#i know she's got a few areas to grow as a player but she is also amazingly good already and deserves a good team to grow with!!!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sc0tters · 5 months

Text

Muffin Baskets and Frozen Meals | Jack Hughes

summary: when telling Jack how you felt actually went well.

paring: Jack Hughes x Devils Media Member!

request: yes/no

warnings: none?

word count: 1.89k

authors note: planned for this to be a quick blurb and then it became this. will say that I do love it and I was definitely needing more of this soft man like this today 🥺 did something different with parts of it so I’m not sure if it will land but I look forward to how you guys like soft Jack!

You felt like you were going to throw up.

Jack hadn’t been at practice for the last few days after he went to get surgery on his shoulder “you know he likes you right?” Luke smiled as he had gotten close to you in your opening season with the team.

It made you shake your head as you jumped “I don’t like him.” Your cheeks turned a crimson shade of red as the younger boy laughed in response.

The boys all spent the season watching your crush on Jack develop, it was hard not to when you would be left with a grin each time he approached you. But they didn’t notice your side of the crush first as they were far more focused on Jack’s new desire to apart oof everything that the media team needed extra players for.

The first time they noticed it was when you guys had to do the passing the phone trend. One player was needed at the end to say a line about passing the phone to the fans yet none of the girls wanted to ask the players “should I be offended that you haven’t asked me to be in the video peach?” Jack let his lips curve upright as he watched you look up from your iPad.

You tucked your hair behind your ears as you smiled “wanted to save the best role for you.” You explained making his smile grow wider into a toothy grin.

He started calling you peach after the first day when you bumped into him with a bag of sour peach rings in your hand and since that moment you were his peach and he was bringing you a new bag of candy each week “really?” He cocked his head watching her nod eagerly.

The boy naturally agreed and the team watched you pull him with ease to a quieter area of the practice facility “so do we think that he has had a change of heart or that he just thinks that the new girl is hot?” Curtis was the first to speak up from the group that watched the interaction go down.

Judging by the way your hand interlocked with his, Dawson swore that something clearly happened between you and the Hughes boy before “how do we know she doesn’t have a crush on him too?” He shot back causing a chorus of ahh’s to come from around him as the boys began to agree.

Nico just rolled his eyes “next one to talk about either of their love lives is getting extra laps.” As the words left the captains mouth it seemed like the gathering dispersed leaving Luke to awkwardly look up at the captain “I didn’t say a thing!” He whined as the Swiss man pointed to the door leading to the ice.

Jack swore he was slick in masking his crush on you. Sure he offered to do whatever you needed in the form of social media content, something he never did for anyone else. But maybe he was just trying to be your friend.

The all star game had arrived and given that you were in good books with both Jesper and Jack. The team opted to send you with. This was the first time that the fans finally drew the connection. Because after weeks of trying to figure out who was so special on the social media team.

But then they finally got to see the fan clips of you and Jack making fun of Jesper and it was like the puzzle pieces connected for everyone. All of a sudden fans were finding you and just like Jack, you had flurry of people who liked you “someone’s popular.” Jack teased hearing your phone go off again.

It made you send him a glare as you wanted to kick his shin “you jealous Hughes?” You quipped back letting your teeth catch at your lip.

He laughed as he shook his head “the attention they give you is nothing like what you get from me.” Jack pointed out with a smirk as he wrapped his arm around your shoulder.

Both of those memories replayed in your mind as you swore the boys were lying to you. It made you conflicted as to what you were meant to write in Jacks get well soon card as it was the final practice of the season and you were going to give the stuff to Luke to give to his brother.

Your tongue darted out of your mouth as you tried to think of how to start the card “now I’m no genius but most people usually start a card with dear and then the persons name.” Nico pointed out as he looked over the wall of your office cubicle.

His words made you jump as your head shot up “wondered how long it would take for you to see me.” He teased making you roll your eyes “nice to see you too Nico.” You mumbled watching him sit in the seat in front of you.

The captain pulled out a set of keys and before you could ask what was going on he handed you one of them “this is for his place.” Nico explained making your eyes go wide “I am not breaking in!” You shook your head not impressed that he offered.

He shrugged as he leaned back in his seat “technically it’s not breaking in if I said you could go.” Luke’s head popped out from the wall next making you his your face in your hand “how many of you are there?” You were scared to know the answer.

So instead you got to see just how many boys there were as Curtis, John, Timo and Dawson all smiled at you “please go put us out of our misery and tell each other how you feel!” Timo begged making the boys nod in agreement.

Your cheeks turned red as you went to complain “and don’t tell me you don’t like him again because the only person who can’t see it anymore is him.” Nico placed his hand on your knee as he took the card from you “you can give these to him in person so you don’t need this.” He explained as you got up.

It made the boys want to let out a silent cheer “now if he turns me down I will kill you all.” You warned making them salute you off as they knew it wasn’t the case “just to be clear we are all changing our locks now if she knows he has keys?” Dawson trailed off with a gulp.

“Definitely.”

Jack was scrolling through the tv bored out of his mind as he heard the knock at the door “who is it?” He called out muting the sound “peaches!” You called feeling weird hearing your own name be brought up in a conversation with him.

The Hughes boy practically jumped off of the couch “hey.” Jack smiled as he opened the door.

It gave you the rare glance you adored to look at his chest “what are you doing here?” He added as he cocked his head.

You felt like your mouth ran dry “came to give you these.” You explained holding up the muffin basket for him to see.

He nodded motioning for you to come in “and I wanted to check on you.” Your words made both of your tender hearts swell with joy “real sweet of ya peach.” The hockey player was beyond curious to see what you let into your basket.

But suddenly he stopped as he headed for his kitchen “was gonna make Luke give you these.” Jack explained as he handed you a bag of peach rings.

“There is something I need to tell you.”

The words came from both of you at the same time “you should go first.” Jack announced giving you the floor to talk.

It made you want to glare at him “I like you a lot.” Your words sounded really weird “like a lot more than I should as someone who works for the devils.” You added making his facial expressions soften.

But as you heard pure silence you thought the worst “god I made this so bad have I?” As panic settled into your system the boy shook his head.

Jack smiled as he pointed to the bag of peach rings. It made you look down all confused until you saw that the bag had I LIKE YOU printed on the front of it “Jack you better not fuck with me.” You warned as you shook your head.

It made him roll his eyes “trust me for that price I am not.” His words were soft as he walked over to you.

The gap between you both quickly began nothing as you looked up at him “so what do you say about staying over for a bit?” He asked cupping your cheek “we can order pizza and watch a movie.” Jack offered as you leaned forward to kiss him instead.

It was a delicate kiss as if you were too afraid that if any passion slipped into it you’d both end up waking from this perfect dream. So instead you both basked in the beauty that came from knowing how his lips left against yours.

Jack could taste your cherry lipgloss on his tongue as he looked at you “are we sure we want pizza?” You asked letting your fingers run up his chest.

His good arm wrapped around your waist “because I have been told I make a mean frozen lasagna.” You announced with such cheek that it made him laugh as a smile spread on your face.

The boy looked at his kitchen “well then I think it’s good we have everything accept the lasagna.” Jack pointed out letting his forehead rest against yours as you both inhaled wanting to not let the moment ever end.

You pretended to think about it for a second “last time I checked you had a brother who was out still.” Your words made his eyes grow wide “I love you.” Jack confessed as he kissed your lips once more before he reached for his phone.

It wasn’t that you hadn’t heard him because you did, but for the first time you weren’t running away from love as that night as he lay resting against your stomach you’d tell him the same three words back. And that was how, the perfect love story -as Nico calls it when he tells your kids the story of the team got you two together.- came to be known.

If someone told you that the meal that would get you into your future husband’s dreams was going to be a frozen lasagna. They would have been wrong. Jack was so in love with you that you could have served up burnt ramen and he would have eaten it.

Life for the two of you finally blossomed together on that day as two paths merged into one. A story that no longer had all these different endings, where you were with different people.

Jack was your person and you were his. So even know after all of the things you have been through in family and in hockey, you did it together.

With the help of your frozen lasagna.

#jack Hughes x reader #jack hughes x you #jack Hughes imagines #jack Hughes Oneshots #nhl oneshots #nhl imagines #hockey imagines #hockey oneshots #amber writes fics #jack hughes imagine

320 notes · View notes

wtfgaylittlezooid · 6 months

Text

Stickbug AU

Just so y'all can get an idea of what I'm yapping about, I'm gonna spill everything I have planned for this AU so far on this post. I'll try to update it as I come up with more ideas.

NOTE: SO THIS CAME OUT A LOT LONGER THAN I THOUGHT SO IF YALL WANT TO CONTROL F TO CERTAIN SPOTS HERE ARE THE HEADER NAMES: The Hollows Creation AVA IV Chosen & Dark Anim VS Minecraft Purple KING LETS GO MY FAVORITE KING AVM Season 3 Victim & the Mercenaries After Everything

So this AU takes place around 50 years after the canon events of Bug Fables, and I'll explain as I go along so you won't need to know the events of the game.

Some needed information is that Humans are heavily implied to have disappeared/died, and some species of bugs have gained sapience in the "Day of Awakening," though some species remained feral with a few individuals gaining sapience far after the Day of Awakening.

The Hollows Creation

Alan is still in this AU, and in a way he is still the Hollows "creator." In this AU, he's a creature called a "Deadlander Omega" found in the Giant's Lair/Deadlands. Basic information is that they're colossal bird-like Deadlanders which are so big only their claws and eyes have ever been seen. In game they like to drop other Deadlanders onto the player which triggers a fight. Alan is a more aware Omega. He likes to collect whatever piques his interest, normally anything that shines due to the lack of sunlight in the Lair. However after a while of dropping Deadlanders onto the few passing bugs, he got more curious by bugs.

NOTE: THIS IS DRAWN BY @tatos-stick-pile SHE HAS DONE SO MUCH FOR THIS AU

So what did he do? Sneak out of the Giant's Lair. Used the overgrown weeds to his advantage and would look around. Found out about larva and got fascinated by the fact bugs came from that. So whatever larva he could find he'd take back-- which wasn't often since most people wouldn't just leave their larva/eggs lying around.

Anyway he'd bring them home. The Deadlanders wouldn't register the larva/eggs as bugs or alive so they could just crawl around and munch on the grass until they eventually grew up. Alan started realizing "oh shit grow your own entertainment" when his first little stolen egg grew to a bug, a grasshopper (victim). Alan would basically use a jar to keep Victim from running off, would drop Deadlanders on him to watch the fights even if Victim sucked at fighting.

Now even if Alan doesn't recognize the bugs as living and thinking things, he isn't stupid. He notices how they use the shiny crystals he likes to collect to heal. So when he sees Victim nearly getting killed in one of the fights he puts two and two together and "gives" Victim the crystal. AKA impales him and literally kills Victim. When he notices Victim stops moving, throws him away and tries again.

He finds a hornet larva. Decides to try something different. Bugs use the crystals for health, so as the larva crawls around and eats he crushes up one of his crystals and mixes it into areas they know they like to eat in. Because of the magic in the crystals, whatever sticks in their bodies results in the larva becoming strong, healthy, and extremely powerful sorcerers.

Chosen fights-- both the Deadlanders and Alan-- but can't win. He tries running, but Alan rips off a wing and puts him in the jar. Eventually Alan gets lucky and finds a wasp larva, and unfortunately for Chosen, this one doesn't seem to understand anything other than following Alan. Of course y'all can guess what happens from here: Alan pits the two against eachother, Chosen tells Dark they can team up to fight Alan, and end up doing a lot of damage to him before running. It takes a long while for Alan to rebuild his health before he tries again. This time a lot more careful with a little bumblebee larva (Second). He keeps a very close eye on it to make sure it doesn't hurt him, and an even closer eye to make sure it doesn't get away.

AVA IV

Red's a ladybug, Green's a grasshopper, Blue's a firefly, and Yellow's a caddisfly. While Bugaria takes place in the Giant's Lair (AKA a abandoned human home)'s backyard, the color gang are from the front yard. They each have their own reasons to travel to Bugaria: Yellow has heard about Roach technology and really wants to see how it works for himself, Red wants to join the Explorer's Association and fill out his bestiary along the way, Blue wants to visit the Harvest Festival and give an offering for the goddess of Harvest, Venus' approval, and Green just wants to stick with his friends.

However getting to Bugaria is difficult. While before most people would take the swamp, the only thing that resulted in was a lot of tension and frustration since they couldn't communicate with the Leafbugs living there and would only result in a lot of deaths on both sides. The swamp got closed off, and as a result, left two main paths. The Caravan is the most popular for good reason: it is an extremely long road usually consisting of many bugs, although because the trip normally takes around a month, it is not safe from bandits nor the weather. A lot of injuries tend to happen and many come out malnourished. The other option takes a day. Just follow the path through the Giant's Lair. There won't be many Deadlanders, but if there are, only large enough groups of bugs or explorer teams can go through to ensure safety.

Since they're a group of four impatient, naive, younger bugs, the Color Gang goes through the Deadlands. It isn't that bad actually, until a little bumblebee catches Red's eye, and an glint of Blue catches Yellow's. Each go off path, Red finding a very excited and nervous Second Coming, and Yellow finding a half of the Roach's ancient Key.

And This catches Alan's attention, because that bee and that key are both of his things. They get to see Alan's spooky ass eye, and Second urges them to run, but before they can the Color Gang gets squished by Alan's claw and Second and the key get picked up. Second isn't happy, stings Alan right in the eye, and gets dropped right next to his friends. He tries helping them up so they can leave, but they're still struggling. He takes too long and Second and his friends get a jar slammed over them.

Alan keeps watch of them, now mostly curious because that's a LOT of bugs in one jar. He's expecting them to fight or do something, but instead... they just sit together. They just chat and sit against the glass, and what really shocks Alan is when they pull out food and start sharing it. I think this is the moment it clicks for Alan that there's something more to them. Alan leaves, and when he comes back he brings back two things. A good pile of food for them, and one of his crystals. He places them on the ground and lifts the jar before perching to see what they do. They're too injured to leave even with the crystal's healing, but Alan is just fascinated with this new discovery. That they're complicated, that they think. For as long as they stay in the Deadlands, which is only a few days, he tries making it as comfortable as possible to see what they like. Tries modeling after what he's seen other bugs do and live in.

They leave of course, taking Second and the key half with them. Alan doesn't like it, but he lets them. Now he's curious on if they'll come back, and now just has a lot to think about now that he's realized they can think and feel.

Chosen & Dark

After everything with Alan, the only thing Dark and Chosen knew was the other, so they clung. Dark itched for a fight, and Chosen was more curious about the outside world. Eventually this lead to the two becoming an explorer team.

It wasn't bad at first, but Dark of course gravitated to the shadier areas. Dark THRIVED in bounties and fights, meanwhile Chosen started second guessing whether or not he liked being an explorer. Every time they had to leave a kingdom or village, he'd always just felt disappointed. But Dark wanted to keep going, so he followed.

Eventually they started to get a reputation. They would do any quest, no matter the morals, and they wouldn't sell you out. They would get worse and worse clients, and were quickly teetering on the line of hitmen, and Chosen eventually had enough. He didn't see the point in it anymore, he liked the slow moments. Dark meanwhile thrived in a fight, because it was the only thing hes ever known.

This led to a fight between them. A bad one. Dark had been experimenting with Roach crystals to boost his own abilities, and somehow, Chosen ended up accidentally dragging Second and the Color Gang into it. There was a lot of collateral damage and Dark showed off how he was not above killing people, by targeting Second's friends. They died, and that mixture of sheer rage and grief was what triggered Second's skill in magic. Y'all know how this goes, Second beats the shit out of Dark Lord, revives his friends, but before he can land the killing blow, Chosen stops him.

Chosen doesn't want Dark to die, but he can't be with him anymore. So he rats on Dark. Gets him thrown in Rubber Prison, and Dark takes this as a betrayal. They depend on each other, and Chosen wouldn't even defend him and never visited him. Chosen regrets this decision every day and before he can get arrested too, he hides and is labeled as missing.

Anim VS Minecraft

This stumped me at first because how the hell do you mix bug fables and Minecraft but NO WORRIES I FOUND A WAY

After the Deadlands, first thing Color Gang does is sign up for the Explorer's Association. Unfortunately there can't be teams of 5, so they split into two teams: Blue and Yellow form Team Sunset, and Second, Red, and Green form Team Second. They do quests for a while, Yellow spends a lot of time focusing on the key half, and eventually they team up for a pretty important quest!

Not sure what this quest would be exactly, but basically they get lured into a cave and when they get into it Red starts acting weird. And then he starts attacking them and going for the key and yep if you've realized it WE FOUND A WAY TO ADD HEROBRINE FUCK YOU MINECRAFT CREEPYPASTA BUGSONA

Art once again by @tatos-stick-pile

Herobrine is a recently awakened Golden Orb Weaver spider who uses his silk to puppet Red around. This silk is SHARP too. He tries going for the key because he's heard of the artifact and its power and he really wants it to expand his territory. He gets his ass kicked when they figure out whats going on and he escapes.

Afterwards Yellow decides to be more secretive about the key half. They don't figure this out for a while though, but the entire reason Herobrine was expanding his territory is because he looks after lesser bugs ESPECIALLY ones that have recently awakened. He just hates regular bugs.

Purple

And I lied to start with Purple I have to start with an Explorer Team y'all should be familiar with-- unless youre coming from the bug fables fandom and to that i say hello how do you like the shitstorm so far. Anyway one Explorer Team, Team Orchid. It consists of an orchid mantis named Orchid and another mantis named Navy.

Orchid is an explorer for the sightseeing and to help people. Navy doesn't exactly care about that, he's mostly around to make sure she doesn't get herself killed. Eventually he gets an idea that they can get a pet for some extra defense. Orchid LOVES the idea, and so Navy drags her to the Forsaken Lands to find something strong enough.

Orchid falls in love with a mothfly and won't settle for anything else. That mothfly is Purple, a recently awakened mothfly who is extremely confused because he's only been around feral mothflies and its his instinct to stick with them. Anyway y'all know how this goes, Navy "trains" (aka beats) Purple, who can't fight back and goes to Orchid for comfort. Purple causes a massive rift in their relationship and its not even their fault. Orchid wanted a pet to dote on and Navy wanted something to train. But Orchid isn't stupid-- even if Purple is a mothfly and can't talk she starts recognizing he's awakened. He's a child. She starts treating him as such despite how much Navy HATES it and Purple of course starts seeing them as their parents and really looks up to them.

And one day Navy is sick of it. Takes Purple by the arm and drags him back to the Forsaken Lands and far from Orchid. Purple is nervous but still trusts him, thinks its for training. Navy drags him all the way to the abandoned Ant Settlement and tells him to stay there. To prove his training he needs to protect that settlement until he comes back to get them. Purple of course is "okay ❤️ yay❤️."

He doesn't come back. Neither does Purple. But Purple sticks to the settlement and protects it-- getting a little overly defensive of it. Overtime more mothflies are drawn to the area and of course they form little hivemind clusters and whoops! False Monarch 2. But since Purple is awakened and actually intelligent he has a lot more control over the mothfly clusters-- or False Citizens-- and they act more as an extension of him. Purple forms his own little cluster too-- and hates being separated from it and DESPISES being acknowledged as "just a mothfly" so he dresses with a mask and cloak to be a better bug. He gets a bit of a superiority complex as well due to just being surrounded by nothing but feral bugs that he can control.

Anyway the sudden re-population of this abandoned settlement with False Citizens does not go unnoticed. Especially because whenever one wanders close, Purple tends to have a citizen stalk and lurk around the edge until it creeps the bug out enough for them to leave. So a bounty is made once again for the False Monarch.

Blue and Green see it. They think it would be SO fun to lean into their competitive sides and see if whoever got the killing blow on the bounty would finally prove their team as better. So they go to the settlement, see the citizens staring and stalking them and ignore it. They aren't attacking them, after all. They're just being creepy.

They end up finding Purple who is NOT happy and is immediately defensive. But he's not attacking them. He's just kinda throwing a fit and making himself look bigger. Which is weird because bounties are usually extremely dangerous and hostile, but this one is just... throwing a fit. They end up just nearly dodging a fight when some of the citizens start grabbing Green and Blue to throw them out and Blue blurts out they don't want to fight. Turns out Purple does understand Bugnish, but can't speak it.

Great! So they don't have to kill the pretty chill bounty. But others don't know that, and they need to bring back proof they killed Purple to get the bounty taken down. They bring it up to Purple and after vague translations, they make a deal. Purple's been having trouble with a strong enemy near the settlement, so he gives them their mask and helps them defeat the enemy.

And its a big fucking spider, but thankfully they have Purple's range to help in the fight, and while its going smooth at first-- Purple ends up bailing. He's spent too long away from the settlement and figures since Blue and Green are strong enough that they'll be fine. They aren't. Because they needed Purple's range. Purple almost ends up getting them killed, the only reason they survived is because their friends realized they were gone for a long time and come just in time.

Green and Blue afterwards take the mask and leave. They're pissed at Purple but they can confront him another time, they mostly just want to be away from him at the moment.

KING LETS GO MY FAVORITE KING

Time for King! Y'all know King's deal. He has a child he loves with all his heart. In this AU he is a Violin Mantis and his little Goldie is a mantis nymph. King personally isn't an explorer, but Gold REALLY wants to be once and he always finds it difficult to say no to Gold.

Anyway Gold hears wind of a tourist thing. They're doing this mini-tour of the Deadlands in a 100% totally nothing will ever go wrong encased area. Its gonna focus on theories on the Deadlands and what Gold is more interested in-- how Explorers made it safer and how they traverse it.

King doesn't like it. Its called the Deadlands for a reason. But Gold really wants to and is begging him and is doing all his chores and being the most perfect little nymph so he can go. And they claim its safe. King finally caves and takes Gold, and y'all can guess what happens. Deadlander breaks through and kills his son right in front of him before the Explorer escorts can kill it.

So like any regular parent experiencing grief King vows to fucking blow up the Deadlands and everything in it. Not like anybody cares about that fucking place and is widely considered a No Man's Land. He ends up getting his hands on the other half to the Key and is obsessed with finding the other half.

AVM Season 3

While going towards the Termite Kingdom to hopefully find some clues on where the other key half is, King gets lost along the way and finds the abandoned Ant Settlement. False citizens are of course not happy and watch him, but he ignores them. He might as well search the place while he's here. He ends up finding Purple, whose not happy and already a little on edge because Blue and Green haven't come back despite promising they will.

King notices the bounty paper Green and Blue drop and promptly manipulates Purple. Tells them that they probably won't be coming back. But I imagine Green and Blue were yapping to Purple, mentioning the key half because both dont take it that seriously, and Purple sees King's key half and mentions it through a drawing.

King turns up the manipulation to 100. convinces Purple to take his citizens with them (wants to use them as a deadlander bait). If they get the key they'll be strong enough for their village. He just has to get the key from his friends and bring it to King.

Very cute doodle once again from @tatos-stick-pile

Purple does. A while after he's ditched the village to be with King, they run into Color Gang again. They're chatting and having fun and eventually Purple just... dissapears along with the key. Y'all should know what happens, the chase happens, Purple brings the key to King, he combines them and gets really strong and starts destroying shit. Big fight starts up, King focuses on superpowered Second, the color gang go after Purple, who isn't really that strong. He tries getting help from King, but King ignores him. Leaves him for dead.

This fucks up Purple. Because King introduced that fear and realization of abandonment in Purple. And Purple not only realizes how many mistakes he's made, but also realizes he's in fact a lesser bug. That's why nobody wants him. And people don't hesitate to kill lesser bugs when they're in their way. Purple gets both super emotional and terrified for his life, and is forced to abandon his beloved cloak and mask to make a run for it. Green pursues him, everything else happens.

Not sure how everyone splitting up would work so far, but Red somehow gets Herobrine and some of the bugs he watches involved in the fight. Green convinces Purple to go after King, and the bigger fight starts. King uses the Key to attack anyone and hes close enough to his goal hes gotten a lot more brutal. Will just hold whoevers nearest and shoot them point blank with it. Y'all know that scene. The scene where King is nearly killing Purple and goes through that flashback and is slapped in the face with the realization he sees Purple as his own son. That still happens, King gives up, helps Purple and Purple still sticks to him.

Victim & the Mercenaries

Shortly after being discarded by Alan, a cordyceps fungus found and started growing in the grasshopper's body. He is EXTREMELY lucky, because the tiniest crumbs of magic crystal left in his body was just enough magic to balance out the fungus sticking to him and passing on its memory without completely overloading it and turning him into a zombie. But its not perfect, and it still shows in the mini holes in his body. He also woke up fucking PISSED enough to turn him into a Locust

I'm gonna keep this section extremely vague since we still don't know what happened to Victim in AvA canon. Just know he built a massive "charity" corporation in the Termite Kingdom that claims its going to find a way to turn the Deadlands useful. AKA he wants an excuse to have enough money to research a way into killing Alan.

This involves hiring explorer teams, leading him to the Mercenaries: Hazard, Ballista, Primal, and Agent. They are explorers who work in the shadier areas of the Association and are EXTREMELY difficult to hire as they only accept high rewards up-front.

Some concepts for Victim and Agent since I haven't settled on a design for them...

Chosen and Dark catch Victim's eye, since they're rumored to have attacked an Omega and lived. However since Chosen is missing, Victim and the Mercenaries stop by Rubber Prison to visit Dark. Now Dark and the Mercenaries were very well known in the same area, so they know each other. Doesn't mean Dark likes them.

They convince Dark to help them with the promise of his bands back and a dead Omega. Dark thinks Chosen would absolutely love a dead Omega, and so he doesn't hesitate.

Shit happens. Chosen and Second get captured by the mercenaries and Chosen is PISSED at Dark despite all the regret. They're both mad at each other but Dark's doesn't last long when Victim starts torturing Chosen for information. He's mad at Chosen but he doesn't want that.

He blows up at Victim a little at it, so to get Dark to listen, Victim rips off a good chunk of Chosen's remaining wing. That makes Dark stand down, and now Dark doesn't know what to do. Chosen feels too guilty about everything to say anything, and Dark is too prideful to apologize. More shit happens-- Victim has the gem of Hoaxe's crown. Long story short it can brainwash Hornets, which Victim starts using when Chosen keeps refusing. That pushes Dark more off of Victim but he can't do anything lest Victim directs it all back on Chosen tenfold.

More vague shit. Mr alan becker i need the next part of episode six soon please. Anyway big fight in the Deadlands. Everyone's in there and Victim wants Alan DEAD. But Victim is getting progressively more and more pissed off because despite being attacked Alan is being as gentle as he can. He's going the extra mile to make sure he doesn't kill them. Anyway Dark ends up snapping Chosen's antennae to break him out of the brainwashing and Victim gets cooked.

Chosen decides to not murder Victim-- mostly because clearly that's not permanent and its too good for him. Victim is extremely upset about this because the fact nobody is killing him and just being weirdly merciful and the fact hes lost all control has sent him into a breakdown. Its challenging all the rules hes lived by and how he thought the world worked. Hes screaming and shouting at them.

Which attracts the attention of another Omega. Now the thing about Omegas is because they're pretty fragile due to being mostly bones, it means they need to build armor to survive. And they're territorial. Usually if an Omega picks a fight the one with the better armor survives.

Once again-- art provided by @tatos-stick-pile THEY ARE COOKING

And to protect the bug he KNOWS he hurt and was alive-- Alan attacks the other Omega despite already being extremely injured and losing most his armor. The others dont have a choice but to hide out of sight, and eventually the other Omega wins and kills Alan. Tries looking around for the interesting thing that was shouting but finds nothing and fucks off along with a few undamaged parts of Alan's armor.

Everyone except for Second and the Color Gang decide to take their leave. I imagine throughout the story theres a lot of moments where Alan works on making it up to Second and just truely shows he cares and is regretful. So Second tries reviving him, but the problem is that Alan is just... fuckin' massive. Even when they're dead or asleep they're so big their bodies get mistaken for terrain.

It doesn't work at first. Until Yellow finds the gem Victim left behind that he used to control Chosen, and he learned that this can boost magic. He gives it to Second and he completely exhausts himself and they revive Alan. Yipee!! Everyone is saved happy ending go home its over

After Everything

Chalk my liar count to 2 y'all

Purple lives with King, and King has officially adopted him. They still have their own issues they're working towards, but they're slowly getting there together.

Dark and Chosen don't know what to do at first. Chosen wants a chill and peaceful life, but Dark directly contrasts that. He's much more well known and hated than Chosen. Just by being with him, he ruins Chosen's happiness, but he just wants to stay with him. Chosen wants to stay with Dark as well. Thankfully, one of the mercenaries pops up. They're pissed at first, but all they do is mention a town.

Looking into it, after the attempted takeover half a century ago, the bandit leader Astotheles got inspired by the celebration. He wanted a home, a nation for his people, so he left Bugaria because it obviously wasn't gonna happen there. Outside the nation's borders, he established his own village. Where bugs who are abandoned or discarded can come to start anew.

Chosen and Dark decide to move to there, leaving behind and finally moving on from everything that happened to them.

Victim on the other hand went missing. He took that loss HARD. Agent thinks he has an idea on where he went, but needs extra help, so he puts up a request. He's not bringing the other mercs because they don't know about the cordyceps thing and Victim prefers to keep it hidden.

Color Gang ends up taking it up. They are low on berries and its the only request on the board. Nobody is happy about this. Agent makes sure to go with them, and he leads them all to Snakemouth Den. In the den there's a lot of spores and magic in the air, and it gets worse the deeper you go in because in that cave is an ancient Roach laboratory where experimented on cordyceps and magic in an attempt to recreate the immortality of the Everlasting Sapling (that thing is long dead it doesnt matter).

Anyway Victim went here for a power boost. Thinks he just needs to try again and he'll have more control and he'll win. Now he aint thinkin' clearly because the magic that is so goddamn potent in this cave is messin with the fungus. And y'all remember what i said?

"He is EXTREMELY lucky, because the tiniest crumbs of magic crystal left in his body was just enough magic to balance out the fungus sticking to him and passing on its memory without completely overloading it and turning him into a zombie."

Yeah. Ends up shanking himself with the crystals to try and force more magic in him and it makes the fungus go stupid crazy and completely overgrow out and through his exoskeleton and whoops! say goodbye to your sentience. Control freak loses everything even the control over himself. Fun little boss fight I also imagine he has a poison thing going on.

Anyway they end up knocking him down and restraining him, Agent rips out all the crystals. Victim isn't dead yet but he's in awful shape, and congrats you earned Second's pity. Second heals him and Agent pays them a shit ton for that and brings Victim home to help him recover.

Anyway thats it for the AU so far holy god that was so much longer than I expected if you made it here we should go on a date to texas roadhouse together

#anim vs bf au #my writing #animator vs animation #ava #avm #animation vs minecraft #ramble #long post

127 notes · View notes

sweetvirgin · 10 days

Text

ino & egypt, pt. 1.5 ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ black!fem!reader

time skip (2 weeks) from this. something just short n sweet. a little mention of titties but u know me! no smut (for now). ur name is egypt cuz i hate writing “y/n.” — wc. 600ish ₊‧

takuma sat slouched between egypt’s thighs with his beanie off, the back of his head resting on her breasts as she gently played with his hair. it was getting so hard for him to pay attention to the video game on his tv. her caresses were causing him to shudder and press all of the wrong buttons. he bit his bottom lip, setting the controller down when her fingertips brushed from his jaw to that sensitive spot behind his ear. he had to just accept the bliss and say fuck that damn video game.

“you know, it’s impossible to focus when you do that,” takuma mumbled.

it came out as a complaint, but in actuality, he didn’t want her to stop. he felt his controller vibrate violently as other players shot at him. by now, he probably died a few times. but he couldn’t think with her behind him, stroking him like this. especially with them soft ass titties behind his head. it was too comfortable, he could feel himself getting tired.

egypt bit her bottom lip, trying to fight a smile. but despite his eyes being tightly closed, he could almost hear the corners of her mouth quirk up.

“when i do what?” she whispered, then she repeated the action. “oh, this? when i touch you here?” he curled his toes as he felt her fingers ghost the same area. the controller continued vibrating against his thigh.

“i know.” she added teasingly. he sucked a breath in, and egypt couldn’t help but giggle. “feel good?”

he let out a tormented groan before nodding obediently. “mhm. feel so good.” he settled deeper into her embrace, tilting his head back so that she could get an upside-down (a la spider-man kiss) view of his appeased expression.

she smiled as she looked down at him, bringing her hands up from his neck and cupping his face upside down. her thumbs gently ran across his jaw. his skin was so soft, so dainty. and his lashes, god. they were so long. such a pretty face. such sweet features.

“you so cute,” she cooed, so low it was like a prayer. absentmindedly, she stroked his cheeks with the pads of her thumb.

his eyes fluttered open, and she got an intimate close-up of the steel-grey color. egypt could see both the growing exhaustion in them. warmth from his blushing cheeks radiated into her fingertips, and she felt his lips stretch into a smile. “so are you.”

she kept petting him while wearing a cheeky grin. “i am, ain’t i?”

like a dummy, his sleepy head bobbed in agreement. “so pretty.”

her grin widened, thinking “awwww” to herself as her cheeks heated from a growing blush. he loved how cocky she was, and she loved how he praised her.

egypt bent down to deliver a chaste kiss to his forehead. he long forgot about that game, having been kicked from it for inactivity. instead, he felt warm from their newfound dynamic… whatever it was.

after the events that took place a couple weeks ago — where the two friends exchanged weed, lips, and lungs — she came over intending to test and tease him more. but looking down at his sweet face, she decided not right now. their closeness made it so that she just wanted to be tender to him for this moment.

she lowered her head and pressed her lips to his forehead again, and as she raised her head, she could see his cheeks flush pink almost immediately. cute. a simple affection was more than enough to suffice her. he could always get blue balls another time.

#ms. takuma 💋#ms. jjk 💋#black fem reader #black reader #black tumblr #black y/n #black!fem!reader #sweetvirgin 💋#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #takuma ino

41 notes · View notes

thatsatricky1 · 6 months

Text

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 || ‘𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞’ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐈

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: Eight of the top ten most popular players in Korea are invited to be the first people to test out the newest device and gameplay by NEO a video game company known as of recent to be the best of the best. An opportunity of a life time handed to them to be able to trial and get a contract to promote it later on. The eight couldn’t resist as they gladly accepted the invitation. Not being able to predict what was to come. A trail test that wouldn’t just be focused on graphics and playablity, no this would test relationships, strength, resolve and many more unpredictable things.

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: Nct Dream ot7 x Reader

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Angst, Fantasy, Fluff, Gaming, Humour, Romance Smut (in future chapters), Thriller.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 6,5k+

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: Cursing.

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: This does not depict an accurate picture of Nct Dream and this is strictly fantasy/fiction for entertainment purposes.

“A game store inside a game, a bit ironic if you ask me.” Jaemin pointed out after stepping into the store after holding it open for Y/N.

“Something tells me they’re really taking the opportunity of us agreeing to contracts with them.” Y/n mused out gesturing at the posters hanging in the store. There were posters of all eight of them hanging around the store, specifically their promo photos they’d taken only a week prior.

“They are fast.” Jaemin huffed out a laugh, hand moving to teasingly poke Y/n’s poster with his finger against the area of where her cheek would be underneath the character mask she’d worn.

“Very funny of you, careful I’m sure we can rip posters off the wall with how realistic everything is.” She replied having to hold back with rolling her eyes trailing further into the store.

Jaemin placed a hand against his chest in mock pain as he caught up to her.

“That’s a bluff, you wouldn’t rip my poster down from me doing a little poke, plus the game would probably just regenerate my poster back up.” Jaemin spoke of her bluff knowing fully well Y/n wouldn’t act a menace just yet in the game.

Y/n stopped at a certain aisle, a soft smile forming on her lips as she gazed at what was in front of her with a look of nostalgia in her eyes. Moving a hand to touch the old console gently as if it would disappear if her fingers touched it any harder.

“Is that a PlayStation 3?” Jaemin asked moving behind her, bending down slightly to rest his chin on her shoulder looking at where her hand was.

“It is. Man, my first ever console was a PlayStation 3.” Y/n muttered as her fingers brushed over the side of it.

“I thought it was a GBA that you had first?” Jaemin asked out confused arms moving to wrap around her waist. Causing Y/n to look over her shoulder up at his face at his question.

“No I got the game boy advance after that, it was in the clear sky blue coloured one.” She corrected him before watching the way his eyes trailed over the varying consoles and nodded his head.

Y/n turning to look in the direction he’d nodded to, her small smile growing as she saw a few GBA’s one in the colour clear sky blue.

“My guess is they researched us well enough to find out about our childhood, we all had GBA’s at one point or another, mine was the orange one.” Jaemin guessed as rested his chin back onto her shoulder.

Y/n reached out both hands, taking both the orange GBA and the clear almost see through sky blue GBA pulling them closer for the two to see.

“Orange? Why orange?” She asked out, nose scrunching at the thought of owning an orange coloured GBA.

“It was the only colour left available by the time I was allowed to have one.” Jaemin answered back defensively at the choice in colour his friend clearly wasn’t impressed with.

“I bet they also have all our childhood games we’ve played, what we play now, what we want to play. All on display.” Y/n guessed out causing Jaemin to hum, eyes closing as he listened to her speak enjoying the time alone.

“I’m not sure the game store is going to be helpful during our gameplay though, it must just be a little Easter egg for us to stumble upon, how about we go to the grocery store we just saw nearby?” She thought out loud before giving the other a suggestion where they should go next.

“Right we probably should, I mean we have hunger stats, so that means eating and drinking is necessary.” Jaemin sighed out realising he’d have to remind himself of that too.

“Alright, let’s go.” Y/n finalised the decision trying to move but her body was halted. Silence slowly filled the game store.

“Nana?”

“Hm?” Jaemin hummed out hearing her call him, he liked the way his name flowed out of her mouth.

“Could you let go?” She asked, causing Jaemin’s eyes to snap open, not even remembering closing them again, raising his head and unwrapping his arms from her waist giving her a sheepish smile when she turned to face him.

“Start moving.” Y/n gestured with her hands causing him to pout but nodded turning around to head out of the store, with her right behind him.

The two made it to the grocery store nearby without any trouble or problems. Standing in front of it gazing at the aesthetic of it. Without another word Y/n grabbed Jaemin’s hand to pull him towards the entrance, walking through as the automatic doors opened with a swoosh noise.

Entering the grocery store, a song was playing over the speakers. The ambiance of the store was dead, seeing as there were no players in the area due to it not being released to the public yet. Once released it would surely be bustling.

“Split up to look for supplies we might need?” Y/n suggested as she glanced towards the aisles and tags hanging above certain areas to show where, what was.

“Absolutely not, I’m glued to you till we head back, also do we even have any credit score to buy anything or are we becoming fugitives right from the start?” Jaemin denied her idea.

Y/n looked towards Jaemin at his words, mulling it over before letting out a sigh. It was most likely they didn’t have any credit yet but it didn’t hurt to try, maybe Taeyong would gift them a bit of a credit score to start off with.

“Hey Jayu, please show me my credit score.” Y/n said out loud, Jaemin watching her as her eyes unfocused.

“Player T/n, your current credit is currently 600 Neo coins. Gifted from Neo Ceo.” Jayu’s voice spoke to her in return. Y/n seeing an image flash through her head of her credit score.

“600 Neo coins, we all probably have the same amount.” Y/n said out loud to Jaemin so he also knew, causing him to raise an eyebrow impressed at the amount generously given to them.

“Don’t get too excited. We still have to see how much things cost around here.” She shut down whatever he was about to say, it could be incredibly inflated prices like some games loved to do, but something told the two that it would be good pricing.

“Alright then let’s go check everything out.” Jaemin gestured with his free hand. The two walked towards the food aisles.

“Shouldn’t we get a shopping cart?” Y/n asked wondering if they’d need one if they end up buying a lot of items.

“Right, let’s look, then grab a shopping cart afterwards. We still have enough time.” Jaemin thought about it as he swung their intertwined hands.

“Alright, but-” Y/n voice cut off as the two hear a loud cackle in the distance.

“Looks like those two found the store before us.” Jaemin, not having to say their names as she already knew he was referring to Donghyuck and Mark.

Y/n only hummed moving to cup her hands around her mouth so the sound traveled better, Jaemin pouting again at the loss of her hand but watched in amusement taking over his face.

“Either that is a bugged out NPC or a Donghyuck!” She hollered out, her voice echoing through the grocery store.

Silence followed short before the two could hear footsteps bounding in their direction. Jaemin leaned against the aisle as they waited. Though the wait wasn’t long as Donghyuck raced past their aisle in excitement, clocking them as he went causing him to slide back towards their lane.

“Nana and N/n, just the two people I was looking for!” Donghyuck greeted them as he moved down the aisle towards them.

“I wonder what gave it away that we were here.” Jaemin joked back as Donghyuck gave him a side hug.

“You know we could hear you laughing from the other side of the store right?” Y/n asked out hands on her hips. He’d need to learn to be quieter in game if stealth was required, Donghyuck had an infinity for finding trouble during game nights when it was voice activated, always getting caught because of his volume.

“Oh come on, right now we’re safe.” Donghyuck whined out moving to hug her.

From where Jaemin was standing it looked like Donghyuck’s whole body swallowed her up from the size difference. Jaemin had to place a hand over his mouth to hold back a laugh at the sight.

“Channie- Donghyuck! Put me down!” Y/n changing her sentence as she feels him lift her up by the waist, starting to spin now.

Her hands automatically moving in panic, one going around his neck and the other into his hair, fingers wrapping around the dark chocolate coloured locks. Donghyuck laughed at her reaction as he continued spinning them in circles by pivoting his feet.

“Not what I was expecting, but similar.” Mark’s voice sounded from the end of the shopping lane, causing Donghyuck to stop spinning but still held Y/n in the air, her head moving to look up, both their cheeks squishing together.

“Tell him to let go.” Y/n whined out, though she didn’t struggle not wanting to fall on her ass.

“As if that would work.” Jaemin snorted while Mark moved forward pushing a half full shopping cart filled with various items he had thought the group would want.

“Donghyuck put me down or I will poke your eyes out.” She threatened causing him to gently place her down, Y/n glad her feet were back on the cream white floor.

Jaemin sees his window of opportunity open up at this grabbing her hand again and tugging her towards the shopping cart. The two peered in, Jaemin’s head snapping up to grin at Mark while Y/n continued looking at the items.

“Everything’s really affordable, hopefully after the game releases it stays this way. We got mainly what we needed, but also grabbed a favourite snack or drink for everyone too.” Mark explained as he watched Y/n look at the items.

“Plus a few other items because Donghyuck wants to cook something next time we’re in the game.” Mark muttered as he started pushing the shopping cart towards the cash register. The three others following close behind.

“We can probably exchange and gift currency so I say one of us buys the groceries, then we give our fair split of credit to them or just pay the next round.” Jaemin suggested all the while swinging his and Y/n hands together at their sides.

“Sounds good to me.” Donghyuck agreed easily while moving to hop into the shopping cart ignoring Mark’s protest of pushing extra weight.

The four made it to the register, finding out by Jayu that once the game is online worldwide npcs and players would be cashiers but for now they’d be able to buy their items through a store. Which Mark did, as he gave away 102 Neo coins, leaving him with 498 Neo coins left in his credit score.

“We spent so long in the game store and grocery store, an hour is nearly up we should head back.” Y/n offered to the group so the others didn’t wait too long for them.

“Wait there’s a game store?” Donhyuck asked as Mark agreed with her at the same time.

“Yeah, there’s more Easter eggs in there with our old childhood gaming stuff.” Jaemin explained as they all headed out of the store, Mark still pushing Donghyuck with the shopping cart.

“Jaemin’s ugly GBA was there too, he had an orange one.” She joked causing him to groan annoyed, hand squeezing hers.

“You had an orange Game Boy, Jaemin, why?” Donghyuck asked out, nose scrunching in distaste.

“It was the only ones left.” He grumbled out his reply.

“Is that food?” Chenle asked out once the four approached Jeno’s parked car.

“Yes, now help us load it into the car so we can get back, we only have an hour left in-game.” Mark instructed, already tugging Donghyuck out of the cart.

“I hope we can taste the food and drinks, if we can do that then this will truly be the best game.” Chenle excitedly decided to grab some of the shopping bags, placing them into the boot of the car that Jeno had opened for them.

Once the cart was empty, Y/n let go of Jaemin’s hand in favour of grabbing onto the cart.

“I’ll be right back, I’ll just go and bring this back real quick.” She explained moving to leave but was stopped by Renjun’s hand being gently placed on her shoulder.

“Want someone to go with you?” He asked out, silently offering his own help with his eyes.

“I think I can survive two minutes alone.” She shut down the offer as she moved to leave by herself.

“We love an independent woman.” Jaemin joked only for Renjun to shove him away with a few choice curse words.

Y/n made her way to the grocery store pushing the cart back in with the rest of where they were before stopping and walking over to another store gazing at a television playing inside the window.

It showed a report on the real world's current weather report. The weather was going to be very good for another week but a storm was due in two weeks, a weather warning advised for people to be prepared just in case. With a hum she made a mental note of it before returning to the car park.

“That was three minutes.” Jeno called out to her from where he leaned against his car, twirling his set of keys around his finger.

“Shut up, you’re following me this time. Don’t even think about bumping into my car or scratching it.” Was her only response but he knew not to think to heavily on it by the smile she sent his way.

Jeno gave a salute before sliding into the driver side of his car, the others already inside since he’d unlocked it. Y/n jogging over to her car seeing Chenle whining about getting to be in the passenger seat this time.

“Next time Lele.” Y/n reassured her hot headed friends as she unlocked the car, all four getting in.

Both cars took the same route home, Y/n having memorised it by the sheer luck of it not being too far away. Pulling up with Jeno parking outside the house again, while Y/n parked inside the garage.

Everyone gathered into the living room talking for a while before everyone went their separate ways to explore the base properly since they didn’t have a lot of time left in the game for today.

Y/n heading towards where her room was located only to groan when Jeno snagged her waist with his arm using his strength against her to move her further down the hallway towards his own room.

Walking through the door she raised an eyebrow having not needed to ask for permission and as if reading her mind Jeno let out a laugh flopping onto his bed, back hitting the soft mattress.

“Already ahead of some of you, I took off the permission request for you. You can walk in when you like, I already know you’ll knock before entering, unlike some of the gremlins running around here.” Jeno explained as he moved his upper body higher using his elbows and forearms to do so.

“Right, and why am I currently here?” Y/n asked the question she was wondering this whole time.

Jeno stared at her for a few seconds before shuffling his way backwards to rest his back against his bed’s headboard and spreading his arms wide in a gesture for her to come over and lay with him.

The two hung out regularly just as much as they did with the rest of the group together and separately. Though lately after a particularly rainy day where they were stuck in Jeno’s apartment they’d fallen asleep watching a movie on the couch cuddled up together.

It was normal to hug or be more snuggled up in the group together on movie nights but it had just been the two of them that night. Even so, it felt very normal, right even. So they continued to cuddle every now and then. Ignoring how intimate it was in favour of just pulling it off as something ‘every close friend’ does.

Y/n didn’t comment on his actions and instead sighed as she moved towards the bed giving in to his silent request. Which seemed to please Jeno from the fact his smile turned into a full on grin.

Getting onto the bed she let her body flop onto Jeno’s, head tucked under his chin, laying on her stomach as he moved to wrap his arms securely around her torso.

“So what do you think?” Y/n whispered out, finding the lower tone of voice appropriate in the moment. Jeno’s eyes fell shut as he let out a hum.

“I think a cuddle session was in order after all that exploring.”

“Jeno, I mean, what do you think about the game so far?” Y/n let out a laugh at Jeno’s mistake who only let out his own sheepish laugh in return.

“I think the world isn’t ready for such a realistic game, it’s either going to go down very well or very bad.” Jeno’s answer was very cryptic as it could mean anything but she didn’t comment on it seeing as technically it was also correct.

“I wonder what the true purpose of the game is. It has to have an overall plot and of course a genre.” She voiced her thoughts to him, tone even lighter than before.

Her own eyes slowly closed, drooping shut when she felt one of his hands shift from her waist to her back rubbing soothingly against it. One of her hands was curled inwards towards her own chest, whereas her other hand lightly traced patterns against Jeno’s shoulder.

“Usually that’s how it goes, but I’m not sure. That Ceo seemed set on it being not just a massive plot line based game but more so a variety of plot lines, as for the genre it could be anything.” Jeno hummed out, not really saying anything different, his own thoughts aligned with hers more focused on the feeling of her fingers tracing patterns against him then the conversation.

As Jeno laid there he couldn’t help but let his mind wander, wanting to pretend that it was only the two of them in the homebase, the game in general too. Just the two of them cuddled together in bed with no one around. His chest was warm at the thought.

“Jeno, I can hear literal cogs turning in your brain, what are you thinking about?” Y/n asked curiously, finger stilling against his shoulder before dipping down his collarbone.

“Was just thinking about what to stream tomorrow.” Jeno tried coming up with something random as fast as he could without failing.

Y/n’s eyes fluttered open as she moved her head upwards away from where it had been resting to look at Jeno with her eyes squinting at his shitty excuse.

“You? Thinking about what you’ll stream? Come on, Jeno. You’ll just stream some game play like usual if you don’t have a set idea. What were you really thinking about?” Y/n called him out knowing her currently blonde haired friend a bit too well.

Jeno peeked one of his eyes slightly open to see her face close to his own, hoping she didn’t pick up on the way his eyes roamed her face before landing back on her eyes. Closing his peeking eye again, head sinking further into the pillow below his head.

“I was thinking about us.” Jeno revealed his true thoughts knowing well enough she’d see through him again if he said another excuse.

Y/n wordlessly moved her back underneath Jeno’s chin, snuggling into the crook of his neck with a little huff. He’d brought up the seemingly forbidden topic they always danced around, they weren’t the only ones though.

“That’s a dangerous thing to think about.” Came her muffled response, Jeno having to bite back a nose at feeling her lips unintentionally brush against his neck as she does so.

“I know, but I can’t help it.” Jeno nearly grumbled out, his hand no longer rubbing her back soothingly in favour of moving to rest his palm flat against her lower back.

It wouldn’t ever be wise for any popular person on the internet to get into a relationship with another social media influencer, even when hidden it always has been found out.

Y/n wanted a private relationship, that was for sure, especially with how many curious eyes were watching her daily. Though she also knew a part of her craving to be able to go in public around with her partner if she ever had another one, one day, without people eyeing them.

“I know there are many reasons why… that wouldn’t work.” Jeno swallowed a lump in his throat.

Jeno understood because he felt the same way with wishing for privacy in such an intimate relationship. He would want his partner to feel safe with him and not constantly on edge because of unwanted attention. Not to mention if the other person was also known online, then their privacy would be null if it would ever become public.

Y/n fingers moved in favour of laying her hand flat against his chest. Her thoughts now full, thinking about their situation, but also the whole situation as it wasn’t just them. Not noticing how her hand curled into his shirt.

“How about we talk about it another time hm?” Jeno suggested after realising he shouldn’t have brought it up especially not during their time testing out the game internally cringing at the idea of any game makers watching.

Y/n didn’t say anything but her silent actions were enough for Jeno to realise she agreed to his suggestion by the way her hold on his shirt loosened. Jeno’s grip on her tightening for a split second before his fingers fiddled with her white crop top.

“Players, you have ten minutes left in your first trial.” Jayu’s voice spoke out causing Jeno to grumble having nearly fallen asleep after ten minutes of silence between the two of them.

“We should head to the living room.”

Jeno only let out a noise not wanting to budge, his arms tightening around her, turning them over so she was no longer laying on top of him but beside him as he pulled her back against his chest, snuggling his face against the back of her neck.

“Five more minutes.” Jeno groggily responded, voice deep and thick from being only half-awake.

“Alright Jeno, five more minutes.” Y/n agreed reluctantly, though she could admit to herself that she also didn’t want to get up yet. Her tired eyes glanced occasionally at the digital alarm clock beside Jenn’s bed on top of the bedside table.

As the clock changed minute numbers for the fifth time she let out a sigh, turning around in Jeno’s grasp so she was face to face with him. Eyes roaming his face watching how he took deep slow breaths in. A small teasing smile on her face as she came up with an idea.

Grabbing a piece of her light pink dyed hair and moving it towards Jeno’s face, letting the tips of hair slowly trance down his nose. She had to hold back a laugh as she watched his nose scrunch slightly from the intruding tickling feeling of her hair.

Slowly her hand moved to brush the tip of her hair against his cheekbone, Jeno not reacting too much to this until she moved her hair over to his ear circling it before poking him with it. His hand flew from her waist to itch his ear.

Jeno’s eye’s finally opened, yet only half way as he looked at her unimpressed, though he couldn’t help but match her smile when seeing the pure amusement in her eyes and plush lips stretched into a smile.

“Would you let me ask for another five minutes?” His question was answered by her as she wiggled out of his grasp, rolling over so there was space between them.

His hand automatically moves to chase after her touch, moving to interlock their hands. Squeezing her hand gently, his lips pouting at her actions as he moved to squish his face into the pillow letting out an annoyed groan.

“Time to get up, or I’ll drag you buy your tail out of here Samoyed.” Y/n jokingly warned out hand moving to grab the pillow under his face tugging at it so he had to hold his head up.

Y/n getting out of bed, stretching her body letting out a satisfied hum feeling her body pop and crack where it needed to after being still. Giving one more glance at Jeno before heading for his bedroom door.

“I’ll be a minute.” Jeno called after her, watching her wave her hand as if to dismiss his words knowing very well he’d be rushing at the last minute.

As she left the room she walked down the hallway hearing the door close on its own, something she’d have to get used to. Noticing no one in the hallways meaning they were all already in the living room.

Raising a hand to run it through the pink locks on her head to make sure she didn’t have any bed head from her short nap. Letting her hand drop as she finally entered the living room.

“Look, the princess finally graces us with her presence.” Jaemin mocking joked moving his hands upwards in a cheer motion from where he sat on one of the large couches.

“Says you passenger princess.” She quipped back as out of game, Jaemin always tried getting shotgun when she was driving with the group.

“Fair enough.” Jaemin backed down from the debate knowing it would be a losing battle this time.

“Where’s Jeno we’re going to be leaving the game-oof.” Renjun’s question cut off as he let out a dramatic noise from being unprepared for Y/n who sat down on half on his lap, the other side was Chenle who casually placed his arm around her waist.

“Either asleep again or rushing to get here in time.” Y/n answered Renjun’s half asked question, moving to rest her back half against Renjun, half against Chenle.

“You both had a nap together and didn’t invite me?” Donghyuck butted into the conversation, his hand flying to land on his chest over dramatic with an offended look on his face.

“Yes we did, it was quiet and I wasn’t smothered in limbs.” She responded letting her eyes close, eyelashes fluttering for a second. Her jab against Donghyuck’s tendency to move a lot in his sleep causing a few snickers to go around the group.

Though loud thudding footsteps approaching the group caused most of the attention to move over to the doorway where Jeno appeared flustered having finally made it out of his bedroom. His hair sticking at odd angles, bed head evident.

“So now you’re hogging Y/n out of game and in game?” Donghyuck called out to his tired friend.

“Maybe next time, keep up.” Jeno grumbled back in response, moving to sit in the last available spot on one of the two couches.

“Hello Players you will all be taken out of Project starting in ten seconds.” Jayu’s voice floated through the living room. Meaning Jeno was ten seconds on time.

“Ten.”

“Y/n, after this you should come over to my place for a mini movie session and you can sleep over.” Donghyuck suggested giving Jeno a look, the other too tired to shoot a look back.

“Nine.”

“Channie, it’s going to be eleven p.m when we get out of the game.” She responded, eyes still closed humming when she felt Renjun twirling a piece of her hair around his finger.

“Eight.”

“That hasn’t stopped us before, plus you can pick the genre tonight.” He sweetened the deal. Though it was true, everyone in the group were night owls at this point in their careers.

“Seven.”

“Or we could all go to one of our apartments and have a mini movie night together.” Mark suggested a new idea causing Donghyuck to give him a look as if to say ‘Seriously?’

“Six.”

“I could go for a movie night, salted popcorn and too much caffeine.” Jaemin shrugged, agreeing to the idea. Donghyuck’s head whipped in his direction only to get a small smug smile from Jaemin.

“Five.”

“We could go to the convenience store beforehand to grab some snacks.” Renjun furthered the idea as his hand moved to rub at Y/n’s scalp, as she leaned more into his touch enjoying the sudden head massage.

“Fine… but then we do the movie night at Y/n’s apartment it’s the least messiest at the moment.” Donghyuck finally agreed to a group movie night.

“Four.”

“Half our apartments aren’t messy, Hyuck, that’s just yours.” Renjun scoffed out, his hand still moving against Y/n’s head.

“Three.”

“We can do the movie night at my apartment.” Y/n agreed to having it at her place to stop a petty arguement from brewing.

“Two.”

“Do you have cookie and cream ice cream in the fridge Y/n?” Jisung asked out curious, if not he’d have to remember to grab some at the convenience store. Getting a hum in return from Y/n who still had half a tub left from the last time he’d been over.

“One.”

“Rise and shine Dreamies.” Taeyong clapped watching the slumped figures in their respected reclined chairs. His hands automatically clasping together, a grin on his lips, eyes roaming from one player to the next.

All eight of them slowly and groggily sat up from their reclined positions, though none touched their techwear headgear in favour of waiting for someone to take it off for them.

Workers heading in their respected spots as they started taking off the headgear for them. Some rolled their necks after the headgear came off while others rubbed at their eyes or ran a hand through their hair.

“Much to discuss on how the game play was. Though you only got to do a bit of exploring today. Which was good in itself for you all to get used to it and luckily no one ran into any problems or glitches.” Taeyong spoke as he walked closer towards the center where all eight could see and hear him clearly.

“But I’ll spare you all from the boring debriefing, we were watching this time anyway. Next time we won’t be. So all you need to do is write up your thoughts on what you experienced today and get it to me by the end of the week, quite simple.”

“It would be great if all eight of you as you continue playing our game could make weekly reports and send them to us.”

Everyone listened to Taeyong’s words as they slowly caught up with being outside of the game. Unlike the Vr from before this, they would have motion sickness, but due to the fact they had been laying down comfortably the whole time there was no motion sickness.

“Alright I’ll have someone show you out of the building once you all get your footing back, thank you all for taking part in our trials it means a lot. This game and headgear will be a big game changer in the gaming industry and you’re a part of that.” Taeyong thanked them before gesturing behind him.

“I have to go now, but do please contact us in regards to any questions you may have.” Taeyong said his last goodbye before flashing them a pearly white smile and headed out of the room.

“You’re personal headgear and a manual will be boxed up for you and you can all take them with you today.” Doyoung spoke up as he moved away from the monitors after shutting them down.

“Alright, sounds good to use.” Mark announced to Doyoung for the whole group, taking up his leadership role for the group once again.

“Great wait here while they package up your headgear and then you can all leave. A big thank you from all of us at Neo for your active participation in the trials, we hope you all continue enjoying Project Impact. I will be taking my leave as well.” Doyoung finalised with a short and brief polite bow of his head before following after Taeyong.

“Taeyong and Doyoung seem to be the opposites of each other.” Chenle pointed out as he got up from his recliner chair groaning feeling his stiff limbs.

“They complement each other well though.” Y/n shrugged moving to stretch her arms, feeling her muscles slightly burn from the sudden use.

Before they could all discuss anything further they were all given their techwear headgear in aesthetic Neo packaging to be able to safely transport it. The eight exited the room and down to the main lobby.

Jeno and Mark pulled out their car keys as they’d been the ones to collect and drive everyone there today. Everyone politely bowed towards the reception desk employees before leaving the building through the underground car park.

“Let’s meet at our regular convenience store and grab some things before we head to Y/n’s.” Mark suggested as he unlocked his car. Chenle opened the door straight away, diving into the back seats followed by Jisung. Mark having to deal with the two on their way there.

“Sounds good, don’t steal the good parking spot.” Jeno responded since he was the other driver, Renjun passing by snatching his car keys to unlock the car doors for the rest of them.

The rest got into Jeno’s car while he talked to Mark.

“Do we really need twelve different versions of cookies?” Renjun asked with his arms crossed unimpressed at the sight in front of them where Chenle and Jisung were in an intense debate about chocolate chip cookies or double chocolate chip cookies.

“Just let them have their fun.” Y/n nudged her shoulder into his watching in amusement enjoying these types of moments with her friends.

Renjun moving to look at her side profile before slowly letting his arms uncross thinking about it as Chenle let out a shrug grabbing both and dropping them into the basket that was filling up at an alarmingly fast rate in Jisung’s hands.

“Make that thirteen types of cookies.” Y/n teased Renjun and turned to face him after the two had witnessed Chenle’s decision to get both.

“You spoil them too much.” Renjun shook his head facing her as well.

“Well…” Y/n started off moving to grab one of his hands playing with his fingers absentmindedly before she continued on “Sometimes we all deserve to be spoiled here and there.”

“Yeah? Is that a subtle meaning I detect behind your words?” Renjun hummed out letting her fiddle with his hand.

“Definitely, meaning I get to choose the movies tonight. My apartment, my rules.” Y/n reposted with a grin before leaning closer to whisper.

“But I won’t tell the others if you have movie suggestions just text me them and I might just put one of them on the list we’re watching today.”

“Oh? Well I guess I can’t pass up that opportunity.” Renjun replied subconsciously leaning his face closer to hers too as he whispered.

“Did you guys find anything yet, Jeno and Jaemin are grabbing drinks.” A sudden voice interrupted as Donghyuck squeezed his way between them draping his arms over their shoulders.

“If you mean Chenle and Jisung wanting to buy thirteen different types of cookies then yes.” Renjun replied, giving Y/n a side glance before properly looking at Donghyuck.

“Please tell me they at least got those soft chewy ones.” Donghyuck groaned out watching the two in front of them now seeing they’d moved on to picking out different bags of crisps.

Y/n only humming as her hand moved up to rest against his hand that was hanging from her shoulder. Watching the two pick between two different types of dorito flavours. She’d most likely see both on her living room table later tonight anyway.

“Let’s get sunglasses.” Y/n suddenly suggested walking away, causing Donghyuck to follow as his arm was around her shoulder, ending up with Donghyuck dragging Renjun along by his other arm.

“It’s eleven at night.” Renjun pointed out the fact that sunglasses were not needed in the dark.

“You’re obsession with sunglasses is becoming worrying, your collection is growing at a fast rate.” Donghyuck added on, she had a whole drawer full at this point.

“Stop nagging me and let me have my fun.” Was all she said as they made it to the sunglasses section, the stand having different sides, one side aesthetically please, the second side being more goofy, then a child section and lastly very modern sunglasses.

Her hands grazed down a row of glasses, before wrapping around a classic rounded white pair of glasses. She wondered how she didn’t have these types of sunglasses yet. Moving to slip on the pair of glasses, ignoring the slight awkward scratchy feeling of the tag against one of her ears.

Spinning on her heels to face the two she let a hand rest against her chin, making a exaggerated look adding on the classic meme’d fuck boy lip bite. Silently asking what they thought.

Donghyuck let out a bark of a laugh while Renjun ran a hand down his face in second hand embarrassment, though he held back his own laugh not wanting to encourage her behavior in the convenience store.

“My turn.” Donghyuck excitedly called out rushing over to the sunglasses and grabbing a heart shaped pair of cherry red sunglasses slipping them on, his vision going a slight shade darker.

The two turned to look at Renjun at the same time having come up with the same plan, a grin on their lips as Renjun’s eyes turned into a glare knowing what they wanted to do. Donghyuck took a step forward as Y/n grabbed a random pair of sunglasses.

“Hey do you guys want sprite or-” Jaemin who’d turned the corner after hearing their voices wanted to know what drinks they wanted but cut his own question off at the sight in front of him.

The trio in front of him turned their heads to look at him, all three wearing sunglasses with Renjun in the middle with ruffled hair from trying to escape their grasp. Jaemin not being able to hold back a smile.

“Are you wearing sunglasses at night again?” Jisung asked out to Y/n as they all headed back to the cars with bags of junk food in their hands.

“Fashion baby, look it up.” Was her only reply as they continued walking towards the parked cars.

Chapter one | Chapter two | Chapter three (coming soon…)

𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: @rotinyzen @wonyoungmywife @snflwrhaerecs4u @thegreenlynx @serinebsblog @delululi @bubusebu @hanniehq @molensworld @morkiee @marvelahsobx @kaciebello @kgneptun @bluedbliss

(If you want to be tagged in my Nct Dream writing comment, inbox or message me)

Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget likes, reblogs and comments are always encouraged and help keep writers like myself motivated to continue our stories.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭:

⤻ Click here.

𝐊𝐩𝐨𝐩 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭:

⤻ Click here.

50 notes · View notes

goatmati · 11 months

Text

Aitana Bonmatí, one step away from the Golden Ball: "I suffer because I always want more".

In her book United We Are Stronger (2022) she says that as a child she was "cold and hard". Why does she say that? She answers in the photos, sitting on the visitors' bench at the Johan Cruyff stadium: "My childhood was not easy because I was the only girl in a man's world, and the fights, the insults I received, I think I kept them to myself, I was not able to get them out and I simply put on a shield.”

“Sometimes you would end up in fisticuffs.”

“Sometimes, it wasn't the usual. The usual were the insults.”

“They got you fried.”

“Quite a lot.”

Andrés Iniesta writes by message: "I am proud that Guardiola compares me with the best player in the world today". The prodigy says of Bonmatí: "What I would highlight most is her evolution: she has gone from being a good team player to having an increasingly important role to the point of currently leading the national team and Barça along with Alexia Putellas and other great players". He emphasizes her technical quality, her speed, her skill, her goal sense and "her great winning mentality".

Her former coach emphasizes one word: ambition. Aitana Bonmatí's ambition.

“What is ambition?”

“Wanting to be the best in everything, having the desire to improve every day and to reach the top in all areas," the player answers.

“Where does that come from?”

“From me.”

“But where does it come from?”

“I've never asked myself that question. I've always been very competitive, very ambitious, a winner, haven't I? Since I was a little girl. I don't know, I would say that it doesn’t come from my family, they have many virtues, but they are not competitive and even less so in sports.”

“I don't allow myself to fail.” Too self-demanding?

“Yes, but over the years I have learned not to be so hard, to understand that one is not perfect and that mistakes sometimes make you improve.”

Bonmatí this year has won the World Cup, the Champions League, the League and the Super Cup, and has been MVP of the World Cup, MVP of the Champions League, MVP of the Super Cup final and best player of the year for UEFA. She should be satisfied, at the very least. "I don't know, she's insatiable," responds Cristian Martín along with Ignasi Cardó, her representatives.

Bonmatí knows about the double-edged sword of perfectionism. She deals with it with her club psychologists and in private therapy. "I'm rarely happy with my games because I always want more, but I'm managing it better and better. I still suffer, but not as much as before. I allow myself to be a person and I allow myself to fail."

In the last World Cup, after winning the match that gave them the pass to the final, she spoke with Mayca Jiménez, a journalist from Relevo. There were a few days left before the final and Jiménez asked her if they would celebrate that night. "No celebration", was the answer, followed by the need to sleep eight hours and other comments about essential guidelines that should not be skipped, not even that night. Jiménez underlines her courage in standing up for herself. When Japan beat them in the group stage of the World Cup, Bonmatí spoke to all the media, Spaniards and foreigners, in good English. She pledged that they would learn from the defeat. She said: "I ask for forgiveness.”

"Ambition is wanting to be the best," says Bonmatí.

She says she has seen women's football grow a lot, but points out that it still has a long way to go. "This is the beginning," she says. On what is lacking in women's football, she prefers not to say just one thing out of the many she would have to say. Although she mentions the obvious "precariousness" of some fields in Liga F.

She reflects on language. Should we continue to say women's football? She thinks not and proposes: "Either specify masculine or feminine whenever football is said, or not specify and that according to the context it is understood". She praises Barça's vision in betting on non-hegemonic sports sections and declares herself a "convinced Culé", although she had an offer from Olympique Lyon in 2021 that gave her pause for thought. "Important decisions should not be taken from one day to the next. I like to evaluate all the options," she explains. In December 2021, she renewed her contract until 2025.

She has recovered a bit of her tone. When asked what she thinks of the cliché that a footballer should not talk about politics, she replies that freedom of expression is the same for those who work in a company, in a hospital or in a football team. That said, today is not the day she feels like exercising it. It's over. Aitana Bonmatí needs to go and rest.

Note: Aitana has played 140 consecutive games for club and country. The grind hasn’t stopped for a second.

But also,

Please let my girl rest. She’s done so well.

(Excerpts of the interview she’s done with El País Semanal.)

#aitana bonmati #aitana bonmatí #fcb femeni #barca femeni #barcelona femeni #balón de oro #she’s so well spoken #I love her interviews

71 notes · View notes

contentment-of-cats · 5 months

Text

Fun and Games

This has been kicking around in drafts for a few months. I was cleaning it out and...

With thanks to @shards-of-silver for getting me off my ass.

Upon promotion to senior lieutenants, there are perks.

Ensigns sleep a dozen to a barracks, junior lieutenants share a four-rack of bunks around a common area and share sanitary facilities. Senior officers of lieutenant commander or higher have their own private quarters increasing in size and amenities, and at flag rank a suite of rooms. But nothing beats the heady rush of getting your own room with a door that closes. Despite what the contractors say, those bunk partitions don't do squat to stop you from hearing every snore, fart, or wet dream from your fellow juniors. There's a corresponding increase in cubic storage along with the bigger room and one may trust the newly-minted senior loots to go a little crazy.

Thrawn as a new commodore aboard rearranged officers' quarters by duty station, so now all bridge officers are housed a literal thirty second run to the bridge or assigned six-man lifepod. Faro has always run a looser ship in terms of culture, and there are times when bridge officers' country is decorated for various holidays and observances. For example, observances of Longnight see small dishes of food and lanterns set out to guide and appease the spirits of those lost in the vastness of space. But today there is something new outside of Agral and Pyro's twofer.

A sign-up.

It's a datapad on a sticky at reading level with a stylus on a cord.

"Sign up for tabletop games night - Quests & Quarries, Pirates & Privateers, Hyperspace Hellscape, Ancient Lands Archaic Warfare, and other RP games coming to a horizontal surface near you!"

The list is growing fast.

A note above the hatch control says, "Game in progress. ENTER QUIETLY."

"Already the social hub," Faro mutters and then jumps out of her skin when Thrawn agrees with her. Even in boots, he moves almost silently. "Let a lass know, sir! You almost scared it out of me!"

Thrawn's shadow - Vanto - is not here or otherwise she'd have stood a better chance of hearing the approach. He is looking at the sign-up sheet and then at the door sign, then turns to her.

"These are not like Scrabble?"

Pyro's love of table games is legend. She even collects them.

"No, Commodore. These are, well, a kind of strategy game." Thrawn visibly brightens. His skin changes color, his pupils disappear as the nictitating membrane crosses them in a three-part blink. "Players create characters and ascend levels in different scenarios called dungeons. It's kind of like academy war-gaming, but more flexible and personalized."

"They will not mind if we enter and observe?"

"They'll snap to attention for a flag officer on deck or I'll have them cleaning the stormtroopers' urinals with ear swabs, but I do not think they'll object."

Faro taps the hatch open and as they step in Vanto barks, "Commodore on deck!"

The response is satisfyingly swift.

"Officers, as you were," Thrawn nods. "I do not wish to disturb the game in progress, only to observe."

Of course, the furniture is bolted to the deck, but there are an additional folding couch and two additional folding chairs added to the room and-

"Pyrondi, where did you get the holotop?" Karyn hasn't seen one in probably twenty years. This one replaces the low table normally issued to this accommodation, bolted down as per regs. "It's got to be a month's pay."

"I bought it at an antiquities shop on Coruscant. Lomar did the new innards, and then all of us wrote code." Us being - apparently - herself, Lomar, Hammerly, Barlin, Agral, Yve, and Carvia.

"Major Carvia, what is your part in this madhouse?" The man budges loots up the couch to make room for their captain and commodore in the armchairs. "Surely you're not a player?"

"I helped Pyro carry this up here and did the coding for groundpounder dungeons. No offense, but this bunch is all Navy." The major wags his finger at Pyro. "I will thank you, youngster, not to refer to items as 'antiquities' that I am old enough to have owned brand new."

"Everyone do a stretch, get some snacks, and we'll come back into it in fifteen?" Pyro asks and everyone agrees, getting up a little stiffly after hours gaming. "Sync and go."

Thrawn looks over the table, at first studying the current dungeon, but then with more interest at the leather-bound manuals of flimsi, and beautifully made sets of dice and other paraphernalia.

"Please, Lieutenant, explain." Thrawn settles in one of the armchairs, accepting one of Pyro's fruit teas and a packet of sweets.

"Well, first these are the handbooks for players and dungeon masters. These others are for aspects - beings, arms, character classes." Pyrondi takes a small bag and empties it into her hand. "These are my dice."

"Is a gambling chip counted as dice?" Thrawn looks intently. "These are thystine and aurum leaf, correct?"

"If a binary decision is needed, yes, it counts. They are thystine, but as you can see, every player has their set and aside from the chip they can have sets of seven to fifteen, it depends what games they play."

Vanto's set is doonium, which makes Thrawn smile fleetingly. Carvia's is some kind of bone or ivory. Agral's is synthetic fireopal. All sets are as individual as the player.

Oh, no. ART.

"And what about the crystal ball?" Karyn asks. It's a perfect sphere set on an elaborate base.

"Oh, that's a toy I picked up from a junk dealer. He said it didn't work, but when you ask it a yes-or-no question it gives you a nonsensical answer. Watch. Is the mess going to serve hash for firstmeal again?"

The sphere roils with smoke and then shows a wavering answer in its center.

Better not tell you now.

"See? It gives positive, negative, or non-committal answers. To be fair, I don't want to know if we're having hash again."

The players filter back in and take their places as Thrawn is given a rough crash course in play. Pyrondi looks around, sets up a triptych screen to hide her materials and plans, and then asks if everyone is ready. Snacks and drinks to hand, all affirm and the game resumes. Karyn watches her superior as he watches the game with eyes bright. Pyro is a force of chaos and order, handling players firmly but also throwing wild situations at them. The dice can't be rigged or fooled on a dice pad, holding them firm.

Thrawn reminds his officers that night phase is coming, and they have watch coming up. The party breaks up with others putting the room back to order and bidding good rest.

"If you do not mind, Lieutenant, Captain Faro and I will join for the next game."

"Please do, sir. The more the merrier."

Karyn almost groans but holds it in.

"As I remember, you said the same thing before you wiped the walls with me at Scrabble."

Pyro only grins. "Good rest, sirs."

#ficbit #thrawn #chimaera crew #karyn faro

27 notes · View notes

swissboyhisch · 1 year

Text

You're My Favourite

Pairing: Auston Matthews x Reader

Summary: A visit to your family goes wrong when Auston meets your Aunt

Word Count: 1451

Warnings: Family drama and fat comments

Request: From Anon Can you please write me an angsty imagine with Auston Matthews! Have such a thing for that man 🫣

A/N: I don't know if this is truly angsty but I'm quite happy with this. Sorry if it isn't what you wanted

THE MASTERLIST JOIN THE TAGLIST HOCKEY DISCORD

Today was the day Auston was meeting your family. It happened to be your mum’s birthday and she was having a family dinner. Auston had already met her and your half siblings, but he was yet to meet your aunt and nana. The pair had travelled to come visit for her birthday. Something you weren’t looking forward to. Well not your grandmother because you love her. Just your aunt.

She was known in your family for favouring your oldest sister. Everyone knew it; all your siblings, your mother, your nana. Even your closest friends. Your sister was the daughter she never had yet you couldn’t make her proud… Despite being a world champion in your own sport. She on the other hand was an academic turned personal trainer. She is married now with a kid, your niece Chloe. One that your aunt adored as well.

You and Auston pulled up to your childhood home in the outskirts of Toronto. It was a quiet area that you enjoyed growing up in. By the amount of cars in the yard, you two were the last to arrive. Auston grabbed out your container of homemade brownies plus the birthday present before the pair of you made your way inside.

“Mum!”

A variety of footsteps were heard. Included the pitter patter of your niece. The 4 year old rounded the corner, running straight at the two of you. “Uncle Auston!”

The man besides you laughs as he lifts up Chloe into his arms. She was quick to wrap her arms around him, starting to tell him about her first few weeks at school. Your mum hugged you first while Auston was busy with your niece.

“Happy birthday Mum.”

“Thank you baby,” Mum smiled, “I’m glad you and Aus could make it. I’ve missed you both.”

Auston passed Chloe to you before getting a hug from your mum as well. They had been close over the years of your relationship with the hockey player. He loved being close to your family, coming over for dinner whenever the pair of you could. When his schedule allows it that is.

“Happy birthday,” Auston grins, handing her her birthday present. The pair of you had gotten her a bottle of her favourite perfume bottle and some other bath products. Oh and a voucher for a day at her favourite spa. “I’m looking forward to the pizza for dinner.”

“Well now you two are here we can get started on making them.”

Everyone gathered in the kitchen, around the dining table where the pizza making station had been set up. Both you and Auston greet your siblings and the couple partners. Then your nana walked in. She was your typical grandmother, short, grey hair with a warm smile. One that was always a welcomed sight.

“Hello sweetheart,” Nana smiled. You had to lean down to hug the woman. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been good thanks. Nan, this is my boyfriend, Auston. Aus, this is my Nan, Sue.”

Nana brought Auston straight in for a hug. “It’s lovely to meet the boy who treats my little girl like a princess.”

Then came your aunt. She stood beside your mum. Just like every other time, she didn’t hug you, no smile. “Hey darl.”

“Hey, this is my boyfriend, Auston.”

She nodded in return. One you got a lot. And one that Auston knew pisses you off. After years of treatment, you were used to it but it still made you mad. Your Aunt’s eyes looked you up and down. The judgy look all too familiar. Her eyes in particular came to stop at your prominent scar running down your abdomen. It was one you were proud of as well. Auston spotted this and was quick to pull you in, hand resting on the scar. He had worked hard to get you to finally think it wasn’t ugly. He wasn’t going to let a judgy family member make you think otherwise.

Without so much as another word, the rest of your family started talking again. Making the pizzas was easy. Auston and yourself agreed on a simple pepperoni pizza. You snuck to the garage to grab yourself and Auston a drink. Well you shotgunned one before grabbing two cans and heading back to the kitchen.

Whilst waiting on them to cook, everyone sat around the table on the patio. Your Aunt sat beside your eldest sister. Asking her about her life and everything in between. You watched on as no-one asked you about your life.

“How’s training been?” Nan asked you. Someone finally deciding paying your attention.

You explained what’s been going on recently with your sport. Talking about your up and coming competitions. Everyone else was listening but your Aunt. Auston noticed this. Watching how while you talked passionately and excitedly about your passion, your Aunt just scrolled through her phone. He knew this was also the first time in a year that she had seen you.

Mid sentence she cut you off, directing the attention of everyone to your sister. Auston saw you deflate. Your confidence that he loved is gone before his eyes. He slipped his hand through yours, leaning over to press a kiss to your temple. You leaned into him for comfort.

“I’ll help you mum,” You spoke up when your mum went to pull out the pizzas.

Auston watched you go back into the kitchen with both your mother and nana. Leaving him with your siblings and your aunt.

“She’s put on weight, yeah?” Your aunt pointed out, looking at the woman beside her.

Your sister hadn’t ever seen how you were treated. Or never realised. Sure, you had spoken about how she was the favourite. But never had she heard your aunt so blatantly speak like that about you.

“She’s been working hard during her training,” Auston replied.

Your aunt shrugged, “She’s always been fat.”

He couldn’t believe it. Someone who definitely was classed as obese had the audacity to make a comment about his active, healthy girlfriend.

“Aunty…”

“I’m just looking out for her,” Your aunt dismisses. “How is she supposed to keep her superstar boyfriend if she can’t look after herself?”

A pizza was slammed down on the table in front of her making her jump. To Auston’s horror, you had heard her comment. Something that he knew would trigger you. Especially after the issue of all the fan comments you had to contend with mentally. All the hate comments.

“I just can’t please you, can I?”

“Oh please, stop complaining.”

Your mum had come out of the kitchen to the sight of you seething off to the side of your aunt. Auston was on the edge of his seat. Everyone else around the table looked uncomfortable.

“You okay?” Your mum asked you.

You shook your head, “I’m sick of being the disappointment.”

Without so much as another word, you sniffled and left. Probably to go hide in your old bedroom. Everyone just watched you leave the patio. Auston stood up to follow. Not before turning to your aunt.

“She’s known she wasn’t the favourite since she was 15. But she still never spoke badly about you. And yet you can’t be nice to save your life.” He looked around at your siblings, all sitting quietly. He knew that you and your oldest sister were the only one blood related to your aunt. Your other siblings were through your sister’s dad’s side. “She puts up with you because of your family and is told to respect her elders. But I won’t let you talk about her like that.”

Auston left everyone outside and followed in your footsteps. He could hear your sniffles from down the hallway. He knocked on your bedroom door. Once he got a quiet come in, he opened the door. Your bedroom was so you. It was the only way he could explain it. You were sitting on your bed, a pair of airpods you had found in your room in your ears. It was your way of escaping your feelings.

“Hey,” Auston whispered, pressing a kiss to your forehead before taking a seat beside you.

You didn’t say anything, only handed him a bud. Your favourite song was playing. Auston pulled you onto his lap, wrapping his arms around you. Letting you snuggle into him for comfort.

“Thank you.”

Auston chuckles, “How do you know I did anything?”

“I know you Aus,” You mumble, pressing a kiss to his lips.

“I’ll always be on your side. You’re my favourite and that won’t ever change.”

“What about your mum?” You ask. You know he and Ema are close.

“She’ll be happy knowing I found the girl I want to marry.”

TAG LIST

@findapenny @mp0625 @hischierhaze @11zegras @lvrzegras @francesfarhadi @cixrosie @daisysthings

330 notes · View notes

phoenixcatch7 · 11 months

Text

Thinking about possible totk dlc again... Listen, we all know we want it XD.

Thing is, I've read the interviews, and I think Nintendo is right. There's just no more mechanics they can add to the game without completely breaking it. Totk is maxxed out on mechanics and options and playability. There really is nothing more they can add ability wise without bogging the whole thing down and causing a million problems, both for themselves and players.

But that's not all there is in a game, is there?

There's master mode, for one. Gold enemies are missing from totk entirely, never mind all the craziness of regenerating enemies, new mob camps just floating around, the gleeok they'd probably put on the great sky island. People loved master mode in botw, there's no reason not to at least drop that button back in.

But... People do have a few complaints. There's stuff they're missing, stuff that leaves loose ends, stuff that wasn't explained well enough. It all mostly boils down to one thing.

Story.

We could have an answer to where the divine beasts and all the sheikah tech went. We could find a giant scrapyard at the bottom of a new/old chasm because hyrule tossed everything in that could be pried up. There could be like five remaining active guardians, just so we can mess them up like we did in botw. There's voids where water is on the surface, there's plenty of space! It'd solve both the 'where tf did they go' and the 'man I wish we still had guardians' issue in one fell swoop.

We could get casual dialogue that all the divine beasts were driven out to sea and sunk! I don't know! Some sort of closure! We could talk about generational trauma responses! The instinctive fear of sheikah tech if there is one! Link is certainly canonically traumatised, did you see him with the first sky tower??

We could get wolfie back! Update his teleportation code so he can keep up with our stupid endeavours and not get caught in crossfire! Make him immune to zonai tech, idk.

We could get a resolution to kass and Penn! That whole storyline ended so sadly, and the lack of kass is straight up disturbing. We could rescue him from the depths where he fell in or smth idk!! Just because you're a bird does NOT mean you can fly a kilometer + straight up in pitch black through a narrow cylinder with lethally toxic sides. Now he's got enough material for life! (and probably trauma. The only food down there is stuff the yiga brought, which - well, it's not like they'd worry about thieves down there.

That stupid chef from lookout landing who ran off to the castle. That's TOTALLY a quest come on :(. Let him come home.

More lookout landing expansion, if you're desperate for stuff that isn't 90% dialogue! Please let me install bigger towers and a bathing area and more shops or SOMETHING. Little outlet stalls from every capital! Let me rebuild the first home in castle town! I! D! K!

More newspaper news! We could randomise it like the spider man ps4 news feed, that was hilarious. Absolute hogwash rumours and stupid feuds between neighbours and the results of pumpkin growing competitions! Mix it up, traysi had bonkers stuff, it was so good. What does life look like from inside the world?

Hylia gossip? We know she doesn't keep strictly to her 'find shrine rewards for increased gains, link' thing. Let her ask link for random stuff for 'power buffs' and give him, like, a random buff that lasts precisely 24 minutes.

Maybe even a 'now we opened the plateau again, people want to investigate' side plot. No one wanted to see :(. I didn't like that the only people up there were yiga :((. Send some new research team dude to wax lyrical and beg link for photos of different areas or symbols.

Gloom hands should be able to attack link in the depths. This would solve nothing and in fact make things much worse, but it happened to me twice and it was so much worse than on the surface lol.

Maybe some idiot managed to make it to a Sky island with balloons but now they can't get down, whoops lol. Some of them really aren't that high up and there's a lot of very determined people XD.

Someone's been captured by the yiga and link has to do a full infiltration and smuggle them the keys to their cell. Come on, the yiga base is underutilised!!

The gerudo stable was being shut down because of the sandstorm turning away travellers. After we solve that, maybe we could help reopen it? It made me so sad...

Link vs the flower lady. She wants a sample of every single flower in hyrule to get it all nice for her majesty! She remembers his crimes...

Link and the new sages could have a silly bonding quest each! Let him test his mettle against them in a spar! I don't know!

The ability to pet dogs and horses! An idle sitting animation that makes link sit down properly to enjoy the view!

Heck, a master cycle equivalent....

There's just a almost infinite amount of options available for real, actual content, it doesn't just have to be new mechanics and new dungeons. Yes, it gets the adrenaline going, but neither the fans nor Nintendo want nor need more of that.

We know the story is more lacking in botw/totk than previous zelda games, an understandable and acceptable sacrifice when you're working with such a huge and complex open world as this, but this is the perfect opportunity to fix that, Nintendo, don't you see? Give that incredibly elaborate coding a break and give the writers something else to chew on.

Tag what quest line or question you want answered in the comments or tags!

#long post #I had a lot of ideas #loz #legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #totk #loz totk #botw totk #zelda totk #botw #tloz #tloz totk #tloz botw #the legend of zelda #It'd probably be a lot cheaper than installing yet more mechanics into that poor incredible physics engine too lmao #loz tears of the kingdom #tloz tears of the kingdom #totk dlc #Totk ideas

55 notes · View notes

anashins · 2 years

Note

Hi can I request basketball player Jaehyun! x reader; Him falling in love with reader at first sight/feelings are mutual. Thank you :)

Pairing: basketball player!Jaehyun x Reader

Genre: fluff

Word Count: 1k

Summary: Coming in between a fight your brother has caused during a basketball game, you catch the attention of the opposite team's captain.

A/N: I want to experience this 😩 Thanks for requesting, hope you like it 💗

You stopped your bike in front of the basketball field, letting your eyes wander over the location in search of a familiar figure. Panic slowly crawled up your back when you first couldn’t find your brother, unsure where to look anymore as he hadn’t been at his usual spots.

“Ah!” you exclaimed when you finally spotted the familiar outfit he had worn this morning, descending from your bike carefully so as to not let your light summer dress slip up too far.

You felt kind of awkward walking up to the area that was filled with young men as the only woman, but you held your head up high when you started drawing attention to you. Again, you were asking yourself why your brother didn’t even bother casually checking his phone while playing basketball.

“Hey!” You raised your hand after having arrived at the courtside, wanting to get noticed by him who had recently finished a quarter. “Come here!”

“You mean me?” A guy in your brother’s team suddenly felt addressed, a broad grin growing from one corner of his mouth to the other, causing you to grimace. “Of course I’ll come!”

“Back off, that’s my little sister!” your brother cut in, annoyed, and held him back by his shoulder. “Y/n, you stay there! They’re all idiots!”

The basketball that he was holding in his hands, he threw to one player on the opposite team. It got caught by a tall guy with a white long-sleeve and brown hair whose strands fell into his forehead, lightly wetted by sweat from the physical effort. He only caught your eye because, apparently, according to your sibling’s reaction, he wasn’t one of these “idiots”.

“Your team’s turn, Jaehyun!” your brother called out to him before approaching you. “I’ll be back in a few!”

“Alright!”

You didn’t know you were still staring at this Jaehyun guy until he shifted his eyes and you locked gazes. Suddenly, your entire face turned hot and you were afraid it showed in the change of your cheeks’ color. Immediately, you looked away and waited until your brother reached you.

“What’s up?”

“Since you haven’t checked your phone and mom nearly flipped out… she said you should come home two hours earlier, because our grandparents will arrive at 5 instead of 6 and she wants you to be ready by then.”

He rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe they’re going to stay the entire weekend. What time is it now?”

“Past 3.”

“Are you here by bike?”

You nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay, me too. Wait for me this quarter, it’s the last. Then I’ll go home with you.”

You didn’t like the idea of sitting in the sun for at least half an hour, but you assumed it was better than coming home alone, relying on your unreliable brother and having your mom send you on a mission to search for him again, so you agreed.

When the last quarter started, you were first only paying attention to your phone, wanting the time to pass quickly. But as the game processed, your eyes got drawn to the field over and over again where they fixated on a tall figure in a white long-sleeve. Not only because he was a great player, dribbling and passing with such elegance despite the hot weather, but also because he looked so effortlessly attractive that you couldn’t help but watch only him.

You could also swear that his eyes were searching for you as well when the quarter got interrupted and he walked close by, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the hem of his shirt. But you couldn’t tell for sure anymore, because you got so nervous, your head acted on its own and turned aside.

“That was against the rules!” you suddenly heard someone scream, and the fact that the voice sounded so familiar made you realize that it was your brother. “Say something to him, Jaehyun!”

“Has someone else seen it?” Jaehyun asked around, but everyone who had gathered shook their heads. “Then we cannot take the point back, because we’re here without a referee.”

“That isn’t fair!” Your brother, like the little airhead and sore loser he oftentimes was, kicked the basketball away that then disappeared in the grass. “That point is ours!”

You sighed, feeling secondhand embarrassment over his outburst sink in when he just wouldn’t stop complaining, only delaying the game and even stepping forward to give Jaehyun a push. Enough was enough, it was now time to go home instead of letting him act on his tantrum further. Most of the time, it wasn’t like you were the little, but the big sister to him.

You left your spot on the sidelines and reached the turmoil in the moment your brother’s voice got louder and even the other team members began to argue about god knew what.

“That’s enough!” you told your brother with a strong voice and positioned yourself between him and Jaehyun whose team he wouldn’t stop verbally attacking, and who had a hard time giving him the same heat back. You pointed your finger at him. “We’re going home. Now!”

You knew it might look ridiculous how you were standing between two tall men, chiding your big brother and protecting the one you had turned your back to and who had caused you to blush several times today by his appearance alone, but you stood by your point - like always. And like always, he obeyed.

“Bye guys!”

Your brother waddled behind you while his team snickered in the back before you parted ways for him to get his bike at the other side of the sports area. While you were unlocking yours, you saw another tall figure coming up behind you.

“All this time I thought if your hot-headed brother had siblings, they were just like him.”

You were supporting the bike with your hands and looked at Jaehyun in confusion. “And I’m not?”

He smiled and turned his head away in the same moment as you, seemingly just as flustered. You tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear, catching your brother driving in your direction already. But it was as though there was still something left unsaid between you.

Jaehyun looked over his shoulder before he said, “You’re absolutely not.”

When he returned to the basketball field and you home, you had the biggest smile on your face - and his number saved on your phone.

#jaehyun #jeong jaehyun #jaehyun imagines #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun x you #jaehyun x reader #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct x you #nct x reader #kpop imagines #kpop scenarios #kpop x you #kpop x reader #requests

255 notes · View notes

roxannarambles · 5 months

Text

Rough Legends Arceus/Volo Headcanon Notes

While playing through Legends Arceus, while I was bored grinding out research tasks I amused myself with developing headcanons for the game.

These are for an OC in the player role/player is not Akari, though. (It's for my character June, who was a Bug Catcher while she was growing up, never did the gym circuit in her region, just liked bugs and casual pokemon battles and hanging out with her pokemon. She was attending her local junior college when she got snatched by the Void)

Headcanons focused on June & her "friendship" with Volo.

They chat about her work with Galaxy. She doesn't actually enjoy it much. She loves pokemon, sure, and the nature's pretty, but the survey work is tedious, lonely, boring, dirty, hazardous, etc. Pokemon research sounds fun in theory but not in practice-- not in ancient Hisui, anyway. The research tasks the Professor assigns her seem so arbitrary and weird, there are very few people in the Survey Corps who are brave or skilled enough to help her out so she usually works alone, she lacks all the conveniences of modern civilization, etc. Camping out for a week in the bogs and going to bed each night caked in mud and slime, not able to bathe 'til you get back to the village, so forth.

Volo comments, 'Well they must pay you handsomely at least?' No, the pay isn't that great, most money she makes is from stuff she picks up off the ground. But, well, at least they're housing and feeding her. It's something.

He calls her sky child.

She remembers her life from before she fell here. She doesn't know why she came to be here, and why that weird phone appeared along with her. She half-remembers a weird pokemon that she dreamed about while in the rift, but she can't remember what it said to her. It was probably just a dream, anyway.

The phone is weird. It has a map of the area, and icons light up sometimes, and she also gets texted mysterious messages. She thinks maybe she accidentally fell through a portal to another realm, but the presense of this phone makes her suspect it's more than that. Did a person intentionally create a portal and push her through it? And now they're ordering her around with this phone? They seem to want her to study the pokemon here.

She doesn't like being used.

The phone has a Notes app. She thought about using it to record her thoughts, but she's paranoid that whoever sent this phone could be spying, reading her notes. She doesn't know if writing on a paper journal is good idea either though, anyone here could find it. She's not sure who to trust here, they already seem so mistrustful of her, they'd likely rifle through her stuff. She wouldn't put it past them, anyway.

Eventually she asks Volo if he can get her a journal with a lock on it. If such a thing exists here. He seems very curious about her request, but doesn't push questions on her about it. A few days later, he appears, having procured her a leatherbound journal with a sturdy locked latch.

He keeps a copy of the key in secret.

Sometimes she camps out for many days in a row during her field work. It's often gruelling and lonesome. People from the Security Corps bring her meals sometimes and supplies to the campsite, but they are not always there-- they come and go. The pokemon professor drops by on occasion too but he's often busy with work back at the village. At night June sits in her tent and writes in her journal by the light of her phone. She can't even get attached to her pokemon, since her rearch forces her to constantly change her team. Supplies are precious, too, so she often can't afford to use tons of potions, and her pokemon faint a lot. They work as hard as she does, to the point of exhaustion, and she imagines they resent her for it.

"So how are things going with your Galaxy friends?"

She tells Volo about how most people in the village seem to act nice enough around her, or polite in the very least. But even after all of these weeks here, she can tell none of them trust her. She can see the looks they cast her, from the corner of her vision, the way they still whisper about her when they think she can't hear. Some are still openly mistrustful or hostile, like the Commander of the Security Corps, although most are a little more subtle. Either way, it's exhausting to deal with. She's worked herself to the bone for them, and they tell her, "you're a part of our family now, we have your back," but it's not true, she know it isn't true. And she's realized by now that no matter how hard she works, how many favors she grants, how many missions she fulfills, it's never going to be enough, is it? She'll always be a stranger here, always out of place.

Even the Pokemon Professor and Rei, the people who are friendliest to her in the village, she doesn't feel close to. They seem nice enough, but in the end they're just using her too, aren't they? To get their research done. So who's to say whether their kindness isn't conditional? It always seems conditional here, in this place. Maybe she's just paranoid, but it's hard to tell. It's hard not to resent them all. She feels scared and alone. She has no one here.

She tells all this to Volo. She's not sure why. Maybe because he seems like an impartial party. Maybe because he's the only one who doesn't look at her with the eyes of someone who's mistrustful. Maybe because he's just there and she has to tell somebody, she can't bear not truly talking to somebody anymore. He listens compassionately. Seems to understand. And tentatively, he tells her that if it pleases her to think it, he'd be happy to call her friend.

She's quiet for a while. So far, her rapport with the Gingko merchant over the weeks had been friendly, but she hadn't been sure whether it had qualified as friendship. He had been straightforward in the past that his motives were professional ones; being congenial with customers was just good business sense. Still, she had always liked to think perhaps it might become more than just being chummy with customers. He'd seemed like a genuinely nice person, and she'd always enjoyed their conversations.

She smiles and shyly thanks him, realizing she's maybe not entirely alone in this place. She's quiet a while, but soon says she wants to give him something. She digs through her satchel. She doesn't have much right now, but she pulls out a curious little fragment of stone, pretty and angular and red. She says she found it while exploring one of the space-time distortions that everyone else is too afraid to approach. He asks if she's sure she wants to give it to him. She says yes. He thanks her and promises he shall treasure it.

Later, he has a jewler turn it into a necklace. He makes sure to wear it all the time, usually beneath the folds of his clothing, so that one day June can 'accidentally' see it.

They run across each other at random times. He's always traveling, and so is she, but their paths always seem to cross eventually. They stop for a spell to chat whenever it happens.

He helps to teach her survival skills, sometimes, like cooking food out in the wild. She cannot always rely on the Survey Corps to bring her food, after all, especially when she's in a more far-flung area all alone. He tells her what fish are good for eating; Basculin are best, Magikarp are worst. He teaches her how to scale and gut and clean fish, how to cook them. He tells her that Sitrus berries are toxic when unrripe, how to find Razz berries, where to look for mushrooms. In turn, she brings him things she finds sometimes that are curious, old verses that Ursaluna dug up, shards of pottery, photos of ruins, strange pieces of colored glass.

One day, they see each other while out in the mirelands, and walk together for a time. He's on his way to gather caster ferns. She warns him not to head in that direction, an alpha has been patrolling there lately. He's never seen an alpha there before and has been to that spot dozens of times, hundreds by now, so he sort of just ignores her, insisting it will be fine, until they hear the cry echoing across the marsh and he stops.

"Er . . . perhaps . . . I will gather some other day."

She decides to catch the alpha so he doesn't have to do that. She's happy she can do something to help him out for once, since it always seems like he's the one helping her. She knows he only has Togepi, after all.

"So what have you been doing to pass the time here, June? When you finally have the chance to rest for a spell from all that survey work of yours, that is."

"Not much. Overthinking, mostly."

"I see . . ."

"What do you do to pass the time, when you're out traveling?"

"Probably much the same."

She looks to him, surprised. The comment had been dropped quietly, carelessly, and he seemed to quickly rebound.

"With all these mysteries to ponder, after all, I'd hardly have much chance to be bored!"

She isn't sure that's really what he'd meant, but she doesn't push it. He tells her he also reads quite a bit. They chat about books and he says he can loan her one of the ones he'd finished reading. He gives her a well-worn book, and when she opens it for a peek, a piece of paper slips out that he'd been using as a bookmark. When she picks it up, she sees there's a charcoal drawing of Togepi on it. It looks beautiful. She holds it up and asks Volo if he drew it.

He seems briefly distressed, but stifles the expression, admitting he did. She tells him he shouldn't be shy, it looks really good! He awkwardly thanks her, saying it was just idle scribbling, really.

When she reads the book later in her tent, she finds he's also left some notes scrawled in the margins. She suspects he's forgotten about them. She enjoys the book but finds his scribbled notes the most interesting part of the book.

When they meet again, they chat about the book she borrowed, discussing the story and characters. One day she asks him if he can teach her to draw. He seems in a rather laid-back mood and indulges her.

She tells him about the Arc phone, eventually. She usually doesn't whip it out in front of people, feeling reluctant to do that; she knows it's a strange piece of technology and it tends to make others uneasy of her, not to mention some might see it and think to steal it. But eventually she trusts Volo enough to show the device to him. It comes up in conversation when he finds her with her pokemon team, taking a group photo of them. (All Alpha Bug pokemon)

He's very curious about it. She shows him the map app, and how to use it. He picks up the basics quickly. He asks her how the technology works. She's not sure how to explain a tiny, pocket-sized computer to the people of this era. It doesn't help she has a poor understanding of how computers work, herself, even coming from an era with them. She gives a very stilted explanation of computer chips and computer code and how a ton of data can be crammed into a very small space. It's not a good explanation but he appreciates her trying. He asks what else her device can do. She shows him the camera app, they take a few photos and a selfie together. He's fascinated with it. What else can it do? There aren't a ton of apps on it, there's a clock, a notes app, a flashlight function . . . she switches the light on. Volo says that must be very handy. Does this device require fuel? She isn't sure. Normally phones do need an energy source, you need to plug them in to charge them, but there doesn't seem to be any charger for this phone. Not that she'd have a way to plug it in, if there were. She's been using this phone for weeks and it's yet to lose power, so she doesn't know if it's solar powered somehow or if it's some other energy source . . . she honestly doesn't know.

"So if you use this device for too long, it's possible that . . ."

"Yeah. It might die eventually, and then never work again. That's why I try not to use it too often."

She doesn't mention the weird text messages she gets on the phone, or the way icons light up on her map sometimes as objectives.

One time she comments Volo seems like a man with a lot of secrets.

"Who, me?" He holds his chin and acts as though he's thinking.

"Mmm, well. In my line of work, you get to know a lot of people. You must be good at small talk, getting to know your customers, and people do like to talk, so I end up hearing a lot of gossip . . . so I suppose I do know some secrets."

He asks June if she'd like to know any gossip and she says sure. He tells her that her Galaxy Commander, he sleeps with a Teddiursa plushie. She laughs. He asks now that she knows it, will she try and blackmail him? So that she could continue getting paid but no longer need to do this tedious survey work?

She says no. She'll have an easier time dealing with the jerk, just knowing the information now. She's not the sort to blackmail, anyway. Volo tells her that she's a good person. June isn't so sure.

He procures for her a bigger bag, like the ones the Gingko Guild use. It's much roomier than the tiny satchel. It's well worth the purchase.

During conversation with him June mentions one time that she gets cold easily and has been freezing her butt off lately during work. A few days later, Volo appears with a nice warm jacket and gloves for her, that fit her perfectly. She is very excited and grateful. He's always charged her for the things he gets her (although he sometimes offers a friendly discount) so she expects the same here. But when she asks how much she owes him, this time he says not to worry about it. She is flustered at first, saying they must have cost him a lot, is he sure . . . but he insists. It would not do him any good if his favorite customer died of hypothermia out in the wilds.

At the Coronet Highlands, there is a place called the Fabled Spring, a secret little alcove by a calm lake, with trees and soft grass and wildflowers. This is where Volo finds June laying there, staring out at the water, idly picking grass, looking very lost in thought.

"Fancy seeing you here."

She looks up in surprise. She asks what he's doing here and he responds he comes here for razz berries. He asks if he might join her, and she nods. He sits with her.

Conversation turns to the next Noble she's meant to face. She's nervous. He tells her he's sure she'll be fine, she handled the last one so well, after all.

She says it's getting harder each time. The last time, with the Arcanine, she got burned very, very badly, and she had to withdraw her first attempt. They had to carry her home. Back in Jubilife, they had a special medicine they used to help heal her, although it still took several days for her to recover.

"So you recovered fully?"

She did. It was a powerful medicine, made from an herb that was a pokemon. But she still remembers the pain of those burns. She returned and soothed the Noble on her second attempt. She's worried this next Noble will be even harder, though.

"Well . . . if it goes rough, all you need is more of Galaxy team's medicine and you'll be as right as rain again, right?"

Maybe. What if they run out of medicine though? She could tell it was precious to team Galaxy and rare, difficult for them to harvest and make. Or what if . . . something worse happens to her than just burns or a little paralysis. They are both quiet a while.

Volo eventually tells her he's sure everything will work out. He changes the subject so she won't dwell on her worries. Shares some leftover fish with her. She loves how it tastes. He has spices that Galaxy doesn't use. It's so much better than that potato mochi she's so tired of.

After she defeats the Electrode Noble, he asks her how it went. Surprisingly well. Easier than Arcanine. He acts pleased, told you it would be all right.

She's been thinking though, about the rift. Since the Commander keeps bringing it up. See, for now, Galaxy and June's goals are aligned. But they might not always be. And she knows this, and it troubles her. Galaxy wants to close the rift, eventually. But what if, in order for June to get home, she finds out she needs to leave the rift open? Or even . . . to widen it?

Could she do that? To leave everyone to that chaos and just bounce? Especially when she's the only one around here strong enough and brave enough to face frenzied Nobles?

Volo says it is an interesting conundrum she brings up. (She says she wouldn't use the word 'interesting' to describe it...) What would she do? he asks.

She doesn't know. It is a horrible thought, she doesn't think she can do it, just leave and screw everyone. Do that to a whole region, a whole group of people?? That'd be awful. But on the other hand. To not only never see her family ever again, but her entire world and timeline....to be stuck in what's to her, a backwater era that's super technologically primitive, among people she doesn't even like (well, except for you, you're pretty cool), to be forever displaced in time....it's....god, she doesn't know if she could face that either. She'd be out of place, out of time and a stranger her whole life, here.

After a span of silence she asks quietly,

"Would you blame me if I left?"

He murmurs a response so gently she almost doesn't hear.

"I wouldn't."

She gives him a bunch of colored fragments and stardust that she's collected.

"Take these, Volo, just . . . just in case."

He asks, what do you mean, June? She says, if things get bad, if worse comes to worst, you can sell these, maybe get out of the area altogether. You're a merchant, you must know how to get out of here in a hurry. So at least . . . you'd be safe . . .

"June--"

She explains she has a ton of money now, nobody ever wants to approach the rifts, and she collects the stuff there in droves. People are too afraid of the powerful pokemon there and of being sucked into the distortions. But she goes towards them, hoping the distortions will bring her home again. Picks up valuables while there. She still works for Galaxy but now not for the money. But because she needs them as allies for now. They are powerful. And she needs their help learning more about all these mysteries, so she can hopefully get home.

"It's just in case. Hopefully it never comes to that. And I may not even decide-- you know--"

"All right, June. I'll take them."

One hot day, June overworks herself to the point of nearly fainting. Volo finds her on the ground, dizzy and weak. He carries her to a safer place where pokemon are less likely to harass them, under the shade of a tree, gets her some food and water. Asks things such as when's the last time she's eaten, or bathed, or slept. She mumbles her answers. It's been days since she's slept any longer than ten minute stints, she was lost in areas with way too much pokemon activity to let her guard down.

"Days?!"

He starts to wash the grime from her face with a wet washcloth, chewing her out for letting the Galaxy people overwork her, and treating her for any less than she's worth (if those idiots realized how valuable an asset she really was, they should never do that, and she's worth her weight in gold), she has to take care of herself--

June starts to cry while being chewed out. Mostly from being overwhelmed from it all. He apologizes awkwardly, tries to comfort her, touching her face and telling her it will be okay. Dries her tears and washes her face, then wants to pull her hair back to help with her cooling down, has to brush her hair first but it's all snagged and caked with dried mud, he gets a comb from his bag and brushes it all out, carefully, so that it doesn't hurt her. Gets her to nap, eventually, convinces her he shall watch over while she sleeps. She is concerned he will be bored, he laughs, he's very much used to passing time. She tells him to look in her bag, she got a book she wanted to give to him next time she saw him.

He reads her diary while she sleeps.

She records her struggles. Her fears and confusion. How much she misses home, how estranged she is here. Her desperate attempts to figure things out, speculations. She hates the public bathhouse the town has, she hates the food, she hates the way everyone looks at her, she hates the cold, the mosquitoes, so many things. The weeks spent filthy in the bog before finally returning to town for a pathetic amount of research points. It's recorded here, so raw.

She talks about the townspeople she meets. Including the Gingko Guild trader named Volo. She analyzes him shrewdly, cautious about trusting anyone, including him. But he's caught her interest, enough to make note of it.

Her entries continie to talk about the professor and Rei a lot, the Commander, the 'stupid potato mochi resturuant jerk' (she hates the mochi too, just because it's all they ever eat), but she also writes about Volo. Mentions each time she comes across him.

He begins to show up in the diary more and more. She eventually says, 'He's the only one who's any fun to talk to, really,' saying that she finds his pure curiosity in investigating things to be refreshing, (as opposed to the Galaxy people, whose research is motivated by protection/safety but claims to be scientific; or the Pearl/Diamond clan's petty squabbles and nonsensical arguments) and his directness about his motivations refreshing too (he's a merchant, he's being friendly because it's good business). It stands in contrast to everyone else. The other Gingko guild folks are fine enough but not particularly engaged in talking with her, the way Volo is. And just not . . . hmm. The sort of person who's interesting, she supposes. He's engaging, intriguing. Still, June knows she musn't be too open with things when talking to him. She knows nothing about the charismatic merchant, nothing about anyone really, and she must be careful in this world.

"He never talks about his past. I often wonder why. I can tell he's carrying secrets, though. I try to ask him about his past, but he always deflects. Sometimes I think he's a criminal on the run from the law, and he's traveled to this region to avoid punishment. He could be a serial murderer, for all I know. Of course, he might simply not want to think about his past, perhaps something painful happened to him or his family. It could be many things, really. We all have our reasons for keeping secrets, I suppose . . . I won't try to push it, just see what he feels like sharing."

Volo begins to flip more hastily through the diary to directly hunt for mention of his name. He sees their interactions through her point of view now. He is pleased with the effectiveness of his infiltrations but also impressed with her attention to detail and her sharp observations and analyses and continued caution. Her descriptions of him stroke his ego and as the entries continue they grow more and more flattering, more and more detailed. He gets to the part where she is analyzing the comments he'd left in the margins of that novel.

June stirrs and he quickly puts the diary away.

When she recovers enough, she's embarassed she worked herself hard enough to get to that point, and is very apologetic to Volo. He tells her not to worry about it, it wasn't any trouble for him; she just had to promise him she'd take better care of herself in the future.

She is asked to quell the final Noble. She drags her feet getting around to it. She needs to earn a 5 Star Rank before they let her go there. She's earned plenty of research points for that but delays telling them, pretends she needs to get more research done.

She's trying to learn more. She's afraid once she quells the last one, the rift will close and she will never get home. She tells this to Volo. But she can't delay forever, she knows; sooner or later Team Galaxy will catch wise. The two settle on a plan; June will try to hunt for those plates and those verses with Ursaluna. And Volo will do what he can to find out more for her, too. They decide to meet up again in a week, choose a place and time.

Eventually, even with what info June turns up, it's not enough. And Volo has his own contacts, but they insist that they have nothing more to tell him. They are still no closer to understanding this mystery.

"In truth, June, it seems the best shot we have at learning more is for you to face this final Noble. Perhaps doing so will help us learn more about these strange frenzies. Perhaps the others are right and something may happen once you calm them all."

"Yeah . . . I was afraid you were going to say that."

He tells her that he's sorry he couldn't be of more help to her. She shakes her head, says it isn't his fault.

He tries to comfort her.

"Who knows, June. Perhaps nothing will happen when you calm the final one. Or something will, but the rift may not close, that's just pure speculation, something else could happen. Perhaps the Almighty will be pleased with your work and send you home!"

She chuckles.

"That's always possible. Although I dunno if I believe in Sinnoh."

"Oh? . . . I suppose an outsider has no real reason to. . ."

June apologizes and realizes it was probably a rude thing to say. He says that no, he's glad that she feels comfortable enough around him to be honest. She asks if he believes in Sinnoh. He says he knows it by a different name, but that he does indeed; he's studied it for most his life. 'What more proof do you need than this strange rift in the sky and the fact that you are here?' June explains her perspective. That portals to other realms are not beyond the realm of possibility. That she may not need the explanation of divine intervention for them. They simply may be an aspect of nature, the same way that the sky, the air, the trees, the sun are . . . and that strange lightning. Perhaps that is just a weird sort of weather. Odd that it strikes the Nobles, but uhm, maybe it's like a lightning rod and hits the strong ones, you know? Who knows. Point is. She doesn't know. But. It is possible that Sinnoh exists and brought her here. She really doesn't know. They are quiet and thoughtful a while.

He speaks again.

"Well. The only way for us to learn is to keep asking questions, to keep searching for answers, and to keep moving forward."

She agrees that is true, smiling faintly. He asks if she is ready. She nods.

When nothing seemed to change after quelling the final Noble, June was glad. The forboding hole in the sky frightened everyone but her. Where they saw fear, she saw hope that she might still return home. They returned to Jubilife and dined on bland, tasteless mochi that sat heavy in her stomach, while the Professor nattered on about pokedex work. There was a certain comfort in it.

The next morning, it all went to shit.

Even June was frightened at the sight of the blood-red sky, which made the rift look like an open wound. It seemed like armageddon. When they summoned her to a meeting, she wasn't too surprised what came next. Was she angry? Yes. But she wasn't surprised. Part of her had always hoped she had been wrong about the Commander, about all the people here, and that they wouldn't turn on her, so it still hurt when it happened, but it really didn't surprise her. That asshole had been looking for a scapegoat the day she landed here, and today she was the lamb chosen for the slaughter. They whispered and stared as she was led out of town like some kind of criminal.

For what it was worth, the professor and Rei tried to help her, sort of. They suggested she seek out the Diamond and Pearl clans. However, the clan's respective leaders could only offer sympathy. They explained they could not help June, lest they risk war with Team Galaxy. The professor and Rei likewise were unwilling to directly disobey their superiors and risk banishment themselves. There was a lot of hand-wringing and sad looks, but not much else. After everything she'd done for them, all the times they swore she was family now, that they had her back. Not a single person stepped up to help her in return, now that she really needed it most.

They sent her away into the wilderness, alone. She had her big backpack stuffed with everything she could carry, and her team of six bug alphas, pokemon who still hardly knew her at all, since she rarely had opportunity to even bond with them. She sat on the hill overlooking Gruelling Grove, under the blood-red sky, just staring out at the fields numbly and wondering what to do next, and trying not to give into the fear threatening to overtake her.

Eventually, a voice startled her from her dark thoughts, and she looked up, meeting with a familiar, friendly face. The corners of Volo's eyes crinkled and his face lit up with his usual sunny smile, even under the cast of the grim, terrifying sky.

"I've been looking for you everywhere, June," he said.

She had only cried once since she'd fallen through the rift, when Volo had found her dizzy and exhausted that one time, but not since then. She felt the tears begin to fall now, though. Volo spoke soothing words and helped pull her to her feet.

She pulled him into a hug, squeezing him fiercely, causing him to wheeze, sounding startled and flustered.

It had felt like an angel had come to save her.

He brought her to his humble campsite to shelter her. "It isn't much, but it's home, and you're welcome to it," he tells her cheerfully. They sit around a campfire; he makes what are essentially shish kebabs for dinner, chunks of vegetable and meat skewered and roasted over the fire. While they eat, he tells her excitedly about one of his contacts and how he's going to take her there to meet her tomorrow morning. This mysterious contact was now feeling much more cooperative, once Volo told her that June had quelled the last Noble and apparently met with her approval. He says that she is very wise on the myths passed down from the Celestica peoples of old, and she will surely be able to help them sort out this space-time mystery.

They share his tent that night. It's a snug fit, and June doesn't sleep much, her mind swimming with thoughts.

She never paid attention in school when they discussed ancient mythology. In hindsight she wished she had. Maybe if she did, she would have noticed sooner that something was amiss.

It wasn't until the two of them reached the top of Mount Coronet with all the plates, and he chose to reveal his true colors, that she learned the truth. She trusted him right up to the end.

When he told her how he bid Giratina to tear a hole in the sky, the one that she fell through, it felt like being run through with a knife.

After everything that happens on top of that mountain, when June returns and gives her report, she doesn't mention Volo tried to destroy the world and everyone in it. She just says they finished collecting the plates, and climbed to the top of the mountain to see if anything would happen. Giratina appeared there, and she battled it, but it escaped before she could catch it.

Technically, all of it was true. She just left out some important parts, is all.

Later, when she's alone doing her survey work, he finds her and grabs her roughly by the shoulder, hisses at her,

“You! What game are you trying to play here?!”

She asks what he means.

“Don't play dumb. I know you didn't tell your Galaxy fools about me. Why not? If you're hoping to use it as leverage, you can forget it, I won't be anyone's puppet--”

“That's-- that's not why I did it!”

“Then why?”

She confesses she's not exactly sure why.

“I guess I just . . . look, if I told them, I'm not sure exactly what they'd do, I don't know how you even punish someone for that kind of crime, but in the very least they'd do something, banish you from basically all of Hisui, probably. And that's what you deserve. But I also know if they did it, there'd be zero chance of you . . . getting better.”

He demands to know what that means.

“Becoming a better person? It . . . it sounds stupid when I say it outloud, I guess. I know the past few months you've spent just lying to my face and using me, but part of me still wants to believe that maybe a small piece of all that wasn't a lie. That there was a grain of truth to it, that the goodness I saw in you is still buried down in there and wasn't entirely made-up.”

She looks into his eyes, trying to find even a flicker of evidence for that. She's not sure. She can't trust her own judgment, anymore. He stares back for a time, then silently turns and skulks away without another word.

She does not see him again for a long time. When he reappears again it's to demand a rematch. She wins again, by a narrow margin. He rants and raves about how close he is to defeating her, fumes about Arceus having chosen her. They argue. As he storms away she yells after him, voice choked,

“I'm being used by Arceus like a puppet, I don't think that's something to envy!”

He stops.

His demeanor changes. Like flipping a switch.

Eventually, says,

“If you resent Arceus, why do you still scamper about and do their bidding?”

“. . . because I want to go home.”

He turns. Asks her if her world is as cruel and unforgiving a place as it is here. June argues she doesn't think the world is cruel and unforgiving, then amends, well, it can be sometimes. But it's also filled with good things, too.

“And why should such ugliness and horror exist alongside such beauty? Why should some prosper while others are left to dine on naught but dust?”

She . . . she doesn't know.

“That is why I want to meet them. So that I may ask. And . . . perhaps fix things.”

“Volo, I understand wanting to make things better, but I don't think the solution is to mass murder everyone on the planet and starting over from scratch! There are better ways . . .”

He remains silent for some time. Then he pulls on the cord about his neck, takes his necklace off. The one he made out of the comet shard she gave him. He gives it to her.

“I don't deserve to keep something accepted under false pretenses.”

Then he leaves. June stares after for some time, confused. Why was he even still wearing it? If he'd been wearing it only to manipulate her, why continue the act once she knew the truth? Did part of him actually care? Or was he still trying to manipulate her now?

He didn't seem to be. It seemed to be a good-bye, in fact. She had a feeling he didn't plan to see her again.

She finds Giratina one day, in a small, dark cave she stumbles across while exploring the coastlands. She's shocked that she can capture it in a pokeball. Gods shouldn't be so easy to subjugate, surely. Perhaps the Pearl cand Diamond clans were right to fear the contraptions. They were strangely chill about her capturing their sacred Palkia and Dialga in pokeballs, but she had promised it was a temporary thing, so perhaps it just went to show how much trust was finally placed in her now.

When she told the Professor about Giratina, he revealed something that surprised her. He said Volo had approached him not long ago and spoke to him. Told him that Giratina had been responsible for tearing the rift in space-time, but that once it battled June, it realized that it was no match for her. It chose to instead protect Hisui, and it was no longer a threat to them.

June should catch it. So that you may study it, he told him.

Perhaps that's why it had been so easy to capture. June was still shocked, though. Shocked that Volo had bothered to speak to the Professor at all. Why did he? Did he feel protective over Giratina and wanted to ensure its safety? Did he want to reassure Team Galaxy that they didn't need to worry-- a peace offering, of sorts? Did he do it for June?

She didn't know. The Professor told her the last thing he said was that it was probably the last time he'd see him; and then he wandered off. She's pretty sure he meant it. She hadn't seen him for a month now, not since he'd given her the necklace.

Later, June sent Giratina out of its ball, when she was alone out on the coastlands. She stared at it, calmly, and spoke to it.

“You spoke to him after you fled the mountain, didn't you? What did he plan on doing? Where did he go?”

The dragon stared back at her silently.

“Please. I . . . I'm worried about him.”

In truth, Hisui wasn't the same without him. She hated what he did, what he did to her, and it felt like twisting a knife whenever she thought of him, but she also missed him.

She was reminded of him constantly, and she spent hours upon hours going over the memories. Sometimes she searched her memories for hints of his subterfuge, wishing she'd noticed sooner, wishing it had been different. Sometimes she'd daydream of getting revenge. Sometimes she'd spend the time wondering if any of his friendship had been real, hoping at least something had been. Often she wondered what was going through his head, who he really was, what he was doing now.

She'd been alone with her thoughts for too long and they were driving her mad. She needed closure. She needed to know what became of him. And she needed something more than the daily life she was living now. Once he'd left she'd turned her obsessive focus to finishing the Pokedex, as Arceus seemed to demand of her. She hardly had spent time doing anything but that work. She was withdrawn with everyone else. She'd gotten closer to her main team of pokemon, that was about it. It was horrifically lonely and monotonous.

It took June time to realize Giratina had lowered to the ground, uncoiling its long body, almost in invitation. She blinked at it.

“Do you want me to, um, climb aboard?”

She was nervous, but when she approached, it remained still. She climbed onto its back, half-surprised to find it felt solid, despite it being a ghost. She settled onto one of its golden ribs, as though it were a saddle. Silently, the dragon raised up once more, and began to fly through the starry sky. It felt surreal.

He misses her and their "friendship," now that she's gone. It takes him by surprise. Why should he miss such a thing? It wasn't a real friendship on his side, of course, but it wasn't real on her side, either; since she had merely liked the lie, not the real him. He was certain she wouldn't have liked the real him. Certainly not after what he did. Naturally.

But he missed it, anyway, that beautiful lie he'd created with her. Perhaps because he hoped like she had liked at least a part of him. Perhaps because it was just nice to pretend.

He hated to admit it; he'd spent so very long in denial that he had cared about her at all, and it still churned his stomach to think about the ugly truth, but it was becoming impossible to deny.

Because he can't seem to stop thinking about her. And it's driving him a bit mad. He's lost now, no clue what he's going to do. He just keeps thinking of the way she once looked at him with such kindness and affection. And how it all transformed to anger and hurt and mistrust and pain instead. Like a lovely flower plucked and crushed.

It didn't matter.

It was too late. It wasn't as though she'd ever forgive him. It wasn't as though he wanted her forgiveness.

. . . perhaps he did. But he certainly didn't deserve it.

What was he? Some poor wretch who'd fallen from Arceus' grace. Even Giratina had turned its back on him, in the end. The one creature in all the realms he thought would understand him. He didn't blame it; he'd failed it, after all. He was not worthy to weild its power.

He hid from the world, tucked away deep in a corner of Hisui that others dared not tred. The days passed in a blur, and he barely thought to eat. He spent much time sleeping, but still found little rest, tormented by his dreams.

At first he assumes the Hoopa portal that abducts him is Arceus finally choosing to smite him from this mortal plane.

Giratina leads her to the cave Volo had been staying at. She picks through the refuse, it's disgusting there, a total mess, and his possessions are strewn all about, but she finds no one home. She grows more and more anxious as she searches. There is a fire still smoldering as if he'd been there recently; what's more, she eventually finds his pokemon team is left there. She asks Giratina what happened but the dragon either doesn't wish to speak or she cannot hear it.

The portal finds her too eventually. She's sucked into it in a much better position though. She has her backpack and her full pokemon team on her. When she's spat out on some grass somewhere, she is . . . unamused, though. It feels far too familiar. Powerful pokemon transporting her across time and space at their whimsy.

She wanders around, and eventually comes across Volo. He's disheveled, disoriented, and devoid of most possessions, save for a single pokeball, which has a Togepi. He won't say why he has it (it's the child of his Togekiss). He's shocked when she appears, and says it musn't be the afterlife after all. He asks why she's here, she explains she went searching for him, found his camp empty, Giratina led her there. Then a portal got her. He wants to know why she went searching for him at all, but their conversation is interrupted when they are discovered by some friendly locals. They're led back into town by them. They learn this place is an island called Pasio.

At first June is very, very excited. She thinks she's landed in her native time-line. However, once she gets a phone and contacts her family, she is shocked to learn a version of her already exists in this place. So close to home and yet so far.

In the meanwhile, Volo is amazed by the future and his changed situation and the gears in his head are quickly turning. He tries to lie to the people here and pretend to be nothing but a simple merchant from the past with an interest in myths and the research into sync stones. But June is having none of his bullshit. Once she figures out what he is up to, she goes right to Professor Bellis and the Prince and warns them what he tried to do in the past, and that he might try to do the same again. She doesn't want them to simply lock him up, though, so she asks if there might be some other solution. They thank June for the warning and decide to restrict Volo's access to certain things, such as learning about sync stone research. They also put June in charge of keeping an eye on him, so that he does not cause trouble.

When she delivers the news to Volo, he's shocked, at first, then tries to act innocent, saying he wasn't lying to anyone, he merely didn't see a reason to bring up the past; he'd hoped he could start fresh, turn over a new leaf. June gets very angry, and hurt, yelling,

"Are you KIDDING me? You're still trying to lie to me, even now?!"

This seems to get to him, and he stops trying to convince her his intentions were all purely innocent. She finishes explaining the deal to him, including the fact she's responsible for keeping him out of trouble, now. His mouth curves in a smile and he laughs, dry, bitter.

"So you are to be my warden."

Things don't go very well at first with this new arrangement, and he's not cooperative at all, keeps trying to get away with things, manipulate her, and they keep arguing over his obsessive goals. Tensions mount and they keep butting heads until an especially heated argument, June just snaps.

She barks an order to her Alpha Scizor; it immediately reaches out and grabs Volo around the neck with its massive claw. She screams at him,

“If you're so eager to meet Arceus, why don't I help send you to it?!”

Scizor lifts Volo up off the ground until his feet are dangling. Eyes wide, he looks down at her.

He looks terrified.

She hesitates and then sighs. She tells Scizor to put him down. It was only an empty threat because she was absolutely sick with anger, but seeing the genuine fear in his eyes made her immediately feel bad. She could never actually hurt him.

Maybe she was too good of a person for her own good.

Things change after that. Volo seems to realize June isn't going to be manipulated anymore. He grows more cooperative, more contemplative. (Other plot stuff happens that I only have vaguely defined, but one of them is he starts to become sort of friends with Jacq-- for real this time, not like at the start when he was putting on an act. He also is doing work while on this island, so is June, and he's battling trainers, sometimes, and learning more about the world and the future here.)

Their relationship gradually shifts, and they start to have conversations that are not purely antagonistic.

One day he tells June he read her diary, back in Hisui.

June is appalled but reigns in her anger and asks why he's telling her this. He explains he asked her to start telling her the truth.

"I did say that, didn't I . . . ugh. Okay, that's fair, I guess. But why did you feel the need to even do that to begin with?"

He explains that he thought perhaps Arceus had sent her to Hisui for some purpose, and he needed to figure out why, because perhaps she could be the key to him meeting it. He hoped to find more information there. She sees the cold logic in his choice, and then asks with some trepidation how much he actually read. He relays what he could recall reading, and then starts to ramble about his judgments of her, which were very harsh judgments at that (he thought she was weak, and soft, and pathetic, and she whined and complained about how everything was difficult, and he didn't understand why Arceus would choose her) and she gets understandably ticked off, face flushed in anger.

He cuts her off before she can yell at him, though, when he says reading her diary started to shift his thinking, though.

He says it made him realize just how much she was up against every single day. She had the deck stacked against her from the start. No one and nothing was kind to her in this place, and every gain she made was as hard-fought as possible, and yet . . . she kept going. The weight of the world on her shoulders, pressing down on her, but she didn't buckle. She bent but didn't break.

She awkwardly thanks him for acknowledging it.

One day they are having a relatively minor disagreement and she says,

"I could have just told them to lock you up, you know."

"I know."

"Would a 'thank you' kill you?"

He hesitantly explains no it would not, but he doesnt want to say something to her that he doesnt mean.

She is very unamused.

"So it's not that you can't say thank you, it's that you're incapable of feeling gratitude. Great."

He's quiet for a time.

"...possibly. I'm not sure."

One night he rushes to her room and shakes her awake.

"Hnnngh . . . Volo? What is it? What's wrong??"

He instantly loses nerve and apologizes for waking her, and says that it isn't important

"Wh-what??" She demands to know what it is, it must be important enough to charge into here like that, but he apologizes again and starts to leave and she grabs his wrist. His eyes widen.

She senses his uncertainty and speaks much more gently.

"No, w-wait, Volo, don't go. Tell me what it is." He looks to her.

"Please."

He hesitates a while, working himself up to it, face a little red and licking his dry lips. Finally says,

"Thank you."

She is confused. "What?" With difficulty, he repeats,

"Thank you."

"For what?"

After a bit, he tells her,

"For asking them to allow me to remain."

"Oh."

He explains it does not benefit her in the slightest, on the contrary, it inconveniences her at every turn. Even when he's made it clear he shall never feel indebted to her or help her in any way, she persists . . . she continues to help him. And he doesn't understand why, after everything he's done . . .

He seems to realize he's saying more than he meant to.

"I don't know why I'm here saying all this. I'll let you get back to sleep--"

"It's okay, really, I don't . . . mind you at all. You can come talk to me anytime. Even in the middle of the night."

He seems uncertain.

"Truly?"

"Yes. I mean, within reason, maybe knock on my door gently next time instead of giving me a heart attack, but yeah. Also, um, you . . . you are wearing pants, right?"

The room's still very dim but she can see that he's shirtless. He looks down at himself, considering the question and looking alarmed she might think that. He stammers,

"Yes, of course, I-- I was in bed, but I'm wearing pants--"

The incredible awkwardness in his voice makes her giggle a little. In relief, she says,

"Okay, good, just checking."

He is spellbound for a time by the feeling that goes shooting through his chest when she giggles. It is the first time he's heard her laugh in his presense since he'd pretended to be her friend.

When he returns to his bed, laying there, staring at the ceiling, he decides he'd do anything to be the reason for her to smile and laugh again.

#pokemon #legends arceus #volo #OC #headcanons #I knew the main twist of the ending ahead of time obviously #mystuff

15 notes · View notes

whenihaveyouromione · 6 months

Text

When I Have You - Chapter 101

Read on Fanfiction.net or ao3 as well.

---

Chapter 101

Rose’s smile filled Ron with so much joy. It was something he was unable to find the right words for. It was just a feeling that made his heart swell and for him to feel things that he didn’t even know he was capable of feeling.

Over the years, Hermione had already pushed those boundaries, his love for her growing every day. But Rose… Rose had completely broken down and disintegrated all those barriers of what he thought he could feel. She’d completely and utterly changed the definition of love for him from the moment she’d entered this world.

And every day, it was something new. Every day, she’d grow and change. She’d do something they hadn’t seen before, learn a new skill. At three-and-a-half months old, she was already showing that she was desperate to be on the move. She wriggled and rolled so much now it was almost difficult to keep up with her. She’d be in one place one moment, and then the next she’d be at the other end of the room.

“She’s going to start crawling soon,” Hermione had said one afternoon as they watched her attempt to wriggle herself towards a toy. There was a brief moment where it looked as if she was trying to push herself onto her knees.

“No, she’s far too little,” Ron had answered, ignoring what he was seeing with his own eyes.

There was a baby book Hermione kept in the living room, picking it up every so often to refer to one thing or another. She did that then, flipping to a page. “Well, it says here they can start crawling from as young as four months.”

Ron watched his daughter, feeling a mix of pride and worry. He was thrilled to see that she was thriving. She was such a happy baby, she ate well, she was active. Sleep was still an issue, but nothing out of the ordinary, he thought. At the same time, the last three and a half months had been the best of his life, and the fastest. He’d watched his nieces and nephew grow, watched how big they’d gotten. James really did crawl around now at tenth months old and he got into everything. Ron had witnessed with his own eyes how nothing in Harry and Ginny’s house was safe from his curious little hands.

But James hadn’t crawled until a month ago. He’d been perfectly stationary and happy to be so.

Rose could at least give them a few more months.

Now, he watched her on her play mat by the breakfast table as he made himself a coffee. She’d long since grown unsatisfied with the restraints of the bouncer that kept her safe, insisting that they put her on the ground.

She smiled at one of the many toys she’d collected in the two weeks since her dad had started working at the joke shop. It moved around the floor, singing, and she turned on her tummy, following it with her eyes.

Her little face warmed him more than any coffee could and he smiled, watching her.

“You’ll make a great Quidditch player one day, Rosie,” he said.

At the mention of her name (or the sound of his voice, Ron hadn’t quite worked it out), her eyes drifted towards him, grin widening.

“Maybe I can teach you how to play young. That way, when you get to Hogwarts you’ll be a superstar.” He smiled at the thought, though he was disinclined to think too far into the future considering he was already bothered by the fact that the first three and a bit months with her were already over. But he’d be incredibly proud if his little girl was to make the Quidditch team in her first year. No one had done that since Harry.

Rose’s attention drifted back to the toy.

“On second thoughts,” he said, “you’ll probably do much better if your Aunt Ginny was to teach you. You’d probably get free lessons and have much better success.”

The thought of his daughter being a great Quidditch player in the future brought another smile to his lips. She was part Weasley, which meant she’d probably be decent, though she’d unfortunately lucked out in the area of having him for her dad. Aside from Percy, who flat out refused to get on a broom, he was probably the least skilled of all his siblings. Hermione insisted he was good and he just let his lack of confidence get in the way, but Ron knew that wasn’t entirely true.

Part of being a great Quidditch player meant you needed to have a lot of confidence. And he didn’t.

James, Ron thought, would walk his way onto the team when his time came. And with any luck, Rosie would not inherit Ron’s lack of confidence and join her cousin (or play against him if that were to be the case).

But he had many years to go before that happened and Ron hoped that time would just slow down a little so his wish didn’t come into fruition too quickly.

She was perfectly happy to play on the floor of their kitchen for the time being.

His watch said ten minutes to five o’clock, which meant Hermione would be home in about twenty. Over the few weeks that Ron had been with Rose and Hermione had been at the Ministry, she’d made a big effort to get home on time. Ron had joked at the time, telling her that she just didn’t trust him to take care of Rose without her supervision. Though, he knew it was more because she didn’t want to miss any time with Rose.

She was incredible, and Ron made a point of telling her that when he could. She seemed so on top of managing parenthood and working and he admired her for it. She gave Rose so much time and attention when at home, and gave her all to her job between nine and five, five days a week.

How she did it, he’d never know.

Ron’s eyes flicked to Rose again, who was still being entertained by the toy. “I think she’ll be surprised to see us home early today,” he commented to his daughter (who he was well aware could not respond to him).

After working tirelessly for two weeks at the shop, he’d — for the first time — taken advantage of being the boss and left at four-thirty. Oswald was proving to be a reliable employee and Ron trusted him and the other girl — Isla — to set up for the weekend.

It gave himself time to actually sit down, drink a cup of coffee, and it gave Rose some additional time to move.

And then Hermione would come home and they’d need to get ready for dinner with Harry and Ginny. What had once been a common gathering had dropped off significantly since they each had children. These days, it was all about routine and being home in time for bed.

He savoured the coffee, drinking it in small sips and reheating it with his wand whenever it got too cold.

He’d just about finished when he heard Hermione arrive via the Floo. He was hoping to surprise her, but there was no way she would not have heard the loud squeal of delight from Rose as the toy nudged her nose.

“Ron?”

“Nice one, Rosie,” Ron said cheerfully. “Remind me not to take you to any surprise parties. In the kitchen!” he called.

A moment later, Hermione came into the kitchen, her eyes flittering from Ron to Rose on the floor. “You’re home,” she said, sounding surprised.

“Yes,” Ron said brightly. “The benefit of being the boss, right?” He grinned as she came over to kiss him.

Her mouth turned up into a small smile. “Yes, very. How was your day?”

Ron shrugged. “Busy. Never isn’t busy. You’d think people would get sick of buying stuff, but nope. Seamus came in today.”

“Oh, that would have been nice,” Hermione answered. “It must be getting close to the baby being born now.”

“Yeah,” Ron said. “Seamus said only a few more weeks.”

“That’s so exciting.” But Hermione didn’t sound excited. She frowned, and Ron realised her attention wasn’t on him.

“What is it?” Ron asked.

Hermione jumped, looking back at him. “Oh, nothing, I just… it’s funny that you ran into Seamus today, and he’s about to have a baby…”

“Why?” Ron questioned, confused as to where she was going with this. He didn’t think it was funny that Seamus had come into the shop, or that he was about to become a dad.

“Well… did you ever hear that Malfoy had a baby?”

For a moment Ron didn’t speak, but then he said, “What?”

“Last November,” Hermione said. “Before Rose. And he never said anything. I mean… we don’t exactly talk, but he didn’t even mention it or anything. Never asked for time off…”

Ron shrugged. “Did you ask?”

“No. I didn’t even know. Not until today, when he mentioned his son in passing. Said that was why he was late. ‘Sorry, my son was sick.’ And that was it.”

Ron shrugged again. “How’d you know it was last November?”

“Because Maia asked him and he told her. I overheard. It just seems strange, doesn’t it? That he didn’t even bother to mention that his wife had a baby. Or didn’t ask for any time off? Wouldn’t he want to spend time with his child?”

At that, Ron laughed. “It’s Malfoy you’re talking about, Hermione. He’s probably hired someone to look after the kid and goes about his business like it doesn’t exist. Isn’t that what Malfoy’s parents did with him? The saddest part in all this is that our Rosie is going to have to put up with a Malfoy when she goes to Hogwarts. He’ll be in her classes and everything.”

Hermione didn’t speak for a moment, apparently incredibly bothered by the fact that Malfoy didn’t feel the need to tell her about his own child. If Ron was being honest, he didn’t actually blame Malfoy. Why would he? It wasn’t like she had told him anything about Rose.

“Come on,” Ron said, “let’s get ready for this dinner and talk about kids we actually care about.”

Hermione seemed to snap out of whatever she was thinking, smiling again. “You know,” she began, “tonight just might take today’s baby count up to three.”

“What do you mean?” Ron said quickly, worried. He tried to do a quick calculation in his head, but nothing came to him. Hermione couldn’t be pregnant again, could she? It had taken them forever to get Rose. And he loved her with all his heart, but he wasn’t quite ready for another kid. Not now. “Are you —” he said, hesitant.

“What?” Hermione almost laughed. “No!” She laughed again. “No, I was talking about Harry and Ginny.”

“What?”

Hermione shrugged. “Well, last year, Ginny was talking about her return to Quidditch this year. She was incredibly excited about going back. She is meant to be going back in March, and March is only a few weeks away. She hasn’t gone to a single training session. She hasn’t been away… only one thing kept her away from Quidditch last time, and that was James.”

For a moment, Ron stared at her, his mouth slightly open. Then he shook his head, partly impressed at how perceptive Hermione was and how ridiculous her comment sounded. She was right, of course. Ginny hadn’t made mention once this year about going back to playing Quidditch, when last year it was all she talked about. She hadn’t been to any practices and Harry hadn’t said anything about her being away. Ron knew that he would have, if she had, because he would have been left looking after James on his own.

But, she couldn’t be pregnant again.

“James is only ten months old,” he blurted out.

Hermione shrugged. “You and Ginny aren’t that far apart in age,” she reminded him. “It’s possible.”

“Yes, but…”

“Well, I could be wrong,” Hermione said.

“But you don’t think so?” Ron replied. He glanced back down at Rose, imagining her at James’ age. She was already showing signs of wanting to move more and the thought of having another baby so soon almost horrified him. He adored his daughter, but he was happy with just her. At least for the time being. A very long time being, he thought.

Hermione seemed to know what he was thinking, for she said, a smile on her face, “Don’t worry, if that’s the case, I’m not going to get any ideas for us.”

Ron looked back at her. “Thank Merlin.”

Hermione laughed.

“Well, I suppose we should go over then. Let them break the news to us…”

Hermione bent down to pick up Rose. “Hello, sweetheart,” she said, kissing Rose’s cheek. “Did you have a good day today?”

“As always,” Ron replied. “She flashes a smile and the customers just hand over their money.”

“So, you’re using her as a sales pitch, then?”

“No. They just see her and they can’t resist.”

Hermione bit back a smile, which meant she wasn’t too upset by it. “When did you last change her? Maybe we should change her before we go.”

Ron thought back to his day. They’d been quite busy, and he remembered at around three o’clock telling Oswald he just needed to tend to Rose for a moment and if he could watch things. But then that kid had knocked over the Skiving Snackboxes, and then Rose had fallen asleep, and then… and then he’d gone home. And not changed her. The last time had been around midday.

Guilt swept over him in a way that he’d never felt before. “Oh, Merlin, Hermione… not since midday. She’s been…”

Rose flashed him a smile, which he probably didn’t deserve right now. How had he forgotten such basic care for his daughter?

“It’s alright,” Hermione said. “I’ll go and do it now.” She left the room, talking to Rose all the way down the hall, leaving Ron to wonder if she was angry with him for forgetting.

He’d never forgotten before. In fact, he’d slid into his routine with her so easily that it had become habit. At busy times, she was strapped to his chest, during quieter periods she was out the back with the toys where Ron could keep watch of her. Every two hours, he routinely fed and changed her. But that kid… he’d caused Ron to forget. After he’d cleaned up the mess and told the apologetic father not to worry, he’d gone back to feed her, because forgetting to feed a hungry baby wasn’t possible, but he’d then just put her back on the charmed playmat while he went to help another customer.

He shook his head, running his hands over his face. He knew Hermione had her misgivings about Rose being at the shop every day, but until today, it had worked well. Now, this just proved that he couldn’t do it.

When Hermione returned with Rose a few moments later, she found Ron sitting on a chair at the kitchen table. She stopped, looking at him, frowning. “Everything okay?”

Ron shrugged, his previous cheerful mood gone now. “I messed up,” he said.

Her frown deepened. “What do you mean? Did something happen today?”

Ron lifted his head to look at her, slightly surprised by that question. What did she mean by ‘did something happen’? Hadn’t she just heard what he’d said about not changing Rose since midday?

He felt lost for words for a moment, before regathering himself. “I forgot to change her,” he said. “I just… I just forgot.”

Hermione was silent, and if Ron hadn’t been watching her, waiting for her anger to set in, he would have thought that her silence was due to being furious with him. But that was not the emotion on her face at all. She looked more confused than anything.

Before speaking, she came to sit opposite him. “Okay, you forgot,” she said calmly.

Ron was completely taken aback by Hermione’s response. Was this the same Hermione who had fussed over every bottle just two weeks ago, he was talking to, or had someone taken her place? His mouth opened, but no words came out.

Seeming to sense his surprise, Hermione continued, “Ron, if I’ve learnt anything since we’ve become parents, it’s that we need to throw out the notion that we need to be perfect for her at all times. She’s fine, isn’t she?”

Ron looked at Rose, nodding. “So, you forgot to change her once. I’m assuming you got busy today and it slipped your mind.”

“It shouldn’t have,” Ron mumbled.

“And you’ve never forgotten before, have you?”

Ron shook his head. “Some idiot kid destroyed the place, and I had to deal with that.”

“So, it’s fine. Honestly. Did you think I’d be upset?”

The truth was, yes, but he was mostly upset with himself for forgetting to do it. Wasn’t that what he’d promised Hermione when they made this arrangement? That he would be the perfect person to take care of their daughter?

Hermione’s voice cut through his thoughts, seeming to understand what he was thinking. “Don’t beat yourself up,” she said gently. “Things like this are going to happen sometimes. And she’s fine. I promise.”

Ron nodded, not wanting to continue the conversation anymore. “Should we go? Don’t want to be late. And maybe you’re right; maybe they do have news to tell us.”

…

Ron knew immediately, the moment he stepped into Harry and Ginny’s house, that Hermione was definitely right. It was obvious the second he laid eyes on his sister that she was pregnant again. He didn’t know how he knew, because she wasn’t showing all that much, and he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been looking, but he now couldn’t help but notice the small bump she carried.

And she was rather cheerful, too. So was Harry. They greeted them brightly, ushering them into their living room as if they hadn’t seen each other in months, not just weeks.

Which was still a long time, Ron reasoned. Longer than what they were used to. It wasn’t until he left the Aurors did Ron realise just how much of his time spent with Harry had been at work. If there was one thing he did miss about that job, it was going in and seeing his best mate every day. The laughs, the talks, and the company.

Now, with a kid each and working separate jobs, they actually had to schedule catch-ups such as these, and that was hard.

And it looked like Harry and Ginny were going to have their hands full even more so than what they currently did.

The living room was larger than Ron and Hermione’s, and more open. But even so, it was crowded and filled with many toys, both magical and Muggle, that Ron could guess James never played with.

Harry, much like Ron, had been determined to ensure that his son didn’t miss out on anything like he had. The only difference was, Ginny had not been there to convince Harry that James didn’t need all that stuff like Hermione had for Ron. She’d agreed with him.

Looking at the space, Ron felt grateful for Hermione. Rose had everything she needed and a little bit more, but she didn’t have everything like James did. But, Ron reasoned, James was probably going to have to share his things in a few months, so that was something.

Upon seeing his visitors, James crawled over to Ron and Hermione, grabbing onto Hermione’s leg and using it as leverage to pull himself up. Hermione bent down to pick him up, allowing the boy to nuzzle into her.

Ron beamed at her, feeling a rush of love for his wife and nephew. Hermione had always been good with James, even before Rose was born, and over the ten months of James’ life, they’d developed quite a bond. James adored Hermione and Ron knew without question that Hermione loved the son of her best friends.

It had Ron thinking back to almost a year ago now, when Harry had showed up at their place under the pretense of returning a pen, just to express his fear that his son was going to be left alone if anything were to happen to him or Ginny. They’d assured him then that that wouldn’t be the case, but Ron knew now with the utmost certainty that if anything was to happen to either of them, he and Hermione would take James in, in a heartbeat. And he’d be loved and cared for as if he was their child. Because that was how they both felt about the kid, his tantrums and all.

While Hermione cooed at James, talking to him and making him giggle, Ron extracted a blanket from Rose’s bag — something they carried everywhere — and with Harry’s help, laid it on the carpet of the living room. Things looked different these days on their dinner dates, where their main priority was making sure their kids were set up before they looked after themselves.

Harry brought over some toys and laid them on the mat, and Ron placed Rose on it. She immediately rolled over onto her tummy, stretching out her hand to reach for one of the toys. Harry and Ginny got to witness first-hand her attempt to briefly get onto her knees before collapsing back onto her tummy.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said she was close to crawling,” Ginny said, sounding impressed.

“What are you going to do when she actually moves?” Harry asked.

“Put everything up on the shelves,” Ron answered, grinning. “Isn’t that what you had to do?”

“Yeah, luckily for us we had many more months before we were forced to do that,” Ginny answered.

Hermione put a bubbly James back on the ground and he immediately crawled over to where Rose was playing. He sat on the mat alongside her, picking up a block with some letters on it and shoving it into his mouth.

Rose didn’t pay him any mind, more interested in the small bear she’d managed to grasp in her little hands.

“Friends for life!” Harry said brightly. “Just like we always said they would be.”

They watched the two kids play for a few moments, Ron feeling a sense of calm wash over him. Oh, how he loved this life he’d chosen for himself, where the simple joy of watching his daughter and nephew play beside each other made him feel at peace.

It was Ginny who broke the silence. “Anyone care for a drink?”

They answered in turn, and Ginny — looking rather pleased with herself — hurried from the living room to fetch them.

“So,” Ron said, once they were all settled on the sofas, their chosen drinks in hand. He decided he was going to get straight to the point, even if Harry and Ginny wanted to do it differently, “how’s Quidditch practice going, Gin?”

He felt Hermione’s reprimanding gaze on him, but he ignored her. He knew his sister was pregnant, so they may as well have it out in the open now.

“Haven’t been going!” Ginny answered cheerily. “In fact, I’ll be missing another season all together.”

“Oh, and why might that be?” Ron asked, not at all trying to disguise his mock surprise. Hermione whacked his arm gently, but he again ignored her, instead focusing on his sister.

Ginny’s eyes narrowed. “I saw you staring at me when you got here, you know. So you obviously know. How’d you find out?”

“I’m married to someone who notices everything,” Ron said in response, and all eyes flickered to Hermione. She gave Ron an unimpressed look.

“Hermione noticed you weren’t talking about Quidditch anymore,” Ron answered on behalf of his wife when she didn’t say anything. “And concluded that only one thing kept you away from Quidditch last time, so that same thing would be keeping you away this time.” He paused, looking his sister over. “You don’t sound too upset about it, though. Last time you were murderous at not being able to play.”

Ginny shrugged. “Not much I can do about it. It’s happened, we didn’t plan for it, so I just have to deal.”

Ron winced at the admission. “Huh, so another surprise.” He tried his best to control the bitterness that was threatening to escape, though he wasn’t sure he was successful. He didn’t want to be upset with either of them for seeming to be able to have a baby so easily, especially because he had Rose now and having another baby wasn’t on his mind, but he supposed some residue of his and Hermione’s struggles still lingered at the back of his mind.

“Yes, and that bothers you, doesn’t it?” Ginny asked spitefully. She opened her mouth to continue, but to Ron’s utter surprise, it was Hermione who interrupted.

“You remember how hard it was for us, don’t you?” She didn’t say it in a mean way, but Ron was grateful. He saw Ginny close her mouth and go a little red — something that Ginny never did.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a moment. “I did forget for a moment.”

“But, Ron is being rude, too,” Hermione continued, and Ron’s gratefulness vanished. “We’re happy for you both. Aren’t we, Ron?” She nudged him in the ribs.

“Of course we are!” Ron replied, meaning it. “Of course I’m happy. When’s it due?”

“Well…” Harry began, “somewhere towards the end of August or early September. The official date is the twenty-ninth of August, so if that is what happens, Rosie will have a friend at Hogwarts. But who knows.”

“James was early, so this one probably will be, too,” Hermione said matter-of-factly. "Oh, it'll be so good for Rose to have a friend when the time comes!"

"Yeah," Ron added, "otherwise she might be forced to make friends with Malfoy's kid."

"What?" Harry and Ginny said together, looking at Ron with wide eyes.

"When did that happen?" Harry then added.

Ron shrugged, looking at Hermione. "Last November, apparently. Hermione only found out today. He never even asked for a day off or anything."

"Do you think he's hired someone to raise his child?" Ginny asked.

"Most likely," Ron replied with a nod. "That's what I think, too."

"I can't believe it wasn't even in the papers or anything," Harry said.

Ron shrugged. "Probably didn't want to draw attention to himself. The papers haven't been kind to the Malfoys in recent years."

"That's so strange," Harry murmured thoughtfully.

"You said it," Ron replied.

A cry distracted them, and Harry immediately jumped up, pulling a much larger James from Rose. He'd decided that lying across her was the answer to taking the toy she was playing with from her.

Hermione moved to check on Rose, but the cry had been from James, not from his cousin whom he was crushing.

Once it was established that Rose was okay, and Harry gave James a different toy to distract him, Ginny beamed.

"They even fight like best friends. Siblings, even."

"And just think," Ron said, "soon James will have a real sibling to bully. Is he getting a little brother or sister."

"Brother," Harry and Ginny answered in unison, both of them smiling.

Ron looked at Hermione, who was also smiling. It made Ron's own mouth curl up, too.

"Well," he said, "let's hope this one learns to stand up for himself. Because he's certainly going to need it."

Both Harry and Hermione jumped up again, just as James tried to take Rose's toy from her for the second time.

“He’ll be older by then,” Harry said, sounding hopeful.

“And more prone to jealousy,” Ron added helpfully.

Harry picked James up and carried him to a completely different part of the room. He set James on the floor and put some toys around him. “Well,” he said, shoving a toy into James’ hand. The boy took it and put it in his mouth. “Let’s hope that it’s different when his little brother is here.”

#romione #hermione and ron #ron and hermione #ron weasley #ron and hermione fanfiction #hermione granger #harry potter fanfiction #hermione and ron fanfiction #romione fanfiction #harry potter

16 notes · View notes