#i read/listened yesterday but was unable to use tumblr

[vickyvicarious]

I intend to do a separate post about the suitors specifically, but here are some scattered notes from Lucy's letter:

Thanks, and thanks, and thanks again for your sweet letter. It was so nice to be able to tell you and to have your sympathy.

Further evidence for Mina not always being a prompt correspondent, or just for Lucy being excitable/not having anyone else to talk to and sympathize with her? Either way, we do see here that Mina did respond to Lucy's last letter, so we aren't getting irrelevant correspondence but it does exist.

You and I, Mina dear, who are engaged and are going to settle down soon soberly into old married women, can despise vanity.

I guess it's because there is direct evidence as to who this refers to, but I'm surprised this line never has gotten any of the "Arthur and Jack got married" treatment. Why not choose to imagine that Mina and Lucy are engaged to one another as well as to their gentlemen? ;)

Arthur has just gone, and I feel in better spirits than when I left off, so I can go on telling you about the day.

Lucy was already engaged when she started the letter, which means that either he left afterwards and came back to spend more time with her the same day (super adorable), or he proposed, Lucy accepted, and then as soon as the first rush of joy had ended she was like, "sit right there, I must write Mina this instant with the news." (also super adorable). Either way, after she got caught up in emotion thinking about Jack's proposal, Arthur was able to comfort her!

(They're SUCH a cute couple you guys.)

I do not know myself if I shall ever speak slang; I do not know if Arthur likes it, as I have never heard him use any as yet.

Continuity error! In her letter on May 11, Lucy said, and I quote: "Dress is a bore. That is slang again, but never mind; Arthur says that every day."

This must be an example of the various suitors originally only being one or two roles. Arthur was the last-minute addition with Lucy originally slated to end up with Jack, I believe, so probably that early slang mention was meant to be the Quincey-figure. I personally am attached to the idea of Arthur using casual slang around Lucy (showing comfort in his presence and the ability to speak freely!) as well as Quincey inventing whole new fields of cowboy slang specifically for use around Lucy (recognizing her interests and playing up things that she enjoys to make her smile!), so I choose to disregard the last part of this line.

.

I've already said this before at some point I think, but the significance of hands in this entry is such a great contrast to the emphasis on Dracula's hands in Jonathan's diary! For Lucy, there is so much hand-clasping - always both hands, for extra sincerity - and it's a sign of respect and enduring love. Of the ability to accept a rejection but still stay loyal and shift your relationship to one the person can accept instead. It's a symbol of connection. Totally the exact opposite of Dracula's grasping, predatory hands.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Yesterday I posted about several Britcom tourism things I did in London, which were far too niche to make sense, or possibly to justify doing at all, but were still probably the coolest things I've done in at least 5 years. Here, though, is a far more reasonable bit of comedy tourism:

I left 2 pens, from my dad and I, because when I was young he and I read all the Hitchhiker's Guide and Dirk Gently books together, then did Last Chance to See and Salmon of Doubt. By "together", I mean he read the to me even though I was more than old enough to read on my own (11-13, I think, we went through them all a bit at a time over a couple of years), but if was a fun bonding thing and I think he wanted to share them with me because they were books he loved when he was younger.

After I left the pens there I realized that's probably some sort of thing we're not supposed to do, I'm sure it's bad for the environment or something. Like the marmalade sandwiches. Oh well, already done.

The other thing since the last update was I saw Daniel Kitson's show, which was absolutely incredible (turns out comedy is cooler in person than on a recording!), and I would write about that, but 1) I have to get off this train soon and wouldn't have time to nearly do it justice, and 2) afterward I met him briefly and got a picture with him and completely lost the ability to speak and I cannot think too hard about that without cringing. John Robins and Elis James talk about the phenomenon of "getting it wrong" when you meet your heroes and how this can be a problem because you might not be able to enjoy their work anymore without remembering the time you got it wrong, ironic that that's who described the concept to me as the main person with whom that's happened to me is John Robins (I haven't even met John Robins... but his friend telling you "I found your Tumblr blog" and then taking down a YouTube video because you shared it has to be the ultimate getting it wrong). I can't really listen to John Robins now and really need that to not happen with Kitson, I'm very glad we've added a last-minute ticket to see him Thursday so the overriding memory will be that amazing show, and not being unable to look at him or speak when some people very kindly got him to meet me and he very kindly agreed to take a picture even though he is on record as saying he hates everyone who likes him. But he did not seem to hate us, he was incredibly nice, I am very glad I did that and will be very glad I have that picture once I am able to look at it, which is not now so it's not getting posted. It might not have helped that I spent the journey here listening to recordings of him from 2003-2006, when he largely spoke about hating everyone who likes him. It may be outdated information. You cannot hold people to everything they said in 2004.

...Right, I'd like to stop thinking about that now, though as usual in a this-blog-is-cheaper-than-therapy way, I feel slightly better for having written it down. Actually writing about the show will take much more time than that, so I won't even try for now as I'm off to other stuff (but holy fuck was it ever cool to see live and it is so very good right now). Got another big comedy tourism thing coming up this morning. To the 3 separate people who've informed me in the last 2 days that they're enjoying reading this as though it's an actual travel blog... I may, by later today, have some comedy tourism pictures that are actually of interest to the Tumblr community and not just my niches. So that'll be fun.

Mind the gap. I'm still not over that.

[casinoquartet]

[long] U TURNED ON ASKS YIPPEE!!! hi i’m that recent anon, i love ur posts so much :))) thank you for everything, and the fic you linked was incredible! that facet of swagdoons in which red is so so painfully genuinely in true love with ash, under all the layers of power plays, through the real pain of each and every one of ash’s betrayals… i will die!!!! and thank you (& your friends) for posting about the casino quartet, i am soooo thankful for the introduction to the best polycule ever. one thing i love about the casino quartet is how clown and branzy are obnoxiously public (people know so many details that they really did not need to know) (hence people feel so confident that they’re genuinely devoted & reliant on each other that they’ll try to use one against the other) (prime example: the season 3 obsidian trap), while ash and red are obnoxiously private (no one understands what the fuck is ever going on between them) (no one knows how to manipulate their dynamic, no one can properly account for their incomprehensible relationship while trying to strategize) (prime example: boosfer’s phobias video). i like to imagine that clownzy are the closest people to the internal workings of swagdoons (they see the domestic arguments & the intimacy behind closed doors, listen to their private rants about each other, were present for some of the loaded swagdoons history that ash and red don’t even really talk about themselves). also i watched zam’s first stream of the hardcore smp yesterday [8/21/2022] and i find it so funny how ash will bring up clownzy and clown will bring up swagdoons. (ash announces he’s going to recite “the bible: part 2” and reads aloud a clownzy angst fanfiction; clown says in the middle of a formal meeting that red should sit on ash’s lap because they’re swagdoons). why are they always like this. and idk if you feel much interest in the latest season of the kaboodle smp but i’m really hoping for some clown x ash homosexualities, to fill out the casino quartet dynamics. as of now, we’ve got clown immediately showing vaguely gay interest towards ash, the mysterious teleporting guy in a suit who violently glitched into a server-wide campfire meeting out of nowhere. (clown: “ooh, who are you~?” ash, who otherwise doesn’t show interest in anyone or anything besides gaining riches: “…where do i know you from?”) (ash: teleports in, kills someone’s pet cat, teleports out. everyone, rightfully: WHAT THE FUCK?! clown: shocked delighted laughter.) (everyone is stuck unable to interact with ash, who keeps ignoring all conversation to ask for valuables. but clown swiftly catches on to ash’s rhythm and uses an emerald to try to bribe ash to follow him & tell him his name, as if ash is a cat. it somewhat works.) (after ash leaves, clown tells the others that he’ll “keep an eye on” the new stranger, who will be “safe in [his] hands”.) i watched this all go down from our beloved ivorycello’s POV [7/1/2023]. anyway uh. hiiii and thank you & all you other regular swagdoonsers on tumblr for the friendly reception :) i’m so excited for lifesteal season five plotlines. for some reason i’ve been Thinking about the intro to season 5 in which everyone gathers around in a circle waiting to start, ash sees this and places himself at the center to make an impromptu dramatic speech LOL, and red is the first to step in with him to tell him to go back to his spot. i’m choosing to imagine this as another instance of the god complex bf with enough power to back it up x the only guy who can rein him in and is bizarrely casual & familiar about it dynamic. ok i’m out ✌️ love you /p

[very long response under the cut]

HI ANON!!! glad that you enjoyed my post and the fic i recced in the tags!!! it’s one of my fav fics and your post Really reminded me of it so!!! i’m glad you enjoyed it!!!!! (loves reccing fics) me when reddoons and loyalty and how it plays into swagdoons . (<- i remember i made a post responding to something i found on lsheadcanons about vampire!ash and human!red that Could be used for a metaphor about swagdoons and loyalty . something something about red Literally fueling ash out of choice)

anyways!! WELCOME TO THE CASINO QUARTET ENJOYER GANG!!!! they r my absolute beloveds, god bless. and you’re SO RIGHT clownzy would do so much pda in public and be all mushy (but in the Worst times possible . i am talking about mushy flirting while they are being chased down by the authorities while ash and red are screaming at them to stop and focus on running away. anyways) but i think?? you’re referring to the trap where branzy is held ransom by purple duo and heh as to get clown to “save” him? but yeah . they’re always so closely associated with each other that even in small things (ex someone in the start of s5 warning someone that branzy “knows a guy” in reference to clown) and since branzy is the “weaker” of the two tbh i’m not surprised if someone holds branzy for ransom again this season (i’ve heard whispers of them teaming up again this season so !!!)

but even though there’s been a lot of acknowledgement by other cc’s, there’s not any. record of someone taking advantage of their relationship yet? like you said the closest thing is the one of them is lying video but like, that video was arguably where swagdoons showed their trust the Most (esp with cheating during spilt or steal . that was SO them) but. yeah the way their relationship is very subtle . there’s no real massive declaration of love but small moments (which. i think why there’s SO many swagdoons clips that r just small gestures but swagdoons enjoyers still go BONKERS over <- big enjoyer of their streams for that reason) (and as a result i associate the song “no big deal (i love you)” by dodie with them . a lot of the one is about not verbally saying i love you but. yk. the love is still there and strong . love that song in general so <3) but Yeah i do also like the idea that clownzy r one of the Only people who see swagdoons be domestic with each other in full . something something about casino quartet being domestic and trusting each other so much here willing to stop all of the facade and be vulnerable with each other

but LMAOOOOO that hardcore stream goes so hard . the bible part 2 caught me so off guard when i watched it like LMAO????? it’s fantastic . also in that same stream zam is like “the bible part 3: ash nd red were walking down the street” and swagdoons are INSTANTLY shutting him down and telling him to stop (this is a recurring thing for some reason apparently zam mentioned swagdoons during vidcon and got hit with a ball i response but also zam did say swagdoons made out in the dennys so ???? idk anymore) but ooooo i didn’t know about clown mentioning swagdoons . maybe i should check that out (i was only skimming through the void so…that is something for me to check out)

and i am watching kemp rn too! except i am only watching from ash’s pov, which is. a time for sure. he has already made a deal with god and figured out how to exploit his glitching thing. but ash WAS looking at clown when he teleported into the campground and defrost was like O_O at clown so. tbh i’m kinda excited to see where they go since they might have a “hold up…do i know you?” moment (and if ur interested there is a fic of them …….clown and ash my beloved) (and here’s the clown and ash meowing clip if you so desire . this clip is the clip of All Time) but hearing what the rest of the conversation with the ksmp members afterwards is INTERESTING when i just watched ash teleport away and go “i hate it here’ LMAOOO ……..that is interesting of clown though……..i wanna see them together more ……like an enclosure

AND S5!!!! i am so excited for s5 of them …..idk who’s pov you watched but in ash’s pov he Did mention wanting to team with branzy, red, and clown SOOOOOOOO ………. <- he also said this last season and that didn’t end up happening . i am going off of copium /silly

but i Do think swagdoons r gonna have a more power dynamic-y relationship this season esp with the whole free market stuff (and at least. according to red’s stream today he Said that lala legion were trying to look for camelot’s old base so…….. eyes emoji. what’s up with that) BUT YEAH!!!! lots fo exciting stuff bc i’ve also heard clownzy might team up again. …….. casino quartet nation is winning

IDK IF ANY OF THOSE RANTS MADE SENSE hopefully i didn’t miss anything and i was. semi on topic BUT !!! YEAH!!!!!! love u 2 anon /p ur asks r lovely :)

[romaine2424]

Daily Blog June 22, 2023

So that was fun yesterday in starting this blog. I seriously do hope that as time goes by that others will start doing the same. :) I do want to add that in my posts I will be adding some fandom history now and then. Today is one of those days. I may have been a bit self-indulgent. *blushes*

What I'm Reading:

I'm trying to savor the Ginny sorted into Slytherin story I mentioned yesterday. In my first read of it, I raced through it and know that I probably missed enjoying it in it's complete form. I'm on a few Discords and one of them being Harry Potter Fanfiction Club. They have a vote every month to choose what fics the members can read together and discuss. This month they chose for Drarry aideomai's Dwelling. I'd read this masterpiece before but decided to look for a shorter fic by this amazing author. I chose Nice Things. OMG all 22K of this fic is such a treat. If you ever need a warm, dreamylike fic, choose this one. It's an 8th year fic where only 7 of the classmates come back. Ron, Harry, and Hermione are in the mix. Draco is there along with Theo. They are assigned to live in a cottage on the grounds of Hogwarts. The progression of Harry and Draco's relationship is lovely. Read it now or Bookmark it for later when the need for this type of fic hits...as we all know there are times it's needed.

Tumblr Posts of Interest:

I only have one today and that's just because I have a bit to say about it as it holds a special place in my fandom heart.

HD Fan Fair (Career Fair) is open for prompts! They have openings for 250 prompts and so far have 153. Prompt closing is on June 30th. Claiming begins on July 1st.

First of all, I think we need to give a huge shout-out to Fan Fair mod @phoenixacid. This will be her 10th year of modding this fest. I do believe she worked on it even earlier. Anyone who's modded a fest before knows the dedication it takes to see it through. Her co-mod, @sassy-cissa has been involved since 2018.

Here's a little history about this Fest

This fest has been going on annually since 2009, with the exception of 2011. It was conceived by @marguerite26 and myself, with @vaysh11 and Jamie2109 soon joining in. I was unable to mod for personal reasons that first year and only partially the second...after that I pretty much left fandom. Back then, you really couldn't just start a fest when other established fests were already on the calendar. It was considered impolite and it would be posted on LJ about what an arse you were. LOL When hd_inspired closed shop, we jumped in and took their spot in Autumn. Fan Fair started with Career Fair and then moved on to Travel Fair. Since then, they've had Book (books mentioned in HP), Sex, Food, and Pottermore Fairs with repeats for Career, Travel and Food. Both Inspired and then Fan Fair were novel in being a prompt fest as opposed to an exchange fest like @hd-erised (back then it was hd_holidays). We felt it gave greater control to the authors to write to a prompt they liked as opposed to be assigned one, which from personal experience can cause angst and meltdowns. That is why it was called a Fair as opposed to a fest. A fest usually meant an Exchange Fest.

When I came back to fandom, I about cried seeing that @Phoenixacid had not only kept Fan Fair alive but it was thriving. I wrote for it that first year I came back in 2021, and I made a promise to read and comment on every fic and art piece posted for the Fairs. I only skipped one fic last year. It was brilliantly written but was beyond my comfort level for psychological horror. I don't listen to Podfics, I'm sorry to say. When I used to commute hours to and from work, I could but now I don't have the where-with-all to pay attention.

So go PROMPT!!!!! And give tons of love to the two mods!!!! Mods are the backbone of fandom.

For more history on Fan Fair and links to all the previous Fairs and their masterlists, here you go. Fan Fair on Fanlore.

Tumblr Drarry Fic/Art Resource:

Did you know the amazing @snowgall created and maintains a Drarry fanart archive at @snowingalway. She had noticed that fandom art of old was being lost and artists were leaving fandom. The pieces available for viewing are those that the artists have given her permission to archive. She personally contacted the artists to ask for such permission. I think when you visit the sight and view what she's saved, you too will be thrilled and indebted for what she's done for Drarry fandom. Please not she also posts and collect current works, too!

Last Tidbit:

I mentioned yesterday that I'd be reccing a fic today. I'm going to hold off on that until tomorrow. This is long enough. *blushes again*

[melissawebb-avocado]

1: Name

Milinda

2: Age

24

3: 3 Fears

Losing everyone, being alone, people seeing me for how i see my self

4: 3 things I love

My daughter, my husband, my sister

5: 4 turns on

Fatherly, back rubs, asking about my day, takes charge

6: 4 turns off

Dosent listen, trys to take without asking, yelling, procrastinating

7: My best friend

Brianna my sister

8: Sexual orientation

Straight

9: My best first date

Went to make pottery and then to dinner and an arcade

10: How tall am I

5"9

11: What do I miss

My home in chandler

12: What time were I born

2 pm

13: Favorite color

Teal

14: Do I have a crush

My husband

15: Favorite quote

"Most of us are gifted with the

ability to see the monsters hidden

within another, but are unable

to see past them.

It takes a special kind of person

to see the light inside of every

living being."

- Lynette Simeone

16: Favorite place

Oceanside beach

17: Favorite food

Sushi

18: Do I use sarcasm

Yes but only with those im close with

19: What am I listening to right now

Always AJR but the trolls 3 music

20: First thing I notice in new person

How they mingle with new people or stick with the person they know ignoring new people

21: Shoe size

11

22: Eye color

Hazel

23: Hair color

Brown, waiting to dye mt hair a copper red brown

24: Favorite style of clothing

Graphic t and baggy jeans

25: Ever done a prank call?

Yes.

27: Meaning behind my URL

Its my first ever book i wrote in middle school

28: Favorite movie

Howls moving castle

29: Favorite song

AJR object in motion

30: Favorite band

AJR

31: How I feel right now

Depressed

32: Someone I love

My daughter

33: My current relationship status

Married 💍

34: My relationship with my parents

BFF with my MIL and FIL call them every other day. Talk to my mom whenever i can. Forgave my dad but wont ever forget.

35: Favorite holiday

The days before Christmas

36: Tattoos and piercing i have

C section scar

37: Tattoos and piercing i want

None

38: The reason I joined Tumblr

To find more fans aboit the series i loved

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other?

I dont talk to any of them.

40: Do I ever get "good morning" or "good night" texts?

No because we say it to each other when we go to bed together

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted?

My husband?

42: When did I last hold hands?

Last night

43: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning?

Im a stay at home mom so i wake up and thats it.

44: Have I shaved your legs in the past three days?

Yesterday

45: Where am I right now?

Siting on the couch watching my daughter play

46: If I were drunk & can't stand, who's taking care of me?

My husband but my sister is taking me to him.

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level?

LOUD

48: Do I live with my Mom and Dad?

i live with my husband now

49. Am excited for anything?

To get pregnant with my 2nd kid in summer!

50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to?

My husband

51: How often do I wear a fake smile?

Not as much anymore. I used to be very good at hiding my emotions no one knew but after years of therapy my face is easy to read.

52: When was the last time I hugged someone?

Last night

53: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me?

I hope it would be my daughter. But i would probably cry since i dont feel pretty anymore since ive gained weight after birth.

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not?

Nope. All the people i used to trust that were toxic i dont talk to or give them anything from me anymore.

55: What is something I disliked about today?

My husband is working and theres no wifi

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

My old therapist.

57: What do I think about most?

The future, where im not stressed about bills, healthcare, or living somewhere i dont. Planing my future home.

58: What's my strangest talent?

Imagination

59: Do I have any strange phobias?

Speaking in public

60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

Behind!!!!

61: What was the last lie I told?

Im fine

62: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

Phone

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens?

Ghosts are real. I beilve there is other life in the universe but they look like you and me. Not movie aliens.

64: Do I believe in magic?

No

65: Do I believe in luck?

Yes. Sometimes you just wake up with a good start and it keeps pulling you forward.

66: What's the weather like right now

It snowed yesterday

67: What was the last book I've read?

The last olympian percy jackson

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline?

No

69: Do I have any nicknames?

Mina

70: What was the worst injury I've ever had?

Tore my esophagus from throwing up so much for months

71: Do I spend money or save it?

Spend on temu

72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue?

No

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me?

My daughters strawberry baby blanket

74: Favorite animal?

Axolotal

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM?

Watching tik tok

76: What do I think is Satan's last name is?

Hellboy

77: What's a song that always makes me happy when I hear it?

Trolls 3 better place

78: How can you win my heart?

Random acts of kindness

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone?

The hardest thing she did was survive and she lived through it all.

80: What is my favorite word?

Cascade

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblr

Basbardbin, moringmark, buggachat,

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say?

Just a reminder that by the time your child is 18, they will already have spent 93% of the time they will spend with you in their lifetime. So go on that adventure, because you can always get your money back, but you'll never get those years back.

83: Do I have any relatives in jail?

No

84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power?

Read peoples minds

85: What would be a question I'd be hesitate to tell the truth on?

86: What is my current desktop picture?

Me and my daughter in the sand at the beach

87: Had sex?

Uh yeah.

88: Bought condoms?

Nope

89: Gotten pregnant?

Yep

90: Failed a class?

Nope

91: Kissed a boy?

Yepppp

92: Kissed a girl?

Nope

93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain?

Yep, my husband

94: Had job?

Yep. 5 jobs

95: Left the house without my wallet?

Yeah util i atached my keys and my wallet together

96: Bullied someone on the internet?

No

97: Had sex in public?

In a car parked on the side of the street.

98: Played on a sports team?

Soccer, volleyball, swimteam, softball

99: Smoked weed?

No

100: Did drugs?

No

101: Smoked cigarettes?

No

102: Drank alcohol?

No

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan?

No

104: Been overweight?

Still am.

105: Been underweight?

No

106: Been to a wedding?

Yes, mine and my best friends and SIL

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight?

Yep

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight?

Yep, just watched avatar 1 and 2

109: Been outside my home country?

Mexico.

110: Gotten my heart broken?

Yep

111: Been to a professional sports game?

collage games?

112: Broken a bone?

Broke my radias of my wrist riding my bike

113: Cut myself?

Tried to. Kept to scratching.

114: Been to prom?

No

115: Been in airplane?

Yes. Terrified

116: Fly by helicopter?

No

117: What concerts have I been to?

None

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex?

No

119: Learned another language?

No

120: Wore make up?

Try to at least.

121: Lost my virginity before I was 18?

Nope

122: Had oral sex?

Yes

123: Dyed my hair?

Not yet

124: Voted in a presidential election?

No

125: Rode in an ambulance?

No

126: Had a surgery?

Yes, c section

127: Met someone famous?

President uchdorf

128: Stalked someone on a social network?

My exs and their girlfriends

129: Peed outside?

Yep, road trips

130: Been fishing?

Yep with my dad. Hoping to have a better experience one day

131: Helped with charity?

In high school and middle school. Worked for toys for tots.

132: Been rejected by a crush?

Yeah. High school asked a boy out to go bowling.

133: Broken a mirror?

No

134: What do I want for birthday?

Dnd table or 3d printer.

[andvys]

Love will tear us apart // part thirteen

Warnings: fluff, mentions of death, angst at the end 

Pairings: Eddie Munson x fem!reader // mentions of Steve Harrington x fem!reader 

Note: I feel like this is kinda rushed so I apologize for that.. I hope you’ll still like it. Tumblr kept messing up the sentences, so if there's anything weird, ignore it pleaseee.

series masterlist 

-

Eddie has never gone on a date before so to say that he was nervous, was definitely an understatement. He was pacing around his room, trying to figure out what to wear, mumbling something under his breath as he looked through his shirts. 

Wayne stood in his doorway, watching his nephew in amusement, who has yet to notice his uncle. 

Eddie looks at the red and black flannel, the one that you have, that one that you have worn yesterday. Just thinking of the previous night gave him butterflies. It wasn't his intention to do anything more than just kissing and cuddling but ever since you have made up and made that big step, you just couldn't keep your hands to yourselves. 

Eddie looks between the flannel and a faded Metallica shirt. 

“Wear the flannel.” 

Eddie jumps, putting his hands on his chest, he turns around to find his uncle watching him with a small smile.

“You scared me.” he chuckles.

Wayne apologizes with a small laugh, crossing his arms over his chest, he takes in the sight of Eddie, his hair is wild, his cheeks are flushed and he looks nervous “you’re going on a date?” 

“How’d you know?” Eddie asks as he listens to his uncle's suggestion and puts the flannel on. 

“You’re nervous, you’re pacing around, you’re as red as your flannel,” he pauses, coughing awkwardly as he looks at his nephew’s neck “and you’ve got something on your neck, son.” 

Eddie’s eyes widen and he blushes “r-right,” he laughs “yeah, I’m going on a date.” he says, unable to contain the smile on his face now as he thinks of you. 

“With y/n?” 

“Yeah.” Eddie says, smiling. He buttons up his flannel as he looks into the mirror, eyes meeting his uncle’s as he stares at his reflection “wait,” he mumbles, furrowing his brows. Eddie talked about you before, a lot. But he never mentioned your name to his uncle “how’d you know?” 

Wayne chuckles, raising his brows in amusement “I didn't know, just guessed it and I was right,” he pauses as he looks around Eddie’s room “you used to collect those missing posters of her and kept checking the newspaper like every single day when she was gone, I knew there was more than just, worry in your eyes and you were talking about a girl the other day, I figured you finally found the courage to ask her out, took you long enough.” 

Eddie looks at his uncle in surprise, he never knew that he was so, obvious. Wayne was always observant, he knew that but he is still surprised that his uncle knew of his feelings way before than he even did. 

“And you’re not exactly,” he pauses, coughing as he looks away from Eddie “quiet, Eddie.” 

Eddie’s eyes widen in embarrassment. Both nights you had stayed with Eddie, neither one of you was able to keep your hands to yourselves. And if there’s something that Eddie found out about himself, then it’s that he’s not exactly quiet when it comes to his moans.

Eddie’s face was getting more and more red at his point. Embarrassment flooding through him, a part of him wishes that the ground would just swallow him whole. His uncle though, was very amused by him. 

“Oh, I got something for you.” Wayne says as he grabs something from the pocket of his flannel. He picks out a tiny blue box and throws it towards his nephew. 

Eddie catches it and looks at his uncle with a questioning look on his face before he glances down. He reads the label, Trojan “oh god.” Eddie mumbles in embarrassment. 

“I’m not raising another Munson!” Wayne says as he walks back into the living room. 

Shaking his head, Eddie throws the package on his nightstand. He stares at it,  still blushing furiously at Wayne’s words. You and Eddie haven't used protection when you had sex, which was probably irresponsible but neither of you cared in the moment.

“Got it?” 

Eddie closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose “yeah, yeah- I got it, uncle Wayne!”

-

You were dodging Steve’s calls all day. A part of you felt guilty for doing so but another part of you still felt incredibly hurt but everything that was said. You were finally happy and you were hoping that your best friend would feel the same for you but instead, he hurt you and left you feeling vulnerable. 

Of course, there would always be a part of you that would question it all. A part of you would always be hurt and feel insecure because of everything that happened in the past.

Eddie’s words have hurt you more than once. They had left a scar in your heart. But he was trying his best and you could see that. 

Eddie’s arms are wrapped around you, his chest pressed against your back, a smile lingers on his face as he watches you play pac-man. 

Now, when Eddie said he was going to take you out on a date, this wasn't exactly what he meant. He was meant to take you out on a classic date. He’d get you flowers and take you out for dinner at Enzo’s and afterwards you would take a walk through the park but, you said that you wanted a fun date, not something that everyone else does. 

You’d rather go to the arcade then take a walk through the park and you’d rather get ice cream than have a fancy dinner at some boring restaurant. 

Eddie did bring you flowers. He even picked them himself, he knows you love daisies and sunflowers and there was a big field of flowers, near your house by the forest, so he stopped on the way there. He could have just bought a bouquet of your favorites ones but, picking them himself and making a little bundle of flowers for you, felt kind of, more personal. It took some time but seeing your eyes light up and seeing the smile on your face made it all worth it. 

It wasn't Eddie’s idea to go to the arcade, it was your wish, something that made Eddie laugh cause he didn't think that you’d consider going to the arcade a date but here you were. He had other plans for later but for now, he enjoyed this. 

“I always thought he hated her.” 

“Does that look like he ever hated her?” 

“Well, no but-”

“Looks like he had major issues to accept his feelings and acted like a douchebag to the nicest girl ever.”

Lucas and Mike turn towards Dustin who stares at the two of you. He pretended to still be mad at Eddie but he can’t lie and say that he isn't happy to see you two getting along. 

“Yeah,” Lucas nods “I think they were always in love or something.” 

Mike scratches the back of his neck “I always thought she’s into Steve.” 

Dustin rolls his eyes “clearly you can’t read the obvious,” he mumbles “Steve is her best friend, that’s all he ever was to her but this,” he points to you and Eddie “this is love, I mean did you see the way he calmed her down the other day?” 

The other boys nod in agreement. 

“Yeah and you should've seen the way he ran after her in school when she was mad at him.” Lucas chuckles. 

“Man, I kind of feel bad for Steve.” Mike mumbles. 

Dustin and Lucas furrow their brows and turn away from you and Eddie, staring at Mike with a confused look on their faces “you, feel bad for Steve?” 

“Yeah, since when do you feel bad for Steve?” 

“I mean,” Mike stops for a moment, gathering his thoughts “her and Steve are always there for us and he’s obviously in love with her, I mean do you see the way he looks at her?” he asks “a-and now, I don't know, don't get me wrong, Eddie is amazing but that's like, watching Mom cheat on Dad!” 

Dustin and Lucas can’t even help but start laughing at Mike’s words. 

“Mom and Dad?” Lucas snorts “does that mean that Eddie is our step dad now?”

“Shut up,” Mike mumbles with an eye roll before he turns his attention back on the two of you. 

You turn around and wrap your arms around Eddie’s waist, staring at him with a bright smile on your face. Eddie tugs your hair behind your ears before leaning down to kiss you. 

“Aww, they are so cute.” Lucas giggles as he watches you two with a grin on his face. 

“You sound like a girl.” Dustin laughs at his friend, Mike joins in on the laughter. 

The smile on his face falls and he turns towards his friends “oh you are so funny.” 

“We know.” Dustin shrugs. 

“Hey, what do you think she likes about Eddie so much?” Mike asks suddenly. 

“It’s probably the big brown eyes,” Lucas says “he always looks at her like some sad puppy, who won't fall for his eyes.” 

Mike and Dustin start laughing again, earning another eye roll from their friend. 

“Wait, you’re right, about the big brown eyes. The eyes are a trap, man,” Dustin says, turning towards Lucas “remember when Will was sad one time so she bought him a bunch of new DnD books?” 

“Oh right!” Lucas exclaims, a little too loudly. 

“Shut up!” Mike yells at him in a hushed whisper.

“Hey, where are they?” Dustin mumbles as he turns towards you to find you gone. 

“Don’t know, don't care,” Lucas shrugs “we shouldn't spy on them anyways.” 

“So you were spying on us you little shitheads.” 

All three of them yelp in surprise and turn around to find Eddie staring at them with raised eyebrows. His arm is wrapped around your shoulder. Your hand is resting on his waist. You watch them in amusement.

“No! We weren't spying!” Lucas says, raising his hands up in surrender. 

“Yeah! We weren't spying on you at all!” Mike adds, exaggerating his words which earns him an eye roll from Lucas. 

Dustin crosses his arms over his chest, looking between you and Eddie. 

The looks on Mike’s and Lucas’s faces is almost enough for Eddie to start laughing, they look panicked, eyes darting back in forth between you and him. He turns towards Dustin who looks at him with a slight glare. The boy is still mad at him and, Eddie get’s why but it still makes him sad. 

“You’re bad liars and you know it.” you chuckle. 

Lucas sighs “yeah, yeah.” he mumbles, shoulders slumping, he looks at you with a guilty look on his face. He did say that it was a bad idea to spy on the two of you but, they were a little curious and after what happened on the road two nights ago, they felt worried for you and wanted to be there in case something happened. 

“Look,” Dustin starts “we just, we’re looking out for you.” 

Your eyes soften at his words, you know that they like you and that they care about you but you never knew that they cared this much. 

“I’m here, though.” Eddie says, pulling you closer to him. He would never let anything happen to you.

“Exactly.” Dustin mutters under his breath. 

Lucas and Mike turn towards him with a surprised look on his face. It was rare for Dustin to be so grumpy, especially towards Eddie. Dustin worships Eddie, all he does is gush over how awesome he is, so this, is definitely a surprise. 

Dustin almost regrets his words when he sees Eddie looking at him with a surprised and sad look in his eyes. 

“Dustin.” you mumble sadly. 

“No, he hurt you before, we just want to protect you, y/n.” Dustin says, looking at you. 

‘Damn you Steve’, you think to yourself. You never wanted any of this to happen. You know how much the kids mean to Eddie, especially Dustin. You can basically feel the sadness radiating off of Eddie and it breaks your heart. 

“I will never hurt her again.” Eddie promises, he squeezes your hand and glances at you for a moment. You give him a small smile “I promise, guys.”

Lucas and Mike smile at his words, nodding at their dungeon master. 

Dustin though, he stays stubborn, he keeps his eyes trained on Eddie with a serious look on his face. 

It was almost odd to see him this way, the boy who usually smiles the most, is quiet, his face set in a frown. 

But even his stubbornness can’t win against Eddie’s sad puppy eyes. He uncrosses his arms, letting them fall by his sides. 

“If you ever hurt her again, I’ll kick your ass.” Dustin says, making you chuckle. 

Eddie snorts, face contorting into amusement. 

Mike and Lucas nod in agreement “yeah, we’ll totally kick your ass, Eddie.” Lucas nods. 

“Y-Yeah, totally.” Mike mumbles with a frown on his face. 

You purse your lips to keep yourself from laughing. The seriousness on their faces somehow makes the situation even funnier but you have to admit, knowing how much you mean to them and how they'd defend you if anything, warms your heart. 

Eddie looks between the three of them, the smile slowly falling from his face “w-wait, you’re serious.” 

“Dead serious.” Dustin says. 

Eddie chuckles nervously as he looks at the boys. A part of him is amused by how scared he is but, the boys mean everything to him, he wouldn't want to disappoint them by making another stupid mistake out of insecurities and hurt you again, not that he ever would again, he made a promise to himself. Eddie would never hurt you again. 

Another part of him admired the way they are so protective of you. You have an older brother, who would do nothing to protect you but, you have a bunch of teens who you consider siblings and they, would do anything to protect you. 

Eddie puts his hand over his heart “boys, I promise, I’d rather hurt myself than ever hurt my girl again.” 

Your heart flutters in your chest and you watch him with a smile on your face.

“My girl?” Mike asks, he turns towards you “what about-”

“Anyways!” Lucas interrupts, glaring at Mike “we believe you, Eddie. Right Dustin?” he asks, turning towards him. 

Both you and Eddie turn towards him, you raise your brows at him, pleading with your eyes to finally talk to Eddie and forget about what Steve said. 

He sighs and then nods “yeah, we believe you.” he says, unable to be mad at Eddie any longer, he smiles at him. 

Eddie almost sighs in relief, his eyes light up and a big smiles appears on his face. He steps forward, letting go of your hand for a moment “come here, Henderson.” he mumbles, tackling the younger boy in a big hug, ruffling his hair. They stumble back slightly almost running into a group of little kids. 

You watch them with a fond smile on your face, you knew Dustin wouldn't be able to stay mad at him for long but the two days of him giving Eddie the cold shoulder did make both you and Eddie sad. 

-

“Is this like, weird to you?” you ask, nervously. 

“What do you mean?” Eddie asks, looking at you with a questioning look on his face. 

You hesitate, looking away from him, your grip on his hand tightens. You are walking through town now, after leaving the arcade, you thought that Eddie would lead you back to his van but instead he grabbed your hand and lead you downtown.  

Eddie begins to grow concerned, your silence makes him nervous “hey,” he whispers, tugging at your hand, he stops walking. He grabs your face gently and turns you towards him “what's wrong?” he asks, softly. 

You look into his eyes and you see nothing but worry and softness in them. You nuzzle into his touch “I just, last week we were fighting and now, we’re...” Dating? Friends with benefits? You don’t even know what to say. 

Eddie’s face falls a little and he suddenly feels scared, did he move too quickly? 

“I-Is this, do you not want this?” he asks. 

There’s no way right? He thinks to himself. You already told him that you love him, more than once. But what if, love isn't enough?

You can see the fear in his eyes and your heart drops, you didn't want to make him feel like this is wrong or too much. 

You grab his hand that is resting on your cheek, eyes widening “I do! I do want this, Eddie, more than anything!” 

He exhales softly, relief flooding through him. His hands leave your cheek and they settle on the small of your back instead, pulling you into him, he rests his forehead against yours “don't scare me like that, babe,” he whispers “but, to answer your question. I don't think it’s weird, we would’ve been here a long time ago if I wasn't such an idiot.” 

“Eddie-”

“No, let me finish,” he says. He can tell that both his and Steve's words left you with many insecurities and he was desperate to fix this “I can’t justify my actions and I don't want to because there's no way to justify what I did, I was just stupid and insecure but, I just always misunderstood everything.” he mumbles, rolling his eyes at his own behavior “but, I always liked you, more than you think and I figured out that I had feelings for you when I thought that you were, gone.” 

Your eyes soften at his words, heart fluttering in your chest. Eddie hasn't told you about his feelings for you before. 

“I understand that isn't easy for you to believe me, after everything and if you want to move slow than I get it too, I’ll wait for you forever if I have to.” 

He kisses your forehead softly and gives you a sweet smile. 

“Eddie,” you whisper “I don't want to go slow, we've been going in slow motion for years now.” you say with a chuckle. 

A laugh of relief leaves his lips and he pulls you into his chest “thank god, baby, I don't wanna go slow either.” 

"Good.” you mumble into his chest, wrapping your arms around his waist, you hug him tightly. 

Eddie smiles, rubbing your back softly, he kisses the top of your head “hey, do you still like sundae’s?” 

You pull back slightly and look at him with a surprised look in your eyes “you remember that?” you ask. 

You remember your very short conversation with Eddie at Tina’s Halloween party, two years ago. You complained about the party and talked about how you’d rather spend your evening at a diner with a nice sundae.

“Of course, I remember it.” he says, smiling sadly. 

If he had just asked you out then, like he wanted to, maybe things could've been different for so long already. 

You could melt right then and there. You never thought that you had mattered much to Eddie. A part of you always thought that he wouldn't even notice if you were gone but he did, he noticed. And he knew even remembered the smallest things about you. 

“That’s so sweet, Eddie.” you smile at him. Trying your best to keep yourself from tearing up but it was difficult not to, he was looking at you like you’re the best thing on this planet “and, yes, I still love sundae’s.” 

“Good,” he smiles, leaning down he kisses your lips “cause I've been meaning to ask you out since Tina’s stupid halloween party.” he says, chuckling. 

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah.” he nods.

“Why didn't you?” you ask.

“I was about to,” he says, sadness flickers in his eyes “but Steve came and basically dragged you out of the house.” 

Realization dawns on you. You remember that, Nancy and him got into a fight, she said some hurtful things to him and he stormed away after finding you. 

“Oh.” you mumble, lips setting in a frown. 

Eddie notices the sad expression on your face, he pulls you closer “hey,” he whispers, cradling your face in his hands “I’m gonna take you on so many dates and buy you as many sundae’s as want.” he smiles, rubbing his thumb along your cheekbone “I promise.” 

-

Eddie had no idea why he had felt so nervous before the date. It was going well,  no, it was going perfect. Being around you, being with you always felt so natural. He didn't have to hide anything, he could be himself. 

It felt like it was never any different, like you were always here right beside him. 

Sitting next to you with his arm wrapped around your shoulder as you were sharing your sundae felt like it was the most natural thing to do.

Driving around town with you, felt like it’s something that you always did. 

Holding your hand and kissing you, felt like you've never gone without it. 

“What are we doing here?” you ask, furrowing your brows as you look around the wooded area. 

Eddie parked his van near the forest and top of the hill that allows you to see all of Hawkins. 

“Hold on,” he says, smiling at you. He places his hand on your thigh as he opens the glove department. You put your hands over his, fingertips grazing his rings. His brows are drawn together as he looks through the tapes. His tongue pokes out between his lips as he reads the labels on the tapes. 

You smile to yourself as you look at him.

“Ah! Got it!” he smiles, taking the tape out of the little box, he replaces it with the current one, he presses pause before the music can start playing. 

You turn towards him, looking at him with a questioning look on your face. 

“Wait.” he smiles, pulling your hand up to his lips, he places a kiss on the top of your hand before he lets go. He jumps out of the car and runs around the van. 

You watch him with a confused smile, he opens the door and offers him your hand “milady.” 

You can’t help but laugh, taking his hand, you jump out and look up at him “nerd.” 

“Yeah but, I'm your nerd.” he chuckles, eyes twinkling in the darkness, he looks down at you with a happy smile on his face “come on.” he says, pulling you along with him. 

If it wasn't for the headlights on his van then you wouldn't even be able to see anything but the few lights illuminating the small town at the bottom of the hill. Eddie’s warmth shields you from the slight breeze. 

“What are we doing here, Eddie?” you ask as you stop in front of his car. He lets go of your hand, giving you another cute smile before he rushes back to his car to turn on the music. 

He turns up the music and the moment it starts playing, you recognize the melody right away. Forever young by Alphaville. It’s the same song that played the night of the snow ball. 

Eddie rushes back towards you, with an exciting but nervous smile on his face “can I have this dance?” he asks.

Your eyes widen in surprise “dance?” 

He nods as he steps closer to you, taking your hand in his, he places them on his shoulders and grabs your waist gently. 

“I-I don't know how to dance!” 

“Me neither, baby,” he shrugs, chuckling “let’s figure it out together.” 

Neither you or Eddie have gone to prom or homecoming and neither one of you have ever slow danced before. 

“Okay.” you whisper nervously, a small laugh leaves your lips. You press your body against his, as you intertwine your fingers behind his neck. The music is playing loudly in the background as Eddie pulled you closer than before, letting you become one with him. 

You stare at each other as you start swaying to the music, smiling at each other. You have kissed, you have hugged, you have slept in each others arms, you have slept with each other and yet, here you were, blushing at something so innocent.

”Why did you pick this song?” you ask in curiosity. 

“You like it- well, liked it back then,” he explains “and I kinda started liking it too, because of you.” 

Eddie kept this tape just because of this one song, he would've never liked this song if it wasn't for you. But, now he loved it. It always reminded him of you.

You raise your brows in surprise “really?” 

He nods “I love the lyrics.” 

“Me too,” you pause as you think back to what you said to him that night ‘I always kinda thought that, I'd die young’. Back then a part of you didn't even care, whether you lived or died but, now, you want to live, you want to be here, with him “let’s not die young, please.” you whisper.

Eddie furrows his brows, he tugs you closer to him, placing a gentle kiss to your forehead. The fear in your eyes was clear as day, he knows you have been through much and that you've been close to death before but now you weren't just scared for your life or your friends life, you were scared for him too because a part of you was scared that something bad was about to happen, especially after what happened two nights ago. 

“That's not the plan, sweetheart,” he whispers, eyes softening. 

“What’s the plan?”

“Hmm, we can like, grow old together or something.” 

“Or something?” you chuckle. 

“Yeah, maybe we’ll find a way to be young forever, you know? You did say you want to be young forever.” he says, chuckling at the memory. 

“Well, the only way for us to be young forever is if we became vampires or something.” you say, squinting your eyes at him. 

“Oh! That would be kind of metal, don't you think?” 

“So metal!” you say, mimicking him “you’d be such a hot vampire though.” you say, blushing. 

His eyes widen before a smirk appears on his face “yeah?” he whispers, sliding his hands down to the small of your back, he pulls you closer to steal another kiss from you “well, I’d think you’d be an even hotter vampire, with the fangs and the red eyes.” he mumbles against your lips, staring into your eyes for a moment before he closes them and slams his lips back against yours. You pull each other tighter against one another and deepen the kiss. 

Your lips taste like strawberry and vanilla, the flavors from the sundae you have shared earlier. Your hands are in his hair, brushing through his curls. A sigh escapes your lips and Eddie hums against you, his hand are sliding up your body, leaving goosebumps everywhere he touches you. His heart flutters in his chest, the feeling of your body against his will always leave him with an overwhelming feeling of love. 

You almost gasp for air as you pull away from each other after a while. You keep your eyes closes for a moment. Eddie presses his forehead against yours, watching you with loving eyes. He presses another soft kiss to your lips. 

He whispers your name softly. You open your eyes, staring back into his beautiful brown eyes. You notice how nervous he looks all of the sudden “b-be mine?”

Your lips part in surprise, he wants you to be his? His girlfriend? 

Silence fills the air, the music stopped playing, Eddie stopped breathing for a moment as he looked at you nervously. 

“You want me to be your girlfriend?” 

“Yes.” he breathes. His eyes are soft, flickering with hope as he waits for an answer. His heart is racing in his chest and he is nervous, so so nervous. 

Happiness is all you feel as you stare into his eyes. You peck his lips softly “I'm yours, I have always been yours, Eddie.” 

He sighs in relief, eyes filled with emotions as he smiles at you before he pulls you into a hug “my girl.” he whispers. 

You giggle, he says it as though he can’t believe that this is actually real.

“My boyfriend.” you mumble into his chest.

“Say that again.” Eddie says as he pulls back a little. 

“You’re my boyfriend.” 

His eyes light up with so much love and happiness “you better kiss me right now before I start dancing ant trust me, this one is gonna be an embarrassing dance.” 

You laugh at his words before pulling him in for a kiss. 

“Wait,” he mumbles against your lips “let’s do this again.” he whispers before he runs back to the van to turn on the music again. 

You laugh as he runs back to you and picks you up in his arms, twirling you around, causing you both to laugh as he stumbles back a little.

“Best first date, ever.” he smiles. 

You hum in agreement as you press your lips against his. Out of all the moments you have spent with him, this might be your favorite. No matter what will happen in the future, you know, that this moment will always be remembered with a smile on your face. 

-

Eddie insisted on sneaking into your room, despite knowing that your brother isn't home “it’s more fun.” he said before kissing you on leaving you on the porch “bet I'm gonna be faster than you.” 

You chuckled at him as you watched him skip the down the steps, winking at you before he disappeared around the corner. 

You reach for the keys in the pocket of your jean jacket. Unlocking your front door, you turn on the lights and step inside. You’re about to close the door when someone suddenly slams their hand against the door. Your heart jumps in your chest and you step back as your eyes widen. 

“Wait!” 

Steve. 

Rolling your eyes, you open the door again, eyes settling on Steve, who looks at you with a pleading look in his eyes “I don't want to talk to you.” you mumble.

“Y/n, please!”

You almost feel guilty but all the hurtful words rush back to you and you don't want to think about them now, not after the amazing day that you had. You try to close the door but he stops you once again.

“I messed up! Okay? I know I messed up!” he almost shouts “please j-just, let me explain.” 

You close your eyes and take a deep breath. Opening the door again, you keep your hand on the doorknob. The look in his eyes is desperate, his usually so perfectly styled hair is a mess, dark circles rest under his eyes, he looks awful. A guilty feeling settles in your chest, it was his own fault but you still felt bad, even if he was the one that hurt you. 

“Steve,” you mumble “I don't want to talk to you, not today.” 

You glance behind you, knowing that Eddie is in your room already, wondering where you are. 

“Please, I-I just need to explain.” he says as he steps inside. 

His bloodshot eyes are the first thing you notice and then the smell of alcohol hits you. Your face contorts into a frown “are you drunk?” 

“I-I, I’m so sorry, y/n.” he mumbles, completely ignoring your question “I’m an asshole, I shouldn't have said all these things, that- that was fucked up.” 

“You’re right, it was fucked up.” you say as you take a step back, eying him up and down. 

He runs his hand through his hair, leaning against the wall by the door to keep himself steady, he looks down for a moment before his eyes lock with yours again, his eyes fill with tears. 

Steve fills incredibly guilty after what he said and it only got worse after his conversation with Eddie. Robin scolded him, he has never seen the girl so mad before. Dustin refused to talk to him and you ignored every single one of his calls. He deserved it, he really did but he was suffering. He never wanted to hurt you. He hated how much Eddie was hurting you and yet he did the same thing. 

“I never wanted to hurt you.” 

“Then why did you?” 

He sighs, pushing himself off the wall, he walks towards you “I-I was angry.” 

“At me?” you ask.

“No, at the situation, at Eddie- why does he get a chance with you after the shit he did to you?” he asks with sadness in his eyes “why don’t I get a chance?” 

You blink as you stare at him in surprise “what?” 

“No, I heard you. I- what do you mean?” 

He scoffs at your question “come on, y/n, you know exactly what I mean.” 

“No, I don’t.” you mumble, his words trigger something in you.

‘You know more than you think, y/n, you seem like a smart girl.’ A strange voice echoes in your mind, the words repeating themselves. 

Shaking your head, you blink as you stare back at Steve. 

“You and I both know that there was always something between us. You can’t tell me that it was just friendship! There was always more and you know it,” he pauses “o-or are you saying that it all meant nothing to you?”

“Steve.” you mumble “stop it, you’re drunk.” 

Your heart begins to race, a nervous feelings settles in your chest. You can’t even look at him right now, the look in his eyes tells you that there’s more he's gonna say and you will have to hurt him. 

“So? It’s the truth, y/n!” he exclaims, taking another step closer to you. You turn around, looking towards the staircase. You know Eddie could come down any moment and you don't want them to see each other, knowing that they'll only get into a fight.

A gasp escapes your lips when you turn around to find him standing directly in front of you. He places his hands on your shoulders, eyes darting between your eyes and your lips.

“You are my best friend, Steve. That’s all.” you say, eyes tearing up. 

Hurt flickers in his eyes, you know he wants more than just friendship and you both might be running your friendship right at this moment. 

“I-I don't believe that.” he mumbles. 

How can he believe that? You've been right by his side from the start of your friendship. You were there to fix his broken heart, you were there when he was almost killed by a demodog, you threw yourself into his arms after killing it, you searched for comfort in his arms, you had something much deeper than just friendship so, how can he believe that there’s nothing?

You sigh, “I-I can’t do this right now and I don't want to, so if you'll excuse me-”

You never get to finish your sentence, the moment you step away from him, he takes another step forward, hands cradling your face in his large ones, he leans down and slams his lips against yours. 

You gasp against his lips, your eyes widen. You stand frozen in place, unable to move as Steve kisses you. 

And, Eddie stands frozen in place too as he watches the scene unfold. His eyes are filled with anger and his hands ball into fists. He would have felt heartbroken and sad, if you kissed him back. Your arms were hanging limply by your sides and you were tense, he could see that. 

You place your hands on his chest and push him away from you causing him to stumble back “what the hell, Steve?” you exclaim, anger rising in your chest. 

Sadness lingered in his eyes as he realized that he messed up yet again, he is about to speak up, when he notices Eddie as he looks over your shoulder. 

“You have some fucking nerve, Harrington.” 

You tense up at the sound of his voice, eyes filling with fear and anxiety as you turn towards Eddie. You almost expect him to look at you in anger and disgust but there's no such thing in his eyes as he glances at you for a moment. Eddie squeezes your hand gently, showing you that he isn't mad at you. 

“Of course, you have to show up and try to ruin everything again.” Eddie says, staring at the other boy with anger and hatred in his eyes “get the hell out or-”

“Or what, Munson?” he asks aggressively, stepping closer to him. 

What the hell?

You look at him in surprise, you didn't expect him to react like that. Steve looked both sad and angry, his emotions took control of him and he was ready to fight Eddie.

Eddie lets out a surprised laugh “you want to fight? In front of her?” he asks, pointing to you “you wanna make shit worse? Really?” 

Steve blinks, eyes flicking to you for a moment, the look on your face was enough to ground him. The anger was slowly fading away and the sadness settled back in. He disappointed you, once again. He touched you without permission, he fucked up. 

He might've been able to fix things before but now? Now, it feels like he lost you for good. 

He utters no more words, his eyes are filled with tears as he gives you one last glance before he pushes past Eddie and rushes out of the house. He leaves, without looking back. 

-

taglist: : @prettyboyeddiemunson @inject-memes , @twdimagining , @littledemondani , @wroteclassicaly , @lunatictardis  @tayhar811  @pagesfalling @boomhauer , @corrodedcorpsess , @ashwhowrites , @iamaslutforcoffee , @fieldofsecretss  , @haylaansmi @phantomxoxo  @paprikaquinn @marianita195 @bambi-munson , @harrys-tittie  @eddies-lover , @imagines-by-a-typical-fangirl , @arioneway , @vampirestookmydoubts , @sushiirestaurant , @killjoy36154 , @avocadotoastwithegg , @magnificantmermaid , @zucchinimalfoy , @slightlyvicked , @leahthesith , @bhavanti , @aurora-austen @bmunson86 , @mcueveryday , @lnnlove , @kissitbttr , @bibliophilewednesday  , @thesnoweclipse , @beep-beep-sherlock @sav7689 , @ogoc-19 , @linkpk88 , @urmomgov @quartzneyy , @that-girl-is-a-psycho   @bitchyseawitch @ninapengbrev @hellkaisersangel @aftermidnightwriting @miss-celestial-being

[strawberrieas]

Hi! I’m still kind of new to Tumblr so I don’t know how this works but whenever you get the chance, I’d appreciate if you could write a fluffy crona x reader scenario! I love your work and you are amazing! Thank you!

INSOMNIA // CRONA GORGON

# GENRE. fluff

# RUNDOWN. crona and y/n fluff, y/n helping crona fall asleep since he can’t do it alone

# WARNINGS. not proof read

# NOTE. no worries anon you did it right, and thank you for the compliments it made my day <333 sorry for the wait too had a shitty headache yesterday </3

It’d been a long time since Crona could recall having a good nights sleep. Whether it was because he was always out fulfilled Medusa’s every request, being on the receiving end of Ragnarok’s abuse for things that he usually wasn’t at fault for, or even his own thoughts keeping him from being able to rest, there was always something stopping him from sleeping peacefully. Often times the only time he’d ever get rest is when he eventually got so tired he couldn’t help but pass out and get enough rest just to keep him standing, it was just something he was completely used to by now and in his eyes that was something that would never change.

At least until you came around anyway.

Crona’s never able to quite wrap his head around why everything so different when he’s around her. It was yet another thing in his life he didn’t know how to handle, but whenever he was around you he never found himself worrying as often as he usually did. Saying that he was enamored with you was a heavy understatement, and his vocabulary wasn’t nearly as large enough to perfectly describe how he felt around you, how he felt about you. Despite being relatively socially inept and unable of even handle his own emotions, you never judged him for it.

You never looked down on him or looked at him as if he were just a tool and disposable at any moment. It wasn’t like the way his new friends would treat him, and while he did appreciate their willingness to accept him and be his friends, you were much more than that. You never even saw him as a threat to begin with.

Crona’s hurt tons of people and killed even more than that, but if you at any point in time ever held that against him, he certainly couldn’t tell.

If there was a way for him to convey the way he felt about you through words he certainly would’ve done so, but finding the words would’ve been next to impossible even if he did try to get his thoughts out. You’ve done so much in ways that he doubted he’d ever be able to fully repay you for, and all for him. Did he even truly deserve it? He’s done so many awful things that it’s hard to even imagine he’d ever be worthy of your love, why are you even still with him? For a moment, Crona was so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t realized his gaze had been locked on you until you broke the silence in the room.

“Are you alright?”

Crona snapped out of in, and only then did he realize he’d been staring up at you for god knows how long with an awestruck expression stuck on his face. He blinked and instantly turned his head to avoid the eye contact he’d unknowingly made with you at the time, it was making him nervous.

He wasn’t used to being asked that question. Why would anyone want to know about how he felt? Why would they care when sometimes even he didn’t prioritize his own feelings? Why were you always doing it for him?

“I’m fine.”

You gave a small nod and him of approval, and that was that. You never pushed him to open up but you did always make sure that he was aware he didn’t have to hide or worry about anything when around you. Crona appreciated the effort, since even if he didn’t want to always talk about it, knowing that you were willing to listen was more than enough.

Closing his eyes, he tried to focus on the way your fingers were running through his unruly and uneven hair, or how warm your lap was under his head. Your general presence was enough to calm him down and distract him from nearly anything. Moments like these made him wish he could cling onto you for dear life and never have to let go again, and if it were possible then he wouldn’t have hesitated to do so. When he was around you, he never felt the need to worry about what he could and couldn’t deal with. He never feels stressed or worried around you, he never fears that he’ll hear a question he’s unable to answer, his thoughts revolve around you and you only.

The feeling he got around you felt so unrealistic that part of him was worried that if he blinked you’d suddenly be gone and he’d realize it was all just a dream. How did he ever get so lucky? You could’ve done so much better than him. There were plenty of people out there who were way more stable than he was, there were better partners who wouldn’t feel the need to hide behind you at any inconvenience, there’s were better partners that wouldn’t always lean on you for any support and wouldn’t require your constant reassurance. Whenever he jumped at something that startled him, you’d always be there to help and protect him. Whenever he was anxious or overwhelmed by people you’d always be by his side to put a hand on his shoulder and reassure him than he was fine and there was nothing to worry about. Crona couldn’t help but occasionally think that being with him was more of a chore and responsibility than a relationship.

But you chose him anyway. He’d never be able to understand why you did that.

If it weren’t for you, Crona doubted he’d been around for much longer. If it weren’t for you then he he’d still be spending his nights staring at the blank walls in a dark room, but it was only because if you that he was able to get a good nights sleep now. Crona wasn’t aware of how his consciousness was slowly slipping away from him as he relaxed under your soft touch and slowly dozed off, but if he had been he would’ve tried to stay up to enjoy the feeling for at least a little longer.

[mimisempai]

I want you to only look at me

Summary :

5 times when Loki flirts with Mobius who is completely confused and once when Mobius retaliates.

or

Loki will learn that teasing Mobius has consequences (but that he will enjoy these consequences).

Tumblr request : Can we have some Lokius where Loki is super flirty and we get flustered mobius???

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32902924

1734 words - Rating T

1.

It had all started right at the end of the debriefing at the beginning of the day.

"Is everyone clear on their assignments?"

"Yes Agent Mobius."

Mobius' satisfied look slid from the recruits to their supervisor Loki.

But he had to hold back a gasp.

Loki had just had that little gesture again, the thing that turned Mobius completely inside out.

Don’t bite your lip like that, good god…

He could not look away from Loki's lips, vaguely aware of the recruits leaving the room.

His gaze left the fascinating lips and when he looked up, he met Loki's eyes.

Holy crap... caught in the act.

Mobius could not prevent his cheeks from blushing slightly.

Loki's eyes shone with that familiar spark of mischief, as his lover smiled cockily.

That look always means trouble.

Loki winked at him, the little minx, then turned away and left the room with an undoubtedly exaggerated swaying step.

Mobius moaned innerly.

That meant a lot of trouble.

2.

A few hours later, as Mobius was half-heartedly trying to focus on his files, someone knocked lightly on his office door.

"Come in!"

It was Loki with some files in his hands.

"I have some mission reports for you to sign," the god said as he walked over and sat down in front of him. Then he gave him the files.

Mobius leaned forward to seize them. Loki took advantage of it to touch the hand of Mobius with his fingertips. Surprised, Mobius looked up at Loki who looked away, pretending to be innocent.

Mobius almost snatched the sheets from his hand and, annoyed, began to read the reports as if Loki were not there, but aware of the heat he felt where Loki had brushed his hand.

Loki stood up and slowly walked to the door humming.

"See you later, Agent Mobius..."

Mobius buried his head in his hands. It was not yet noon.

A lot of trouble, indeed.

3.

Two hours later, as Mobius' stomach reminded him that it was well past lunchtime, Loki entered his office again.

"Given the time, I suspected you hadn't eaten yet, I managed to save a salad from the cafeteria," Loki placed the salad in question on his desk and sat down across from him before continuing, "so I'm taking advantage of the end of my lunch break to bring it to you and spend a few minutes with you."

"Thanks, that's thoughtful of you," Mobius said softly, touched by the kind gesture.

"I have to take care of you, since you don't."

Mobius grunted around the mouthful he was now chomping on.

Loki chuckled and they talked about everything and anything while Mobius ate his salad, aware of Loki's gaze, which seemed to follow the movements of his fork with attention.

Having finished his salad, Mobius put the plastic fork back in the bowl and looked up at Loki.

And for the second time that day, he almost gasped.

Damn it! He was doing it again!

Loki was biting his lip again, but this time it was clearly to tease Mobius, because he was staring him right in the eyes.

Mobius coughed to compose himself and looking at his watch he said with a confidence he was far from feeling.

"I think your break is over, right?"

Loki, not at all fooled, stood up slowly, with a small turn of his hand made the empty salad bowl disappear and came very close to Mobius' face. With a glint of desire in his eyes, he whispered softly, "I love the look on your face whenever I do that."

Mobius's eyes widened and he couldn't stop his cheeks from turning slightly red again, as Loki once again walked out of his office with a proud and confident step.

Mobius wondered if he would survive the afternoon.

Yes, a lot of trouble.

4.

Two hours later, Mobius was waiting in front of the elevator, lost in his thoughts, when the little 'ding' of the door opening made him look up. He was surprised to see his lover come out, who exclaimed with joy when he saw him, "Mobius!"

Whatever his annoyance at the way Loki had Mobius wrapped around his little finger today, reading the genuine joy on Loki's face whenever he saw Mobius, made him forget everything. There was something comforting, to see that his own presence made the person he loved so happy, after all.

He smiled softly at her, then entered the elevator, their shoulders deliberately brushing against each other as they crossed.

He turned and watched his lover walk away as the doors were about to close. Suddenly Loki turned around, lifted his hand and the elevator doors remained open. He rushed towards Mobius and stood so close to him that their toes were touching and Mobius could feel the heat emanating from Loki's body.

"Loki? What is it?"

Loki had a half smile and said softly, putting his hands on Mobius' tie, "I can't let my handsome lover look less handsome because of a poorly made tie knot."

Mobius wanted to lower his head to check Loki's words but Loki didn't let him do it and made him raise his chin while shaking his head.

Mobius also realized in the moment that Loki had just said that he was handsome, and again he could not help but blush.

He wanted to slap himself on the back of the head because he felt like he was reacting like a prepubescent teenager.

Loki, with his eyes fixed on him, tightened the knot perfectly and once finished, slid his hands along the tie until he rested one of them on Mobius' chest.

He leaned forward and whispered in Mobius' ear, totally aware of the shivers he was causing his lover, "I can almost hear your heart racing."

Then he stepped back, until he came out of the elevator, with a flick of his hand he made the doors close, and all that Mobius' stunned eyes could see was the flash of mischief that crossed Loki's.

A look that presaged more trouble to come.

5.

For the past five minutes, Mobius had been listening to the recruits' reports of the day's missions and he was unable to concentrate, because Loki was staring at him with the same gleam in his eye that he had had all day. After all the ways he had teased him, Mobius was only aware of Loki's presence and responded in an automatic way to the recruits.

He reached with difficulty the end of the succession of reports, thanked them for their work and wished them a good evening, all this while feeling Loki's gaze following his every move. But Mobius did everything to avoid crossing this glance.

The irritation of being messed up by his lover was however starting to get to him.

As the last of the recruits left the room, Mobius gathered his papers, determined to ignore Loki.

He moved with a quick step towards the door, but he couldn't help it and exploded, turning back to Loki, "Stop staring at me to distract me!"

Loki walked towards him, with a predatory grin, and bringing his lips close to Mobius', he said quite distinctly, "Oh, I'm not staring at you to distract you. I'm staring at you because no matter how many people are around us, I can only see you, love."

Then, just as Mobius thought Loki was going to kiss him, he stepped back, walked past him and strolled away, humming again.

+1

The next morning, Loki woke up in Mobius' arms wrapped around him, his back against his chest. He gradually became aware that he was a little sore, but really happy and content as he thought back to the previous night.

He had not really intended to make Mobius react in this way.

He had just wanted that for one day, Mobius only thought about him. The result had been beyond his expectations, the night had been incredible.

He felt Mobius wake up behind him and press himself a little more against him.

Mobius turned him around and kissed him gently before pulling back a little, a soft smile on his lips. Then suddenly the expression on his face changed, he now looked almost horrified.

"Mobius?"

Loki lowered his eyes, following the direction of Mobius' eyes and saw what had shocked his lover. His chest was covered with various hickeys and small bites.

Seeing that Mobius had already begun his guilt trip, Loki raised his head and said, "Mobius, love, you didn't do anything I didn't want to. And honestly, if I wasn't afraid of shocking the younger recruits, I wouldn't mind parading around and proudly displaying this evidence of your passion." He finished with a wink.

Mobius buried his face in Loki's hair and whispered against the skin of his neck, making him shiver.

"You have awakened in me my most feral instincts, sweetheart."

"I enjoyed it, believe me." replied Loki, "I know I reaped what I sowed, but I didn't expect such a torrent of wild passion."

"You think you can taunt me all day and I won't return the favor? You were such a fucking tease. So infuriatingly intoxicating!”

With a skilful hip movement, Mobius turned Loki on his back and straddled him. Then he bent over and it was his turn to make Loki squirm, while he whispered against his ear, aware of the shivers he was causing to his lover, “You have no idea what you do to me, do you? I'll show you Sweetheart. Today you're not going to leave this bed and I’m going to learn everything there is to know about you, everything that makes you tick, all your sensitive little buttons, what makes you blush, what makes you shiver."

He nibbled on Loki's earlobe and released it before pulling back and continuing, his eyes in Loki's wide ones, "You said you only see me, but I, Loki, only see you too, since forever, love, you're the only thing that makes me tick. You. Loki. And even though I loved everything you did yesterday to seduce me, just being you will always be enough for me."

He concluded his passionate speech with an equally passionate kiss and began to put into practice what he had just told him. Learning everything that made Loki tick.

That day, they indeed did not leave their bed.

_____

Whole one shot series here : X

As always, bear with me as it is not beta'd and english is not my native language I hope you enjoyed it 🥰

[sserpente]

Pastel Blue (Chapter 5)

Synopsis: After his lucky escape, the Tesseract takes Loki on new adventures–but unfortunately, his journeys through space do not go unnoticed and he soon ends up on TVA’s radar. Working for them, albeit reluctantly, he keeps finding himself in the company of a young woman, Jess, who works in the linguistics department and who has a truly strange effect on him. Smitten by her confidence and smugness, he seeks her presence like a bee hunting for honey and lets her wreak havoc in his heart without really knowing why. But he is determined to find out. He means to escape this godforsaken place anyway.  

Find all chapters on my masterlist! (Unfortunately, Tumblr will not display my recent posts if I add a link.)

It almost felt like no time at all. Had one whole week really passed already since Loki had accommodated himself in her unit? In the books, the characters who had to share a room usually fell in love by the end of the story or, even better, they had some mind-blowing sex and then ended up together, and yet all she had done was play with her vibrator like it would be taken away from her the next morning for good.

But unlike any of the mischief and the chaos she had expected, Loki was a rather pleasant roommate. He was respectful, calm, tidy… and she doubted he had ever entered her room without her permission. Unless, of course, he had done so in her absence.

Jess gnashed her teeth, her eyes fixed on her brown hair in the mirror. Ariana had found this lovely youth magazine in the nineties yesterday, one that had already been thrown in the bin. The only reason she had taken it was because the cover showed a blue phone booth with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor on the cover. Jess had spent all morning skimming through it, reading the headline article as well as chuckling about the gossip and the ads—even though some of them were rather sexist.

At some point, she found a double page on fancy hairstyles for women and now struggled to copy one of the elegant braids to spice up her own hair. Thus far, she had been failing miserably, flinching with a grunt when Loki opened the bathroom door. He tilted his head upon seeing her sitting on the edge of her bathtub with her tongue sticking out a little and her fingers entangled in her brown hair.

“Yes?”

“I meant to get washed but clearly, you are occupied in here.”

Jess huffed, flinging the hair tie into the sink. “I’ve been trying to braid my hair. Like this, look!” She pointed at the magazine. The woman in the picture looked like it had taken her five minutes to create this look, and they’d had the audacity to rate this style ‘quick and easy’.

Loki chuckled. “You look like a scarecrow.”

“Why, thank you.” She rolled her eyes. “You can take your shower, I give up on this.” She said.

His sigh surprised her. “Allow me.”

“What?” Jess’ reply was all but a chirp but Loki had already approached her and fetched the hair tie from the sink. The braid was indeed a simple one, and as he stood behind her to part her hair for her, he had to refrain from letting her know just how soft it felt.

He had often braided his mother’s hair as a child. It was an activity that had calmed him down whenever Thor and his friends had made fun of how fond he was of books and preferred to use his mind and tricks rather than raw strength in play fights. The hand movements he was so familiar with that he had no need to look. Instead, he met Jess’ eyes in the mirror. She swallowed, and for a brief moment, he found himself remembering the whimpers coming from her bedroom at night.

Quickly, he averted his gaze again, parting her hair to reveal the earrings dangling down her earlobes. They shimmered in the artificial light of the bathroom. He had never seen her without them, come to think of it.

“They are moonstones.” She said when she noticed his glance. His finger brushed against her left earring once more, making it swing a little. “M got them for me on my birthday. The stone is said to soothe emotional instability and stress, and to stabilise emotions.” After all, her own parents were unlikely to buy her birthday presents anymore. “He asked me to always wear them… that they would protect me from evil.”

Loki hummed. He was familiar with the healing properties of moonstones. They were rather common on Asgard too. Only it made him wonder why Mobius would be so keen on her keeping them on at all times.

“Do you truly believe that?”

She shrugged. “I choose to.”

His fingertips brushed against the soft skin of her neck and he sucked in a deep breath. Jess’ lips parted. She was indeed a beautiful woman, was she not? Loki pondered if she was aware of just how alluring she was. How delectable she sounded when she came undone, believing so naïvely that he was unable to hear the fun she had with herself.

Lust flared up in his blue eyes, his fingers caressing her neck once more, and him braiding her hair all of a sudden turning into a subtle excuse to touch her over and over, to explore what their physical connection meant to him. Then it hit him. The inexplicable tension between them was indeed sexual too.

It was perfect, was it not? If Jess desired him, in whatever way she imagined to… then perhaps he could make use of her attraction, especially as this meant that he too would get to blatantly act on those carnal needs simmering right beneath the surface of his very core. He could not possibly trust her beyond that.

“There.” He announced, finishing up the braid by tying the loose ends together with her hair tie. She looked exactly like the model in the magazine now—only Loki had done an even better job. Jess swallowed once more, wishing, subconsciously, that he would touch her one last time. When he stepped away from her instead, she came to suppress a disappointed whimper.

“M is, um… you’ll be sent to a different unit next week.” She said, breaking the oddly peaceful but palpable silence between them.

“Am I?”

“Yeah. Reese recovered well, I mean, that’s what M told me. He will take over after the party.”

“What party?”

Jess stood, clutching the sink behind her for support—Loki did not fail to notice how flustered she was now, almost as if him braiding her hair had intensified whatever it was she felt for him. It had been a long time since he had last had to think this way upon meeting someone of the opposite sex, let alone a mortal woman.

“Dave is celebrating his anniversary this weekend. It’s a big deal here at the TVA, much more important than birthdays. M didn’t tell you about it, then.” She concluded.

Loki shook his head slowly and decided to give her a smirk. Her reaction, blood biting at her cheeks, pleased him. “I’d dare say I am not invited to your silly festivities.”

“M is thinking about it. About inviting you, I mean. And I guess you could… use a break from all… this. Besides, apart from security, everyone will be drunk by midnight. Lots of snacking and dancing…”

Loki rolled his eyes. He had already hated these kinds of parties back on Asgard. Fandral would shamelessly flirt with three women at once, Volstagg would stuff himself into a coma and Thor would brag with his hammer on the dance floor, making the women believe they could lift it as they danced with him.

If anything, however, this absurd anniversary was the perfect opportunity for him to let his charm play and gain her trust. Jess sighed, prompting him to look up and meet her eyes. She stood, approaching him with the hint of a smile both scornful and compassionate at the same time… and then wrapped her arms around him.

Loki tensed up, his arms hanging by his side motionlessly. Physical affection was the last thing he had expected in a place like this, even from Jess. Perhaps, gaining her trust would be easier than he thought it would be, and still, part of him was unable to deny how much he enjoyed knowing that someone at least pretended to care, as peculiar as she was. Her touch felt like someone had set his entire body ablaze.

“Listen, I know you’ve been through shit and I know you hate everyone right now, including me. M may or may not have red on his ledger but you’re a part of the team now. You’re one of us. If we don’t stand up for each other, then who will?”

“I never agreed on becoming a part of the team.” Loki responded darkly.

Jess moved away from him a little, her smile faltering. “Me neither.”

~*~

“You’ll have to explain that to me one more time. When your father, I mean, Odin, fell into the Odinsleep—whatever the hell that means—your mother gave you the throne?”

Loki hummed. That was the part of the story Thor had left out upon telling S.H.I.E.L.D. and all the other silly secret organisations run by mortals how dangerous and menacing his adoptive brother was.

Jess was flicking through one of the thickest books he had ever seen. It was a collection of astronomical anomalies written down in a language not even Loki could decipher and it was so big she had to stand upright rather than sit at her desk to read the top of the pages. She gazed at him from the corner of her eyes.

“Thor was no longer on Asgard and Mother refused to leave Odin’s side. I was the only one left fit to rule—only Thor’s idiotic friends did not accept me as their king.”

“Let me guess… they pretended you were the villain so you became the villain?” Nibbling on her candy necklace, she bit off a pearl with a loud crack. Loki flinched a little. It was short of a miracle she had not chipped any of her teeth yet.

“I saw my chance,” he said. “So I took it. I never saw myself as the villain. And I never lied. I was the rightful king of Asgard.”

Jess bent over to read the small print. She was still wearing the plait Loki had braided into her hair. It swayed from side to side a bit as it fell over her shoulder, revealing her neck. Her scent was almost unnerving—unnerving in a most ferocious and desirable way. Intoxicating. He had sensed it when she had hugged him already and now, part of him was greedy to press her close to him once more and feel her body against his. He suppressed a growl. He should be enjoying his quest to tiptoe nearer and nearer to getting this ridiculous collar off his neck and make this mortal woman swoon over him—not the other way around. He was the one in control. He had to be.

So he stepped closer, his tread so quiet Jess never heard him approach her.

“So you came to like it. The power of the throne?” She said without looking up. Loki nodded, oblivious to the fact she could not see him. She cursed under her breath when his arm brushed against hers, eliciting a barely noticeable smirk from him. It was amusing how quickly he could read her reactions to him now.

The Trickster swallowed. “I meant to prove myself to the man who never saw me as a potential heir in the first place.”

“How did Thanos find you?” Jess choked out when he moved in closer, demanding all of her attention to himself. It almost scared him how fast she forgot about the massive book on her desk, her eyes fixed on his face as if it bore the answer to all of her questions. Loki’s expression hardened nonetheless, regardless of how much the urge to taste her lips rose within him.

“How much do you know?”

“I know what M told me… that you were his ally and he helped you take over Earth in exchange for the Tesseract.”

Loki narrowed his eyes at her. “Then you know nothing.” Her glance found his lips now too. He was standing close enough for his warm breath to ghost over her mouth, her heart beating more rapidly with every passing second.

Fuck. Her office was being monitored. Sucking in a deep breath, she moved away from him and closed the thick book on her desk shut. “It’s late. We should head to the party.” She cleared her throat. “You can, um… wait for me here so I can get changed. Give me five.”

Loki nodded, taken by surprise until he noticed her glancing at the chunky surveillance camera in the corner of the room. Ah… there it was. The fear or shame or both to be caught being involved with him. Loki gnashed his teeth when she rushed past him, fleeing from the scene. That, at least, was something he was familiar with.

He remained in the office, almost as if glued to the spot, for a while longer before he made his way towards the cafeteria where the festivities would take place. Jess would catch up—besides, so he had to admit, he was indeed looking forward to seeing their faces when he joined the ridiculous little party and what it might give him to work with.

“Really, that’s all? That’s almost a little disappointing.” He heard Dave say in the distance, presumably a few yards away from him, his voice ricocheting through the dark hallway.

Loki stopped dead in his tracks. As silent as a mouse, he leaned against the wall, melted into it almost, and slowed down his breathing.

“Yes…” Another voice that Loki identified as Mobius’, replied. “We did take a risk with them but I must admit, I too almost expected a little… more. I thought one of them might… feel something, you know—a connection or recognition, maybe.” Loki could hear his suit ruffle as he shrugged. “Well, timelines can be unpredictable. We do know that better than anyone else.”

Connection. Recognition? For some peculiar reason, he was certain the pair were speaking about him. Him and… Jess? Who else could they possibly mean? His gut feeling, however, told him that he should, seidr or not, get rid of the security footage in Jess’ office as soon as possible. Whatever it was Mobius wanted to see unfolding between them, he was not going to grant him the satisfaction of presenting it to him on a silver platter.

Fortunately enough, they were too far away to hear him, he realised that once more when Jess’ footsteps echoed through the hallway. He knew it was her without even looking behind himself and yet, found his heart skipping a beat when she touched his arm.

“Ready? You know they might give you suspicious looks as soon as you… what are you doing?”

Loki gave her a disarming smile. “Nothing. Shall we?”

~*~

A/N: Put your swords up, put ‘em up; it’s going down.

[kimnjss]

grand gesture | ksj

⤑  series: sugar free

⤑ genre: angst, rich!jin x artist!reader, college au.

⤑ rating: PG13

⤑ word count: 1.5K

⤑ warnings: there aren’t any, lmao.

⤑ A/N: this is a bit short, but it’s straight to the point and meant to be that way!! just felt like this part worked better written then told through text, so yeah you’ll see what i mean! let me know what you think x

A full week passed. A full week of ignored gifts being dumped on your front porch. You were seriously considering selling them, no desire to collect his half ass-ed apology. This was the exact reason why you were hesitant to get involved with him in the first place. He was exactly like how you thought he'd be.

Of course, he'd approach you on a bet. Of course, this would all be about money. It was all that kid cared about. The way he was flaunting it, trying to buy your forgiveness was proof enough. Did he not get it? Was he that dim?

The only thing that bothered you about this whole situation was the time you wasted hanging around him. All that time you could've used working on projects or perfecting your craft... spent and wasted with the hope of trying to get to know the guy. What a waste.

Despite the constant interruption of a knock at your front door, you had decided that you were going to use all this new free time to concentrate on your art. Summoning all the inspiration you could to create... something. It actually was harder than you thought, feeling unbelievably uninspired and a little bit sad.

From your friends, you had requested they didn't pop in whenever they wanted. Felt like you'd work better if you had a chance to be alone. What you didn't realize was that with all this alone time you really had a chance to evaluate your feelings... what you had been suppressing since that night out with Jin.

It had been obvious to the people around you, but you refused to listen. It was hard to ignore now. You were a bit sad, to be honest. It had been a while since you were able to let go and actually enjoy being around someone... romantically, and you hadn't expected it at first but you really were starting to like him.

Things were comfortable around him, he was funny in a nice way, cared a lot about keeping things light, and actually listened when you ranted about whatever was bugging you at the time. It had only been a few weeks spent with him, two dates in that time but you really enjoyed yourself.

A little bummed that it had to end this way. Couldn't help but wonder if you had overreacted, if you should have listened when he tried to text you about it. Stopped being so stubborn and forgave him like everyone had said that you should. Maybe then you wouldn't be this miserable, suffering from this horrible artist's block, you didn't even know if you were holding your paintbrush correctly.

The welcomed knock on your door had you standing a little too quickly, ready to ditch this blank canvas and see whatever had been sent your way. Nothing came in yesterday and you had assumed he got the hint... hoped he hadn't.

There's an arch in your brow at the lack of delivery man at your front door. With confusion written in your features, you're putting the front door open; eyes landing on a sad-looking Seokjin. He's dressed casually, opposite of the expensive tops and form-fitting jeans he usually put on. Pair of joggers and a plain t-shirt. The change was nice, made him look younger.

He shifted on his feet, hands behind his back eyes trained on his sneakers. You had to fight the smile that pushed it's way onto your lips, happy to see him standing in front of you – but quickly reminding yourself why he had to show up like this in the first place. Main priority was to be strong in this situation, figure out what he was doing here and deal with it. Not swoon and go all heart-eyed just because he showed up.

He should've shown up before all of this.

“What are you doing here? No ridiculously expensive coat to add to the donation pile?” Jin shifts at the sound of your voice, lifting his head to look up at you. He looks sad that you can't help but wonder if you're being a bit mean to him.

Although, him betting on your sex life was pretty mean in itself, right? Getting you to like him just to turn around and make you apart of some sick joke, that's mean.

“N-no, no gifts... they weren't working anyway,” He sighs, arm reaching up to rub at the back of his neck in the awkward way you notice he was always doing. Couldn't believe you had started to find the action cute.

“Yeah, sucks. You can't buy someone's forgiveness,” There's bite in your tone but he doesn't flinch, just looks down nodding his head. “Yeah, I deserve that. I shouldn't have treated this like some business transaction. I hurt you... I should've manned up and came to you.”

You're reading to rip into him again until his words are registering in your mind. Did he come here to... apologize? Eyes blinking as you stare at him, Jin takes your silence as a sign he should continue.

“Yn, I'm sorry. I hate that I fucked with you like that and even more that you're upset. I know you won't forgive me, I'm not expecting you to... I just figured I should at least say it, like for real, you know? We were having a good time together and I really like you, so I owe you at least a proper apology.”

There's a warmth that spreads throughout your body at hearing his words. Not sure if it was from the apology or the fact that he had just told you... to your face, that he liked you. What you had been wanting to hear this entire week was an explanation from him, not through text and not in the form of some designer shoes... like a real explanation. Could see yourself forgiving him if he gave you that.

“Why'd you do it?” Your voice is quieter than you remember as if you're afraid of the reason. Either way, you don't back down. Staring straight at him as if you're strong, waiting to hear what he has to say. “Because I liked you. And I know how stupid that sounds, but I was too chicken shit to do something about it... so I just used the bet as an excuse,”

Jin had said that you didn't have to forgive him, but that didn't stop the hopeful look in his eyes. Watching as you tossed his words around in your head, waiting for that smile of yours to appear as you told him that it was all okay. That you forgave him and if he promised he never did something stupid like this again, you two could go back to falling for each other as you had been before.

It didn't come. Instead, you were just nodding, taking a step back into your house. “Alright, well... thanks for coming here and apologizing.”

“So that's it?” The words are falling from his lips before he has a chance to stop them. Not realizing how expectant they sound, how he had promised himself he wouldn't act that way at this moment because he knew you hated it. “I mean... were you thinking we could, maybe, try again?” You can hear the hope in his voice and you don't miss it.

Did you want to try again? Let him in all over again as he attempted to break down your walls, he had done a pretty good job at it before. Were you ready for all that? All that came with being with him... like actually being with him. Before it had been different, you weren't sure of your feelings then, but now, you knew that you'd want more from him. An actual relationship. Would he even be able to do that?

“Was that what you were hoping for? Why you came by to apologize?” He's shaking his head before the words can fully leave your mouth.

“No, I came here because you deserved a proper apology because I was sick of being a coward about all of this. I want to be with you because... well because you're amazing and I don't want to miss out on that,” He's offering a small smile up to you, one you're returning almost instantly.

Still, there's something holding you back, but you're unable to place it. Needed to figure out what it was before you were leaping into a relationship with the guy. “Could I...? Could I think about it?”

“Yes, yeah!” The smile on his lips grows as he steps off of your porch, mission accomplished. “Take all the time you need to think about it... you can call me when you decide? My numbers the same!” You can't help but laugh at his quick shift of demeanor, the way he basically runs down your driveway before you can change your mind.

You stand and watch the entire time he jogs down the street until he's ducking into his car, and speeding off with a wave out the window. A hand lifts to wave back, heart thudding in your chest as you stepped back into your house. About to give this situation some serious thought... were you really going to be able to handle being with Kim Seokjin?

– rich, spoiled and a bit of a womanizer. but underneath all of that, there’s a heart of gold. and no matter how determined she is to reject him, he won’t stop trying until she sees he’s kinda sweet.

↲ masterlist ↳

taglist: @randomkoalablog​​​ @smoljams​​​ @dee-ehn​​​ @jaiuneamesolitaiire​​​ @lilacdreams-00​​​ @sw33tnight​​​ @bangtansonyeondayyyum​​​ @okblve​​​ @jinhitwhore​​​ @tae165​​​ @hellotherehoneybee​​​ @bangtansbun​​​ @betysotelo18​​​ @cherriigguk​​​ @koostime​​​ @kooinluv​​​ @butterflylion​​​ @kookiesjoonies​​​ @uxwi​​​ @honeyoongles​​​ @imajiningseokjin​​​ @amoreguk​​​ @beeeb05​​​ @tommasauras​​​ @bluefaeriefury​​​ @butterflylion​​​ @withlovestudyblr​​​ @samros95​​​ @korkanswers​​​ @houseofarmanto​​​ @soulstaes​​​ @thesunisup-theskyisblue​​​ @jinsearth​​​ @aizuwusho​​​ @moonb0yy​​ @tan-dulset​​ @8sjaf​​​ @mini-coop25​​​ @marifujioka​​​ @sunskook​​​ @elliemeetsevil​​ @ratking101​​ @leovaldezisfire​​​ @greyaceupyoursleeve​​ @emmy17jane​​

A/N: timestamps are important throughout the fic!! if you want to be added to the taglist, send me an ask! also if you asked to be on the taglist and aren’t on there, it’s because tumblr sometimes doesn’t let me tag ppl for some reason.

[lindsayrises]

Oh.

My.

God.

I have never felt more seen.

I was diagnosed with ADHD in December 2019.

I've been on medication for it since then.

Yesterday, after a week of being ridiculously unproductive at work, I was desperate for any tips or strategies to get more done.

I found a podcast on ADHD. I listened to 2 episodes while driving/running errands.

Oh.

My.

Fucking.

God.

I was nearly in tears.

EVERYTHING that was said is me.

I have FOREVER been cruel to myself, telling myself (and believing) I do (or don't do) things because:

*I'm lazy.

I'm stupid.

I'm unmotivated.

I'm not dedicated enough.

I must not care enough.

I lack will power.

*I never follow through with things/am unable to follow through with things. (I am particularly sensitive about this one. Something was said to me about this literally YEARS ago and I still get an uncomfortable feeling thinking about it and get emotional talking about it. I can think of 2 other instances where comments have been made to me about this - one recently, one years ago. I am SOOOOOOOOOOO insecure about this.)

(*these 2 are frequent topics in therapy.)

Seriously. Then when I struggle to get things things done, I beat myself up and feel like a huge failure. Rinse and repeat.

I always just thought, "I guess the medication must be working...maybe???". I never considered that there could be a change/improvement BECAUSE I THOUGHT "THIS IS JUST WHO I AM...I'll be like this forever. Past behavior habits prove it. It's hopeless. I'm hopeless to even work on. I'll never change."

I cannot tell how many things I've tried to do better...to be better. I have shelves of books I've bought - thinking, "maybe this one will help!". I can think of exactly 3 books that I've actually finished. Yes. Three. Planners and calendars? I buy a new one at least every 6 months. I use it for a few days and then stop.

It had gotten to the point where I thought, "Why bother even trying? Nothing sticks. Nothing works. And then I feel shitty for failing yet again."

I can't count how many times in the past 3 months I've thought, "Why do I even keep trying? I must not want to change badly enough. There is just something wrong with me. I'm done trying. This is me. This is my life. Deal with it."

So, I'm not (insert all of those negative things and more that I didn't list)??? It's just my fucking brain?

I actually feel hopeful...that maybe things don't have to be like this.

I would like to note that, no, I do not use podcasts and internet things as medical advice.

But wow. It all makes sense now...

Impulsivity (food and shopping)

Forgetfulness

Hyperfocusing

Easily distracted

Difficulty getting started

Feeling paralyzed because I'm overwhelmed

Rejection sensitivity

Noise sensitivity

Difficulty with grocery shopping, meal planning, meal prep, basically any part of the cooking proxy.

HAVING AMAZING PLANS THAT I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT BUT ABANDON SHORTLY AFTER STARTING (I'm looking at you, millions of "get healthy" plans and attempts). *****I cannot emphasize this one enough.

I have frequently thought, "I have so much I need to work on and improve about myself. Where do I even start?" and beat myself up about this, too.

I will sit in my classroom...terrified that someone will come in at any minute and see that I'm not working on something... haven't been working on anything...am close to tears because I'm so angry, frustrated, ashamed, and embarrassed because of this.

It.

All.

Makes.

Sense.

Yes, I will talk to my doctor.

But wow. How did I not realize that all of these things are connected??? Would/Could my anxiety and depression get (a little) better if ADHD was less of an issue?

This whole time I've been thinking that these things that I struggle with are because there is something seriously wrong with me...that these things make me a bad person and leave me constantly hustling for worthiness. But there's an explanation for ALL OF IT? And things don't have to stay this way - things don't have to be and won't always be so hard and miserable?!?!?!

Thank God.

Edit: I have to laugh. I've been up since 3:00 am. It is 6:00 and I'm just getting ready to go to work. What have I been doing the last 3 hours? Writing this. Reading about ADHD. Coming back to this and adding something new I just thought about/made a connection to, going to do something, coming back and adding something else to this, start and stop at least 5 different songs or podcasts on Spotify, and repeat. Oh, and mindless scrolling/checking of FB/IG/Tumblr. And looking at the clock - if it's 4:41 saying, "ok I'll get off my phone/stop doing what I'm doing at 4:45.". Loses track of time. Checks time. "Oh, now it's 4:47. I might as well just wait until 5:00.". This is me all the fucking time. I know it's illogical, but this is my life.

[mrsseverussnape]

Love Is You - chapter 2

a/n: I made some new additions to the chapter while reading it. Wattpad, AO3 and Tumblr versions will be all different than each other😅 Whenever i read it before posting it on somewhere, i cannot stop myself and add new stuffs…

Ps: Severus is making an appearance in this chapter and we will see him more and more with each chapter😏

Also i am linking Sirius x Scar relationship post here, you can learn about their backstory😌

     Scarlett has spent the night at her own house, of course she didn’t want to go back to their family house and even how much she needed a company tonight, she couldn’t go to her parents either since she didn’t know how to tell them what happened tonight.. Scarlett couldn't sleep even for a second; the moment she closed her eyes the bedroom scene appeared in her mind non-stop. So she decided to go to work early, there was no point in trying to sleep. She fixed herself as much as possible and headed to the Ministry of Magic. She went to the Minister of Magic's room directly, as the deputy minister she had to acquaint him about the conferences in Paris.

"Good morning sir."

"Good morning Scarlett. I wasn't expecting you that early. Have a seat please."

 The Minister Dorian Blackwood poured some tea for themselves and opened a biscuit jar while she was sitting. They talked about Paris conferences for almost half an hour. The Minister has noticed that something was off with Scarlett since he knew her since she was little. But he decided to stay silent, if she wanted to talk she would.

"Before i leave, i need to tell you one more thing Dorian." 

"Sure, i am listening."

Scarlett was scratching her hands and biting down on her lip. She was having second thoughts but she believed she had to do that. "I…I want to resign..."

Dorian raised his eyebrows in surprise, that was something he wasn’t expecting at all. "May i ask why? Because i see you as the next minister and i know you want that too, Scarlett. That was our plan."

"I do, i still do want that but i just can't work here anymore." She took a deep breathe, she continued to talk but her voice was shaking. "I don't know how to explain this at all but yesterday i found out something including a third party and i and Sirius are no longer in good terms. I don't want to come across with someone here and that someone is not Sirius..." Couple of tears escaped and ran down on her cheeks.

"Oh my dear girl...” Dorian walked up to her and rubbed her back to ease her pain a bit. Scarlett was like a daughter to him and he cared about her dearly. “I guess i understand the situation... but i don't want you to resign. Maybe we can do something else."

"What is that?" Scarlett looked at him questioningly.

"I am guessing that someone is not as important as you here so...I can do it right now."

She shook her head. "No not fire her, that won't be fair. It is my personal problem, Dorian."

"Okay whatever you want but just let me know if you change your mind, i can do anything for my lovely deputy minister. But i really want you to stay Scarlett, i don’t think you thought about that decision very clearly."

"I thank you for your kindness and for everything Dory but i don't think i will be in a good state of mind for a while. I don't even want to stay in London. Please accept my resign." Scarlett was almost begging at this point. The minister thought for a while then nodded slowly. 

"I can't force you Scarlett, it is your decision in the end. But i am really upset about it, i will miss my partner in crime” Dorian gave her a sad smile. “Give me a week to arrange some stuff then you can fully resign. And you don’t have to come here this week, i will take care of it myself and promise me you will take care of yourself."

She nodded. "Thank you for your understanding, i am not happy about it either but that will be the best for everyone i guess... I cannot promise but i will try..."

Then she left the room before crying her eyes out, this was way harder than she thought. Then she went to the law department to arrange the divorce papers, this was even harder than the resign talk for her. It was hell of a day and she just wanted it to finish already. After the work, she went to their house to get some of her stuff since she didn’t have  much in her house because it hasn’t been used for over 20 years. Unfortunately for Scarlett, Sirius has left the work early and he was at home. When he heard the door, he rushed to the doorway it had to be Scarlett.

"I knew you will be back Scarlett!" Sirius cheered with happiness, though he was looking rough. Apparently he didn’t have good night either.

"I didn't come here to stay, i will take some clothes then leave. I will be moving out as soon as possible." Scarlett said sternly without looking at him.

Before he could say anything else, she started to go upstairs where their bedroom was. Sirius followed her immediately like a puppy. She didn't want to enter the room after what she has seen yesterday but she had to, so she took a deep breath and started to pack a bag, avoiding looking at their bed.

"Scar, baby, we can talk and solve this, please." 

She let out a laugh angrily. "We can solve it huh? You cheated on me right here, in OUR bed and now you are waiting for me to forget everything!? You have no idea how hard it is for me to be in this room right now. We are done, understand!? You will get the divorce papers in couple of days."

She took her suitcase and got out of the room as fast as possible. "I will take the rest of my stuff later."

"Scarlett..." he called out her name and held her hand before she could walk out the outside door.

She stood there for a second then turned to look at him for the first time today. The tears were collected in his moon coloured eyes, ah how much she loved his eyes. She has never seen him looking so sad, he was always the cheerful one with a grin on his lips. Seeing him like this gave her pain, she was very angry with him but the love she had for him wouldn’t disappear in a day. Then without a second thought she pressed her lips against his softly. It was a quick kiss, but it was full of mixed emotions. Then she pulled away and mumbled a "Goodbye." before she apparated and left Sirius there crying silently.

     2 days have passed since Scarlett moved out and still she haven't talked to her kids or her parents about what's going on between her and Sirius. The twins were 21 years old so they could understand the situation, but she still didn't know how to tell them about it at all like their marriage was going great and in one night everything went upside down. Leonidas was working in New York and she didn't want to tell him through a letter, this would leave him with so many questions. He would probably come to London for Christmas, so Scarlett decided to wait till then. But Carina was working at Hogwarts and Scarlett got ready to go there, she didn’t want to lie to Carina through letters acting all was well. 2 hours later Scarlett was wandering around the castle, she hasn’t been there since she graduated. She didn't know where Carina's room was exactly, so she decided to go to the potions classroom since Carina was Professor Snape's assistant. She wasn’t ready to enter that class at all and that was why she avoided coming to Hogwarts for years but right now this was such a small problem beside the other things. Scarlett knocked on the class's door and heard the deep voice she knew very well saying "Come in." Severus Snape was ready to scold the person who interrupted their study but when he saw who it was, he stood there in shock, he couldn’t say a single word.

"Mum!?" Carina asked in surprise, she wasn’t expecting her at all.

"May i talk to my daughter privately, it is important." Scarlett requested but she  was not looking at him directly.

Severus didn’t talk for couple of seconds then nodded lightly. "Yes. i will finish rest of the potion by myself Carina, you can leave."

Carina nodded and rushed to her mum. "Is everything okay mum?" She asked while they were leaving the class. Carina noticed she wasn’t looking any good, she wasn’t even wearing her signature red lipstick that she always do and that was concerning.

Carina escorted her to her chambers but she has started to panic, her mum’s silence wasn’t helping the situation at all. 

"Mum could you please tell me what happened? Are my grandparents okay?"

"They are fine." Scarlett sat on the bed and motioned Carina to sit next to her. Scarlett's eyes have already filled with tears.

"Mummy? Are you alright?" Carina held her hand softy.

Scarlett shook her head as no, she was squeezing Carina’s hand to gain some power. "Carina, i and your dad... are having a divorce..." end of the sentence she was crying her eyes out.

"W-WHAT!? What happened mum!? I saw you two like 10 days ago and you were totally fine. What's that now?" She was in pure shock and couldn’t know how to act.

"We were... we were good at least that's what i thought... But apparently, we weren't because when i turned back from Paris, i found him..." she started to sob uncontrollably at this point, saying it out loud made it worse for her. "cheating..."

"Did you say cheating!? Daddy was cheating!?" This sentence was something that Carina has never imagined hearing in her life.

Scarlett just nodded; she was unable to talk.

Carina hugged her mum tightly "Shhh mummy, everything will be fine, we will get through it..." 

She was trying to calm her mum down, but she was devastated herself too. Carina has always wanted a relationship like her parents had. They were the most in love couple she has ever seen in her life. But she just heard that her dad has cheated on her mum after all those years even they weren’t having any problems. Carina had no idea what to expect for the near future right now but she knew that she will be her mum’s side no matter what.

Taglist:

@snapefiction @lizlil @elizabeth-baelish @misselsbells06 @mais-e @lunnybunny12 @anfre109 @entirelymesmerising @wolvesofwinter13

@mrssnivellussnape i am tagging you too since you seemed interested but i can remove you if you’d like 😊

If you wanna be on my taglist, let me know!

[shhhlikeme]

“Losty Aone” / “Losty Mountain Man🏔” Series:

Outtake Collection #7:

TALKING STAGE OUTTAKES (Right Before Series’ Part 1)

———————————

A/N: sooooooo. Prepare for the feels in this collection. Tumblr said it was too long because I have too many paragraphs—bye🙄 so this will be 7 and next will be 7.5. Please keep in mind they are apart of the same collection as they work well together. I strongly recommend to listen to “Always Be My Baby” By Mariah Carey for the entire read, but if repetition annoys you then just do it for the last outtake in 7.5 which is the confession. It tied for the most fluff votes. If anyone is up and reading this hopefully the next part will be up by the time you finish.

This outtake starts off funny and fluffy but ends angsty, serious and I dont wanna spoil. Fluffville Af, but maybe a bit of a rollercoaster. I poured a lot of heart into this collection, though, so I hope you enjoy it:

‼️THIS IS THE 11TH PART IN A SERIES READ THE OTHER PARTS BEFORE THIS ONE: ‼️

TABLE OF CONTENTS

———————————

One Day After You Noticed Aone and This Baby Doesn’t Know How ACT ☀️💋

“Hello?”

Futakuchi answered his cell phone grumpily as he half-slept.

“Futakuchi. It is Aone.”

Kenji rolled onto his back, wiping his fallen bangs out of his face. “I know. You’re the only person who calls me at 4am. Did you have another wet dream about Y/N?”

“No.” Mountain man answered hurriedly, but then he faltered. “Well, um, actually—yes—and Y/N looked phenomenal...—But that’s not the reason I’m calling this time.”

Futakuchi yawned. “You know, I miss the days back in elementary school when you’d call me because you had a bad dream ... hah....remember Monster Twoosie that lived in your closet?”

Sitting up on his bed, Aone whipped his head to the right to look at his closet. Getting up to close the closet door, he scolded his friend.

“We don’t speak of him, Futakuchi-san.”

Kenji let out a tired laugh. “What is this about then? I thought you’d sleep like a baby knowing that Y/N has finally noticed you.”

Aone returned to his bed, covering his legs under his camouflage blanket. “I’m extremely happy. I can’t stop thinking about her approaching my desk and smiling at me throughout lunch and her taking my phone to put her number in it. It’s not a daydream anymore and it’s just.......” he raked his brain for the word.

“A lot?”

Aone was happy he didn’t need to speak in full sentences to a best friend who could practically read his mind.

“A lot for me, yes, thank you Kenji-san. Usually, when two people are starting to get to know eachother, there is interest on both ends and they just work their way up from there.”

“But there is attraction on both ends for you and Y/N.”

“No. I already know she is the girl for me, and Y/N just figured out who I was yesterday. We are in a very unconventional position.”

“Yes but she’s also the most lost individual—aside from you—that I have ever met, so, what’s your point?”

“How do I get her to like me back?”

“Aone, just be yourself. A lot of girls already like you.”

“I don’t care about the other girls, I care about Y/N. I’ve been myself the past 2 years and she has never even noticed me, so clearly that does not work.”

“Y/N hasn’t noticed anyone, Aone-san.... ask her to name all her teachers I bet she can’t”

“She noticed the outfielder on the baseball team....”

“Right—she noticed that he was a tool. And I won’t let you conveniently forget that he approached her—which you refused to do for two years.”

“That is.............................a fair analysis.”

“Anyway, like I said, just be yourself. If Y/N doesn’t like you then she doesn’t deserve you anyway. Serves her right for being a bimbo the past two years....”

“Kenji-san....” Aone warned in a frightening voice. He hated when anyone had anything bad to say about his crush.

Kenji just laughed through his fatigue because he knew that warning was coming.

“I digress. Now as far as being yourself goes, for starters......how was your texting convo tonight?”

Mountain man was confused.

“Texting.......conversation?”

Kenji’s tired eyes flew open, stunned.

“Y/N gave you her number. She put it in your phone. That’s what you said.”

Aone grunted in agreement.

“So you didn’t text her?!”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to.”

“Holy fuck Aone I’m seriously gonna—“

“There.” Mountain man interrupted his friend.

HUH?! Kenji now felt like he’d just seen Monster Twoosie, because his entire body paled. He spoke slowly as to not lose it:

“Aone.....What do you mean by...............................................there?”

“I just texted Y/N.”

“AT 4 O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING ?!?!?!?!”

Kenji yelled so loudly his parents screamed at him to go to sleep before they take away his tv. He quickly quieted down.

“What did you text her?!”

Aone paused, retrieving the message. He read it aloud: “Good morning, Y/N.”

Futakuchi groaned loudly, gripping his bangs on top of his head.

“I am gathering that I should not have done that?”

Kenji groaned again in response. “No, but I did tell you to be yourself. We’ll see how Y/N feels about you being yourself.”

🏫 AT SCHOOL 🏫

“Aone!”

Mountain man was collecting books from his locker, Kenji next to him leaning on the next locker, when he heard his name being called by his favourite voice ever. The middle blocker looked over in the direction of the voice and gulped.

Kenji nudged him. “Be yourself.” He whispered before you approached.

Aone couldn’t get used to you actually noticing him. He fantasized about it so much when you’d call your cheer friends name, that it just seemed so surreal now that you were actually calling him. On top of that, you looked so beautiful today. (You may have tried a bit more this morning for him) in your school uniform, light but perfect makeup, and a bright smile.

When Aone heard your voice call his name he had to fight back a deep blush because it brought him back to his dream last night where you were calling his name like that—only it was much more breathy and the two of you were in much more.....intimate circumstances.

“Hi, Y/N.” the blonde managed to say as he looked down at you. “You look beautiful today.”

Beside him, Kenji cringed and looked away. He couldn’t imagine being such a simp.

“Aw, thanks!” You beamed. “I just wanted to say thank you so much for that sweet good morning text. When I woke up to it, it completely brightened my day!”

Hidden behind the locker, Kenji’s jaw dropped.

Aone’s heart tightened at your words. “You’re welcome.”

You smiled. “Would you like to have lunch together again today? My treat this time.”

You had no idea how much you made this man’s life by saying these things.

Aone nodded, blushing and unable to speak.

“Great. Can you come down here for a second?” You bent your index finger at him as to say come hither and this big blushy baby bent down to your level, confused.

With him now in reach you leaned in to press your soft lips on his cheek. “I forgot to do it yesterday, but that’s for defending me against that snitch Tsume. See you at lunch!” You skipped away to your next class happily.

Mountain man, on the other hand, was just completely out of commission.

Kenji’s eyes were very wide seeing the whole thing happen and he moved to the same side Y/N was just on. Grabbing his friends shoulder he pulled him up because he looked weird still frozen bending over to meet your height when you were gone.

“I guess Y/N likes you for who you are, Aone-san.”

Aone just stared in the direction you disappeared in. Your platonic peck on the cheek made him feel like he was floating.

“Let’s go, we have study hall.” Kenji patted his friend’s shoulder.

Aone called for him to stop, so Futakuchi turned back around.

“What’s wrong? What is it?”

“I don’t think my legs work anymore, Kenji-san.”

hahahahaha poor baby

Needless to say Kenji san was not impressed to have to wait at his best friend’s locker with him for 5 whole minutes until the shock of you kissing him wore off

You really affected the white-haired bb even when you ignored him so Kenji wasn’t that surprised that this would happen

———————————

Weeks Into The Talking Stage - The Date Tech Boys Attend Katana’s Big House Party! 🥤🎉

“I swear to God if Katana doesn’t leave me alone tonight.......... You owe me, Aone-san.” States Futakuchi grumpily as him, Aone, and Kogenagawa shuffled out of their Uber. They stood in front of Katana’s huge cottage: lit up brightly with glow strobes and pictures of her taped up on the logs like a billboard in downtown Los Angeles.

“I appreciate you two for coming, sincerely. You are good friends.” Aone bowed to them.

Kanji bounced on the balls of his feet, the complete opposite visual of the crabby Justin Bieber look-alike.

“Oh no problem!!! I would have never been invited to a cheerleader’s party if you two weren’t my friends! Y/N inviting you to this is MASSIVE, Aone-senpai! I’m soooo happy I can experience this—hey! I think I see that hot cop cheerleader from before. Maybe she wants to thank me for my donations—!” The big boned setter started walking toward the party but Kenji gripped the back of his shirt, reeling him back in.

Kenji glared at his underclassmen.

“Must I warn you every time?! Play. It. Cool. Don’t stare at the birthday girl’s chest and for the love of God please leave the cop girl alone or we will never bring you to another party again.”

Pouting, Kogenagawa agreed, grabbing a red solo cup from a tray that a waiter was walking around with.

Aone grabbed it out of his hand before he downed it, all while scanning the crowd for his beautiful crush.

“No drinking. You’re underage.” Aone commanded, pouring it out in front of him.

“Right.” Kenji nodded.

The giant setter’s pout deepened. He crossed his arms at Aone.

“Thanks Mom.”

He then stuck his tongue out and Kenji.

“And thanks Dad. What would I do without you two? Besides HAVE FUN, of course!?”

“It scares me to even think about it....” Kenji murmured back, ruffling his setter’s hair who started freaking out because he worked hard on it.

Just then, Takanobu gasped a bit because he finally spotted you in the outdoor crowd on the porch. You were dressed in a long sleeve skin tight bodycon dress that showcased all your curves. And the dress was short. (If you remember correctly from his wet dream This man loooves short skirts on you.):

(You May or May not have chosen something a bit on the sexy side to get the attention of the boy you were starting to enjoy the company of.... and who you invited to be your date tonight—)

The look of you alone made Aone lick his lips and shuffle because had the air outside gotten 10 degrees hotter, randomly?

“Dowwwwn boy.” Kenji murmured when he realized his friend had spotted his crush and was very excited. He had that same look when he saw Y/N in that genie costume, and it was one of unadulterated, innocent, unidentified, lust.

“Aone, you can’t stare at Y/N like that anymore. She notices you now.”

Aone tried his very best and he was able to peel his eyes away from you and back to his best friend. “I wish it were easy.” He stated with a frown. “Especially when she looks like that.”

You were over with a group of popular kids, a red solo cup in your hand filled with red bull, chatting and adding to Katana’s stories when out of the corner of your eye you spot a tall white haired beauty on the outskirts, probably just getting here: Your date. Your heart skipped a beat as you interrupted the boy who was speaking to the group.

“He came, he’s here!!” You gripped Katana on the arm.

“Ow, Y/N!” Katana ripped your hand off her. She fixed the tiara on her head. “Of course he’s here, no man is dumb enough to deny a date with you, Y/N.” She returned to her conversation dismissively.

Kusa walked up the porch steps to give you and Katana hugs. She looked so beautiful!

“Looks like your man Aone brought Kenji-san too.” Kusa said to the two cheerleaders.

Katana almost did a spit take with the contents in her solo cup. Quickly, she scanned the crowd, seeing her ex, she now gripped onto your arm and pulled you through the crowd.

Soon you were faced with your mountain man, who looked amazing dressed in a sexy dark green, might you add. You rubbed the arm that Katana had just been gripping as you stood in front of them.

“Are you alright, Y/N?” Aone asked, looking concerned as his eyes scanned your arm.

He is so flipping sweet!

You nod.

“I know that parties aren’t your thing so I wasn’t sure when I texted you an invitation. But.....you came,” you breathed a sigh of happy relief.

“You asked me to.” He responded, unaware of how romantic that sounded to you or anybody with ears.

He is so oblivious to how gorgeous he is, you thought.

Aone turned to look at your best friend briefly.

“Happy Birthday, Katana. This is from the three of us.” Aone handed Katana a card that had a hefty gift card inside of it to her favourite makeup store (Y/N’s idea after Aone sweetly asked what he should get her).

A/N: AONE IS HUMAN GOALS - DON’T @ ME.

“Kenji you got me a gift??? That is SO SWEET!”

Futakuchi rolled his eyes. “It’s from the three—“

“Come inside with me and I’ll open it!” Katana grabbed the volleyball captain’s hand and pulled him into the swarm of people, towards the house.

Aone almost felt bad bringing his friend to his clingy ex’s party because he needed him there—until he looked back down at you smiling up at him—after which he couldn’t feel anything else but happy even if he wanted to. You made him so unbelievably happy.

“Oh and Um, Y/N, I know this isn’t your birthday, but this is for you.” Aone handed you a card as well.

You hesitated, confused.

Blushing, Aone explained quickly, really hoping that his fight to get you this wasn’t going to make you think he was creepy. “I just thought that.... if we gifted Katana a Fenty Beauty gift card, she’d best enjoy shopping with you—her best friend. So I-I got you a gift card, t-too.” He finished sheepishly.

Bursting inside with butterflies, you gave your date a finger curl again, which he now knew meant to lean down so that you could kiss his cheek. This time you pressed your lips to his cheek a little longer than the last time, and although it was a sweet gesture, Aone felt the blood begin to rush down to his nether region.

You pulled away just in time.

“Thank you. That’s very kind of you, Aone.” You whispered in his ear.

Aone flushed, standing back up to his height hurriedly.

“My pleasure.” He replied shakily.

And was it ever. Because of Aone’s long brewed feelings for you, even your two simple kisses on his cheek kept him awake at night, sometimes recalling the way your soft and perfect lips felt as he showered in the mornings gripping his cock.

He was so happy to be given a chance it was like his increasing hormones and already strong romantic feelings were fighting for dominance now that you were physically interacting with him, albeit minimally.

For the past few weeks you two have been taking your budding friendship/romance incredibly slow, Aone too afraid to push further than you were willing to go, and for you: that just being the speed you take. You two spoke in class, had some lunches together, Aone offered to carry your books and walk you to cheer practice.... things like that. You were just getting to know eachother and you’d even let him take you out on a romantic dinner date last weekend. You always took it really slow with boys until you felt that they were important enough, which is why your ex-baseball player got frustrated with you last year. But that wasn’t Aone. He believes that he would gladly accept just this if that’s what you wanted, though he desperately wanted more. He wanted to call you his.

To you, everything was going extremely well and you were beginning to kind of start looking forward to seeing him in the halls at school as 3rd year rolled around. You may have an itsy bitsy crush on the volleyball player....but you didn’t know for sure. The most you two had ever done was kiss him on the cheek twice, which Aone was MORE THAN HAPPY with.

“You look so handsome, by the way, green is your colour.”

Aone looked away then, snapping out of his day dream about your kisses on his cheek but unable to relax when you complimented him. He couldn’t believe you were giving him all this attention. You were so perfect and someone as perfect as you didn’t choose guys like him.

Well, you hadn’t chosen him yet, Takanobu reminded himself sadly.

“Thank you, Y/N. And you look.....um.....w-well.........” His eyes fell to your mouth-watering curves in that dress. You could tell he very much liked your appearance.

You laughed, deciding to tease him.

“I look...’um?’ That bad, Aone-san? What? Tell me.” You poked his stomach, not dismissing the fact that his stomach was actually rock hard muscle.

Fuck.

Aone shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts and pretend he hasn’t been crushing on you forever so he could speak clearly.

“No, not bad. Quite the contrary.” His face softened as he looked back at your face. “I’m trying to tell you in the most respectful way that you look......that you look like the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

On instinct, your face broke out into an ear splitting smile. Aone felt like he’d won the fucking lottery seeing you smile like that at him.

“Thank you, Takanobu! Care to enjoy the party with me?” You reached your hand out and the middle blocker just stared at it for a few seconds, still shook from your dazzling smile. Luckily, Kanji was still there so he pushed Aone inconspicuously from behind, allowing him to snap out of it and take your small hand in his large one.

Aone had to take a deep breath when you turned away to lead him into the crowd because the feeling of your hand in his made him feel utterly complete.

He was falling harder n faster than ever before.

And there were no brakes.

He just prayed you’d start falling, too, and soon.

———————————

taglist: @crushzone @galagcica @nairobiisqueen @chaichai-the-weeb

Part 7.5: CLICK HERE

[sinnabonka]

Hey Hun! Lots of love to you. For starters I wanted to say that there should be no cell in your body blaming yself in any way. You and your blog were hope for so many people. You were the "you are not crazy" of the final weeks, and I'm forever grateful to you. Instead of dying of anxiety I managed to have a blast in this time of waiting, thanks to you. I passed my master thesis, because you gave me strength to see past the fear. I laughed in those weeks more than in last 5 years, and all of it because of the hope you gave me.

The rest of the msg is going to be pretty emotional rant about the awfulness of it all, and I know my opinion doesn't matter to anyone but I wanted someone important to me to hear my thoughts, if that's ok. It's also ok if you don't want to read it ofc. It's like my breakup letter to the show.

I hear many people cheering for the finale and i find it really hard to deal with. I always considered myself an open person who fights for healthy love as the only redeeming quality of the universe. I could see people's point of view, even if it didn't sit well with mine, and I would always try to hear them out respectfully until they weren't being respectful themselves. That said, I'm fully unable to understand cheering for this type of spiteful content and hearing those cheers makes me feel like the entire world is listening to "this is how you treat your fans, this is how to abuse your power over naive sheep, this is how to keep dumb, hopeful minorities in check" and taking notes.

It also upsets me that the people who gave this show all of themselves and tried to understand it to the core are given no resolution, are spitted on and buried under the rug for doing their best to appreciate the art and the story it was telling. Yet people, who just hang around and watch the show doing the dishes, with no consideration to it's story or characters, got as nonsensical ending as their whole idea of character development in SPN.

I know people say that it was good enough, because it leaves space for guessing and own interpretation, but I feel it's really undermining the extend to which the finale was awful and hurtful to the fans. There is no end that realistically could stop fanfic writers from finding way around it in the world of Supernatural, so saying it was thoughtful of them Is like excusing abusive partner because "they could hit me harder, but they didn't. That means they care"

Lose ends, characters being written in a way that is totally not true to them and their development (personally my biggest allegation), dismissing years of story development, proving that it was all 'queerbaiting' in big part in the end (hell, even the whole "Cas is in heaven so do with it what you will" is a shameful way of appalling to LGBTQ community after using them so hard.

In the pie scene, the roles should be swapped, it's Dean who should say that Cas is on his mind and Sam explaining him that it's only right to keep on living doing good in their name. That's what Dean told Sam at the beginning of the season, when Sam lost Rowena, so it would be at least a bit poetic. This would at least give us some truth from Dean for once, but he died how he lived, in shadow of his fear to be true towards his feelings and needs. And as he died, he bound his little brother to the hunting till the end of his days, by guilting him into it on his deathbed. Guess Dean took after his father.

Have you realised what that emotional "love speech" from Dean to Sam resulted in? It was writers taking back Cas' confession after they didn't need our viewership anymore.

They basically gave us love confession to get us to follow the finale and when they didn't need us anymore, not only they didn't commit to the confession, but they undermined it by having Dean's speech to Sam go the way it did with obviously higher emotional charge, successfully taking back the value of Cas' confession and making it about a bait for "Tumblr idiots"

Finale killed my feelings towards Destiel, not because it wasn't confirmed canon, but because from what I see in the episode, they canonically confirmed that

- for Dean, Cas was only means to an end, which is such an awful way of ending Cas' character arc. They gave him everything he was scared of and nothing close to consolation price and they dare to tell us he had a happy ending, "because they said so". Well, I didn't see him being happy, and knowing what i textually know i can empathise enough to say that he faced a miserable finish. Even Chuck got an end that was better than Cas' fate.

- Dean, given power to do anything he could dream of, chooses to not even greet Cas, after Cas gave his whole life to Dean, told him he loved him and died for him. I know some people consider the little smirk of Dean confirmation of his feelings, but let's be real for just a second. If someone you deeply loved for years confessed to you, told you they thought you don't love them back, you would be freaking running to see them and tell them how much you love them. That smirk to me reads as "I'm relieved to know you're not going to spend eternity in mega hell that i left you in" and we really need to stop giving credit to writers for scraps like this when it's the last episode ever and we know this isn't going anywhere.

Not to mention that by having Jack bring Cas back behind the scenes it just highlights the fact that Dean didn't ask him to do that in episode 19.

As result, I'm unable to look at any Destiel scene and not think "in here Cas already loved him and in here Dean already abuses the power he had over Cas, because of his one-sided love"

And yet, the episode and endgames for everyone (maybe not Sam, but he was seriously pinning for Dean his entire life. Wincest much?) managed to be so bad, that not even bringing Cas back or following up on Destiel would make a difference in my eyes. I know you believe that Destiel would save it, but for me as much as it would be a redeeming quality, it wouldn't be enough to save this awfulness that writer doomed characters with.

And all the Wincest scenes in the finale... I low key expected them to make out and it made me feel physically sick. Also, cutting Misha out because of coronavirus is a cheap excuse. We all know better than to believe that, so let's not fall for the self pity play from the abuser.

If you managed to stay with me till this point, thank you so much for hearing me out. I hope i didn't anger you with my monologue. I will always think of the lamp when i think of you. The reality is that you were the lamp for so many of us in this darkness.

Love you so much, wish all the best to you, take care of yourself and stay safe!

Oh my god, if I didn’t cry with the final, I definitely am crying now. And now I have to explain my partner why I’m staring at my laptop and sobbing ugly. What have you done? 

First of all, I hear you pain, my friend! I share it! I didn’t spend a second after the final without the feeling of my heart being shuttered into million pieces, being stitched back just to break again, and so on and so on. 

I had my first panic attack in two years yesterday, when I kept thinking about the message the show sent to the fandom via Dean’s fate. I have a few posts in my draft on the matter, but I am not sure I will ever share them, because it is one strong depresso, and I don’t think people following me should see how fucked up it really is (if they didn’t get it by themselves, of course). 

I want to remind you, my gentle soul, that the story belongs to us. We know Dean, we know Cas, we know Sam and others. We know that the final is not who they are! I know it’s hard to ignore the text, the canon, because it’s kinda godsent, but the truth is essential. And the final is not the truth.

The truth: 

Cas loves Dean, he sacrificed himself for him, he saved his life on multiple occasions, he told all those beautiful things and he meant every word.

Dean loves Cas, he was on his lowest every time he lost him, Cas was his “big win”, his best friend, his brother, his white light that lead him out of his anger, hatred and despair. He took a dog and called it Miracle, he was looking for a job to retire from hunting, he didn’t kill Chuck - all of that, because the sacrifice Cas made was not in vain! The message was clear. 

I choose to ignore the “Carry on”, the only attention it is going to get is me creating 20 more mails just to put a one star review there and to drop some more salty or bitter comments with it. Maybe I will read through some reviews, too, add them to my collection. 

Maybe I will one day write here an article from scriptwriting perspective how fucked up in was, because that’s what I can do about it, without throwing up. 

If you can’t ignore it, I understand it. It is painful, it is disrespectful, I hate it as much as you do, probably. 

If there’s anything I can do for you to feel better, just drop me a message, we can talk about it. I am on the lowest, too, but maybe we can help each other.

You say I was your lamp. Let me lead you our of the darkness one more time <3 

CW can suck my metaphorical dick (I’m tagging every angry post with it), but Supernatural is not just the show on CW, it’s a big family. 

And you can’t give up on it! You can’t give up on Dean and Cas, you can’t give up on Destiel! It’s so much bigger then the show itself.

Rediscover the show for yourself, remind yourself that Dean and Cas are real, it was never one sided, it was always something amazing. 

What is real? We are.

Don’t you ever change.

I rather have you, cursed or not.

It’s love, hun, and love always wins. 

[shianhygge-imagines]

Sundown 勿忘草 [Reno/Reader]{Final Fantasy VII} Episode 2

AN: Here’s the next part of Sundown Wasurenagusa! I’m sorry that I’ve been slow on posting any new story material! I had a bit of a writers’ block, and I’m still trying to work through it!

I had intended for this to be much longer, but I felt like this part was a good length to post. The first part of this ‘episode’ is going to be formatted weird because I can’t get Tumblr to format a text conversation in the way that I want.

If you like the content I create, please consider donating to my Ko-fi! Please help me feed my tea addiction!

|Masterlist Link|

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

December 12

Reno {07:10}

[Good morning, sleeping beauty]

Me {08:30}

[Morning]

[Do you not need sleep?]

[You probably went to bed late last night]

[And while it truly does make my day to hear from you]

[Why? It’s so early ;.;]

Reno {08:40}

[Can you blame a guy for being eager to talk to you?]

[Lol, Sorry. I didn’t disturb you, did I?]

Me {08:59}

[>///<]

[No, you’re good. I gotta get up to get ready anyways.]

[Flatterer]

Reno {09:34}

[I mean, can you blame me? ;) ]

[So, I was thinking about taking you on a date outside of Midgar, but I realized that I should probably get your opinion on it first]

Me {10:01}

[I mean, that depends? How early do I have to get up on my day off? And how long will it take to get there?]

Reno {10:05}

[Um… well, it’s getting pretty chilly in Midgar, so I was thinking about taking you to Costa del Sol… beach date :P]

Me {10:30}

[…]

[Costa del Sol is pretty far, Reno…]

Reno {10:31}

[And?]

[I’ve got a way]

[Don’t sweat the details]

Me {10:32}

[You’re taking a company helicopter, aren’t you  -.-]

Reno {10:33}

[Ack! You’ve figured out my master plan!]

Me {10:34}

[Are Turks even allowed to take company assets out for joy rides?]

Reno {10:35}

[ TT^TT I told you not to sweat the details!]

Me {10:40}

[I just don’t want you to get into any trouble.]

Reno {10:50}

[Awww, don’t worry about me.]

[You have a party to attend later, so do me a favor and have fun, okay?]

Me {11:03}

[That reminds me…]

Reno {11:05}

[??]

Me {11:11}

[bluedress.jpg sent]

(The image is of you in a sapphire blue dress, the sleeves long and neck high. The dress itself ends just below your knees)

[This dress?]

[reddress.jpg sent]

(The second image is of you in a backless ruby dress that ends just above the knee. There are no sleeves to this dress despite the fact that it has a high neck)

[Or this dress?]

Reno {11:13}

[…]

[Y/N]

Me {11:15}

[Reno]

[???]

Me {12:01}

[If I don’t look good in either of them, just be honest ;.;]

Reno {13:05}

[Gah! Sorry, I got pulled away for something]

[The red one. For sure]

Me {13:06}

[Just because red’s your color… >.>]

[I hope you’re okay, Reno ;.;]

Reno {13:15}

[Hey, first of all, remember what I said about red being your color?]

[I don’t lie, k?]

[But also, yeah. Also because it’s my color, you should wear it ;)]

[Do you have a sixth sense or something?]

[image.jpg]

(Opening up the image file gifts you with a selfie of Reno, looking minorly roughed up and being supported by an infrantryman. He looks like he’s by the old church that Aerith likes to visit. Despite needing to be supported by the infantryman, the red headed Turk’s winking and holding up a peace sign)

[Just a few minor bruises ;P I’ll be fine]

[Unless….]

[You want to kiss me better? ;)]

Me {13:30}

[… Well. I’m sorry for worrying (¬_¬) ]

Reno {13:45}

[Joking, joking! :D]

[All patched up]

Reno {14:07}

[Y/N?]

(´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)

[I’m sorry.]

[Please talk to meeeeeee]

Me {14:00}

[image.jpg]

(It’s a picture of you in the red dress. Your hair is done up with an attractive amount of make up. You’re wearing a sensible set of black flats.)

[The party starts in an hour, so I might be answering my phone too often.]

[And Costa del Sol sounds perfect for tomorrow ;) I’ve got my outfit all picked out]

Reno {14:15}

[Uh, yeah, that’s gonna be your new contact photo]

[I’m picking you up earlier than we agreed so that we can have more time to relax in the sun]

[Duty calls. Have fun tonight, okay?]

Me {14:20}

[And what? My contact photo for you is going to be this?]

[screenshot.jpg]

(It’s a screenshot of your mobile phone screen. There’s an edit with a red arrow pointing directly at the photo icon for Reno’s contact…it’s the photo that he sent earlier except you’ve photoshopped cartoon ‘uwu’ eyes and added pink anime blush to his cheeks)

[And don’t worry, I’ll probably have enough fun for the both of us.]

[We’ll have fun tomorrow, be safe, okay?]

Reno {14:30}

[I’ll try ;) But if not, I’ll have you to take care of me.]

[Also? That picture?]

[P.E.R.F.E.C.T]

Me {18:30}

[Hope you’re safe!]

[Message me after work to let me know you’re okay!]

[image-2.jpg]

(It’s a group photo of you and your friends in silly poses)

Me {19:21}

[image-3.jpg]

(It’s a close up shot of a delicious plate of food)

[I should have brought you with me ;.;]

|You called Reno| 20:58

[Unable to leave voicemail]

December 13 - 08:21

The morning after the confrontation with AVALANCHE at the Sector 7 Pillar, one would expect the medical bay in Shinra HQ to be jam packed full of patients. There should have been a horde of doctors and nurses, running around to treat the injured infantryman and civilian survivors. But there were only two individuals in the med bay, Reno and Rude. When the plate fell, only a handful of infantryman were able to escape the chaos. Many were left behind to fend for themselves.

Despite surviving a helicopter crash and the brawl with Tifa, Barret, and Cloud, Rude only sustained a few bruises and minor bone fractures. He had been assigned bedrest after being treated by the doctors, but the weight of what he and his partner had been tasked to do twelve hours ago felt like an overwhelming burden. Needing something to keep his mind occupied, the taller of the iconic Turk duo simply engrossed himself in a novel that Elena had brought over during her visit.

On the bed beside Rude’s, Reno groaned in pain as he sat up, eyes still not open and alert as he raised a hand to press against his pounding head. “Gah, what the hell.” Reno’s face stung at the cheeks when his face scrunched up at the pain that seemed to come from every part of him. Even the act of sitting up proved too painful due to his newly broken ribs.

Rude watched his partner sink back into the sheets from his own medical bed, sunglasses on as was usual of him. He wondered how long it would take Reno to realize that it had been nearly twelve hours since they had dropped the plate. He also wondered when his sassy partner in crime would realize that he had a date this morning. Of course, Rude didn’t think you’d get angry at Reno for missing a date when he was hospitalized, but the taller of the iconic Turk pair knew that Reno would never forgive himself for skipping out on you.

While Rude watched, Reno allowed his body to collapse back into bed, an exhausted and pained groan escaping his lips as he want, arms flopping onto the bed as he fought to remember what had happened to land him in such a pitiful state.

Oh yeah…Rude and I went to Sector 7’s plate… and we fought blondie’s group of self righteous freedom fighters… and then…I blacked out. Cracking both eyes open, Reno furrowed his brows and turned his head to examine his surroundings. Med bay back at HQ… The red head swiveled in place to stare at Rude, “The mission….” He trailed off with a questioning tone.

His partner merely grunted, “We finished it and escaped.” Lacking in detail, but still straight to the point.

Sighing in relief that his work track record wouldn’t have a stain on it, Reno flopped back down, “Whooo…” The red head cheered sarcastically, pumping a fist without any energy or cheer behind it. Gah, and I promised Y/N that I’d be safe… Reno’s eyes snapped open and he bolted to a seating position with an alarmed cry, “Crap! Y/N! What time is it?” Shit, I gotta message her to let her know that I’m going to be running late! The Turk second in command thought as he pat down his person for his cell phone.

When he couldn’t find it, Reno turned to his partner, who gestured towards the bedside table. “It was damaged during our fight with AVALANCHE, but it should still be working.”

Not paying any attention to the fact that he was now bleeding through the bandages wrapped around his abdomen, Reno grinned, “Whooo boy! Partner, you’re a life saver!”

The sheer amount of relief within Reno voice made Rude stop and stare at his partner. Hmm… maybe Reno’s serious about her after all.

Meanwhile, Reno quickly unlocked his phone screen, ignoring the fact that the glass display seemed shattered beyond repair. When he pulled up the chat room that he shared with Y/N, Reno cursed, “Five missed messages and one missed call.” Quickly reading through the text messages, and smiling at how much fun you were having at the party, Reno tapped out a quick message in reply to you before listening to the voicemail that you had left.

Yesterday

Y/N {19:21}

[image-3.jpg]

(Reno’s mouth watered at the sight of the food in the picture)

[I should have brought you with me ;.;]

|Missed call from Y/N| 20:58

[Click to listen to voicemail]

Today - December 13

Me {08:43}

[Gah, sorry Y/N, I may have bit off more than I could chew yesterday.]

[I just woke up in the med bay at HQ]

[I’m going to be a little late picking you up]

[And I’m a little roughed up]

[But nothing is stopping me from taking you on our date!]

[See you in an hour?]

When Reno lifted his damaged cell phone to listen to the voicemail that you had left him, the only sound that reached his ears was an error notification that the voice recording app had failed. “I’m sorry, but the voicemail recording that you wish to listen to failed to load properly. Please quite all applications before trying again. If the problem still persists, please contact Shinra Mobile’s technical support service to resolve this issue.” The phone recording informed Reno, pleasantly.

Knowing from experience that getting through to technical support at the current hour was next to impossible, Reno merely tapped out another message.

Me {08:47}

[Hey, the voicemail that you sent to me didn’t go through.]

[What was it about?]

Satisfied with the messages that he’d sent out, Reno shifted to get out of bed, an excited grin on his lips. “Welp! Time to get going! Got a wonderful day off with a gorgeous gal!”

Sighing, Rude lowered the novel to look in his partner’s direction. “Your date with Y/N?” When Reno only gave a sassy shrug in reply, Rude shook his head, “Just remember, you’re still injured.”

“Will do, partner!” Reno saluted the older man before dashing out of the med bay, dodging the nurses swiftly as he made his way to the elevators, itching to get back to the Turk dorms to change into something that would help him blend into the slum crowds of Sector 5. On his way to his room, the red headed Turk would raise his phone to check for any new messages, lowering it in disappointment every time there was no response.

“That’s weird, normally she responds by now.” Reno mused, sending out another quick text once he’d changed into dark jeans, a red hoodie, and a dark beige trucker jacket.

Me {09:12}

[I’m on my way to your place now.]

[Are you awake?]

Around twenty minutes later, on the helicopter ride down to the Sector 5 slums, Reno furrowed his brows and bit the inside of his lip when you didn’t respond again.

Me {09:32}

[Y/N?]

[Please answer.]

[I’m on a helicopter down now]

[Message back. I’m getting worried.]

When there is still no response, Reno taps on your contact and brings the phone up to his ear, trying to call you.

“Hey, this is Y/N. I’m probably away from the phone right now, so leave a message, and I’ll call you back as soon as possible.”

Straight to voicemail.

Something wasn’t right, and Reno could feel it in his bones.

When the helicopter started to land in the Shinra barracks, Reno didn’t even wait for the helicopter to fully land before jumping out of the aerial vehicle, landing solidly before taking off in a sprint towards your apartment.

She’s not answer any of the text messages… Did she lose her phone last night? Did she accidentally break it?… Did she find out what I did yesterday? Is she ignoring me?

The worries and thoughts that raced through Reno’s mind became more and more self-depricating as he neared entered the main town area and brushed past the crowds of people gathered in the streets. I know I said it was too late to grow a conscious, but damn it, please don’t let this be the reason she decides that she doesn’t want me around.

All but flying up the metal steps to your apartment, Reno starts to bang on your front door, calling your name in the meanwhile. “Y/N!” Bang bang bang “It’s Reno!” Bang bang bang “You weren’t answering your phone. Are you ready to go?” It took another few minutes of knocking before Reno head a door open below and slow footsteps ascend the metal stairwell.

Turning and expecting to see you standing there, Reno’s shoulders visibly slumped when he came face to face with a tiny old lady. “Oh, uh. Sorry for causing a disturbance.”

“Are you looking for Y/N, young man?” The old woman inquired, tilting her head to look up at Reno through friendly old eyes.

Feeling as if he was being judged by the elderly woman, Reno stood ramrod straight and nodded, clearing his throat, “Uh, yeah. We had plans for today.”

The old woman nodded sagely, “I see, I see. Ah, to be young again. I’m sorry to disappoint you, young man, but Y/N hasn’t been home since yesterday afternoon. I think she’s still at her friend’s home.”

The first traces of alarm flashed through Reno’s head, and suddenly his Turk persona was back, “Do you happen to know where her friend lives, ma’am?”

The old woman shook her head, “I only know that dear Selene doesn’t live in Sector 5. I’m sorry, young man.”

Suddenly jittery, Reno only nods and descends the metal staircase again, “Thanks for the help. I should get going.”

Reno doesn’t hear the old woman’s reply because he’s sprinting back towards the Shinra barracks, ears ringing and vision narrowed as he contacts a friend in Shinra’s tech department for help tracking down your cell phone’s location and retrieving the voicemail you’d left him. And while his friend works on it, Reno decided to change into a clean set of his uniform, mind suddenly kicked into overdrive as he tries to recall where you said your friend’s party was.

Gah, Reno… you pay attention to everything else she says, but you can’t figure out where her friend Selene lives? Some Turk you are! Reno scolds himself as he paces back and forth in Y/N’s office, somehow trying to find comfort in familiar surroundings. Damnit, think! What has she mentioned in the past about her friends. I only remember her talking about living in Sector 7 for a whi- Reno pauses in his steps as dread begins to pool in his stomach. “No.” He doesn’t want to entertain the possibility that you had gone to a party at your childhood sector the same night that he was tasked with dropping the plate on top of hundreds. But the more that Reno thinks about it, the more likely the possibility is, and he sinks to his knees in the middle of your office, eyes wide with horror and denial. “No… I refuse to believe it. Gotta wait for-”

His phone chimes with a notification.

Pulling out his phone as fast as possible without fumbling the already hazardously damaged device, Reno unlocks the screen, only to see that a voice file had been sent to him along with tracking coordinates.

Clicking on the voicemail and tracker, Reno’s frown deepens and his face pales as he stares at the map of Sector 7 Slums with a red dot in the center of it, the sounds of your final message to him playing in the background.

No.

The voice recording loops until Reno regains his bearings, body shaking and eyes burning as his ears pick up the sounds of explosions in the background, of your sobs as you fought to leave a last message for the man who had thoughtlessly killed you, and of your fear and acceptance that you wouldn’t live past that moment. The phone slips from his hands and clatters to the floor as Reno’s fingers go slack. “No… I didn’t… Y/N…” A strangled sob escapes Reno’s lips as he raises a hand to grip onto his hair, trying to maintain his composure, “I didn’t mean to… If I’d known, I would have…” The Turk second in command paused and hunched in on himself, not caring if anyone could see him through the glass walls of your office.

M-maybe she left her phone behind when she ran? But… if she’s not there, then where would she have gone if not home?

There weren’t any excuses or any other reason he could come up with. Reno knew that. If he had known beforehand that you would be in Sector 7 Slums, he would have warned you, but you would have tried to evacuate as many people as possible from that sector, and AVALANCHE might have managed to leave, therefore ending in a failed mission. He would have done everything he could to make sure you stayed away from Sector 7, but in the end, he’d still go through with the mission.

“I killed her.” Reno sobbed in realization, biting his bottom lip so hard that he tasted copper, “Just like I killed all those people.” Shaking his head, inconsolable, Reno could only mourn quietly. “I’m just the worst. This is karma for all the shit things I did in life, isn’t it?”

Eyes dulled and slightly puffy, Reno hastily wiped at his face and sat down with his back against your desk, his phone ringing with notifications as Tseng and Rude sent him requests for ‘status’ updates. And the Turk second in command ignored his colleagues, eyes staring into nothingness as he wreaked his brain for what to do next.

I really was looking forward to the date. Reno’s thoughts trailed off, It’s sappy as hell, but I wanted to ask her to be my girlfriend. Tseng said that relationships for Turks never ended well, citing Veld as an example, but… gah! This is the worst situation for Tseng to be right!

It was only the early afternoon… maybe he could start a search party for survivors… it was probably too late, but Reno knew that he had to do something to look for you. With renewed purpose, Reno got to his feet and marched out of your office, blue eyes burning with fiery determination as he hung onto the faint hope that you might have survived.

December 13 - 12:13

You groaned in pain and shifted your body, eyes cracking open to be met with blinding industrial lights. The pain from the glaring lights startled you into closing your eyes again, turning until your body was facing away from them. For a moment, you wondered why you were laying on some sort of weird metallic floor instead of your soft bed, and then the memories of a falling sky sent your eyes flying back open as you took in your surroundings.

The floor was indeed cold and metallic because it looked as if you’d woken up in a maintenance passage. Despite most maintenance passages usually being dimly lit, the one you found yourself lying in was lit from both of the walls. The ceiling above your face had a hole in it, though it was covered with metal and concrete chunks. You assumed, as you clambered to your feet, that you’d fallen through that hole and rolled a few feet away due to the pile of rubble directly beneath the hole. Wincing slightly, you poked and prodded your person for bruises, broken bones, or fractures. Slightly satisfied with just a few small skin lesions, bruises, and maybe a fractured rib, you patted yourself down for your mobile phone, hoping to call for help. Frowning, you found that you did not have your cell phone on you, nor was it anywhere on the floor near you.

Since you hadn’t expected to live through a plate falling on top of you, you could only look on the bright side of things, turning to walk down the metal tunnel with determination set on your face. I didn’t almost die from a plate falling just to give up in an empty tunnel. Plus, a fond smile appeared on your face, I have a date waiting for me when I get back topside.

It seemed pretty simple to you. You’d falling who knows how far down, but you knew for sure that the way out was up. So the only thing to do was to keep walking until you found a passage up. Easy peasy.

December 13 - 15:35

There’s a fierce snarl on Reno’s face as he stands by several parked helicopters. All around him, emergency responders and Shinra infantrymen scrambled to load up supplies and equipment. The dark look on the normally sassy, easy-going Turk’s face seemed like a literal beacon for anyone not bearing good news to stay the away. Though, if some of the troops were to be honest, Reno had very good reason to be irate. The Turk second in command had called in an emergency rescue operation for survivors trapped among the plate wreckage nearly three and a half hours ago, and they were only just beginning to start the rescue operation.

After Tseng, the Turk commander, had authorized the mission to rescue anyone buried under the rubble, the mission had quickly been side-tracked by Shinra executives Scarlet and Heideggar. Scarlet had protested against the operation simply because of the notion that dogs living in the slums were of no use to Shinra, and therefore, the mission was a waste of resources. Heideggar, meanwhile, had agreed that while in times of disaster, Shinra’s army bore the responsibility of launching operations to rescue civilians affected, the members of AVALANCHE were widely unknown and could easily disguise themselves as regular civilians.

It took nearly two hours of careful negotiations and subtle ego inflating by Tseng and Reeve, before both executives agreed to support the relief effort. Viewing it as a strategic move to improve public opinion of the Shinra Company, President Shinra gave little to no resistance when Tseng forwarded the mission brief to be sanctioned.

Now, an hour after the mission was sanctioned, Reno felt the beginnings of a headache forming as he directed the flow of supplies to each helicopter before making sure that there were rotations of supplies and emergency responders that would journey to and from the wreckage of Sector 7 once he landed with the first round of helicopters.

When he had deemed all in good order to head out, Reno sighed and hopped into the helicopter cockpit, buckling himself in to the pilot’s seat. Plopping the headset on while he waited for the rest of the crew to load up into the helicopter, Reno busied himself with flipping switches to make sure that pre-flight and the ride down to Sector 7 would be as smooth as possible. When his co-pilot buckled himself in and gave Reno the thumbs up, the red headed Turk spoke as clearly and seriously as he could into the mic. “Alright guys and gals in all active units, hope you’re all buckled up with headsets on because I sure as hell will not be repeating this briefing.” After a brief pause, Reno continued to speak while directing the helicopter off the platform. “You all probably heard about what happened yesterday. The official reports from HQ state that AVALANCHE launched an attack to compromise Sector 7’s plate pillar. Despite all efforts directed to stop the terrorist attack, the plate still fell. Our job is to go down to the disaster zone to provide relief to all affected civilians. We will also be launching search and rescue operations for survivors.” Reno paused once more as helicopter gained enough air to safely fly out of the landing zone. “I’m gonna be real with you all. Someone important to me was in Sector 7’s Slums when the plate fell and I’m going to try my damnest to look for her. So if any of you fuck this up… not gonna lie, I’m gonna be pissed.” Nobody replied to Reno’s admittance… not that he really expected much of a reply after he dropped that bomb on them. Having enough of the silence, Reno exhaled, “Alright… good talk.”

December 13 - 16:03

It wasn’t easy peasy. Definitely fucking not.

The chrome walkways and exposed piping-lined maintenance passage that you had fallen into hadn’t been a simple few meters under the surface as you thought. No. It’s was more like several meters down with a layer of minor blocked off passageways right above. And, as if that weren’t terrible already? The maze of pathways that made up the layer above seemed to take joy in bringing you up a level, just to drop you back down a level because some asshole decided to seal off the passages at various points.

Your eye twitched in annoyance when you walked down a metal walkway only to be face to face with another fenced off passage lined with reinforced plating. To your surprise, you could see a man stumble around the corner of the opposite side. When you saw one another, your eyes widened. “Holy shit!” The man gasped, stumbling forward with a noticeable limp and sliced up arm. “I didn’t think there’d be another person down here!”

“This place is like a maze, so I’m not surprised that any survivors had yet to meet up. A-are… are you okay?” The blood leaking from the deep scratches in his left arm seemed to ooze a poisonous purple color.

The stranger bit his bottom lip as he hastily hid his injury, “Yeah… I’ll be fine. Listen, girl, you should watch out while down here. I think the rumors about the underground lab were true after all. There are monsters running around everywhere.” Your expression must have been one of utter dismay and despair because the man coughed and reached into his pocket to roll two materia under the fence. “Uh. Shit. Well, it looks like you could use these then. It’s a Cura and a Fira. Hopefully you won’t need it, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Anyways, I hope you make it out of here, girl. I gotta keep looking for other AVALANCHE survivors.”

When the man made to jog away, you called out to him, “Wait! You said that you’re looking for AVALANCHE members? Are you one of them? Do you know what happened?” You pressed yourself against the fence in order to see the stranger from around the corner.

The stranger turned around to stare at you with a grim expression. “Whatever you’re thinking, AVALANCHE didn’t cause this, okay? We were framed by Shinra.” At your confused expression, the man scoffed, “C’mon, you really think that Shinra was going to let civilians protest and riot against them? They couldn’t figure out who was a member and who wasn’t, so they figured they’d drop the entire plate on top of us to get rid of us all.”

“But that’s such a drastic move!” You protested, wanting to believe that your employers wouldn’t have such blatant disregard for human life. “They wouldn’t just sacrifice thousands to eliminate AVALANCHE!”

“Believe what you want, girl. But the reality is that my friends and I all went to the pillar to stop Shinra from dropping the plate, and it dropped anyways because two Turks were sent to finish the job.” The stranger didn’t allow you to retort as he limped away. Not that you would have responded anyways with how the stranger had said that two Turks had arrived to help ensure that the Sector 7 plate dropped.

Pulling away from the fence, you knelt down to pick up the two orbs of materia, the color of your skin taking on a sickly pale pallor. Two Turks were sent to the pillar to drop the plate on top of all of us. Your mind instantly supplied the first Turk pair that you could think of and you felt like you were going to dry heave. I don’t know Rude too well, but from what I know, he and Reno wouldn’t do something so horrendous. Surely, there must have been another pair of Turks who were sent to do it. But you did work in a different department as them, how did you know that there were more members of the Turks? And with Reno’s position within the group… He could have known what was happening…

You told Reno that you would be hanging out with your best friend… that you guys were having a party. He’s smart enough to deduce that your friends still lived in Sector 7… Did he forget? Or… Your stomach churned violently as you sank to your knees on the cold metal walkway. Did Reno just decide he didn’t care if I survived or not?

The edge of your vision burned with tears threatening to spill down your cheeks. A simple blink sent them trailing down your cheeks as you stood upon shaky legs. “Can’t worry about that now.” You muttered, eyes filled with determination as you gathered the excess fabric of your dress to gird up your loins. “I need to find a way out of here. The tunnels might not be able to hold for long.”

Lifting your arm, you pressed one of the materia into your forearm, like you’d seen a few SOLDIERs do before, marveling at how the orb of power sank into the flesh of your arm. Smiling at how seamless it was to merge flesh with Materia, you pressed the other faintly glowing orb into your other forearm, concentrating for a bit before casting Cura upon yourself.

Newly rejuvenated, you back tracked through the metal corridor to find the ladder leading down. “Welp, there’s no time like the present,” you mumbled to yourself as you descended further into the tunnels below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[monstersandmaw]

Homeless merman (Leyil) x reader - Part Two (nsfw)

Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

Part One of Leyil’s story was in response a prompt sent in anonymously to @cozycryptidcorner on Tumblr, and I wrote a drabble on my phone, super late at night,  never expecting it to become one of my most popular stories!! And here is the much-asked-for part two!  

Contents: 6200 words, a reader who can't swim getting into a bit of difficulty, and some merman smut...

I hope you enjoy it!! As ever, let me know what you think :). P.S. I love you folks

*********

Getting your new tenant from his temporary home in the town centre’s fountain to your run-down farm on the outskirts was one of the hardest things you’d ever tried to do. Luckily there was an old wheelbarrow in one of the sheds on the farm, so you heaved that up into the bed of your battered old pickup truck and drove to the marketplace to pick him up.

Unfortunately, you discovered when you got there that there was no access for vehicles during the day, so you had to park on a side street, but you’d come prepared with the wheelbarrow. How you were going to get him into it was another matter, but you’d figure that out when it came to it.

Leyil was sitting in his usual space by the statue, hauled out and drying up in the strong sun, surrounded by his few belongings and his cardboard sign which read ‘water please’ propped up nearby, looking exactly as he had the previous day when you'd first met him. His skeletally thin arms hung limply by his sides and he was slumped against the stonework, his breathing laboured, bony ribs rising and falling irregularly, and his dull, drab looking tail-fan spread over the cobbles like an abandoned sheet of newspaper. Someone trod on the tender skin of the caudal fin as they passed and he hissed weakly but otherwise didn’t react.

Anger boiled hot in your stomach at the way folks were treating him, and you hurried closer with your wheelbarrow.

“Hey,” you smiled when you approached, bearing another fresh fish for him from the stall on the other side of the market. You’d picked it up on your way over and you’d even managed to get another shiny trout for him.

When you presented it to him, kneeling down beside him, he looked slowly up at you with his enormous, inhuman eyes, and simply stared.

“Leyil?” you asked. “You remember me from yesterday?”

His breath wheezed and rattled, and he took a couple of goes at speaking before any sound came out. “You… You came back…” he finally rasped.

“Of course I did,” you said, trying to mask shock and upset behind a friendly expression. “Here,” and you offered him the fish. “You hungry?”

He nodded weakly and when you held it a little closer to him, he smiled, cracked lips stretching and his dark eyes filling with tears again.

You let him eat in peace for a while and then offered him a bottle of water, most of which, again, he poured over his gunked up gills with a rattling sigh of relief that struck you deeply. His webbed hands trembled with the effort of holding the bottle, but he didn’t seem to want to let go of it, so you simply let him keep it when he was done with it.

“Thank you,” he said again, voice quavering and dry as a handful of late autumn leaves.

“You’re more than welcome, Leyil. Listen, do you still want to come and see if the lake on my farm is any good for you?”

He swallowed thickly. “Is… Is it far?”

You shook your head and pointed east. “It’s a couple of miles out of town that way. If you don’t like it, I can always bring you back here, but I can’t imagine it’d be much better here than there…”

Leyil managed a lopsided smile and shook his head. The first traces of humour glimmered in his eyes and he agreed with you. “No,” he muttered. “Neither can I.”

You smiled in return and said, “So… I had to park in a street just off the market, but I brought a wheelbarrow with me to help get you there. Is that ok? I’m not sure how we can get you into it though…”

He wheezed a rattling laugh and said, “I could go back to the fountain…” he said, eyeing the low stonework of the fountain’s bowl and then gesturing at the little sheet of cardboard on which he was sitting.

“Ok…” you said, following his train of thought. “You get up onto the wall of the fountain and then scoot over into the wheelbarrow?”

He nodded.

The fountain wasn’t far away, and you offered to gather up his things for him, but he hissed, “Leave them. I don’t want to bring anything with me.”

“Fair enough,” you said, stepping away from the empty takeaway cup and a scrap of ragged fabric beside him. He began to slide on his backside over to the fountain, the cardboard sheet beneath him acting as protection for his delicate and fragile tail as he scooted himself on shaky arms over the rough flagstones of the market square. Panting, struggling for breath, he paused halfway, elbows quivering, muscles shaking.

“Water?” you asked and he nodded.

Unable to hold himself upright and take the bottle from you, he fell backwards onto the warm stones and winced as the sores on his back hit the floor. He finished the rest of the water and lay there a while, gathering his remaining strength.

There weren’t too many folks in the marketplace yet, but those who passed slid by the scene as if stepping round a pile of garbage, pointedly ignoring the pair of you.

A thought occurred to you and, while he recovered, you asked, “Why don’t you stay in the fountain all the time?”

He snorted and croaked, “They treat it with chemicals to stop it going green. I tried… I tried to stay in there all the time when I first… first came here, but…” his breath caught and he gave a horrible, sucking, wheezing inhale.

“Easy,” you said. “Save your breath. You can always tell me later.”

He nodded and concentrated on stilling his uneven, ragged breath.

The rest of the way to the fountain was a hard slog for him, but he made it in the end. It wasn’t far, perhaps ten paces, but he was exhausted. “Leyil, I don’t want to patronise you, but would you like me to help you up onto the wall? I could probably lift you at least that far…” Manoeuvring him into a wheelbarrow was one thing, but heaving his dead weight onto a low sill didn’t seem like it’d be too strenuous, especially given his emaciated state.

Clearly embarrassed, he nodded, and you leaned in close to him, sliding your arms under his and hoisting him up to sit on the low, stone wall. You scuffed his backside on the rough wall and he winced but said nothing, even when you apologised. He smelled truly awful, like fish left out to rot in the sun, but you figured that you wouldn’t smell too pretty if you’d had to live on the streets either.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, head hanging low as he turned his face away from you.

“It’s not your fault, Leyil,” you said again. “Take your time, then we can swing you into the wheelbarrow. I’m just so sorry it’s all so undignified…”

The merman barked a hoarse laugh and turned his intelligent, sharp eyes to your face. His silent gaze said so much, but he added, “Living on the streets and being spat on by passers by is degrading… a little indignity like this, I can deal with.”

You smiled, a warm admiration sweeping in to replace the anger that still frothed inside you at the way he’d been treated. As if sensing this, he reached a cold, clammy hand for your wrist and gripped you with unexpected strength.

“Don’t pity me. I refused to leave the lake. I should have gone…”

“Even if you refused to go, you shouldn’t have been treated like that…”

He shrugged and let go. “Most people here have never seen a merman. I think they’re afraid of us.”

“Why?”

The sharp-toothed smile you got was hardly reassuring. “Don’t you know the stories?”

You raised an eyebrow and he laughed huskily.

“We sing the landfolk to their doom and feed on them…”

“Is that true?” you asked, suddenly afraid that you’d offered him a home in your lake. You fought the urge to yank your wrist out of his cold grasp. “I thought it was just a fairytale…”

His smile remained, but the gentleness in his weedy-green eyes softened it and he let go of you. “Some of us know the songs and have the magic, but your kind is in no danger from me. I just want a place to live.”

“Well, let’s get you into the truck and into my lake then,” you said, goosebumps shivering along your skin as you tried to put your disquiet to rest.

He swung himself into the wheelbarrow with surprising grace but he gasped as his sensitive, sore skin hit the chilly metal. He laughed a moment later and tried to tuck his tail up out of the way of where your feet would be walking. He lacked the strength, however, and it flopped back down to trail in the dust like a ragged train, leaving him panting and shaking.

“I’ll be careful,” you reassured him, and he smiled, too tired for speech.

People stared openly as you wheeled him out of the marketplace, and as one particularly rude human gawped at him, he bared his teeth and hissed like a cat at them until they turned and scurried away.

“Nice,” you grinned slyly at him and he chuckled. He still looked exhausted, but behind the pallor of his sunken cheeks there was a slight colour beginning to rise.

It took a bit of jostling to get him from the wheelbarrow into the front seat of the truck, but eventually he was in, and he laid his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He sat there, unmoving and barely breathing, clearly exhausted, while you loaded up the barrow into the bed at the back and then returned to fasten his seatbelt. He watched you with curious eyes but offered no comment as you reached close to him again.

As the truck rumbled out of the town, he stared at the pine trees as they flashed past with a look of wonder on his gaunt face. His skin was so pale it seemed to glow, and you noticed little patches of scales on his shoulders and at his elbows, the same colour as his dirty, jade green tail.

“It’s beautiful,” he whispered perhaps a mile later down the road.

You glanced over at him again and he shot you a look before returning his eyes to the countryside beyond. “I’m new to the area,” you said carefully, worrying about bringing up his old home, “Is the countryside like this around the lake where you used to live?”

He nodded wistfully. “Yes.”

“Can I ask why you didn’t leave with the others? I heard they were offered a new home…”

He lowered his head. “I should have gone with my family.”

“You spawned here though, right?”

Leyil nodded once. “Each water system has its own unique composition,” he said, staring at his webbed hands in his lap. He’d begun to slide down the seat a bit, but he made no effort to straighten again. “I… I couldn’t bear the thought of being in a different water system - it gives us our life, our nutrients; makes the fish taste the way they do and, well, it gives us our magic.”

“You’d be without your magic if you moved somewhere else?”

He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Maybe? Or it wouldn’t behave the same.”

“Can I ask what kind of magic you have?”

He turned his enormous eyes to you again. “I’m a singer,” he said. “But I promise you, you’re in no danger from me.”

“Right,” you said weakly. Inviting an aquatic predator to your home who could lure you to your death was beginning to feel like a very bad idea.

His shoulders sagged and he swallowed thickly. “I promise you,” he hissed insistently.

“Ok.”

The rest of the ride passed in an awkward silence, and when you finally bounced to a halt at the end of your rutted driveway, he looked like he was about to hurl. Merfolk apparently didn’t travel well in vehicles.

You fetched the wheelbarrow again and when you came round to his door, his webbed hands were pressed flat against the glass of the window, and his eyes were wide with amazement as he gazed out at the lake in the distance, his queasiness apparently forgotten.

You knocked on the glass and he sat back, allowing you to undo his seatbelt again before using the door and handle to swing himself down into the wheelbarrow. A couple of his dull scales had fallen from his tail into the foot-well of the car but you ignored them and concentrated on getting him to the water.

At the shores of the still, black lake that was probably a quarter of a mile long, though nowhere near as wide, and flanked on each side by tall, dark pines and long grasses that dipped their heads towards the water as if in a reverent bow, you halted and Leyil released his white-knuckled hold on the edge of the wheelbarrow.

“Alright,” you said. “I think it’s deep enough here that I could probably just slide you into it from the bank,” you said. “It’s not very dignified, but it’ll be effective…?”

He smiled up at you and laughed excitedly, his row of razor sharp teeth glimmering in the greenish light of the lake shore air. “It smells wonderful,” he said. “Please, I can’t wait. I think I’ll probably try to leap into the water like a salmon if you don’t tip me in immediately…”

“Ready then?” you laughed and he nodded.

The splash he generated when he hit the weedy water soaked you, and he disappeared immediately below the surface with the speed of a hunting eel.

“You’re welcome…” you murmured when he showed no sign of reappearing after another few minutes. You stood there and watched for his reappearance for a good five minutes, but he never showed, so you rolled the wheelbarrow back to the tumble-down barn and decided to get to work on some jobs in the farmhouse. Plugging a leak in the roof was a priority if the weather report was to be believed.

A thunderstorm rolled in that afternoon and you spent the duration of it huddled up in your living room with a book beside the fire, hoping that he was alright.

The moment the rain stopped, perhaps a few hours later, you flung on some wellies and tramped across the sodden grass towards the lake. The shore was dotted with huge boulders here and there, and a wide, pebbled cove stretched in a half moon along the nearest shore to the house. In the wake of the rain, a gentle mist had begun to form and it drifted through the pines in thick clouds, hanging low over the surface of the water.

“Leyil?” you yelled, your voice echoing eerily back at you. A crow circled from the nearest tree top, but other than that, the scene was still.

You waded out into the clear shallows, your rubber boots allowing you to slosh around up to about a foot or so. You bent down and waggled your fingers through the chilly water a few times and called his name again. If he was at the other end of the lake, there was probably no way he could hear you.

Perhaps three or four minutes later, his head broke the surface of the water and he grinned, swimming rapidly towards you. Instinctively you took a step or two back until you were out of the water and standing on the glistening grey pebbles of the shore, still wet from the downpour.

He powered up into the shallows where you’d been standing only a moment before and then leaned on his forearms, his tail fanning out behind him in the water as he looked up at you. “It’s perfect!” he exclaimed, rolling over in the water and coming back to rest on his elbows again. “It’s even the same water as my old lake!”

“I’m glad,” you said. “Is there enough for you to eat?”

Leyil nodded vigorously. “And there’s a big old pike here too. He’s mean, but I think I’ve shown him who’s boss now.”

You couldn’t help but grin. “That’s a relief,” you said. “I wanted you to have a home where you felt safe. The storm didn’t trouble you?”

“Nope,” he smiled. He was still gaunt and emaciated, and his skin still had sores and cuts on, but a lot of the life seemed to have soaked back into him. Perhaps what he’d said about his magic being connected to the water system was true. He must have read something in your expression that you hadn’t meant to show because he tilted his head to one side, his long, lank, black hair dripping into the gently lapping water at the shore, and he murmured, “Did it trouble you?”

You managed a smile. “I’m not a big fan of thunderstorms. Especially not with a leaky house…”

“Oh,” he said, his good mood tarnishing visibly. “I… I’m sorry. I wish I could help you… could repay you for your kindness…”

“Just enjoy yourself and my lake,” you said, trying to force a smile. You really meant it, but somehow you felt as damp as the leaves around you. If you’d thought that bringing him here was going to provide you with some company, you were just beginning to realise that you and he really were totally different creatures, with totally different habits and behaviours, and you might only rarely glimpse him if he happened to surface while you were at the shore. Your life was going to be just as lonely as it had before.

But looking down at him, you knew that none of this was about you. This was about giving Leyil his dignity and pride back, and giving him a home where he could thrive.

“I will,” Leyil said, bowing his head. “And I will cherish it. Thank you.”

You shivered in the damp air and drew your coat around your collar. “I… I think I’m going to head back inside,” you said, “But I’ll see you around, ok?”

Leyil shimmied back into the deeper water and vanished with a flick of his tail.

Life settled back into its previous rhythm. You worked on the farm, trying to get it back to a state where you might be able to keep animals - just a few chickens, maybe some geese - and that took up a lot of your time.

As you shuttled between the buildings on the little tractor you’d bought, or ferried fence posts across the yard, or lugged paint cans from the barn to wherever they were needed, you always kept half an eye on the lake. Sometimes you would see Leyil breach the surface for a moment, and sometimes he would wave at you from a distance, but mostly you both kept to yourselves for the next few weeks.

One afternoon in late summer, as the temperatures soared, you made your way down to the lake and took off your heavy steel toe-capped boots and your socks and paddled out just a little way into the water. It was deliciously cool and you moaned a private, soft sigh at the beautiful sensation.

The glimmering ghost of a figure moved a few metres off shore while you still cooled your toes, and you watched as Leyil slowed and bobbed his head above the surface. His hair was pretty long now, streaming down his back, and his figure had filled out more. He was still skinny, but he no longer looked starved. “You should come in!” he laughed. “It’s hot today!”

With half an involuntary step backwards, you shook your head.

“Why not?” he asked, seeming oddly disturbed by your fear of the water.

“Can’t swim,” you said.

His eyes went wide and his mouth opened a little way. “You bought a house with a beautiful lake and you can’t swim?” he asked, astonished.

“Guess so,” you smiled.

After a pause he tucked his long hair behind his ear and said, “I could try and teach you?”

Bile rose up your throat and you felt your heartbeat triple in pace. “Um… thanks, but… I’m… I’m not sure…”

“Please?” he said, recovering from his surprise and swimming a little closer. “Please; this is something I can do for you!” he smiled, green eyes wide. “I can give you something for what you gave me!”

“Leyil, you’re a predator,” you blurted, adrenaline coursing through you at the thought of water pressing in on all sides. “I’m not getting in the water with you.”

Shock wiped his face blank of joy and he simply stared at you.

“I mean…” you said. “I didn’t mean it like that, but…”

If you’d slapped him he couldn’t have looked more surprised. Without a word, he turned and vanished beneath the surface.

“Shit,” you cursed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Leyil didn’t appear at all for a week after that, though you went down to the lake morning and night to try and apologise for your unthinking and hurtful words.

Two weeks slipped by and you didn’t see the faintest sign of him. He refused to come to the surface when you waded into the water up to your calves, and you didn’t even catch the slightest glimpse of him at a distance beneath the water.

On the hottest day of the year so far, you made a decision.

Before you lost your nerve, you stalked down to the lake again and stood there a moment, breathing deeply, pulse thrumming. Then you stripped down to your underwear and waded out into the lake. It was breathtakingly cold and as it lapped at your tummy button it made you gasp. With your arms held up out of the water, you stood there with it up to your ribs, heart hammering, breath ragged and shallow and quick.

“Leyil?” you yelled across the lake. “Leyil… I… I’d really like to apologise to you… I don’t know if you can hear me, but… well… I’m in the water…”

You ground your teeth and dunked your shoulders in with a screech as the cold water closed around you. You just about kept your head above the water, your feet staggering on the uneven bottom of the lake. You knew it was stupid to go in the water when you couldn't swim, but you couldn't think of any other way to get Leyil to notice you.

Taking a few tentative paddles, you tipped forwards and had a go at swimming.

And failed. Immediately.

The water slipped through your fingers like sand and you began to sink. Panic, blind and raw, overwhelmed you and you screamed just as your mouth went under and the water sloshed over your head.

A flash of white in the murky depths was instantly followed by an arm hooked around your waist and you found yourself powering through the water. For a horrible moment you thought you were going to be dragged down, but your head broke the surface an instant later and Leyil drove you onto the pebbles of the shore with the power of a charging orca whale, his wide eyes full of fear.

“What are you doing?” he hissed at you, his chest heaving as though he’d swum a great distance at a flat out sprint. Perhaps he had. “You can’t swim!”

“I…” you coughed, shaking violently all over. “I’m sorry…”

He stroked your face with his smooth, cool hand. “Shh,” he said. “Just breathe.”

“I hurt you,” you spluttered.

“Yes,” he said.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Not really. I’m afraid of the water, not of you… not really.”

He grinned and you glimpsed sharp teeth. “I could have had you just now if I wanted,” he said. “But I’d rather have you alive, and as my friend, than as my dinner, alright?”

“That’s… somehow not very comforting…”

Leyil laughed. “Ah, there you are; you’re back,” he said, and you realised that you could breathe more easily again.

You sat up, limbs still shaky, and looked at him.

“You scared the hell out of me…” he said. “I heard you from the other side of the lake, heard the ripples, and then I heard you trying to swim. I felt it. I felt you drowning…”

Now it was his turn to start shaking.

“I was so afraid I wouldn’t get to you in time…” he said in a tiny voice. “You saved me, and I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to save you.”

“I’m sorry,” you said again, throat hoarse and sore.

He looked at your mostly-naked body and reached his palm out to your chest, right below your collarbones. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured before withdrawing his touch and clearing his throat. “You should warm up. You’re trembling…”

“The sun’s warm,” you said. “I can just lie here for a bit.”

“You mind if I stay with you?”

You snorted a laugh. “Sure, but I’m not stupid enough to try and come in again,” you said bitterly. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

Leyil’s little chattery laugh livened your spirits a little and he lay on his belly in the shallow water of the shore at right angles to you while you stretched out on the pebbles. After a while, he started to haul himself out to lie next to you.

“What are you doing?” you asked, confused. “Won’t you dry out…?”

He smiled and shook his head. “I don’t mind,” he said. “And it’s not exactly far to get back into the water,” he added, slapping his tail fin down where it still trailed in the surface of the lake and sending fine drops splattering through the air to land on your sun-warmed skin. “Do you mind?”

You shook your head.

After a while, your heartbeat returned to normal and your breathing evened out again.

You turned your head to look at him, only to find him staring at you. He was still lying on his front, with his chin propped nonchalantly in his elegant, talon-tipped hands. The webbed skin between his fingers was translucent and beautiful as alabaster, and you noticed that where his tail had been drab and dull before, it now gleamed with a myriad colours like an opal in full sunlight.

“What?” he asked softly when he noticed your eyes roaming all over him.

“You’re looking well, that’s all,” you said, heat creeping up your neck. He was exquisitely beautiful and you felt your mouth beginning to go dry.

He cocked his head to one side and smiled wryly, which only made you flush hotter.

After a while you asked, “Leyil…?”

“Mmm?” He had laid his head down drowsily on his forearm and was staring at you while you closed your eyes and let the sun warm you through.

“Would you sing for me?”

“You want me to sing for you?” he asked, surprised.

“Yes.”

“But what about that ‘predator’ comment?”

You shrugged without opening your eyes. “I do trust you really.”

He sighed and then you jumped as his hand cool touched yours. “Thank you,” he said, and when you opened your eyes you saw that his own were glistening softly. “I promise you that you’re in no danger from me.”

“I know,” you said. “I… I let my fear of the water become a fear of you, which wasn’t fair.”

He shrugged and sat up, bracing his upper bodyweight on his left arm while his tail fin still lay in the water like a leaf on a pond. “I understand.” He inhaled deeply and then asked, “What sort of song shall I sing you?”

You looked at him and said, “What do you feel like?”

“It’s funny,” he said nervously, “I haven’t felt like singing in a long time. The last time I sang, I was leaving my home behind because the water was draining and the lake was turning into a mud bath. I crawled into the city looking for help and ended up living in the fountain.”

“Leyil,” you said gently. “You don’t have to sing if you don’t want to… if it’s too painful…”

He shook his head. “No, I’m ready. It’s about time. Perhaps I’ll sing a new song about this place, and about you.”

“I’d love to hear it.”

Leyil closed his gorgeous eyes and seemed to fall into an almost meditative state for a while, but soon he began to hum.

It started soft as the breeze in the trees beside the lake, a mere whisper across the rippling water, and despite the warmth of the sun, goosebumps rose and prickled along your arms and legs at the sound of it. His rough, hoarse speaking voice turned into liquid sound, smooth and flowing as a stream over rounded river rocks, and the music he made was truly unearthly.

The melody ebbed and flowed, now soft, now strong, and soon you found tears rolling down your cheeks as he sang, almost without stopping to breathe. It had begun as a heartbreakingly sad tune, so much so that your chest physically hurt at the emotions he poured into his haunting song, but as he let it continue, his haunting voice rolling over the water and the trees with the impact of distant, rumbling thunder, it began to change. An immense joy surged through his voice and he tilted his head back, throat working, chest heaving, as he unleashed his song to the sky.

It seemed to vibrate in your ribcage and buzz in your ears as his magic filled your consciousness completely. You became aware of everything: the water lapping at the pebbles; the pine needles bristling in the dense forest behind you; the fish darting like shadows in the shallows; the weeds wafting back and forth in the softly shifting currents of the lake; the feel of the chill water on Leyil’s broad tail; the press of the stones against his scales; the incredible warmth of your hand in his…

With a gasp you let go of him, snatching your fingers back, snapping the contact, and the spell was broken.

Leyil fell silent.

He opened his eyes, breathing hard, and smiled a little at you, blinking slowly as though dazed.

“Leyil,” you breathed.

“You felt it, didn’t you?” he asked when he’d recovered his equilibrium a little. “You felt my magic… Not everyone can, you know?”

You had no response to that for a while until you whispered, “I think I felt what you were feeling as you sang…”

His smile broadened. “Then you’ll know how grateful I am to you for giving me all this,” he said, reaching for your hand again.

This time you did not recoil. You let him run his palm up your forearm towards your shoulder, tracing the contours of your body as much with his eyes as with his touch. The merman shuffled a little closer to you and you lay back again as he turned his intense, green stare along your body and at your legs stretched out on the smooth pebbles.

Looking back at your face for permission, he moved his hand to your bare stomach and then to your hips. Your breath caught as he circled his thumb at your hip bone and then moved down your thighs. He lingered there a while, exploring and enjoying the feel of your bare, warm skin against his cool hand.

His eyes shone, and under the intense scrutiny and closeness of the merman, you began to flush hotter. He tilted his head like a curious bird, never breaking eye contact with you. “What do you want?” he asked in a rasping voice, so different from his singing voice.

“You,” you murmured after a pause. “Leyil, is this… is this because of your song?”

He shook his head. “My song was about this place and about you. I could sing you a different song if you’d like, but… I want you to… I want you to be… free to choose…”

“Me too,” you said firmly.

He leaned in close and slowly pressed his lips to yours. You’d expected him to taste unpleasant, perhaps like fish, but he didn’t. He tasted of the pure, clean lake water, and his sharp teeth raked across your lips while his hands went to your shoulders to steady himself.

“I want you,” he managed to hiss a moment later, pushing himself upright. “Is that wrong?”

You shook your head. “No.”

He smiled and bit his lip. “Your body,” he said. “It’s… It’s so strange to me, and yet so beautiful…”

“So’s yours, Leyil,” you chuckled, floundering a little as you tried to sit up.

Gently, the merman rolled onto his back and let you explore him in turn.

The injuries he’d suffered while on land had faded to corded scars, as though his milk pale skin had been darned with white silk. His hips were angular and sharp, his stomach taut and lean, his arms and chest muscular but slender, and his face had become angularly beautiful instead of gaunt. But it was his tail that truly fascinated you. The shimmering colours in his scales glittered in the sun, and as you ran your fingertips lightly down his stomach and over the transition from bare skin to scales, he gasped, chin jutting upwards and spine arching off the dark grey pebbles beneath him.

“You like that?” you asked, and he nodded frantically so you did it again, eliciting the same response. “You’re sensitive, aren’t you?”

Just below where his tail began, at roughly the point where a human male would have a cock, you noticed that there was a slit in the flesh that glistened with fluid, and the more you touched him, the slicker it became. The flesh seemed to grow puffy there too, swelling as his chest began to heave and his breathing rasped in furious, desperate pants. His clawed hands scrabbled at the pebbles beneath him and he began to whine and gasp as you circled your touch closer and closer to what you knew had to be a sheath.

Running your fingertips around the edges of it, you heard him give a sharp cry of pleasure. “Shall I stop?” you teased and he whimpered desperately.

“Please! Please don’t!” he blurted, bucking weakly and writhing.

As you smiled and dipped a fingertip inside his slick, swollen sheath, he lurched, shoulders hunching inwards as he almost sat up, handsome face contorted in a grimace of exquisite pleasure, and you realised that beneath the pad of your fingertip, you had found a little rough patch at the top of his sheath. You circled it lightly, tenderly, and he cried out in a long, broken wail that made your ears ring as he flung himself back down onto the beach and arched his back into your touch again.

Slowly, his cock began to free itself from the confines of the sheath. Where his tail was an opalescent, greenish blue, the inner walls of his sheath were delicate, pale pink, and the cock that writhed out was forget-me-not blue at the base, fading to pink up the thick shaft, and the swollen, weeping, spear-shaped head was a dark, vibrant pink, flushed with pleasure. Pearly pre-come rolled down the length of his cock as you continued to trace circles on that sensitive bundle of nerves just inside his sheath, and he practically sobbed with desperation.

“Please…” he gasped, tears spilling from the corners of his eyes. “It’s so good… please…”

“You want me to touch your cock too?” you asked and he nodded mutely.

You wrapped your other hand around his hard length and he yelled again, his torso contracting in spasms until you thought he might be coming. However, he continued to writhe and moan beneath your touch a little while longer before he forced his large, inhuman eyes open and rasped, “Please… let me… let me come…”

“I’m not stopping you, Leyil…” you said, gripping his hard cock even tighter.

His magic reached out for you then, that familiar feeling from earlier wrapping around your senses and he breathed frantically in rapid, shallow gasps, gills opening too in an attempt to suck in as much oxygen as possible as his pleasure reached its peak. His sheath contracted and pulsed and suddenly he came with a scream of pleasure that you felt in your chest, still connected to him by his magic. His back arched, his head flung back, chin raised, and he released over your hand and his own stomach in a series of messy, convulsing waves.

You had never been so turned on in your whole life, and as he slowly came back down and opened his eyes, he saw your arousal and smiled.

“Let me thank you properly,” he slurred softly, and this time you didn’t refuse him.

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