#i worked so hard to get this out before midnight so it's TECHNICALLY early

[mrkvhs]

sketched my fav girlfailure ever

[hhonghu]

Morning glory

;; kabukimono x reader

cw: fluff, ooc!kabukimono ?, mutual pining, unestablished relationship

to make up for my long absence, here is some lovey dovey thrown at your way <33 i'll get back writing on what i promised soon!

knock knock!

"mmh.." kabukimono groans, rolling on to his side and pulling the blanket closer to him and burrowing his face into it. just 5 more minutes, he thought. there's nothing wrong with sleeping just a bit more. just a little more.

he and niwa spent nearly almost the entire night awake, trying to perfect the technique that kabukimono studied for forging and begged niwa to stay up with him until he got it right. after several tries and hours passed, kabukimono was finally satisfied all the while niwa was nearly about to pass out of exhaustion, giving him a shaky smile and telling him that it's late and that they should head to bed.

knock knock!

"come on, sleepyhead! wake up! the sun has risen!" kabukimono groans again, mumbling out a little "nooo..". niwa heard the little complaint and tried not to laugh. it was technically the early hours of the morning, the sun having yet to rise much. "that's what you get for staying up late. come on, get up!" second pass and still no answer. niwa sighs, about to walk away before an idea pops in.

"alright, fine. sleep in for today. you deserve it for working hard last night." niwa walks away slowly as possible, making sure his voice is still heard. "too bad you'll miss [name]. they might wonder why you didn't come by this morning and feed them."

kabukimono bolts up, eyes wide awake and sleep gone from his body. [name]! how could he forget! how could he let sleep take him over like that?

he shuffles out of his bed and opening his door, scurrying down the hallway and down the stairs, passing by niwa who was letting out a laugh. "who knew that [name] was the prayer i needed to get you to wake up?" kabukimono reached the bottom and turned his head around, sticking his tongue out a little at him. "don't get ideas, niwa."

he freshens himself up and heads to the kitchen, rolling up his sleeves above his elbows. he still had time to make you a dish, he can't miss it. he begins to work his way in the kitchen, taking out ingredients to make katsu sandwiches for you and rice omelette for niwa and starting to cook, making sure that everything is right.

after everything is done and cooked, he plates the rice omelette and calls out for niwa to come and eat while he puts the sandwiches neatly inside a lunchbox, wrapping it around with a pretty purple silk cloth. niwa comes in the kitchen, humming seeing the food on the table. kabukimono fixes his clothes, dusting off crumbs and whatnot on him. he grabs the lunchbox, bidding goodbye to niwa. "alright! be safe and tell [name] to come by and pick up some iron when they have the time!"

kabukimono waves and heads out the door, walking away from the shop and making his way to you.

what a pretty sun.

you gaze at the rising sun, slowly peeking up from the horizon. you lean your head back further into the tree, letting out a sigh of content. you feel gentle breezes pass by you, brushing through your hair. you close your eyes, letting this calm moment take you in.

while you relax, you don't notice kabukimono approaching you. his eyes lands on your relaxed face and his heart softens, his pace slowing until he takes a complete stop, just staring at you, the soft glow of the rising sun kissing your skin.

you suddenly open your eyes and slightly turn your head around, smiling as you spot him. "hm? well if it isn't my favorite boy. what kept you from me?" you tease. kabukimono's face flushes, his grip on the lunch box tightens. what kept you from me? he felt his heart start to beat a little faster, the way you just said it makes him feel so much.

"i, uhm, almost slept in.." he bites his lip, "i stayed up late with niwa last night to practice some techniques and ended up burning the midnight oil.." you let out a little chuckle, "did you now? aren't you such a hardworking student. come, sit. don't just stand there, the grass beside me feels empty without you." you pat the empty spot next to you.

kabukimono scrambles and takes a seat next to you, still holding the lunchbox. "here.. uh, i made you something." he hands you the lunchbox, his hands shaking a little. you smile and take it from him, making him jolt a little as your fingers touches his. "you know, i'm still surprised you wake up this early to catch me here." you unwrap the lunchbox, "though i don't mind, your cooking is what makes me look forward being here under this tree. it makes me feel as if it's made just for me."

kabukimono tries not to squirm, heat creeping up from his neck to his cheeks. your mouth, your words, it's making his stomach do flips. it will always be for you, no one else. "haha, well, it's a nice way to start the day, no?" you nod as you open the lunchbox and your mouth waters as you look at the meal. "are these katsu sandwiches?" kabukimono nods, smiling as you take one out and take a little sniff, he could almost see glitters in your eyes. "this smells absolutely divine. thank you for the meal." you take a bite, letting out a content moan as you chew. it was delicious.

kabukimono watches as you eat happily, resting his cheek on the palm of his hand. his eyes traces you; from your lashes to your hands, he watches in admiration as you just eat. you glance at him, seeing him staring deeply back at you. you take a sandwich and pull it in half, twisting your upper body to face him and lifting the piece to his mouth with your hand.

"here, open up." kabukimono's eyes widen, what did you mean? "taste what you cooked, it's delicious." he shook his head, "no, no, no! that's just for you. i couldn't possibly—" he pauses, your free hand cupping his cheek and your thumb touching the bottom of his lip. his breath hitches.

"now, now. just give it a try." he didn't know what got into him, he really doesn't. he slightly opens his mouth and you smile, "good boy." you put the piece in his mouth and let go, letting him chew. he wasn't paying attention to the flavor, in fact he doesn't even know what he's tasting. his focus was on you and the way you praised him, he felt his heart jump.

he swallows, finally finished eating what you gave. "how was it? good, right?" kabukimono nods, "you should be a chef instead of a forger. you could go places with these." you finish your sandwiches, closing the lunchbox and wrapping back the silk cloth around it.

"thank you for the meal, kabukimono. it was delicious." you hand back the box to him and he takes, letting it rest on his lap. "of course, i'm glad you liked it." comfortable silence fills in the air, both of you leaning back on the tree and watching the sun finally rise, basking you both in it's light.

you take a glance at kabukimono, his eyes was closed. you watched as the sun touches his cheeks, making him glow beautifully in the morning sun. you looked away and back to the horizon, letting out a small sigh and close your eyes.

what a pretty sun.

[aphroditesmoon]

whatever fits together

gwen stacy x spidergirl!reader

summary: gwen meets your little brother for the first time (･ω･)

warnings: afab!reader, orphan reader, makeout session.

A/N: idk man I just want gwen to wife me up fr.

♡♡♡

ALL YOUR LIFE, you've only ever saw your brother in your future. There were other people, of course. Whatever friends left that you you haven't ghosted or the ones that haven't left you at the time. But the only constant present you've ever considered in the decisions you make for yourself, has always been your brother.

You were orphaned at 14. Technically only your mother had died in the bus accident, but you can barely remember your father's face, he was dead in your mind.

When Miguel scouted you in, you saw how he tiptoed around your story, and how he tried to sympathise with you, but if you were being honest, you can't really remember how you managed to raise your brother on your own for 3 and a half years while also learning to manage your newfound powers. You knew you it was hard, but you also knew that before you joined the Spider Society, every decision you made was for survival, it was your natural instinct.

There were no space in your life for you to sit around and be a child, nor were there any time to consider every emotional and mental consequences your choices could've provoked. You had to grow up. You had a 3 year old to raise then.

Once you've joined Miguel, you thought you'd finally find some sense of peace within yourself, with all the security and stability the spider society provided.

But coming home to an apartment you've been provided after your first mission, all you felt at the sight of your clothes, arranged in an actual closet instead of a duffel bed, and your brother sleeping in a room he could finally call his own, was nothing, except for a terrible and tremendous stab of pain in your chest.

It was all worth it for him, you truly believed that. And yet you felt like it wasn't worth anything to you.

The strangeness of feeling so alone around a place filled with so many people. You didn't know the first thing about making friends, or having hobbies. In fact, you weren't even sure if you knew what you really looked like anymore, with all the crime fighting and changing hotels every week, you didn't really have the time to be looking in the mirror. It was terrifying.

And yet despite all of that, the universe has somehow managed to slip in an angel shaped as a blonde and witty girl in your life. Somehow she was a lot more shittier in starting up conversations than you were, but from the first glance you shared with Gwen, a mutual understanding was formed.

And from there, a bond was made.

You love early mornings, even when you were often alone, the hours spent after the clocked reaches 11pm have always felt loud, and suffocating. Shops are fully opened and streets are filled with people off to work. So every day, like an automatic alarm clock, you'll find yourself waking up around 7 to 8am to fully enjoy that morning glory.

You've seen the sun sparkle everday in your life, but never have you seen it shine this beautifully through your light blue curtains. Looking below it, your eyes meet the sleeping form of Gwen Stacy by your side.

She was snoring lightly, and though it annoyed you at first, it was also a subtle reminder to you that she was there, next to you, as you tossed and turn in your bed trying to get used to the alien feeling of sleeping with someone else besides your smaller sized brother sharing your bed.

Checking the time on your phone, large numbers of 9:15 reflects on your eyes. making you let out a low sigh.

You came home and slept late last night. Arriving to your apartment through a portal past midnight, hand in hand with Gwen as you introduce her to your house, and to your roon.

It was a Saturday, you comforted yourself. And you were in your bed, making out with the most beautiful girl you've seen, what's the rush anyways. The sudden slam opening of your door jolts you up, and enters from there, a very loud and jumpy 7 year old who was expecting the joyous feeling of finally being able to wake up earlier than his older sibling and getting to brag about it.

He halts on his step when he sees the stranger at your side, who is now wide awake thanks to the slammed door.

"God's sake, what did I say about knocking?" You scolded while getting yourself out og bed, toes clencing at the cold tiles when your feet reaches the floor.

"There's someone next to you, can you see her?" He asks, ignoring you.

Gwen's face was dazed and confused, her eyes were squinting and she wasn't showing any signs of getting up. "Yeah I see her." You replied, walking over to him. "That's my buddy, yeah? Be nice to her."

You hear a incoherent mumble from him as he remains staring at her strangely.

"Why don't you help me get the eggs out? You can help me make breakfast?" You suggested, turning him around and kissing the back of his head. "Is she getting breakfast too?" He asks while walking away to the kitchen, his loud voice bouncing off the walls. "Yes, please." You shouted back to him before moving towards your girl again.

"Sorry about that." You spoke with a much hushed tone. Gwen has her upper body up and againts the headboard, eyes fully open as she takes you in under the sun's glow. "No it's fine, I actually forgot you had a brother to be honest." She admits, smiling as you crawl onto the bed towards her. "Really? I thought I must've been talking about him too much that everyone probably has his name memorised." You chuckled. She hummed and shook her head.

You let your fingers intertwine with her laid out ones, closing your fists into hers. "Do you like eggs?" You whisper at her, leaning in closer to her face. "Yeah, I do." She whispers back, booping your nose. "I also like your brother, he's cute." She adds.

A laugh sprouts out of you as your foreheads lay againts eachother's. "Oh no, he's a real fox once you get to know him, next thing I know you two will be teaming up againts me." She snorts and pulls away slightly to properly look at your face. "Also buddy?" She teases, recalling your early words. "I had my tongue down your throat like-" You groaned and shoved her playfully trying to hide your blossoming smile.

"Oh yeah, sure, lets tell him that." You intererject sarcastically. She rolls her eyes and presses a kiss on your cheek before climbing off the bed where you're still on.

She walks over to your desk and then to your vanity, last night's crumpled shirt still on. "You have a vinyl player." She noted, pulling out your vinyls.

"Japanese Breakfast-" She reads, "and Mitski. Of course you like Mitski." You huffed at her words, nearing her. "What's that supposed to mean?" Gwen makes an incomprehensible noise and shrugged her shoulders. "I don’t know, like, you're, emo?" You choked out a laugh, eyes widening at her explanation. "What?" You breathed out, still laughing. Gwen joins in with a giggle as she tries to reason.

"I've never seen you in anything but black, I mean except right now." She gesturesnto your teal shirt. "Also, having a Mitski vinyl is already one of the requirements, I think."

"Anddd, Radiohead? You're a cliche."

You scoffed, pulling her away from your vinyl player towards the door. "You would know." Gwen gasps loudly. "What is that supposed to mean?" You only smile while pushing her to kitchen with your arms around her waist, holding her from behind.

The smell of eggs fill your nostrils when you entered the kitchen, untangling your hands from Gwen, you swore under your breath before sprinting to your brother, cracking eggs on the pan. "I told you to get the eggs out only." Pulling him away from the pan, you tell him to take a seat while you handle the eggs.

"I've seen you do it, I know how to make them myself." He mumbles. "I can hear you." You voice out. "Elephant" He tries again. You gave him a glance, frowning. "I heard that too?" "Good." He responds.

Hearing Gwen chuckling quietly, you spare her a glare too. "Just like I said, already teaming up."

Your brother hops off his seat after a long minute staring at Gwen from the fisheyed view his glass of water gave, Making her eyes look ten times bigger than they are.

"My sister says you're her buddy." He says it like it's a question. Gwen raises a brow at him. "Did she? I don't know, I think we're a little bit more than buddies." You tense, turning around to glare at her again. "Gwen-" you called out in a warning tone.

"You're best buddies?" Your brother's voice speaks before shw could. "Oh my god." You groaned to yourself. Gwen actually laughs at that. "Yeah, something like that." He analyses her answer until he decided it was good enough. "Okay, she's never had any friends before." This time you actually spin around towards them.

"Dude." You chastised him. "I have friends, you've met them!" You defended yourself as he starts to giggle loudly at your offended state. "No you don't." He affirms, making you stick out your tongue at him before placing the plates of breakfast on the table.

"Don't worry little dude, I can tell." Gwen tells him, the both of them giving you a top from bottom look.

"One more word and I'm throwing both of you out." Your brother has the decency to look scared before digging into his meal, but Gwen only grins at you widely before winking. She also notices how much your brother likes to kick people's feet under the table and then immediately blaming someone else when you scold him. "Your buddy did it! My feet can't even reach you!" He yelled. "Yes it can, I can literally feel your tiny toes right now, don't make me kick you back." You threatened, earning another kick before he seriously stops.

Once everyone has finished eating, you went straight to do the dishes, profusely refusing any help from Gwen, enjoying the bits of control in your life you feel whenever you're cleaning up things.

"Can I show Gwen my spidergirl collection?" Your brother begged. You fight againts a grin, saying yes to him.

Despite keeping a very strict no contact rules you had for authoritative figures and the press, your New York has still found a way to capitalize off of you, which was the Spidergirl Dolls that came with many different stylesnof clothing fron the same theme of your suit.

Gwen gives you a smile and a thumbs up before following him, his voice echoing from the hall as he explains the difference of the dolls. "-and this other doll has a samurai sword too-", you shook your head.

How the hell did they even came up with these concepts?

Finishing off the last few dishes, you make your way to the hall, where both of your favourite people are sitting crossed legged on the flower patterned carpet.

"What's up here?" You ask him as you crouch down to sit.

"The sky." He jokes. "Funny." You respond dryly. Gwen gives you a look that says 'I wonder where he gets it from', making you toss a doll at her that she catches easily, smiling.

Gwen turns to your brother, holding up a caped spidergirl doll. "How much are these anyways, where im from, these kind of figurines are expensive." He looka at her dumbly and shrugged. "Figyu-?" She ruffled his hair, "Never mind."

Moving to sit closer to her, you explain the pricing. "If you buy directly from the store, they definitely cost like a $100 or more, unfortunately I don't think even the real spidergirl would've been give a discount." You explain, hinting that your brother has no idea about your secret identity.

Gwen snorted at your last sentence. "Foul, so what, you bought fake ones?" You slapped a hand across your chest, feigning hurt. "No, excuse you, I bought them second hand. You have no idea how many people there are online, giving up good quality figurines for less than $50." Gwen responds with a knowing 'ahh' while nodding her head. "That makes sense."

"Most of these were bought for his birthday, though I think this year he'd like something else, hm?" You question from his side, wiggling your brows.

"I want a Transformers." He answers simply. "A trans what?" Gwen exclaims, confused.

You smiled at her face expression that was similar to a terrified cat, eyes widening in a bewildered manner. "A Transformers." You repeat aloud. "It's a car robot, like its a car that turns into a giant robot." You were describing it horrendously, but it got the job done. "I don't think we have that in my place." Gwen justifies her reaction. "Are you from loser planet?" Your brother asks, receiving stutters from a baffled Gwen and a embarrassingly loud giggle from you.

"I'm from a very normal and cool place alright." You share a look with your brother, side eyeing her. "I saw that." She calls out. "No you didn't!" He yells out all of the sudden before getting up and running to his room.

You flinch at his movements and shouted loudly, "Where are you going?" After a few seconds of loud breathing and feet stomping, he finally responds. "Im showing her our Transformers CDs!"

"Oh." You exhange a look with Gwen. "Looks like you're in for a ride, feeling alright for a movie?" She looks suprised but accepts the offer easily. "Bring in the trans cars."

---

The little boy lasted two hours before passing out. His head on Gwen's lap triggered a slight jealousy in you. Although knowing that he will grow up and eventually meet new people he'd be fond of more than you, it was still jarring to see it play out right in front of your eyes.

You reach your arms out gently to him, "Let me take him to bed." You whisper to Gwen who only responds with an okay.

He's deep into slumber as you carry him into his room and gently place him onto his bed. After fluffing out his pillow, you let go of your palms holding on his head, letting it gently fall onto the soft material.

Gwen's footsteps are quiet behind you, the small sound of the creaking door tells you she's there.

Getting back up on your feet aftet tucking your brother in, you spin around to the curious girl who's eyes are roaming his walls. "Did he draw this?" She giggled, pointing at a drawing you made. "I love him but this literally looks like a deformed Mickey Mouse."

She glaces to you in hope of sharing a laugh but immediately turns quiet when she notices your frown. "That's mine you dipshit." You snapped and walked over to flick her forehead.

"Ouch, sorry." She apologizes in a groan. "It does look like a deform-" you shove her out of the room before closing the door behind you.

"It is not a rat, its a bear." She grins at your pouting face. "Whatever you say."

You thought she'd be opening a portal back to her universe by now. How is her father now worried? Does he not see what's he's been gifted with?

It was visibly dark outside, the clock barely striking 10pm yet. You'd spent the whole night yesterday with eachother, and the whole day too, binging Transformers movies. If it were you in her shoes, with someone else that wasn't her, you would've left much earlier, the tiring efforts of socialising was usually worst than any weekly villain.

She stops walking when she realizes you've halted in your steps behind her. Her head tilts to look at you. "What's wrong? You don't want to sleep?" She asks.

You open your mouth to speak, but nothing leaves your lips. Gwen's face contorts anxiously as she turns around towards you. "What's wrong?" She asks again. You force yourself to talk. "I want to sleep." Silence fills the space between you and her for a solid minute. "So do I." Gwen finally decides to say cautiously.

Your shoulders drops, letting your strained body and features relax. "Yeah, okay. Let's sleep." Gwen is cut off before she coukd even start as you continue where your words left off by intertwining your fingers with hers and leading the way to your bed. She says nothing about your behaviour after, accepting your returning affections. "If you wanted to makeout instead, just say that." She jokes earning a tired chuckle. "After that long ass movie? No, I'm wrecked."

[mossnstudy]

100 Days of Productivity - Day 3/100

Hello!! I've made it to day 3 !! Another great achievement. Whilst technically it is midnight I wanted to type this up before I stay up all night to finish the assignment which I'm working on! SO let us commence!

Day 3

So Day 3 what did I get upto productivity wise - a lot ;-;

Got up early again! This time at 8am as I had a 9am class that was really interesting! My class today was about Ancient Sparta and how our image of it is likely very untrue. It was actually quite interesting to hear how hard Sparta pushed for this propaganda that lead to the version of it we still talk about today.

Had a seminar at 11 and between those classes did some scholar reading for my assignment due tomorrow - turns out all the articles I printed were actually fairly useless but incredibly interesting!

Afterwards came home for a couple hours had a nap and lunch (As i was exhausted)

Went back to the library for about 4 hours and got so much scholar reading and writing done. I'm about 1000 words into my 2000 word essay

Cooked dinner and now back to Essay writing!!

Overall today has been quite academically productive! I'm unfortunately stil a little bit more behind than I'd like to be buttt I've got until 12 tomorrow so wish me luck everybody!!

Until tomorrow! Bye bye!

[blondiest]

mello isn't dead: neallo edition

hi! to accompany my rec list mello isn't dead, a small collection of post-kira fics in which mello either survives or comes back from the dead, i am going to list out here the works that i have which fit this criteria <3

my only one, my smoking gun

[part 1 of our love is god]

rating: E | category: M/M | chapters: 4/4 | words: 3.3k

For as long as he can recall, he’s ached over Near. It wasn’t always like this, though; he didn’t realize he wanted Near until it was too late to actually have him. He should be grateful, really, because he’s been able to linger here after death, and that’s more than he deserves, but God, Mello would give anything to kiss him just once.

heaven is a place on earth with you

[part 2 of our love is god]

rating: E | category: M/M | chapters: 1/1 | words: 1.4k

There is no blood or body of Christ, no priest and no pews, but it’s here and now that Mello finally rediscovers a long-lost sliver of faith. Hands on Near’s hips, Mello lowers his face and presses his mouth to Near’s soft abdomen. “I love you,” he murmurs, head bowed and eyes shut as if in prayer.

i know i’m gonna lose you (but god, i don’t want to)

[part 1 of together (always)]

rating: E | category: F/F | chapters: 1/1 | words: 3.5k

Near’s bedroom— her tidy little suite in her untidy little makeshift headquarters in a high-rise hotel in Tokyo— is lit only by the shine of the city and the glow of the moon. Because the moon is full and because the city is bright, Mello can see her perfectly. Every little hair on her arms and legs catch the light as she sheds her soft, simple bra. The only thing Mello has taken off so far are her gloves. -- In which Mello rings in 2010 with some good old-fashioned lesbian sex and a minor emotional crisis. prequel to it's you and me, that's my whole world.

it’s you and me, that’s my whole world

[part 2 of together (always)]

rating: T | category: F/F | chapters: 1/1 | words: 3.5k

Once she reaches the first floor and steps out of the elevator, Near hears a voice floating down the hall. It’s a woman’s voice, so it must be Lidner, but the pitch of it and the cadence of speech seems painfully similar to the way Mello talked, even without being able to hear the actual words. The closer she gets, the more it sounds like her dead lover, and Near curses how cruel her mind’s tricks are. She has to grit her teeth and breathe in deep to get herself to push through the door into the main office, feeling almost nauseous with grief again already. A blonde woman in a red winter jacket stands with her back to Near, but she turns when the toy in Near’s hand clatters to the ground. Mello’s eyes are tired, underlined by dark circles, but she grins. “Hey, Near.”

starry eyes sparking up my darkest nights

[part 1 of you got your eyes from the stars]

rating: T | category: F/F | chapters: 1/1 | words: 930

Near has a nightmare on the flight back to New York after the end of the Kira case; Mello, still tipsy off of the red wine they served in first class, is unexpectedly tender.

fireworks somewhere far away

[part 2 of you got your eyes from the stars]

rating: T | category: F/F | chapters: 1/1 | words: 2k

It’s the fourth of July. Or, rather, it’s still the fourth of July in the United States, which is where they live, but they’re in Madrid at the moment, so technically where they are it’s the fifth. It’s not hard math to figure out what time it is back home— it’s a little before six in the morning here, so it’ll be a little before midnight in New York. Somewhere on the West Coast or in the Rocky Mountains, though, there are fireworks going off. That’s what Near is thinking when Mello kisses her for the first time.

early arrival

rating: E | category: M/M | chapters: 1/1 | words: 1.5k

It’s one in the morning and Near is wide awake, talking to Mello in hushed tones as the other passengers sleep soundly around them. According to the small screen on the back of the seat in front of him, they’re more than halfway through the flight, but it’s far from almost-over— it will be another three hours before they touch down in London.

there’s an ache in you put there by the ache in me

rating: T | category: M/M | chapters: 1/1 | words: 975

The snow angels are, in all honesty, an excuse, a shameless attempt to get Near alone, to talk with him away from all these fucking people. He didn’t expect so many of their classmates to come back to Wammy’s for the holidays, but maybe he should have— after all, he hates this place, and yet here he is, half-drunk and dragging his ex-rival-turned-ex-something-else out into the cold.

[imyourjettt]

Blame it on the Alcohol

Pairing: Phillip Graves x f!Reader

Word Count: 838

Warnings: Drinking alcohol, sexual tension, implied sexual content

Summary: You've been working hard to keep developing your relationship with Phillip Graves. It's been a few weeks since you got to hang out and see each other. Finally when you both are free, he invites you over and you bring alcohol. Is the rest of the night your real actions, or just the alcohol talking?

As soon as you stepped into Phillip Graves territory two soldiers step into view. 

"We will escort you to Commander Graves. Please follow us, this way." one of them says. They soon turn away from you and walk, you quickly follow behind. His base was pretty big, you admired it most of the time. Mostly all of the guards were inside, since it was pretty much midnight. Technically you were meant to be there a few hours ago, but something came up. After around five minutes of walking and sightseeing you finally got to his personal headquarters. You and the two guards make your way up to his door, as one of the guards was about to knock, Graves' opened the door. 

He makes direct eye contact with you first, then his guards. He nods to the guards giving them the order to leave, then his eyes make their way back to yours. 

“Sorry I’m late.” you smiled as you held up the bottle of whisky.

He motioned you to come in, "No worries, doll." 

As you walked past him, all you could smell was the cologne he used often. You loved the smell so much, and out of the corner of your eye you saw him smirking at you. Your face starts to heat up, and you haven't even started drinking yet. You always loved hanging out with Graves (even if you didn’t get to drink). You both walked over to the kitchen, you set down the whisky and went to grab two glass cups. His eyes practically burned into your back, he was watching your ever move, almost memorized by you. 

Ignoring it you spoke, “How’s everything going? I haven’t been able to get over here for a few weeks.” 

He signed, and sucked his teeth. “Yeah it’s been pretty… hectic. 141 has been able to help a lot." He took a small pause before continuing, "Glad you’re here."

You hummed in response, handing the whisky filled glass over to him.

“Cheers” you both said.

You’ve always took an interest in Graves. Mostly everyone around you knew about it. You would always take the time to hang out whenever you could. The crush developed over time, but Graves was the type of person to like the chase. You couldn’t give in that early, so you waited. However the tension was killing you, you were already rethinking coming over here.

The silence went on for a few minutes, while you kept pouring more drinks. You glanced over at him taking a sip, watching his adam’s apple, and some of the whiskey dripping down from his mouth. He had to be doing this on purpose, you thought. He locks eyes with you, when you didn’t look away he tensed and sucked in a breath. Seeing the effect you already had on him it made you hot all of sudden. But you decided to blame it on the alcohol.

Not realizing how close he had gotten you lock eyes with him.

“Baby.” Graves chokes out.

He called you pet names often but this time was completely different. He reaches out and brushes his thumb against your cheek, and slowly against your lips. You stilled, keeping your eyes on his. His hand ventured to your neck, slowly pulling you closer to him. You stare at him, flickering between his eyes and his lips. If he was finally making the first move, then you could indulge yourself in it.

Just as soon as you were about to complete his kiss, a loud crash stops both of you in your tracks. You look down to reveal his glass cup broken on the floor, with the little whisky that was left all over his shirt. You panic. Cursing at yourself for messing up the moment you’ve been practically begging for. Rushing, you grab a towel to clean his shirt off and the mess. You could feel his eyes on you the whole time, which only increased the embarrassment.

“Sorry, it was my fault- the alcohols' already getting to me.” Which was a totally lie, you weren’t that much of a light weight and he knew that. You scrubbed at his shirt trying to at least dry it. He stopped you in your tracks carefully grabbing your wrist, setting down the towel. He pulls your arm up bringing you closer to him. His face was so close, your lips almost touching,

“Sure. Blame it on the alcohol.” he says against your lips, then leans into you completing the kiss. The kiss was hungry, he missed you so much, almost begged for you as he repeated your name between each breath.

Your hands moved to his neck then up through his hair. While he held your neck, he broke the kiss to admire you.

“I’ve been meaning to do that for awhile now.” He said.

You smiled up at him, “Yeah me too.”

As he smiled the dimple that you loved about him showed up. It quickly disappeared as he went back to kiss you more.

[adwox]

i dont really care for human AUs of mega man characters but a zerox-centric college AU is actually so funny to me

-X graduates at the top of his class is therefore able to shave one year off at college, so hes put in the sophomore year dorms and his roommate is zero

-zero only went to college cause his stupid dad WAS a professor at university, but he got shitcanned halfway through his first term cause wily publicly cursed zero out for not paying attention in class

-light ended up being wilys replacement, to which neither X nor zero knew about until one day during parents weekend they both arrive to their boys dorm room at the same time. and yes they are bitter exs just like in the real games

-zero is a trustfund baby i said what i said. he kind of does not gaf about college at all but he is a dedicated D1 athlete and does work on the campus coffee shop (its the only place he will actually end up doing his homework because he functions best in a loud environment)

-X is duel-majoring because light has subconsciously put a lot of pressure on him especially after his oldest sibling blues dropped out very early on. rock never went to college because seeing what blues went through kind of freaked him out. roll plans on attending one day but is currently working to save up money first and also she just kind of doesnt feel like it yet. X is the worlds first youngest sibling to have eldest daughter syndrome

-despite being in the same graduating class, zero is still technically older, so X looks up to him as an upperclassmen. zero does feel an obligation to show him the ropes so he does look after him for a good while during X's first semester but he soon realizes firsthand just how capable he is

(non-hard drug talk below)

-neither of them ironically share vices, since they both make the respective other anxious. X is a wake and bake kind of guy, zero is a Drinks black coffee an hour before midnight person

-X only recently tried coffee again because zero made him a lavender latte specifically for him. even tho it was decaf, X still felt like his heart was about to jump out of his throat which he felt SO bad about since he knew zero specifically made it for him. and this happened within the first week of the term so they hadnt known each other that well, so X was very very embarrassed knowing zero was just watching him shake like a little leaf. though zero found it all rather amusing

-zero never smoked before because bass was a chronic smoker and it kind of turned him off since they didnt really get along for a while (theyre on much better terms now, they soulbond over wily causing them grief these days). X offers to roll for zero on the very first weekend cause in his mind X is like: college sophomore, how to get on good terms? offer free weed. Unfortunately a few hits in zero is white-knuckling his kneecaps and doing everything in his power not to throw up. he learned the hard way then and there that he is too paranoid for that shit, and while X felt so incredibly guilty for a while, he did feel it let them both become closer faster since zero did need to let his guard down to let X take care of him that evening

(end drug talk)

-X goes to every game zero is in (i really like the idea of the sport zero plays being hockey but idk if theres D1 hockey teams in college Lol) despite knowing nothing about the sport rules

-X finds out vile is actually on the same sports team as zero which is SO awkward for him since they had VERY briefly dated before X realized just how incompatible they were. whenever vile puts two and two together about who X's roommate is, let it be known he will be scheming........

-X joins the improv club because he feels he struggles a lot with making decisions on the fly, but to his surprise hes very great at adapting to other people! zero, who kind of used to think it was a rather silly club, ends up sitting in on some of their performances and finds it quite endearing

-also the first bonding moment X and zero have is when zero notices X hang up a photo of rush on their corkboard and is like: "oh shit i like your dog. i have one too. (shows photo of treble) i mean technically hes my older brothers but hes the only one that cares to make that distinction." X responds immediately full of newfound excitement: "no way, i have an older brother too! well, two of them. and an older sister.... but since i was the last one to leave the house, i always felt like i was taking care of them whenever theyd come back." IMMEDIATE soul bonding over family dynamics ensue

[paralyze-fic]

Paralyze.

Chapter 58

I spent most of the night researching about this subject, and when the clock was about to hit 3 in the morning, I closed everything -thanking incognito mode for existing- and walked to the bathroom for a short and cold shower.

|Uh... Idk how to write a whistle sound so don't make fun of the 'fweet'|

After that, I got into bed and closed my eyes.

//////

Well, when I woke up for school, I noticed quite a problem and had to take another cold shower. I'm gonna end up catching a cold if I keep doing this.

Basically, what I learned during the early hours of the day and what Katsuki told me got mixed in my dreams.

Yeah, I had a wet dream, so what? It's not the end of the world.

So, I went downstairs to eat breakfast. Everything was fine, I greeted everyone with a smile, made my own breakfast, ate it and talked with some classmates.

But, when I saw Katsuki, all the confidence I had built up, vanished. He sat next to me on the couch, and I couldn't look at him at all. And I was like that even when we got to U.A. and Midnight was gonna teach us our first class.

But now, we were getting our costumes out and going to the changing room, heading out to Gym Gamma once again.

"Now, for today, let's keep working on improving our special movements," Cementoss said as he got up from his kneeling position after he built the pillars for us. "Previously, I told all of you to get at least two special moves," he started explaining, "Those who haven't made it yet, would focus on developing, and those who made it, would focus on even more upgrades."

We made our way up the pillars, and I was having a hard time using my quirk, I didn't want to interrupt everyone during their training, so I technically couldn't do anything.

"Oh, (L/n)." Cementoss called me and I walked to the edge of my pillar, "Ectoplasm sent you one of his clones," he walked out and opened the gym door, Ectoplasm -or more like a clone- walked in.

"I'll be helping you train, (L/n)." I smiled at him as he got up and stood in front of me.

"Thank you, sensei."

//////

With Ectoplasm's clone's help, I managed to enhance both of my arms, getting the energy shield I once had. He attacked while I was in this situation, and it was difficult, whenever I lost focus the shield would vanish and my head would throb from the pain, when it occurred many times, I asked him for a bit of a break.

"There's... another attack I want to try." He tilted his head to the side but nodded and I called out to Cementoss. "Sensei, could you build me a wall?"

He nodded and touched the pillar I was on, "How do you want it?"

"Like any normal wall," Cementoss nodded again, and his hands lit up green, a wall growing close to where I was standing. "Thank you!"

He smiled at me and walked away.

"What do you want-?" I interrupted Ectoplasm as I stopped his vocal cords, and I focused it on my throat. It was tingly and it stung a bit. Quickly I thought about what to do, and how to do it.

I can't scream, because my vocal cords still needed to heal, so instead...

"Fweet!" My whistle echoed inside the gym, and the energy beam pierced a hole through the wall in front of me.

"What the hell?!" Katsuki yelled, and when I looked up, he was glancing down at me. He seemed to be analyzing the situation before showing me a smirk and jumping down with me. "I can help a bit with that attack." He stood beside me, resting his hands on his waist and tilting his body slightly, the curves on his body marking more and making me swallow, looking away.

"How?"

Katsuki explained to me his auto-cannon attack, giving me ideas on how to use it on me, I listened attentively, when Katsuki wasn't being his angry self, he was really smart. Every once in a while I nodded, thinking about his suggestion and planning how to implement it to my attack.

"It would be hard at the start, but you'll make it, I'm sure." He smiled sweetly at me, and I just dreamily stared at him. I was in a daze. Katsuki seemed to be glowing in my eyes.

Basically, I was looking at him with heart eyes.

I hummed with a nod, "I'll try, you can keep training, Katsuki." Showing me another smile, he turned around and busted himself up to his pillar.

A sigh left my lips as I observed the broken wall in front of me.

Let's do it.

//////

"Agh," my hand went up to hold my throat, my voice was hoarse and my arms were twitching painfully.

My body wasn't completely healed yet, so the pain was kind of unbearable. So when Cementoss heard me groaning, he sent me to Recovery Girl.

Slowly, I was walking there, while the rest were going to class, but I heard hurried steps behind me. As I looked over my shoulder, I saw Katsuki jogging to catch up to me.

"Why are you coming with me?" He tsked and pushed me slightly, looking away with a pink tint on his cheeks.

"My arms hurt too, so sensei told me to come with you..." he trailed a bit at the end of his sentence, his gloved hand gripping his pants.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Are you sure? It wasn't because you were worried about me, puppy~?" I asked him with a teasing tone, and he choked, coughing harshly. I patted his back for a few seconds, and Katsuki turned to me.

"Of course not! W-why would I be wo-worried about you?!" He exclaimed nervously, making me chuckle. I looked behind us for an instant, there was nobody in the hall, so I used my opportunity.

I dropped my arm on top of his shoulders, and pulled him close to me, resting my head on his and stroking his face with my free hand.

"My little tsundere," I whispered in his hair. His body tensed but he held my hand on his face, covering it with his own and shifting his head to look up at me.

"I'm not a tsundere," he said with a pout, and I just smiled, leaning down and pecking his puckered lips, he blushed again and hid his face on my chest. "Could you stop doing that? My heart can't take it."

A shiver went down my whole body, and I just pressed Katsuki closer to me, walking together to the infirmary.

I definitely couldn't take how cute Katsuki was and how happy it made me to know he was just as in love with me as I was with him.

[bloomeng]

Mondstadt characters headcanons: when they go to bed (and when they get up):

Jean: if she had it her way she’d be in bed by 9/ still she’s fairly diligent about being asleep before midnight (she gets up super early in order to have 20 mins to herself)

Lisa: goes to bed at 10 no matter what— she values her beauty sleep— she learned from her experience as a student that staying up super late was actually less productive; she will lay in bed reading for at least an hr tho (ideally she gets up around 9-10, don’t talk to her before coffee)

Klee: Jean set her bedtime, 8:30, and she does everything in her power to fight it/ she is always asleep by 9/ can’t sleep without dodoco (she’s awake as soon as the sun is)

Albedo: the most fucked sleep schedule you’ve ever seen, his logic being “well technically i’m not human so i don’t need sleep” which isn’t really true/ will literally go days without sleeping and then just pass out/ turns out yes he does need sleep just less of it but even then he’s still not getting enough (wakes up whenever something finally disturbs his nap)

Sucrose: goes to bed late-ish/ tries to be good about going to bed but often gets wrapped up in her work/ generally gets tired around midnight and is asleep by 1/ gets cold easily so she sleeps with multiple blankets/ i get the feeling she’d love asmr but alas… instead i think she would leave the window open to hear the sounds of the city, which is ironic bc she gets cold (gets up at a reasonable time but not exactly happy to be up either)

Kaeya: runner up for worst sleep schedule in Mondstadt/ often falls asleep working and will wake up hrs later with a sore neck/ at home he sleeps on his couch more often then his bed/ has accidentally been found asleep at his desk the next morning more than once/ it’s not healthy but he’s learned to function on only a couple hrs of sleep each day (if left undisturbed he typically wakes up around noon)

Diluc: ideally he’s in bed by 9/ the only thing that keeps him from his bedtime is his vigilante work which he tries to wrap up before midnight so that he can be asleep by 1/ not immune to the “falling asleep at his desk” disease/ usually Adelinde finds him and makes him go to bed/ requires his eight hours/ gets hot easily but likes the weight of the blanket so he will sleep with his feet sticking out/ sleeps in the middle of the bed (usually the sun wakes him up/ has a hard time sleeping in)

Rosaria: often stays up late, though she doesn’t fight sleep/ usually manages to sleep around 1-2 in the morning/ is a light sleeper and tends not to sleep very well (gets up late/ it’s pretty much expected at this point that she isn’t going to make it to any early service)

Barbara: has a bedtime that she strictly adheres to/ also has a whole nighttime routine/ is asleep by 9:30 (gets up extremely early to work on her own personal projects, like song writing etc.)

Mona: horrible sleep schedule/known to go bed at 4am/ often takes naps in the evening which ruins her schedule/ gets invested in projects and will work on them through the night/ has a lengthy nightly routine that she will do in the wee hrs of the morning (wakes up in the afternoon/ do not make morning plans with her she will be there but she will be a nightmare to be around)

Fischl: would go to bed later but she still lives with her parents/ they force her to be in bed by 11/ reads in bed until midnight and is fully asleep by 1 (generally awake by 9)

Eula: goes to bed ridiculously early so that she can get up ridiculously early/ has a nighttime routine and cannot sleep with any light/ wears one of those sleeping masks (typically uses the morning to exercise)

Amber: goes to bed around 9-10 usually/ super sound sleeper, very hard to wake her up/ has a tendency to move around a lot in her sleep (is a morning person)

Bennett: everything I said about Amber but also he drools/ often falls off his bed (his dads have learned to be up before him so that he won’t attempt to cook breakfast by himself)

Razor: goes to bed when the sunsets wakes up with the sunrise/ very diligent about this schedule/ light sleeper/ tends to prefer harder mattresses/ gets hot easily so he usually discards his blanket (wouldn’t say he is particularly a morning person not that he’s grumpy it’s more that he literally can’t sleep with the sun out)

Noelle: goes to bed early bc she has to be up early (has to be at work but also bc she trains beforehand)

Diona: doesn’t have a bedtime, or at least not one that is enforced/ she usually is asleep by 11/ tends to be a light sleeper (gets up around 8-9 but is not a morning person/ very grumpy for the first hr of being awake)

Venti: does he need sleep??/ sleeps for fun whenever he wants to/ naps often so he has no schedule/ nobody knows where he goes after the taverns close (a morning person/ loves watching the sunrise/ ppl hate being around him in the morning bc he’s far too energetic)

Mika: strict schedule/ whole day is thrown off if his sleep schedule is not maintained/ has a hard time getting to sleep bc his mind loves to supply him with awkward memories (wakes up early/ does not like sleeping in)

+ Dainsleif: he wishes he had a bedtime/ he used to but that fell apart when khaenri'ah fell/ was always a light sleeper but his sleep is worse now bc of the curse/ sleeps in small spurts/ not-so-secretly misses his fancy fluffy white bed (not exactly a morning person but enjoys being up early and the peacefulness of the morning)

[alexcaldownapier]

Keeper - The Hard Work

I really like doing pre-production work. I love nothing more than sitting in a room with Ben, talking through a scene. We spin our wheels, argue, find something and then get excited and hastily write it out. Shot-listing is often where we find the film - we talk more about story than the actual shots. What is trying to be said with each shot and how can it be said? As described in my last post, I was having some trouble getting my head round what Ben wanted, so these early sessions were tough going. One thing Ben was insistent upon was that a camera not be placed anywhere that a camera operator wouldn't be if it was shot as a documentary. This meant that there were times I would want to place a camera in a certain spot to capture one part of the story, but this broke the rule. The camera could only jump around in space if the action was jumping around in time. Again, I wasn't sure this was a limitation that would help the film, so these early shot-listing sessions were slow-going and filled with lots of trying to explain ourselves to each other. Eventually, we kind of gave up on the whole shot-listing together thing, which we'd done for our last two collaborations, and instead, while Ben was away for the holidays, we agreed he would shot-list the entire film as he saw it so that we could get on the same page. He also then developed these shots into storyboards, which we talked through. Once Ben had a rough draft down, I was in a far more secure place to give ideas for shots and notes on the frames presented. After a few more sessions, we arrived at a solid shot list that we were not just happy with, but truly excited to shoot.

One other consideration we needed to have when shot listing was the dual cameras. In order for Ben to get authentic performances and intercharacter dynamics, we would need to shoot simultaneous frames so that we wouldn't miss a good improvised moment or good reaction. This meant we had to consider each frame, which to prioritise and how both could be achieved without encroaching on each others' frames.

One thing I do hate about pre-production work is finding "reference images". Even if you find something that has the same lense size, frame size, lighting, angle, etc, they almost never have the correct tone. This still from Midnight Cowboy (1969), was one we used when discussing 2.1, the long shot where Will and his Dad arrive at the club. But the only real things this still has in common is a long lense and a focus on two people. I find it frustrating as an exercise, although I do think it often helps to communicate intentions (although it can also lead to miscommunications). So, in order to be clear in my communication, I thought it best to do a previs of the film. More on this later.

Although we had these ideas of what the shots should be and where the cameras should be, they were entirely untethered until we had a location sorted. Lucy had been searching for a changing room and pitch since early last term so we had a few options coming into this term. We took a day to go down to World of Football and then to Peffermill Playing Fields to see what was up. What was up was that World of Football was not only extortionate, it was also ugly, awkwardly laid out, extremely echoey and the agreement seemed to give us little priority to any of the spaces we needed. But the afternoon was an absolute dream. At Peffermill, we were shown around the entire facility, talked through all the options available and the different allowances that could be made in regard to lighting and crew movement. We were excited and decided to return soon for a full technical recce. But before we left, we took some pictures for the 'gram, the instagram.

The Keeper HoD team.

Because, of course, in order to make this film, we needed money and lots of it. We had a location to secure, costumes to buy and transport to be covered. We had to look viable for investment so we needed a slick and stylish social media presence that we could parlay into a couple thousand british sterling pounds. I asked to design the instagram posts as I have a secret passion for graphics that burns within me. But Lucy took these designs and ran an excellent social media campaign, followed by a successful crowdfunder.

One part of this campaign that also fed into my pre-production was our crowdfunder video and HoD headshots. We spent a morning in the changing rooms at North Merchiston Football Club, where we'd filmed our test shoot. We wanted use this opportunity to test out this new-fangled approach and shoot and edit the crowdfunder video as we planned to make the final film. This allowed James to dress a space in a similar way to the final film, Rosie to practice recording with changing frames/moving camera and for me to see how it would look, using long lenses and hand-held camera work to create that documentary feeling.

James being photogenic amongst his production design.

One thing this really helped with was coming up with interesting lighting solutions to the problem of having dual roaming cameras. The main worry for me was that the changing room scenes would need to be entirely top lit, creating a rather one note lighting set-up. But through testing out some lighting set-ups in this space, I ended up quite liking the effect of bouncing a light into the ceiling at an angle to create a fill with a bit more shape that still reads as being from an overhead light. Paired with a hard backlight, it makes for a nice simple lighting setup which has shape, motivation and lets actors move around the space and still be reasonably evenly lit. It was a nice wee test, although I was pretty upset with my camerawork for the final video. I was MASSIVELY overdoing the zooms and shaky feel and was picking some strange frames. Not a great video, but a video nonetheless.

It also let me test out the FS7 which was a camera I was interested in using for the film after the move towards a documentary aesthetic as it has a servo zoom lens, is easy to use handheld and (I'm not sure if this is the camera or the lenses but) it has a certain cold digital feel to its images. We then also tested the workflow through avid, when using XAVC files from the FS7 and got to grips with it, wasn't too complicated at all. I did also want to test the FX6 as it was a smaller, lighter camera with similar lenses and features. However, after testing out the FX6, I realised that its lens was not servo so would have to be zoomed by the barrel and its lighter weight made it more shaky when operating, so I decided to lock in the FS7 as our camera of choice.

I still find the FS7 a little weird - what's with all the buttons, man? What are you trying to prove, huh? All these buttons and no false colour? But I took it out to our two tech recces at Peffermill and we got to know eachother. Spend a night reading through every menu option and you can't not empathise with a camera, love it, even.

Cradling my baby

The tech recces allowed us to block out the action in the space as well as realise the options we each had afforded to us. The main takeaway for me was the ceiling panels and the single plug socket. I knew then, that to light the two changing room scenes, I would need battery powered lights that I could hide in the ceiling. For the first tech recce, I brought the camera, a nanlite forza 300 and some LED panels. The LEDgos gave out a far too measly kick when on batteries and had quite janky fix points that made me uneasy about suspending them above actors. With those being a dud, we blocked and shot the scene with just the Nanlite and our crew acting out the different roles, giving us some pre-vis that would help inform other parts of our pre-production.

Pre-vis shots of scenes 4 and 10

One thing we wanted to achieve with these two scenes was a change in tone and feeling of a space, while still keeping a similar set-up, so as to be cohesive, but subtly different. One simple way to achieve this was to move to the other side of the room, closer to our protagonist. This put our key further round the opposite side of Will's face, making for a moodier image. Adding in blackout material as close to our subject as possible helped to add more contrast on the face. Another way that this move changes the feel of the space is losing the accent wall. The room had one wall painted bright red, which was the wall were Graham, the coach, would need to stand, so would need to be in shot in scene 4, but not in scene 10. Losing the bright red creates a more monochromatic colour scheme and a more sombre tone. I also like having the space be introduced as far more colourful, not to mention CoLoUr ThEoRy (which I generally believe to be total shite, but in this case advances my goals, so I'll use it). Red = Passion... but also DANGER.

"Are you red-y, Will?" *Crowd of players cheer*

This idea was mirrored out on the pitch. We had chosen a pitch on the outskirts of the playing fields so as to give us the best chance of getting clean sound. This meant one side of the pitch looked out onto an endless expanse of pitches while the other looked out into darkness. In order to help bring out the emotion of the final football match, where nothing really happens, story-wise, and is instead a purely emotional sequence, we had to highlight the change in environment for our central character. When we first enter the pitch, we would shoot into the playing fields, making each shot have some busyness in the background, showing the hustle, bustle and excitement of the training grounds. But for the final scene on the pitch, we instead look out into darkness, to isolate our characters and create a bizarre two dimensional, high-contrast environment, like what we'd talked about last term - a sort of realist infinite dark space.

Our tech recce for out on the pitch was a little different, we weren't able to book a slot at night, so instead practiced in the day with a few extras, just so I could practice shooting people moving at pace and playing football. But after all our tech recces, we had most of our film pre-vis'd (is that a word?) and I was far more comfortable in shooting and lighting the scenes.

Otherwise, I finished the rest of my pre-vis at Craiglockhart with Ben, James and some people that Ben recruited (sadly I can't remember their names right now - terrible!). From the pre-vis that we shot, Ben edited a wee something that we could then reflect on and see what was working - our conclusion: most everything. the framing and movement was working well and we were confident that with proper lighting, production and sound design, it would give the desired effect.

Throughout this time, I was having many, many meetings with the team to talk through the film and discuss what we wanted to do with it. Ben and I stayed in close contact throughout my pre-production work as well as James and I talking through what was to be on screen and how our work would interact - mainly the colour palette and the use of dark clothes in the changing room as negative fill. I also had calls with Andrew to discuss lighting and shooting football games - something he's experienced in. His advice pushed me to do more tests and make sure I was comfortable using the camera in the context which is where the film's use of primarily low-angle shots comes from, as I found that, when shooting football, low angles allowed for more depth as the players weren't flattened against the grass and had room to breathe, compositionally. A wee coffee with my Gaffer, Naimh Gilhooly, was also extremely useful as we were able to talk through all the lighting set-ups I had planned and she gave some advice and options that we could try on the day, meaning she was totally on the ball as soon as she arrived on set. Having met Niamh in the summer on a music video shoot, through a number of other shoots, she's become someone I am very comfortable collaborating with and we have a nice working relationship now, putting me at ease with the lighting for the film. Other than Niamh, I managed to assemble a great team for my camera/lighting department. I steered towards securing people with a mix of experience in drama and documentary. I knew I had to have Eva on board as my main B-Camera operator as I not only love her work, but she is also very experienced and capable in both documentary and drama, not to mention has a deep love for the football film, be it documentary or drama. I called up the king of drama DPing, Cal White to fill in on a day that Eva was unavailable for, and the king obliged. For my 1st ACs I had to have my boy Kushal Dhingra, someone who I have depended on for every short I have shot and has always been incredible. However, due to his busy schedule, I needed another AC for the pitch days, where I called in Angus Webster, a cracking guy I met during the fringe last year where we were working breaking down the venues together. A documentary filmmaker who currently works filming football games - a perfect fit. Last, but in the way that a dessert is last, is Sam Craigie, who had approached me at Shortscape last year asking to work with me on something. Sam as a 2nd AC is a joy, he helped keep everyone excited about what we were doing and he was ever professional and capable. I can't wait to return the favour and assist him some day soon.

We saw you from across the bar and thought you might want to join our camera team...

I don't want to keep going on and on about the pre-production as I think the "Bible" I prepared speaks for itself. The bible is a compilation of all of the information I, or anyone interested in the visuals, would need on set. It was also designed as a tool of communication for the camera/lighting team, all of whom read it and got to grips with the big picture before focusing in on their individual tasks.

An excerpt from the holy book, Alex 1:14

I'll go more into the creative choices that went into the film when discussing the shooting and final outcome. Going into the shoot, I felt very happy and prepared, knowing exactly what I was doing for each shot and setup, who was going to be with me and what we were aiming for. But, feeling extremely prepared for a shoot leaves you also feeling that the other shoe is about to drop. Then there is also the horrible idea that what you've dreamed up in your head, the film you want to make, is going to be failed by your own incompetence and you'll never live up to your initial idea.

Wah wah, just shoot the movie. It's not that deep...

[aplarently]

Meeting Ramattra

// Literally put a nonbiological being in front of me and I am RAVENOUS. 

# I love everything about this new hero already. I am the MOST hype. I have seen that others are going off about him as well. Couldn’t help myself. 

   Realistically, omnics aren’t very different from humans at all. We both ponder our own existence and share free will, clearly. We also similarly might be faithful to a creator or divine entity of some kind. (Ugh, I have been so existential lately so don’t get me started.) Like others here, I find Ramattra fascinating because of this sort of antagonistic ideology that all humans are horrible and nothing good could come of working with them. Which is fair. 

Have you seen the state of the world?

   Ramattra is rough around the edges, for sure. I don’t believe you can just fix a person who has experienced potential trauma and I’m not a fan of that way of thinking. However, I do think that time and some nurturing can soothe the hurt in others. 

(S/N): This took me a while. I was scraping up all the info I could before going in. IT IS MIDNIGHT WHAT. I cannot proof read this right now. Forgive me.

   Being on opposite sides is a good place to start. Surrounding yourself with beings that hold different world views is insightful and important to building strong relationships. No one is going to agree on everything and that isn’t always so bad as it can bring people closer in a strange way. 

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- You work as a behind-the-scenes operative at Overwatch; mostly as a radar systems engineer. Simply put, you check for any interference whether that be from above, below, or all around the surrounding base.

- Sojourn decided she liked you enough to put you to work in the east to work under some notable tech specialists.

- Despite that, a lot of this job involved a lot of late, dull nights by your lonesome staring at your monitors and just making sure nothing peculiar was happening on point. Of course the pay was phenomenal but your career really made you question what all the math was about in order to put yourself in this dimly lit cell of an operating room, twiddling your thumbs.

- One night on the job, you find yourself drifting off when suddenly you get a notification from your radar systems and jolt forward to confront an odd reading. There’s a feint red dot signaling an unknown entity in the surrounding area.

- This wasn’t that surprising as you would occasionally encounter one small dot and it would end up being an airdrop for supplies or something nonthreatening. However, that was in the early day usually and you would have your other coworkers with you to handle it as you were technically still a newbie on base.

- So to be honest, you’ve never actually gotten to this point in the job before and didn’t know how to handle this situation professionally. “Well.. fuck,” you mutter to yourself and decide that you should investigate regardless.

- Grabbing your jacket, you put on your ‘I know what I’m doing face’ and hop out of the operation deck to see what this potential intruder wants.

- This base in particular is a bit odd in it’s placement. It is a bit out in the middle of nowhere in Europe where it is typically raining which normally makes the radar quite hard to catch correctly anyway. 

- You secretly hope that that’s the problem this time.

- Upon exiting the base, the doors seal behind you and you pull out your handheld monitor from your jacket where it had been waiting before. With a few clicks, your small radar starts scanning the area as best it can in this windy atmosphere.

- You pull your hood up and pull out your flashlight to light your way through the darkness. Pressing forward, you squint to protect your eyes from the raindrops that threaten to impact them. 

- In the distance you see a low red glow where your radar is navigating towards and decide that this must be the interference. You raise your flashlight in the direction of the glow. 

- “Hello?” you try to project but the combination of the cold wind and pure nervousness made it difficult to do so. Your throat felt dry. “State your name,” you hear in response as you finally come face to face with an omnic kneeling on the ground. 

- You are taken aback first by how firm he was in speech but quickly realize there is another metal form lying lifeless before him. Disregarding his request from before, your initial feelings of fear turn to concern and it is evident in your tone “,What happened here?”

- He collects the body from the Earth and turns away from you in silence but doesn’t walk away. 

- “Unless this was your doing, this matter does not concern you, human.”

- He remains still as if expecting a confession or otherwise. You get a hint of an accusing tone in his statement and feel the desire to get defensive. 

- “I can assure you that I had no hand in this. I’m an engineer at Overwatch; I’m just trying to assist anywhere that I can,” you say as you put your device back into your pocket. You feel your stomach drop when you realize that you mentioned Overwatch at all. They didn’t exactly have the best reputation right now so it’s not a great idea to go throwing that around.

- You may have just signed your death warrant.

- He scoffs “, I’m not at all surprised at that. Of all the people to go around playing hero for the public, Overwatch holds the worst of them.”

- Trying to divert the conversation back to the matter at hand you shake your head “,I-I’m sorry, I really am just here to help. What are you doing with the body?” He holds pause for a moment. You notice his shoulders fall a bit as he sighs. “I’m collecting them to properly lay them to rest as well as all the others that your kind mercilessly slaughters,” he finishes as he starts to walk ahead.

- You feel your heart pang with a guilt as your expression grows softer. “I know this isn’t much but I know a peaceful, nice area we could bury them,” you say, half expecting him to just keep walking off in annoyance.

- He stops and pauses again but this time he hesitantly turns to you. It is hard to navigate at this hour and in this weather as it is. He hadn’t exactly thought that far ahead it seemed.

- “I... okay,” he finally says.

- You smile gently as he turns to follow your lead. “It’s (y/n), by the way,” you turn back towards him as you guide the two.

- “Ramattra,” he responds, but it sounds familiar to you. He spoke one last time and you almost barely heard it “,Thank you.” 

- The two of you continued to march on in silence.

[katiesharms]

if you let me down, let me down slow - ch. 1

fandom: top gun maverick, pairing: phoenix/hangman

summary: She still doesn’t know what to make of Hangman, after all this time, all these years. They’re not friends, really, not even in the loose way she and Rooster are friends and certainly not in the way she and her friends back home are. But they’re far more than acquaintances, than colleagues. In some ways, they’re closer than she is with some of her family. In others, they might as well be strangers.

read on ao3!

a/n: hi everyone who follows me for bridgerton, i promise it's coming! tgm has just...gripped me. i'm cross-posting this with my ao3, where chap 2 is already also posted. feel free to send me asks/prompts/questions/comments! title from 'what's it gonna be' by shura, a great song for this dynamic

Phoenix has a recurring dream that the brakes on her car don’t work. 

She’s not sure, exactly, when they started. She assumes it was sometime between getting her license at 16 and leaving for the Academy, but she can’t remember, can’t pin it down to a specific date. But the dream is always the same. She’s driving through a familiar section of her hometown, on the highway from the pizza place to her house. And she’s speeding, because she always speeds, but the light is red all of a sudden. So she slams on the brakes, as hard as she can, and it works, at first. The car slows down, drastically. But it doesn’t stop. She’s pressing on the brakes with all her strength and she can feel it, can feel the way they clench underneath her, can hear the screech of them against her tires. But it’s not enough. The car slows down, but it never stops, inching forward past the red light and into the intersection. 

She always wakes up before anything happens. Before she’s hit or hits something. 

This recurring dream is why she currently can’t sleep. It woke her up, shocking her with adrenaline. She awoke panting, clammy from sweat, momentarily confused. That’s dangerous, she knows. To be a loud waker, in her line of work. So she took a few calming breaths and surveyed her surroundings. Determined that she was in her temp housing the Navy put them in during this recall, that Halo was still snoring quietly below her. 

Natasha knew she should just try to go back to sleep, an early start the next day, but she couldn’t. Her body is full of momentum, of unrealized motion from her dream. So she roused herself as quietly as possible and made her way out of her room. 

It’s well past midnight, and leaving the base at this time draws more scrutiny than it’s worth, which is how she’s found herself in the common room, dismantling the old radio there. She’d always loved machines, and the technical aspect of flying has always come easier to her than to most others. When Mav threw the manual in the trash on their first day, she has to stop herself from physically wincing. It’s why she joined the Academy, at first. A cheap way to get an engineering degree. She just hadn’t expected to fall in love with flying. 

It’s nearing two in the morning, and with everyone expected at the 0800 lecture the next morning, Natasha’s expecting to spend the next hour or so in peace. The universe seems to have other plans. 

“Is there a reason you’re playing Inspector Gadget at 2 am?” 

She looks up and finds the last person she expected to see: Jake Seresin. She’d figured that he either spends his nights with a different girl every time or deep in his beauty sleep. She certainly didn’t think he’d be here, watching her fiddle with the ancient tech, an unreadable look on his face. 

“I think I can boost the signal.” It’s not an answer but he wasn’t really asking a question. Phoenix doesn’t think she has the bandwidth to deal with Hangman at the moment, and she’s quietly hoping that, if she doesn’t engage him like she usually does, he’ll just leave. 

Instead, he walks further into the room, dropping onto the couch across the table from her. He picks up one of the wires that she hasn’t reconnected yet and starts playing with it. She resists the urge to slap it out of his hand like he’s a kid. 

She still doesn’t know what to make of Hangman, after all this time, all these years. They’re not friends, really, not even in the loose way she and Rooster are friends and certainly not in the way she and her friends back home are. But they’re far more than acquaintances, than colleagues. In some ways, they’re closer than she is with some of her family. In others, they might as well be strangers. 

She’s known him for over ten years now. He’s maybe the person she’s known the longest, that she’s not related to. He was a year ahead of her on the Academy, and then was in flight training at the same time as her. And when she got to TOPGUN, he’d been the top pilot from the previous class and was there to help instruct. Then, they flew together, intermittently over the years. She’s actually seen him more often than she’s seen Rooster. 

She’d hated him, mostly. He was arrogant and dangerous, the worst combination. But over the years, their relationship has thawed more, became more understanding. When you’re in the top 1% of all aviators, there’s very few people who understand your life. And when you’re called back for a top-secret suicide mission, that number shrinks to something impossibly small. 

It’s also hard to hate him, surprisingly. As much of a dickhead as he is, he also cares, deep down. Once, in flight training, she did one too many barrel rolls trying to show off (sometimes she can admit that she’s just a little arrogant, too) and almost lost control of her plane. She stabilized quickly, but afterward, she had to rush to the bathroom to puke. He found her there and didn’t say anything, didn’t brag or lord it over her. Instead, he offered her a Gatorade (almost impossible to find on base) and some gum and told her that he was impressed. When they were stationed together in Japan, he was the only other person willing to go with her to the hole-in-the-wall food places, to try some stuff that might’ve still been living. When his date for his brother's wedding canceled last minute, Phoenix went with him, met the whole Seresin clan. 

He’d been different there, more reserved. She thinks she left that weekend understanding him better. No one in his family even called him Hangman, and sometimes, it’s like they forgot he was there. His family is so big, Hangman himself the youngest of 5, and she could see it. How he grew up fighting for space, finding a way to stand out. 

She doesn’t like to think about what he could’ve learned about her the one time he met the Traces, when they visited her for her 30th birthday at Lemoore. Like Jake, like everyone, she’s a bit different around the people who’ve known her for her whole life. 

So yeah, they’re close. But Hangman still sets her teeth on edge sometimes, especially after days like today, when he had to go and tell the whole class about Bradley’s dad. Like that’s any of their business. He seems to live to push other people's buttons, like he’s constantly chasing the high of flying while on the ground. 

“What, you don’t need tools?” His voice draws her attention back to him and she resists the urge to glare. 

“Nah, nimble fingers.” She doesn’t mention the small flathead screwdriver she found in one of the drawers, which, without it, would make the whole task impossible. On a base where everyone’s a least partly a mechanic, you can’t walk three feet without hitting a tool. 

“I’m sure.” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and Phoenix rolls her eyes. There’s no heat in it, though. 

“Really, though, Trace,” he continues, “what are you doing awake?”

She shrugs, remaining focused on the task in front of her. When she holds out a hand, palm facing up, he understands implicitly what she’s asking and places the wire he was playing with into her outstretched hand. 

“Couldn’t sleep, weird dream. What are you doing up, missing important beauty sleep?”

Hangman’s silent for a bit too long and she can feel his eyes on her. 

“Also couldn't sleep,” he answers eventually, but she can tell he’s holding something back. Maybe that’s what he heard in her voice, too. 

“Anything, in particular, keeping you up?” he asks, and she really wishes he’d just leave her alone. 

“You mean besides the near-impossible mission that we’re all here training for and the fact that it’s basically a suicide mission?” The radio is almost done, so she decides to twist the knife, just for something to do. “I mean, for anyone lucky enough to be paired with you, it’s a certain suicide mission.”

“Ah, Phe, cmon. You know I'd never leave you behind. You’re the only one of those fuckers who can actually keep up with me.”

“Right, which is why you left me for dead against Maverick.” The radio’s done now, and she fiddles with the knobs experimentally. It lands on a classic country station and she lets the quiet sounds of Johnny Cash wash over the room. It sounds much better than before, all the static pretty much gone. 

“You still mad about that? Or is this cold shoulder treatment because I riled up your little boyfriend?”

She doesn’t even bother to correct him about Rooster, knowing it’s more a harmless joke than anything. Instead, she takes him in, truly. 

He looks tired, more tired than she would’ve expected based on his energy. The dark circles under his eyes are noticeable, and his skin looks a little ragged. There’s stubble along his jaw that she knows he'll shave tomorrow before class and he’s wearing pajamas, a white t-shirt, and some striped pants. She’s beginning to wonder, for the first time since he came in, why he’s really awake. 

“What you did was supremely shitty and you know it. Bringing up someone’s father when you don’t know the whole story is an asshole move, even by Bagman standards.”

His jaw clenched and she thinks she’s got him. She knows why he can’t sleep: guilt. 

“You know what I think?” He leans forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “I think you’re just upset Chicken Little didn’t tell you himself. That you had to find out with the rest of us.”

She sucks a breath in through her nose and tries to not react too strongly to that. Truthfully, Natasha is hurt that Rooster didn’t tell her about his dad earlier. That she didn’t know about Maverick and all this shit until a day into training. But she knows that Hangman is only bringing this up to deflect, to get under her skin. 

“He didn’t tell me because he didn’t want me to know. He didn’t want any of us to know. I know that empathy’s a foreign concept in your world, but maybe spend a couple minutes thinking about how your actions affect other people.”

She’s ready to leave it at that, getting up and walking toward the door. But Hangman reaches out as she passes him, his hand closing around her forearm. It’s gentle enough that she could pull out of it if she really wanted to, but something about the look in his eyes gives her pause. She turns her body towards him, allowing him to keep his hand wrapped loosely right above her wrist. 

“I didn’t know that he and Maverick actually hate each other.” It’s not an admission of wrong, but it’s the closest she knows she’ll get out of Hangman. She can tell that he feels bad, even if he’ll never say so out loud. It’s a bit too late for her to act as his emotional interpreter, though. Or maybe it’s too early. 

“Jake,” she starts and she doesn’t miss the way his face softens at that, “this whole mission is about flying out of our minds, but it’s also about being a team. As hard as it is to believe, I know you’re not being a dick on purpose. Maybe work on trying not to be one on accident.”

She leaves at that, pulling away from him gently. As she walks back to her room, she realizes she never told him about her dream. 

Their 0800 meeting ends up being Maverick telling them to take the morning off and meet him at the beach for “special training” at 1300. She’s more than a little pissed that she could be in bed instead, and catches Hangman’s eyes across the aisle and sees he’s equally annoyed. 

When they’re dismissed, most of the group heads back to their rooms for some nap time, and a few others decide to get some gym time in. Phoenix is, despite everything, too awake to head back to sleep so she turns to Bob to see if he wants to hit the gym or something. 

“I was actually thinking of heading into town for breakfast, if you want.”

She’s never been a huge breakfast fan but she can spot Hangman walking towards them out of the corner of her eye, so she agrees easily and starts ushering them out. 

They end up at a breakfast burrito place that Bob found his first time at TOPGUN. When she bites into hers, she thanks her lucky stars for Southern California. 

“So, Bob,” she says around a bit of chorizo, “how did you get your callsign?” She’s been wondering since he told them, and she knows it’s not some shit like Baby on Board that Hangman was trying. 

“Oh, uh,” and her WSO flushes a deep red. Phoenix is immediately intrigued, widening her eyes in interest. “In flight school, I would take showers super early in the morning, so I was always alone. I would, uh, blast music and sing along, since there was no one around. 

“One morning, I thought I was alone but a few guys came in that I didn’t notice. And they heard me rap the entire of Bombs Over Baghdad by Outkast.”

“No fucking way.” Phoenix's jaw is practically on the ground, burrito abounded in front of her. 

“Yeah, and ya know, it fits with the whole bombs part and me being a WSO. And, well, my name being Robert. So it stuck. I don’t like telling people, though, because they always ask me to do it.”

Phoenix clamps her mouth shut; she was DEFINITELY going to ask him. As if he can read the expression on her face, Bob speaks again. 

“If you get us home in one piece, I’ll do it.”

“Oh, Bob, that’s a guarantee.” She’s positively gleeful now. 

“What about you?” He asks and then takes a sip of his Sprite. 

“Can I rap a seminal 90s anthem? No.” Well, she has a few bars of Gin and Juice under her belt, but she’s not admitting that now. 

“No, how’d you get your callsign?”

“Ah,” she tilts her head like she’s about to let him in on a big secret. “One night, we were all out getting drunk off our asses at some tiki bar.” Bob's eyes widen like he can tell where this is going. 

“Anyway, I was completely out of it, many, many, tequila shots in, and I may have…knocked over one of the lamps. Why they would use real fire at this bar, I don’t know, but it toppled over onto our table and lit the tablecloth on fire. Everyone was fine, and a staffer extinguished it pretty quickly. But the next morning, I was the first one to class, not a sign of a hangover. So, she who rises from the ashes was born.”

“That’s…impressive.” He looks like he means it, too, a real expression of awe on his face. 

Phoenix shrugs. She’s proud of it but likes to keep an air of humility around her about it. She’s also leaving out the key detail that it all almost went to shit. When the torch first hit the table and the fire caught, she’d been frozen in fear, watching the flames engulf the table. It was as if it was happening to someone else, a scene she was watching from outside her body. She didn’t back away, even as the heat of the flames began to lick up her face, down her arms. 

Then, suddenly, she was a few feet away, the cold night air washing over her body. When she looked up, it was Hangman, still just Jake then, who’d pulled her away, his arm still wrapped around her middle. He wasn’t looking at her, though, instead talking to the employee who’d come out with the fire extinguisher. When he walked into class the next morning, neither of them brought it up, just acknowledging each other with a look of mutual respect. That’s really when their relationship started to shift.

She and Bob finish their breakfast quickly after that, chatting idly about their families and the mission. After, she makes her way back to base and collapses for a few hours, the burrito making her sleepy enough for a nap. When she wakes up, Halo is back, spraying sunscreen on her arms and dressed in workout clothes. 

Base is a few miles from the beach, so they all have to split rides between the couple of them who have cars. Rooster takes his Bronco, but Payback claims the passenger seat, citing his height. So Phoenix crams into the back with Fanboy, Bob, and Halo. The rest of them are split between Jake’s pickup and Yale’s sedan. 

Dogfight football turns out to be the most fun Phoenix has had in months. It feels good to use her body for something silly, to use her strength to hurl a football down the beach or tackle Coyote to the ground rather than to just withstand G-force. The rest of the pilots feel it too, the elation of physical activity that’s just fun and not work, and soon, no one’s keeping score. Or, at least that’s what they say, but she can tell from the calculating look in his eyes that Hangman is still keeping track. She is too, but she’ll never admit it.

After they wind down, Maverick long gone, somewhere with the pretty barkeep from the Hard Deck, people start branching off. A bunch of them cram into Rooster’s Bronco to head off to some bar now that the Hard Deck is closed, so there goes Phoneix’s ride. A few more take Yale’s sedan back to base, and even if there was room, Phoenix isn’t in the mood to head back yet.

As cliche as it is, she loves the sea. It’s part of what keeps her coming back, re-upping her service, the lure of the ocean. Being locked on a carrier for months on end is most people’s least favorite part of the Navy but she doesn’t mind it. She finds it calming, looking out and seeing nothing but the water. So she lays down, closing her eyes and resting her head on the sand and listening to the waves lap the shore.

She feels the body settle next to her rather than hear it. Like all of them, training has made Hangman stealthy, quiet when he wants to be. She doesn’t say anything but she leans her body towards him slightly, an unspoken welcome.

“So who won?” she asks, even though she knows the answer.

“Thought we weren’t supposed to be keeping score. It was about team building.”

She snorts. “You and I both know that friendly competitions are still competitions.”

“Then I think you know the answer,” he says begrudgingly, and Phonenix almost beams at the quiet admission that it was, in fact, her team that won. Pretty handidly, too. 

She and Hangman have been competing for a while, everything from darts to career milestones. He was a year ahead of her in the Academy, but they got to flight training at the same time. Then he made TOPGUN before her, if only by a couple of months. She led her first mission a year before Hangman, but he got his first kill while she’s still waiting on hers.

It’s a quiet, private competition, different from the dick-measuring contest he has with Rooster. But it’s a competition all the same, born from years of forced proximity and often being the two most competent people in the room. When you want to be the best, you need to find the next best to push you. She and Hangman have been switching off as one and two for the better part of a decade.

“How are you getting home?” he asks from beside her and she can feel his breath on the side of her face, evidence of both his proximity and how he’s turned his head towards her. “Chickadee already left.”

“I was gonna take a cab or something. Maybe walk; it’s only a few miles.” She honestly hadn’t thought about it yet.

“That’s stupid; I’ll drive you.” His southern accent is starting to shine through, and the whole thing reminds her of chivalry.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll probably hang out here for a while more and I don’t want to hold you up.”

“I’ll wait.” 

There’s something in his tone that makes her turn towards him, and when she does, he’s looking away, shifting in the sand like he just admitted something he wishes he hadn’t. She narrows his eyes. Maybe he did.

“How long have you been waiting?” she asks carefully, and the tips of his ears turn pink. It’s silly enough that she wants to giggle.

“I was ready to go home the minute they all piled into that stupid Bronco to go get drinks. But I figured if he was your ride back, you might be stranded.”

“Trying to outrun your callsign, Hangman?” she teases, too thrown to do anything else.

“Hey, we’re on solid ground right now. Let’s check back in when we’re in the air.” She decides to leave it that, and shifts to sit up to watch the sun start to lower over the Pacific, hugging her arms around her legs. Hangman follows suit, leaning his shoulder against hers as he leans back.

As the silence stretches between the two of them, Phoenix thinks about her friendship with the two men. Her’s with Rooster is more obvious, more public. He’s kind to her outright, empathetic to her problems. But she doesn't hear from him for months at a time, he ditches her on the beach, he only told her about Maverick, the most important man in his life that’s still alive, because he was forced to.

And Jake annoys her on a good day and makes her feel murderous on a bad one. But he’s sitting here, watching the sunset, because he wants to make sure she gets home okay. He texted her on her birthday and on the anniversary of her father’s death. Is this what friendship is? Can they both be friendship, even if they look wildly different, and none of them look like her relationship with Halo or Payback or even Bob?

It’s all confusing, more so than it's ever been. The last time the three of them were in the same place for an extended period of time was at the tail-end of Bradley’s stint at Lemoore, when Jake was just starting. Natasha had stuck closely to Rooster during those couple of months, the animosity he felt towards Hangman sometimes a physical presence. She figured that if she had to pick a side, Rooster’s would always be the one she chose. He, as a baseline, was at least nice to her. Now, though, it’s all mixed up. And it's really not the time to be thinking about it.

“C’mon,” she says as she stands up and brushes the sand off the backs of her legs. The sun is halfway down, the sky a brilliant mix of pink and orange. “Let’s head back. If you stop at In-N-Out, your burger’s on me.”

“Don’t you want to wait for the sun to fully set?” Hangman asks, but he’s standing too, searching his pockets for his keys.

“Nah,” she turns towards where he parked. “Always leave on a high note, right?”

[shangsclaws]

What's up! So apologies if this is a weird ask but can I get a platonic shang tsung x Young witch/sorceress reader who he takes in as an apprentice because he sees her potential? Sorry if this is an out of character ask but I'd like to see how you'd imagine it! Lots of love! 😊

lots of love to u too anon!! …but if u thought this was gonna be a fluffy father daughter thing…i’m v sorry but i wrote it MUCH differently 😭

warnings: none

“Careful,” the sorcerer cautioned, motioning his chin to the phylactery, “break that, and you’ll be here overnight.”

The young sorceress groaned, setting down the treasured container. “It was an accident. Technically, I wasn’t even the one who broke it.”

“Of course you weren’t,” Shang Tsung chuckled condescendingly.

The elder sorcerer paced around the dinner table, where, sat at the farthest end, his apprentice continued piecing the loose shards of a phylactery back together. Broken around midnight, the young sorcerer had woken Shang Tsung in a panic, horrified when they’d seen the souls siphon out of their broken container and shriek in pain.

“Why were you wandering in the weaponry so late? Did I not tell you to rest early for training tomorrow?” The sorcerer prodded, sounding much less disappointed than he did amused. “You are aware that the tournament is in less than a week, no?”

It was always about the tournament. That old sorcerer hadn’t shut up about it — the apprentice grumbled to herself — since the moment he’d laid eyes on her malnourished figure some months ago. While the food was delicious, her bed far softer than the hard stone of dark alleyways, the training was perhaps as brutal as fending for herself on the streets. And all she ever did in her waking hours, it seemed, was train.

“If you keep training me to unconsciousness,” the apprentice began in irritation, wiping off excess adhesive from the phylactery, “I’ll be dead before the tournament even begins.”

Shang Tsung chuckled in his throat, walking back from the far end of the table to see his repaired piece of expensive gear.

“And what makes you think I’m not prepared for that?” He grinned, and the apprentice couldn’t hear in his tone if he was serious or not.

“…because…uhm…you haven’t trained anyone else?” She muttered. Please let this be true.

There was silence, and then a hum of agreement.“Precisely.” The snake nodded, both at her statement and in approval of such great work she did fixing his phylactery. “If I’d found someone else to train, someone to replace you, I’d have done it by now, young one.”

Knowing him, the apprentice figured his words held the same weight as saying he would have let her rot to death. How she hated the indifference in his tone, how he grinned so patronizingly. Or, rather than hate, the poor girl was horrified, knowing all too well it was within his power to discard of her as he so pleased.

But, for being so young, there must have been a talent he would have hated to see go to waste. At least she hoped that was what had kept her alive all this time.

“I’ll meet you in the courtyard. We’ll begin sparring shortly,” said the sorcerer, picking up the phylactery and deftly tying it to his waist sash, “Shao Kahn will be here tomorrow to observe you.”

Crap.

“I’d hate to see him get upset,” the snake continued, sounding incredulous, “it’d be a shame to see all your hard work go to waste.”

With that he was gone, leaving little behind save for the empty pit in his apprentice’s stomach. Shang Tsung always did this.

But the young sorceress knew she was smart. Why else would that snake have decided to spend his precious time with her? Knowing all the tricks the sorcerer could pull, the spells he used to be as heinous as him, the old man had made a weapon out of her. Sooner or later — the young sorceress plotted, grinding her teeth as she watched her mentor disappear behind a large column — she’d have her way. And if that meant killing him, then so be it.

But she’d need to know as much as she could first.

“Wait for me!” The apprentice called from the study, and Shang Tsung paused in his paces to the courtyard to turn around.

“Why don’t you teach me something new today?” She asked.

[in-tua-deep]

Are you into my hero academia? What about an AU or crossover with tua?

UHHHH I am technically, like, peripherally? I watched some seasons of the show like two or three years ago and since then have simply absorbed all content through osmosis, reading fanfiction that has canon events, and my sister telling me about the arcs of her fav characters lmao

so a crossover hmmm

First of all you'd have to like, establish whether bnha is an alternate universe or just The Future If No Apocalypse with quirks being traced back to the descendants of the kids born without mothers

So let's say it's that - the glowing baby was the "first quirk" but the truth is people had powers before that. But - well, the Umbrella Academy was obviously a marketing gimmick to those in the future! There were even comics based on them

In the future, you might find some of those comics in museum exhibits dedicated to depictions of powers in the pre-quirk era, but they're just fun depictions and much less popular than, oh, DC or MCU comics which are also in the exhibits!

End of s2 doesn't happen I guess in this au?? No sparrow academy at least lmao. So, the Umbrella Academy stop the apocalypse (again) and the Commission threat is? Neutralized? Whatever. They decide to jump back to the future

Five warns them that time travel is a crapshoot, that he has no fucking idea when they'll land beyond some nebulous "future" because Five can at least control the direction if not exactly how long

Also, Five is like. Super tired. Incredibly tired. Homeboy still has a healing gut wound, time traveled twice, has been jumping all over the place, gotten even more injured, experienced paradox psychosis, and managed to undo time all in the space of like, two weeks. There actually more than that but we don't have time to get into how fucking tired Five is from his ~Month of Hell

Like genuinely this is like putting someone almost delirious from lack of sleep in the driver's seat of a car and expecting to get to your destination in one piece

But hey, the siblings are like "do it uwu" and Five has sacrificed everything for them already so why not get behind the wheel again

So Five jumps them, and of course something goes wrong because Five has pushed his powers like a great big rubber band and honestly it was only a matter of time before he lost his grip and it snapped back to hit him

So here be the umbrella academy: spilled out into the future like a cup of bad coffee.

Five probably isn't in too good of shape tbh, like they're hundreds of years in the future (but hey at least confirmation of no apocalypse am I right) in a world full of superpowers and Five is like. bleeding from his ears and nose probably idk

Let's handwave a little bit - Reginald made them all polyglots so the squad all speak varying levels of Japanese. Allison is the best at it, Five is second best but tends to use more archaic words bc he had missions in Japan back when he was with the commission, and Klaus is third best.

(Ben is the worst bc he decided when he was 16-and-dead that he didn't have to do anything regarding lessons and maintenance and hasn't given a shit since - but also he's dead so)

So you have a bunch of weird adults with a bleeding child in like, an alley who have appeared from nowhere

so of course heroes get involved

Anyway, the squad get taken in and Five is conscious but like, barely? And he's not going to let himself get separated from his siblings again fuck-you-officer and there is a lot of confusion

anyway detective tsukauchi ends up getting involved and ends up having to hear this batshit story and be like "...truth." which sends all kinds of people scrambling because fucking time travel? Like yeah, it's been theorized to be a possible quirk but there's no recorded cases of any sort of time travel that is for more than 24 hours let alone hundreds of years

"I'm an adult." Five says sourly, "I just happened to be returned to my 13 year old body when I time traveled one time."

"True." Tsukauchi says, feeling his soul leave his body, but like. absently. the way he does when he's called in at 2am after getting off of work at midnight.

"I'm 58." Five says.

"Lie." Tsukauchi says, because this is a headcanon hill I will die on.

"I'm probably 58, but it was hard to keep track. I'm at least 50." Five corrects.

"True." Tsukauchi sighs like these six (seven? they keep referring to another sibling and Klaus said 'ghost' like that was fine and it registered as true and Tsukauchi is not nearly paid enough for this) are not giving him a migraine by just existing

on the bright side there's like, probably protocols in place for individuals who are Legally Chronologically Adults but thanks to quirks are Not Physically Or Not Mentally Adults with tests to determine if the individual needs a guardian or not

though i'm gonna be honest idk if Five would pass the test bc he literally cannot take care of himself at all, has never paid taxes or understands how to exist legally, and also his emotional maturity is stunted as all hell. also like. we don't actually know how much being in his thirteen-year-old body affects his mental state but yeAH Five is vibing

anyway Tsukauchi probably phones a friend on this bullshit because Time Travel Child alone is probably enough for the Hero Commission to be like "find a way to control and use it or nuke it from orbit" and that's not even touching whatever the fuck Klaus is doing (shit gets real once 'dead men tell no tales' stops being true) let ALONE Allison's whole deal

on the bright side like, at least Vanya isn't getting side-eyed that much bc Big Destructive Quirks aren't exactly unknown? if vanya wanted to i guess quirk suppressors exist for that until extensive training on how to control a super powerful quirk happens

Tsukauchi in the group chat: Aizawa please I am literally begging you to take this bullshit on

Aizawa: in this economy? with my class?

RatGod: lol we'll take them ;3c

Aizawa: no

Anyway they probably end up having to live at UA while Five insists on trying to get them home still and everyone else is like "oh hey we used to be child soldiers as well! (:" and Aizawa is like "i hate everything about this and everything about all of you but also like nedzu is making me interact with you so :/"

nedzu is out here vibing like "lol i just don't want the hero commission to get their little paws on these time traveling fuckers, i think you should make then teaching assistants or something"

honestly the siblings are probably like. figuring out how to function in the bnha universe and getting like, legally registered and stuff while Five ferally refuses bc that's like saying he's giving up on getting them home and he can do this

Recovery girl tries to heal him a little when he arrives and he passes out for two weeks like, immediately bc homeboy is running on fumes and spite at this point

also i think on principle it would be REALLY FUNNY if the squad got to tag along with the class bc like. Five is thirteen and the class are all 15. this does not sound like a large age gap. anyone who has interacted with teenagers know that the class would squint at Five and be like "who is this sassy lost middle schooler."

I feel like when I was a sophomore we were still like "freshman... babie" even though we were literally only one year older.

i think the difference between the umbrella academy and school kids would be pretty funny like. objectively the bnha kids are lowkey child soldiers?? like they're 15 and fighting villains but like, there's all this red tape and laws and stuff but,,, deku still be breaking his limbs in a child fighting ring against equally superpowered children for like. entertainment and sponsorships sooo

but also like Five would be like "oh cool when is the experimentation class"

"the what"

"you know, when your powers are pushed real hard by putting you in different terrible situations while your dad and sibling stand by with clipboards writing down the exact voltage it takes before you can't use your powers anymore when being electrocuted"

"hound dog's office is right there. therapy is available to you at any time. i need you to know this."

all might calls Luther "my boy" like one (1) time and Luther just breaks down crying probably because he is starved for positive attention

klaus and midnight get along like a literal house on fire, aizawa tried his best to keep them apart for as long as possible but god damn

(klaus: your name is shimura nana??

all might: immediately dies choking on blood)

i feel it absolutely necessary to point out that aizawa, present mic, and midnight are all like, 30? and the umbrella academy are all between 29-early 30s? they are PEERS but like. the umbrella academy are more chaotic due to childhood trauma

the umbrella academy probably get offered to like. also train to be heroes. i mean,, there HAS to be some sort of track for people who change careers right?? you don't have to cement your future as a hero when you're 15 i'm sure there must be something and the squad already have experience if they want to go be legal heroes

diego probably does at least?? diego just vibes honestly. diego gets momo to make knives during a team exercise and they just go feral on everyone else and it ends with diego highfiving momo and someone getting way to close to being stabbed for comfort

Five might just be. legally enrolled as an Actual Student? But also i think it's funny to picture the entire squad just. all in the back of the classroom with luther trying to fit into a high school desk as they take notes on the laws of The Future surrounding heroics

every word out of the umbrella academy's mouths just make everyone more concerned on principal but like, five and klaus are probably the worst offenders. Klaus just says whatever comes to mind with no filter and Five doesn't get what people would consider to be abnormal anymore like

Five: yeah our dad bought us when we were babies and experimented on us throughout our childhood in order to make an elite team of child soldiers superheroes, it happens

Todoroki: ...have you heard of quirk marriages?

izuku probably has an aneurism bc he's is the only person who might recognize them from the comics because you know ya boy extensively researched the idea of heroics in pre-quirk eras (batman was an inspiration alright???) and might dredge up a memory of a less popular comic series

Five: I can time travel but it is very hard, which is why we are hundreds of years in the future. And why I look like a child.

Kaminari: so are you a kid or not?

Five, serenely: whatever is most convenient for me at any given moment

Mina: hell yeah game the system

they have a brief lesson on astronomy and Luther raises his hand like "ooh! i was isolated on the moon for four years and did SO MUCH research" and then just gets up and starts infodumping like way too much information on the moon

Izuku sitting there like "damn if quirks hadn't popped up we could have achieved so much in terms of space travel. please tell me more giant man who lived in pre-quirk era."

Vanya finds out about the quirkless and is like "oh mood that genuinely sounds like my childhood, being ordinary in a house full of extraordinary people, and then i found out that i did have powers but only much later in life after i had already been emotionally scarred by the experience"

deku: vanya we have so much in common

iida and uraraka: concerned noises

aizawa: hound dog. therapy with hound dog for all of you.

there's probably some conflict with like, the hero commission wanting to get their hands on the time travelers?? but probably especially five and klaus as a) time travel and b) ghosts (the hc def has bodies they would like to stay buried)

five has a pavlovian reaction to anything with 'commission' in the name and hates them on site, probably plays into his age in order to become a ward of UA or something to protect him from the commission a little bit.

(this makes nedzu Five's legal guardian. aizawa has his resignation papers all prepped in a drawer marked 'in case of emergency' but let's be real, if nedzu wants to take over the world aizawa should probably be on the rat-bear's side of things :/)

five: ah, i do recall the inhumane experimentation that we were subjected to

nedzu, who was experimented on: haha same hat! want me to dig up the location of reginald hargreeves's remains so you can spit on them?

klaus: nah no worries we dumped them out in the courtyard unceremoniously like, a while back. how long ago varies for each of us because of time travel!

luther: you said hound dog's office was down the hall and to the right?

on the bright side, Luther probably feels like. way less self conscious about his body, partially bc of his fighting and all that in the 60s but also bc !! now he genuinely doesn't feel like a freak. no one even gives him a second glance. one of the teachers looks like a slab of cement with a face. gang orca looks Like That. there is literally a student with an entire bird head and goth aesthetic. Luther does not stick out at all

allison and shinso bond over having "villainous" voice-based quirks

allison and shinso having worn muzzles at some point in their youth as punishment 🤝

aizawa probably helps train vanya as well with the whole, being able to erase a world ending quirk safely thing he's got going on which makes for a very nice safety net

i don't think vanya would want to be a hero at the end of things though. maybe the assistant teacher in the music class or something?? all vanya wants is to be able to not end the world

i feel like as time goes by, five brings up trying to get home less and less. part of that is because like,,, genuinely what do they have to go back to?? Allison has Claire, but like. I'm 100% sure the first thing she did in the future was try track down Claire's records and found out Claire was like. fine. became an adult, had a family, probably became the ancestor of the first "quirked" kids who officially popped up after light baby. had a good life, died at an old age etc. etc.

they start settling into the bnha world with like, "we can always hop aboard the five express into where the fuck ever" as a plan Z if things go completely pear shaped (again)

i'mma be real, five himself doesn't give a fuck as long as there is a) no apocalypse and b) his family is alive. Like that's it. His bar is so incredibly low and yet his life keeps fucking trying to limbo under it

i just think it would be funny to have like, Five trying to get along with his "peers" and make friends while the siblings do the same but like, in the staff room

also think it would be funny for five to just walk into the staff room and get coffee occasionally.

a teacher: why is a student in here -

Five, sipping coffee: i'm an adult

nedzu like "what kind of guardian would i be if i didn't teach my new son all the tunnels around ua so he can pop out wherever"

five like "hey new dad can i put stashes of supplies all around ua of weapons, money, food, and other assorted things that might be useful if one needed to fight or make a run for it" and nedzu is like "haha just put your list of what supplies you want in your go bags on my desk and i'll critique it later!"

anyway a bnha/tua crossover would be incredibly chaotic but probably very funny

[4stars-uswnt]

My Muse, My Valentine [Christen Press x Reader]

requested by anon: Not sure if you’re accepting any request but can you write a cp x photographer gf where her gf surprised her at man u, like her gf secretly transfer there to be with cp. Thanks

A/N: please ignore some of the inconsistencies this story has with reality :) but anyways... hope you enjoy and have a happy Valentine’s Day (tomorrow) and remember it’s a day about LOVE, whether that be romantic, platonic, familial, or self ❤️

“I’m gonna miss you,” you whine, as you watch your girlfriend pack her suitcase.

“I know, babe. I’m gonna miss you too, so much.” Christen leans down to quickly peck your lips, before continuing to fold her clothes.

You and Christen had been dating for almost three years now, having met after you’d photographed one of the USWNT’s matches. You instantly felt an attraction to the curly-haired forward, your camera always drifting towards her wherever she was on the pitch.

After you’d posted a couple of your photos on your Instagram, which Christen made a point to like and repost, you gathered up the courage to approach her after a game, and thus began your relationship.

With yours and Christen’s busy schedules, it was sometimes hard to find time for each other, but you made it work, sharing an apartment in Portland during the offseason and flying out for matches when you could. But being a sports photographer did have its benefits, as your work often led you to spending more time with your girlfriend and admiring her speed down the field and score goals.

But now, with the pandemic, as the NWSL was struggling to field games,  you found yourself with little work. Christen herself was not quite satisfied with the league’s plan for the season, so when Tobin proposed the idea of going to the WSL, she desperately wanted to, yearning to get back on the pitch.

At first, when Christen approached you with the subject, you immediately opposed, not wanting to be so far from your girlfriend for such a long amount of time. Additionally, with COVID, it would be nearly, if not completely, impossible for you to visit. But after a blowout fight and discussing it further, you realized that this is what would be best for Christen and her career.

“Do you have to go?” You pout, sitting up and moving to the end of the bed.

“You know I do, (Y/N/N).” Christen playfully rolls her eyes.

“Humph.”

“Babe, come on, don’t make me feel worse about leaving you.”

“Then don’t,” you quip, grabbing your girlfriend by the waist, pulling her down on the bed with you.

“Babe!” Christen squeals, as you blow raspberries into her skin.

You lift your head from the crook of her neck, your eyes locking with hers. “I know that you have to go,” you admit seriously. “Doesn’t mean I like it, but I know that this is what’s best for your career.”

“Thank you, (Y/N),” she says earnestly, giving you a small smile. “We’ll text and FaceTime everyday.”

“I’m holding you to that.” You cup her face and bring her in for a kiss, savoring the feeling of her soft lips on yours. “I also know that you’re gonna kill it over there in Manchester. The WSL isn’t gonna know what hit them.”

Christen ducks her bashfully, a small blush arising on her cheeks. “You know I love you, right?”

“Of course, Chris. I love you, too.”

“Good.” She gives you a quick peck, as she gets up from the bed. “Now, either quit bothering me or help me. My flight is early tomorrow morning, and I haven’t even finished packing.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

—————

It had been a little over five months since you’d dropped Christen off at the airport and she left for Manchester. Despite the constant texting and the nightly FaceTime calls, you couldn’t help but ache for your girlfriend. Without her, the apartment was lonelier and the bed felt bigger.

It had helped that your work had started back up, first with some freelance work and then with the NWSL fall series starting, which gave you something to do and kept you fairly busy.

Currently, you were sitting at the kitchen counter, sipping on a cup of coffee, as you edited some photos for the Thorns. Just as you were saving your work and closing Lightroom, about to shut your computer, a ping alerts a new email in your inbox.

Switching tabs, you notice the message is from an unfamiliar address, so you presume it’s a new client. You click and open it, your eyes widening, as you scan the email:

Ms. (Y/L/N),

I noticed your professional portfolio through many referrals, particularly your work form the World Cup. I am writing on behalf of the BBC News Media Centre, and we’re looking for an excellent sports photographer to join the team, specifically to cover the FA Women’s Super League and the Premier League.

Your experience is outstanding, adn your work speaks for itself. I think you’d be a great fit for this role, and I’d love to tell you more about it and hear more from you.

Would you like to set up a phone or Zoom call soon? If so, let me know when you’re available.

Best,

Charles Smith

Director of Media Relations at BBC Sport

You quickly reread the email, and then reread it again, just to make sure you’re not dreaming. This was too good to be true. But you shake yourself out of your stupor and quickly type out a response to set up a phone call as soon as possible.

After hitting send, you shut your computer with excitement and throw your hands up in the air.

“Yes!” You exclaim into the empty apartment, as you throw your fist in the air and jump off the barstool.

Knowing you needed to distract yourself, otherwise you’d just be staring at your computer, eagerly awaiting the response, you decided to go on a run.

Jogging through the city, you think of your girlfriend and your potential reunion if this job offer worked out. You decided that if you did in fact take this position, you’d surprise Christen at one of her matches, hopefully one that you’d be able to photograph.

As soon as you arrive back in your apartment, you make a beeline for your laptop. You anxiously open your inbox and beam when you see Charles had replied to set up a Zoom call at 9:30 tomorrow morning. You excitedly type out pleasantries, telling him you’re looking forward to it.

For the rest of the afternoon, you were in an increasingly good mood. So later that evening, when Christen called you for your routine FaceTime, she could tell something was up.

“Why do you keep smiling like that?”

“Can I not be happy to talk to my girlfriend?” You tease, a huge grin plastered onto your face.

“You can,” Christen trails off, not quite believing you. “But you have the weird giddy look you get when something’s up?”

“Nothing’s up. Just had a good day,” you shrug nonchalantly.

“Okay,” the forward accepts, still eyeing you suspiciously. “Anyways, you know She Believes is in a couple weeks, are you working the tournament?”

“Yup,” you nod and make a mental note to mention that to Charles tomorrow.

The two of you continue updating each other, chatting about topics ranging from what you had for breakfast that day to re-inc’s upcoming drop.

“Alright,” Christen yawns. “I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

You check your phone and see it’s 5:37 pm, meaning it’s almost midnight in Manchester.

“Okay,” your eyes softening at the sight of your sleepy girlfriend. “Good night, Chris. I love you.”

“Love you, too, babe. G’night.”

After ending the call and shutting your laptop, you head into the kitchen to make some dinner for yourself, getting on with your evening.

—————

The next morning, you anxiously await for Charles to begin the Zoom call, nervously bouncing your knee and biting your lip.

“Hi, (Y/N),” Charles greets, his face appearing on your screen.

“Good morning. Or rather good afternoon?” You correct with a light chuckle, to which he reciprocates.

“Well, as you know from my email, we are looking for a photographer to join our team, and from many referrals, you seem to be a very good candidate,

“So, I was thinking maybe we could look at your portfolio really quickly and then hash out the logistics to see if this is something that could work out.”

“Sounds good,” you agree, as you pull up some of your best pictures and share your screen.

The two of you look through your photos, many from the 2019 World Cup, some of the Olympics, and a few from random NWSL games.

“Well, (Y/N), your work is quite impressive. If you’re ready, and you’re seriously interested in this position, we can talk specifics, scheduling, all that good stuff,” Charles offers.

“I’m definitely interested, but can I just preface by saying that my girlfriend is a major part of this decision, so depending on what she wants to do at the end of the season will impact my contract.”

“Oh?” He raises his eyebrows, clearly not expecting your candor. “Your girlfriend plays in the WSL?”

“Yeah, well, technically only for this season. Her contract is up in May,” you explain.  

“(Y/N), to be completely frank, we’re looking to hire because a couple of our photographers had some personal issues due to COVID and had to leave mid-season,” Charles reveals. “So if it turns out that your girlfriend wants to go back to the NWSL, then we can work that out. And if she wants to stay, and you end up liking it here and you fit in well, we can also work that out. We’re pretty flexible.”

You sigh in relief, giving him a small smile. “Wow, thank you so much. So what would my contract look like?”

“Well, we can sign you to three month contract with the option for extension,” he offers, as you nod along enthusiastically.

“That sounds great,” you exclaim, beaming. “And just to let you know, I’ve already signed on to work the She Believes tournament from the 18th to the 21st.”

“That actually aligns with the WSL’s international break, and there are a couple Premier League matches that weekend, but I think we can manage, so that shouldn’t be an issue.”

“You guys are too kind and so flexible. I really appreciate it so much,” you say earnestly.

“It’s really just us being desperate for a good photographer,” Charles jokes.

“Either way, I’m grateful for this opportunity.”

“We’re excited for you to join our team,” he reciprocates. “So, in terms of when you’ll begin, I honestly would like you to come over as soon as possible so that you can get settled and get acclimated.”

“I am honestly ready to start whenever you’ll have me.”

“How about next week? The Manchester Derby is on Friday, and honestly, given your portfolio, I’d love you to photograph that match,” the British man admits.

“That’s perfect!” You were in complete awe of how perfectly everything was working out. Photographing a Man United match as your first job meant you could surprise Christen, maybe as an early Valentine’s gift.

“Great,” Charles smiles.

The two of you discuss and finalize your contract and the logistics of you starting the job. Once everything’s settled and you each have the information you need, you wrap up the call.

“Well, thank you so much, Charles, for this offer, and I can’t wait to see you next Tuesday.”

“I can’t wait to work with you and meet you. See you next week. Cheers.”

After ending the Zoom call, you begin to make a COVID test appointment, book your flight, and arrange your hotel room for the few days that Christen doesn’t know you’re there, preparing yourself for moving across the world.

—————

After landing in London, getting settled into your hotel, and meeting with the BBC team and the other photographers, you were now on your way to the Manchester Derby.

In the back of the black cab, you pull out your phone to text a good luck text to Christen.

It was difficult to keep your surprise a secret, especially when you were actually in England, because it was much more difficult to FaceTime without her noticing your change in setting. You had to make up the excuse that you were swarmed with editing and preparing for the upcoming Thorns trainings.

As you pull up to the Academy Stadium, you hear your phone ding.

Chris ❤️

Thanks babe. Miss and love you 😘

You quickly type out a response, before heading into the building.

(Y/N/N) 💗

Love you too. I miss u too but go kick butt.

The match was exhilarating. Not only were you a sports photographer, but you were also a huge fan of the game, enjoying a good game when you see one.

You watched in awe, the level and style of play significantly different from than NWSL. While snapping hundreds of photos of both teams, your camera would always somehow land back on your girlfriend.

Your heart ached for the curly-haired forward, as you missed her dearly. Until you saw her back on the pitch, you hadn’t really realized that you missed watching her play the game that she’d mastered, her movements around the pitch and on the ball effortless and elegant.

As the ref blew the whistle, signaling the end of the half, you scroll through some of the photos you’d taken, deleting some of the blurry and unfocussed ones.

A smile immediately forms on your face when you see a picture of Christen during warmups with a huge grin on her face. You spend all of halftime editing said photo and putting together an Instagram post for your girlfriend.

About fifteen minutes later, the teams take the pitch and you go back to doing your job. Throughout the second half, you could tell that Christen was getting increasingly frustrated, her team getting down 3-0 with only about five minutes left.

You watch as the players high five and hug each other, and you want nothing more than to run onto the field to be with your girlfriend, but you had a plan to stick to.

As the team goes back into the locker room, you pull out your phone to post a photo on Instagram and then you shoot a quick text to Tobin:

(Y/N)🤓:

toby go check out my ig post :))

Back in the Man United locker room, after Casey went through her post match speech, Tobin checks her phone and sees a text from you. The injured forward playfully rolls her eyes at your message but follows your directions.

Upon opening the social media app, Tobin raises her eyebrows, her eyes widening. She glances across the room to see if her best friend had seen your post, but Christen was minding her own business, changing into sweats after her shower.

“Chris!” The older forward calls over to the other woman. “Have you seen your girlfriend’s Instagram post?”

Christen furrows her brows in confusion. “What? No, what is it?”

Tobin waves her friend over and shows her the post:

Liked by mrapinoe, ashlynharris24, and 638,231 others

yourusername: My muse, my valentine.

“As I sat and looked at her

and the rolling hills she sat upon

I thought,

what amazing luck I have

that the world had created

such beautiful things

and given me the eyes to see them.”

- atticus

tagged: christenpress

- - - - -

mrapinoe: Stunning pictures, (Y/N). Love you guys 💖

alikrieger: These photos are 🔥🔥🔥🔥

alexmorgan13: love this 😍😍

cdunn19: Beautiful!

glennondoyle: Love love love love this!!

ashlynharris24: Holy shit! Are you in Manchester????

↳lavellerose: Was this today??

↳sammymewyy: Oh my gosh it was!

↳kellyohara: Valentine’s Day surprise for Pressy?? 👀

Christen zooms in on the photo in the center, her eyes widening when she realizes that it is from today’s match.

“How did she get that picture?”

Tobin mentally slaps her forehead at her friend’s denseness. “Knowing (Y/N), she probably took it.”

“But that’s impossible. She’s in the States,” Christen states and shakes her head, dumbfounded.

“Actually,” you speak up, stepping into the locker room, deciding to make your presence known. “I’m right here.”

“(Y/N)?” Your girlfriend looks up at you, her mind in a state of shock.

“Hey, love,” you greet shyly.

Once her mind caught up with reality, Christen runs and jumps into your body, kissing you passionately but briefly and wrapping you into a bone crushing hug.

“I can’t believe your here,” she whispers into your neck. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, babe, so much.”

Unwrapping herself from the hug, Christen stares at you in awe. “What… how are you here?”

“We can talk about that later,” you give her another quick kiss. “But right now, I just wanna spend time with you. Maybe we can grab some dinner? You can show me around Manchester, considering I’m gonna be spending a lot of time here.”

Your girlfriend looks at you puzzled, but you just give her a wink with a small smirk on your face.

“Well, c’mon lets get out of here.”

—————

Back at Christen’s apartment, the two of you sit down for a nice and casual, but romantic, dinner you’d prepared along with a bottle of red wine.

After catching up, the forward finally decides to address the elephant in the room. “So how are you here? What’s going on, (Y/N/N)? You said earlier that you’d be spending a lot of time in Manchester, what does that mean? I’m so confused. Not that I’m grateful that you’re here right now and that I get to see you, but I thought you were working She Believes, and—“

“Chris,” you cut off your girlfriend’s endearing rambling. “Babe, you’re rambling.”

“Sorry,” she blushes, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

“I got a job with BBC Sport till the end of the season,” you answer her parade of questions.

“Does that mean what I think it does?”

You nod, while taking a sip of your water. “It means I’m yours if you’ll have me.”

Not having the adequate words to express her joy and excitement, Christen gets up from her chair, walks over to sit in your lap, and connects you lips for a searing kiss.

“I can’t believe you,” she breathes, rubbing her nose against yours. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” you quickly peck her lips while rubbing circles on her hip. “But as much as I love you and all this romance, we gotta get going soon.”

Your girlfriend tilts her head in confusion.

“Do the words ‘She Believes’ ring a bell?” You tease. “If I remember correctly, our flight leaves in a couple hours.”

“You’re coming with me?” Christen asks, her brain trying to wrap around the fact that her girlfriend, who she hadn’t seen in almost five months, would now be living with her in England and flying back to the States with her for the next week.

“Of course, Chris,” you give her a cheeky smile, along with a kiss to her nose, as you quote a book Becky had convinced the whole team to read. “You should know by now that I’d follow you anywhere. You’re the only good thing left in this world.”

[nctsjiho]

Don’t Go

warnings: none

era: end April 2021

❀ Haechan has a hard time sharing his feelings with JiHo

“I know your game is more interesting than me, but you don’t have to be so obvious about it.” JiHo whined jokingly to the same-aged boy who was sat in front of her. Haechan just hummed and shrugged his shoulders, not even sparing the girl a glance.

They were currently sat on Haechan’s bed with the boy cross-legged in front of her. He was playing a phone game while JiHo sat behind him in a similar fashion and leaning her head against his shoulder. In her position she could just barely watch him play over his shoulder.

The boy hadn’t really said anything to her yet ever since she had entered the room. The silence between them still comfortable, but JiHo would rather have a conversation with Haechan instead of watching him play a mobile game and ignoring her.

Not getting any reaction from the boy, JiHo decided to push herself up from her position - which meant away from Haechan - but as she did she noticed how he slightly tensed up. “Where are you going?” His voice was barely above a whisper which had JiHo grinning. “Why? Do you miss me already?” She tried her best not to laugh at her own teasing words for him. She only got an “annoyed” sigh in return and Haechan focused back on his phone, another round of his game starting.

“If I remember correctly...” JiHo hummed to herself as if she was deep in thought. “You were the one who invited me to hang out, yet here I am getting ignored. Don’t you think that’s a bit rude?” Haechan could feel his stomach fill with guilt, but he really didn’t know how to act at the moment. JiHo let out another chuckle and wrapped her arms around his torso, causing her to pull herself closer to his body. “It’s okay Haechanie, I’m just teasing you.”

A few seconds passed with again no response coming from the boy. JiHo didn’t expect an answer anyway, but the silence this time felt a bit different. This time she noticed how the tapping sound from Haechan’s fingers on his phone stopped. It was completely silent.

“I just don’t want you to go.” He mumbled. A smile creeped its way onto JiHo’s face as she heard the words. She squeezed Haechan a bit closer before making herself more comfortable leaning against his back. “You act like I’m moving to the moon.” “That’s how it feels.”

The dramatic gasp that escaped JiHo’s lips had Haechan’s brows furrow confusion. “All this time you annoy me and tease me, but here you are being all soft-” “No I’m not!” He retaliated. JiHo just gave him a look as to say “Sure, buddy. I totally believe you.”

“Honestly, not gonna lie now, we got so comfortable living together; I was about to start asking you to wash my underwear with the rest of my laundry.” The comment had not only taken Haechan completely of guard, but Johnny as well, who just decided to enter the room. “I-” JiHo threw herself back onto Haechan’s bed, holding her stomach as she couldn’t help but hysterically laugh at both boys’ reactions.

Haechan was downright baffled and his cheeks, as well as the tips of his ears, were turning a bright shade of red. Johnny’s expression on the other hand perfectly conveyed that he heard something he shouldn’t have heard. “Yah! You can’t say things like that!” Haechan stuttered.

“Dude, you’ve know me for what? Six years? We share a dressing room during promotions, we lived together for a while and wouldn’t it only be fair, since I have done your dirty laundry quite often now?”  JiHo raised a brow at the boy once she got out of her laughing fit. “Underwear included.” She added quickly.

Johnny silently walked over to his side of the room, observing the two younger members wordlessly, but judgement obvious in his gaze. “Hyung-” “Ah ah, I don’t wanna be part of... whatever this conversation is about.” The older boy dismissed the comment and grabbed his phone charger, for which he entered the room in the first place.

Now that Johnny left the room and the two friends had stopped teasing each other, JiHo and Haechan returned to their original position. JiHo closed her eyes and leaned her body against the boy’s back one again.

“Why do you have to leave?” JiHo let out a small chuckle, not because she found anything funny, but she just didn’t know what to say. “Who’s going to cook for me at 1 at night when I get hungry?” Haechan smirked when the girl slapped his arm at his words. “That’s all I was ever good for to you anyways right?” He quickly told her that wasn’t true, but added, “It was a nice bonus.”

“I technically won’t be going anywhere Haechan ah. You won’t even noticed a difference.” She knew it wasn’t true, but she hoped her words would ease Haechan’s feelings about everything. “I’ll probably be here so often that you’ll get sick of me and want me to leave.” She joked, but Haechan didn’t find it that funny. He grabbed her hand that was resting against his side and let his thumb rub over the soft skin. “I might get sick of you sometimes, but I’d never want you to leave.”

The confession warmed JiHo’s heart. The two of them weren’t the closest between all the members, but they had gotten very comfortable around each other in the time they trained, worked and lived together. Living together was probably what got them so close as they were now. The amount of times they stayed up together playing games into the early morning were countless. They bonded over cooking ramen and making midnight snacks for each other. The duo also spent a lot of time getting on each others nerves, but only in a playful manner, never taking it too far.

It was also Haechan’s bright personality and position as the “mood maker” of the group which had gotten them so comfortable so easily. He was never the type to be shy and liked to make everyone feel welcome in the group. JiHo was convinced it was Haechan who was to credit for not only their friendship but many in the group as well.

Haechan would argue with that, saying that JiHo was just as much to be credited for it. Not only him, but everyone who knows JiHo personally, knows how bright of a person she is. She also isn’t shy at all. She’d talk to anyone and everyone that catches her eyes. She just had a way with people and making people feel good which Haechan admired.

Those years of building a friendship like this had made the whole situation unexpectedly harder than it had to be. And now Haechan absolutely did not know how to cope with it. “I usually never felt like this when I had to change dorms, rooms or anyone else in the group had. But I don’t know... I just never thought you’d be the one.”

“I’m going to miss you JiJi.” Haechan mumbled. A bright smile pulled on the girl’s lips at the mention of the nickname - the nickname JiHo was sure of retired a while ago - and she smiled against Haechan’s shirt. “I’ll miss you too, Haechanie.”