#i should apply to this scholarship even if i think i won’t get it cause you never know

[robertsbarbie]

my life philosophy this year is “well, you never know”

[samwisethewitch]

Why Your Spells Don’t Work

You set your intention. You had all the correct correspondences. You even timed your spell with the appropriate moon phase. And yet -- no results. What gives? 

Failed spells happen to the best of us, and for a variety of reasons. But a spell gone wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that magic isn’t real or that you’re bad at witchcraft. Magic is complicated, and there are a lot of reasons it might not behave the way you want it to. Here are some of the most common causes of ineffective spells: 

1. Lack of real-world follow through

Magic is meant to be used as a tool to supplement your mundane efforts -- not as a substitute for them. How can you expect your job hunting spell to bring in results if you aren’t applying for jobs? 

Magic does not exist in a vacuum, and it can’t make something out of nothing. If a spell doesn’t bring you the desired result, make sure that your non-magical actions are aligned with what you are trying to manifest. 

2. What you’re trying to manifest isn’t a realistic possibility

Wait, what? Isn’t magic supposed to be, well... magic? Shouldn’t you be able to ask for whatever you want and get it? Yes and no.

Magic is simply a way of directing energy. Magic can’t defy the natural laws of the universe. It can’t make something happen unless it was already a potential possibility.

If your intention is unrealistic for where you are right now, try splitting it up into a multi-step process. No spell is going to make you a billionaire overnight, but magic could help you get hired at a better paying job... and then get promoted... and then get offered a profitable side gig... etc. Starting small and working your way up is always going to produce stronger results, because you laid the foundation first.

3. Your intention was either too vague or too specific 

Whether you use written petitions or spoken incantations, clearly stating your intention is an important part (maybe THE most important part) of any spell or ritual. A good intention is specific enough to get you the results you want, but open enough to let those results manifest naturally.

Let’s say you do a money spell, and your intention for the spell is simply, “I have more money.” If you find a penny on the ground the next day and pick it up, technically that is more money than you had before. A better alternative would be to use an intention like, “I have enough money to buy ___,” or “I have enough money for everything I need and want.”

Using an intention that is too specific creates the opposite problem. Let’s say you want to manifest a scholarship to a specific school. You do a candle spell with the intention, “I have been chosen for the John Smith Scholarship at Jane Doe University.” But maybe the John Smith scholarship had already been awarded by the time you did your spell. Maybe there’s another scholarship at the same school that would be a better fit for you, or maybe you’re eligible for a grant that would make tuition more affordable. A better intention for your spell would be “I have enough financial aid to easily and affordably attend Jane Doe University.”

Magic always follows the path of least resistance, so you want to make sure that your intention is specific enough to give your magic a clear direction, but open enough to allow it some flexibility. 

4. Lack of focus/concentration

We all know the struggle. You’ve been planning this ritual forever, and it’s finally the full moon, but you’ve got a really full schedule today. If you hurry, you can probably squeeze it into the thirty minute window between school and work, right? 

If you say a few quick words and burn some incense before you head out the door in the morning, that totally counts as a spell, right? 

Not so much. Rushed, lazy, and/or half-assed spells rarely, if ever, work. Spells revolve around the raising and direction of energy, and that requires two things: a clear intention (see above) and intense focus on that intention. If you don’t have the time/energy/mental capacity to focus, it’s best to take a break, have a self care day, and come back to your spell some other time. 

5. You’re subconsciously blocking your own results OR you did a spell for someone else who isn’t open to it

I decided to lump these two together, because they’re different variations of the same issue. 

Whenever you are doing magic on yourself, it’s important that your mindset is aligned with your intentions. You can do love spells all day long, but if deep down you don’t believe that you’re worthy of love, that belief is going to block your spells from working. This is why mindfulness, psychology, and self care are all such important parts of a successful witchcraft practice. It’s also why I recommend doing the mental work before you sit down to ritual. 

If you did a spell on yourself, or are trying to manifest something for yourself, and it just isn’t working, I highly recommend setting some time aside for journaling and meditation and asking yourself 1.) if this is really what you want, and 2.) if you truly believe that you can have it.

The whole mindset thing gets even more tricky when you’re doing magic on behalf of another person, because their energy is also at work in the situation and could be at odds with yours. For example, if you do a spell to help a friend land a job, but that friend believes that they’re totally underqualified and could never get it, they probably won’t get the job even if you did everything “right” in your spell. 

This should go without saying, but it is extremely unethical to use magic to mess around in someone else’s head. Even if you think you know what’s best for them, they need to be open to it. If someone is blocking the spells you do on their behalf, all you can do is try to be supportive and find other ways to help them out.

Other (Rare) Reasons for Failed Spells

If a spell goes wrong, it will almost always be for one of the above reasons. But maybe you did everything “right” -- you did the mental work first, had a strong, realistic intention, put lots of focus into your spell, and followed through in real life -- and you still aren’t seeing results. There are a couple of other things that could be blocking your spells, but they’re very uncommon so I’m not going to talk about them in as much detail. These may be things you want to look into if you really, genuinely can’t think of any other cause. 

It’s possible that another witch has done magic that cancels out or blocks yours. This is not common, and it does NOT mean that someone has cursed you. It could be as simple as two witches unknowingly casting spells with opposite intentions, which end up cancelling each other out. (For example, maybe two different people both cast a spell to get the same job. Obviously, they can’t both get that job.) This is why it’s never a bad idea to incorporate a protective element into your spells to block outside interference.

There is a very, very remote possibility that someone has placed a curse on you specifically to block your magic. However -- and I cannot stress this enough -- this is VERY uncommon. If you were cursed you would know it, or at least know that something was very wrong in your life. If you feel like you have been cursed or hexed, I recommend looking into uncrossing spells, which are specifically designed to undo negative magic.

It’s also possible that a higher power is intervening. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a deity, although it certainly could be. Most witches believe in some form of fate or destiny, and it’s possible that your spell didn’t work because what you asked for is not in alignment with your destiny. In these situations, really the only thing you can do is surrender to the bigger picture. 

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Stalker X Stalker, Part 11

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Perma tag: @nathleigh @peachmuses

Stalker x Stalker taglist: @aespades @jayjayspixiepop @blueslushgueen @fan-written @seraphichana @nerd-nowandforever @toodaloo-kangaroo

Plot? What's that? I only know domestic fluff

She really didn’t know what to think when Tim asked to move in for a second time the next morning.

On the one hand, it felt like she was taking advantage of him. He’d seen her get shot and she doubted he’d really thought rationally since.

On the other hand… he essentially lived there already and it would do a lot to alleviate the anxiety the both of them had...

She rubbed her eyes -- ha, as if she hadn’t been awake the whole night to make sure he hadn’t had nightmares -- for an excuse to look away while she thought. What should she do? She would be lying if she said she didn’t want him to move in, she knew that was clouding her judgement, but even if she recognized her bias it wasn’t easy to just put it aside.

She sighed lightly and lowered a hand from her eyes. Tim looked really cute after having just woken up with his hair all messy and his eyes half lidded and one of his cheeks slightly flatter where he’d been resting his head against her and who can really say no to that face?

… well, Marinette supposed that would allow both of them to relax a little...

She let her hands drop to rest on top of his.

“Sure, darling. If you want you can move in… but, if you ever want to move out, I won’t stop you. Just ask.”

He cracked a tiny smile. “The only time I’d ever move out of this place is if you were changing apartments.”

She snickered. “Where I go, you go?”

“You have no idea,” he said.

She rolled her eyes. “You bats and your dumb cryptic sentences. Would it kill you guys to ever say a single thing directly?”

“Yes. I’m pretty sure that I would drop dead on the spot.”

Her lips twitched. “Oh yeah? Heart attack or sniper?”

“Can’t tell you. I would drop dead on the spot.”

“Damn. Foiled again by the… mystery cause of death!”

The smile on Tim’s face brightened and he looped his arms around her. “You’d save me.”

“Oh? And miss out on my chance to get that rich boy money you probably gave me in your will?”

He schooled his face back into a serious look. “I see. I’ll have to write you out of my will, then. Make sure you bring me back.”

“Nooooooooo! My scheme! Ruined! Now how will I become a millionaire without trying?!”

They looked at each other for a few seconds, his face purposefully smug and hers pinched into a frown…

And then they broke character, giggles falling from their lips and smiles lighting up their faces. She tipped her head forward until it rested against his chest. He squeezed her tighter.

Then, to her surprise, he flopped back on the couch, pulling her with him. “Alright, sleepy time,” he said cheerfully.

“Darling --.”

“You didn’t sleep last night. Sleep.”

She pressed against his chest until she could sit up just enough to glare at him. “I have super strength. May not be as strong as Connor or anything but I can definitely get away from you if I wanted.”

“Of course.” A smug look made its way across his face. “But you wouldn’t hurt your darling, would you?”

She glared harder despite the slight reddening of her cheeks. His smirk didn’t waver.

Marinette huffed and dropped back down. “You’re the worst.”

“You love me.”

She didn’t respond to that, instead just grumbling ‘pillows don’t talk’ and letting herself finally nod off.

~

Having two perfectionists trying to figure out the layout of a limited living space might not have been their brightest idea. They should have, at least, gotten someone to help.

Instead they had brought out Marinette’s tape measure and mapped out the entire apartment on a sheet of paper and then made tiny shapes for the furniture. Now, they sat at the table, obsessively moving pieces around.

It could have been worse, of course. Neither of them were the type to hoard things. He wasn’t all that concerned with anything other than his clothes and his laptop. Marinette only cared about her clothes, video games, and baking tools -- all of which could be tucked away in the provided closets and cabinets with ease. If needed they could probably get by with nothing but a dresser and a pull out bed each.

So, yeah, their own personal living styles weren’t the problem…

It was their work. Who knew their workaholic tendencies would be their downfall (besides everyone, of course)? She needed a lot of space for her fabrics and mannequins to make sure nothing got damaged. Tim would need a lot of space for his supercomputer if he didn’t want to make the long trip to Bristol every night.

Speaking of the trip to Bristol! He needed a place to put his motorbike and his suit. Shit. He could find a place to park his bike if he tried, but… he started cutting out a piece for the suit.

Marinette saw him adding more stuff and her head hit the table.

He snickered a little and poked her hair until she, however reluctantly, picked her head back up to send him a halfhearted glare. He smiled, reaching over and plucking the tiny square of paper from where it had stuck itself to her forehead. A blush spread across her cheeks.

Then she happened to glance down and her annoyance was back in full force.

“We didn’t think this through,” she said.

His smile became more strained as he looked down at their map. “Moving sounds so easy on paper.”

“Maybe it’s easier for people who don’t have such complicated lives.”

“Yeah. You’re right. I’m quitting.”

“Aw, but then I’ll lose my patrol buddy! I’ll have to do everything with your siblings instead.”

His nose scrunched up. “God, no. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please, you love your siblings.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t know they’re the worst.”

She looked like she was going to argue, but then she tipped her head and nodded. “True.”

He snickered.

Their smiles disappeared quickly as they looked back at the layout of the apartment. Could they even fit all their stuff?

… wait, actually, could they?

He started shuffling things in and he realized that, if they wanted to have space to walk, there wasn’t enough room. No wonder they’d had so much trouble finding a layout that would work. It was literally impossible. They needed more space.

She hesitated slightly. “... what if we bought out the apartment next to this one for work? It could even double as a backup in case you ever decide you want to have a place of your own again.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Can we do that?”

“You’re rich, you could probably figure it out.”

He rolled his eyes. “I mean, yes, we can technically kick out the people next door but I’d kind of prefer if we didn’t displace random families.”

“I mean… we could always…” She made a stabbing motion.

He couldn’t laugh at that. Laughing at that would be bad. So he wouldn’t do that.

“Bean -- Mari -- no.”

“I’m just saying! We’d even get the apartment at a discount!”

Okay, he might have laughed a little.

… they didn’t end up stabbing anyone but, hey, if the family next door happened to get some huge scholarship courtesy of The Wayne Foundation that they didn’t remember applying for with the stipulation that they would have to move districts... then they just so happened to have a lucky break. Good for them.

Which meant that they only really needed to buy a desk, a dresser, and a bed.

So they went to Ikea! A boring place where no shenanigans ever happen!

… well, no shenanigans ever happen if you’re not a pair of vigilantes that bounce bad ideas off of each other like they were playing a particularly intense game of Don’t Let The Balloon Touch The Ground and the entire world would blow up if they dared to lose.

Speaking of things that touch the ground, the resident dumbasses should probably have kept their feet firmly planted on it.

Marinette squinted down the escalator. “Oh, they’re definitely going to kick us out.”

“Definitely,” he agreed.

“Maybe arrested.”

“Maybe that, too,” he said brightly, checking the pot over his head to make sure it wouldn’t come off.

“... the PR team is going to hate us,” she warned him.

“Absolutely.” He could feel the gaze on the back of his head, telling him that the employees had noticed them and, quite likely, knew what they were planning. “Ready?”

A grin spread across her face. “Of course.”

He smirked. “Good, because they’re coming.”

She glanced back at the employees making their way over to interfere.

“Threetwoonego!”

He pushed off with his foot, relishing in her indignant yelp, and grinned widely as he started the very bumpy ride that was snowboarding down an escalator. He’d thought he’d be more or less okay because he had been a skateboarder but it turns out that boarding down moving stairs is very different from boarding down flat planes. He let loose a string of curses as he struggled to hold the plank of wood to his feet and not die a very painful, very stupid death.

Marinette came whizzing past him, eyes wide and the tray she’d been using as a board somehow missing.

She met his eyes briefly and flashed a grin.

And then they crashed.

It was about as painful as one would expect. Tim was glad that he’d thought to give himself a pot-helmet-thing because it had cracked down the middle and he didn’t even want to think about what would have happened if he hadn’t done that.

And he was the lucky one. He got out with a few bruises and a better appreciation for his own life. Marinette was nursing an arm that looked like it was trying to imitate the escalator they had just slid down, lips pressed together tightly as tears threatened to escape.

He carefully crawled over to check for any other injuries that might have been less noticeable.

She grinned up at him, either because he was currently checking to see if her teeth were all in place or to be smug. What she could currently be smug about, though, he had no clue…

“You’re so stupid,” he told her, just in case she wasn’t already aware.

Her smug grin remained even after he had removed the finger from her mouth. “You’re just mad that I won.”

“... sorry?” He hadn’t even been thinking about their impromptu race, too concentrated on the whole ‘making sure they hadn’t just died’ thing, and it took a moment for his brain to catch up. Then he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, won a pretty new cast, maybe.”

She snickered. “You had to cheat and you still didn’t even win. How does it feel to suck?”

“Probably still better than it feels to have a broken arm.”

She sat up. “It’s fine, I’ll live.”

He snorted. “You bet you will. I’m going to bubble wrap the whole apartment.”

“You can’t babyproof the place! We don’t even have kids yet!”

Before he could question her use of the word ‘yet’, the employees managed to get their attention. They were trying to get down the currently very broken escalator and the one that was currently going the wrong way for them. Despite this, the two of them had only a minute max before they reached them.

Marinette and Tim locked eyes.

“Run?” She suggested.

He was already getting to his feet. He dropped a business card for the employees and turned to her.

He grabbed her good hand and they sprinted out of the store, smiles lighting up their faces and laughter spilling from their lips. The poor employees hadn’t stood a chance of catching the two vigilantes, even injured as they were. They knew the city like the back of their hands and were able to weave in and out of side streets and alleyways without much thought.

Once they were sure that no one was following them -- leaving a store unattended in Gotham was a terrible idea and Tim had left a card for them to call -- she tugged him to hide between two buildings.

They squeezed into the tiny space and leaned into each other for support while they struggled to catch their breath. Her good hand came up to grip his shirt. He rested his forehead against the wall above her.

She lifted her gaze to his and he wished she hadn’t because he’d already been out of breath enough before she’d done that but now here was staring into her blue eyes, the corners crinkled in a way that had become so familiar to him over the past few months, and god… all he could think about was all the stories that described how time stopped when you fell in love… and how those stories couldn’t be more wrong. He would have hated for that to happen because if time stopped then he would have to see that perfect smile of hers in anything but real time and he doubted that it would have looked nearly as beautiful without the way her shoulders shook with barely restrained laughter or the slight fluttering of her lashes or the steady pinkening of her cheeks.

She finally gave a little puff of laughter. “What?”

He blinked once, trying to bring himself back to what was going on. “Oh, I was just thinking…”

“Oh? Don’t strain yourself.”

He smiled. “I was just going to say something nice but instead I’ll insult you on your stealth. You’d be a terrible criminal, laughing during your getaway.”

She rolled her eyes. “You laughed, too.”

“Yeah, but when I did it it was super cool and professional.”

“Ah, I see. How could I not have noticed it before?”

He snickered. “Well, if today has proved anything, it’s that you are not, in fact, the world’s greatest detective.”

She grinned. “You were the one that put the pot on my head originally.”

“You came up with the idea to go down the escalators like that.”

“You agreed.”

“You -- I -- shut up,” he complained, sending her a glare.

She smiled at him until he pretty much had no choice but to smile back, letting his head fall the last few inches to press his forehead against hers.

Her hand gripped his shirt a little tighter.

He moved his hands from the wall to her waist.

They stood there, letting time pass them by, searching each other's eyes for some sort of answer to the question neither of them could bring themselves to ask aloud. He bit his lip, trying to swallow down his anxiety.

Her eyes flicked to his lips, her own parted as if to say something, before she seemed to think better of it.

She closed the gap. His heart skipped a beat at the feather-soft feeling of her lips against his and he let his eyes flutter shut. She teased his lip out from between his teeth with her own.

And then she pulled back just slightly.

He opened his eyes just enough to see her shy smile and the blush lighting up her face.

“You… you really have to stop doing that. They’ll get chapped --.”

He pressed forward again, capturing her lips in a kiss that was far more desperate than the last. She gasped quietly and he took the chance to slip his tongue into her mouth. The hand fisted in his shirt slid up to wrap around the back of his neck, dragging him even closer. He pressed her back against the wall, a hand trailing up to tangle itself in her hair, trying to reach more --.

She brought her bad arm up to cradle his face and then yelped in pain.

He jumped back. Right. Broken arm. Looks like a staircase. Not good.

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Uh… let’s get you treated.”

~

Marinette ended up with a pink cast and an order to stay home for at least a week.

She pouted, resting her head back against the couch as she watched him shuffle around in search of his second shoe (it was tucked behind her back, but he didn’t need to know that). “I’m not a child, you guys can’t just ground me,” she complained for what felt like the millionth time.

Tim rolled his eyes. “We all have to do it when we break bones unless it’s an all hands on deck situation. Been like that since even before I was Robin.”

“But B goes out with broken bones all the time!”

“That’s different.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“It is. If there is a situation where B can be a hypocrite he will do it”

Marinette scoffed. “And you’re allowed out because…?”

He started counting off on his fingers. “None of my bones are broken, my job requires me to leave, I don’t get in trouble 9/10 times I leave the house… should I go on?”

“Last one is a lie,” she mumbled.

“No, I only get in trouble, like, 8/10 times I leave.”

It was hard to maintain her glare. She settled for sticking her tongue out at him like the mature adult she was. He returned it, despite the fact that he was also an adult according to the law.

He grinned and came to sit next to her on the couch. She shifted around until she was leaning against him instead of the couch, legs tangling with his.

He didn’t say anything about the blatant attempt at trapping him there with her. Instead, he leaned closer to her face and said: “Speaking of leaving, do you happen to know where my other shoe is?”

She raised her eyebrows. “Why do I get the feeling that you already know where it is?”

He snickered. “I know you, Bean. So, can I have it back?”

“Hm… I don’t know…” she said, twirling his tie around her hand.

He let her pull him down for a kiss. She giggled against his lips as his hands ghosted over her in search of the missing shoe. She kept her good hand at his collar as a kind of silent promise that she wouldn’t -- couldn’t -- move the shoe, even throwing her bad arm around his neck just in case.

He pulled away a few moments later, squinting at her suspiciously. “I’m beginning to suspect I’ve been tricked.”

Her eyes widened in mock innocence. “Me? Trick you? I could never.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, where is it?”

She glanced at the time and smirked. “I guess you’ve earned it…” She pulled her foot out from between the couch cushions to show him the shoe she had hastily slipped on when he’d gotten close.

He scoffed lightly and slipped it off. “Y’know, if I had literally one of the most common fetishes in the world that wouldn’t have worked.”

“But you don’t, so it did,” she chirped with a cheeky grin.

“Guess that’s true…” He pecked her lips one last time before pulling his shoe on and she grinned as she watched him head to the door.

Only to stop a little short because of a knock.

He raised his eyebrows and glanced back. “Are one of my siblings coming over?”

She pressed her lips together thinly to keep herself from laughing. “It’s not any of their normal times. I just figured that, if I had to be home alone all day and couldn’t really do any work because my stupid cast, I should at least keep busy while you were gone.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. He stepped forward and opened the door to reveal a delivery guy with three giant boxes. The furniture they had ordered from Ikea had arrived.

He signed for them and then turned to glare at her. “You planned all this so I couldn’t go.”

“I mean… you could always leave me here to do them myself.” She batted her eyelashes at him innocently. “Of course, my broken arm will make it a little difficult but I’m sure I’ll manage.”

She had been stared down by Batman in full kevlar, she could handle the glare Tim gave her in his slightly messy work suit.

Then, he sighed. “Do you have a backup plan?”

“Obviously. Don’t think you’ll like that one as much.”

He scowled. “You’re really this determined to not be home alone?”

“Oh, no, this is about getting B to allow me out. Trapping you and your siblings here is just a means to that end.”

“You’re going to be trapping my siblings here, too?”

She grinned. “Yep. They show up all the time, might as well use that.”

His shoulders slumped a little.

She giggled. “If I have to stay inside all the time then so do you guys. It’s the rules.”

And, so, she reached for him until he pressed a short kiss to her lips.

Then, they got to work. Or, rather, he did. She had been relegated to just sitting nearby and helping him figure out how to build it.

She took a few pictures for their public accounts as necessary: a picture of him with three screws poking out of his mouth while he tried to figure out the weird L-shaped tool he’d been given, a picture of the two of them staring at the instruction sheet with confused frowns on their faces (taken by Tikki), Vanelope enjoying the boxes the stuff had come in, what was definitely not a thirst pic of Tim, and then the finished furniture in the apartment.

It was there, right before she was about to post it, that she realized that she hadn’t actually publicly followed any of the Waynes. She squinted at her bio, which proclaimed that she would only follow people she genuinely liked, and then at the ten people she had followed. The internet would notice if she suddenly followed eight more people.

“Darling?”

He peeked an eye open from where he was relaxing on the couch and then raised an arm for her. She took his hand and smiled a little when he pulled her into his lap so he could hug her like a pillow.

Then she pulled a more serious look to her face. “Do you want to go public or not?”

He buried his face in her neck. “Sure.”

“... not even gonna think about it?”

He shrugged. “They’re going to suspect it no matter what. Especially since we were goofing around in an Ikea of all places and you’re uploading pictures of me helping you with furniture.”

She nodded slightly. “I know, but I don’t have to upload them.”

There was a long silence as they considered their options.

Eventually he just sighed and tightened his grip on her. “I’ll go with anything you want to do, Bean.”

She relaxed slowly and, hesitantly, she sent him the photos. “Here, you can upload them, too. Might as well make it public on both of our accounts.”

He picked his head up slightly to check out the pictures. She felt his lips curl into a smile against her shoulder at the picture of Vanelope. “This one is nice.”

She snickered. “All cats are cute, obviously it would make a nice picture.”

He hummed his agreement. “No offense to you, you’re cute and all, but the cat definitely wins the cutest here.”

“I’m not offended at all. We could never beat that.”

Then, she got an idea.

“Except… maybe… want a picture of us kissing for the reveal?”

“I’ll take any excuse,” he said with a wink.

She rolled her eyes even as she felt her face warm. “You don’t need an excuse to kiss me, dumbass.”

Now it was his turn to blush. Yay, revenge.

… also, it would be cute for the picture if they were both a little red for it.

She twisted in his lap to press a kiss to his lips. His hands came up to cradle her face. She threw her bad arm around his neck, fingers threaded in his hair.

Her camera clicked. They ignored it.

[dessarious]

Guilt and Consequences Pt8

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Lila had no idea how long she sat there, trying to remember anything about her father, or supposed sister, but she came up completely blank. Considering how young she had to have been in that dream it made sense, but it was still frustrating. Her mother never mentioned her father, let alone any other family. Lila remembered asking once, after she’d been put in a school for the first time because the other kids asked her about it. She’d lied to them of course, but it had made her curious. That question had gotten her grounded for a month so she never brought up the subject again.

Maybe that was why her mother disliked her. If she’d been the cause of her father’s death it would make sense. Well, assuming her mother actually loved the man. Given that there was nothing in her life to indicate he even existed except Lila herself she highly doubted it. None of this made sense. And that was before she added in the possible sister that most likely wasn’t her mother’s daughter. If her dream was at all accurate, she looked nothing like them and spoke with an American accent. So a half sister most likely. The next question was obviously what had happened to her? Lila felt fairly confident that they’d both made it out of that building, even if she didn’t know why, so the most likely scenario is that she went to live with her mother or other family. It was probably for the best. Given the way the woman treated her, Lila didn’t even want to think about how she’d be with someone else’s kid she got stuck with.

“Are you alright?” Lila started and looked up to find Ladybug’s concerned look. When had she gotten back? When did it get dark for that matter? She stood up before answering.

“Fine.” That actually wasn’t a lie. She was always fine.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lila just shook her head. She preferred to work things out on her own for one. Even if she didn’t she wouldn’t make someone whose life she’d made more difficult listen to her issues. Ladybug sighed. “Thanks for the tip on Alya’s powers. Granted, once I told Chat the fight took five times as long because I had to keep him from purposely getting hit, but that was my error in judgement.” Lila looked over to see a grimace on the hero’s face and frowned at her.

“Why in the world would he try to get hit?” That was possibly the stupidest thing she’d heard of. Ladybug just shrugged.

“To find out my identity. He figured he could get hit and have someone ask him. Again, it’s my fault for not realizing he’d try that. He’s always been extremely unhappy that we have to keep our identities secret from each other. I think he’s just lonely to be honest.” She looked so tired and Lila felt her temper spike the way it did when she found out what the class had done to Marinette. Why did everyone seem to think this type of thing was normal or okay?

“I don’t care if he’s completely isolated from the world, there’s no reason he should be putting you and all of Paris, or worse, at risk just because he wants to infringe on your boundaries. You shouldn’t have to put up with that period, especially when it makes your job harder.” The girl just blinked at her in confusion and Lila had to wonder what the hell was going on in this city. No, she didn’t have the greatest home life or example but she read a lot. She’d been through enough psychological books and journals to know that none of this was right. Why didn’t anyone seem to see that?

“I should probably get you home.” Ladybug wouldn’t even look her in the eye. Great, she’d screwed up, again. She wanted to apologize but she didn’t know where to even start. With her track record it probably wouldn’t come off as sincere anyway.

“If you just want to get me down to the street I can walk. There’s no reason for you to waste your time on it.” She winced when she realized how harsh that sounded. She really was terrible at social interactions.

“Making sure you get home safe isn’t a waste of time, especially after dark. Your mom’s probably worried.” Lila couldn’t help the derisive snort that left her. Even if she was in the city it was doubtful she’d care unless Lila’s absence became a problem for her. “I’m sure your mother cares about you.”

“I’m sure my mother regularly wishes I’d never been born.” It was moments like these that Lila wished her mouth would consult her brain before opening, but she was certain that wouldn’t ever happen. Ladybug was looking at her with a horrified expression. “Sorry, I’m just tired.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk?” Lila nodded. Talking didn’t do anything so there really was no point.

“I just want to sleep.” It wouldn’t be a good sleep, but it was better than nothing. Especially since she had to go back to school tomorrow. She didn’t even want to think about that trainwreck.

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

The next morning started off as badly as she expected it to. Over half the class cornered her in the courtyard demanding to know why she was pretending she’d been lying. By the time they’d given up she’d was hoping for an aneurysm just to be able to stop listening to this nonsense. Then Adrien had shown up to lecture her about getting Alya Akumatized. She’d honestly never wanted to hit someone so much in her life, but she did manage to refrain. She couldn’t refrain from calling him a spineless coward, but that at least got him to walk off in a huff.

“Lila!” She started cursing internally until she realized that had been Marinette’s voice. When she looked over the girl was running towards her waving some papers with a huge grin on her face. That was… weird. As she got closer Marinette tripped on a crack in the pavement and Lila had to move to catch her.

“Are you trying to kill yourself? The idiot squad is going to think you were trying to fall on me on purpose, and I really don’t want to have to deal with one more problem today.” Marinette just gave her a sheepish look. She really had no clue how bad things were.

“I found the perfect school for you!” For some reason her brain refused to understand that sentence.

“I… you… what?” Marinette shoved the papers she was holding in Lila’s face, far to close for her to be able to read anything.

“Look! The classes are by skill level not age so you won’t be bored like you are here. They do small class sizes and even have options for individual study so you can basically make your own curriculum. They’ve got one of the top computer programs in the country and they have a photography club too. Isn’t it great?” Lila finally managed to get the paper out of Marinette’s hands so she could actually read it and realized it was a brochure for a private academy.

“Even if I wanted to, my mother wouldn’t pay to send me to a place like this. Half the reason she keeps sending me to school is to not have to pay for tutors. Besides I’m not going to go off and leave you alone in this asylum. Especially given that the staff are just as bad as the inmates for the most part.” Marinette just gave her a confused frown.

“They’ll calm down in a few days, you’ll see. The school has scholarships you can apply for and look.” She pointed to a section at the bottom of the brochure. “They even have on site housing so the next time your mom has to move for her job you could stay there so your studies don’t get interrupted again.” Lila would admit it was tempting. Truthfully, her mother might pay for it if it meant she didn’t have to see her at all. She scanned the paper and an idea formed.

“I’ll go if you go.” Marinette just blinked at her so she pointed out the possible educational tracks. “There’s an art and design program that would give you a much better education for the future you want than anything you’ll get here. You need to start thinking about your future as well.”

“But I can’t just leave all my friends.” Lila wanted to slam her head into a wall. It would probably hurt less. She’d have to talk to Marinette’s parents. They at least would think about their daughter’s wellbeing and have a much better chance of getting her to do what was best for her.

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[lifesabe-ch]

full scoop - jj m.

summary: after returning to the outer banks for spring break, you’re pleasantly surprised to see JJ again. Apparently, he missed you more than you thought

request: I love ur writing it’s so good :’) if ur taking requests, can u do #4 from the prompt list with jj 💕 “Are you flirting with me?” “You finally noticed?”

pairings: jj maybank x reader

warnings: spilled ice cream

a/n: reposting this bc it got no notes and I absolutely love this so ...tumblr do better

“Hey, sorry to bother you, but I was hoping you could tell me where the beach was?”

As you turned, you extended a hand towards the direction of the pier, “Yeah, it’s just down… JJ?!”

The boy in front of you grinned at your shocked expression, eagerly returning your quick hug. You hadn’t seen him since the summer the two of you had gone your separate ways.

After graduation, JJ had decided to take a gap year. Or a couple. He wasn’t sure. He had always assumed you would do the same, or at least stay local, but your plans had changed. You had applied for a school in the North East without his knowledge earlier in the year, assuming you wouldn’t even get in. But you did, and they offered you a scholarship. Even if you wanted to, your parents wouldn’t let you pass up the opportunity.

The day you had told him had been one of the worst for the both of you. It felt like when JJ had lost John B. to Sarah. Except, with that, he had gotten the chance to know Sarah. He wouldn’t be able to follow you to your school, nor would he get to meet all the people you met.

You had tried keeping in touch after you had left, but it hadn’t lasted for much longer than a few phone calls. You were busy with school, and JJ was busy with the other Pogues. You both knew during that last phone call that things wouldn’t be the same. The two of you felt like instantly, in that moment, you were shifted worlds apart.

It has been just over a year now, with you having just returned from college for spring break.

As the two of you pulled away, you tucked some hair behind your ear, subtly taking him in. He looked the same, but somehow different. Happier.

“Long time no see,” He teased. “How’s that fancy college treating you?”

You laughed as you responded, your words accompanied by a small shrug, “It’s nice. It’s big and I love it but…”

“It’s not the Outer Banks,” he finishes, gauging your expression.

“Exactly.”

The silence that followed was awkward. It wasn’t that the two of you weren’t brainstorming ways to continue your conversation, it was that you both couldn’t seem to decide on how to keep it going.

Clearing his throat lightly, he beat you to it.

“I was heading down to the beach… if, you know, you wanted to join me?”

You weren’t busy. That much was obvious. But you still took the time to think over his offer. You weren’t sure why you hesitated, but you did.

“Okay,” You nod, flashing him a tiny grin, “I’d like that.”

TIME slipped away from the two of you much too fast for your liking. You had spent the day trying to learn how to surf. It was a lot of falling off the board and getting made fun of by JJ, but you had fun. It felt easy between the two of you, the remaining awkwardness fading almost as soon as you had gotten into the water.

He’d even bought ice cream for you both.

You smile as you remembered the encounter from just hours earlier, and the way he had mentioned the hangout you two had first had in the same place.

You were both so awkward around each other. And by both, you meant you. JJ was his charming self.

“No, I swear, I was super nervous when I took you there!”

You shook your head at the boy in front of you, shoving a spoonful of your ice cream into your mouth, “Nu uh! I was nervous. I thought we were on a date the entire time and then you just mentioned that we would be really great friends at the end of it!”

He groaned at the memory, eliciting a laugh from you as you watched his cheeks tint red in embarrassment, “I can’t believe I said that. I had planned to kiss you but then I chicken out and—”

“And friend zoned me.”

“Yep,” He solemnly nodded, an apologetic look on his features, “I’m sorry.”

Waving him off, you shrugged, “JJ, don’t even worry about it, we were kids. It’s water under the bridge now. You were right, anyway.”

“Yeah,” he speaks, before pausing.

“Right about what, exactly?”

“Us being good friends,” You smile at him, gesturing with your hands as the two of you walk along the sand.

“I didn’t think we would at first, if I’m being honest. But we were. You were my best friend.”

“Were?” He nudged you, chuckling.

“Hey, you were the one who stopped calling me!”

“Only because you were always too busy with your new college friends.”

“Not true,” you reprimanded, clicking your tongue.

“I made new friends, but I always liked my old ones more.”

“How was that, anyway? Making friends and… stuff.”

Ignoring the weird infliction of voice when he said stuff, you just shrugged, “It was okay. My roommate was the one who introduced me to people, mostly.”

JJ nodded, smirking at you, “I bet you managed to land all of the boys up there. That’s why you never called, you didn’t have time with all of your new boyfriends.”

You laughed loudly, shoving his free arm with your own, “Don’t even. We both know that out of the two of us, you’re the one who pulls.”

You watched as he stumbled dramatically from your push, flashing you a smile that caused those all too familiar butterflies to flutter in your stomach.

“We both know there’s only one girl for me.”

Ignoring the way his stare burned into you, you glance down at the sand before looking back over at him. A smile instantly erupted on your features at your own idea, as you took off.

“Race ya!” Was all you could manage to call back, laughing as you heard JJ’s groans of protest as he hurried to catch up.

Naturally, you had won. You had made it to the small tree further down the beach seconds before JJ, jumping in excitement for your own victory.

“Hah! I won!”

As you hopped around, you topple over your ice cream, gasping loudly as it spills onto the sand. Just your luck that it would spill not as you were running, but rather right after you stopped.

Still trying to catch his breath, he laughs as he watches you kneel besides the mess, hurriedly scooping whatever you could back up with your spoon.

“Bet you don’t feel like a winner now.”

You frowned as you glanced over at him, still hunched over, clutching his own ice cream protectively.

“JJ… it’s ruined!”

“Just wipe the sand off.”

You stared at him in disbelief, scoffing lightly, “Right, maybe I should just wash it off in the ocean while I’m at it?”

“That’s honestly not a bad idea! It’d wash away the sand.”

He wasn’t joking. In fact, he was the most serious he had been the whole day.

“And the rest of the ice cream! It’s water. Salt water.”

JJ has to ponder your words. He was playing out different ice cream washing scenarios in his head, trying to figure out which would cause the least damage. He didn’t think you were right, but he pretended that you were, for your sake.

Sitting down besides you, he offers up his own, smiling, “Have mine, then.”

“That’s not fair to you.”

He shrugged, smiling sweetly at you, “It’s fine, Y/N. You want it more anyway.”

Taking the cup he was practically forcing into your hand, you pout, “I feel bad.”

“Don’t, it’s fine. And stop pouting, it’s cute but it won’t work.”

Blushing slightly, you roll your eyes, grabbing a spoonful and holding it out for him, “Whatever. But we’re sharing.”

Gladly taking what you were offering, JJ smirked as his lips wrapped around the spoon before pulling away, causing your blush to darken even more.

Dipping it back into the ice cream, you twirled it around before bringing it up to your mouth.

“This is kind of gross. We’re swapping spit right now.”

JJ laughs at your comment, leaning back against the tree bark as he watched you, “Too bad it’s like that. I could think of a better way.”

His response sent you into a stunned silence, your eyes staying focusing on the grains of sand in front of you. If you had to pick between counting out every grain of sand on this beach and feeling as awkward as you currently felt, you’d immediately start counting.

“I… are you flirting with me?”

“You finally noticed?”

You felt like your heart would simultaneously beat out of your chest and stop altogether. Had he really just said that?

“What?”

Moving forward to tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear, it was JJ’s turn to blush, “I’m always trying to flirt with you. You just never respond. I was starting to think you just really didn’t like me.”

“I… I thought you were joking! I didn’t think you could be serious, I’m not your type.”

He rolled his eyes in response, shaking his head, “You’re the only person who’s ever been my type.”

It was quiet for a moment between the two of you, gazes flickering from lips to eyes, back to lips. You both leaned in slowly, careful not to move too fast in fear of making the moment disappear.

When your lips finally touched, the kiss was soft. JJ’s hands found their way to your face, cupping your jaw as he held you close to him. Your hands stayed in your lap, desperately clinging to the small ice cream cup in your hands, your body leaning forward to keep the space between the two of you minimal.

You were the first to pull away, grinning widely at the boy sat across from you,

“That’s really cheesy.”

“You know what else is really cheesy? This dick!”

“JJ, I cannot stress this enough, I find you utterly repulsive.”

With a wide grin, he pulls you the rest of the way to him, resting his forehead against yours, “Fine, then I’m taking my ice cream back.”

Gasping, you pull yourself from him, holding the cup out of his grasp with a glare, “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.”

As you get up, he follows, chasing you around the sand as the two of you laugh. Eventually catching up to you, he wraps his arms around you from behind, lifting you off the ground and knocking the cup over in the process.

“JJ! The ice cream!”

“Next time I’ll buy you two,” was all he muttered, lips already finding their way to your cheek.

[grimoire2020aa]

Why your spells don’t work

You set your intention. You had all the correct correspondences. You even timed your spell with the appropriate moon phase. And yet -- no results. What gives?

Failed spells happen to the best of us, and for a variety of reasons. But a spell gone wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that magic isn’t real or that you’re bad at witchcraft. Magic is complicated, and there are a lot of reasons it might not behave the way you want it to. Here are some of the most common causes of ineffective spells:

1. Lack of real-world follow through

Magic is meant to be used as a tool to supplement your mundane efforts -- not as a substitute for them. How can you expect your job hunting spell to bring in results if you aren’t applying for jobs?

Magic does not exist in a vacuum, and it can’t make something out of nothing. If a spell doesn’t bring you the desired result, make sure that your non-magical actions are aligned with what you are trying to manifest.

2. What you’re trying to manifest isn’t a realistic possibility

Wait, what? Isn’t magic supposed to be, well... magic? Shouldn’t you be able to ask for whatever you want and get it? Yes and no.

Magic is simply a way of directing energy. Magic can’t defy the natural laws of the universe. It can’t make something happen unless it was already a potential possibility.

If your intention is unrealistic for where you are right now, try splitting it up into a multi-step process. No spell is going to make you a billionaire overnight, but magic could help you get hired at a better paying job... and then get promoted... and then get offered a profitable side gig... etc. Starting small and working your way up is always going to produce stronger results, because you laid the foundation first.

3. Your intention was either too vague or too specific

Whether you use written petitions or spoken incantations, clearly stating your intention is an important part (maybe THE most important part) of any spell or ritual. A good intention is specific enough to get you the results you want, but open enough to let those results manifest naturally.

Let’s say you do a money spell, and your intention for the spell is simply, “I have more money.” If you find a penny on the ground the next day and pick it up, technically that is more money than you had before. A better alternative would be to use an intention like, “I have enough money to buy ___,” or “I have enough money for everything I need and want.”

Using an intention that is too specific creates the opposite problem. Let’s say you want to manifest a scholarship to a specific school. You do a candle spell with the intention, “I have been chosen for the John Smith Scholarship at Jane Doe University.” But maybe the John Smith scholarship had already been awarded by the time you did your spell. Maybe there’s another scholarship at the same school that would be a better fit for you, or maybe you’re eligible for a grant that would make tuition more affordable. A better intention for your spell would be “I have enough financial aid to easily and affordably attend Jane Doe University.”

Magic always follows the path of least resistance, so you want to make sure that your intention is specific enough to give your magic a clear direction, but open enough to allow it some flexibility.

4. Lack of focus/concentration

We all know the struggle. You’ve been planning this ritual forever, and it’s finally the full moon, but you’ve got a really full schedule today. If you hurry, you can probably squeeze it into the thirty minute window between school and work, right?

If you say a few quick words and burn some incense before you head out the door in the morning, that totally counts as a spell, right?

Not so much. Rushed, lazy, and/or half-assed spells rarely, if ever, work. Spells revolve around the raising and direction of energy, and that requires two things: a clear intention (see above) and intense focus on that intention. If you don’t have the time/energy/mental capacity to focus, it’s best to take a break, have a self care day, and come back to your spell some other time.

5. You’re subconsciously blocking your own results OR you did a spell for someone else who isn’t open to it

I decided to lump these two together, because they’re different variations of the same issue.

Whenever you are doing magic on yourself, it’s important that your mindset is aligned with your intentions. You can do love spells all day long, but if deep down you don’t believe that you’re worthy of love, that belief is going to block your spells from working. This is why mindfulness, psychology, and self care are all such important parts of a successful witchcraft practice. It’s also why I recommend doing the mental work before you sit down to ritual.

If you did a spell on yourself, or are trying to manifest something for yourself, and it just isn’t working, I highly recommend setting some time aside for journaling and meditation and asking yourself 1.) if this is really what you want, and 2.) if you truly believe that you can have it.

The whole mindset thing gets even more tricky when you’re doing magic on behalf of another person, because their energy is also at work in the situation and could be at odds with yours. For example, if you do a spell to help a friend land a job, but that friend believes that they’re totally underqualified and could never get it, they probably won’t get the job even if you did everything “right” in your spell.

This should go without saying, but it is extremely unethical to use magic to mess around in someone else’s head. Even if you think you know what’s best for them, they need to be open to it. If someone is blocking the spells you do on their behalf, all you can do is try to be supportive and find other ways to help them out.

Other (Rare) Reasons for Failed Spells

If a spell goes wrong, it will almost always be for one of the above reasons. But maybe you did everything “right” -- you did the mental work first, had a strong, realistic intention, put lots of focus into your spell, and followed through in real life -- and you still aren’t seeing results. There are a couple of other things that could be blocking your spells, but they’re very uncommon so I’m not going to talk about them in as much detail. These may be things you want to look into if you really, genuinely can’t think of any other cause.

It’s possible that another witch has done magic that cancels out or blocks yours. This is not common, and it does NOT mean that someone has cursed you. It could be as simple as two witches unknowingly casting spells with opposite intentions, which end up cancelling each other out. (For example, maybe two different people both cast a spell to get the same job. Obviously, they can’t both get that job.) This is why it’s never a bad idea to incorporate a protective element into your spells to block outside interference.

There is a very, very remote possibility that someone has placed a curse on you specifically to block your magic. However -- and I cannot stress this enough -- this is VERY uncommon. If you were cursed you would know it, or at least know that something was very wrong in your life. If you feel like you have been cursed or hexed, I recommend looking into uncrossing spells, which are specifically designed to undo negative magic.

It’s also possible that a higher power is intervening. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a deity, although it certainly could be. Most witches believe in some form of fate or destiny, and it’s possible that your spell didn’t work because what you asked for is not in alignment with your destiny. In these situations, really the only thing you can do is surrender to the bigger picture.

[thatoneloser-kid]

Can I please request Ellie surprising Aster by showing up at Aster’s first big art showing for Art school please?

She and Aster hadn't talked much at all over the past two years. There was the odd message over the holidays, birthdays, but other than that there wasn't much. 

Aster never came home after her first summer, word quickly spread that she was dating a girl at college, and as much as that hurt, Ellie was proud of her, happy for her, even. 

She and Paul still talked every day, which is why it wasn't odd for him to call her at ten pm on a Wednesday. 

"Hey," Ellie murmured, her eyes not leaving her paper. 

"Hey," Paul greeted. "Okay, so I know I'm not good at romance or nothing like that, but I have an idea."

That got Ellie's full attention. "What?" 

"Aster has an art show in a small church thing for a project." Paul said. "You should go."

"Paul, I have papers to finish."

"I know you've finished them, and proof read them a million and two times." Paul shot back, and Ellie couldn't really argue, he knew her too well. "She is in Michigan, it isn't far, the train is a little under a day. Ten hours or something."

"I don't know, Paul." She said thoughtfully. 

"Bold, remember?" Ellie could hear the huge smile in his voice. "Come on, El. You've told me about soulmates and stuff, and the greeks, maybe Aster is your greek… or whatever."

"That's-" Ellie smoothed her fingers over her forehead, deciding against correcting him. "Close enough, well done, Paul."

"Thank you," Paul said. "So? Will you go?"

"I don't know," Ellie sighed. "What if she doesn't want to see me, Paul?" 

"You won't know for sure unless you go." Paul urged. "Come, El. Take the jump."

"Plunge," Ellie corrected absentmindedly. "Fine, okay. When is it?" 

"Yes," Paul cheered, Ellie knew he fist pumped, too. "I already emailed you the ticket, don't worry, it was free."

"Free?"

"Mm, I think they needed numbers or something, but you can buy paintings. It said on the Facebook page that the money goes to the art department at the school or whatever."

Paul sent her comforting and hype messages throughout the day she was traveling, which was surprisingly helpful, especially when she looked at herself in the mirror of the seedy motel she was staying in, dressed in a pair of black slacks and a black jacket to match, a simple white shirt underneath. 

"Is it too much?" 

"No, you look so good!" Paul assured. "Besides, I read that lesbians love girls that wear suits and stuff."

"You don't even know if she's gay or not."

"She's a little gay," Paul said, just before the phone tumbled from his hands and into the food he was making. Her curses as he scrambled to get it, and Ellie could hear his mother scold him for it. "Sorry mom." he called as he reappeared, that big smile still in place. "You look good, El. College has been good to you, you've gotten more attractive."

They had gotten over the awkwardness of Paul claiming he loved her. Turns out, he did, but not in the way he thought, having misinterpreted best friend love with romantic love. 

"Thanks, dude."

"Sure," He smiled. "Go sweep her off her feet, Princess Charming."

Ellie scoffed. "I'm not charming."

"Aster is certainly charmed by you." he disagreed, but before she could question him his mother was telling him to get a move on. "Gotta go, El. Let me know how it goes!" 

--

She had been there for half an hour and still hadn't seen Aster. 

It was busy, so she wasn't really surprised, she just spent the night strolling around the church, looking at the paintings, stopping at one of the larger paintings. 

She recognised it immediately, a painting of the graffiti she and Aster had made back home.

It was a little more abstract than the actual thing (Ellie would know, she had taken a picture of it when it was finished, it may or may not be her laptop background), and had the silhouette of two people standing in front of it. 

Ellie loved it more like this. 

"What do you think?" A voice asked somewhere to her left. 

"It's… amazing. They all are." Ellie said, her eyes not leaving the painting. 

"It's my favourite." they said, and Ellie turned to look at them, blinking in surprise when her eyes landed on Aster, who was wearing that stupidly charming half smile. "Brings back happy memories." 

"Uh, yeah." Ellie murmured, cursing herself because she practiced this, what she would say when they met again. 

"What're you doing here, Ellie?" Aster asked, no sense of malice in her voice, just curiosity. 

"I, uh- Your art show, I wanted to- Paul called and told me about it, said it would be romantic if I came, or whatever." Ellie could feel herself starting to blush, especially when Aster's smile grew mischievous. 

"Romantic, huh?" she took a few, slow steps toward Ellie, until she was stood directly in front of her, fingering the lapels of her jacket. "You look good, Ellie."

"So do you," And she did, dressed in a pretty green dress, her hair shorter than Ellie remembered. 

"Thank you," Aster smiled, dropping her hands but not moving out of Ellie's space. "How have you been, Ellie?" 

"Good, I have finished all of my school work, I think I'm ready for exams. I can't wait to get home for the summer." Ellie answered. "You?" 

"Really good, getting out of that town, I feeling I- I just -" 

"Like you can breathe." Ellie whispered, and Aster gave her that soft smile she had given her that day in the bathroom. 

"Yeah," Aster breathed. "Exactly."

They stared at each other, Aster with a soft smile and Ellie probably looking like a dumbstruck loser. 

"Aster," a hand clapped onto the girl's shoulder, and Ellie quickly looked away, taking a step back as she pushed her glasses up her nose. "Someone wants to speak to you before buying a painting."

"Of course, professor." Aster nodded, "I will be right there."

He nodded, eyeing Ellie briefly before leaving. 

"Hey," Aster reached out to take a hold of her hand, giving it a squeeze. "Will you stay? It is almost over."

"Of course."

Aster beamed at her, and Ellie swooned. "Great, have fun."

Aster disappeared, and Ellie quickly pulled out her phone to call Paul. 

"Hey, have you seen her yet?" 

"Dude, I was a mess." Ellie sighed. 

"You at your messiest is still so much better than me at my best, and she went on two days with me. You'll be fine." Paul assured. 

That was oddly comforting, in a way only Paul could be. 

Ellie strolled around the room until it started to empty, then Aster found her again.

"These are the keys to my car, you can go wait inside while I clean up." Aster offered her keys. 

"I can help," Ellie offered. 

"Oh, you don't have to."

"I don't mind," 

Aster looked somewhat surprised, but nodded. "Okay, all of the paintings sold, so the people here will take care of that, but we need to put away the tables and stuff."

Ellie nodded, and followed Aster's lead, slipping off her jacket and setting it over a railing, rolling up her sleeves messily before helping up stuff away. 

It was fine, until Ellie realised that Aster kept staring at her, or glancing over at her, and she felt herself getting a little flustered. 

It was a little over half an hour before they clambered into Aster's old car. "That was amazing. Your paintings were amazing."

"Thank you," Aster looked down at her hands for a few seconds, before looking at her. "So you want to get coffee?" 

"It's nine pm."

"Decaf," Aster offered. "I know a cute little place, it's open late 'cause it serves alcohol."

Ellie nodded. "Okay," 

Aster smiled. "Okay."

The cafe was small, but cosy, with sofas as well as tables, and a fireplace crackling in the corner. It was empty, it was nine pm on a Monday after all, so she and Aster settled on the safe sofa beside the fire. 

"So, tell me everything." Aster probed, turning to face Ellie, tucking her leg under herself, which caused her knee to press into Ellie's thigh. 

Ellie told her about college, about the small group of friends she had made, about Paul and his actually very promising future with is dumb good concoctions. 

Ellie relaxed into it, and come mid night they were laughing and giggling with ease, like it was how they had always been. 

Aster dropped Ellie off at the motel after they were kicked out of the cafe as it was closing. 

They sat in silence for a short while before Aster spoke up. "When do you head back?" 

"I'm getting the six am train tomorrow."

Aster looked disappointed, chewing the inside of her cheek as she nodded. "Can I take you to the station?" 

"You don't have to," 

"I want to." Aster promised. "Pick you up at five."

Ellie nodded, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Five."

"Goodnight, Ellie Chu."

"Night, Aster Flores."

Ellie clambered out of the car, only getting a few steps away before Aster was calling after her. "Ellie?" 

"Mm?" Ellie turned to her, and Aster grinned cheekily at her.

"Did you find something to believe in?" 

Ellie nodded, somewhat thoughtfully. "Yeah. Myself."

That seemed to be better than Aster had hoped for, if that beaming smile was anything to go by. "You're amazing, Ellie."

Ellie didn't know what to say to that, nodding once awkwardly before waving and disappearing inside. 

Ellie didn't sleep much that night, too restless, her mind running wild with the events of the day.

Aster was outside bang on five, giving Ellie the one over as she smiled. 

"What?" Ellie asked, pulling the sleeves of her hoodie down over her hands self-consciously. 

"You look cute." Aster shrugged simply before driving off. "I think I'm going to come home this summer. Dad asked me to, I don't know if he wants to try and fix things."

"That’s good, right?”

“I’m hoping so, but we will just have to wait and see.” Aster shrugged. “I’m excited to be back, it has been so long.”

“Everything is the exact same.” Ellie said. “I’m trying to convince Paul to go for a scholarship in culinary school, but he said he couldn’t leave his family like that.”

“He’s too loyal, that guy.” Aster shook her head.

“I have applied for a whole bunch of scholarships for him for the new school year, and I’m going to talk to his family when I get home, to see if they could convince him to go.” Ellie said. “He is wasted in that town.”

“He dropped off a little cooler to my place the first summer I came home, ding dong ditched.” Aster laughed fondly. “Left a note apologising about everything that happened. It was his famous sausage tacos, they are really good.”

“I know, right?” Ellie said, fiddling with the sleeves of her hoodie as they pulled up outside the station. “You know we never wanted to hurt you, right?”

Aster shut off the car, chewing the inside of her cheek as she nodded slowly.

“I know you probably don’t want to hear it, but I didn’t get the chance to explain myself.”

Aster glanced at the clock on her dash. “You have twenty minutes before you should go inside.”

Ellie nodded, taking that as a go ahead to continue.

“It was only supposed to be one letter, Paul asked me to help because he was convinced he loved you, and you should have heard the first letter, Aster, it was awful, he talked about his dead grandma.” Ellie laughed, and Aster grinned softly. “The real reason I did it was because I’m stubborn and he challenged me, but I didn’t have a clue about love either.”

“So, you plagiarised Wim Wenders?” Aster arched an eyebrow at her.

“Exactly,” Ellie laughed. “But then you wrote back, and now you were challenging me, so I said to myself it would just be one more. It was just so easy to talk to you, I felt like we just clicked, even thought you thought I was Paul, I still felt special, somehow? I had your attention, you wanted to speak to me, and that made me feel so incredibly special, and it was hard to stop. I enjoyed just sitting in my booth, texting back and forth about really personal shit or what our favourite hand soaps were, it didn’t matter. I just enjoyed getting to know you. But i’m sorry that I did it how it did, and that I lied to you.”

“You know, I probably would have been just as happy had those letters been signed off by you.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. Maybe now, but back then, you weren’t ready back then.”

“Maybe not. But now? I wouldn’t want to get a letter signed from anyone else.” Aster gave a little smile. “And the kiss?”

Ellie flushed. “I just- I couldn’t leave without kissing you.”

“Not our kiss,” Aster smiled, her Ellie felt like her face was on fire “Between you and Paul.”

“Oh,” Ellie nodded. “That was Paul thinking he loved me. And he did, just not the way he thought, we are best friends. But that was nothing, we were never, like, making fun of you or anything. Honestly, we were both just enamoured by you.”

Aster nodded. “You know, back then I convinced myself that I was so mad because I was so jealous of you.” She laughed softly. “I know now that’s not true, I was jealous of Paul.”

It took Ellie a stupid amount of time to realise what that meant, and when her head snapped to Aster, she was staring at her with a mischievous smirk.

“That I’m sure of now.”

“Yeah?” Ellie breathed.

“Yeah,” Aster’s smile softened. “But we still have two years of college left, we shouldn’t start anything when it is going to be long distance from the start.”

“That’s the only reason you wouldn’t want to start anything?” Ellie asked, peering up at Aster through her eyelashes as she pulled on her sleeve.

“Yeah,” Aster hummed, covering Ellie’s fidgeting hands. “If we were closer I would take you out tonight.”

“But we can’t?’

“No, not long distance, Ellie.” Aster said, and Ellie understood, agreed, even, but that didn’t make it suck any less. “Hey,” Aster whispered, bringing Ellie's eyes back to her. "What's a couple more years, right?" 

"Right," Ellie smiled. "I should go, you know it can take a while to get through the turnstiles."

"Of course." Aster agreed, leaning across the centre console to press a kiss to Ellie's cheek. "Text me when you get home?" 

"Sure," Ellie grabbed her hand and clambered out, trying and failing to hide how flustered she was. 

"Ellie?" Aster called, peering at her through the passenger side window. "Thank you, for coming. It was really good to see you."

"It was amazing." Ellie said. "Drive safe, Aster."

"Bye, Heathen."

Ellie found herself smiling at the nickname, giving a little wave as she headed inside. 

Paul called her just as she got on the train. "So? How was it?" he asked, and Ellie could tell his mouth was full of food. 

"It was really good, actually. She left me explain, and we hung out for a bit last night."

"Dope. So, are you guys, like, dating now?" 

"No, a couple more years."

Paul groaned loudly. "You guys are so weird."

[dascarecrow]

Beware Your Heart’s Desire

Alright I’m planning a Miraculous Ladybug story. This one is going to be inspired by a story called “One Step Backwards and Three Forwards”. That story is a “Hawkmoth Wins” one but with a twist. Lila is able to convince Alya and Nino to turn against Ladybug and help Hawkmoth get hers and Chat Noir’s Miraculous, getting them to believe that giving the villain what he wants is the best way to stop his reign of terror. Hawkmoth makes his wish and allows his conspirators to make ones of their own. Now the twist comes in the form of Tikki and Plagg deciding to tamper with the outcome of the wishes so that Hawkmoth, Lila and the traitors wind up miserable and suffering. The story focuses on the world after the wishes have been made and the gradual downfall of the villains. 

Now this story intrigues me for it’s unique take on the “Be careful what you wish for” trope, namely applying it to the villains in such a way that they deeply regret the wish even though it technically gave them what they wanted. I would like to put own spin the idea. The story will be called Beware Your Heart’s Desire. 

Here are the major tenets of the story- 

- Still running with the idea of Lila as a corrupter but I’m expanding past just Alya and Nino. Gonna bring in the rest of the class but not everyone is going to go villain. I would say even split but we’ll see what happens. Rose and Juleka are definitely not joining Hawkmoth though. 

-Takes place after Ladybug but before the season 3 finale. Works better for what I want to do with Chloe.  

-The setup is the culmination of Hawkmoth’s plan. Realizing Ladybug’s bringing in other heroes he sets it up so Sentimonsters are attacking and bringing in Volpina to discover who the other heroes are, because her illusion powers will hide her. (And if you’re wondering why not just have her follow Ladybug to the Miraculous directly this is a version of Hawkmoth more focused on the wish then on the supervillain want for power. He doesn’t need the other Miraculous he needs the Ladybug and Black Cat ones.) Once he has the heroes identities he reaches out to them and explains he merely wants to save someone dear to him. Lila explains she’s working with Hawkmoth because she was moved by his story, obviously lying through her teeth. The other heroes agree because it’s a way to stop Hawkmoth and because of Lila’s corrupting presence. 

-During an akuma battle Ladybug winds up led into a trap that leads to her winding up in an exploding building that she can’t escape because of interference from the other heroes. She winds up stuck under the rubble which lets Hawkmoth get her earrings with no problem. Relatively same deal with Chat Noir who loses his ring. 

-Writing Hawkmoth as a bit more in the well intentioned category rather than a maniacal supervillain. He has some standards, such as pulling Ladybug out of the rubble before he takes her earrings, and doesn’t have any real enmity with the heroes but also won’t back down from what he wishes for. He’s completely honest about stopping his villainy once he gets his wish. Remember that. 

-Hawkmoth gets his wish and let’s his accomplices get their own wishes as well. Gonna have to think on who gets what. Did give some thought to Lila’s wishes. Pretty standard stuff like fame but she also makes two very specific ones. “I want Marinette to suffer” and more importantly “I wish for you to be unable to undo the wishes we’ve made”. She thinks she’s being clever, Plagg knows she’s shooting herself in the foot but he hates her so who cares. 

-Once the wishes have been made is where things get interesting. Marinette and Adrien don’t know that it happened but they also can’t find Tikki and Plagg or their Miraculous. Marinette finds the Miraculous Box has a note that says the kwamis are going to be unavailable for a while and to not worry about Hawkmoth. Nooroo and Dusuu are also with her now, which just raises more questions for her.  

-Gabriel gets Emilie back but she’s a very vocal critic of Hawkmoth. She believes that the Butterfly and Peafowl were stolen (something supported by the fact Gabriel did lose them but that gets covered later on) after she went comatose and Gabriel goes along with the story lest she discover his crimes. He can’t actually enjoy Emilie being back because he’s more worried about covering his tracks and not being given her scorn should she find out. I did that to highlight that while Gabriel may have had fundamentally well meaning intentions he’s ultimately a selfish man who doesn’t really care who gets hurt so long as he gets his way and feels he deserves to avoid consequences for his own actions. 

-At school one day Lila tries to get Marinette in trouble again but winds up causing a series of accidents that wind up hurting her. Broken arm, black eye and so on. She of course tries to blame everything on Marinette but a few witnesses nearby cast doubt on Lila’s story. The whole school winds up debating it because Lila’s “Lying Disease” is well known now. Principal Damocles chooses to expel Marinette despite the flimsy evidence because of the prospective scandal the school could have from a diplomat’s daughter being attacked. Bustier’s class are also torn, the betrayers thinking Marinette was responsible and the good ones refusing to believe it. Marinette is miserable of course but thinks pick up when her parents decide to enroll her at a very good and very exclusive creative arts school. She gets a scholarship to the school, thanks to her prior work that impressed Gabriel and Audrey as well her more notable clients like Jagged Stone recommending her. Marinette’s life is on the upswing now. 

-Various other accidents and backfires happen to the wishers and eventually they go to Tikki and Plagg to get answers. The duo reveal that any wish carries a price and normally the number of ones they had to grant and the toll of those wishes would have been rather steep but they got creative to fulfill them. Because the wishes were selfish in nature they have to cope with bad fortune from the results and not only that but they also took away the wishers ability to claim and use any Miraculous ever again. The kwamis can just make any Miraculous they grab immaterial so they can’t even physically touch them. This is extraordinarily bad for the wishers because they no longer have access to the Miraculous powers and can’t even make another wish because they can’t claim the two Miraculous needed for it. Heck the only reason Tikki and Plagg are at the Agreste manor is that they wanted a front row seat to Gabriel’s downfall and ruin. Trying to bring in someone else to use the Miraculous for them is vetoed outright because Gabriel doesn’t want anyone else to know about their power and use it against him. Sorry I mean them. And even if they did do that it wouldn’t work because of Lila’s wish to prevent their wishes from being undone. 

-After that it’s pretty much just a slow systemic downfall for all of them. There are a few other major points. Like Tikki and Plagg noting that Emilie won’t be in any danger because she’s an innocent as far they’re concerned and Lila complaining about Marinette getting to go to one of the greatest school’s for a fashion designer when her wish was for the girl to suffer. Cue Plagg going something like “Upupup. You said you wanted her to suffer. And she did. For a small bit from getting kicked out of her school. Should have been more specific. Nothing in your wish said she had to be miserable 24/7. We did what you asked. So no complaining about how it turned out.”  

-That’s all folks. 

[missinghan]

「 what am I // stray kids 」

❖ genre : sci-fi; superpower au; platonic relationship au

❖ word count : 3,9k (bullet points only)

❖ warning : explicit language, most likely ain’t scientifically true at all

❖ summary : superpowers manifest in certain individuals once they hit puberty and naturally, those odd abilities will vanish as soon as adulthood occurs; but how will those teenagers protect themselves from the curiosity of science?

❖ a/n : this isn’t a proper fic since I don’t think I’ll actually write smth decent out of this but I don’t want the idea to rot inside my dungeon either- so yea, bear with me through this character intro post(?)

— bang chan ↠ locating ability-wielders & teleportation

· sometimes when he’s running errands for his parents, chan can feel a distinct ‘zing’ ins his bones if someone else with unusual abilities is nearby and can describe their power perfectly to the t; he ignores it at first but learns to make do with it eventually; can teleport another person with him and also needs to calculate carefully before teleporting because he once ends up in the middle of a freeway instead of school resulting from lack of sleep.

· looks intimidating but is the first to talk to a new kid in class and show them around as he’s president of the school’s student council; smiles and laughs a lot once you get to know him, and is also very caring, reliable.

· he wishes to apply for a music production company after his college graduation but his family turned the idea down almost immediately and sent him to a boarding school in Europe.

· chan starts taking notice in strange things at his new school after the first few weeks; for example: how they unreasonably force students to have a daily health checkup, how their food taste like medicine most of the times, teachers don’t really seem to care about what they’re teaching and some of his classmates mysteriously ‘move away’ whenever security shows up at their dorm in the middle of the night.

· after finding out where they actually are via photos of students being locked up inside cells, arms and legs chained up like domestic animals, injected with odd substances on a daily basis which were taken by an anonymous individual, chan secretly packs his stuff and decides to ditch this so-called boarding school for good.

· he works hard to hide his identity ensuing flying back to his hometown for a solid three weeks and the fact that there are more people cursed with supernatural abilities begins dawning onto him; cutting off contact with his family completely, moving from one crusty apartment to another every month, chan tackles this crazy idea of assembling a group consisted of extraordinary people to give him a hand with creating a safe environment for the ‘gifted’ youths.

— lee minho ↠ collapse

· law major, quite the loner, raised by a single mother; didn’t have much since little but his mother’s love and affection make up for everything.

· looks intimidating, is actually intimidating; the only person he talks to in college is his dance coach, doesn’t like school nor has many friends; his slightest glare is as cold as a wife trying to win custody of her children in court.

· minho can make his surroundings crumble and fall apart with his mind, which shouldn’t be confused with telekinesis since he can’t physically move objects to his will; this deadly power is triggered whenever he’s experiencing extremely negative emotions like fear or anguish and he’s not (still isn’t) very good at getting a hold of it.

· a group of suspicious men shows up at his house one day as he returns home from dance practice; they claim to be an agency looking for up and coming talents but by the way that his mother is staring at the ground nervously with her legs trembling, his institution tells him that something’s off.

· he firmly declines their offer with a stiff “I’m uncertain that I’m the talent you gentlemen are looking for, but you should know that when the cops are here to fill out their reports, I’m gonna be very helpful, as helpful as possible.”

· “what other random merry of fucking misdemeanors are going to pop up once they go through your records? domestic violence? illegal substances and weapons possession? human trafficking?”

· with a gun to her head, his mom scrambles to her knees and begs him to go with them, admitting that she’s already signed the contract; if he follows their orders and agrees to become an experimental subject, she won’t have to worry about any financial problems for the rest of her life.

· in the heat of the moment, they ultimately force him to activate his power for the very first time; as a result, his house collapses, the death of his only family and the group of men following suit.

· “I’m too late.”

· chan manages to find minho under the aftermath, severely injured and is hanging by a string of life so fragile that can only be saved after undergoing a twelve-hour operation at the hospital.

— seo changbin ↠ sound waves manipulation

· a good student, reputable within his social sphere at school, and comes from a pretty well-off family.

· changbin is able to bend and control sound waves to his advantage; whether it’s simply for his musical instruments or moving objects around, he can also use something as minor as his own heartbeat when he’s emotionally unstable; using the ability continuously for too long can give him severe migraines and potentially damage his brain to a degree if he’s not mindful of it.

· he stays up late at night to write and produce his own songs, keeping it a secret from his parents; posts his own songs on a SoundCloud account, or performs even live at a random underground club under the alias SpearB if he has the chance to.

· an organization full of outlaw scientists comes across a video of his performance on the web, analyzing how he can enhance the beat, his vocal cords without the help of any form of technology, and just like that, he easily tops the list of their targets.

· having no choice but to do what they want when those men hold his parents hostage inside his family’s mansion, changbin gets sent to the same boarding school as chan but they’re being observed in different buildings for his power is on the more useful and dangerous side; hence, his classes consist of a smaller amount of students and they are put through checkups more constantly.

· he doesn’t really pay attention to the skepticisms that reek off all over the place as he’s too busy being homesick and studying because he fully believes that the harder he works, the more obediently he acts, the sooner they’ll let him go; all hell breaks loose when those photos are scattered everywhere, from the hallways to the bathrooms; changbin takes advantage in the riot to get himself out of there as quickly as he can possibly run to the airport.

· changbin swears to never trust anyone again until chan and minho find him sleeping inside an abandoned grocery store with a pistol inside his sleeping bag, two daggers concealed in his sleeves at all times.

· “are we seriously going to contain some headass who was this close to blowing my brain out of my head?”

· “huh, funny, last time I checked, you almost smothered me to death under a gigantic block of cement when I was trying to save your life.”

· “who are you guys and how the hell did you get in here? I don’t recall not locking the door.”

— hwang hyunjin ↠ permeation & memory manipulation

· a true theater kid, meaning he knows almost everyone but every single student at school knows him; naturally, becomes the Prince after playing one too many male lead roles because of his godly features; rather well-mannered and diligent though he doesn’t look like it.

· mistaken to be a player by every new batch of freshmen that only ever gets to watch him practicing his lines from afar, swooning tremendously whenever he ties up his hair; always carries a camera around, doesn’t like to have too many friends but if you get close enough, he’s probably the most fun to be around, won’t ever judge your questionable life choices.

· hyunjin’s ability allows him to walk right through walls as well as any other solid matters but it will drain his stamina painstakingly, causing him to run short on breaths after using his power to change his costumes faster between scenes; the thicker the wall is, the more strength it takes for him to pass through completely.

· he can also erase a certain chunk of memory from someone’s mind but he needs to physically touch them; has only used this ability one time to wipe his existence out of a childhood best friend’s mind before moving away from his hometown. 

· his interest in photography sparks the moment his uncle comes back from a business trip and gives him a toy camera, it’s nowhere near the real ones but the ten-year-old hwang hyunjin sure takes it very, very seriously; after a decade or so, he has replaced it with cameras that actually work and developed quite the talent for taking photos of sceneries and people (jisung is his number one victim but he can’t care less as long as he looks decent and that hyunjin won’t save any crack ones to blackmail him).

· suddenly gets a sketchy summer scholarship to a boarding school in London (the same so-called school that Chan and Changbin went to), his mom encourages him to go after looking it up on the internet without knowing the chances of her own son being exploited for twisted science is shockingly high.

· and the culprit who takes those photos during a wandering around school after curfew is none other than hyunjin himself; he knows damn well posting those photos means getting himself into trouble but heck, his conscience forbids him to leave this hell-on-earth place without alerting these innocent people.

· so the night before those photos are spread everywhere, in every corner, every edge of the building, hyunjin smashes his camera completely with a baseball bat and burns the broken bits in the school backyard; he tries getting through those sleep-deprived men in their fifties who aren’t likely paid enough with his ability and flees.

· surprisingly, he comes rushing into his best friend’s house right after his horrendous flights only to find him being surrounded by three mysterious men.

— han jisung ↠ plunder

· the jokester of the class, takes great joy in stressing the living daylights out of his professors with irrational questions that aren’t necessarily relevant to the lesson, procrastinates, and sleeps through lessons like there’s no tomorrow but still keeps that shiny ‘A’ on his report card nonetheless.

· being friends with hyunjin results in occasional admirers here and there for him but he does kinda have his own fandom base after being pulled upstage out of the blue in the middle of last year’s spring music festival, musing him an opportunity to show off his rapping skills; because of that event, he takes writing music more seriously with the stage name J.One.

· if jisung is being honest, he hardly uses his power since it’s basically taking over anyone’s body and mind for a maximum of five seconds meanwhile his own body is immobile; and if any physical effects occur (for example, a basketball hits him on the head spontaneously), he’s obligated to endure that pain for that person until they become conscious of their own body again.

· he’s not a creep, he swears.

· and who knows? what if his body gets kidnapped within those five seconds?

· hyunjin and jisung know about each other’s ability but don’t really discuss nor talk about them because they don’t find walking through walls or temporarily possessing someone’s body cool.

· well, that’s that until chan, minho and changbin show up at his house the same day when hyunjin returns from his summer exchange program with a cut lip and bruised knuckles. 

· “han jisung, you’re going to have to come with us unless you want to live inside a cage for the rest of your life.”

· “I’m sorry, are you threatening me?”

· “we’re trying to protect you, smartass, you’re far too dangerous to be roaming the streets so freely.”

· “....me? I’m dangerous?”

· jisung not knowing the slightest bit about his own ability downright baffles chan—he’s only scratched the surface of it at this point; his true potential is if he’s taking over another ability-wielder’s body, he will then take their power for himself; and jisung can’t remember the last time he properly uses it either.

— lee felix ↠ imperfect invisibility

· initially lives in Australia but after finding out about his ability, he moves to Seoul with his parents to live a quieter, more covered-up life without being surrounded by too many relatives.

· an absolute sweetheart, smart, kind, honest, a little slow to read in between the lines at times; can concentrate relatively well on an empty stomach, but gets drowsy quickly after eating, especially big meals. 

· lix is also homeschooled up until high school in order to avoid any unwanted situation; later on, applies for a course that can be taken online for the most parts at an average-ish university to not draw so much attention. 

· since he stays at home most of the time, he spends lots of time playing different video games, experiences random cooking recipes without burning the house down, and teaches himself how to dance through online tutorials, getting awfully good at it fast partially thanks to his natural flexibility.

· he can disappear from a single person’s field of vision for as long as he wants to but it’s still limited and considered flawed since felix can only disappear from the sight one person of his choice at a time; although it can come in quite handy whenever he gets shoved into a dark alleyway by random people varying from cheap pickpockets with a box-cutting knife to muscular men dressed in black.

· learns boxing during middle school so he can still kick asses to preserve his own life.

· felix once punches jisung in the gut and slaps hyunjin in the face with a cabbage after seeing them follow each and every one of his movements the moment he steps out of the supermarket—he’s got used to listening to people’s footsteps over time. 

· “okay, first of all, ow, and second of all, why did I get the punch and he got the cabbage?!”

· “oh, don’t be such a baby.”

· “you two don’t look like those balding dudes in money-dripping black suits...what are you on? crack? what do you want from me? money? food?”

· “of course we’re not balding men in their forties! I take personal offense to that! and please, who do you take me as? a total creep who only ever knows how to follow people with his stupid sidekick tagging along for background noises?”

· “HEY! I NEVER AGREED TO BE YOUR SIDEKICK!”

· “well, it’s time you fucking did then, han.”

· “you know, I suppose this is the part where you two put me to sleep with some kind of drug and bring me back to your excuse of a headquarter.”

· “oh, did you bring the anesthetic pills?”

· “I thought Changbin gave it to you, no?”

— kim seungmin ↠ time-leap

· born in a middle-class family, very studious but also enjoys playing baseball during retreats, takes time to open up to people so he has more acquaintances than close friends but he doesn’t mind, that way he has more time for himself. 

· definitely and never will be the kid who lets his classmates take advantage of his wit, he does do a good chunk of every group project but makes sure everyone has at least one decent thing to do (low-key loves bossing people around); can be pretty distant at first, but he just weirds people out after getting closer and doesn’t hold grudges.

· seungmin is capable of bringing himself back to a specific past event to alter the future outcome though it won’t work most of the time unless he really, really has to for safety purposes or the situation gets out of hands; time-leaping won’t activate if he wants to retake a test but works like a charm when he tries to save a kid on the street from a car accident.

· actually does deep, proper research into other ability-wielders and often stays in school during nighttime to read the news, articles or anything that he can find on the web to learn about how that one cryptic boarding school in Europe that’s accused of abusing their students got shut down all of a sudden, the students never return and family members never bother to look for them. 

· hence, he adapts to hiding his ability and himself fairly well—never takes the late-night buses, doesn’t try to become close and bond with other people, asks his parents to change the door lock every month, burns bills each time he purchases something but he tries not to go out as much as possible. 

· seungmin has seen hyunjin use his power once by accident but decided to say nothing about it; eventually finds chan’s headquarter (which is just his crusty apartment) by following jisung and hyunjin after their practice hour, baffles them all a little but joins in no time. 

· after asking hyunjin to erase his parents’ memory about himself, seungmin gives everyone a hand for their plan of building a school and campus, completely safe and under the radar for other ability welders until their adolescence is over; he time-leaps back to back in order to collect as much information about lottery tickets as he can.

· another flaw occurs when he travels to the past for the third time: his eyesight gets weaker and weaker every time he time-leaps so he starts wearing glasses as a temporary resolution but chan stops him when he tries to do it for the fifth time, saying that they would rather work hard for a little longer than have seungmin lose his vision forever. 

· after over a year or so, they successfully repurchase an education organization and officially establish an exclusive academy for ability-wielders, reaching out to those individuals before scientists can get a hold of them. 

— yang jeongin ↠ superhuman speed

· the quiet kid who most likely won’t talk unless the teacher asks him to answer a question or someone tells him to let them copy his homework; has his earbuds in most of the time to pretend he can’t hear what people are saying so he won’t have to interact with them. 

· joins after you when chan finds him hitting a wall head-on at an abnormal speed while trying to save a kitten in the middle of the streets. 

· jeongin has extremely enhanced agility and reflexes but he still lacks accuracy for he is naturally a clumsy person; therefore, changbin tells him to wear a protective layer under his uniform so even in the worst-case scenario, he can jump off a building and make it out with minor scratches. 

· reluctantly buys lunch for every member of the student council (aka 00 liners + you) on a daily basis although he can’t really see which kind of sandwiches he’s grabbing at and they end up being mushy most of the time. 

· and for those people who say his resting face is scary, he’s mainly just frustrated because of his friends. 

· also usually is the one who returns with the most injuries because of his own ability—he always flees like his life depends on it to save jisung’s ass from being hit by a truck and hyunjin’s camera from being crushed (the sole purpose of the student council will be explained more thoroughly later).

· has single-handedly saved everyone inside a bookstore when a sudden fire breaks out. 

· minho scolds him and felix a lot for spending too much time at the arcade after school instead of doing their required tasks. 

· acts all tough and mature since he’s the youngest of the squad, loves to make fun of jisung for his height but still is and probably will always be a complete child who hates eating vegetables with a passion; gets yelled at a lot whenever there’s a BBQ party since he only ever eats meat. 

· “corn? why are we raiding the Asian market for corn at one AM?”

· “an outdoor, wholesome BBQ isn’t complete without corn, duh.”

· “do you want to get us caught?!”

· “oh please, they’re going to show up either way.”

· “YOU’RE NOT MAKING ANY SENSE!”

— y/n (reader) ↠ telepathic manipulation

· president of the student council, stubborn, slightly less bossy than seungmin, appears to be apathetic and cranky mainly because you can’t sleep that well; with that being said, you don’t feel too tired during ungodly hours when people are tossing around in the comfort of their bed but snap at irritating people a lot in the morning if they’re making too much noise. 

· your ability allows you to control people to your will, from something as meaningless as slamming their head through a wall to life-threatening actions like forcing them to point a knife at their own throat; it’s somewhat similar to jisung’s power though you don’t have to physically feel what your target is going through and you don’t need to worry about taking over their body.

· the only downside to it is that you easily fall asleep the moment you set your target free.

· minho is the one who gets you out of the laboratory where your parents were working on a huge, secret project about individuals with supernatural abilities for an unknown organization; you’re unfortunate enough to become their first-ever experimental subject which only nourishes resentment slowly, gnawing at your sanity while you’re dreading each day behind those cold metal bars. 

· perhaps joining the student council is what makes your life less depressing, perhaps; you’re far too busy facepalming at the beautiful monstrosity of their friendship and feeding them ensuing returning to the dorm after school since those boys only know how to eat, cooking is too much for them to comprehend (albeit felix).

· when your family was still… normal, your parents sent you to martial art classes every weekend so like felix, you don’t actually need your power to save yourself from some random mobsters on the streets.

· you’re also the only person who eats vegetables properly and even tries to incorporate more fiber into their diets but as always, they never listen, especially hyunjin when it comes to green onions.

· don’t have the best reputation in the academy because the idea of letting the new girl with a seemingly useless ability become president of the student council isn’t very appealing to many people, and it doesn’t help when every member of the council is exclusively allowed to drop out in the middle of a class to ‘collect’ any ability-wielders that chan manages to locate that day since he’s always worn out with changbin and minho from boring paperwork as well as other businessy stuff.

· even when your ability is considered almost perfect, you’ve only used it once when you thought minho was going to sell you off to another place and almost made him put a bullet through his own brain; you’ve refrained yourself from using it since that day.

[leavetwn]

* AMANDA CAMPANA, NOBINARY + SHE/HER/THEY/THEM  | you know RAMONA GALLO, right? they’re TWENTY-THREE, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, TWENTY-THREE YEARS? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to CRYING ON THE BATHROOM FLOOR BY MUNA like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole COLD PIZZA AS A HANGOVER CURE, TALKING SHIT ABOUT CUSTOMERS IN THE BREAKROOM, LONGING FOR WHAT COULD'VE BEEN,  thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is AUGUST 17TH, so they’re a LEO, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( claire, 22, est, she/her )

HEY , BESTIES ! happy new year (the way it’s 11:55pm here so barely) !! my name’s claire and i’m 22. i’m livin in the est timezone, and my pronouns are she/her. i’m bringing y’all a mess of a muse 😈 because well  ,,, it’s what i’m best at. if you’re feelin ramona & wanna plot, just go ahead and like this & i’ll hit you up. i usually plot on discord, but if you prefer the tumblr ims, that’s no problem at all. anyway, lemme stop waistin time and get to introducing you to ramona. * tw: mentions of cheating & alcohol. 

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 .

full name: ramona gallo.  nickname(s): anything your muse wants to call her tbh. age: twenty-three. date of birth: august 17th. zodiac sign: leo. gender/pronouns: non-binary, she/her/they/them. sexual orientation: bisexual. romantic orientation: biromantic. hometown: irving, north carolina. current residence: irving, north carolina. occupation: employee at zoinkies currently,  a lifeguard during the summer. eye color: brown. hair color/style: had long hair up until her breakup then had one of those breakdowns and cut her own hair into a bob and then her own bangs. i bet it was a mess lol so she probably called her friends or went to a salon the very next day to get it fixed. also highlighted the ends red but her natural color is brown. height : 5′5″. clothing style: simple and comfortable. t-shirts, croptops, turtlenecks, all usually paired with either jean shorts or jeans in general. she prefers to feel cozy rather than cute. tattoos: yes. a small one on her wrist. wants more eventually. piercings: both ears peirced & a navel piercing that she did herself against better judgement lol.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 .

you were born on a scorching hot day in irving , your father says so, anyway. you’re convinced he’s being dramatic. your birth went smoothly; after two previous children, your parents had become disillusioned by childbirth. just another one to add to the bunch, and one that was meant to save a dying marriage. still, they loved you nonetheless. your father, to this day. your mother, until you were ten, and then she up and left without a warning. 

your father keeps food on the table by fixing cars. you spend your days in the hot sun watching him replace parts and continuously try to crank vehicles until they run. he fist pumps every time one does. ‘ how lame, ’ you think, but it’s inspiring how hard he works to take care of three kids. and he does a good job. 

therefore , you spend much of your early life trying to make him proud. you’re smart as a whip, and all your teachers have good things to say about you when it comes to academics. you’re a bit of a troublemaker, though. your father doesn’t mind that too much; he was the same at your age. and he’s proud  —  proud to see you work so hard. 

you spend your teenage years doing much of the same. though , you begin to come home a bit later than usual, and your excuse is that you’ve been at ashley’s or samantha’s, but really all three of you were out partying. you don’t think your father would care (your grades are fine & he wants you to live like a normal teenager) ,  but you still lie about it. why ? well, who knows, maybe you like the adrenaline rush it gives you. like most things, you do them for the thrill. 

you join the swim team. you’re kind of bad , but that’s okay. just like always , you work hard, and you realize that you’re kind of a natural. your father cheers louder than anyone else in the stands. it pushes you to do better. with your good grades and athletics , your guidance counselor tells you you’re a shoo in for a scholarship from whatever university you want. you apply to several. if it’s one thing you hate, its this town. you can’t wait to make it out, and you figure, this might be your only way. 

you’re eighteen, and you’re in love. it’s crazy how love can make you see things differently. suddenly , this town doesn’t seem half bad. all your friends find it cute , and you tell them everything. the things he tells you or the way he makes you feel. it’s a crazy feeling; you never want it to end. 

you throw your cap in the air. finally , high school is over. college is looming. you’ve been accepted to several & received scholarships from at least a few. you lie in bed thinking about it. now, you suddenly don’t want to leave so bad. don’t want to leave him behind. how could someone leave another they love so easily? it makes you hate your mother more.

for the first time, you disappoint your father. you don’t go to college. you don’t give a damn. you want to stay where love is. you’re addicted to the feeling. this lasts for three years. now, you’re twenty-one; you’ve gotten a job at zoinkies, and that keeps you away for most of the day. you randomly decide to visit your boyfriend during a lunch break one day. you find him in bed with someone else. suddenly , you realize love isn’t as addicting as you once thought. what once made the world beautiful now made it hideous. what once made you feel so high had somehow made you feel so low. it was horrible, and you’d realized your mistakes. 

you threw away your future for love. something as rotten and twisted as love. something you swore you’d never let yourself feel again. something that you put away in a locked box with no key. irving was the same place you’d always known it to be. boring, drab, familiar. at least you had your family. that was barely enough to keep you sane, though, and it was hard to feel normal.

you turned to the thing that help. alcohol, partying, any escape at all. you lacked coping skills   —  that much was clear, but you didn’t care. you blamed it on something else entirely. just as your teachers had said, you’re a bit of a troublemaker. you do anything to make yourself feel alive, to make yourself feel free of the hurt. 

it’s two years later now. you’re still not over it in some ways, as regret turns to anger and resentment. you’re bitter. who wouldn’t be? but you feel like you’ve had time to mourn. maybe it’s because you never acknowledged it in the way you should’ve ( it’s still locked away in that box. ) you still have your bad habits. you still work at your stupid job that you hate. you’re lost, but you’ll figure it out. you always do. so, you continue to float , seemingly stuck in the town that you never let go of, and you wonder what comes next. only time will tell.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 .

still swims but doesn’t have as much time for it. probably not as good, but since she spends the summer lifeguarding, she uses that time to practice & try to get back to where she was. also kinda jaded asf so even if she says she wants to get back into it, she probably won’t lmaoo.

is a horrible driver. how did she get a license ?? not even she knows. def the type to like have a leg up on the dash board, hand out the window, and only one hand on the wheel while speedin idk how she makes it out alive

can take a car apart and put it back together again thanks to her dad. also changes her own tires so let her change your tires. im just sayin 

stays up way too late & would sleep until 2 pm everyday if she didn’t have to work. should probably work on being an adult and going to bed at a normal time but just half the time doesn’t give a fuck so she’s probably sleep deprived a lot. therefore also has a 

character parallels: alice ayres/jane jones (closer, 2004) , clementine (eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, 2004) , fiona gallagher (shameless, 2011-present) , more to be added.

𝐈. ━━ ˟ ⊰ ✰ 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 .

ok but plots really do be making my world go ‘round. 😳 i love em, so literally hmu with anything you’re feeling, and i’ll be down. just wanna plot & write with everyone 💕 but here’s a couple of wanted connections for y’all. i’ll prolly have a most wanted tag sooner or later & i’ma be make a plot page soon.  

* the unholy trinity  — these two are the friends she cherishes most. i’m assuming they’ve been friends since at least early high school , maybe earlier. they went through a lot together. these two were with her through all her relationship troubles. true ride or dies. she’s do absolutely anything for them, and she trusts that they feel the same way. they’re rowdy & wild, do whatever they want, and have a damn good time doin it. also have a gc where they just talk shit and send tiktoks idk just gimme this plsss 🥺

* friends with benefits / one night stands  —  this would probably be the extent of ramona. clearly not over what happened to her the last time 😭, so she’d have plenty of these tbh. she probably wouldn’t think too much about it, but it could be awkward for you muse maybe, etc. 

* unrequited love / crush  —  here’s a toast to the ones who crush on ramona. it would be an absolute tragedy lmaoo. she’s not really mean about it, but she is 100% certain she’s not looking for any type of relationship. could be really dramatic and messy and those are tha best kind. literally this

* former friends / enemies  —  she’s lived here her whole life, so she’s at least got one. these two just don’t get along/no longer get along for whatever reason that can be plotted out. 

* coworkers   — she works zoinkies throughout the year and picks up shifts as a lifeguard during the summer so your muses could know her from that. could delve into a close friend territory too lmao. they probably just sit in break rooms and talk about rude customers or bossy managers lmaooo.

* literally anything your heart desires — a lot could work. we could even just start from nowhere & have them meet for the first time if they’re newer/just to town. 

[jeontaeh]

〚EPILOGUE〛

6 YEARS LATER

"I hate you!" Jungkook snapped, looking at Taehyung, who was seated on the couch. "Ever since you've entered my life you've just ruined everything and made-made me this person I despise."

"Oh, shut up," Taehyung scoffed, drinking his can of beer. "You're just fucking mad because I'm right."

"You're not right! You're so wrong, Taehyung- god, I hate living with you." Jungkook shouted from the kitchen, seeing his coffee brimming in the maker.

"Then move out."

"Maybe I will!"

"I'd love that!" Taehyung snapped back. Jungkook stopped and looked at him. Jungkook furrowed his eyebrows and walked over to him. Jungkook pointed his finger at him.

"Admit it. Admit that you're wrong." Jungkook said lowly. Taehyung looked up at him and then stood up.

"No." Taehyung snipped. Jungkook took a deep breath. "Fine. Then I'm breaking up with you." Jungkook said firmly and then turned around to walk away.

"Jungkook! Are you fucking kidding me?" Taehyung let out, angered. Jungkook walked a few steps and then turned around again.

"No! Because you won't admit that Jerry the mouse from the television cartoon Tom and Jerry is a GIRL!" Jungkook shouted.

"Jerry is a fucking boy! He had a crush on a girl mouse!" Taehyung shouted back.

"Jerry was a fucking lesbian, Taehyung! Fuck you!" Jungkook snapped weakly.

Taehyung couldn't help but let out a small smile. He walked up to Jungkook and then wrapped his arms around Jungkook's waist. "We've been debating this for 3 hours now, baby. Can we just agree to disagree?" Taehyung said softly.

Jungkook looked at Taehyung's warm brown eyes and chewed on his bottom lip, nodding. Taehyung smiled fondly and leaned in, touching their noses for a second, and then sealing their lips together.

Taehyung and Jungkook had been together for 6 years now.

They finished their senior year of high school 5 years ago. Taehyung got into Seoul University with a football scholarship. Taehyung was so elated he accidentally called his father on the phone and called him fat and ugly.

Jungkook got into Busan Art School... but not for the course he applied for. He applied for Art Therapy, but he got in for normal art and design. That was bad for Jungkook. But the good news was he got into Seoul University for Art Therapy.

And, well, that's where Jungkook went.

College was fun together. They both got an apartment not too far from their university. It took Taehyung a whole year to become the captain of the university team, but he didn't lose a single game after he became one. Jungkook had fun learning art therapy than he imagined, and was more than happy doing something he enjoyed.

Both were 23 now, and Jungkook worked as an assistant in a design firm and earned a basic salary. He was fine with that, it was a starting job anyway. Taehyung, on the other hand, was.... unemployed.

Anyways- they had a small two bedroom apartment in Seoul. It wasn't ideal, but it was comfortable. Currently, Taehyung kissed Jungkook's jaw and down his neck while Jungkook fiddled with his collar, smiling.

"Are you bored without me, Taehyungie?" Jungkook asked. Taehyung squeezed his butt.

"Yeah. I've binge-watched Naruto and finished it. I think that should give you an answer." Taehyung said, looking at him. Jungkook kissed him softly.

"Hmmm... maybe if you got a job," Jungkook wiggled his eyebrows. Taehyung looked at him and then pulled away.

"Kook... come on. You know I'm just waiting for the confirmation, right? I know I've been a bother, sitting around at home all day for a month or two. But- I-I'm being productive! I learned how to bake! I dyed my own hair-" It was grey. "-and, I painted for you-"

"You drew a giant dick on a piece of paper."

"Yeah, but I put a lot of love into it," Taehyung pouted. Jungkook kissed his lips, gripping his waist. "Okayyy. Sorry. I love you."

"I love you more," Taehyung said, kissing Jungkook's forehead, a small smile emerging on his lips.

Taehyung and Jungkook had thankfully gotten less touchy-feely than when they were bumbling 17-year-olds. But still, the love for each other was strong. Stronger, if anything. Taehyung knew Jungkook like the back of his hand. Every little thing, every little tendency, every mood switch, every upset- Taehyung knew how to handle it.

When Jungkook came home from work upset, Taehyung knew what to do. He'd sit Jungkook down, give him hot cooked food, a nice cold drink, and set up the bath for him. And then, of course, he'd fuck him anyway Jungkook wanted.

Just like that, Jungkook knew how to be with Taehyung. Sometimes, after stressful matches, Taehyung would come home seething. Sports got him angry, it was obvious, that's the one part of him that hadn't changed since he was 17. But Jungkook knew what to do. He'd wear something cute, give Taehyung anything he wanted to eat (usually fried chicken and ice cream) and then ride him and be extra submissive and cute. Taehyung loved it.

Their relationship was so strong, neither could imagine life apart from the other. There had been ups and downs. Small fights, sometimes instances where one slept on the couch, or maybe just yelling for hours on end. But they always came back to each other. They couldn't stay apart. They worked so well together- Jungkook couldn't imagine being with anyone else. He wouldn't want to.

They were still so in love.

Jungkook got his cup of coffee and walked towards their bedroom. "Jimin called me last night," Jungkook said. Taehyung followed.

"Oh shit. What's the news?" Taehyung asked wearily. Jungkook turned around, sighing in relief. "It was a false alarm. Thankfully. They're both happy about it."

"Of course. I'm sure Eka would be mad as fuck to be pregnant at 23." Taehyung scoffed.

"She really would. They've only been together 5 years or so. Not even engaged yet." Jungkook said. Taehyung hummed, nodding.

Eka and Jimin were cute, to say the least. After 2 months of Jungkook and Taehyung being together, Eka stormed into the cafeteria, grabbed Jimin by his collar and kissed him. Jimin was super confused. Eka said if Jimin doesn't ask her out then she will. So Jimin did.

And they'd been together since.

Jimin was an associate in a law firm. Eka was doing small modeling gigs. They lived 15 minutes away, and the four met up for dinner quite often. They were still best friends, thankfully.

Taehyung followed Jungkook into the bedroom and grinned when Jungkook bent over to pick things off the floor. Taehyung walked behind him and smacked his ass, lining his crotch up to the peach. Jungkook bounced up right.

"Ah! Tae- you're so annoying!" Jungkook squeaked, running off, hands on his butt. He turned around, angry. "You still act like you're 17 sometimes."

"You act like I'm 40 or something. I'm only 23. Can't I appreciate my boyfriend's cute little butt?" Taehyung asked, walking up to him with a grin.

Jungkook reached up and yanked his bandana down, making it cover Taehyung's eyes. "No. You can't." Jungkook said, walking past him. Taehyung grunted, fixing his bandana. He rushed up to Jungkook and wrapped his arms around his waist.

"Are you mad, baby? You're so cute when you're upset." Taehyung said softly, kissing his earlobe.

Jungkook blushed lightly. He found it strange how Taehyung's small words still caused the boy to blush like he was still a teen and had a huge crush on him. Jungkook put his hands on Taehyung's, which were on his stomach. Taehyung squished his tummy.

"Yess, your abs are gone." Taehyung pointed out. Jungkook hit his hand.

"Shut up! I know. I don't get time to work out anymore. Don't be mean. You literally play football for a living," Jungkook scoffed.

"Hell yeah, I do. Don't you love your strong athletic boyfriend?" Taehyung asked, lifting Jungkook up from his feet. Jungkook cried, smacking his arm again.

Taehyung had been doing football intensively for years now. In high school, he thought it was hard. But college level football was different. And professional level football was fucking worse. Taehyung loved it, of course he did. But he had to be in the gym constantly, or his coach would kill him.

Taehyung had changed since high school. Jungkook was there through the change and saw him grow. Taehyung's shoulders got wider, his chest got firmer, his arms got more built, his jaw more stricken, thighs thicker, calves stronger. Jungkook loved it. (Of course, he did. Who wouldn't like their already hot as fuck boyfriend to somehow become hotter??).

"Of course I love my strong athletic boyfriend. And I love pinning him down on the mattress more." Jungkook said, and then kissed Taehyung's lips. Taehyung didn't kiss back, just smacked his ass. Jungkook giggled, looking at Taehyung. "Mmm. Your ass still hurt from last night?"

"Shut. Up. I hate letting you top."

"Letting me top? Please. You begged me to fuck you." Jungkook said. Taehyung scoffed, walking away from him.

"I don't beg. And don't pretend like you're less bad. Don't you remember Eka's birthday?" Taehyung asked. Jungkook's eyes grew big, and his cheeks turned beet red.

"Shut up," Jungkook mumbled in a small voice. "Oh- I want Taehyung's hot, aching, bulging cock in my asshole until I can't walk, until he tears me apart, until he pees in my-"

"I was drunk!" Jungkook yelped, embarrassed. "You-you didn't stop me!!! You shouldn't told me to shut up!!!! I said all of that to Eka's dad and you let me!"

"It was kinda funny." Taehyung giggled. Jungkook arched his eyebrow, folding his arms.

"Oh really? Remember your 20th birthday? When you put on those dog ears and made me call you puppy-"

"If you say one more fucking word I swear I will throw you out of the balcony," Taehyung snapped really fast. Jungkook burst into giggles, running into their shared bathroom.

Jungkook took his t-shirt off, as well as his sweatpants. He took the pair of jeans he'd put on the counter to change into and stepped into them. Taehyung walked into the big washroom.

"I have one. Two months ago when we were both drunk and had sex and you said 'impregnate me'," Taehyung said suddenly.

Jungkook looked up, eyes big. "You remember that?"

"You said it 8 times in a row," Taehyung said. Taehyung reached forward and saw Jungkook pull his jeans up his cute butt. Jungkook reached for his t-shirt, but Taehyung grabbed it before Jungkook could, and brought it over Jungkook's head, helping him wear it.

"I wouldn't mind having a baby, though," Jungkook said, looking around for something. Taehyung knew Jungkook's face routine, so he grabbed Jungkook's moisturizer and handed it to him.

"It's far too early for that, babe," Taehyung said. Jungkook opened the small bottle and put cream on his face. Jungkook nodded. "I know. We talked about this, remember? No children before we're 28-"

"35," Taehyung said at the same time. Jungkook looked at him and then frowned. "28," Jungkook repeated.

"30." Taehyung tried. Jungkook rubbed the cream in small circles on his skin and pierced his eyes at the man. "29." Jungkook compromised. Taehyung sighed and agreed.

"How many?" Taehyung asked. Jungkook looked at him through the mirror, and then looked down shyly, looking for his comb. "You know how many," Jungkook said.

"I know. But I love hearing you talk about it." Taehyung said, hands wrapping around Jungkook's waist. Jungkook looked at him in their reflection, and then bit his lip.

"2 children. One girl, one boy. The girl older, hopefully." Jungkook said. Taehyung looked up and met eyes with him.

"Mhm. We'd move into a proper house in a nice neighborhood and send them to the best school. Not a boarding school." Taehyung said.

"Absolutely not. I've seen the shit kids do in boarding schools. I'm not doing that to our kids. If my child ever meets someone like you then I'll be so upset-" Jungkook shuddered, unable to finish his sentence. "I can't. No boarding school ever."

"What the fuck," Taehyung said, blinking. "I'm literally married to you."

"Okay we're not fucking married, stop telling people that," Jungkook mumbled. "You told that woman on the bus we were married. Your coach thinks we're married. You told my mom that we're married-"

"We are, basically! We don't need to do some big ceremony. We're already ready to spend the rest of our lives together, aren't we? Do we really need a label to seal that? Labels are so annoying." Taehyung said.

"Deja vu," Jungkook muttered to himself. "And yes, I want a label. Husbands. Jeon Taehyung sounds so-"

"Gross. Kim Jungkook sounds better." Taehyung said, slapping his butt. Jungkook huffed. "I know. I just wanted to say it to piss you off."

"Seriously, though. This whole marriage thing is a scam. Like, I'm in love with you and want to be with you forever. You know that. I know that. I don't think I need a ring to prove it to you."

"I know, Taehyung." Jungkook said, looking at him. "You say it all the time. Now I need to go to work, or I'll get late." Jungkook said with a smile and then walked out.

Taehyung sighed to himself. "Fine. I'll hit the gym again." Taehyung said, walking out of the bathroom. "Do you want me to cook tonight or order in?"

"Whatever you want, babe," Jungkook said, finding his folders and bag. "But don't you dare cook tonight."

"Then why did you-? Fine." Taehyung said. Jungkook gathered his things and walked out of the bedroom. Taehyung walked out as well. "Have fun at work, baby."

Jungkook turned around before walking away and ran up to him. Taehyung got startled when Jungkook hugged him tightly. Taehyung hugged him back, chuckling. "Relax, pumpkin. I'm not going anywhere,"

"I know. I love you. I'll see you tonight." Jungkook said, then kissed Taehyung deeply. Taehyung kissed back, and Jungkook pulled away. "Go to the gym. But shower when you come back, okay? And don't leave your gym bag in the bedroom, put it in the laundry room. And don't make your coffee too hot, last time you burnt your tongue-"

Taehyung chuckled. "I'll be fine, Kookie. You don't have to stress so much." Taehyung tsked. Jungkook nodded, cupping his jaw.

"I know. Sorry." Jungkook said, hugging him tightly. "Can you fuck me when I'm back please?"

Taehyung shushed him and kissed his jaw. "Of course, baby. Don't get worked up. I love you too." Taehyung said in a hushed tone. Jungkook nodded, blushing lightly.

Jungkook tended to get anxious before going to work because the perfectionist in him worried he was messing everything up and could get fired any second. Taehyung promised him that's not how it worked, but Jungkook worried himself anyway. Jungkook didn't like losing control like this, especially in work-related aspects. So he trusted on Taehyung to calm him down. And Taehyung always did.

Jungkook left after, and Taehyung sighed to himself. He doesn't know how he got so fucking lucky. He'd trade the whole world for Jungkook.

Taehyung heard his phone ding, it was sitting on the kitchen breakfast bar. Taehyung walked up to it and picked it up. His lock scream was a picture Jungkook mid-giggle which Jimin took.

Taehyung unlocked his phone, his password still Jungkook's birthday, and then saw the text he got.

Coach You did it. You got into the Seoul Korean national football team.

Taehyung froze.

His eyes widened. His breath stopped. Taehyung looked into his phone for 7 seconds and then screamed.

The first thing he did was fumble with his phone and rang Jimin's number. Taehyung put it on his ear hastily, and Jimin picked up after 4 rings.

"What's up dudebro." Jimin said through the line.

"Jimin!" Taehyung squealed. Taehyung heard Jimin flinch through the phone. "You need to help me. Today. Right now. Right fucking now."

"What? Why?"

"I-I need your help. I need to go ring shopping. Right now."

Taehyung's been putting on a front for about like hmmmmmm 3 years now that he doesn't want to get married and doesn't like big ceremonies or anything. False. Taehyung's been envisioning their wedding day since Jungkook and he started dating.

But Taehyung wanted it to be a surprise to Jungkook, and more, a sort of thanks to Jungkook for how much he's helped Taehyung over the years. And that would only happen when the confirmation came that Taehyung got into the South Korean national team.

This has been Taehyung's dream since the beginning of time. Now he could fucking play in the World Cup and stuff. That was insane. Taehyung squealed by the thought of it (never out loud).

Finally, after months of waiting, it happened. So here he was, outside Tiffanys & Co, with Jimin and Eka on either side of him.

"Get him the biggest fattest diamond ring," Eka said, looking at the store's sign.

"Jungkook won't like that. It's a lot of money." Taehyung said.

"What the fuck are you a footballer for?"

"I don't know! But now that I'm part of the team, I'll probably earn a fuck-ton!" Taehyung snipped. Eka stepped on his foot. Taehyung stepped on hers.

"Stop," Jimin said, stepping in between them. "Let's step inside. I know Jungkook the best so I'll decide on what to buy."

"I've literally lived with him for 5 years."

"Irrelevant and invalid. I'm his best friend. He tells me shit you don't even know about." Jimin said, and then looked and Taehyung. "By the way- dog ears? Seriously?"

"Shut the fuck up, Jimin. Eka, stop him." Taehyung said quickly.

"Jimin if you don't stop talking I won't send you nudes," Eka said. Jimin looked at her. "We're literally dating. I see you naked all the time. Plus, you never send me nudes."

"Let's go inside," Taehyung said, and then walked into the store. He stepped in and took a deep breath. Oh god. There were rings everywhere. Taehyung looked to Jimin and Eka, who were singing some Ariana Grande song about rings or whatever while looking like fools.

"Stop embarrassing me. I'm going to become an adult."

"Taehyung you're 23."

Taehyung ignored Jimin and walked to one of the cases filled with beautiful diamond rings. He imagined them on Jungkook's delicate, pretty fingers. None seemed... right. They were all too big or too wonky or too... meh.

"One 6 carat princess cut diamond engagement ring with a rose gold ring please," Eka said to the man behind the display.

Taehyung frowned at her. "No, Eka. That's too much."

"Not for Jungkook. It's for me." Eka huffed. Jimin reached up behind the black haired girl and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"This one will look so pretty on you," Jimin said softly, looking at the ring in display in front of them, brushing the pad of his thumb on her fingers. Eka turned a bit, a faint blush on her cheeks as she saw Jimin place his chin on her shoulder.

"Y-you think?" Eka asked softly. Jimin smiled, looking at her. "Of course. Everything looks pretty on you."

Eka kissed him gently, and Jimin kissed back. Eka pulled away, their lips brushing together. "Do you wanna get married?"

"Yeah," Jimin whispered, looking at her sleek black eyes, long eyelashes. Eka smiled.

Taehyung cleared his throat. "You guys are so fucking gay. Get off each other. This is for my engagement. Do this for each other later." Taehyung snapped. The man working in the store looked at them in confusion.

"Wait, sir, are you the one here to buy the ring?" The man asked. Taehyung nodded with a sigh. "Oh. Great! What is she like, the one you're buying the ring for?"

"He." Jimin corrected, still holding Eka in his arms. The man gulped. "Sorry. What is he like?"

"He's..." Taehyung trailed, and then tapped on the glass, suddenly feeling abashed by everyone looking at him, waiting keenly for an answer. "I don't know. He's perfect." Taehyung breathed out. "He's sweet, he's delicate, he's gentle, but he can be brash when he wants to. And he makes sure everyone knows not to overstep his kindness. He's feisty, sometimes a little sassy, sometimes a little opinionated- but I love that about him. He doesn't let anyone overstep him. He's beautiful, he cares so much about m-me- and everything around him that matters. He's the nicest person I've ever met. The most beautiful boy in the world. He's simple but extravagant. H-he's waited patiently for me for years because he loves me too much sometimes. I'll put him over anything in the world."

Taehyung took a deep breath. He didn't even realize he was rambling. He looked up, and Jimin, Eka, and the man working in the store looked at him with big eyes. Taehyung gulped. "Sorry. Did you want to know, like, his favorite tv show or something?"

"N-no. That was perfect. Let me find you the ring." The man said, before rushing off to the side of the store. Eka smiled at him.

"You're such a cutie, Tae. Remember when you 'hated' him?"

"I've kind of blocked out the memory of myself when I thought I was 'straight' from my memory," Taehyung said. Jimin giggled.

"Don't do that. It'll remind you of how much you've grown, and how you'll continue to do so." Jimin said. Eka sighed, flopping her back onto his shoulder.

"You're so smart," Eka whined softly. Jimin kissed her forehead.

The worker finally came back with a few boxes. He opened the first one, showing it to Taehyung. "This is 3 carats-"

"It's too much." Taehyung mumbled. "I need something- something pretty, and delicate, and eye-catching- which stands out. Like my Jungkookie." Taehyung said.

"That's so fucking cute." The man working in the store blurted. Taehyung widened his eyes. "Sorry. See this one," The man said, opening another box.

"Too small," Taehyung said.

"That's what she said." Eka laughed, and Jimin looked at her. Eka patted his cheek. "Not to you," She reassured. Jimin smiled.

Taehyung was way too picky throughout.

"Too many details." "Not enough details." "Too dull." "Too shiny." "Jungkook wouldn't like it."

The poor man working there gave up. He had, like, 40 boxes full of rings open. Taehyung looked between them. Jimin and Eka picked through some and told Taehyung they could work. Taehyung didn't like them.

Taehyung sighed, walking away. Was he thinking too much about this? Maybe a part of him was nervous. Nervous that Jungkook didn't want to marry Taehyung? But why wouldn't he? Taehyung's uncertain anxiousness was getting him nowhere. Taehyung turned around to look at the store manager, but then saw a glittering ring in the corner of a display.

Taehyung walked up to it and imagined it on Jungkook's finger. Jungkook's cheeks would turn pink, his eyes would widen, and he would smile brightly. Taehyung's heart paced faster. Even after years and years, Jungkook made Taehyung feel like a smitten dumb 17-year-old in love for the first time.

"This one," Taehyung said, pointing at it. Jimin and Eka and the store boy came to see it. "I want this one."

"It's so pretty! Koo will love it," Eka said, eyes glittering at the thought. Jimin smiled as well. "Yeah! It's perfect."

Taehyung smiled at them, and then at the store guy, who grinned. "Sure thing, sir! I'll give it to you in a pretty blue box." The man said and then took it out of the display to take it away.

"When are you going to propose?" Jimin asked. Taehyung sighed. "I-I'm not sure yet. But there are just a few more things I need to do before I propose." Taehyung said decidedly, looking down.

Later that night, Taehyung hid the blue box perfectly in a place Jungkook would never find. He ordered some Chinese food from down the street and realized he hadn't gone to the gym like he promised Jungkook he would. So while waiting, Taehyung did, like, 50 pushups.

Jungkook walked into the bedroom while Taehyung was on his 49th pushup. Taehyung did his last one and then huffed, getting up. He saw Jungkook by the door, pouting slightly.

"Hey babe, what's up?" Taehyung asked, breathing heavily. Jungkook trotted over to him and latched his arms around Taehyung's neck, kissing his lips.

"My boss yelled at me..." Jungkook squeaked. Taehyung gripped his waist for a second, and ten left Jungkook's hold, yanked open the drawer of the desk, and took out a knife. "What the fuck did he say to-"

"Why do you always have a knife with you!!! Anyways, it was my fault mainly. Don't worry, please." Jungkook reassured. Taehyung put the knife down. Jungkook leaned up to him. "You're still ready to beat someone up for hurting me, Tae?"

"Of course, baby. I'll hurt someone who even puts a finger on you. But- I mean- probably not your boss. He's kind of scary." Taehyung said sheepishly. Jungkook giggled, kissing his lips.

"You're so cute. Let's eat and then shower and then sex." Jungkook said. Taehyung nodded, grinning.

They ate and then showered and then sex.

They both ate the lo mien and drank beer. Jungkook burped after drinking all of it and then put his hand over is mouth, giggling. Taehyung kissed his cheek because he thought it was the cutest thing ever.

Then they showered. Taehyung pinned Jungkook to the shower wall and kissed his neck. "Remember when I did this to you back during our first times?"

"You were fucking bold. I don't know how you had so much confidence. You came into the shower, saw me naked, lied to me about the other showers not working, yanked your own towel off and then accused me of being gay."

"So fucking cringe." Taehyung shuddered. "But, yeah, I was bold because you were always so cute and looked at me funny. So I thought you'd be into it."

"You were hot," Jungkook said. Taehyung frowned. "Was??"

"M'kidding. You're the hottest." Jungkook reassured. "Hottest guy in football. You're gonna have sooo many fangirls when you join the national team, Tae." Jungkook pouted.

"Too bad I like your dick instead," Taehyung said brashly. Jungkook burst into giggles.

After a warm shower, Taehyung left early to let Jungkook prep for sexy times. Taehyung dried his hair with a towel and hung it around his neck, looking at the black roots which were creeping in from his grey hair. Taehyung ignored it and went to the bedroom, dried, and sat down on the bed.

Jungkook came later, fully naked and shaved, which Taehyung drooled over. Taehyung was quick to pin him down and finger him open, see him writhing and crying for more. They'd had sex a thousand times, but still found it more enjoyable every time they did it.

Taehyung fucked Jungkook while Jungkook was on his front, ass in the air. Jungkook just whined and begged for more, voice high and airy as it got when he got fucked. Taehyung knew exactly where to fuck him, where to pinch him, where to kiss him. He knew Jungkook too well.

"Pretty petal," Taehyung said after pulling out, cumming inside the condom. "Prettiest flower."

"Taehyunggg," Jungkook whimpered. Taehyung cleaned Jungkook up with a tissue and chucked it to the side, deciding to clean it up later. He tucked himself behind Jungkook, throwing his arm over him, holding him close.

"I love you baby." Jungkook said softly. Taehyung kissed his shoulder. "Love you too." Taehyung replied.

Jungkook played with his fingers. Taehyung kissed his neck, the back of his ear, his temple. Taehyung pulled away from him, and then squeezed his waist. "Goodnight." He said gently, and they went to sleep.

///

Taehyung did it. After 6 years, he did it.

The day before the proposal, Taehyung drove to his dad's office building which was 45 minutes away from where he lived. He went into the building, ignoring the woman at the front desk asking who he was, and went straight to the 20th floor where his father worked. Taehyung reached the floor and walked to the CEO's office.

He pushed open the door and walked in. His father, hair whiter than it was years ago, more wrinkles, looked at Taehyung and then stopped. "I'll call you back," He gruffed in his smoker's voice to the person on the other end, before cutting the call.

"After years of being absent, you decide to show up like this?" Taehyung's father asked, snickering.

"Don't act foolish. You know why I wanted to leave you. I'm not here to ask for anything. Not for money, or respect, or your love. Nothing. I know I'll get none of it from you. I'll resent you forever." Taehyung spat. His father looked at him, not saying anything.

"I just need you to know." Taehyung said lowly, eyes darkened. "I need you to know you made life living hell for me. I need you to know that sending me away from you was the best thing you've done for me. I need you to know that- t-that mom was the sweetest- most amazing person ever and she didn't fucking deserve you," Taehyung let out the last part weakly, eyes close to welling up.

Taehyung's father stood up, frowning. "What are you saying?"

"Mom. If she w-was here, she would've told you herself. But she can't. So I will, for her. You're terrible. A terrible man, a horrible father, and an even worse husband. You h-hurt her. Why? Why did you hurt her? She never did anything to you! She never said anything! A-all she ever did was try and protect me," Taehyung cried.

"Back when you were a child, Taehyung, I used to get drunk too often. And in those instances, I would hurt your mother. But I loved her, you should know that-"

"You didn't." Taehyung said, not wanting to feel like a child, but feeling close to it with how his voice wavered. "And if you d-did, then mom didn't love you. She wanted to leave. She only stayed f-for me."

Taehyung's father looked down. "I know."

Taehyung took a deep breath, a hatred growing deeper inside of him by seeing the old man. "Doesn't matter. The reason I came here was to tell you that I've been with someone for 6 years now, and I'm going to propose tomorrow."

Taehyung's father looked at him. "What? That's... that's good news."

"Not for long." Taehyung snickered, regaining a bit of his strength. "You remember when you came to my school? Called me a fag? Slapped me?" Taehyung asked, eyes glinting red. "It was 6 years ago, but you must remember."

"I was only trying to teach you how wrong what you were doing was, Taehyung-" His father began. Taehyung laughed.

"You didn't teach me well enough." Taehyung said dryly. His father frowned. "It's him. That boy you saw. Jungkook."

His father froze, eyes widening. "What? How- how can you when I told you-"

"Why the fuck would I care about what you told me??" Taehyung snapped, growing louder, a suppressed anger deep inside of him finally letting out. "It didn't matter then, and it doesn't now. Because I'm still a 'fag'. And I'm in love with him. And I'm going to ask him to marry me tomorrow."

"What??" His father burst, vein thickening in his neck. "Are you insane? This could ruin your career, Taehyung. It could ruin-"

"Doesn't matter. I got into the national football team. I think I'm fine career wise. And I'll probably retire earlier than you, who's still working when he's 90 or something." Taehyung said.

"Don't talk to me this way. You know who's more important than all these partners and friends? Family. I'll be there when you don't have anyone-"

"I'll be fine, dad." Taehyung snapped, walking to the door. Before walking out, he looked at his father. "Don't come to the wedding. Don't congratulate me. Don't give me anything. I have an amazing boyfriend, who I'll create a family with, and in-laws who care for me. Thanks to you, I have friends who are more to me than family will be." Taehyung said.

"Taehyung don't do this to yourself." Taehyung's father said lowly, from behind his desk.

"I'm only making myself happy." Taehyung raised, looking at his father. "I don't care for you. I don't want to see you again. Besides, for what anyone cares, I was orphaned when I was 12." Taehyung said, before walking out of his office.

Taehyung let out a breath, a weight lifting off his shoulders that seems to be there since he was a preteen. Finally, he could relax. It didn't matter anymore. He could be happy in peace.

///

"Why're we here so early?" Jungkook grumbled.

The two stood outside their highschool gates, peering inside. On a large banner, it read REUNION DINNER IN CAFETERIA! as it there was a highschool reunion for Jungkook and Taehyung's graduating class. Jungkook was excited to meet up with all his old friends.

"Shit, babe. I thought it started at 7." Taehyung said. Jungkook looked at him. "It starts at 8! Dummie." Jungkook said, hitting his leg. "Our taxi left, too. Now we're stuck here."

They'd taken a train all the way to Busan, then a taxi to their boarding school. Taehyung wrapped his arm around Jungkook's waist. "Don't be upset. Let's go in and reminisce." Taehyung said. Jungkook sighed dramatically, agreeing.

They walked into the gates and Taehyung instantly went towards the football field. Taehyung saw a football lying around and let out a sound of excitement, running around, hitting it to the goal post, smiling when it went in perfectly like always. Jungkook smiled at him.

"You do this for a living, and still love it every time. It's so cute." Jungkook said. Taehyung looked at him.

Taehyung was yet to break the news about the acceptance into the national team. Taehyung smiled. "Yeah! Well, I missed this field. I spent every day of 4 years here, almost. Simpler times, when being a captain was easy as fuck." Taehyung grumbled.

"It's okay. High school art is a lot easier too." Jungkook said, pouting. Taehyung walked up to him, kissing his cheek. He hugged him from the back.

"Remember we made out on the benches there." Jungkook said, pointing at the benches in the far giddily. Taehyung grinned. "Yeah. Remember when we had a fight there and then went behind to that shed?"

Jungkook giggled. "We used to practice football here and I used to think you were the worst because you called me a fairy once for wearing shorts."

"You're a cute fairy." Taehyung said. Jungkook rolled his eyes, leaning into his chest. They both looked at the field for a few more seconds. Jungkook smiled suddenly.

"Remember the last game you played before graduating? I was standing on the side, cheering you on and stuff? That was amazing. The whole school was there. You scored 7 times." Jungkook said.

"My highest record. M'pretty sure there's a picture of me hung on a wall somewhere in the school." Taehyung said cockily, to which Jungkook pinched his chin.

"C'mon, let's go." Taehyung said, taking his hand. Jungkook was confused as to where they were headed, but Taehyung dragged him and Jungkook found himself in the boy's locker room. Jungkook gasped.

"Ohhh, they repainted the walls! Look how much cleaner everything is! Ewww, no, they removed that penis Jackson scratched onto the lockers. Aw! Jimin scratched out our names on the bench over here because Jaebum used to keep taking our places." Jungkook babbled.

Taehyung looked around the locker rooms, sighing. "God, the amount of shit that took place here. I fucked you over here," Taehyung said, pointing at the floor. "And there," Taehyung pointed into the showers. "And there," Taehyung said, pointing at another shower. "And there," Taehyung said, pointing at the lockers. "And-"

Taehyung wasn't listening. He walked over to Jungkook and slapped his ass. "Remember when we fucked on the floor?" Taehyung asked cheekily, looking at Jungkook. "Wanna do it again?"

Jungkook blinked. "Absolutely fucking not. That was the most unhygienic thing ever. I'm 23 now." Jungkook snapped. "17 year old me would let you fuck me in the bathroom of a mall."

"17 year old you literally let me do that."

"Oh my god, I forgot. Why were we so gross??"

"We were just horny." Taehyung shrugged. "I think it's cute. You think any kids fuck here after we're gone?"

"Ew. I don't want to think about that." Jungkook said, frowning. "No one's allowed to be gay but us."

"That's fair." Taehyung nodded. Jungkook laughed. Taehyung grabbed his hand and took him out of the locker rooms. Jungkook followed after him, couldn't help but notice how excited the man was.

They both walked towards the school building. Both looked into old classrooms and giggled, remembering old stories and funny things teachers did. They went past the hallways. They couldn't go into the dorm buildings, as that was locked- but thinking about the small closets and uncomfortable beds brought back tons of memories.

"The art room!" Jungkook suddenly squealed. "Remember that? Can we go see it, Tae?"

"Of course we can, baby. I would love to. I wonder if anyone ever found it after we did." Taehyung said, following Jungkook towards the upper floors.

Jungkook hummed. "I kind of hope not. I put so many things in there. I cried when I had to leave it. It was my haven. I miss it." Jungkook said with a sigh. "She was so comforting."

"She?"

"The art room."

"Why are you assigning it a gender?"

"Because I can."

Taehyung snickered, following Jungkook in the 4th floor. Jungkook was in a yellow shirt and faded jeans, while Taehyung was wearing a black shirt and blue jeans. Taehyung saw Jungkook walk into the art room, and went after him.

Jungkook gasped. "O-oh," Jungkook let out. The moonlight was streaming in through the windows, falling onto the table in the middle like it always did. Splatters of paint littered the brown oak, along with the floor and walls. Jungkook smiled widely when he saw the room cluttered with his old paintings and words he didn't find good enough to take back home.

"Look! It- it's all my stuff!" Jungkook said. He closed the white door, and then saw 'J.K' scribed onto it, along with a '+ V' in bad handwriting. Jungkook giggled.

Jungkook stepped towards the shelves with the paint. "That's the painted pillows and tapestry that we... had sex against once. And that's where I did all my art. Ooh- these are the brushes I used! God, these are old as fuck. No one found this place after me, it seems! I love that. It's my room, Tae!" Jungkook gushed, looking at the ceiling. "Maybe they can name it after me. Or, well, not. I hope some lonely art student finds it in the future and creates memories in here. Don't you, Tae?" Jungkook said, turning around.

Jungkook froze. His eyes widened, pretty pink lips falling apart. His eyes grew of moonlike glitters, sparkling like they always did in the night light.

Taehyung was on one knee, with a blue box in his hand, looking up at Jungkook. He smiled. "Hey," Taehyung said.

"T-Tae?" Jungkook let out, already feeling close to tears. "What a-are you-"

"Jungkook," Taehyung said softly. "I just wanted to tell you-" Taehyung began, and Jungkook's heart beated really fast. Taehyung looked at him for a second, looking uncertain. Jungkook took in the silence. Taehyung opened his mouth, and then let out the loudest fucking sneeze.

Jungkook screamed and stepped back. "God, Tae! You scared me!"

"I'm sorry! Fuck, it's dusty in here." Taehyung sniffled, wiping his nose with his cuff. "God, shit. Sorry. Wait, let me do that again. Jungkook? I wanted you to know that-" Taehyung sneezed again.

"Oh, babe. I told you to put a jacket on this morning." Jungkook said, stepping closer to him. Jungkook brought his chin up, looking into his eyes. "Look. Your eyes are all red and puffy. You're sick, Taehyung! Listen to me next time." Jungkook huffed, stroking his jaw lightly.

Taehyung looked at him for a few seconds, and then smiled fondly, gradually. He put his hand on Jungkook's. "I love you so much." Taehyung whispered.

Jungkook looked at him, and then brought his hands back, blushing gently. "Sometimes, when I see you, I can't help but stop and stare for a while. You're perfect, Kookie, and you always make me smile-" Taehyung said, and then stopped, eyes big. "Yo, holy fuck I just rhymed." Taehyung started laughing. "Holy shit! I could rap this shit. Oh my god, should I have written a rap for this? Wait-"

"No!" Jungkook cried, hands against his mouth. "Taehyung. Shut up, oh my god. Just keep saying what you were saying earlier."

"Okay okay, sorry. The thing is, Kookie, that I thought this intense love I have for you would fade away after a bit. But it hasn't. And it never will. Because- being with you, it just makes me so- so happy. Even when you're laughing or sad or snappy-" Taehyung began, and then started laughing. "I rhymed again!!! Check me the fuck out. DJ V out in the streets-"

"STOP!" Jungkook said, and then got tears in his eyes. "Holy crap, Tae. I fucking love you so fucking much. I'm going to start crying."

"Don't cry! Let me propose first! Oh fuck, I spoiled it. Damn it. I shouldn't have told you."

"You're literally down on one knee and have a blue ring box in your hand. I think I knew you were going to propose."

"Maybe I just want to look at your feet."

"Taehyung I swear to fucking god if you got down on one knee to look at my feet I'll-"

"Jungkook!" Taehyung burst. Jungkook paused, looking down at Taehyung. "I'm really fucking nervous, okay? You're the love of my life and I want to spend each moment with you until death do us part. Which never will! I won't let you die before me!"

"It doesn't work like that, babe." Jungkook sniffled.

"It will! You're immortal. I love you. Fuck, I'm so nervous. WOW. It's hot in here. Oh my GOD." Taehyung sneezed. "Fuck what-"

"Tae," Jungkook said, getting down on his knees in front of the boy. "You-" Jungkook began, and then pressed their foreheads together. "I-I love you so much, Tae. You don't know. You don't know how much I love you. This right here is why I love you."

Taehyung smiled at him. "Seriously? You love me?"

"Taehyung we've been together for 6 years."

"I know but sometimes I feel like MAYBE we're still friends or something."

"WHAT?"

"I'm kidding! Fuck. Sorry. Sometimes I get nightmares of bulbasaur eating my legs. Jungkook!" Taehyung yelped, eyes wide. "I'm scared."

"Why?" Jungkook asked, cupping his jaw, eyes wide as well. Taehyung looked at him closely.

"Because-" Taehyung began, and then gulped. "Because you're so fucking beautiful. I get scared sometimes, that I don't deserve you. But- but I love you so much. I felt so lost when I was 17. I was an asshole, confused, scared. I hadn't been happy s-since my mom..." Taehyung trailed. Jungkook looked at him, his own eyes filling with tears. "But then I... I started being around you? A-and suddenly, I felt... whole again. You were like the- the sunlight in my darkest days." Taehyung whispered. Jungkook smiled a little, tear falling from his eyes.

"I should be a songwriter." Taehyung said. Jungkook giggled. "Y-you really should." Jungkook sniffled.

Taehyung looked at him for a few seconds, looking lost in his eyes. Jungkook blinked. "Babe? A-aren't you gonna propose?"

"Oh shit, I forgot. Fuck! Thank god you reminded me. I would've straight up walked out of here, too. Dumbass." Taehyung muttered. He patted Jungkook's thigh, and Jungkook stood up again, smiling.

Taehyung fixed his posture, and then slowly, but surely, popped the blue box open. Jungkook's eyes grew really big, and a big smile reached his face, pink hue on his cheeks and nose, looking happier than ever. Taehyung smiled as well.

"Jungkook? Baby?" Taehyung asked softly, barely getting the words out. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes!" Jungkook squealed, grinning widely. "Yes! Yes yes yes! I will! Forever! I love you!" Jungkook said, getting down and hugging Taehyung tightly. Taehyung hugged him back, pressing their lips together. Jungkook kissed him lovingly, deep, slow.

Jungkook felt tears rushing down his face and pulled away from the messy kiss, and put his hand forward. Taehyung took the ring and slipped it past Jungkook's fourth finger, smiling a boxy smile that Jungkook adored. Jungkook kissed his lips, and Taehyung wrapped his arms around Jungkook's waist, kissing him back.

Jungkook pulled away. He looked at the ring. "Oh, babe, it's gorgeous. I love it so much." Jungkook said gently. Taehyung smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah. It's beautiful. It must've costed a ton..." Jungkook trailed, gulping.

"Oh, don't worry. Money won't be a problem. I got into the Seoul Korean football team, so, yeah." Taehyung mumbled.

Jungkook looked at the ring, and then at Taehyung. He blinked for a few seconds, and then screamed. "WHAT?!"

Taehyung got startled at his voice and gripped his waist. Jungkook was on his lap. "Sorry for not telling you. I just wanted to keep it a surprise. Isn't it great?"

"TAEHYUNG YOU'RE GOING TO BE SO RICH!" Jungkook said loudly. Taehyung rose his eyebrow. Jungkook sighed. "Your money isn't the only reason I'm marrying you. Your dick's also kinda big."

"Mhm. Kinda?" Taehyung said, wiggling his eyebrow. "You love me, baby."

"I really do." Jungkook said, snuggling to his neck. "And I'm so fucking proud of you, Taehyungie. I knew you'd make it this far. You're amazing. I'll be there every match, wearing your jersey, cheering you on." Jungkook said.

"You always have been." Taehyung said softly, kissing his forehead. "I can't wait."

Jungkook smiled at him, looking up. "Promise you'll only sign my tits after games? No fangirls?"

"I'll try." Taehyung sighed dramatically. Jungkook giggled, hitting his chest. Taehyung smiled fondly, and they kissed again. Jungkook kissed him until they toppled onto the floor, side by side.

"We always end up on the floor." Jungkook said, smiling.

"It's meant to be." Taehyung said cheesily, and Jungkook laughed.

Jungkook grabbed his shirt and kissed his lips, feeling the familiar taste of Taehyung, his first love. Taehyung threw his arm around his waist, kissing the boy again, the sweet taste of his most previous baby, his only love. Forever. They kissed, full of love.

So, so so full of love. And so it would remain, until death does them part.

[smkkbert]

Oliver feels like his life is crumbling when his best friend reveals that she is sick. Desperate to help her through the toughest time of her life, Oliver puts all his energy in fulfilling the wishes on Felicity’s bucket list. His hardest challenge - Felicity’s last wish on the list is getting married.

Previous Chapters: 1 2 3 4

* * *

Chapter 5: Irritation

Remembering how his former best friend Tommy Merlyn had once told him that everyone could waitress, Oliver scoffed now. He was almost moving in slow motion to get the tray of breakfast upstairs safely. Every moment caused the precious porcelain to shake slightly, and some drops of coffee were already dropping from the pot.

Oliver wasn’t used to working as a waiter. He was actually used to people serving him since he had grown up with Raisa and a couple more employees in the house. When he had needed or even just wanted something, someone had taken care that his wishes were heard. Being a Queen had always meant enjoying all the luxury in life, at least that was what he had taken from his childhood and youth.

For Felicity, he was gladly forgetting all of the privileges and all of the luxury he was used to. If she needed a waiter, it was going to be him. He’d do it happily. Whatever he could do for her, even if it was something small as carrying her breakfast upstairs to her bed, he’d do it. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her.

Arriving at her door, Oliver knocked at it softly.

“Come in.”

Oliver was surprised about the fact how quickly Felicity answered. He had assumed that she was still fast asleep since she hadn’t been down for breakfast yet. Usually, she was getting up earlier.

Balancing the tray on one hand, Oliver opened the door and stuck his head inside of her room. Felicity was sitting on the edge of the bed already. She looked tired and exhausted. She looked like she was in need of sleep rather than getting up from a night long of sleep. It had become a habit lately.

Taking a closer look, Oliver could see that Felicity had already moved one foot into the leg of her jeans. Since her left arm had refused to stop working a week ago, she had trouble to make her second foot get into the other leg though.

The sight broke his head. Oliver knew how much Felicity loved to be independent. All her life, she had done her best to know that she was going to be independent of everyone and everything. She had seen her mother falling apart at all the stress she had been burdened with after Felicity’s father had left. He had left his daughter and her mother without any message and without any money.

Donna Smoak had had to work several jobs at the same time to make sure that her daughter had a roof over her head and some good food in her stomach. It had been enough for her daughter to have a somewhat safe life, but it hadn’t been nearly enough to get her daughter the life that Donna Smoak would have wanted for Felicity. Despite her high intellect, Felicity had needed to go to public schools, and she had only been able to go to college when she had been accepted into scholarships.

Felicity had watched her mother killing herself slowly by working too much just so she could afford a good life for her daughter. She had missed all important appointments for check-ups with her doctors because Felicity had been everything that had mattered to her.

Watching her mother like that had told Felicity in young years already that she would never make herself dependent on a man or anyone really who could leave.

Now, on top of everything else that she had to give up, she had to bite back her pride and count on people to help her. Oliver couldn’t even imagine how hard that had to be on her.

“Hey.”

Hey. He felt stupid for saying just that. It wasn’t a real greeting, more like a little something to say anything at all. Felicity smiled at the sound of that little syllable though. She always did because it was like a little thing just between them.

“Morning,” Felicity replied softly, “you brought me breakfast.”

“I did.”

Oliver smiled. He hurried to carry the tray towards Felicity’s nightstand. He put it down there, pushing it back as far as possible, so it hopefully wouldn’t fall down.

Taking in a deep breath, he turned around and smiled at Felicity then. She was holding his gaze, but her smile was rather hesitant. She didn’t want to ask, but she needed help.

Without saying a word, Oliver kneeled down in front of Felicity. He grabbed her ankle gently and guided her foot into the leg of her jeans. Once both of her feet had come out on the other end, she placed them on the fluffy carpet in front of the bed. With her right hand at Oliver’s shoulder to help her balance herself, she got up. Oliver pulled the pants up her legs and buttoned it.

His eyes met Felicity’s, and he could see the embarrassment in hers. She had trouble holding his gaze, feeling an urge to look away. Her cheeks were covered in a rosy color. Her lips were trembling slightly.

“I really need to hire a nurse.”

Felicity was chuckling about her comment, but it didn’t sound honest. It also didn’t reach her eyes. She could pretend to be amused by all of this, but she really wasn’t. Letting someone, even if it was Oliver, help her getting dressed was far out of her comfort zone.

“My mother is working on that.”

It wasn’t a lie. Once he had told his mother that Felicity couldn’t feel or move her left arm anymore, she had decided that it was time to find a nurse. She had already viewed some applications, but she did have high demands. Just like Oliver, she wanted the person to take care of Felicity to be perfect. Neither of them would settle for anything less.

“She told me that twelve people applied already.”

Oliver nodded his head slowly, but he didn’t say word. He knew that Felicity already knew why they had been rejected. Moira as well as Oliver had been too hard. They hadn’t wanted to give any of them a chance. Well, Moira had actually been ready to let three of them try, but Oliver had turned them down.

“Neither of them was perfect,” he simply said, shrugging his shoulders, “and I won’t let anyone take care of you that isn’t perfect.”

“And who will get me dressed as long as you haven’t found the right person?”

“I will.”

Oliver’s response was firm, and it came without any hesitance because he wasn’t hesitant to do this. He wouldn’t let anyone take care of Felicity unless he was sure that that person was capable of taking care of her. When it came to Felicity, the best was just good enough. He doubted that he was the best, but he was certainly better than a stranger.

When Felicity didn’t reply, Oliver looked at her face. Her lips were pursed and her eyes narrowed down on him slightly. There was something in her facial expression that told Oliver that there were things going on in her mind. There was always something going on there since Felicity always seemed to be deep in thought.

“What’s going on in here?”

Oliver tapped the tip of his forefinger against Felicity’s forehead. She had to squint to do so, but she followed the movement of his finger against her forehead. It was sweet, and it caused Oliver to chuckle.

Felicity had to blink several times before her eyes could focus on him again. The slightest brush spread on her cheeks, and she lowered her gaze quickly. With a long sigh, she sat back down on the bed. Her right hand pulled her left hand into her lap where she rested both of them.

She looked sad and that wasn’t something that Oliver liked at all. Hence, he crouched down and put his hands to hers.

“Talk to me.”

It took a moment before Felicity lifted her gaze towards him. She didn’t have to say anything for him to know what was coming.

“I know that we have had this conversation before,” Felicity said, “but I feel like I have to say it again. You cannot stop living to take care of me. You have to go out and meet people. You have to have some fun.”

Oliver sighed. They had had this conversation a couple of times already. Whenever Felicity got the impression that he was giving up too much of his life to take care of her, they had this conversation. It happened again and again, and Oliver just hated it.

He had tried to tell her again and again that it wasn’t about taking care of her. It was about spending time with her. She was his best friend and they had limited time, so of course he preferred to cancel or delay other events to stay close to her.

Felicity didn’t believe him though. In her mind, she was doing all of this to pay back the kindness she had shown him after Thea had died. She felt like she was a burden to him and everyone around. Oliver hated that too.

“Time doesn’t stop just because I am dying.”

And he hated that even more. Felicity’s selflessness was admirable at times, but it was annoying lately. He didn’t want her to think that life could just go on while she was dying or once she had left the living.

Time would certainly go on, but he couldn’t say the same for his life.

“You should try the scrambled eggs.”

Changing the subject was Oliver’s usual tactic when it came to this kind of conversations. He couldn’t tell Felicity that she had to stop talking like that. It would only intensify her belief that she was right, so she would increase the frequency and firmness in telling him to go on with his life. They would eventually get into a fight, and Oliver wouldn’t let that happen.

He picked some of the scrambled eggs with the fork and led it to her lips. Felicity pursed her lips for a moment, looking at Oliver intensely. She was calculating how smart it was to drop this subject now. At the end, she decided that it was the best choice he could make right now.

Oliver’s heart jumped in his chest happily when Felicity opened her mouth and actually took the scrambled eggs he had offered. He knew how much it took for her to eat anything, especially in the morning, these days. Raisa had trashed several plates of breakfast since Felicity had moved in here, but it had only increased her motivation to find something that Felicity actually felt able to eat.

When Oliver picked some more pieces of scrambled eggs with the fork and brought it near Felicity’s lips, she scrunched up her nose. She was used to talking herself into eating one fork, just to please Oliver or Raisa whoever was with her when she was having breakfast, but two forks might be too much for her.

At the end, Felicity took the fork. She needed a lot longer to chew and swallow the food this time though. It was why Oliver put the fork down and handed her the glass of orange juice instead. Felicity would have probably preferred coffee, but she had given up on it almost completely. It was making her nausea only worse.

“We are running short on time,” he told her, “so you should get dressed as soon as possible.”

Felicity perked up her eyebrows. “Short on time for what? I didn’t know that we had plans.”

“I know,” Oliver said quickly, nodding his head, “because I didn’t want to tell you before I was sure that the weather was okay. It has cooled down though, so I think it’s the perfect time to go Christmas shopping.”

“Christmas shopping?” Felicity frowned. “It’s almost four months to Christmas.”

“I know,” Oliver said again and couldn’t hide a smile, “but maybe Christmas will be sooner than you think this year.”

Felicity’s frown deepened even more. She pulled her bottom lip between her front teeth, biting down on it. He could see that she was about to start another conversation about the little time she had left. She might not make it to the end of December when Christmas was happening.

Felicity decided to not say anything of that though. Instead, she put the empty glass down to the tray and pushed the blanket aside.

“I better get dressed then.”

Oliver nodded his head and clapped his hands. “Chop-chop.”

Felicity chuckled, looking back over her shoulder at where he was still sitting in bed, before she disappeared into the bathroom. Oliver released long breath. He would have to stay focused.

 * * *

 “You do know that you don’t have to carry all of this for me, right?”

Oliver shot Felicity a brief glance. For a second, he wondered if he should frown or smile. He decided for the latter, winking at Felicity teasingly.

“Of course I have to do so,” he told her, “because I am you little Christmas helper.”

“Like my Christmas elf?”

“I guess so,” Oliver replied and chuckled, “which would be a first for me.”

Oliver had been called a lot of things in his life, and he had been a lot of different things too, he guessed. Up until now, he had never been a Christmas elf. He had been called a Grinch one year though. Being a Christmas elf sounded much nicer.

Looking down at the many bags full of gifts that he was carrying, Oliver smiled. This morning had been utterly successful. He hadn’t thought that Felicity would be this fit to go shopping. The cooler weather seemed to help her in keeping energized though.

Looking at Felicity, Oliver smiled to himself. It was great to see her like this. She almost looked healthy. At least she didn’t look like death was hovering over her like a sword of Damocles. If it wasn’t for her left arm that was dangling down next to her body rather lifelessly, he could almost pretend that she was perfectly healthy. Almost.

The close Oliver looked at her, the more he could see how exhausted Felicity was. She had been up on her feet for the last three hours, not once taking a break to sit down and catch some rest. She had been okay with it as long as she had focused on finding nice things to gift to the people she loved. The exhaustion was crashing down over her now though.

“Why don’t we take a break?” he suggested.

“Sounds like a good plan,” Felicity replied, taking a look around briefly, “but we have to get into some side street. There is nothing here.”

“Maybe there is nowhere to get drinks or food.” Oliver put his hands to her shoulders and turned her around, so he could point over her shoulder. “Why don’t we do our break there?”

Felicity perked up her eyebrows. “In the library?”

“It doesn’t offer food, but-“

“I am not hungry anyway.”

Oliver had assumed that she wouldn’t be. She had lost a lot of weight since she had moved in with him because she simply didn’t eat much. When she did, she usually had to vomit later. It was something that Oliver needed to discuss with her doctor soon. He wasn’t sure if motivating her to eat, as he liked to do, was a good choice as it caused her to vomit more often. She couldn’t continue to eat this little either though.

“So, what do you say?” Oliver asked when Felicity didn’t give a real answer. “Should we go there?”

Felicity turned around to Oliver, looking at him teasingly. God, how much he had missed that cheeky smile on her face.

“You want to go into a library without anyone forcing you there?” She perked her up eyebrows. “And without any girl waiting there for you to devour her?”

Oliver pushed his cheek against the inside if his cheek and lowered his eyes to his feet. Felicity knew him so very well. He couldn’t hide anything from her, well, barely anything he guessed.

“One of your wishes,” he said eventually, lifting his gaze back to hers, “was to leave a note in a library book.”

Felicity’s eyes gave away the very moment that she remembered writing that wish down. The corners of her lips were twitching slightly before they spread into a full smile.

“We should definitely take that break in the library.”

“Then let’s go.”

Oliver held out his hand, and Felicity laced her fingers with his. Hand in hand, they stepped into the library where Oliver locked away the bags of gifts. When he turned back around, Felicity was looking towards the main area of the library. Thousands of books were spread over several floors in lot of tall shelves that reached from the floor to the ceiling.

A genius like Felicity just belonged in this place. It was obvious from the way her eyes were sparkling at the sight of these books.

Oliver stepped next to Felicity. “Ready?”

Felicity didn’t even turn her gaze towards him. She just grabbed his hand and nodded her head. Not saying a word, she started walking. Oliver let her lead the way, not saying a word or holding her back in any way. He went wherever she wanted to go, trusting her instincts. Felicity certainly knew how to orientate herself between all these shelves and books.

It took several minutes before Felicity stopped in front of one shelf. She looked around intently, skimming the book titles that were printed to the backs of the books. Oliver followed her gaze, trying to find out what she could be looking for. If there was any book about computers or technology in general, he would have known what she was looking for. There was nothing even remotely similar to that though.

“That one.”

Felicity lifted her right arm and pointed at one of the books. Oliver frowned, following her finger. He perked up his eyebrows when he discovered what book Felicity was pointing at.

“Really?” He looked at her skeptical. “That one?”

Felicity nodded her head, the smile on her face leaving no doubt that she was indeed sure what she was doing. She wanted that book.

With a low sigh, Oliver straightened up onto the tips of his toes and pulled the book out of the shelf. He held it in his hand for a moment, watching the cover, before he handed it to Felicity. She was holding the book in her right hand, her smile widening. She seemed to have made the perfect choice for herself.

“The Odyssey,” Oliver said quietly when they said down at one of the tables, “why that one?”

Felicity smiled. Her hand stoked over the cover of the book almost dignifiedly. An almost reverent smile spread on her lips. Apparently, the book had a specific meaning to her. He couldn’t wait to hear.

“When I first had cancer,” Felicity said, “I read this book.”

If Oliver had been drinking in this moment, he would have choked on his drink. This way, he was only choking on his spit he guessed.

“You read The Odyssey when you have been seven years old?”

Felicity shrugged her shoulders like it was the most normal thing that a person could possibly do. The little smile she shot him told him that she knew exactly how extraordinary that was though.

“Are you serious?”

“Well, I had a lot of time,” Felicity told him, “so I started by reading a book each day. The usual books for children bored me though, so I asked for other books. My mother had tried and failed miserably to bring me better books. A nurse eventually brought me this. It took me a couple of days, but I devoured it. After it, I only read classic books. They offered me a new perspective.”

“On what?”

“Everything.” Felicity shrugged her shoulders and smiled even more, a nostalgic expression spreading in her eyes. “Reading those books just changed everything.”

Oliver knew how much Felicity had always loved to read. It was one of her most favorite hobbies. When he visited her, he often found her immersed in a book. Sometimes, she was so busy reading that she opened the door, but immediately hushed him. He had spent half an hour waiting for her to look up from her page before saying a single word once.

Oliver himself was almost a little ashamed to admit that he didn’t read a lot of books. At least he was ashamed of it when he was talking to Felicity.

“I was supposed to read it in college-

“Which of the four colleges that you dropped out from?”

Oliver chuckled. She was being cheeky, and he loved that. He was missing that side of Felicity. “Anyway, I gave up after seven pages.”

Felicity perked up her eyebrows. “Seven pages?”

“Yeah, counting from the cover.”

He scratched the back of his neck, while Felicity was counting the pages to find that he had made it to the first text page. He couldn’t say anything that would speak in his favor. He had just given up because giving up had been what he had always done when things had become complicated.

“I didn’t really understand a word, so…” Oliver shrugged his shoulder. “But I guess you, a little genius can tell me what it is about.”

“I could,” Felicity replied, shooting a brief glance to the woman that was working on the table next to them as she was throwing them angry glances, “but not here.”

Oliver nodded his head. He pushed his lips together and pretended to lock them with a key the way a child would do. Felicity smiled at that.

A low sigh fell from Oliver’s lips and he nodded towards the book. He could only imagine what note Felicity wanted to leave in the book. He knew that it would be personal because, otherwise, Felicity wouldn’t have added that wish to her book. Every single wish on that list was personal to her. He just knew that.

“Do you want a moment alone to write the note?”

Felicity smiled at him. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not.” Leaning over, he kissed her temple. “I actually have some things to do.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Oliver chuckled, shooting a glance at his watch. “We will meet downstairs at the lockers in thirty minutes, okay?”

Felicity nodded her head. “Okay.”

“If anything is going on,” Oliver added urgently, intensifying the way he looked at her, “you call me.”

“I am full-aged,” Felicity replied, “I think I can get alone for thirty minutes, unless the books start to attack us people for using them for entertainment.”

Oliver growled. He wouldn’t be surprised if the books attacked people someday. They held so much knowledge. Who told them that they weren’t going to use it against them one day?

“Don’t say that, or I will feel unable to-“

“Pssst.”

Turning his head around, Oliver saw the woman that had shot them angry glares before looking at them with pursed lips and an even angrier expression in her eyes. Obviously, she felt very much annoyed and disturbed by Oliver and Felicity’s whispers.

Oliver rolled his eyes slightly, and it caused Felicity giggle. She quickly bit it back though as the woman at the next table was already shooting her another angry glance.

If Oliver didn’t know Felicity that well, he might have continued to talk to her just to annoy that woman. Oliver knew that Felicity had been that annoyed woman a lot of times because she had always appreciated silence when she had been in the library. That was why he got up and kissed the top of her head instead.

Felicity chuckled quietly, leaning her head back. There was a sparkle in her eyes that brought so much life and light back that Oliver had missed in her face so much these past days.

“You are kissy lately.”

Oliver perked up his eyebrows. “Am I?”

Felicity nodded her head. “Hm-hmm.”

Maybe Felicity had been right. He had always kissed the top of her head, her temple, her forehead or her cheeks when he had felt like it. Before Felicity had moved in with him, he had made sure to only kiss her during important events or whatever. He hadn’t wanted to kiss her too often and cause her to suspect anything.

It was harder to keep resisting those innocent kisses now though.

“I can show you how kissy exactly I am.”

Framing her face with his hands, Oliver started to pepper sweet little kisses all over her face. His lips brushed against her forehead and her temples. They took a path down her right cheek and over her chin to her left cheek. Then he kissed the tip of her nose which made her scrunch up her nose and squeeze her eyes shut.

Oliver pulled back a little to watch Felicity’s face. Her face looked completely relaxed in his hands. She looked so very happy that Oliver simply couldn’t resist.

Leaning down, he placed a firm kiss on her mouth.

Oliver could feel the surprise in Felicity’s reaction. She hesitated at first, almost flinching a little, which was why Oliver almost pulled back. Just when he wanted to do so, he felt Felicity relaxing against him. Her lips grew soft and low sigh fell from them.

Everything inside of Oliver was fluttering in the best way possible. He had wished for this so long, to just kiss Felicity the way that she deserved to be kissed. It felt so good, even better than he had assumed it would. He had never felt this way when he had kissed anyone, and he guessed it was because he had never loved anyone the way he loved Felicity. With her, everything was extraordinary.

Soon, too soon actually, Oliver pulled back and opened his eyes to look at Felicity. Her eyes were still closed. Her tongue stroked over the seam between her lips, wetting them. She looked so beautiful.

When Felicity opened her eyes, there was an almost hazy expression in them. Her eyes locked with him instantly, and it caused her cheeks to blush. It only made her look more beautiful. Oliver kept his hands at her face, stroking his thumbs over her cheeks, tracing the soft red color of her blush.

“Oliver, what-“

“I am very sorry.”

When the staff member of the library stepped closer, Oliver let go of Felicity’s face and took a step back. He linked his hands behind his back to stop himself from the urge of reaching out for her once more. His fingers were itching with the need to touch her again.

“We were too loud,” Oliver said immediately, smiling apologetically, “I am sorry.”

“Some people are working here, so I have to ask you to be quiet. If you want to talk, we have lounges in the north wing of the library and-“

“No, no,” Oliver said quickly, “I was just about to leave anyway.”

He looked at Felicity intently, trying to tell her with his eyes what he couldn’t say her in words right now. He hoped that she would understand, but he wasn’t sure.

Continuing to look at her, Oliver hesitated from turning away. He didn’t want to leave things like that, not after that kiss. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them. They needed a chance to talk about this.

“We see each other in thirty minutes.”

Felicity shot him a brief smile before she turned away. She grabbed the book, a sheet of white paper and a pen. Without looking back, she started writing.

Oliver frowned. If he wasn’t sure that he hadn’t been asleep, he would assume that he had just dreamed of that kiss to happen. Felicity seemed to have forgotten about it already.

Pursing his lips, Oliver turned around and left. Moving more and more away from her, he lifted his hands and touched his lips. He almost thought that he should be able to feel a difference there like her kiss had changed his body as much as it had moved his heart.

Stepping outside into the cool breeze, Oliver closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

He couldn’t believe that he had kissed Felicity. Of course it had been long overdue in some ways as he should have kissed her years ago when he had first noticed that he was falling in love with her. On the other hand, he had always thought that it had been way too late for them to be anything more than friends. The last years had just changed both of them too much.

Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe they still had a chance if he just used the time they had left together.

With his hand already as the handle of the door, Oliver took a quick look around. No nosy reporters seemed to be around, so he quickly stepped into the shop and stepped to the showcase. He didn’t waste a glance at the exhibited pieces and looked right at the saleswoman instead.

“Hi,” he said with a nervous smile, “Oliver Queen. I-“

“I know. Just a second.”

The saleswoman flashed him a joyful smile before she grabbed her keys and opened some door in the back. She disappeared behind it, leaving Oliver to wait. With the strict gaze that the security guard that was standing at the door was shooting him, Oliver didn’t dare to move. He didn’t understand much of the offered goods here anyway.

Barely half a minute later, the saleswoman came back. Her smile was even wide now that she placed the small velvet box on the showcase in front of him.

“You should take a look to make sure that everything is exactly the way that you imagine it to be.”

Oliver’s hands were trembling slightly when he grabbed the box and opened it. The ring inside was rather small and inconspicuous, but he knew Felicity wouldn’t have wanted the kind of ring that would pull her down on the ground if she ever fell into the water. That was why he had decided on a platin ring that consisted of two strings that were intervened with each other in soft knots. They were holding a simple round diamond.

“It’s perfect.”

With a smile, he closed the velvet box and out it back down onto the showcase. He was going to make Felicity’s wishes come true and maybe his own too.

 * * *

 Summing the melody of a song she had just listened to on the radio, Felicity strolled downstairs. She wasn’t exactly hungry, but she was always joining the Queens for dinner if she was feeling good enough for it. It was fun spending time with the three of them together. It always gave her the sense of having a family on her own.

She couldn’t wait to hear Moira telling her which charity she was planning now while she was rolling her eyes about how some of her friends pretended like they were saving the entire plant with their charity. She also wanted to hear the latest news from Queen Consolidated, knowing that Robert always told her if there was something new to know and sometimes even asked her advice if he thought that she was fit enough to think about work. Felicity knew that Oliver only engaged in those dinner conversations because he wanted to do her a favor. He had grown up with these family moments, so he didn’t appreciate them as much as Felicity did.

Felicity crossed the large entrance foyer, shooting a look at the table full of photos like she always did. Oliver had been spoilt with a maybe not perfect, but certainly good family. He had grown up with both of his parents around. While they had surely been too strict at times and too laissez-faire at other times, they had been there when they had been needed the most.

Felicity didn’t have that privilege because her mother hadn’t had the luxury of being at home for dinner most days.

The thought made Felicity sad, so she quickly pushed it away and continued her way to the dining room. Stepping into it, she frowned though. Neither Oliver nor his parents were there. The table wasn’t set as she was used to it either. Felicity glanced at her watch, but she hadn’t been wrong.

“Ms. Felicity.”

Turning around, Felicity watched Raisa coming in. She was smiling softly.

“Raisa. Where is everyone?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Queen have gone out for dinner,” she told her, “and Mr. Oliver is waiting for you in the garden.”

Felicity perked up her eyebrows. “In the garden?”

“Yes, he asked for dinner to be served outside.”

“Oh.”

Felicity couldn’t say that she was too happy about that. The cool weather she had been granted yesterday hadn’t lasted until today. The sun was back with full power. The sticky heat had kept Felicity inside all day.

“It was set up at the gazebo,” Raisa told her with a smile, knowing Felicity’s health condition well enough to understand what she was thinking about, “so it wouldn’t be too warm. It’s rather cool there. I brought out a blanket in case you were freezing.”

Since Felicity knew that Raisa wouldn’t lie to her, she nodded her head. She guessed that she could at least give the dinner outside a try.

“Thank you, Raisa.”

“You are welcome.”

Felicity smiled at Raisa before she went outside. On the terrace that was exposed to the fun completely, the unbearable heat felt like a wall she was running against. Her chest seemed to be unable to take in the heavy air for a moment. Felicity’s circulation didn’t react well to it either. She had to tighten her hold on the door handle and close her eyes for a moment.

She wished it was autumn already.

Once Felicity had her balance back, she crossed the terrace and took down the path towards the shadowy part of the garden. She would have run if she didn’t have trouble to put one foot before the other as it was. If she tried to walk even a little bit faster, she’d trip.

The walk was easier once she had reached the shadows. She strolled over the new path and a smiled when she saw the concrete slab that she and Oliver had designed.

Turning the next corner, she reached the small pond and the wooden gazebo that was built next to it. It just reminded Felicity once more how castle-like Oliver’s home was. If she was a little kid, she’d feel like a princess.

As Felicity stepped closer to the gazebo, she felt her heartbeat quickening a little. The wooden pillars that were holding the roof up were decorated with white and pink roses. The round table was set solemnly. A small bouquet of white and pink roses framed a candle that was put in the middle of the table.

Only on second sight, Felicity saw Oliver. He was standing at the banister of the gazebo, looking out on the pond. He was wearing jeans and a blue plaid shirt with rolled up sleeves. Although he had turned his back towards her, Felicity knew that he had kind of gotten dressed up, while Felicity herself was wearing sweat pants since they were the only pants that she could get into without help and a wide, white shirt.

Looking at Oliver in this scenery, Felicity bit down on her tongue.

She had done her best to not think about the kiss she and Olive had shared yesterday. It was too confusing to think about it. At first, she had believed that it was just a joke, one last big kiss to show how kissy he was. The longer his lips had stayed against hers, the more she had thought she could feel that he was really meaning it. Once their lips had parted, Felicity hadn’t been so sure anymore.

It was difficult to figure out what exactly had been happening there. She and Oliver hadn’t talked about it either which only made it worse.

Biting down on her tongue even harder, Felicity sucked in a deep breath.

There had been a time that she had thought that her bond with Oliver could go into a different reaction. They had been as close as they were now. They had told each other everything, and they had sought each other’s presence. They had even sought each other’s touches. Whenever they had touched or the lock of their eyes had lasted a second longer than was normal, there had been some heavy tension between them.

Felicity actually remembered that she had gotten all dressed up one night because Oliver had wanted to come over. She had believed that it was going to be their night whatever exactly that was supposed to mean.

Instead, she had waited at her home for several hours. When Oliver had called her eventually, he had told her that Thea was in surgery after she had had a terrible accident. She had spent the rest of the night in the hospital to be there for him and his family, and she had been with them when the doctor had told him that Thea hadn’t made it.

After that, everything had been different. The entire situation had been different. Their friendship had been different. Most importantly, Oliver had been different after that night.

Before Thea’s death, Oliver had been quiet, but happy. He had often been sitting with her and just listened to her talking. His eyes had been focused on her lips as he had just listened to what she had been saying. In those moments, it had been just them, and they had been everything that had mattered.

After Thea’s death, Oliver’s grief had caused him to grow a love for adrenaline kicks. He had been chasing through the streets on his motorcycle, not caring for red traffic lights or speed limits. If he hadn’t been riding his bike, he had been drinking or been drunk. It had been a horror seeing him like that.

One night, it would have been Thea’s birthday, Oliver had been so very drunk when Felicity had arrived at Queen Manor that she had decided to just put him to bed before she would leave again. She had put his arm over her shoulder and helped him sitting down on the edge of the mattress. When she had started unbuttoning his shirt to help him get rid of his clothes, he had suddenly grabbed her wrists and pulled her in for a kiss.

A shiver ran down Felicity’s spine at the memory. He had tasted of the drinks he had been drinking before. She had pushed him away gently, telling him that it wouldn’t be a good idea. He had apologized to her for kissing him, and Felicity had explained to him that he didn’t have to apologize. She just hadn’t wanted their first kiss to be like that. He promised her to do better before he had fallen asleep.

The next day, he had either been so embarrassed that he hadn’t been able to talk to her about it or he had forgotten all about it. Either way, that kiss had never been a subject between them again. Neither had whatever there might have been between them before Thea’s death.

A couple of weeks ago, Felicity would have certainly been open to talk about that after all. She had known that Oliver had just needed time to get back on his feet after Thea’s death. He had needed time, and she had absolutely understood it.

It was too late now though.

Felicity’s heart ached a little at that thought. Oliver still meant the world to her. Because of that, she didn’t want him to try initiate anything between them now. As her friend, he would suffer a lot once she died. As her boyfriend, it would certainly be a thousand times worse.

If Oliver tried to change the status of their bond now, Felicity thought to herself, she would have to pull the ripcord for its own good. She was selfish enough to use his friendship, so she wouldn’t have to die alone in a hospice. She could never be selfish enough to let him fall in love with her, just so she had the chance to explore what it was like being with him.

Felicity had an explanation to soften the blow for him somehow. She wouldn’t be good at it, but she would do it. At the end, she would have maybe a couple of months to live in misery. Oliver would have years of doing so.

When Felicity reached the foot of the three stairs that led to the inside of the gazebo, Oliver finally turned around to her. He smiled at her almost a little nervously. With some quick steps, he stepped towards her. He offered her a hand that she took gladly. Climbing stairs wasn’t her favorite thing to do now.

Oliver led Felicity towards the banister. Felicity understood now why Oliver had been standing here the entire time. The way that the sun mirrored in the pond, reflecting the rays of light and making the water sparkle, was just beautiful to watch. It looked like a little miracle, a miracle of nature.

Turning back to Oliver eventually, Felicity sat down on the banister and cocked her head at him. Her eyebrows perked up slightly.

“What is all of this?”

She nodded towards the decorations and the table. Oliver’s gaze followed the nod of her head. He took in the setting like he only saw it now. When he turned back towards her, his eyes locking with hers, he grinned though.

“It’s a surprise.”

Felicity perked up her eyebrows. “A surprise?”

“Yes.” Oliver nodded his head. “You know, those pleasant things that should make people smile when they need it.”

“I do know what a surprise is.”

Felicity punched his shoulder with her fist playfully. Olive pretended to be utterly hurt by it, putting his hand to his shoulder and whining in pain. Felicity only chuckled, shaking her head. Sometimes, Oliver could be so perfectly ridiculous.

“So this is your surprise for me?”

“It’s part of the surprise,” Oliver replied, “the rest will come later.”

Felicity snorted. “You can’t possibly hold onto it for any later. You barely manage to wait longer than ten seconds to tell me anything.”

“You overestimate my need to tell you anything.”

Felicity grinned. She was almost sure that this was a challenge, and she accepted it gladly. Wrapping Oliver around her little finger and making him tell her everything she wanted to hear was basically one of her best skills.

Getting up from the banister, Felicity stepped in front of Oliver and tapped the tips of her fingers against Oliver’s chest repeatedly. He was trying to hide it, but he was already having trouble biting back his chuckle. His body was shaking from the laughter he was biting back.

“Tell me,” Felicity whispered, “you know that you want to tell me.”

Oliver scrunched up his nose, trying to resist her, but she could already see the walls he had been building up crumbling.

“Tell me,” she repeated.

Oliver pressed his lips together like he was trying to hold back the words she was trying to elicit from him. It didn’t take long before he gave up with a long sigh.

“Fine,” he said, “but this is all on you.”

“I will take full responsibility,” Felicity promised with a smile, “so tell me.”

“Oh, I am not going to tell you.” Oliver leaned in and brushed his lips against the shell of her ear. “I will show you.”

Felicity pulled back slightly, so she could look at Oliver’s face. She frowned at him, not quite understanding what he was trying to say.

When he suddenly dropped to his knee in front of her, Felicity’s heart skipped a beat before it started racing in her chest. She had trouble breathing. The blood was rushing in her ear, making it hard to hear anything. The entire world seemed to stand still.

“Felicity.”

Only he could say her name in that special way. It always sounded like he was saying more than a name. He was saying a magic spell or whatever. Oliver didn’t know for sure.

“For the last few years, you have meant the world to me. You have been my best friend, my closest confidant, my rock. You have helped me through the darkest of my days, and you have lightened that darkness by just being you.”

Oliver made a pause, and Felicity wondered if he wanted her to say something. There was no way that a single sound would fall from her lips though.

“Felicity Megan Smoak,” he said then, his smile widening when he pulled out the blue velvet box to reveal a diamond ring that was inside, “will you marry me?”

Felicity looked at Oliver intently, watching the expression on his face. He was looking at her so urgently. He almost looked like a man that was really in love with a woman and wanting to get married to her. His lips were spread into a hopeful smile, a smile that said that he wanted his proposal to be accepted.

There was a terrible turmoil going on in Felicity’s head. The last few years of confusing feelings as well as the last weeks of irritating thoughts were replaying in her mind. Her gaze locked with Oliver’s even more.

It took her several tries. She had to swallow against the lump in her throat trice. Even then her voice sounded hoarse and unlike herself. Finally, a sound fell from her lips though.

“Oliver, what the fracking hell do you think you are doing here?”

* * *

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[write-like-you-mean-it]

You’re my Sunshine: Haikyuu Coffee Shop AU

This is a Choose Your Own Character. This is part 2 to Hinata’s story. Go to part 1 to read the beginning of the story.

When I’d agreed to a lovely date with the tiny, orange-haired player, I didn’t imagine that he would text me so quickly after our first encounter. Within the bus ride, we spent the majority of the time texting back and forth with basic questions. Soon, we added each other on snapchat because Hinata wanted to show me a picture of Atsumu. That was quickly followed by a video of him practicing with the same guy. After he hit the ball to the floor, Hinata turned to look at the camera and shouted “Bokuto, did you see that?” There was a scream of “good job Shoyuo” from behind the phone which resounded in the quiet bus.

That snapchat was followed by a few more with Hinata introducing each member of the team. First was a tall black and white spiked hair player who posed as if it was a photo except it was a video. It was followed by a guy whose face was half covered with a mask. He didn’t introduce himself but said “Shoyuo, do you know how many germs phones carry?”

Hinata seemed to get more excited with each video he sent showing off his team and himself. After he introduced every single person he could including managers, his best friends, and a few cats on his walk home, Hinata asked if you could show him your friends. 

At this point, it was closer to one am than it was to when you last saw each other. Most of my friends have jobs that require an early rise in the morning. I snapchatted back “I will but it is a little late. I’m going to go to sleep. Good night, Hinata.”

I received a text almost instantly with the same sentiment. The chaotic pure energy left a smile on my face and a racing in my heart that didn’t cease until I finally fell asleep an hour later. When I awoke, there was a new message wishing me a good morning and another one asking “when I might be off today?”

My text was simple. I said “I’ll be off at 3:00. Will I see you then?” followed by a few choice emojis. I must’ve been caught up in his excitement of both the impending date and countless messages from the short player. 

“I’ll pick you up at 3!” was the final message he sent. Throughout the rest of the work day, Hinata must’ve been busy. There was not a single text sent by either of us back and forth. Not a snapchat in sight. His lack of texting left me with a constant buzz in the back of my mind of what he could be planning for the latter half of the day. 

Once three pm hit the clock, my nerves started back up again. I found myself watching the door in anticipation of Hinata's arrival. While taking an order for a customer, Carrie placed her hand on my back and whispered in my ear “you’ll stare a hole in my door if you’re not careful. WHo are you watching for?”

I wanted to respond with ‘no one’ except karmic justice isn’t pretty, and Hinata walks through the door. “I see,” she responded to her own question. Hinata took this opportunity to wave in my direction. “I’ll pick up from here. Your shift has been done for ten minutes now. You won’t want to keep your date waiting.”

My response was to roll my eyes as I finished with the customer in front of me. “Thank you for coming in today. Your drink will be at the end counter.” The moment he stepped away from the register, my apron was off my head and hung haphazardly on the hook. 

“You don’t have to leave for me,” said the player as I walked up to him. “If you still have to work, I can wait until you’re done. “

“No, no,” I said. “My boss said I was working too many hours and to enjoy my time off.” Hinata grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the cafe. His sudden movements caught me off balance as I stumbled into his smaller frame. “That’s good. Then we have to get going.” He didn't react to my apparent inability to stay on my feet. 

Hinata walked, no, dragged me to a shop near my own workplace. It was a newly opened ice cream shop. “We’re here,” he says. His own hand has yet to let go of mine. 

“Ice cream?” I ask confused before the tug on my arm gets stronger as we walk into the brisk shop. “Why ice cream?”

“Atsumu, Bokuto, and I go here after we win a game in this tournament,” said Hinata. “It has my favorite flavor of matcha ice cream.” 

We both get in the line to look at the multitude of ice cream flavors displayed behind plexiglass. “I can’t believe that you’re taking me to such a special place for you,” I joke. The player turns to look at me. “Of course I’d take you here. You’re my good luck charm.” 

In that moment, you could feel the sunshine off his smile. He became the beam that could cast away any shadow. My heart beat raced in my ears as it drowned out any other thoughts in my mind. His hand squeezed my palm and let go. The pressure brought me back down from orbit. 

“Hinata-,” my lips whispered. 

“Oh, you can call me Shoyuo. It’s what my team calls me.”

“Okay, Shoyuo, what makes you so cheerful?” Again, the words roll off my tongue as if they were a foreign language. His spirit was rarely found within anyone I had met. It was an intoxicating trait that magnetized anyone in his life. 

Hinata was about to answer but the clerk called for the next person. His interruption was a needed break. The wing spiker found himself busy in choosing multiple ice cream flavors and the size that would suit his needs. I found myself ordering my regular choice even though it was a basic flavor. He paid for both our cups and we found a booth near the entrance to the shop. 

The player sat next to me and left an empty booth seat. “I hope you don’t mind,” he said. 

“Of course not,” I replied, trying not to think about how I could feel heat radiating off his body. “I have enough space if you do.”

Hinata takes a bite of ice cream from his spoon and nods. “It’s fine by me,” he mumbles with the plastic still trapping his words. “Have you always worked in the coffee shop?”

“Ever since high school,” I say while taking a bite of my own. The cool taste made my tongue tense up with each bite. “I started out as an intern to get extra points on college scholarships. I ended up staying here because I loved the people and I enjoyed the free drinks.” 

Shoyuo seemed to eat up every word. His eyes would be locked on my own or onto his ice cream. “And you didn’t go to college?”

“No,” I sighed. “It was a far off dream. I didn’t have enough money and spent too much time working. I make a decent living now but I had no way to pay for school when I should have applied.” We both took bites of our sugary dessert in silence. It was as if we were stalling for words that refused to come. “What made you choose volleyball?”

His eyes lit up with the same excitement I saw before. “I saw the tiny giant play on T.V. He looked so cool and was as short as I was. I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I played through high school and even went to Brazil for a while. I wanted to become better than anyone else.”

“Have you done that?”

“I’m not better than Kageyama. He’s still winning the last time we counted.”

“Whose Kageyama?” I ask while scraping the last bit of ice cream out of the bottom of the container. 

“It’s a long story,” said the volleyball player before putting another large glob of ice cream in his mouth. “He was a rival in middle school. The only team I faced then. We found ourselves at the same high school only a year later. We became friends throughout our time. He went on to play right out of high school; I had to still train. He’s the only setter that has caught up to me.”

“He must be pretty special in your life.”

“He is,” Hinata says while finishing his own ice cream. He looks at both our empty cardboard and turns to face me. “Maybe this wasn’t the best place because we both are done. I don’t want this date to be over yet.”

The orange haired player’s smile fades at the thought of ending our time early. It was my turn to squeeze his hand in mine and beam his own smile. “We don’t have to be done. Come on. I know a great stop for part two of this date.”

“Part two?” Shoyuo asks. “How many parts will there be?” 

“As many as we can take,” I reply back while lightly pushing him out of the seat. He refuses to move; however, he scraps some of his extra ice cream in his bowl. I looked at him confused before he placed the dripping liquid in front of my mouth. 

“I forgot to have you taste the matcha. Sorry this is all I have left. It’s a little liquid-y.” I chuckle at his words before taking the spoon into my mouth. As he pulls away, I notice some slipping from my lips. I go to lick it away but Hinata leans in and kisses away the extra. 

My face burned as I was caught off guard from his actions. He was the first to pull away while whispering “you taste sweet” which only caused my face to burn brighter. 

“Shoyou,” I mutter.

“Was I not supposed to do that?” he asks. 

“It’s alright,” I said before leaning in for my own quick kiss. “Now come on. We have places to be.”

(This series is a choose your own adventure. Pick your favorite man or all of them. I will try to make as many of them as possible with continuations. So far, there is Oikawa, Sugawara, Tuskishima, Hinata, Kageyama, and Akaashi. If you have a suggestion or comment, please message me!!)

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[dhufflebee]

damned thoughts, damning decisions  (a Glee fanfiction)

One-shot Fandom: Glee Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Jesse St. James; Rachel Berry   Additional Tags: Missing Scene; Confrontations; trying to make sense of Jesse's face-heel turn in "Funk"; Slight blackmail; Shelby is terrible (sorry)

Also read on:  AO3  |  ff.net Summary: Jesse is summoned by Shelby and given an ultimatum. A change (a betrayal?) of that kind needs some sort of reason, though, even for a mess of a teenager like he is.

I know it’s been years, but I’m still pissed at the bad writing re: Jesse at the end of season 1. He did have his dickish moments throughout the episodes, sure, but such an abrupt change in behavior makes no sense – there was no context or explanation at all, and we deserved more, as did the characters. I don’t think the events in Funk were part of the plan from the start (because nothing that happens or is said beforehand supports it), and I’m convinced that it was a later development, and an unwelcome one at that.

Hence, this bridge-the-gap scene that’s been on my mind since the first time I watched the show. I’ve read some great fics about this plot point over the years; I guess it was time to write mine. it’s not elaborate nor particularly insightful – mostly Jesse being a conflicted teenager under pressure and (sadly) an all-around mess. I just wish they’d put something in the show so the whole situation would feel less out of the blue.

Lastly, sorry to Shelby fans, but I kind of hate her. Also, peer pressure is a bitch (and I’m sure it played a huge part in the whole debacle, even if I just hint at it in this fic).

“So, what happened to ‘I regret never getting to hold her’ and all that?” Jesse asked with a hard voice, and dropped his school bag unceremoniously on the ground. He was tired after the drive from Lima to Akron on a school-day afternoon, and annoyed about being rudely summoned like some sort of minion. (He guessed he was a bit angry at himself as well, because it was not like he’d protested all that much.) Mostly, though, he was pissed at Shelby for the way she’d treated Rachel, his anger fueled by the fresh memory of his girlfriend tearfully recounting how she’d been rejected by her mother. Again.

“I beg your pardon?” Shelby retorted, arching an eyebrow, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“That whole convoluted plan just so you could finally meet Rachel, and then that’s how you treat her?” Jesse tried to keep his voice steady, but the situation and Shelby’s blasé attitude were making his blood boil.

“Who do you think you are, our family counselor?” Shelby sneered, and Jesse barely suppressed the urge to up and leave right then and there. “What I decide to do with my life is none of your business.”

“It kinda is, though,” Jesse spat, bitterly. “Since, you know, Rachel is my girlfriend, and you are the one who forced me to take part in this charade!”

Shelby stared at him for a moment, then chuckled. “I seem to recall you being ok with it, mister ‘it’s going to be a good acting exercise’.”

“Well, I recall telling you I wasn’t all that comfortable with it anymore, and you ignoring me and even doubling down on it.”

“You seemed awfully comfortable with your spot amongst New Directions, though. And yet, you still went on spring break with Vocal Adrenaline,” Shelby mused, smirking unkindly.

Jesse inhaled sharply, clenched his fists and looked at his feet, the shame that had been in the back of his mind for the past months flaring up. “That’s not fair,” he whispered. “It was just Andy and a couple of others—they’re my friends…”

“Anyway,” Shelby interjected, matter-of-factly. “I don’t care about your holidays, and I don’t have any more time to waste. I told you to come here to say this—you’re coming back to Carmel by the end of the week.”

Jesse’s head shot up, and he stared at Shelby in utter bewilderment. “What? No!”

“Oh, I’m sorry—was there anything in our arrangement that made you believe I’d let you spend the rest of the year in that mediocre school?” she asked, sarcasm dripping from very word.

“But I thought—” Jesse frowned, and shook his head; he didn’t know how to finish the sentence (really, what had he been thinking?).

“You clearly didn’t,” Shelby said, raising her eyebrows. “I want you back in this auditorium by Friday. And I won’t be accepting excuses.”

“But I can’t!” Jesse pleaded. “What about Rachel?”

“Oh, Rachel understands that I’m not in the right headspace to be her mom at the moment,” Shelby answered, waiving her hand nonchalantly. “She was very sympathetic.”

Jesse’s anger came back in full force, burning at the pit of his stomach. “It was all a front, just so you know. She didn’t want you to feel like she was a burden, but honest to God, in hindsight she should have raged at you for being a —”

“Don’t you dare,” Shelby hissed, shutting him up. “You have no say in the matter.”

“I do, too! I’m owed the right to speak my mind,” Jesse exclaimed. “And whatever the circumstances, Rachel is still my girlfriend.”

“Yeah well, that has to end.”

Jesse deflated. “What?”

“I’m sure you realize that, if you come back to Vocal Adrenaline, you can’t keep dating the lead of New Directions,” Shelby said, with the tone one would reserve for an eight-year-old.

“But I don’t want to,” Jesse answered, his voice no more than a whisper.

“What was that?”

“I said, I don’t want to,” he repeated, standing a bit straighter.

“It was not a suggestion, Jesse.”

“I already told you, though! I like Rachel, for real. I know this all started as a ruse, but now I think I might even be—” Jesse couldn’t bring himself to finish his own thought. He was scared as hell to admit it to himself, let alone to Shelby.

“Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s ever stopped you before,” Shelby shrugged. “I gather your reputation as a callous, careless heartbreaker has to come from somewhere.”

Jesse didn’t know how to answer, because it was all true. And it stung like a bitch, especially because with Rachel everything had been different, was different, and he didn’t want to be that person anymore. He was starting to be ashamed of his old self—it was a weird sensation, but one he didn’t want to forego, and surely not in the way Shelby was ordering him to.

“Listen, I really don’t care about your imminent break-up with Rachel,” Shelby stated. “Just do it. And then come back here, ready to work.”

“And what if I don’t?”

“Then I’ll have to call the UCLA Admissions Office and have them revoke your scholarship,” she answered pointedly. “You know I have pull. Good luck asking your father for the money.”

Jesse was dumbfounded. No way in hell his father was going to give him a penny, let alone pay for his entire tuition. He wanted to say something, but the anger and dread he was feeling seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle for his voice.

This is practically blackmail, Jesse thought, annoyed. However, a part of his brain was more worried about disappointing yet another important adult in his life than about anything else. He hated Shelby for manipulating him and Rachel and the whole situation, but he was determined to not be looked at as ‘a failed project’ by anyone else. His family was already enough.

Lost in his thoughts, Jesse was beginning to hate himself as well, because he was actually considering going along with Shelby’s request. He couldn’t ask his family for money, and he couldn’t imagine not going to UCLA after boasting so much about it. In all honesty, he also couldn’t bear the thought of not winning his last national title as a senior; and God knows New Directions were not even close to being victory material, even with him as a member. Besides, no one liked him there or ever listened to him, even though they could really use his advice.

The thought of helming a great number and raising another national trophy was more and more appealing with every passing minute—and with that the certainty of actually being worth all the fuss, regardless of what his father always told him, and the confirmation his self-confidence (arrogance?) was not misplaced. The voice in his head (a voice that sounded painfully like Rachel’s) kept telling him he was reverting to his old dickish ways, but… well, he’d been suppressing that particular thought for a very long time.

After a while, Jesse lifted his head, his eyes meeting Shelby’s. He clenched his jaw, then nodded stiffly.

Shelby relaxed, and started gathering her things. “Good boy. Now, I want this break up with Rachel and with New Directions to be grand—there has to be no doubt that you have closed that door. Squash their morale, too, for good measure.” She shouldered her bag and started walking towards the exit. Then she turned around and added, almost as an afterthought: “I put Giselle in charge of the whole thing, by the way. Apparently, she already has some brilliant ideas or whatever. I don’t care what you do, just do it well. See you on Friday,” she said, before disappearing out the door.

Jesse sighed, and picked up his bag from the floor. Anger was still simmering somewhere in his guts, but it was being silenced by a wave of uneasiness and by a dull and persistent heartache. He grabbed his phone to check his notifications, and saw that Giselle had already written him a string of messages. He read them, purposefully ignoring the texts he’d received from Rachel in the meantime.

Jesse St. James, as I live and breathe. Ms Corcoran told me you’re coming back and let me tell you, fi.na.lly.  

Anyway, I’ve already started planning a couple of fun things to remind those losers who the superior show choir is

Tomorrow be here sharp and ready cause we start rehearsing

Also there’s gonna be something special just for your girlfriend – we’re not comfortable with you simply breaking up with her. It has to be hard and memorable,, you’ve already played mole before and we’re not willing to risk it

Stay tuned for that (and remember it’s a deal breaker if you want us to back you up as lead ever again)

Jesse groaned, already dreading whatever the hell was coming. He tried to suppress the shame he felt by imagining himself holding a fourth national trophy (which was easy) and trying not to think about Rachel (which was very, very hard).

He spent the drive home furiously wiping the tears off his cheeks.

[blackmilshake]

ok so i’m a sucker for angst and this is totally not based on something that has happened irl😳so imagine, reader has a twin who is rlly hyper and more fun about the world and wants to live her life where as the reader doesn’t trust anyone and gets scared easily and is dating harry and brings him home to meet her family but he starts to like readers twin more and reader has to beg for him to stay 🥵 love flashbacks but plz make an imagine of of it also turns out this was a mini rant

A/N: Hey love! I like angst too, not sure if I hit it this time tho, I’ll give it a second read tomorrow. Thanks for the request. Hope you are safe. Enjoy!

Being a twin was quite an experience, when you and your twin sister were children, since you were identical twins you used to prank your parents and friends all the time, your mom used to dress you two exactly the same, the only difference a bracelet with your names on it.

As you grew up, each one started to show so much more how different you two were, you loved science and investigation, meanwhile your sister, Amy, loved cinema, photography, she was so extrovert and you a little more into the introvert side of things.

And it was ok, you did enjoy being at home with your books, some confortable clothes and a good tea, and admired how much energy Amy had, she went out all the time with a lot of your friends, because you had the same friends, and they understood that you wanted to stay home time to time.

When it was time to go to college, your parents wanted the both of you to study the same thing, but you had decided that you wanted to be a doctor and Amy wanted to study photography, and so you applied to medschool and got accepted. It was the best thing that could’ve happened to you. A full scholarship, you wouldn’t disappoint yourself or your parents. It was your priority, your career.

Who knew that you would end up meeting your first boyfriend ever in a public library a rainy Saturday morning, but there he was, the library almost empty, yet he asked if he could sit in front of you.

And of course you accepted, and couldn’t help but notice him staring at you from time to time, then he talked to you, made you laugh, went for lunch.

It was hard for you to accept him as something more than a friend, you had never let anyone in in that way, you were petrified. Also, you didn’t want to get distracted by anything, your career was your top, but you ended up falling for that sweet smile and corny jokes.

Now he’s been your boyfriend for a little over a year, it felt right to bring him home to your parents, since you’ve know his family for months now.

Your sister was there too, she opened the door, and of course Harry knew about her, but it’s always the same reaction, “omg, she looks just like you.”

Your parents loved him, he was so confortable that by the second day at your parents house he was playing monopoly with them while you were studying in your room.

By the end of the day you hadn’t heard from Harry not even once, and you were happy that he was so confortable with your family, but his lack of attention towards you was bothering you a little.

It was almost midnight, when you went downstairs for some food when you heard giggles coming from the living room, your twin sister, Amy and Harry were on the same couch, Harry’s arm over your sister’s side of the couch as she laughed at something he said.

When Harry noticed you he stood up with that same smile he gives you.

“Babeeee! I missed you!” You just smiled the best you could.

It was the first time that you felt... jealousy perhaps?

It’s just...

Yeah, you and your sister were physically identical, but deep down you felt as if people liked her more than you. She had something... she was more charismatic, more... more something. You were always more serious, people told you that all the time. You had the same friends because she always included you.

And yeah, you had thought about how Harry and Amy would match just perfect, both had that something. And to think about that was unsettling to you.

You hated how you felt.

You almost wanted to cry.

Maybe it was all part of your insecurity?

Just your mind playing games at you?

You were great too... right?

Of course you wouldn’t tell Harry about that, it was something stupid.

So you just watched the two of them for the next two days, watched them laugh and get along more and more everyday.

You also noticed how Harry barely spoke to you those three days you had been home.

Sure you were studying, but when you are at your place he’s always with you, even helping you.

The next day was your flight back to London, and you wanted to be strong and not cry until you are alone at your place, you really did try, but tears started to fall down your cheeks.

You tried to be quiet, since Harry was sleeping right next to you, but also failed as a sob left your mouth, and that’s all it took, he was up, he turned to you, still half asleep.

“Babe? Are you ok?”

You only nodded and tried to turn your back at him, but he was faster and held you, turning the little lamp next to him on, eyes big now, you were crying. He had seen you cry like two times total, and you had your reasons.

“Oh, my. Kitten? Why are you crying?”

You just shook your head no, you weren’t ready to face all your feelings, not out loud. Not if by the end of the conversation he chose Amy and not you. You really did felt for him.

“Are you feeling bad?”

You shook no.

“Does something hurt?”

You shook no again.

“Was it a bad dream?”

Shook again.

“Kitten, talk to me. Maybe I can help.”

How could he be so naive?

How could you be so naive? Of course he liked your sister more than you.

You had to tell him, it was the right thing to do. You wanted him to be as happy as possible, and you also wanted the best for Amy, and Harry was the best.

“Maybe we should break up.”

Your voice was barely a whisper, but he heard you, and he felt all his blood falling to his feet.

It was so unexpected. You two were so happy. Or that’s what he thought.

He had never felt that happy ever, he truly loved you, and felt everyday more and more for you, so your words hit him like a pile of bricks, it got hard to breath.

“What?” He said, as tears filled his eyes. He tried to swallow the lump on his throat. “Why?”

“It’s for the best, Harry.” He felt a little angry now. Were you just playing with him? Why would you bring him to your parents house just to break up with him?

When you finally asked him to go with you to meet your parents he was beyond excited. He thought you were moving forward.

“The best? The best for whom?”

“For you, Harry. It’s so obvious.”

“Isn’t it obvious that I love you? That you make me so damn happy? The happiest I’ve ever been? Why on earth do you want us to break up?”

It hurt you so much to see him like this, so vulnerable, eyes red and breathing so fast it must hurt.

“Do you like Amy?”

He looked so confused. Not sure why you were asking such a thing.

“How is that relevant now?”

“You didn’t answer.” You said, ready to give him up to your sister.

“Stop playing, babe. Is this a joke?”

“No, do you like Amy more than me?”

Now he kind of understood.

“You think I like your sister more than you?”

You tried so hard not to cry harder, and Harry was trying so hard not to laugh, a nervous laugh. Praying internally that that was all, and not that you didn’t love him anymore.

“No! Babe, of course I don’t like her more than I like you, I love you, your character, your vibes, how passionate you are, stubborn and hardworking. I could never like or love anyone more than you, even someone who looks just like you.”

“But you would make such a great couple with her. She’s just like you. And it seems like you really like her, bet she likes you too. Maybe you just met the wrong sister. I won’t be mad, I promise.” You said, head down.

“Babe, kitten... I don’t even... are you nuts

?” He said half smiling, taking your chin with his index and thumb, making you look at him, his other hand drying the tears down your cheeks, as his own tears started to dry out.

“I love you. You and only you. I’m sorry if I did anything to make you think otherwise, you mean the world to me. You keep me on my feet, you make me happy, not only how you look, and don’t misunderstand me, you are smoking hot, but it’s you, what’s on the inside that drives me crazy, how much I love you it’s indescribable, you make me better, I love you, ok? I wouldn’t change you, ever. So I won’t let you break us up. We are too good to be apart. Ok?”

Happy tears felt down your cheeks now as you nodded.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, kitten, just say you take me back, cause you scared the he’ll out of me for a second, babe.”

You giggled a little.

“I take you back.”

“I love you” he said truthfully as he pecked your lips.

“And I love you.” You said, big smile on, as you pecked him back.

[bolbianddolanhouse]

BNHA self insert AU [Book 4]

CATCH UP! Book 1 * 2 * 3

Chapter 4: Lets Get Fuckin FUNKY!

Not that big of a time skip, the twins are nearing the end of their second year of middle school. Hanaka has special training time with her dad. Tensei still has to reach out to his mother on quirk training, mainly because he’s been debating and making a new sound for his band. 

“...points to the opposed, Iida and Tanaka move on to the next round.”

The room erupted with cheer as the debate duo stood up to give their bows. Tensei was internally psyched out of his mind! He was at Japan’s Grand Prix Debate Tournament and he just got his team to move on to the semi-finals. If they do well in semis, Nationals next year is a guarantee!

“Gentlemen, I won’t lie” Tensei tried to hold it in “the moment they slipped up in their cross examination, they were done for!”

“We saw that! The way you pushed up your glasses before giving your final statement was iconic” gushed one of his teammates.

“Lets go get some food before they do the final draw” suggested one of the boys “They have good food here!”

“Hup! Iida-kun, may I have a word before you go on your lunch?” requested the new coach.

“Ummm sure” Tensei walked toward the coach, then quickly turned back to the group “Get me yakisoba! I don’t know how long I’m going to be.”

The coach waited until the other boys were out of earshot “Alright, you’re not in trouble and nothing is wrong. I wanted to let you know that I spoke to a coach at Waseda Uni.”

“Waseda is here?!” gasped Tensei.

The new coach smiled “I thought you might react like that! They have you on their radar. If you play your cards right, you might be looking at scholarships and offers to get into their humanities programs when you apply for college.”

“That does sound ideal” Tensei pondered out loud “I’ll do my best to make this a clean sweep for our school.”

“Oh and another thing! Are you doing this next year too?”

Tensei got sheepish “I’m not sure anymore. Since I’m still going with my plan to do hero school after middle school” he sighed “That big infraction on my school record doesn’t look too good on me to go to those privates with their absolute units of debaters. I don’t really see the point of doing a third year of this if I’m going down that route.”

“Well, if you change your mind” the coach takes out a pin from his satchel “I’d love to have you as my student coach for next school year.”

Tensei gasped “You want me as Club Senpai?!”

He nodded as they handed Tensei the tiny gold pin “I can’t think of anyone else that’s more than capable.”

“Oh I can’t possibly take this” Tensei handed back the pin “I don’t have a definite answer.”

“Hold on to it, think it over” the coach pushed Tensei’s hand back gently “Give it back on the first day of third year if you’re not joining. I trust you won’t forget nor misplace it until then.”

That was the biggest power move Tensei has ever witnessed. He continued to get his school to the finals and 2nd place overall that day. On the car ride home, Tensei was lost in his thoughts.

“...Tensei? Did you hear me?”

He snapped out of it “Huh?! No, sorry! What did you say mom?”

“I asked if you wanted McDonalds” repeated his Mother.

“Oh...yes please”

His mother turned into the street of the McDonalds their family frequents.

“You’re not as excited as I thought you might’ve been” his mother waited to say until after they ordered “What happened mijo?”

Tensei sighed “I am happy and psyched to get our school into nationals again. And this win is a pretty good note to end on...but should I stop here?”

“Oh I see, you don’t want to quit the team huh?”

“Yeah! And things are making me want to stay” Tensei gushed “Like, coach wants me to be club senpai AND Waseda has me on their radar! Too good to pass up but I want to get started on my quirk training for hero school. I’m not sure if I can juggle everything for my third year.”

They pulled up to the pick up window.

“As a mother, I want to tell you to do the right thing and sacrifice one thing to help you focus” His mother started “But as the chaotic, over-achiever, ‘fuck you, don’t tell me what to do!’ personality I am... Fuckin do it all! Flex on everyone and be THAT bitch. I believe in you.”

Tensei wasn’t expecting that from his own mother “Huh? How is being in a band, being club senpai and hero training flexing on them?”

“Did you listen to yourself saying that sentence?! That sounds cool as hell!” giggled his mother “I’ve gone through all the juggling in my school years and turned out as this absolute beast! Before I married your father I was one of the most powerful women in Japan already with my status as a top agent, college degree and CEO of my security robot company. I didn’t have to get married and start a family Tensei...but I wanted nothing more than to have a family of my own. And I did! All without giving up a single thing, now I’m THE most powerful woman in all of Japan, would you want to mess with a married woman that’s not only smarter, stronger, richer and has four kids?”

Tensei shook his head in fear “If you put it in perspective like that, I would be scared to be on your bad side. With all those titles, it feels like you can make me disappear in a snap.”

“Now imagine yourself! Tensei Oro Iida: Musician, Lawyer and Hero. Serving justice in and out of the court in the day, playing a gigs in the night!”

“Hmmm, that does sound pretty cool” Tensei receives the bag of food on his lap “You really think I can do it?”

“OH I know you can!” his mother exited out of the drive thru and towards home “You’re my son, my children are capable of the impossible.”

That filled Tensei with motivation to juggle all those titles. 

But meanwhile, the girls are having a girls night at Petti’s place.

“Oh my! Is this you guys?” gushed Twinkle at the framed photo in the living room “You were so tiny! In your little dresses and with your dads!”

Hanaka looked over Twinkle’s shoulder “Your dad kept this picture framed Petti? This was so long ago!”

“Nya! It’s the only nice picture we took ‘member?” Kyanka giggled as she flopped onto the couch “We threw a temper tantrum so bad that we lost control of our quirks.”

“Ah yes, good times” reminisced Petti as she brought out the snacks “My dad kept that one framed because it was the one time I willingly put on a dress and smiled.” She pointed to the other pictures on the wall “You can see in the other ones that I wear alt-core and scowl.”

Twinkle looked at the other pictures as the other girls ate snacks. 

“If you don’t mind me asking” Twinkled started off “Where’s your mother Petti?”

Kyanka and Hanaka stopped their snacking to turn to Petti. They know that she doesn’t respond well to that question and braced themselves in case she activates her Dark Shadow.

“My mom? She’s not in the picture sadly” sighed Petti, surprisingly calm “Dad tells me I was abandoned at his door as an egg. And she never returned to get to know me, so it’s just been my dad and I. Dad doesn’t have family either.”

“Oh I’m sorry I brought it up!”

“No it’s alright! I’m okay telling you” smiled Petti “Like, my dad tries really hard to raise me right. But it’s tough being a single dad and hero! Hanaka’s mom is basically my mother figure and I ask her all my girl questions that I don’t want to ask my dad.” She looks at the her cup of pink drink “I really want to meet my mom someday though. I have her eye color, skin tone and quirk trigger according to my dad. So I get my hot-headed nature from her and I kinda wish I got her normal face and not a bird head! But I don’t have an idea where she could be.”

“That’s so wholesome of you” Twinkle got teary-eyed “I hope you do get to meet your mom. Maybe when we become heroes, you’ll have the resources to find her!”

“That’s the goal” Petti stretched her back “Hopefully she’d want to be in my life at that point, I like to think that she just doesn’t like children.”

Hanaka spoke up “Now that I think about it, all of us look to my mom as their mother figure.”

“But aren’t your parents are together Kyanka?” questioned Twinkle.

“My mom old as hell” blurted Kyanka “How my dad got suckered into getting with an older woman is beyond me, nya. But she’s always away for hero work with the Wild Wild Pussycats, so I ask Hanaka’s mom for girl advice too. She’s a good woman but I wish she’d just, retire and act her age” sighed the cat girl as she flexed her paws “I may not show it, but I’m scared that with her age and not being in her prime anymore, she’s going to die on the job. It’s scary to think about it and I can’t do anything to stop her from going to work. That’s why I want to be a hero, so I can take her place as a rescue hero, making her retire.”

Twinkle was bawling at this point “Such noble causes! You guys are making me miss my mama.”

“Oh geez, get it together girl” Petti stands up “I’ll get you some tissues.”

“Yea, noble causes” Hanaka repeated aloud, making her pause to think “I don’t really have a reason to be a hero. Other than I can and have the means to do so, my parents never made me do something because of our status or family name.” She looked in the reflection of her cup “I don’t really know what I’m good at. Tensei got all the talent and smarts, I have the quirks and good genes.”

“Aww don’t compare yourself with your twin again” Petti said as she walked in with a fistful of tissues “You’re talented in your own way.”

“Oh yea? Name one thing- THAT ISN’T QUIRK RELATED!” Hanaka huffed.

Petti handed the loose tissues to Twinkle “Easy! You’re charismatic, people think you’re cute and go all mushy and do things for you with little interaction.”

“Ooh! You have a good sense of distance” Kyanka blurted “With just a glance, you know how far something is. AND you’re always quick to help out with things, even if you’re not sure if you’re a good fit for the job! ‘member when you volunteered to do the food stall in 1st year?”

Twinkle blew her nose “You’re a good friend! You integrated me into your group and share your food with me. And from the stories Kyanka and Petti tell, you’re always the first one to start things, a natural leader!”

Hanaka was touched “Aww guys, you’re too much!”

“Can you guys not cry at my house?!” Petti tossed a loose tissue at Hanaka “Seriously! I’m trying to chill with the girls, not get all sappy.”

Not too much time passes and it’s graduation season! Of course the ones graduating are Lili and Iwata from their respected institues. Everyone is home for the holidays and decisions have to be made.

“What’s up with you two?” Lili asked as she looked up from her phone “Usually something would be on fire and it’s too quiet for having a full house. What is going on?”

Hanaka and Tensei were face down in the middle of the living room.

“Shh, they’re communicating” Iwata teased “But deadass, why are you guys so quiet?”

Tensei lifted his head to speak “I’m tired as hell! Mom got me on her training regime and my legs are refusing to work.”

Hanaka flipped over “Ow! And Dad had me do so much reading that my brain hurt and eyes burn.”

“Oh man, I remember those days” sighed Lili with a smile “The mental and physical pain of hero training. Aren’t you glad you’re done with all that Iwee?”

“Yup! Thought I’d never get out of that cycle of pain” Iwata sighed back “Just wait until you realize you’re gay after a series of weird events happen.”

“But that part was my favorite!” beamed Lili.

Hanaka furrowed her brow “That sounds like a you thing. We actually have friends.”

“We have friends too!”

“Yea, the ones you’re dating and are going to marry someday!”

Lili and Iwata tried to think of a rebuttal but their little sister was right.

“ANYWAYS! How prepared are you guys for the entrance exam?” Lili asked.

Tensei groaned “Man, I forgot about that! Why can’t we just, take a written exam like a normal school.”

“It’s not that bad, come on Tensei” Iwata coaxed his brother to stand up “The telekinesis shit is kinda hard to master. But you can flex what that metal bending quirk can do to those robos!”

“Literally, you two have the upper hand to easily pass” Lili explained “The test hasn’t changed in decades! It’s always the robots and the ‘big boy’ robot is worth 0 points BUT you get rescue points if you either save someone from it’s path or you destroy it out of safety of others.”

“Then why did you two struggle?” asked Tensei, not believing that the exam is that simple.

“We can go fast but our second quirks aren’t power based” Lili snapped her fingers to instantly transform the curtain into a pair of pants “imagine that but in battle! The most useful thing I’ve done is make netting and a hot air balloon to transport my classmates! I had to learn certain fighting styles and have multiple support items for me to be on par with everyone else.”

Iwa levitated everything in the living room “And I can do all the floaty things but I’m not like mom, where I can crush things with my mind!” he throws a pillow with force at a wall “that’s my ‘force’ with my quirk, yea it helps me fly for a short amount of time but I wasn’t strong enough to stop a robot from attacking me when I was entering UA.”

Hanaka flails her arms “Okay okay I get it! We’re stronger by default! Put me down now!”

“Oof forgot you don’t like getting levitated” Iwata quickly set everything down “But please don’t feel so helpless, we’d kill to have the advantages you two have.”

The twins faced at each other and exchanged looks.

“If you say so” sighed Tensei “Then I guess we’re ready.”

“YAY!” the older siblings cheered and did the little quick claps.

“Don’t clap and cheer! We’re not babies!” barked the twins.

Just out of sight were their parents, looking on at the sight of their children being their usual selves.

“It was getting too quiet around here” whispered Tenya as he hugged his wife from behind “I feel complete.”

“Enjoy it while you can love” Ita whispered back “Our nest is going to be empty sooner than you think!” She gave her husband a quick kiss “Okay ninos, visitas are at the gates. The living room should be nice and tidy! I got the curtains special made for this year’s theme!”

The kids glanced at the pants that were once the curtains and then to the disorganized furniture, shit!

“Okay mom we’ll fix the living room!” Iwa spoke up “No need to come in here and check! You go and greet the guests!”

Lili frantically fixed the pants-curtains as the twins fixed the couch cushions and Iwa floated everything back to the original layout. Just like when they were younger.

With new confidence and old support, suddenly the new part of the twin’s lives isn’t so scary. 

-Chapter 4, End-

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