your mouth as he walked back behind the bar, opening both, you and himself, a beer.
âYou couldâve called, you know? No need to surprise me like this. My old heart canât take those kinds of surprises anymore,â he sounded lighthearted, just like you remembered him.
Immediately you felt ten times lighter, clicking with people you havenât seen in a long time was one of the purest and most magical feelings in existence and you were more than relieved to see that you and Yoongi were equally as excited to be reunited after such a long time. Not getting along with your old friends, especially him, was one of the many fears you had about moving here.
âIâm sorry, I didnât assume Jimin actually kept quiet about me coming back,â you admitted.
âHow long has it been since we saw each other?â he asked as he was leaning against the bar, his whole attention on his former best friend, still having an obviously hard time to believe that you were actually sitting in front of him right then and there.
Before you could give him an answer someone else started to answer for you from behind you and you immediately recognized his orotund voice, âSix long years,â your cousin said while he and another familiar face walked up to you.
Jimin pulled you into an even deeper hug than Yoongi did and you felt home within seconds. Jungkook was right beside him, of course, where else would he be than next to Jimin? The two of them still were inseparable and it was almost heartwarming to see how little has changed.
âHow did you manage to not say anything?â Jungkook scoffed in shock before looking at you, âItâs good to see you again, (y/n). I canât believe Jimin didnât tell us.â
You were almost amazed to see how much he grew, his chin could easily rest on your head by now, something that you wouldâve never thought could happen. Jungkook has always been the youngest and smallest kid back then and now he was the tallest in the room.
âI wasnât sure if sheâd actually come. Didnât want to get your hopes up, Jungkook,â he teased his friend, still nagging about the crush he had on you when you were literally five years old.
Jungkook rolled his eyes at his comment before bringing his attention back to you and Yoongi, sitting down on the stool beside yours.
âSo, how long are you going to stay?â Yoongi asked.
For the first time, you actually had to say the truth out loud, making it feel much more real.
âIâm not planning to leave again,â you sounded more confident than you expected, the nice encounter with your old friends almost making you feel like all of your previous worries were groundless.
There was a moment of silence, both of them not knowing what to say â it almost seemed like you broke them.
âYou know, I never saw you speechless until now,â Jimin chuckled amused.
âYou mean ââ, Jungkook started to form a sentence but dropped it, not knowing how to continue.
âYouâre moving here?â Yoongi asked, wrinkles on his forehead as his brows narrowed in confusion.
As you slowly nodded his concentrated expression vanished and changed into a grin. âYouâre actually moving here,â he repeated breathlessly, more to himself than to you, slowly nodding to himself as if he had to progress the new information.
âWelcome home then, (y/n). I think this is a reason to celebrate,â he smiled while pouring shots into a few glasses in front of him.
Time went by fast and you had fun learning about what happened in the last six years. It didnât sound like a lot has changed though, they were still as close and as fun to be around as you rememberd.
Every time you looked at them it hit you how fast time flew by, it felt like a just few months ago all of you were playing hide and seek in the middle of the night while your parents had no idea you sneaked out.
A few hours and way too many shots later, you and Jimin walked home, the night sky was breathtakingly clear and full of stars â a sight you simply would never see in your hometown, all the city lights drowing them out. You forgot how special it felt to walk under millions of stars.
No matter how much fun you had in the bar, walking home with Jimin was your favorite part of today, you definitely missed him the most.
He told you a bit about how Hoseok and Namjoon were thinking about taking over the old restaurant because the owners are getting too old to manage everything and about Jungkook and Seokjin being into the same girl, without knowing that Namjoon was already dating her in secret â it was nice that he filled you in with everything you missed, so you could start right where you left.
As you arrived at home your uncle was sitting in the rocking chair on the porch in front of the old farmhouse.
âUncle Minwoo,â you almost shouted out as you saw him, jogging over to where he was sitting. Minwoo always was your favorite uncle and you were his favorite niece, much to the dislike of your siblings.
â(Y/n),â he laughed as you hugged him, âyou smell like you had a good time in the pub.â
âWe actually have a small surprise for you,â Jimin seemed excited as he told you to follow him.
He lead you to the old little cottage that has been on the farm for as long as you were able to think â back in the days it was mainly used for storing tools and electronics that shouldnât be exposed to the rain. Confusion coming over you, your uncle handed you a key and you opened the small cottage. Stepping inside, you couldnât believe your eyes.
âWelcome home,â your uncle chuckled as you observed the room in front of you. A small kitchen, a couch and a TV in the living room, a bed on the other side of the room. They painted the walls white and decorated a bit â it might have been something small but enough to touch you deeply.
You were sure you could stay here forever, it was cute and welcoming, like a real home. Not a thousand words could describe how much you appreciated them for putting in so much effort, just to make you feel comfortable.
As you thanked both, Jimin and your uncle, the three of you talked for a bit longer, the excitement taking over before your uncle advised you that it would be better to catch some sleep â work wouldnât wait for you and you had to be thankful for any second of sleep you could get.
Waking up the next morning, you immediately regretted the alcohol you had the night before. Your phone said it was currently six in the morning and while being woken up by the sound of chicken and cows was way more relaxing than your usual alarm clock you still would have preferred to just sleep in.
Walking outside a few minutes later you inspected the farm â it was a giant property with two big houses on it. Half of the farm belonged to your uncle, he took care of the animals and artisan goods, the other half belonged to the Kims, in charge of the crop harvest
Starting the day with feeding the chickens and collecting eggs was one of the easier tasks you had to face today since it almost didnât require any kind of skill. While you were picking up another egg you flinced as you heard someone scream at you from behind.
âHey! Put the eggs back! Who in the world steals eggs these days?â the deep voice belonged to a man but before you could turn around to find out who was screaming at you, he held your wrists behind your back, not giving you any space to move.
Your attempt to free yourself was almost embarrassing, it was clear that you had no chance against whoever decided to disturb you.
Turning your head around to scream at the stranger you muted as soon you met his eyes â the words you wanted to scream wouldnât come out as you looked into the familiar face of his, your brain working hard as you realized who he was.
His thick eyebrows were furrowed, his dark eyes were piercing you, filled with a mixture of anger and annoyance â he was still staring at you and waiting for an explanation.
âKimââ your voice died and you fastly cleared your throat, âKim Taehyung?â
His annoyed expression changed into a confused one as you called him by his name. You couldnât believe he was accusing you of stealing eggs.
âLet go of me!â you demanded but Taehyung wasnât planning to listen to you, not trusting you.
âWho are you?â, he asked harshly, âYouâre not from here. How do you know my name?â
The grip on your wrists became tighter and actually started to hurt a bit.
âIâm (Y/N). Minwooâs niece,â you replied just as harsh as he asked you, âDidnât Mrs. Kim teach you any manners?â
He let you go and you immediately grabbed your own wrist just so he couldnât grab them again. A small pout formed on your lip as you looked at them, trying not to let him see that it actually hurt.
âWhat are you doing here?â he asked you, voice cold.
Now you were facing him and you had to stop for a second to take in his beauty. As he was holding you, you didnât really manage to study his face since you were too busy trying to free yourself but now you started realizing how handsome he became.
It's not like he was ugly before, you and him just never clicked and thatâs why you never gave his face any kind of attention.
Taehyung wasnât a bad guy, you knew that because Yoongi repeatedly assured you that he was actually a very loving person once you get to know him.
Personally, you just never really got the chance to, since he definitely wasnât interested in anything that had to do with you. Not in a mean way though, he just didnât seem to care about the girls in town, especially not the one who always came over the summer break and then left again.
Glowering at you, he was waiting for an answer. You, on the other hand, didnât dare to look him into his eyes, instead your eyes were studying the rest of his face. His features were sharper and manlier now, his brows thick but he still had the same wrinkles around his eyes.
For a second you wanted to look at his lips but you stopped yourself, not wanting him to get wrong ideas.
âWhat are you doing here?â you asked in retund instead of giving an answer, âDidnât you always say you wanted to leave this place?â
He rolled his eyes as you avoided his question.
âI asked first,â he insisted, making it hard for you not to chuckle at the very immature conversation you were having.
âI am working here. Donât you have some vegetables to take care of?â you asked coldly asked before turning your back to him.
âYou better get used to my face, if you scare me like this one more time I might have a heart attack,â you added as your attention was back to feeding the chickens.
But instead of leaving Taehyun was walking to stand right beside you, âYouâre working here? Why would you do that?â he asked. It never was a secret that he wanted to leave this town, he used to talk about it a lot back then already and, even though he still was here, apparently, he still wanted to leave.
âIâm supporting my family,â you shrugged, not looking at him. You really didnât want to be cold to him but you were tired and you knew how Taehyung was, he didnât mean to be rude, he had a soft nature, everyone could see that once they got to see his warm smile but sometimes he was a bit rough.
You could see him shake his head in confusion as you were continuing with your work, âOkay, you go milk those cows and churn that butter if this is what fulfills you, (y/n). Iâll go back to work,â he pointed at the field of tomatoes on the other side of the farm your families shared and left you alone again.
Walking over to the cows, you couldn't help but wonder why he still was here. He was a very clever guy, he could easily go and leave this town to study and open a business or whatever it was he wanted to do. Glancing over to him one more time, you tried to divert your attention to milking the cows.
The field of tomatoes he was currently working on was not too far away but luckily still far enough to give you a bit of privacy. He seemed to be very invested in picking the best tomatoes he could find, a concentrated glance on his face. And you really should try to concentrate too, since you havenât milked a cow in years.
And you failed miserably. To your desperation, no one was around when you went looking for Jimin or your uncle to help you. Trotting back to the cows you sat down on a small stool in front of one them, giving it another try.
You groaned at the cow, laying your head back and closing your eyes in frustration. It was only your first day and you knew practice makes perfect but you wanted to cry.
âJust give me your stupid milk, please,â you mumbled while taking a deep breath, your eyes still closed.
âAre you sure this is the right job for you? If you canât even milk Bertha maybe you should reconsider,â Taehyungâs voice startled you, making you jump a bit. The grin on his face clearly was teasing, full of satisfaction because you were struggling, âDo you need help?â
âPlease,â you didnât care about the triumphing grin on his face, you were more than willing to take his offer. Any kind of help was good. And in the end, you didnât dislike Kim Taehyung, you just werenât close to him.
He nodded before telling you to wait for a second as he walked towards the little shed. Coming out again he held a strange looking machine in his hand while attaching it to the cowâs udder.
âWe haven't milked them by hand for years,â he explained to you as he took your wrist once again, this time more careful though, and slightly pulled you towards the cowâs udder, right next to him.
âWatch closely, Iâll show you once and if you canât follow, youâre on your own,â his words sounded harsh but you didnât take them that way. The fact that Yoongi was his best friend was something you two had in common and if he wanted you to give Taehyung a chance you would do that. For Yoongi, but also for yourself.
After all, Taehyung was your neighbor and, in addition, he was a handsome man, you wouldnât mind being able to look at his face whenever you wanted at all.
You saw the way he acts around the guys and you saw that he indeed had a very soft heart, maybe he just had a hard time showing it.
âHey! Are you even watching?â he asked annoyed while glancing at you, âI know how to do this, I am not the one that has to learn. Iâm being nice here, donât waste my time.â
You chuckled a bit at him losing his temper so easily. âYes, Taehyung, Iâm watching," you said grinning, âWasting your time was not a task on my list today.â
After he rolled his eyes at you you could swear you saw a small smile on his face while he started to milk the cow, explaining to you what he was doing step by step.
You tried to concentrate on how exactly he does it, what movements his hands made and so on but you kept on finding yourself thinking about how good his hands looked â what in the world was wrong with you? It's not like you've never seen an attractive man before so you had no clue why your hormones were playing a game with you.
After you started to try milking the cows yourself you felt more than relieved that you actually managed to do it right. Letting out a small âthank godâ under your breath you realized that Taehyung still stood right beside you, watching your every move.
âYou know, you can go back to the tomaââ you started to say before he interrupted you in the same moment.
âJust a tip for you,â he said, not sounding cold for the first time, âDonât dress up for farm work. Youâll ruin your clothes. You can still wear cute outfits after youâre finished here. But while working just wear something old,â he said as he was just about to turn around before you had to take the chance to annoy him one last time for now.
âYou think my outfit is cute?â the grin on your face was wide and you were way too amused.
As a response his eyes squinted together in regret, knowing that youâll probably never stop teasing him about it.
âPlease don't,â was all he could whisper frustrated under his breath.
âWhat a softie you are,â you playfully poked his upper arm, âDidnât know you had that in you.â
He let out yet another sigh, sounding almost whiny but the smile on the corner of his mouth came out nonetheless, âAre you always this awful?â
âDear diary,â you said in a nagging tone, âToday Kim Taehyung complimented myââ
Before you could end your sentence he was covering your mouth, shaking his head in disbelief slowly, âIâll go back to work, (y/n). Donât forget to churn the butter. The wooden pitcher we use for it is in the shed,â and with that, he walked back to his side of the farm again.
Just a second before he arrived he glanced over to you again, screaming so that you would hear him, âI didnât compliment you okay? Don't let it get to your head.â
Waving at him from the shed, you nodded your head. âSure. Talk to you later! Your outfit looks cute too by the wayâ, you screamed back.
Maybe working next to Taehyung wasnât so bad after all, if he was always such an easy target to provocate you'd at least have your fun.
When Jimin came into the shed with the tools to take over a few hours later, you were busy churning the butter, cursing under your breath.
Sweat was dripping all over your forehead and it was seriously tiring, every single muscle of your arm hurt, including some muscles you didnât even know you had. You werenât sure if you could manage to do that on a daily base. At least you wouldnât have to worry about a gym membership anymore.
Your cousin stared at you confused, a sly grin in the corner of his mouth, âWhat exactly are you doing?â
âIâm churning the goddamn butter. Why is it so hard?â you complained while looking up to him. He was holding two beers in his hands, handing one over to you before starting to laugh at your action.
âWhy would you use that old thing for that? We have a machine that churns it for us,â he laughed, âI donât know why we even still have that old thing.â
âFucking Kim Taehyung,â you cursed under your breath, leaving Jimin even more confused.
âYou met him?â he asked while sitting down in the hay beside you.
âI did," you hissed, âHe was the one who told me to do it this way.â
Jiminâs smile grew wide as he tried to contain his laughter, âI didnât know he could be so evil.â
He almost sounded satisfied that you were getting fooled by him, âHe likes you if he teases you.â
âWell, thatâs not a very nice way of showing it,â you took a big sip of the beer, knowing that you probably deserved it for all the teasing earlier, before continuing, âYou didnât tell me he became so handsome though.â
Jiminâs eyes widened immediately as you confessed and you could tell he was trying not to spit out his drink out of shock. He fastly swallowed, âYou have a crush on our Tae?â
You shook your head scoffing, lightly kicking his leg, âA crush? How old are we? I just think heâs very attractive. But he was pretty rude though.â
Jimin pressed his lips together in a thin line, looking into the sky, âHis father died two years ago. He had a hard time. But he opens up sooner or later, just be patient with him â I promise, he is one of the most kind and caring people in this town.â
You gulped at the news, âWhat a sad loss, Mr. Kim was such a ray of sunshine, always ready to help if help was needed.â
Jimin nodded, âHe was. Olli was only six years old when his father died. But dad took a lot of care of them since then.â
There was a short silence. You still remembered little Olli, Taehyungâs younger brother. The last time you saw him he was barely two years old.
âI canât believe heâs your type though. I thought I really wanted to set you up with Jungkook,â Jimin broke the silence before you could think about it any longer, almost offended.
You laughed at him. He was close to Taehyung, you knew that, but he always wanted you to date Jungkook, only for the purpose of having him as an official family member.
âThat wonât happen,â, you broke it to him, much to his disappointment.
A deep sigh came from him, âWell if you want Taehyung so bad, come to the pub with us. I bet heâll be there too tonight. We are meeting at eight. What do you say?â
âI donât want him, I simply said that he is good looking,â Â you desperately hoped he wouldnât tease you all the time about this from now on, already starting to slowly regret that you even brought it up in the first place. And as much as you would like to go out to the pub with the others you had a date with your bathtub that you wouldnât want to miss for anything else tonight.
âIâll pass though. Iâll come next time,â you promised, standing up and walking towards your door.
âI canât wait to tell Yoongi that you and Taehyung are going to become a couple. How exciting!â he yelled after you in his typical teasing voice, making you laugh out in frustration. Sharing your opinion on Taehyungâs look with your cousin probably wasn't the best idea.
It fastly got dark outside and you were lighting the candles in your bathroom, the bathtub slowly filling up with hot water.
Exactly what your muscles needed after churning the butter all afternoon. Putting a bit of milk in the bathtub, you wondered if you had some honey in the farmhouse by any chance. As you wrapped the first towel you could find around your body, you wanted to hush over to your uncleâs house to check. But what stopped you from your plans was a shadow you saw walking past your window, making you freeze until someone rang your door.
Opening it, no one else than Taehyung was standing in front of it, his work clothes traded into sweatpants and an oversized hoodie, a basket in his hand and his eyes fixed on your exposed legs.
The towel you were wearing luckily covered all of your breast and bottom but that was about it. And, as if it couldn't get worse, it also had a lot of fairies on it â it used to be your favorite towel when you were about five years old. Still, you didnât need Taehyung to see you wearing it.
âTaehyung?â you asked him, unsure why he was visiting but he was still looking at the exposed parts of your body, not doing a good job at hiding the fact that he got distracted by your legs. You barely noticed though because your thoughts wandered to this morning. âHow dare you not telling me that we have a machine for the butter? Are you crazy?â
âMy arms hurt so much,â you added in a complaining tone, too tired to fight him so you decided to whine instead.
Coming back to reality, he laughed at you, his eyes now looking at your face, âYou seriously did it all by yourself?â â he was lucky the wrinkles around his eyes were so cute whenever he laughed, otherwise you would have killed him right there, âYou must be pretty strong then.â
âWhat do you want?â you asked him annoyed before you saw his eyes wandering down to your legs once again.
Not missing out on the opportunity to nag him, you chuckled, âDo you like my outfit?â as you struck a small pose, you had to be careful not to expose any parts he shouldnât see.
Rolling his eyes he handed over the basket, âSeriously, youâre so annoying.â
You grinned, thinking itâs quite funny how easy it was to annoy him, âBut you still think Iâm cute, so it doesnât matter.â
There definitely was a smile hidden on his lips that he tried to hide at all cost, but you could see it reaching his eyes, âThis is for you. My mum put your favorites in it. Tomatoes, cherries, peaches, blueberries. She asked me to bring it to you,â the man said, trying to sound as uninterested and unbothered as possible.
âThatââ you started to gather your words, feeling very touched about the little gift but a bit confused as to why Taehyung brought it to you, âThatâs so nice of her. Iâll come over tomorrow and thank her.â
He immediately focused on you again, âNo, it's fine. Iâll tell her. Sheâs kind of sick at the moment, she needs to rest, Olli is not even letting me go near her because he doesnât want anyone else to get sick, so I doubt he would let you come over.â
You mustered him suspiciously but decided to leave him be, you surely teased him enough for today and didnât want him to actually dislike you.
âAlright, Tae. Thank you,â you gave him a soft smile as you were about to close the door.
âWait,â he stopped you before you closed the door and you waited for him to say something, âAre you planning to go to the pub later?â â if you didnât expect him to ask one thing than it was this one. Why did he care suddenly?
âI donât think so. Churning that butter has really worn me out, you know?â you said, laughing lightly, âAnd my bathtub is already waiting for me.â
âOh alright. Thatâs cool. See you soon, I guess,â he said before awkwardly giving you a small smile and leaving again. What a strange yet interesting guy he was.
Something about him made you look forward to your future on the farm. But before you could let it get to your head, you were interrupted by a text from no one else than Yoongi.
[Yoongi, 22:29]
Glad to hear you're getting yourself a man! Taehyung and (y/n), how sweet.
You let out a small laugh before finally meeting your only date for tonight: Your bathtub. Though you had to admit that the handsome face from next door was coming to your mind every now and then.
After a week you slowly got used to the daily work on the farm, your body was finally starting to react differently, your arms werenât getting as sore anymore and waking up early was bothering you less and less.
It was a sunny Saturday which meant you had to gather all of the goods your uncle wanted to sell on the market the next morning. Picking out the best eggs, milk, wool and cheese was pretty boring, especially since Jimin left early because he was going on a date tonight with some random girl you never heard about before. But since you wanted him to be happy, and also because his teasing about Taehyung was slowly but surely making you go insane, you told him it would be okay if he let you work alone today.
It took you about an hour until you were finally done with carrying all of the boxes into your uncleâs car as you saw Mrs. Kim, Taehyungâs mother, and decided to help her quickly carrying her own boxes filled with pretty fruits and vegetables.
His mother was a beautiful and lovely lady, always has been. Her black hair was long and even though there were a few grey strands in it by now she still looked as young as ever.
âMrs. Kim, let me help you,â you shouted while jogging over to her, âWhereâs Taehyung? Letting his mother carry all the heavy boxes of fruits and vegetables alone is not a nice thing to do,â you disapproved, one box already in your hands.
She let out a laugh and you were reminded of how warm her laughter was, it sounded like the giggle of a small child.
âItâs fine, I told him to rest for today. He always works so much,â she let out a worried sigh, âIâm very thankful, I know helping me on the farm was not what he wanted to do with his life but he does it for me.â
You never really thought about it that way before â that might explain why he was still here despite always hating the small village he was born and grew up in, it was probably hard for him to leave his family behind after losing his father.
While carrying a box full of blueberries you ate a handful, not able to hold back. The Kimâs blueberries have always been your favorites, none of the ones back at home could compare to the juicy fruits you'd get here.
âYou still love blueberries, I see,â She hummed joyfully as she was carrying the last box to the car.
âI am obsessed with them,â you answered, âOh how rude of me â I still wanted to thank you for the little basket full of fruits you send to me. I was in heaven, your peaches were even better than I remembered.â
Mrs. Kim looked at you in confusion for a second before getting a grip of the situation, the confusion vanishing while a different kind of expression came to her face, unable for you to read at first.
âSo he can actually be charming,â she mumbled to herself with an almost mischievous smirk and within seconds you knew exactly what she was talking about. That little shit.
Scoffing, you wondered why Taehyung wouldn't just admit that the little basket was a present from him, not from his mother â who would do something so sweet without wanting to let the other person know? But then, on the other hand, you didnât understand Taehyung at all.
âMum,â you heard his voice yell out while he walking out of the door to their house.
When he saw you he froze for a second, âOh, hey, (y/n),â he said with a slight and not really convincing smile, it almost seemed forced.
You nodded towards him, ready to go back to work and leave them alone, as his little brother came running outside, chasing after Taehyung.
âTete,â he let out a scream as he tried to jump on his back. He was surprisingly tall for an eight-year-old, almost managing to get to Taehyungâs shoulders if he jumped high enough, âCan I come with you? Please?â
Before he could answer, Olliâs attention shifted somewhere else. Or better said, onto someone else. To be precise, you caught his attention, the girl standing in front of his mother and brother, a stranger heâs never seen before.
âWho are you?â he asked curiously, studying you exactly, âAre you Minwooâs niece?â
You kneeled down to be at an eye to eye level with him, shaking his hand, âYes, thatâs me. Iâm (y/n). It's nice to meet you.â
He had a big grin on his face, âHi, Iâm Olli,â after introducing himself to you he turned around to his big brother, âDid you make the basket for her?â
Taehyung shushed him within a second, giving him a warning glance before trying to cover up his story, âYes, I did it because mum asked me to.â
She let out a sarcastic laugh, making fun of her son, âSure. It was totally me asking you to do that.â
A heavy sigh fell from Taehyungâs mouth before shaking his head in disbelief, âWhere is your cousin? He promised heâd help me picking up our new couch.â
âOh, I am afraid he forgot. Heâs on a date right now,â you informed him.
Taehyung let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his temple, not believing that Jimin completely forgot about him. Now even more frustrated, he started mumbling, âItâs always the same with this guy.â
âIâll help you,â you volunteered determined, not even bothering to ask him first, knowing heâd say no anyway, âIâm done with work for today and I donât mind coming along.â
âNo, itâs fine. Iâll go alone,â he insisted, clearly mad at your cousin before walking over to his car. Not caring you decided to follow him, hoping that heâd be nice to Jimin if you helped him instead, even though you had little hope.
âStop being so stubborn,â you said to him as you opened the door and sat down inside the car, âJust accept my help.â
And much to your surprise, he did accept it, not bothering to start another discussion with you. Maybe he was just too tired of the constant bickering going on between the two of you.
As the two of you drove out of town the sky looked like it was painted in golden colors, the sun slowly setting but the air was still warm, brushing the arm you held out of the open window.
âWhere are we even going?â you asked the obviously bothered boy beside you.
âItâs not far away, the dude Iâm buying the couch from lives like twenty minutes away,â he answered, his eyes glued to the street, âYou really didnât have to come. I couldâve easily done it alone.â
Slowly but surely, you were starting to get mad at Taehyung. You couldnât tell why his constant attitude was getting to you but it did. Of course, he didn't have to like you and honestly, maybe you did go a bit too far with the teasing but after all, you were neighbors, co-workers and also shared the same group of friends. Being nice to each other was the least you could do â especially when you knew that he wasnât like that at all towards other people. Youâve seen him interact with his little brother and his mother and his friends, he was a warm and loving person, laughing and joking whenever he could. He just wouldnât open up towards you.
âDude, youâre the worst. Can you keep quiet for once and accept help? Stop being so rude all the time, being nice every now and then wonât hurt you, you know? You can take your bad mood out on Jimin later.â you snapped at him, not even intended to sound so mean but it just happened â you just wanted him to at least accept you.
He peaked at you, his eyes grew wide in shock at your rant. Even though your voice was still low he clearly heard the frustration in it, âWhat do you mean? I am being nice all the time. I told you that you shouldnât wear your good clothes to work in. That was a piece of nice advice I gave you for example.â
You scoffed at him not knowing if he was being serious, âYou also attacked me because you thought I was stealing chicken and made me churn butter.â
He chuckled amused as you brought the churning up, âI still canât believe you did that.â
âMy arms still hurt. Youâre an asshole,â you rolled your eyes, not in the mood to put up with Taehyung being, well, himself, when you were just being nice, âIf that is your interpretation of being nice Iâm beyond sorry for your future girlfriend.â
âHey, now youâre the one being mean,â he acted offended and honestly, a bit confused, not knowing why the two of you were fighting. You weren't even mad at him, you just felt fed up, craving at least peace between the two of you.
âWell, maybe you just need a taste of your own medicine,â you shrugged, calming down a bit as the discussion started to shift to a more playful mood than a serious one.
But before you or Taehyung could fuel the fire and add anything into the it, you let out a small scream as he was turning right with full speed, making you feel like you were about to crash, holding onto the seatbelt for dear life.
âFor fucks sake, where did you learn how to drive? Do you not know that youâre supposed to slow down before turning?â you asked him, gasping for air.
âIf this is already scaring you, Iâll give you the nice advice to not drive with Yoongi,â he laughed out loud as he parked his car in front of a big house, âReady to use the strength in your arms built up from churning butter?â
It took you about twenty minutes to carry all the parts of the couch from the third floor to the trailer attached on Taehyungâs car. When you were done it was beginning to get dark outside and the weather was cooling down, making you shiver a bit.
All done, you sat back inside Taehyungâs car as he was securing the trailer so you could drive back home safely â or at least as safe as a ride with him could be.
âIf youâre cold thereâs a blanket on the backseat, I'll get it for you,â he yelled from outside before coming getting inside the car, a blanket in his hand, âSee how nice I am? So caring, not wanting you to freeze to death.â
You shook your head amused, âWhat a gentleman you are.â
The drive home was more peaceful, no discussions this time. You looked outside, seeing a big and bright star in the sky, pointing to it excited.
âI canât get over how beautiful the starry night sky is here. I donât think Iâll ever get used to it,â you mumbled, almost sounding dreamy, eyes glued to the sky. It wasnât even completely dark outside yet, but the first stars were already sparkling brightly.
âIsnât it the same in your hometown?â he asked a bit perplexed as he looked over to you, wondering how you could be so excited about some stupid stars.
âNot at all. The big city lights drown them. You can barely see some, and if you can, they are not as bright as here.â
âI suppose living here isnât all bad.â, he shrugged after thinking about it for a few seconds, his glance wavering to the sky every few seconds.
You hummed in agreement, âExcept for this terrible guy living next to me I quite enjoy my time here.â
He chuckled, enjoying the little game you two were playing, âMust be really hard to live right next to such an attractive young man. I bet you have a hard time.â
Laughing, you were impressed at his wittiness, âDonât think too highly of yourself.â
Before you could let him answer your favorite song suddenly started playing in the radio, making you turn up the volume instantly, âYou need to shut up now. This is my all-time favorite song.â
But of course, Taehyung didn't shut up. Much more like him, he did the opposite, trying to sing along as loud as he could just to ruin the song for you â and he had way too much fun doing it.
âI didnât know you could sing,â you said, giving him an approving look.
A smirk formed on his lips, âI'm a man full of surprises.â
The rest of the drive the two of you were singing along to the radio loudly, having genuine fun together for the first time since you arrived. It was nice to see him loosen up a bit, even though it was only a small step.
Driving up to the farm, you already saw Jimin sitting on the porch. He immediately stood up, walking over to the car, already apologizing without you really arriving yet, âIâm so so sorry mate. I completely forgot. I owe you a beer next time we go out.â
Taehyung chuckled as he turned the engine off, âDoesnât seem like his date had a happy ending, considering heâs home already.â
âGood for me,â you shrugged, âIâm way too tired to carry the whole couch inside anyway.â
You were the first to get out of the car, making Jimin narrow his eyebrows in confusion.
âWhat are you doing in Taehyungâs car?â he asked suspiciously.
âIâm doing your fucking job,â you shot him a mean glance.
As you were walking towards your home you were stopped by Taehyung holding your arm, making you turn around.
âThank you, I suppose,â he said, pressing his lips together, obviously feeling awkward, âJust trying to be nice.â
You gave him a genuine smile, âNo problem. Sleep well.â
âYou too, (y/n).â
Waking up you were almost shocked to see the weather. Yesterday the sun was still shining while today it was pouring like you never saw before. The sky was dark and grey and your whole farm seemed quite sad, making you wish you could just stay in bed all day, just being lazy, reading, eating and maybe fantasizing about a certain someone.
Checking your phone you saw a text from Jimin: itâs going to storm today, you have to make sure all the animals are in the barn and safe, please. iâm getting food for tonight. see you later, favorite cousin.
You immediately threw on a thick cardigan and brushed your teeth, hurrying to get things done before the weather got even worse. Looking in the mirror you scoffed for a second at your sad reflection â your hair was in a very messy bun and your under-eye circles were almost black. But there was no time to pity yourself right now, you could do that after work.
After you fed and, of course, petted the chickens and made sure that all the windows were closed tightly you ran over to the barn where the cows and goats were in. Your clothes were completely drenched even though the way between the barns was very short, the heavy rain was so strong that there was no way you couldâve stayed dry.
Entering the barn your eyebrows narrowed as you saw that the light was on and the food for the cows was already laid out.
âUncle Minwoo?â you screamed loudly, the rain was so loud that otherwise, no one would hear you.
âOh thank god, there you are,â the owner of the voice was coming out of the little shed you kept your tools in, throwing one of the milking machines over to you. You barely had time to catch it because Taehyung was throwing it without caring if youâd catch it or not.
âWhat are you doing here?â you asked him skeptically as you sat down to the cow next to the one he was currently milking.
He glanced at you with an annoyed expression on his face - but only until he saw how wet you were from the rain. Right then, he bursted out into laughter, âWhy are you not wearing a raincoat for fucks sake?â he asked you, enjoying the sight in front of him a little too much.
âI donât even own one,â you admitted a bit hesitant while shrugging, knowing heâd make even more fun of you.
And of course, he did.
âHow can you not own a raincoat? Seriously, (y/n), youâre something else. Who on earth doesnât own a raincoat?â he shook his head in disbelief, still laughing.
You simply pressed your lips together, coming back to your actual question, âBut why are you here? Certainly not because you wanted to help me.â
âHey, maybe Iâm not as bad as you think and just wanted to be friendly for once?â he said, acting offended, âSince youâre always complaining.â
âYeah, I doubt that,â you answered.
Suddenly you heard a loud thunder outside, making you jump - you usually were not afraid of thunder but the sudden loud noise startled you for a second. What really scared you though was the reaction of two of your cows, immediately after they heard the thunder they let out the deepest and loudest sounds youâve ever heard of them. They sounded terrified.
Taehyung immediately jumped up from his stool and walked over to Bertha, the small brown cow, petting her face.
âShhhh, it's okay,â he tried calming her down before looking over to you, âIâm always here when it storms. Bertha and Marnie are deadly afraid of the thunder, so I accompany them. It calms them down.â
For a second you thought he was fooling you but before you could say something another loud thunder was heard followed by loud sounds of the cows once again. God, you weren't sure if you ever could get used to the sounds they made.
âWait,â you interrupted confused as you saw Taehyung pet Bertha once again, giving her a small kiss on the side of her face, âYouâre serious?â
He looked at you with a grin, âOf course I am. Go, pet Marnie a bit. She loves getting pets right under his chin, sheâs such a lovely cow.â
You did as he said but not really trusting him yet.
âI didnât know he had feelings, Marnie, did you?â you asked the cow sarcastically.
Taehyung chuckled, shaking his head, âI only have feelings Marnie and Bertha.â
Bertha was walking away from him to the hay he just put down for them to lie down for a bit, something you barely ever saw them doing,
âWhen I first looked into Berthaâs big brown eyes I fell in love,â he stated lovingly, petting some of the other cows while Bertha was still lying down, âHer eyes are just too pure.â
âThatâs adorable,â you had to admit, âDidnât expect that from you.â
âAre you aware that just because Iâm telling you youâre stupid because you donât own a raincoat or work on a farm with a goddamn Gucci shirt doesn't mean I'm an asshole? Thatâs my way of helping,â he said confidently, âYou just seem to not know exactly what to do, so Iâm trying to help.â
âYou're still being mean while doing it,â you insisted, not giving in.
âWhatever,â he walked over to Bertha, who was resting on the ground, lying down next to her, âJust go inside and relax, Iâll take care of the cows.â
âNo way,â you sat down next to him, âIâll not leave you alone with my cows. I donât trust you.â
Of course, that was only an excuse to spend some time with the pretty boy from next door but he didn't need to know â his ego was big enough already. Both of you were now starting to relax slowly, leaning against Bertha, petting her every now and then.
âSo, farmer girl, how do you like it here?â he asked you after a few seconds of silence, seeming to be actually interested in you for once.
âItâs nice,â you shrugged as he was peaking over at you, âI like the fact that I finally am allowed to go into the pub the most.â
âI remember when we first were allowed to go in, it was like Harry Potter seeing Hogwarts for the first time,â he remembered laughing, âand now weâre the ones that get drunk in there while the younger kids are jealous they canât.â
âSome things never change, right?â your eyes darted to Taehyung, who had his eyes closed and seemed to be truly relaxed in your presence for the first time since you arrived. He was using his arm as a pillow, a smile on his lips - for once a genuine smile, not the usual teasing one he gave you. The rain was pouring so hard onto the roof of the barn it sounded like applause. You couldnât help but smile to yourself, exhaling a breathy scoff through your nose, not believing that he actually had a soft side.
âWhat's so funny?â he asked curiously, still with closed eyes.
âI just love the sound of heavy rain,â Â you lied, also getting into a comfortable position and closing your eyes.
Your neighbour let out a hum, agreeing with you before yawning, âMe too. Itâs cozy.â
Your eyelids started to feel heavy, you didnât have much sleep last night and your body was shivering a bit because of your wet clothes. Taehyung was snoring lightly beside you within a few minutes and before you knew it you were asleep too. You wouldnât have expected the barn to be such a comfortable place to sleep in.
The sound of someone calling your name, you couldn't quite identify who it belonged to yet, woke you up. As you were slowly starting to realize where you were, you were just as perplexed as Taehyung, who was still beside you, seeming to just have woken up too, according to his dreamy gaze.
âDid we fall asleep?â he asked you, yawning and stretching his arms from his body.
As you looked up, Jimin was standing in front of both of you, confusion was written all over his face, âWhat the hell are you two doing in here? How do I keep finding you two together?â
Taehyung shrugged, sitting up as you were doing the same, âWhat does it look like? We obviously fell asleep.â
âOkay but why were you here together in the first place?â he asked, a smirk on his lips, âDid you make out in front of the cows? They are too young to be exposed to such wild and unholy behavior.â
Chuckling at his remark, you rubbed your eyes a bit, âDon't be noisy, please. Iâm having a headache.â
âYou two are just too cute,â he teased a bit before telling you the reason he was looking for you in the first place, âDinnerâs ready. Weâre having some meat with different salads and corn. Feel free to join us Tae, your mum and Olli are there too.â
âI donât know,â he replied, a little unsure, âI still wanted to meet up with Namjoon and Hoseok later.â
Jimin narrowed his eyebrows, âWhy didnât you ask me to join, you jerk?â
Taehyung laughed at Jimin, standing up, surprisingly offering you a hand to help you get up from the ground, âIâll eat dinner with you and then you can come with me, alright?â he proposed to Jimin.
Your cousin agreed happily and the three of you walked over to the big house Minwoo and Jimin lived in.
âDid you find her?â your uncle screamed from the kitchen as he heard the door open.
âYes, Iâm here,â you shouted back as you took off your shoes.
Walking over to them, Mrs. Kim was surprised to see her son, âOh, Tae. How lovely that youâre here,â she smiled as cute as always, âWhere have you been?â
Both, Taehyung and you felt a bit awkward telling them where exactly Jimin found them, not wanting anyone to get a wrong idea. But, of course, your annoying cousin was faster.
âThey were sleeping in the barn together,â he smirked as he told your family, enjoying every minute of it, âYou two seem to get along better by now.â
Taehyung rolled his eyes, âWe were literally just taking care of the cows.â
You nodded, âItâs not like we met to take a nap in the barn.â
Uncle Minwoo and Mrs. Kim both giggled a bit at the bickering between their families, âStop teasing them. They are already flustered,â she said lightheartedly.
Everyone sat down on the table as your uncle brought the food to the table. It smelled like you were sitting in a restaurant and you could feel your mouth watering as you saw the food.
âThank you for letting us eat with you,â Taehyung said in a polite manner.
âOh, Tae!â Minwoo exclaimed joyfully, âYouâre always welcome. Weâre like family.â
He nodded thankful as all of you started eating. The food was truly delicious and the conversation was nice, all of you participating in it, talking about current events and life on the farm.
You weren't sure if it was because your families were there but Taehyung was unusually nice to you, not even nagging you once. He passed you the salt when you asked him to and he even asked you about your job back at home.
It was a nice evening and you cherished it, knowing that it probably was a once in a lifetime experience to have a normal, peaceful conversation with Taehyung in the same room as you.
About an hour later you started walking from the big house to the small hut and even if it only took a minute or two Taehyung walked right beside you, not leaving your side.
Maybe he truly wasn't as bad as you made him out to be â the two of you might have had some difficulties but thinking about it now he seemed to open up to you more and more. As both of you stood in front of your door, you fiddled with your hands, not knowing how to react to being all alone with him.
âDonât let Jimin drink too much tonight. I need him to be fit tomorrow. Itâs my day off,â you joked.
âI promise to stop him if he drinks too much,â he smiled brightly, the wrinkles around his eyes showing slightly, âIâll see you around?â
A scoff escaped your lips before you could hold it back, âConsidering the fact that you can look inside my living room from your window I think so yes.â
And with that, he started walking towards his house but even after he was gone you still couldn't stop smiling.
The few next weeks were pretty unspectacular, working on the farm was part of your everyday life by now and your work was a routine, knowing every small step of it.
But still, today you woke up with a smile plastered on your face â itâs not like anyone besides Jimin and Minwoo, maybe Yoongi, would know itâs your birthday today but you still loved your special day.
It didn't matter that no one would know, you were quite happy that to everyone else this day would be just another day. You, on the other hand, had tons of self-care plans for tonight.
The first thing you did that morning was checking your phone, happy to see that your friends from home â or more like what used to be home to you â thought of you and send you very nice birthday greetings full of love, telling you that they missed you. In no time you got up and dressed to go over to the main house.
âSo, what do you want to do today?â Jimin asked you as you had breakfast with him and your uncle. Despite you telling them that they shouldn't worry about you, they still made you some scrambled eggs and cut a lot of the vegetables from the Kimâs farm, Jimin even managed to go to the heart of the city to buy some buns for all of you.
Stretching yourself, tiredness still washing over you, you thought about his question. âI actually donât know, I thought I'd just do some sheet masks later and watch Netflix,â you said shrugging before eating a piece of cucumber, âWhy? Any ideas?â
âWhy donât you invite your friends over, (y/n)?â your uncle suggested but youâd rather not. The problem with inviting people over is you canât leave early since they are literally at your own place and you'd never kick them out, not wanting to be unfriendly.
âNo way, I donât even think most people know about my birthday. Iâll stay lowkey about it,â Â you denied your uncle's request, just wanting to have a nice night on the couch after you took a long bath â an ideal night for you.
âWhy don't we have a movie night?â you suggested to your two family members but they didnât seem to show much support to your idea.
Uncle Minwoo immediately stopped you, âIâm not letting you stay at home with your old uncle and cousin on your birthday.â
âIâd love that though. We hadnât had a movie night in a long time,â you pouted, hoping to convince your uncle despite knowing you had no chance against him.
âJimin, take her to the pub, alright?â he instructed his son who was currently not listening to the conversation and instead was texting someone.
âSure,â he agreed with his father before looking up from his phone, âIâll take you to the pub later, (y/n). No discussion.â
So a few hours later you found yourself in your small bathroom, putting on a real full face make-up for the first time ever since you moved here, you almost forgot how pretty you could be.
Jimin said to make sure that you looked your best since a lot of other people would be there, including the girl he âsometimes takes outâ, as he liked to call it.
Even though you were still not fully in the mood, you started to warm up to the idea of going out as you got ready. In the end, you knew it wouldn't hurt to doll yourself up and go out every now and then â and maybe, just maybe, Taehyung would be there too.
Jimin picked you up from your place at around eight in the evening, the sky already pitch-black.
âHey birthday kid,â he said lovingly, âI didn't know you could look this lovely. Trying to impress a certain boy?â
Throwing him a glare that was about to end his life you were ready to hit your cousin if he wouldnât stop mentioning your attraction towards your neighbor. You prayed he didnât tell Tae about it, his ego was big enough and you didnât know if you could survive if heâd become even cockier. Taehyung knew how handsome he was and that he could probably get just any girl if he wanted already so you didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
âIâll kill you if you donât shut your mouth,â you threatened him even though you knew that nothing could stop Jimin's teasing ever.
Arriving at the Pub, you couldnât help but grin like an idiot â all of your friends were waiting inside, a whole booth decorated just for you. Yoongi was the first to welcome you, hugging you tightly. âHappy Birthday, princess,â he almost whispered into your ear before the other people were waiting for their turn to congratulate you.
Hoseok and Namjoon were there, including Namjoonâs girlfriend, that you hadnât met before. Jungkook, of course, was there too and even gifted you some sunflower. âThose are my favorite!â you told him excited, to which he replied that he still remembered.
Jimin introduced you to his almost-girlfriend and she seemed to be a nice girl, a bit smaller than him, with cute glasses, short hair and a nose ring that she pulled off like no one else could.
And last but not least Kim Taehyung was standing in front of you, trying to look cold and unbothered like always, but his eyes were sparkling a bit, giving away that he wasn't as cool as he wanted to be.
âYouâre here!â you gasped, genuinely excited to see him, âI feel honored.â
He shook his head joyful. âDonât let it get to your head. Happy birthday, farmer girl,â for the first time ever Taehyung hugged you, and you hated to admit that it felt quite comforting â the hug didnât feel awkward or forced at all, he even had his hand on your head, right in your hair.
Yoongi and Jimin, who were standing behind Taehyung, were inspecting the hug you shared, drawing hearts with their fingers in the air for only you to see as you turned red.
â(Y/n), we got a present for you! Come on, sit down,â Hoseok happily singsang from the table and Taehyung let you go, way too early for your liking, but you werenât complaining â you appreciated what you got this far.
As you sat down beside Yoongi, Taehyung sat right next to you, pretty close since you were sitting on a small bank with five people.
The booth was decorated with a paper chain that spelled âHappy Birthdayâ, a few presents were waiting for you on the table, right next to many glasses and several bottles of alcohol.
âThis one is from me, Hoseok and Seokjin,â Namjoon said excited, handing you a present.
Opening it you couldnât help but pout at their heartwarming idea: They gifted you a framed picture the four of you when you were little, you were maybe around three to four years old.
âGod, we were so small,â you chuckled, studying the picture.
Hoseok smiled wholeheartedly, âThereâs a little wheel on the side that you have to move,â he explained and so you did â as you turned the little wheel more pictures of your friends and you appeared, all of them from different years.
âI love it,â you smiled at them, âI'll find a special place to display it, I promise.â
âOpen ourâs next,â Yoongi said, an untrustworthy smirk on his face. âItâs from me and Jimin.â
Just because you knew the two of you too well, you didnât trust them at all.
âI bet itâll get also a very, very special place at your home,â Jimin assured you and you just knew at that point they probably got you something very stupid.
And they did â you let out a deep breath, shaking your head in disbelief.
âThanks, I really needed that,â you said sarcastically as you hold the box of the vibrator they gifted you in your hand.
Both of the boys bursted out into laughter, making you sigh.
âYou think you're so funny, don't you? How old are you? Fourteen?â you snipped both of their foreheads but still, a chuckle managed to slip out. Not really because you thought the present was funny but more because the boys were so amused by their own idea.
âWe know the nights get lonely here,â Jimin said, still laughing like a teenager, âMuch fun with it. Just call Taehyung if you need any help with it.â
âYeah, no, thanks, I think I can handle that on my own,â you quickly responded before anyone else could join their nagging, âI really need a shot now. Otherwise, I won't be able to deal with you.â
Yoongi immediately poured a round of shots for everyone, âTo our little (y/n).â
All of your friends clinked glasses and downed the shot. Within a few hours, one shot became quite a few, too many to count them. Jimin and his girl were making out heavily in the corner of the pub â much to your disgust. While you were happy for your cousin you still could imagine better things than seeing your family member's tongue in someone's mouth.
Yoongi, you, Seokjin, Namjoon and Taehyung were currently playing a card drinking game that you not only never heard of before but was also killing you at a fast pace.
â(Y/n), your turn,â Taehyung glanced at you, raising his eyebrow â his cheeks were red and the sloppy smile on his face gave away that he also was at least a bit intoxicated by now, âRed or black?â
That was the whole point of the game, basically the only rule. You had to say a color and if the card didnât have the color you had to take a shot. Seokjin said it was the best game to get really drunk really fast, and boy, he was right.
âRedâ, you answered or to be exact, mumbled since you had a hard time pronouncing your words clearly by now.
And, of course, luck wasnât on your side - as Taehyung turned around the card it showed black. âTae~â you let out a whine as he laughed, âI literally cannot drink this shot or else Iâll throw up.â
Your head was turning and your stomach felt warm and tingly, a part of you suddenly felt playful and giggly, which was pretty unusual for you. Looking at Taehyung you felt something deep down in your stomach â the way his rather long and curly hair fell into his face and his tanned skin was glowing was a beautiful sight. God, you really wanted to blame it on the booze but deep down you were aware that you were just fooling yourself.
âYouâre no fun,â he almost whined before taking the shot, âIâll take it for you since itâs your birthday.â
âOh, what a gentleman you are,â you nudged him.
âJust trying to get drunk,â he shrugged laughing before downing the shot as if it was nothing.
Your glance waved over to Jungkook, who was e the drunkest, his eyes slowly closing. âJungkook!â you poked his upper arm, not sure if you should laugh or be concerned, âAre you passing out?â
âHmm?â he responded, trying to open his eyes but failing, âOh no. Iâm just taking a nap.â
You peeked to Taehyung beside you, questioning him what to do, âAre you going to babysit him?â
He scoffed, âThat isnât my problem to deal with.â
About two hours later you decided that it was time to go home, having to admit that you did have fun despite wanting to stay home at first. You thanked everyone and grabbed your bag.
âWhat about you?â you asked Taehyung who was sitting on his phone, texting someone with his eyebrows furrowed, âYouâre staying?â
His eyes met yours as he looked up from his phone, âNo, Iâm walking you home. Give me a second.â
You decided to wait outside, in need of some fresh air to sober you up.
Slowly, you started to walk towards your home, knowing Taehyung would be able to catch up in no time. And he did, of course.
âOh!â he looked at you with wide eyes as he arrived by your side, before opening his bag, looking for something, âItâs your birthday!â
âNo shit, Sherlock,â you responded unimpressed at his sudden realization, walking through the little city at night, still not used to how beautiful the stars were here, âYou just got that now?â
âNo, wait. I actually got you something,â the boy mumbled and you thought you heard wrong for a second. At least until Taehyung handed you a box, a rather big one.
âAre you serious?â you asked surprised, suddenly feeling shy. This morning you were convinced he didnât even know it was your birthday but now he was standing in front of you, with a present that was neatly wrapped in yellow wrapping paper.
âDonât make a big deal out of it, please,â he chuckled as you two walked through the dark night, only a few lanterns on your way home, âJust open it. It felt wrong not to get you anything. I mean, weâre neighbors now, and also co-workers.â
Your arm nudged him, playfully asking, âMaybe even friends?â
His laugh seemed to be even louder and happier when heâs drunk, âSays who? You wish!â before immediately adding, âIâm kidding, Iâm kidding. Maybe even that. Now open it. Letâs sit down.â
Your neighbor gestured at the bank on the side of the way, a few steps away.
He took out his phone to turn on the flashlight so you could see, sitting dangerously close to you. âWhy didnât you give it to me earlier?â you asked him curiously.
âYou know, I gotta keep my cool reputation in front of them,â he joked.
âAh, canât let them know that you have a crush on me?â you blurted out, trying to flirt, knowing you would never say those things if it wasnât for all the shots you drank earlier.
âYouâre a pain in the ass,â he mocked you a bit, âWill you please just open it now? There are a few smaller things.â
As you ripped open the wrapping paper you let out a laugh, impressed by his first present, âA raincoat? I couldâve seen that one coming.â
âI still canât believe you donât own one. Look underneath, thereâs also a shirt you can use for work so you wonât ruin your good clothes,â he said, almost proud of his idea and it was adorable.
The shirt was grey and oversized - and also, there was a picture printed onto it. Taehyung let out another laugh, covering his mouth with his hand to stop him from laughing harder, before you could see what was on it.
As he shined his flashlight on the picture you were not only extremely amused but also very amazed that he did that for you, even though he obviously was trying to be funny, you genuinely liked it â the picture was a selfie of Taehyung, giving a thumbs up, right next to his favorite being on this earth, Bertha. Underneath the picture the sentence â(Y/n), you can do it. I hope.â was written in big letters.
âYouâre seriously the worst,â you joined his laughter, wondering how in the hell he got this idea. The atmosphere was almost friendly â a new step for the two of you. Not that you didnât like him before, you just thought that he didnât like you back.
âI think youâll look quite good in it, (y/n),â he smiled proudly, definitely satisfied with himself.
âYouâre such a flirt,â you said sarcastically.
The last gift in the box really got to you though - it immediately brought back a lot of memories, cherished ones, of your childhood. An overwhelming rush of sentiment came over you as you couldn't believe your eyes.
âTae, Iââ you were looking for the right words to say but none came to your head, âIs it what I think it is?â
âIf you think itâs your old music box that played Somewhere Over The Rainbow over and over again, then it is, yes,â he replied, playing it cool as if it wasn't a big thing.
You totally forgot about it until now, back in the day you always used to play it before going to bed, falling asleep immediately to the soothing sound of it â back then it didn't matter where you were: you wouldn't fall asleep without the petite woodbox playing your favorite song.
âWhere did you even get this?â you asked him, gulping.
âOh, Minwoo gave it to me to calm the cows on thunder days,â he said amused.
âYouâve got to be kidding me,â you chuckled, still inspecting the music box. It seemed to be even prettier than you remembered it.
âDo you like it?â he asked, turning towards you, âI know how obsessed you were with it as a child so I thought youâd like to have it back. The cows didnât like it anyway.â
Your eyes met his, not knowing what to say. He was so cool about it when to you, this might be one of the most meaningful presents you've gotten in a long time. The fact that he even remembered how in love you were with this music box and how thoughtful of him it was to give it back to you. Slowly you put the box down, still feeling a bit overwhelmed. It was probably stupid, for him it was just a simple present and you were overreacting, right? But still, it was so much more than you wouldâve expected. Especially from him
âI love it,â you assured him, the wrinkles around his eyes deeper than youâve ever seen them before. âThank you so much.â
Before he could say something to ruin the moment you wrapped your arms around his neck and buried your face in his collar. It took him a few moments to realize what was happening, a hug was something he didnât expect at all, but it did feel nice. His arms carefully found your waist and hugged you back.
You could see how red his cheeks were as your hug ended but for once you decided to not tease him, not wanting to ruin a genuinely nice moment. The two of you didnât have those very often.
âShall we go home?â Taehyung asked softly as he stood up, waiting for you to join him.
The two of you were walking for a while, way slower than usual. It might be the alcohol in your veins or simply the secret desire to spend some more time together, alone and outside of the farm.
âBe honest,â you started carelessly, it almost sounded like you were singing it, âYou do think Iâm cute.â
Looking up to Taehyung you saw that he was smiling and didnât seem to care about your teasing anymore.
âI do think youâre cute. That doesnât make you less any annoying though,â he replied, his tone almost playful. As you were walking your shoulders were lightly brushing every now and then, a rush of excitement going through your body every single time.
âNow you be honest. You were totally checking me out when you saw me on the day you moved here,â he countered, the conversation light.
You let out a small scoff, âI maybe would have if I hadnât been to busy trying to free myself from your grip since you thought I was stealing your chicken,â you snapped at him and Taehyung let out a laugh at that memory. Even though it wasnât long ago it felt like years, considering how much your relationship developed since then.
âYour turn. You wouldâve gone home sooner but you were waiting to walk me home,â the vibe Taehyung gave you told you it was okay to dig a bit deeper.
âNow youâre just being overconfident, (y/n),â he laughed and you thought about how his laugh is so different than his mumâs. His mother's laugh was light and charming while his laugh was deep and full of joy, almost bold and loud.
âIf you say Iâm wrong youâre lying,â you insisted while looking up to the beautiful night sky, not letting loose. Even though you were a bit cold you didnât really care, you could walk and talk for a few more hours without complaining.
âI never said youâre wrong,â he answered quietly, now more soft and serious, âBut donât let it get to your head, I know my mum would kill me if she heard that you had to walk home alone.â
âYouâre so in love with me dude, how gross,â you joked, not able to stop your usual nagging.
By now it seemed like that was Taehyungâs and yourâs thing somehow. It was an open secret that there was something between the two of you, whatever that was. Maybe, you and Taehyung were still denying it but your friends weren't completely wrong when they talked about your relationship to each other.
âI really donât know if I wanna shove you off this bridge or kiss your annoying ass,â he stated shamelessly, trying to sound annoyed but his mood was just as good as yours and the cheeky flirting was something he missed over the last years.
Itâs been too long since he met someone he liked so much that he didnât have to care about what he said. Spending time with you made him feel careless. The night air and the sky that was full of stars just loosened up the mood even more.
Even though your heart was beating faster at his comment you tried to remain cool â he said it so casually as if the topic of kissing you was something completely normal to him, making you realize that maybe Taehyungand you were indeed becoming something more than friends.
âOh, can I pick?â, you grinned at him.
âNo,â he answered easily while pushing you towards the edge of the bridge you were currently walking on, making you gasp a bit, while trying to balance yourself so you wouldnât fall over the low wooden railing.
What exactly was he doing? Just in the right moment, he held you, his arm around your waist, being a bit too close to you which was making your heart beat insanely fast. As you looked at him your eyes were opened wide, the shock written all over your face.
Taehyung still was holding you close, giving you the brightest smile ever, his expression full of joy, âDid you really think that Iâd let you fall?â
âYes!â you almost shouted out of shock, a hundred percent sure that heâd actually do something like that, âIf anyone in this town would then it would be you.â
He acted a bit offended, as he pulled your body a bit closer to his again, your intestines feeling all over the place. Half of your body was still bent over the bridge as Taehyungs hold was the only support that stopped you from falling right into the water. His face came near yours and at this moment you wanted nothing more than to feel his lips on yours.
âWell, if you think that lowly of me,â he started, before pausing his sentence, you could swear that you could feel his breath tingling on your lips and see his eyes wandering down to look at your them â but before anything else could happen you started losing balance as Taehyung let go of your body, making you fall right into the lake behind you.
Of course, heâd do something like that. You should've guessed that.
As you came up again you were drenched. The water was at least still warm enough to not make you shiver while climbing up to the bridge again. Taehyung was laughing wholeheartedly, his one hand once again covering his mouth, while holding his other hand out for you so he could help you.
You immediately took his offer, taking a tight grip on his hand before getting your revenge â within seconds Taehyung forcefully joined you in the water, his eyes popping out when you completely caught him off guard.
âI shouldâve seen that coming,â he admitted, now also completely wet but still amused, âI deserved that.â
The two of you were chuckling, no one of you seemed to want to get out of the water for now.
âRemember the one time we were having a contest here about who can stay underwater the longest when we were children?â you asked him thinking back to older days, one of the few memories you had with him.
He nodded while walking towards you, leaning his back against the bridge. His body was close to yours, his face facing yours, âI remember you and Jimin being afraid because you thought I fainted because I let my body swim on the surface with my head under the water still.â
Hitting his chest, you squinted your eyes, âYou were the worst, seriously! Why would you do this to me? I was so afraid.â
His arm found your hip, resting lazily on it - you wondered if heâd also do that if he was completely sober, âTo make good memories.â
âWell, thatâs also about our only memory because you always avoided me when we were younger,â you stated, a bit salty.
His laughter sounded different this time, if you didnât know better youâd almost say there was some kind of admiration in it. âIâm sorry, Iâm sorry,â he apologized, putting his hands up in the air, still laughing before looking at you once again â itâs like you completely forgot about being in the water now in the middle of the night.
âWanna know a secret?â he asked you, whispering as if you had to be careful to not get caught.
âAlways,â you answered eager as your eyes widened in excitement.
âI avoided you because I had the biggest crush on you and Yoongi always said girls suck and if anyone of us ever kissed a girl theyâd be kicked out of the gang,â he admitted, smiling back at the memory.
âOkay, but Yoongi was literally my first kiss,â you confessed to him, âI think he knew exactly why he told you that.â
Now it was Taehyung who was in shock, not you. âYouâre kidding me,â he sounded offended, âI canât believe heâd play me like this because of some chick.â
âHello? Iâm right here,â you scoffed, shaking your head amused.
âOh, I bet youâd rather be where Yoongi is, huh?â he stared you down for a second before breaking character and starting to laugh, âBut seriously, he never even told me. He knew Iâd fight him about it.â
âIt must be hard to always be as dramatic as you are,â you scoffed, as you got out of the water again, starting to shiver a bit, âLetâs go home, Iâm cold.â
He got out of the water too and you tried hard not to stare at his chest that was completely showing through his white shirt.
âYou should have put on a jacket,â he shrugged, acting as if it's your fault that you were completely drenched and cold.
âYou little shit,â you countered as the two of you were walking towards your home, âIâm only cold because you pushed me into the lake.â
âI had fun tonight,â you admitted to him as you were standing in front of your door once again, âYouâre not awful.â
âThank you?â, he laughed unsure before he continued, âYouâre also not awful, (y/n).â
âI mean, you were not the nicest in the beginning, I thought you hated me. But now, I think you tolerate me,â you said, a winning smile on your face.
âBelieve it or not, I think youâre pretty cool,â he mirrored your smile, nodding.
âIâll let my diary know about that,â you assured him.
He just stood there for a second, looking at you. Both of you didnât want to part, enjoying time with each other but you didnât want things to get awkward.
âIâm sorry I pushed you into the water,â he mentioned, laughing while apologizing.
You rolled your eyes at his half-assed apology, âYeah sure. You better make up for that.â
He nodded, âI will. I promise. Good night, (y/n).â
Suddenly you felt him hugging you, not expecting it once again. Three hugs in one day were something you didnât expect at all when you woke up this morning.
âSleep well,â you told him as you closed the door behind you, removing your make up, changing into comfortable clothes and letting yourself fall into your bed, falling asleep with a smile on your lips. You were definitely making progress.
A few days after your birthday and the situation with Taehyung, it was about time to talk to someone about your confusing feelings. Yoongi was the first person that came to your mind, definitely not wanting to talk to Jimin about it.
As the two of you were sitting outside on your porch, drinking a beer and enjoying the sunset slowly going down, you decided to tell him about what happened after you and Taehyung left on your birthday.
âHe gifted you your old music box?â he asked confused, almost shocked, âThatâs so much better than the vibrator we gifted you, dammit.â
You let out a laugh, âAnything is better than that.â
âWell, apparently you wonât be needing it any time soon if you and Taehyung continue to fall in love at that pace,â your best friend gave you a small wink.
âYoongi,â you let out a pout, âI really donât know what I should do. He was about to kiss me by the lake but instead, he let me fall into the water.â
He was trying his hardest to contain his laughter as you told the story but he couldnât help it, âYou really think heâs the one you want? I bet not even Jungkook would behave that awkward.â
Chuckling, you shrugged, âI guess I just like a challenge.â
Yoongi nodded, âHe definitely is one. Bare with him, itâs been some time. His last girlfriend and him broke up quite some time ago.â
When Yoongi mentioned the word gilfriend you felt curiosity awakening inside of you, âWhat was she like?â
Taking a sip of his beer, he glanced at you, a bit pitiful, âAre you sure you wanna do this to yourself?â
âIâm just curious,â you assured him, âNo hard feelings.â
Before Yoongi could start telling you about her you were disturbed by your cousin, who just finished his work, a beer in his hand as he sat down on the free chair on your table, âWhat are you talking about?â
âMy hopeless crush,â you said, laughing.
âWhat else,â he shrugged, unimpressed, âYou could still date Jungkook, you know.â
You shook your head before turning back to Yoongi, âSo, tell me about her, I canât imagine him with a girl at all.â
âAre we talking about Elly?â Jimin asked confused, trying to catch up with your conversation.
âYes,â Yoongi said, trying to start once again before getting interrupted by Jimin, also once again.
âShe wasnât shit, (y/n). Donât worry about her. I never liked her. They werenât even really a couple.â
Yoongi rolled his eyes, âShe wasnât all bad, Jimin. She was actually quite nice at the beginning. Sheâs from the town next to ours, the granddaughter of the owner of the library â we were friends with her back then when she still visited every weekend. I guess she was into Tae from the first second and he was, well, frustrated. So they became friends with benefits. Nothing too serious at first.â
â(Y/n), I really donât get why youâd wanna know. Youâll just hurt yourself,â your cousin seemed to worry, clearly disagreeing with your curiosity.
âThey broke up so I wonât be hurt, I just canât imagine him in a relationship at all. I need some information for research,â you argued.
âHe was a good boyfriend, I guess,â Jimin thought about it, taking a big gulp of his beer, âLike he visited her often and made sure to bring her to every event or birthday. But one of them would always start a fight and it got so annoying over time. Every time he brought her I was afraid to say anything to him because if I only said one wrong word sheâd start to discuss with him.â
Yoongi now interrupted him, âWell, it wasnât only her who started fights, to be fair. Taehyung often enough started one too, whenever he was in a bad mood heâd always find a reason to fight.â
A scoff came out of your mouth, âI already thought heâd be one to pick fights, to be honest.â
âSpeaking of the devil,â Yoongi nodded towards the house of the Kimâs and as you turned around you saw Taehyung jogging over to you. He seemed to be in a good mood, a smile on his lips, something rather unusual.
âWhy are you having a nice evening and no one cared to call me?â he asked as he arrived in front of you, holding up a big plate with many different pieces of cakes on it, âI brought cake.â
Jimin immediately took the plate and set it down in front of him as Taehyung sat down on the free seat on the bench beside you.
âWe were just talking shit about you,â Jimin started, getting up to get some forks from inside.
âWhy? What did I do?â he asked, already sounding offended, ready to defend himself without knowing what even seemed to be the problem.
âI just told them about how you let me fall into the lake,â you huffed, salty, not letting it go easily.
âWhy would you do that?â he asked in a whiny tone, âArenât they teasing us enough already?â
âI donât care about that. I still canât believe youâve done that. I couldâve caught a cold.â
He now crossed his arms in front of his chest, âYou didnât though, right? I brought you cake as an apology, just to find you hanging out with our friends, without me?â
Yoongi let out a laugh at your constant bickering, âYoung love must be so nice.â
âBe quiet,â you gave him a warning glance before you turned back to the real enemy here, âYou think cake can just fix the trust I lost in you?â
He let out a laugh, âYouâre being overdramatic.â
Actually, you couldnât care less that he let you fall into the lake. It was just fun to pick fights with him, âYouâre being an asshole.â
He scoffed before continuing your discussion in a mocking voice, âWanted me to kiss you so bad that you canât get over the fact that I didnât?â
You let out a small gasp, not expecting his comeback. Yoongi and Jimin were both trying no to laugh watching the two of you fight.
âIf you think that, youâre truly delusional,â you stated, even though everyone here knew he was right, âThe only reason I didnât kill you right then was because I was so relieved you didnât kiss me.â
He snorted, not ready to give up yet, âSure, just keep on telling it to yourself until you start to believe it.â
And this is how you spent the rest of the evening. Three of your closest friends, cake, one or two or maybe even more beers, a beautiful pink sunset and most important - in the place you loved to call your home.
â(Y/n), give me a hand, please,â your neighbor screamed from the other side of the farm, struggling to put up the pavilion that was supposed to cover the tables from the weather.
It was a warm autumn day but you knew that it could basically start to pour any second. Quickly you jogged over to Taehyung, leaving Jimin alone with the other preparations for the big harvest festival that was held once a year on the farm. It was a tradition you used to love as a child and you were more than happy to participate again this year.
As you walked over you couldnât help but notice how mesmerizing he looked once again. There was sweat dripping down his face while he gave you a light and exhausted chuckle, holding up one side of the pavilion with his rather strong arms. The white shirt and grey sweatpants he was wearing might as well be the death of you. Oh god, you definitely hated being attracted to him.
âWhatâs up, Kim?â you asked, desperately trying to sound as unbothered as possible.
He, on the other hand, continued to smile, shaking his head, âCan you please hold up the other side over there?â he asked, pointing to it, âIâll do the rest.â
You went over and held up the other side, having to stand on your tiptoes. âAre you excited for tonight?â you asked him, desperate to make conversation with him. Even though by now Taehyung was being very nice to you, you were still always trying to make him like you. Even though Jimin and Yoongi assured you he likes you quite a lot by now you still wanted him to admit to it. His attention was your favorite thing at the moment, you couldnât get enough of it.
He shrugged while concentrating on a screw he was currently trying to get in, âNot really. Itâs not gonna be different than any other year.â
âIâm here now so it is gonna be different than before,â you said, making him look up from his work for a second, his eyes finding yours.
âSo, youâre going to make the harvest festival interesting again?â you saw the smirk on his face before continuing, âDonât get up my hopes.â
âShare a bottle of liquor with me and I bet weâll have a lot of fun,â you stated boldly, immediately embarrassed at your way too obvious flirting. At this point, you were sure that he was very aware of your obvious crush on him. He was many things. Rude, annoying, sometimes even a bit mean but delusional wasnât one of them.
âAre you flirting with me, (y/n)?â he asked almost a bit teasingly.
âI am,â you said, trying to sound confident but you were pretty sure your now deep red cheeks were giving you away.
He seemed to be amused and he shook his head in what seemed to be joy.
âNot bad,â was all he said, shrugging before his full attention was back on building the pavilion.
You looked around the big farm as Taehyung was working. It looked beautiful, there were a lot of tables with benches, all of them had some flowers and candles on top of them, you could only imagine how cute it would look as soon as the sky was dark and all the candles were lit.
Jimin was currently preparing some baskets filled with eggs, milk, some wool, all different kinds of fruits and vegetables and even some feathers you picked up from the pond where the ducks stayed as a lucky charm â your uncle and Taehyungâs mother would sell them later on, the people always loved those little baskets.
Taehyungâs mother was inside, preparing food for the night. She was overdoing herself, cooking four different kinds of soups, baking too many loaves of bread for the visitors to eat, she even has been baking all kind of cakes since yesterday night.
âYour mum is an angel,â you mumbled more to yourself than to him but Taehyung still heard you, laughing a bit.
âShe just really loves the harvest festival. But yes, I agree, she really is,â he answered without looking at you, âThereâs gonna be plenty of leftovers tomorrow, Iâll bring you some if you want.â
You nodded even though he didnât see, âIâd love that.â
âHey, (y/n)!â Gus, the owner of the restaurant, came up to you. He drove up here in his truck, the whole back of it filled with different meals that he contributed for tonight, âWhere should I put the fish and meat?â
Taehyung told you that you could leave and help Gus for now so you showed him where the food was being served. There was a long in the middle of the farm, where Gusâ and Mrs. Kimâs food was going to be sold later on. It was opposite to the little dancefloor your uncle built earlier, he even got a pretty good sound system for the night. You already anticipated seeing all of the older people dance later, it was always very cute to see them be happy. All the tables to sit on were placed in between the dancefloor and the food.
As you were helping Gusâ to carry the food you saw Yoongi and his parents coming up to you.
âHey cutie,â your best friend greeted you as he put down the three beer crates he was casually caring like they didnât weigh anything, âHow are things going?â
âIâm really excited for tonight,â you cheered with a wide smile on your lips, âMy last harvest festival was years ago, I still had to go to bed at eight oâclock at that time.â
He let out a laugh, âOh, thatâs when the fun is just starting.â
You only managed to finish all the work an hour before the first people came to the festival. Within no time the whole farm was filled with people as the sun was slowly going down.
You didnât expect so many people to actually show up. Not only the whole village was attending tonightâs fest but a lot of them also brought their family from out of town, a lot of faces youâve never seen before.
It luckily didnât rain yet and you were hoping it would stay that way for the rest of the night. The sky was dark now and all the candles were lit, making the atmosphere cozy. People were eating, drinking and enjoying themselves, some even danced to the 80âČs music that was playing already.
You were sitting on the side of a table, just looking around and appreciating everything as a few of your friends came up to you.
âDonât you wanna eat something?â Jungkook asked you, nodding towards the table with the food, âWe were just about to grab something, join us.â
âLetâs also grab a drink or two,â your cousin, who clearly already had more than just a drink or two, his bright pink cheeks exposing him, shouted as he came up behind Jungkook, Yoongi and Yoongiâs girlfriend.
Your mouth watered as you saw, and especially smelled, the food that was offered. Now you were very thankful that you didnât have the time to eat all day. All the food looked amazing and you didnât even know where to start. Hoseok and Namjoon both went for the meat but you wanted to start with something more light for now, looking at all the soups Mrs. Kim made.
âTry mumâs Italian wedding soup, itâs the best,â you flinched lightly as Taehyung came up behind you out of nowhere, his arm casually resting on your shoulder.
You tried to play it cool in front of your friends but inside you were all tense, just because of Tae being so close to you.
âIâll have that then,â you agreed, telling his mother who was handing out food tonight. Both you and Taehyung offered her to help out earlier but she insisted that you should just enjoy the evening.
âOf course, my darling,â she poured some of the soup into a big cup, giving you and her son a wide smile, âYou two look just adorable together.â
You felt yourself blushing but you were pretty sure that no one would notice in the dark.
âRight? Weâve been telling them the whole time,â Hoseok joined, excitement in his eyes, agreeing with his friendsâ mother. You heard a deep, frustrated groan from Taehyung.
âGuys,â he squinted his eyes at both of them with a warning glance but he still was resting his arm on you, not even thinking about removing it, âCan you mind your own business? Just for once?â
Yoongi chuckled at the two of you, knowing exactly that you were trying your hardest to keep your cool, âYou know they wonât leave you alone until something happens.â
He was right. But you werenât sure if and when things would happen. And what those things even would be. When it came to Taehyung you felt more clueless than ever before. Not even your math class in senior year seemed that confusing.
âYeah, because no one in this town knows how to respect the boundaries of other people,â Taehyung bitterly said through gritted teeth, slightly annoyed but everyone just let out a laugh, not taking him seriously, thinking itâs funny that he gets so worked up over some simple teasing.
âIâm sorry (y/n),â Mrs. Kim turned towards you, apologizing, but you could still see a little amused smile on her lips, âI hope I didnât make you feel uncomfortable.â
âOh, donât worry. I donât mind at all,â you assured her, âDonât apologize.â
âIâll go and get us something to drink,â Yoongi offered after he got some food, his lips already pressed against his girlfriendâs neck again before turning to you, âSave us a seat.â
You waited for the rest to get something to eat and wondered what was suddenly going on with Taehyung, he wasnât leaving your side at all which was pretty unusual for him. Last week he was still too afraid to give you a birthday present in front of the boys and now he was suddenly even touching you in front of everyone?
âIâm sorry,â he whispered for only you to hear as all of you were looking for a table to sit on. On the way, he let go of you but still was walking right next to you. Not that you minded, you enjoyed the sudden attention he was giving you, you just had to get used to it.
âWhat for?â you asked him, shrugging lightly, âI donât care if the guys tease us. They think weâre into each other, they wonât stop anyway.â
âWell, they arenât so dumb after all, huh?â he still whispered to you, chuckling a bit as he turned around to the others, pointing to a free table, âLetâs sit down over there.â
This little shit was flirting with you.
The soup was amazing. The alcohol was pouring. The atmosphere was loud and filled with banter and laughter. Yoongi and his girl were making out in front of everyone in no time, literally being all over each other. Hoseok, Jungkook and Jimin were screaming along to âCome on Eileenâ playing in the background, doing those stupid fortnite dances to the old music, constantly motivating each other to do stupid moves and having the time of their lives. Namjoon was talking to his girlfriend, the majority of your friends still had no idea that they were actually dating and you wondered how they managed to keep it a secret in such a small town like this.
You were just laughing every now and then, enjoying everyoneâs presence - an evening like this was exactly what you needed, full of friends and possibilities to make amazing memories.
Looking back at the fact that in the beginning, you were so afraid to start a new life here was ridiculous by now â this was your home, you were doing the thing you love with people you wouldnât trade for anything. Not in a hundred years would you have thought that youâd find your happiness in this small town.
You carefully dared to look over to Taehyung, hoping he wouldnât catch you staring â you felt tingly, it might be the wine or the butterflies in your stomach but you felt so much comfort and happiness that you wanted to explode.
The way he was laughing was making you go insane â you got lost in the wrinkles around his eyes and his side profile that seemed to be the most perfect thing youâve ever seen. It was so nice and rare to see him letting go, being completely relaxed and warm. The longer you looked at him the more you craved something deep down in your stomach.
It felt like you were in a movie, the world around you blurred and slowing down while all you could concentrate on was the guy next to you: The guy, that used to be so cold to you and opened up step by step, going from thinking you were stealing chickens to flirting with you in front of everyone.
You secretly hoped that the two of you were figuring out the future of your relationship rather sooner than later, slowly growing impatient. It was obvious to anyone whoâd spent only five minutes around you: There was an undeniable tension, a chemistry that both of you felt.
Still staring at him while everyone was laughing and talking he stole a glance from you, seeing that your attention was already completely on him. His features softened as soon as his eyes met yours and the big laughter on his face turned into a small but impactful smile - immediately you felt a rush of confidence running through your veins, your heart beating faster. You hated how you were literally melting for him but you knew exactly that you couldnât fight it so you might as well let him in.
His eyes were still locked with yours, no one daring to break eye contact. You wondered how this moment could feel so intimate when there were literally 200 people gathered around you â it felt like you were all alone, everyone else was busy cracking jokes while the two of you were busy falling in love. Or at least that was what it felt like.
He gave you a small nod before sitting a bit closer to you, your thighs now touching. âStop flirting with me. I might just break my cool character and blush,â he joked, making you chuckle before the two of you brought your attention back to your friends who were currently cheering for Jungkook and Jimin, both trying to down their beer faster than the other one.
You shook your head, letting out a laugh at them being messy. Taehyungâs hand sneakily rested on your lower back and you hoped it would stay there for a while.
Jimin finished first and laughed at Jungkook, who was still drinking, âOh, I canât believe you thought you could win against me. Iâm the king when it comes to drinking,â he bragged.
Yoongi, who was for once breaking free from his girlfriend, shook his head at Jimin, âYouâre overconfident. Taehyung, finish him.â
Taehyung let out a groan, âDonât make me do this.â
âLetâs go Taehyungie, I bet I can beat you easily,â Jimin challenged him, knowing exactly how to provoke his friend.
âDude, donât do this to yourself, youâll lose,â Hoseok yelled, âNo one can beat Taehyung, you should know better than that.â
âI trained. And Taehyung didnât show off his skills in a long time, I think youâre underestimating me,â he insisted, opening another bottle of beer and putting it down in front of Tae.
âJimin, take it easy. Itâs your fourth beer in what? Twenty minutes?â you interrupted, âI donât wanna clean up all alone tomorrow because you are dying.â
âItâs harvest festival (y/n),â he whined while opening another bottle of wine for you, pouring something into your glass, âYou gotta start learning how we do it here.â
Taehyung shook his head, letting out another deep sigh, âYou have no chance against me,â he held up his beer and waited for Jimin to do the same.
Jimin had a satisfied smile on his lips, ready to give it his all, âIâm going to fight for your title.â
Taehyung let out a laugh, âThatâs cute. Much luck trying.â
All of you were counting down from three and the guys started chugging down the beer like it was a life or death situation. It was stupid and childish but all of you were enjoying it, rooting for Tehyung. If all of your friends could agree on one thing then it would be that Jimin needs to be taken down back to earth every now and then.
You looked at him, your mouth slightly open. One thing you definitely didnât know about Taehyung was how fast he could drink. He always seemed like the most reasonable and mature guy so you were kind of taken by surprise to see how he downed the bottle in the matter of a few seconds.
âHa!â he let out, laughing as he put his bottle down, âYouâre a fool, dude.â
Jimin let out a laugh, shrugging, âNever thought I had a chance, just wanted you to drink a bit. Whoâs the fool now?â
âI didnât know you could drink like that,â you turned to Taehyung.
âThis guy used to get so wasted every weekend, he just acts all pure in front of you,â Namjoon exposed his friend, laughing.
You raised your eyebrow at Taehyung, âOh, letâs see who can handle more then, shall we?â
Taehyungâs eyes widened surprised, not expecting you to challenge him when it comes to drinking, âYou might regret that.â
âI donât mind regretting a thing or two,â you poured the two of you some shots.
âThatâs the spirit,â Jimin cheered, opening another bottle of beer.
Taehyung and you were clinking glasses, âTo Bertha!â he mentioned his favorite before both of you downed the shots, making a grimace as the bitter liquor went down your throat.
âThat shit tastes horrible,â you stated, making him laugh.
âNo one said getting drunk is easy,â he countered before immediately pouring you another shot, âBut you wanted this. We can stop if you canât take it, you know.â
âDefinitely not,â you scoffed raising your eyebrow at him and holding up the shot glass, âItâs going to be a long, long night.â
âOh, donât promise what you canât keep,â he flirted amused, laughing at you before getting ready to down the next shot, âTo you and me.â
Nodding, you gave him a smile, âWhatever that might mean.â
You didnât know what was faster: The time flying by or your alcohol level rising. It was around midnight now and the night just started. All of you were still drinking eagerly, sharing stupid stories and daring each other to do even more stupid things. The music was loud and the older people were dancing like thereâs no tomorrow while you were still sitting at the table, playing cards and taking videos and photos of each other.
Some other girls around your age joined your group, you didnât know them but the rest did. It was a nice group of people overall.
You still were watching the elders dance, smiling to yourself as your uncle and Taehyungâs mum were dancing with each other, seemingly having the best time.
âArenât they cute?â Tae turned to you with a grin, his hand resting right above your knee, slightly squeezing it. You could tell the alcohol had its impact on him because he was getting more touchy by minute, his eyes sparkling.
You nodded, feeling a bit nostalgic seeing them together. They always have been close, both of them lost their significant others early and were left with their children and a whole farm to manage. âItâs nice that theyâre having fun. I wish theyâd take a break more often.â
Taehyung hummed in agreement, his thumb caressing your leg, âIâm happy Mum has Minwoo. They are always there for each other and talk shit about me and Jimin,â he joked, his eyes still glued to his mother.
He was clearly adoring their little dance while you were adoring him.
âHeâs really grateful youâre here.â, you didnât expect Taehyung to be so serious, a new side of him showing.
âI like being here. Wouldnât go back,â you told him as you put your hand on top of his, appreciating the moment.
His eyes met yours, not thinking youâd hold his hand in front of everyone, even though no one could see, âYou do? I didnât think youâd fit in or like it here at first if I am honest.â
You let out a laugh, âYeah, I know. You were very vocal about that if you donât remember our first encounter as I came back.â
He joined your laughter, giving you an apologetic pout, âIâm sorry. I was being a bit rough, wasnât I?â
You nodded, âDidnât expect anything else though. You never opened up towards me when we were younger,â you explained to him in a soft voice, you didnât want to hurt him with your words.
âI just wondered why youâd move here. I thought it was stupid. What does this little town offer you?â he asked curiously, his eyes glued back to your family.
âThis, for example,â you gestured to them, âItâs very heartwarming here. You might not realize because youâve always been here but this town is full of love.â
Taehyung narrowed his eyebrows a bit, âI bet the actual reason you like it so much here is this cute neighbor of yours.â
You scoffed at his confidence, âOh, you mean that Taehyung guy? No, heâs just too busy loving himself, I doubt he could ever make time to let someone else in.â
He opened his mouth a bit, acting shocked, âDidnât you hear?â, he asked you, turning his body to you now to completely face you, âEveryone says heâs a total sucker for you.â
Playing along, you slightly brushed your knees against his, âI donât think so,â you let out a sigh, âLast week he had the perfect chance to kiss me but instead he threw me into the lake.â
He grinned, not expecting you being so witty. âIâm sure he was just nervous and regrets it very much.â
âI wonder what your sources are. They donât seem very trustworthy. You know that guy, he has a heart made of stone.â
âDonât let him fool you,â he came closer to whisper in your ear, âHeâs actually a soft man inside.â
â(Y/n)!â your cousin screamed over to you, clearly drunk, ruining your little moment with Taehyung, âLet's go, dance with your favorite cousin.â
You sighed heavily, knowing that refusing wonât work even though you didnât want the playful banter with Taehyung to end. So a few seconds later you found yourself on the dance floor, jamming to the old classics with your favorite human in town. Taehyung and Yoongi might be close, but no one would beat your family.
The two of you danced around like crazy, exaggerating every move, having fun without any worries for a few songs.
That was until you saw Jimin looking over to the rest of your group, his eyebrows narrowing, a mixture of confusion and anger in his eyes - his jaw clenched as he was glaring somewhere. You followed his gaze to see Taehyung talking to a girl you didnât know. You didnât think anything of it at first, he didnât seem very close to her, maybe even a bit uncomfortable.
âThat little shit,â your cousin raised his voice, looking at you, âHe better doesnât do anything stupid.â
You threw him a questioning look, no idea what was going on, âWhat do you mean? Theyâre just talking.â
He shook his head, âThatâs Elly. Elly and Taehyung are never just talking.â
His ex. What did this mean to you? You didnât feel jealous somehow. The evening was fine, Taehyung was clearly giving all of his attention to you, the two of you werenât dating, you didnât even kiss yet. Of course, you hoped that this would change sooner or later, your feelings for him were undeniable at this point and part of you thought that they werenât one-sided.
Before you said anything, Jimin was losing his temper, âHe canât treat you like this, (y/n). Iâm going to talk to him.â
You laughed at his clearly drunken state, shaking your head, âNo no, I can manage my relationships alone, donât worry.â
He tried to look you in the eyes, failing slightly. You were pretty sure that if youâd ask him to touch his nose right now, heâd miss it by miles.
âWhy, of all people, Taehyung? Heâs too cold for you. I love this dude but I donât want you to go through a hard time because of him,â he pouted, suddenly wanting to discuss your love life with you.
You knew you shouldnât laugh, Jimin was being sincere and caring about you right now but his state was so fucked up that you couldnât help it, âLetâs get you some water.â
Letting out a heavy sigh because you ignored him, he followed you to the Minsâ table where they were selling drinks.
They immediately let out a laugh, âOh, Jimin,â Yoongiâs mother said amused at his clearly fucked-up state.
âCan we have a water, please?â you asked her as you held Jimin, wishing heâd stay still.
âIâm fine, Iâm fine,â he tried to convince you, âI could do a cartwheel without a problem.â
âPlease donât,â you laughed at his confidence, giving him the cup of water and thanking Yoongiâs mother, âShould we go back to the table?â
He nodded and you walked over to your group of friends, handing Jimin over to Jungkook. Looking around you saw that Taehyung was missing. Just as his ex-girlfriend.
Of course, you couldnât know if they left together. Maybe Taehyung just went home without saying goodbye. Checking your phone to see if he maybe texted you just disappointed you even more. You hated that you suddenly felt so vulnerable. The evening was so much fun up to this point, the fact that such a tiny thing could ruin your mood completely made you feel foolish.
Not daring to ask Yoongi if he knew where he went or if they left together, knowing heâd try to comfort you, making you feel even worse, you said your goodbyes to your friends, claiming you were tired and needed some sleep.
Walking over to your home luckily was only taking you a minute, considering that the harvest festival was held on your farm. The worst thing about all this was that you didnât know how to feel. Technically, you had no reason to be mad or jealous, Taehyung and you never did anything more than flirting.
On the other hand though, you liked him, so of course, it hurt you that he was probably enjoying himself with his ex-girlfriend right now. Your head hurt from all the alcohol and overthinking. You wished he would at least have said goodbye to you. Maybe, after all, he wasnât into you as much as you thought. Today wouldâve been his chance to make a move otherwise.
Opening your door you almost got scared to death. Your heartbeat was going crazy fast and you were even more confused than before. Just as you accepted the fact that Taehyung left the party with his ex-girlfriend, he was sitting on your sofa, playing games on his phones, waiting for no one else than you.
âWhat are you doing here? How did you even get in?â you almost screamed, still shocked by the thought that someone broke into your house at first.
He laughed, simply stating, âI know where your spare key is.â
You shook your head in disbelief, âBut what are you doing here? Why are you just sitting on my sofa?â
âI wanted to leave the party. But I still wanted to spend time with you.â
âWhat about Elly?â you blurted out, your eyes immediately widening after you asked, realizing that he and you never talked about her.
He looked at you in shock, âW-What?â you never head him stutter before, âWhat about her? How do you know?â, the confusion on his face vanished a bit, sighing heavy, âYoongi told you about her, right?â
You nodded, âIt just came up once in a conversation we were having. And when I saw you with her I just assumed you left with her.â
He laughed, looking at you like you were crazy, âWhy would I do that?â
You shrugged, not having an answer to his question. âWhat do I know? Maybe you missed her.â
âYouâre crazy if you think Iâd waste your time like that. And my time also,â he said softly, âForget about her. She came up to me as soon as you left, trying to talk so I left.â
You nodded, understanding what was going on now, âSo, you decided to break into my house?â
âOh, I can leave if you want me to.â
âThatâs not what I said,â you rolled your eyes. Suddenly, there was a pause. Neither of you were saying anything and you felt unsure of how to continue.
âShouldnât we clean outside a bit already?â you asked Taehyung, trying to break the silence so youâd get out of this overwhelming situation.
Taehyung, on the other hand, seemed to be very relaxed, he almost felt at home on your sofa. He stood up, coming closer and closer to you, âIt can wait until tomorrow.â
When he stopped, he was right in front of you, your feet were almost touching and if someone would push you at this moment, you surely would land on top of him, which actually sounded pretty nice to you. You nodded, trying to sneakily take a deep breath to calm down, you had no idea why you were so nervous. Heâs by far not the first guy you kissed but he might be the one kiss you anticipated the most.
His hand slowly ran up your arm, then down again, giving you goosebumps all over your skin, his gentleness making you fall for him even more. His hand found yours and you looked into his eyes, wanting to drown in them as your stomach felt like it was tied in knots.
A small smile formed on Taehyungâs lips as you locked eyes, not able to have a single clear thought. By now you were sure that tonight would be the night youâd finally have him where you wanted him. All for yourself.
Coming nearer, you felt his upper body almost touching yours, his head was leaning in and you saw him slowly closing his eyes as his free hand found your hip, bringing you even closer to him.
The moment before the actual kiss was already breathtaking enough. The mixed smell of his cologne and the alcohol the two of you drank earlier was making you feel dense. The touch of his hand was already burning but as his nose brushed yours slightly, a rush of adrenaline was sent through your whole body, making your stomach turn and you suddenly felt hot in places you didnât know he had an impact on until now. It was rather quiet, the only sound you could hear was the muffled music from outside, but you couldnât figure out what song was playing, only feeling the bass of it. Your heart was beating so fast, you hoped he couldnât hear it.
But all those little and unimportant things around you vanished as soon as you felt his soft lips, pressed onto yours with the perfect amount pressure. The kiss developed from something shy and soft into the projection of what both of you had been craving secretly for so long in no time. No one dared to break the kiss, not wanting it to be over.
His hand wandered all over your body, from your hip to your waist, to your arms, to your neck, right back down to your lower back until he held onto your thighs.
âJump,â he mumbled hectic, his voice deeper than usual, between your kisses, not wanting to stop.
âAre you sure?â you asked him carefully.
He chuckled into your kiss, âNever been more sure.â
So you did as he told you and jumped up, your legs now crossed around his hips as he held you up like it was nothing, deepening the kiss once again, your tongue playing with his. Being with him like this was more exciting than you ever couldâve imagined.
Your hand found the nape of his neck, burying itself in his soft hair, as he was carrying you to the sofa he was sitting on just a few minutes ago.
So there you were, on top of Kim Taehyung, straddling his muscular thighs, feeling a heat in your core that you havenât felt in such a long time but missed so much. The way his hands were exploring your body while his lips were busy kissing every single spot on your jaw and your neck was making you feel like you were going insane, leaving you wanting every single part of him.
A small, rather quiet groan came out of your mouth as he pulled you closer to him, not able to suppress what you were feeling any second longer. He chuckled once more, clearly satisfied with the feelings he was giving you, before giving his attention to your lips again.
His one hand was now on your neck, supporting every movement between the two of you, as his other hand was resting on your hip, slowly making you rock back and forth on him, the tension in both of your pants growing.
Slowly, his hand started to wander under your shirt, to a place where you needed him desperately. He was caressing the skin under your shirt carefully, teasing while taking his time. You wanted nothing more than for him to move them upwards towards your breasts, giving you more and more.
His lips were doing its magic on your neck again, kissing and nibbling on a soft spot under your ear as his hand slowly wandered up until his thumb finally found your nipple under your lace bra, the contact making you flinch a bit because of the intense feeling.
He let out a deep groan, sending shivers down your body and an undeniable friction in your underwear grew, making you rock your hips into him once more.
You started to wonder if you were prepared for what was about to happen, the two of you were just starting and you already felt like a mess, wanting him so much more. But he took his time, enjoying every single second of you on top of him.
His hand was now kneading your breast, the pressure just exactly right as he brushed your nipple every now and then, already knowing its effect on you. Every time he touched your bud lightly you couldnât help but moan.
You let out a small whine as your breast lost contact with his hand, not wanting him to stop. But as you realized that he was only stopping to pull up your shirt you were more than willing to give him what he wanted. Within seconds you were not only shirtless but also braless, as Taehyung was throwing your bra away to the floor.
He studied what you looked like, wanting to never forget this moment. Leaning back on the couch you saw a satisfied smirk on his lips as his hand found your nipple again. He now was looking right into your eyes and you held eye contact with him, trying not to break it as you got wetter every time his thumb was caressing your nipple.
He enjoyed watching you trying to contain yourself for sure. The smirk on his lip was growing now and his glance was filled with a mixture of lust, adoration and mostly, anticipation of what was going to happen next.
You put your hand on his shoulder to support yourself as you started to dry-hump him, letting out a moan, a louder one this time, as you felt his erection under you.
âShit,â he moaned, breaking eye contact and throwing his head back, his eyes closed as he bit his lip.
All of a sudden he stopped you from your actions, holding your hips down with both of his hand as he looked at you, frustration all over his face, â(Y/n), are you sure about this? I donât think Iâll be able to stop once we started.â
Your heart skipped a beat, appreciating his question but you immediately gave him another kiss, this time a bit softer, kissing him deeply, before whispering into his ears. âDonât you dare to stop now, Taehyung.â
You could hear his chuckle, his breath on your neck giving you goosebumps. âThank god,â he said before lifting you up without warning you, making you scream a bit, afraid heâd let you fall.
âBe careful, you scared me to death,â you laughed as you were being carried towards your bedroom.
âYou think Iâd let you fall?â he said amused, shaking his head in disbelief.
âWouldnât be the first time,â you countered, making him laugh as he arrived in your bedroom, letting you down on top of your bed - now you were under him, lying down as he was still sitting on his knees, taking in the view of your naked upper body right in front of him, for him only.
You did the same - and what a beautiful view it was. He was hovering over you, your legs between his as he was pulling his top over his head, throwing it away before unbuckling his belt as you were running your hand over his toned chest.
Not long until both of you were only left in your underwear. Taehyung slowly removed your pants, before coming back up to you, supporting himself on his elbows as he gave you a deep kiss, adding tongue and caressing your cheek before looking at you. You couldnât help but smile.
Taehyung gave you a small smile back, his eyes soft, âI love that smile.â
Before you could think about his compliment, one that he never gave you before, before you could get flustered or say anything back he suddenly changed the game completely, fastly pulling your underwear to the side and sliding one finger inside of you while his thumb was rubbing circles against your clit.
Taken aback by his sudden actions, you let out a loud moan, almost a scream, making Taehyungg smirk a bit before his lips wandered down to your neck once again, taking his time with you as he pumped his finger in and out in just the right rhythm. You moved your hip into his movements as his lips kissed down to your chest, his free hand holding your breast while his mouth teasingly played with your nipple, licking it and twirling his tongue around it, making you a moaning mess already.
Your hand was lightly stroking his dick through his boxers, leaving you wanting more. God, the things you wanted him to do with you were unholy.
The way he glanced at you as he was kissing his way down to your core looked like living art. Your whole body wanted him so bad, just the thought of where his mouth would travel to next or how it would feel when youâd finally feel him inside of you was making you go insane. Never before have you wanted something as much and at the same time hoped heâd take his time before.
Arriving at his destination he let out a moan, definitely being into all of this a bit too much too. He started to slowly kiss your inner thighs, holding your legs up a bit, teasing every part around where you wanted him the most.
âStop teasing,â you whined, wanting him so much more than you currently had.
He chuckled against your core, the warm air making you flinch, âI thought thatâs our thing,â before licking along your wet folds and then adding another finger, his tongue giving all its attention to your clit.
The pace in that he was going down on you was making your knees feel weak. He looked so handsome, his forehead in wrinkles as he was concentrating on pleasing you completely, moans vibrating against you.
It didnât take long for the two of you until you were having sex, the two of you completely concentrating on the sensational feeling for the next moments.
After you finished you laid down on your stomach, not able to really move, as Taehyung let himself fall right next to you, giving your nose a small peck. He was not only out of breath but also still in trance of what had just happened, âI didnât expect this,â he breathed, calming down from his orgasm.
You giggled a bit, âWhat? Us having sex?â
The smile he gave you made your heart race like crazy, his messy hair falling into his eyes, âIâm not complaining though.â
For a second you were lying there, letting Taehyung catch his breath and calming down. You felt your legs shaking from the intercourse you just had.
âFeel my legs,â you ordered chuckling, his hand on your thigh in a second as he felt how much you were shaking.
âGlad you liked it,â he laughed before getting up, âIâll get you a towel, be right back.â
As you were waiting for him to come back you realized what had just happened. After all the flirting and teasing Taehyung and you actually ended up in your bed. The thought made you dizzy, but it could also be from the alcohol you drank. It seemed too good to be true.
Cleaning you up, you suddenly heard a laugh as he grabbed your ass, âI may or may not have left some marks. Iâm sorry.â
You turned you head back, squinting your eyes at him, âYouâre lucky no one else sees that part of me. The others would tease me to death about that.â
Slowly, he climbed back up to lay next to you, both of you on your stomach, his hand caressing your side, âApparently they have a bet going on about when weâre going to end up together.â
âIâm not even surprised. Sounds like them,â you closed your eyes, enjoying Taehyungâs affection, âThis feels nice.â
He hummed in agreement before giving you a small kiss, his forehead resting next to yours, âI could stay like this forever.â
âThen stay,â you offered, still not opening your eyes. Taehyung was getting a blanket, throwing it over both of you so you wouldnât freeze, âDonât leave. Stay here.â
âYou want me to?â he asked, his hand now playing with your hair, âAlright, Iâll stay then. Sleep a bit, itâs late and youâre drunk.â
âI will, just give me one more kiss, okay?â you asked him, feeling yourself getting more tired by any passing second.
He chuckled as he came closer to your face once again, holding your face in his hands as he softly pressed his lips onto yours one more time, your naked bodies touching. âGood night, (y/n).â
Falling asleep, everything seemed too good to be true. Taehyung beside you, his scent in your nose as you slowly drifted to sleep in his arms.
As you woke up he was gone. First, you thought you had dreamed about yesterday's events but after a few seconds, you realized that it wasnât a dream. You got drunk, you had sex, you fell asleep next to him. And now, he was gone.
Standing up, you wrapped your blanket around your naked body, looking for the man that you spend the night with but he was nowhere to be seen.
Well, maybe it was too good to be true.
Itâs been five days. Five days since you shared your bed with Taehyung. Five days and your goddamn sheets still smelled like him â or maybe you were hallucinating at this point, wanting just something that reminds you of him around you.
The two of you talked to each other casually when you met on the farm. You said hello and talked about the weather. Shared awkward smiles. And that was about it. Itâs not like he was cold to you or anything, he seemed to feel just as helpless and awkward about your drunk night together as you. As much as you loved the night and what happened, you definitely hated the aftermath.
Talking to Yoongi about it didnât help, sadly. While you appreciate that he always listens to you and is ready to give you advice at any given time, you still had hoped that heâd suggest something else than to give him a bit of time.
The current tension between you was even worse than the sexual tension between you before. You didnât care if you and Taehyung wouldnât end up as a couple, of course, youâd like that very much and still hoped that things were going into that direction, but the two of you developed too much to just destroy the nice friendship you built because of feelings getting in the way.
So you decided to visit him that afternoon, feeling anxious as you were walking up the front porch of your neighbors. You barely remember how their house looked like from the inside since itâs been so long since you been inside. The front door stood open and you knocked against it, not wanting to be rude.
âMrs. Kim?â you called for her as you slowly stepped inside, looking if you could find her but there was no sign of her being home.
Walking up the stairs, you tried to remember which room belonged to Taehyung until you were distracted by something odd and unexpected â suddenly your ears were filled with a beautiful but rather sad piano melody coming from the room on the back of the corridor.
Curious, your feet walked towards the source of the sound, your heart suddenly felt heavy, the sad melody immediately managed to impact your mood, making you feel blue. A part of you wanted to turn around and leave Taehyung alone, just like he probably wanted you to â if you figured out one thing about him over the last few months than it was the fact that this man was a complicated person, hard to read and even harder to talk to, but you decided to accept that. There were only two options: Either youâd work it out with him or you wouldnât.
You stood in the open door, looking at the back of the man your heart wanted so bad, sitting in front of a big, wooden piano â for a second you couldnât even believe that he was able to play such a heart touching piece of art, sitting in his room all alone. What a waste it was for him to play all alone, with no one around to hear. It made your heart sting for a second, at this point you liked him too much to go back. Just looking at him being at peace was making you crave to be the woman beside him. After all, he was Kim Taehyung, the one man that managed to surprise you over and over again.
As quiet as possible you walked into the tidy and light room, not wanting to give him a heart attack by creeping up on him but also not wanting him to stop playing. It was a beautiful sight, the way his hands were gliding on the big instrument so smooth and without thinking. You couldnât see his face yet but you were already swooning over how beautiful he looked.
He looked over his shoulders as you cleared your throat, continuing to play even without paying attention to the keys, giving you an unreadable smile. You sat down on his bed that was placed right beside the piano as he stopped playing.
âDidnât expect you to come visit me if I am honest,â Taehyung admitted, almost sounding shy. He seemed to be a bit uncomfortable, knowing exactly that he finally had to face the night you shared a few days ago.
âWell, I didnât expect you to be able to play the piano so skillfully but yet, here you are, doing exactly that,â you countered in a soft tone, not wanting him to feel like you were mad at him, âThat sounded beautiful.â
He chuckled and you were happy to see him relax a bit, âYou think so? It was rather depressing, wasn't it?â
âMatching your mood?â you dared to ask him carefully, trying to address the whole situation somehow.
He stood up from his chair and walked over to you, sitting down next to you on his bed, âItâs my dadâs birthday today. He taught me the song I just played.â
His voice was full of love while talking about his father but you could hear the hidden sadness behind it. You didnât know about that and suddenly, you felt guilt rushing over you. While you were wondering why he didn't try to solve the obvious problem between you and him he had something way harder to deal with. Looking up at you, he forced a small smile, âMum and Olli are visiting his grave but I didnât feel like going.â
Trying to give him any kind of comfort you nodded, pressing your lips into a thin line. You were surprised that he was opening up to you but as sad as the situation was, it was relieving you that he finally talked to someone about it. According to Jimin and Yoongi he tried to avoid this topic as much as he could.
âWhy did you stay here?â you asked him, trying to keep the conversation going and show him your support. What you didnât want was overwhelm him with questions, so you slowly started to see how comfortable he was around you.
He shrugged, looking up at the ceiling, âItâs such a sad place. I feel like we shouldnât be sad on his birthday, if that makes sense. We should eat his favorite food and drink a beer and stay up too long, playing guitar on the porch. Mum and Dad always sneaked out at night on his birthday, taking drunk walks. They thought I didnât notice but they were always coming back, laughing loudly. I miss celebrating his birthdays. But itâs hard to be happy on his birthday without him here.â
He laid down on his bed, his head right next to where you were currently sitting. You studied his face, his eyes still glued to the ceiling, not daring to look at you, the woman he hurt by leaving her after having sex with her. The sun outside was setting, leaving Taehyungâs whole room in a golden light, his tan skin was glowing and his light-brown hair shimmering.
While he seemed to be sad on the outside you could see that talking about the memories he made with his father was making him feel lighter. It was nice seeing him talking about his dad - they always have been very close, you still could recall that.
âI still remember him so vividly. He always gifted me self-made jam before I left the city and no other jam, literally not a single one at home was comparable to his,â you shared your memory with Taehyung, looking out of the big window in his room, admiring the sun, âHe has a beautiful soul.â Â
When you came over you wouldn't have expected to talk to Taehyung about his father but you knew that everything else, every problem and unsolved question, between the two of you could wait for now.
âI wish I was more like him,â his voice was nothing more than a mumble, almost inaudible. The sudden craving to hold him came over you, to comfort him in your arms, to kiss him until he felt better. But you held back, as long as you didnât talk about the obvious.
âWhat do you mean?â you asked him, daring to lay down beside him â luckily, he didnât seem to mind. The two of you didnât touch or cuddled, you just were lying there, on his bed, having a serious and meaningful conversation.
âHe was so kind and positive. He told my mother different reasons why he loved her every night. Even after a long day of work he still took his time and practiced the piano with me every night and then brought Olli to bed, reading him a good night story or playing him songs on the guitar until he fell asleep. He taught me so much but still, I could never be so full of love like he used to be.â
âYou think too low of yourself, Tae,â you said determined, meaning it, âI donât think you see how much your mother appreciates everything you do for her. She knows that you didnât plan out your life like this but youâre staying here for her. And Olli looks up to you so much, you could do nothing to let him down.â
He shrugged, looking at you for a second, âI donât feel like thatâs enough.â
Feeling heartbroken about hearing him talk so bad about himself, your hand found his in between the two of you, linking it with yours, now it was you who didn't dare to look into his eyes, âLook at us then.â
âWhat do you mean?â he asked you, confused.
âSince I moved here you gave me so much joy and helped me everywhere you could. You have no idea how much I appreciate all the things youâve done for me since I came here, complicated tensions between us or not,â you meant every word.
He scoffed lightly, âI attacked you on your first day, made you churn butter and let you fall into the lake in the middle of the night on your birthday.â
You couldnât help but laugh a bit at his words, âWell, yes. And I could still kill you for all of those things. But,â you started, turning your body towards him to look into his eyes, âYou also helped me calm the cows during the storm. You gave me the most meaningful birthday present I couldâve thought of. You brought me a basket full of my favorite fruits even though you still deny that you did-â
He let out a soft chuckle before interrupting you, âThat wasnât me,â he insisted once again with a grin on his face.
âSure, Kim,â you rolled your eyes at him picking up this discussion again, âYou might think youâre being cold but youâre not at all.â
Now he turned to face you too, both of you lying on the side, looking in each otherâs eyes. His brows narrowed as he tried to say something to you, the expression in his eyes seemed to be hurt, maybe even guilty.
A heavy sigh came from his lips before he closed his eyes, âI just left you. That morning. I just got up and left.â
Those words made you freeze. After all, you came here to talk about exactly that but it seemed so wrong right now, âWe donât have to talk abou-â
âI just left,â he repeated, seeming disappointed with himself, âI never just left someone after having sex with them. There were people that meant way less to me and I still stayed the morning after. I am being a complete asshole to you all the time and still, you donât hate me. Youâre here, trying to make sure Iâm okay.â
Keeping quiet was the only thing you could do at that moment. Taehyungs words seemed harsh but the tone in his voice sounded guilty. Even if you wanted to, you couldnât say anything â you had no idea what Taehyung was trying to say.
âTae,â you finally started after a few seconds, his full attention on you, âThis day is hard enough for you already. We donât have to talk about that right now. Iâm not mad at you.â
âYou should be though. I know, I am pretty amazing but not even such a godlike man like me shouldnât treat you like this,â he joked but both of you knew it was his way of comprehending because he didnât know how to handle the conversation you were about to have since he always struggled to talk about his feelings, especially sober.
âWhy did you leave then?â you asked him the one question you asked yourself over and over again. There could have been millions of options in your mind. Maybe, he regretted it and it was just a drunk mistake. Maybe, the feelings you thought he had for you were just sexually. Maybe, he simply had to go and do something early in the morning. So many maybes that have gone through your head without any idea if any of those maybeâs were right.
âI donât know. I wish I didnât,â he bit his lip nervously, not looking into your eyes anymore, afraid to see your reaction, âMaybe Iâm afraid.â
âAfraid of what?â you asked, not sure if you actually wanted to know the answer. You felt many emotions when it came to him. You felt happiness, joy, hope, possibly love. On other days you felt powerless, insecure and confused. What you never felt was being afraid. Pretty sure, you actually felt safe around him.
âIâm not as flawless and strong as I constantly try to convince you I am,â he sighed, pressing his lips into a straight line, âI couldnât stand to hurt you because of my own problems. But I still did.â
Slowly you nodded as your heart was sinking deeper and deeper in your stomach, âYouâve got to talk to me. What are you thinking about?â
Taehyung hated this probably even more than you did. He was good in so many things â he was a good friend, a better brother and the best son. He was an amazing cook and apparently, an amazing piano player. He could flirt like no tomorrow and crack jokes around his friends that would make everyone laugh. He could drink a lot and he could make your heart beat faster.
There were countless things he was able to be and to do without any problem. But when it came to talking about his feelings and showing his vulnerable side he failed. You knew that just as good as everyone else but if he wouldnât talk, you couldnât continue to work on your relationship.
âIââ he started but stopped, looking at you sternly while clenching his jaw a bit. His eyebrows furrowed and his expression looked almost pained, trying to find the right words, âI think that I loved the night with you. I did, really. But maybe, it was a bit thoughtless of us.â
âSo, what youâre trying to say is that you regret it,â you stated, trying to just get this conversation over with, hoping he couldnât see or hear that you felt like he just put a knife in your stomach.
âGod, no,â his answer bursted out of him like a bullet before he started mumbling to himself, âI am truly terrible at this.â
You gave him a few seconds to gather his thoughts even though the silence was deafening. This wasn't how you expected to spend your first time in Taehyung's bed at all.
âI like you, (y/n),â he then spoke, determined, âObviously I do. And I think you like me too, or at least I hope you do. But we were drunk and desperate when we had sex and I wanted it to be special.â
You couldn't help but pout at his helpless confession, adoring him even more than before. Within seconds all of your doubts vanished â as long as Taehyung liked you too you would find a way to work everything out. Trying not to let your overflowing happiness show, you gave him a small smirk, âYou thought about us having sex?â
Luckily, his body relaxed too, an annoyed smile appearing on his handsome face, âAll the time,â he scrunched his nose, his arm wrapping itself around your waist.
âSo, what you're saying is that you ignored me for days because you didn't like the way it happened?â you asked him, coming back to the actual topic.
Frowning, he sighed, âWhen you put it like this it sounds stupid.â
âBecause it is,â you insisted, squinting your eyes at him, âI thought you avoided me because you hated me or something like that.â
âI'm so sorry,â he apologized again, his face coming closer to yours, âApparently, I'm very bad at this.â
âSo, what are we doing now?â you asked him, feeling a bit anxious even though Taehyung just told you that he liked you too, so you had nothing to worry about.
âFirst, I want to kiss you if you're fine with that,â his fingers were drawing little patterns on your waist, âand then I'd like us to become something serious.â
Nodding, you did as he asked and gave him a kiss, his soft lips feeling just as good, if not better, as you remembered them. You felt something like butterflies in your stomach and you thought that Taehyung would probably make fun of you if he knew how jolly he made you feel.
Breaking from the kiss, the most handsome man you've ever seen stared you down for a second, not saying anything.
âWe should celebrate,â he suddenly suggested.
âWhat do you have in mind?â you asked him curiously, not once escaping his gaze.
âLet me take you out to dinner,â his voice was sweet as honey and you were sure you never heard him talk in such a soft tone â it might be the rest of guilt he still felt towards you or the fact that now you officially knew about each other's feelings but you could get used to it. You wanted to get used to it.
âRight now?â you asked him, wondering if it would be okay considering it was his father's birthday.
âI don't wanna wait a second longer,â he smirked at his own cheesiness, getting out of his bed to get ready to go.
You joined him, âStop being so loving. God, where did my cynical Taehyung go?â
Rolling his eyes, he chuckled as he wrapped his arm around your waist, walking down the hallway with you. âThis changes nothing,â he gestured between the two of you, âYou're still terribly annoying even if we're together now.â
âI could get used to the sound of that,â you scrunched your nose as your eyes met before you repeated his words, âWe're together now.â
Even though he tried to hide it, he was just as excited about the label as you were. You could feel it in the way he touched you and the sparkle in his eyes gave him away.
A few minutes later you were sitting outside of the restaurant in the heart of your city, the marketplace was pretty quiet as it slowly got dark outside, a candle lit on your table.
The owner of the restaurant greeted you, raising his eyebrow and smirking as he saw the two of you together. âOh, what a nice sight to see the two of you here together. Is this a date by any chance?â
You let Taehyung answer, not knowing if he was okay with telling people yet.
âIt's still a secret so you have to keep quiet, please,â he answered with a proud smile on his lips and you could swear his chest was sticking out a bit.
âWhat a pretty couple,â he sang as he went back inside, giving you a bit of time to read the menu and decide on what to eat.
Even though it was almost autumn it was still warm outside â you loved those kind of late summer evenings. Without even having a single sip of alcohol you felt almost tipsy, the man opposite of you making you feel all light and smitten.
âThis is the downside of living in such a small town,â Taehyung started, his skin glowing in the candlelight, âWe have zero privacy.â
âI don't mind,â you shrugged, âThey're going to find out sooner or later. It's the charm of towns like ours.â
âI just would like to take you out on a date every now and then without one of the guys crashing it because they see us,â he explained, âBut you're right, it's not as bad here as I make it out to be.â
He took your hand that was resting on the table, caressing it with his thumb. Every touch you two shared make you shiver in anticipation for more. Even though you already knew you were head over heels for him you felt yourself falling deeper every time you touched.
Time went by way too fast for your liking and before you knew it you two had your dinner, your dessert and even some drinks afterwards. The atmosphere was light, both of you enjoying each other's company after not talking for some days.
âI don't want this night to end just yet,â you pouted. Before you dared to take his hands you glanced around to see if Jimin was anywhere to be seen, not wanting him to disturb your peace.
Your new boyfriend, still a weird thought to call him that, nodded, âI can stay if you want to.â
Before you could say anything he fastly added, âI don't have to though. It's your decision. I can leave too.â
You gave him a weird glance, âYou're acting like this would be a first for us.â
Not saying anything he almost froze in front of you, fidgeting with his hands, staring at your door. For a few seconds you mustered him, waiting if he'd say something but nothing came out of his mouth, which was pretty unusual for him.
âOh god, you're nervous!â your grin was a mile wide and you clapped your hands amused, âKim Taehyung is nervous because of me. I can't wait to tell my diary about this.â
Frustration was written all over his face as he closed his eyes as if he couldn't believe himself. âYour diary must be full of my name,â he mumbled under his breath before looking at you again, the satisfied smile on your face provoking him, âStop making fun of me.â
As you were searching for your keys in your back he hugged you from behind, pressing a kiss against your hair, âLetâs drink some beer and watch a movie.â
Nodding, you stole a quick kiss from his lips and opened the door, letting the both of you in.
âIâm going to get a blanket,â you informed him, âGet some beers, Iâll meet you in the couch in a minute.
âWhat do you wanna watch?â he asked you a few moments later, one leg bent while the other one was spread out on your sofa, his arm spread on the back of it, just waiting for you to join him.
The sight of him comfortably sitting on your sofa gave you the most domestic feeling you've felt in a long time â he seemed to look even better than before somehow.
âLet's watch an animal documentation,â you responded, sitting down next to him. The blanket you brought from your bedroom spread over the two of you, you dared to cuddle yourself up to him and he seemed to enjoy it as much as you, giving your head a quick kiss, your face resting on his chest.
âYou're weird,â he muttered, âLet's watch a horror movie instead.â
Giving him an unimpressed glance, you sighed, âHow cliche.â
You could feel his chuckle going through his chest, âAt least it would give me a reason to stay for the night.â
Rolling your eyes, you looked up at him, his glance already on you, âWhy? Because you're too afraid of horror movies? Because I am certainly not.â
âI have such a brave girlfriend,â he acknowledged in a sarcastic tone while opening two beers, handing you one, âHere's to us, babe.â
Clinking your bottles, you took a sip of your beer, âSo, you're a babe kind of guy? Wouldn't have thought that.â
âI can call you asshole if you prefer that,â he said seriously before starting to laugh at his own joke once again.
And with that, the rest of the evening was just as perfect as the first part. It was just you, Taehyung, some beers and Netflix. Every now and then you shared kisses, sometimes those kisses were a bit more passionate and longer, turning into full make-out sessions before Taehyung started to whine because he missed the plot of the movie you were watching.
âGod, Iâm so happy,â he told you softly as you were slowly falling asleep in his arms, relaxing completely under his touch, âI wanted this for so long.â
You and Taehyung managed to keep your relationship a secret for about two weeks. It took you only two short weeks to decide that it didnât make any sense to keep it from them. Not only were both of you pretty sure that the relationship between you was serious but also, like always, none of your friends stopped their teasing, making it difficult to stay hidden because their eyes were always on you.
âWe have to tell them,â your boyfriend looked at you, âItâs a miracle they didnât find out yet.â
You chuckled, wrapping your legs around his, âI guess youâre right. But they are going to be so nosey about it. I hate it already.â
It was a late summer Saturday evening, probably one of the lasts warm days for this year and Yoongi decided to gather your friends and your family together for one last barbecue.
Walking outside, you linked your arm with Taehyungâs, something youâve never done before in front of other people. A part of you almost felt nervous to let the rest know.
âYouâre ready?â he asked you, giving you a small wink as you walked towards the big table next to the barbecue grill. Your families were already sitting down on the big table while Yoongi and Hoseok were struggling to get the barbecue grill to work. It was a beautiful evening, the sun was still high but was about to sink, the warm summer breeze felt refreshing and the big table in the garden was full of drinks and food, from meat to salads to bread to vegetables. Yoongiâs parents were there too, currently mixing some cocktails.
Jimin was the first to spot the two of you walking out of your cottage, giving you a confused glance, his eyebrows narrowed. He stopped telling the other a story he was in the middle of, wondering about the sudden skinship. Immediately, everyone turned their heads to where he was looking, wondering what made Jimin speechless.
As you arrived you said nothing, waiting for anyone to say something.
Yoongi looked at you with a big grin on his face. âWhat is that supposed to mean?â he asked, pointing onto your linked arms.
âYou are fucking with us, arenât you?â, your cousin asked suspiciously, âHa Ha. Very funny.â
âNo, for once Iâm serious,â you replied, amused because he didnât believe you, âAre you really surprised?â
Mrs. Kim and your uncle looked at each other, a smile on their faces.
âTaehyung, are you serious? You canât trick your old mother like this, donât make me excited for something that isnât true.â
Taehyung chuckled at his mother, nodding, âDonât worry, mum. Iâd never lie to you.â
Jimin still didnât seem to believe you, âIf youâre not kidding you gotta kiss,â he insisted with a sly smirk, thinking that he exposed you now.
You looked at Tae, giving him a questioning glance, not knowing if heâd be comfortable kissing you in front of everyone. But he didnât seem to care and just shook his head amused before he came closer to give you a short, but still very adorable, kiss on your lips, his arm now around your waist, before turning to Jimin, who looked like he was about to faint.
âWho do you think you are just dating my cousin without asking me for permission?â he yelled angrily, getting ready to fight Taehyung.
You, Yoongi and Hoseok started to laugh out loud as Jimin started to chase after Taehyung.
Sitting down on the table right next to Yoongiâs seat he pinched your cheeks lightly, âCongratulations, finally trapped him, huh?â
You nodded, âWas about time. I was slowly going insane.â
âIn a more peaceful minute, you need to tell me all about how it happened, alright?â your best friend said with a satisfied smile on his lips, âAnd donât forget me now that youâre in love.â
âHow could I ever?â you promised, laughing as Taehyung came back to the table, out of breath from running away from Jimin.
âYour cousin is crazy, (y/n),â he breathed heavily, shaking his head, âMaybe I have to reconsider becoming part of your family.â
âWell, too late now,â you shrugged as Jimin  joined the table again too, a goofy smile on his face as he turned to you.
âSo, I assume I canât try to set you up with Jungkook anymore, right?â he joked, sitting back down on his chair and opening two cans of beer, one for himself and the other one for you.
âYou better watch your mouth,â your boyfriend warned Jimin, giving him a warning glance.
A few hours later, the sky was pitch-black by now and the stars sparkling, you noticed that Taehyung was gone for quite some time now and decided to go check up on him - you saw him going to the barn earlier.
As you walked over to Taehyung he already noticed you but didnât look at you yet. Instead, you only saw his back as he was busy giving Bertha some kisses.
âOh no, donât worry, Bertha,â he talked to her, âYouâre still my favorite cow, just donât tell (y/n).â
You rolled your eyes, scoffing, âYouâre trying to make me jealous?â
He turned around, acting as if he didnât realize you coming on, âOh no, (y/n),â his voice was mocking, âYou shouldnât have seen this, I can explain, I promise.â
Laughing at his own joke, he came over to you and put his arm around your shoulder, pulling you closer to him. Trying to give you a kiss, you freed yourself from his grip, giving him the cold shoulder.
âNo, go and kiss Bertha, if you love her so much,â you huffed and held your chin up high, trying to stay serious but Taehyung wasnât having it. Within seconds his arms were wrapped around you once again, now tighter than before so you couldnât escape if you wanted.
Pulling you into a hug, he locked his eyes with you, a joyful smile on his still so beautiful lips, âYouâre so annoying.â
Scoffing, you avoided his eyes, still playing hard to get, âI thought we're over the whole 'you're annoying me' phase.â
âActually, each time I told you that you're annoying I fell in love with you a bit more,â your boyfriend confessed, still hugging you tightly before smirking, âBut you still were a pain in the ass.â Â
You gave him a quick and small kiss before resting your forehead against his, âI want to spend the rest of my life annoying you.â
He let out a small laugh, his eyes closed. âOh, thatâs good,â suddenly he picked you up, giving you no other chance as to hold onto him, your legs around his waist as he was holding you up, his arms tightly around your waist, âBecause I want to spend the rest of my annoying life with you.â
#bts#taehyung#taehyung imagine#taehyung scenario#taehyung smut#taehyung au#jungkook#jimin#namjoon#hoseok#yoongi#seokjin#bts imagines#taehyung x reader#taehyung fanfic
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hello there, hope you're having a nice day <3
so i've been reading a lot of fics lately, uk for sanity's sake, and i've noticed that in most of them, lwj doesn't use contractions (eg., says do not instead of don't)?? and i think he doesn't in the novel either but i don't remember lol so i can't be sure but anyway that made me curious - does chinese have contractions as well? does he not use it bc it's informal?
hello there! Iâm doing all right, i started to answer this ask while waiting for a jingyeast loaf to come out of the oven đ many thanks to @bookofstars for helping me look over/edit/correct this post!! :D
anyways! the answer to your questions are complicated (of course it is when is anything simple with me), so letâs see if I can break it down--youâre asking a) whether chinese has contractions, b) if it does, how does they change the tone of the sentence--is it similar to english or no?, and c) how does this all end up with lan wangji pretty much never using contractions in english fic/translation?
Iâm gonna start by talking about how formality is (generally) expressed in each language, and hopefully, by the end of this post, all the questions will have been answered in one way or another. so: chinese and english express variations in formality/register differently, oftentimes in ways that run contrary to one another. I am, as always, neither a linguist nor an expert in chinese and english uhhh sociological grammar? for lack of a better word. Iâm speaking from my own experience and knowledge :D
so with a character like lan wangji, it makes perfect sense in english to write his dialogue without contractions, as contractions are considered informal or colloquial. I donât know if this has changed in recent years, but I was always taught in school to never use contractions in my academic papers.
However! not using contractions necessarily extends the length of the sentence: âdo notâ takes longer to say than âdonâtâ, âcannotâ is longer than âcanâtâ etc. in english, formality is often correlated with sentence length: the longest way you can say something ends up sounding the most formal. for a very simplified example, take this progression from least formal to absurdly formal:
whatcha doinâ?
whatâre you doing?
what are you doing? [standard colloquial]
may I ask what you are doing?
might I inquire as to what you are doing?
excuse me, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?
pardon my intrusion, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?
please pardon my intrusion, but might inquire as to the nature of your current actions?
this is obviously a somewhat overwrought example, but you get the point. oftentimes, the longer, more complex, more indirect sentence constructions indicate a greater formality, often because there is a simultaneous decreasing of certainty. downplaying the speakerâs certainty can show deference (or weakness) in english, while certainty tends to show authority/confidence (or aggression/rudeness).
different words also carry different implications of formalityâin the example, I switched âexcuse meâ to âpardon meâ during one of the step ups. pardon (to me at least) feels like a more formal word than âexcuseâ. Similarly, âinquireâ is more formal than âaskâ etc. I suspect that at least some of what makes one word seem more formal than one of its synonyms has to do with etymology. many of englishâs most formal/academic words come from latin (which also tends to have longer words generally!), while our personal/colloquial words tend to have germanic origins (inquire [latin] vs ask [germanic]).
youâll also notice that changing a more direct sentence structure (âmay I ask whatâ) to a more indirect one (âmight I inquire as toâ) also jumps a register. a lot of english is like this â you can complicate simple direct sentences by switching the way you use the verbs/how many auxiliaries you use etc.
THE POINT IS: with regards to english, more formal sentence structures are often (not always) longer and more indirect than informal ones. this leads us to a problem with a character like lan wangji.
lan wangji is canonically very taciturn. if he can express his meaning in two words rather than three, then he will. and chinese allows for thisâin extreme ways. if you havenât already read @hunxi-guilaiâs post on linguistic register (in CQL only, but itâs applicable across the board), I would start there because haha! I certainly do Not have a degree in Classical Chinese lit and she does a great job. :D
you can see from the examples that hunxi chose that often, longer sentences tend to be more informal in chinese (not always, which Iâll circle back to at the end lol). Colloquial chinese makes use of helping particles to indicate tone and meaning, as is shown in wei wuxianâs dialogue. and, as hunxi explained, those particles are largely absent from lan wangjiâs speech pattern. chinese isnât built of âwordsâ in the way English isâeach character is less a word and more a morphemeâand the language allows for a lot of information to be encoded in one character. a single character can often stand for a phrase within a sentence without sacrificing either meaning or formality. lan wangji makes ample use of this in order to express himself in the fewest syllables possible.
so this obviously leads to an incongruity when trying to translate his dialogue or capture his voice in English: shorter sentences are usually more direct by nature, and directness/certainty is often construed as rudeness -- but it might seem strange to see lan wangjiâs dialogue full of longer sentences while the narration explicitly says that he uses very short sentences. so what happens is that many english fic writers extrapolated this into creating an english speech pattern for lan wangji that reads oddly. theyâll have lan wangji speak in grammatically incoherent fragments that distill his intended thought because theyâre trying to recreate his succinctness. unfortunately, English doesnât have as much freedom as Chinese does in this way, and it results in lan wangji sounding as if he has some kind of linguistic impediment and/or as if heâs being unspeakably rude in certain situations. In reality, lan wangjiâs speech is perfectly polite for a young member of the gentry (though heâs still terribly rude in other ways lol). he speaks in full, and honestly, quite eloquent sentences.
hunxiâs post already has a lot of examples, but I figure Iâll do one as well focused on the specifics of this post.
Iâm going to use this exchange from chapter 63 between the twin jades because I think itâs a pretty simple way to illustrate what Iâm talking about:
èæŠèŁéïŒâäœ äșČçŒæè§ïŒâ
èćżæșéïŒâä»äșČçŒæè§ăâ
èæŠèŁéïŒâäœ çžäżĄä»ïŒâ
èćżæșéïŒâ俥ăâ
[...] èæŠèŁéïŒâéŁäčéć
ç¶ćąïŒâ
èćżæșéïŒâäžćŻäżĄăâ
my translation:
Lan Xichen said, âYou saw it with your own eyes?â
Lan Wangji said, âHe saw it with his own eyes.â
Lan Xichen said, âYou believe him?â
Lan Wangji said, âI believe him.â
[...] Lan Xichen said, âThen what about Jin Guangyao?â
Lan Wangji said, âHe cannot be believed.â
you can see how much longer the (pretty literal) english translations are! every single line of dialogue is expanded because things that can be omitted in chinese cannot be omitted in english without losing grammatical coherency. iâll break a few of them down:
Lan Xichenâs first line:
äœ (you) äșČçŒ (with oneâs own eyes) æ (literary auxiliary) è§ (met/saw)ïŒ
idk but i love this line a lot lmao. it just has such an elegant feel to me, probably because I am an uncultured rube. anyways, you see here that he expressed his full thought in five characters.
if I were to rewrite this sentence into something much less formal/much more modern, I might have it become something like this:
äœ æŻèȘć·±çè§çćïŒ
äœ (you) æŻ (to be) èȘć·± (oneself) çè§ (see) ç (auxiliary) ć (interrogative particle)ïŒ
i suspect that this construction might even be somewhat childish? Iâve replaced every single formal part of the sentence with a more colloquial one. instead of äșČçŒ iâve used èȘć·±, instead of æè§ iâve used çè§ç and then also added an interrogative particle at the end for good measure (ć). To translate this, I would probably go with âDid you see it yourself?â
contained in this is also an example of how one character can represent a whole concept that can also be represented with two characters: è§ vs çè§. in this example, both mean âto seeâ. weâll see it again in the next example as well:
in response to lan xichenâs, âyou believe him?â --> äœ (you) çžäżĄ (believe) ä» (him)? lan wangji answers with, â俥â (believe).
chinese does not do yes or no questions in the same way that english does. there is no catch-all for yes or no, though there are general affirmative (æŻïŒæ) and negative (äžïŒæČĄ) characters. there are other affirmative/negative characters, but these are the ones that I believe are the most common and also the ones that you may see in response to yes or no questions on their own. (donât quote me on that lol)
regardless, the way you respond to a yes or no question is often by repeating the verb phrase either in affirmative or negative. so here, when lan xichen asks if lan wangji believes wei wuxian, lan wangji responds âbelieveâ. once again, you can see that one character can stand in for a concept that may also be expressed in two characters: 俥 takes the place of çžäżĄ. lan wangji could have responded with âçžäżĄâ just as well, but, true to his character, he didnât because he didnât need to. this is still a complete sentence. lan wangji has discarded the subject (I), the object (him), and also half the verb (çž), and lost no meaning whatsoever. you canât do this in english!
and onto the last exchange:
lan xichen: éŁäč (then) éć
ç¶ (jin guangyao) ćą (what about)ïŒ
lan wangji: äžćŻ (cannot) 俥 (believe)
you can actually see the contrast between the two brothersâ speech patterns even in this. lan xichenâs question is not quite as pared down as it could be. if it were wangjiâs line instead, I would expect it to read simply âéć
ç¶ćąïŒâ which would just be âwhat about jin guangyao?â éŁäč isnât necessary to convey the core thought -- itâs just as how âthen what aboutâ is different than âwhat aboutâ, but âthenâ is not necessary to the central question. if we wanted to keep the âthenâ aspect, you could still cut out äč and it would be the same meaning as well.
a FINAL example of how something can be cut down just because I think examples are helpful:
âI donât knowâ is usually given as æäžç„é. (this is what nie huaisang says lol) It contains subject (æ) and full verb (ç„é). you can pare this straight down to just äžç„ and it would mean the same thing in the correct context. i think most of the characters do this at least once? it sounds more literary -- i donât know that i would ever use it in everyday speech, but the fact remains that itâs a possibility. both could be translated as âI do not knowâ and it would be accurate.
ANYWAYS, getting all the way back to one of your original questions: does chinese have contractions? and the answer is like... kind of...?? but not really. thereâs certainly slang/dialect variants that can be used in ways that are reminiscent of english contractions. the example Iâm thinking of is the character ć„ (sha2) which can be used as slang in place of ä»äč (shen2 me). (which means âwhatâ)
so for a standard sentence of, äœ ćšćä»äč? (what are you doing), you could shorten down to just ćć„? and the second construction is less formal than the first, but they mean the same thing.
other slang i can think of off the top of my head: ćčČć (gan4 ma2) is also informal slang for âwhat are you doingâ. and i think this is a regional thing, but you can also use æ (gao3) and æŽ (zheng3) to mean âdoâ as well.
so in the same way that you can replace ä»äč with ć„, you can replace ć as well to get constructions like æć„ (gao3 sha2) and æŽć„ (zheng3 sha2).
these are all different ways to say âwhat are you doingâ lmao, and in this case, shorter is not, in fact, more formal.
woo! we made it to the end! I hope it was informative and helpful to you anon. :D
this is where I would normally throw my ko-fi, but instead, Iâm actually going to link you to this fundraising post for an old fandom friend of mine. her house burned down mid-september and they could still use help if anyone can spare it! if this post would have moved you to buy me a ko-fi, please send that money to her family instead. :) rbs are also appreciated on the post itself. (* ÂŽâœ` *)
anyways, hereâs the loaf jingyeast made :3 it was very tasty.
#mdzs#mdzs meta#the untamed#the untamed meta#lan wangji#lan wangji meta#mine#mymeta#linguistics#chinese#english#cyan chinese school#cyan help desk#languages#contractions#register#look man idk how am i gonna tag this#*yeets into the void*
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Okay I'm adding my two cents here as well cause I tend to like fandom spaces/find them more interesting for stats and trends etc.
With podcasts there is a thing that happens often especially when you get into "smaller" podcasts. Aka ones that aren't Critical Role, TMA etc where the person listening to that podcast probably has listened to at least five other ones and has another ten on the list to listen to. The fandom lines especially on smaller podcasts get blurred and offer more cross overs. But it also means that people are jumping from one to another at a quick turnover rate. Instead of watching a show and then going: that was so cool, wish there was more or something like it I could listen to. People go: okay I finished podcast number 30 time for 31.
And also yes some podcasts only has like ten people listening to it. I have listened to podcasts where I cannot remember how I found them looked them up on Tumblr or Twitter and found that there is exactly five posts about them across both sites and three are from the creator. That doesn't have a large enough base to really make a whole lot. Though I will say that I'm part of a small community and run a m'craft server for them. There are these two people on it that I have made a full animatic for and other people have had fan art for. So it partly has to do with how important/unique the experience is to you more so then size for fan art.
Podcasts are great they get me through the day but when I consume so many of them, they don't that same special treatment. Instead they all get lumped together. Like how all the YA novels I read in middle school and highschool are just one big mass of plot in my brain. There are some I can remember clearly but most? I can tell you that it was a protagonist... with a mission. Saved world.
The other is when can people listen to a podcast. The answer is constantly. I listen at work for about 8 hours a day 5 days a week. I chew through podcasts like they are nothing. I have a LIST of songs I would love to make podcast animatics to for every single podcast I've listened to almost. But there are two things stopping me.
I don't want ever do the animatic until I'm caught up. Which sometimes with the podcasts that update weekly make me go: oh no that idea is now needing to include more and more.
I often never even get to the storyboarding because I finish that podcast that week and then move on to the next one. And even if I love the one I just finished it's like when you finish a good book and go to the next one. You are going to talk to a friend, you might reread your favorite chapter but if you got into and tried to make content and fan work for every single one might end up burning up.
I'm listening at work. I cannot start sketching ideas at work. And then I go home and I don't listen to the podcasts, or work on stuff for the podcasts (normally). For me podcasts are a work thing then to engage with at work. And I know for a lot of people podcasts are for specific tasks: driving, chores, drawing. Which means they don't get their own time that they take up, they are an additional not something that most set time to the side for.
Because they are in addition to an already planned task "making time" for podcasts never really becomes a priority, even if you want to listen to them more. I have a friend who has been trying to get through Wolf 359 for almost a full year now because he only listens to Podcast on long (2 hours or more) uninterrupted car rides. But currently lives somewhere where most of his drives are like 30 minutes tops and that is to work where he plays music. He loves TMA but while he will sketch silly fan things for other media he consumes I have never once seen him sketch a single thing for TMA. Because for him Podcasts aren't a media that is a primary time taker. It's a secondary.
The other thing is something that I noticed from being in DSMP fandom space. When new content drops there is a quick rush to get out that initial inspiration and then unless someone is working on a longer piece until the next bit of content drops? It will be generally quiet on the fanwork side, of course those people were going every single day/week so there was more art. But you could tell who streamed recently often due to fanworks.
Podcasts are similar. I can tell exactly which one of my podcasts just dropped a new episode from getting new art. A new flurry of updated fics etc.
On that note discords. Don't get me wrong being able to make and share art directly into a community is cool af. And desiring to share it somewhere where only fans will see it so you get a bit more privacy feeling can make it easier to share art. But some podcast discords I've been in it feels like they get twice the amount of art then any of the more publicly accessible social media for the same podcast.
The last actually partly has to do with my inability to actually visualize a person for the voices. The clearest character image I ever got in my head without fan art or cosplay forcing an image into my head was Doug Eiffel. People don't have a clear reference for their art and so now you need to make one. It's why fandom designs probably get so popular, makes it easier to draw someone if you don't have to also figure out how your brain interprets this random voice in your head. Sometimes I actively stop drawing or working on podcast fanworks the moment I get past barebones and have to actually add features. Because in my head these people are constantly shifting and don't have actual features at the same time.
This got more rambly and I don't think I actually touched on a single point I was trying to say in my brain. I just have bitched to my friends about how sparse podcast fandoms are sometimes and so brain went brrr and word vomited.
When I wake up and reread this will probably either clarify it or just delete. But current me is seeing this ideal real estate.
Where are all the Audio Fiction Fandoms?
To be clear, this isn't me complaining, and I know, there are plenty of fandoms for audio fiction podcasts and the like.
But I have always found it weird how few shows get the big, self-sustaining kinds of fandoms, the ones where there's always at least a little trickle of fanfic and fanart. So weird, in fact, that I've been thinking about it on and off for the last 5-6 years, and I have a few theories I'd like to share with y'all as to why, and to see if I can't get some feedback from the audio fiction fans on Tumblr.
Theory 1: Audience Size
The first theory is mostly about demographics - fundamentally, a fandom has to be large enough to sustain itself, and only a certain number of audience members are going to become the kind of fans who make fan works, so ultimately, an audio fiction show needs to get popular enough before fan works start appearing.
There's plenty of support for this theory, of course - Welcome to Night Vale, Wolf 359, The Adventure Zone and The Magnus Archives are titans in the fiction podcast space, and indeed they have big fandoms. But, with that said, there's plenty of other podcasts that are just as big that don't have fandoms, so this can't explain it all.
Theory 2: Audience Distance
This one is similar to the first, but subtly different. A few creators in the space I've talked to have noted that they'd never make fan works of their friend's shows - that feels weird, like deliberately treading on their friend's work. They don't have this feeling when playing in big fandoms, or fandoms where they don't know the creator. This implies to me that fans need a certain level of distance from creators in order to feel comfortable playing with that fictional space. While this is less the case now with the fall of Twitter, a lot of shows, for better or worse, used social media as the primary pillar of their marketing, as well as using Patreons with special access as part of their monetization strategies.
In short, it's never been easier to get close to the creators of your favourite shows, and for smaller shows, the most exuberant fans - the kinds who might make fan works - are also the kinds of fans who will take those opportunities to get closer to the creators. In short, there just might not enough social distance for fans to be comfortable creating works, not at least until the audience grows sufficiently that a creator simply cannot be that close with their entire audience.
This theory I'm not so sure about these days - this one is probably a lot more dependent on the generation of fandom you belong to. Older generations of fandom are more likely to have this queasiness around creator closeness, because they were creating in a time where fandom was a shadow realm, desperately hidden from The Powers That Be, and "No Copyright Infringement Intended" was carved into fan works as an eldritch attempt at legal protection.
Theory 3: Audience Age
To be clear - there are fans of all ages out there. But it is clear to me that fandom trends young, and part of that is just the time needed to participate in fan culture - creating and consuming takes a lot of time, time that tends gets scarcer and scarcer as you get older (there are obvious exceptions of course - stay-at-home mothers have consistently been a major force in fandoms!). It's possible that audio fiction fans just tend to trend older, and thus don't have the time available to create and consume fan works.
Honestly, I'm not sure how relevant this one is - Audio fiction is becoming more popular with younger audiences and slowly shedding the "old fuddy-duddyness" that surrounded it when I was first getting into the space. And, ya know, there are audio fiction fandoms out there, so obviously either the youth aspect of fandom isn't a thing, or it is, but audio fiction audiences are still trending young anyway.
Theory 4: We're getting what we need!
A lot of academic discourse often focuses on the idea that fandoms create for a reason - and that reason is often to focus on parts of a fiction that the original text, for whatever reason, doesn't. The most obvious form of this is the many, many, many examples of ships and erotic fanfiction. You, as a fan, watch a show, see something between two characters, and get frustrated that the show isn't giving you more of that, won't make what is clearly obvious to you, explicit. So, you consume and/or create fan works that help relieve that tension instead.
Or, in shows where the focus is primarily on plot advancement or action, you feel a desire to get to know the characters better - you see the stirrings of these characters, you want to know them better, but the show just isn't the type of show to give you that slow, character-heavy scene/episode that you know would give you exactly what you need, so, again, you go consume and/or create fan works to fix that.
It's very possible that a lot of audio fiction is already built to give these sorts of fan audiences what they want. There's already romantic relationships, characters are openly queer, the nature of the audio medium means that character-heavy scenes are something that the medium directs creators towards, so there's already a lot of character engagement. So, for many fandoms, there just isn't much need to create fan works - there's no tension between what the show is and what it could be.
Theory 5: We can make our own at home!
One interesting theory is that one reason that people make fandom is because, fundamentally, the creators understand that they're not going to be making a film, or a TV show, or a book. They have creative urges, and they're not in a situation in life where they're likely to overcome the enormous barriers to entry in mainstream media, so, in combination with the stuff in theory 3, they play in other people's worlds instead. They know that there's already an audience who will consume their work (they're part of that fan community, after all!), so they can get that validation of creation without needing to create their own TV show or film or book, etc.
Podcasts, however, are different. Now, it's not true to say that podcasts have low barriers to entry - to create a podcast, there's a lot of skills you either need to learn yourself, or find collaborators with those skills. But, those barriers to entry are much lower than visual media. At the very least, audio production is significantly cheaper and less complicated for an equivalent runtime.
Better, podcasts have absurdly low barriers to publication - There are no gatekeepers to satisfy, no distributors you have to convince. Once your thing is made, pretty much no one can stop you from distributing that work. You don't even really need to pay for a podcast host - there's a few free podcast hosts now. So, once you've done the work, pretty much nothing stops you from publishing said work.
So... If you're a creative fan, who loved a show but thinks you can do better? Well, you can! You don't need to play in other people's spaces, you can be inspired by the podcasts you listen to to create your own original work, in the same medium and genre.
What do y'all think? Which of these feel right, which of these feel obviously wrong? Are you part of a audio fiction fandom? What does your fandom feel like to you on the inside? As a audio fiction creator, it's kinda hard for me to get into the inside of fandom culture, so insider perspectives would be super neat for me, so please reblog this to anyone you feel might have an interesting perspective on the whole thing!
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So. Some of you may have noticed that Iâm a bit less active here of late. Itâs true. Iâve been keeping my distance recently and the reason for it is simple:Â
I have kind of lost the steam to create content for this fandom and donât feel like sharing my mdtb stuff with a wider audience at this point.
It feels counterproductive to do it too, if Iâm being honest.Â
For one - and Iâve shared a lot of posts about it in the past - it is undeniable that low engagement is the thing that kills creatorsâ motivation. We create stuff for you, the fans and the fandom, as much as we create it for ourselves, and spending so much time on stuff and putting so much effort into it only for it to be ignored over and over, and over, and over again is very demotivating. I understand not everyone likes the same shit, I do, but still, it is not a nice feeling to spend hours or days on something and then seeing it disappear into the chasm of internet with barely any echo.
Another thing is that I like creating content that focuses on healthy relationships with lots of romance and fluff thrown into the mix. Even if the storylines are predominantly angst-focused, I do love my happy endings and stick to them most of the time with a few dishonourable exceptions. That being said, I donât think this is particularly appealing to the mdtb fandom as it is right now. Maybe it never really was to begin with, but I was too into the ship to see it? No idea, really. All I know is that the current approach to this ship makes me want to keep my content to myself for now.
You know, the funny thing is that I keep seeing people post about how they got into mdtb for violence and hate, and that itâs for sure how everyone else got into this ship too. In hindsight, it should have made me realize this fandom maybe isnât for me a while ago.Â
You wanna know how I got here? It was fluff, angst and hurt/comfort. The good stuff that ended happily and made me smile like an idiot. Specifically, it was the wonderful fics written by authors like reandown, blackkat, Kalira, keanblade, and many, many others that got me into this ship and made me want to create my own content for it. This is what got me hooked. Not violence. Not hate. Not whatever other bullshit dynamic you all want to shove down my throat to the point Iâm beginning to choke on it. It was fluff and the amazing potential for these two broken men to find some happiness with each other.Â
Does it sound cliche? Maybe. Do I give a flying fuck? No. Will I continue shipping them this way? Absolutely.
The thing is I go to fandom overall to find good stuff and positive vibes. In short, I want it to make me feel better, not worse. I donât mind a bit of pain, because it can provide a nice cleanse when you end up in tears over one moment or another, and I like my fluff with a side of angst besides. What I donât want is violence and pain and hate all the way through in almost every single piece of content, and thatâs what I have been getting.Â
My disclaimer here is that you can all create and enjoy whatever you want, guys. Itâs your right to do so. But at the same time I would like to say that Iâm sick and tired of some things, and I just need a break from it. Maybe some time off will help me push it all away and I will be able to forget about all the shitty, needlessly provocative, mean-spirited shit Iâve been seeing. Who knows. Time will tell, I guess.
On a side note and as a conclusion of sorts, I would also like to add that I get why people hate on this fandom so damn much. I will not elaborate further, but I do get where the hate is coming from and, in some cases, it is actually pretty fucking well-deserved too.
All in all, this is my partial hiatus announcement, I guess. Iâll continue posting chapters for my ongoing stories and I will also share the art requests I got, but I donât think you should expect to see more new stuff from me for now.
I will come back at some point. I just need a break.
#mdtb#madatobi#personal#was it your intention to chase people out?#no clue#but that's what's happening regardless#i'm tired of this bs#maybe a break will help#who knows#for now it's lossie out
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fgo criticisms have been flaring up in the wake of dwâs sakura wars mobile game quitting after only half a year but I have a disease that makes me get defensive when people try to rip fgo apart as this uniquely terrible game with uniquely terrible devs so iâm going to complain about people who are complaining for a bit.
i hadnât heard of the sakura wars game before it shut down but from what iâve been able to find it suffered from a lot of the same problems as (launch) fgo, terrible gacha rates with no pity, slow ap recovery rates, barebones repetitive gameplay. so i guess seeing how fast sakura wars was shut down people feel like itâs only the fate name holding up fgo and in the early launch days of barely playable fgo that was definitely the case but I donât think itâs fair to fgo to act like people only continue to play it because itâs fate, and âbeing like fgoâ wasnât the only problem with sakura wars either. sakura wars is a vn/dating sim series that attempted to revive the series with a mobile game that featured none of the original cast that fans cared about while fate was already a series with new characters and a new setting every instalment and the thing that stood out in this new game was actually that it DID have characters from previous fates available. hell, itâs not fair to sakura wars to claim that its series name is simply weaker than fateâs when there were other factors involved in its failure beyond âbeing a delightworks gameâ
fgo DOES improve, launch fgo is unrecognisable compared to current fgo in a good way. events have become more streamlined (events have mid- to lategame enemy hp scaling but feature damage ceâs to let newer players keep up, mission events are set up so that they basically clear themselves just by farming the most recently unlocked node), they experiment with new game modes and gameplay mechanics on the regular, theyâre taking more care to make viable permanent servants and buff the older ones, and the past few months thereâs also been a noticeable effort to throw out random banners for minor things as an excuse to rerun old limited servants more often. Iâll admit the bar is on the low side (strengthening quests are a ridiculous model, there shouldnât be this many limiteds to need reruns in the first place, etc) and progress is slower than many people are willing to put up with, and Iâm not saying anyone Has to put up with it or theyâre a fake fan or whatever, but like, granblue fantasy is seven years old and still doesnât have the ability to uncap a weapon multiple stages at a time when its entire gameplay loop centers around farming and uncapping weapons and theyâve buffed heles like 7 times but sheâs still shit, none of fgoâs problems are exclusive to fgo.
i LIKE playing fgo. i like tapping the cards and watching my little guys go and coming up with different teams to make them go harder or just look good together or even lean into the Themes. and this is going a little bit on a tangent but i have this post window open anyway i was talking with friends earlier that one problem that a lot of mobile games seem to have is that they use âmaking the game play itselfâ as substitute for âmaking the game fun to playâ. the only game with autobattle functionality (out of the ones I play, i donât know everything thatâs out there of course) that I feel DOESNâT do this is arknights, where you solve the puzzle that the stage presents in order to earn the right to not have to solve the puzzle every single time you play the stage and coming up with different efficient or perhaps ridiculous ways to solve the puzzle is part of playing the game. the worst case I know is dragalia lost which upon realizing that playing it sucks implemented an item to just let you skip playing stages altogether. âthis game is good because you donât have to play itâ is not the selling point some people (and devs) think it is, and fgo refuses to fall into that trap - something I believe is an intentional decision because of their explicit refusal to implement NP skip.
one big advantage that fgo has over the other mobile games iâve played is that itâs entirely turn based with no real time elements beyond start and end times of events. fgo doesnât NEED to continue playing itself when you look away because looking away has no bearing whatsoever on your ability to clear the quest, fgo doesnât give a shit if you look away for six hours and then close the game and only reopen it another ten hours later, you can continue right where you left off. the problem is not that you have to manually play the quest, because as far as the system is concerned you can take as much time as you like to clear that quest, itâs that the greater structure of the game wants you to repeatedly manually clear the same low-stakes quest for disproportionately small rewards. this oneâs easy enough to solve by just increasing material droprates across the board. repeat clearing a low level quest is much less frustrating if you actually get drops every other clear.
but thatâs a bandaid solution, because related to the issue of having to manually farm low-stakes quests is the lack of high-stakes quests to do when you want to do something a little more engaging than routine farming. outside of event challenge quests with their time limited availability, certain main story chapters that you canât replay, and recently on JP the permanently available kiara challenge quest in the main interlude, there simply isnât any difficult content to play. you could argue about fgoâs merit as strategy rpg in the first place i suppose but if you ask me it does have that merit and there is a clear effort from dwâs part to improve the depth of fgoâs strategy elements, the issue is that there is simply not that much content available to unleash those strategies on. of course youâre gonna get bored if all there is to do is either brainlessly repeat the same quest for minimal rewards or play the specific challenge quest that the game hands you right this moment regardless of whether thatâs the kind of challenge you feel like facing right now. the solution to this one, although itâs likely going to take some significant effort on dwâs side to implement, is to make main story quests replayable.
you want to flex your brain muscles but thereâs no challenge event right now? you stomped on a boss by using overpowered servants the first time but want to challenge yourself with some 3* this time? or the other way around, you beat a boss by the skin of your teeth the first time but want to stomp all over them now that you rolled some bitching 5*? you rolled a servant thatâs not that suitable for day to day farming but would really shine in more difficult content and you want to try them out? you have a silly strategy in mind that would only work against certain story enemies? youâre like me and just really crave the shimosa duels? all of this involves content that already exists and is available in the game, dw would just have to figure out a way to let you access it again after clearing the chapter. and of course ideally this extends to event story quests once theyâre added to the main interlude
i guess another way to put it is that i think the reason a lot of people say fgo has bad gameplay is not that its gameplay system is actually bad, in fact it has the potential to be very engaging, but rather that itâs a system that is set up to respect your time through the ability to put down the game absolutely whenever you want without being penalised, only for the game around it to go and penalise you for putting it down anyway. if you donât diligently spend all your ap farming this quest you wonât get single damn material drop, and if you donât play the event while itâs happening youâre going to miss out because you canât be sure when if ever itâll return. so the number one way to solve the problem of fgoâs âbad gameplayâ is not to make the game play itself whenever it tells you to play, but rather to make content more easily available so you donât have to play if you donât want to and CAN play if you do want to. thank you for coming to my ted talk i suppose
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MegOP Week on AO3
The fic collection has been made and will be revealed on the first day of MegOP Week (July 5th) to start accepting submissions. There will also be another post linking to it and explaining how to submit your work to the collection.
Please be aware that the AO3 collection will be moderated for reasons specified in the FAQ below.
The following rules will also be posted in the FAQ/Rules section of the collection on AO3:
Rules:
Written works of any word/chapter count are allowed.
Other works like art and podfic are also allowed.
Incomplete works are allowed. Ex: If a user posts a multichapter fic for one of the prompts, but does not finish it within the time limit of MegOP week.
Works in languages other than English are allowed.
NSFW of any kind is allowed during MegOP Week. Please use tag filtering extensions while browsing if you do not want to see NSFW, specific kinks, or triggers.Â
There is no required format to submit a fic for this collection. You can submit one fic for each prompt, a single fic with each chapter as one prompt, etc.
You can also submit an entry, such as a one-shot, that incorporates multiple prompts (e.g. "Retirement" and "Domestic") within a single work.
Write for whatever continuity you would like, including mixed continuities, crossovers, humanformers, and AU's.
Please state what prompt you wrote for in the summary or notes of your work. It isnât required, but it will help people find prompts that they are interested in viewing.
Polyshipping, multishipping, and secondary ships are allowed.
FAQ:
Q: Do I have to write something for every day of MegOP week to be accepted into the collection?
A: No. The goal of this event is to have fun and enjoy MegOP content, and if you only have time/energy/inspiration for a small number of prompts, then just do those! You can even write both prompts for one day, skip days, or write multiple works for a single prompt.
Q: What if I am an artist?
A: This collection will accept artwork and podfic as well. If you are an artist, consider participating in MegOP Week 2021 on Tumblr and Twitter as well.
Q: Do you accept works in languages besides English?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you accept NSFW (sexual content, gore, etc) works?
A: Yes. Please make sure that you tag your works appropriately to be respectful to the community.
Q: Where else can I participate in MegOP Week 2021?
A: Tumblr via @megop, Twitter via @megopweek2021
Q: How long will it take for my work to be approved for the collection?
A: Anywhere from a few hours to a day or two, depending on when you submit and what the moderator(s) is doing at the time. However, the MegOP tag on AO3, Tumblr, and Twitter will be monitored for the entire week, so your work should be noticed and approved within a reasonable length of time.
Q: What if I end up being late for some reason? Can I submit my works after MegOP Week has concluded?
A: Yes. Simply request for your work to be added to the collection, and a moderator will approve it as long as it answers one of the prompts and is completed within a reasonable proximity to MegOP Week. If you have other social media accounts (Twitter/Tumblr), posting a link to your work will also help the moderators notice and promote your work.
Q: What else can be done to reduce the impact of trolling on this fan event?
Q: Why is the AO3 collection going to be moderated?
A: The Transformers fandom has been having a problem with trolling for the past year or more, particularly on AO3, where the same user(s) has deliberately spammed the MegOP and other ship tags with inflammatory and/or uncomfortable content. Moderating the MegOP Week collection will make it so that fans can browse the collection without fear of seeing malicious troll content.
A: Some of the options you have are the following:
Enable moderated comments on your own works so that you can delete troll comments before they're displayed to the public.
Disable guest/anonymous comments in order to create an extra barrier against trolls looking for easy targets to spam with comments.
Have a trusted friend look at your inbox for you and delete any troll comments that might upset you.
Make sure that there is no personal information on your AO3 or other social media accounts. Trolls have been known to deliberately target fans' triggers, squicks, and dislikes in order to upset them.
Share the usernames of any accounts that leave troll comments with friends so that you can pre-emptively filter those users out before browsing. Also remember to report troll accounts to AO3 for harassment so that they can be banned quickly.
Take care of your mental health. Remember that trolls only behave the way they do because they feed off of publicity and the discomfort of others. Their comments on your works are not a reflection of your worth or the worth of your writing.
Be aware of obvious scams. The Transformers fandom troll(s) have been known to attempt to impersonate other users across multiple platforms (AO3, Twitter, Tumblr, and even Discord) in order to cause drama.Â
Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. Happy MegOP Week!
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I was looking at AO3 and, first of all, noticed that HoaV was the most popular EO tagged story on there so YAY!!!!! HoF is also high up there so YAY!!!! Anyway, the second thing I noticed was that some of the most popular stories on there were ones where the Lewis situation was made way worse and Liv was put through even more hell, only this time with Elliot there for her. I just find that odd because one of the largest complaints I've seen about 2.0 and WL is the unnecessary victimization/traumatizing of Liv. Maybe there isn't overlap in these audiences, but it just seems weird to me that those stories would be so read. Any thoughts?
I have lots of thoughts lmao the first one is that it depends on how you define "popular". If you sort by kudos/hits/bookmarks, none of the top five have that theme. If you sort by comments tho, they do. The thing about comments is if the author replies to someone's comment, the author's reply counts as a comment. I don't typically do that bc if there's more than about 5 comments on a chapter I feel overwhelmed trying to reply to everyone in a coherent way, but a lot of authors do bc it is generally considered good manners and is a good way to get to know people and get them interested in what you're doing. But it has a big impact on numbers; I just did the math on hov and if I'd replied to everybody the comments would have doubled, and it would be number one by that metric, too. Another thing that can impact comments is that two people can have a conversation in the comments; if they each say three things that's six comments right there but it only came from two people. If people are consistently going back and forth in the comments, that's gonna have a big impact on numbers. So comments is not a super reliable metric in that way.
Another thing that can impact comments is length of the work; of course a long story has more comments (and hits) by virtue of just having so many freaking chapters. There is more opportunity for both comments and hits the longer a piece gets. HOV is 57 chapters written across like 8 months that's a lot of chances for hits as every time it gets updated it gets shot up to the top of the page instead of getting lost further down.
Age is an interesting question bc on the one hand ao3 didn't really get huge until around the time Elliot left and after when fandom interest was waning, and when we heard he was coming back the fandom exploded in size so stats tend to be skewed towards newer fics but older fics have had more time to garner hits and bookmarks (people generally don't comment when they read older stories) and Providence is number one by bookmarks, and maybe that's bc it's had ten years to accumulate them but actually I think that's just bc it's one of the single best damn fics I've ever read period. One of the fics with the highest kudos also tagged like a billion other fandoms; who's to say the kudos have anything to do with the eo chapters of that piece?
All that to say that I generally don't pay a lot of attention to metrics bc there's so many variables; maybe this author has a bigger Twitter following than this one, maybe these comments are full of long conversations, maybe this fic is old, maybe this one shot got posted on the wrong day and got buried beneath something else.
There are a lot of people who object to the Lewis storyline and I don't think they want to read the Lewis storyline but worse. I do think there's a lot of interest in Elliot being there for Lewis, tho. So it's all down to a matter of personal preference; do they not want to read Lewis be worse but they desperately want Elliot there so they'll do it? Or do they not read at all bc of Lewis? I can't make any kind of speculation bc I really do think it's specific to each person what they are and are not willing to engage with. And if they're anything like me they may refuse to read something one day and gobble it down the next; sometimes what we want or are ok with just varies and that's ok.
I don't think it's weird that that kind of story is popular tho; yes there is a loud contingent that hates Lewis but I don't think it's necessarily a majority. I think there is catharsis to be found in exploring the Lewis story. Hurt/comfort is a very very popular trope in general; a lot of us do want to see our faves bloody and then we want to see their lovers gently wash their faces. As for why people would want to read fics making it worse, well. The subject of the show is sexually based offenses. It's right there in the intro. The show by nature of simply being what it is is going to draw an audience of people who for a million different reasons want to explore the impact of those kinds of crimes and that's completely natural. There are as many different answers to that question as there are people in this fandom.
Tl;dr
Stats need to be taken with a grain of salt, but I also don't think there are as many people who hate the Lewis arc as Twitter makes it seem.
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Light Up the Ice - 12
Summary: Aelin Galathynius has never really been into sports. Yes, she likes to keep in shape, and she works out, but watching people run up and down a field, trying to keep a leather ball away from each other? Itâs always seemed a bit childish to her, and decidedly NOT a way for a grown adult to make a living.
Rowan Whitethorn has recently been drafted by the Terresen Staghorns, one of best teams in the EHL (Erilean Hockey League). And since he moved to Terresen from Wendlyn, itâs been hard for him to get more than 30 seconds alone from someone demanding a picture with him. Getting drafted straight out of college wasnât exactly what he had in mind, but heâs not complaining. Until he accidentally meets a girl. More specifically, until he accidentally meets his neighbor. She seems to have no idea who he is and for some reason, thatâs refreshing. But will she still want to be with him once he shows her the truth?
Co-written with @tacmcâ.
A/N: No tag list tonight. This is the 3rd time I've tried to post this chapter and every single time, it's crashed before I can post or save. AKA Iâm about to punch my computer and donât want to push my luck anymore. Next chapter, I will be copying and pasting my old tag list, deleting the inactive blogs, and adding those who have asked. Enjoy!
It never failed to amaze Aelin how slow business got when the university took their breaks. It was only the second day of the University of Terrasenâs fall break and sheâd already had enough spare time to reorganize the stock room, deep clean the kitchen and now, she was sitting at a table in the corner, staring at a print out of her menu.
She chewed on the end of her pen and then drew a line through another item. In the four years sheâd had the cafĂ©, sheâd never changed a single menu item. It wasnât that anyone was complaining about her food, but she was bored with it and wanted to add some new variety. She scribbled some notes in the margin of new recipes she wanted to try to replace the old ones, but the sound of the bell above the door distracted her. She was beaming before she even got out of her chair.
âHey,â she said, approaching Rowan and Lorcan, pressing a kiss to the cheek of the former and keeping her distance from the former. âHow was practice?â
âGood. Save for the fact that Iâm still sitting on the bench,â Rowan said, sighing. âCoach said I can be on the ice from now on, as long as Iâm still not running drills and agree to see the trainer every day.â
âThatâs great,â she said, smiling. âYou hungry?â
âYes, please,â he replied, a lopsided grin on his face.
She headed for the cash register Elide had been sitting at a few moments before. She was now working on rolling silverware father down the counter, quietly humming along to the music that played in the cafĂ©. âYou want the grilled cheese and tomato soup again?â
âPlease,â he said, smiling. He turned to his friend and asked, âYou want the Reuben, Lor?â
Lorcan didnât reply. He was staring back towards the door.
Back towards Elide.
âLorcan?â Rowan said, again, finally getting his teammatesâ attention.
âReuben, yeah, sounds great,â he mumbled, pulling out his wallet.
âLunch is on me,â Aelin said, eyeing him, not liking the way he turned back to glance at Elide.
She didnât like the way Elide was sneaking glances at him either.
As she walked behind the counter, Aelin cleared her throat, making Elide jump, her fingers dropping the silverware in which she held. It clattered against the counter.
âCare to give me a hand?â Aelin asked.
Elide blinked. âItâs just two sandwiches-.â
âIf the bell rings, you can come back out,â Aelin said, taking Elide by the wrist and dragging her back toward the kitchen. She called back to Rowan and Lorcan, âMake yourselves comfortable!â
Once in the kitchen, Aelin dropped Elideâs wrist and began with the sandwiches.Â
Elide watched her friend, her boss, skeptically. âCare to tell me what that was about?âÂ
âYou were practically drooling over him,â Aelin said, raising an eyebrow as she looked at Elide.
Elideâs cheeks darkened and she hurried around to the other side of the kitchen to get Rowanâs soup. âI was not.â
âYou definitely were,â Aelin replied, turning and dropping the grilled cheese on top of the griddle. She may have put more cheese on than she would have for a regular customer and melty, delicious goodness dripped out the surface of the cooktop.
Elide was standing in the alley of the kitchen, looking back through the serving window at Aelin. âAndâŠ? So what if I was? Heâs hot.â
Aelin fought the urge to roll her eyes. âHeâs a hockey player, El. Rowan has told me about how he spends his away games.â
Elide was quiet as she put the soup in the window to stay warm as Aelin finished their sandwiches. If her friend and bossâs back hadnât been facing her, she probably wouldnât have had the courage to say, âWow, Ace, be careful. Your hypocrisy is showing.â
She whirled, pointing a spatula at Elide. âThatâs a completely different situation and you know it.â
Elide lifted a brow. âDo I?â
Aelinâs lips thinned. âYes, you do. At least, you should. Rowan and I⊠itâs different.âÂ
âIf you would have known he was a hockey player, you wouldâve never started seeing Rowan,â Elide went on, trying to hide both her frustration and amusement. âThe fact that Lorcan plays hockey is all you can see when you look at him.â
Aelin scoffed. âWrong. All I can see is his jackassery.â
âJackassery?âÂ
âItâs a word,â Aelin snapped, flipping over the sandwich on the griddle. âAnd, again, Rowan has told me about his post game activities when theyâre on the road.â
âIt doesnât make a difference, I donât know why youâre even upset about it,â Elide muttered, coming around to the salad station and popping a cucumber slice in her mouth. âHeâs Lorcan Salvaterre. Heâs the captain of the team. He dates bikini models and actresses. Iâm just a broke college student. Iâm justâŠme.â
Aelinâs eyes softened as she turned to one of her oldest friends. âThatâs not true, Elide. You are a phenomenal, beautiful, smart woman, and anyone who doesnât see that is blind. Including yourself.â
Elideâs cheeks darkened, slightly, as she tried to fight the smile growing. âIâm going to go finish my silverware. Holler if you need me.â
Aelin nodded and watched as she pushed through the swinging door to the dining room. She finished up the sandwiches before grabbing Rowanâs soup and carrying them out front.
While she and Elide had been in the kitchen, Fenrys had appeared, a fast food bag open in front of him. She chuckled as she sat down Rowan and Lorcanâs food. âYou know I would have cooked for you.â
His mouth was full of a massive bite of hamburger, so Lorcan answered for him. âHe also knows coach would kick his ass if he knew he was eating that. Yet he does it anyway.â
âItâs so good,â Fenrys said, his mouth still full, his manners shot. âWhat coach doesnât know wonât hurt him.â
Rowan snorted. âTell yourself that when you feel like shit once the grease sets in.â
Lorcan stared at his sandwich for a long moment. Then, he mumbled, âThank you.â
Aelin blinked. Even Rowan looked nearly surprised.
âDid you just thank me?â Aelin asked, perfectly still.
Lorcan didnât say anything else as he bit into his sandwich.Â
A few more people trickled in and Aelin got back to work, the shock of Lorcanâs almost-kindness still shocking her. The dinner rush, even though slower with the college campus dwindled, still kept her and Elide busy, and by the time eight rolled around, Aelin was ready to close up.
Rowan, Lorcan, and Fenrys remained at the corner table.Â
Elide came out of the kitchen, having grabbed her purse and coat from Aelinâs office. âIâm gonna head home, if thereâs nothing else you need me to do.â
Aelin shook her head. âNope, youâre all set. Have a good night.â
âYou, too,â Elide said, smiling, and Aelin noticed that her eyes slid to the table again, before she turned and was out the door, heading around the building to the small lot behind the cafĂ©.
As she approached the table, Lorcan was standing and shrugging his jacket on. âThanks for dinner. It was good.â
Aelin was still stunned by his niceties earlier that his words barely registered. âYouâre welcome, Iâm glad you liked it. I guess Iâll keep it on the menu.â
âYou heading out, man?â Fenrys asked, finishing off the large plate of fries heâd ordered after his burger and first order of fries was gone.
âYeah. Got some stuff I gotta take care of.â He said nothing else, but headed for the door.
Turning towards Rowan, Aelin tried to keep her expression in check as she realized that he, too, was heading for the back lot. Rowan, not fooled by her attempts, held his hands up in surrender. âIâm not getting involved.â
She narrowed her eyes at him. âI donât like it.â
âLike what?â Fenrys asked, and Aelin rolled her eyes as she took his plate and headed towards the kitchen.
âIâve gotta lock up,â she called out over her shoulder. âIâll see you at home. I love you.â
âLove you, too, sweet cheeks!â Fenrys called out.
Even through the swinging door, Aelin heard Rowan smack him on the back of the head.
****************
Rowan skated around the ice.Â
He was bored shitless, not even in his hockey gear, but sweatpants and a hoodie. His hands were shoved into his pant pockets as he circled the rink, close to the sideboards. The constant blow of the whistle was the only thing keeping him awake.
He didnât even bother asking if he could practice, even though he felt up to it. He already knew what the answer would be.Â
And yet, he longed for practice to last. When it was over, heâd have to make his way into the locker room for Maeve.
And he was not prepared.
Heâd felt her eyes on him since the moment he hit the ice, yet he hadnât looked over at her once. Dorian was thankfully on the other end of the rink, so as he skated by at the beginning of practice, he was able to flag him down.
âHey, man, how are you feeling?â Dorian asked, leaning on the half wall separating them.
âMuch better, like it never happened,â he said, and the lie was barely there.
Dorian quirked an eyebrow and snorted. âGood try. You canât practice today.â
âNo, I get it, I understand that.â Roan cleared his throat. âBut, uh, is there a different massage therapist I can see?â
Dorian blinked. âDid something happen with Maeve the other day? She didnât mention anything-.â
âSheâs my ex,â Rowan interrupted.
Dorian hesitated before nodding, slowly. âI see.â
âYou can massage me,â Rowan said, quickly.
âAs flattered as I am, Iâm not a massage therapist,â Dorian chuckled. âI can talk to-.â
âNo, donâtâŠtell anyone. If you donât know of anyone, itâs fine,â Rowan said, the words rushing out of him.Â
âLook, I donât know Maeve very well,â Dorian began, shaking his head. âBut, she seems perfectly fine, alright? Has it been a while since youâve been together?â
Rowan gave him a curt nod.
âThen give her a chance to be civil,â Dorian said, shrugging. âIf sheâs disrespectful, let me know. Otherwise, I have no reason to think she wonât do her job appropriately, and if she doesnât, then you can leave.â
He sighed, nodding, and skated off.
He spent the next two hours dreading every minute that passed.
He heard Brelloâs whistle blow and slowly glided across the ice, coming to a stop next to his line.
âEveryone was looking good today,â he said, looking at them one by one. âTake it easy tonight. The boys from Eyllwe arenât going to go easy on us tomorrow night, especially since weâll be in their territory. I want all of you in your best form.â He gestured to Rowan. âWhitethorn will be back on the ice next week.â
There were cheers and hollers from the team and Rowan couldnât help but smirk as Lorcan shoved him.
Brello, to everyoneâs surprise, smirked as well. âHope youâve enjoyed your time off, but relaxation time is over. You ready to go?â
âAye, coach,â he replied, nodding.
âThatâs what I like to hear.â
After a couple more announcements from the coaching staff, everyone was skating towards the locker rooms of the practice facility and Rowan felt like his nerves were going to snap.
He took his time removing his skates and grabbing his bag, before slowly walking down the hall leading to the training rooms. He was silently praying Dorian would be in his office, right off to the side of the therapy room, but he wasnât.
There was only one room with a light on, and with a deep breath, he approached and knocked on the half-open door.Â
Maeve looked over her shoulder with a smile. âCome in, Iâm ready for you.â
Rowan hesitated, but went in. Dorian was right. Maybe she had changed, maybe there was nothing to worry about.
Yet Rowan felt nauseous as he approached the blanket covered table.
âIâll give you a minute to strip down and be back.â She left without another word, shutting the door behind her.
Rowan stared at the door before kicking off his shoes then lifting his shirt over his head. He only hesitated for a moment before kicking off his sweats and laying down on the table, pulling the blanket up to his waist.
A soft knock informed him of her approach, and he grunted to let her know he was ready.
When the door reopened, the lights suddenly dimmed and Rowan awkwardly shifted on the massage table.
Neither of them spoke for a few minutes. Rowan was grinding his teeth as she worked on the muscle in his lower back that kept spasming when she said, âI have to say, I was surprised to see you the other day. Dorian hadnât told me who I would be working on, butâŠâ She paused and chuckled quietly, running her hands up his back.
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
When Rowan was drafted into the EHL, it had been a pretty big deal in his city, but more specifically, his university. Heâd dropped out of school to accept the offer from the lower level team and climb his way to where he was. And everyone in Wendlyn knew.
There was no way Maeve didnât know he was playing for Terrasen when she took the job.
He gave her a small nod and a quiet noise that said he was listening. She kept going, taking that as a sign he was interested in the conversation.
âI feel like itâs been so long since Iâve seen you,â she sighed. âThings ended so...abruptly. Iâm glad to see your doing good.â Another chuckle. âSave for the injury, of course.â
It was so strange to hear another accent from Wendlyn that was still somewhat fresh. Lorcan, Gav and Fenrys, theyâd been in Terrasen so long, the accent almost disappeared sometimes. But the lilt of her tone, the way she phrased certain words⊠It both soothed and unsettled Rowan.
âDon't you care to know how Iâve been?â She asked, her voice low. When Rowan didnât reply, she continued on, anyway. âIâve been pretty good. Got myself a little place in the city. A dog. Little chihuahua named Fiona.â
Rowan blinked. He was tempted to say that he hadnât asked, but she didnât seem to mind.
âIâve got some pretty wealthy clients, too,â she continued, continuing to work out that knot. âFor the first time in ages, Iâm secure, you know? Not just financially, justâŠsecure.â
âGood to hear,â he replied, the words sounding more like a snarl through the pain, and she dug her knuckles into his back. The sound he made was halfway between a moan and a groan, he bit his lip to cut it off, but he noted the change in the way Maeveâs hands touched him.
Her touches became less like determined movements meant to heal and were more akin to petting, brushes along his side and a slow finger down his spine.
âAnd you?â She asked, pulling the blanket a bit lower on his back. Heâd worn underwear for just that reason, not trusting her to not make an inappropriate move. âAre you living in Orynth?â
He cleared his throat and said, âYep. Got an apartment down the road from the university.â
His answer was short and sweet. He wasnât trying to invite more conversation.
âNot far from me then,â she replied, humming quietly.
Rowanâs shoulders tensed, but that just made her want to ease it away. His eyes closed and he remained quiet.Â
âWhat about your personal life?â Maeve asked, at last.
Rowan didnât answer, he just took a deep breath.
âNot trying to pry,â Maeve said, at last. âJust trying to make conversation.â
âIâm in pain,â he said, gently, the lie coming out easy. âNot really in a mood to make conversation.â
He could have sworn he felt the temperature in the room drop several degrees.
Her answer was curt. âSorry.â
She stayed quiet for the rest of the massage, and when she finished, she told him to get redressed and left, heading back out into the main training facility.
He emerged a few moments later, pulling the hood of his sweatshirt over his silver hair. He was already heading for the door, giving her a nod of thanks, when she spoke up.
âRowan, wait.â
He hated hearing his name on her lips. His steps slowed and he turned around to look at her.
She hesitated slightly, but said, âI was going to go get dinner in a little bit. Itâs been a while, I didnât know if maybe you-.â
âI donât think thatâs a good idea, Mae,â he sighed. The familiar nickname slipped out before he had time to stop it. It caught him off guard. âI- I gotta get home. Iâll see you later.â
Rowan had grabbed his bag and was out the door before she had time to say another word
****************
Aelin was at the stove, stirring a pot of homemade marinara sauce and humming quietly along with the radio when Rowan unlocked the door to her apartment and came in. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled at him before turning back to the cooktop. âHey, you. How was practice?â
âMy new massage therapist is my ex.â
The words came out in a rush and Rowan wasnât even sure he consciously knew he had planned on saying them.
Aelinâs back stiffened and she set the wooden spoon on the trivet beside the stove. Silently, she turned and asked, âYour ex-girlfriend is giving you massages?â
Rowan closed his eyes and took a deep breath before nodding. âBefore you say anything-.â
âDid this just start today?â she asked. Her tone held no judgement, only curiosity. However, there was a slight edge to her tone.
âShe gave me the massage in my apartment-.â
Aelin held up a hand, and Rowanâs words instantly fell into silence.
Silence, where the room remained for far too long. âAelin-.â
âWho is she?â Aelin asked, one brow raised. âIâll kick her ass.â
âHer name is Maeve,â he said, making his way into the kitchen. He leaned against the counter. âShe was my girlfriend in college. We dated for a couple of years, but⊠It didnât end well. It became more about who I was in hockey, how I was playing, than it was about our relationship.â
âMaeve,â Aelin repeated, turning back to the stove. âMaeve, Maeve, Maeve⊠Hmm.â
Rowan was quiet, not exactly sure what to say.
âAnd you have to see her? You donât have a choice?â She finally asked.
He shook his head. âBrello told me to get over my personal issues. Iâm sure I can book a personal masseuse, but-.â
âNo, your coach is right,â she sighed, stirring the pot, before putting the lid on and walking over to where Rowan stood. She wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up at him. âI donât like it, but⊠that isnât really my call to make.â
Rowan let out a relieved breath. âI know, itâs not mine either. Maybe you can give me massages here to help?â He smirked and, finally, Aelinâs beautiful smile returned.
âWeâll see,â she chuckled, leaning up to press a kiss to his lips. âLooks like Iâll just have to come to your games and make my presence known.â
âMake your presence known?â He crooned.
âI like to mark my territory,â Aelin breathed, her eyes bright.Â
âAnd Iâm your territory?â Rowan grinned.
âWhether you like it or not,â Aelin said, laughing softly. âYes, you are.â
âHmmm,â Rowan said, narrowing his eyes. âI canât say that I donât like that.â
He leaned down and kissed her one more time before asking, âSo you arenât mad?â
She stepped away, back to the stove, and said, âNo, Iâm not mad.â She paused and pulled a few spices from the cupboard. âDo I like it? Of course not, but thereâs not much we can do about it.â
âOnce I finish up this round of therapy, I wonât need it again,â he promised. âNo more fights, no more getting slammed into the boards. I wonât have to see her anymore.â
Aelin laughed as she turned back to him. âYou canât make that promise, whoâs to say what could happen?â
Rowan cringed. âThatâs true. No more fighting though, I mean that.â
Aelin nodded, and he could tell she believed him.
He took a step closer and brushed her hair back. âYou look beautiful.â
Aelinâs lips quirked as she said, âTrying to kiss my ass to get back on my good side?â
âMaybe,â he muttered, and kissed her forehead, softly. âIs it working?â
âHmmm,â Aelin began, wrapping her arms around his waist. âNot yet, keep trying.â
Rowanâs grin widened as he leaned down and pressed his mouth to hers. âNow?â
Aelin sighed. âGetting there.â
âOnly getting there, huh?â He breathed, his lips still brushing hers.
âI guess youâre going to have to step your game up,â Aelin cooed, slipping her hands down his back and into the waistband of his sweatpants.
Rowanâs grin was positively feline as he picked her up and carried her back into her bedroom.
Dinner was forgotten about for quite a while.
#lui#light up the ice#rowaelin hockey fic#snacmc#snelbz lui#snelbz tacmc collab#rowaelin#tog#throne of glass#rowan whitethorn#aelin galythinius
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