#i can already feel the tension of xiao meeting my parents | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

otptings · 3 years

Text

Life Goes On

→Idols: Wong Kunhang & Xiao Dejun

→Requested: Yessss Hi!!! I’m a new follower and literally fell in love with your writing ^o^ May I request an angsty right person at the wrong time scenario with either Xiaojun or Hendery, thank you!

→Genre: Right Person Wrong Time, angst, fluff

→Word Count: 2.7k+

→Warnings: self degradation, implied cheating, Hendery's an asshole, Xiao's a savior, kinda self indulgent (apologies)

→Synopsis: Life's not far. You either have to learn how to swim or drown in your own misery.

→A/n: I honestly surprised myself when I finished this cause I'm actually behind on a couple requests but I really enjoyed writing this. I hope you enjoy reading this, and if you did please like, reblog or donate to my Ko-Fi in my bio. Requests are open for NCT, Enhypen, SVT, and Treasure.

Life isn’t fair, and it isn’t always right. Things don’t end the way you want them to, and no amount of begging or wishing or sacrificing will change fate. So you can only sit there, watch as life moves on without you in it. You either learn how to swim or drown in your own misery.

You swam.

Wong Kun-Hang, you’re child-hood bestfriend. The two of you met long ago. Back when the biggest problems were early bedtimes, or begging your parents for the newest toys. When scraped knees and torn tights were a constant part of your life. In the 2nd grade when he was the new kid, you were too nervous to talk to him so you gave him a special Valentine’s Day card, the one with the carton fish with the really funny joke on it that made you giggle while you were placing various heart stickers on it, accompanied by two pieces of candy instead of one. One of your parents had helped you sign it specially with your name, not just your initials. Although it was scribbled it was still readable. You were nervous walking up to his desk, fixing your school uniform as best you could before shyly handing it to him, trying to hide the heat that was rising in your cheeks and ears.

“Hi.” Kun-Hang looked up at you, a look matching yours on his face. You saw his paper bag for his cards was bare, Kun-Hang covering the front of it in the teacher’s cursive due to him not having time to decorate it. It was empty, devoid of any Valentines, and he hadn’t brought any to give out so he didn’t even have his own. It was sad compared to yours, filled almost to the brim with cute cards and candy.

“Hi.” Hendery’s voice was almost a whisper. He wasn’t prepared for anyone to talk to him, he had only been in your class for a week and hadn’t had enough time to make friends.

“I want to be your friend. Here’s a Valentine’s card.” Where you ignored the heat in your cheeks it was obvious to see Kun-Hang’s awkward smile adorning his face as his cheeks glowed a light red. It was too late to back down now, so you thrust the card out towards him and watched as he timidly took it before sending him a bright smile and scurrying off to your desk, the teacher’s voice telling the class to calm down.

You looked towards the teacher, patiently waiting for their instruction while Kun-Hang only looked at you, awe in his eyes while replaying the moment you walked up to.

Years have gone by since that fateful day that you handed him the card and declared that you wanted to be his friend and you’re still just as close. The day after Valentine’s Kun-Hang stayed by your side faithfully, sitting beside you at lunch and playing with you and your friends at recess. At first he was still awkward, not knowing just where he fit into your life, but everytime you held your hand out to him or handed him a spare cookie from your lunchbox he got a little more comfortable until you were connected at the hip.

As the friend group gradually grew smaller due to everyone else moving away or transferring schools, you and Kun-Hang stayed together, evolving into something more than just childhood best-friends. Shared cookies turning into something else just as sweet, innocent pecks when you thought no one else was watching, holding hands having a new meaning when he pulls you under the bleachers of your high school during your share P.E. class to hold you close as he whispers his feelings for you. He was your perfect love story, your first and only boyfriend. Even now at 20, watching him live his dream life as an idol you still have the same feeling from the first time you met him, that bashful shy feeling as you watching him smile on stage and during fanmeets. The pretty diamond ring on your finger glinting in the various strobe lights they use for their concert, a comforting weight that makes your heart flutter when you think about the day that the two of you will get married.

Life always throws a wrench into pretty plans don’t though.

“It’s just not working out with her.” Confusion filled your mind hearing Hendery’s voice through the phone. Calling out his name gave you no answer. “She’s so clingy, she refuses to back off and give me any space.”

“Aren’t you getting married?”

“I don’t think I can go through with it. I don’t want to leave her at the altar though.”

“I thought you guys were perfect for eachother? Haven’t you been together since middle school?”

“I know, I know. I don’t think I ever liked her in that way. She’s my only relationship but I just don’t see her in that light. She’s more like an annoying little sister than a girlfriend.”

“You’re a fucking douchebag Hendery.”

“I know. She really loves me, but I don’t think I ever saw her romanctically. She was the only option. I really don’t want to ruin the friendship, but I don’t love her.”

You don’t remember hanging up the phone. Or sending him the message.

You accidentally called me, you don’t have to be miserable just to make me happy. I’m sorry I couldn’t be good enough for you.

I didn’t want you to find out this way. I really do like you, you’re my best friend.

But you don’t love me the way that I love you

I’m sorry.

Don’t be sorry. Goodbye Hendery.

Hendery couldn’t ignore the smile that grew on his face, the heavy feeling over his chest lifting.

“What happened to you? Why are you so happy?” Ten questioned while chewing on the cookie he stole from Kun, slight concerned at how over the span of a half hour Hendery’s expression could go from forlorn over the thought of the wedding to ecstatic as he jumped up from the couch, staring at his phone that was clenched tightly in his hand.

“She broke up with me.” His smile grew impossibly bigger while Xiao’s face dropped. “I accidentally called her while we were talking and she said we don’t have to be together.” If Hendery wasn’t so busy cheering about his new found freedom he would’ve felt how the tensions rose in the room, or saw how Xiao looked at him with disgust as he slid his engagement ring off of his finger and tossed it on the coffee table. As if it meant nothing to him.

“So you used her?” An uneasy silence settled over the room while Yangyang made a quick exit, not wanting to witness anything. Hendery’s smile swiftly disappeared at Xiao’s accusatory tone. “And you’re celebrating your ‘freedom’ while she’s heart broken?” A cold chuckle punctuated his statement.

“I didn’t mean for her to overhear the conversation. But she broke up with me. If she’s hurt it’s her fault.” Hendery tried to plead his case, looking around at his other groupmates that were present but they refused to meet his eyes, all sharing Xiao’s sentiments on the situation. “I never wanted her to fall in love with me.”

Xiao couldn’t ignore the way that his fist shook hearing Hendery say that. He was already angered hearing how casually Hendery talked about his lack of feelings, no remorse evident in his voice. Clenching his jaw to hide the obscenities and curses that he wanted to spout on each of Hendery’s weekly rants about your relationship. But hearing just how casually he used you and didn’t care, that was Xiao’s last straw.

“So you fucking used her, and are now blaming it on her?” The room went stilent and the tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Xiao walked closer to Hendery, crossing the coffee table that kept them separated. Then he threw the first punch.

No one was expecting it, hearing the crack when Xiao’s fist connected with Hendery’s nose. Hendery didn’t have time to recover enough to retaliate before Lucas was picking Xiao off of his feet and hauling him out of the room. “Fucking stay away from her or I’ll fucking kill you.”

Xiao knew that it was stupid to fall for you, even dumber since you were head over heels in love with Hendery, someone who didn’t deserve even an ounce of you. He knew that you would never see him in that light, naively hung up on Hendery, so he did the next best thing. Become your friend.

Sure, he knew that he was only a rebound, only truly talking to you whenever Hendery was too busy - ignoring you - to entertain you, so you turned to Xiao. He knew that there was never way you would love him the way that he loved you, but he didn’t care. He’d be whatever you wanted him to be, even if it was perpetually stuck pining after you.

That’s the only explainable reason as to why he snuck out of the dorm after receiving the text from you.

I need you Dejun

It wasn’t hard to leave the dorm, Sicheng and Ten were too busy worrying about Hendery’s nose and if it was broken or not. All Xiao had to do was slip out of the front door. He didn’t bother asking the manager for a ride, walking would do just fine. Your apartment wasn’t too far from the dorm, there was no sweat off his back. Until the clouds broke open and it started to rain profusely when Xiao was only a block away from your apartment.

That explains why you answered the frantic knocking at your door to be met with a soaking wet Xiao, hair plastered to his forehead from the rain and shirt appearing like a second skin.

“What the hell happened? Come in, hurry.” Moving to the side you quickly pulled Xiao inside, feeling guilty at the way that he shook from the cold.

“It rained a little bit.” Despite the pain in your chest, and your eyes burning from the amount of tears that you had shed you couldn’t help but giggle.

“That’s an understatement. I’ll get you a towel and some clothes so you can change.”

Twenty minutes later the two of you were awkwardly facing eachother. You’ve never truly hung out by yourself, the boys were always a buffer between the two of you. The teddy bear that you were clutching against your chest being the only thing to separate you, your light pink blanket seeming almost childish with Xiao sitting on it. The gigantic hoodie that you stole from your brother draped over his frame, almost drowning him in the sheer amount of fabric.

“Are you okay?” He was the first to break the silence, eyes finally meeting yours and softening out of compassion. The sight of him pitying you caused the tears to prick at your eyes, glancing down while you absentmindely played with the fraying ends of the blanket.

“Why would I be? Hearing that my fiance didn’t love me. I was a burden to him our whole relationship. An annoying little sister.” Letting out a joyless chuckle at the irony of it all, a fiance that saw you as a little sister. You hadn’t realized that warm tears were falling down your cheeks, darkening the light pink fabric where they hit, littering it with drops of magenta. “How was I so stupid? I should’ve seen it comer when he started staying at the studio later and later when there was no comeback. Was he even staying at the studio? Was there someone else?” You looked up at Xiao, trying to blink away the blurry vision to find any answer for the questions you desperately asked. Xiao’s hand came up to cup your cheek, wiping the tears away. The sweet motion caused you to let out a sob, launching yourself into Xiao’s arm.

Xiao’s arms wrapped around you, pulling you onto his lap. You couldn’t be bothered to feel awkward or uncomfortable at the strange position, only burying your face into the hoodie and letting your tears soak the fabric. Xiao sighed, biting back his own emotions as he listened to you choke on your sobs, feeling your body shake with every wretched wail that left your mouth. All because of Hendery. If it weren’t for you clutching onto the fabric of the hoodie so tightly that it could rip out of fear of Xiao leaving he might’ve gone back to the dorm and broken Hendery’s jaw.

“He never deserved you.” Swallowing to hide the way that his voice attempted to crack Xiao continued, “ You are the sweetest, loveliest, gentliest, and purest person that I have ever met in my life. You care for everyone and everything no matter how small or significant they may seem. You loved Hendery with your whole heart, and he didn’t deserve to ever see that side of you.” Your sobbing had dissolved into meaningless sniffles, eyes still wet with tears as you listened to Xiao’s words.

“He’s the only person I’ve ever loved. I thought he was the one.”

“He wasn’t right for you. You’ll meet someone who is.” Xiao bit back the confession that he desperately wanted to say. He knew it wasn’t the right time. The two of you sat in a comfortable silence until the sounds of your stomach grumbling caused Xiao to sadly move you from his lap so that he could order the two of you food.

The silence remained even as the two of you ate, quietly munching as the ramen noodles brought a warmth back to you, hands shaking slightly from the after-cry headache that plagued you. Xiao grabbed your empty containers and bottles, throwing them away before appearing in your doorway again, wet clothes now wrapped in a bag.

“It’s pretty late. I’m going to go home.”

“You can stay. If you want.” The silence between the two of you was no longer comfortable.

“I’ll stay.”

If only you knew just how long he would.

“I’m so proud of you baby.” You whispered in his ear as he carried you back to the bedroom, adrenaline from WayV’s most recent win still coursing through his veins, if the way that he unlocked the front door and picked you up had anything to say about it.

“Owe it all to you. Always supporting me.” Both of you giggled as he hovered over you, hands on either side of your head while yours ran down his back, before tugging at the bottom of his sheer shirt, prompting him to take it off and throw it on the floor.

“Technically you started this two years ago by staying.” Xiao rolled his eyes before leaning down, placing a sweet kiss on your lips, barely giving you enough time to savor it before he was pulling away. Poking your lips out Xiao obliged, placing one, two, three more kisses before pulling away.

“I’m in love with you.” This wasn’t the first time he’s said it, but this confession made you burn from the inside out all the same. Heat rising up your neck all the way to your ears while butterflies pranced around in your stomach. Xiao’s eyes held the exact same emotion that they had two years ago when you asked him to stay that you now had a name for. It was pure adoration, and devotion. Love in simpler terms.

“I’m in love with you too.” Tangling your fingers into his hair you pulled him down into another kiss, a searing one deeper than the previous ones you had shared. His hand coming up and cupping your jaw caused you to pull away from the kiss, a bright smile on your face as you whispered two words that caused Xiao to kiss you until the both of you had to pull away for air in fear of suffocating. “Thank you.”

Sometimes, the right one get’s away to let a better one in. Thank you Hendery, you taught me how to love so I could love Xiao properly.

43 notes · View notes

eleanorfenyxwrites · 3 years

Text

New Seductions (Ao3)

(Wenzhou one-shot - WoH episode 14 alternative scene - NSFW)

Yakalskovich on ao3/ @omgpurplefattie requested: I'd very much like to see what happens when, after they run into Ye Baiyi and the truth about the nails comes out, they finally get up close and personal again, and WKX realises what limits the nails set, and finds out how he can please his A-Xu despite them, working with the limitations set by the nails.

So this is my take on that!

Wen Kexing’s feet land solidly on the rain-slicked wood of a bridge in another of the inn’s courtyards. Gu Xiang’s pleading and crying is a grating addition to the relentless maelstrom of his own thoughts, and even though he’s left her behind a courtyard away her voice is still pinging around his head along with everything else that has happened over the course of the evening. The horrible things he’s learned and realized.

Destroyed meridians. Self-inflicted. Ten years - no, he refused help so it’s two years. He’s dying. None of them can escape death. So much death. Had his entire life not been marked by it since childhood, Wen Kexing might begin to wonder just what he’s done lately that was the final straw to earn such horrendous karma that it’s now spreading to those around him as well, making him the hub at the center of a wheel of painful torture. A spoke for his few true allies in the Ghost Valley, the Bureau of the Unfaithful. A spoke for Gu Xiang. Another for his parents. For his Ah-Xu. Anyone in his radius must be subjected to a life of pain and sorrow, it would seem.

He trudges along without thinking too much where he’s going, but when he realizes he can go no further he looks up and is unsurprised to find that he’s in front of Zhou Xu’s door. Where else would he go, after all? Where else in the world could he possibly go like this?

“Ah-Xu,” he calls weakly. He places the hand not holding the remainder of his xiao against the wood but makes no move to try to force it open, much as he might want to. It’s grounding, in a way, to press against the cool wood, to have something so steady against his palm. Steady is good. Feels good. He presses harder and leans in until his forehead is resting against it too, and that’s even better. Perhaps he’ll stay just like this for the night. As long as it’s Ah-Xu’s door he’ll stay until he’s forced to move, and even then when he is it will hopefully be to return himself to his Ah-Xu’s side.

If two years is truly all they’re going to get then he’s going to plant himself at his love’s right hand and never stray, and when Zhou Xu is gone Wen Kexing is going to leave the world behind to grieve for him in peace and quiet, where no one else can reach him.

“Ah-Xu?” Wen Kexing calls again with a gentle tap of one nail against the wood.

He huddles closer to the door and tries to imagine that it’s his Ah-Xu that he’s trying to curl around, that he could somehow make him safe with nothing but the circle of his arms, that he could heal him with nothing but the strength of his devotion. Raw power to make up for his lack of more delicate knowledge that he so desperately regrets not learning when he had the chance. The door feels nothing like when Zhou Xu is in his arms and his imagination can’t fool him otherwise, but he comforts himself with the knowledge that Zhou Xu is on the other side of it at least, that even though he can’t see him or feel him he’s still close by. It may have to be enough.

“Ah-Xu,” he begs the wood an inch away from his nose. “Let me in.”

He’s getting cold, standing there out of the rain under the eaves but already soaked from head to toe with it. He’s still cold from the flush of horror when he’d seen the nails in his love’s chest and heard what it means, as well, and though he could return to his own room and change his clothes to become physically warm he’s not sure anything will make him truly feel warm down to his bones again but holding his Ah-Xu close. He’s been waiting a lifetime for this man to hold him and light that fire in the hollows of ribs, in all the empty spaces of him - he can wait longer for it to be given again even if the weight of their two-year deadline is already bearing down on him and making him anxious to have whatever he can of his lover now, before it’s too late.

There are other things he needs to do. This farce of a Heroes Conference is far too soon, plans need to be set in motion. He needs to send someone trustworthy to check on Luo Fumeng. ‘Places’ needs to be called and each player set in their spot before his final call of ‘action’ on the revenge play he’s been planning for his whole life. He doesn’t have time to wait.

But more than that, he doesn’t have the strength to leave. Not now, not like this.

“Please,” he says so softly he can’t imagine it carries through the door, which is the only reason he’s not upset that it comes out as more of a whimper than anything else.

He’s just preparing to sink down to the ground and rest there against the door for the night when the wood suddenly disappears and he stumbles - right into Zhou Xu’s arms.

“Ah-Xu!” he gasps, eyes hungrily taking in the sight of him though it’s only been an hour or two since he stormed off after their fight. Even if pressed he won’t admit that he’s searching for any changes, any sign that his love is about to suddenly die in his arms.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Xu says and it’s admonishing, stern, but not nearly as angry as before. That’s fine, Wen Kexing would welcome it even if he was still angry. At least Zhou Xu would still be here, calling his name, holding him steady with a too-hard grip on his elbows. “Why are you completely drenched?”

“It’s raining,” he replies numbly.

“I know that, why didn’t you -“ Zhou Xu’s eyes flick down to his hands at his sides and his brows furrow. “What happened to your xiao?!”

Wen Kexing looks down as well and brings the remains of the instrument in front of himself, studying it with a detached sort of curiosity. He raises his free hand to curl around the shards that were once the middle of the flute before he had destroyed it.

“Hey!” Zhou Xu yelps as he lets go of his elbow to tug on his hand instead, pulling his fingers away from the sharp, jagged points. “What are you doing? You’ll hurt yourself,” he fusses and it’s so surreal, hearing Zhou Xu of all people worry about Wen Kexing hurting himself after revealing the truth of what he’s done with those fucking nails, that he can’t help but laugh.

It’s a rusty, crackling, hollow sort of laugh as it escapes him in fits and bursts. He’s still staring at his hands so he watches Zhou Xu take the flute from him, and then he’s just staring at the floor when Zhou Xu turns away to set it on the table in the center of the room.

It’s only when Zhou Xu returns and puts a hand under his chin to make him look up and meet his eyes that Wen Kexing realizes he’s not actually laughing at all. The next tired sob rattles in his chest and Zhou Xu’s expression goes tight with worry, perhaps flavored with some of the anger he’d defended himself with earlier.

“Come on. You need to dry off,” he sighs a moment later and Wen Kexing allows himself to be ushered further inside so Zhou Xu can shut the door against the storm still raging outside. He manages to stop his ‘laughing’ as he trails behind his love without a second thought, perfectly content to follow as long as Zhou Xu is going to allow it. He doesn’t even bother paying attention to where they’re going, he just drags himself along in Zhou Xu’s wake and stops when he does only to realize they’ve stepped behind a privacy screen. There’s an empty bathtub stored neatly away for the night and a stack of clean, soft towels set aside on a stool, all of which Wen Kexing takes in with a sort of detached, numb neutrality that’s quickly becoming a very comfortable space to exist in.

He stays put for so long that Zhou Xu sighs softly and begins working on getting him undressed himself, which Wen Kexing stands obediently still and steady for. Each sodden layer that gets removed is arranged neatly over the screen to dry until Wen Kexing is left standing there wearing nothing but his hairpin while Zhou Xu turns to snag a towel from the stack.

It’s certainly not the first time they’ve been in some degree of undress around each other, but for reasons that are now obvious Wen Kexing has never actually seen Zhou Xu naked, and he abruptly realizes that he has never been entirely naked either. Whether that’s thanks to convenience while they’ve been traveling or an unconscious choice not to disrobe completely if Zhou Xu won’t, he’s not sure. But when Zhou Xu turns he seems utterly unaffected by the miles of skin now available for him to see, to touch, and as he begins dragging the towel over Wen Kexing’s arms and shoulders his expression stays closed off. Distant, even when he’s right there with his hands on his body with the intent to take care of him in such a mundane, practical way.

Wen Kexing continues to stand still and lets Zhou Xu rub him down with the towel, his eyes never leaving his face though Zhou Xu keeps his own gaze on his hands as he works. He finishes the task with them face to face as he slides his arms over Wen Kexing’s shoulders with a fresh towel in hand to start carefully squeezing and rubbing the water from his hair.

And he’s so close, but Wen Kexing feels like there may as well be all of the Central Plains between them.

“Ah-Xu,” he finally finds the will to mumble. A small knot of tension in his jaw loosens slightly when Zhou Xu instantly meets his gaze.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Zhou Xu murmurs, soft under the vestiges of hurt and irritation lingering around his eyes.

“Like what?”

“Like you’ve already lost me!”

Wen Kexing’s breath hitches as he sucks in a gasp and he finally finds the motivation to raise his hands again, to reach out and touch, but this time instead of grabbing for Zhou Xu’s robes he cups his face, palms tucked against the lines of his jaw, fingertips digging in just under his ears and his thumbs caressing the soft warmth of his cheeks.

“I thought we had more time,” Wen Kexing admits, voice as firm as it can be while he’s unable to raise it above an agonized whisper. “I thought we had more time, Ah-Xu, I-“

Wen Kexing’s quickly spiraling panic is stopped in its tracks, at least for the moment, by Zhou Xu leaning in to kiss him hard and fast.

Zhou Xu is not a gentle lover. Wen Kexing had been unsurprised to learn that very quickly over the course of their short (and rather hurried) relationship, but it’s only now, as he thinks what he always does, that he realizes why.

He touches me like it’ll be the last time he ever gets to.

Because it might be. Because that is, in fact, the reality that Zhou Xu has to live with every day. He estimates he has two years left but Wen Kexing had heard the resignation in his voice, the acceptance that whether it’s two years or two months or two hours, it won’t make a difference. He’s saying his goodbyes to the world now, just as they’re finally getting a chance to explore it together.

For the first time since they came together like this, Wen Kexing fights back.

He bites Zhou Xu’s lip hard enough to make him jerk in his arms, clearly startled. He slides his hands into his hair and yanks on it to force his head back so he can bury his face in his neck to bite and kiss there too, staking his claim, trying to show Zhou Xu exactly how savagely Wen Kexing longs to keep him.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Xu snaps, a warning, but Wen Kexing doesn’t care enough to heed it, and it’s not exactly effective when Zhou Xu is hauling him in closer by a bruising grip on his shoulders anyway.

He runs out of steam soon enough though, unable to keep up the harsh biting for too long even though it’s clear Zhou Xu doesn’t mind it.

“Are you done?” Zhou Xu asks, perhaps with something a little like his usual dry humor though there’s still the sharp bite of irritation in it. Wen Kexing replies first by sliding both arms and one long leg around him, and then, softly-

“Never.”

Zhou Xu sighs long and slow right next to his ear, one hand gliding up and down his back and leaving trails of soft heat in its wake - he’s still chilled from his time in the rain, and Zhou Xu is like a furnace against him. Wen Kexing relaxes slightly as Zhou Xu slides his hand up to rest against the back of his head, cradling him close as he turns his head to nuzzle against his ear.

“You’re still cold,” he murmurs softly. “Go get in bed and I’ll be there in a second.”

Wen Kexing takes a few deep breaths in before he complies, reluctantly unwinding himself from Zhou Xu to pull back. He studies Zhou Xu’s face for a long moment to make sure he isn’t lying about joining him and only when he’s reassured himself does he retreat, snagging Zhou Xu’s comb off the dressing table on his way to the bed. He sits down in the center of it with the blanket tugged over his lap and his damp hair pulled over one shoulder to begin combing the tangles out of it with long, slow movements. His hands go still and his eyes - previously half-shut with a mixture of exhaustion and muted pleasure for the feeling of the comb in his hair - go wide when Zhou Xu steps out from behind the screen.

He’s naked. Completely and utterly bare, and while of course Wen Kexing’s gaze is drawn first to the nails holding his meridians in place, he also can’t help but stare greedily at the rest of him that is finally free for his perusal.

“Let me do that,” Zhou Xu says with a gesture at the comb as he approaches and Wen Kexing is powerless to stop him from taking it from his frozen fingers on his way to settling in behind him. Right behind him, in fact, as he parts his legs to rest them alongside Wen Kexing’s lap and presses close enough that they’re flush, Zhou Xu’s chest against his back and his chin resting on the opposite shoulder from his hair. He lowers his newly-freed hands slowly to his lap as Zhou Xu wraps his arms around him to continue combing his hair for him as if they do this every day.

“Ah-Xu…”

“Hm?”

“Can you tell me about the nails?”

“What do you want to know?”

A dozen questions rush to the tip of his tongue in response to such an open invitation, but in the moment none of them feel right, or truly important. He mulls over the issue for a few long, quiet minutes as Zhou Xu continues combing his hair, hands uncharacteristically slow and gentle as he works.

“What does it feel like?” he finally settles on, the question whispered into the peaceful hush around them, nothing but the muffled sounds of the storm outside and their quiet breathing.

Zhou Xu stays quiet even longer than Wen Kexing just had, but he can feel that he’s going to answer him eventually so he stays quiet as well. Part of him chafes at the delay, that sensation of time bearing down on them - the heartbreaking and inevitable end of this - still too strong for him to be able to truly be patient. But he knows if he pushes too hard that Zhou Xu will retreat instantly, push him away, and he won’t be able to stand that. Not now.

He takes a deep breath in as Zhou Xu sets the comb aside once he can run it through the loose sections of his hair with no resistance, and he goes willingly when Zhou Xu pulls him to lie down with him, the pair of them safely cocooned under the blankets where it’s nice and warm and some of the chill can finally leave his skin.

“It doesn’t feel like much of anything,” Zhou Xu finally murmurs as Wen Kexing turns on his side to study his profile while Zhou Xu keeps his gaze on the ceiling above their heads, laid out perfectly on his back, his hands resting on top of the blanket over his chest.

“Bullshit,” Wen Kexing replies instantly, but even that comes out sounding gentle. Zhou Xu just shakes his head a little with an achingly sad smile that Wen Kexing instantly wants to kiss away from his lips. His Ah-Xu should always be smiling of course, but that smile should be happy. He’d destroy the entire world and lay it at his feet if it made his Ah-Xu happy.

“No, I mean it. Besides the pain, which you’ve already known about, it doesn’t..feel like anything. I’m losing my senses.”

Wen Kexing goes very very still for a moment as he processes that, and then he pushes himself up onto one forearm to look down at Zhou Xu, to move into his space and force the other to look up at him instead of the ceiling.

“What?”

Zhou Xu huffs out a sigh and reaches up to pinch at the bridge of his nose and rub at his eyes with his fingertips. Wen Kexing stays right where he is - he wants answers, has wanted them for a while, and he’s going to get them - so he’s still precisely in the same spot when Zhou Xu drops his hand again and opens his eyes to find the silent demand for those answers in Wen Kexing’s steady gaze.

It doesn’t take more than the span of a few breaths before he gives in with another sigh. “The nails..when I created them, I designed them to..steal the senses, to make it impossible to do much of anything once they’ve been administered, along with destroying all of the victim’s internal force. The way I applied them slowed the process down, but I can’t stop it.”

Wen Kexing keeps studying the lines of Zhou Xu’s face as he considers the implications of that, as he holds the new information up against what he already knows of his soulmate and a few idiosyncrasies he’s noticed about him slot a little too neatly into place.

“So..you don’t eat very much because-”

“I can’t really taste it.”

“And..You never let me touch you when we have sex because-”

“I can’t really feel it.”

“So when we sleep together you’ve never actually-“

“No.”

Wen Kexing takes a slow breath in, holds it, and exhales slowly again as he leans down to press his forehead against Zhou Xu’s, his eyes slipping shut.

“Can you feel it when I kiss you?”

“Yes.”

Wen Kexing wastes absolutely no time in pressing their mouths together and he’s relieved that Zhou Xu returns the kiss without a moment of hesitation. He leans into it, kissing him long and slow in an attempt to soothe some of the aching in his own chest and hopefully to communicate to Zhou Xu that he’s here, that he doesn’t want to even imagine living any longer without him by his side. With such things on his mind it’s only natural that he would drift closer and closer, and in fact he doesn’t even really consciously notice that he’s moved until Zhou Xu’s arms wind tightly around his waist to finish reeling him in as close as possible and suddenly he’s very aware that he’s sprawled out on top of his lover - and that there’s absolutely nothing between them to separate them anymore.

“Ah-Xu,” he mumbles into their kisses which have long gone slick and hot and clumsy. Perfect.

“I can’t…” Zhou Xu mutters, frustration creeping into his voice as he shifts his hips a bit, and Wen Kexing immediately shushes him (gently) and tries to soothe him with another deep kiss, only relenting when he feels Zhou Xu shiver and then relax again.

“Do you trust me?” he asks into the hollow between the corner of Zhou Xu’s jaw and the soft curve of his ear. It’s a slightly dangerous question to ask considering the fight they’d had just hours ago, and he’s perfectly ready for the answer to reflect the anger he’d pushed his lover to out on the balcony, but when the answer comes it’s instant and earnest.

“Yes. More than anyone.”

“Let me try?”

He pulls back enough to meet Zhou Xu’s eyes only to find them full of uncertainty, which he supposes is only to be expected, and underneath it a particular flavor of vulnerability he’s not sure he’s been allowed to see before this moment.

“I don’t think there’s anything that will work,” Zhou Xu mumbles but Wen Kexing is nothing if not stubborn, especially in pursuit of his Ah-Xu. He smiles and presses a feather-soft kiss just above Zhou Xu’s upper lip, deliberately missing his mouth just to better feel him smile despite the fact that he also rolls his eyes.

“I won’t mind if it doesn’t work,” Wen Kexing promises in between little sips of more kisses, his eyes wide and pleading in his best pout to try to be as convincing as possible. “Can’t I just want an excuse to touch you for a while? I’d really like to, I can keep coming up with more reasons if you want them. But I think it’s worth trying anyway.”

For a few minutes there’s silence again but for the rain outside and the sound of their lips meeting and parting without any discernible pattern. It isn’t the first time they’ve taken their time kissing like this but of course it is the first time that they’ve done it when Wen Kexing can feel miles of warm, smooth skin pressed against his own and that alone would be enough to make him embarrassingly eager. He has to be patient though - if he tries to push Zhou Xu is just as likely to balk and call the whole thing off as he is to agree, and he just can’t take that risk.

“Alright,” Zhou Xu eventually murmurs between one heated kiss and the next. “You can try.”

Wen Kexing takes a slow, deep breath in to attempt to calm himself enough to take his time.

“Does it hurt to touch the nails?” he asks against the curve of Zhou Xu’s bottom lip, soft and warm and slightly swollen already from his kisses.

“You don’t have to try to avoid them, it’s fine.”

“Ah-Xu. Does it hurt?”

A long pause, a sigh, and then a reluctant, “Yes.”

“Mm, I won’t touch them, then. Can you feel this? No looking, just tell me if you can feel it.” Wen Kexing rests his weight on one elbow to free up his other hand to run his fingertips slowly up and down the outside of Zhou Xu’s thigh. He marvels once again at the feeling of it, all that warm, surprisingly silky skin made available to him and his wandering hands.

“A little,” Zhou Xu murmurs, frowning slightly in concentration. Wen Kexing watches his face carefully as he digs his fingers in harder - not enough to bruise or even to hurt, probably, even if Zhou Xu’s senses weren’t dulled, but it’s certainly not gentle except for how tender he feels as he does it. He keeps pushing in in slow increments until he sees what he’s looking for - Zhou Xu’s eyelids flutter and his lips part ever so slightly.

“You can feel it more now,” he murmurs before Zhou Xu can speak and the man nods as his expression does something complicated. It doesn’t seem negative, at least, so Wen Kexing is willing to let it pass without comment to instead focus on the task at hand - literally. He takes careful note of how much pressure he’s applying and then he slowly drags his hand from the outside of Zhou Xu’s thigh to the top, and then over to the inside to rub his fingertips in small, firm circles against the tender skin. Zhou Xu responds instantly, parting his legs a little further to give him more room to work.

He takes his time, just stroking and rubbing wherever he thinks Zhou Xu might be even slightly more sensitive in an attempt to help him feel his touch, and all the while he kisses him whenever the mood strikes him. That, at least, always has the desired effect, and eventually he has Zhou Xu breathless and shivering slightly underneath him.

“Lao Wen,” he breathes as Wen Kexing is pressing slightly sloppy open-mouthed kisses along the graceful curve of his collarbone, moving towards his shoulder.

“Mm?”

“I still can’t -”

“I’m nowhere near done with you yet, Ah-Xu. Let me work.”

“Lao Wen…”

“Ah-Xu.”

“You’re only going to be disappointed.”

Wen Kexing props himself up on his elbow again to look down at Zhou Xu in shock and affront, brows drawn tightly together as he searches for any sign at all that his lover may be joking.

“Disappointed?” he parrots after a moment, incredulous. “Disappointed?! Ah-Xu, for once you’re letting me have my way with you without rushing or pushing, I can finally kiss you as much as I’ve wanted to since that night by the river, I’m going to find any way I possibly can to pleasure you, and you think I’ll be disappointed?”

“Yes! If nothing makes me feel good then yes!”

“Don’t you feel good now?” Wen Kexing asks softly with a glance through his long lashes that makes Zhou Xu tip his head back to sigh gustily for the fact that Wen Kexing has his number so thoroughly - he knows precisely what to do to get right at Zhou Xu’s heart.

“Yes, I feel good,” he finally grumbles. Wen Kexing doesn’t bother to say ‘I told you so’ in so many words, but the sentiment is clearly there in his answering hum as he bends to his task again with renewed fervor. “But-”

“Enough, Ah-Xu!” he snaps, though he immediately apologizes by pressing a few soft kisses to his lover’s shoulder. “If you are disappointed then tell me so and I’ll try something else. If you’re not, trust that if I didn’t want to be right here with you, doing exactly this, then I wouldn’t be.”

Wen Kexing waits for a long moment of excruciating silence for Zhou Xu to push him away or tell him to stop, but in the end all he does is bring his hand up to the back of his head to draw him down more firmly against his shoulder and relax into the stretch of his widely-spread legs again with a soft sigh.

Wen Kexing takes a long moment to close his eyes and compose himself, to remind himself not to rush, not to accidentally hurt Zhou Xu in the course of trying to find what makes him feel. When he feels he can continue he does so happily, pleased to feel Zhou Xu growing more and more languorous under his touch. Even if they can’t find a way to get him sexually satisfied tonight, Wen Kexing would still be plenty happy with finding a way to get his perpetually-tense Ah-Xu to just relax.

“Lao Wen!” Zhou Xu finally gasps, though, and just like that sexual gratification is definitely at the very top of the agenda. He zeroes in immediately on what earned him the exclamation and chases it with a single-minded intensity.

It’s his fingers, he knows it is. He’d worked up to sliding one inside the tight heat of Zhou Xu’s body - the digits slicked with his own spit and some of the pre-come leaking steadily from his thoroughly ignored erection - a while ago, but just like with everything else so far he had decided to take his time. It’s only now that he’s stretching him open with a second and doing more with them than a simple slow thrusting, and he does it again, curls them up as much as he can and pushes slowly in again - and Zhou Xu’s back arches right off the bed.

“Perfect, Ah-Xu, absolutely beautiful,” Wen Kexing purrs as he begins to do only that, or variations of it, and within moments Zhou Xu is trembling underneath him. He’s quick to readjust his free arm a bit to slide it under Zhou Xu’s slender waist and hold him close as he closes their mouths together in a heated kiss as he continues moving his fingers inside of him, now hunting for something else that could make him gasp like that while still giving him enough of what they already know feels good to keep him pleasured.

Wen Kexing quickly discovers that as long as his mouth is free (and ‘free’ just means ‘not currently full of Wen Kexing’s tongue’, whether he’s still kissing Zhou Xu or not is apparently irrelevant) Zhou Xu can’t seem to help but call his name in a voice that sounds thoroughly wrecked. As soon as he realizes this extremely important fact he makes a point of withdrawing enough to breathe each time he curls his fingers again, and he’s rewarded with the best of both worlds - kisses that curl his toes interspersed with desperate cries of his name that are quickly growing louder, less controlled.

It takes a little longer of this before Wen Kexing can concentrate enough to find what he’s looking for, but when he does he worries for a moment that it won’t be as pleasurable for Zhou Xu as he had hoped. Wen Kexing is nothing if not stubborn, though, and so he keeps trying, keeps nudging and pressing and rubbing until Zhou Xu yanks him into a desperate kiss, all teeth and gasping breaths, in a clear attempt to muffle himself as he moans so loudly even Wen Kexing’s ears go hot with what little blood hasn’t made its way to his cock yet.

Wen Kexing holds him close and kisses him messily as he refines his process further and further, only repeating actions that make Zhou Xu whimper or moan into the possessive press of his tongue until he finally feels Zhou Xu shudder and arch his back, tearing free of the kiss in the process only to orgasm completely unrestrained. Wen Kexing has just enough common sense left to hope for others’ sake that the adjoining rooms are empty, but he personally doesn’t give a damn if others can hear or not. His Ah-Xu is finally satisfied, finally feeling as good as he deserves, and anyone who can’t appreciate that should just make themselves scarce.

Wen Kexing doesn’t stop as Zhou Xu begins to quiet again, though he’s still panting hard and occasionally making little noises that Wen Kexing will very generously not call whimpers to his face, though that’s absolutely what they are.

“How did you do that?” Zhou Xu finally groans, sounding completely wrecked as he covers his eyes with one hand - very rude of him, when Wen Kexing’s hands are busy holding him around the waist and fingering him through his aftershocks and so are unavailable to uncover him again.

“I’m still doing it, in case you haven’t noticed. Must you ask?”

“Shut up,” Zhou Xu mumbles but the beginnings of a smile are curving at the corners of his thoroughly abused lips. “I meant how when I can’t..I didn’t...Lao Wen I can’t even get hard!”

“Mm. There are other ways,” he teases with a kiss to the back of Zhou Xu’s hand over his eyes and a flex of his fingers still buried inside of him. “And you agreed that I could try to find what works for you.”

“I did..and you did,” Zhou Xu mumbles as his smile fades into..something else, though it’s hard to identify the expression with half of his face hidden.

“Ah-Xu you’re so cruel to your soulmate,” Wen Kexing sighs dramatically. “I’ve worked so hard and yet I’m not allowed to see your beautiful face as my reward? So cold to me, Ah-Xu.” He holds his pout with an effort (he desperately wants to smile instead) until finally Zhou Xu relents enough to uncover one eye to glare up at him (extremely unconvincingly).

“All you do is stare at me, Lao Wen, you can survive a few minutes without seeing my face.”

“I can’t, I can’t,” Wen Kexing sighs as he ducks in to kiss his cheek. “I miss it already, I will never see my fill of you and when I can’t see you I dream of you inst-mm!”

Wen Kexing melts into the kiss Zhou Xu has interrupted him with without an ounce of shame or hesitation. It’s quick and filthy, as their kisses usually tend to be, and Wen Kexing can’t help but to roll his hips for a bit of friction on his neglected erection.

“Lao Wen?” Zhou Xu mumbles around his bottom lip caught between his teeth.

“Hm?”

“Your turn.”

Wen Kexing breaks the kiss enough to talk, lips still brushing against Zhou Xu’s anyway as being any further apart in this moment seems completely unbearable.

“No, it’s fine this was for you-“

“Lao Wen!” He goes still at the tired frustration in Zhou Xu’s voice. “Shut up and just get inside me.”

“Mmm my soulmate is so romantic,” he teases after a moment’s hesitation as he slowly withdraws his fingers and checks to make sure that he’s dripped enough while pleasuring Zhou Xu to ease the way - and yes, he’s already made quite a mess of both the sheets and Zhou Xu’s thigh, which is unsurprising. “I make tender love to him and he says to me ‘shut up and get inside me’, I’m truly humbled to be the recipient of such sweet advances.”

“You knew what you were getting into,” Zhou Xu scoffs, finally removing his hand from his eyes. Wen Kexing meets his gaze just in time to watch them go a bit glassy and unfocused as he slides his aching cock inside of him.

“I did know,” he agrees, sounding a bit strained. “I knew and I have never wanted someone so desperately as I want you.”

After that there’s no room for coherent thought, let alone any further flirting or teasing. There’s only space in him for loving Zhou Xu, for showing him just what that love makes him yearn to do. Zhou Xu holds him close for all of it, kisses him and murmurs to him so gently that Wen Kexing might feel inclined to tease him for it if he were capable in that moment of being anything but utterly, passionately, eagerly Zhou Xu’s.

He stays right where he is after he finishes, his weight resting on his forearms on either side of Zhou Xu to avoid crushing him as he presses their foreheads together and takes the time to appreciate the simple intimacy of sharing the same space, of being connected as intimately as they are and in no hurry to part. Zhou Xu’s hands are skating slowly up and down his back again and it’s only now that he’s thoroughly warm that he realizes his lover’s hands are actually cool to the touch. Where before they had felt searingly hot when he needed them to be, now they’re soothing on his overheated skin and his entire expression softens into a besotted smile as he nuzzles his nose against Zhou Xu’s.

“Perfect,” he mouths against Zhou Xu’s lips, not even bothering to put so much as a whisper into it. He doesn’t need to - Zhou Xu smiles back and Wen Kexing knows he understands.

Not a single one of their problems are gone, and he knows that. It’s just very difficult to worry about such things anymore when he finally has his Ah-Xu fully and completely, when his soulmate has allowed himself to be vulnerable and known and held and loved. The peace they keep trying to find together will be shattered again soon, he’s sure, but for now they have this, and for now it’s enough.

#word of honor #word of honor fanfic #wenzhou #wen kexing #zhou zishu #working my way through my wips lol

29 notes · View notes

ijustwantdumpling · 5 years

Text

Modaozushi Fanfic Recommendation.

Since I can’t get enough of this novel, might as well pampering/hurting my self more with an outstanding fanfic/canon divergence of this great book. Even the live action and the anime version still nor gonna stop me from these beautiful handmade story by all the fans of Modaozushi.

This recommendation will be focusing on our WangXian couple

1.Cure by Yukirin_Snow

Description : It was meant to be a consult, simple, quick, to tell the family and patient that there wasn’t much he could do. Even after all the other doctors, the tests, the treatments, and the huge stack of documentation on his desk that told him this poor patient could only remain comfortable until his final moments.

So how had it ended up like this?

(It was well written and you could see how well researched this fanfic is. I Spent my night in tears reading this beautiful fanfic. tips : prepare some tissue and we gonna go on emotional roller coaster.)

status : Multi-chaptered / Completed

2. SanRen by Kyogre

Description : Leaving YunmengJiang in an effort to curb the tensions in the Jiang family, Wei WuXian becomes a rogue cultivator.Even without the support of a sect, he is a rare genius whose name will become known across the cultivation world and whose techniques will influence the course of a war.However, what influences his own fate is a chance meeting that becomes the first step toward love.

(a canon divergence, but at least everyone alive here.)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

3. My Immortal by Jaywalker_Holmes

Description : Wei WuXian had thought his troubles had ended after the mess with Jin GuangYao was sorted out, and that he would spend the rest of his life happily with his beloved Lan Zhan, double cultivating and rebuilding his golden core. However, fate had other plans. Mo XuanYu's frail body could not contain his increasing power, and an inevitable cultivation accident occurs, sending Wei WuXian to his six-year old body, just before Jiang FengMian found him. Will the YiLing Patriarch have a happier life this time around?Inspired by Evanescence's song, which will be reflected in the chapter titles.

(A time travel series! there’s a heavenly beast and everyone is alive and thriving also what I really love the most is soft hearted madam Yu and a creepy/psycho wen ruohan who’s everyone number onecenemies but at least he didn’t die so we could actually know what was he’s motivation actually is or.. just him being psycho)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

4. Loneliness Knows My Name by Jaywalker_Holmes , Treef

Description : AU after the First Siege of Burial Mounds. Wei WuXian didn't die, instead he was saved by someone everyone thought was already dead - Wen Ruohan. However, no one knows this (since Wen Ruohan is apparently great at faking deaths), so the cultivation world rejoices even as Lan WangJi desperately searches for his Wei Ying and finds a little child instead. Wei WuXian, on the other hand...

(well.. can you imagine Wen Ruohan became Wei Wuxian grandpa? this definitely change everything.)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

5. Night of Sixth Magnitude Stars by Leffy

Description : Lan WangJi gave him a disapproving look as they left the classroom. “You can’t be late every time.”Wei WuXian walked with light steps, seemingly in a happy mood. “They can’t fault me if I want to spend more time with the only student who really listens to me.”Lan WangJi followed reluctantly, because Wei WuXian always made him follow, even when he was driving him crazy.

( A modern AU! at first I was hesitated because I was to used with the time setting in the novel but my hesitation was just a complete stupid waste of time because this fanfic definitely GOLD)

status : Multi-Chaptered /Completed

6. Blink by Menuridae

Description : “So on Saturday night, while you are having the time of your life on a date with your hot, hunky, handsome soulmate, I have to go on a date with a rich young master who sounds like a literal stick in the mud whilst pretending to be you?"Mo Xuanyu's family has set him up on a blind date with a rich young master after learning he is gay. However, he already has plans for that night. Instead of going on the date himself, Mo Xuanyu enlists Wei Wuxian to go as a substitute. Wei Wuxian must act like his best friend for the night before kindly turning down Mo Xuanyu's date.Only, Wei Wuxian finds out that turning down Mo Xuanyu's date is possibly the hardest thing he has had to do in a long time.

(single parent LWJ and we should thanks Mo Xaunyu for he is actually our savior)

status :Multi-Chaptered /Completed

7. the nights are long (but the years are shorter) by hyunbyun

Description : Wei Ying and Lan Zhan come to terms with the fact that A-Yuan really is grown up.

(WangXian became a soft parent and somehow I pictured my parent actually felt the same in each year I grew up.)

status : Oneshot

8. Ten miles of Lotus Flowers by Yukirin_Snow

Description : He was a mischievous fox spirit, wreaking havoc where he went, about to depart on a journey that would span centuries.He was a heavenly prince, a proud dragon destined to ascend the throne to become emperor.Neither expected their paths to collide over the span of three lives.

(A/B/O Dynamic and Mpreg. very well written and my heart broke most of the time thankyou very much but it’s happy ending tho)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

9. Switched by Shorimochi

Description : When an actor transmigrated into a fictional world, and a fictional character transmigrated into the real world.There are a lot of things Xiao Zhan could do - sing, dance, act, cook, draw - but not fighting cultivators, and definitely not summon an army of corpses! Most importantly, how can he handle being around Wang Yibo's fictional self when he knew the man had been fantasising about him since fifteen?Wei Wuxian swore just a few minutes ago he was still out there, destroying the Wens who had taken away his home, but when he opened his eyes he arrived at a dreamland where there are moving pictures, metal carriages, and people are so rich they poop in a beautiful white porcelain throne. Also, why does the Lan Zhan he saw smile so often and talk so much?

(LWJ reputation was definitely tainted! I laugh so much but this ff is actualy genius. let’s see how Xiao Zhan, a real life actor who played wei wuxian and who knew better about how his character specially the story line trying to save that massive bundle of trouble)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

10. Don't You Like Me (MDZS Edition) by Shorimochi

Description : Wei Wuxian was just an ordinary teenager at Gusu Academy. He hung out with friends, break the rules at least once a day, and banter with his roommate, Lan Wangji at every opportunity he had.Life had been normal, until his grandfather passed away and left him an ancient relic that gave him the Yin eyes, causing him to be able to see and communicate with ghosts. Wei Wuxian was horrified to discover that everywhere around him, there were ghosts invading his space, even watching him shower! He wasn't able to sleep, eat, or study properly - until one day he accidentally touched Lan Wangji skin-to-skin, and the ghosts simply disappeared. Hmm?Wei Wuxian discovered that a simple brush of hands closed his Yin eyes for five minutes. A hug, fifteen minutes. Exchanging saliva? (Don't ask how)... Two hours. And so he began sticking close to Lan Wangji for as much and as long as he could.Until he got kabedon'ed by his roommate.LWJ: You try to touch me at every opportunity you have. You like me, don't you? WWX: ... (Unable to answer because of the curse of the seal) LWJ: I like you too. WWX: ??!Based on a novel of the same title.

(A modern AU, a have good laugh also wei wuxian was very meanie to our soft hearted lwj.)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

11. no other cloud compares to you by ectocosme

Description : Divine beasts sometimes fall in love with humans. Half-divine beast most often than not. Dragons always. Wei Wuxian visits Cloud Recesses when he receives the first 'hail' of who will become his mate. At least, he is determined for them to become mates. But life does not flow as the river, it is a meandering stream easily disturbed.

(Wei Wuxian as a dragon! also wangji are just so stupid smh..)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Ongoing

12. Sky, Cloud and Lotus by Xantya24

Description : Wei WuXian is an unruly omega that is mated to one of the Twin Jades of GusuLan, Lan WangJi an alpha. Till one day, they find out that Wei WuXian is pregnant. How will the new mated couple react to the news? It will be one hell of a ride. Raising kids is definitely different from raising buns buns. From morning sickness to weird cravings to mood swings to labor to sleepless nights. To new relationships being build to finding about love. Lots of angst and fluff also. Prepare for the feels.

status : Multi-Chaptered / Ongoing

13. ShuangXiu by panda_desu

Description : Lan XiChen knows he must sound so stupid right now. He clears his throat. "I am sure this is something to expect from a married couple, but Wangji, I have to ask, how?"Lan WangJi looks impassively at Lan XiChen.

(mpreg but not abo dynamic but somehow it’s make sense! well at least for mdzs universe. love how the author deliver it and makes the theory acceptable so it’s not like wei ying getting pregnant out of nowhere. loved it!)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

14. MDZS drabbles by Demon_neko97

Description : This is just a collection of the prompt requests I receive on Tumblr. (The prompt request is already closed.)

(collection of drabbles, fluffy, funny, perfect for times when you just want to keep it light and better mood)

status : Drables / Ongoing

15. The Light That Fails to Dim by glowingreverie

Description : Wei Ying lost his parents in a night hunt. Cold and alone, he wandered the streets of Yiling for nearly two years. However, one fateful night, a tall, scary man finds him and takes him back to a place he calls Qinghe. Later Wei Ying, now known as Wei Wuxian, discovers that that tall, scary man is not bad at all. And his cowardly brother makes an even better friend than he initially thought he would. With a content feeling in his chest every day, Wei Wuxian can only hope these peaceful, happy days with his new family will last until the end of time.Or, in which Jiang Fengmian is unaware of what happened to Wei Wuxian's parents and Nie Mingjue takes him in and the story continues from there...

(things really get different over there and I might say this is a great one. I just love nie huaisang so much fight me)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

16.Misunderstood by Silver_Flame_2724

Description : There is something called a memory ball, or Jiyi Qiu, that shows the memories of a chosen person.In order to further incriminate the already dead Yiling Patriarch, the cultivation world decides to use this memory ball at the next Discussion Conference to show how evil the demonic cultivator can truly be.What appears, though, truly shocks them all.

(a cried a river. heartbreaking but satisfied just to imagine those guilty faces)

status : Multi-Chaptered /Ongoing

17. Jiang Cheng and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Wedding by hyunbyun

Description : An outside perspective on modern! Lan Zhan’s and Wei Ying’s wedding through the eyes of local poor soul Jiang Cheng.

(Heartwarming, it literally bring smile to my face and this is just so good. you have to read this one)

status : Oneshot

18. Family - Mating Season by Laxruar

Description : Fairy isn't a good dog.

(Laugh my ass out, literally!)

19. Instagram Husband by hasu, ofishenod

Description : Wei WuXian was on a mission to become Instagram Famous, so he did what he did best: dragged Lan WangJi (and many unwilling others) into his misadventures. Or, 5 times Wei WuXian had Lan WangJi take photos of him and 1 time Wei WuXian took a photo with Lan WangJi.

(if I don’t get the lan wangji for my wei wuxian, then what’s the meaning of this life?!)

status : Oneshot.

20. The Tale of Snow Wei by scrayjes

Description :

Snow Wei is a powerful warlock; The mage is as strong-willed as can be; The prince should watch his anger; The donkey should roam free.

(wei wuxian as a snow white? yes. )

status : Oneshot

21. Response by Aki_no_hikari

Description : What if Wei Wuxian hadn't been silent to Lan Wangji's Inquiry? Part 2: Featuring A-Yuan

(a-yuan T.T loving it!)

status : Multi-Chaptered

22. Some of You by Tangerinechar

Description : It can’t be that bad, he thinks. There’s no way he would have done that. But the doubt still lingers, turning into full-blown anxiety as he scrolls down his twitter feed, finally arriving on his latest tweet.

Lan WangJi ✔ @lan_wangjiSome of you have never fallen in love with a boy only for him to go missing after his parents die and pine away for three years waiting for him to come back, then continue to pine when he’s back after you realize you’re too scared to confess, and it shows.23,043 retweets | 73,328 likesLan Zhan’s face pales and he buries his head in his hands, letting his phone drop on the table.

This is bad.This is very, very bad.-Or, Lan Wangji gets drunk and tweets a love confession, Wei Wuxian panics, and all of twitter decides to matchmake Lan Wangji and his mystery guy.

(wei wuxian is that dense! smh)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

23. asymptotic by chinxe

Description : The members of the Lan Clan have never been particularly well-known for their good judgement when it comes to matters of the heart.Which is why it should come as a surprise to no one when Lan Wangji falls in love with an actual ghost.

(”wei ying is wei ying” lwj just so hopeless when it’s about wwx)

status : Multi-Chaptered / Completed

if you already read all of those fanfics above then congratulation! you’ve already going through a high level of mood changing, tear jerking, blood pulsing, head aching, tooth aching fluff and thousands more feelings! what a ride!.

#mdzs #wangxian #lanwangji #weiying #weiwuxian #the untamed #mo dao zu shi

11 notes · View notes

notmrfeelgood-blog · 6 years

Photo

If y’all don’t mind, I’d like to take a second and talk about what is, in my opinion, one of the best scenes in Summer Rose Court and why it works so effectively in and out of context.

Spoilers below

Going into my first playthrough of this game, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what it was going to be like. I had played through the demo about four times and had seen enough early-build screenshots to feel confident in my expectations of what I would be getting into.

To put it plainly I was expecting a dating sim visual novel that leaned pretty strongly into the dating sim aspects that would be backed up with a conventional, if unobtrusive plot. And if that’s all that SRC turned out to be then I would be totally satisfied with it, I mean, I definitely got my money’s worth out of it; you can’t exactly beat free.

But about an hour or so into my first playthrough I came upon this scene, and all of my expectations about the overall story and tone were tossed out the window like so much dead weight.

Just look at those screenshots, Ozpin, shriveled and wizened, clutching to a throne that is literally draining the life from him with sentient thorns. Fuck man, how much farther could you get from a fluffy, low-impact dating sim?

Now there are a handful of reasons why I think this scene works so well at subverting expectations, so let’s get right to it.

One: Ozpin

This point only works because SRC is a fan-game and really doesn’t make much sense if the audience hasn’t already watched at least a little bit of the original source material. As a fan of RWBY for a few years now, I’ve seen Ozpin, kicked around, betrayed, surprised, literally killed (its fine though don’t worry about it), and generally just had a real rough time of it, but I’ve never seen him as far out of his depth as he is here.

Ozpin has, to a certain extent, been a bit of a reassuring figure throughout the show. Sure, we can argue about just how moral his actions are, but you can’t deny that at the very least, he knows what’s going on. He’s been overpowered by Cinder and others, but trying to use Crescent Rose is just a completely different caliber.

We’ve always known that Ozpin could swim in deep waters, but during this scene, he might as well be in outer space.

The fact that its Ozpin on the throne throws all the reassurance that normally comes with him off kilter. His answers may not have always been the ones that we’ve liked, but at least he had answers. This however, is something totally beyond him, giving us a pretty solid idea of just how powerful Crescent Rose is going to be.

Two: Crescent Rose

Let’s take a second and step away from the minutiae and describe the scene. We have a young protagonist, newly forced into a demanding journey, who upon the completion of the first leg of their journey, meets a kindly older mentor who shares a connection with the mystical power that is integral to the hero’s story. But before the mentor can really aid the hero on their journey, they lash out, face distorting into a reflection of the grotesquerie manifested by the magical force.

You know what that sounds an awful lot like?

Its not a perfect metaphor, Bilbo reaching for the ring out of the primal need for it is a lot different than Ozpin’s taking of the throne out of a sense of duty, but let’s play this out for a second.

Turning a beloved/relatable character into something so viscerally horrific and then saying, ‘oh its all because of this power that the hero must now handle is a pretty intense way of building the overall tension surrounding that power. I mean, I still have a hard time watching that bit in Fellowship and I’m a grown-ass man.

Crescent is a force to be reckoned with throughout the entire story, but introducing her like this is an extremely forceful way of showing the audience exactly what she’s made of, a tactic used again to similar effect the first time she takes over Ruby’s body.

Three: Recognition

“It isn’t fear or confusion that strikes me at the look in his eyes, but a deep jolt of recognition.”

This point goes hand in hand with the previous one.

As the Lord of the Rings trilogy ramps up, one of the ways Tolkien builds tension is through the gradual corruption taking hold in Frodo. In effect, Bilbo’s little jump scare in Rivendell is a reverse time capsule, showing what the end effect of Frodo’s journey could be. Recognizing the same lust for the ring in Frodo is genuinely one of the most terrifying things about the final trek towards Mt. Doom.

But enough with the Lord of the Rings references, I promise I’m getting to my point. The fact that Ruby recognizes the power sucking Ozpin dry as the same one her parents used and the one that is inextricably linked to her and her bloodline is more haunting the more you think about it. It also definitely gives her some hero points when she chooses to use the throne anyways.

Now this isn’t totally substantiated by the game, but I also like to believe that not only is Ruby recognizing Crescent, but the reverse is happening as well. Even though she’s asleep, I think Crescent could definitely sense the presence of the next Rose heir and a new chapter in her story, a thought which doesn’t exactly engender a sense of safety.

Conclusion: Setting the Stakes

Okay, so we’ve talked about some of the components of this scene, but what’s the overall effect they have when you put it all together?

Early on in the game, you watch an attack on the Xiao-Long tribe by a pack of Grimm, and while that’s a fairly brutal inciting action, its far more important to Ruby than it is to the audience. For us, this scene with Ozpin, is the moment when we become just as invested as Ruby.

Honestly, the first time I played through this, I literally had to set my laptop down and pace around my apartment for a few minutes before I could go back to the game. Every expectation I had about the game had been proven wrong in the space of a few seconds, and I had to mentally reorient myself as to how I was going to experience this story.

Gone were my ideas about a fluffy dating sim with light coming-of-age themes. This was going to be a story that I had to engage with on a completely different level and this was exactly the moment that proved it to me.

By setting the stakes miles higher than I had expected in a single scene is something you can only really pull off once in a story, and this particular moment does it more than brilliantly.

#rwby #summer rose court #src #src spoilers #analysis

85 notes · View notes

bittersweetmelodie · 7 years

Text

perspective

Fandom: RWBY Pairing: Blake Belladonna/Sun Wukong Summary: In which Blake and Sun don’t know the meaning of the word subtle, literally everybody knows what’s going on, and Blake is going to stab somebody. Rating: T, for sexual implication. Skip the first blurb if it bothers you; the rest is safe, I promise!

A/N: I really wanted to do a take on other people’s thoughts on Blake and Sun’s relationship, and then it kind of ran away from me, as most of my stories tend to do. Also I was really hesitant to use Ilia in the last blurb, but I couldn’t think of any other significant character who would have had insight on Blake and Adam’s relationship, so I kind of got stuck; that last one is probably my least favourite of the five.

I. Yang Xiao Long

Blake looked up from her book and eyed Yang suspiciously as she plopped down in the seat across from hers. Her apprehension had less to do with the fact that it was Yang – she was her teammate, after all – and more to do with the fact that they were in the library. And if there was one thing that she knew about Yang, it was that she hated the library – you had to be quiet (not something Yang was particularly good at doing), and being there usually involved some form of studying or reading.

She sighed and put her book down when Yang continued to stare at her without saying anything. “Did you need something, Yang?”

“Nope,” Yang said, casually shrugging her shoulders. She held up a plastic bag and slid it across the table towards Blake. “I got you something.”

Blake frowned at the smile on Yang’s face – it was one that she had seen quite often, usually when Yang up to something. More often than not, it was something destructive, something that would probably get them all in trouble. She pulled the bag towards her slowly, like one wrong move could make it explode, and cautiously peered inside. Of all the things that she had been expecting to be inside, this wasn’t it.

Her face reddened at the implications that Yang was trying to make and threw the bag back at her. “Yang, what the hell? I don’t want or need that!”

“You sure about that?” she asked, an amused smirk making its way onto her face. She caught the bag easily and pulled the box out of it.

“Put that thing away!” Blake snapped; she could feel the heat spreading from her cheeks down to her neck. She glanced around the library to make sure that nobody was watching or listening to the two of them, but the few people that were still there were either passed out from the exhaustion of school, or too busy cramming to notice Yang trying to embarrass her.

“I’m just saying, Blake. You and Sunny boy seem to be getting awfully close. We don’t want any accidents to happen because you guys were careless.” She waved the offending object in Blake’s face. “I’m just looking out for you.”

Blake scowled and smacked her hand away from her face. “Yang, I swear to dust.”

Yang shrugged indifferently and sat up in her seat. “I don’t want to wake up one day to find you throwing up in the washroom. I don’t know if you know this, but when a boy and a girl like each other –”

Blake’s ears flattened against her head and she let out a strangled shriek – this could not be happening. It had to be some sort of twisted nightmare, and she would wake up any minute now. “No. Please stop. I will do literally anything to make you stop talking.”

“Look,” Yang said, unperturbed by her reaction, “I never got the talk from my parents – my mother left before I could even talk, and my father’s way too awkward to talk to me about something like that. Not that I need it – I doubt Weiss has the capability to get me pregnant. But I’m sure that growing up in the White Fang, nobody really sat you down and gave you the talk either, so I’m taking it upon myself to have this conversation with you. You know, just to make sure you know how these things work.”

Blake planted her face onto the table and let out a soft groan. She knew Yang was only doing this to get a rise out of her (it was working), but she wasn’t wrong – nobody had ever sat her down and explicitly given her the talk, because her parents had left the White Fang before she had reached the age where they had to worry about it. But she wasn’t stupid – she’d read enough books to know where this conversation was going, and she didn’t need it.

“Me and Sun aren’t dating,” she mumbled into the table. “There is no need for you to have this talk with me now. Or ever.”

“Maybe not now, but I’ve seen the looks you two give each other – I swear, the sexual tension makes me want to lock you guys into a closet until you sort things out. I’ll be surprised if you haven’t jumped his bones by the time we leave for Atlas.”

When she’s sure that the redness in her cheeks had subsided, she lifted her head up. “Yang, I’m begging you. Please stop talking.”

“Objectively speaking, he’s a good-looking guy,” she continued, ignoring Blake’s words. “You must have a hell of a lot of self-control if you can ignore abs like that.”

This conversation made Blake want to hide away in her room and never come out – she didn’t want to discuss Sun’s abs, or any part of his body for that matter, or just Sun in general, with anybody. Especially with Yang. She covered her face with her hands and barely managed to conceal the scream that threatened to spill out. She wondered if Ruby and Weiss would mind much if she stabbed Yang with Gambol Shroud. But then, she would be down a partner and teammate, so maybe that wouldn’t be the best idea.

“And have you seen his staff?” she asked, completely oblivious to Blake’s inner turmoil. “Seriously, that thing is long, and if it’s any indication of the size of –”

This time, Blake didn’t bother muffling her scream – she would do just about anything to keep Yang from finishing that sentence. “Shut up, Yang!”

Yang watched her with an amused gleam in her eyes, knowing that she had succeeded in what she had come to do. “I’m serious! Haven’t you heard the rumours?”

At that point, Blake didn’t think her face could turn any redder without exploding into flames. “No! And I don’t think –”

“Ahem.”

Blake looked up, face still burning, to meet the angry glare of the librarian.

“Out,” the librarian snapped, pointing towards the exit. “Now.”

Blake didn’t need to be told twice. She gathered her books and bolted from the library as quickly as she could, partly because she wanted to get away from Yang, and partly because she wanted to find some place away from the prying eyes of other people (because she knew she wasn’t going to lose Yang that easily, and some privacy would be nice). Half the occupants in the library had probably heard her outburst, and were probably watching her as she ran. She was going to die of embarrassment.

Yang easily kept pace behind her, the plastic bag swinging innocuously at her side.

“Throw that damned thing away before somebody sees it,” Blake growled, gesturing violently at it.

Yang pouted. “I’m trying to be helpful, Blake. You’re going to need it eventually. Well, when one of you finally gets it together and asks the other out. Maybe you should just walk up to him and plant a wet one on him – if he still doesn’t get it after that, he’s a lost cause.”

Blake grabbed the bag and threw it into the nearest trash can with so much force that she’s surprised the bottom didn’t crack. She turned back to Yang and opened her mouth to yell some more, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned around and was met with Sun’s cheerful smile. ‘Oh, no,’ she thought, her cheeks burning with mortification. His appearance would only give Yang more fuel to add to the fire.

“What’s this I hear about you kissing somebody?” he asked teasingly, nudging her in the ribs with his elbow.

Blake wanted so badly to just sink into the ground and never resurface. The evil glint in Yang’s eyes made her wonder what on Remnant she had ever done to her to deserve this kind of torture. “Nothing,” she cut in hastily before Yang had a chance to say something to embarrass her further. She grabbed the back of Sun’s shirt and started pulling him away. “Let’s go get tea.”

“Looks like you’ll need them after all, Blake!” Yang called after them. “But don’t worry, I already gave Sun a box.”

The scream that followed afterwards could be heard all across Mistral.

II. Adam Taurus

‘No. Not again. I won’t let him – not this time!’ Blake thought as she tore through the alleyways of Atlas, searching for any signs of Sun or Adam. She clutched the hilt of Gambol Shroud so tightly that her knuckles turned white. A flash of red and the familiar sight of Sun’s gunchucks sent her skidding to a halt.

“Sun!” she screamed before she could stop herself. “No!” She desperately threw herself between Adam and Sun, and raised her weapon to block Adam’s attack, but the sheer force of it sent her tumbling backwards, right into Sun.

He curled himself around her as they both went flying into through the window of a nearby building, taking the brunt of the damage. He landed roughly on his back and lost his grip on Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, sending the staff flying across the room. He grunted in pain when she landed on top of him.

She scrambled off him to kneel down next to him. She gave him a quick onceover, taking inventory of his injuries. She took solace in the fact that there seemed to be no life-threatening wounds on his person. She exhaled quietly as he sat up – he was fine. She ran her hand over the scar that ran along the length his arm, wiping some of the blood away.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he glanced at the bruises lining her abdomen. He gently touched the rip in her shirt.

“Sun,” she breathed, momentarily forgetting about Adam. She shook her head and gave a watery laugh – leave it to Sun to worry about her when she was the one who landed on top of him. She stood up. “I should be asking you that.”

He grabbed the hand she offered and let her pull him up. “I’m fine –”

“I always thought you were smarter than this, Blake,” Adam said, cutting him off. His laugh, so cold and sinister that it chilled her to the bones, cut through the air.

It worried her, because she knew why he was laughing – she had just given him exactly what he wanted. The last time he had seen Sun, Adam had called him her classmate, and she’d been content to let him think that, because classmate was a far cry from something she loved, and she thought that, somehow, it would keep Adam from going after Sun. She should have known that it was a naïve thought – Adam had always been good at reading her, and her feelings for Sun weren’t an exception.

He had probably known all along that Sun was much more than a teammate to her. But he had wanted some kind of admission from her – proof that he meant something to her – because it would hurt all the more when followed through on his threat. And her scream, desperate and frantic, even to her own ears, and the sheer relief in her voice as his name fell from her lips – that had been enough; she hadn’t said it in as many words, but her reaction had told him everything he needed to know.

‘Actions speak louder than words,’ she thought regretfully. It had been something Adam had taught her a long ago, an excuse he had has used when he had started turning the White Fang into the violent extremists that they were today. She didn’t have to tell him that she might love Sun – her actions were proof enough of that, and she might as well have painted a target on Sun’s back.

“I thought you would have learned your lesson the last time, my dear,” he said, his voice eerily calm, his sword drawn, and his rifle pointed straight at Sun’s chest.

Blake froze, because his words still haunted her nightmares, keeping her up for nights on end. He never was one to make a threat he didn’t intend to follow through on. There were still nights where she woke up from those nightmares with the desire to run, because she knew – no matter what they said – that if Adam hurt them, it would be her fault. There were nights where the panic was so bad that she practically tore down the hotel room doors to make sure that her friends were still alive; she’d woken them up time and again in the middle of the night, and none of them ever complained.

But right now, as she stared Adam down, she knew that couldn’t let that fear control her. Not when her friends were depending on her. Not when there were so many people at risk. She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin in defiance. “I’m done running, Adam,” she said, her voice fierce and determined. “I’m still scared – I’ll probably be scared long after you’ve been put away for good. Your words will probably haunt me long after our battles are done, but I will never let that fear keep me away from my friends again. This is my life, and I won’t give you the satisfaction of seeing it fall apart because of you. You can threaten everybody that I care about, you can try and destroy everything I love, but I’ll be right here, fighting you every step of the way.” She raised Gambol Shroud and glanced back towards Sun.

He gave her a nod, and she knew what he was trying to say. I’ll always have your back. And she’s grateful – so, so grateful – that he’s here, despite the risks that he knew he would have to take.

She opened her mouth to tell Sun to be careful, but Adam didn’t give her the chance as he charged at her. His sword crashed against hers with so much force that she was sent skidding backwards, and she was forced to dig her heels into the ground to keep herself from being knocked back again.

“Imagine what his blood will look like on my sword.” His voice was quiet and calm despite the harshness of the words coming out of his mouth. “Imagine the pain and fear in his eyes as he bleeds to death, and you can do nothing but watch as his life fades.”

Blake faltered, and she barely managed to bring Gambol Shroud up in time to block Adam a second time. She stood, rooted to the spot, because she could imagine the red of Sun’s blood glistening on the red of Adam’s sword. She didn’t need to imagine Sun bleeding out in front of her, because she had seen it happen. And then she’d seen it night after night as she relived the moment over and over again in her dreams.

“You might not be running now, Blake, but when you see him –” he jerked his chin towards Sun, who had gone to retrieve his weapon – “lying in a pool of his own blood, you will be. You’ll run because it’ll your fault that he’s dead, just like it was your fault that your friend lost her arm. And you should run, because I won’t stop until –”

She pushed back, just hard enough to send him back a couple feet and leveled her sword at him. She looked at him, her gaze steady and unrelenting. “I know,” she said quietly. “I know you won’t, but neither will I.”

Before he had a chance to respond, he was sent flying back by the full force of Sun’s weapons. “Leave her alone.” He leapt back and fell into place next to her, followed by the rest of her teammates, and Ilia.

Adam snarled – he knew he wouldn’t be able to take all of them on at once. He slowly backed away towards the window, his eyes never leaving the group.

Blake watched him until he jumped out the window and out of sight before she let Gambol Shroud clatter to the ground and she ran over to Sun. “I told you not to run off on your own!” she scolded. “He’s dangerous – he’ll kill you if you’re not careful! Don’t you have any sense of self-preservation?”

He winced at her angry tone. “Sorry, Blake, I couldn’t just let him get away.”

“You stupid idiot,” she sighed. She leaned over and pulled him into a hug, her heart still pounding from Adam’s threat. She forced herself to swallow the sob that was threatening to bubble over and buried her face into Sun’s shoulder. “Don’t do that again,” she mumbled, her voice muffled by his shirt.

“Okay,” he said quietly as he smoothed her hair down. “Okay. I won’t.”

She was still gripped by the fear that Adam would keep hunting him – and she would probably feel that way until they put him away for good – but for now, she took comfort in the warmth of Sun’s embrace.

III. Neptune Vasilias

“Hey, Blake,” Neptune said as he jogged up to her and grabbed her sleeve.

The tone of his voice – guarded and apprehensive – put her a little on edge. “Is something wrong, Neptune?”

“I need to talk to you about something – about Sun.”

She groaned. How many more times would she have to listen to other people talk about her feelings for Sun before she finally snapped? “Go bother Yang about Weiss instead,” she grumbled. “I’m sure she’d be more than happy to share the details of their relationship with you.”

He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I’m not here to tease you about your relationship, Blake. Or should I say your lack thereof? Because you guys really are taking your sweet time with that.”

“Neptune,” she said impatiently.

“Okay, okay,” he said as he noted the annoyed expression on her face. “I’m really not here to talk to you about that. Look, before I say what I came here to say, remember that I like you, Blake. All of Team SSSN does – you’re like a sister to us. Although I’m sure the only member of Team SSSN whose opinion you really care for is Sun’s.

“And I’m only saying this because I know he’ll never have the heart to do it himself. Sun likes you a lot, Blake. Probably more than he cares to admit to any of us. He didn’t take it well when you abandoned everybody after the fall of Beacon. I’m not saying it was wrong of you to do it – I don’t know why you left or why you came back, but Sun spent a lot of time looking for you because he didn’t think you should be alone. He cares about you a lot. More than he’s cared for anybody or anything before. And I don’t want to see him get hurt again.”

“I’m not going anywhere this time,” she said quietly.

“That’s probably true,” he acknowledged. “But I’m sure you can understand my apprehension after what happened last time. The fight isn’t over, Blake, and I’m sure Yang isn’t going to be the last of your friends to get hurt. You can’t decide that you’re going to run away every time somebody is injured.”

She seized with terror – this was what she’d been afraid of. This was what she had feared when she had come back, when she had faced her friends – that they would shun her, that they wouldn’t forgive her for running away and that, if they did, their friendship would be fraught with the fear that she would run again at any given moment. Sun had assured her over and over again that it would be fine, that her team would never abandon her like that, but it had never occurred to either of them that Team SSSN might.

“Don’t get me wrong, Blake. I’m not mad at you,” he added hastily when he saw the terrified expression on her face. “I’ll never really understand what you’ve been through, and I’m sure you had your reasons for leaving, but Sun is more important to us than anything else in the world. I’m sure you understand – after all, he’s probably one of the most important people to you too.” He made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and it made her wonder if she was really that transparent.

“My point is, I don’t want to see Sun get hurt again. None of us do. So just – please don’t hurt him. I think I speak for all of Team SSSN when I ask you not to hurt him again. He’s not fragile by any means – he can’t be, not after all that he’s been through.”

Blake didn’t know what he meant by that – a stark reminder of how little she actually knew about Sun’s past.

“But if you left him again, I’m not sure it wouldn’t break him,” he continued. “You – you didn’t see how upset he was, Blake. He watched you take off – he wanted to follow you, but people were dying. By the time everybody had been transported to the hospital, you were long gone. We searched for you for hours – there was four of us and one of you; how hard could it be? It turned out you’re really good at running away, because we couldn’t find any trace of you. Sun nearly fell apart with fear – he had no idea where you were going, or if you would be safe. I think that scared him the most – not that you could run away and leave everything behind so easily, but the fact that you could get hurt.”

She stared guiltily at her feet – she hadn’t thought about how her leaving would affect her friends; all she had cared about then was getting as far away as possible from them so that if Adam came back for her, at least she could be content with the fact that they were safe. At the time, it had been all that mattered – that they were alive somewhere, safe from Adam, other consequences be damned.

“He’s lost a lot of important people in his life, and he’s somehow managed to get past that and still keep his sunny disposition, but losing you – well, that might just push him over the edge. So try to keep that in mind.

“I won’t threaten you, because quite frankly, you kind of scare me. But more importantly, Sun would be upset if I tried to hurt you. It’s not that he doesn’t care what you do, and he might not always be happy with all the choices you make, but the only thing that matters to him is that you’re happy and safe.”

She knew he was right about that – whatever she chose to do, Sun would support her. If she wanted to be with somebody else, he wouldn’t hesitate to let her go; if she showed even the slightest hint that she would be happier without him, he would leave. He would always put her first, regardless of how it made him feel.

“I know,” she said, clasping her hands together. “I – I don’t know what I did to deserve that.”

“It’s not about deserving something – that’s not how love works. He chose you – there probably isn’t a single reason why, and there doesn’t have to be. I’m sure if you asked him, he could list ten reasons off the top of his head, but there doesn’t always need to be a one. Sun sees the best in everybody, and you aren’t a bad person, Blake – I’m sure Sun tells you that all the time. You’re just a little rough around the edges, and that’s fine. It’s who you are. I didn’t come to give you a lecture on who you should be – I just want you to think about who you’d be hurting if you ever think about leaving again. And just remember, Sun isn’t the only one worries about you – we all do.”

She let out a breath. “I know, and I am sorry,” she said remorsefully. “I thought – I thought I was protecting you guys by leaving. But I’m not going anywhere this time – I can promise you that.”

“Good, because I think our team would fall apart if Sun had to leave to haul you back again.” He smiled at her to let her know that he was only kidding.

“Thanks, Neptune,” she said, returning his smile with one of her own.

IV. Kali Belladonna

“So, when should I expect grandchildren, Blake? You’re not getting any younger.”

Blake sputtered and nearly choked on the tea she was drinking. “Mom!”

Kali calmly sipped her cup of tea as she regarded her daughter. “Or at least a wedding invitation?”

“Mom!” she exclaimed again. “Sun and I aren’t dating, and nobody is getting married!”

Kali hummed quietly. “I never said anything about Sun though,” she said smugly.

Blake opened her mouth, but closed it again when she couldn’t find of a proper response to her mother’s words, because she was right – she hadn’t mentioned Sun’s name.

She placed her cup onto the coffee table and turned to Blake with a knowing look in her eyes. “That boy is clearly in love with you, dear – he looks at you like you’re the only thing in the world that matters.” She gently placed her hand on Blake’s face. “And why wouldn’t he? You’ve grown up to be a lovely, wonderful woman, and anybody would be lucky to have you. I know you’re still fighting with that part of your past, but you do deserve to be happy, Blake. And I can tell that he makes you happy.”

She smiled softly at the surprised look on Blake’s face. “You might not wear your heart on your sleeve the way he does and you’re certainly not as obvious about it as he is, but I think it’s pretty clear that you love him. Maybe not as a lover, but the way you nearly tore the house down that night, the way you stayed at his side and held his hand until he woke up – you might not even know what your feelings mean yet, but you must care for him a great deal.”

She flushed. She had always been good at hiding her emotions behind a wall of indifference – it was something she had learned during her time in the White Fang, because she couldn’t afford to let her emotions overcome her while she was on the battlefield. Letting that happen could be fatal. But it was becoming apparent that no matter how hard she tried, she was absolutely terrible at hiding her feelings for Sun.

“He cares about you a lot. I think he’s good for you,” Kali said.

“I don’t think dad would agree with you on that,” Blake mumbled.

“Well, he certainly didn’t make the best first impression on your father,” Kali agreed.

“No, he really didn’t,” she said, her lips curling in distaste as she recalled Sun’s nervous ramblings.

“I don’t blame him.” Kali nudged her teasingly in the ribs. “Everybody gets nervous when they meet their in-laws – I think I’d be more concerned if he wasn’t nervous.”

Blake let out a defeated sigh; she couldn’t decide what was worse – her mother trying to interfere with her love life, or her best friend trying to get her to jump into bed with Sun.

“But first impressions are first impressions,” Kali continued. “And I think Sun has done more than enough to show your father that he’s not just some stupid boy with a big mouth. He might not show it, but I think your father actually likes Sun, despite his initial misgivings about him.”

Blake shook her head and gave her a look of disbelief, because she thought that her father had made his feelings about Sun pretty clear.

”Sweetheart, your father has nothing against Sun specifically. It doesn’t matter who it is, he’s never going to be completely happy with whoever you bring home. You’re always going to be his baby girl, Blake, and no boy or girl is ever going to be good enough for you.” She placed a gentle hand on Blake’s shoulder. “You’re just growing up so fast and he misses his little girl. But he’s going to have to let you go eventually. I do want grandchildren one day, after all. You’re both very good-looking – can you just imagine how cute your children will be?”

“Grandchildren?” Blake cried. “Mom, I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself!”

“Do you think his Faunus traits are stronger or yours?” she asked, ignoring Blake’s outburst. “You were supposed to have a brother or a sister, you know, but your father and I never quite managed to do that, and I’ve always wanted another cat baby to play with.”

“Mom!” She covered her burning face with her hands. She was starting to think her mother was worse than Yang.

“And have you thought about what kind of wedding you would want to have? Because I have some ideas. Yang’s your best friend, right? She would probably be your maid of honour. You should have it here in Menagerie – it’s beautiful in the fall.”

“Sun and I aren’t getting married!” Blake grumbled, her voice muffled by her hands.

“I’m just kidding, Blake. But maybe one day, you’ll consider it,” Kali said, winking at her. “And if you ever do get married, he’ll be my Sun-in-law.”

Blake slammed her head against the coffee table as her mother laughed.

V. Ilia Amitola

“So, you and Sun, huh?”

Blake groaned in annoyance. “Please, not you too.”

“What?” Ilia asked. She leaned against the kitchen counter and watched Blake out of the corner of her eye.

“Nothing,” she sighed. It wouldn’t be fair of her to take out her exasperation on Ilia. “Nothing. Just – can we not talk about Sun?”

She frowned. “Why not?”

“Because everybody seems to have something to say about our relationship. As if they know better than us how we feel,” she huffed.

Ilia shrugged. “I mean, you two are pretty oblivious.”

“Did Yang put you up to this?” she grumbled. Ilia and Yang had become fast friends since they had all arrived in Mistral, and that had only meant more embarrassment for Blake. “Because she’s already humiliated me enough as it is.”

“Oh, she told me about that,” Ilia said as she tried to hold back her laughter. “That might have been my fault.”

“What?!”

“I may have asked her when you started sleeping with Sun.”

“Ilia!” she exclaimed, her face colouring with mortification. She pinched the bridge of her nose – Yang and Ilia were going to be the death of her.

“Sorry! I just – I thought he was your boyfriend. Or that you guys were at least dating.”

“No, no. We are definitely not dating.” Blake buried her face in her hands.

“But you could be – I think he would be good for you.”

“And now you sound like my mom,” she mumbled.

Ilia grinned at her, but her smile faltered. “It’s just… I never saw what you saw in Adam. I always hated patching you up after your fights – you were always so hurt. More hurt than you should have been after a simple sparring match. And I – I didn’t know what to do.”

Blake fell silent, because looking back now, she couldn’t see it either. “It wasn’t always like that,” she said quietly. It hadn’t always been like that – he hadn’t always been so aggressive with her. There had never been an exact moment when things had changed, no specific point in time where she could definitively say ‘yes, that was when he became a monster’. It had been a gradual process, one that was so slow that she didn’t see it happening until suddenly everything was different. And by then, she had gotten so used to having Adam by her side that any other option had seemed unfathomable to her.

“I can’t – won’t – justify his actions. I can see it now that he was wrong, but back then? Back then, I was young, and stupid, and naïve. And he was all I knew. I was so blinded by my feelings that I couldn’t see that he was changing until it was too late.”

“Adam never was good enough for you,” Ilia said. She didn’t sound bitter, just resigned.

“Ilia, I – I am sorry. I wish… I wish I could have given you a chance.” If she hadn’t been so wrapped up in her feelings for Adam, if she had known about Ilia’s feelings for her, would things have turned out differently?

She put a hand on Blake’s shoulder and gave her a small, reassuring smile. “Don’t be sorry – you should never apologize for loving somebody. At least, this time, you chose somebody who actually loves you the way you deserve to be loved. Sun is the complete opposite of Adam, and I really do think he’s good for you, Blake.”

“Maybe that’s why I like him – because he’s nothing like Adam.”

“And he likes you, so what’s keeping you from being with him?” Ilia raised a questioning eyebrow. She never understood why people were so hesitant to do something about their feelings, and she especially didn’t understand why Blake didn’t. After everything they had all been through, after Sun had almost died – why was she still hesitating when she knew that everything could slip right through her fingers at any given moment?

“I – I don’t know,” Blake said, her hands trembling.

“You’re scared,” Ilia said as realization dawned on her. “You’re scared, and I don’t blame you; the last time you loved somebody, they broke your trust, and you probably never want to put yourself in a position where somebody has that much power over you again.”

“I am scared – I’m terrified. But not for the reason you’re thinking. When I was with Adam, I probably would have done anything for him, and I – I didn’t realize I had started changing into something I didn’t recognize. What if I twist him into something dark?” She looked down at her hands and curled them into fists. “How – how can I hold him with the same hands that I used to kill people? How can I – how do I hold something so pure and bright without shattering it?”

“So you’re not scared of him breaking your trust – you’re scared of breaking his,” Ilia summed up.

“I guess,” Blake said hesitantly. “I guess I’m worried, because Sun has a lot of unwavering faith, and that kind of faith is dangerous. It’s the same kind of trust I had in Adam, and look where it got me.”

“Is he worth it?” she asked.

“What?”

“Sun – is he worth it? Is he worth the risk? Do you love him enough to be with him despite your fears? Because I think it’s pretty obvious that he loves you enough not to care about what you think you’re capable of doing.”

Blake opened her mouth and then closed it, unsure of how to answer.

“I’ve seen you fall in love before, Blake,” she said gently, “and I’ve seen what you were like when is you were with Adam. You always seemed different with him – more violent, more aggressive – like you had something you needed to prove to him. You never had much reason to smile when we were in the White Fang – there was always so much death and destruction – but even when you were with Adam, you never seemed quite happy. But this is different – you’re different when you’re with Sun. You seem lighter somehow – happier. And Sun – I think he brings out a softer side in you, one that I never saw when you were with Adam.

“You’re not the same person you were back then, and Sun isn’t Adam. I don’t think you realize it, but you smile more easily when you’re with him. You’re gentler, less violent. And I doubt that boy has a mean bone in his body. I don’t think he knows how to hold grudges, to be honest. I tried to kill him, and he forgave me. So if you’re worried about breaking him, don’t be. I don’t think you’re capable of doing something like that, and I don’t think Sun’s capable of becoming a monster the way Adam did.”

“I know,” Blake said. “I know that – I’ve told myself that over and over again.”

“You don’t have to get over your fears overnight, Blake. But you should tell him – he might wait forever for you, but he deserves to know that you at least love him back.”

“I know,” she repeated, giving her a weak smile. “I – I will. Thanks, Ilia.”

A/N: I tried to make this crap fluffy – I really, really did!! But obviously I’m complete shit at it, because like 2/5 of these did a complete 180 on me. I’m so sorry I don’t know how to write something lighthearted; I must be dead inside or something.

#rwby #blacksun #blake belladonna #sun wukong #otp: like morning follows night #OKAY #BACK TO WORK NOW #word vomit

103 notes · View notes

tsundere-sims · 7 years

Text

Nicole Xiao

Basics Name: Nicole Xiao L’Ane she was born Xiao Nicole L’Ane but she switched her first name and her second name, her surname is luxembourgeois Ethnicity: Eurasian (father of pure luxembourgish family established in China for years and Chinese mother) (mother is daughter of Bengali father and Chinese mother living in Laos for decades) so (dad -> white & asian mom-> bengali and chinese) Age: 22 Sexuality: Straight, grey-aromantic Employment: Writer Birthday: 7 janvier 1995 Sign: Capricorn Eye Color: Amber Hair Style/Color: straigt black shoulder length hair Height: 5’03 Clothing Style: conservative, colorless (brown sometimes) Favorites Color : pale brown Animal: rodent Movie: Westerns,Japanese horror films & Asian actions film Game: pc games Music: alternative rock, blues, rocknroll, Electro pop, basically all her playlist Drink: milk tea Food: All Chinese street food involving pork Thoughts Your First Thoughts Waking Up: I don't waste time, I wake up and go no time to wander What You Think About the Most: my adoptive parents John and Authrine What You Think About Before Bed: Why Liun and I can move to welcome 3 more people to live with us You Think Your Best Quality Is: My apathy really, I love the fact that I have the ability to dissociate and be immune to what hurts others the most, the people I'm close too feel comfortable telling me anything, bc most of the time it don't phase me and I never judge nobody, I'm like a blank page….” Childhood memories/Relationships/Idols/etc. Nicole fave memory as a child is the birth of her little sister Vili as her and Liun felt lonely since brother was always at school and mom work 3 job and is only home sumdays, they took care of her like their 3rd twin. Mother (Xue Han): She was not close to her mom at all bc she was barely home working 3 jobs first at a local laundry from 12 to 4pm, in a hotel from 6pm to 10pm and as waitress from 10pm to midnight, therefore she slept at their aunt house and left Nicole,Liun and baby Vili alone with their brother who went to school from 9am to 6pm. So they barely had time to bond plus the mom had an exhorbitant love for money when she married she just did bc he impressed her with his family rich reputation in China and the fact he was half white(she was very ashamed of her Bengali heritage in a white beauty supremacy Laos & China) so she urged to marry him and weirdly she had a child shortly after as a “surprise” (huh she was pregnant before meeting him she took the opportunity by marrying what she thought was a rich man to make him believe the baby was HIS and secure the wealth she wanted) after the marriage she realized Qiang was not a direct heir of the “L’Ane” family wealth but just a cousin of the Heir he had an argument with and they cut him out of financial support, they became lower middle class, by that time she was pregnant with twins and didn't announced to Quiang, who signed paper saying that his family had just one Child and no plans of another bc China population was too much and birth had to be limited. They recieved 5,000 for accepting the “agreement” not to have children but then she announced her pregnancy after Quiang decided to hide the kids by not declaring them at birth, just the time to get a lawyer to annul the agreement. Fearing to get arrested bc Quiang didn't find a lawyer that will accept to be paid a lower middle class family revenue she declared the children, Quiang accepted but left the house not taking care of the newborn twins for 5 month, And Xue had to payback the 5,000¥ so she took a job and had her family track Quiang down they found him, homeless and hungry he came back home w no explanation and was a stay at home dad for the twins and Xue worked. To payback the money he secretly got into the Chinese mafia and sold drugs and firearms in secret places. Him & Xue never talked in that period he hated her to have put them in this situation of payback and she hated him to have lied about his wealth. Within 2 month they paid back now everybody's just acted like this never happened and the subject wasn't talked again. Xue stopped the working and rebecame the stay at home mom, Quiang continued to mysteriously bring much money home but Xue didn't question it as they became upper middle class and her lifestyle was fancy. Quiang was depressed bc he wanted out of the mafia but that's impossible unless death, he put Kein in a high private school. But 2 years later the twins were 3 year old, Quiang brutally left the house, they got kicked out their wealthy mansion and back to their lower middle class life, Xue was in the last stage of her pregnancy and Kein was not kim led out of school as it was vacations but for the rentrée Xue had to find a solution she send the twins to her aunt and went work in the capital while pregnant. And continued to work after Vili birth that she left at the aunt house and Keon still went to school. The mother was close the twins as baby but unable to bond as they grew very mature at the age of 3. And even know Xue is like a old connaissance who gave them up for Nicole. Father (Quiang L’Ane): Weirdly she gets along beat with Quiang even if he was an on and off dad she as no difficulty or awkwardness talking to him maybe because Nicole is Schizoid she really not is big on social relations so even if he don't talk to her in weeks she won't hold no grunges against him, talking is very spontaneous with Quiang and Nicole it's that personal daughter-dad bond that only them can get. After he left when she was 3, he came back a month after her sister birth and secretly took them (Nicole,Liun & Kein) with the permission of the aunt who stayed with vili and told nothing to Xue, and they stayed with him and he will introduce them to “cousins” Wen & Lam and he frequently did that half month without Xue ever knowing the only time he came see her was to file for divorce BROTHER/SISTERS: Nicole and Kein where very close he was the perfect big brother at least he tried, stealing stuff for them to eat, reading them stories celebrating their birthday by telling every neighborhood who gave them flowers, coming to take them after school everyday being the funniest and indépendant from anybody. When they got adopted he was way more depressed than Liun (who wanted her momma) and Kevin didnt understand how she felt nothing he got bullied at school bc he couldn't talk English and always fought and got in trouble after school because in China he always hang out with his dad and dads friend ( who he didn't know where mafia and Chinese Gamgsters) so he had a strong character. The bullying didn't last and he was the most feared/respected at school. So at home it had an effect on how he didn't interact with sisters or adoptive parents (who he HATES) anymore from his high school years. When he went to college he got back to his old self as he saw his dreams of big study came true slowly bc he makes himself remember how his dad made everything to have him in school and how proud his momma was so he got right to the only memory of his parents that he had his sisters. Just has everything went good John and Authrine went to Laos with all the children for vacations and they linked up with Xue, Liun,Kein and Ovi were the happiest and Nicole was very apathic with her mom but was polite. So they linked up and spent few days with her she asked about college for Kein then (OF COURSE) for some money as if what she was sent monthly by the rich family was not enough. And she revealed in an argument with Quiang that Kein wasn't his son after Quiang came out of nowhere to say hi to his kids, and Quiang revealed that Wen and Lam were his children. This was what déclenched an identity crisis for Kein he took the first plane back to New York and didn't give any news to anybody but a text to John and Authrine saying he is fine and back in college. They didn't question it. So that he was already lost to he was in high school he was back broken in the identity crisis stage with no answer to who brought him to this world and it's been 2 year he hasn't talk to any of his sisters or adoptive parents or “biological” parents nobody came after him because he sends news every month from a cab somewhere in NYC Your character’s relationship with their mother or their father, or both. Was it good? Bad? : Were they spoiled rotten, ignored? Do they still get along now, or no?: Where (and when) did they grow up? How did they view it as a child, and did that change as they matured? How do they feel about the place now? : Describe their best and worst memories from childhood : Who was their idol growing up?: What were they like as a child?: How do they feel about their family? How does their family feel about them?: Do they have siblings/cousins?: Sex/Romance What are they attracted to in a partner?: Do they have any particular fetishes or kinks?: Is there anything in particular that they won’t do?: Have they ever hurt someone they loved?: Do they fall in love easily?: Who is their current partner, and what attracted the character to them?: What kind of a relationship is it?: Misc Questions (less personal) Do they have any allergies? : What is their weapon of choice if they had to use one?: What is their preferred method of transportation?:. What kind of weather makes them happy, and what kind makes them sad?: What languages do they speak?: Do they eat a healthy diet? A varied one?: As a child, what did they want to be when they grew up?: What do they do when they need comfort?: What are they like when they are drunk?: Where in their body do they keep stress or tension?: Do they have any pet peeves or dislikes, and how do they react to encountering them?: Do they like to travel?: How well do they take criticism? How do they react to others noticing their flaws?: What are they like when they get sick? Do they have a particular system (ears, lungs, etc) that illness gravitates to?: How do they react to being physically injured or undergoing medical treatment?: 1: What’s your OC’s biggest insecurity and how would they react if someone pointed it out to them?  2: If your OC wants to buy a firearm, what it might be for? she owns one and it’s for protection (it was a gift from one of her brothers) 3: Does your OC behave differently around different people, if so with whom and how?  4: Would your OC want to involve themselves in humanitarian work ? If yes, then for what? If not, then why not? 5: How would your OC generally react to someone being verbally abusive towards them for no apparent reason?  6: Does your OC have a realistic image of their own intelligence?  7: Does your OC have any irrational phobias?  8: How is/was your OC’s relationship with their parents? 9: Does your OC feel a pressure to achieve or are they content and calm with doing what 10: Does your OC guard their emotions by being tough? If not how would they?  11: How would your OC react to hearing they’re adopted? 12: What is one of the most primary things your OC feels that is missing from their life?  13: What kind of situations does your OC avoid the most? talking about feelings 14: If your OC gets into a fight with their best friend, would they wait for their friend to make up with them, or would they try to make up with their friend?  15: Does your OC consider themselves a good person?  16: Is your OC good at giving others validation of their feelings and making them feel understood?  17: Does your OC suffer from any mental health issues?  19: What boosts your OC’s confidence the most?  20: Does your OC hurt others often unintentionally? If yes, how?  21: Does your OC hurt others often intentionally? If yes, how?  22: How does your OC usually show affection? Are they openly romantic or more restricted with their affectionate emotions?  23: Does your OC tend to hide something about their personality/essence when meeting new people? If yes, what?  24: How would your OC react if they got humiliated by someone in a group of people? 25: How would your OC process the grief caused by the death of a loved one?  26: What is the most intense thing your OC has been battling with?  27: Does your OC practise any kind of escapism? If yes, what kind?  28: How would your OC react if a bully stole their lunch money in high school? . 29: How does your OC behave on the face of a conflict?  30: What makes your OC defensive quickest?

#nicole

1 note · View note

setaripendragon · 7 years

Text

Learning To Share - Roy - Part 5

Winry :: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 Roy :: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 Wow, okay, so, I actually managed to finish this part. The second bit of this scene was a moment I’ve had in my head since I started this fic, so I’m so glad I finally managed to write it. I think there’s going to be another two parts to Roy’s section, and then I’m going to torture Maes -insert evil cackle here-

The apartment above the Central branch of Rockbell Automail was surprisingly cosy. The shop took up the entirety of the first floor, but the two above it in the tall, square townhouse were fitted out for living in, with a kitchen, a living room, and a library on the bottom floor, and three bedrooms and a study on the second. The main bedroom, which appeared to primarily be Al’s, was, of course, out of bounds to Roy, but Edward had no compunctions with dragging him into the second bedroom, which held scattered evidence of everyone’s presence, after their fifth date, and just about tearing Roy’s clothes off.

It soon became more the norm than not, which Roy was not complaining about in the least. Sometimes they wound up in Roy’s bed, but Ed often complained that Roy’s house felt cold, even with the fire in the living room lit, and Roy found he couldn’t exactly argue, after having spent several long afternoons and evenings and nights in Edward’s apartment. It wasn’t the temperature Ed was complaining about. And Roy was perfectly happy to spend his nights with Edward tangled up together in the second bedroom of the apartment, surrounded by reminders of family, even if sometimes they did have to pause half way through to put Xiao Mei or one of Al’s growing collection of cats outside.

Afterwards, when Roy was lazily trying to pull the shattered pieces of his brain back together, Edward sprawled atop him, he found his lover eyeing him with that intense curiosity that was unique to him. Like he was trying to dissect Roy with his gaze alone. “You haven’t told anyone about us.” He stated, but despite the lack of inflection, it was very clearly a question.

Roy shrugged lazily, sluggishly wondering if it bothered Edward. “The people I’m socially obligated to inform will know whether I tell them or not, so I don’t particularly feel the need to advertise.”

Edward snorted in amusement. “Okay, I hadn’t actually noticed that I wasn’t getting concerned or critical looks from Hughes.” He announced, then shook his head. Roy frowned a little, brushed Edward’s bangs out of his face so that Roy had a better view of his expression. It was less telling than Roy had hoped for. “Havoc’s tried to warn me about your girlfriend stealing ways, or rather, partner stealing ways. With multiple judgemental looks like he actually thinks I’d cheat on Winry. Asshole. While Hawkeye’s been… hovering over you like a mother eagle defending her chick.”

Roy winced. “Please don’t compare Riza to my mother.”

Edward’s eyes sparked and flared with intrigue. “Ah-hah! So you do have a thing for her! Winry owes me a hundred cenz.” He declared, all cat-like smugness. Roy wouldn’t have been surprised if he started purring any second.

Clearing his throat, Roy opened his mouth to deflect, because that’s what he always did. His relationship with Riza was so complicated, so mired in history and mistakes and promises that it often seemed no one really had a hope of understanding, so why bother letting them see anything more than a loyal commander and subordinate.

Then he caught sight of Edward’s raised eyebrows, and the words halted in his throat. Tension he hadn’t realised was there drained out of him, and he sighed through a smile, and reached up to card his fingers through Edward’s mussed bangs, putting them back into order. “I don’t do anything by halves, Edward. An affliction I think you might have some passing familiarity with.”

“Anything worth doing, etcetera.” Edward interjected as a lazy acknowledgement.

Roy hummed an agreement. “Quite. When I love someone, when they’re important to me on a personal level, and I want them in my life always… I don’t know how to stop at ‘best friends’. Attraction, both sexual and sensual, comes on its heels.” He paused, then shrugged. “Not to say I’m pining for her, or anything quite that ridiculous. That attraction is such a small part of what she means to me that I hardly long for it, but… it’s there.”

“Hughes too, huh?” Edward mused knowingly. Roy didn’t feel the need to answer, and it didn’t seem as if Edward needed the confirmation. He stretched up to nuzzle his face into Roy’s neck, squirming his arms more securely around Roy’s middle. Roy was not ashamed to admit that he was a tactile lover – Edward called him a cuddleslut, but Roy thought that term was undignified – and he took great pleasure in the physical comfort. “Anyone else you’re secretly pining over?”

“I’m not pining.” Roy protested, well aware he sounded childish, but unable to quite help himself. Edward grinned up at him, all sharp teeth and wicked eyes. Roy’s offence melted away like it had never been there. “Just you, Edward.”

Edward went pink, dropping his gaze, and kicked Roy lightly with the flesh and blood leg. “It’s not pining when you’ve already got me, idiot.” He protested.

“Exactly.” Roy agreed.

Edward kicked him again. Quiet stretched between them, comfortable and peaceful. Edward took to doodling alchemical formulas and arrays on Roy’s shoulder, because he could never sit still, not even for post-coital cuddles, while Roy just watched him and let his thoughts drift. “So how come you and Hawkeye aren’t a thing?”

“Hm?” Roy blinked, realising he’d been almost asleep when Edward spoke again.

“You and Hawkeye, how come you aren’t a thing? Is it just the whole military fraternisation thing, or is it complicated emotional bullshit?”

“Ah, well, the one and only time I tried to seduce her, she quite literally shot me down and told me in no uncertain terms that she would rather have sexual relations with a slug.” Roy admitted, mostly just to see Edward snort with mirth. Then he paused. “Admittedly, I was seventeen and my technique was crass and unrefined, but then she followed me to Ishval, and, as you said, things got complicated.”

“Huh.” Edward mused. “And does Hughes know?”

“Mm… He certainly knows I find him attractive, but no, I don’t think he knows I’m in love with him.” Roy considered for a long moment, then shrugged. “I suppose he could have figured it out and decided to ignore it for everyone’s sake, but given that my mother hadn’t figured it out, and she knows everything-”

“Wait, your mother?” Edward asked, abruptly lifting himself up onto his elbows to stare down at Roy with intent.

Roy blinked at him, startled by the vehement reaction. “Ah, yes?” He said slowly, and then remembered he had a message to pass on, and grimaced.

“You have a mother?!” Edward yelped.

Roy couldn’t help but laugh. “Everyone has a mother, Edward.” He pointed out, and Edward scowled at him, lifting one hand – the flesh and blood one, thankfully – threateningly. Roy raised his hands in a sign of surrender, even though he was still laughing. “But in this case, that’s perhaps a misleading thing to say. Biologically, she’s my aunt, but she raised me after my parents died.” Roy sighed, still smiling faintly, and shifted his hands to Edward’s lower back. Ed dropped his own to Roy’s chest again.

“Right.” Edward huffed. “I just didn’t realise you had anyone… still around.” He explained, pulling a face that was a bizarre mixture of childish frustration and world-weary age. “Kinda tragic, huh? That ‘orphan’ seems more likely than anything else.” Roy ran through what he knew of Edward’s social circle, and realised that, yes, most of them were, actually, orphans. He winced. After all, he was partially responsible for that state of affairs.

Roy shook the thought off, because wallowing in his guilt didn’t help anything. He searched about for another topic, and wasn’t exactly thrilled with the one he came up with, but it was better than moping. Moping would probably earn him an automail fist to the ribs. “Speaking of my mother…” He began, and Ed hummed to show he was listening. “She’s informed me that she’d like to meet you.”

Edward blinked at him. “Your mum. Wants to meet me.” He repeated.

Roy nodded. “Of course, there’s no rush.” He was quick to add, because he still wasn’t sure he liked the idea of exposing this new relationship to his mother’s scrutiny. “This is still new. But she’s realised I’m quite serious, and, well, Chris Mustang is not one to put off ‘til tomorrow what she can do right this second.” He explained, a little rueful.

“Okay.” Edward said, still a bit wide-eyed. Roy frowned at him. “I’ve just… never done the meet-the-parents thing before?” He offered, and suddenly his pole-axed look of sheer nerves made a bit more sense. “In Xing, it’s a big deal, introducing a partner to your family and your clan. It’s… the first step in their really complicated marriage rituals, actually. And me and Al both knew we weren’t staying, so it never… became an issue?” He explained.

“I won’t lie to you and tell you my mother isn’t scary, because she really, really is, but would it make you feel any better if I said I’m fairly certain she’ll like you?” Roy offered. It was a scary thought, because if she and Edward did get on, which he suspected they would, Roy was doomed.

“No.” Edward retorted. “…maybe.” He amended a moment later.

Roy smiled and tugged Edward in for a light kiss. “It can wait for a while.” He reminded him.

Edward rolled off him to flop face-first onto the mattress beside him with a muffled groan. Roy turned onto his side to watch with faintly baffled amusement. Finally, Edward turned his head to look at Roy with a sigh. “No, better get it over with.” He huffed. “Just lemme know when.”

“Alright.” Roy agreed.

“Okay, I’m going to sleep now before you can drop anything else on me.” Edward announced, squirming around until he was comfortably tucked against Roy’s chest, clutching one of Roy’s arms around himself, both feet tucked between Roy’s shins.

Roy blinked at the top of a golden head, and bit his lip, hard. He shouldn’t say it, he knew he shouldn’t, they’d been having such a lovely conversation, after all, but… he just couldn’t resist. “I had no idea you liked being the little sp-oof!” An automail elbow to the ribs was never fun, but in this instance, it was absolutely worth it. Roy fell asleep with a smile on his face.

He woke up with a scream trapped in his throat.

For several, long, disorienting seconds, he had no idea where he was. Then Edward mumbled something about chemical recombinations in his sleep and Roy was dragged back to the present. Not a tent in the middle of the desert, but Edward’s bed above the automail shop in Central. Or one of Edward’s beds. With the release of tension came the shakes, the belated panic, the irrepressible upswell of guilt so cloying and thick he could barely breathe.

Carefully, he disentangled himself from Edward. At one point, the younger man slitted open golden eyes, and peered up at Roy with a questioning sound. Roy didn’t dare speak, but he ran a soothing hand over Edward’s hair, and he made a contented noise and closed his eyes again, so Roy counted it as a win. It wasn’t like Edward could do anything to help, and Roy would feel better knowing that at least someone was managing a decent night’s sleep.

He tiptoed his way downstairs and into the kitchen for a glass of water, but realised his hands were shaking too badly to hold the glass steady. So he slumped down at the kitchen table and tried to get himself back under control.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there, before footsteps on the stairs made him lift his head. He watched the doorway as a figure appeared in it, and for a moment he was convinced he was still asleep and trapped in a nightmare. Then the phantoms resolved themselves into Winry Rockbell as she padded across the room and pawed at the kettle in the dark.

Roy stayed silent and frozen, uncertain what to do, or say, or if he should at all. Then Winry turned, and spotted him. She froze, staring. “What are you doing down here?” She asked abruptly. Even though she was talking quietly, her voice seemed loud in the gloom of the kitchen.

“Couldn’t sleep.” Roy confessed, shrugging.

Winry hummed an acknowledging sound, and fumbled about for a moment, before the lights over the stove came on. For how bright they were, they only offered dim illumination to the rest of the kitchen, and Roy found himself appreciating the consideration for eyes that were currently so used to the dark. And for his psyche, which wasn’t ready to handle sudden flares of bright light in conjunction with Winry Rockbell’s face.

She stared at him for a long moment, then seemed to come to a decision. “Tea?” She offered, waving a vague hand at the kettle.

Roy had to clear his throat before he could speak. “Thank you.”

Winry nodded, and fetched down two very large mugs. Roy felt helpless, hopeless, useles, as she bustled around getting the tea ready. He chose to look down at his hands and study them, rather than watch her, but that was just a different kind of punishment.

A mug of steaming tea appeared in front of him, thumping down onto the table, and he startled in time with the sound. He glanced up, found Winry frowning at him, and looked away before he did something awful, like burst into tears. “Thank you.” He said again, and wrapped his hands around the mug, even though it was almost too hot to touch.

Winry didn’t react, just claimed the chair at the end of the table, and idly swirled a spoon through her own tea. Then she lifted it out, shook off the excess tea, and put it down resolutely. “What did you dream about?” She asked, voice caught somewhere between practical and sympathetic.

Roy stared at her, breath caught in his lungs, and eyes suddenly stinging. For a long moment, he wondered if she had already figured it out, and was trying to punish him. He’d deserve it, of course, but he honestly hadn’t pegged her as quite that viciously cruel. Then her eyes widened, and a small “Oh” of understanding escaped her, and she stared right back, just as caught as he was.

The moment hung there between them, stifling and all-consuming. Roy could feel something building in his chest in response to the tension, but he wasn’t sure what it was until he opened his mouth and what came out was “I’m sorry.” Then it was like a dam had broken, and he felt the tears spill over against his will. “I’m so sorry,” tumbled out of his mouth without his consent, and he abandoned his mug of tea to cover his face with his hands, trying to hide or trying to keep himself from spilling his guilt all over the kitchen, he wasn’t sure.

A small eternity passed while he tried and failed to get a hold of himself. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair, to put this on Winry. His guilt was his to bear, and it wasn’t her job to absolve him, or forgive him, or care about his regret. It was pathetic to act like this, as though her parents’ death had hurt him more than it hurt her. But he couldn’t stop himself, too tired and too overwrought, and the self-loathing just extenuated the problem.

A hand landed on his shoulder, and he flinched before he could stop himself. It retreated for a heartbeat, then returned, sliding over his back until Winry’s arm was wrapped around his shoulders. She tugged gently, and Roy couldn’t muster up the presence of mind to resist as he tipped over to lean against her side. “I know.” She told him quietly.

Roy shuddered, whispered yet another apology, and promptly froze when he felt Winry’s head knock lightly against his. He could feel the way her breath shook, like she was crying too, and found he had no idea what to do with himself, or the situation, or anything. It was a deeply alien feeling, and left him vaguely frightened.

“It was so much easier to hate you when you were a monster.” Winry muttered on a wry laugh. “I don’t know how to hate you when you’re like this. Like… like you get how much it hurt me. And you’re down here alone because you didn’t want to wake Ed. When you still have nightmares about it when I haven’t in… fuck, years.”

“I don’t mean to-” Roy began.

Winry snorted. “If you meant to, I’d have brained you with a wrench and dumped your body in the river already, Mustang.” She interrupted, and it was almost enough to make Roy smile. He managed to pull himself together some, and straightened a little. Winry only half let go of him. When he caught her eye, he saw that, despite her words, she looked… very lost and uncertain. “I just… Stop, alright?” She asked, and it sounded strangely vulnerable. “I don’t- You don’t need to keep doing this, you know? It’s not okay, and I’m never going to be over it, and I’ll always hate you a little bit, but you’re here, and you’re trying, and you love Ed, and you make him happy, and you’re good, so… so can’t it be… okay? Can’t we be okay?”

Roy swallowed hard, and found a smile with surprisingly little effort. “I can try.” He offered.

Winry hiccuped on a laugh that was half a sob, and nodded. “Good. Okay.”

“Okay.” Roy echoed, feeling more blessed than he had any right to, and aching with it. This time, he was the one who pulled Winry in against his side, and she was the one who cried into his shoulder. If he maybe shed a few tears into her hair, well, he was pretty sure she’d done the same to him earlier, so it was okay. It might actually, really, be okay.

#FMA #Roy Mustang #Edward Elric #Winry Rockbell #RoyEd #onesided Royai #(he thinks)#onesided RoyMaes #(for now)#this starts off all lighthearted and fun #and then tips right over into emotional trauma #hurt/comfort #and all that good stuff #nightmares #everything feels worse in the middle of the night #closure #of a sort

6 notes · View notes