#i haven't posted a delusional 1 am thought in a while

[lover-of-mine]

No but reformed self diagnosed sex addict who's actually just a bisexual disaster that uses sex as a bad coping mechanism to have someone pay attention to him even if only temporarily falling in love with his demisexual best friend who craves the stability of a partnership like the one they have before anything else is actually yet another way Buck and Eddie complete each other's lifes and abandonment issues.

[souglias]

People Say To Take Things One Step At A Time For A Reason [GINTOKI]

OR: Gintoki makes a dire mistake about you in his drunken state

Gintoki x f!reader

c/w: gintoki has been drinking, alcohol mention, use of pet names (but for humour effect), all fluff no angst :>

word count: 1.2k

note: something I wrote for fun and sheesh finally a fluffy gintoki fic rather than my usual bittersweet fics. For my followers who saw my post about a gintoki multi-chapter fic a while ago, just in case you thought this is it, this is not it. Inspired by this (I couldn't find the image from the original artist's twitter 0-(-( )

All likes and reblogs are appreciated!

-

The phone rings at your bookstore at 1am as you're finishing up some administrative logs. It must be a prank for a call that’s way beyond opening hours. Even if it isn't, you decide you don't want to deal with queries at this time. The phone quietens after 5 rings.

Not long later, the phone starts ringing again. It sounds like urgent business for someone to be calling a bookstore twice in the middle of the night.

"Hello, this is Kabukicho books. How can I help you?"

An all-too-familiar voice comes out from the receiver. His words are slurred and you press the receiver to your ears as you strain to listen to him.

"Heyy, are you free for... dinner?"

"Gintoki. It is long past dinner."

"Dinner is any time after lunch and before breakfast."

"I want to sleep and you should too."

You hear whining from the other end of the phone. "Can't you have at least a parfait with me? We haven't met in a while!"

Is this a secret, roundabout cry for help from him? Coming from the very lips of Gintoki, those words feel like stark yellow paint on a white wall.

Regardless, you are a little concerned he's going to die in a ditch somewhere instead of making it home. Even if he's gotten this drunk multiple times before he called you today. 

He prompts you again with a "hello" before you hear some crashing on the other side.

You suppose once is fine. It is a solid reason to see the person you harbour feelings for. On top of that, he's right that the two of you have not seen each other for a while. And just maybe, it is a sign that he chose to call you out of everyone else.

(Okay but maybe you're just being delusional. Who else he could even call? Kagura would simply smash the ringing phone at this hour. If he calls up the Shimura household, Otae would tell him to die rather than let her younger brother pick him up.)

You sigh, "Where are you now?"

He hums a little before telling you the bar he visited. You pack up your work (that is still 1% unfinished) and head out into the cold winter night to find him. Gintoki should thank his lucky stars that you like him, otherwise, you would have left him to freeze. Almost no one gets to interrupt your work.

You easily find the telephone booth near the bar he patronised. As you approach the telephone booth, you see a scene you find somewhat humorous. He's bent over backwards in the cramped space, face pressed against the clear glass of the booth and feet propped against the other side. His eyes are closed, mouth slightly open with drool.

Taking out your phone, you snap a photo of him before you knock on the door. He's so ridiculously unsightly, but it endears you.

One eye of his cracks open and his lips upturn. You swing the door open and give him an unamused look. That doesn't shake his half-lidded eyes and a wide smile.

"Yo, you pretty thing."

Your heart skips a beat. Gintoki is possessed, or he's lost it. All Gintoki has been calling you is an ugly hag and a shit-faced bitch. To call you pretty is... out of this world.

"You're way too fucking drunk. Get out of there by yourself, I'm not helping you."

As he twists and turns to get himself out of that difficult position, he whines again. "Help me, woman! You can do this little thing for me right?”

Seeing him struggle, you decide to milk this scene. “Well, who am I for you to assume this is ‘little’?”

“My girlfriend.”

You're sure your face is visibly red at this point, and your heart is beating in your throat. You manage to stammer out, "What?"

"You're my girlfriend duh!" He exclaims without an ounce of doubt in his statement.

He's lost it. He's lost it.

"Since when? Huh? Huh? Why was I not informed about this?"

"Huh? Why are you-"

Gintoki freezes and he narrows his eyes at you. It dawns on him that you are not his girlfriend. 

To be precise, he has not asked you to be his girlfriend. 

Suddenly, he's able to stand upright in the phone booth. He remains rooted there, his body turned away from you. What has he done? His heart beats at a thousand per hour and he thinks he might collapse.

"Did you mistake me for a girlfriend or something? Anyway, you should have told us you have one."

He could pretend to black out now. Or maybe he should try to be smooth.

"Well, no... I don't. I just forgot I wasn't in the future, that's all!"

Gintoki timidly looks over his shoulder to check your reaction. From the puzzled look on your face, he fucked it. He doesn't even remember the exact pick-up line if one like this actually existed. Something about a girlfriend but in the future. 

"What are you talking about..."

He averts his gaze again. The obvious way to clarify everything is to be honest with you. It's that easy. It's that easy. But he can't say it. Even in his half-intoxicated state, he feels like he'll keel over saying those three or five words. He did plan to say it some time, but not in this manner.

You watch his broad back slowly shrink inwards, and you hear him mumble something you don't catch. A gut feeling fills your chest. You breathe, slowly regaining your composure. Meanwhile, he decides he should pretend to black out.

"Look, if you wanted me to be your girlfriend, you should have asked me first. I would have said yes. Don't skip steps, please. I'd like some order."

Already amid Operation Pretend-To-Collapse, Gintoki falls backwards and lands on the ground. But his eyes are wide open instead of shut as he lies on the ground, searching for a sign of a joke from you. You lower into a crouch, continuing to stare into his bewildered eyes. 

“So, what will it be, darling?” 

The weight you put on what you just called him makes him shudder. His face is too distractingly hot compared to his body for him to come up with any kind of retort. He mumbles again with his eyes looking elsewhere. 

“Huh? I can’t hear you, you have to speak up.” 

Words come out in a murmur. All you hear is the word “girlfriend” but you egg him more. “What?? Is this all you got, Sakata Gintoki??”

His hand reaches for your face and he pulls you towards him, pressing your lips against his. You can smell a sweet alcohol scent on him. When you pull away, you find a fiery, intense gaze in his eyes.

“You’re my girlfriend now, stupid.”

Just like that, he renders you speechless. But a smile tugs on the corner of your lips, and you stifle a laugh.

Gintoki picks himself up from the ground, still a little woozy. You grab his arm to steady him, then decide to wrap your arm around his back. He stiffens slightly but eases into your arm for support. When he rests his arm around your shoulders, both of you begin the journey to his home.

“Just so you know, I have unfinished work thanks to your ‘little’ favour. You owe me now. Maybe you should be the one buying me a parfait instead, honeypie.”

He glances at you only for a moment, unamused, before he turns away. You laugh, getting a kick from the whole night of teasing your friend-turned-boyfriend. Suddenly, you stop laughing.

“You didn’t throw up before you met me right?”

“I didn’t.”

Disgust starts creeping onto your face. “Are you sure? Are you sure?”

“I didn’t, you shit.”

[mae-i-scribble]

My post on How I Attended and All Guys Mixer picked up a few more notes than I was expecting recently and it reminded me that I've been wanting to talk about how appreciative I am about how the series handles sexuality. I'll only be talking about the manga here bc I haven't seen the live action drama nor do I plan to. But I just think it's really neat that with our 3 male protags we get to see 3 very unique reactions to 1) learning that crossdressing is a thing and 2) how they in turn feel attraction wise.

I'll start off with Asagi as I feel his is the most straightforward in that he just takes everything in stride. Literally nothing phases him. Thanks to that he's the most nonchalant of the group, just chatting up and trying to make friends per usual. He's confused somewhat, but doesn't pay it any mind and just tries to get to know everyone as he would any other new friend. Personally, I can really see an aro/ace argument for Asagi due to the way he's just, completely unaffected and uninterested in the romantic ongoings around him. He compliments the girls and such but even when the manga is going pretty hard pushing its other pairings Asagi and Fuji truly just seem like good friends. I'm not delusional, this is a romance manga that from the get-go clearly has these pairings in mind to all get together romantically, but until it happens I can gaslight myself into believing my aroace truth (is coping so bad).

Going from most chill about everything to 2nd most chill we have Tokiwa. Tokiwa is an interesting case in that he's polite to such a degree that he does his best to mask his initial confusion and shock (to the extent that yknow, a comedy manga will allow). Though it doesn't really work because he is very overwhelmed by the situation at hand. However, I don't think this is attributed to the girls' crossdressing alone in the same way that Hagi can't get over his initial shock of the concept. Tokiwa's chief concern isn't the "weirdness" of it all but the fact that he came here expecting a meet cute with a cute girl and instead is getting a meet cute with someone equally as charming but with none of the reserved attitude we see Suo have while she's fem-presenting. My boy is not worried about gender norms he is worried for his sanity due to the attractive person flirting with him.

Honestly, this panel here implies that he finds masc-presenting Suo even more attractive. The fact that he even tries to reassure himself that because Suo is a woman this situation is less flustering is very interesting. Not that it does anything. Pouring one out for Tokiwa for real. As the manga goes on, Tokiwa gives off the vibe of someone who is comfortable with his sexuality enough that the gender presentation of the person he likes is irrelevant, both are attractive to him in different ways. Again, while Suo's crossdressing is a point of interest in the sense that it's not something he understands or gets intuitively, he doesn't have nearly the same level of crisis as Hagi does. His attraction to Suo is never questioned- rather it seems to be a question of whether or not he thinks Suo is genuine in her flirting.

And our last boy is Hagi, poor beloved Hagi who is having the time of his life trying to figure out that hey, sometimes people don't dress or present stereotypically. It's a rough life for you Hagi. However, his inner conflict is very gripping. I find his reaction and subsequent coming to terms with the idea of crossdressing a very realistic take on the subject much more akin to your average person being introduced to everything for the first time. It never feels mean spirited even if Hagi can be offensive in this thoughts and comments at first- it's born from a place of genuine confusion, both towards himself and towards the girls. Hagi falling in love with Kohaku, while a little to rife with misunderstandings for my taste, I think is a wonderful narrative of how even being straight doesn't mean that there is one way to feel attraction. While Kohaku throws around the idea of him being bi due to him being attracted to Kohaku while she's masc-presenting, Suo best sums it up when she says that it's not about the words or the looks, its about who it's coming from. And given that we haven't seen Hagi struggle with this from anyone else, it's a safe bet to say he likes Kohaku as masc-presenting, not necessarily masc-presenting people or men in general. Attraction as a fluid concept is something most straight romance stories, let alone a comedy based one, seldom bother to explore along the gender spectrum. Hagi's struggle to understand himself and what his attraction to Kohaku means to him personally is such an interesting take that it elevates the entire storyline out of miscommunication hell almost (just almost).

Idk idk this feels like a very silly rant to have but I do in fact love this manga more than a reasonable amount and this is definitely one of the top reasons for it. I would love for it to get a bit more attention but I shall settle for rereading it for the 20th time I suppose

[fangweaver2099]

From Fenris: Statement on Fawnteeth, Minor Slip-up

My fiancee wanted me to make a statement on this because someone is causing a fuss about our fic for having some similarities. Anyone reasonable sees that this is silly. The only reason I take any of this seriously is because it upsets her. The claims are genuinely delusional.

A few things:

I write a large portion of the dialogue in this fic. I write 95% of the sex scene content. I am one of 4 writers (and 1 person solely contributing with editting) of this fic all drawing from different inspirations, this person's fic isn't being pulled up to copy or even be thought about when we're writing. To do so would be super fucking boring as creatives who have their own ideas they want to write.

I do not read much fanfic, I have not read this person's fanfic. I am too busy to read this person's fanfic, I haven't even read through their entire claims because it's not worth wasting my time over as a busy person who works, is in a masters program, and has a practicum and a social life.

A lot of the things I'm hearing are being claimed as plagiarism are basic tropes of writing especially fanfic and romance and also just biological realities (i.e. surprise pregnancy, power imbalance dynamics, morning sickness after getting pregnant)

Some of the things I'm hearing are being claimed as plagiarism are actual real life sexual behavior I sprinkle into the fic such as fingering while calling my partner princess. No one owns one of the most popular romantic petnames in the world, nor that specific scenario. I promise you I have been doing that IRL since before this person's fic was posted.

Some of the things I'm hearing are being claimed as plagiarism are basic character facts from the source material, or logical conclusions and lines that can be drawn from the source material (i.e. Miguel has cheated on people, so he might cheat on a canon character in his past that he hasn't cheated on in the comics).

It is not uncommon for fanfic writers to have similar ideas especially when they are writing characters with established source material because we are basing it off of existing characters. That's actually part of why fanfic is popular, believe it or not. Everyone who writes fanfic about Anakin Skywalker is probably going to have a joke about him hating sand and disagreeing with the jedi council, causing conflict amongst characters even if we don't see two of them interact in the movies. Miguel O'Hara is no different. He's a messy bitch and we love that about him.

[pretty-volatile]

Tuesday, October 1, 2024 6:14 am

I haven't posted in a looongg time lol. There's quite a bit to catch up on. Um firstly yay, October! My favorite holiday is coming up! And my 9 year anniversary with my amazing partner ❤️🍾🥂🌹🎉 but also, lol one of trauma times is coming up and actual Halloween does have a trauma past too, but I've moved on enough/dissociated that enough that I don't have current play by play memory of it, just the facts, of both traumas. But it's something to keep in mind to make sure no one gets triggered out in a negative way.

Okay so here's to the juicy part of this .......what if ......it was OSDDID the whole time????? Just hear me out okay......

Autism: okay yes, we have it, and it may have even contributed to the osddid tbh. But like once I started to pay attention to our ism, I think we were addressing the negative symptoms that some of the alters were experiencing/made it less likely to dissociate/switch/shutdown etc. therefore those alters feel heard/accommodated that we don't feel those as much/they don't influence as much. Obvsly autism applies to the whole collective (we call it that), but some alters can hold more or less traits/symptoms. Also sometimes the stimming feels like it's our little (v autistic) and teen that def has ADHD.

ADHD: do we all experience ADHD like our teen does? Hmm I'm not sure, I feel though the possibility that a lot of my executive dysfunction is more related to there being no communication betweens us and being able to remember what it is that we need to do or needing certain alters to do certain tasks/chores/responsibilities/areas of focus. But like it's cool that we see the usefulness of hyperfixations/positive obsessions that can bring someone out that needs to get shit done.

BPD: not all of us deal with BPD traits. It seems to be concentrated in relationship alters/sexual alters/trauma holders. There's def one maybe two that we can think of right away that this applies to. But the self harm etc def applies to persecutor/abuser introject. Fp obsessions can also be mostly attributed to a certain body queen after that also seems to be a sexual alter/relationship trauma holders that need someone new to latch on to

Bipolar w/ psychosis: alright this one's gonna be hard but head me out okay....our strong moods were attached to a certain way of thinking, behaving, our perspective on things, likes/interests, and it would always change with stress and with trauma and when we didn't keep up a routine, these things can also be explained by us alters.....and my psychosis, while I def have hallucinated and I have experienced delusional thinking, but also ....the hallucinations and the delusions had more to do with not feeling like the world around is real (derealization) or feeling like I'm not real or like this isn't my body (depersonalization), and some of my delusions could also be explained by other alters and being confused while fronting because they were also experiencing dpdr......

OCD: def struggle with obsessions and compulsions, However, starting to wonder is ocd was more just a defense barrier to discovering that we're a collective...like some intrusive thoughts could be an alter in the headspace, And some could be intrusive thoughts of that after but a diff alter is fronting so they can ignore it bc it's not theirs but if co-con or co fronting then it can affect both. But a lot of intrusive thoughts about things that we've fucked up on and it's basically probably an alter reminding the other alters to not fuck up again bc it's important to keep things cohesive and consistent and if we must double check triple check everything that's done so it's done right so we don't have to explain why we don't fucking remember what happened or why we did something because there amnesia between us sometimes and it takes a whole for information to boot up. But it's also like our OCD kept guiding us in other directions(diagnoses) that did address some alters' concerns without acknowledging that it belonged to a particular alter's concern or that we're a collective etc

Eating disorder: a lot of this is tied to the physical neglect we went through and we're fairly certain that a certain alters, maybe the little, is the one that does the eating, and the rest of us dissociate the need in order to survive bc we have tummy issues sometimes and don't always have enough food or time to eat or other alters don't like how stomach feels after eating and have to move around a lot. Usually have to smoke weed in order to bring out the hunger signals and the alter so we can eat. We're so proud of ourselves in our expansion of foods we eat that we wouldn't have eaten before meeting our partner. But also a lot of the discomfort with the body came from trauma, but also depersonalization/dysmorphia/dysphoria(gender too) that came with it....hard when the body doesn't match with how an alter looks in headspace. Hard not to take it out in the body when the body has been so often critiqued, objectified, perceived by others when we do not wish it.

cPTSD: well this is a no brainer, if you have ongoing trauma/abuse, that's gonna cause cPTSD and if you have it at a young enough age, you're gonna get osddid. So I mean, we know this to be a fact

Dyslexia/dysgraphia: feeling dissociative when trying to focus and be present but also math and writing is so often associated with school and school of course required certain alters/split to trauma holders so can't remember all that right now. Also sometimes gonna have messy handwriting when there's a lot going on in headspace that can't always translate to the external wold

Dissociative amnesia: ADHD time blindness? Or in dissociative trance? Or unable to remember what another alter did/thought/felt/reasonings for so or not feeling emotionally connected with it between diff alters? Sometimes can remember things, sometimes can't, sometimes can remember as simply a fact but not necessarily something that they did their self

Denial: sometimes it's so easy to accept all this and it just makes sense and we've been like this the whole time but we're always scared of being wrong --> punishment so it's hard to accept sometimes. Also it's like in headspace and when high, it's like well duh we're multiple, but when some of us try to talk out loud high or not, it's really hard to accept because another alter makes us think we're crazy and we feel guilt and shame and embarrassed and it can feel like hot steel blade in our throat and like we physically can't talk about or like the dyslexia thing happens were shit gets jarbled up

Dreams and affect on sleep?: diff alters have diff themes that they dream and some of us don't dream/don't remember ours/experience someone else's dream. Recognition of what scenario one is in has lead to lucid experiences almost always. Though interesting to note, not sure if alters seen each other in dreams, sometimes is like one is watching the others as a movie or like they're in a VR (lucid dreaming). Types of dreams and how we wake up/who it is that's front when we wake up can kinda change the trajectory of the day. There are some days when an alter goes to sleep, a diff alter dreams, the other alters has no recollection when startled awake and it feels like that alter didn't sleep but also may not necessarily feel tired. Or certain dreams feel so real or so exhausting that we're so tired and keep falling back asleep cause it feels like we didn't rest

We've been contemplating whether we're multiple/plural for a while now, since at least 2019, and it came back to our awareness back in fall of 2023. For a while it was like, is this just a delusion? Is it the ocd? And it hasn't gone away and things are starting to click and we're kinda starting to get to know each other more/communicate in whatever way we can with the minimal awareness we have

It feels scary but incredible at the same time to acknowledge this, and we've been paying attention to the dissociation more kinda. It's hard to write and this is long enough.

Talk to you later,

Alex

[burntcheerio]

okay let's get into my thoughts of each track based on the titles: Track 1 - Fortnight (ft. Post Malone) POST MALONE??? i swear, i'm not joking, i had like a dream or a thought a little while ago that was like "lmao what if taylor collaborated with post malone what would that be like- she would never tho that would be crazy" so ig i manifested it?? ngl i don't listen to post malone and i haven't heard many of his songs. except i think that one song about circles that was on the radio a lot a while ago when i would listen to the radio all the time was his song. it was fine, kind of annoying tho once i heard it too much. i'm really not sure what to expect with the song, but i do like the title. a fortnight is two weeks so i'm curious if time will have a significance in this track, let alone the album. she wore a clock choker last night and kept asking Tree if her watch was set correctly, apparently to midnight, so i have a feeling time may be a theme within the album. idk but fortnight just gives me middle ages castle vibes so i'm curious if this song will have modern vibes, old hollywood vibes, or like ancient vibes when it comes to setting.

Track 2 - The Tortured Poets Department the titular track!! okay i genuinely have no ideas whatsoever for what this song could be about. maybe another anti-hero/yoyok type song? or even like a mastermind/labyrinth type love song? tbh idk- im really curious to hear other theories or opinions on this track so pls share !!

Track 3 - My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys 101% about a bf who once treasured and loved their relationship starts letting it die (cough joe cough). that phrase is so powerful because it provides the perfect imagery to show "yeah he loved me a lot, but he also hurt me" whether or not he knew it, he did it. this title definitely gives me like poetry title vibes so i'm curious what not only the lyrics will be but what the actual musical element will sound like.

Track 4 - Down Bad OH BOY A DELUSIONAL TRACK YES PLEASE. i can already tell that a running theme within this album is like wanting someone you can't have or loving someone too much that it's an issue. oh boy am i ready for the down bad delusional song this track will give us. i'm really hoping it'll be more of a happy delusional than a sad unrequited love delusion because i could see it going in that direction and as clever as that is i would like to be supported in my delusions. i'm really excited for this song.

Track 5 - So Long, London I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO TALK ABOUT THIS ONE OMG. THIS IS THE WHOLE REASON IM MAKING THIS POST. OH BOY. OKAY SO. the parallel to London Boy is CLEAR. bye bye joe. FAREWELL. we are officially done and over. there is no way in which i can look at this track title and not think "this is about joe" because it just so clearly is and i am HERE for it. i am curious if it's going to be a bad bitch call-out track or a sad mourning track...we'll just have to wait and see ig! (just realized it's a track 5 so it could be more emotional, but maybe she'll go a different route this time? i don't know but it'll be great fs)

Track 6 - But Daddy I Love Him OH MY GOD. as a lesbian it's frustrating that i'm sure many of these songs will be heavy on the "he's a boy" so it'll be harder for me to sing along earnestly, BUT that being said...i CANNOT WAIT for this track. i honestly don't know what the vibe will be for it but i'm sure it's phenomenal and i can't wait to hear it.

Track 7 - Fresh Out the Slammer is this a phrase? am i out of the loop? hold on lemme look it up..okay all i've learned is that there are several other songs with this same name. truly have no clue what this could be.

Track 8 - Florida!!! (ft. Florence + The Machine) i. i don't even know what to expect. i think i might just expect nothing because that way i'll definitely be surprised and delighted.

April 19 🤍 store.taylorswift.com

[thelucyverse]

Andromaquynh In Your Stead

Pre-canon Andy/Quynh fanfiction, canon divergence fix-it, getting back together, minor Joe/Nicky, pre to post movie canon

Read on ao3 or read the WIP on tumblr:

Part 1 - part 9

Part 10:

When Andromache comes back to herself, she stumbles and collapses backwards onto her bed.

She is alone, and glad for it- this would be a little difficult to explain.

Sobs shudder through her.

On second thought, the others would probaby just think that she has finally given into her grief.

Grief.

They’ll expect her to grief for Quynh- to give up looking- while Quynh is still drowning at sea.

Of course, this would be easily rectified by simply telling them the truth, but- no.

She can't tell the others, they'd think her delusional, especially when only telling them now, after Quynh supposedly died, instead of when it first happened.

She can't fake her grief either, but maybe her renewed desperation of Quynh still being imprisoned will be enough...

~

“I am worried about Andromache” Yusuf says quietly to Nicolò, closing the kitchen door behind himself so the aforementioned won’t be able to surprise them. “Have you seen the look in her eyes? Haunted, as if something is chasing her wherever she goes, and she won't talk to either of us..."

“I know you are worried” Nico sighs. “I am, too. I think she’s trying to ignore that anything changed. And she is packing her things, now...”

“She’ll just go right back to her search! Does she think that we haven't noticed the way she keeps looking at the maps?"

Nicolò leans against him, calming him a little. "I don't know what she is trying to do, habibi. I don't think we should let her go alone at all."

"Maybe she needs to find her, though" Yusuf muses. "To get her closure... Find her body and bury it, see Quynh off properly..."

"Then she'd better find her quickly" Nico says darkly. "Won't be much left of her otherwise."

Yusuf shudders at that thought. He wants to say 'don't put me of dinner!', but it seems tasteless- and then he thinks about it all some more and has to turn in Nicolò's arms to hide his face in his neck.

"We can't find her at all" he whispers into his skin. "If we ever do- she'll be long gone by then."

Nicolò can't suppress a sob at that and he pulls Yusuf even closer.

Someone at the door startles them, and Yusuf quickly dries his tears on Nico's shirt, but it is only Livre who gives them an awkward nod.

"Have you seen Andrea anywhere?" he asks them.

"I wanted to ask to borrow her colt for shooting practice..."

Yusuf freezes, a dark wave of premonition creeping into his mind.

"Have you seen her at all, today?"

Livre shakes his head, and next to himself Yusuf feels Nicolò freeze.

"She left without saying goodbye?"

~

In the living room, taped to the wall that once held map upon map of the sea, they find a single note.

'I have to do this, you cannot stop me. Keep using the old places, and I will keep in touch. This is not goodbye. -A'

Yusuf presses a kiss to the note before he passes it on to Livre and hugs Nicolò. "She will be back" he whispers, hoping that it is true. "wherever she needs to go to get over this- she will be back."

~

There will be more! You can bookmark the fic on ao3 :)

WIP part 11 on tumblr