#i do not feel short but i grew up around so many people shorter than me

[croc-odette]

being transmasc puts such a weird twilight zone filter over every conversation about cis men height because i'm like this man is having his femurs broken because he's only two inches taller than me and he needs to be five inches taller? that's real?

[narryffdreaming]

A TOAST TO THE FUTURE — ONE

Summary: Aurora and Harry used to be friends, but life happened and they grew apart. Now, 6 years later, they meet again.

Rating: +18

WARNINGS: The story contains explicit language and mentions a past abusive relationship (mostly the consequences of psychological/emotional abuse). Some chapters also contain explicit sexual content.

Author's note: You have no idea how much I love these characters and how nervous I am to finally share this story again. I posted ATTTF for the first time back in 2022 but never got to finish it, so I'm hoping I'll get to do it this time! If you read this, I hope you enjoy it, and please be gentle with them! (lol)

PART ONE: 5,4k words

The sky is still dark when the Uber driver drops Aurora off at Stansted airport. 

The polite man, who just kept her company for an hour and a half, wishes her a safe trip, and Aurora smiles, waving him a last goodbye and wishing him a good day right before she shuts the door of his black Toyota Prius. Once alone, a light breeze tickles her shoulders, but she doesn't give it enough time to settle as she rearranges the strap of the navy duffel bag on her shoulder and turns around, then sets her feet into motion.

Hopefully, she isn't late. She doesn't think she is. She left the house forty minutes before she needed to, and the ride to get there was shorter than expected because of the early hour, so she shouldn't be. 

Still, she wants to make sure. 

Just in case. 

You can blame it on the fact that she hasn't spent a weekend with her friends in years. Or that it is the first time she's going out since… Well, since everything in her life turned upside down.  

The strap of her bag slips from her shoulder, and Aurora catches it between her fingers. She puts it back in place and tightens her grip around the soft fabric, turning sideways to squeeze herself between a group of people that's happily chatting on the sidewalk. An apology leaves her mouth as she runs past them, but they don't seem to care nor notice they're standing in her way — or in everyone's way. 

Has the Stansted airport always been this crowded?

The lights are bright outside, and the glass walls reveal how equally well-lit it is inside the terminal building. When she reaches the automatic doors, they take a moment to open, and she stops. It gives her enough time to catch a glimpse of her reflection, and her stomach quivers. Her hair is messy, the sports bag she's carrying doesn't match the maxi dress she's wearing, and she's showing off too much cleavage for a woman her age. 

Those are too many things to notice in one quick glance, and she wishes she hadn't. Still, it is too early in the morning to feel insecure about the way she looks, and she doesn't have time for that. She has a flight to catch. 

(Also, she really needs to pee right now.)

So she breathes in deeply and darts her eyes down, then takes her free hand up to her chest and pulls the fabric up. When she moves next, she keeps her sight fixed on the floor, then grabs the pendant of her necklace between her fingers and walks through the doors, biting the flesh inside of her cheek and fidgeting with the gold disk as her feet drag her inside the airport. 

Everything feels slow and heavy. And there's a mix of nervousness and anticipation that's building up inside her. It's unsettling, but it keeps her moving, at least. 

Once inside, Aurora looks up again. She turns her head to one side, then to the other, short nails never letting go of her necklace. 

The wide open area in front of her leads to multiple check-in desks from several different airlines, but she ignores all of them, aiming solemnly on the huge departure boards placed around the terminal. 

She doesn't have any luggage to drop, and her boarding pass is printed and ready inside her bag — and, just in case, there's also a copy of it saved on her phone — but she wants to make sure she won't be running late if she takes another five minutes for a quick run to the toilets before standing in line to get through security. 

Her determination drives her forward, and she only stops walking when she's right in front of the closest monitor. She blinks a couple of times, making sense of all the information while searching for the only flight she cares about. And it only takes her a minute till she finds it: 

6:45, Ryanair, Naples. 

She drops her shoulders, and a yawn eases from her mouth, along with a shaky laughter. 

She is fine. Everything's just fine. Desks aren't even open for check-in yet, so she has plenty of time to go to the bathroom and wake herself up. There's no need to collapse.

At some point she'll have to face the fact that she didn't sleep at all last night, but she plans to keep herself together and entertained until she's settled on her 2 hours and 45 minutes flight. 

Then, she'll sleep.

Aurora turns around, and wanders her eyes to find the nearest toilets. She can't tell when was the last time she's been at Stansted Airport, but everything feels different from what she remembers. Did they go through renovations? Or has it always been big and hectic like this? 

Well, it's not like Aurora is familiar with airports, anyway. She doesn't travel that much, and London has too many of them for her to get familiar with. The last time she went somewhere — anywhere — was for Noah's birthday, when she and Zack took him to Disneyland Paris for a quick celebration. They took a flight from Heathrow, though, and that place was so big that it did nothing but overwhelm her. So much that she barely remembers it. 

Her chest tightens, and she closes her hand in a fist around the pendant. 

A lot has changed since Noah's third birthday. In fact, everything changed because of Noah's third birthday. And things never stopped changing since then. Not even a year and a month later. 

Oh God… In a couple of years she is going to be sitting on a leather couch, facing the traumatizing memories she and Zack created for him and apologizing for ruining his childhood. 

She knows she will. She can see it happening. 

A man bumps into her, and Aurora stumbles forward. She looks over her shoulder and apologizes, but he isn't around to listen anymore. Sighing, she lets go of her necklace and shifts her bag from one shoulder to the other, holding the strap to keep it firmly in place.

What was she even—Oh, toilets!

Right!

She shakes her head. 

It takes her another minute until she sees some directions that will help her get there, and then she's walking again. 

The toilets she's heading to are placed in a much quieter area, where even the lights are dim. Only a few people are there, seemingly waiting for time to pass — some occupying themselves with their phones on the chairs, but most of them laying on the floor, sleeping next to their luggage or using their backpacks as pillows. A baby cries somewhere distant in the terminal, and there's some coughing coming from a corner behind her, but besides that, everything's quiet. 

She reaches the door at the exact moment a lady is walking out, and she almost bumps into her. They exchange polite smiles, and Aurora takes a step aside to make room for her to walk by. Once the lady is off her way, Aurora moves inside, then lets the door shut behind her, and everything goes silent.  

The room is bright again, and someone must've just cleaned the place, because the smell of disinfectant is fresh and strong. 

Aurora sighs. She heads to the last stall, walking past a row of other six on her way there.

After relieving herself, she stops by the sinks and washes her hands, taking the opportunity to look around her. And mostly to look at her. 

The mirrors are big, almost covering the entire green wall between the sink and the ceiling, from side to side. To be fair, staring at her reflection doesn't sound like a good idea, but she promised she would try her best to go into the weekend with a positive mindset, and she can't do that while feeling so insecure about herself.

She lets the duffel bag slide down her arm and places it between her legs, then crouches to find her washcloth inside it. Holding the soft fabric between her fingers, she closes the zipper and stands up again. 

Public toilets aren't the ideal places for skincare routines, but she's determined to do the best of whatever she can get. She places the washcloth on her shoulder and grabs the hair tie from her wrist, pulling her locks into a bun and getting them out of her way. Hunching down, she turns the tap on and puts her hands together, filling them with water before splashing it on her face. The coldness makes her wince, but it also makes her shoulders relax, and she pulls her lips into a timid smile. 

She repeats the same process three times before grabbing the washcloth again and placing it against her skin. She doesn't rub it, but instead lets the fabric soak in the dampness. Finally putting her hands down, she looks at her reflection in the mirror, and bites the insides of her cheek. Her face looks more alive now that she's freshened up, but the rest of her body doesn't feel the same.

When she'd put that maxi dress on, an hour before leaving her house, she didn't think she would end up regretting the outfit. It's been probably a decade since the last time she's put it on, sure, but it used to be one of her favorites, and she always went for it when she didn't know what to wear. She used to consider it her safe choice. 

And yet, wearing it now feels everything but safe. 

It also doesn't feel nearly as comfortable as it used to. Maybe it's because of the straps… She never wears sleeveless outfits anymore, let alone something that's held by such a thin string of fabric. And the V neck… Oh God. How did she walk around London showing off her chest so comfortably? How did she go to class not bothering about people being able to see the curve of her breasts?

Even its color shade looks weird now, and she's not sure she enjoys how that rust red looks on her anymore. Her body hasn't seen the sun in a really long time, and her skin doesn't look very appealing — it's dry, and filled with stretch marks. 

Honestly, the full length and loose fit are the only things she can still appreciate from the dress — although around her waist it doesn't feel as loose as it used to feel before.

Shit. Did she even pack one thing that's going to make her feel good about herself in Italy? 

No, of course she didn't. Because Madison was the one who helped her pack for the weekend, so of course all of her choices included the tiniest, brightest and most provocative outfits that were hidden and forgotten inside of her closet since… Well, basically since Aurora stopped being single, to be honest. 

"You need to loosen up," she'd said. Along with "you're divorced, not dead," and "your tits need to see the sun; they are gorgeous, they deserve it". 

Alone inside the restroom, Aurora rolls her eyes at the memory of her best friend's words. Obviously, the whole chit-chat did nothing to convince her. Most of the old clothes Maddie had found hadn't seen the light of day in almost a decade, and Aurora doesn't have the same body she used to have back then to simply put them on again. 

Not to mention she doesn't want Noah to ever see her wearing any of those outfits. It's not the image of a mother she wants him to remember. And she's been already messing up so many things for him, that she doesn't need to add "being an embarrassing mom" to the list — and she won't add an accusation of excessively exposing her son to his own mother's naked body in those future therapy sessions she already knows she'll be paying for. 

Call it damage control, if you want to. After all, that's how she's facing it herself.

But then Maddie had put her hands on her shoulders, stared deeply into her eyes, and said: "it's going to be us. Just us. It's the perfect and safest place to have some fun and try out of your comfort zone. And you and I both know how much you need it right now." And Aurora couldn't fight her on that, so she said yes and agreed to put all of her jeans and t-shirts away for the weekend — which she can now confirm was a terrible, terrible decision.

She sighs. Again. 

It's going to be a long weekend, isn't it? 

Still examining herself, she turns around and looks over her shoulder, facing her back on the mirror. Fortunately, it doesn't show too much skin, although the flesh of her armpits could be more covered. 

There was a time when Aurora felt breezy and comfortable on her own body. When she looked at herself and felt beautiful and free. Even sexy. Now, though, the simple thought makes her laugh. It sounds ridiculous, and she can't even make sense of it. 

Biting her lip, she turns around one more time, and something catches her eye. She stops midway, narrowing her eyes to find out what it is, and then, she raises her eyebrows, and a spark of hope ignites inside her — she completely forgot about the adjustable straps! 

Fully turning around, she squats down and puts the washcloth away, then stands up, already reaching both hands towards her back to tighten and shorten the strings. It isn't easy, and for a moment she even considers to hide inside of a stool and take the dress off to do it more comfortably, but eventually she succeeds, and the slight change instantly makes her chest feel more covered. 

It's a small win, but Aurora is serious about making the best of whatever she can get that weekend, so she takes it, and smiles at her reflection. 

The gold disk shines on her chest, and she takes it between her fingers, pulling it to her mouth and placing a soft kiss to it. She's really going to miss spending the weekend with Noah, but she knows she needs to take care of herself to be able to take care of him, and that it's also important for him to spend some time with his dad. Besides, it's only going to be three days — not even that. By Sunday afternoon she'll be back home with him, and everything will go back to normal.

Yes, see? That's it: two days.

Two relaxing and fun days with her friends, and then everything will go back to normal.

The line to get through security is huge. 

Aurora stops behind a chatty and cheerful family of five, and sighs. She puts her frizzy hair down, then crosses her arms under her chest and lifts one hand to fidget aimlessly with her pendant. 

Honestly? She can't wait to get to Italy. She can't wait to finally see that beautiful ocean in the Amalfi Coast. It's a trip she always dreamed about, but also one she didn't think would actually happen — and one she's sure she wouldn't be actually embarking on if she hadn't been forced to by her friends.

Aurora's mouth turns into a smile, and she looks at the ground, taking the pendant to cover her lips. 

Despite everything that went wrong with her own marriage, she is happy for Lucy and Theo. She truly is. Just because things didn't work out for her, it doesn't mean they won't for them. Besides, their relationship is the only thing between all of them that hasn't changed since their graduation, so who knows? Maybe they'll have better luck than her and Zack. Maybe Lucy won't mess things up like she did, and maybe Theo won't— 

"Auri?" a deep and low voice calls. Aurora furrows her brows and takes her hand down from her lips, putting her necklace back to its place. "Aurora?"

She turns on her feet, finding flamingos on a loose black shirt. Blinking a couple of times, she darts her eyes up, and meets the face of a friend she hasn't thought of in a really long time. 

She widens her eyes, and places the palm of her hand on her cheek.

"Oh my God," she whispers. She raises her eyebrows, and her mouth curves into a smile at the same time it falls open. "Harry!" 

She breathes out a laugh and takes a step forward, then stands on her tiptoes and throws her arms around his neck. 

The duffel bag on her shoulder follows the movement of her body, hitting Harry's stomach before she can stop it.

"Ouch," he groans into her ear.

Aurora pulls away. "Sorry, sorry—"

He chuckles, hunching down slightly and placing his hands in the middle of her back. 

"'S okay, c'mere," he says, pulling her body closer and crossing his arms around her waist, embracing her into a tight hug. 

Heat takes over her body, radiating through her chest and tingling from head to toe. It's so good to see him! She can't help the smile that lightens up her face, so she closes her eyes and rests her chin on his shoulder, circling his neck with the same affection he's putting into his hold. 

"What are you doing here?!" she asks, still too excited to let him go. 

Did he get even taller? 

Or is he just stronger than he used to be?

"Probably the same thing as you?" Harry chuckles. 

Shit. She's so stupid! Of course Harry would be at Lucy and Theo's party. Of course! After all, he was part of the group, too. Sure, maybe the last to join and the youngest of them all, and also the only one living across the world, but still… He was—he is part of the group. And Lucy and Theo would invite him, too. Of course they would. How didn't she think of him when thinking about the weekend? 

"Don't wanna break the moment," Harry murmurs, rubbing his hand up and down her back, "but I think we gotta walk." 

Aurora jumps away, holding her weight on his shoulder and twisting her neck to see the line ahead of her. She slides her fingers down, watching as the family of five gathers their things. They aren't rushing, though, and it doesn't seem like they'll be taking more than two steps forward.

Still smiling, she bites her bottom lip to keep her excitement down, then looks back at him.

Harry is standing with his arms loose on each side of his body, chin down while he stares down at his chest.

Following his sight, Aurora finds her own hand, and she widens her eyes. She's clutching at the second button, where both sides of his black shirt with pink flamingos meet. His hairy chest is on display, just like tiny bits of black ink tattooed on his skin and the long golden string of a necklace. 

A rush runs through her fingers, and she withdraws her arm. 

"Sorry," she whispers, pulling her hand to her own chest and squeezing it into a fist.  

Harry clears his throat. 

"'S okay," he murmurs. Without looking at her, he straightens his back and stretches an arm, pointing out to the empty space in front of them. "Shall we?"

Aurora moves quickly, shuffling on her feet and nodding in silence. She turns around, and the strap of her bag falls from her shoulder, dropping to the crook of her arm. She winces, and stumbles a little. 

"Shit."

"Here," Harry says, and the weight on her elbow disappears. "Let me."

Frozen, she watches — and feels — the way he gently grabs her wrist and takes her bag out of her arm, pulling it to himself. 

"Harry…" She drops her shoulders. "You don't have to."

"Just walk, c'mon. We're holding the line."

Aurora peeks over his shoulder, and certainly people don't seem friendly while watching them. She sighs, but turns around and walks. 

It only takes them three steps to reach the family of five once again, though, and she's back to facing him. 

Harry is rearranging the straps on his shoulders, holding two duffel bags now — his own, and hers. 

"Okay," she says, stretching her arm to him, "now give me that." 

He chuckles, and dodges her. "Nope."

"C'mon!" She rolls her eyes, but a smile dances on her lips. "I can carry my own bag, okay?" 

Harry shrugs. "Never said you couldn't." 

She sighs, and tilts her head. "Harry…" 

"Will you stop being stubborn?" 

Harry grins widely, contrasting his words, and his eyes brighten with amusement. 

Aurora lifts her brows and parts her lips. A shaky chuckle coming out of her mouth. "I—Excuse me?"

Harry diverts his eyes somewhere behind her, and he tilts his chin up. 

"C'mon, we gotta walk again."

Lifting her left eyebrow, Aurora crosses her arms, and stares silently at him.

Harry glances back at her, then presses his lips together, watching her for a moment as he wanders his eyes around her face. He purses his mouth, and then he cracks into soft, genuine laughter. 

"Ha!" He throws his head back for a moment, chuckling lightly, then looks back at her. "I totally forgot you could do that."

Aurora's beaming, just like him, but her heart is racing, and her breath gets stuck in her throat. His smile is really contagious, framed by deep dimples on his cheeks and wrinkles all around his eyes. It's hard not to feel mesmerized by it.

"Uh…" She blinks a couple of times. "Do what, exactly?" 

He walks, prompting her to walk along with him. Still smiling, he points a finger up, right to her face. "The thing… Y'know. With your eyebrow." 

"Oh…" Aurora widens her eyes for a second. "Right." 

She laughs and shakes her head, relaxing the muscles of her entire body, including her face. 

She takes one hand to her forehead, and rubs the tip of her middle finger on her left eyebrow. Even though it's something she used to intentionally do pretty often when she was younger, usually to prove a point, it was also something that came up so naturally to her that she never paid too much attention to it. And a habit that, with time, she left behind. However, now that she found out Noah thinks it's super cool that his mom can lift only one eyebrow while most people can't, she's been consciously doing it more often. She never cared about being a cool mom, to be honest, but lately it seems the title started to mean something to her. 

They stop walking, much closer to the metal detectors now, and Aurora stretches her arm again. She doesn't say a word, simply reaching for the strap of her bag on his shoulder.

"Auri..." Harry chuckles. He grabs her wrist between his fingers, then slides his touch to her hand, taking it to his mouth. He places a single kiss on her knuckles, and looks at her. "Please, 's nothing. I promise."

Aurora presses her lips together tightly, words getting stuck on her throat. It only lasted a second, but it was enough to keep the warmth of his lips lingering onto her cold skin.

"Okay." She nods. Her voice is softer, and she looks down to smile. "Thank you."

"My pleasure," he says, taking her hand down and gently letting it go. "Did you bring a jacket?" 

Raising her head, Aurora narrows her eyes, and meets his stare. "What?"

"Your hand's really cold." He shrugs. "Do you want my jacket?"

Aurora chuckles, and waves him off. "Oh no, I'm fine. My hands are always cold."

Harry pulls his brows together. He opens his mouth to say something, but quickly shuts it again.

"Anyway…" She clears her throat. "How are you? We haven't talked in… I don't know… Five? Six years?"

Harry looks down and nods, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Around that, yeah." 

"Hmm… Well, I had no idea you were back in the UK!"

"Uh, yeah." He shifts on his feet, and shrugs. "Came back a couple of weeks ago, actually. Haven't seen anyone yet."

Taking one hand out of his pockets, he lifts his arm and scratches his jaw. The movement draws Aurora's attention to the facial hair he seems to be growing, but also to his chipped yellow nail polish and the three rings he's carrying on his fingers. And when he rakes the same hand through his curls, pulling his hair away from his face, she notices the amount of new tattoos covering his slightly tanned skin. 

His movements are subtle, almost timid, but Aurora is hypnotized. She hasn't seen him since… Damn, when was the last time she saw him? He was at her wedding, she remembers that, because she remembers the floral-printed suit he was wearing, and that his hair used to be longer than—  

Aurora gasps, and Harry jolts. 

"What?" 

"Your hair!" Uncrossing her arms, she takes a step forward. She stands on her tiptoes and reaches for his head, touching the tips of his short curls while switching her voice to a soft murmur, "It's so… Short."

Harry shoves his hand back inside his pocket, but doesn't say anything, and Aurora entertains herself stroking the hair at the back of his neck, and then pulling some longer bits around his ears. 

"Oh my God…" she murmurs again.

For as long as she's known Harry, she's known him with curls long enough to french braid, pull into buns and even attempt some ponytails — he hated the last ones, by the way. The girls used to tease him for having softer and shiner hair than any of them, and they all even went through a phase of trying to use the same hair products as him. 

And yet, looking at him now, she's not sure if there's length enough for even a hair clip. Well, maybe a tiny one, to keep those curls that fall into his forehead out of the way… But still… 

"The line," Harry murmurs. 

Aurora pulls her arm to her chest, and lands her heels back on the floor. 

"Right."

She turns around and takes a couple of steps forward, and an unsettling feeling grows in the pit of her stomach. It squeezes her lungs, and it makes her mouth go dry, so she presses her lips into a hard line and swallows. Then, she takes a deep breath in. And another one.

There's silence between them, until Harry clears his throat. 

"I cut it as soon as I left," he explains, and Aurora glances at him over her shoulder. "I think this is the longest it's been since then." He shrugs. "I'll probably do something about it next week."

Aurora hums, and curls one side of her mouth up. 

"You got a lot of new tattoos, as well."

Harry smiles, albeit sheepishly, and nods once. "Guess I did."

Facing away from him, Aurora can't help but smile again.

What a weird thing it is, to stand in front of Harry after so many years and find everything about him so familiar, yet completely different and strange at the same time. To have grown so distant from his friendship, and yet feel as close to him as she's ever felt before. 

How could she forget about him? 

How could she go through life without thinking about a friend? Without wondering about how they are, or what's going on with their lives?

Shit. 

Tapping one foot on the floor, she grabs her necklace between her fingers. 

She can't spiral into this right now. She hates coming face to face with the person she's become, and this weekend isn't for her to swell into guilt and drama. She's supposed to have fun. She's supposed to let things go. She's supposed to—  

"Auri?" 

Aurora stops the steady movement of her foot, and looks at him over her shoulder. "Yeah?"

Someone from security calls the next passenger, and she follows Harry's movements to walk forward, not even bothering to look where she's going. 

"Nothing." Harry shakes his head, dismissing the subject, but Aurora can see the way his brain is working hard to figure something out. Noah tends to do the same a lot of the time — he'll have questions, and when he doesn't understand the answer, he'll purse his lips and shift his eyes around him, as if looking for a different explanation. 

It appears Harry is going through the same process, because he keeps staring at her arms, and at her hands. And when he pinches at his bottom lip — something she recognizes as an old habit of his — it's enough for her to confirm her suspicion.

"Harry…" She chuckles and rolls her eyes, making sure to keep her voice soft as she calls him out. "Don't be silly. Just say what's on your mind, c'mon."

An amused and short laugh leaves his chest, and she smiles at the way his entire face lights up again. 

"'S nothing… I was just… Because you… I mean, you don't seem to be taking a lot of stuff… Then I realized you… Well… I was wondering…"

There's a bit of silence, and it quickly becomes clear he won't complete any of his half-sentences. 

Aurora half-smiles. "Yes?"

"Sorry." He shakes his head. "Is your husband coming, too?"

"Oh…" She lifts her brows, then puts them down again. 

She nods once, understanding where he's coming from. It is a genuine question, a very reasonable doubt. After all, the last time they saw each other was at the wedding — her wedding — and not many people know about the many changes in her life since then. So she can't expect him to know, nor blame him for asking. 

She doesn't want to say the words out loud, though. Is there a way to tell him without actually telling him?

"Hm, no," she tries. "It's just me. Zack's with Noah." 

Harry hums. He gives her a lopsided smile, and nods. 

Aurora frowns, and turns around to face the line. 

That probably wasn't helpful. It didn't announce Zack isn't in her life anymore. It just seemed like he stayed home with Noah. 

Which he did, yes, but he isn't at home with Noah. He is at his own place, a very fancy apartment he didn't struggle at all to buy after their divorce. 

Ugh! Why is it so hard for her to announce to the world that Zack isn't her husband anymore? He hasn't been for a while now, and it's not like she wishes he would still be. Honestly, figuring out her relationship with Zack keeps being exhausting, no matter how much distance she puts between them. 

Will that ever change? Will things ever get easier for her?

"How's he, by the way?" Harry's voice sounds behind her. "Noah, I mean. Just turned four, right?"

Aurora bites her lip, but it isn't enough to hold back the grin on her face.

People move forward, and they walk a couple of steps. There are only three passengers left in front of the family of five. 

Aurora nods. 

"Yes, he's four now. And he's the most adorable kid in the world! So, so, so sensitive, and so smart" —she walks forward again, but doesn't stop talking— "and now he's getting into this stage of trying to do things by himself, and it's just so endearing to watch! And he's really chatty, too, oh my. He loves telling stories, so he keeps—" 

Aurora widens her eyes, and turns around. 

Harry is beaming at her, and she covers her mouth with one hand. 

"I'm sorry," she mumbles against her palm, then puts it back down. "Sorry, sorry. I'm so—I mean, I know, I'm one of those mums now."

"What?!" Harry laughs. "I was loving it! Was even hoping you'd show me a couple of pictures."

Her cheeks warm up, and she looks at her feet. 

"Right."

Her hair falls to her face, and she takes both hands to put it behind her ears. 

Please, don't blush. 

Please, don't blush. 

Please just keep it together. 

"Hey, I mean it." He places one hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. His hand is warm, but his rings are cold and her skin tingles with goosebumps. Shit. Now, her earlier prayer becomes a silent cry of help for him not to notice her reaction. "He sounds a lot like you, by the way."

Her lips twitch, and she bites her bottom lip to hold back the stupid smile that keeps looming on her face. 

"Well… Would you really like to see some pictures? 'Cause I have plenty of them."

Peeking up at him, she finds him staring and smiling. Harry's hand is still on her shoulder, but it promptly circles her neck, grabbing her opposite side and pulling her forward. 

Aurora holds her breath, crushing against Harry's chest as he squeezes her body and kisses the top of her head. 

"God," he groans, his lips brushing her hair as they move, "you're so adorable. 'S so good to see you again."

Hii! If you're here, thank you so much for reading part one :) it truly means the world to me! I care a lot about this story and these characters, so I'd love to know your thoughts about it — and I hope you'll feel comfortable to share them with me!

Once again, thank you for reading! :)

Dani

PART TWO

[albertasunrise]

Hope - Gotta be Hopeful

Masterlist

Summary: After Joel loses his wife and your best friend during childbirth. You support him as he takes on parenthood on his own at 22. But when feelings start to develop, you battle with the guilt you feel for falling for your best friend’s husband.

Relationships: Joel Miller x Reader

Warnings: Like AO3 I choose to give none. Read at own risk. 18+… this is to avoid spoilers! (So happy y'all loving this fic. Sorry in advance for this angsty chapter ♥️ slightly shorter chapter but it'll all make sense in the end 🙊)

Series Masterlist - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Your brows pulled together as you eyed the time on the clock. It was gone midnight and the later it got the more worried you became. Alec had promised you that he'd get back no later than 11 and had sworn to call if that was to change. So the fact that it was just shy of 12:30 had you picking up your phone and opening your contacts. 

Your brows pulled tighter when Tommy's name started to flash on your screen. 

"Tommy, what's up? Everything okay?" 

"No." He choked down the phone and your stomach sank. 

"What's happened?" You managed to ask as your hands started to shake. 

"Joel and Alec were heading back from the bar and... Shit... They were heading back and..." He trailed off and your throat tightened as you waited for him to continue "They were in an accident..." 

"What do you mean?" You sobbed as your eyes flitted to the photo Alec has recently had printed and framed of you all at one of the many weekend BBQs you'd had. Joel smiled as he held a giggly Sarah in his arms with Noah at his feet, grabbing his jeans as he grinned at his friend. You and Alec were in a natural embrace. He's kissing your temple as you grin at the camera whilst Tommy stood to one side scrunching his face at the two of you. 

You had taken a few but that was the one you'd ended up picking. It emphasised the family-like unit that had developed between you all. 

Tommy's sob pulled your attention back to the call you were on and you fought to keep yourself together. "I'm on the way to the hospital now with Sarah... Shit... shit it's bad. It's really bad."

"What hospital Tommy?" He gave you the address and told him you were leaving before heading up to Noah's room. 

You picked up the sleepy toddler and grabbed the emergency to-go bag that Alec always had packed for him. The little boy was confused when you carried him to the car and put him in his seat but you tried your hardest to stay calm so that he didn't get worried. 

"Where's daddy?" He asked sleepily as he wiped his eyes and you choked back a sob. 

"We're going to see Daddy, honey." You said softly as you jumped in the driver's seat.

"Is daddy okay?" He asked softly and you shut your eyes a moment as you willed your tears away. 

"I hope so sweetie." 

...

Tommy was cradling a sleeping Sarah against him when you arrived in the waiting room. Noah looked around at his surroundings, his mussy clutched tightly in his little hand. His eyes grew wider when he saw Sarah and he grinned as he jumped up and down on the spot. 

"Sarah here." He screeched, quieting down when you crouched down to his level. 

"I know sweetie but she's sleeping right now." You said softly "We need to be quiet whilst we're here okay? There are lots of poorly people that need to sleep to get better." 

"Are Daddy and Joel sick?" He asked quietly and you nodded softly.

"Yeah, baby... they are but the doctors are going to help them feel better." You said sweetly "But we need to be quiet and gentle so that they can rest okay?" 

He nodded, eyes growing a little teary and you were quick to pull the toddler into your arms, looking at Tommy over his shoulder. He gave you a grim look that made your stomach sink. A short while later, Noah and Sarah were curled up together on the couch in the corner, fast asleep. He held her closely, the blanket from her emergency back draped over the two of them. 

"What are the doctors saying?" You finally managed to ask and Tommy scraped a hand over his face as his eyes drifted to the kids. 

"Joel was driving." He started and confusion filled your features at this new information "Truck jumped a light and t-boned them." 

Your shaky hand flew up to your mouth as you tried to muffle the gasp that slipped from your lips. 

"Joel's suffered internal bleeding and a bleed on the brain. They've put him in a coma and he's on life support. Won't let me see him till he's more stable. They're trying to treat the brain bleed without surgery but..." He trailed off, throwing his head in his hands as he tried his hardest not to fall to pieces. 

"What about Alec?" You asked softly, listening to the soft sigh he let out before he raised his head to look at you again. 

"He's in a bad way." Tommy confessed "Broken leg and arm. Internal bleeding and head trauma." He stated, taking a moment to compose himself "They had to remove his kidney and gallbladder..."

"What else?" You pushed, knowing there was more "Tommy, what else?" 

"His spine was damaged too." Tommy replied, finally looking at you as his eyes started to mist with tears "They're concerned about the long-term damage but at the moment it's too early to tell." 

"Are you telling me he may not walk again?" You sobbed, glancing at the children when Noah moaned softly in his sleep. 

Tommy couldn't keep the tears at bay. They silently slipped down his cheeks as you looked at him pleadingly. 

"They don't know." He answered honestly and you sobbed, cradling your bump when your baby girl started to move. 

...

3 hours later you were finally able to visit Joel. The doctor had promised you that you would be allowed to see Alec soon so you resigned yourself to waiting. You carried Sarah, the lighter of the two toddlers and Tommy carried Noah as you were led to the ICU. Joel was situated in his own room, surrounded by different machines that were throwing out different sounds. Sarah turned her head, tiredly rubbing her eyes as she looked at her father who lay in the bed in front of her. 

"Daddy?" She said softly, leaning back to look at you before returning to her dad "Daddy." She said, her voice growing more distressed and you hushed her as you carried her closer.

"Daddy's not very well." You said softly as you sat in the chair that had been placed beside his bed, Tommy pulling the spare sat in the corner up next to you. 

"Daddy owie?" She asked as she pointed at the scratches visible on his face and arms.

"Yeah, daddy's got a few owies but they'll get better honey." You said softly "Just needs to sleep a little bit and then he'd be all better." 

You knew it was going to be hard for the toddler to understand. You wished you knew what to do. Tommy was 19 so you knew that he was going to need help with Sarah whilst Joel was in the hospital. You were going to need each other as you navigated this mess. 

Now more than ever. 

...

Tommy took care of the kids whilst you went to visit Alec. He looked, physically in better shape than Joel. The doctor had advised you he was sedated but that they were confident he was going to recover. 

They just weren't sure if he'd walk again. 

His right side was almost pure plaster. His arm and leg elevated to help the healing process. You sobbed as you sat beside his bed, wishing you knew what to say to him. How were you going to cope if he ended up paralysed? 

You were 6 months pregnant and had a 3-year-old also. The idea that you were going to have a disabled partner too was daunting. 

"Hey." Alec croaked, pulling you out of your thoughts and you jumped to your feet, cradling his face as you kissed him sweetly. 

"Hey." You sobbed as you pulled back and rested your brow on his. 

"Hey, no tears." He said softly as he used his uninjured hand to wipe them away "It's okay... We're okay." 

You nodded softly, pulling your bottom lip between your teeth as you drew your head back to look him in the eye.

"How's Joel?" He asked and you choked on a sob "He's not?..." Alec asked as his eyes grew wide and you shook your head.

"No... No, he's alive but he's on life support." 

"Shit... God this is my fault... If I hadn't offered for him to drive-"

"No, hey. You can't think like that." You said as you placed your hand on his hip, pulling your hand back when you noted the stitches "Oh, sorry." 

"It's fine, can't feel it." He said, shaking his head and your eyes widened at that "What?" 

You were fighting not to break down as you stepped back from him and covered your mouth to muffle the sobs that wanted to slip out. 

"Baby... what aren't you telling me?" 

"You damaged your spine in the accident." You choked out, hand shaking as you spoke "There's... there's a chance that..." 

"A chance of what?" He pushed and you sobbed harder "Fuck, baby you're scaring me. Just spit it out."

"You might not walk again." 

The silence that fell over you both was deafening. Your whole body was shaking as you watched him process this news, your hand on your bump as she gave you a powerful kick. Making you wince. 

"You okay?" Alec asked, taking you by surprise and then your eyes followed his to your hand rubbing where she just kicked and you nodded. 

"Yeah, she's just making herself known." You chuckled as you made your way to his side again and placed his hand on your bump, smiling as he smiled at the feeling of his little girl moving underneath his fingertips. 

"We'll work this out." He stated, eyes not leaving your swollen middle "It might now be easy but we'll get through this." He finished, looking up at you "I promise." 

You nodded at him, lifting his hand to kiss his grazed knuckles. You believed him. No matter how this went. You were going to make it. 

Alarms started to blare from another room and your stomach dropped. The sound of Sarah screaming made your blood run cold and you glanced at Alec before sprinting out the hall, almost colliding with Tommy as he was pushed from the room, Sarah crying in his arms and Noah clutched his leg. You pulled the inconsolable toddler from his arms so Tommy could pick up Noah, watching through the slits in the blinds hanging in the window as the doctors shocked Joel. 

"DADDY!" Sarah screamed, thrashing in your arms as she tried to reach for him and your heart broke as you stood there and watched them work. 

Praying for her sake that they could bring him back. 

Next

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[zelphin124]

Summer x YN Short Story

It's about time I feed the simps 👀.

Anyway, my short stories won't have any images until I can adequately draw. People don't like the use of AI, I guess.

Time to use your imaginations, you simps.

TW: SUGGESTIVE, PG-13

~o0o~

The ball wasn't as loud as you expected it to be.

In fact, one of the main reasons why you didn't want to come was the discomfort of a loud environment, along with the group of people that would constantly crowd you. Although you would suck it up until the end of the celebration, you couldn't say you enjoyed the mass amounts of people.

You weren't exactly sure what the event even was. Ink Sans had invited you and told you to wear something nice, as it involved people of royalty showing up. When you arrived, however, he was nowhere to be found. You figured he forgot about it... again.

As you stood by the snack section, you reopened the invitation. Apparently, this AU you were in was called SeasonTale. You'd never heard of it, and you didn't have much time to explore before being guided to a fancy palace near the beach. The AU in the doodle sphere seemed odd, too… instead of a single sheet of paper or one island… this AU had four papers overlapping each other, and the island version was expansive and had four sides to it. You wondered if that was due to the four seasons inhabiting one alternate universe.

You sat the glass of your favorite drink on the table before entering the crowd. Maybe Ink was somewhere in the mass of monsters, and you didn't see him. He was way shorter than everyone else anyway. You weaved through the crowd to spot a familiar scarf-

"Pardon me, dear~"

You knew that voice was directed at you. You spun around, looking for the source of the... very soothing and charming voice. You'd never heard someone speak so eloquently, which only grew your curiosity.

You spun around a few times, unable to find the source of the voice until he stepped forward. Immediately, you saw how tall, powerful, and proud this skeleton was. He wore a fancy yellow crown that signified status. His face had many yellow prints, including a star and a sun. You guessed that he usually wore a yellow outfit to compliment his sun-like eyes, but he was dressed in a beautiful royal blue garment that fell to his feet. His pants fell into his long white boots. His eyes were locked onto you, and his smile was always present on his face.

He looked like a king.

You greeted him with a bow and a few chosen words, unable to mutter anymore. Your favorite-colored outfit flew against your body gracefully as you paid your respect. Perhaps he was just a king of the Summer Kingdom, but you had a feeling it was much more than that.

"No need to bow, darling~" he shook his hand. "Being in your presence, the honor is mine."

You weren't sure how to reply to such a compliment as he took a few steps towards you. He towered over you and continued to smile as he looked down. Your face became flushed when you realized his ribs were showing.

"The music will start soon," he extended his hand toward you. "Allow me this dance?"

Although you couldn't dance very well, you figured denying a king to a dance would be rude. You took his hand gently, realizing your hand was small in his.

"Heh, your hand is adorable," he didn't hesitate to grasp your hand before pulling you closer to him. "And so are you~"

Your blush covered your face, and you could not react appropriately before the king swept you off your feet into a rhythmic dance. The only thing you could muster to do was to look up at him as he guided you across the marble floor.

You decided to concentrate on dancing. However, when this man was leading, it didn't seem so hard. In fact, you realized he was perfectly guiding you in each step, making your task very easy as the swaying music continued to gently play in the background.

The murmurs around you hushed quietly. You felt various people staring at you and the king before some of them decided to dance themselves. Despite your wandering attention, the king's gaze stayed transfixed on you.

"What's your name, doll?" His voice as smooth as butter rang through your ears. His smile had softened as his feet still moved gracefully.

You tell him your name with a couple of stutters. The butterflies in your stomach and the heat coming from your face did not help you speak clearly. You were so flustered by this monster's presence, your mind felt fuzzy. Did he put some sort of spell on you? Did someone put something in your drink earlier? Were there-

"What a lovely name for a glorious person," he soothed, his right hand pulling your waist closer to him before twirling you around. "You may call me Summer, skip the formalities."

The smirk that grew upon his face was accompanied by a small chuckle as he continued to observe you. It was obvious he found whatever noise came out of your mouth adorable. Normally, you would find someone staring at you this long to be uncomfortable. But this king, Summer, he was different. You wanted him to continue looking at you. You wanted him to stare, as if you were addicted to his gaze.

To say you felt attracted to him was an understatement.

Summer continued to ask questions about you, always putting in some sort of pet name like doll, darling, sweetheart, sunflower, sunshine, and many more. He constantly flirted with you. Although embarrassed, you didn't exactly want him to stop. He was giving you so much attention, almost too much. It was nice and something you hadn't experienced before.

"Has anyone told you that you're the most beautiful person in the room?" Summer cooed. "Cuz' you are, sunflower."

Finally, your brain was able to function. You asked him what he ruled over, hoping to change the subject.

"I rule over all of SeasonTale, darling~" he smiled as he slowed down, swaying more than dancing. "And you?"

You chuckled in embarrassment, as the only thing you really ruled over was your stuff animal collection.

The sun king laughed in amusement. "How adorable!" He glanced to the side before looking back at you.

You decided to interrupt him by asking him why he was paying so much attention to you. Although it wasn't a topic you would have brought up initially, due to the amount of flirting he did, you were curious.

"If it wasn't by my actions..." Summer paused, twirling his thumbs inside of your hand palms. "I've taken quite an interest in you."

You told him to drop the formalities.

"All of em?" He chuckled before his face got closer to your own. "You... you're stunning... you're stunningly beautiful... I've never seen anyone like you before," he whispered, his voice soft. His grip tightened around you, and his eyes were shining. "My dear, will you give me the honor of getting to know you? I can't let an opportunity like you go..."

The king of SeasonTale was enthralled with you and wanted to get to know you. You thought you were dreaming. You weren't going to let this go to waste. You accept his offer, asking him what he would like to do after the party.

"Oh, not tonight," he chuckled, his hand grazing your cheek as he sighed. "I have too many kingly things to do... What about tomorrow? I can take you to my favorite cafe... It'll be on me, I'm sure you'll love it, my little sunflower."

Your heart was pounding harder than you thought possible. Your face was so red, it was unbelievable. You barely were able to utter the word 'yes' before you hid your face in his chest.

The king chuckled and stroked your back gently. "You adorable little thing~" he smiled before pulling you away to look into your eyes. You would always remember his smirk.

"See you there, cutie~" he cooed, leaning closer to you until you felt a gentle kiss on your cheek. It was gentle, soft, and sent shivers down your spine.

Before you could process what was happening, Summer backed up, winked, twirled in his robe, and vanished from sight.

"There you are!" Your friend Ink came bounding toward you. "I was looking for you everywhere! Granted, I was thirty minutes late... but dang you're really good at hiding in the crowds!"

You couldn't even look in his direction as your own hand traced where Summer had kissed your cheek. You stared at where he disappeared. You were in awe of what had just happened.

He captivated you.

"Y/N?" Ink's eyes became question marks as he stepped in front of you, snapping you out of your gaze.

You greeted Ink before taking his hand to go find Error. Apparently, the artist wanted to annoy the destroyer 'for funsies' as he put it. You glance back at the spot where you last saw the king. You blushed as you saw a note on the floor that he knew he left you.

Cocoa Cafe, 1pm, CoffeeTale.

________________________________

Continue?

YES NO

[toxicpineapple]

the big amamota essay

the age old question. why do i ship kaito momota and rantaro amami from new danganronpa v3: killing harmony. two characters who have one mildly hostile onscreen interaction in chapter one, a few interactions via the anthology, and now a shorter than short dr:s scene. is this deranged? maybe. but i've been in the fandom for a long time and as such i've had a while to do a lot of thinking, and kaito and rantaro are my favourite characters of all TIME, which basically means i live in their heads. i am them. they are me. they exist in my heart and brain. even when i eventually leave danganronpa behind, i will be taking them with me.

there are a lot of reasons and we're gonna get into the messy details down below, but for the ones looking for a true thesis style TLDR: i think they could act as a mirror for one another's weaknesses. i think they have opposing strengths that could complement each other. i think they would just straight up get along. i think they embody so many of the traits that the other admires most in people. they could take care of each other SO well. they're both asexual. and most importantly, i think they are both two people who have suffered so much and grew up so fast and together maybe they could have a little bit of fun.

(you know you're in deep when the tldr is too wordy. essay below!)

so one thing you probably don't know about rantaro unless you've done his free time events is that the motherfucker is evasive as hell -- but not to a fault. i'll explain.

first, here are some screenshots from rantaro's free time events with shuichi.

these screenshots are from rantaro's first and second free time events respectively. as early as his first hangout with shuichi, rantaro drops a mention of his biggest trauma, but quickly pulls back when questioned. then he continues to dodge talking about it, even when shuichi tries to inquire further. rantaro is secretive. he has a pretty good reason for this -- twelve missing sisters is a doozy -- but he does eventually open up to shuichi. later on he admits that the reason he dodged talking about it in the first place was because he was terrified that shuichi would judge him or tell him to give up on his search. rantaro is an incredibly dedicated person, so being told that he needs to quit the one thing he feels personally responsible for doing... yeowch. but it's obvious especially from the bonus modes where rantaro does NOT share information about himself that these free time events with shuichi are a rare occurrence. rantaro doesn't often share those kinds of personal details about himself.

which brings us to kaito. the biggest and best example i can point to, other than kaito's repeated attempts at hiding weakness throughout the game (from his ghost fear to his injury to going so far as to try and confront ouma himself rather than wait for the class to save him) is his harmonious heart event.

kaito clearly also struggles with lowering his guard around people. he does NOT want to accept help, especially from his sidekicks, but that's beyond the point of this essay lol. the point is kaito has a repression complex, but there IS a part of him that wants to be heard. he responds most positively to shuichi telling him that he can be weak.

which brings me to my first point as to why these two work so well for each other. we can see here that kaito and rantaro are both incredibly resistant to accepting help from people for their own reasons. rantaro has been doubted his whole life, dealing with a deep inner shame and fear of judgement for his mistakes. kaito doesn't want to be viewed as less-than or weak, but a part of him does want support and validation... do you see where i'm going with this?

kaito is the luminary of the stars! he's THE believe in you guy. if rantaro even started to hint about being a useless older brother, much like shuichi in the ftes kaito would not leave him alone. he'd persist until rantaro opened up, and when rantaro eventually does open up, he'd encourage him. he'd reaffirm that rantaro is doing the right thing, that he CAN do it, that it's possible and that kaito believes he will do it. it's the kind of support and validation rantaro hasn't received from anyone, even people who are well meaning, in such a long time. getting it from kaito would impact him deeply.

now on kaito's end, rantaro is very very observant. in his first fte with kaede he lists off really shrewd observations about miu, kiibo, and korekiyo showing he's good at seeing people are more than meets the eye. which leads me to believe seeing kaito he'd understand that while kaito does genuinely have passion for being a hero, he also has difficulties showing his weaknesses to others. rantaro is very tactful. i believe he would be very patient with kaito and let him open up on his own time, but seek him out. while he's scared of ghosts, while he's sick, you name it. he wouldn't have to say much. just that even heroes have their weaknesses. and i think that eventually, kaito would listen to.

the other part of this is that these two both have incredibly high eqs, so they WOULD be able to see that the other is struggling. they WOULD see that intense fear of vulnerability, of expressing themselves... and they'd recognise it in themselves, especially through witnessing or even dodging the others' attempts at helping them. rantaro is smart, he would call out kaito's attempts at helping him without accepting anything for himself, and kaito would NEVER accept a hand from someone who he couldn't support in turn. and as they get closer they'd start to think... maybe a little bit is okay. maybe if it's for his sake, it's okay. if i can help him, then i'll let him help me.

kaito and rantaro also have complementary strengths! kaito is inuitive, outgoing, vocally encouraging. rantaro is shrewd, observant, and a good listener. kaito is highly trusting to rantaro's distrust. rantaro is measured and careful to kaito's recklessness. kaito has temper issues, rantaro is extremely calm and rational. rantaro struggles to take up space, kaito will boldly make himself the centre of attention. kaito runs hot and rantaro runs cool. kaito conquers the stars and rantaro conquers the earth. kaito is the home that rantaro comes back to after every failed search for his sisters, and rantaro in turn is the home kaito wants to return to when he's out in space. they complete each other. they both have high eq but in different ways, with rantaro skilled at reasoning out why people are the way they are and kaito good at knowing where someone's heart lies. you'll notice this is also the thing they're missing. in canon rantaro never knows who to trust or how people will react to him. kaito struggles to understand ouma because he has no idea why he is the way they is. they can help each other to grow and cover each other's blind spots.

my next point is that they really would just get along! rantaro is incredibly tactful, never the type to be insulting or rude. you can see it in the way they interact in dr:s, when kaito is saying downright ridiculous stuff about looking for rantaro's sisters in space rantaro just thanks him for the help. he wouldn't call him stupid or belittle him or target his insecurities. and on the flip side i think kaito has so much energy and positivity, rantaro would really enjoy that. rantaro is so exhausted and beaten down by the world, meanwhile kaito looks at it with starry eyes. but it's worth noting that rantaro ISN'T a staunch pessimist. he DOES believe impossible things can happen, or he wouldn't be on his search. they would mesh in that way.

beyond meshing, i also think that the two of them really do mirror each others' admired qualities. we see this in the artbook, where rantaro comments that he likes space and kaito says something along the lines of "we should fight!" i think saying that he wants rantaro to join him in fighting the monokumas lol. kaito can tell at a glance that rantaro is formidable and could potentially hold his own in a fight, hence inviting him into the squad. furthermore, just take a look at rantaro's backstory. the dude is an adventurer. he travels the world by boat and survives close calls with spies and assassins -- KAITO WOULD THINK HE IS AWESOME.

rantaro also i think really would admire kaito's passion and expertise when it comes to space. he's a hard dedicated worker and rantaro would be able to tell, as well as recognise his talent in his field. i think he'd really admire that and want to learn more, especially enjoying space himself.

it's also worth noting that we see in kaito's love hotel that his romantic ideal is someone who can challenge him. someone who he admires who will be neck and neck with him... and who better than a seasoned adventurer who hasn't quite lost his spark yet?

as well as admiring each other, i also think kaito and rantaro would just be really really good at taking care of one another. kaito is such a high eq person and a good listener, highly attentive to the specific ways to reach out and comfort people, always there to lend a listening ear when someone's upset. he's really good with his words, and would be really good at offering rantaro pep talks when he's weighed down by his search. kaito is also very physically affectionate as his main love language with his friends, and i think that would really be good for rantaro who is so lonely and withdrawn.

rantaro as well is excellent with his words, perceptive, and caring. we see from his love hotel event that all he wants is somebody he can protect in some capacity. he'd want to take care of kaito and help him more than anything. in utdp we see him bringing back thoughtful souvenirs and making sure to show up for every major school event even with all his travels. he's attentive to other people's needs and what is important to them! he'd love to listen to kaito's space rambles and bring him gifts from all over the world as he continues on his journey.

kaito having someone who will listen to him is SO important to, because so many of his classmates and even his closest friends oftentimes brush him off or call him ridiculous for the things he says. i think rantaro would genuinely enjoy just hearing what he has to say. they pay attention to one another and enjoy spending quality time together. and i think kaito would absolutely insist on helping rantaro find his sisters, too, to the best of his abilities. travel montage :]

this is a quick note lmao but i think that kaito and rantaro of everyone have really strong asexual coding. i made a whole post about rantaro once but the long and the short is rantaro's aversion to sex in the salmon mode as well as his love hotel being nonsexual give me vibes, and then kaito's response to maki's confession as well as the utdp scene where he talks about peeping with leon and hifumi but ends up just talking about adventure the whole time... they're ace4ace. they are so comfortable in their own bodies together.

finally, i really do think these two could just have so much fun. kaito is so competitive! he'd challenge rantaro to all sorts of games and physical tests, bring him along to training, bring him out to enjoy the stars and go for outings. rantaro on the flip side will whisk kaito away to all kinds of foreign destinations and fancy restaurants. they can talk together in other languages and tour america, they can play fight, they can laugh together... i would like rantaro to read aloud to kaito and scratch his hair, or for kaito to carry rantaro on his back and jump into a lake...

it's the little things like that, you know? they just both grew up so quickly. we see how kaito ages in the killing game alone burdened by an illness and all the people who need him. we know he feels that way even outside of a killing game setting. and rantaro has this quest to find his sisters and NOBODY around to support him. when they find each other they can take the weight off each other's shoulders and really just... play. have a good time.

i know i'm insane. i know that there are people who ship these two because they're two attractive hunks or because one of them can take care of the other or whatever but for me it has always been about give and take with these two. mutual exchange. mutual vulnerability. mutual growth. they don't just add to each other, they learn from each other. they don't FIX each other, they CHOOSE to heal because when they get close together, they finally have a reason to. they finally have someone to heal for. they finally have a home again.

thank you. stan amamota for clear skin.

[chemzee]

lil doodle of Morgan's Y4 appearance (or at least, his first appearance, which was during November-December)

ALSO!!! using this as an opportunity to post his updated lore. I didn't like his original lore at all, so I rewrote it practically from scratch.

It's going to be really long tho so here we go

✨🌙✨

Ok so I'll start off by saying Morgan's family is no longer cursed, nor are most of them dead, only Morgan being affected and not just randomly at some point of his life, but rather he was already born sickly (whenever it's somehow related with magic or some curse is still up for me to decide,but now, he's just a sick child whose illness (which is kinda fictional but resemblances anemia) while not terminal,does affect him quite a lot). I decided to get rid of that concept entirely and rewrite the dynamic Morgan has with his family, esp his uncle.

Other than scary, that experience was very isolating: he was sheltered all his life before going to Hogwarts, having absolutely no friends at all, which resulted in him developing no social skills at all. He wasn't particularly close to his family either, with perhaps an exception of his uncle, whowas more of his tutor/teacher.

Now, as I mentioned before, Morgan was born a very sickly child, having lots of heart and blood issues. He spent a good chunk of his childhood in bed and hospitals, constantly falling very ill, to the point of falling in coma/almost dying at least several times during that period of time. Fortunately, by the time he got into Hogwarts, his condition got manageable and he could live a relatively normal life, although he would often feel unwell, some days better, some days worse.

But being on verge of death so many times, especially as such a young child was a very scary and traumatizing experience for him, but a part of him grew accepting of death, coming to terms with the fact he probably won't live much shorter life compared to his peers (not talking about dying at 20-30, but rather ~50 now, a lil more if he gets lucky).

Whenever he wasn't in the hospital, he'd spent most of his time reading books, his favorite ones were horror novels and astronomy books, the later becoming a big interest of his. At around 8 years old, he started to write his own short stories, taking inspiration in the horror novels he read and they often were rather disturbing in nature. Or so his parents thought. He stopped sharing his writings with his family at some point bc he could tell they didn't like them much.

However, he does still live through the death of some of his relatives, witnessing one of them, which was of his uncle. After that, he started taking interest in necromancy (soon disappointed he can't really make someone truly alive again) and then it escalated to interest in dark arts in general. He'd read upon biographies of dark wizards and their crimes, but purely from theoretical standpoint. He found it interesting what pushes people to commit such terrible crimes.

When Morgan got to Hogwarts, his poor social skills didn't do him much good: he had a lot of troubles socializing, he was seen as weird and creepy, especially because of his interests. He had no friends there, being a "weird loner kid" throughout hus first few years there and even though he doesn't mind being alone due to being an intovert, he craved to find someone who'd understand him, somewhere to belong, a friend.

By the time of Y2/3, he came up wirh an idea of his own book: about a prisoner in Azkaban who reminisces his life, how from a kind-hearted teacher he became a dark arts user and necromancer. He started to do his research, especially about Azkaban and it's when he developed his strong distaste for the imprisonment system MoM imposed.

The more he researched, the more he was convinced on how nonsensical the system was: why lock up ALL criminals in the same place? Why lock up petty thieves, who perhaps only did that to support themselves due to economical issues with dangerous dark wizards, the worst kind of people on Earth? Why punish people who had no other choice so cruelly rather than help them? Why is there only one prison? Why not build rehabilitation centers? Why make people suffer for their crimes hoping they won't commit them again, rather than understand what pushed them to commit them in the first place and help prevent that from happening?

At some point, he approached one of Slytherin prefects, the one he knew was a son of a minister and aspired to become one day too, Joaquin Reedus, to ask him what he thought of idea of reforming the system to create rehabilitation centres for petty criminals, so they would have to stay in Azkaban of all places. Reedus was intrigued by this young boy and his idea and told him that he'll think about his proposal. And then, after a few days, decided to ask if he was interested in joining a group that opposes sone of ministry's ways (without mentioning the group's name).

Morgan, very young and naive, saw it as hid opportunity to find people who thought alike, people who would accept him, to find people he'd be able to call his friends. And so, he agreed.

The group was NOTME.

And unfortunately, that group was not as considerate as Morgan hoped they'd be.

[littleshysheep-at-da]

Hello, I like your art can you share some Sasajima Kyouya/Wrath headcanons? He’s my favourite character.

OHMYGOSH THANK YOU SO MUCH???

*cracks knuckles* YOU’VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE. Honestly he’s my Favorite too! A decent of my Headcanons for him revolve around my OT3 or the Demon Army Family so here we go!

This may contain vague Spoilers and I may edit this for grammar or to add more details…

Honestly consider this part 1 because if you ask again later I’d probably have even more written down lol.

(I’m ripping this from my KumoDesu Fanfic ideas Doc so if some of the wording is wonky that’s why btw THERE’S A LOT)

To start I’ve def said this before here: Things to note I’m obsessed with my headcannon of Shun x Katia x Kyouya as an OT3 and there is zero content but I have a million ideas but no energy. Also you can rip the headcannon of the demon army as family with Ariel x Shiraoi as the parents to Mera, Sophia, and Kyouya (and YES I have a long winded modern and other AUs shut up) from my cold dead hands.

Shiro and Kyouya Mother-Son: The Labyrinth and the Mountains are probably the 2 harshest environments in the world. So I like to think that because of growing up in these environments Shiro and Kyouya both have some weird but similar values. I’ve always kinda seen them very much as Mother and Son. The Labyrinth was harsher so she has some more insane survival methods and he sort of looks up to it. (Side note: I know some people Ship them and I never want to throw discourse, you’re allowed to ship whatever you want so don’t want to say much, but personally I hate it very much I could go into why but it’s mostly my character reads and taste). Ariel and Shiro give off so many Mom vibes when it comes to Mera, Kyouya, and Sophia to me lol (and yes they would be siblings in that order I don’t remember where but I think the LN said Goblins have shorter pregnancies so Kyouya is slightly older than Sophia lol). Sophia especially with Kyouya reads as the “no one is allowed to bully my Brother but me” vibes and I love it. Her and Kyouya also both definitely look up to Mera as someone who’s well put together.

For the hair of the non-human reincarnations: Shiro’s hair feels like silk. Fei’s hair feels like feathers. And Kyouya’s hair feels like soft animal down. I bet Katia asks to play with Kyouya’s hair and then has a flied day with how soft it is. I also like to think she tries to convince him to let her do his nails lol.

For lifespan: So Shiroai is immortal, I’m assuming Ariel has a long life span close to that (ignoring the end of the novel with Ariel spoilers), and Mera and Sophia are somewhere in the same boat or close to that… How long is Kyouya’s lifespan??? For most angst is he gonna outlive his human friends but die before his demon family???

Goblins are just Hamsters: The Goblins look like they’re based on Hamster so you can not take away from me the Headcanon they’re language is just Hamster noises. I like to think Kyouya teaches it to the others so they can use it as code. (The Demon Army can communicate purely with inhuman noises lol). I like to think Kyouya purrs instead or snores because of this as well. I also like to think because he grew up around the Goblins he just sees them as people and doesn’t get what everyone thinks they look like.

Kyouya’s height: Kyouya was a manlet before reincarnation it's cannon I’m living. Okay and technically speaking he probably is after reincarnation as well. Like they are in a European Fantasy setting and he’s only “considerably taller than he used to be” which was considerably short for a Japanese High Schooler. Also in Ex2 we see him standing next to a Puppet Taratect (which are all short af) yet they come up to his shoulder.

Housewife vibes: I think what Kyouya wants in life is to be a Housewife ngl. Like he was most satisfied working to support people he was close to both in his past life online game and the goblin village. Plus I think though he did that by making weapons he would prefer not to have to fight. What if he makes good knives and just starts cooking for people. Like I don’t have more words right now so this is short but I could go off here.

My OT3 Agenda: Background: I’m just saying Kyouya is really depressed and probably doesn’t have any plans for after the war but I could see Ariel having in him work in the human area with Shun and Katia (probably cause she feels a bit sad about him losing friends) because he’s in their upper ranks and unlike Sophia can actually deal with people. But I feel like Shun and Katia feel bad that they had each other and he had to grow up all alone so they try and reconnect. Shun, because he really clings to the connections he does have and because they were so close in their past lives, desperately wants to rebuild that. Katia because she seems similarly attached to people she considers friends she’s afraid of losing that and probably feels bad for writing Kyoua off as maybe an enemy and not being there for him like she was for Shun. Kyouya is just deeply confused that they still want anything to do with him and feels undeserving but is really happy. Confession: I think Katia knows about her feelings first but doesn’t say anything due to self esteem issues (except some flirting to test the waters). I think Kyouya has a realization ™ and feels unsure of what to do (also self esteem issues). But ends up visibly being a little off which Shun notices and brings up to Katia (she sorta noticed as well) so she confronts him which ends in a mutual confession between the two as they then decide how to tell Shun. Shun meanwhile worried what’s going irks Fei who decides to inform him of his very obvious (to everyone but him) crushes. Now realizing his feelings he’s very awkward about it until Katia and Kyouya confront him and confession ensues. Now realizing they all love each other: OT3 successful.

Taking this outta the tags: Not even kidding answering asks about KumoDesu because I’ve sort of come to be know as a KumoDesu blog is like,,, I’m living my dream right now. I haven’t even posted my Kumoko Cosplay or that much Art yet but people just wanna hear my opinion???? Literally these asks give me so much dopamine feel free to keep them coming.

[baby-girl-e]

Long story short

Characters - Iceman x Maverick

Summary - It’s 1987 when Maverick runs into Charlie for the first time since the breakup. Unfortunately Ice was there to witness the whole thing, thus prompting a conversation between the new boyfriends about why Charlie and Maverick had broken up in the first place. 

Word Count - 2.2k

Warnings - Talk of breakups, vague mentions of abuse, talk of gooses death, cursing

A/N - I hope you enjoy this one! It’s based on the song ‘Long story short’ by Taylor Swift! You’ll notice a lot of my writing is based on songs, especially hers! It’s what inspires me, so I hope you listen while or after reading because it really conveys what I’m going for in this fic! The POV on this one is a bit mixed, but I hope I made it clear who was thinking what! 

It was 1987 when Maverick saw Charlie again. They had broken up about a month into their relationship and since then it was radio silence. Maverick didn’t even know that she was still in the state, figured she would’ve moved on to bigger and better things. He and Ice had started their relationship about a month after Maverick and Charlie broke up, the pent up tension between the two finally snapping. It was during a fight that they had finally confessed their feelings, which in hindsight Maverick should’ve seen that coming. Maverick had been ignoring Ice after the breakup and after being stationed together on the Enterprise it was getting harder and harder to function with a barely talking Maverick. Ice marched himself to Mavericks quarters he shared with Merlin after assuring that the RIO was indeed in the common room watching a movie. “Maverick Mitchell open this door immediately!” He was pounding on the door, just to be sure the shorter man wasn’t sleeping. The door swung open to a confused Maverick looking at Ice like he grew a second head. “What the fuck Ice?” Ice wasn’t going to give in just yet so he pushed past Maverick and into his room. Maverick had the good sense to lock the door, assuming this conversation would require privacy. Ice was pacing already when Maverick turned around,  “Ice, what’s going on?” That seemed to be the wrong thing to say because Ice stopped his pacing and instead got in Mavericks face. “What’s going on? What’s going on is you’ve been ignoring me for the last month. Hell, you’ve been ignoring everyone for the past month. What gives?”

 Maverick hadn’t known he had such an effect on Ice, he had always considered himself to be a bit of a nuisance to the man. “Why do you care so much Ice? I do my job, well might I add, and I’m civil. What else do you want from me?” Ice huffs and grabs Maverick by the biceps. “Is that what you think we are? Just casual coworkers? Maverick, do you really not realize how many people care about you?” He supposed he didn’t. Charlie made it clear that he was too messed up for people to give him the time of day. He didn’t like to be made a fool, and decided to not kid himself. People didn’t care about him, and if they did they’d eventually leave. “No Ice, I don’t think they do. Maybe they think they do, but inevitably they’re just going to get tired of grieving Maverick. The fun Maverick is gone.” Ice rolled his eyes harder than Maverick had ever seen, so hard he’s sure it hurt. “You’re so fucking stupid Mav.” Of all the responses he could’ve imagined, that wasn’t one of them. “Excuse me?” Ice got even closer, so close Maverick could feel the other man's breath. “Just shut your mouth for once, okay?” Maverick was about to protest further but was cut short by Ice’s lips on his. He was caught off guard that was certain, but he wasn’t complaining. 

After that kiss things just spiraled from there. It was hard to start a relationship on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Indian Ocean, but somehow they made it work. Stolen kisses here and there and their regularly scheduled banter, just nobody knew it was no longer friendly and was definitely more on the flirty side. When they got off the carrier was when their relationship really began to take shape. It was unlike anything Maverick had ever experienced. He always thought it was so cliche to say your partner was your best friend, but that’s exactly what he and Ice were. He laughed more than he cried, he talked more than he hid, he had company more than he was alone. To Maverick it felt safe, like he had someone who cared about him and his messiness. 

Because it was so expensive to live in California it wasn’t unusual for two unmarried officers, especially ones that were wingmen, to be roommates. Both Maverick and Ice had decided to teach at TOP GUN and needed a place to stay and thought it’d be convenient to live together. Convenient was how they justified it to everyone and to themselves for moving in with their significant other a mere month into the relationship. Of course they technically had separate rooms, just in case they had company over, but ended up staying in the same bed every night. It had gotten to the point that Maverick hadn’t slept in his own bed in 3 months, so he tried sleeping alone for one night. He ended up in Ice’s bed by midnight. 

Their relationship had it’s kinks, like any other, but it was still the healthiest relationship either of them had ever been in. They talked about what bugged them, gave each other needed space and kept work out of their personal life. Maverick was starting to wonder if it was too easy, but Ice reminded him that this was what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to have it’s challenges, yes, but ultimately it should be easy to love someone. Love was something they had said to each other 6 months into the relationship. It was accidental and yet again said in the middle of an argument. They were in a routine from there, wake up, ‘I love you’, carpool to work,’I love you’, pretend they were just friends, etc. On days that one of them had to stay later they drove separate and whoever got home first made dinner. Other days, like Friday nights, they had their version of date nights. Of course they couldn’t go out like other couples, but they did pickup dinner and a movie from the new Blockbuster that just opened up.

 It was there at their favorite take out place that they ran into Charlie. Ice was the first to see her and couldn’t warn Maverick in time before he stopped talking to notice her. When he did he stopped his rant on the students that were just so annoying that day. Charlie saw them from across the room and was, much to Maverick’s dismay, making her way over to them. “Fuck Ice what is she doing here?” Maverick was mostly annoyed at her presence than anything else. “Beats me, here’s hoping you two had an amicable breakup.” Maverick made an amused sound at that. He had yet to tell Ice about everything that went down and he was almost glad he hadn’t. If he had… well he wasn’t sure what sort of reaction Ice would have to her now. He really had fallen into that protective boyfriend role easily. “Hello Lieutenants. Fancy meeting you here.” Maverick could barely keep his indignation to himself, she wanted to play it like this? “I could say the same thing for you, aren’t you the one supposed to be in D.C?” She looks shocked by his blunt response, but it was Maverick for gods sake, of course this was how it was going to go. “I’m just here visiting a friend, what I meant was, last I heard you two were on the Enterprise.” Pete was actually pleased she said that, it just proved how little she really knew. “Well it seems that precious pentagon of yours isn’t keeping you up to date anymore now is it?” Ice looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head and decided it was best he intervened. “Miss Blackwood, a pleasure. I apologize for my wingman here, he hasn’t eaten anything since noon.” Charlie laughed slightly at Ice, only confusing him further. “Wingman huh? I’m surprised you two haven’t killed each other yet, what happened to that rivalry we all loved so much?” 

Maverick rolled his eyes at his former lover. She really wanted to push all of the buttons huh? Well two could play at that game. “Listen Charlie, the bond between two pilots isn’t like any normal one. Not that you’d know anything about that. Try as much as you’d like but you won’t. We’re duty bound to our country first and each other second, our rivalry made us better pilots so we decided to be there for each other, something you do for someone you care about. Again, something you would know nothing about. If you’ll excuse us.” Maverick grabbed their food that had been ready in the nic of time and marched out leaving Ice to pick his jaw off the floor and follow him. 

Maverick is halfway to the car before Ice could catch up. “Jesus Mitchell what the hell was that?” Pete’s still fuming as he gets in the passenger side, too pissed off to drive. He’s quiet the entire drive and Ice just leaves him to it. He knows his boyfriend well enough that no amount of pushing will help or get him to talk. He’d say something when he was ready. Back home Ice sets their food down and puts the movie next to the VCR before he sits on the couch,  looking at Maverick expectantly. “Wanna explain that whole thing yet?” Pete looks less heated now and more embarrassed for his outburst. He sat down next to his boyfriend, Tom immediately taking a hold of one of his hands in comfort. “Well, if you haven’t guessed, Charlie's and my breakup wasn’t exactly clean.” Tom snorted, that much was obvious. “First thing I should tell you is that Charlie left me. She was the one who wanted to call it quits. At first she said it was because of the job she got in D.C but after some digging she told me the real reason.” Maverick got uncharacteristically quiet after that, which prompted Ice to shift closer and put his arm around his lover. “Baby, whatever it is you can tell me. We’ve seen each other way worse, remember?” And indeed they had, they’d both comforted the other through nightmares of lost friends or abusive fathers, they’d both held each other in the shower after a near death experience. “It’s just this… this may make you reconsider your relationship with me.” Now Ice was offended, there was no way that was in any way true. 

“Maverick, you're an idiot if you really think that. Please just tell me, I promise it’s not going to change anything.” Tom was confident in his promise, something he always had been with Pete. “Well she said that, I was… well a mess. I mean she wasn’t wrong, but I thought she knew that going in. I mean she was there for god sakes! But anyways she told me I wasn’t the Maverick she liked, yeah not loved, liked. When we first started things I was different, I mean I still hated you and I was every bit a hotshot. Then goose… after that I guess I haven’t been the same. Not on that pedestal anymore.” Pete was well aware that he had changed before Charlie pointed it out. “I guess I just liked her because she was there, needed to numb the pain with someone. Even if that someone was the worst thing for me, I thought it’d help me forget.” Ice was quiet as he listened. Nodding his understanding, but once Maverick stopped he began to talk. “Pete, you know what she said wasn’t true. Believe me when I say this, abusers have a way of making you believe them over anything else. What Charlie did, how she treated you was wrong. Plain and simple. She took advantage of you and there’s no way around it. I love you, in spite of and because of your mess. Baby you lost your best friend, you’re allowed a lifetime of being messy.” Pete seemed to cling to his words, like a child desperately wanting to believe the tale he’s being told. 

“But Tom, how is that fair? For you I mean, you didn’t sign up for a lifetime of mess.” Tom shook his head and grabbed Pete by his biceps, much like the time he did when they kissed for the first time. “That’s exactly what I did. The day I said I’d be your wingman I meant both in the sky and on the ground. And besides if you want to use that excuse you didn’t sign up for my fucked up brain either, but you’re doing it beautifully.” Pete was about to tell Ice that of course he didn’t mind his mess when it hit him. Oh. That bastard. Ice noticed his realization and pulled him in for a hug. “Pete, baby, this relationship is different. Okay? I need you to know that. It’s not going to be you against me, it’ll be us together. I’m all about you if you haven’t noticed.” Pete let out a wet laugh, tears that had been pent up finally letting go. “Yeah you’re a little obsessed. I’m not going to let you pass me by Ice, you’re my home.” Tom squeezed him again and released him, just not without a kiss. “You’re my home too Pete. How about we forget about that pilot wannabe and focus on date night?” Pete smiled and went to grab the food Ice had left on the counter while Ice put the movie in the VCR. When Pete brought the food out Ice had already pulled out the big blanket they always used and had put it over his lap but it was still folded, waiting to be put on Pete’s lap as well. Seeing Ice waiting for him, patiently and earnestly, made his chest swell with warmth. A feeling he thought had died with goose. Maybe things would be okay. With Ice? Well, long story short he survived. 

[judeschoices]

In This Moment

It's been a struggle to write anything Choices-related. Quite honestly, I don't have many books I like. The Deadliest Game though... me likey. Sue me.

I claimed Jun Seong as my husband, waiting every Friday to see this man's face. So I tried to write something about him.

Book: The Deadliest Game

Pairing: Jude Thorn x Jun Seong (Black M!MC)

Rating: Mature

Tag(s): Budding Romance, Mentioned Main Character Death, Suggestive Themes

Summary: Jun was the type of person whose mind is always working. As a bodyguard, he had to be on guard. He had to be vigilant. He knows that all it takes is one second and everything can change. There was no real space in his life to relax and well... have a much of a normal life. At first, he didn't mind. He knew what he was signing up for when he became a bodyguard. And it wasn't like he had his eye on anyone special... until he met his boss's childhood best friend, Jude Thorn.

Jun wasn't the type of man known to relax. Ever since he was a young boy, he always kept busy. From his studies to helping his parents take care of his little sisters, Jun was always doing something that meant productivity. In a way, it meant he stuck to himself most of the time. Not really one for parties or popular social events, Jun found the company of "me, myself, and I" to be enough for him.

He was mainly known as stoic. Kind, polite, but in many ways, a little difficult to read.

It's rare to see the man caught off guard or flustered... something that seemed to happen with increasing frequency ever since meeting Nick's childhood best friend, Jude Thorn. The murder mystery author Nick always fondly spoke of. Nick had a collection of his books in his house, even reading his latest release at least four times before he died. 

Their first meeting was orchestrated by one idiot tech bro and Jun's former employer, Steve Bashir. After catching and bringing the young man into the circle of his arms to prevent him from taking an impromptu dip in Nick's pool, Jun was secretly taken by surprise when those deep brown eyes met his. Nick had last seen his best friend two years prior, right before he hired Jun as his bodyguard. So Jun never met Nick's childhood friend in person before and their monthly Zoom calls were usually done when Jun wasn't around. 

Granted, Jun could've utilized the internet to see what the mystery author looked like... but if Jun was honest, he doesn't think that any online photos would do Jude justice.

Jude was a few inches shorter than Jun's 6'2 height, probably 5'9 to 5'10 if he had to guess. The young man had flawless dark skin, dark low buzzed cut hair, gently chiseled facial features, thick softly arched brows, long dark lashes that framed his deep brown eyes, a straight flat nose, and full soft lips. The author had a build that Jun would've expected from someone who sits at a desk and writes for a living, a bit on the thin side but he still felt the lean muscles through the man's suit.

To make a long assessment of the mysterious writer short... Jun had eyes, and he could clearly see that Jude was a very handsome man. Jun, who was normally attracted to women, found the feeling odd but... not unwelcoming.

And that feeling only grew as he slowly discovered that Jude was more than a pretty face. Jun spent a lot of time around self-entitled, selfish, and mean-spirited millionaires and billionaires. Save a few people, like his boss and his friends (well... some of them). But Jude was a breath of fresh air in the million-dollar mansion. 

Jude grew up with Nick. While his best friend grew up to be a self-made man with wealth that could easily support his great-great-great grandchildren, Jude was still considered "midlist" at best, according to him at least. But that was the thing. 

Jude was humble, he kept Nick humble. 

Whether he knew it or not, Nick was always deeply influenced by the other. He helped Nick remain one of the purer individuals of the upper crest. While Jun preferred to keep things strictly professional, he could admit that he saw Nick as a friend. A friend who cared about him and his well-being, no matter how often he insisted that he was fine. 

He could see that in Jude as well...

After finding Nick's body and finalizing that his death wasn't a suicide but a murder, Jude was the one trying to gain justice for his best friend. While doing his best to catch the killer before they took the lives of the ones Nick cared about (Jun still scratches his head over how he and Steve even became friends quite honestly...), even when they aren't too fond of him or his efforts. 

It's that big heart that Jun admired the most about the mystery author, amongst other things. His cheekiness, patience, witty sarcasm, intellect... 

Jun could feel himself falling for him a little by little. With each private moment with each other, Jun never felt concerned with what was next time or reflecting on the past choices that led them to a certain in their investigation... all he could focus on was Jude.

Even when he, Farah, and Dante stumbled upon Jude standing over Medhani's body, his feelings didn't change. Even when they soon discovered that Nick's time of death was earlier than they originally believed and that Jude himself didn't have an alibi, his feelings didn't change. As Jun sat next to the bone-weary man, he knew that in his gut, in his heart, that Jude wasn't the one behind the murders.

He trusted Jude... and Jude trusted him. He could see it in those dark depths... as well as his quiet desire for him. 

Not Dante.

Not Farah.

Him. 

Jun Seong, the hardass bodyguard who has walls that could rival the Great Wall of China. Jun Seong... who was still a man at the end of the day. A man suddenly weakened by desire at the sight of the author in a tight black tank top and dark red track shorts, which was the author's sleep attire. Jun felt possessed by the simple need to know... 

Just what pleasures, both simple and erotic, could he discover from the man sitting just mere inches away from him? Judging by the look in Jude's eyes, Jun could have it all if he just said the word.

"Jun..." The bodyguard couldn't resist the shiver that made its way down his spine. He secretly loved hearing the author speak. He had a low voice, a sweet smooth timbre that rang pleasantly in his eardrums. He loved how his name sounded from those plush-looking lips.

"Jude...I..." Jun couldn't resist anymore. Not here, where it's just him and Jude in the private, quiet space of his room. Jun leaned in, moving slowly to give the mystery author enough time to pull away. Much to his silent delight, Jude tilted his head to sweetly accept his kiss.

Jun has privately daydreamed about this moment, but reality proved to be so much sweeter. Jude's lips were soft and submissive, accepting everything Jun had to offer and more. He gently took ahold of the smaller man's head, tilting up to deepen the kiss. Those long slender fingers ghosted over his shoulders, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake. Jun gently bit Jude's bottom lip before pulling away a bit. Jun couldn't help but savor the flushed look on the dark-skinned man's face with greedy eyes.

"I've been wanting to do that for a while now..." Jude slowly blinked as if he was coming back to himself. The author let out a soft chuckle, warming Jun up from the inside out.

"How long," Jude quietly asked. Jun allowed himself to lightly run a finger along Jude's jawline, watching with darkened eyes as those soft lips parted. When he spoke next, his voice came out an octave longer, skirting just on the edge of a growl.

"I think I knew I was hoping for it the night Dante threw that party. But thinking back... since the moment I met you..." Jude's eyes widened in brief surprise before lowering, a coy smile tugging on his mouth.

"Then I think you should kiss me again," he whispered, leaning in again. He gasped when Jun leaned in, gently guiding him on his back as the bodyguard hovered above him. Jun wrapped a muscular arm around his slim waist, pressing him against his naked chest. Jun brushed a faint kiss to his lips, whispering,

"Like this?" Jude bit his lip, his arms finding a comfortable perch around Jun's broad shoulders as his legs parted for Jun to lay on him more comfortably. 

"Yes..." Jun didn't need any more prompting, returning to those soft lips with a quiet sigh. The author relaxed in his arms, accepting his kiss with a soft moan. Jude tightened his hold on Jun's hips with his thighs, silently demanding that Jun come closer. A low groan escaped him, his large hands finding smooth dark thighs, squeezing and caressing them in reverence. He was a fool for thinking he could keep away from such a man. He was a fool for waiting this long to experience this level of intimacy with him. Jude was just so perfect.

Jude playfully nipped Jun's lip, bringing him from his thoughts.

"Jude..." The writer silenced him with another kiss, one of his hands finding their way into his hair while its twin made its way down to his chest to rest over his heart. 

"Just be with me in this moment, Jun," Jude whispered. His lips found the rough stubble of Jun's growing bread of his jaw before teasing a line of teasing kisses along the strong cords of the bodyguard's neck. The shudder that ripped through the muscular body on top of him made the writer grin. A needy groan escaped Jun when he felt those full lips softly suck on his neck. The slow attention was causing blood to rush in between his legs, his slowly awakening arousal twitching against Jude's inner thigh through the soft material of his pajama pants. It was taking everything in his control not to roll his hips against the heat of the warmth of those soft thighs. 

"Good God, Jude," Jun moaned when he felt Jude's teeth leave a teasing bite on the same spot. Jude chuckled, returning to Jun's moaning mouth for another kiss. The kiss immediately turned heated and full lips parted, allowing their tongues to twist and dance between the gap. Jun allowed himself to grow a bit bold, reaching behind the writer to squeeze his ass. Jude let out a moan, arching back into the bodyguard's touch.

"I love seeing you like this," he whispered almost drunkenly against Jun's lips. Jun could only imagine how he looked to the other man. Tousled hair, darkened eyes, kiss-swollen lips, and a flushed complexion. Jun let out a husky chuckle, pecking the other man's lips, lingering for a few moments before slowly pulling away.

"I'm sure. But it's been a long day and tomorrow is gonna be an even longer day. It's best we get some shut-eye." Jude bit his lip, giving a slow nod.

"You're right. I... I could spend the night here if you'd like," Jude offered. Jun raised a brow at the suddenly shy author, before standing over him.

"Jun- whoa!" Jude's question died on his lips when he lifted up by his thighs, his legs coming around Jun's waist. The mystery writer laughed, wrapping his arms around the former Green Beret's neck.

"God, you make that look so easy. And hot," Jude purred, kissing Jun's cheek. The other man chuckled.

"What's the point of being a bodyguard if you can't sweep someone off their feet every once a while," he teased, walking to his pristine made bed. Jude gave a playful grin.

"Fair point... just don't drop me." Jun leaned in, his lips brushing against Jude's ear.

"Wouldn't dream of it." His voice came out a hint of a husky growl, causing the body in his arms to shudder pleasantly. Jun couldn't help but chuckle, setting the smaller man down when they reached his bed. The pair silently slipped under the sheets, Jude leaning into Jun's embrace.

"Are you okay," Jun quietly asked. Jude gave a small shrug, leaning against Jun's naked chest.

"No. But I'm alive," Jude whispered. The arms around him tightened.

"I'll do everything in my power to keep it that way. Get some sleep, Jude. I'm here." The writer let out a content sigh. 

"Thank you, Jun... sweet dreams..." A soft kiss was placed on Jude's neck before Jun felt sleep creep up on him.

'Trust me, I don't think my dreams can top this night, Jude.'

[ithinkabouttzu]

Hello lovely 🩷

Could I request a ship? 🙈

Looks:

I'm 4'9 although I like to say is 5'0, my hair is reddish brown with wavey strands and it lands a little pass my shoulders. I have brown eyes and long lashes, plus some freckles on my cheeks and an Italian nose.

Personality:

I'm a little bit shy and quiet but I'm trying to express myself more. I really like making jokes and physical comedy is my favorite thing, I'll do the silliest things if it means someone will laugh. Behind all that, I have my ups and downs and sometimes I need to let it out and cry when that happens I usually get quiet and sleepy.

People say I'm very sweet, calm and peaceful and I guess some dislike it and some don't.

Job:

Well, I'm currently studying to become an English professor, I really enjoy being in a classroom and helping students but I also would love to do many things as I have a Gemini Venus and I guess it likes to roam around.

Thank you honey <3

Thank you so much for your request!! I’m so sorry this took so long to get to you!! I’m just assuming that you requested for BoB but let me know if i’m wrong!! Hope you enjoy! 🤍

I ship you with….

Bill Guarnere!

Song recommendation:

- I have to say… This man, would be totally OBSESSED WITH YOU, okay???

- Like I have this imagine in my head that you and him knew each other way before the war, like maybe you guys grew up in the same area or your families were friends, either way this guy has had it BAD for you since primary school. Whether he really knew it or not.

- Like just imagine little Bill teasing you around and always asking you to play bc he had a secret crush on you 🥹

- ANYWAYYY time skip to pearl harbor when the US joins the war, he would IMMEDIATELY confess his feelings right after hearing what happened, he knew he would join up sooner or later but felt the need to tell you his honest feelings first, in hopes that you might like him back.

- He loves everything about you honestly, He thinks your hair is the most beautiful shade, and those pretty brown eyes.. WHOO! He swears if he could he would count every little freckle on your face (probs has tried before tbh) he finds them so attractive

- AND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE HEIGHT DIFFERENCE!! He thinks you being shorter than him is so freaking cute, like he might tease you about it to get you all riled up but in reality he just loves how short you are compared to him. (and he also loves seeing you get all heated too)

- While he’s gone he would send you the sweetest letters, really just talking to you about everything that was going on at the moment, and also reminding you how much he missed you and wanted to be with you at that moment (which was a LOT)

- I personally think that y’all’s personalities actually mix together so well, you’re more of reserved and relaxed but you can still bring a good time with your jokes, and he would actually need ductape to shut him up but he can also be chill when you need him too. It’s so cute because both of you love to make the other laugh, even if that means being a fool for each other which is ADORABLE

- While Bill’s gone he would talk about you almost nonstop, like the guys would pretty much know everything about you by the time they get to England.

- He’s so supportive of you when you’re feeling down!! I could totally see him just wrapping you up in his arms and telling you to just let it out and that everything is gonna be okay. He just wants to see you happy and feels so bad when you’re sad 😭

- He finds it so interesting that you want to be an english professor, I mean like you have to be SMART to have such a job, he really respects your work ethic and he would 100% support you to keep going!!

- Like just imagine him bringing you lunch or goodies during one of your breaks ;(( Like he would take time out of his day just to come see how you’re doing (your other co-workers/peers would be SO jealous might I add)

- And once you do finish your studying and become a professor he’s definitely gonna brag about it to all of his friends lol like just imagine him going on and on about how smart you are and how proud he is of you

- Both of you are pretty ambitious I think so I feel like y’all would do lots of stuff together in your and his free time, like maybe some of the hobbies that you guys can’t always do during a work week? I could see y’all traveling a lot too.

- For dates I think he would love to take you around town and just walk around, he doesn’t have to do much to be happy with you!! Just being in your presence is enough for him to be honest!

- I could see you and him as that one couple that has probably been dating FOREVER and just everyone comes to them when they need dating advice, like you and him probably fight like an old couple but are also crazy for one another 🤣

- OOOH and don’t let me forget how crazy he would get for anniversaries!! Like i’m sure he would go all out in getting you a present and a nice date for that night, or making the whole day or multiple days out of it!! He just loves you so much and wants to show you how much he cares for you

- Overall you just would just be the cutest couple ever 🥹 💗💗

Thank you again for the request!! I hope you enjoy!! 🤍

[starlightdustings]

"See all the trouble you've started? If you don’t think, you shouldn’t talk."

More information about Marshal under the cut!

Background: Marshal grew up an orphan and alone in the Shaftlands, doing anything and everything to get by, until a couple from the Queendom of Roses doing charity work found him and brought him home. There he was accepted into the family, gaining a doting older sister and a jolly grandfather who gave him a start on a ‘normal’ life. While his new parents would constantly travel for their humanitarian work, he slowly began to adjust; attending school, having friends, even doing chores were a dream for him. But when his parents failed to come back from one of their trips, he decided to take charge to take care of his remaining family the only way he knew how—dirty jobs were always available and paid good. His ‘reign of mayhem’ only came to an end when he got invited to Night Raven College, believing this could be a chance for a fresh start and new skills.

At Night Raven College: Despite being teased constantly by his dorm-mates about both his height and ‘being a bunny’ when he’s clearly a hare, Marshal finds Savanaclaw and it’s chaos more enjoyable than anticipated. Sure, it’s annoyingly loud, but not so much when Leona’s napping. That’s one thing to be thankful for about that guy. Somewhat feels bad for Ruggie, if not because of similar origins, but because anyone who puts up with being bossed around like he is should be praised for their patience. Occasionally, someone might come up to him asking for a ‘favor’ and for the right price he’ll don his mask and get to work like old times. Personality: Hot headed, petite, and light on his feet, he has a tendency to take people by surprise. It’s not like he wants to get into fights, it’s just that everyone in this damn school is itching for one constantly; be it a petty situation, a moral dilemma, or a serious situation, violence can be one of many answers. He can be rather quiet and soft spoken when not irked, even cute in some cases because he still has bits of child-like curiosity for many things. He cherishes his family, but rarely speaks of them saying half-hearted replies when asked. The exception is with his jade bracelet, flying into a rage if someone touches it unprompted: his sister gave him one so they can have a matching pair while she works overseas. Trivia:

He hates people towering over him, since it makes him acutely aware of how short he is compared to others

Contrarily, he fusses over those shorter than him and is more protective of them.

If he’s especially close to them, he tends to offer them food at every chance since sharing food is his love language

His fighting style is akin to mix martial arts, with an emphasis on using his legs both for attacks and dodging

He’s very good at making tea and setting up tea parties because he used to do them daily at home, but he hasn’t made a single pot of tea since arriving at school

His mask has bloodied fangs printed on it since he wanted to appear more intimidating to others.

He doesn’t like associating himself with his family out of a sense of guilt, further pushing them away by asserting himself as a hare instead of a rabbit

His sister is pretty famous on Magicam as a model and as an actor, but he doesn’t tell people they’re related because he doesn’t want people to associate him with her and is more of a quite fan of hers.

Twisted from the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland.

------

Thank you for reading! He’s a pretty new concept for me with the idea of ‘hehe hoohoo what if the hare who broke all the rules wasn’t in heartslabyul’  but I love him lots <3

[marshmallowprotection]

so I've had a thought knocking around in my head for a while. i know the twins are past the age where they'd get the most growth BUT i looked up if boys can still grow when they're a little older and the short answer is: unlikely, but possible. anyway, i keep thinking about ge saeran growing just a tiiiiiiny bit and ending up as tall as or even a cm taller than saeyoung. i want saeran to tease him and saeyoung to go full overdramatic drama queen whining and pouting like he's a tragic shakespearian hero (he's just being silly)

I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility for them. As you said, it's not something that's likely but it's not completely improbable. It could happen. Saeran has always been shorter than his brother due to malnutrition. No matter how much Saeyoung tried to take care of his brother by giving him the most food and care, it just wasn't ever going to be enough to give him what he needed.

Saeyoung had the luck of being able to leave the house. He could get sunshine, extra food, and fresh air. Sure, his growth was stunted just like Saeran's, but he had a little leverage on his twin. Even if he did a lot to help Saeran's health, Saeyoung was only a kid, and as hard as it is to hear, he couldn't ensure Saeran's health every day. Saeran had to stay inside, lose out on fresh air and sunlight, and struggle with little to no nutrients.

There is a reason why GE Saeran mentions that he hates the taste of white bread. It was one of the few things he could eat every day and now it makes him feel nauseated.

Hell, I'm surprised the twins are as tall as they are. I tend to shake it off as the logic of a fictional otome setting where they want many of the characters to be taller than what they just assume is the average height of the players.

I mean, I look over at Fullmetal Alchemist and think about how Edward's growth was stunted and ultimately played a role in his health and height. Ed did get a growth spurt near the end of the series where he grew from 4'11" to 5'6". But, the difference with his story comes down to his automail. It weighed his body down for a long time... on top of the fact his body was keeping Al's alive at the portal of truth...

I think the average height around the world is 5'9" for cis men, but for South Korea specifically, I think it's 5'7"? So, that means Saeran and Saeyoung are taller than the average statistic. Their father is tall from what we're shown, but we have no point of reference for Mother Choi and her height on top of their stunted growth.

The twins do have poor health because Rika thought Saeyoung was a lot younger than he was when they met for the first time. That's just a reflection of the obvious. The boys are smaller than people their age for years. I've thought about this a lot, though. I think about this sort of thing a lot but the game doesn't really want me to.

I digress. I do think that it'd be hilarious for Saeyoung to wake up one morning and look at Saeran and pause, "Wait a minute. My baby twin is taller than me! Oh, no! Whatever will I do! How can I protect him if I have to make him slouch behind me to avoid a villain?! MC! Help me out here! What do I do? I can't make Saeran hurt his back when I have to protect him from a bad guy!"

[redwayfarers]

🤎 multiple kisses / kisses all over / kiss after kiss for whichever ship you feel like <3

Ty for dropping by <3

🤎 multiple kisses / kisses all over / kiss after kiss // ship: Thesor x Rhodarth

In hindsight, Thesor now realises, needing an army as a moral support to accept Rhodarth's invitation for a walk sounds so silly. He almost reminds himself of how he acted in Vodena, but that too makes so much sense he can't fully find fault in his own behavior.

He hasn't been this interested in anyone for decades, he's almost forgotten how it feels to.. look forward to things. To the barest of smiles, and the steadiness of their presence, and the laughter and the touch of hands, one that is devoid of any carnal desire but desirable nonetheless.

That's not to say he doesn't want to sleep with Rhodarth. He just wants other things too. That knowledge is far scarier than he'll ever let on.

"Rhodarth," Thesor calls, trying to will his voice into something calm, "I'm curious. How short was the shortest person you've ever been with?"

Rhodarth laughs. "Shorter than you, I assure you."

Thesor huffs. "Most certainly, but that doesn't answer my question." He knows he isn't very tall, and he's seen how tall Cassander grew up to be, but there is an appeal to just burrowing against a much taller person's side. He won't do it, of course, not here. He's just curious.

"And the honest answer is that I do not remember," Rhodarth continues, "although there have been shorter people."

"And how did you solve the issue of kissing without breaking your neck?" Thesor presses. Emboldened by his own question, he brushes a hand against Rhodarth's - he's not yet entirely sure of their levels of comfort respectively regarding public displays of affection like this. Rhodarth seems content to leave it at that, though there's warmth in his yellow eyes.

"I think I know what your melusine friend would suggest," he says. "Climbing a tree. Inteus would suggest it as a joke, but Ionneon would be very serious about it."

"She'd even offer me support as I climb," Thesor shakes his head. "I don't know what I'd do without her."

"Not kiss me," Rhodarth says and Thesor stops dead in his tracks. There's a content smile on his face, and the wind plays with his hair, showing tips of pointed ears. The corners of his eyes crease, but it's a joyful thing. Thesor has a feeling he needs more of that in his life.

"I don't see any trees nearby," he states and it makes him bury his face in his hand to breathe out the laughter that presses down in his throat.

"I suppose we'll just have to find another way, then," Rhodarth supplies, and walks a little back to where Thesor stands, holding the the sash he borrowed from Oria earlier. He then looks around - no signs of life beside them - and leans down. "I do think my neck can endure a couple of kisses though," he adds quietly and closes the gap between them.

Thesor leans into it and closes his eyes. It's hardly their first kiss, but there's something about emotionally charged kisses that leaves him breathless and stunned, something he cannot quite get enough of.

"I'm curious how many," he says once they part for air. "And only then will we go looking for trees I can climb."

Rhodarth merely nods and kisses him again. And suddenly, it doesn't feel quite as frightening as it had before.

[seroothincs]

Well now I gotta see your Louie headcanons

Awh, yes the sweet baby boy. He's honestly such a favorite of mine, he's just soo.. Mmm Baby. An Absolute dork who tries to put on his best tough face but ends up being more cuter. I don't have that many headcanons of him since we already know a lot about him as a character, he has a lot of voice lines and is therefore the most involved mafia member in the show. Rather than Legs or even Johnny, but Johnny never says anything so it's obvious why we don't know a lot bout him. Headcanons: Now he's the bit more timid and friendly mobster in comparison from examples like Legs or Johnny, of course he isn't afraid to kill someone that gets into his way but he certainly is the more chatty type of guy you'd meet in college. Of course he's all around the place and eager to follow out Tony's every order, he isn't shown to be bothered when needing to kill someone. Though he does show concern for other people's well being like when he called out Homer's reckless use of a gun in "The Cartridge family", saying that homer could have seriously injured someone. Another example is in the famous scene from "Insane Clown poppy" where Johnny got shot. Paints him as a more sensitive mobster, which is what makes him all the more cuter.

He's usually shown to be the shortest member of the gang, shorter than both Legs and Tony. Johnny as well but I'm not so sure about Frankie in comparison with him. Maybe they're the same height, maybe Frankie is taller maybe Louie is. Anyways, there could be a reason for that, maybe a history of shortness in his family -- or maybe not. OR MAYBE it has to do with his past. Look he's a pretty thin and short dude, has a bit of belly chub but that's normal for a dude like him in an old age. He was extremely thin since his childhood, likely because he was raised by a single mother and back then they struggled to maintain a proper income to care for themselves. Causing for him to grow up a bit malnourished, which both caused his baby face, his short height and why he looked so thin. So you could imagine the confusion and worry when Legs and Tony grew more and more while Louie only grew half of their previous heights as teens.

Possibly and this is just one of my many filled in plot points regarding his backstory. When he was a young adult, so say early 20s, He got his first and only real job, after Anna Maria's death and after he quit college, in an Equestrian facility.

He had been spiraling into a deep depression after the terrible news of Anna's passing, so much so that he didn't see a point in continuing his studies to become a chef and gave up on his dream. Instead he wanted to try a new thing and that was caring for animals, he thought if he was under the presence of them he could feel more at ease and escape from the busy life he had once lived.

The job, working as a cleaner, paid enough of a salary to live off it, though he still was miserable. Tony eventually found him and it took some convincing to do once he got him to join the mafia again.

I should probably mention at this point that Anna Maria (Fat tony's deceased wife if anyone isn't familiar with her) and Louie were really tight best friends in the younger years. They have been ever since their teenage years and even went to college together, I don't wanna get into this too much as I will write a separate post to how the young mafia only consisting of three rose up out of Springfield's slumps into the most feared organization that ever appeared in the country.

This guy will search for anything to function as a lighter for his cigarette. Doesn't matter if it's a grill, gas stove or even a iron. He sort of got an addiction back in his early 20s and now he's trying his best to cut back.

He had much, much, much, much more curlier and luscious hair when he was young. He kind of misses it but that's just what happens with old age, he's also kind of glad that he doesn't have to deal with the thickness of it anymore. So many combs broke when he just wanted to brush through it, so many.

It's no surprise horses are his favorite animals, it's weird for a boy to like them but he got the love for them from his father. His dad was a jockey back in Italy and before he died he had promised Louie he would take him with him one day to the ranch where he used to work at and train at. This promise obviously fell through and Louie only remembered that place after he quit college.

Frankie and Louie are sharing one single braincell and it's almost dead.

Louie and Tommy "The face-shooter" are really close and I think that's because Tommy is just like Louie, both were and are young when they joined. (but I think it's also because Louie is no longer the youngest in the whole mafia and relieved that a 19 year old joined)

Louie and Michael are good friends for two reasons. One: They both are excellent cooks and occasionally when they meet up they cook together. Two: Both are children.

Louie, as mentioned in earlier episodes, is a good dancer. He was shown to be good at tap-dancing in "Mayored to the Mob" so I feel like he had dance class as an after school activity. Yeah sure the others laughed at him because of it but he really liked going to that place, wasn't a big fan of the ballet they did but he loved tap-dancing, he still does it to this day.

Besides his love for dancing, he also has a love for instruments. He has been seen attending the Rolling stones Rock N' Roll Fantasy camp and later in the episode he even dragged Tony and Legs along with him to the concert. A total Stones fanboy. But this makes me think that he started playing guitar when he was a young teen, his idols being Keith Richards and Brian May.

He is, so god damn accident-prone it's not even funny. He has been already through so many tragedies in his life and he continues to be put under them. He always manages to get shot in some way shape or form during gang wars, trips when there's nothing even there for him to trip over, fell out of a three story building that one time and he has so many scars on his bodies to show where he was stabbed. I don't even know how he continues to live after so many things happened to him, guess he and Frankie are really immortal.

What was that? You said your favorite band are the Rolling stones? Bad move, buddy. Now you're caught by an ecstatic Louie. He is such a huge fanboy for the stones and once you mention even the slightest of references at the band he turns into a blabber-mouth. It's cute at times, though his music choice sometimes gets in the way of Legs's when they are driving in the car and want to put on some music. (His favorite album of course is Sticky fingers)

Louie plus Frankie and all of the kids from their mobster colleagues (Including Michael) are loyal fans for the Muppet Show and watch it all the time when they're together. Oh and they of course watch Itchy & Scratchy together.

He loves tiramisu over everything, it's the one dessert he always orders at La Coffee nostra. He also a sweet tooth, both Legs and Tony tell him to cut back since Louie has been through so many dentist's already, so many holes.

He doesn't like to admit it at times but he's forced to when Legs gets on his back. He can be disorganized and messy, his apartment looks like a war zone and I don't think anyone would want to step in his bedroom if they already saw the state of his living room.

And that was it for the headcanons, I at least Think these are all of them. I can never make enough because of the cute boy.

[springcatalyst]

*FACE AGAINST THE GLASS OF YOUR SCREEN* Bound, break, hate, midnight for Julian?????????????? 👁👁💕💘💗💘💗Please💗💕💞💞💘💞💗💞

YESSSS THANK YOU BESTIE!! I HATE HIM (I LVOE HIM)

Bound: Has your OC ever been imprisoned or captured? What happened? How did they get out? Did the experience leave any scars?

Ok not conclusively... but maybe? The only reason anyone has to fuck with Julian is to get at Liliana, because sorry he's just not that important. You have to want something to capture someone, anything else and why not just beat him or kill him, ya feel? But I think it'd be fun for me personally.

Break: What would cause your OC to break down completely? What do they look like when that happens? Has anyone ever seen them at their lowest?

It would take something... something that he wouldn't expect to matter. Losing himself, or losing one of the few people he genuinely cares for, would destabilize an already unstable foundation. Real fear, too, gets at him. He's not afraid of pain and he's not afraid of death, which means he usually looks fearless or foolish or both, but it also means he doesn't really know what to do with genuine fear. He thinks he's invincible, thinks that he's mastered the art of remaining unaffected, but that's not even a LITTLE BIT true. Unfortunately for everyone around him, 'breaking down' now looks like getting really, really defensive. An already short fuse gets shorter and shorter the more unraveled and/or upset he becomes, which makes it impossible to deescalate. He lashes out at anyone in the vicinity, but if given the chance, he will retreat away, alone. Alone is his natural state, and the one he's most comfortable with, and it means unobserved, which is integral to the kind of breakdown he's privy to.

Arguably the only person that's ever seen him like this, though, is Diana, just because they grew up together. She was there before he was quite so defensive, before he protected his pride with his life. Still rare, though, because he always ran away.

Hate: What does your OC hate? Why? How do they act towards the object of their hatred?

God. He hates people that wound his pride, he hates people that condescend and patronize and it doesn't even have to be directed at him this time, he hates people who act like they follow different rules than everyone else which is HILARIOUS because HE does that!! He's such a fucking hypocrite and you know what? He also hates hypocrites. He hates cruelty without purpose which, also funny, because he is far from a nice person, but there's a certain line to cross. And depending on the severity of who he's dealing with, he ranges from a little harsher than usual to a straight up knife fight. There are many a man with whom he does not get along, but is in a situation where he can't just say fuck em and leave, so he's just really blunt and snippy and short when necessary interactions do happen. Like, you can tell he doesn't like you, but what are you gonna do about it? He's begging for them to start a fight.

Midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

Ah, well. He's kinda haunted but in a way that he doesn't even really know by what. It's more a feeling, he's not self-aware enough to connect the dots. He's restless, like there's something left incomplete. He constantly feels like he needs to get away from everything, it's part of the reason he never stays in one place, or even on one ship, for very long. Being around one group of people for too long feels like they're gonna start noticing things, patterns, pieces of something he'd rather stay secret. And then in those wanderings he finds himself amidst crews of people who are actually dangerous, actually cruel, and what was once just an itchy instability of character becomes caution and uncertainty and an odd sort of alienation. It reinforces the idea that he is safest when he is alone, and nighttime is a period where he is guaranteed that.

[meissashush]

For Ro: 👻😭🥞🌱🔪🔫💘

👻 GHOST - do they believe in ghosts? what are their "ghostly experiences", if any?

Rosea has a complicated stance on ghosts. On one hand, the concept of them are flat-out stupid. She knows there are daemons that have wraith-like qualities, but actual humans haunting other humans just seems like a waste of effort. Though, she could totally see some people being petty enough to do it.

That said, as someone who grew up running around some of the less traveled halls of the Citadel, that shit is definitely haunted.

😭 CRYING - what makes them cry? do they cry easily?

Rosea does not cry easy. With a father as stoic as Cor, a lot of emotions end up smothered whether he meant her to learn that or not. That said, Ro does cry. Usually, she'll hide away so no one sees her. She's more likely to cry over emotional distress than physical, though if you want to get technical, she cries the most when she's over-tired.

🥞 PANCAKE - what is their comfort breakfast?

In an opinion declared blasphemous by Gladio, Rosea doesn't really like breakfast. She'll avoid it if she can, though not many people will let her get away with it. Her favorite breakfast is breakfast for dinner, in which case pancakes so covered in sugar and fruit that Ignis would declare them a dessert are the only things that will do.

🌱 SEEDLING - what is their most vivid memory from childhood?

Oh, that's a hard one. I'm going to draw the line of 'childhood' at the age nine and under, because the preteens are a time for her. There are still a lot to chose from, but leaning on it being the most vivid, I would say it was when she was about four.

She was sitting on the floor in Cor's office, feeling a bit feverish and woozy. Her dad was typing away at something, the sound of his fingers hitting the keys a sort of drone that filled the whole room. The office door was shut and she was half on the carpet, half on the marble tile, feeling equally over heated and cold. She didn't want to bother her dad. The world was looking way too bright, all the colors hyper contrasted and her mind making up a weird story she can only half-remember involving super heroes being chased by a villain who looked like Gladio's dad's least favorite secretary. The one that glared at Ro if she made too much noise while waiting in the reception for a meeting to get out.

The heroes were plunging down a particularly kaleidoscopic tunnel, the colors pulsating and swirling all around, when she finally threw up into the small metal garbage can beside Cor's desk.

🔪 KNIFE - how do they react to injury / misfortune befalling their loved ones (significant other, family, friends)? do they put themselves at blame?

Given the jobs of the people she is closest too, from her own father to the men she winds up dating, she can't let herself get too upset when they get hurt. Not that she is uncaring, but her being visibly upset about them being harmed would only lead to them hiding things from her to spare her feelings, so she's learned to approach these situations with feigned nonchalance. That said, if she was in any way related to the event that led to the injury (and sometimes even if she wasn't) she will worry about it somehow being her fault.

🔫 PISTOL - do they trust people easily? how easily will they turn their back to someone? have they been backstabbed before? will they betray someone if given an ultimatum?

Rosea is naturally distrustful of others. This is forged both by her personality, and also by the training she received as a child as a means to help her protect herself from people who would use her to harm the Crown. That said, she's inevitably been backstabbed and will be again. Each time is a lesson learned and a new brick in the wall she builds between herself and others.

As far as ultimatums goes, the answer is fairly simple. There is a short list of people she will never compromise, and an even shorter list of things. Even if it's her own life, she won't bend. And if you give her a choice between saving one loved one or another? Well, she'd be lying if she didn't have a ranking system.

That said, if given a choice between protecting the Crown and protecting her father... well, Cor wouldn't approve, but she'd rather have him be angry with her than sacrifice him for anything.

💘 HEART W/ ARROW - what traits do they look for in a relationship? do they believe in love at first sight?

Companionship. Rosea does not believe in love at first sight. She does not even believe in true love. Prior to her dad dating Nyx long enough for her to stop being a brat about it, she did not even think romantic love was a real thing. She thought relationships were strategic, and to be fair, the only relationships she saw growing up were born of political necessity. She doesn't really know how to go about defining a relationship, let alone know what she would be looking for in one, so it's a good thing the she likes proactive people, or she would have never dated at all.