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the-bar-sinister · 2 months ago

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Deicide: Red Shift (17726 words) by VickytheSnake, thesavagesabretooth Chapters: 5/?

Summary: A mysterious signal is drawing ships across the Grand Line to a place called Elegia for the first ever concert by the rising star singer, Uta. Following the signal are Cross Guild and fallen emperor Shanks, the Charlotte family, the Donquixote Pirates and the shattered remnants of Law's crew, and Kid's crew, and Cavendish and Bartolomeo.

And the Straw Hats and their captain Luffy, who hasn't seen Uta since they were both little children at their idol Shanks' knee.

Perhaps this meeting was ordained by fate. Perhaps, in the end, there was only ever one tragic outcome possible.

But Luffy has other plans.

catch up here

Shanks was certainly not fully recovered from the emotional and physical beating that he'd been through, but at the very least he wasn't crying and drinking himself to death anymore. Croccy had gone out of his way to try and convince him to put the bottle down, somehow walking away with Shanks drinking less, at least. It was a baby step, and a testament to how convincing Crocodile could be, but Buggy didn't expect much more than a slow series of baby steps since the moment they fished the depressed Emperor from the sea.

They'd made up, at least enough that Shanks had taken to clinging to him nigh-constantly as the two of them readjusted to having one another in any sort of proximity. Cross Guild had taken to him, no surprise given another of his ex-boyfriends was a founding member, and the gaggle of them had— well. Buggy wouldn't kiss and tell.

When the signal for the Uta concert came filtering through, Shanks had gotten actually animated for the first time in days. Not just 'sniffling and cuddling while they reminisced', but full on desperation at the radio animated.

It turned out the Grand Line Idol Uta was Shanks' daughter. Shanks had a daughter. Buggy's mind was fucking blown when he'd heard that, and the general reaction to those in the room told him that he wasn't the only one.

Shanks' daughter— Uta the fucking superstar. And now they were diverting course to make sure the kid was doing alright. Because Shanks hadn't seen her in over a decade.

Something Buggy was preeeeetty sure was one of Shanks' old terrible ideas that would inevitably come back to haunt him.

"I don't think it'll make a difference, captain," Cabaji murmured when Buggy expressed that concern to him. "And Crocodile seems hellbent on investigating the signal anyway."

Buggy ran his hand through his blue hair, feeling it falling back over his shoulders as he sighed.

"I mean, that's fair. I'm kinda hellbent on checking it out too. I'm an entertainer. I'd be remiss if I missed the biggest illegal music festival ever held. But I'm not expecting Shanks' daughter to be all sunshine and rainbows if he hasn't seen her most of her life."

"No, uh, no, that seems like she's gonna be pissed," he agreed. He brushed Buggy's hair out of the way and slipped his arm around his shoulder. "If it were me I'd sure be pissed… But I mean I guess avoiding her's not going to help?"

"I was pissed when it was me he was doing the same thing to me. So I can't blame her if she is either." He laughed loudly, though his heart wasn't in it. He'd been heartbroken when Shanks had left, leaving all his ambitions behind him. He could only imagine it felt the same way for the kid. "....but probably not. And hell, her music's pretty flashy ain't it?"

"I mean it's not my usual taste, captain, but it definitely has a real hook to it," he nodded. "It's an earworm."

Cabaji's tone was casual, but the way he looked at him, Buggy knew his first mate could tell there was more on his mind.

"Sure is ain't it? It gets stuck in your head for hours. I'm kind of excited to see her stage presence for myself."

He did have more on his mind, of course. A lot more. Shanks, the fact he had a daughter– a DAUGHTER that he'd never talked about. With who? When? The eternal mystery of 'just what has Shanks even been doing except I guess paving the way for a god' played out behind Buggy's ears.

"I wouldn't worry. I'm sure yours is more imposing," Cabaji grinned at him. "But what about this whole Shanks angle?"

Buggy knew how Cabaji felt about Shanks. Dubious. Very dubious. He in fact seemed very protective of Buggy and had offered— and occasionally threatened— to kill the fallen emperor for him more than once.

Buggy basically all but begged his best man to 'please don't off my— ex…current? —Boyfriend' on multiple occasions.

It did mean that Cabaji knew how fraught the whole thing was. "It's a lot. I didn't know he even had a daughter. News never mentioned it. He never mentioned her either. And she finally shows her face and she's the mystery singer who's taken the world by storm?"

Cabaji shook his head. "Seems like classic Shanks from what you've told me. How old is she? Who's her mom? Have you asked at all, or is it still… awkward?"

"It's a bit awkward—I haven't asked yet but it's eatin' me, you know? I can't stop about it," Buggy murmured as he squinted out at the ocean. "she can't be older than twenty somethin' right?"

"She's– she's not yours, right, captain?" Cabaji asked, raising his chin curiously. "I don't like to ask what people have going on downstairs, but Shanks, uh?"

"................." Buggy's eyes bugged out of his head as he sputtered and slapped his hands on the guardrail. "He's got a prick, Cabaji!!! Trust me, I reconfirmed a few days ago! And I think I'd REMEMBER if I'd been pregnant before! Or—"

He paused. "Wait, that revolutionary army fella in Impel Down was giving out sex reassignment like it was candy, maybe—NO! No, I'd remember that."

Cabaji held his hands up. "I just thought it was worth asking, captain. You know. In case she'd be mad at you, too."

Buggy was glad for the greasepaint that hid his flush.

"I don't even know the girl. She ain't gonna be mad at me unless she's pissed at everyone." He grinned awkwardly. "And I'm Buggy the Flashy Clown! People love me! It'll be fine."

Cabaji nodded, and pulled him close. "Yeah captain. You'll be fine."

Of course. Right?

It'd been only a few days since Pudding and Katakuri had found themselves back with the family they'd fled from after her 'failure' to kill her fiance and the Vinsmokes. Mother's wrath, after all, was often deadly to the children who fell from her favor.

But fate had other plans. Mama had fallen to her own devil fruit's power and been rendered utterly harmless to them, and Smoothie and Perospero had enacted their plan to make sure their large and guidance-starved family didn't fall apart.

One short and surreal adventure with the Vinsmokes later, and they were back with the family and heading towards the first thing to spark the excitement in Pudding's heart since she realized she actually did… kinda sorta… like Sanji Vinsmoke. A little bit.

And now they were on their way to the Uta Concert. Uta! Pudding's absolute most favorite and beloved pop star! She just GOT It. Backlight was her favorite song, that anthem to owning your painful past and making your burning stand…

Gosh, she just got her. SO much. It was her laying there and listening to her tone dial of it for the hundredth time that Katakuri walked in on.

Katakuri folded himself quietly into the chair next to the cabin's bed and glanced over at Pudding. The two of them had spent a lot of time together in the month or so since the ill fated wedding and honestly her older brother being there for her meant the world to her since their great exodus.

Her heart still panged for her fiance, as sudden and frustrating as that was, and the fear of her failure and mama's wrath was something she was SURE she would have crumpled under if she was alone. But Katakuri—wonderful, caring, handsome Katakuri— had fled with her and let her support him as much as he supported her! She'd always looked up to him, but felt so distant with his status in the family and Mama's particular hangups with her. The past few weeks had been a chance to actually get to know the real Katakuri hidden behind his mystique and his scarf.

She half turned, leaning on her hand as she slipped the headphones from her ears, the faint sound of the music leaking into the air as she smiled at him.

"Hey big bro."

He didn't say anything immediately, just watching her while she was listening to her music.

Finally he nodded to her. "Hey. You seem excited."

She sat up, offering the headphones to him with a broad smile. "I mean, how could I not be? It's Uta! You've heard Backlight, right? The fact that she's holding a concert is a miracle."

He scooted in close and took the offered headphones, putting it to his ear. He nodded. "You played it for me before. I like it. I'm not sure I'd call it a miracle exactly, but it's definitely… surprising."

"She's been underground for years, I mean—we've seen her face because she did a couple of transponder snail recordings, but she's been a notorious recluse other than that." Pudding felt her heart racing as she leaned up against her brother to listen in while he listened, her weight against his much larger side.

"People didn't think she'd ever show her face, and-–I mean, let's be honest it's kinda hard for people to organize this kinda thing on the Grand Line!"

"Hence the illegal signal. I can't imagine the government's happy." Katakuri leaned down, slumping carefully to get closer to her. Gently, he put his arm around his sister's shoulders.

Katakuri had been a great source of comfort on their journey away from home, alright. Pudding snuggled closer with a warm and comfortable smile.

"No, they're going to be furious. They might even send a ship to stop her, which is why I want the family to attend! We can save her if things go south!"

"You're thinking of trying to set her up with Cracker." Katakuri chuckled warmly behind his scarf. When their brother had heard about the concert, he'd insisted on being brought on board to attend, despite having been back at home.

"Welllll—" Pudding pursed her lips as she nuzzled affectionately against his side. "My wedding's been postponed for a while until I can find Sanji again…, and Cracker seemed excited about the concert, so I thought 'well, my favorite singer would be pretty fun to have as a sister in law', you know?"

"I can't argue. And it would be a family novelty to actually pick an engagement." He tugged his sister's hair teasingly, though his warm, thoughtful expression didn't change. "And a rescue does set the mood."

She giggled softly, biting her lip in thought. It would be a family novelty. For as long as Pudding had been alive, it'd always been 'you take what mother gives you'. You take the name she gave you, the devil fruit she chose for you, the position in her Totto Land, and you ABSOLUTELY married who she told you to so you could secure her alliances and steps towards her dream.

Her marriage and assassination with Sanji was all her mother's plan, even if the man had started to win her over—even if she fell in love. Everyone in the Charlotte family danced along with mama's whims, but not anymore, huh?

"A family novelty—you're not wrong. Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll become more of a thing? And a rescue does suit the mood, we didn't exactly get the chance to do anything like that before the family came back together."

"No. It's been a rough month for everyone. Things are changing." It was hard to say just from Katakuri's tone of voice how he felt about that. But Pudding knew that despite his loyalty to their mother there was some definitive measure of relief that there were no orders left to come.

Pudding nuzzled against his side with a thin smile.

"At least big brother Pero and big sis Smoothie seem to have a plan for helping them change as gently as they can, right?"

She was relieved too. Mother had been so far gone by the time she'd been born, all she'd ever seen was her worst parts. The snide derision at her 'hideous deformity' despite the fact that mother had given birth to her specifically for her third eye and the ability to read the poneglyphs, her violent mood swings and her dead brothers and sisters…

And of course the endless demands and the loss of anything even close to a will or dreams of her own.

Katakuri stroked his fingers through Pudding's hair gently. "At least. The family's in good hands, I think. Pero and Smoothie are much more… stable than mom has been the last few…" he broke off and shook his head. "The family's in good hands."

Pudding looked up at him with her wide eyes— all three of them as her hair fell away from her third eye. "It's going to change a lot, big bro."

"Think the concert will take your mind off it for a little bit?"

Pudding bit her lip as she leaned into his touch, letting him pet her hair with a soft coo. "I think so, at least a little bit right? It's hard to be worried about how things are gonna change when there's a massive concert with the world's BEST idol, right?"

She had to believe it. Anything to get her mind off the uncertainty of anything. "besides~ a big concert like this? Maybe my fiance'll be there."

Katakuri perked up, his eyes widening thoughtfully. "The Straw Hats might be there. You're right."

"Ohh hoooo!" Pudding practically crawled up into his lap to look up at him with a mischievous grin. "Now that got your attention, didn't it?"

He glanced away bashfully, but Pudding could tell he was thinking of running into Luffy just as much as she was thinking of running into her fiance.

Law could smell the festival scent— the mix of popcorn, and frying grease, and the press of humanity— on the breeze as they approached the out of the way little island.

He stood with his hand on his hip and his eyebrow raised as he peered out at the large, almost ribcage like structures rising out of the center of the island that stood tall and visible for miles. The scent tickled his nose, causing him to huff "....hell of a party. Uta really commands a hell of an audience, especially for a fucking illegal concert."

"Wonder why she did it like this, anyway, with the illegal signal," Bepo murmured, leaning on the rail nearby. "Instead of having the concert on an island that's easier to get to?"

"That's the question, isn't it?" Doffy's warm voice cut into the conversation and Law heard his footsteps, and another pair approach from behind.

Law looked over his shoulder at Doffy with a wry smile. "One we don't have the answer to. Admittedly, it might be just that she doesn't like or trust the World Government. Elegia isn't part of it, after all. It's an independent island."

It was still surreal to him sometimes to be so casual with Doflamingo. He'd been his enemy for over a decade, fighting against him every day on his quest to avenge Rosi—and now here he was, Doflamingo's third Corazon getting dragged to his boss' favorite idol's big concert.

Lucky him, his first mate was a big fan too.

"Puts her in a hell of a position if she doesn't like the world government," Doffy purred. He stepped up beside him opposite Bepo and slipped his arm around Law's shoulders, "makes me like her even more."

Law flushed and leaned into his side "sure does, doesn't it? Hell, it impresses me, too. This whole thing's a ballsy move."

He suddenly became aware of the stare that was boring its way into his back, glancing over his shoulder to see the diminutive form of Sugar staring up at him. After a moment she turned to Bepo.

"Can you pick me up? I want to see Uta's venue." she said, her voice low and deadpan. That meant it must have been Sugar talking.

"Here, let me." It was Bepo who answered, turning around and picking the doll-like little woman up in his furry arms.

That seemed to put an even bigger smile on Doffy's face.

Sugar gave a subtle smile for a moment and a murmured 'thanks' before she looked out at the island. "Monet's excited. I'm excited too. Uta is a great singer—I sent her a few tone dials while she was with Caesar."

She seemed to blink vacantly for a moment before her tone changed and a smile bloomed on her pale, porcelain-like face. "I used to play them while we were working in the lab. Even Caesar couldn't complain."

To the outside, Law knew it'd be absolutely insane to watch Sugar have a seeming conversation with herself—but as he'd recently found out through the use of his power, Sugar wasn't alone.

Somehow her sister's spirit had carried from Punk Hazard to Dressrosa and taken up residence inside her, tangible to his power as separate from her own spirit. A 'will', the soul of Monet of the Donquixotes persisting beyond death.

"Even Caesar liked her, huh?" Doffy chuckled. "And here I thought he'd only be playing bombastic old operas in the lab. Glad to know it was a little cheerier than that."

Monet snorted softly with Sugar's voice. "Oh trust me, he listened to so many old operas. But I wore him down!"

Bepo was looking out at the island as he held Sugar (and Monet). "It's a big crowd," he observed quietly. "I wonder if we'll run into anyone."

She leaned on Bepo curiously, peering out on the sea "it's a huge crowd—you expecting to see anyone, Beps?"

Law slung his arm around Doflamingo, thoughtful. "We probably don't need to worry about running into Straw Hat yet, which is good. I ain't ready to explain this to him. But we might run into some of the Cross Guild folks."

Law and Luffy had started falling into a strange rapport ever since their bizarre alliance on Punk Hazard. From the mess in Dressrosa, to Wano—he'd found himself increasingly fond of the absolute maniac. Even back in Sabaody and when he'd saved his life during the Marineford mess, he had the idea that Luffy was something special.

Yeah. They'd gotten kinda romantic. And that wasn't likely to change, Law certainly didn't wanna lose him and Luffy was a clingy bastard when he decided he liked you.

But Luffy absolutely hated Doflamingo. The last time he'd seen Doffy he'd punched his face through the floor and toppled everything Doffy had built to free Dressrosa partially on Law's own request and the hopes and dreams of Rebecca Riku, the old king's granddaughter.

When Luffy decided he hated you, he REALLY hated you. It wasn't going to be an easy sell to say 'hey , Doffy and I patched shit up and we're also fuckin' now'...

"Cross guild without a doubt," Doffy nodded. "Transpondered with Croccy the other day. They're coming around to check out what the hells going on. He'll probably try to be a buzzkill— but I won't let that happen."

"Crocodile's coming to see the Uta concert," Law snickered under his breath, "that should be somethin'. Who's he bringing with him? Mihawk,no doubt."

Sugar— it was audibly Sugar again— poked Bepo's arm. "Is there anyone you guys hope to see?"

Bepo, cradling her in the crook of his arm, scratched his head with his free hand. "Unless some of the crew miraculously washed up there, I can't think of anyone…"

He gave a dark eyed glance over at Law, who got the impression he was asking if he was forgetting anyone.

Law glanced over. "If we're lucky we'll run into Kid again. Him and his crew. Honestly, I've been wondering how they're holding up. Better than the Heart Pirates, I'd bet."

"Kid…?" Sugar blinked before wryly joking. "What, is it a crew of children?"

Doffy laughed and slapped the rail. "Half the supernovas are crews of children, aren't they?" he teased. "I didn't know you were in bed with Kid too, Law."

Doffy probably meant "in bed with" in terms of alliance. Probably. But knowing him it was also every chance he meant it entirely literally and was assuming Kid and Law had slept together.

He was right, on both counts and the fact that he knew it was driving Law to mild distraction. He tried to keep the reaction off his face anyway.

"Yeah. After Wano we started a kind of loose 'rivalry alliance'..." he didn't answer about the other part.

"Loose, huh? Corazon, don't set me up for jokes like that." Doffy snickered and slapped him across the back.

Monet started cackling to his side, lightly slapping Bepo's arm with Sugar's tiny hand as Law went a steady shade of crimson.

"............" he sputtered until he growled out. "Oh, eat my ass, Doffy! You know what I meant."

Doffy's cheeks puffed as he held in a snicker– before it burst out as his usual giggling laugh. "Later, alright?"

Law got to watch Bepo put his head in his hand, ears going red.

As the laughter of Monet and Doflamingo surrounded them, Law couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh of his own. His head shook, as he leaned on the bannister of Doffy's massive ship.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah—why don't you two save some of that energy for the concert. Fuck knows you're going to be chomping at the bit over Uta, so stop teasin' me and get pumped for that."

He gestured out towards the waiting Elegia.

#shuggy #buggy the clown #cabaji #trafalgar law #donquixote doflamingo #doflaw #charlotte pudding #charlotte katakuri #one piece film red #film red #one piece #fanfiction #fan fiction #fanfic #archive of our own #ao3 #fic: one piece deicide

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wordy-little-witch · 10 months ago

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I am also on the buggy-isnt-actually-human agenda 👀 also i cant believe i never thought if boabuggy mean girl squad bc ur so right (im gonna ignore the fact that canon buggy most likely isnt immune to her since he never once showed interest in alvida) which now brings me to: mean gurls boabuggyalvida 😌🧚‍♀️✨

YESSSSS THANK YOU ILY I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS

I actually have an ongoing fic with Buggy as non-human and him and Shanks being brothers and just- aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa BRAINROT OKAY

My favorite concept is making Buggy a type of faery. My fic specifically has him as a Harlequinn, solely bc it FIT and I am feral for clown/jesters/etc. I can go into detail if you want, but I don't wanna clog this one

But like.

Buggy is the ONLY person in One Piece with a nose like his. He's hyperaware of that, and it's his biggest visible insecurity. He loves shiny things, treasures, gold, etc. His luck stats are either MAXED OUT or in the NEGATIVES. He is so good at manipulating people ((silver tongue)), and his specialty is smoke and mirrors, enthralling the masses, and he only gets involved when either A) he HAS to, or B) he has reason to protect/claim something. He's an observer most of the time, and he facilitates observation in others as well. And don't get me started by the lure and draw he gives to others to his space, his territory, full of Power, Fortune, Whimsy and Joy. Gods. He's so fascinating I wanna study him under a microscope, wanna put him in Situations ♡♡♡

MOVING ALONG~

Boa+Buggy+Alvida hours

The only thing I think might be rocky is Alvida and Hancock butting heads over beauty, but honestly? I think once they warm up to each other, Hancock would actually be really relieved to not be called the cutest or hottest in the room. I also think the three would be each other's biggest hype sources ((but also refreshingly, brutally honest)).

Personally? I think Buggy might actually be immune to Hancock. When he saw Alvida, he had a passing thought of "Oh, pretty, anyway-" so maybe in Canon he'd also become stone but imagine how funny it out be if she tried stoning him, it didn't work OR he split apart and it only worked a little. Now she is BAMBOOZLED.

Like.... "why didn't this work? What are you, clown? Explain yourself!!"

"..... I mean. You're cute, I guess???? But girl that lip tint is not your palette-"

"What-"

"Here, try this one, I stole it like this morning, it's unopened-"

"Oh that is nice-"

And with that a friendship was born!!

Or alternatively

"Why didn't you turn to stone?"

"Hancock.... I'm gay."

"..."

"And also a bottom."

"......"

"You don'treally seem like a top, but... i mean, you're still pretty though????"

".................."

"OhSeasShe'sGonnaKillMe-"

"Did we just become friends?"

"*surprised clown noises*"

ANYWAY

Yes BoaBuggyVida mean girls bestie squad. Only thing to make it better is including Perona and/or Uta bc I feel like that would be. So much fun.

Also it changes the subtext in the Cross Guild situation a tad, bc Mihawk knows Buggy and Boa get on like a house on fire, he knows Shanks waxes poetic about the clown, and he is so confused bc the math isn't mathing, is he missing something?? Are the others just THAT delusional??? What is the truth?????

But yeah I have so many Boa+Buggy+Vida concepts and it is. So much. All the brainrot. I love the dumb little clown dude and his army of simps and girlboss besties

#Boa+Buggy+Vida #buggy is my baby #thank you for the ask ilysm #one piece #buggy the clown #buggy d. clown #warlords of the sea #buggy headcanons #buggy is not human and i'll die on this hill

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roetrolls · 1 year ago

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(The Roatuses may be in limbo right now, but I needed to write a warm-up with Archie to get my gears turning for the next drabble in the actual arc. So... here's a drabble that probably took place sometime in the past year)

Skydance

You’ve never understood the House of Restoration. It’s a church. They’re clowns. But they sure as hell ain’t subjugglators. Sure, on paper they’re clean––no mutants, empire-aligned––but no self-respecting purpleblood would run in a place like that. Whole city went to shit after the Reverend died, in your opinion.

You watch from across the street as a handful of children trickle out of the church, chattering amongst themselves and striding along with far too much confidence for your liking.

No lowblood should leave a church swapping friendship bracelets. Waste of a good cathedral.

You spit on the pavement to punctuate your disgust, eyes narrowing as the last of the children pour onto the street. A small girl takes up the rear, fidgeting with her oversized jacket and struggling to lay her bookbag comfortably across her shoulders. The fabric on her back seems to ripple, and your indignation swells.

No mutants my ass.

The freak’s got something under there, you’d fucking bet on it. Extra arms, or a pair of wings maybe. Whatever it is, shit’s not natural.

With a grunt, you push off of the wall you’ve been leaning on and grip the handle of the machete at your belt.

Shithole city needs cleaning up, yesterday. You’re light on your feet as you stride forward, energized by the impending hunt.

You step off the curb.

Your feet do not touch ground.

“Y’know, chief, I’m somethin’ of a pro when it comes t’ stupid decisions,” a voice rings out behind you. “And the one you jus’ made was real damn stupid.”

Offended, you twist to face the speaker and find yourself nose to nose with the Roatus brat himself, buggy eyes shining like beacons.

“You got the wrong guy,” you snarl, tensing as you prepare to draw your weapon.

It hardly makes it out of the sheath before the other clown plants a hand over your face and a wave of vertigo sends your head spinning like a top. The street blurs into a smear of color at the same instant that a rush of roaring wind explodes in your ears.

In less time than it takes you to blink, both you and your assailant have travelled from the city’s street to its skyline, hovering so high you can barely make out the bodies bustling on the road beneath you.

Your stomach drops like a stone.

“S’prolly in your best interest that I don’t lose my head up here, yeah?” The twerp emphasizes his point by tapping a middle finger against his temple, his eyes still shining with the use of his powers. “‘Cording to my pops, these things don’t work so good when I’m dead.”

A shuddering breath is all that escapes your lips. You’ve never been one to fear heights before now, but it’s hard to stay calm with your feet hanging hundreds of feet above the ground, nothing beneath you but empty air.

“S’matter, tough guy?” The Roatus kid grins, leaning back and crossing his arms behind his head. “Sounded like you were gonna clear some things up for me back there.”

“You’re crazy.”

He simply laughs in response, leaning back further to complete a revolution. Once his stomach is parallel to the planet, he stops and pretends to prop his head on his hands, kicking his feet behind him like a lovestruck child.

“I ain’t done shit to you,” you grit, fighting not to look down.

“No?”

“No!”

“Wasn’t you, then? S’been some other clown starin’ down our kids for the past two days?”

Your expression falls.

“It’s always the tough guys that flounder most when you catch ‘em out, y’ever notice that?” Roatus cocks his head at you, flicking open a small pocket knife and twirling it in his hand.

The wind whistles around you. You shiver slightly, buffeted by the cold, and try to keep your breathing even. It’s hard to tell whether the tightness in your chest is more from altitude or fear.

“Then again,” the other clown muses, “tough might be a bit generous.”

For the first time since you laid eyes on him, Roatus drops his smile, and your heart creeps into your throat. He presses the knife against your jaw, forcing you to crane your head back.

“You gotta be a special kind of coward to target children.”

Another gust of wind sweeps by, somehow colder than the first. You can barely hear his next question over its howling, even as he leans in to place his lips beside your ear.

“We teach a lot about embracin’ death here. D��you want the knife or the drop to do it?”

#writing #archie ic #does a lil dance #my archie muscles r warm now #dream sequence advancing soon.....#archie writing

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pearlzier · 5 months ago

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actually going to ramble some info to u on my ocs so i can get these brain worms out ( hope u don’t mind! also this is probably gonna be a bit long.. ) i have 3 currently but u can probably tell who’s my fav just by how much i YAP abt them.. I’ll send 3 sep asks just so that ur not bogged down much!! um warning for bug talk though like if ur irked out by bugs just delete this ask I won’t be mad!!!! -

anyways,, number one, i call her queen sect but she probably doesn’t have a formal hero name bc she’s not totally marketable.. her govt name is june b banks and she can control insects! she can’t conjure them or anything so she usually carries them along, esp her favs.. running gag is that she has a new pet bug each time she’s talking to anyone bc they do not last 💀 but they’re quiet fearsome altogether, considering she carries the more dangerous ones. her control is sort of natural, she began understanding them at a RLLY young age while playing in the dirt alone at recess ( she was that kid, yes ), but didn’t fully step into her power of controlling them until she was much older. the trigger event or whatever was literally her out of NOWHERE making a cocoon for herself in her bedroom ( not blankets.. real bug cocoon #buggirly ) and her parents freaking out & cutting into it a bit too early.. so she’s lowkey freaky bc she didn’t reach her peak in the cocoon.. she’s got morbidly pretty butterfly wings but they are a bit flimsy & like constantly slick w cocoon matter bc that shit NEVER DRIES if u come out early. she can fly but only a little bit,, & it’s honestly draining, she barely untucks her wings anyways.

so yea u can probably tell why she’s not as marketable.. no one wants to be saved by the girl with bullet ants crawling on her. I like to think they use her for secret recon or cleanup bc she’s useful but not a good image. omfg wait i just realized she’s got the same aesthetic as queen chrysalis from mlp 😭😭 originality doesn’t exist w me but it’s okay.

and yes her parents call her june-bug :) I like to think that she’s still on good terms w her parents, they only took the compound v offer bc they were living on scraps. and anyways, it’s harder to love ur daughter when she looks like she snuck on earth sooooo she’s appreciative of that, if nothing else. also she likes being buggy it’s the ppl around her that don’t appreciate ‼️‼️if they were to put her on the seven it wld be a pity spot like “first AUTISTIC NONBINARY UNHUMAN FREAK member of the seven guys <3 SO progressive <3 now PLEASE put a bag on her head”

THE WAY I FUCKING. WAAAAA I LOVE HER SO SO MUCH IM 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 .. 🐠 ANON I LOVE U SOSO MUCH JUNE-BUG???? ADORABLE?????? ive never been this happy abt anything in my life ever. can i like. draw her

#𐙚˙ talkies ⋆.˚#𐙚˙ 🐠 anon ⋆.˚

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blookmallow · 1 year ago

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ok i changed the tiers and made my own colors bc red to green feels completely backwards to me but heres some disney takes dont kill me

rise of the resistance isnt on here but thats an S for sure. i skipped a few things i havent done/havent done in so long i cant really judge it anymore (my shame as a disney fan is i havent actually been in the tiki room since i was like 10 but to be fair no one ever wants to go with me sjdjg)

some clarifications:

- i know peter pan and alice arent really top quality rides. they’re old. but its the nostalgia for me i cant help it

- small world is a disneyland icon and i have a lot of nostalgia for it but i just dont enjoy it as much as i did as a child so i was really torn on where to put it. this is not an anti small world space

- i just dont care about the nemo ride im sorry its mostly screens and i never really enjoy it much whenever i go

- all the fantasyland darkrides are the same in my head i havent been on pinocchio or snow white in so long i cant accurately differentiate them. the existence of mr toad is fucking hilarious to me though. nobody remembers the movie and the ride inexplicably ends with You Literally Go To Hell, which does not happen in the movie. why was this made. how has it survived so long. i hope “mr toad goes to hell” stays there forever

- i said what i said i dont like splash mountain i never have it feels cursed as fuck in there and it deserves to die long live princess tiana

- what the hell is that last one. i cant figure it out. i could draw you a map of disneyland from memory and i cannot identify that ride. it looks buggy but i do not remember anything like that when bugs land existed? the ride vehicles for the little train ride were heimlich, its not that is it?? the rest of the bugs land rides arent there. did something from another park get in here? ive only been to disneyworld once so im not the expert on those. help me i dont know who i am if i cant decipher disneyland trivia

#tiermaker #disneyland #i didnt make an F tier bc theres nothing i genuinely truly hate #i refuse to ever go near guardians tower again but not because its bad. its very good the theming in there is great #but i am very afraid of heights and it made me violently aware of my own mortality #mr toad is a disaster but its hilarious so i love it for that #all the boardwalk style rides on the dca side just arent for me that doesnt make them bad

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tfw-no-tennis · 1 year ago

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one piece live blog hrmmmmm

why hello its me LJ starting another liveblog. yayyyyyyy i love liveblogging lol. so ive been wanting to do this one for ages - the one piece manga! im starting at zou bc i wanna catch up, then i plan to go back and read from thriller bark on. lets hope I get there!

I have read most of this already (I was last caught up to the end of act 1 of wano) so there will probably be spoilers scatter through, for now...

So i started w/chapter 803. here goes!

robin thinking the dragon drawing is cute awww

revolutionaries wwwwwwwwwwwwwww

dragon asking about robin awww <3

DRAGON NOT ASKING ABT LUFFY BHVJDSKFBJSKHDFBJKH

dragon: luffy who???

still thinking abt the person on reddit who posited that blackbeard is actually 3 guys in a coat and thats why he can have multiple devil fruits and also thats why his flag has 3 skulls. mans might be onto st

uh ohhhh the revolutionaries have been busted 😬

BUGGY OH MY GOD

buggy having like. a pirate temp agency. hhhhhhhhhakjdhsfsjkjdfjkjl

ok but buggy failing upwards is always so funnyyyyy pleaseeee

I admire buggy for sticking to the clown theme. can't quit the bit

also him pretending to be Large is hilarious

luffy usopp law and zoro all being like NINJA???? 👀 I love it

okaaaaaaay onto 804:

AUGHHHHH not the ASL bros playing baseball cover 😭😭😭 mannnn I wasn't ready 😭

the coordinated strawhat dodge lmao

hvbahdjkfbsjhdf kanjuro and kin'emon fucking around back there and getting knocked off lmfaoooooo

robin with the morbidity hvbhjadfjbaksjf love her sm

them being like ehhhh should we get those guys or just leave them? they're fine lets just go. hvaikdfbjksdf

oh my goddd everyone getting so invested in the dragon's struggle. plssss

LMFAO NOOOO HE DIED ??!?!

zoro and law being lame hvabdjkfbsjdkf

I love sm that luffy and usopp are always wow'd by everything new and cool that they see and that they always share that awwww

godddddddddddd I forgot the official scans call him zolo. SOOOO cursed

in my head zolo is just the OC ruth and I made up; zoro's twin brother on wano who is heterosexual, doesn't really care about swords, and has a great sense of direction. we're so funny

oh shitttt is that carrot???

usopp being so stressed all the time makes sense if u think about one piece's crazy condensed timeline...like they Really were getting into a new insane fight every single week with no pause

CARROT JUKES

still mad that she got sidelined back to zou later in the manga :| I'll talk abt that more later I'm sure lol

ooomg wanda showing up w/nami's clothes on. hello. not kidding when I say that nami is a lesbian w/the most game ever she legit has a gf on every island

usopp being like 'a talking animal!?' how long have u known chopper my dude

omg at this point in time naruto had just ended 😳 crazy for one piece zou was a while ago at this point but naruto has been over...one piece rlly won that huh

oda saying 'kishimoto has escaped the hell of weekly serialization' bruh somebody needs to unionize these mangaka. fr.

okayyyyy 805!

usopp being worried for nami awwh

robin 'perhaps they eat people.' hbvhajdfbjksdfbhksja love her

oh my god so many implications that the other straw hats are dead lmao

lmao god law just casually being like 'yea I never expected to see my crew again' bc he was planning to die in dressrosa...

bepo oooobh show me bepo

THER HE ISSSS BEPO MOMENT

luffy immediately getting into a fight lmao

oooobh I love carrot she's so cute why did she have to get booted from the story :( boo hiss

of course luffy actually remembers bepo bc he's a talking bear and that's COOL

law's crew missed him sm awwwwwwwww that makes it extra sad that he was planning to die yeesh

oh shitttt they all missed some drama

806!!

omgggg the cover story w luffys village awwwhhhh dadan and makino and her shanks babyyyyy also is she wearing a wedding ring?? are she and shanks married????

kin'emon and kanjuro shenanigans lmao are they ever gonna make it up the elephant

bruh that's so cool how the elephant spraying water on itself sustains the minks on zou ooooooooommh I love the creative ways that the one piece world works

carrot just randomly biting luffy...mood

aight WHO was getting crucified.

yall gave zoro directions to somewhere???? is anyone seeing the problem here lmao

'chambres' lmfao the translations...french ass sounding law

usopp hiding behind zoro and puppeteering his arm hhhhhh I love them

NAMIIIII my fav

omg I forgot abt the pineapple houses. SO cool

reunion!!!! :D

ohhhh my god the sanji cliffhanger. yessss so juicy fuck yeah

honestly I am soooo pumped to read whole cake again lol that was the first one piece arc I read since that's what was coming out when I got into one piece in 2018 and it slapssssss. also I'm really excited to read the rest of wano, especially now that it's over, and to catch up and hopefully read weekly like I do w/CSM. yayyyy

#LJ reads one piece #new liveblog who's shocked not me

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honking-up-a-storm · 1 year ago

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6/26/23

Hello book it is grossly humid out today. Handicap lot is decently full so I'll prob be a bit busy today, though the main lot is pretty- and yup just got one there. I have no idea what breed that was, little shield symbol in a circle with some patterning. Oh, it's a Cadillac. I don't wanna keep writing here, I wanna read my book. Augh I don't like feeling sticky. I'm waiting on so much mail to get to me. Can't wait for my chair that's gonna be so lovely to have something not broken and actually cushioned. Doing a lineup of the War of the Spider Queen characters would be cool for a portfolio piece, now how come I can spell pie- wait never mind I can't, I need to relearn words or something SMH. Slow hour slow hour. I'll take more sit breaks today so I don't kill my back. I wanna be drawing so badly right now man. So many ideas. Have to pop out a commission, but I wanna make a cute picture of Cicero and Isadora; make the new De Rossi kids. I think it'll be funny to make Gwen a little bratty, queen bee kinda energy, fun person for Crisis to bud heads with. Ozma and Astarte can have tism to tism moments together. What if I did just bought one luxury item? Like some LV sunglasses or something. Idk it'd be funny for a minute then I'd go straight to stressing about how expensive plastic was. I don't get putting so much value on easy and cheap-to-produce items. You know what I'd kill for a new wardrobe right now. If I take this week's tip money with the stash I already have I could do some serious damage online. Though I miss the mall maybe I can find someone to go with. I'm gonna text the girliesssss. Oh I can use the slot in my drawer to stash my tips. Big brain big brain today. Why don't people listen to me? Fuckin' squeezed herself into someone else's parking spot, now if they won't be able to get into their car for fucks sake. The money is gonna be good today. Today is going slow this isn't good. Dreams come true finally drove a punch buggy! TBH why don't I just use a bigger sketchbook? I have many, I could actually draw in.

Notes:

Another cookie gift from the nurse

{ Doodle of two anthro unicorns in a car, the one in the passenger seat smaller than the driver, both cheering "punch buggy"}

Punch buggy dreams slightly shattered, breaks too sensitive, too low, too many blind spots, door too big

It's fucking Mario, it's the most common interest besides Disney

{ two crudely drawn one-line cars} They don't look good. That's not the point

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spicler-man · 2 years ago

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social media fics

masterlist here

#SupportSpidey by a_matter_of_loyalty for Summertimeblues (Sunshinewalks)

“What – what is this?” Peter’s voice trembles.

“YOU’RE TRENDING!” Ned is still crowing enthusiastically in his ear, voice high-pitched and tinny over the phone’s loudspeaker. “SPIDER-MAN IS TRENDING, PETER!”

Peter stares dumbly down at his phone, because—for once—his guy-in-the-chair isn’t exaggerating.

Right there, on his phone screen, is the evidence of it: hundreds—no, thousands—of Tweets made in support of Spider-Man, waxing lyrical about his heart of gold and his good deeds and his heroics. Thousands.

Almost immediately, Peter knows that this is Mr. Stark’s doing. It has to be.

Alternatively: Everyone appreciates Spider-Man. After a difficult patrol leaves Peter disheartened and feeling worthless, Tony thinks it’s about time his Spider-Kid realizes that.

Also alternatively: In which Tony finds out about Toomes and the warehouse, Peter fears Spider-Man will never be enough, and the people of Queens (and then some) stick up for their hero.

@ironman follows you by malyin_roza

“Eighteen detentions last month alone, disgraceful amount of absent hours – often odd classes mid-day or half a day. I won’t mention the after-class clubs, or nerd groups, or whatever it is you do for ‘fun’ that actually counts in to your records anyway.” Peter sat frozen on the spot, his face growing hot and red after rapidly paling when Tony began talking. “I – I – look, I, let me explain – “ “That’s,” Tony pointed at him, silencing with one look, “that’s where we might start.” “Start?” the teen repeated uneasily. Sweet Jesus, what did he have on him? “I solved it all, you’re welcome.” A beat of silence as Peter blinked at him.

____

Or all your favorite tropes thrown into one happy bundle of fluff. Twitter, sick!Peter, dad!Tony, dickhead!Flash - you name it, I write (scratch that, probably have written) it. Because I'm a slut for iron dad like y'all, domestic hoes.

Somebody Take Their Phones Away Please by Shleapord

Binky @bornes Ive been listening to fergalicious over and over again and it wont get out of my head and i think ive seen god

Commander @canada Whats she like

Binky @bornes Sexy trump

Commander @canada Hell yeah

you know the drill. the avengers and co. on twitter

All good things come in threes by Bergen

“I know all about your secret identity.” A beat of silence. “Um,” Peter said, bunching his sweater in his hands. “Which… which one?” -- Peter has three secret identities: Spider-Man, the superhero who swings around the city to save people. Parker Benjamin, who gives Tony Stark unsolicited advice on his research. And NightMonkey, the Instagrammer who keeps uploading increasingly popular but embarrassing drawings of Iron Man. And he can juggle them all just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Iron Man and Spider-Man | Carpool Karaoke by Jenniboo311 for Bumblie_Bee

"You weren't waiting long, I hope?" Spidey asks, though not sounding terribly sorry.

"I was starting to get worried you wouldn't show and I'd have to do this alone," the billionaire responds, crossing his arms.

"Are you kidding? I love karaoke. I'd never let you duet alone." The pun is cringy, but the vigilante looks proud of himself, his huge buggy lenses squinting with delight.

Tony's face falls and he looks done with it all already, suggesting the joke wasn't actually part of the script. "Let's just get on with it, yeah?"

(a)Live and Streaming by Bumblie_Bee for Jenniboo311

“Ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Peter sighs. He waits for Ned to give him the thumbs up from the other side of the new StarkPhone clamped in a mount, then takes a breath.

“Hi,” he starts, looking straight into the camera as his Instagram streams live. “This is me, Peter, and, um- as you all probably know by now, I am Spider-Man.”

***

In which, after an identity revealing battle with boss, Peter battles with the comment section of his instagram live. Someone give the man a break.

Extra Credits VLOG by zimnokurw

Project for extra credits: Day in my life. So Peter makes a vlog.

Sure, Jan by insertfandomjoke

Tony forces Peter to make a Twitter for Spider-Man after he calls Tony ancient. Flash is thirsty for a follow, Peter gets called a girl and ruins Tony's punching bag, MJ calls Spider-Man a petty bitch and Tony's just trying to understand Peter's memes.

5 Times Everyone Thought Spider-Man was Iron Man's Favorite Superhero by madasthesea

And one time he actually admitted it.

AKA: Tony and Peter's relationship is so adorable, it keeps making the news.

Translation in Русский available:5 раз, когда все решили, что Человек-паук - любимый супергерой Железного Человека by 8salfeti8

xii. electrocution by tempestaurora

On screen, Peter was setting up the device; placing the pads and wires along Tony’s right arm. "Alright, so basically I had my friend, Ned, write out a bunch of questions for us, and we’re gonna answer them. If we answer incorrectly, we get shocked.”

“What?”

“Shocked, Mr Stark.”

“You’re going to electrocute me.”

“Only if you don’t know the answer.”

Peter Parker's Illustrious Internship by secretsinmyhead

Peter Parker did, in fact, have an internship despite what Flash said. It just so happens that his internship was not exactly normal- when he wasn't web slinging around the city as the vigilante Spider-man, Peter Parker was inventing Avengers tech, watching movies with his mentor, Tony Stark, or just causing mischief in the SI tower.

This is a series of oneshots following Peter Parker as Tony Stark's personal intern interacting with SI staff, gaining a mass following on twitter, and even making some friends along the way.

#spider-man #irondad and spiderson #spider-man fics #iron man #irondad fics #irondad #peter parker #peter parker fics #tony stark #tony stark fics #spiderson #spiderson fics #social media

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let-them-read-fics · 4 years ago

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Blackpink HC / One Shots: Enemies to Lovers, College AU (2/2)

Requested: Yes

Warnings / Misc. -- Bickering, Rivalry, Fluff

A/N: Hey everyone! This is the second half of the request, featuring Rosé and Lisa. If you want to see the first part, with Jisoo and Jennie, click the link below. I hope you enjoy!

Click for Jisoo and Jennie

♡ Happy Reading ♡

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Rosé

Park Chaeyoung: The girl who hung with the wrong crowd.

Your problem lied more so with the people she associated with than her herself. You couldn't wrap your head around why such a kind person like her would spend time with the class clowns and bullies, and to make matters worse, she would stick up for them as well.

She spent most of her days in either the art or music room, creating the masterpieces that her brain came up with.

But as soon as school was over, she'd be hanging out with them again and getting into trouble. For instance, because of her talents, they would invite her to go with them and graffiti various hot spots around town. She never vandalized any monuments or landmarks of importance -- she typically stuck to bridges or abandoned buildings -- but after getting caught with them multiple times, it was inevitable for her to be held accountable.

She was given a week's detention to make up for her actions

You, coincidentally, had a teacher that absolutely loathed you for no reason at all. No matter how good of a student you were for him, he didn't care; he had a vendetta against you for some reason, and he patiently waited for the opportunity to ruin your day.

You came in literally 10 seconds after the bell rang, putting the breakfast sandwich you stopped to get on the way into your mouth so you could open the door. He was standing at the front with a smug grin on his face, and you already knew what was coming.

You were also given an ungodly sentence of a week's detention.

Turning Point

"If I see you on your phones, I'm taking them." The monitor informs before sitting at the desk, reclining in the chair and putting his feet up soon after. You sigh and lean back in your seat, attempting to find a way to pass the next two hours without getting in trouble. Your eyes scan across the room, eventually landing on Rosé, where she sits a couple rows away from you. Sunlight is streaming in through the window next to her, its golden rays peeking through the breaks in the clouds above to shine on her. She looks gorgeous as she doodles away in her notebook, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear when it falls in front of her face.

After waiting on the monitor to fall asleep and sending one last glance to double check, you quietly stand from your seat and go sit next to her.

You barely know each other, but she's your only hope of remaining sane and occupied.

"Hi," you greet, looking into her eyes.

"Hi," she copies, a tiny smile forming on her lips when she notices your impressed expression upon gazing down at her paper. You have to hand it to her -- she's really talented.

"You're really good," you compliment, still admiring the artistry. Seeing as how you're looking down, you fail to notice the blush that works its way to her cheeks. Coming from you, the simple remark meant a lot to her.

You spend the rest of the day making small talk and getting used to one another, leaving detention later with the hopes of sitting together again.

----

The Next Day

"Hi again," you whisper, glancing over your shoulder to ensure that the coast is clear. The monitor is out like a light, with his mouth hanging open and an obnoxiously loud snore coming out.

"Hi," she giggles, watching as you dive into the floor for cover when the man shifts in his sleep. You thought he was waking up, and if he finds out you moved seats, he'll definitely have something to say about it.

"The coast is clear, cadet," she nods like a soldier, assuring you that it's okay to move back after a minute.

"That was close," you breathe out in relief, glad to live to see another day.

You share a laugh, though it has to be hidden behind your hands and kept a minimum. It's cute though -- like a little secret between the two of you, only for you to know.

"What're you drawing today?" You ask later, laying your chin in your palm as you gaze down at her work. Her reply comes out stuttered at first when she feels your leg innocently brush against hers under the table.

"D-dalgom. My friend's dog." She manages out, mentally smacking herself for looking like a fool.

You smile, thinking she's adorable. "I bet it'll be great," you encourage. She grins back as her eyes scan over your face, committing the memory of you to heart. She's always had a thing for you, ever since the time you were paired up in Biology last semester, so she's been enjoying detention more than she thought she would. Seeing you makes the time go by faster, though ironically, she wishes it would slow down a bit.

You make her feel appreciated for more than just what she's capable of producing, and the divide between you and her friend group is blaringly obvious. They like her because of the rush she can help them achieve; you like her because of her.

That thought persists in her mind for the rest of detention, and before she knows it, the monitor is releasing you again. She bends down to put her notebook in her bag when a thought pops into her mind: she wants to ask if you want to go to the park with her. When she's done zipping her bag up, she looks back up at you, only to find you on your phone, talking to someone.

"Yeah, mom. I'll stop by on the way home. So milk, cereal, ramen, and paper towels, right?"

She watches as you wait for a reply, tucking the phone into the crook of your neck as you move to write the list down on a spare piece of paper.

"Alright, love you, too. See you later." You hang up before looking back at Rosie. She looks a little down, and you have no idea why.

You pause for a moment, silently psyching yourself up for what you're about to ask. "This is gonna sound really strange, but do you want to come with me to the store?"

Her heart's pace increases at that, happy to know that you want to spend more time with her, just as she does with you.

"Actually, yeah. That sounds like fun."

You grin at her before spinning around and doing a little celebratory dance, which wins you a strange look from the monitor. You stick your tongue out at him before grabbing her hand and rushing out of the room, hearing his disapproval shouted after you.

"Milk?"

"Check."

"Ramen?"

"Check."

"Cereal?"

"Nope."

You nod at her words, now reminded of what you were forgetting. You push the buggy towards the aisle of cereals, gazing around in wonder at the huge selection. Rosé is just the same, eyeing all of the options like a kid in a candy store. After grabbing your mom's favorite kind, you decide on one for yourself and bring it back to the cart. Rosie scoots her leg over, making room for them beside where she sits, reclined in the cart.

You grin when you see her eyeing a box of fruit loops. Huh; fruity. Go figure.

You wordlessly grab the box and hand it to her, feeling your heart melt when she looks up at you like you hold the key to the universe.

"Thank you, Y/N."

"No problem, Rosie." You say, putting your hands on the bar as you begin pushing the buggy again. "Now, I say we see how long it takes to get to the paper towel aisle. My last record was 30 seconds."

She looks at you, clearly impressed, with her eyebrows raised. Without question, she pulls her phone out and gets the stop watch feature ready to go.

"3...2...1... GO!" She shouts, commanding your legs to start pumping as you race down the long strip of store before you. A couple kids dart out of the way just before getting smacked into, quickly turning around and cheering you on as you charge forward.

Her giggles fill the air as you drift around a corner, shouting apologies to the lady you almost bumped into.

"Sorry ma'am!"

A few seconds later, chest heaving and legs sore, you come to a stop in the aisle, dramatically collapsing in a heap next to the buggy. Rosé checks her phone as she reaches down to poke you.

"22.18 seconds, champ," she declares victoriously, smiling when you magically regain enough energy to stand up and celebrate.

"Woohoo! Team Y/S/N (Your Ship Name) for the win!"

She laughs along at that, joining in on your celebration, but she's blushing like crazy on the inside.

-----

The Last Day Of Detention

Ever since your trip to the store, you and Rosé have grown closer and closer. You traded numbers and text occasionally, though nothing beats having her all to yourself for 2 hours straight with no distractions. She feels the same; when she's in class, she can't wait for the bell to ring and signal your reunion. Part of her wants to get in trouble again, just to see you more often.

So, as you'd expect, it's really no surprise that you're sat right in front of her again, telling jokes and asking about her day. You've grown a bit more bold with every step closer you've taken towards her heart, and now you reach down to intertwine your fingers with hers.

She happily accepts, even bringing your hand up to her lips to press a kiss to the back of it. She smiles against your skin after it, making butterflies take flight in your stomach. She's got you wrapped around her finger, and you don't even try to fight it anymore.

The sound of the classroom door opening alerts you, making her lower your hand. She doesn't let go of you, though, and that fact warms your heart for some reason. The squeaky hinges groan out again as the door opens wider, revealing about 4 or 5 people from the friend group that she hangs out with. They motion for her to sneak out with them, but she just shakes her head.

"Come on, Rosé!" They whisper-scream, offering her a way to freedom. Little do they know that she'd take this imprisonment over freedom any day, so long as you're by her side.

"No! Get out before he wakes up!" She whisper-shouts back, eventually convincing them to leave.

"Why didn't you go?" You ask once they're gone, toying with her fingers as your hands rest on the desk.

"Because I like spending time with you." She admits, letting her defenses down.

"I was hoping you'd say that," you smile, letting her know that you feel the same.

The Fallout

After detention, the two of you walked out of the school, hand in hand

"Would you maybe, I don't know... wanna go to the park with me?" She asks nervously, glancing up at you.

"You read my mind, Rosie." You smile at each other and head towards the parking lot.

You started hanging out more, and she distanced herself from her old crowd

You encouraged her to enroll in your school's art program and show her work that way

"You're really talented; it deserves to be seen."

Your support meant the world to her, and she never failed to let you know

"Thank you, Y/N. Having you behind me means the world to me."

At one of her art shows, where she was tasked with unveiling a new piece that she'd been working on for months, you got the biggest surprise of your life.

She created a mural of you, all decked out with every color of the rainbow, utterly gorgeous

She lit up when she saw your reaction

"This piece is titled 'Mine', which I hope the girl in it will soon be." She says into the microphone, looking at you with hope shining in her eyes.

You nod your head with a smile and walk up to her, pressing your lips to hers in a kiss that was long-overdue. She wraps her arms around your waist, pulling you in closer with her sweater-padded hands and kissing you again and again.

The crowd claps for you, happy to see such an ending.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Lisa

I couldn't choose between these two gifs so enjoy both for the price of one ^^^

Lisa Manoban: Cocky, smug, and self-assured. The dancer knew she was hot shit, and she wasn't afraid to show off.

You're all for people being confident and happy with themselves, especially when they're talented, but something about Lisa always seemed to rub you the wrong way.

Whether it be her lack of a filter or the arrogant swagger that she naturally exuded, you weren't sure. People wanted to either be her or be with her, but you fell into neither of those categories.

She always left you frustrated in one way or another, whether it be from her teasing or her witty comebacks

The teachers loved her, as did the students. She was the class clown, so her position was pretty sacred in the grand scheme of things

You, on the other hand, irritated her for other reasons. You were the only person she couldn't get to crack; you never gave into her charms, and it infuriated her to no end. She wasn't used to not getting what she wanted (as childish as that may seem) and having you, one of the most attractive girls at school, turn her down? Well that was a massive blow to her ego.

You weren't afraid to say your piece, and that both pleasantly surprised and upset her.

She constantly tried to flirt with you in class, but you knew it was all for the attention. She just wanted to make her friends laugh, which they always did.

"Y/N, come here babe. There's an empty seat next to me," she coos, batting her eyelashes as you walk in the door. It's a free day, so everyone is sitting with their friends, wherever they like.

"I'm good," you decline, deciding to sit against the wall beneath the large window of the classroom.

"Oooo, denied," Lisa's friends laugh at her this time, chuckling harder when she sticks her middle finger up at them.

"Yah, shut up," she says, nursing her bruised ego as she turns around and opens her phone.

You smile as you continue working on the homework you cracked open, scribbling an answer down onto the notebook paper in front of you. Your fingers glide over your textbook in search of the definition of the term you're on, and Lisa secretly watches from afar. Without realizing it, she grins when you light up upon spotting the answer.

Sometimes her flirting does work, though, and you turn into a blushing mess

*whistle* "Damn, Y/N. You're looking fine today," she exclaims, fanning herself. You worry that she doesn't really mean it, but when her eyes remain on you a second too long to just be friendly, you blush. She's taking in all of you, looking impressed all the while.

"Right back at you, Manoban." You wink, sitting down in your seat across the room. She lightly blushes back, though she does a good job of concealing it.

Considering you share a couple classes and the class sizes are relatively small, it was pretty likely that you'd end up paired together eventually

You weren't happy about it, especially not after the way she had acted that week. Her cockiness had been at an all time high as of late, leaving you frustrated and upset. She was so full of herself; all you wanted to do was wipe that stupid smirk off her face.

"Y/N, you'll be paired with Lisa," your photography teacher informs, pushing her glasses up higher on the bridge of her nose.

"But Mrs. Ta--"

"Pairings are final," she cocks her head at you, persuading you to give in. With a sigh, you respond, "Yes ma'am," and attempt to ignore the sound of Lisa's friends high fiving each other in celebration.

The Turning Point

"My parents are gone for the rest of the week..." she says, holding the door open for you as you carry in your equipment. A hint of suggestiveness lies in it; she's alluding to exactly what you think she is, and you push her shoulder upon realizing it.

"Knock it off, Manoban."

"Okay, okay," she chuckles, listening to you for once. The surprise is clear on your face.

She leads you towards the backyard, where you set up one of your highest power cameras and turn it on. You have to create a gallery of different photos, all under the same theme. You both agreed to do a time-lapse of the sunset, and take pictures of the stars after.

Once she makes sure that the timer is set correctly and that the auto shut-off feature is enabled, she motions for you to follow her back into the house. You do, and she leads you into the kitchen.

"Do you want a snack?"

"Sure, do you have any ramen?"

She nods, quickly busying herself by bending down and searching through the cabinets. After she finds it, exclaiming a pleased, "Aha!", she tells you to go get comfortable in the living room.

Three minutes later, from your place on the couch, you begin to smell something burning. You scramble up and rush to the kitchen, only to find Lisa running around like a headless chicken, attempting to put out the small fire she started.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU MANAGE TO BURN RAMEN?" You shout, though your tone isn't angry. You're just very shocked, and loud about it. You push her away from the pot, albeit gently, and get the flames to go down relatively quickly. You turn the burners off and put the pot in the sink, leaning against the counter to recover from the adrenaline rush.

"Oops?" She asks more so that says, with a growing smile evident in her voice.

You shake your head and chuckle despite yourself, turning around to face her. "You can order a pizza now to make up for that." You point a finger at her, grinning stupidly when she presses the tip of hers to it.

"Your wish is my command, princess."

Thankfully you're already walking away as she says that, so she doesn't get the satisfaction of seeing you blush.

---

"Lisa, I can't keep going." You groan out, sweat dripping down your face. The pizza you ate earlier is giving you a stomache ache, paired with the physical activity you're doing.

"Y/N, just a little longer, we're almost there," she huffs out, keeping her movements steady somehow. You're a mess by now, so you don't understand how she's still going.

A couple minutes later, the TV in front of you lights up, saying, "Awesome moves! You win!" as you collapse to the ground in a heap.

Why you agreed to play Just Dance with her after eating is beyond you.

"Good job," she compliments, grabbing your hand to high five herself with it.

"Yeah, yeah," you roll over, catching your breath.

She lays down beside you as you recover, telling jokes to hear that laugh that she loves so much. She prefers yours over anyone elses, so it's always such a reward when she gets you to crack up.

"We should probably head up now," she notes, realizing that the stars will be coming out soon. You agree, and she carefully helps you up.

"Here, I'll carry you," she turns, bending down so you can get on her back.

"Lisa, you can't carry me," you brush off, feeling insecurity bubble up again like it always does when you're offered a piggyback ride.

"Y/N, I promise that I can. Trust me," she reassures, looking into your eyes sincerely.

"Alright," you sigh, standing onto the couch to get on easier.

"See?" She asks, sliding her warm hands up your thighs to keep you secured against her. "I've got you, babe."

You tuck your head into the space between her shoulder and neck, inhaling the sweet scent of her perfume.

"I'm gonna punch you if you drop me," you whisper, feeling her laugh against you.

"Fair enough."

-----

Later, On The Rooftop

"Careful," she instructs, outstretching a hand to help you climb out the window. Her camera hangs around her neck, and she takes the cap off of the lense once you're both safely sitting on the roof.

"Wow," you sigh, gazing up at the sky in wonder. Her house is far enough away from the city that you're rewarded with a gorgeous view of the stars, unburdened by the industrial fog that hangs over the cosmopolis.

"It's beautiful out here," you say, looking back at her. You tense up a bit, not expecting her to already be looking at you.

"Sorry," she laughs at herself, looking away once she gets caught admiring you.

"It's okay," you reach down and gently squeeze her hand, making her blush lightly.

"Let's get started," you conclude, pointing at the camera. She nods, knowing that she'd never get the assignment done if you didn't step in to tell her to (considering she'd rather admire you), and she points the device to the sky.

After snapping a few pictures, she lays back in order to get a better vantage point of one of the star systems. She hands it to you after she's satisfied with her work, and you take your turn with it.

She notices that you keep brushing your hair out of the way when it falls in your face, so she decides to help you.

"Here," she says, saddling up behind you. She gathers your hair up, running her fingers through it to neatly pull it up for you. Thankfully she always keeps a spare tie on her wrist.

"Thanks," you smile, snapping another picture. The simple act warms your heart; she's being selfless for once, and helping you without even being asked. It's a refreshing change of pace.

"You're welcome." She chirps, sitting back down beside you.

-----

Later, In Her Bedroom

"Oh, I really like that one!" She says excitedly, pointing at the TV. Her phone, which is connected via Bluetooth and automatically receives pictures of her choosing from the camera, is displaying some of your best shots.

"Yeah, you did really well with that. I think we might beat everyone else if we use that as our cover piece."

Your compliment makes her momentarily shy, and she quickly realizes how much she loves your praise.

The two of you continue like that, reviewing the different pictures and choosing your favorites. She always finds ways to compliment yours, noting your technique or the filter you used, and it always makes you smile. She's different than you're used to, and it's throwing you for a loop, pleasantly surprising.

---

Lisa steps out of the room to go to the bathroom a few minutes later, leaving her phone connected to the TV. A ding sounds out across the space, pulling your attention away from the stack of notes laid out before you. Your eyes dart up to the screen, reading the text message that appeared at the top of it.

Austin ⛓: "Dude, did you get into her pants yet? We're literally betting over here 😂"

You blink a few times as their words sink in, making your chest hurt. You were really beginning to believe that you had been wrong about Lisa; clearly, though, your instincts were right.

Feeling betrayed, you shove your folders back into your bag and stand from the chair, willing yourself not to cry. The sound of the sink turning on lets you know that she's almost done, so you hurry your movements and make your way towards the door. She steps out into the hall just as you exit her room, looking at you with wide eyes.

"Woah, woah, woah, what's going on?" She asks with furrowed brows, approaching you. One of her hands lands on your arm, and you shrug it off as you brush past her without another word.

"Y/N, did I do something wrong?" She asks from the top of her staircase, watching as you walk towards her foyer.

"Why don't you ask Austin?" You bitterly call over your shoulder as you turn the knob, slipping out the front door. She hangs her head upon registering your words, realizing what must've happened. She makes a mental note to give him hell when she sees him again.

Tears sting your eyes as you exit the house, wrapping your jacket tighter around yourself. You should've known something like this would happen. The chilly night air bites at your skin, stealing more of its warmth away with every step you take. The temperature doesn't change your mind, though; you're upset, and you'd rather freeze out here than be face to face with her right now.

"Y/N, wait!" She calls after you, blasting out the front foor. Her footfalls sound off behind you, announcing her rapid approach, but you don't turn around. Realizing this, she darts in front of you, keeping you from walking any further.

"Please, don't go. He's an idiot, Y/N."

"He might he an idiot, but that doesn't take away what he said," you scowl, clenching your jaw. "Betting? Really, Lisa?" You ask quietly, hurt evident in your voice.

"It was a stupid thing they tried to convince me to do. I didn't want to, but I couldn't stop them from talking once you and I were paired up. That's not what I want, though. I'm not just in it for that."

"How am I supposed to believe that? This is your M.O., Lisa."

"It's different with you, I don't know why." That's a lie; she knows exactly why you're different than anyone else she's flirted with in the past.

You stand there before her, silently weighing your options. After seeing the pleading look in her eye, her dark orbs full of sincerity, you relent. "Just take me home. We'll work on it another day," you compromise, allowing her in just enough to take you home, but not enough to stay at her place any longer. You're still weary after a text like that, and you will be for a while.

"Thank you," she breaths a sigh of relief, clasping her hands behind herself as you begin walking back to her house. She notices you shiver on the way, and she slips her jacket off without hesitation to cover you. Neither of you have to say anything; one glance from you is enough for her, and she's content knowing you're warm.

The Fallout

From there on out she was always honest with you and actually spoke out when her friends tried to do something stupid

She still remained the charming class clown that she naturally is, just getting rid of the not-so-nice parts of herself

You slowly let her regain your trust, little by little

She did nice things for you on the daily, whether it be holding the door, carrying your books, or offering to buy you some lunch

"Morning, Y/N. Wanna grab some breakfast?" She asks, moving her head to the side towards the café at the center of campus.

"Sure," you smile, laughing when she celebrates.

She invites you to her dance perfomances

When she goes to championships, you're always first on her list of invites

"I want you there." She declares, handing you the flyer.

"You've got it," you decide, knowing there's no where you'd rather be. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

At said championship, she won the highest title and claimed victory for your school

You joined the rest of the team on the stage to celebrate, congratulating the solo dancer on her achievement.

"I'm so proud of you, Lis--"

She suddenly kisses you, clearly high off her win. She pulls back when she realizes what she just did, a worried look on her face.

"Shit, I'm sorry." She looks between your eyes, attempting to gauge your reaction.

"Get your ass back here," you order, feeling butterflies take flight when she eagerly presses her lips to yours again, wrapping her arms around you to spin you.

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?" She mumbles against your lips.

You squint, pretending to think about it. "Maybe... or maybe not."

Her subsequent gasp is quickly muffled by your kiss, which she can't seem to get enough of.

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amchara · 3 years ago

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Baby Group - Jessa / Herongraystairs Family ficlet

Tessa, Jem and Kit all take turns taking Mina to the local baby group in Devon. Pure fluff (okay, tiny bit of angst in Tessa's section but it's mostly fluff!)

Tessa paused as she finished buckling Mina into her sling. The building in front of her was unassuming, a low white wood-sided structure, covered by a green roof. There were children’s handprints and rainbow decorations taped to the windows. She could feel Mina’s tiny, reassuring weight in front of her, as her daughter wiggled and let out a couple of happy baaa baa da’s as Tessa jiggled her, trying to weigh up whether she really wanted to go in.

‘Newton Abbey Surestart Centre’ read the colourful sign beside the wide path, leading up to sliding doors.

A couple of other women walked past her, chatting and pushing buggies that looked more like mini-cars, given all the bells and whistles attached. They didn’t pay any attention to her and Mina.

“First time?” A voice came from behind her. Tessa turned and saw a young, red-haired woman, who was smiling at her as she wrestled a chubby baby with similar hair into a smaller buggy.

“Yes,” Tessa said, and remembering her manners, gestured to herself and to a now-quiet Mina, who was taking it all in with wide, dark eyes. “I’m Tessa Carstairs and this is Mina.”

“Gemma Sampson and this is Charlee,” said the other woman cheerfully. “You have the right way of doing it,” she continued, pointing to Tessa’s sling. “I don’t know why I bother with all this baby shit,” she said, rolling her brown eyes and crinkling up her nose, as she pointed to her overflowing baby bag and packed buggy.

“I- uh, I tend to travel light,” Tessa said, but internally she cursed. Should she have brought more? Maybe she should go grab the extra nappy and wipes out of the backseat, just to show she was prepared? Mina was usually happy just observing the world, rather than being occupied by toys and Tessa was still breastfeeding her so they usually travelled with minimal supplies.

But Tessa had not done the baby thing in over a hundred years and she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. She wondered again, if this had been the best idea- but Jem had suggested if they were settling in at Cirenworth long-term they should probably try to integrate themselves into the community. Especially as they no longer had the monumental task of finding the lost Herondale, and they wanted to encourage Kit to find his own friends. It would be best to take their own advice, Jem had suggested, a small laugh erupting from him as Tessa had asked if he was about to join the local cricket team or the small village choir. “The choir, probably-” Jem had said, winking at her. “But maybe the local woodworking shop too.”

Gemma slid around Tessa with her buggy and gave a friendly nod. “Come on, love- they only let us in for the hour and then they kick us out. You want to get your money’s worth.”

“Isn’t it free?” Tessa muttered under her breath but she followed Gemma in, giving her name and Mina’s to the bored teenager at the door.

“She’s gorgeous,” the health visitor - who Tessa had been told was also a nurse - looked admiringly at Mina. Tessa relaxed fractionally. “Thank you. She takes after her dad,” she said, the smile growing on her face. Mina gurgled curiously and reached out for the rattle that the woman was holding out. She shook it happily.

“Is she your first?” the nurse asked, casually.

Tessa froze. She took a deep breath.

“No. I had two other children. James and Lucie. They… they’re not around,” she said and hated how her voice shook faintly. Normally it didn’t sting this much, the thought of her precious James and bubbly Lucie. But in this homely, warm place with the babble of babies’ voices and happy, smiling parents watching them, it hit her unexpectedly.

Tessa could see the nurse’s eyes sharply assess Tessa, taking in her youthful face but also, Tessa hoped, her smart denim skirt, yellow flowered collared shirt and the image that Tessa wanted her to see. “I see,” she said but noting the look on Tessa’s face she didn’t ask any further questions. She wrote some scribbles down on her pad, smiling politely and told Tessa to enjoy the centre.

As she walked away, Tessa cast a small spell to dislodge the note, which dropped to the floor beside her and Mina. She read: ‘children? x2 possible dec. or child servs?’ and her stomach dropped as she crumpled it in her hand. She followed up and cast a quick memory spell on the woman to also make her forget the last two minutes of their conversation. Maybe this had been a mistake… she thought, and when she looked up again, she could see Gemma had settled beside her and Mina, Charlee shaking a plastic tambourine in Gemma’s arms..

“They’re old busybodies,” Gemma announced, jerking her head at the health visitor. Tessa smiled wryly. The woman was maybe thirty at most.

“But also- you don’t have to engage with them to use the centre,” she said frankly. “It’s not a requirement.” She looked directly at Tessa and her look softened. “I’m sorry about your children though- it must be tough to be a warlock and have to watch them grow old.”

Tessa thought she was good at schooling her face to remain neutral, after so many years but Gemma just let out a small laugh and she let her eyes flash amber briefly. And Tessa relaxed, realising Gemma was a werewolf.

“We have a small group of Downworlders here at baby group,” Gemma said and she pointed to a small group off to the side. “Mostly werewolves, a couple Sighted women and one half-nixie. But we’ve never had a warlock before,” she said, her voice hopeful.

“Sounds delightful,” Tessa said, watching as Gemma’s smile widened. She picked up Mina, following her to the group.

“That’s it, clever Mina-mine,” Jem cooed, as Mina peeked her head out from the small, fabric enclosed tube that he had procured from the far corner. She smiled up at him, her cheeks squishing up into tiny peaks as she crawled further out. She rolled onto her back and then began chewing on her hands, tired from all the effort. Jem was so proud of her.

He looked around and was surprised at the large group of women and children that had gathered around him and Mina. It had been nearly empty in the baby area when he and Mina had arrived at the children’s centre, with only a couple other mums and babies around, likely due to the heavy rain they had had that morning, Jem mused.

But more must have showed up as he was playing with Mina and he hadn’t realised. Then Jem blushed and suddenly understood, as they all kept glancing over to him. “C’mon, Mina- we’re hogging the equipment! We need to let the other babies have a turn. Let’s go play with some other toys,” he said, lifting her up into his arms and made to move to another section of the room.

“Oh no- that’s fine,” said one woman, bouncing her baby on her knee, smiling at Jem. “We don’t mind waiting our turn.”

“She can play with these.” Another woman waved a couple of colourful scarves at him.

“Or this.” Jem found a couple of jingly bell-trees thrust into his lap, and the dark-haired woman held out a couple more, smiling at him. “My baby is finished with them.”

“Oh- that’s very kind of you,” Jem said, awkwardly trying to balance them and Mina in his arms.

He caught sight of a familiar figure coming towards them, and he grinned, dropping the toys to the side. He held Mina up so she could see. “It’s Mama!”

Tessa smiled her lovely, radiant smile as she approached them. As if by magic, the other woman and babies melted away as she bent down to give Mina a kiss on her forehead and Jem a quick peck on the lips. “Hello, my two darlings!” she said, settling herself on the floor beside them. “Did you miss me?”

“Always,” Jem said.

“We’re full for the session,” the older woman in a rumpled sweater gave Kit a bored look and turned away, to continue to talk to her taller, younger colleague.

Kit blinked. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” the woman said dryly, bending her head down to write in a log.

“Fine,” Kit muttered. Mina babbled and Kit could swear that he could hear the disappointment in her tone. “It’s okay, Min-Min, we’ll do something better than stupid baby group,” he said, hefting her further up on his shoulder and prepared to leave.

But then suddenly she was overbalancing on him and Kit struggled to hold onto her as she surged forward.

“BA BA NA!” she shouted excitedly at the dark-skinned woman with long braids walking past. She paused and turned towards the noise and her smile was infectious as she took in Mina. “Mina Carstairs!”

Ten seconds later, they were through the doors, the older woman scowling as the director of the centre told her to let them in. “Don’t tell anyone but she’s one of my favourite babies,” the director told Kit conspiratorially.

“She’s one of my favourite babies too,” Kit said, stifling a smile. Mina was smiling contentedly, or almost smugly, Kit thought, in the woman’s arms.

“And of course, your parents are also brilliant,” the woman said, handing Mina back to him. “Say hello to them from Sonya.”

“I will,” Kit said, as they headed further into the centre.

He plopped her down on a couple of cushions and stretched out beside her, taking in the scene. Kit idly wondered if his dad had ever taken him to a centre like this when he was young, before immediately scoffing and dismissing the possibility.

It did look like baby heaven, he thought, as Mina started crawling over to a rainbow-coloured arch. He watched the other babies and parents around, noting that he was likely the youngest one there or… actually, maybe not, he thought, as he saw a nervous, thin girl in the corner, playing with one of the chubbiest babies he had ever seen.

“Stay away from that baby, Mins,” he said. “He looks like he eats other babies for breakfast.” He looked down.

“I swear we’ve gone over this - we don’t eat socks,” Kit told her, an exasperated but fond manner. He grabbed a tiny bag out of his pocket and shook it at her. “I have much tastier snacks here.” He watched as Mina took her purple socked-toes out of her mouth and gestured in a familiar way. Kit handed her a couple of tiny baby puffs.

“No snacks on the play floor,” said the same, grumpy monitor as she walked past.

Kit rolled his eyes but put the bag away.

Kit didn’t rise to the bait when five minutes later she told him that he was being too loud with the xylophone.

He gritted his teeth when she snatched away the blocks that he had been planning to get Mina, informing him that it was almost the end of session and she was starting to tidy up.

And during the group singing time at the end of the session, when she told him to stop mumbling the words to the stupid nursery rhymes, Kit decided it had gotten personal.

“Oh, sorry,” Kit gave an angelic smile as he stepped away from the woman. She scowled at him, and turned away to button her coat up, her purse swinging in the air, unzipped.

Kit waited until they were out of the centre before looking down at his spoils. Sweet, he thought. A Cadbury’s Crunchie bar and two Twirls.

He shifted Mina in his arms, to one shoulder and holding the chocolate bar in the other hand, ripped off the wrapper of the Crunchie with his teeth.

“Don’t tell Mom and Dad,” he told Mina, after swallowing several bites.

She smiled placidly and reached for the Crunchie. “Not yet- in a couple of years,” Kit said. But then he reconsidered, and let her have a short gum at the stub. She giggled and burrowed her chocolate-smeared face into his shirt.

And then they got on the bus back to the village, heading back to Cirenworth.

(I don't know who to tag in my Herongraystairs family fics? @dontmindmyshadowhunting @sandersgrey @foxglove-airmid maybe? This is definitely the start of Kit bringing Mina into the pickpocketing life

Let me know if anyone else wants to be added in!

Previous Herongraystairs family fics:

Days Like These (day at the beach)

#tsc fanfiction #tessa gray #jem carstairs #kit herondale #jessa #jem carstairs faces the twenty first century with style #tessa gray is a legend #kit keeps his pickpocketing skills up to date #my fanfic #my fanfiction #i am stuck on writing smut or plot so you all get fluff right now #jem carstairs x tessa gray

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artxyra · 5 years ago

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The Secret Life of MDC | Part 5

Part 5 – Haha, wait you’re serious?

Fun fact: This rewrite was supposed to be five parts, but as I was writing and changing things, I have no idea how long this is going to be.

Parts 01 | 02 | 03 | 04

What a relaxing evening the couples group plus one was having. Everyone but Jon and Damian was wearing a disguise of some sort. Marinette in her usual lace netted veil, Chloe with her hair down and sunglasses on, and Adrien with a dark wig and punk clothes. It was never easy being out and open like this, but it was relaxing.

“I’m telling you, she’s not worth it.” Marinette states before taking a sip of her ice coffee beverage. She doesn’t know how or when their conversation regarding the upcoming gala turned into a revenge plan to reveal the liar that has made her life miserable back in Paris.

“Angel, she is making up stories about me. How can I not make her suffer any more than she had made you?” Damian asks taking her hand into his own. Marinette huffs unsure what to say.

“C’mon buggy, even Luka agrees with him. Let him take over for a moment.” Adrien comments showing the designer his phone with a series of messages from Luka on the screen.

Marinette still doesn’t reply. Instead, she looks up to the sky as of it hoping for a miracle. Nothing was working.

“Kagami even she said she’ll help hide the body. Just give me the okay and she’ll be on the next flight here or I’ll go get her with Kaalki.” Chloe adds in taping away on her phone as if she wasn’t paying attention.

“Absolutely not. Look, guys, we have three weeks left here and I don’t want to spend it worrying about the class despite being the damn TA for this exchange. I already need to finish the touch-ups on our dresses and grade like a shit ton of assignments.” Marinette groans leaning into Damian’s chest. He places a kiss on her forehead before resting his chin on her head.

“Why are you guys even like this?” It’s Jon’s turn to cry out in frustration. Everyone turns to him with an eyebrow raised. The half-Kryptonian should no better by now than to question anything his boyfriend and friends do. “Alright, alright, I fold. What do I need to do?”

“Stay my handsome hero.” Adrien absently adds swooning in Jon’s arms looking upward to the hero. Shaking his head, Adrien turns to Marinette and blinks. “Did I really just say that?”

Marinette tries to hide her giggles, nodding. However, Chloe didn’t even try to hide her laughs causing the model to blush.

“I actually liked it,” Jon says before placing a kiss on the blonde’s cheek furthering his blush to a deeper red.

“Ooh, Gami just replied back to me, she wants to see if we can do a movie night stream?” Chloe asks on behalf of her girlfriend. Planning movie nights are often frequent amongst the group especially when they are missing each other.

“I know my father wouldn’t mind, but depending on who’s staying at the manor tonight it might turn into a family affair,” Damian responds gently pushing Marinette off of him and stand up to stretch.

“She’s fine with that.”

“Good; I’ll message Alfred to set to the theatre room.” Damian pulls out his phone and immediately proceeds to message the family butler.

“You know he’ll probably send a message with an image of the theatre room decked out with pillows and blankets with the caption: already have, young master.” Marinette jokes but little did she know her guess was actually right.

Damian’s phone dings with a message from Alfred. It is indeed a photo of the theatre room with pillows and blanket gently piled together. Underneath the photo is the message “Already done, young master, just be home before dark.”

“How does he do that?” Adrien wonders before adding, “It’s witchcraft?”

“You know as well as my brothers that we still do not know that answer.” Damian murmurs sliding his phone back into his pocket. He then holds out his hand for Marinette to take as she pushes herself off the wooden bench.

“We should head back then…” Marinette is then cut off by her phone along with her blonde sibling’s phones simultaneously buzzing. The three Parisians grab their phones and see the answer.

It’s the Headmistress of Gotham Academy calling her. Confused, Marinette answers the call just as Adrien and Chloe read the variety of messages from the classmates or at least those that still have their numbers.

Damian and Jon look to one another cautiously. It’s not every day that the trio’s phone would go off especially when they are not in a group chat with the others. Damian takes a step closer to Marinette as panic rises her eyes.

When the call ends, Marinette takes a series of deep breaths. “First the Riddler and now this shit. They better be damn glad to stay on this trip once we find them.” Was the only thing that would come out of the designer’s mouth.

Chloe and Adrien stop reading. “Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.” This really draws two teens to their friends. Adrien stays silent which is unlike him especially when there isn’t a battle or around them.

“Um, care to fill us in?” Jon asks knowing that Damian would not as he tries to get answers from Marinette.

“Apparently Mlle. Bustier and the GA staff are losing their heads.” Chloe starts.

“Nino messaged me that something had happened after we left,” Adrien adds shuffling his feet against the ground.

“Yeah; Alya and Lie-la are missing. The headmistress says that no one has seen since we left and asked if we, more specifically I, knew about their whereabouts.” Marinette shakes her head, “Which I have no clue about. I’m not a sheep’s keeper.” The noirette sighs, face-palming.

“I guess movie night is off then.” Jon ponders.

“No, no, we can still find them before it gets super late. By we, I mean Robin and Superboy along with the Gotham’s miraculous team.” Marinette counters before anyone could get a word in.

“Wait, you’re serious?” Chloe asks in disbelief.

“Yeah, let’s just hope the liar’s big mouth didn’t get her in trouble with the Joker or any other Gotham villain,” Marinette grumbles as if all happiness crash and burned right in front of her.

“And here I have thought that after last week, they would stay on the down-low, but no~ they just had to disappear. This will really put a stick into Mlle. Bustier’s teaching qualifications.” Chloe groans as she starts packing her stuff up with looks ready to kill.

“I’ll see you in a bit, suit and all. I have damage control to handle before we make our next steps.” Marinette and Adrien give their significant others a peck on the lips. As much as Damian hates the veil covering her eyes, he knows the pain the reset inside them.

“I’ll talk things through with the family. Maybe even hack into the security cameras for some leads.” He whispers into her ear holding her arms. Marinette looks up to Damian and nods.

~*~

If those phone calls didn’t give light to the current situation, it would have been like walking into the middle of a war zone. Everywhere you look there were teachers asking questions, normally this would never happen to Gotham Academy, but when the exchange happens it like the school turns on its head.

Chloe, Adrien, and Marinette decided to split up. Adrien went to speak to Nino to see if he had knowledge of his girlfriend. Chloe sneaked into the security room while Marinette takes on her teacher assistant role to speak with Mlle. Bustier and the GA headmistress.

Marinette could tell how heated the conversation is from just a few feet away. The closer she got the more she could tell that Caline was sweating where she was standing.

“Marinette doesn’t belong in conversations like this.” Caline tries to get Marinette removed from the conversation the moment she sees the girl, but the headmistress wasn’t having that.

“Marinette is allowed to be here, Ms. Bustier, she is apparently the only one with the contact information regarding your students.” The headmistress states and it was true. Even though Marinette is technically the class representative despite no longer being a student of the school, she still holds vital information regarding the class.

“Hold on, you didn’t contact our parents?” Realization began to hit. “We were nearly killed last week and today, not even a full week since we have arrived, you have lost two students.”

“Marinette, you guys made it back safely, and I just didn’t have time to call everyone’s parents or guardians.” Caline is really trying to save face here.

“We’re in a whole another country. It is your duty to inform parents and or guardians about any situation, mishap, whatever happens to them.” Marinette nearly screams at the teacher. Anger could not even begin to be Marinette’s main emotion.

“I’m sure they’ll show up, Alya and Lila are very responsible.” Seriously? She cannot be for real.

“Mlle. Bustier,” Marinette takes a deep breath, clasps her hands together. “They can be killed here. I may not like those two but even I know the importance of safety here in Gotham.”

“Marinette, I’ll take it from here. How about you go help the others in finding the two missing girls.” The GA headmistress says placing a hand on the designer’s shoulder. Marinette calms down and nods. It was for the best.

Marching down the halls, everyone avoided Marinette. How could they not, she was a woman on a warpath. The Paris exchange students have never seen Marinette so angry before it was causing them to quake in their shoes.

Adrien was finishing his conversation with Nino when he joins Marinette’s side on the march to glory. Chloe had just finished up with the security room before she joined her crew. Together, the three exits the school grounds knowing exactly where they are heading to.

It was no secret that everyone knows each other identity between the Batfam and the Miraculous crew. So, when Alfred pulled up in a disguised car, with the window rolled down he simply raises an eyebrow. The trio gets in as the school just watches in shock. Nothing was making sense to them.

“So, I found that they did indeed leave minutes after we did. The cameras lost them upon walking across the streets towards this building.” Chloe states pointing to the screen with confidence.

“From what I had gathered from Nino, they had missed their check-in time at least three times before the flags were raised. As you know the class aside from us needs to check-in with the teachers at least once an hour after what happened last week.” Adrien then adds in.

Marinette nods before she turns to Tim, who was surprising on his fourth cup of coffee.

“Tim, what did you find?” She asks before sliding a coffee flavor “health” bar over to the hacker. Tim takes it and slides the bar into his pocket.

“Let’s just say its not the Joker behind their missing appearance. We got Gordon on the lookout, but you know what they say when it comes close to nighttime here in Gotham.”

“Out of everyone, it had to be the two of them. If my job wasn’t also kind of on the stake, I would have just left them to figure it out and stay out of it.”

“You know that’s not true Mars; you love to save people even those who let deserves it.”

“Who asked you, Kitten, let him bitch about things that we know would never happen.”

If it wasn’t for the growing tension in the room, everyone would have burst out laughing.

“We got movement,” Jason calls out while cleaning one of his guns.

Everyone catches the other’s eyes before simultaneously nodding. It’s going to be a long night ahead of them.

Tag List: *View my Tagging System guidelines for how to to be properly tagged or removed.

Note: The SPECIFIC Tag list is officially closed. If you wanted to follow the story please mark the tag fic:The Secret Life of MDC.

#maribat #daminette #ml x dc #mlb x dc #ml crossover #dc crossover #fic:The Secret Life of MDC #teacher assistant Marinette AU #ta marinette

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nneogram · 4 years ago

Text

think about it — part one. get laid!

pairing: jaehyun x reader (f)

genre: enemies to lovers!au, college!au, fluff

word count: 8.4k

warnings: language, mentions of sex but not really (oc keeps being told to get laid “emotionally” idk), jungwoo gets scolded about the importance of consent, jungwoo’s in a frat but not really but yes really, quick reminiscent phone call w/ bestie jungkook, oc has unhealthy studying habits but dw it gradually gets better from here

a/n: i’ll say it for all of us - FINALLY, an update on here. this is result of my own college shenanigans, stories from my friends, and far too many fantasies whilst in quarantine. jeni needs to lay off the k-dramas, sheesh. i’d also like to note that this is unedited! there may be a few grammar/spelling mistakes.

▸ playlist (to be linked later)

Your roommate claims that you need to, in the simplest terms, “Get laid.” You are vehemently against this proposal, despite her insistence and clarification.

“Emotionally. You need to get laid emotionally, Y/N,” Megan whines. That’s all she can do from where she is sitting, tucked safely away beneath the blankets on her bed. It’s cocoon-like, she’s explained to you before, “like being in the womb.” Safe. Secure. Warm. You think that if that was her cocoon, then Megan would emerge a butterfly. If you were in her place? You would emerge a moth.

“I don’t think any getting laid needs to be done, regardless of if it’s emotional or not.” You take another flashcard from your prepared deck. Strong Acids. HCl, HBr, HI… HClO4? A hiss leaves your lips when you flip the card over to see the answer. You were missing two more acids. You reluctantly place the card into the pile to review again, which sat next to a much smaller pile of correct cards. The goal for the morning was to move all the cards in the “wrong” pile to the “right” pile, but considering the size difference of the two stacks, that goal would not be achieved.

Megan’s sigh pulls you from your focus. “Dude. Do you see yourself right now? I don’t think I’ve seen you doing anything other than studying for the past two weeks. I’m going to ace this chem midterm and I’m not even in chem. I’m not even a STEM major.”

You frown. “Sorry. Was I being too loud? I can go-”

“No, don’t worry about me. This is about you. I’m concerned for you - you’ve been cooped up more these two weeks than you were in the entirety of fall quarter. Have you taken a break recently?”

“I slept for eight hours straight, I think that’s a good enough break?”

“No, like a real break. Away from studies and school and just doing something… I dunno, fun?”

You shake your head. The past few weeks had been nothing but relentless studying. In an effort to maintain your pristine GPA, you shoved aside what little downtime you allotted yourself in fall quarter to focus on school. It was the least you could do, considering that you were on track to apply to medical school at the end of your undergraduate career. You were only in your first year, so all of the other requirements for med school - clinic, shadowing, research, the works - were inapplicable for the time being. There wasn’t much to get you ahead other than your 4.0.

Megan knows this, but she also knows that you have little to no social life outside of the bare minimum. It’s an unspoken truth that the two of you being assigned as roommates was a blessing in disguise: your studious tendencies help motivate Megan to stay on task while Megan’s more laidback nature reminds you to take a breather sometimes.

This was one of those times.

“I’m telling you,” Megan crawls over to the edge of her bed to get closer, “You should relax a bit. Just a teeny, tiny bit. Have some fun, live out your first year of college! Make some art, go to the gym, I dunno, step out of your comfort zone. Get laid!”

“You say that last one as if talking from experience,” you tease.

What was the charge on sulfide again? Fuck, it was two minus. Another card goes into the “wrong” pile.

Megan scoffs. “Please. I’ve only ever had one boyfriend, and that was in middle school. The most we did was hold hands. Besides, we don’t need men… I just want one.” She mumbles this last part as an afterthought before returning her focus to you. “I think getting a boyfriend would be a great distraction for you.”

You gawk at your roommate, eyes flitting from her to your toppling stack of incorrectly answered cards and back to her. “Do you see this? I don’t need any distractions right now.”

“No, no, I - fuck. I got that all wrong, didn’t I.” Megan facepalms. “What I mean is maybe you should befriend some people, or find some kind of emotional outlet. As much as I pride myself on being your source of positivity, I’m not around all the time to tell you to take a break and relax. You tend to be hard on yourself, y’know?”

Your gaze once again travels to your flashcards, their amount of use prominent in the worn-down corners and smudged ink. “I guess…”

There’s a smile of satisfaction on Megan’s face. “Think about it,” she concludes, then crawls back to her cocoon of blankets to take a nap.

The gloom of the rainy weather hits most forcefully in January. With the merriment of the holiday season behind you, it seems there is nothing ahead but cold, and rain, and emptiness. Only so many mugs of hot chocolate could keep your heart warm, and it wasn’t even the good type of hot chocolate - it was the powdery stuff that you mixed in with your lukewarm water because the water kettle you brought with you to the dorm was buggy and never fully heated up a pot of water.

Yeah, you could buy yourself a cup of cocoa from the coffee shop on campus, but as the college kid stereotype proved, you were broke. So you settle for your half-assed attempt at a comfort drink, taking extra effort to stir the dregs that tend to settle at the bottom of your styrofoam cup.

“So you need to get laid?” Jungkook’s voice crackles over the phone.

You sigh. For getting into one of the most prestigious universities in the country, Jungkook lacked the ability to draw proper conclusions from given information. He clearly hadn’t paid attention to your five minute spiel on your deteriorating motivation for life and your roommate’s unusual suggestion. “No,” you begin slowly, because if you didn’t control yourself you were going to get annoyed quickly, “I do not need to get laid.”

It’s dusk, around that time of the evening where the world slows down as the sky is painted a myriad of pinks, purples, and oranges. Even in January the sunsets in your college town never failed to astonish you. However, it’s also the time of the day when loneliness hits you most, and for a fraction of a moment you get homesick and usually end up calling someone from home. In this case, you end up contacting a close friend - though you’re beginning to question Jungkook’s title as a close friend, considering he completely missed the point of your rant.

“Well it sure sounds like it,” Jungkook refutes. There’s a loud crunching noise on the other end of the call, and you have to bring the phone away from your ear as the crackling continues. You know for a fact that Jungkook has bitten into a chip, most likely the barbecue ones he always had on hand. The audacity to snack on junk food in the middle of a conversation about your existential crisis - you sometimes wonder how you and Jungkook became friends in high school.

Then again, you were on the other end slurping the remnants of your hot cocoa. Maybe there was something going for the two of you.

“Think about it.” You’re reminded of that afternoon when Megan said the exact same thing. “You’re unmotivated. Why? Because you’re lonely. How do we fix that? You need to get laid-”

“-Emotionally. Emotionally laid-”

“-Yeah yeah, same difference. They go hand in hand,” Jungkook brushes off. “The point still stands. When was the last time you were in a relationship?”

You hesitate to answer. “I’ve never been in a relationship,” you mumble.

“I couldn’t hear you. What?”

“I said I’ve never been in a relationship,” you repeat with a sigh.

There’s a beat of silence. “You’re kidding.”

You shake your head, momentarily forgetting this is a phone call and not an in-person conversation where Jungkook can see you. Students begin to flood the sidewalks outside of the dorms, likely the last wave of students returning for their later classes. A girl - Megan, you realize after squinting - waves at you from across the street. You wave back, gesturing to her that you’re on a call. She nods and goes on her way to the dorm.

You return your focus to the call. “No, not kidding.”

“I’m taking that lapse of silence as you actually having to think about it.” You roll your eyes, another gesture that Jungkook cannot see. “How? You’re telling me all four years of high school you never got with someone? Not even a fling? Not even that weird ‘talking’ phase kids do these days? What have you been doing all this time?”

Your mind immediately goes back to your high school graduation. “Valedictorian, weighted GPA of 4.8, Y/N Y/L/N, attending…” You remember the smile on your face as the principal handed you your diploma. You remember the smiles on your parents’ faces, the pride and joy in their eyes. That was when you knew it had all been worth it - no one but you, your parents, and your own pure ambition fueling your fire for the four years of high school.

Maybe the closest you got to any sort of romantic relationship was… with Jungkook.

You liked Jungkook before your brain could fully process it, denying it as platonic affection for the better half of three years as he took you under his wing your freshman year. It was comforting to have someone older than you help you navigate high school, but as much as you tried you could not view Jungkook as an older brother as he so claimed to be.

Of course, nothing was ever to happen. Jeon Jungkook was a boy entirely out of your league - star student, star athlete, poster child for all things good and right in the world - but most importantly, he was your closest friend. It was this label that helped set a boundary for your affections, and your crush became more of a pastime to delve into when you wanted a break from your studies. A fantasy that would never come true.

It wasn’t until he moved away for college your senior year that your crush subsided, hitting you like some sort of epiphany when he returned for his winter break. You had been beyond elated to reunite with your friend, but when you looked in his eyes it dawned on you that the weight of his words and actions no longer affected you as much as they did in the past.

That was your only stint with romance, and you were fine with it staying that way. Yeah, it was a fruitless endeavor, but look what you got out of it: a great friend! And only at the price of three years of unnecessary emotional turmoil and relentless unrequited pining. What a bargain.

“I’ve been busy with school, mainly.” It’s an insufficient summation of your high school experience, but it got the point across. Technically, it wasn’t a lie.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of you and all - and I respect your decision to be single! Human rights and all that - but maybe it’s time for you to get into a relationship.”

You snap your fingers loudly enough to startle a group of guys walking past. You hope the grimace on your face is enough of an apology. “Oh my God, thanks Jungkook! Now that you mention it, let me just hit up one of the many young eligible bachelors pining over me, because there are so many right now.”

The feigned enthusiasm in your voice does not entertain Jungkook as much as you would have liked it to. “I’m sure there are, Y/N. There were plenty in high school.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope.” The playful smile you sport falls from your lips as he proceeds to dive into a list of names.

“The one guy with the yellow hair… Yugyeom thought you were cute… Oh, Taehyung liked you too-”

“-Taehyung?” You gawk. “The Kim Taehyung. The guy two years older than you, editor of the yearbook and captain of the lacrosse team? The Kim Taehyung who was Prom King. Him?” It’s difficult to process a senior that you had regarded so highly had taken interest in you in your lowly freshman year.

“Yeah, I know, right? I told him he was out of your league-”

“-Hey!”

“-But I said that out of jealousy. Heck, even I liked you at some point, Y/N. You’re quite a catch, just super oblivious.”

The reminder of your phone call with Jungkook consists of your disbelieving laughs and Jungkook’s reassurances that yes, that many people liked you in high school.

“I’m sure there’s plenty of people interested in you. You just have to see it for yourself first.” Oddly prophetic for someone who claims he could survive solely off of energy drinks and barbecue chips, but considering he was studying at an Ivy League, he had to have some credibility. You end the phone call possibly more confused than you had been before the conversation. Swirling the contents of your cup absentmindedly, you realize you’ve drunk all of your hot cocoa. All that is left at the bottom of your cup are the clumps of cocoa powder that hadn’t been properly stirred. The dregs. Of course.

You relay your findings to Megan the next day over a lunch of poorly cooked rice and under seasoned chicken. “Food crafted by the gods to remind us of our inferiority,” as Megan liked to call it.

She claps her hands like a seal. “So I was right!” She cheers over a mouthful of food. “You need to get laid!”

You’re a bit too late to cover her mouth, her ambiguous words now out in the open for others nearby to hear and assume the wrong thing. Glancing around, you’re relieved to find that no one seemed to notice, save for one boy at a nearby table surrounded by some of his friends. He gives you a look but you refrain from making eye contact.

“I feel like you and I heard different stories just now.” You keep your voice down. “Meg, I just found out my high school crush - debatably, my first love - liked me at some point when I liked him. Do you know how big that is?”

“Do you know how big that isn’t?” Megan shoots back. “Because nothing came out of it. You never acted on your feelings. And something tells me that even if this John Cook-”

“-His name is Jungkook, but okay-”

“-Even if he had acted on his feelings, you would never believe it.” Ouch. She really went for your lack of self-esteem right there, and that shit hurted. Regardless, she’s right, and you both know it.

“You know when we say this, we’re not trying to force you into anything you don’t want to do,” Megan clarifies. “I’m not saying you should get dicked down by the first guy who gives you attention, but wouldn’t it be nice to let someone - someone who genuinely cares for you - to let them into that dark and twisty mind of yours? God knows what’s going on up there.” She gestures to your forehead with her spoon.

Brushing aside Megan’s crude wording near the beginning, you’re at a loss for words. Unsure of how to respond, you mumble, “But there’s no one like that in my life. Other than you, that is.”

“Because you never let anyone close enough to truly know you. Just…” she pops another spoonful of rice into her mouth, “Just think about it.”

D-1 until your midterm. Nomenclature and ionic charges are now extremely familiar to you, having taken the spot from Megan as Number One Friend. And yet, you still haven’t successfully completed your flashcards.

Strong Acids. You suck in a deep breath, swerving in between groups of people as you make your way to the cafe. Walking quickly with your head down as the sure fire way of getting to any destination as quickly as possible. Okay Y/N, you got this… HCl, HBr, HI, HClO4… HNO3? You flip the card over and hiss. You were missing one more response. You truly hated it here.

The cafe is bustling with students on their laptops and scribbling away in notebooks, all likely studying for their respective exams. The scent of freshly ground coffee beans pervades the entirety of the interior, drawing you further inward until you’re standing at the cashier.

“One tall vanilla latte, please.” You hand the girl behind the counter your money and stand aside to let the next person in line order. Once your order is called, you grab your drink - Ah, nothing like a fresh cup of capitalism to revitalize your motivation to study - and search for a place to sit. As if by the grace of God, someone leaves their seat at the barstools just as you turn around. Beautiful.

“Excuse me,” you tap the shoulder of one of the people next to the open seat. “Is this seat taken?” He shakes his head no, and you take that as your signal to sit.

You find yourself sandwiched between two young men, each immersed in their own studies. The one to your right, the one you had talked to briefly, appears to want no further interruptions, both earbuds in his ears. The one to your left never turned around to begin with, head down as he types away at his laptop. All you can make out are his broad shoulders in a brown leather jacket and a mop of strawberry blond hair. An interesting choice of hair color, but you weren’t one to judge. He’s nodding his head to some tune, and it’s only then you realize he has one earbud in. You wonder what kind of music a cute man like himself would listen to -

Get a hold of yourself, Y/N, you chastise yourself for showing sudden interest in a complete stranger. The day before your midterm at that - there was no space in your head for an unknown young man who was probably good looking, too - No! Focus. Flashcards. You fumble in your jacket pocket for your index cards.

Chemistry nomenclature, round fifty-six.

As you’re reviewing, you overhear the conversation proceeding next you with the cute guy and a girl. “Excuse me, is this seat taken?” The familiar words make you think of mere moments before when you were asking the same thing.

“It isn’t, but… you can’t sit there.”

Huh?

“I’m sorry?” The girl seems to mirror your confusion.

“You can’t sit here. I’m sorry.”

“But someone else can?”

Your flashcards go ignored as you choose to eavesdrop on the full conversation. The man stalls, looking at the girl up and down. “... Yeah, maybe.”

Trying your best to not draw attention to yourself, you turn your head in slow, languid movements to look around. Was anyone else seeing this? Hearing this? Were you the next unsuspecting victim on an episode of What Would You Do? You were half expecting a game show host to step out and introduce himself at any moment. Y/N, you’ve just been Punk’d!

Unfortunately (or fortunately, you couldn’t decide which scenario was better), no game show host steps out from behind a curtain, and it sinks in that this guy wasn’t joking. He was intent on not letting this girl sit next to him.

“Look,” the girl runs a hand through her hair, a habit of frustration, maybe. “I really need a place to sit and work on things, and this seat is open. That, and it’s a public space. So if you’ll excuse me-”

The young man easily lifts his backpack from his chair with one hand and places it in the open seat. “There. It’s taken now. Sorry.”

The girl’s eyes widen, and you can only imagine what your face looks like right now. You’re in just as much shock as she is.

You scoff, and this time you don’t care if he hears. And he does: the stranger finally turns around in his seat to reveal an extremely attractive face. Chiseled jawline, deep brooding eyes, dimples even when he was scowling. You freeze and your breath hitches in your throat. It’s a shame he had to go and open his mouth.

“Excuse me,” you cut in sweetly, making a point to only make eye contact with the girl. “You can sit here. I’m about to leave.”

The girl’s eyes go wide at the addition of a third party. “Oh, no, you don’t have to! Thank you so much though.”

You shove your flashcards into your backpack and stand up from the seat. “No no, I insist, it’s fine. Besides, I didn’t want to sit there anymore.” Only then do you shoot a glare at the young man. “I couldn’t focus.”

Judging by the way the girl eyes the strawberry blond next to you, you think she doesn’t want to sit there anymore, either. Nevertheless, a seat was a seat. She thanks you profusely and you head out the doors and down the path to return to the dorms.

Naturally your mind drifts back to the stranger. Who was he to have so much pride as to deny a seat to someone he didn’t know? A seat that wasn’t his, either? The thought that people like him exist irks you.

He was so good-looking, too, your subconscious proceeds to remind you.

But alas, a jerk was a jerk, and at the end of the day you had far more important things to worry about than an indecent stranger whom you doubt you would see again. More important things such as -

Your phone rings with an alarm notifying you of your next scheduled event: Final Review B4 Exam! You sigh. Looks like it was back to the books (and flashcards) for you for the rest of the night.

It doesn’t hit you until you crash land into your desk chair: in your anger-fueled exit from the cafe, you had completely forgotten your barely touched vanilla latte sitting at the barstool counter. At this point you’re ready to tear your hair out at the roots. You’re five dollars and one fresh cup of caffeinated capitalism short for the night’s study session. You really hated it here.

If Megan were here, she would whip you into shape real fast, shouting at you that you’re a “Bad Bitch!” or some other expletive motivation that would comfort you. Except Megan isn’t here, attending some kind of club meeting, leaving you alone in the dorm. Another sigh escapes your lips and you tilt your head back to stare at the ceiling.

Maybe, just maybe, you needed to follow through on this whole “getting emotionally laid” thing.

The midterm you had so diligently studied for was a success. Inorganic Chemistry A5 didn’t know what was coming when you rolled up with your beloved flashcards - all successfully completed, mind you - ready to fight. Needless to say you were able to enter the weekend with no qualms. You now had much needed time to recuperate and as Megan had said before, to “take a break” (among other things you were not going to address anytime soon).

Some students recovered from the trauma of frequent exams via partying, deciding it was better to be under the influence in order to get over their academic standing. Some would meet up with their friends, maybe gossip about the latest episode of the hottest reality TV show. In your case, you decide to binge watch as many k-dramas as humanly possible. While you preferably do so in the comfort of your bed, tonight Megan has taken authoritative control over the dorm room. Meaning, she had a psychology midterm the following Monday and needed to be able to focus on nothing but the role of the amygdala without the OST of whatever drama you were watching in the background. You know for a fact if you were in the room minding your own business Megan would ultimately get distracted and join you in your k-drama marathon. Thus you are thrown to the streets with nothing but the clothes on your back and your belongings stuffed into your backpack.

You take extra care to avoid the puddles forming on the sidewalks, the result of on and off rain throughout the day. There are noticeably less people outside, and you have a feeling that any building you choose to house yourself in will be quite the opposite, likely packed with students.

After milling about campus for a few minutes, you finally settle down in the Student Community Center - a fancy name for yet another building on campus where students could lounge about and study slash socialize. As predicted, there are significantly more people crowded in the lobby area of the two-story building. Your boots squeak against the tiled floor as you make your way down an inconspicuous hallway. Tile turns to carpeting when you step into an almost empty study room. Only a handful of people are present in the room, scattered across the tables and couches. No one ever bothered to check the rooms at the very ends of the hallways - only those more dedicated to being unbothered ever made it that far - and you were grateful for this as you settled down at one of the open couches.

Hotel Del Luna is the show of choice for the evening, and you cuddle up to the armrest of the couch as you press Play. You had watched this one before, having been forced to do so with Jungkook at its release. Curse him and his admiration for IU - some of the ghost scenes kept you up at night the weeks after watching. You much preferred the more lighthearted slice-of-life k-dramas, but following your phone call with Jungkook you were drawn to the darker show. Call it nostalgia, call it an attempt to relive the happy memories of the past, call it denial of reality, whatever.

You’re two hours into your binge watch when you notice an unfamiliar presence at your side. A boy, and a breathtaking one at that. When he had joined you, you’re not sure, but you catch him glancing at your laptop screen every so often. He doesn’t stick out too much, black hair hidden beneath a black baseball cap and similarly monotone attire with a black hoodie that was definitely way too big for him. Yet no amount of nondescript clothing could cover up his impeccable bone structure. This man had a jawline and a nose bridge that were to die for, and although you haven’t made eye contact with the stranger you’re already feeling self-conscious. There’s no way in hell you’re initiating any sort of interaction with him.

But there’s no need to worry, because the stranger does it for you.

You’re on episode three when there’s a gasp from beside you. “Lee Jun-Ki!” You crane your neck to see the stranger leaning over to watch your laptop screen. The work in front of him - whatever that mess of hieroglyphs and symbols was - is completely forgotten as he scoots closer.

It’s not until you lean a bit away from him that he realizes his actions. “Oh, sorry. I kinda needed a break from studying or else I was gonna lose it.” His ears turn a bright pink as he explains himself. “Is it okay if I watch with you?”

“Uh…” Now that your full attention is on him, you give the stranger a proper glance-over. He was indeed studying, some sort of language of shapes and numbers that was foreign to you sprawled across his notebook in a variety of colors. Other than the all black attire (which was reasonable for college - wasn’t everyone attending their own funeral during exams season?), he didn’t look too shady… “Sure.”

“Sweet.” He extends a hand to you, pulling back the ginormous sleeve that threatens to hang over his fingers. “My name’s Jungwoo.”

You tentatively take his hand. “Y/N.”

“Nice to meet you Y/N. Are you a first year?”

You nod your head, and Jungwoo smiles. “Cool. Me too.” He moves back to his side of the couch, but quickly scoots back to sit directly beside you after he has shoved all of his work into his backpack. He settles beside you on the couch, slouching down similarly to you. “Alright, let’s do this.”

You crack a smile at the boy’s unabashed boldness. He immerses himself in the episode alongside you, clear adoration in his eyes whenever IU makes an appearance on screen. “You like IU, I take it?”

Jungwoo shakes his head. “Not half as much as one of my friends. He idolizes her. I just... look at her very respectfully.”

“Me too, actually,” you confess. “My friend forced me to watch with him. I usually watch happier things. My favorite is Weightlifting Fairy.”

Jungwoo’s eyes go wide. “I love Weightlifting Fairy!” His theatrical gasp attracts the attention of the few students nearby. This newfound information seems to make something click in Jungwoo’s head, because he wiggles all the more closer to you. “You’re quickly becoming my best friend, Y/N.”

“I’m a friend?”

“Duh. This was established when you didn’t run away from me in fear when I was quite literally looking over your shoulder. And that’s happened before with other people. Twice.” He seems to feel the need to add in the last few details, much to your amusement. “Now shush. Lemme admire IU in peace.”

That interaction with Jungwoo is only the first of many, many more. While you’re the type to keep to yourself and not approach others, Jungwoo was the opposite. You’re only a bit surprised when he yells out your name from across the street a few days later, sprinting towards you with unbridled excitement on his face. The last time someone was that happy to see you was when your dog greeted you after returning home for the holidays.

“Good morning, Y/N! Where you headed? I have Material Sciences in an hour. I got time, so I’ll walk with you wherever you’re going!”

Much like your first encounter, you agree with some hesitance. Jungwoo seemed to not have a bad bone in his body, no ill intentions whatsoever. It was refreshing to be in the presence of someone who wasn’t already jaded by the world.

As promised, Jungwoo walks with you to your destination, the coffeeshop, even waiting with you in the insufferably long line. You find out that Jungwoo is the same age as you, a Mechanical Engineering major, and is a part of some sort of club that allowed him to connect with upperclassmen of different majors but with similar interests.

“It’s called Nu Kappa Tau, everyone there’s really nice! I’ll bring you with me to the next social event.”

“Nu Kappa Tau?” You test out the syllables on your tongue. “Greek? Are you in... a fraternity?”

Your tone of voice insinuates something bad, and the way Jungwoo reacts quickly tells you he has a similar stance on the Greek life in college. That similar stance being that frat boys were vermin. “No, no no no no. It’s Greek, yes, but we are definitely not a fraternity. It’s more like… a social, cultural, and academic club?”

“Jungwoo. That’s exactly what a fraternity would say to make it seem like it’s not a fraternity.”

“Okay, but in this case we’re actually not a fraternity, I promise.” He tugs on your shirt sleeve and looks at you with pleading eyes. “You should come with me to the next event. It’ll be fun, and I’ll prove to you it’s not a fraternity. Please?”

You remain silent, eyes turning to the coffeshop’s menu. Even when your gaze is somewhere else you can sense the way Jungwoo is staring you down with those puppy dog eyes of his. This was what, the second time you were talking to him, and already he wanted to go to a social event with you? “I don’t know. You’re nice and all, but I’m not the type to warm up to people easily. I’ll have to hang out with you more first. No offense.”

Most people cower at your denials, retreat to more comfortable territory where there’s no fear of rejection. Jungwoo, however, beams at you. “None taken, Miss Y/N. You know why?” He pauses for dramatic effect, quirking an eyebrow in mischief. “Because that wasn’t a no.”

A few people in line crane their necks to peer at the two of you as a resonant smack rings out in the coffeeshop.

“Ow - Y/N - Ow!” Jungwoo rubs at his upper arm. You know you didn’t hit him hard enough to elicit this sort of dramatic reaction, but it’s what he deserves.

“You can’t use that logic, Jungwoo,” you scold, bag poised in the air ready for another attack. “The only means of consent is a yes. Say it with me. The only means of consent is a-”

“-Yes, yes, okay! I got it, I’m sorry. I sincerely apologize.”

Fast forward two weeks later, and you know Jungwoo a bit too well for your liking. Following your rejection of his offer, Jungwoo goes ahead and makes it a point to see you for at least an hour a day, weekends included, in order for you to “warm up to him.” Some days, it’s lunch shared in the cafeteria between classes. Other days it’s hours upon hours of studying together in the back of the library, you and Jungwoo taking shifts napping while the other crams for their classes.

He forces - “heavily insists” - you to share your location with him on your phones, so it’s of no surprise to you when he starts showing up outside of your lecture halls after class. It’s when he’s walking you back from your last class of the day that you find that he lives a floor above you in the same building. Of course.

Dare you say it, it’s easy having Jungwoo in your life. He walks with you everywhere, always initiates conversation, and eats as many meals as possible with you - or as many as Megan allows.

“Hey Y/N,” your roommate greets you with a warm smile which quickly turns into a steely glare when he acknowledges the young man standing by your side. “Ahem. Jungwoo.”

If Jungwoo was a legitimate candidate for your mission of “getting laid,” Megan would be ecstatic. However, you explain to her that Jungwoo is nothing more than a friend, and suddenly Megan thinks he’s out to take her spot as Y/N’s Best Friend (insert trademark emoji here).

“Megan, always a pleasure,” Jungwoo croons. If he’s perturbed by your roommate’s aloof greeting, he doesn’t show it, a smile growing on his face. Jungwoo turns to you. “See you at nine?”

You nod. “See you at nine. Bye.”

“Bye.” Jungwoo waves then walks down the hallway to the stairs. You wait until he’s out of sight to turn back to Megan, who has one eyebrow raised.

“What’s going on at nine?” She questions.

A defeated grin makes its way onto your lips. As much as you had been dreading what was to come, you couldn’t deny the excitement building up within you at the thought of something… new, for once in your life. “I’m going to my first party.”

Jungwoo, as promised, picks you up from your dorm room later that evening. He texts you an ominous message of i’m outside ur dorm lol for you to find him in the driver’s seat of a car far too expensive for any broke college student to own.

Hesitantly, you hop into the passenger seat and gingerly close the door. You’re not sure who he borrowed this from - or maybe it was a rental? - but you wanted to make sure you took no part in any damage fees he’d pay later. “I thought first years couldn’t have cars on campus.”

“I know. I’m a rule breaker, Y/N. I can’t be stopped… And maybe I borrowed it from a friend.”

Jungwoo insists on manning the aux, which you oblige to as you don’t trust your music taste to be liked by others. Something about the artist name Sergio Rachmaninov didn’t always hit well with the young folk these days. The queue starts up as he pulls out of the parking lot, a bass-boosted R&B song filling the expanse of the lush interior.

“I’m going to warn you, this music queue is all over the place.” All over the place is correct, because after the R&B song finishes a ballad comes on, followed promptly by the song “Good Time” by Owl City. It’s a good song, a tolerable one, but after the second run, and third run, and even a fourth run you can’t help but wonder if the queue is glitching.

“Jungwoo.” He grunts in response. “Did you mean to put this song on loop?”

He shrugs. “What can I say? It helps me focus.”

You’re really questioning the sanity of the man behind the wheel.

Four and a half plays of “Good Time” (or fifteen minutes) later, you and Jungwoo arrive at your destination.

You audibly gulp. “Jungwoo. You are so in a frat.”

“No I’m not!” The man whines. “I swear!”

You and Jungwoo must not be looking at the same house, because the one you’re looking at is nothing less than a mansion: two stories, covering a wide expanse of vivid green lawn, with pillars on either side of the double-door front entry. Windows line the top and bottom floors, and hedges line the cobblestone walkway in the front. It looks like something out of a Southern period drama with the Victorian, colonial style architecture.

“You sure?” You can’t break your gaze away from the three enormous Greek letters placed above the entryway. “‘Cause no normal house emblazons the symbols of their group name across the front like that.”

As soon as you step foot in the door, you regret your decision to come. “Kim, I think I left something in the car-”

You’re rudely interrupted by Jungwoo swinging an arm over your shoulder a bit too harshly.

“Relax,” he reassures you. “My friends don’t bite. Only I do that.” You’re given no time to question that statement before he leads you further into the house.

If there’s one thing you can count on with Jungwoo, it’s his ability to socialize. It seems he knows everyone in the house, proven to you by the way he either nods his head or does a handshake with every individual present. He leads you to the kitchen where two guys are conversing, one looking like an overgrown man child and the other looking like… well, an actual child.

“Hey, look who finally decided to show up,” the much taller boy croons. “And he brought a friend.”

“Johnny, this is Y/N. Y/N, Johnny. He’s in his fourth year.” You shake hands with Johnny, who grins at you. He seems nice, other than the fact that he continues to stare at you through the duration of the handshake. Perplexed, you refuse to break his gaze.

Johnny is the first to look away, turning immediately to Jungwoo. “Oh, I like her. No one has yet to win my staring contest this year, other than you, Y/N. Congratulations.”

You force a laugh. “Thanks?”

Jungwoo steers you to the second boy, this one noticeably shorter - or was he still tall? Anyone standing next to Johnny seemed to be dwarfed in his presence - with dyed blond hair. He has a cap over his head and circle glasses, and you can’t help but think he looks awfully young to be at a frat-but-not-really house party.

“And this is Mark. He’s a fellow first year, but he’s our baby.” Jungwoo coos the last word, making Mark huff. Lowering his voice to a stage whisper, Jungwoo explains, “He was born in 1999, so we have a good year on him.”

You click your tongue. Ah, that explains why he looks so young. You deem Mark to be far more approachable than Johnny and shake the young boy’s hand eagerly.

“Where’s Peaches?” Jungwoo asks Johnny. The older boy shrugs.

“I dunno. Not my problem.”

“Oh, I don’t think Jaehyun’s coming,” Mark cuts in. “Texted me saying something came up. Something about a paper due. Wait. Didn’t you take his car?” He points to Jungwoo, who shrugs with a look of Whoops, sorry on his face.

Johnny groans. “Oh, shoot. That’s right. We have a paper due tomorrow morning.” As quickly as the realization hits him, the worry is gone. “Eh. It’ll be fine.”

The three boys converse a bit longer, exchanging pleasantries and whatnot, before you and Jungwoo make your departure. The most that comes out of your mouth are feeble courtesy laughs and the occasional sarcastic quip to keep Jungwoo’s chaotic energy at bay. You wait until Jungwoo’s led you away to voice your thoughts. “What kind of name is Peaches?” You repeat.

“Right. One of the upperclassmen got the nickname because he smelled like them his first day of recruitment. Apparently he lives near a peach tree orchard or something. Therefore, he’s Peach Boy.”

You make a mental note of the phrase recruitment your friend uses. One day, you’ll compile a long enough list of evidence proving Nu Kappa Tau was a frat, and the word recruitment was one of them. “So what’s your nickname then?”

“Me? I’m not technically initiated yet,” - did this man use the word initiated? Yet another piece of evidence for the fraternity agenda - “but if I had to choose…” Jungwoo pauses and drums his fingers against his chin. “I’m Cheese Boy.”

You pause, letting his name sink in. The laughter bubbles up within you, threatening to spill out in a snort. It instead comes out as a strong exhale through your nose.

“Whatever, Cheese Boy,” you tease. “How much longer until I can go home?”

The next time you see the boys of Nu Kappa Tau is when Jungwoo drags you to yet another one of their events but a few days later. “This one’s right up your alley,” he insists. He also bribes you with the promise of buying your lunch, and the kabob food truck was on campus today, meaning you were eating well this afternoon. Making an appearance at his frat was but a small price to pay for your beloved meal of choice.

Jungwoo’s right - this event is up your alley, because you recognize the route he takes across campus. “The library?”

He nods. “NKT Study Hall.”

As you enter the building Jungwoo pulls you down an unfamiliar corridor then up a flight of stairs. An unspoken farewell is bid to your usual study spot by the second floor window as you continue up, up, up, until finally stopping at the fifth floor where no more stairs remain. You didn’t realize the library went up that high, and you probably frequented the building more than all of the boys combined - not that you knew any of the Kappa Tau boys yet.

Though they do look extremely threatening now that you’re standing in front of them.

Jungwoo brings you to stand in front of him. “Men and Mark Lee-” (“Hey!” Mark complains,) “-I introduce to you my partner in crime, Y/N.”

You give a feeble smile to the young men surrounding the table. You recognize a few of them from the party, Johnny and Mark being the only ones you can put a name to. The two wave to you and you feel a little more welcomed. Aside from the duo, everyone else is unfamiliar, giving you emotionless head nods and scowls.

“Y/N, you know Johnny and Mark, over there’s Lucas, and that’s Sicheng.” You nod at the two of them, who seem nice enough. The latter actually gives you a soft smile, so you consider that a win in your book. “And over at that table is Doyoung, Ten… You know what? I’ll just introduce you to everyone later. Have a seat.”

You trust your friend to guide you to the safest open seat, directly across from another empty chair at one end of the long table. Immediately you pull out your biology notebook and pens, hunkering down and getting to work without further notice. If you couldn’t feel welcomed by the boys at the table, you could at least get some decent studying done. You felt far more familiar with the speciation concepts in front of you than the actual human beings next to you. You allow your head to burrow itself closer to your notebook, dwelling in this small comfort in an environment of unfamiliarities.

The moment of peace doesn’t last long.

“Peaches!” Johnny’s bellowing voice makes you jump in your seat, your beloved biology notes neglected.

“Hey. Sorry I’m late.” Huh. You’ve heard that voice before. You can’t place where you know it from, but it causes a sneer to form on your face. Glancing up from your notes you can’t help the strangled gasp that leaves your lips.

It’s him. You’d recognize that faded pink hair and smugly complacent upturn of lips anywhere. That, and he’s holding a coffee cup that violently catapults you back to the incident from a few weeks ago in the coffee shop. You left your perfectly good vanilla latte behind because he made you mad, that jerk.

“Oh, Jaehyun.” Jungwoo leads the man to the open seat across from you. Pointing to you, he says, “This is Peaches - I mean, Jaehyun. Jaehyun, this is-”

“-Y/N, right?” Jaehyun interrupts with a grin. You lower your eyes at the dimple that forms when he smiles. “I believe we’ve met before.”

Jungwoo looks from your displeased state to Jaehyun’s smug smirk. “Uh, okay. Cool. Well then. I’m gonna go ahead and grab lunch, I’ll be right back.” You watch as Jungwoo beckons Johnny and Mark to join him, the only three familiar faces present at the table now leaving.

Jaehyun leans back in his chair, arms moving to rest behind his head. “Looks like it’s just the two of us.”

You weigh your options. You could recognize that the two of you have indeed met before, and try to get past your differences. Or, you could refuse to acknowledge Jaehyun’s presence a mere few feet across from you at the table and try your best to study until Jungwoo returned with your food, at which point you would then flee the scene as fast as your non-athlete self could. Only one of these outcomes enticed you, and it wasn’t the one that involved talking.

“So, Y/N,” Jaehyun leans forward. The width of the table is enough to keep him at a safe distance from you, yet he’s still close enough to invade your personal space somehow. It’s suffocating, how whatever musky cologne he’s wearing wafts over to you - he smells nothing like peaches. “How’s your day been?”

“Fine.” You keep your eyes glued to your biology notes. Allopatric Speciation occurs when two populations of the same species become isolated from one another due to-

“Aw, just fine? That’s it?” His voice is low. With Jungwoo, Johnny, and Mark out getting food, you’ve been isolated at one end of the table with Jaehyun. Lucas and Sicheng are present as well, but both seem to be deeply immersed in their own studies. It’s just the two of you.

“Yep.” Allopatric Speciation occurs when two populations of the same species-

“C’mon, I’m sure someone like you has had at least one interesting thing happen today.”

Allopatric Speciation occurs when - Someone like you? What was that supposed to mean? You sigh, but refuse to look up from your notes. Allopatric Speciation-

“Are you a first year? I took that class last year. If you ever want notes or something-” Jaehyun jumps a little when you slam the notebook shut. Good. Serves him right.

“I don’t like you, Jaehyun.”

Jaehyun tilts his head, a smirk tugging at the end of his lips. “You don’t even know me.”

“I know enough.”

He leans in by resting his forearms on the table, leveling his gaze with yours. “I don’t think you do.”

“You know what I think? I think you’re distracting me.”

Jungwoo comes back at the most opportune time, wielding a kabob skewer in each hand - one untouched and the other halfway eaten. “One chicken kabob for Y/N.”

Deeming the conversation with Jaehyun at its end, you stand up from your seat and grab your backpack from the table. Jaehyun fixes you with an intense gaze but remains silent. Whether he was sizing you up or not you didn’t care.

The tension is palpable at the table, and Jungwoo clears his throat. “Did I interrupt something?”

“No,” you respond quickly. Grabbing your food from Jungwoo, you give him an apologetic smile. “Something came up. I gotta go. Sorry, Kim. See you tomorrow?”

You despise this man. You don’t even know Jaehyun - he is nothing but a familiar stranger - but you despise him. Him and his ethereal appearance. Why were the terrible ones always the ones blessed with above average looks? Why’d he have to open his mouth?

“Wait.” You do not, in fact, wait, but instead continue marching forward. It’s not until the figure stands right in front of you do you stop. It’s Jaehyun. Holding your biology notebook in the air. “Don’t want to leave anything behind. Like last time, right?”

The last few words out of his mouth have your blood boiling and your fists clenching at your sides. That explained the foreign lightness of the bag on your shoulder.

“Oh, right, the vanilla latte.” You fake a cordial laugh. “You mean the time I was so desperate to get away from your insufferable presence that I left behind a perfectly good coffee? The time when you treated that girl as if she wasn’t a human being? That time you couldn’t be a decent enough human being that you were that disrespectful to someone you didn’t even know?”

Jaehyun stands before you with an astonished smile and a hand frozen in the air. You pluck the notebook out of his grasp and stride away before he has a chance to respond.

“I’ll see you around, Y/N,” Jaehyun calls.

“I’ll see you around my ass,” you mutter under your breath. You’re willing to go out of your way to avoid interactions with Jaehyun, no matter what it takes.

a/n 2: hope you enjoyed part one of this series! it’s been a while since i last posted a fic on here so i apologize for my rusty writing skills. part 2 is projected to be posted in one week from now, but that’s tentative. we’ll see where life takes me and if i have the capacity to post in a week from now. in the meantime: stay safe! 💕

#cznnet #jung jaehyun fic #jung jaehyun nct #jung jaehyun scenarios #jung jaehyun #jung jaehyun fluff #jaehyun fic #jaehyun nct #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun fluff #jaehyun #nct fluff #nct fic #nct scenarios

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ranma-rewatch · 4 years ago

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Episode 20: You Really Do Hate Cats!

(CONTENT WARNING: This blog post contains discussion of phobias, child abuse, and people doing the worst thing to intensify those problems. Those things are in the show, I didn’t just bring them up out of nowhere.)

Well, it’s that time again. Time to grab a balloon and tell my friends what I think of an episode of Ranma 1/2. We’re starting the first arc of season two with this episode, though oddly enough I feel like I mostly remember what stuff is going to happen in it. But maybe I don’t remember right? I’d love it if that is the case. Though...speaking of that...there is a certain character I have dreaded appearing in this series, and I’d hoped he wouldn’t appear for a while, but I checked and he appears this season. I...I thought I had more time. Oh well, let’s do this episode and I’ll worry about him when he gets here.

Okay, well, for the most part, this episode is actually a lot better than I remember it being. As it turns out, some of the details mutated in my head in the decade since I last saw it, and I actually thought things were worse than they were.

The episode starts in the Kuno manor, where our favorite swordsman is practicing to once again fight Ranma Saotome. But he’s not alone, because for the first time we meet Kuno’s henchman, Sasuke. He’s a ninja, and he’ll do whatever Kuno tells him to do, but he probably won’t do it very well.

From there, we see Ranma’s dad is training him in stupid ways again, and they get back to the house to find Shampoo has mailed Ranma something from China: a pink cat. That’s a problem, because Ranma has a severe cat phobia. It’s not random, either, Genma directly created it. See, when Ranma was 6, Genma thought he should teach his son Cat Fu, which he heard about from an ancient martial arts manuscript. The way to teach it is to cover the disciple in fish sausage and through them into a room with starving cats.

Obviously, that just ended up traumatizing Ranma, and the very next page of the book would have told Genma that training someone that way is very stupid. Kasumi, drawing on the common misunderstandings people have about exposure therapy, thinks that just inviting a ton of cats to be around will help, but of course it doesn’t, it makes Ranma even more distressed. Sasuke is hiding under the floorboards though, and he runs off to tell Kuno about Ranma’s weakness.

At first, Kuno says something about how he could never cowardly use an opponent’s weakness to unfairly win, but then he still makes Sasuke tell him about it, because he can still use it to win in an honorable way. The plan they go for is pretty ridiculous: they leave a note in Ranma’s locker that Akane’s been kidnapped, and he has to go to the gym to save her. But Akane is standing next to Ranma as he reads the note, so he knows that’s not true.

He goes anyway out of curiosity, only to find Sasuke there dressed up as Akane. With the wrong color wig. Even though the trap keeps failing, Ranma walks into it anyway because he has nothing better to do, until he realizes what is going on: cats. But Ranma manages to fight the fear and pretend he’s okay, hoping to just take Akane out of there, but then it becomes clear Sasuke took the extra step of also bringing an enormous tiger.

That’s when we cut back to Genma and Kasumi, and the old man explains that he tried curing Ranma of his phobia, but his way of doing so was to just keep throwing him at hungry cats, only changing the type of food attached to his body. All of it just made the problem worse, but it also actually led to Ranma developing Cat Fu. When Ranma gets scared enough, his mind just let’s go and he mentally becomes a cat.

That happens in the basement of the school, making it easy for him to beat the tiger and escape, just in time to kick Kuno’s butt without even trying. But he doesn’t stop there, and starts running around the school still acting like a cat. Akane follows him just as the dads show up. Genma says the only way to break Ranma out of it when he was a kid was with the help of a kindly old lady, but she’s dead. So, Genma tries dressing up and doing it himself. That fails, so they try catnip, forgetting that Ranma just thinks he’s a cat, so the stuff doesn’t really affect him.

The situation does kind of solve itself, as Ranma doesn’t attack Akane, as she’s afraid of, but instead curls up in her lap to purr. The whole school is watching, so that’s embarrassing for her, but then he kisses her and she freezes for a second before throwing Ranma into the school pool. Oh, and the pink cat is watching and didn’t like that. The curse activating returns his brain to normal, and Ranma has no clue why he was thrown in a pool. Akane walks home, cursing Ranma for doing that, but sounding conflicted.

So, the big thing I misremembered about this episode was I thought Genma did all the cat stuff with 0 thoughts about how it would affect Ranma and not giving a crap how it affected his son. That is actually not the case, he’s clearly really torn up about the phobia, though he still says some bad stuff about Ranma being ‘unmanly’ for having a phobia. He even tried to cure Ranma, a few times. It’s just that, well, his actions still traumatized Ranma. Sufficient ignorance is indistinguishable from malice, as they say. Genma is still, on the whole, abusive to Ranma in my opinion, but he’s not as bad as he could have been, I have to admit.

This was also just a funny episode. The comedy largely worked, even if some of the jokes didn’t quite land. Kuno and Sasuke were especially good, and I found Ranma fighting his fear both humorous and kind of inspiring. The man has a hell of a willpower. Not going to lie, the Cat-Ranma just immediately going for Akane’s lap and then kissing her was cute, I really liked that. Of course, I’m a sucker for anything with them, so I’m an easy mark there.

It’s also interesting how this works as the first part of a large arc, because if you didn’t know that was the case I can imagine thinking this was just a standalone episode. The pink cat was the impetus for the plot, but it’s what will drive the coming episodes forward.

One thing I found annoying was how different the dub and sub were this time around, in terms of script. The dub had a lot more bashing of Ranma for being scared of cats, including from Akane. That isn’t in the subtitled version at all, and I thought the episode worked a lot better there. I’m always a fan of taking liberties with a localization in order to make the story work better in the new country, but I don’t think we needed Akane insulting Ranma for his trauma.

Hey, a Character Spotlight again! Haven’t had one of these in a bit, and this one is for Sasuke Sarugakure. Let’s start with his voice actors. In the English dub, he’s voiced by Robert O. Smith. Does that name sound familiar? It should, I talked about him recently, since he’s the one who voiced Genma Saotome in the dub as well. His voice for Sasuke is extremely comedic, going for an over-the-top pathetic voice. He makes Sasuke just sound like comic relief, which he is. What’s interesting is what the other actor does with him.

In Japanese, he’s played by Shigeru Chiba, another voice actor from this show in Japan who is just known for a billion things. Standouts include Buggy the Clown in One Piece, Emperor Pilaf and Raditz in the Dragon Ball franchise, and dubbing over John de Lancie as Discord in the Japanese dub of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I was completely shocked to hear him play Sasuke with more gravitas, using a very serious voice that one would expect from a ninja, which clashed perfectly with the situations and his character design to make the comedy far better than in the dub. One of those rare times I’m actually preferring the Japanese version!

As a character, Sasuke is interesting because he’s not in the manga at all. For reasons none seem to know, the creative team for the anime decided to delay introducing minor character Hikaru Gosenkugi, and replaced him with Sasuke. We’ll get to Hikaru when he appears, but I don’t really mind Sasuke’s addition to the show. Giving Kuno a henchman just makes his dynamic even better, and there’s something I just really like to Sasuke’s almost naive way of trying to plot and scheme. I don’t actually have any deep analysis, at least not as of yet, just wanted to give him a moment in the Spotlight for being something interesting.

I didn’t expect to like this episode so much! It wasn’t great, there were parts I didn’t care for, but on the whole I’m happy to see my expectations overcome. I’m putting this episode in the middle of the pack, at the #10 slot. It was fun, but it has a lot of better episodes when it comes to making me smile. (Or cry.)

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’

Episode 12: A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 15: Enter Shampoo, the Gung-Ho Girl! I Put My Life in Your Hands

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 19: Clash of the Delivery Girls! The Martial Arts Takeout Race

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 13: A Tear in a Girl-Delinquent's Eye? The End of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 17: I Love You, Ranma! Please Don’t Say Goodbye

Episode 20: You Really Do Hate Cats!

Episode 16: Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Episode 14: Pelvic Fortune-Telling? Ranma is the No. One Bride in Japan

Episode 18: I Am a Man! Ranma's Going Back to China!?

Next time we’ll continue this tale with "This Ol' Gal's the Leader of the Amazon Tribe!" which, as you might guess from the title, will introduce a new character. This one’s actually from the manga! See you then, y’all.

#episode 20 #You Really Do Hate Cats!#ranma 1/2 #ranma saotome #genma saotome #akane tendo #tatewaki kuno #sasuke sarugakure #anime rewatch #anime analysis #cw: phobia #cw: childhood trauma

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