#i'm so sorry Star 😭 i didn't mean for it to take so long

[muzzlemouths]

Were the DMD boys ever witnesses to a baby's firsts? Like first words or first steps?

Superstar Shopping Center, circa 1977

“Did you need help with that?”

Sun moseys up to a mother who looks like she’s got her hands full – literally. Four shopping bags balanced on one arm and a baby in the other. A second child — five or six, if he had to guess — clings to the tail of her mother’s jacket in lieu of a free hand, dressed in her Sunday Best. She ducks behind her mother’s arm as Sun nears and addresses him with a look tied between awe and apprehension.

Contrarily, her mother regards Sun with nothing but relief, handing over all but one of her bags the moment his hands extend to take them. “Well, thank you!” She reorients the remaining bag to sit at her elbow so the little girl at her side has a proper handhold and gently scolds her for continuing to hide.

“It’s quite alright,” Sun assures her with a kind smile. He crouches to be more at eye-level with the child and offers her a little wave, taking no offense to the way she peeks only slightly out from behind her mother. “That’s a very pretty dress,” he says. It’s a Carter's collared plaid, Christmas-time red, with a white dog-eared collar and rabbit embroidery. Perfectly suited for the season. “Are you headed somewhere special?”

“Just down to Shutterbug,” the mother laughs, answering Sun’s question when her daughter doesn’t budge. “I know it’s still early in the season, but I have an endless list of things to get around to before the month’s end, so we’re just going to get our photos done now, and the family will just receive their cards a little early, this year.”

“Oh, certainly,” he nods sagely, as if he’s even once sent a Christmas card himself, “better to get it over and done with before everyone and their mother realizes they’ve forgotten to sign and seal their envelopes!”

“Exactly!” She laughs again. “I figure, well, I might as well get some gift shopping done since I’m already here, but–”

Right on cue, the infant in her arms begins to wail his poor little head off, and she grimaces.

“Finding it hard to get anything done with your hands full?” Sun asks, waiting for her nod before continuing. “Well, that’s nothing I can’t fix! I could carry your other bags for you, or–”

“Could you babysit?”

He straightens with a jolt, nearly dropping the bags he already carried in the process. “Oh! Well, um, company policy doesn’t exactly allow me to–”

“It would just be for a few minutes. An hour, at most.” She gives him a pleading look. “You’re coded with childcare protocols, aren’t you?”

“I–” Sun scrambles for an answer. “My training extends to some childcare etiquette, but–”

“Perfect!” She lofts the infant into his arms like he is nothing more than a small sack of potatoes. “This is George. He’s nine months old as of last week, was just changed, and ate an hour ago, so he should be an angel for you.”

“W-What about his shoes?” He tucks the child against his shoulder and gestures worriedly towards his itty little toes, clothed in nothing but the navy blue footie he wears.

“Oh, don’t be silly, he’s still too young!” The woman insists, “George has only just learned how to crawl, I doubt he’ll be walking any time soon. You have nothing to worry about!”

“But–”

“I’ll come find you in an hour when I’m all finished up. Thank you again!”

The mother turns on her heel like she’s being chased out by fire, leaving Sun there in the center of the mall aisle, still as a statue and stunned into silence.

There was a kernel of truth to his words. Both he and Moon had been programmed with the know-how in terms of child rearing basics, and in fact it was the very first frame of coding that he recalls having. For what purpose, he isn’t sure. It has lied dormant beneath layers of more relevant protocols for years and only ever makes an appearance when he’s interacting with the few children the mall sees from time to time. Even still, it is nothing in the way of proper training for how to care for an infant so small, and for so long.

Needless to say, he was panicking.

The first thing he does after quieting the infant’s cries is find another employee and hand off the bags, instructing them to be brought to Shutterbug and kept behind the desk for the time being.

With his hands freed he can focus all of his attention on the child who, for what it’s worth, has been a perfect angel in the short time since he was haphazardly carted into Sun’s arms. Quiet as a church mouse after that first little outburst, and just as cute, too, the little bundle of joy looking up at him with big brown eyes full of wonder.

Sun returns his gaze with a long sigh. “Now then, what are we going to do with you?”

The protocols that once were dormant now rose to the surface and screamed at him to engage the child in “stimulating activities“, whatever that meant. Instructions for playtime involved everything from games like peekaboo and patty-cake to more developmental activities, such as playing music, coloring, or toying with building blocks. Sun doubted that Bee Gees’ hit single “Stayin’ Alive” was anything in the way of educational for the tiny tot as it played over the speakers, and — to the best of his knowledge — he can’t recall ever having access to building blocks or coloring books. That left nothing but the traditional baby games, tried and true, and easy enough!

He borrows a small blanket from a store nearby and finds a cozy spot on the floor, tucked safely between two plant boxes, to set him down. Sun finds that playing these games comes almost naturally to him — but that’s a given, isn’t it? He follows the instruction manual in his code to the letter, pride and joy overwhelming his stint of uncertainty each time he comes out from hiding behind his hands to the sound of shrill laughter, every “Peek-a-boo!” earning him a motley of giggles and a baby-toothed smile.

Distraction arrives in the form of an employee struggling to carry a stack of boxes into the store behind him. He’s on his feet and across the room in an instant as one protocol briefly overrides the other, and it’s only for a moment — just a moment — but when he turns around again it is to the sight of an empty blanket.

His charge has gone missing.

Panic overwhelms every one of his sensors, rushing along his circuits like adrenaline through veins gripping him with a fear so potent it threatens to shut down his system right then and there.

No, think! His mother said he had only just learned to crawl, which meant little George couldn’t have gone far. Unless the infant hadn’t gone anywhere by himself at all, and rather, someone had come along and–

Sun shut down that train of thought the moment it struck him. He would never forgive himself if something so terrible happened on his watch, saying nothing of what management would do to him if a child was abducted right from under his nose.

He decides the best course of action right now is to follow the same protocol he would use for any other “lost” child. Yes, lost, that’s all they were. It’s so easy to get lost in a mall as large as this one. Sun comforts himself with the knowledge that he has never let a lost child go unfound before. His success rate is a perfect 100%, and he intends to keep it that way.

First, he scans the security cameras for any sight of the child. He is sure to look in every nook and cranny, and he deflates with growing dread when that little navy footie doesn’t appear anywhere on the screens. His voice cuts through the employee radio a moment later and describes the child with every possible detail he can think of, asking that any sighting of the little straggler be reported to him immediately. He hopes against every star in the sky that the mother doesn’t happen to overhear from an employee nearby.

Lastly, he heads out in search of help.

Moon is meant to be working on the upper floor today, helping Sun handle the usual holiday rush, and his lack of response to the radio call is concerning. Not too concerning, though, given that Sun finds him right where he’d been expecting to.

That is, sprawled atop the lockers in the employee break room, one arm dangling over the side, the other resting casually over his waist, and a VOGUE magazine draped over his face.

‘Lazy’ doesn’t even scratch the surface of the words Sun wants to use. They’ve talked about this, the bad habit having put Moon in trouble a number of times already, but that’s an argument for another day.

There’s no time to mince words right now, and so he doesn’t. Instead, Sun stalks across the room and slams his fist against the lockers beneath his sleeping coworker, who sits upright with such force that his head makes contact with the ceiling and crashes through like a train into glass.

It might have been funny if Sun wasn’t as whipped up into a panic as he is, but as it stands he can hardly even keep from raising his voice when he addresses Moon with a scowl. “Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Sun hisses, arms crossed, foot tapping impatiently. “I take it you didn’t hear my radio call?”

Moon serves him with a glower of his own, snarling deep within his voicebox as he runs his hand over the glassy side of his faceplate to ensure that it’s still intact. He has the decency to look a little guilty, if only for a moment, cerulean blue eyes lowering to the radio attached at his hip that is visibly turned to OFF.

“Of course not,” Sun tuts.

Griping, Moon dusts the ceiling powder from his shoulders. “What could be so important that you had to–”

“I lost a baby.”

The words render him speechless, a long, uncomfortable silence taking up the space between them for all of a minute before Moon blurts out, “Sun, you don’t have a baby.”

“That’s because I lost him!” Sun shrills, beginning to pace. “I was helping a mother with her bags, and she asked me to babysit, a-and I know we aren’t technically allowed to, but– but it all just happened so fast!” His arms flailed for emphasis. “She said he wasn’t even walking yet, I thought it’d be easy! Everything was going so well, too, we were playing a game of peek-a-boo and then – then someone needed help. I only had my back turned for a minute, Moon. Maybe even less! But then I turned around, and…”

“You lost a baby,” he mutters to himself. Moon runs both hands over his face, sighing into his palms. “You lost a baby,” he repeats. “How do you lose an entire child?”

“I don’t know!” Sun answers, voice cracking with guilt. “Will you help me find them?”

“Obviously.” Moon hops down from the lockers (pointedly ignoring the massive hole in the ceiling – he’d come up with an excuse to tell management later) and is already crossing the room when he speaks again. “Management will take it out on both of us if they find out, so you need to get a grip. Your face looks like you just watched someone plummet to their death, for fucks’s sake.” He pauses at the door. “Did you get a scan of their face?”

“O-Of course!”

“Good. Transfer the image to me along with any other information that might be helpful. I’ll search the exits, you take the first story department stores.”

“What about the second floor?”

He fits him with a quizzical expression, going as far as to form an eyebrow with the stars on his faceplate screen and arch it pointedly. “You said this kid wasn’t walking yet,” Moon reminds him. “If someone ‘napped the little guy, they aren’t going to stick around, much less be caught shopping. They’ll head for the exits, first.”

“I guess that’s true…”

“And if you just coincidentally happened to have been babysitting the world’s fastest crawler, they would still be stuck on the first floor,” he continues, “which is why we’re checking there first.”

“Right. Right. You’re right.” Sun’s nod is shaky at best. His hands wring together with a tension that threatens to pop the joints out of place with each anxious tug.

Moon sighs and crosses the room again to place a hand on Sun’s shoulder. “We’ll find him,” he comforts, giving the shoulder a gentle squeeze, “but we need to go now. You won’t fix anything by standing here worrying.”

“Right,” he repeats, working to smother his nerves for the sake of focusing on the task at hand. “You check the exits, I’ll check the department stores. We’ll meet up at the fountain in thirty minutes if neither of us find anything?”

“Ten minutes,” Moon asserts. He wastes no further time, leaving Sun with only that and a firm nod before pacing out of the room.

Sun hopes they aren’t already too late.

-

Their search yields nothing but more disappointment. Ten painfully long minutes of searching that ends with them meeting at the fountain equally empty handed and with no further leads.

“We’re too late,” wails Sun, already catastrophizing. “How am I going to explain this to their mother? She’ll never forgive me, I’ll never forgive me–” His fingers hook around the rays beside his chin, the thin metal groaning beneath the force and threatening to snap right then and there, “–and management — stars, Moon, we’re going to be dismantled over this!”

“Lower your voice!” Moon snaps. He looks around, ensuring that that their crime — Sun’s crime — hasn’t been overheard. Luckily, it appears the fountain has drowned out their conversation sufficiently. “You need to calm down,” he continues. “I’m sure they’re somewhere around here.”

“We’ve checked everywhere!” His left ray bends under the pressure, molding to the shape of his fingers, slowly but surely. “I should have never let this happen. What was I thinking, turning my back on them? Now they’re all alone, o-or hurt, somewhere, or–”

“Hey, hey.” Moon takes him by the wrist, careful yet firm as he pries Sun’s fingers away from his mangled ray then holds his hand at a distance, so he can’t hurt himself further. “You made a mistake,” he agrees, “but it’s not fair to hold all of that blame yourself. You have no frame of reference for this sort of thing, we aren’t meant to be taking care of children in the first place.”

“I should have known better!” Sun insists. “How can I be expected to run a daycare if I can’t even look after one kid?”

Moon freezes, his optics flickering in a blink. “We–” slowly, he releases Sun’s wrist, “–we aren’t a daycare, Sun. We’re a mall. Are…are you feeling okay?”

“I…” Alarms and notices flood his screen, blocking Moon from view. Corroded files long since forgotten behind firewalls and newly instated protocols. He looks for answers in their overwhelming code and finds nothing but more questions; a lingering sense of awareness always just out of his reach. Then they’re gone, swept away all at once as his system tidies itself up, and he can think clearly again. “We’re in a mall,” he echoes, nodding to himself, “we run a mall. We’re mascots, not – not–” He faces Moon with a calmer disposition, forcing a smile, “I’m alright, now.”

“I always preferred the term Icon,” says Moon, “’mascot’ makes us sound like those people in animal suits waving around signs outside of businesses.” He laughs, and Sun laughs, too, but it’s strained. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

He sighs with the last crumb of uncertainty. “I’m fine, just…confused, I guess. I think the anxiety is getting to me.” When he straightens again it’s with newfound gusto, a determination to make things right. “None of our employees have reported seeing anyone carting off with a baby that fits George’s description, so he must still be here. Do you want to try the second floor after all?”

“I guess it’s worth a shot,” says Moon. He takes another look around, eyes scanning the area for any possible lead, until his star-studded eyebrow arches downward. “You said he was wearing a blue footie?”

“Navy blue,” Sun nods his confirmation, “with a little white pocket on the front.”

“Like that?”

He follows Moon’s point all the way to the escalator, where good ol’ George is sat, halfway up to the second story, already, suckling at his thumb like this is any other Tuesday.

“That’s–” Sun feels like he’s going to scream, “that’s him!”

“Huh. Baby on an escalator,” he mutters inquisitively. “Never seen that before.”

“Moon!”

Not wanting to risk any more dillydallying, Sun rushes past him and beelines through the crowd, anxiety pulsing through him tenfold as he gets caught up in a group of customers gathered on the escalator themselves.

Moon takes an alternative route, opting to skip the escalator steps all together. Instead he leaps directly onto the handrail, steady and practiced, and carefully avoids his customer’s fingers as he races upward.

Sun meets him at the top an excruciating few seconds after and feels his composure slip further upon seeing him empty handed. “Where–?”

“I don’t know,” Moon interrupts, looking just as confused. “He was already gone when I got up here.”

“Seriously?” He braces both palms across his arms, hugging himself tightly so he doesn’t just rip out his rays all together. “He’s a baby, for Pete’s sake. How far could he have gone? How does this keep happening?”

“There!” Moon points a little ways off, where little George — somehow, someway — is spotted riding a runaway janitor’s cart, its wheels spiraling uncontrollably forward and headed straight for the wall.

“Stop that cart!” Shrieks Sun, already halfway across the room and hot on the cart’s tail.

The crowd is thick, clusters of customers all aiming to get their holiday shopping in before the real chaos begins, and it makes the already out of hand situation that much harder.

Sun hears the crash before he sees it, and feels his battery operated heart sink. The sight he’s met with upon finally reaching the end of the balcony is disastrous at best. The cart rests in a broken mess on the floor, having evidently bounced into a pair of trash cans rather than collide with the wall. One of said cans has toppled onto its side from the impact, and the trail of garbage leading out of it paints a perplexing picture.

Moon catches up with him a minute later, fans whirring like he’s out of breath. “Is he–”

“Gone,” Sun answers, aghast. He points to the breadcrumbs (literally) that trail out of the toppled can. “I think he fell into the garbage.”

“Well, that’s better than the wall,” hums Moon. “Maybe it cushioned his fall? And then the trashcan fell over…” he trails off.

“And he just…crawled out?” Sun finishes the thought, then raises his chin. The two share a dumbfounded expression.

“Sun, what kind of mutant child did you agree to babysit?”

“Don’t be rude!” He chastises. “George is just…special.”

“Yeah, specially designed to outwit us. They should have called him Curious George.” His eye follows the garbage trail until it peters out a few feet down. “Where do you suppose he went now?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Sun groans. “Should we split up?”

“Good idea. You take the east wing, I’ll go west. Reconvene in thirty minutes?”

“Ten,”‌ corrects Sun, grimacing at the deja vu. “His mother promised an hour, and it’s already been over half of that. If we can’t find him in ten minutes, then we - we–”

“We are going to find him,” Moon assures, bolstering Sun’s confidence as best as he can. “We just need to focus, alright? No more running around like chickens with our heads cut off.”

Sun nods his agreement. “Right, okay. You’re right. I won’t let a baby run me in circles around my own mall.” His frazzled expressions calms, at that, and he smiles. “Just a nine-month infant who crawls a little faster than normal, that’s all he is. Easy peasy!”

-

What happens next is neither easy nor peasy. In fact, calling it ‘running circles’ is an understatement. In the next ten minutes alone, little George sends both of them out on nothing short of a wild goose chase, appearing in nigh impossible positions each and every time and always just out their grasp.

Sun is the first to find him. Tucked into the one corner of a store that the cameras don’t reach, donning a pair of sunglasses of all things (upside-down, mind you), and playing with a silicone whisk from the kitchenware section. Sun is only a short distance away when a customer taps him on the shoulder and asks where they can find the bathroom. Of course, the little tot is already gone when he turns back around.

A few meters down, Moon discovers some discarded sunglasses on the floor. He spots a familiar pair of white padded feet a moment later and finds George climbing the side of an information kiosk. The employee inside is busy with a customer and doesn’t even notice the little rascal scaling the grounded kiosk sign like he was born to climb Everest. They notice Moon, though, and are all too eager to introduce one of the mall’s very own mascots to the customer who is, apparently, visiting for the very first time. It’s all Moon can do just to act polite in front of the woman as his guest-orientation protocols take over, keeping him paralyzed there even as the infant merrily drops from the sign and disappears from his sight.

Five minutes later Sun hears a shrill of laughter and turns around a corner to see George playing in the plant trough like it’s a sandbox, his navy footie all but smothered in dirt. An internal scream rips silently through his system as he grapples with the knowledge that he’s now going to get an earful even if he does successfully get his hands on the kid.

True to character, George is nowhere to be found when Sun winds up in front of the planter. He calms his nerves and protocols alike by fixing the poor flowers back into their proper position from where they had been carelessly plucked out and thrown aside. He knows there’s no saving a few of them, and he’ll need to reorder more seeds to make up for it, but that’s a headache for another day.

The current source of his vexation appears to have shown some mercy, at least. Sun finds a trail of muddy footprints leading out of the trough and down the aisle. An employee glances up from their storefront desk upon seeing him and points to the right, towards the candy store, knowing exactly what he was looking for, already. For the life of him, Sun cannot understand why they — or anyone else for that matter — hasn’t thought to stop the runaway infant. Apparently, a nine month old crawling around without parental supervision is nothing to bat an eye at to anyone in the mall’s entire vicinity.

Moon is passing by Waning Lights theater when he hears a small commotion inside. On a hunch he peeks in, expecting nothing in particular, and instead sees two enormous baby hands covering the screen. That is, two very small baby hands waving in front of the projector.

He’s up the steps in a matter of seconds, mechanics racing with the adrenaline of having finally caught the little devil, only — of course — the little hands have already disappeared, and the seat is empty, leaving only a confused employee where he once was. “You’re joking…” Moon whispers, exhausted. An already irritated customer shushes him from somewhere downstage. Distantly, he hears the telltale sound of infant babbling and begrudgingly follows it out of the theater again.

He bursts through the door and right into Sun, colliding with a loud clatter of metal and recoiling, each holding their heads respectively and groaning in perfect unison.

“Did you find him?” Sun asks around a wince.

“Technically yes, but–”

“He got away from you too?”

Moon nods. “What is it with this kid?”

“I don’t know, but we need to figure out a different plan soon. We’re already over our ten minutes.” He looks around once more for good measure, knowing the child couldn’t have gone too far, already, if they had both just spotted him a moment ago.

That’s when he sees it. Little George, nine months old, walking down the balcony aisle. Rather, the little tike is running like he’s off to the races.

“Well, that explains why he’s been able to get everywhere so fast,” says Moon, following Sun’s gaze. “I thought you said he was only starting to crawl?”

“He’s, um, a fast learner?” Sun answers sheepishly. He watches George go for all of one long, lovestruck moment — feeling like a proud parent himself — before the swell of pride in his chest shatters to make way for circuit frying terror.

See, little George has shown himself to be quite the impressive little acrobat. He can walk, he can run, he can climb, and at that very moment he is making quick work of closing the distance between himself and a stack of boxes pressed up against the balcony railing.

The only thing awaiting him on the other side is a long, long fall.

Sun darts forward without a word, but Moon is faster, weaving through the crowd with a nimble speed that he cannot compete with. “We aren’t going to make it,” Sun gasps, announcing it to himself, mostly, as horror grips him throughout. Even if they reach the railing on time, George is already at the top of the stack, raising himself onto unsteady feet and peering out into the great beyond. He’ll be over the edge before they can stop him, and they won’t make it to the first floor on time to catch him there.

But then Sun hears it; the whir of a wire, quick and sturdy as it races through its ceiling track to Moon’s beck and call. He watches its metal hook begin to lower from a few paces away, just as the infant topples up and over, and his body seizes with fear as Moon leaps over the railing after him.

He hears a click, the wire latching out of sight, going taut. Sun holds his breath until the sound of giggling follows. Peering warily over the railing, hands shaking, he sees Moon dangling halfway to the floor. Little George bounces in his arms, clapping and cheering and laughing away like this is all just another game.

Moon lowers himself the remaining distance to the floor as Sun scrambles down the elevator to meet him. He looks rightfully shaken, his faceplate screen blank of even stars, but his grip remains persistent. He’s not going to risk putting the kid down for a moment, even if he feels like he’s going to bluescreen any second now. Their landing is celebrated with the undeniable sound of George taking the world’s largest shit, and though Moon wants to be angry, all he manages to come up with in response is “Me too, kid.”

A voice calls over their internal radios right as Sun’s feet hit the floor.

“Can someone ring the mascots?” Asks the employee, “I’m stationed at Shutterbug with a customer and she says they have her baby…?”

“I’m on my way!” Sun answers the radio aloud. He takes the baby from Moon, who extends George to him from a distance, grateful — now more than ever — for their ability to turn off their nose receptors.

“What about the footie?” Moon gestures to the dirt-soaked clothes once his hands are free. “I don’t think she’s going to be happy if he’s brought back all dirty – or naked. That might be worse.”

On a whim, Sun turns George over to check the footie’s tag. Relief floods his system when he reads the name. “We carry this brand – I’ll bet anything that we have this exact footie somewhere in the store. Can you go find it?” He makes a face and turns his own nose receptors off a moment after. “Maybe a pack of diapers, too,” he laughs. “Oh! Can you also pick up a rabbit from Fluff-&-Stuff?”

“What about you?”

“I’m headed to the bathrooms so I can clean the little guy up.” He holds George up, then, wielding him like a stinky little weapon. “Unless you want to try changing a diaper?”

“Navy blue footie with a white pocket, got it,” answers Moon, already turning on his heel and heading in the opposite direction.

-

Ten minutes later, Sun exits the bathroom feeling like a brand new person. A scarred, mortified person, but new all the same. Who knew baby poop could be so traumatizing?

Moon had returned a moment before, toting with him the items that Sun had requested, and together they figured out how to dress the freshly cleaned child in a new diaper. Whoever said it wasn’t rocket science was right. It was somehow worse. Still, they persevered, and at the end of it all they had a clean, happy, freshly diapered baby to show for their efforts. Now it was just a matter of delivering him back to his mother.

“Why did you want the rabbit?” Moon asks as he trades over the stuffed animal, happy to hold little George now that the little tike isn’t a stink grenade.

“You’ll see,” answers Sun, refusing to elaborate. He rounds the corner with Moon following at his heel and steps into Shutterbug, greeting the mother with his best customer-pleasing smile. “So sorry for the wait, ma’am. George here had a bit of an accident on our way back.”

The woman tuts guilty, but is happy to see them all the same. “Oh, goodness, how embarrassing. I can pay for the diapers you used.”

“Nonsense!” He tells her with a casual wave of his hand, “We’re happy to lend a hand, and it’s not like the little guy could help himself.”

“You’re a sweetheart,” she smiles. “And he behaved for you, otherwise?”

Sun glances over his shoulder at Moon, and the two share a look.

Nodding, Moon steps forward and hands the child over when his mother extends her arms for him. “He was an angel,” Moon tells her.

They had both already agreed to keep their mouths shut on the entire ordeal, including and up to George’s newfound capabilities. Aside from how much trouble they would both find themselves in if anyone ever found out about the chase this single child had put them through, it simply wasn’t their place to mention it. Sun, especially, didn’t want to take away that special moment when his mother rightfully deserved to have it to herself.

“Well, I’m glad to hear it,” she sighs with relief. “Thank you again for watching her. You two are a real blessing, you know that? I wouldn’t have been able to get all my ducks in a row without your help.”

“Anytime!” Sun answers. He spots a plaid dress hiding behind her, and lowers himself into a crouch. “Hello, again,” he calls to the little girl using his kindest voice, and extends the stuffed rabbit for her to take. “I noticed you had some bunnies on your dress, so I thought you might like this.”

Behind him, Moon relaxes into a fond smile.

“That’s very kind of you,” says her mother, who nudges her forward gently. “Go on, it’s okay,” she reassures her. “It’s a gift.”

The child hesitant, but eventually she peeks out from behind her mother just enough to take the offered rabbit, which she tucks against her chest in a great, big hug. “Th…Thank you,” she whispers. Then, feeling brave, she rewards him with a gap-toothed smile.

Moon clears his voice-box. “Well, we should let you get to it,” he says, full-well knowing that Sun would stay here cooing at the children all day if he let him.

And Sun, for what it’s worth, knows exactly what the vocal nudge means, and detaches himself from the family with a wave and some merry goodbyes before the two of them depart together.

“That was sweet of you,” Moon comments once they’re out of earshot. “You aren’t hoping for kids of our own, are you? I don’t think I’m ready for that level of commitment.” He elbows Sun with a smile, getting a hearty laugh out of him.

“Moon, I’ll be honest. I will be the happiest bot in the world if I never have to change another diaper again.” This time it’s Moon’s turn to laugh, and he laughs until his vocals strain with effort. “But, you know, it wasn’t too bad. Taking care of a baby, I mean. I think we make a pretty good team – and decent parents.”

“I’m the better parent,” Moon says around a wide grin. “You’re too much of a stick in the mud.”

“And you’re too spoiling!” Sun laughs, “Don’t think I haven’t seen you giving out candy to the kids that sneak off without their parents.”

“I’m teaching a valuable lesson,” Moon insists, hand flying over his heart like he’s offended by the notion. “If parents want to leave their children unattended, they have to face the consequences. It won’t be me dealing with the inevitable sugar rush.”

A gasp in the distance interrupts their playful bickering. They turn halfway, back towards Shutterbug. 

“Did you see that?” Chirps the mother, loud and clear. Her giddy voice followed immediately by the shutter of a camera. “Look – look! He’s walking!”

Again, the two share a look. Surprise becomes amusement becomes pride, then joy, and they laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

[lecsainz]

FOOTBALL GAME

parings: daniel ricciardo x kelce!reader

author note: it's official, I'm entering my NFL era... taylor swift, what have you done?!?! 😭

summary: the one where you're the younger sister of the kelces and you go to a travis game and end up meeting daniel ricciardo.

✩. . . masterlist !

Y/N is the Kelce siblings' little sister, the protected one, adored by her entire family. Her three older brothers loved to tease her whenever they could. Nonetheless, Y/N loved being the youngest, except for the overly protective nature of her brothers. Shawn, Jason, and Travis delighted in intimidating any guy who came near their sister, and this had been the story of her life. The fact that Jason and Travis were professional football players didn't help either. Despite it all, she knew her brothers just wanted her to stay safe and find the right person. And that happened in the most unlikely way.

Y/N was at the Chiefs game, just like any other game, or so she thought. She had chosen to stay in the stands; Y/N wasn't in the mood to be in the player's family area today, especially after the appearances of her supposed new sister-in-law, Taylor. The fans had become obsessed with recording and looking for the singer-songwriter there. Today, Y/N wanted a peaceful afternoon. She had never been fond of being in the spotlight and was grateful that her brothers were the stars, not her.

As Y/N settled into her seat, she couldn't help but relish the anonymity she usually enjoyed in the stands. She liked to be just another face in the crowd, free from the constant attention that came with being a Kelce. But little did she know that this particular game was about to take an unexpected turn.

The energy in the stadium was electrifying, and as the game progressed, Y/N found herself getting more and more engrossed in the action. The Chiefs were playing exceptionally well, and the crowd's excitement was contagious. Amidst the cheers and chants, she almost forgot about her desire for a quiet day.

That's when it happened. Y/N was caught up in the moment, jumping to her feet as the Chiefs scored a touchdown. As she celebrated, an unfortunate collision occurred. Out of nowhere, a cup of beer was knocked from someone's hand, drenching her from head to toe. She gasped in surprise and shock, realizing her white Chiefs jersey was now soaked.

Furious and stunned, she turned to see who was responsible for this mess, and her eyes met a face she couldn't believe – it was none other than the famous Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, who was attending the game because of his Formula 1 race in Texas.

Y/N's frustration boiled over, and she shouted, "Are you kidding me? You just ruined my jersey!" Her irritation was palpable, and the entire section fell silent as all eyes turned to her and the unsuspecting Daniel Ricciardo.

As crowd silence hung in the air, Y/N could feel her face heating up with embarrassment and anger. She had no idea who this man was, only that he was the one who had turned her game day experience into a mess. But what she didn't know was that Daniel Ricciardo was not only a Formula 1 superstar but also known for his charm and charisma.

Daniel, caught off guard by her fiery reaction, was momentarily stunned. He glanced at the drenched jersey and then back at Y/N, a sheepish grin forming on his face. "Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry," he stammered. "I was just so caught up in the game, and I... I didn't mean to do that."

Y/N couldn't help but notice that, despite the situation, Daniel had an irresistible smile. It was clear that he was genuinely apologetic, and she couldn't stay mad at him for long. Still, she didn't know who he was, and her irritation was evident in her response. "Well, an apology won't dry my jersey, will it?"

At that moment, Max Verstappen, who was seated next to Daniel, couldn't contain his laughter any longer. He burst into fits of giggles, watching the entire interaction. "Mate, you've really done it this time!" Max said between laughs.

Y/N, despite herself, found Max's laughter contagious and couldn't help but chuckle along. "I can't believe you've got your friend here laughing at your blunder," she teased Daniel, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Daniel, red-faced and still grinning, extended his hand toward her. "I'm Daniel, by the way, and I promise I'll make it up to you somehow."

Y/N accepted the hand with a half-smile. "Y/N, nice to meet you. Just don't spill anything else on me."

Max chimed in, still amused. "Well, I think you've made quite the impression, Daniel.”

Max's playful comment only added to the amusement of the moment. As Y/N and Daniel continued to converse, they discovered an unexpected chemistry between them. His initial mistake had broken the ice, and they found themselves discussing everything from their favorite sports to their shared love for adventure.

As the game progressed, Y/N's initial irritation had turned into a delightful afternoon spent in the company of a charming stranger. She had completely forgotten about her drenched jersey and the chaotic start to their interaction.

As the final whistle blew, the Chiefs emerged victorious, and the crowd erupted in cheers. Daniel leaned closer to Y/N, and with a grin, he said, "You know, I've had an eventful day, and it's all thanks to you. Can I get your number? Maybe I can make it up to you with dinner or something?"

Y/N was taken aback for a moment, not expecting such a bold move. But his sincerity and the connection they had formed throughout the game were hard to ignore. She couldn't help but smile and replied, "Sure, why not? I think I'd like to see what other trouble you can get me into."

[factual-fantasy]

29 Asks! Thank you!! :}} 🏇

Ah- yeah that's just a reminder to check the FAQ before asking. :0

I put that notice there because despite having the FAQ, I still got like a dozen asks of things my FAQ already answered...

@caprico54

My Wally does not eat with his eyes, thankfully, XD that cant be good for his vision!

@soulful-rodent

I'm still trying to figure out a way around the 100 link limit.. but maybe someday I will! :0

(Referencing this post)

XDD That makes 3 of us!

@how-am-i-still-here-lmao

The Muppets don't exist in my AU <XD and unfortunately I don't know enough about the Muppets to think of the hypotheticals.. <:( sorry!...💔💔

(Julies monster form post)

If Julie ever did reveal her true form, I'm sure Barnaby would appreciate paw pads! XD Hey! He's not the only one now! :D

AAAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DDD Hugs are by far my favorite thing to draw, so I'm glad you like them and can feel the emotions I try to portray in them!! :DDD

AAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DDD As for the boops.. that's a good question actually :00

I can imagine Frank, Howdy and Poppy wouldn't like a nose boop <XDD

Wally and Eddie would just be confused <XD maybe don't do it to them either..

You might get away with booping Sally once!

Barnaby and Julie would probably laugh and boop you back!

Home would just stare.. 👁️👁️

@randomgir2020 (Referencing this post)

Aw man, <XD I cant relate! I live for the cold. When I get slightly too hot? I am WAY too hot. 😭😭 But it take's a LOT of cold to make me uncomfortable :00

But hey! I guess that means you might be enjoying the summer we've had this year..? XD

(Referencing this post)

I'm thinking Wally and Frank get along swell! :) Wally is respectful and a great listener. And Frank always has something for them to talk about XD

Something I can see them doing is Wally tagging along with Frank when he goes out to study bugs. Wally makes for good conversation but is also good at staying very still and quiet when they're trying to not to scare away a butterfly.. :0

(In response to this post (?))

I didn't intend for Home to directly project nightmares into Wally's mind or anything. But I imagined his many sleepless nights and constant stress/anxiety is what creates them.. <:(

@minnesotamedic186

XD Factual or Fantasy is fine, also sorry/you're welcome!!(?) XDDDD Either way I'm glad you seem to have liked my artwork!! :}}

Evil Sylvester talks the big talk, but in reality he's such a wimp. XD If he saw an enormous Metagross- even if it was just standing there completely neutral- he'd probably run away screaming XDDD

@ninaandthegames

AAAAAA THANK YOU SO MMUCH!! :DDD And don't give up friend! You improve with every piece you make, it gets easier overtime! :)

@caronaro-flipaclip

I have it saved to my watch later list! :D I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually.. <XD

@charactersnatcher

WAHHGGG THANKYIUUUU!!!! :DDDDDD

@xxanxious-anxietyxx

Thank you!! :DD and it was rather funny XDD, although sorry.. I don't take requests! <:/ But don't worry! I'm guaranteed to draw Foxy again at some point XDDD

@neo-metalscottic (Welcome home character chart) (classic FNAF crew) (Last ask with awesome artwork! :} )

Hello hello! :DD I'm glad to hear you've been enjoying my posts recently, thank you so much!! :DDD As for your questions..

Home is interested in Sally because she's so.. strange.. She's a star.. here amongst common people? Walking and talking and dressing like them?.. how odd...

For Julie, Home looks at her and knows this isn't the real her. She is something else beneath the surface. Something much stronger and bigger than she makes herself out to be. Why is she hiding?.. hmm..

And Eddie, well. Its Eddie <XDD Human from our world an all-

As for Poppy, yes yes! Its because she's been around for so long. It used to watch her sleep through her window when she was a child. Well it did, until she made a habit of closing the curtains every night.. I can also imagine that Poppy helped paint Home and what not. Which furthered Homes interest in her :00

As for the FNAF stuff, it was mostly meant to just be a joke, yes. <XD But I did have some thought/structure behind it! :)) The other animatronics might react similarly to Foxy when they overheat. Getting ramblely and disoriented.. eventually just shutting down. But Foxy is particularly vulnerable to heat-

Foxy moves a lot more than the others do. So he's built up a lot more wear and tear than they have. This also means that even though he's missing a lot of his shell all over his body, he still overheats quite frequently..

In that scene, I imagined that Freddy and the gang had preformed a show that day. So Foxy did his friends a solid by pointing the only fan they had towards them..

Unfortunately everyone was too hot and tired to remember that duh, Foxy's internal cooling is shot :x its okay though they were reminded some minutes later when he started rambling about pickles.. <XD

@errorinside

I've always pictured Freddy having a taste for savory things rather than sweet :0 Like pizza! :}}

@i-dogtor-dawg

I've seen a lot of fanart of it! :00 Cat sluggy bois.... I like dem :)

@glitchhayden418

*snimfle... I love her so much.. 🥹💞💞

@artblock200322022

AAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DD I'm glad to hear it!! :}}}]

I can imagine that Home has been very tempted to lock Wally inside, but its trying not to spook him away-

Since Barnaby's gotten involved, he's been spending more and more nights at Barnaby's' house.. Home knows that if it comes on too strongly, Wally might just up and leave. So for now it lays low and doesn't lock him inside..

@jean-arclight (Referencing this post)

In that comic I was going to show Ingo and Emmet's first close encounter with a Tarr.. Ingo wasn't there to protect Emmet..

Emmet was fine in the end and ultimately his injuries were minor. Ingo did a great job taking charge and comforting Emmet in the aftermath. So Emmet was mostly mentally ok. But Ingo took this whole situation really hard.. thinking that Emmet almost died today. And Ingo wasn't even there.. it was awful..

Usually Ingo covers up his feelings for Emmet's sake. But this time he couldn't help but just break down in tears. Coming in after Emmet had already fallen asleep and just scoping him up in a tight hug. Emmet was tired and it wasn't great to have woken him up.. but at this point hearing Emmet's voice might have been the only thing that could soothe Ingo..

Also yeah, <XD I'm glad/sad to hear someone relates to my struggles! <XDD I got to the battle scene and lost a lotta steam. 😞 although these angsty paragraphs reminds me of why brainstormed this comic in the first place! :00 Perhaps I'll finish it someday! :}}

@i-only-created-this-to-read

ONE GRAIN OF SAND?? Man.. but I see what you mean! :0 I'll have to think about that..

That nail thing is GENIUS! :00 The first thing that came to mind though was Home poking a nail out and Wally steps on it <XD giving Barnaby a good reason to stay longer to help him out-

Or, if Barnaby stepped on it, Wally would spend a day or two at Barnaby's house to help him with chores. Since he can't walk now <XD What a backfire Home!

I can see home being able to move almost its entire body for short intervals. Kind'a like focusing and tensing your entire body all at once. But if it wants to make significant movements it can only move little bits at a time.

As for the lock, it cant meld or change the shape of the lock. But it can turn the inside of the lock so that a key wont go in. Effectively making you unable to unlock it. And yes! Home can lock all the doors and windows that are apart of it >:)

@abaroo

Well as the asker previously talked about, Home could stick nails up through the floor <XD That would leave a mark..

I was envisioning less of a child with a toy and more like... a scientist with their experiment..?

Home is very curious about Wally and is kind'a experimenting with him. Seeing how long it can stare at him before he wakes up. When he wakes up, what's the first thing he does? How will Wally react to certain creaks and groans of the floor boards?

Although it is a little closer to the child thing when it comes to Barnaby. Home doesn't like Barnaby because he's looking out for Wally prying into this situation, And he keeps offering his home as a safe heaven taking Wally away for days at a time. He's messing with its experiment....

(In response to this post)

I've considered an interaction where the two of them wind up in the same area and start to chat. They joke back and fourth and generally have a nice conversation. At this point Eddie starts to feel bad and apologizes for always avoiding small talk with Wally..

He explains that after his little freak out at the Christmas party, he's always just felt uneasy whenever he would pass by Wally's house. He then says,

"I might sound crazy here, but it always feels like I'm being watched by somethin, haha!.. <XD"

That's when Wally would pause and his tone would shift drastically. With fear in his eyes he replies,

"...You feel it too?"

This would change their dynamic entirely. They'd now see each other as a victim to the same weird anxiety. Finally someone understands what they're feeling..

The only thing keeping me from doing this though, is that if Wally knew that someone else felt that way, it would make his anxiety a lot more real. I kind'a wanna keep this whole stalking situation in Wally's head. Which is why he hasn't just up and moved in with Barnaby.

If he thinks he is the only one experiencing this "being watched" feeling.. then he'll be more likely to tell himself its not real and stay with Home.

Other than this potential interaction, I actually don't really have any current plans for them to grow closer <:( 💔

AAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DDD Not gonna lie I've been considering it! :00

[theoceansluvr]

Percy Jackson x Soccer Player! Reader

warnings; yet again, injuries but not major ! author's notes; oh how i love doing requests ! :33 hope this is up to regular standard for the lovely anon that asked for it :D sorry if this wasn't as long as usual too-

first off, shout out to all the sports playing gals that keep requesting things !!

hope y'all are having fun in your sports whatever it may be :D

anywho

literally a tier practice buddy !

has crazy good reflexes and his kicks are strong as God knows what

another sport he is utterly clueless about so please explain the rules to him😭

messi fan. that's it, that's true headcanon

you have a lil tradition so that for every goal you make, you get a kiss !

it's a win-win situation because you get to score and he gets kissed

perfect deal in his eyes

probably really loud in the stands

not even probably he IS

you've probably kicked him in the nose with a ball before

it resulted in a very long apology session followed and an entire box of tissues used to help with the bloody nose

still a ref booer because "You didn't even mean to foul !" or whatever his excuse is

on that not, has definitely booed somebody for tripping you

it could be a complete accident and bro is still "BOOOO YOU SUCK !!"

he watches your games with you so you know what to practice

plays coach and draws drills and play for you

got insane flashbacks to blue lock when this was requested SOOOO

let's say you injury yourself and can't play

if it's a tear or pull, he's literally doing everything for you so you don't hurt yourself again

maybe a little more scared of you not being able to play again than you are.. only maybe because gods does having to quit your sport over an injury suck

(i lost it when i had to quit volleyball so i know that fear)

once you get better he helps you ease back into it because he'd be an idiot if he let you get hurt again

as if you don't have the same mindset, but you appreciate the help !

like i said I'm the basketball player one, soccer themed hoco/promposal

he's corny but you gotta love him !

takes you to all the local games so you can explain why that play way good or why it wasn't

still has no clue what you're talking about but you're too passionate for him to tell you that

like i said last time PEAK SPORTS COUPLE bc wdym the star kid on the swim team and the star player on the soccer team are dating !?

everybody wishes they were y'all im afraid 🙏🏾

to wrap this all up (my apologies for the shortness T^T i hope it was still good anon) he's your #1 supporter and will be there from high school till you go pro <9

[starrywooyo]

treasure: seven.

synopsis: when y/n gets whooshed into an alternate universe, an adventure: one with pirates and monsters and much, much more

pairing: ot8! pirate ateez x fem! reader

genre: pirate au!!

!!warnings(per chapter)!! - [bellow cut!] poison, blood, knifes/daggers, guns, stitches, stabbing,kissing + implied smut

notes: ooooh!! again finally an update!! i tried to make it longer this time so i hope you enjoy and i'm sorry to say that next chapter will also be the last chapter 😭 dw though!! there's still things in the works for this book 👀👀

word count: 5.1K

taglist: (if you want removed or added to the list please lmk)

@toxic-babexe , @sunnyhokyu , @cambriel , @lelaleleb , @acescavern , @meowmeeps

if if missed anyone again just let me know!

series masterlist | main masterlist

previous chapter | next chapter

previously:

You sit yourself in the quiet and peaceful for a bit looking up at the stars.. Occasionally looking at the darkness of the ocean below from your viewpoint.  

You hear the crunching of the ground in the distance

“Sorry I kept you y/n.. I’m back” he says and sits beside you again.

…

Meanwhile back in camp dinner is ready, seonghwa tells wooyoung to go get both you and yunho so he goes to yunho's tent.. He's not there and he visits yours. You of course are also not there.. hmm

He returns to where everyone is sat around a mini fire and explains to seonghwa 

“Hwa.. yun and y/n.. they're not here” he tells the elder.

Seonghwa with a slight frown begins “what do you mean they're not-” 

Before he can even finish that sentence, Yunho's bursting through the clearing, panting heavily. He's covered in muck and is bleeding from his forehead 

“He got her.. Ha.. he got her” he says between pants trying to catch his breath.

“Who?”

He looks hongjoong right in the eye

He takes a shaky breath 

“The other me”

… 

“Sorry I kept you y/n.. I’m back” he says and sits beside you again.

“Took you long enough” you laugh and turn to look at him

Yunho’s already looking at you. there’s something strange about him, he drapes the blanket over your shoulders and you pull it tighter to yourself, thanking him. 

You sort of glance at his hands and you notice his knuckles are kinda busted and bloody..

You ask him about it to which he brushes it off as ‘nothing to worry about’ that should’ve been your first red flag..

Brushing it off though you take the telescope looking through it looking at the stars

“Hey yun.. What's that star there??” you ask

“Hmm? Let me see” and he takes the telescope from you

“A-aah that one? Hmm, isn't that the north star?” he says only you know that's not the star at all.. Alarm bells go off in your head as you quickly stand

“Shouldn't we be getting back? I-i'm sure Hwa’s finished making the supper” yunho stands as you say this, your nerves clearly showing

“What? But y/n.. Don’t you wanna watch the stars with me?” he asks but when you only continue to walk backwards he sighs and bends down picking up his hat? And placing it on

“You.. you’re not yunho” you speak.

“But I am,” he replies, walking closer to you. You shake your head in disapproval.

“Not my Yunho” your back hits a tree behind you.

He laughs, finally reaching you, placing his hand next to your head on the tree.

“We'll, aren't you a smart one? Hmm?” He smiles sickly. “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit.. The poison might though” he says. And before you know it he’s stabbing your side with a small blade, your hands fly to your side, blood staining everything. “W-why?” your voice is small, you suddenly feel dizzy, your head falling into his chest, before your legs are giving way and you fall to the ground and the last thing you see before your vision going black is him towering over you, a smile on his face.  

… 

“AND YOU LEFT HER ALONE!!??” 

“Joong.. Don't shout at him..” seonghwa tries to calm him down

“Do you think for a moment that if I knew they were here too that I'd leave her by herself!!?? I didn't know hongjoong!!'' Yunho tries to also calm the captain down yet at the same time argues back..

sprinting to the cliff area where they hope you're still there.. But they're not so lucky once they come to the clearing at the cliff. 

Suddenly the peacefulness of the overlook is shattered with yells of your name. Each pirate screaming your name hoping for an answer or something, anything to know you're okay. 

Luck again isn't so lucky… 

There's a gasp..

“Captain!!” 

Everyone turns to face wooyoung and their hearts drop, he stands there holding a dagger with blood staining the blade.. It's fresh. 

“Fuck”

…

Slowly your eyes blink open.. You hiss due to the sudden light, you try to sit up but the sharp pain in your side stops you from doing so, your hands shooting to hold the area.

There's a chuckle.

“Careful there.. Don't sit up yet stupid, you got a nasty stab wound ‘ere plus i doubt the poisoning is any better” you hear the faint scratching of quill on parchment 

Your eyes drift around the room until they land on the familiar figure sitting on the seat just a little ways from the bed you lay on.

 “H-hongjoong?” you ask

He chuckles again and looks up from what he’s doing.

“Yes, precious? How’re you feelin? D’you need me to go get San, actually i will, he should give you a once over just to be sure” he says standing from his chair. Stretching his limbs with a pop. beginning to make his way to the door.

Slowly your memories of the pas incident come back to you all at once

“Y-yunho.. He stabbed me..” you say in disbelief. 

He stops.

“Yeah, he did precious” he looks at you “i’ll explain it to you once san checks over you.. You've been knocked out for 3 days” he says whilst also telling you he'll be back soon. 

 San checks over you whist hongjoong observes quietly.

“so ?” he asks once san begins to pack his med-utensils away.

“She should be fine.. Just a little groggy and maybe a little out of it whilst the last effects of the poison gets out of her system and then of course pain where the stab wound is as it heals but for now it seems to be healin’ well, stitches are doing their job” he says and gives you a small smile.

Hongjoong seems to sigh from relief.

“Good, thank you san, you may go.” he said and said male exited the room.

He pulls up a chair to sit in front of you.

“So.. d’you think you're ready to know what happened and why?” he asks

You look into his eye

“You’re gonna have to tell me so I'm not afraid of yunho”. You say.

He nods his head slowly. “Very well”

“It may be a lot to take in but you need to know the truth.. No more secrets..

 The yunho who stabbed you looks identical to our yunho right? That's because he is. Each of us, Seonghwa, yeosang. San, mingi, woo and jongho and I included all have someone who's more so an identical copy even you.. Only those imposters aren't from this world precious.. They're from another universe much much different from this one, they call themselves halateez. their leader; the other me. He’s psychotic. He was madly in love with the you in that universe, you were his everything. He’d do anything for you or her sorry.. But the creatures that roamed that earth took her from him. And love? He’ll do just about anything to get you-her back. That's why i.. that we need the cromer device to send them back to that universe. Only when we were saving you from the trap they set.. They stole our map straight to the location of the cromer and we need that back before they try to steal you away from us.” he says and you try your best to take it all in

“wait wait- so let me get this straight. another version of you from a whole other dimension is trying to practically kidnap me and take me back to his dimension because the other me whom he was in love with or dating died??”

“Pretty much love… yes.” he says. Taking your hand in his and gently rubbing the skin.

You sigh out. “ and you didn't think to tell me this when i saw that creepy you in his creepy outfit that day in that town!!?” you see his eye slightly twitch

“I didn't think it was necessary love.. We had the map. Wasn't expecting you to get stabbed and for the map to be stolen.” he says.

“We need it back.. But do you think you're able to come with us to steal it back?? We need to distract their captain somehow” he adds with a smirk on his face.

You nod. “I’ll do it”

He smiles standing.

“Good. we leave at nightfall” 

… 

The forest is quiet.. Maybe a bit too quiet as you make your way towards the camp where the other crew takes refuge. 

Hongjoong raises his hand once you get to a small overlook everyone stops in their tracks.

Getting low to the ground to avoid being spotted he motions you over. You get into the same position. His hand resting on your lower back. 

He points to one of the larger tents. “That one’s the captain's tent. You should find the map in there somewhere. We’ll be keeping watch from up here and if we see them coming back we’ll give a signal or i’ll come get you precious don't worry” he says seeing the worried look on your face. “I'll walk you close enough before returning here, okay. Plan. go!” he says and everyone gets in their positions. And you walk beside hongjoong through the trees down the slope a little ways. 

“This is where I leave you precious,” he says as you nod your head at him.

“I’ll get your map back don’t worry joong” and you begin to walk away.

He quietly gasps air getting stuck in his throat as you walk away

“please .. please be safe.” he says with desperation in his voice.  

You eventually get to the edge of the forest before the camp, you eye your surroundings.. No ones there and it's quiet.. Again.. Too quiet. It's just a straight beeline towards the tent but it seems too easy. You walk slowly but quickly and you reach the opening of the tent. Turning back you look up to the overpass and see them watching intently hongjoong lifting his hand to give you a thumbs up as the go ahead. 

You peep into the tent slightly.. Empty.. Thank god. Taking a deep breath you enter.. The fabric flaps falling shut behind you.

The tent is dimly lit by lanterns, a makeshift table in the centre and crates and chests all around areas of the tent. You let out a deep breath, hopefully it won't be too difficult to find the map, and so you begin your search.

You go through papers, books and parchments anywhere where you think the map could be hidden or being kept. 

You're going through a chest shifting through the contents and you stumble across a tube with a symbol of an A in a red circle and a drawing of an.. hourglass?? That must be it!

 turning the tube you see very faint markings of what seems to be cromer written on the tube. You stuff the map inside your little pouch bag.

“y/n..?” you hear your name being called with a gasp

You turn to face the voice..

“Is.. is that really you?” hongjoong says.. No! It's the other hongjoong.

You whip out the small dagger attached to your belt on the side.

“S-stay back!” you aim the blade towards him.

Immediately he throws his hands up to show you he's no threat..

“y/n.. Come on..” he says “it's me.. Put the knife down, you don’t need to use it.” he says, stepping closer.

“Stop” you say more firmly “don’t come any closer.”

He takes a breath.”okay.. Okay. just relax” he says.

“Me.. relax!? I know who you are..”you say.

Hongjoong looks at you, confusion flashing on his face

“You’re sick! Do you really think just cause i look like your dead lover i'd go with you and fall in love with you? You really are psychotic.” you say venom lacing your words.

“y-y/n what?” he says in shock.

There's another laugh.

“That's right love.. Tell him straight”

His head whips towards the sound of the voice

“You.” he says disgust drowning his words

He ignores him “did y’get it love?” he asks and you nod slightly tapping your pouch.

He smirks “good.. Lets go love” he says motioning you towards him “don’t worry he’d be stupid to try something on you” he says opening the tent and making his way out. You follow him

“Woah- d’you really think im just gonna let you leave with that psycho!?” the other hongjoong says and grabs your wrist. You immediately rip your wrist from his hold and plunge the dagger into his shoulder.. Deep. “don't touch me!” you shout at him

He stumbles to the ground letting out a breath of pain, hand immediately going to his shoulder blood dripping from the wound staining his shirt and hand knife still protruding from his shoulder. 

He looks up at you tears brimming his eyes 

“y-y/n” he sobs out, in shock. 

You do nothing but glance over him in disgust and leave with hongjoong. The tent flaps closing over once more. 

…

With the map back in your possession, the crew make it back to the ship and begin the preparations for the journey to the island which holds the cromer. 

Everyone scurries across the deck, hongjoong barking orders left and right before he shouts for the sails to be dropped and then the ships setting sail to the horizon. 

It's just days of ocean and water as far as you can see and you’ll be honest you’re getting bored and have taken to wandering the ship. Bothering the crew when doing their duties.. 

You started with seonghwa bothering him when he was manning the wheel in hongjoong’s absence and continuing your bothersome ways following him to the kitchen as he prepared lunch for everyone to which he quickly sends you on your way to hopefully lessen his headache..

You then move to bothering yeosang in his study, you end up distracting him so much from his work that he also sends you on your way, you knew better than to disturb san so you avoided entering his medical study.. You find mingi sharpening blades to which you tried to help him but you just couldn't get the hang of it.. Sighing dejectedly you put the sharpening tool down and thank mingi for at least trying to help you with your boredom.. 

You can’t find woo anywhere and there's no way you’d try to find jongho after the last encounter on the beach.. So you go towards hongjoong’s room or the captain's quarters you should say. 

You knock on the door and here a light “come in”.. pushing open the door you see him just like the first time.. Sat hunched over the table seemingly hard at work.. Only this time instead of getting mad at you he smiles upon seeing you

“Ah.. y/n love come in” he says looking briefly back at the papers on the desk.

“A-are you busy?” you ask him 

He sighs out

“I am love yes..” before he could continue apologising for disrupting his work and say you’ll take your leave, before you can even open the door he grabs your wrist  gently tugging it from the handle and slightly pinning you to the door

“Never too busy for you though.. love” he says in a hushed tone.

It would be lying to say your heart did not race at his words, your breath getting caught in your lungs.. A fact that even he doesn't miss a soft smile graces his lips before he pulls himself from you 

“Crew tells me you've been bored today,” he says, making his way to a smaller table in his room. 

You sort of groan at his words.. Of course they'd tell him you were being a pest today.. 

“Tell me my love, d’ye know how to play?” he asks, gesturing to the wooden chess board that lays upon the table.    

“I do..” you respond, making your way toward the table, having played with your grandfather countless times back home when visiting them.. You sit on the little stool at the table.

 Hongjoong also sits down 

“Wanna challenge me?” he asks, tilting his head. “Winner gets the other to do something for them? loser has to do it, no questions asked?” he adds, hand outstretched for a deal

You hesitate at first but agree.. Surely it won't be too bad if he wins.. 

You take his hand in yours and shake. And begin the game: moving the first pawn on the checked board.

… 

“Checkmate love~” hongjoong says as his queen corners your king.. No place you move will save him, you sigh.

“I win” he says quietly, taking your king piece and laying it on its side. 

You peer up at him through your lashes. 

“Okay.. what do you want me to do”

He seems to be in thought for a moment before looking directly at you.

“I'll keep it for another time” he says cheekily 

You look at him, pout on your face “when?” you ask

“Ah ah.. Believe me.. You’ll know when I use it” he says tutting. 

And you’re left wondering what it'll be he’ll ask you to do for him

… 

5 days. 5 days is how long it takes for you to arrive at the island located on the map. 

In those 5 days you found yourself getting closer to hongjoong, of all people.

 his sweet words and actions worming their way into your heart. From the way he tucks loose strands of your hair behind your ear when it's windy on deck, to his subtle glances watching you. Even purposely letting you win at your chess games!! You’ve been getting very close to one another. And now was one of those times, 

Hongjoong sits sort of spread on a chaise and you rest on his chest. Him with a book in hand as you both quietly read it together in silence. Just enjoying eachothers company.

The silence is disturbed by seonghwa knocking and flinging the door open. You sit up from your spot on hongjoong. Startled by seonghwa’s intrusion. 

Hongjoong bookmarks the spot in the book and closes it over then looking at seonghwa with an annoyed expression on his face

“What is it Hwa?” he asks the elder glaring at him for interrupting your time.

“Apologies captain but, we've finally arrived” he replies to him sort of bowing his head in respect. 

 Hongjoong is quick to stand, you see him shake slightly.

“Then let us go” he says to the elder taking your hand in his as the three of you leave the room.

.. 

Walking on the main deck of the ship everyone is in a rush grabbing what they need to start the journey on the island. You can't help but worry.. 

Hongjoong still holding your hand notices this, rubbing his thumb gently over your hand 

“Don’t worry love.. We’ll get the cromer and send them back to their universe don’t you worry. After all they will come to us soon.” he says and you’ll be honest it does nothing to ease your worries especially as he told you they’ll be coming here.. After what their yunho did to you.. You can't even look at your yunho the same..

Still though you smile up at the red haired man and nod your head.

“Okay! Everyone pack your travel packs. We'll be going into an intricate cave dungeon system so make sure you pack rations, a blanket and pillow at least. The last thing we need is people getting lost down there and dying” hongjoong announces to the crew. 

He hands you your own pack. “‘Ere you can use this one love,” he says.

Everyone swings their packs onto their backs and with hongjoong in the front you all exit the ship. Completely unaware of the other ship on the other side of the island. 

…

Walking through the dense jungle is sweltering with the heat slowly seeping through the trees, some of the crew complaining about stopping and setting up camp here all to which hongjoong bats back that you won't stop till you reach the cave system.

You would say it takes roughly another 4-ish hours of walking with the crew complaining before hongjoong gives in and lets them set up a camp while the 9 of you continue to the caves.

As you continue to walk through the forest the silence is broke 

A loud ‘ewwww’ breaks the silence, you all turn towards the culprit. 

Wooyoung stands wiping slime…?? Off his shoulder..?? 

Slowly you all look up.. The sight is frightening. A humongous arachnid hangs from its web just above you.

Hongjoong is quick to grab you and push you behind him. Every male pulling out his sword or pistol. 

The arachnid lowers itself to the ground hissing at you, pincers snapping.

Hongjoong pushes you to a bush and tells you to stay low and rushes to join the others currently swinging blades and the occasional blast of a pistol. 

The beast hisses as it gets winded. Its blood seeping out in sludges to the ground. It lunges towards a few of them scratching some of them

Its legs are soon cut off and then a cutlass goes straight through its cephalothorax killing the beast as it sighs out its last breath.

 Each male pants trying to catch his breath. And hongjoong instantly comes over to you, giving you a once over to make sure you're really okay. To which you immediately say that you are.

“I am joong.. Honestly just a bit scared that there's creatures like that on this island” you explain to him

He instantly pulls you into his arms.

“Don't worry love.. No matter the creature, if you're in danger I will always be there to save you. I'll never let you get hurt”

Pulling away from you he turns to the other seven males.

“Okay. let's get a move on, we need to reach the cave before dark” he exclaims.

…

The walk to the cave is steep and exhausting, you all audibly gasp sighs of relief once the cave entrance comes into view. 

Lighting lanterns you all prepare to enter hongjoong says one last thing.

“Remember, we stick together.. We don't know exactly what's down here.. Possibly more arachnids.. But we find a spot to hunker down that's safe to get some rest before searching for the cromer” he says and with that you all start your journey into the cave system.

.. 

The cave is thankfully cool but the channels travel long.. Some ending randomly, some have deep drops. Thankfully you or hongjoong has a map of the exact route to the cromer location.

You arrive at a wider area with running water off to the side after scouting around. The place is deemed safe enough to rest in, the water checked and also approved to be safe for drinking by san.

There are a few tunnels that end abruptly along the wall so you bunker into those and use them to sleep. 

There's a small fire made to heat up some soup for supper. 

Once it's been heated you all sit and eat in silence only it's not an uncomfortable silence it's sort of comforting. 

Bowls empty and bellies fed some retreat to their spots to try and relax and some going to rest and sleep, there's light murmurs of conversations as some discuss things with each other and jongho’s the first to take watch.. Just in case..

You watch as hongjoong speaks with him.  The younger nodding to whatever the captain had told him. 

Hes when walking towards you, you quickly turn your head as if you hadn't just been watching their conversation.

Hongjoong laughs and extends his hand towards you.

“Come.. I wanna show you something love..” he says and you take his hand. 

He pulls you up to stand and still with your hand in his grasp begins walking away from the little make-shift base 

“Should we really be leaving?” you ask him in a worried tone..

“Don’t worry.. I told jongho.. We’ll be fine besides I told you, I won't let anything bad happen to you” he smiles.

He leads you further into the system of the cave deeper into the tunnels and farther away from the others., that is until you come to a deadend the roof at a slant getting lower to the ground as it goes farther. ? 

He lets go of your hand and what looks to be a deadend isn't. He jumps and pulls himself up the hole in the ceiling and extends his hands down for you 

“Come on love” he says and you take his hands and he uses his strength to pull you up.

Coming through the hole you're greeted by a stunning sight, glittering amethysts and other precious stones litter the walls of this hidden room. Walking farther into the room you admire the pretty gems 

You gasp in awe “do you like it?” he asks his voice quiet from the distance between you

“H-hongjoong this is- this.. Wow.. it's so pretty” you say walking farther.

“Hmm, I'm glad,” he says. You jump startled from how close the voice is.

Turning around you see him standing right behind you now.

You stumble backwards slightly and he gently grabs your wrist to prevent you from falling.  

He walks you back until you hit one of the patches of smooth stone in the room. He's close.. Maybe a little too close.

You place your hands on his shoulders as if to keep him there. Only it does nothing as he leans in resting his forehead on your own.

“Not as pretty as you though” he whispers 

Your breath gets stuck in your throat as it hitches

“Joong..” you breathe out just as quietly.

“y/n..” he does just the same, closing his eyes as if to savour the moment. 

His hands now rest on your hips, he pulls away from your forehead slightly

“Kiss me” he breathes out and before you can respond, his lips are on your own as he traps you. Your hands slip from in front of his shoulders to wrap around his neck as you kiss the redhead back, an action that has him pulling you closer to him. 

“y/n..” “my love..” “my precious..” he says between kisses and when he finally stops you’re both breathless. 

“This.. isn't what i wanted to show.. You” he breathes out. 

Your face scrunches up in confusion.. It's so cute that it has him kissing your nose.

“Come..” he says, presenting you his hand again. And of course you take it.

And again you're off through the opening in that room you enter a wide open space on the other side.. Water flows around and a large tree graces the other side, stepping stones lead to the area of grass the tree rests on, vines hang from the ceiling, fruits hang from the branches. The opening in the roof lets the natural moonlight inside.

Hongjoong smiles seeing your face light up again at the sight.

He gently pulls you across the stones and you make your way to the tree on the other side

You look around the area once at the other side and take in the view.

“Hongjoong this is stunning.. Thank you for bringing me here to see this” you thank him

Arms wrap around your waist and a weight is placed on your shoulder as he rests his chin there.

“I'm glad you like them my love” he hums a kiss placed on the side of your neck. It has a shiver running up your spine. 

He turns you in his hold, arms still around you.. 

“y/n.. Precious. I love you” he says 

Your heart feels to have stopped.

You open your mouth to speak.

He shakes his head.

“You don’t need to say anything right now.. Just.. will you let me prove how much i love you. precious?” he says. 

Looking in his eyes you can see the determination and honesty swirling in them, so placing a kiss on his lips whilst cupping his cheeks 

“Yes.. please joong..” you whisper against his lips

Pulling you close he places more soft kisses on your lips trailing them to your neck.

“May i..?” he whispers tugging slightly at your shirt, you nod

He slowly begins to unbutton the buttons of your shirt in between kisses and then slips your shirt off the material falling to the ground. 

He trails the kisses down to your collarbone. As you try to discard his own shirt. 

Scars litter his chest, your hands ghost over them. 

He pulls you down to rest on the blanket spread on the grass. He kneels before you, hands reaching for and tugging off your boots. Before kicking off his own. His hands slither up your thighs as he places desperate kisses on your neck and down your chest. As he pushes you to lay down

His hands hook beneath the waistband of your trousers, trailing kisses further down your body as he slowly pulls them off..

“So pretty love..” he whispers, admiring you then leaning over to place another soft kiss on your lips. Your hands reach to tug him back

“So are you..” you lift your head to place a similar kiss on his own lips, which has him smiling. 

“Thank you love.. But nothing can compare to how pretty you are” he says, sliding between your thighs. 

“I love you so, so much love” he whispers again tears brim his eyes as they fall over and run down his cheeks.. Clear tears this time.. 

… 

Your eyes gently flicker open.. The moon still shines in the opening above as you in the opening. Your head rests on the softness of hongjoong’s chest, you can hear the soft thumping of his heart beneath the surface. Ever so gently you sit up so not to disturb the man, you look over his face.. He looks so peaceful as he sleeps. You place your hand on his cheek and gently run your thumb over his scar with a soft smile on your face, eyes closing over slightly. Sighing in content, you look back at him, you cannot help the small gasp that escapes as you move away from the sleeping redhead.. 

The faint red line of his scar.. smudged looking to your thumb you see the same red slightly staining the skin.. This hongjoong.. Has no scar.. Surely he’s not been lying about having a scar after all this time.. No.. he couldn’t even the last time he cried he cried..b-blood.. This hongjoong didn't.

Your heart begins to beat erratically in your chest. You feel as though any second you could pass out. You stand to your feet grabbing the extra blanket and holding it close to your naked form and if to solidify and mock your mistake and realisation.. Said man tosses on his side in his sleep and there, clear as day on his shoulder blade.. ‘HALA’ permanently resides there in black ink.

You stumble back at the realisation the room spins, your legs give way and you brace yourself expecting to hit the ground.. 

Only.. you don't. You fall into something soft. 

“oh.. darlin’..” a voice quietly whispers out.

[enhadiares]

“Believe in fate”

Quote by the great Sunghoon Park

Note: I tried writing a little drabble to see how I write or yk to have an update about my skills . It's not the best . I don't like it honestly but I need it for the feedback and constructive criticism so I can get better. Please bear with me during my getting better phase😞🙏

Warning: Not proofread (I'm sorry I was impatient 😭☝️)

I was walking around in the dim lights of the road . The moon shining and glowing like it found someone to spend it's life with.

Ironic isn't it?

We've always been told that moon shines alone in the dark night sky , but have you thought about the stars it's surrounded with? The numerous stars which shine brighter than the moon alone , yet their size makes the moon outshine them.

Oh how lucky the moon is , to be surrounded with stars which shine bright yet it's the only one which stands out the most .

Sometimes I don't want to fine my moon , but rather my star and be the moon.

I was in deep thought . I had face yet another break-up. When will I find my star? It was agonizing really but it's not in my hands. I'll leave it to fate. I hope I'm destined to be with someone who would love me like the stars love the moon.

Deep in thought I didn't notice another presence, making me bump into them .

I stumbled back , didn't fall tho . It would have been more embarrassing. I looked at the person in action . He was tall , blond hair sticking out - falling on his forehead. His plump lips and his long eyelashes : oh just how jealous all of the girls would be of him . His nose sat upright while his dark shade almond shaped eyes stared back at me in amusement.

“oh I'm sorry , I wasn't looking forward” I stated

He chuckled a bit while looking down then brought his eyes back to mine.

“it's fine don't worry , happens to me all the time”

Then suddenly I felt something on my shoes , I looked down only to see this pure fluff of joy looking at me with so much anticipation, wagging it's tail back and forth aggressively, tongue darted out while painting hard.

“looks like I'm not the only one who likes this pretty stranger” the guy winked

Adorable. Both of them were adorable. So I bent down and started to pet the little ball of sunshine and looks like she really did like me . Although I was unaware of his feelings and thoughts , the moment seemed to take my mind of things and made me calm down a bit. It was comforting really.

I didn't remember about my break up , it's thoughts didn't cross my mind even once during this interaction with this cute duo.

“Im jake and that's Layla , my partner in crime” the stranger , who wasn't a stranger now stated.

“aww she's cute , I'm y/n”

“Pretty girl got a pretty name too. Would you like to join us for a walk?”

I thought about it. Should I? Maybe i should. I mean there's no harm is there? Without any other thought I said yes and we proceeded to walk towards the park .

Little did I know , fate brought me to not one but two stars.

Kkeut.

[palskippah]

Oooh mareach preg ftw!

Ngl Im kind of curious, how did mario and peach handle the birth? 😳

Hi! Yess 😭 Them expecting babies is so cute to me ;-;

They (mostly Mario) handled the labor and birth like champs, although at the beginning both had the downside of panicking, but later on they had the help of people with more experience than them (Luigi or the doctors) or that were less panicky during the situation (like Toad). Mario was scared shitless bc giving birth is intimidating, but once he's with Peach and Luigi he's much calmer.

Btw I don't think I'll set this on stone, bc there's other ways the labor and birth could've gone that I also had thought of and actually written or drawn askdlsa but I'm sharing this one bc I like it c: Like, Toad's singing (like that person at tiktok that dresses up as him and sings shakira's songs?? them) makes him laugh too hard and that makes him break his water and he's like 🧍 bc he doesn't realize at first and all-

Under the cut there's a much more (I mean it 😔) detailed description of how it went! It's pretty long (mostly the labor part) and you'll scroll a lot sorrie, I thought of shortening it, but then left it like it is- the moments are separated by star emojis, so if you wanna skip to the birth, go ahead jiji

Birth isn't explicit but I'll give you a warning about it anyway! Also, it's kinda cartoonish (I think? maybe not) for the fun of it, I'm not a big fan of serious stuff sdlksdks

BTW! here's the bebis :'v

[Nettarina was born like half an hour before Mariella was, so she had more experience with being out in the harsh, cold world out of the womb- so she was peacefully sleeping while her twin was being delivered akjsdkd

Imagine those scenes in TV where there's in the first plane a very peaceful thing going on and at the background there's a ruckus- something like that but with Nettarina wrapped in her warm blanket and sleeping comfortably in her bassinet, and in the background there's Mario grabbing the hell out of Peach's and Luigi's hands while he pushes and grunting in effort and the other two are encouraging him and stuff, she doesn't wake up at all despite the noise.]

Also, there are some drawings that are kinda vague about birth- and also the newborn baby will not look like an actual just newborn baby bc that's too much 🧍

Anyways, enjoy the thingie if you read it!

🌟So! The whole thing is very fast and tiring- like when Mario wakes up, he doesn't even hope he'll go into labor that day, and before the sun even sets, he already had both babies in his arms.

Also, I read that first-time pregnancies are a tiny bit more likely to go past full-term and I was like sure why not, let's put Mario in situations. So, he's overdue by just a few days and honestly the babies are really taking their time with getting there, and that's why he isn't even worried that particular day that he'll go into labor.

Also, the doctor had said they'd have to consider induction if the babies didn't make act of presence in the next week. Bc twins usually are expected to arrive like at the 38th week, where they are already full-term, and over that is considered overdue- so maybe Mario is like 38 weeks-and-something pregnant in this day where he has the babies.

🌟 About the labor-

For when Mario goes into labor, I'm torn between doing it sitcom-like, where Peach for ABC reason is very far away from Mario, and she has to go through frustrating drawbacks to get to him quickly, or go with that it happens when they're together and all comfortable and stuff sdkjskd

But going with the first option, imagine Peach is at a meeting that she definitely didn't want to go to, where the king was adamant about her presence and of other royals to see the matter (which in Peach's opinion, could've been handled via email!), so she couldn't send in Toadsworth to sort it through.

Peach warned the host king that Mario could go into labor at literally any minute, and she wished to stay with him when it happened (Mario was supposed to go into labor a few days ago, she was really anxious about it!), but the other thought she was being overdramatic, surely Super Mario would be fine without the princess for a few hours.

Many royals think that way initially, whenever Peach requested that meetings be held at her castle, or that may Toadsworth go in her behalf, since she doesn't want to leave Mario's side for too long. But, they wholly understand when they see Mario, who definitely looks like he's ready to pop. Others are more understanding, because they have been the pregnant person being fretted over, or the partner that frets, so they indulge the princess on her requests.

And well, she was overly worried the whole meeting, and barely paid any attention. At the beginning Peach texted Mario every few minutes to make sure he was okay and calm her anxiety, but after one too many judging looks from the host king, she apologized and asked one of the servants to take her phone until the meeting was over, knowing she'd keep using it otherwise- she had duties to attend as a princess, despite her worries as a soon-to-be mom.

Meanwhile, back at the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario had woken up not long ago, stretching as much as he could and groaning because he slept like hell. His back hurt a lot, like was usual lately. He briefly wondered when the babies would dignify themselves to show up, so he could have a proper night's sleep finally (as if! with two newborn babies it wouldn't be very likely), because they overstayed long enough, he was supposed to have them in his arms by now, while also he wished Peach was there to just magic his pain away.

Mario resigns himself to hurt and keep being pregnant for a few days more. He throws a look at his side, and then checks his phone, smiling at Peach's (fretting) texts, so he starts answering to each of them, while getting himself more comfortable on their bed.

[Good morning my love! 😚😚😚] Good morning bella mia :33 [Are you awake? 🥰🥰] I am [Maybe not, it took you a lot of time to fall asleep 🤕 just wait until the little rascals are born, I'll give them a harsh lecture right away] Me too bc my back hurts like a beach I wish you were here to make it better :c [I love you] I love you very much too! [Te amo mi amorchito pechocho💓] Ti amo la mia luce 💖 [Mi amore] 🥰 [Wake up mi amore] I did :D pick your phone peachy [King Calami keeps talking about I don't know what hepl] Pay attention and don't pick your phone peachy [Mario 🥺🥺] Peachy <3

Peach appears offline from not long ago; and Mario hoped she actually had put her focus on the meeting. After that, Mario does the extenuating routine of getting off of bed, showering, grooming, dressing on his own -which proves much harder than when Peach just does it for him, especially with the overalls and shoes, but he's in the mood for them, so he tries anyway (and almost falls off the bed trying to reach his feet- but at least no one's there to see him struggle). He does all this while feeling a bit restless the whole way, but it's been a few days of the same feeling, since the babies weren't born when they were supposed to.

Mario has a very late breakfast and then spends a while just nibbling on treats and lazing around (Resting! You're resting - says for the nth time a voice that sounds like Peach's). He made some plans with Toad over text, and soon he met Mario at the lounging room in the castle, ready for a walk around Toad Town.

Mario wasn't very sure if he still wanted to go, still feeling like something (read: labor) was about to happen. Toad offered staying at the castle, if he wasn't sure, and they could eat ice-cream right there too and maybe watch a movie, or just walk through Peach's gardens. The thought of the ice-cream stall at the middle of Toad Plaza makes him salivate and reconsider- oh his damned cravings. Also, to walk and enjoy the sun and bustling streets would do him good, so they go.

The walk to Toad Town is very slow but filled with conversation (mostly from Toad). At certain times Mario felt cramps on his belly, but he has been feeling them from weeks ago, so he doesn't get too worried about them. At the platforms Toad very carefully helps him. And while they walk down the steps, Mario looks at the pipes systems and all the toads going through them, which was a much quicker way of getting anywhere. Not for the first time Mario lamented that traveling through pipes was not safe for him anymore, and it made him too dizzy anyways (and in some of them he didn't even fit any longer- but whatevs).

Through the walk many toads greet both of them as usual, some commenting lightly about the babies not being there yet, which had Mario chuckling politely (bc, of course they're not there yet, Mario is clearly still huge!) and by the time they get to the ice-cream stand Mario's too tired and feeling kinda out of breath, so Toad tells him to sit and wait for him to get the ice-cream, and Mario does so gratefully.

When he's at the bench, the cramps only get worse, and he briefly wonders if maybe they're contractions- He hopes they are, because the babies are overdue and he is tired as hell of carrying them, but also- he wishes it's not the case, he doesn't want them to come out yet because he is still way too nervous of giving birth. Either way, the cramps hurt and are uncomfortable, and after a while they stop, and he realizes he'd have to pay closer attention to them, lest he actually was in labor.

Toad gets back with their stuff and they eat and talk and it's very nice, because the day is sunny and calm, and the babies aren't as energetic as other times (which is always good, because they would beat up Mario's ribs, bladder and whatever was in their way whenever they kicked or stretched).

Suddenly Mario feels a particularly bad cramp, and he has to take a moment to breathe through it, wincing in pain and placing his hand where he's kinda feeling it. It catches Toad's attention, and he gently pats Mario's arm to be of comfort.

Toad then gasps excitedly, "Wait- are you having contractions yet?"

Mario shakes his head, then signs, "I don't think so."

"Aw... I want to meet your babies already, Mario," Toad laments, taking a sad lick from his ice-cream cone. "I want to receive my Uncle Toad title from you too."

Mario smiles at him and shakes his head again, in amusement, the toad had said years back that he was happy to receive the title from Luigi, and now from Mario, as if they were some sort of university of unclehood by simply becoming parents.

At some moment, their conversation takes a turn towards Mario's relationship with Pauline, for some reason. Toad can't believe Mario had sung with the Pauline! And why is he just now finding out about it?!

It leads to Toad begging Mario to sing something for him someday, and Mario saying he can beg all he wants. Toad shakes his head in feigned disappointment and says, "I would never deprive you from my singing skills, Mario!" And Mario does a 'really? prove it' face, so Toad graces him with the most off-key, shrillest and loud cover of Pauline's Jump Up, Super Star!

It had Mario laughing almost hysterically- it probably wasn't even that funny, but he was caught off-guard bc Toad started off strong with the main vocals and from then on, his singing didn't get any better. He was holding his belly while trying not to drop his ice-cream and waving slightly at Toad with it to stop- or he's sure he'll... oh- have an accident.

Mario stops laughing all of a sudden and looks down with a grimace. For a few seconds he thinks not again! because he has two heavy babies resting right over his bladder, he can't help it sometimes! But this time it's much more than usual, and he can't even stop it.

He turns to Toad in panic and embarrassment, because he's sitting in the middle of the crowded plaza and there's no way other toads won't notice! Toad notices his exalted state and stops singing. He tilts his head in confusion and worry.

Mario signs "I peed myself."

"Oh- that's huh..." Mario looks more embarrassed. "That's okay! Don't worry, bestie, I'm going to fix it. You just stay here, Mario!"

Toad shoves the rest of his ice-cream in his mouth and while he munches the waffle cone, he jumps out of the bench and scoots somewhere in the crowded place. Mario huffs in discomfort, throwing nervous glances around him, hoping no one suddenly decided to speak to him. He looks at his cone still in his hand, melting down. He gives it some licks, entirely out of anxiety, because he doesn't have much appetite anymore.

Toad returns soon enough, carrying a folded blanket with himself. Very subtle, especially with the nice weather and Mario in his long overalls. The man kicks himself mentally for being picky about Toad's ideas, when his friend is clearly trying. Toad jumps on the bench and gets closer to whisper to Mario, "I asked some friends to bring you clothes. Don't worry though, I told them to be discreet about it- also got this blanket so we can walk to a bathroom."

Toad sits back down beside Mario on the bench, to wait for the other toads. Mario decides to occupy that brief time by finishing eating his ice-cream, and rubbing his belly while silently scowling at the babies for putting him in situations. When the toads arrive, carrying a little bag, they discreetly leave it on the bench, and walk casually in the other direction, not even looking at Mario or Toad. Mario lets out a relieved sigh, glad that they left them alone. Toad stands on his seat and extends the blanket, leaving it ready to use over the bench, and then jumps back to the floor.

"Let me help you up," he says, extending his little hands to him with a big smile. Mario smiles a bit funnily, knowing that Toad wasn't precisely strong enough to pull him up.

After much effort from both, Mario is on his feet, and he has to suppress a disgusted shiver, because the wetness is very uncomfortable and has gone cold. Toad notices his discomfort and hurries to hand the blanket to Mario, who wraps it around his shoulders. The toad makes sure it covers all the damp spots, and then they get to it, looking for the nearest bathroom either of them can think of.

Toad peaks his head in a restaurant, and quietly asks the receptionist to use the bathroom without being clients, who refuses, being strict about their rules, but Toad says with a knowing smile, 'it's for Mario' and the other toad quickly agrees for them to just come along, anything for the Mushroom Kingdom hero! (But Mario's sure it's because he's very pregnant, it's obvious).

When Mario's inside and Toad's doing guard outside the door, he strips from his wet clothes and rummages through the little bag, pulling out one of his red maternity dresses and underwear. He smiles to himself in relief as he thinks 'perfetto...' because having to ask for help from Toad to put on his overalls would probably be the last drop in the glass for Mario to- to have a breakdown or something.

When he's almost done and letting the dress down his arms, he feels such a strong cramp in his belly that he's just sure it must be a contraction. Mario panics for a few seconds because his arms are stuck in the dress and he's in pain and all he sees is red! He has to double over and support his weight with his hands against the wall the best he can, while he tries to quiet down his pained groans and tightly closes his eyes.

When it passes, he gives himself a bit of time to catch his breath back, and then quickly lowers the dress the rest of the way, to dress himself properly. Mario then holds his belly, looking around the bathroom nervously. He slowly paces on the small space in building panic- he's sure it was a contraction! It was way too strong- and- and the accident? What if that was his water?

He stops waddling and looks down at his belly, placing his hands on it as if silently asking the babies if that was the very important liquid that signaled that he was indeed in labor. Mario notices that he's breathing way too quickly, so he tries to do the breathing exercises that Doctor Toadlina taught him to do- he clenches his fists tightly over his belly while the babies move leisurely as if their mamma wasn't freaking out.

Outside, Toad hums to himself patiently, giving Mario all the time he needs to get comfortable in the changing of clothes. He nods to passing waiters and clients alike, with a big smile.

Back inside, finally Mario's calm enough to think of what he should do now if the babies are coming- he immediately thinks of Peach and that she's far away and literally on another whole kingdom, with no pipe system attached to theirs! Mario scrambles as fast as he can for his phone, feeling his hands and his lower lip trembling in fright.

He calls her and places the phone by his ear, while trying still to breath calmly and failing spectacularly. His fear only spikes up when it sends to voicemail. Mario calls a couple more of times, each without success. He tries to write to her instead, being a bit difficult with his shaking fingers and his blurring gaze due to the tears.

Pech I don't wanna scare you but i think I'm in laborr Pelsa answer Nd come back soon I'm very scared

He holds his phone in his hands for a while, still trying to convince himself that everything will be okay... Mario frowns and looks to the side for a second, those words remind him of something.

Everything will be okay...? Right, Luigi! Mario should call Luigi. He calls him this time and smiles in relief when his twin answers right away.

"Ciao, fratellone!" Luigi says happily.

Mario's smile drops when he realizes just then that he must talk if he called- Oh, fuck! What an idiot! He's bringing more despair for himself on his own!

He opens his mouth and then closes it and shakes his head- why does he never think things through?! He curses himself, now with tears of frustration in his eyes and the thought of just hanging up and texting instead goes through his mind.

"Bro? Mario? Is everyth-" Mario quickly hangs up and goes to text him. He blinks his tears away the best he can and writes down while his phone rings and the notification of Weegee calling... appears just above the chat.

M in labor nd pach isn't here Can you come ?

A few seconds pass when Luigi answers:

On my way Where are you going to be?

Mario sniffles and thinks quickly, should they go to the castle, or maybe just wait for Luigi to get to the restaurant? Mario didn't want to be in that bathroom all alone, he felt too scared and defenseless. But he doesn't think he had the energy to go to the castle quick enough either.

Gret toadcimu restornat Oki I'll be right there bro Pls be calm Everything will be okay I promise Are you with someone? Let them help you Mario To stay cal M Ok

Mario opened Toad's chat this time, feeling at least a tad bit calmer now that he knew his brother was on the way.

Tod Come in pls

A short moment later, a knock sounds at the door, and Mario unlocks it and let his friend in, Toad closes the door and looks at Mario in thinly veiled worry when he notices his tears and panicked expression.

"What's wrong, Mario?"

"I'm in labor," he has difficulty even signing, his hands trembling too much. Toad seems to have difficulty to understand what he signed too, but when he does, he opens his eyes widely and seems absolutely ready to start panicking. Mario braces himself for his shrilly screaming, but the toad shakes his head quickly and sets his face on a determined expression, that Mario would not be surprised if he started speaking in a very deep voice.

"We have to go to the castle, then! I'll tidy this up, you- you just focus on not having the babies yet and calm down. Calm down, Mario!" he says in his regular voice, with a very subtle hint of panic that Mario can easily ignore for his own sake. The toad starts gathering his wet clothes in the little bag, then hurries on folding the blanket while Mario focuses on doing the breath exercises.

Another contraction hits in and Mario has to lean against the wall again, groaning in pain and holding his back. He feels like it lasts even longer and hurts worse than the previous- how is that possible? They were supposed to grow very gradually in intensity and time!

He feels a hand on his back, and he turns to look at Toad, with a pained expression on.

"Do I call the princess?" His friend knows Peach isn't in the Mushroom Kingdom, but Mario shakes his head. She didn't answer him, it'd probably be the same for Toad.

Mario breathes through the contraction the best he can, and when it's over he tells Toad that Luigi's on his way. The toad nods and leads them slowly to the outside of the restaurant, going through the tables occupied by many toads since it was lunch time, saying his thanks to the receptionist (and Mario awkwardly nods at them in thanks too).

Toad looks around quickly, looking for a bench for Mario to sit on, when he spots one, he leads them in its direction.

Just as Toad is helping Mario to take a seat, they hear, "Bro!" and Mario straightens up right away, looking around for his twin, almost losing his balance, and he and Toad and Luigi all panic that he'll fall, but Mario manages to keep standing as he grabs onto Toad's cap and the other hand supports his back, while Luigi runs to his side.

When Mario and Luigi are close to each other, the first thing Mario does is hug his twin, feeling like he wants to cry. And he does, actually, while Luigi gently shushes him and holds him tightly (albeit a bit awkwardly due to Mario's belly in the middle).

"It's-a okay, Mario, I'm here," Luigi says, subtly trying to catch his breath, he surely must have run all the way from the pipe that connected their kingdoms to the Great Toadchimu restaurant. Mario nods and buries his face on Luigi's shoulder, feeling much less scared than he did moments ago. The only thing to truly make him feel complete would be that Peach was there with him too.

Luigi takes care of the situation and instructs Toad to please get him a super mushroom so he could easily carry Mario to the castle. Once he eats it, he goes up the hills on a careful walk to not accidentally drop Mario or jostle him too much, while Toad hurriedly walks beside them, carrying Mario's stuff and calling Peach's father to let the doctor know they were on their way (and so were the babies-).

Back at Peach, the blessed (cursed) meeting that seemed like it lasted hours just ended, and the (damned) King Calami finally let them leave, but of course, he invited all the royals to have lunch first. But Peach is absolutely ready to tail it out of there and return to her own kingdom and to her Mario.

After exchanging quick pleasantries with the rest of royals, and passive-agressive words with King Calami that left no space to argue her reasons and determination to leave, the king kindly instructed a worker to prepare a vehicle for Princess Toadstool, as she's in such a hurry to leave already, and isn't even able to stay for lunch. The servant bows and leaves to do as instructed.

Peach smiles while inside she wishes unpleasant things for the king. She bows her head and walks calmly out of the meeting room, but one of the servants standing at the doors stopped her, "Princess Toadstool, your phone, your highness."

Right! Peach smiles thankfully as she receives it and immediately checks her notifications while walking out of the room. Her smile drops when she sees the three missed calls from Mario. With worry she clicks on the notification that says [New messages from Marito❤️] and her smile comes back in full force again while reading Mario's responses to each of her texts. And finally, her smile fully drops as does her stomach, all the way to her feet, when she reads the five last messages.

Mario's in labor?! Peach anxiously hurries to walk in a direction, then halts and turns around and prepares to walk the other way, then realizes she doesn't even know where she is supposedly going, and she's just panicking. Peach looks at her phone and quickly calls Mario's number, while trying to calm her breathing as she places a hand on her chest. There's no use on her losing her mind, she needs to stay calm.

Peach gets more anxious with each ring, until the line picks up and she jumps into talking.

"Mario, are you okay? Where-?"

"Princess, it's-a me!" She gets interrupted. It's Luigi.

"Luigi! Where is Mario?!" So much for keeping calm, she mentally scolded herself.

"He's-a with me, don't worry, we're-a going to the castle, oki? We'll wait for you there, Toad talked to Toadsworth, so he can notify the royal doctor."

"Hi! Princess, it's me, Toad, Mario's best friend- he's good and he's not talking now!"

Peach lets out a mildly relieved sigh, at least they had the situation under control.

"I hope you are okay, Mario," she says, lacing her words with the most fondness she can, while she smiles. "Please wait for me, I'll be there as soon as I can."

Luigi chuckles after a while, "He says he will, and he loves you, and you're his very beloved light- Hey! Don't-a hit me, I'm-a just adding-!"

Peach giggles to herself, imagining Mario swatting Luigi.

"I love you so much too, mi chaparrito bigotón pechocho," she says, allowing herself to be utterly corny, at least Luigi wouldn't get it.

"Aw please, Peach, that's so cheesy!" said Luigi while laughing and Peach's face burned. Right, he knows some Spanish, Daisy is teaching him only the things that are convenient for him to learn- like Peach's terms of endearment. When she hears Mario's own chuckles, she's glad she said what she said, despite her embarrassment. She smiles brightly, "I'll be there very soon, Mario! Stay strong, I love you!"

"Wait, when you're-a on your way here try ta do a videocall," says Luigi before she can hang up.

"Okie-dokie! Bye!"

Peach allows herself to jump in place for a few seconds, while holding her phone to her chest, closing tightly her eyes and smiling so widely that her cheeks hurt. Mario's in labor! They'll finally meet their babies! How exciting! She must get there as soon as possible.

As if on cue, the servant that King Calami talked to was walking to get closer to her. Peach walked to reach them quicker, expecting for them to tell her that her vehicle was ready.

"Your highness, I'm very sorry-" Oh great. "-but we have a few complications with the long-journey vehicles. But if you're willing to wait, by late afternoon-"

Peach shakes her head worriedly; Mario needed her now! Not by late afternoon- and she'd get to the Mushroom Kingdom by night if that were the case!

The servant patiently waits for the princess to arrange her thoughts, as she seems lost on her own mind.

What could she do? What to do... There wasn't a pipe system between this kingdom and hers, so she couldn't go quickly there, and the journey on any vehicle was longer than two hours, but there were closer, neighboring kingdoms to this one, that had agreed to install the pipes! She could go to them first, and then go to her wished destiny!

Peach is struck with a feeling-like-an-idiot urge to facepalm, because that's literally the way she got into King Calami's kingdom to begin with. She sighs, lamenting that her first-time parent panic is affecting her good reasoning.

"Are there available any vehicles for shorter journeys?" she asks with a falsely calmed smile.

The servant nods, "Yes, your royal highness. The smallest allow for a very fast travelling- but they fit only one member inside, you'd have to leave on your own."

Peach quickly nods, "Yes, I will- It's perfect. I'll, um- arrange for my toads to return the vehicle safely once I no longer use it, yes?" she says, trying to be convincing.

The servant nods and leads Peach to the room where the vehicles are (a royal garage i guess?), while mentioning how they will not notify the who was in charge (whoever that is-) first, if all because the princess looked so antsy that it was making the servant a bit nervous too.

Peach apologized for her clearly anxious state, delightedly (and unsubtly terrified) saying that Mario's in labor and she's in a hurry to leave. The servant looks back at her in surprise, because why didn't she say so before?!

After that, things go very quickly, both the servant and Peach hurry to get to the vehicle, where Peach puts her few belongings in and hops in, ready to drive as quickly (and safely-) as she can to the nearest kingdom with a working pipe system to the Mushroom Kingdom.

As she puts on her seatbelt, the servant, whose name Peach still doesn't know, bows respectfully, "I wish you luck and very healthy babies, your royal highness!" Peach smiles and nods hurriedly saying 'thank you so much!', and she starts her journey towards Mario.

Back with Mario, they are received by Toadsworth already fretting over the whole situation, while Luigi takes him to his bedroom, where Doctor Toadlina and two young toad nurses are already setting everything to attend his birth.

Luigi leaves Mario gingerly on the bed, in a sitting position. On the way up the hills Luigi asked Toad to take the time between each of Mario's contractions. They were way too close to each other if Mario supposedly started labor not long ago, Luigi is sure it must have been much earlier.

The doctor informs what will be done from then on, to pass labor and check his contractions and to check his dilation depending on how the labor progresses and the babies' position and all that (vague labor stuff, y'know 🧍).

Luigi (after asking one of the nurses to pinch him hard to wear off the super mushroom effect-) gently helps Mario into a more comfortable sleepshirt and underwear, while he makes some light conversation to distract him from his worry at Peach's absence. Toad isn't let in, and he asks to at least be updated if anything important happens, like the babies being born or Mario needing something. Doctor Toadlina politely closes the door on his face with a, "Thank you, Toad, we'll let you know!" while the nurses lightly giggle as they arrange water bottles, and very light snacks in their little coffee table, and arrange Mario and Peach's bed for more practical use, tying the bed drapes as tightly as possible to avoid them becoming a burden for any of them.

Mario breathes slowly and tries to keep himself as calm as he can, while closing his eyes as Luigi helps him to lay on the bed for a check up, Doctor Toadlina puts on a glove meanwhile. He feels Luigi's own gloved hand caressing his hair.

"It's-a okay, bro," he says softly, and Mario turns to look at him with a small smile, that turns wobbly after a second. He just wishes Peach was there too.

After the check-up, the doctor muses that he must be very far along in labor, because his dilation is very advanced. She announces that in no time he would be ready for the pushing stage. Mario nods with a very nervous smile, glad and also terrified to hear so.

So, Mario and Luigi do anything for him to dilate further, like walking around the spacey room, or doing different exercises together (the ones Luigi remembers from when he was in labor, and also the ones the toad doctor recommends them).

They are face to face a bit far away from the bed, both with their feet a bit apart and hands on their hips, both moving them in a swaying motion- Mario thinks his twin is doing much better than he is, and briefly wonders if he's doing it wrong himself, but then remembers that Luigi's not even pregnant, and Mario smacks himself mentally for being an idiot again, always realizing things too late. He shakes his head, he's not even sure anymore if it's the pregnancy brain or he's always been like this.

Luigi frowns, "No? But I thought you already settled on tha names-"

Mario blushes a bit, now realizing he and Luigi were supposedly talking. He shakes his head again with a bashful smile, letting Luigi know to just ignore him. His brother smiles comprehensively. "You're-a not even paying attention- Is your mind on tha princess? She hasn't called yet..."

Mario frowns and settles his gaze on the nurses quietly talking among themselves, a bit sad about the matter. He supposes she's still busy getting to their kingdom if she can't call, but still...

Back at Peach, she just exited the outskirts of King Calami's kingdom, now entering the long, deserted road that connected both realms. Now that the risk of running over someone were diminished almost to zero, she pulls out her phone, finally she can videocall Mario! She thumbs around on it, throwing brief glances at the road, and then back. As the phone dials she keeps it in her hand, not about to risk it flying away from the speed she was driving at.

The other end picks up and her big smile falls a bit when it's Toad's face that receives her, she muses that Mario must be a bit busy, then!

"Hello, Toad!"

"Hi, Princess Peach!"

"Where's Mario?"

"Oh, he's inside with the doctors and Luigi, he left his phone with me- when they kicked me out. I'll hand it to him, don't hang!"

The brothers end up going to the balcony for Mario to take some air after he realizes he's again way too nervous (so close to giving birth and Peach's nowhere to be seen!), while Luigi pats his back, and he leans on the railing. Mario looks up to the sky, the day is so nice and sunny, and it feels ironic with the way he feels- all heated up and tired already.

He gets another contraction and his hands clench on the railing while he whimpers and winces. Oh, Peach should get there sooner, she could help him to not feel pain! He tries to breathe through it as he's been doing it since they started, while Luigi rubs his lower back. It almost feels like the same rubs Peach usually did to ease his pain with her magic, only that Luigi's just brought him emotional comfort and nothing more.

They hear some commotion at the door that leads to the hall and both twins turn to look and see (nosey 🤨) what's going on. It's Doctor Toadlina scolding Toad-

"I told you already! You can't come in, Toad, only the queen and the princess can, Mario needs people that can bring him comfort and support-!"

"Yeah, I know, that's why I need to give him his phone, it's the princess!"

Mario gasps, Peachy is calling?!

He turns to Luigi and signals with his head for him to go deal with it. Luigi nods and leaves his side briefly (not before throwing a dirty look at Mario for ordering him around-) to go to the toads and see the situation. Mario doesn't have to wait long for Luigi to come back, talking to his phone with it in front of his face. Mario's heartbeat gets quicker at the idea of finally seeing Peach. When he sees her, he smiles brightly at Peach's face, being hit with a lot of wind and making her hair fly behind her.

"Hi, Mario!"

From then on, Peach and Mario talked as if she were right there with him, while Luigi did as an interpreter - given that the princess couldn't look too long at her phone while she was driving -, and Mario felt much better about the matter, now only longing that she was physically close to him.

He keeps doing exercises and staying hydrated and complaining from the contractions - at which Peach reassures she's going to calm all his pain away once she got there! -, while the doctor checked every now and then the position of the babies and stuff.

At a certain moment the connection halts because Peach had to go through the pipe system- and after that Mario had to resist the urge to laugh at her, because Peach was clearly running as fast as she could while still trying to keep her face on the camera. Mario also felt the excitement that she was very close to getting there. The background behind her changed fast from the outside of the castle to the main floor, and then to the hall where their quarters were, and finally she all but bolted inside the room, making Doctor Toadlina jump in fright and the nurses squeal in surprise.

"Mario!" she says, phone held in her hand. "Where- where are you?" She looks at the room, at the exalted toads, and then at her phone, looking at Mario's happy face.

"We're-a here!" says Luigi while waving his arm from the balcony's entrance.

"Oh!" she all but glides through the room, after saying quick hi's to the medical toads. And when her and Mario are finally face to face, they embrace the other so tightly and tenderly that Luigi quietly leaves to give them some privacy. Mario exhales in utter relief, at finally feeling completely safe. And Peach let her chin rest over his hair.

They walk to the bed and Peach lovingly helps Mario to sit close to the pillows, while the plumber keeps his hands at all times in hers.

Doctor Toadlina suggests Peach changes her royal clothes into something less cumbersome, so Peach obliges- and Mario reasonably knows it's better that way and it wouldn't take her very long, but he looked worried when she started to back away, in direction to their wardrobe- she smiled and said she wouldn't take long. Yet he still held into her hands until she pulled back too much, and they slipped from his.

At Mario's very puppy-kicked eyes, Luigi laughs and says Peach will be back to his side soon! Mario wipes his eyes and lays back on the pillows, smiling a bit ashamed of his reaction. Soon enough, Peach gets back from the bathroom where she changed, with her hair tied up, her crown still on and dressed in a white shirt and pink trousers, without her gloves or her blue brooch.

From there, Peach takes Luigi's place and is the one to help Mario with the exercises and helping him walk around or lay down or help with his contractions. She uses her healing magic several times each hour to numb his pain, and Mario sighs in relief each time she does. Also at certain times they sit at the little coffee table while she feeds him nibbles from the light snacks the nurses left. Luigi is glad to simply sit back as back-up support until the birth, enjoying the lovebirds' interactions, which in his opinion are adorable.

(Y'know those moms that do their make-up all pretty for when they give birth?) Since Mario had been crying and wiping his eyes so much, let's say his eyeliner had kind of wore off almost completely- and, in a moment of relative calmness while they waited for Mario to be able to push, Peach went to their bathroom and came back with his eyeliner. She proceded to apply it while humming to herself, as she has done many other times (this post!), while Mario smiled all relaxedly. He wasn't in pain, the babies were barely moving or bothering him, and both his girlfriend and brother were there with him (as were the doctor and nurses), so he was feeling all safe, although tired.

Mario doesn't feel pain anymore, but he is still so very tired. And the next few hours of labor and contractions became taxing way too soon, feeling the pressure at his pelvis as the babies got ready to be born and all that. As Peach helped him walk around, he finally decided he had enough of that, so he squeezed her arm to let her know, and from then on he kept himself out of his feet.

He looked tiredly at his brother from time to time, looking for additional support, while Luigi said comforting words, because he knew all too well how Mario was feeling. He spent the last moments before pushing mostly supporting his weight on the bed while on his knees, or laying propped up against the pillows, or sitting at the edge, all while still trying to vaguely do the exercises to help dilation and stuff.

🌟 During the whole ordeal Toad is outside and so is Toadsworth, because none of them were let in, for Mario's (and the medical toads) comfort. The old toad is more or less a nervous mess, so Toad takes on distracting the soon-to-be grandpa, while his daughter and son-in-law (never mind that Peach and Mario weren't married, he'd consider him so if he wished!) were going through the whole thing.

Mario at most was grunting or groaning loudly and stuff, not really screaming or anything, so from outside they couldn't hear much- which was more worrying than comforting, bc they couldn't guess what was going on.

Almost a couple of hours later, one of the nurses peaks their head out, excitedly saying that the first baby has been delivered and it was a healthy baby girl. It leads to Toadsworth being all tears while Toad excitedly (and quietly) celebrates.

Maybe he (or maybe even Luigi) had been keeping their friends updated on the matter? They have a big friend group chat or something and he's been writing the few updates he has been getting, like:

First baby's a girl!!!👶����🥳

And he receives a bunch of confetti emojis and crying faces and excited replies in the next few minutes, and asking for pictures (which are sent by Luigi a lot later, when Mariella had been born too, and Mario was sleeping and so were the babies).

🌟 During the birth-

The birth of each baby is extremely quick.

Doctor Toadlina gives the ok to Mario that he's free to push, but he's nervous and he quickly turns to look at Luigi, with his eyes teary and clearly very scared. His brother hugs him and is quick to reassure him that it'll all be okay bc he's right there with him (the meaning behind the words is that as long as they're together everything will be okay :''''v cries in brotherly love), and Mario smiles and nods.

Despite that, he is still feeling terribly nervous, but he's determined to do it anyways (because what other option does he have? Not give birth? He has to do it!), so he firmly grabs Peach and Luigi's hands. He takes a deep breath to brace himself- and then he exhales and takes another breath. Then he quickly looks at Peach with a pout. She smiles brightly back, full of encouragement- so he takes one last breath.

And then, he pushes with all the strength he can muster, holding and clenching Peach's and Luigi's hands firmly, not bothering to hold back (so maybe it feels like the man is trying to break their fingers, but Peach and Luigi don't say anything about that, of course-)

(pipipi kinda sad of these drawings, in the sketches they looked better and like he was really putting force into it skdjks whatevs I lost them)

After the first push, the doctor is pleased to notice that he made a lot of progress right away. And Mario's all slumped back on the pillows and trying to catch his breath, but he smiles very slightly bc he's making it despite his tiredness, woo! Peach and Luigi congratulate him quietly on his efforts, while the princess squeezes his shoulder and his brother pads at his sweaty face with his wrist. That helps too in giving him more determination to keep pushing with all he got.

The thing is that (for the sake of funny, remember) Mario is very strong and it takes one more, really strong push and the first baby pops out in the whole sense of the expression. She just shots out and Doctor Toadlina is definitely caught off guard, but she still manages to hold the baby, the thing is that she stumbles back, and she would've fallen if the assisting nurse toads hadn't hurried to help her stay upright, all caught by surprise.

She's like obviously surprised, as are Peach, Mario and Luigi (who actually took a lot of effort to push his own baby out, so he's like 'wowie bro :0'), but she quickly snaps out of it and congratulates the now officially moms for their baby girl, while the baby cries with all her little lungs' strength, looking too big in the doctor's arms.

Then she instructs the nurses to cut the umbilical cord and do all the procedures to check on the baby's health, while Peach cries because "A baby girl! that means we'll have two baby girls! Oh, Mario!" and Mario looks almost heartbroken that they had to take their baby away (he knows it's for her own wellness, but he just wants to see and hold her already), but then smiles widely at Peach's words, and at his bro's excited congratulations and hugs.

Doctor Toadlina offers Peach to hold their first born so she can bring her to Mario, but Peach is kind of scared and feels shaky from excitement, so she hurriedly tells Luigi to hold their baby instead, since he has more experience. And when he does, Luigi first holds her to Mario's face, and after making the baby kiss his cheek, he places her in Mario's arms.

When the baby is placed in his arms, Mario can't help all his tears because she's so cute! (she's actually a bit ugly, like any newborn baby is) and small (not really, she's bigger than average, especially for a twin pregnancy), and she's utterly perfect (that part's true).

Peach and Mario lean their heads together while admiring their baby (and having so many tears running down their cheeks, but they don't care).

"Oh, Mario- she's perfect," Peach barely chokes out, feeling her heart overwhelmingly full. She turns to him and kisses his head a bunch of times, while Mario smiles brightly. "You did great!"

Then Doctor Toadlina tells Mario that, given baby two's position, it'd be a while for them to be born, so he's allowed to rest and maybe take a quick nap if he wishes to. And Mario takes up on the offer right away.

He leans his head back on the pillows and, with his baby still held in his arms, he knocks out immediately. Peach lets out a surprised but amused giggle. And Luigi shakes his head in amusement too, he gently brushes Mario's hair from his forehead, and then pats his head tenderly. Mario's arms go a bit lose around the baby, but Peach and Luigi make sure he still holds her firmly, supporting his arms with their hands. While Mario naps they whisper about the baby, and how cute she is, with her little cheek squished against Mario's chest.

Peach notes all the physical features that she notices, the clearest one being her round Mario™ nose! And her brown hair, and her little dot eyes, so similar to how she knew Mario's were when he was a baby!

(Mario and Peach totally fall in love when they see their oldest baby- and fall in love again with the second- who arrives almost half and hour later.)

🌟 Once both babies are in Mario's arms, Luigi takes 23429 pictures of the three while claiming that each picture is absolutely perfect, because Mario looks happy in them (and the babies look adorably ugly- like newborns usually do), and Peach, while crying her eyes out, says how she's going to put all 23429 of them in their photo album (that so far has many pictures of Mario's pregnancy process-).

Mario's sure he looks terrible, because despite his joy he feels really exhausted, he can barely keep his eyes open enough to look at Luigi's phone while he snaps several pictures, and even though Peach ran her fingers through his hair to fix it up a bit for that moment, he knew it probably was still a mess.

It's just that everything happened so quickly and it was taking its toll on him, but at least he's very glad that both babies (baby girls! They're Mariella and Nettarina!) are in his arms already.

After everything is done, and he knows his babies are going to be well-cared for, Mario just passes out the rest of the night, and nothing wakes him up. When the babies start to get fussy because they feel hungry, Peach and Luigi take care of them, and they keep doing it for the whole rest of the afternoon and night, all while quietly speaking among themselves how cute the baby girls are and how much they look like either Mario or Peach (definitely more like Mario). Peach tears up almost each time she looks down at the babies' little faces, but it's out of her overwhelming happiness, while she whispers to herself: 'stars, they're finally here!'

At some moment, Peach hands Mariella to Luigi's arms so she can drink some water, since the baby seemed adamant about not joining her twin (and mamma) in sleeping.

"I feel very dehydrated-" she says quietly and then serves herself a glass from their coffee table. Peach makes the mistake of looking back to her brother-in-law and the little bundle of light green blankets in his arms, and she has to cover her mouth to sob again, turning to look at her glass. Oh, she was so small! And so real and there already! She hadn't felt this overwhelmingly happy since... maybe ever. And also, Peach is sure the lack of sleep has something to do with her very emotional state.

"I don't blame you, you've-a cried so much, Peach," mutters Luigi distractedly, as if he hadn't been crying a lot too, while very gently rocking one of his newborn nieces as the baby slowly blinked at him.

She had a round nose like all the Marios did (he, his bro and Magma-), and very relaxed little eyebrows, and almost a full head of reddish chestnut hair. And her little mouth was not even pouting, but Luigi couldn't help but think that she (and her sister, since they were identical) reminded him very much of when Magma was a newborn, and just placed in his arms (he also briefly remembered Mario's and Bowser's weeping when they saw her properly, and he huffed a laugh to himself).

-By the end, Peach puts only some (but still many) of the pictures in their family album, several of Mario holding the girls, either smiling or kissing them, others of her holding them, others of both new moms with their babies, and others of Luigi holding his nieces.

🌟 The next morning, Mario wakes up and the first thing he does is stretch as much as he can, realizing that he actually slept pretty well (and he was even laying on his back!). He feels a bit sore and all but less... heavy. He looks down to his body and sees his still round and swollen belly, but much less than it should be if he had two babies inside. He panics for all of a few seconds as he looks around the room, and a huge relief envelops him as he sees the two wooden bassinets that hadn't been there the day before, until the previous afternoon, when one of the nurses brought them in from the nursery to lay the babies.

He looks at the other two sleeping adults in the room, at Peach sitting in one of the armchairs in their room, with her cheek against her fist in what must be an uncomfortable position, with her crown still placed perfectly on top of her head. And to Luigi, sprawled at the foot of the bed, hatless and snoring slightly.

He smiles to himself slightly and slowly gets out of bed, wincing a bit because he still feels kind of tender from the previous day and the toll it had in his body. Mario waddles sluggishly to the bassinets and his soft smile turns bright as he looks at the little babies' faces. They're still as perfect as they were the day before, when he had them in his arms.

He looks at the oldest baby, Nettarina, wrapped in the red-pink blanket, just like he and Peach accorded that the first baby to be born would be, and then to Mariella, who's wrapped in light green. And whose little dot eyes are blinking open. Mario gets closer to her bassinet, and he leans a bit while smiling softly to her.

"Hi, baby," he whispers, holding out a hand to lightly caress her very soft cheek with a finger. Mariella just keeps blinking, with her little closed fists close to her face. She does a big yawn with her eyes tightly closed, and then she keeps looking and blinking in Mario's direction.

She was just born yesterday, and of course her vision was just terrible, but Mario still smiled at her widely as if to show her how happy he was that she was finally there. After a while the baby fell asleep, all while Mario kept looking at her.

He spent some very good minutes on his feet beside his babies, until Peach stirred awake and, upon seeing Mario standing, scrambled to her feet and with a smile asks how he's feeling-

The morning goes all nicely and stuff while both new moms (and uncle!) spend the time caring for the babies and tending to them. When it's the afternoon and Mario's feeling much better, they first let Toadsworth in -who got there early to ask for Mario's and the babies' state- and he's all weepy while looking at his grandbabies!

Maybe a few days later their friends meet their babies, as do their niblings and Daisy and all :''v

[maibakugo]

Haiiii 😘😘😘

U’know I love U, right, right, ummm could u make one MUICHIRO

💋

TYSM MY LOVE

ofc bestie!! 💞💞😘

IN LOVE WITH AN AIRHEAD

The night sky stretched endlessly, a sea of stars shimmering like distant whispers of light. A gentle breeze stirred the cherry trees, sending sakura petals drifting into the air. They danced in the moonlight, soft and pink, caught in the silvery glow of the crescent moon. The quiet path beneath them, lined with fallen blossoms, led beside a stream that mirrored the stars above. For anyone passing by, it was a moment where time seemed to pause, with only the stars, the petals, and the peaceful hum of the night.

At that moment, the Mist Hashira found himself in an isolated tranquil location, a path bordered by sakura trees. The petals gently swayed and floated in the air, dancing in the dim moonlight. As he stood there, a subtle breeze washed over him, carrying the sweet scent of the blossoms. Just on the side, a quiet stream mirrored the night sky, making every petal that landed on it shine like a star. With a blank expression, he silently observed the scenery, taking in every detail, like a painting unfolding before his eyes.

You watched from the shadows, captivated by Muichiro Tokito’s calm presence. When his eyes met yours, a faint blush crept across his cheeks before he quickly turned away. “I didn’t realize you were watching,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. He glanced back, still slightly flustered. “It’s... distracting.” Your heart raced, caught off guard by this rare glimpse of emotion from him under the stars.

“Oh..sorry for startling you, I was admiring the view.” You said with the same red hue spreading across your cheeks. The view you really were admiring was him. And how beautiful he looked under the moonlight as it shone down on the both of you.

You sat down just a few centimeters infront of him, gazing upon the luminous stars and just one silvery moon emitting a light that lit up everything.

Muichiro sat right down next to you, but instead at looking at the night sky, he was looking at you. You and you only.

Because in his eyes, you were the only one, that stood out to him.

The most beautiful one, and captivating to him. In every single way possible as well.

He loved the way you didn't mind his amnesia, so he tried to remember you name the most. He also loved the way you spoke to him, with a soft and gentle voice that filled his ears with your melodious voice.

He put his hand on yours, as your hand was a contrast to his. His more rough one, against your soft and scarless hand.

He would make sure you didn't have a single scar on any part of your body, because he would protect you.

You looked right back into his eyes, with a slight agape mouth as he interwined his fingers into yours. It was a perfect fit.

“I've..been meaning to tell you something for a long, long time..I've tried my best to remember this and I think I'm going to.” Muichiro had spoken softly against your cheek.

Your eyes opened ever so slightly as he said that. What could he be telling you? Was it...no it couldn't be, he wouldn't love you back, would he?

He took that silence as a indication to go on, and spoke once again with the same tone that was as light as a feather.

“I can't get my mind off you which is quite a surprise because I usually can't remember anything. Later this week, I asked Kanroji what this feeling was and she said it was...Love? She told me to confess to you in the most beautiful place possible. And I think this is it, I like you. Will you return my feelings?” He said looking into your eyes with his blue ones so lovingly, it was almost hard for someone or anyone to say no.

You couldn't say anything as you were speechless. But you mustered up the courage and spoke back with the same tone but just a little more determined.

“I..like you too.”

The words had flown away into the night as you spoke them.

hope you like it my bestie💞💞💞 @cyb3rluvy

dw, he's aged up lol 😭😭

love muichiro as much as my bestie!!<33

[skylark325]

Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint Read Through

Ch 101-120

Beginning: Ch1-10

note: there’s a lot of cursing in today’s update so sorry about that, was just losing my mind over this damn book

also FUCK PAUL

———

"I agree. Did you see all the stars above his head? He is a monster."

> truly horrifying

"Are you going to kill me?" "I'd like to but Master will be sad."

> lmao jihye a real one

"Did you come with Yoo Joonghyuk?" "Huh? Why does ahjussi know everything?"

> clears throat dramatically

i’ll take this dokja.

you see he’s ga-

The lieutenant lifted the man with one hand and threw him to the other side of Han River.

> lmfao HYUNSUNG?????? 🤣

> why is everyone either in love with dokja or wants him dead. and then there’s yjh…

There was slight disappointment in Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes as he replied, "You don't seem to know a lot this time."

> bitch he’s doing his best 😭

"…Kim Dokja?" The surprised Yoo Joonghyuk looked down at my fallen self.

> ah when the suicidal dokja trauma started 😭

I smiled at Yoo Joonghyuk and told him, "Hey, kill me. You usually want to kill me."

> this hurts a lot worse after dkos 😭

"Wait Kim Dokja! It isn't too late." "It is too late." "It isn't!"

Yoo Joonghyuk made an expression that I hadn't seen for a long time. It was the expression he made when he first saw me on the subway. "I can't do it."

> why must y’all do this to me

i can’t do this nahsjejsjddjdn the suicidal dokja trauma is hitting me too

My vision blurred. I could see Yoo Joonghyuk trying to stop the bleeding but I had already lost too much blood.

> ok so like i know this a super sad moment…but tell me why this is giving y/n

Then I saw a person with a fearsome aura behind Shin Yoosung. 「 "I'm going to kill you, Shin Yoosung." 」

> I WILL AVENGE Y/N!

「 "…That guy." 」

「 "He is my companion." 」

> HE SAID IT HE SAID THE THING

Didn't this bastard know I was going to be resurrected?

> Dokja…istfg THINK

[The constellation 'Bald General of Justice' is blushing at your companionship.]

> oh i see you fellow fujo

> trust dokja to think the death of his companion would make yjh try to earn more coins

「 "Why call him a companion? Is it because he sacrificed himself for you? Just because of this?" 」

> and cuz he’s hot. i mean the sacrifice thing too but mostly cuz he’s hot af

「 "Then what about me and the others? Jihye unni and Hyunsung oppa. Seolhwa unni? What the hell are the people who fought with you?" "I… I don't know what you're talking about."

"There is only one thing I know." Yoo Joonghyuk wiped the blood from his lips and said. "You killed my companion in this round. Thus, you will also die." 」

> GUYS WTF

are you telling me…after all this time

yjh is actually a softie

wtf i’m crying

I was fooled by his acting. Yes, I read Ways of Survival for this taste. Come to think of it, I had been in tears when Yoo Joonghyuk said something similar to Lee Hyunsung.

> dokja my life my love plz stfu 😭

「 "Die. I will kill you." 」

> guys he’s so sad he’s going on a murderous rampage 😭

「 "Is it worth it for me to live?" 」 「 "Then what is the value of this life?" 」

> UGHHHHHHHHH STOP 😭

I looked around and saw my scattered items and clothing. It was lucky that no one had taken them. I started putting on my clothes when I heard an eerie voice behind me. "…Kim Dokja?"

> uh oh

I carried the injured Yoo Joonghyuk on my shoulder and rushed towards the frozen Han River.

> he’s princess carrying him. i know i was the han river

"So you also live that way, Shin Yoosung." "…What?" "If you want, I will bear your hatred."

> oh my god the character development 😭

At least, until the voice of the intermediate dokkaebi was heard. [I'm sorry but that's a bit difficult.]

> wait

[Incarnation Kim Dokja. You are the smartest and scariest out of all the incarnations I know.]

> yesss he is

A black aura rose from disaster Shin Yoosung's body. I hurriedly shouted, "Wait! What are you doing?"

> HOLD ON

[The personality of the character 'Shin Yoosung' will be fixed to 'evil'.]

> ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

WHY IS THIS D BAG PLAYING SIMS

"You have failed." "Don't touch the child." I hid the young Shin Yoosung behind my back. "I won't forgive you if you touch this child." Yoo Joonghyuk glared at me. "There is no other way."

> oh god make it stop

why are things spiralling

Who could swing a sword after seeing those eyes? The woman who wandered for over a thousand years and suffered. I had to kill her now.

> i hate EVERYTHING

"…Don't worry about me." Yoo Joonghyuk spilled blood on the floor as he stood beside me with the Splitting the Sky Sword.

> “dw bout me” leaks like a kool aid box

"Do it properly, Kim Dokja!" "I'm doing it!" "Dammit…"

>….

hey look if you got it then your mind’s filthy just as mine

Blood fell. I stared into Shin Yoosung's face. Just like in Ways of Survival, Shin Yoosung was smiling. I realized that she deliberately allowed herself to be hit by my sword.

> why am i putting myself through this again

The Judge of Destruction. 10 days later, Jung Heewon was much more restrained than I knew. She lightly patted my shoulders and moved. "Leave it to me and take a break."

> HEEWON MY LOVE

The archangel Uriel chose Jung Heewon as an incarnation.

> my bby has great taste fr

> i’m so sad about this fight but holy shit heewon is so cool

Yoo Joonghyuk turned around at these words. Then Yoo Joonghyuk's inner thoughts were conveyed to me. 「 I will get revenge for you. 」

> i don’t know what to say

dammit i hate good writers. they make me feel so much

[Intermediate dokkaebi 'Paul'. You shall be arrested for violating the Star Stream regulations.]

> LETS FUCKING GO FUCK YOU PAUL

[You will lose the achievement points of all the scenarios you have built up and will be demoted to a low-grade dokkaebi after your punishment…]

> DIE

[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is looking at the intermediate dokkaebi 'Paul'.]

[The constellation 'Prisoner of the Golden Headband' is chuckling at the intermediate dokkaebi 'Paul'.]

[The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' is mocking the intermediate dokkaebi 'Paul'.]

> i love them just ganging up on fuckass paul

[Yes, the dokkaebi who reported you is Bihyung.]

> W Bihyung

[Dokkaebi Bihyung. He is a very good dokkaebi. Look at his humility. He has the integrity of a streamer who ignores everything and immerses himself in the scenarios. It is different from you and the dokkaebis who only wear luxurious clothing.]

> I…yes exactly bestie is the best. look at them gassing him up 🤩

Bihyung had a shy expression on his face. He didn't know that his poverty would help him in this way.

> LMAO

"I want a solo meeting with the intermediate dokkaebi Paul."

> OH I remember this

My fists descended towards the pale Paul. The damn scenarios I experienced so far passed through my head.

> HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"I-I am outside the scenario! You can't earn coins by doing this! It won't benefit you!"

> fucking capitalist

The executive dokkaebis didn't like streamers. The executives who evolved from constellations were good at fighting but had no talent in leading the scenarios.

> upper management is the same no matter what species huh?

> the way new dokkaebis keep needing to replace official ones cuz dokja keeps messing around XD

Surprisingly, Yoo Sangah had already drank four bottles of soju.

> damn sangah heavy weight confirmed

It was clearly a face free of makeup but it was hard to find any blemishes. Yoo Sangah slowly leaned towards me. Her face was getting closer and closer.

> wait

wait wait WAIT

> fucking hell wine dude

> oh right the underworld arc

The person who died in the first scenario, Delusional Demon Kim Namwoon was in Hades' domain.

> oh no

the high schoolers back

I could see how good Bihyung was at handling things. He just slightly lacked intelligence…

> did…did he just call bibi stupid

[The king is uncomfortable with your sudden visit. That's why I thought it would be better for me to talk to you.]

> does he have social anxiety

I didn't know why the goddess of another country knew so much about Korean mean.

> maybe she’s into kpop? i know more than i should too XD

…■■■?

I was really confused.

> dude same. the censoring is harsher than chinese men kissing on tv

[I keep thinking this but… you look delicious.]

> she calling him a snack?

> oh never mind she calling him a meal

"You can call it a courtship." […Huh?]

> kdj just be flirting with everyone huh

is this revenge for yjh running off with lsw

[Hrmm, it is difficult. This is why males are…] "Of course, it isn't courting you but courting the Father of the Rich Night."

> this man is so gay

My heart felt pained. She must've been waiting for a long time. Even so, this child had to wait longer.

> AHHHH WHY ARE WE BACK TO THIS

GO BACK TO KDJ BEING GAY

I looked at her sleeping face and recalled Persephone's image. Then my face became hot. … By the way, the Chinese dress and garter belt… it was really great.

>… ok bi king

I looked around with a sigh and saw the King of Wanderers. She was watching me without saying a word. I could see a slight smile below her half mask.

> 🙁

The moment I broke the biscuit, one side of the tent exploded and the self-styled president of Yeouido fell down with a scream.

> so fucking dramatic JUST USE THE FRONT DOOR

I thought the second one would be me so I was naturally surprised. Well, I originally wasn't his companion so his other party members might be disturbed if he called me first. He might look cold but he looked after his people. I could understand that sentiment.

> oh you poor poor thing. you don’t know how badly you fucked up last night

The confused Lee Gilyoung was stunned for a moment but he stood in front of Shin Yoosung like he made a decision.

> adorable

…Then what about me? Why was he looking at me like that? I belatedly chased after him but Yoo Joonghyuk was already gone. How long did I stand there?

> oof rejection hurts doesn’t it buddy

"Ahjussi, didn't you meet with Master last night? I thought you would be the first on the list…" "What do you mean?" "Last night Master said he was going to see you?"

> this is literally out of a miscommunication fic

"That's strange? He definitely went to find you. He was also a bit angry when he came back."

> oh my god author you’re making this too easy

[The constellation 'God of Wine and Ecstasy' is making a playful expression.]

> fucking hell dude my ship is in danger because of you

"Companions, I think I understand." Lee Hyunsung unexpectedly interrupted. "Come to think of it, I would also feel offended if I saw Kim Dokja doing that."

> hyunsung bestie wanna share something with the class?

"…Yes? Why would Hyunsung-ssi feel bad?" Lee Jihye looked like she was going to get a nosebleed.

> lee jihye i know what you are

"Um… it make sense." Jung Heewon agreed. [The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is disappointed with her incarnation.]

> lmfao not everyone built for that fujo life uriel

I took a deep breath before saying to the King of Wanderers. "It has been a long time, Mother."

> ugh i’m not ready for this emotional roller coaster

"Do you know the book called the Underground Killer? It was previously on the Kyobo bestsellers list."

> ouch it was a best seller?

Yoo Joonghyuk stood next to me and said, "You came."

> kdj: you called

sorry

"You have a woman you love." "…What?"

> yjh: you’re straight

kdj: huh???

Yoo Joonghyuk stared at me quietly and said, "Certainly, I don't care if you die."

> you were losing your mind telling him it’s not too late when he had a hole in his body

————

yjh feels so much more fleshed out as a person and not just a emotion less machine is insane. god damn i love this book

next:

previous: ch93-110

beginning: ch1-10

[katierosefun]

Hello :))) So, i was today years old when i learned you had a girlfriend (if i’m not mistaken) and somehow it means a lot to me as you’re one of my comfort blog and that i’ve been struggling with my own sexuality for a while. (I hope it does not come off as weird this is really not my intention 😭) So i was wondering if you would mind sharing how you two met as i love hearing about queer love stories coming from real people and not only in fiction (somehow i need to be reminded that yes, it can happen in real life too for me??) If and only if you’re comfortable doing so of course!!!

aww hi anon! first of all, thank you so much for the kind words--i'm so glad to hear that my blog is a source of comfort for you. and also, re: your sexuality--i'm sending you so much love! i know how scary and how overwhelming it can be to still be figuring out your sexuality and navigating your own queerness, so please remember to have some compassion for yourself, and please know that you're not alone.

as for my girlfriend: yes! i do in fact have one, and we've been together for a little over a year and a half now. we'll be going on two years pretty soon, which is all very exciting!

as for how we met: it's all a pretty funny story, because we actually met while we were both in college. and also right during that first covid summer too. we started off as long-distance friends, bonding our love for star wars and writing.

anyways, i totally had a crush on her, although i was trying to play it off most of the time. the fact that we lived in separate cities was another factor too, of course.

fast forward to a few years later, when we've both graduated college. i've just started my first year of law school; she's working at this point. we're still texting and calling each other a bit, and then i tell her, oh yeah, i'm going out on a date with this guy.

and just like something from a kdrama or a movie or something, this ridiculous, lovely woman texts me as i'm boarding the bus for my date. her text? hey, i dreamed about you last night! we were sitting on a park bench together and we were holding hands :)

and of course, at this point, i still have a disastrous crush on her (hence why i spent a lot of time dating all these random guys in my junior and senior year of college, because i was like i gotta just get over this), but anon, that text message was the other shoe dropping on my brain. i decided right then and there that enough is enough, i'm gonna call her tomorrow and tell her i like her, so she can't just say stuff like that anymore because i don't think i can take it anymore.

so we arrange to have a phone call the next day, and we chat, and of course, true to form, i have to have some liquid courage on me (peach soju, btw . . . but turns out, if you're jittery enough, you don't even feel the alcohol, because i still remember every detail). anyways, at some point, we're chatting, and then i blurt out, "i like you."

and she goes, "i like you too."

and i went, "no, i mean i like you more than a friend. as in i like you."

and she goes, "uh, yeah. i like you to do. the feeling's mutual."

and of course, i didn't know what to say to that. like, i swear i was just like "??? what?" because the thing is, i had this whole speech planned out in my head--something like i like you, and you don't like me like that, so i'm sorry that this is awkward, and i can just take care of my own feelings, but i just really needed to say that so that we're both on the same page--

so to say i was pretty stunned would be an understatement! so cue a lot of laughter and flustering, and fast forward to today, with her living with me for the summer (because of course, she'll need to go back to work and i'll have to go back to school once august hits), and we talk about how many pets we're going to have one day (she has this hobby of sending me videos of increasingly exotic animals and going "??? so can we have this as a pet? :)"), and we've talked about what our wedding is going to be like (as well as what our wedding will not be like) . . .

this is just a whole lot of details, but as you might be the first one to ask me about this lovely person on this webbed site, of course i'm going to ramble and gush--but anon, to give you some hope here, queer love is a beautiful thing and it certainly happens.

personally, i would love to go back in time and find my sad high school self and go "hey, hang in there, because you're gonna be lucky enough to finally fall in love with someone who's kind and warm and patient and loving, and she's going to encourage you to be a better person, and she's going to make friends with literally every single stranger on the street (much to your partial exasperation and partial wonder), and she's going to be really bad at staying hydrated, and she's going to take so many photographs of everything, and she's going to make friendship bracelets on your bed, and she's going to almost fight the secretary at a dentist's office for you (while you tug at her sleeve and go come on, i'm fine, let's just go), and she's going to recite and write poetry that you keep both on your walls and also in your head, and her grandma is going to show you the dorkiest photos she has of this silly, lovely, beautiful person who you love."

so: all that to say, anon, i hope that gave you some hope! it's such a long journey for some of us, but i promise that queer love is out there and healthily alive, and yeah, sometimes they're just as good (or even better) than those that you find in fiction :)

[echowithpain]

Alrighty!!!! This episode was really good, I liked it a lot ✨✨✨✨✨

Do I have any problems with it? 🤔

Uhhh... I mean Ex Captain Dickweed was in it, but if anything, his scenes helped propel the plot forward. Also, as of right now, I don't mind him. I still don't like how he was in the past, but if he takes a step back to actually see how he's been behaving and makes active steps to improve AND apologizes for how shitty he was in the past (I mean past seasons as well with Hen and Chim's begins episodes, not just on the tv set job like yelling at Hailey (the PA who got his coffee for those who don't remember)), then I'm all for it. I mean, it kinda looks like that's what the show is leaning towards anyway, especially since they're very clearly and very obviously establishing he has a crush on Brad 😂 But hey, if having a crush on a TV star is what gets him there then so be it. I think I'll do -1/2 point since this looks like it's gonna be an arc, BUT if he doesn't end up doing all that/he does but doesn't apologize for his past behavior, then this'll be -1 point

Athena was right of course with having bad vibes for the probie, but I guess I'm a bit upset we didn't get to see her chew him out after the whole "him jumping on a delivery truck as it was driving away and ignoring her orders to do things his own way" incident. She only looked annoyed at the scene and then ranted to Elaine about it in the office, and then the dude walked in.

Also he apparently was the top of his class but didn't know the parts of the police first aid kits? I'm sure that was meant to be another red flag, but this was after he'd already shot the woman, IN FRONT OF HER KID MIND YOU... Wait I just thought of something:

How did no one recognize his behavior when he was in training?

I'm sure always taking notes and being a "pick me" guy might've helped, but you're saying they didn't do behavioral testing where they run you through a scenario to see how you'd react?

Eh, actually now that I'm thinking about it, he probably wouldn't have acted that way in the training because they were all at equal stages of power besides the teachers, so when he was with a civilian, then he realized he had more power than them in that situation and flew out of control. That makes sense...

Anyway -1/2 point for Athena not chewing the guy out for jumping on the truck and ignoring her orders

Uh...

-1/2 point for Buck wanting to text/call Temu and agonizing over it for almost all our scenes with him. Sorry not sorry but I gotta be petty 🤭💅✨

Other than that, I fucking LOVED this episode 👏👏👏 I mean, how could I not? BRAD'S BACK!!! AND HES STAYING TO SHADOW BOBBY??? 💖✨🤩✨💖✨💖✨🤩✨💖✨✨🤩✨💖

Also we got Jee-Yun baking cookies with Uncle Buck 😭💖, Eddie being silly with yoinking Buck's phone and playing keep away 😂, ACTUAL HEN AND ATHENA SCENE WHERE THEYRE BEING FRIENDS??? 💖💖💖💖 (the show has those??? 😱😂), Buck quickly figuring out Maddie's pregnant ✨ and Chim threatening him if he told anyone 😂, Bobby calling Ex Captain Dickweed a dick 🤣, Ex Captain Dickweed acting like someone with a crush on a person who has a crush on their friend 😂 (I have no idea what they're doing with his character but it's fucking hilarious 🤣), Bobby actually taking Brad out on a "date" and Brad being all about it 🤣 (I fucking love this show, but I will say, Brad should've apologized to that waitress he made upset 😠 (it's okay pookie, I could never be mad at you for too long 🥰 Unless he does something truly horrible but I doubt that's gonna happen))

SPEAKING OF THE WAITRESS SCENE!!!!!!!

When Bobby got close to Brad and Brad was egging him on, all I could think was

BRAD????

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Why do you want Bobby to be so close to you???? Why did you like him yelling at you and getting in your face??? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

And then of course the argument got online and 3M people saw it 😂😂😂 and Buck, Hen, and Eddie were teasing Bobby about it 😂 Reminded me of when they found out he was a figure skater when he was a kid and made the lifesize cardboard cutout of his younger self 😂😂😂

I almost wanted to take off a half point for the "He's right behind me isn't he?" cliché, but because of the situation and also knowing Brad, it was actually perfect, especially since Bobby had been working on a TV set for a while before getting back to the 118, so sayings like that were probably etched into his brain 🤣🤣🤣

And speaking of working, Athena's officially gonna be mentoring new recruits??? Ayo??? Ngl, I actually wanna see that ✨ Also I like how they showed the very real situation of people acting like the woman in the car (I laughed when she called 911 on the cops around her, lady they ARE 911?😂) and then a cop who people think have things under control loses that control because someone pissed them off and they end up getting shot. Thank fuck the lady survived, but showing the scenario of how something like that could play out was good for people to recognize and see what the cop did wrong. People can be paranoid, they can be uncooperative, they can even be assholes, but cops have to be able to deal with them in a way that doesn't end up with people getting shot.

What the guy should've done was as soon as the woman started pissing him off, he should've backed up, taken a breath, and maybe regrouped and have a talk with his partner about what to do. Or as soon as he heard Athena's voice when he was about to break the window, he should have again stopped and taken a step back. Even if he did get as far as breaking the window, why try to take her out of the car? The whole point was to see her license, registration, and proof of insurance. She didn't need to step out of the car for that and the window was already broken so he could've stopped there.

As crazy as this was, I will say, I do wish Athena would be wrong about something, just once. Nothing big, just like... A person, either someone random or a new recruit, gives her a somewhat bad vibe, but instead of them being "a ticking time bomb", they're genuine in what they want to do but they might need a bit more guidance on a thing or two.

Using the guy as an example, he said his dad was a bad con artist who would get drunk and take it out on him and his mom. Then the neighbors called the cops and while they didn't take his dad away, he saw that they scared him and he'd never seen his dad look so afraid before. He could've wanted to be a cop because he felt a rush seeing his dad be scared, but also he could've wished they'd arrested his dad that night so he thought to do better. Athena could catch that craving for power from him, get the somewhat bad vibes, and think he's someone with bad intentions, but when it comes down to him possibly doing something extreme, she could see him actually stop himself and do the right thing, maybe saving someone's life in the process. Athena could see and admit she misjudged him, but recommend he keeps his craving for power in check and maybe recommend Frank if it's something he'd need extra help with.

Something like that, again, nothing extreme or big, just something I'd like to see ✨ And I'm not saying I wish I'd seen this in the episode instead (obviously, it's a drama show), I'm saying I'd possibly like to see this somewhere down the line. Like someone gives off vibes but instead of being a serial killer just starting out, or an abusive spouse, or a power hungry cop, they're just someone who needs to talk a couple things out. Not a necessity, just a want ✨

Anyway yeah, amazing episode!!!!! 💖✨💖✨💖✨💖

Final Score: 🔥8½/10🔥

-1/2 point for Captain Dickweed (possible to change), -1/2 point for Athena not being able to chew out the probie after the truck incident, -1/2 point for most of Buck's scenes mentioning Temu

Great episode guys 👏✨👏✨👏✨👏 Can't wait to see what's next!

See y'all next week! 😘💖✨

[iicheeze]

3 MONTHS, 3 DAYS, AND 33 MINUTES

3 MONTHS, 3 DAYS, AND 33 MINUTES MASTERLIST

SUMMARY || you've always had feelings for your gray haired senior. To the point that you'd confess to the man in front of the whole Akademiya. Pitying you, he gives you 3 months, 3 days and 33 minutes to make him fall for you. Let the roller coaster of chaos begin!

PAIRINGS || Alhaitham x Gender Neutral Reader, slight Kaveh x reader

TAGLIST || @star-star-fall-inlove @nachotrash @baelloraa @itonashi @tanspostsblog @kalpie @makimakimi @nishayuro @hugs4dottore @sassy-cat-in-town @aloveablechaos @ceylestia @severedvigility @i9tto @6-022-10-23 @duhsies @suwnshine @xiaos-wife1 @kysrion @kunikuzushisbeloved (BOLD MEANS I CAN'T TAG YOU, TAGLIST OPEN!!)

TW || gendered terms like girl or buddy, READER IS GENDER NEUTRAL!!!!!! other than that idk unfunny-ness ig idk 😭 just read to find out

CHAPTER II — [Name], The Reckoning

“ HAHAH!!! HAHAHAHAHA!! ”

The haunting laughter echoed throughout the hallway of Teyvat Akademiya Dorms. Obviously, coming from none other than you, yourself.

“ SHUT THE HELL UP, DAMMIT!! I'M TRYING TO FINISH MY FUCKING ASSIGNMENT, YOU DAMN LUMMOX. ” Tighnari screamed, his head peeking out of his dorm room. “ Sorry, man. ” And with that, the door slammed shut.

“ Give me my five dollars, Mona. ” You demanded, with Mona slowly reaching out to her almost empty wallet.

Long ago, you and Mona made a bet. If Alhaitham accepts your confession, Mona will give you ten dollars. But if he rejects you, you give her ten dollars.

But since this one is a special case, Mona will only give you five dollars.

“ Congratulations for getting accepted! Now.. What next? ” Bennett gave you a pat on the shoulder, while also giving you a question. Silence filled the air with awkward tension.

“ To be honest, I didn't plan this far. ” “ GIRL, HOW DID YOU EVEN GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL???!?! ” “ I don't know too. ” “ Lord, save us. ”

“ OKAY, OKAY!!! I'll search up on how to woo a stubborn guy. After that, I'll list it off. Then, I'll physically do it to him and bada bing bada boom, we're a couple. ” You winked, as your friends dead pan.

“ I'll wish you the best, [Name]. You'll need it. ” Kokomi smiled innocently at you, as the rest nods along with her statement. “ THANKS??? BUT WHY ARE YOU SAYING IT WITH THAT TONE?? ”

It was the weekend, so you decided to use your time lazing around searching up on how to woo a man with a personality like Alhaitham's. Sadly, they all sound very hard.

Like... What do you mean ‘ Make sure they have all the facts. ’ ?????

The only stuff you wrote down are;

Let him come to you. Obviously not gonna work 💔

Open up to him.

Be his friend.

Stay flirty.

Focus on your common interests. What interests 😭

Make him laugh.

Be silly in front of him.

Go on adventures together. Wtf we aint dora and boots hell no

IF ALL FAILS, THEN GIVE UP GIRL!!! HE AIN'T WORTH YOUR TIME!!!

You wrote the sentence in bold with massive letters at the end of the list. Who knows, maybe this chance is just pure luck or he just wants to toy around with you.

BUT!

You still have a chance, albeit small, it's still a chance!

And you're obviously taking it.

I mean, what the hell. He has a hot body.

“ I wonder if he's a virgin. ”

Kaveh was just taking his break at the local Sunbucks near Teyvat Akademiya, trying to get away from the annoying roommate of his.

But his moment of peace was disrupted by a single ding from his phone.

Message Notification from [Name]

What the hell are they up to now

He clicked the notification bar, and it quickly showed up to his chat history with the person.

[Name]

PLSE HELP ME IM STUCK 😭

You

wtf wdym stuck

[Name] is typing. . .

[Name]

so i confessed to ur roommate ye

and he actually gave me a chance

except theres a time limit for it and if i dont make him fall for me within 3 months 3 days and 33 minutes i cant talk to him or even acknowledge he existed in this timeline 😭

Kaveh couldn't help but think.

How the hell did you even got him to give you a chance what kind of fuckery did you use [Name]

You

and wat do you want me to do abt it im not him tf 🤨

[Name] is typing. . .

[Name]

d-d-d-d

do u know anything abt him

if u do

can u

pls tell me 🥺

You

WTF stop talking like that you sound like an e-kitten 🤢🤮

[Name]

STOP HWAT NOOO 😭

You

idk abt that gray haired bitch hes friendless and a virgin wtf u want me to do

[Name]

AYO WHAT HE A VIRGIN??????

boutta peg him fr fr 😈

You

💀

plus all i know is that he aint prioritize no one but himself

he doesn't deserve u 😒

[Name]

but I deserve him 😍

does he like uhhh

my jokes

You

dont u dare

we all know ur humor is as bad as cyno's

[Name]

but

i have rizz 🔥

You

the only thing ur gonna get is a rizzstraining order from him wtf

no one likes ur jokes [name]

just accept the truth

[Name]

😭

this is why u get no bitches

“ Jesus Christ, [Name]. . . ” The blonde man mumbled to himself, face palming. He was about to leave the cafe, before he saw another text.

[Name]

i seriously want him to like me tho

It was just a simple text, and he knows of your crush for his roommate for quite a while.

So why did it strung his heartstrings?

AUTHOR'S NOTE || SORRY ITS SHORT AGAIN THE NEXT ONE WILL PROBABLY BE LONGER 😭😭 if there's any mistakes be it readers gender or more please tell me 🙏🙇

also taglist is still open feel free to ask to be in it 😍

[little-miss-dilf-lover]

First, I must inquire, what do you think are tan's and lem's real names? 

Now imagine this, his wife having really good acting skills, enough to convince everyone that she's just a terrified civilian looking for help, keeping her act up until she gathers intel from them. Feel like lem would also be so proud of her.

Tan prefers calling you, but when he can't, he'll either send the softest messages or fast typed ones with tons of spelling mistakes "My pretty girl, you're going to be the death of me." responding to the selfie you just send, "Thsi fycking twat jsut ruined m y dress shrit!". But imagine a group chat with these two. Lem and I share the same braincell so we'll disscus the silliest stuff and he'll just butt in to say "will you two please think before typing on this group chat"

Childhood friends to lovers with tan? He'll protect you even if it means he'll get an ugly wound, but it's ok because you'd always patch him up and give him an earful. It doesn't take long for lem to figure it out and pushes him to confess. And he'll be so cute too "How 'bout I take you to dinner after? " "Ask me again when you're not bleeding from your stomach." You two end up eating at home because you only just started taking missions and can't afford a 5 star restaurant. Speaking of protecting, when he finds out your carring his child, he won't let you take any missions. "They're having a baby?" asks a confused ladybug, "I'd be more surprised if they didn't." is all lem can say before he notices his brothers stare.

It's not a secret he has a big mouth, what if his girl matches that but in a more, classy way? "I'm sorry sir but I must inquire, what's with your illiterate way of thinking?" and he butts in "She means why are you so fucking dumb." All while proudly smiling.

I'm going to finish this with the most heartbreaking angst. Instead of Tan finding Lem "dead", they both survive but his wife dies. They're a trio but split up to look for the briefcase. The twins somehow get the it back and decide to put it on red so now they're looking for her all over the empty train. They finally find her and all he can do is stare at her before droping to his knees, bringing her close to him. It hits him like a train so he breaks down, screaming and crying as he hugs her. Lem somehow finds the power in himself to place the Edward sticker in her palm.

Phew, sorry this was a lot, if anything else comes to mind I'll saved it for later so that like you said, you're not spamming people's dash. Sorry for any spelling mistakes (you know who to blame). It means a lot that I get to share my ideas with you and your followers. Anyway, going to rewatch Bullet Train tonight, can't believe it's already been a year since I've first seen it on the big screen. Kisses, 💺 anon.

hii, sooo…

1. that question has been picking at my brain for a year!!! I genuinely cannot think of what they’re called, I wanted to make a post and ask everyone a while back, but if anyone has any thoughts or ideas for their names please PLEASE comment them, im dying to know. something british/ criminally english that’s all I know😭 ironically, I feel aaron suits

2. ughhh I love that!?! he’d be super proud, silently cheering her along. like a subtle nod or quick wink

3. the spelling mistakes aaahhh love that!!? also feel like the 3 typing dots would be there for ever, like he’s replying then doing something assassiny then typing again, and it’ll all be mumble jumble. he’d get annoyed at the two of you messaging eachother in the group chat but I feel he secretly loves it. also think he has trouble talking sometimes, so he likes to have the social aspect without it being awkward for him (if that makes sense) ardgsh and he’s such a flatterer I just know it!! sweet girl, pretty girl… MY SWEET GIRL!?! MY PRETTY GIRL🫠

4. love it!! and the element of being besties and knowing everything. omg imagine you go on dates with other guys (before liking liking tan) and he’s always really jealous but he hides it bc he wants you to be happy etc, but he maybe kinda sabotages it so he can have you all to himself heehe. he definitely reacts before thinking, especially if you were involved (and got hurt) super caring cute sweet innocent kinda guy, right? completely innocent bbg

5. “why are you so fucking dumb?” HAHAHAHA love it!! but yes!!! he’s got that cockney ‘charm’ so he gets right to the point. and I love that she matches his vibe (but just in a more feminine classy, femme fatale way)

6. that is heartbreaking!?! why would you write that🥲🥲🥲🥲 im just kidding, but that is a horribly sad idea

7. you’re very sweet!! and tysm for sharing your ideas!! and yes, if you have more, send em over. heheh guessing your hamster😭 ive been wanting to rewatch it for ages, I just need to do it bc I miss it lol. that year has gone quick omg?!

-

hope everything I said makes sense😭 apologies if it doesn’t

[fallen-mario-bros-au]

I heard you were having trouble with the ending bits, my brain keeps pumping ideas out though so I wanted to give my two cents.

Idea 1; Just have it play out MOSTLY like undertale

For a neutral run you can have it so flowey absorbs the 6 souls and fights Mario since “he will remember and will be fun to watch die over and over.” After the souls betray flowey they leave Mario past the barrier BUT NOT LUIGI. The phone call you get at the end of the neutral run is from Luigi looking for Mario, describing what’s happening in the underground, Mario could think Luigi was on the surface up until this point and thus resetting.

For a true pacifist it could either go almost the exact same way or you could have it so flowey also absorbs Luigi’s soul, either giving him 7 or 8 souls depending on if the rest of the underground gets absorbed. (I can imagine during the “SAVE your friends” part, Luigi could give Mario his power like in dream team.) depending on how you want it Luigi could forget this like the rest of the monsters or not.

Idea 2: Blend the two lore’s together

Maybe the barrier takes star power but human souls can be a substitute or vice versa, and the underground doesn’t have power stars. So with this if peach appears she could bring power star or crystal star

SORRY ABOUT THE LONG WAIT I DIED FOR NO REASON!! THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE X_x

yo I thought you were just giving me your two cents not the whole bank 😭😭

But seriously THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA, I think I might go with that first concept because I think it's really cool! Especially the idea of Luigi getting left behind in the underground, that's a really good motivator for Mario to be like "nope, not good enough". The second concept is still super cool tho and I love these ideas sm??? Like thank you so much, that means a lot to me?? 🥺 I didn't think anyone would actually show any interest in this silly little idea so I'm just so grateful anyone even wants to say something about it XD

[im-a-king-baby]

Hi!

I'm done with my re-reading of ELYN, and THE line I will keep with me is this one :

“I don’t want anything from you.”

Simon pulls back to look at him. He’s applied concealer to the bags under his eyes, this close Wilhelm can see the streaks of it on his skin as he gives a weak smile. “You want the most of anyone.” Which isn’t fair and isn’t true. Except that it is. “I just want you to be happy.”

“Yeah,” Simon says. “That.”

This is sooo powerful ! The weight of the expectations of your loved one... 😭❤😭❤

And I would love to know why Simon gave Wille a key for his room... What was he expecting ?

And if it's not too much, what do you think made August get clean and turn his back to royalty ?

Again, thank you so much for this story ! ❤

Hiii, sorry this took so long. Can't believe I am expected to work a job instead of just having fanfic related feelings on tumblr all day every day. Very rude. None stars.

(if your ask is in my inbox I promise I am getting to it! If you still want to submit questions for any of the memes I reblogged, I will happily ramble all day every day so the ask box is always open <3 )

"I just want you to be happy."

(I need you all to know that doing this meme is really reinforcing the 'a first draft does not have to be perfect or even good' mantra because guess what was also not in draft 1! All of this!)

There is a side of Simon's character that I think is justified in canon which is that he doesn't like letting people down. He switches schools to support Sara, he agrees to date Marcus even though he clearly doesn't want to because Marcus asks. So this moment starts with Simon talking about how he started on coke because he didn't want to let the fans down by being exhausted. Originally there was another step in the middle where he talks about how Candace wanted him to get clean but also be the superstar (and do a documentary!) and he couldn't see a way to have both. And then that his breakthrough was hiring Joseph, and Keira and realising that having money means you can pay people to care about you in very specific ways.

Wilhelm swallows. “Sometimes people help you just because they want to.” Simon’s mouth quirks slightly off to the side, like Wilhelm’s said something amusing. “That’s what they tell you. But they always want something from you, you just don’t realise what until it’s too late.” “I don’t want anything.”

Wilhelm I think genuinely believes that he's telling the truth here, but Simon has had to become a lot more aware of how he is perceived and the expectations of him from having this very public career. Like, for all Wilhelm saying 'you can take time, the fans won't disappear if it takes you more than 2 months to make an album', Simon has also seen the fan tweets complaining when the tour skips certain cities/countries, when they have to wait for the album, when they don't release a tour vlog. (One of the big reasons he doesn't have a phone is to stop him from reading all of that because at a certain point you can't satisfy everyone and Candace is like 'this is not helping you so let's put a stop to it.')

So in this moment Wilhelm is saying 'I don't want anything' but also he wants them to be together and happy and Simon is very aware that the easiest way for him to be happy is by drinking and taking the drugs. He's spent the last week and a half in coke withdrawal which is basically just being miserable all the time and going into rehab is going to be more of that. And then, the Simon who comes out of rehab is going to be very different from Simme-the-popstar and different to Simon-from-high-school and current-Simon has no idea what that person will look like or if it will even be someone Wilhelm likes.

So for Simon getting clean means getting away from anyone else's idea of who he should be. And that's hard. And sometimes you hit on the perfect line to articulate what would otherwise be 5 paragraphs of rambling tumblr post and those moments are the best part of writing for all that they come so rarely <3 (and also they do not always come in draft 1 and that's okay)

2. Why does Simon invite Wilhelm to the hotel room

I think SImon's base logic is the same as why Wilhelm went, this sense of 'if we can get away from the cameras we can be Us instead of Simme and Crown Prince Wilhelm and things will make sense again.' But on top of that is this thing that Simon is doing where he is attempting to use sex to solve his problems (arguably this desire is coming from the same place as the drinking and the coke. It's the 'I don't know how to feel good when I'm not performing, but if I invite someone up they'll tell me I'm amazing and then we can have orgasms and that'll feel good for a little while').

So Simon is thinking 'I need to see him in private' but then he doesn't have any plan beyond that so it's back to the usual plan of sex=feeling good, with a side line in 'if I give him a good enough time he won't notice anything weird or ask any questions and everything will be fine.'

(I do have a while Simon POV scene of the hotel after Wilhelm leaves that will probably be posted somewhere at some point so here is a teaser:

Wilhelm must have left by now. And if part of Simon was hoping that he’d still be there when Simon opened the door - so SImon could say what, he doesn’t know - that part is quiet enough not to show surprise when there’s just Gareth in the hallway in his perfectly pressed suit with his perfectly neutral gaze. Does Gareth feel emotion? Nobody knows. He has all of one facial expression so if he’s judging Simon for bringing the prince of Sweden up to his rooms or judging him for failing to keep the prince of Sweden there for longer than an hour, or not judging him at all because he has full respect for the whore lifestyle, Simon never has to know.

3. August

Oh hey! I thought this choice might get me more hate so thanks to everyone for coming on board with me for the off-screen August redemption arc 😅

So fundamentally ELYN (and, yknow, YR) is a story about legacy and inheritance. Both the big glaringly obvious thing of the crown, but also the other things: the secrets, the class culture, and the genetic predisposition to addiction. (I can't remember right now if August's father's suicide was drug-related in the show, but for the fic I definitely had that in my mind).

So August functions as a parallel for both Simon and Wilhelm. The obvious 'was taking drugs to cope with stress, stress kept increasing, ultimately broke under it' . But also on Wilhelm's side, August is desperately trying to live up to the legacy of a dead man. He's idolising his father, wanting to make him proud and unable to acknowledge that this culture of appearing perfect and not talking about problems is what killed him.

The way I always pictured August's arc was that he hit rock bottom somewhere in the military - he'd been relying on pills to get him through stress, this was infinitely more stress than high school, plus the fallout from Sara's confession (which had been covered up by the court, but was still impacting him). I never had a concrete idea of what the exact rock bottom was (maybe stealing pills?), but he was dishonorably discharged and checked himself into rehab where he basically got a big dose of Welcome to Real Life. Meeting normal people. Realising they're not so different. 'There's a whole world out there that's not our careful circle of cultivated Heirs and Heiresses and people have problems but they also have whole entire lives where none of these things you're so worried about matter at all.'

And he did the work. He re-evaluated his biases. He grew up. He met a girl, who I think was class-adjacent but more practical than the Hillerska-royalty types (I like to think she was maybe an art assessor who came to help him auction off large parts of the estate holdings) and they got talking. Their relationship seems to have moved pretty fast, but hey August took some pride in the elements of being prefect that involved taking care of people so maybe he's ready for a family. (Originally there were going to be 8 years between the show and the fic so I gave him 3 kids, and then when I cut it down to 6years it felt mean to delete a baby so that's why he has twins.)

The 12 step program has a step for 'making amends', I think August probably got in touch with Wilhelm and was like 'I owe you an apology and amends, and I understand if you don't want to talk to me but if I can ever help you or Simon, I'm here.' And that went ignored until Wilhelm called him from basic training, and then five years later when he got a call from Simon in hospital like 'So Malin gave me your number...'

One other bonus August ELYN headcanon I have is that Wilhelm phoned August from the car on his way to the debate and was like:

"I think if I do it now I can bring it all down, but if I can't they're going to come after you, and then the children. I'm sorry I can't protect them anymore." "It's my job to look after my family," August says. "And I promise I will not let any of this shit touch them. You have my full support, go do what you have to do."

(there is a whole other tumblr post about how I don't believe in writing bad people just people who sometimes make bad choices but this is already Very Long and I'm not sure if I actually answered the questions so we'll leave it there 😅)

[sweettbepbo]

everything i wanted

warnings: death, angst

word count: 1k

i wrote this a few years ago so i’m sorry if this is crap, this is some old fanfic pieces from my wattpad😭

Billie

~

"I had a dream."

"I got everything i wanted,"

"Not what you'd think,"

"And if im being honest,"

"It might of been a nightmare,"

"To anyone who might care."

Alex and I sang in unison as I played the guitar to the beautiful song.

"Thought I could fly,"

"So I stepped off the golden,"

"Nobody cried,"

"Nobody even noticed."

I look over at her as we sang together. Those beautiful brown long locks, adorable dark brown chocolate eyes, puppies would have. Her face was shaped perfectly. Amazing curves I would put my hands all over. Freckles scattered around her face. Not many but they're still there.

That body is mine.

That girl is mine.

Alex is mine.

My girlfriend..

As I was singing to my song I got quieter and quieter. Until I only heard Alex sing and she has a beautiful voice. The one problem is... she doesn't think she's all that, but she is. She is to me. That's all that matters. She thinks very low of herself. She noticed I stopped singing with her so she stopped herself.

"Why'd you stop? I sound like a freaking cow by myself."

I frown and let go of the guitar and put it beside me. I gently grab Alex's face with my hand. I pull her in for a sweet kiss.

"You do not sound like a cow. You sound beautiful, baby. I mean it."

She looks down and sits back.

"C'mon let's go cuddle." I gently grab her and pull her to our room. We have a small apartment together with 2 rooms and a bathroom. One room is our bedroom and the other is empty.

I find myself depressed when I walk into that room. I don't know why.

We cuddle up on the bed. With her head on my chest as I pull her in my arms and play with her hair. I find her presence very warm and relaxing. It's like I can't ever get myself away from her. When I'm with her all my problems wash away like the ocean. Pressure. Anxiety. Stress. Tour. Social media. It all goes away when I'm with her. Just like that.

Now I didn't ever take drugs or will ever take drugs but with Alex, it's like she's my drug. I can't get enough of her. She makes me want to go crazy. She makes my heart go flying out of my chest. She makes me filled with so much joy and happiness.

She's definitely my soulmate.

And with all of these thoughts running around in my head. I just fell asleep. Holding my baby.

Billie's dream

~

I see a coffin. It looks like some sort of funeral.. but.. no one is there. I look at the name.

Billie O'Connell

2001-2019

... I died.

And no one came. Not even my brother, Finneas. My mother.

Not even Alex.

The love of my life. My soulmate.

How did I die?

I get pulled into another place. I look around and see the golden gate bridge. With the waters beneath it. I suddenly hear sniffles and turn around.

I see myself. I'm crying. I look where I am and I'm dangerously close to the edge of the bridge.

No.

I try to yell out for myself to not do it..

But I'm too late. I see myself jump off. I remember back to my funeral.

Did no one care when I died?

No one helped me.

No sympathy.

No one tried to convince me that I shouldn't have done that. Not even Finneas.

I fall to my knees and cry.

And cry.

Nobody cared about me.

Nobody cared that I died.

Am I meant to die?

Suddenly I get pulled out of my dangerous dream and see a new scenery. I enter Alex and I's apartment. I wipe my tears and look at our bedroom. She's not in there. I look at the empty room.

It's not that empty anymore.

The walls were painted a pastel blue. A wooden rocking chair in the corner. A gray circle carpet in the middle with stars. I look to my left.

I see Alex. Her long wavy curls were now cut into a short wavy bob. She turns around.

She has a baby in her arms.

She rocks the baby as she sings songs to it. The crib beside her was painted a nice soft gray.

We didn't have a baby.

Did.. she want to have a baby with me?

I get closer as it doesn't matter. She can't see me because it's just a dream. I realize it's a boy. I look up at Alex. Her facial expression was the most cutest thing in the world. Smiling down at the baby as she giggles at the baby's cuteness. Her face changes within a couple of minutes. Making me change my mood.

"I wish your mama was here to see you. I bet she would have loved you. So much."

Was this.. my baby?!

I shed a couple of tears staring at the precious baby in her arms. It sleeps peacefully in one of his mother's arms. He had brown hair just like Alex. His cheeks were an adorable version of Alex's. He was almost as pale as me. This baby that possibly doesn't even exist is making me have mixed feelings. I don't know how to feel about this.

I had already fallen in love.. but why did I always feel so upset when I walked into this room?

I guess maybe it was just because I was missing something. This baby.

"I love you so much, baby." She looked away from him and shed a tear.

"I love you too, Bil. I always have and I always will." She whispered.

"I love you too, Alex." I whisper cry. I reach out for her but it's impossible for her to reach me.

~

I jump awake in a sweat. My hair's a mess and I'm hyperventilating. I look around the bedroom and find that Alex was sleeping peacefully beside me. I calm down a bit and fall back, trying to calm myself down. That was definitely quite the dream.

Alex flutters her eyes open and stares at me with a smile before slightly frowning, "You okay, bil? You look like something just happened."

"I'm okay. Just had a.. bad dream.. I guess."

"Okay." She rubs my shoulder and kisses it. I try to pull her closer to me. I wrap my arms around her waist as we stare at the ceiling.

"Hey, I have a question, babe." I ask just being curious.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"W-would you ever want to have kids with me someday, Alex?"

"Of course! I kind of have baby fever right now. Which is weird!" She giggles. I chuckle and smile down at her. I sigh and look back at the ceiling.

"Billie, what was that dream about? It seemed pretty scary."

".. Nothing, mamas,"

"Nothing at all."