#i have a weird impractical schedule yeah yeah

[mabelsguidetolife]

I hate that they have to Put the Goo on your head when you do an EEG, like, i was too sleepy after mine today that i threw my hair into a topknot and took a nap so after i woke up it felt like having dried glue on my scalp so just now i had to make a break in routine that i didn’t want to do: showering at night (it wasn’t bad, i just prefer to do it in the afternoon)

[greyias]

Companion Interview Meme

Tagged by: @a-muirehen — thank you for the tag!

Pick three companions who know your OC/muse well. Answer the questions from at least one of their companions points of view. Replace anywhere it says ‘Grey’ with your OC’s name. Name the three companions who will be answering here: 1. Theron Shan 2. Lana Beniko 3. Kira Carsen Are they ready to be candid with their responses? Don’t worry, this is totally private. Grey will never read it.

(Slight spoiler warning in one answer for Echoes of Oblivion)

1. First Impressions. What was the first impression you had of Grey?

Theron: Look, it’s complicated. Like on one hand, she just had to be hiding something, because she was just so—so—no one is that nice! Or naive. It had to be an act somehow. I was convinced of it, there had to be something wrong with her, some deep, dark dirty secret she was hiding. Because if she wasn’t then that means she was a genuinely good person who actually cared deeply about random strangers and that was just weird. And kind of wonderful. And in retrospect when I look back maybe I just... needed a few reasons to keep people at arms distance. I once told her that I loved her from the moment I saw her. Striding into the situation room like she owned the place and... yeah. That was also true. As I said, it’s complicated. And I’m kind of an idiot.

Lana: I was quite impressed by what I had assumed at the time was a great deal of pragmatism. She was a Jedi, and yet didn’t seem bothered at all by the fact that I was a Sith. In fact, sometimes I think maybe she was... fascinated by it? There was a moment or two where I wondered if... well, I suppose it doesn’t matter now. She has always been a force to be reckoned with. It’s easy to follow someone like that... even if they are a Jedi (and a very impractical one at that. I really should have seen that coming in retrospect.)

Kira: She didn’t know how to take a joke. I mean, I’ve gotten better over the years, but at the start I’d had a tendency to make jokes first, assess the situation later. I’d made some comment about taking no prisoners, and you would have thought I’d just kicked a puppy instead of making a joke. Kind of felt like I had from the look on her face. Luckily, I think we both made better second impressions when we started working together on Coruscant.

2. Grey walks into a bar. No, it’s not a joke - what does she order? If you give her a credit for the jukebox, what kind of music would she put on?

Theron: Something fruity and filled with rum if you don’t stop her. Don’t let her drink the rum. And then because she has no loyalty whatsoever she’ll put on Tai-Vor Swivt on the jukebox and just share my special playlist with the whole cantina. Um. I mean. Her playlist. I don’t like Tai-Vor. I only listen to Heavy Isotope. And things like that.

Lana: The answer depends on the time of day, her mood, and several other factors. I have it all documented in this rubric here. You’ll need to give me more specifics on your inquiry if you want an accurate answer.

Kira: I mean, usually she just orders caf, which almost always gets a dramatic eyeroll from the bartender. So I usually have to order so we don’t get the stinkeye the entire time. And usually she lets me pick the music too -- I kind of suspect she didn’t really know many of the artists. Not exactly dialed into pop culture, that one.

3. How does Grey spend a day off from work?

Theron: Hmm, if I have my way it’s a nice slow morning and any message sent to her e-mail receives a cordial out-of-office message (Lana gets two for each message she sends.) Maybe later we can take a walk in the woods, go pet those stinky Exoboars running wild and ruining the Odessen countryside, maybe we get a little lost along the way. Spend the evening winding down with one of her swashbuckling holoflix. If I don’t have my way someone winds up asking her a work question and then she doesn’t get a day off. Yes. I know the irony of this coming from me.

Lana: If she is onsite at Odessen nowadays she seems to spend it in a mix between time in her quarters, leaving the base to take a walk in the woods, trying to duck surveillance to meditate in her “secret” spot. 

Kira: Back on the Defender, it was just a lot of meditating, practicing her katas, sparring. Honestly, even on her days off she usually just kept trying to make sure we were prepared for the next mission. Although if I invited her to do something normal she’d go along with it. So I may have made sure some of our off days coincided so she would actually take something resembling a break. The weirdo. She seems to have relaxed a little from that here on Odessen. I think that’s nice.

4. What silly superstitions or funny traditions does she observe?

Theron: She meditates each morning, and still observes the Jedi morning fast. Except she totally cheats on her fast and will drink a cup of caf if its hand delivered to her. She’ll warm her hands on the mug as she takes in a big whiff, and this little smile spreads across her face. It causes the freckles on her nose to wrinkle. And maybe I’m the one who hand delivers the caf because its hard to think of a better way to start the day.

Lana: We do not speak of the fruitcake, or any of her other attempted holiday traditions. If we do not encourage her, then maybe she’ll stop. Please, we must all band together, for the good of my digestive tract.

Kira: Whenever we would finish up a mission on a planet, she liked to take off her socks and boots and meditate with her feet sticking into the ground. She even wanted to do it on Quesh but Doc was loud enough on that instance to be able to talk her out of it. She tried to hide it but she looked really disappointed, so I tried to cheer her up by joining her on this weird mud hop at our next port of call. Not sure if I really felt any different but it seemed to make her happy.

5. What does Grey wear to bed? And just how do you know that?

Theron: Traditional night wear is a thin tank top and sleep pants. Let’s just say sometimes there’s less traditional night wear, or sometimes less than that -- but that’s between husband and wife.

Lana: On mission she typically wears something quick to change into her armor. On base she seems to have a standard set of pajama bottoms and sleeveless sleep shirt. How do I know this? Let’s just say I have to keep the Commander on schedule, even when certain people who should know better try and distract her from our very busy day running things.

Kira: She usually was changed and ready for the day before I ever saw her, but sometimes there’d be a late night where she couldn’t sleep, and I’d find her in the Defender’s mess. Pretty simple and spare sleepwear, sleep pants and tank top. Fashion’s not exactly her priority, you know?

6. Your favorite memory of Grey?

Theron: Why do you make me pick? Damn... that’s hard. There’s almost too many to choose, but... I guess it would be just after we got back from Nathema, and I was trying to apologize for everything and... somehow that turned into a proposal. And despite me being a stumbling awkward mess she still said yes and... look. I probably should have picked a different one, I’m not really good at the talking about feelings thing.

Lana: That moment when the broadcast across the galaxy happened after she had tamed the Eternal Fleet, she stood poised and powerful, finally setting the galaxy aright after Zakuul had torn it asunder. It was a moment more than five years in the making and I couldn’t have been prouder.

Kira: That moment when we stood, side-by-side, with everyone else in the Force and turned that creep Tenebrae, and every other of his counterparts into absolute crumbling dust. It almost made up for the fact that I wasn’t there the first two times she sent him packing.

7. A time you very nearly almost kissed Grey?

Theron: I mean, if we’re being technical, I had... thought about it for one moment on Manaan. Just a brief second, as we were saying our farewells before I went into hiding. Our eyes had met while we were shaking hands goodbye and it would have been so easy to just pull her in close and--I didn’t. Of course I didn’t. Not then at least. Now though? I don’t miss a chance.

Lana: I was angry at myself, my weakness, and taking it out on the clutter around the Gravestone. I had been surrounded out in the swamp, and only Koth’s timely intervention had saved me. She had come seeking me out to make sure that I was all right, to check on my injury. And in the low light, she just looked so concerned and guilty, and I’m fairly certain she was leaning in. I would have, you know, if Koth hadn’t been throwing around things and making a racket.

Kira: It was right after my Knighting, and I had snuck a bottle of champagne on board to celebrate. I suspect she hadn’t ever actually tasted alcohol before, judging by her reaction to the first sip. But we kept drinking, and giggling, kind of like we weren’t stuffy Jedi at all. And there was this moment where she asked me about Nar Shaddaa. Not pushy or anything, just... curious about my experiences. She never talks about it, but I don’t think she really knew much of life outside of the Order so she was always cautiously curious. And there was this moment where I was telling her about my first kiss and we kind of leaned in and--nothing happened. At the time I didn’t want to risk making things weird. I... like where we’re at. I’m fine with it.

8. Vacation time! Where do you take Grey for some R&R?

Theron: You know, I just love the sound of that word. Vay-cay-shun. Despite popular opinion I actually do take them, maybe a few more now than when I was single. We have a secret little hideaway that no one else knows about that I like to take her to when things get a little rough or we just need a break from the everything the galaxy is deciding to throw her our way.

Lana: You know, a vacation does sound nice, but someone has to keep things running here, especially when a certain nameless spy whisks our Commander away to fake locales. Seriously, I need a proper itinerary. What if I need to contact them? It’s just rude. Oh right, the question. I suppose I wouldn’t mind visiting some place quiet and out of the way, although I honestly have yet to find a place in galaxy that qualifies because if I take Grey for some reason she always finds someone in trouble that she insists on rescuing.

Kira: I’m not sure if it qualifies as a vacation per se, but I’ve been able to sneak her and one of our other Jedi buddies around base off to Nar Shaddaa for a Girl’s Night. Those are fun, even if we kept getting hit on at the bars. Although that can be entertaining in itself, especially that one time some guy pretended to be a Jedi, and then got this very detailed lecture on how bad an idea that was from Grey. I don’t think I’ve seen a man wilt so fast in my life. I would pay to see that again.

9. Grey’s sense of humor -is it dry, immature, sarcastic, self-deprecating, physical, witty, dark, or…?

Theron: I think it depends on the situation and her mood. It can be very subtle, and sometimes I can’t tell if she’s being serious when she says something ridiculous, or if she’s messing with me. Which... I suppose is fair, because sometimes I do the same to her.

Lana: She loves a good pun, which I find delightful. It’s doubly delightful just to see Theron roll his eyes and groan like he’s being tortured.

Kira: I think a lot of people don’t really get her humor, and honestly it took me a while to realize when she was joking. She likes to let others take the lead when it comes to cracking jokes, but when she does make a zinger, it takes a few seconds for it to land. They’re a lot more sly and subtle than you’d think. My favorite is when she starts to get really frustrated with someone and makes really dry, pointed comments that usually sail right over their heads. She has so many people fooled with that sweet serene Jedi act, they don’t even realize the epic burn until long after the conversation has ended.

Tagging: @confettininjabean, @thewriterandmuse. @shanfamilydrama, @storyknitter, @lumielles, @captainderyn, and @brietopia

[h-styles-babes]

TWO

Sia took her Sunday to cool off from her run in with Harry on Saturday evening. She vegged on the couch all day, watching a marathon of Botched while eating a batch of cookies her elderly neighbor brought over earlier in the week. She ended her night with two glasses of wine and a pasta dish that it only took her a few minutes to throw together on the stove. She’s got to be in the studio pretty early the next morning, so she allowed the wine to lull her to sleep before ten, snuggling down in her bed and pushing all thoughts of Harry Styles from her head.

When she arrived at work the next morning, carrying coffees for her boss, the current recording artist’s manager, and herself, she was perky and ready to start off her work week. She wasn’t going to let one British pop star ruin her mood when she had such a good rapport around the studio. Jeff loved her and she’d never had a problem with any of the artists they’d worked with. She wasn’t going to ruin that because she’d been a bit sour from her weekend run in.

“Morning, Anastasia,” Jeff greeted as she walked into the studio. Jeff Bhasker was quite influential in the music industry. When you had artists like Kanye West, Eminem, Pink, and basically anyone who was anyone under your belt, you were pretty much the best of the best. And Sia was more than honored when he’d handpicked her from his one visit to the UK studio she used to work at to come work with him in America. She wasn’t a producer yet—just a sound engineer with a lot to learn—but Jeff was making sure she was well on her way. However, in the months they’d been working together, Jeff had somehow turned into the equivalent of her cool uncle, and he knew it particularly annoyed her to be called by her first name—especially when her purposely pronounced it incorrectly.

“It’s Ah-na-stah-see-uh,” she corrected, pronouncing the five syllables it was instead of the four he was making it. “It’s French, not the stupid American version. And I hate when yeh call me that.” She handed him his coffee—black with one sugar packet, which she personally thought was disgusting.

Jeff pouted playfully. “You’re no fun.”

“It’s seven in the bloody morning,” she defended, turning and handing the manager, Lionel, his coffee with a tired yet pleasant smile. “I didn't even know pop stars knew this hour existed.”

“We’ve been in Japan for the last couple weeks,” Lionel shrugged, looking chipper. “Sleep schedule is still a bit off. Feels like it’s one in the afternoon for us.”

“Today’ll be a short session anyway,” Jeff assured, taking a sip of his drink. He pushed his long hair behind his ear before speaking again. “I’ve got a meeting to get to by noon.”

“Still making arrangements for that secret project yeh won’t tell me about?” Sia asked, raising an accusatory eyebrow at him as she blew at her own coffee.

“I actually wanna talk to you about that today.” He smirked when Sia’s eyes widened at the prospect. She hadn’t actually thought he’d tell her about it until after the project was already done. Did this mean she was going to be able to participate in it? “But, yes, it’s for the super secret project.”

So, for the rest of the session, once the artist showed up five minutes later, looking just as alive and peppy as their manager, Sia’s mind was stuck on finally getting to hear about the secretive meetings and constant texts and emails back and forth for the last few months. She wondered who the artist was that there was so much secrecy surrounding it. She fantasized for a few moments that it was Beyonce or Rihanna or something, but she realized it would probably be impractical for them to be making new music right then anyway. That didn’t deflate her excitement any, though, and the end of the session couldn’t come around quick enough.

It wasn’t until Sia was going around the studio, making sure everything was saved onto files and all the settings on the sound board were restored that Jeff finally sat her down.

“I have a proposition for you,” he began, scooping his hair over his shoulders and pulling it into a low ponytail. “It’s about this new project.”

“What’s your proposition?” she asked, trying not to sound like the eager puppy she felt like. She wasn’t sure how well she was containing it, though.

“An artist wants to start recording on their first album,” he began, and Sia perked up with the notion that this was someone who didn’t have a whole lot of experience. While getting to work with super famous celebrities was always fun, the prospect of getting to shape someone’s sound with them was a completely different thing. It was exciting and nerve-wracking and just altogether brilliant. “However, they want to record for two months in Jamaica.”

Sia’s brows shot up. “Jamaica? Why on earth?”

“This place is kinda a big deal,” Jeff shrugged. “Anyway, problem is that I have to finish up this project before I can move onto another one.”

“Are you turning them down?” she asked, surprised. She figured she wouldn’t’ve even known about it if Jeff had said no.

“Absolutely not. I have high hopes for this one. I don’t wanna miss out on this,” he assured. “But, since I can’t be there for a month, I need someone to step in for me until I can get out there.”

Sia’s heart stopped in her chest before picking back up at a rapid pace, nearly bursting through where it was contained behind her ribcage. “Are you—?” she asked breathlessly. Was he proposing what she thought he was proposing?

His grin told her yes. “I want you to go out there with the artist. Be the lead producer on this for awhile, see how you like it. There’s no one I trust more with this person’s music than you, Sia. Somehow, I think you’ll get along really well. They want to use live instruments, so I know that’s right up your ally.”

He was right. As much as Sia loved creating her own sounds and arrangements on the equipment, something about hearing live instruments on a track made her soul happy. She’d grown up listening to classic rock and there was no such thing as synthetic sounds, so live instruments had a special place in her heart. When an artist expressed an interest in having some guitars or drums on their tracks, she couldn’t put into words the feeling she got in her chest and the absolute elation that ran through her veins. It was like her own personal drug.

“Are yeh serious?” she breathed.

“Absolutely. I think you’ll work magic on this album, Sia.” He beamed at her and clapped a comforting hand on her knee. “You just gotta say yes.”

“When would I leave?”

“Beginning of September. So about a week.”

“Then how can I possibly say no?”

“Jamaica?” Ellen called in a bit of a squeal over the phone. Sia had to pull the device away from her ear while she was in the grocery store in order to salvage her hearing. The man that was stood in line in front of her shot her a weird look, to which she smiled apologetically.

“I know. Fuckin’ crazy, right? I’m really excited, though. Be a good opportunity for me, yeah?” Sia couldn’t help but smile as she reiterated the fact that she was going to Jamaica to be one of the main producers on an album to her friend. She was in a state of awe, really, and she wanted to constantly pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

“Of course it is! That’s amazing, Sia! Wish yeh could bring me with yeh,” Ellen laughed, sighing a bit wistfully for comedic effect.

Ellen and Sia had met their first year of uni back in London. They’d been paired together as roommates, and they were both delighted to find they got on really well. They’d forged a fast friendship, and Sia had been thankful when El had hardly batted an eye when she’d learnt that Sia’s boyfriend was the well-known boy-bander. She’d treated Harry like he was any other uni boy when he was over, and both Sia and Harry were grateful for the normalcy. When El had learnt of the breakup, she’d been none too kind to the boy who broke her best friend’s heart, and Sia had been grateful for that, too.

Ellen still lived in London, having been Sia’s flatmate until Sia’d made the move to LA for her job. She’d cried just as much as Sia had when they’d been at the airport before Sia left, and she missed her friend terribly, still. She’d visited LA once for Sia’s birthday just the month prior, which had been a much needed visit for the two women. They texted everyday, though, and there was a phone call at least once a week, if not more, which ensured they were still as close as ever. Sia didn’t tell El, but she was already itching to find out if there was a way to be able to get El out for a visit on the island during any point of the production.

“Me too. No idea who else is gonna be working with me,” Sia sighed.

“So yeh seriously have no idea who the artist is?”

Sia shook her head, even though her friend couldn’t see her. She cradled her mobile between her shoulder and cheek as she loaded her groceries up on the belt. “No, said it was secret until I got there. Apparently, this is supposed to be really big, so the record label doesn’t want anything getting out until they’re ready to start promo.”

“That’s fuckin’ crazy,” El acknowledged. “What if it’s, like, Kanye West or summat?”

Sia’s excited expression dropped, and she had to make sure the cashier knew the deadpan look wasn’t for him. “Don’t even joke about that. I’d back out so fast.”

El cackled on the other end of the line. “That would be just your luck wouldn’t it?”

“The only thing that could possibly be worse than working for two whole months with the likes of Kanye West, is working two whole months with Harry Styles.”

El gasped. “Could yeh imagine? What would yeh do?”

Sia sighed as her items started getting rung up. “Honestly, I’d just stick it out, either way. I need this producer credit too much. I’d be professional, obviously, but I’d probably hide away whenever we’re not working. I can’t afford to pass this opportunity up.”

“Well…” El chirped, “it’ll probably be someone like Shawn Mendes or Adele or summat, and you won’t even have to worry about trying to stay professional.”

“Hope you’re right.”

[bibliothesoph]

Neverland, Canon Balls and Clouds (part 4)

Baz wasn't really sure what to expect of Neverland, but when it comes into view, his breath is knocked right out of him. It's a gorgeous island with mountains and waterfalls and lagoons. There's a rainbow running across the skyline because, he supposes, why shouldn't there be a fucking rainbow in paradise?

Simon stops him on a cloud, giving him a moment to let it all sink in. Including the whole standing on a fucking cloud bit, too, because that is certainly a strange sensation.

"I can't believe you get to live here," Baz says, breathless.

Simon grins at him again and puts his hands on his hips. "I know, right?"

Simon starts pointing out the different important places that they can see from up so high. He shows Baz where the mermaid lagoon is, where the native tribe live, where the fairies (who aren't Penelope) live and where he lives. Baz takes out his mobile to snap a picture of it and he can feel Simon's eyes on him and the device but he doesn't say anything about it. Baz feels a bit bad for asking him when he was born because that was obviously a sore subject, though Baz can't imagine why, so he decides not to press him. If Simon wants to know how phones work, Baz is more than happy to explain.

He's about to ask Simon to get a picture of him when something rips through the cloud next to them with a terrifying whoosh. Baz gasps and sees a hole torn straight through the cloud.

"What the fuck was that?"

Simon grits his teeth and points down below where there seems to be a massive pirate ship anchored in the harbor. "That's the Humdrum's ship."

Simon's getting his blade out while Baz tries to figure that out.

"Wait, he's a pirate?"

Simon looks at him like he's an extra special idiot. "Yeah, didn't you know that?"

Baz rolls his eyes. "Yeah, well, I thought it might've been added in for the drama of it. I didn't know that pirates were a real thing! You've been fighting an adult who's launching cannon balls at you? You're seventeen!"

"And?"

Baz wants to shake him and make him understand how fucking weird that is. "And you're seventeen! You're a child. And he's a grown-up with scary weapons."

Simon shrugs and flashes him a grin. "Wanna go on an adventure?"

A minute later, Baz realizes that he does not want to go on this particular adventure. Simon weaves him through the sky as cannon balls keep coming up to try and intercept them. He's cool about it, but Baz is freaking the fuck out. In his head he always thought the adventures were more along the lines of finding buried treasure or something. It made sense for stories because having a seventeen year old kid fighting and repeatedly beating an old pirate sounds awesome, but he didn't really think that would be the reality of the situation. And Simon doesn't seem to care much about it. In fact, given the smile on his face, he looks like he's enjoying it. Baz wishes that he could enjoy it, too, but he can't because he's still to focused on the fact that there is a middle-aged man shooting fucking painful balls at a kid.

He's a little too wrapped up in his thoughts of this to notice a tree branch coming right for him as Simon takes him down towards the ground, so Baz ends up losing his concentration and hurdling towards a collection of very sharp looking rocks on the ground below. He screams and closes his eyes, bracing for impact, when he feels the falling stop. He peeks an eye open and sees that Simon has caught him right in the nick of time, holding Baz in his arms like Baz is his bride.

Simon lands on the rocks and sets Baz down on the ground. His heart is beating wildly in his chest.

"T––thanks," Baz says.

Simon smiles at him. "Yeah, no problem. Did you have fun?"

Baz glares at him. "What, with the cannon balls? No, Simon. I did not have fun."

"You get used to it."

"I don't think I want to get used to that."

Simon shrugs and puts his blade away (wherever it goes). He has a dagger, too, that's clipped into a little leather belt around his waist, but Baz has always heard that he prefers the magical blade.

"How does your sword work? Do you have magical powers or something?"

Simon is walking somewhere so Baz makes an effort to keep close to him just in case any more tree branches feel like presenting themselves.

"I can fly, can't I?"

Baz rolls his eyes. They're going deeper into the forest. Baz wonders if he should be scared.

"No, I don't have like magic or anything. The sword thing was a total accident. Saved someone's life, that someone turned out to be a wizard, so now I can summon this blade whenever I want. Pretty wicked, yeah?"

"Do you normally just randomly save lives? Or is that something you have to schedule in weeks in advance?"

Simon chuckles. "I don't schedule anything ever, so it just kinda happens. Don't know if you've heard, but I'm kind of a hero."

"To some."

Simon stops walking and turns around. "What? Who am I not a hero to?"

"Parents, mostly."

Simon rolls his eyes and carries on walking again. "The parents can piss off. Why don't they like me?"

"Because you're not––" Baz stops himself. "Because they don't think you're real. And your whole thing is avoiding responsibility and growing up and––"

"I'm not avoiding anything," Simon snaps, turning again.

Baz can feel his heart beating into his throat. He never really thought of Simon as having so many random triggers. First the age thing and now this? Baz wonders what kinds of things go on in his head.

"I know. I'm just telling you what they think."

"Well. They're wrong."

"I agree. I happen to think that you represent something positive. Innocence and child-like wonder. Though, considering the whole pirate thing, I might have to rethink the innocence bit."

Simon laughs again and gestures to a large tree. He looks very pleased about it, but Baz has no idea what he's on about.

"It's...a tree?"

Simon's grin falls. Baz instantly hates himself.

"It's my house, you prick."

Baz nods, mostly to himself, and follows Simon again as he approaches the tree. "Right. So you just...live in a tree. Right."

Simon pushes one of the tree knobs and there's a whirring noise as a door opens in the trunk of it. "I live under the tree. This is just my secret entrance."

Simon enters the tree and is suddenly gone from view. Baz starts to panic a bit before he peers down and sees a slide that goes deep under the earth. He gets down and lets the slide take him to wherever Simon went off to. He registers that a slide is incredibly impractical (he also wonders how you exit the house thing) but he lets himself enjoy the twisting ride down the slide. He lands on a carpet on a solid floor with a soft thud.

He's surprised to see that the space is neat and tidy and that it's actually quite large. Simon's bed is in the middle of the room and the blanket is some kind of dark fur that Baz doesn't recognize. There's a big couch sitting across from a stone fireplace. And there are bookshelves lining the walls which are presumably Penny's, and then there's a little doorway that leads to a smaller area that has another fire place and a table and a chair. In all this, Baz can't seem to find Simon.

"Yeah, just the Humdrum being his usual pissy self," he hears Simon say. He finds a staircase hidden in the corner of the room and walks up it to find Simon sitting in a big, comfy chair talking to Penelope. He grins at Baz when he enters.

"Hey. You hungry or anything? Or I could make some tea?"

Baz shakes his head. "I'm fine, thanks. I––your house is actually very nice. For being underground and all."

Penny frowns at him. "What's wrong with being underground?"

Baz's eyes widen. "Er, nothing. It was supposed to be a joke. It really is a lovely home."

"She's just being difficult," Simon says. "She's jealous."

"I am not jealous!" she argues.

Baz wants to ask why she would be jealous but he doesn't. But he can't ignore that feeling in his stomach that comes whenever he looks at Simon. He'd ignored it at first when he thought it was a dream, but now he's feeling it and allowing himself to think about it. He wonders if part of the reason he always loved the Simon Snow stories was because he had a crush on him. He had kissed Simon in dreams before, but he also had no idea what he looked like. His mind always just put some random attractive guy's face on him. And his personality was nothing like what Baz had expected. So, if he did have a crush on Simon Snow from the stories, it certainly meant nothing now. Because Simon, the real one, was so different. He's kinder, funnier, a bit of a mess but in an endearing sort of way, and devilishly handsome. In Baz's head he'd always been some kind of noble hero with a posh accent and a strong jaw that goes around saving damsels all the time.

But Simon is...well, he is just a boy. A very attractive boy, but just a boy. He isn't some god among men. He's a boy who'd escaped to a magical world in an attempt to run away from his problems and the issue of growing up. And Baz understands that. And he is incredibly jealous.

"Should I show you around? Is there anything you wanna see?"

Baz thinks about it for a moment. "Um, the mermaids, perhaps? It'd be cool to get some photos."

"You're taking photos?"

Baz nods.

"Okay, well, obviously don't like go and print them and sell 'em to the paper or whatever. But yeah, sounds good."

[alittledizzy]

where the trees we planted grow rating: t word count: 2.3k Summary: Dan and Phil take a trip to Japan after the tour is over.  Notes: Written for my thirty minute fics for charity fundraiser to benefit PhandomGives. Special dedication: an early birthday present for Kamillester with lots of love, from D

[read on ao3]

Years ago, so many years ago that Dan was still a teenager and Phil still felt crushed under the weight of an uncertain future and his own inability to commit himself to doing what normal people are supposed to do when they finish uni, they spent the better part of a lazy spring day reading each other articles on Japan out loud and planning a holiday that seemed like a distant dream.

Phil remembers being stretched out on his bed with Dan, the both of them wearing only pants. He recalls how they’d pass the laptop back and forth when the bottom got too hot against their thighs, or when one of them had another flight of fancy they wanted to chase through a search engine. He remembers the lazy breaks for making out and how he’d watched videos on hot springs that showed fully naked people while Dan went to make them something for tea, and how he’d shown the videos to Dan when Dan got back, and how their food had grown cold while they worked each other up with a fantasy of hot rolling water and so much skin and endless possibility.

He stretches his legs out in front of him as far as they’ll go, listening to his knees pop. There’s a phantom ache to it that didn’t used to be there, from shoving his body into a too-small seat for hours and hours and hours.

“Hey,” Dan says, shifting beside him. There’s a divider between Dan’s seat and Phil’s, but only a half-partition. Phil wishes they could have gotten one of the ones that went all the way down, but he figures it’s probably best for sanitary conditions that most planes don’t allow for full body contact between two people on long haul flights. He doesn’t think he fancies imagining that someone fucked right where he sits.

He’ll have to tell that to Dan later, he thinks. For now he just looks over and meets Dan’s smile. “Hey.”

*

They leave their shoes in the lobby of the ryokan and trail being a polite woman who speaks fantastic English and doesn’t seem to judge Phil any of his stupid British questions.

Phil forgets it all almost immediately, and hopes that Dan remembers enough that they won’t embarrass themselves.

They drift apart once she’s gone, poking into different rooms. Phil’s had a lifetime of hotels in the past year, but everything about this feels less like a mandatory stopover and more like an experience.

“It’s got a control panel just like the last one,” Phil shouts out.

“Television in the mirror, though?” Dan shouts back. Phil taps his finger at the mirror. His reflection taps him back, but nothing else happens. “No,” he calls back.

He’s not that disappointed. The last one was impractical. You couldn’t even see it from the toilet.

“The view makes up for it,” Dan says. “Come look.”

 Dan’s already slid the glass door open and he’s standing on their small deck. There’s nothing but greenery all around, a fantastic garden laid out all around them.

Hakone is beautiful. They’d passed it up last time, too eager to plunge into the city and spend time with their friends, but this… this trip is just for them.

Phil looks down. “More sandals?”

Indoor slippers. Outdoor sandals.

“Yeah,” Dan says. His feet are slightly too long for the plastic ones he’s just put on. “There are wooden ones by the private bath, too.”

“Are they going to know if we don’t wear them all?” Phil asks.

Dan rolls his eyes. “Yes, Phil. I’m sure there’s a surcharge on the bill for going barefoot.”

“You don’t know,” Phil says. “There could be hidden cameras in the trees.”

He pauses and tries to imagine what they’d see if there were: him and Dan, standing with an arm’s width of space between them, staring out into the world.

*

Jetlag, the crispness of the air, the heat of the water, the sound of the birds around them.

Dan drifts off after just a few minutes, head tipped back against the ledge of the pool in an angle that looks uncomfortable. It makes his neck look very long. Everything about him looks long, the span of his arms from the tips of his fingers on one hand to the tips of his fingers on the other, where he’s got them draped along the side of the pool.

Phil stares his fill, because he’s allowed. He looks at Dan’s collarbones and the soft dark hair under his arms and the bruise on his bicep from trying to lift their bag over his head earlier, down and down to Dan’s nipples that are peaked hard in the air and his belly button with the water lapping just over it.

It’s been ten years and he’s not tired of that face. He’s not tired of that body. It doesn’t even occur to him that he might be until he hears someone express their awe.

Relationships last in Phil’s life. His mum and dad. His grandparents, all of them. What you forge together early in your life is built to endure.

They’re built to endure, Phil thinks.

He doesn’t need anyone else’s opinion to know it’s true.

*

Dinner is laid out on a table low to the ground.

Their chairs have no legs and Dan’s knees poke up knobby where he sits cross-legged. They’re too tall for the robes by a bit, but Phil’s at peace with knowing their attendant might get a cheeky flash of thigh or two.

“I never want to leave,” Dan says, tongue swiping out to catch a stray drop of miso soup.

“We could just stay,” Phil says. “That’d solve the problem.”

“Problem?” Dan asks. “Is it a problem now?”

“No,” Phil says. “Well, sort of. It’s a - thing. A thing we don’t know the answer to.”

Dan looks vaguely unhappy with that response, but he doesn’t argue. “Tomorrow, yeah? After we’ve slept?”

Phil’s not going to push it. Not when his belly is full and his heart is full and his body is so tired and he’s thinking of how soft the bed just one room away is. “Tomorrow,” he agrees.

*

But tomorrow brings sleep for half the day, and then a breakfast that’s much tastier than the descriptions might have looked on a menu, and then another long session in the private onsen.

“Seriously,” Dan says. He stretches out his legs so his toes poke up out of the water. “I could live here.”

“Bit pricey to live,” Phil says. “You might have to give up a jumper or two.”

Dan rolls his eyes. “You can’t just let me dream.”

Their knees knock together. The pool is small for two grown men, but proximity doesn’t particularly bother them.

Or does it?

It doesn’t right now, because nobody’s watching. There are no cameras in the trees. It’s just the two of them.

That’s what this entire trip is about - nobody watching. The videos are scheduled, the tweets are scheduled, the audience knows to level their expectations.

There’s nothing on their plates except each other and this conversation that they aren’t having yet.

*

On the third day they stand in a long line in the rain to get black sulfur eggs.

“Seven years,” Dan says.

“I’m going to have ten,” Phil says. “And I’ll live to be two hundred.”

“Seven times ten is seventy years,” Dan says. “Do you really think you’ll live to be one hundred and thirty without any help?”

“Yes,” Phil says immediately. “And you have to eat ten, too.”

“So you want me to be actually sick. That’s the memory you want me to take away from Mt. Fuji this time. How I was sick off black eggs.”

“No, I just want you to live as long as me,” Phil says.

They’re standing close together, crowded in by the throng of people all waiting for their eggs.

It’s so easy to slide his fingers into Dan’s.

Dan goes tense, but he looks at Phil with something sweet and surprised. “Really?”

Phil shrugs. No one is looking, he thinks.

But even if they are…

He’ll just call it a test run.

“Really,” Phil says.

He lets go as soon as they’re to the ordering window.

They each get one egg and stand by a long wooden table to eat them.

“Seven more years, yeah?” Dan holds his up,

Phil clinks the shell against his own. “Seven years.”

*

There’s a bottle of sake waiting to be cracked into.

“We could have sex?” Dan asks, but there’s a reason they haven’t yet. They’re both too distracted, too in their own heads.

But they only have two days left in Hakone. Then Tokyo, for friends and… maybe a celebration.

Maybe.

“Or we could talk,” Phil says.

Sex will come later. Once they’ve made up their minds.

“Fine, fine.” Dan sighs. He stands up, robe falling loosely on his body. Phil takes a moment to look. He’s gorgeous, really. He’s so gorgeous. “Bring the alcohol, though.”

*

“It won’t change anything,” is Dan’s opening bid.

“What do you mean?” Phil asks.

“We already get all the benefits, right? We live together. We’ve got shared investments. We’ve got a joint bank account. We’re committed.” Dan stares up. The stars are out now. “Why is a ceremony the end goal? Shouldn’t the life be the end goal? We’re going to have that no matter what.”

The pool around them is lit by flickering lanterns.

“It wouldn’t be the ‘end goal’ even if we did get married,” Phil argues. “The ceremony doesn’t mean anything. It’s just an acknowledgement of something we already know.”

“So you do want to?” Dan asks.

“I didn’t say that,” Phil says.

“Okay. Your turn, then,” Dan says.

“I think it would have benefits. We want-” Phil pauses. This is one of those things they know, but don’t say often. “We want kids, one day. It’ll be a easier to get them if we’re married.”

“Not really,” Dan says. “They can’t like, legally deny us. Married or not.”

“No, but. Explaining it people, you know.” Phil finds it hard to explain what he means, but they’ve had this conversation before. The weird tangled cloud of traditional morality Phil can’t quite untangle himself from feels oppressive sometimes and comforting others.

Dan just shrugs. “But does that mean we need to do anything now?” Dan asks. “I’m not ready for kids. I’ve barely scratched the surface figuring my own shit out.”

“I don’t want kids yet either,” Phil says.

“So does that put kids as a pro or a con on the list?” Dan might not agree with Phil but he does at least accept that some things come before others to Phil.

“I don’t know,” Phil admits. “But it feels like something that should factor in.”

“What about the other ‘kids?” Dan asks, doing air quotes. “The ones that we have raised from their youth to their now jaded twenties?”

“Those aren’t our kids. Not with the things they talk about us doing.” Phil shudders. “We could just not tell them?”

“You know how well that works,” Dan says. “People always find out. It would solve a different problem, though. No need to fuck with coming out if we just flash some matching rings.”

“If we were even going to come out,” Phil says.

Dan makes a face at him. It’s another point of contention, another source of indecision. They’re both prone to change their minds each time the wind blows in a different direction.

“My mum wants us to,” Phil says.

“My parents clearly didn’t think it was necessary to rush into,” Dan says, a slight grimace on his face.

“That’s a bad thing?” Phil asks.

Dan shrugs. “I don’t know. But maybe I would want us to be married before we have kids.”

“Fair enough,” Phil says. “We might get tax breaks.”

“We don’t need tax breaks,” Dan says. “But we’ll finally have an answer when people ask if we’re brothers...”

“Yes, and we’re also married?” Phil predicts.

“Exactly,” Dan says.

“No.”

“You’re no fun.”

“But you know what is fun? We’d get to plan a wedding,” Phil says. “And a reception menu! That’s like, second best to interior design. I watched a program last month where they served sliders made with donuts, and the cake was a big donut.”

“That sounds disgusting, and you watch far too much home and design related television,” Dan says. “But I could get a really swish suit out of it.”

“Designers might even put up for it,” Phil says. “Just no Yeezy down the aisle, please.”

“Only in the honeymoon suite?” Dan grins.

“My future self just lost his boner,” Phil says.

“My future self will help him get it back,” Dan promises.

Phil goes quiet for a long time, and looks at Dan. They’re at the same standstill they always come to. Their eyes lock and the moment goes on and on. Finally, Phil says: “It would be nice to be your husband.”

Dan lets out a noisy breath and smiles. His eyes look a little watery. He cries so easily. Phil loves that about him. “It would be really fucking nice.”

 *

They spend all of day four in bed and in the onsen, building up a sweat between the sheets and washing it off in the warmth of the water. (Figuratively, of course, because they're polite onsen visitors who wash off properly first in the tiny little wooden stalls that barely fit their bodies.)

It shouldn’t make a difference, Phil thinks. They weren’t lacking anything without it. Their commitment was still a commitment. The part that counts has always been there.

“You should tell people I proposed at Mt. Fuji,” Phil says.

Dan punches him in the arm. “I will fucking not. You don’t get proposal credit.”

“Oh, oh, wait, even better - we could tell them we did that thing where we both took rings and surprised each other!” Phil says, excited.

“I hate you,” Dan says. “Don’t know why I’m even marrying you.”

Phil grins so hard that his face hurts.

He thinks of himself, twenty three and barely able to grasp the concept of a life like this. He thinks of Dan, nineteen and convinced he’ll never have the things he wants. He thinks of all those hours they spent dreaming of a moment like this… and how much better the reality is.

[hellomelusine]

Impractical

Written for @lingeriewarsweek day 6 - Jungle Green. I’ll post a picture of the item at the bottom of this. Look, this was supposed to be  a short silly thing and it turned into a not short thing with several surprises (but maybe still silly), and at the end of the day I really shouldn’t be left unsupervised with this ship.

Rey was just tipsy enough to laugh when Rose described Finn’s face when she walked into their bedroom wearing what sounded suspiciously like a torture device after she described that too at Jessika’s insistence. Tomorrow, or maybe even later today, when she was sober Rey knew she wouldn’t be able to look Finn in the eye at the table in the mess hall. Rose slid another drink at Rey when she started describing exactly what followed when Finn recovered his senses. Rey choked on said drink, the burn of alcohol stinging at her nose as Rose barreled on describing in lewd detail about how Finn kissed a pair of lips that were not on Rose’s face. Rey stood abruptly from the table, stuttered out some excuse and retreated to the bar.

“Rey from Jakku.” Maz appeared at her side, “Your boyfriend isn’t going to show up here and destroy my place again is he?” She asked, a gleam in her eye.

“My what now?” Rey asked, turning to glare blearily at Maz.

Maz waved a hand around. “Tall, brooding, would have the swagger of his father if he hadn’t had that worm of a man twisting his brain his whole life.”

In a distant part of Rey’s brain she knew she should vehemently deny what Maz was saying, but here in the present she found the words ‘no, he’s not coming.’ tumble from her mouth and the small alien gave her a beaming smile accompanied by a pat on the cheek before she wandered off to check on her other patrons.

“Shopping time!” Jessika shouted, appearing about as suddenly as Maz had and jostled Rey, the alcohol sloshing out of the glass and all over her hand and the bartop. “Comeoncomeoncomeonnnnn.” she rambled plucking the glass from Rey’s hands and tugging her through the front door where Rose was waiting, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“I think we’re too drunk for this.” Rey mumbled, following her friends into the shopping district of the city. “What are we even supposed to be picking up.”

“Pretty things.” Rose sighed, dropping back to put an arm around Rey’s shoulders, and arm that sober Rey would have shrugged off, but an arm that drunk Rey was leaning into, reaching up to grip Rose’s hand. “We’re going to get such pretty things Rey.” She sang. “Finn is going to faint this time. Then we can find someone for you to show pretty things to!”

OH. Kriff. They were at the store already, how had they gotten here so quickly. Jessika pulled the door open with a wide grin and Rey was pulled into some form of hell - there was no other word for it. The General had told them they could have one day of planetside leave to blow off some steam. It was a rotating schedule, to stay under the radar of The First Order, who according to intelligence were searching for them in a sector far from here, but that didn’t mean they could be careless. Sending Rey planetside was risky enough, but since it was where Maz had chosen to rebuild, Leia had been willing to risk it. Rey didn’t want to think about what Leia would say when she found out the girls had gotten drunk and then bought underwear. A problem for sober Rey.

“None of this looks practical at all.” Rey muttered, picking up something that was nothing but straps.

“That’s the point!” Rose stage whispered, untangling the item and holding it up in front of Rey. “It’s for fun. It’s to feel pretty.”

“Objectively.” Rey countered. Dropping the item to the table where it had been. “I already am pretty.”

“Confidence. I like it!” Jess chimed in, arms full of color. “How about...ok, you ever wanted to make a man beg before?”

“I have made men beg. Plenty of times.” Rey shrugged, both of her companions let out noises of intrigue. “Oh! You meant - oh.”

“Jakku sounds weird.” Jess frowned. “Rey, men are visual creatures, and women are works of art -”

“If I try something on will you shut up?” Rey interrupted quickly.

Both girls let out quiet whoops of joy as Rey turned to pursue the racks, grabbed a set that looked roughly her size and the least complicated out of everything in the store before she stalked to the changing rooms in the back.

“Hello!” chirped the sales girl stationed there. “Just the one set?” her smile widened at Rey’s nod of affirmation. “Follow me please. Now we do politely ask that you are gentle with the merchandise, and if you choose to buy the item you can bring it to the front with you or if you prefer to wear it out,” at this she gave a quick wink “just remove this tag and bring it to the front; if not, please leave it in the dressing rooms for sanitation. Here you go! If you need any help, please don’t hesitate to call!”

“Uhh, thanks?” Rey said, stepping into the small room and hanging the lingerie set on the only hook offered. “Okay. It’s just a form of clothes, you can do this. You wrap your arms every day, this can’t be harder than that.”

“Reyyyyy.” Rose called from outside of her door. “I’m right next to you! Let’s show each other how we look when we’re in everything.”

“Am I allowed to say ‘no’?”

“NOPE!” Jess laughed.

Rey wavered a few minutes before deciding to just suck it up and do it. Shedding her clothes was done with practiced ease and she stood there in her breast bindings and plain underwear before pinching at the clips that held the small scrap of fabric that was also somehow underwear. It fell easily into her palm and she shimmied out of her bottoms before working this fancy piece on.

The whole set was in black and green; the bottoms, once she worked out that the wide bands would rest on each hip and the tiny gem rested at the front went on easily enough. She suqurmed a bit at the srip that fell snugly between her cheeks. ‘A thong’ Rose had mentioned when she held it up for them to see, it had meant nothing to Rey then, but it certainly did now. Why would anyone wear something like this.

“How is it going Rey?” Jess asked.

“This all seems incredibly impractical.” she sighed even as she worked her way out of her breast bindings.

“Again, that isn’t the point. Just hurry up, we’re dying to see.”

The cups of the bra were green, topped with black lace, and two thin straps criss crossed over the very tops of her chest, a matching gem dangling from where they met and rested between her breasts. Her arms were behind her, wrestling with a pair of hooks she was unfamiliar with using when it happened.

“Oh kriff.” She swore as sound dropped out and there he was, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, reflected in the mirror behind her. A laugh borne from alcohol tumbled from her lips even as she spun around and backed up against the reflective surface, but it was too late, he had already seen her ass. He seemed frozen and was gaping at her like a fish. “Uhhh, I’d rather not do this now?” she asked, mentally pumping a fist in victory that she recalled her words from when the force connected them months ago while he had been shirtless. She was getting the raw end of this deal this time.

“What-” he rolled his jaw, eyes drifting over her figure. “What are you doing.”

“Rose and Jess claim this is shopping, but I’m almost convinced this is a wrestling match that I’m losing.” She hiccuped, “Oh wait, I think I’m back to winning.” She ran her fingers over the fasteners. “Yup, got it.”

“Are you - have you been drinking?”

“Oh yeah, but I’m honestly just hoping I can ramble long enough until this isn’t embarrassing.”

“Rey, who are you talking to in there?” Rose’s voice floated through the odd sound barrier of the bond as Rey ignored Kylo to reach for the last piece of her ensemble.

“I’m obviously in here chatting with The Supreme Leader. What is the point of this kriffing thing?” Rey huffed, wrapping the piece around her midsection actively ignoring Kylo’s panicked reaction. It was maybe trying to be a corset she decided.

“Yeah, okay Rey.” Rose laughter hit her ears. “You know, that’s not a terrible idea, just fight him in your underwear next time you see him, he won’t know what hit him.”

Rey chortled a laugh as she fastened the hooks in the front this time before spinning the piece around, fingers playing with the clasps at the end of straps that were meant for a pair of thigh high stockings she wasn’t wearing. Definitely not a corset, there was no support, she decided taking a deep breath, it was just there for looks, like the rest of it. She pressed her palms flat against the mirror and tipped her head up to look Kylo in the eye. “The shock and awe factor.” She called to Rose and Kylo frowned.

“Who are you talking to?”

“Rose.” Rey whispered.

“Who?”

“A friend.” She took a fortifying breath as he took a half step closer. “Well?” She asked, finding herself almost vibrating with nerves now that she had no way to occupy herself and attempt to ignore the hulking presence of her force bond mate. He took another step towards her and Rey found herself biting at the inside of her lower lip. His eyes roved over her body as a light blush built high on his cheeks, one gloved hand reaching out and pinching at the gem nestled between her breasts.

“Green suits you.” He finally said after what felt like an age.

“So I should get it?” She asked, tilting her head just slightly, his gaze drifting up to meet hers.

“It seems impractical?” He frowned, looking down her body again. Rey smothered a laugh that ended with a rush of breath as he took a final step, his body now pressed to hers. “I like it.” his voice low.

“It was a yes or no question, Ben.” Rey teased, shifting against him, her fingers landing on the rough fabric of his tunic.

“Yes.” His word was little more than a whisper against her mouth as his lips met hers. It was a gentle thing, sweet and soft as a sigh.

Rey’s eyes blinked open at a loud rapping to her changing room door. He was gone and she could almost believe it had been a dream if she were not able to feel a ripple of longing through their bond.

Rey wrenched the door open, jaw dropping in shock as she took in Rose and Jessika in their chosen outfits.

“Holy shit Rey! You look good enough to eat!” Jess grinned, stepping toward her in a deep red set similar to her own. There was another ripple through the bond and Rey flushed when she deciphered it as deep agreement with what Jess had said. “Please tell me you’re getting this.”

“Uhh, yup, yes. I am getting this. I am. Going to buy this and wear it - places.”

“Are you okay?” Rose frowned and Rey nodded.

“Great! I’m so good. I’m getting this. You both also look really good, please never tell me how Finn reacts. I’m going to get out of this and we are leaving.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes. I’ll meet you both at the front?” She asked, not waiting for an answer before retreating back to the safety of the changing room. After the extreme effort it took to get into all of this, the decision to not take it off was easy; Rey deftly plucked the tag from the left shoulder strap before getting dressed in record time. She haphazardly shoved her arm wraps and the underthings she had been wearing in her bag while withdrawing her credits to pay. Opening the door as quietly as she could, she listened to Jessika and Rose laughing in the next two stalls; satisfied that they were occupied she walked as quickly as she could without looking like she was running to the front.

“Could I also have a bag?” She asked the twi'lek working the register.

“Of course!” She chirped, withdrawing a dark purple bag from under the counter with a flourish “Would you like to place any items you had been wearing inside?”

“That’s allowed?”

“It’s your bag.” The twi’lek shrugged, beaming when Rey withdrew a small wad of fabric from her bag, before pulling some decorative paper from under the counter and putting it in the bag. “There you are! Thank you for stopping in, we hope to see you again soon.” She shot Rey a wink and Rey smiled wide to avoid rolling her eyes.

The girls all stopped to eat something on the way back to the spaceport, Rey drank 2 cups of caf and got another one to nurse while they walked, vaguely listening to Rose and Jess talk about the new slew of resistance recruits they had picked up last week and which one Jess should try to show one of her new pieces to and which one they should introduce Rey to.

“That is the absolute last thing I want.” Rey grumbled. “They go all wide-eyed when they see me. I was stationed on repairs two days ago and this one tech, I think his name was Matt, he just kept dropping everything every time I tried to help him. Didn’t even know what a spanner wrench was!”

“Ouch, seriously?” Rose asked. “How do you not know what a spanner wrench is. That’s basically his number one tool.” Rose laughed. “Imagine his face if you showed up in what you just bought.”

Rey laughed too before pulling up short. “You know, I don’t think I actually saw his face. He seemed really shy, mostly he was under the x-wing.”

“I’ve seen his face!” Jess chirped. “He’s really cute. Hair’s a mess, but his lips. You should go for it. Y’know, assuming he doesn’t pass out as soon as he sees you in all of that lace.”

“I’ll consider it, if he manages to ever speak more than one word at a time to me.” It was a lie, but conceding to flirt with some new tech was easier than trying to avoid their other ideas of getting her to hook up with other recruits. She wondered how many times she could tell Ben it wasn’t too late to change his mind before he blocked her out for once.

“That’s fair.” Rose said, picking up the pace as The Falcon came into view, ramp down and Chewie waiting, arms crossed as he watched the foot traffic through the port. He waved when he saw their trio and retreated into the ship.

“Ready?” Rey asked, dropping into the co-pilot's chair, smiling at the wookie as he growled out an affirmative answer, flicking all of the toggles needed to initiate the startup sequence.

They made it back to their ship base in no time at all, had just landed when The Falcon shuddered and a high pitched whine sounded. Chewbacca growled and Rey laughed. “Don’t worry about it.” She said, shutting the ship down. “I’ll take care of it, you go rest, you’ve earned it.” The wookie let out a sequence of happy chuffs before standing and exiting the cockpit. Rose appeared a moment later.

“You need any help?”

“No, I’ll be alright, if it needs something more in depth I’ll finish it up tomorrow. Go do whatever you’re going to do with Finn.” Rey stood, shooing Rose out.

“Well first I’m going to -”

“Tell me nothing.” Rey laughed, putting a hand over Rose’s mouth. “Take her out of here.” She gently pushed Rose towards Jessika, who gave an awkward salute before they both sauntered to the elevator bay. Rey watched them go and then sighed, regretting leaving on the sexy underthings now that she was going to be tinkering with The Falcon.

“Nothing for it now.” She grumbled after getting the diagnostics report, stalking to where the tools were kept. She stashed what she would immediately need on her belt. “Oi! Matt!” She called across the bay, spotting a mop of messy blonde hair. She heard a clang as something fell from the top of the x-wing he was working on. He twisted toward her. “Do you know where they stashed the tall ladder?” He answered with a negative noise and Rey scrunched up her nose before pulling over one of the standard ladders that were used to get into the x-wings. She scaled the ladder quickly before getting a solid hand hold on The Falcon itself. Scaling it was miles easier than all of her time spent scavenging star destroyers. She blinked down at the top of it, a quilt of scavenged together pieces in places. “Kriffing hell.” She muttered, kicking her way over to a smoking panel. For a moment she stared at the wires in disbelief. It was a miracle they made it back safe she mused while cutting them out.

“How’s it look?” Matt. It had to be, she stuck her head over the side to look down, and sure enough, there he was, hands shoved deep in his pockets and studying his shoes.

“Have you met the porgs yet?” Rey asked, swinging herself over and descending quickly.

“The what?” he practically jumped when she landed next to him.

“Porgs. Follow me.” She stalked into The Falcon and looked around. “Which one of you did this?” She dropped the wires in front of the closest nest and received a wide eyed chirrup back. “How did you even get up there?” another chirrup and she grunted. “I would take you all back to that island in a heartbeat or eat you, if Chewie didn’t like you all so much.” a small porglette head appeared under the wing of the one that she had been talking at and released a tiny squak. “You’re lucky you’re cute.” She pointed. “You can come in, I don’t really think they bite, although they do try to eat everything.”

She turned towards Matt with a smile that slipped from her face when she finally got a good look at his face for the first time. “A week.” She frowned, crossing her arms across her chest. “You’ve been here a week. How long were you hoping to keep this up? Does your mother know?” He was hovering in the doorway of the landing ramp, eyes fliting around to take everything in.

“It looks the same.” He ignored her questions.

“Ben,” Rey stepped closer to him, “What are you doing here?” She reached up and gently tugged the blonde wig from his head before gently removing the glasses to tuck them away in the pouch on her belt. “And why in a disguise this bad?”

“I was in a hurry.” She let him take the wig back, watched it fall to the floor before he took her hand in his. “There was a camera,” he muttered with a roll of his jaw, “in the elevator - in the throne room. Hux found it, there was a coup.”

“We haven’t heard anything about it.” She grumbled, but felt the Force pulse with the truth of his words. “What possessed you to come here, though?”

The corner of Ben’s lip twitched. “You. Ignorance doesn’t suit you, Rey.”

She hummed, pulling at the front of his uniform dragging him far enough into The Falcon so she could hit the button to close the ramp. “You know, Rose and Jess wanted me to flirt with Matt, but I told them he was too shy.” She frowned and pushed away from him. “What were you doing earlier? Do you seriously hang out in your room wearing your usual clothes in case the bond opens?”

“No, those are just my clothes.” He smirked now, leaning in towards her. “Speaking of…”

Rey reached up, tangling her fingers in the ends of his hair. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” She teased, teeth catching on his lower lips.

“Yes, I would.” This time when their lips met its desperate and hungry and everything Rey was hoping the kiss from earlier would build into. “Is this okay?” He rasped against her neck as his hands fumbled with her belt and sash. She huffed, smiling against his cheek, before removing her fingers from his hair to help him out. “Stars, Rey.” He gasped, pulling away as her shirt fell to floor to look at her. “I thought I was dreaming when I saw you earlier.” He murmured, tips of his fingers tracing the straps down to the gem.

“Ben, you already have me out of my top, you don’t need to try so hard with the flattery.” She rolled her eyes, unzipping his jacket.

“So when Matt gets leave, how opposed would you be if I bought several more of these, in every color?”

Rey tipped her head back and laughed. “Very. This was a nightmare to get into.”

“Then let me help you get out of it.”

“Shut up and kiss me again, because that was the worst line I’ve ever heard.” Ben’s laugh was more of a huff of exasperation, but he complied with her request with a bruising kiss, fingers slipping under the straps as his palms cupped her tits. “Ben.” she whined, pushing into his hands as she finally revealed his torso, raking her nails down over him before looping her fingers into the waistband of his pants. “Please.” She whispered, giving a gentle tug, rocking into him.

“Anything.” He groaned, pulling the cups of her bra down and exposing her perky tits to his view. His tongue had just met the tip of a nipple when there was a squak from the right. “But maybe,” He drawled, bringing his hands up to pinch each nipple in turn. “Not where those creepy things can watch.”

[mistressofmuses]

Holiday Special

“We have a holiday special running,” chirped the barista at the register. “If you get one of our peppermint mochas, a second one is only a dollar!”

Brenden wrinkled his nose in disgust before he even thought about it. “Er, no thanks. Does the special apply to a regular mocha?”

“Sorry, no, just the seasonal peppermint.”

“Okay, I’ll get a medium regular mocha.”

“We have peppermint stir sticks for only fifty cents.”

“No thank you. I’m just not a big fan of peppermint.”

He paid for his drink, and went to wait at the bar and look out over the café. It was crowded, with no unoccupied tables. He sighed. He didn’t have class for another hour, and no way did he want to wait outside in this awful below-freezing weather.

The man who’d been behind him in line came up next to him at the bar. Judging by the line of cups on the counter in back, they’d both be waiting for a while.

“I thought it was just me,” the other man said.

Brenden glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, assuming the other man was on the phone or something. More than once he’d acknowledged some comment from a stranger only to get a weird look and belatedly realize they had a Bluetooth receiver clipped to their ear. This stranger was cute, dressed for the weather, yet looking like he’d stepped out of a fashion spread, with a black wool coat perfectly tailored to him, and red scarf artfully draped over his shoulders. Definitely the type who might have an earpiece.

“That disliked peppermint, I mean,” The stranger clarified. “This time of year is practically torture.”

“Oh,” Brenden replied, blinking. “Yeah, it’s all but unavoidable, isn’t it?”

“Tell me about it,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Suddenly everything has to have a candy cane in it. Perfectly self-respecting mochas, brownies, sugar cookies, ice cream, for heaven’s sake. All of them suddenly adulterated with peppermint.”

Brenden laughed.

“I’m Ryan, by the way,” the other man stuck a hand out.

Brenden took it. Ryan’s hand was warmer than his. “Brenden,” he introduced himself.

“Come to this coffee shop often?” Ryan asked, brushing his bangs to the side.

“Not real often,” Brenden said. “Just when the bus schedule and my classes don’t sync up quite right. It’s a nice spot to kill a few minutes out of the cold. My classes don’t start until 3:00 today.”

“Ah, you’re a student?” Ryan asked. “I’ve been thinking about maybe taking a few classes. I wanted to take a year off after high school, but then I got a job, and a year turned into, well, a lot more than that.”

Ryan certainly didn’t look like he’d been out of high school “a lot more than” a year. He looked about Ryan’s age, just an extremely well-put-together twenty instead of a self-described-disaster twenty. Must have been a damn good job he’d gotten.

“Regular mocha!” a barista called out, setting the drink on the counter.

A second barista almost immediately called out, “Cinnamon latte, extra whip!” and set that one down next to Brenden’s mocha.

Ryan picked up the cinnamon latte and then gestured to a table across the room. “Look, a table opened up. We could grab it before anyone else swoops in.”

“Er, sure,” Brenden said, picking up his mocha and following Ryan to the table. It made sense to share the table, considering how packed the café still was. Sharing with someone you’d at least said ‘hi’ to was a bit better than having to ask a complete stranger if you could sit next to them.

Brenden set his bag and his coat on the other empty chair at the table, not wanting them to touch the ground, which had snowmelt all over it. He prepared to dig out a book to read to pass the time.

But to his surprise, Ryan didn’t immediately pull out his phone or a book of his own or something else to pay attention to. He had a notebook with him, but he just set it down. Instead he looked at Brenden and asked, “So what are you studying in your classes? Let me guess… business major, maybe?”

“Nothing so practical, I’m afraid…” And then Brenden was explaining his weird decision to major in literature and minor in both anthropology and world history. “It’s awful!” he said with a laugh. “I know I’m condemning myself to a future of teaching, but I can’t help it, because I love the subjects so much, I just keep adding more classes.”

“Isn’t that a good thing, then?” Ryan asked. “If you love the subjects, you’re the one who should be teaching them, don’t you think? Your far-off-future students will be glad for a little enthusiasm.”

Ryan brushed his bangs to the side again, and took a sip of his latte. He was clearly waiting for Brenden to reply, and Brenden found himself a little tongue-tied. He was used to people—strangers, acquaintances, and friends alike—seeming almost disappointed in him for his choices. Usually this was the point in a conversation where he said something self-deprecating, or laughed about how impractical he was being.

“I guess I never really gave it that much thought,” Brenden admitted. “Everyone just tells me that that’s what I’m doing—condemning myself to being unsuited for anything except teaching—like it’s a bad thing, so I just sort of resigned myself to it. Not many people rushing to hire lit majors for anything else.”

“I mean, if you hate the idea of teaching, of course you should aim for something else, but don’t let some snide jerk convince you that it’s a terrible fate. You love the subjects; teaching other people to love them too doesn’t sound like the worst thing to me.”

“That’s a fair point,” Brenden said. And it was. He really had been thinking of teaching as something he was going to somehow be forced into, like a sad fallback plan, as if it wasn’t a worthy goal in and of itself. When his high-end event-planning brother and his environmental scientist sister sighed and shook their heads at him, he’d just accepted that he was the flighty slacker sibling.

He shook his head and broke out of his thoughts. “How about you?” he asked Ryan, acutely aware that he’d been the topic of conversation for far too long at this point. “You come to this café often?”

The alarm on Brenden’s phone went off, alerting him that he had twenty-five minutes until class started, and he needed to get going. He tapped the snooze button, buying himself an extra three minutes.

“Not really,” Ryan answered. “It was just a whim today. I’m usually not even over in this part of town. I just had an errand, and was really craving some caffeine. Glad I did.”

“Yeah, this café is pretty good,” Brenden said. “Outrageous number of peppermint holiday specials aside.”

Ryan smiled and took another sip of his latte. “At least peppermint season isn’t forever. Did you have to go?” He glanced pointedly at Brenden’s phone.

“Nah, I’m good for a few more minutes,” he said. Then Ryan wrote something in his notebook, and he worried that Ryan had been trying to hint to him that they should part ways. His brain struggled to find something else to ask Ryan to justify those extra few minutes. “So if you were going to go to school for something, what classes would you take?”

Ryan laughed and tore out the page he’d written on. “Oh, probably something wildly impractical, like literature.”

Brenden laughed along with him.

“Maybe you could tutor me,” Ryan said, grinning. “Since I’m a few years out of practice with academics.”

“It’d give me some practice for my inevitable teaching career,” Brenden said, stroking his chin in mock-thoughtfulness.

His snoozed alarm lit his phone back up, as it rang and vibrated across the table. He sighed, genuinely regretting that he had to break off the conversation. Ryan was nice to talk to, and just unfairly attractive. It wasn’t the kind of opportunity that Brenden had every day. “I really do have to get going,” he said apologetically, swiping the alarm off. “Or I’ll be late.” 22 minutes would already be cutting it close.

“No problem. I hope I didn’t take up too much of your time,” Ryan said. “It was good to talk to you.” Ryan stood up too, and handed Brenden his coat.

“Thanks. I hope you do decide to take some classes.”

“Thank you. And I hope you have good luck with yours.”

As Brenden rushed out into the cold outside air, he jammed his hands into his pockets. It was a shame he was unlikely to see Ryan again, since he admitted that he was never on this end of town.

His fingers brushed a folded piece of paper, which didn’t feel like a receipt. He pulled it out, and read the note below the phone number written on it.

I was hoping you’d ask for my number, but you didn’t take the hint, and I’m giving it to you anyway. Read between the lines, lit-major! And call me sometime. –Ryan

~

@yourbookcouldbegayer

Prompt was: "Your characters meet at a coffee shop and bond over their shared hatred of peppermint flavored drinks. When they leave, one of the characters is pretty sure they’ll never see the other person again, but guess whose number they find in their pocket?”

Managed to get this one done mostly in the morning before work! It’s another meet-cute, kinda like day 1, but since I never get to write purely fluffy things like this, I enjoyed indulging in it. Even though I love peppermint. 

[mrevaunit42]

Road to being a hero (My hero academia AU prequel)

Hello everyone, Mr.E here wishing you a fantastic week! 

I’m here to say happy birthday @minthia-ren *throws confetti* WOO! and for your birthday I took a wild guess and made this *an idea give to me by @artgirllullaby thanks lullaby!*

So a few weeks ago i made a SVTFOE my hero academia au which you can read right here  https://mrevaunit42.tumblr.com/post/162875418322/im-going-to-be-a-hero-boku-no-academia-au-part   I had loads of fun with it and figured you know what would be really cool, making a prequel of it.

So while this is based on the my hero academia series *highly recommend* this is not exactly a one to one as i like to change up things in aus so i can write my own version of stories in that world. 

All Might and The Queen *this au’s Eraserhead* are the top heroes around but before they were they best, they were River Johansen and moon Butterfly, two students at UA high, training ground for all heroes and while River doesn’t technically have a quirk, he isn’t the only one with a secret. 

So this takes place before River gains one for all and is basically the first day of school of his freshman year.

The main bad of this story is basically an oc but there are two old foes who have cameos in this I was just too lazy to describe them. also no spoilers I made this background up

Have an amazing birthday minty and you too if it’s your birthday when you read this. Happy birthday! *yes I stole this from Caddy and I don’t care.* 

Notification squad: @hipster-rapunzel @nerdymetalhead @isolated-frequencies @ladyxgilex @thefandombytes 

“Wow….”

The words slipped out of young 14 year old River Johansen but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t contain the excitement bubbling in the pit of his stomach. Despite the setbacks, despite the nay sayers, despite being told an undeveloped quirk was paramount to being quirkless, he was here. He was ready to follow his dreams and become a hero.

He was about to take his first steps into the giant, seemingly impractical building of U.A high.

River glanced down at his hand, a torrent of emotions running through him.

River was a rather unusual case in the world that bred heroes and villains overnight. Quirks were manifestations of great, weird and strange powers about 80% of the world possessed. A physical part of a person’s identity nowadays.

River technically had a quirk, a power hidden deep within himself. The problem was it was hidden too far inside and no one could hazard a guess how to get it out. The doctors referred to it as undeveloped: A quirk that had been forming but has stopped for no apparent reason. Since the quirk gene hadn’t finished developing the power, it simply did not work. It was just there.

River could still pass on his quirk to his children (Whatever it may be) and for all intents and purposes was registered as a quirk user with the government but the harsh reality remained: either the quirk would form one day or it wouldn’t.

Normal, more sane people would’ve been deterred, given up and gone out to seek normal, everyday lives but not River. He was neither of those words and he refused to allow his destiny to stop there. He would be a hero even if he had to claw his way from the bottom to get there.

And claw he did.

Without access to his quirk, River decided to focus on the one thing he could control: Himself.

He trained intensely over the last few years, building his strength and stamina to peak physical condition. He could run miles without tiring, bench press double his weight and picks fights with bears and come out the victor.

Not that he did fight any bears. That would silly and dangerous of course.

However, despite all his hard work and effort, no one would take him seriously whenever he declared he would be a hero. An undeveloped quirk, they reasoned, was just as bad as being quirkless. He would never be a true hero because it was simply too dangerous for someone who was basically human.

River never listened to them for a moment. He refused to believe such a thing and even if he had to lie to get into UA, he would get in.

Which, coincidentally he might’ve actually done.

River nervously glanced over his schedule, trying to keep a calm face amidst the happy go lucky teenagers that surrounded him as he focused on the most troubling aspect of the piece of paper he held in his hand

Quirk: Super Strength.

So he panicked. It was perfectly understandable given how left field the proctor’s question came from and it’s not like anyone was hurt. True his hand was a little swollen and bruised after defeating so many test bots but he passed 1st place with a nice chunk of rescue points on the side. He was living proof one did not need to have a quirk to be a hero.

Too bad he couldn’t actually tell anyone about that.

“It’s fine” River muttered to himself, anxiously fixing his school uniform, patting down his short blonde hair “it’s fine, no one will ever find out.”

“Find out what?” A voice asked quizzically.

River nearly jumped out of his skin as he faced the owner of the question. He felt his cheeks burn as he lifted his gaze higher to find a pair light blue eyes staring him at curiously.

She was nearly a head taller than him with long straighten pale blue hair. Her face was set in a stony indifference but her eyes spoke with more emotion than he had ever seen in anyone.

“That…I…” River spoke slowly, trying to will his mushy brain to work “Don’t know where I’m going! New campus you see and I’m lost. I’m looking for 1-A but I don’t seem to…”

“1-A?” The girl repeated “That’s my class. I can show you to it if you don’t mind.”

“T-thanks!” River beamed despite the nervous beating of his heart “I’d really appreciate…say, have we met before?”

The girl rose an eyebrow “Have we? I don’t seem to recall.”

River stroked his chin thoughtfully “Oh, I remember! You were in line to take the school exam! Sorry I don’t usually forget a face, especially one as pretty as…”

River gulped, quickly covering his mouth

If the girl caught River’s slip of the tongue, she didn’t let on

“Oh, the examination. I suppose I would look familiar. I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Moon Butterfly.”

River took her hand eagerly “River. Umm, River Johansen!”

“Pleasure to meet you River.” Moon said, gently pulling her hand away “Shall we head to class?”

“Of course, ladies first”

Out of pure instinct or perhaps more likely out of some misunderstood signal from his brain, River fell into a bow before he realized what he had done.

River’s blush worsen out of embarrassment and he was at a lost how to escape this situation without further embarrassing himself.

River could feel his heart stop as Moon’s cute giggles played on his ears “Alright my good sir, please follow me.”

River scratched at his neck as he dutifully followed behind Moon.

The grin on River’s face was priceless. His muscles ached from how wide it was but he couldn’t help it! First day of school and he’s already made a new friend and no one suspected he didn’t actually have a quirk. He learned a lot from his teachers and he was finally taking the first true step to be the hero he always dreamed he would be.

Everything was coming up…

“Please, that’s all my money! I need it.”

River stopped in his tracks, ignoring the noises of the city for a moment.

“Shut up and hand it over.”

River scanned the area, eyes narrowed in concentration when he picked up a tiny whimper coming from the alley ahead.

River ran as fast as he could, barely mumbling apologizes to those who were slow in moving out of his way as he pushed past.

He ducked into the narrow passage only to find a sickening sight.

There was a boy about his age in a regular school uniform huddled on the floor, crying and sniffling as three older students hovered over him menacingly.

He had never seen any of them in his life but his heart burned with a righteous fury as he noticed the very familiar attire that the three older teens wore.

“HOW DARE YOU!” River shouted, unable to contain his rage any further.

The three older students turned around, a smug sneer dancing on their lips

“Dare what?” The middle one spoke up, taking a step forward. It was clear he was the later “We’re just doing some business. Nothing to get involved with”

River clutched his fist tightly, trying his best to ignore the barely veiled threat.

“You are UA students” he told them through tightened teeth “You are supposed to be heroes. You are supposed to protect and serve others, not your own greedy desires.”

The leader scoffed dismissively “You’re a bit naive of you think that kid. Get out of here before I show you how the world really works.”

“Meddling when you don’t need to…” River dropped into a fighting stance

“Hmm?” The trio looked confused at the 14 year old.

River took a deep, calming breath before letting out the fiercest battle cry he could muster, his fists clenched as he raced forward with all his might

“…is the essence of being a hero!”

The leader remained unimpressed as the diminutive pipsqueak inched ever closer.

River threw himself at a lunge, ready to plant his fist firmly into the jerkbutts stomach as hard as he…

He nearly lost his balanced as the leader of the bullies vanished without a word and left him grasping at empty air and despite how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop the shiver that ran down his spine upon seeing the goons knowing smirks.

River gasped loudly as all the air was knocked out of his lungs, the leader towering over him, his knee driven as deep as he could manage into River’s stomach.

River fell backwards and landed on the cold pavement.

“Tch” The leader grimaced, rubbing his aching knee “What the hell? You’re built like a wall.”

“H…how did you do that?”

“Oh the whole vanishing act?” The leader waved off the seriousness of the question “I can freeze time at will. Dangerous.”

“Yeah” the shorter goon chuckled dumbly “Except it only lasts as long as you can hold your breath.”

“IDIOT!” The leader screamed “Ugh, whatever. It’s more than a match for you pipsqueak.”

River weakly rose to his feet, fists at the ready once again.

The leader shook his head “You just don’t learn, do you?”

“I’m thick headed like that” River replied with a smug smile

The leader said nothing as his goons approached. The shorter of the two hands morphed into giant lobster pincers. The taller one’s arm turned into a massive of unrealistic bulk of muscles.

“Monster Arm, Lobster Claws teach him a lesson.” The leader grinned evilly before vanishing into thin air once again.

River braced himself as the two remaining bullies rushed towards him but before he could react to their attack, something basked him in its shadow.

River whirled around to find the leader of the scum grinning manically at him, his arm raised high.

“Hey!”

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks from the sudden outburst but while River had been expecting backup for his foes, the looks on their faces made it clear that wasn’t the case.

“3 against one seems a little unfair, doesn’t it?”

River frowned thoughtfully, the familiarity of the voice poking at his memories but he couldn’t fathom a guess who could that be.

“Now then” Moon’s voice called out “Give back whatever you took from that boy and let my friend go or else we’re going to have a problem.”

“Moon!” River cried out

The leader rolled his eyes as he turned to face yet another 14 year old brat that fancied themselves a hero.

“Look kid” he spoke condescendingly “Your little boyfriend made his choice and I need to teach him a lesson about sticking his nose in other people’s business.”

‘Boyfriend?!’ Despite the severity of the situation, River couldn’t stop the blush from forming on his cheeks.

The leader went on “So move along blue unless you want the same lesson”

Moon’s gaze was indifferent but River could see the cold, controlled fury brimming in her eyes.

“Well then” Moon said simply “I suppose I have my answer.”

The leader smirked as he inhaled deeply and…

Nothing. Nothing happened and instead of everyone else locked in place, he found himself straining, willing his body to move but his muscles remained frozen, unresponsive to his brain’s commands.

He glanced upwards only to find the brat had locked eyes with him, her light blue eyes a pale gray as her hair stood on end almost like it had been caught by a breeze.  

“Guys” He strained to talk “She’s got me locked in place”

“We’re fine” Monster arm turned to his partner in crime.

“yeah we can move.” Lobster claw answered.

“You idiots!” The leader scolded “That means she can only get one of us. GET HER!!”

“Right boss!” The pair scurried forward, their sights set on the teenager holding their boss in place but in their rush they had forgotten one tiny, angry detail.

River lunged at Lobster Claw, smashing the ¾ths teen, quarter lobster straight into a brick wall.

Lobster lashed out, flailing his claws out wildly but this wasn’t River’s first fight.

River ducked under the attack and tackled his stomach as hard as he could. Lobster claw wheezed as all the wind out was knocked out of him. he whimpered softly as he collapsed onto the floor.

River didn’t bask in his victory yet. His legs were already moving but he feared it was far too late as Monster Arm rose his hand and aimed it straight for Moon’s jaw.

The confidence never left Moon’s face as she nimbly dove under the jab, pivoting on the balls of her feet while her hair fell back into place, her eye contact with the troublesome leader broken for a moment.

Monster Arm turned around, striking outward with his hand in a wide swing but Moon was far too quick for him: She sidestepped the attack and caught the mass of muscles by the wrist. With a strained groan, she pulled Monster Arm over her shoulder and sent him slamming into the pavement with a satisfying thud.

Moon wiped her hands cleaned of non-existent dirt while she blew a loose strain of hair back into place “I’d say that’s victory for me.”

The leader disagreed silently as his muscles slowly began to relax and unstiffen now that  her gaze was turned from him. He flexed his fingers carefully, making sure he had free movement before attempting his quirk.

River made his way over to Moon, unable to keep the admiration out of his eyes “That was so cool Moon! I didn’t know you could do that. Umm, what was that exactly?”

“It’s my queenly gaze” Moon explained “but most people call it Medusa’s gaze. I can freeze anyone in place so long as I make eye contact with them. The side effects take a few seconds to wear off once I look…oh no!”

“That’s right” The leader appeared, towering above the two 14 year old’s without warning “It’s game ov…”

River moved to intercept but Moon was already on it.

Her eyes did not pale this time nor did her hair rise but her hand did and with it, a giant, shimmering blue copy appeared and squished the hapless leader of the bullies against the wall before forming out of existence without warning.

“That’s…not…fair” he whined as he fell onto the floor and unconsciousness.

Moon could feel anxiety building within her as she mentally cursed herself. She wasn’t supposed to use that so openly, so recklessly. Her mother warned her about what would happen if the wrong people discovered the secret about her second quirk. The secret of the Butterfly family….

A moment turned into seconds and seconds became dozens but eventually Moon turned to River, wondering what was going through his mind right now.

“You have a second quirk?”

Moon blinked, surprised at the excitement in his voice. Not curiosity or fear or confusion but genuine joy and giddiness.  

“Y-yes.” Moon uneasily answered “but I can’t really talk about it. I’m sorry River.”

Moon glanced downward sadly, wondering if she lost her new friend over her most guarded…

“That’s okay, I understand.”

Moon blinked in astonishment “What? Y-you do?”

River gave a cheerful nod “Of course. A second quirk is an unheard of thing. It’s a secret and one you need to keep. One I will keep.”

Moon could feel her heart skip a beat at the sight of River’s toothy grin, his blue eyes filled with sincerity.

“….I…” Moon began but River added “I’ll make it fair. I’ll tell you the secret about my quirk”

“Your quirk? You mean super strength?” Moon gestured to the imprint of Lobster Claw molded perfectly on the wall’s surface.

“Nah, that’s just because I’m strong from all the training” River revealed “but the truth is my quirk is undeveloped”

“Under….developed? I…I don’t quite follow”

“I have a quirk” River explained “But it hasn’t actually formed yet. I don’t know what it’ll be…or if it’ll ever actually become active…”

“River…”

“That’s why I lied” River went on “They would’ve never let me in the school if they found out I didn’t have a quirk.”

“Don’t be silly River” Moon shook her head “We have the support…”

“I don’t want to be support.”

Moon stared at River, his determination evident in his tone.

“I want to be a hero” River said “I want people to know everything will be alright. That no matter what is going on, they’re safe. That they have nothing to fear. You know why?”

“Why?” Moon asked gently

River gave the brightest smile he could “Because I’m there! I will be the symbol of peace and I’ll save everyone.”

Moon’s heart softened at River’s declaration, his puffed out chest and heroic pose, the smile that never left his face.

“I believe you River.” Moon told him softly.

River offered his hand “To friendship and secrets.”

Moon took it and was caught off guard how soft yet firm his hand was against hers

“To friendship and secrets.”

“So” River began as the two made their way to ensure the boy was alright “Have you ever considered wearing goggles?”

“No.” Moon answered uneasily “Why?”

“I think it’d help with your quirk. Really freak people out if they can’t tell who you’re looking at. Plus I bet you look really cool.”

“Thanks River. I’ll keep that in mind.”

[jojen-hewitt]

“Better luck next time.”

Bank Robber AU for @ambiguous-eyepatch for the Valentines @aftgexchange!

I had a lot of fun drawing these and I hope you like it! 😃

I realized too late that this wasn't exactly what you meant by your prompt, sorry about that, but I hope it's still okay!

The rest of my mini-fic/headcanons/ramblings about this AU are below the cut:

Okay, so right off the bat I got a little carried away with this AU and its way longer than I thought it'd be, so tldr version; Andrew and Neil are rival thieves who sometimes help each other out. Neil gives fake names, Andrew finds him interesting. Two finger salutes are used back and forth. The others make appearances. Neil's a little shit to Riko. Totally impractical, illegal, and very convenient scenarios ensue. Exactly what you'd expect from what was supposed to be a Bank Robber AU but turned more into a Cat Burglar AU. Again, sorry about that!

So, *rolls up sleeves*

Andrew, Aaron, and Nicky are a gang of thieves (Aaron is the tech/medic guy, Andrew's the thief, Nicky is usually the distraction/get away driver). The three of them have been doing this since the twins were in high school. ("It's expensive raising two twin boys as a single parent. Especially when one has expensive tastes in cars and the other wants to be a doctor!" "For the last time Nicky, stop telling people we're your kids!!")

Although Andrew has been doing this on his own for a while (it's how he got himself thrown into juvie)

Neil takes to becoming a thief after his mom died. They still went on the run because they stole from his father, so he thought that would be the best way to keep up some kind of income. He changes name and appearance to avoid police and his father (heads up now, this is the last time Nathan's mentioned, didn't know how else to add him).

Neil threw his outfit together at a thrift store (Orange was the only colour of bandana left, ok).

Andrew of course bought nice, expensive, dark clothes that can blend easily in a crowd. Also to make him look ninja like, not like anyone but Nicky would dare to admit it though.

These two first meet at the Hernandez Museum in Arizona. Neil tries to steal a painting; Andrew whacks him in the gut with his poster portfolio before grabbing the painting and high tailing it outta there, (Not before he gets a fake name from Neil (probably Stefan)),

"Better luck next time." *two finger salute*

As Neil moves on to South Carolina, sometimes the orange gets recognized, so the papers have taken to calling him The Fox ("Really, Matt? That's what they call him?" "Yeah, you know, orange face mask and he's a thief. Dan came up with it. Makes sense if you ask me.")

Side note, Neil is Matt's new roommate and Matt has no clue what's going down, but accepts that his roomie runs at weird hours and prefers to keep things surface level in conversation. They're still bffs during the day when their schedules intersect.

Dan, the investigative reporter interested in this string of robberies, lives with Renee next door to the cousins, those shifty looking guys who are always angrily whispering in German at each other and coming and going at weird times, but Nicky seems nice enough and Dan thinks Renee has a thing for Andrew, (she does not, they just spar together once a week, and Renee may or may not teach Andrew some lock picking techniques... maybe), so they let it go. 

Allison is a close friend of the girls and owns some of the valuables/buildings that get targeted. She's sort of confused when some of these items return a few weeks after Dan reports about them stolen, with a fox sticky note attached

(Neil may steal for a living, but he feels bad when he finds out some of that stuff is hers, so returns the more sentimental items. Andrew does not.)

Kevin is the detective trying to catch these thieves with his new partner - Andrew, who uses info to get a good location/hit or cover his trail. (also puts that criminal justice degree to some use).

*I debated making Kevin a security guard but liked the idea of Andrew being his partner while also being the criminal they're trying to catch dynamic better*

Kevin eventually joins up with Andrew's crew because Riko (Kevin's old partner, also on the robberies case) just took things way too far and sort of snapped, almost injuring Kevin. He won't take part in the robberies himself, but he'll help give a lead or distract the attention of the other officers when Andrew needs it. (He just wants Andrew to help keep him from Riko again.)

Kevin takes his job very seriously, but when he finds out Neil, an old childhood acquaintance, is The Fox he warns him to run before more trouble starts up with Riko (Neil does not, he's found a life here, even if some of its a lie, and he's gonna fight for it).

Kevin starts drinking around this time. (seriously, all he wanted was to be a good detective like his mom and dad, now he's covering for two thieves he's supposed to be apprehending for lord knows what reason)

Seth is a security guard who Nicky takes great pleasure in knocking out (he overheard the guy said some shitty things about gay people while they were staking out the place earlier)

Erik is the cousins' international seller.

Wymack is the police chief/commissioner and doesn’t get paid enough.

Now back to the thieving.

Neil keeps running into this guy at his heists and it turns into a sort of one sided rivalry of Neil trying to case the joint before Andrew gets there.

It barely works, Andrew always beats him there, but he gets better at it. (and someone would be lying if they said Andrew doesn't wait sometimes to see if the Fox shows up)

Neil's taken to calling Andrew the Monster because Allison hates whoever keeps stealing her stuff (also, getting hit by a portfolio tube hurts, Andrew, of course he's gonna think you're a monster at first) but after one time he hears Aaron yelling over Andrew's earpiece, he extends the title to "the Monsters".

which is also roughly when Andrew gives him some sort of name in return to Neil's alias (Chris this time around) because this has been going on for months now.

Andrew eventually makes a deal with him to help each other out because this thief is a train wreck and is gonna get them caught eventually (Andrew will keep the police off his tail and Neil just has to help Andrew with some of the trickier robberies).

Andrew tends to chat a little with this weird Fox named Alex or Stefan or Chris or Duncan or whoever he is today, just 'cause these robberies have started to bore him, but this,

this guy is something interesting

And they start to learn little seemingly inconvenient things about each other

("Oh, there's knives in those? Good to know." "Your mom's dead? Same for my brother. Paid for my car." "Favourite color is grey actually!" "You're more a raccoon than a fox." "Actually my family never celebrated holidays. What brings you to a jewelry store on Thanksgiving?" "I don't like being touched." "Tell your friend that I can in fact understand what he's saying in German... And fuck him too." "Ice cream is the best goddamn food in the world and I will gut you for saying otherwise!")

... Ok, last one is more context than verbatim, but you get the point...

As he gets better, Neil starts to leave little fox sticky notes behind with insults towards Detective Moriyama (because fuck that guy, he keeps bad mouthing The Fox in the news and saying it'd be easy to catch "an amateur like this flea"!!)

Kevin and Andrew have mini heart attacks when they find them ("why agree to my protection when you clearly have a death wish?!")

Eventually, Neil has perfected the art to the point where he can get the item/money before Andrew arrives, but against his better judgement (and the screams of his mother in his head to "Just run! Run! Get out of there while you can!") he stays, even just to leave Andrew with a new fake name.

One of these nights Neil almost gets caught by Riko on patrol, (who is still rather enraged by the last note; how does the Fox even know about his daddy issues?), so he has to change his appearance last minute to not get recognized on the streets.

Matt is the most surprised by the new auburn hair and blue eyes, but again, he rolls with it. Recommends that his girlfriend's roommate is really good with dying hair if he wants to mix it up again though.

Andrew and Aaron get into some trouble (*cough*Drake*cough*) so the Monsters are out of commission for a while.

Neil feels slightly responsible (somehow his tip off to Andrew leads to it, I don't know).

They haven't seen each other since that night.

Andrew eventually gets back into the swing of things ("Andrew are you sure..?" "Yes Nicky, now get in the fucking car.")

One night Kevin gets him a tip off about an opportunity at the EVRMR Private Bank (inside info from Jean who just so happens to hate working there and the Moriyamas, who own the place).

So as Andrew makes his way to the roof, he hears something below (hurried foot steps from all too familiar worn out shoes below) and he takes a glance and sees a flash of orange.

And there's that bothersome shadow who was only supposed to be a brief distraction from routine,

but now he's got a slightly new look and what appears to be a duffle full of what's supposed to be Andrew's cash.

Neil senses eyes on him and sees a figure on the roof and just knows.

Cue two finger salute. "Better luck next time!!"

And he's gone.

(Andrew still checks the vault and finds a fox sticky note that says 'Abram')

*cue Aaron's screams of annoyance and Nicky's demands to know if this guy is at least hot if they keep letting him take their marks*

(Kevin probably is downing a vodka bottle somewhere, but that's a given)

Next day, Riko is out for blood. Jean eventually quits and goes to work at the Trojan Bank.

Later, Dan decides to throw a house party for reasons (maybe a successful article? Matt got a promotion? A doomed attempt to get Renee and Andrew together?)

Renee calmly asks Andrew to come and he agrees for the sake of free booze (also Nicky has been making annoying puppy dog faces at the door ever since Dan asked him and he had to say no)

He's bored and tired and hates that his boss and Kevin are there

(Dan spends so much time hounding the police station for stories that Wymack has essentially adopted her)

Then Matt comes in with a quiet, auburn haired roommate called Neil.

That's when things start to get interesting.

[likeawildthing]

have a cleaned up but still ridiculous ‘brought together by a minor car accident’ au because jily. and llamas.

“Hello? Ma’am? Are you okay?”

Lily opened her eyes to find a boy staring at her through her car window with mild concern on his face. Two boys, actually. She blinked, trying to refocus her gaze. Didn’t work, but he was so pretty she almost didn’t mind seeing two of him.

“Are you okay?” he asked again.

Lily took stock—her knee hurt like hell, but the airbag had deployed and prevented serious injury. Her greatest danger seemed to be repeated sneezing from the bloody white powder still hanging in the air.

She rolled down her window. “I think so, yeah.”

“Thank fuck—I mean god. I mean shit.” He rested a hand on the roof of her car and leaned forward. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Lily said, leaning her head back on her seat. “Did I hit the llama?”

The grin slipped of his face—faces. “You don’t remember what happened?”

“Er…I hit a llama?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I didn’t?”

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“There was a llama…right?” She swore there was a llama, and swearing, and swerving.

“A llama, or a mutant sheep,” he said, grinning slightly. Lily’s vision finally focused—there was only one of him now. He was far handsomer than her blurry vision had given him credit for. 

He had a very nice smile, didn’t he?

“You really don’t remember?” he asked. She shook her head. Or started to, but stopped, due to the pain. Good Teeth leaned forward. “Are you sure you’re okay? Were you unconscious just then?”

“No,” Lily said, because that was the appropriate reply when someone asked you if you were just unconscious.

“Right,” he said. She could tell he didn’t believe her. She didn’t believe her.

“Was I unconscious?”

“Maybe. And you didn’t hit the llama, you hit me.”

“Fuck, sorry.”

“No worries, mate. I hit you, too.”

“Well, are you okay then?”

He shrugged. “Me? Yeah.”

Lily frowned. She couldn’t see any injuries from this vantage point, but he was leaning on the car, and she couldn’t see.

“I’m fine, really,” he insisted. “Besides, I’m not the one with a possible head injury.”

“I don’t have a possible head injury.” That was quite possibly untrue, as the throbbing in her head reached critical peak.

“Since you have a head injury,” he said, ignoring her, “I’ll tell you that we both swerved to avoid hitting the llama, and then. I’m not sure, actually. I think we hit each other.”

“You think?”

“It all happened very fast.”

“My mum’s gonna murder me.”

“Not if you die first.”

“That’s awful,” she said, but her grin betrayed her amusement.

He ducked his head sheepishly

“Sorry—inappropriate humor,” he said, ducking his head sheepishly—not the mutant kind, either. The slightly adorable kind. “Coping mechanism.”

Why couldn’t she can’t stop staring at his face?

“D’you have a phone?” he asked, pulling her out of her trance. “I called emergency, but my phone died. They’re on their way. Hopefully. Reckon they aren’t keen on the line disconnecting though.”

Lily frowned. It hadn’t yet occurred to her to call emergency. “Mine’s dead—forgot my charger at school.”

“What are the odds?”

“Well, given that my favorite shoe broke this morning, and I dropped my toast and spilled my tea when said shoe broke, and I’ve just gotten into an accident caused by a llama…”

He grinned. “Fair point. We’ll just hang out until they come, then.”

“Mhm.” Lily rubbed her forehead, wishing her headache would just…not.

“Well, then. What’s your name, Miss I-wasn’t-unconscious? Your birthday? Favorite color?”

“I do not have a head injury.”

“Still. I’d feel better if you answered the questions.”

“Well, you don’t know anything about me, so how can that possibly help?”

“You were definitely unconscious.”

“I was resting my eyes.”

“Listen—”

“Fine” Lily said, heaving a dramatic sigh. “Lily Evans. Nineteen. Blue. Not just any shade of blue, mind. Not like, regular blue, or slate blue—that’s too gray—or even periwinkle or anything pastel. Like the deepest, darkest shade of navy you can imagine. Almost black. That blue, and only that blue. Happy?”

“Well, then.”

“You asked.”

“Fair point.”

“How bad are the cars?”

“Not bad. Don’t worry about it. I think you should lie back.”

“I think I should get out.” She reached for her handle, and he looked for a moment like he was going to argue, but instead, he stepped away so she could swing the door open. She stepped out, then immediately wobbled with stabbing pain that shot up from her knee when she put weight on her left leg. When he stepped forward to help, she all but sagging against him.

She could all but sag against the car, but why would she, given the alternative?

“I think my knee is busted.”

“Clearly,” he said, placing a steadying hand on the small of her back. “Can you walk?”

“To where? I think I need to just…sit. Right here.”

“I think we should move to the grass.”

“Why?”

“I need to sit, for one, and you can lie down while we wait.”

“How do I know you aren’t going to murder me?”

“My car is full of balloons, Evans. No room for a body.”

She looked over her door at his car which was, aside from being properly banged up in the corner, full of balloons. She looked at him. “That’s not helping your ‘I’m not a creep’ case, Mister I’m-not-a-balloon-weilding-maniac.”

“They’re for a prank—long story. And it’s not the point. I really feel like you should be sitting.”

“I really feel like not being murdered.”

“I wouldn’t be nearly this concerned with your possible head injury if I was going to kill you, Evans. That’d only work to my advantage.”

This made a strange kind of sense to Lily. Something. The grass—lying down on the grass, sleeping on the grass—held a certain kind of appeal. Just…one problem. “I’m not sure I can walk.”

“Come on, then. You’re a wreck.”

“Ha.”

Before she could process what was happening, he picked her up clean off the ground. Like in a movie. It was possibly the sexiest thing that had happened to her. Except that she was covered in white powder. And definitely had a black eye, and maybe a minor concussion. The pain from her knee might kill her before he ever did.

“I’ve always wanted to sweep a pretty girl off her feet,” he said, carrying her around both cars to the shallow ditch that ran parallel to the road, “but this isn’t what I envisioned.”

“I always wanted to be hit on by a tall, handsome, bespectacled stranger, but this isn’t what I meant.” No complaints, though.

“No complaints here, either.”

Fuck all, did she actually say that last bit out loud?

“James,” he said.

“Hm?”

“I’m James.”

He sat her down on the embankment, then plopped down right next to her. He didn’t object when she leaned against his shoulder for support.

“I might have a slight head injury, James.”

“I know.”

“Can we pretend you have a head injury and you tell me things about you, too?” You know, for science.

“Right, well. James Potter. 27th Mach. And green. Apparently.”

“Oh?”

He picked at a clump of grass. “Recent development.”

“Do you have a brain injury?”

“No. You’re just very distracting.”

“Ah.”

“I don’t think I was supposed to move you from the car.”

“I moved myself first, James Potter, and I think that’s a spinal cord.”

He laughed. “We’re really, really bad at this car accident thing.”

“Yeah,” she said, and then she noticed his shaking hands. “Hey. Are you okay?”

“What?” He followed her gaze. “Yeah. Just…adrenaline.”

She grabbed it. To steady it, because he’d been nice to her, and carried her, and this was the decent thing to do. It’d be completely warped to note how nice her hand felt in his, or how it calmed her even though she could feel his heartbeat through their joined hands. And then she noticed his shin. His gashed and bleeding shin.

“I might have a slight concussion, James Potter, but you have a profusely bleeding shin.”

“Yeah. I’ll be fine though. Nothing to your knee.”

“Are you the new Potters who just moved here?”

He laughed again. She liked that, too. “Nothing really goes unnoticed around here, huh?”

“The sooner you learn that, the better. And I think the llama probably belongs to the Stevensons. It wandered an awfully long way, if that’s the case, but ‘tis the season.”

“For llamas?”

“For llama mating.”

“Ah.”

She’d let that crash and burn, yeah? Ha.

“You know,” she said, trying desperately to sound more casual than she felt, which was all jittery and weird, and for reasons that had nothing to do with the accident. “In terms of being rescued by a tall, handsome stranger, this is pretty on scenario.”

He smiled. “I’m not sure it counts as rescued when I am part of the cause.”

“No complains.”

“Well, Evans. How did you envision a tall, dashing man hitting on you? Because I am more than happy to oblige you there.”

“I think you just did.”

“That’s how you envisioned it?”

“Well, no, but we already have a hot date scheduled.”

“Oh?”

“At accident and emergency, because you are definitely getting that shin looked at.”

“It’s not so bad.”

“You’re going to need stitches. Probably a scar.”

“Damn,” he said. “There go my dashing good looks.”

She squeezed his hand. “I didn’t say dashing, James. I said handsome.”

“Well, then.”

“But you’re that, too.”

“I think I like you, Lily. Which is mad, given that we’ve known each other for twenty minutes.”

“It’s been a really intense twenty minutes though.”

“True.”

They heard sirens, and a moment later the rescue response appeared over the crest of a distant hill. The impractical, really enjoying leaning on James Potter’s shoulder part of her almost wished they hadn’t been so bloody efficient in their response time.

“You’d better lie down, Evans, or they’ll yell at me for letting you sit up.”

With a smart-arse salute, Lily lay down on the grass just as the ambulance came into proper view. “Do you think you should give me mouth-to-mouth?”

“Maybe after our hot date this afternoon.”

“Good plan. I like you, too, you know.”

“I’d figured that out, yeah.”

“And that’s not even the weirdest thing that’s happened to me today.”

“I dunno that I’d qualify this part as weird, so much as awesome.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “You know what I mean.”

“Strangely enough,” James said, grinning down at her. “I do.”

[fyeahjamesandlily]

merry christmas, @from-james-to-lily, who requested ‘met by a minor car accident’ au

“Hello? Ma’am? Are you okay?”

When she opened her eyes, a distraught, concerned looking boy was staring at her through her car window. Two of them, actually. Lily blinked, trying to refocus her gaze. Didn’t work.

He was so pretty she almost didn’t mind seeing two of him.

When she didn’t respond right away, he asked the question again.

Lily took stock—her knee hurt like hell, but the airbag had deployed, preventing serious injury. Her greatest danger? Sneezing from the bloody white powder hanging in the air.

She rolled down her window. “I’m okay. Did I hit the llama?”

His faces shifted from mildly concerned to gravely concerned.

“You—you don’t remember what happened?”

“Er…I hit a llama?”

“No. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Was there a llama?” she asked.

“That, or a mutant sheep,” he said, grinning. Lily’s vision finally focused. There was only one of him, but he was far handsomer than her blurry vision had given him credit for.

“You really don’t remember?” he asked. She shook her head. Or started to, but stopped. He put an arm on the roof of her car and leaned forward. “Are you sure you’re okay? Were you unconscious just then?”

“No.”

“Right. Well, you didn’t hit the llama, you hit me.”

“Fuck, sorry.”

“No worries, mate. I hit you, too.”

“Well, are you okay then?”

“Me? Yeah. I’m not the one with a possible head injury.”

“I don’t have a possible head injury.” But that was quite possibly a lie. Her head throbbed something fierce.

“We both swerved to avoid hitting the llama, and then. I’m not sure, actually. I think we hit each other.”

“You think?”

“It all happened very fast.”

“My mum’s gonna murder me.”

“Not if you die first.”

“That’s awful.”

He ducked his head. Sheepishly. Not mutant-like at all.

“Sorry—inappropriate humor,” he said. “Coping mechanism.”

“Right.”

She was just in a bloody car accident and she can’t stop staring at his face. Maybe she did have a head injury.

“D’you have a phone? I called emergency, but my phone died. They’re on their way. Hopefully. Reckon they aren’t keen on the line disconnecting.”

“It’s dead.”

“What are the odds?”

“Well, given that my favorite shoe broke this morning, and I dropped my toast and spilled my tea when said shoe broke, and I’ve just gotten into a car accident caused by a llama…”

“Fair point.”

“Well, then. What’s your name? Your birthday? Favorite color?”

“I do not have a head injury.”

“I’d feel better if you answered the questions.”

“Well, you don’t know anything about me, so how can that possibly help?”

“You were definitely unconscious.”

“I was resting my eyes.”

“Listen—”

“Lily Evans. Nineteen. Blue. Not just any shade of blue—not like, regular blue, or slate blue, that’s too gray, or even periwinkle or anything pastel. Like the deepest, darkest shade of navy you can imagine. Almost black. That blue. Happy?”

“Well then.”

She groaned. “You asked.”

“Fair point.”

“How bad are the cars?”

“Not bad. Don’t worry about it. I think you should lie back.”

“I think I should get out.” She reached for the door handle, and she thought he wanted to argue, but he moved out of the way so she could swing it open. She stepped out, then immediately wobbled with stabbing pain that shot up from her knee when she put weight on her left leg. He stepped forward to help, and she all but sagging against him.

She could all but sag against the car, but why would she, given the alternative?

“I think my knee is busted.”

“Shit,” he said. “Can you walk?”

“To where?”

“The grass. Where you can lie down while we wait.”

“How do I know you aren’t going to murder me?”

“My car is full of balloons, Evans. No room for a body.”

She looked over at his car which was, in fact, full of balloons. “That’s not helping your ‘I’m not a creep’ case.”

“They’re for a prank—long story. Not the point. I really feel like you should be sitting.”

“I’m not sure I can walk.”

“Come on, then. You’re a wreck.”

“Ha.”

Before she could process what was happening, he picked her up clean off the ground, like in a movie. It was possibly the hottest thing that had happened to her. Except that she was covered in powder. And probably had a black eye. And maybe a minor concussion. And her knee throbbed like murder.

“I’ve always wanted to sweep a pretty girl off her feet,” he said, carrying her around both cars to the shallow ditch that ran parallel to the road, “but this isn’t what I envisioned.”

“I always wanted to be hit on by a tall, handsome, bespectacled stranger, but this isn’t what I meant.” No complaints, though.

“No complaints here, either.”

Fuck all, did she actually say that last bit out loud?

“James.”

“Hm?”

“I’m James.”

He sat her down on the embankment, then plopped down right next to her. Neither objected when she leaned against his shoulder for support.

“I might have a slight head injury, James.”

“I know.”

“Can we pretend you have a head injury and you tell me things about you, too?”

“Right, well. James. 27th Mach. And green. Apparently.”

“Oh?”

“Recent development.”

“Do you have a brain injury?”

“No. You’re just very distracting. I don’t think I was supposed to move you.”

“I think that’s a spinal cord.”

“We’re really, really bad at this car accident thing.”

“Yeah.”

“Are  you sure you called emergency?”

“I did, but we’re in the middle of nowhere, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

She noticed his shaking hands. “Hey. Are you okay?”

“What?” He followed her gaze. “Yeah. Just…adrenaline.”

She grabbed it. To steady it, because he’d been nice to her, and carried her, and this was the decent thing to do. Right?

“I might have a slight concussion, James Potter, but you have a profusely bleeding shin.”

“Yep. It’ll be fine.”

“Are you the new Potters who just moved here?”

“Yep. Nothing really goes unnoticed around here, huh?”

“Exactly. I think the llama probably belongs to the Stevensons. It wandered an awfully long way, but ‘tis the season.”

“For llamas?”

“For llama mating.”

“Ah.”

She’d let that crash and burn, yeah? Ha.

“You know,” she said, trying desperately to sound more casual than she felt, which was all jittery and weird, and for reasons that had nothing to do with the accident. “In terms of being rescued by a tall, handsome stranger, this is pretty on scenario.”

“I’m not sure it counts as rescued when I am part of the cause.”

“No complains.”

“How did you envision a tall, dashing man hitting on you? Because I am more than happy to oblige you there.”

“I think you just did.”

“That’s how you envisioned it?”

“Well, no, but we already have a hot date scheduled.”

“Oh?”

“At accident and emergency, in about a half and hour minutes, because you are definitely getting that gash cleaned.”

He shrugged. “It’s not so bad.”

“You’re going to need stitches. Probably a scar.”

“There goes my dashing good looks.”

She elbowed his ribs. “I didn’t say dashing, James. I said handsome.”

“Well, then.”

“But you’re that, too.”

“I think I like you, Lily. Which is mad, given that we’ve known each other for twenty minutes.”

“It’s been a really intense twenty minutes though.”

“True.”

They heard sirens, and a moment later the rescue response appeared over the crest of a distant hill. The impractical, really enjoying leaning on James Potter’s shoulder part of her almost wished they hadn’t been so bloody efficient in their response time.

“You’d better lie down, Evans, or they’ll yell at me for letting you sit up.”

With a smart-arse salute, Lily lay down on the grass just as the ambulance came into proper view. “Do you think you should give me mouth-to-mouth?”

“Maybe after our hot date this afternoon.”

“Good plan. I like you, too, you know.”

“I’d figured that out, yeah.”

“And that’s not even the weirdest thing that’s happened to me today.”

“I dunno that I’d qualify this part as weird, so much as awesome.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Strangely enough,” James said, grinning right back down at her. “I do.”

[ityasaarii]

- from @x-wearethefuture-x, Hyuk to Nayoung

This might have been a little too cheesy, even for Hyuk. Then again, the cheesier the better, right? At least that’s how he felt about food. Applying it to romance was basically the same thing! Well, maybe not, but if he admitted that to himself then he’d back out and choose to do something else for her, instead. He had spent the entire night before getting it all set up exactly as he wanted it, he didn’t have time to change plans now! He would only have until he had to leave for their dinner date at 4pm to figure out something else if he really did chicken out, and that wasn’t much time at all considering it was already past 11am and he’d have to leave here before 3. Ugh. Don’t overthink it too much, you idiot. It’s fine. She’s gonna think it’s cute. Hopefully. Dinner wasn’t anything special, really. Well, it was a fairly nice place with good food that he’d made reservations for and he’d brought her a small bouquet that they could leave in his car while they ate without having to worry much about it- the kind of typical stuff that you were supposed to do for birthday dates. Or what he assumed you were supposed to do for birthday dates. It was fun and Hyuk, personally, was having a nice time (he hoped Nayoung was, too)… though what was to come later was what really mattered. Start standard and build up from there. It was almost 7pm when they finally got to Hyuk’s place. A little behind schedule mostly because he’d lost track of time during their conversation over dinner. It’s not like there wasn’t really a schedule involved, anyway. Hyuk had just wanted to plan things as meticulously as possible to keep himself from getting too embarrassed about the silly thing he had done for her birthday. It’s not silly. It’s thoughtful. Stop getting worked up, dumbass. When they were finally standing outside of his door, he fumbled with his keys a bit though he was hoping she didn’t notice that he was kind of nervous, “You’re gonna have to wait here for just a second, okay? I need to check on something first.” He needed to make sure everything was still as it should be. After all, it would ruin the entire surprise if even one thing was out of place. He kissed Nayoung lightly then walked into his apartment and closed the door behind himself so that Nayoung couldn’t peek inside. (Not that she’d see much, but still). From there it only took about twenty seconds to determine that things were exactly as they should be, then he was opening the door for her again. This time, however, it was done in a semi-gentlemanly manner, complete with a half-bow and a sweep of his arm to invite her in. The floor was littered with rose petals (okay, so they were fake rose petals- but real rose petals were expensive and impractical!). They created a pathway past the living room and down the hall into the one, small, spare room beside his bedroom. Usually Hyuk had it set up as his photography studio- a proper desktop computer atop his desk (duh) and one of those cushioned, spinning, office chairs for maximum comfort while he meticulously edited photos in a dozen different ways… or played video games for 15 hours straight. There were also usually some ridiculous props from past photo shoots lying around- things that he thought he might use again in the future. But that wasn’t the case today. In one sense, this new set up was far more absurd. He’d removed all of that stuff (putting them in his bedroom where they were out of sight though totally in his way) and, instead, converted the spare room into a small photo gallery. He’d kept the photo sizes smaller than those you might find in a typical photo gallery- they were just a bit larger than what would be considered standard to find hanging in someone’s home. But he’d hung them with a couple feet of space between in beautiful, golden, picture frames and even put little “plaques” (cardboard spray painted gold and very carefully written on with white paint) beneath each one, offering “titles” for the pieces. There was a total of 12 in all, most of which were photos of them together that either Nayoung or Hyuk had taken. But there were also two photos of the night sky- one from their first photography “date” when Nayoung had helped him take photos of the stars. The other was more recent; a photo that Nayoung had taken on her own one night, with the camera Hyuk gave her, and then sent to him. He’d adjusted the colors, the brightness, the contrast, sharpness, everything, until it looked not like a photo but like a piece of the actual sky had been cut out and framed right there. It was realistic enough that it almost felt like you could reach in and touch the stars. Then there was a simple photo, one he’d taken over the spring while they were on a date- a field of pink and white and yellow flowers, gently kissed by the wind and sun, still painted with dew from a chilly morning just past. He’d shown Nayoung the field of memory laden flowers in his mindscape only a month or so after that photo was taken. She’d seen it before, of course, but only then did Hyuk actually explain that they were memories of her. Maybe now when she saw the photo hanging on the wall she would realize that he hadn’t been so insistent on taking the picture just because the flowers were pretty. There was also one picture that was purposely photoshopped- less romantic and sweet and more silly. It was a throwback to one of their earliest conversations (and a topic which he brought up from time to time even now): Hyuk was Han Solo, Nayoung was Princess Leia. He still had to stop himself from chuckling when he looked at it. 

“Ta-dah!” Hyuk exclaimed as he first threw open the door to the room, “Welcome to your own personal photo gallery!” Yeah, this was probably a bit silly of him. Over the top, maybe. Definitely weird. But it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Something so perfectly him that he was sure that now that Nayoung saw it she was thinking “Yup. I should have expected this.”¸ though also just random and unexpected enough that it hopefully hadn’t crossed her mind as a possibility before right this moment. He let her look at it, take it all in, as he stood back by the door so as not to disrupt her. His face was alight with hope and happiness to offset his nerves- she liked it, right? She almost definitely liked it. Probably. Uh, maybe he should have gone with the classic dinner and a movie or something. Then again, that would have been boring… and they’d just finished the dinner part of it all. What movies were even out right now that might be worth watching? Thor: Ragnarok is out. And Justice League. But, like, are either of those really birthday worthy? “So, what’d’ya think? I made sure they were still kinda normal sized photos so that you could take some of ‘em home with you if you wanted. Except that one of us as Han and Leia- that one’s mine.” He joked, offering a playful wink to accompany it. 

Once the initial surprise of it had worn off, though, and Nayoung had had time to look over her little gallery, he informed her that that wasn’t all there was. “I mean, that’s it for the photo gallery, but that’s not all for the gifts. I have just one more thing. It’s probably kinda dumb but… it can be as ridiculous as this, right? Wait her a second.” And then he proceeded to rush out of the room, returning only a few moments later with a rectangular package wrapped in sky blue paper, a pale lavender ribbon tied around it, “Happy Birthday, Nayoung.” This… this one gift was actually the most important part of it all in Hyuk’s opinion. Dinner, flowers, even the photo gallery, were all nice, but this was his favorite bit. It was just a scrap book. To anyone else it probably wasn’t very exciting- people made them all the time. But Hyuk had worked on it for weeks, months, putting it all together a little at a time to document each “landmark” in their time together- from the day they met (that first photo he’d ever taken of Nayoung, included!) to their most recent date just last week. He’d searched his mind and, after some time, had even been able to label each page with the month, day, and year the event happened. Then, alongside that, he’d given each a little note about what happened on that day, how he felt- nervous or excited or simply happy. Granted, not every single date they had gone on had it’s own page, just the actual, dates. There wasn’t much to say about all of those “dates” when they had simply gotten breakfast together before having to part ways for the day. Or the “dates” when they just hung out on his couch watching movies until they both fell asleep. But there was a two page spread to commemorate the importance of those ones, too- a bunch of photos with tiny stickers naming the days they had happened. After all, they may have been commonplace and semi-uneventful, but they were often his favorites. “See? There was a reason I was taking so many photos!” He chuckled, watching her flip through it, “I mean, I’d only been planning this since maybe April, so before that it was literally just because I like taking photos of you… but after that, it was only mostly just because I like taking photos of you and partly because I was trying to make sure that I had at least one or two good photos of each date so that I could put them in a scrap book for you. Well… compiling them into a photo album was actually my first choice, but my mom’s been scrapbooking a lot lately and she suggested that it would be more personalized that way. You know, with the cute stickers and notes and such. I think it looks better, too.” It gave him a chance to put extra time and effort into it. It gave him a chance to make it special. Even if it wasn’t perfect, it was something he thought was worth giving. A normal photo album was nice, but it would look more like a portfolio than a collection of important events and memories, “You said that you didn’t have enough photos of me. Most of these may be photos of us, but I thought that giving you a scrap book full of pictures of myself might seem a little narcissistic.” He jested, giving a soft chuckle. Then, gently, he touched a kiss to Nayoung’s forehead, “It’s not like it’s a lot. Sorry that I couldn’t get you something cool like the camera I gave you last year. But I hope it’s okay, anyway… I kinda thought it would be nice to have the photos, like, in real life. Not just on your phone or laptop or something, but where you could actually touch them. Maybe that’s a weird sentiment, but I’ve always kinda preferred print copies of photos than digital copies. They feel more real that way, ya know?“ His smile was bordering on shy, generally uncharacteristic of Hyuk but something that seemed to happen frequently when he was with Nayoung. Then, to cover up this particular moment of his own awkwardness, he quickly fell back into his typical self, grin and all, “If you like it, you don’t have to say so. But you do have to kiss me. If you don’t like it… you should still probably kiss me so that you don’t hurt my feelings.”

Nayoung never expected a fuss for her birthday. She never wanted for anything, except maybe a slice of cake and an extra hour in bed. For a long time, she’d resented it. A day marking her birth, a birth that shouldn’t have happened. A day her father had tried to ignore until her step-mother explained that is was cruel. After that, he couldn’t ignore it. Suddenly, that had felt much worse. It was only when she started staying with Sewon more that it became something happier. She didn’t suffer through it anymore. 

Now there was Hyuk. If there was one thing Hyuk had proven he was good at (and there were a lot more, Nayoung could attest to that) it was making a fuss. Or rather, making someone who had hidden from her real self feel like that self was worth loving. Funnily enough, Sewon had caught on quite quickly after her birthday last year. He’d spotted the camera in her hands when she came to visit him in his lecture theatre. Nayoung had a feeling the concept of “birthdays” only started to settle in as she told him what Hyuk had done for her, the stupidest of sappy grins on her face. Sewon had informed her it was a look that made him highly uncomfortable. Since then, however, he’d been taking it as a personal challenge to do one better than Hyuk. He was practical as ever, but his sentimentally was winning out. This year he’d given her a small music box that her mother had apparently adored. 

Nayoung had the tune in her head all day, humming it lightly as she walked to meet Hyuk for dinner. As soon as she saw him, she took his hand. Not even a second hesitation. Not a big deal. Talking was just a simple. Nayoung chose pasta for her main meal then joked they should share the plate and see what happened. 

She would have been content with just that. It was enough. Spending time with Hyuk was better than enough any day of the week. She just preferred storing up the hours into days, and the days into weeks, counting minutes as she went. She planned to count some more up tonight. Going home to her little apartment didn’t sound like any kind of fun on her birthday. If luck was on her side Hyuk would agree. 

He opened the door for her with a flourish. His workroom had been transformed. It was like… a gallery of them. Like what she had tried to do for him on his birthday, only so much better. These were not the snapshot experimentations of someone trying to figure out a new way to view the world. This was how he saw them - how he saw her. Nayoung’s gaze lingered on each, soaking up every detail. She halted on the capture of the stars. How vivid could he make such a static image? It didn’t look like a photograph. She felt like she could swim in it maybe. Or free it and let the stars dance about the room. 

When she turned to face Hyuk again, having to drag her gaze away, her eyes were suspiciously bright. She wasn’t going to cry, she wouldn’t allow that. She laughed instead at the photo of them as Han and Leia. “Yeah, okay you can keep that one,” She hummed in agreement, “Only if you agree to recreate it as the real thing next Halloween.” And she’d make the most of that.

The scrapbook was even better than the gallery, if possible. She could keep this. She ran her fingers across the surface, enjoying the physicality of it. He was right. Of course, he was right, he’d thought about this. He’d been taking photos for it all year. But he hadn’t needed that reason. “You don’t need any excuses. None.” Nayoung closed the book gently, planning to look through every inch of it, every comment later. Tucking it into her chest, she moved closer to Hyuk, resting her head underneath his chin. “Take photos of me whenever you like. Especially if I can see them like this.” When she looked up at him it was with narrow eyes, judgement melting into a smile. Nayoung’s chin bumped his as she moved in closer. “Not gonna hurt your feelings. I have to stay on your good side if I want to stay here tonight, right?”

When she kissed him she kept her arms between them, the scrapbook still there. A little uncomfortable, but she didn’t want to just drop it on the floor. “Thank you,” she whispered, his lips a breath away from his, “For today and all the other days, coming and gone.”

[limbsbo]

Tag meme thingy

I was tagged by @gay-cacti lets gooo

-most recent-

• Drink: water • Phone call: my dad • Text: dad, again • Song listened to: Partition by Beyoncé • Time you cried: if we’re being completely honest, today

-have you ever-

• Dated someone twice: nope • Been cheated on: nuh uh • Kissed someone and regretted it: no sir • Lost someone special: yep • Been depressed: yeah • Been drunk and thrown up: ive been sober my whole life

-in the last year, have you-

• Made a new friend: i made a fuck-ton of new friends this past year • Fallen out of love: ive never been in love romantically, but platonically yes • Laughed until you cried: omg yeaah • Met someone who changed you: probably • Found out who your true friends are: @gay-cacti, my friend michael, a few others • Found out someone was talking about you: these two girls were talkin shit abt me wearing a green robe instead of a white one at a promotion ceremony and basically just being transphobic assholes. I dont give a shit tho lmaooo they can be ignorant all they fuckin want i have enough problems as is Kissed anyone on your FB list: nope

-extras-

• How many ppl on your FB list do you know irl?: all of em • Do you have any pets?: i used to have two cats but they both had to be put down, Indigo was super sick when i was like 3, dont remember her much, and Tigger was super old & was in a lot of pain so we put him down when i was 8. I had two beta fish named Beauty and Beast (lived up to their names lmao) and they live to be about 6 months old, which sucked bc i remember taking rlly good care of them??? Mayb my lil bros did smthn i have no clue • Do you want to change your name?: nah jamie suits me • What did you do for your birthday?: i dont remember holy fuck! Wowie you woulda thought id remember the big one-five but [insert that shrug emoji here] i think i hung out with @gay-cacti????? Julia help me out here • What time did you wake up today?: i got out of bed at 6:40am i hate highschool scheduling • What were you doing last midnight?: catchin some killer zzz’s • Name something you cant wait for: getting my grubby mitts on a copy of the walking dead season 3 for xbox one im a SLUT for this series please put me out of my misery • Last time you saw you mom: a lil over an hr ago while i was doing laundry • What is one thing you wish you could change about your life?: i wish i was happier • Have you ever spoken to a person named Tom: nah but the name tom is weird and i associate that name with voldemort so. No Thnks • Whats getting on your nerves right now?: my parents • Bloodtype: O neg if youre fatally wounded hmu • Nicknames: my fam calls me JJ, J, sibling, sweetheart/honey/etc., my friends call me jamjam, my name in spanish (pronounced hai-me), and one of my friends calls me jim on occasion, that was mostly in middle school tho (also in middle school i was called pajamas bc i always wore/wear sweatpants) • Relationship status: solo sniper • Pronouns: they/them. If you refer to me with she/her i will find you and i will cover your living room with dildos. Every surface of every object in your living room will be smothered with silicone rods of phallic resemblance. Also a 55gal drum of lube will be used to coat them • Long or short hair: short, used to be long af • Height: tall enough to knock your teeth out, short enough to duck and run sucessfully • Do you have a crush?: nah • What do you like abt yourself?: im very funny and pretty • Rigt handed or left handed?: right • First surgery: never had surgery for anythin • First best friend: this girl named Abby in kindergarten, she moved away in second grade. We got along very well, her mom helped us make broomsticks from branches and hay, they were rad as shit • First sport you joined: technically ballet, but if we’re talkin olympics then tennis. I took lessons for about 3 years but then stopped for some reason • First vacation: the first one i can remember is disney world in florida back in kindergarten, that was p lit

-right now-

• Eating: burger, brat, tater tots • Drinking: nothing, last thing i drank was oj i think • Im about to: do my hw • Listening to: nothing really, just the sounds of the dryer and my fam talking downstairs • Kids: Maybe ill adopt a teenager when ive got my life sorted out (30s maybe??? Only future me knows) • Get married: if i dont get married id at least like to live with someone i trust and care about, be our relationship romantic or platonic • Career: im hoping to get into a good art school but i doubt ill be able to afford what i want, i want to be an animator or a character designer. Voice acting sounds cool too

-which is better-

• Lips or eyes: eyes. • Hugs or kisses: why not both • Taller or shorter: i wanna be taller, i like being taller than my friends • Older or younger: there are pros and cons to both, but im gonna have to go with younger. Everything is new and exciting and games are everywhere when youre young, as you get older theres still some of that but its discouraged and that sucks ass • Romantic or spontanious: Why Not Both • Sensitive or loud: i, myself, am a confusing mix of the two, so i must direct you to my previous statement; WHY NOT BOTH • Hookup or relationship: relationship • Troublemaker or hesitant: B O T H calculated troublemakers are always so much fun to hang around and they dont go too far most of the time

-have you ever-

• Kissed a stranger: no • Needed glasses/contacts: bitch im blind without my glasses. No joke. I Will run into a wall. Im basically velma • Broke someones heart: i hope not • Turned someone down: yeah • Cried when someone died: Yes • Fallen for a friend: no

-do you believe in-

• Yourself: yeah for the most part • Miracles: eh • Love at first sight: noope its cute but impractical • Heaven: i dont believe in god but i like to think that theres a place after we die that allows us to be whomever we want. You want a dick? Done. Vagina? Here you go pal. Wanna be a teen again? BAM youre 16. A place where you can be yourself and pursue you passion without fear of consequense • Kissing on the first date: it depends on your history with that person

Im not gonna tag anyone to do this but if you wanna do it then be my guest homie