#i say while i take a break from my aerospace course

[azuredawn81]

can we get a fic (idc which player) where the reader is a nerd? not like "oh i'm in college so studious" but she's like, a real genuine nerd. make her a mathlete. make her a biochem major. idk just make her a nerd.

i'm asking you because you mentioned studying physics.

when i get called a loser nerd in my own asks but I'm just a chill guy

anyway yeah sure i can do that. if someone wants to suggest a player, that'd be great.

[scrabbleknight]

I wanna study aerospace engineering, any tips for me?

Aerospace engineering is very different from my field of studies (Mechatronics). Plus, it really depends on where you want to study.

But I guess I can try. Here are some tips I could think of:

Internships, internships and internships: Engineers are valued by their experience so having a lot of internships is a good way to bolster your resume. I personally wasn't able to because I took my semester breaks to visit my family, but you should try it if you can. Plus, the extra experience definitely helps with building up your skill set. Oh, and if you have any personal/work projects, put about 3 of the most relevant.

Your first few semesters are your most important ones: These help build the foundation of your studies. Everything else in the future is dependent on what you study then. A lot of material from previous semesters end up being relevant in other courses, so they all link up! So master your foundations and future classes become way easier.

Get a good high-specs laptop: A lot of engineering fields nowadays utilize resource-heavy applications to do the bulk of the work. CAD programs, mechanical and fluid simulations, programming, etc. need a really good computer. Although a home PC would be great, I don't recommend one because you'll be carrying that laptop everywhere so keep that in mind.

The amount of hours to spend studying after class is not static: A lot of professors will say "For every hour in class, spend 3 in studying" and I will say it's utter bullsh*t. The amount of hours spent is dependent on well you digest the information. Some course are harder and you'll spend more, while easier ones spend less. It's your responsibility to figure out which and alter your schedule where is necessary.

Have a social life: What no college ever tells you is that a social life is vital in ace-ing your exams! Yeah, you heard me! Your mental and emotional health will affect how well you understand the material. So if you're sick, tired or depressed, you'll do worse at studying even if you spend so many hours on it. DO NOT IGNORE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH!

Pick your college carefully and read up on the rules and regulations: This is one of the most important ones. Depending on the state, country and institution, colleges have different rules and regulations. When I first studied in Germany, I learned that I needed to do a preparatory internship to proceed with my studies after the 2nd year. Thankfully, I already did it before enrolling but a lot of my friends had to delay half a year just so they could do it! Yeah! So know your rules! Also, not every college has what you want to learn and every college is different even if they do have what you want. Syllabuses are publicly available online so you can always look at those before picking.

I've run out of colours but this is the gist of it. I can't give you any engineering-specific tips because really, it's no different than just learning any other degree. I've worked with other people in social studies and for the most part, we're pretty similar outside of what classes we take.

Oh and don't buy expensive textbooks. Just borrow from the library or get one from the year or two before. Textbooks don't change much from year to year. Otherwise, even the professors would have to buy a truckload of books all the time. Any professor that tells you you have to buy a textbook is profiting from it, and it doesn't take much to look for their names on the front page.

[smartspo]

All of the advice I’m going to give you in this post comes from my personal experience. If you know me in real life, or at least knew me through high school, you’d know I’m one of the most indecisive people to ever exist. During my junior and senior year, I went through this huge existential crisis and researched online about pretty much every major known to humankind, and I still couldn’t make up my mind. I went from considering an Arts-related majors, Law, Business, etc, to finally deciding on Engineering, and I’m going to tell you how I did it, and how I managed to stick to this decision and feel confident about it!

Know what you’re going through is perfectly normal

This is not practical advice, but I still wanted to put it on top of the list because I know how much distress this topic can cause. When everyone else around you seems to know exactly what they want to do with their lives, this can only mean you must be immature and not ready for university, right? Nope. Trust me, it doesn’t mean anything. Seventeen-year-olds aren’t supposed to know what they want to do with the rest of their lives, and even the ones who tell themselves they do, they are very likely to change opinions in the long run. The point is, you are not supposed to be sure of anything right now. Your major will allow you to understand in which area you’d like to work with in the future, not your exact career path. Which brings me to my next advice to keep in mind: once you decide on a major, it won’t define the rest of your life.

It isn’t a final decision

I’m enrolling for Aerospace Engineering at university this fall, but I’ve read countless stories of people who ended the course and ended up working with Finance. I also know of many Fashion designers who were originally Architecture students. The point is, despite the name slapped on the page of your major of interest, what really matters are the skills you are learning. Even though, yes, an Aerospace Engineering student will most likely want to work as an Aerospace Engineer, they will have learned many other useful skills and will be able to apply them in different career paths, if they choose to do so. This same principle applies to most majors, like English, Business, and so on (I say most because there are courses like Medicine that are rather specific on career path). Therefore, have a look through university websites and see what the alumni of your majors of interests are working on, to understand the “range” of the major.

Know your priorities

Your major doesn’t have to be the one thing you love doing above anything else, despite what people say. I’m not saying you should choose it based on which one has a higher starting salary, because I don’t think it’s right, but it’s just that sometimes, people get too obsessed with finding “their true call”. Enjoying doing what you do it’s enough and, after all, you won’t get all of your happiness in life from your career choice. If you don’t find your “true call” right now, it’s perfectly fine. Realistically, most people don’t, and they still find other ways to fulfill their life through things like hobbies, volunteering, sports, and so on, which is great. Whether or not your major is your life vocation won’t dictate if you will be happy or not. If you think you managed to find it, that’s great! But again, don’t obsess over it.

Pros and cons list

For the first practical tip, write down all of the majors that interest you, and write all the pros and cons of choosing them. It can include anything, from the location of the universities around you that offer the major, to the actual things you like and dislike about the classes you’d be taking. This will give you an overview of what major seems more “worth it” to you, despite their cons.

Dig deeper

Find out the exact classes you’d be expected to take, projects and so on. Think if it is something you would feel motivated enough to go through, something you would enjoy in the long run, or something you’re good at. The major “summaries” universities offer on their websites, while often helpful, can also be very vague and have the aim of sounding more charming to prospective students. Therefore, looking through the syllabus and other more detailed pages can be very clarifying.

Look for different opinions

When trying to make my own decision, I listened to a lot of different people. They go from teachers to people on Youtube - all kinds of opinions mattered to me. The careers counselor in my school gave me a broad idea of the majors I was interested in, other majors that I hadn’t considered before, and her opinions based on her experiences hearing from alumni who were already going through college/had graduated. I also talked with people online and in real life who were already going through the courses I was considering - what is it like? Do you enjoy it? What are the ups and downs of it?

I mentioned watching Youtube videos, which can be very helpful, but often a bit misleading as well. Through experience, I’ve learned that it’s good to hear the opinions of multiple people, because the number of frustrated graduates making videos about their majors is overwhelming. While it’s important to hear their opinions and arguments for a reality check, sometimes listening to a positive experience regarding the same major is just as important. So, if you come across a negative video on something you’re interested about, don’t feel too discouraged!

Consider taking a break

If this is a decision you’re not ready to make just yet, consider taking a semester or year off. I think the belief that everyone should be graduated by a certain age otherwise they won’t be successful is complete nonsense. All over the world, some students spend years after high school studying to pass a certain university exams, others start university right away, while others need a little more time figuring things out. Everyone is different, and that’s completely fine. You can spend your break trying to find out more about your courses of interest, through maybe taking open course classes, or gaining experience through some kind of internship. Either way, if you don’t feel confident, know you don’t need to rush!

-

I went through a really rough time trying to figure out these things for myself, but again, that doesn't mean I'm completely sure of what I want to do with the rest of my life. I learned that, sometimes, you need to figure things out as you go! Overall, I hoped I managed to ease someone's anxiety and helped them find something useful.

Good luck! 💗✨

[themonkeycabal]

Wandavision Ep 5 Spoilers

Wherein I watch Wandavision at a stupid hour of the morning because I do not sleep like a regular human being, and sometimes I have things to say.

Previously on Wandavision, we all discovered that Darcy Lewis and Jimmy Woo were the BFFs we never knew we needed and now can't live without. Also Wanda reminded us that she's really scary.

We should be in the 80s now, right? Ahh the 80s. Leg warmers, Aquanet, and MTV.

Baby shenanigans with crying twins. Wanda tries to magic them to sleep and it doesn't work. "Maybe we just need some help." And in pops Agnes without waiting for them to answer the door. As you do in a sitcom hell. She's got a headband and leg warmers on and is on her way to jazzercise. Of course. Is the point of Agnes to really anchor us in a decade? Asking for real. She's very "this is the era, and these are the tropes, let's all play along now."

Vision is very protective of the babies, to such a degree and with such intensity that Agnes literally forgets her line and nervously asks Wanda if she wants her to take that again. Well, then. Agnes very super a lot does not want to be wished to the cornfield. 

The babies stopped crying during the whole "should we do this scene again" interlude. Vision noticed the weirdness and is trying to figure out what's going on, Wanda is trying very hard to pretend everything is normal. Agnes is being super duper bizarre in the background. And suddenly the twins are like three years old. Agnes has given up and got into the liquor. I don't blame her.

Opening credits. Okay, I'm sorry, 'baby' Vision is almost more stupidly funny than I can take. Like … what? I think I want that as my new icon, though. Also the credits are too long. I think they were very proud of their theme song, so we have to hear it all. These are my least favorite so far. Very 80s, but meh.

In the real world, Monica is getting x-rays and giving a report on being yeeted from Wanda World.

Jimmy Woo and Darcy are there to greet her at the end of the exam. "This is Doctor Darcy Lewis." Yes, she is! Still very proud. She's also the doctor of encouraging people to wear pants, shoving a pair at hospital gown-clad Monica. Erik's no-pants phase was very scarring.

The medic comes back and says the medical tests didn't work or something. The medic wants to do x-rays again because the first came back blank and also she's going to have to do another blood draw. Hmm. Monica is still somehow affected by Wanda World? Unclear on how that would work. Some sort of weird witchy radiation-like energy? Monica says 'no' to more needles and also wants to put pants on. Just let the woman have her pants.

Now we're on to a briefing with the acting Director of SWORD whose name I don't remember. He's very "government suit" bland, I have a hard time caring about anything he says. Also, does anybody else pronounce the 'w' in SWORD in their head when they read it? Like I cannot make my brain stop doing that. "s-WUH-ord'.

"Our initial theory had Wanda Maximoff as one of many victims. We now know she is the principle VICTIMIZER!" Settle down there, acting director guy. Why not say 'subject', 'suspect', 'perpetrator', or boring old 'cause of the anomaly". VICTIMIZER! Geez then. I'm going to guess his solution will be a tactical nuke or some such rot.

Jimmy gives background on Wanda.

Acting Director Guy: "The twins were subsequently radicalized, volunteering at Hydra." Jimmy Woo: "That's an oversimplification of events, but yes." I'm giving you heart-eyes Jimmy Woo.

"After unspecified experimentation with the mind stone, Maximoff gained telekinetic and telepathic abilities."

Then a weird aside where the Acting Director — who shall now be known as Acting Director Dick — wants to know if Wanda had a code name or a something, seeming to imply that not having one made her a bad guy?,  and then he points out how the first time she used her powers it was against the Avengers. He totally just ordered a tactical nuke from "overreacting-government-douchebags r us".  I hate this particular character trope, the government heavy who never listens to anybody and is always ready to napalm the suburbs because reasons. It's so tedious.

Jimmy points out that Wanda earned the Avengers trust and then became an Avenger herself, thank you very much. Acting Director Dick doesn't care, he's decided Wanda is a terrorist and he'll turn half of New Jersey into a glass parking lot to get rid of her. Sure am glad he's in charge of some sort of mysterious and powerful agency.

Jimmy Woo is not a fan either, and he walks back over to his new bestie and tells Darcy that while he tries not to speak ill of anybody … Darcy interrupts "then allow me", and she has no trouble saying that Acting Director Dick is, in fact, a dick. That's my girl.

Elsewhere AD Dick is blathering on about how they don't negotiate with terrorists. Well, since Wanda hasn't made any demands, or released a manifesto or anything …. Monica also points out Wanda is not a terrorist. AD Dick twists her report to make Wanda sound as terroristy as he can. I'm bored with him now.

Monica argues with him a bit and say she doesn't believe Wanda World is a premeditated act of aggression. I vote Darcy, Jimmy, and Monica wait until AD Dick is alone, and then they shove him in a locker for the rest of the season. If anybody asks he had to run back to sWUHord for meetings or something, "Darn, you just missed him. I'll tell him you're looking for him. Great. Buh-bye now".

AD Dick needs to make his big jackass point that Wanda is the most terroristy terrorist who ever terroristed, so he shows off footage of Wanda breaking into a SWORD facility to steal back Vision's body. Because that seems terroristy and not at all like some sort of emotional breakdown. As far as I can tell, she just busted open a few doors, but didn't hurt anybody. I think AD Dick doesn't know the meaning of the word terrorist.

And, yes, then she resurrected Vision in an idealized sitcom world in a small city in New Jersey. That's exactly like something a terrorist mastermind would do. Mmmhmm. Is it nice for the people trapped there with them? No, clearly not. Agnes and Herb in particular seem aware and are scared. They need to be rescued and Wanda needs LOADS of therapy. But Director Nuke the Site from Orbit over here isn't going to make anything better. Darcy, sister, shove that asshole into a locker stat.

Jimmy notes that stealing Vision's body is a violation of the Sokovia Accords. And while I appreciate his dedication to maintaining the Accords … well, I mean, look, it's body theft and all. It's not a great look; I absolutely allow that. But you can just sort of stop there. Though, that's very the Sokovia Accords "if this guy dies, his body must go to a shadowy government agency. for safety. yep."

Also Vision had a living will, where he didn't want to be used as a weapon. Sure, okay. Because I'm sure SWORD was just totally not doing anything at all with his body. Nope. Look, I'm totally a SHIELD girl and even I wouldn't necessarily trust SHEILD with that. So, who is SWORD to me? Pfft. I'd give him to Thor or something and ask him to be buried far far away. I'm just saying. I'm supposed to trust Johnny-Come-Lately S-WUH-ORD?

(In my head now is an inter-agency rivalry where SWORD is like "We have rocket ships!" and SHIELD is like "lol, our lead scientist got eaten by a rock and survived on an alien world for like six months". "But rocket ships?" "We've traveled through time a dozen times in the last year alone. We're a bigger chaotic disaster than you can ever hope to be".)

AD Dick undermines his own "SHE'S A TERRORIST!" thesis by saying she acted out of grief. And then he dismisses everybody. "Work the problem!" Uh … whut? Fine? What is the problem? That she's a WILD MURDERY TERRORIST who must be stopped! or a grief stricken woman who stole her technologically advanced boyfriend's body and probably should be talked down? Acting Director Lack of Clarity.

Jimmy wants to know how Wanda could have resurrected Vision without the Mind stone and Darcy wants to know what Vision will do when he figures it out. Fine questions, friends, fine questions. Monica is just like "acting director dick used to be a buddy but now I kind of want to punch him and am very conflicted. oh and wanda kind of freaks me out but also i feel bad for her" only she says all that without words.

Tommy and Billy are now about like 5 or 6 or something. I'm terrible with kids ages. They're up to shenanigans. Oh, they found a lost puppy dog and they're giving him a bath in the sink. It's all super adorable.

Vision wanders in and greets his family all formally and in his human face. He says he has a premonition someone might pop over. He's not a fan of sitcom neighbors either. And there's Agnes now with a dog house. How does she know whether to enter through the front door or the back door?

The dog tries to burn the house down by licking an electrical outlet? so they name him Sparky (harr harr) and Wanda magics him a collar with Agnes right there. Vision's all "wtf darling?" and she points out Agnes didn't even notice when the boys went from babies to five-year olds, she certainly didn't notice the magic collar. Agnes is trying very very hard not to notice anything. Poor Agnes.

Wanda says she's tired of hiding her abilities and Vision is Very Concerned. He's starting to figure things out.

They tell the boys they can't have a dog until they're 10, so the boys grin at each other and age themselves up to 10. That is all very unsettling. Agnes "Let's just hope this dog stays the same size." as she screams internally "save me!"

Real World. Jimmy's hustling back to the science room with coffee for Monica and Darcy. Monica is asking for some sort of wild mobile bunker to help her get back into Wanda World and Darcy's like "well, yes, but also no". But Monica knows an aerospace engineer who'd totally make it for her.  

"I can't guarantee the Hex won't just mind wipe you as you go in." "What's the hex?" "Oh, it's what I'm calling the anomaly because of it's hexagonal shape. It's starting to catch on." Darcy's so proud, but Jimmy's like 'not so much' but he's too polite to say.

Monica's determined to go back in. Jimmy wants to know who the kids are, if they've id'd them or the babies and Monica's all "oh, no, those are legit Wanda's." Darcy says if she can make stuff with her mind, and all the props and whatnot in the Wanda World are real then she's wielding an insane amount of power. Monica is sure she could have taken out Thanos if he hadn't cheated and snapped her. Jimmy thinks Captain Marvel could have done it. Monica very much doesn't want to talk about Captain Marvel.

Monica has an Idea!

Ah, she wants to see her outfit from Wanda World, which is now in the real world. So, is it real matter Wanda created, or is the perception field bleeding over to make them all see that outfit in the real world. That would have been hella awkward if Monica got yeeted out of her clothes.

Monica confirms they're real then steals Jimmy's gun and shoots them. Ahh, she was wearing a kevlar vest when she went into Wanda World, and that changed shape to be her super fly 70s outfit. "Wanda is rewriting reality." Changing things to fit the hex. So they'll send in something that doesn't need to be changed. Um. Sure. Fine. I don't know what that means, or how that would help in this context, but I'm sure I'll find out.

Meanwhile, Vision is at work, and all his coworkers are amazed at the actual computers. Golly shucks. Computers. Hey, so, computers have been around since the 40s. ANYWAY.

"Should we surf the internet?" We're progressing rapidly through the 80s. Oh, lol, Darcy sent an email. And the whole office creepily reads it out loud. Vision is very weirded out. As well he should be. He wipes the computer with his glowy synthezoid powers and then he glowies Norm when Norm tells him 'none of it is real'. Norm wakes up "please help me. what day is it? how long has it been?". Oh dear. Poor Vision. This is all going to go so very badly. Norm gets very freaked out begging Vision to "stop her". Vision resets him.

At the house the boys wonder where dad is, and Wanda tells them it's Monday and he's at work. Except the boys are all "um, no, it's Saturday". Wanda, your house of lies is tumbling down! You shouldn't have let them grow up so fast. Babies don't ask inconvenient questions about why Daddy needs some space from Mommy and her questionable choices for their shared reality.

Wanda takes the opportunity to impart the 80s family sitcom trope of the weekly life lesson about how family might fight, but they still love each other and family is forever. One of the twins asks if she has a brother. She does. He's far away. But, Sparky goes barking at the door. Wanda looks far away herself. She goes to open the door and Sparky runs out.

Monica has sent in a drone from the 80s. Well that wasn't really a thing. But, how does the 1980s rc plane look more high tech than the 2020s drone they sent in first? Talk to your design team, SWORD.

Anyway, Wanda spots the drone, but she's keeping it out of the broadcast, because she's the editor and director and producer of Wandavision, of course.

Monica announces herself and tries to get Wanda to acknowledge her. Whoops. Wanda's eyes go glowy. AD Dick says "take the shot" and Monica's all "what? no, the drone isn't armed." Except of course it is, because AD Dick is a monumental dick, and he's got a backup drone pilot who takes the shot. Wandavision goes off air. And, oh no, there's a breach at the Hex!

Lol. It's Wanda coming through, dragging the mangled corpse of the drone with her. That was entirely deserved, AD Dick. I hope she shoves it up your ass, dick.

"The missile was just a precaution". AD Dick backpedals quick, like a coward. You gave a three second attempt to talk to Wanda before you pulled the trigger, I don't like you. "You can hardly blame us."

Wanda warns him to stay out. "You won't bother me, I won't bother you." Okay, well, he does kind of have a point, in that there's a whole town of people who are stuck as bit players in Wanda World. That's not very nice. I mean, surely she could have found a nice empty spot somewhere and created her sitcom utopia. That's at least a fair criticism.

Monica tries her best to talk Wanda down. It doesn't work particularly well.

"What do you want?" "I have what I want and no one will ever take it from me again." And she mind controls the soldiers training their guns on her, to turn them on AD Dick. Whoops. And Wanda goes back to her world. The Hex glows all red as she goes.

And we go to commercial. Lagos Brand paper towels. "For when you make a mess you didn't mean to." Wow, so that was brutal. Wanda's not mad at you, Monica. She's just carrying a lot of guilt. Ouch.

Back in Wandavision, the boys are looking for their dog. They find Agnes hiding in the bushes with the dog. Poor Sparky apparently ate some azalea leaves and died. The boys are very sad and Wanda warns them not to age up. They can't run from their feelings. Oh Wanda. "It's too sad," Billy says. "You can fix anything mom," Tommy cries, "Fix the dead". Yikes.

Wanda "I'm trying to tell you there are rules in life." Poor Agnes is trying not to have a total meltdown. "We can't reverse death. No matter how sad it makes us. Some things are forever."

Billy and Tommy try to talk her into bringing back Sparky. And Vision turns up. Well, this is just brutal.

Vision is entirely outside of Wanda's control. "I spoke with Norm. I unearthed the man's suppressed personality and I spoke to him free of your oversight." Yikes. "He was in pain, Wanda."

Okay it's kind of funny they're arguing over the end credits. Vision is very very pissed. "I'm scared." Aww.

Wanda insists she's not in charge of every life in Westview. "I don't know how any of this started in the first place." Huh. Is that really true? Because she's pretty sure of it now. Somebody or something convinced her into a sitcom world and now she's just like "yeah, this is good"? really asking.

Ding-dong.

"I didn't do that." 

Vision: *doubt*

DING DONG

Wanda goes to answer the door.

In the real world, alarms are blaring but Darcy notices a new revelation on Wandavision.

Wanda Word — and it's Pietro at the door. See! I knew it had to be Pietro who'd be the surprise guest thingy. I mean it's hilariously X-Men Pietro (Evan Peters, like @lewstonewar suggested), but Pietro nonetheless. There's nobody else it could have been.

Darcy be all WTF? "She recast Pietro?" lol

Okay, Wanda seems legit shocked. I don't think she did that. And I super really don’t think she’d make him sound like a NYC cabbie. 

And end.

Well. I mean, I'm not sure what to think. Wanda insists she's not controlling everything. I don't think she created Pietro. But, she totally stole Vision's body and created the kids and seems mostly happy in her sitcom universe and she can traverse the Hex, which obviously suggests its her doing. Dunno. I have questions about Agnes and her convenient timeliness here and there.

The mystery continues.

Disney wants to know if I want to watch Age of Ultron next. How poorly you know me, Disney.

[wackapedia]

Icarus

The year is 2057. The sun is dying. Astronaut!Taehyung x Reader Wordcount: 1.2k Warnings: Fluff, Angst, astrophysics jargon or the lack thereof 🤡🤡🤡 Taehyung's eyes shine with glee as he breaks you the news of being drafted for the space program. "I made it, Y/n! I'm going out there!" He excitedly squeals as soon as he enters your shared home. "That's... Great, Tae! I'm happy for you." You lied, hugging him in the middle of the hallway of your home. You bury yourself in his broad chest, tightly holding on to him and wishing he would take the hint. "I knew you would be!" He hugs you back.

------------- "So, uh... When is the... Um..." You ask him over dinner in your humble kitchen late one night, gesturing your hands to fill in the lack of words. "The launch? Its in two months. But the training workshop would be in a few weeks." Taehyung continues for you after finishing his bowl. You hum in response, both willing to find out the details while wishing not to. "I'll be staying in the institute a week before the launch, by the way. But you'll be allowed to visit me there." Taehyung finally notices your worry. You don't want to burden him with your worries as being out in space has been his lifelong dream. But I can't visit you when you're up there. "No, but I'll be watching over you the whole time I'm there. I'll be thinking about you all the time." He answers. You don't know if you've said those words out loud or has he learned how to read minds. Taehyung reaches over the table to grasp your hand in his large one. He gives you a tight-lipped smile, convincing you that its all going to be okay. You nod along despite your doubts. ------------ Your thoughts drown out the movie playing on your screen. Taehyung's warmth wraps your figure as he focuses on the movie. "Tae..." "Hmm?" "What if something goes wrong?" You whisper. Taehyung takes a moment to think and clears his throat before answering. "Well then, Bugs Bunny will have to look for a different basketball player..." He answers, munching on the buttery popcorn. "What? Not that, silly!" You toss a popcorn on his face. You begged him for a non-space movie but Space Jam was his final compromise. ------------- "Its for a good cause, y/n." He comforts you on his last night at home. Like a dam breaking, you cry hard on his bare chest as the dim moonlight filters through your bedroom window on his last night at home. Your shoulders shake as Taehyung wraps his strong arms around them. Taehyung had explained to you the technicalities of the mission. To re-ignite the dying sun, warming up the freezing earth. "It takes 7 and a half earth minutes for sunlight to travel to the Earth's surface. When the sun brightens up again, you'll know we've made it. And we'll be coming home." "Can't we just throw a rocket from here?! Why do you have to get close?“ you question despite the hiccups racking your chest and the hoarse voice of your throat. "I'm afraid we can't..." Taehyung's lips touch your forehead, pulling you impossibly closer to him. "Why did you have to be the best aerospace engineer in the world? What the hell is Jimin for?" You question every single decision that led to Taehyung being drafted for the mission. "Why the hell do we even need to fix that star? Maybe its not worth fixing anymore!" Your trembling fingers wipe at the mess on your face as tears pool on your husband's chest. Taehyung stops himself from further upsetting you. He pulls you back to lie close to him and he kisses you to sleep. Your exhausted form leans on him, feeling cold tears on your forehead that weren't your own. ----------- You were invited to watch the launch live from the agency's mission control. The headset lies heavily against your ears as you listen in to the live audio feed of the ship taking off the launchpad right after the countdown runs out. You were grateful for the safe take-off, but this was only the beginning of your worries. You spend your days at the agency, listening in to updates despite the scientific terms flying over your head. There were times when the Icarus crew weren't busy and Taehyung would open a private line for you. A short conversation consisting 8-second delays and you trying not to choke through your tears. -------- D-day. In a few hours, Icarus would slingshot through Mercury's orbit to fling the stellar bomb into the sun, releasing enough ignition to make the star burn bright again. The camera attached to the interior of the ship shows six crew members and their commander preparing for payload launch shown in a digital countdown at the corner of your screen. As they draw closer, the signal will be cut off and there will be no means to communicate with them for the next hour. "Payload secure." Taehyung's deep voice crackles through the speakers. "Propulsion jet ready." Min Yoongi's responds. "T minus 4 minutes until comms shutdown." Commander Kim Namjoon announces. You couldn't stop your knees from bouncing against the tiled floor as the signal snaps.  As soon as the five-second countdown ends, the audio clicks silent and all that's left are the external camera visuals, and a live simulation of the payload's position. Just then, a popup rings on your phone.              [1 Video Message - Kim Taehyung💜] The video opens to Taehyung propping up his phone against the houseplant on your living room table. He then proceeds to get comfortable on your couch, deeply thinking and collecting his thoughts. "Hey, y/n. By the time you watch this, we'll be closest to the sun. No man has ever done that before, so you get some bragging rights that your husband did that." His warm chuckle makes you smile through your tears. "I never got to answer your question because I had to think about it. You asked me 'what if something goes wrong?' well, here's my answer. The worst that could happen is that we all fail. The bomb fails to reignite the sun, and earth gradually freezes as it drifts away through space." You wheeze through your tears, silencing yourself to continue to listen to the video. "You once said that maybe earth isn't worth saving. I say it is. Its our home. Its where you are, of course its worth saving." His tone is serious this time. "What if something in the ship goes wrong? It wouldn't matter as long as the payload succeeds. We end up saving humanity and that's all that counts, y/n. We may not make it back, I may not make it back. But know that when I decompress and suffocate in space, I will still be thinking of you. I love you, y/n. See you on the other side." He smiles before ending the video. You feel yourself give out as the cold tiles hit your knees. Commotion ensues inside the mission control room as the technicians scramble all over. As you breathe in through your stuffy breath, you get a glimpse of the floor to ceiling windows of the observation room. The sky gradually brightens like it used to, reminding you of your childhood when the sun was the brightest distant star. Of the days when you and Taehyung would walk outdoors, basking in the sunlight that was estimated to die out in ten thousand hours. They were wrong. But Taehyung made it right, They made it. They succeeded. And that was all that mattered.

[writtenbyvenus]

Fixing You And I

Marriage is never supposed to be an easy-going experience. While it always will have its up and downs, the couple of Alfred and Ivan are towards their breaking point. Toxic fights, jealously, and cycles of up and down in regards to their relationship, there's no doubt that something has to change. With threats of divorce in the air, the pair seek help to save a relationship that they desperately don't want to end. However, working on themselves proves to be easier said than done, as old wounds and traumas make it challenging for them both to evolve. Ivan's past unhealthy relationships and scarring childhood clashes with Alfred's paranoia and controlling behavior due to the tragic death of his past wife. The question remains: Can the two of them learn to love each other healthily, or will their differences end them up in a courtroom?

"When marriage is difficult, focus on the person you're fighting for, not the person you're fighting with."

Chapter 1: Desperate Attempts 

“Hello! It’s nice to meet you! My name is Emma. Ivan and Alfred, right?”

The pretty, tall woman took a seat in her chair, glancing at the couch in front of her. She had a bright, friendly smile on her face. Her voice had a pleasant accent, somewhat European. It beamed compared to the expression of the two clients, who didn’t seem happy with the situation. The couple looked at the floor, with one with his arms closed, nose in the air. His baby face was ruined with a harsh scowl. His eyebrows pushed together, with hooded eyes that looked tired as if he had cried earlier. The other had his hands placed on his lap, baby blue eyes having a mix of tired and sad. His sharp jaw had a five o’clock shadow as if he is too lazy to shave today. One’s body language appeared hostile, while the other appeared exhausted. The emotionally exhausted one decided to speak up first. “Yeah. I’m Alfred, and this my husband, Ivan.” The man offered a weak smile while pointing to his partner. Looking over to the therapist, Ivan gave a fake smile that took all the strength in his body to produce.  

Emma gave a quick introduction to her professional background, and how couples therapy worked, before turning attention to the couple “So, why don’t you tell me about yourselves? The basics at least.” She asked, clicking her pen to start writing facts about them. Alfred spoke up first again, without much hesitation. “So, I was raised here in Texas, I’m thirty-two years old. I work at my dad’s company as a manager. And Ivan’s….” He trailed off, giving Ivan the chance to say his own introduction, but the man stayed silent. “-Ivan’s thirty-three, and from Russia. He works at an aerospace company doing data processing.” He explained, giving a simple run down. 

Disappointed that Ivan wouldn’t speak up, she cut right to the chase since it seemed all easy banter would come from Alfred’s lips. She took note of his comfortability speaking for Ivan. 

“So, what brings you two into my office?”

Ivan stayed silent, arms still crossed, and looking to the side. Knowing that he wouldn’t speak up until forced, Alfred spoke for him again. “We are having problems… So I thought it would be a good idea to get help…” He readjusted himself, sitting back as he couldn’t be bothered at the moment to sit up straight. The overly confident facade he kept up for most was a pause. The man with a boyish face, who always had a ray of sunshine like grin on his lips, wore a tired expression. One that displayed a mix of frustration and defeat for his current relationship. He desired to be here, in the therapist’s office. However, arguing with his partner to come didn’t help his spirit. Just like a child who didn’t want to go to the dentist, Alfred felt like a parent dragging his kid somewhere. 

The brunette therapist took note of the I statement. The thought of Alfred being the force to bring them to therapy came up, which would explain Ivan’s hostile body language and silence. Clicking the end of her pen, she pointed it at the piece of paper on her clipboard. “So, Alfred, it is your idea to bring you and your husband to therapy?” She asked, testing her theory. Proven correct by his nodding, she picked up on Ivan tensing up and tapping his foot on the floor. “Yeah, I had to force him to come. He hates therapy, but I think we need help. I’m at my wit's end. I-” He rubbed the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. Pushing his glasses to the top of his head, he continued “I told him if he didn’t come, I want a divorce.” Alfred showed frustration, with Ivan’s body twitching at the mention of divorce. The reaction happened right on point as if the word divorce triggered him. 

Hearing the harsh reality of the state of their relationship, she trod lightly on the subject. “So, you both have had the conversation of ending the marriage?” Emma watched Alfred point a finger at himself, looking annoyed. “In a serious way, yes, I have. He, however-” Alfred pointed his finger at his husband, his expression staying. “Is constantly threatening to leave me, so god knows when he’s serious about it. But I am-”

“I am not always threatening to leave you!” Ivan slightly shouted- his voice not raised enough to be considered yelling. His body tensed up, getting more on edge, enough so to speak up. The way he crossed his arms almost turned into him holding his arms down, slightly shaking. Similar to a bottle about to explode, anger could only be kept in for long. Upset at any accusations, the need to defend himself came into play. “You have just given up on us, do not make it look like I want to leave you all the time…” Pouting somewhat childlike, he curled up slightly, his arm crossing tighter than before, and his foot tapping faster. Alfred snorted, waving his hand in his direction. Too tired to argue with Ivan’s inability to confess bad behavior, he kept his eyes on the therapist. “I haven’t given up, on us. I’m here because I want it to work. I love him, more than anything. And he can make me feel like the best man in the world. And I adore him- I just can’t do this-this cycle of… “ Alfred paused to look for the right word. “Toxicity- I can’t. It’s only gotten worse over the years. And I’m done.” He closed his eyes for a moment before sitting back again. 

Emma decided to take control of the conversation before an argument broke out. Her eyes went back and forth during the confrontation, using this moment to take note of their dynamic. While fighting at the beginning of a session is never good, she did notice how Ivan’s body loosened up when Alfred spoke of how much he loved him. His arms were still crossed, but his face appeared more sad than frustrated, with his foot tapping ending. His eyes looked down at the floor as if a million things were running through his mind. 

Writing down a few things, Emma put her hand up in a symbol of ‘pause’. Knowing that starting with talking about the positivity of their relationship would relax the couple. “Let’s take a step back. How about you tell me how you two met? How did you get married? Let’s start positive.” She beamed her usual friendly smile, hoping to inspire a happier mood with the upset couple. 

Deciding to do the talking again, Alfred crossed his arms and looked to the side. “We met through a mutual friend…. We bonded and moved pretty fast.. We kind of met at the perfect time in our lives I think… I…” Alfred looked at the therapist in the eyes. “My wife had passed away when she was, uh, pregnant… I was in a really dark place… And he lit it up…” Alfred looked over to Ivan, his expression much softer as he thought about the beginning of their romance. His mind is filled with memories of Ivan bringing back his smile, the one he’s known for. A person hadn’t made him grin, laugh, and feel loved since the death of his wife, and he became forever grateful for it. This joy is one of the reasons Alfred gave Ivan so many chances, he felt like he owed it to Ivan for pulling him out of such a dark, horrible place. Alfred’s usually happy-go-lucky personality has dimmed down to a depressed, stressed man. While he would never return to the same man he used to be- it was the closest he’d achieve being his old self. That Alfred had died the same day they did. 

Emma frowned and felt her heart crack from Alfred’s story. “I’m so sorry Alfred… That must have been terrible to go through… To have a loss like that…” She took notice of the longing in Alfred’s eyes when he looked over at Ivan. His glossy eyes matched his husband’s, whose whole body language changed at Alfred’s comments. His body relaxed, and his arms unfolded. Turning his head, he looked at Alfred. While not smiling, his face lacked the hostility of earlier. Emma gathered that certain subjects seemed to open Ivan up. As if he couldn’t stay as mad when Alfred spoke like that. They both stared at each other before looking away. “Yeah… It… Losing someone like that changes you…” Alfred said, the tone of his voice sober. While it had been eight years, his voice always went low when he spoke of his late wife. “I bet you felt… renewed meeting Ivan.” She said, with Alfred nodding. “Of course- I felt…. I can’t even put it to words, but yeah…” Taking a deep breath, Alfred attempted to control the feeling of his throat croaking. He didn’t want to cry a couple of minutes in. Sitting up straight, he closed his eyes for a minute. “I don’t think I’ll ever be the same man as I was before. When Bella and the baby died, I don’t know- I” Shaking his head, he struggled to find words to express himself properly. “It was like a piece of me died with them. I always have this empty feeling in my chest- And I’ve accepted it.” 

Emma leaned in, with gentle eyes and frown. “It’s normal to feel that way… People like to tell others how to grieve- that you’ll get ‘over’ it. But it’s not about getting over it per se, but learning how to live with the grief. Learning how to cope and bring back the joy in your life. But never to move on and act as if they don’t exist.” 

Alfred nodded quickly, almost looking relieved and pleased that someone had said that. “Thank you! People tell me that I’ll move on as if I can just forget about the years we spent together. I-“ Shaking his head again, he put his hand in the air, frustrated by his troubles explaining it. “You know what I mean.” 

Emma nodded, taking some notes on Alfred’s past relationships and development with Ivan. She eyed Ivan, whose hand had slowly crept up, and began to softly rub Alfred’s shoulder. The change in the mood caused Ivan to finally open up. “I also was not in a good place either. I had left a very unhealthy relationship… And Alfred was- he was kind… And caring. And he made me feel good about myself. He treated me like a person, and most people do not.” He looked down when he said most, implying that socially, he might not be the most popular or got along with others. Alfred reached his hand out, taking Ivan’s carefully. He rubbed his thumb over his knuckles, his way of saying ‘I love you.’

Emma did an airy laugh, pleased by the display of love. “You two seem… to fall back in quickly, yes?” She observed. They went from angry and giving dirty looks, to holding hands and looking apologetic in a matter of minutes. They both nodded, and while guilty, they showed the first smiles of the session. “Yeah… We do… We get mad… and then makeup… and then get mad again…”

“... And then makeup again.” 

“I can be kinda bad at staying mad at him at times… I don’t know, I’ve always been like that with the ones I love…” Alfred sighed, aware of his own problem of quick forgiveness. He had trouble staying upset with loved ones, especially once they showed remorse. “Ivan knows he can bat his eyelashes and I’ll say it’s alright.” Alfred displayed a smirk, as he’d been married to Ivan long enough to know all his tricks. 

Yet he still fell for them. 

Ivan shuffled uncomfortably in his seat, not enjoying being called out on his manipulative tactics. Alfred has accused him of taking advantage of his kindness and forgiving nature. He didn’t want to admit that he could be manipulative at times; using what he knew about the person to get a step ahead of them. Ivan enjoyed playing with a full deck of cards, and when someone else was at his level, he panicked. It became part of his attraction to Alfred, and part of the reason why they’d fight. Alfred’s strong personality and lack of fear to stand up to Ivan and speak his mind proved to be a rare quality people had. Ivan’s aura oozed intimidation; even if he wasn’t trying too. His smile caused people to look nervously to the side and give in to his demands. Ivan found the trait to be a blessing and a curse. Amazing when he wanted to get something out of the person, but awful when he desired a genuine relationship with someone. Only certain personalities could cope with Ivan, and he had enough self-awareness to realize it. 

“Well… You do not always forgive me, straight away at least… There have been many times you’ve stayed upset.” Attempting to counter Alfred's statement, it only won an eye roll from the man. “Well- of course, I’ll be mad for a while sometimes… but I always forgive you. You’re the one with grudges-” Alfred’s rant was interrupted by their therapist, who was trying to avoid an upcoming yelling match. 

“Alright, let us stay away from you statements and accusations. Bickering back and forth isn’t going to help us. If it doesn’t work at home, it won’t work here.” Emma’s voice got a bit more stern. “Fights to hand-holding, to fights again. You two are very up and down it appears, would you agree?” She asked, watching as both parties looked at each other, before looking away again and nodding. She then asked a question that she had a gut feeling would make either both or at least one uneasy. 

“I want to know… Do you two think that you both, how do I say this-” She paused for a moment before looking up and thinking of the correct translation in English. “Feed off the chaos? As in you hate it- but another part of you thrives with it? Ivan, I want to hear your opinion first.” She offered a small smile to her hard question. Emma decided on asking Ivan first due to his lack of speaking earlier, as she couldn’t have Alfred do all the talking, she needed Ivan’s side.

The question made the man look at his lap. He nervously played with the end of his scarf, he didn’t know what to say. He could say ‘No, of course not’, to save his pride. To reject all responsibility from the situation. Staying silent, he didn’t want to admit the rush of emotions when he and Alfred fought and made up. He’d feel alive. There was a possibility that Ivan couldn’t even recognize it himself. Getting stressed, he kept looking in his lap with a blank look, almost in a daze until Alfred lightly squeezed his shoulder. The man jerked and sat up a tad bit higher as if he were just abruptly woken from sleep. 

Looking back and forth, he mustered up an answer in the middle of yes and no: “I don’t know… Maybe… No idea…” Crossing his arms again, his eyes stayed on the wall, looking at the details of the pretty light yellow paint: his favorite color. Alfred sighed, waiting for his answer to turn. “I don’t think I do? It’s what’s stressing me out. At least I don’t think I do…” He shrugged, not wanting to think he was the type of person who thrived off of chaos. He enjoyed their light bickering and banter, fun arguing that was playful. It isn’t until it turned to someone crying or yelling where the enjoyment stopped. 

Emma accepted the ‘maybe’ answers for now. Tapping her fingers on her paper, figuring out the triggers of fights might help her dissect their behavior. “I’ll go back to that later. Ivan, I want you to tell me something that you and Alfred fight about often, something that upsets you.” She emphasized on the you and me, not wanting him to deliver the message to Alfred, more her. Delivering it to Alfred now would only end in another bickering match.

Ivan played with his scarf again, a nervous habit. It took him only a moment to bring up a topic that made Ivan beyond insane at times: jealousy. 

“I do not like his… friends.. And I do not trust him with them. He is very flirtatious… “ Ivan’s face turned sour as he thought of every pretty face his husband hung around. Alfred had a charismatic personality. Tons of friends, the life of the party. Knew how to make people laugh, easy-going. Fun. Alfred tended to attract beautiful people, and he’d grown to turn every friend of Alfred’s into an enemy. Competition.  “... And I think a lot of them like him, and I will not deal with some…-” He paused, trying not to use harsh wording, “person stealing my husband.”

The comment made Alfred groan and roll his eyes. His expression read annoyance, with a frown on his lips. “This shit again. Oh my god.” The number of arguments, yelling, and broken things in their house due to Ivan’s freakouts over his relationships with his friends was enough stress to last a lifetime. The bright blond could only sulk as he became sick of dealing with a trait he viewed Ivan having: insecurity. 

Emma held up her hand to calm Alfred, preventing a fight. “Alfred, it’s Ivan’s turn.” She said, taking note of how it was the first topic brought up by Ivan. “So you don’t trust him with his friends? Is there a… history of cheating?” She asked, wondering if a part of that would prove to be the source of stress. Ivan shook his head, looking upset still. “Not that I know of.. I have thought at times that he has.. But he proved innocent…” But before it could sound like Ivan could be looking past his own insecurities, he proved this trait again by backtracking.

“.... So far…” 

Alfred’s hands rolled up into a fist, trying not to blurt things out since it was Ivan’s turn. The two ending words disappointed Emma since his wording almost appeared as if he wasn’t still suspicious of Alfred. Sadly, old habits die hard. Things clicking together in her head, she asked one more question. “Alright. What does Alfred do that makes you think he might be cheating on you?” She wrote down on her paper ‘feelings of insecurity towards Alfred regarding loyalty’, under her Ivan tab. Ivan tapped his fingers on his leg as he looked up, his soft face having a child-like pout. “He.. he…” Ivan scrambled for words that wouldn’t make him look crazy. A word he got accused many times by Alfred. 

“-I think he can just be too friendly.. And flirty… And he is constantly out and about, drinking, with friends….” He trailed on. His voice was low, then high as if he was trying to convince himself of something. “Texting soooo many people. Too many people.” He puffed his cheeks a bit, adding on to some of his child-like habits. Redness rushed to his face, the feeling of slight embarrassment filling his stomach. His heart would hurt every time he saw a friend of his touch his arm. Or hug him, wrap their arms around him for too long. Giggles and grins, with starstruck glances. They all adored Alfred, and it despised every second of it.

“... Do you feel scared? That you’ll lose him? That someone’s going to take him away from you?”

Ivan nodded, his eyes looking upset as he glanced at Alfred and let out a sad laugh. “Of course! Look at him. How am I supposed to compare?!” He covered his mouth as if those comments were a slip-up. Feeling exposed, he placed his hands in his lap and glanced back at the light yellow wall. Being vulnerable with a stranger proved changeling, he didn’t want to confess. The verbal mishap made him jittery, he wished he could run out of the room, but he was bound to his seat, forced to have someone analyze and look into him. Uncomfortable. Body language stiffened, his palms getting sweaty, 

Emma’s eyes widened a bit at the confession and reaction, while Alfred looked disheartened and unsurprised. Nothing new revealed; Alfred knew his husband, he’d spent over five years with this man. And out of anything, Alfred knew Ivan's self-hate. In a passionate fight or drunk, it would seep out. Or small comments when feeling insecure. Ivan’s facade of confidence could be wiped away easily by people who truly knew him. 

‘How doesn’t he see what I see?’

A disappointed sigh escaped Alfred’s lips as he closed his eyes. “Baby… I just- I don’t know how many times I gotta tell you that I love you and only you. I don’t want anyone else. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong…” Alfred rested his elbows on his thighs as he put his head in his hands. With mixed emotions, he couldn’t help but blame himself. He felt a pitch in his heart hearing Ivan speak like that. Almost as if he’s failed as a lover. A husband, unable to make the center of his world feel loved and secure. It had been five years of him telling his adored that he is smart, funny, beautiful, and kind. That he wanted children with him, a family. That nothing made him happier than to lay next to him in bed, and whisper sweet talk into his ear. Holding his hand, and placing kisses on his knuckles, the list filled with many small and large acts. 

“.... It is not you, Alfred….” Ivan’s eyes went over Alfred's slumped figure. In a low whisper, only loud enough for his husband and therapist to wear, he let out his first ownership of responsibility in their chaos; “... It is me… It has always been me.” He sighed, placing his hand on his back. The hand made Alfred sit up, looking back at him. Their eyes met for a moment before it all became too much for Ivan. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, his hands sweaty, and arms slightly shaking. Panicked. Showing all his cards left him feeling defenseless. And all in front of a stranger. 

“Ivan, do you want too-”

“-I… can... can we come again in a few days? I-....” Ivan could barely form sentences in English, he wished he could speak in his native tongue. Translating when stressed typically ended in mistranslations. “I need some time. To gather my thoughts, yes…” Looking back and forth, he did not want to talk about any of this right now. He didn’t want Emma asking why he felt that way about himself, or what his childhood was like, or what his ex-boyfriend was like; none of it. Anything that required memories couldn’t be spoken of. Shifting uncomfortably, Ivan kept his eyes down. Alfred seemed surprisingly calm while Ivan quietly freaked out. He placed a hand on his upset husband’s shoulder, rubbing it carefully as he attempted to soothe him. “It’s alright, we can come back in a few days…”

Emma nodded, as it wasn’t the first time she’s seen someone get upset, especially at the first session. Pleased to see that Alfred’s comforting seemed to bring the anxious look down, she decided not to argue about the session being cut short. “It is completely alright! I understand. When you two want to revisit this we can.” Staying calm, she shook Alfred’s hand, who whispered a small ‘I’ll call you later.’ to her. 

A few moments later, the couple was out of her office. Taking a deep breath, she looked at her piece of paper and raised a brow. 

“I really hope they come back.” She said to herself in French. 

``````````````````````````````````````````

Parking in the driveway of their house, the couple was just as silent as they were during the entire car ride. Ivan spent it looking out the window, while Alfred kept looking back and forth between him and the road. Worried, he wondered when he would be able to get Ivan to open like that up again. They sat in silence for a moment until, by Alfred’s surprise, Ivan spoke up. “I’m sorry… I simply… I don’t know…” His words went quieter as he trailed off again, looking at his lap and then at Alfred. ‘He probably thinks I did this on purpose…’ The thought bounced around in his already frantic head. Alfred knew already that he hated therapy, what would stop him from thinking this is only an act?

“I know it’s hard for you to open up like that in front of strangers… Just promise me you’ll go back with me?” Alfred asked, raising a brow. He looked a bit tired, but his expression displayed a bit softer than earlier. His hand crept up to hold Ivan’s, rubbing his thumb over his knuckles. “I felt like we were going somewhere. I want us to work, okay?” His voice cracked at the last word; he meant it. While he hadn’t heard a lot in therapy, it gave him some light at the end of the tunnel. He gulped as his eyes got watery, his other hand running through his own hair. 

Seeing Alfred’s caring reaction, he reached over and pulled him into a tight hug. His own eyes starting to water, he nuzzled his face into his shoulder. 

“Of course.” 

[ Link to Ao3 ]

[ichigolden]

Pity Party HanaNene

Let's just say that Nene had envisioned her first week at university a bit differently. She had also expected to be run over by princely figures. At her first party as a university student, she doesn't find a prince, but a wolf instead.

University AU

In the first week of her first semester at university Nene Yashiro put up with a lot. She moved into the dorm that she shared with her best friend, Aoi Akane. She also endured the many love confessions said best friend would receive every day. And she suffered through the disappointment of not having found a boyfriend yet. It has always been her dream to find a prince-like boyfriend who would adore her and care for her - not that it was that realistic, she's been told. Apparently a girlfriend with swollen ankles - it's what she told people nowadays, her ankles have always been fat - wasn't exactly on everyone's bucket list. Nene liked to think it didn't bother her so much anymore and that her self-worth should come from her achievements, but she still ended up looking at herself in the mirror and wondering whether white knee-high socks made her ankles look fatter than black socks. She was pondering exactly that when Aoi knocked on her door and entered without waiting for Nene to ask her to. "Nene-chan! Did you hear, there- are you looking at your ankles again?" Aoi stopped dead in her tracks on her way over to her self-conscious friend. Nene turned around and sheepishly scratched the back of her head. "Yeah... I guess I am. I just can't help it, Aoi-chan. I wish I had slender legs like you", she sighed. Of course Nene was envious of her friend's nice legs. Aoi had been the most popular girl at school and it didn't look like that status would change at university, either. "Oh, Nene-chan... You have plenty of other really good features about you." Aoi walked over to her friend in front of the mirror. She stood behind her and lifted Nene's hair. Then she let it fall and it glided through her fingers in a grey and teal wave. She also gently lifted Nene's arms to show her what slender arms she had. "Look at you, Nene-chan. You have gorgeous hair, a great figure, and an adorable face. Why would you dwell on an insult from a pubescent boy who's been looking at too many porn magazines?" Nene giggled and turned to Aoi. With her gentle hands she went to hug her friend. "Yeah... yeah, you're right. Thanks, Aoi-chan" Both looked at each other and Nene wanted to say something sentimental but Aoi was a second faster. "Right! I almost forgot why I even came here!", she yelled and pulled at her purple locks, "There's a party tonight! It's gonna be full of other students. Maybe even prince-like boys?" Nene looked at her as if she had just hit her with a pan. "Aoi, no. This week was crazy and now you want me to attend a party? People will laugh about my ankles!", she cried and sat on her nicely made bed. Aoi sighed, moved a bunch of plush figures aside and sat next to her hopeless friend. "Okay, look. Akane and Lemon really wanna go, and I kinda wanna go too. I don't think I'd be okay if he and Yamabuki decided to get together for real this time", she muttered and looked at her nails. "Eh? Aoi-chan, could it be? Are you jealous?", Nene giggled with a knowing expression on her face. In an instant, Aoi's face became a dark red colour which struck Nene as a) proof of her feelings for Akane, and b) unhealthy. "I can't marry him! I can't be Aoi Aoi, that's stupid!", Aoi burst out, slamming one of Nene's beloved plush figures on the bed. She looked darkly at Nene who had started giggling before she began laughing at her friend. "I think", Nene gasped for air, "You should take it slow and see how it goes." "Ugh, whatever! Come on, let's get all dolled up for tonight!"

Hours went by. Everyone who passed the girls' room heard the happiest giggling they'd ever hear in a student dorm. The girls spent their evening painting each other's nails and fixing their hair. In the end, both of them looked way too good for a freshman party. When Akane and Lemon knocked on their door, they started yelling in panic before Nene jumped on her feet and ripped open the door. Both boys looked at her, looked at each other, shrugged, and greeted her. "Hi Nene! You look nice!", Lemon said and lifted his hand. Nene blushed a bit and beamed at them while she thanked Lemon and let them in. "Ah, Aoi! Please go out with me!" When she turned she saw Akane kneeling in front of a blushing Aoi who sprayed some hairspray on her hair. She was dressed in a black ruffled skirt and a pink blouse that complimented the blush on her face perfectly. She sharply inhaled the hairspray when she noticed Akane to her feet and promptly started coughing. "Yeah, how about we just go?", Lemon said and facepalmed.

When the group arrived at the party, Nene was massively done with her life. Akane was even worse than usual. Because there would be many rivals, as he put it, he'd have to keep an especially close eye on Aoi. Lemon just tagged along wherever Akane went who went wherever Aoi went. Nene sighed, this would be a very long evening if she couldn't find anyone to talk to. Aoi seemed to be very preoccupied and she wanted to give her the chance to maybe give Akane a chance. After all, she had been rooting for him and his undying love for her. She thought it was very romantic and charming, and wished someone would love her like that, too. Deep in her thoughts she stumbled along to the definitely spiked punch. She took one of the prefilled glasses and turned to make space for the next person. The next person happened to stand exactly where Nene was going and she walked right into his chest. Startled she backed away and almost walked into yet another person. The boy in front of her grabbed her hand and pulled her a step closer so she wouldn't actually hit another. "Ah, I'm so sorry!", she said quickly, not daring to look at the boy, "And also, thank you!" She wanted to quickly flee and drink more than just that one glass to forget her embarrassing first party at university. Nene had only taken a step when the mysterious stranger stood in her way again. "Can I have your name before you go?", she heard him say with a melodious voice. Finally she dared to look up. The boy in front of her was a bit taller than she was in her heels. His black hair was tousled and looked a bit like a bed head. "Eh?", she only said and blankly stared at him. This guy was so not her type. "Ah, sorry! I'm Amane Yugi", he quickly added and grinned at her. Oh well, Nene thought. She wanted company, anyone would do, right? "I'm Nene Yashiro", she smiled back at him. He gestured for them to make space for others and led her to the wall where many people were standing and talking. "Are you a freshman, too?", Nene tried to feed the conversation. Small talk has never been a strength of hers. The boy looked blankly at her before breaking out yet another grin. She had a feeling she'd see many of his grins this evening. Somehow she really didn't mind, he seemed to be quite upbeat, at least. Nothing could be worse than a killjoy at her first party at university. "Yeah, actually I am. My major is aerospace engineering", Amane said happily while pointing to the NASA print on his shirt. He looked really proud of himself for making that connection. Nene couldn't help but smile. "I'm a literature major", she offered, a bit offended that he didn't ask her himself. Oh well, he probably forgot? He seemed like the type of guy to forget manners. "Did you come here with friends?", she asked. The grin on his face faded. "Um, I came with my twin brother, but he left me, like, 3 hours ago. I was scared I'd have to spend the evening alone so I'm super glad I found you!", he answered. The smile crept back on his face as he looked at her. He was intrigued by her. Her hair glistened in the weirdly coloured light and her red eyes dared him to try and come closer. He was pretty sure she wasn't as docile as she tried to appear. Her skirt was short and tight and her heels were the tiniest bit too high for him to think of her as docile and quiet. "Aw", she sighed, " I can relate! I came with my friends from school but since my best friend is a men magnet I kind of lost them. I thought I could go and drown my sorrow in alcohol but luckily I bumped into you!" Nene took a sip to give her words a truth factor but the punch was more like straight vodka with a bit of punch flavour and she made a face. Amane looked at his drink, took a sip, and shrugged. "Here", he offered and exchanged her glass with his, "I think you got a prefilled one there. I saw them mess up the alcohol ratio. Mine isn't as strong. If you don't mind indirect kisses." He grinned at her and she felt like she was looking at a wolf in sheep's clothing. Oh, how smooth, how actually nice of him. Blushing, she took a sip from Amane's glass and looked at him. Sheepishly he looked away with a hand in his neck. She wasn't sure whether he was blushing really hard as well or if it was this coloured light tinting the whole room in a soft red. He turned back to her and leaned onto the wall. She actually took his bait. Wow. She definitely wasn't as much of a good girl as she tried to look like. Her eyes sparkled, a bit unsure maybe, but defiant and strong. He couldn't help his heart skip a beat when he looked into her eyes. "How nice of you, Yugi-kun", she cooed with a sly grin on her face. Well, maybe he wasn't her type, but who cares, right? She couldn't deny the attraction she felt towards him. Nene had only known him for a few minutes but she was sure she'd be thinking about him all night and possibly all of the nights she had left. She took a look at him again. He was leaning on the wall and she admired his broad shoulders. When he caught her staring he winked at her, a flash of gold and sunset in her mind. Nene gasped and leaned closer to him. "You have really pretty eyes!", she blurted out and grabbed his arm to tug his head lower so she could take a closer look. Amane blushed the deepest red that definitely wasn't caused by the reddish lighting. "My, Nene-chan, have you already found your prince?" Aoi was standing in front of them, holding onto Akane's arm. Lemon was nowhere to be seen. Embarrassed, Nene backed away from Amane and let him go. "Aoi-chan! What a coincidence to see you here!", she laughed hysterically and waved with her free arm. Aoi's sly face was scaring her a bit. "Ah, right, may I introduce you to A-Amane Yugi?", she half yelled and pointed at him, "His major is aerospace engineering! Isn't that cool? Aoi-chan?" Nene's rambling ended and she looked between all of them frantically. Oh, how embarrassing. Couldn't they have butted in when they were talking normally? No, of course not, it was just Nene's luck. Next to her Amane stirred and waved to greet her friends. "Hey everyone. I guess you're her friends?", he said, smiling a very docile smile. Oh, she thought, he is quite the actor. No one would see him for the wolf he is. "Yeah, I'm Aoi, this is Akane", Aoi said, slowly turning away from the beet red Nene, who would've loved to hide her face. Akane nodded at Amane who returned the gesture. "We actually went to fetch Nene so we could play some truth or dare. Care to tag along?" Nene didn't miss the mischievous sparkle in her friend's eyes. Please, she thought, say no, Amane. Don't get caught up in her games. But Amane shrugged. "Sure, if you don't mind me?" Oh my god, Nene yelled inside. Amane didn't notice her inner turmoil and grinned at her. Yeah, Nene thought, what else would he do but grin at her?

They were all sitting in a circle on the floor, avoiding the little puddles of spilled punch. Aoi had made sure that Amane sat across from Nene. Amane tried looking at Nene to encourage her but eye contact seemed to fluster her even more, so he gave up. Nene was using up as little space as she could and clutched her drink between both hands. Aoi sat right next to her, a mean sparkle in her eyes. Of course Aoi loved Nene like a sister but she couldn't resist teasing her when it came to boys. "Alright, next!", someone yelled and spun the bottle. Because Nene has never had any luck, the bottle stopped pointing at her. Aoi let out a delighted squeal. "Truth or dare?", she cooed and looked intently at Nene. "Tru-", Nene started, hoping to avoid the worst, but was rudely interrupted by Aoi. "Dare? Okay. I dare you to...", she began, scanning the circle of playing students until her eyes landed on Amane. A sinsiter smile spread on her lovely face which sent shivers down Nene's spine. "I dare you", Aoi repeated all high and mighty, "to spend seven minutes in the closet with Yugi-kun!" In one gulp, Nene downed her drink and slammed the glass on the floor. She couldn't look at Amane, who received encouraging pats on his back accompanied by jealous looks. He had a sheepish and shy expression and did his best to keep it that way. Amane tried to look as relaxed as he could as he got up and opened the door to the tiniest (and fullest!) closet he has ever seen. Just his luck, getting to be super close to the cute girl he had just met. He was high-fiving himself mentally. Nene was horrified and also got up, trudging in his direction. Aoi dared to give her a slap on the butt and make a kissy face. Nene's look could have killed an army instantly and Aoi sat back down cautiously. She made the mistake of looking at Amane who was holding open the door for her to enter first. His eyes had taken on the colour of molten gold and she didn't miss how strongly he gripped the door. Ah well, she thought, that means I'm not the only one who's nervous. But in fact, Amane wasn't only nervous, but exhilarated as well. The door closed after them and Nene fumbled to find the light switch. Her fingers found  a shoulder, a neck, and a head before they finally grasped the cord switch. The instant she could see him, she pulled at the cord to make it dark again. They were standing chest to chest, encircled by beverage crates. If she looked straight ahead she was met with the upper half of the NASA print on Amane's shirt just a few inches away from her face. Amane chuckled and she could almost feel his chest rise against hers. "What was that?", he asked, still gently laughing. His fingers slid up her arm, found her hand, and tugged at it to turn on the light again. Nene was looking away, blushing furiously. In this light he could actually see the blush for what it was. It was a bit like waking up for him, to be able to see her in real colours and not tinted in red light. Nene murmured something, too quiet for him to hear. "What did you say?", he asked and leaned closer without thinking. Nene turned to repeat herself but stopped when their noses almost met. Abruptly Amane straightened and looked away. Okay, alright, he thought, he sure got into quite the dangerous situation here. Nene cleared her throat. "I'm sorry", she repeated as composed as she could, "It's my fault. Aoi goes crazy when it's about a boy and me. Sorry to ruin your night like this, Yugi-kun." Amane turned back to her. "Amane." "Huh?" "Please call me Amane, okay?", he said, and added after a second: "I mean, I've never been so close to a girl before so it would be stupid if she called me by my last name, don't you think?" Nene nodded. "Then call me Nene, okay?", she beamed up at him and he returned the smile. "Oi!", someone - definitely Aoi, Nene thought - banged their fist on the door and yelled: "I don't hear anything but talking! I'm gonna reset the clock to seven minutes again!" "Oh my god", Nene sighed and hid her face in her hands, "I'm so sorry!" Amane started laughing softly, set his arm on a crate next to him and rested his head on his hand. "I have a feeling it's not gonna get boring with you. I like that." Nene looked at him. Her bashful expression made him melt a bit. She fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "We don't have to, you know, do anything", he told her with a small smile on his face. "Yeah, I guess... I mean we already indirectly kissed so what's the deal, right", she rambled hysterically. "Oh, if that's the case", he said with a blank expression and leaned closer to her again. "On second thought!", she burst out and he started laughing. "It was a joke", he reassured her, but didn't miss the second of disappointment on her face. His expression grew soft and Nene couldn't help but stare at the everchanging colour of his eyes. "You're totally my type", he confessed and grinned at her sheepish expression. "Well, you", Nene started and took a deep breath, "You are kinda my type too..." Amane had meant to tease Nene, but somehow he played himself. He was torn inside. On one hand, he really wanted to kiss her, but on the other hand, he didn't so she wouldn't think of him as a player or someone shallow. "By the way", he tried changing the topic, "I thought it was hilarious how you downed that drink back there. I'll get you a new one later, okay? I somehow feel responsible." Nene giggled. Oh right, she had done that earlier. "Oh well, I couldn't help it", she said, slightly bouncing on her feet. She was swinging around, coming closer to Amane and then moving away again. It was driving him insane. How yould she move so much in a space as small as this godforsaken closet? She bounced especially lively against a tower of crates that started wobbling dangerously. Amane slapped a hand on the crates to keep them from falling on both of them, leaning over Nene to secure the crates again. She sunk down and made herself as small as she could, but Amane had to strain and push himself up with one hand next to her head. When he was done he settled back on his feet and noticed how red Nene's face was. "Sorry", he whispered. She looked up at him and shook her head. "Thank you! I don't think a bruise would've made my first week of university that much better", she grinned up at him. He returned her smile. "Yeah, I guess that's true", he said, and added: "Do you maybe wanna get some coffee together?" A date? This would be her first date ever. She shyly nodded. "Awesome" When she looked at him, he had that wolfish expression again. "I'd really like to kiss you", he suddenly said, surprising himself. He told himself it was definitely the alcohol he had taken from Nene earlier. She blushed a deep red and couldn't quite believe her ears. This guy, who was kinda her type, whom she had known about an hour now, was flirting with her. His face was dusted pink, just like her's, when they heard Aoi yell: "You've got a minute left!" Nene flinched and, before her brain could take back the command, threw her arms around Amane's neck. "It's gonna be my first kiss, though", Nene confessed and tugged him a bit closer. Amane's heart did a somersault and he leaned down, carefully setting his hands around her waist. "That's okay", he whispered, his face barely an inch from her's, "You're my first kiss, too." And with that their lips met for a sweet and gentle kiss. Amane didn't know what to do with his hands so he linked them at the small of her back. His brain didn't really work and he was sure it wasn't just the alcohol. He was also sure that somehow he must've been the luckiest guy on earth, getting to spend fourteen minutes in the tiniest closet with the cutest girl ever. And apparently, she liked him, too. She definitely wasn't your typical good girl, he was sure of it now. Nene felt his terribly soft hair under her fingers and couldn't resist playing with it a bit. She could feel him relax into her touch and she felt him tug her closer, making them stand with their chests touching. It was like a dream for her. Maybe this wasn't the prince-like boyfriend she had waited for. Maybe she wasn't Cinderella, waiting for a prince. Maybe she was Red Riding Hood, falling in love with the wolf. They parted and Amane rested his forehead on hers. They looked at each other, both clearly embarrassed but smiling nontheless. "I think I just fell in love", Amane confessed and chuckled. "Wait 'till you get to know her for real before you go telling her that", they heard someone speak. Nene and Amane burst apart with a start, nearly knocking down a bunch of crates. She was hiding her face in her hands to avoid seeing Aoi and the others. Lemon, who apparently was the one who had opened the door, grinned at them. Aoi was making joyful leaps, hugging Akane in delight. Amane took a look at the people outside, then at Nene, who was looking at him through her fingers. Then he grinned at Lemon and the others, grabbed the handle of the door and pulled it shut again. Hysteric squealing and cheering could be heard from outside, but Amane stroked Nene's hair away from her face. She was still blushing like crazy but couldn't help the big smile that was creeping onto her face. "I'd rather stay in here with you", he confessed, grinning that wolf in sheep's clothing grin she had come to love. "Yeah, me too", she smiled sweetly and pulled him down for another kiss.

If you liked it, please leave a comment on archiveofourown <3

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22818097

[shima-draws]

Oh my gosh okay-I hope this doesn't sound weird but would you be willing to write a BNHA drabble about your college AU? Maybe something with Todoroki and Deku and All Might together? I love your AU and would love to see you write more about it!!

[[Send me a fandom/ship/prompt and I’ll write a drabble for it!]]

!!! I WAS SO HAPPY TO GET THIS ASK OH MY GOD?? I love doing stuff for my College AU…thank you for sending this in!

Anyway I got carried away (no surprise there, lmao) so this ended up being. Over 2k words. NOT MY INTENTION BUT I HAD FUN SO THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS ANYWAY RIGHT

For anyone reading who doesn’t know anything about my College AU, I provided lots of background info in the fic anyway just in case? So it should work as a standalone oneshot without any prior context? But if you want the majority of the AUs details, you can check that out here c:

Anyway. Toshi and Izuku literally act like they’ve been father and son all their lives, Shouto thirsts, and there’s brief mentions of plane engines involved. Fun stuff.

ENJOY FAM!!

——————————————————–

“I’m not sure about this, Midoriya.”

They stand outside of the hangar entrance, the afternoon sun beating down on them. Summer hasn’t entirely left yet, the air still thick with heat. Shouto puffs out a breath and wipes the sweat off his forehead—from being hot or being nervous, he isn’t sure.

“Oh, come on,” Midoriya, gorgeous, perfect, endlessly kind Midoriya, nudges him in his side. “I’ve been wanting you to come here for a while and now you finally got the chance to since your afternoon class got cancelled! And I have clearance. So it’ll be fine!”

Shouto doesn’t really know of any other military hangars that sit on the edge of a college campus like this one does, so he knows it’s a pretty unique setup. A lot of people take classes here despite the intimidating black gate around the building and the numerous warning signs plastered to the structure. The students into aeronautics really do have it lucky. And so does Midoriya—currently an aerospace engineering major. He has access to the building, and has been pestering Shouto for weeks to come see the kinds of things he gets up to. Especially since he’s also a teacher assistant for one of the professors. And this particular professor is extremely well-known both within his field and outside of it.

Upon hearing Shouto’s quiet admittance of admiration for said professor, Midoriya immediately decided it would be a good idea to introduce them. In person.

Shouto’s really tempted to turn back around and head back to his dorm, even though he knows Bakugou is probably there right now doing unspeakable things to Kirishima—having to sit through that more than awkward situation sounds better than possibly passing out from meeting someone so unbelievably famous.

But Midoriya, with his lovely smile and bright green eyes and perfect everything, grabs Shouto’s hand and ushers him along, which promptly shuts up every bad thought he’s having. He is more than okay with this. Totally not about to trip over his own feet or anything. Are his hands sweaty? God, they probably are, it’s already sweltering outside, and Midoriya’s hand is strong and callused, most likely from all the engineering work he does, and Shouto’s hand is probably all gross from constantly plucking on guitar strings and gracelessly hitting piano keys and tapping away on his laptop while he fiddles with his composing programs, and—

Midoriya scans his student ID and the automatic doors open with a soft hiss, cutting off all train of thought. Shouto idly notices the green-haired boy still hasn’t let go of his hand, and refuses to comment on it. Let him enjoy this.

They travel down a series of twisting and turning hallways. All the people that pass through raise their hands in greeting to Midoriya, who energetically says hello every time. They all seem to know him, and seem genuinely happy to see him—like he’s someone important, someone worth going out of their way to say hi to. Shouto’s secretly glad that Midoriya gets such good attention from these people. He definitely deserves it.

They finally reach a very plain-looking and unassuming door. Midoriya releases Shouto’s hand (much to his disappointment—and he’s almost tempted to try holding it again) to unlock the door with his card.

When they stroll in, Shouto takes a second to look around. They seem to be in a workroom of sorts—blueprints and papers are scattered all about, as well as several complicated looking mechanical parts, tools, and larger machinery. Midoriya hums, a thoughtful frown crossing his features.

“That’s weird. I’m sure he’s on break right now…maybe he’s in the workshop?”

A resounding clang echoing from the doorway at the far side of the room is their answer.

Midoriya brightens like the sun, and Shouto thinks his smile is almost blinding in its intensity. 

“Toshi!” He cries out, happily, and scampers into the next room. Shouto follows him at a slower pace, apprehension sinking into his nerves. He’s mere steps away from meeting Toshinori Yagi, All Might—one of the most famous war heroes in their country’s history, not to mention the man his father has a personal vendetta against—and Midoriya is on a first name basis with him. A nickname basis with him. That’s—that’s fine. It’s fine.

The last thing Shouto expects to see when he steps into the workshop is a tall, spindly looking man who is all bones and no muscle halfway buried under a plane engine. Huh.

Midoriya bounces on his heels. His grin is contagious, because Shouto feels his own lips quirking up at the corners. He looks like an oversized puppy.

Hearing them come in, the man underneath the engine propels himself out on a small rolling platform. He’s covered in dirt and grime, his shirt sleeves rolled up to the creases of his elbows. He looks gaunt—cheekbones sunken in, eyes dull and skin alabaster pale. Upon seeing Midoriya, though, his whole entire face lights up—and it’s like the green-haired boy’s presence is breathing life into his very frame, because he suddenly looks more vigorous than ever.

“Izuku, my boy!” He says with a wide grin, practically beaming. The pure delight at seeing Midoriya seems to radiate off of him. Shouto blinks in shock.

This is All Might?

Shouto had seen tons of pictures and online articles about him after the plane crash that had destroyed his body and therefore ruined his career, but witnessing him in person is definitely different. He’d gone from being an almost superpowered pilot to a sad, miserable shell of himself—but despite all that, he’s still working with planes and engines as he used to, just no longer out in the field. The fact that he’d gone from being a well-respected and admired military hero to a, well, still well-respected and admired professor of all things is a bit of a shock. (Then again, Midoriya had mentioned offhandedly that All Might always had a soft spot for mentoring and training others. It sort of makes sense that this is the direction he’d go with his career after being forbidden from being put back on active duty ever again.)

“Hey, Toshi!” Midoriya greets like it’s the most normal thing in the world to walk in on a legendary icon casually fixing a piece of complicated mechanic equipment. Shouto thinks his head is going to explode.

“Help me up, would you, my boy?” All Might asks, and Midoriya is at his side within seconds, easily pulling him to his feet. (Shouto pretends he isn’t openly watching the muscles in his arms flex with the movement.)

Once they’re all straightened out, All Might gratefully ruffles Midoriya’s hair, who giggles in delight. Shouto is in absolute disbelief when the blonde man loops an arm around Midoriya’s shoulder and pulls him into a side hug, which the boy melts into easily, naturally, like this is a common occurrence. They’re the picture of absolute camaraderie and Shouto feels like he’s going to drown under the mountain of questions he has about this predicament. Midoriya’s told him plenty of stories about how All Might had plucked him out of a sea of endless eager faces desperate to please and had given him the means to chase his dreams—but he hadn’t mentioned much about why they’re so close, or how they moved past the mentor-protégé stage and into the realm of actual friendship. Or…family, it seems now, because with the way they’re playfully nudging each other it really looks like they could be father and son. 

After the two of them finally settle down, All Might’s gaze travels over to land on Shouto—and a shocked look makes the very vibrant blue of his eyes stand out even more.

“Oh! Um,” Midoriya dances on his feet for a second before rushing over to Shouto and gently guiding him forward, fingers grasping the crook of his elbow.

“This is Todoroki-kun! The, uh, the friend that I told you about before!”

Understanding dawns on All Might’s face, along with a strange knowing look that twinkles in his eyes.

“Oh, yes,” he chuckles, putting his hands on his hips. Despite looking somewhat like a walking talking skeleton, the way he holds himself is confident, yet friendly. Shouto’s starting to see how he ended up in a professor position. “I’ve heard plenty of good things about you from Izuku, young Todoroki.”

Shouto’s mouth drops open in surprise, and he feels his cheeks become warm. Midoriya’s talked about him? To All Might? And—and he’d told him good things?

“Toshi!” Midoriya squeaks, his arms flailing about. It’s a nervous habit Shouto’s picked up on throughout the course of their friendship.

All Might leans back and laughs, a full, deep-sounding one from his belly. And even though he’s not even close to looking like he once did in his prime, Shouto can practically feel the raw power emanating from that laugh.

Midoriya is pouting, but it’s half-hearted at best. If Shouto had more guts he’d start to consider taking that lower lip between his and kissing the boy silly, but again, he’s nowhere near ballsy enough. Bakugou wouldn’t hesitate at all but Shouto has standards, thank you very much.

His attention is drawn back to All Might when the man steps forward and offers a hand.

“I’m glad to officially meet the boy my favorite student talks about so much,” All Might says with a wide grin. Midoriya sputters but Shouto smiles, feeling a bit warm on the inside.

He definitely had his doubts before, but now he’s absolutely certain. Whatever relationship All Might and Midoriya have, it’s special, important, and he can tell just by looking at the older man that he absolutely treasures Midoriya, just like Shouto does. Good. All Might has very good taste. Not that he’s entirely surprised. Midoriya is a literal ray of sunshine and anyone who thinks otherwise is either completely blind or a massive idiot. (I’m looking at you, Bakugou.)

“It’s an honor to meet you, All Might,” Shouto says, honestly, taking the blonde’s outstretched hand.

All Might startled at that, blinking a few times. Then, he chuckles, shaking Shouto’s hand vigorously.

“Please, please, no need for formalities! Besides, I haven’t gone by that codename in years. Call me Toshinori, okay?” He says, smiling kindly.

Shouto exhales when All M—Toshinori releases his hand. (God, thats gonna take  getting used to.) “Oh…sure.”

Midoriya bounces back over to his side, his posture eager in its tension. “Toshi, did you see the blueprints I left for you yesterday? I wanted to double check and make sure I did all my calculations correctly…”

Toshinori hums thoughtfully for a moment, and then he nods in recollection. “Oh, yes, yes! That’s right. You did wonderfully on them, my dear boy. I think this next assignment is going to be the perfect amount of challenging for my class.”

Midoriya lights up like a goddamn Christmas tree, and Shouto’s having a very hard time not laughing at how thoroughly pleased he looks. He didn’t realize how much Midoriya appreciates Toshinori’s praise, but he guesses it’s a bit obvious why.

“If we apply what you drew out to the most current version of the engine…ah, let me see…where did I put those blueprints…?”

“You two are pretty close,” Shouto comments, watching as Toshinori putters about in the shop.

Midoriya blinks at that. “We are?”

Shouto looks at him incredulously. “You’re on a first name basis, you’re more relaxed with him than I’ve ever seen you with anyone else, you hang off of each other like you’ve been friends for years and he calls you “my dear boy”. And you call him “Toshi”. So yeah. That’s the very definition of being close, Midoriya.”

Instead of getting embarrassed like Shouto thinks he will, Midoriya looks down at the floor thoughtfully.

“Yeah,” he says, quietly, after a long stretch of comfortable silence. He glances up at Shouto, beaming. “I guess we are.”

His gaze travels back over to Toshinori, who is now digging through a pile of blueprints.

“He means a lot to me,” Midoriya admits, softly, fondly. “He’s done a lot for me. He’s…one of the most important people in my life.”

Shouto closes his eyes and smiles. He’s glad Midoriya has someone on his side like this, an adult figure who’s willing to be there for him through thick and thin. He knows this goes both ways, too—Midoriya is clearly giving Toshinori all the credit, but what he doesn’t realize is that Shouto’s sure Toshinori believes Midoriya to be irreplaceable as well.

He opens his eyes to see Midoriya gazing at him affectionately, and his heart leaps. Maybe one day he can become this important to Midoriya, too.

——————————————————–

BUT LITTLE DOES SHOUTO KNOW, HE ALREADY IS. IZUKU’S JUST BAD AT SHOWING IT LMAO

At this point in the AU they’re already crushing hard on each other and Izuku has already fallen into a routine with Toshi where he invades his apartment at 3 AM to ramble on about how gay he is for Shouto. So Toshi is VERY well aware of his attachment to him hence his subtle teasing when they’re finally introduced in person lmao

Anyway I hope you enjoyed–I had so much fun writing this!! I love my kids :’D

[iloveyouthree-thousand]

Stark: An American Musical

So this is an idea I dreamed up a while ago: a series of loosely connected one-shots based on the songs from Hamilton. I have no explanation for it other than, like, it sounded fun? And I kinda want to rip your hearts out with It's Quiet Uptown. Pre-Endgame. Post CACW.

Track #1 // Anthony Stark

"Holy mother of—you bastard, orphan, son of a—good God that hurts," Rhodes hissed through through his teeth as Tony tightened the metal device around his leg.

"I thought cripples weren't supposed to feel pain," Tony said, feeling Rhodey's nails sink into his skin, "and didn't you go through special ops training? Shouldn't this feel like nothing to you?"

"You want to try it on and see how it feels?"

"If it means I get to be the one digging my ridiculously long fingernails into your arm, then maybe. Seriously buddy, when's the last time you trimmed these talons?"

Rhodes dug his nails in deeper.

"Fu—okay, that was uncalled for," he winced as he rubbed his arm, "and you know what else was uncalled for? The orphan comment. Little soon, don't you think?"

"It's been over thirty years."

Tony frowned, now working on tightening the device on the other leg.

"God I'm old. Which means you're even older. FRIDAY, remind me to look at nursing homes for my geriatric pal here later this week." He grinned as Rhodey narrowed his eyes and smacked him across the chest.

"Just because I'm a paraplegic doesn't mean I won't kick your ass Tony."

He just laughed. "Alright buddy, all done. How does that feel?"

His friend stood up and took a hesitant walk down the hallway.

"You know, I feel like I should write down the date, maybe put it in a scrapbook. Rhodey's first steps. This is such a proud father moment for me. It's exciting for you, too, of course, but mostly for me."

Rhodes rolled his eyes. The injury was still fresh, and he was still coming to terms with his decreased mobility. It was hard, for both of them, but they had hope.

Tony had been working on the contraption, forgetting to sleep at times, designing and creating in a guilt-ridden, coffee-driven haze. A smirk never failed to light up Tony's eyes, but Rhodey would never not notice the dark circles drooping just below. He knew better.

He also knew better than to try and tear Tony away from a project, especially one driven by the overwhelming sense of responsibility he never seemed to shake.

"Save the proud father moments for your protégé. Don't think I haven't seen the new models of his suit lying all over this complex while mine, I might add, is still parachute-less. Traitorous bastard."

Rhodes had slid carefully onto the floor, the act of walking taking a lot more energy now that his limbs were rather uncooperative. It killed Tony a little bit, to see his best friend drained from a task that had once been so menial. At least it was progress.

He wordlessly joined him on the ground.

"Actually, I think it was bastard, orphan, son-of-a-bitch," he corrected. "I think that'd be a good title for my autobiography. Maybe I'll write it on my headstone... actually, that's definitely what I want. Make a note of that for my funeral plans. And as long as we're making plans, I want you to give the eulogy."

If there was a look for 'you've finally crossed the threshold to insanity', it was emanating off of Rhodes right now.

"You must be out of your damn mind."

Tony feigned hurt, pressing his hand over the spot where his arc reactor used to rest.

"Why? Because you think you'll die first? Come on, I've got a death wish and, like, zero regard for danger. You live ten years longer than I do, minimum."

"I don't have a parachute."

"Exactly! You didn't even have a parachute and you're still a living, whining, pain in the ass."

He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Can't Pepper give the damn eulogy?"

Tony's face twisted exaggeratedly, like that was the most absurd comment he'd heard in his entire life.

"What, and put her through even more than she'd already have gone through? We both know I'm going to go out in spectacular, gut-wrenching fashion, don't tell me you'd actually make her get up there and give a whole speech after that. She'll have enough on her plate."

"Oh, so she'll be too emotionally vulnerable but, sure, let's make your best friend get up there and do it instead."

Tony's mouth pulled to the side of his face. "Careful, pal. I never fully committed to you being my best friend. I do live with Pepper, tell her all my dark, dirty secrets. You're easily a close second, though."

His eyes narrowed in a glare.

"You say something stupid like that again and I'll be the reason you're having a funeral."

"Rhodey, you know I love you both—just in different ways." A smirk was practically eating his face, but his friend was having none of it.

"Oh yeah? Who'd you give a suit to, Tony? I don't see Pepper up there kicking ass next to you."

"One—if I recall correctly, you stole the suit. Two—I'm pretty sure Pepper has killed at least half of the guys I've gone up against. And three—if we're basing friendships off of suits, as you mentioned earlier, then Peter Parker is my best friend... speaking of, he should be here any minute."

Tony lifted his watch to his face, the screen lighting up as he checked the time.

"Remind me again why the fifteen-year-old is always over here now?"

"He's helpful. He helped me design that," he pointed at the metal device Tony had been painfully tightening onto Rhodey's leg a few minutes earlier. "It's much more ergonomic than the last one."

Rhodes raised an eyebrow. "The kid helped you design this?"

"Don't doubt him, he's practically a genius—probably smarter than you."

He punched Tony in the arm.

"I went to M.I.T. too, remember? Degree in Aerospace Engineering? Give me some credit, man."

"Huh. See, I have vague memories of that, but I was busy having fun in college—,"

"You were busy destroying your liver."

"I was living out my glory days."

"Oh, trust me, there was nothing glorious about puking all over our bathroom every other weekend."

Tony pressed his lips together. "Yea... let's maybe not bring that up in front of Pete."

A look that Tony couldn't decipher passed Rhodey's face. "What exactly is the deal with you and this kid? Did some of that fun in college have some permanent, teenaged consequences?"

His friend had noticed several different trials of red and blue Spider-Man suits lying around for a few weeks now, but he hadn't questioned it because Tony had always outfitted the team and, well, the team was pretty sparse as of late.

Of course, Tony still had a new prototype for Captain America's shield in the works and some upgraded arrows for Clint lying around on a workbench somewhere, among other things.

He could only work on them for so long, though, before the gadgets just became glaring reminders of the faces that were now absent from the Compound.

Making suits for Spider-Man kept Tony busy. It made him feel productive. Worthwhile. He wasn't left with such an empty feeling in his chest.

Tony scoffed. "Jesus, Rhodey, he isn't mine. Thank God. I've already screwed with his life enough." He took his tinted glasses off and fiddled with them in his hands. "I just found the kid online, but no one was going to take him seriously in his homemade Halloween costume, so I gave him a little upgrade."

Rhodey might've believed that, if it weren't for the Midtown High sweatshirt draped across one of the couches or the newspaper clippings of the spandex-wearing superhero clandestinely taped to Tony's desk.

"That still doesn't explain why he's over here all the time."

"I was just going to give him the suit and let him go back to doing his own thing... but he managed to break all the security locks I set in a little over a week and then decided to single-handedly take on Sam Wilson's evil alter-ego."

"You gave a child genius a million-dollar toy and you didn't think he'd play with it?"

Tony turned to face him before deadpanning, "I don't have a lot of experience with teenagers, okay? It was stupid, I know, but I'm trying to make up for that by having him over here—letting him have a say in the design process and actually teaching him how to use it—because he has little regard for my built-in training protocols. And he's good help."

Rhodey was about to ask if Peter's more frequent visits had anything to do with the quiet silence that now haunted the compound whenever he or Pepper were out, but he was interrupted by one-hundred and forty-one pounds of pure excitement practically bounding out of the elevator.

"Mr. Stark! So there was this guy on the subway today who tried to swipe a phone from this other guy, and I saw the whole thing happen but I couldn't do anything about it because he was too far away and I couldn't squeeze through all the people, but—oh, h-hey Mr.—Mr. Col. Rhodes, Sir."

Tony looked amused.

"Pete, I'd like you to my best pal Mr. Col. Rhodes, also known as Rhodey, also known as War Machine... it is War Machine, right? We're officially over the Iron Patriot thing?"

He ignored Tony, pushing against his shoulder to stand up, before reaching out to shake Peter's hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Peter." He shot his attention over to the other man in the room. "And what happened to 'Pepper's my best friend', huh, Tony?"

Tony held out a hand to Peter, who obligingly helped him up to his feet, while maintaining eye contact with Rhodes.

"I mean, you are the one giving my eulogy."

"Am not."

"Rhodey, come on, you give the best speeches. Remember that one you gave in like 2009? At the White House? FRIDAY, play the speech."

"No. FRI—,"

"Playing Colonel Rhodes' Presidential Medal of Honor Introduction Speech."

Peter stood awkwardly in front of the two men, terribly confused, as a familiar voice rang out over the speakers in the compound.

"I've been asked over and over again if I ever suspected my best friend was a superhero. The answer to that is—I've always known that he was different, and not just because he's a hell of a lot smarter than the rest of us. He grew up in the legacy of Howard Stark. No one was surprised when he turned out to be a genius—at fifteen, they placed him in advanced classes at M.I.T-,"

"FRIDAY, mute."

"FRIDAY, override."

"...but there's more to Tony than just brilliance. He's a self-starter. The only thing standing between him and what he wants is himself. When he saw his future dripping down the drain in Afghanistan, brought to his knees by weapons his company he'd created, left with nothing but ruined pride—something new inside broke through. Anyone else might've been dead in a week but Tony—he wouldn't let himself go out like that."

"FRIDAY, stop."

"FRIDAY, don't even think about it."

"...he put a pencil to paper and with nothing more than some scrap metal and the help of a new friend he plotted his way out of hell. He overcame certain death in a cave, but he didn't stop with self-preservation. He rewrote the game in the defense private sector. He saved his own life and then he saved countless others, and because of him, the world will never be the same."

"FRIDAY—," Rhodes threatened.

Tony cut him off. "Oh, come on, this is the best part." The recording kept playing.

"I know you already know his name, but it is my honor to present the medal of honor to my best friend, Tony Stark... Or, as many of you may know him: Iron Man."

"FRIDAY, off," Rhodes said, and Tony finally didn't protest. "Tell me you don't keep that around just to boost your ego. You know I only did that because the President asked me to. It wasn't for you."

"You keep telling yourself that."

The two men kept bantering, but throughout it all, Peter was eerily quiet. It only took a few seconds of his silence for Tony to realize something was up.

"Hey Pete, you look like you swallowed a frog. Everything all right up there?" he asked, raising his hand to gently pat him on the head.

The kid shook as if coming out of a trance. "Yea—yea, everything... everything's fine, it's just... aren't eulogies, like, the things you say at funerals?"

Rhodey answered, "Yes, they are. See, Tony, he thinks it's weird too."

Peter still looked like he had gotten kicked in the shins.

"No... I mean yeah, kinda, but that's not—Mr. Stark... are you dying?"

Tony looked confused for a second before... oh.

"God, kid, no—I'm not dying. I was just trying to mess with Rhodey here, I didn't mean to—."

"Oh thank God," Peter said, visibly relaxing, "don't scare me like that."

Then, he did something that made Rhodey nearly slide to the floor. Again.

His deceptively small arms wrapped around Tony's torso, and Tony hesitated for half of a second before tentatively and quickly returning the gesture.

For a second, it was a picture-worthy moment. But the second passed and the moment came to an end as both parties seemed to realize instantaneously that they were crossing boundaries.

"Right," Tony coughed, "Peter, why don't you show Rhodey some of the new features you dreamed up. I'm going to go get... some coffee. Try not to talk his ear off, he's the only one who still sometimes listens to me around here."

James Rhodes had known Tony for what felt like an eternity. He fought with him. Trusted him. And if the situation ever arose, he would die for the damn fool.

But the man who exited the room as if the soles of his shoes had caught fire, a wisp of crimson warmth on his cheeks, looked like a new man entirely.

There were a million things he suddenly wanted to ask Tony, a million places to prod, and he couldn't wait to do exactly that after the boy returned to his apartment in Queens for the night.

Right now, though, the kid was showing him the new thrusters Tony had built into the heels of the devices.

"...and if you do this, then the repulsors activate—,"

Peter pressed a button, and the chorus of T.N.T. came blaring through the room as the repulsors sent Rhodey crashing into the wall behind him.

Tony sauntered back into the room, a cup of coffee in hand and a snort on his face as he surveyed the scene. A flustered Peter Parker tried to hold back a laugh as he attempted to help a cussing, high-ranking military official up from a muddled heap on the floor.

"Oh yea. There's a bit of a learning curve. You'll figure it out," he garbled, mouth stuffed with a muffin that he had hidden in his other hand, "For now... consider this recompense for the orphan comment." He clapped a hand on the boy's shoulder, ushering him toward the shop, his friend still lying in an annoyed mess on the ground.

He'd help him later, of course, but the look on Rhodey's face gave him a pure, childlike joy that few things could. If Rhodes kicked his ass later—paraplegia and all—it would have been worth it a hundred times over.

So he led a mildly concerned Peter Parker away, chuckling as his best friend's voice faded into the background.

"Don't you even think about walking away without teaching me how to use these things. Tony... Tony Stark you better not be walking away from me. Don't be a dick. Come back here, you heartless, pompous, snowflake... I know you know I'll get you back for this... quit acting like a teenaged punk... Anthony Stark!"

Tony laughed under his breath and kept walking. Rhodes always came up with the nicest things to call him.

[nasa]

Meet Our New Flight Directors!

We just hired six new flight directors to join a unique group of individuals who lead human spaceflights from mission control at our Johnson Space Center in Houston.

A flight director manages all human spaceflight missions and related test flights, including International Space Station missions, integration of new American-made commercial spacecraft and developing plans for future Orion missions to the Moon and beyond. 

Only 97 people have served as flight directors, or are in training to do so, in the 50-plus years of human spaceflight. That’s fewer than the over 300 astronauts! We talked with the new class about their upcoming transitions, how to keep calm in stressful situations, the importance of human spaceflight and how to best learn from past mistakes. Here’s what they had to say…

Allison Bollinger

Allison is from Lancaster, Ohio and received a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University. She wanted to work at NASA for as long as she can remember. “I was four-and-a-half when Challenger happened,” she said. “It was my first childhood memory.” Something in her clicked that day. “After, when people asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said an astronaut.” 

By high school a slight fear of heights, a propensity for motion sickness and an aptitude for engineering shifted her goal a bit. She didn’t want to be an astronaut. “I wanted to train astronauts,” she said. Allison has most recently worked at our Neutral Buoyancy Lab managing the daily operations of the 40-ft-deep pool the astronauts use for spacewalk training! She admits she’ll miss “the smell of chlorine each day. Coming to work at one of the world’s largest pools and training astronauts is an incredible job,” she says. But she’s excited to be back in mission control, where in a previous role she guided astronauts through spacewalks. 

She’s had to make some tough calls over the years. So we asked her if she had any tips for when something… isn’t going as planned. She said, “It’s so easy to think the sky is falling. Take a second to take a deep breath, and then you’ll realize it’s not as bad as you thought.”

Adi Boulos

Adi is from Chicago, Illinois and graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. He joined us in 2008 as a member of the very first group of flight controllers that specialize in data handling and communications and tracking systems aboard the space station. 

Most recently he served as the group lead in the Avionics Trainee group, which he loved. “I was managing newer folks just coming to NASA from college and getting to become flight controllers,” he said. “I will miss getting to mentor them from day one.” But he’s excited to start his new role alongside some familiar faces already in mission control. “It’s a great group of people,” he said of his fellow 2018 flight director class. “The six of us, we mesh well together, and we are all from very diverse backgrounds.” 

As someone who has spent most of his career supporting human spaceflight and cargo missions from mission control, we asked him why human spaceflight is so important. He had a practical take. “It allows us to solve problems we didn’t know we had,” he said. “For example, when we went to the moon, we had to solve all kinds of problems on how to keep humans alive for long-duration flights in space which directly impacts how we live on the ground. All of the new technology we develop for living in space, we also use on the ground.”

Marcos Flores

Marcos is from Caguas, Puerto Rico and earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico and an MS in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University. Spanish is his first language; English is his second. 

The first time he came to the Continental US was on a trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a kid! “I always knew I wanted to work for NASA,” he said. “And I knew I wanted to be an engineer because I liked to break things to try to figure out how they worked.” He joined us in 2010 as an intern in a robotics laboratory working on conceptual designs for an experimental, autonomous land rover. He later transitioned to the space station flight control team, where he has led various projects, including major software transitions, spacewalks and commercial cargo missions! 

He shares his new coworkers’ thoughts on the practical aspects of human spaceflight and believes it’s an expression of our “drive to explore” and our “innate need to know the world and the universe better.” But for him, “It’s more about answering the fundamental questions of where we come from and where we’re headed.”

Pooja Jesrani

Pooja graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. She began at NASA in 2007 as a flight controller responsible for the motion control system of the International Space Station. She currently works as a Capsule Communicator, talking with the astronauts on the space station, and on integration with the Boeing Starliner commercial crew spacecraft. 

She has a two-year-old daughter, and she’s passionate about motherhood, art, fashion, baking, international travel and, of course, her timing as a new flight director! “Not only have we been doing International Space Station operations continuously, and we will continue to do that, but we are about to launch U.S. crewed vehicles off of U.S. soil for the first time since the space shuttle in 2011. Exploration is ramping up and taking us back to the moon!” she said.” “By the time we get certified, a lot of the things we will get to do will be next-gen.”  

We asked her if she had any advice for aspiring flight directors who might want to support such missions down the road. “Work hard every day,” she said. “Every day is an interview. And get a mentor. Or multiple mentors. Having mentorship while you progress through your career is very important, and they really help guide you in the right direction.”

Paul Konyha

Paul was born in Manhasset, NY, and has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University, a Master’s of Military Operational Arts and Science from Air University, and an MS in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California. He began his career as an officer in the United States Air Force in 1996 and authored the Air Force’s certification guide detailing the process through which new industry launch vehicles (including SpaceX’s Falcon 9) gain approval to launch Department of Defense (DoD) payloads. 

As a self-described “Star Wars kid,” he has always loved space and, of course, NASA! After retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2016, Paul joined Johnson Space Center as the Deputy Director of the DoD Space Test Program Human Spaceflight Payloads Office. He’s had a rich career in some pretty high-stakes roles. We asked him for advice on handling stress and recovering from life’s occasional setbacks. “For me, it’s about taking a deep breath, focusing on the data and trying not to what if too much,” he said. “Realize that mistakes are going to happen. Be mentally prepared to know that at some point it’s going to happen—you’re going to have to do that self-reflection to understand what you could’ve done better and how you’ll fix it in the future. That constant process of evaluation and self-reflection will help you get through it.”

Rebecca Wingfield

Rebecca is from Princeton, Kentucky and has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and an MS in Systems Engineering from the University of Houston, Clear Lake. She joined us in 2007 as a flight controller responsible for maintenance, repairs and hardware installations aboard the space station. 

Since then, she’s worked as a capsule communicator for the space station and commercial crew programs and on training astronauts. She’s dedicated her career to human spaceflight and has a special appreciation for the program’s long-term benefits. “As our human race advances and we change our planet in lots of different ways, we may eventually need to get off of it,” she said. “There’s no way to do that until we explore a way to do it safely and effectively for mass numbers of people. And to do that, you have to start with one person.” We asked her if there are any misconceptions about flight directors. She responded, “While they are often steely-eyed missile men and women, and they can be rough around the edges, they are also very good mentors and teachers. They’re very much engaged in bringing up the next generation of flight controllers for NASA.”

Congrats to these folks on leading the future of human spaceflight! 

You can learn more about each of them HERE. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

[demaury]

Game On – High School AU | Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers AU (chap.3)

Ten years after his father shipped him off to boarding school, Jude is back to Los Angeles for his senior year. As it turns out, relinking with his childhood friend isn’t nearly as hard as it is to deal with his almost estranged father. Zero is the typical high school heartthrob and a basketball prodigy on the way to make a name for himself. Everything should be easy, but years in foster care and physical abuse don’t make for the smoothest reunion with former teen-mom  and her perfect family. 

Really. They have a lot on their plate already. 

Falling in love was not supposed to be an option. (read on ao3)

---------------

The next couple of days were better… and worse, all at the same time.

Better, because nothing could beat the nervousness of his first day at school. Worse, because he had, amongst other things, spent his first weekend at home in ages and he wasn’t particularly thrilled to have that experience repeat itself for the next three months.

His parents’ mansion was a particularly weird mix of deserted and crowded, welcoming and gloomy, spacious and suffocating. His parents were never really home, with Oscar, forever away on business, and Lionel busy with her hundreds of various activities that constantly kept her out and about. Yet the house was buzzing with activity, a staff of at least twenty (most of whom Jude barely even knew and some not at all) at any given time, keeping the household clean and running smoothly. The house always felt warm and cozy, flooded with light, spotless and ready to be featured in Harper’s Bazaar. But the memories it held of Jude’s troubled childhood were anything but. This was no sanctuary for Jude.  20,000 square feet and yet the only privacy he could get, away from his parents, staff, or even security cameras, was only in his own bedroom.

Life was still a little bit surreal at times. He was still nodding vaguely to the house’s personnel he recognized every once in a while, and he was constantly mixing up Lionel’s personal assistant, Abigail, with Amanda, the landscape architect — which wasn’t nearly as harmless a mistake as he had thought in the beginning, judging by Abigail’s penchant for glaring. He kept forgetting his teachers’ names, turning to people who weren't there to share a joke, and wondering who the hell were those people everybody kept gossiping so eagerly about. On the second day, he contemplated sending a text to Cem, his former roommate, to enquire about the follow-up at Ellis Harwood, but quickly dropped the idea. The following weekend, he faced the fact that if he hadn’t received a single notification from the group chat he shared with his former swim team; he simply wasn’t one of them anymore, he didn’t belong.  

Fortunately, he wasn’t completely alone.  He could say he had officially befriended Jelena and Raquel (or at least Jelena had deemed it so). He still had to get used to the rest of the gang though. Terrence was nice, but Jude assumed he was biased based solely on the fact that he was Jelena’s boyfriend. As for Derek, he seemed a decent guy once you managed to get past his ever-judgmental expression.

That left Kyle and Zero.

Kyle was brutally honest and straight-forward, and Jude had realized pretty quickly that she wasn’t someone he wanted to have prying into his business, whatever that business may be. And Zero… Well, to be fair, Zero was almost never there, although conversations within the gang sometimes turned out to be about him. Jude couldn’t care less. Okay, yeah, he definitely could, but it was only because Zero had that whole… asshole attitude directed right the fuck at him since they met in the Cafeteria. As if he had said something truly offensive, while it was at worst extremely dumb — he hadn’t expected that tiny, scrawny, annoying kid from second grade to become a monster of a baller, all ripped and muscular like that, alright?

Kyle, of all people, seemed to act differently whenever he was around, and Jude had come to the conclusion that those two had some kind of weird chemistry. He didn’t know what their deal was, but he wasn’t particularly keen to find out.

What about school?

He was already bored by his AP Calculus and really didn’t care about his AP Biology course. He wasn’t great in literature but he wondered for a while what it’d be like to attend a class where he wouldn’t be three steps ahead of the teacher before he even finished writing the equations on the board.

In a word? Boring.

That was, until Thursday. He had barely even stepped inside the school when a short girl hovered in his personal space by the lockers. She was ironically wearing a NASA shirt, obviously more of a fashion statement than an actual interest in aerospace engineering, because her very first words were: “Hi there. I’m Emmy. Like the Emmy Awards.”

Honest to God he thought it was a joke at first. But it wasn’t, and his lack of a response didn’t seem to faze her. “I was wondering if maybe you had heard about a party at my place?  It’s on Saturday night.”

“I’ve got other plans,” Jude replied instinctively.

He very much didn’t, right now his social life was as exciting as a suicide letter, but this wasn’t what would make it relevant all of a sudden.

“But it’s on Saturday night,” Emmy pointed out with a chuckle. “Parent free. You could meet a lot of new people there!” And without even taking a breath, she added, her face lighting up: “Is it true that you know the Kardashians?”

He stared at her blankly. “My stepmom does.” And despises them more than you could imagine.

“That’s awesome, oh my god,” she squealed excitedly. “So you’ll come?”

“He’s got other plans, and so do most seniors next Saturday,” a profoundly annoyed voice intervened.

Jude’s head snapped to see Jelena standing beside him. She didn’t look like she had just barged into a conversation that she had no business being in, in the first place. Emmy’s eyes darted to her too, her mouth hanging open a little.

“The party at Xander’s is on Friday night,” Emmy objected.

“It’s been moved to Saturday,” Jelena said without a blink.

There was a short, one-second awkward silence, then Emmy simply shrugged. “Another time maybe?” and with a wave she twirled around and walked away, almost throwing her long hair in Jude’s face in the process.

He groaned to himself, then caught Jelena’s pointed stare. “What?”

She shrugged. “Nothing, just wondering if you’re trying to break a record or something.”

“What record?” he asked, now mildly annoyed.

“I don’t know,” she scoffed, “maybe the number of girls you turned down in a week?”

He snorted. “She’s the only one.”

Jelena let out a small “uh huh”, as if she was giving it a real thought. “Interesting,” she said casually. “You should definitely get yourself a better ‘thanks but no’ answer for the next ones, then.”

And with that she left, heading back towards the entrance of the building. He frowned, confused, and quickly strode behind her. “What next ones?!”

*

“Look at us, sharing breakfast. Isn’t it great?” Lionel said enthusiastically into her cup of coffee.

Not knowing Lionel, anybody would have probably expected it to be some sort of fake-joy, but her stepson knew better. Jude had been suspecting for a while that her over-eagerness when it came to him probably had to do with the fact that after nearly eight years of marriage with his dad, there hadn’t been another little Kinkade strolling through the house while he was away — he had never known if it was on purpose or not, nor had he found the time or the energy to ask.

Jude hummed unconvincingly at his plate of pancakes. It wasn’t like he didn’t find it great, but it wasn’t like he had many other family breakfasts to compare. As always, his stepmom was going over the top, and the grand mahogany table was disappearing under, like, a hundred different plates. He highly doubted that even if his dad was looking up from his phone long enough to finish his second cup of coffee any of them would return empty to the kitchen.

“Sure,” his dad replied, probably firing off his fifteenth text since they had all sat down around the table.

There was a short silence, only disturbed by the sound of Jude’s fork tinkling on his plate.

“Jude, honey, do you have any plans for this weekend?” Lionel asked casually.

He shouldn’t have told her he had met nice enough people, especially when he was still very committed to making his dad understand that pulling him out of Ellis Harwood hadn’t been okay, thank you very much. That would have, of course, required his dad to even pay attention to the outside world though.

“I don’t know,” Jude replied slowly after swallowing his bite of pancake. “There might be some sort of party tonight.”

He expected his stepmom to talk him out of going — his Centurion card was still confiscated from the time they had found out that his friend, Marcus’, seventeenth birthday party didn’t have a Greek theme but had been organized on a Greek island. But instead of frowning, Lionel smiled, her face lighting up. “That’s wonderful! You should go. Take advantage of some real high school experience.”

“I was in a real high school,” Jude countered, offended. “One I didn’t have to take the bus to.”

Lionel waved dismissively. “You’re being dramatic, nobody has been talking about taking the bus. I told you that Eric could drive you there.”

“I’m attending a public school. It’s not really the norm to have a chauffeur.”

“Jude doesn’t need a chauffeur, he needs a car,” his dad intervened, finally putting his phone on the table. “I got a call yesterday, it should be delivered on Monday.”

Jude almost dropped his fork in surprise. “A car?” he repeated, confused.

His dad arched an eyebrow, as if he had asked a very stupid question, but as far as Jude was concerned, he had never heard of any plans regarding a car whatsoever. He had his driver’s license, and his dad had signed for a few rentals during vacations so he could wander around a bit. But it wasn’t like an actual car had been any use to him up until now, with him on one Coast and any hypothetical car of his on the other one.

Lionel seemed a little taken aback as well. “A car? What car?”

His dad discarded his napkin on the table as he stood up, smoothing his tie. “One that I hope he will have the decency to care for,” then he looked at Jude from across the table, with his ever so slightly annoyed expression, as he put his suit jacket on. “I had expected a better reaction, for an $87,000 welcome gift.”

“Er, thank you?” Jude tried awkwardly, still clutching his fork a little too tightly. His dad grabbed his phone with a snort and left the room without so much as a look back. “Should I thank you too?” Jude asked carefully as he glanced at Lionel.

She gave him a pointed look. “Listen to me, young man,” she said, openly ignoring his question, “you’re going to this party. I will not have you moping around this house till Christmas.”

*

I hate this, Jude thought bitterly as he progressed through the crowded hall, full of teens his age who were far less bothered than he was about tripping over somebody else, apparently. I hate this so freaking much.

He barely resisted the temptation to shove away the couple who had just bumped into him, too busy making out to notice there was a freaking outside world. The beer was warm and slightly gross, he hadn’t found a single one of the few people he had met so far who were supposed to be here, and he had already fought with Lionel over the matter of his curfew… not to come home two hours earlier than planned.

“If you want extra hours of freedom, you take Ludovico with you,” she had shrugged casually when he had protested against being expected home by half past midnight.

“I’m not taking Ludovico with me,” he had scoffed, mildly horrified at the thought of having to walk around with a goddamn bodyguard. Jeez, his dad was an estate mogul, not a member of a Cartel or the President.

“Then I think we are done here,” Lionel had said sweetly.

Now he was regretting even being talked into coming here in the first place. He wasn’t one of those nerds who had no social life. His was actually just fine, on the East Coast, where he knew people. People who knew the basic rule of not serving freaking warm beer.

He didn’t even know who this “Xander” guy was, who lived in this stupid house. He followed a group of giggling girls into what he assumed was the living room. If he didn’t find anybody he knew, then he’d just leave, and to hell with his-

A hand wrapped around his wrist and made him spin around. “Hey, you came!” Kyle grinned, and Jude wondered how the hell he could have missed her with her shiny silver bomber jacket.

“Thought you guys had a change of plans.”

Kyle raised her red cup. “Kinkade, you’ll figure out that I’m always up for free drinks. C’mon!”

She dragged him through the living room and headed directly through the French doors opening to the backyard. A group of loud people were playing beer pong on the deck, while others were sitting on a blanket laid out on the grass around an improvised table made from a pile of empty pizza boxes.

Okay nobody could make fun of him for not thinking to check outside right away. In his world, October tended to be chilly and windy, with temperatures around 50°F, not 70°F.

“Look who I found once again,” Kyle exclaimed, walking directly to the second group.

Now he recognized a few faces… Raquel, at least. Kyle plopped down next to a guy with messy dark hair whom Jude was sure he had seen in a couple of his classes, and when Raquel gave a nudge to a ginger girl sitting next to her, he vaguely remembered her from his English class.

“Have a seat,” Raquel grinned, patting at the small spot on the blanket.

The girl next to her looked at him. “Seven minutes in heaven, wanna play?”

Jude glanced at the girls, who seemed like they were having too much of a good time to move onto another game — like drinking themselves silly, which would have been an activity he could get behind. “Yeah, why not,” he shrugged.

What were the odds that he’d be picked anyway? There were eight people around the makeshift table, statistics were on his side.

“You sure?” Raquel asked. “You do know that the rule implies that the last one to join is automatically part of the next round, right?”

Uh-uh, no. He didn’t remember that. But given that the only few times he had played he was practically a citizen in Tequila City, it wasn’t hard to see why.

“Er, yeah, yeah, ‘course,” he muttered, awkwardly standing there and seemingly unable to move. Is this something he really wanted to participate in? Should he risk kissing a stranger just to fit in with the group? What was he supposed to do? Sit down to spin the bottle himself, or stay standing because he’d have to get up for his turn anyway? Of course he realized he couldn’t just leave, he’d risk being labeled as the biggest pussy ever.

The guy next to Kyle groaned with impatience and spun the bottle for him. “There.”

Ok… fine. A kiss wouldn’t kill him.

He definitely had kissed girls before. Two, in fact — because he had been dared to do so, but that was beside the point. This time wouldn’t be any different. The empty bottle started to slow down on the pile of empty pizza boxes, settling on Raquel.

He didn’t know if it was for better or for worse. Maybe for the better. Yeah, for the better. At least it wasn’t a guy. Some heterosexual dumbass who would scoff and try to wriggle his way out of it because really, who could ask him to kiss a boy, that was gross, right? He could suddenly remember parties of card kissing back at Ellis Harwood — no lips touching, and that was already far more than most could take.

Raquel stood up and he held his hand out to help her steady herself. “The shed,” she said as he quirked a brow and looked vaguely around.

“Ah, ok… yeah.”

They made their way to the small garden shed standing by the fence in the backyard, closing the door behind them. It only muffled the sounds of the party outside, and if he was listening carefully, he could probably make out the conversations and giggles from the group they had just left. He tried not to.

There was an awkward silence between them as he shoved his hands in his pockets, and Raquel’s high heels echoed against the wooden floor as she slowly took a couple of steps towards him.

She cleared her throat just as he was about to suggest they should get down to business, if only to get it out of the way. “So, uhm. Any chance you might be interested in someone?”

Jude looked at her, slightly taken aback. “Not- uh. Not really,” he admitted. “This is all a bit… it’s a bit new.”

“Makes sense,” she conceded. There was another pause. Outside someone burst out in laughter, and they exchanged a small wince as the sound turned into a cackle. “Look, if you don’t want to, it’s fine, really. We aren’t forced to do this, we can just talk.”

Jude considered her, pondering his answer. “You sure?” he asked carefully.

She grinned. “Yeah, sure. Totally fine.”

He let out a small breath he didn’t know he had been holding in when she perched herself on a pile of plastic chairs, putting a little more distance between them.

“So, what’s up in your life?”

He stared down at the ground a little, and shrugged. “My dad got remarried. That’s about the most thrilling thing that happened to me.”

This was a lie.

Smooth and believable, but still a lie nonetheless. He wasn’t so bad at switching between truth and made-up truth whenever it was called for, but the fact that Raquel was giving him a way out of this slightly awkward situation made it hard to look her right in the eye while doing so.

The most thrilling part of the last decade was not Lionel, although Jude couldn’t deny that she had brought a certain sparkle to his life — no, the most thrilling part was a six-foot-something Lacrosse Team Captain named Connor. Connor Studwick, the heir to the Studwick Hotels all across the world. The guy with a worldwide pedigree, great abs, and a snarkiness that Jude had at first mistaken for pure pettiness, but had turned out to be his classmate’s favorite coping mechanism whenever he was pining for someone — and he would be damned if he said he hadn’t found it hot.

Connor was the most exciting thing that had happened to him.

And that’s exactly what had been the problem since the beginning.

Because all the time they spent fooling around, heavily making out in locker rooms, sneaking out after sunset to wander lazily among the pine trees, all along Jude had forgotten that Connor was very obviously never going to come out. He had never planned for Jude to be more than a distraction, the embodiment of something delicious and forbidden. Jude had been fine with it… for a time. Except that after Jude had turned seventeen, and with a whole summer to reflect on it, he had started to wonder what it’d be like to actually date someone. He liked how it was with Connor, but he wanted more than a few rushed blowjobs behind the science building. He shouldn’t have built castles in the sky, but it wasn’t like he could have helped it.

Then everything had crashed. When the news of their Principal’s involvement in an embezzlement scandal started to spread, the Studwicks had been among the first to pull Connor out. Too fast for them to even discuss what would happen after that.

Jude felt his throat tighten a little and as if the walls of the shed were quickly closing in on him. “I’m still thinking about someone from boarding school,” he admitted quietly, not looking at her.

There was another long pause between them, as the news probably made its way through her brain and she put it together with other various pieces of information he had given her so far.

“So you’re… you’re into boys then?” she asked after a moment.

“Yeah, seems so,” he said with a small, uncertain smile, finally looking back at her.

Her dark-brown eyes were pitch-black in the darkness of the shed and he waited for a rejection of some sort as she kept staring blankly at him, her expression unreadable while she tugged at her choker. It was the first time he was admitting it out loud. Not that he had trouble admitting it to himself, it’s just that up until now it had never come into question openly. He had been tempted to tell his former roommate, Cem, but by the time he had gotten the nerves to do so the moment had passed and the conversation had drifted on to something far less personal — it’d have been just weird.

Connor had never exactly needed for him to actually say it. And the rest of his friends were probably as straight as it was possible to be.

Raquel tilted her head to the side. “Do you want to keep it secret?”

“I don’t know,” Jude huffed. “Whatever happens I just don’t want it to be a big deal, you know?”

She nodded thoughtfully. “They won’t leave you alone until they get you to kiss someone. This thing,” she said, pointing around at the shed, “is just the first part of the game. They just like to mess with the new kids.”

Jude groaned and kicked at the ground with his foot. She chuckled and he glared at her instinctively.

“Relax,” she said as she hopped off the pile of chairs, “I’ve got an idea.”

He stood still as she walked into his personal space and took his chin. He wondered for a second if she hadn’t decided all of a sudden to forget that they had both agreed on not kissing and that he had literally come out to her as gay five seconds ago, until she ran her thumb on her purple-coated lips a couple of times. She then proceeded to do the same onto his mouth, spreading evident traces of lipstick. The concentrated frown on her face turned into a broad grin as she took a step back to admire her work.

“And now you look like someone who just made out with a hot girl,” she decided, sounding rather proud.

Jude let out a laugh as she then proceeded to add the final touch by messing up his hair a little bit. “Thanks, that’s nice.”

“You’re welcome,” she shrugged, waving with her hand just as someone knocked at the door.

“Are you guys decent?” a voice giggled outside.

“Isa you’re the slut in here, not me,” Raquel yelled back, running a hand through her hair.

“Rude,” the girl muttered outside as Raquel grabbed Jude’s hand and dragged him out of the shed.

The music seemed to have gotten louder inside of the house and new faces had appeared in the group they had left seven minutes ago. A concert of giggles and whistles welcomed the slightly debauched look Raquel had created from scratch for them.

“I gotta go to the bathroom,” Jude said, not very keen on going back for another round.

“I’ll save a seat for you if you decide to come back,” Raquel said, pulling a face, before she sauntered back to her own spot.

Jude hopped onto the deck and got back inside the house. He remembered walking past a passably busy bathroom on the first floor when he was still trying to find someone he knew, and it took him only a minute or two to reach it. Just as he was about to pull the door handle, the door swung open and Jude found himself face to face with Zero.

The baller stared at him for a second. “You got lipstick all over,” he commented dryly with a disgusted scrunch of his nose, before walking past him.

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

- For reference: he is in his early 20s, finishing a degree in aerospace engineering.

- He has also said, nearly verbatim, "You didn't need to come and drive me to the hospital. It's my left foot that was broken, not the right, so I could have driven myself"

- He is quite smart.

- And also an idiot.

- And also for a while was a staunch republican, which will be relevant (he seems to be trying to break away, I've got some hope yet, but thats not relevant).

- Anyway he had shoulder surgery on Monday.

- As in, four days ago.

- He and I live one city over, and our mom lives about two hours away from the two of us.

- We were trying to arrange a carpool so that he wouldn't have to drive to and from home by himself.

- With one arm.

- The day after a blizzard.

- With double-digit-below-zero windchill.

- With a TOW MORATORIUM (the roads are so hazardous that if a car gets off-road, it's staying there because it's not worth the risk to go out and get it).

- It seems advantageous all around that he not be driving in these conditions.

- EXCEPT.

- He is adamant that he drives himself.

- YOU SEE, we would both be getting home on Christmas Eve. HOWEVER. He had a shift at his job on the afternoon of Christmas Day that he had to be back for.

- If I drove him home, our mom would have to drive four hours round-trip on Christmas Day to drive him back.

- He's always been willing to take on some extra burden on himself to prevent others going out of their way. BUT REMEMBER:

- He's also Republican.

- That considerate part of his personality has been poisoned by hyper individualism, to become "You MUST be able to do everything by yourself and you MUST not accept help from others because that's being a Burden" or whatever

- Nothing mom says is swaying him.

- Mom calls me and we agree that he's being a hard headed idiot and I suggest several more cogent reasons he not drive himself.

- And interim passes, in which time I'm in the car with a friend picking up two other friends from the airport because their flight got canceled.

- Mom calls again: He's not listening to a word she says and is adamant that he's going to drive himself.

- I decide to step in. I have a Greek Chorus of late 20-somethings reacting and backing me up.

- I send a simple but brazenly confident text: "I'll pick you up as soon as I get off work. What's your address?"

- IMMEDIATE phone call from him

- 'Hey uh, I'm actually driving myself tomorrow.'

- I play ignorant. "Wait, really? Didn't you just have shoulder surgery on Monday?"

- 'Yeah'

- "........ Walk me through that decision."

- 'I'll just drive with one arm. I've been driving around town just fine.'

- "Did the doctor clear you to drive?"

- 'I've been off the pain meds for two days now and the doctor said I was OK to drive once I was off them for 24 hours'

- doubt.jpeg. This guy's pain tolerance is through the roof, and "being off pain meds" and "being healed" are two very separate things with him.

- "Oh! So you've got full range of motion in your shoulder back?"

- 'Uh, no'

- "What if you go off the road? You know about the tow moratorium right? Nobody would be able to help"

- VERBATIM QUOTE I SWEAR

- "OK, I just won't go off the road."

- HE SAID THIS LIKE IT WAS OBVIOUS AND I WAS AN IDIOT.

- Remember:

- He's a Republican.

- At some level, he believes that people in bad situations chose to be there because they made bad decisions.

- But not HIS bad decisions of course, he's smarter than Those People.

- I, meanwhile, am short circuiting from this amount of oblivious idiocy.

- So I decide to rope in the Chorus.

- "So I have a friend here. From rural Alaska. Who knows how to drive on the worst, snowiest, tiniest roads, and he also thinks that you're being stupid."

- And I hand over the phone to the friend, who is surprised but willing to give it a go.

- Friend eventually talks him around by saying if he starts to lose control, with two arms he could control the wheel and with one arm he's more likely to end up in the ditch. And if he was in the same situation, he would be really hesitant to make that drive even if there weren't any alternatives

- I grab back the phone and yell AND WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GIVE YOU ALTERNATIVES

- Friends, mutuals, countrymen:

- He backs down. He gave me his address and confirmed the time I could pick him up. He specifically said Friend was the only reason he came around.

- And I realized there's one factor I had forgotten to calculate.

- He's a Republican.

- And until I roped in Friend, everyone trying to convince him to change his mind have been female.

Oh i do try to love my brother but oh he makes it so difficult

[pettybkang]

CONGRATULATIONS

Group: Day6. 

Pairing: Y/N + Youngk.

Genre: Soulmate!AU. 

Word count: 12k+

Description: Having a soulmate is such a wild concept. Some believe it’s because true love is what makes the world work, some believe it’s a curse that has been thrown upon us by the Greeks and their concept of love and some just want to enjoy the ride. There are some people that decide to ignore the fact that someone is on the other side of the line and some that search for the other half for years and years, never to be found. The world is so big, isn’t it? It also wouldn’t be nice enough to place all soulmates in the same city, would it?

Having a soulmate is such a wild concept.

Some believe it’s because true love is what makes the world work, some believe it’s a curse that has been thrown upon us by the Greeks and their concept of love and some just want to enjoy the ride. There are some people that decide to ignore the fact that someone is on the other side of the line and some that search for the other half for years and years, never to be found. The world is so big, isn’t it? It also wouldn’t be nice enough to place all soulmates in the same city, would it?

While ignoring a soulmate can be hard, some people try their best. You see, people find their soulmates through scars. It’s intimate, it tells a story, it connects people, it’s also a way to remember dates. Whenever one of the halves gets hurt, the other feels an annoying pinch wherever it was that the first one felt. As soon as it scars, the soulmate will end up with the same scar on their body: being it a straight thin line or something else.

Some people end up hurting themselves, trying to make their scars more visible so they can find their soulmates easily. Some take as much care as necessary to not hurt the other. Some end up forgetting there are people on the other side of the line.

Y/N for example, had a very fun childhood. She would run up and down, clueless to the fact that someone could be feeling several pinches during the day on the other side of the line. It was only after her third time on the hospital to get stitches that her mother explained the whole concept to her. It didn’t change much, nowadays the only thing that’s different is that fact that the girl apologizes to the universe whenever she cuts her fingers on something - which happens a lot.

Alice still has doubts about the whole concept of other people feeling pain. Yes, she has been awaken by sudden pinches to her body several times. Yes, she has tiny marks from tiny cuts all over. And yes, her soulmate might as well be the clumsiest person she has ever heard about. But at the same time, what if he’s a gangster from New Orleans who’s been held at knife point way more than once? What if he’s sick and these are all needles? They don’t tell you who the other person is. All you have to do is feel, wait and hope.

They are roommates, living in Los Angeles for three years now. And even though they are friends and live together, they barely see each other. Y/N is in college, studying to be something according to society - aerospace engineer according to her degree. And Alice is studying the fine arts - more especially dance itself. No one knows how they ended up being roommates, the good thing is that it works.

 It was Monday morning and it was summer. If there’s one thing Y/N hates about going back to class after summer break is the fact that Los Angeles burns during the summer. No amount of sunscreen, water or iced tea is enough to make the heat go away. And of course she was running late. 

[10:05 AM] idk?? i’m pretty sure sungjin knows tho. he’s more involved in the art scene than i am. how the hell don’t you know? -Y/N

Y/N was trying to walk, type and finish her tea all at once. It was obviously not working as she now had yet another bruise on her knee. But then again, was it her fault that Alice had lost the number from the art department who had the number from the gallery she had already lost? Maybe. But still.

[10:05 AM] Then text him! He’s your brother, not mine! I need the number. My professor said today is the last day to apply for their showcase and I can’t miss it. Everyone is going to be there! - AP

[10:06 AM] i don’t think he’s awake but sure. i think his band had a concert or whatever yesterday? -Y/N

[10:07 AM] What name are they using now? 5LIVE? -AP

[10:10 AM] fuck i think i’m gonna be super late. -Y/N [10:10 AM] and no, they dropped that one. too boy band-y. they’re called day6 now. -Y/N 

[10:13 AM] Aren’t there five people only tho? -AP

[10:14 AM] last time i checked, sungjin was the only real person in the band tbh. he’s my brother, i’m allowed to say that - Y/N

[10:15 AM] okay! i gtg. i have this class now, horrible, full of math. i’ll txt him and get you the number asap, kay? sorry i spilled coffee all over the kitchen table. xx -Y/N

She wasn’t sure why this showcase was so important for the people around her - both her roommate and her brother were going insane because of it. Apparently someone important would be watching and they had to be there. It was only when she was walking into class that she felt a pinch right on the middle of her hand, biting on her lower lip. “Well, I’m sorry, okay? I was in a hurry,” she said quietly, as if the person had been giving her a warning about the scraped knee. Y/N rolled her eyes and walked into the class, ready to start the semester again.

  Alice had just woken up, texting her roommate about the number she had spilled coffee over a couple weeks ago. This showcase could make her career way easier since several important people from Los Angeles would be watching. UCLA would very often hold them and only the luckiest and best students would be selected to actually participate - anyone could apply, but only a few would be under the spotlight. 

She knew about Y/N’s brother and his band - which is now called Day6 apparently - and some other people from her classes were all applying too. Her professors had all told her she had a chance at being chosen, which was always a great boost. But she had lost the phone number and now she had no clue who she should send the forms to. It wasn’t as if she would have called them if she had the number a few days ago, but of course she decided to leave it all for the last minute, lost the number, would never get an e-mail response on time and would have to walk all the way to the administration building. That is, of course, if Y/N can’t get the number from her brother.

She knew the girl would probably turn off her phone during class, so she moved to be ready when her class is over. Alice took a shower, made breakfast, managed to burn her finger on the pan she was making pancakes. This definitely wasn’t her lucky day. She was so used to being the one on the receiving end of those annoying pinches that she didn’t even noticed she had hurt herself and it would probably leave an annoying scar. Was it a gangster that felt it? And thought that maybe she hurt her finger chopping someone’s body? Does her soulmate think she’s a criminal too?

The girl shook her head. Better leave all the soulmate thoughts for later. Now she had to focus on how to get her application forms to the gallery holding the showcase on time. The same forms she still didn’t have… because she had lost the phone number. She was going to kill Y/N.

  Sungjin had managed to gather new people for his band a couple months ago. He has been trying to be the leader of a band for years now, but this is the only formation that managed to stay together for longer than a month. He hasn’t even invited his sister to know the guys because he knows she just won’t show up - maybe she was forced to meet all the other twelve people he tried to have a band with and has given up on him by now.

Jae, Brian, Wonpil, Dowoon and Sungjin are Day6. The band that originally had six members, but went down to five and decided to stick to the name - they already had posters and t-shirts made, they couldn’t just make new ones with a new name.

They were rehearsing that morning when Brian felt a weird pinch on his knee, making him look down and roll his eyes. Every single day he would feel pain somewhere because of his soulmate. The person that knows no balance apparently and likes paper cuts. There’s no other explanation for how many times his knees hurt a day or his fingers. He waited until the song was done to grab his pick and press it as hard as possible against his palm - watch out! there’s someone else here, dammit! - he wanted to tell this person. He hoped they would get it.

Wonpil didn’t notice the pain on his finger - number one: because he had most of them on band-aids already. Number two: because he was in the middle of a song, playing his keyboard and it was almost impossible to distract him from that. Number three: This just couldn’t be his soulmate, whoever they might be. Wonpil is the only one getting hurt because of how clumsy he is. He might have pressed too hard on a key, that’s all.

The other boys around them didn’t notice the other two ‘interacting’ with their soulmates, too busy rehearsing and learning all the new songs they had to. JYP would be at the showcase and they had an awesome chance to become something if the producer liked their vibe and their music - both Jae and Sungjin wouldn’t let the other three forget about the record deal they were dreaming about 24/7.

  [12:01 PM] Sungjin!!! Do you have the number from that gallery? Alice needs it. I kinda spilled coffee on the paper she had written it. -Y/N [12:01 PM] I’m serious. Send me the number. -Y/N [12:01 PM] She’s going to murder me. -Y/N [12:03 PM] Is this your way of shoving in my face that I was adopted?? -Y/N

[12:04 PM] What the hell, Y/N? -PS

[12:04 PM] Great. Now you’re paying attention. -Y/N [12:04 PM] The number? From the gallery? Please? -Y/N

[12:05 PM] You don’t get to play the adopted card every time you need something! -PS 

[12:05 PM] JUST SEND ME THE NUMBER SUNGJIN!!!! -Y/N

[12:06 PM] You’re the worst sister I could have asked for. -PS [12:06 PM] [Gallery Contact Attached] -PS 

[12:06 PM] Funny thing is: you helped mom and dad pick me. -Y/N [12:06 PM] Think about that. -Y/N

[12:07 PM] I hate you. -PS

Y/N quickly texted Alice the number and moved to get lunch. She usually would walk all the way to the arts building to meet up with Alice, but her friend was too busy running around to finish her application for the showcase so all she did was walk to the restaurant she knew her brother and his band would have lunch at: McDonald’s. She knew Alice would judge her based on the diet they had been leading on for the past weeks: healthy and energetic, everything that would help Alice get her dance steps sharper, but she had no choice.

Sungjin saw his sister the moment she walked in, making a face at her and gesturing for her to join them. Y/N ordered her usual and then made her way towards the boys with her food. She doesn’t know them well yet - and might be afraid too since Sungjin’s bands never really last long - but she smiled and waved hello.

“How are you guys doing? I heard you finally decided on the songs for the showcase?” she asked with a smile and a boy - Jae? - answered way faster than her own brother.

“Yeah, we’re doing Congratulations and I Loved You,” he said with a big smile, moving his hands way too much as he spoke.

“Congratulations is the one I heard you guys playing last time, right?” Y/N smiled, stealing fries from his brother and showing him the tongue. “It’s a very good one. The lyrics are incredibly petty. Definitely one of my faves.”

She shrugged, making this other boy - Wonpil? - laugh and hit his knee on the table. It looked like the boy was definitely a horrible soulmate - maybe just as bad as her when it came to injuring themselves all the time.

“I wrote it,” Brian said, not smiling but making a face. “The chorus is about, you know…” he said, shrugging and then rolling his eyes. Y/N kept looking at him, waiting for him to finish the sentence and shrugging too when he didn’t.

“Sure, I know,” she said, making a face at Jae and Sungjin then and focusing on eating her food. Brian wanted to say the song was about his soulmate - at least the chorus - and the fact that what the fuck? this person is definitely unbelievable. But he decided to be quiet about it, maybe Y/N was one of those people who believed in soulmates way too much. Her brother definitely was. Sungjin has been looking for his other half for years now - Y/N is 100% sure it’s a girl from her calculus class, they have the same scar on their shoulder, but she’s not going to be the one telling him.

Alice ended up texting Y/N for them to meet up for lunch after she was done with her forms, but Y/N only texted back the address to the restaurant she was at. A couple minutes later a very annoyed Alice walked into the room - the table was actually full of ice cream, Y/N had bought her one. And was holding it up for the older one to get it.

“I hate you,” she said, rolling her eyes and squeezing herself into the seat next to her friend. Then she looked around, waving hello to the band.

“That’s the second time someone has told me that today, I’m starting to notice a pattern. All my friends hate me,” Y/N shrugged, shoving ice cream into her mouth to not say anything else. And, of course, enjoy her dessert 

“Okay, so here’s the thing. I managed to fill in the applications. Turns out the gallery is not as far from our apartment as I imagined. I managed to call and tell the lady I was on my way. The moment I got there, I felt this weird pain on my knee,” she said, shrugging.

“I know the feeling,” Brian said quietly from the other side of the table, making Y/N shush him and wave for Alice to continue.

“I’m sure they’re only considering my application because the woman felt sorry for me. I mean, soulmates, right? There’s nothing we can do,” she said, shrugging. “My criminal of a soulmate must have gotten stabbed on the knee today,” she added then, making everyone laugh. No one noticed how red Wonpil’s cheeks got.

“You think your soulmate is a criminal?” Brian asked, laughing and rolling his eyes. Y/N felt like throwing her own cup of ice cream on his face so he would shut up. Why did her brother always get the most annoying band mates.

“It’s obviously a joke. He just gets hurt a lot I guess,” she shrugged, taking a bite from her own ice cream, staring at Brian with a very bored expression.

“Yeah, well. I call mine an asshole for getting hurt a lot, not a criminal,” Brian added, making most people roll their eyes.

“That’s because you have as much warmth in your heart as this ice cream does,” Jae said, eyeing Brian and making the rest of the people laugh. “Honestly though, soulmates are such a distant concept… No offense, Dowoon. But come on? How do we know for sure they’re not living in, I don’t know, China?”

“Exactly!” Y/N said, rolling her eyes and finishing her ice cream. “There’s no point in living wrapped in bubble wrap,” she shrugged and poked Alice on the side so the other would stand up. “I gotta go, kinda have classes now,” she waved at the boys - and even at grumpy!Brian - and hugged her brother.

Both girls ended up leaving the place to go to their afternoon classes. Y/N ended up asking Alice about the routine she had prepared for the showcase, in case she was selected, and the other started explaining it in words that made zero to no sense to the soon to be engineer.

  Preparing for the showcase was chaos.

It was literal chaos.

A week after the forms had been delivered, the result came out. Both Alice and Sungjin’s band managed to get a spot. The order was comedy, musicians and then dancers. Y/N realized she would have to stay the entire night, Alice was freaking out because she would have to wait longer than expected and the boy were always bickering about chords and tunes.

The dancer was spending extra hours in the studio to rehearse. From time to time Y/N would show up with food, coffee, vitamins and even water sometimes. She was pretty much out of a roommate for two weeks - seeing Alice only late at night. The same happened to her brother and his band - Day6 was spending extra hours playing those two songs, trying to make them sound both perfect and not so perfect at the same time.

The soulmates were going insane. Alice was starting to get stressed at hers, each time she was in the middle of her choreography her hands would hurt or something else and she would end up getting distracted and then hurt herself. Not a good time for him to be chased by criminals. Wonpil on the other hand was finally noticing that he might have a real soulmate, since every single time he managed to hurt himself, he would get a reply. Something that would hurt just as much but on his knees, elbow and back even.

Brian got a break for two days and a half, but soon his asshole of a soulmate managed to hurt something again. But as rehearsing was going insane, his fingers weren’t giving his soulmate a break either. The bass can be a very cruel instrument when you don’t give yourself a  break - and the boys didn’t have time for breaks. Y/N was starting to get annoyed, not because of the pain, but she would drop things constantly because of it. Holding her phone? Sorry, can’t, fingertips hurt out of nowhere and so on.

They barely had time to meet, to talk or to be excited about the showcase. They were all too focused and determined to make a better future for themselves. To get noticed, maybe be booked, get a job, a contract even. Who knows?

When the showcase finally came, they were all tired. Exhausted even. With bag under their eyes and feeling like zombies. But the eyeliners were on point, the choreographies too and the instruments were all correctly tuned. They had practiced way too much to notice how fast the previous two weeks had passed, buzzing with coffee and anything that would give them energy to go on.

Y/N tried to take care of them all, taking food and water with her every time she managed to visit the band or the dancer but as she had her own tests and articles to read, it wasn’t as easy as she expected it to be. She managed to get the day off from her activities to go to the show case to support her friends.

“You’re going to do great,” she said, offering Alice some of her water, waving at a couple people she knew that were also at the backstage of the showcase.

“You said that eight times already. In the last hour,” Alice said, giving her friend the look as she took the water from her hands and sipped from the bottle. She ended up keeping the bottle, pressing it against her chest for a moment.

“I’m just trying to help. You’re incredible, you’re just as good as that Jimin guy we saw that other night,” Y/N pointed out, taking her phone out of her pocket to check in on her brother.

“Okay, let’s not go there. Park Jimin is my senior. We all know how great and perfect he is. You can’t just compare us,” Alice rolled her eyes at Y/N, making the younger one laugh and shrug. As if she was saying she would do as she wanted.

Y/N was allowed to stay backstage until the showcase started, just like all visitors and family. She waited until her brother showed up, moving to wrap her arms around him in a hug. Brian didn’t notice when she hit her chin on Sungjin’s shoulder, laughing and shrugging at the pain. A few seconds later, there was Brian complaining about pain on his own chin - which Y/N didn’t pay attention to. 

“I hope you guys do great today!” she said with a smile, hugging her brother one more time. And then moving on to hug Dowoon, Jae and Wonpil. They had become close since she had started visiting their rehearsals a bit more. “I promise to yell the lyrics to everything. Start some fanchants even. Day6’s number one fan,” she continued, making them laugh.

Brian was looking grumpy - as usual - but managed a smile. The others were all happy, but he looked worried. Anxious even. Y/N walked closer to him, placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed a little. “Your petty song is the best petty song there is, alright. Whoever this JYP guy is, he better love it,” she said, giving him a smile. “Break a leg,” she winked and moved away, chuckling a little and waving to her brother. This time, he noticed when the girl almost tripped on her way out and hurt her hand on the door frame as she tried to keep her body steady. She looked back, laughed softly and waved at them. Brian was the only one stuck staring down at his own hand.

  Y/N walked out and moved to her seat, taking her phone from her pocket and opening a few apps while she waited for the showcase to start - and her friends to perform. 

On the backstage, Brian was pretty much freaking out. He was torn between concentrating for their performance and thinking about what it meant that he felt a thin cut on his palm the moment Y/N hurt her own hand at the dorm frame. It must be a coincidence, he kept thinking, but kept being reminded of all the times he saw her with batman bandaids all over, bruised knees and arms. There was also this time he caught Sungjin and Wonpil talking about feeling bad whenever their soulmates get hurt and he heard the older one talking about his sister - how she gets hurt a lot, but always say an apology to the universe every time she does it.

He didn’t want to think about the fact that he might be able to stop calling his soulmate asshole and start calling them Y/N.

Sungjin was the one to walk over and shake Brian out of the well of thoughts he had fallen into. “Whatever it is that she said, she doesn’t mean it,” he said chuckling a little. Brian looked at him with a very confused expression. “My sister. You’re staring and it looks like you ate something that, you know, tasted bad. If she said something horrible, she doesn’t mean it,” he smiled, shrugging.

“Oh. No, no, no, it’s not it,” Brian said, taking a deep breath and rolling his eyes. What an idiot. He’s such an idiot. “She was nice, she said the petty song is a good song, whatever that means,” he added, making Sungjin laugh.

“Yeah, she sucks at it,” he said, shaking his head.

Alice who had been looking for a familiar face, found the boys at that exact moment. Finding them was easy, tall guys with colorful hair, being able to handle Brian’s sour face was something else. All she did was smile, wave her way past them and walk all the way to Jae and Wonpil.

Dowoon was too busy stretching his arms and listening to music, his way of getting in the zone and relaxing before they played their music. To a producer. A very famous producer. That could like or hate them. No pressure.

 They sat down and talked, the two guys and Alice. Talked about college, shared funny stories, laughed at some people that were too busy freaking out - even though they were freaking out themselves. They stretched together when it was time too and then the boys moved to play their songs. Y/N had been texting Alice this entire time, but her friend had left her phone inside her backpack. When the speaker announced that Day6 would be the next band, the younger sister stood up and clapped. Yelled even. They deserved it after all the hard work.

Brian had vanished for an hour - while Alice, Jae and Wonpil talked - and came back even angrier than before. Sungjin was sure he had been punching walls and screaming inside empty rooms, but he decided not to say anything. The lights on the stage were bright and they could barely see the people sitting, but it was possible to hear Y/N yelling the band’s name and how much she wanted them to do well.

“Hello Los Angeles!” Sungjin said while the others got ready, giving the crowd a big smile. “We’re Day6, a pop rock band. We’re going to perform two songs for you today,” he said, chuckling a little. “I hope you guys like it and clap along,” he smiled, leaning back to grab his acoustic guitar.

“The first song is called Congratulations,” Brian said and suddenly the entire band was staring at him, but trying to play it cool. That wasn’t on the script at all. “I wrote this a while ago about my soulmate,” he continued, biting on his lower lip and adjusting the bass in front of him. “I hope she understands I still mean it,” both Jae and Sungjin stared at him again.

Brian had found his soulmate? When? Who the hell is she? Of course they wanted to ask and of course they couldn’t. They had to start the song but right before they could, it was possible to hear Y/N’s voice from the crowd. “Petty as fuck, guys!” Brian looked like he wanted to murder her for a second, before rolling his eyes and putting his game face (or show face?) on.

Sungjin counted to three and they started the song.

  During their two songs, Y/N’s fingers were killing her. So was her wrist and back. She definitely wanted to stand, to scream the lyrics and clap. Wave her arms even, but the pain was annoying. Taking the pictures she wanted to take also wasn’t happening.

Alice was watching them from the side of the stage, hidden behind curtains. She was clapping to the songs, playing attention to Jae and Wonpil - she had ended up becoming closer with the two. They both looked so happy and had such great voices. She was sure they were giving everything they had so the songs would come out perfect. 

It was during song number two that she noticed a pattern. See, here’s the thing. She always loved paying attention to people’s hands while they were playing instruments. Or in general even. And Wonpil plays the keyboard. It’s impossible for her not to stare or anything. Besides, he has a very bright red bandaid wrapped around his middle finger. Every time he pressed a key with that finger, she would feel as if someone was poking her own finger with a cloth pin. She could remember feeling something sharp pressing against her own finger that morning and now this.

Biting on her lower lip, Alice took a deep breath and wrapped her arms around herself. Wrong time for that gangster she had imaged show up and look like Wonpil. Cute, wearing chokers, playing the keyboard, singing about girlfriends that left and never came back. Horrible timing, terrible even.

  This showcase was already making them way more anxious than it was supposed to be. Day6 killed it on the stage, everyone cheered and clapped for them even though Y/N was the loudest and impossible to miss. The boys moved backstage as soon as the performance was done - which was the exact moment Y/N’s hands stopped hurting. They were all happy, hugging each other, laughing and smiling. Alice walked over to them to congratulate them, hugging the ones she was close to. She thought about Wonpil’s hands for a moment, but decided she didn’t have the time to worry about that now. It was almost her turn at the showcase. 

Brian vanished as soon as the hugs were done. No one knew where the hell he had gone to, but they heard him saying he needed some air. He ended up leaving his bass behind so the rest of the band figured he would be back later. They had to wait at the backstage until the showcase was done, so they all sat down and started texting Y/N - who had blow up their phones with pictures, texts and emojis.

A while later, it was Alice’s time to go on the stage. The song she had chosen was called Flame of Love and the choreography was hers. This time, her friend was quiet while watching. She was indeed just as good as that senior Y/N couldn’t remember the name now and she couldn’t take her eyes out of her friend’s dance moves. They were soft, gentle and precise. They also made the song sound way better than it did.

The boys were all watching, except for Brian who was MIA still. Jae and Sungjin were the most excited ones, gasping and smiling and cheering. Wonpil watched with a smile, standing still, arms wrapped around his body. Whoever looked from the outside could think he was standing as still as possible just to be sure he wouldn’t hit anything. It was almost instinct for him, standing still whenever he was paying too much attention to something.

When she was done, she thanked the audience and left the stage. The boys were there to hug her, smile and laugh. They all had only nice compliments to give her and Y/N was going crazy in the audience because all their phones were vibrating nonstop. Maybe she had created a new group chat. Maybe she wanted news on all of them. Maybe she was one of those very excited friends.

  They had all been invited to Alice and Y/N’s apartment when the showcase was over - the girls had stocked up on wine and beer for celebrations. They would also order some pizzas. All the Day6 guys and the girls were there.

Getting in, the first thing they noticed was the mess. You would think an apartment shared by a future engineer and a dancer would be organized since they didn’t want to hurt themselves or lose any work, right? Wrong. Their apartment is a complete mess. Y/N has formulas in post-its all over the place and Alice just leaves her mixtapes everywhere. Brian’s first thought was no wonder she gets hurt all the time, but then he shook the thought away and walked in with his sour face.

“This place is a mess,” Brian said as he sat down on the couch, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

“You are a mess, do you want the free beers or not?” Y/N said from the kitchen, grabbing the wine opener and choosing a bottle from the shelf.

“They might be poisoned since you’re not drinking it,” he said and soon everyone in the room was making a face at him, Dowoon even threw a pillow on him just so he would stop being an idiot.

“I don’t drink beer,” Y/N shrugged, turning around and running her hand over the right side of her face. The same place Brian had been hit with a pillow.

“She’s adopted, don’t mind her,” Sungjin said from the fridge, where he had been distributing all the cans of beer. In the end Jae, Wonpil, Y/N and Alice ended up with glasses of wine while Brian, Dowoon and Sungjin had their cans of beer.

They cheered together, clanking their glasses and cans and wishing each other success after the showcase. “Here’s to future contracts and lots of money!” said Jae before sipping from his glass.

When the pizza arrived, the boys offered to go pick it up. Except Wonpil - who everyone was afraid would drop the pizzas - and Brian - who was in a pissy mood and no one knew why. Y/N and Brian were left alone inside, the two sitting on the couch and ignoring each other, while Alice and Wonpil walked outside to the balcony.

“Hey, I have something to ask you,” she started, glad that the alcohol had already made its way to her brain because she would never be able to have this conversation sober.

Wonpil nodded, sipping from his wine and leaning against the cold wall of the balcony. “Sure. I mean, playing the keyboard is not as hard as I make it look like,” he joked, making the other one laugh and smile.

“It would definitely be hard for me,” she started, raising her right eyebrow but then shrugged. “But that’s not it…” she bit on her lower lip and sipped from her wine glass again. “I was wondering, and now I realize how creepy this will sound, but do you happen to have a scar that looks like a star on your thigh?” he said, twisting her nose a little. It was one of the few scars that were her fault - she had fallen on top of a bike when she was young and the star on the bike was what left a scar.

It took Wonpil a moment to think. “Oh…” he started, eyes widening and smile growing a little. “So that’s what it is, uh,” he added, chuckling a little and smiling. “I mean, I always wondered what it was…” he smiled at her, leaning his head to the side.

“I fell on a bike when I was a kid,” Alice explained, shrugging and smiling. It was easier than expected, Wonpil was such a nice person to be around - despite how clumsy he is all the time. “Sorry.”

“Oh… No, you don’t even need to say sorry,” he started, placing his free hand on her wrist, smiling at the warmth of her skin.  “I mean, I’m sure it must be annoying for you to always feel me doing stupid things,” he said, chewing on the insides of his cheeks. “I sorta need glasses?” he made a face, making Alice laugh. “I don’t wear them as you can tell,” he pointed at his face with the glass and then sipped from it.

“I’ve grown used to them… It was only annoying at the beginning and last week, during rehearsal,” she looked down at his hand on her wrist. “Oh, and I’ve thought you were a criminal for so long. I was sure you were part of the mafia or something. I mean, c’mon. Only a criminal gets to get hurt this much and still live, right?”

They talked for a few more minutes, laughing and exchanging looks. They were starting to talk about what to do from now when the pizza arrived, making Y/N cheer inside while Brian looked constipated.

With a quick look, Wonpil gestured for them to do in. And they did. Hand in hand, huge smile on their faces, each one holding a glass of while. It looked like an engagement scene from a bad movie - Jae would comment later. “Hey, guess what we just figured out!” Alice said, looking at Wonpil. “Apparently my soulmate isn’t a criminal, he’s just a clumsy keyboard player,” she shrugged, making everyone both laugh and look at them with wide eyes. There were more drinks, more toasts and even more hugs. Everyone was excited about the two, finding your soulmate is definitely something to celebrate - especially in such a huge world.

  Being happy, young and drunk has its own consequences. For Alice and Wonpil it meant sharing their first kiss while their friends whistled around them, for Jae it meant spilling wine on a white shirt and for Y/N it meant hitting her shin against the coffee table 

“Ouch… I knew we shouldn’t have bought this table,” she said, standing up and rubbing her own leg. “Sorry, bud,” she said, looking up and then shrugging, reaching for her glass of wine. Brian was frozen, staring at his own leg and having the confirmation that his soulmate was the girl right in front of him. Sungjin noticed too and was about to make a very excited comment when Brian stood up and pointed at Y/N.

“You’re the asshole!” he pretty much yelled, making everyone stop. Y/N was the last one to turn around and was surprised he was pointing at her.

“What did I do this time?” she looked confused, not realising what was going on.

“What did you do! What don’t you do? You’re always doing something. Always. You never leave me alone. Never let me have some goddamn peace and quiet!” he kept yelling, his friends still looking confused as fuck.

“Hey… Brian… I’m sure this was a misunderstanding… Y/N doesn’t even hangout with us that often…” Jae tried to help while Y/N shrugged, sipping from her glass.

“It’s not a misunderstanding. She gets hurt all the time. Everywhere. She managed at the showcase and here. Everywhere she goes, she finds a way to hurt something. Do you even know what it’s like to be on the other side of that?” everyone was quiet, looking from Y/N to Brian. And then from Alice to Wonpil - who were still holding hands, the newest couple of the group. “... And don’t you even dare say you apologize every time.”

“Well, how the fuck should I know I had such a grumpy person on the other side? I didn’t complain once during all these weeks about the fact that I couldn’t hold anything because you murdered your fingers playing bass!” Y/N started yelling back at him. “I couldn’t take a single picture today because I couldn’t hold my phone, Brian.” She quickly put the pieces together, of course it would be Brian.

“My life has been nothing but annoying because of you,” he said, rolling his eyes and sipping from his beer.

“That’s it. Fuck off. This is my house. I live here. I’m not going to sit and listen to an idiot blame me for living. I’m sorry if I was happy that a fucking family had chosen to raise me and that they let me play outside just as much as I wanted,” she said, pointing at her brother. “And I never in this life ever have broken a bone, which isn’t something I can say for you. You don’t even know how much that shit hurts,” she rolled her eyes, finishing her wine and then looked at Brian.

He was picking his things up, making his way to the door. “I knew it. I knew this whole soulmate shit was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have listened to my mom. Or your guys even.”

“Well, and I wished you lived in China, Brian Kang,” she said, flipping him the fingers as he walked off.

“He’s actually Korean…” Sungjin said, and then added. “Which of course doesn’t matter,” he had seen the face Y/N had made at him.

She took a deep breath, poured more wine into her glass and then almost chugged it whole. Then poured more and went back to drinking it in sips. “So this sucks…” she started, sipping from her glass again. “But, uh… I mean, the showcase was a success and we have the best couple ever right here. No need to worry, right?” she pointed at Alice and Wonpil.

They went to bed late - it was after five when the boys decided to go home and the girls even took a shower before going to bed. Alice would even dare to say Y/N wasn’t looking as happy as usual, but it might have been the drinks and how tired she was. This whole Brian thing wouldn’t have left her feeling bad now, would it? The only way to know for sure was to ask - and she sure as hell wouldn’t ask because she had no idea what to do with the answer.

  Waking up after bottles of wine and celebration is never a good idea. Especially when you live in Los Angeles and it’s summer, which means that the sun is out and it’s going to be bright wherever you go. The headache is a must. Y/N opened her eyes, groaning and reaching for her glasses. She adjusted them on her face and rolled to the side, giving up on getting up just now. With a yawn, she reached for her phone, licking her lips as she felt like she had swallowed a handful of cotton balls.

She had four texts to read. Two were from her mother, one from Sungjin and the other from Alice.

[8:05 AM] Sungjin told me you found your soulmate!!!!!!!!! - Mom [8:15 AM] Oh. He told me the rest of the story now. Don’t worry about this Brian guy, sweetie. He’s a jerk and he will change his mind. You were a very active kid. I do not feel sorry for raising you that way. He will have to deal. What a child really! Ridiculous. - Mom.

[8:20 AM] I might have told mom about the Brian situation. She’s not taking it as well as I imagined she would. -PS 

[11:46 AM] Wonpil and I are having lunch together today!!!!!!! He made me breakfast - there are some waffles in the fridge if you want. And now we’re out on a date. Wake up so I can freak out over text if this goes wrong!!! -AP

She stared at her phone screen for a while, groaning when all the texts reminded her of what had happened the night before. Y/N sat up, rubbing her eyes and adjusting the glasses one more time, opening her eyes slowly and staring at the phone again, finally checking the time to realize it was two in the afternoon already. Maybe texting her mom back first was the best idea. She could be very protective of her kids and she has been waiting for an answer for hours now, Y/N was actually impressed that the Korean woman didn’t just break into her apartment to check if she’s okay or not.

  The new couple had just finished lunch and were on their way to the movies. Alice had warned Wonpil that watching moving while still a bit hungover and after having lunch was a bad idea, but he was just too excited and she couldn’t resist anymore. They had their hands pretty much laced together as they had been holding each other’s for the entire day. 

Alice had never seen herself as someone who would go on cute dates, hold hands and smile at whatever her partner said. But this was exactly what she was doing right now. Wonpil had never seen himself as someone who would find his soulmate and fall instantly in love with them, not have that person be angry at him for ages and smile non stop while around them, but here he is. And it’s just as cute, annoyingly cute even, as it sounds. They were made for each other, head to toe even.

The concept of soulmates is so wild. It’s crazy how two people can just click, that they can feel like getting home after a long day of work. It’s the first glass of wine after the biggest fight of the year with your boss. It’s eating the last piece of that fine chocolate you bought yourself. It’s exciting, overwhelming even, and it leaves you wanting more.

“Don’t you think we should talk to Brian?” Wonpil asked when they were waiting in line to get inside the movie theater. Alice had been thinking about it, but she wasn’t sure if mentioning the fiasco would make or break their date.

“Y/N kinda likes to deal with her shit herself,” she said, shrugging a little and then giving him a smile. “And it’s not like we can walk up to Brian right now and just tell him how to feel,” she added, frowning a little. “Besides… They might need some space,” she laughed, biting on her lower lip. “Knowing Y/N, she’s texting her mom to go shopping right now. I’ll get home and she’ll have new clothes to show.”

“When she shops the world seems better?” he said with a smile, laughing a bit.

“Oh, babe. When we all shop the world seems wonderful,” Alice laughed, leaning closer to press a kiss to his cheek. Wonpil smiled, leaned closer and pressed a kiss to her lips.

He was sure he would never get tired of it. The feeling of fireworks, of being ran over by a car and saved by some holy being at the same time. It was both the fall and getting back up again. It felt like he was giving a part of him away, but getting a part of her in return. If he had known pressing lips to his soulmate would be so intense he would have given it more thought, looked for her a bit harder, stared around looking for star scars a little longer. If there’s one thing Wonpil is sure now is that he’s going to do everything in his power to make his soulmate happy.

The movie wasn’t the best. They ate their popcorns, drank their water and shared the gummy bears but even with everyone around them screaming because of the movie, they fell asleep. Alice on Wonpil’s shoulder and the boy with his head lightly pressed against hers. Later that day Alice would point out that hangovers and movies are not a nice combination.

  “And then! I don’t remember clearly okay, I was drunk… Bare with me,” Y/N said. She was sitting across from her mom at a cafe in LA. She had taken a shower, sloten a waffle from the fridge and got into an uber to her mom’s house. The Park have been living in Los Angeles for a while now, both Y/N and Sungjin were born in the US, but the kids don’t live with their parents anymore. They moved out as soon as they got into college, but they always visit their parents when they can. Especially their mom.

And right now, Mrs. Park was paying for the coffee while Y/N vented. She made a face when her daughter told her she had been drunk the night before, but shrugged and let her continue. “I mean, he started yelling. I thought he was angry about something because apparently he’s always angry about something. But he was angry at me. Because I get hurt a lot,” she rolled her eyes, taking a sip from her coffee. “I mean, I get it. It must suck. Actually… I know it sucks! Because I always feel them first. It’s not like I’m doing it on purpose,” she groaned, leaning back and crossing her arms.

“Are you really that angry at him?” her mom asked, a soft smile on her lips. How could she be so calm? Y/N would never understand that. How could she have been born - well, raised - from a woman that calm?

“I honestly just want him to apologize and stop being an ass. We’re gonna have to deal with it one day. I’m pretty sure he has the same weird scar on his thigh because I sure as well have the same on my arm, I checked,” she took a bite from her cake, pouting in front of her mother then.

“You’re just as stubborn as your brother,” the older woman chuckled while Y/N made a face, showing her the tongue for a second. “Oh, it’s not a bad thing. I know I raised both of you just as stubborn as I am.”

The younger one laughed, shaking her head and finishing her coffee. She was so glad she had this woman as her mom. The best mom someone could have asked for.

   The semester continued as normal - stressful, filled with alcohol and assignments that maybe could have been more interested if paid enough attention to. Alice and Wonpil got closer and would host dinners to watch football games whenever the Pats played. Day6 was being booked for more shows after the showcase, more people wanted them to play at their parties or just pay to see them in a venue. They were getting bigger and bigger. Sungjin and that JYP guy were exchanging e-mails for a couple months now since the producer was a big fan of the energy the band has 

Alice got a few jobs after the showcase too but as she was busy with the semester she couldn’t actually take more. Even though her professors were all supportive, she wanted to finish the course first and then work on getting bigger roles. The important thing was: she managed to get the attention of big people that day.

The thing is: Brian and Y/N have been playing a ridiculous game of hide and seek for three months now. She arrives early to every Day6 rehearsal and leaves just when he arrives. He comes up with horrible excuses to miss Sunday Night Football just because he knows she’s going to be there. She stopped going to McDonald’s because it’s near his apartment and he might be there. He stopped going to Starbucks because it’s right on the corner of her apartment and Alice mentioned once that Y/N always stops there for chocolate muffins. He was always angry and she was less active than before, afraid she might bump her knee and hurt him. He bought a box of five hundred bass picks so his fingers wouldn’t hurt that much anymore.

Their friends noticed. They noticed the first week, but whenever they confronted them about it both would call them out. They would say how ridiculous they were being, they would yell, tell them to fuck off and leave. Most of the time. Pouting and being stubborn was also an option. Brian and Y/N are perfect for each other because they happen to be everything the other is: stubborn, sarcastic, savage and have a difficult personality. They can also be aggressive and rude.

Sungjin was the one who came up with the idea. He was tired of listening to his mom complain about his sister and about Brian. One: because he loves his sister to pieces even though it might not seem like it from time to time and two: because Brian is one of his best friends and he also wants the best for him. The Park sibling might also love cake and birthday parties, that’s where the idea came from.

They were going to throw a surprise party for Brian’s birthday. And they would find a way to keep Y/N and Brian in the same room for more than fifteen minutes so they could talk. Or yell or fight or just communicated. That was the hardest part of the plan.

The easiest part was the food: Alice and Wonpil were in charge of that. Sungin offered to help and so did Dowoon. Jae was in charge of inviting Brian and making sure he would arrive on time - the excuse was up to him. Alice was in charge of making Y/N show up.

 [6:58 PM] Okay. Listen. Pil wants to be cute and host one of those wine parties at his place this Saturday. I know we’ve been doing this at ours for forever now, but let him have this? Please? -AP

 [6:59 PM] Ugh. Why tho. I don’t have excuses to wear pajamas at Wonpil’s house. -Y/N

[6:59 PM] You can wear sweats? A t-shirt? It doesn’t need to be fancy. He just wants to do something since you’re my roommate. And he’s my soulmate. His words. He wants to be a good… mate. -AP

[6:59 PM] Let it be known that I’m only going because he’s ridiculously cute. I might have to leave early tho. -Y/N

[7:00 PM] We’re not inviting him. -AP

[7:00 PM] What? -Y/N [7:00 PM] It has nothing to do with that idiot. -Y/N [7:00 PM] I actually have to be up early on Sunday. I might have forgotten to buy my mom’s birthday present. -Y/N 

[7:01 PM] On a Sunday? -AP [7:01 PM] You? Shopping on a Sunday? -AP

[7:05 PM] Yeah. -Y/N [7:07 PM] Let Wonpil know I’ll show up. -Y/N 

“Okay. She said she’ll show up!” Alice said, putting her phone on the coffee table in front of Wonpil’s couch. It was true that she was spending more time at his place since he lived alone and things were getting more serious than dates at the movies for the past months.

“Now we just have to convince Brian to show up,” he said, leaning closer and pressing a kiss to her cheek and then resting his head on her shoulder. “But that is Jae’s job now,” he added, pressing his lips together. “I mean, we also have to bake the cake and choose the wine.”

“You mean I have to bake the cake, right?” Alice said, looking at him with a smile on her lips. “I mean, I know Sungjin told you to help but I’m not letting you anywhere near my mom’s recipe. No offence but… Last time you decided to cook something we were left with salty soup.”

“It wasn’t that bad…” Wonpil started, pouting his lips and leaning back so he could look at her properly. “I did make you waffles that day though…” he said, raising one of his eyebrows.

Alice laughed, shaking her head a little. “You made waffles from a box. I mean, yeah. They were delicious. But still,” she leaned closer, pressing her lips to his. “I bake the cake. You pick the wine. I say we go with sparkling wine because that’s the one we use for celebrations,” she added, pressing another kiss to his lips.

“Fine. But I’ll make another soup one day that won’t taste salty. And you’ll have to try it,” he said, chuckling a little.

“Make sure it’s on a week day so I can order something fast just in case,” she said, making both of them laugh. They both leaned back on the couch, feet up on the coffee table and unpaused the movie they were watching. They still had three days to go until Saturday night.

  “We’re going to Wonpil’s on Saturday,” Jae said, tapping on the table as he waited for his name to be called. Convincing Brian to meet him at Starbucks was already a huge victory, convincing him to go to Wonpil’s will have to be another one.

“I can’t go,” Brian said, shrugging and pulling his phone from his pocket, checking his texts and then pretending he had something very important to reply to, hoping Jae would just let it go. But Brian knew Jae, all of those were false hopes. 

“It wasn’t an invitation actually. I was just letting you know that we’re all going to Wonpil’s Saturday night. It’s a band thing. And as a band we do have to go out together from time to time you know,” he said, sighing and then getting up to grab both his and Brian’s coffee.

The younger one was left on the table by himself, checking his twitter timeline. He did see Alice complaining about a TV show and Y/N telling her that the character only died because he was her favorite. They hadn’t unfollowed or blocked each other, it would be too obvious. Besides, they needed to know where the other was going so they could avoid the place at all costs.

“Band thing, you said?” Brian asked the moment Jae came back with the cups of coffee. “No girlfriends? Weird friends? Parents? Just a band thing?” he added, raising an eyebrow.

Jae shrugged and then sighed. “Duh, of course. We all know you two are being dramatic about it still. We’re not even trying to get you two to be together anymore,” he rolled his eyes and sipped from his drink.

“That’s not what I meant,” Brian said, feeling his cheeks getting warmer.

“Of course not,” Jae chuckled, shrugging one more time. “It’s gonna be just us, some stupid TV show and some beers. Trust me, it’s gonna be cool,” Jae added and Brian finally agreed to show up. He could deal with a band thing.

  Brian arrived first since it was supposed to be a band thing and it would make no sense for Y/N to be there when all of the Day6 guys were there since it was a wine date. Alice and Y/N were going to be there in three hours so the band had some time alone with Brian.

Jae, Brian and Sungjin were sharing the couch while Wonpil was alone on an armchair. Dowoon was offered a chair but he decided to throw a pillow on the floor and sit there for a while. There was something on TV but none of them were paying attention - at least some had the decency to pretend they were. When Jae felt a pinch on his thigh he thought that would be the perfect time to bring the touchy subject up.

“How are things with Alice, Pil? Are you guys doing fine with the whole soulmate thing?” the word immediately caught Brian’s attention, making him look away from the TV and towards Jae - who wasn’t even looking at his friend.

“She makes me want to try to be a better version of me every single day,” he said, a smile on his lips. “And it might sound exhausting, but it isn’t. And it’s not like we’re the perfect match because we definitely aren’t…” he said, chuckling a little, shrugging. “It feels good being around her. It sorta calms me down, you know? And I’ve been way more careful,” he said, showing them his hands with a smile on his face.

“On purpose?” Brian asked, raising an eyebrow and sipping from his beer. He seemed curious and all of the other pretended they weren’t giving it much thought.

“It’s not like I was doing it on purpose for starters,” Wonpil chuckled, shrugging a bit. “It’s almost like my clumsiness has already done its job so I don’t need it as much anymore? Of course I still bump my knee on things all the time and have some bruises from door knobs, but it’s not as often as before,” he added, sipping from his own beer.

“What about you? Still thinks it’s a stupid idea?” Sungjin asked, poking Brian’s arm while he was taking a sip from his beer.

The bass player coughed a bit, gave Sungjin a very angry glance while the other just shrugged and sighed. “It is stupid. And it’s unfair that she’s your sister, I can’t say shit about her,” he said, raising one eyebrow. “But if she wasn’t and I could, I would definitely call her selfish. And arrogant. And an idiot,” he added then, raising his hands. “Of course, only if she wasn’t.”

The boys didn’t laugh, they just looked at Brian as if they pitied him. Dowoon was smiling to himself, shaking his head. “Dude. Stop being such a stubborn ass,” he said and then all of them started laughing. Apparently someone finally said what they had been trying to say for the past three months and a half.

Once the room fell silent again, they all went back to pretending the TV was super interesting. What a great whatever it was that they were watching.

  Alice and Y/N got into the uber late because both decided that ten minutes was enough to get ready. Newsflash: it wasn’t. The older one was texting her boyfriend to let them know they were going to be late - and to please not let Brian leave. The best part of the plan was that Alice got a pair of keys so she wouldn’t need to ring the doorbell and probably scare Brian away. She would get in, lock the door and let Brian and Y/N figure out by themselves what was going on.

Of course she would sleep at Wonpil’s for five months just in case after this. Y/N might want to murder her.

 “I was out with my mom a couple days ago and she said the only present she wants for her birthday is for me and Brian to finally get along,” Y/N said, rolling her eyes. “It’s ridiculous. She keeps mentioning him all. the. time. I think Sungjin has been updating her on everything that is going on and she’s afraid I might never talk to him again.”

They were going up the stairs to Wonpil’s apartment on the sixth floor because of course the evelavor was broken. “But maybe you guys should talk… You know, just to see if it was a misunderstanding or not. I’m sure he didn’t mean all of those things he said, Brian is not that big of an ass…” Alice tried, giving her friend a smile.

Y/N sighed, rolling her eyes. She took a deep breath because of the stairs and then looked up at Alice who was a few steps ahead of her. “He has a very cute face, doesn’t he?” he said with a soft laugh. “It’s a shame he’s a selfish arrogant dick,” she shrugged. “I’m not apologizing first or whatever he thinks I should do,” she added.

“Oh my God, you’re impossible,” Alice rolled her eyes and kept going up. “If you had to, I don’t know, apologize to someone to be able to live forever I’m pretty sure you’d rather die.”

“It’s not that deep,” the youngest one said, going faster so she wouldn’t be left behind.

“Oh, trust me. It is. You’re impossible,” Alice opened the door to the sixth floor, leaving the stairs and waiting for Y/N. The girls then walked to Wonpil’s door, the oldest one knocked and then unlocked it, letting Y/N go in first. The subject had changed, so she walked in and turned around to reply to Alice. The oldest one walked in, locked the door and smiled. Y/N was confused for a second, having no idea why her friend was smiling.

She realised then that it was her boyfriend’s apartment, so he must have been behind her. She turned around then with a smile on her lips to say hi to Wonpil, but the first face she saw was Brian’s.

 There was betrayal, anger, tension, horror and stress. All of those on both their faces in minutes. Alice pressed her back against the door so Y/N wouldn’t leave and Jae stood up just in case Brian decided to throw a fit. The two were about to start yelling when Sungjin started talking.

“Listen, we had to do this. You two have been playing an unhealthy game of hide and seek for too long,” he stood up, walking so he would be in the middle and both could see him. “We have a band to deal with and, well, I have a family and Alice has a roommate. Jae has a best friend. It’s not as easy as you two think it is for us whenever you decide to just ignore each other,” he said, looking at both of them.

Brian was about to start, but then Alice cut him off. “And we both know you two are too stubborn to say you are sorry for whatever happen. Or to share your feelings. Or whatever. So I just want to let you know that you’re both locked in here until you solve your shit.”

“We just need you two to talk, alright. It might sound selfish of us but you two need to figure things out. You don’t even need to apologize, just talk. Get to know each other past the ‘asshole’ nickname you both have been using,” Wonpil added, raising an eyebrow and looking at them.

“Fine,” they both said at the same time, blushing as they looked at each other. And then looked away.

  They did set this up but they also decided to give them privacy to sort their shit out. Wonpil told them that the terrace was empty and that they should make their way there even though Alice just wanted to lock them inside a room - Hunger Games style - and wait for them to get over it.

The elevator ride was awkward and they hushed out of it the moment they heard the ding, letting them know they were on the last floor. They took the stairs to the terrace, opening the door to a bright sunny fall day in Los Angeles. Y/N made sure to walk a few steps before sitting down, sighing and looking back at Brian. She was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt as she thought they would be having a wine night. Brian was in jeans and a hoodie, making his way towards her and sitting down too, sighing as he did so.

“Listen, I’m not going to apologize for playing around as a kid-” Y/N started, but Brian shook his head and cut her off.

 “That’s not what I was angry about,” he said, biting on his lower lip. “I mean, it was… For a while. But it’s not what I’m angry about,” he added then, making Y/N look at him with a very confused expression.

“So… Uh, okay. Yeah, I’ve got nothing. I’ve been bad mouthing you for almost four months now because I thought you had been holding stupid grudges against me since I was three,” she said, letting out a chuckle. “I know I wasn’t the most careful kid… But I was just so happy I got to do the things I was doing I didn’t think about a soulmate. Or you. I did apologize. Every time it happened… But I don’t see why I have to do this now,” she added, looking at him.

“You don’t… I don’t need you to. Or want you to,” he said, shrugging a little and looking around. He sighed and bit down on his lower lip. “Look… I never enjoyed this whole soulmate thing. I mean? Being stuck with someone? For the rest of your life? No, thanks. And my mom… Oh God, she drives me crazy. She sent me to Canada when I was little just because. She wants me… I mean, she wanted to me to find you more than anything,” Y/N listened with a confused expression, trying to understand where Brian was getting. Her mom never really pressured her into anything but she did get more… interested in her love life once Brian came into it. “And I told her several times… Soulmates sometimes don’t find each other. I mean, you could have been killed or something. But he always noticed when I flinched or anything so she always commented on it. It was annoying,” he stopped, took a deep breath and then continued. “Besides… We might not even get married. We might be best friends for life? Who the fuck knows. Yeah, you do like my petty songs and I do like how your hair changes colors all the time, but? In the long run?”

Y/N ended up giggling a bit, shaking her head. That caught Brian’s attention, making him look up at her and make a face. He was about to ask her what the hell was going on when she started talking.

“I don’t want to date you right away,” she started, giving him a smile. “I never planned to. I don’t know you, you don’t know me. You can’t even name my three favorite colors or what type of tea is acceptable to drink in the morning…” she started, reaching out to hold his hand for a moment. “I don’t mind if you need to get to know me first or whatever because I’d prefer to get to know you before we do anything stupid. Like getting married.”

He rolled his eyes, chuckling a little. “Maybe we should have had this talk a few months ago?”

“Oh, shut up. If they ask, we needed the time to be petty. I hope you wrote another petty song. I hope it’s more petty than the last one. I hope it has my name in it and you’re going to sing in front of a lot of people and all of them are going to know how horrible I am,” Y/N said, squeezing his hand before letting go, making the other laugh.

“Sorry. I actually wrote one… But it’s more in the lines of ‘god dammit I fucked this up what can I do now’, you know?” Brian said and Y/N pouted, making both of them laugh and shake their heads.

They spend another few minutes outside. No one yelled or broke anything and no neighbors were disturbed. They covered the basics: favorite color, favorite band, favorite TV show, hogwarts house and favorite star wars character, etc. They had a small fight over star wars vs star trek, but decided that one was better as a movie and the other was better as a TV series.

When they decided it was time, they took the elevator back to the sixth floor and knocked on Wonpil’s door.

  They were all afraid Y/N and Brian had pushed each other from the terrace or worst, kissed. Alice had drank almost an entire bottle of wine and the boys were trying to focus on something else - a TV show. Something about famous parents and even more famous kids. The girl was the first one up when they knocked, running to get the door and open it with a smile.

Y/N and Brian walked in with a smile, waving at their friends. They were standing side by side, looking a bit awkward but not a bad awkward. More like ‘we talked because of you and now we have to explain how things are going’ awkward. It was going to take some time but they would figure this whole soulmate thing out eventually.

“So…” Y/N started. “Brian is my soulmate even though he likes beer over wine,” she made a face.

“Yeah, and uh… Y/N is my soulmate even though she prefers Jae over me sometimes,” he said while she shrugged, making finger guns towards Jae while all their friends laughed.

 “Are you two finally okay?” Sungjin asked.

“Yeah, we are. We’re going to be,” Brian said and Y/N showed him the tongue. Soon they moved to find their places on the couch and their drinks, Y/N finally getting the wine she was promised earlier that week.

When Brian had to use the bathroom, they took the cake out of the fridge and surprised him with it. His birthday had been on Wednesday, but today seemed like a nice day to have Y/N be a part of the celebrations. That’s the reason they had set this up. Everything worked out as planned - the new soulmates weren’t being huge asses about each other anymore, the cake was delicious and Wonpil’s wine choice was actually quite impressive.

Later that year, Day6 would sign a record deal with that JYP guy and Brian would get to sing Congratulations live to a lot of great fans to hear just how bad of a person his soulmate is.

Did you enjoy CONGRATULATIONS? Let me know. 

[themonkeycabal]

Wandavision Ep 6 Spoilers

No really, spoilers. 

Previously on Wandavision — Wanda told SWORD to shove their drones right straight up their asses, Vision woke up to the reality that his utopian sitcom life was in fact a dystopian hellscape, their children were extremely creepy, and Agnes was being bizarre as hell and super sus. In the real world, Acting Director Dick was a dick, and Darcy and Jimmy welcomed Monica into their sciencey weird-crime-fighting team. Monica also mentioned an aerospace engineer she knows, which some suggest may be the first mention of Reed Richards in the MCU. I have conflicted feelings about the Fantastic Four. Mostly I never liked them. But, I'm open to revising my opinion.

Oh, and also X-Men 'Verse Pietro showed up suddenly and that was fun.

Anyway. the roommate and I tried to sort out a timeline — so Monica unBlips and goes back to work at SWORD three weeks later. AD Dick tells us Wanda stole Vision's body nine days previously. That means, just three weeks ago Wanda was in the middle of a battle, lost her boyfriend, was Snapped, was then unsnapped to fall right into the middle of another battle. Lost THREE additional teammates. And then sometime in the following week found out a shady government agency had Vision's body and she probably went "OH HELL NO". Because that's what I would say. So she goes to SWORD, dents a few doors, takes Vision's body and swans off to New Jersey. Look, she's been through a hell of a lot in the last couple weeks, is what I'm saying. I don't blame her a tiny bit. But, also, I don't think she's entirely behind this.

10-year old boy plus video camera = the 90s. Obnoxious opening credits. But, you know, I kind of liked them (as a one off). WAYYY better than last week's.

It's Halloween, and *sigh* Billy is breaking the fourth wall and narrating to the camera. There's childish twin bickering as you expect, Tommy's the wild and crazy twin, and Billy's the buttoned up twin. And Pietro is passed out on the couch at 4 in the afternoon. Living his best life. He teasingly scares the boys, chases them around, and there's awkward child acting.

Wanda comes down the stairs in the classic Scarlet Witch costume, and says she's a Sokovian Fortune Teller. Sokovia was more wild than I realized.

Genuinely funny flashback to Wanda and Pietro trick-or-treating in Sokovia as kids, 'the year we got typhus'. lol. Was it the fish that gave them typhus? Or was that just a special treat? Wanda doubts this version of events, and Pietro suggests she suppressed the memory due to the trauma. This gives Billy the chance to tell the camera that mom's been weird since uncle Pietro turned up to crash on their couch.

Next it's Vision's turn to appear in the classic Vision costume. Yikes. Wanda thanks him for humoring her, and he says there were no other clothes in his closet and they have a very weird second where he's not playing along and she's not sure what to do, and then he breaks into sitcom character says something about "just kidding, i know how much you love mexican wrestling" like it's a luchador costume, and then there's some super weird flirting. TMI you two.

Meanwhile, Pietro is a large child and the kids love him, of course. So there's that.

Back to Wanda and Vision, she's ready to take the kids out trick-or-treating, but Vision says he can't go, he's on the neighborhood watch and must patrol the streets ever-vigilant for wild gangs of child hooligans who might TP trees. He's gone off-script and it takes Wanda a second to figure out how to play this. She says it's the boys' first Halloween so he has to be there. Pietro breaks up the almost argument and says he can be a father figure-type and he'll help with the boys. Vision's still pretty off-script but Wanda doesn't fight it but looks uncertain, and he goes off to protect the night — or early afternoon.

Pietro is a child hooligan and wants to go do hooligany things with the kids. Wanda says he doesn't have a costume and he grabs Billy and they speed off only to return dressed in classic Quicksilver duds. Well, cheap-looking, thrown together Quicksilver duds. I laughed. The hair. lol. Good one.

Outside in the real world. The Hex field is still kind of glowing red and making bad force field noises. It only started doing that when Wanda got pissed in the last ep. Oh, goody, it's Acting Director Dick. I've learned his name is Hayward. I don't care.

Blah blah Stompy Mc-I'm-In-Charge blah. Monica is not pleased about the whole trying to kill Wanda with a missile while she was talking to her plan. AD Dick just says "now we know who we're dealing with". Um … what? You tried to kill her and her response was to tell you to go away. Yeah, boy, she's a monster.

Darcy is there to helpfully remind AD Dick that Wanda made him look like the fool he is. ILU girl. "Hey, there he is; the guy who almost got murdered by his own murder squad." Jimmy just makes a 'i'm so disappointed in you and your choices' face at him in the background.

I despise characters like Hayward. They are so tedious. Narratively they are there to incite conflict, but given the situation conflict naturally exists, surely there are other ways to bring up/drive that tension without the trope of the government heavy ready to solve the problem with the most extreme amount of force available to him. OH no! Our plucky heroes will have to find a way to save the day and fight the Man! Can they do it? Boring. It's too bad General Talbot went insane and then died; he could probably give tips on How Not To Be That Guy.

Anyway

Hayward wants to know if Darcy works for him and she's like "dunno my dude", Monica claims her, AD Dick says "which one of you is the sassy best friend" and Jimmy's like, that is quite enough Acting Director Not Very Nice Man. "There's no time to diminish your colleagues when you're about to start a war you can't win." AD Dick just wants to take out Wanda so the whole nightmare ends. Monica's like um, we literally do not know what's going on. Like, for real we have no clue. So that might not, in fact, end the nightmare, Director Murder Britches.

They argue a lot and Director Dick goes off the rails. Dude's like more unhinged than seems warranted. Unless he's just so embarrassed that he pissed himself when Wanda returned his murder drone to him, he's decided SHE MUST BE DESTROYED FOR THE GOOD OF … NEW JERSEY AND MY SOILED UNDERWEAR OR SOMETHING. 

"Captain Rambeau, you are an impediment to this mission!" Oh no! He's gonna tell her all about how hard it was to survive in a post-blip world, all those lucky blipped don't know what it was like! You just can't understand! Monica tells him not to use that as an excuse to be a coward. I'm so bored with this scene. Let me guess, the trio will have to go behind his back to save the day.

"Maybe it's a good thing you weren't here with your mother died. Because, clearly you don't have the stomach for this job." … non-sequitur much? Or is he saying she would have inherited the Director-ship (which should probably not be how that sort of agency works, let's be real). Is this scene five hours long, or does it just feel that way?

The Dick banishes the trio from his base.

"Hayward is way over-stepping his provisional authority". Jimmy Woo, you're so great. Monica says he's up to something. Yeah a tactical nuke and murder. Clearly he doesn't want to actually solve the problem, he just wants the problem to go away with a big show of macho explosions and whatnot. I suspect he might be in over his head, like he was not meant to be Acting Director, let alone Director. Also, he's a boring cliche stereotype and I loathe it.

JIMMY! I legit did not see that coming. He just pure hauls off and clocks one of the soldiers escorting them off the base, to a transport truck or something. Monica seems just as surprised for a second but then she's like "hell yeah!" and jumps in. Darcy sort of stands back and watches. lol. "Why didn't anyone tell me the plan?"

Oh look, it's my shipping container! They put the soldiers in there. Guys, it was for Hayward. Come on.

The trio disguise themselves with ponchos, which is a big step up from the usual MCU disguise of "baseball hat". That was a good bit in Ant-man and the Wasp "it's not a disguise, it just looks like us at a baseball game" (I watched that like last week. I missed Luis). Anyway …

Back in the sitcom world. The kids are ready for their early afternoon trick-or-treating. They're still talking to the camera. It's so awkward. I'm not a fan. I get it's meant to reproduce the very 90s Nick-era sitcoms and so, you know, it's spot on. Still, though.

Pietro is encouraging and supportive. "Unleash hell, demon spawn!"

Dang there are a lot of kids in that neighborhood. Wasn't Vision wondering last episode why there weren't any kids? Is the program correcting itself?

Wanda tries to test Pietro, asking him about some kid at an orphanage when they were kids. Pietro calls her on it, and says he knows he looks different. Wanda wants to know why that is. He says, "You tell me. I mean, if I found shangra-la, I wouldn't want to be reminded of the past, either." Hmm.

The kids speed off with uncle Pietro. Wanda wanders over to talk to neighbor Herb, who has a g-man earbud in and is clearly part of the neighborhood watch. In the background Pietro is stealing all the candy and smashing pumpkins and spraying the place with silly string. The hijinks are so wacky. Wanda tells Herb maybe Vision can help out with the chaos, and Herb says Vision isn't on duty. Oh no, he lied to her!

Herb goes weird "is there something I can do for you, Wanda? Do you want something changed?" Hmmm.

Elsewhere Vision is wandering the wild streets of Westview. He finds people caught in some type of weird decorating loop, the woman seems trapped but aware.

Commercial time!  What the fuck was that. "Yo-magic! The snack for survivors." No, really, what the fuck.

Night has fallen, the twins and the twins walk the streets. Wanda's making the boys give back all the candy they stole. She says Pietro is a bad influence. He says "I'm just trying to do my part, kay? Come to town unexpectedly, create tension with the brother-in-law, stir up trouble with the rugrats, and ultimately give you grief. I mean, that's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"What happened to your accent?"

"What happened to yours? Details are fuzzy, man. I got shot like a chump in the street for no reason." AHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHA! no really AHAHAHAHAAH! Thank you, Pietro! Holy shit, perfect. That's some delicious shade. I expect to see this gif'd fifteen different ways when I load tumblr today.

"Next thing I know, I heard you calling me. I knew you needed me."

The kids interrupt. And now all of a sudden Tommy can zoom. Character development!

Everyone is so careful to give Wanda what she wants. Why? She's not cruel. Who wants to keep her pacified? And whoever it is cannot possibly be pleased with AD Dick messing things up. Assuming it's an outside or outside-ish force/entity, of course. I mean, I don't think she's doing this entirely, she might be the battery powering it, but despite her thing last episode to get SWORD to leave her alone, she does seem a little confused about the where, why, and how things are going.

"Don't go past Ellis Avenue." Just a kid thing or a boundary of the sitcom control world?

In the real world, our heroes are sneaking through a tent city and into the server room. The scene with Pietro and Wanda discussing his accent is playing in the background. Darcy seems put-out that Pietro was recast. lol. "He brought the wrong face."

Darcy hacks into Hayward's devices. "Hayward figured out a way to look through the boundary." "And he didn't share it with the group." I don't like Hayward. 

Something is blipping on the map on the computer. Jimmy asks if it's Wanda, but Darcy says "it's tracking the decay signature of vibranium". So Vision. Monica wants to know why Hayward is tracking Vision. Well, I'd super like to know what SWORD was doing with Vision in the first place, because they weren't just storing him, they were doing something. So …

Jimmy notices that there are other dots, the ones closest to Vision, who are other residents. Jimmy says the ones near the edge of town are barely moving.

Back to Vision. He's found a cul-de-sac to patrol. Everybody's frozen in place, the street lights flicker. Eerie. They're all dressed for Halloween. Does this mean the field is shrinking, or the effects spreading and so it's closing in, slowing and then freezing people who were earlier moving about just fine? Vision is unaffected by this whatever it is. He turns himself into himself and flies off, up above the town. part of the town is dark, and part alive with voices and laughter.

He spots a car at the edge of town. It's Agnes. She seems frozen-ish, but when he asks what she's doing there, she says "Town Square Scare. Where is it?" all robotic like. Vision helpfully tries to give directions. lol. "Took a wrong turn, got lost" she says.

Vision touches her head and she wakes up. "You! You're one of the Avengers. You're Vision. Are you here to help us?" "I am Vision. I do want to help. But, what's an Avenger?"

Hmm. Well, I guess he did say last week that he couldn't remember anything before Westview.

"Am I dead?" she asks. "No, why would you think that?" "Because you are."

What was news coverage after the Snap like, do you suppose? I mean, ridiculous, of course. But, like, I think they had bigger problems then wondering about snapped/dead Avengers, didn't they? Well, maybe not. "WHERE ARE AVENGERS TO HELP US?" or "HOW DARE THE AVENGERS NOT HELP US!" "TOTALLY THIS IS ON THE AVENGERS!" "WE'D ALL BE DEAD WITHOUT THE AVENGERS!" "NUHUH! BOO AVENGERS!" "EXCEPT VISION WHO DIED HEROICALLY, WE ALL LIKE THAT AVENGER!" "TONY STARK AND PEPPER POTTS SHARE THE DECORATING TIPS THAT TRANSFORMED THEIR RUSTIC RESTORATION PROJECT INTO A CHARMING FAMILY HOME".

Agnes starts screaming "Dead" at Vision. She's not coping well. Vision says he's going to try and reach outside town and try to figure this all out. "How? No one leaves. Wanda won't even let us think about it." I SUSPECT YOU, AGNES! Why would Wanda keep everybody trapped and miserable? I could see if she did it on accident, but this implies she's purposefully hurting people. I don't buy it. Agnes, again, seems to be in the right place at the right time to make Vision doubt Wanda. You're a very suspicious character, Agnes.  

She starts to laugh. "All is lost." Vision touches her had and she resets to sitcom Agnes. Somehow she can move again, she turns the car around on Ellis Ave and heads back into town. So, that answers that.

Vision walks across the Eillis Ave to the field beyond.

Meanwhile, Darcy continues to hack. Monica gets a text and says "that's it! My way back into the Hex will be here in an hour." Jimmy's all ready to boost a ride to take her to meet her aerospace buddy. But, Darcy says, nope. Can't do it. Monica's been through the Hex twice, and it's rewritten her cells. "It's changing you." Monica is undaunted. "I know what Wanda's feeling and I won't stop until I help her." Alrighty then.

Jimmy's finally going to get to hotwire a car! But wait, Darcy's not going with them. AD Dick has something hidden behind one last firewall. Darcy thinks it's big and can help them. She's going to find it.

I don't think Jimmy had to hotwire that humvee. It just started right up. Motorpool, pfft - they always leave the keys.

Back in Westview. Halloween continues at Town Square. Pietro asks Wanda where she was hiding all those kids. Whu? Says Wanda. "I assume they were all just sleeping peacefully in their beds. No need to traumatize beyond the occasional holiday cameo, amiright?" What is Pietro. "Hey don't get me wrong, you've handled the ethical considerations of this scenario as best you could. Families and couples stay together. Most personalities aren't far from what's underneath. People got better jobs. Better haircuts for sure."

"You don't think it's wrong?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm impressed. It's a pretty big leap from giving people nightmares and shooting red wigglywoos out your hands." No, really, what is Pietro? "How'd you even do all this?" Hmmm.

"I don't know how I did it. I only remember feeling completely alone. Empty. Just endless nothingness." She looks back at Pietro and for a second he's dead Pietro. Poor Wanda.

Darcy continues to hack Hayward's systems. Cataract classified weapons something something. They're still tracking Vision. Who continues his walk across the field and comes to the hex. He tries to push through it. Looks painful. SWORD rolls out to go overreact at him. He makes it through the barrier, kind of. It's a struggle.

Hayward standing there looking like a jackass "he really does want out, doesn't he?" Like he’s just amused by this turn of events, or watching a lab rat try to get out of the lab. 

Darcy's standing behind watching all of this. Bits of Vision sort of fly off and back into the Hex. Darcy says "oh no!" and runs towards him, screaming for them to help him. Way to give away your sneaky hiding, girlfriend.

In Westview. Billy looks up, he can hear what's going on outside. "I hear daddy in my head. He's in trouble."

Vision calls for help, while SWORD prioritizes arresting Darcy. Phil Coulson would never have behaved like this. Boo to SWORD. Vision is dissolving. It's kind of gross and sad.

Wanda asks where Vision is, and Pietro interrupts "Don't sweat it, sis. It's not like your dead husband can die twice." Wanda wallops him with some red wigglywoos.

Billy sees soldiers and thinks Vision is dying. Wanda stops everything and makes a big red boom. The Hex appears to be expanding. Whoops, now you've done it AD Dick. He runs away like the brave brave guy he is. They leave Darcy handcuffed to a jeep. "Are you serious right now?"

The Hex overtakes Vision and then Darcy. Trapped soldiers become clowns, and we're in the circus. Well, SWORD seems like a circus, so Wanda's not wrong. I'm pretty sure Jimmy and Monica made it, but sadly the bravest Director who ever braved also escaped. He deserved to be a circus clown. Better luck next week, Wanda.

Credits.

Well, I just don't know anymore.

Hayward doesn't care about Wanda, except where I think because of this someone will figure out what he was doing to Vision's body. And Vision is ultimately the thing he cares about in all this. I hope Wanda drops a house on him.

Hmmm.

Quit suggesting I watch Age of Ultron next, Disney. It’s not happening. 

[financialinvestingradio]

FIR 115: How To UNLOCK The GROWTH Mindset SECRET

In this episode, we take a look at the secrets of the growth mindset. If YOU could adopt the techniques for changing your growth culture, would you do that?

  Thank you for joining me here today. So recently, I was taking a look at a site that was talking about some of the pain points around SMBs. Right? What are some of the things that make it difficult for small to medium businesses? I've been so busy doing some AI work, and projects that I've not had a chance to podcast recently. So I've missed doing this. Alright, so let's let's take a look at this. I was interested in focusing on what are the things that hold back a small to medium business. And I look through what lots of organizations are saying certainly looked at what my own experience has been as well. I found one in particular, that was interesting. It's called WalkerSands.com interesting site, they focus on accelerating the growth of b2b brands. Anyway, in their on their blog, there was a gentleman who had written down a list of 100 pain points, and it caught my eye and I, I started to look through those and then I copied them down. And then I started to categorize them. And I noticed that well, there were some that focused on business process pains. There was cash flow pains and competitive pressure pains, eco system paints, which are a How do I deal with, you know, those that I'm partnering with?

Of course, there are pains around expenses, of course, financial pains, government pains, legal pains, marketing pains, and then there are some personal pains, right things that happens in our lives, then there are product pains, and finally, workplace pains. So I went through on each of the 100. And I started to categorize them as well, right, this one's business process, this one's workplace and culture, this one's product and marketing and so forth. And then I sat back and I counted them up. And what I came back with, first surprise me, and then I realized it was confirming because it reflected my experience with working with lots of companies. So here's here's the results. Now this is an order of repetition. In other words, this is the ones that had the most number of pain points. Alright, so this is out of 100.

So the top one was 30% of the pain points on his list, dealt with workplace slash culture slash mindset kind of issues. Right? All right, that was the one that was the most repetitive. Now I need to say that the weighting of all of these that I'm going to go through certainly not the same, right. So at any given point, you know, one pain point could become more detrimental than 10 others combined. So I didn't look at it from that perspective. In this particular grouping, I just said, hey, how many of these in this category are there? Alright, so here's the list. It's 30%. We're workplace culture mindset. And then the next most repetitive was marketing. So 15% were marketing, and then 12% were financial. And then it drops down into single digits area. So 5% for competitive pressure, another 5% were personal, another 5% of them, were business processes, and then down to ecosystem and product, both of those are 4%. And then going down a cash flow is 3%. So there's only three out of the 100 that talked about cash flow. I thought that was a little small, you know, my experience with small, you know, doing small business stuff is cash flow is obviously extremely critical, and an important one. So that's why I pointed out a you know, in terms of the numbers of these, it's not that, you know, they're all weighted the same. All right. So it's an interesting look, though, as I've looked around lots of companies and worked with tons of companies over the last 35 years, I've noticed two common themes regardless of industry. The one is culture. workplace mindset challenges.

You could be in the medical industry, healthcare, you could be in financial services or banking, you could be an aerospace or defense, wherever it's, this is a common thing, culture or workplace or mindset challenges, just our are always the common thread. And then number two, which is real closely related, is communication challenges, right? That's always a big a big issue. And sometimes that feeds into culture itself. But if I, you know, those are the common things that I see. So when I, when I looked at this guy's list, and I see that 30 of his 100 dealt with workplace culture mindset, I wasn't surprised that, you know, he, at least from his perspective, that that was a common set of problems. Last month, or maybe it's six weeks ago, when I did my previous podcast, I shared some findings from a Harvard Business Review report, which talked about the small company trap, and how to break that. Now, if you recall, there are two and I invite you to go back and listen to it. If you haven't heard that one. There are two key areas in investing. Well, let me back up, there are two key areas to break that trap. The first one is investing and and adopting technology. So in that bucket, I put things like you got to have control your data, you have to have, you know, good systems to help you. Obviously, I think AI is a key part of that. And of course, I make a pitch and appoint a case for that. Right. So the Harvard business folks said, that was one of the common themes that they saw of small companies, and big companies that both survived and flourished through through COVID, as well as in other times as well.

Okay, that was the first one. second one was marketing slash brand equity. All right. So when you look at this other guy's list that I was talking about earlier, on pain points, marketing was high on the list. Interestingly, there's a little bit on on technology that was in there in terms of pain points. Here's the thing I wanted to get to those. When you look at the list above, you know, marketing had the highest repetitive points, other than the culture piece, right. And it was central to Harvard's finding, my experience has been that when AI is properly applied, it helps close the gaps between the marketing needs and the pain points we have there. And where we need to go to right in order to accomplish the kinds of outcomes, the Harvard that Harvard was talking about in that report. Now, what I did was I pulled together a list here of some of the marketing pain points that this particular gentleman included. Right. And and I'll just, I'll just mention some of them. Number Number one here, that he'd mentioned was, we are not able to get new customers. All right. The other is nobody knows who we are. Or here's another pain point. I'm not getting any foot traffic, or or online traffic. The other is, let's see. This is a commodity business. How do we differentiate ourselves right? on something other than price, right? Hey, Mike, my take on that is you need a good offer. I know an offer guy. Here's another one. I have no clue why we just lost that big sale. All right. Here's another sales are down 30% from last year, why? and so forth, right? Now, those are all interesting marketing problems.

And I've had an opportunity recently to be doing some things with an organization where we've been applying AI, looking at these kinds of questions and discovering, hey, what was the behavior that drove growth or that caused, you know, customers not to repeat their business right over the last several years, an AI brings out some really interesting insights for these kinds of organizations. So I'd say hey, you know what, the Harvard folks are, right? You got to invest in these kinds of technologies so that you can compete, because the table stakes have changed in terms of what it means to compete effectively with our marketing and AI is a piece of that. So I reiterate AI properly applied, does help us close the gaps between where we are today and where we need to go. But I want to come back to the previous point about workplace culture and mindset, right, which is by far the most common recurring pain point across organizations. You can even have the best marketing the best technology but as Peter Drucker used to say, culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Remember that culture eats strategy for breakfast. So you might have a strategy of a I'm gonna do AI, and I'm gonna apply it into my marketing. But if I don't have a culture and a mindset that will adopt and accept and put into place those particular changes that are coming out of that, that's a waste of time, right? So how do you achieve a growth mindset in your business, it's not enough to do the marketing, that's obviously critical. It's not enough to do the AI. Although I would say that it's critical as well. It requires these two things. Number one, you do need to apply the marketing best practices and use an AI to help you do that is certainly key. But number two, most important, you got to have a growth mindset, it's a change in thought, on adopting and adapting the way we work, right, we have to address the culture part. So growing our businesses by just technological insights alone, in my experience, that's naive to consider. Now while we may have short term gains, doing that, it doesn't possess the power to sustain at least my experience.

So what means sustainable growth? While it typically requires this mindset, that's continuously evolving it continuously vulnerable, right, continually speed being asking for what do I need to do or improve next, it's where I want me to take on new insights, and then to accept the need to change and grow. But you got to do it in steps, right? That's, that's the key. If I get too much insight, or too big or things to change, then it's overwhelming. And I might as well just stop because the human brain sort of shuts down, right, and the culture won't accept it. So it needs to be given in doses into a series of steps become smart steps. Now, I've seen large companies apply culture change techniques. But if they're done in mass, like I said, it becomes overwhelming and soon against syndicates drop. So from my experience, the growth mindset secret is these two things, number one, got to apply AI insights to your marketing, your sells your internal operations, take advantage of those platforms that are available today.

And I can tell you about the platform that we provide, we build on the big guys to do the stuff. Alright, that's the first one. Number two, bundle those insights that you get with a culture hack to make minor, you know, but yet still measurable adjustments to the way you work in order to adopt those AI insights. If you do number one, without doing number two, my experience has been the organization doesn't sustain. If you don't have the mindset for growth, than this stuff really isn't for you. Now, you might go one or two times through it. Now we like I said, we call this a smart step. Smart step has those two components in it? So the growth mindset, what that really is, is it's a succession of multiple smart steps.

When you're doing smart steps, think of those two components: 1) applying AI insights to your marketing, your sales, your internal operations, and, 2) then to applying a hacker culture hack to your organization that allows you then to change the way you work to adopt those changes that will come to you from the A AI insights and then grow your business right. Doing this puts you on a path of sustainable incremental growth. Now, as you know, there are so many pain points that an SMB experiences, and I'll be the first to say this, what I'm talking about does not solve all of them.

But I have found what it does do is it focuses the people on digestible attainable steps, which shifts the culture and the profits one step at a time. All right, everybody. Thanks for joining and until next time, get into the growth mindset.

Thank you for joining Grant on ClickAI Radio. Don't forget to subscribe and leave feedback. And remember to download your FREE eBook visit ClickAIRadio.com now.

  Check out this episode!

[clickairadio]

CAIR 34: How To UNLOCK The GROWTH Mindset SECRET

In this episode, we take a look at the secrets of the growth mindset. If YOU could adopt the techniques for changing your growth culture, would you do that?

Thank you for joining me here today. So recently, I was taking a look at a site that was talking about some of the pain points around SMBs. Right? What are some of the things that make it difficult for small to medium businesses? I've been so busy doing some AI work, and projects that I've not had a chance to podcast recently. So I've missed doing this. Alright, so let's let's take a look at this. I was interested in focusing on what are the things that hold back a small to medium business. And I look through what lots of organizations are saying certainly looked at what my own experience has been as well. I found one in particular, that was interesting. It's called WalkerSands.com interesting site, they focus on accelerating the growth of b2b brands. Anyway, in their on their blog, there was a gentleman who had written down a list of 100 pain points, and it caught my eye and I, I started to look through those and then I copied them down. And then I started to categorize them. And I noticed that well, there were some that focused on business process pains. There was cash flow pains and competitive pressure pains, eco system paints, which are a How do I deal with, you know, those that I'm partnering with?

Of course, there are pains around expenses, of course, financial pains, government pains, legal pains, marketing pains, and then there are some personal pains, right things that happens in our lives, then there are product pains, and finally, workplace pains. So I went through on each of the 100. And I started to categorize them as well, right, this one's business process, this one's workplace and culture, this one's product and marketing and so forth. And then I sat back and I counted them up. And what I came back with, first surprise me, and then I realized it was confirming because it reflected my experience with working with lots of companies. So here's here's the results. Now this is an order of repetition. In other words, this is the ones that had the most number of pain points. Alright, so this is out of 100.

So the top one was 30% of the pain points on his list, dealt with workplace slash culture slash mindset kind of issues. Right? All right, that was the one that was the most repetitive. Now I need to say that the weighting of all of these that I'm going to go through certainly not the same, right. So at any given point, you know, one pain point could become more detrimental than 10 others combined. So I didn't look at it from that perspective. In this particular grouping, I just said, hey, how many of these in this category are there? Alright, so here's the list. It's 30%. We're workplace culture mindset. And then the next most repetitive was marketing. So 15% were marketing, and then 12% were financial. And then it drops down into single digits area. So 5% for competitive pressure, another 5% were personal, another 5% of them, were business processes, and then down to ecosystem and product, both of those are 4%. And then going down a cash flow is 3%. So there's only three out of the 100 that talked about cash flow. I thought that was a little small, you know, my experience with small, you know, doing small business stuff is cash flow is obviously extremely critical, and an important one. So that's why I pointed out a you know, in terms of the numbers of these, it's not that, you know, they're all weighted the same. All right. So it's an interesting look, though, as I've looked around lots of companies and worked with tons of companies over the last 35 years, I've noticed two common themes regardless of industry. The one is culture. workplace mindset challenges.

You could be in the medical industry, healthcare, you could be in financial services or banking, you could be an aerospace or defense, wherever it's, this is a common thing, culture or workplace or mindset challenges, just our are always the common thread. And then number two, which is real closely related, is communication challenges, right? That's always a big a big issue. And sometimes that feeds into culture itself. But if I, you know, those are the common things that I see. So when I, when I looked at this guy's list, and I see that 30 of his 100 dealt with workplace culture mindset, I wasn't surprised that, you know, he, at least from his perspective, that that was a common set of problems. Last month, or maybe it's six weeks ago, when I did my previous podcast, I shared some findings from a Harvard Business Review report, which talked about the small company trap, and how to break that. Now, if you recall, there are two and I invite you to go back and listen to it. If you haven't heard that one. There are two key areas in investing. Well, let me back up, there are two key areas to break that trap. The first one is investing and and adopting technology. So in that bucket, I put things like you got to have control your data, you have to have, you know, good systems to help you. Obviously, I think AI is a key part of that. And of course, I make a pitch and appoint a case for that. Right. So the Harvard business folks said, that was one of the common themes that they saw of small companies, and big companies that both survived and flourished through through COVID, as well as in other times as well.

Okay, that was the first one. second one was marketing slash brand equity. All right. So when you look at this other guy's list that I was talking about earlier, on pain points, marketing was high on the list. Interestingly, there's a little bit on on technology that was in there in terms of pain points. Here's the thing I wanted to get to those. When you look at the list above, you know, marketing had the highest repetitive points, other than the culture piece, right. And it was central to Harvard's finding, my experience has been that when AI is properly applied, it helps close the gaps between the marketing needs and the pain points we have there. And where we need to go to right in order to accomplish the kinds of outcomes, the Harvard that Harvard was talking about in that report. Now, what I did was I pulled together a list here of some of the marketing pain points that this particular gentleman included. Right. And and I'll just, I'll just mention some of them. Number Number one here, that he'd mentioned was, we are not able to get new customers. All right. The other is nobody knows who we are. Or here's another pain point. I'm not getting any foot traffic, or or online traffic. The other is, let's see. This is a commodity business. How do we differentiate ourselves right? on something other than price, right? Hey, Mike, my take on that is you need a good offer. I know an offer guy. Here's another one. I have no clue why we just lost that big sale. All right. Here's another sales are down 30% from last year, why? and so forth, right? Now, those are all interesting marketing problems.

And I've had an opportunity recently to be doing some things with an organization where we've been applying AI, looking at these kinds of questions and discovering, hey, what was the behavior that drove growth or that caused, you know, customers not to repeat their business right over the last several years, an AI brings out some really interesting insights for these kinds of organizations. So I'd say hey, you know what, the Harvard folks are, right? You got to invest in these kinds of technologies so that you can compete, because the table stakes have changed in terms of what it means to compete effectively with our marketing and AI is a piece of that. So I reiterate AI properly applied, does help us close the gaps between where we are today and where we need to go. But I want to come back to the previous point about workplace culture and mindset, right, which is by far the most common recurring pain point across organizations. You can even have the best marketing the best technology but as Peter Drucker used to say, culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Remember that culture eats strategy for breakfast. So you might have a strategy of a I'm gonna do AI, and I'm gonna apply it into my marketing. But if I don't have a culture and a mindset that will adopt and accept and put into place those particular changes that are coming out of that, that's a waste of time, right? So how do you achieve a growth mindset in your business, it's not enough to do the marketing, that's obviously critical. It's not enough to do the AI. Although I would say that it's critical as well. It requires these two things. Number one, you do need to apply the marketing best practices and use an AI to help you do that is certainly key. But number two, most important, you got to have a growth mindset, it's a change in thought, on adopting and adapting the way we work, right, we have to address the culture part. So growing our businesses by just technological insights alone, in my experience, that's naive to consider. Now while we may have short term gains, doing that, it doesn't possess the power to sustain at least my experience.

So what means sustainable growth? While it typically requires this mindset, that's continuously evolving it continuously vulnerable, right, continually speed being asking for what do I need to do or improve next, it's where I want me to take on new insights, and then to accept the need to change and grow. But you got to do it in steps, right? That's, that's the key. If I get too much insight, or too big or things to change, then it's overwhelming. And I might as well just stop because the human brain sort of shuts down, right, and the culture won't accept it. So it needs to be given in doses into a series of steps become smart steps. Now, I've seen large companies apply culture change techniques. But if they're done in mass, like I said, it becomes overwhelming and soon against syndicates drop. So from my experience, the growth mindset secret is these two things, number one, got to apply AI insights to your marketing, your sells your internal operations, take advantage of those platforms that are available today.

And I can tell you about the platform that we provide, we build on the big guys to do the stuff. Alright, that's the first one. Number two, bundle those insights that you get with a culture hack to make minor, you know, but yet still measurable adjustments to the way you work in order to adopt those AI insights. If you do number one, without doing number two, my experience has been the organization doesn't sustain. If you don't have the mindset for growth, than this stuff really isn't for you. Now, you might go one or two times through it. Now we like I said, we call this a smart step. Smart step has those two components in it? So the growth mindset, what that really is, is it's a succession of multiple smart steps.

When you're doing smart steps, think of those two components: 1) applying AI insights to your marketing, your sales, your internal operations, and, 2) then to applying a hacker culture hack to your organization that allows you then to change the way you work to adopt those changes that will come to you from the A AI insights and then grow your business right. Doing this puts you on a path of sustainable incremental growth. Now, as you know, there are so many pain points that an SMB experiences, and I'll be the first to say this, what I'm talking about does not solve all of them.

But I have found what it does do is it focuses the people on digestible attainable steps, which shifts the culture and the profits one step at a time. All right, everybody. Thanks for joining and until next time, get into the growth mindset.

Thank you for joining Grant on ClickAI Radio. Don't forget to subscribe and leave feedback. And remember to download your FREE eBook visit ClickAIRadio.com now.

  Check out this episode!