#if i was able to draw men better yall would never hear the end of it

[drawingcrows]

domestic heavymedic art for a friend's birthday ^^

[kumzume]

glam ft. todoroki shotō [smhub]

wc. 2.8k :3

warnings. ownership, soft-ish!dom reader, edging, v v lowkey pet play (u call him bunny lol), quiet whiny shoto, begging, miss k*nk (?), slight humiliation k*nk, crying, um

an. SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG HOLY S WORD I HOPE ITS OK I DIDNT GET ANYONE TO BETA IT SO IF THERE ARE ISSUES M SO SORRY LOVE YALL TY FOR WAITING

▼・ᴥ・▼

shoto todoroki was so pretty.

it wasn’t like he wasn’t aware — he’d heard the whispers amongst the girls back at U.A. about how attractive he was. that didn’t keep him from believing those words, his insecurities gripping him so tightly that he was unable to even imagine that anyone found him remotely appealing.

that is, until he met you.

when you first transferred into 3-A, the class was thrown into an uproar. you were beautiful, kind, and funny with a powerful quirk to boot! and yet, you never believed that you were better than anyone else, always treating every single person with respect — even bakugou (shoto couldn’t even pretend to understand how you did it but still, the behavior was so undeniably you).

it was all of your remarkable traits that ended up being shoto’s downfall. he believed you were way out of his league — you deserved someone emotionally available and sweet, things that todoroki felt, no knew, he was not. besides, with every single guy in the nearest vicinity falling for you, he knew he didn’t even have a chance.

so, shoto resigned himself to observe you from afar, watching your interactions with his closest friends and classmates, wishing that he could make you smile as wide as kirishima and deku or laugh as hard as sero and denki.

he knew he didn’t measure up and while he tried to make himself okay with that, he felt jealousy bubbling up beneath his skin when he observed shinsou helping you with your homework or bakugou training with you after school.

of course, he realized he didn’t belong to you or you to him and he had no real reason to be envious of whoever you chose to spend your time with but that didn’t stop him from fucking his hand late at night at the thought of you hovering over him, pressing soft kisses to his mangled scar and calling him beautiful.

shoto came embarrassingly quick with that fantasy, the shame and disappointment overwhelming him to the point where he’d purposefully ignored you for days after.

he could tell you were hurt by his behavior — he wasn’t entirely oblivious — but he knew it was for the best. you deserved so much more than him.

the both of you graduated and moved on to your respective agencies, shoto swiftly making his way up to the number 2 spot while you sat comfortably at number 17. neither of you saw each other very often but when you did, conversation was stilted and a bit awkward due to the intense attraction and inability to act on it on shoto’s part.

shoto was willing to go the rest of his life like this; seeing you briefly in passing, stumbling through a discussion with much difficulty, and then returning to his penthouse to hump his pillow and cry out your name.

it was a pretty good system for the most part. shoto had no worries about ever having to face his feelings for you and was content to live out his days suppressing his inner turmoil just for you.

unfortunately, the universe hates him.

at least that’s what he told himself as he stood in the center of a boardroom next to you, clad in your hero outfits and listening to instructions on an upcoming mission that required you and shoto to work together. alone. for days at a time.

what the fuck.

to be honest, shoto completely tuned out the minute he heard “one bedroom,” his mind racing with all the horribly tempting ways his fantasies could play out.

by the time the meeting was over, he was hard in his pants and entirely distracted as you attempted to make friendly small talk about your mission. shoto sort of felt like he should apologize for being an absolute brick wall, giving you curt one word answers until you decided to leave him alone.

he felt bad but what else could he do when you stood there, wearing your obscene hero costume that revealed way too much of your skin?

well, shoto was being a little dramatic but that’s how he felt! your suit was a play on the playboy bunny costume but instead of being black leather (he thinks he would actually die if you wore leather in front of him), it was a white, lightweight fabric that helped with your quirk.

it was entirely too sexy and reminded him a little too much of one of his secret kinks that he was determined to never let see the light of day.

it was going to be ok! he reasoned. all he had to do was do his job, ignore you like he’s done for the past 3 years and everything would be just fine — right?

wrong. so fucking wrong.

the mission had gone well on all accounts. you both had kicked ass, much to your enjoyment, and were able to go back home a day early!

you were so excited to finally be back in your own bed and away from the weird tension that being around todoroki brought. it wasn’t that you didn’t like him — in fact it was quite the opposite.

you found shoto alluring and gorgeous, his awkward yet endearing mannerisms drawing you further into the mystery that was shoto todoroki. regrettably, it didn’t seem like the man in question was on the same page.

every time you tried to speak with him, he would either stutter and blush or refuse to look you in the eye and give you one-word answers. it was actually ridiculously cute but he would always disappear the first chance he got.

it hurt but you weren’t one to push boundaries where you weren’t wanted.

that’s why that night, instead of going back up to the room to watch tv (uncomfortably, might i add) and knocking yourself out, you decided to go down to the bar and celebrate a job well done.

one of the perks of being a relatively unknown hero was that you could enjoy a night in public without anyone approaching you, a luxury you knew not many top 20 heroes could afford.

with that thought — and the memory of the stifling hotel room awaiting you upstairs — in mind, you made your way to the sparsely populated bar, sitting down and immediately requesting a drink (bourbon, on the rocks).

you scanned the area, counting the number of exits and patrons before your eyes landed on the handsome bartender down at the other end of the counter.

with curly brown hair, bright green eyes and a smile that could kill, there was no way you could lie to yourself and say he was unattractive. even as your mind briefly entertained the notion of taking the brunette out into the alley and fucking him within an inch of his life, your heart just wasn’t in it.

your mind just couldn’t stop drifting to the tall, dual-haired, oh so pretty, man who was (inadvertently) waiting for you upstairs. of course, you weren’t even his to wait for but you didn’t know how to keep from imagining that he was.

a deep sigh escaped your parted lips before you downed the rest of your drink, wincing at the burn it left as it went down your throat. it was getting late and you weren’t planning on spending your night alone with the janitor.

you sent the cute bartender a soft smile while pressing a crisp $20 to the counter. he sent you his own grin back as his eyes trailed down your body clad in your tight hero suit, licking his plump lips in arousal.

you were flattered, truly, but you were a little occupied with getting back to your room, changing into some comfortable pajamas and conking the fuck out.

the trip back up to your room was long and arduous to your sore body, the elevators being out of commission leaving you to take the stairs.

by the time you were at your door, you were so worn out that you were ready to collapse but before you could manage placing your key against the lock, something caught your ear.

“p-please miss,” a breathy moan of your name followed by a wet slapping noise rang out through the door. “i’ll be your perfect bunny, just let m-me cum, please-!!”

holy fuck.

shoto todoroki, the man you’d been crushing on since your years at UA was now touching himself to the thought of you doing god know what to him and he was calling you miss?

you felt heat flood your core, your knees buckling under the heavy weight of your lust. now braced against the door, you leaned your ear against the wood, determined to hear exactly what was getting him off.

more wet noises permeated through the walls — did he just spit in his palm??? — before a long whine left his pretty pink lips.

“m-miss, i belong to you, y-you own me,” he gasped, the creaking of the bed just barely audible beneath his wavering voice.

by now, you knew you’d soaked through the crotch of your hero costume, your clit throbbing painfully beneath the fabric of your panties. you also knew you should turn around, head back to the bar and order another drink, leaving shoto to finish himself off but you couldn’t.

your feet were implanted in place, ear glued against the door as you listened to your partner masturbate to the thought of you owning him.

quietly, you lifted the hand gripping your key to the door, allowing the touchpad to register before slowly pushing the door open.

the sight that greeted you was otherworldly.

the blinds were parted allowing a dreamy haze of moonlight to envelop the room, casting the pale man before you in a somehow whimsical light.

he was stripped down to nothing, lying on his back with a hand wrapped around his gorgeous, swollen cock, furiously stroking himself to completion.

the plump lips that you had spent so much time admiring were parted, allowing whines and whimpers to leave them sporadically as his lithe hips bucked up into his hand.

shoto’s eyes were clenched shut so he was unable to see your dumbfounded, painfully aroused face as you crept into the room, leaning against the wall with your hand pressed to your mouth.

it wasn’t as though you’d never seen a man naked before — you’d had your fair share of men naked in your bed begging for you — but this was something else.

this was shoto — somehow more intimidating than anyone else you’d ever brought to bed and yet you’ve never wanted anyone more.

which is why you were almost surprised at yourself when you opened your mouth and whispered, “stop.”

immediately, shoto’s eyes shot open, wide with fear and apprehension as he lied there frozen, his hand still wrapped tightly around his girth.

the both of you stood there staring at one another, neither of you able to move. you let yourself have this moment to look at him, your eyes tracking all over his muscular form before landing on his length, not missing how it twitched under your gaze.

“i-“ shoto started but he was quickly interrupted by your own voice. “s’this what you do when i’m gone? touch yourself to the thought of me? you’re so dirty bunny.”

it was impossible to hide the low groan that echoed out in the hotel room, shoto’s cheeks burning red in humiliation. a grin crept across your face as you made your way towards him, giggling to yourself at the way he moved up and away from you on the bed.

“now you’re trying to hide, bunny? you weren’t hiding when you were moaning out my name.” your hand slid up his thigh until it was resting on his sharp hipbone, an abrupt gasp leaving his chest.

your hand continued its trajectory, fingers trailing across his tummy before coming to wrap around the base of his cock.

“o-oh fuck, miss—“ a thick drop of precum leaked from his slit and onto your awaiting hand as a low moan departed from the dual-haired boy.

one of his hands shot out to hold yours, drawing your attention to his heterochromatic gaze. shoto’s eyes held so much emotion, small tears already littering his lashline while the moonlight illuminated his crimson scar. he was ethereal.

“pretty,” you hummed, giving him a gentle smile while your hand squeezed his in reassurance. you’d had enough experience to know that that kind of comment was guaranteed to get some kind of vulnerability but what you were not expecting was the expletive shoto muttered before leaning forward to press his lips to yours.

immediately, he was over-enthusiastic, his lips and teeth clashing with yours messily, almost painfully, before you took control of the kiss, slowing shoto down before slipping your tongue inside his mouth.

his quiet groan vibrated into the kiss as you deliberately laid him down, resting his back against the pillows. from there, you had more access to his body, your lips trailing down to his neck while your hand took its place back on his length, lazily pumping him up and down.

“m-miss!” shoto choked, his eyes widening yet again, holding you with his stare. you chose not to respond, instead stroking him quicker while pressing kisses to his shoulder.

“miss,” he tried again, this time more deliberately. “p-please tell me i’m yours...”

with him asking so sweetly, a few tears leaking from his gorgeous eyes at the overwhelming moment, how were you supposed to deny him?

“of course bunny,” you purred, leaning down to peck his nose, sending shivers through his body. “you are mine.”

shoto’s reaction was instantaneous. his eyes rolled back in his head and his mouth dropped open as he felt his pleasure begin to crest, determined to push him over the edge.

you, of course, noticed his body’s response and quickly pulled your hand off of him, painfully ripping his orgasm from his grasp. a disappointed whimper resonated throughout the room as shoto’s eyes found yours, staring at you with such betrayal that you almost found it funny.

“c’mon bunny,” you moved until you were kneeling between his legs, your hands leaving featherlight touches to his inner thighs. “you can hold out for me, right?”

shoto nodded before he could stop himself, desperate for anything you would give him.

besides, it couldn’t be that hard to hold off, right?

...

wrong. so very wrong.

it had only been 30 minutes but it felt like 2 hours since you started playing with him and keeping him from coming.

shoto was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, both hands tangled in his bi-colored locks, eyes squeezed shut with tear tracks now drying on his cheeks and his cock standing fully at attention.

it was purple, throbbing, and covered in precum as you licked a stripe up the side making shoto sob in pleasure.

he had never been harder in his life and he was certain that he would just die if you didn’t let him cum soon.

“p-please, please, miss, please, let me cum,” he babbled, shaking his head mindlessly while bucking his hips up into the warm heat of your mouth.

you chose to ignore his pleas while you moved your mouth over his tip, sucking hard while your hand pumped what wasn’t in your mouth.

“a-ah-!!” shoto shrieked, his back bowing off the bed, his orgasm coming on so hard and so fast that he felt like he was going to explode. “c-can’t hold back m-miss, i can’t, i can’t!”

your hand continued to pick up speed before you pulled your mouth off of him, toying with his tip while leaning up to breathe into his ear.

“cum for me bunny. you’re mine.”

with a cry of your name, shoto came, thick spurts of cum covering his abs, chest and thighs as his body convulsed under the weight of his bliss.

it was the most all encompassing orgasm he’d ever had and you, his former classmate, current partner, and future lover, was beside him through it all, helping him ride it out.

in the back of his mind, shoto knew he should be at least a little worried about how your relationship was going to change after all of this but he couldn’t bring himself to care. you were here and now, bringing him the most pleasure he’d ever undergone with nothing but kind words and a smile, filling his touchstarved heart with heat and, dare he say it, love.

shoto may not have been the funniest or the most open but you chose him, even if it was just for the night. and now that he unlocked how much he loved you, nothing else mattered — just you and him.

as he collapsed back into the sheets, his head just barely registering the cool rag wiping him down, he took pride in how he finally admitted it to himself; shoto loved you and he would be damned if he let anyone else take him away from you.

now, all he had to do was tell you but that was a conversation for another day.

▼・ᴥ・▼

taglist. if your name is in bold, i cannot tag you!!

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[thecardsimagine]

The Tale of the Fog Village

Summary: Venturing out of your foggy village, all you wanted was to save everyone from the looming threat that cowered in the forest. No one could have known what you would encounter in your quest to achieve that, how much you’d gain, and what you would lose. Not you. Not him.

Pairing: Lucio x Reader (Nonbinary) Rating: Mature because of swearing and suggestive content Warning: Blood, Death Genre: Romance, Drama, Fantasy, Action, Alternate Universe

Back to the Prologue / [Read on Ao3] / Next Chapter

____________________________

a/n: So, here we go! Some conversation finally, yay! I hope yall like the chapter, let me know what you thought! :D ____________________________

Chapter 3 - Friend or Foe

“Right! - No wait, left! Or was it right?”

With a soft thud, you felt your shoulder ram into the bork of a tree, a painful sting hitting you. Whining softly, you held your arm in place, finally coming to a halt while you rubbed over it tentatively. Sweat was dripping from your forehead and the side of your face, and you felt more frustrated than ever, following a stupid voice’s orders which definitely weren’t entirely clear.

Taking a deep breath, you tried to calm yourself down. In the end, you had to admit that though it was more than strange, it did help you to escape the burning building and the strange guards that appeared, even if it wasn’t the most decisive creature in your opinion. There was, however, something direr than the thing speaking in your mind, though its existence maybe should have alarmed you more than it did at that moment.

You were exhausted.

From your very core, you felt like collapsing on the spot. It must have been well over twenty hours now that you had spent awake and on your feet, something you had never done before. Together with these ominous feelings all day long and the now vanishing adrenaline that had kept you up for the longest time, you were at your limits. While it felt like a second person was doing its thought process in your head, you slowly sank to your knees, sitting upright while your head hung low.

“Hey! What are you doing?” it immediately chimed up in the back of your mind, feeling like a push on the shoulder, but you couldn’t follow it. “You need to move forward, come on!”

“I-” you spoke up, shaking your head slowly. The exhaustion crept up on you, together with the fear and confusion that had been residing in you for a while now. “I can’t. I am at my strength’s end. I can’t do another step…” you admitted, arming yourself for the backlash of the strange voice.

“So… you’re just going to sit there? In the middle of the forest?”

You couldn’t help but feel attacked by the way it said that. For the whole day, you had overcome your boundaries and worked hard to get to where you were now, but it seemed to be not enough for the annoying voice in your head. Would you ever be free of nagging voices, you wondered. Even if you weren’t in the village, they seemed to stick to you like moths to a flame.

“But I don’t know where to go! I don’t even know how to get back!” you complained, more angry at yourself than anything. For a while, silence fell over you, and you felt painfully aware of your surroundings. Of the far-away chirping of birds, the explosion still drumming in your ears and the aching sore spots on your body that seemed to have given up already, pulsating and hurting. “What am I doing,” you muttered, leaning forward and resting your head on your crossed arms that shielded you from the ground.

“I went into the forbidden forest. I set a building in flames. I hear voices. Am I going mad?” you asked yourself, voice breaking from the strain on your body. “What have I done…” Finally, all the things you sorted under the sins of your life found their space in the currently empty state of mind. Aside from feeling terrible from being completely exhausted, you just found it so hard to swallow the things you had done. The exhausted part of your mind too had long decided that the voice was your own consciousness talking to you, even if you probably knew better than that from all the years of learning about strange occurrences.

“Is that really the time to have a breakdown?” the voice asked, a hint of annoyance in its tone.

“Oh, shut up, as if you’d know!” you hissed back at it, angry about its tactless words. Though quite immediately, you also felt a little bad for lashing out.

“Well… You want to destroy the factories, right?”

Sniffling, you leaned back up again, an odd feeling striking you as you listened to its words. “What do you mean ‘factories’? What are those? D-Does that mean there are there more than that building?” If you weren’t in such a bad mental state already, you’d actually feel more surprise about that fact coming up, but by now you barely felt the desperation in your voice as you asked the question.

“Yeah, two more. Ugly ones, if I might add.”

Another moment of silence followed and hung over the two of you like the fog did back at your village. You felt the blood draw from your face as you were very close to passing out. All of this was way too much on you. Just now you had destroyed what you thought was the thing threatening your village and in just a few words time, your victory shattered in more pieces than the glass you had thrown against the brick wall. “But- But-” you stammered, voice shaking from the disappointment over the whole situation. But before you could build a coherent sentence, you were harshly interrupted by the voice picking up again.

“Hey, hey, wait! Before you get all sentimental, how about we go and destroy the other two, too?”

Sniffing, you took a deep breath, roughly bringing your hands up to wipe your face off. You felt grimy and dirty from your expedition, which only weighed down more on your mood. Biting your lip, you felt the frustration rise more and more, even stronger than all the other feelings that were waging war inside of you. It wasn’t very surprising that your next words were packed in a tone of voice that was less friendly as you would have liked it to be.

“What do you mean ‘we’?! What are you even? I don’t understand any of this, there shouldn’t have been more! No one told me about more!”

You heard a groan vibrate in the back of your mind, sounding like a vague mixture of annoyance and disappointment. It almost felt like it was rolling its eyes at you, only making you angrier than you already were.

“Stop that, I could really need some answers!”

There was a disapproving click of a tongue before the voice spoke up again, spouting its words at you. “As if your little, primitive village had all the answers. You came here to find out what was going on, right? Let’s do that then, stop being such a sissy.” Needless to say, you had a hard time to overlook the insult on you. After all, you’ve been through, you did not like being called a ‘sissy’. You gave yourself the time to think for a while, coming to the conclusion that it had a point. You did come here to find out about this threat, and even though you more or less succeeded in that, you should have expected that maybe there was more to this than just a building that needed to be destroyed.

It was hard for you to admit that it was right, barely able to think at this point, but you nodded slowly, letting out some held back breath that got stuck in your lungs while you thought. “Yeah… I think I should,” you confessed. “But what if there are more guards? I- I can’t really do anything, and I don’t want to hurt anyone…” you admitted, feeling torn on having to face more of the heavily armored people.

“We’ll find a way. You shouldn’t concern yourself with thinking about that yet.”

“So you’ll help me?” you asked shyly, feeling your curiosity pick up again under the heaviness of your exhaustion.

“Of course! I will not pass up on the chance to make these men run back to where they came from! And you have proven yourself to be quite efficient in helping with achieving that, so get up and get a move on.”

Chuckling nervously, you raised a brow at that. It made you feel better, knowing you weren’t all alone, even if you weren’t sure about what that voice really was. It was good having someone to talk to, plus its determination somehow managed to lift your spirits too. “Do you know them?” you asked, picking the conversation up again.

“No, why would I? They are way below me.”

“Ah, yes…” you mumbled, heaving a heavy sigh. “What did you say you were again?”

For a second, it got uncomfortably silent in your head, wind rustling through the leaves and plants on the ground, while you rubbed your thighs in an attempt to wake them up. You wanted them, no, just for a little while more, you needed them to function. “I am…” it started up, stocking in the middle of its own sentence to find the right words.

“-someone like-minded.”

You laughed up softly at that, finding it to be a terrible description for oneself. Especially since it was a voice, in your head. You caught yourself reminding you that it may be just another part of your conscience telling you what to do. That would explain why it was so confusing, for sure, because that was mostly what you felt at that moment, too.

“Like a friend?” you teased weakly, testing some boundaries.

“I beg to differ. We are not friends, we only share the same goal. Once this is over, I don’t believe we’ll be talking to each other ever again.”

“Well, you are not an enemy for sure,” you stated, carefully trying to push yourself up with your arms as to support your weak legs.

“How do you know?”

“Enemies don’t help each other escape,” you noted nonchalantly, managing to get up a few inches before losing the strength again right away and falling back to the ground. Even though you enjoyed the breaks it took from talking - giving you some rest from the whole ordeal - as it wasn’t going to speak up again, you wondered if you had taken it too far. “I-I guess it’s like ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’?” you muttered, trying to sooth it.

“Exactly. Let’s get going.”

“I… can’t,” you admitted, finally feeling like it was the time to tell the voice about how weak you felt. Even though you found it embarrassing, you couldn’t really blame yourself after all the walking and running you had done that day. But your body had decided it would not move another inch and so you were almost ready to give yourself to your destiny of staying in that filthy spot if you must.

“Oh, no. You can.”

Suddenly, a harsh gust of wind hit all around you, outright blowing you out of your kneeling position. Before you could even take another breath, you found yourself standing, though it was on very shaky and unsteady legs. “Come, Child. There’s a bit of a hideout nearby. Wouldn’t want anyone to find your pretty face in such a vulnerable state, don’t we?”

You could feel the tips of your ears burning up as you listened to the words, but you didn’t have the time to linger on them as you felt the wind picking up again, ushering you into a direction. And you took the hint, following it without complains like you had trusted them before. Who’d you even complain to in the first place?

With the wind in your back, it felt almost easy to walk again. You were still heavily aware of how much your legs must despise you in that moment, but they worked. There was probably no way to ever tell them how grateful you were to them, but you promised them in silence that you’d give them a nice, warm bath if you ever made it back.

No matter if it was the voice in your head or the wind pushing you forward, you followed it. It was too dark to even confide in your own abilities to navigate, so you were thankful for the small pushes and curt warning they both offered to you. If it really was your own consciousness telling you where to go, you had to admit you were pretty good. Not once did you run into another tree or got stuck on a root on the ground. You probably wouldn’t have been able to get up if you had fallen once again, and in that case, you could have stayed back where you had seen yourself sleeping that night before.

“Is it still far?” you asked after a while in silence.

“Uh,” was the answer from the voice. “Uh?” you pressed on. “‘Uh’ is not really a unit to measure.”

There was a long, unnerved sigh. “No, it’s not far, it’s behind those trees.”

“Those?” You pointed at a random tree next to you, absolutely ready to take this joke as far as the voice wanted to challenge you to it. “Or this? Or this one? Maybe that one?”

“FINE!” it bellowed. It sounded like it took a deep breath and let it out. “It’s… hard to describe for me. But I know it’s there, just keep going, you are very close.”

“Let me guess,” you joked. “You can’t actually see further than what’s around me.”

Silence.

“Oh,” you noted. “Well, that’s fine… I think. Or?” There was a chuckle, but it didn’t sound conceded like you had might expected it would. If anything, you thought it actually sounded flustered and like it was overplaying something. “Afraid I might lead you into your doom?” the voice asked, giving back some of the teasings you had been doing.  

“I mean-” you spluttered. “Who knows?”

Another chuckle, though this one was amused if anything.

“Keep being so skeptical, that makes you cute.”

Bringing your hands up to your ears, you pinched them, hoping it would stop them from growing hotter and hotter from the unusual compliment. You just weren’t used to such attention, being more or less the loner of your age class in your village. “Eh… sure…” you muttered under your breath, going a little faster and hoping to reach whatever place you two were aiming for, fast. It wasn’t like the voice could have seen you turn red or anything, but you still felt embarrassed by how easy it was to throw you off.

Pushing away a bush that seemingly went out of path already but got stuck on your fingers, you focused your gaze forward. The wind slowly drifted out, leaving you to stand on your legs fully again, and almost immediately, they began to shake in response. Before you, a clearing opened up. You were greeted by the rushing of water, a sound you hadn’t heard before but which came unmissable from the waterfall reaching upwards in front of you. It was probably thanks to the voice that you hadn’t taken notice of the water, and the waterfall wasn’t all that high either and flowed calmly.

“Wow,” you muttered, gazing for the first time in your life at a waterfall and its pond. The clearing was surrounded by rocks, leading to a higher level in the forest, and with advances that seemed fitting for you to camp out under. “You like it?” the voice asked - sounding rather proudly.

The moon gave some shimmer to the water, and there were small plants with flower heads drifting on the surface. It almost seemed magically in a way that you couldn’t quite describe, but you were glad that you were able to see it. “Yeah, it’s beautiful,” you admitted freely, and the voice gave an approving hum to your words, a small, windy push making you take a step forward.

Though you found yourself to be hesitant after what all you had already experienced on clearance, you tried to be courageous again. You kept the thought of being able to sleep soon in the back of your mind, and it alone was the source of strength for moving on. Driving your hands along the rock wall close to you, you followed it until you were covered by the edge of the cliff over your head. There you let yourself slowly and as gracefully as possible sink down, being grateful for having your cloak which would keep you warm, even on the hard, cold, rocky ground.

“Are you happy now?” the voice asked, and you nodded subconsciously, a tired smile on your face.“That’s much better, thank you.”

You had already closed your eyes, all of your muscles letting go of the tension in them, melting into your makeshift bed. Your body at least was ready to sleep, but you kept yourself awake for a second more, something urgent on your mind before you could allow yourself to knock yourself out.

“Will you be there still when I wake up?” you asked the voice, not sure how you’d feel about losing the company you had made over the last hours. Admittedly, it had been quite rough between you two. An up and down on emotions and understanding. But it was still a little weird to wake up and just having to believe you imagined everything it told you.

“I am always there. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Chuckling, you took note of that, feeling like you really would not be able to get it off your conscience anytime soon. But you felt like it gave you the relief that you needed for your rest, and you let out a long, deep breath. “Good,” you noted. Eventually, you managed to fall asleep, a troubled night ahead of you.