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saladejin · 4 years ago

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Admire | 05

Seokjin x Fem!Reader | arranged marriage!au, husband!Seokjin | Strangers to lovers, angst, self discovery, loneliness in luxury, touch starvation (eventual smut), eventual domestic fluff

Summary: You’d never needed anyone else. Growing up alone, living alone, existing alone. It all came naturally and effortlessly, quite like breathing. That was until your somewhat distant parents finally decided it was time to make good on a promise. One they’d made before you were even born.

Warnings: Some depressing and painful talk but nothing crazy, a few fluffy and domestic-ish moments for u all, and oh ... there’s only one bed? O_o

Word Count: 3.8k

A/N: This is so different from what it used to be, wow. I was out here changing entire paragraphs lol, but anyway sorry if there are any mistakes! Let me know your thoughts at the end :)

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The road fell away in front of you as you scrolled mindlessly on your phone. After a round of brusque insistence on his behalf, you'd finally given in and let Seokjin convince you into relinquishing the driver's seat after a couple of hours on the road. You made sure to grumble in protest before plonking yourself down on the passenger side, him brushing you off easily.

You’d put the memory of the thoughtless kiss to the back of your mind, hoping that he’d forgotten just as swiftly. You were here to enjoy your trip, not to overthink about what had happened in the past. Thinking back on the past 24 hours, you sighed in defeat.

Let’s hope we don’t crash.

*hours earlier*

You both arrived at the meeting place after countless attempts of stuttering out the most confusing directions to the driver. At this point, you almost wanted to pass out and it was still relatively early.

Managing to greet all your aunties, uncles, and cousins as a couple of lovebirds came effortlessly enough. It was nothing but a way of life for you and Seokjin these days.

“(Y/n) you’ve grown so much. Oh, I’m going to cry!”

You tried to calm one of your more eccentric aunties while your husband stood awkwardly to the side, looking around at the gathered group of people in contemplation. Dressed casually again, he hadn’t been prepared for the sheer number of everyday individuals preparing to depart. All beside a line of large black and white motorhomes which were currently fuelling up under the shade of nearby woodland.

Once the two of you finally managed to break away from the introductions and reunions, you let out a sigh of relief. You were finally alone, sinking into the refurbished leather seats of the vehicle to regain your composure. Dealing with a horde of chipper relatives can deplete one’s energy like a starved leech if it continues for too long.

“Sorry, they’re just excited.” You laughed airily, leaning forward to switch on the air conditioner. The temperature outside was already heating up from the unforgiving sun, and you were going to positively drown in sweat if you didn’t get some cold air blasting on you lickety-split.

“They’re…lively. But it’s okay, I signed up for it anyway,” the tall man replied with a smirk of his own. He seemed amused at how quickly you'd been swamped, but he also seemed to notice how happy you were at receiving all the attention.

“The first one will probably leave soon. I’ll start driving and then if you want you can switch with me later. We won’t make it to the first stop today, but it’ll most likely end up being late tomorrow morning,” you explained while readying yourself at the wheel of the vehicle. Seokjin hummed in acknowledgement and craned his long neck backwards to ensure your bags were all safe a secure.

You admired how comfortable he looked in his simple travelling clothes. How he could pull off such a simple but effective appearance that highlighted his handsome features, such as his dusky brown eyes and midnight coloured locks of hair - hair that had grown out and gotten nicely longer, you might add - was a complete and utter mystery to you.

“By the way, we don’t have to put on as much of an act here with these people,” you began on a weirdly sombre note, trying not to look over at him for a reaction. “The whole relationship thing doesn’t matter to them as much. They won’t get suspicious or question us, so don’t stress too much about going all out, alright?”

“Okay,” came his simple reply, void of much emotion.

You didn’t know why you expected anything else, but a small part of you longed to continue pretending. You wanted to be with him, wanted to feel his hands on your skin again. It was almost too much for you to handle. You couldn’t imagine anyone else ever feeling so conflicted about their own lover, not to mention having hands on your arms of all places.

Absurd. Right?

Suddenly, the motorhome in front of you began rolling forward and you pressed down slowly on the gas pedal to follow suit. Seokjin twisted his broad shoulders back around to face the front, blinking harshly as the sunlight shone through the windscreen and hit him forcefully in the face.

Your lips quirked up in an amused smirk. What a goof.

*present*

Your eyes drooped with a heavy sleepiness as Seokjin finally pulled the truck into the site where everyone would be camping. The drive had been quite lengthy, but you’d been swapping every few hours or so until you’d become too tired to go on. Being the husband-material he was, Seokjin gladly took the burden of getting you both through the rest of the way.

“Hey wake up, everyone’s getting out for some reason.”

You blinked the sleep out of your eyes and groaned, feeling slightly more energised from your nap but still groggy. You slowly made your way down the steps and outside into the humid air, nostalgic memories finally flowing into your mind as you watched the members of your family collecting around several bright vans.

“Oh, this is the food truck stop,” you rasped out in a matter-of-factly tone, causing Seokjin to eye you in confusion. It was luckily still light enough to catch his dumbfounded expression.

“There are food trucks in this parkland area, so we can go and buy some hot-dogs or something if we want. It’s always the first dinner stop,” you tried to explain mid-yawn. The sky was blending into darkness as the sun began to set below the horizon.

“You’re so sleepy.” Seokjin snorted lowly, almost chuckling when you looked up at him through glaring watery eyes from the yawn, as if it weren’t obvious enough. He looked fairly relaxed, and you gently smiled at the sight of his beautiful eyes lighting up with wonder at the view of the campsite around him.

It was enthralling, how fascinated he was with absolutely everything. Even though the red cap sitting atop his black mop of hair cast a shadow over his face, it was still easy to spot just how eager he was to just enjoy life normally for once. To be a commoner and forget about all the pressed suits he had hanging up at home, the bucket loads of cash sitting in his bank account, the disapproving parents.

Now was the time he could finally taste the sweetness of freedom.

All of a sudden, the tall man left a tap on your shoulder and leaned in close once you faced him curiously. The stuffy fog of sleep was immediately chased away from your whirring mind, and you widened your eyes in shock when one of his hands pulled you closer, indicating what he wanted you to do with a simple touch.

Is he initiating a kiss, for once?

You reacted almost instantly to his subtle body language, everything coming naturally as you stepped in closer and raised your lips to peck his plump ones sweetly. Your whole body was buzzing with eruptions of joy, heat and surprise at the impulse; hands curling into his shirt so that you could feel the warmth of his body even more…for just a little bit longer. It was so rare for him to be bold like this.

For a single second, you forgot what your relationship truly was and felt - for the first time - what it was like to pour your heart into loving another person.

An older man cackled with his friend as they shared a beer together. “My, you young ones are just so passionate, aren’t you?” You swept some hair back behind your ear and ducked your head to hide the embarrassed flush. Or maybe you were trying to hide the stupid smile sitting on your face.

“I’ll get some food for us,” Seokjin said after another few moments of observing the place. You inwardly gaped at him as he moved towards one of the colourful food trucks, wondering if he was going to actually cover you for food.

What's gotten into him? Maybe it’s just because he’s used to putting on a performance, and that it’s such a different setting on top of that.

You shook your head to rid yourself of the fluffy feelings and jogged up to where your dark-haired partner was lining up for hot dogs.

“Do you want me to give you some cash for mine?” you asked hesitantly, gaze imploring for his attention again.

“No, go find a table to sit at,” he murmured, flicking his head upwards to point out a group of empty wooden tables nearby. You were pleasantly surprised at his motive and couldn’t help the way your jaw went slightly slack, simply stunned. Eventually, you complied and headed over towards the seats.

He'd looked so refreshed and so pleased with himself. Even with the weariness brought on by the long and tiresome journey.

The whole area was illuminated by a few atmospheric park lamps, but everyone knew that it would soon grow too dark to stay outside for much longer. Plus, you’d all need a good night’s sleep if you were going to make it to your stop tomorrow. You almost groaned again at the thought of driving so early.

“Here, I forgot to ask what drink you wanted, but you usually like bubbly stuff so I got a soft drink.”

Bit different from champagne, you surmised, but it was cute that he thought like that.

Seokjin placed a can next to where your arm was resting on the tabletop. Then, he held out a delicious looking hot dog sprinkled with fried onion rings, and you couldn’t stop the way your stomach grumbled and growled at the sight.

“I’m a starved woman, thank you.’’

He sat down and glanced around at the groups of people chatting, the strange but somehow never misplaced glimmer of interest never faltering in his eyes. On the other hand, you essentially inhaled the meal in front of you despite how weird it felt to ingest such cheap and fattening food. After months of high-class dining, it was more peculiar than one would think. Even something as unfamiliar as eating such a messy meal didn’t bother either one of you after the day you'd had.

“So, you don’t go around and talk to them much?” Seokjin questioned in a light tone of voice, picking his long and slightly curved fingers clean of any crumbs. The man was picturesque in how calm and concentrated he was. You decided that you liked that look of determination on him, even if it was for something so insignificant.

“I do, but I’m not really in the mood right now.” You sighed, resting your face into your palm so that you could ease the tension in your sore neck. You cast your gaze downwards and hoped that you wouldn’t regret your next words.

“Plus, I kind of want to spend most of my time on this trip with you.”

His eyes stared into yours from across the table, unblinking as he was thrown into one of his strange thoughtful silences.

You rushed to elaborate in a panic. “I-I … well I’ve done this trip many times and I thought it’d be nice to get to know each other a little bit more. We haven’t really asked many questions during the past few months, and I already feel so peaceful travelling together that I thought it’d be cool to just spend some time away from all the parties and shit to really relax and talk, you know?”

Cool? Did I really just say it'd be cool if we talked? Fuck you (Y/n).

You took a rickety breath and clasped both your hands together to try and hide your flustered appearance. With pursed lips and a slight cringe from the ranting accompanying your nerves, you searched his gaze with your own to try your best at reading him.

“Yeah, I know. It would make everything easier if we knew more about each other, so I don’t have to make up more lies,” he eventually spoke after clearing his throat quietly.

You thought he would’ve been more uncomfortable, or rather less than willing to take you up on the suggestion, but you were surprised yet again at his almost enthusiastic response. Was he finally letting you see past the high and sturdy walls he’d built up at the beginning of your relationship? If you didn’t know any better, you’d say he was coming out of his shell a little as well, but then again it wasn’t as if you knew enough to make that observation in any kind of confidence.

Maybe he's always been more open like this to people he was close with, and you were only just beginning to see this side. Even if that was the case, it made you happy to think that he was starting to trust you enough to change the way he acted. You were content enough to be considered as something close to a friend, at least.

“It’s late. We should head in,” his familiar voice snapped you out of your rampant thoughts, causing your feelings of bewilderment to skyrocket.

I need to keep my shit together!

“Yeah, sorry for spacing out.” You laughed, trying to shrug off the mortification at failing to keep your wits about you. Maybe if he stopped being so oddly charming with his perfect lips and enigmatic eyes, you’d be able to focus a little better.

You made your way to the last motorhome in the line. Seokjin had parked it a little ways from the others, almost as if he’d sensed your need for privacy and solitude. You were somewhat introverted at the best of times, so after a whole day of socialising you really wanted nothing more than to retreat back to your own little space to recuperate.

Had he figured that out, or was it just a lucky guess? Maybe he was just the same…

You followed him into the portable house and weaved yourself around the table and sofa lounges, eventually coming to stop by the comfy looking queen bed at the very back. This was where things would get weird again. You’d never shared a bed before tonight, and the couches weren’t large enough to allow anyone space to sleep either.

“Ah, I guess we don’t have a choice. You don’t mind, do you?” you remarked reluctantly, knowing that you were more than happy to have company in your bed, but he might not feel the same.

“Well what else can I do?” He shrugged with indifference. “I would’ve taken the couch if I could’ve already.”

“Right, sorry I didn’t tell you before we left.”

You sighed, more embarrassment clouding your vision as you hurriedly searched the inside of your suitcase for a flimsy shirt. It was way too hot during the summertime to wear a full set of pyjamas, so you hoped Seokjin wouldn’t feel even more uncomfortable by your choice of clothing.

Better than being naked.

You shuddered with heat at the thought but pushed it all away quickly. This was already bad enough as it was.

“It’s fine, I honestly don’t mind if you don’t,” he grunted while beginning to unbutton his shirt. You swallowed thickly at the sight of his broad chest and collarbone slowly getting revealed the lower he went. That, paired with the way his hair had become messy and rugged after driving and running his hands through it, was a dangerous combination you were enjoying way too much.

“Well, I don’t. Never did." You smiled nervously before moving to the bathroom to get changed.

You knew that sharing a bed with him after so many months was never going to be an easy feat. It was awkward at best, with you trying your best to ignore the thoughts of him being so close - thanks to your fear of doing something unpredictable - and him having no trouble forgetting you were there altogether. It was nothing for him. Somehow, he could just sleep the night away and not think about the presence of other people constantly.

The sound of soft breathing, the occasional movement of a foot or arm, the slight rise of the duvet with every deep inhale, or even the dreamy mumbling slipping past lips every now and again. You envied the peaceful way he drifted off, knowing that living with siblings most likely allowed him to factor these things right out.

For you, they were things that kept your eyes wide open, mind running a million miles a minute.

The next morning brought you to the first town on the itinerary. The sleepless night faded away as you parked the large vehicle next to the others, legs already bouncing with excitement at the thought of finally visiting some of your old childhood pastimes.

You all spent the day traipsing through the streets while some of the older family members greeted the shopkeepers and residents heartily. You could feel your heart bursting at the sight of Seokjin looking around the place with wide eyes, obvious amazement lighting up his face as he regarded the interactions of those around him. There was a growing fondness there you never thought you’d see.

One parkland picnic later, and the two of you found yourselves mingling with the crowd. You surprisingly found it easy to talk about your married life together. Even though he was quiet and unsure of how to act, everyone loved Seokjin and found great amusement in teasing and joking around with him. Many times you had to bite your tongue to hold back a snort of laughter. The old uncles and aunties never did hold back their rowdy banter.

“I remember when I was first married, son,” your eldest cousin said and clapped a hand firmly onto Seokjin’s shoulder, “It’s always magical at first, but soon you’ll want to chew your own ear off!”

You all laughed at his sardonic humour. Everyone, even the hopeless romantics, knew that marriage was never supposed to be perfect.

“It can’t be magical the whole time?” Seokjin asked thoughtfully, the tone of his voice light-hearted but the nature of the question way too innocent for your boisterous family to bypass.

Okay, maybe not everyone knew.

You almost choked on your sandwich when the people around you burst into loud laughter, feeling sorry for your husband. He just didn’t know the group of people he was dealing with yet.

The older men clinked their beers together. “Look at this guy, he wants a life-long honeymoon phase!”

“Nah, I think he’s looking for an early grave instead.”

You furrowed your brows and yelled through a smile, “Hey! What do you take me for, a monster?”

They exchanged wide-eyed looks and chuckled again before waving you off and tousling your hair affectionately.

“Be careful or I’ll tell Aunty what you said.” You giggled, trying to fix your messy tresses.

The loud and harmless jesting continued amongst the rest of the group while you turned to see how Seokjin was going with his food. A smile curved your lips again when you spotted the slight crinkle appearing at the corners of his eyes. He was amused, and the way the beaming sunlight streamed down through the tree branches to light up his grinning face was breathtakingly perfect.

His eyes shifted to meet yours suddenly, and you were glad it didn’t cause his expression to change. His gaze, irrevocably beautiful, was so warm and lively. If you could, you would want to see him this happy for the rest of his life.

“Son,” he mouthed quietly after shifting his gaze away from your awestruck scrutiny, “I’m still waiting for my own father to call me that.”

A ruthless stab to your chest. Not only from his words, but rather the lack of emotion he expressed while speaking them.

You didn’t know the kind of relationships he’d had, or how he’d lived his life so far, but trying to find out was like trying to connect with a brick wall. This simple statement about his father had you swallowing back sympathy, and it was upsetting to think that you’d never even once thought to ask him about it.

You wanted – no, you needed him to open up to you.

Quickly sifting through one of the cute picnic baskets led you to find a bundle of sweet packaged snacks. You would do anything to wipe that distantly forlorn look off his face, and universal law stated that candy was sure-fire way to lift anyone’s spirits. You personally loved them, but it was tough to determine if his tastes would match.

“Want a jelly?”

“Wait, you mean-” he started, but cut himself off when you finally fished out a specific packet and let out a small ‘ah!’ of triumph. His eyes shone with recognition, and you became confused at his unexpected reaction.

“I haven’t had these since I was young. They were my favourite, but my mother wanted us to stop eating too many sugary things…” Seokjin revealed, his lips pulling up into a smirk as he recalled his childhood memories.

“Well, you’re on your own now, and I’m not going to stop you. So here.” You chuckled and waited until he’d grabbed a handful of jellies before popping one into your own mouth.

Seokjin shook his head with a huff. He obviously found it stupid how he’d followed the strict rules of his parents for so long, not allowing himself to rebel in the slightest. It had never been an option before, but now here he was – living in a motorhome, eating hot dogs and jellies, basically hitchhiking through old weary towns rather than having his head down working for a big-time business firm.

You watched his eyes trail over you again, almost picking up his phantom of a voice saying, “So this is the life I could have lived.”

It brought a smile to your face as you thought about the way his gaze had lit up and drank everything in with such fervour. His cold and masquerade-like world was changing, he was seeing life from a different perspective, and knowing that you’d played a part in that brought you immense joy.

It was a warm glow of happiness you’d never felt or known before.

Night fell once more. Everyone filtered away to their beds, eyes drooping and bellies full of the various baked goods of the town. It had been an amazing day, and you knew you couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to help Seokjin emerge from his shell.

He seemed to be enjoying the trip for the exact same reasons you always had. Except now, you had another.

#seokjin x reader #btsghostie #seokjin scenarios #seokjin smut #seokjin imagines #seokjin series #jin smut #seokjin angst #seokjin fluff #arranged marriage au #husband jin #bts jin #bts smut #jin angst #admire #saladejin

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stargazedmoony · 3 years ago

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Excerpt from a story I’ll never write: The morning routine.

Saturdays were simple. Saturdays were for sleeping in.

Therefore, Remus was very surprised when he opened his eyes to find that it was still a bit dark outside. He turned over to look at his pocket watch on the night stand. It was nearly half past seven. Remus groaned and turned around in bed to find a bunch of curls brushing him in the face. They smelled of faded cigarette smoke, cinnamon and expensive men shampoo. Expensive, because Sirius refused to wash his hair with some cheap and random brand.

With his hands under the sheets, Remus searched for signs of body heat. He brushed Sirius’ his curls out of the way and placed his head in the crook of his neck — gently, so as not to wake him up. Nevertheless, Sirius stirred in his sleep. “Moony?”

Remus hummed in response, his fingers now underneath Sirius’ shirt. “Good morning,” he said.

“What are you doing up? What time is it?”

“It’s seven thirty.”

Sirius groaned and turned to face Remus. “Then get off of me and go back to sleep.” Remus chuckled and kissed Sirius’ skin right below his ear. He knew that was just the right spot and as he’d thought, Sirius shuddered and laughed. “You big knob head,” he said. “Come on then.” He spread his arms open so that Remus could cuddle up closer to his body. Brushing his hair out of his face with one hand and holding Remus’ shoulder with the other one, Sirius looked down at Remus. There were traces of sleep in forms of bags under his eyes and although his chin needed shaving, his skin looking soft and smooth and his curls were framing his cheekbones in a way that made his face look full and playful. Remus bit down his lips. He could simply not believe that he would be waking up with the love of his life next to him for the rest of his life.

It had been three weeks since they’d moved into their new apartment. Ten minutes further away from the Potters, but with a library at the end of their street. It was compact and it was home. They had spent the last three weeks coloring walls and moving their furniture from the old garage, where they used to live, to their new home. James, Peter and the whole gang had come by the first night that everything was all set and it had been one of the most fun nights Remus had ever experienced. It reminded him of the late nights in the common room back at Hogwarts.

Everything was a whole lot different now. Remus looked back up to Sirius who had closed his eyes again. “Pads?” he whispered. Sirius hummed. “I’m going to take a shower.” Sirius wrinkled his nose. “No, you stay,” he said. “Warmth.”

Remus chuckled and started to pull away from Sirius. “Oh, alright,” Sirius sighed. “I’ll come with you.”

“Oh, no. You don’t have to.” But Sirius wouldn’t hear of it, because he simply loved showering with Remus. Back in the days of school, Sirius and Remus used to get up early in the morning, before the other two marauders woke up, to take a shower together.

And so, Sirius pulled Remus close to him and led him to the bathroom where they both took off their clothes as the water was pre-heating itself. Soon enough, the mirror had caught vapour and the bathroom was steamy. Sirius wrapped his arms around Remus’s hips and put his chin on his shoulder. Two of a kind, they were. As their bodies became each other’s, the way the stars and the moon collide in the evening sky, Remus traced figures on Sirius’s back and wished for this moment to not ever end. Just to be with him for an eternity, he thought. That was all he asked for.

They washed each other’s hair as well as they washed each other’s bodies — in desiring silence and unspoken lust. Remus tried his very best not to let his wants and needs get the best of him as he examined Sirius’ horribly attractive back whilst putting conditioner in Sirius’ curls.

After showering, Sirius took two towels and they dried their bodies and embraced their hips with the softness of the fabric. Sirius shaved his stubble while Remus sat on the bathtub rim and watched him. “Oh, here,” he said after a while and he jumped up. “You missed a spot.”

And in between stolen kisses and childish glances at each other in the mirror, daring the other one for more, they brushed their teeth and Remus combed and styled Sirius’ hair.

Sirius smiled at him gracefully. “I might take you back to the bedroom after all, if you keep charming me like that,” he said.

“Well, why don’t you?” Remus flirted back.

And there, he’d done it. Sirius grabbed his wrist and pulled him in a fluid motion towards him. Their lips collided with such passion that Remus was sure gravity would knock him off of his feet. Sirius moaned softly against his lips, his fingers brushing off both of their towels and letting them explore every inch of Remus’ body as if he didn’t already know it by heart. The softness of his upper-arms, the wrinkling matter of everlasting scars on his shoulders and the warmth pulse between his thighs. Sirius chuckled at this.

“Oh, bugger off,” Remus smiled. “Look at yourself, you big goof.”

“Big, you might say.”

Remus burst into laughing, but was cut off by Sirius who captured his body once more, pleasure filling his insides as the minutes passed.

A shimmering dawn was already cracking trough the curtains when Sirius and Remus found themselves back in the bedroom. Remus threw Sirius a pack of socks and in exchange, he caught a maroon coloured sweater that Sirius threw his way. He sniffed. Cinnamon. “This is yours,” he said. Sirius shrugged and grinned. “Looks better on you, does it not?” Remus felt his cheeks reddening.

As Sirius shook out the pillows in their bedroom, Remus made the bed. He opened the curtains, Sirius opened the windows. They were in perfect harmony. A delicious symphony to the wonders that are Earth’s ears. They found their bodies moving in every and the same direction, only ever completing each other and filling the room with sweet atmosphere while also making sure there was enough room to flash a smile or steal a kiss.

When they found themselves in the kitchen to start up breakfast, it was Remus who set the table and Sirius who prepared their drinks. Coffee for himself, tea for Remus. Extra sweet, as he knew he liked it. “It kind of reminds me of you that way,” Remus had once told Sirius. And as the early, brown-coloured owl flew in with the Dailey Prophet, Remus took the paper and Sirius paid the owl with five Knuts and a small piece of toast.

“So, what do you want to do today?” Sirius asked, his watery, blazing eyes on Remus’s face. “Oh, I dunno,” Remus shrugged. “Thought we could go to the record store?” Sirius’s face started glowing a perfectly fine colour pink, burying his face in a layer of youth. “Absolutely!” he beamed. “Maybe we can ask the guys to come over tonight? Have dinner or something?”

Remus nodded. “Sure.”

“It’s weird not being together all the time now, isn’t it?”

Remus sighed. “It kind of is,” he answered. “I was kind of used to James jumping on and off of our beds every Saturday morning to go to the Quidduitch field with him.” Sirius chuckled, a flash of recognition in his eyes. “Beautiful, stupid stag boy,” he said softly. He looked up to Remus. “Oh, wipe that frown off of your face,” he said, leaping to his feet. “I will write them an owl later to ask them to come over tonight, alright? Come on, I know just what you need.”

He pulled Remus to his feet and dragged him to the centre of the kitchen while turning on the record player with a flick of his wand that he’d unearthed from his back pocket. The room filled with the roaring sensation that was David Bowie’s voice and Sirius took Remus by the hand and led him in a dance that was heavily out of the beat of the music. They laughed to Sirius’ missteps and kissed in smells of coffee and burned toast, swaying their bodies in a rhythm that may not have matched with Bowie, but it matched their own music.

“You see?” Sirius smiled. “I always know just what you need.”

You do, Remus thought, smiling down at the boy he defined as his very own heart and soul. Sirius always knew just what he needed.

by: @stargazedmoony :)❥

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gerberbabey · 4 years ago

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fangs | john b routledge

more of this little sporadic series. i would do the second verse of the song but i specifically wrote this for the first verse lmao

damn look at this debbie ryan lookin ass

masterlist

warnings: cussing as per usual, uuuuh bad writing, underaged drug use

♫ Fangs by Matt Champion ♫

She rolled up in the Beamer, couldn't have looked cleaner Skin like coffee, colour with lil' creamer Sin City since I been thinkin' all of these thoughts in my head She'd probably shoot me dead

“It’s like...spiritual, y’know?” you mumbled and John B wasn’t really sure what you were talking about but he nodded nonetheless. He couldn’t help it when it came to you. If someone ever asked him for a list of his favorite things to do he would add “Listening to (Y/N) talk” on the list. (To be honest one day maybe he would just put “(Y/N)” on that favorite things to do list but John B was on that respect women juice of course).

“Sarah was talking to me about it once-You know Sarah Cameron?-” John B nodded and you continued, “She’s like really into stars, so she was telling me all these stories about the stars and I thought it was just beautiful y’know. That there’s mythology of people turning or being turned into the stars themselves.”

“Yeah of course” John B mumbled in response.

“But it’s cus...we’re like...also the stars y’know?” you grinned at John B and he had to remind himself to breathe again.

“Because we’re made of stardust,” you mumbled dreamily and John B nodded in a daze.

John B wondered for a moment how the two of you ended up here. He wasn’t exactly complaining but he couldn’t remember the last time he hung out with you by himself.

Wait. Were the two of you even alone?

John B glanced over to the side and suddenly remembered the presence of the other Pogues. Now he could remember where he was and how he’d even gotten here. Earlier in the day the Pogues had found themselves stumbling into The Wreck to try and get some lunch before they headed out to the marsh on the HMS Pogue. While they sat goofing around by the outer patio of the restaurant, John B had caught you driving up to the restaurant in your dad’s old Beamer. It was a well maintained car and he couldn’t stop himself from gaping as you parked and stepped out of the car with your best friend.

God-damn, she got the hoops on Hair bunned up in two just like a nunchuck Would I give a fuck? I needed to cheer myself up

You were dressed in sandals, a pair of loose, patterned, fabric pants, with a tube top and your hair was pulled up into space buns and you had on hoop earrings that he thought looked incredible on you.

John B had jolted when he felt someone smack him upside the head.

“Dude what?” he hissed at JJ and the blonde only laughed at him.

“You’re drooling John B,” Pope told him, pointing to the corner of his mouth and the Pogues laughed as John B reached up to wipe away nonexistent drool.

“Hah hah real funny,” John B flicked a fry at Pope but he only swatted it away. Kie shot them a look as she leaned over to pick it up off the floor and then placed it onto an unused napkin.

“Dude, I could hear the loves songs going off in your head John B,” JJ leaned back in his seat smugly.

“Just a glimpse of (Y/N) and his half a brain cell disappears,” Kie stated and the group laughed at John B’s expense. John B rolled his eyes but he couldn’t stop the smile from pulling at his lips or the redness from spreading across his cheeks.

“Speaking of,” JJ straightened up from his seat and smiled as he held an arm up to wave, “Hey (Y/N)! Nicky!”

John B jabbed JJ in the arm as Kie and Pope turned over to look at the counter of the restaurant, where you and your best friend, Nicky, were ordering from Kie’s mom.

The two of you looked up at that and though Kie’s mom raised a brow, you only grinned as you waved to JJ, who was wincing in pain. Nicky shot their group a look but waved back reluctantly when Pope and Kie waved to the two of you.

“Stop JJ,” John B hissed but JJ only scoffed.

“Hey you guys,” you greeted as you lead Nicky over to them.

“Oh shit, heeey,” John B drawled awkwardly and Pope recoiled in shock, trying to keep the laugh from bursting out. Kie gave him grimace and JJ looked up to the ceiling, his lips pursed in an attempt to keep his laughter in.

“What the fuck...” Nicky whispered from beside you and you nudged her side as John B cleared his throat.

“Ok..sorry about whatever that was,” Kie shot John B a look and he only smiled back at her sarcastically, “But hey,” she smiled.

“Good day so far?” you asked and the Pogues all nodded in confirmation, “Yeah I saw ya’ll surfing this morning. Looked like fun.”

“Were you on the beach?” Pope asked and Nicky nodded.

“Yeah we went and had a sunrise picnic, we like painted and stuff.”

“That sounds really chill,” John B stated and he grinned as you smiled at him.

“Yeah, we might just do the sunset tonight too,” you said and JJ perked up.

“Hey we were about to head out to the marsh, the sunset’ll probably be...fire from the Pogue,” JJ suggested and his friends all looked at him in surprise.

“Oh? Um well,” you looked to Nicky and she gave shrugged at you. She’d never talked much with John B or his group of friends and had only ever interacted with them while you were around. You didn’t wanna put her in an uncomfortable or unfamiliar situation, “If it’s ok with you?”

“It’s cool,” Nicky stated and you turned to her.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah I mean...it’s whatever,” Nicky turned to the Pogues, “Ya’ll are cool right?” she asked bluntly and the group was struck for a moment before they nodded.

“Yeah we don’t mind,” Kie stated.

“We’re cool...super cool...” Pope trailed off and there was a moment of awkward silence before Nicky nodded to you and you smiled.

“Ok, we’ll just wait for our food and then we can head out whenever you guys want?” you asked and John B and his friends all nodded in agreement, allowing you and Nicky to pull up chairs and sit around their table.

But I fell in love right when she said "I wanna count the freckles on your face" "Rearrange 'em, put 'em in the same place"

That’s how John B found himself on his porch with you, Nicky, and his friends. The second you all were on dry land, JJ had pulled out a pre-rolled joint that he had been waiting all day to smoke.

John B was surprised when you’d taken it once he offered it to you after taking a hit.

“I didn’t know you smoked,” John B mumbled, watching you take a hit, letting it sit for a moment before breathing out the smoke. You let out a small cough before handing it off to Nicky, who took it eagerly.

“I’ve only smoked like two other times,” you answered softly.

��Glad to be here for your third,” John B smiled and he flushed as you chuckled and smiled back at him.

Then as time passed alongside the joint, Pope (the only one sober for the night) was stuck listening to JJ as the blonde rambled about boats, Kie and Nicky were picking at the Ukelele, playing around with chords and oohing and giggling as they pieced together a song, and John B found himself listening to you gush about the stars.

“I never noticed that you had freckles,” you mumbled, leaning into him and John B gulped as he watched you, “I kinda..wanna like...rearrange them,” you giggled as you looked up into his eyes and John B smiled. He could feel himself falling even harder for you.

“Where would they go?” he questioned.

“I....I dunno,” you mumbled and a slow smile spread onto your face before the two of you were chuckling in unison.

“I get them from being out in the sun so much,” John B explained and you nodded, tucking a loose piece of hair behind your ear.

“That makes sense.”

The two of you settled into a comfortable silence for a moment, letting the others’ chatter drift into your ears. John B watched as you looked up past the roof of the porch and at the stars once more.

I'm obsessed, I'm obsessed I'm obsessed

“Um hey-”

*ring*

You and John B jolted in surprise at the sudden sound of your phone ringing and you fumbled to pull your phone out of the small cross over bag you’d been carrying all day. Swiping your finger across the screen you cleared your throat before bringing the phone up to your ear.

“Hello? Mom?”

The other teens quieted down and straightened up as they recognized that you were on the phone with your mother, the sheriff.

“Um yeah I’m fine,” you paused as your mother spoke, “Yep. I’m-I’m just at John B’s house-Yes, Routledge- Yes....Yeah...Yeah, I’m with Nicky...I don’t...Um is it ok if I sleep over at Nicky’s” you glanced at Nicky and the girl gave you a thumbs up and you shot one back,”Yeah?...Ok...Ok, I’ll see you tomorrow then....Bye, I love you too.”

You sighed as you hung up the phone, dragging a hand down your phase. You shook your head to try and clear away the fogginess of your brain but it only made you feel dizzy.

“Ooooh shit...” you mumbled in irritation as you opened your eyes and looked at the group that was watching you. A beat passed before all of you burst out into a bout of laughter.

“I don’t know why but my heart like, dropped,” Kie gasped and Pope pointed to her as he nodded.

“The second you said ‘mom’,“ JJ breathed and you chuckled, leaning into John B without even realizing it. He moved on instinct, wrapping an arm around you and placing a hand on your hip.

“Yeah, in my head I was like, “Oh shit she knows we smoked”,” John B said and the group laughed once more as they agreed.

“Sometimes I feel like she knows exactly what I’m doing like...all the time,” you told the group, “It’s literally terrifying.”

“Yeah your mom’s scary as shit,” JJ said before he backtracked, “No offense.”

“None taken,” you assured, shaking your head. You loved your mom but you could agree that she could be scary.

“You guys need a ride home?” Pope questioned as the laughter died down and you turned to Nicky. She closed her eyes and nodded slowly, indicating that she was definitely not fit to drive. And the odd weight of your head was telling you that you weren’t fit to drive either.

“If that’s ok?” you told Pope and he nodded, already standing from his seat.

“Yeah of course.”

“What about your dad’s car?” Kie asked and you all turned to look at the Beamer parked beside the Twinkie.

“I can drive it up to Nicky’s house tomorrow morning?” John B told you and you turned to look up at him.

“Oh thank you, yeah that’d be great,” you smiled at him and he smiled back. His hand played with the end of your shirt and as though suddenly realizing where it was, he coughed awkwardly and pulled his arm away from you. Glancing at JJ he frowned at the blonde’s furrowed brows and missed the way you leaned away from him, glancing down at the floor in disappointment before you stood from where you were seated.

John B stood after you and awkwardly placed his hands in his pockets as he watched you adjust the waist of your pants.

“John B, can I get the keys to the Twinkie?” Pope asked and John B pulled the keys out of his pocket, tossing it to Pope just as you slung your bag across your body. Nicky walked up to you and looped her arm around yours. She mumbled something into your ear and John B caught the glance shot his way before he averted his eyes and stared up at the porch ceiling awkwardly.

“Alright let’s go?” Pope asked and you and Nicky nodded.

“Bye,” Nicky waved to the remaining trio and you smiled and waved to them before the two of you turned and followed after Pope.

Kie, JJ, and John b stood and watched as you entered the van. Then as it peeled away from John B’s dirt drive away, the boy flinched in shock as Kie punched him in the arm.

John B reached up to rub at the spot, shooting Kie a glare.

“What the fuck?” he hissed and Kie only raised her brows at him.

“What was that?” Kie questioned and John B only looked at her in confusion.

“What?”

“C’mon John B,” JJ spoke up.

“Wh-what?” John B floundered as he looked between the two and they only shook their heads, clearly done with his shit.

Put yo hands up if ya ever been in love I know I hate it, I hate it as much as you, oh, oh Baby put your hands up if ya ever, if ya ever If ya ever been in love

#obx #Outer Banks #outerbanks #outer banks fic #outer banks x reader #outer banks imagine #john b x reader #John Booker Routledge #john b imagine #john b fanfiction #john b #reader insert #imagine #poc!reader #woc!reader #mixed!reader

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jonah-aesthetic · 4 years ago

Text

Patronus Jonah Marais/ WIP

Jonah Marias X Harlow Darling

Plot: Having mutual friends doesn't mean they're friends. Although after helping his sister out of an unfortunate situation. Jonah offers her a deal she couldn't give up.

A/N: Since the only thing on my Tik Tok fyp is Draco Malfoy. I thought of continuing this fic. although the Why Don't We boys are on hiatus at the moment so I dont know if I should.

The corridors of this ancient school gave me a sense of safety and home. At least I think this is what home felt like. My black robe flowed around me in almost angel like wings, as I carried out my Prefect duties. Night patrol Just past curfew to see if anyone dared to disobey the time.

Both of my parents came from wealthy pure blood families. Because of it my family has been well known throughout the wizarding world. The name Darling had been carried out for centuries. It didn't exactly mean I despise the name, just that I wasn't proud to have it. For decades it has been an excuse to gain disgusting power.

The name Darling meant I had to chose every decision I make carefully. I usually keep my image clean for my family, but for some damn reason it’s hard for my younger brother to do so. Hunter needed a leash quick or we might just end up on the daily prophet soon.

With the way my father had presented our family you would’ve thought we belonged to a Slytherin family. Pure bloods who were overly formal and sleek, who happen to have high jobs and connections with in the ministry of magic. I didn't enjoy portraying myself as one of them but at the end of the day I am one of them. It ran through my blood with each heart beat.

Night patrol was a fairly easy job, make sure no students we out after curfew and reported anything out of the ordinary to professor Mcgnagall. On a good day it took an hour to cover the school grounds with my best friend Jack who just happened to be the 2nd prefect. Now it took 30 minutes since we decided to split up, cutting patrol in half for us. After the Griffindor prefects complained we were goofing around and not caring enough about prefect duties.

I didn’t see the big deal, there wasn’t much to patrol. Unless you wanted to yell at some mice who most definitely belonged a couple Hufflepuffs. Gabbie was a high tailed pure blood who should’ve been in Slytherin anyways. Well it’s that or she’s jealous of how close me and Jack are, after all she does fancy him to a great extend.

Although I think it’d be easier to ask Jack and Daniel, the first prefect from Griffindor to switch places. Slytherin and Hufflepuff swap quidditch players often for practice when one has class or detention I don’t see the harm in it.

Hearing younger voices grabbed my attention, with quick feet I walked towards the commotion. Coming up to the corner I block myself from view trying to get a better sense on the situation, peeking around I could see 4 younger students cornered a timid girl with wands held out towards her. They smiled with confidence as they watched her tremble.

“..It’s funny how you think you're one of us mudblood.”

“You know it’s unheard of for Slytherin to have non-magical parents right?”

What surprised me most was the ones holding the wands were ravenclaws. I remembered them from the ceremony and I’ve seen them around here and there. This behaviour was an automatic detention, students were forbade to threaten each other with magic.

Pulling my dark mahogany wand from my boot I uncovered myself. shouting “Expelliarmus!” an almost effortless defence wand cast. Several sparks ignited from the end of my wand, knocking theirs out of hand and clanging to the other side of the hall. startled, squeaky gasps fell from their lips right before the attention was on me. I watched as the potential alpha’s eyes flicked from villain to victim in 0.2 seconds.

The thing with self-absorbed pure bloods was you had to hold higher authority or they’d eat you for breakfast. I know because I was one. I held that high-tailed blood in my expression before. I only had acquaintances then, most students feared me. After awhile I began to dread the feeling.

“We know the rules, we’re defending ourselves.” One of the Ravenclaw boys spoke up, his eyes holding so much promise I almost believed the kid. The timid Slytherin looked at her shoes not daring to look at me. Telling me that the boys got away with this often.

I laughed at them humorously, “Detention all of you, I don’t believe your pity act. I witnessed what you did and frankly I’m not gonna let it slide.” I said with smooth tongue as I shrugged my shouldered at them.

Their faces dropped as they looked at me in shock. “B-but we didn’t-”

“Drop the act, remember your blood Isn’t gonna take you that far. 50 points from Ravenclaw for each of you. Don’t bother arguing and head back to the common room.”

The shock was noticeable through their body language. One opened their mouth and then closed it again not daring to say anything. One soon scurried to their wand and took off into the direction of the Ravenclaw's common room. The rest followed in a matter of seconds. I smiled to myself, mission accomplished.

The Slytherin girl finally looked at me, Her eyes full of fear. “I get detention as well?” her voice was so soft and timid I almost didn’t catch it. With a warm smile I shook my head gently. “Oh god no, Honey you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Her expression was soft as a small smile reached her lips, as she breathed in a few sniffles. She had been previously crying, causing her green eyes to dull.

“What’s your name?” I asked her with a brighter smile.

“Svea Marais” Her tiny voice more audible then before.

“I’m Harlow Darling” I responded.

Her eyes lightened up, matching the colour on her headband. “Like the Darling Royal Family?” She asked with fully curiosity. I kept smiling at her even though I was reminded of something I wasn’t fond of sharing.

“Yeah” I replied knowing she was getting more comfortable with me. Letting her focus on me rather then the Ravenclaw’s words.

“You seem different then them.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I ask her playfully, knowing the answer

"Definitely good." She responded with tiny giggle that made me adore her.

I continued to smile at her as a comfortable silence came over us. We looked at each in an almost admiration. I felt the need to be someone she would look up to, like I couldn't let her down. As if she were a younger sibling.

“Come on Svea, I’ll walk you to Slytherin dungeon.” I spoke softly after awhile,

“Okay” She had said following behind me. Slowing my steps slightly so she would catch up and walk beside me rather then behind me. The corridors of this massive castle were long and dark, lit only my torches on the sides of the walls. Our detestation wasn’t too far from where we had been.

“Wanted to thank you Harley, for not choosing their side. It happens often you know, being a mudblood and all.” Looking at Svea I caught a sad smile graze her lips. My heart wrenched at the sight.

“Svea It’s not right nor was it okay what they said to you. You’re a witch just as much as I am, your blood doesn’t make you anything less.”

We were coming up to the dungeon quickly, as she stopped a few feet away. “Thank you, I appreciate what you said.” Her green eyes sparkled as her frame became less timid. “Don’t be a stranger, come to me if you need anything.” I started stepping away, putting distance between us.

“I will.” and with that I turned away, heading back to Ravenclaw tower. Which had been across the castle, but at this moment it didn’t bother me.

Walking into the common run I come to discover my best friend since we were five, Jack. He sat on the royal blue couch his head rested on the back of it. His attention on the charmed ceiling. Which represented a set of constellations somewhere in the world. The stars would instantly connected after he named them off silently. His Corgi Companion Lucifer was fast asleep in his lap, light snores emitting off him. I couldn't but awe at the small pooch.

“Hey dork” I spoke playfully. He whispered a startled ‘Vanish’, and the charmed ceiling began to scramble for a fresh collection of constellation. He looked at me in relief, “What took you so damn long?” It was more of a whine more then a question. As if he was bored for the last hour rather them 20 minutes.

I sat down on the left of him as the right was already taken. I sighed, “Well lets see, I gave detention to a few Ravenclaw boys. As well as took their wands out of the kindness of my heart.”

“Finally putting your foot down huh?” He teased raising his eyebrows at me.

“Hey I Can bite back, for your information”

“I know, I remember that time last year. All I’m saying is you don’t like to, because you're the Ravenclaw princess.” I rolled my eyes at him cause I wouldn’t exactly use that word, but he was right nonetheless.

“What was so ‘horrible’ that made you go all Royal blood?”

“They were threating a Slytherin Muggle-born, wands held to her throat. Poor girl was trembling, I would never stand for anything like that.” I said my breath a little shaky as I was raddle about it.

“Hey It’s okay.” Jack says reassuring me, his eyes go soft as he reaches for my hand and squeezes a pulse. He’s done that ever since I could remember every time he senses my nerves going haywire. which wasn’t too often. It never failed to put me at ease.

“You did every thing you could.”

“I know, I just feel like I could do more, I mean they called her a mudblood for god sakes.” He pulses again, his hand in mine was comforting and warm. More platonic than romantic.

A beige blob in the distance take my attention from gentle brown eyes. It was Denrick my Siamese cat, my companion, and my support. a tiny meow rumbles through this body after I make eye contact with his piercing blue eyes.

“What was her name?” Jack’s voice become more tender towards me.

“Svea Marais.”

Jack is quiet for a little bit after that, like I had done something wrong. The feeling of Denrick’s soft paws in my lap made me jump a little. He wasn’t fazed by it was her curled up and began to purr. I petted him subconsciously, It’s almost therapeutic.

“Did I say something wrong?” I asked cautiously, Jack looked away suddenly entertained by a bookshelf.

“No, Um She’s Jonah’s younger sister.”

Of course she is, how the hell did I not put it together? They had the exact same eyes, the bright green intensity.

“He’s gunna come and look for you.”

I swallow Thickly, “I Know”

--------------------

All I could remember was the red bird that caught fire. Flying over head screeching before soaring through the sky graciously. spreading it’s wings full and bursting into flame.

It was a dream, because I was sudden heaving in bed as Christina, one of my first friends at Hogwarts. Looks at me with full concern and worry. “Phoenix” My voice raspy.

“I don’t understand.”

Catching my breathing, I choked a little. “I saw a phoenix in my dream, I think it was a sign or a symbol. Do you know anyone with a Phoenix Patronus?”

Patronus guardians take the shape of an animal the castor shares the most resemblance with. In a sense it’s kind like a spirit animal. If the castor had the skills to become an animagus their form and patronus guardian would share the same animal. Which is by far the best part of being a witch.

“At the moment, I have no idea. Although I do know we definitely should prepare for breakfast.” She holds out a hand for me to take, “What time is it?”

“6:50″

“Guess you were right.” I said placing my hand in hers as she pulls my tired ass out of bed.

--------

Christina walks ahead of me into the great hall as I fall behind fixing the blue and bronze tie. The loud chatter from inside made me miss my bed. Although the delicious scent of pancakes made my stomach growl.

“Darling what the hell is taking so long!” It wasn’t a question, but a demand.

“Calm down I’m fixing my tie, it was lose.”

Christina looks at me un amused and rolls her eyes at me dramatically. I shrug at her before grabbing her arm and began to kidnap her to the Ravenclaw table where I saw a certain curly headed boy. “Sucks you can’t sit with your boyfriend today.” I say taking a seat in front of Jack.

#jonah marais #harrypotter #jonah marais imagines #whydontwe #wdwwallpapers #why dont we fic #daniel seavey #jack avery #corbyn besson #zach herron

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tahnex · 5 years ago

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Road to Graduation Chapter 5

Ok so this is the longest one yet, but there just wasn’t a natural stopping point for the majority of it, so I kept writing until I found one...

It was a couple of days after school had started and Yang pulled Blake aside one evening, Weiss was studying, and Ruby was reading a comic on her bed. “You doing ok?” Yang asked Blake, and she could hear the concern in Yang’s voice.

Blake smiled warmly back, “I’m completely fine. Are you?” Worry crept into her voice at the end.

Yang‘s face mirrored Blake’s warm smile, “Yeah, I’m good, I’m golden,” she winked at the second bit before continuing, “I just noticed you weren’t wearing your bow. Not that it’s a bad thing or I prefer you wearing your bow, I don’t! I like being able to see your ears more and I think it goes better with your hair now it’s shorter, but I wanted to make sure you were doing ok.” Yang’s voice sped up the more she spoke, and she felt nervous and awkward, butterflies flicking around her stomach like they had when Blake had first shown her new haircut off.

Blake’s smile got wider, and she waggled her cat ears on top of her head a little, “I decided that it was time to stop hiding who I was, after everything we’ve faced and everything we’ve done, I’m not going to hide who I am just to fit in more at school.” She laughed, and the sound sent shivers down Yang’s spine, it had always been one of her favourite sounds and that hadn’t changed, “Besides, the professors here don’t care if you’re a Faunus or not, and I know you guys are all completely fine with it too. So, I decided to just be myself, ears and all. But thank you for checking up on me.”

Yang grinned, “I’m your partner, it’s my job.” She nodded and threw a casual salute, still grinning and eyes sparkling. Blake laughed again and they both got on with their normal activities, Blake’s nose in a book and Yang’s on her scroll.

The next couple of weeks passed by without much incident, Ruby mentioned Blake’s missing bow when all four of them were together, and Blake explained it to them as well, and their reaction was similar to Yang’s, happiness at Blake continuing to be herself and not hiding. As for school, their classes were normal, although the amount of schoolwork they had to do was a jolt to their system. They hadn’t had to worry about schoolwork or homework for over a year. There was so much to do to try and retain her top spot in class that Weiss almost regretted agreeing to come back. Almost.

They also met the new team that had joined their year. Since CRDL had gone to Shade Academy, one of their teams had decided to come over to Beacon. Team STRM were a group of three humans and one Faunus, led by Salvia Karrim, and they were all pretty well experienced from what little team RWBY knew about them, and whilst their grades weren’t close to Weiss’ (a point of pride for her that she didn’t have anyone to struggle against), their combat scores were very nearly top of the class. They clearly valued combat and fighting over the academic side of school.

On a Saturday morning, a little over a month after it was announced, the first bit of information about Vytal Tournament qualification came out. Qualification to represent Beacon would be decided by a miniature tournament at Beacon taking place after the New Year and Winter break, with the top teams being put forward for selection. However, being selected was also contingent on grades. Even if one team won the mini tournament, they would only be selected if they had good enough grades as well, otherwise their spot would go to the fifth placed team, etc. The team needed to have an average grade in each subject of at least 85%. It was explained that by doing this, you couldn’t get through on fighting power and luck in battle alone, you also had to be a knowledgeable student, but by making it based on the team’s average score it meant other members could cover for one another. Blake was happy at this, knowing that Yang, despite her best efforts and willingness, would never get anything higher than 70% in Professor Greene’s stealth class, but her 97% would almost cover her partner, and Weiss and Ruby could hopefully make up the rest.

Team RWBY sat down in the library after finding out this information and made a list of each class and their grades, to work out if anybody needed to work extra hard and improve so they could compete:

In Combat they were all passing with flying colours, Yang the only one doing better than Weiss. Weapon Crafting and Upkeep was also not a worry “Not with Professor Mulberry’s favourite ever student!” Yang grinned with side hug of Ruby, who shrugged it off, slightly embarrassed at the praise. Legends of Remnant was also fine, Ruby’s love of stories when she was a child meaning her and Yang had the majority memorised, so Blake’s lesser knowledge of them, whilst decent at a grade of 82%, meant that they were still well ahead of the 85% mark needed.

Ruby’s time spent helping smaller villages out on her travels to Mistral with the remnants of team JNR meant that her knowledge of Grimm and subsequently Grimm Studies had received a large boost, much to Weiss’s surprise and happiness. Ruby’s previous view, which was something along the lines of “Eh, I’ll kill it when I find it,” had always caused Weiss a great deal of annoyance, so they didn’t need to stress about that grade either. Yang’s Military Strategy grade was below what they all hoped it would be, but Ruby and Weiss’ grades in the high 90s compensated for her.

“We’re looking good here!” Yang was happy so far. Out of the 8 classes they took, they had checked five and were averaging at least 92% in four, and 89% in the fifth.

“We’ve covered the subjects that we’re best at, we still have Stealth and Security, History, and Plant Sciences to go.” Weiss ticked them off on her fingers as she said them. Yang’s face fell, she knew those were her three worst subjects, and judging by a similar expression on Ruby’s face, they were still hers too.

Checking over the remaining three subjects was much less enjoyable. Ruby and Yang both looked sheepish from the scores. Stealth and Security wasn’t too bad, Ruby getting an 82%, but Yang’s 67% brought their score below 85% for the first time. “It’s ok Yang, I’ll work with you to get it up, we only need 2% over the whole team and we’ll be there.” Blake’s words were comforting to Yang for her best subject, but Ruby wasn’t sure Weiss would be quite as comforting when seeing her last two grades for History and Plant Sciences.

She was right. Weiss sighed heavily at seeing the 68% for Ruby’s history and put her head in her hands at the 65% for Plant Sciences. Whilst Yang’s scores were better than Ruby’s, at 74% and 73%, they were still below what was needed, and even Weiss’ high 90s couldn’t salvage the team score in those two subjects, 83% and 81% for each being too low.

Ruby peeked out the corner of her eyes at Weiss, who had sat up straight, breathed deeply, and settled her eyes on the page of writing in front of her. “Ruby.”

“Yes Weiss?” Ruby squeaked, she didn’t want to look at her partner.

“Until you get your grade up to at least 75% in both History and Plant Sciences, you are going to be spending three nights a week with me in the library studying. You will have a test every week that I will make up and grade myself. Got that? We are NOT missing out on competing in the tournament because your grades are not up to scratch. Do you understand me?” Weiss’ voice was calm and steady, but the other three girls had known her long enough to know that she was simmering with barely suppressed anger.

“Yes Weiss.” Ruby’s voice was quiet as a mouse.

Weiss breathed out. Blake spoke up, “I’ll give Yang some help as well, reduce the pressure on you two.”

Weiss nodded, “Thank you Blake.”

Ruby’s head suddenly popped up and tilted to the side slightly. If we’re only studying three evenings a week in the library...then that’s four nights we’re not! Plenty of time to relax...wait, Weiss is not that lax, something’s wrong.

Either her thoughts showed in her face, or, as Weiss liked to think, she knew Ruby well enough to know exactly what was going through her leader’s head. “You’ll also be spending two nights studying for the other subjects. You are not going to goof off and let those drop.” Weiss’ stern tone had returned and this time she was staring directly at Ruby. Ruby nodded meekly. It seemed that when it came to schoolwork Weiss was still the Ice Queen, determined to be the best.

“So, you’re monopolising my cute little sister every night?” Yang reached over and put her arms around Ruby protectively, “I hope you remember that they’re school nights, so don’t keep her up too late. They are meant to be study sessions you know.” She waggled her eyebrows.

“Yang!” Ruby shoved her sister off, her face blushing, “It’s not like that at all, it’s just a study session so we can compete in the tournament. What about you two huh?” She pointed at Yang and Blake, “You haven’t said where you’re holding your study sessions.”

Yang leaned back on her chair, threw finger guns at Ruby and said, “In bed.”

Weiss slapped her forehead, Ruby’s mouth dropped, and Blake grabbed the front leg of Yang’s chair and pulled upward, throwing Yang backwards onto the floor.

“We’ll do the studying in the room, at desks, not in bed.” Blake addressed the last comment at Yang, who was still on the floor giggling to herself.

Yang got back up still chuckling and held her hands up as she sat down, “Alright, alright, I couldn’t resist, that whole thing was too good of an opportunity to miss.”

“Next time, please do.” Weiss said stiffly, her hand still covering her face – she wanted to be sure her blush had gone completely. “I’m going to start working on what Ruby needs to learn, so some privacy would be appreciated thank you.” She pulled her notebook closer and flipped to a new page.

The other three took the hint and left alone, heading out the room. Yang looked at Blake, “Fancy some sparring?” Blake nodded in return and they looked at Ruby.

“I’m good thanks, if Weiss is going to set me tests each week, I’m going to need prizes!” Ruby grinned at her plan.

“Don’t take all the cookies this time ok Ruby?” Ruby laughed and waved off Blake’s comments as her two teammates headed off to one of the numerous sparring rooms. Ruby meanwhile headed off to the dining hall, on a search for cookies. Normally she would have jumped at the chance to spar, but she figured if she had prizes for tests going well, it would help her motivation, and make Weiss less likely to snap at her. Her partner might have improved a lot, but her attitude to schoolwork was clearly still the same.

Unbeknownst to Ruby, Weiss’ thinking was on a similar train of thought. After giving the others a few minutes to leave, she slipped on a shoulder bag with her purse in and left the academy grounds, headed to Vale. Reaching the outskirts, she jumped on a tram, tapping her card against the reader as she climbed on. Ruby had introduced her to the tram system in Vale, and she loved it.

Virtually nobody cared who she was and, unlike a driven car, not many took notice of those who got on or off at the various stops throughout the city. Finding her way through the streets she stopped outside a small store. The sign was shiny and looked quite new, ‘Mr Chip’ standing out with light brown writing on a white background. Weiss pushed the door open, a bell tinkling above her head.

A small man scuttled out from the back of the shop to stand behind the glass counter, various shapes on display. The man wore a dark brown apron over a white checked shirt rolled up and over his elbows, his brown eyes sparkling.

“Ah Miss Schnee! Welcome welcome! It is very good to see you again; I hope you’re very well. Is your excitable partner Miss Rose with you today?” His voice was incredibly soft and warm, sounding genuinely happy to see her.

Weiss smiled warmly back, “Hello again Mr Chip, it is very good to see you too, and to see your shop survived. Ruby isn’t with me today, but there is something you can do for us.” Weiss meant it too, the old man was absolutely fantastic, and a lovely person. Plus, he made the best baked goods in the entirety of Vale.

Mr Chip smiled broadly and leaned forward slightly, putting his hands together, “Anything for my favourite huntresses,” his voice full of charm and sounding like he meant every word.

“Do you offer gift certificates?”

Mr Chip’s eyebrow rose slightly, so Weiss continued, “I’m looking to help give Ruby some…motivation, with certain lessons and studying at the academy, and hopefully she will do as well as I hope, so a reward of some kind would be in order, and naturally there is no better reward for her than one of your magnificent creations.” He inclined his head at her obvious flattery, clearly aware she was buttering him up, but happy to let it continue. “Obviously if Ruby doesn’t do as well as I hope and she’s capable of, I wouldn’t want to ruin one of your fantastic products, so I was wondering if you offered gift certificates so when Ruby achieves what she is capable of, she can come here and pick one herself with no chance of spoiling it.”

“Isn’t that a little…hmm…simplistic for Miss Rose?” His tone was questioning but his eyes were sparkling with laughter.

“Please Mr Chip if I wanted simplistic, I’d go to a normal shop rather than your fine establishment.” Weiss dismissed his concerns.

“I’ll have to think Miss Schnee, see if it’s something I can do.”

“I would be very grate…” Weiss tailed off as Mr Chip pulled a rack of various cards and paper vouchers from behind the counter.

“Which design takes your fancy?” Mr Chip was grinning widely. Weiss gave him a look and he laughed, “I do sincerely appreciate the heartfelt compliments though Miss Schnee.”

Weiss couldn’t stay angry at him for long, another change from Ruby, before meeting her partner she’d have never bothered with the flattery and even if she had, she’d have stormed out in a mixture of embarrassment and anger. This time however she sighed and chuckled, she had meant every bit of flattery, so what if he milked it a little bit?

Walking closer to the counter Weiss ran her eyes over the designs and selected two, a plainer, simple design of brown lines around the edges of a cream card, and a more intricate design of curling lines of vines. She picked six of the first and three of the second. “Could I please get one custom made cookie on each of these, and three customer made cookies on each of these three.” Handing over the simplest design ones first, and then the intricate cards afterwards. Ruby had once told her that Mr Chip’s cookies were the only ones to have ever come close to being as good as her mum’s, and knowing from Yang how much Ruby valued and loved her memory of her mum’s cookies meant that that was very high praise indeed.

“Thank you, Miss Schnee, I’ll get these made up for you.”

Weiss left Mr Chip’s with a promise to return soon so Ruby could spend her vouchers, safely hidden in her shoulder bag. Returning to Beacon she slipped back into their dorm having avoided her teammates and got down to making up a plan for the study sessions.

Yang and Blake found a training room that was empty, flicked the lights on and locked the door using the electronic keypad. That kept the door locked and the room private, however it could be unlocked from the outside in an emergency. Tapping their scrolls on the screen next to it they registered themselves as using the room and two screens popped up at the top showing a bar with their auras on, and an image of each of them next to their respective bars. If they dropped below a certain level a guard would check the cameras to make sure they were ok and, if not, be able to open the door and help. So far that had only been needed once in Beacon Academy’s history, when someone had knocked themselves out with their own weapon. Blake was fairly certain it wasn’t true, as the story became more and more exaggerated each year, but it was a good safety measure to have anyway.

“Usual rules?” Yang looked to Blake who nodded in return, dropping her jacket and weapon in the locker near the door, Yang following suit. The usual rules were three rounds of five points. If Yang got a hit on Blake it was one point, and if Blake could trap both of Yang’s arms or get her on the floor it was one point. No weapons allowed, and no starting until stretches were finished for both parties, otherwise it just wasn’t fair.

With both of them stripped down to a top and bottoms, Yang in a tank top and shorts, and a short sleeve top with close fitting trousers for Blake, they stretched and got ready. They’d started this after the train fight a couple of years back, Yang had been unable to lay a hand on the small fighter with the umbrella and had been frustrated by it. Blake was the best person Yang knew at evasion, so they’d come up with a plan to help Blake practice her evasion and manoeuvrability to get even better, and for Yang to get better at fighting more agile opponents. Making it a competition helped both of them, Yang being naturally competitive, and in their sparring sessions she always brought Blake’s competitiveness to the surface.

Settling into their usual places opposite, they stared at each other’s eyes for a few moments, heart beating loudly in Yang’s ears. She stared into Blake’s amber eyes. Gods I never get tired of looking into those eyes, by now I thought I’d know every aspect of them, but I keep finding new things each time.

Blake suddenly moved forward, dropping low and swiping her leg at Yang’s, taking advantage of her partner’s distraction. Yang jumped over it, shaking off her thoughts focusing in on the fight. Landing she swung a fist at Blake who flipped backwards in a handstand, the elastic at the bottom of her top stopping it from riding up. Before Blake had righted herself fully, she was on the defensive, slapping a punch away and dodging a few more, backing up until she hit the wall with her back. Yang smirked and threw a final punch, thinking point was secured. Blake moved out the way, spinning Yang with her by her arm, before pushing her against the wall, one hand holding Yang’s wrist against the wall above her head, her other hand had pulled Yang’s hand down and was trapping it against the wall with Blake’s knee. The position they were in meant their faces were inches apart, Yang could feel Blake’s breath against her lips, and she knew Blake could feel hers.

“One-nil” Blake whispered as she pushed away and sauntered back to her starting position. Yang loved these sparring sessions and she knew Blake did as well. If Yang won the first point then Blake got competitive, not wanting to lose, and if Blake won the first point then she got just a little bit cocky. Grinning, Yang moved to face Blake again. Settling into a ready pose she looked at her partner and nodded, the second point starting.

Moving towards Blake, Yang made sure to stay focused this time, no getting lost in those gorgeous amber eyes. She kept her punches short and quick, trying not to give any opportunity for Blake to grab her wrists again. After a few punches had been dodged and grapple attempts from Blake dodged, Yang winked at Blake, who jumped backwards. Yang dashed forward, threw a massive punch, but pulled it at the last moment, continuing her momentum to spin and poke Blake in the stomach.

Whilst Blake had said when they first started not to pull the punches too much, as she did want to raise her own strength and endurance, Yang still pulled them quite a bit, as she didn’t want to actually hurt her partner and was quite cheeky with how she registered the points at times. Blake rolled her eyes, annoyed with how easily she had fallen for that feint. Yang grinned, she hadn’t expected that to work either.

For the next hour they continued sparring, each point taking longer and longer as they both got into their rhythms before tiredness started to set in, and the last point was almost as quick as the first. Yang overextended slightly, Blake sensed an opportunity and stepped forward, ducking a punch before sweeping Yang’s leg sending her falling backwards to the floor. Yang’s back hit the floor; she’d tried grabbing at Blake’s wrists on her way down but had barely missed them. Lying back, she lifted herself up on her elbows and she could see Blake’s eyes were sparkling with delight at her win. Blake bent forward and offered her arm, which Yang grasped, and Blake lifted her up so she was standing. Slowly they stretched and cooled down, both knowing from experience no matter how tired or beat up they were that stretching was absolutely necessary. Yang could see the beads of sweat on Blake’s forehead, and she knew she was sweating heavily too. She ran a hand through her hair, and it felt absolutely terrible. Noticing Yang’s annoyance, Blake grabbed their stuff from the locker and passed it over to her, before they both headed back to the dorm.

They arrived back to find Weiss at her desk making notes in a notebook, clearly still working on Ruby’s study schedule. Their leader was nowhere to be seen though.

“Is it alright if I get a shower first?” Yang usually went in the shower first, as unlike Blake she wasn’t happy to let her hair be sweaty for any more time than was absolutely necessary, whereas Blake was usually patient enough to wait for the tall blonde to finish. Blake nodded and Yang smiled, dropping her stuff on the floor before going into the bathroom and turning the shower on before coming back out whilst it warmed up. Blake had put her stuff down and sorted it, putting them away where they needed to go and grabbed a towel, draping it around her shoulders and sitting on the floor, not wanting to get sweat on her bed.

Yang stretched out again, feeling her muscles protest slightly but she continued, she loved the burn after a workout. Seeing the steam start to come out of the shower Yang turned to the door and pulled her top and bra off, stretching her arms out, just waiting for the protest from Weiss.

“Oh, for Dust’s sake Yang are you still doing that? Just go in the bathroom and get undressed in there already!” The protest from Weiss arrived right on time, with the door to the bathroom, and Yang’s bare back, in sight of where she was sitting.

Yang smirked and said over her shoulder “You don’t need to fight it Weiss, I know you enjoy the view.” She slapped her bum and laughed.

Weiss spluttered in disagreement but by the time she got actual words out, Yang had closed the bathroom door behind her with a kick. “I can’t believe she still does that, what if somebody walks in?” Shaking her head Weiss realised that Blake was still staring at the bathroom door, a red glow visible on her cheeks. Weiss stared for a moment before she shrugged and figured Blake was still tired from the obvious sparring session the two had just finished.

Ruby grinned as she walked away from the dining hall, her cookie heist had gone perfectly! 12 cookies wrapped up in napkins, and nobody had noticed! Ok so maybe she’d originally gone for 16 and miiiiiight have eaten a couple during the heist itself, but she still had her loot! She was walking back to the dorm when she slowed and stopped before thinking to herself, If Blake and Yang have gone to spar, they’ll be gone about an hour. I’ve been gone...she grabbed her scroll whilst balancing the napkin wrapped cookies on one arm...less than fifteen minutes. If I go back now Weiss is gonna be really annoyed as I’ll just be really bored and trying to find stuff to do. What can I do to not be bored? I don’t wanna go to the library and study, that’s boring, it’ll be difficult to practice or workout with these cookies, what to do?...I could go to the workshop maybe...yeah, I can go to the workshop, I’ve got that idea I had ages back about a different firing action for Crescent Rose to help with medium range...

She headed off to the Beacon Academy weapons workshops, head filling up with her idea. Getting there, she found it was mostly empty apart from a couple of fourth year students she didn’t know, so setting a workstation up in the far corner away from them, she put her loot to one side and brought a screen up. She logged into Professor Mulberry’s class, selecting “Personal Projects”, and brought up a list of notes, scrolling through them until she found the one she wanted. She expanded it and started tapping at the screen, reminding herself of the details she’d made previously and adding further notes to it, before getting up and heading to the section with the spare parts and then the tools.

Humming to herself as she finished welding the final piece onto her prototype, she put the torch down onto the bench. And jumped out of her skin as a hand touched her shoulder. “AAAAGH!” Ruby looked at the owner of the hand, “Weiss! Don’t scare me like that!” Her partner was standing next to her, head slightly tilted. Calming down now she realised it was only Weiss, but still breathing heavily and gripping her chest, she asked “What’s up?”

Weiss looked at her partner, hair a mess (more so than usual), face mask lifted up, gloves and a heavy-duty apron over her clothes. She smiled slightly, despite how much she had had to badger and cajole Ruby with studying in their first year, and that she knew she’d have to do this year as well, she’d never once had to badger her about Professor Mulberry’s class, and knew she never would. Ruby loved spending time tinkering with weapons, making small prototypes for additional options or different styles, and whilst she rarely ever actually added them to Crescent Rose, she still went further than any student in the class, probably in every year. Most people left it at the drawing board, a few made prototypes, but most had, in their eyes at least, perfected their weapons before coming to Beacon. Ruby was one of the few who was always trying to improve hers, despite the fact that Weiss didn’t actually think Crescent Rose could be improved much more, it just fitted Ruby and her style. The fact that none of Ruby’s countless ideas made it any further than prototype stage told her that Ruby agreed. The downside to Ruby being such a weapons nut, was that when she went to the workshop, she lost all sense of time.

“We were wondering if you wanted to get some dinner with us?” Ruby blinked at Weiss’ request, Dinner? But it’s barely even lunchti...oh. Ruby spotted the time in the corner of her screen. She’d been here five hours.

“I did it again, didn’t I?” Ruby’s voice came out soft and almost a little upset. She’d discovered that she lost track of time when she was working on something and the first few times it happened in their first year it had frightened the others in her team half to death, as she’d vanished for almost 12 hours each time, not leaving until the workshops closed at 10pm. When she saw how worried the rest of her team were, she had felt awful. Yang had joked about it, saying she knew Ruby was alright, but even Ruby could see that she’d worried the three of them each time it happened. She tried to keep track of time or let them know when she was going to be working in the workshop, but the majority of the time it was just when she had an idea, rather than any planned time, so it was usually random, and she often forgot to let them know.

Weiss smiled at Ruby, “It’s ok, when you weren’t back after two hours, I checked Professor Mulberry’s class and saw you were signed in, so we weren’t worried.”

Ruby blinked in surprise, “Huh?”

Weiss suddenly realised she hadn’t mentioned it to Ruby, “Well, when we came back, I remembered your habit of spending so much time in here, so I spoke with Professor Mulberry and asked if he could set up an option on his system so that teammates could see if any of their team was logged into a workstation, and he agreed,” Ruby still looked a little confused so Weiss continued, “So, if any of us login, we can see when the others last logged in. This way we can check if you’re in here and make sure you’re ok and eat something. You skipped lunch, didn’t you?”

Ruby opened her mouth to answer but her stomach decided it was the perfect time to gurgle. Loudly. Looking at Weiss they both started giggling. “You dolt, come on, I’ll help you put this lot away and then come get some food.”

#rwby #rwby fanfiction #rwby fanfic #ruby rose #blake belladonna #white rose #bumblebee #Road to Graduation #fanfic #fanfiction #yang xiao long #weiss schnee #romance #humour #humor

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angelofthequeers · 5 years ago

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Hold Me By Both Hands: Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

Chapter 8 | Chapter 10 | AO3 link

After a gruelling afternoon of dealing with an akuma that turned its victims into puffs of sentient pink smoke – not devastating, but certainly annoying – Marinette’s about ready to thank whoever’s out there that it’s the weekend and pass out until her mother comes to wake her for dinner. But just minutes after she faceplants on her bed with a groan, when she’s drifting off into the sandman’s realm, there’s a knock on her hatch door.

“Huh?” She looks up, blinking blearily, but there’s nothing there. Huh. Maybe a bird had divebombed into it or something. But before she can bury her face in her pillow again, there’s another knock. Definitely not a bird. What the hell could be knocking on her hatch door, then? The answer turns out to be a stray cat with drooping ears, who’s perched himself on one of her chairs when she sticks her head out to investigate.

“Hey, Marinette.” Chat Noir grins but it’s hollow. “Remember how you said I could drop by anytime? You mind if I take you up on that offer?”

“Yes! I mean – no, I don’t mind! Come on down!” Marinette ducks back into her room to let Chat Noir slip inside and close the hatch after himself. He shuffles to the end of her bed and then just sits there, cross-legged, trying to smile but only managing to look anything but happy.

“Shoes off inside.” Marinette blearily blurts out the first thing that comes to her mind.

“I would, princess, but the boots don’t exactly come off,” Chat Noir shrugs. Then he winces. “Sorry. You look like death warmed over. You were trying to sleep, right?”

“I’ll be fine.” Marinette immediately betrays herself by letting out an enormous yawn.

“I can go –”

“Don’t even think about it.” Marinette waggles a finger at him. “That offer is redeemable at all times. No exceptions. Even if I’m not here, you’re more than welcome to come in and curl up like a kitten, so long as you don’t go through my stuff. And just don’t tell my mum about the shoes thing.”

Chat Noir just stares at her with glistening eyes. Shit. Did she say something wrong? Before she can ask what she’d done, her vision is cut off by the dark leather of Chat Noir’s suit as he hauls her in for a tight hug.

“Thanks, Marinette,” he says into her hair. “Just…thanks. That means a lot.”

“Breathing also means a lot,” Marinette says into his shoulder, her voice muffled, so he lets her go and shuffles back. “Anything in particular you want to do?”

“Not really?” Chat Noir says. “I’m happy to follow the lead of my princess.”

“You know, I don’t know why I never told you to stop calling me that,” Marinette says. “And it’s too late now, isn’t it?”

This time, Chat Noir’s smirk is genuine. “Damn right, princess.”

They lapse into a comfortable silence, sitting on the bed together, until Marinette figures that she’s never going to get to sleep now and it would be a little creepy to try and sleep with a guy in magic black leather and spandex in her room.

“I might as well keep working on one of my designs,” she says. “Unless there’s something you want to do…?”

“Nah, I’m happy to chill here,” Chat Noir says. “Actually…I never really get to chill. There’s always something to do in my room. And my life.”

“Eww.” Marinette wrinkles her nose. “That must suck. There’s nothing better than just…doing nothing sometimes. Okay, if you’re sure.” She slides down the ladder to the floor, then pads over to her desk to grab her sketchbook and pencil so that she can sketch in her bed. It’s just a hunch, but she strongly suspects that Chat Noir doesn’t want to be alone right now, even if they’re still in the same room.

Once she starts sketching, she loses herself in her own world of colours and patterns and fabrics, drawing something and then erasing it and then testing out something else and nodding in satisfaction when that something else meshes and flows. When she blinks and looks up to give herself a little break, the first thing she sees is Chat Noir just…staring at her.

“Is something wrong?” she says. “Are you hungry? I can go get you some food. Or if you want to do something –”

“No, no,” Chat Noir says. “I’m fine. It’s just…relaxing to watch you. You’re mesmerising when you’re designing.” He mutters something else that could be, “Unlike Father,” but it’s so quiet and his lips don’t even move, so Marinette just brushes it off as her imagination.

“O-Oh.” Her cheeks grow warm. “Thanks? I don’t usually get in the zone like that when others are around. I’m so…hyperaware of them.”

“Well, I’m honoured, princess,” Chat Noir says with his toothy grin. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve just relaxed like this.”

“Good,” Marinette says. “Between superheroing and whatever it must be like when it’s tense at home, you deserve the break.”

“Oh, superheroing isn’t stressful at all,” Chat Noir scoffs. Marinette raises an eyebrow.

“Maybe not for you. You’re not the brains, after all.”

“I know you’re trying to offend me but you’re right.” Chat Noir shoots her finger guns. “Ladybug is the brains. I’m just the cunning, ultra-charming Chat Noir.”

Marinette can’t help but snort, though she manages to disguise it as a rather loud cough that has Chat Noir narrowing his eyes at her.

“Got something to say, Marinette?” he says.

“No, no.” This time, Marinette can’t hold back her laughter. “So long as you’re happy with the clown suit, who am I to judge?”

“Excuse me? The clown suit?” Chat Noir jabs a finger at her. “I sure wasn’t a clown when I was saving you from Evillustrator.”

“Mhm.”

“Will you just take me seriously already?”

“Why? You already admitted that Ladybug’s the brains.”

Chat Noir glares at her, though not with any heat, and then his bottom lip sticks out and he honest to god pouts. That’s when Marinette loses it and doubles over with laughter at the sight of her sulking kitty, pouting like a little kid.

“It’s not funny,” he says sullenly.

“Are you sure about that?” Marinette wipes the tears from her eyes, careful not to get her sketchbook pages damp.

“Hmph. Fine. I see how it is. I bet you’re just a Ladybug fangirl and she’s drafted you to make fun of me!”

Oh, if only he knew the truth. “Actually, I’m much more of a Chat Noir girl,” Marinette says, and Chat Noir’s cat eyes widen.

“What? No, no, I was kidding. You should totally be a Ladybug girl.”

“Too late,” Marinette sings. “I’ve been a Chat Noir girl from the start.”

“But why?” Chat Noir tilts his head. “Ladybug’s so cool. She’s gorgeous. She purrifies –”

“Chat, I swear to god –”

“– the akumas and fixes everything with her cure. All of Paris loves her. Why don’t you?”

“I didn’t say I didn’t love her,” Marinette says. “But she wouldn’t be half the hero she is without her Chat Noir there to have her back. And I’d think exactly the same thing if the roles were reversed. I guess you could say I’m a Lady Noir girl – and no, not the ship, so don’t get any ideas.”

There’s something akin to awe in Chat Noir’s eyes. Has…no one ever told him that he’s just as important? Sure, he may not take things seriously and leave the weight on Ladybug’s shoulders, but Marinette’s a hundred percent not lying when she says that she wouldn’t be able to do it without him.

“And why exactly do you think Ladybug wouldn’t be able to do it without me? Bugaboo is so ingenious that she can manage even when I’m brainwashed.”

“Sure, she can hold her own when it comes to the fighting,” Marinette says. “But what about everything else? What about the moments when there aren’t akumas and you two are on patrol? Remember that picture that Alya got of you two the other day? Where you two were goofing around on the rooftops? You really think Ladybug could handle all this alone without someone by her side to shoulder the emotional weight? I mean, sure, you could focus a bit more on the akumas instead of clowning around –”

Chat Noir sticks his tongue out at her.

“– but you’re there for her in a way that no one else is. You’re her partner, Chat, and she needs you. Maybe she even appreciates your goofiness when she’s not in the middle of trying to take down an akuma. I know that facing destructive akumas like Green Giant or brainwashing akumas like Princess Fragrance couldn’t have been easy, especially with the weight of fixing everything on her shoulders. But don’t you dare think that you’re not valuable, kitty cat. Ladybug loves you, even if it’s not romantic. I’ve seen the way she looks at you in pics and videos.”

Chat Noir doesn’t say anything after Marinette’s speech, leaving Marinette to squirm under his bright green eyes as he stares at her with a slightly agape mouth. Then he’s leaning over and grabbing her in a hug, squeezing her just like Adrien had done the other day, murmuring, “Thanks, Marinette,” into her hair while she pats his back awkwardly.

“Alright, alright, you’re getting fur all over me,” Marinette says, slightly breathless with how tightly Chat Noir’s hugging her. With one last squeeze, Chat Noir pulls away and pouts at her again.

“Excuse you, princess, but I happen to be very well-groomed,” he says, and Marinette snorts. “I totally am. You’d eat your words if you knew who I was under the mask.”

“Aww, but what a pity, you can’t tell me!” Marinette says with a sweet smile. “So, I guess I won’t have to eat my words, as delicious as they are.”

“Sugary sweet just like the little baker’s princess, huh?” Chat Noir says. Marinette reaches out and flicks his bell, her smile widening when he yelps and scowls ay her.

“Damn right, kitty. I’m sugar and spice and everything nice.”

Chat Noir doesn’t say anything in response to that, instead choosing to stare right at Marinette with his intense green cat stare. When he’s quiet for too long, Marinette opens her mouth to ask what’s up, but he gets in first.

“Thanks, Marinette,” he says. “Really. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“I think I do,” Marinette says, but Chat Noir shakes his head.

“You really don’t. At home…I can’t tell you, you know, for identity reasons, but just knowing that I’ve got an escape…I mean, Chat Noir’s always been an escape, but running around alone in black leather only helps so much.”

“I can imagine,” Marinette says softly. Sure, putting on red spandex and swinging around Paris is a fantastic way to just get away when she needs it, but it still doesn’t fully help with her mad, swirling thoughts. Not like Chat Noir does. “Well, if you really want to keep yourself occupied, how about helping me with my Physics homework?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be one of the smartest kids in that class?” Chat Noir says with a suspicious little squint.

“Well, yes…but I could use a little help brushing up on a few things,” Marinette says. “That is, if you don’t mind.”

Chat Noir raising an eyebrow informs Marinette that she’s very much not fooling him as to the true purpose of asking him to help: to keep his mind occupied. But considering that it’s just as much for his benefit as it is for hers, he apparently chooses not to call out her horribly flimsy excuse.

“Sure thing, princess,” he says. “Grab your stuff and this dashing cat will help as best as he can.”

“That’s it, my grades are gonna drop,” Marinette says as she slides down the ladder to fetch her homework, stumbling on the last rung.

“Wow,” Chat Noir says. “Okay. Tell me how you really feel. Weren’t you the one asking me for help?”

“Only because I took pity on a poor stray,” Marinette says. As soon as she’s back up on her bed, Chat Noir shoves her backwards and plants a black-gloved hand on her chest.

“Say you’re sorry for hurting my poor feelings,” Chat Noir says with his roguish smile.

“Um…no.”

In response, Chat Noir’s hand applies more pressure, but not anywhere near enough to even begin to cause pain. It’s firm, albeit loose enough that Marinette could probably wiggle out if she really wanted to, but the playful light in Chat Noir’s eyes leaves her pinned to the bed far more effectively than his hand.

“And here I thought you were a pure princess,” Chat Noir says with a tone of exaggerated lament.

“Lucky me,” Marinette deadpans. When Chat Noir’s hand shifts ever so slightly, her brain makes itself very aware of the fact that the only thing separating his hand from her skin is a thin shirt and a black leather glove that seems to be radiating heat against the white material of her shirt. And yes, she doesn’t like Chat Noir as anything more than a friend…but try having a cute guy in black leather pin any teenage girl to her bed and expect her not to grow warm and fuzzy. She’s just going to choose to not acknowledge the fact that her crush on Adrien has been violently shoved to the backburner in this very moment, since she’s not too sure she wants to explore the implications of that.

“Oh.” With pink cheeks, Chat Noir releases Marinette, allowing her to push herself up and hastily fix her messy pigtails. “Uh – Physics! Right! Help you!”

“Very eloquent,” Marinette says, willing her racing heart to slow down already. Chat Noir gives her another roguish, lopsided grin.

“That’s me, princess. Eloquent as hell.”

“Sure,” Marinette drawls, then opens her notebook and flips to the worksheet of questions. “Now, how about you put that big brain of yours to good use?”

Chat Noir bows his head mockingly. “As you wish.”

“Oh my god, you did not just do what I think you did.”

#miraculous ladybug #ml fic #aotq fic #aotq: hold me #marinette dupain-cheng #chat noir #marichat #oops #yeah marinette you just don't think about that #dorks

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wannawrite · 6 years ago

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better better 💛 🐻 🍯

너의 그 사랑만이 멈춰있던 날 다시 뛰게 해.

[ Only your love could make the me who was stuck run again. ]

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day6 masterlist

TW: if you squint, there's very mild mentions of child abuse, physical and verbal

↪ group: DAY6

↪ member: Yoon Dowoon

↪ genre: idk its not really fluff either, (IM SORRY ANON IT GETS VERY FLUFFY AT THE END) but its 90 percent angst free LOL ??? this story is too out of the ordinary to categorise lol ☀️

↪ request: hey admin n! can i have a fluffy day6 dowoon scenario where he cheers you up from a bad day in school? thank you!

↪ A/N: I really wanted to write something for Dowoon, thank you so much, anon who requested this!! I somehow thought of the spiritual love I receive everyday from God (I'm christian to all of y'all who dk, haha) so I think this story will hold a special place in my heart!!! also, the story plot is largely inspired by the story by 九把刀 - 等一个人咖啡，so if u understand Chinese please give it a read, its a nice story uwuwuwuuwwu

edit i am SO SORRY THIS WAS WAY LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LIKE the word count will probably be like idk 8000 by the time i finished this when u requested for a scenario lolz i got way too invested I apologise...I wrote almost everyday for a whole week I regret getting carried away oh my gosh, but I hope you enjoy this, I really worked very hard on this!!!

ps im sorry if jihyo is ooc, never written nor know twice well but id say I'm a fan of their music hehe

______________________________________

It was about 7AM in the morning when all of your batch gathered around at the assembly place in your school, and between occasional yawns that slipped off your mouth (thanks, end of year exams), you and your friends were talking about the happenings of yesterday as you walked there, laughter often breaking out in your little group when there were bits of humour in the story.

You all made your way down the stairs and into the assembly grounds, resembling a large, aquamarine blue quilt that took up an obnoxious part of the school-where the netball competitions and other important events were held.

Seemingly following suit with the shade of blue on the ground, the lack of sun in the morning painted everything with a small hint of lighter, sky blue itself, such that it all looked like one entity but distinctive in its own individual colours.

Realising this with your own dark ringed, half opened eyes, you couldn't help but feel the ends of your lips angle up slowly-the world was so beautiful, you couldn't help but think as you knelt down to sit onto the rugged surface of the big, enveloping area-whoever had created it for all its small but still amazing features was exceptionally genius.

As your eyes scattered around the place, still immersed in a world of your own-a shrill screech of a whistle pulled you back to the boredom of school life, and with a slight, but petty annoyance you shifted your back to face the PE teacher who had just walked over, and subsequently, so did the other students around you.

He stood in front of your whole batch, clad in a black, torso hugging sports shirt and fluorescent pink shorts-which immediately, triggered a few giggles for your batch, but the spoilsport of a whistle just had to ruin the fun again, motioning for everyone else to shut up.

You sighed when you saw the creases in his forehead, and the unmistakeable hint of a frown on his tan, oval face-this was not going to be too good of a day.

You just hoped that he wasn't going to make all of you do 4 rounds around the school today. Running, needlessly to say really was not something a person like you liked to do-sweat all over your face, springing pimples on your face, grasping for breath and literally collapsing in front of the whole class like a dead fish because of how energy deprived you were? You were going to pass, thanks.

"Now, class!" his low baritone rasped out to the class, carrying a strong sense of dominance in it like he was speaking to a platoon in the army, "We have a group of alumni today, coming back to visit and help all of you train for your Physical Education Examinations next year." At that, his outstretched wrists flicked backwards loosely, gesturing for the alumni to come, and he continued again, "They are alumni that were our top students from last year, and did exceptionally well. They have all took time out of their 4 month break after examinations to train all of you, so please be nice, and don't be so unruly."

As soon as he had said that, the class started breaking out into applause as the five students stepped into everyone's field of vision.

Your eyes widened when you saw the bones, standing out like rocks in the their toned, fit arm and leg muscles-even the girls' thighs that was supposedly, the most unattractive part of everyone's body had 'walls' lining their lean, hourglass figure. Confident smiles were plastered to most of their faces, with a few tired exceptions-heck, one even had a smirk playing on their face as he scanned the class below him.

Inwardly, as you heard the laughs of the alumni that had aroused from the awing of their juniors below them, you couldn't help but shudder inside-there was no, freaking way that you were going to look like that after training with them.

You didn't want to, anyway-that meant rigorous hours of training and stitches 'basking' under the unhelpful, boiling cover of the sun.

Just then, as you were contemplating the choices of schools you were going to transfer to to abstain from the torture that was soon to come, the guy with the playful smirk on his face had already grabbed a microphone, and was preparing to speak. Translucent frames for glasses hid his small, almost demure but yet somehow condescending eyes-you weren't getting that great of a vibe from him.

"Hello, Class 3D9, I am your senior, Park Jaehyung, and I'm here to train all of you for the exams, since all of you don't seem that excited for it, judging by your expressions." His features softened considerably from a look of mirth to one of gaiety as he started to speak in a 'half air half voice' kind of way-rasping yet not quite, and you rolled your eyes.

It wasn't really that you disliked him much, but you could already picture him being the heartthrob of the girls in class-the gleam in their previously irritant, but now smitten eyes was so undeniably revolting.

They all nodded furiously at the last sentence, and he began to laugh a bit (attracting more squeals from the girls, much to your dismay) before speaking again, this time with the narrow of an eyebrow and a more serious, raised voice. "I know all of you might be thinking that this is very pointless, and stupid. I know. None of you really want to be an athlete in the future, and I understand. But I really hope all of you can treat this seriously, because health in the long run is really very important, and I want all of you to take not only the PE finals but the entrance exam to college confidently, and healthily. Are all of you with me?"

Like how any motivational speaker would have done, there was an applied pressure at the last line, and soon, a long, unenthusiastic 'yes' drawled out of everyone's barely parted mouth.

You snickered a bit at the frown on Jaehyung's face when he heard it-he really should have known beforehand, that encouraging a class didn't consist of just one pathetic speech, and you started to doubt if he had really been from this school.

Let's face it, motivation really wasn't this generation's thing.

"Are all of you with me!" he rasped again, this time yelling into the microphone obnoxiously and poking a hole in your eardrums.

"YES!" the class shouted with increased volume to appease him.

Just please, don't shout into the microphone again, you whimpered inwardly.

At this, Jaehyung looked more or less satisfied (thank God), and with the small hint of a smile, he passed over the microphone to another guy, whose eyes first caught your own. They were delicately angled into the eyes of a fox, emanating a half elegant aura that still seemed to hint 'Let's have fun, everyone!' They fell into small crescents when he started to laugh at Jaehyung's incapabilities to lead the class, and the circles in his lean, rosy cheek bones spelt attractiveness at its finest.

With a sweet smile on his face, he held up the microphone to his mouth and started to talk. "Morning, class! Sorry if Jaehyung sounds like a bit of a drag. I know he has that student leader aura, but you can't blame him, he's always been burying his face in a book during recess-HEY!" The class, including him, started to erupt into waves of giggles when Jaehyung flicked his forehead, a faux anger playing on his arched eyebrows and widened, now not so small eyes. "FINE, fine, I'll stop! Anyway, hello Class 3D9, this is your cooler senior, Kang Younghyun, and I hope to train all of you to success in the exams. Thank you!" Younghyun proceeded to bow with the shy lift of his eyebrows, and everyone clapped.

"His real name is actually Brian, please ignore him." Jaehyung added in with a wink, earning a loud slap on the shoulder from Younghyun (with a subsequent yelp from himself) and more laughter from the juniors, yourself included. Your seniors seemed pretty chill and friendly, not like how you thought they would be.

But sadly, as they were supposedly goofing around too much, the PE teacher blew that stupid, ear-wrenching whistle of his, causing you to jump up in shock again. "Okay boys, lets finish this up quickly." he said curtly, strict gaze fleeting past the two boys and causing their playful charm to melt like ice in front of him.

As Jaehyung and Younghyun simultaneously did a long, 90 degree bow, mouthing 'sorry' repeatedly, you and quite a good majority of your other classmates sighed, inwardly feeling a tad deflated-looks like the rest of the introduction wasn't going to be that fun after all.

The introduction seemed to move past like rusted cogs, at least for just one part of it-the first girl who had greeted all of you sported two round, neat buns at the sides of her hair, complimenting her big, double lidded eyes and her elegantly curved, brightly smiling lips. The corners of her eyes bore a small fragment of the brighter sky above her, gleaming with confidence as she bowed politely, introducing herself to everyone in a more reserved way than the other two. Her name was Park Jihyo, and she had been in dance-which was quite a great feat, since dance was a niche co-curricular activity in your school, but not surprising at the same time, looking at her beautiful figure and slender, well toned arms.

As she talked, she slipped a few jokes there and then mid-conversation, not too much that the PE teacher had to cut in, but attempting to keep the class' attention on her afloat. Jihyo had an unmistakeable pleasant aura that seemed to infect everyone with her laugh, and from the bottom of your heart, you really wanted to befriend her-someone approachable and easy to talk to.

There was another girl next to her who was called Chaewon, with demure, yet youthful brown eyes and a serene smile. Similarly, she too was very friendly and talked with a very laid-back tone-but the problem was, that she talked a lot.

You didn't really mind it much when people talked a lot, but when they overdid it, it got kind of...boring.

Seemingly one hour later, your eyes struggled to remain parted mid-sentence as she went into a trite monologue about how grateful she was to stand here. By the time she was done you felt fatigue wrap around your head like a snake, till a deeper voice was suddenly amplified into the mic.

"H-Hello, I'm Yoon Dowoon, and-"

"I ate ants as a kindergartener." Jaehyung's unmistakeable airy voice cut in annoyingly, causing Dowoon's face to flush a big, rosy red whilst all of you chortled with a louder, more extreme laughter than before-and instantly, you became alive again as the mental image of a small boy swallowing the poor insect with the brightest smile sent you rolling onto the floor.

"He even gave a whole box to his teacher." came a rather unhelpful snicker from Younghyun, further fuelling the laughter and the blush on Dowoon's face.

You couldn't help but admit, that he was sort of cute when he was embarrassed, though-Dowoon had the small, but believing eyes of a child, with two pretty, but not 'big enough that it protruded' kind of bags attached below them delicately. The gentle up curve of the sides of his big button nose was really attractive, and he had semi-big lips that pouted out like the small petals of a daisy.

Seeing Jaehyung's joking, almost condescending smirk resurface onto his face and look down onto Dowoon's expressionless eyes, which now refused to concentrate on anywhere but the floor was maybe, just maybe-sort of sad.

Unlike Jihyo, you couldn't see even a small fragment of the sky in his eyes-it was as if someone had just painted his eyes brown and decided it would stay that way for the rest of the day.

Dowoon was too embarrassed to do anything else, and without even looking up, he passed the microphone to the PE teacher, whose nonchalant expressions didn't seem to care much either.

Inside, a pang of guilt rose up to your chest, and you unconsciously started to frown along with him as you noticed how uncomfortable his hardened features had looked, amongst all the giggles thrusting through his gentle heart.

Being known by 'the guy who ate ants as a kindergartener' to everyone, instead of who he really was mustn't have been a very nice feeling, especially to his juniors-who was supposed to look at him as a superior and a leader figure.

Just as you were debating on whether or not to ask them to stop, a scream broke out through the assembly grounds, shutting everyone up with a magic swipe of its hand.

Of course, it had to be the stupid whistle.

"Are we here to joke, or train? Get up, all of you! We're going to run today." the PE teacher's obnoxiously booming, demanding voice rang into everyone's ears unpleasantly, the catalyst to the small groans of dismay breaking out amidst the class that was already preparing to stand and walk to the field.

"Can you believe he actually did that?" your friends approached you in a fit of giggles as all of you approached the running track, with a new topic to revolve your conversation around.

Just that, this time, you didn't really want to join in.

It wasn't the best of days after all, you thought with a small hang up in the side of your chest. Out of all things, after seeing a poor boy getting bullied by his own friends, you had to do the stupid 4 rounds that all of you did practically every week.

As you braced yourself painfully for the sweating and fatigue that was to come, taking your rightful place behind the white tape attached to the floor marking the starting point- an unusually low cough brushed by your ears briefly, and instinctively, you whirled around.

You saw the big, believing eyes of a child again as you did so-it was Dowoon, and to your surprise, those eyes noticed your gaze and looked back.

Crap, he's really, very cute. you could feel your head lose some of its gravity and your heartbeat accelerating as he proceeded to smile after, the lift of his plump, daisy lips showing off his round, marshmallow-like cheeks.

"You okay?" his deep voice asked you gently, and you nodded with a small laugh, realising how much of a mess you must have looked in front of him for him to ask such a question.

"I should be the one asking you that. I'm sorry for laughing at you earlier."

With that, his smile angled further into a laugh of his own, and Dowoon replied, "It's okay. I'm used to it already."

You could already feel your forehead crease in slight disbelief, as you stared at the sheepish falter in his smile and recalled how unhappy he was earlier on.

"That's not true-"

BEEP!

The PE teacher's whistle had already gone off, and Dowoon, much to a top runner's expectations, was already speeding far ahead of you with a steady, confident pace as his brown curls bounced gently under the force of his movements.

Looking at nowhere but the front, he looked determined to finish what he had started-something you could probably only dream of having.

"What's taking you so long? Hurry up!" the PE teacher yelled at you, averting your attention away from your senior and back to your miserable plight.

You sighed with a slightly defeated energy, giving him a perfunctory nod as you too, began to move towards the finish line.

That is, if you could even make it.

As you ran, you made a mental note to never use that stupid whistle ever again.

________________________________________________

31st December, 2018.

"Se-second place in class? No way, you must have heard wrongly. Second place girls-wise, maybe..." you insisted disbelievingly, feeling the air brush against your throat as you inhaled sharply, hardly able to fathom the news that had just been broken to you.

Contrary to what your stubborn mentality refused to accept, your deskmate Sungjin just nodded again, the smile on his face laced with a small hint of amusement-he too, probably foresaw that you wouldn't believe such a thing.

"I'm serious, man. It came as a shock to everyone yesterday as well." he said, hiding a gentle, but knowing giggle in 'serious'. "You really have Dowoon to thank, look at you go."

You stared at the suggestive crease in Sungjin's big, pretty eyes, not bothering to hide the sarcasm dripping from your smile (very well knowing that someone like Sungjin was capable of playing such pranks on you).

"And where can I get more reliable information?" you demanded, refusing to tear away your gaze from his, and noticing the added pressure in 'reliable', Sungjin couldn't help but break into a more relaxed smile as he lifted his hands up in surrender.

"Fine, go see for yourself, just don't hit me, please."

He pointed a finger at the notice board, littered with numerous sheets of construction paper from all the projects your class had been assigned this year, almost like a peacock's feathers unfolding.

However, there was one paper that stood out from the rest, dull, white and boring-but maybe not so, once the truth was revealed.

In big, bold letters, it spelt:

PHYSICAL EDUCATION EXAMINATION RESULTS: CLASS 3D9.

The thought of knowing your results had thrown all thoughts of replying to Sungjin out of the window as you could hear the squeak of your shoe soles speed across the classroom towards the notice board.

Frantically, as the long table of students revealed a clearer picture of itself to you, you decided on looking at all the names from the bottom to the top-no better way to set yourself up for disappointment than to face it sooner.

It had been a while of panning up, and your squatting legs were getting tired; though knowing full well that you looked the part of an idiot while doing all this. You couldn't find your name anywhere on the board, and as your legs slowly broke its position to ascend further, the anxiety in your chest seemed to rise along with it-what if you had done so bad a job, you couldn't even get a position?

What if Dowoon had seen it and would never talk to you ever again? What would your parents say when they knew...

Just as your imagination was trailing all the way off from your real goal, the truth imprinted in cold, black ink debunked all of the scenarios in your head.

Your name was right next to the position, second place.

"So you weren't lying!" was the first thing you did as you shouted out of instinct from the opposite position of the classroom. As many other students turned their heads to you in slight frustration, you could hear Sungjin's sniggers direct back at you in response, which was yeah, albeit sort of annoying-but nothing could really smother the joy you were feeling at this moment.

Your eyes lingered for a long time onto the placing that you had gotten, and you recalled all of Dowoon's practice sessions with you-how he had drawn out almost 90% of his 4 month break just to train with you after school, how you had nearly tripped over a hurdle on the running track and causing both of you to laugh, how he had made you draw out a meal plan for him to monitor your food intake everyday-you'd never thought you'd say this, but you really, really missed it.

As you thought back to the believing eyes of a small child, looking up at the boundless sea of a sky-the clouds floating past resembling well his sweat glazed cheeks, you realised-how much you'd miss his presence that pushed forward, reaching out to the you who couldn't be bothered with most things, his care that reached out to the you who didn't care for yourself-not necessarily in a romantic way.

The thought of getting Dowoon's number had very stupidly, slipped off your mind amidst all the joy he had brought you, and your good mood was surprisingly diminished by a small tinge of guilt as you returned to your desk.

You regretted it. A lot.

"All those training sessions with her partner must have helped a lot, huh? The one who ate ants in kindergarten, I have to laugh." Suddenly, the silent, but tangible hiss of a group of girls fluttered past your ears, and without thinking, a small sense of anger blazed up in your heart as you stood up with a jolt.

How dare they say such a thing about such an amazing person.

Your chair did a loud, ugly screech against the floor as it happened, and the girls looked to you, slightly perplexed-that was, until you grabbed onto their wrists, and locked eyes with them-with a fire in your eyes that you yourself hadn't recognised.

"Don't talk about your senior like that." you deadpanned, with the motivation of anger that had backed you up well.

Just then, you noticed the arch of your eyebrows, and the anger in your movements reflected in their cowardly gazes, and for a second, you wondered-if the you that was acting like this, was really you.

"Sorry." was all they could manage awkwardly, a sheepish, yet somehow insincere smile dripping from their lips as they slipped away to their own desks-people nowadays just loved to talk about others behind their backs, and you sighed.

Only your love could make the me who was stuck in a rut run again.

_____________________________________________________________

"You got second place in the finals? Okay. Well, good for you, but I don't think you'd come to me just for that." the PE teacher slurred his words sharply, suddenly looking up at you from the bend of his glasses with a dull expression in his eyes. He seemed way more fascinated in the papers lulled over by his wrists than your dumb questions, and in all honesty, it was getting sort of annoying.

The lazy whirr of the fan spun over your head, fitting perfectly into the awkward silence between you and the teacher as you twiddled your thumbs awkwardly, trying to figure out a way to paraphrase such a stupid request-not daring to meet his steely gaze that somehow, stubbornly refused to tear away from yours.

He was right, however; the last thing you'd ever do was to go into the lion's den without an ulterior motive.

No one really dared to talk to the PE teacher about anything else besides school.

Plus, you could already imagine all the worst case scenarios if he was in a particularly bad mood today, and...let's just say that detention would potentially be the second best option.

He really wasn't the best person to talk to.

But in this case...

You looked up at the spinning blades of the fan again, and felt the swirl of cool air blow through your hair gently.

Maybe he was.

At such a comforting touch, you tried your best to ignore the pounding headache dragging you down; and with painstakingly mustered courage, you spoke.

"T-Teacher, do you have Dowoon's number? Like, the one who was our senior?"

Regret kicked in the second you had spoke of Dowoon's name, and you could literally feel your temples and limbs lose all sense of gravity as your reputation crashed to the floor. You could feel your heartbeat go into allegro, pounding onto every organ in your body as the PE teacher looked up with the most unreadable expression on his face.

Sweat emitted disgustingly from your scalp as your chest rose and fell back in waves, failing terribly to compose yourself. This is it, you dreaded your indelible fate that was to come as the PE teacher raised his eyebrows-you were barely standing up already, and you could feel your kneecaps wobble unhelpfully under the tendrils of anxiety.

I'm doomed for life, Dowoon's gonna think I'm a stalker, and-

"Hahahaha."

Laughter rolled out in the depth of that intimidating voice, like coffee spilt over a cleanly lacquered table.

You felt your eyes widen as you looked up at the teacher again, still grasping for breath as your heart refused to stop beating-after all, collapsing on the spot seemed like the best path in such an awkward situation.

Especially when he looked at you with amusement twinkling in the corners of his slit-shaped eyes.

"So, what next? You're asking, me? To help you with your half baked attempt of asking a senior out on a date?" he snarled sarcastically, getting out of his seat and approaching you. The corners of his mouth tugged at a smirk, baring his set of sharp teeth; the jaws of a wolf, that spelt warning at its finest, and in all your shock, you recoiled back.

You didn't think this was how it would end up; no, not like this.

Just then, you felt a hand arrest your wrists tightly, digging holes in your skin.

The pain from the wolf's claws amplified your vocal cords as you screamed, causing all the other teachers out there to look at you from their desks, and inside, you wanted to cry; you had never been humiliated so bad in your entire life.

"In your dreams."

Just like that, with the help of a brute force you were mercilessly thrown out of the staff room, and before you could even put a foot on the floor to stabilise yourself you heard a loud bang behind you-followed by the even more painful sound of the lock seizing the entrance of it.

You got up, slightly blank, slightly hollow, slightly lost-as you walked a bit further, heart feeling heavy with all the baggage in your chest-before the feelings got hold of your throat, and tumbled out through your eyes unashamedly.

You were way too sad to hide any further.

Pathetically, to do all you could to mask the feelings that had crept up onto you, through the not so fair play of fate; you held a wrist to your face as you sprinted back to class, with a scar zipped across it, just as it had done for your broken heart.

__________________________________________

"I'm sorry for what happened today...but I'm happy that senior was able to bring you so far." he barely managed, with his smooth, soft voice that seemed to skim lightly over the atmosphere of the café; just like the soft cream that had been drizzled meticulously over the cup of coffee on the table.

You weren't taking it, the coffee that he had made for you not too long ago. Not really that you had anything against him, no-definitely not your caring, gentle coworker, but you didn't really have the mood to drink anything as of now...You sighed briefly, dusting your apron to keep yourself preoccupied, but still not managing to let off all the steam in your body.

The incident had very admittedly, left you scarred; very literally and mentally. Leftover embarrassment was still tugging at the corners of your heart, begging to be attended to while you tried your best to shrug it off, and walked to the counter to unlock the cashier; the cheery ring of the bell above the door had struck at a rather unconventional time, and a customer was already walking in.

It wasn't very fair that they'd have to put up with your emotional baggage when they were here to get a drink, maybe even to destress and wind down for the day.

"Pil-ah, it's okay, I don't really want a drink as of now." you played it off as calmly as you could, slotting the key into the box and letting it slide open with a click. "You can drink it or something, you don't look too energised yourself."

A disappointed whine echoed back in response to your lousy excuse; there was no way Wonpil was going to believe such a stupid reply, and you could already anticipate his nagging voice as he opened his mouth.

"Heyyyyy, come on...don't be like this, I've known you for so long already. You've got to take care of yourself, even when you're sad."

The last line got you hard, and as you saw the customer's eyes widen in judgement behind her mop of ashy bangs, you couldn't help but glare back at him.

"Wonpil, I said I was okay." you deadpanned with added pressure, however, subsequently feeling guilt crawling onto your nerves after realising how mean that had sounded. His features had softened considerably, with a slightly hurt look in his big, innocent eyes, and you didn't really want to hurt anyone else when you yourself had been hurt enough.

"I'm sorry, just-I'm tired from today." you sighed helplessly, having been pushed into a corner, and being his understanding self, Wonpil nodded back with concern laced in his seemingly nonchalant smile.

After making sure everything was more or less alright, you hastily attended back to the customer, who was looking slightly frustrated with how long you were taking-and after she had ordered her iced americano, she looked a little more satisfied as she took a seat by the table nearest to the window.

It wasn't surprising; the weather today was warm. Lances of golden sunlight had dropped by the café, gracing its interior in its crisp, evening glow, and very miserably, laughing at your bad mood that contrasted with it.

"Are you okay now?"

You turned around to see Wonpil, eyebrows raised, hands rested in the pockets of his apron; and a rare, but serious look in his eyes as he prepared to listen to you.

As much as you didn't want him to worry over you, you knew how stubbornly insistent he was with getting things off your chest, so nevertheless, you opened your mouth-wondering what you had done to deserve his grace at the back of your mind.

"I-It's nothing really, it's just-" you exhaled, breaking into a nervous box smile as you ran a hand through your hair, barely having the right state of mind to continue, "I really wanted to thank him for his kindness and how he cared for my growth so selflessly, but apart from being so embarrassed by the teacher, not being able to do that anymore-it makes me feel so, so bad, knowing that I was never able to do anything for him, because I really, really miss him, and-"

"Don't say anymore. I understand."

You felt Wonpil's hand descend onto your back, like the touch of a small, but pretty little butterfly as it fluttered over the expanse of your spine, caressing it gently and hushing your shaking nerves.

All the thoughts had miserably, coaxed your feelings forward, and without knowing, you had started to cry again as you held your palms to your face-trying your best not to cry too loudly as you let out small, uncontrollable sobs.

"T-Thank you so much." you choked awkwardly, not knowing any better way to express your gratitude, and even in the darkness of your closed eyes, you could already picture Wonpil's relaxed, comforting smile playing on the sides of his face as he chuckled softly.

Just then, a cough cut in, putting a halt to your sobs and causing both of you to turn to the customer.

"Um...I'm sorry to interrupt this moment, but can I have three iced lattes? Please?" he said, carrying a half air, half voice tone-and with the guidance of your instinct your head immediately shot up from your palms.

There was only one person you knew with such a voice-the one you heard when you had first met the school alumni.

"P-Park Jaehyung?" you yelled instinctively, and your own eyes revealed the truth to you quickly-lean, rosy cheeks, big lips, small, droopy eyes, that were now widened into large circles as they stared back at you, with equally as much surprise in his gaze.

"Ohhhhh my! Y-You're the junior that trained with Dowoon a lot, right?" In his hearty voice, he exclaimed almost disbelievingly, but causing you to blush furiously; it was rather weird being so closely associated with him. "And hey, don't be rude-how dare you call a senior by their full name." he added on teasingly, and both of you laughed.

"I think I'll make the drinks for today-you definitely need to catch up with him, someone might be there waiting for you." Wonpil's voice said behind you understandingly, and you said a quick thank you with a smile before walking over to Jaehyung's seat.

"Oh, sorry for my impoliteness, Your Highness, Park Jaehyung, my queen-does this make it better now?" you retorted quickly, with a cheeky smirk on your face and triggering a gasp from him.

"Excuse me? Your audacity? Oh, and by that guy's sound, you sound like you're only here to see Dowoon, how sad-he isn't here, because I'm the most significant out of everyone there." he snickered back, laughing even harder when you stuck out your tongue back at him pettily-but to your surprise, it didn't last very long.

"Jaehyungie-hyung, don't be so mean! I'm here, hi! I haven't seen you in so long, are you doing okay?" a deep voice exclaimed, causing your jaw to drop even further, if that was even possible-and your feelings seemed to arrest all the air in your chest, just for a second-when you once again, saw the big, believing eyes of a child and his kind, untainted smile.

It was the boy that had spent countless hours under the sun, pushing you towards your goals endlessly.

It wasn't just any person, a random school alumni that had came to their transit stop for a while to leave again-it was Dowoon, Yoon Dowoon, of all people that you could have seen on that miserable day of yours.

It seemed almost intangible, yet so palpable as you ran to him, calling his name, as your hands managed to even hug his taller figure again-you could have nearly cried when you felt his bigger palm crash against your back with sincerity, and while you heard Dowoon's deep voice roll out a long string of laughter, commenting jokingly, "Man, I never knew a girl would miss me so much," you sort of wanted to smack him-yet was definitely in awe of the fact that you could hear that laughter again.

You'd never think that you would have heard it ever again.

"Shut up, I'm just here because you got me a second place position in running, loser." you giggled it off coolly, but failing terribly to hide the happiness stupidly written all over your face as Dowoon's smile angled up further, wearing his pride proudly on his sleeve as he gave you a high five.

"Really? Oh my gosh, that's so amazing! I'm so proud of my student." he laughed, childlike eyes widening in happiness and amplifying his innocence. "You deserve it man, you trained so hard for the test-definitely more commitment than I think you would have had."

"Ow, thanks a lot for the last comment, jeez, alright, I know I suck." you jutted out your lips in faux sadness, clutching your heart to your chest-but quickly remembering why you were so happy to see him again, you hastily added, "But thanks anyway, for guiding me. Couldn't have done it without you, taking so much time off your break."

There. I finally said it, you thought happily, allowing yourself a small grin when Dowoon rejected your praises quickly, hurriedly saying, "No, no, I didn't really do anything," and starting to ramble on about how you had done so much more to deserve it-his eyes got even bigger when he was in slight shock, and he looked the part of a small, innocent child more than ever.

"And oh, right." Dowoon suddenly spoke up amidst the topic of running, grabbing your attention. You couldn't help but giggle when he was about to open his mouth to speak, but instead-shut it again and started tugging the edges of his hair, mouthing things to himself with eyes squeezed together tightly-probably a long string of Jaehyung's 'motivational quotes.

A part of your heart fluttered at the purity his very being exuded-he was really, very cute.

But in all your mirth, you couldn't help it-you absolutely had to smack him.

"Yoon Dowoon, hurry up!" you snapped quickly, however with a cheeky smile that showed your real intentions. Dowoon was momentarily taken aback-but his features quickly softened after, when he realised you were joking.

"Sorry for being such a big mess, it's just..." he barely smiled softly, breaking out into further nervous laughter when Jaehyung and Younghyun started to beat his back repeatedly.

"Do you want to go out with us today? We're going to my place further out from the city, and uh...we're setting off fireworks and having a picnic around there and playing our instruments and stuff-" There was probably going to be no end to his rambling if Younghyun hadn't gave him a loud slap on his back-at this point, the creases in his eyes and sheepish box smile showed it all; he was incredibly, incredibly flustered, and to your dismay-also incredibly endearing.

But still, you couldn't miss grabbing the opportunity to tease him. You lifted your lips into a smirk, rocking your shoes against the foot of the table as you cooed, "Aww, is my senior asking me out on a date? I'd love to go with you, aww, Dowoonie..." Everyone in the place, yes, including that grumpy female customer; broke into fits of giggles, raising the atmosphere of the previously still, 'cultured' public place as you chased after Dowoon, who was currently running away from you and ducked his head to hide under the table.

"Haha, why are you genuinely scared? I was only joking, you're so adorable." you grinned cheekily as you saw the blush dancing above his round, squishy cheeks and the embarrassment in his semi opened eyes, "I'll come with you. It's quite timely as well, since I've had quite a bad day at school...You know what, I'll say later. I gotta finish my shift first, Wonpil can't possibly do everything for me." you quickly added when you saw his eyebrows widen in slight concern, and with a good-natured, outstretched wrist you helped Dowoon up from the table; who was quick to stick out his tongue when he saw that Jaehyung and Younghyun were still unable to contain the mirth written across their faces.

"So, I'll see you at 7 then?" he smiled awkwardly, trying his best to ignore them, and you nodded back eagerly as you walked him out of the shop, and into the embrace of the outdoors again.

It seemed so coincidental, that even as Jaehyung and Younghyun had simultaneously tagged along behind the two of you and out into the open, the sun was only blazing through the gaps in Dowoon's curls-girdling the ridges of his shoulders, slicing through the sides of his face and oozing into the crevices of his warm, faith-filled eyes.

You smiled.

The world was so beautiful.

"See you later! Don't miss me too much!" you yelled out to Dowoon jokingly, as he and the other boys got into the small scooters they shared-and after he had yelled back with equal gusto, "Back at you!", the three scooters sped in the other direction; hopefully, anticipating the time where they came back the other way again, because you sure were.

_____________________________

unknown: It's 7 lol have you ended your shift yet?

you: Yeah I have! Are you Dowoon or...?

unknown: No I'm Brian #sike

unknown: Please ignore that, Jaehyungie-hyung took my phone, I don't know what he's doing with his weird hashtags again TTTTTTTTT

you: HAHAHAHA TELL HIM HE SUCKS

you: It's nice to have your number though...it sucked not being able to contact you :( How did you get it anyway?

Dowoon: Yeah hhhh Wonpil told me earlier :) I didn't think you would mind...so

you: Haha of course not! Anyway, are you on the way?

Dowoon: Wouldn't dare to be late, I'm already here hehe ^^

Your head shot up with excitement, nearly screaming as you saw three headlights blaze at you, from the curtain of darkness that had shrouded the city not too long ago. It was around autumn right about now, and you were rather sensitive to the cold-so seeing their warm presence was quite comforting.

Noticing that you were already hanging up your apron and practically bouncing to the kitchen to clean up, Wonpil couldn't help but throw a good-natured laugh at you. "Someone's excited for their first date." he remarked suggestively, cleaning the used table under the illumination of the light bulb hanging above him, and if it wasn't for the distance between both of you you would have probably kicked him in response.

"Shut uuuuup, there's literally 2 other boys goiiiiing." you whined, taking one of the leftover plates scattered across the sink and soaping it,"-The chances of you and I dating just about now is probably way higher than Dowoon...well, at least, I've known you for about a year plus right now, and him, 6 months at most." Wonpil couldn't help but giggle again at the uncertainty in your voice, and pettily, you stamped your feet on the floor.

"There's no way my future partner will be someone as mean as you, I take all my words back." you pouted jokingly, and subsequently, starting to laugh at yourself too-this conversation was going absolutely nowhere.

"Hey, but in all seriousness, I think you should just go. Don't make them wait too long, after all, one of them is your future boyfriend. I'll take care of wrapping up." Wonpil spoke up again, approaching you as he hung the cloth by the arch of the sink, and took the plate from your hand kindly-gesturing for you to wash your hands as he pointed to the tap.

With unmasked gratitude you smiled back at him, washing your hands briefly before taking your phone from the counter, "Thanks again, Pil-ah; and one more freaking thing, before I have to repeat it a second time, there is no way Dowoon is going to be my boyfriend." you remarked strictly, taking your school bag from the seat close to the door and slinging it over your shoulder excitedly-the events of tonight sounded incredibly fun.

"Thank me by inviting me to your future wedding!" Wonpil screamed in his high pitched voice when you opened the door, with the silvery chime of the bell above it-and this time, you really, really wanted to kick him, because outside, in the cold of the night Jaehyung was literally having the time of his life laughing at you and nodding back to Wonpil in agreement (one of the rare times where he actually sided him).

"Boys suck." you groaned pettily as Dowoon, with unmistakeable redness on his face gestured for you to get onto the back of his scooter, and Younghyun laughed.

"Doesn't seem that way with our Dowoonie, am I right?" his unmistakeable fox eyes shot you a small wink, which was sort of annoying-till he yelled smugly, "Good luck on being the first there with extra baggage! Not like anyone ever manages to triumph me anyway."

With that, Younghyun's scooter whizzed off, black coat and black locks fluttering behind him care freely, like how his very personality was-and soon, Jaehyung's scooter whizzed off too, the only thing behind him being his screams of "I'm GONNA BEAT YOU THIS TIME, BRIAN!", and you couldn't help but giggle a bit-the antics of those two were always so stupidly humouring.

"Sorry, they can be a bit of a public embarrassment." Dowoon laughed helplessly, shaking his head, and with a small smile you too shook your head; you were totally fine with them, and you'd even say that having them around was enjoyable. "-Jihyo and Chaewon are actually joining us later, but they weren't comfortable on the scooter, and we need someone to drive our instruments."

He paused for a bit to catch his breath, expelling a small puff of white before explaining, "I hope you're okay with it too-the scooter can feel very unbalanced at first, but I think you can handle it. This sounds incredibly awkward, but you gotta hold onto my waist, or you'll probably fall off within a second of me accelerating. Alright? Don't want to be responsible for your medical fees." Dowoon ended off with a joking crease in his smirk before he tossed you a neon yellow helmet from the basket of the scooter, and you nodded before putting it on.

He thrusted the key into the slot rather vigorously, and soon there was a dull roar from the engine behind you, and at his command, you awkwardly positioned your hands at his waist area. Admittedly, it felt pretty good, however-the coat that hugged his waist was made of soft, thick brown fabric, and it reminded you of your honey scented sheets back at home.

"Ready to ride?" he suddenly piped up, happiness laced in his deep, comforting voice, and you shot him a thumbs up sign.

"Always ready." you answered eagerly, and with a louder roar from the engine than before, both of you sped out towards the moon, that lay on the horizon of the shimmering sea.

________________________

You felt like you were riding on the brim of a cloud as the wind zipped through your hair and your jacket, starting to take flight and flutter violently behind you like kites in the sky. The feeling of being so close to land, yet so far up into the sky was so indescribable-gravity accelerated the thrill in your heart as Dowoon let out a long, unceremonious scream, cheering for the destination that wasn't too far from where you were.

"We're almost here!" he broke into a small gummy smile beneath the mop of his fluttering curls-they seemed to run across the border of his forehead, like running waves crashing beautifully onto the shore of a beach.

However, contrary to your imagination, the river that surrounded all of you in its big embrace was especially quiet-only letting small dribbles of light from the lighthouse float gently above the surface of the waves as both of you moved past, like bioluminescent lily pads that had descended from the glow of the moon. Mountains foreshadowed the road ahead mysteriously, painted in a darker shade of navy than the star speckled-sky above both of you, and the road to the picnic area was long and windy, snaking out into a canopy of trees relaxedly.

"You'd never get anything like this in the city." you said in slight awe, hands slowly finding themselves crawling up to Dowoon's broad shoulders as you dared to hoist yourself up, breaking up from your posture a tad bit, and as you felt one of his curls brush past your wrists, he laughed his slow, deep laugh in response.

"You're cute. I had a friend that didn't live in Busan as a kid, and he lived in the more country area-he would probably protest if he heard what you just said..." His deep voice trailed off softly, seeming to follow the snaking nature of the concrete road ahead of you. "-Nevertheless, I'm happy we're here. It's nice to ride out here with someone."

His eyes, which had now stopped displaying the light of the sun to catch the glow of the moon, was still as warm as ever in the cold weather. With undeniable faith tinting the light that ringed his eyes, half opened submissively and bringing out the semi rosy tint in his bags, the carefree smile on his lips and the uplift of his cheeks resembling floating clouds didn't fail to bring you back in awe again; it was as if all laws of astronomy tailed after his presence, and followed in the footsteps of his unbreakable belief.

"You're really very beautiful." the words left your lips through an airy whisper, and you were too busy staring at him again to even notice what you said until Dowoon spoke up again.

"U-Um...Me? R-Really? Thanks, I guess..." his eyes bore a different spark to it as they drooped shyly, like a mimosa recoiling at someone's touch-and as the truth dawned onto you slowly, mixed feelings of embarrassment and self-blame kicked in a little too fast-you really, really wanted to kick yourself for saying that.

Trying to salvage the situation, you quickly spoke up upon seeing his tilted eyebrows and the embarrassment written on his face. "I-I didn't mean that in a weird way, I'm sorry, not that I don't love your looks-or not that I don't love you any less, i-it's just-" you stuttered awkwardly, brain stupidly failing you at this crucial moment-but being a nice guy, Dowoon just shook his head briefly.

With a small smile breaking onto his face, not fully suggestive; yet not fully chaste, he responded in awe, big eyes widening with more faith than before.

"No, no, please don't apologise, because..." Dowoon spoke with the smile of reuniting with someone again, overly excited to articulate his words properly, "B-Because, I-"

"Dowoon! What's taking you so long, can you drive faster? You're almost there already, hurry up!" Jaehyung's voice suddenly broke through the world that only both of you shared, halting the climax of the story. He and Younghyun were on a higher end of a cliff, where the destination was, and you could already see their hands waving vigorously in your direction. Jihyo and Chaewon had arrived too-you could see two figures with long hair sit on a big red mat.

"What was that you were going to say?" you asked, as the scooter started to move again; both of you had been so immersed in conversation that you hadn't even realised that Dowoon stopped the vehicle to talk.

However, contrary to what you thought he was going to say, Dowoon shook his head almost nonchalantly, losing a bit of the faith in his gaze as he looked down with baggy eyes of dejection.

He squeezed his lips into a textbook version of a smile and talked at a slower pace, this time more scarily composed than before. "I-It's nothing. I don't know if I'll have the courage to tell you again."

The entire trip to the cliff went downhill in a veil of awkward silence, both of you knowing full well in your hearts why such a thing had happened. Wind rocketed past your ears silently, blowing against your ears and hitting against your hair-as if coaxing you to speak, but right now, you didn't know if you had the courage to say anything to him when you had made him sad.

In less than a minute, the scooter had surfaced up the flatter parts of the cliff, and you decided that this was the best moment to speak up.

"I'm sorry if I made you sad or anything." you mumbled awkwardly, stepping out of the scooter and nearly losing your balance-having your feet on the ground after 2 whole hours seemed like a foreign concept to your legs right about now.

Dowoon shook a hand at you almost instantly. "You've made me more happy than I could ever imagine." he said unhesitantly, and this time, smiled at you with a more genuine smile. For a second, you could see the faith of the crescent moon resurface back on the ring of his eyes as he continued, "Just have fun tonight, that's all I ask for."

You nodded back, returning his smile; and with a new, strangely fluttering feeling in your heart you followed Dowoon to the picnic mat, where Jihyo and Chaewon were sitting, dressed in casual clothing-you felt slightly out of place, decked out in your sloppy, mud-speckled school uniform as you greeted them shyly, sitting yourself onto the mat. But thankfully, the girls initiated conversations well-definitely way better than you did, and within seconds, you hadn't even realised that Dowoon had slipped away to somewhere else.

"So, how's life after finals?" Jihyo asked cheerily, or rather, the way she usually talked; it wasn't rare to see that consistent, bright smile of hers plastered on her doll like face.

You didn't exactly know how to answer. "I don't really know. After school today I have that 4 month break that most have, so what happened after your break?" You started to laugh as you realised how you had redirected the topic back to them, and both of them started doing the same.

"Hmm-hahaha-I'd say that college life is still manageable, I've been doing it for about 2 months plus." Jihyo answered, failing to contain her laughter at one point as she squeezed her eyes together endearingly. "Chaewon is entering a polytechnic, so she has about 2 months more to break, same with Dowoon, Jaehyung and Younghyun want to go to a uni, so they're going to college too, but I don't know...like. I really don't know what I want in life yet..."

Her voice trailed off awkwardly, with the fading smear of her chirpy voice, and you couldn't help but relate. Sure, you had a subject combination and you had did pretty good in finals, but you didn't have a certain passion you would shirk everything to chase; not like many of the people in your class, who were already able to aim their arrows towards their target.

"It's okay. I'm sure you'll find it soon when the time arrives, I'm looking for what I want too." you said with empathy, and in response Jihyo nodded politely.

"I suppose."

All of you talked for a while longer, on less serious topics-occasionally breaking out in laughter when Jihyo came up with one of her silly, yet timely antics, and going soft hours when Chaewon showed all of you pictures of her labrador-it was a he, with a slender, healthy body and adorable marble eyes.

After a while of staring, you had only come to realise that the mahogany, soft brown shade of his fur was the same colour you saw, inked intricately in the depths of Dowoon's eyes.

Just then, there was a very coincidental, but hesitant tap on your shoulders.

"Can you come with me?" a low voice spoke up amidst the cooing over the dog, and you looked up, despite already recognising who it was.

This time, his gaze looked a little different; you couldn't help but feel slightly excited as you noticed the enigmatic sparkle that stood out amidst his gentle, brown eyes, taking his outstretched hand and standing up.

"Yoon Dowoon, I'm warning you, if you don't bring her back safely, we will tail after you with bats and split your head open." Jihyo suddenly spoke up with a glint in her big, doll eyes, voice cracking menacingly at the last line-and again, both of you laughed at her antics.

"Don't worry, I won't." he laughed awkwardly, voice faltering at the last line. You couldn't help but notice that Dowoon's cheeks were starting to heat up, but quickly ignored it when he gestured at you to follow him.

Contrary to what you thought it would be, the walk to the destination wasn't very long, unlike earlier on. From the angle of the picnic mat, a loudspeaker in the distance was clearly visible. Next to it were two other figures, Younghyun and Jaehyung-with a bass and electric guitar slung around their chests respectively.

Needlessly to say, you were shocked. "They can play those?" you exclaimed, and with a small nod, Dowoon chuckled gleefully, "Look to your left."

Without a moment of thought, you turned your head.

Cymbals, glinting on the cusp of its dully golden surface like the rings of Saturn, with two smaller drums and a large bass drum positioned at the bottom-it seemed like you were exaggerating, but...

"Dowoon, you can play that? " you cried out, faltering a little at the last word, but unlike how you had reacted, he just smiled like it wasn't that great of a feat to play the drums.

"Not just that, I'm going to play you a song." he responded triumphantly, as he approached the spinning chair behind it and sat down. A smug smile remained on his face unwaveringly as he bent down to pick up his drumsticks, humming a gentle tune between his lips-and you couldn't help but smile, wondering if that was the very song they were about to play.

"This is all for you by the way," Younghyun cut in, a malicious smirk playing on the sides of his lips as you turned to him, "-We have a school recital tomorrow, and we've practically practiced this song till we could play it with closed eyes-but our naughty youngest absolutely insisted on playing this instead of anything else, just because of his-"

"OKAY, OKAY, I think that's about enough." Dowoon shouted obnoxiously, with a slightly annoyed, slightly red look on his face, and everyone started to laugh.

"Take it away then, drummer boy." you said enthusiastically, remaining rooted to the ground in anticipation.

You definitely weren't ready for the moment he started to position those drumsticks of his.

As the guitar kicked off the song, while layered by the low consistency of the bass, you smiled unconsciously as you let the melody hum in your voice softly. It was in A major, a nice, steady rhythm; and more so when a string of clashes echoed from the cymbals, not too far away from where you were-before there was another silvery tap, followed up by what sounded like the rustle of leaves.

Then, as the melody descended down a few keys, Jaehyung rasped gently into the mic, like the soft blow of the night breeze surrounding you.

Every day I lived like I was dead But you

Became the reason For me to get up Once more You made me wanna open my eyes

In sync with the bass, your heart thumped against your chest-and you stared at Dowoon, who gave you a small smile, before going into a rapid flurry of beats yet again.

Just your smile alone Makes me breathe Because of you, I'm Better better Better baby Only your love Makes the frozen me Start to run again Higher higher Higher baby

The reason for all this looked back at you knowingly, with the same spark of faith spinning confidently in his eyes; as if he understood what he meant to you, and then, the night sky seemed to tear down from the face of the earth, and enclasp itself in the centre of his eyes.

I used to never wait for tomorrow But you Became the reason For me to take one more step Not too far ahead You held out your hand to me

Just your smile alone Makes me breathe Because of you, I'm Better better Better baby Only your love Makes the frozen me Start to run again Higher higher Higher baby The bass suddenly made no more sound, and soon, the music stopped with your heart.

"You must be confused now." Dowoon's low voice suddenly whispered at a distance awfully near where you were standing, and startling you; yet resonating so comfortingly in your ears while he spoke.

As he locked eyes with yours, the light promisingly dancing on the sides of his pupils held the lights of the stars in them-still the ones of a child, maybe even believing more than ever; and in all your awe you began to speak hastily, not knowing what to do.

"I-I don't know, I'm happy-and these words are what I've been meaning to say to you for the longest time, you mean a lot to me, and heck, I don't even know if I could have survived running without you, there's no way you could have known-"

"These words are the words I want to say to you too."

Your eyes widened as he said those words hopefully, taking your wrists-and all the signs of red surfacing across his cheeks, with the smiles that only he could have made you smile with; to the unsure, dull gaze you had seen at your first meeting, to the beautiful, starry sky you could barely fathom in the depth of his big, believing eyes.

"I wanted to drop by your school to visit, but I heard from your friends that you were hurting a lot today, so I didn’t end up going." he said quietly, now holding up the wrist with the thin, ugly scar zipped across it and kissing it; at that moment, you could barely believe the warmth that was withheld between every fibre in the soft, pillowy surface as Dowoon looked up at you again. "And I don't want to leave you like that again. Thank you for understanding me with that kind heart of yours, when I could barely have the willpower to train the batch, and bringing me so much happiness."

He paused for a bit, and as if his voice was a conductor, your breath halted simultaneously-before he opened his mouth again, and eagerly said the words that would change your life forever.

"I want to run with you forever."

You could barely contain yourself from crying again when the feelings gushed to your head, came raining down from your eyes as tears, and through all your emotions, you nodded vigorously.

"I want to do the same, Dowoon," you sniffed, barely stabilising yourself as you felt his callused hands land on your shoulders gently, holding you close to his chest, rising and falling in waves-he too, was crying; and you never wanted to leave that place again.

Just your smile alone Makes me breathe Because of you, I'm Better better Better baby Only your love Makes the frozen me Start to run again Higher higher Higher baby

From that day on, both of you ran not only across the running track in your school, but in the race of life, hand in hand-smiles being the breath in each other's lungs, and love being the reason to keep going.

Only your love could make the me who was stuck run again.

______________________

HECK THIS WAS SO CRINGEY AND CORNY IM SORRY ILL EDIT IT WHEN I HAVE TIME LOL!!! ugh I had sm fun tho lol Dowoon is really so precious and amazing aaaa ;;; also, I feel like I was only able to write this so well because of God, who plays the character of Dowoon and way more than that in my life-being the breath in my lungs and the reason to keep going, so really, all the glory be to Him, I have never wrote with such understanding of a concept like love and He really is so omnipresent and amazing in even everything I write even if I don't mention Him directly!!!

hehe I really like this story uwu its not the best and its way too long than it should have been but it will hold a special place in my heart!! to the anon that requested this I'm sorry if u expected a short read with a much more light hearted topic to 'cheering you up after a bad day at school' JHDSJKFHS HAHAHAHA gosh anyway I hope y'all enjoyed this if you even finished it, thanks for your support!! I'm writing this on my birthday so I gotta go sleep now, happy 2019 to everyone!

#admin n #day6 scenarios #yoon dowoon #better better #uwu

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pythonees · 7 years ago

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˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ Ride - Embry Call

POSTED: May 15th, 2018

WORD COUNT: 980

REQUESTED: Anon

A/N: Whoever requested this drabble probably forgot all about it. I’m a horrible person and I don’t deserve you people. I made some changes to my blog, like my icon and my info post (you can find that in my description), so take a gander through that and see whats up.

Embry is a naturally restless person, always wanting to get out of the house and go somewhere, anywhere, so long as he was out of the house and away from the neverending tension between him and his mother. When Y/N and Embry got together, he would normally include her in his little outings, be it during the day or in the middle of the night. Tonight was one of those nights, phone buzzing insistently on Y/N’s bedside table. Letting out a groan, Y/N was tempted to let the phone ring, muscles sore from practice earlier that day.

The vibrations stopped, silence settling over the dark room. Now feeling guilty, Y/N rolled over to face her phone, flicking on the lamp to see better, then grabbed her phone. Just as she unlocked it, it started to ring again, Embry’s smiling face taking up the screen, the top reading 4:57 in large, white letters. Y/N accepted the call, mumbling an almost silent ‘hello’ after she did.

“Hey babe, you up for a drive? I can be at your place in five.”

“Mmm, sure. I’ll be downstairs, so just flash your lights when you’re outside.”

“You got it,” Embry hung up without so much as a goodbye, he was probably passing by the Swan’s house and didn’t want to be caught on his phone. With little time to spare, Y/N changed out of her sleep clothes and into leggings and a sweater, then tried to get her hair under control.

Y/N slowly opened the door and crept down the stairs, not wanting to wake her parents. She grabbed her keys from the bowl by the door, and went to the living room to wait for Embry, messing around on her phone while she did so. Two cars drove down the street before Embry pulled up in the truck, stopping at the end of her driveway with three quick flashes of his headlights.

Y/N silently slips out of the house, locking the door behind her before sprinting to the truck. Embry leaned across the gear shift to open the passenger side door for Y/N, a wide grin on his face as he watched her approach. Once Y/N was in the truck and had the door closed, Embry drove away, out of her neighbourhood and towards the main road.

"You really have to choose a better time to do these drives, like before I fall asleep," Y/N said, muffling a long yawn with her hand.

"What's the fun in that?" That earned him a scoff, and Y/N moved to put on her seatbelt, looking out at the near empty road as they got closer and closer to the edge of town. The radio was playing music softly in the background, something that Y/N didn't care too much about. Instead, she turned her attention to Embry, reaching over to take his right hand off of the steering wheel and into her own.

Embry shot her a grin, bringing their hands up to press a kiss to the back of Y/N's hand. They drove for a long time, song after song playing on the radio, Y/N singing along quietly to the ones she recognized to keep herself awake. Sometimes Embry would join in, but he mostly just shot her fond looks when she wasn't looking. Eventually, Embry pulled off the main road and onto a run down one that ran between the trees. Embry pulled over by a stream that was shining in the moonlight, making it look like liquid diamonds.

"There are some pillows in blankets in the bed, I figured we could watch the sunrise or something," Embry said as he was turning off the ignition. Y/N nodded sleepily, undoing her seatbelt and getting out of the truck, Embry following suit. Y/N slowly walked around to the back of the truck, smiling at Embry who had already climbed in the bed and was arranging a pillow nest.

"Help me up?" Y/N asked, arms spread wide. Embry abandoned the blankest in favour of Y/N, hopping off the bed to get behind Y/N. Hands firmly gripping her hips, he boosted her up so she could pull her sore body onto the bed. He followed her in, setting up the last of the blankest before lying down, pulling Y/N down with him.

Y/N snuggled into his warm body, not bother with the spare blankets he brought, since they would just make her sweaty. Embry press a kiss to the top of Y/N's head, then tilted it up to connect their lips in a light, brief kiss.

When he pulled away there was a bright smile on his face, and Y/N moved her hand up to trace the smile with her thumb, hand cupping his cheek.

"How was practice?" Embry asked, smoothing a hand up and down Y/N's back.

"Exhausting. Some of the girls were goofing off, so coach punished us all by making us do a shit ton of burpees. The new girl puked, it was horrible," Y/N said, laughing at the end of her short story.

"She puked? I didn't think that was possible."

"Neither did I," a loud yawn cut Y/N off, "what about you, what did you do today."

"Patrol, the usual. No sign of any leaches, so Sam let me off early."

"Was probably tired of your whining," Embry groaned, but didn't correct her, making Y/N smile in victory.

The two of them lay there under the dawning sky, Y/N drifting in and out sleep as she continued her hushed conversations with Embry, watching the sky as it changed to an array of colours, brightening the sky to welcome the new day.

#twilight #twilight eclipse #Twilight New Moon #Twilight Breaking Dawn #embry call x reader #embry call #embry call imagine #reader insert #reader interactive #x reader #imagine #request #twilight imagine #cauldron

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unrequitedmime · 6 years ago

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He doesn't move from his spot on the bed, watching the rhythm my fingers seem to fall into as I plait my hair. It's getting too long. I need to cut it. "I'm going to cut it," I announce, eyes flickering to his in the mirror. He doesn't look away from my chocolate strands. "Don't," His voice is soft, distant. He is lost in his head again. I turn to him, hands on hips, mouth ready to utter the words that I have been aching to release. "Gabriella," His tone changes so fast, but then again, it always does. I never see the shift coming- the transition from doting boy to Explosives Commander. "Don't cut it." The words, as they somehow always do, deflate inside of my chest. They sputter to dust, and only I can hear them dissolving in the wind. We stare at each other for a few moments in the silence of my dorm. He looks away first. He always does. He always glances down at his shoes, or drag his eyes to a wall, or finds someone in a passing crowd to catch gazes with. Now his eyes fall upon my strands again. Perfectly plaited. As usual. The way he likes it. The door opens. My head whips to the person in my doorway, glare ready, heat burning. No one enters my dorm without knocking. Taja stares back at me, black eyes hard as steel today. "Knock," Is all I say. "Let's go," She almost snaps. She closes the door with a whoosh, and Grayson flinches as it slams. I do not, but the fire inside of me burns a little hotter. I try to settle the flames in my gut, because I understand. Taja is afraid today. I will not burn her. I say nothing as I scoop up my daggers and slip them into the dozen pockets of my brown cargo pants, flipping them around my fingers as I slide a few into my boots and one into my bra. Grayson remains on the end of my bed, watching not with curiosity, but with disapproval. "You're going to cut yourself if you put too many in." I spare him a glance as I slide the last two up the sleeves of my gloves. Black gloves. Everyone hates my gloves. They are the colour of evil, of the enemy. I don't care. I like them. "Only if I don't place them right." "How do you know if you're placing them right?" The curiosity comes out now; the inquisitive mind making gentle waves. "If I don't cut myself." I flick off my lights the same time I flick on my lamp, and the soft red light oozes into my walls. Half of Grayson's face is hidden in the shadows as he stands. He hates the light, too. But I love it. I turn it on when I leave for missions, and I turn it off when I come back alive. It is a reason to come home. Despite Taja's harsh impatience, I do not move as Grayson makes his way over to me. Together we stand in the near darkness, skin awash in blood red. His hand finds my neck and slides up to my cheek. Despite the words I wanted to scream just a few moments ago, I lean into his touch. "You know the rules," He whispers. "Don't be stupid," I whisper back. "That includes dying." "Dying for this cause is stupid?" His kiss is soft, and I almost sigh into the gentle caress of his lips. "Dying for this cause is the best way to die," He breathes, "But we should do it together one day. When we're both ready." Die together. One day. When we're ready. I don't think I'll ever be ready to die. "Sounds like a plan." "Great. It's a date, then." -------------------------------------------------------------- I do not look into the eyes of the man I plunge my knife into, but I do whisper a prayer to Reja as he slumps against my body. I let him drop and I continue on through the warehouse, body alert, blood pumping. The adrenaline races through my veins, but I stay calm as I turn into a hallway between the two warehouses. My steps are almost silent. I ignore the sound of gunfire below me, the smell of blood and gun powder that stings my nostrils. The dust coats my ugly plait, but almost blends in with the light browns of my uniform. Where is Raki? He should be back with Anastasia by now. I check my watch; identical to the rest of the team's watches to the very second. He is two minutes late. Raki is usually late, but this one is cutting it fine. Nothing to do but wait. I slip into a side office and begin to count the seconds. I do not focus on the screams of the Fiors, or the voices of my team as they call out to each other. They are strong, they are smart, they are fast. They are not my responsibility in this mission. Anastasia is. My spy. She has been gone for two months, undercover in the mouth of the beast itself; a Rensha camp. It took two months for them to realise her heart did not belong to their gods, but by then she had already disappeared. If we don't get her back to Base today, we will lose some of the most valuable information the Crade has ever gathered. I check my watch again. Five minutes late. Fucking hell, Raki. It takes two more minutes for me to find them. Three corridors away. My eyes fall on Raki's familiar mop of curls as I turn the corner and I swear. "Dammit, Raki-" And then I see the blood. It pours from his leg in rivers. The ruby red blood falls like a waterfall from my best friend. His head whips up at the sound of my voice, and there is a fever in his dark eyes that I have never seen before. It is real fear. Sweat coats his caramel skin, dampens his curls, beads on his top lip. "Hi, Angel," He grunts, quickening his pace despite the wound on his thigh. I say nothing as I sprint to him, gathering myself up under his arm and taking on his weight. I glance across his chest at Anastasia. She stares back at me, dirt stained but alive and unharmed. "What happened?" I almost growl, mind racing. How the fuck are we going to get out of this one, Raki? Anastasia opens her mouth to respond, but Raki's voice cuts her off, "Don't," He spits the word at her as if it is a curse. He glances down at me as we turn the corner, just a little bit closer to the meeting point. "She thinks the Rensha have a tracker on her voice." I stare at Anastasia for another moment before nodding my understanding. She nods back. How the hell are we supposed to get her information if she cannot say the words? "What happened then?" I ask Raki, almost demanding, "What did you do?" He laughs at the accusatory tone, "I shot myself in the fucking leg, Gabi. Just for shits and gigs." ' I only glare back. We fall silent and focus on moving my blood stained best friend to safety. Two more turns until we are at the checkpoint. Two more corridors. "Keep walking, Ki," I whisper, "Please keep walking." I almost laugh when we turn the corner and find three Fior soldiers at the end of it. Of course this has to happen to us now. My free hand slips into my pocket and finds the three daggers I have left. I do not make a noise as I throw them all at once. Every single blade finds it's target. We wordlessly step over their bodies. Please Reja, I pray, Please bless us with safety. Let us find our destination with no more obstacles. I have nothing left to fight with- "Prayers aren't going to save us now, Gabs," Raki's voice slurs as he begins to lose consciousness. I grunt as he teeters on his feet, "Stay awake you big Goof, or I'll kill you. " His chuckle is breathy and distant. We turn the last corridor. I prayed, but Reja did not listen. A Fior stands at the end. He is our age, perhaps younger. If I passed him on the street, I would take one glance at his flushed cheeks and his long lashes and call him a Tjue. A flower in my language. Flowers do not hold aimed guns, though. We come to a sudden stop, Raki swearing under his breath at the sudden jolt of stillness. My blood pumps in my ears, until all I can hear is my heart, Raki's struggling gasp, and the tap of the boy's finger against his trigger. "Don't move." "Don't shoot," I call. "Why shouldn't I?" Even his voice is young. I glance around the deserted corridor, at the debris and the loose bits and pieces of scaffolding that lay scattered around us. The boy is two metres away, maybe three. His grip on the gun does not falter. My eyes find it the same moment he steadies his stance. I know that stance. Spreading of legs, puffing of chest, a breath in- I have seen Raki train young Shooters enough to know what someone preparing to kill looks like. I do not say a word as I leap away from Raki and Anastasia. My hand closes around the pipe the same moment Raki's legs finally give out. A cry escapes Anastasia's lips as he collapses onto her. The boy's eyes widen- that is all I see before I throw the pole with all of my might. Every single shred of my strength goes into that throw. It embeds itself in his chest and sails right through his body. The pole clatters onto the ground a moment before he drops dead. A moment of stillness. I stare in the silence, my chest heaving. If I did not know any better, I would say that those were sobs rattling my heart cage. But I do not cry. A warrior cannot cry. I say a prayer out loud this time, breathless and raspy. I have killed a young boy. This prayer, this acknowledgement of sin, deserves to be heard by any gods listening. I deserve to be acknowledged as broken. "Gabi," Raki murmurs from the ground, trying to crawl through the debris towards me. Despite the rawness of his pain, his voice is soft. He knows what that kill cost me. He knows what every kill costs my heart. I do not turn around to my bleeding best friend. I only stare at the body of that boy. He has a mother, a best friend, a father, a family. He had a life. I took it away from him. The thoughts tumble through my body like a pinball, hitting every single one of my bones and rattling them. For a few moments, there is nothing but my gasping chest and my murmured name on Raki's lips over and over. And then Anastasia says my name. She says it differently; heavier, sadder, louder. Something about it makes me look. My eyes find hers first. She is covered in white dust from her spot on the ground. And then my eyes find the Rensha standing behind her. "No!" My scream is broken glass and jagged blades and the lost life of a little boy. I throw myself at Anastasia, over Raki's body, and claw at her. Her hand finds mine the exact moment the Rensha grabs her. The last thing I see before they disappear are her blue eyes. They are so, so sad. I know that look. My spy says a final goodbye. And then my hands are left empty. The Rensha are going to kill her. ----------------------------------------------------------- Grayson has not said a word the entire time. He has only stood frozen, chin resting on his palm as he thinks, that familiar frown dotting his eyebrows. I glance up at him as Raki argues with Justine from his spot in the corner. The sound of their voices fade into a familiar buzz as I watch Grayson. "You don't think I should do it." He finally looks up at me, his light brown eyes almost hazed over with thought. It takes him a few moments to respond. "I think that if you step into that camp, you will never step back out." I clench my fist, "You don't think I can survive it?" "I don't think anyone can survive it, Gabriella." I look back down to the map resting on the old oak table. My eyes skip and dance over the points I've drawn. Our paths, our target, our escape routes. I see so many flaws that it almost scares me. But what scares me more is losing my spy. "We cannot let Anastasia go just like that-" "We didn't let her go just like that," His voice has an edge to it now, as it always does when I try to argue with his logic, "You stormed a Fior warehouse to find her. Raki got shot in the leg. Kina suffered a minor stab wound, Taja still hasn't stopped trembling, and you cut your hair." I make a tsking sound with my tongue and glare, "Me cutting my hair ISN'T a sign of a mental breakdown." "You're lucky no one died, Gabriella." I almost hiss at the scorn in his voice. "Do not scold me," I snap, "You are not my superior, Grayson." He rolls his eyes, and I feel the fire ignite once again. I have not felt that fire for the past two days, since the moment that boy's heart stopped beating. "What do you suggest we do, then?" My voice is louder than I'd like it to be, and Justine's argument with Raki quiets at the sound of my anger. "Just leave her to die?" "She knew what she was sacrificing-" "Don't hit us with that bullshit," Raki calls from his corner, the disgust clear in his voice. "We all know what we are getting into. Does not mean we all deserve to die in enemy territory." "Yes," Grayson's voice trembles with barely restrained frustration. He hates when Raki and I argue against him, "But as a spy, Anastasia understands-" "You know what I don't understand, Grayson?" Raki interrupts, almost shroud in shadows. His voice seems to come from everywhere at once. "Why you won't assist us. You live and breathe bombs," Grayson's eyes flicker at the mockery, "So why can't you create one that helps make this plan a little easier for us?" "Because it is a suicide mission, Rakiel," Grayson spits, "And I do not involve myself in stupid plans." The hurt hits square in my chest, and I know I do not do a well enough job of hiding the look on my face, because Grayson's expression falls. "I didn't mean-" "I don't care what you meant," My voice is cold, "I am getting my spy. And I am coming back home when I am done." He stares at me, and I do not look away, "Leave my lamp on." -------------------------------------------------------------- "How am I supposed to walk among them without killing every single one of these motherfuckers?" Taja's voice is raw with hatred. I glance away from the camp and at her, crouched in the shadows of the fern. She hates the Rensha more than anyone I have ever met. We all hate the Rensha; the race of power shifters that kill and pillage as they please. I was born hating them. I do not like to think of my Ma and Pa; farmers tortured and murdered by a few bored Rensha when I was only eight. I still have nightmares about their screams, sometimes. Every single Crade has lost something to the powers of the Rensha. The war between the Crade and the Rensha started when I was nine; a bloody and hateful conflict between the races, each side fighting for freedom from each other. I have killed more Rensha in my year with the Crade Forces than I can count. I spent my entire childhood jumping from Crade rebellion to Crade rebellion. Only when I found the power of the Crade Forces did I realise that the trick to winning this war is not politics, it is action. "You don't," I respond to Taja, glancing back out at the camp. In a few more moments, their Guardian Rens will finish their rest and come back to enforce the magnetic field. We have mere seconds to act. "Please let me kill-" "This isn't about your desire for vengeance, Taja." She glares and opens her mouth to snap back at me, but I am already gone. I do not look back at my dark skinned warrior as I stride right into enemy territory. I know without glancing back that her eyes will track me for a few moments, and then she will disappear into the shadows. I wonder how well she will do it. We all have our moments of glory. Raki is at his best when his guns are aimed, Grayson does best when his hands are cutting wires, Kina does best when her swords are swinging. Taja is at her best when she is bellowing in battle. She will not like the silence of the shadows like I do. The fear does not rip into me as I walk through the centre of the camp, eyes down, pace steady. Instead, the fear slowly gnaws away at my stomach, eating me from the inside out. I wonder if I will be a half devoured corpse by the time I find Anastasia in this maze of tents. The Rensha do not pay attention to me as I walk, and for once I thank Reja above that there are no visual differences between my people and theirs. I am lucky we are not like the Fiors- with their ancient tribal tattoos, or the Sie- with their silver hair. No, instead I look like the enemy. Why not pretend to be them? My skin crawls as I walk. I am too close to the heart of Rensha people. These people killed my family, these people left me an orphan at eight, these people killed Raki's little brother, these people- I almost trip over the girl that passes me, swift and smooth as running water. A nymph. I have heard the stories of the Rensha that can control water; they move just like it. I focus on my task. Walk. Find the Commander's tent. Find Anastasia. Give the signal to Taja. Disappear into the shadows. I am stupid enough to hope that nothing goes wrong. I try to ignore the sounds of life around me. Music playing softly in a tent I pass, the smell of freshly baked bread, the sound of training not far off, the laughs of a group of Rensha sitting by a fire. They seem so human, but they are monsters. It takes me seven minutes to find the Commander's tent. Seven minutes of screaming thoughts and trembling steps and hurried breaths. It is a rather large tent; hulking and black and powerful. I can feel the Rensha energy from where I stand, and I fight the urge to throw up. I slip in without a sound, shadows and silence embodied. I do not scan the tent before closing the flap and taking a breath. If someone were in here, I would have died already. I took the chance of dying the moment I decided to walk in here. I cannot face a Rensha in their territory and survive. I send up a quick prayer to Reja and wait until my heart stops screaming in my ears. And then I turn. On the journey to this camp I spent hours wondering what they were doing to Anastasia here. I wondered if they were torturing her, or starving her, slowly killing her, keeping her in a cage, in chains, in darkness. I was wrong. Anastasia dozes on the King Bed, her naked body covered in thick furs and her red curls dancing down her pale back. I did not guess she would be raped. I fight the tears that prick my eyes. I do not have time to cry for her violation now; I need to help my warrior. I swipe up her clothes, laid out on the table closest to me, and I stride over to my spy. The rage is so hot and burning inside of me that I almost hiss from the flames in my blood. I want to set fire to the world for wronging Anastasia like this. I want to burn this fucking camp to the ground- Anastasia stirs, and for some strange reason, I pause. She stretches her long limbs out like she is a purring cat, and her sleepy smile is soft. "Nathaniel," I have never heard her speak like that. Today, her voice is low and husky. Her tongue slips and slides over her syllables as if that name is music and she is a singer, "I hope you've come back to offer me breakfast in bed." Her blue eyes finally open when the tip of my dagger comes to rest on the hollow of her throat. There is a terrifying sort of silence that follows, in which she stares at me and I stare back. On her pale face is her horror, her shock, her fear. I am not sure what is written over my features. I do not feel much but the ice that had crawled through my veins the moment she stretched like that bed was hers to stretch in. "Gabriella," She breathes, syllables trembling now. The sexiness has been ripped from her voice. "No purring my name, Anastasia?" I ask, cold as frost, "I'm offended." She does not say a word. She only stares at me. "Why?" I whisper finally. She gulps, and my blade draws blood. I watch the bead of red pool in the dip of her white throat. She is lucky I have not slit it yet. "You have to go," Her voice is quiet, but there is fear in it. Both fear of me, and fear for me. "They will kill you-" "I should kill you," I do not spit my words, but she flinches nevertheless. Her movement draws more blood. She stares at me for a very long time. I do not say a word. I want to kill her, she knows I do. I suddenly understand why she looked so sad back in that Fior corridor. I thought that her blue gaze was saying goodbye to me and hello to death. It was not. She was just saying goodbye for the sake of farewells. "You can kill me," She says a little louder, "Or you can leave before they find you. Because once Nate finds you, he will-" "Kill you," The voice that speaks is smooth and deep. I do not turn around as he calmly presses his Rensha hand - a hand that holds more power than every bone in my body - to the back of my head. "Because once I find you, I will kill you." Anastasia meets the gaze of the man behind me. Despite the knife at her throat and the blood against her skin, her smile is slow and adoring. I fight the urge to laugh. What a fucked up situation. My mind races through all of the possible options. Kill Anastasia, get my brains blown out. Stall for long enough to snap Taja's impatience, and let her come in here with guns blazing. Talk enough to distract the man, and then kill him. If I die, Taja will be left to die waiting for me. I think of Grayson's rule. Don't be stupid. I think of that red lamp, waiting for me to come home. The man does not move fast enough to deflect the blow I deliver to his nose. He makes a grunting sound as it breaks and falters long enough for me to spin. My heavy boot lands on Anastasia's throat and pins her, choking, against the headboard of the bed. The man's powered fist lands in my gut, and I expel one gasp before snapping my elbow up back into his nose. The cry that escapes him isn't entirely human. He swipes my feet out from beneath me, but I roll through his legs with the momentum and jump up in time to put my dagger to his throat from behind. He grabs my thigh with rough hands and throws me towards Anastasia. I am meant to land on the bed in a heap, I suppose, but I do not. This man does not know something about me. I do not fight with force, but with grace. An animalistic slyness. I do not land on the bed. I land on Anastasia's throat. My boot smashes into her windpipe, and I pin her once again against the bed head. She chokes as I crush her diaphragm. The man strides towards me, but I ignore him as I lean down to Anastasia's red face. "Traitors deserve to die gasping," I hiss to her. The man's steps falter. I glance up at him, the daggers slipping into my hands faster than time itself. He stands a few feet away from the bed, blonde hair dishevelled, brown eyes dark, eyelashes long. Warrior, a voice whispers in my mind, a True Warrior. I ignore it. "You take one more step, and you watch your girl die," My voice is almost unrecognisably deadly. My words are spoken with a cold sort of calm. The killing calm, Raki calls it. The man - almost a boy, actually, not even a few years older than me- just stares for a very long time, face unreadable. "She's not my girl," He says finally. "You let me leave this tent unharmed, and I let you keep your little pet," I say slowly. My voice does not tremble despite the helplessness inside of me. I can cornered, and he knows it. Anastasia tries to gasp my name, but I only press down harder on her throat, eyes still on the stranger. "You are not supposed to be here," He finally whispers. Something in his voice is raw with pain. I do not have time to consider it- His eyes are the last thing I see before the world goes black.

unrequited

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plaguedparadox · 7 years ago

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Whispers in the Dark - Chapter Five

Mute and Work

You’d think that work would be difficult for me considering my rather tired state that some believed to be natural for me but my work was rather easy. Especially if I was paired up with Klaus as he grew to adapt to my tiredness.

One thing I haven’t grown used to is the night shifts at the hospital. No one really understood why but the nights always seemed to be terrifying, even if only slightly. Everything from the smell of disinfectant to the heaviness of the stagnant air seemed to increase as the night enclosed over the building.

A hospital was supposed to be a place of healing, a place that makes people feel better but at night they seemed to be the opposite - a place of pain and death like the hospitals of old. Also, it didn’t help that certain parts of the hospital had been closed off years ago, have become rundown and now have ghost stories about it. I was unfortunately reminded of those stories tonight when some teenagers decided to try and distract their friend who had been hospitalised.

The story was rather basic in all honesty but it was the fact that it was the most realistic one that bothered me. It was a simple story about a doctor that had been driven insane by hearing voices, most likely that he suffered from auditory hallucinations due to a mental illness, and eventually he cracked and went on a murder spree, killing patients with little to no care as to who they were and it was said that at the end of it all he eventually killed himself and that his ghost haunted the rundown wings of the hospital.

A sigh left my lips as I stared out at the door which led to the closed off part of this old hospital. There were soon going to be construction to restore that part of the building and bring it into the modern era with the rest of the hospital but that was still a month away from starting.

I was very tempted to walk through that part of the building, just to see what it was really looked like if it was as run down as they say or if it was just slightly worn down from a lack of use.

“You okay there, Fräulein? You keep staring at that door.” Klaus’s voice sounds out, causing me to jump from the suddenness of his presence. Before I knew it I could feel a small burn at the back of my throat as if I needed a ton of water. I had gone mute again. I quickly gesture to him that I was fine and that I couldn’t talk before rushing back to the nurse’s station to grab my phone so I had an audible means of communicating.

Upon grabbing my phone I noticed that Mark had tried to contact me as my phone notified me of multiple missed calls. A silent groan left my lips, knowing that the goof would be losing his mind with worry because I wasn’t speaking to him. I shake my head in frustration as I walk over to my more than frequent patient, Ms Thomson.

Ms Thomson was an elderly widow whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to land herself in hospital in the most ridiculous ways possible. It was actually how she met her late husband, a doctor and previous employer of mine. It really seemed that she purposely got herself hurt just so she’d have an opportunity to speak to me, she did see me as one of her own at points.

As I walk into the room with a calm smile I could already feel annoyance creep up my spine as I was greeted with the elderly woman trying to use a coat hanger to reach something from across the room. Where did she even get the coat hanger? I thought as I quickly grabbed the remote that was her target and handing it to her, swapping the coat hanger with it so I could confiscate the damned piece of twisted metal. I quickly pull out my phone and use one of Mark’s voice clips as a greeting before quickly tidying up the room around me.

“Poor dear, you’ve lost your voice again?” She croaked out, her voice was raspy with age and the fact she was a heavy smoker up until her husband died of lung cancer. I give her a quick nod, shrugging to let her know that I wasn’t bothered before making sure she had everything she needed for a comfortable stay. “Have you found a boyfriend yet, sweetie?” If it wasn’t relatives, it was Ms Thomson asking that damned question.

I shake my head and give her a small sad smile. I was actually rather glad that I had gone mute at this point, Ms Thomson was nice and all but she was overly nosy but also sympathetic to my mute status so my lack of being able to reply usually kept her questions to a minimum but as soon as I’m able to talk again I will be buried under a mountain of questions.

I quickly finish what I need to do in the woman’s room before heading off to the next patient. My other patients were less chaotic and tended to stay still in their beds as they grumbled about how uncomfortable the things were or how they wanted to be home, I couldn’t blame them at all.

Soon I found myself at the end of my shift and practically glaring at the door to the closed part of the hospital - my curiosity growing with each passing moment.

Quickly enough I found myself barging through the metal door and sprinting down the abandoned hallway which grew more and more decrepit with each inch I ran. I skidded to a stop and found myself in a large room which seemed to be the original reception. The roof was threatening to cave in and damp coated each wall but it was still grand and I could easily imagine how looked all those years ago.

A gulp bobbed up and down in my throat as I span around slowly to get a better look at the room around me.

A faint whistle sounded out behind me, causing me to spin around in a slight panic. Beside the door was a guy facing the other way to me, backing up as he took in his surroundings. “Never thought I’d see a place this busted outside a video game…” An Irish accent left his lips, his voice reminding me of Sean’s but there was a glitchiness to his voice. Another DarkTuber? I thought to myself as I’m reminded of Antisepticeye. I felt that it was strangely appropriate that he was in a hospital, even if it was in a part that was abandoned and falling apart. Finally, he turned to face me. “Oh hello there!” A sadistic grin stretched across his lips as he made his way over to me.

Anti, much like Dark, had this aura which was meant to be intimidating but after so long of bickering with Dark, I just found it annoying. His skin was tinted with the colour green, much like the sclera of one of his eyes. Ugh… Why couldn’t it be Jameson or Chase…? My thought-self groaned as I watched Anti’s movements as he prowled closer. Soon I found myself backing away from the green-tinted demon.

“Oh… Don’t worry lass, I won’t hurt you.” He cooed out as he allowed glitches to consume him. Soon I felt a small tap on my nose as the man let out a small ‘boop’. Did Anti really just boop me?! I thought, now glaring at the twisted version of my best friend. “What? Did you really think I’d hurt you? I mean sure, that would piss Dark off to no end which is something I aim to do but I don’t want the fucker to kill me!” He exclaimed, holding his hands around his throat as if to protect the already damaged flesh. He tilted his head in thought for a moment before looking around at the decrepit surrounding.

A green tinted fog held back the pitch black smoke that tried to invade the area. The two substances seemed to fight back and forth but the green seemed to weaken slightly.

Anti gulped as a small sheen of sweat began to form on his forehead. “That’s not good… There’s more than one way of pissing Dark off.” He muttered to himself, glancing back at me with a huge sly grin crossed his face. Soon a thicker version of the green fog surrounding us, blocking out our surroundings entirely. If my eyes were closed I wouldn’t have noticed a thing. Just as quickly as the fog surrounded us, it dissipated to show a rather cosy looking flat around us. My home. “Ah… home sweet home!” Anti exclaimed, falling backwards into my armchair with his arms falling over the sides of the armrests.

I cross my arms and glare at the Irish demon - if I could talk I would demand answers.

The green man groaned and looked back at me. “What?” He barked out, for some reason being the annoyed one in this situation. As a reply, I motion to our surroundings before glaring back at the glitch. “Oh… Don’t worry about it. I just brought us here because Dark can’t get in. He needs to be let in. Y’know… typical demon stuff. I’m more of an… Imp than a demon like he is. Plus, your close connection to Sean lets me get close to you.” He explained as he stretched out his limbs. “I mean, I’ve been closer to you before.” Anti threw me a sly smirk as he allowed the green fog to surround him.

Once he disappeared, the local cat sat in his place. It’s tail flicking up and down slightly as it watched me. My face paled as I realised Anti was telling me that he was the cat. I quickly shake my head and glare at him again. The cat’s face seemed to grin as it made its way over and jumped up onto my shoulders.

Don’t worry lass. I won’t hurt you. Anti’s voice echoed in my head. His sentence from the hospital made a bit more sense. I didn’t care to register the small piece of warmth that it held but now it made sense. I, without knowing that the cat was Anti, befriended the feline. I gave him food and shelter when a good portion of people would probably just throw him out. It made me feel a bit sorry for him. A silent sigh left my lips as I thoughtlessly patted the feline’s head just as I had done so many times before.

I glanced over towards the window to see that the sun was rising, and after pulling a less than graceful face, I placed Anti down on my sofa and quickly rushed to my bathroom to clean up before heading to my room for a nap. I was feeling more than grateful that I didn’t have another shift until the next day - A day shift.

The area around me was pitch black as if I was in the void again. It had been a small while since I had been here so I was curious about whether if Damien was okay or not. I was able to move but it was difficult as if I was wading through sludge, and the thick black goop stuck to my legs and waist as I made my way deeper and deeper into the void. Damien?! My thoughts called out, echoing into the vastness. Old friend? Are you there?! I called out once again, hoping he’d respond to the familiar words.

“Old friend… You came back…” The faint blue glow surrounded me and weakly pulled me out of the sludge. A light orange glow seemed to emit from me as the blue light clung on as if Damien was trying to hug me. “You came back…” He whispered out, a small sob echoing out afterwards.

Don’t cry… I thought, wishing I could hug him back and actually comfort him. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t deserve this. He was a good person! Both him and Wil were good people!

Tears quickly welled up in my eyes and escaped down my cheeks as my memory kept crawling back to the events at that place - the manor. I sobbed silently, wishing I could just go to before that party and warn Damien and the Colonel not to show up, warn them that nothing good was going to come from seeing their version of Mark again but I couldn’t change the past.

Damien’s warmth filled whispers tried their hardest to comfort me, to reduce my tears but his kindness only made me cry more. He reminded me so much of my Mark as he whispered similar things of comfort like Mark did that night almost two weeks ago now. I wish I could help… I think, trying to move away from the fading blue light. “I know, old friend. You’ve always tried your hardest to help. I think that’s one of the main reasons I adore you, you’re always helping people…” Damien muttered happily as he thought about his past, the memories of his beloved DA making him glow brighter slightly before the glow dimmed once again. “With that… Demon… still holding on to the rest of my soul and Mark still in my body… I’m stuck here. All alone. Celine disappeared when she sent us into your body. That damned demon snuck in with us, pushing you out and ripping my soul in half… using my rage and need for revenge to fuel him…” He cried out, lamenting over that day. Lamenting over his forced betrayal.

“I just want to make things right.” Damien muttered out, the blue glow now gaining a more human shape. It was clear that he was wiping away tears from his cheeks before his gaze was back on me. “H-How’s… How’s William? I hope nothing bad has happened to the dear Colonel!” He weakly chirped out, trying to distract both of us from our memories.

He goes by Wilford now. Wilford Warfstache. He’s a reporter. The events at the manor… scarred him. I allow the words to echo out, looking away from the mayor’s broken soul for just a moment as I think back to my newly made pastel wearing friend. I was curious as to how he’d react if I told him that I had spoken to Damien but it was probably best if I kept quiet about that.

“I see… Well, at least he’s doing well!” The mayor chirped out, trying his best to remain optimistic despite his circumstances. Indeed! My thoughts replied as I gazed up at him. The sound of two men echoed throughout the area as a green fog coated the black sludge beneath us. I need to go, I’ll try and come back soon. I tell the angel of a man before allowing myself to fall back into the waking world.

I fumbled out of my bedroom to find Anti and Dr Schneeplestein arguing in my living room while a shocked dapper looking man looked on from the sidelines. I quickly made my way over to Jameson, tapping on his shoulder gently before I gave him a questioning glance. He gave me an exaggerated shrug before pulling me into a tight hug as a way of saying hello. Jameson, despite being the newest of Sean’s egos, and being possessed by Anti, was one of my favourites.

An hour passed before the two egos calmed down enough to realise that I had been watching them, and surprisingly enough, both became rather bashful about it. Apparently, they had been arguing over Anti essentially living with me without my permission. I could assume that Jameson told Henrik about Anti but no one, annoyingly, went into detail about how much the egos knew about Anti staying here.

Henrik was very calm about the situation and made sure say things that only needed a simple nod or shake of the head as a response. I wasn’t really a fan of the doctor, perhaps it’s because of my own work ethic but I much prefered it when I just believed he was a character of Sean’s rather than his own person.

The German-Irishman bid his goodbyes after giving Anti a warning to behave or he’d send Marvin over to use magic on him. The ‘glitch bitch’ was quick to turn into a cat again and take his place laying across my shoulders as if was the most natural thing for him to do, which I highly doubted it was but I just mentally shrugged it off and held a small tea party with Jameson.

Having another mute person as company was odd but pleasant with all his exaggerated actions.

Soon enough, my new mute friend had to leave as well but he promised to return. A sigh left my lips once the door closed, my voice finally easing up and coming back to me as a plopped down on the sofa, Anti curling up and resting on my stomach purring contently as I stroked his brown fur. If it wasn’t for the green glow that emitted from him, I could easily forget that he was, as he called himself, an imp. I hummed quietly to myself as I reached for a notebook and pen that had been resting on the nearby coffee table and began doodling the time away.

The warm and comforting air of my flat was shattered when a loud, rapid knock sounded off from my front door. I rushed over to the door, knocking Anti off in the process, and opening it to reveal a panicked Mark panting and holding onto the wall beside my door. “Fischbach? What…?” I gasp out as I pull him inside the flat, forcing him to sit on a chair in my kitchen as I collect a glass of water for him. “What are you doing in England?” I ask as I watch him finish gulping down the drink.

“You never replied to my calls… I panicked…” Mark panted out, looking down as he did as if he was guilty or embarrassed about the fact he panicked to the point he got a plane over. “I was worried… with the fact that a guy had been following you and all…” He trailed off, wincing possibly at the thought of what could've happened to me.

“Sorry… I had work during the night, I only recently woke up.” I lied, unsure as to how to explain the fact that one of Sean’s egos was living with me while two others made a brief visit. I pat his head slightly, pushing the hair out of the way of his sweaty face. “You big goof... You didn’t need to fly out or run here…” I mutter as I walk around the table and pull him into a tight hug. He really is too selfless for his own good. I thought as I pat his hair slightly, humming to myself as his arms wrap around my waist and pull me closer to him. I felt my face begin to burn up from the close contact but I brush it off, he was a taken man and me gaining feelings for him would only make our friendship awkward.

My thoughts quickly flashed back to the relationship between the DA and Damien. I was rather worried that my relationship with Mark would end up taking a similar turn, me loving him and him seemingly not even noticing. Did he know that she loved him? Did he even love her back? My thoughts were interrupted and my breath hitched slightly as I was pulled down onto Mark’s lap, his face gazing down at mine, concerned.

His eyes shone with worry as his lips were pulled down into a small frown. “You okay?” Mark asked, his hand running gently through my hair. My slightly red face was now scarlet as I keep my gaze on him. I nod slightly and then proceed to bury my face in the crook of his neck to hide my blush, not caring if his skin was slightly damp from his sprint over here from the airport.

Well, at least now we can have a happy goodbye...

#fanfic #wkm fanfiction #antisepticeye #markiplier #septic egos #dr schneeplestein #jacksepticeye #jameson dapper #wkm #mayor damien #x reader #whispers in the dark #who killed markiplier #long post

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capntholaf · 7 years ago

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The Sexy Brutale

Steam’s goofing out on me, so I’m saving my review of The Sexy Brutale here for now.

NOTE: This is a sale game, for sure. For reasons I'll go into below, I really can't justify the full £15 price tag, but it is absolutely worth playing and supporting otherwise.

The Sexy Brutale is a cunning murder mystery wrapped in cabaret drapings, set in an elegant casino mansion that positively oozes with style and decedance. You play a silent priest, Lafcadio Boone, who sees his friends and fellow guests murdered in macabre and beautiful fashion, and must then make use of Majora's Mask style time looping to prevent these grizzly crimes.

Myself, and many others I'm sure, were drawn to The Sexy Brutale by its aesthetic. Like any house of vice and splendor should be, The Sexy Brutale boasts a gorgeous art style filled with warped paintings, haunting statues, and a colourful menagerie of fun characters. The graphical fidelity is pretty tame, which isn't an issue since the excellent art style carries the visual factor excellently on its own. The music is similarily fantastic, with some great jazzy swing tunes throughout the mansion, and some tracks even boast alluring and weirdly haunting vocals to boot. It's a shame then that the rest of the game's sound design is so lacking. Environmental sounds don't really have the satisfying effect the rest of the game's atmosphere deserves, and footsteps (as well as a few other noises) are obnxiously loud. Cranking the music volume up to full helps alleviate this, but it doesn't change the fact that so many of these wonderfully orchestrated death traps are punctuated with what seem to be bog standard stock sound effects from shoddy radio dramas.

This, unfortunately isn't the only area where the game falls flat. I went in expecting devious puzzles and machinations to match the game's glorious set dressing, but was sorely dissapointed by what I ended up with. To put it bluntly, the game is painfully easy. Each of the guests is killed in a shocking and gruesome manner, ways that leave you expecting a Rube Goldberg machine level of complexity behind what leads to the deed itself. Instead, it seems the staff of The Sexy Brutale couldn't manage anything beyond moving an object to a different room, or flicking a switch; seriously, I solved a lot of these puzzles by complete accident. You shadow guests until the moment of their demise, then restart the day and throw an obvious spanner in the works, and its never a satisfying solution. The first puzzle after the tutorial is a prime example. [spoiler] You follow a woman until she dies, picking up the password for the room she's skilled in as you go. To save her you... turn on CCTV camera in the room so that her husband will see, and run off to save her. It never gets more complex than that/ [/spoiler] Puzzles lack any twist or change in mechanics to dupe you, or make you think twice about what you're doing. You do unlock more 'Mask Powers' by saving the guests, but they feel criminally underused and many aren't particularily inventive ([spoiler] one litterally allows you to save the game, whilst another just gives you lore info on the rooms [/spoiler]).The gameplay as a whole is just underwhelming.

It isn't just the puzzles either, getting around the mansion itself is nothing more than a chore. The layout is confusing, and filled with seemingly random contrivances that stop you from easily navigating the place; on several occasions I had to spend a frustrating amount of time backtracking and following long, linear paths to get back to an area, constantly being met with roadblocks. You're left feeling frustrated and bored, rather than the feeling of accomplishment you'd get by finding shortcuts with the mask powers you unlock along the way. Add to this the fact that the game has a tendancy to glitch out and freeze for a few seconds whenever you enter a door (which is A LOT) and the whole experience is soured. The game has so many opportunities to give the player better ways to navigate, but all these tricks are missed. I wouldn't be surprised if this was to pad out the playtime, which was only around 6 hours for me. Short playtimes aren't a bad thing, but the content has to make up for it, which it simply doesn't here. There are a bunch of collectables to find which do unlock a few more secrects and background lore, but for me, the gameplay wasn't attractive enough to merit searching for them instead of just googling the info. Don't expect a fun treasure hunt to enhance the gameplay either; these collectables are mostly just found in the environment, which basically equates to examining everything you can as you go.

It's tragic that the gamplay is such a letdown, because as I've said, the presentation is terrific; what makes it worse is that the story buried beneath it all is equally wonderful. The Sexy Brutale keeps you hooked through the turgid gameplay with its mystery and allure. Who's behind this devious plot? Who is the mysterious blood-soaked woman who urges you to proceed? What is the source of the supernatural and magical elements at play in this glamorous casino mansion? Unlike the puzzles, all of these questions have satisfying conclusions, and the final stages of the game's plot are genuinely thrilling, and even emotional. Sadly this doesn'y permeate through the rest of the game. Though wonderfully designed, the guests and staff of The Sexy Brutale are rather flat and unmemorable, with most of their actual character seeming to be locked in a game's lore 'brochure'. You do get some fun conversations between the guests, but it's too little too late. By the time you've moved on to the next guest in need of saving, the previous ones are already forgotton. You can still hear their scheduled deaths from anywhere in the mansion as you progress, but you'd be hard-pressed to actually care, which is a frightful shame and another of the game's missed opportunities. Again, this is doubly tragic because of how well the game wraps up, and it pains me to think how much more emotional it could have been if the guests were given more time to flourish. As great as the final act is, it also comes a bit out of nowhere. The game was over before I knew it, and it feels like there should have been more hints seeded throughout the game to really let the player explore the mystery for themselves. It's still a great story with some good thematics, but that story seems to be absent for most of the game.

To summarise, The Sexy Brutal is a game that desperately needed another good few months, if not a year of extra development. The game constantly teases you each time you restart the clock, 'Saturday', but Sunday never comes. It makes me wonder if the game was cut short in production? A few more days to explore would have allowed players to become much more attached to and familiar with the characters and mansion, allowed for more difficult puzzles to present themselves as the game progressed, and would have given ample opportunity for some more clues to the final act to be hidden around the mansion. Instead, this feels like the proof of concept for a larger, more satisfying work. And if that game is ever released, you can sign me right up, and thats why I still feel happy to recommend the game, but only at a sale price. It's a game full of charm, flair, and intruige, all dolled up with sultry penache, but one that leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to substance. Quite fittingly for its decadent setting, it's very much the gaming equivilent to a one night stand. You'll enjoy youself and might even revisit it one day, but it's not one you'll be falling for; that said, I'll be spending a while pondering what might have been. If only...

P.S. If you finish the game, I can't recommend Steam user Skirlasvoud's breakdown and analysis of the plot enough, fantastic stuff. Don't read until you've finished though, because there are of course HEAVY spoilers, and the plot itself is certainly worth experiencing. https://steamcommunity.com/app/552590/discussions/0/135514402720983757/

#The Sexy Brutale #steam #game #puzzle #mystery #cabaret #Tequila Works #Cavalier Game Studios

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wanjeokhaeseo · 6 years ago

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better better 💛 🐻 🍯

너의 그 사랑만이 멈춰있던 날 다시 뛰게 해.

[ Only your love could make the me who was stuck run again. ]

blog navigator.

day6 masterlist

TW: if you squint, there’s very mild mentions of child abuse, physical and verbal

↪ group: DAY6

↪ member: Yoon Dowoon

↪ genre: idk its not really fluff either, (IM SORRY ANON IT GETS VERY FLUFFY AT THE END) but its 90 percent angst free LOL ??? this story is too out of the ordinary to categorise lol ☀️

↪ request: hey admin n! can i have a fluffy day6 dowoon scenario where he cheers you up from a bad day in school? thank you!

↪ A/N: I really wanted to write something for Dowoon, thank you so much, anon who requested this!! I somehow thought of the spiritual love I receive everyday from God (I’m christian to all of y'all who dk, haha) so I think this story will hold a special place in my heart!!! also, the story plot is largely inspired by one of the characters in the story by 九把刀 - 等一个人咖啡，so if u understand Chinese please give it a read, its a nice story uwuwuwuuwwu

edit i am SO SORRY THIS WAS WAY LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LIKE the word count will probably be like idk 8000 by the time i finished this when u requested for a scenario lolz i got way too invested I apologise…I wrote almost everyday for a whole week I regret getting carried away oh my gosh, but I hope you enjoy this, I really worked very hard on this!!!

ps im sorry if jihyo is ooc, never written nor know twice well but id say I’m a fan of their music hehe

______________________________________

Realising this with your own dark ringed, half opened eyes, you couldn’t help but feel the ends of your lips angle up slowly-the world was so beautiful, you couldn’t help but think as you knelt down to sit onto the rugged surface of the big, enveloping area-whoever had created it for all its small but still amazing features was exceptionally genius.

You sighed when you saw the creases in his forehead, and the unmistakeable hint of a frown on his tan, oval face-this was not going to be too good of a day.

You just hoped that he wasn’t going to make all of you do 4 rounds around the school today. Running, needlessly to say really was not something a person like you liked to do-sweat all over your face, springing pimples on your face, grasping for breath and literally collapsing in front of the whole class like a dead fish because of how energy deprived you were? You were going to pass, thanks.

“Now, class!” his low baritone rasped out to the class, carrying a strong sense of dominance in it like he was speaking to a platoon in the army, “We have a group of alumni today, coming back to visit and help all of you train for your Physical Education Examinations next year.” At that, his outstretched wrists flicked backwards loosely, gesturing for the alumni to come, and he continued again, “They are alumni that were our top students from last year, and did exceptionally well. They have all took time out of their 4 month break after examinations to train all of you, so please be nice, and don’t be so unruly.”

As soon as he had said that, the class started breaking out into applause as the five students stepped into everyone’s field of vision.

Your eyes widened when you saw the bones, standing out like rocks in the their toned, fit arm and leg muscles-even the girls’ thighs that was supposedly, the most unattractive part of everyone’s body had ‘walls’ lining their lean, hourglass figure. Confident smiles were plastered to most of their faces, with a few tired exceptions-heck, one even had a smirk playing on their face as he scanned the class below him.

Inwardly, as you heard the laughs of the alumni that had aroused from the awing of their juniors below them, you couldn’t help but shudder inside-there was no, freaking way that you were going to look like that after training with them.

You didn’t want to, anyway-that meant rigorous hours of training and stitches 'basking’ under the unhelpful, boiling cover of the sun.

“Hello, Class 3D9, I am your senior, Park Jaehyung, and I’m here to train all of you for the exams, since all of you don’t seem that excited for it, judging by your expressions.” His features softened considerably from a look of mirth to one of gaiety as he started to speak in a 'half air half voice’ kind of way-rasping yet not quite, and you rolled your eyes.

It wasn’t really that you disliked him much, but you could already picture him being the heartthrob of the girls in class-the gleam in their previously irritant, but now smitten eyes was so undeniably revolting.

They all nodded furiously at the last sentence, and he began to laugh a bit (attracting more squeals from the girls, much to your dismay) before speaking again, this time with the narrow of an eyebrow and a more serious, raised voice. “I know all of you might be thinking that this is very pointless, and stupid. I know. None of you really want to be an athlete in the future, and I understand. But I really hope all of you can treat this seriously, because health in the long run is really very important, and I want all of you to take not only the PE finals but the entrance exam to college confidently, and healthily. Are all of you with me?”

Like how any motivational speaker would have done, there was an applied pressure at the last line, and soon, a long, unenthusiastic 'yes’ drawled out of everyone’s barely parted mouth.

You snickered a bit at the frown on Jaehyung’s face when he heard it-he really should have known beforehand, that encouraging a class didn’t consist of just one pathetic speech, and you started to doubt if he had really been from this school.

Let’s face it, motivation really wasn’t this generation’s thing.

“Are all of you with me!” he rasped again, this time yelling into the microphone obnoxiously and poking a hole in your eardrums.

“YES!” the class shouted with increased volume to appease him.

Just please, don’t shout into the microphone again, you whimpered inwardly.

At this, Jaehyung looked more or less satisfied (thank God), and with the small hint of a smile, he passed over the microphone to another guy, whose eyes first caught your own. They were delicately angled into the eyes of a fox, emanating a half elegant aura that still seemed to hint 'Let’s have fun, everyone!’ They fell into small crescents when he started to laugh at Jaehyung’s incapabilities to lead the class, and the circles in his lean, rosy cheek bones spelt attractiveness at its finest.

With a sweet smile on his face, he held up the microphone to his mouth and started to talk. “Morning, class! Sorry if Jaehyung sounds like a bit of a drag. I know he has that student leader aura, but you can’t blame him, he’s always been burying his face in a book during recess-HEY!” The class, including him, started to erupt into waves of giggles when Jaehyung flicked his forehead, a faux anger playing on his arched eyebrows and widened, now not so small eyes. “FINE, fine, I’ll stop! Anyway, hello Class 3D9, this is your cooler senior, Kang Younghyun, and I hope to train all of you to success in the exams. Thank you!” Younghyun proceeded to bow with the shy lift of his eyebrows, and everyone clapped.

“His real name is actually Brian, please ignore him.” Jaehyung added in with a wink, earning a loud slap on the shoulder from Younghyun (with a subsequent yelp from himself) and more laughter from the juniors, yourself included. Your seniors seemed pretty chill and friendly, not like how you thought they would be.

But sadly, as they were supposedly goofing around too much, the PE teacher blew that stupid, ear-wrenching whistle of his, causing you to jump up in shock again. “Okay boys, lets finish this up quickly.” he said curtly, strict gaze fleeting past the two boys and causing their playful charm to melt like ice in front of him.

As Jaehyung and Younghyun simultaneously did a long, 90 degree bow, mouthing 'sorry’ repeatedly, you and quite a good majority of your other classmates sighed, inwardly feeling a tad deflated-looks like the rest of the introduction wasn’t going to be that fun after all.

As she talked, she slipped a few jokes there and then mid-conversation, not too much that the PE teacher had to cut in, but attempting to keep the class’ attention on her afloat. Jihyo had an unmistakeable pleasant aura that seemed to infect everyone with her laugh, and from the bottom of your heart, you really wanted to befriend her-someone approachable and easy to talk to.

You didn’t really mind it much when people talked a lot, but when they overdid it, it got kind of…boring.

“H-Hello, I’m Yoon Dowoon, and-”

“I ate ants as a kindergartener.” Jaehyung’s unmistakeable airy voice cut in annoyingly, causing Dowoon’s face to flush a big, rosy red whilst all of you chortled with a louder, more extreme laughter than before-and instantly, you became alive again as the mental image of a small boy swallowing the poor insect with the brightest smile sent you rolling onto the floor.

“He even gave a whole box to his teacher.” came a rather unhelpful snicker from Younghyun, further fuelling the laughter and the blush on Dowoon’s face.

You couldn’t help but admit, that he was sort of cute when he was embarrassed, though-Dowoon had the small, but believing eyes of a child, with two pretty, but not 'big enough that it protruded’ kind of bags attached below them delicately. The gentle up curve of the sides of his big button nose was really attractive, and he had semi-big lips that pouted out like the small petals of a daisy.

Seeing Jaehyung’s joking, almost condescending smirk resurface onto his face and look down onto Dowoon’s expressionless eyes, which now refused to concentrate on anywhere but the floor was maybe, just maybe-sort of sad.

Unlike Jihyo, you couldn’t see even a small fragment of the sky in his eyes-it was as if someone had just painted his eyes brown and decided it would stay that way for the rest of the day.

Dowoon was too embarrassed to do anything else, and without even looking up, he passed the microphone to the PE teacher, whose nonchalant expressions didn’t seem to care much either.

Being known by 'the guy who ate ants as a kindergartener’ to everyone, instead of who he really was mustn’t have been a very nice feeling, especially to his juniors-who was supposed to look at him as a superior and a leader figure.

Just as you were debating on whether or not to ask them to stop, a scream broke out through the assembly grounds, shutting everyone up with a magic swipe of its hand.

Of course, it had to be the stupid whistle.

“Are we here to joke, or train? Get up, all of you! We’re going to run today.” the PE teacher’s obnoxiously booming, demanding voice rang into everyone’s ears unpleasantly, the catalyst to the small groans of dismay breaking out amidst the class that was already preparing to stand and walk to the field.

“Can you believe he actually did that?” your friends approached you in a fit of giggles as all of you approached the running track, with a new topic to revolve your conversation around.

Just that, this time, you didn’t really want to join in.

It wasn’t the best of days after all, you thought with a small hang up in the side of your chest. Out of all things, after seeing a poor boy getting bullied by his own friends, you had to do the stupid 4 rounds that all of you did practically every week.

You saw the big, believing eyes of a child again as you did so-it was Dowoon, and to your surprise, those eyes noticed your gaze and looked back.

Crap, he’s really, very cute. you could feel your head lose some of its gravity and your heartbeat accelerating as he proceeded to smile after, the lift of his plump, daisy lips showing off his round, marshmallow-like cheeks.

“You okay?” his deep voice asked you gently, and you nodded with a small laugh, realising how much of a mess you must have looked in front of him for him to ask such a question.

“I should be the one asking you that. I’m sorry for laughing at you earlier.”

With that, his smile angled further into a laugh of his own, and Dowoon replied, “It’s okay. I’m used to it already.”

You could already feel your forehead crease in slight disbelief, as you stared at the sheepish falter in his smile and recalled how unhappy he was earlier on.

“That’s not true-”

BEEP!

The PE teacher’s whistle had already gone off, and Dowoon, much to a top runner’s expectations, was already speeding far ahead of you with a steady, confident pace as his brown curls bounced gently under the force of his movements.

Looking at nowhere but the front, he looked determined to finish what he had started-something you could probably only dream of having.

“What’s taking you so long? Hurry up!” the PE teacher yelled at you, averting your attention away from your senior and back to your miserable plight.

You sighed with a slightly defeated energy, giving him a perfunctory nod as you too, began to move towards the finish line.

That is, if you could even make it.

As you ran, you made a mental note to never use that stupid whistle ever again.

________________________________________________

31st December, 2018.

“Se-second place in class? No way, you must have heard wrongly. Second place girls-wise, maybe…” you insisted disbelievingly, feeling the air brush against your throat as you inhaled sharply, hardly able to fathom the news that had just been broken to you.

“I’m serious, man. It came as a shock to everyone yesterday as well.” he said, hiding a gentle, but knowing giggle in 'serious’. “You really have Dowoon to thank, look at you go.”

You stared at the suggestive crease in Sungjin’s big, pretty eyes, not bothering to hide the sarcasm dripping from your smile (very well knowing that someone like Sungjin was capable of playing such pranks on you).

“And where can I get more reliable information?” you demanded, refusing to tear away your gaze from his, and noticing the added pressure in 'reliable’, Sungjin couldn’t help but break into a more relaxed smile as he lifted his hands up in surrender.

“Fine, go see for yourself, just don’t hit me, please.”

He pointed a finger at the notice board, littered with numerous sheets of construction paper from all the projects your class had been assigned this year, almost like a peacock’s feathers unfolding.

However, there was one paper that stood out from the rest, dull, white and boring-but maybe not so, once the truth was revealed.

In big, bold letters, it spelt:

PHYSICAL EDUCATION EXAMINATION RESULTS: CLASS 3D9.

It had been a while of panning up, and your squatting legs were getting tired; though knowing full well that you looked the part of an idiot while doing all this. You couldn’t find your name anywhere on the board, and as your legs slowly broke its position to ascend further, the anxiety in your chest seemed to rise along with it-what if you had done so bad a job, you couldn’t even get a position?

What if Dowoon had seen it and would never talk to you ever again? What would your parents say when they knew…

Just as your imagination was trailing all the way off from your real goal, the truth imprinted in cold, black ink debunked all of the scenarios in your head.

Your name was right next to the position, second place.

“So you weren’t lying!” was the first thing you did as you shouted out of instinct from the opposite position of the classroom. As many other students turned their heads to you in slight frustration, you could hear Sungjin’s sniggers direct back at you in response, which was yeah, albeit sort of annoying-but nothing could really smother the joy you were feeling at this moment.

Your eyes lingered for a long time onto the placing that you had gotten, and you recalled all of Dowoon’s practice sessions with you-how he had drawn out almost 90% of his 4 month break just to train with you after school, how you had nearly tripped over a hurdle on the running track and causing both of you to laugh, how he had made you draw out a meal plan for him to monitor your food intake everyday-you’d never thought you’d say this, but you really, really missedit.

As you thought back to the believing eyes of a small child, looking up at the boundless sea of a sky-the clouds floating past resembling well his sweat glazed cheeks, you realised-how much you’d miss his presence that pushed forward, reaching out to the you who couldn’t be bothered with most things, his care that reached out to the you who didn’t care for yourself-not necessarily in a romantic way.

The thought of getting Dowoon’s number had very stupidly, slipped off your mind amidst all the joy he had brought you, and your good mood was surprisingly diminished by a small tinge of guilt as you returned to your desk.

You regretted it. A lot.

“All those training sessions with her partner must have helped a lot, huh? The one who ate ants in kindergarten, I have to laugh.” Suddenly, the silent, but tangible hiss of a group of girls fluttered past your ears, and without thinking, a small sense of anger blazed up in your heart as you stood up with a jolt.

How dare they say such a thing about such an amazing person.

“Don’t talk about your senior like that.” you deadpanned, with the motivation of anger that had backed you up well.

“Sorry.” was all they could manage awkwardly, a sheepish, yet somehow insincere smile dripping from their lips as they slipped away to their own desks-people nowadays just loved to talk about others behind their backs, and you sighed.

Only your love could make the me who was stuck in a rut run again.

_____________________________________________________________

“You got second place in the finals? Okay. Well, good for you, but I don’t think you’d come to me just for that.” the PE teacher slurred his words sharply, suddenly looking up at you from the bend of his glasses with a dull expression in his eyes. He seemed way more fascinated in the papers lulled over by his wrists than your dumb questions, and in all honesty, it was getting sort of annoying.

He was right, however; the last thing you’d ever do was to go into the lion’s den without an ulterior motive.

No one really dared to talk to the PE teacher about anything else besides school.

Plus, you could already imagine all the worst case scenarios if he was in a particularly bad mood today, and…let’s just say that detention would potentially be the second best option.

He really wasn’t the best person to talk to.

But in this case…

You looked up at the spinning blades of the fan again, and felt the swirl of cool air blow through your hair gently.

Maybe he was.

At such a comforting touch, you tried your best to ignore the pounding headache dragging you down; and with painstakingly mustered courage, you spoke.

“T-Teacher, do you have Dowoon’s number? Like, the one who was our senior?”

Regret kicked in the second you had spoke of Dowoon’s name, and you could literally feel your temples and limbs lose all sense of gravity as your reputation crashed to the floor. You could feel your heartbeat go into allegro, pounding onto every organ in your body as the PE teacher looked up with the most unreadable expression on his face.

I’m doomed for life, Dowoon’s gonna think I’m a stalker, and-

“Hahahaha.”

Laughter rolled out in the depth of that intimidating voice, like coffee spilt over a cleanly lacquered table.

Especially when he looked at you with amusement twinkling in the corners of his slit-shaped eyes.

“So, what next? You’re asking, me? To help you with your half baked attempt of asking a senior out on a date?” he snarled sarcastically, getting out of his seat and approaching you. The corners of his mouth tugged at a smirk, baring his set of sharp teeth; the jaws of a wolf, that spelt warning at its finest, and in all your shock, you recoiled back.

You didn’t think this was how it would end up; no, not like this.

Just then, you felt a hand arrest your wrists tightly, digging holes in your skin.

The pain from the wolf’s claws amplified your vocal cords as you screamed, causing all the other teachers out there to look at you from their desks, and inside, you wanted to cry; you had never been humiliated so bad in your entire life.

“In your dreams.”

You were way too sad to hide any further.

__________________________________________

“I’m sorry for what happened today…but I’m happy that senior was able to bring you so far.” he barely managed, with his smooth, soft voice that seemed to skim lightly over the atmosphere of the café; just like the soft cream that had been drizzled meticulously over the cup of coffee on the table.

You weren’t taking it, the coffee that he had made for you not too long ago. Not really that you had anything against him, no-definitely not your caring, gentle coworker, but you didn’t really have the mood to drink anything as of now…You sighed briefly, dusting your apron to keep yourself preoccupied, but still not managing to let off all the steam in your body.

It wasn’t very fair that they’d have to put up with your emotional baggage when they were here to get a drink, maybe even to destress and wind down for the day.

“Pil-ah, it’s okay, I don’t really want a drink as of now.” you played it off as calmly as you could, slotting the key into the box and letting it slide open with a click. “You can drink it or something, you don’t look too energised yourself.”

“Heyyyyy, come on…don’t be like this, I’ve known you for so long already. You’ve got to take care of yourself, even when you’re sad.”

The last line got you hard, and as you saw the customer’s eyes widen in judgement behind her mop of ashy bangs, you couldn’t help but glare back at him.

“Wonpil, I said I was okay.” you deadpanned with added pressure, however, subsequently feeling guilt crawling onto your nerves after realising how mean that had sounded. His features had softened considerably, with a slightly hurt look in his big, innocent eyes, and you didn’t really want to hurt anyone else when you yourself had been hurt enough.

“I’m sorry, just-I’m tired from today.” you sighed helplessly, having been pushed into a corner, and being his understanding self, Wonpil nodded back with concern laced in his seemingly nonchalant smile.

It wasn’t surprising; the weather today was warm. Lances of golden sunlight had dropped by the café, gracing its interior in its crisp, evening glow, and very miserably, laughing at your bad mood that contrasted with it.

“Are you okay now?”

You turned around to see Wonpil, eyebrows raised, hands rested in the pockets of his apron; and a rare, but serious look in his eyes as he prepared to listen to you.

As much as you didn’t want him to worry over you, you knew how stubbornly insistent he was with getting things off your chest, so nevertheless, you opened your mouth-wondering what you had done to deserve his grace at the back of your mind.

“I-It’s nothing really, it’s just-” you exhaled, breaking into a nervous box smile as you ran a hand through your hair, barely having the right state of mind to continue, “I really wanted to thank him for his kindness and how he cared for my growth so selflessly, but apart from being so embarrassed by the teacher, not being able to do that anymore-it makes me feel so, so bad, knowing that I was never able to do anything for him, because I really, really miss him, and-”

“Don’t say anymore. I understand.”

You felt Wonpil’s hand descend onto your back, like the touch of a small, but pretty little butterfly as it fluttered over the expanse of your spine, caressing it gently and hushing your shaking nerves.

“T-Thank you so much.” you choked awkwardly, not knowing any better way to express your gratitude, and even in the darkness of your closed eyes, you could already picture Wonpil’s relaxed, comforting smile playing on the sides of his face as he chuckled softly.

Just then, a cough cut in, putting a halt to your sobs and causing both of you to turn to the customer.

“Um…I’m sorry to interrupt this moment, but can I have three iced lattes? Please?” he said, carrying a half air, half voice tone-and with the guidance of your instinct your head immediately shot up from your palms.

There was only one person you knew with such a voice-the one you heard when you had first met the school alumni.

“P-Park Jaehyung?” you yelled instinctively, and your own eyes revealed the truth to you quickly-lean, rosy cheeks, big lips, small, droopy eyes, that were now widened into large circles as they stared back at you, with equally as much surprise in his gaze.

“Ohhhhh my! Y-You’re the junior that trained with Dowoon a lot, right?” In his hearty voice, he exclaimed almost disbelievingly, but causing you to blush furiously; it was rather weird being so closely associated with him. “And hey, don’t be rude-how dare you call a senior by their full name.” he added on teasingly, and both of you laughed.

“I think I’ll make the drinks for today-you definitely need to catch up with him, someone might be there waiting for you.” Wonpil’s voice said behind you understandingly, and you said a quick thank you with a smile before walking over to Jaehyung’s seat.

“Oh, sorry for my impoliteness, Your Highness, Park Jaehyung, my queen-does this make it better now?” you retorted quickly, with a cheeky smirk on your face and triggering a gasp from him.

“Excuse me? Your audacity? Oh, and by that guy’s sound, you sound like you’re only here to see Dowoon, how sad-he isn’t here, because I’m the most significant out of everyone there.” he snickered back, laughing even harder when you stuck out your tongue back at him pettily-but to your surprise, it didn’t last very long.

“Jaehyungie-hyung, don’t be so mean! I’m here, hi! I haven’t seen you in so long, are you doing okay?” a deep voice exclaimed, causing your jaw to drop even further, if that was even possible-and your feelings seemed to arrest all the air in your chest, just for a second-when you once again, saw the big, believing eyes of a child and his kind, untainted smile.

It was the boy that had spent countless hours under the sun, pushing you towards your goals endlessly.

It wasn’t just any person, a random school alumni that had came to their transit stop for a while to leave again-it was Dowoon, Yoon Dowoon, of all people that you could have seen on that miserable day of yours.

It seemed almost intangible, yet so palpable as you ran to him, calling his name, as your hands managed to even hug his taller figure again-you could have nearly cried when you felt his bigger palm crash against your back with sincerity, and while you heard Dowoon’s deep voice roll out a long string of laughter, commenting jokingly, “Man, I never knew a girl would miss me so much,” you sort of wanted to smack him-yet was definitely in awe of the fact that you could hear that laughter again.

You’d never think that you would have heard it ever again.

“Shut up, I’m just here because you got me a second place position in running, loser.” you giggled it off coolly, but failing terribly to hide the happiness stupidly written all over your face as Dowoon’s smile angled up further, wearing his pride proudly on his sleeve as he gave you a high five.

“Really? Oh my gosh, that’s so amazing! I’m so proud of my student.” he laughed, childlike eyes widening in happiness and amplifying his innocence. “You deserve it man, you trained so hard for the test-definitely more commitment than I think you would have had.”

“Ow, thanks a lot for the last comment, jeez, alright, I know I suck.” you jutted out your lips in faux sadness, clutching your heart to your chest-but quickly remembering why you were so happy to see him again, you hastily added, “But thanks anyway, for guiding me. Couldn’t have done it without you, taking so much time off your break.”

There. I finally said it, you thought happily, allowing yourself a small grin when Dowoon rejected your praises quickly, hurriedly saying, “No, no, I didn’t really do anything,” and starting to ramble on about how you had done so much more to deserve it-his eyes got even bigger when he was in slight shock, and he looked the part of a small, innocent child more than ever.

“And oh, right.” Dowoon suddenly spoke up amidst the topic of running, grabbing your attention. You couldn’t help but giggle when he was about to open his mouth to speak, but instead-shut it again and started tugging the edges of his hair, mouthing things to himself with eyes squeezed together tightly-probably a long string of Jaehyung’s 'motivational quotes.

A part of your heart fluttered at the purity his very being exuded-he was really, very cute.

But in all your mirth, you couldn’t help it-you absolutely had to smack him.

“Yoon Dowoon, hurry up!” you snapped quickly, however with a cheeky smile that showed your real intentions. Dowoon was momentarily taken aback-but his features quickly softened after, when he realised you were joking.

“Sorry for being such a big mess, it’s just…” he barely smiled softly, breaking out into further nervous laughter when Jaehyung and Younghyun started to beat his back repeatedly.

“Do you want to go out with us today? We’re going to my place further out from the city, and uh…we’re setting off fireworks and having a picnic around there and playing our instruments and stuff-” There was probably going to be no end to his rambling if Younghyun hadn’t gave him a loud slap on his back-at this point, the creases in his eyes and sheepish box smile showed it all; he was incredibly, incredibly flustered, and to your dismay-also incredibly endearing.

But still, you couldn’t miss grabbing the opportunity to tease him. You lifted your lips into a smirk, rocking your shoes against the foot of the table as you cooed, “Aww, is my senior asking me out on a date? I’d love to go with you, aww, Dowoonie…” Everyone in the place, yes, including that grumpy female customer; broke into fits of giggles, raising the atmosphere of the previously still, 'cultured’ public place as you chased after Dowoon, who was currently running away from you and ducked his head to hide under the table.

“Haha, why are you genuinely scared? I was only joking, you’re so adorable.” you grinned cheekily as you saw the blush dancing above his round, squishy cheeks and the embarrassment in his semi opened eyes, “I’ll come with you. It’s quite timely as well, since I’ve had quite a bad day at school…You know what, I’ll say later. I gotta finish my shift first, Wonpil can’t possibly do everything for me.” you quickly added when you saw his eyebrows widen in slight concern, and with a good-natured, outstretched wrist you helped Dowoon up from the table; who was quick to stick out his tongue when he saw that Jaehyung and Younghyun were still unable to contain the mirth written across their faces.

“So, I’ll see you at 7 then?” he smiled awkwardly, trying his best to ignore them, and you nodded back eagerly as you walked him out of the shop, and into the embrace of the outdoors again.

It seemed so coincidental, that even as Jaehyung and Younghyun had simultaneously tagged along behind the two of you and out into the open, the sun was only blazing through the gaps in Dowoon’s curls-girdling the ridges of his shoulders, slicing through the sides of his face and oozing into the crevices of his warm, faith-filled eyes.

You smiled.

The world was so beautiful.

“See you later! Don’t miss me too much!” you yelled out to Dowoon jokingly, as he and the other boys got into the small scooters they shared-and after he had yelled back with equal gusto, “Back at you!”, the three scooters sped in the other direction; hopefully, anticipating the time where they came back the other way again, because you sure were.

_____________________________

unknown: It’s 7 lol have you ended your shift yet?

you: Yeah I have! Are you Dowoon or…?

unknown: No I’m Brian #sike

unknown: Please ignore that, Jaehyungie-hyung took my phone, I don’t know what he’s doing with his weird hashtags again TTTTTTTTT

you: HAHAHAHA TELL HIM HE SUCKS

you: It’s nice to have your number though…it sucked not being able to contact you :( How did you get it anyway?

Dowoon: Yeah hhhh Wonpil told me earlier :) I didn’t think you would mind…so

you: Haha of course not! Anyway, are you on the way?

Dowoon: Wouldn’t dare to be late, I’m already here hehe ^^

Noticing that you were already hanging up your apron and practically bouncing to the kitchen to clean up, Wonpil couldn’t help but throw a good-natured laugh at you. “Someone’s excited for their first date.” he remarked suggestively, cleaning the used table under the illumination of the light bulb hanging above him, and if it wasn’t for the distance between both of you you would have probably kicked him in response.

“Shut uuuuup, there’s literally 2 other boys goiiiiing.” you whined, taking one of the leftover plates scattered across the sink and soaping it,“-The chances of you and I dating just about now is probably way higher than Dowoon…well, at least, I’ve known you for about a year plus right now, and him, 6 months at most.” Wonpil couldn’t help but giggle again at the uncertainty in your voice, and pettily, you stamped your feet on the floor.

“There’s no way my future partner will be someone as mean as you, I take all my words back.” you pouted jokingly, and subsequently, starting to laugh at yourself too-this conversation was going absolutely nowhere.

“Hey, but in all seriousness, I think you should just go. Don’t make them wait too long, after all, one of them is your future boyfriend. I’ll take care of wrapping up.” Wonpil spoke up again, approaching you as he hung the cloth by the arch of the sink, and took the plate from your hand kindly-gesturing for you to wash your hands as he pointed to the tap.

With unmasked gratitude you smiled back at him, washing your hands briefly before taking your phone from the counter, “Thanks again, Pil-ah; and one more freaking thing, before I have to repeat it a second time, there is no way Dowoon is going to be my boyfriend.” you remarked strictly, taking your school bag from the seat close to the door and slinging it over your shoulder excitedly-the events of tonight sounded incredibly fun.

“Thank me by inviting me to your future wedding!” Wonpil screamed in his high pitched voice when you opened the door, with the silvery chime of the bell above it-and this time, you really, really wanted to kick him, because outside, in the cold of the night Jaehyung was literally having the time of his life laughing at you and nodding back to Wonpil in agreement (one of the rare times where he actually sided him).

“Boys suck.” you groaned pettily as Dowoon, with unmistakeable redness on his face gestured for you to get onto the back of his scooter, and Younghyun laughed.

“Doesn’t seem that way with our Dowoonie, am I right?” his unmistakeable fox eyes shot you a small wink, which was sort of annoying-till he yelled smugly, “Good luck on being the first there with extra baggage! Not like anyone ever manages to triumph me anyway.”

With that, Younghyun’s scooter whizzed off, black coat and black locks fluttering behind him care freely, like how his very personality was-and soon, Jaehyung’s scooter whizzed off too, the only thing behind him being his screams of “I’m GONNA BEAT YOU THIS TIME, BRIAN!”, and you couldn’t help but giggle a bit-the antics of those two were always so stupidly humouring.

“Sorry, they can be a bit of a public embarrassment.” Dowoon laughed helplessly, shaking his head, and with a small smile you too shook your head; you were totally fine with them, and you’d even say that having them around was enjoyable. “-Jihyo and Chaewon are actually joining us later, but they weren’t comfortable on the scooter, and we need someone to drive our instruments.”

He paused for a bit to catch his breath, expelling a small puff of white before explaining, “I hope you’re okay with it too-the scooter can feel very unbalanced at first, but I think you can handle it. This sounds incredibly awkward, but you gotta hold onto my waist, or you’ll probably fall off within a second of me accelerating. Alright? Don’t want to be responsible for your medical fees.” Dowoon ended off with a joking crease in his smirk before he tossed you a neon yellow helmet from the basket of the scooter, and you nodded before putting it on.

“Ready to ride?” he suddenly piped up, happiness laced in his deep, comforting voice, and you shot him a thumbs up sign.

“Always ready.” you answered eagerly, and with a louder roar from the engine than before, both of you sped out towards the moon, that lay on the horizon of the shimmering sea.

________________________

“We’re almost here!” he broke into a small gummy smile beneath the mop of his fluttering curls-they seemed to run across the border of his forehead, like running waves crashing beautifully onto the shore of a beach.

“You’d never get anything like this in the city.” you said in slight awe, hands slowly finding themselves crawling up to Dowoon’s broad shoulders as you dared to hoist yourself up, breaking up from your posture a tad bit, and as you felt one of his curls brush past your wrists, he laughed his slow, deep laugh in response.

“You’re cute. I had a friend that didn’t live in Busan as a kid, and he lived in the more country area-he would probably protest if he heard what you just said…” His deep voice trailed off softly, seeming to follow the snaking nature of the concrete road ahead of you. “-Nevertheless, I’m happy we’re here. It’s nice to ride out here with someone.”

His eyes, which had now stopped displaying the light of the sun to catch the glow of the moon, was still as warm as ever in the cold weather. With undeniable faith tinting the light that ringed his eyes, half opened submissively and bringing out the semi rosy tint in his bags, the carefree smile on his lips and the uplift of his cheeks resembling floating clouds didn’t fail to bring you back in awe again; it was as if all laws of astronomy tailed after his presence, and followed in the footsteps of his unbreakable belief.

“You’re really very beautiful.” the words left your lips through an airy whisper, and you were too busy staring at him again to even notice what you said until Dowoon spoke up again.

“U-Um…Me? R-Really? Thanks, I guess…” his eyes bore a different spark to it as they drooped shyly, like a mimosa recoiling at someone’s touch-and as the truth dawned onto you slowly, mixed feelings of embarrassment and self-blame kicked in a little too fast-you really, really wanted to kick yourself for saying that.

Trying to salvage the situation, you quickly spoke up upon seeing his tilted eyebrows and the embarrassment written on his face. “I-I didn’t mean that in a weird way, I’m sorry, not that I don’t love your looks-or not that I don’t love you any less, i-it’s just-” you stuttered awkwardly, brain stupidly failing you at this crucial moment-but being a nice guy, Dowoon just shook his head briefly.

With a small smile breaking onto his face, not fully suggestive; yet not fully chaste, he responded in awe, big eyes widening with more faith than before.

“No, no, please don’t apologise, because…” Dowoon spoke with the smile of reuniting with someone again, overly excited to articulate his words properly, “B-Because, I-”

“Dowoon! What’s taking you so long, can you drive faster? You’re almost there already, hurry up!” Jaehyung’s voice suddenly broke through the world that only both of you shared, halting the climax of the story. He and Younghyun were on a higher end of a cliff, where the destination was, and you could already see their hands waving vigorously in your direction. Jihyo and Chaewon had arrived too-you could see two figures with long hair sit on a big red mat.

“What was that you were going to say?” you asked, as the scooter started to move again; both of you had been so immersed in conversation that you hadn’t even realised that Dowoon stopped the vehicle to talk.

However, contrary to what you thought he was going to say, Dowoon shook his head almost nonchalantly, losing a bit of the faith in his gaze as he looked down with baggy eyes of dejection.

He squeezed his lips into a textbook version of a smile and talked at a slower pace, this time more scarily composed than before. “I-It’s nothing. I don’t know if I’ll have the courage to tell you again.”

The entire trip to the cliff went downhill in a veil of awkward silence, both of you knowing full well in your hearts why such a thing had happened. Wind rocketed past your ears silently, blowing against your ears and hitting against your hair-as if coaxing you to speak, but right now, you didn’t know if you had the courage to say anything to him when you had made him sad.

In less than a minute, the scooter had surfaced up the flatter parts of the cliff, and you decided that this was the best moment to speak up.

“I’m sorry if I made you sad or anything.” you mumbled awkwardly, stepping out of the scooter and nearly losing your balance-having your feet on the ground after 2 whole hours seemed like a foreign concept to your legs right about now.

Dowoon shook a hand at you almost instantly. “You’ve made me more happy than I could ever imagine.” he said unhesitantly, and this time, smiled at you with a more genuine smile. For a second, you could see the faith of the crescent moon resurface back on the ring of his eyes as he continued, “Just have fun tonight, that’s all I ask for.”

You nodded back, returning his smile; and with a new, strangely fluttering feeling in your heart you followed Dowoon to the picnic mat, where Jihyo and Chaewon were sitting, dressed in casual clothing-you felt slightly out of place, decked out in your sloppy, mud-speckled school uniform as you greeted them shyly, sitting yourself onto the mat. But thankfully, the girls initiated conversations well-definitely way better than you did, and within seconds, you hadn’t even realised that Dowoon had slipped away to somewhere else.

“So, how’s life after finals?” Jihyo asked cheerily, or rather, the way she usually talked; it wasn’t rare to see that consistent, bright smile of hers plastered on her doll like face.

You didn’t exactly know how to answer. “I don’t really know. After school today I have that 4 month break that most have, so what happened after your break?” You started to laugh as you realised how you had redirected the topic back to them, and both of them started doing the same.

“Hmm-hahaha-I’d say that college life is still manageable, I’ve been doing it for about 2 months plus.” Jihyo answered, failing to contain her laughter at one point as she squeezed her eyes together endearingly. “Chaewon is entering a polytechnic, so she has about 2 months more to break, same with Dowoon, Jaehyung and Younghyun want to go to a uni, so they’re going to college too, but I don’t know…like. I really don’t know what I want in life yet…”

Her voice trailed off awkwardly, with the fading smear of her chirpy voice, and you couldn’t help but relate. Sure, you had a subject combination and you had did pretty good in finals, but you didn’t have a certain passion you would shirk everything to chase; not like many of the people in your class, who were already able to aim their arrows towards their target.

“It’s okay. I’m sure you’ll find it soon when the time arrives, I’m looking for what I want too.” you said with empathy, and in response Jihyo nodded politely.

“I suppose.”

After a while of staring, you had only come to realise that the mahogany, soft brown shade of his fur was the same colour you saw, inked intricately in the depths of Dowoon’s eyes.

Just then, there was a very coincidental, but hesitant tap on your shoulders.

“Can you come with me?” a low voice spoke up amidst the cooing over the dog, and you looked up, despite already recognising who it was.

This time, his gaze looked a little different; you couldn’t help but feel slightly excited as you noticed the enigmatic sparkle that stood out amidst his gentle, brown eyes, taking his outstretched hand and standing up.

“Yoon Dowoon, I’m warning you, if you don’t bring her back safely, we will tail after you with bats and split your head open.” Jihyo suddenly spoke up with a glint in her big, doll eyes, voice cracking menacingly at the last line-and again, both of you laughed at her antics.

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” he laughed awkwardly, voice faltering at the last line. You couldn’t help but notice that Dowoon’s cheeks were starting to heat up, but quickly ignored it when he gestured at you to follow him.

Contrary to what you thought it would be, the walk to the destination wasn’t very long, unlike earlier on. From the angle of the picnic mat, a loudspeaker in the distance was clearly visible. Next to it were two other figures, Younghyun and Jaehyung-with a bass and electric guitar slung around their chests respectively.

Needlessly to say, you were shocked. “They can play those?” you exclaimed, and with a small nod, Dowoon chuckled gleefully, “Look to your left.”

Without a moment of thought, you turned your head.

Cymbals, glinting on the cusp of its dully golden surface like the rings of Saturn, with two smaller drums and a large bass drum positioned at the bottom-it seemed like you were exaggerating, but…

“Dowoon, you can play that? ” you cried out, faltering a little at the last word, but unlike how you had reacted, he just smiled like it wasn’t that great of a feat to play the drums.

“Not just that, I’m going to play you a song.” he responded triumphantly, as he approached the spinning chair behind it and sat down. A smug smile remained on his face unwaveringly as he bent down to pick up his drumsticks, humming a gentle tune between his lips-and you couldn’t help but smile, wondering if that was the very song they were about to play.

“This is all for you by the way,” Younghyun cut in, a malicious smirk playing on the sides of his lips as you turned to him, “-We have a school recital tomorrow, and we’ve practically practiced this song till we could play it with closed eyes-but our naughty youngest absolutely insisted on playing this instead of anything else, just because of his-”

“OKAY, OKAY, I think that’s about enough.” Dowoon shouted obnoxiously, with a slightly annoyed, slightly red look on his face, and everyone started to laugh.

“Take it away then, drummer boy.” you said enthusiastically, remaining rooted to the ground in anticipation.

You definitely weren’t ready for the moment he started to position those drumsticks of his.

Then, as the melody descended down a few keys, Jaehyung rasped gently into the mic, like the soft blow of the night breeze surrounding you.

Every day I lived like I was dead But you

Became the reason For me to get up Once more You made me wanna open my eyes

In sync with the bass, your heart thumped against your chest-and you stared at Dowoon, who gave you a small smile, before going into a rapid flurry of beats yet again.

Just your smile alone Makes me breathe Because of you, I’m Better better Better baby Only your love Makes the frozen me Start to run again Higher higher Higher baby

I used to never wait for tomorrow But you Became the reason For me to take one more step Not too far ahead You held out your hand to me

Just your smile alone Makes me breathe Because of you, I’m Better better Better baby Only your love Makes the frozen me Start to run again Higher higher Higher baby The bass suddenly made no more sound, and soon, the music stopped with your heart.

“You must be confused now.” Dowoon’s low voice suddenly whispered at a distance awfully near where you were standing, and startling you; yet resonating so comfortingly in your ears while he spoke.

“I-I don’t know, I’m happy-and these words are what I’ve been meaning to say to you for the longest time, you mean a lot to me, and heck, I don’t even know if I could have survived running without you, there’s no way you could have known-”

“These words are the words I want to say to you too.”

“I wanted to drop by your school to visit, but I heard from your friends that you were hurting a lot today, so I didn’t end up going.” he said quietly, now holding up the wrist with the thin, ugly scar zipped across it and kissing it; at that moment, you could barely believe the warmth that was withheld between every fibre in the soft, pillowy surface as Dowoon looked up at you again. “And I don’t want to leave you like that again. Thank you for understanding me with that kind heart of yours, when I could barely have the willpower to train the batch, and bringing me so much happiness.”

He paused for a bit, and as if his voice was a conductor, your breath halted simultaneously-before he opened his mouth again, and eagerly said the words that would change your life forever.

“I want to run with you forever.”

You could barely contain yourself from crying again when the feelings gushed to your head, came raining down from your eyes as tears, and through all your emotions, you nodded vigorously.

“I want to do the same, Dowoon,” you sniffed, barely stabilising yourself as you felt his callused hands land on your shoulders gently, holding you close to his chest, rising and falling in waves-he too, was crying; and you never wanted to leave that place again.

Just your smile alone Makes me breathe Because of you, I’m Better better Better baby Only your love Makes the frozen me Start to run again Higher higher Higher baby

From that day on, both of you ran not only across the running track in your school, but in the race of life, hand in hand-smiles being the breath in each other’s lungs, and love being the reason to keep going.

Only your love could make the me who was stuck run again.

______________________

hehe I really like this story uwu its not the best and its way too long than it should have been but it will hold a special place in my heart!! to the anon that requested this I’m sorry if u expected a short read with a much more light hearted topic to 'cheering you up after a bad day at school’ JHDSJKFHS HAHAHAHA gosh anyway I hope y'all enjoyed this if you even finished it, thanks for your support!! I’m writing this on my birthday so I gotta go sleep now, happy 2019 to everyone!

(looking back and literally the only good thing about this story was the ending what the hecK I did so much unnecessary elaboration LOL)

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shiningrye · 8 years ago

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Baker’s Dozen -1 2016

Please lady, my tinnitus.

It may be a few months into 2017 but it’s not too late to review the year that was. It can be worthwhile to reflect on the past, to celebrate successes and learn from shortcomings, to track your progress and see how you’ve grown, and to dwell and ruminate on missed opportunities while you lie awake in your bed at two in the morning trapped in a nihilistic prison of your own mind.

I set out every year to challenge myself to do twelve projects. These can be paid gigs or just personal projects that I complete, but I try to get one finished a month. I feel it’s a great motivator and a good way to improve my skills and at the very least it’s a good productive outlet. I generally only count projects or goals that relate to filmmaking or digital media to keep me more focused.

Here’s how I did (in order of release/completion):

1. Four Feet Companion Foundation - Pucks for Paws

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The first project of the year I finished was a volunteer gig for Four Feet Companion Foundation, this is a great little volunteer-run organization that provides financial and volunteer support to local animal charities. Being part animal myself, I was excited to take on this project and contribute to this cause. I believe this is played annually now at every Pucks for Paws event which is their big fundraising event that takes place at the Saddledome. Overall this was a pretty straightforward shoot and I was decently happy with how it turned out.

Some challenges were the logistics of scheduling and traveling to the different locations, as well as setting up the shoots alone without scouting the location first. A lot of these challenges were caused by a truncated timeline.

What I learned: Thinking back and rewatching the video, it’s obvious that in one interview the colour was way off. It ain’t purdy.

There were a few issues that I faced.

Mixed colour temperature. I was dealing with three different temperatures (daylight from the window, overhead fluorescents and a tungsten keylight) and without proper gels I really didn’t know the best course of action to take.

I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t have suitable gels or flags and I flew blind into the location.

I dun goofed. Lastly, I made a mistake in setting the white balance.

Mixed colour temperature is a beast that can only be slain one way: Unifying all light sources to one temperature. As Alex Buono (SNL and Documentary Now! DP) says, there’s no tricks around it, you just have to get all light to be the same temperature the old fashioned way. It seems obvious and is relatively straightforward to do, if albeit time consuming. A quick flick of the switch killed the overhead fluorescents, which left the two mixed sources shining. Altering light sources isn’t so bad in a small room, if you have the tools.

But I didn’t have the tools.

Logistically this was the only room we could shoot in. There were no blinds on the window and no rod or frame to clip a blanket too, even if I did have clips. You think a guy without clips is going to have a flag (fabric designed to cut light that can be easily positioned)? Hell no. I also didn’t have large enough gels to cover the window (known as CTO or colour temperature orange, alters daylight to tungsten) or the keylight (CTB or colour temperature blue, which alters tungsten light to daylight). I just wasn’t prepared.

Lastly I made an M. A mmmm-m-m-m... A mistake. Yes. A big fat one. Juicy and all tender-like.

I didn’t change the white balance on the cameras to tungsten (3200K) from daylight (5500/5600K) prior to shooting. To add insult to amateruish injury, the walls were painted in what I swear to be Tungsten Yellow, which just compounded the problem.

You’d think someone who worked for a company as a corporate videographer with a few years under their belt wouldn’t make mistakes like this. But it happens. Or at least it happened to me. The trick is to learn from your mistakes and try not to retread the same territory again.

So how did I learn from my mistakes?

The colour temperature issue may have been avoided if I was able to scout the location beforehand. Short timelines can be hard to avoid, but one thing I would’ve insisted on for this interview would’ve been requesting some pictures

of potential shooting locations. Now they may not be able to accommodate the request in time, but you have nothing to lose by asking. I assumed, falsely, that shooting in houses are all relatively the same which wasn’t the case.

Furthermore, since this shoot, my kit has grown in size to hopefully avoid a similar issue in the future.

The white balance gaffe spurred me to make a consistent mental checklist and run through it prior to every shoot since. The checklist I will share in a future post! A simple flash of my Gray Card or using a Colour Passport also would’ve saved me a headache. Over the past year I’ve learned a lot more about colour correcting and grading.

(Top) Last year I was trying to counter the yellow and orange and then glazed it with magenta maybe as a feeble attempt to make it a bit stylized? I couldn’t tell ya. With knowing what I know now, I could salvage it somewhat (Bottom) but it’s best to not make those mistakes in the first place.

That’s also not the worst of it. To add to the stress of the shoot, embarrassingly I may or may not have forgot to bring the quick release plate for the B cam, rendering its tripod useless...

1/4"-20 on a lightstand is there for this reason, right?

I’m not proud.

Yeah I could’ve balanced it on the tripod head. But I did have the sense to know that gravity wins every time.

Tip: Always check your kit before you leave. Another tip: I didn’t get bogged down and give up with the amateur-hour move, I looked at what I had and used it to jerry-rig a solution. If it’s stupid but it works, it ain’t stupid. Even if it still looks stupid.

2. PONOS Apparel

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Had a good time shooting this one: a web commercial for a local athletic apparel company. Shot it in a day and overall it went smoothly. Had a quick and dirty shot list that was flexible so it was fun improvising sequences and putting it together in the edit. Loved working with the director, who made shooting it a breeze.

I believe a student who attends at a local highschool created the music.

Challenges were some of the shots such as running nearly full tilt with a Glidecam but I think they worked for what it is. This is where a gimbal or Steadicam or even a vest and arm attachment would’ve made light work of it.

What I learned: I would’ve made some different editing choices now. The part that really sticks out to me now is in the deadlift scene I’d remove the ‘jump cut + crash zooms’ on the kick beat. They’re unnecessary! Sometimes I get an idea in my head and I want to run with it, but it’s easy to trap yourself in a tunnel. So ideally I should’ve taken a step back and let the edit breathe a bit before committing. Also I need to watch my exposure and ratios. The final shot (which is also the thumbnail above) the highlights are too hot and it’ll bug me forever.

3. John’s Tongue is Not Long

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I had a strong urge to shoot a short so I whipped up a poem and a video idea about one of my roommates at the time, John, and his short tongue. After shooting it, I thought that the poem idea lent itself better to a song. So I enlisted the help of Chris Koehler to help put this song idea in motion. I was hoping he would take one look at the lyrics and jump at the chance to sing such glory. But alas he encouraged me to. I love singing. Alone in my car. The sing-songy genes of my ancestors were weeded out long ago. Perhaps it’s the reason why they emigrated? But I had fun and I think Chris did too. I’m stoked with how the song turned out, he killed it.

Challenges were I didn’t storyboard this or even really shot list this, just kind of went through the lyrics and shot what I thought fit. This made for a bit of problem solving in the edit but it actually wasn’t bad at all and I enjoyed making it fit.

What I learned: The idea was to shoot the first half before John went in for surgery (his wee tongue was causing him discomfort) and finish it off once he has a glorious normal length tongue. I realize now however that this doesn’t come across in the lyrics or the video. My talented director and animator buddy, Jarett Sitter provided some indispensable feedback with just one constructive comment, “I wish he had a ridiculous over-the-top tongue in the last scene.” As soon as he said it I knew I dun goofed.

One of my screenwriting profs said the ending has to be worth the price of admission. (paraphrased, he actually said the ending has to be the best part of the story to make it worth it. i.e. shit ending = shit story). Rewatching my own work is tough but it’s the best way to learn, and when I watch this I realize there’s no click at the end, no spice that holds the rest of it together. Adding in something over-the-top like that would’ve made it a lot more effective as a whole and would’ve fit with the style of the video no problem. So the lesson here, no matter how silly your project you set out to make, consult with friends and revise the script a few times before setting it in stone, you’ll get a better product at the end.

4. GRIT

GRIT is a non-prof that educates kindergarten-age children with disabilities. They requested a slideshow be created so it could be played at their annual gala. Me not settling for just an average slideshow decided to give it a little flair.

Challenges were the flair. I used a fairly common plugin for After Effects (AE) called SureTarget, and needless to say I ran into some problems. I love Video Copilot. They’re a fantastic resource and their plugins are great. So I’m not going to complain about a free, 7 year old plugin. But I will tell you of my tribulations. I’ve used the plugin with success a few times before, but it was used on older versions of AE. It was also used with fewer pictures. This video required about 80 photos/clips to be used, which was also another challenge to try and fit that within the allotted time. I believe the combination of debatable-compatibility with the newer version of AE and the sheer amount of assets proved a nightmare. I don’t even want to look back at how many hours I spent trying to fix the weirdest issues both in animating and rendering. It was too many for what should’ve been a relatively straightforward project.

What I learned: Sometimes you just learn in the middle of production that something just doesn’t work. Due to my stubbornness I refused to demote the slideshow to a generic (worse) program to deliver something. I problem solved and problem solved to find a solution that worked. However, I have put the plugin to rest for good now. It was a good sendoff as I was tired of using it anyway.

5. Phantasmagoria

I got the chance to work with Tia Halliday, a local artist, in capturing video of her project, Phantasmagoria. The idea behind it was to explore the relationship of the body to sculpture and painting. The scope of the project was impressive: using dancers from Alberta Ballet to contort their bodies and hold positions inside fabric sacks to be photographed digitally and with a medium format film camera, both in studio and on location outside.

Challenges were I haven’t done much in the way of abstract video or at least capturing abstract art. So getting myself well-versed and acquainted with the project was the first step. The rest fell into place in the weeks leading up and on the day.

What I learned: this was a combination of behind the scenes videography and capturing the imagery first-hand so it was good experience being able to shoot both.

6. Cancer Crusher Flash Mob

This was a short social-media-focused piece. It was relatively straightforward, and fun since I didn’t know exactly what to expect until it was happening.

Challenges the lens I used is not my favourite but it’s versatile for fast-paced shoots like this, it’s just a pain in the ass to pull focus on, and my hope is to invest in a better zoom eventually. During this shoot I felt like a hummingbird with all the people and action going on, that for a couple shots I cursed at myself in the edit because I didn’t hold frame long enough and missed context because of it.

What I learned: For fast fly-by-seat-of-pants shoots, just need to remember to breathe a beat or two longer on shots.

7. Cancer Crusher 2016 Main Event Recap

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This was the main event for Cancer Crusher where you could win prizes, eat, drink, listen to music, and smash fruit! This was a blast to shoot and I had a great time putting it together.

Challenges were not much different from other event videography gigs. Smaller venues can be a little more challenging to get the shot but there was time to get everything I felt I needed to. As always music is a challenge to find. I think I found something that captured the fun spirit with it hopefully not being too stock music-y.

What I learned: it’s always great to stretch the videography muscles so just getting more experience is always welcome.

8. Sally Shapiro - If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind

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Directed by the aforementioned Jarett Sitter, this music video was fun and a very rewarding challenge to work on. It combined 3D assets - both still and animated, and 2D illustration and animation. My job was editing the video and combining those two sources to make them come alive.

Challenges were obvious. It was a fairly large-scale project in terms of scope (3D animation combined with illustration) and size (it’s a long song). 3D animation is a very time intensive process on the back-end especially, so if there are any changes, you have to prepare for hours (days) of rendering time. Due to the size of the project, the 3D guru, Evan, Jarett and I had to work simultaneously (picture us sprinting across a canyon, where one person is laying down slats and the other two are tying rope, trying to build the bridge as we go). So while consultations were frequent, the nature of it was generally only the big picture could really get nailed down. Figuring out an efficient workflow was key to the success of this project.

What I learned: I love compositing so getting a chance to get some more experience doing it was great. It was very rewarding coming up with solutions to the challenges some parts offered.

9, 10, 11, 12, 13. Lost Twentysomething Series

Last year I finished shooting five shorts that have been an absolutely labour of love. These have consumed my headspace for the past year, but it has been such an invaluable experience both personally and educationally. I’m pumped to see them coming together. Braden Paes along with my friends and family have helped me immensely in getting them produced. There have been challenges and tons of learning opportunities and in the coming weeks/months I’ll post more about them. In the meantime, I am steadily chipping away at them in post, hoping to have something to show in the early summer.

BONUS 14, 15, 16. Escape, Trillium, and Shasta Keychains

My dad’s little business, Camping Treasures is growing in inventory every month! The past year he needed me to draw out the dieline for three different trailers, the Escape, Trillium, and Shasta, so they could be made into 2-sided keychains.The designs have even been shrunk for wine glass charms and earrings. Take a look!

Conclusion

I haven’t written something this long since graduating university, but aside from shaking the rust off, my motivation for writing these is mainly self-serving. Overall I think I’m a patient guy but I often catch myself feeling like I’m in a rush, that I’m not progressing as much or as fast as I’d like, so I like looking back to reassure myself that I have been staying on track, learning, and applying what I’ve learned previously.

If you managed to get through it all, I sincerely hope that it maybe helped you do that thing you want to do or allowed you time to reflect on your own progress over the past year. What are you proud of? What challenges have you overcome and what have you learned from those challenges? Post in the comments or keep them in mind as you crush 2017!

I have started a new career this year which leaves me with less free time (except for right now), so instead of looking at quantity of projects finished, I’m going to be celebrating and looking at the smaller victories over the year.

#bakersdozenminusone #filmmaking #goals #project goals #film goals #new years goals #new year resolutions #shortfilm #videographer #video production #makingmoves #video project #filmmaker #neverstoplearning #ohgodthistookallday

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