#i had to go to the owner's main store today to run some items for customers (on my day off) and y'all. When I get there my aunt is on the

[toji-sweetheart]

Toji and Shiu punishing their girl that's been misbehaving trying to get them horny while they've all been out in public spending their day off together?

And I don't mean like casual whispers or something. No, she's purposely getting close to them and slipping her hand inside their pants to rub their dicks before running away. Wearing a cute little sundress and flashing them, showing them she's not wearing panties.

Asking to try some of their ice cream and "being a good girlfriend" and cleaning the ice cream off their fingers by sucking it off. Every time they try to grab her, she keeps sliding out of reach, making it a little game. Until Toji has had enough and uses his speed against her to capture her.

Toji forces her into the back seat with him edging her until they finally get home where the door barely closes behind them before they're on her.

18+ only content - mdni

forgive me for hanging onto this for a while, I used this as a daydream lmaoo any ask involving one or two of my main men will get answered with something over 1k I can't help myself kdjfn

tags: fem reader + generic smut + polyship with Toji and Shiu

It was a rare occurrence when the three of you both had a whole day and evening to yourselves so you wanted to make the best of it with a day out for shopping and a date, the apartment was running out of things so you figured why not kill two birds with a stone?

What you didn't expect though was that your ovulation would rear its head on the day you had planned and all you could think about was kneeling in front of them taking turns gagging on their dicks like it was your damn job, but stopped yourself and decided to dress up.

They were downstairs waiting for you, as usual, it took them all but ten minutes or less to get ready. Forgoing any panties you slipped their favorite sundress on, the fabric clinging to your curves and accentuating your breasts that almost spilled out the top.

"My honey bears! I'm ready!" You called out giggling at the nickname that made both men flustered, they had to get used to you calling them all sorts of pet names and they enjoyed the hell out of it.

Whether or not they would say it out loud, Toji loves being your big hunk of a teddy bear and Shiu loves being your sweetpea a lot.

Toji was the first to wrap his arm around your waist letting his palm fall to your ass to give it a squeeze and a deep kiss that made you want to tear his clothes off and fuck him right there by the door.

You pulled away and leaned in to grasp Shiu's tie to tug him closer to kiss him senseless until your lips were swollen and you could feel the bulge in his slacks before grabbing the keys while slipping your shoes on.

They followed you to the car where Shiu opened your door helping you inside before circling to sit next to you in the passenger seat.

Thankfully it didn't take long to get to the store and get a cart to wheel it around while you grabbed the items from the list. Making sure no one was around you bent over to grab something feeling the cool breeze caress your bare flesh making you shiver.

Shiu was the first one to see your pussy, slick and glistening like dew on the grass in the morning. His eyes burst out of his skull while he got Toji's attention. "Did we forget underwear today?" Toji asked.

His eyebrows furrowed as he came closer to hide the fact that you were flashing anyone who happened to walk by. He could feel the warmth of your cunt pressed against him making him groan.

He was stuck between giving your rear end a smack or taking you to the car to take advantage of that but before he could make a decision you stood up and pulled away. "I guess so, did you?" You hummed tossing the item in the cart before walking down the aisle.

"She is going to be the death of me." Toji muttered making Shiu chuckle and shake his head knowing he had the same fate.

They followed you around like dogs and you their owner who had a tasty treat for them, and anytime you bent over one of them would stand behind you playing with the hem of your dress trying to pull it down to cover anything but it was fruitless really.

Once everything was in the car you proposed to go to your favorite ice cream shop and eat it outside since the weather wasn't going to be warm much longer. "If anyone looks under your dress I'm gouging their eyes out." Toji told you when the three of you got out of the car.

With your hand on his chest, you looked at him with a sly grin knowing no one was around so you slid your palm down and into his shorts cupping his bulge. "Oh, baby." You giggled and pulled away.

Shiu watched the scene unfold and before he could say anything you were on him smothering his face in sweet honey kisses while your hand slid into his pants to cup his sack gently with a slight squeeze.

His hands bunched in your dress hiking it up giving Toji a good view of your bare ass. "I need something to eat, let's go inside." You hummed and tugged them inside to order your usual.

Toji stayed inside and paid for it while Shiu went with you outside to snag a spot that was under the canopy and away from prying eyes. Even though there was more than enough room you settled on Shiu's lap facing away from him. He felt warm and smelled so good.

By the time your other boyfriend came out, Shiu could feel how wet you were and how you subtly ground against him. "Thank you so much honey bear, I appreciate both of you." You told him softly.

When Toji sat next to you and Shiu, you leaned in and kissed him before pulling away to lick your ice cream then you spotted the melting ice cream on Shiu's finger and brought it to your mouth.

He and Toji watched as you sucked it off like you were blowing him, slow languid strokes of your tongue made his cock throb against you.

It felt like pure torture knowing they couldn't bend you over the table and fuck you until you were a drooling fucked out mess. Both men watching as you licked up the cream making eye contact.

"I'm kind of a messy eater, you two know that." You teased and shimmied off Shiu's lap making sure to grind against his dick hearing him huff and mumble something under his breath making you giggle.

Toji was the first one out of his chair almost tipping it backward, his patience had finally worn thin and snapped, fraying at the edges as he tried to grab you but you were quicker and let him brush your tits.

You smirked and walked towards the car. "Gotta be faster than that!"

Before you knew it Toji took the keys from you to unlock the door and push you inside the back where he followed while making Shiu get in the driver's seat. "Want to act up just so you could get some dick?"

His mouth crashed against yours in a heated kiss while one hand spread your legs obscenely wide open for him, his rough fingertips gliding toward where you really want to be touched. "I know what this is." He whispered in your ear as you looked at him with wet eyes.

"What is it?" You asked grabbing his wrist to move it but he stayed firm where he was then he moved to cup your pussy before rubbing the heel of his palm making sure to not add the pressure you were looking for.

"You're acting up to be put back in your place." He whispered in your ear before licking the shell of it making you moan.

Toji knew he was right when you didn't say anything while he continued to build you up but never taking you over the edge as Shiu stole a few glances.

"Is that it?" You asked with an annoyed grunt trying to buck your hips, but Toji had stopped you from doing so.

You wanted to cry and pout from the rush of hormones that washed over you. "Toji!" You whined feeling your face heat as he mocked you with a smirk.

It didn't take Shiu to get home and the backdoor open letting you out first as he followed after to unlock the front door.

"Get ready for a very long evening, my dear." He teased once the three of you were alone and inside with no restrictions.

[grizzersmamma]

Son of Zmei | Fae AU | Nikto x F!Reader

A/N: Playing with @ghouljams​ ‘s Fae AU again, this time with my boy Nikto. This is just a bit of an intro to Nikto and his pet, our dear reader. We’ll get into what kind of creature Nikto is in the next part and how that plays into his personality. (I swear I’m working on the next BTL chapter, this fic is just on the side).

Warnings: Nikto being a bit of a creep. Reader gets knocked out lol. Nikto in this is similar to how he is in BtL, so kinda spoilers for that?

Series Masterlist: Here

CoD Masterlist: Here

Next Part

The little antiques and curiosities store you manage is quiet most days. The owner rarely visits, simply paying the bills from his comfortable home the next town over, leaving you to your own devices. So long as everything is kept clean and the newest items are properly displayed, the man doesn’t seem to care much for how you choose to keep yourself entertained throughout the day.  

You sit behind the shop counter most days undisturbed, tapping away at your laptop that seems frightfully out of place in a room filled with such ancient items. You can’t complain, however, as the pay is reasonable and most of the work is simple admin duties. You’re more than content to spend your work hours browsing the internet for new and interesting supplies and chatting with the elderly ladies that visit you every Thursday.  

Today is one such quiet day, with only the soft humming of the old lights hanging above you for company. Earlier, the nice lady who, for some reason, goes by the title “Witch”, had stopped by to talk to you about some sort of shop owner’s association being formed for the town. You thanked her for the consideration, informing her you didn’t actually own the store but would pass the word on to the owner. She had insisted that you drop by at some point, and you promised to consider it.  

You were the one tasked with running the store, even if the building didn’t technically belong to you, so perhaps it would be nice to get to know some of the people working nearby. The Witch seemed nice enough anyway, and she was one of the few people who purchased things from the shop rather than simply browsing the items. It would only be polite to accept such a kind offer.  

You’re drawn from your bored musing by the sound of the little bell above the door ringing, a figure moving into the entrance. As you push your laptop away from the main counter, you offer a bright greeting to the customer, straightening up to make it look as though you weren’t just leaning back in the chair, lazing about.  

The customer, what you can only assume is a man given their massive stature, turns a pair of ice blue eyes on you. He doesn’t return the greeting, just staring at you for an uncomfortably long moment, before he approaches. He’s dressed head to toe in black fabrics, not even his face visible save for the small holes in a rather large mask where his intense gaze pins you in place.  

Is this how you’re going to die? Murdered in broad daylight by a giant masked man? It seems likely given how the man is stomping toward you like a man on a mission, eyes not leaving your own.  

“How can I help you?” It comes out a bit strained as you struggle to get your voice to crawl its way out of your throat, vocal cords frozen in fear. Even stopping a few feet from the desk you’re stood behind, the man towers over you, looking down on you like you’re a tiny gnat underfoot.  

The man breathes out, the sound a strained rumbling noise like the growling of some sort of wild animal. You worry that he didn’t hear you, but a second later he finally speaks, “I have an order,” he growls. You weren’t expecting the deep, snarling voice and thick Russian accent that comes out of him, barely resisting the instinct to jump in surprise.  

“Right,” you breathe, slightly relieved that this guy just appears to be here on business and not actually planning on stabbing you. “What name would the order be under?” you ask.  

The man doesn’t appear to appreciate the question judging by the way the skin around his eyes crinkle slightly in distaste. He glares directly into your eyes as if your question is a riddle he needs to decipher. Eventually, he must find his answer because he finally answers you, “Nikto,” he grunts, “Son of Zmei.”

You battle to not furrow your brows at the rather odd name, knowing the people around this area are a little... quirky to say the least. To escape the awkward situation, you quickly dart into the storage room behind the counter where orders are stored for pick-up. There’s luckily only a single package, the name “Nikto” scribbled hastily across the top.  

When you finally return, the man, Nikto, has begun browsing the items on display next to the counter. His head shoots up the moment he catches sight of you, observing you again in that strangely intense way of his, silently placing the object he had been inspecting back onto the shelf.  

“Here you go,” you chirp, doing your best to plaster on a fake smile and not wilt under the man’s displeased look. He somehow manages to communicate a surprising amount of disgust with merely his eyes. You’re glad that the order was pre-paid, you’re not sure if you could handle trying to get money out of this man.  

He picks up the box, tucking it under his arm with a firm nod. “Good,” his voice, dangerous and low, sends a shiver down your spine. You’re not sure if it’s a good or a bad shiver. You’re about to breathe a sigh of relief, when the man turns around again. “You,” he snaps, “come with me.”  

You blink slowly at him, not entirely sure how to respond to being given a command like that. You awkwardly shuffle toward him, keeping a little bit of distance between the two of you. “Did you need something else?” you ask, cautiously.  

Before you can blink, a hand shoots out and grabs your face in a painful grip, yanking you closer. You gasp and try to pull the man’s hand off of you, but his grip is far too firm. “you will do,” he hums, looking you up and down. You want to ask him what the hell he thinks he’s doing, but he forces you to lift your head further, staring deep into your frightened eyes. “Sleep now,” he rumbles.  

The room tilts dangerously, or maybe that’s just you, your vision spinning. You vaguely recognise that the floor is rushing toward you, but before you can think much of it, everything turns black.  

When light floods back all you can focus on is the terrible stabbing pain behind your eyes. You huff slightly, nosing your face deeper into the pillow under your head, reluctant to get out of bed while feeling so sore. You open your eyes you’re met with an unfamiliar sight.  

The bed you’re currently resting in is not in fact a bed and this is decidedly not your room.  

You’re lying on an old couch, a soft pillow shoved under your head to keep your head from being too strained, even if the sofa is far from comfortable. A thick blanket is wrapped around your shoulders, keeping you warm. The house was old, a frosty draft blowing through the room and leaving you with goosebumps despite the comforter.  

You want to try and get up and explore the area. You don’t know where you are or who could be nearby, but your head is still spinning and everything seems to be cloudy. You hear the sound of heavy footfalls on the wooden floor and the door to the lounge room swings open. You try to scramble away from the man when he strides into the room.  

“Who the hell are you?!” You nearly screech, almost slipping over when you try to get out from under the blanket, disorientated. “Where am I?”

Nikto, or at least you think he called himself that, just stares at you as if you’re the one asking strange questions. He seems to decide that ignoring you Is the best course of action and continues where he was walking previously.  

You can't help staring slack jawed at the man as he just wanders past you and into the kitchen. After a moment of sitting in stunned silence, you cautiously rise from where you’re sat. You can’t recall how you actually got there, just a vague recollection of the man coming to the store and then nothing. The blanket is still curled around you, providing an extra layer of safety.  

When you finally muster the courage to poke your head through the doorway leading to the kitchen. Nikto doesn’t seem to be paying you much attention and, after taking a deep breath, you tentatively ask, “Why am I here?”

“You are payment,” comes the disinterested answer, the man still keeping his back to you as he digs through one of the cabinets, “you agreed to this, no?” His voice is still firm and aggressive in its tone, but for a moment your fear leaves you, replaced by anger.  

“No? Why would I agree to this?!” You snap, before you can think any better of it, “who the hell said I did?”

Nikto grows deathly still and, for a moment, you think you’ve angered him and your life may be forfeit. However, he lets out a deep breath, grumbling “this is... unfortunate...” under his breath. “Petrov is more of a coward than I anticipated.” You feel that statement was not for your ears as it’s mumbled softly under the man’s breath, but his voice is still loud enough for it to carry to you clearly.  

Petrov, your employer. The friendly old man who owned the store you worked at. He had told this stranger that you had agreed to be some form of payment? “So, uh, this seems to be just a big misunderstanding,” your words draw the man’s attention back to you again, his displeased, blue eyes narrowing at you, “can I leave now?” Your voice has started to weaken under the intense stare, sounding more like a strained squeak than a proper question.  

To your surprise, Nikto simply waves you off, “do as you please. We will deal with Petrov.” You genuinely weren’t expecting to be let go so easily, but this isn’t a situation you want to stick around to resolve and you certainly don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. Before you can move, however, he adds, “are you certain? The walk is long.”

“How far is it to town?” You slowly start moving away from the kitchen and toward what you assume is the front door.  

The man thinks it over, growling out an eventual, “two hours, as the crow flies,” just as you reach the front door. “Take dog with you.” He says, opening the door for you, and before you can ask what he means you almost trip over a large, black canine sitting at the bottom of the front steps. It’s absolutely huge, looking more like a small bear than a dog and you would be intimidated if it weren’t for just how poofy the dog’s fluff is.  

“Okay, uh, thanks?” You offer weakly, stepping around the dog. You’re not sure what else you can really say. ‘Thanks for not murdering me!’ ‘Please don’t go around kidnapping other people ‘cause that’s hella illegal!’ No, you don’t want to push your luck.  

The man doesn’t bother replying, stepping back into his house and closing the door with a slam that makes you jump. You hope you don’t encounter that creep ever again, especially with the whole murderer-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods vibes he gives off in spades. You quickly start putting distance between yourself and the stranger, trying to ignore the massive dog padding after you.  

Suffice to say, you’ll be handing in your letter of resignation first thing in the morning.  

[diary-of-animalcrossing-villager]

Day 1 - The beginning

👚🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🍐🎣

Today I arrived in a little town called Purinton. The villagers there immediately mistook me as their new mayor and wouldn't listen when I desperately tried to convince them that I was not their intended mayor. So somehow all in the same day I've moved to this strange place in search of a new life & become the mayor of this little village. In order to finalize my position, i must become a full-fledged resident. To begin this process, my new secretary (boy does that sound weird) Isabelle took me to the town hall and got me registered by name. She sent me on my way to a home improvement store over on the bustling Main Street where I met the owner of that store, a tanooki named Tom Nook. He was surprisingly understanding of my situation and actually helped me find the perfect spot for my future home! The only problem -I may have irresponsibly come all the way to this faraway place in search of a new life with no bells to my name at all! There was no way I could afford the construction of an entire house!! Mr. Nook was so kind to me and told me to just pay him whenever I can at my own pace & there was no deadline. What a sweet deal!! I think I love it here already. But I quickly realized that in the meantime, I had no where to live!! And Mr. Nook threw me yet another bone and set up a tent for me to live out of for free. It's a pretty nice set up if you ask me.

Since I had to figure out how to make bells, I decided to take a stroll around my new home town. Earlier in the day, Isabelle had me plant a tree to commemorate the day that I became the mayor of Purinton. All of the towns people were gathered around there, I decided starting there to look for ways to make money might be the best idea since some of those villagers may still be lingering there. When I got to the plaza though, I met a beaver named Chip. He was conducting a fishing tourney and the goal was to catch the biggest fish of everyone in Purinton. I didn't have a fishing rod or even enough bells to buy one from Chip. But I did run into a villager named Annalisa who told me to sell some shells down at the beach for bells and some fruit off of the trees. That was a pretty great idea so I boogied down to the beach and collected as many shells as I could. When I brought my findings to the village thrift shop, Retail, I made more than enough bells to pay for a fishing rod. So I thought it would be best to go back to mainstreet and spend the extra funds on any other tools I may be able to find after buying a fishing rod from Chip. From the Nooklings Junction i bought a shovel and a bug net. From the Able Sisters I got a pair of blue boxing shorts, blue warm up pants, & a sea captains coat. Since I STILL had money left over, I paid retail another visit and scored some good condition items that were being sold by other villagers including a cute clothes closet & a basic red bed. Isabelle was kind enough to bring me a lantern so I have light when it is dark outside. I gotta say, I'm living pretty large for living in such a tiny tent. Everyone in the village is so kind!

After my little shopping spree, I shook some trees around town and got 300 bells just from doing that. Free money! And finally, I participated in the fishing tourney. At first I kept catching pond smelts over and over. I knew there was no way I would stand a chance with those measily little fishies. I persisted & it paid off! I eventually caught a 14.75in dace and handed it over to Chip which put me in the lead. There was still so much time until the fishing tourney was over, I knew I'd have to go bigger and better if i wanted to ensure my victory. I'm glad that I did! I ended up catching a 21.25in dab and won first place in the fishing tourney taking home the golden trophy which looks amazing in my little tent.

Since I am the new mayor and all I really wanted to get to know everyone in the village starting on mainstreet. So I went back up to main street just to get to know the business men and women of the town a little better. I started with Tom Nook and scoped out his store. Seeing what kinds of things he sells for home improvement filled me with determination to pay the down payment for my house ASAP! Then I returned to the Able Sisters to chat with Mable, Sable, and Labelle. Mable was by far the friendliest. Sable didn't say much & Mable said it was just because she was focused on her work, but I sensed that she was just an anxious hedgehog and left her alone. Labelle...well I couldn't get much of a read on that if I'm honest. Earlier, I had met Timmy at retail when I went in to sell shells so it was okay that he wasn't at Nooklings Junction. Tommy was there though and all i can really say about both if them is that it seems like they share the same braincell. Then I met Blathers who seems to be a very intelligent owl who works at the museum. The museum was completely empty & Blathers was upset by that because he is very eager to teach about all of the creatures of Purinton. He kindly asked for all different kinds of donations. Luckily I had some left over fish to donate from the fishing tourney.

Finally I properly introduced myself to all of my neighbors. Today I met Naomi the cow, Elmer the horse, Annalisa the anteater, Pippy the bunny, and Avery the Eagle! So far, moving to Purinton has been more exciting than I could have ever imagined. And I can't wait to see what lies in store ahead!

[saltine-kakyoin]

truly I need to quit my job lol

[jasontoddiefor]

Summary: “Do you like it?” Obi-wan asked. Ahsoka looked up at him in confusion. What was he talking about- “The tea,” he added and raised his own cup like a sign.

Or, Anakin is injured and Ahsoka spends some time with her Grandmaster.

The tea Obi-Wan pressed into her hands smelled familiar, like the one Anakin made for them after late shifts when they had only recently left Coruscant. It was a sweet tea, so sweet that Ahsoka didn't even need to put any sugar in it. Their kitchen – an expression that still made Ahsoka grin with happiness because she had a Master now and she was a Padawan, even after these first months – didn't have anything but tea and some instant noodles stocked. For some reason, Ahsoka wasn't allowed to heat them up for lunch, so they had to go down to the cafeteria to eat. Obi-Wan had said something about the noodles being important to Anakin, and Ahsoka hadn't asked after that. She was too sure she'd start to cry like a youngling if she thought any more about her Master, who was currently unconscious in the halls of healing, being looked over by various healers.

The mission had been supposed to be easy. Nobody should have gotten hurt.

Ahsoka sunk further into her chair, buried herself in her Master's oversized coat. It had been handed to her when they'd brought Anakin in and Ahsoka had kept it on since. She knew it was stupid, that she looked ridiculous, but she kept it on anyway because it smelled like him and therefore like home and peace.

So here she was now with her Grandmaster in their kitchen in an apartment she didn't even really have a room in yet because they hadn't had time to clear it out, drinking tea.

"Do you like it?" Obi-wan asked.

Ahsoka looked up at him in confusion. What was he talking about-

"The tea," he added and raised his own cup like a sign.

"Oh, yes," she replied, feeling stupid for not having understood. She wanted Obi-Wan to like her and think she was a suitable addition to their lineage. "It smells familiar to the one Anakin always makes."

"It's the very same," Obi-Wan replied. "It's the only tea the two of us like equally well, so we always drink it together."

"Oh." Ahsoka hadn't known that. It felt like something she should know about her Master, like allergies. Frantically, Ahsoka tried to remember whether she could recall any of Anakin's allergies; he had to have at least one, right? Before she could get any more worked up and leave Obi-Wan in this awkward silence, she forced herself to ask another question. "What's in it?"

"A few red berries and some other indigenous fruit from Naboo. It was the only tea offered on Naboo that didn't taste like it had been dosed in perfume," Obi-Wan said and pulled a face as if the tea from Naboo had genuinely offended him.

Ahsoka giggled, then quickly clasped her hand over her mouth. She hadn't meant to laugh at her Grandmaster, but Obi-Wan only smiled good-naturedly.

"Why- when were you on Naboo together?"

She knew that Anakin enjoyed items coming from the planet and was quite knowledgeable about its culture. She had no idea why someone would have all theatre genre of Naboo's last century memorized, but as Anakin had proven on a long retcon mission, he could talk endlessly about them. At least all his cursing had made them more entertaining than her own literature classes at the Temple.

"Ah, that's a rather long story. You were…. Five when Anakin joined the Order, weren't you?"

Ahsoka wanted to protest, surely she had to have been younger, but she remembered the whispers and knew her Master's age. It was strange to think he was only a few years older than her. She thought it would have been more, it should have been more, but if she were any younger and he older, perhaps they wouldn't be Master and Padawan at all.

She nodded in confirmation and Obi-Wan continued on.

"Anakin and I spent a month together on Naboo before we returned to Coruscant and he officially became a part of the Order. The Naboo prefer their food to taste and smell a bit flowery, and neither of us was used to it. After a lot of bickering, we decided that it was the one brand we actually both enjoyed. It took us a while to figure out how to brew it correctly, but eventually, I learned and taught Anakin in turn."

That certainly sounded nice, domestic even, like a scene she had never seen before. She tried to imagine the two of them in their kitchen, Obi-Wan being younger without a beard and looking less exhausted while Anakin was even shorter than her, perhaps standing on a barstool of some kind so that he could reach the counter.

Obi-Wan brought his own cup to his lips and drunk from it, then he set the cup on the table again.

They didn't have a single matching set of teacups that they actually appeared to be using. There were a few tea sets in the cupboard, Ahsoka had seen those already, but they didn't look like they were actually in use. Instead, Anakin and Obi-Wan had a collection of cups with silly images, colorful prints, and sayings.

"Ahsoka, I know we didn't get to spend much time together yet, but if you'd like, and if you enjoy this tea, I would like to show you how to prepare it properly."

Hearing those words, Ahsoka perked up. "Really?"

Obi-Wan smiled kindly at her and set his cup on the table. "It's a bit of a tradition for us, figuring out how to make a particular tea and then going out to buy a new cup for it. I used to do it with my Master, and Anakin and I didn't collect so many different mugs for no reason. You don't have classes this afternoon, do you?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "No."

They had canceled her classes for the rest of the week. There was no need for her to go when she'd only worry about Anakin. She could, of course, but the healers had been very insistent that Ahsoka should figure out her own boundaries and act according to them.

She still kind of wanted to go to class, just to prove that something like her Master getting hurt didn't unsettle her too much, but she was also still glued to their kitchen chair, wrapped in his oversized coat.

"Then, if you want, we can go out in the city today and buy you a cup and a new brand of tea to try out."

It would do her good to go outside. "I'd like that."

The two of them finished their teapot, then Ahsoka returned to her room. They still hadn't finished setting it up and so was currently more the place she stuck her stuff as Anakin frantically tried to move his plants to another surface that was not already covered by them and miniaturize his droid workshop. Most of the time, she didn't even sleep in the bed that had been cramped in there. In the words of her Master, why should she sleep there when Obi-Wan's larger and more comfortable bed was right there. Or Anakin's when Anakin managed to drag himself only to the sofa or, already half-asleep, stumbled into Obi-Wan's room.

Once her Master was cleared from the halls, they were going to sort that out. Even if Obi-Wan didn't have any problems with her taking over his bed.

Ahsoka got dressed, changed into robes of her own size and slipped back into the main room. From there on it was a quick and easy trip to the shopping districts of Coruscant. Obi-Wan wistfully muttered something about "at least it's not the lower levels this time" that he didn't see fit to elaborate on and Ahsoka, therefore, chose to keep in mind for a later date.

The tea shop he led her to must be one he frequented more often because the owner greeted him with name and immediately showed him a selection he thought would be to Obi-Wan's liking. Ahsoka smelled the various fruity, spicy, and bitter tea selections and eventually picked one that Obi-Wan and she both agreed looked like the most interesting one. Apparently, the tea changed colors as it cooled down. They didn't stay long enough in the store to get a practical demonstration, but Ahsoka was still eager to see it. Mainly to see it in the new mug Obi-Wan had bought her. It was supposed to match the color of the liquid inside. It was ridiculous, but Ahsoka thought it was fun.

"We can make it for Anakin later," Obi-Wan said. "He is supposed to wake up this evening."

"Do you think he'd like that?"

"I think he would be very pleased to see how well his Padawan has conducted herself in his absence. And he always did like food that was a little extraordinary."

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly with the two walking through the smaller streets, visiting stores Ahsoka had never seen before, but who all apparently knew her quite well already. The number of times somebody addressed her with "Little Anakin's Padawan?" was quite astonishing.

By the time they returned to the Temple, it was already dark. Their first stop after deposing their new items in their rooms was the cafeteria. Dinner was, as always, a loud and cheerful affair. Groups of Initiates were running around the many tables, Padawans chatting to each other and Masters bragging about their students. She and Obi-Wan took a seat at a table a little closer to the edge where it was quieter, though even they weren't spared from the toddlers handing out sugary cupcakes that looked like somebody was trying to sell pure diabetes.

But how was Ahsoka supposed to resist when the tiny Nautolan with the huge eyes offered it to her? It wasn't like Obi-Wan could resist it either.

After they had finished dinner, they returned to their quarters, properly put away all they had bought, and set the new tea package on the kitchen table together with Ahsoka's mug.

"Alright," Obi-Wan said. "Let's see how hot the water needs to be and how long the tea needs to steep."

With gentle fingers, Obi-Wan began to put the tea leaves into filter bags and familiarized Ahsoka with it. He taught her how to properly pour tea and which brands were better with a little more or less sugar, which needed salt of all things, and about a hundred other different tidbits that she couldn't believe he just knew from the top of his head.

But all the work seemed to pay off as they had a teapot full of blue tea that was slowly turning violet.

"Well done," Obi-Wan praised her as he grabbed the teapot and a mug for himself.

Ahsoka took her own new one, though she had already decided that she'd let Anakin drink out of it this time, and took another for herself. Together they headed towards the halls of healing. They hadn't even entered them properly when Anakin's voice reached them.

"I am fine, Bant, I swear! I just want to see Ahsoka and Obi-Wan, promise I'll be back within twenty minutes- ten minutes!"

Just as Ahsoka and Obi-Wan waked around the corner, they saw Anakin attempting to climb out of his bed, bandages still wrapped around his head, and arguing with Bant. As soon as he saw them, his eyes lit up.

"Ahsoka! Obi-Wan, are you well?"

Ahsoka stared at Anakin, whole, healthy, and smiling, and reassured herself that he was real. Then in the fashion of a child, she threw herself at him, burying her head in his chest as she before had in his robes.

"Woah, woah, everything's alright, Ahsoka. I'm just fine, see?"

He patted her head almost a little awkwardly like he didn't know what to do with his hands, but Ahsoka didn't care.

He was fine, everything was alright.

"Anakin Skywalker, what are you doing? Get back into bed!"

Ahsoka slowly released Anakin from her embrace so that he could fall back on his bed. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and rolled his eyes at the Mon Calamari Jedi.

"Bant wants to keep me here overnight, even though I'm fine."

At this, he glared a little at Bant, though Ahsoka could tell his heart was not in it. If that were so, she knew Bant wouldn't be standing here much longer. As ridiculous as he looked right now, Ahsoka knew her Master could be quite terrifying if he wanted to.

"Don't act so much like a bratty Padawan, Anakin," Bant only commented. "Now sit down, rest, get well, and you can go back to your rooms tomorrow morning."

"Yes, yes," Anakin muttered and pulled the blanket back over his legs. Bant smiled at the three of them, then bid them good night as well.

"It's good to see you're causing trouble as always," Obi-Wan said and set the teapot on the table next to Anakin's bed so he could sit down on its edge. "Here I was worried it was something serious."

"Oh, you know me, Master. I always have to be a little dramatic. What tea is that?"

Anakin couldn't have changed the topic more obviously in favor of curiously examining the teapot.

"Master Obi-Wan and I went out shopping in the city today," Ahsoka spoke up and pushed her new mug into Anakin's hands before she saw down next to him. "We bought a new tea and it changes color and also a mug and-"

"Hey, Snips, slow down." 

Ahsoka shut up as Anakin raised his hands. Then, with an expression Ahsoka could only describe as pouty, her Master turned to Obi-Wan.

"You took my Padawan on her first tea run without me?" Anakin asked accusingly, pointing his finger at Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan only sighed theatrically and poured some tea, by now a dark red color, into every cup. "Well, we can't all be heroes recovering from a deadly assault. I take it said hero doesn't want a cup then?"

Now Anakin was quick to hold out the cup Ahsoka had pressed into his hands. "No, I want to see what my Padawan picked out. Hurry up, Master."

Obi-Wan's following laughter was infectious. It was almost as loud and cheerful as Anakin's demands to be told everything of their trip in detail. Sitting next to him on the bed, covered by the heavy blanket and the warm tea in hand, Ahsoka could finally allow herself to relax fully.

[tipsylorie]

Dream Project Pt. 3 {title in progress}

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

A/N: Hola everyone, here is part 3 but not yet proof-read. I hope you will like it nevertheless...

Word Count: 2.7K

THE NEXT DAY

Liviana drove herself to office due to the driver’s message early in the morning that says he will be late because of an emergency. Upon arriving the buildings parking lot, instead of her driver, it was her assistant who was waiting with a worried look.

“Why the long face baby boy?” This is the thought that has been running through Liv’s mind when she saw her assistant, and this made her laugh. It took a while for her to compose herself so with a long face, she just remarks as she exits the car, “Why the sad face Jer?”

“Why are you laughing though?” Jayceon asked with a growing grin, but Liv just dismissed it by saying ‘nothing’. So he continues to inform his boss, “It turns out that your driver for today had to rush her wife to hospital earlier so there won’t be anyone to drive you.”

“This won’t do, I have to get these cakes delivered and to check the situation in Paradigmia.” Liv said with worry written all over her face but then she suddenly smiles, “You do have a license, right?” She asked the young man who responses with a nod. “Then you’ll drive. I just have to get some materials in my office.”

Jayceon sees Liviana walking towards the car and anxious on how his driving should be. Because the only one who he was able to drive are his friends. Heck, his parents don’t even know that he can since he has always been provided with a driver and an assistant. It didn’t help either when Liv chose to seat beside him after she arranged the materials and cakes at the back seat. “Why are you sitting here instead of over there?” Jayceon nervously asked as he points to the back seat diagonal to the driver’s seat as where bosses should sit according to some according to etiquette.

“Well, I am not really used to passenger seat being vacant. Don’t worry Jer, this is perfectly normal and please just treat me more as your friend instead of your boss. It will be more comfortable that way.” Liv informed her assistant.

Jayceon smiles as he was happy hearing how humble his business partner is, so he proceeded saying, “Ok then Liv, buckle up and enjoy the ride!”

It was an internal chaos in Jayceons mind since he doesn’t really want to go to his habit of over speeding and to scare Liviana however his childhood acting lessons had paid off since he was able to act composed and relaxed while he’s driving his temporary boss. Okay, so if you’re wondering about Jayce’s early life, his mother well like all Asian mothers are, enrolled him in all extracurricular activities she could come across. Therefore, ever since in the age of 4 he had already experienced EVERYTHING, from sports to performing arts.

Upon arriving to the Academy’s main branch, Liv immediately went to her friend Anne’s office. “Annie! Been so long, I made you some cupcakes!” She enthusiastically greeted her friend.

Anne was a little bit puzzled by the sudden visit, “What’s up? Why the cupcakes?” She asked. However, Liv just gave her a questioning look as a response and it only dawned on her that it was their friend’s birthday. So, the look at her face was so funny as if she experienced horror while saying, “OH MY GOSH! How could I forget?”

“Don’t worry Anne. Just message her later or maybe give her a visit after your working hours. It’s just a 30-minute ride so… It’s up to you.”

“Well, if it is up to me, I will just take a half day off and go to her but yeah cannot do that because my boss would be mad.”

“Ha, I know what you’re trying to do, well just so y’know as your boss I would totally not mind however I know how keen you are with your work so I reckon that you will finish today’s job and just go to her later after working hours.” Liv said the last words with a tap on Anne’s shoulder then left her office.

As they left, Anne just snickered on how her long-time friend never failed to read her like an open book.

*

On their way to Paradigmia, they stopped at a gas station since Jayceon found the need to pee. So Liviana just waited in the car. Jayce always has the impulse to buy something since he finds this satisfying. When he was about to pay, only then he realised that he left his wallet in the car’s compartment that is in between the driver’s seat and passenger seat. So, he hurriedly opened Liv’s door side in a rush, and tried to open the compartment and reached it and however this fell on the backside and without thinking Jayce climbed on top of Liv and once he reached his wallet he exclaimed, “Yes! Finally got it!”

This woke Liv up and her eyes widened in surprise. Jayceon just froze and stared to her eyes, and he had the urge to gulp just to somehow slow the rapid beating of his heart. To snap him back to reality, Liv asked, “What are you doing?” in a concerned voice and was trying hard not to jump to conclusion since as far as she knows, the guy in front of her was gay.

Jayce or in Liv’s perspective, Jer stepped back to not cause any alarm and calmly said, “I was just trying to reach for my wallet,” showed the wallet in his hand, “because I have items waiting in the counter of that 7-Eleven.”  He pointed to the convenience store in the side of the car.

“Oh okay, but you know you could’ve used the other door, right?” Liv asked genuinely.

“I didn’t think of that earlier since I was in a rush. I am so sorry about that.” Jayce apologised. “I promise it won’t happened ever again!” He subconsciously emphasised as his eyes asked for forgiveness.

In Liv’s perspective, she cannot stay mad to this adorable guy in front of her. “Fine, just never ever do that again to me or to anyone ever again.” She informed her employee.

“Pinky swear! Brb just gonna pay for those food! Thank you, Liv!”

As Jayce ran back to the convenience store, Liv thought it was really odd for Jer to stare at her like that. However, she just dismisses this immediately and went back to her nap since she knows it will be a long day in Paradigmia.

“Hey,” Jayce said as he tapped Liv’s shoulder when he sat at the driver’s seat. “You want some peanuts? It’ll help to lessen your sleeping.”

Liv slowly opened her eyes and looked at the bag of peanut he was holding, “Yes, that would be great.”

As Jayce prepped himself to drive, he asked a last question, “What did you do last night that made you this tired today?”

“Well obviously the cake made me use all my remaining energy last night. I don’t know maybe I had a tiring dream.”

“You also believe that? Despite not remembering the dream?” He asked and she just nodded with a faint smile as a response. “So glad that I am not the only one.”

After few more minutes they finally arrived to the apartment of Julie. Liv asked Jayceon to grab the balloons she prepared at the backseat. “You had balloons? Why haven’t I seen it?” He asked in amusement. “Well, maybe I unintentionally intentionally hid it?” This just made the pair chuckle as the guy grabbed the balloons, the lady handled the cakes.

“After centuries you’re finally here!” Liv’s best friend, Julie exclaimed as she hugged her while holding the cakes.

“Careful! My masterpiece!” Liv yelled.

“Sorry but that will not even last a day in this household.” Julie rebuked. This resulted to the three of them laughing.

“Did Anne tell you she’ll be here later?” Liv asked her good friend.

“Yeah, she felt so guilty of almost forgetting and thanked God when you thought of leaving some of your wonderful cupcakes in her office and she has time to prepare.” Julie nonchalantly informed Liv.

“So, what do you prefer, stay here while we wait for her or let’s head now to the hotel I already booked for tonight?” Liv asked.

Julie replied after some thinking, “Well, I think my family will still visit here shortly to give cakes and such, so maybe wait for Anne in here.”

With Julie’s response, Liv faced her assistant and informed him, “So, if you want to take a rest you can go to the hotel first. I am sending you know the voucher for your room, and by just showing this to the reception, I think you’ll be assisted to your room immediately. Just leave the car and keys since we really do not plan to get wasted so I’ll just drive us there and I’ll just let you know once we arrived there. Is that okay?”

As Liviana is explaining her proposition, Jayceon cannot help but take notice on how she always has the tendency to worry about everyone around her ergo, planning everything tediously beforehand. He admires this but at the same time feel sorry for her since she has the kind of person who loves to smile despite the truth that deep inside, she is already drowning. He can see this because she tries so hard every single time as if it is always her life on the line. He wishes that somehow he can help her to loosen up a bit and be true of what she truly feels. (A/N: Jayceon has taken a lot of Psychology modules in undergrad as a hobby that made him enjoy analysing human behaviour and Liviana has been one of the most interesting person he has met.)  So after listening to Liv, he answered, “Yep, sure thing! That all sound great! So I guess, see you tomorrow?”

“Yes, Jer see ya! Thank you for the help. Ooh I almost forgot, I also set aside these cupcakes for you.” Liviana said as she gave the 3 pieces cupcakes in a sealed tray.

“Thank you Liv! Really appreciate it! Bye!” He remarked as he waved goodbye then got inside the taxi they messaged.

~Jayceon in the hotel~

Jayceon went to the counter which the receptionist immediately recognised him as his family being the co-owner of the hotel. In which he was greeted immediately with a bow and for the employee to immediately ring for the Executive Manager. Jayce then quickly tried to explain his stuation in the most discreet way possible. Telling him to stop his manager from coming because most probably him having prior commitments with his work. He just asked for the receptionist to give him the room stated in the voucher and instead to have Liviana Voss in the most expensive room available during her stay and charge her with only the amount the room she booked. So just like that, Jayce had his staff to put Liv in the Premium Suite Penthouse which is technically a room with rooms and a second floor that has a direct access to the rooftop.

Jayce was pretty proud with what he did especially on how smart he think it was. To have Liviana be one of the lucky winners in an online booking event that never existed. After feeling content, he took a nap to make sure he will not miss any updates from his “boss”. But didn’t miss the beat to take a taste of the cupcake after dinner. He can surely tell that it was made with love.

~Meanwhile in Julie’s Household~

“So, who was that guy? He looks so good! Do you have a thing with him?” Julie prompted with the question she has been holding until that guy left.

Liv answered with a grin, “I knew it! I can already sense your questions like once we both entered your house. And the answers would be: first us my assistant; second, yep he is but not interested with girls; and finally, I think no?”

“Omg, you do have! Spill!” Julie enthusiastically ordered.

“But it is your birthday! Why talk about me? We need to focus on you getting older!” Liv claimed.

Julie tried to explain, “Still, I am the birthday girl, so you need to let me use my power card for today of you to just share about this matter, please?”

“Fine! I love you so much that is why I am letting you use the card.” Liv gave in.

Julie was delighted with this by saying, “YAYYYY! BEST BDAY because of the BEST TEA!” But then suddenly interrupted with her family entering the house with their spare key. This made Liviana laugh so much that Julie’s family can see her almost rolling off the ground literally but thankfully she was able to stop herself. Julie’s family only stayed for like 2 hours since they also have some stuff already planned.

Once they left, Liv and Julie cleaned a little bit and wash the little number of dishes. Just right after they finished, Anne already arrived, and this made Julie happier since Liv can share the tea to the both of them at the same time. Liv’s narration went like this:

“Well, I was taking a nap since I was really exhausted with the baking and decorating so I really do hope you guys will love and like it. So, while napping I can feel that something is different, and I can see him staring at me adoringly? I guess, it was really weird because I felt something. It also feels like an eternity and still his position being on top of me didn’t change and remind you that the seat was declined so it was really awkward and I can also see his change in demeanour of somewhat being manly like more than so he normally is and he also gulped that really sent shivers to my spine. Just overall – WEIRD.”

Julie and Anne just looked at each other because they have the same idea. So Julie slowly proposed their idea, “Liviana, don’t you think it is time to consider that he is not gay? As we both can already sense with the vibes whenever the two of you are in a room, you guys act like high schoolers interacting with their first love like that is literally the aura the two of accentuates.”

Anne added, “Also this is nothing like the chemistry thingy back when we tried to ship you with someone in junior high instead this thingy right now is something that everyone can call sincere and genuine.”

Liv was really quiet with the insights her friends are telling her but all she managed to reply is a joke, “Okay guys, you two could really write a million-seller fiction right now.”

Anne just retorted as she and Julie are already used to their friend always being in denial which is the total hundred percent reason why she still never had any boyfriend, “Whatever Liv, just don’t tell us we didn’t inform you. I know that you know that there is a possibility with what Julie and I are saying. So please, don’t resist it anymore because you also need to find a partner too at some point.”

“Wow, our youngest just scolded me. Yes Ms. Annie, will do. So can we now finally celebrate Julie’s birthday?” Liv asked warily.

“YAYY!” The two girls exclaimed, and Julie shouted, “Movies and cupcakes!”

“Speaking of cupcakes, where did you put the cupcakes, I gave you Anne?” Liv asked.

Anne replied, “I have the half of them in my house and left some to my mother’s because you know how much she loves your cooking and baking!”

Liv responded, “Yes of course, I am glad she still does.” She asked, “Julie, what movie do you want?”

“Ugh please, let’s not do that, we will spend like an hour just looking for a movie, guys just pick a number up to 10.”

“Three!” Liv exclaimed.

“Five!” Anne yelled.

“Okay the Liv, just choose the eighth one while pressing the arrow down keys in the remote control.”

“We got, Force of Nature, a 2020 film. Is that okay?” Liv asked as she manages the TV.

“Yup!” Julie replied while she takes the cupcakes to a plate and placed the cake in her refrigerator.

“Sounds great!” Anne responded as she handled the flavoured drinks. They all agreed to get drunk once they arrived at the hotel.

After the movie, the cupcakes also ended. So they cleaned up and prepared their things for the second party in the hotel.

Re-blog for part four!

Lemme know what you think…

[prettywordsyouleft]

Addressing Feelings

Prompt: “I have no idea where to go next.” -- @challengingwords​ challenge #38

Pairing: Kim Kibum (Key) x female reader

Genre: fluff / enemies to lovers / fashion au

Warnings: none

Word count: 1196

“I have no idea where to go next,” you exhaled, and your employee Karla glanced at you, soon sharing a sympathetic smile and a nod of her head.

“Me too. Life is hard, but we’ve just got to carry on, Y/N.”

Staring at the younger girl, you soon realised what she meant, and an amused grin crossed your lips. Pointing to the stack of dresses you were marking down, you waited until she noticed what you meant.

Karla merely looked at you for further explanation.

“Thank you for sharing that bit of motivational talk, Karla. Life is hard, but I’m talking about the dresses here. I don’t know why they didn’t sell! I’ve already reduced their price, and now it’s getting dangerously close to the warehouse value. I know some things don’t sell as easily as others, but I had a really good feeling about them.”

Karla made an O with her mouth and then inspected her nails. She was a nice girl, and when it came to fashion, she knew her stuff. But she wasn’t so supportive outside of that. You realised as her boss and the owner of this boutique store, she wasn’t meant to be your sounding board for everything. You just needed to be more assertive to survive in this industry.

And you had done your best with your latest season trends. You had researched daily, keeping up with the hottest styles and accessories. You had sourced out styles that were selling well and ensured the prints you chose were wearable and more unique than the other stores in the local area.

Having a brick and mortar store had always been a dream for you when you first started selling clothes online from within your garage. Now only two years later, you had achieved that dream. The reality was far from the idyllic view you once held of running your own fashion store where everyone loved your vision.

Getting clientele to shop in-store than online was harder than you expected, too.

“That dress is being sold down the road,” Karla suddenly mentioned, and you stopped ruminating over your problem, your eyes narrowing on the spoken information.

“Down the road? At Unlock? Why are you only sharing this with me now? For how much?!”

“Boss, find your Zen. Key isn’t worth getting worked up over. He has a different vision than we do.”

“But he’s selling the same items as us again,” you grumbled, your heckles still up.

Kim Kibum, or Key as he was more commonly known within fashion circles, was your biggest competition in the area. At first, you had admired the man. He had a way with fashion that always left you confused, yet inspired. Everything, even the most questionable of outfits, seemed to work on him, and when he had first walked into your store and complimented your setup, you had been stoked.

Until after his proper examination of your entire vision and layout, he went and opened a store five doors down that had several key statement pieces of your current collection in his front window.

“That thieving man,” you muttered, remembering back to when the dresses came in. You had displayed them in the front window for the first week. You had basically given him the ammunition yourself.

Kibum wasn’t the only one selling the dress, though. You knew of a couple more boutiques nationwide stocking it also. The difference was you were both in the same place trying to make the same dress sell.

And it seemed he had managed that whilst you hadn’t.

“Karla, mind the shop for me, won’t you? I’ll be fifteen.”

“Zen, Y/N! Don’t argue today!”

“Inner peace will come after this, don’t worry!” you called over your shoulder before marching down the sidewalk and right into Unlock. Unlike in your store, where you chose music that suited the tone of your vision, Kibum’s was edgier and the music was louder. You used it to your advantage to slip in mostly unnoticed and moved right to the racks near a wall.

You found the dress and gasped at the price he had it at.

“Y/N, usually it’s always a pleasure to see you, but we agreed we wouldn’t snoop around in each other’s stores personally.”

You grunted at the man who appeared at your side and placed your hands firmly on your hips. “I see your stealth tactics are still ever so impeccable.”

The smirk that crossed Kibum’s lips wasn’t lost on you and was all the invitation you required to scowl at the man.

“Now, Y/N, are you trying to flatter me or insult me?”

“I wish you would play fair.”

“I am. This is my store. What you do in yours is completely your decision. And the same happens here.”

“You know I’m carrying this dress, and you made me look like the price I’ve had it at is unreasonable.”

“Your price mark-up isn’t my concern,” he explained and then gestured to his staff only door. “However, if you’d like to have a coffee with me-”

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try to make my boutique look-”

A handsome man approached you both then, and you noticed the immediate unease in your opponent. The stranger glanced between you both before chuckling. “Ah, so this is that Y/N you like, huh?”

“What?”

“I’m Choi Minho, Key’s friend.”

“Ex-friend now,” Kibum muttered, rolling his eyes and letting out a sigh.

“I’m sorry, you’re mistaken. This man has nothing but contempt for me and my business,” you clarified, and Minho frowned, looking at Kibum, who was visibly facing inner turmoil.

Feeling some decency towards him, you backed off. You might dislike the man, but you didn’t like seeing him suffer either.

However, Kibum reached out for your wrist. “There’s a reason for the dress.”

“Which is?”

“It got you in here, didn’t it? You’ve avoided me forever now. You’ve got me blocked on all social media and-”

“Are you serious? You’re going to tell me this was to get me in here so you could apologise for snooping on my boutique and taking my clients?”

Kibum, cringed, shaking his head. “No. Whatever you think I’ve done isn’t something I would do. Having a good business ethic matters to me too, no matter what you think of me.”

“Then?”

Kibum glanced at his friend, who subtlety gave him encouragement with a raised fist. Returning his focus to you, Kibum’s confidence was back together. “Coffee. I want to have some time with you. Not as a fashion store owner. But as the person you are.”

“I don’t drink coffee,” you blurted out immediately, mostly from the shock. Kibum’s expression didn’t falter, but his eyes grew guarded. Waving your hands around, you laughed sheepishly. “I like tea, though!”

“Tea,” he echoed, his lips curling up. “Tea, juice, heck, even water is fine by me. Just give me an hour of your time.”

“Deal. And about the dress?”

“I’ll pull it from the line and tell people where to find it if you really want me to,” he offered, which surprised you.

“You’d do that?”

Kibum grinned wickedly. “Sure, it’s online. Everyone can find it there.”

_________________

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[jmnjmnjmn]

Eternal beings | Chapter 1

Pairing: Vampire!Jungkook x Human!Reader

Key words: supernatural, vampire.

Word count: less than 3,000

Warnings: swearing,  sadness, jealousy, mentions of murder

Inspo board

Masterlist

In the spirit of Halloween I decided to write a whole series about Vampire!Jungkook. I know should’ve been posting it throughout October and not on Halloween... Bare with me okay? There’s more to come.

Walking through the city at two in the morning isn’t as cute and mysterious as it may seem. The streets are empty and dark despite the street lights being on and every noise sounds like a forecast for something dangerous, especially when you're a girl walking home from work by yourself. You recently took up night shifts at the convenience store you were working at part time. Your boss was more than happy when you announced to her that you can work nights for half of the week. It was always hard to find people for those hours. With all of your classes at college being online this semester you had more time to work and earn money for rent and other things. You actually liked working at night, because there weren’t many customers then if any at all, so you had freedom to spend most of your time at work reading magazines, studying or sitting on your laptop. The only drawback of working at that time though was the walk home.

You pulled the steel grating over the door and locked it slowly in the faint light of the neon sign above the door. Before walking away you pulled on the padlock to make sure it’s definitely locked right. When you didn’t feel it budge under your fingers you turned on your heel and started speed walking home. Your apartment wasn’t further than twenty five minutes away from the shop and though it felt like a short stroll during the day at night it almost always seemed like a pilgrimage. “Fortunately for me-” You thought. “-the summer is in full swing and the nights aren’t so cold anymore.” You shivered at the thought of walking home in winter time. On the other hand the increase in temperature caused all sorts of shady people to come from their homes and clubs out onto the streets. For example you already walked past more than a dozen of drug deals and were cat called by drunk men leaving the bars so many times you couldn’t count anymore. And that’s only this summer season.

Despite all those unpleasantries you kept working and getting the money you desperately needed to pay the rent for your small flat and lead a decent life in the city. And because of those same unpleasantries you came up with a special system of walking home from work that made you a tad bit more comfortable and it went like this. First: leave the shop with earbuds in your ears, but no music playing, walk with big strides and your head up to notice any potential danger and stay alert no matter how tired you are. Second: walk only the bigger streets with street lamps and businesses on them, preferably ones that are open at night so there’s always someone to run to for help. That part wasn’t too hard since you worked right in the center of the city and lived close by. You smiled to yourself, thinking of the deal you cut on your current apartment. You were subletting from one of your college friends who left to study abroad for a year. He didn’t want to break the lease on his place and not have something to come back to when he finishes his studies, especially since his apartment was in such a perfect location for a young student. That led him to looking around for someone to sublet to and… Tadah! You got a beautifully furnished, one bedroom apartment right in the city for a price that was unheard of in that area. Only downside was that you had to vacate the place in less than ten months.

A loud sudden sound pulled you out of your thoughts, but what followed made your heart skip a beat. A sound so faint it was barely hearable, but clear enough to make you stop in your tracks.

“Please, n-no.” The voice definitely belonged to a male. It sounded as if its owner was struggling to breath out the words. You heard him inhale sharply and ask again. “P-lease, stop.” His begging words sent a shiver down your spine. Something really bad was happening around that corner. “N-no.” You felt your shoulders tense up. You didn’t want to get involved with something dangerous, but you couldn’t just walk by a possible assault or maybe something worse. You tightened your grip on your bag and started to walk back quietly. Your instincts started to kick in slowly as you made the difficult choice between the two possible options. Fight or flight.  “Flight.” You  thought to yourself. “From a safe place I will call the police. I promise.” You sweared in your head to the man around the corner.

“Stop.” Said a second voice also belonging to a man by the pitch of it.

“Please.” The first man said. “Please.” He repeated now with more strength in his voice. Within a second you heard shuffling indicating a fight broke out between the pleading man and his attacker. You started pressing in the police number on your phone and started moving faster as the noises started getting louder and closer to the alleyways exit. The very same exit from which you were trying to back away from.

“I told you to stop.” The second man repeated himself. Right when you were just about to turn the corner and start running to safety with the police on the phone two men fell to the ground in front of the alleyways exit. Both of them in disheveled suits. The older one, which you assumed was the previously heard beggar, was clearly losing to the other man. You made your last step back and tried to turn to the side to start running when you heard the losing man speak. 

“Help me.” He  croaked looking in your direction and blowing your already weak cover. Standing in the shadowy street you thought he wouldn’t be able to see you backing away, but he did and his attacker now saw you as well. “H-elp.” He tried to repeat his statement, but the other man pushed him to the ground getting rid of the bits of air in his lungs. “What should I do?” You asked yourself. The nerve connections in your brain made a snap judgment for you. The scene you had before you looked just as frightening as comical. What even was this situation? Two well dressed men, who you would think are well behaved and well above resulting in physical fights if you saw them in the shop you were working at, were playing some murderous tug of war right in front of you in the middle of the night. As you realised the oddity of the situation it stopped being so scary all of a sudden. “They’re just drunk office rats fighting in an alley.” You thought to yourself but didn’t put your phone back down in case things escalated to something more dangerous. You continued to back away when the standing man spoke.

“How many times do I have to repeat myself?” He asked in an authoritative tone, but you weren’t going to listen. You turned around and made a step to your left wanting to reach the main road again and get away from this bull. “Stop.” He said tiredly. You turned the corner and started to run before he could say or do anything more to you. You pressed the green button on your phone screen calling the police.

“112.” Said a female operator on the other side of the phone after just a short moment. “Hello. There’s a fight going on near my house. Two men. It looked pretty bad.” You said nervously.

-

You woke up the next morning around noon. Having already forgotten the events of last night you got ready for work. You were covering a shift in the afternoon at the shop for your co-worker Jimin. He worked there a couple of months longer than you, showed you the ropes on your first day and since you got along pretty well you became work friends. You decided not to eat breakfast at home and just grab something at the shop. Just like that within twenty minutes of you waking up you were out the door. 

The mid day was warm but you had your jacket in the bag ready to be put on in the late hours of the night when you’ll be walking home. You turned the corner to get to the main street and have a stroll to work in the sun when you were met with a hoard of policemen blocking the sidewalk. You crossed the road and took a different route than usual, not bothering to think twice about the reason the police were where they were right now.

As you entered the shop you noticed Jimin watching television on the small screen hanging over the cigarette shelf. The bell over the door rang when you closed it and Jimin instantly turned his head towards you, greeting you with a warm smile as you walked towards him.

“Great to finally see you.” He said, taking off his name tag.

“You’re only happy to see me today, because I’m relieving you of your shift.” You joked and he laughed quietly. 

“Only today.” He said smiling and let you behind the counter. “I have to run. Yoongi’s probably already waiting for me.” He waved you goodbye, grabbed his bag and headed for the door.

“Go. Have fun.” You called after him smiling.

You turned the volume down on the TV and cranked it up on the ancient radio on the counter. Jimin always watches TV at work while you prefer listening to music and shuffling through magazines or newspapers. You pinned your name tag on and started looking for a good read as a bell rang signaling an arrival of a customer. You picked a fitness magazine and leaned on the shelves behind you and started reading about “the benefits of doing squats”. After a couple of minutes the customer who earlier entered the shop came to the counter with his pickings. You scanned the last item when he asked you to turn on the volume on the TV. You pushed the “+” button on the remote and was about to tell the man the amount he has to pay for the items when you heard the speaker's voice on TV describe something horrible. 

“... A gruesome murder. Victim: a man in his thirties, possibly a nearby office worker. His exact identity is still being confirmed by the police.”

“Horrible.” Said the customer. “And so close by. Who would do such a thing?” He asked, sounding truly concerned.

“Twelve thirty, sir.” You said politely. That’s exactly why you didn’t like watching TV at work. This particular television set was about twenty years old and had an antenna so crooked it played only three channels, two of them being news. There was no day there wouldn’t be bad news. A natural distaster, an economic crash, a new riot or war somewhere in the world or, like today, a murder. The man scanned his card and left with his things. As the door was closing behind him you reached for the remote to mute the TV again.

“Estimated time of the murder is thirty minutes after two in the morning.” Said the speaker and you quickly put two and two together. Glancing at the screen you reached your shaky hand for your phone and started searching the internet for more information on the event. A cold shiver went down your whole body when you read an article header stating the place where the “gruesom murder” took place. It was that alleway near your building. You dialed your friend Taehyung’s number still looking at the screen, waiting for more details to be described by the news anchors.

“The number you are calling is unavailable.” You heard an automated message and hung up the phone. “What the hell do I do now?” You whispered to yourself. “I called the police last night and described the situation as well as I could.” You thought. “It’s not my fault they didn’t intervene… Or did so too late.” You explained to yourself. “Still, shouldn’t they have my number saved somehow? And shouldn’t they be calling me up right now for questioning? I was there after all.” You couldn’t wrap your head around the idea that you could have seen a murderer last night. “Maybe it wasn’t them.” You started wandering. “Maybe they left right after they saw me and someone else did… That.” Another announcement by the news anchors pulled you out of this train of thought. “Police just confirmed the identity of the victim. Thirty five year old (Victim’s name), an office manager at (Company’s name) was brutally murdered last night on Third.” You covered your mouth with your free hand when the picture of the victim popped up on the screen. It was the man from last night, the one that lost the fight. “His body was found by a passerby over four hours after the murder took place.”

“Impossible.” You breathed out. “I called the police right around two. How is it that they didn’t send anyone to check on the situation?” You thought and dialled Taehyung’s number again.

“The number you are calling is unavailable.”

“Shit.” You hissed. You really wanted to talk to a friend right now and figure out what to do. Taehyung was your closest friend right now, you knew each other from highschool and hung out all through your first years of college to this day. You dialed the police number once again in the last twelve hours.

[thatgoblin]

Small Town Affairs

Summary: Hazel is an Omega in the small town of Tin Springs, Midwest America. She's trying to live her life after breaking up with the local sheriff, John Walker, and his mate, Brock Rumlow. New people aren't something that happens often, but when a new pack comes to town her whole life goes from a small mess to a complete disaster in the best way.

Warnings: Domestic Violence, Assault, Sexual abuse, Himbo Bucky, Misogyny, will update as story goes.

Chapter 1

It wasn’t often that people moved to Tin Springs, population 803. We barely had enough people to need a high school and a junior high school let alone more than a general store and gas station. There wasn’t even a Walmart for nearly 20 miles. You had to make a special trip to the larger town of Conway that had fast food restaurants and strip malls while the closest we had was a Dollar General and a ‘home style’ restaurant that was closed after 9. We did have a few bars and a strip joint, but those were just outside of town. Far enough that most people didn’t count them as being a part of town. It was very much a dying breed of Mayberry towns that used to thrive till people moved for better jobs and schools or to just get out of that small town headspace.

So when what looked like a whole fleet of moving trucks drove down the main road, everyone was talking. Turns out there was some guy with the last name Rogers that owned land that belonged to his pack that he was moving his new pack onto. The family had basically moved away or died off by the time I was 18. Most of the townspeople thought the houses on the land would stay empty till someone bought the land up for farming or to build new houses on. No one ever did and the moving trucks were telling us why it wouldn’t happen. Everyone and their dog would be gossiping and talking about who the new people were, where they came from, why they came back now, but I just ignored the whispers and gossip as I checked out folks at the general store.

“Hazel, would you be a dear and stock the shelves before you leave tonight?” The store owner, Peggy Carter, asked from her office. It sat just to the side of the register, making it easy to keep an eye on things. Her prim English accent was very much out of place in the small midwest town, but it wasn’t as crisp as it used to be when she first moved to Tin Springs.

“Sure. I’ve got my keys so I’ll lock up for you too,” I said, glancing back at her before the bell above the door rang. “Howdy,” I greeted the customers before going back to tidying my area. They were just a couple of women that were grabbing last minute items for dinner, which was the usual crowd so close to our closing time. I knew their faces, but couldn’t recall their names. I’d seen them around town, but I didn’t exactly interact with people outside of my job.

“Did you see the paper today? John Walker’s up for re-election again,” one woman said as they meandered towards the dairy section. While they sort of tried to stay quiet, the store was empty at that time of day and with it being so small that the voices carried easily.

“I saw that. He’s got my vote for sure,” the other woman said. “You know, he’s been such a good sheriff and I don’t think anyone’s running against him. It should be an easy win for him.”

“Hopefully. Things are just fine as they are now, why change them?” The first woman said. “Though, it is a bit odd that he’s with another Alpha and not an Omega.”

“I know, but Brock’s a good man. Both of them are. It’s just too bad things didn’t work out with them and that Omega girl.”

I should be used to it by now, hearing people talking about me and my exs. When you date the county sheriff and the only garage owner in town, things aren’t exactly secret. Even if they didn’t know your name or face, they knew your business.

“You know, John always said she was a good gal, but just had some problems. His mother and I play bridge at the church on Wednesday evenings and she told me that he was heartbroken over their split up. Him and Brock adored her, said they wanted to have kids too. I do hope she’s getting herself straightened out,” the second woman said.

I could handle the whispers and looks I’d get from the older Omegas in town, but this was a new low. They weren’t even trying to keep it quiet anymore.

“Just so ya’ll know, we’re closing soon, so if you’ve got some trash talking to do, do it outside where I don’t have to listen to it,” I called, earning small gasps from the women. They hurried to the front to check out, keeping their eyes down as I glared at them. If they were dumb enough to talk about me in front of me, I was not going to go easy on them. They didn’t say another word as they left, leaving me behind to glare at their backs.

“You should learn to ignore them. People will always talk,” Peggy said from the office.

“The least they could do was be discreet about it,” I mumbled. “Besides, it’s already been over a year and you’d think people would let it go and move on.”

“Well, with the new people moving in, you might get your wish,” she said. I could only hope.

The rest of the evening went by pleasantly fast. Peggy left me in charge to stock the shelves after closing. We closed usually at about 8:00 PM, no one showed up after 7:45 PM on a regular day. So to hear the door jostle as someone tried to open at 8:10 PM was odd. Frowning, I put down the pasta to look over the aisle to see a man trying to peer in. He had dirty blond hair styled back into a faux hawk of sorts, and dressed in ripped skinny jeans and a tight black tee. There were a few cuts on his face, a bandaid over his nose, and what looked like hearing aids hooks around his ears, the man stood out like a sore thumb compared to the locals. Seeing me, he put on a big smile and waved.

My first instinct was to ignore him, but since he didn’t look familiar I figured he was one of the new people in town. They wouldn’t know the hours of any of the stores in town. I decided to at least let him know the store was closed. If anything happened I had a bat under my register and pepper spray on my keys in my pocket. Going to the front, I unlocked the door before opening it.

“Hey, sorry, we’re closed,” I said as the muggy summer air came rushing in. “We close at 8.”

“Damn it,” the man hissed as he pulled out a cell phone. “Is there any other place to get groceries around here? My pack and I just moved to town and we don’t have any groceries. We’ve been working all day to get stuff into the house and didn’t realize the time.”

“Oh, uh not really, sorry,” I said. “Dollar General closes at the same time and you’d have to go to the next town over for Walmart and that’s 20 miles away.”

“What time do you guys open in the morning?” He asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

“We open at 6:00 AM.” The way he looked when I told him was like witnessing a puppy being kicked. I could smell him, he was just an Omega. What harm could it do to let him in this once? Peggy had let a few people in here and there after hours, so what was one more? “Okay, so you can’t tell anyone or you’ll get me in trouble, but I can go ahead and let you in to shop. I’m just restocking shelves, so go ahead and get what you need.” Stepping aside, I let him in before locking the door behind him to keep anyone else out.

“Thank you so, so much. You’re a lifesaver, really,” he said as he grabbed a cart and proceeded to grab things off the shelf. I didn’t mind staying late, rent was going up and it was getting harder to pay, so a bit of extra time wouldn’t hurt. “I’m Clint by the way.”

“Hazel,” I replied as I went back to the shelves. Letting him fill his cart, I finished up my work before meeting him at the register. It was a lot of food, but then again how many moving trucks had showed up? “I really hope this isn’t just for you.”

“Naw, there’s 8 people in my pack. I’m hoping this will be good enough for at least dinner and breakfast, but there’s a few of us who can eat out a whole house,” Clint said with a chuckle as I scanned the items.

“Wow, that’s a lot. We don’t really have any packs at all around here. Maybe a handful, but it’s just three people at most,” I said.

“Oh yeah? We just moved here from New York. One of our Beta’s, Steve, used to live here. You might know him,” Clint said.

“Last name Rogers?” I asked, getting a nod. “Not personally. I know of the family and the land, but that’s about it,” I said with a shrug. “Alright, and total for today is $234.89.”

“Yup, sounds about right,” Clint said with a chuckle as he swiped a credit card. What did they do in New York that allowed them to buy that many groceries? Not to mention that was just for one night, I couldn’t imagine a full week’s worth. Maybe they should go to Walmart for groceries next time. “So is there anything fun to do around here?” He asked as I handed him the longest receipt I’d printed before.

“Eh. Depends on what you want to do. We have a restaurant that closes at 9:00 PM, a few bars around here, and a strip joint, but other than that there’s not much to be done unless you’re a fan of high school sports,” I said with a shrug.

“I’m going to have to give Steve a slap upside the head for bringing us to the most boring place in the world,” he sighed before looking at me wide eyed. “I mean, it’s just that it’s kinda slow compared to New York.”

“Don’t worry. I think it’s boring too, but like most of the folks that live here, it’s cheaper to stay than to move if you don’t have another job or family else where,” I said. “Sometimes the rodeo comes to the next town over and a lot of people go there.”

“Yeah, when he said this was a completely different place, I didn’t think he understood how all of us would find it so different,” Clint said as he started to load up the grocery cart.

“Here, let me help you take those out to your car. I’ll get the cart from you and you can head out,” I said, grabbing the keys to unlock the front door to let us out then relocked it.

“Thanks. You know, I guess small towns do have a lot of nice people willing to help out,” Clint said as he led the way to a black sports car.

“Sheesh, fancy,” I snorted as he popped the trunk.

“Yeah, it was a pain to drive it down the dirt driveway I have with my mate. I don’t want to part with her, but I also don’t want to ruin the undercarriage,” he said with a wince.

“That’s a bummer. There’s a car lot in town here, but I don’t know if they’d have anything your style,” I said, handing him a paper bag full of cereal.

“Howard, my mate, would shit his pants if I tried to go there,” Clint said with a chuckle. “He’s too posh to even think of buying anything pre-used. I’m pretty sure he’d have a heart attack.”

“Sounds like he’ll get comfortable real quick,” I said with a snort.

As we were finishing up putting the groceries in the car, there was a short honk and siren bwep before a sheriff’s car pulled into the spot next to Clint’s.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Clint frowned, unsure of what was happening, but I knew.

“Howdy friend!” A familiar voice called as a blond man with bright blue eyes and an irritating smile stepped from the patrol car. Dressed in his brown and khaki uniform, Sheriff John Walker approached us. “You must be part of the pack that just moved to town.”

“Uh, yeah. Just got in today,” Clint said, shifting his body again. “I’m Clint.”

“Pleased to meet you, I’m Sheriff Walker. Figured that since I saw you in town, I’d catch you real quick for an introduction,” the man said, holding out his hand for Clint to shake. Raising a brow, Clint shook the officer’s hand.

“Nice to meet you. You’ll probably be seeing the rest of my pack throughout the week,” Clint said before closing the trunk of his car.

“You’re on the Rogers property, yeah?” John asked, resting his hands on his hips.

“That’s the one,” Clint said with a nod.

“I think I went to school with one of the Rogers’ pack. Steve, I believe his name was. He was a grade above me. His family stayed in town a while before leaving. Didn’t think we’d see anyone come back to live on the property,” John said. I wanted to get away from this conversation as fast as possible. John hadn’t even addressed me, let alone acknowledge my existence. The last thing I wanted was for him to start shit with me in front of someone.

“Probably, I mean, he’ll be in town tomorrow to get all the paperwork fixed up with his mate,” Clint said. “But I should be going. We’ve been driving all day and everyone’s tired and hungry.”

“Alright, I’ll let you go,” John said with a nod, backing up to let Clint move. I kept quiet, trying to not look John in the eye as I moved the cart back to the sidewalk. “Have a nice evening, now,” he said, typing his broad brimmed hat to Clint.

“Thanks. See you around, Hazel,” Clint said to me with a tight smile and wave. I gave a short wave back before booking it back to the store.

Don’t follow me, don’t follow me, don’t follow me.

“Hazel, wait up,” John called as he jogged to catch up with me. I wanted to scream as I stopped at the front door to unlock it. “So, you’re talking to the new people now, huh?” He said as Clint pulled out and drove away.

“John, go away. It’s none of your business and this is not part of the agreement,” I hissed, getting the door open. Shoving the cart in front of me, I tried to shut the door in his face, but he’d stuck his boot in the way.

“Look, I’m just trying to keep an eye out for you, okay? Don’t get cozy with the new people. They might be interesting, but you never know what people are really like,” he said, pushing his way into the store.

“Ironic coming from you,” I snapped, glaring at him as I moved to the register. “I’m trying to close, leave.”

“Remember what I said,” John sighed. “Don’t trust those new people.”

“I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you and we both know it’s not far,” I snarled. “Now go away or I’ll short Brock this week.”

“Fine,” he said. “But just remember, I was the one that always looked after you. Even after everyone started those rumors about you, I stuck by you.”

“A lot of good it did me. Now go.”

John looked like he might say something else, but stopped himself. Instead, he shook his head before leaving the store. Quickly, I locked the door after him. Standing there, my hands shook as tears pricked my eyes. The asshole could always get under my skin. Just a damn look and I’d be nearly in tears. As much as I wanted to believe I was stronger now and could handle myself, that small interaction showed me that he still had a grip on my life.

Finished for the night, I headed home. There were no more encounters with anyone else thankfully, allowing me to relax for the night with a beer on my porch. My house wasn’t much, a one story two bedroom house that had a less than stellar paint job, but it was home. It was old, from the 20’s, but it was sturdy. I wasn’t there much but to eat, sleep, and shower anyways.

Sitting on the porch, one beer turned into two which turned into three. It was the fourth one that I finally felt like I could stop shaking completely. The last time I had seen John and talked to him was nearly a month ago. We’d been separated for almost a year and he was being his usual passive aggressive self just to push my boundaries. He’d come into the store and made a show of talking to me like I was a kid, letting everyone see he was the calm, collected Alpha that was trying to reach out with an olive branch to fix things between the unstable Omega who just needed some gentle handling to become a decent person.

I had nearly come unglued on him, but managed to keep my voice low and my eyes down. Peggy found me right after, sobbing out behind the store. No one, not even Peggy, knew what really happened between all three of us, but I wasn’t about to tell them and neither were John and Brock. We’d come to an agreement that they would leave me alone and not talk to me unless absolutely necessary and I’d stay quiet. As well as paying them off. It was nearly half of both my paychecks, but it was worth it if it meant they didn’t come into the store when I was there or tried to talk to me at all.

But John was starting to toe the line and push back. Brock kept his part of the deal, I was pretty sure he never really cared for me, but John was always obsessive. The deal was going to have to be revisited if John didn’t back off.

Done for the night, I tossed the bottles before heading to bed.

The last few days of the work week were about the same. Go to work, come home, go to work, come home. I saw Clint now and then who came in to grab a few things here and there, but that was it. He was nice and despite John wanting to tell me who I could and couldn’t see, it felt better to know that there was someone in town who didn’t know things about me without my permission.

While we weren’t best friends, we did send memes to each other when I was on break and he wasn’t busy. At one point he messaged me a picture of his shed full of cobwebs and wasp nests and asked if it was appropriate to burn it to the ground. I told him to be careful because there could be copperheads underneath or groundhogs. That led into me explaining what those were and learning that the man had lived 37 years thinking a groundhog was something made up by a city for a holiday and it was really just a beaver they were using.

It seemed that I would be teaching him, and probably his pack vicariously, what to look out for in their new homes. I still hadn’t met the rest of the pack, though I had seen one or two here and there around town.

Soon Friday rolled around. I woke up at about 4:30 AM. Friday would be busier than usual as it was a payday. I showered then dressed, sliding on jeans and a long sleeved shirt, I then made a pot of coffee before doing my makeup. Just enough to hide the bags under my eyes and a few marks on my neck that were visible above my shirt collar.

It was my regular dress for my job at the store, Peggy didn’t care too much so long as it wasn’t offensive. Which meant anything but plain clothing and no writing. After coffee, I fixed my hair so it didn’t frizz then grabbed my thermos of coffee. I locked up then headed to work.

The sun was peeking above the trees and clouds as I pulled into work around 5:15 AM. Peggy was already there when I walked in the back.

“Did you have any problems closing the other night? I forgot to ask,” She said as I stepped into the office to get my cash drawer for the day.

“It was fine. Had one of the new people stop in, Clint. The blond that comes by for snacks. He’d made it in just after we closed, but I went ahead and let him shop since they didn’t have anything at their houses,” I said, taking the drawer from the open safe.

“Houses? You mean they’re not all in one?” She asked, looking up from her book keeping.

“There’s not a big enough house for more than four people on their property. There’s like ten of them,” I said with a snort.

“Well I’m sure we’ll meet all of them at some point. We’re the only grocery store in town,” she said.

“Unless they need to buy in bulk. Clint nearly bought everything in the store,” I said, counting my drawer at the register.

“We can only hope. Next time you see them, let them know if they need more than a few things to get us a list and we’ll get them large amounts. We used to do that a lot when there were bigger packs in my hometown,” Peggy said. The woman was nearly 60 and had lived in England up until about 30 years ago, getting the general store from her uncle who had passed away. I was used to hearing the facts of ‘We used to do this in my hometown’ a lot.

“Will do.”

Finished with setting up, I unlocked the front door and turned on the rest of the lights at 6:00 AM. The usual rush of moms right after school starts as well as early rising elderly came in, making for the usual busy rush that Peggy would step in and help with at the second register. By the time 10:00 AM rolled around, things were tapering off. We’d have a lunch rush for those grabbing a quick something, then back to a nice slowness.

“I’m gonna take my break after this last person checks out,” I said to Peggy who nodded. I was starting to get hungry and I saw a bearclaw in the donut rack that had my name on it. A few cups of coffee could only hold me over for so long before I needed actual food.

Before I could clock out for a break though, two people walked into the otherwise empty store. They were part of the new pack, just the scent alone said that, and they were Alphas. Great.

“I got this if you want,” Peggy said softly as she caught the scent too. Peggy was a sweet Beta and she acted as a stand-in grandma for me, but I couldn’t just run at every Alpha that came in.

“I’m good,” I said, giving her a small wave and smile. It wasn’t long before the Alphas came to the register. One was taller, probably over 6’, with steely blue eyes and dark, earthy brown hair with a scruff on his face. He smelt of fresh rain and peaches with that Alpha musk. Dressed in an almost too tight tee with an extra sleeve and glove covering his left arm and hand, he looked out of place in the button up work shirts and plaid that was usually worn by the adult men around town.

The other was shorter, more tailored. His light brown hair had a bit of copper to it as it was swept back from his face as that held a neatly trimmed beard. His dark eyes stayed on the phone in his hand. He too was in a tee and jeans that were fitted tighter, making them look. . . Well almost foreign. A whiff of cedar and maybe smoke or tobacco swirled into the first Alpha’s scent. Both of them mingling and making something settle deep inside my belly.

Fuck.

“Is that all for you two?” I asked, holding back with every fiber of my being any scent or sign of them making me feel like a simple, needy Omega.

“That’ll be it,” the first Alpha said. It was standard groceries of meat, cheese, dried goods, condiments, basically anything to stock up a house after moving.

“Is your pack settling in okay? Clint comes by now and then,” I said, trying to make small talk. Usually I didn’t, but something about those two had me anxious. Not a bad anxious, but. . . I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Oh, uh yeah. We’re getting there,” he said with a nod. “It’s different than what we’re used to.”

“What are ya’ll used to?” I asked, looking from one to the other.

“A lot more people and a lot less trees,” the second Alpha spoke up, his voice lilting into an accent I couldn’t place. “But it is lovely here. I quite like how peaceful it is without masses of people a hair’s breadth away.”

“Glad you like it,” I said, giving him a soft smile. “So are all of you from New York too?”

“A few of us, but not all,” the first Alpha said as he pulled out his wallet.

“Well, hopefully it doesn’t take you long to settle in. Today’s total is $87.56,” I said, tapping a few buttons on my keypad.

“Tell me, is there a nursery around? For plants that is,” the second Alpha asked, leaning onto the counter when I started to help pack up the groceries into the cart. “I am wanting to start a flower garden, but would like to see where the supplies are first.”

“A plant nursery? Um, there is one just west of the town. Just take the main road and it’s about ten minutes from town. It’s run by the Mennonites and they have a bunch of different plants to pick from. They’ve even got starter trees for fruits and some bushes for blackberries and the like,” I said.

“Thank you. I appreciate the information,” he said with a soft smile and a nod. I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“You’re welcome, if any of your pack needs anything just ask around. We’re all pretty friendly here,” I said as I finished putting the bags in the cart.

“I will keep that in mind,” he said, moving over to the cart to hold out his hand to me. “I am Helmut. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Hazel. It’s nice to meet you both,” I said, taking his hand. It was warm and soft, different than the work roughened hands I was used to. Helmut rolled his eyes at the other, elbowing him.

“Hey,” he grumbled, shooting him a glare. “Oh, uh, I’m Bucky.” A quick wave and awkward smile was all I was given as he quickly moved to push the cart away.

“He’s house broken, I swear,” Helmut said with a wink. I couldn’t help the honest to God giggle that came out of me. “Have a good day, Hazel,” Helmut said, smiling as he shook his head at Bucky.

“You too,” I called after as they left. It didn’t even occur to me that I was staring after them till Peggy came up next to me.

“You could always ask for a photograph. It would last longer,” she said with hum.

“Oh shush,” I said, waving her off. “They were just, ya know, nice. Most Alphas around here are curt and so loud and demanding. It’s a nice change to see is all.”

“Uh huh. Even if you weren’t letting them get a scent of you, you were definitely giving them eyes. I’ve never seen you do that for anyone. Not even when you were with ‘Those-Who-Shan’t-Be-Named.’ I think it’s cute and wonderful that you had that reaction,” Peggy said as she went to the other register so I could take a break. “Besides, when’s the last time you actually touched someone on purpose?”

“It’s nothing, I’m just being nice to new people is all,” I said, locking my register computer after clocking out for a break. Quickly, I grabbed the bearclaw before leaving the dollar and change for Peggy. “It was just a handshake. Besides, you always tell me to work on my customer service skills,” I said as I walked to the back door.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” She called after me.

[yuusa]

𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝟕

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟑𝟑𝟑𝟏

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫

𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝟕:

You walked around the shopping district with a list of items you needed. It was the start of the weekend and you planned on spending the entire day running errands and completing housework. A part of your stomach still felt sick from yesterday’s events. You have silenced your phone throughout the day and muted text messages with Tohru and Yuki. You didn’t know why you wanted to avoid Tohru, if anyone was in the wrong, it would be you rather than her. 

You went into a gift shop and explored the various stationaries stacked against each other. You grazed each of the items, admiring their craftsmanship and detail. On your list you wanted to buy new pens and supplies as the ink on your original pen has started to run out. As you scanned the different designs, you paused when you saw a wooden fountain pen with a painted Zodiac Rat design surrounding its body. 

You silently gawked at the pen for a while, catching the attention of the store owner who walked over to your side. She was a gentle old lady who owned this store for several years, her grey hair was tied back in a bun, and in her hand was a wooden cane, her name seemed to be engraved onto the side. 

“Are you looking at this one dear? It’s a good choice.” She picked up the pen with her wrinkled hands and held it up to you, “not many people choose this design, but it’s one of the prettiest ones in my opinion.” 

“O-Oh, thank you.” You bowed down in front of her to express your appreciation. 

“Do you like the year of the rat?” She asked, examining your expressions. 

“Yes, I do.” You replied, holding up the pen as you admired it, your heart twisted at the memory beginning to resurface, but you quickly extinguished it. 

“Is something the matter?” She asked, seeing your eyes dim down from underneath the store lights. 

“N-Not really.” You mumbled, picking through a stack of erasers and ink cartilages. 

“Hmm. . . Your eyes say that you’re lying,” She said, “why don’t you talk about it for a bit?”

“A-Ah. . .” You pressed your lips together into a firm line, the sinking feeling coming back to you as your memories began to slowly drip into your consciousness like a faucet. “Well. . . A friend and I. . . Got into a fight.” 

Could you really consider it to be a fight? You were the only one acting irrationally in the situation and got angry at him when he wasn’t responsible for anything. He owed nothing to you and you blew him off. It seemed too childish when you looked back, and you didn’t know what you wanted to do with your feelings. 

“What was it about dear? This can just be between us.” She gave you a kind smile, one that seemed to brighten under the lights. 

“I-It’s just. . .” You held up a jelly eraser in your hand, admiring the pink flower shape and specks of sparkles embedded, “I got mad that he didn’t tell me something important during the school festival. . . I just felt like he was holding back a secret but when. . .” 

The old woman listened to each of your words as you continued speaking, the urge to bite your lip being restrained, “. . . Whenever he talks to me, I always thought he was being honest with me.” 

You placed the eraser down, your eyes cast downwards as you tried not to think about the situation too much. The woman hummed in acknowledgment but picked up the eraser you discarded.

“Perhaps he wanted to protect you from something he thought would hurt you.” She said, holding up the eraser and picking up a second one, one that was shaped to be a childish bear for children. 

“There are a lot of things we do for someone, and one of those things is keeping things that you are afraid of.” She toyed with the eraser, bring it up over the flower eraser and shaking it, making it play the role of a scary bear. “We often want to protect what we find is beautiful and valuable.” 

She picked up a third eraser, one that was much more plain looking, using it as a barrier between the bear and flower. “Although they don’t look like much on the outside, they’re much more than that on the inside.”

She pulled back the paper covering to reveal the plain white color fading into a vast array of colors of different colors underneath, the small specks of gold similarly embedded like the flower. She grasped onto both of the erasers and placed it into your hands before guiding your fingers to wrap around them.

“Be sure to talk to the young man dear, he might even be waiting for you.” She patted your hand before slowly walking back to the counter.

“A-Ah! The price!” You quickly tried to walk over to her but she stopped you with her hand.

“Think of it as a gift for listening to an old woman’s conversation.” Before you could even place the money on the counter, she had already left through the curtains.

You stared down at the gifts you received from the woman, still thinking about the lesson you learned from her. You clutched the erasers tightly to your chest before placing it into your bag and leaving the store. When you made your way to the other side of the street to go home, your phone constantly began buzzing.

You held up your phone and finally picked up the call, “who is this?”

“(Y/n)-kun!~” A familiar voice called out.

“Sh. . . Shigure-san?” You could hear him hum a victorious tune from the other side of the phone.

“You got that right! Are you busy right now?” He asked.

“Um. . . Not really, why? Also, how did you even get my phone number?”

“Oh! Tohru-kun just wanted to invite you over to stay for the night.” Shigure twirled the phone coil around his finger. You frowned when he ignored your second question.

“What for?” You walked towards a nearby bench and sat down, resting your bag by your side, “I never heard of this.”

“Well~ She has been meaning to tell you but she got caught up in some business, but she really wanted me to tell you that she wants you to sleep over for the night!”

This was a complete lie actually. Shigure was purposefully trying to lure you into the house. Ever since he saw Yuki come home with a blank expression he assumed he got into a fight with someone at school, he highly doubts it was with Kyo or Tohru since he still talked to them normally. When asking Yuki if he had a fight with you, he quickly slammed the door to his room shut.

“So can you come right now?~ If you come early I might even give you one of my books.” He cooed.

You paused for a moment, thinking about the possibility of reading another one of his books, “what about my clothes?”

“Don’t worry about that! We got clothes at home! Just come over.”

“Why the sudden rush?” You heard nothing from the other line and checked your phone, seeing that he had hung up on you unexpectedly. 

You turned off your phone and sat on the bench for a moment, staring up at the birds flying to the different trees in the area. You looked down at the erasers which sat at the bottom of your bag, the flower resting against the plain white one. 

A knock on the door interrupted the conversation at the table. Yuki turned his head towards Shigure who was simply giving him an extremely cocky smile. As Tohru was about to get up to the door, Shigure only told her to stay with Uotani and Hanajima. He quietly slipped away from the table and slid open your door, revealing your form with your shopping bags still. When you said to Yuki you would be coming over the weekend, you meant the actual weekend and not earlier like today.

“Yo (Y/n)-kun~,” He whispered.

You whispered back, “why are you whispering? Why are we whispering?” You walked inside and took off your shoes, raising your eyebrow at the light coming from the main room. 

“We’re playing a game of hide and seek~” He placed his pointer finger over his lips to signal the ‘sh’ sound. 

You nodded and walked over to the main room, realizing that not only was Kyo and Yuki sitting there, Hanajima and Uotani were invited as well. There was this brief moment of awkward silence between the group and you. You made eye contact with Yuki and quickly spun around to leave the house, only for Shigure to slam the door in your face as you were running. 

“A-Ah! (Y/n)-kun are you okay?!” Tohru ran over towards the door, seeing a small bloodstain on the entrance. 

“Sorry (Y/n)-kun, this was all just a trap!” Shigure ‘apologized’. 

You held onto your bleeding nose as you glared at him from the floor, “you lied to me. . . Shigure-san. . .  ” 

“Eek!” Shigure fled towards his room while you slowly picked yourself up from the floor, still holding onto the bridge of your nose as blood continued to drip down. 

Now you were just pissed off at this point. Not only were you not promised that it was simply a sleepover with you and Tohru, but you also had to stay the night over without any of your clothes since Shigure made you rush over, and you had a bleeding nose. You shoved past Tohru and banged on Shigure’s door, trying to force him out of the room. He had to be holding the sliding door closed with his body as you yelled at him. 

“Get the hell out right now! I’m going to beat your goddamn ass!” You vigorously knocked on the door with enough force to almost blow it off of its hinges. 

“Calm down woman!” Kyo shouted, standing up from his position to try and stop you from destroying Shigure’s room. 

“Huh? What did you say?” You ominously turned towards him, your piercing (e/c) eyes withering his self-confidence down significantly. “Did you say something?” 

“N-Nothing!” He shrunk back to the corner. Uotani and Hanajima sweatdropped at the sight, they had never taken you for someone extremely violent. From this day forward, Kyo learned not to piss you off any further.  

Tohru held onto your shoulder, guiding you towards the bathroom upstairs, “(Y/n)-kun you’re still bleeding onto your shirt! Let me help you!” 

You sighed as you let her drag you into the bathroom, you closed your eyes on the journey there to calm down. You didn’t want to look at the color of blood at all. 

“A-Ah. . . (Y/n)-kun, did Shigure-san invite you over?” She dried the blood with tissues as you sat down on the covered seat. 

“He said you wanted me to come over, but since you didn’t I will be taking my leave after this.” Tohru placed a bandage on your nose and forehead, the red skin being covered up by the white medical supply. 

“(Y/n)-kun, it’s okay to stay we don’t mind.” 

You cracked your eyes open to see Tohru giving you a warm, inviting smile. You released another sigh and realized your clothes have been sullied with the disgusting, foul color. You both heard the knock on the door and Tohru opened it to reveal Shigure with a plain button up shirt. You quickly sat up from the seat to make your way towards him but he quickly threw the shirt onto your face and shut the door. 

“Wear this for now (Y/n)-kun!~” You groaned at his childishness. 

Tohru covered her eyes and faced the door, “O-Oh you can change here (Y/n)-kun! I promise I’m not looking!”

“Yes yes, okay.” You slipped off your shirt and draped the clothing over your body, buttoning it slowly. You realized that this shirt smelled clean, it certainly didn’t smell like something that came right from the store. Thank goodness, you didn’t know how many pranks you wanted to endure from Shigure. 

“Tohru-kun, I’m finished.” She nodded before opening the door and letting you out of the bathroom. 

As you made your way down to the main area, you noticed that your bags were gone. You glared at Shigure who was sitting at the table, sipping on a warm cup of tea, acting completely oblivious to the murderous aura you exuded.

“Oh? Nice shirt you’re wearing (Y/n)-kun!” The group deadpanned at his casualness, despite being moments away from getting his head ripped off. 

“Where are my bags?” You asked, searching the room for your belongings.

“We put them in Yuki-kun’s room since there's no more room for you to sleep in Tohru-kun’s! The shirt you’re wearing is also Yuki-kun’s! Nice and clean right?” 

Stop talking! Everyone else but you and Shigure internally panicked when you quickly went over to him and began gripping his neck tightly with an innocent smile. Although it was great to see you smiling, she really didn’t want you to do it while holding up Shigure in the air by the neck, Tohru sweatdropped. 

“So it was you who planned this!” You let out a comedically dark laugh before tightening your grip onto him, “do you have a death wish?”

“I got no idea what you’re talking about!” He replied. 

When you heard Tohru’s panicked cries telling you to relax, you emotionlessly dropped Shigure to the ground and groaned. The man coughed before smiling with a flowery aura around him.

“Anyway! Yuki-kun show her to your room please!” 

Before you could get another word into Shigure’s ear, Yuki pulled you by the arm and dragged you upstairs, much to your displeasure. On the first couple of steps, you almost tripped but his strength continued to pull you up through every single obstacle. 

“Oi! Get your hands off of me!” You forcefully tried to pull yourself away from him, but your socks were sliding against the wooden floor, making it much easier for him to take you to his room. “Let go of me!” 

He silently pushed you towards the bed as you fell down onto the floor next to it. He shut the door behind him as he approached you, his eyes still looking as guilty as you last saw them. You watched as he places his hand on either side of your body, firmly trapping you between the bed and him, leaving little room to escape.

“What’s up with you?” You muttered, pulling your knees towards your chest, the rift forming between the two of you. 

“Do you hate me?” He asked, tilting his head downwards to avoid your gaze. 

You remained silent underneath him, unsure of what to say. You wanted to believe in the woman’s voice but it was becoming increasingly difficult when you were faced with your problems. Your lips were tightly pressed together as you watched his body tremble slightly.

“You hate me don’t you?” He whispered, his voice getting weaker every time he spoke, “of course you would. . .”

“I. . .” You felt your voice slipping away as you clutched the shirt you were wearing. “I don’t hate you. . . I never hated you.”

“You should.” His voice was at a mere whisper at this point.

“I still don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because. . . You did nothing wrong.” You mumbled.

“Don’t you think I betrayed you?”

“. . . At first, but. . . You had your reasons didn’t you?” He stared up at you in shock, his grey eyes finally making contact with yours. “I don’t think you betrayed me Sohma-san. I don’t hate you for what happened. I assume you’re going through a lot so. . .”

He leaned forward, bringing his forehead onto your shoulder as the space occupied by your legs kept him at a distance away. You could hear him breathe a sigh of relief as his shoulders relaxed. You didn’t know what to do in this position, you were at this awkward moment where most people would hug but you knew that you and Yuki weren’t ready for this moment. You sat still underneath his body as he calmed down.

“Thank god. . .” He whispered.

You now realized from looking over his shoulder, his room was a lot messier than yours. There were clothes thrown around onto the floor with sheets of paper underneath his table and chairs. The only object he had near his desk was a tissue box and his desk light. You wondered why he kept his room messier than yours, but you presumed it was because he was as lazy as you were when it came to cleaning.

“Sohma-san, how long are you going to stay like this?”

“O-Oh!” He quickly stepped back, giving you more space, “s-sorry.”

“It’s fine.” You turned over to look at the clock, seeing that it was around night time already. Did you sit in his room doing nothing for that long?

“Has your room always been messier than mine?” You asked.

“Ah. . . I just haven’t had time to clean up.” He said, which was an actual lie, he was simply lazy and didn’t want to bother when it would only get messy again. He didn’t expect Shigure to invite you over so he hadn’t cleaned up at all.

“I can’t believe Shigure-san tricked me. . .” You leaned your head back, feeling the soft material of his bedsheets underneath you. “I really want to kill him now.” You groaned.

Yuki chuckled, “you can sleep on my bed tonight, I wouldn’t want you sleeping on the floor.”

“Oh? What makes you think I’m letting you sleep on the floor?” You responded.

“You’re the guest here, I insist.” He argued.

“No, you live here, I can sleep in the corner.”

“Sorry, what corner? I see it being occupied by my clothes so how about you sleep in the bed.”

“Maybe you should clean up your room then, Sohma-san?”

Both of you playfully glared at each other before turning away at the same time. You giggled before standing up.

“Why don’t you sleep on one side of the bed, and I’ll sleep on the other side.” Your cheeks started to heat up at your idea, but it was the only compromise that worked in both of your favors.

“Eh? Are you sure about that?” Yuki felt his cheeks heat up as he raised his arm to cover his blushing face, “a boy and girl shouldn’t sleep in the same bed. . .” He muttered. 

“It’s whatever, just stay on your side and I’ll stay on mine.” You stumbled towards the door, picking up your journal that was inside your shopping bag and taking out the newly bought pen. He avoided your gaze as he tried to cool down the heat that rushed to his cheeks.

You sat on Yuki’s bed, beginning to write in your journal to document the day as he sat next to you, casually resting his head on your shoulder. The two of you relaxed in each other's presence before it was time to sleep. Somehow, just by simply communicating the smallest misunderstandings was enough to make tensions disappear. 

“Is that pen new?” He pointed at the fountain pen you used to write, “it looks nice.” 

“You think so?” You hummed, “the woman at the store told me it was the prettiest one she saw.” You silently reminisced about the previous memory as you continued to write about your experiences. 

“I see. Are you still mad at Shigure-san for tricking you?”

“Yes. I hope to strangle him the next time I see him.” 

“Hm. . . Weirdo.”

“You’re one to talk.” 

From beyond the closed door, Shigure, Uotani, and Hanajima were leaning their ears against the wooden barrier, trying to snoop on your conversations but unable to hear anything. 

[poisonously-alluring-sev]

Snape One Shots ~ Gothic Lust {Continued}

Summary: Emily is one of the more popular students at Hogwarts, who also happens to be a goth, and even though most people like to obsess over her and want to date her, she has never let any of the students at Hogwarts date her. Children of all ages she didn’t like so when a dark and mysterious MAN who matches her grumpy and dark aesthetic comes along she can’t help, but be curious.

Pairing: Snape x Female OC

Warnings: Swearing

Time: Two years before Harry graduates

Word Count: 5100

Recommended Song: My Oh My by Camilla Cabello

Main Character: Emily Jones; 20; DOB: Dec 16th, 1969 (Sagittarius); American; Caucasian; Slytherin; Pure Blood; 5'5; light skin; dark brown hair with green tips; green/gray eyes

Being in my dorm alone for a while was starting to make me feel hyper lonely and was really starting to get to me so I decided that maybe if I went to the common room and read a book, it might be better. With all of the thoughts running through my head of the past day, my mind was very clouded. I took down just a basic muggle fantasy book and thought maybe reading something that wasn't about spells or potions would calm my head. After a while listening to the fire crackling and hearing the faint voices of other students in the nearby dorms was a very nice environment to focus in and now I was annoyed that I didn't grab a spellbook instead. While reading my mind wandered a bit remembering Snape's voice in my head when he was asking if I was alright. I remembered his face when he caught me when I fell from the ladder. It was very cheesy and cliche, but I truly was kind of lost in thought about him. The feeling of his hands against my skin, this is something I've never experienced before considering I refused to get into any relationship. now, however, I feel like maybe I should open myself up and try something new, I was also pretty bitter and seemed to follow in my parent's footsteps. I also didn't want to end up like them in an arranged marriage so I guess I should be trying to get a boyfriend every now and then.

After a little longer, I decided to head back to my dorm and go to bed since I was probably going to sleep a lot after today and I will probably spend most of the day in my dorm or in the dungeon hallways. I went and took a light shower, braided my hair so when I woke up it would be wavy and got into my pj's. Sitting down on my bed about to climb in and heard a ticking on my window, I looked up and saw Snape's owl staring back at me. I smiled at the sight of his bird, but as soon as I went to grab the letter that he held in his feet he bit me. I groaned out in pain, snatched the letter and went to the bathroom to clean my hand. After covering it up and climbing into bed I opened the letter and it read,

Jones,

I feel like it might be time to tell you what was written that the first letter I sent to you before Dumbledore took it. I also would like to talk more to you about what had happened to today along with teaching you more about potions.

Sincerely,

SS.

PS,

I would like my cloak back the next time we meet.

I was happy to be hearing from him again, but without seeing his face or hearing his voice, I wasn't sure if he was being sweet or not, at least until the end. I laughed to myself.

"He's never getting that cloak back." I closed to letter back into the envelope and laid my head down to fall asleep. The next morning I woke up to the sun on my face, making me angry because I didn't feel ready to wake up just yet, but then a figure stepped in front of the window. I hadn't moved or made any noise yet so I could've just pretended to be asleep, but I wasn't that smart. I recoiled back pulling the blanket up to my chest as if it was protecting me. I looked straight at the person and was immediately relaxed when I noticed it was just Snape. He was looking out the window until I freaked out. I sighed and said to him,

"Jesus, can a girl not get any privacy here?' He smiled gently and replied with,

"Hey, I'm not wreaking the place, plus I thought I would be welcome here."

"Oh, yes you are, 100%, I just was not ready to wake up with someone standing around in my room." He took a seat down in one of the chairs in the room as I sat up completely, dropping the blanket and giving him a questioning look before asking,

"What are you doing here, may I ask?" He moved forward in the seat and said,

"You left something of yours in my classroom last night." I tossed the book onto my bed and I gave him a 'well what else was I supposed to do?' face and he just smiled back at me.

"Well," he said as he stood up from the chair, "I should probably get going seeing as you need to get dressed and whatnot." I gave him, yet again, another confused look to which he rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him, but before it shut completely I shouted at him saying,

"Wait!" The door stopped and I stood up from my bed basically prancing to the door. He opened it all the way and said,

"Yes?" I had a bit of momentum at this point and slowing down didn't seem like a good option so I throw myself into his arms wrapping my hands around his neck so he could catch me. He stepped back a little surprised then when I pulled my head out of his shoulder he looked at me for a moment, before I closed the distance between us, smiling as I moved my lips onto his. He didn' smiled back into the kiss, but it did kiss back to he clearly wasn't upset with me or anything or came to yell at me about making out with him earlier so this was a plus. I pulled away after a bit smiling like an idiot and catch Snape admiring my face.

"You know," he rested his hands on my waist as I stopped standing on my toes, "I think tonight would be good to finish another potion." I nodded in response.

"I think so too, Snape."

"Oh, yea and call me Severus, all that professional shit gets boring. I chuckled at his joke which, in return made him grin. After that, he left my side and went on with whatever he was doing before he decided to pay me a visit. I, on the other hand, was reading up a bit more on the book Dumbledore gave me as I wasn't able to learn anything from it before, but maybe now that I knew what was going on inside Severus' head I would be able to focus.

Through the first few hours of being awake, I seemed to put myself into some kind of trance that kept me focused on the task at hand and I was getting pretty good at learning a couple of new skills from Dumbledore's book. However, I was getting bored and decided that I should pick a potion I wanted to learn about later tonight if Severus would give me the option to choose. After reading up on a couple of strange potions I thought it might be a good time to take a walk either around the grounds or maybe find myself at Hogsmeade. I threw on a long black, trench coat and made my rounds through the school until I came up to the main entrance to where I would be going next. It was a little chilly outside and it did look like it was about to rain, so I decided to head to Hogsmeade, I could get some food there at least since I missed breakfast by a long shot, and I could also maybe buy something else in one of the other stores nearby. I went to the three broomsticks and snacked on a sandwich and sipped on some tea until I got bored of listening in on some old people gossip. I hopped out into the street again just slowly making my way through the little town noticing things I didn't before like the new sign outside of Zonko's or the freshly cleaned doorsteps leading up to Honeydukes, I can only imagine how happy the store owners are now that most of the students are gone for the holidays.

I stepped up to the nice little store called Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop to see if they had any cool-looking quills and such. After about 20 minutes of browsing and wondering if the owner was dead or not as he slept in his seat, I decided to buy more ink and a new white quill. At that time I was honestly done staying in the cold and was ready to take the hilly walk back to Hogwarts, but before I could something seemed to pull me towards another shop. Almost immediately I found myself browsing the items on the shelves of Gladrags Wizardwear. I normally get all of my clothes from family, but occasionally I'll go out and buy something they probably would forget about. I found some nice Slytherin style pants and a jacket that was still in my range of style that I think anyone would appreciate along with some nice perfume that smelled like roses and firewood. Weird combination I know, but it was worth it. I also got a little something for Severus, not really because I felt bad that he got me something and I didn't get him anything, but that's totally the reason. It was a nice light cologne that smelled like pine needles and wine, and I honestly was confused by a couple of other kinds too. Like how do they get the smell of old books or the ocean into a bottle? I bought my items, pulled out a small carry bag that I keep shrunk in my pocket in case I impulse buy, and started to make my way back to Hogwarts Where nothing was really interesting.

I told the painting our house password and as soon as I walked in it seemed like everyone that stayed back was in the common room. I was pulled aside by another seventh year who asked me to join their party. It wasn't anything like the party we had before everyone left, but we still had booze and some music. I told them sure as I had nothing better to do and dropped my stuff off at my dorm. Before I left I changed my clothes and remembered that Severus basically threw my potion book at me earlier, making me feel kind of nostalgic even though it happened this morning. I put it back on my shelf and hopped down the stairs to see a couple of boys chugging bottles of booze and everyone else around them chanting and yelling at them to drink faster. I joined in by hopping onto a shelf to get a good view of the chaos that was slowly starting to happen and laughed when someone bumped into a girl who in return pushed back and happened to hit one of the boys downing alcohol causing him to lose and choke up a bit from breathing in some of the subsistence. I got past a glass which I downed pretty quickly but then decided to not get drunk as I would probably find myself alone here in about an hour or running through the halls like an idiot. I wasn't in the mood to be caught drunk, as McGonaggell would tell my parents, so I just sipped on my next drink and enjoyed watching everyone else slowly bring upon the apocalypse.

After a couple of laughs and such to make the day feel less boring I was about to get down from the shelf and maybe sneak into the library and search through the restricted section, but before I could a brawl started with a couple of boys and Murphy. Not surprised as I was I stayed up there and watched the scene play out. The boys that were fighting actually knew what they were doing so things were pretty interesting, mainly the blood that started to flow, until a younger student came into the common room followed by McGonaggell and Severus. I groaned out loud as the fun was over and the kid that got them seemed to be traumatized as if he had never seen a basic brawl before. Severus pulled the boys apart as McGonaggell yelled at them and then turned to everyone else for drinking underage until she turned to me who was trying not to hold in a laugh as the boys looked so guilty.

"What is it you're doing up there Ms. Jones?"

"Oh, nothing, just watching the show." She frowned at me as she walked towards me and everyone was watching us probably thinking I was going to jump at her or something.

"And as a prefect, you are following your jobs are you?"

"On a daily basis ma'am."

"And this 'show' you watched, it wasn't breaking any school rules?" She raised an eyebrow at me as I sighed and told her very calmly.

"Come on professor, a little fight has to happen sometime, how else are we going to get our anger out, turn each other into frogs and then never be able to turn each other back?" She crossed her arms and in her way glared at me, she then turned around and told the boys to go to the hospital wing then immediately go to the kitchens after. Severus stood there as McGonaggell followed them out and before she left she said to me,

"Prefects can also get detention too Ms. Jones." I swore under my breath and hopped down off the shelf and started to mock her after she left. Then Severus filled the room with his voice explaining what kind of stuff we would have to do once classes started again, like cleaning the pots from the kitchens, or sweeping the floor in potions every day after class. Everyone moaned, but he didn't care and before he left he just looked at me for a second which then made me say,

"If you're thinking about making me class the whole class, I won't do it." He scoffed and walked away. I could tell that he wanted to say something back, but obviously it wouldn't be a good time to say anything else right now. I told everyone else that I would steal some potions from Pomfrey for the drunk when the hangover started and they all thanked me. It's funny really, I didn't even do anything and yet that was why I got into trouble. I made my way back up to my room, hopped on my broom and made my way to the windows outside of the hospital wing hoping that when I got there, Pomfrey would be busy with the boys who had black eyes, and cut-up's knuckles.

*** Hours Later ***

I sat at the Slytherin table slowly eating my food with my head in my hand, clearly lost in thought or just not in a good mood. A student next to me was laughing with her friends until she noticed me and asked me,

"Hey, Joney, you alright?" I shrugged my shoulders as I didn't really know what was wrong with me since today wasn't a horrible day, but I was just feeling weird.

"Detention boring you?"

"Probably." She went back to her laughing friends as I just watched my food and slowly raised it to my mouth. I listened to their conversation until it turned into heavy gossip and I thought, maybe if I tried hard enough I could focus my mind onto Severus and chat with him in my head. I thought about him and replied his voice in my head from when he first pushed into my mind and repeated his name over and over again, after about like five minutes of trying different things my mind kind of changed and everything seem to be a lot quieter around me like everything was muffled. I glanced up at the teachers' table to see Severus glance at me. I didn't know if it had worked so I asked,

"Severus?" A couple of seconds passed.

"Yes, Jones?" I tried to hide my smile at the fact that I actually managed to do it and then I heard Severus say something else,

"Is there something you want, I can't keep the connection going forever." My smile dropped, I thought I had managed to reach him, well maybe I did, it might not have been strong, but I got his attention. I told him through my thoughts,

"It's just really boring over here, I wanted to talk to someone who didn't need gossip to be the topic of the day."

"I thought that's what all popular people enjoyed talking about." I chuckled lightly getting a couple of weird looks from a few girls around me. Not really paying any attention to them I responded to him saying,

"I normally like to listen to it, but it gets boring after a while. Plus you're a lot more interesting than them." I glanced back up to him and saw him kind of hiding his face from me. Was he blushing? Oh god, I hope he is. I smiled myself and then said to him,

"Sorry, that was very cliche. We should probably get back to eating, talk to you later." I took my gaze away from him and broke the connection. I focused on my food and tried not to look up at the teachers' table. I had a feeling that even though he seemed to be affected by it, it dawned on me that he definitely doesn't get compliments at all and probably doesn't let people in his life. Once I finished I stood up and walked out of the Great Hall, I decided to just walk around until detention trying to avoid going straight to the potions class. Severus was probably feeling pretty awkward at the moment and was probably going to cut the connection anyway, and I think that since it was me who did it, it might've made it less awkward. Soon I had circled the whole castle a few times and decided I should probably head downstairs to see if Severus was actually going to give me something to do or if we would just lead each other on and make out again, and honestly, I was kind of hoping for the second option. I knocked on the door and heard him tell me to come in. I slowly opened the door and gave him a little smile once he looked up from his papers. I closed the door with my back as I leaned on it and slowly made my way up to him as he went back to the papers covering his desk. I stopped in front of the desk and as I swayed back and forth I asked him,

"Soooo, what are we doing tonight?" Not looking up from his work he told me.

"Well since I didn't give you the detention, you'll be cleaning the desks for me as the first years didn't bother doing it before they left." I looked over at the tables and groaned out loud.

"Oh come on, the mess has hardened by now, it'll be impossible to clean it, unless..." I pulled out my wand and was about to cast a cleaning spell, but Severus knocked it out of my hand with his own spell and told me.

"You'll be doing it by hand."

"What!?" He just kept a straight face as I reacted this way making it hard to tell if he was fucking with me or if he really wanted me to do it. I crossed my arms and told him,

"You're joking, right? Please tell me you're joking."

"It wasn't my idea to give you detention, plus you smelled of alcohol, I bet Mivera wanted to yell at you for that but thought that detention was good enough.

"I guess it's good that she stills thinks I hate you," I grinned at him as he glared at me, I crossed my arms and grabbed the things he had for me on his desk frowning at them and said,

"because I find this very entertaining." Giving him another grin as I walked over to the first desk. He huffed and went back to his work as I tried not to throw myself across the room when I scraped the tables, it was like I was chopping wood with a needle, it wasn't working. After I got one table done, he was still working on stuff and I ended up getting so sick of basically falling over as I put so much pressure on the stupid thing that I said aloud,

"I'm gonna kill McGonaggell for this." Then at the moment where I wasn't paying attention, I moved my hand to maybe make it easier but just ended up cutting my hand open. I cried in pain as it wasn't a cut it was a full-on wound that started to bleed a lot. I sucked in a heavy breath and looked over to Severus who didn't even look up. I walked over to his desk and shoved my hand into his view to which he immediately freaked out and jumped to my side of the desk and put a cloth on it to stop the bleeding. I was being very bold with him as I was pissed he made me do work and now I was injured badly. As he put more pressure on it pain shot through my hand and I cried out saying,

"Jeez stop squeezing it hurts!"

"Do you want it to keep bleeding?"

"I wouldn't be bleeding if you didn't make me do work." He huffed again and got a new cloth as the one he used before was covered in blood. He grabbed me by my shoulder, threw the cloth at me and started to walk away saying,

"Let's get you to Pomfrey." I sighed and wrapped the cloth around my hand slowly which seemed to make him impatient and look like he was going to yell at me to hurry up, but stopped when he remembered I was hurt and probably wanted me to be careful with myself. Walking to the hospital was quiet and hard as Severus basically ran down the halls as I followed and a couple of times I caught myself squeezing too hard making it hurt and bleed more. Once we got there Pomfrey was cleaning are table and sighed when I entered behind Snape. She walked over to me and said, clearly not wanting to give me another potion if I was drunk, but when she saw the bloody cloth her nursing kicked in. She had me unwrap the cloth and she poured some kind of cleaning subsistence on the wound that stung a lot until I couldn't feel any more pain and she said to me,

"I'm going to have to stitch it so you might want to look away." I watched her stop the bleeding and get ready to stitch it shut and honestly I wasn't really scared about watching the stitching it never phased me before. As she weaved the thread through my skin I noticed that Severus was still standing next to me and was watching Pomfrey's every move, like he was waiting for her to hurt me which, honestly, I doubt would ever happen. Then I thought of something, why didn't he just heal my hand like last time? He literally healed my broken wrist in seconds, couldn't he heal a wound? I stopped questioning it when I started to feel really sore and I felt a sharp pain in my hand which made me recoil away from Pomfrey. She stopped and looked up at me, Severus stepped a bit closer to me, but I shooed him away.

"Sorry about that, I guess the potion wore off, here, drink this, it'll keep the pain away for the rest of the day." Downing the potion I noticed Severus staring at me and not the job PomPom was finishing up. I glanced over at him and raised an eyebrow he was acting pretty strange since I showed up in his class and honestly I would say that I shouldn't worry about it since he was probably just making sure he didn't have an accident on his hands that he would have to take care of with Dumbledore. He raised his own eyebrow at me and Pomfrey gave me a couple of things, but before we could leave Pomfrey said to Severus,

"I don't know what you have your students doing in detention, but clearly it's dangerous." He waved her off as we left the room and as we walked through the halls I wasn't sure if I was still going to clean the classroom so I asked,

"So, do I still need you to clean your desks?" He quickly told me no and kept walking, since we were basically going to the same place I followed him through the halls and even though keeping up with him meant me running behind him, I still managed to stay relatively close by. As we walked neither of us said a thing to each other, but it wasn't horrible, I was still curious as to why he reacted the way he did before. Like he was going to protect me from the stitches. Once we reached the hallway I opened the painting and before I went inside I shout at him,

"Goodnight, I guess." He turned around and said back to me,

"Goodnight, Emily." I smiled at him as he walked down the rest of the hallway. Feeling a lot better, and no longer in pain, I jumped up the stairs to my dorm and landed on my bed. Feeling happy that he called me by my first name for the first time, I got ready for bed and as I rid myself of my clothes I realized that I hadn't gotten my wand back from my detention. Knowing that and not wanting to walk all the way to class and or having to search the school for it and the person who knows where it is, I decided to go right now. Not even changing out of my pj's, I ran through the common room jumping over the couches. Sneaking through the dark halls and trying not to get caught wasn't easy with the fear that he wouldn't give me my wand back, so hiding from Flich didn't really work at first, but with my legs carrying me quickly away from him, I managed to getaway. I had made it to his classroom and burst through the door without even knocking making him wonder what the hell is wrong with me. He stood up and crossed his arms as I bent down to rest my hands on my knees to catch my breath.

"Forgot... my wand." I let out a heavy sigh and closed my eyes as I calmed down. Severus picked up my wand from in his desk drawer and came over to hand it to me. As I stood up he was right there in front of me and once I was standing up straight I was basically face to face with him with only a few inches between us. I gently took my wand from his hand but letting it linger on his skin. I kept eye contact with him as I did it and before I could pull my hand away he grabbed it and pulled me into him crashing our lips together. Almost right away my hands wrapped around his neck and pulled on his hair as he grabbed me violently by the hips making me lean against him. I smiled into the kiss as he didn't seem very happy today and now I know that he wasn't upset with me. I pulled on his hair a little more and got a deep growl out of it which honestly turned me on hearing that deep growl coming from his throat. I moaned against his lips and he placed his hand underneath my ass picking me up without any effort. I laughed when our lips broke connection for a second to breathe. He placed me on his desk and pushed his ways through my legs even though I tried to fight it. He pulled me onto the edge of the desk by my waist and put his hands back onto my face bringing me closer to him just by a bit. He then grinds up against me getting another moan out of me and kissing my neck causing me to lose track of time. I placed my hands on his shoulders and after a while of grinding and hair-pulling, we needed to breathe so we pulled apart and mixed our breath together.

I closed my eyes and rested my head on his. Severus placed his hands around my waist and hugged me towards him. We stayed like that for a few seconds without talking until I chimed in and said,

"You really do know how to treat a woman don't you?" He chuckled at my comment and I grinned at him since I never saw him smile before let alone a laugh, so I took it in stride. I hugged my arms around him and let out a long sigh, opening my eyes again and seeing him already admiring me. Blushing like an idiot he kissed my gently not like the heavy make-out section we just had. I moved the stray pieces of hair out of his face and gave him a smile, which in return earned me another kiss. For the rest of the next, we just chatted a bit about some random stuff and I would sometimes complaint him and that would make Severus break eye contact with me. I then thought that it was probably a good idea to head back to my dorm and as to not get in trouble Severus walked me back to the common room where he left me as soon as it opened. Before I walked in I told him t wait and looked around to make sure that nobody else was here. Then I pulled on his shirt bringing his face down to my level to give him one last kiss before I went to bed. Once we pulled apart he said goodbye and for the rest of the night I let my grungy, grumpy facade disappear and wouldn't stop thinking about Severus and how his hands felt on my waist and face.

requests?

[vecnawrites]

Hypnotic Pets

Garnet Rose sighed as he arrived home. School today had been long. Not difficult, thankfully, just long. However, he was home now, and could relax. Opening the door, he called out to the one that was always home twenty-four-seven, unless he, his mother, or his father took her out. “Cinder! I’m home!” a small smile formed on his face as he heard rapid shuffling heading for the stairs, before a head of black hair poked around the corner, golden eyes widening and a smile forming on the girls face.

She clambered down the stairs eagerly on all fours, excited barks emerging from her mouth, her bare tits and ass jiggling wildly from her rapid movement. Coming up to her owner, Cinder whined, rising up on her knees and gently gripping his shirt, nuzzling her face into his chest.

Laughing, Garnet scratched Cinder behind her ear, making her lean into his hand, panting happily and licking his finger tips. “It’s great to see you too, girl! How has your day been?” he asked, receiving more pleased pants.

Garnet chuckled as his pet flopped onto her back, arching upwards and exposing her stomach, tits swaying...although that wasn’t the only thing that was. Part of the reason that his mother wasn’t concerned about him...playing with his pet was flopping against her thighs currently. It wasn’t as big as his own, but Cinder’s cock and balls were sizable.

Rubbing her stomach, Garnet chuckled. “Looks like you have some excess energy...how about a walk?” he couldn’t help but laugh at how the golden eyes widened with happiness and she quickly rolled onto all fours and barked happily, darting off to grab the leash.

Garnet smiled as he watched his pet. It had been odd how this had all started, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.

It had started before he was born, but a new law had been passed to try and ‘redeem’ those who committed crimes...by using hypnosis and subliminal messaging to turn them into pets for others to care for. Granted, it was strictly for the non-violent cases. Those who completed their ‘sentences’ usually rejoined society much better off, although a very few actually willingly went back under if they were treated well enough to continue being pets. Families that ‘adopted’ the ‘pets’ were strictly screened to prevent abuse...part of the reason that they got her so easily was because his father was a detective of the Special Victims Unit and his mother was a Social Worker for abused youth.

From what he understood, Cinder was a rare case; she had been a victim of abuse and lashed out to protect herself, ending up accidentally setting fire to her childhood home. In this case, her being a pet wasn’t meant to be punishment, it was therapy, to help her realize that not everyone was out to hurt her.

It had certainly been odd in the beginning, since Cinder was standoffish to both of his parents, clinging to him and growling every time his mom or dad made a sudden move. But slowly, she had warmed up to them both, even if Cinder still did prefer him.

Pulled from his thoughts as he felt a nudge against his leg, he smiled as he looked down at Cinder, who was looking imploringly up at him, leash held between her teeth, rear wagging back and forth.

Taking the leash, Garnet attached it to the collar and gently kissed Cinder’s forehead. “Come on, Cin...let’s go for a nice walk.” holding the leash securely in his hand, Garnet opened the door and allowed Cinder out, closing and locking the door behind him.

The pair enjoyed a slow, leisurely walk, Cinder inquisitively sniffing flowers that they passed, Garnet nodding or waving to those they passed by, before the pair paused, hearing something that they hadn’t heard before. “...on, Emerald! Don’t fight me on this!” followed by growling.

Turning his head, Garnet paused as he saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Long silky blonde hair, like long strands of solid sunshine, and eyes of lilac, similar to amethyst gemstones. Her cheeks were flushed, and her full lips were set into a pout, although that was easy to see why, since she was pulling a leash connected to a struggling pet of her own, a very curvy chocolate-skinned verdette with crimson eyes.

Glancing down, he smiled at the look on Cinder’s face. Her golden eyes were wide, mouth dropped open in an ‘O’ shape. She looked enraptured at the other pet that the blonde had. He couldn’t blame her, really. The blonde girl was quite beautiful to him as well. She had to be new in Vale; those who looked after Pets were few and far between, and there was only one other his own age that was capable of having one, even if he didn’t currently: his friend Domino.

Yang Xiao Long was having a rough day. She and her family had recently moved here from Patch, and it was a very different thing moving to a big city after living her life on a coastal island. She had thankfully been given a week to be ready to start school, to acclimate to her new surroundings, but her pet…

“Emerald, calm! Its okay, nothing here will hurt you!” she tried to soothe her growling verdette haired pet. She had been an orphan thief before her family had gotten permission to care for her, making her one of the rare ‘therapy’ pets, since all she had ever stolen was food and the occasional clothing item.

She had been very skittish with the move, even though Yang had basically done her best to soothe her the entire time. It was what had brought the idea of the walk to her, get Emerald acclimated to their new home as well, but it wasn’t going that well.

Tugging on the leash again, Yang sighed. “Come on, Emerald! Don’t fight me on this!” she pouted, never having this much trouble with her before. A sudden growl from Emerald made her look up to warn whoever she saw off (while everyone knew about the Pet program, there were always those who thought it something sexual and liked to try and ‘rent’ a pet away from their ‘owner’) only for shock to fill her as she saw one of the most attractive young men (a very pretty one, a fleeting part of her mind wondered what he would look like in a dress) she had ever seen, holding a leash connected to a Pet of his own, a fair skinned brunette with golden eyes.

Untying his tongue, Garnet stepped forwards. “You’re obviously new in town, right? My name is Garnet Rose, and this is Cinder…” he barely registered Cinder moving a few steps forwards and sniffing at the green-haired Pet, who drew back with a slight growl.

Swallowing, Yang brushed hair back behind her ear. She was surprised. She of course knew that there were other ‘Pet Owners’ in Vale, which was part of the reason they had moved here, but she never expected to meet one in this huge city. “U-Um...yes, we arrived earlier this week. I’m Yang. Yang Xiao Long, and this is Emerald with me…” her hand reflexively tightened on the leash as she felt her Pet move back a bit.

Garnet swallowed, gently tugging a whining Cinder back to his side. He could tell she really wanted to get to know the other Pet, and he wouldn’t lie, he honestly would like to get to know Yang better...and he could tell Cinder wanted to get to know her Pet, Emerald, better.

‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Rose…’ he thought, before speaking. “Well, since you’re new to the town, would you like me to show you around? I can help you find landmarks and good local places.” he really hoped that he didn’t just sound like a hopeless moron then, but the relieved look on her face told him that his offer was appreciated.

“Thank you, I still can’t believe how big this city is! I grew up on Patch, everyone knew everyone there, it was so small.” Yang breathed a sigh of relief. Part of the reason that she hadn’t really learned much of the general area was worry that she would get lost.

Gripping Cinder’s leash, Garnet tilted his head with a smile. “Shall we go then? We met in a good place, this street takes us downtown.”

So, the tour began. Garnet led them to the downtown area. “That’s Pizzaria Mistrali! Voted best pizza in the city five years running...long line, though, so best to order ahead and pick up or have it delivered.”

“Over there is the Secretary of State, that building is the main branch of the Bank of Vale, and that is the Farmer’s Market.” he pointed towards several buildings, making sure Yang had time to put their placements in her memory before they moved on.

Garnet showed her where the main movie theater was, several of the other best restaurants, and other recreational areas, like the Arcades and Technology stores he and Domino frequented.

Walking down two blocks, Garnet turned to her. “You are carrying your Pet License, right?” he asked, getting a confused nod from Yang, who pulled it out of her pocket and showed him. Nodding, Garnet showed his. “Good, I’m taking you to the ‘Pet Owners’ area of Vale. This has places for us and our pets, like restaurants where we can take them and eat with them, places for care, and public and private parks for Owner and Pet.”

Walking up to the fenced off area, Garnet handed his License to the guard who scanned it and handed it back, nodding to him. Tentatively handing hers over, Yang said, “I just moved here last week, I’m not sure if-” she stopped when the guard offered her a kind smile.

“A requirement for changing locale to a different town is a month’s advance knowledge of a Licensed ‘Pet Owners’ in the family. Its to make sure your license is properly integrated into our database.” she scanned the blonde’s license and handed it back to her with a warm smile. “Enjoy your time with your boyfriend, dear.” she said, getting bright blushes from both Garnet and Yang.

Entering the gated area, Yang looked around seeing several other Owner and Pet pairs, most specifically a busty blonde with glasses leading around a modestly endowed ginger who was wearing a bowler hat.

“That’s Professor Goodwitch, a teacher at Beacon, and her own Pet, Romana Torchwick. She was a con artist before she got caught. She comes here at the beginning and end of every week, usually.” Garnet said, before tilting his head. “Come on!”

Yang glanced at the woman who likely would be one of her teachers shortly, before following her new...friend?, to wherever he was going.

After a few minutes of silent walking Garnet reached a small fenced in area. Flashing his license, the locked beeped and the door clicked open, which he held and gestured to Yang. “Here we are. A place for Cinder and Emerald to get to know one another, and we can talk as well.”

Yang smirked. “Just met me and you want to get me alone? Naughty~” she teased, delighting in the blush that streaked across Garnet’s cheeks. Chuckling, she entered the gate, tugging an intrigued, if pouting, Emerald along.

Calming his beating heart, Garnet looked down at a wide eyed Cinder, before following Yang inside of the private park section, the barred door locking behind them.

“...wow…” Yang murmured, looking around. The space was small, certainly, really only having a large bench, a small man made pond with a fence around it, and enough area to do a decent jog in she supposed. But it was beautiful.

“Yeah, this is one of the ‘Private’ areas of the park, generally only for one or two people and their pets. We can let them off their leashes for now and let them stretch themselves.”

“Sounds good,” Yang said, already kneeling down and beginning to fiddle with the leash attached to her collar, letting her cocoa-skinned pet loose, who immediately hopped away, watching Garnet warily, making her sigh.

Garnet leaned down and unlocked Cinder’s leash, petting her hair. “Be nice, Cin...I think Emerald’s had a rough time of it, like you.” he murmured in her ear, getting a nod and gentle nip on the fingertips from his Pet, who slowly began to walk towards the verdette.

Looking up at Yang with a smile, he spoke. “Well, since we’re letting them get to know one another, we can talk as well if you’d like?” he asked, hoping she would be willing, he would like to know her better.

Yang smirked, but her heart fluttered. He was very earnest and honest, and even then, people were screen so thoroughly when they were checked to be ‘Pet Owners’ that there was nothing hidden in their lives. He wouldn’t have Cinder if he was anything but. And he could tell he appreciated how she looked, but wasn’t perverted about it, like most of the boys she had met so far in Vale, like that blue-haired guy Emerald absolutely hated.

“Alright, sure. Thanks for leading me around all day, by the way.” Yang said, heading to the bench and sitting down on it, looking at her curious Pet who was was edging closer to the man made pond, sniffing at the flowers, while Garnet’s Pet watched carefully from a short distance.

“So, you say you grew up on Patch? What was it like? I’ve always lived here in Vale.” Garnet asked, looking at Yang in interest.

As her owner and the blonde regaled each other their general life stories, Cinder carefully approached the beautiful cocoa-skinned pet, making an inquisitive noise, getting a wary look from the red-eyed girl, who stared before purposefully turning away and looking towards the water.

Looking down, she licked her lips, her cock twitching as she saw the wonderfully round ass and tightly closed pussy. Leaning forwards, she took several sniffs of the offered area, cock getting harder and harder as she realized that the other Pet was in heat and ripe for breeding. Licking her lips again, she covered the last bit of distance and started lapping away at the pussy before her, making her new bitch stiffen and release several squeaky barks of shock...but the arousal quickly flowing over her tongue told her the truth. She wanted this.

Moving back, she quickly mounted her new bitch, thrusting her cock into her with a single smooth motion.

Yang and Garnet turned just in time to see Cinder thrust into Emerald’s core and begin to thrust against her. “Cinder, what are you doing?!” Garnet exclaimed, horrified. He readied to get up, but Yang grabbed his arm, shaking her head with a smile.

“It’s okay,” she said, waving off Garnet’s apologetic look, “Emerald has been antsy ever since I got her...maybe some puppies will help calm her down…” she chuckled. It was true, on the off chance that a Pet got pregnant due to a Pet/Pet relationship or the much rarer Owner/Pet relationship (which were much more strictly monitored, with frequent visitation from State Officials to make sure the Pets weren’t being abused in any way) the family caring for the Pet got Government subsidies to help raise the children.

Cinder panted happily, the hot and tight clench around her cock filling her with more pleasure than she ever remembered having flowing through her body. A long whine of pleasure left her mouth as she began to slam her hips back and forth, her new bitch’s legs giving out and her body flopping onto the ground, giving her more leverage.

Leaning down, she nuzzled the neck of her new mate, nipping gently at the tender skin both as a form of comfort (she was shivering) and a form of dominance, since before her legs gave out she had been trying to squirm away from her. ‘Mine,’ she thought, ‘Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.’

Yang licked her lips, feeling warmth pooling in her core as she watched her Pet being claimed. Despite the squirming until the neck bite, she could tell Emerald was enjoying what was happening to her...the squirming had already changed to shudders and her rear end was moving up as Cinder’s was moving down.

“Y-Yang?!” she turned to the right to see Garnet staring at her in shock, eyes wide and cheeks an almost glowing red. She wondered why, before she looked down to see her hand rubbing herself over her shorts. Her cheeks darkened, surprised and a touch mortified that she was practically masturbating in front of a boy she had practically met just over an hour ago!

But seeing the tent pitching in his pants, she licked her lips. She wasn’t going to let her first time be taken in a small park next to her pet...not only did she want to lose attention on her pet for any reason, but she also refused to let any possible camera get photos of her. But still...that didn’t mean that they couldn’t have any fun…

Reaching out, she grabbed his hand and gently placed it at the apex of her thighs, giving him a sultry smirk. “Come on, Garnet...give me a rub...don’t keep a lady waiting~”

Garnet couldn’t believe his luck; he had met the prettiest girl he had ever seen only today, and she was asking him to do this!? His hand began to move on its own, his long and thin fingers rubbing the seam of her shorts, feeling the warmth bleeding through the fabric and into his fingertips. God, his cock ached...and it didn’t help when Yang’s hands moved up under her jacket and rubbed and squeezed her breasts over her top.

Yang sighed as she watched her Pet getting fucked into the ground, being rubbed over her pussy and stroking and tweaking her sensitive breasts and nipples, unable to keep from moaning as she did so.

Cinder’s movements were becoming more frantic, a loud chorus of clap, clap, clap filling the small area as her hips slammed into Emerald’s, her new mate finally having accepted her place and working with her to bring them both pleasure. She knew she would fill, would breed, her mate...her balls hadn’t been emptied in a long while.

Emerald whimpered, biting down on her fingertips as she humped her rear upwards, shameful and originally unwanted pleasure filling her as her mate fucked her hard. Part of her was resentful, the other part overjoyed at being claimed, knowing that she wouldn’t be alone anymore. A needy whine escaped her as she felt her walls beginning to quiver, knowing she was about to cum and fully submit soon.

Yang watched with wide eyes as she was getting nearer and nearer to orgasm. She never got off this fast normally, but she supposed that a mix of not getting off during the period of the move, the show before her, and the fact that the cutest boy she had ever seen was next to her and rubbing her pussy through her shorts was driving her up the wall. Little shudders of pleasure began to overtake her form.

Garnet was painfully turned on, his cock twitching hard in his pants. It was going to be a pain hiding that, but he wouldn’t trade the awkward walk home for anything at this current moment. He would have never thought that any girl would ask him to do this, ever.

Cinder was close, so close. Her balls were throbbing and pulsing as they slapped against Emerald’s body, and she could feel the warm walls around her cock beginning to tighten.

Emerald whined and shifted underneath her mate, head tilting to the side and baring her neck to her mate as she finally gave in, eyes rolling back as she came hard, her pussy clamping down hard around the invader within it.

Cinder howled as her mate tightened around her, her walls rippling and flexing around her shaft, trying to draw her seed out. And she succeeded.

Burying her face into Emerald’s neck and whining in relief, she unloaded, her balls releasing everything that they held within them, bucking her hips in short stilted thrusts in order to make sure all of her cum entered her mate’s pussy.

Emerald whimpered as she felt her belly actually begin to swell from all the thick heat, feeling her mate lick at her neck as her hips slowly rocked into her rear, shuffling the cum in her pussy down towards her womb with the intent of breeding her. All she could do was accept her mate’s offering and comfort.

Yang shuddered, moaning low as she came, slumping against Garnet as her panties became soaked in her shorts. Thankfully her shorts were dark, otherwise there would be awkward questions. Looking up dreamily at the blushing teen, she couldn’t help but release a drunken chuckle. “How many girls have had the feel of these fingers, hmm?~” she teased.

“J-just you…” Garnet didn’t know why he was so flustered right now after all that had happened, but he cleared his throat. “I...don’t talk to a lot of girls...and the ones I do, see me as more the ‘little brother’ type…” he gasped as a hand cupped his groin and gave his aching length a gentle squeeze.

“Hmm, from what I’m feeling...there’s nothing little about you~” Yang teased, rubbing the heavy bulge, wondering how big he truly was. “Now, let’s let our Pet’s enjoy the afterglow and collect them...and when we get out of here and somewhere more private, maybe I can help you with this~”

Garnet swallowed at the hungry look in his new friends eyes, part of him wondering if this was just a very good dream he was having, and the rest ordering him not to question it. He shifted, although Yang didn’t lighten her grip on him as they both turned to check on their Pets.

Cinder was sure, as her cock slowly softened, that her mate was bred, but she wasn’t going to leave her warmth until she was sure that every drop of her cum was in Emerald’s womb, where it wouldn’t leak out when they separated. She gently nipped at the dark-skinned young woman’s ear, getting a light squeak from her.

Emerald was...content. Happy as she had been in as long as she could remember. She nuzzled back towards her mate, one of her hands drifting down to her swollen belly. All she could wonder was how many pups would be in their future...

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One:  Storybrooke, Maine

Chapter 2:  Storybrooke

It was 1983. He'd owned the shop now for so long he couldn't remember how long he'd been doing this same routine. Each morning he woke up, stretched, and got into the shower. He dressed in a suit, adding layer after layer to make any who felt the need to deal with him feel underdressed. That was a trick he'd learned as a lawyer. He read the newspaper, cooked himself some breakfast, eggs and bacon that morning. He drove to town and parked his car in the lot, one of his usual places, and hobbled down the street to work. A couple of people passed him. He didn't avert his gaze; rather, he stared into their eyes aggressively so that if they happened to glance up, they'd immediately look away. It was intimidating, he knew it, and he didn't care. It wasn't his job to be friendly. On the contrary, part of being a pawnbroker meant using them for his own benefit. Buy low, sell high, remind them that whatever he paid them for whatever object or heirloom, no matter how precious, was not market value because he had to make his own profit when he sold it again. It didn't matter how many figures he saw when he received his banking statements in the mail; he ran the store mostly on its own profits without having to dip into his trusts or stocks or the family money. People hated him for it, some of his tenants reminded him of his money when they asked for a break on rent after a difficult month, but he only shook his head.

"If I give you a break, then what's to stop everyone else in the town from having a break. Money runs the world. Without the drive to pay, we'd have a free society, and you can see how well that's working in certain parts of the world. It'll be full rent, on time, or we can discuss the date of your departure. Your choice."

They always paid.

On his way to the shop, he spotted Marco hanging a new sign on one of the storefronts. He walked by his ladder, brushing past another individual he didn't know. They gave him a nod. He looked at them long enough to let them know he'd seen the gesture and chosen not to return it.

As he unlocked the door to his shop, he paused glanced over his shoulder at the abandoned library on the corner across from him. He repressed a shiver as he stared at it. It was the same as always; newspapers stuck to the windows, doors locked up, clocktower boarded up, the white paint graying from snow deposits, and clock forever stuck at 8:14. The Library always made him feel uneasy, not because it looked like a haunted house, but because it was becoming an eyesore. For the most part, the town of Storybrooke was a quaint little place. It was almost as disgustingly charming as the people here could be. Their Main Street had a sense of cleanliness and decorum to uphold, and for the most part, it did. The one glaring problem with it was that damn library! It might have been fine if it was just a storefront, like the rest of the shops on Main Street, but naturally, it had to have a corner lot and hold the famed clocktower that could be seen for miles! Why the Mayor had yet to find a suitable replacement for the librarian who had died on the job was a mystery to him. Why she couldn't hire someone to at least come out and get the clock and storefront into proper working order was just incompetency. One of these days, he would file a complaint with Regina about all that, but today there was too much to do.

Frustrated, he held his tongue, turned back to the lock, and let himself inside of his shop. He opened the blinds, flipped the sign on the door to "open" in case someone felt like coming in to make a deal, and then took a deep breath of the musty smell that came with age. It still felt like home, probably more like home than his pink house, which he still needed to get painted.

He escaped to the back room just like always. It was his favorite place in his shop.

The spinning wheel he'd first seen when he bought the place was back here, along with a fold-away cot for nights he got carried away and just decided to sleep there. There were two tables crowded into the back that he could use to polish or repair or clean or whatever he needed to do. It was a welcoming place.

On the table was a golden teapot he'd bought that no longer shined; it was part of a larger set. His task for this morning was simple: polish it until it gleamed. That would earn him a good meal at Granny's for lunch before turning to repair a cup from an old tea set. Lovely thing, but there was one cup that was chipped. He could have sworn that when he'd first acquired it, the cups were whole, and he couldn't for the life of him remember how one of them had gone rogue and been broken. Nevertheless, he'd fix it. As soon as he remembered where he'd placed the chipped piece.

Thirty minutes into his task, he was pleased. He'd polished the pot to perfection. Now for the rest of it. He took the pot out to the front of his shop along with the rag in his hand and found the spot that it belonged. The bell rang as he finished setting it out with its lid, properly clean and ready for sale. He'd make a good profit on it, but doubtful from the woman who had just entered. Regina Mills, formally known as Madam Mayor. She was young, but she'd been the Mayor here as long as he could remember. Their relationship was a complex one. As the owner of the land she ran, he had a certain amount of power in the town that she was rather jealous of. Much of their contract said that she needed to come to him for approval of anything that she wanted to present for a vote, she had to buy him out of the land that she wanted for public use, and a handful of other wonderful necessities that meant these meetings happened far more often than he'd like. It was his land. He got the first say. He supposed that made him the most powerful man in town despite her election. They were cordial when they had to be, but there was always tension underneath their politically motivated politeness.

"I'm not happy," the Mayor snapped the moment the door closed.

He sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her dramatics. He didn't have time to work out her problems, especially if she was going to present it with that particular song and dance. He was here to help her with the town if she needed it, but he wasn't required to listen to her when she was in a mood as she obviously was. That was for someone else to handle; otherwise, his job was to sell his baubles.

"I believe Dr. Hopper's office is down the street."

"Oh, I don't wanna talk to him. I wanna talk to you."

"Very well, Madame Mayor. What is it you wanna talk about?" he questioned, moving on to the next item that matched the teapot, a bowl for sugar. He set it up on the counter, removed its lid, and began to rub it down. That was the problem with polishing one item and not the others; suddenly, everything else paled in comparison.

"This town. This isn't the deal we made."

The deal they'd made…

He'd never forgotten a deal he'd made not in all his life; in fact, it was something he prided himself on. But he couldn't think of a single thing that Regina might have been referencing. "This town, this isn't the deal we made?" They'd made a lot of deals when it came to this town: when she wanted to build, how, where, jobs she wanted to create, property she wanted him to sell...but they hadn't made any deals lately, nothing that would make her unhappy. What she was upset with him about was beyond him. If she wanted help, she was going to have to be more specific.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you're talking about."

He looked her in the eye, mostly for intimidation, but also to let her know he was being truthful. It was one of the few helpful hints he had gotten from his father. Regina's gaze fell from upset to disappointed, and he was at least pleased that the gaze seemed to have worked.

"You don't, do you?" she said in a small voice that made him think she might cry. He hoped she wouldn't. He had a handkerchief in his pocket, but not one he wanted to hand over to her or anyone. It was silk. Suddenly Regina turned away from him and hurled herself at the other end of the room. Dramatics.

"I was supposed to be happy here."

"Forgive me, but, um, you're the Mayor. You're the most powerful woman in the town. What is there to be unhappy about?" he questioned. He was digging and maybe doing a bit of ego-stroking to get to the bottom of her temperament. He couldn't fix whatever deal she wasn't happy with if he didn't know what it was.

"Everyone in this town does exactly what I want them to!"

"And that's a problem?" he questioned, striding around the counter.

"Well, they do it because they have to, not because they want to. It's not real."

"Not happy," "supposed to be happy," "it's not real"…clearly a job for Doctor Hopper or, better yet, the young stallion of a sheriff that he suspected she was "seeing" on the side. He had work to do, and unless she had a question about the land, then she was wasting his time.

"I'm sorry, what exactly is it you want?" He'd moved a glass mobile before he started polishing, and now he wished he hadn't. The glass unicorns hung down between him and Regina, obstructing his view of her. But he never let his eyes waver. He continued to stare at her as though she was the only one he saw. What did she want from him?

"Nothing you can give me," she answered after a small pause. Then she turned and left the shop, pulling something out of her pocket before she got to the door.

Dramatics handled, he turned back to his work. He polished off the sugar bowl, the cup for creamer, four teacups, and finally four saucers. From the backroom, he retrieved a small box of cards. It was his inventory, everything in the shop had a place, and everything had a price, including the tea set. Yesterday he'd typed out the card on his typewriter, now he scratched out some of the previous notes about a lack of gleam and needing a good polish, noted that it was in excellent condition, and upped the price from $200 to $250. He should have been proud of himself, he should have felt the same satisfaction for a good morning's work that he always did, but Regina's interruption had him feeling restless. What was she talking about? What deal was she referencing? If she was the Mayor, why did he feel like he spent all his time solving her problems? So many, many questions she'd drudged up…a sure sign he needed to take a break and have lunch.

But Granny's Diner wasn't quite the distraction he'd hoped for. After putting in his usual order with the old woman's slut of a granddaughter Ruby, he sat to wait and listened to the conversations around him. Suddenly he realized what had Regina up in arms. No one in this provincial town liked change. Everyone stuck to their routine and their schedules as if it would kill them to deviate. He was guilty of it too. But he liked to think that unlike the Mayor and the rest of Storybrooke, his world wouldn't be turned upside-down from a father and son whose car had broken down and were staying for a few days until it was fixed. Widow Lucas seemed pleased to have the business at the bed and breakfast, but the pair were all anyone was talking about at lunch. Who were they? Why were they here? How long would they be staying? Honestly, it was as if there had been a jailbreak instead of just a couple of visitors. And why it had upset Regina the way it had…

It wasn't his business. It wasn't his job to look after her or the town. His job was to collect rent, offer Regina consultation when she requested it, and look after his shop. Nothing else. If it didn't affect him, and it certainly hadn't so far, he didn't see the need to care.

He retrieved his food when it was ready and took it back to the shop, putting the citizens and their gossip out of his mind. He ate and spent his time looking for the missing piece to the teacup he wanted to fix.

It was just another day in Storybrooke.

[elizacornwall]

Vengeance is an Idiot’s Game  - Chapter 20 - Of Sheep and Wolves

Read all the published chapters here.

-------------------------------------------------- Camp was quiet over the next couple days. With Javier gone there was no more guitar play, only the rare tunes of a banjo played by Uncle. He was an old, fat man, not unkind, but Eliza couldn’t really see why Dutch kept him around, lazing about all day. But then again so did the Reverend, and she had never questioned him either. Rising before everyone else had become somewhat of a habit to her, brewing the first pot of coffee and sitting by the drop, staring over the landscape. She enjoyed the peacefulness and solitude of the early mornings, filled with birdsong and often the bark of coyotes nearby. The canines had scared her at first, but after Arthur had lent her some binoculars to watch a pack at play, she decided they were more like dogs than wolves and grew to like them. He had sometimes sat with her in these early mornings, in quiet companionship, admiring the valley until Dutch or some other person called for him to send him off on some task. His company was much preferred to Dutch’s, Eliza wasn’t much of a talker this early in the day and that man could do her head in with his endless stream of words. This morning was no different, she sat cross legged with the hot brew in her hands taking in the scenery, the sun rising slowly behind her. She wondered how long the boys would be out. Hosea had mentioned it was only supposed to be a short mission, but what did she know about how much time ‘short’ typically meant. She surprised herself by realising she was worried. Not so much about Charles maybe, he was always good to her and of course she would be concerned about his safety, but about Arthur and Javier. Laughing quietly to herself, she supposed their good traits outweighed them kidnapping her. Turning at the sound of footsteps, she saw Tilly heading towards her, her hair dishevelled, rubbing the sleep out of her dark brown eyes.

“Miss Grimshaw is up early today, she says we need some supplies from town. You comin’ with us?” Yawning, she stopped next to Eliza, peering down to the river. “I’ll never understand why you’re about so early, starin’ out there. The view’s really the same every day”, she said, a bored tone in her voice. Eliza chuckled. “Well, there’s different animals about every day, but I see your point.” She got to her feet, finishing the rest of her coffee. A trip to town got her excited, she hadn’t been there yet herself. “Valentine, is it? Let me just change into something fitting to present myself to the outside world.” She was only wearing a light cardigan over her night gown, while that wouldn’t draw any looks here in camp, she highly doubted that would be the same with strangers. “Are we riding there?” “Heavens, no! We’ll take the carriage, much easier to load up on supplies. Sadie’s comin’ too, she said she had some errands to run.” The two girls walked back into camp where they parted. Back at her cot Eliza chose a light blue skirt and a simple white shirt, looking decent but not too flamboyant. She had her fill of fancy clothes in her life and preferred the simple elegance. That was, when she wasn’t wearing trousers. Now that she had her own pair, scavenged out of the delivery Arthur and her had stolen, she had altered them to fit nicely. Growing ever more used to wearing them, she enjoyed the freedom they provided. She met up with the other girls at the wagon, missing Molly and Abigail as it was custom by now. Sadie had already been preparing the horses when Eliza changed into her town getup, and waved at her now as she approached. She had her repeater strapped to her back and a revolver on either side of her hips, carrying them with such casual ease, Eliza couldn’t help but admire it. Mary-Beth was talking to Miss Grimshaw and going through the list of items to get with her whilst Karen and Tilly sat on the back of the wagon, both looking equally tired and disgruntled at this early start of their day. Sadie checked in with the old woman, reassuring her she’d take good care of her girls before hopping onto the driver’s seat, patting the bench next to her and looking at Eliza invitingly. “You gonna join me up here or you wanna ride with the kids in the back?” She joked, ignoring Karen’s grumbled retort, and smiled wide as the younger woman lifted herself up to take the shotgun seat. The horses were trodding on the narrow path through the trees and Mary-Beth was going through the list in her hand again, organising who would get what. She was very practically inclined and Eliza liked the rational approach she had to her chores, always trying to be as efficient as possible. “I’ll head to the doctor’s office to get the medicinal supplies, Karen and Tilly, would you mind getting the general store items? We need a ton of food and one pair of hands ain’t gonna be enough to load it onto the wagon. Eliza, Miss Adler, could you head to the gunsmith to pick up the ammunition on here?” She had carefully torn the list into three pieces, handing them out to the respective groups. Eliza glanced at hers with a light frown. Sadie steered the horse to the left as she drove out of the woods under an arch formed by a collapsed tree. “Don’t you worry Mary-Beth, we’ll get you all of them things. Just make sure ya ain’t gonna get into trouble, I don’t want to cause a ruckus if I ain’t have to!” Sadie’s tone was cheery, but she shot a warning look over her shoulder. Eliza thought it was especially directed at Karen, but wasn’t sure. The blonde girl sneered. “Oh sure, we ain’t gonna cause no trouble. Can’t promise trouble won’t find us though, usually does.” Sadie gave an exasperated sigh. “Better hope it don’t this time”, she murmured, but didn’t press the matter any further. Soon the first buildings came into view and the putrid smell of cattle filled their noses. Sadie noticed Eliza half choking, and grinned. “Yeah, it smells like a field of flowers, don’t it! It’s a livestock town, ain’t gonna get any better as we get close.” She

had slowed the horses down to a trot approaching the railroad by the station, and got them to a walk. Eliza was eyeing up the sheep perched in their pens, there must be at least a few dozen. There were people around, throwing the odd curious glance at their little troop, but apart from a few “Good mornin’”s, there wasn’t much reaction from the locals. It was all so exciting for her, after having spent the better part of the last few weeks amidst the same twenty people, barely leaving the clearing on the cliff. The wagon headed up a gentle slope between some wooden houses and turned left down the main street. It was early and there wasn’t much activity to be seen, but Eliza didn’t mind and stared at the buildings with wide eyes. Sadie halted the horses in front of the general store and dismounted from her seat. Eliza followed her but pulled her mouth into a grimace as her feet sank a good inch into the mud, dirtying her shoes and the hem of her skirt. The three girls in the wagon got up and clambered down, Tilly groaning about the bumpy ride. “Alright then ladies, let’s get this over with. We wanna make this quick so we don’t keep old Grimshaw waitin’”, Sadie announced. Karen and Tilly headed into the store, whilst Mary-Beth, Sadie and herself walked up the street where they came from, parting at the end. The two women entered the gunsmith to their right. The man behind the counter looked up from the rifle he was polishing, his eyebrows raised. “Can I help you ladies?” His eyes trailed down Sadie, lingering on the revolvers at her hip and on her trousers. “We’re here to get some cartridges”, Eliza said quickly, walking up to the counter and placing the list in front of him. Sadie wasn’t looking too impressed with his blatant staring, and she wanted to avoid an argument. “Could you get all of this for us?” His eyes fixated on her now, narrowing slightly. After a pause, he nodded. “Sure, just one moment.” He took the piece of paper and turned, carefully selecting cardboard boxes of bullets in various different sizes and shapes from the drawers in the closets. Eliza’s eyes fell on the big cat at the right end of the room, mounted motionless and looking very real. She shuddered. The man stacked up the boxes on the counter, doublechecking the list and nodding to himself. “Here, that’s all of them. Anything else she I can help you with today?” She began to shake her head, when Sadie spoke up. “Actually, there is somethin’. Have you got a revolver and gunbelt for my friend here? She needs somethin’ to protect herself.” Eliza’s eyes widened, she stared at Sadie in shock. “Sadie, I- I don’t have the money to pay for this!” The blonde met her eyes, and only shook her head, a corner of her lips lifted into a sly smile. “Take it as payback for my... Uuuh... Improved accommodations.” The store owner just looked between them, his eyes narrowing even further as Sadie winked at him. He sighed. “Of course, give me one moment. I might have something in the back.” He headed out of the room and Sadie pulled up a stack of dollar bills, looking over the interior. Eliza’s gaze still rested on her. “What?” She said, her smile widening, but she didn’t take her eyes off the rifles behind the counter. She tried to find the right words, wanting to explain that she never owned a gun and probably couldn’t even shoot it, but decided against it. It would mean she had to show weakness again. “I… Thanks, Sadie.” Eliza sighed, defeated. “My pleasure. Did ya see that big ugly cougar there in the corner?” She pointed at the cat she was looking at a moment ago. “Nasty beasts. Don’t know why anyone would wanna keep one of them lookin’ as if it’s gonna jump at ya.” She shook her head and Eliza giggled in agreement. The man reemerged from the back room, a dark leather belt and holster in one, a small revolver in the other hand. “I got a Smith & Wesson here, they’re small and easy to use. That any good?” He was looking at Eliza, and she looked at Sadie in turn. “As long as it’s shootin’ bullets, I don’t care what you give ‘er. We’ll take

it.” The clerk was adding up the numbers on his abacus and Sadie counted the dollar bills, handing him the right amount. He nodded and packed up the items in newspaper. The two women took their leave, carrying the supplies out of his shop. They arrived at the wagon where Mary-Beth was just carefully stowing away the crate of tonics and tinctures she had gotten from the doctor’s office and smiled at them, as they approached. “I’ll go help Karen and Tilly, they’re almost done in there.” Sadie placed the ammunition on the wagon and stowed the wrapped means of self defence away safely. An idea sprung to Eliza’s mind. “Would it be too much to ask for some change? I’d like to buy a paper, a boy was selling them next to the gunsmith”, she remembered. Sadie turned, confused. “The paper? Hosea run out of books for you to read?” She shook her head in disbelief but handed her some coins anyway. “I’ll come with ya, makin’ sure no one ain’t up to no good ‘round you.” The two headed back up the road, Sadie hung back in front of the gunsmith, while Eliza purchased The New Hanover Gazette, startling the poor boy with her polite conversation. She tucked it into a pocket of her skirt and was on her way back to join up with Sadie as one of the men on the porch next to her stood up and approached, slowly eyeing up the taller woman. “Oy, lady. Don’t I know you from somewhere?” Eliza froze in her spot. Sadie turned her head to look at the man that had spoken, and her hand twitched towards her hip. Her voice sounded casual, but it was different than usual, Eliza noted. “Pretty sure we ain’t met before.” Nervously, her eyes darted between Sadie and the dark haired man, he was scanning her face and attire with suspicion. He seemed to be with two friends, who now moved to stand next to him, observing her in their turn and nodding slowly to themselves. “Yeah, I know you. You’re that outlaw woman, from the posters!” Shit. Sadie laughed, seemingly unfazed. “Outlaw? I sure as hell would be stupid to wander ‘round town if I had a price on my head, don’t you think?” She turned sideways, only looking at Eliza for a split second, but the gesture of her hand she made whilst her eyes connected was clear as day. Go. She was unable to move however, as if her feet had grown roots, and watched Sadie with a thunderstruck expression as she started to walk away from the men, taking a first step down the road. “You ain’t foolin’ us woman! Now stay where you are and we ain’t gonna hurt ya!” The men moved quickly, ropes being pulled off their belts and one of them hovered his hand over his gun as they followed. It all seemed to happen so fast, but Eliza just stood and watched as if time was slowed down. The first foot of the bounty hunters dropped to the step below the porch. Sadie spun around, her blonde braid swinging behind her, suddenly wielding both revolvers in her hands, pointing them straight at the men in front of her. The few people on the street stopped what they were doing and looked onto this scene, eyes wide open. “You boys ain’t gonna hurt no one, least of all me. Now get lost ya dirty bastards”, Sadie snarled, her guns aimed without so much as a jitter at the three men. A second foot fell onto the stairs. Sadie pulled both triggers, snapping two of the guys heads backwards, making them collapse on the spot. Screaming ensued, and the people on the street scattered, and Eliza, finally ripped out of her stupor, threw herself beneath the gunsmith’s deck, peering over the wooden stairs at the scene with her heart pounding hard. Sadie and the single man left alive were stood at gunpoint, neither one willing to give in. “Give it up woman, whole town’s gonna be out in a bit, you ain’t getting out of this. Better lower your gun and come with me peacefully.” There were faces peering out of the windows all around them, he was right. How incredibly thoughtless this whole plan was, taking a wanted woman into a bustling town? Reminding herself that Sadie was the one that had come up with this, Eliza tried to make out the wagon with the rest of

the girls. It was still stood at the same spot, but there was no sign of Karen, Tilly and Mary-Beth. They were probably hiding in the store, she prayed to the heavens no one would have noticed Sadie driving in with them, they’d all be in much bigger trouble as they already were. “Peacefully my ass, I ain’t gonna come with ya at all. I disposed of plenty guys just like you, thinkin’ I ain’t much of a threat just ‘cause I’m a woman.” Sadie started to back away, slowly. Her guns were both still pointed at the man’s head. “You think we’re alone? There’s more hunters here in town.” As if to prove his word, the door to the hotel further down the road was thrown open, and a handful of men spilled out onto the street, guns in their hands. Sadie muttered a bitter “Fuck” before she pulled the trigger and twirled around to face the group opposing her, before his body hit the ground. Eliza’s breath faltered when they opened fire, and Sadie dove into cover behind a wagon. The gunfire ceased and the men shouted out to her to come up with her hands raised. “You think you gonna get me this easy, you’re more stupid than you look!” She taunted, laughing. Was she enjoying this? Her eyes flicked to Eliza’s spot and she could almost see the groan escaping Sadie as she saw her. It then occurred to her that this position was less than ideal, and the woman would feel responsible for her safety. Eliza let herself fall to the floor and crawled to the side of the house, out of the line of any stray bullets. Her heart pounded hard in her chest, the familiar sensation of anxiety spread through her limbs. The newspaper boy was cowering a few feet away from her, and she realised she was still clutching the newest issue of the Gazette in her pocket. More doors slammed open and shouting reached her ear. The gunfire opened again, and there were more screams. Within it all, she thought she heard Sadie laughing. Wondering which one of them two had gone insane, she resisted the urge to peer around the corner, afraid of getting hit in the crossfire. The yelling got louder, bullets was hitting the fence at the top end of the street, and yes, that was Sadie’s rough, raspy voice, laughing between it all. She came into view in the corner of her eye, running towards a spooked horse that was tethered beside the sheriff’s office, just when the man himself came running out the door, star on his vest gleaming in the sunlight, with open breeches and wielding a gun. The gunslinger woman didn’t take any notice and jumped onto the back of the horse, momentarily shielded by the building, then her eyes locked onto Eliza. She flicked her head at her, gesturing to get going down the street. She shot up, just as Sadie started the horse into a full gallop, closing the distance between them in a second, her hand outstretched to reach down for her. Eliza took it, and she got swung onto the back of the horse, helped by the momentum. Sadie passed her one of her revolvers. “Cock the hammer and shoot, girl! Keep ‘em off us!” She yelled, and Eliza desperately tried to cling onto her, fumbling her thumb over the little metal piece to ready the revolver to shoot. Her hand shook and she clamped down on it, desperately trying not to let go, while the first gunshots were fired into her direction. Sadie sped past a barn, and she finally managed to click the hammer into place when the men came galloping around the corner towards them. She held out the gun in their direction, giving up trying to aim after a second of being shaken about, and shot. She missed and the bullet buried itself somewhere in the ground behind them. Cursing, Eliza cocked the hammer again, letting off another projectile in their direction. One of the pursuers cried out but she didn’t have the time to look who it was, in that moment Sadie yanked the horse around a tight corner and she had to grip onto her with both hands as the horses hooves risked to slip on the muddy ground. The train station whirled past in a blur and they made their way over a small hill, the ground dropping at the other side. Eliza’s

stomach lurched at the sensation and Sadie crossed a couple paths, then took a left as the men came back into view. She lifted the gun again, firing another shot in their direction, and another. Two bullets left, but there was four of them, more would be very likely coming after them soon. The horse galloped in full speed along a cliff to their right, dangerously close to the drop. “Hold on!” Sadie shouted, not a moment too early. Eliza just about wrapped her arms tightly around her when they leaned into yet another sharp right bend, thundering down a steep slope towards the riverbed. A scream, like nothing she’d ever heard before sounded from behind them, turning her head slightly she saw the massive body of a horse struggling at the bottom of the cliff. That poor thing must have been pushed into the curve too early by its rider, she felt anger flaring up inside. The path was steady enough again to turn around, firing the last two rounds, aiming more carefully now. At least one of them had hit, the rider dropping out of his saddle, before Sadie swung around herself with her repeater propped against her shoulder, and with three quick shots, she took care of the rest of them. They rode in the same hard pace until the river came in sight, crossing right over it and only slowing down when the horse struggled up a small hill covered in pines at the other side, breath going heavily. They crossed another road and the woman halted the stallion next to a wall of heavy boulders. Eliza slid off, almost falling to the ground, her legs shaking. On her hands and knees she wretched and spilled the coffee she had earlier onto the gravel beneath her. Sadie dismounted and crouched down next to the girl, her eyes scanning through the young trees surrounding them. “I don’t think there are more followin’ right now”, she hushed, her voice quiet. “You alright?” Wiping her mouth with the sleeve of her shirt, Eliza raised her chest until she sat upright, her hind resting on her heels. “B-been better”, she managed, hoarse. Her stomach was still writhing, threatening to force more liquid out of her gut. Shaking all over she stared at the woman next to her who was patting her shoulder with such a sympathetic look, it bordered on pity. “What in the world was that?” “Ya survived your first chase”, the blonde woman laughed, “Congratulations. It get’s easier as you do more of ‘em.” “Don’t think I’m too keen on repeating that experience, thank you”, she mumbled weakly, shaking her head. “We could have been killed! I could have killed someone! That poor horse, it-it…” Her voice broke and faltered. Sadie looked at her, considering for a moment, her eyes stern. “This is the life I chose, and so did you. It ain’t all sugarplum fairies and rainbows ya know. I told you, remember?” She sighed, straightening up to scan the river. “If you’re not up for it, ya better leave ‘fore it’s too late.” Her words stung. Eliza knew she wasn’t as hard as the rest of them, and the feeling of being useless spread itself again inside her. Sadie was right, what was she doing? Playing at being a gunslinger, not even knowing how to shoot a gun proper? The gang was dangerous, living a dangerous life and for the first time she had experienced the harsh reality herself today. “I hope the rest of them girls are alright”, Sadie murmured, “Grimshaw’s gonna bite my head off for this.” She sighed. “Come on, don’t look like there’s more of ‘em that made it this far. Let’s head back to camp.” Offering her a hand she looked at the younger girl, expectantly. Eliza grabbed her forearm and let her help pulling her to her feet. Patting down her skirt, she tried to take a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. Sadie sat up into the saddle again and helped her swing up behind her. The skirt rose up her lower thighs, but she couldn’t care less about being decent right now, she didn’t trust herself sitting sideways being as shaky as she was. “We’re gonna stay on this side of the river for a bit, just in case. Keep your eyes out.” Sadie kicked the horse into a slow walk and followed the

road down river. The trees opened up after a short while, and she pointed up a cliff on the opposite side of the valley. “We ain’t far from Horseshoe, see the smoke up there, above that cliff? That’s where you’re sittin’ every mornin’.” Eliza followed her outstretched arm with her eyes and hummed in recognition. Apart from a thin trail of smoke, nothing would have given away that there was an outlaw group hiding up there. Her insides twisted at the thought of that. Outlaws. “S-Sadie, I… I’m sorry.” The blonde woman turned her head and she could feel her eyes on her, but kept her gaze down, staring at the back of the saddle. “I know I’m not much use, and I can’t even keep my head in a chase like we had. I’m just a… A liability.” “Stop, you ain’t that. You think I didn’t throw up after getting’ shot at the first time? Only difference was I couldn’t shoot back, the fellers did it for me!”, she exhaled in amusement. “You took that gun and emptied six rounds into them sons of bitches, I say ya did well.” Murmuring about not having another choice Eliza lifted her head a bit, the praise didn’t cut through the self-disdain entirely, but it made it sting less. Sadie returned her head to face the road and chuckled. “I know you must be feelin’ mighty shaky right now. Trust me, it gets better.” Eliza gave a huff, half laugh, half sob. “That’s what Arthur told me, when we robbed that wagon. Not so sure about that.” “Well, are you lookin’ at it every day when she go to sleep, thinkin’ how you shouldn’t have done it?” This question startled her. She hadn’t thought twice about that, not after it had been made into her own sleeping space. Did she really have that little of a conscience? Sadie laughed at her silence, guessing what was going on in her mind. “See, it does get better. Gettin’ shot at and shootin’ back will too.”

[theredscreech]

Grammar Tips That Are Actually Useful #2

So I honestly didn’t expect to do another one of these, but ever since my first GTTAAU post got a whole bunch of hits over the last few days, I decided to do another one about a popular piece of grammar that I notice is often misused.

Writers, gather ‘round as we explore the dreadful and terrible aspect of writing that is the...

Epithet.

Dun, dun, duuuuuuuun!

I first want to preface this by saying that I was notorious for this. I am so sorry to everyone who read my TMNT fics from 2016; I didn’t know better and I apologise profusely!! I went entire pages without naming a character in the narrative and I have no one to blame but my own ignorance, which has now been remedied - Hallelujah!

To explain: An epithet has a few definitions, so let’s take a look at them. (Definitions courtesy of dictionary.com.)

1. Any word or phrase applied to a person or thing to describe an actual or attributed quality: “Richard the Lion-Hearted” is an epithet of Richard I.

2. A characterizing word or phrase firmly associated with a person or thing and often used in place of an actual name, title, or the like, as “man's best friend” for “dog.”

3. A word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt, to express hostility, etc.

In other words, an epithet is an adjective or noun to describe or name someone without using their proper name.

(There’s a ton more under the Keep Reading, so buckle up.)

Epithets are used in a variety of ways to describe a variety of any character’s characteristics (haha). Most common examples for this are:

hair - the blond, the blonde, the black-haired person, etc.

eye-colour - the green-eyed person, the brown-eyed person, etc.

skin-colour - the pale-skinned person, the dark-skinned person, etc. (Side note: NEVER use food to describe skin colour/tone (eg. olive-skinned). It is offensive and wrong, so just don’t. If you have any questions, I’d encourage you to follow @writingwithcolor (which I do). They have excellent commentary for writers who write characters of varying ethnicities, religions, etc. Check out their FAQ before asking anything, though, because they’ve answered a ton of different questions already.)

status - the child, the teen, my boyfriend, his husband, etc.

profession - the engineer, the doctor, the ninja, etc.

species - the dwarf, the human, the dragon, etc.

or any combination - the green-haired teen (I saw this one in a fic from Izuku’s own POV), the orange-masked turtle (this one is mine and also from Mikey’s POV, and I am sooooo sorry.), etc.

There are, of course, dozens more of examples, but these are the most common ones, especially in fanfiction, so let’s leave it at that.

So why do writers use epithets so often?

Honestly, it becomes tedious and repetitive to write out the characters’ names all the time. It looks odd, too, all those ‘Mikeys’ and ‘Izukus’ and ‘Natasha Romanovas’ and what-nots. They’re just prancy-dancing all over your page and it looks. so. off. There’s just something about seeing characters’ names that, for whatever reason, some writers don’t like. And I kid you not, I had to train myself out of this way of thinking.

I had to train myself because as soon as I learned about epithets, I saw that I was using them absolutely everywhere. I would write literal pages without using anyone’s name, and four years later, I look back at those stories I wrote and posted publicly, and I cringe. But it’s the good kind of cringing because it lets me know how far I’ve come in my writing craft, that even though I’ve been writing for years and years, there’s always something new to learn. There’s always something to improve upon.

“Good for you, Red, but why are epithets so bad?”

Well, technically they’re not bad. They’re just used poorly or overused or both (as was my case).

We’ve already talked a bit about over usage (unless you missed the parts where I confessed to writing pages without using names), so let’s talk about poor usage.

Poor usage of epithets is when epithets are used incorrectly.

Here’s an example: Mikey looked at his red-masked brother.

Gah, that physically pained me to write! Okay, so what’s wrong with this sentence? Well, unless we’re writing for Mirage Studios’ comic (1984) where all four turtles of the TMNT wore red masks, then we’ve got a pretty good idea that ‘red-masked brother’ actually means ‘Raphael’.

Okay, great, so we know ‘red-masked brother’ is Raph, so why is this an example of poor epithet usage?

Answer: Because we already know Raph has a red mask. It is set. It is eternal. It’s a part of who he is, just like his skin or his shell. If you are at all familiar with this character, you will know that Raph is the ‘red-masked turtle’.

Here’s the thing epithets do. Epithets estrange characters from each other. This is why they’re most commonly and properly used for characters whom either we as the audience/narrator or the characters themselves do not know.

This is why phrases like ‘the dark-clad figure’ or ‘the blonde cashier’ are so popular - because we do not know who the people are! Sure, we can always go up to the dark-clad figure and introduce ourselves, or we can look at the blonde cashier’s name tag, and that’s sort of the point because we do not know who these people are yet. Epithets are used, more often than not, for unknowns until they are made known.

There are exceptions to this, of course, of course, most commonly of which are status ones: my husband, his son, their niece, etc.

These are fine, but use them wisely and sparingly (tying into the over usage part again).

Here’s a better example: I walked into the kitchen and found my husband already there and making breakfast for all three children.

‘My husband’ and ‘all three children’ are epithets, but they don’t estrange the characters, per se, because they’re letting us know who’s who and their importance to the narrator/character. That being said, you should still use ‘my husband’ sparingly because if you’re ‘my husband’-ing your husband, whose name is Henry, all over kingdom come, it begins to sound...not good. Like, why would you need to remind yourself Henry is your husband all the time? Do you have amnesia? Are you just forgetful? Are you insecure? Maybe he was unfaithful at some point and he’s doing better, but you’re internalising that and reinforcing the fact that he’s yours? Maybe you just don’t like his name? Or don’t know his name?

Hard to say.

The fact of the matter is this: the closer the characters are in terms of their relationship (platonic, romantic, as friends, as siblings, whatever), the less they will use epithets for each other.

For example: I, personally, have never thought of my mother as ‘the brown-haired woman’. She has always been mom or mum or other such derivatives. It never crosses my mind.

Contrarily, when I’m working at the book store and I’ve taken a few things up to the cash desk for a customer, I’ll let the cashier know that the items are for ‘the curly-haired woman with sunglasses’. Because she is a stranger to me.

Consider Disney’s film Lady and the Tramp (1955). I haven’t seen the live action, so I can’t make a comparison, but the 1955 version fits for what I want to talk about here.

Please name Lady’s owners.

If you said, ‘Jim Dear’ and ‘Darling’, you would be absolutely correct! While we can safely assume that ‘Jim Dear’ is actually ‘Jim’ or even ‘James’, we have no idea of Darling’s real name. Some pet names and nicknames are technically epithets if we’re being especially pedantic today (please see Disney’s Tangled’s character Flynn Ryder’s nickname for Rapunzel), but let’s say for the sake of argument that all pet names fall into the category of proper names, particularly since we’re talking about Lady and the Tramp (1955).

If you listen closely, you will notice that not once - not a single time, ever - do any of the characters that know Jim Dear and Darling call them by anything else (except for Jim Dear’s men friends at the baby shower; they all call him ‘Jim’). Even Darling’s friends call her ‘Darling’. Jock and Trusty both call Lady’s owners/masters ‘Jim Dear’ and ‘Darling’. Never ‘Lady’s owners’ or whatever else.

This is a perfect example of using names instead of epithets. It helps immensely that they aren’t main characters - secondary characters, certainly, but not main - but the point remains.

“But, Red, the Tramp never calls Lady by her name!”

And you’re right! But there’s a reason for that: Lady never formally introduced herself. The story begins in December of 1909 (thank you, Wikipedia). So by the time Lady is six months old, we’re well into 1910. Conventions in this era, as far as I know, not that I am an expert, dictate that ladies/women introduce themselves so that men could then address them (or something like that? Someone please correct me if I’m wrong). Since Lady never does that, Tramp is reduced to giving her the pet name ‘Pigeon’ or ‘Pige (Pidge?)’. Also, Lady doesn’t find out Tramp’s name until the dogs at the pound tell her.

Either way, Tramp is forced to use a pet name, but it is not an epithet simply because ‘Pigeon’ isn’t describing Lady’s characteristics.

Now, Tramp on the other hand...is a characteristic, and someone can definitely win the argument of whether this is an epithet or not. Hint: it is because it’s preceded by ‘the’. He is literally introduced as ‘the Tramp’ (Bull, the bulldog, says it first in a scene with him, Peg and the Tramp, and then Toughy drops it at the pound in front of Lady). This is his epithet, his defining characteristic, because he is introduced as it: The Tramp.

But this is not his only characteristic. He’s helpful and compassionate (the entire scene when he fights off three alley dogs chasing Lady and then proceeds to help her get the muzzle off), he’s also playful (shows Lady there’s more to life than “life on a leash”), courageous (he fights a rat), and respectful of Lady’s choices (tries to persuade her to run away with him but pursues the matter no further when she tells him ‘no’, and he also backs off when she’s mad at him).

This is what epithets do. Not only do they estrange the characters, but they also reduce the characters to a base level. Those well-rounded, complex babies you so carefully crafted become one-dimensional and flat in the span of a single phrase. They become ‘black-haired men’ and ‘green-eyed teens’ and ‘red-masked brothers’ and in that moment, that is all they are and when you continue to reinforce that, that is all the readers will see them as. Besides the fact that readers might very well forget their names entirely, especially if it’s an original work where the audience is not as familiar with the characters as they would be with fanfiction.

This is why Lady never addresses Tramp directly in the film. If she’s speaking to him, she’s looking at him so he knows she’s addressing him. It’s a subtle nuance in the film because Lady refuses to reduce Tramp to his epithet (once she learns it) because he isn’t that basic. (Another reason why Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure bugs me because I swear she actually calls him ‘Tramp’ and it feels so wrong for her to address him like that.) But Tramp gives Lady a nickname. See the difference?

So, yes. While epithets are not strictly bad, they are best when used properly and sparingly. Like, yes, please, feel free to remind us that Mikey loves his brothers and that Katsuki calls his friends ‘Spiky-hair’ or whatever. These are descriptive and good and should be used, just be aware of when and how often you use them, not to mention why. If you’re simply using an epithet for the sake of avoiding saying someone’s name, then it’s poor usage.

And holy freaking wow, this thing is ginormous! I’m going to stop here because I don’t think I can write another word about epithets and how important they are.

Thank you for reading! I hope this helps. And a reminder: check out RavenshellRorschach on DeviantArt for comprehensive how-to’s on some of English’s toughest homophones and grammar points.

Cheers, y’all!

~ Red

[carnationdoe]

Meeting you for the first time

Genre: A little fluff never hurt nobody.

Warnings: Non,

word count: 2922.

Kim Seokjin ‘Jin’

Seokjin entered the store and was greeted by warm air. He was quick to shred his scarf and beanie, leaving on his mask. He put the clothing in the shopping basket before starting to pick up the items that was needed for dinner.

As Seokjin was nearing the end of his grocery shopping he noticed a girl, who looked rather troubled in the aisle full of seasonings. Seokjin decided that it couldn’t hurt anyone asking if she needed any help, since he was going that way anyway; it was the same way as the cash register.  

“Excuse me?” Seokjin said in a polite-manner, trying not to surprise the girl in front of him. However, he didn’t succeed in.

As you registered a voice – way too close to you, you jumped in surprise; not expecting someone to stand as close to you as the voice indicated.  

You turned around and was once more surprised. A young man stood before you, even though you couldn’t see his mouth, he seemed to smile; his cheeks were raised, narrowing his eyes and causing wrinkles around the corners of the eyes.

“Do you need any help?” You nodded your head, embarrassed by your own cluelessness. 

“I didn’t expect there to be so many different brands of rice wines and I don’t know which one to pick, since the one I normally use isn’t here” You were rambling but you couldn’t help it, not wanting him to think you were stupid or something.

Seokjin looked at the shelves before reaching out for a transparent bottle, “this one is my favourite”. He said before giving the bottle to you. “Thank you very much, sir?” you took the bottle from him and put it in your cart.

“No need to call me sir. Sir is my father, I’m Seokjin” Seokjin said with a light chuckle. “Then thank you Seokjin” you said before the two parted your ways.

Seokjin walked to the queue, waiting patiently for his turn to pay for his items. The queue was rather long, but he didn’t mind since he enjoyed his time away the dormitory. 

Someone bumped into him.“Oh my.. I’m so sorry, so sorry” The person said frantic by their mistake.

Seokjin recognized the voice; it was you from the seasoning aisle. He made a 180-degree turn, looking directly at you.

“I think destiny wants us together” Seokjin said a little flirty and with a big smile on his face. Your cheeks flushed and you couldn’t hide a shy smile.

Min Yoongi ‘Suga’

Yoongi were quick to grab a mandarin from the kitchen before putting a leash on Holly so that he could take him for a walk. They left the house, and Yoongi led Holly to one of the dog parks in Seoul.

The park was rather deserted, just as Yoongi had hoped; it meant that the possibility of getting seen by others was small.  Yoongi slipped off Holly’s leash, so he could run free and play around wherever he liked – and he did so. He was running around enjoying the freedom as he ran a few feet ahead of Yoongi, still staying close to his owner.

Yoongi had only looked away for a few seconds to look at what the clock was and when he looked up again Holly was nowhere to be seen.  Yoongi searched his surroundings, but nothing caught his eyes instead his ears peaked at the sound of barking – happy barking.

“Oh, aren’t you a beauty?” you found yourself telling the little ball of brown fluff as you kneeled down before it. You rubbed the little dog’s ear; “Yes you are! Yes, you are.”. It was wiggling its tail and showing its tongue in sheer delight as you petted it tenderly.

“Holly!” The dog responded instantly, but never took its eyes of you. You began to straighten up, but the dog jumped up and licked your face in the progress. 

You looked over to see who the voice belonged to and was rather shocked when you saw a young man wearing all black with a black face mask and a grey beanie on his head. His blonde hair was spilling out of the beanie.

The man was standing next to the dog right in front of you. “Is he yours?” Yoongi nodded his head, confirming what you already had guessed. “He is a lovely dog” you said.

Yoongi was quick to notice how your eyes lighten up as you looked at Holly, it reminded of himself. “Thank you …?”

“I’m Y/N, nice to meet you.. eh?”  You shoved your hand out for him to shake. “Yoongi” He introduced himself as he shook your hand. 

Shortly after the two of you parted ways, but it wouldn’t be the last time the two of you meet in the dog park. 

Jung Hoseok ‘J-Hope’

“Where are you going, Hoseok-hyung?” Namjoon asked as Hoseok stuffed his sweaty clothes into his backpack. “Oh. I have to buy a couple of books before we leave for America” Hoseok shrugged his should before slinging the backpack over one shoulder.

“Really?” Hoseok nodded in confirmation. “Then, I have to recommend my favourite bookstore here in Seoul.” Namjoon said, quickly wiping out his phone and texting Hoseok the address before moving on to describe the bookstore.

He walked down one of the side roads from the main shopping street of Seoul. He looked at every store sign until he found the one, he looked for. He stopped when he was in front of the store; an old looking bookstore.

He opened the door of the store and went inside. He was quick to begin his exploration. However, almost as quick he gave up since it was crammed with books in the narrow space. 

Instead he walked up to the service desk to ask for help, he looked around to see if anyone was there when his eyes caught sight of you. You were behind the desk, bent forward as you put up more books.

He let out a fake cough to get your attention and it worked. You fumbled up to your feet. “Oh. hello sir, what can I do for you today?” you asked politely as you bowed for him. “I’m looking to buy a couple of books.”

“Then you have come to the right place, sir!” you said, proud of the stores collection of books. 

You began bombarding him with question on what he was looking for more specifically; you asked. What genre he liked, what he had read lately and so on.

“I think this one would be perfect for you, it’s one of my favourite” you said and pulled out an old classic novel, and you gave him a quick summary of the plot. “Then I will take that one and the others” Hoseok said and took the book from your hand, letting your hands touch for a little longer that would be appropriated.

You were right; the book was fantastic and had become a favourite of Hoseoks. He began visiting the old bookstore whenever he needed to buy some new or if he needed recommendations. 

Kim Namjoon ‘RM’

Namjoon had decided to take a little walk in the unfamiliar building where him and the rest of BTS had to do an interview in thirty-minutes.  He was exhausted – more than usual. He was tired of having to translate every sentence, tired of being the one who the journalists were depending on.  

He was walking in his own thoughts when he suddenly was bought back to reality because he walked into something – or rather someone.

“Humpf” Namjoon was on the verge to let his frustration out on whoever had bumped into him but stopped himself once he laid eyes on the person on the floor. Your eyes locked and Namjoon noticed your eyes were welling up. You quickly looked down, not wanting to embarrass yourself – more than you already had done.

You fumbled up from the floor, dusted yourself off without looking at the man in front of you, “Sorry, sir.” You apologized before making a 180-degree turn and walked the way you had come from. Before you had walked even one step, Namjoon took a hold of your wrist and tugged lightly, making you stop in your track.

You didn’t turn around instead you looked over your shoulder, making eye contact with Namjoon once again; still with watering eyes and Namjoon noticed this again. “I don’t want to pry or anything, but you seem like someone who need someone to talk to – or just someone who listens.”

You stared at him – for a rather long time; He looked sincere enough and his voice was also full of sincerity, “I don’t want to bother you, Namjoon. Furthermore, you look like you need to take your own advice”

Namjoon was shocked by your sudden boldness since you had been rather reluctant in talking to him. “Maybe we should help each other out then” he said with a sincere smile. 

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes, neither could you help smiling as you reminded him that he had an interview in a few minutes. “Oh.. you are right” He looked at his watch before looking at you again; “Then we can talk afterwards.”

You looked at him rather oddly “why do you insist on talking with me?” – “I don’t feel comfortable knowing that you don’t have it well”

You ended up agreeing since you thought it would be nice to actually talk and open up about what the ‘problem’ was, and it seemed like Namjoon thought the same. It was the start of a beautiful friendship with deep conversations. 

Park Jimin

This wasn’t exactly how Jimin had imagines his only off-work day would be, but he wasn’t mad about it either. He had been invited to a small get together by one of his former school friends, Ye Joon, who he hadn’t seen in a year or so but had stayed in contact with since he debuted as an idol.

Jimin didn’t know many of the people at the birthday party, but he had found a little group of people whom he did know from school. They began talking, mostly about what they were doing now and of course the occasional question to Jimin about the idol-life.

“Jimin, I have someone I would like to introduce you to” Ye Joon said, a hand on Jimin’s shoulder and gave him a little squeeze. “Ye Joon, don’t play matchmaker again” Jimin couldn’t help but scrunch his nose in fake disgust. “Shut your mouth, Jimin”

“And it’s not like that, I just think the two of you could become good friends, instead of staying with those fame-hungry people” Ye Joon pointed discreetly at the people, who Jimin had been talking to before.

Jimin stopped as Ye Joon walked over to a girl with h/c and gave her a hug. Jimin felt as if he was invading your personal space, but for some reason he couldn’t look away.

“I’m so happy that you could come, y/n” Ye Joon said before whispering in your ear that he wanted to introduce you to someone. You were rather shy, so when Ye Joon told you this you couldn't help but be a little nervous.

“Park Jimin, meet Moon y/n. Moon y/n, meet Park Jimin” Ye Joon introduced you to each other. Both of you said a quite hello, before letting silence come over you. It was awkward. 

You were a bit starstruck by Jimin and Jimin was just shy as always – maybe even more than usually.

Ye Joon decided that he needed to help you guys with the conversation, so he began talking about school time; remembering all of the crazy stuff the two men had been doing together. 

Jimin scrunched his nose up, laughing about the memories. When he suddenly stopped as he heard you giggling at the conversation.

“It sounds like you two had a great time” you said, still giggling. Jimin nodded his head eagerly, before telling you more of the ‘good-old-day’. It was as if it had popped the bubble of awkwardness and soon the conversation just flowed between the two of you.

When the party was coming to an end, you exchanged numbers so you could stay in touch since you had found out that you had more in common that you had thought. 

Kim Taehyung ‘V’

“Name and ID, sirs” the receptionist said in a monotone manner. Both Taehyung and Namjoon quickly found their identification and handled it over to the receptionist as they said their full names. 

The receptionist looked down on his paper before looking up at the two younger men. “Thank you. Have a wonderful evening.” The receptionist gave them a polite bow as they walked into the museum.

The two Kims walked together through the museum, looking at the art which was displayed. Namjoon had tagged along Taehyung after a little encouragement from Taehyung himself, since he knew that Namjoon also liked art – and he didn’t want to go alone because it was a rather big event.

“First I want to thank you all for turning up to this annual event” the museum president stated before continuing introducing the evenings schedule.

“Now I will give the floor to Miss Y/S.” A young woman walked gracefully up to the speaker platform. Taehyung couldn’t get his eyes off the woman as she began to speak about the importance of creativity and how it could change lives.

When you were done speaking the museum president were quick to tell you that your speech was great. You gave him a polite bow and thanked him for the nice words before beginning to mingle with the guests, who had showed up.

You weren’t really listening to the conversation but simply gave a nod every now and then. Instead your eyes were wandering and landed on the back of two men, looking at some art. You excused yourself from the conversation.

“I have to go to the bathroom.” Namjoon said with his hand on the youngers shoulder giving it a little squeeze before walking towards the bathroom-area. Taehyung's eyes followed Namjoon until he disappeared from his sight before looking back at the art displayed on the wall.

“Did you know that Kyungah Ham gets the designs smuggled to the North where a group of anonymous artists convert her design into embroideries, as the one you are looking at now” 

When you first spoke it had caught Taehyung by surprise but it didn’t last long. Instead he was enjoying your knowledge of the artist and her art. 

“I thought it was only a rumour?” Taehyung said, but it sounded more like a question. He was looking at you with big eyes, full of interest.“No, it is true. That’s why she’s an intersting person and one of my favourite artists.”

“Anything else I should know?” You couldn’t help but laugh, “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time but here is my number and you can text me, if you really wanna know more” You handed him your business card and he gave you a shy smile. 

“I didn’t get your name” Taehyung remembered, just as you were about to leave. “It’s on the card, but I'm Y/N” - “I’m Taehyung”. 

“I hope to hear from you then, Taehyung” you said before disappearing.

And you did indeed hear from him a couple of  days after the event. You agreed to meet somewhere more private since you knew who he was and that he couldn’t be seen with you without rumours starting.   

Jeon Jungkook

Jungkook wrinkled his brow in intense concentration as he was shooting at an opponent who was in his eyesight. He didn’t even realize that he was being surrounded by the rest of the opponent-team. He was quickly losing life as his opponents were attacking him, when they suddenly began to pull back as his teammates came to his rescue.

“Why the fuck you go on a suicide mission, Jeon!” A female voice yelled through Jungkook’s headphones and he winced at the voice, which prompted a mumbling apology from the young man. “I don’t even want to heal you, but we need you to win”.

Shortly thereafter you guys did indeed win after saved Jungkook from his virtual death and even ended up winning the whole game.

After the game had finished he had gotten a friend request. “Y/N-yaphobia” Jungkook read out loud, tasting the name on his tongue before accepting the request.

Jungkook decided – against his better judgment – to write privately to you in the games chat-room. He was pleasantly surprised when you answered almost immediately, joking about you having to save his ass again.

The two of you were quickly chatting and it wasn’t long before texting turned into talking over voice-chat.

He couldn’t help himself but enjoy how different this was from his everyday; you weren’t screaming in his face or were you being loud and too much. Instead you were easygoing around him; making jokes, but at the same time being open for more serious topics.

It was easy being himself while talking to you. He didn’t have the whole words expectation for him to be the golden maknae, no instead he could be Jungkook.

This was the start to yours game-night where the two of you would be playing video-games together while talking about everything and nothing.

One day Jungkook even suggested that the two of them could meet up and have a real video-games night, and you were quick to accept the proposal.