#i wrote this for the rarepair exchange on twitter

[laminecuisine]

Happy 5th Anniversary to FE3H

Like many people, Fire Emblem: Three Houses changed my life, and since today is the 5th year anniversary of the game’s release, I wanted to reflect on my experience with the game.

I got into FE3H in 2020. I was laid off for half the year due to the pandemic, so I had a lot of time to put into the game. It was my first Fire Emblem game and I immediately loved it for the plot, characters, and gameplay.

Somehow I ended up on the FE3H kink meme on Dreamwidth where I got back into reading and eventually writing fanfiction after a multiyear hiatus (back in my day we used Fanfiction.Net and LiveJournal for kink memes). I fulfilled some kink meme prompts and later joined AO3 and posted my fics there.

For various personal reasons, I only wrote one fic in 2021, which was a fic for the FE3H Femslash Exchange. It was my first time participating in an exchange and I really enjoyed it. Since then, I’ve participated in six more exchanges. I love writing for other people and seeing what I get in return!

I became more involved in the fandom in 2022 when I joined Twitter around the time Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes was announced. I had no followers for several months since I joined without knowing anyone in the fandom. I eventually made many friends: people I’ve written fics for and who have written fics for me, artists I’ve commissioned, even people I’ve exchanged gifts with and met in person. I never imagined I’d form so many meaningful connections through a game and I’m grateful for all of them!

I got back into writing fics when Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes was released. 2023 was the most productive year of my life in terms of writing. I published 29 fics to AO3 and wrote even more than that. In addition to more exchanges, I also participated in several fan events: Ferdibert White Day Flashbang, Hubert Rarepair Week, and Edelgard Rarepair Week. The latter I co-ran with two friends. It was my first time helping organize a fandom event and I was happy to see so many people participate!

I also wrote for a zine for the first time last year: the NSFW edition of Motivated by Love: A Hubert von Vestra zine. It was a great experience and I loved being part of a project with so many passionate and talented people.

In 2024, I published the first fic I had collaborated on with @cynical-gamer-media, another writer and friend of mine. I also wrote for Just Another Day: A FEW3H zine. I still have a lot planned, including more events and projects and fics I want to write.

Thank you FE3H for keeping me occupied during the pandemic, for helping me rediscover my love for writing, and enabling me to make new friends along the way.

[bayalexison]

Bay’s 2022 Writing Summary

So my 2022 writing summary is being posted much a bit later due to real life craziness and another reason I'll explain below. For now though, my 2022 writing summary!

FE3H -The Library Song - A Felix/Annette Teachers ending nsfw fic I wrote for 2021 Netteflix Exchange. The two bet whose house would win that then leads them to having an intimate moment at the library. I love nsfw Netteflix and had a blast writing it. However, this fic also left me with some negative feelings towards the Netteflix fandom for reasons I won't say in public here lol. My recipient loves it at least so that's all that matters.

-Talk to Me, Dance with Me- 2022 Dimileth Hot Flash fic where the two were at a masquerade ball and pretending to be strangers one night. Loved everyone's reactions to the end where Dimitri practically slips up their strangers roleplaying haha. Also got nice art from Karini from the art raffle she was holding!

-Thunder Without Rain- My Dimileth Big Bang fic and magnus opus Dimileth work. I actually thought the first initial ideas of this fic since October 2019, setting it aside until I finish with Foul Play first. Well, fast forward to January 2022 when sign ups for Dimileth Big Bang started and I switched gears haha. I thought it would be around 40K like my FMA Big Bangs, but nope ended up 68K oh lordy. GirlInterrupted did wonderfully with the four(!!) art pieces!

The initial writing it from January to July has been a roller coaster. Despite several appointments and such, managed to finish it with a couple weeks to spare for last minute editing. During the posting I got nice support from the first couple chapters! I then got sad when the feedback had gotten less the more chapters I posted and comparing AO3 stats, which triggered my Imposters Syndrome real bad. I'm still trying to work on that. I'm happy for the folks that made it to the end and I do hope others will catch up eventually!

-Through the Snowstorm- Bernadetta/Hubert fic I wrote for the FE3H Rarepair Exchange. Hubert takes care of Berndetta while they get trapped in a snowstorm. Also surprised I got a few lovely comments on this fic considering this is a rarepair and all haha.

-Reassuring Touches- Three short Dimileth fics I did as fic requests on Twitter, one for each phase of their lives. I haven't done ficlets in a while so that was fun to do!

-Droplets of Jupiter- Wrote this for Dimileth Goggles, an event where you have Dimileth in a crossover of another media. I went with Modern Dimileth AU based off the 2013 anime movie The Garden of Words. Dimitri skips school on rainy days and meets with Byleth often at a park. It had gotten longer than expected and delayed due to stuff that happened in August/September and hopping other WIPs. Got final chapter posted last week!

-Azure Queen- Wrote this for Dimileth Trick or Treat 2022. Snow Queen AU where Dimileth are long-lost lovers and Dimitri is a demon. I got the first two parts written and I hope to eventually get it done sometime in early-mid 2023 because I'm excited for some monster loving that comes later lol.

-Counting Stars- The reason my 2022 writing post is pushed back until now. Wrote this as a gift to Qoboe for the 2022 Dimileth Winter Exchange! She wanted Dimileth happy and in love, so I thought of them going on a little romantic getaway as the premise! Very happy that she loves it!

Other -Mochi Ice Cream- A little short ficlet Ryunosuke/Susato request I did when doing some fic requests on Twitter. I was surprised that I got some comments and people are into that ship haha.

So yeah, 2022 has been a mostly Dimileth writing year as you can tell lol. I got not one but two multi-part fics done!  Highlight being joining the Dimileth community filled with talented and lovely people. I'm still unsure my creations measure up compare to everyone else, but it's nice we've bonded over our blorbos lol.

2023 plans is to finish Azure Queen and Foul Play. Foul Play has been on the backburner due to Dimileth brainrot lol. Thanks to a certain new Pokemon in Scarlet/Violet, I might make a last minute addition and hopefully will finally get back to it. After that, who knows. As much as I loved the various FE3H events I wrote for last year, I'm feeling a bit of burnout atm and would like to focus on my WIPs for the time being.  I kept saying I want to start original writing, so we'll see on that.

[romijuli]

OH HELLO UH. LEMME SEE IF I REMEMBER SOME OF THIS

Fic you finished in record time: OH LORD. do i. hm. i'm not sure what my quickest fic was but this one's probably up...WAIT. I ACTUALLY DO REMEMBER. hang on i'm plugging both of these anyway because i want to:

unexpected: silly little masumi/eiji (spring ensemble guy!) fic i whipped out last minute for rpw 2021 because i PANICKED and DIDN'T THINK CITOITA QUALIFIED ANYMORE and HAD TO WRITE A NEW FIC. percieve my rarepairs crafted solely for an event week. and actually a couple days before that was:

Curtain Call: an off-the-cuff reaction to the a3en end of updates announcement, written entirely during the first three hours of my work day. actually REALLY funny because i wrote it without internet and thus had to guess on some character stuff but i found out later that i accidentally projected onto the canon mankai fan in the ensemble. incredible.

Your most popular fic: i know the answer and i'm not putting it i have COMPLICATED FEELINGS on tr and also i don't want anyone to ask if i'm updating it anymore. as far as a3 goes it's probably my first OH MY GOD IT'S PERMARKER???? holy shit! that actually makes me so happy! i mean it depends what you're sorting by, by kudos it's still my v first a3 fic, but by hits and comment threads it's permarker. god i love permarker.

The fic you're most proud of: i've already babbled about permarker so you get the other two:

method acting: sakuya's a menace, tsuzuru is suffering, everyone else in spring troupe (and izumi) is suffering watching this mutual pining nightmare. i got to flex my theater kid stuff and boy was it fun. i'm uh. working on a sequel to this by request and i hope it's as fucking silly as this.

on-stage, off-stage, and everywhere in between: this fic killed my rpw last year and it was SO worth it. sakumasu sillies!!! they're very cute i can't wait to torment them again. (the comments on this also make me so happy...sakumasu fans are so cute)

Your most self-indulgent fic: there are multiple answers. the safe answer is...man what IS my most self-indulgent fic, all these are self-indulgent, i write for myself 80% of the time. actually i'm probably gonna put invisink here, it's not done because i love overworking myself but it's so dear to me.

A fic you've gifted to someone (or someone has gifted to you!): bitter-sweet, written for a christmas gift exchange on twitter! christmas gekkas + sakuya...i love the first christmas event

also tossing i've been feeling so alone by milestogo, which was written for me for the same event! (if you're reading this hi angel!!!) the author's note on this makes me laugh every time i read it. called out for my discord crimes

no one specific in mind for tagging, so feel free to tag yourself!

tag game — writer edition

starting this because why not? anyways, add the links to the fics you've written (or a fic you've read) for each category applicable and tag your writer friends to do the same! (this is your chance to self-plug as much as you want and also i wanna know more about my writer moots 😤)

a fic you've written in record time: [ time can heal (but this won't) ] -- i sat down for like 2 hours while i was in my feels and just wrote this like i was possessed lmao askjnsdkjfnkj satosugu be driving me crazy fr fr

your most popular fic: [ to chance upon your (explosive) heart ] -- ngl when i first posted this shinbaku fic i did NOT expect the attention it got but eyyy, i met some really awesome people from it!!! and it was definitely fun to recieve so many comments haha (currently at 30k+ hits omg like HOW)

the fic you're most proud of: [ Super Tsukki ] -- LISTEN it may be incomplete and abandoned forever and it's first person POV but this is one of my favourite fics ever because of the chaotic plot, banger one-liners, and the peak crack humour. forever one of my faves lmao

your most self-indulgent fic: [ i cried tears of gold (for you) ] -- oh gods this is sooo self indulgent it's actually embarrassing but sometimes the only closure you get is via putting your characters through the same thing and healing them askjndskjfk

a fic you've gifted to someone / was gifted to you: [ apples ] by sodelicate -- my broest of bros wrote this for my birthday years ago and i read it every year because it's just so wholesome and i love gou and rin's sibling bond so much,,, wish i had a bro like rin fr 😭🩵

tagging: @hqissodelicate @hoffelstar @animelake13 @semdere @ennobaka @nylonvalentine and anyone else who wants to join!

[bi-naesala]

Little secret

Fandom: Yakuza

Rating: E

Warnings: /

Relationships: Nishikiyama Akira/Nishitani Homare Characters: Nishikiyama Akira, Nishitani Homare 

Additional Tags: Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Sugar Daddy Nishitani, Blow Jobs 

Summary:

There are some secrets that are worth keeping, Nishiki thinks. After all, how could he even begin to explain that he’s got an Omi guy so obsessed with him that he’s willing to spoil and buy him anything he wants?

(Also on AO3)

(Fic under read more)

There are some secrets that are worth keeping, Nishiki thinks, even if this mean having to lie to Kiryu of all people.

How could he even begin to explain that he’s got an Omi guy so obsessed with him that he’s willing to spoil and buy him anything he wants? Yeah, that would be a disastrous conversation for sure, he knows that already.

It’s not even that he’s afraid of being judged, because Kiryu wouldn’t do that to anyone, but it’s just that he’s not sure that he wouldn’t tell anyone. Not that he’s a snitch, but he could try something out of worry, which would involve spilling the beans to Kashiwagi or worse, Kazama, and then things would truly be bad.

So, next time Kiryu asks him if he wants to go out with him for a drink, he lies and says that he already has a date for the night, which isn’t the true lie, but when Kiryu asks him who he’s taking out, he says that it’s a new hostess that has taken a shine on him, which couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Kiryu looks convinced at least - it helps that he’s pretty gullible - and leaves the subject alone, content to make Nishiki promise that, next time, they’ll be the ones hanging out together.

  In a very weird way, Nishiki doesn’t find Sotenbori that dissimilar to Kamurocho: both are pretty shitty places with pretty shitty people.

The only difference is that here people tend to try to fuck with him more, since he doesn’t have the protection a Tojo clan pin can grant him - if he wore it here, it would do him more harm than good, so he never does - but that’s nothing that Nishiki can’t handle. Actually, it feels good to throw down once in a while, even though he’s never come to enjoy it as much as Kiryu does.

 Right when he’s done throwing the last one of the ruffians who thought it would be a good idea to mess with him, he hears a low whistle behind him. He turns around immediately, raising his fists already to keep his head protected, when he notices the person leaning against the wall, watching him with a hungry gaze.

“Well, well, well, Akira-kun… So that’s what you’ve been doing. I thought you were standing me up…”

Standing him up? What does he mean?

A quick check on his expensive watch - a gift from Nishitani - is enough to make him understand: he’s late, and not just by a few minutes! Ops, this fight has taken longer than he thought it would.

“I’m so sorry, Nishitani-san!” he apologizes immediately, bowing his head. It’s the first time something like this happens, but this doesn’t make Nishiki feel better, especially considering that he might lose his support, which he has grown accustomed too. Sure, he could leave without Nishitani’s money, but he would be sad about it. He thinks about the brand new car Nishitani has promised him if he’s good; what if he doesn’t buy it to him anymore?

Luckily for him, though, Nishitani doesn’t look mad as he approaches him and gets his arm around Nishiki’s waist.

“Aw, don’t be,” he says, leaning close to Nishiki’s neck, who shivers as he feels his breath ghosting against his skin. “Besides, I’ve got to watch a veeery good fight.”

A small chuckle escapes Nishiki’s lips. “Is that so?” he asks, exposing his neck further for Nishitani.

He gasps when Nishitani wastes no time biting down, leaving what he knows is a visible mark - he’s always been fond of marking his territory - but he doesn’t oppose any resistance, though when Nishitani pushes him against the wall, he can’t help but to roll his eyes, although he has to fight to suppress a smile.

“Here? Really?” he asks, trying to sound as done as he can.

“Why not?” Nishitani asks, pressing his hips against Nishiki’s. God, he’s hard already. “Ya’ve got me all fired up, babe.”

Nishiki knows this is a bad idea: what if the thugs he’s just knocked out come to their senses? What if somebody else walks in?

Despite his better judgement, however, Nishiki doesn’t find himself that against the idea as he should be. Nishitani’s rubbing off of him.

 He remembers Nishitani telling him that, deep down, they’re not that dissimilar, only that Nishiki still hasn’t realized it yet.

“It’s all in those eyes of yours. I can see what’s beyond them,” he said once, though Nishiki still doesn’t understand what he meant by that. He never thought he was hiding anything, though it is true that maybe he ain’t that good of a person, at least not like Kiryu is. Sweet Kiryu that has no problems beating up thugs, but then feels bad about scamming civilians, while Nishiki doesn’t. Maybe that’s just because someone like Kiryu shouldn’t be involved with the yakuza in the first place.

 Nishitani can barely contain his excitement as Nishiki drops to his knees, that much is evident. Nishiki just hopes it’ll be worth it, and that he isn’t getting his pants dirty - how would he explain getting stains only on his knees?

“Yes, good boy,” he drawls, cupping Nishiki’s cheek with a hand as the other works on his belt, then he moves it to Nishiki’s hair, caressing it. “Ever told ya how much I love yer hair?”

Nishiki does a cheeky grin, slowly pulling down the zipper. “You have, but I don’t mind hearing it again.”

“It’s so soft and pretty, I wanna pull it so much…”

He doesn’t even wait for Nishiki to say something before following on his words, forcing Nishiki to look up at him. It’s almost overwhelming to look at the adoration in Nishitani’s eyes, but Nishiki has gone so long without affection from the people he wanted it from that he’s drawn to it like a moth to a light; it’s what made him decide in favor of doing this whole thing in the first place.

“Yer so beautiful… I swear I’ll eat ya up someday.”

Despite his best effort not to - because it’ll make him appear easy and that’s not the impression Nishiki wants to give - he groans at those words, but before he can embarrass himself further, he gets to work.

 From the way he moans, Nishitani must be most pleased with how fast Nishiki pulls his cock out of his briefs, and especially on how fast he begins peppering it with kisses, travelling from base to tip, swirling then his tongue around it, eyes going up again to meet his gaze.

Nishitani’s so into it already, which makes Nishiki smirk. He can’t help it, he loves feeling this needed, this appreciated.

“Pretty boy…”

Knowing that Nishitani isn’t going to last long - he never does, but damn somehow he manages to always get it back up almost immediately - Nishiki decides to stop teasing, parting his lips and beginning to take his cock in his mouth.

He barely goes halfway that Nishitani, impatient already, thrusts his hips all the way, making Nishiki almost gag, but he manages to hold back, grabbing onto Nishitani thighs as he begins to fuck his mouth, relaxing his throat as much as he can to make things easier for himself.

 It’s always like this with Nishitani, and yet Nishiki would lie if he said that he’s not all for it. As much as he likes the attention and being wanted, there’s something else inside him that gets him all hot at the thought of being used, just like Nishitani is doing.

In a way, they are using each other: Nishitani is using him for sex, while Nishiki is using him for his money, although things have evolved past that point. Nishiki can safely say that what he feels for Nishitani is a deep affection, and there’s no way he could mistake the adoration Nishitani feels for him for anything else. It feels quite weird having gotten to this point, but it also feels good, so neither of them worries much about it.

 Nishitani’s close, Nishiki can hear it from the way his breathing is getting ragged, and by the way he begins praising Nishiki and how good he is - he always gets talkative when he’s about to come.

“So good, baby, so good… I should steal ya away and keep ya all to myself… My own pretty cocksucker…”

The more Nishitani keeps going, the more Nishiki feels himself getting hard in his pants, but he knows better than to try and do something about it. Not that Nishitani would be against him touching himself but, as he said once, he wants to be able to enjoy the show, but given their position he wouldn’t be able to do that well, so Nishiki tries his best to focus only on Nishitani’s pleasure and not his, knowing that, in the end, it’ll be worth it.

 When Nishitani comes, Nishiki swallows everything; he’s always been greedy.

He pulls away from the other’s spent cock, finally catching his breath but still making no move to get up, licking his lips instead, observing Nishitani and his reaction; that simple gesture is enough to get him fired up again, but if they go for round two here, they’ll surely attract some unwanted attention. Besides, they have something very important to be.

Nishitani cups Nishiki’s chin, catching the remainder of saliva at the corner of his mouth. “Such a good boy for me, Akira-kun~ You deserve a reward.”

At those words, Nishiki’s lips perk up in a smile. Yes, he has been good, hasn’t he? He certainly deserves a reward!

He doesn’t bother hiding how excited he is at the news as he gets up and begins asking: “What is it?”

Nishitani chuckles, finding Nishiki’s whole change of demeanor endearing.

“Why don’t ya walk with me a bit?” he asks, after tucking his now flaccid dick back in his pants. When Nishiki nods, he turns around, signaling Nishiki with his head to follow him. What he wants to show him isn’t that far from where they are; actually, they just have to get back to the main road before…

 A gasp leaves Nishiki’s lips as soon as he sees it.

“N… Nishitani-san!”

Nishitani laughs as Nishiki steps towards the car that has been parked right in front of where they are and not only that, but he also goes circles around it, examining it in every detail.

He did mention to Nishitani that he wanted a new car, something better than the one he has now, old and shitty - but Nishiki still loves his baby nonetheless - and Nishitani had told him that, if he was good, he’d get him one, something that would make everybody else envious, sure, but Nishiki didn’t think he would give it to him already!

Wait, what if he’s jumping to conclusions? For all he knows, this is Nishitani’s new car, not a gift for him.

He turns to Nishitani. “Is this truly mine?”

“It sure is!” Nishitani exclaims, throwing the keys at Nishiki. “How about taking it for a drive, huh?”

Nishiki almost lets the keys fall for the excitement, but they’re still secured in his hands as he nods. “Yes, please! Thank you so much!”

He doesn’t even wait for Nishitani to follow as he gets in the driver seat, though he doesn’t turn the car on until Nishitani’s inside as well.

“Where to?” he asks.

“Wherever you want!” Nishitani replies, ready to enjoy a nice ride.

At those words, Nishiki’s smile grows larger. He has a new baby, and he can take her to whenever he wants to? Oh, this is truly the best!

 He turns on the car and begins to drive around Sotenbori.

Oh, this car is so much better than his old one, much easier to drive around the way he wants to. The seats are also very comfy, which he can’t say about his old baby.

He turns to Nishitani, then figuring that it’s a bad idea, he goes back to look at the road - the last thing he needs now is to run over someone because he wasn’t paying attention. Still, the fact that he can’t see him doesn’t mean that he can’t talk to him.

“Nishitani-san, thank you. I mean it.”

He feels a hand creeping up his thigh, squeezing it - and thankfully doesn’t do anything more. He can’t see him, but he knows that Nishitani’s grinning ear to ear - he’s seen that expression on him countless times.

 Eventually he’ll have to get back to Kamurocho, but the knowledge that he’ll do it with his new shiny car fills him with a sense of smugness that he’s been feeling more and more since meeting Nishitani.

He’ll have to find a plausible explanation as to how he’s gotten a new car so suddenly, but that’ll be a problem for future Nishiki, because now he only wants to enjoy the ride with Nishitani, and that’s exactly what he’ll do, screw everything else.

[scripturiends]

a glimpse through the interstice

Read on ao3

Summary: “I don’t see why I can’t just go in there to get my purse myself,” Yeseul complained.

“That’s okay,” Yebeom condescendingly consoled. “Just tell us what it looks like so that Bokgi can go get it for you.”

The copy room is being barricaded, and Jiho is nowhere to be found. Yeseul is getting more and more frustrated by the second.

Rating: T

Word count: 1432

Notes: Title inspired by a quote from Lionel Shriver's novel 'The Post-Birthday World': "Lovers communicate not inside sentences, but between them. Passion lurks within interstice. It is grouting rather than bricks."

as well as Walt Whitman's poem 'A Glimpse': "A glimpse, through an interstice caught, [...] There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word."

~

Hello! It's been a while, huh? Sorry that my belated comeback to ao3 is a short rarepair drabble, but I've been taking requests for some dialogue prompts over on Twitter and I seem to have gotten carried away with this one... for this little story, the suggested statement was "What aren't you telling me?"

Anyway, I really love Jiho and Yeseul's dynamic even though it was only subtly and briefly mentioned and shown during the show's run. I hope that I can convince you to come join our side, even if it's just through this small fic.

Full disclosure, I wrote this in an hour and it's unedited so all mistakes are mine. The fic is under the cut. Hope you enjoy!

-

Yeseul runs a hand through her hair, annoyed as Bokgi and Yebeom block the entrance to the copy room. They stood proud and tall, probably feeling like knights protecting a castle, when in reality, they looked more like non-threatening bouncers standing guard at a club.

Yeseul’s patience is running thin — which speaks volumes as one of the only two people in their entire study group who had a high tolerance for everyone else’s shenanigans.

(Seungjae was the other one.)

But right now, any inkling of the Yeseul everyone knows has completely disappeared.

“I don’t see why I can’t just go in there to get my purse myself,” she complained.

“That’s okay,” Yebeom condescendingly consoled. “Just tell us what it looks like so that Bokgi can go get it for you.”

Yeseul placed one hand on her hip and scratched her head with another, simultaneously releasing a deep, aggravated sigh in the process. “My parents are going to be here soon, you know. If you had just let me in to begin with, I would have been in and out of there in a snap and nobody’s time would have been wasted.”

Bokgi just grinned sheepishly, as if to say, sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Meanwhile, Yebeom stayed mum.

Well, at least she got a few precious seconds of silence thanks to Yebeom — something Yeseul promised herself to cherish because it’s probably the only time he’s been quiet his entire life.

Wait, Yeseul realized. Yebeom and quiet don’t go together. That means something’s wrong.

“What’s really going on in there?” Yeseul asked, voice laced with suspicion.

“The copy room flooded,” Bokgi said.

“It’s being exterminated,” Yebeom answered at the same time.

The pair winced and exchanged pained looks, knowing that they had been busted.

“Well, clearly both of you are lying and if there’s one thing I hate it’s liars. So I’m going to ask you one last time: why can’t I go in? What aren’t you telling me?”

The two best friends said nothing still — their only response was to avoid her gaze.

Yeseul put her foot down. “Okay, that’s it. Enough is enough. This is low, even for you guys.”

She pushed the two aside and squeezed past them while they were at their weakest, almost tripping completely when she made it into the room.

Frozen in place, Bokgi let out a stilted scream, and Yebeom tapped on his shoulder to signal him to run after Yeseul. Unfortunately for them, it was too late.

The sight that welcomed Yeseul was nowhere near as catastrophic as a flooding or a bug infestation, but it was certainly surprising – and upon seeing it, there was a ceaseless pounding in her chest, like a fireworks show right before her eyes.

It was Jiho, eyebrows scrunched up in concentration as his hands delicately lit candles on a birthday cake. A bouquet of flowers and a bottle of whiskey rested on the table.

It was the first time Yeseul had ever seen him like this. Definitely not the first time he's ever been romantic, no, but... so deeply focused in an activity such as cake decorating, of all things.

“Yah,” his irritated voice whined, pulling Yeseul back to reality. Now that sounds like the Jiho she knows and loves. “I told you not to let anyone in until I said so…”

Jiho trailed off when he turned to the source of the footsteps, realizing it was Yeseul that he was reprimanding. He abruptly stood up, scattering to explain just exactly what he was doing.

“Noona!” he exclaimed, flustered. “This is just – I, um – Bokgi and Yebeom weren’t supposed to –”

“Sorry, Jiho,” Yebeom apologized, suppressing his laughter. It must have been the first time for him to see Jiho lose his cool, too. “You’re scary but it turns out Yeseul is much scarier. So…”

“Bye!” Bokgi waved, dragging his best friend out of there, leaving the couple to themselves.

Yeseul’s tense shoulders eventually softened. She didn’t realize just how much more comfortable she was around Jiho until she had to tirelessly argue with Yebeom and Bokgi just to be granted access to a room they didn’t even own. Of course, they did it under his orders, but still…

“They put up a good fight,” Yeseul told Jiho. “So don’t be too hard on them.”

Jiho sat back down defeatedly, pouting into the distance. He must have felt disappointed that things didn’t go according to plan. It was a classic Seo Jiho move, getting worked up over everything – and though a lot of people would have paid it no mind, Yeseul herself actually finds it endearing.

Which is why she walked over to where he was, gave him a soft squeeze on the shoulder, and rested her chin on his head as she hugged him from behind. “What’s this?” Yeseul asked, obviously trying to appease him.

“Happy birthday,” Jiho feebly greeted, leaning into his girlfriend’s touch. He reached out to give Yeseul’s purse back to her. “I heard you were looking for this too.”

“Hold on to it,” Yeseul requested. “I should blow my candles and make a wish first, right?”

“Right, you should,” he agreed. Without letting go of her hand, Jiho led Yeseul to take a seat.

Jiho cleared his throat, and started singing in a hushed tone. “Happy birthday to you…”

Yeseul looked up at him, beaming.

He continued, “Happy birthda– what, do I sound that bad?”

“No, just keep singing,” she reassured him.

Yeseul whipped her head back to take a good look at the melting candles on her cake, to cherish the presents laid before her like a moving photograph, to relish in the beauty of Jiho’s messy handwriting in icing, to fully understand a message that, in their less than a year of dating, was still difficult for him to say out loud…

But she thinks today might be the day.

Happy birthday, dear Yeseul…

Yeseul closed her eyes, but didn’t make a wish – listening to Jiho sing to her was more than enough. She had everything she needed right there at that moment.

Happy birthday to you.

She opened her eyes and the candles were out. Yeseul watched the smoke disappear into the air for a few seconds before getting up again to envelop Jiho in a tight hug. “Thank you,” she said, burying her head in his shoulder. “I was surprised. I mean it.”

Jiho gently stroked her hair. She couldn’t see him, but he was smiling. “You thought I really forgot, didn’t you?”

Yeseul pulled away first. She suddenly remembered why she was in an awful mood today. “Oh my God, I did. And I told you hundreds of times we were going to see my parents today, too. I really thought you were just being your callous self again.”

He scoffed in return. “As if I could forget such an important day. You saw the flowers and the whiskey. Who do you think they were for?”

Yeseul pursed her lips and feigned innocence. “You mean they’re not ‘gifts for later use’ tonight in my dorm room?”

She thought he would get flustered, but it seems that Jiho’s cool guy radar is fully functional again, because he wrapped an arm around Yeseul’s shoulder and whispered in her ear, “I have something else for later tonight.”

She wanted to take him seriously – she really did. But Yeseul blurted out laughing, which prompted Jiho to follow suit. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to hearing that kind of stuff from you.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to saying it either,” Jiho agreed. “Now come on, I don’t want to make a bad first impression on your parents.”

“They’re not that hard to impress, honestly,” Yeseul commented, helping Jiho pack up the presents. And as she quietly closed the cake box, still glancing at the message haphazardly written on it, Yeseul wondered if now would be the right time to ask Jiho if he meant it.

“By the way,” she started.

Jiho only hummed in response, carrying all the presents, including Yeseul’s purse. Yeseul thinks it’s ridiculous to even ask at this point, seeing him in ‘full boyfriend mode’. But since it’s her birthday, she’ll give herself a pass.

“Do you mean it?” Yeseul asked. “What you wrote on the cake.”

“Yes, noona,” Jiho promised. And of course, only Seo Jiho could proclaim his love and do it as emotionlessly as possible. That was the only way Yeseul could tell he was being genuine. “I’ll love you forever. Sorry I waited this long to say it.”

~

Send me your thoughts here!

[tulakhord]

b/c i was convo’ing about it with @meddyllnat​​ on twitter, i think that sometimes it can be hard to tell (from the reader side, or from the new writer side) what normal engagement looks like on ao3. this is based on my experience as an “average” fic writer across a handful of fandoms; no doubt other writers will have different experiences!

my ao3 fic stats screenshots and discussion thereof under the cut.

first, if you didn’t know: authors have access to a statistics panel, which gives us a basic rundown of hits, kudos, subscriptions, bookmarks, and comment threads on our fic. it’s pretty bare bones, but it’s a nice overview, and it can be drilled down by year or by fic.

by default, we get a daily aggregate email with new kudos, and separate emails for new comments. we don’t get any notification for bookmarks or subscriptions, and while we can see private bookmark totals we don’t see who created them. ditto subscriptions: we see a total count (on works, series, and on our author account) but not the subscriber. if you leave notes in a public bookmark, we only see it if we go click through the bookmarks the same way as anyone else.

i’m not a particularly popular writer, so my stats tend to be average. (at least, that’s my assumption!) the most popular fic i ever wrote was for john wick, and i wrote it verrrry slowly over a period of (mumble) two years due to some pretty big life upheavals. it’s a ten chapter work, with the first chapter published a few months after the second movie came out, and the last chapter published right before the third movie dropped, so i got a built-in bump there. i’m not “active” in that fandom (idek if there is an actual fandom there) but i had one fic i wanted to write so i did. anyway, the stats for it look like this:

meanwhile, my hockey rpf stats look like this:

unstraightening is the most popular, probably because it had a few things going for it: (a) written for a fic fest, (b) written in the fall off-season where we were all riding high between playoffs and hockey restarting, (c) while it’s for a rarepair, has a secondary not-rarepair to draw hits, (d) non-challenging content/feel-good storyline, (e) i put a lot more care into writing it than i did for say, covalence, where i had an idea i wanted to get out but i wasn’t interested in spending a lot of time refining it. if you contrast that with some of the other fics (situational dub-con! mostly sexual! first fic in the ship tag!) it’s pretty obvious why the stats shake out how they have. 

hopping fandoms, my omgcp list looks like this (and yes, i am still finishing second-hand emotion i promise lol): 

again, as expected. afterthoughts is the most popular by a mile. quarter-life closure is a weirder, darker fic than afterthoughts: it gives neither of the two fandom megapairings a happy ending and ends “unhappily”, so i am thoroughly unsurprised by the difference there. i’m honestly amazed as many people kudos’d all to the ground as they did (thank you!) since it’s a one-scene sketch. 

just to finish the list, though the rest of this stuff is all pretty niche:

the hits/kudos ratio on duly and indelibly is my worst by far, but (a) i think that’s typical for that fandom, and (b) it was a treat for an exchange, and the recip seems to have liked it, so i do not care. it was also my first foray into writing f/f in a long while.

overall thoughts: i generally like to see a ~10:1 hits to kudos ratio, regardless of fandom or overall numbers. sometimes i hit it, sometimes not. c’est la vie. other than that, i don’t sweat these stats too much, though obviously it’s always nice to see them go up. :) and of course getting a comment from someone “got” what i was trying to convey with a fic is always extremely nice. i recently (in the past week) got a comment like that on a reasonable amount of trouble, and it made my day.

[l0chn3ss]

Stuck at your door

Written for @se-rarepair-day October 2020 Prompt: Sticky Note

Tsugumi x Clay; Tsuguclay: After months of continual noise coming from her next door neighbor’s apartment, Tsugumi finally summons the courage to confront them... through sticky notes. AO3 | FFNET

It started out with just one note.

Tsugumi was never one for confrontation. She preferred to smooth out things the best she could on her own and especially didn’t want to bother her neighbor next door. Sometimes it got too noisy on the other side of the wall, so Tsugumi put in her earbuds to drown out the sounds. Other times, she smelled bacon leaking through the drafty door frame, so she bought an air freshener and eventually broke out a large bottle of Febreze. No matter the issue, she just wanted peace, and peace often came in the form of sleeping in earplugs just after a mini Twitter rant.

However, things escalated when that same neighbor started dropping bowls and other kitchenware early in the morning. Tsugumi cracked her eyes open. The metal sound reverberated through her body and she screeched slightly into her blanket. Being forced to be up at eight on a Sunday was the fastest way to irate a pacifist. Even after fifteen minutes, the rustling still hadn’t died down, and she was getting desperate.

She popped in an aspirin and hyped herself up to knock on their door for the first time in months since she’d moved in. She had on her best squishy insoles and the best bitch face she learned from her friend Anya, but chickened out when she heard movement in the hallway. A jingle of keys, and then a heavy sigh later, the noise died down as if it was never there to begin with.

What now? Tsugumi thought, twiddling her fingers and still energized from annoyance. Even if she was ready to give them a stern talking to, no one was home, and if she caught them in the common area, someone was bound to see the both of them.

Eventually, she traded her shoes for slippers and sank into her couch in defeat. With her phone in her hand and energy not quite dispelled, she sent out a call for help through her tweets. Almost immediately, the replies came in.

<Bang yur pans! See how they liike it LMAO 😂>

<Call your landlord?? 😡 Complain girl!! You live there too!!!!!>

<Shove a cactus up their ass>

Tsugumi grimaced. Of course, only the sleep deprived or aggressive friends would be awake right now. It was almost a lost venture until she saw a mention pop up while she scrolled through new K-pop accounts. The new message said:

<Write a note… stick it on the door? Let them know u are being bothered… it won’t end until u do>

She paused and considered it slowly. The advice wasn’t wrong and the person who wrote it tended to give Tsugumi good vibes. She wouldn’t be directly telling her neighbor off, so if it went wrong, she could hide away and pretend it never happened. On the other hand, if all went well, she could sleep and let her ears have a break.

Alright, she thought. I’ll do it. I’ll tell ‘em. I’ll write a note. I’ma do it.

She grabbed a sticky note and a pen to jot down her thoughts. It took two tries to get it right, and she made sure to sign only her name and not her apartment number. Wait— Tsugumi scratched out her name and replaced it with the number. That way, it was anonymous but— oh no, they’ll know where I live then. She crumpled the note and worked on her third try.

Once she signed it with just the date and time and “from a sleepless neighbor,” she darted out to place the sticky note on the outside of her neighbor’s door and returned just as fast. Thirty minutes and a cup of coffee later, Tsugumi heard signs that the person had gotten home. They fumbled with their keys and went inside, leaving Tsugumi a nervous wreck and a bundle of anxiety.

What if they’re mad? What if it gets worse? What if they tell the manager that someone is harassing them and threatening them with notes and I’ll be forced to find a new home? Her spiraling was interrupted by another round of shuffling, the door opening and closing too fast for it to be a person leaving— did I get a reply?

Tsugumi waited for a few minutes, posting her thoughts aloud on Twitter to share until she felt it was safe to leave and check. She tried to be as soundless as she could, leaving her escape way open while she snuck a few feet down the creaky hall. As she thought, there was a new color on the rust red door aside from her yellow sticky note. The new square was blue, and it stood side by side with her original message, reading, “I’m so sorry!!! I got a new puppy on Saturday and he likes to make messes. Promise to be quiet… or as much as I can!! — Clay.”

She perked up. A puppy? She ran to her desk and left a new note immediately.

It only took a couple of minutes for the person to indicate that a new note was left. Tsugumi checked back as soon as she heard the door close, this time with a sticky note pad and pen in hand.

“Yes!! I can airdrop you a picture if you want. He’s cute but he isn’t house trained :( — Clay“

“That would be so nice!!” Tsugumi wrote back. “I’ll turn on my airdrop right now.”

It didn’t occur to her that she could’ve simply knocked to see the puppy herself, nor did it occur to Clay that he could’ve done the same. They were too excited about the little puppy that all logic went out the window. A few exchanges later through sticky notes, Tsugumi asked what his breed was. Clay responded that he was a busky (beagle and husky mix)— the dog, not Clay himself. Clay was a full-fledged human boy— man. Tsugumi laughed and didn’t know that her chime could be heard through the thin walls while she heard little puppy whines since she knew what to listen for.

It was too bad that she had a brunch date hastily set up for the rest of the morning because she found her neighbor to be pleasant after all. It was almost bittersweet when she told him as such, carrying sticky notes out with her in her purse as she went out. She met with the very friends who she was complaining to online, clearing up the ill feelings, especially since she had been distracted for the last hour or so. They cooed at the picture of the puppy that Tsugumi received but warned her that it didn’t excuse the months of noisiness that Tsugumi had to endure.

“I don’t think he did it on purpose,” Tsugumi said, being as forgiving as her friends knew she was. “Maybe he’s kind of clumsy?”

“Who plays country music at night when people are trying to sleep, though?” Anya tutted. She sipped on her strawberry smoothie. “A freak does.”

Tsugumi made a calming motion with her hands and laughed nervously. “Now, now. Was Meme unable to come today?”

“Don’t avoid the subject, Tsugumi,” sighed Anya. “But yes, I think she fell asleep right after she tweeted you the cactus thing.”

“Hmm, too bad.” Tsugumi continued to cut into her brunch, but her other friend to her right spoke up.

Kim said, “Anya’s got a point.” She flicked her fork at Tsugumi for emphasis. “You think he’s just clueless?”

“Or forgetful?” Anya added.

“A dumb-dumb?” Kana joined in. It was her second sentence that morning, right after “morning.”

It felt nice to have friends who unconditionally had her back, but Tsugumi wondered if she had been too hasty in judging Clay. When she parted ways with the group just before noon struck, she thought a bit more about her neighbor. Was he loud and mischievous, or did he talk to himself for company? Did he knowingly bother people with his music, or did he want to fill the silence at night?

By the time Tsugumi reached home, she checked on Clay’s door to see if there was an answer to her quick explanation about brunch. There was hardly any empty space left at head-height while the sticky notes there began to feel familiar. Tsugumi saw a reply in blue after all. It read, “Sounds fun! Hope you enjoy — Clay.”

She reached into her purse to draw out a sticky note, but she hesitated, taking her hand back out empty. There wasn’t much that she could say to that sort of response, and she didn’t want to continue bothering him. Though the morning was fun, it was also strange— exhilarating, almost. But the one thing Tsugumi tried to do was to keep the peace. She readjusted her bag and walked back to her apartment, unlocking the door for what she felt was the last time for the day since she didn’t have any more plans to leave again.

However, before she could enter, she heard the neighbor next door open their door and saw a man approaching her from the corner of her eye, puppy in his arms.

[thosch3i]

8, 12, 17, 29, 33, 49 💕

8) Where do you take your inspiration from? Hmmm honestly a Very Good Question LOL. Literally every single fic I’ve written so far has had, like, a prompt--from Weilan Week to Tumblr prompts (to the two anons in my inbox, I will get to you guys I’m so sorry I know it’s been more than a month) to the Sundial Exchange (not yet posted) and then the priest fanzine (...still working on that too), so I just...build on from that. I do have some other ideas I’m working on, which were...either inspired by like, some things I saw on Twitter, or other fanfic I’ve read (there was a hilarious Guardian fic I read on Lofter where novel/drama Zhao Yunlan swapped bodies, and now I kinda wanna do something similar but with novel/drama Shen Wei--also if anyone’s interested here’s all eight chapters, most recent at the top since this is a tag search, and also it’s unfinished but it’s still plenty funny). In general, the answer is...”all over the place”?

12) Who is your favourite character to write for? Why? Zhao Yunlan, usually in more humor-tangent things. Because he can really be so goddamn funny. His thirst knows no end. Plus I can project my adoration for Shen Wei onto him. The only problem is that he really, really, tends to fuck up my outlines because he’s just so...out there. But honestly, I really like Shen Wei too, just because his character is so...carefully put together on the outside, but he really does feel things very intensely. Though sometimes that makes things harder too. Weilan in general lmao.

17) Post a line from a WIP that you’re working on. Okay so I wanted to post a line from this Kunlun/ghost king thing but it’s got an 80% chance of being my fic for the priest zine and I probably shouldn’t put anything of it out there before that’s done so here’s a snippet from the android Shen Wei DBH AU that I also put on twitter earlier lol:

Zhao Yunlan’s eyes flutter shut, and he turns his head on Shen Wei’s lap ever-so-slightly into the pleasant sensation of fingers running through his hair and down his scalp. His expression relaxes marginally, but the hint of a frown remains. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”

Through an extraordinary feat of willpower, Shen Wei’s hand does not pause in its ministrations. “I will never lie to you, and I will never hurt you,” he says, his voice soft but no less profound. When he says this, his LED flickers a damning red.

For several long seconds, Zhao Yunlan is quiet. Finally: “As long as you say so, I believe you.”

Shen Wei, too lost in his contemplations, only “hmms” softly in acknowledgment, never noticing that Zhao Yunlan had kept his eyes open to a faint slit the entire conversation.

29) Do you have a story that you feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like? Hmmm not particularly? My only non-crack attempt at writing canon-compliant dramaverse fanfic three first kisses (and two last ones) is decently low when I sort by kudos, since everything below that is for a rarepair or relate to not yet translated novel chapters, or Shen San...but it’s also the first Guardian fic I wrote so I can’t speak to its quality LOL. But I am a little surprised that Nameless (a soulmate AU) isn’t quite as popular as a couple fics that I literally wrote while half-asleep in a time-crunched panic ahaha especially because that one’s one of my favorites? But I’m biased towards soulmate AUs.

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten? Ohhh hmmmm...any compliment regarding characterization, generally! Especially since sometimes I feel like I struggle with...keeping, like, tone consistent while trying to stay in character? I have no idea if that makes sense. Basically characterization compliments, yeah. Also if I ever make anyone cry. Good compliments.

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about? Oh boy. Most likely this was a Percy Jackson & the Olympians fic, but I definitely do not recall what it was about. Probably one of those Percabeth after the war things, or “PJO characters read the books and react to them” things. I was probably...10 then? I’ve been reading fanfiction for half my life omg ahahaha

[aprilfoolsficswap]

FAQ for Mobile Users

Because pages don’t work on your phones.

What is it?

The April Fool’s fic swap is a fic exchange in which everyone will be given a writer and write something under that writer’s name, as a fun little joke for the readers. They can choose to write a fake ‘update’ for a WIP, a ‘sequel’ to one of the author’s fics, or just a one-shot following the theme of something the author has written before (A remix, if you will).

….What?

Okay, so let’s say John is given Susie as his writer. Susie has a coffee shop AU one-shot, a vampire WIP, and is well known for writing post-fall Murder Husbands. John could write a sequel to the AU, he could write a new vampire chapter, or he could write post-fall murder husbands, anything as long as it could conceivably have been written by Susie. (Only in theme, not style. John can use his own style. Part of the fun, after all, is guessing who wrote what.)

…I still don’t get it.

Contact me, we’ll talk.

Who is responsible for this mess?

I’m Strats. I’m Stratumgermanitivum on AO3 and tumblr, and Stratumgermani1 on twitter. Please feel free to get in touch on any of those platforms. This is a side blog, so if you contact me, it is Stratumgermanitivum who will be responding.

Okay, I want to participate! What are the requirements?

You must have at least two completed one-shots, or two WIPs for readers to work off of, with Hannigram as the main pairing. To work based off of an explicit fic, you must be 18+. Submissions must be between 1000 and 5000 words.

Are you accepting RarePairs/Hannigram extended universe?

As long as the pairing includes one Hugh Dancy character and one Mads Mikkelson character, participants will be able to mark a willingness to write RarePairs on their sign up form. However, we will still require at least one Hannigram-specific fic in your history for people to work from.

How does posting work?

We have a couple options available for posting, which we will decide on as a group with all the participants, to make sure we pick the one that works best for everyone.

Can I specify things I won’t write?

Absolutely!

What if I’m not funny?

Your contribution can be as silly or as serious as you’d like to make it! The ‘joke’ is just that the writer isn’t who you would expect. Everyone should still have fun writing, and for some people, ‘serious’ stories are more fun to write!

I have a fic that is like my literal baby and I will spit knives if anyone touches it, can I specify works that I would rather people mess with/works I don’t want anyone to write?

Yes, absolutely! The goal of this swap is for everyone to have fun, and nobody has fun when someone else is playing with a toy they’d rather not share. If you have a fic you don’t want anyone else to write, even as a joke, please let me know. Likewise, if you have a fic you think would be a great addition to the swap, feel free to specify!

I’ve been given a fic I don’t feel comfortable working on.

Contact me, we’ll talk.

I’ve looked at my author’s page, but I don’t know what to write.

Contact me, we’ll talk.

I thought I could do this, but actually I can’t. Can I give up my assignment/pull my fics out?

Yes, but please contact me as soon as possible, so we can work something else out with the other participants.

I don’t have any fics I want to offer up, but I would love to write something for the swap! Are you accepting pinch hitters for emergencies?

Yes, please! Contact me!

[delineative]

writing year in review: 2018

total number of completed stories: 9

total word count:

ao3: 43 879

(+ ~5k on socks)

fandoms written in:

dorohedoro

we both chose each other - noi/shin

houseki no kuni

growing without rest - phos/phos

idol producer / nine percent

counting flower petals all day long - xukun/zhengting

leaving nothing behind - xukun/zhengting

when we see each other again - jun/zhengting, ziyi/zhengting, yanjun/zhangjing/zhengting, xukun/zhengting, justin/chengcheng/zhengting

take one step closer - xukun/yanjun/zhengting

nct

from first principles - 00line

produce 101 china / rocket girls

coincidence makes sense - yamy/meiqi/xuanyi

seventeen

the earth in its turning stopped (last 2 chapters) - seungcheol/jeonghan/joshua

reaching for you from the endless dream - wonwoo/jun

wips:

out of the wips i’m currently working on:

dirtmix assignment (will be revealed very shortly!)

nahyuck pacific rim au

markrenmin enemies to lovers fantasy au

looking back, did you expect to write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

around what i expected... i was aiming for 1 fic a month and didn’t quite manage to hit that but i feel like each fic was longer than usual (i’m a terminal shortfic writer so anything over 3k is long for me). like i kept going 1-4k over my projected wordcount which was extremely panic-inducing when i was trying to write to deadlines lmao so overall i’m okay with the quantity of words i produced this year!

what pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

fandom-wise probably the survival show spiral and moving into ncity... if 2017 was the year of yugioh then 2018 was the year of rpf. some of the stuff i posted to socks was very uncharacteristic of my usual m.o but i think everything i put on main was very true to brand i.e ambiguous relationships + vague pining + emo conversations in the dark

did you take any writing risks this year? what did you learn from them?

i signed up for svtbb and had to drop out due to exam pressure, which was sad bc it’s the first exchange/fest i’ve ever defaulted on, but then i went and did lordeventeen and yuletide even though they partly ran through exam seasons too so i guess i learned nothing?!?

actually i think i probably could have afforded to take a few more risks genre-wise, i feel like everything i wrote in 2018 recycled the exact same themes but also at the same time those themes are the only thing i can write. terrible taste i will never change i will never improve that is a promise etc etc

what’s your own favorite story of the year?

reaching for you from the endless dream had me tearing my hair out while i was writing it but ultimately i feel like it paid off! i’ve always wanted to try canon compliant + magic and this ended up with some of the best writing i’ve ever done, plus i’m happy i was finally able to write something for one of my favourite svt ships <3 honourable mention to the concept behind when we see each other again, my post-disbandment allzzt ship manifesto titled after csc_uri_dasi_bol_ttae.mp3 

best story of the year?

also reaching for you from the endless dream! i’m really proud of how this one turned out both in terms of technical quality (.... *repeats the same phrase 300 times* Is This Thematic Consistency?) and emotional beats, and it got so many lovely comments. i think this is probably one of my best fics ever, and i’m glad it struck a chord with other people too!

most popular story of the year?

not counting teiits since most of that was posted in 2017, it’s counting flower petals all day long, which really surprised me when i checked my ao3 stats? i must have hit the sweet spot of fandom growth + burgeoning ship popularity bc literally nothing happens in the fic other than one (1) kiss, but thank you for giving it so much love 💖

story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

omg i think everything i wrote this year was WAY over-appreciated but coincidence makes sense, which features a f/f/f rarepair (raretrio?) in a fandom with very little western fan presence, so i’m not surprised by its stats but i’m still pretty fond of this one and consider it one of the better fics i wrote in 2018, and one of the best idolverse fics i’ve ever written

most fun story to write:

from first principles, the debate au fic i’ve wanted to write for like 6 years, my beloved pet project through the month of august, and i think it shows? i tripled my projected word count and in the process of writing fully converted to dreamyism(/renjunism), so a lot of love went into it, even though there are places you can tell i definitely rushed the execution. one day i’ll do justice to a proper nct sports anime fic... 

story with the single sexiest moment:

all the rated content i wrote this year was posted to socks other than the brief dance studio 3some scene in take one step closer, but i genuinely have no idea if that was even sxc since i wrote it on my phone in a feverish last-minute sprint on a plane while blasting twice bdz and haven’t reread it at all jhfgdfjdfh

most sweet story:

the general tone of everything i wrote in 2018 was much less depressing than 2017 but i guess the sweetest story was we both chose each other... what’s more romantic than dismembering a bunch of thugs with your beloved partner and then jumping off a cliff together!!

story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:

kind of a weird question to apply to rpf... characterisation perceptions are constantly shifting based on current meta and au role needs, though i feel like i’m always struggling to play catchup and by the time i publish anything the general image has shifted ;__; 

most unintentionally telling story:

from first principles draws heavily on my own experiences with high school debating... lots of 3rd speaker related anxieties and hangups projection all over the place in there lmao

hardest story to write:

every time i’m working on something, especially when i’m close to finishing, it is the hardest thing i have ever written... i can’t remember if writing has always been this difficult for me or if it’s an rpf thing. probably i struggled the most with reaching for you from the endless dream bc i’m deeply intimidated by writing jun (light of my life) due to the fear of not doing him justice, and also the deadline pressure nearly killed me. also at one point i called writing from first principles the worst experience of my life but looking back it wasn’t even that bad... mostly it was just that it kept getting longer and longer and eventually i was like Please God Let It End Already

biggest disappointment:

not finishing my svtbb fic... i am literally twitter user juncheolsoo i owe them SOMETHING!! not writing more fic. mediocre execution of decent concepts bc i got too impatient and rushed to finish things before i got bored of them

biggest surprise:

all of my fics about idol boys except one have over 100 kudos, which is just a ridiculous amount?! idol rpf fandoms have been so kind to me... i will work hard to become a better content creator in 2019!!

favourite opening line(s):

from leaving nothing behind:

“Are you looking for Justin?”

Xukun rears back, knuckles still poised to knock on the doorframe. “I—what?”

“Are you looking for Justin?” Zhengting repeats. He’s sprawled across the bottom bunk, leg dangling inelegantly off the edge. The phone in his hand casts an unsteady ellipse of light over his collarbone.

favourite closing line(s):

from growing without rest:

Beyond the arches the world is silent. The gem Phosphophyllite will become returns their gaze steadily, evenly. The shadows lengthen. In the distance behind them, a flicker of white, like light needling off somebody’s back, or the gleam of a pearl eye.

favourite 5 line(s) from anywhere:

from first principles:

“If only Mark-hyung was still here,” Renjun said, only half-jokingly. There was a brief moment of solemn silence as the three of them paused to consider their ex-captain, who had passed on last year to the realm of university debating.

when we see each other again:

So maybe they weren’t friends, but they were something. You couldn’t inhabit the same space for two years and come out the other side as strangers. Sometimes Zhengting thought that might have been easier than whatever this intimacy limbo was supposed to be, knowing somebody in the minutest details, what they looked like at the height of their intensity or the moments before they fell asleep, without really knowing them at all. Looking, and not having the gesture returned, or at least not equally.

coincidence makes sense:

The song ends, starts over. Meiqi doesn’t, though, pivoting to face them, and that’s all the invitation Xuanyi needs to unfold from her position beside Guo Ying and cross the floor. Like two halves of a single movement Meiqi reaches out to Xuanyi and Xuanyi presses their palms together, interlacing their fingers. The tilt of their heads towards each other like it’s something irresistible.

reaching for you from the endless dream:

Junhui was practically raised by the industry. The stage lying close enough to the bone it would be indistinguishable from it. He leaves his intensity on the stage but glimpses of it show through in odd moments, seamlessness without ease. It’s hard for Wonwoo to understand, but most things about Junhui are.

take one step closer:

You want to look into somebody, of course you have to let them look back. This is why he kept away in the first place, the terror of vulnerability when it could be staved off indefinitely instead, though he’d wanted to be seen, hoped for it, even, despite himself, something in the marrow singing out to be known.

It’s like an infection, a second heart in his ribs. A kind of longing that bites right through his hand. Strikes down to the quick. Severs the whole thing clean off. He ran so far from himself he landed in somebody else’s body, and here he is, still trying to escape.

top 5 scenes from anywhere you would choose to have illustrated:

jun lifting zzt up and spinning him around, from when we see each other again (;___; #junting_agenda_seeding)

wonwoo and jun in the kitchen with nectarines spilling out of the open fridge, from reaching for you from the endless dream

cxkzzt conversation in the dark while zzt is wearing a facemask, from leaving nothing behind

00z sports shounen hug, from from first principles

phos getting crushed by their future self’s gold arms, from growing without rest

honourable mention to noishin leaping off a cliff from we both chose each other, which actually did get illustrated in dorohedorozine <3

do you have any fanfic or profit goals for the new year?

cut down my wip list... please i have 25+ wips on my spreadsheet i just want to FINISH something for once in my life instead of constantly starting new wips and letting them rot in the graveyard of my gdocs

practise writing actual shipfic and not poorly disguised gen. i WILL get better at writing kiss scenes

try to write something over 10k again

relearn what figurative language is and how to use it. rpf boosted my productivity stats but at what cost...

[its-love-u-asshole]

My Writing--a review of 2017

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already time for this! This year literally like...just started I swear lol. I’m really excited to make this post though, because I feel like I was really productive for the majority of the year! I joined a new fandom, and I’ve started a lot of new projects, so I’m really proud of myself! I’d like to thank @emeraldwaves​ for being with me every step of the way, reading and editing all my stories no matter the fandom <3 And also, thanks to everyone who has supported my writing this year! I answered most of these questions on twitter, but I wanted to make a tumblr post too heh ^^���’

total number of completed stories

27 fics omg *_* Most of them are from haikyuu!! but there are a few I finished for K project as well! In addition I have 2 stories that are ongoing ^^

total word count

269, 481 holy fuck lol. I beat my last year count (219k)! I’m so happy with myself lmao but part of me is also determined to beat that next year already lol 

fandoms written in

K Project, Haikyuu!! and BNHA! 

looking back, did you expect to write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

Oh definitely more lmao, I hadn’t expected to get involved in a new fandom so passionately tbh, but once I found kurotsuki/iwaoi I just started having so many ideas and it just made me write like mad. Also, I participated in a lot more events (zines, exchanges, etc) this year, so that definitely helped! 

what’s your own favorite story of the year?

I’d have to say Let My Love is my favorite by far lmao It’s a lot different from what I normally like to write. It’s also my first attempt at slow burn/relationship angst so it’s just really fun to explore. The plot is also super close to my heart so yeah, I put a lot of effort into that fic. 

did you take any writing risks this year?

Writing anything feels like a risk to me but yeah I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone a lot this year! I tried to experiment with my writing style and plots, because I wanted to challenge myself to write a variety of things. It could be so damn frustrating sometimes but it’s worth it in the end! 

do you have any fanfic or profit goals for the new year?

Mainly I hope to finish both of my multichapters lmao but I also want to try writing a fic in full before posting, and I want to participate in more fandom events! I’ve always wanted to collab with someone too, so maybe this will be the year!

best story of the year?

Best story in terms of writing is probably Perfectly Aligned?? My beta told me it’s some of the best writing I’ve ever done so I trust her lmao and I love pacific rim aus so it was fun, if not a little painful to write ha 

most popular story of the year?

Slipping Underneath, without a doubt lol. I did not expect it to be so well liked tbh, but as of right now it has 339 kudos and 66 bookmarks, which is...wow. I am so happy people like it so much! 

story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

Hmm not too many of my fics have done terribly, but I think Ceaseless and Perfectly Aligned are both overlooked. Probably because one is a rarepair and one is just really long but I am actually proud of both so please read them if you like kiyoyachi or pacific rim aus! 

most fun story to write:

Most fun fic to write is Slipping Underneath just because I’m a modern mythology nerd LOL It’s awesome to world build and explore the legend of sirens and how they’ve continued to survive into the modern world with all these various problems lol 

story with the single sexiest moment:

I don’t write a lot of porn anymore honestly lol which is a huge difference from last year pft, but I’d say when you’re hittin’ it has a lot of sexy moments, also I’m all for the idea of Tsukki giggling during sex lol

sweetest story:

COMFORT KISSES. -cough- yeah...what’s sweeter than eskimo kisses tho??

“holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you!” story:

I don’t think I had one of these fics this year, not in the nsfw department at least lmao. 

story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:

Perfectly Aligned mostly because I got to give Kuroo a bit of a tragic backstory, as opposed to Tsukki, and I got to explore his character from a more weak/hopeless point of view. Writing Kuroo has always been more of a challenge for me, so having a fic with a lot of his pov was interesting and eye opening ^^ 

most unintentionally telling story:

Let My Love OR hopping into puddles, since I deal with a lot of themes in each that are really important to me. Insecurity, denial, conflict...I didn’t mean to dig so deep in some scenes but it sorta happens LOL

hardest story to write:

Uh any fic that was iwaoi LOL probably I Search Through the Crowd in particular. I just struggle a lot with iwaoi idk why, it’s probably just from a lack of practice. 

biggest disappointment:

I didn’t have many big disappointments this year, I’m more just upset that I didn’t write as much as I could’ve towards the end of the year. Like I wrote a lot more overall than I expected, but I hit a slump around November that kinda killed my muse for any of my own ideas, and I’m still sorta in it lmao. But for the most part, it was a great writing year! 

biggest surprise:

Once again, the response I’ve gotten on all my fics has been amazing and more than I could’ve imagined! Especially since joining a new fandom, I didn’t think I’d get much attention at first, but people have been so nice and encouraging! I’m really thankful for all the kudos and comments I’ve gotten as well as the support from both twitter and tumblr. I can’t thank everyone enough! 

[queenangst]

what could have been

for @spibat / cafebat on twitter; written for the vld rarepair exchange on twitter. wrote a little latte for you— hope you like it, keith! 

written by: achieving elysium summary: Rescuing Lance, as Matt finds out, means hearing lots of pick-up lines, coming out of the closet, and a fight or two.

ao3 | ffnet

“So… uh, come here often?”

Matt gritted his teeth, glancing behind him at the doors he’d barricaded with what little he could find. It wouldn’t take much longer until the Galra were here.

“Lance,” he hissed. “We don’t have time for pick-up lines.”

Lance only smiled tiredly at him, winking.

“There’s always time for you—”

“Lance.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry, dude, but you’re so much prettier than Haggar. Like, her hair’s not bad, I guess, and her nails are to die for, but you’ve got her beat.”

“Oh, be quiet,” Matt said, but he ducked his head and ignored the blush that was spreading across his cheeks.

He sawed at Lance’s chains again, growing more and more desperate as the sound of thundering footsteps echoed from down the hall. Even Lance seemed to be losing his cool; so close to him, Matt swore he could hear his heartbeat pounding in his chest.

Finally, the first chain snapped. The ones on his ankles came off easier, and Lance tore himself from the last one, crying out as it broke.

He staggered forward, and Matt surged to catch him.

He searched Lance’s face.

“Alright?”

Lance took a few shallow breaths. He still looked a bit unsteady but nodded.

“Let’s go.”

Matt led him over to the wall, gesturing at the vent above their heads before he used his staff to pry off the grate.

“Do you think you can get up if I boost you?”

Lance’s face went ashen; he sucked in a breath as he glanced up at the vent and then calculated the distance from the ground.

“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” he asked. “I’m taller than you.”

Matt chewed on his lip. “Can you…”

He wasn’t sure if Lance was strong enough. He looked bone-thin, and his face was drawn and sallow.

“I don’t think I’d be able to pull you up,” Lance said quietly, looking away.

Matt took a deep breath then released it. They didn’t have time to talk, so Matt pressed a button on his staff, the weapon shrinking in size, and clipped it on his belt before nodding.

Lance knelt, locking his fingers together to create a step.

He could feel Lance shaking under him as he was lifted into the air. Matt ignored the twisting in his stomach and reached for the vent, finally catching a hold and pulling himself in.

He turned around, using his feet to brace himself and extending his arms as far as they would go.

“Reach for me,” he called, and Lance took a few steps back.

There was a terrifying moment when Matt didn’t think he’d make it. Then a pair of hands wrapped around his wrists, and Matt pulled Lance up, groaning at the effort.

They landed in a heap, Lance falling on top of Matt.

“Hey,” Lance said, grinning.

Matt blushed at their proximity.

“Hey,” he replied, inching backwards. Lance clambered to the side.

They crawled through the vents, stopping ever so often to let Lance rest for a second, before reaching the end.

“Guess we have no choice,” Matt muttered, kicking the vent. It took a couple tries, but it finally came off; he dropped to the floor quietly. Lance came tumbling out after him.

“Where…”

“A closet?”

“Huh,” Lance said dryly, picking up what looked like a mop. “Nice place to make out.”

He caught Matt’s look and smiled. “Sorry. When I’m stressed, it’s either crying, impulse shopping online, or sending pick-up lines at the nearest person who’ll listen. Or a combination of all of them.”

“I can tell.”

Matt pressed his ear to the door, listening for footsteps.

“Coast clear?”

He shook his head. “We might have to wait a bit.”

While it was dangerous to sit around on an enemy ship, Matt figured nobody would check the closet for a pair of ex-prisoners, so they were fine for the time being.

Lance sank gratefully to the ground. He didn’t look good.

Gone was the bright boy he’d met months ago; in his place was someone who almost looked like a stranger, dressed in a torn tunic and pants so different from his armor. He was painfully thin, and there were scars where there hadn’t been before.

Matt’s attention was drawn to Lance’s fingers. He hadn’t noticed before, too caught up in the rush of escaping, but now he wondered how he could’ve missed it.

“Your hand,” he said softly, keeping his voice low.

Lance lifted his right hand in front of his face, inspecting his fingers. His lips curled up in a bitter smile.

“Kinda cool, isn’t it?”

His fingers looked like they’d been dipped in a deep blue paint that faded into his skin. The tips of his fingers were the darkest part, almost black, but at the base it was a blue the color of his Lion.

Matt reached his hand out, and Lance let him slide their fingers up against each. Lance’s hands were cold— very, very cold.

“What did she do?”

Lance lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “You know Haggar. She likes her experiments.”

Matt swallowed hard, remembering Shiro’s arm. “Yeah.”

Lance let his hand fall and then reached up to scratch at the back of his head.

“Uh, I don’t really know how to explain it. It’s like… she pumped me with quintessence. And then something… weird happened.”

“Can’t get weirder than aliens.”

Lance huffed a laugh. “Guess not.”

He was silent for another moment. “She gave me, uh, powers. Yeah, powers. Like Elsa.”

The reference took a moment to click. “Ice?”

In answer, Lance pressed his hand to the floor, and his fingers glowed faintly. Ice began to form under his touch, creeping across the ground, and Matt felt his eyes go wide.

“It’s— a bit hard to control,” Lance said, the ice stopping. “Uh, and I definitely can’t make any ice castles or anything. But yeah.”

Matt wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t know if he should’ve been apologizing, or sympathizing, or saying it was useful in a fight.

“A bit limited, too,” Lance added, holding up his hand again. On the back of it, a rune had been painted on. “She has a matching one. So I’m in her presence, she can control me.”

Matt winced.

“Sorry,” Lance said, sighing.

“Don’t be sorry,” Matt replied, reaching out to grip Lance’s hand.  Lance sucked in a sharp breath.

After he’d found Voltron – or maybe it was the other way around, Matt and Lance had, in a sense, hit it off. They were similar to one another, shared a lot of the same thoughts (and humor), and so Lance had become his second friend on Team Voltron.

He’d ultimately made the decision to stay with the rebels. Not because he’d wanted to leave Katie or Shiro – no, that had been the hardest part – but because he was needed.

There’d always been an underlying of something more with Lance. Glances across the dinner table. A too-friendly sparring session. A flash of a smile, the brushing of fingers, a whispered word here, a late-night conversation there.

But nothing had ever come out of it.

War had hardened them, had pulled them in two different directions. In his weekly calls and reports to Voltron after he’d left, Lance would catch Matt’s eye.

“Maybe one day,” Lance had said longingly once, during one of Matt’s last few days on the Castle of Lions. He’d been staring out at the stars, but then he’d turned to Matt and smiled, soft and real.

Matt had squeezed his hand then, feeling warmth trickle through his chest.

“Maybe one day,” he’d agreed, and that had been that. He was Matt’s what-could-have-been.

When Lance had gone missing, Matt had locked himself up in his room and raged. He’d wondered if things would’ve been different had he stayed with Team Voltron, if he could’ve prevented Lance from being captured.

Katie had been in tears when she’d called. She’d begged for help, and then Matt had thrown himself to searching.

“I never said thank you,” Lance said quietly, and Matt blinked.

“For what?”

“You got me out of chains,” he replied. Matt tilted his head.

“We’re not quite out of here yet,” Matt said warningly, pressing his ear to the door again. “I think we’re clear. Are you good to go?”

Lance touched his hand to his side, where a set of dirty bandages had been wrapped around a wound Matt couldn’t see. Enough to keep him alive, enough to keep him fighting in the ring, but nothing close to a healing pod.

“Yeah,” he said a moment later. Matt got up, extending a hand, and Lance took it. “Time to come out, huh?”

They managed to make it to the bay doors, where Amavit was waiting. She’d be circling around the ship until Matt signaled that he was ready to go.

“Amavit?” he called now, tapping the comms unit. “Fuck.”

“Uh,” Lance said, backing up a few steps. “We good, dude? ‘Cause we kinda need to go.”

They’d been spotted. Matt swore again, ignoring Lance’s protests as he stood in front of him and lifted his shield and staff.

“Comms are down,” he said. “Lance, stay back. See if there’s any escape pods around.”

“Matt—”

He blocked a barrage of gunfire and raced forward, tearing through a crowd of sentries. Matt lost himself in the fight, hating every second of it, but he forced himself to think of Lance. Protect.

He knocked a gun out of a sentry’s hand and lashed out at another. Protect.

A laser cut through his defenses and sliced at his arm. Matt cried out but didn’t stop.

Protect. Protect. Protect.

A sentry caught him in the leg, and Matt stumbled, losing his momentum. Shiro had saved his life, but it’d left him with a weak knee that now buckled under the pressure.

“Matt, no!”

Ice crackled. The sentry that had been about to hit Matt froze in place.

Matt scrambled backwards, slamming another sentry with his shield and managing to regain his footing.

“Thanks,” he called.

“Uh, don’t mention it. Left!”

He blocked a swing from the left and backed up further until he was with Lance. In the time that he did, Lance had stolen one of the sentries’ guns and was now firing away.

“Look at us,” Lance mused, as if they weren’t fighting for their lives. “A real power couple.”

“Oh, we’re a couple now, are we?”

Lance only grinned.

“If you want,” he said lightly.

“—Holt, you there? Holt!”

Matt sighed in relief. “Amavit, took you long enough.”

“Can you hold out a little longer? My location’s been compromised. I’ve been trying to get these ships out of the way, but I can get in soon.”

Matt hissed through his teeth.

“The sooner the better,” he reminded. “Keep in touch.”

“We gotta retreat!”

Even with the two of them armed, there were too many sentries. Matt raised his shield and grabbed Lance’s arm; the two of them ran for it, shooting down the hallway. He dragged Lance this way and that until they were able to slow down, ducking into an empty alcove.

Lance was panting. He leaned back against the wall, face twisting in pain.

“I’m sorry,” Matt gasped between breaths.

“’S fine,” Lance said. “Better than being caught again.”

Matt winced, touching Lance’s shoulder gently. “Alright?”

“As good as I can be.” Then Lance smiled. “At least you’re here.”

“We’ll make it out of here. I promise.”

Lance lolled his head to look over at Matt. “Thanks. I mean it.”

“Isn’t that what boyfriends do?” he asked, half-joking, but Matt’s heart was pounding in his chest. He wasn’t sure if it was from the running.

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Boyfriends, huh? You asking? Honestly, I expected more flowers and less Galra.”

It wasn’t the right time, but Matt wanted to kiss him, wanted to cup his hands around Lance’s face and kiss until he was breathless. Instead, Matt took Lance’s hand, and he shut up, lacing their fingers together tightly.

“One day,” he promised, smiling.

“Mmm,” Lance hummed, putting his head on Matt’s shoulder for a moment and sighing. “As long as it’s soon.”

[eastofthemoon]

The More The Merrier

I took part in the VLD Rarepair Exchange on twitter and I got @lucia-ik who requested to see Keith and Allura expecting their first child.  So, I wrote this!  I hope everyone likes this.

Title: The More The Merrier

Rating: G

Series: Voltron Legendary Defender

Characters/Shipping: Keith/Allura

Summary:  “Did the children kick you out of bed?”

Allura gave a small smile. “No, there was just some reading I had to do.

”What kind of reading had to be done this early in the morning? Keith thought, but decided to drop the matter for the moment.

Archive of our Own

Keith awoke to feel fur tickling his nose. Groggily, he cracked open an eye and wasn’t surprised to see the tip of a purple ear to be the culprit. He yawned as he awoke and peeked under the blanket.

As he suspected, Keith spotted the youngest of his children. Mina whined as she clutched the teddy bear Lance made her, and snuggled deeper against his chest for warmth. Keith gave a warm smile as he patted the little Garla’s head and caused her ears to twitch.

“Nightmare again, Kiddo,” he whispered softly.

There was no response except for the soft snore as she burrowed deeper under the blanket. Keith would have shut his eyes to go back to sleep, but there was more movement on the other side of the bed.

He raised an eyebrow as he lifted the blanket to take a peek and saw his other two children were there.

Zenla, his and Allura’s eldest daughter, was sleeping sounding as she clutched her pillow and her purple hair dangled over her face. She was a Sheromi, and from how Coran described, they were distant cousins to Alteans. Keith had to admit minus the pink skin and their lack of ability to shapeshift, Shermois did have similar ears and markings to Alteans.

Next to Zenla was Toby, his and Allura’s current only son. Keith knew his race were called Yahians, except he couldn’t help but look at the kid and swear Toby was just half dragon.

Toby had human face and hands, but he had black horns sticking out of his flaming red hair and his dragon wings were currently folded against his back. Keith saw Toby’s tail twitch under the blanket and give a small whimper.

Keith reached over and patted Toby’s head. “Easy, Son,” he cooed. “You’re okay.”

Toby settled as he nestled against his hand. “Stupid vampires,” the boy muttered as he settled back down.

Keith sighed as his brain put the pieces together. All three of his kids most likely got scared and had crawled into his, and Allura’s bed to feel safe.

“I need to chat with Pidge about the kind of movies she shows you three,” he grumbled.

Keith glanced over to see how Allura was doing and suddenly realized she was not in their bed. He frowned.

Did the kids kick her out of the bed in their sleep again? He thought. It was hardly the first time, Keith himself had fell victim to it a few times. It was for that reason he and Allura had been meaning to get a new bed.

Keith peeked over the side, and saw no trace of her. Yet, he then caught movement out of his eye from the chair in the next chamber over. He glanced to the clock and confirmed it was too early for Allura to be awake.

Feeling concerned, Keith gently eased Mina off of him and over to Zenla. As he predicted, the little girl clung to her big sister and Zenla hugged back. Keith smiled as he proceed to tuck his kids in before he climbed out of bed.

He wrapped his robe around himself and quietly headed into the other chamber. Keith found his wife sitting in a chair as she seemed to be reading a report on a tablet.

Keith raised an eyebrow as he reached out and touched her shoulder. “Isn’t it early to be reading battle reports?”

Allura jumped slightly as she held the tablet to her chest. “You scared me,” she said with a sigh.

“Sorry,” Keith said as he took a seat next to her and brushed a stray hair over her shoulder. “Did the children kick you out of bed?”

Allura gave a small smile. “No, there was just some reading I had to do.”

What kind of reading had to be done this early in the morning? Keith thought, but decided to drop the matter for the moment. He wrapped his arms around her as Allura leaned into him.

“Assuming the kids had a nightmare?” he asked.

Allura nodded and sighed. “Pidge showed them a vampire movie.” She frowned and looked to Keith. “What is a vampire?”

“An Earth monster that’s suppose to suck out your blood,” Ketih said with a shrug.

Allura cringed as she stuck out her tongue. “Good grief, no wonder that children were scared. How is that considered children’s entertainment?”

“It’s not usually,” Keith said as rested his head against hers, “but Pidge’s thinks scary movies are fun.”

Allura scoffed. “She would,” she muttered as she looked back to their children. “Zenla’s birthday will be coming up soon.”

Keith nodded as he looked over to the space mice that were sleeping on Allura’s dresser. They usually tried to sleep at the bottom of their bed, except when the children crawled in. Apparently they got accidentally rolled on one too many times to their liking. They normally enjoyed snuggling with the kids, but all three at once was too much for the small creatures.

“How long have we had Zenla now?” Keith asked. “Two years?”

“It’s been three, dear,” Allura corrected as she held up three fingers.

Keith blinked in disbelief. “Has it really been three years?”

Allura confirmed like a nod. “Although, it does feel it was only yesterday when you brought her home.”

“Yeah,” Keith admitted with a nostalgic smile.

He hadn’t planned on taking home a kid that day. They had celebrated their second wedding anniversary just days before when they got a distress call from the Sheromi colony. They were being attacked by some of the leftover forces of the Empire. They flew there and fought off the ships, but then had to land in order to assist the Sheromi’s with the damage that was caused.

That was where Keith found Zenla. She was alone, scared and crying as she was hiding in an alleyway. At first, Keith assumed she was lost, but learned fast she was an orphan.

Zenla lost her parents awhile back, and no one was willing to take her in, so she was forced to live on the streets. The Sheromi elders told Keith they could take her to the orphanage, but then Zenla clung to him and buried her face against his leg.

Keith suddenly got flashbacks when he was young, alone and scared after he lost his father. How many times did he wish someone would come and take him to be part of their family? How much had he envied other children having happy families to come home to?

More times than he could count, and he imagined it was the same for Zenla that was clinging to him.

At that moment, as he placed a protective hand on her back, Keith decided he was not going to abandoned this kid. He was not going to leave her like this.

Zenla seemed stunned when Keith asked her if she wanted to come with him, and gleefully nodded with tears in her eyes.

Only problem was, the Sheromis refused to let Keith take her unless he legally adopted her. That grated on Keith’s nerves. No one bothered to take her in, and yet they claimed to care what happened to her if she left the planet? That seemed like a huge double standard and before thinking it through, he signed up papers and took Zenla home.

It didn’t quite click what he did until he and the Red Lion flew into the castle, and realized he was going to tell his wife that they had a daughter now.

Lance and Pidge teased him on that material for a good few months.

“I will say, you took it all rather well considering I did spring it upon you like that,” Keith said.

Allura laced her fingers into his. “It took some adjusting once I got over the shock,” she said as she poked his head. “Although, I certainly couldn’t say ‘No’ once I saw how sweet Zenla was, or how much it meant to you.”

Keith gave a sheepish smile. It hadn’t been easy on either of them to be thrown into parental roles like that. Being leaders was one thing, but the same rules didn’t apply to kids. They were just lucky they had the other Paladins and Coran to assist. Shiro especially seemed delighted to be an uncle.

“Of course, Zenla is easy compared to Toby,” Allura continued.

“He can be a handful at times,” Keith said with a small grin, “but he has a good heart.”

Keith had stumbled upon Toby when he, Shiro, and Hunk had went to the planet Akona. They had gone into the marketplace when Toby had tried to pickpocket Hunk. He would have gotten away if Keith hadn’t spotted him and chased him down.

Of course, didn’t take long to learn that Toby was only stealing because he was homeless and was starving. Keith was certain if he hadn’t brought Toby home, Hunk would have just to put some meat on the kid’s bones. Truth be told, Shiro had looked tempted to adopt Toby himself.

It took some adjusting since Zenla had been used to being an only child, but they grew to become two peas in a pod. Although, Keith imagined there were times Coran wished they weren’t such a team with all the trouble they got into.

Lance’s encouragement of their pranks didn’t help in that regard.

“He’s a good boy,” Allura said with a smile, “and he and Zenla are both good to their little sister.” She then frowned as she sat up and fingered her tablet. “On that topic...Darling, I do have a confession to make.”

Keith dropped his smile as he raised his head. Allura only called him ‘Darling’ when they had a serious discussion at hand. He gently brushed her hair away from her eyes.

“What is it?” he asked. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Allura said as she held up her tablet. “I..well..I’ve been feeling a bit different lately, so I had run a test on myself last night, and I got up early to check the results.”

Keith held his breath as he tried to resist looking at the tablet and let Allura tell him. “And what did it say?”

Allura shut her eyes, took a deep breath and then turned her face to directly look in his eyes.

“Keith, I’m pregnant,” she stated in a firm tone.

Keith’s eyes widened as he gradually opened and shut his mouth. “Pregnant?” he stammered. “But didn’t Coran conclude that Alteans and humans couldn’t reproduce?”

“He said it was unlikely, so while it wasn’t impossible there was at least a small chance,” Allura stated as she gave a shaky smile.

“And..we managed to beat the odds,” Keith concluded.

Allura nodded as she placed a hand over her stomach. “Frankly, I’m still processing the revelation myself.”

Keith leaned back in the chair, cracked a smile and before he knew it he let loose a chuckle.

“Heh, of course you got pregnant,” he said with a grin, “that’s just our luck.”

Allura turned to him with a small pout. “Dare I inquire what you mean by that?”

Keith raised a hand. “Sorry, sorry, but it is kind of funny that you get pregnant after we got our little trio back there,” he said as he gestured back to their bed.

Allura glanced back, and then laughed. “I suppose it is funny.“ She covered her mouth with her her hand. “At the rate you bring orphans home, we’ll have the castle overflowing with them before we know it.”

Keith scoffed. “Need I remind you that you’re the one that found and brought Mina home?”

Allura blushed at that, and Keith had to resist to laugh. He hadn’t been there for it personally. All he knew was that Allura, Shiro and Coran went to a meeting with the Kolivan, and Allura came home with a toddler Galra.

“The Blades had found her abandoned,” Allura stated as she cuddled Mina to her chest. “They were debating on what to do with her and..before I knew it I volunteered to take her.”

Keith should have laughed but he couldn’t. He was touched. It wasn’t long ago Allura wouldn’t have even considered working alongside Galra. Neither of them ever predicted that not only would she marry Keith, who was half Galra, but also adopt a Galra child as their own.

Mina fitted in perfectly with their little family. Zenla and Toby adored their baby sister, and she loved them. Mina also adored being cuddled by him and Allura, and that was when she wasn’t being spoiled by Coran or the other Paladins.

Keith’s thoughts then drifted back to the present and he placed a hand over Allura’s stomach. “How..do you think the other children will react?”

“Mina is still young,” Allura said thoughtfully, “but I believe we can ease her into it. As for Toby and Zenla, they’ll probably shake their heads at us giving them another sibling.”

Keith nodded as he kissed her forehead. “It’s what our family does. They’ll get over it-”

“Papa? Mama?”

Both their heads turned around. Zenla was rubbing her eyes as Mina held her hand as she sucked her thumb.

“What are you two talking about?” Zenla asked.

Keith exchanged a quick nod with Allura. Now wasn’t the time to tell them. They would, but not when they were half asleep.

“Nothing, Sweetheart,” Keith said as he held out his hands. “Did we wake you up?”

Zenla pouted. “No, Mina did when she kicked me.”

Mina said nothing as she scampered over and crawled into Keith’s lap. She latched her small fingers into Keith’s robe and rubbed her face into his chest.

“Want Papa and Mama,” Mina said with a purr.

Keith wrapped his arms around her as Allura reached over to pat Mina’s head.

Zenla sighed as she rolled her eyes. “It’s not like they went that far, squirt.”

Allura giggled as she rose and took Zenla’s hand. “Let’s go back to bed then,” she suggested, “especially since you children have lessons in the morning.”

Zenla stuck out her tongue as Allura lead her back to the bed, and Keith followed with Mina in his arms.

“I rather go shopping with Uncle Lance,” she said and then beamed with her face full of hope. “He said we could something sparkly.”

“Sparkle, sparkle,” Mina chimed in as Keith climbed back into bed with her.

“We’ll discuss that in the morning, alright?” Keith said as he tucked a blanket around the two of them. “After I have more caffeine.”

Allura finished tucking Zenla in as Toby cracked opened his eyes.

“Is it time to get up?” the boy asked with his voice thick of sleep.

“No, Toby, go back to sleep,” Allura said as she wrapped the blanket around them.

“Oh, okay,” Toby said and shut his eyes and his wings flapped a bit. “By the way, I wasn’t scared. I just came along because the girls were.”

“We believe you, son,” Keith said as they all finished settling in. “Just try to go to sleep.”

It didn’t take long before the only sound was snores. Keith looked up and saw Allura gazing upon with a joyful smile. Silently, he reached out with his hand over their children and Allura took hold of it with her own.

They were a happy family, and before long they were going to have another member join them. Keith couldn’t ask for anything more.