#if you're seeing this twice my bad I may or may not have accidentally deleted this post while cleaning up my blog

[reiveon]

[the-s1lly-corner]

Seeing Kinger stuff is so nice gosh! Would it be cool to get the rest of the fluff alphabet with him please? Or if that's too much the ones you'd like to write about most

Kinger fluff alphabet! the whole thing!

two things one is more so one of my personal woe things unrelated to you but i deleted my masterlist immediately after finishing it because i didnt like the layout of it; 3 hours down the drain SOBS other thing! imma go ahead and link the other fluff alphabet stuff so its a complete list! actually third surprise thing, WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME I ACCIDENTALLY FORGOT TO PUT P IN THE FLUFF ALPHABET/lh/nm i fixed it now but i cant believe i skipped a letter i feel so dumb

ABSTRACT- if you were to ever abstract he would probably abstract himself. i mean if the things about queener/queenie are true and they were close, then that would mean this guy would lose a loved one TWICE. that would most definitely break someone, and kinger is already on the edge as it is. if he somehow doesnt abstract, he probably becomes even more paranoid; kind of shutting everyone out almost because he sure as hell knows he cant take a third heartbreak. rarely ever leaves his pillow fort, unless hes physically dragged out? sometimes he forgets you're gone, because he just refuses to believe the truth. sad stuff

BONDING- will rattle on and on about cool bug facts, if he has his own collection in his room he will show you it! maybe, if you want, he will let you hold some of the critters! tells a lot of stories, nicer ones from when things in the circus arent so... bad.. usually when hes in a good headspace! you get the feeling he embellishes his stories... not too different from a grandfather trying to make his experiences seem more glamorous and action packed than they really were

CUDDLING- he is very hard, due to him being a chess piece, but his clothes do a really good job at softening him! no arms :(... usually rests his hands on your back, or maybe has one on your shoulder and the other on your hip. switches between being big and little spoon, sometimes he wants to hold and sometimes he wants to be held

DATES- you can find them here!

EMOTION- kinger is... odd... im not sure where he lies, because i think sometimes he does have moments where he remembers thing and it overwhelms him, so that may be the main time hes the emotional one. however, i guess this entire time for emotional ive been focusing on more.. 'bad' emotions, but i think kinger would gush about how much he loves you, like WOAH! he is just overflowing with feelings right now

FAMILY- honestly he gives me dad vibes, if this dude doesnt already have kids in the real world (wow thats a sad thought... dude is like MIA probably and his kids are left to wonder where he went. double owie if queener/queenie was his real life wife before things happened) so if you guys make it back to the real world and unite, you're gonna be a step parent! would he like to have more kids with you? i think it depends, he would want it, though!

GIFT- you know how some people put bugs in like, cases to preserve them or something? i feel like he would give you those with some of his prettier bugs! loves anything you give him, he always keeps them stored safe in his room!

HARSH- you guys dont really get into arguments, i dont think! kinger doesnt like hiding things from you unless its something deeply personal, but otherwise hes an open book to you

IN HOUSE ADVENTURE- here!

JEALOUSY- its not so much as him being jealous as it is him being paranoid that something is going to happen to him or you, so! even if he wasnt worrying himself half to death he doesnt exactly seem like the jealous type to me, tbh

KISS- its time for my favorite thing for characters with no mouth!!! he boinks his face into yours, i actually wrote something for this! not gonna link it since its so short and i can easily relay the idea: but he would internally hype himself up (usually does this if this is the beginning of the relationship, he gets more confident as time goes on!), and just lightly 'pecks' your cheek before pulling away. loves kissing your cheeks as well as the back of your hands. loves being kisses where his mouth would be as well as his cheeks

LOVE LANGUAGE- quality time!! this man follows you around like a love sick puppy, because he loves you so much but also because again, he worries.. he also likes doing acts of service for you, makes him feel like hes capable of doing things on his own (which he is!). loves it when you return the favor via words of affirmation

MENDED- is he dreaming? is he imagining things again?

nope, its really you. somehow, you've recovered from abstracting, and you're now out of the cellar. he wants to hold you and never ever ever let you go, out of fear that hes going to come to his senses any second and youll be gone. wants to keep you in the pillow fort with him, or at least within his line of sight

NO- its less of an active dealbreaker and more of a "hey this is going to stress him out and probably hurt his mental health" but like, i dont think he would pair well with a really really intense person. like sure caien is pretty intense, but its not like caine is going to be spending a significant amount of time with him everyday, but like. you know? like i talk about some characters enjoying being on their toes and left guessing in regards to their partner, but kinger is NOT one of those people. he needs stability

PDA- less of a case where he actively and knowingly indulges in PDA and more so a case where he subconsciously holds onto your hand to keep you at arms length and to feel you. due to his lack of arms he has probably wandered off without you (and his hand) at least once. is not opposed to PDA, though, so long as its not like. insane

QUIET TIME- quiet time between the two of you is very rare. sure kinger can be very quiet when hes alone, but when hes alone with someone else, someone he cares so much about.. he cant help but fill the silence with words, to keep the ringing in his ears at bay .. so really quiet time is talking time

ROSES- ill mention it again in V (i wrote v before this section), he loves giving you roses especially on special occations! loves receiving flowers as well, he seems like a rose kind of guy as well

SHH- the one thing he doesnt like talking about is queener/queenie, well, more so the last few days leading up to her abstraction. it brings up. well, memories. on one hand he doesnt want to forget her, but on the other hand he doesnt want to bare the pain of those terrible memories

TUNES- THIS THIS THIS THIS ONE ALWAYS COME TO MY HEAD WHEN I THINK OF ROMANTIC HCS FOR SWEETIDEAS FOR OLDER GUYS IDK WHY

UPSET- im going back and forth with a lot of these as i fill in the list so! tying this in with E, i mention one of the only times he gets emotional is when he remembers some unfortunate events that took place in the circus. you're going to need to console him and bring him back to the present moment :(. when you're upset he tries to distract you, takes you to his fort, and tells you stories

VALENTINE- on the chance that he remembers what day it is, hes going to give you the most sterotypical date he can give to you. i think it might be because i can kind of see kinger as like, a classic/stereotypical romantic when it comes to you. flowers, he cant take you out to dinner so he takes you out to the digital lake to gaze at the clouds and watch the bugs pass

WANT- he wants a companion, he wants stability, and thats something he needs. he wants someone to be compassionate about him, his wellbeing, and his interests

XOXO- here! as well as Yearn!

ZZZ- if you guys go to sleep together its always in his room, where hes more comfortable. he also has a thing where he insists on being the one closer to the door; almost as if hes offering himself as protection to you should someone unwanted to come in. huh. always sleep holding onto you, snores like a dad

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

That was my mistake, my source was basically just the overall atmosphere of the first chapters of Elysian Realm and how she was referred to as a traitor. Thank you for correcting me I did not mean to spread misinformation

Apology accepted! It's alright, you just got a bit carried away at the end of the day, but it's good to remember that most folks won't question "facts" if they have no prior reason to doubt them. We can't count on others to fact-check. Spreading speculation as fact is unfortunately VERY VERY EASY even when we don't mean to!

Adding stuff like "I think" or "My guess is" helps tamper credibility a little bit (though it's not anywhere near foolproof with word of mouth quoting instead of linking...). What I often do is that I go back and look for my sources mid-rant to make sure I'm not making anything up from half-remembered blurbs, when it's my own post I'll even add proof in the form of quotes or references.

Obviously there's no need to always go that far, no one wants fifty asterisks in your ask to source every statement and it's not too serious when it's just a fictional character, but do pay extra attention if you're talking about an actual person. Speculating about a fictional character ultimately just results in grumpy fans (usually). Making shit up about a stranger can have harsh consequences! Keep speculation to an absolute minimum there, even if they have rancid vibes, okay?

Keep in mind also, when you don't like the character (or person), you will subconsciously paint them in a less favorable light. Even neutral or kind acts may seem bad from a certain angle. They're just helping this grandma cross the street to make themself look better!

The inverse is also true, we will be inclined to trust and agree with people if they go along with what we already believe, like or feel is right. Everyone's point of view in the world is subjective, we will see what we want to see if we're not thinking things through, and gravitate towards an echo chamber that reinforces existing beliefs.

To circle back to the original point, you sent someone who hates Elysia information that made her out to be originally written as murderously narcissistic (admittedly less boring than what we got) which was not founded on actual facts, but very difficult to verify since it's scrapped content. Now, I know that this was an accident, a mistake on your part. That's okay! However.

Some people exploit this implicit trust maliciously for their own ends (like trying to cancel someone, or a character/ship they don't like). These people know that if they sound like they know their stuff, an audience won't think twice about it, all they need is a platform to spread their ideas even with no basis.

For example... they can send an anon ask to a relatively well-known blogger. They know they can even make themself sound innocent from planting the idea by asking it as a question. As long as people hear it, it doesn't matter if it's true in the slightest.

My point is, I will believe you in particular just made a mistake, but from what @cloud-ya's told me, there was an ask in her inbox doing that exact thing to the extreme. Specifically bringing up wild speculation about what Elysia would think of real-world events, framed in such a way as to make her sound like a terrible person. Elysia is a fictional character, she doesn't have opinions, any speculation thereof is projected onto her according to your own personal agenda.

Needless to say that's not appropriate in the slightest and highly manipulative. Deleted immediately. Asks like these should never see the light of day!

So, let us take it as a warning both for folks like you who send their thoughts, and folks like me who receive them, that we can all accidentally contribute to hatred and misinformation, even if it's an accident...

Let's keep everyone safe by paying attention to what we platform!

[rururuku-scribbles]

The Proof is In the Prompting

So, remember what I said in my previous post about how the images in question illustrated something about the impact things do (and don't) have in an image prompt? Here's an explanation of what I was talking about with that. Plenty of other people have talked about how some of the common negative prompting that people enter ("bad anatomy, extra fingers, poorly drawn face, ugly, distorted," etc) involves a significant amount of magical thinking- that, because of how most widely available ai art generators are built on top of the snapshot-of-the-whole-internet Common Crawl data and the way those images were labeled, telling the AI to exclude bad hand anatomy or whatnot doesn't reliably get it to not generate wonky hands. The same goes for some common positive prompting, like "trending on artstation".

But, what if I told you that prompting the AI to draw in the style of a living artist is also often just wishful thinking? The image on the left has 'by greg rutkowski' as part of its prompt- Playground automatically appends that (as well as 'trending on artstation, sharp focus, studio photo, intricate details, highly detailed') to the end of your prompt when you create an image using the 'Delicate Detail' style. The image on the right was generated from the same seed, same prompt (including the 'trending on artstation, sharp focus...' part), with the only thing changed being that it was created with no style applied and with 'by greg rutkowski' removed. They're not identical, but they're close enough to be recognizably variations of the same picture, and if they're not in exactly the same style, they're very close.

As a control, this pair of images are from me accidentally running the exact same seed and prompt twice- there's a tiny bit of variation, but it's easy to miss if you're not looking for it and depending on your visual acuity and the size of the screen you're seeing this on, it might not be visible even if you are looking.

And here's the reason why I ended up accidentally duplicating a generation- the image on the right is where I accidentally deleted my negative prompts. Still has the 'by greg rutkowski', though! You can still see that it's a variation of the same picture (/generated from the same seed), but the difference is much greater than with the presence or absence of prompting for a named artist. (Very possibly it could be considered a stylistic difference, but I don't have the technical vocabulary/art school background to be confident about that.)

So, what's the point here? What's the takeaway, what did I learn from these mis-gens? First, naming an artist in a prompt doesn't necessarily affect the end results all that much. For very widely reproduced/riffed on/repeatedly included artists like Van Gogh, Caravaggio, or any of the other 'Masters' and big influential names you get taught about in art classes, sure, you get a demonstrable difference, but while Greg Rutkowski has potentially valid reason to be upset about people prompting AIs using his name, it doesn't actually do as much as the people prompting probably were thinking it does. Without directly going image-to-image or being specifically trained on a particular artist's works, AI (or at least, Stable Diffusion/SDXL and its descendants) isn't capable of replicating the style of most random living artists, because it doesn't 'know' what their style is in the first place.

Second- those negative prompts may not do exactly what they say that they're doing, but they sure are doing something. Excluding them there may have been an accident, but I might want to noodle around with doing it on purpose sometimes just to see what happens.

[galahadwilder]

We Are Miraculous, Ch. 3: Assemble

This chapter was sponsored by @thecorruptedhuman. Sponsor a fic chapter here!

We Are Miraculous Archive

With thanks to @alexseanchai and @paganinpurple

*

This may well be the worst morning of Adrien Agreste’s life. And he's had a lot of bad mornings.

His hands haven��t shaken this badly since the day he realized his mother wasn’t coming back. Every single sense is cranked up to twelve: he can feel every itchy, excruciating fiber of the clothes against his skin, the babble of the classroom and the whine of the fans in every electronic device assaults his ears, every blinking light tries to snatch his attention. He’s on the verge of another of what his mother always called his “episodes” in an exasperated tone—there’s a brief memory of her tearing up, asking if he can’t just once not overreact to such inconsequential things. He still doesn’t understand why it’s so hard for him to control. And his father refuses to acknowledge it.

Caron Questions Hero’s Qualifications After Shocking Confession from Ladybug

Adrien wants to scream. He wants to vomit. He knows that, right now, his Lady is seeing the same headline he is. He knows that, despite her incredible strength, there are places where she is fragile. He knows that right now she must be breaking. She needs him, she needs him and he can’t get to her, and everything’s too loud and too close.

Marinette is okay at least, Alya is taking care of her. Adrien wishes he could have helped but right now he’s an upside-down remote control car, wheels spinning uselessly in the air as he rocks in the mud. He hugs his chest, holding onto his biceps—he's rocking slightly in his chair, trying not to lose control. You're better than this, he thinks, in a voice that sounds very much like his mother's, trying to help him past an episode. You're stronger than this. You're not gonna get overwhelmed—

"Adrien," Nino says, very softly. It layers on top of everything else, but thinly, barely a push on top of all the rest of the things screaming for his attention. Adrien turns his head, looks at Nino's collarbones—can't meet his eyes right now. Too hard. Too—Adrien doesn't know the word.

Nino is holding a mechanical pencil; Adrien's not quite sure where he got it, he doesn't use them. He quickly and calmly disassembles it, laying the pieces out in front of Adrien.

Adrien blinks, and then his hands reach out and twist the top of the pencil back onto the body, and all of the lights and noises assaulting his senses begin to quiet down. He slides the eraser tube back into the pencil. The buzzing from the overhead lights is still there, but he can push it back now, ignore it. He can hear Madame Bustier's lecture again without it being garbled.

He clicks the pencil once, twice, three times, then pushes the lead back in so it's short enough not to snap when he writes. How did you know that would work? he scribbles on the edge of his notebook, not even bothering to put in the (usually painful) effort it takes to make his handwriting legible, much less the "elegance expected of an Agreste."

Miraculously, somehow, Nino can read it. He snaps the cap of his pen back and forth with his thumb, then scratches out a message on his own notebook—Chris does the same thing.

Adrien nods and tries to hand the pencil back to Nino, but Nino shakes his head, pushing it back. "You gotta fidget," he whispers.

Adrien takes the pencil back, confused; but by the time class lets out for lunch and he's disassembled and reassembled the pencil enough times that he's lost track of the number, he thinks he might be starting to understand.

*

"Hey Lila?" Alya says as they're getting up for lunch. "Uh... what happened to your hair?"

Adrien—along with the rest of the class—turns to look, but he can't see what Alya's talking about; Lila's hair looks pretty normal to him. Everyone else in the class looks confused too.

Lila reaches up to paws desperately at her scalp. "No, no, no," she whispers. "Alya, is there something in my hair?"

Alya blinks. "Oh, um, no, it's nothing!" she giggles. "Looks nice."

Adrien can't quite tell if she's being sarcastic. He suspects it, yeah, but anyway that's not important right now.

"Nino," he says as he stuffs his backpack, "I've got something kind of urgent I gotta do for the next few minutes. I'll meet you in the park in ten?"

Nino tilts his head, pursing his lip. "Yeah, sure," he says, mercifully not asking what it is that Adrien is doing, which is good because he hadn't planned out a lie and he's not great at coming up with them on the spot.

*

On the roof of the school, Chat Noir paces, staring at the screen of his baton-phone. Is now a bad time to call? What if she's mad at him for it? What if she hasn't seen the headline yet and he causes a panic attack?

He presses call.

"Kitty?" Her voice comes through the speakers clear as magic, high and soft and calm, and his lungs unwind from where they've tightened themselves around his heart, finally allowing him to breath again. "You okay?"

He slumps against the roof access door. "Actually, I was gonna ask you that," he says. "I, um, I saw the..."

Ladybug sighs. "The op-ed."

"Yeah." He licks his lips. "I'm—I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you. When, you know, when you saw it. This morning."

"Oh, Chaton," she says with a sad chuckle. "I know." He hears her snort. "I know you'd have been there if you knew who I was, but—"

"You two should kiss!" shouts another voice from the same line, much quieter and much farther away.

"Shut up, Rena!" Ladybug giggles.

Chat straightens at the sound of her laugh. "You're not alone," he says, smiling.

"Yeah," Ladybug says. "I... kind of accidentally blew my identity to Rena last night, so she found me this morning as soon as the article came out. Took care of me for a bit."

Chat's chest falls. "Oh," he says. "That's... that's good." He's glad she had somebody with her, but...

Evidently she hears the hurt in his voice."You know I would've told you first if I thought it was safe," she says. "If it had been intentional—"

There's jostling on the other end of the line, a quick give me that and a hands off before Rena's voice is coming out of the speaker. "I only found out by accident," she says. "And a little detective work. Can confirm, she didn't mean for it to happen."

Chat's ribcage loosens a bit again. "Oh," he says.

"If I'd had a choice it would've been you!" he hears Ladybug call towards the phone, and his heart leaps.

"Listen," Rena says. "I have an idea. Do you know where the Lycée François Dupont is? Ground zero for Horrificator, Reflekta, and Zombizou?"

Chat raises an eyebrow and looks down at that very school under his feet. "I'm... familiar, yeah," he says.

"Meet us on the roof after school lets out," Rena says. "We've got a message for Caron and we need you to help us deliver it."

"Yeah?" Chat says, rising to his feet.

"Yeah," Rena says. "No matter what: we stand with Ladybug."

We Are Miraculous Archive

Enjoy my writing? Buy me a coffee!

@not-a-welcome-matt @depressed–and–underdressed @peregrer@me4ml @bighgbrother @sparklyaxolotlstudent @mewwitch @tinyterror333 @themacbethslayer @callmequoteman @boopboopitydoop @adashofaroace @lexysama @tourettesservicedog @fandoms-are-for-always @valentine1604 @whimsicallyconfusedforlife @happymonster-pants @mysticsoulgirl @lunab00 @weirdflyingpotato @ariana-the-fangirl @unsung-knight @absolutelycoathangered @melicmusicmagic @happymonster-pants @junipernight @miraculousl4dybug @not-a-welcome-matt @alyas-ladyblog @angelofthequeers @whatsdisshiz @random-blog-i-cant-delete @aerequets @yin-390 @zebrabaker @thecorruptedhuman

[seelestia]

the butterfly has arrived safely <3 <3

yeppp..... i mean in the end i managed to rewrite it.... at least it's just a 600-700 words drabble i guess? it could be worse ;w;

it does sound like it would make the perfect breakfast paired with sandwiches hehe something decadent to start your day!! oh dear, i hope you're okay ;;;; but... but coffee is so good.... i mean i guess it's more bitter than tea but like. a good brew tastes like a nice-and-tasty kinda bitter!!!

yesyes hehe it was an experience alright. sjldjfklshdf everyone has been saying that and i am. so. excited. hahahah

oh lord.... time to max out electroculus and dendroculus huh? i pray for you.... isn't sumeru's total land size twice or thrice inazuma? 👀

artifact farming sounds like it would be a productive activity while the story takes a backseat! you can do it!! may the rng gods bless you <3 50/208 oh my god you're a chronic simp

yesyesyes!!! it's so nice to see the varieties in genshinblr hhhh i am constantly just in awe at the other writers... how are yall so good and talented aaaaaa and i am sure it would turn out great!!!! and hey, at the end of the day, it's good writing practice :3

let us put on our aviator sunglasses to combat the blindingness that is our husbands slkjdflskjdf

your puppy eyes + the turtles + the actual puppies' will be the downfall of ayato lol 

now then, go forth spirit puppy, deliver my mail to your brethren!! 💌🐾

i love how my messenger is a butterfly and yours is puppies... something is oddly flipped here. (/j) AND TRUE 😭 this is why i only write on google docs because i'm scared that tumblr won't save my progress or my finger slips and delete my tab. at least, google docs has an automatic save feature that doesn't require you to manually save it <//3

i'm indeed a good option to consider if you want to have picnics, hehe~ sandwiches with chicken slices are my beloved. (/lh) and no worries, headaches from caffeine are nothing i can't handle. i think i'll just stick to my cocoa latte order from now on 😭

I SAW THAT YOU ALREADY MET FERAL HAITHAM. iirc, alhaitham's jp va is umehara yuichiro (vv deep voice), so that azar scene must've been a joy to watch 🤫 that scribe should get an oscar, my gosh, his acting was fr smth else. also, i really loved his interaction with kaveh + at the end of the quest, where he was like "oop, i accidentally brought two keys with me today... heh." (kaveh is sleeping outside /j)

the electroculus search is still ongoing and i fear for my life in sumeru... hoyoverse really likes underground places, huh (i'm suffering here) 😭 mhm, i'm trying to build my c1 mona by alternating between the noblesse oblige and the severed emblem! rng is painful, but at least, i got to use all my resin. (i thank your hubby, zhongli for ensuring my team's survival with his mega shield and burst DMG i finally got the catch to r5!)

unfortunately, my dear cousin, i shall take the "chronic simp" title with open arms. it's now 60/208, apparently and OH, i saw some leaks that said ayato is going to rerun with ei on v3.3's 2nd phase! the sigh of relief i let out, HELP. but i fear for you, rin jie... childe is coming soon, scara is coming soon, and ayato is coming soon... who shall be your choice? I'M SCARED FOR YOU FHJEDK

hehe, the fic is still in the works~ i still haven't decided whether it should be simple or more story-driven and i feel bad for it — but ik that you'd tell me to take my time, so i'll try! i really loved the one with husband!zhongli and baby!xiao, hehe (the way baby xiao was like "birds. birds!") <3

[flatsuke]

are requests still open? :D I would like to request for a Keisuke Shijo fluff/nsfw (*´꒳`*) he's from Liar! Office deception(: he's such a babe but there's currently no fanfic for him yet coz.. he's pretty new? If you haven't played the game yet, then I would like to request for a eisuke/ota fluff(*´꒳`*). Thank you! You're an amazing writer(: all the best💜

Hi anon! Unfortunately, I haven’t played Liar yet, so I chose to write some Eisuke fluff instead (I hope you don’t mind). Thank you for the compliment and I hope you like this ^^!

Title: tête-à-tête

Summary: Eisuke can’t keep his eyes to himself, while she makes a mistake that’d seemingly jeopardize her. It doesn’t.

Genre:  Fluff, Romance

Pairing:  MC/Eisuke

a/n: this fic is based on this post i made a while back lmao. i’m kinda proud of turning a shitpost into an actual fic :’) also, eisuke and mc are dorks.

@maidofstars @2bedroom-baddestbidderlove @bolt8826

@ada254 (THANK YOU FOR YOUR IDEAS IN THE TAGS!!)

“This is a pain,” Luke said, moping. “I came all the wayhere only to find out MC isn’t here yet.”

“You do know that you’re required to be here for auctionmeetings, right?” Eisuke sipped his coffee, not even bothering to hide hisdispleasure at his own tasteless brew.

“There’s no point in being here if I don’t get to see hermagnificent collarbones today…”

“Aaand there he goes again,” Ota commented.

True enough, the penthouse wasn’t as lively as it ought tobe with MC absent. Eisuke could feel his mood quickly dampening at the taste ofcoffee that wasn’t hers. He had half a mind to page her just to salvage histaste buds, but he had to restrain himself. She worked herself to the boneyesterday, and was feeling a bit guilty.

“Well, collarbones aside, MC really is cute, huh?” Babaadded.

Eisuke felt a stinging pain in his mouth, only to realize hebit his tongue at Baba’s statement.

“Aw, come on, guys. Don’t look at me like that. Are yousaying you all seriously haven’tthought that at least once?”

The room grew a bit silent at the thief’s retort, and Eisukefound himself musing on it. Baba wasn’t wrong in the least. She was very easy on the eyes, what with the wayshe smiled at him and carried herself around him. She wore the maid’s uniformalmost every single day, but he wasn’t a fool not to see that she was hidingsomething special underneath all that. He’d be a blind idiot to thinkotherwise—not that he’d ever admit it out loud, though.

“I guess she has nice legs,” Mamoru said, taking anotherdrag.

The thought of MC diligently cleaning the room, clad in herfitted, work-prescribed stockings conjured not-so-innocent images in Eisuke’smind.

“Oh, so you’ve got a thing for legs now, Mamo?” Ota teasedback.

“Shut up. You see ‘em just as much as I do.”

Her bending down,looking for something underneath a couch, her rear facing me—

“Boss?”

Baba’s voice shook Eisuke from hisdefinitely-not-work-related trance, and Eisuke had to hide his irritation, lestthe others have an inkling of his definitely-not-work-related thoughts.

“You’re oddly quiet today,” Baba noted, the smile neverleaving his face.

“Unlike some people, I have better things to think about.” Says the man thinking about her bent over.

“Really, Eisuke? We all know you think she’s cute, so don’tbother hiding it,” Ota added smugly.

“Whatever.” Like hellI’m telling you that.

Not long after, they heard a soft knock from the door, andsure enough, she had arrived for the day’s cleaning. The others stared at heras if they had seen a ghost, but she could only look back at them curiously.

Talk about bad timing—

“Uh, is there something going on?” she asked tentatively.

“Nothing you should concern yourself with, MC!” Babachirped. “Don’t worry your pretty little mind about us.”

“Okay…” She didn’t look convinced, but she started cleaninganyway.

Try as he might, Eisuke couldn’t keep his eyes off her evenif he wanted to. Either Baba’s comment got to him, or he was starting to losehis wits.

Either way, he had to admit, there was one thing thatbothered him about Baba’s comment.

She’s definitely morethan just cute.

That night, Eisuke plopped down on his bed. It had been along day full of meetings that seemed to drone on and on, and he wanted nothingmore than to just sleep his troubles away. He unbuttoned the topmost buttons ofhis shirt before letting out a sigh.

This bed’s way too bigfor just one person.

Not that he wanted a smaller bed, but lately, he wasstarting to feel something every timehe saw the cold, empty side of his bed.

Without warning, the image of MC, immaculately sprawled on his bed, dressed in nothing but his shirt, appeared in his mind. Ashiver went down his spine before he begrudgingly realized that he should not be thinking those sorts of thingsabout his employee, of all people. Ugh, Baba’s rubbing off on me.

His phone buzzed next to him, and he scowled at the sound.Whoever the hell wanted to disturb him at this ungodly hour was about to get apiece of his mind. He was about to send the interloper a scathing reply when hesaw MC’s name on the screen.

Strange. He couldn’t remember the last time she texted himfor anything. Most of the time, their form of communication consisted of himpaging her, or the occasional call from him. She never initiated contact, asfar as he could recall. If he was being completely honest, it disheartened him.

Curious, he opened her message only to be met with asurprise.

“Holy shit. Holy fuckingshit.”

The “message” she had sent him wasn’t a work-related text oran innocent greeting. No, her message was the farthest thing from innocent—it was a picture of her in front ofher bathroom mirror, wearing nothing but lacy lingerie that left nothing to theimagination.

He had to refresh the message twice just to make sure itreally was her, and not some fantasy conjured by his overworked mind. No matterhow much he re-opened it, all he could see was her, clad in a lacy black bikiniset he never would’ve thought she’d dare to wear. Who knew that under her maid’suniform and her quiet countenance was a stunning body and an even bolderspirit? Mamoru may have called her a kid all the time, but the cop was a blindfool as far as Eisuke was concerned.

The real stinger was the caption that came with the photo:

[Do I look good inthis :) ?]

Good god, she’s goingto be the death of me.

Why the hell would she send him this? It feltout-of-character for someone as shy as she was, but he couldn’t find himself disappointedat the situation. In fact, if he had to say, he was almost…ecstatic, even. If this was her way coming on to him, then Eisuke wasn’tcomplaining anytime soon.

Nevertheless, he was still her boss. The rational side ofhim urged him to delete the photo and erase everything from his memory.

But, goddamn it, you’vewaited so long for an opportunity, and it looks like she made the first move.

That was also true. God knows how many lonely nights he’dspend with only his right hand as company and images of her lost in the throesof pleasure. He’d die before saying it out loud, but nothing save for her her seemed to excite him anymore. Thecompany of other women did nothing to rouse his blood, but even her mostmundane gesture sent him into a spiral of dwindling self-control.

He stared at the photo one last time. Maybe this was hisreward for months of sleeping alone. If there was a god out there, then damn,maybe he’d start praying if this was what faith got him.

Tomorrow, he’d confront her about it. For now, he desperatelyneeded a cold—no—freezing shower torelieve him of the uncomfortable tightness in his pants.

I’m seriously going tolose my mind.

Impatient as he was, Eisuke couldn’t wait for the next dayto come. He paged MC up to his office as soon as soon as he arrived thatmorning. If he was anxious or excited, he couldn’t tell at this point; all hewanted was to see MC as soon as possible. He even prepared some wine for themto hopefully get the message across.

He heard her knock on the door and beckoned her to come in. Eisukeschooled his most neutral expression while she looked adorably flustered,fiddling with the hem of her uniform.

“MC, you know why I called you in here, right?” he askedher, pouring some wine to appear casual.

She gulped before answering him.

“Is it because I accidentally sent you my nudes…?”

…What?

He froze and stopped pouring the moment he processed herwords.

“…Accidentally?” Thewords were ringing in his head as she nodded back at him. Suddenly, he wantednothing more than the ground to swallow him up and erase this memory from existence.

For a while, they both remained in painful silence. Theawkwardness was so palpable that Eisuke wondered if she wanted to hide in ahole as much as he did. Her unabashed blush seemed to indicate it.

But wait a minute, he thought. If she sent him the pictureby mistake, then that meant someone elsewas meant to receive it. As far as he could remember, she wasn’t dating anyoneat the moment.

Or was she? Shecould very well be dating one of the other auction managers right now and hewould be none the wiser.

He felt a pang of white-hot fury at the thought of one ofthem raking their eyes all over her, pressing their lips on her smooth skin,savoring the cries from her lips and—

“Mr. Ichinomiya,” she said, looking away from him. “Just…pleaseforget this ever happened. It was a complete accident, and I swear this’llnever happen again—“

“Who did you mean to send it to?”

“E—excuse me?”

“Just answer the question.” For my peace of mind.

She was still blushing, but she forced herself to speakanyway.

“…Look, I don’t know why youhave to know, but my friend gave me some lingerie as a birthday present, andshe wanted me to send her a picture to show that it fit me. Your name justhappened to be next to hers on my contact list, so…”

Eisuke inwardly let out a sigh of relief. If it had beensome cretin, god knows what he would’ve done.

“Sir, I really think you should just delete the photo andpretend this never happened.”

True, he probably should. If he were a good boss and apolite gentleman, he’d delete the photo to save them both the potential trouble(not to mention awkwardness) in the future. Then they could both resume theirlives as if nothing happened.

The only problem was he was neither of those things.

“How about this instead?” Eisuke suggested. “It’d be unfairto you if you were the only one in a compromising position. I’ll be sure toreturn the favor, then we’ll be even. Deal?”

“I really don’t understand…”

“You’ll see soon enough.” Eisuke took a long sip of his wine,easing his earlier tension.

“By the way, you didn’t look half-bad.”

If she was blushing a while ago, then she was positivelybeet red now.

“Oh, um, thank you…”

She left his office after giving a hurried bow, and Eisukecould only smirk at how his plan would come to fruition very soon.

That night, MC plopped on her own bed, dead tired from theday’s events. Today was absolutely mortifying,to say the least. She really hadn’t meant to send him the godforsaken photo,and she thought she had sealed her doom the moment she realized she sent it to Mr. Ichinomiya, of all people.

God, I really thoughtI was gonna die back there.

But the look on his face when she told him it was an accident—itwas the same look he’d always have whenever he drank someone else’s coffee. Itwas the look he had whenever he’d try to pet an animal, only to have it claw athim in retaliation.

It was, dare she say it, disappointment.

Come on. Like he’d bedisappointed by something like that.

And yet, the look on his face when she told him the picturewas meant for a friend—it was undeniably relief.

She didn’t know what to believe anymore, and there was afluttering in her stomach she couldn’t shake off. It only grew worse when sheremembered his earlier compliment.

Get it together, MC!He’s your boss, for crying out loud.

Her phone buzzed, and she picked it up only to see that Mr.Ichinomiya sent her a text.

After what happened, she could only feel apprehension atwhat was to come. Surely, he was going to fire her after today. God, now she neededto look for a new job, too. Great.

Shakily, her finger swiped the phone screen to open themessage.

“…What is this?”

The room suddenly became very warm, and all the blood rushedto her cheeks the moment the screen changed.

It wasn’t a brief text, but rather, a picture of himself. Hewas standing in front of his own bathroom mirror wearing only his blackboxer-briefs, giving her a delicious, unadulterated view of his lean, chiseledbuild. She had to gulp at the distinct V-line that ran down his hips and into…that place.

There was a caption that came along with the photo, and MChad to blink twice to make sure she wasn’t seeing things:

[Now we’re even. Belatedhappy birthday ;)]

Facing him tomorrow was going to be one hell of a task.