#i assume the adoption process is easier in the future and by easier i mean less monitored by that i mean much worse

[milimeters-morales]

Miguel: do not underestimate the lengths people will go just to piss you off

Miles, who’s gotten adopted by a random family in 2099 so he has official papers proving his existence just so he can frame Miguel for murder by faking his own death: cmon i thought it was funny

Gabriel, who adopted him under a different persona and testified against Miguel in court: i thought so too

[ddaengtae]

see you around || jjk

pairing: jeon jungkook x reader

genre: college, strangers (idiots) to lovers, fitness instructor! jungkook, fluff, smut

word count: 13.9k

summary: you know those beautiful strangers that you admire from afar and obsess over with your friends, but know there’s about a one percent chance they’ll ever talk to you or even know who you are?  that’s precisely what jeon jungkook was to you; a piece of delicious eye candy that you could daydream about all you wanted, but had to accept that it was too unrealistic to ever happen.  or so you thought.  after an embarrassing accident at the gym that makes your worlds collide, maybe you had been wrong about your chances all along.

a/n: when i came up with this idea in my head, i guessed it would be around 5k words.  guess my hands slipped.  this is only my second bts fic, but after getting good feedback for my first one, i decided to give it another try and this is what happened.  i tried to edit closely, but there may be a few types so i’m sorry!  thanks for reading & pls lmk what you think. :)

Another week, another million reasons to be stressed.  It really seemed like that was the never-ending pattern of the college lifestyle.  The weekend was never long enough to truly allow yourself to unwind.  Sure, those two days were great, but how was two days enough to destress from the agony of multiple all-nighters to keep up with the shitload of work that all of your professors always deemed it acceptable to assign?  There was no way for you to prove it, but you believed in a conspiracy theory that all of the professors would meet up at the beginning of each semester and choose to make all of their huge assignments due on the same days just to fuck all of their students over.  There could be no other explanation for the hell that was midterms season.

While during your first two years of college you would barely be hanging on by a thread during the busiest weeks of the semester, you were now a junior and had at last adopted a regime that helped you burn off some steam when the tension became all too much.  Somewhere along the way, you started to realize that inhaling mozzarella sticks and Red Bull at two in the morning the night before an exam did very little to make you feel better and that it would probably be a better idea to take up a healthy lifestyle and better time management skills sooner rather than later.  In the process of getting your life together, one Tuesday evening in the spring of your sophomore year, one of your roommates had convinced you to accompany her to a group fitness class at the gym on campus.  To your surprise, you fell in love with it and the feeling of adrenaline and accomplishment that came along with making it through the hour.  From that day on, you vowed to yourself to make it to the gym most days of the week.

There was something about group fitness classes that made you feel much more comfortable than going to the gym and working out on your own.  Perhaps most glaringly, the classes were dominated with like-minded girls who just wanted some peace of mind for an hour.  Most of the instructors were girls too, except for a few guys who seemed to understand why a lot of women chose to avoid the rest of the gym.  It was quite unsettling to work out by yourself on the main floor and be surrounded by conceited guys who always seemed to either be undressing you with their eyes or judging you because, god forbid, you couldn’t squat three-hundred pounds like they could.  The whole place just always reeked of toxic masculinity, or so that was what you had thought until you found out about the group fitness classes that the facility also held.  They seemed to be a sort of heavenly escape from the rest of the place that resembled a fraternity initiation ceremony.

That was precisely where you found yourself this Monday evening.  In dire need of a break from studying, you found yourself sitting on the floor of the group classroom surrounded by your equipment and waiting for your favorite instructor to arrive.  The concept of a high-intensity circuit training class had initially terrified you when you first decided to try it out last semester, but it had quickly become your favorite class and one that you attended every week without fail.  It was incredibly satisfying to track your progress and watch your body evolve as you adapted to be able to lift heavier weights and make it through the cardio outbreaks without feeling like you were going to drop dead every second.

Taking a long sip of your water, your eyes remained down on your phone as you heard the door of the room open and close again.  As it was still ten minutes before class, you didn’t think much of it and assumed it was probably just more people piling into the room and rushing to get their equipment ready.

“Uh, hi guys!  The usual instructor for the class is unfortunately sick so I’m filling in for her tonight,” an unfamiliar-- but yet also eerily recognizable-- male voice echoed through the room.  “I was just recently certified so this is actually the first class I’ll be teaching here.  I promise I’ll try to live up to her hype.”  The unknown source let out an awkward laugh, which was met with relative silence from the rest of the room.

The moment your eyes moved up to fall upon the new instructor, your breath hitched in your throat, causing the water you had been attempting to drink to flow down the wrong pipe.  This wasn’t just any unmemorable college boy filling in to instruct the class.  There at the front of the room stood none other than Jeon Jungkook.  The breathtaking Jeon Jungkook was going to be leading the class and you were supposed to be able perform-- let alone breathe-- properly?  Oh no.

You and Jungkook were not friends by any means.  Hell, it was highly likely that the boy didn’t even know who you were.  You know those beautiful strangers that you admire from afar, yet know there’s about a one percent chance that they will ever know who you are or ever speak to you?  The ones you tell all of your friends about and you go out of your way to use your FBI-level stalking skills to find their social media in hopes of finding out more about them so you can daydream about your nonexistent, fantasy future together?  The ones you’re always hoping you’ll cross paths with while walking to class because even a glance of them will make your day a little more exciting and give you something to talk about with your friends?  That was what Jungkook was to you.

Jungkook had become known as ‘hot coffee shop boy��� amongst your friend group after you had noticed him studying in the same coffee shop as you one day in the fall of your sophomore year.  As you always chose to study at the least favorite and therefore least populated coffee shop on campus, it was shocking the first time someone as beautiful as Jungkook sat down at one of the tables across from yours and settled in to do his homework as well.  His presence offered you a paradox; while seeing him looking like a model wearing his oversized clothes and sighing at his laptop screen was certainly a distraction at times, it also served as a form of motivation to force you to focus because you didn’t want him thinking you were slacking off.  He seemed to enjoy the quiet ambience of the specific shop because after that first day, he began to frequent it almost as often as you, always sitting at the same table by the third window.  On some occasions, one of his friends who always seemed to be changing hair colors would accompany him.  After some research completed by your enamored friend Jennie who sometimes accompanied you, she discovered his name was Park Jimin.  He quickly became known as ‘iced chai’ after that seemed to be his regular coffee order.

It was an exciting day amongst your friends on the first day of classes in the spring of your sophomore year when Jungkook happened to enroll in the same Earth Science lecture as you to satisfy the science gen-ed requirement at your university.  Rocks and rivers weren’t exactly interesting, but the back of Jungkook’s head from the row in front of you certainly was.  The group chat really blew up the day he spun around in his chair and asked you if he could borrow a pen.  They were right that it would’ve been easier for him to just ask one of the people next to him, but you were smart enough to not think into it too much.  Maybe you just seemed like the type of person to carry around an abundance of stationery materials (you weren’t, and you ended up not taking any notes that day after giving him the only pen you had).

So here you were, practically choking on your water as Jungkook started to set up his own equipment at the front of the room.  How dare he invade your safe space?  You suddenly felt as if you barely remembered how to do a jumping jack, let alone have the facilities to pick up a weight.  

After organizing his weights at the front of the room, Jungkook’s eyes began to scan the participants in the room, likely counting how many people had shown up.  The moment his eyes met yours, your whole body froze in place.  Oddly enough, his seemed to do the same.  His doe eyes became wide and his mouth fell into an ‘o’ as he looked at you for a few seconds too long, and you swore there was an expression of recognition on his face.  Before you could convince yourself that anything of the sort had truly happened, Jungkook was blinking rapidly and shaking his head at himself before his eyes darted away to scan and count the rest of the room.

“Alright everyone, we’re going to get started in a minute here,” Jungkook announced a minute later, looking down at his phone as he connected his music and began blasting it through the speakers.  “Just remember to follow my lead and please don’t hesitate to wave me over if you have any questions or are struggling with form.  I’ll try to keep an eye on all of you and come over to help you out anyway.”  His eyes crinkled into crescent moons as he offered the class a big bunny smile.  Oh god, you were going to pass out.  “We’re going to be starting with a pretty intense cardio circuit here to bring those heart rates right up and set the tone for the rest of class.”  Great.  Your heart rate was already accelerating through the roof just at the sight of him.  “Try to keep up, but if you need to grab some water or take a break at any point, please don’t hesitate to do so.  We’re going to get started in 3… 2… 1… Go!”

To your surprise, you were able to make it through the first couple of circuits without too much trouble.  You made it your mission to zone in on each of the exercises you were doing, and that every time you were forced to face forward you would fixate your gaze on the back of the girl in front of you.  It was shockingly easy to forget about the beautiful man in front of the room while you were gasping for breath after numerous rounds of burpees and mountain climbers.  The goal was to look calm and fit without calling attention to yourself.  Outside of your heavy breathing that was likely being drowned out by Jungkook’s loud music, you could say you were succeeding.

About twenty minutes into the class, Jungkook signaled a transition into an upper body circuit.  While you were delighted to get a break from cardio and to allow your heart rate to calm down for a bit, following the exercises now required you to face forward and watch for his cues.  This would be fine as long as you didn’t focus on his gorgeous face that was currently glistening with sweat in the most pleasing way possible, right?

“Alright, we’re going to start off here with some overhead shoulder presses for the first minute.  I’d recommend something on the lighter side, but make sure you’re challenging yourself.”  With a slight nod of his head, Jungkook picked up his own weights and counted down the class to begin the first exercise of the circuit.

Shoulder presses weren’t bad.  You could do this.  Inhaling a deep breath, you made an attempt to wipe your sweaty palms off on your leggings before picking up your dumbbells and getting in position to begin your shoulder presses.  After the first few reps, you quickly fell into a rhythm that was both comfortable yet challenging, feeling that delicious burn in your shoulder muscles.  At the halfway mark through the minute, your eyes had remained glued to the same girl in front of you.  You finally felt a sense of peace.  One look at Jungkook couldn’t hurt, right?

Wrong.  

Against your better judgement, you decided to shift your eyes to the front of the room and take a good luck at a combination of both Jungkook’s back and the reflection of the front of his body through the mirror before him.  

The string of events that occurred immediately after that moment was a blur.  As Jungkook pressed his set of dumbbells above his head, his baggy shirt slid up his body, exposing his sweaty, toned abs that looked as though they were sculpted by the gods themselves.  What was likely an audible gasp escaped from your lips as your eyes remained frozen on the sight in front of you.  It was unclear if it was your mesmerized state, your sweaty hands, or a combination of both, but seconds later, the dumbbell in your right hand slipped out of your grasp and quickly went crashing downward.

“Oh my... Fuck!” 

There was a moment of dissociation before you realized that the loud cry had, in fact, come out of your mouth, and that the dumbbell that had glided out of your hand had, in fact, come crashing down onto the big toe of your right foot.  Your head was spinning as you began to process the throbbing feeling radiating throughout your entire foot, as well as the weight of what had just occurred.  Within moments, the eyes of all of the participants were on you, as well as the eyes of the one person whose attention you really did not want in such an embarrassing moment.  No, no, no.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Jungkook’s panicked voice echoed throughout the room as he spoke into his headset and he quickly dropped his weights on the ground.  “Um, okay, the rest of you can keep going!  I’m going to get someone else to come in within a few minutes so I can help her.”  Within moments, he was shoving his way through the room until he was right in front of you and pulling the microphone away from his mouth so the rest of the class wouldn’t hear your interaction.  “Are you alright?  Oh my god, you shouldn’t be putting pressure on it.  Let’s get you out of here and get some ice.”

You genuinely thought you were going to pass out.  It had little to do with your toe, and a whole lot to do with Jungkook’s sudden closeness.  His concerned face was just inches away from yours as his eyes scanned yours for any sort of explanation for what had just unfolded.  His presence was intoxicating.  You could smell the combination of his cologne and sweat, and you had yet to tear the image of his gleaming six-pack out of your mind.  Oh my god.  That had really just happened.  The first impression you made on Jungkook, AKA hot coffee shop boy, was you making an absolute fool out of yourself and possibly breaking your toe while doing a simple exercise.  You were never going to live this one down.  You were going to throw up.

When you hadn’t responded to Jungkook within a few seconds, he took it upon himself to drape an arm over your shoulders and pull your body against his side.  “Here, lean against me so you’re not putting weight on it.  I’m going to bring you to the first-aid room and get you some ice…  At the very least.”

It was quite possible that your brain had chosen it was better to black out the memory as Jungkook began to pull you out of the room, yelling to one of the workers at the front desk to quickly find someone else to take over the class.  Your legs felt like jelly as they moved beside his, only functioning out of muscle memory rather than true volition.  Here you were, body pressed against that of the guy you had admired from afar for over a year.  In any other circumstance, this would have been like a dream come true.  Instead, you wished the ground would swallow you up and put you out of your misery.

It wasn’t long until you were pulled into what was likely the first-aid room and instructed to sit on top of the counter by a very stressed Jungkook.  The more you thought about it, the more horrible you felt.  Not only was this the Jeon Jungkook of your fantasies, but it was also the Jeon Jungkook who had informed the class before it had started that this was the first class he had ever led.  You had quite literally ruined his first class, and had set an appalling example of what he would expect going forward.  If your toe hadn’t been throbbing, you would have seriously considered running right out the door.

“Okay, if you don’t mind, just take off your shoe and sock while I try to find an ice pack,” Jungkook commanded as he nervously raked a hand through his already-messy hair, frantically rifling through the cabinets.  Your eyes watched his back as you followed his instructions, guilt filling your entire body.  He seemed stressed.  Nervous, even.  It made sense, if you thought about it.  Your foolish accident had just become his responsibility, and he was a new employee.  You would be nervous too.

“Found one,” he breathed out, hitting it against the counter a couple of times to activate the coldness.  As he turned around to face you, his eyes wandered down to your exposed toe.  “Oh no, that looks pretty swollen.  Does it hurt really badly?  Are you okay?”

“It doesn’t feel great, but I’m okay.”  No, no you were not okay, but you needed this to be over.  Meeting his eyes, you realized those were the first words you had spoken to him since this whole debacle had unraveled.  He probably thought you were crazy.  Taking the ice pack from him, you chewed on your lower lip.  “I’m… I’m really sorry.”

Jungkook furrowed his brow as he looked up from your foot to meet your gaze, tilting his head to the side.  “Huh?  You have no reason to be sorry.  Accidents happen.  I get it… I’m pretty clumsy too sometimes and have hurt myself much worse than this for much stupider reasons.  Really, don’t worry.”  He was rambling, and if you hadn’t been so distraught, you would have perhaps realized just how nervous he really seemed.  Offering you a shy smile, his eyes averted away from yours as his cheeks flushed a shade of bright red.  Redder than they should have been from just working out.

Looking down at your foot, you placed the ice pack on top of it and shook your head.  It was difficult to form words with him so close, but you knew you had to if you wanted to redeem yourself at all.  You already had created a mental plan to avoid him at all costs and hide from him whenever that wasn’t possible, but this was the least you could do.  “No, I’m really sorry.  You said at the beginning that this was your first class and I… I kind of ruined it for you.  I’m sure you were really excited about it.”

Jungkook remained occupied with your toe as he moved the ice pack to the side, feeling around the bones and moving it gently in various directions to see how bad the pain was.  “I don’t think it’s broken.  Definitely pretty swollen, but not broken.  However, I’m clearly not a doctor so you might want to get a second opinion.”  Standing up straight, he offered you a warm smile.  “But seriously, don’t worry about it.  There’s always going to be more classes for me to teach and I wasn’t just going to let you suffer there.  I’m happy to help.”

God, not only was he gorgeous, but he was also this friendly?  It was possible that he was just being nice to keep you calm and keep his job, but regardless, he just seemed so perfect.  So perfect that you feared being so close to him, for your endless flaws felt as if though they were being magnified.  Clearing your throat, you forced yourself to return the smile.  “Thanks.  I really appreciate it, but I’ll be fine.”  You needed to escape.  You needed to get out of there so you could cry to your friends about just how mortified you were and how you now really never stood a chance with hot coffee shop boy.  “I should probably get going.  Don’t want to hold you up any longer.”

“You’re not holding me up at all, I promise,” Jungkook responded a bit too quickly, but yet again, you were too focused on your own embarrassment to notice.  Crossing his arms over his chest, the tall man tilted his head to the side.  “How are you going to get back to your dorm?  Do you have a ride?  You definitely shouldn’t be walking on your toe.”

Fuck.  He had a good point.  Regardless of the pain flowing through your foot, you were willing to walk on it just to escape this situation.  However, you knew you couldn’t tell him that.  “I, uh, one of my roommates has a car and I was going to call her to pick me up.”

“I have my car here.  I could drive you.”

Wait, what?  Had he really just offered you a ride?  If you had met his gaze, you would’ve seen that he looked just as surprised that such an offer had slipped out of his lips so casually.  Instead, you stared down at your lap as you attempted to process his suggestion.  If the situation had been even slightly less humiliating, a car ride with the Jeon Jungkook would have sounded like one of your fantasies come to life.  However, at the current moment all you could imagine was the intense awkward silence that would likely fill the car as you contemplated how to successfully fling yourself out of the window.  That would not do right now.  You were not in the right headspace to muster up any coherent form of small talk.  The offer was likely just extended out of pity anyway.  He was a good guy and deemed that that would be the righteous thing to do.  No need to burden him and actually make him follow through with it.

“No, no.  I wouldn’t make you do that.  I’m going to text my friend right now,” you assured him, weakly smiling as you moved the ice pack to the side to retrieve your removed sock and shoe.  “You have a workout to finish anyway.

“It wouldn’t be any trouble,” Jungkook insisted, watching intently as you carefully put your sneaker back on and tied it up at lightning speed.  When he realized you had no plans of speaking again, a defeated sigh pressed through his lips.  Why was he so set on helping you?  “Okay, okay.  As long as your friend is coming soon, that’ll work.  I can walk you to the lobby though.”

Realizing he wasn’t going to let you just run out of the room alone, you forced yourself to nod your head in agreement.  You were being dramatic.  You could handle one more minute in his presence before you imploded.  “Sure, thanks.”  The response came off a bit snappier than you had intended, but did that really matter at this point?  You weren’t going to be able to show your face around him ever again to begin with.

Once you pushed yourself off of the counter, Jungkook encouraged you to lean most of your weight against him as he led you out the door.  As you were already on the first floor of the facility, the walk to the lobby luckily didn’t take too long.  Upon arrival, you plopped down in one of the plush chairs by the door, fishing your phone out of the pocket of your hoodie and pretending to draft a text.  In all honesty, the moment Jungkook disappeared, you intended to wobble your way back to your dorm by twisting your foot to the side to avoid putting pressure on the big toe.  You were well aware that you were going to look ridiculous, but nothing could be more mortifying than what you had already experienced.

Jungkook stood over your chair, rubbing the back of his neck as he rocked from side to side on his feet.  Something about him just exuded nervous energy, and it was making you feel even more on edge.  “You’re sure your friend is able to come soon, right?”

Nodding your head in response, you lifted your hand into a thumbs-up that you regretted the second your hand formed it.  God, you might as well have hit him with some finger guns.  Could you be any cringier?  “Yes, don’t worry.  She’s on her way.  Really, thank you though.”

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his athletic shorts, Jungkook’s eyes scanned your face one last time.  It was almost as if he was searching for any hint of a lie, but if he had been, he wasn’t able to find it.  “Okay, okay… If you insist.  I’m sorry this had to happen to you.  I hope it heals quickly.”  His lips stretched into that signature bunny smile you had witnessed so many times while seeing him with his friends in public, but it almost looked a little more… Bashful.  “I’ll see you around, okay?”

No, no he would not.  You weren’t even sure that he had recognized you from being at the same coffee shop so often, but regardless, you had already planned to avoid the location at all costs.  You couldn’t stand the thought of him possibly approaching you out of pity to check and see if you were okay.

Instead of expressing any of these concerns, you twisted your lips into a small smile and nodded your head at him.  “Mhmm.  See you around.”

After lifting his hand in a wave, Jungkook smiled at you once more before turning on his heel and slowly starting to make his way back toward the main area of the gym.  You watched as he began to disappear, as you planned on rushing out the door the moment he was out of sight.  Right before he rounded the corner, his body twisted to face you once more.  If you hadn’t been so fixated on your own embarrassment, maybe you would’ve noticed the way his cheeks flushed a deep shade of red before he nervously laughed to himself and rounded the corner quickly so he was out of your line of vision.

The moment he disappeared, you gathered your belongings and rose to your feet a bit too quickly, immediately noticing how you forgot to avoid putting pressure on your toe.  Fighting through the pain and fighting to maintain any sense of pride you had left, you began your walk-- or rather, wobble-- home.

God, you needed some wine.

The rest of the week passed by without much trouble, but maybe that was due to your advanced avoiding skills.  Due to having three midterms throughout the week, most of your time was spent holed up alone studying.  While you usually would do most of your studying in your favorite quiet coffee shop, you made it a point to steer clear of it at all costs.  You were well aware that Jungkook also spent a lot of his time in that specific location, and you weren’t ready to show your face to him if it could be prevented.  He had been right; your toe wasn’t broken, but instead just badly bruised.  While your toe may have been fine, your ego certainly wasn’t.  After stumbling home after the incident on that Monday evening, your roommates had a laughing fest at your expense over a few too many bottles of wine.  They attempted to convince you that what had happened really wasn’t that embarrassing, that Jungkook seemed to be really sweet about it, and that such a chaotic event would be ‘the most epic story to tell people about the start of your relationship at your wedding.’  Although you indulged in their pipe dreams for the time being, you were going to stick to your plan: avoid Jungkook at all times possible until enough time had passed that he likely forgot about your humiliating catastrophe.

After a week of cramming for exams and perfecting your evading abilities, you were beyond ready to take a night to unwind and destress. That was precisely why you found yourself out at one of popular college bars by your campus with your friend Jennie on Friday night.  The pair of you weren’t exactly the type to go out and let loose very often as you tried your best to prioritize your studies, but once you allowed yourself to get dressed up and had a few vodka-crans running through your veins, you understood why a lot of college students went out so often and remembered why you used to so much during your freshman year.  The sensation of being tipsy and laughing with your friends was truly therapeutic and a much-needed antidote to counteract the toxic environment of never-ending stress.

Having been at the bar for over an hour, it started to get quite crowded.  As you twirled your straw around in your half-empty drink, you watched as Jennie began to look around at all of the new faces in the bar before freezing and pursing her lips. “Okay, not to make you freak out or anything… But hot coffee shop boy AKA sexy fitness instructor boy AKA Jeon Jungkook is here,” she whisper-yelled at you as she leaned toward your ear.  “He seems drunk… Like really drunk.”

Blinking rapidly as you tried to process this new information, you pulled back from her and began to shake your head.  This certainly was not what you needed to hear right now, but the alcohol in your system calmed you down at least a little bit so you didn’t immediately book it out of the place.  “So what you’re telling me is that I need to hide in the bathroom for the rest of the night?”  Despite your fears, you really wanted to get a glance of him.  Although the bar was quite large, you told yourself it would be too risky.  If experience had taught you anything, it was that even one glance at him could be fatal for you.

“Stop being ridiculous,” Jennie scoffed, shoving your shoulder before taking a long sip of her drink.  Her gaze remained set on the area of the crowded bar that you refused to look toward.  “He’s…” She paused for a moment before her eyes widened.  “Okay, I might be a little drunk, but I’m almost positive he keeps looking over here.”

“Maybe because you’re staring at him and drawing attention to us,” you scolded, narrowing your eyes at her.  “Please stop before I jump over the actual bar and hide behind it.”

Jennie laughed at your dramatic suggestion, eyeing your nervous persona up and down.  “Relax, relax.”  She looked over your shoulder yet again.  “Oh, wait.  He’s on the move now so I don’t think you have to worry.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, you took an extra long sip of your drink.  “Thank god.  I don’t need to relive my earlier trauma on a night out.”

“Wait, fuck.  I think--”

“Ah, is that toe girl?!”

Your whole body froze as you heard the close proximity of a very familiar male voice behind you.  You wanted to believe that your initial guess of what was occurring wasn’t true, but the mixture of shock and amusement on Jennie’s face as she looked over your shoulder at the sight behind you confirmed that your worst nightmare was, in fact, true.

Sucking in a deep breath and downing the rest of your drink before placing it down on the bar, you gave yourself a mental pep talk before slowly turning on your heel to face the source of the voice.  If there hadn’t been a decent amount of alcohol in your system, you were quite certain that you would’ve passed out right then and there.

There before you stood Jungkook with a cheeky grin spread across his lips and arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at, unfortunately, you.  He was sporting a pair of tight, ripped black jeans and a matching black t-shirt.  The clasping of a beer bottle in one hand and the way his arms were folded made his bicep muscles protrude in a manner that had you ready to start drooling.  Jennie had been right; his face was glowing a bright shade of red, likely due to a great deal of alcohol consumption.

Clearing your throat, you forced your lips into a shy smile as you folded your hands together in front of you.  You wished you hadn’t finished your drink so you had something more natural to do with your hands.  It felt as if though your heart was going to explode through your chest, but he was here now and there was no escaping.  “God, is that really what I’m known as now?”

“I mean, kind of.”  Jungkook let out a loud laugh, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he did so.  How was he so fucking gorgeous?  And why the fuck was this beautiful man going out of his way to talk to you on a night out?  “But I won’t call you that anymore.  It’s Y/N, right?”

Your brow furrowed as your mouth opened in surprise.  Wait, what?  Jungkook knew your name?  It felt like your mind was moving at a million miles a minute trying to process just how that could be possible.

A hand reached out from behind you to squeeze your shoulder, Jennie stepping forward and revealing herself after you had forgotten about her existence for a minute.  Her lips were twisted upward into a mischievous smile.  “I see a couple of my friends from one of my classes.  Gonna go say hi to them.  I’ll meet up with you later.”  After not-so-discreetly wiggling her eyebrows at you, she mouthed what appeared to be “good luck” before sauntering off.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me now.”  Jungkook chuckled quietly as he watched Jennie walk away before setting his eyes back on you and smiling warmly.  You were convinced that his smile was going to be the death of you.  “Hopefully you won’t try to run off as quickly as you did the other day.”

“I did not run off!” you scoffed immediately, crossing your own arms over your chest as you feigned offense.  Once again, thank god for alcohol, for you were well aware that this conversation would not be happening without it.  He was right, but you hadn’t realized he had noticed your urgency in escaping that day.  ‘I… I wasn’t even aware that you knew my name.”

“Suuure you didn’t.  You couldn’t get away from me fast enough,” Jungkook teased, leaning forward a bit to nudge his shoulder against yours.  The area of skin he touched immediately felt like it was on fire, as did your cheeks.  “But of course I know your name.  We had Earth Science together last year and you’re always studying at the same coffee shop by North campus that I do.  You’re kind of hard to miss.”

You?  Hard to miss?  Not to mention, the Earth Science class was a lecture with over one hundred students in it, and the professor hardly ever took any form of attendance.  Sure you could say the same thing about you knowing his name, but that was only because you had gone out of your way to find out who he was after becoming captivated by him upon seeing him at the coffee shop.  This didn’t make any sense.  Were you dreaming?  Hallucinating?

Raising an eyebrow at him, you decided to keep your response simple.  “You’ve never talked to me, though…”

“I know, I know.”  Jungkook unfolded his arms and clasped both of his hands around his beer bottle, staring down at his fingers as he tapped them against the glass.  Maybe it was the dim lighting in the bar, but you could’ve sworn his cheeks darkened as he avoided your eyes.  The aroma of cologne and beer coming off of him at the close proximity had you feeling light-headed.  “I’ve always wanted to.  Planned to talk to you at the coffee shop this week, but you were nowhere to be seen.  You just… I… You’re really pretty and you’re always smiling and I kind of freaked out when I saw you taking that class on Monday.  I’m pretty shy and not exactly the most confident person so I have no idea why I’m saying this right now… Definitely all of the beer I’ve drank… But I probably shouldn’t be overstepping or saying any of this anyway since I’m starting to realize that you’ve probably been avoiding me or think I’m weird or something.  Sorry for offering to drive you home the other day… I realized after that that probably seemed creepy coming from a total stranger.”  He looked to the side as he began to nervously tap his foot against the floor.  Something that sounded like a nervous laugh pressed through his lips.  “Fuck.  This is why I barely ever drink.”

Your body remained frozen as you stared at the side of his face, fully aware of the fact that your jaw had dropped and you were visibly gaping at him.  No.  There was absolutely no way that those words came out of his mouth and he meant them.  It had to be the excessive amount of alcohol in his system, right?  Or maybe he was just sweet talking you to try to get laid.  That had to be it, right?  You weren’t sure if you were going to throw up, pass out, or do both at the same time.  The vodka taking over your own system was preventing you from being able to form any sort of coherent thought.  Still, he deserved a response.

“What?  I don’t think you’re weird at all,” you reassured, chewing on your lower lip as you tried to read the expression on his face.  God, you really could have come up with something better than that.

Jungkook’s doe eyes at last met yours again, a disbelieving look in his eyes.  “Then why’d you lie and say your friend was picking you up and end up walking home on a possibly broken toe instead of letting me drive you home?”

Oh my god, he had seen you do that?  You were certain he was completely out of sight when you had dragged yourself out of the building.  To be fair, you hadn’t taken into account the fact that the place was covered with windows that would have given anyone access to see outside the front of the building, but why would he have been looking anyway?  Just as you thought that day couldn’t have gotten any more embarrassing, it did.  

The mix of alcohol in your system and your heart pounding in your chest was quickly becoming too much to handle and making you lose control over your faculties.  Maybe that was why you blurted out, “I-I don't know… You make me nervous.”

“You make me nervous too!”

Before you could even begin to comprehend the weight of his words, another male figure popped up beside Jungkook and draped an arm over his shoulders.  His bright pink hair made him easily identifiable.  It was iced chai, also known as Park Jimin.  If Jennie had noticed he was there, she certainly would have been freaking out.

“There you are!  I’ve been looking for you.  You just disappeared on me,” Jimin informed Jungkook, his gaze quickly moving to set on your distraught form.  If you hadn’t been so out of sorts, perhaps you would’ve noticed the look of recognition in his eyes as they set on you.  “I’m sorry, is he bothering you?  He never usually goes out with us and gets drunk like this, so I’m sorry if he’s a little chaotic.”

Shaking your head at Jimin, you offered him a comforting smiling.  You could feel Jungkook’s concerned eyes burning a hole into the side of your face.  “No, no.  He’s not bothering me at all, don’t worry.”

“Oh, thank god.  I was worried he might do something stupid.”  Jimin let out a sigh of relief, looking between the pair of you.  Could that ‘something stupid’ be what had just occurred?  At last, he gave Jungkook a firm pat on the shoulder.  “We have to get going right now.  Hoseok thought it’d be a good idea to down five tequila shots in a row after all of the beer we drank back at the dorm.  He has his head down on the bar with his eyes closed and I want to get him out of here before he starts puking everywhere.  Afraid you might end up in the same state if you keep drinking at this pace too, dude.”

“I’m fiiine,” Jungkook snapped back at him, rolling his eyes as he shrugged Jimin’s arm off of his shoulder.  He peered at you for a quick second before his eyes averted downward, the nerves that had been there before refusing to go away.  After taking a few moments to ponder what his friend had just told him, he let out a defeated sigh.  “Fine.  We can go.  Only because it’s Hoseok though.”

“I’ve already requested the Uber so we should head outside now,” Jimin urged, glancing over toward where Hoseok likely was sitting at the bar.

“Um.” Jungkook at last forced himself to look at you, his lips curving upward into the slightest smile.  It seemed forced though, and you knew it was because you didn’t have the opportunity to elaborate on and finish the conversation you were having before Jimin butted in.  You also felt as if though you were about to self-implode and needed some time to comprehend what had just unfolded.  “Sorry.  I have to get going, I guess.  I’ll see you around though, okay?”

Nodding your head in agreement, you allowed yourself to return a reassuring smile.  “Okay.  I’ll see you around.”  This time, it was possible that you meant it.

After he gave you one last anxious look, he turned on his heel and followed Jimin’s lead, disappearing out of your sight.

Where the fuck was Jennie?

After scoping out Jennie in the corner of the bar, you had convinced her that it was absolutely necessary to immediately take an Uber home to debrief on what had occurred.  Within half an hour, you had managed to arrive back safely to your dorm and had replaced your uncomfortable clothes with pajamas and your vodka crans with a bottle of wine.  Although your mind felt quite foggy from trying to piece together everything that Jungkook had said, you were able to provide Jennie with at least the majority of the details.

“Wait, hold on.  Let me think about this.”  Jennie threw herself back against your bed, staring up at the ceiling after her head hit the pillows.  “So basically what you’re telling me is that you are to Jungkook what Jungkook is to you?  Like he pretty much admitted to admiring you from afar and being too afraid to talk to you all of this time?” she questioned, eyes wide in amazement.  “God damn, why can’t shit like this happen to me?  This is like some fairytale shit.  You’re so fucking lucky.”

Taking a big swig directly out of the bottle of cheap rosé, you let out an exasperated sigh.  “I don’t know.  It seems too good to be true.  Like, what if he was just really drunk and didn’t know what he was saying?  You even said he seemed really drunk.  Or like, what if he was just being nice because he was trying to get laid?”

“Y/N, don’t be ridiculous.  I know this all seems so unreal because we never thought something like this was possible, but the things he said to you were way too specific to just be a fluke.” Jennie sat up straight again and pulled the bottle of wine out of your hands, taking a sip herself.  “Besides, I was watching you guys from across the bar.  He looked absolutely smitten with you and ridiculously nervous, drunk or not.”

“Fuck, I’m so much better at just daydreaming about guys than actually knowing how to talk to them and attempting to form actual relationships,” you groaned out, closing your eyes and resting your head on Jennie’s shoulder.  “What am I supposed to do?”

“I hate to break it to you since I know this is very out of character for you, but you’re going to have to make the next move.  He laid his cards on the table, and now the ball is in your court.”  Jennie allowed her head to fall on top of yours and passed the bottle of wine back to you.  “Based on what you explained to me, you didn’t really provide him with a whole lot of reassurance that the feeling was mutual and he’s probably feeling super embarrassed right now… Like, definitely more embarrassed than you felt after the whole gym incident.  You have to let him know that you’re interested in him too.”

Letting out a huff, you tapped your fingers against the glass of the bottle of wine.  Jennie did have a valid point, as much as you hated to admit it.  Regardless of Jungkook’s intentions and just how drunk he may have been, he had seemed incredibly flustered after rambling on and exposing what he had to you.  As much as there was still a part of you that was convinced that he hadn’t meant what he said, there was a bigger part of you that was excited about what this could possibly lead to if you followed through with it.  You would have to throw away your nerves and muster up the tiny bit of confidence you had if this was ever going to happen.

“Okay, so what’s the game plan?”

The plan you and Jennie had concocted ended up being a lot more difficult to follow through with than you had initially imagined.  The original scheme involved you approaching him at the coffee shop you both always studied at, but despite the numerous occasions you dropped by and spent hours studying there over the next week, he was nowhere to be found.  It was almost as if he had adopted the same avoiding technique you had the week prior after being embarrassed at what unfolded at the gym.  You weren’t exactly surprised, but it was making this whole thing a lot more complicated for you.  Furthermore, the longer it dragged out, the more anxious you got that maybe this was all a bad idea and that you had misunderstood what he said at the bar.

After a week with no luck, Jennie had convinced you that maybe it would be a better idea to try to track him down at the gym.  Despite going almost every day and keeping your eyes peeled for him, he was nowhere to be seen.  It wasn’t until a few days later that it dawned on you that the group fitness class schedule was posted online, and that it was possible that he now had some classes that were officially assigned to him.  Sure enough, upon checking the recreation website, you quickly discovered that he did have a couple classes that he was set to teach.  While this information certainly was helpful, it was quite unfortunate that every class he led happened to be at the ass-crack of dawn.  God, were you really interested in the type of guy who gets up extra early to work out?  Apparently so.

So that was precisely how you found yourself rolling up to the gym at 6:45am on a Tuesday morning, eyes heavy with exhaustion as you searched for the room the class was being held in.  Your heart was pounding and your palm was sweaty against your water bottle, but you were too dedicated to turn around at this point.  You had spent over a week trying to track him down, and you at last had.

When you entered the room, Jungkook had not arrived yet.  There were already quite a few girls in the room setting up their equipment, so you followed suit.  As most participants were often too intimidated to take the spots up front and center in front of where the instructor stood, you took it upon yourself to do the honors.  Of course you knew this would make Jungkook want to run the other way, but the thrill of making him as nervous as you were that last time was too exciting to turn down.

The door of the room opened and closed once more, and you didn’t even have to look up to feel his presence.  Here we go.  “Hi, everyone!  Welcome to class.  My name is Jungkook and I’ll be your instructor toda--” His voice cut off at the end of his statement, and when you finally allowed your eyes to set on him, he was already looking at you with wide eyes and tinted cheeks.  Within a millisecond, his eyes found the ground and he apprehensively took his spot directly in front of you.  The poor guy didn’t have a choice.  “U-Um, if you guys have any questions before we get started, please don’t hesitate to wave me over!”  You had a very strong feeling he was praying you wouldn’t wave him over.

The plan you had created before arriving was to wait until after class was over to ask him if he could talk for a few minutes.  You knew it wouldn’t be fair to put him on the spot before class, and you didn’t exactly feel comfortable confessing your feelings for him in front of twenty other girls who were probably drooling over him as well either.  

You managed to follow through with the plan, not communicating with Jungkook at all before and throughout the class except for a few soft smiles and some attempted eye contact.  The eye contact thing didn’t go over so well though, for whenever you did manage to get Jungkook to lock eyes with you, he’d immediately turn bright red and force himself to look everywhere but at you.  His nervous stammering through the microphone when giving instructions was almost too cute to handle.

When the class finally did come to an end and you were a sweaty mess, you sucked in a deep breath as you watched the rest of the participants start to put away their equipment.  Setting your eyes on Jungkook, you smiled slightly.  “Hey, can we talk?”

Jungkook looked up from his phone, eyes wide and clearly panicked.  He scanned your face carefully, almost as if he was trying to guess what your intentions were.  At last, he swallowed the lump in his throat and shoved his phone into his pocket.  “U-Um, sure, I guess.  Let’s just wait until everyone clears out.”

Nodding in agreement, you sat back and watched as the rest of the participants put their materials back in the closet and slowly began to file out of the room.  With each person that left, you could sense Jungkook getting more and more anxious.  He seemed to be mindlessly checking things around the room, his eyes darting back and forth between the door and any part of you that wasn’t your eyes.  By the time the last girl exited, your heart was pounding in your chest as well.

Clearing your throat, you watched as Jungkook walked to the front of the room to shut the door, seeming to take as long as humanly possible to pull it closed.  Just as you were about to speak the pitch you had practiced in your head and to Jennie numerous times over the past week, he opened his mouth.

“Look, I’m not sure exactly what’s going on here and I know that I might have been a bit overbearing when I was drunk last week, but if you’re just here to make me nervous and make fun of me and my awkward self for having a crush on you, you can just leave.”  He at last whipped around to face you, a sad expression taking over his features as he began to pace back and forth, running a hand through his sweaty hair.  He resembled something like a wounded puppy, and the longer you stared at him, the more you noticed just how exhausted and agitated he looked.

That definitely was not what you had expected and you felt awful that he had spent over a week thinking that you were probably teasing him with your friends for what he had said to you at the bar.  Furrowing your brow, you pushed yourself up to your feet and crossed your arms over your chest.  The planned speech was not going to do in these circumstances.  You would have to cut straight to point.

“I dropped that weight on my foot because I’ve been ridiculously attracted to you for over a year and got embarrassingly flustered at the sight of your shirt riding up during class.”

Jungkook stopped dead in his tracks, clasping both of his hands behind his head as he at last allowed himself to look at you.  His eyes were wide in shock, his head tilted just slightly to the left.  “Wait, what?”

“I didn’t want you to drive me home because I was already so embarrassed and was so nervous that I would’ve only embarrassed myself more trying to talk to you without making a complete fool out of myself.”

As you spoke again, Jungkook hesitantly took a couple of steps in your direction.  It seemed as if though his expression was slowly softening, and what almost appeared to be a small smile was fighting to form on the corners of his lips.  “I asked you to borrow a pen that one time in Earth Science with plans to work up the nerve to talk to you at the end of class when I had to give it back, but instead I just kept it and ran out of the room because I got too nervous.”

Unable to hide your own smile now, you allowed yourself to take a step toward him.  The closer you got to each other, the more the tension in the room built.  “I lied and said that I had an extra pen that day, but really I gave you my only one and just didn’t take notes that whole class.”

At last, that familiar bunny smile stretched across Jungkook’s whole face, his chest bubbling in laughter as he threw his head back.  “I once tried to ‘accidentally’ drop a book near you at the coffee shop in hopes that you’d pick it up and talk to me, but instead I just dropped it and tripped over it.”  Another step forward.

Giggling quietly, you chewed on your lower lip as you advanced forward.  “My friends and I have collectively referred to you by the code name ‘hot coffee shop boy’ ever since the first time I saw you there.  Also, ‘sexy gym instructor boy’ since last week.”

Jungkook’s eyes were boring into yours at this point, his body inching forward just slightly as his toes finally bumped against yours.  The tension-- not just from what was happening at the moment, but also from a year of pining after each other-- was so close to bubbling over.  “My friends and I know you as ‘hot coffee shop girl.’  Also, ‘toe girl’ since last week.”  The warm smile on his lips had twisted into a sort of mischievous smirk.

Leaning your head forward the slightest bit, your breath hitched in your throat as you could feel the warmth of his breath against your lips.  “If I haven’t made it clear yet, I’m extremely into you.”

Jungkook’s eyes-- which had darkened quite a bit over the last minute-- flickered down to your lips, his own head leaning forward an inch.  With this movement, the tip of his nose brushed against yours.  “And if I haven’t made it obvious yet, I’m extremely into you too.”

Before you could utter another word, Jungkook closed the minimal space remaining between the two of you by crashing his plump lips into yours.  His hands moved up to cup your cheeks, one moving along the back of your head to tangle into your hair.  Your own hands gripped to the front of his shirt as you stumbled back a bit due to the impact, your back bumping against the mirror in the front of the room.  The tension that had previously been building had popped the moment his lips met yours, but as his fingers tugged on your hair and his tongue found its way between your lips, you felt it resurfacing, this time between your legs.  You felt a bit flustered getting turned on this quickly by him, but when you put it into perspective, you had been waiting for this moment to unravel for over a year.  As your hands slid up the front of his shirt to rest on his defined core, you were certain you could feel his length getting hard against your thigh.

Pulling away after a minute, Jungkook rested his forehead against yours and stared deeply into your eyes as he breathed heavily.  There was a playful smirk on his lips as he dropped the hand from your face and rested it on your hip.  It was nice to see that he had finally let his guard down.  “So, I have to ask.  Are you more for sex first or a fancy date first?  I’m happily offering both, but we’re both kind of coming off a bit impatient here.”

Biting your tongue to hold in your laughter, you couldn’t ignore the way that the heat in the pit of your stomach was quickly sinking down lower between your legs.  “You know, if you hadn’t been so difficult to track down this past week, I may have taken you up on that fancy date first.”  You ghosted your fingers over his stomach, eliciting a surprised jolt out of him.  “But after you made me wait so long, I think you just might have to fuck me first.”

Jungkook’s eyes widened in surprise at your lewd words before he smirked and pressed his body against yours a bit harder, leaning forward to kiss a trail of wet kisses down your jawline.  “I’m happy to be at your service, but we’re kind of out in the open here.  I could drive us back to my room, that is if you’ll actually get in the car with me this time.”

Rolling your eyes at his teasing comment, you shoved at his chest.  Regardless, you couldn’t deny the fact that you were feeling incredibly impatient and weren’t sure you would be able to handle the wait while he transported you across campus.  Chewing on your lower lip, your eyes scanned the room.  “Equipment closet.  It’s spacious enough, it locks, and there’s no windows.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jungkook muttered under his breath, eyes searching your face for any hint of a lie.  When he didn’t find any, he smirked and pulled back, grabbing your hand in his.  “You know, I had planned on doing a lot of things today, but fucking in an equipment closet at the ripe hour of eight in the morning certainly wasn’t one of them.”

“Get used to it, hot coffee shop boy.”  Smirking to yourself, you allowed him to drag you towards the closet, pressing your back against the door after he closed and locked it behind you.  “Are you complaining?”

Rapidly shaking his head, Jungkook leaned forward and peppered kisses along your neck and collarbone, only pulling back to tug your shirt and sports bra over your head.  “No, no.  Just concerned you’re going to be the death of me before I even get started with you.”  Taking a step back, he pulled his own shirt over his head before allowing his eyes to rake up and down your body.  A combination of lust and admiration filled his eyes as he stepped toward you again.  “God, you really are so beautiful.”

Despite the fact that you had both been completely open with each other and the current situation being far from romantic, you felt your cheeks heating up at his compliment.  Shaking your head, you poked him in the stomach.  “Speak for yourself.  That’s the reason why I almost broke my toe.”

Throwing back his head in laughter, Jungkook stepped forward and wrapped his arms around your waist, lifting your body up and placing you down on top of a few stacked crates full of equipment.  “Mmm, I can make it up to you right now.”

Leaning forward, you pressed a few kisses along the corners of his lips and his jaw.  “And how are you going to do that?”

“Shhh, patience.”  Jungkook grinned as he bent down, slowly kissing a trail down your neck and collarbones.  When he reached your breasts, he slowed down his pace, carefully taking one of your nipples between his lips and softly sucking at the skin.  Once he established a rhythm that he was satisfied with, he lifted a hand and latched it around your other breast, kneading the skin between his fingers.

Letting out a soft moan, you threw your head back in pleasure and closed your eyes.  Your hands fastened around his neck, gently tugging at the hair on the back of his head.  The longer his lips and hands worked at your breasts, the more the heat between your legs throbbed.  “How am I supposed to be patient when I’ve waited so long for this?”

Jungkook’s eyes flickered up to meet yours, his lips making a popping noise as he removed them from your breast.  “You make a fair point.”  Kissing down your stomach, he urged you to lift your hips as he tugged your leggings and panties down your legs and allowed them to fall into a pile on the floor.  Kneeling down on the floor, his lips trailed their way up the inside of your thigh.  “Mmm, so wet already and I’ve barely even touched you.”

Whimpering softly at the feeling of his lips so close to where you needed them, you bucked your hips upward in an attempt to feel any sort of friction.  “P-Please.”

Chuckling quietly, Jungkook’s dark eyes remained on yours as he ghosted his lips over your dripping pussy.  The shy, insecure boy that he claimed to be earlier was nowhere to be found.  Instead, he was now indulging in the power he held over you.  “Who made you this wet?  Tell me.”

“You, J-Jungkook.  You did,” you whined out, attempting to push down on the back of his head.

Jungkook flashed you a satisfied smirk, nodding his head.  “That’s all I needed to hear, babe.”  Without another word, he gripped his hands around your thighs roughly and lifted your legs to drape over his shoulders.  Leaning forward, he closed the remaining space and attached his lips to your pussy.  Rather than making you wait any longer to have the tension relieved, he immediately went to work on your throbbing clit, gently sucking at the sensitive bundle of nerves.  Once he was pleased by the moans leaving your lips and the clenching of your thighs, he pulled his lips off and replaced it with his tongue.  Expertly circling his tongue on your clit, he reached one hand down and, without warning, began to pump one of his fingers in and out of your pussy.

“F-Fuck, oh my god, Jungkook,” you moaned out loudly, pulling harshly at his hair with one hand and reaching the other up to pinch at one of your nipples.  “R-Right there.”

“Mmm, need to get you stretched out and ready for my cock,” he murmured against your heat, quickly inserting another finger and curving them at the perfect angle to hit your g-spot with every pulse.  After circling your clit with his tongue a few more times, he encircled the bud with his lips yet again, this time humming against it to add an extra feeling of friction.

The sensation of his tongue and fingers working on your pussy and the sight of his glistening face was quickly becoming too much to handle.  With every movement, the bundle of nerves in your core was getting closer and closer to snapping and sending you into that blissful state you so longed for.  Biting down on your lower lip roughly, you closed your eyes tightly.  “I-I’m close.”

“Open your eyes.  I want you looking at me while you cum all over my tongue,” he rasped out after pulling back slightly, only leaning back down once you obeyed his command.  After a moment, he wet two of his fingers on his tongue before quickly beginning to circle them on your clit, moving his tongue in and out of your cunt at the same speed.

“F-Fuck, Jungkook!” you yelled out, forcing your eyes to remain open and fixed on his as you were quickly sent over the edge and into a state of ecstasy.  Your walls spasmed around his tongue as your vision became blurry and filled with stars.  The feeling was only prolonged as Jungkook kept moving his tongue until you couldn’t take it anymore and reached forward to push his head back slightly, left completely breathless as you stared at him.

Getting off his knees and onto his feet, Jungkook stared down at you in awe, leaning forward to press his forehead against yours.  The sight of your release on his lips that he refused to wipe off had your core already begging for more.  “God, that was so fucking hot.  You’re so fucking beautiful.”  Letting out a deep breath, he pecked your lips a couple times.

“How are you so fucking good at that?” you muttered against his lips, blindly reaching forward in search of the tie on his sweatpants.  Once you found it, you tugged roughly at it, sitting up straighter to urge both his pants and boxers down his thighs.

Chuckling to himself, Jungkook assisted you and pulled the articles of clothing down the length of his legs, stepping out of them once they reached the floor.  “I’d like to think that I’m a gentleman in the streets and a freak in the sheets…” His eyes wandered around the room for a moment.  “Or in the gym equipment room, apparently.”  

Rolling your eyes and giggling at his joke, you pulled him forward again to peck his lips.  “You know, if you moved to the side and let me get up, I’d happily return the favor.”  Your eyes wandered down the front of his body until they set on his hardened cock resting against his stomach, the sight of it causing you to clench your thighs together.

Shaking his head in response, Jungkook flashed you a shy smile.  God, how could he be so sexual yet so cute at the same time?  “As enticing as that sounds and as much as I would never turn that down on any other occasion, I’m afraid I’m not going to last if I don’t fuck you right now.”  Stepping forward, he looked down before cursing under his breath.  “Fuck, I don’t have a condom on me.  We don’t have fuck to if you’re not comfortable.”

“Wow, you didn’t bring a condom with you to your 7am fitness class?  How irresponsible of you,” you joked, shoving his shoulder before pulling him closer to you.  “I’m on the pill and I’m clean, so as long as you’re clean it’s fine with me.”

“You know, you’re going to regret teasing me,” he warned, laughing softly as he nudged his nose against yours.  “But yes, I’m clean too.”

Wrapping your arms around his neck, you raised a mocking eyebrow at him.  “Oh yeah?  And why am I going to regret it?”

Without another word, Jungkook reached down and grabbed his cock with one of his hands.  Rather than pushing it right inside of you, he instead slowly started to rub its angry red tip up and down your folds.  His eyes remained on yours, a teasing smirk tugging at the edges of his lips.

Biting on your tongue to suppress your whimpers, your eyes wandered down to the area between your thighs.  “W-What are you doing?”

Pressing his lips against your jawline, he let out an amused chuckle.  “Nothing until you tell me what you need.  Use your words, sweetheart.”

Reaching around him, you dug your nails into the skin on his upper back.  It wasn’t in your character to beg during sex, but the sight of the tip of his cock glistening in your juices from your first orgasm was enough to make you give in.  “P-Please fuck me, Jungkook.”  You forced yourself to lock eyes with him, hoping that the desperation you were exuding would be enough to make him cave.

Grinning in amusement against the skin of your neck, he nodded his head.  “Good girl.”  Sliding his cock down your folds one last time, he slowly slid it inside of your entrance once he reached it, a loud groan escaping his lips as he pushed all the way inside of you.  “F-Fuck, you’re so tight.”

Moaning out in pleasure at the feeling of fullness, you whimpered as you watched the sight of his cock disappearing inside of you.  The spectacle alone was enough to make the heat in your core reemerge, and your body was pleading for him to do more.  “M-Move.  F-Faster, please.”

Grabbing one of your legs, he extended it upward and propped it over his shoulder.  After getting a good grip on it, he quickly began to thrust in and out of you.  “Yeah?  You like that, babe?” he breathed out, his eyes screwing shut in pleasure before he buried his face into your neck again.

Dragging your nails down his sweaty back, you were sure you were going to leave some marks behind.  It only took a few moments for the feeling of overstimulation to wash away, and a new, deeper pleasure to replace it.  With your leg hanging over his shoulder, his cock managed to hit you at just the right angle with every thrust.  Using your grip on his back to press your body closer to his, you took the opportunity to wrap your free leg tightly around his waist.  The new position made it so his cock brushed against your clit every time he pulled it out of you, the feeling nearly having your eyes rolling to the back of your head.  “O-Oh my god, right there.”

Jungkook’s half-lidded eyes remained fixed on yours as he lifted one hand off of your thigh, pressing his index and middle finger together and moving them toward your mouth.  “Open.”  Once you complied, he inserted his fingers into your mouth.  His teeth dug into his lower lip as he watched the way you closed your lips, swirling your tongue around his digits a couple of times before sliding your lips back up and releasing them with a loud ‘pop.’  There was a mesmerized look in Jungkook’s eyes as his thrusts slowed for a moment.  “J-Jesus fuck, that was hot.”

A cocky smirk initially tried to spread across your lips, but it was washed away the moment he began to circle his lubricated fingers over your clit, his cock pounding in and out of your pussy at a pace that had you ready to unravel at any second.  “I-I’m close.”

Letting out what sounded like a combination of a groan and a whimper, Jungkook leaned forward and brushed his lips over yours.  “Cum all over my cock for me, babe.”

“J-Jungkook, f-fuck!” The sound of his raspy command and the feeling of his cock inside of you was all it took to push you over the edge again.  Your second orgasm hit you even harder than the first, a sensation of rapturous bliss overtaking your senses as your toes curled and your thighs were left convulsing around his body.  While your mind went foggy for a few seconds, the strain that was left in the back of your throat suggested that you had yelled out in pleasure quite loudly.  The euphoria was dragged out even longer as Jungkook had yet to reach his own high, his thrusts becoming sloppier as you stared up at him with hazy vision, gasping for breath.

“I-I’m close too,” Jungkook whimpered out, eyes screwing shut as your walls continued to twitch around his cock in the aftershock of your orgasm.  “W-Where do you want me to cum, babe?”

Coming back to your senses, you blinked a few times until your vision returned back to normal.  Finally processing his request, you used quite a bit of your strength to push him back a bit, ignoring the confused look on his face.  Using the space in front of you, you pushed yourself off of the elevated surface before getting down on your knees.  “My mouth.”  Reaching forward, you grasped his shaft in one hand, pumping his length a few times before leaning down and capturing his tip between your lips.  After circling your tongue around it a few times, you hollowed out your cheeks and began to bob your head up and down.

“O-Oh my… F-Fuck, Y/N.” Jungkook quickly adapted to the new sensation, his hands reaching around your head to tangle into your hair and urge your head down his cock further.  He locked eyes with you from above, his legs trembling around your head.  Taking notice of just how close he was, you forced your mouth down further to accommodate the rest of his cock in your mouth, swallowing around his length at the bottom.  The motion and the feeling of the tip of his length hitting the back of your throat was enough to make you gag, and that was all it took to push Jungkook to his climax.

Jungkook was a groaning mess above you as he released his load down your throat, unconsciously thrusting into your mouth further a couple of times to ride out of high.  After a few more spurts of his hot cum filled your mouth, you worked your mouth back up his length.  Once your lips popped off of the tip of his cock, you pulled back and swallowed thickly, the salty taste of his release lingering in your throat.

After taking a few moments to catch his breath, Jungkook reached down and grabbed your hand, pulling you up onto your feet in front of him.  Despite the crude nature of what had just occurred, the smile stretched across his lips seemed so… Innocent.  “Well… That happened.”  He reached up and pushed the sweaty hair that was sticking to his forehead out of his face.

Laughing softly at his words, you bit your lip and crossed your arms over your chest.  “I mean, that’s certainly one way to work out at the gym.”

Jungkook’s whole body shook as he erupted into laughter, leaning down and beginning to grab all of your discarded clothing articles off of the ground.  He sorted through them and handed you back yours, beginning to redress himself after.  Once he was dressed, he grabbed a towel out of one of the crates and made sure the area was clean.  “Don’t forget we worked out before too.  That’s two whole workouts.  We’re going to need to fuel up with some electrolytes or coffee or something.”

Forcing your damp leggings back onto your sweaty body wasn’t exactly the easiest or most enjoyable thing to do, but you managed.  Once your shirt was back on, you looked back over at him and feigned an exaggerated amount of excitement.  “Oh my god, am I going to be able to get coffee with hot coffee shop boy?”

“Only if hot coffee shop girl would be so willing to accompany him,” Jungkook jived, nudging your shoulder with his before unlocking and pulling open the door of the closet.  To your relief, the room was still empty and there seemed to be no one lurking outside of it.  Grabbing his backpack at the front of the room, he slung it over his shoulder.  “It might be a good idea for us to shower first, though.  I have a strong suspicion that we probably smell prettttty bad.”

Grabbing your own bag and water bottle, you laughed in amusement as you followed him out the door of the classroom and into the main area of the gym.  “I have a feeling you’re right.  Should we shower and plan to meet up after?”

Walking through the lobby, Jungkook held open the main door for you before following you outside.  It was much brighter out now than when you had arrived at the facility almost two hours prior.  Time really does fly by when you’re having fun.  “I feel like we can’t really be trusted with the whole ‘see you around’ thing and going our separate ways just yet after the shit we both pulled avoiding each other the past couple weeks.  Plus, I’m not quite done with you just yet.”

Snickering at the reminder of your past dramatic behavior, you nodded your head in agreement.  “So what did you have in mind?”

Stopping in his tracks, Jungkook turned to face you.  “So first, I was thinking you could come back to my place and we could both shower there.  I could provide you with some clothes for the time being, but if you need to change later, I can bring you back to your place.”  The corners of his lips began to twitch upward.  “However, that would require you getting into my car with me, and history suggests that doing so ‘makes you nervous,’ or something like that.”

“Hmm, I’m pretty sure I remember something about me making you nervous too.  I think some weird drunk guy told me that.”  Scoffing at his flirtatious teasing, you playfully shoved his chest.  “Anything else planned?”

“Hey, that ‘weird drunk guy’ is the reason we’re here today,” he scoffed, grabbing one of your hands off of his chest and lacing his fingers with yours.  “Then I was thinking we could go to our favorite coffee shop.  But… And I know this is kind of a wild idea... I’m thinking we sit at the same table for the first time instead of dropping pens and books to try to get each other’s attention from across the room.”

Squeezing his hand, you began to follow him as he led the way to what you assumed was going to be his car.  “A bold suggestion, but I’m into it.  Might have you drop a book at my feet and I’ll stare at you across the room longingly just for old time’s sake.”  When you reached a shiny black SUV, Jungkook unlocked it and walked around the passenger side, opening the door for you.  “So I’m guessing these plans involve us skipping classes today?”

“Well, obviously.”  Jungkook flashed you a bright grin as you climbed into the car, shutting the door gently once you were in the seat.  He ran around the front of it and quickly hopped into the driver’s seat, leaning over to look at you once inside.  “And then once the evening comes, as I suggested earlier, I would still love to take you out to dinner, if you’d let me.”  Despite everything that had just unfolded and all of the confessions you both had shared, there still appeared to be a glimmer of nervousness and hesitation in his eyes.

Leaning to the side, you reached over and placed your hand on top of his.  Your lips formed into a reassuring smile.  “I would love to.”

Jungkook lifted your hand that was over his to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss against your fingers.  “Good.”  Turning to face forward, he started the car and began to back out of the space.  As he looked at the pathway in front of the gym, he directed a mischievous smirk at you.  “Remember that time you walked back to your room on a swollen toe to avoid getting into my car with me?  Good times.”

Letting out a groan, you covered your flushed face with both of your hands.  “If you don’t shut up, I’m about to hit you with a ‘see you around’ and roll right out of the side of your car while it’s moving.”

“Okay, okay.  I’m sorrrry,” Jungkook laughed to himself, grabbing the wrist closest to him to pull your hand off of your face.  “As compensation for your shame, I will make another embarrassing confession.”  He knitted his brow together as he thought for a few moments before chuckling to himself as a memory came to mind.  “I once accidentally liked one of your Instagram pictures that was like… 72 weeks old and almost considered moving to another country and changing my identity.  I unliked it right away and you probably didn’t even notice, but I was stressed.  There.  Does that make you feel better?”

Gnawing on the inside of your cheek to hide your smile, you glanced at the side of his face.  “Mmm, a little bit.  I think I’m going to need you to keep going.”

Jungkook scoffed as he placed your hand that he was holding down on his thigh, shaking his head in disbelief.  “How is that fair?  I think I deserve some form of payment if I’m going to keep exposing myself too.”

“Fine, fine.”  You gently squeezed his thigh, your mind sifting through all of the embarrassing things you had done in the past due to your embarrassing infatuation of the boy who was now sitting beside you.  “I tried to order you, like, a sort of secret admirer coffee on Valentine’s Day, but the barista ended up giving it to the wrong guy and I ended up leaving the shop because I was so mortified.”

“Aw, I’ve always wanted to have a secret admirer,” Jungkook teased, parking the car in front of his building.  “God, we really could go on forever with these embarrassing stories, huh?”

Nodding your head, you reached your hand up and playfully poked at his dimple.  “It sure seems that way.  We’re kind of the worst.”

Unbuckling his seatbelt and hopping out of the car, he met you at the front of it and draped an arm over your shoulders.  “Good.  Just gives me another reason to keep you around longer.”

And while ‘see you around’ hadn’t been a promise that either of you kept before, keeping you around from then on certainly was one that he fulfilled.

[plus-size-reader]

Plans

Steve Rogers x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 1500 words

Warnings: Reader cannot get pregnant

Summary: Steve reacting to the news that his s.o can’t have kids after really wanting to start a family 

——————————————————————————————————

Steve Rogers was an All-American man from a different time.

He was raised with very sturdy morals and ideals, and because of that, he knew exactly what kind of life he would have. It was never even a question in his mind.

Even after being Captain America, those things had never really changed all that much.

In fact, they only got stronger when he met you.

After Peggy, Steve didn't think much about falling in love or getting married. However, you came into his life and just switched everything he'd believed all around.

You were the kind of woman that he wanted to raise a family with. The kind of woman that he was dying to give a tiny house in the country with a white picket fence surrounding it.

You were the kind of gal his mama would have been glad to meet, and that was more than enough for Steve to start shopping for rings and picking out baby names.

He had his plan and with you by his side, it was all coming together. Nothing could have made him rethink that.

...Or so he thought.

You had been having some health concerns lately, and when you decided you couldn't put it off anymore, you went to the doctor.

It took several miserable hours of getting poked and prodded over and over again, but eventually they figured out what was wrong.

Though, the side effects of your diagnosis ended up being the most troubling.

While what you were going through wasn't terminal, it certainly was going to change your life forever. During your visit, your doctor informed you that would never be able to bear children.

It was a simple fact, something that you had likely been unable to do all your life, but it was enough to shatter your heart into a million pieces.

In your line of work, you had admittedly never really given children much thought, but that wasn't because you didn't want them. It was just because you had other things on your mind.

However, hearing that you wouldn't have that option at all changed that everything for you. You wanted to be able to make that decision for yourself and your own body had robbed you of that.

It wasn't fair.

It was an impossible thing for anyone to deal with. Having to come to terms with that, even internally, was just too much,

Though, it only got worse when it hit you that you'd have to explain the entire situation to Steve. As your partner, it was something you'd have to share with him eventually and you were sure he'd be broken-hearted as well.

He had always talked so fondly about having children in the future, from what they'd look like to how they would act but you couldn't give him that now.

No matter how much you wanted to, it physically wasn't in the cards for you, the doctor had made that very clear.

There were just so many unanswered questions and it made you want to be sick on your drive home from the office.

Would Steve even want to stay with you after finding out the news? Would this be some kind of deal breaker for him?

You weren't sure.

Honestly, the only thing you were sure of was the fact that you were terrified of how he would react when he found out.

You were scared, but you knew that you'd have to tell him eventually. It wasn't exactly something you could work around.

In some of your past relationships, it may have been a conversation for a later day but Steve had been talking about children since you met.

At first it was a lot to take in, as it would have been for any modern woman, but considering the fact that your life was far from typically in the first place, you were quick to let that go.

What more could you expect when you got into a relationship with a ninety year old superhero. It was a shock to you that he didn't have children already, to be completely honest.

Now though, you didn't know if he'd ever get that chance, at least, not if he wanted to be with you.

Thinking of it that way, you had more reason to believe that Steve would leave you over this than reasons to think he'd stay.

It was less than comforting to think of it that way, and only increased how aggressively you were pressing down on your gas petal.

In any case though, you had more than enough time on your way home to overthink how the conversation would go. For better or worse, tonight was the night.

Putting it off wouldn't do anything for you.

~

Steve knew there was something wrong immediately.

As soon as you came through the door, your anguish filed in behind you, filling the space entirely. So much so, in fact, that had you and Steve been entirely strangers, he still would have picked up on it.

However, knowing that something was wrong didn't mean that he could pinpoint exactly what that was. Just that he could tell you had something on your mind, did not mean he had any other clues.

The only thing he knew was that you'd gone to the doctor today, and while he had not been able to accompany you today, he panicked as soon as that realization hit him. If it had something to do with that, anything could go wrong.

Your health wasn't something to be messed with, of course.

"Hey, are you okay? What happened?" Steve asked, immediately pulling out a chair for you, before sitting down across from you in his own. It was a sweet gesture, one that was oddly well placed all things considered, but didn't make you feel better.

Frankly, you nearly clasped into the chair, feeling the weight of the words on your mind without being quite sure how to share them. It would have been so much easier with good news, or if you had no news at all.

...But knowing that wasn't going to change anything.

So, after sitting in silence for what felt like a million years, you sighed. "The doctor told me that I can't have children today"

The words left your lips quickly, before you could torture yourself more with waiting. You had no way to process it, or to explain yourself, but getting it out there was what you'd been stressing out about this entire time.

Though, now that it was out, you didn't feel any more relieved than before. If anything, there was a new pressure present now that you weren't prepared to deal with.

"I understand if you don't want to be with me anymore, I know how important kids are to you" you whispered,

When Steve said nothing, you decided that his silence was a sign that he was trying to find the words to dump you without being too upfront or aggressive. The worst part, by far though, was the fact that you couldn't even blame him for wanting to.

It wasn't what you wanted, but you knew that it wasn't something you could fight if he just couldn't come to terms with it.

However, as soon as you said that, Steve seemed to snap out of what he was going through. "No, that isn't it. I mean, they are important to me but they aren't everything" he started, moving to change his posture from where his arms had been folded, to reach out to grab your hands in his own.

"I want to have kids some day, sure, but that isn't going to mean anything without you" he shrugged, tears pricking in your eyes at that. You had been holding it in all this time, trying to be strong, but at that moment, you realized something you hadn't thought of before.

You realized that you weren't alone.

Steve had been here all this time, and while you were convinced he was going to leave you as soon as he heard the news, that wasn't even what he wanted to do. In fact, before you mentioned it, you weren't even sure if he'd thought about it at all.

"You're sure?" you sniffled, wiping away the pools of tears that had settled at the base of your eyes, that were beginning to burn. Of course he was, and while Steve had no idea what you were going to do, you had options.

Medicine had advanced quite a bit since he'd been in the ice and he knew that there was quite a bit that could be done, and if that wasn't ideal for you, adoption was always there too. There was nothing wrong with anything like that either.

"Of course, it's you and me kid, no matter what" he grinned, leaning forward to place a kiss on your forehead. It brought a smile to your own face, though you only felt slightly better about it. It had gone much better than you assumed it would this morning.

After all, Steve was right. It was always going to be you and him, even when you did decide to start a family of your own, in whatever avenue you chose.

[yyuangss-main]

i. will rules

— Dearest Daddy is a collaboration with many other writers about Haikyuu boys. At the bottom of the chapter, I will link the material list to Dearest Daddy and you can find other stories to read. Thank you!

TW: Character death

You gather with friends all the time and think about the future. You’ll guess who will get married first, who will be the one to have children, the one to stay single and travel the world. Have you ever gathered and thought about who might be the first to leave this world? Because you don’t want to think of what you know will be a reality. At one point, everyone will pass away.

“Thank you Takahashi. Any expenses on Wakumi, I will pay you.” Sakusa said. The collar from his suit pinched the skin on his neck. Emiko Takahashi, the babysitter, has stayed with Wakumi since Yoichi and Tadema arrived at the hospital. “For now, you can go rest. Wakumi’ll be under my care.”

“Ah, no worries Sakusa.” Takahashi said, “Yoichi and Tadame were your friends. Not mine. I will gladly take care of Wakumi until a family relative fixes up adoption papers.” Sakusa exhaled.

After the funeral, everyone went to (L/N)’s home for a repast. She sat in her living room, bags under her eyes shown noticeably. (L/N) seemed to not listen to what everyone said. What could she be hearing? The sound of Yoichi and Tadema’s flatline? Her piercing scream that awakened Sakusa from his slumber?

“My condolences (L/N).” Takahashi gripped her hand. “If you need anything, you’re allowed to call me.”

“Thank you Takahashi.” Her lips moved, the dry tears on her cheeks stretching. “Did Wakumi fall asleep upstairs? If she did, you can spend the night here.” Sakusa subtly rolls his eyes.

‘Just say you want someone by your side.’ Sakusa maneuvered through familiar faces, unknown friends, and family members to get to the kitchen. He feels more secure, still hating large crowds. Leaning on the countertop, the male checked his notifications. A bunch of missed calls in a thread from an unknown number was at the top.

Sakusa’s head cocked to the side. Whoever was the caller left a voicemail too. He clicked on his phone, heading to the back door in the kitchen. His foot was wedged between the door, keeping it from closing on him, the sound of a male voice entering his ear.

“Hello Mr. Sakusa. My name is Hansuke Fujioka. I’m leaving a voicemail hoping you can call me as soon as you can. An urgent matter needs to be spoken about. Thank you and have a nice day.”

Sakusa went to his missed calls and clicked the top notification. It began dialing.

“Hello?” Said the same voice.

“Hello, this is Sakusa Kiyoomi. You called me about an urgent matter?”

“First, I’d like to give you my condolences on your loss. Secondly, yes. I am Hansuke Fujioka, the Suzuki’s family attorney.” Sakusa leaned in closer to the phone, pulling down his mask to his chin. “My reason for calling is because I’d like to discuss their will with you. The information is much to process over the phone.”

“Understood. Would you like to make a meeting?” Sakusa mentally remembered his free days. “I’m available to meet up this upcoming Thursday. Maybe around ten in the morning?”

“Works well for me. Come to Fujioka Attorneys.”

“Thank you.” Sakusa said, hearing a ‘You’re welcome’ and Mr. Fujioka hung up. Sakusa entered the house through the way he came out. He quickly typed out a reminder in his calendar for Thursday. He heard the clicking of heels and a ringtone. Sakusa’s eyes darted up to see (L/N)’s figure exiting through the back door. He wondered what that could be about but he dismissed it as uninteresting.

“It’s good to meet you.” Fujioka shook Sakusa’s hand. “Please, take a seat.” The male sat on the left chair. Fujioka quickly aligned documents spread on his desk. He stacked them together and cleared his throat. Sakusa sneakily checked the time from his Black Jackals coat.

“We’ll start? I assume?” Sakusa sat up straight. Mr. Fujioka spared him a glance and held up a finger.

“Just a moment, Mr. Sakusa. I’ll be right back.” The attorney ushered out the room, leaving Sakusa alone. He craned his neck to see through the small crack the door had left. Sakusa’s foot anxiously bounced on the floor. What could it be? What could they have left?

“No worries! You arrived at a good time!” Sakusa heard the voice of Mr. Fujioka say, “Come right in and take a seat! We’ll start immediately.” The door opened, revealing her. Her fake smile she would throw on for photo shoots and movies. Her face he wished he could stop seeing everywhere.

(L/N) (Y/N).

“Thank you for your kindness, Mr. Fujioka!” You said, unaware of Sakusa’s presence. “We can—” You stopped mid sentence, making eye contact with Sakusa. He glared, clearly giving a look of annoyance from under the mask. You returned it, replacing it instantly with an even faker smile.

“Ms. (L/N), I’m not sure if you know Mr. Sakusa. The two of you were mentioned in the Suzuki’s will.” Mr. Fujioka went around his desk, scooting up in his chair. You slowly sat down in the other open seat beside the volleyball player. Fujioka grabbed the file nearest to his computer, “And with that being said, happen to be in the same sentence.” In cue, both you and Sakusa gave each other a confused look.

“What do you mean by that?” Sakusa asked. Fujioka opened the file, picking at the corner of a sheet and pulling it from the pack.

“Oddly enough, the Suzuki’s requested in their will that if they died,” Fujioka said, “You two would have custody of Wakumi.”

“What?” You and Sakusa both said at the same time. And here you were, planning on asking Fujioka where a family member could get custody on Wakumi. “That must be a mistake!” He glanced up from the sheet, eyebrows raised and shook his head.

“I’m sorry. There’s no mistake.” Fujioka said, “I have a copy of the transcript. You can read it.” Sakusa extended his hand, getting a small packet from Fujioka. He brought it back, seeing the words that were typed up. Sakusa flipped through the pages. It was only three stapled all together.

“Is that even possible?” You ask. “And wouldn’t it be better if a family member got custody?” Mr. Fujioka placed the sheet at the top, only holding the top right corner. You could feel the scowl from Sakusa burning holes on your temple. Maybe even hurling insults internally or planning on doing it once the meeting was over.

“Yes. It’s rare but possible to happen.” Fujioka stated, “What’s not possible is the law giving Wakumi over to a family member. Yoichi and Tadema’s will is signed by a judge. I’m to execute these requests. Along with that, all money left in the Suzuki’s accounts are to be saved for Wakumi until she is eighteen or unless the two requested guardians need to use it.” Sakusa hummed, flipping the small packet in your direction. “She also inherited their house.”

You read the first page, Yoichi asking for the money to be under Wakumi’s name. In the second, Tadema asked her husband if they were still going with what they agreed. Finally, near the end, Fujioka confirmed he’d written down ‘(L/N) (Y/N)’ and ‘Sakusa Kiyoomi’ to be Wakumi’s legal guardians. Your breath hitched, feeling conflicted. You felt your eyes begin to swell, placing the stapled papers back on the table.

“Mr. Fujioka, can we change this?” You said. Fujioka clicked his pen repeatedly.

“Look, from an outside perspective, would you really want to defy your friend’s last wishes?” Fujioka asked. “There’s a reason why you were picked. They trust you with Wakumi. I can’t deny this request nor can you. Make this process easier.”

“I just— I just can’t fit a child into my schedule.” You exclaimed. “I love her but my life is busy as it is. A child would only add more stress.”

“Give it time Ms. (L/N). When leaving, you’re allowed to discuss your next moves. Of course, a process for adopting Wakumi’ll happen. We will meet again to finalize more things. I’ll give you both a call.” He gave a nod. Sakusa agreed, his chest rising as he stood up.

“Thank you for your time.” Sakusa said, shaking his hand. “And for informing us. Ms. (L/N) and I are going to talk this out.” Fujioka seemed pleased, seeing the two of you out. Your heels clicked on the wooden flooring as you stormed out.

You fetched for your keys in your purse, muttering curse words under your breathe. Using your shoulder to push the door open, Sakusa trailed behind you with a growing headache.

“(L/N).” Your head whipped around, baring an angry look.

“Yes?” You harshly said, making Sakusa’s eye twitch. “Hurry up Sakusa, I don’t have all day!”

“Fujioka said we need to discuss.” You grunted, turning away and coming closer to your car. Sakusa’s eyebrows raised, a look reading ‘Are you serious right now?’ behind the mask formed.

“Just follow me to my place.” Your voice cracked, fumbling your keys to get inside of the car. “I’d rather talk there than burst out crying in a parking lot.”

❝A tragic accident brings two enemies together under one roof as sole guardians of their late best friend’s baby daughter. Will they survive together and find happiness through the bundle of joy in their lives? Or will their hatred for each other win over the worst?❞

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DEAREST DADDY MATERIAL LIST

PLAYING HOUSE MATERIAL LIST

prologue

[kyoshi-lesbians]

I once very briefly mentioned that I think Kyoshi’s conversation w/ Lao Ge in RoK about the method for longevity is important to understanding Kyoshi later in life.

At the time I wasn’t even considering what SoK shows about that subject, and thank goodness it changes things completely because if the novels ended at RoK the implied reasoning would be so fucking sad and my heart can’t take that.

Here’s what I mean:

In RoK Kyoshi has no desire to live past a normal life span. She thinks that, “Desperately grasping for more power and control over life was what people like Jianzhu did” (p. 334 RoK). She view extra time like hoarding wealth, and imagines it is what her worst enemy would do. She doesn’t want this. 

But once she’s learned Lao Ge’s method for longevity, she thinks, “Kelsang’s absence had put her in stasis. If Lao Ge wanted her to be stagnant and forever trapped, she’d already mastered that lesson” (p. 335 RoK).

Now, Kyoshi’s grief for Kelsang is still fresh. It’s easy to forget sometimes but the timeline of this novel takes place in little over a month. It’s understandable that she cannot imagine a world where she heals from losing her adopted parent in such a horrific way.

I do not have experience in loss like this, but I’ve heard it expressed that the trauma and sadness from losing them can become a part of your relationship to them after death. That these painful emotions can become a reminder of them and keeping the reminders can be preferable to the memory of that person fading away. 

Kyoshi may have felt her grief to be the last connection she had to Kelsang.* It’s possible that she would have chosen to keep that grief fresh within her so that she could continue feeling close to her adopted father. 

If this was the end of the series, going off RoK alone, the likeliest contextual explanation for Kyoshi living to be 230 is that she was unable or unwilling to move past her grief for Kelsang for those 230 years.

(*It’s worth noting that Kyoshi has no keepsakes to remember Kelsang with. The clay turtle was destroyed the night of his death, when she practiced her earthbending on it. Her earthbending, which she practiced, because she found out she was the Avatar. After losing her father, who died, because she found out she was the Avatar.) 

Yeah.

… 

(this is why i was in pain)  

But wait!!! There’s a whole other novel!!! It’s okay!!! 

Because by the end of SoK, Kyoshi isn’t keeping grief at her core. A key moment of Kyoshi moving on occurs when burying / saying goodbye to Yun. She grieves, but she lets him go, and I imagine that this process helps her do the same for Kelsang. In fact throughout the novel, we see that her love for Rangi is now what centers her. (someone wrote a great post on that, if i can find it again i will link it!) Similarly, where before her Avatar identity was tied to tragedy, she comes “to accept the mantle of Avatarhood proudly” (p. 334 SoK). 

From her conversation with Yangchen, we can infer that it’s her duty as the Avatar that drives her to live to 230. When talking Yangchen, Kyoshi thinks about justice and wishes that, “In the future, perhaps, she’d become finalized like carved stone. It would be easier to deal with the world then. She could only hope” (p. 335 SoK). 

Although she doesn’t think in such words, her conception of justice becoming finalized is part of what Lao Ge meant for organizing the mind to never change. This marks her first interest in fixing herself into a moment of time, and the interest is so she can better handle being the Avatar. 

It’s not a hard jump to assume that she makes the decision to commit herself to Lao Ge’s method as her sense of justice solidifies. Kyoshi already feels it is her duty to provide stability to the world for as long as she can to make up for Kuruk’s short life, for her own delay at Avatarhood, and to bring peace back to the fractured earth kingdom. 

The final scene of the SoK directly alludes to Kyoshi’s long life. When Lao Ge delivers Kyoshi’s threat to Fire Lord Zoryu, he yells, “She can’t watch over me forever!” (p. 341 SoK). The last line of the entire series is Lao Ge’s response to this: “The old man tilted his head back and laughed to rival the thunder” (p. 341 SoK).

Lao Ge laughs because yes, Kyoshi can do just that, and it seems that he believes she will choose to do so. And she does. Kyoshi would’ve outlived Zoryu’s grandchildren’s grandchildren. There’s no evidence that Kyoshi would have wanted a long life for herself, yet she did what she saw to be her duty as the Avatar and put the needs of the world before her own desires.

The Kyoshi novels bring it full circle: Before anyone even knew Kyoshi was the Avatar, Kelsang told her that one of her “Avatar-worthy merits” was “selfless humility”(p. 53, RoK). And he couldn’t have been more right about his daughter. 

(And you know he would be so proud of her.)

[cherrytdatt]

what a shame we're fucked in the head (au)

Pairing: peter parker x reader

Word count: ~1.7k

Summary: peter and y/n always find it easier to be fwb than assuming their feeling for each other 

A/N: this was in my drafts for the longest time and i'm just getting rid of it. this is an au but they are still superheroes.

Warnings: drug use and mention of sex

"What up, loser?" you heard a familiar voice say behind you. You turned your head, recognizing his silhouette. "Abandoning the party?" Peter chuckled, sitting by your side on the edge of the building.

"Making my own party," you said with a weak smile, raising your hand that held a joint you lazily made a few minutes ago.

"Oh! And didn't call me?" he asked with an offended look.

"Sorry. I thought you were having fun inside," you said, passing the cigar to him.

"Sure. Cause seeing Banner and Rogers fighting over some mysterious hallucinogen that Banner's dad accidentally made on the lab is so much more fun than relaxing and talking to you," he took a pull of the cigar, without looking at you. You stared at his side profile, admiring every inch of his face. His eyes that were shining with the city lights, the small smirk that never left his face, the sharp angle his jaw made even when he was relaxed, and the curls that fell plainly on his forehead.

You and Peter had a lot in common, you were Stephen Stranger's daughter, and Peter was adopted by Tony Stark at the age of three. As everyone knows, those two were the most rich and arrogant superheroes to walk on this earth or any other planet. So you two understood how hard your life was growing up. Don't get me wrong, both were great parents, but they didn't think twice before pressuring you two to be the best amongst all the other superheroes' kids. Besides that, there were the absent parents, and all the ego fights that you two had to deal with daily.

"That thing's dangerous," you said, shaking your head. "Banner and Rhodes took that last week, and they blacked out for forty eight hours after almost jumping from the top of the Stark Tower!" Peter handed you the cigar.

"That would make my dad so happy," Peter said sarcastically, making you laugh, just thinking about the bad press that two superheroes' kids jumping from the most expensive building in New York would cause for Tony Stark. "These kids are crazy," he finished when your laugh faded out.

All the Avengers kids formed some type of clan that was known for excessive partying, drugs, and doing crazy shit around town that usually caused some sort of damage physical or financial. After all, be raised by babysitters while your parents fought against aliens and robots wasn't easy. You, Peter, Shuri, and Magni, Thor's son, were the only ones that tried to follow your parents' steps and become superheroes, but that didn't keep you from partying and doing crazy things sometimes. The difference was, You, Peter, and Shuri usually do it without drawing attention, and Magni did it on other planets.

"Cause you and I are not damaged by our dads 'jobs', right?" you looked at him.

"I rather not talk about it," Peter joked, and you laughed. "So, how is your life?" he asked, staring at the city view from Will Maximoff's penthouse, where the party was happening.

"Same old. Studying and being in the lab for hours, drinking, and smoking weed the rest of the time, sometimes studying and smoking at the same time. I don't even know anymore," you took a pull from the joint. Even though your dad's power was like some type of magic, he always made you study very hard and you two worked on your lab developing nanotechnology and other things to help the Avengers. Sometimes you worked with Mr. Bruce, Shuri, or even Tony although he wasn't your dad's favorite. "And you?"

"I'm spending my days at the lab, improving my suit," he shrugged. "And waiting for you to call me," he finished, looking at you, and you chocked a little.

"Waiting for me to call you?" you coughed. "You have my number. You can call me," you said, looking at him.

"I'm always the one that calls you," he said nonchalantly.

"And?" you asked, holding a smile.

"A man gets tired..." he scratched the back of his head, shrugging and looking away from you.

"You know I don't mind you calling me," you stated. "And you also know I'm not gonna get in the middle of your commitment issues," your voice was lower.

"I didn't have a commitment issue with you," Peter defended himself.

You two were more than friends, and that was clear to everyone that had eyes. Everything started on the night of your nineteenth birthday. Your parents were out of town, and you decided it was a good idea to close an entire club in New York to have the biggest party you could think of. After using almost every drug in the building, you still felt alone, and the only person you could think about was Peter. He was at the party, but you barely saw him. At 2 a.m. you called him, and you finally hooked up. But, unlike what everyone was thinking, your 'relationship' didn't go further than occasionally making out, sleeping together and then you two wouldn't talk for two or three weeks after that. You, obviously, liked him, but Peter never dated any girl for more than two weeks, so you came to the conclusion that, even with your feelings, this 'friends with benefits' relationship was the best you could do.

"Yeah, right!" you laughed. "And that bullshit you pulled out last year was your way of committing," you joked, remembering the day he showed up in your father's cabin, knowing you would be there alone, and left the next morning without saying a word.

"You know why I did that," he sighed.

"I honestly don't," you chuckled, looking at him, waiting for his excuse.

"You told me you wanted to be alone! I was there just to make sure you were okay and then did what you want," he explained, his hands moving around anxiously.

"Are you stupid or what?" you got up, not believing how someone so smart could be so oblivious.

"What?" he asked, confused with your reaction.

"I wanted to be alone with you, dumbass. That's why I texted you my exact location," you said, pointing at him.

"Oh!" he was honestly surprised, his eyes widened in realization.

"You are dumb..." you concluded, the corners of your lips going up, forming a smile.

"I'm not dumb! I'm just..." Peter got up.

"Hard to commit," you said, knowingly.

"Oh, shut up!" he held a laugh. "You are not that great either. I lost count of how many times you ghosted me or avoided me," he accused you, and your eyes avoided his because you knew you the times you ran away from him.

"Do you...uh..." you gulped, afraid of the damage that your next words could cause. Peter studied your expression, knowing you were struggling with your thoughts. You took one more pull from the joint, trying to gather all your courage. "Do you think we will work..." you glanced at him for a split second. "I mean... in the future... you think we could work... if we tried?" you stuttered, regret already filling your chest.

"I don't like parties, you know?" Peter said, and you looked at him. Half confused and half cursing yourself for asking anything. Was he changing the subject just to avoid the question? "I mean... I like them sometimes but not every weekend," he said, looking at the buildings around.

"It's not what it looks like since I only bump into you at parties," you said with a weak smile.

"That's because I go to all the parties you go," he confessed. "When you're out of town or just at your house, I spend my night working in the lab or fighting small crimes in town," he glanced at you. You looked at him, not fully understanding what he was saying. "What I meant is..." he stared at you, and you felt the air being pulled out of your lungs by his intense eyes. "I really like you... and I hope we can work things out when you're ready," he smiled.

"Hey, Parker!" William Maximoff called, and both of you looked at him. "It's your turn on the beer pong," he yelled.

"I'm coming," Peter laughed at him, and the boy walked back inside, laughing, with some girl you didn't know, pulling him by his hand. "I'm going in..." he told you in a low voice, and you looked at him again.

"Yeah... okay," you muttered, the things he said still being processed in your head.

He stared at you, and you felt in his eyes that he was pondering on doing something. Peter took a step towards you, his face a few inches from yours, and you looked at him, feeling his hot breath in your mouth. You parted your lips, already anticipating what was coming. Peter's hand came to your face, touching gently your cheek, his eyes staring deeply into yours. You moved your face up, finally ending the distance between you two. You moved your hands to his neck, tugging at his hair, feeling his soft lips against yours, and he held your waist with his free arm. The kiss started slow but soon became needy and eager, your tongues colliding and moving in synch, traveling through every inch of each other's mouth. You captured his bottom lip between your teeth, causing him to moan softly, his hand going down to squeeze your butt. 

"I really missed you," he whispered against your lips.

"Peter..." you started you a hesitant voice.

"I have to go," he said before you could say anything else. Peter took a step back, glancing between the party and you. His arms left your body, and you felt cold without his touch. He gave you a small smile, putting his hands in his pockets, walking away from you. You turned slowly to look at the buildings, not ready to go back to the party yet.

"Y/n," you heard Peter call, and you turned to look at him. "Call me when you decide to go home." he smiled and grabbed the doorknob. You nodded at him, and he ran his hand through his hair. "I'm gonna kick your ass, Will," he yelled when the noise from the party invaded your ears, and then everything was silent again.

You stared at the buildings, feeling the fear from loving Peter more than you loved anyone else in your life invade you.

[uc-fakeadoption-au]

herói do futuro: chapter 1

read on ao3:

chapter count: 1/?

rating: teen and up audiences

category: gen

warnings: no (archive) warnings apply

relationships: Nathan Drake & Victor Sullivan, Nathan Drake & Samuel Drake, Samuel Drake & Victor Sullivan

additional tags: fake adoption au, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, also titled just a dad and his two sons, Young Nate, Young Sam, aka hes not balding yet lmaoo, "young" sully, Team as Family, Fluff and Angst, pretty good amounts of fluff tbh, Family Bonding, accidental family acquisition, There will be headcanons, content warning for sully bc he's young and hot, dare i say...dilf sully?, yes beta we DON'T die (like sam!!!), place-filler ocs (they don't mean shit to the story I just needed someone for certain roles)

summary: Uncharted AU; Victor Sullivan never thought he would have son(s), hell, what *does* he know about raising a kid?

However, a chance meeting with a certain pair of brothers during a job puts a swift end to *that* line of thought.

It might even change the future as we know it...

alternative to ao3 under the cut:

It was supposed to be a simple, in-and-out job.

The client — a swarmy wannabe collector-slash-historian — had contacted him on the premise that it was going to be an easy and absurdly well-paid operation. All for some wooden saint stored in an old Boston church.

Now, Victor did have a pretty good idea of what was so interesting about that particular idol (he wasn't ignorant, thank you very much), but the level of prep did seem a bit overboard. Not that he was complaining, having the floor plans, several images of the church, and a detailed schedule on its functioning would make it a lot easier to plan and actually grab the twenty-pound saint, unseen. Simple.

But it can never be that easy, can it?

When he got to the actual building, turns out that the entire storage in the basement had been moved to a different location a few years prior due to some kind of renovation. Which was fan-fucking-tastic and begged the question: where the hell would they have transferred all that shit to?

A few days (and a frustrating discussion with the client, who promised an even higher finder's fee to keep looking for the wooden icon) later, they managed to at least find out where the haul had been moved to. 

The pro: it wasn't too far from the original location.

The con: it was now stored in a small chapel in a religious all-boys orphanage.

~

 

So that was how Victor "goddamn" Sullivan ended up there. In a nun-staffed orphanage. Posing as an oh-so-lonely guy, looking to adopt. 

It felt like too much bullshit, even for his standards. And he didn't expect a lot from this in the first place. Goddamn.

~

 

"Mister… Smith, was it?", cautiously asked the woman.

Uh oh, suspicious already? "Yes, that's me. And you, miss..?"

She extended her arm for a handshake. "Reed. Susan Reed. I'm the social worker assigned for your case. Welcome to the St. Francis' Boy's Home, sir".

Goddammit. He really expected that the whole thing was going to be facilitated by the nuns. That surely complicated things.

"I see. Well miss Reed, I assume you know what I'm here for".

"Oh, of course, you're here for a visit. You're looking to adopt, after all. While we haven't had the time to completely process your paperwork, you should be okay to get on with the first steps".

Ah yes, he was supposed to be named Victor Smith this time around. At least the fake name worked to buy him some time then. While having a criminal history was supposedly "not a determining factor on approving an adoption", that could be a problem if found out.

Not that he was actually adopting a kid. What the hell did he know about raising one of those, anyway? Focus, Sullivan.

"Sure", he replied after a moment too long. "Can I have a look around, then?"

The social worker's eyes widened and she shook her head vehemently. "Oh no, mister Smith. I'm afraid it's protocol to have a guided visit, at least at the first few times. I'm sure you understand why", her smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

Crap. He had a bad feeling about this girl. She wasn't exactly onto him, but she was certainly unnerving. He didn't doubt that was protocol though, just didn't think it would be actually enforced. Victor was pretty sure that if it were just the nuns, they would have let it go, after all, it would be one less unruly kid to look after, right?

Looked like this one would need extra caution. All that just to scope out the place. He was starting to ask himself if the money was actually worth all this trouble. His thoughts were interrupted by Miss Reed taking off the room with a quick "follow me". All he could do now was follow the woman and hope for the best.

Behind them, the heavy wooden doors banged shut.

~

 

This was bad. This was really bad. The "disguised" thief had really underestimated this woman's capacity to be a nuisance. Sure, she was doing her job, prattling about the procedures for adoption, adding in details about the orphanage detail and little curated tidbits about the resident kids, in a way that made it painfully apparent that this was very much rehearsed and said thousands of times already. He wondered if the kids in the anecdote she was telling him were even still there.

Worst of all, her constant blathering was pretty distracting. He barely kept track of the way they were heading while trying to keep up with the conversation. Maybe he should just tune her out, but that could be bad for the persona he was trying to set up and she was already somewhat suspicious of him, so maybe…

"Oh, and just down this corridor is the orphanage's chapel. Honestly, it is not a place of too much interest among the kids, but well, it is a Catholic orphanage after all…"

That made him come back to full awareness.

"Just down here, you say? Could we take a look?"

She actually looked surprised to hear that. "I didn't take you as a religious type, Mister Smith".

"I'm not, actually", he smirked, "Just interested in architecture. Lots of interesting buildings around here, especially churches".

"Hmm, I see. I apologize, but the chapel is currently closed for maintenance. Some of the boys managed to set up something explosive inside, a part of the floor caved in. Until that's fixed, it's too structurally unsound to let anyone in. The nuns have been taking the kids to another church nearby in the meantime". 

Goddammit. Here's to hoping they didn't move the stuff stored in there someplace else. This was starting to really sound like a wild goose chase.

"That's too bad. You think that'll be fixed anytime soon?"

"I have no idea Mr. Smith. But surely, if the adoption process goes well you'll be back here plenty of times, at one of those visits the chapel will be fixed already".

"I sure hope so. The sooner the better", he said through gritted teeth.

"Well, we could ask one of the nuns if there's a set date for the repairs if that would make you feel any better?"

"I'd like that. It sure is a tragedy to know that such an important place is in disrepair like that, you know", he lied.

"Let's go ahead and fetch one of the nuns then. There should be some of them just ahead, we're getting closer to the classrooms now after all".

A short walk later, they had found a quite particular nun, one Sister Catherine. They pretty much caught her smoking in one of the windows, a fact that she was quick to conceal. Flustered and surprised, she managed to regain her composure for him to ask about the chapel. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, as the nun started ranting and raving about the "terrible, shameful" situation, saying that the staff could not pinpoint exactly who had been the culprit. According to her, it was really obvious who did it, a pair of frequent troublemakers.

"You see, I tried to warn Father Duffy or well, anyone who would listen. This has the Morgan's name written all over it! Only these boys would do such a thing. Father Duffy says there wasn't enough evidence to declare them guilty of that. For me it was really obvious who did it, but…"

"I do believe you, Sister Catherine, I really do! But could you please answer Mr.  Smith's question first, please?"

Startled, she turned to look directly at him.

"I'm sorry for this sir, but I'm afraid we don't have an exact date for the repairs to end. It's mostly done via volunteer work, you see. Because of that, there's never a set schedule. I can't honestly tell you an exact date".

God-fucking-dammit. He was really hoping for an easy entry. Surely, he could climb from the outside, if the damn chapel had any windows that actually opened (he had checked that beforehand. They didn't).

"Well, thanks for the info anyway", he tried his best not to sound insincere. 

"Shall we continue, Mr. Smith?"

"Sure, go ahead".

They continued their little tour, Ms. Reed pointing out the kids working hard in the small classrooms, an mostly empty god court and finally vaguely indicating the stairs to the second level, with kids' rooms and the administration office, to which they would return later, to discuss paperwork and the like (not looking forward to that). All in all, it was a pretty standard orphanage, as far as they go. Their last "stop" was in the large courtyard in the back of the building, in which there were a few stragglers, probably running from the classes. The social worker didn't try to reign them in, though, so it was probably fine.

After a few minutes of watching the few scattered kids in silence (finally!), Reed started to get a bit fidgety, turning to him after a moment of that.

"So, Mr. Smith, was there anywhere you'd like to see again? Any of the children you'd like to know about?"

Oh yeah, he was supposed to actually show interest in adopting one of the little creachers. Huh.

"Uh, well… Maybe you could tell me more about those Morgan kids?", that was the one name he remembered.

"Oh, certainly. Actually, that one coming there is the eldest, Samuel".

At that point he noticed one of the children in the courtyard approach, making a beeline towards them. Huh, talk about "luck". No brother with him, though.

"Hello, Samuel. Where's your brother?"

"Around" he grumbled "He's never too far anyway".

"I see", she nodded pensively. "Mr. Smith, can I trust you with Samuel for a minute while I fetch his brother?"

"Sure".

"Okay, I'll be just around the corner. Holler if you need me, Samuel".

The kid just waved her off, waiting for her to be out of sight to straighten out and look at Victor straight in the eyes. Interesting.

"So you're the troublemakers everyone's talking about huh? Or at least, half of them".

"And you are the weird old dude that's 'looking to adopt'", the boy finger quoted.

"My reputation precedes me, I see".

"It's not like a lot of people come looking for kids here. And anyway, you're an old, single dude, kind of a rarity around here". Cheeky little bastard.

"Less of the old, kid".

Out of the corner of his eyes, he'd been following the route of a scrawny little kid that had been tiptoeing around him for a good few minutes. He was telegraphing his moves horribly, it was clear that he was up to nothing good. He was curious though, that was probably the other Morgan kid. Samuel was just a distraction from him, despite not being very effective against someone like him.

He'd let him try, anyway.

"Hey, what's going on there? You having a heart attack, old man?"

"Haha, very funny. Watch it".

"Are you threatening to beat up a poor, innocent orphan?? You're an evil man, ya know".

He felt small fingers fish his wallet off his pants' back pocket. The distraction they set up was pretty good, someone else might have actually fallen for it. It was definitely an attempt, that he could say.

"Sure kid, whatever helps you sleep at night", he joked.

Looking behind him for a bit longer than what would be socially acceptable, desperately fighting a smile, Samuel simply shrugged, mumbled an off-handed "Whatever, old man", and tried to leave. The keyword being tried.

He would have made it were it not for Reed returning, loudly proclaiming the youngest brother's with a loud "Here you are, Nathan! I've been looking for you like crazy!"

Turning around, he locked eyes with the kid in question. Caught in the act, he was trying very poorly to conceal the stolen wallet behind his back. It didn't really work, but it sure was amusing.

"Hello, Miss Reed! Sorry, I was just running around, ya know", he cocked his head innocently, right after being joined by his brother.

Samuel and Nathan Morgan, huh. Those two surely seemed promising. They could be a great help…

[porcupine-girl]

Untamed Fic Rec List

Look, most of these are reasonably popular fics already, so if you’ve been in this fandom for a couple months you’ve likely read them. Which is not how I normally do rec lists, but I’m new enough to Untamed that I’m still reading through all the fics by authors I know from other fandoms plus ones that have been personally recced to me, so I haven’t made it into the deep dive of underappreciated fics that I normally like to rec.

It doesn’t help that one of these recs is 445K, so for like two weeks straight it was basically all I was reading.

BUT if, like me, you are rather new to this fandom and its fics, here are some good ones:

The Same Moon Shines Series by sami

This is the 445K behemoth, made up of 23 works, and is technically made up of three interrelated series. The first fic, which establishes the whole universe/multiverse, is 139K on its own. Basically, decades into the canon future, WWX invents time travel.

He goes back to being born, but is reborn with all his memories intact. And he fixes, like, fucking everything and it’s so, so fucking satisfying. Everything’s not perfect though - for example, he like lowkey (highkey?) traumatizes LXC by showing him his previous life via empathy and that has some consequences eventually. Featuring ace poly JC/LXC/WQ triad.

Then in a cracky subseries, appropriately called “ridiculous future bullshit”, we assume that the main six from this universe (WWX, LWJ, JC, WQ, LXC, JYL, & Lan Sizhui) all achieve immortality and find out what they’re up to in the modern day, where they’re revered in the Five Nations (this does a great job of staying in the canon world instead of ours) but of course white Western assholes do things like try and make a disney movie called Hanguang-Jun and the Yiling Patriarch where they marry LWJ off to a girl.

And then in a third subseries, which so far has only one WIP fic, we go back to the canon universe, find out that JC and LWJ were stuck there watching WWX disappear in his time machine array (so WWX actually split off into another universe, he didn’t rewind his own), and so they get into the array having no idea what it will do but wanting to chase down the asshole they love. And so a third universe is born, where they are both born with their memories but WWX is not. I absolutely love seeing how different their priorities are from WWX’s in terms of what they want to change in their new life.

(Also: This is technically a MDZS fic that usually goes with novel canon over show canon if there’s a discrepancy, so if like me you haven’t read the whole novel you might need to look up some plot points now and then.)

The Vermillion Ribbon by @unforth

AU where Wei WuXian was taken in by Wen Qing and Wen Ning’s parents instead of the Jiangs. LWJ (who is the POV character) is a super DUPER dick to him at first, like even moreso than in canon, but the speed with which he regrets his choices is breathtaking and extremely satisfying.

LWJ is a VERY unreliable narrator. He has absolutely no idea what is going on with himself or anyone else at any point in time. Eventually he at least becomes self-aware of this fact, and can at least go wait am I missing something? I think I’m missing several somethings but fuck if I know what. Wei WuXian not understanding this about him leads to some miscommunication, because WWX doesn’t get that LWJ needs absolutely everything spelled out to him in single-syllable words with crayon drawings and y’know, WWX isn’t going to be straightforward anytime he can pretend he’s TOTALLY FINE :D :D :D instead.

LWJ’s friendship with NHS is magical, and NHS in general gets 810% more opportunity to scheme and plot pre-time-of-NMJ’s-canonical-death than in canon and is honestly living his best life. It’s also valuable for LWJ to have a scheming friend because, aside from realizing he misjudged WWX, this is how he starts to figure out that he’s a dumbass who has no idea what is going on ever. But he can count on NHS to always be ten steps ahead, so it’s okay.

(ETA: I’m sorry, I made unforth feel like maybe LWJ was too dense, and no, he’s very much not stupid in general. Like, honestly the fact that he becomes so self-aware of the things he’s bad at, and does things like trust NHS to always understand the stuff he’s missing, makes him come off as very intelligent. It’s just in the specific realm of understanding anything that people say or do that isn’t 100% honest and straightforward that he is just entirely hopeless in a rather relatable way, and like I said, WWX’s go-to is hiding any and all pain so that is a bad combo.)

The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou

This diverges from canon when WWX is on his way to Jin Ling’s one month celebration, but doesn’t bring Wen Ning along. So when Jin Zixun attacks it goes very poorly for him, poorly enough that Jin Zixuan thinks he’s dead and it’s reported back at Carp Tower as such. Sending LWJ into a dissociative state. He manages to break through to reality just long enough to find out that Jin Zixuan took WWX’s body back to the burial mounds and left it with Wen Qing, and to get on his sword and go directly there. Thankfully, it turns out that WWX is not dead, but only just barely so.

So LWJ stays there, because now that he spent some amount of time (he isn’t really sure if it was like five minutes or two hours, because dissociation) thinking WWX was dead he now knows that he should never, ever be anywhere but with WWX.

Honestly, it almost feels like a spoiler to say WWX doesn’t die, but there’s no major character death warning while there IS one for graphic violence so it’s not a chose not to warn either, so that’s technically not a spoiler. But things are touch-and-go for him for a very, very long time. And the romance is a slow burn with pining galore. And you get to see LWJ teaching A-Yuan to play the guqin, so like imagine being WWX and you wake up from almost dying to see that going on in your cave.

Velle: to will, to wish by @aerlalaith

This one is actually canon-compliant, and as it’s both quite a bit shorter and more straightforward, plot-wise, than the others, my writeup will be short but that doesn’t mean I loved it any less. Basically, it’s the process of LWJ deciding to adopt A-Yuan in the aftermath of WWX’s death. It starts just after he’s been beaten for turning against the other cultivators, and at first it’s mostly his grief and both physical and emotional pain. A-Yuan starts slipping in to visit him. and LWJ isn’t sure if he’s really okay with that at first.

Of course he becomes very okay with it, but the Lan elders and Lan Qiren and all aren’t just going to be like “ok sure you can barely walk you should def adopt a four-year-old of unclear origins who may or may not have something to do with your demonic dead boyfriend and the evil people he helped, that’s cool,” so it’s not that simple.

There’s a followup fic where, years later, LWJ chooses the courtesy name Sizhui and Xichen gives him shit for it.

save a sword, ride a socialist by sysrae / @fozmeadows

Continuing on my grand tour of Untamed fics by my fave writers from other fandoms, I get to enjoy having overlapped with foz on a third straight fandom which is just fabulous. I totally thought I wasn’t gonna read AUs and then this asshole comes along and writes AUs, which is not playing fair.

I especially love this because it’s modern day but much like ridiculous future bullshit it’s modern day in (more or less) a canonish world, not our world. So like, they fly on swords, but not long distances because it’s easier to take a train or drive rather than use up all that spiritual energy.

Lan Qiren and Jin Guangshan miss the old ways, though, and they think the best ancient tradition to bring back is arranged marriage! Because that will go over well with today’s youth. They try to make LWJ marry Mianmian but he’s like “um I’m gay” and LQ throws a hissy fit about that so Jin Zixuan (who is LWJ’s bestie and is fucking hilarious) hatches a plot for LWJ to cause LQ to stroke out by bringing WWX to Lan Xichen’s birthday party as his fake date.

But when LWJ and WWX meet up to talk this over, LWJ is instantly fucked because WWX has a small child with him and it turns out that this small child is the orphan he adopted. He doesn’t notice he’s fucked until a few days later, though, when WWX comes over for “kissing practice” and they fuck and he calls Jin Zixuan all “I think I caught a feel, what do?” and JZX is like idk, you’re a moron, don’t ask me to clean up your moron messes. And the next day LWJ buys a car seat.

Lan Wangji heard about Jack 110% Zimmermann and said “challenge accepted,” is what I’m saying here. And now I’ve written as much about this 33k fic as I did about the 445k, so I’ll shut up before I just recount the entire plot.

[nadziejastar]

There have been theories going around about Sora 'Sky' and Yozora 'Nightsky' being a mirror to each other, which is obviously another concept tied to Nomura's 'new plot' I know, any thoughts on that? (I'm sad we would never get to see what Nomura's original plot was before he made a petty move to stuff Versus XIII into Kingdom Hearts, terrible decision imo).

“Sora is my favorite character,” Nomura says. “[Kingdom Hearts] was the first game I directed, so I could give all the characters a fresh look even though there were some superiors involved [in the design process].”

But there’s a bittersweet side to his involvement with Kingdom Hearts II. “I love Sora, but it’s with a broken heart.” Nomura mutters out from underneath his hat.

Indeed, not unlike a parent giving a child up for adoption, Nomura has no control over Sora or any other original characters appearing in Kingdom Hearts. The contract between Square Enix and Disney gives almost full control of the Kingdom Hearts property over to Disney. If you happen to see Sora appearing outside of a game in a something like a cartoon, there’s very little chance Nomura is involved, but that doesn’t affect his excitement (or ours) for Kingdom Hearts II.

Well, once upon a time, Sora was Nomura’s favorite character, his son. However, Nomura had to give his son up for adoption to Disney. Even back in the days of KH2, Nomura’s love for Sora was mixed with sadness. But with joint custody, their relationship was positive and healthy.

–Who is your favorite character? Nomura: It’s Sora. Since he is involved with the first title I directed, I’ll always feel a close connection to him. Since I wasn’t such a good kid, I have the desire to entrust those things I didn’t to Sora.

At the time of BBS, he and Sora still had a close connection, even if he was a lot different from himself.

You’ve created a lot of characters for the Final Fantasy series. What’s your favorite character between all those you’ve created ?

Tetsuya Nomura: Hmm if I had to choose a favorite character, I would say Sora, and Noctis. Why them? Of course Sora, I’ve been together with him for more than ten years now, this is the first time I’ve been with a character for such a long time, so he’s very very special for me and he’s been adopted by Disney also, so he’s a very very good boy. More like a good son actually.

Also there is Noctis, he hasn’t been in front of you, I mean moving etc yet in a real gameplay but he will soon, in the future.

Do you know the name Sora mean the “sky”, in Japanese and Noctis, his family name is Caelum which mean sky as well so basically, Noctis mean “night sky”, so they are kind of complete opposites to each other. There is a reason why I named these characters as opposites. Noctis is kind of like my latest boy, or latest son and I expect him to be more clever than Cloud.

In 2013, before Versus XIII got cancelled, Sora was still Nomura’s favorite, but he now shared that spot with Noctis. Noctis was always meant to be the opposite of Sora. Sora is a “good boy,” while Noctis was more like Nomura, who is more on the dark side. 

He talks about how much easier it was before Kingdom Hearts became an international success. "I think that whenever we would bring our previous titles, a lot of people at Disney, and this is my assumption, but I do assume that they probably didn't know what Kingdom Hearts was. They'd go, ‘What's Kingdom Hearts? I have no idea.’

But now that it's become a bigger title, a lot more people have been involved in than before. In that sense the relationship with Disney has changed quite a bit. Emotional changes I don't really know if there has been any changes emotionally for me. But at least physically I can say those were the changes that we had with Disney.

Versus XIII was cancelled, and Nomura is also on record stating that he and Disney had a much more difficult relationship during KH3′s production.

The Kingdom Hearts series has become a huge title nowadays and back then it was more like I was making it secretively in the corner, but now that a lot more people are involved I do feel that it's not my title anymore, it's everyone's title. And just talking about all this … It actually kind of makes me really sad.

There was a custody dispute between him and two giant corporations. Nomura lost his two sons. Disney took custody of Sora. And Square-Enix took custody of Noctis.

“I actually don’t sympathize or empathize with Sora at all,” Nomura says. “I think I’m closer to those characters, so Sora is like my enemy. How I always think of him is I would unleash my attacks on him, and then I draw him in a way that I think he will be able to make a comeback at me. In that sense, I really think that Sora is just like an opposite personality character to who I am.” 

Around this time, Nomura’s feelings toward Sora, his estranged son, changed and became far more bitter. And I’m sure Nomura wouldn’t even be able to publicly state how he really feels about the new Noctis. So, in his grief, Nomura’s old Noctis, his true son, was reincarnated as a KH character named Yozora. 

(I'm sad we would never get to see what Nomura's original plot was before he made a petty move to stuff Versus XIII into Kingdom Hearts, terrible decision imo).

I agree. I wish Versus XIII never got cancelled, and then it could remain completely separate from Kingdom Hearts. And I wish KH could have stayed “under the radar” from Disney, more like how it was during the KH2 and handheld days. I liked the series better back before it became so big. Back then it felt kinda like a quirky indie project.

[gascon-en-exil]

How would you describe the three lords as leaders? Good? Bad? Etc.

That’s not an easy question to answer when there are so many ways to evaluate leaders. Even so:

Edelgard: She’s got charisma and a strong commanding presence, but...yeah, that’s about it. Being an “ends justify the means” type of leader doesn’t work so well when your means (allying with the people who tortured you and nobles you keep in power to destroy the church and conquer the continent) don’t align with your alleged ends (end Crest-based oppression and the system of nobility and also get back at the people who tortured you), all the more so when she’s known to lie to her allies to try to make this work. She commits war crimes and abets the war crimes of others killing an untold number of civilians in the process (many of them her own, like all those human shields in Enbarr), and on the flip side she has a perplexing irresponsible streak where she’ll put the war she started on hold for five years to go looking for her crush and spend the month before the beginning of the Kingdom invasion holed up in her room drawing pictures of said crush. Her planned meritocratic system still favors the nobility she claims to want to tear down, and if she has a replacement for the largest institution on the continent that she’s set out to wreck it’s a dystopian state-run affair.

Laid out that way it’s not too difficult to see why it might be easier to headcanon Edelgard as the charismatic figurehead being manipulated in different ways by Hubert and the Agarthans to achieve their ends. Similar to her preferred style of Leeroy Jenkins-ing in with a giant axe and murdering every dragon and sweet interracial gay couple she can find, she appears to lack the head for anything requiring a more delicate touch - not to mention she has horrible taste in allies. I assume she pushes the Agarthan problem onto Hubert in the postgame because she’s too busy looking forward to frolicking with her teacher to notice all the red flags he’s been putting up about just how evil he is for more than a decade.

Dimitri: He has an actual character arc - revolutionary concept, I know - so the answer depends on what point of his development he’s reached. In VW, SS, and the first half of AM Dimitri is not much of a leader at all; the AM army is fragmented into squabbling factions unsure of what their next move should be, and in VW it’s possessed instead of such a manic energy to invade the Empire that it’s crushed into nonexistence at Gronder along with its prince. In CF and later AM however Dimitri is easily the house leader most in touch with the needs of his people, from his sensitivity to the victims of war and the Crest system alike to his firsthand understanding of the lives of the poor through his time spent living in the slums. The Lions at their best are a powerful support network for Dimitri and for each other, and you see this in the way that they criticize their prince at his low points and how he actually listens to their advice and resolves to better himself - and that’s not even getting into the support lines. AM ending cards enact a variety of meaningful reforms including the restoration of Duscur, the de-emphasis of Crest-based inheritance in Faerghus culture, and the institution of a representative government. It’s also the only route that keeps the church and keeps it separate from the secular government (even in the Dimileth ending, theoretically), easily the most diplomatic resolution to that particular question as opposed to giving Byleth everything ever or else setting up a new church overseen by someone like Hubert of all people.

Also, Dimitri already became a folk hero during the timeskip, so it’s logical to conclude that he’d be a very popular ruler among the common people even before you factor in the dozen or so orphans that he adopts with his devoted husband and also the dozen or so other men who occupy the royal bedchamber from night to night. Future historians will do their damnedest to no homo the whole lot, but they’ll more than likely preserve the Savior King’s reputation for popular support.

Claude: The hardest to evaluate as a leader, because although his goals are far more consistent and ethically sound he’s arguably even more hands-off than Edelgard is. No one really knows Claude, not even Byleth at the end of the game; he never tells anyone in the game text that he’s from Almyra much less its prince, and he only drops his plan to smash the bottle on the Deer a few chapters from the end of the game at a time when there’s no apparent connection between that long-term goal and their immediate one of defeating the Empire. Of course the problem is that there really isn’t a connection apart from the knowledge that Edelgard would definitely not approve of opening the borders or sharing power with anyone, even the teacher who was never really “her” teacher in VW continuity. That’s a larger problem of Claude’s route being mostly a C+P of SS, but it’s still something that has to be reckoned with.

It’s undeniable though that he plays his cards very well, setting up Byleth to rule all of Fòdlan as a means of replacing the squabbling Alliance council that Claude considers so ineffective for governance. The Claudeleth ending seals the deal even better, as the two of them unite Almyra and Fòdlan under one dynasty which is more than anyone in all of FE16 (Rhea and Wilhelm included) could have ever claimed to do. That disconnect from his followers does come into play again though; Claude up and leaves the continent he’d just help save at the end of the game, leaving it to his allies to sort out, and we know from his Cyril supports that he’s probably not any more in tune with the needs and wants of the Almyran people even as he goes on to take their throne. We know from AM and even from his own route that the Alliance is no more than a stepping stone to Claude’s ambitions, and it’s not unreasonable to conclude the same of Almyra if the VW ending narration is anything to go by. He’s looking beyond the landmass to those across the sea, playing out his famous schemes with all the people he and his allies are ruling. It’s a similar problem as Edelgard’s leadership style, minus the heavy villainous draping.

[thecursedhellblazer]

At the Edge of Nowhere

(( So, guess who went ahead and scratched that crazy itch I got yesterday? Yep, Scotty did. It turned in a small fic instead of a drabble, since apparently I had more to play out than I initially thought, but...here it is. I took the chance to experiment a bit with the writing style too, while I was at it, ‘cause...why not? ))

(( I’m not really sure of where the idea came from, I just really wanted them to have interact, somehow, without inventing something too complicated. And this was the result. Also, it doesn’t mean that I won’t try to shove Five into John’s universe or vice versa at some point, but for now I’m good with this xD ))

(( Sharing just in case anyone is in the mood for some random oddity! ))

(( I even posted in on Ao3 if anyone wants to have a look at it there! ^^” ))

They sit side by side, watching the eternal sunset of Eternity stretching before them, swinging their feet past the edge of the Abyss, unfazed by the danger of its depths. The darkness seems to be threatening to suck them down, condemning them to an endless fall, and yet they pay it no mind, each of them far too interested in sipping and enjoying his drink.

The silence floods past them, over them, through them, carrying the whispers of their lives. However, for this ephemeral moment, they are given the almost unique chance to ignore them. It’s a rare gift, one that deserved to be savoured, like a fine well-aged vintage. Like the ambrosia that the ancient gods, legit and false, so much have lauded.

And so they sit, the Boy and the Fool, side by side, on the edge of the Abyss.

The atmosphere is almost companionable, as much as it can be when shared by two strangers who carry with them too much baggage. A past and a present that are too dark, too painful. There’s as much kinship and understanding between them as there’s mistrust.

They let the quietness linger for a while, listening only to the taste of the alcohol that coats their tongues, knowing that the stasis won’t last. Neither of them is good at keeping his mouth shut when something is making their skin itch.

“Th’ ‘ell ‘s a lad like yeh doin’ in such a place?” The Fool finally asks, turning his eyes away from the magnetic horizon and landing them on his unlikely companion.

The Boy scoffs. Why is it always the same old story with everyone he meets? “I’d watch my fucking tongue if I were you, young man,” he shoots back, with a withering look. “I’m far older than I look. And I’m older than you for sure.”

A half laugh rises with a small cloud of smoke, but it dies in the matter of seconds as the seriousness of those declarations settles in.

“Blimey. Yeh ain’t pullin’ me leg, are yeh? ‘Ow old are yeh s’posed to be den, mate?”

“Do I look like I’m kidding? Trust me, mate, I’m not. I’m fifty-eight. And I’m stuck in the body of a thirteen-years-old. There’s nothing funny about it.”

“Bloody ‘Ell. Fifty-eight n’ still a lad? Tha’s...insane. I dun envy yeh. Nay.”

The Fool shakes his head, but, despite the lingering astonishment, there is a glint of amusement in his eyes. “Tell us, tho. Woh’s yeh secret? I gots me diabolical trick to slow down agin’ n’ all, but it obviously ain’t workin’ as well as yehs.”

“I got stuck in the future for forty-five years and, when I finally figured out the equation to go back to my time, I missed a typo and...this is the result.”

“Soddin’ math. ‘S one o’ th’ bloody reasons why I ne’er managed to get alchemy rite. T’in’s keep blowin’ up in me face.”

“Sodding math indeed. Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

They clink their glasses together and go back staring at the frozen skyline. Two sets of blue eyes. Different shades of the iris, similar heaviness burdening them.

The Boy steers his drink with his straw, lips pursing pensively. “Speaking of things that suck, what is this place exactly? Am I dreaming? Or did I accidentally take some of my brother’s drugs and this is like the most boring trip in history?”

The Fool scoffs. “Gonna pretend tha’ yeh didn’t jus’ insult me too, together wit’ dis soddin’ place.”

His gaze wanders for a split moment, touching their motionless surroundings. “Ah, I dunno, mate. Could be yeh dream, aye. Could be mine. Or maybe we bot’ stepped inside another real wit’out noticin’ n’ ‘ere we are. Wouldn’t be th’ first time for me. Won’t be th’ last either.”

“I’ve never been in another world. I’ve travelled through time, maybe a bit too much, and I’ve rushed through the fabric of space but this…” The Boy waves his free hand. “This is new. It’s easier to think of it as a dream, so I’d go with that, if you don’t mind. The last thing I need is another headache.”

“Wohe’er works wit’ yeh, mate. I get it. At times, ‘s be’er pretendin’ life ain’t real. ‘S good for yeh mental sanity. Even if yeh got none left.”

The Fool takes yet another drag from his cigarette. Curiously enough, it doesn’t seem to be shortening, even if the ash falls down on his trench coat.

“One t’in’ I can tell yeh ‘bout dis place, tho. It ain’t somewhere e’eryone can visit. Yeh gotta carry some serious shite wit’ yeh to ‘ave stumbled in ‘ere. Do yeh?”

The Boy shrugs. “Maybe? I kept pushing and pushing, even after my father had told me not to and I ended up after the End of the world. I heard the bastard’s voice echoing in my head for the past forty-five years.” He makes his voice thicker for a moment. “I told you so, boy. I told you so. Asshole.”

A long sip from his drink, as if he is trying to wash away that intrusive voice from his ears, before he continues.

“I worked for this organisation that monitors the timeline for a while as a trained assassin. They made me into the perfect killer, a tool for their plans. I had my goals, though, since the start. I took their deal just so that I could go back to try to stop the Apocalypse and save my family. We ended up breakin the world anyway, so I dragged them all back in time to try again. Of course, all that shit followed us. Because it’s never that easy, is it?”

The Fool nods and the Boy can tell that his companion knows that sort of feeling far too well. It’s nice to be fully understood, for once. Even if the understanding comes from a nameless stranger he’ll probably never see again. Assuming that their meeting is truly happening in the first place.

“So...We saved the world this time but broke the timeline. And now my childhood home is gone and me and my siblings are stuck in a timeline that holds no place for us anymore. I’m still trying to figure out how that’s supposed to work. Oh, and that bastard of my adoptive father is hunting us down using the kids he adopted in our place. It’s a real mess.”

There’s bitterness colouring his voice, the embers of a fight that’s too stubborn to die just yet, but the exhaustion is stronger.

“Though, between you and me...All I really want is a decent nap and a dozen more drinks. Maybe get a dog too. Not necessarily in that order.”

The straw produces a light slurping sound as he takes the next sip. “What’s your story? You must have one too, since you’re here...wherever here is.”

The Fool tips his head, in a sign of acknowledgement. No comments follow the tale, and there’s no real need for them there, out of time and space.

“Grew up in me own particular version o’ ‘Ell. Me oul man was th’ fuckin’ opposite o’ ‘father o’ th’ year’...So, I ran in my teen years, still thinkin’ I coulda owned th’ world. Stuck me nose in e’ery bloody t’in’ tha’ was magic n’ occult. One nite I got too cocky and damned an innocent girl to Hell. Earned a bloody place wit’ me name down there too in the process.”

The voice that spells out the words is casual, but there’s something haunted in his expression, darkening his eyes.

“Spent all me life tryin' to make up for tha’ bloody mistake. Ended up messin up meself and most o’ me mates n’ th’ people who ‘ad th’ ‘orrible o’ puttin’ their faith in me as a result. Girl’s still in ‘Ell, th’ bloody Devil ‘imself gots an eternal grudge against me, I gots demon blood in me veins n’ me soz arse ‘s still damned. I might not be a professional like yeh, but I bet I gots jus’ as much blood on me ‘ands. N’ even more souls on me conscience.”

The ice clinks against the transparent walls as the glass is lifted. More sourness to wipe away the one that the words have left on his tongue.

“Nowadays, ‘s mostly me, meself n’ I. Me best mate, too, from time to time. No clue o’ ‘ow he survived bein’ by me side for so long. ‘M still tryin’ to make t’in’s rite, but...for th’ most I jus’ try to be there to do th’ bloody dirty job no self-appointed ‘ero gots th’ time to do. I might be lost, past th’ point o’ no return, but there are lots o’ people out there who aren’t yet. Th’ fuckin’ least I can do ‘s tryin’ to ‘elp ‘em, aye? Make dis soz existence o’ mine wort’ more than misery n’ destruction.”

A drag from his cigarette and there’s a small hand landing on his shoulder, in a brief pat, before he has finished sucking the smoke in. The light pressure says more than a thousand words could.

“Between you and me, tho...I could use a dozen drinks too. Maybe more. N’ a bloody vacation. To sod off somewhere, even for jus’ a day. Maybe take me best mate n’ dis other lad I know. Oh, he could use a break too, th’ poor sod.”

The Boy makes a sound of agreement and he is back stirring his drink. “What a pair we make, you and I. And I don’t even know you.”

“I ‘ear tha’ loud n’ clear, mate. Bloody loud n’ bloody clear. Woh’s tha’ yeh drinkin’ anyway?”

“What? You ne’er seen a margarita? Where the hell are you from? England or Mars? Come on, try it.”

“Oi, I know woh a fuckin’ margarita is, oul man. Yehs jus’ a bit...flashier than woh ‘m used to.”

“Special recipe. I perfected it myself.”

“Now, tha’s more like it. I like a bloke who can make ‘is own drinks. There. Yeh like g n’ t?”

The glasses pass from one hand to another and then they both turn to look back at the unchanged horizon, holding each other’s drink.

A moment to sniff the liquors, in unison, and then the Boy dips his lips in the clear spirit while the Fool wraps his mouth around the straw. The tastes mix in the silence and it’s a symphony of citrus and sourness, with just the right amount of sweetness coming at the end.

“So, what happens now?” The Boy asks, after a moment.

The Fool shrugs. “Ah, I guess we wait till all dis fades. Or till we do. ‘S always ‘ard to tell when it comes to dis sort o’ shite.”

A huffs, with the faintest hint of irritation. “For someone who’s supposed to know a lot about this stuff, you give the worst cryptic answers. I can’t tell if you’re that ignorant or if you’re just fucking with me.”

A nudge in a smaller, slender side and a sharp smirk. “Who knows, mate. Yeh guess ‘s as good as mine. Keep th’ drink. I gots more back where I come from. Consider it a safe trip back home present. I’ll keep yehs as a reminder.”

“A present from a guy I never truly met? And a reminder of something we didn’t even speak about?”

“Nay. Jus’ th’ memory o’ some peace n’ quiet in decent company.”

“Fair enough. I can drink to that.”

[najilas]

did  you  just  see  NAJILA TAMIMI  pull  up  on  campus  for  the  new  semester  ?  they're  the  TWENTY-ONE  year  old  in DELTA ZETA ALPHA  right  ?  i  heard  they're  a  PRESIDENT  .  it  makes  perfect  sense  because  they’re  DECEITFUL  ,  but  at  the  same  time  DEBONAIR .  i  wonder  when  the  black  sheep  is  going  to  drop  the  big  secret  that  they  RECENTLY HAD AN ABORTION AND DIDN’T TELL THE FATHER  .  anyway  ,  i  constantly  hear  them  blasting  GLORY AND GORE  -  LORDE ,  tell  them  to  keep  it  down  ,  it's  quiet  hours  .

hi babes!! my name is mari, i’m 21 & my timezone is brt !! najila is a new character of mine so i’m still figuring her out a bit but ?? i am so excited to play her here akndjaskdn here’s a bit abt her !!

tall, blonde, and beautiful. born with a silver spoon doesn’t even begin to describe najila tamimi, daughter of sillicon valley billionaire hassan tamimi and former super model saskia van hall. life for najila was easier than most, but the combination of brains and beauty left by her parents meant the pressure to be perfect was high.

mostly, she succeeded. she managed being volleyball team captain, science olympiad champion, and student body president all while maintaining a 4.0 gpa and a fairly stable social life. the overachieving was something she got from her father. from her mother, however, she got the impeccable looks, perfect hair, and beautiful smile which made everyone either hate her or be her best friend. and really, those are generally the extremes you get with someone like najila.

on the outside, she is a selfless, extremely loyal, ride or die friend who will hold your hair while you puke and not even mention it the next day. she will make sure everybody loves you, get you in on the biggest parties, introduce you to anyone who’s anyone in the area you wanna work with, buy you ultra expensive gifts just because they reminded her of you. but she does have a hint of backstabbing bitch which means she will likely tell others about the things you did in a semi judgemental tone if you do anything that steps outside her lines of “perfect, elegant, and classy”. and if she hates you, be prepared to suffer, because she knows just how to play the victim whilst spreading vicious rumours about you.

so, is najila tamimi a good person? it’s hard to tell. but if you try to claim the contrary you will first have to scroll through her instagram page which is just as filled with her doing volunteer work and attending the mosque on fridays as it is of her at fancy parties with beautiful people. 

the truth is she’s a mess of contradictions and it’s as easy to love her as it is to hate her. she appears to be the most humble person in the world despite all her beauty and wealth, but deep down is incredibly proud of all she’s accomplished and incredibly afraid that one day she’ll be dethroned.

despite having been offered modeling jobs a thousand times over, najila mostly declines them because she is too busy and has no need for the money. she’s also too ambitious and has big plans to make her mark. she’s majoring in physiological science, with a literature minor. her plan is to go to medical school and then work with an organization such as doctors without boarders, and work in research later in life. the literature minor is more of a hobby, really, as she loves it but not enough to pursue it and knows she won’t have enough time to study it later in life.

being as focused as she is on achieving her goals and exuding an image of perfection, seeing the two lines on a home pregnancy test turned her world entirely upside down. once it was confirmed, she knew she didn’t have long to make a decision. in discussions about abortion, najila had always had a clear stance, “it should be the woman’s choice, but i don’t think i could ever do it” and yet it seemed like the only thing that would not jeopardize the perfect future she had planned for herself.

she felt incredibly guilty during the entire process and those who are close to her may notice –– as much as she will deny it –– that something has changed. she barely eats or sleeps lately and is throwing herself into her studies and president duties more than ever. but the beautiful smile is still ever present on her face as she attempts to move on as if nothing had happened. what’s important is that no one ever finds out what she did, and this stays behind as the only imperfect stain in her otherwise perfect life.

wanted connections !!

best friend (f/nb): honestly i feel like this would be a very blair/serena type thing where they can be bitchy and fight a lot but at the end of the day they’re ALWAYS there for one another and it’s that sort of thing where ‘no one talks shit about my best friend except for me!!!’ i’d imagine najila told them about the abortion but nowadays tries to pretend like she’s fine and nothing ever happened.

would-be baby daddy (m/nb): could be a fwb, one night stand, ex boyfriend, wHATEVER the point is najila didn’t say anything about the pregnancy and feels incredibly guilty just looking at them and there’s bound to be lotsa drama when it gets out.

frenemies (m/f/nb): because with this combination of nice and bitchy there’s bound to be a lot of those!!!

party friends (m/f/nb): najila is a great party buddy cause she’ll stay up until 6 am, pay for ur drinks, and knows just the right amount of drugs you can take in order to get fucked up but not die!

sibling like relationship (f/nb): tbh i’d love this to be a younger delta zeta girl who najila just full on adopted and is probably grooming to become sorority president in the future. acts like their mother and would ruin anyone who tried to hurt them. 

rival (f/m/nb): please i NEED a spicy rivalry !! probably someone who sees right through najila’s bullshit and thinks she’s a two faced bitch who doesn’t deserve all the credit she gets. she will definitely throw a lot of shade and spread nasty rumours so beware !!!!!

exes (f/m/nb): there’s so much we can explore here !!! naj is bisexual but is closeted af (type of girl who says kissing other girls at parties doesn’t count!!!!) so tbh i’d love a girl who she truly loved but wouldn’t assume her so it was a dramatic breakup through and through. but tbh she’s the type of girl who seems to always be dating so ??? exes who are still friends, exes who still hookup, exes who can’t even look at each other, i want them all

and honestly anything else we can come up with bc some of the best connections come from brainstorming anyway !! that is all !!! ily pls plot with me goodbye 

[gatesofember]

whose kaylas dad? Since in the books its a guy called Darren, how would that work with no godly magic? In your Arranged Marriage Universe I mean-

Ok so

AM au presents Kayla as the legitimate daughter of Apollo and Daphne. Lee and Michael are also legitimate, while Will and Austin are illegitimate sons of Apollo and his girlfriends.

But here’s the thing. There isn’t actually any proof that Apollo is the father of Daphne’s kids. Apollo isn’t the only one who has extramarital affairs. The reason everyone assumes that Lee, Michael, and Kayla are legitimate is because Daphne carried them, but only Daphne, Apollo, and Daphne’s lovers know whether Apollo is (or at least could be) the father.

Lee is definitely Apollo’s. Neither Apollo nor Daphne had other lovers that early in the marriage. Michael is probably Apollo’s. At that point, they might have been having casual flings. But Kayla is definitely not Apollo’s. By then, Daphne and Apollo didn’t have that sort of relationship anymore.

But by the time Kayla came along, Apollo had already had two illegitimate kids, so he and Daphne knew that natural-born children often faced discrimination/social ridicule. (Will’s going to talk about that a little bit in the next chapter.) Plus, legitimacy is a legal issue. In the eyes of the law, natural born children belong to no one and have no protections. Legally speaking, Apollo doesn’t owe Will and Austin anything. He could have abandoned them as babies without repercussions. And even though he does accept them as his children, Will and Austin don’t hold any claim to family inheritance. When Apollo dies, none of his wealth or property will go to them. (Obviously the family would take care of Will and Austin if Apollo died. Apollo also set things up for them in the event that something happens to him—one of the reasons he made Will the Earl of Solace was so that Will would have his own income. Plus Will has a secure future now that he’s married.) (Ok now that I’ve said all that I want to reiterate that everything I just told you was hypothetical and I’m not killing Apollo.) (Also, it’s possible to legitimize natural born children by getting the royal court to agree to it, but that’s difficult. Jason is natural born but legitimized. That’s how he became Zues’ legal heir. The process is easier in Neptune, so all of Aphrodite’s kids have been legitimized. But Percy has not. He doesn’t want to be. He likes having the freedom of not technically being part of the royal family.)

Anyway. My point is that natural born children are treated like shit. Apollo and Daphne realized Kayla would be treated like shit if people knew she was natural born, so when Daphne went to Apollo and said, “hey I’m pregnant and obviously the baby’s not yours,” Apollo said, “ok that’s fine but let’s pretend otherwise.”

So. My solution to the Kayla-having-two-dads thing was that she has a biological dad and an adoptive dad. I could have given Apollo a trans boyfriend but (1) I was being stupid and (2) by the time I stopped being stupid it was important to the story for Kayla to be legitimate (assumed to be legitimate, anyway).

But back to your question. As far as who her dad is...I have two theories. (1) Lee and Michael’s handsome archery teacher, Darren, caught Daphne’s eye, or (2) Hyacinthus. That would be an interesting story....

[flash-impact-for-good]

“You’ve come a long way, baby”

This slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby”, was splashed across the glossy magazines of my youth, vaunting women’s progress – via their rights to consume products that had once been reserved for men only. The issue of women’s progress in the business world is another debate entirely: the proverbial glass sometimes seems to be filling gradually (e.g. , according to the French secretary of state in charge of equality between men and women, women held 45,2% of positions on SBF120 management boards in 2019); but the glass moves slowly at the top (21,4% of positions in Exco or equivalent). And these broad numbers hide huge disparities. As mentioned by Guy Le Pechon, MBA INSEAD 69, head of Gouvernance et Structure, and a data specialist on equality between men and women, three corporations among the CAC 40 don’t have any woman at their Exco; and only one reaches the ratio of 40% for this entity.

Yet forward movement is undeniable. I would like to offer here a random walk through some 15 years of experience designing, delivering, and observing initiatives to strengthen the representation of women in companies. Along the way, the useful question I hope to explore is what we have learned about fostering gender balance, and how these insights may help us move further down the road towards greater gender balance. 

When several large French companies signed the “Charte de la Diversité” in 2004, our Head of Human Resources asked me to develop a program that would support women’s career development in the organization. I looked at the market to see what was available and was struck by the way that many training firms seemed to assume that women had to be “fixed”, taught to overcome “weaknesses”, or trained in more masculine behavior. This did not feel right – how could we “strengthen” our pools of female talent by focusing on what women might be “doing wrong”? We chose instead to tackle the issue indirectly: I set up a training program led by a specialist in career management for high potentials – a brilliant older man. “Female issues” were never addressed directly in the program – it just so happened that all the (very interesting and carefully selected) participants in each session were women. (What we didn’t know then was that in this way successfully avoided triggering a dangerous unconscious bias about women’s competence, sending instead the message that anyone, and of course women, could benefit from enhancing their career management skills). My first learning: don’t “fix” people who aren’t “broken” – build their strengths. 

Interestingly, it was a member of what one could call the “old guard” – a highly successful gentleman in a very powerful job – who made another significant contribution to levelling the playing field. “We have lots of women entering the pipeline,” he told me, “but after a first role, the men all ask to lead a sales team, while the women want to move into marketing – jobs do not give them line management responsibility and credibility.” To counter this, he carefully mapped and measured something which had previously been intuitive: what were the key career steps that opened the way up the corporate ladder, and where relative to those steps were the pools of female talent? The corporate “ladder” actually looked more like a vertical maze; often several steps along a same level were necessary before one could climb to the next rung on the ladder. But like any maze, it was easy to get lost. Second learning: By providing clear experienced-based information about the critical steps on any given level, this gentleman basically “injected information” into the career management process – not to tell women what to do with their careers, but to offer more effective advice, starting early on. 

Driving for more women in management eventually began to provoke some pushback: some male colleagues would quietly ask me, “Do I have a future in this organization? Will there always be a woman ahead of me on the promotion list?” Hearing men share such concerns troubled me: if you are promoting a worthy idea and yet generating a sense of unfairness, then the idea needs to be reviewed – not rejected or reduced in ambition, but re-examined. This is when we clearly understood that we had to change not only the way that women looked at themselves in the organization, but also how the organization looked at its people. 

A conversation at a conference on diversity with a woman who held a very senior position in her organization gave me additional insight. Asked about her success, she pointed to the “pairs of eyes” that had watched her work over the years and could vouch for her. It was as though her capabilities had to be cross-checked – which was of course equally true for her male colleagues, who intuitively moved around and got themselves “seen” by several potential sponsors. Long before “sponsorship” became a popular concept, she had realized that it was easier for one person to say, “She is ready for the next job!” if someone else could back up the statement. 

Waiting for this to happen through multiple-year job rotations, we realized, would take much too long. Then I encountered a talent manager in a small financial services organization who had crafted a clever process to respond to precisely this issue: he organized “walkabouts” for talented individuals, setting up a series of meetings for each with high-level executives who might never meet that young woman (or man) until it came time to make a key staffing decision – which was too late. By putting rising potentials in front of senior management, this talent manager was transforming them from names on a CV to real humans whom the senior executives could get to know. Again, this practice plays to our human nature – no amount of data on a page can replace the power of what we learn from interacting with someone. This learning could be called, “you have to be seen to be believed”. 

Despite the value of all these approaches, these actions remain focused on shifting individual mindsets. At some point, on a topic as complex as gender balance, institutions, not just individuals, need to change. And I still did not have the answer to my vague discomfort, my concern that some people felt our efforts to level the playing field were potentially unfair. 

Interestingly, it was ideas from INSEAD research, adopted into our organization, that gave us some of the keys. Most INSEADers are familiar with Kim and Mauborgne’s work on “fair process” – the concept that a fair, well-run decision-making process will lead to better acceptance of the outcome, even by those who do not obtain what they want. This work made its way into our organization: the “fair process”, in which all the voices relevant to a decision were heard and considered before that decision was made, became institutionalized as an essential feature of our people management. A fundamental part of the fair process is feedback: because it embraces the full variety of perspectives on a topic or a person, the process makes it possible to provide feedback to the person, so that the individual can continue to learn and grow. Next learning: good process and good feedback confirm that both your intentions and your decisions are fair. 

In 2018, INSEAD celebrated 50 years of women at the school and hosted a Summit to showcase research from its Gender Initiative. One presentation by Ivana Naumovska, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, particularly caught my attention. She had performed meta-analysis of multiple diversity initiatives across companies and sectors and had teased out lessons about what did and did not work. 

The two areas identified as having greatest positive impact were mentoring programs and network-building initiatives: mentoring because it enabled the participants to understand the rules of the game, how their organization really worked (this was true for both mentees and their mentors), and network-building because it cultivated awareness in the individuals of what opportunities – for jobs, projects, useful partnerships, and even just information sharing – were available across their organizations, especially outside their silos. I was pleased to see these conclusions: they were an academic validation of the intuition which had led us to set up mentoring and networking for communities (not just individuals). In other words, by creating groups of mentors or mentees and getting them to coach each other on how to take up these roles, we let people see that this was simply part of “how we do things around here”. Next lesson: if you want to change institutions, not just individuals, give people shared responsibility to build something new together. 

Beyond creating “institutions” that support diversity, what has emerged over time is a culture shift. In the way we pursue gender balance, we are really striving to make good use of the organization’s talent to adapt to changing organizational needs. There are ongoing challenges: how well do all these changes resist a major economic crisis, or a corporate reorganization? As we move out of a public health crisis and towards a difficult economic situation, we need to remain vigilant about topics like diversity. Looking further ahead, I wonder how the “recipes” described above will stand the test of time. Traditional management is being replaced by agile tribes, collectively-managed feature teams, and networked organizations. Millennials have shifting expectations about the meaning of work. What will be the secrets to career success for women (and men) in the organizations of the future? Time will tell, but it is a safe bet that attention to individual mindsets and corporate culture will remain key.  

Jocelyn Phelps, MBA INSEAD 93D Program Director, Leadership and Organization Development at Société Générale

[starswallowingsea]

Growing Up

Fandom: One Piece 

Word Count: 3797 

This easily marks the longest fic I’ve written and I really enjoyed it. The premise is an alternate AU where Nami, Nojiko, and Law all grew up together as adopted siblings at Cocoyashi, ending with a reunion of Law and Nami at Punk Hazard. I do hope to create at least two more works to go along with it, which hopefully you can figure out what I want to write once you get to that spot in the work. This can also be found on my AO3 under the same name! Enjoy! 

Major Character Death CW

Bellemere was walking through the remnants of the village that had burned down during the battle, where ashes covered the ground and polluted the air. Here she had found two children a few days ago, separated from their parents who were probably dead anyway. She was looking for any human remains that might need to be identified and interred properly, and maybe she’d find the kids’ parents to give them some sort of a proper funeral.  

She didn’t expect to find anyone alive out there. 

There was a tall, blond man staggering through the ashes with a child in tow, not much older than five. The man didn’t look like he was in good shape, stumbling over everything around him, but as it was a village in shambles Bellemere didn’t think much of it. Most of the civilians were injured as it was. She ran over to try and help them get to the field hospital set up for survivors. 

“Are you okay?” She asked. 

The man fiddled with his hands, sign language she assumed, as the child translated for her. 

“We were running away from someone and had to stop here to get more food and water. We don’t know what happened to the city here but Corasan needs help!” he said, voice cracking as he finished. 

Bellemere lifted the child onto her back despite the pain screaming at her to keep him on the ground, and took the man, Corasan as the child had called him, and put his arm around her and the child to help balance him until they got to the hospital. 

“What are your names?” She asked through gritted teeth. The hospital would need to know anyway and she didn’t know how long they would be able to stay awake. 

“I’m Law, and that’s Corasan.” The child said, and the man nodded in agreement. 

“Okay. I’ll make sure you don’t get separated at the hospital. My name is Bellemere and I promise you’ll be okay.” 

But she couldn’t. There was no way she could predict the future and she knew that if something happened and made her words empty, she could never live with herself for lying to a child. Not when she had just saved two children a few days earlier who knew better than to believe that. 

The three of them made it to the tents set up at the edge of the rubble and Bellemere made sure that they would stay together through recovery help before she was ushered off to see another doctor who would scold her for overexerting herself after almost dying just a few days before. 

Bellemere didn’t expect to see them again. The doctors insisted that she remain in the hospital under supervision so she wouldn’t accidentally kill herself by trying to help others. The two girls that she had found were near her make-shift bed and she talked with an official to let her take them back to her own island of Cocoyashi. They already knew her, she said. They would trust her more than a stranger. 

So she took the little girls back to her island. While they were boarding her ship, someone bumped into her and she stumbled forward, almost dropping the orange-haired baby into the water. 

“What the hell was that?” She exclaimed, turning around to slap whoever had run into her. 

Unfortunately for the man behind her, Bellemere’s hand reacted quicker than her brain, and she slapped his face, causing him to stumble backwards. 

“Hey watch it!” Shouted a tiny voice from next to her. Bellemere’s eyes went wide as she realized who it was. 

“What are you two doing here?” She asked, looking down at the boy, getting a better look at him now. He had tan skin covered in pale blotches and looked almost sickly but fighting. His clothes were ragged and his hat looked like it should be white fur with brown spots, but it had been soiled on his journey, she assumed.  

“They asked us if we had anywhere to go and Corasan said we should go with you to wherever you’re going.” 

Bellemere stared at the child, processing what he had just said. She thought that she had seen the last of them after helping them to the tents set up in the field. 

She finally started nodding, saying “Okay, okay. I just want to know one thing, who, or what, are you two running from?” 

Law turned to look at Corasan, signing back and forth for a few seconds before turning back to her and saying “It’s a long story, we can tell you on the way. Where are you going anyway?” 

“I’m going home.” 

---

It took about a week for their ship to pull into port at Cocoyashi, and by that time Bellemere had learned of the threat following Law and Corazon, which she had finally realized was his name. Corasan was just how six-year-old Law pronounced it. 

The pair had hoped that by leaving North Blue they would have time to figure out what to do about the man that was chasing them. A small island in East Blue was the perfect hiding spot they said. 

During the journey, Bellemere also realized that the two girls she had saved from Oykot didn’t have anywhere to go, and she didn’t want to put them up for adoption. She didn’t want them to be separated from each other. 

However, the day before they docked it began storming, and bad. Nojiko and Nami had fallen ill and she needed to get them treated by the doctor in her village. 

As soon as she could, Bellemere sprinted through the pouring rain, using only her officer’s jacket as protection for the girls, and made her way into the village. 

Law and Corazon couldn’t keep up and waited on the ship for the weather to clear up. 

--- 

“I’m adopting them.” 

“Aren’t you too young to be a mother? And reckless too if I may add.” 

“I think I can be a good mom to these girls. I don’t want them to feel alone in the world.” 

“But the orphanage would take much better care of them, don’t you think?” 

“My mind’s made up. I want to adopt them as my own daughters and you won’t change my mind.” 

--- 

Bellemere had invited Corazon and Law to live with her and her daughters. 

Daughters, she thought. Mom would never believe that I have two girls of my own now. 

Corazon and Law signed for a minute before Law said they accepted. 

--- 

The house wasn’t big, but it felt like a home. They had to make another mattress and money was tight, but it was home. 

--- 

It went like that for a few years. Law had been about six years old when he had moved in, and now he was about 12. Nojiko was eight and loved to chase her older brother around the house while Nami, now six, threw overripe tangerines at them.

Just kids being kids. 

This was one of the few moments where Bellemere felt content with herself, watching the children she had worked so hard to raise run and play with each other without a care in the world. It had been hard trying to raise three kids with a clumsy deaf man. Although communicating with Corazon had become easier over the years, there were still a lot of miscommunication between them. 

Are you hungry? Bellemere had meant to ask one day. 

Corazon looked shocked as Bellemere asked if he was horny. 

Why are you asking in front of the children? 

What do you mean? 

Corazon signed horny again, then tried his best to mime what it meant to her. 

Bellemere went red realizing her mistake, both in embarrassment and at the implications it had about their relationship.

HORNY! Damn, guess I should watch my language huh. 

--- 

The week after that Law told Bellemere that he and Corasan had to leave. The man chasing them was sure to find them soon. It had been too long since they had seen anything from him and they didn’t want to risk dragging everyone else into it. 

He said to tell Nami and Nojiko that they were dead. 

--- 

After they had left that night, Bellemere broke the news to her daughters. She told them that Law had gone swimming with Corazon and a rip current had taken him too far out to sea. Corazon went out to try and bring him back, but he also got carried away. They both drowned. 

The whole village held a simple funeral service for them, using makeshift gravestones placed atop a cliff overlooking the sea, Law and Corazon’s favorite place to relax. 

--- 

It never felt the same in the house after that. Nami and Nojiko felt the emptiness in their home now, missing the two presences that they had grown up around. It took months for a feeling of normalcy to come back. 

Nojiko would chase a stray dog around the tangerine bushes while Nami tossed tangerine peels at her and ate the fruit. 

--- 

Four years later, Nami now 10 and Nojiko 12, there was a group of pirates that invaded the island. Nami had yelled at Bellemere over getting hand me downs from Nojiko, said that she didn’t think Nojiko was her real sister because they weren’t related by blood, even though she had never had an issue saying that before.  

She regretted saying that now. 

She had seen the pirates terrorizing the town around her, and she saw the smoke from Bellemere’s tangerine fields, where their house was, and she knew that they didn’t have the money the pirate captain was asking for to keep all three of them alive. 

Nami ran back to the house, screaming for her mom with Nojiko right behind her. They had to make it, they had to. She couldn’t lose her mom too. 

Nojiko pulled Nami behind one of the tangerine bushes as they watched Bellemere hold a gun to the captain’s mouth. 

And in the blink of an eye, the scene was reversed. Bellemere was standing with a gun aimed at her head. 

Time seemed to slow down as Nami watched the fish-like man pull the trigger. Bellemere fell to the ground with a thud as Nami and Nojiko ran out to try and save her. 

I’m sorry.

I love you. 

--- 

Although Law had gone through a lot to get rid of his disease, something he had barely thought of while he was on Cocoyashi, there was only so much he could do to keep the symptoms at bay. 

When he and Corazon left, he had guessed he had maybe a year left to live. If he was lucky. If he wasn’t he could be dead in a matter of days. 

He thought back to Nami and Nojiko, who he had considered sisters now, and he missed them greatly. He wondered what they thought of him now that he was “dead”. 

Dead. 

He didn’t want to think about it. Law would rather have them be angry at him for lying than to actually die and have them unaware of his real death. Dying at sea was the last way he wanted to go. 

He put his head in his hands and let out a sob. Then another, and another. And another. He cried until he felt like he couldn’t anymore.

---

Corazon had finally found the fruit that he had been researching for years. The Ope-Ope fruit would allow Law to remove the harmful Amber Lead from his body and keep it from shutting his organs down. He just had to pray that his brother didn’t find it first. 

--- 

Corazon barely made it back to the makeshift raft where Law was waiting. He had managed to get the fruit but at a huge cost to himself. He knew he probably wouldn’t make it another week with the wounds he had, unless Law learned quickly enough to get a grip on the powers he would get from the fruit. 

He just had to hope. 

Law woke up from his nap, one of the ways he tried to save energy now that his body was slowly shutting down, and hugged Corazon’s legs. He knew that it was only a matter of time before his body killed him if they didn’t find this fruit. 

Corazon bent down and held the fruit out for Law to take, which he did. He took a few bites, forcing the bitter fruit down his throat. 

When it was finished, he felt a difference in his body, but he couldn’t figure out how to control it. 

--- 

Corazon collapsed in front of him and asked Law to deliver a letter to a marine on the island. Tell them the mission was done and he wasn’t going to make it much longer. 

There was a second letter, addressed to Cocoyashi village.  

---

That same day, the man Law delivered the first letter to came to their raft. Corasan hid Law in a chest and used the last of his strength to hide the boy. 

The last thing Law saw of his father was a smile, and the last thing he heard was a gunshot. 

--- 

It would be eight years before Law and Nami would see each other again. Law was 24 now and Nami was 18. 

Nami had always kept Law at the back of her mind, wary of the sea that she believed had stolen his life away too early. Law thought of Nami and Nojiko often too, wondering how they would react to him still being alive. He kept a copy of Nami’s wanted poster in his personal room on his ship. He knew they would run into each other at some point, and he wanted it to be soon but also never. 

--- 

The Thousand Sunny pulled into port at the Sabaody Archipelago after a long year of travelling the Grand Line. They were almost halfway done with their journey now. They just had to get their ship coated with the tree resin and restock on provisions. 

Nami divided up the beli that they had earned amongst the crew. Sanji got more than the others to buy food, and someone had to make sure Luffy and Franky wouldn’t buy something absolutely idiotic like the last time, where they had gotten scammed out of thier beli for a piece of paper with their names on it. 

Nami walked around the archipelago, looking for anything that would catch her eye: clothes, jewelry, food, cartography supplies. And she saw something white with black spots float above the crowd. 

Could that be…. No. He died years ago, right?

--- 

Law was walking around the archipelago, looking for Nami. He knew she was here, he had seen her crew’s ship pull into port, and it was hard to miss the Thousand Sunny. He was looking for her bright orange hair, hoping she still smelled like the tangerines he had grown up around all those years ago. 

--- 

Nami saw the white and black spotted hat a few times before she decided to track it down. There was no way it could all be a coincidence. She hadn’t seen that hat in over ten years, but she would recognize it anywhere. 

--- 

Law caught a fleeting glance of Nami before she turned around and got lost in the crowd again. 

Dammit, he sighed. I might not get another chance if I miss it now. 

He followed where he thought she was going, watching her go from shop to shop, until she turned around and her eyes met his. 

--- 

Nami’s eyes locked onto Law’s, and she knew it was him. She pushed her way through the crowd, not caring who was in her way. 

--- 

Law stood still as he watched Nami run up to him through the crowd. 

---

“I thought you died!” 

“I….” 

Nami slapped him across the face before pulling him into a hug. 

“We missed you, a lot.” 

Law stood in shock for a second before wrapping his arms around Nami. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Bellemere is dead.” 

“Corasan died.” 

They said it at the same time, pulling away from each other, watching tears form in their eyes before pulling back into an embrace they hadn’t felt in over 10 years. 

“I can’t believe you’re still alive.” 

“I’m sorry for lying to you. We didn’t have any other choice.” 

“I know, but it still hurt to think you were dead for over ten years, and then losing Bellemere too….” 

They stood in silence for a minute. Then two, three, four minutes. It wasn’t until they were forcibly ripped apart that they let go. Law’s crew dragged him away to go do something else, and Sanji had appeared out of nowhere to pull Nami away into his own antics. 

But they didn’t mind. Knowing each other was alive was all they needed.  

---

After Luffy had announced his change of plans for the crew, Nami, who had ended up on a sky island, couldn’t stop thinking of Law. 

She wanted so desperately to catch up with him on the last 10 years of their lives, to know what adventures he had gone on, what powers his devil fruit gave him, what happened to Corazon. 

The first few days afterwards were the hardest. Nami sat with her head in her hands for hours, crying and thinking about Law and Nojiko and Bellemere and Corazon and what could have been and what would happen now and and and. 

And what? She couldn’t get stuck in the past and she had to move forward. Maybe writing a letter or two that could get delivered to Nojiko and Cocoyashi would help her move on. 

--- 

Law flipped through the newspaper, thinking about Nami and how nice it was to see her again. She still smelled like tangerines and he loved how she had grown so much and wished that they could have been together for it. Maybe everything would be different if he hadn’t left Cocoyashi or if he didn’t have Bellemere lie that they were dead or if he had left a letter or something for Nami and Nojiko to find or or or. 

He too, was stuck in the past and needed to do something about it. Law put the newspaper down and grabbed some paper and a pen and started to write. 

--- 

Two years. 

Two whole years. 

That’s how long it was before they saw each other again. Law had moved to Punk Hazard during that time, after becoming a warlord and beginning a very long and tedious plan to take down not only Doflamingo, but also Kaido. 

He never forgot about Nami in those two years and he still didn’t know how much he wanted to let her back into his life. Would she still accept him after knowing his whole story? Did he even know hers? He left when she was still young, there’s no way he could know everything that had happened to her in the last 15 years. 

And then Ceaser talked about seeing her crew’s ship on the other side of the island and he knew that he had to make a decision soon. 

--- 

After Nami woke up from the gas attack, she had no idea where she was. The others were laying on the floor around her, except for Brook? She could figure that out later but she needed to find a way out and soon. There was no telling what could happen to them if they stayed. 

Nami started waking the others up and as soon as they were all awake, Franky blasted a hole through the door allowing them to escape. 

Five minutes later they ran into what looked like a daycare center full of giant children, regular sized children, and every size in between. What the hell was going on here. 

--- 

There was a commotion going on outside, the navy had arrived and wanted to ask some questions. Law knew that he had to lie to keep them from investigating any further. He didn’t really know what Caesar was doing but if he wanted to keep working on the island, the navy couldn’t find out about the experiments Caesar was conducting. Those were hidden even from Law. 

He had fought navy admirals and vice admirals before and survived, so he wasn’t too worried about that. His powers would distract most of the other soldiers and keep them from fighting at their best. 

While he was fighting after an interrogation gone wrong, there was a sudden loud noise behind him followed by shouts encouraging an escape. 

Her long, orange hair drew his attention for a brief second, wondering what she was doing here before he returned to the fight. 

Nami paused for a moment, taking in the scene around her.

“We need to talk later, Law!” She called out to him as she and the children ran back inside. 

“Shambles.” He said, switching all of her crew into different bodies, ensuring that they would have to speak later. 

--- 

Nami felt like she was a ghost for a second while they were running back into the lab, before she came back to her senses. But her body didn’t quite feel right, it was much bigger than she remembered and…. Metal?? 

“Fuck you, Law.” She whispered under her breath. 

---

A day passed before she saw him again and while she was no longer in Franky’s body, she still wasn’t in her own and that was an issue. Sanji’s body was better than Franky’s she supposed. 

“We need to talk.” 

“I know. It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other.” 

“I spent 12 years thinking you were dead and you show up one day and you suddenly aren’t? You better have a good explanation for that.” 

“I do,” He said, taking a deep breath before filling Nami in on the last decade of his life. 

---

Nami couldn’t stop her tears and Law looked like he was close to letting them fall too. 

“I would say it’s okay but it isn’t and you don’t need to hear that right now.” 

Law pulled Nami into a hug, much like the one they shared at the Sabaody Archipelago two years ago. 

“Bellemere died... while protecting me and Nojiko. We watched her get shot and….” She let the tears fall freely, sobbing into Law’s chest as he tried his best to comfort her. He’d never been good at that even when they were kids but it felt good to have someone to hold on to, even if it was while they were both crying and trying to talk but unable to form the right words. 

And it was nice. 

They stayed like that for a long time, rocking back and forth, not really talking. Just taking in each other’s presence. 

“Thank you, for not being dead.” 

[adrianodiprato]

+ "They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary." John Keating | Dead Poets Society (1989)

Thank you, Mr Keating

During the coronavirus I have found myself doing more reading and also connecting more with film’s that have motivated me to abandon binary thinking and be open to new perspectives. One such film has been Peter Weir’s seminal Dead Poets Society. A new English teacher, John Keating, played by the late Robin Williams, is introduced to an all-boys preparatory school that is known for its ancient traditions and high standards. He uses unconventional methods to reach out to his students, who face enormous pressures from their parents, the school and the entire society. It is a story that affects me about the qualities of inspiration itself: the possibility for our passions to move and motivate people around us to enact a new normal.

In recent days, transformation for our time, to a new normal, has been brought on by things beyond our control. The coronavirus crisis has changed our world. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would ever have to deliver an entire school’s curriculum remotely, from the home campus. We now need to embrace the fact the world has changed. Our well-loved stories – our words, our ways, our practices and processes - are suddenly expressions of what used to be, not what is, far less what will be.

In today’s new world, we are all required to continually learn, unlearn and relearn. And it is our teachers that have seized the day in this regard, much like what the character Mr Keating, in Dead Poets Society, advocated for with his students. The coronavirus crisis has provided an opportunity for our remarkable teachers to shine, to show that they can ensure that students stay connected and engaged with their learning and wellbeing, in a time of great uncertainty and for some, chaos. Principal of Strathcona Girls Grammar in Melbourne, Marise McConaghy recently wrote this in her opinion piece for The Sydney Morning Herald, “Giving teachers the agency to adapt and apply creativity in delivering lessons to students has been a masterclass in what it means to be agile in the 21st Century. In no time at all, teachers have dramatically pivoted the way they conduct their work and deliver learning to children.” McConaghy goes on to highlight the profoundness of strong relationships in school communities and dismisses the long-held misconception that emerging technologies has made younger generations socially distant, stating “…many of our students have checked in with their teachers to ask about their wellbeing and offer support. Certainly, it is our job as educators to pastorally care for our students, and for school leaders to check in on staff for the same reasons, but how beautiful it is that our students think to do this for their teachers. Teenagers are, after all, not as self-obsessed as they sometimes are made out to be.”

Schooling as we once knew it is officially over. And the misguided application on standardisation, a feature of the once heralded and, now, outdated industrial model of schooling, with its over emphasis on testing, league tables and pitting students against one another, has come crashing down under the weight of coronavirus. Because of this global pandemic the exciting precipice of doing schooling differently just came into sharp focus. Founder of Unfold Learning Willian Rankin recently wrote that the future of education must be about generating whole, competent, humane citizens. “What the world needs moving forward — and this is especially clear as the novel Corona virus burns off what’s irrelevant — is people who can apply information to meaningful contexts to create serviceable knowledge and solutions (creating knowledge) and people who can enculturate knowledge to produce culturally relevant contexts and wisdom around that knowledge (creating wisdom). Unlike processing data and information, these are profoundly human enterprises, tasks where machines have no fluency. Lamentably, many in modern education consider it too difficult, messy, and subjective to show that students are more considerate, compassionate, mature, collaborative, or humane when they finish our courses. It’s so much easier to show that scores on a particular test rose by 3.6% year over year, that 14% more students successfully completed a course, or that failing grades declined by 6% in a given cohort. The current system settles for this easy information, despite the fact that it’s functionally meaningless.” And “We can beat the wasteful swords of linear consumption and instructionism into the generative and regenerative plowshares of creation and constructionism. We can abandon education for learning.”

Swiss-based futurist Gerd Leonhard believes the biggest trends to have emerged from a world dealing with a pandemic, economies in crisis and many citizens in lockdown are:

Increased global collaboration

A widespread adoption of remote work practices, from home offices to Zoom meetings

Travel bans and an acceptance of remote working crippling the travel industry

The use of technology for remote work accelerating the digital economy

Education is not immune to such far-reaching disruption that Leonhard speaks of. The industrial model of education was designed to ensure factory workers were punctual, docile and above all compliant. The concept of a teacher standing in front of a room full of students who listen and respond to direction is increasingly a thing of the past.

The only people that appear to have been blindsided by the phenomenon of a new normal in schooling and learning, during the pandemic, are some conventional school leaders and conservative governments fixated on holding on to a broken learning paradigm. The OECD’s 2018 TALIS Insights and Interpretations report stated, “The real obstacle to education reform is often not conservative followers but conservative leaders who stick to today’s curriculum rather than adapt pedagogical practice to a changing world, because it is so much easier to stay within everybody’s comfort zone...” (page 57).

John Keating, in Dead Poets Society, said this during one scene, as he stood on his desk, "Why do I stand up here? Anybody? I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way." The end of the industrial model of education is a remarkable opportunity for a bold rethink to finally move to a new normal, a different way. A new learning paradigm that allows for experiences that are a blend of on campus, online, in context and in country, all becoming part of the fabric of this new normal.

Andreas Schleicher, the Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently shared his perspective on the coronavirus crisis via an interview with hundrED, “…education is no longer just about teaching students something, but about helping them develop a reliable compass and the tools to navigate with confidence through an increasingly complex, volatile and uncertain world.”

So, imagine if students have more opportunities to learn at different times in different places. With anytime, anywhere learning becoming the new normal for our students. Where online tools facilitate opportunities for a more highly personalised learning experience of individually targeted stretch and challenge tasks. One that is self-paced, self-determined and incorporates relevant and real-world inquiry-based learning. Resulting in all classrooms being flipped, meaning the knowledge and skills part is learned outside the classroom, at home. Where on campus class time becomes one of deep collaboration, teamwork and the practical application or transfer of knowledge and understanding, of real-life issues. Where taking tests will be replaced by students’ growth and achievement through creative and collaboration projects to problem solve these difficult real-world questions.

So, imagine if teachers assume the crucial role of learning designer and mentor. Becoming the central facilitator in the jungle of information that our students will be navigating their way through. Assisting each young person with developing their independence and agency, academic competence and confidence skills, as well as the development of learning goals, interests and future directions. Supporting each young person through obtaining growth around agility and adaptability in our collective quest to foster their personal resilience and overall mental and physical wellness. Therefore, making a significant emphasis on social and emotional competency central to all learning and interactions. With on campus, in context and/or in country curricular activities such as competitive sports, music, visual arts, language and cultural immersions, play and even cooking as accelerators for quicker social and emotional skills and global competency attainment.

So, imagine if in an online environment, with access to unlimited information, the focus on memorising things loses its meaning, and is replaced by the need to know how to select and use the information appropriate to each context. Where there is a universal step away from control, compliance and human “data” collection and we give permission to our highly able and innovative teachers the freedom to shape curricular, in partnership with students, to suit the needs and interests of all learners.

So, imagine if all school leaders had the courage to lead. Where all school leaders join the ranks of those that already have the courage to lead through this crisis, not simply manage a response. Expecting the expected, what was once “normal”, is simply not adapting to the global reality of our times. Where all school leaders accept that they need to manage the present but remain focused also to plan for a new normal for 2021 and beyond. And where all school leaders accept that perhaps, just perhaps, this is your crucible moment.

Paul Reville, the Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at Harvard Graduate School of Education recently stated, “In this situation [covid-19], we don’t simply want to frantically struggle to restore the status quo because the status quo wasn’t operating at an effective level and certainly wasn’t serving all of our children fairly.”

Carpe Diem is a most commonly remembered line from Dead Poets Society, alongside “Oh Captain! My Captain!”. Explaining to his students that their lives are fleeting, John Keating implores them to seize the day, to make their lives count, to leave a legacy of “carpe diem.” This stirring call to ‘seize the day’ endures. John Keating, yet another example of a remarkable teacher, tries to encourage his students to break free from the norm, go against the status quo and live life abundantly. Much like the John Keating character, perhaps I’m simply agitating all school leaders to contemplate life and therefore learning, from a different way. And much like the films core theme, my hope is that all school leaders, and conservative governments for that matter, choose courage over comfort, are simply bold and brave to doing schooling differently.

I’ll leave you with this final quote from Dead Poets Society, "Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be resigned to that. Break out!"

Ultimately, it is in how we define responsibility and learning, for their future. So, the big question for all school leaders is – When you had the opportunity did you choose courage over comfort or were you resigned to quiet desperation?

In order to make their lives extraordinary, for the young people in our care, I choose courage over comfort. Thank you for today’s lesson, Mr Keating.