#i never noticed that before??? but if i say mountain and fountain i can feel it in the back of my throat

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Another funny thing in my hebrew class was watching the teachers argue over the "correct" pronunciations of words because one's ashke and the other is sephardi

And then realizing that I use (mostly) sephardi pronunciations. Which is funny because the accent I have in english gets teased because we are allergic to saying the letter t (even moreso than others, apparently) 💀

[justrandomghoul]

Mountain x Rain: Shy Waters

CW: Discussion of past pack abuse.

TW: Past verbal and physical abuse.

Angst, hurt/comfort.

Mountain only wishes for the new water ghoul to feel safe in his new pack. Will the water ghoul open up to him?

Ever since Rain was summoned, he kept to himself, keeping everyone at a safe distance. He wasn’t sure what to make of the world around him. Aether was welcoming and understanding with the new water ghoul. He made it clear that Rain was part of the pack. The pack he used to be a part of in the pit disregarded him, saying that he was useless and not worth keeping around, causing the new ghoul to keep himself at a distance, not wanting history to repeat itself.

Mountain wanted to get to know the new ghoul, but was hesitant to talk to him since Rain backed away from him when he offered his hand to shake. He thought that the water ghoul was so stunning, and he couldn’t believe that the stunning water ghoul was part of the pack. Mountain wanted Rain to feel welcomed, and he tried doing so, but each attempt ended with Rain being silent and backing away from the earth ghoul as if he was afraid that he would strike him. Mountain had no idea about the abuse that the water ghoul went through at the hands of his old pack. Rain had no idea why the earth ghoul was even trying when he made his intentions pretty clear. He thought that if he continued to keep himself at a distance, they would give up and send him back to the pit.

Rain sat on the water fountain late at night, staring at the moonlight glistening on the water. He wished he was back in the pit with his old pack and would welcome him with open arms. Bruises fade, wounds heal, but he still had the scars from it all. Mountain noticed them and tried to figure out how the scars came to be, but thought not to ask the shy ghoul. He didn’t want to scare Rain even more since he was already scared enough. Mountain finally decided to try to talk to the water ghoul, bringing a bouquet of white roses to give to the water ghoul.

Rain paid no mind to the gentle giant that was behind him.

Mountain hesitated when approaching the water ghoul and softly spoke his name.

“Rain?”

Rain jumped and turned around in fright, hyperventilating. Mountain wanted to whimper. He didn’t mean to scare him. Why must he look intimidating? Why is he struggling to comfort the newest pack member? What was his life back in the pit? Mountain lowered his head and took a step back, shyly holding out the flowers to the water ghoul.

“These are for you,” Mountain hesitated. “I don’t know what your favorite flower is, but I assumed that you would take a liking to these. You don’t have to take them if you don’t want them.”

He paused before continuing.

“I don’t know what your life was like back in the pit, but I can tell that it wasn’t pleasant, and I’m so sorry that you went through that. I wanted to let you know that we aren’t like that at all. We love and care about every single member of the pack. I want you to feel that way as well.”

Rain hesitated before gently taking the offered flowers out of Mountain’s grasp, studying them. They were pure and beautiful. It was very thoughtful of Mountain to give him something as such. He looked up and saw that Mountain was fidgeting with his hands nervously. He didn’t expect this giant to be so hesitant and nervous. Rain saw how lively this earth ghoul was and how kindly he treated the pack.

“Thank you, Mountain,” he softly spoke. “These are beautiful.”

Mountain looked at him and smiled.

“Of course. I’m glad that you like them.”

Mountain turned his gaze to the moon.

“Beautiful night, isn’t it? Never get a view like this back in the pit. I remember seeing the moon for the first time and waking up Papa frantically asking him what the fuck that big shiny thing was.”

He chuckled and looked back at Rain before continuing.

“You'll never get sick of a view like this.”

He never noticed before, but the water ghoul’s eyes had a shine to them like when the moonlight shines on the ocean. Mountain found Rain to be beautiful. He was too beautiful to be a demon. He was captivating. Rain moved over and patted on the spot next to him. Mountain smiled and graciously sat down, his eyes never leaving Rain’s.

Rain looked deeper into Mountain’s eyes.

“Your eyes have gold in them,” he almost whispered to himself in awe. “Still green, but they have rivers of gold in them.”

Mountain smiled and blushed.

“Yours remind me of the ocean when the moonlight shines on it. They’re beautiful, Rain.”

Rain blushed and looked down at the roses.

“You think so?” He asked shyly.

Mountain nodded.

“The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Rain hesitated before speaking up.

“I owe you an apology. I did not have the best experience being in a pack before I was summoned here. I assumed that it would be the same as it was, and even though you all have been treating me with kindness, I still avoided everyone like the plague. I rejected you before you rejected me and that was cruel of me. For that, I am sorry, and I hope you forgive me.”

Mountain gently took Rain’s hand in his and looked at him mournfully.

“There’s nothing to forgive," Mountain reassured him. "I’m so sorry that you went through that. You didn’t deserve to be treated that way. If I was part of your past pack, I would’ve ripped them to shreds and treated you like royalty.”

Rain’s eyes shone with tears and looked down at their intertwined fingers.

He whispered, “I am not worthy of being treated like royalty or being part of your pack. I do not wish for you to see the ugly side of me.”

Mountain gently cupped Rain’s chin and gently tilted his head to look at him.

“There’s nothing ugly about you,” Mountain spoke with conviction. “You’re beautiful and you proved how strong you are by surviving that hellhole. We want you to be part of this pack.”

Rain shook his head. Tears running down his face.

“You are wrong,” he countered. “I have the scars to prove it.”

Mountain gently brought Rain’s hand to his lips and kissed it.

Mountain spoke with kindness that Rain had never heard before.

“You’re still beautiful.”

Rain hesitated before taking a deep breath.

“Do you want to know about the pack I was a part of?”

Mountain gently held Rain’s delicate hands in his own to comfort the ghoul in front of him.

“Only if you want to talk about it. I understand if you don’t want to.”

The water ghoul looked away as tears ran rapidly down his cheeks.

“It is not a pleasant story," Rain started.

He took another deep breath before continuing.

“Back in the pit, I was part of a pack for a long time. I was often picked on or left to fend for myself. When it came to hunting or defending the pack from other ghouls they would use me as a decoy since I could not defend myself. Every day I tried so hard to prove my worth to them. I wanted to mate with one of them, and this was the result.”

He let go of one of Mountain’s hands and pushed up one of his sleeves, revealing multiple scars on his arm.

“He made his answer loud and clear. Told me that he would rather have Lucifer himself smite him than be with an ugly creature like me.“

Mountain was speechless as he stared at the scars. How dare some lowlife treat this beautiful water ghoul like that? He was tempted to be sent back to the pit to find this asshole and rip him to shreds. Rain was beautiful and amazing. Stunning as blue stained glass. How dare his past pack not see that?

Rain shrugged and continued.

“I should have known better than to irk him, and I paid the price for it,” he spoke so casually as if he was talking about the weather.

Mountain shook his head as tears clouded his vision.

“No,” he stuttered. “No, Rain. You didn’t deserve that. That lowlife is an asshole who should be tortured for the rest of his pathetic life for hurting you.”

He took a deep breath before continuing.

“He’s a fucking idiot who doesn’t see how amazing and beautiful you are. I would never, ever hurt you. I would rather be sent back to the fiery pit of hell.”

Rain gently rested his hand on Mountain’s cheek. He saw the raw emotion in the earth ghoul’s eyes. The honesty and promise.

“There is no need to do such a thing,” he almost whispered. “I believe you would not harm me. I am sorry that it took me this long to realize that. Please do not go back there.”

Mountain gently rested his hand on top of Rain’s that was cupping his cheek.

“I promise, but if you change your mind, I would do it.”

The water ghoul chuckled.

“I believe you would.”

From that night forward, Mountain would continue to prove to the water ghoul that he was part of the pack and that he was safe. Whenever Rain would fall, Mountain was always there to pick him up.

[cryptidsurveys]

Thursday, October 17th, 2024.

Do you know anybody who is ambidextrous? My sibling was somewhat ambidextrous when it came to sports, but I think they were otherwise predominantly lefthanded.

Have you ever been 4-wheeling? I haven't, but it sounds like a fun time.

What’s the weather been like today? Cloudy and breezy and currently 75*F. Ideal weather for hiking at the Mountain Park. The leaves are really starting to change now, and I felt fully immersed in the autumn spirit.

What was the last exam you sat for? I'm not sure.

Will you be attending any weddings in the near future? No.

Do you currently have any unread text messages, and who from? I have a technically unread message from Oliver on Instagram, but I already know what it says because it popped up on my phone notifications.

Speaking of text messages, what colour is your cell phone? Black.

Do you live anywhere near the woods? We live a couple of blocks away from the Fountain Creek, which does have some woodsy areas, but I don't think I would call it "the woods."

Would you ever consider a career in the tourism industry? No.

Do you have any important anniversaries you celebrate? There aren't any that I celebrate, but speaking of anniversaries, today marks one year since I started driving again.

When was the last time you used q-tips? I have no idea.

How does your hair react to humid weather or rain? It doesn't. Even when I had longer hair, I didn't notice any reaction.

What’s your favourite flavour of iced tea? Just plain ol' regular iced tea is fine with me.

Do you understand music theory? No. Well, that is to say, I've never learned about it. I might understand it just fine if I cared to.

How many hours of sleep did you get last night? Somewhere between 8-9 hours.

Are you expected to act professionally at your job? I'm not employed at the animal shelter, but I am "basically staff" at this point. I'm not expected to behave super professionally around my immediate coworkers (in fact, there are times when we can get downright ridiculous), but with most of the rest of the staff/management, I try to maintain a fairly professional standard.

Infomercials: entertaining or stupid? They were my source of late-night sanity during my late teens/very early 20s when I couldn't sleep and nothing else was on TV.

What’s your favourite brand of energy drink? I don't have one.

Do you have (or have you ever had) acne? Yeah. My skin is looking pretty good lately, though. I swear it's that new lotion I bought. It's made a remarkable difference in such a short time span.

When was the last time you got pins-and-needles? A few weeks ago, I noticed that my hands were ever so slightly tingly. At the time, for lack of a better explanation, I figured it could be anxiety-related. However, things have calmed down significantly since then, yet the feeling still persists. Now my best guess is the way I rest my forearms on the edge of the computer desk while typing - which I just noticed thanks to this question. So, thank you, lmao. You may have just solved this mystery. ;D

Why did you click to take this survey? It's one I haven't taken before, and the questions looked interesting enough. It's also a good length; something I can finish before having my afternoon snack.

If you have glasses, have you ever smashed them? No.

How do you get new music? Buy or download or what? I don't buy or download music. If I want to listen to something, then I just use YouTube.

Have you ever sent someone an abusive text message? Yeah.

Do you require a lot of time to do things or are you quick? It depends on what it is. It takes me a while to read a book or fill out surveys (always pondering/getting nostalgic/etc), but I'm fairly quick when it comes to housecleaning or tasks at the animal shelter (unless we have more than adequate staff - then I tend to replace efficiency with attention to detail because I know I have the extra time to do so).

What will be the next concert you attend? Concerts aren't really my thing.

Turn the nearest television on, what’s on? I doubt the nearest television even works anymore. It's the one in the living room and it hasn't been turned on for years now.

How often do you “wake up on the wrong side of the bed”? As in grumpy? Almost never. But exhausted and a bit sad? Almost always.

Can you rap? Naw.

What do you usually order when you’re at McDonald’s? I don't have a usual order, but if I was to order something now, it would most likely be something Halloween-themed.

Are there any textbooks near where you are right now? No.

What’s the time? 2:43pm.

Do you know how to use a DSLR camera? I've never used one before.

How’s your body temperature right now? My hands are a bit cold, but the rest of me is comfortable.

Do you use Celsius or Fahrenheit? Fahrenheit.

What was the last thing you got a really good deal on? I'm not sure.

Have you ever studied any ancient societies? Not seriously, like not on a scholarly level or anything like that, but I love learning about ancient history, so…!

Do you like to wear long, dangling earrings? No. My ears aren't pierced.

What was the last reason you took medicine? Oncoming migraine.

Do you exercise regularly? I get a fair bit of exercise at the shelter because I'm on my feet for most of the day, but as for deliberate/specific exercise, no.

What is your coffee of choice? (flat white, cappuccino, etc.) If I'm ordering it from somewhere, then probably a cappuccino or macchiato. At home, either black or with almond milk + creamer.

Do you pay any attention to your country’s politics? A bit.

Are you feeling worried about anything right now? I'm not worried about anything related to the near future.

Are you a gossipy type of person? Sometimes.

When will your next meal be, and do you know what it will consist of? Dinner, and it will most likely be a chicken salad.

Tell me about the sickest you’ve ever felt. Probably the flu I had in late 2016.

What’s your opinion on your in-laws, if you have any? I don't have any in-laws. My sibling does have a partner (not married), but I've never met them.

Do you make excuses often, or do you just get things done? I've started making more excuses when it comes to housecleaning. I'm tired. I'm busy. If I do that, then I won't have time to do this, etc. Aside from that, I tend to just get things done.

Have you seen your best friend today? We chatted briefly over IG.

What can you smell right now? Nothing in particular.

Any important birthdays coming up? No.

Fireworks: yay or nay? I am fully aware of the reasons why they're awful, but since I can't stop them, I just enjoy them.

Do you have any plans for the rest of the day? Nothing much. Just the usual activities, plus finishing up the rest of the most recent Belief Hole podcast.

How about tomorrow? Any plans? I'll be at the animal shelter all day.

Do you know how to do your own laundry or does someone else do it? I do it.

If you could eat or drink anything right now, what would it be? I'm going to make a fruit and yogurt bowl after I finish with this survey.

What colour are your headphones? Black.

Think of the last long car trip you had, where did you go? I'm not sure.

Do you have a Twitter account that you use regularly? No.

Have you ever seen a horseshoe crab? They’re scary, right?! Only in pictures/videos.

What was the last movie you saw at the theatres? Wild Robot.

Are there any new movies that you’d really like to see? Wicked.

If you could play one instrument flawlessly, what would it be? Guitar or harp.

Do you overthink a lot of things? Unfortunately. I wonder what it's like to not overthink everything to death.

Is there anybody you miss but can’t see again? Yeah.

[brainyxbat]

Chapter 2: An Ancient Island! The Shadow Hiding in Little Garden

(episode 70)

The next day, the Straw Hats continued their journey to Little Garden. "I wonder if it's not gonna snow anymore," Luffy remarked.

"There's no way it would," Zoro said.

"Does too. You don't know since you slept through last time," Luffy pointed out.

"Hmm?" He raised an eyebrow in confusion.

The captain then turned to Vivi. "Hey, do you think it'll snow again?"

"It could snow, but the sea we were in first is special," She replied, "Since the seven magnetic forces from Reverse Mountain mess everything up." She gazed out at the calm sea. "That doesn't mean you can relax your attention here, though. It'd be rare for this sea to be wild like the first journey, but it's still true that this sea is a lot more difficult than ordinary ones. Never underestimate this sea; that's the ironclad rule."

"Hey, guys!" Sanji emerged from the kitchen, with a platter of goblets. "Wanna have my special drink?"

Karoo eagerly followed, as Luffy jumped down from the upper deck railing. "Yeah!" Zoro soon jumped down after him, and they gathered with Usopp to enjoy. "Thanks!"

Vivi watched them from the middle deck. "Say, Usopp, make a fishing tackle for me," Luffy requested.

"Fishing, huh?" Zoro smirked. "That's a good idea!"

"Okay," Usopp agreed, "Then I'll make an artistic fishing rod for you."

Karoo bit his straw, and pulled it completely out of the goblet. "Hey, it goes like this." Sanji lowered it back in for him. Karoo quacked happily, and to everyone's surprise, his share was gone with one sip. "Wow, you sure can drink. Hey, is it good?" He gave him another, and he drank it right up; a third went the same.

"Whoa, amazing!" Luffy exclaimed.

Vivi started becoming irritated at their laid back demeanors, as Nami came out of the cabin. "Is this really okay?!"

"Here, this is for you."

"What?" She looked up, and Nami was holding out a goblet to her, while drinking from another.

"I think it's fine. They'll work hard if it storms... since they don't wanna die."

"That's true, but it makes me feel like I'm worked up over nothing."

Nami grinned brightly. "This ship makes you feel like you don't have to worry about anything, right?"

Vivi stayed silent, as she continued watching the boys. "Attaboy! Go, go, go, go!" Luffy encouraged Karoo, who was still chugging, but he was starting to feel delirious. With a loud quack, he fell face-up, and spewed out a fountain. "Stupid Karoo!" Luffy laughed.

Nami turned to Vivi with a smirk, and the latter began to feel more relaxed. "Yes... it's a lot easier this way."

Venus emerged from the cabin, donning a new outfit with high wrapped pigtails, and sipping her own drink. "This is pretty good!" She joined the boys, and noticed the duck passed out. "Is he okay?"

"He's fine," Zoro assured, as Usopp stared, "Just overdid it a little."

-

Later, the crew were still sailing smoothly. "Hey, everyone, look!" Sanji pointed out. "It's a dolphin!"

"Whoa! He's cute!" Nami beamed.

They watched as the dolphin leaped in the air, over the ship... covering the whole thing with its shadow. "It's huge!!" Everyone screamed.

"I think it winked at me!" Venus pointed out, before it was back underwater with a huge splash. The goblets shattered on the deck, waking Karoo out of his stupor.

"Get out of here!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Let's go!" Zoro commanded.

"Okay!" Usopp held onto the mast.

"Yep!" Sanji leaped down to the main deck.

"On it!" Venus followed the sniper, and climbed on the crow's nest.

Vivi watched in awe, as Nami's words from earlier came true; the crew were suddenly busy at sailing away to safety. "Alright!"

"Take that side!" Usopp ordered Sanji.

"Got it!"

"Everyone..." Vivi whispered.

"Completely unfurl the sails!" Luffy commanded.

They rode away, but the dolphin was still hot on their tail. "It's still after us!" Venus reported from up above.

"Okay! Ride the wave, and shake him off!" When the giant porpoise dove into the water, the Merry sailed on the wave it created to get away.

"We did it!" Venus cheered.

-

"Nami!" Luffy turned to the navigator. "Which direction should the ship take?"

"Hold on a sec. Let me check." She watched the Log Pose quiver. "Turn to port, full!"

"Okay!" The Merry was turned to the left at her command.

Before long, an island with two boulder-like mountains became visible over the horizon. "Whoa!" Luffy exclaimed from the prow.

Nami held her wrist up, and the Log Pose pointed directly at the island. "There's no mistake. That island, and Cactus Island are pulling against each other. Our next stop is..." She pointed straight ahead, "That island!"

Luffy laughed with ecstasy, as the crew watched in awe. "So that's the one! Our second island in the Grand Line!"

-

Later, the Merry sailed along the shore, as the crew admired the tall palm trees. "So this is Little Garden!" Luffy grinned.

"What's "little" about it?!" Zoro exclaimed.

"This place doesn't quite fit its cute name," Nami commented.

Usopp backed away nervously. "Ahh... it's a terra incognita. It's a thick jungle!"

"We have to be careful," Vivi remarked, "I'm worried about what Ms. All Sunday was saying."

-

"But what's even unluckier is the course your Log Pose indicates. The name of the next island is... Little Garden. We don't even need to do anything; you'll be wiped out long before you can even reach Alabasta."

-

"A-a-are you saying a monster may appear?!" Usopp exclaimed fearfully.

"Who knows?" Luffy said casually.

"Let's go to our next destination without going ashore on this one!" Usopp suggested.

"But the Log can't be stored so quickly," Nami reminded him.

"Also, we have to stock up on food soon," Sanji added, "We didn't get anything in the last town we were in."

"Other than a killer headache," Venus pouted, "Besides, we might find some parts to fix the water drawing bike."

"There's a river mouth there," Zoro pointed out, and the four rushed over.

"What? Really?" They saw he was right; a river zigzagged deep into the lush jungle.

"I hope there's a BBQ restaurant in here," Luffy remarked.

"In a jungle?" Venus questioned.

"As if there'd be one!" Sanji snapped.

"But you said we were going to stock up on food," He reminded.

"We'll collect food to cook later! Geez, what're you thinking?"

"But it's dangerous to go ashore," Nami pointed out, and observed the area. "Just take a look at the plants here to start with. I've never seen anything like them, even in encyclopedias."

A sudden, loud screech startled the crew into covering their ears. "Ahh!"

Sanji grinned swooningly at Nami and Venus. "How cute!"

As the witch stared daggers in his direction, Usopp turned to him with a bright grin. "You mean me?" She smirked at him.

"Obviously, I meant the girls!" He snapped.

"Yeah, we're covering our ears from a loud noise," Venus snarked, "It's adorable, isn't it?"

"What was it we just heard?" Nami looked up at the sky.

Sanji grinned confidently, and pointed at a large bird behind his back. "It's all right. It's just a bird." Little did he realize, he was the bird's target. "And this is just a jungle. Don't worry." To his confusion, the navigator and sniper screamed in terror, and ran away. "What's the matter?"

"It's coming for you!" Venus pointed behind his back, and followed Usopp.

He turned around, and barely managed to duck down; the bird, disappointed at missing its prey, flew off. "What was that for, you damn bird?!"

"A lizard," Luffy remarked, "I wonder if it tastes good."

A sudden explosion stopped them dead in their tracks. "Is that a kind of noise you hear from just any jungle?" Nami asked rhetorically.

Usopp shook with fear. "That sounded like a volcano erupted!"

They continued cautiously down the river, and out from the trees emerged a fierce-looking tiger. And it looked hungry. "A tiger?!" Nami exclaimed.

"Are they supposed to be the size of a bus?" Venus asked.

"It's too huge!" At closer inspection, it was almost the size of an elephant! Usopp retreated with her to the other side of the deck, dragging the witch with him.

Luffy watched, and perked up when the tiger was suddenly stricken down by a mysterious force. "Ah!" It collapsed with blood coming from its new wound.

Nami ran back over to look. "What?! What just happened?! This isn't normal! This is definitely not normal!" She turned to the crew. "Why does a tiger, king of the jungle, fall covered in blood?!"

"Isn't the king of the jungle a lion?"

"Shut up, Venus!"

"Don't talk to her like that!" Usopp snapped. "It's decided that we're not gonna go ashore on this island!"

"We'll quietly wait on the ship until the Log is stored, and-"

"Right!"

"Leave this island as soon as possible."

"Right!"

"W-we have to go to Alabasta quickly."

"Hmph!" Zoro threw the anchor overboard.

After a while of waiting, Luffy was getting jittery. "Sanji! Make lunch for me!"

"Lunch?"

"Yeah! For replenishing energy! A "pirate lunch" with lots of meat, and no veggies! I can smell adventure in the air!"

A suspicious Nami ran over to him. "W-wait a sec! Where're you going?!"

"Adventure!" He beamed brightly. "Wanna come along?"

"I do!" Venus raised her hand.

"No!" Usopp protested.

"Adventure! Adventure!"

Nami prepared to punch him, but changed her mind, and sighed to herself. 'It's useless. I can't stop him. He's too enthusiastic.'

Usopp gawked in horror, tears streaming down his cheeks. 'Is he crazy? There's a monster that beat up a huge tiger in there!'

"Sanji! Make lunch for me!"

"Okay. Hold on a bit."

Vivi stared into the jungle, before turning to the captain. "Say, can I come with you?"

"What?!" Usopp exclaimed.

"Sure!" Luffy agreed. "Come, come!"

"I wanna come too!" Venus raised her hand. "I bet I can find some great herbs here!"

"Not you guys too!" Nami glared.

"Yeah," Vivi turned to her, "If I just sit here, I may start thinking about all sorts of things. I'll go to take my mind off things, until the Log is stored."

"No way! It may be okay for Luffy, but it's too dangerous for you guys!"

Venus raised an eyebrow at her, energy ball formed above her palm. "Hello? Power holder, remember? I'm not helpless."

"And I'll be fine, since Karoo will be with me."

Nami noticed his quack of horror. "He's too shocked to say a word, though."

"Then, I'll make lunches of love for Venus-chan and Vivi-chan," Sanji offered from the kitchen door.

"Thanks, Sanji!" Venus beamed, but it disappeared when Usopp grabbed her wrist.

"You're not going!" She pouted up at him. "We... can't afford to have too many power holders absent!" He reasoned. "Besides Luffy, you're the only one!"

She sighed reluctantly with a small smirk. "Yeah, you've got a point there. Sanji, I'll have to cancel that lunch."

"Could you prepare something to drink for Karoo?" Vivi requested.

"Of course!" He nodded. "Please leave it to me!" He closed himself in, and went to work.

-

"Okay." Sanji tightened the drawstring on Luffy's blue backpack, and strapped the mug holder around Karoo's neck. "Now you're all set. Two pirate lunches, and a special drink for Karoo."

"Okay!" Luffy nodded, then leaped onto the shore from the railing.

Vivi followed suit on Karoo's back, and turned to the rest of the crew. "Well, then. See you later!"

"All right! Let's go!"

"We'll be back in a little while!" Vivi called out, as she and Luffy rode/ran into the jungle.

"Ms. Wednesday sure is brave," Usopp remarked.

"As may be expected from someone who infiltrated an enemy organization," Nami added.

Zoro walked down the stairs, and cracked his neck. "Well, I'm bored too, so I'll go take a walk."

"Take a walk?!" Usopp exclaimed.

Without an answer, Zoro stepped on the railing. "Heave ho!" He leaped down on the grass.

"Ah!" Sanji watched in surprise. "Hey, Zoro!" He ran to the edge of the ship. "Wait!"

"Hmm?"

"We're short of food. If you see animals that appear edible, bring them back."

"Okay, got it." Zoro turned to walk away, but stopped himself. "I'll bring back one that you can't possibly capture."

Sanji wasn't quite fond of that response. "Wait, you bastard!"

"Hmm?!" He stopped walking.

The cook set his foot on the railing. "I won't let that remark go unchallenged! You can capture a bigger one than I can, you say?!"

"Of course."

Sanji and Zoro glared daggers at one another. "Then it's a hunting match," The former decided, and leaped down onshore. "Look! We'll compete over how many kilos of meat we get."

"Didn't you mean to say how many tons?" Zoro sneered.

"You can talk cocky once you've brought back some prey," Sanji retorted.

"Humph! I'll take you up on that!"

Usopp and Nami listened on helplessly, as Venus watched them disappear into the trees. "I wonder... why they're all like that?" Nami cried.

"I understand how you feel," Usopp agreed, "Don't cry. I'm on your side."

"Hey! Guys! Wait!" Venus shouted, unintentionally sending them a glimmer of hope. Maybe she could convince them to come back, and stay! "What's the prize for the winner?!" Or not.

After they both toppled over in exasperation, a furious Nami swung a punch to the other girl's head. "Don't encourage them!!"

"Don't attack her!" Usopp glared, as he kept the dizzy witch on her feet. "I'm still on your side, but don't push it!"

"She needs to stay quiet!"

-

Later, the trio sat leaning against the railing. "We're sitting ducks!" Usopp lamented.

"That's my line!" Nami snapped. "But wait a sec." She stood up, gaining his attention.

"W-w-what's the matter?!" To their confusion, she ran inside the cabin.

"Where're you going?!" Venus followed her in, with Usopp close behind.

"N-N-N-N-Nami?!"

Inside, she was rifling through her books. "This isn't it," She tossed one aside, "This isn't, either."

"Ouch! Ow, ow!" Usopp complained, as he and Venus were rained on by books. "H-hey, Nami! Nami!"

"What the heck are you looking for?" Venus asked, shielding her face.

"I remember reading about it in a book."

"A-about what?" Usopp stammered, as she flipped through a thick one.

"Little Garden."

The two returned outside to avoid getting bombarded some more, and stood on the upper deck, side by side. "So..." Venus tapped the railing, as Usopp turned to her, "You said you guys got the Going Merry from your friend, right?"

"Sure did!" He beamed.

"Cool!" She returned the gesture. "What all happened there?"

He quickly straightened his posture with confidence. "I'm glad you asked! You see, my unfortunate friend Kaya was being deceived by her butler Khlahadore, who is actually the feared pirate, Kuro!"

"Kuro?!" Her eye widened. "I thought he was dead!"

"Nope! Faked it! As I battled his Black Cat pirates, my 8,000 subordinates confronted his first mate, Jango the hypnotist!"

"Wow," She breathed in awe, "8,000... and they were all defeated?"

"Yes they were, my good friend!" He nodded through his fib. "They were all sent running scared! As gratitude, Kaya and her good butler, Merry, presented us with the Going Merry, who's sailed with us since!"

Venus giggled. "That's cool; you sound braver than you were in Loguetown."

Usopp flinched, and chuckled nervously. "Well, uh... I, I was out of my element a bit; I'd never been in a city like it before."

"Ah."

Nami rolled her eyes from inside the cabin, as she searched. It didn't surprise her that the young witch was falling for it; hook, line, and sinker. She made a mental note to tell her what really happened.

-

In the jungle, Luffy and Vivi were running amongst the trees, when something caught the former's attention. "Oops!" He skidded to a stop, and waded in the pond.

Vivi trotted back over. "What's the matter?"

"Here, look at this! There's a shellfish like a squid." Under the water was, indeed, a small squid-like creature in a curled shell. Vivi hopped down from Karoo's back, as Luffy picked it up. "A squid shellfish!" He held it up for her to see.

"It looks a lot like the ammonite."

"It's a squid shellfish, right?" They were silenced by huge quakes rumbling nearby.

-

Meanwhile, Sanji strolled along the path, determined to best that arrogant swordsman. "I feel like someone's been following me for a while," He remarked, "Well, it must be my imagination." He continued his walk, completely oblivious to a giant, drooling tyrannosaurus rex right behind him. When a drop landed in his blond hair, he wiped it away with distaste, and looked behind his back. The undeterred cook jumped away when it tried to bite down on him. "How dare you mess with me!" He leaped up for an attack of his own. "Collier Shoot!" With one kick to the jaw, the huge dinosaur was down for the count.

-

"Hm..." Elsewhere, Zoro was staring down a triceratops. "What the hell is this? Is it edible?"

-

"Let me see..." Nami continued searching through the books. "Which one was it? I think I read it recently, but it slipped my mind." She flipped through another.

-

"Oh?" Luffy stopped running, along with Vivi and Karoo. "Why is there a Sea King on the land?" What they were looking at was a brachiosaurus.

"A dinosaur!" Vivi exclaimed.

"A dinosaur?!" Luffy beamed.

"Then, this is an ancient island!"

"Huh?"

"The land here is stuck in the time of the dinosaurs!"

"Hmm?"

"Since there were no exchanges among islands in the Grand Line due to the difficulties with sea travel, each one established its unique culture. There are islands that have an extremely sophisticated culture, and there're some others that remain in the same form without progressing for several thousands, or tens of thousands of years. The random climate in the Grand Line makes it possible. That's why this island exists in the dinosaur time."

"Amazing!" Luffy launched himself up with his rubber arms to latch onto its neck.

"Luffy!" She saw him cling on like a spider on a wall. "Don't jump on it!"

-

When the two watched the jungle after his less-than-true recollection was finished, Nami came out of the cabin, book in hands. "Usopp! Venus!"

"What? What's the matter?" Usopp asked.

"Did you find the right book?" Venus added.

"Yeah," She nodded.

-

Meanwhile, the now angry t-rex regained its footing, advancing on the indifferent Sanji. "Humph! What a rude guy." He leaped away from another attempted jaw-snapping, and lunged down with a ground-breaking heel slam to its snout.

-

Elsewhere, Zoro took notice of the three horns on his target. "So we both use the Three Sword Style," He observed; he readied himself, and charged in with sword slashing. He calmly reset them all in their sheathes, before the triceratops collapsed behind him.

-

"This is bad," Nami remarked after looking through the book, "On this island..."

"On this island..." Usopp repeated, and Nami explained the book's contents.

"Dinosaurs?" Venus asked meekly, before brightening up. "Hell yeah! I gotta see that!"

"No!" When she was set to jump on the railing, Usopp urgently grabbed her by her short cape. "You can't!"

"Don't be stupid!" Nami scolded, after he pulled her.

"Come on!" She pouted. "Have a little f-!" She cut herself off at what was coming up behind them.

On cue, after some earth-shaking rumbles, and a huge shadow loomed over them, the sniper and navigator turned shakily, and the three screamed in fear.

-

"What?" Sanji looked up after dominating over his adversary. "It felt like Nami-san and Venus-chan just called me."

[belabellissima]

OKAY I"M HOMEEEE IM SO READY TO READ THIS

🌌 I had this whole spiel planned about how I was a mastermind who assigned myself as your secret santa as part of an elaborate scheme to seduce you into being my friend, but actually I think between us you might be the mastermind??? 

💭 WHAT IF I TOLD YOU NONE OF IT WAS ACCIDENTAL????? We really were both playing 4D chess with each other to make friends 😂

ngl though actually going back and rereading all the secret santa messages I can totally tell its you now... like it sounds like your online voice and im kinda like How did I not pick up on this?????? Also not me throwing hints that I had an anonymous fic in one of my responses to you (I was literally like.... don't be suspicious.... don't be suspicious... you can say you've written a modern fic but don't elaborate....)

🌌 And while she might have been foolish enough to stray closer to the Wall, even she understood there was no chance of besting a wolf in the dark. Or, gods-forbid, one of the faeries that lived in the Northern parts of their land.

💭 The double meaning here though!!!! Northern could be both spring which is just… north, Or it could be the ✨ Night Court!!!!! ✨

🌌 Mesmerizing—the lethal, gentle beauty of the snow. She should hate it, but maybe that would feel too close to hating herself.

💭 The quick 180 this hit me with emotionally, going from beautiful imagery to sobbing 😭🥺

🌌 Her fingers trembled. So much food—such salvation.

💭 Me: it’s a serious scene and a tense moment, don’t laugh

Also me:

🌌 He was enormous. The village hunters had said as much about the wolves that prowled in the northern territory, had spoken of animals large as ponies with an unrivaled stealth. She’d assumed their stories were embellished. No animal that massive could be so quiet.

💭 Andras my love I adore you but also this is what I always imagine:

🌌 Yes, that instinctual voice agreed. The fae are dangerous. The fae are merciless. End him now and save your village from slaughter.

A prickling sensation along her back struck Feyre with a new fear—that he wasn’t alone. But she couldn’t hazard a glance over her shoulder to be sure, not without taking her eyes off the wolf.

💭 IS RHYS THERE COAXING HER???????? IM!!!!!!!!!

🌌 She stared at him until that coat of charcoal and obsidian and ivory ceased rising and falling.

💭 ☹️😭 rip andras you were a real one

🌌 And though nothing emerged from the trees on the other side of the clearing, she swore something in the vacant space stared back. Curious. Patient.

💭 Oh yeah Rhys is sooo there and already in love (unless….👀)

🌌 Fine. She slid her eyes past them dismissively, searching the crowd for unfamiliar faces, someone who might be inclined to buy a wolf hide. Like the tall, raven-haired man sitting on the lip of the broken square fountain, without any cart or stall, but looking like he was holding court nonetheless.

💭 HES HERE😍

🌌 He was handsome, ungodly so, and smiling to himself like he knew it.

💭 Of course he does girl!!!! He can hear you think it too! Also having Rhys be THE mercenary!!!!!! Galaxy brain take right there!!🤯

🌌 No,” Feyre said. “I’m just curious. I’ve never seen you here before.”

I would have noticed you, she thought.

💭 Rhys has to be so smug right now

🌌 As he contemplated her response, his gaze snagged on her arm and his smile faltered. “Are you a painter?”

💭Oh the way this made me feel like Amarantha sent him to find who killed the wolf and he was not expecting it to be his painter🥲

🌌 “I hail from Illyria,” he said. At her blank look, he added, “A tribe of people nestled in the steppes of a far-away mountain range.”

On the continent, she filled in.

💭 I love a good misdirect through omission it’s just so satisfying

🌌 Things look promising from where I’m sitting.” Was he… flirting with her?

💭 Leave it to Rhys to start flirting immediately😂 love that for him

🌌 Impressive kill, little huntress. You must be a good shot.”

“If I weren’t, I’d be dead.”

💭 AAAAYYYYYEEE THERES A LINE I KNOW!!!

🌌 She let him count, her mind far away while she plotted their different options of escape, including the scenarios where she had to drag her sisters kicking and screaming from their beds. It was preferable to a vengeful faerie doing the same.

💭 Oh the dramatic irony!!

🌌More of that wicked amusement spread over Rhys’s face. “Friend of yours?”

💭Isaac/Rhys interactions are always so fun!!!! Rhys trying trying so hard to be chill and not reveal jealousy, Isaac like “who tf are you???” Ahhhh 💯

Also Isaac saying he’s getting married only to be the one trying to stop Feyre meeting new people…. Side eye my guy

Also I’m sobbing bc this was where I fell asleep still reading😭 phone still in hand when I woke up, so close to the end, wondering why I couldn’t remember how it ended before I realized 🤦🏼‍♀️

🌌 And as she walked, she found herself thinking about Rhys, unflinching at the bite of winter. And how, for that short time she’d been drenched in the heat of his gaze, his eyes the first vibrant color she’d seen since winter had overtaken the village, she’d forgotten what it was to be cold.

💭🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

OKAY I FINISHED AND I LOVED IT HOLY SHIT IT WAS BEAUTIFUL RHYS WAS AMAZING FEYRE WAS HEARTBREAKING AND BRAVE AND I LOVE THEM BOTH AND YOU!!!!!!!!! THIS GIFT IS SO PERFECT 💝💝💝💝💝💝

We Bleed the Same - An ACOTAR retelling

The forest was a labyrinth of snow and ice... The beginning to a story we know, unfolded a little bit differently.

HO, HO, HOHMYGOD, plot twists upon plot twists! This is dedicated to my @acotargiftexchange giftee turned anon I've been secretly in love with for... years??? For @belabellissima I really hope you enjoy this, and I'm hoping my mastermind plan to seduce you worked now that we've both unveiled our secret identities

Read on AO3

-

The forest was a labyrinth of snow and ice.

Feyre had been monitoring the parameters of the thicket for the better part of an hour, but with the angle of the sun lowering past the horizon and the gusting wind blowing the tracks of any potential quarry, her vantage point in the crook of a tree branch had turned useless. Not that there was much quarry to begin with. For years, the hunters have been saying that the animals were pulling back, going deeper into the woods than most humans were willing to pursue. Even today, Feyre had ventured further than she usually risked.

She’d woken that morning to the sounds of her sisters’ growling stomachs, and she couldn’t bear meeting the hollow stare in Elain’s once bright eyes to tell her that they would spend another day without eating. Desperation had dragged her closer to the Wall than any human should dare—not just because of the faeries who lurked on the other side of the invisible barrier, but because she was now edging into wolf territory. The town hunters had warned her that they were on the prowl again in numbers. But Feyre reasoned that if the wolves hung near, it surely meant there was nearby prey to keep them fed. Unless wolf prey was the very thing she was becoming, delivering herself at their feet as she eased off the tree and stretched her stiff limbs with a restrained groan.

The icy snow crunched under her fraying boots. What little snowfall had melted already seeped through the worn leather, dampening her thin socks, but like many things, Feyre had long become numb to the cold. She wiped her ungloved fingers over her eyes, brushing away the flakes clinging to her lashes. In the woods, there wasn’t time to be cold or hungry. Even as exhaustion gnawed at her, she shoved it away, focusing on her surroundings, on the task ahead. That was all she could do, all she’d been able to do for years: focus on surviving the week, the day, the hour ahead.

Only a few hours of daylight remained. Given how deep Feyre had ventured, if she didn’t leave soon, she would have to navigate her way home in the dark. And while she might have been foolish enough to stray closer to the Wall, even she understood there was no chance of besting a wolf in the dark. Or, gods-forbid, one of the faeries that lived in the Northern parts of their land.

Whispers were becoming commonplace on market days—tales of strange folk spotted in the area, tall and eerie and deadly. Traveling peddlers had begun sharing accounts of distant border towns, left in splinters and cindered bones. In the eight years Feyre’s family had lived in the village, they’d never witnessed such an attack. But if a faerie did decide to soothe its immortal boredom by playing with one of the townsfolk, it would need to cross through these very woods to fulfill that whim, and Feyre would be the first to cross its path. Even so, she couldn’t go home. Not yet.

After a few minutes of careful searching, Feyre crouched in a cluster of snow-heavy brambles. Through the thorns, she had a half-decent view of a clearing and the small brook flowing through it. A few holes in the ice suggested it was still frequently used. Hopefully, something would come by. Hopefully.

Her family wouldn’t last another week without food. She wore that knowledge in the weight of the quiver looped over her back. Each of the arrows was a reminder that if she failed, if she missed or came home empty-handed, then Nesta or Elain or their injured father might not survive the winter. And she would break the promise she made to her mother all those years ago.

Feyre sighed through her nose and eased into a more comfortable position, calming her breathing as she strained to listen to the forest over the wind. The snow fell and fell, dancing and curling like sparkling spindrifts, the white fresh and clean against the brown and gray of the world. Once, it had been second nature to savor the contrast of new grass against the dark, tilled soil; once, she’d dreamed and breathed and thought in color and light and shape.

Feyre couldn’t remember the last time she’d done it—bothered to notice anything lovely or interesting. Stolen hours in a decrepit barn with Isaac Hale didn’t count; those times were hungry and empty and sometimes cruel, but never lovely. She went into the barn to forget, to lose herself for a few hours in the feeling of another living, breathing being. To remind herself that something existed beyond the perpetual numb.

But it never mattered how long she stayed in that barn. The cold always seeped back, and Feyre was no longer convinced it wasn’t a part of her. How else could she be crouched in the center of the lethal winter and find herself struck by its beauty? The snow fell lazily now, in big, fat clumps that gathered along every nook and bump of the trees. Mesmerizing—the lethal, gentle beauty of the snow. She should hate it, but maybe that would feel too close to hating herself.

The howling wind eased into a soft sigh. Soon, she’d have to return to the muddy, frozen roads of the village, to the cramped heat of the decrepit cottage where her sisters waited for their next meal. Some small, fragmented part of her recoiled at the thought of returning.

Then, a pair of bushes rustled across the clearing.

Drawing her bow was a matter of instinct. Feyre peered through the thorns, and her breath caught. Less than thirty paces away stood a small doe, not yet too scrawny from winter but desperate enough to wrench bark from a tree in the clearing. A deer like that could feed her family for a week or more. Feyre’s mouth watered.

Quiet as the wind hissing through dead leaves, she took aim. The doe continued tearing off strips of bark, chewing slowly, utterly unaware that her death waited yards away.

Feyre was already contemplating how she could dry half the meat, and they could immediately eat the rest���stews, pies … the skin could be sold or perhaps turned into clothing for one of them. Feyre needed new boots, but Elain needed a new cloak, and Nesta was prone to crave anything someone else possessed.

Her fingers trembled. So much food—such salvation. She took a steadying breath, double-checking her aim.

But there was a pair of golden eyes shining from the adjacent brush.

Feyre stilled.

The forest was silent. She hadn’t realized how unsettling the quiet had grown until the wind died, and the snow paused, and even the trees seemed to hold their breath, a riveted audience as the wolf inched closer from the brush.

He was enormous. The village hunters had said as much about the wolves that prowled in the northern territory, had spoken of animals large as ponies with an unrivaled stealth. She’d assumed their stories were embellished. No animal that massive could be so quiet.

Now, she witnessed it stalk forward, unheard, unspotted by the doe. His gaze was set on her, a sentience behind those glowing eyes that caused her mouth to dry. Her lips began shaping a wordless prayer to a nameless god, begging mercy from whatever divine power might be watching this clearing.

The voice that whispered to her was innate. He looked like a wolf, moved like a wolf. Yet she knew no animal of the mortal realm could possess such stillness, such intelligence. But a faerie could. Was it paranoia, her fears becoming unbridled and taking hold? Or was that voice in her mind the work of some primal, long-forgotten instinct remaining from the days when her people were kept as slaves?

Fae, the voice whispered. Not a wolf, a faerie.

She found herself reaching over her shoulder for her heaviest and longest arrow. An arrow carved from mountain ash, armed with an iron head. She’d purchased it from a traveling peddler during a summer when she’d had enough spare copper for extra luxuries. If legend were true, the ash wood could deal a mortal wound to the otherwise invulnerable fae.

The only proof humans had of the ash’s effectiveness was its sheer rarity. The High Fae had supposedly burned all the trees long ago. So few remained, most of them small and sickly and hidden by the nobility within high-walled groves.

For three years, the ash arrow had sat unused in her quiver while Feyre deliberated whether the overpriced wood had been a waste of money. Now she drew it, praying that the rumors were true, that she wasn’t staking her life on fiction.

Faerie or not, there would be no outrunning him. She could let him kill the doe and sneak away while he was distracted, but then she would be returning to her family empty-handed. This was winter, where ruthlessness was all she could afford.

And if it was indeed a faerie’s heart pounding under that fur, then good riddance. Good riddance, after all their kind had done to humans. If she let him live, then she risked him creeping into the village to butcher and maim and torment.

She would be glad to end him.

Yes, that instinctual voice agreed. The fae are dangerous. The fae are merciless. End him now and save your village from slaughter.

A prickling sensation along her back struck Feyre with a new fear—that he wasn’t alone. But she couldn’t hazard a glance over her shoulder to be sure, not without taking her eyes off the wolf. Feyre gripped her bow and drew the string back, training the arrow on his powerful, silver body. She had only one ash arrow, which meant she couldn’t afford to miss.

The wolf sank onto his haunches, preparing to strike. There was no time to second guess. He shot from the brush in a flash of gray and white and black, yellow fangs gleaming as they wrapped around the doe’s neck.

Feyre fired the ash arrow.

She swore the ground shuddered as the arrow found its mark in his side. He barked in pain, releasing the doe as his blood sprayed onto the snow—so ruby bright, not any different than her own. He whirled towards her, those yellow eyes wide, hackles raised. His growl reverberated in the empty pit of her stomach as she surged to her feet, snow crunching beneath her, another arrow drawn.

The wolf merely stared, his maw stained with blood, the ash arrow protruding so vulgarly from his side. The snow began falling again, and he looked at her with the sort of awareness that made her fire a second arrow. Just in case—just in case that intelligence was of the immortal, wicked sort.

He didn’t try to dodge the arrow as it went clean through his wide yellow eye.

Only once he collapsed to the ground, legs twitching, did Feyre notch another arrow and turn towards the thicket at her back. Her eyes anchored on the point of the arrowhead as she swept her aim blindly between the trees for any sign of that looming presence she’d sensed.

There was only slow-drifting snow, skeletal trees, and the soft whine of the dying wolf.

Alone, that residual intuition told her. Safe.

Feyre eased the arrow off the bow before turning to face the carnage. Her hands shook at the sight of the blood gushing from the wounds she’d given him, staining the snow crimson. He pawed at the ground, his breathing already slowing. The snow swirled around them, merciless as the arrow through his eye, almost to the goose fletching. She stared at him until that coat of charcoal and obsidian and ivory ceased rising and falling.

A wolf, she told herself. Only a wolf, despite his size.

Still, she couldn’t shake the creeping sensation of being watched as she crouched beside both animals. If nothing else, it encouraged her to work quickly. She couldn’t carry both animals back to the village—even the doe alone would be a struggle. But it was a shame to leave the wolf. His pelt would fetch decent coin or at least make for a nice cloak to fight off the winter chill.

Though it wasted precious minutes—minutes during which any predator could smell the fresh blood, if there wasn’t already one circling—Feyre skinned him and cleaned her arrow as best she could.

When she was finished, she wrapped the bloody side of the pelt around the doe’s death wound before hoisting the deer across her shoulders. Grunting against the weight, Feyre grasped the legs of the deer and spared a final glance over her shoulder, past the steaming carcass of the wolf to the forest beyond. Wind whistled against the hollow branches, obscuring any sound of nearby creatures.

And though nothing emerged from the trees on the other side of the clearing, she swore something in the vacant space stared back. Curious. Patient.

Feyre swallowed before sparing one last glance at the bloodied snow. Maybe she was unsettled by the gore, by how little remorse she felt for the dead thing. Grief was too heavy to hold with a doe around her shoulders and several miles separating Feyre from her cottage. Maybe she told herself something was watching so it could bear that burden in her place.

And maybe a creature so capable of mourning would be equally capable of forgiveness, so that when Death inevitably arrived on her doorstep—be it days or months or years—maybe the eyes that fell at her back would mourn for her, too.

-

The trampled snow coating the road into the village was speckled with brown and black mud from passing carts and horses. Elain and Nesta did their best to dodge the particularly disgusting parts as the three of them trekked their way along it.

Feyre was aware that her sisters had only decided to accompany her because she’d be selling the hides today. It was market day, which meant that the meager square in the center of town would be full of whatever vendors had braved the brisk morning. The snow had cleared some in the night, leaving Feyre hopeful that traveling peddlers had gambled the journey. She found they usually offered her a better price than the local merchants.

From a block away, the scent of hot food wafted towards them—spices that tugged on the edge of her memory, beckoning. Elain let out a low moan behind her, and Feyre’s mouth watered. Spices, salts, and sugars were rare commodities for most of the villagers. It had been a long while since Feyre and her sisters had eaten anything besides bread and game meat.

She fought the temptation to stare too long at the food vendors as they strode into the busy market square. Spring was still a long way off, and the forest had been particularly unforgiving this year. They needed to be smart with any excess coin, even if the scent of fresh tarts drifted towards her from the doors of the passing bakery. They were luxuries of a time before.

“I’ll meet you here in an hour,” Feyre said to her sisters, not giving them a chance to respond before she slipped away into the crowd.

Feyre took her time to assess her options. There were her usual buyers: the weathered cobbler and the sharp-eyed clothier who came to the market from a nearby town. She could feel the eyes of the cobbler and clothier on her, sense their feigned disinterest as they took in the satchel she bore.

Fine. She slid her eyes past them dismissively, searching the crowd for unfamiliar faces, someone who might be inclined to buy a wolf hide. Like the tall, raven-haired man sitting on the lip of the broken square fountain, without any cart or stall, but looking like he was holding court nonetheless.

It was hard to place him at first. He was handsome, ungodly so, and smiling to himself like he knew it. She might have pinned him as a lord’s son for the swaggering arrogance that radiated from him, but the clothes were off. He bore well-made leathers and a fur cloak. Not the finery of a lord, but from his full cheeks and glowing skin, he didn’t strike her as someone scraping for his next meal, either. He turned, and the pommel of the sword strapped across his back answered her question. A mercenary.

It wasn’t his sword that stilled her approach, though its silver scabbard was polished with enough care that it reflected light even with the overcast sky. It was his eyes, turning to meet hers. Such an interesting color—not quite blue, but a deeper shade, almost violet, and like his sword they were brighter than seemed possible in the bleak winter. They twinkled with amusement as he beheld her.

Feyre’s mood immediately soured. She didn’t have the patience for condescension today. She might have turned around, but he’d already seen her, and the coin purse strapped to his weapons belt looked heavy enough that she decided to stay. Mercenaries were well-paid in this territory.

“Well met,” he said, nodding his head in a gesture of greeting as equally foreign as the lilt to his voice.

She pegged him as anywhere between twenty-five to thirty years of age. His sensual, swaggering grace spoke of youth. But there was a hardened edge to him, one that said he’d been in this trade long enough to expertly wield the sword at his back, and to adequately punish anyone who made an inconvenience of themselves.

Feyre didn’t want to linger and find herself on the opposite end of that sword, especially before knowing if he was interested in buying from her. She sucked in a breath to offer her pitch and found herself blurting, “Where do you hail from?”

His brows raised. She suppressed an exhale of relief that it was intrigue sparking in his eyes, and not disapproval for wasting his time. “That depends.” Feyre couldn’t draw her attention away from his violet stare, even as it flitted over her shoulder, making a quick assessment of the passing villagers trying their best not to gawk. “Will my answer impact your willingness to do business with me?”

She supposed that meant others in the village had turned him away already. A surprise, given his exceptional beauty, but she supposed that amounted to little in the face of prejudice. Feyre knew well enough that a person’s circumstances didn’t define them, and that the judgment cast by the village was harsh on its best days. With the added rumors of neighboring villages being ransacked, she could imagine the wariness they might pay a stranger with a sword. Even a beautiful one.

“No,” Feyre said. “I’m just curious. I’ve never seen you here before.”

I would have noticed you, she thought.

In part because he was massive, even sitting down. A mark of the trade, she supposed. No one would hire a mercenary who looked like her—gangly from hunger and drowning in her layers. Unlike her withering figure, he was broad and well-muscled. Strong. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt that way.

As he contemplated her response, his gaze snagged on her arm and his smile faltered. “Are you a painter?”

The question caught her so off guard that she bristled, her weight shifting onto her back foot in case she needed to cut and run. The mercenary laughed, softly, and nodded at the fleck of paint on the sleeve of her tunic. Paint that had to have been there from three summers ago, damning evidence that this tunic was old and rarely washed.

She swallowed, apprehensive at his observation. Why it was relevant to someone like him. “I like to paint,” she said, because she wouldn’t go as far to call herself a painter. Her skills were rudimentary, at best. “Does it matter?”

An odd look crossed his face, as though he was retreating to some distant memory. Then he offered another of those arrogant smiles and mimicked, “No, I’m just curious.”

Fair enough. One personal question in exchange for another.

“I hail from Illyria,” he said. At her blank look, he added, “A tribe of people nestled in the steppes of a far-away mountain range.”

On the continent, she filled in. There was nothing like that here, at least not on this side of the Wall. When the land was divided all those centuries ago, the faeries had allocated a slim strip of plains and woodlands to the humans. Anything so majestic as a mountain range was left to the fae above the Wall, but at least these lands were hospitable without magic.

“No wonder the winter doesn’t phase you,” she said, gesturing to his cheeks and nose, which lacked the rosy flush that was surely painted on her own. “This weather must feel mild in comparison.”

“It’s been many years since I’ve returned to the Illyrian Mountains,” he said. He kept his voice light, but Feyre sensed they were treading towards unwelcome territory. “And the conditions in these lands have been harsh, but they may be letting up soon.”

Feyre frowned, glancing toward the sky. “You think so?”

There were at least two months remaining before winter yielded to spring. But perhaps wherever he came from, the weather changed sooner.

When she glanced back at the mercenary, he was staring at her, a smile playing on his full lips. “Things look promising from where I’m sitting.” Was he… flirting with her? Feyre must have spent too long debating it, because the mercenary drew her out of the thought by nodding at her satchel. “What business does a pretty thing like you have with a mercenary like me?”

It was absurd to feel flattered by his words. Feyre couldn’t remember the last time someone had bothered to pay her that sort of compliment. Certainly not Issac, who was inclined not to speak a word during those moments she found herself undressed beneath him. That was perfectly fine with Feyre. She preferred silence over a lie.

She fought to hide her scowl, but from his laugh, she thought it was unsuccessful. Pushing aside her rising ire, she said, “I have a wolf pelt and a doe hide for sale. I thought you might be interested in purchasing them.”

He ran those remarkable eyes down her again. Feyre coaxed herself to remain steady, to lift her chin as he crooned, “Does that make you a huntress or a thief?”

It was difficult to determine which would be more impressive to him. Feyre held his stare as she answered, “I hunted them myself. I swear it.”

He would not understand what it meant to her, that vow. After their world had been cleaved by the fae, humans had deserted their religions and holidays. In Faerie, they relied on magic to bind a person to their word, but they had no such tools here, no Cauldron or Mother or any other deities to swear upon. Here, a person was only as good as their word. To Feyre, and to many of the villagers, a vow was sacred. But if he fashioned her a thief, he may not consider her word as bond.

“A huntress then,” he purred. His attention fixed on her satchel. “Let me see.”

Feyre pulled out the carefully folded hides. “I was only after the doe, to feed my family. But the wolf got to her first. And I made sure I was the one who left the clearing alive.”

The mercenary gave a low whistle as he examined the hides with an expert eye, running his hands over and under. She expected to be met with incredulity, but she marked awe in his voice as he praised, “Impressive kill, little huntress. You must be a good shot.”

“If I weren’t, I’d be dead.”

That truth sobered him. Sobered them both. He assessed her for a long moment, then lifted his gaze over her shoulder, where Nesta and Elain were doing their best to eavesdrop without being spotted.

He pursed his lips. “I’ll take them,” he said, before naming a price that would have sent her staggering if she didn’t keep a tight grip on her composure. He was grossly overpaying.

Feyre leveled her shoulders. “I don’t need your pity.”

“No,” he agreed, eyes darkening. “But you need to stay out of those woods, and I know you won’t keep out of them if your family is starving.” The question must have been plain on her face. He pitched his voice lower. “I think you know that this wasn’t any ordinary wolf. It won’t take long for its kind to come sniffing, and you may end up leading them right to those sisters of yours.”

She refused to glance over her shoulder and offer merit to the fear he was trying to churn in her gut. He wanted her to look at her sisters and see their slight figures, so fragile and defenseless against a creature like the one she’d encountered yesterday morning. Her stomach roiled despite her efforts. “Are you trying to scare me so that I hand the coin right back to hire your protection?”

The mercenary chuckled, but it lacked any warmth. “My services have already been bought by a local lord. I’m just trying to warn you, from one hunter to another. You go back into those woods, and you’ll be courting your death.”

She wasn’t brave enough to ask if he was speaking from experience, if he’d once been hunted by the fae after killing their kin. If she was smart, she’d heed his words and use his coin to get her family on a boat headed south, somewhere far away from the Wall. But would they believe her, would they be willing to go?

“Think on it,” he said, as if she wasn’t already. She held perfectly still as he reached into his heavy cloak to withdraw his coin pouch. She let him count, her mind far away while she plotted their different options of escape, including the scenarios where she had to drag her sisters kicking and screaming from their beds. It was preferable to a vengeful faerie doing the same.

Maybe it was for the better. The land left for the humans in this realm had always been an afterthought, and the governing queens had never paid much attention to this small colony of villages. She’d heard things were better on the continent, the land warmer and more fertile. Elain could garden, and Feyre could learn to make paints from the petals. It was a nice thought, a comfort against the more dangerous one—if she didn’t convince her sisters to leave, a faerie might come seeking revenge for the one she felled.

Feyre’s awareness was jolted back into the cold market square by the press of metal against her palm. She blinked, and violet eyes filled her vision, creased in feint amusement.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

The weight of the coins felt heavy. She knew if she glanced at her sisters, she’d find them drawing closer, sensing the transaction was over. What would he do with her name if she gave it to him? She couldn’t imagine anything good could come of it.

“Tell me yours first,” She countered.

That errant smile grew. And she understood why he had chosen to become a mercenary. Feyre only hunted in the woods out of necessity. If tomorrow she discovered she would never need to raise her bow against another breathing creature, she would feel relieved. But from the way his eyes sparked, fascinated at this new game afoot, she knew that he was the kind of man who hunted for thrill. That this information, basic and inconsequential as it may be to the rest of the world, had become his new quarry.

He raised a hand, offering it into the space between them.

“Rhys,” he said.

Wind played at his raven hair, swiping pieces across his forehead. Feyre stared at his outstretched hand. Broad and flecked with the odd scar, his hands were more elegant than she’d expect of a mercenary. They wouldn’t have looked out of place against the ivory keys of a pianoforte or gripping fine cutlery at a Lord’s dining table. Maybe that was the danger of him—the charming smile and the clever eyes. Perhaps his foes saw a pretty face and underestimated what he could do with that sword. Maybe the poor mercenary was one littered with scars, whereas Rhys walked away from his battles unscathed.

“No family name?” she pressed.

“They’re not needed in my trade.” Rhys leaned forward, flexing his fingers in invitation. “And you, little huntress? What name might I inquire after to ensure you’re still alive in a week’s time?”

Rhys. She had no way of verifying if that was his true name. Maybe he changed it every place he went, never assuming the same identity, never leaving a trail. If a faerie found him one day and demanded to know where that wolf pelt had come from, what would stop Rhys from revealing her name? Especially if it could spare his own life.

He wouldn’t ask if he didn’t think it would be useful to him one day. She wouldn’t delude herself by buying into his purred words and bedroom eyes. Feyre took a step back, steadying herself.

“There’s only one huntress in this village,” she said. “They’ll know who you mean.”

The mercenary lowered his hand, slipping it casually into his pocket. “I told you mine.” Velvet as the melted chocolate being sold by the cup two stalls away, Rhys leaned closer and whispered, “That makes our debt uneven, love. I may seek payment for it one day.”

A shiver crept down her spine, though she couldn’t determine if it was from the threat of the words or the sultry promise in his voice. Feyre curled her hand around the strap of her satchel, fingers tightening over the worn leather like she didn’t trust he wouldn’t try to snatch it from her. “I have to go,” she said, her tongue feeling thick. From the cold, she reasoned.

He waved a hand over her shoulder, smirking at whatever caught his eye. “I wish you luck, then.”

Feyre turned, expecting to find that Nesta finally summoned the courage to yank her away. But the mercenary’s lazy smile wasn’t directed towards Nesta and Elain, ducked conspicuously behind the clothier’s wagon. It was aimed across the square. Where, leaning against a building, arms crossed over his chest, Isaac Hale watched their interaction through raised brows.

More of that wicked amusement spread over Rhys’s face. “Friend of yours?”

Friend was both an understatement and too generous of a word. They’d vaguely known each other since Feyre’s family had moved to the village, and one afternoon they wound up walking down the main road together. Their conversation had been inane and perhaps a bit awkward, but a week later, she’d pulled him into a decrepit barn. He’d been her first and only lover in the two years since.

Their trysts were erratic and haphazard; sometimes they’d meet every night for a week, others they’d go a month without seeing each other. If recollection served, it had been almost six weeks since that last frantic shedding of clothes and shared breaths. He has grown lean since the last time she saw him, his brown hair a bit shaggier.

There was no love between them. There never had been. But the last time she’d seen him, Isaac told her he’d soon be married. A piece of her heart had sunk at the news, and she’d avoided seeing him since. Now, she weighed the apprehension in her chest against the reprieve of company, that bit of selfishness that made their bleak and wretched lives more bearable.

Feyre blew out a breath, watching Issac incline his head in a familiar gesture and amble off down the street—out of town and to the ancient barn, where he would be waiting if she decided to join him.

“Yeah,” Feyre said. “A friend.”

If he believed her answer, he didn’t press. She didn’t imagine her pathetic love life would be of much interest to someone like him. There was no room for wives and children in his lifestyle. Perhaps the occasional love affair, though he likely didn’t stay in the same place for very long. Maybe that was why there was understanding in the way he nodded. Like he, too, needed the occasional warm body to remind himself that there was life outside of the daily horrors.

“Just try to stay out of trouble.” His eyes gleamed in a way that suggested staying out of trouble meant staying far, far away from him.

She didn’t get a chance to respond before a slender hand clamped onto Feyre’s forearm, dragging her away. Elain waited beside the clothier’s wagon, shivering despite her cloak as she watched Nesta pull Feyre away from the mercenary.

“Mercenaries are dangerous,” Nesta hissed, fingers digging into Feyre’s arm. Even Elain’s face had gone pale and tight. “Don’t go near them again.”

“He was fine,” Feyre said, yanking herself free. “Generous, even.”

“They’re brutes, and will take any copper they can get, even if it’s by force.”

The silver coins in her pocket said otherwise. Feyre glanced at Rhys, still sitting on the fountain. He hadn’t taken his eyes off her. She glanced away, feeling her cheeks warm, knowing she’d made it obvious they were talking about him.

She shoved a hand in her pocket, suddenly desperate to escape this market and those piercing violet eyes. She pushed a twenty-mark copper towards Elain, not bothering to look at either of them as she said, “I’ll see you at home.”

They didn’t protest. Feyre thought it was miraculous how swiftly a mercenary’s business became acceptable if it meant a new pair of boots, but she held back the sharp words on her tongue. Her sisters wandered off, already whispering about what they should buy.

Like an arrow trained at her back, she could feel the mercenary’s gaze tracking her as she wove through the market stalls, not even bothering with subtlety in those rare moments when she gathered the courage to glance over her shoulder. He merely grinned at her, shameless.

She intentionally left down the same street as Isaac, just so Rhys might assume she was on her way to meet the farmboy. And think twice about following her. When she reached the ancient barn, she paused. Isaac would be waiting to undress her on the other side of the splintered and peeling wood. She could already feel the hot breath on her spine, the hay straws biting into her palm, her knees. Maybe it was better to see him in case Rhys didn’t think twice about following her. And maybe because she could feel a pit in her chest yawning open, and she thought Isaac’s strong, work-roughened hands might be able to hold it closed for just a little longer.

Just enough to feel warm again, for an afternoon. Before she returned to the cottage and remembered that she killed a faerie yesterday. And might very well have put a price on her head—on her family’s head—because of it.

He’s married, a small, rational voice reminded her. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Besides, the last thing she wanted was to get him killed.

Feyre walked past the barn. She ought to feel proud of her dignity, but it didn’t soothe the pit in her chest, a tempest of ice and darkness that slowly seeped out with every step along the frozen path back to the cottage. No amount of stuffing her fingers into her armpits could banish the cold. It was here, it was her.

She sighed, watching the breath expel in a cloud of frosty air. There had always been an undercurrent of darkness that drew her and Isaac to each other, but now she wondered if she was too frozen, too hollow, even for him.

And as she walked, she found herself thinking about Rhys, unflinching at the bite of winter. And how, for that short time she’d been drenched in the heat of his gaze, his eyes the first vibrant color she’d seen since winter had overtaken the village, she’d forgotten what it was to be cold.

-

Hours later, after another dinner of venison, Feyre’s family gathered around the fire for the quiet hour before bed. She watched the flames flicker in the fireplace, absently bathing in the precious heat before she and her sisters would retreat into the bedroom, where they’d huddle together for warmth beneath threadbare blankets.

Nesta and Elain whispered and laughed together about some encounter they’d had with a handsome apprentice in the marketplace. There was the odd lull in laughter, in which Nesta would slide her eyes to Feyre as if daring her to make some comment about Tomas Mandray, a woodcutter’s second son who would allegedly be proposing to her any day now. They’d fought about it the day prior, but it felt like centuries ago.

All evening, she’d been trying to summon the courage to admit to her family where that wolf’s pelt had truly come from. What it had come from. She wasn’t certain how they would react or if they would even take the warning of the mercenary seriously. Father might. He’d once traded one of his wood carvings for the wards etched around their cottage’s threshold, supposedly meant to protect their home against faerie harm. It was one of the few things he’d bothered to do for them. If the fae scared him enough that he’d barter with a charlatan for those useless engravings, maybe the threat would be enough to rattle him into action again.

Except he was dozing in his chair, his cane laid across his gnarled knee. And she suspected she would get nowhere with her sisters without his aid. He had no sway with Nesta, but Elain would listen to him. And wherever Elain went, Nesta would follow.

Tomorrow, then. She would speak privately with her father and worry about convincing her sisters later.

Tomorrow was a nice idea.

But then a roar cleaved through the still night. The cottage door burst into splinters. And her sisters screamed as snow flooded into the room, flurrying around the enormous, growling shape that appeared in the doorway.

[dreamrecorder]

The words we keep

Soulmate au - first words tattoed on the wrist

Includes: Venti | Diluc | Kaeya | Albedo | Zhongli | Xiao | Childe

Mentions of suicide in Zhongli; angst and brief violence for Childe

Oh you're here- I mean! I'm sorry I didn't mean to take your spot!

The bard had guessed that he'd meet his soulmate either in Angel's Share, in Windrise, or at the hands of his statue in Mondstadt. But the latter two were more unlikely. But he doesn't mind sharing his space with you really. In fact, Venti would be more than willing to let you in his space. But lo and behold! He didn't think he'd meet you at the hands of his statue!

Nights prior, you always heard a voice singing songs of various emotions. The voice eventually led you to Barbatos's statue. When you looked up, you saw the bard in green. His voice was very calming and pleasant to hear, so you always visited the statue at night. Until recently, your curiosity grew. Why does the bard always stay there at night?

Seeing your relaxed form on his statue, hair swaying in the wind. Venti just went soft. "Quite the lovely view isn't it?" 

He didn't mean to surprise but you still did become surprised. He found it endearing. "Oh you're here- I mean! I'm sorry I didn't mean to take your spot!"

Ah- you scared them. Please don't do that.

Now who did he scare and what did he do to warrant his soulmate's first words to him? Diluc has always been aware that he can be intimidating and usually he doesn't mind that. But for you- he does give half a mind.

There was a new winemaker that Connor had hired and Diluc has yet to meet them. Connor had even commented that their methods were a bit unusual. But if it's enough to get the former's approval, then Diluc will see to this newcomer.

Diluc met you during the night, just at the edges of the Stone Gate that signifies the border between Mondtsadt and Liyue. The man was simply patrolling around the area for any hidden dangers. That's when he saw you, kneeling on the ground with a group of slimes surrounding you. Seeing your plight, Diliuc quickly ran and summoned his greatsword. With a few swipes imbued with pyro, the slimes hastily retreated. He was about to chase them off, but he was more concerned of your safety.

Diluc was about to speak when you cut him off as you stood up, dusting your clothes. "Ah- you scared them. Please don't do that."

Diluc was dumbstruck for a second. He did not expect to meet his soulmate right here right now. Seeing his stupefied look, you raised a brow. "Are… you alright, Sir Diluc?"

"Those slimes were about to attack you." Diluc pointed out. His reply made you chuckle a bit and shake your head to the sides. Did he say anything funny?

"No they were not. I was trying to befriend them so that I could use their slime concentrations for the winery."

Now Diluc was even more confused. Slime? For tbe winery? "Wait- you're the new-"

"Winemaker. And your soulmate if you're not yet aware. Come on, let's go look for those slimes! We can talk on the way about our… professional and not-so professional side of our relationship." And with that, you trailed to the path of the slimes with a smile on your face. As for the wine tycoon, he was still confused- like a lost puppy, but there was this gentle smile that landed on his lips as he followed you.

Yes, I am suffering and in need of a Pyro Vision. Soulmate or not, if you don't have a Pyro Vision- shoo.

The text tattooed on Kaeya's wrist always left him laughing. He just knows, that this was meant to be a comical moment. He can even imagine the moment he meets his soulmate just from these words alone. But of course, he does worry about your well-being. Kaeya had his guesses. Maybe he would meet you in Dragonspine or maybe- you were an unprepared tourist enduring the permafrost of Snezhnaya and he'd meet you there. Well- in the end, he's still amused at your winterish pain.

Sure enough, Kaeya was tasked to scout Dragonspine for any Fatui activity. He could feel it under his skin that he'll meet you any second now. As he traversed through the mountain path, he noticed a group of warming seelies hovering over… someone? And that someone is shivering immensely. The captain grinned.

You heard footsteps approaching but you stayed in your crouched position, determined to preserve your body temperature. The seelies were helping, sure, but they were not enough to counter the coldness your Cryo Vision emanates. Damn it. Just because you're a cryo user doesn't mean you're immune to sheer cold.

The footsteps stopped and you snorted at the words the stranger spoke, "Could this possibly be my soulmate suffering in the cold and in need of a Pyro Vision?"

You huffed, you didn't want to meet your soulmate in this kind of situation. But it happened anyway, much to your dismay. Still crouched, you managed to turn to face the man as seelies continued hovering around.

"Yes, I am suffering and in need of a Pyro Vision. Soulmate or not, if you don't have a Pyro Vision- shoo."

Now actually hearing it from you made Kaeya laugh hard. If he was already amused just from the ink on his wrist before, Kaeya's now even more so deeply amused. You muttered sadist on his way. Deciding he's had enough a good laugh for today, the captain gave you his fur coat and a warming bottle. "Come on, let's get you some place warm, yes?"

You're not the only one! I actually did one for you, too!

When his mind is not occupied by hus studies, it would often drift ink embedded on his wrist. Everytime Albedo does so, he would often wonder what did the two of make for each other that would lead to you eventual meeting.

The Windblume Festival arrived, and of course, so will tourists from other lands. Usually, Albedo would simply pay no heed to the ongoing festivities and their participants. But this time- things were different. You unknowingly caught the alchemist's eye. There was this sudden itch in his hands- and Albedo knew he had to sketch you form. However, before he could even approach you- you left to another direction.

He caught sight of you again the next day. You were reading a book on a bench, with the plaza fountain giving you a beautiful background for Albedo. Discreetly, the alchemist sat on a bench front of yours and began sketching. Unbeknownst by him, you were also entranced by his form and you, too, began sketching.

Albedo was first to finish- and like usual, he would give the sketch to the person he drew of even if they were strangers. As he walked, there was this certain nervousness that found way in his stomach. This never happened before. Why was he nervous?

Once close enough, Albedo cleared his throat and handed you his sketch, "I know this seems suspicious, but I want you to have this. You have a wonderful form."

You'd be lying if you said your heart did not stop a beat at his words. When you saw the paper he was offering you, you gasped at how he caught every detail of you. Bashful, you tore the page you were drawing on from sketchbook and gave it to him.

"You're not the only one! I actually did one for you, too!"

When your words reached his ears, Archons bless you as he gave you a genuine and joyful smile.

Please... don't touch my heart that wants to disappear.

When Zhongli fully embraced his mortal form, he didn't expect the universe to gift him a soulmate. Like a snake, ink slithered into words that gave his heart a certain sadness. Zhongli knew, you were suffering somewhere... Out there...

He saw you first at the highest peak of Guyun Stone Forest. Everything happened so quickly. One second he was watching your distant form from the beaches below then the next he knew- his heart dropped, the same way you willingly fell to the hands of death that waited in the sea. The archon did what he knew is right- and that is saving you.

To Zhongli, immoratlity can both be a blessing and a curse. When your skins touched, he knew you were of immortality. He could sense it. And he could also sense the tiredness that nest in your soul from the burden of immortality.

Once Zhongli landed on safe ground, that's when he spoke. "I won't ask why, however is this truly what you want?"

The way his words reflected the ink written on your wrist made you open your eyes wide. When the realization sank in- that this man is your soulmate, you began crying. You were tired of life- but this man- this man is now your lock away from your want for death. If you stayed with him- another cycle of seeing the people you love come and go.

"Please..." you begged, "don't touch my heart that wants to disappear..."

Your voice was sad and pleading- but Zhongli was a stubborn man, just like his element. He wanted to help you but not by giving your death. He wanted you to see life in a new light, hopefully with him by your side.

Excuse me... Here- for you. Qingxin.

Xiao was always resolute in his resolve that he has no need of a soulmate deemed by the universe. However, there are times that he would let his mind flutter around the concept. Specifically, around the words elegantly written on his wrist and his soulmate. Xiao would question why would you give him qingxin flowers in the first place. Other than that, there was also this underlying worry in his thoughts about you and the qingxin flowers. These flowers... they can only be gathered on high stone peaks. What if you slipped and fall?

This leads Xiao to have days where he just spends his time at the peaks of Jueyun Karst, looking out for any foolish person scale mountains just for qingxin. It's not because he's worried about you no- Xiao just doesn't want anyone die under his protection over Liyue. There has already been too much deat-

"Excuse me..."

At the voice, Xiao's head whipped to your direction with eyes wide in surprise.

"Here- for you. Qingxin."

There was this bored look in your face, but Xiao could see the worry in your eyes. Worry? Were you worried about him? Xiao frowned at the thought but still took the flowers from your outstretched hand.

"Foolish mortal... you could have gotten yourself hurt. Climbing peaks just for qingxin..."

... But still a small smile graced his lips and your heart melted.

"Thank you."

You're the only person I recognize whose eyes resemble the deep blue ocean.

The words tattooed on his wrist always left Childe questioning about his soulmate and what led them saying these words. Somehow- imagining the possible scenarios always makes him melt. This string of words- it never fails him to bring a sense of comfort in his heart. Childe learns of yoir existance during a mission.

The mission was to assasinate a captain of the Knights- you. He observed you for days and took note how you're silent and alone for the most part but kind to the people who approach you- he almost feels bad for having to kill you. The day came when he had to kill you. It was supposed to be a quick kill- but he should know better. You were a captain for a reason, so you fought back. However, in the end, Childe was stronger as he wrap his hands around your fragile neck. Another second, he'd have you dead- until a child's voice cut through- your little brother. The way your eyes watered up at the sight of your only family. Seeing the hurt in your eyes, Childe's thoughts went overdrive- No- nonononono way I'm killing in front of a kid- He simply can't- he was reminded of his little brother, too. With a wavering will to disobey orders, Childe let you go and retreated to the night,

"Don't think this is the last time you'll see me."

Like a shattering glass- the words he uttered made your heart shatter like glass...

Childe saw you again, this time in Liyue. When your gazes meet- there was a shock that passed through with tension suddenly gripping your necks. Childe swore he hid much of his identity physically that night- but he knew you recognized him. He managed to corner you in Yuehai Pavillion by swooping into an empty seat right in front of you. There was a tense moment and an oppresive air. He noticed how your hands were ready to grab your weapon. "How did you recognize me?"

You carefully thought of your words. And when you did reply, Childe have never felt so much despair until today. "You're the only person I recognize whose eyes resemble the deep blue ocean."

Back before he knew you- these words always comforted Childe- but now? Childe felt chills in his spine as despair clouded his mind. Why would the universe decide to have person he was supposed to kill his soulmate.

Similarly, his heart also shattered.

A/N: Look!!! I got meself some banners ksks---- this is all Childe's fault rawr

[heresathreebee]

@yespolkadotkitty it was YOUR ASK that tumblr ate I FINALLY FUCKING GOT MOTIVATION TO DO IT AND THE DAMN WEBSITE ATE YOUR ASK IM PISSED

Anyways mi amor Polkakitty asked me to do a Rick Flag fic with the prompt :"Think you can handle that much?" And I did it! 🧡

This fic is a neutral female reader insert but exists within the Ruby Moon Sunflower Seeds canon. Tags for explicit language and sexual content (18+), pre-wedding stress, controlling in-law behavior vs casual male flippancy, and Rick in baseball streetwear.

You're sitting at a grimy fold out table surrounded by stacks of paper and ready to call the entire wedding off when Rick casually– and without knocking just like all of his family members– walks into the room. 

"What the fuck are you wearing?," you growl at him as you peer between your fingers. 

Rick looks confused. His eyes sweep over his own attire– dry mud on his worn jeans and a baseball jersey. His face returns to you, nonplussed. "Why? What'sa matter?" 

He meant with his clothes but you're not actually mad about those at all. "What's wrong is that while you've been kicking it with your cousins playing games, I've been trapped in this godforsaken room to hand write these godforsaken wedding invitations for people I have either never met or are already here!" 

Rick nodded minutely, tossing his baseball glove aside on the nice furniture in the nice room– something you had been explicitly told not to do hence why you were writing letters on the shitty fold out. "I see… did aunt Eunice give you that fountain pen?" 

You would have snapped the damn antique pen if your writing hand didn't hurt so much. "No. Your aunt Bess did and she's been fucking terrorizing me ever since this whole thing started!" 

He had to have noticed. The wedding theme was not your or his colors– it was the colors aunt Bess regretted not doing for her second wedding. Your maid of honor was her reluctant daughter and the rest of the bridesmaids? Rick's single aunt and a few 'eligible' cousins. He has his friends as groomsmen save one uncle and brotherly cousin. Rick got to choose. You had never been given a choice for anything in this wedding and you say as much to him now. 

"-- the cake is raspberry chocolate. I don't even like raspberry chocolate!," you dump your head in your hands and try not to cry. 

You are surprised to feel something slip over your head– it's Rick's baseball cap– and gasp as he hoists you into his arms to carry you to the piano bench before plopping down with you in his lap. With your lip quivering, you wipe a stray tear from your cheek and mutter pathetically, "m not supposed to touch anything in here…" 

Rick gives you a scowl. "You are an amazing woman. You're strong… you're tough… I've seen you disarm three dudes with a scarf and come away unharmed. So darlin'..." 

"Why are you letting aunt Bess walk all over you?" 

Your hands rest on his chest where the buttons are down and his undershirt shows. You work your jaw until you're sore, racking your brain for a succinct answer. He's right, you would never let anyone treat you like this before now, yet with aunt Bess you have endured nearly three months of it. Why? 

You sigh and your voice quivers slightly. "Because it's not just her. It's everyone. I-I'm trying so hard not to be the Angry Bitch that everyone seems to be waiting for me to be. But now everything is completely out of my control and I haven't even had a chance to tell them that their won't be a bride's side of the family!" 

Rick winces sympathetically. Where the Flag clan is purebred and a thousand strong (hence the mountains of invitations), your family is miniscule, an acquired group of misfits and not all of them are the type to bring to weddings. The only thing you are certain of is your mother will not come if she is invited and your father will probably come uninvited with malicious intent. 

And as he seems to do more and more lately, Rick slips his hand beneath the length of your shirtdress and rubs his thumb in soothing circles on the bare skin of your thighs. 

"I'm sorry darlin. To tell you the truth I was enjoying watching you squirm, waiting for you to stand up for yourself, but I never thought it would get this… complicated." 

Your eyebrows pinch together. "Stand up for myself? These are not enemies on a metaphorical battlefield, Rick. This is your family– this is about to be our family! The last thing I want is to alienate either of us before we're even married!" 

"Ok, I see that now." Rick sniffs and looks around, forming a plan in his head. "Look, tell me this: who do you want as your bridesmaids?" 

You drum your fingers weakly against his chest. "Well, your cousin Maggie's a good kid–" 

"Nonono," he interjects, "-- fuck what my family wants. Who do you want as your bridesmaids?" 

He presses your foreheads together and waits patiently for your answer. It feels like forever has gone by since someone genuinely cared about what you want. You think through your tiny roster of friends and found family to find someone suitable for a wedding. 

"...the Gotham City Sirens. Harley. Fuck it– mama Mbowe and Deadshot if he wants." 

Rick laughs. "I didn't know you were buddy buddy with the Gotham City Sirens. And Harley? She's a total wedding crasher!" 

"Harley would be so honored to be chosen, she would behave… until the after party." 

Rick concedes with a nod. "I don't think Deadshot's gonna wear a dress, though. Harkness would be all over it, though." 

Harkness is going to try and fuck your cousins, your aunts and your uncles, you grandmother, your dad–" 

"Stop stopstopstop– " Rick shivers, "I get it! He's banned."

"... I want to call it off." 

For a moment, the easy happiness on Rick's face melts into hurt before you continue– 

"Just for now! I… I know everybody is obsessed with a summer wedding and venues are hard to book but… I want our wedding to be our wedding, not your family's wedding." 

"You mean you wanna… postpone it?" 

"Yes!" You wrap your arms around his shoulders and bury your face in his neck where his strong scent envelopes you. "That's what I meant, I'm so so sorry, my brain is fried and my nerves…" 

Rick nods and blinks away the threat of tears. You almost had him there, his heart dropped into his stomach thinking you were really calling everything off...

You're starting to drift off as Rick rubs your back. It feels like he has single handedly yanked the weight of the world off of your shoulders. You know his family is going to be furious but you feel confident now in it being the right thing to do, especially knowing he'll be by your side on this decision. 

That is until you hear a door somewhere slam open and a flurry of voices rise above the din of peaceful quiet. You look at Rick, climb off of his lap and trot to the door. You recognize some of them and they sound angry. 

"What did you do?" 

Rick shrugs– with his messaging app on his phone in his hand. 

"Did you text them that the wedding is off??" Well this isn't going to help the situation. You cross the room again and stand above him. "You're an idiot." 

"Well, I'm your idiot. Come here–" 

He reaches up your skirt– your too busy cringing as you hear your name from somewhere outside– and pulls your underwear down your legs. "Rick!" 

"Ssshhh!!" He gets a leg of yours free and deposits you back into his lap where you can feel the roughness of dirty denim on your bare butt. "You want 'em to hear you?" 

"What the hell are you doing??," you whisper yell even as you feel your muscles clench and slick gathering from the inside. 

Your fiancée gives you a wicked smile. "Trynna help you relax." 

He hooks an arm around your waist to anchor you and stuffs you with two large fingers with his other hand. It burns so good it almost makes you scream but you bite down on your lip and accidentally slam your hand onto a few piano keys. 

You feel Rick's hot tongue lavish your clavicle and up your neck to your ear before he whispers the filthiest thing.  

"They're looking for you," he says, "but it's a big house and if we're quiet, they'll give up and regroup in one of the kitchens. We have maybe an hour before someone checks this room, and in that time, I'm going to fuck you nice and slow, until your bones are jelly and your body is satisfied." 

You whimper as his fingers massage deeper than you could ever reach yourself and grip his jersey so tight the seams squeal. 

"You been runnin' around doing everything everybody tells you to do. I know you've been sleeping like shit and you carry your stress on your shoulders. It's my turn to boss you around, but Imma make you feel good. So you're just gonna sit on this cock and let me guide you." 

"I want you to relax and enjoy us." He pulls back to press his forehead to yours which is now perspiring lightly. "Think you can handle that much?" 

You hum. "Yes sir…" 

[the-apprentice-lia]

hi, i'm in love with u. seriously, you got some real talent! also, i'm here to make a request, excuse me~~ can you write the main 6 and the mc in some sort of a date..? let's say it's their day, maybe it's been a year since they're together and the main 6 prepared a special day to the mc, plsss? thanks 🖤

hiii!! wait come back, i love you too!! thank you so much, i’m so glad you enjoy my writing!☺️ i’m honestly relieved at this headcanon since i’ve been writing so much angst so thank you! i don’t think i’d have been able to write a piece that would break my heart again!!

the main 6 on their one year anniversary with mc

asra

• let’s clear something up really quickly: asra’s the most romantic person you’ll ever meet. aside from maybe nadia. but this ain’t about her (for now). they’re 100% the type to leave you roses lying around the house with sweet little love notes, compose you magical poetry that makes the entire room smell of ambrosia and only unfurls when you’ve had a terrible day, and drop kisses to any part of you they’re able to reach during the day. so, for your one year anniversary? oh, get ready.

• i can see asra actually asking one of the arcana for the temporary use of their realm, (bonus if he says they’re free to use the magic shop while you two are on your date, and double bonus if a wandering customer who doesn’t take note of the ‘we’re closed’ sign is met with cunning, tapered amaranthine eyes, and a sly, vulpine smile.) and using his magic to enhance the familiar setting even more. he’s probably spent months planning this, ensuring everything’s absolutely perfect on the recurrence of day he first pledged his love to you.

• asra’s not there next to you when you awaken, so you call for him as soft morning sunlight filters through the window, falling across your empty bed and your summons echo through the deserted store. he’s obviously closed it for the day since you’ve slept in, and as you stumble towards the kitchen, you stop as you notice the new outfit laid carefully out on your shared desk, with a note lying beside it.

• “follow me to where you first met me through the palace fountains.” you take in the painstakingly-calligraphied note with a soft smile. asra’s hand-writing is… questionable at best, and barely-legible scribbles at worst, and this note has the prettiest handwriting you’ve seen. the little ‘I’ at the bottom of the note tells you where you need to go, and you grin as you rush to get ready.

• as you pay more attention to the outfit, a soft smile crosses your face. the beautifully put-together ensemble (asra has impeccable fashion sense, fight me) is in your favourite colour, and you sprint to the bath-chamber just so you can put it on sooner. when you finally emerge, you meet your own eyes in the mirror with a beam. it fits you delightfully, outlining the shape of your body and falling perfectly, the fabric looking as if it’s made just for you. you give a little twirl in the mirror with a raw burst of laughter; you not only look and feel beautiful, this is asra’s gift to you and you couldn’t be happier in it.

• finally finished, you follow the trail of magic asra’s left— a shimmering, iris-purple trail that’s obviously reflective of his aura— to where a final gift waits for you, with a carefully-scrolled note left behind it. “open me when you’ve found our spot,” it reads, and you grin at asra’s layers of planning. it means so much to you that he cares about you so much, truly.

• you let your eyes flutter shut, attuning yourself only to the unique aura of the magician’s realm. you know the world is slowly falling away around you, and as you open your eyes again, asra stands before you with the biggest smile on his face. his eyes are twinkling and you know, in that moment, that you’d follow your lover to the ends of the earth.

• it’s the lake where you first entered the magician’s realm to visit asra. painted in the fiery-amber hues of an eternal sunset, the amaranthine sky stretches and ripples before you endlessly, fish jumping between the reeds. they sway gently in the breeze and stretch away from the marigolden reflection of the sun-setting sky on the lake, bleeding in an amethyst kaleidoscope into an electric blue that you long to slip your fingers through. it almost looks as if it would feel like silk.

• “mc, you’ve found me!” comes his teasing voice as he sweeps you up in his arms. he kisses you deeply, before stepping aside to let you take in the picnic he’s set up near the water’s edge. well, picnic in the most basic sense of the word, you think as you look in wonder around you. asra’s set up a beautiful array of coloured blankets, fairy lights hovering in the air all around you. he’s enchanted the glowing orbs to revolve slowly around the two of you, and you find yourself falling even more deeply in love with the beautiful person in front of you.

• after the magical evening in the magician’s realm, you give your fellow arcana his domain back as asra’s hand in yours pulls you through the fabric of the realms and you’re standing back in your shop.

• when you waken in the morning, after your (practically non-existent;) lovely sleep, you find it’s long past the time that the two of you usually decide to open the store. again, asra’s broken duties (which in and of itself is a great feat?!) simply to spend time with the love of their life. you show your appreciation with extra cuddles that he accepts with a sleepy smile, his warm and utterly contented aura mingling with yours and making your morning even better.

nadia

• okay she’s probably tied with asra in the romance department. she just can’t help it! gifts have always been her love-language, even when, only known as the youngest satrinava princess, the only meaningful gifts she used to be able to give were the gifts she made herself— intricate devices, levers and pulleys in the latest fashion that wax and wane with the sun so that your plants never want for any light— you name it, she could have, and probably had before, made it. so, when she was young, since she was so insecure and unsure of herself, gifts were the only way she was ever able to show affection.

• now, of course, she’ll move you close to her wherever you are with a gentle hand around your waist, press little kisses to your cheeks or forehead, pull you to her and press a soft kiss to your lips— no, your beloved never fails to show you just how much you mean to her, just how much she loves you. however… she does love to see the berry-red blush spread across your face at her lavish gifts, the small, adorable “thank you, nadi,” she’s certain to get. she also absolutely lives for doesn’t mind the thank you hugs.

• and so, the first thing you see as you awaken on your one-year anniversary, is an actual mountain of presents. and this is not an exaggeration. no, this is… as large a pile of gifts as you’ve ever seen, sitting in the corner of your shared chambers together. your mouth hangs slightly open as you take in the sheer volume of presents she’s got you. you had been sure of your gift (singular!!) to her, but looking around you… doubt slips into your mind. you shake it off, calling into your chambers.

• “uh… nadi?” your voice echoes through the empty space as you ruffle your hair with your fingers, swinging your legs out of bed and onto… is that a path of rose petals?? and not even just scattered, an entire, beautifully arranged path of (somehow) amaranthine rose-petals. it’s so soft, and you can’t help laughing in incredulous delight as you savour the silken feel of the path beneath your feet. of course, you follow it. you’d hate for all her obviously meticulous planning to go to waste— no, you’re going to make sure this day goes exactly to plan! you step across the gossamer-soft, sweet-smelling path laid out for you as you approach nadia’s divan next to her paper folding-doors that she usually changes behind. you exhale softly as you take in the breathtaking outfit in front of you, squealing with delight as you sweep it up in your arms and twirl behind the doors.

• when you’ve changed and fixed your hair, (if it’s to your liking ordinarily, she’s even matched accessories for you!) you step out from behind the doors only to be swept towards a dressing-table by one of nadia’s attendants. they’re finished quickly, and as they leave you go to look in the mirror, and stop in your tracks. that’s… you? the person staring back at you is quite unfamiliar. you stare with no small measure of disbelief at smooth, rosy-apple cheeks underneath star-filled eyes, and soft, blushing lips, hanging open.

• if gowns are more to your liking, the one nadia’s chosen for you is absolutely stunning, even more so on your figure. it looks as if it was made for you! in your favourite colour, the hue that undoubtedly looks best on you, it fits at your waist and flairs out prettily, billowing around your ankles as you turn this way and that. the fabric falls off you perfectly, nadia would have spared absolutely no expense, and the shoes she’s picked out accentuate your great beauty even further. whatever your chosen outfit, however, nadia ensures that you look absolutely breathtaking in it.

• once you’re finished, you follow the trail of rose petals through your chamber doors, taking your little gift with you. anyone who sees you on your way absolutely stops in their tracks. anyone who sees you? immediately in love with you. gay or straight, doesn’t matter— they’re absolutely besotted with you now!! you note the lack of servants with a faint smile— nadia’s had most of the palace staff dismissed for the day, a skeleton-crew keeping the palace running on minimal functions for the day. today is your day. it belongs only to the two of you, and she won’t have her duties as countess interfering.

• when the trail finally ends, at the entrance to the palace gardens, you bend ever so slightly (someone cranes their neck at this and gets a little slap upside the head from a mildly irritated portia. don’t interrupt her! she’s fangirling so. hard. all her ship dreams are finally coming true!!) and pick up the parchment note nadia’s carefully scrolled. when you pick it up, it immediately unfurls in your hands to reveal the most elegant calligraphy you’ve ever seen. if you think nadia’s writing (when she isn’t planning or inventing, that is) isn’t the most lovely handwriting you’ve ever seen, you’re wrong. “come and find me,” reads the elegantly curving script in nadia’s hand. even simply reading it, you can almost hear the teasing, lilting air to her voice she would have had as she’d read the note out, and you set out with a warm smile to go and find your love.

• you think you know exactly where to find her, you think with a small smile to yourself. you’re quite enjoying yourself, playing nadia’s game. you could never hope to beat her at any game of wit, but you’d lose to her again and again if it meant having her guiding hands on yours, teaching you patiently, her soft voice tickling your cheek, her soft kiss ‘well done’ as you master a concept. you love this woman so much, it’s almost overtaking. as you’ve been reflecting, your feet have been carrying you towards the part of the garden that has always belonged to the two of you.

• ever since you pulled her away from the insistent clamour of the court to hide in the little clearing you two had unwittingly stumbled upon, you had always met here for your strolls through the gardens, made out read together here, and always enjoyed your time alone, here where nobody can find the two of you. (well, actually… portia found your little spot ages ago, but felt too terrible to interrupt your time together. she’s also probably been leading everyone subtly away from your spot together. “no, they’re not to be bothered! no, it can wait! leave them alone or so help me—”)

• when you finally reach the secluded clearing right in the thicket of the palace gardens, you turn into your safe-haven together, and lose your breath. nadia hasn’t turned towards you yet, but the clearing is strung with beautiful lights that dot the bushes around you and make it seem like there are little fireflies in amongst the bushes, there are new wildflowers planted all through the thicket that gives the little clearing even more of a charming atmosphere, and the soft blanket that’s spread across the floor is a classic daisy-white, edged with lace and strewn with baby’s breath. there’s a feast fit to feed many more than two people on a slightly raised honey-oak wood platter.

• nadia herself is dressed in an outfit you haven’t seen her wear before, a long, flowing cream-coloured dress that fits her waist and flares out in a single layer, a slit running up to show most of a long, perfect leg. her hair is open and tumbling in beautiful, shining amaranthine waves down her back. the dress billows around her arms only to cinch in at the wrist, and you find yourself unable to look away. “nadi…” your voice is soft, and she turns to you, anything she has to say dying on her lips as she inhales sharply.

• “my love, you look… exquisite,” comes her breathy voice, her eyes sparkling as she takes you in wearing the outfit she picked for you. “well, it’s all thanks to you,” you say lightly, trying to take away from the fact that your face is so hot you think it would burn you to touch it. she notices, and stifles her fond smile lest she embarrass you. instead, she strides across the clearing in one quick motion, takes you by the waist, dips you over, and meets your lips with her soft, full ones. you sigh into her, running your hands through your hair as you’ve been longing to do since first you walked into the clearing. she reluctantly pulls you back up again when you break away for air, keeping her arm around your waist as she pulls you close to her again, stroking your cheek as you look into her eyes, lost in how utterly regal she is. you’re seized by another wave of admiration and love for this woman. you can’t even find the words to tell her how much she means to you, and so you pull her to you in another kiss.

• you don’t even realise you’re pouring all your love for her into your kiss both figuratively and literally until she pulls away, looking at you with an utterly overwhelmed expression, tears tinged with rose-petal pink rolling down her cheeks. “oh, nadi i’m so sorry! oh, please don’t cry!! i didn’t mean to— mmrph!” she cuts you off, meeting your lips with such fervour you take a step back— but she pulls you back to her, moulding you into her person as if the two of you are one and the same. but in a way, you are. you’d be a shell of a person without your love, and you know how deep her affection for you is.

• “mc… that was overtaking,” comes her soft voice. “oh nadi, i’m so sorry i wasn’t thinking!” you stumble over your words, berating yourself again and again in your mind. “sometimes it just happens and i don’t realise it, but—” she shushes you, her eyes shining. “you love me… that much?” her soft voice comes, and you pull back in confusion to take her in.

• “uh… nadi. you’re the most stunning, clever, kind, resourceful person i’ve ever met. you’ve got the biggest heart and i absolutely love you for it. you make me so, so happy,” you tell her, a wide smile on your face. “of course my love for you is overtaking! i think i fall in love with you a little more every day,” you confess, a sheepish smile on your face as you look away from her, but she turns you back to her by your chin, pulling you to her for another kiss.

• “you complete me.” is her only reply. you know she can’t put what she feels for you into words, but you look up at her with surprise as she takes your hand suddenly. “mc i can’t put all that i feel for you into words but my aura will allow you to see just how much i adore you,” she tells you with a warm smile as you place your hand on her face, opening your mind to her aura. it’s a simple spell, you shouldn’t be feeling this drained simply from tapping into nadia’s aura, and yet… when the full force of her love for you hits you, you actually stumble. when nadia catches you, her laugh is warm and full of love as she lowers you both down onto the picnic blanket. you snuggle further into her arms, resting your head on her chest as her arms encircle you. “oh, nadia. thank you.” you don’t say anything else, hoping she’ll know just what you’re thanking her for. she does. you think she’ll always understand you, whether you tell her or not, and as she pulls away gently to pull a bowl of your favourite fruit towards the two of you, you’re struck by how lucky you are. how lucky, to have this incredible woman sitting here beside you at all.

• “come here, mc,” comes her soft voice. for once, she doesn’t need to put on a front for anyone. it’s just her and the one she loves. will make as if she’s going to feed you, and then tease you instead, maybe getting a little juice on your cheek and kissing it off you. the rest of your picnic together is spent simply talking quietly, enjoying each other’s company. you dance slowly in the clearing, your head on nadia’s chest as she leads the two of you in w slow dance, her hand securely around your waist. neither of you need to say very much, and the beginnings of sunset comes to find the pair of you stretched out lazily on the picnic blanket. her head rests on your lap as you stroke her hair gently, probably running your fingers through it a few times, and singing her a lullaby or just a sweet and or slow song.

• a.n: yes, i said singing. i don’t care whether you think your voice is pretty or not, (it is. fight me.) nadia loves it because it’s uniquely yours. nothing puts her more at ease than your slow and steady voice reading or singing to her. look, some voices are deemed by most people to be the standard, lovely voice— and if you fall into that category then great! i’m so happy your voice is like that!! but if you don’t, i want you to know that some voices are made just to sing softly-spoken lullabies and i think that’s beautiful. <3

• but towards the end of your picnic, you’ll tell her tentatively, “nadi… ?” she’ll hum in response. “yes, my heart?” “well um… i know you got me all those gifts and i just wanted to say thank you,” you say softly. she sits up, coming to cup your cheek. “anything for you, my dearest. but what troubles you?”

• “well it’s just that my gift isn’t all that, i just made it myself,” you’ll try to tell her, but she’s having none of it. is shushing you by the second sentence. “don’t say ‘just’, mc. i made some of your gifts myself, too. it means that you care for me so, that you know well enough what i’d like,” she tells you with a gentle smile.

• you’ll pull out the small, carefully wrapped package in your favourite colour. “here it is,” you tell her shyly. “i hope you like it.”

• when she unwraps it, she looks to you with shining eyes. “mc, this is beautiful!” she tells you. it’s a jewellery box you smelted using magic. the intricate engravings on the top took an especially long time to do, but they’re in native prakran and your home language, looping elegantly through one another to form confessions of love, linked so that they’ll never end. in the middle are the numbers ‘II’ and ‘0’ in roman numerals, and she looks to you with glassy eyes before you tell her softly to open it.

• when she does, she loses her breath. “mc… is this you and i?” she asks you, looking up at you with the most beautiful smile you can’t help but give one in return. you nod in response, your mouth curving up ever so slightly as you recall the memory. “oh, this was our first ever dance!” she tells you, her eyes alight at the memory. “i remember how we pushed and pulled like magnets. you knew everything i was going to do before i did it, mc, and you trusted me to lead you. it was the first time i truly saw you dance, and it was uniquely beautiful,” she tells you, smiling at you. you can’t help but meet her lips at her adorable expression, pulling her to you as she tilts your head up and to the side, resting her hands on your hipbones.

• she has a gala for you over the next few days where she leads you again in the palatial dance, the two of you dancing in sync and a beautiful rhythm as she spins you around in your beautiful outfit, but today belongs to the two of you.

• you’re not getting any sleep tonight! so enjoy. but seriously, it’s the most loving, gentle night you’ve had with her yet and that’s saying something since nadia takes care of you so much. still so filled with passion, though. the morning after, she’s cancelled everything to simply lay with you, and you’re overjoyed at the unexpected gesture.

• you’ll definitely blush as you catch sight of her thoroughly marked neck, and she’ll pull you to her sleepily. you’ll both get the rest you deserve.

julian

• as you awaken, you notice that your room is empty, and you call out for julian as you step out of bed. “hey, jules!” your call echoes through the empty house.

• julian hasn’t left you a trail of rose petals, but rather detailed, encrypted instructions that lead you through the town, picking up items everywhere you go. every time you solve a clue, a grin spreads across your face— they’re all so thought through, so meaningful. you love this man and all his melodrama so much.

• when you’re finally finished with the list, you find yourself in a secluded section of the whispering woods, looking around yourself in awe. this part of the forest is lit with bioluminescence, beautiful flowers and plants streaked with all sorts of glowing colours curling into the undergrowth and lighting up the night with bursts of colour. julian sits on a dark picnic blanket, a lantern beside him, with a luminous blue, star-like flower held out towards you. “you’ve found me, mc,” comes his playful voice, and you just barrel into his arms, wrapping your arms around him and squeezing with all your might.

• all through the picnic, julian softly tells you how much you mean to him and how much he loves you, as you feed him bits of lobster claw, and eventually when the night is over it finds the two of you strolling slowly back to your house, julian’s hand tightly in yours.

muriel

• when you awaken muriel’s right there beside you, pulling you into him gently. “happy one year anniversary, mc,” he murmurs into your hair. the two of you will just snuggle and relax for the entire morning, and towards the middle of the day he’ll tell you with the biggest, tomato-red blush on his face that he… picked out an outfit for you that he thought you’d like, (with asra’s help, of course— or maybe he asked nadia, and she was surprised and taken aback but utterly delighted to help her friend) and would you like to get dressed now… ? he’ll come and pick you up later, when everything’s all set up.

• you take in the outfit with a soft smile. although it’s simple, you love it. you dress right away and spend the rest of the afternoon matching accessories and shoes, and doing your hair. if you like dresses, it’s a simple forest-green summer dress that hugs your waist and flares out, that you pair with a little locket muriel made you when he confessed his love to you. you’re wearing heels or flats, but either way you look lovely. if not a gown, you wear a simple forest-green shirt and a pair of linen trousers. either way, the simplicity makes you look radiant.

• when muriel comes back to get you, he takes you in with wide eyes, a blush spreading steadily across his face. “whoa… mc you’re so pretty,” he’ll tell you with a soft smile, and you can’t resist pressing your lips to his. he takes your hand in his and walks you through the forest. little murmurs of “mc you’re so lovely,” and “mc i love you so much,” break the calm forest noise as the two of you stroll through wildflowers and holly, until you reach a clearing full of wildflowers. it’s night now, dusk has long since fallen, and the meadow looks even more beautiful as you turn back to muriel with a grin. “muri it’s so pretty! thank you for bringing me here,” you tell him with a soft smile.

• he pulls you forward to the picnic blanket, and the two of you lay down with your faces to the stars. as he feeds you, he’ll point out constellations and tell you their stories, his voice soft and full of love. when he tells you the story of orion and the pleiades, you groan in protest you find that he still chases them across the night sky. “i’d chase you across the night sky for all eternity,” comes his quiet voice, his warm breath tickling your cheek as crickets chirrup quietly all around the two of you.

• come morning, the two of you accidentally fell asleep in the clearing… but neither of you are even mildly unhappy about that, and you laugh together the entire way home, making jokes and retelling the stories from last night in silly voices.

• muriel cuddles with you for most of today, as well.

portia

• when you wake, it’s to the sweet smell of something baking, and you throw your feet out of bed immediately, sprinting to the kitchen as you take in portia, with tousled morning hair in her sleep-shirt and underwear, baking your favourite desert. you sneak up behind her and tickle her sides, and she almost drops the tray she’s holding, setting it down quickly to turn to you, a stern expression on her face. it quickly melts away as she’s reminded of how adorable you are, and instead she feeds you a bit of batter or custard, kissing your nose as you give her a big morning hug, coming up to meet her lips and running your fingers through her hair.

• “oh, mc…” she signs into your lips. “good morning to you too, my love,” comes your answering voice, a smile on your lips. her lips curve up as well. “happy one year anniversary, mc!!” she shouts, barrelling into you with another bear hug. “oh, sweet arcana, let me die here,” you sigh into her arms before she thwacks your forehead lightly. “nuh uh, mc. you’ve already done that once,” she reminds you as you grin sheepishly.

• when she’s finished baking, you two probably take a nice warm bath together. you’ve each bought each other outfits, and you go to seperwre corners of the house, giggling softly, to change. your outfit is definitely cottagecore, and as you change into it you’re taken by how cute it looks. if you prefer gowns, yours is a classic white sleeveless picnic dress that hugs your waist and flares out around your ankles, with a tie at the back that folds sweetly into a bow. you’ve got straw wedge heels that go perfectly with the dress, and classic accessories to go along with it. if you prefer trousers, you have a classic set of light brown trousers and a cream-coloured shirt with a classic hat that matches your trousers.

• you’ve bought portia a lovely petal-pink dress with billowing sleeves that cinch around the elbows, that flutters out to the ankles, (you had it measured specifically so she doesn’t trip in it) and a soft tie to go around her waist. you’re hoping she leaves her hair open, and as the two of you meet in the kitchen in the middle of the house, both of you smile at the other. before either of you can say anything, pepi gives a proud little “peep!” and sits in between the both of you, tilting her head. the two of you haven’t left her out of the fun, and she’s got a sweet little cream-and-pink coloured bow around her neck. the two of you laugh as portia turns to you. “i knew you’d look amazing in that, sweetheart!” she tells you with a grin. “give us a twirl!” you do so, and spin her in your arms, pulling her in for a kiss as the two of you grab the picnic basket and head out.

• the meadow is big and beautiful, stretching into the distance. there are wildflowers everywhere, and as you lay out the picnic blanket you can’t help pulling portia up to you and away from the blanket to dance with you among the flowers. dancing with portia isn’t like dancing with any of the other main 6. dancing with portia is… instinctual. you’re led by your shared love and trust in each other, and it’s gentle but sure. you know she’s there to lead you in the dance, and her hand around your waist is secure. as you dance, she rests her head on your chest as you now take control, leading the two of you in a slow spin and then dipping her to meet her lips with yours.

• you feed each other, and read to each other, simply enjoying each other’s company until the sun sets.

lucio

• lucio has the entire day planned to a tee. the outfit he’s picked out for you is obviously lavish and probably worth more than some people make in a lifetime. gifts are also his love language, but he’s very domineering in what he’ll give you. it all conforms to what he wants you to wear and like. and so, even if you aren’t too into the overly expensive outfit, you wear it anyway and take yourself down to the gala he’s planned specifically for today.

• “ah, my darling mc!” he calls to you, as a smile lights up his face. he pulls you to him, dipping you for the whole court to see as he rights you again, wrapping his arm around your waist. “oh, mc. you do know that i love you more than life itself, don’t you?” comes his dramatic voice, soft so only you can hear.

• when the banquet is finished, get ready to not sleep at all have a lovely relaxing night.

[duskwoodgirl4life]

Jake's POV

I think it really was ment too be this way we where supposed too find each other and be in each others lives.

Chapter 6

The day of the filed trip had arrived MC had been thinking about this moment all week, she had been trying her best too hide her feelings from Jake. The more she tried the more he noticed something wasn't right he had asked her a couple of times but she would always tell him she's fine. He decided not too push her too much he could see she was trying too figure out how too deal with what was bothering her. The coach arrived they found seats at the back they sat and talked and joking around.

They arrived at the mountain lodge as there wasn't much left of the day the geography teacher said they could have the day too them selfs. They put their bags in MCs room and went too explore their surroundings. They walked up the path too a lake it was beautiful the birds where singing, the water looked so inviting. MC decided too sit down under a tree watching the lake.

Jake: MC, please tell me what's bothering you I don't like see you like this

MC: Jake you just wouldn't understand it's complicated

Jake: MC I'm your best friend you can tell me anything, please MC

MC: it's difficult for me too say this just know that I will understand if you don't want too be my friend after I tell you.

Jake: I'll always be your best friend MC

MC took a deep breath trying too recenter herself, she turned too look at Jake his bright blue eyes looking back at her.

MC: Jake, since the day I met you I've...I...erm....I....

Jake: what is it MC?

MC: I'm in love with you Jake, there I said it feel free too hate me now

Jake looked on in shock at what MC had just said, not knowing what too do or say he said something so stupid.

Jake: thank you

MC: what!! I tell you I'm in love with you and all you can say is thank you?

Jake: MC, I am so sorry I never meant too say that, what you said caught me off guard

MC: I should never of told you how I felt I'm sorry Jake

Before Jake could reply MC got up and walked away, Jake just sat there watching as the love of his life walked away.

Jake's POV

How the hell could I of been so stupid who the hell says thank you, of course I love you back MC. I always have done I always will, I need too do something too fix this I can't lose her. She means the world too me my heart breaks knowing she's so upset after what I just said.

Jake got up from his spot and ran too catch up with MC, she was sat by the water fountain tears running down her face. It broke Jake's heart too see her so upset he walked over too her and took her hand.

Jake: MC, I am so sorry for what I just said

MC: save it Jake, it's okay I get it you don't feel the same back

Jake: but I do MC I am totally crazy about you, I have been since I first met you, when you told me you loved me I wasn't expecting you too feel the same.

MC: you really mean that? You feel the same way about me?

Jake: MC you are a work of art, I am so in love with you I want us too be together, let's try this again.

MC: Jake what do you mean?

Jake: tell me again how you feel, please just go with it

MC: okay, Jake I am so in love with you I've had feelings for you for so long now I just can't fight it anymore and I do not want too.

Jake: MC, you mean the absolute world too me, I've loved you from day one when you bumped into me that day it changed my life for ever. I love you so much

MC sat looking into Jake's eyes she could see that he meant every word, she got up and wrapped her arms around his neck. They both looked deep into each others eyes their lips slowly getting closer too each others. When they touched it was like electric was running through their bodies everything just felt so right. When they parted Jake took hold of MCs hand kissing it up and down.

They decided too go back too MCs room getting some food on the way, they sat on the bed snuggled up together. Their hands interlaced with each others, the moment was perfect. The next morning MC woke up wrapped in Jake's arms, she looked over at him and couldn't help but smile. She brushed the hair out of his face so she could take in his beauty.

MCs POV

I can't believe he really feels the same way about me, I never expected it too go this way. I actually told him that I love him, he told me he loves me how did I get so lucky he's so hot. I can't help but lay next too him taking in every feature on his face, he looks so peaceful laying there sleeping. I find my hand stroking his soft skin just the touch of his skin sends a warm feeling all over my body.

I see him start too wake up I lean down and kiss his soft warm lips, I can't help but just smile. He wraps his arms around me pulling me closer too him Jake kissing my neck sends goosebumps all over my body.

MC: good morning handsome

Jake: good morning beautiful, did you sleep well?

MC: I did, very much so did you sleep well?

Jake: with you by my side I did

They both lay and cuddled for awhile before getting up Jake stole a kiss from MC before he went too shower. Every fiber of her being wants too go into that bathroom but she couldn't. She wasn't ready for that massive step yet, that was something for when they were both a lot older. She sat on the bed playing on her phone waiting for Jake too finish, as she heard Jake switch the shower off she got off the bed and went too look through her unpacked bag for some clothes. Finally settling on a pair of black skinny jeans and her favourite black hoodie, MC put her clothes down so she could close her bag back up. Jake had come out of the bathroom his hair still wet just the thought was sending MCs mind racing.

MC: you look so hot with wet hair

Jake: your hot full stop

MC kissed Jake on the lips she grabbed her fresh clothes and headed into the bathroom so she could shower. Jake sat on the bed towel drying his hair, once he finished he got their backpacks ready for the day. After MC had finished in the shower she dried her hair and they both headed down for some breakfast. Walking too breakfast their hands interlaced they were in pure bliss. After breakfast their teacher told them too go and research their surroundings. They had too pick a landmark and write a report on what they have found, they had a couple of days too get it all done.

MC and Jake grabbed their backpacks and headed out, still holding hands as they walked out of the lodge. Jake whispered in MCs ear making her giggle.

Jake: what do you think? It won't take me long

MC: okay, but just this once

Jake: I'll have it done in no time then we can go back too that spot we were at yesterday and make out.

Jake pulled out his laptop and tapped away at a few keys, he got a report up about one of the landmarks. He then hacked into the teacher's file on his laptop too find out the key points that he wouldn't tell us they had too find them. Jake finished typing away and put his laptop back into his bag.

Jake: all done, let go

MC: really? That was fast you have some skills

Jake: my dad reached me everything he knows i kind of picked hacking up by accident, but enough of that I want too make out with you.

MC: how can I say no

They walked down the path hand in hand too their spot, they both sat down and started too make out.

[genshinobsession]

okey okey but like for your sentience au thing, and in one of your recent asks

like the one where the characters finally break free, childe's part had me thinking on how they can always be with you

what if, whatever, character manages to escape but what if they were tiny. like the same character size on the device you play on.

like what if they were pocket sized, is basically what I'm saying. then they can be always with ya.

ya know.

ack, too much.

anyways..

I'm really liking your writing and ideas. I've turned on my notifs, so that I can always be updated on when you post. and I just, plse continue to write. obvi ion wanna sounds like I'm forcing ya to continue writing.

drink some water, not too much nor too little, eat, takes nap and take care of yourself

This is a GREAT idea thank you!

I hope I wrote it the way you were hoping so far!

They Escape the Game (Part 1)

(Pocket Edition)

Characters included in this part:

Xiao, Diluc, Kaeya

(I may make a PC version but it will more than likely just be HC’s because the only thing that would change would be the slight change in height)

Xiao

It took everything in him to finally decide to leave everything he knows behind and take a leap of faith out of the game. All he’s every known has been Genshin and ONLY genshin. So when he had finally gotten out of it he was more than surprised by what he saw.

When he had made it out, the first thing he was met by

Was you.

Except, you were h u g e.

You looked down at the tiny person in front of you who had just literally hopped out of your screen.

As you took a closer look your realized it was xiao.

HA, that can’t be right, right?

You went to poke him to make sure you weren’t just making it up but right before you did you felt his tiny hands push against yours a-bit.

“What are you doing?” He asked with his usually annoyed tone. Your eyes widened as you realized, this was in fact xiao. He just, popped out of your game.

You left the palm of your hand open as he hesitantly climbed on. You carefully raised him closer to your face as he grabbed onto your thumb to secure himself on your hand.

“Xiao?” You asked.

“Who else would it be.” He retorted, taking a quick glance at the very large objects around him. He was used to the large mountains in Liyue but nothing of this size.

Having the tiny man in the palm of your hand was such a weird feeling but you had to admit his tiny angry face did look adorable. You gently placed him back down as you began to think.

“How are you even here?”

“...” no response came from the tiny yaksha as he looked away, seemingly avoiding the question. He looked around your room a bit more and noticed that you had his mask on your wall.

“How did you get that.” He asked as he pointed to it, looking back down towards his hip where his now tiny mask still remained.

“Oh, this was a gift from a friend of mine.” You said as you carefully took it down and placed it in-front of him.

Carefully he stood on top of the mask and admired the detail, it was accurate to the one he had, which was impressive but he dare not say that out loud. He lightly hopped off the mask as he looked back at your phone that now had an empty space where he had been.

His mind did start to wander as he thought about how literally all he knew was essentially

A lie.

Not wanting to think about it to much he turned back towards you.

“Traveler... pick me up.” He demanded as his now outstretched hands wrapped around your finger as you lifted him back up to your face.

“I am now going to stay with you to protect you at all times. No, you do not have a say in this.” He proclaimed as you lightly chuckled.

“What’re you going to protect me with, a toothpick?” You joked and xiao pulled out his spear and lightly poked your finger, not enough to make you bleed but it still hurt causing you to almost drop him.

“Didn’t think that through, did you.” You laughed.

Going about daily life wasn’t too hard with Xiao always around. You found different places to hide him so if someone walked in they wouldn’t see him.

When going outside you attempted putting him in your pocket but it was a bit to much of a tight fit for him to stick his head out well. So you decided to get a small empty bag.

He’s often very quiet throughout the day, just enjoying being around you finally. He didn’t even care about how you looked he just wanted to be around you especially now that he’s in a huge world full of unfamiliar things.

Diluc

At first Diluc was unsure about dropping everything and leaving, since there was no guarantee of him getting back if he felt homesick. However, this thought was overruled when you had joined the game again.

He wasn’t one to just jump head first into things but this time he was sure about what he wanted to do. And before you could even do your normal greeting he had leaped from the screen.

He didn’t think about the fact that he had no idea where he was going to end up when he jumped through but that question was quickly answered when he landed in your face.

You immediately swatted at you face, thinking it was a bug, not caring to open your eyes and look at who it actually was.

Diluc hung on for dear life as you finally swatted him off but he luckily landed on the pillow in-front of you.

As you rubbed your mouth hoping to get the feeling of what you thought was a bug off your mouth you finally heard it.

“Traveler?” The voice said. It was a strong voice and sounded, a bit far away. You looked around for the voices host, but saw no one. Until you looked down at the pillow in front of you and noticed the small redhead who was standing there.

You had no idea what to say, this isn’t real right? But it’s so convincing. He practically look as if he was actually there.

“Diluc?” You asked hesitantly as he looked back up at you. This was the first time he had ever seen you face to face, you were a lot bigger than he had thought you were going to be but he found your features beautiful nonetheless.

You carefully put your hand down for him to climb up and he did. He held onto your thumb go slight security as you lifted him up to get a closer look, and sure enough, it was Diluc, down to every last detail.

“Oh my goodness it really is you! Why are you so small?” You asked, he shrugged his shoulders and turned back to look at the thing he popped out of which was your phone.

“Well I’m assuming since I come through that portal object over there, I ended up being no bigger than that size.” He said as you put him carefully back down on the phone.

“What is this thing anyways?” He asked as he tapped the sword attack button on your screen causing your character to attack.

“Ah, so that’s how you did it. I will admit this is a little bit weird for me.” He said as he turned back towards you.

“Are you still able to bring out your weapon and everything?” You asked and he nodded and drew his weapon. You were amazed to say the least. Your favorite character literally just popped out of your game.

“This is amazing! I can’t believe you’re here, how did you even manage to get out? Do you plan to go back? How would you even get back?” You rambled on with more and more questions as Diluc just calmly watched you as a small smile graced his features.

He didn’t care about getting back right now, all he cares about was that he was finally with you.

Kaeya

Your day had been pretty rough. Nothing was going right from the beginning so when you finally got back home you decided to just sit down and play Genshin.

When you entered you had realized Kaeya wasn’t in his usual spot which confused you but you decided to do a few quests before questioning it.

Eventually you had just gotten to the point in the Lantern Rite where you had to talk to Kaeya and you were ECSTATIC.

You made your way from Liyue to Mondstadt as fast as you could. And from a distance you could see the marker as it counted down the closer you got to it. As you made your way to fountain there he was.

He smiled at your presence as you ran around him in circles, trying your best to say hi. You stopped in front if him and went through the quest dialogue, praying to Barbatos that he wouldn’t disappear after wards, and lucky enough for you he didn’t!

You hopped up and down out if pure joy.

Kaeya chuckled a bit at your excitement as he put his hands on your characters shoulders to stop them from hopping.

“I have a little surprise for you, I’ve been working on it for a while. I need you to wait here.” He said as he backed up from your character. You watched him as he just disappeared.

“The hell?” You asked out loud, what kind of surprise was this? You expected him to appear back in front of you in game but it never happened.

You waited a little bit expecting something to happen, yet nothing did. Until you were met face to face with the blue haired Calvary captain.

Not expecting the sudden figure to just appear in-front of you freaked out and jumped up from where you were seated, cause Kaeya to go flying.

Luckily it was that far of a distance and he managed to land safely.

“Kaeya?” You asked, thinking you might’ve just had your phone to close to your face.

“Surprise!” He said, climbing back up your chair. He landed on a space where you both could see each other as he finally got a good look at your face.

You had no idea what to say as you looked at the tiny captain in-front of you. He still did some of his idle animations as he stood, waiting for your response.

“How did you get out?” You asked him, leaning down towards him a bit.

“I have my ways.” He replied. It’s Kaeya, did you really expect a full detailed answer? He looked around your room, taking in the new surroundings. It was nothing like he had seen in Mondstadt, for one thing there was technology.

This was entirely new to him, and there didn’t seem to be any weapons anywhere.

Your entire room was practically the size of Mondstadt to him.

“I must say, I didn’t actually think this would work, but I’m glad I could finally meet you.” He smiled, you smiled back, still unsure of what was happening and questioning if you should make an appointment with an eye doctor.

“How long have you been trying for?” You asked looking down at him, he paused as he thought of his answer, the time difference in your world was drastic from that of Teyvat.

“Well it’s hard to say but I have tried maybe, 25-30 times before. I was starting to lose hope if I’m being honest.” He admitted. You had no idea he was this dedicated to getting out of the game

To see you.

It was flattering but also a bit scary to think your favorite character has wanted to meet you just as much as you wanted to meet him.

“This height difference nah be a problem though.” He pointed out with a chuckle.

“We’ll figure something out I’m sure.” You responded

-Birdy

(This basically just serves as an introduction to the idea and hopefully I will have enough time to come back and expand on what they do as tiny people)

[neko-nemesis]

This is probably my extremely-not-canon version of Cyrus as seen from my heavily tinted glasses but lmao who gives a f

Blushy baby Cyrus drinking at Angel's Share after a hard day's work being greeted by a fellow adventurer (who he's 1000% crushing on) with a "Cyrus! Great work today as well. How about we take out that horde of slimes at Stormbearer Mountains tomorrow? The youngins been having a little trouble with them"

You gonna be lying to yourself if you think Cyrus isn't gonna giggle like a little girl at that as if they just asked him to marry them.

I fr imagine Cyrus to be the type that would get absolutely smitten when he falls for people. Ps: in case you decide to drink with him and Jack and slyly lean against him or rest their arm on his shoulder or (god forbid) press your hand against his forehead to check his temperature since you noted that he seems to be burning up a little (😏😏), this man will spontaneously combust I aint lying. You will legit see it on his face as his eyes widen and he coughs to cover up the very obvious smile forming on his face, he'll prolly have butterflies zooming LMAO.

Bonus points if you ask him to drop you home and this lil teddy would be tipsy af but would go out of his way to "escort you" and when yall would have to take a break at the market's fountain and you can't help but spread your palms against his chest (it was only to help him definitely not to get a feel of his chunky melons) to force him to sit down to take a second and istg this oblivious man would place his hands over yours and give you that smile that makes you question your sanity and say something along the lines of "You're right, adventurers must know their limits. Its a line I often overstepped back in my younger days. This old man should look after himself some more shouldn't he?". You aint never held yourself back this bad before istg.

GODDAMMIT I WANNA FUCK HIS FACE WTF

Bonus bonus points if that horde of slimes you thought were completely harmless and wanted to check out turned out to be mutant versions created by the Abyss Order and you both almost manage to defeat them but not without Cyrus getting some messy burns since the Pyro slimes would a tad bit more feral that usual. He's alright he says but you know better and it would be best to treat any injuries as fast as possible. But dear oh dear, you both are miles away from Mondstadt and the usual concoctions that adventure's use isn't that effective (yk mutant stuff and shit) so you both trudge along to find a water source that can cool off those burns and help with the pain. Lo and behold you find one and hurriedly tell Cyrus to get in while you keep watch. (Imma skip the part where he strips because this shit is already too long lmaoo)

He complies but you can see by the way he's breathing, its not helping much. So you sit on a nearby rock while he stands between your legs with his back facing you as you use your Cryo vision and glide your fingers over the burns. Mr Gentle Giant unknowingly lets a very suggestive moan slip from his lips (obviously from the relief he felt right? Right??). He probably was so out of his mind that he didn't realize what he did but that obviously doesn't stop you from getting riled up. Like this bastard is fr testing your patience. He's already pissed you off with his exceptionally sweet smiles and his stolen glances at you (you'd obviously notice it since you take any and every chance to drool over him, ya lil slut lmao). Now too much is too much obviously, there's only so much a person can take. Not to mention the way his muscles ripple under your hands makes you cream fr. When he turns around to smile at you and thank you for being there for "this old crow", the way he runs his fingers through his hair, the way his plump lips that are still moist from the water look so delectable, a person can only hold back so much right? Riiiiiiiight

At least that's what you tell yourself before pushing your tongue down his throat

Ps this is heavily inspired by a similar post (about the fighting slimes and cooling off part) from a post THAT I CANT FIND GODDANGIT TUMBLR but imma keep looking and will tag later

Ps ps ps: I am gonna fire ideas at you from my idea cannon before bulldozing your house down in search of completed fics MUAHAHAHAHAHAH

Oh my god. OH my god.

Oh? My? God?

You're fucking insane. This is MAKING ME RUN A FUCKING MILE WHAT THE HELL. Stop adding more shit to my mind, I'm already a whore ffs

(fighting slimes and cooling off fic.. are you talking about the Childe one from AO3?!)

[lilyharvord]

I saw another anon on king mavens page ask how Cal would react if mare died and they didn’t wanna answer bcuz it’ll make them go into a depressive state. So if u don’t mind how do YOU think Cal would react if Mare died. If u don’t wanna write this u don’t hv too tho

I too saw annie's response, and while it makes me super sad to think about as well.... I've thought about it... I may have started writing a fic about it once (it was like once chapter), and I had an idea. So I'll give you my branched ideas. They're loooong so I have put them under the read more.

idea 1: Mare dies before they are married, before anything.

It's horrific. People are shocked... the little lightning girl? Dead? Impossible. Cal doesn't immediately hear about it, he's so busy he's doesn't know something's happened until he walks into a room and everyone goes quiet and slowly looks at him like he might collapse right then and there. He finds out because Farley pulls him aside. She takes him away from everyone to a quiet little garden with a fountain and tells him what happened. When he hears, he just sort of gives her this confused look, like HE doesn't understand, doesn't believe. Then he sort of sinks down onto one of the benches and just sits there. Doesn't move, doesn't even seem to be breathing. Farley thinks he'll explode in a ball of heat and rage and pain, but instead he just gets really really quiet, and really cold. The air around her gets so cold her breath fogs in front of her. He asks her to leave him alone and she does. He sort of draws into himself after that, doesn't really speak to anyone, spends a lot of time running and sitting at his desk and staring out the window. He attends the funeral but is quiet the whole time, he only speaks to the Barrows and even then, there isn't much to say that wouldn't hurt either party. After that he BURIES himself in his work. He gets so good at it that one day he looks up and ten years have passed. He's still got the stack of letters they wrote to each other, and he even has the letter he had been drafting to send to her on the front where he lost her. It ends with the phrase: I miss you. And god does that ring true. He miss her like a limb he lost. It feels like a part of him was torn away, just like with Maven, just like with his father, just like with Nanabel when she passed a few years back, just like the hole his mother left without him even knowing it was there. He visits her grave that year, just sort of sits under the little tree they planted, looks out at the mountains as the sun sets behind him, and talks to her like he does with Maven, tells her about everything that's happening. After a while, he just falls quiet and sits there, digging his hand into the grass and dirt right above the grave, like he can dig down to her, like it's her skin and he can still feel it's warmth. He swallow really heavily and then says: I never met anyone else that made me feel the way you did... I don't think I ever will. You were it. You were going to be it. And then he gets up and leaves. He runs into Gisa down in the Ascendent, they grab coffee at what was once Mare's favorite coffee shop, now it's Gisa's. They talk about everything, never mentioning Mare. Gisa only asks once if he's seen anyone, and he just shakes his head, and she gives him a tiny smile and says: she wouldn't have minded... well if a random bolt of lightning came from the heaven and struck you, then I guess you would know she minded. They laugh about that, and then he leaves cause he has an early flight home. When he gets back, he puts the letters in a box and then puts that box in a drawer. He never sees anyone else though. Doesn't even really fool around with anyone either. He tries once, and the whole time he just thinks about her, thinks about all the what if's and could be's. He apologizes profusely to the girl and says that it's not going to work. Something in her understands, some weird warmth that she gets that makes her pull him into an extra tight hug before she leaves from his little apartment in Archeon. He doesn't mind being alone as much, he has his friends and a strange little belief/hope that someday, he will see Mare again. And when he does he is going to pull her into the tightest hug and never, ever let go again.

idea 2: Mare dies after they are married and have at least 1 child

This one hurts far more. He knows she's on missions, and they made a pact to never be on missions together so that if the unthinkable happens and one of them does die, Coriane will have the other at least. Its a god awful early hour of the morning when there is knock on the door. Coriane is sleeping in his and Mare's bed, she had a nightmare and immediately came for comforting snuggles. He thinks he's dreaming when the knock comes again, a little more instant this time. He gets up, and Coriane sleepily trails after him, curious as a cat always. When he answers the door, he picks her up and is still sort of half asleep. When he sees the young soldier standing on the porch in uniform and the most pained look on his face, he is suddenly wide awake. The soldier reaches up and removes his hat before pulling out an envelope with the official Montfort seal on it. He holds it out and quietly says, "I'm sorry."

When Cal takes it, he worries that his hand is shaking, but it is perfectly still, Coriane is falling asleep on his shoulder, not even aware of the ramification of what this little envelope means. And he just sort of looks up at the man and asks, "Do the Barrows know?" The man blinks before saying, "Protocol dictates immediate family are informed first... spouses are immediate family along with children. We leave it to them to inform the rest...I'm sorry again sir." Then he gives a little clean military salute and leaves. Cal stands there for a long time looking at empty space, wondering what comes next, what he is even supposed to do. Coriane answers for him: by lightly tapping his cheek and whispering that she's cold. He closes the door, and sets the letter on the little table by the door. There are already four other letters there. One, an invitation to Farley's wedding to Cordelia at the end of the month, and another is a letter from Julian addressed to all of them, most likely about his trip with Sara to see the land north of Montfort. But there is her name in beautiful script on both envelopes. There is her favorite jacket hanging on the peg she always hangs it on. There is the book she left on the table, chaptered at the exact part she was on. There is her favorite mug in the sink because Coriane asked to drink her milk from it last night. She is everywhere in the house, and yet that letter means she will never be in it again. Those were her things. They not longer are. He carries Coriane up the stairs and puts her back in their his bed and then lays next to her, watching her chest rise and fall as she sleeps, a tiny smile creeping to her lips as she dreams, completely and blissfully unaware of how her life has fundamentally changed now. Then he rolls and stares at the ceiling, but the tears come and they don't stop as they fall silently. He gets up and showers at dawn--he didn't sleep-- and cries a little more there. He has to crouch down under the scalding water and bite down on his knuckle to keep from sobbing out loud and waking Cori. It's pitiful, and he knows it. She would be furious with him for not being honest about how he feels and trying to hide it like its some ugly thing. But it feels ugly, a twisted ugly thing in his chest that is screaming and clawing at his insides. He stands, turns the shower off, steps out, shaves, does his morning routine, and then wakes Coriane and gets her ready. She's still sleepy, doesn't understand, asks him when mommy is coming home, when she will be back so they can go to the market and get ice cream. He says they'll go today, but his voice shakes, even as he tries to hide it. Then he takes her to the Barrows, tells Ruth and Daniel to gather all of them together. When they are all sitting before him in the living room, packing it to the brim, he takes out the letter and reads it. There is a horrible silence when he finishes and folds it before putting it back in the envelope. Ruth slowly pulls Coriane toward her and then lifts her into her lap and hugs her so tightly Cori actually whines about it for a second before she sees the look on Cal's face. They all sit in the kitchen after that and Ruth makes tea and she makes hot chocolate for the kids and gives Coriane an extra 4 marshmallows. The kids leave to go play and the adults sit and discuss the logistics, where is the will, was the a will? Do they have to adhere to anything if there isn't one? Would she want to... to be buried on Tuck with Shade? The will would probably say. Should they do that if there isn't one? Ruth offers to take care of Coriane while Cal deals with everything, settling paperwork, etc. etc. Then everyone kinda starts talking about everything again, and he just sits in silence and stares at this knot on the table that Mare pointed out to him because she said it looked like a turtle on its back. He traces it a few times, just sort of thinking about that moment and all the other times they would be in this kitchen doing dishes after family gatherings etc. Farley watches him from across the table

before getting up and nodding for him to follow her outside. Everyone pretty much doesn't notice them leave, or they pretend not to notice. They sit outside on the back porch in silence, just the two of them. After a little bit, it starts to snow. The first snow of the year. Farley holds her hand out to catch the flakes and says quietly: "I hate that it doesn't rain when these things happen. It always feels like it should be raining." He nods silently in agreement, and then she sets her hand on his shoulder, and he bends forward, letting the weight of it drop his head into his hand. He doesn't cry again, he honestly doesn't understand why he feels nothing now, just emptiness, and numbness from the tips of his fingers all the way to the tips of his toes. Even with Maven he didn't feel this way. He felt something then, something biting and hot like a pan that he touched when it just came off the stove. They sit like that for a long time before Coriane comes outside, and slips underneath his arm to snuggle against him. Farley gets up and leaves then, sensing she's said her peace and he understands she's there if he needs her. He holds Coriane close when the back door closes, and she whispers quietly to him, "Mommy's not coming home, is she?" and he just squeezes her once in answer. She frowns and stares out at the snow for a second and then turns around to face him and cups his cheeks in her little hands like she had seen Mare do a hundred times when Cal was in the middle of an especially hard day. She looks at him with a very serious expression for a child and he can see Mare in her when she does that, in the crease of her brows and the slight squint in her eyes. In the hint of chocolate brown in the curls of her hair. She will be furiously beautiful like her mother, and he had a feeling someday she will break a man's heart like his is breaking now. She looks at him for a good little bit and then says, "don't worry, I will take care of you." And he laughs, knowing that Mare always said the same thing. He pulls her close again and whispers with a thick voice, "it's my job to take care of you. But it's just us now... we have to take care of each other."

The funeral is in the spring. Cal pushed it off. Mare hated the winter. Even though she had happier memories of it now, her childhood and the painful clenching of her empty belly were like a permanent stain on the season. He would not bury her in that time. When the snow thaws and the ground melts, they release her ashes on a hill and leave stone for her on a hill under a tree, with a view of the mountains. There is a long line of epithet underneath her name: beloved daughter, sister, friend, wife, mother. Staring at it, Cal wonders if she knows just how important she had become. If she knew that she wasn't just a captain, or a figurehead that brought a centuries old regime to its knees. Everyone leaves after, the Barrows going last, but Cal and Coriane stay. Cal just sitting in the grass next to the grave, the wind in his hair while he watches the mountains for a little while. Coriane sits on the grave, probably not the nicest thing to do, but she does, and traces Mare's name over and over again on the stone with her little finger. "Mommy had a long name." She says as she traces the four names on the stone. Cal hesitated to put his name on there with hers, but he adopted the Barrow name as much as Mare took the Calore one when they married. And in the very, very short will she had drafted, that he almost didn't read because reading it made everything real, she asked that he put both their names on it (but to put his name before hers and she even made a little quip at him in the will about it which made him laugh, even as it made him cry). He glances at Cori after she says that and nods. She then crawls into his lap and they sit watching the mountains before Coriane says, "Uncle Julian says that when people die, they become the dirt that feeds the trees and the grass... do you think mommy is happy to be tree food?" He laughs and hugs her really close before saying, "She's not tree food. That dust we let go of today was mommy. She's on the winds now, traveling everywhere."

He does not remarry, no matter how many years pass, and how many women try to infer that it might be for the best if Coriane had mother in her life. He thinks its a stupid notion that he can't raise his own child on his own. And its hard, god is it hard. But he does it. He makes Coriane Barrow Calore into a women that Mare Molly Calore Barrow would have been very proud of. And he holds onto the notion that someday, when he dies, and they scatter his ashes, that his will find Mare's and they'll be together again that way.

[cdroloisms]

more of ghost!dream! what can i say, i love this au a lot. here are the previous parts [1] and [2] if you want to read them first - this picks up right after last time, again :D 

tws: death, grief (as per usual for this au), very briefly mentioned torture/abuse (what quacktiy’s been doing in pandora), prison arc/pandora’s vault, unhealthy relationship, unhealthy coping mechanisms (c!sam is still very emotionally repressed, go figure) 

Maybe he should’ve carried the kid; it probably would’ve been quicker, at least. Fran sidled up to him, tossing her head easily as she brushed against his leg. When he looked down, she seemed to be staring at him judgmentally.

“What?”

She barked sharply, prompting a sleepy mumble from the kid trailing behind them, and Sam rubbed at the bridge of his nose with a heavy sigh. Arguing with a dog now, really? You really are losing it.

“Are we there yet?”

“Almost,” Sam sighed again, cutting himself off before he said something he regretted. The words were colder than he intended as it was, making the kid flinch from the corner of his eye, and something in him stirred uncomfortably at the sight, far more familiar than he wanted to admit. Fran’s eyes were dark as she kept staring at him, feet padding softly against the grass as she nudged against him again.

What do you want me to do?

She held his gaze for a second longer before turning around, tail flicking to the side as she made her way to the shimmering image of the kid following them. Figure it out.

He huffed, making a small hissing sound through his teeth, ignoring the way his cheeks heated in embarrassment. He knew he was...cold, to say the least, had gotten used to everyone’s strange looks and shuffles away from him quickly enough. The prison left no room for vulnerability, not when every mechanism, every ounce of power in the prison, every person on the server was left in his hands, not when he was the only one standing in between the greatest danger that they had ever known and the peace that they had fought tooth and nail for. He’d learned how to lock every part of himself in a maze of redstone and blackstone and obsidian, learned how to hide away under layers of netherite and a metal mask. And- perhaps, at first, he’d flinched away from the slight fear in Puffy’s eyes, the hesitance in Tommy’s voice, the way that Ponk-

He swallowed, moving faster. He wasn’t going to think about him right now.

He was cold. He’d been cold as the Warden and he was cold, now, because he’d been the Warden for so long that he’d forgotten how to be anything else, because the walls that he’d thrown up between the part of him that lived under the sun and never wore more than a gold chestplate and the part of him that knew nothing but an endless checkerboard of grey and black had cracked over the days and weeks and months spent pacing, restless, around the same black box, from every piercing word Quackity spoke, from the bone-deep exhaustion that he could never shake. Fran barked again, behind him, and the kid giggled softly, the sound bright and weightless and warm; the weight of the mask on his face suddenly felt oppressive, and his hand came to brush against the polished edges. What did his voice sound like, warm? Did he even remember?

“Sammy!” He stumbled to a stop, the voice in his ears still unfamiliar in its familiarity, adrenaline making his heart flutter, “Slow down! You’re goin’ too fast!”

He stopped, not realizing he was holding his breath until he felt something- someone, right, knock into the back of his legs. He turned himself around carefully, finding the kid staring up at him with big, drooping eyes.

“M’tired,” he mumbled, leaning forward to put more of his weight on Sam, stumbling slightly when Sam drew backwards. “We’re almos’ there, right?”

“...yeah,” Sam looked away, pointedly looking over his shoulder to avoid having to meet the kid’s gaze, eyes finding the stone face of the mountain that he’d made into his home. “Just a few more minutes.”

“‘Kay,” he stepped back, arms coming down to his sides from where they’d been wrapped around Sam’s waist, and the weight that had suddenly settled over his ribcage eased off as well, finally letting him breathe. He began to turn back forwards so they could continue their walk and finally actually get inside the base when he felt something tug at his hoodie sleeve.

He watched, with something a little like a mix of muted horror and fascination as Dream grabbed his hand, carefully threading his fingers one by one in between Sam’s own until his hand was loosely clasped around the ghost’s, beaming at his accomplishment as he squeezed his hand firmly. It was something he’d done before, with Bad’s never-ending insistence that they stay together for safety at the slightest sight of danger and Sam usually relegated to wrangle the younger kids as one of the older and more “responsible” in the group, and the familiar weight of Dream’s hand in his own had him choking on memories he’d half-forgotten.

“Sammy?”

Even as a ghost, his grip was tight; there would be no way for Sam to ease his hand away without alerting him of his intentions. He swallowed around the thickness in his throat, feeling Fran walk up to his other side and circle around his legs.

“Let’s go.” His voice was rough, though the mask probably distorted it too much for it to be too noticeable. He pressed his shoulders back, let his right hand hang as a dead weight as the ghost swung it back and forth, humming idly as he did so.

“We’re almost there,” he said, looking forward towards his mountain, its western face shining golden by the setting sun, and didn’t know if he was talking to the ghost by his side or himself.

---

Thankfully, the actual process of getting into his base ended up being much simpler than the walk back to it. The sight of the various redstone mechanisms - hoeing the dirt and having a door appear from nowhere, especially - had the kid thoroughly perked up from where he’d been half-asleep by Sam’s side, and he’d fired off question after question as they made their way inside. The excitement was an easy distraction and he latched onto it with maybe a little too much enthusiasm, giving off-hand explanations as he dug through his chests for wool and wood.

The ghost, just as he’d always been, was an endless fountain of curiosity, following eagerly to look at his automatic potion brewer and sugarcane farm and furnace set-up, face scrunching in confusion when Sam tried explaining any of the redstone but watching intently anyway. Fran, seemingly exhausted from the walk - which, admittedly, had ended up being much longer than any of them expected - had almost immediately padded off to her room to sleep, leaving Sam alone with an all-too excitable ghost and far too many questions that weren’t going to get answers any time soon.

As the kid finally took a second away from running around to watch, fascinated, as the minecart in Sam’s furnaces dutifully circled back and forth with a few stacks of cobble that he’d thrown in there to smelt as a demonstration, he let himself step away, dragging a hand across his face with a low hiss of distress. He hadn’t thought of the possibility of Dream coming back as a ghost, honestly, had hardly thought about the future at all beyond the need for Quackity and himself to keep their mouths shut. It was an oversight, in hindsight, and he was lucky that he was the one to stumble on the kid instead of virtually anyone else on the server, but now-

Sam turned, watched as the kid rocked back and forth while watching the minecart make another round around the track. What was he supposed to do, now?

He would have to keep Dream here, obviously. All of the work that he and Big Q had put in to keep their actions secret could be blown with one careless pair of eyes on the newest phantom of the server; it’s not like they were particularly hard dots to connect. Speaking of Q, Sam felt the same uneasy prickle of something crawling up his spine, and he shook his head to clear it. It would probably be best if his business partner didn’t learn about this...complication, either, or at least not until he had a little more figured out. So it was left to Sam, in the end, to figure out what happened to the kid and to watch over him, as it always did; prime, there must’ve been someone out there laughing at the irony, making sure that he’d never be able to escape the seeming never-ending task of watching the same person.

It was fine. It would be- easier, this time, as long as he stayed far away from the rest of the Greater SMP. It’s not like anyone would notice anything different, considering how much time he’d been spending in the prison for the last few months, and at least his charge would be more willing to stay in one place than last time. All he had to do was keep them sufficiently out of the others’ prying eyes, at least until he and Quackity figured out a suitable explanation for the prisoner’s death to give to the others. Until then, his job was the same as it had been for months; of course, there were differences, but at its essence, did they really matter? Dead or alive, black walls or grey, he was still the Warden and Dream his...responsibility.

It would be fine. The ghost didn’t even remember anyone else; keeping him in one place would be easy. He’d been the Warden of Pandora’s Vault for months, what was a little time watching over a kid? An amnesiac ghost at that, naïve and far too trusting - it was nothing he couldn’t handle.

Right?

---

They ended up converting George’s abandoned room into a bedroom, of sorts, for the ghost. He’d been fascinated with the door going inside, had played with it for a couple minutes before his earlier exhaustion caught up to him and he’d settled on top of the bed, watching as Sam hastily brushed off dust and made the room semi-presentable. It was largely empty; he’d added some initial furnishings when he first built it, but George never really officially moved in, ended up caught up with one thing or another until everything went down on the Sixteenth, and everything since then had been so thoroughly chaotic on both ends that he really hadn’t bothered checking in on either Sapnap or George, leaving both of their rooms to do little more than collect dust. He ran his fingers over the blue-green planks, regret washing over him suddenly like a bucket of cold water thrown over his head. When had all of them grown apart? When did their home become this?

His hands slammed a little too hard on the next bookshelf he came too, eliciting a sharp gasp from the ghost behind him. He whirled around, winced at the sight of the kid cringing, a hand clasped firmly over his ear, and forced the tenseness out of his shoulders with a heavy sigh. The tiredness, it seemed, did more than make the ghost a little quieter and less excitable than the kid in his memories. Sam moved to the next bookshelf, running a damp cloth over the top edge; there was a newfound skittishness to him, an unfamiliar tendency to jump at loud noises and sudden movements. He’d always been cautious, masked even in Sam’s earliest memories, but there had always been a boldness that simply...didn’t exist anymore.

“I’ll leave you to it, alright?” He looked back, watching as the ghost ducked under the pink covers - he hadn’t been able to find anything other than a couple blocks of pink wool in his chest from who knows how long ago - and moving towards the door.

“G’dnigh’, Sammy.”

His voice was soft and sweet, and the cold feeling from before was back, a block of ice nestled in his chest that he couldn’t get out.

“...goodnight, Dream.”

[reidecorating]

Venus & the Sun

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female Reader

A/N: I felt compelled to write this because the thought of Spence hating mornings keeps me up - which then causes me to also hate mornings because I’m tired, it truly is a tragic cycle. also! here’s my masterlist!

Word Count: 1.6k

Summary: Dragging a grumpy & sleepy Spencer out to a picnic on the water where the view was far more than he bargained for

Warnings: Early mornings A tiny bit suggestive, but predominantly just fluff galore <3

Whether Venus is named the Morning or Evening Star depends on what side of the sun it indwells. When the planet glistens and gleams from the eastern sky, it’s a telltale sign it’ll rise before the sun - namely becoming the Morning Star. If Spencer had it his way, he would not be awake before midday on a Saturday morning. If Spencer had it his way, he would continue to snore for some while longer, dreaming - visions of a maladaptive cottage in the Swiss Alps, a handful of mountain goats sprinkled about tufts of unmown alpine grass - certainly not giving a second thought towards planetary placements of a cosmos he never wished to be part of. But Spencer did not have it his way this morning. 

She always called Spencer her sun, but he believed that if this were to be true, she was his Venus; arising from the left side of his bed, sparkling and lighting up the world, most mornings, before he had even opened his eyes. The way in which she looked at him made him believe that the ancient Romans had been right about a deity of Venus, a goddess of love and beauty, his proof being the woman by his side. After wheedling him out of the comfort of rumpled sheets, with saccharine kisses and promises of more, at six o’clock, on the dot, she swept him away in a direction he recognised as towards the pier. It was the last place he would go in his free time, but because he was with her, he didn’t mind. As they journeyed on foot towards the sea, missing the growl of the car radiator, it became noticeable how winter lingered in the air, chasing joggers and haunting places where the daylight was yet to reach, as if it had unfinished business even Spring couldn’t prevent it from completing. 

Spencer felt no remorse towards anyone he hurt in the mornings. The time he spent existing, before half a litre of caffeine was sent down to his kidneys for filtration, angered him. She knew it, too. Always giving him space as he grumbled, with furrowed brows, at anything that moves, often resorting to giggling quietly and observing his shenanigans from a distance - usually involving a wrestle with a hot jug. As they walked, his fingers found the spaces between hers, grasping firmly to prevent the crisp air from streaming through to their bones. She chuckled at the tender action contrasting his expression. “What?” He scowled humorously. “Oh, nothing,” she suppressed a smile. The scowl turned confused. “You’re just very adorable, even when you despise me,” she teased. “I don’t despise you, I actually love you very much,” the sentence rolled off his tongue like a statistic, “I despise being awake.” At that, a grin broke across her face. “In fact, I think that being awake at this hour should be criminalised, I’ll pass the bill myself,”

“Good luck getting a representative to sponsor that bill, Doctor President,”

“I work for the government. I have connections,” 

“And they say this democracy isn’t corrupt,” she grimaced, only partly joking. She saw his laughter in a huff of foggy breath at her comment. “Anyway, when was the last time you had a proper breakfast?” She asked. Spencer thought about it for a moment. Yesterday, if espresso and inhaling air particles counts, he thought. “That… is a… trick question, pretty lady.” The corners of his mouth twitched from behind where his coat collar stood upturned, sufficing in the absence of a scarf, knowing that any answer he provided wouldn’t impress her. Without response, she just held his hand impossibly tighter, walking the tiniest bit quicker.

An unwieldily wicker basket dangled from his fingers, knuckles blue from the early air while they continued on their stroll along the promenade. “You can dismantle the patriarchy another day, Y/N. Please let me carry this for you,” Spencer had asked, insisting she carried the picnic blanket instead. Prevailing winds raced to hide within the drapes of his trench-coat, hiking it outwards behind him in the dramatic way it might if he were on a runway. Over the phone line, she would tell him, “Careful, you may be tempted to leave the BAU if you get scouted by Prada,” whenever she knew he was sat in a budget-meeting hotel room in Los Angeles or New York, wrestling with chopsticks and a container of cold noodles and undoubtedly working a case after hours. Never did he believe her, always taking her flattery with a grain of salt. “Absolutely not. For Givenchy though, I definitely might consider it.” She recalled his response. He acutely remembered the way she’d laughed on the other line, yearning to be the reason she did, forever. Admiring her lover, she struggled to comprehend how everyone in the world didn’t see the same things she saw. He had a beautiful soul. That’s what shone through every crack in his skin. 

Brine toothed sea mist had corroded bolts on the wharf over time, the slight stench of rusted metal taking their nostrils time to adjust to. She began laying down the thick flannel sheet over the dewy wood, careful as to not fall over the edge. “Now, I know you prefer sunsets, but trust me, after today you will change your mind,” she chirped, patting down the blanket. Spencer thought he preferred being alone, she changed his mind on that also, and so, he trusted her words unapologetically. “I’m sure of it,” he beamed at her, placing the basket down with a soft thud before cracking his, now, nearly transparent knuckles. “You look like you’re freezing!” She half whispered and half yelled, rushing to take his hands, cupping his much larger ones in hers and puffing out warm breaths of air in order to thaw his joints. After all, the jacket around her shoulders was one that belonged to him, it was the least she could do. Shaking his head at her actions, completely enamoured by the way she fiddled with his fingers to provide some friction, he turned to glance at the hills in the distance, the night falling and stars dissolving into day, like granules of sugar in hot tea. He looked back at her, catching her eyes, already gazing up at him. “I sense you’re about to tell me something I don’t know about sunrises,” she tilted her head. “Close,” he nodded, grin wider than the horizon before them, “I was going to tell you about Venus.” Pointing at the remaining speck of glitter in the sky, he wrapped an arm around her. “The ancient Greeks and Egyptians actually believed that Venus was two separate celestial bodies. A morning star, which the Greeks called Phosphoros, ‘the bringer of light’, and an evening star, Hesperos, ‘the star of the evening’. It wasn’t until a few hundred years later, that they realised that Venus was actually a single planet.” She nodded along, absorbing the new information before cupping his jaw in her palms to feel his lips between her own. “What was that for?” Spencer giggled after pulling away, not opposed to the action. “Just proving to the goddess of beauty and love that I do, very much, love a beautiful person.” The dawn breaking illuminated the rose flush on Spencer’s cheeks. “Fun fact, it’s actually the hottest planet in our solar system. Kind of…” he swallowed looking down at his shoes for a brief moment, “kind of reminds me of you,” he smirked, still an amateur to the skill they call flirting. Shaking her head at him, flustered, she sat down on the sheet motioning for him to take a seat beside her, before unpacking the basket. 

A small fishing boat coursed through the water, its hull parting the ocean from Atlantic to symmetrical fountain streams, which were immediately pinned back into place, the way a cobalt fabric cut by the scissors of a seamstress would fall to her worktable. Sitting cross legged above the water, Spencer, from a large flask, poured two much needed cups of coffee, the bright pink ’S’ decorating his one making him raise a brow. She handed him a spread bagel, topped with fluorescent streaks of smoked salmon and cracks of pepper, on a small wooden chopping board, heart fluttering at how his jaw dropped slightly in excitement. “It’s Philly Cream Cheese, by the way, I know you love dairy but I made sure this didn’t have any in it anyway.” A soft smile settled on his lips. “Thank you,” he expressed his gratitude, “for all of this,” he clarified, as he finished chopping up various stone fruit into a woven basket. “Don’t mention it. I just wanted to spend more hours of the day with you,”

“That’s very sweet, but I see exactly what you’re doing. I hope you don’t expect that this’ll get me up at this hour every weekend,” 

“Mhm,” a smug look made its way onto her face, “You already know I have other ways of getting you up early on Saturdays,”

“Oh? Okay, was that a-“ he had on an incredulous look, “I’m going to hold you to that,” he chewed down on his lip. She raised her eyebrows at his words. 

“Cheers,” she held up her cup for a toast. “Cheers,” Spencer repeated, the soft clink of metal sounding over the crows of gulls overhead. They huddled into each other, watching the vibrance of sunlight meld together like dyes on an artists’s unwashed watercolour palette. Needless to say, she was not at all disappointed when the star of the morning finally disappeared, because a sky full of them could be found in the eyes of the man she called hers, and as he turned to face her, before his hand settled in her hair and apricot flavoured tongue reached her lips, she saw it, for a moment.

[dracosaurusrex]

Hello there! I was wondering if you vould do a draco x reader headcanon in their first date on Hogsmeade? Thanks love xx

With You (Headcanon)

Pairing: Draco x Reader

Genre: FLuff, and lots of it.

Hi there nonnie! Thank you so much for requesting!!! I hope you enjoy the fluff!

It was incredibly easy to be nervous around Draco Malfoy; you’d fall apart over the smallest things

the way he ran his fingers through his hair

the way he smirks at you teasingly

his eyes softening soon after

You fully accepted yourself falling head over heels for him when you realized that the mere sight of his handwriting was enough to get you going. 

If you got nervous over all these things, what more now that you’ll be going on a date with him?

Unbeknownst to you, he felt the exact same way. Maybe even worse than you.

A softie hid under his cold-hearted mask

Saved it for you

Just for you

He thought you were brilliant.

Patient, kind, intelligent

Beautiful.

You were half-blooded, and while it bothered him at first, interacting with your infectious personality made it hard to resist the fall

It took a while to reach his good side, but you managed to do so with much persistence.

Not out of desperation or anything

Just by being yourself every time he was around

Draco found that very attractive

-🌻-

If there’s something that Narcissa taught him, it’s to never settle for less

He took that to heart with his appearance.

He wanted to look real good in front of you

He wanted to see the way your eyes would sparkle whenever they landed on him

Draco would go through all of his clothes to curate the perfect outfit for your date.

Every thing he didn’t approve of would be tossed to the ever growing mountain on top of his bed

Once satisfied, he’d take a good look in the mirror

Starts thinking up of random scenarios 

Practicing responses to things that you’d say

While doing so, his heart skips a beat at the thought of you

He wanted to make a good impression on you, because he knew what others said about him 

Notices that he hasn’t done his hair yet, and the time was drawing closer for you to meet.

Scrambles everywhere for his tie pin.

Frantically slides his ring onto his finger

Ruffles his hair until it’s parted in a fashion that has him satisfied

Meanwhile, you’re wrecked with nerves and excitement, but it isn’t as bad as Draco 

You’re more worried about what you were going to wear

Your clothing selection is pretty limited, so you go for the one you think you look the prettiest in.

You select a nice looking, cream colored, casual dress, which ends mid-thigh

Hair tied with a light green ribbon into a low pony

Light makeup

You’re satisfied with the way you look (ensuring that your opinion came first), however there’s a little bit of hope he finds you pretty

-🌻-

Draco waits for you in the courtyard, sitting on the edge of the fountain

His knee bounces up and down

Hands are clammy

Struggles to keep his heart rate normal

You take deep breaths as you make your way to meet him

Once you see the light entering from the courtyards, you place your palm over your heart. You’re about to see him in a couple of seconds.

When the sight of platinum blonde comes into view, you can’t hold in your smile any longer

He’s breathtaking

But he makes you feel under dressed

asdfgdfajlhf

Sports a suit like he always does

But this time it’s more...fitted

The school uniform does no justice to his broad shoulders and his lean physique NOPE

thank godric for quidditch

Shy, flirtatious smiles are shared when he sees you, and boy are you a sight for sore eyes

You might’ve felt you were underdressed, but at that point Draco was certain that you looked good in everything

Heart are aflutter

He finds it difficult to contain his smile.

It’s so obvious you’re nervous, and it makes him relieved that it isn’t just him

When you draw closer, he stands, extending his arms slightly to you.

A hug.

A hug.

A hug.

It was electrifying feeling his arms wrap around your waist for the first time

“You’re really,” he’s at a loss for words, “Wow. You look lovely.” 

It’s out of character from him, but you enjoy it thoroughly.

“You look very handsome yourself.”

Him reaching to interlock his fingers with yours

More electricity

He didn’t care if people saw, and that only reassured your feelings for him

-🌻-

Hogsmeade’s cozy atmosphere did well to nurture the events for the evening.

You two decide to test the waters throughout the course of the date

Holding hands

Him wrapping his arm around your waist as you walked 

You returning the action

Small squeezes = lots of sparks

At one point while you’re window shopping, the boy takes initiative to wrap his other arm around you, linking his hands together in front of you from behind

He props his chin on your shoulder

You feel his breath brushing your ear

Back hug, back hug, back hug

His excuse for the closeness being, “I just wanted to see what you were looking at.”

You biting your lip to suppress the smile

To his surprise, you proceed to weave your fingers into his

Relaxing in his grasp.

He likes it. A lot.

The older passersby look at you both with adoration

“It must be nice to be young.”

Blushes, blushes, blushes

Nervous laughs and even more nervous touches

-🌻-

Draco, having the moola, constantly offers to buy you everything that piques your interest

“Do you want that? I can get it for you.”

You object to it every time

“No no! It’s fine.” You say politely

Him obliging, but secretly buys it for you when your back is turned.

“Please send it to the dorms, thank you.”

You catching him, and dragging him away before he lays another galleon on the front desk

“Please don’t.” You tell the cashier

“Please do.”

“Don’t”

“Do!”

Him kissing your cheek to shut you up.

“Draco!” You cover your heated face with the hand that isn’t currently holding his arm

A smug smile plasters his face before he faces the front desk again.

“Please do.”

You pinch his side

Him removing his arm from your grasp, only to wrap it around you and squeeze your waist

Y’all are not discrete at all

Poor cashier.

-🌻-

Dinner time!

It’s here that you finally show more of your true self, slightly nervous from  the thought opening up a bit

The air is quite tense from the nervousness

Conversation is slightly strained

Draco knew he was nervous, but the scenarios in his head didn’t prepare him for the moment he’d look into your eyes

Silence looms for a moment, and it gets more awkward

Draco’s eyebrows furrow for a bit as a conflicted frown graces his lips.

You let out a small chuckle at the sight, before lifting your finger to press the space of tension settled in between his brows

“What’s the matter, Draco?”

“Are you having fun?” Your eyes widened, because you were certain you made sure that you were indeed having fun

“This is the most fun I’ve had in a while!”

And that says a lot since your vibrant personality attracts a lot of friends

"Are you?” The concern covering your features alarms him

“Yes!” He straightens his back before leaning towards you 

“I know the night hasn’t ended yet, but do you think we can do this again?”

“I’d love that.”

Your eyes sparkle the way he likes it

The smile on your face gives him hope that this might last

You glance at his hands which are sat clasped together on the table

You shyly reach your hand out towards his

He notices this and takes the initiative to meet you halfway, interweaving your fingers once again.

The sight of your small delicate hands laced with his masculine ones elicits a giddy feeling inside of you, and the smile that you direct to it causes Draco to grab it momentarily, to press a kiss to your knuckles

“I never would’ve imagined you being a romantic.” 

“I’m not, but I don’t mind it if I’m with you.”

Gives you a smirk before kissing your knuckles again

It wasn’t your first time eating at the restaurant, but the food somehow tasted much better when you ate with the boy. Furthermore, it warmed your heart knowing that there’ll be a next time

-🌻-

The end of the night approaches as you reach the castle grounds

Many of the students were still in the Great Hall for dinner

Not wanting the date to end, you both end up walking around the halls, automatically turning away when you were near your respective common rooms

Draco handed you his jacket, noticing the drop in temperature and the thin fabric of your dress

You two had settled into the comfort of each other’s company

The night gave rise to much laughter, gossip, and new inside jokes

He wrapped his arm around your shoulder, drawing you closer to him

You, feeling much comfortable now, embrace his torso in return

The voices of students cause you both to turn into a secluded corridor, wanting to cherish your time together a little while longer

Small chuckles are exchanged due to the sneaky act

But it’s the realization of the sudden closeness that catches you off guard

Draco finds his hands on your waist

Yours resting on his forearms

Your eyes meet, and suddenly it seems that all the events that played out today were bound to culminate in this moment

His gaze travels to your lips, while yours does the same

The sight of him leaning in slowly induces excitement to emerge inside you

“Can I kiss you?” He asks in a soft whisper

The slight nod of your head prompts him to close the distance

Pulls you into a complete embrace

Your hands travel up his biceps, shoulder, and wrap around his neck

The sensation of warmth excites you due to the fact that your body is flushed against his

FIREWORKS, BUTTERFLIES, ADRENALINE

That’s all you both are able to feel when you lie in your beds that night, waiting to see each other in the morning

A/N: KJHASKfjhlaskjhalsdkjfhas so much cheese

Tagged:

@beiahadid @hahee154hq @mushi98 @stretchyice @dracosathenaeum @dreaming-about-fanfictions @saby06143 @rottenhexrt @littlethie @amithatemo @drxcomvlfx @svturtles @xoxohollands  

[wallwriterstuff]

These Violent Delights ||Alec Volturi x Female Reader||

Part 3 of a request for @tiger-khans-blog​

Part 1 - Obsession  Part 2 - When You’re Lost I’ll Leave My Gaslight On 

Warnings: Yandere!Alec, obsessive behaviour, unhealthy relationships and implied non-con later on. This is possibly one of the darkest fics I have ever written so please be aware if controlling behaviour, gaslighting etc. is triggering to you, do not read this fic. 

This fic in particular contains graphic descriptions of violence and injury further down. 

Words: 5543

Summary: With no idea what is and isn’t real anymore you’re beginning to lose your mind and suspect your loving mate isn’t all he seems to be. Desperate for some semblance of sanity you try one last time to clear your head, and the consequences are dire. 

Demetri had suspected that there was something more going on beyond the surface. Y/N Swan was quite a sweet little thing and he had missed her greatly, but he respected her decision – as had Felix – to create some distance between them so she could learn to get along with Alec. Now Demetri was wondering if she’d ever made that decision at all. With increasing frequency Alec had burst into his room or the throne room with the declaration you were missing, and Demetri had immediately put his gift to good use. In almost all the situations Demetri had prepared for the worst, perhaps he’d find you kidnapped or injured somewhere after an outing gone wrong? But every time he’d found you you had been perfectly fine and dreadfully confused as to why he was there at all.

You were always doing quite mundane things. He didn’t even need to track you half the time to tell Alec you were at that little café whose pastries you adored. Sometimes you ventured further out, wanting to see the leaves changing colour in autumn in the park nearby. Other times you were literally right on their doorstep, drawing on the edge of the fountain. On those occasions Demetri stayed with you, letting you have a few minutes more of freedom, because he had started to notice a disturbing pattern – every time he found you you looked more and more lost. You had adamantly refused to accept Alec had not seen your note the first few times, but the doubt slowly crept in until you were entirely unsure of what you had or hadn’t done. Alec was never violent upon your reunion, playing the part of the concerned mate perfectly. He was always so relieved to have you back, but the boy seemed oblivious that you were obviously suffering.

You had lost that spark you used to have in your eyes, and your posture had become more slumped over. You were meeker, agreeing to whatever was put forward to you without question more often than not. Demetri was sure he could tell you the sky was purple and you’d whole heartedly agree, even if the blue was staring you right in the face. Your withdrawn personality didn’t seem to trouble Alec but it bothered him greatly. He wasn’t sure how it had happened but you were a shell of your former self, an anxious, meek little thing who looked nowhere near as happy as she should given she had found her mate. He had caught you in the kitchen once, tired from a day of studying Italian with Marcus as you had become want to do, berating yourself for dropping a pan on your toes while cooking. To say he was surprised to hear your cursing your ‘clumsy human hands’ was an understatement.

No, no Demetri was beyond suspicious, especially when you began to go ‘missing’ more frequently, looking more and more desperate each time he found you further and further out. You had fought him the last time he found you, pounding against his chest and begging him to not take you back. His concern had brought him in all good faith to Alec’s door while you slept one night.

“What can I do for you?” Alec asked, head tilting curiously. Demetri frowned.

“It’s about Y/N. I have some concerns, Alec.” He answered. Alec’s frown immediately depeened, his eyes growing darker.

“What concerns? Is she sick? She seemed fine when I left her to sleep.”

“No, no nothing like that, though I fear her mind may not be healthy. She seems…anxious, desperate to be out of the castle. Is there something going on Alec?” he asked. Alec’s already dark eyes turned black, the red leeching out of his irises so fast Demetri was almost shocked. His expression was cold as an arctic wind and his voice held little room for argument when he answered him.

“That is of no concern to you, she’s shared her worries with me already. You overstep Demetri, she’s my mate and I’ll care for her how I see fit.”

“I simply want to know if there is anything I can do to help. It’s no secret we care for the girl to Alec, let us help.” He frowned.

“What she needs from you, Demetri, is to be left the hell alone. Stop filling her head with poison. I know you talk at the fountain. She’s upset because you suggested she might be allowed to visit her family one day. They haven’t written to her in months, the false hope crushed her. Leave my mate to me and stop poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.” He snarled quietly. Demetri hissed quietly, his irritation flaring.

“What are you talking about? A letter arrived for her Tuesday gone.” He received a door to his face as his answer, the wood actually splintering a little with the force Alec slammed it with. He knew you had been getting letters frequently from the Cullen’s and your sister, he had seen some of them when the secretary was sorting the mail out, so why hadn’t you been getting them? If you were in such a deep spiral surely it was a contributing factor. The only thing he could think of was that the secretary hadn’t delivered them. But why? he flitted straight to her desk without another moment to spare, finding her packing up to leave for the evening. She jumped at his sudden appearance.

“Demetri, I didn’t see you there, how can I help you?” she was a new girl, the fourth one in the past two months, and he didn’t care to remember her name. His head tilted.

“You received a letter the other day for Y/N Swan did you not?” he questioned, leaning against her desk. She frowned, nodding.

“I did, I gave it to Alec to deliver, did it not reach her?” she asked, looking somewhat anxious now. Demetri paused, letting his mind work it over. So, Alec had been supposed to deliver that had he? How many more had he gotten his grubby little hands on? Demetri felt a quiet sense of horror dawn on him. It made a lot more sense suddenly, why you weren’t getting any of your family’s letters. Alec had taken them all to keep you from getting in touch with them. Was your silence towards himself and Felix the same? Orchestrated by Alec so not even you knew the real reason the three of you no longer spoke?

“Not on this occasion. Not to worry, thank you for your help, sweet thing.” He shot her a charming smile to mask his sudden anxiety and disappeared as quickly as he came, heading straight for the throne room. Maybe you hadn’t been going mad at all, maybe Alec was the one driving you insane…

“What is the meaning of this intrusion?” Caius growled, beyond annoyed with the way he had flung the door open in his haste. Demetri grimaced.

“My apologies Masters, but I need to talk to you urgently.”

You had to get out this time. The walls of old buildings scraped at your hands as you bolted down one alleyway after the next, swinging around corners and doing your best to stay upright as the cobblestones did their best to trip you. You couldn’t take it anymore. Your anxiety was at an all time high, panic attacks in the morning a common thing as you dreaded the day ahead – another day of disappointing Alec in all your human imperfection. There was no one you could turn to for comfort either, not with Demetri so busy all the time. He was less of a friend and more of a guard, dragging you back each time you left as Alec had promised you his duty as a guard entailed. The worst part was that you knew your feelings of inadequacy were completely unnecessary because you weren’t the one in the wrong, Alec was.

It had become more and more obvious he wasn’t letting you leave the castle, and sneaking out when you could became your one chance to see sunlight, to have any sort of freedom. When you’d tried to ask him about it he’d brushed you off again, telling you you were being silly and reminding you of all the times he’d taken you out to the Gardens, all the gifts you’d been given as apologies for missed opportunities to venture out into the world…but he’d been lying as long as you’d known him. Maybe he had learned to control his urges, but not his darkest impulses. Alec had wanted you all to himself and he had managed to succeed with his lies and deceit. It had been a complete accident, when you came across the mountain of lies he’d told. You had been waiting to surprise him (having stayed up to wait for him to finish his guard shift) when you spilt a glass of apple juice down your shirt. His closet was the closest place to find a replacement and it would hardly be the first time you’d taken a shirt of his.

The shrine in his closet was just too much.

Everything that had gone missing lay at an alter dedicated to you. Tears blurred your vision as the flash of ivory and familiar, scribbly writing permeated your mind once more. Letters – Bella’s letters. Your sister had never forgotten you. Alec had simply made you think she had. You had been right all along, the bundled-up letters proved as such, he had always been a monster. Selfish and ugly all the way to the core, Alec Volturi had never been your Prince Charming. How many other lies had he told? He’d isolated you until all you had was him, till you relied on him to get you through your day. No more. You tripped over your own feet, vision blurred by tears. The ground rushed up to meet you, a sharp sting ripping through your knee as you cried out, catching yourself with your hands before you could smash your face into the stone. Gasping for air, you tried desperately to fill your lungs, the rising hysteria making it difficult to steady your breathing. What if you couldn’t escape? Demetri always found you and he’d drag you back there, you knew he would. He couldn’t be allowed to find you, not this time, you had to keep moving and –

“Signorina?”

Your head snapped up, body scrambling to right itself despite the deep throbbing in your knee. A young man not too much older than yourself was slowly coming towards you, hands raised and expression concerned. He had a sort of roguish charm about him, tousled dark hair and equally as dark eyes (too lose to Alec’s angry onyx to be of any comfort) set in a tanned face. He had more colour to his skin than Alec could ever hope to have. With the sleeves of a plain white shirt rolled up to his elbows, top buttons undone and smart pants on, he must have been coming home from a shift as a waiter perhaps, maybe a barista in one of the fancier coffee houses in town, but you didn’t trust him at all. How could you trust anyone when the one person you had relied on had been a lying, manipulative, deceitful little –

“S-stay back.” You stammered, scrambling to get to your feet now. The tear in your skin oozed fresh blood, dampening your skin and making you whimper. It wasn’t that it hurt necessarily, though it did sting terribly, it was more the fear that you knew what lurked in the shadows of Volterra and if anyone smelled that…well, Demetri was a hundred times more likely to find you now, wasn’t he?

“I don’t mean you any…erm…ah…hurt?” he tried, his accent thick and his English clearly not at the level of fluency. If you were in a better state of mind you’d be at least grateful he tried, however he was still approaching you and you didn’t enjoy his proximity when you needed to move. You had to keep going, had to get to a bus stop or a train station, something! Was there even a place like that in Volterra? There had to be right? You took a step away from him, your leg failing you so you half fell, half limped forward. His arms were around you in an instant and you screamed, wriggling desperately to fight him off.

“Let me go! Let me go!”

“Merda! Smettila di lottare!” (Shit! Stop fighting!) he cursed, tightening his grip on you. Legs flailing, you threw your head back in a desperate attempt to get him to let go, your skull protesting as bone crunched beneath it. His arms dropped and you darted forward, only for your knee to give way once more. With another loud curse the boy was on-top of you then, glancing around wildly to see if anyone had noticed your scuffle yet. His weight atop you was almost suffocating given how much trouble you had already had breathing, and tears filled your eyes as you wriggled to try and be free of him.

“Get off of me! Help!” you screamed. Blood dripped from his nose onto your cheeks, hot and thick and oozing slowly down your cheek. “Stop it!” Strong hands encircled your wrists, pinning them harshly to the stone beneath you. It dug into your spine uncomfortably and it became very clear very quickly you were not escaping this boy.

“Stop!” he snapped, muttering a few choice words in Italian you had heard Felix use once or twice. His expression was contorted into a mask of pain, his nose swollen but not broken and his body holding tight to your own to keep you from moving. Your struggling was only serving to make you brush against him though, and it was clear the effect it was having on him was not helping him decide to let you go. If you had been in your right mind, you would have understood this boy was only trying to help, stop you moving to ensure you didn’t hurt yourself further, but in the moment your reality was warped and far too terrifying for you to see sense.  

“Fuoco! Fuoco!” (Fire! Fire!) Your father had always taught you to tell fire rather than help, it attracted more attention he said. You didn’t attract the kind of attention you wanted. The boy was thrown off of you in a blur of movement, his body smashing into the brickwork of the house across from you. You heard the bones shattering, his ear-piercing scream ringing in your ears as a black cloak obscured his attacker. With or without the cloak you knew who it was, the smaller, lean stature, the ferocity with which he tore into his victim. You whimpered, eyes turning away from the poor boy. There was no way to help him now, not when Alec was busy popping his bones through his skin like one might spear a sausage with a cocktail stick at a party. Rolling to your front, you tried desperately to get your trembling limbs to cooperate, your hysterical screaming echoing off of the walls.

You had barely limped three steps when the screeching behind you abruptly cut away into a gurgling sound. Ice cold hands found your shoulders and you whirled desperately to try and fend Alec off, only to freeze at the sight of the poor, mangled boy behind you. His actions may not have been good, but he didn’t deserve to be folded in on himself like a human pretzel, bones poking out of his skin and blood gushing from an open wound on his throat. He was drowning in crimson, choked by the same saccharine liquid Alec was licking off of his thumb now, onyx eyes boring into your own with his usual apathetic expression hiding the pure mania in his eyes.

He hadn’t even fed, he’d killed the boy for sport.

“See what happens when you go out alone little human?” he asked. The bile rose in your throat too quickly to stop it and Alec obligingly held your hair as you turned to the side and threw up at your feet, hot acid burning the back of your throat and stomach churning violently. Panting, you kept your wide-eyed stare fixed on the cobblestones. Even then it wasn’t enough, a trail of blood slowly seeping its way towards you, descending downhill like some morbid snake writhing between the stones. You couldn’t keep the tears away this time as Alec’s breath, metallic with the scent of another man’s blood, sent a wave of dizziness over you.

“P-please…please d-don’t…I can’t…” your head spun, too many thoughts and feelings crashing and colliding and rendering you a stammering mess before you finally grew mute, your body growing cold. Alec held you tenderly, like you were the only thing in the world to him that mattered, his embrace as soft as cotton but cold, as though death itself had shrouded you. In the distant parts of your mind you recognised he was talking to you, but you didn’t dare listen. He was the serpent that tempted Eve, a voice of velvet spinning spider webs to ensnare you. Dimly, you noted that the boy’s blood was running past your toes now.

Was this how it ended for you? Had Alec finally had enough of your obedience training? Clearly it hadn’t worked. You felt filthy to the core for enjoying his embrace, but his arms were strong and held you when your legs couldn’t anymore, his honeyed words a balm to your aching soul, promising his own brand of everlasting love - the same brand he’d gotten you hopelessly addicted to. Even his scent made your head swim, fresh linen that should be so crisp and clear, refreshing, just drowned you further. Nobody would come for you now. Alec had finally gotten you in his grasp just as he wanted and you were far, far too tainted for anyone to save. The wounds his love had inflicted too deep, festering and rotting you from the inside out, and the worst part was, you had let it happen.

You had accepted every kind word, every smile, every present, every touch, as a gift bestowed on you that you were unworthy of. So blinded by the dazzling display of redemption were you you hadn’t seen beyond the surface of the superficial affection he laid at your feet, too enamoured with all he had become to see the old monster lingering in every smile and darkening of his eyes. Alec had never changed, he had simply wore you down, so when his frozen fingers pushed your jaw upward and to the left you didn’t fight, because deep down you knew you’d never stood a chance.

“It’s alright Y/N, you’re only human,” he whispered, “You can be forgiven for that…”

“How?” your voice cracked. Forgiveness seemed impossible. If Bella or your father or anyone you loved could see you now you knew forgiveness would not be the word on their lips. How could you be forgiven for letting yourself fall so far? How could you be forgiven for being the reason that poor boy didn’t go home tonight? He had chosen to try and help you and it had only gotten him brutally murdered. The only thing Alec had ever been right about was that you were only human. None of the terrible things that had happened to you or anyone surrounding you were your fault. The blame lay solely at Alec’s feet.

“By acknowledging your flaws and becoming something more.”

Somehow, despite all the evidence before you, you really hadn’t expected him to bite down. Some part of you still thought he was above that maybe. It was like lava pouring straight from his mouth into your veins, filling your wound until it spilled over and shot down your arms, through your torso, scorching your nerve endings. It spread rapidly and you couldn’t bite back the bloodcurdling scream that left you. Alec held you tight as your body jerked, trying to escape the inescapable, the agony was all internal, a fire consuming you from the inside out.

“Alec! Alec what did you do!”

“What I had to to protect my mate!”

“Good god Alec…”

“Look at this mess.” The voices were indistinguishable, heightened and then muted, blending and yet distinctive. Your vision was too blurred to figure out the faces behind the cloaks swarming you, ripping you from one cold embrace to the next. Everything was too hot and you couldn’t escape it, no way to tear yourself out of your own body as it was flooded with acid.

“Shhhh, shhh little human.”

“Demetri get her out of here before she draws attention to this scene.”

“D-D-De-“ you barely got half of his name out before another scream broke through your throat. You didn’t have the strength to hold it back, couldn’t feel the grip your friend had on you. The world was slipping away inch by inch as you drowned in a pool of molten fire, the surface disappearing and taking you with it. Maybe this was hell? Maybe your weakness had earned you a spot in eternal fire and torment and this was only the beginning of a very long forever?

“Just give in Y/N, let go, just let go.” Somewhere through the pain you were sure Demetri had said this to you, and you battered heart didn’t know how to take it. It beat erratically, every frantic thud hoping beyond hope it would take you closer to a reunion with Bella, with the Cullen’s, with anyone you held dear. Did Demetri just want you to fall unconscious or did he mean you to really let go? What did you have to wake up for in Volterra after all? Alec would never let you leave, that much was clear now. You tried to hold onto these thoughts, really debate them and use them to ground you and keep you there, but they scattered like ash with the rest of you as the fire built to a raging inferno and melted everything you ever were.

The intense agony was all you knew now. What else could you do? Trapped in your head your only option was to count the seconds between one wave and the next, each drowning bout of flame lapping at your soul, disintegrating who you were piece by piece. By the time the fire had started to recede you weren’t sure how much time had passed, if time even had meaning. You were amazed your heart had held out under the assault of venom. It started at your extremities, like something in your chest was winching the fire back in, but as the sweet and numbing relief of the cold crept in at your toes the fire in your heart burned hotter. A grunting sound was the first thing you’d heard beyond the screaming in your head for a while, and you realised it was you, desperately fighting back the cry building in your throat as the white hot core in your chest blazed through the last of your humanity.

By the time you slumped back down, your consciousness drifting back to you slowly, you were struggling to remember how you had gotten in this predicament in the first place. Where were you? Who was around you? You wanted Bella, oh you wanted your sister so badly. The air around you felt heavier on your skin, saturated with sharp scents that overpowered your nose and made your tongue tingle when you opened your mouth for that first gasp of air. Your eyes were next to snap open, immediately focusing on the cracks in the wooden beams and the stone ceiling, the dust mites floating in the air. There was an assault of noise next, voices chattering and laughing, birds twittering, cars honking and more, so much more. Hands flying up to your ears, you noticed how it felt different to move, more fluid somehow, and the bright shine in the corner of your eye mad you sit up and move your hand back towards the light.

It glittered. Your hand was crystal, reflecting light and throwing it against the walls where it shattered into rainbow patterns, dazzling your too focused eyes.

“Y/N?”

Danger. Danger danger danger danger danger –

“Felix, give her time…it’s alright young one, we are not here to harm you.” Another foreign voice. You moved so fast everything should have blurred, your body twisting and turning  agilely as you shot off of the soft mattress and hit the hard wall with crushing force, stone chipping and falling around you while you dug your nails into the natural rock of the wall. The noise that ripped from your throat was threatening, air rushing up from your lungs and pushing out between your teeth. It shocked you enough to make you freeze, brain scrambling to catch up because there was no way that noise had come from you. Wait, who were you again? Who were they? The voices seemed familiar, but different, their faces to. The men were beautiful in a way nobody should ever be allowed to be, the flawless planes of their faces also reflecting diamond light across the walls as one slowly crept closer to you. Another hiss of air escaped your throat, warning him to stay back.

“Now who needs to give her time.” Felix, that’s what he’d called him…Felix! Your mind dredged up the murky images on demand, and you couldn’t help but frown as you tried to clear the image in your head. It was like watching the memories flow through dirty water, Felix and Demetri helping decorate your room with you, avoiding you in the corridors, no longer talking to you because Alec –

Alec!

“No.” you whispered, startled again into standing up straight, hand flying to your throat as a foreign, bell-like voice rang out. Demetri paused, letting your wild eyes take in the room.

“He is not here Y/N, the Masters’ are punishing him for his…indiscretion, by making him miss your awakening.” Felix chose his words carefully as Demetri slowly continued forward. It was so hard to focus, so much noise, so much to see, so many thoughts spinning rapidly through your mind. It worked faster now, you noticed, your brain working at top speed in a way you knew you’d only achieve with a substantial amount of caffeine if you were still human. Thoughts of Alec consumed you. Where was he? What had become of the boy he had murdered? Would he be kinder to you now you were no longer human? No longer imperfect…

“Y/N, try to focus, I know there is a lot to process right now.” Demetri sounded apologetic almost and your eyes snapped to him.

“I want to go home.” You whispered. Even as you said the words there was an uncomfortable tug in your gut, like something sharp had nicked at your intestines almost. The idea made you uncomfortable.

“What you need right now is to feed.” Demetri amended, his hand gentle on your arm. His words started an inferno in your throat. It was like the worst sore throat you’d ever had multiplied ad infinitum, the burn scorching from top to bottom while your gut twisted horribly. You weren’t just hungry, you were starving.

“Of course that’s what she needs, what newborn doesn’t?” the voice was smooth, so hypnotic you couldn’t help but relax, silently pleading to hear more. If your blood hadn’t already frozen over, you swore it would have upon seeing Alec again. He held what you assumed was the secretary in his arms, given her smart attire, but it was difficult to focus on little else other than the thrumming of her pulse, the tattoo in your brain even more hypnotising than his voice had been. Neither Demetri nor Felix could catch you as you dipped beneath their arms and snatched the body straight out of Alec’s hands, desperate to stop the burning in your throat.

“Y/N don’t!” Demetri’s voice sounded far off, almost like you were listening to him through cotton wool. The sound of blood flowing, a heart thumping…it was far far louder. Your body moved on autopilot, teeth clamping onto soft flesh. After that first burst of sweet, hot blood, your mind went completely blank. The taste was sublime, so intense on your tastebuds like nothing else had ever been. It soothed the fire in your throat some, a torrent of red dousing the flames and soaking your skin. When you could no longer take mouthfuls of the saccharine substance, a needy whine bubbled up in your throat, the tap running dry far too soon for your liking. Your throat still itched.

“Shhhhhh, I know, I know. Do not worry my love, we’ll find you more.” That voice, that hypnotic voice…with the fire in your throat calmed somewhat it was clearer in your ears, helping to ease your desperation and focus your mind some. The fingers in your hair were gentle, the occasionally brush of their skin against yours warm and inviting. You leaned into the tender touch gratefully. There was a scent too, the most intoxicating, fresh linen and pine scent, a hint of something smoky lingering underneath. Inhaling deeply, you let strong arms pull you into a firm chest, taking in lungfulls of that heady scent and letting your turbulent thoughts calm to the rhythm of the fingers running through your hair.

“Alec…”

You gasped slightly, eyes snapping open from your half-lidded gaze. The name had filled you with fear, trepidation, but the sensations surrounding you right now…you were in a safe, hazy little bubble, it was difficult to feel the fear you thought you should. You had totally forgotten he was even in the room and it was no small shock to you that he was the one holding you, that he had created this internal sense of tranquillity you were drowning in.  

“I will not let my mate starve, the Masters’ and their punishment be damned.” The smooth bass of a sprightly young voice that filtered in your ears was so similar yet so different. Alec’s voice was nothing short of mesmerising and when you looked up at him his face was just as distracting. Smooth, flawless skin, pale as the moonlight on ocean waves, stretched like an unblemished canvas across high cheekbones and a strong jaw. You could trace the perfect curve of dark eyebrows with your finger, run your hands through the soft tresses of dark hair that framed his face and brushed his eyes. Crimson red eyes peered into your own, softened by adoration and desire.

It was as if your very heart burst forth from your chest to reach out to his. You never wanted anyone else to look at you the way Alec did. Suddenly, nothing he did had mattered, because you were the imperfect one before. This man before you…you saw it now with your new eyes, saw his God-like status for what it really was. You had been unworthy until now. He had elevated you to the same status, was able to love you deeply now.

“Alec.” You breathed his name like it was a quiet prayer. His fingers moved from your hair to your jaw, slowly tracing over your cheekbone with his thumb.

“Welcome back. You are…you’re breath taking.” He gently lowered his forehead to yours and you pushed back lightly, desperate to envelop yourself in the warmth his skin now radiated.

“Really?” you whispered.

“Of course.” Alec promised. You closed your eyes, drowning in his heavenly scent.

“Y/N…you’ll need to feed some more. Perhaps we can then contact the Cullen’s and see about getting you home. We don’t usually allow newborns to stay in the castle.” Demetri spoke up finally, shattering the peaceful quiet surrounding you. That pinching sensation in your gut was back again, your eyes widening. Alec had finally accepted you! You were finally good enough and Demetri just wanted to – to send you away? No. No absolutely not. Any thoughts of going home that you had once entertained were long gone. You couldn’t leave now, not when you had to show Alec how grateful you were, how you were better now like this.

“Do I have to go?” you whispered. Alec shook his head.

“Of course not Y/N, your place is here, with me.” His lips were so soft on your own, a shiver rolling down your spine at the rightness of it. He was your perfect fit. You were made for all of his light and dark, to bear the brunt of his best and worst. You hadn’t been before, but you were ready now, ready to survive his obsession.

These violent delights have violent ends

And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,

Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey

Is loathsome in his own deliciousness

And in the taste confounds the appetite.

Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so.

Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. Friar Lawrence, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 6, by William Shakespeare