#is complicated but.. seen this before.. is till be dark times before stuff get back to normal..but hope no one forgets it happened..

[visionthefox]

Im gonna say this.. I been in fandoms since 2015.. I know how some ppl get other dumb things.. I seen the things fans do.. like needles in cookies.. or sending so much hate an artist almost off themselves.. what happened in sams is not new.. but doesnt make it right.. we all should have learned from the past.. yet things keep happening..

as someone who disliked many characters.. I can tell YOU NEVER OVERSTEP YOUR DISLIKE. ever.. hate the borblo all you want.. YOU NEVER GO AFTER THE VA'S OR WRITTER I never like Earth, but even I know when I was too harsh.. I had make comments that soon regret.. but what others have done is FAR too much that "angry fans" THOSE ARENT FANS those are just haters.. those are heartless and mindless people who can NOT stay within the fandom I said it before.. we need to teach the kids to do better.. they dont know better.. but adults? harrasing another adult? out. just that.. hope the VA feels safer now..

[nomsfaultau]

Hi! I've been lurking on your blog for a while, and I love all of the concepts and stuff I've seen! Unfortunately, I still haven't gotten around to actually reading your fics. Sorry if you've already answered this, but are there certain fics you'd recommend reading before others, or an order in general?

Anyway, just wanted to say I love your work so much (or at least what I've seen of it on Tumblr), and I'm looking forward to reading your fics!!!

Glad to have you! There's no particular order, and the one series (Fault) is really just one fic with a lot of supplementary material where the order is up to you after reading Fault (first story). For information, my pinned post -link here- offers a brief synopsis of all my projects.

And as for recommendations- that depends entirely on what type of fic you like to read!

Angst

Of course I must start off with Fault -link here- since its in the blog name! This is a Tommy centric (ish) long fic, the series at the half a million word count mark and not close to done. It's basic premise uses the setting (but not much else) of the SCP Foundation, an organization trying to imprison dangerous creatures (SBI, Tubbo, ensemble cast). First half centers clingy duo surviving imprisonment together, then upon escape has the rest of SBI join to show life on the run. Features heavy angst subjects like dehumanization, experimentation, and lots of moral quandaries about guilt and trauma as we explore many character's varied perspectives. Also has healing, fluff, and comedy. Somewhat grey SBI, but more so in the way that trauma can strain relationships, the dynamics being mostly as healthy as they can be. Themes include: what person hood means and how it can be denied, what atonement looks like, how different morality systems operate, and how to live with yourself after doing whatever it took to survive. For a lot more character details and dynamics, the pinned post gets deep into it. Cause frankly the plot is hard to condense as big as it is! Though, slight lampshade that the quality increases a lot as the fic goes on, since it was my 2nd ever fic.

Or, if you want SBI so dark it never recovers, there is Mandatory Family Reunion -link here-. Another long fic at ~240k with only 1-2 more chapters till completion. A Emerald Duo centric deconstruction of kidnapping fics, wherein Techno is the long lost son of a crime family, who kidnap him back and try to use the power of family to cure his abusive upbringing. Slight problem- abuse is actually really complicated to recover from and Techno still loves his parents. Techno fights the forced found family every step of the way. Mandatory Family Reunion gets into the long lasting trauma from stalking, roofies, kidnapping, and killing all the baddies who hurt the protag. And as the minimizing and gaslighting pile up, Techno's sanity slips. This one is along the lines of a psychological thriller, at least from Techno's perspective. Philza, personally, is living in a found family hurt/comfort fic. However, it also has some incredibly silly moments, particularly in the beginning but maintained throughout. Also, bedrock bros becoming actual brothers. Themes include: Long term effects of physical and emotional abuse, how to escape abusive homes, the horror of unconditional love, psychosis, and motivations.

While The Lambs Wolves Wear -link here- has just started (60k, projected to be a long fic), it has a lot to offer if you like Philza centric dark SBI. This one is the lightest on humor, heavy on the horror especially as it progresses. Premise is Philza's children were secretly replaced by vicious monsters who are genuinely villainous and abusive. However, each of them experience love for the first time. Yearning for it, their attempts at recovering from their traumas is clumsy and often harmful for Philza. Themes include: nature versus nurture, imperfect abuse victims, and crumbling trying to maintain a mask. This one has a handful of plot twists so if that's enough for you to decide, there are spoilers ahead. Because Philza definitely, definitely knows his children were replaced, and his kind parenting is only a survival mechanism until he can murder the monsters. If you like dark sbi where literally all of them are terrible, this one is for you. Another massive theme? Vengeance.

Comedy/Fluff

For a funny and heartwarming short fic (11k words, complete), try The Altars We Sacrifice Our Futures On -link here-! There's some slight dark humor and angst, but it's mostly about god of Blood Technoblade awkwardly trying to figure out how to parent Tommy after his evil cult messed up trying to sacrifice him. 7 year old Tommy quickly has the dark god wrapped around his pinky, much to the chagrin of the cult! The bedrock bros bonding is absolutely adorable in this fic. But uh oh- Philza wants his boy back! This results in silly parental rivals emerald duo butting heads behind the oblivious Tommy. Themes include: Peer pressure, self determination, and god taxes.

Or if you like some body horror in your comedies, there's Lord, what fools these mortals be! -link here-. It's a medium fic (50k) that has only one more chapter left. Featuring dark Philza and Kristin...but they fall a little in the team rocket area. Premise is they're the rulers of the Fae Winter Court looking for new babies cause their old ones keep dying :/ Unfortunately for Philza, he keeps somehow being outsmarted by 7 year old Tommy as angel duo simultaneously learns each other's True Names. And while Lady Death is a more clever manipulator, she dissolves into a panicked helicopter mom as twins duo manage to be very creatively....clever (read: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE IDIOTS). However, when the Fae couple aren't being incompetent wrapped up with looney tunes shenanigans, they're incredibly dangerous. Themes include: Oblivious Tommy, absurdity of faery lore, hijinks, and STAYING AWAY FROM THE FAE OH MY GOD RUN.

Of course I'll go to bat for any of my works, but these ones at least give a decent range of time commitment, tone, and themes. Hope you enjoy!

[rou-luxe]

THEORIES

babe wake up tragic yaoi dropped *THIS ACCOUNT DOES NOT USUALLY POST ALNST FANTHEORIES. IF THAT IS WHAT YOU WANT THIS IS NOT THE PLACE. theories / commentary / spoilers under the cut

I don't know 100% ALNST lore... most of this is speculation I think some people have commented on this already but apparently the one in the couple who wears white dies (Sua, Ivan) Following this pattern, Hyuna x Luka's relationship is complicated but if we go by that Luka is dying next round... But the next round is Till vs Luka, which would be different from the pattern (Sua vs Mizi, Ivan vs Till)... so maybe to complete the pattern Hyuna puts herself in instead of Till. mom pick me up I'm scared On top of that, Ivan wore black before, but switched to white. Does this have to do with something... (Was Till supposed to die instead...) Luka and Hyuna evidently have VERY different singing styles though so that would be interesting def Also the characters look older (not only the haircut man... they're taller) so I wonder... how much time has passed in ALNST??? and is it proportional to irl time (probably not) Not sure about the other videos I need to check but this time there are human spectators amongst the aliens in the crowd for the first time??? is alnst so powerful that they want to watch the showdown too??? Till sounds like he's about to break poor bb Till's lyrics in the beginning start off hopeless, asking someone to hurt him. To dissolve and drown in someone, to become one with them. Definitely Mizi. When Till's master shoves his face towards the newspaper, he's probably telling him to snap out of it, sing properly and let go of Mizi??? Then Till gets his ahh beat and he reaches for Mizi, his one hope in the darkness "Icy lips" - he already thinks Mizi is dead??? Ivan's eyes look empty. interruption from mizisua sponsor /j Even though the MIZISUA video is more of a backstory video, it also suits Round 1. I think it might suit Ivantill as well hold on When Mizi and Sua found each other (refer to MIZISUA video), Sua has lost hope already, but Mizi's love gives her some hope in the dark. Then they are torn apart, but still want to be together. The one who lives (Mizi) is in grief. Ivan's empty eyes look like he has lost hope, just like Sua. Till gave him a reason to keep going (see: Black Sorrow, their relationship shown in Cure <- this video)

Back to the video Till laying there by himself, Ivan moves the (muzzle?) restriction, maybe to help him breathe Ivan's verse reflects Till's but it's different in multiple ways "Cold words" - Referring to Till? (well... till has always been naturally sassy...) Similar to Till's statement in the first part, Ivan is saying that Till can break him apart and build him back again (mend) I guess they fought and became friends 💀 "I'll drown in you" as well. Till would sacrifice himself for Mizi, Ivan would sacrifice himself for Till (CRIES) Ivan feels "seen" by Till, Till wants to dissolve in Mizi's gaze Why does he reach for the back of Till's neck? Till unawares (sleeping)? Are the two somewhat related? Ivan reaches for Till (love) but Till unaware (once again 💀) Consume me + licking the blood from Till's wound. they really want to become one person don't they 2:46 Ivan turns away from the camera is he giving Till a kiss on the cheek or is he whispering something to Till in his sleep we'll never know

"We shall dance", with "our story". TOGETHER. THEY WANT TO BE TOGET- *gets shot* PLEASE LET THEM BE YAOI AGGHGH everlasting memory this moment will last forever THE KISS SCENE I WAS SO HAPPY AT FIRST AND THEN WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENED I rewatched this video too many times the animation just too pretty man 😭 Till pushes him away I noticed this in a lot of promo arts and stuff because yk Mizi

okay back to the video Ivan's expression when he chokes Till kind of looks like him looking down at the camera like he did at the end of Black Sorrow am I reading too into this Till gives up. He doesn't even fight the choking. Normally this would be uncharacteristic but yk Mizi 😭😭 I'm confused how Ivan gets hit??? I think it's bullets but who knows maybe the rain is possessed or maybe Ivan did it himself Like in Till's song (it's been confirmed by the creators that Till killed his enemy to win apparently), if the enemy is killed then you win. Ivan sacrificed himself so Till could win, so Till could live There was also a theory I read that Luka was pissing off Mizi so she would fight back, so she would continue living BUT LUKA IS A WHOLE OTHER STORY THIS ISN'T ABOUT LUKA WE'RE TALKING ABOUT IVANTILL At the end of MIZISUA video, Mizi wakes up crying in the rain. Till stands in the rain staring at Ivan's corpse (but we don't see the body) The light is focused on Ivan, not Till. The light of Ivan's life has been snuffed out, but it also leaves Till in darkness I was expecting Till to make some sort of movement once the lights turned off but nope omg Luka vs Till... Till is gonna kill his ahh for disrespecting Mizi 💀 THE OTHER YAOI DUO!! WHAT HAPPENED TO HYUNA BRO IS MAMA GONNA DIE WHO INTRUDED imagine if the intruder was luka that would be so funny also there is a heavy heartbeat motif in the kick drums for the song omg there is no heartbeat during the music when - Kid Ivan stares deadly at the camera (it stops there) - Ivan enters stage - They build the heartbeat motif again slowly during the backstory part - back to life. Starts with a single kick then double - Ivan is falling insert ivantill my god my universe memes again, Till is literally Ivan's reason for living

thank you for reading my nonsense ramblings it's 3:30 am Ivantill is worth staying up any day THIS IS NOT PROOFREAD I am CRYING 🔥🔥 WE COPE GOOD NIGHT might draw ivantill fanart... doubt I have time though

[flashbackonyourbehalf]

(Long rant ahead but I need to get it out.)

The friend who’s been crashing on my couch since March is moving out. Her father died and she’s getting an inheritance that will finally get her back on her feet after being homeless for years, so I’m happy for her! It’s also good because in the last couple months, she became insufferable. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be fucked without her help once I fucked up my back again, but I’ve spent at least half a dozen therapy sessions ranting about her.

It just sucks that it’s happening NOW. I’m not fully better yet, and can’t take care of the place on my own. And being both immobilized and isolated has contributed to my descent into insanity. The last few nights I took solace in the fact that I’d see her in the evening, but she didn’t come home and was cagey about what was going on. (Not that she owes me information but I was concerned, as this was out of character for her.

But tonight she tells me she’s coming over to pick up some stuff and I said I had to run errands and she asked me to just leave the door unlocked, and like ?? No? She’s the one who lost the copies of my keys that I made and paid for and has more than enough time to replace them. I said I’d only be gone for half an hour and she said “if it’s only half an hour then it’s fine.” Like bruh, I wasn’t asking your permission. I made an effort to hurry even though I can barely walk, but she didn’t even show up till 4 hours later.

So she comes over and starts packing then I realize she’s wearing her shoes on inside, which she should know by now, after living with me since March, I’m pretty anal about, especially since my place is 75% carpet. She even brings her WET UMBRELLA inside and puts it ON the carpet. Like bruh who does that??

She keeps dodging my questions and attributing it to having complicated feelings about her father’s death (he was a bigot who raised her in a cult and kicked her out for being trans), and I’m not going to pretend to fathom what it’s like to lose a parent, but the way she came across was…weird. I know her VERY well. I’ve seen her happy, hungry, tired, heartbroken, and everything in between. But the way she was being evasive was strange to say the least, a far cry from how she used to refer to me as her “gay best friend” or her “trans bestie.” It was almost like she was just playing along when I was so excited for her future and proud of her for holding in through those dark days.

I also asked for help putting my mattress pad and fitted sheet on (bc I’m in a ton of pain and moving hurts), and she said no bc her Uber driver was going to be there in “like a minute.” I started saying “it’ll only take 30 seconds with your help” before realizing I’d come across as a pushy asshole and dropped it. I *was* able to do it myself but it was very painful, and during those whole 3 minutes, she just stood there on her phone, so I’m pretty sure she was just making excuses.

I’m fucking pissed and I genuinely don’t know if I’m overreacting. I’ve done SO much for her, and it feels like, now that she doesn’t need me, she’s leaving me in the dust.

I’m just fucking glad she decided to pay her portion of November rent two weeks ago.

[whitepolaris]

Digging for Ancient Mysteries

Someone speaking about Louisville's great architectural details on rooftops once said that if you wanted to get a taste of the city's past, you had to look up as you walked. Quite true, and quite lovely stuff. But we tend to keep our eyes pointed down, not up. As Tom Waits says, "There's a world going on underground."

Consider the cobblestones. In some areas of Louisville, you can still find cobblestones that date far back in our city's history. Watch for dark brown ones, not the later salmon-colored replacements. Although there aren't as many of them as there used to be (in 2002, for example, a significant stretch of cobblestones was removed from Fourth Street), you can still enjoy their old-world charm in many places throughout the city.

And keep your eye out for bricks with words on them. They're everywhere. In the good old days, brick manufacturers stamped each brick with their imprint. These imprints are rarely seen-they were on the sides intended to be concealed in the mortar-but occasionally you can find them. Many older homes used imprinted bricks as makeshift cobblestones to pave a path or a driveway on their property.

And what's under these bricks and cobblestones? One of the great things about living in a truly old city is that there are so many opportunities to be an amateur urban archaeologist. If you live in the suburbs of a young town and start digging a hole in your yard, chances are you won't find much-maybe a Pepsi can and a plastic Pringles lid discarded by the construction workers who built your house. But in a place like Louisville, you can start digging anywhere, and you're likely to hit something interesting and old. After all, the ground of most old yards hasn't been messed with in almost a century.

Broken crockery shards from plates, teacups, and saucers circa 1920-1960 are the most common thing to turn up in the dirt. Depression glass and milk glass fragments show up quite often, as do glittering pieces of so-called Carnival Glass and Fire-King's opaque green Jadite. Needless to say, don't dig on private property, don't dog on public property such as parks, and stay away from any grounds that are known to be sacred to any culture.

When we get to earlier strata of diggables, such as items from Native Americans, things get a little more complicated. Arrowheads are by far the most common items to show up in digs, especially on farmland that's been recently deep-tilled (deep-tilling is terrible for the environment, but good for archaeologists). Ask permission-I repeat, ask permission-before trespassing on someone's farm with a shovel. If you ignore this advice, don't come crying to me if someone blows your brains out with an SPR-94.

And another warning: If you're in it for money rather than the simple love of amateur archaeology, you're wasting your time. There are "price guide" books that list ridiculous prices for common arrowheads. They're total baloney, often made up of whole cloth by collectors seeking to amplify the value of their own collections with the swoop of a pen.

If you find more advanced Indian relics than mere arrowheads, halt forthwith and notify someone like the Filson Club, the Kentucky Geological Survey, the Kentucky Paleontological Society, or a local professor. All Native American artifacts are protected by the Kentucky Antiquities Act, and it's best to check with an expert to make sure you aren't wrecking an important find.

Fossils are also another fun and fascinating thing to go digging and foraging for. Most of Kentucky's fossils are from very, very ancient times, almost always far older than the period when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Kentucky's sedimentary rocks that contain fossils are generally between 505 million and 1 million years old. This means that what you'll find here will likely be shells, mollusks, fish, plant life, coral, crinoids, and trilobites. As yet no dinosaur fossils have ever been found in Kentucky, but it's not entirely impossible.

It's beyond the scope of this book to tell you what to look for on any of these trips, but if your interest is aroused, a quick visit to a library will give you a start. Better yet, why not volunteer to take part in a professional and legitimate archaeological dig? There are plenty out there who could use your help.

If you do go digging on your own, document everything. Get a digital camera and take photographs of your dig sites, the moment of discovery, and so forth. Keep a diary or journal. Keep close track of what was found where. Treat even the most trivial discoveries of Mason-jar lids as if you were Louis Leakey unearthing Australopithecus skulls in the Olduvai Gorge. If you find something really important, tell an expert. Don't risk ruining an important discovery. And needless to say, if you find human bones, don't just call a professor, call the police!

Kentucky's opportunities for amateur archaeology, paleontology, and geology can be very rewarding. If you have soil, get thee to a shovel, and see what you can find.

[en-hale-archives]

Me with You ~~

pairing ⑅ bestfriend!Jake x fem!reader

genre ⑅ friends to lovers, fluff, slow dancing, suggestive/smut

words/read time ⑅ 3.9k/12-19 mins

warnings ⑅ 18+ content, light cussing

synopsis ⑅ Jake is back in his hometown to spend time with his closest friend. During some fun and frivolous dancing, things start to heat up...

author's note ⑅ I’m really proud of how this story turned out. I'm not a huge fan of second person, so I wrote in first, but if anyone asks, I can copy and post again in second person. It's more fluff than anything, but it does get a bit steamier towards the end, so I’m just going to go ahead and put a warning.

————✧————

When the back door finally slammed shut and the cacophony of barks faded down the street, I could finally let out my sigh of relief that I had been holding in since this morning. I tapped on my phone. How many days had we been watching Mrs. Chen’s pets? And just how was I able to put up with hours of barking, the smell of fresh turd lying across the lawn, and dog walks till dark? Including their rigorous feeding times and bathroom breaks -- I’m surprised I haven’t exploded yet.

I had so much planned the minute they left my house, but instead, the sudden silence felt all too relaxing and I laid my head against the cold countertop. I could finally stop stressing, stop thinking, and stop worrying about reprimanding for chewing on my shoes or peeing in the house or the continued barking that never ended. I was free. I felt like I could’ve stayed laid on the countertop forever, drowning in the evening sun. Who knew watching five dogs would take such a burden out of a person. Jake and I had taken on the job of dog sitting for Mrs. Chen while she visited some family in Tokyo. We both switched off every other day; some of the dogs at my house and the others at his; until we realized it would be easier if he just spent the few days at my house as we co-doggy sat. He got up bright and early to take them on their walks while I prepared their highly detailed and specific meals. Then from there, we spent the rest of the day making sure they didn’t run off somewhere or cause too much destruction in the house. But alas, Mrs. Chen came back early from her getaway and picked up Toby, Caleb, Khao, Sofia, and Pickle on her way home. Although I was exhausted from watching 3-foot dogs all day, the pay was amazing for me, and it would help tremendously for all the online classes I was going to be taking next semester.

The warmth of the sun cast a comforting trance over my heavy eyelids, and soon enough I was fast asleep, standing in the middle of the kitchen with the soft sound of nothing surrounding me.

By the time I had fluttered my eyes open, I had realized I was now seated in my dining chair and a large black jacket was placed over my shoulders. I sat up and let out a yawn, wincing at the bright light coming from the tv and shaking my now numb arm awake. I must have been sleeping for a while because the evening sun had turned to pitch of black. The moonlight beamed through the window and danced along with the sways of the large oak tree out front. I stood up and walked over to the refrigerator in which I grabbed two water bottles and some leftover pasta.

I was sure that Jake hadn’t eaten since lunch, seeing as he only ate if someone sat food in front of his face. I dragged my feet up the stairs until I heard the slamming of a book and the fast typing of a keyboard come from the living room. I turned and looked behind me. Jake had settled his things on the coffee table and floor, large books, folders, and several amounts of crumpled up pieces of paper found their way around Jake, himself slouched up against the edge of the couch. He had changed clothes since the last time I had seen him, he now wore a plain blue shirt with grey sweats, his eyebrows furrowed as he worked hard on whatever he was getting at.

“Oh yes, I was starving!” Propping himself up on the couch, he took the plate of pasta. I placed the waters on the coffee table and settled comfortably on the couch beside him.

“I can’t say that I’ve ever seen anybody sleep standing up before. Look,” Jake took his phone off the charger. “I got a picture.” He pushed the screen in my face, and of course, there was my unconscious body laying on the counter, mouth open and all. I playfully pushed it back his way as his face lit up with a smile I was all too familiar with.

“What are you doing down here so late, it’s almost 12 in the morning,” I asked. Jake’s smile disappeared when he was reminded of the work he had been doing seconds before.

He let out a large huff of air. “Trying to get some words on paper but instead it turned into a paper massacre,” he jokingly replied, “sorry for the mess.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied, taking a swig of water. I was going to ask if he wanted to watch a late-night movie, or pull an all-nighter and talk endlessly until the sun rose, but I could tell by each passing second that Jake was worried about this, and he wanted the time he had now over the summer to work on his music. I wished I was motivated to work on my own music, but unlike Jake, I wasn’t in a globally popular boy band. My complicated best friend for over 10 years had been working his butt off since middle school. It was his annual time to sit back and relax while he had the time to, but instead, he chose to use that time to help watch a bunch of dogs with his hometown bestie. God, I loved him.

Jake pulled himself off the couch and right back onto the floor, leaving the rest of the pasta to me. He picked up his pen again and started scribbling down words as quickly as he could, trying hard not to forget the lyrics that had floated into his head. Until he stopped, closing his eyes for just a split second, and let out a powerful sigh. Crumpling up the sheet, he stacks it on top of the others in frustration and started frantically tapping his pencil against the table.

“Maybe it’s best to just try again in the morning,” I advised, taking a small bite of the pasta that was left by my side.

“How come I’m having such a hard time with this?” He gazed up at me frantically for a clue, as if I had the answer to fix a problem as big and as important as his was. I looked at his doleful eyes and the bags that were starting to grow underneath them. I couldn’t help but think, because I made you sit up and watch a bunch of dogs with me.

“Do you want me to see if I could come up with something?”

“If you want. But, hold on, I think my thoughts are coming back up.” He quickly grabbed another piece of paper, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

I tried my best to keep occupied by watching videos on my phone, but I found myself suddenly bored out of my mind. I laid out on my back and picked up one of Jake’s folders. Briefly looking through it, I couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous at the amount of fan art and letters, praising him and the other members. Followed with that were just more and more engene stuff, full of nothing but kind words and heartfelt messages. Part of me wished that I was able to travel with Jake and see the world like he was. How fun would it be to meet people that praised you? And how cool would it be to see that you had fans? I couldn’t help but plaster on a huge smile as I skimmed through some of the notes until I finally came to one with familiar handwriting.

Remember Me were the words written on the top of the paper in bold and bright colors. But the message written underneath is what caught my attention:

To the person that makes me the luckiest guy in the world, this song is for you. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same, but please just remember me -- it was Jake’s handwriting.

I didn’t feel like I was breaking any crime reading his stuff until this moment, but curiosity killed the cat, and right now I didn’t mind being a feline. I checked to make sure Jake was still busy, and he was, almost like he had teleported into his own world. I quietly turned back to the sheet and started reading. It was about a girl, presumably his crush I’m sure. She was someone important to him, someone who made him love so much that it hurt. But this was far from a happy song, in fact, it was terribly heartbreaking. She didn’t understand his love, she wasn’t able to interpret it like he wanted her to. But he confesses that he was scared of what telling her would do, worried that she wouldn’t feel the same. So instead, it was like he was apologizing, and asking that she forgive him for not being brave enough to tell her, and if he did ever get the courage to, for her to remember him even if she wasn’t able to love him like he wanted her to.

The song ends like how the title began, and I find myself flabbergasted at the beautiful mixes of rhymes and metaphors that read like a poem. This was the first of Jake’s songs that made me feel this way, like I had just finished watching a tragedy movie with Ryan Renolds starring. I blink back the tears that I didn’t realize were forming. How come he never told me this? We never kept secrets from each other, like ever. It never mattered the subject or the severity, we had always promised that we would be open and honest with each other. I wish I would’ve known this sooner, maybe I could’ve saved him from feeling this way. And what girl could it possibly be? I knew for sure I was the only girl he was presumably close to; but was there someone else?

I glanced down at Jake, who was still in a focused state of mind with the pencil in his mouth and mumbling lyrics softly under his breath. I tried picturing my bubbly Jake writing these agonizing words and miserably failed.

Jake looked up at me as if he could feel my gaze on the back of his head. “I think I’ve found the chorus, but it’s the rest of the song I’m not able to get, and how come it’s so hard to find another word that rhymes with severe? Beer? Sphere? Revere? Appear? Gosh, rhyming sucks some serious ass!”

“This song is beautiful.”

Jake furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Huh?”

“This song I found in your folder.” I glanced back at it in my hand. “Remember Me.”

Jake’s gaze leaped from my eyes to the sheet, and I felt his body tense. “Where’d you get that from?”

“I was just going through one of your folders. Did you accidentally get it mixed up in your fan folder? Cause this is -”

“Did you read it?” He interrupted.

“Yeah, and it’s perfect.”

Jake glanced at me for a split second before turning back around, obviously uncomfortable. “I was watching one of those Kdramas you love so much and it inspired me. Could you help me rhyme with severe now?”

I knew Jake like the back of my hand, so I knew continuing on with this conversation would get him upset if he’s clearly avoiding it. But, I wasn’t going to just let him off that quickly. “Jake, come on, you can tell me anything. Who is this about?”

Jake looked back at me with a hint of something in his eyes, something I’ve never seen before, and something I wasn't able to decipher. “Nobody, I was just feeling really inspired, that's it.” His tone had switched from calm to agitated.

I give him my I’m-not-stupid look and he comes back with his own you’re-being-delusional stare. “It’s seriously nobody, truthfully and honestly.”

“Okay, okay I’ll back off.” I could tell he was starting to get defensive, and when he got like that, it took him at least a few hours before returning to normal. I watched Jake's Adam's apple move up and down, a way in which I could tell he knew I was not convinced in the slightest. “Well, sometimes we go through things that can remind us of situations like that, but not necessarily in that same exact context, you know? It has to be amplified for that audience appeal.”

“Okay...but have you ever felt this way before? Not exactly like how it’s written, but maybe somewhere along these lines?”

I thought I was going to get another vague answer, or worse, an aggravated one. But instead Jake looked down at his pencil as he tapped it along his wrist. “...maybe, but I think everyone can connect to the words in some way. I mean, everyone feels some kind of heartbreak in their life, right?” Jake's answer was still pretty vague, but at least I was able to get something out of him.

“Okay, but you know you can tell me anything, like, anything ever because you know that you’ll never actually have to feel this way, right?” I said, maybe too much in a hurry.

“Of course I know that.” He replied, giving one of his awkward grins.

“And if anyone has made you feel this way, then you know you can tell me that too cause there a sucker to lose out on a perfect person like you.” I teased in a sing-song way, poking his shoulder hard. Jake chuckled and poked me back.

A weird silence grew in the room, and Jake went back to trying to find rhyming words. I tried getting back on my phone, but I knew I needed to say something to let go of the tenseness in the air.

“Hey, crystal clear rhymes!”

He leaned his head back and looked up at me. “Nevermind, I give up for tonight.”

I could see the stress that played on his face. “Don’t worry, you’ll figure it out.”

“Yeah, but by the time I do, it’ll be too late.”

“What do you mean?”

Jake pulled his knees up to his chest and spoke. “This was going to go on our album comeback that needs to be finished in the next four months. By the time I think of something, it'll be too late and I’ll have to wait until the next four months. But by then, I'll have forgotten. This always happens and I have no idea how the hell to fix it.” I couldn’t tell if he wanted my help or just a bit of comfort.

“Did you try asking the other guys to see if they had any ideas?”

“Yeah, but they’re working on their own parts, I can’t ask them to do this too.”

“I’m sure they’d be willing to help if you asked,” I assured him.

“I know they would, but I just don’t want to. I always ask them for help, I thought being away from the studio and being back home would help my brainstorming abilities.” He gave a weary chuckle that almost sounded like a groan.

“Well, maybe tomorrow will come with better results.” I did my best to give him some motivation, but I could tell I was failing miserably at that too.

Jake watched as a car zoomed past the window, a low bass sounding off as it zoomed away. “I bet it’s easier to just listen to music than to try and come up with it. I remember when I would just blare NCT all day long and jam out in my room. It seemed so much easier back then to come up with stuff than it does now. I miss it.” He took a slight pause before continuing. “ Did you know that song you read was the easiest thing I have written in my life? I remember writing too. I just had this super weird feeling in my chest one day so I basically locked myself in my room and took maybe two hours and just wrote a bunch of words down and connected them to sound like a song. For once my mind had just gone blank and I couldn’t stop thinking and feeling that song, like I knew what it was supposed to sound like, I knew what the lyrics were supposed to mean. I just knew everything. And I miss that feeling, that feeling of like- '' He broke off his sentence when he looked back up to my eyes. It seemed like he was talking more to himself than to me. He swallowed hard and looked back at the pencil still in hand.

“Well, I'm sorry you don’t feel free anymore. I wish there was something I could do to make you feel like that again-”

“No, please don’t feel like that. It’s just something that had just recently started happening, something I really just can’t fix…” His voice gets softer and softer the more he spoke.

“Have you spoken to your manager about it?” I asked. “He’s super nice from what I understand. And he’ll probably have better answers than your friend who can barely play the piano, let alone produce an entire song.”

Jake laughed before I had the chance to. “ See, now you're underestimating yourself. Remember that song from freshman year? The one about-- what was his name, Josh?” Jake teased. I grabbed a pillow and slammed it into the back of his head. “Oh my gosh, I thought we promised we’d never bring it up again!”

Jake chuckled and laid his arm on the couch completely turning towards me. “How about we sneak out and go get ice cream and try to not wake up your mom in the process?”

I suddenly jumped to my feet when I have the perfect idea on how to cheer up the gloomy Mr. Shim. “Or, we could do something even better!”

“Urgh!” Jake groaned.

I grabbed my phone and hooked it up to the speaker. I was going to turn on his hit song Drunk-Dazed as a joke, but Jake needed this break from his career, so instead, I crunk up Beyonce as loud as it could go without disturbing my mom who slept upstairs. I turn back to Jake and reach out for his hands, already moving my hips to the music.

He shook his head and threw it back onto the couch as if throwing a temper tantrum. “I literally dance for a living.”

“Okay but this will be different, I promise.” I grabbed the piles of papers on the ground and threw them in the trash, I then pushed the coffee table near the wall and piled his folders and books neatly on top.

“Come on, cowboy!” I grabbed his hands and helped him up. He was reluctant to get up, but he threw one last groan before standing on his feet.

“This will get the brain juices flowing again!” I told him. I go back to my phone and switch it to one of my favorite Beyonce songs that she covered, At Last.

I sang dramatically to get Jake to smile, and luckily, it worked. I placed both my hands over his shoulders and swayed us back and forth, still miming the song as overly exaggerated as I could. Jake still couldn’t help but smile, and it didn’t take him long to join me in the rhythm and sway naturally with me. I learned at our middle school dance that Jake had perfect rhythm. He was able to impress the rest of the crowd when he busted out moves from BTS. Everyone was impressed, including me.

Now we were on a steady roll. I accidentally stepped on his feet a few times, but it was fine seeing as I was wearing foam flip-flops and he was barefooted. After a while, the song switched and played another of my favorites that didn’t match our style of dance, but we still moved slowly to the beat. Jake tried twirling me, but since I have two left feet, I almost ended up hitting the wall each time and Jake laughed loud at my clumsiness. The moonlight from the kitchen had now switched to the window in the living room. It gleamed through and glistened on Jake like a spotlight, just like the ones on the stage did for him. In a split second, I was reminded that he wouldn’t be here forever, just like he wasn’t here for the past year. I tried to not let it settle on my face that I was scared to see him go again, so I played up on the fun we were having now. Jake looked like he was at ease; finally, since he’d been here, he looked genuinely happy and I wasn’t going to ruin that.

After another handful of songs full of laughs and giggles, we were soon sweating and taking deeper breaths than normal. Each song was different from the one before, but it didn’t stop us from sticking to our style of dance. Even with the simplicity of the moves and the slowness of the steps, I had to take a minute to relax. I hooked my arms around his neck and rested my entire body on his. I could feel Jake’s own sweat seeping through his shirt, But I didn’t mind the wetness that was now attached to my cheek. I thought he would act awkward and ask for me to pull away, but instead, he gripped tighter on my hips and started slowly moving me side to side. I let out a long overdue sigh, trying my best to match the steady breathing of Jake’s with my own. It was actually therapeutic: hearing his heartbeat in one ear and the softness of the music in the other.

I tried to continue our steady breathing together, but his had picked up a bit, almost out of nowhere. I felt the heat of his breath on the nape of my neck, and it made my entire body tingle in a way it never had before. After this sudden feeling, I realized just how close we really were. His leg hair tickled my legs, I could feel the bone of his foot connecting to mine, I could feel his thin waist against mine as well. I felt like I needed to back up, but instead, I couldn’t and continued to sway softly against him. A few seconds later, Jake’s hands rose a little higher, planting themselves on my waist and tightening their grip as if they were trying to pull me closer than we already were.

The sensation hadn’t stopped though, it clung to my body like my damp shorts did on my thighs. Sooner or later I felt pressure on the lower part of my stomach and thought for sure that Jake was messing around and wasn’t feeling what I was, which indicated that I needed to pull back before this feeling became too much.

This is so embarrassing. I thought. How could I let myself feel like this? How was this in any way okay? I finally pulled back, the sensation becoming too unbearable, and glanced up at his face. His pupils were large in a way I hadn’t seen before. His mouth was slightly open and a drop of sweat slowly traced down his forehead, onto his nose. That pressure I was feeling on my stomach had now doubled in force, and Jake's face had switched from calm and subtle, to alarmed and panicked...

————✧————

(part 2 possibly...?)

Thank you guys so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Please, leave any constructive criticism you have on helping improve my writing!

————✧————

None of the images are mine, They all belong to their rightful owners :)

[zukkoxx]

mha boys doing the hickey prank on you

(w/ bakugo, kiri, shinsou)

bakugo 💥

you and bakugo’s relationship started with bickering and annoying each other till you drive the other crazy.

and that didn’t stop when you started dating.

now, it’s more of pulling silly little pranks on each other.

and each time you would try to one up the other.

well, the last prank you pulled in bakugo had him fuming, he was mad for a week.

so obviously he had to get you back even worse.

he got mina to help him, figuring she’d be best at making the makeup look like the actual thing.

she berated him the whole time, telling him if he broke her best friend’s heart she’d shoot acid in his eyes.

he brushed off her comment. you deserved this.

it was a little late in the evening after you get to bakugo’s dorm, finished with all the tasks you had to do today.

“hey kats.” you greet, placing your things on his desk and joining him on the bed where he was sitting on his phone.

he looked up at you, almost feeling bad when you gave him a genuine smile before snuggling up next to him. “whats up?” you say when he doesn’t respond.

“nothing. how was your day?” he quickly asked.

the two of you talked for a while about random stuff, and at some point you went up to kiss his cheek, laughing at a comment he made.

but you freeze when you see a dark, purplish mark on the side of his neck, in plain sight.

you furrowed your brows, wondering how you hadn’t noticed to before.

“katsuki...what’s this?” you ask, making him turn from his phone and look at you.

“what’re ya talkin about dumbass?”

“don’t call me a dumbass, what the hell is this on your neck?” you speak louder, pressing a finger under the mark.

“it’s nothing, probably a bruise from a mission-”

“bakugo.”

the blond widens his eyes at your deep tone and the way you said his name. he never really heard you speak like this unless it was towards a villain. but even then, you never sounded this serious.

“you and i both know that’s not a fucking bruise.”

he stares at you silently, not knowing if he should end the prank or not.

he decides to push on.

“i don’t know what you want me to say.” he shrugs, looking away from you. he couldn’t stand seeing the hurt in your eyes.

you scoff, trying to get rid of the pressure building in you throat. “you really are just a big asshole, aren’t you?”

he stayed quiet. “if you wanted to break up with, you could’ve just told me.” you try so hard to keep your tears at bay, not letting them cross your waterline.

but it feels like a dagger had been stabbed through your heart.

“and to think, i thought you could have actually loved me.” you chuckle darkly before trying to get off the bed.

upon hearing your words, bakugo quickly grabbed your hand, pulling you against him.

“i do love you-”

“let me go you asshole!” you push his chest, tears finally escaping. “we’re done! that’s what you wanted right?”

“y/n it’s not real! calm down.”

he holds your waist so you were sitting on his lap, keeping you still. you look at him, trying to figure out what he was talking about. “what the hell do you mean it’s not real?”

he stared at you for a second, almost scared that if he looked away, you’d be gone. but he eventually reaches to the table beside his bed and grabs a makeup wipe mina lended him. he quickly wiped the mark, staring at you intensely.

“see?” he turns his head, and you find the purple mark gone, only a slight red pigment left from where he wiped so harshly. “fake.” he holds up the wipe so you see the purple stains covering it.

“it was a prank.”

you felt like you could finally breath again, but your relief quickly turned into anger, and you punched bakugo’s chest out of instinct. he didn’t react.

“i hate you. why would you do this?”

“you pranked me last week!” bakugo states, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“i put pink dye in your shampoo katsuki. this was overboard.” you mutter, wiping your cheeks to get rid of sparse tears.

bakugo frowned, feeling even more bad about the whole thing. he had to admit, he took it too far. “you’re right. i’m sorry.” you didn’t respond, but accepted his apology.

“hey.” bakugo lifted your chin to look at him. “you know i love you, right? more than fucking anything.” you nod. “don’t ever doubt my love for you, or i may have to blow myself up for making you feel that way.”

you laugh slightly, bending down so you could hug when, pushing your face into his neck.

“you know i’m getting you back for this.”

kirishima🪨

kirishima often does things without thinking ahead.

not fully comprehending the consequences of his actions.

this was one of those moments.

it was april fools day! great right?

except kiri and the boys made a bet, wondering who could pull the best prank on someone in their class.

kiri took a while thinking about who he should prank. and eventually, a perfect prank to pull on his precious s/o came to mind.

a hickey prank. haha....ha. -_-

he had seen tons of videos where someone made a fake hickey and pranked their s/o with it. he always laughed his ass off at them.

this would be the perfect opportunity!

so he sprinted to ochaco’s back room, hers being the closest, and asked for some makeup he would return quickly.

he went to his room, doing his best at imitating the red, purplish bruise you’d often give each other.

when he thought he did the best he could, he leaves his room, trying to find you so he could get the prank over with.

he sees you in the kitchen, eating a bowl of fruit, chatting with jiro.

he makes his way over slowly, nervousness creeping up his spine with the amount of people in the common area at the moment.

he didn’t want to embarrass you, but he didn’t want to give any of the boys 50 dollars either.

he stood behind you, awkwardly waiting for you to finish talking to jiro.

jiro looks past you, motioning for you to check. you turn, eyes brightening as they land upon your boyfriend.

“hey kiri, what some fruit?” you push the bowl towards him, and he shakes his head with a dopey smile. “no thanks babe. just checking on you.”

you melt at his kind words, about to respond when jiro speaks up beside to. “i think you should be checking on yourself kiri. jeez y/n, are you human or a leech?” she covers her moth to stifle a laugh, pointing to a very specific spot on kiri’s neck.

you halfheartedly laugh, confused, and glanced at the area yourself.

you breath stops when you notice a big purple mark covering the side of his neck.

you didn’t do that to him...

kirishima stands uncomfortably still, not real really knowing what to do this far into the prank.

“kirishima? wha...” you can’t even speak, just utterly astonished at what you’re seeing.

you stare at him and shake your hands, waiting for him to explain himself.

“are you going to say something!?” you ask, the hurt in your voice making his heart break.

he didn’t like this. not at all. why did he do this?

“...fuck you kiri.” you spit, ignoring the fact that you still used his nickname while you were mad at him.

you walked away in a hurry, leaving jiro glaring at kirishima.

“what did you do?” she asked.

“i-it was a joke! a prank! i...it’s april fools!”

“well go tell them that!” jiro says, pushing kiri to go follow you.

kirishima runs after you, getting to you as soon as you enter the elevator to go to your dorm. he sprints inside, crashing into you in the process.

he looks at you with wide eyes when he sees tears running down your face. “why are you here?” you quickly yell.

“y/n it’s a prank! it’s april fools day, please baby! i’m sorry!” he goes to hug you. you don’t return it but you don’t push him away either.

“what the heck eijiro! that wasn’t funny!” you yell in distress. you were happy it wasn’t real, but the feeling from being absolutely heart broken to feeling better in the span of seconds was overwhelming.

“i know. i know it was stupid of me to even attempt this. i made a stupid bet with the others. i am so sorry. you know i’d never do this to you. please, forgive me.” he begs, holding onto you for dear life.

“i’m really upset with you right now, eijiro.”

“you should be. i don’t blame you y/n. but please, don’t leave me.”

you sighed, finally going to hug him back. “i’m not going to leave you kiri. i was scared you were leaving me!”

“i’d never! never in a million years!”

“i know, just don’t do that again. you really scared me.”

he nods against you. “never again.”

shinsou 🌀

shinsou was never good at expressing his emotions.

he was very reserved and even though you were his s/o, you often had trouble figuring out what was going on inside that complicated head of his

so when you laughed at izuku’s jokes, or praised shoto’s quirk

of course he wouldn’t tell you how jealous it made him feel. how it made all his insecurities rise up.

you didn’t mean to make him feel this way, god no. you had known the two boys longer than him and were used to having the comfortable playful conversations with izuku and serious quirk related talks with shoto.

but shinsou didn’t like all the attention you gave them.

and he couldn’t find a way to let you know how he felt that didn’t involve telling you. which he wasn’t going to do.

so he ended up doing the next best thing that came to mind.

make you feel what he was feeling.

he gets some makeup from someone he had already forgotten the name of and went to his dorm, doing his best to make the fake hickey at least a little believable.

he didn’t want the prank to be too serious, just to hit you with a quick realization that you had been making him feel this way.

so he waits for you to meet him in his dorm like you always do, and even leaves the makeup out in the open to see if you’d catch on yourself.

“hellooo my love.” you say cheerfully, and shinso smiled at your happy mood.

“hi y/n. had a good day?” he asked, sitting on the edge of his bed as you approached him, standing between his legs.

“mhm. but i missed you.” you muttered, pushing his face against your stomach as you hugged his head.

hitoshi frowned at your words. maybe this wasn’t a good idea. maybe he’s been overthinking and this stupid prank will just make things worse.

“so, what did you do today-”

you pull back from hitoshi and catch a glimpse of a bruise on his neck. you grip his chin, turning it to the side with slight force and narrow your eyes.

“what happened here?” you asked curiously

“nothing babe.” your boyfriend shrugs

“hitoshi is this a fucking hickey?” you asked after getting a better look, hoping to whatever god there was that his answer would be no.

“what does it look like?”

“don’t talk to me like that, you prick.” you seeth, and push his head away until he falls on his back on the bed.

“we’re over! i hate you.” you say the last part quietly, still not wanting to believe what you saw was real.

“wait y/n, it’s fake!” hitoshi yells before you could leave his dorm.

“how is it fake hitoshi? what, you had no real feelings for the bitch that sucked on your neck? do you think i’m stupid or something?”

“the hickey is fake y/n. i made it.”

you stared at him with deceiving eyes, crossing your arms and tapping your foot. “is this some type of mind joke hitoshi? i told you don’t use that shit on me.”

“please babe, c’mere. wipe it off.”

you slowly made you way back to him, gripping his chin to turn his head again and swiped at the mark. it smeared a little, but didn’t come off. you licked your thumb before rubbing it into the mark, finally making it disappear.

you pushed him back slightly, eyes still angry. “what was that all about? why’d you do that?” you ask.

“just thought it’d be funny.” he lies, looking away from you. you knew he was lying. he always looked directly at you when talking about something. especially something serious.

“do not make me even angrier than i already am shinso. fess up.”

hitoshi groaned, putting his hands over his face before looking at you with tired eyes. “fine, i got jealous of you hanging out and being friendly with midoriya and todoroki. i just wanted to get you back in a way.”

“so you pretend to cheat on me?”

“i’m sorry. it was really immature of me and i should’ve just talked to you. the makeup is right over there if you still need proof.” he points to his desk and glance at it, seeing the makeup sprawled on top.

you sighed, not wanting to forgive him so easily. but you couldn’t help it with the way he rubbed the back of your legs soothingly and looked at you with love filled eyes.

“ugh, you’re lucky i love you.” you state, trying to stop the smile growing on your face as you see him smirk softly.

“and i love you. more than anything. thank you for forgiving me.”

“and...i’ll try not to make you jealous. i really didn’t mean to.” you say, remembering the reason for the whole situation.

hitoshi shook his head. “you can hang out and be friends with whoever you want. i know you wouldn’t leave me or be unfaithful. and i’d never be unfaithful to you. i’m so thankful for you.”

.....

“stop getting all mushy on me.”

i always see hcs where the boys get pranked, i thought it’d be cool to do the reverse. i can still do y/n pranking the boys if you guys would like that! hope you enjoyed this! leave a request here! -> 🥀

[alecmagnuslwb]

Cadaver Fidelitatis

Read on AO3

“I don’t like hospitals,” John says as they reach the gates of the old abandoned building. Zatanna busts the gates and the front door open with a few easy words.

“I don’t think most people like them,” Zatanna says as they walk up the steps and in through the doors. The abandoned hospital is dark, barely any windows and not a single working light left, so Zatanna raises a hand a few magical lightning bugs giving them the ability to see. “But, this is where the big bad beast everyone’s been seeing reports about was last seen.”

“Yeah, but I just really don’t like them. Spent a bit too much time in them as a kid writing off injuries as slips and falls when it was just my dad.”

Zatanna reaches out grabbing his hand and pulling it up to press a kiss to the back of it with a reassuring smile. They walk through the halls Zatanna still keeping hold of his hand till a rustle of sound catches their attention.

They round the corner following the noise their hands readied for battle. A man greets them once they’ve turned the corner, short, pale and scraggly with a blackened smile on his face and a knife pressed to his throat.

“Mr. Necro sends his regards,” he says, voice scratchy and a little unsteady, before he draws the knife across his throat and falls to the ground convulsing.

“Shit,” John says as they run down the hall. A pulsing red wave knocks them both off their feet as the man convulses on the ground one last time.

They both groan as they lift themselves up continuing their rush over towards the body. They both crouch down when they reach him, Zatanna checking for a pulse that’s not there while John looks him over noticing blood on his chest that isn’t from his slit throat.

He brushes the man’s open shirt aside revealing a complicated rune engraved into his chest. He recognizes it immediately an ancient thing that used to be a common practice for warring magicians.

“Son of a bitch,” he says drawing Zatanna’s attention to the chest. She looks at the symbol with the same recognition he did.

“Fuck,” she says emphatically standing up to her full height and stepping back just a bit.

“A goddamn cadaver fidelitatis,” Zee says kicking the dead body. It’s an old curse, ancient and barely used because most people don’t want to die before watching their enemies wither away. “It’s 2022 who’s still doing curses like this. Newsflash wizard supervillains there’s new stuff that doesn’t involve spontaneous suicide.”

“Well, you know Nick, he loves the classics,” John says with a sigh shaking out his shoulders.

Zatanna lets out a long-suffering sigh falling back against the wall and sliding down kicking out her feet in front of her still poking at the dead guy.

“Do you ever just kinda wish we could change our names and permanently hide ourselves from everything and be left alone forever in some little corner of the earth? You know never get cursed or tricked into a curse or anything like that again.”

“Every single time your phone lights up with Bruce’s name on the screen,” he says with a smirk as he crouches back down next to the body.

Zatanna chuckles rubbing at her temples. “That’s the only times?”

“Eh,” he shrugs searching the dead man’s pockets. “Maybe days like today.”

“Maybe,” she huffs fondly knocking her head back against the wall. “So, we’re trapped and this dead asshat on the ground is the only one with magic word to get us out. Fan-fucking-tastic.”

“All thanks to Mr. Necro,” John says disgusted. They’re both so tired of Nick’s bullshit they kinda wish he’d just get on with it and successfully kill them already.

“Ugh, so douchey. Like he was serving us court papers and not a death curse. And he doesn’t even have the decency to do the deed himself, just gets some lower level magician to his dirty work,” Zatanna says lifting back up from ground. She walks the length of the hall until she’s stopped by an invisible force that sparks red when she touches it. “Well there’s this way’s stopping point, bet we can’t even get to the other end of the hall.”

“Death curses that are meant to force people into long painful starvation death aren’t usually known for being giving in terms of comfortable space,” John says brushing off his hands as he stands.

“We could just scream until someone hears us?” Zatanna suggests.

“Soundproof box for cadaver fidelitatis remember,” John says stepping over the body and in front of her.

“Damn, right,” she sighs looking at the body on the floor. “Not that it would matter since that guy’s not looking all too talkative and down for sharing the secret password to get us out of here.”

“Not yet he doesn’t,” John says as he peels off his jacket tossing it onto the floor. He presses a quick kiss to her head before turning back towards the body pushing up his sleeves. He digs in his pocket pulling out the little pocket knife he keeps there.

“John what are you doing?”

“You think there was ever really a beast?” he says trying to change the subject as he kneels down next to the body. “Or did Nick just build a complex ruse he knew we’d chase?”

“Ruse probably, but that doesn’t answer my question,” she says kneeling down next to him.

John sighs flipping the knife open. “Look we can sit here and discuss possibilities and brainstorm, but at the end of it before the lack of dehydration or sleep hits we’re gonna come to the same conclusion there’s only one way he talks.”

Necromancy. It’s a dirty word in their world. Just because someone can do it doesn’t mean they do, there’s a darkness that you touch when you try that seeps into your bones. A darkness that can take months to shake, some even say it never does totally go away.

“John you can’t do this,” she says and he gives her a pointed look. He can, he just doesn’t have to like it. Because even the darkness he’s willing to touch has its limits. “Or at least you can’t do this alone, let me help. Let me take on some of the strength it takes.”

John shakes his head as he loosens his tie. “No way you don’t need this touching you.”

“And you do?” she says meeting his eyes.

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” he shrugs raising up the pocket knife and plunging it into the dead man’s chest.

“And you’re saying I can’t?”

John drops his head leaving the knife buried in his chest. “I don’t doubt your power, your strength. I never do, but this kind of darkness Zee. It’s something you shouldn’t have to be strong enough to touch. You touch enough of it when you touch me, love,” he says sadly brushing her arm slowly before going back to the knife. He presses it down in a line as far as he can go with just the small knife before pulling it out and wiping it off on his sleeve.

He lifts it to his hand but Zatanna stops him with a gentle touch. “That’s unsanitary.”

“Raising the dead usually is.”

“Yeah, well this is risky enough I don’t need you catching some bloodborne disease as well,” she lifts a hand over the knife whispering one backward word. “Naelc.”

He nods his head at her in thanks.

“Don’t cut too deep either, no massive blood loss okay,” she says resigning herself to just witnessing this.

“A little blood loss never hurt anyone,” John says with a casual shrug drawing the blade across his palm.

Zatanna squints her eyes at him. “That is categorically not true and especially not true when standing inside a hospital where a little blood loss probably hurt a lot of people.”

He smiles at her one of those devil may care nothing scares me smiles of his at her as he lets the blood drip down onto the dead body. He slices the other hand next before carving a simple but infinitely powerful rune into wrist.

He winces a bit as the knife digs in to his already iffy wrist. It’s going to smart even more than usual now.

Zatanna scoots back but stays close enough looking at him with a watchful and protective eye. He tosses the knife then hovers his bloodied hands over the body the Latin rolling from his lips. The dead man’s chest starts to rumble moving and pulsing unnaturally as John closes his eyes. The power surges through him as he presses his hands fully down on the man’s chest the rough skin going soft, soft enough that John can slip his hand through the man’s chest gripping his hand around his heart.

That’s when John opens his eyes, all black and empty hollowness. The Latin becomes more gravely as it slips through his lips, darkness and power crackling around him. Zatanna looks at him unblinking, not afraid of him but afraid for him.

The man’s body convulses once again, the heart in John’s hand beating off time. The dead guy pulls in an unnecessary breath that turns into a violent scream.

“Hey there you dumb git,” John says no longer needing the Latin to do its work. “What’s the bloody password?”

“Fuck off,” he straggles out in broken words. His left arm flails up trying to grab at John and he moves much faster than a dead man can leaning on the arm with his knee keeping it in place.

“Now see I don’t feel like that’s it,” he grits out. The man screams again a wailing moan that echoes through the empty hallway they’re trapped in. “What is it?” John struggles to get the words out pain shooting through every inch of his body the power of the spell scratching at his very bones.

He squeezes on the dead man’s heart particularly hard practically bursting it. The scream he lets out this time is high pitched, broken and bordering on breaking some sort of sound barrier, but only they can hear it. Zatanna winces at the sound.

“Okay, okay, just let me,” he pauses coughing violently blood pouring out of his mouth. “Die.”

“Happy to. Now cough up something more than blood,” John says his shoulders swaying slightly. This is taking a lot out of him and it takes just about every cell in Zatanna’s body not to reach out to him.

“Oblivion,” he barely croaks out and the wave of red rushes back over the hall, the barrier broken.

John lets go of the man’s heart and falls back onto the floor exhausted his eyes shut tight when his head knocks into the wall a little more roughly than he’d like. The mans body deflates more blood just pooling and pooling underneath him.

Zatanna lifts herself up into a crouch and finally lays her hand on him softly cupping his neck. “John,” she whispers rubbing small circles into his tense muscles. He lifts his head and opens his eyes and Zatanna watches as the black that’s taken them over bleeds away to the regular soft blue.

“Let’s not do that ever again,” he says lowly with so much effort Zatanna worries he’s going to pass out.

Zatanna smiles softly at him bringing up one hand and softly rubbing her thumb under one of his so very tired eyes. “Sounds like a good lifelong plan to me.”

She encourages him to stand with a gentle hand under his arm. It’s a struggle getting him up from the ground but they manage. She manages almost entirely on her own dragging him through a portal and back to her apartment in San Fran. There’s no dark magic there, just her and her magic blended into every fiber in the couch and every paint chip on the walls. She thinks it’ll be good for him to get away from it all for a little while.

Getting him cleaned up takes a while, he doesn’t have the energy to stand in the shower so she cleans him up with her magic carefully and swaps him into something more comfortable, something not covered in blood.

“I won’t be sleeping any tonight, Zee,” he says when she tries to guide him to the bed. So she diverts to the living room and flicks on the tv with a hand. There’s always a corny b-movie monster marathon on somewhere at this hour and she finds it leaving it on with the volume low.

John’s barely paying attention to it his mind a million miles away and she knows he won’t be himself for at least a day or two. Fucking necromancy, it only hurts the people who use it for the right reasons. He settles comfortably between her legs pressing his body up close to hers. His eyes are wired open, he’s pretty certain he’s not even blinking.

He always feels a little darkness buzzing at his edges but right now it’s like a livewire. The only thing that’s keeping him grounded to the reality that he’s not as dead as the man who’s heart he was holding in his hands is her touch.

She’s warm, alive, her heart beating under his ear. She’s got one hand buried in his hair that he knows needs a wash but she keeps it in place rubbing at his scalp, the other hand is tangled with one of his, her nails biting into his skin just a little, a reminder that this is real.

She knows what she’s doing and he couldn’t be more grateful for it. Eventually his body is going to force him to sleep and eventually he’s going to wake up screaming when that happens, but for now she’s keeping the darkness ebbed just enough for him to feel alive which is enough.

[icequeenbae]

Desert Flower (m) Ch. 2 | BBH

Pairing: Baekhyun x Reader x Baëkhyun

Characters: EXO and X-EXO (not all of them mentioned)

EXO vs X-EXO dynamics, complicated relationships, angsty, action, smut (as usual)

Warnings: sorta mingling with your ex’s ‘evil twin’, mentions of blood/ violence (nothing too graphic… I suppose), Y/N gets teary a lot(?), explicit content, rough sex, unprotected sex

Word Count: ~13.5k (full), ~3.4k (Chapter 2)

Summary: Baekhyun, your beloved boyfriend of three years, suddenly breaks up with you and disappears from the city in an attempt to protect you. But leaving you alone and clueless means trouble will surely find you. For it is easy to spot a flower in the desert.

Masterlist   >> One >> Two (m) >> Three (m) >> Four (fin)

Author’s Note: This chapter is going to be a little different! There’s angst, there’s drama, there’s smut... You will find out what I meant by ‘complicated relationships’ 🤭 Don’t forget to share your thoughts^^

Tags: @blahblahblah-boo​ @baeklightsx​ @wooya1224​ @baekklove​

Chapter 2. Get him back

The day he left you it was pouring, and in your mind, it rained ever since. Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, and weeks flew by. You did everything on autopilot, without thinking or differentiating between tasks. Everything around you was a grey mess, and you couldn’t maintain a single thought in your head, not one thought that didn’t have something to do with the breakup.

Was it even that? He just left, telling you that it was ‘for your own good’. Asking for no opinions. Frankly, you were angry with him. You would've been furious, but it was hard to tap into your irritation when it hurt so much in your chest. For the first time in your life, you realized that you were gone too far. So far, that you felt like a piece of you was missing now. The one you’d possibly never get back.

You also realized that you belonged fully to that friend circle as well — there wasn’t even anyone for you to talk to anymore, or wallow with, which made your sorry ass feel even more pathetic. Your entire world revolved around your protective boyfriend of three years, and now that he was gone it felt as unsafe as ever. Who knows, maybe it was your sixth sense alerting you as to what was to come.

It happened over a month after your last encounter with Baekhyun.

You were lounging in the campus library, mostly because your weeks of heartbreak caused you to miss a few deadlines, so now you had to take additional assignments to do well at the finals. Having no inspiration, or better yet, no one to hurry to, made you stay there for long hours, barely managing to get one task completed at a time.

The space was almost empty since it was rather late, and looking around you suddenly felt a tinge of nostalgia. Muttering that you should get ahold of your stupid self, you walked slowly towards the tall aisle with your useless book. In the labyrinth, you wandered for a bit, reminiscing of the first interaction with your… now ex? Your first boyfriend? Your first love?

The thought left a bitter taste in your mouth, and you opted for walking further as if surrounded by books you could somehow block your bubbling feelings out.

A strange sound caught your attention.

No idea why, you kept walking towards it, soon stepping around the corner and freezing on the spot.

Only a few feet away there was a couple making out. The girl was pressed harshly into the shelves and grunted, as her partner shoved one hand underneath her shirt to squeeze her breast, and his other one grasped her neck, adding to the obscenity of their misplaced passion. You were ready to flush tomato red and vanish on the spot when you noticed something… familiar.

That side profile.

You would never mistake it for anyone else’s.

Wide-eyed in shock, you almost jumped when the male turned around, dark irises foreign to you. His eyebrow raised slightly as he took in your distress with half-lidded eyes, not even bothering to stop groping the girl.

‘B- Baekhyun?’ You said in such a tiny voice that you barely even heard yourself.

The sound of your book dropping to the floor ripped you out of the stupor, and you turned around. Out of the labyrinth you ran, not even bothering to put your belongings back into your bag neatly. You simply grabbed everything from the table and kept running. The surroundings were blurry, but you could see one thing clearly – his lustful eyes, mocking your naivety.

It hurt too much. Unable to hold your tears till you make it home, you found yourself locked in the stall of the nearest bathroom. The way you cried there was almost physically painful, and you struggled to catch enough air as you did. Nor did you care enough to prevent yourself from making noises. Your whole body was shaking with your sobs, and you weren’t entirely sure you hadn’t gone crazy just then. From seeing what you saw. From reopening the still-hurting wounds and seasoning them richly with salt.

However long it took you to dehydrate yourself with the seeping sorrow, you managed to stop, hiccupping only every now and then. Finally shoving your laptop and notes into your bag, you got out of the stall. Walking up to a mirror on wobbly legs, you gasped at your puffy face and red swollen eyes. Not that you really cared, but it was quite late, so you had good chances of sneaking out and getting home unnoticed.

Unless someone would be purposefully waiting for you to show your face, of course.

You took notice of the dark figure across the hall momentarily after exiting the bathroom. Turning the other way, you increased the pace of your steps, almost breaking into running speed to put some distance between the two of you.

‘Hey,’ a voice called from behind, and you felt a hand grabbing your upper arm to stop you.

The nerve he had.

‘Don’t fucking touch me!’ You barked at him, ripping away from his grasp fiercely.

He blinked, letting go, and you almost hiccupped again at the sight of his hair – even more silvery-white now than when he left you, slightly unkempt (from the prior activities, no less). As he opened his mouth to say something, you beat him to it.

‘Don’t talk to me. Don’t even look at me. You make me sick!’ You spat, wanting to both claw at his beautifully sculpted face and to snivel pathetically again. Instead, you turned around and took off before he gathered himself enough to try initiating a conversation again.

Because… What the fuck was he thinking?

***

You fell ill. It probably wasn’t unrelated to what happened at the library, but you became so feverish that your roommate was on the verge of driving you to the hospital. Three days later your fever finally broke, however, you felt weak and drained and depressed for another week afterwards.

Staying at home, you kept rewinding back to the ‘event’. How could he? Coming back like that, and not even having the decency to not screw around right under your nose. You were repulsed by what you saw, and it was almost hateful how the heaviness in your chest only worsened. The bitterness of the situation added to it – he lied to you, just to be with someone else weeks, or, perhaps, even days, hours after. Maybe all of it was a lie, you didn’t know anymore.

This Baekhyun… You didn’t think you’d ever known him.

The subsequent week you avoided all of the crowded areas of the campus, dreading that you’d have to face him again. It would be impossible to maintain your calm in that case, so you took all of the possible precautions. But what could you have done if he was looking for you?

Upon your following encounter, you failed your attempt to vanish out of his sight the way you did before. It was essentially you walking into a trap, as you headed home rather late after finally squeezing your last important assignment out on paper. Not giving the outside world a single moment of attention, you stopped at the top of the stairs to put your phone into your bag and zip it up.

‘Aren’t you a mystery woman, Y/N,’ the voice almost made you drop your stuff.

You glanced up, taking notice of the murky figure, leaning onto a nearby tree. As he began walking in your direction, you turned on your heels and took off. It felt stupid to run from him like this, but you absolutely did not want to break down in front of him. You wanted to preserve at least some dignity.

As you flew down the stairs, you stumbled and almost dove headfirst to the ground. Thankfully, a swift limb wrapped around you before you could do that.

‘Are you dumb?’ He exclaimed into your ear.

‘Let go of me!’ You writhed in his hold, trying to free your body from the illusive familiarity of his touch.

‘You’re a danger to yourself! What the fuck,’ he swore under his breath, releasing you at once.

‘I told you to leave me alone. Do whatever you want, just stay out of my freaking life, Baekhyun!’ You yelled in his face, fuming from his shameless behavior. Why was he acting like nothing was even wrong with this?

‘Unbelievable. Your twin screws someone over, and you’re the one held accountable,’ he rolled his eyes.

Twin… what?

‘What are you talking about?’ You asked in bewilderment.

‘I believe, introductions are in order. I’m Baëkhyun, nice to meet you.’

***

That was… embarrassing. So embarrassing.

You had no idea there was, well, a live copy of Baekhyun walking around. And even though your ex-boyfriend was secretive, you couldn’t believe he left something like this out. Were you an actual joke to him?!

Baëkhyun said they weren’t particularly close. He explained to you that he hadn’t seen his twin in years, and his friends helped him obtain the little knowledge of his whereabouts that led him here. Thinking he could find Baekhyun by asking around he… got ‘involved’ with a girl or two. Or a dozen, who knows? But, apparently, your reaction the first time you’d met piqued his curiosity. When you flushed at the memory, apologizing profusely, he only said that he found it odd and strangely cute, the way you got upset with him.

‘I’m not as great of a guy as Baekhyun,’ he shrugged. ‘Not that I’m trying to be, anyways.’

You frowned.

After the way he left you, Baekhyun was not at the top of your ‘greatest people of all times’ list either. You could understand why your new acquaintance mentioned this, you had witnessed enough to gather that he was not at all well-behaved. Also, his ways of extracting information… Not very professional, to say the least. But who were you to judge? Now that you’d learned that he wasn’t your ex, you were genuinely ashamed of the hysteria of the past couple of weeks.

But Baëkhyun was different.

When he got your number and promised to text, you didn’t think much of it. You hummed and rolled your eyes – as if that was going to happen. Yet he surprised you by sending a quick message the following week. And then… you just kept talking. Which went on for a while, whilst you’d grown slightly addicted to it. Somehow, Baëkhyun became the only person who could take your mind off of his twin. So, even when you finally went on the long-awaited summer break, you stayed in touch with him. And not only via text – you’d been seeing each other on a regular basis.

Randomly at first – you’d just bump into him somewhere around the university premises, and he’d then suggest grabbing coffee. But as it progressed, you ended up inviting him over for dinner. Partially because you felt acutely lonely with your roommate gone, and partially because… you missed him. It was hard to put a finger on it – you’d initially thought that it was just misplaced longing for Baekhyun that pushed you towards his twin, and it felt so wrong. Almost like you wanted to use him to soothe the ache in your heart that had been bothering you ever since your ex-boyfriend had left.

Yet Baëkhyun seemed so magnetic. He hypnotized you with his blue eyes, which changed from the icy light color to dark, almost black, and were just as sharp as his twin’s. And his sassy smirk – the one he had plastered across his face almost always. Baëkhyun wasn’t warm like Baekhyun, yet there was still something about him that had you walking willingly into his trap. Maybe it was the mysterious glint in his eyes as he looked down at you or the way he sized you up whenever he caught a glimpse of you, like you were his prey. Being alone with him felt both dangerous and exciting, and you kept fooling yourself, basing your blind trust on nothing but his relation to your ex.

You never noticed how quickly he managed to build trust between you. And how you didn’t even know much about him, yet you did tell him a lot. Like that one time, he asked you where you thought Baekhyun was.

‘Wouldn’t I like to know,’ you chuckled, sadness in your voice. ‘He just left. I don’t think he even kept his phone.’

‘I always said he was the dumb one of the two. And to think that he’s the strategist,’ he snorted, splayed on your couch comfortably.

You looked at your hands in your lap, subconsciously calming yourself by playing with your fingers.

‘Stop,’ you shivered as his palm covered your fidgety hands. ‘Stop thinking about him.’

Eyes traveling to his face, you caught a glimpse of the frown that formed there.

And then he kissed you. Out of the blue, giving you no time to think or pull away.

And you let him. Grabbing at the soft leather of his pants, you allowed him to do as he pleased with you. Baëkhyun tasted familiar, though his kissing was anything but – rough and messy, lots of tongue and teeth, making your head spin with flaming passion. You didn’t resist when he pulled you into his lap, or when he ripped your clothes off, item by item. He was not asking and you were not thinking. It didn’t feel like something you should stop at the time. Rather, you thought you would’ve cried had he paused for longer than a second, so you kept clinging to him in response.

The demanding grip he had on your thighs only made you crave it more, lust seeping into your system as you wrapped your arms around his neck and rolled your hips into his. He emitted a deep sound, helping you grind on him.

‘Good girl,’ he gritted into your lips, landing a slap or two on your ass along the way.

As you kept going, your bare breasts grazed his skin, and your panties became soaked and sticky. You were probably flushed rosy red as you chased the tight feeling in your lower abdomen, his eyes hungrily taking in your frenzy. He slapped you again, a sharp hit resonating through you like electricity.

‘Baëk,’ you half-moaned. ‘Please fuck me-’

You couldn’t even believe that you were begging him like that, out loud. But the desperation grew as your body threw itself at him, demanding release.

He moved your panties out of the way, fingers instantly getting wet with your arousal.

‘Such a needy little slut,’ he murmured, making you shiver.

It was all new. The name-calling, the manhandling, the way he bit harshly into your lower lip and tugged at your hair. And somehow, it was exactly what you needed.

He didn’t waste much time to prep you, opting for taking his already hard length out and running the tip between your folds, making you jolt and cry out, nails digging into the back of his neck.

‘Sink on my cock and take what you want. Like a bad girl would.’ He addressed in a low voice, smearing the remainder of your lipstick over your mouth with his thumb. ‘Wanna be a whore for me?’

‘Yes,’ you muttered, and he smacked you on the ass again, emphasizing that you needed to be louder. ‘Yes!’

He let go of your hips, hands resting on your legs, allowing you to slam down on your own. You whimpered at the slight burn but kept going. Moving this fast wasn’t the way you were used to doing it, but all the more exciting for that. Using his shoulders to steady yourself, you worked your hips hard. A sheen of sweat on your chest glimmered as you increased the pace, wailing as his tip nudged at your cervix. He watched you with his dark blue eyes, hands kneading your ass, and filthy mouth guiding you.

‘Squeeze your tight little hole.’

Meanwhile, you struggled to maintain the tiresome pace, yet held onto the sensation of his girth pressing against your walls as he glided in and out of you.

‘Ah fuck, Baëkhyun!’ You moaned, feeling the tickle of perspiration making its way down your abs.

‘I know you’re close.’ He licked his lips seductively. ‘Want me to help?’

‘Yes, yes, please,’ you keened, leg almost cramping from the uncomfortable position.

‘Leave your begging for another time, baby. Like I said, if you want something, you should take it.’

You whined, head spinning at the suggestion. His eyes, expectant, traced the stubborn crease between your brows while you kept rocking your hips. Then, you did the first thing that came to your blurry mind. Your hands reached up to grasp his hair and pull hard, tilting his head back and leaving the long column of his neck exposed for the attack of your lips. Sucking a bruise on it harshly, you then used your teeth to ensure he’d have a bright mark in a few hours. Creeping up his neck and his jaw, you licked at his lower lip, and then into his mouth – like an animal would.

‘Oh,’ he smirked, hands seizing you and holding you down, with him snug inside you. ‘So, my good girl is not as innocent as she seemed?’ He teased, the lustful glint in his eyes boosting your confidence to the level of insolence.

‘Shut up,’ you replied firmly, sliding off of him and flopping backwards to finally get some circulation in your legs. ‘Stop slacking off and make me come, you asshole.’

His eyes flashed at your brazen words. Shoving you roughly until you were flat on your back, he grabbed onto your thighs, dragging you closer to him. Instantly you cried out as he landed two consecutive slaps on your pussy, holding his heavy hard-on at the base. Pleased with your reaction, he did it again, not saying another word before he bottomed out inside you. A new wave of arousal washed over you, and you clenched around him, eyes fluttering shut. He didn’t even think to spare you the morning soreness as he nailed you like an actual whore.

‘Ah right there, right there- oh fuck, Baëkhyun,’ you sobbed, clawing at his flexed arm, when he placed one of your legs over his shoulder and leaned forward, basically stretching you open for himself.

This position made you feel vulnerable, like you had no choice but to take everything he was giving you, but it was what you needed. His every thrust resonated inside, making your muscles clench, and ripping more curses and moans out of you. Even though his pace was rather brutal, there wasn’t too much pain along with it – Baëkhyun knew all the right spots.

Mouth agape, you arched your back in silent agony, and a few more hits of his thighs later came so hard that it almost made you pass out on the spot. The hand over your mouth muffled your scream, and he let your leg slide off of his shoulder, pressing his palm against it to keep you in place and prevent you from closing your knees.

Muscles contracting uncontrollably, you whimpered at his continued thrusts as you became too sensitive from the drawn-out pleasure, tears soaking your lashes by the time he finally pulled out.

Baëkhyun grunted lowly, and you opened your eyes to witness him jerk himself off at the sight of your swollen, fucked out pussy, not even blinking until thick ropes of his semen painted your lower belly.

Despite having just performed a thorough fucking, he lowered himself on his elbow slowly and brushed the rogue strands of hair away out of your eyes.

‘You’re a naughty one. I love it,’ he murmured, positioning one of his hands on your neck as he kissed you deeply. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll teach you how to be in control.’

And so, you let yourself fall down the rabbit hole. And there was no telling what you’d gotten yourself into.

>> Chapter 3

A/N: Whooo, Baёk is here, stirring some kind of trouble, isn’t he? 🤭 Our poor Y/N-ie is walking on thin ice. What do you think of their relationship? Feels a little bit like cheating, right? Technically it isn’t. But still, the darkness is always pretty seductive...

[elliestormfound]

okay, prompt, I'm happy for you to change any detail of this because it might be too complicated? lmao. So, Jaskier is rummaging about Geralt's things when he's been told not to. He 'thinks' he breaks one of Geralts weapons, and is in a total panic all day about it not wanting to mention and trying to hide it? Turns out it's just something Geralt has modified to the weapon so that when someone touches it they can't use it? like to stop people touching/stealing his things? haha.

thank you @hailhailsatan for this wonderful prompt! I had to think about it for a bit. It was fun to write! Sorry, I had to make it fluffy and it got kind of long...

read on ao3

---------

Jaskier knew he was in trouble. 

Geralt had left two hours ago to take care of a nekker nest and because the bard had seen him fight nekkers at least a dozen times by now, he had opted out to stay at their campsite. Imagining a relaxed day, lounging on his bedroll in the sun and working on a song or two. 

But he couldn’t find his quill, even after he had emptied out all of his bags on the forest floor. Maybe it had gotten into one of Geralt’s bags?

The witcher had told him numerous times not to touch his stuff. “Don’t touch Roach”, “don’t touch my swords”, “don’t touch my clothes” and “don’t touch my bags”. And Jaskier tried. But it was hard for someone who liked to share everything. Not that he just took from others, he loved to share his belongings, a warm blanket on a cold evening, the dried fruit he had bought on the last market they visited or his lavender soap.

And Jaskier knew Geralt had good reasons to tell him not to go through his belongings. A few weeks ago Jaskier had been thirsty in the night. Standing up to walk to the nearby stream had felt too much of an effort, so he had rummaged around in Geralt’s bag for his water bottle and in the second he placed it on his lips, Gerlat, who had been asleep a moment ago, had slapped it out of his hands.

“The fuck, Jaskier”, Geralt had grumbled angrily, “what do you think you are doing?”

Confused the bard had replied, “I just wanted a sip of water.”

“That’s not water, you idiot, that is griffin decoction, one sip could kill you.”

Jaskier had just stared at the witcher with wide eyes, “I’m sorry, I thought…”

“Don’t think, ask me next time,” Geralt had growled.

“I didn’t want to wake you,” Jaskier had said in a small voice. 

“You drinking poison and choking to death would definitely have bothered me more than you waking me for water. I told you not to touch my stuff,” the witcher had said, thrusting the actual water bottle in his hands.

But today Jaskier’s head was full of words and phrases and melodies he had to write down before they would escape. And for that he needed his quill. So he had very carefully opened one of Geralt’s bags, not reaching in, just looking. When he did not see a trace of a quill he moved on to the next bag. There was something silvery glittering in the morning light, just like the nib of his quill. Very carefully he reached in the bag, trying not to touch anything else. His hand closed around something he instantly knew was not his quill. But he had touched it already, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a look at it, would it now?

To his surprise Jaskier pulled a beautiful dagger out of the bag. The hilt lay comfortably in his hand as if it had been made for him, wrapped in soft leather for a better grip. The sheath was made of sturdy dark red leather with an intricate floral pattern. From farther away it would not stand out, would look nothing special, but Jaskier could see and feel that it was of high quality and only in close proximity did the floral pattern show it’s full beauty. Jaskier looked closely, carefully tracing the pattern with his finger and after a moment he was sure that it was a stylized depiction of buttercups. Very slowly he drew the dagger out, revealing a beautiful silver blade, reflecting the sun in his eyes. There were words carved into the blade. He angled the blade to have a better view and as his finger touched the gleaming silver to trace the words, the blade crumbled to dust - to his utter horror. 

He drew in a shaky breath as he watched the dust drift down and - caught by the wind - disappearing. His eyes were wide and his mouth formed a perfect o as the shock settled in. The knife looked to be expensive, probably custom made and he had just single handedly destroyed it with the touch of his finger. 

He was fucked. Jaskier knew Geralt would be furious. This was not an accident, but he had deliberately opened Geralt’s bags against his explicit command and touched one of his belongings, also against his explicit commands. 

Would this be the straw that broke the camel's back? Would Geralt now send him away for good? Cold dread creeped down his neck. Should he put the hilt and sheath back into the bag and pretend nothing had happened? Should he tell Geralt directly at his arrival? Should he wait till Geralt was in a good mood? When was Geralt ever in a good mood? Fuck, fuck, fuck…

He stood petrified for a while, like a deer caught in headlights, not able to decide what to do.

Then he heard it, footsteps. Geralt was returning. Jaskier whirled around facing the witcher, hiding his hands with the evidence behind his back. He plastered on a (hopefully) cheery smile and said louder than intended, “Geralt, you are back early!”

“There were only a few nekkers,” the witcher replied, who was cleaner than expected after a fight.

Jaskier could practically feel the suspicious gaze burning on his skin as Geralt beheld his unusual arm positioning. The witcher narrowed his eyes, “what are you holding there?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Jaskier stammered, “nothing of importance. Ahm, tell me everything about the fight, how many nekker were there?”

But Geralt was not distracted and just growled, “Jaskier…”

The bard started to sweat, “you know, it was not really my fault, I just had a teeny tiny look into your saddlebags…” his voice got quieter with every word, “and I might have...ahhhm, broke something…” He looked down, cheeks red.

The bard heard the witcher approach and breath in deeply. Now would be the moment he would tell him to pack his bags and leave, to never bother the witcher again. His stomach felt like it was clenched in a cold angry fist. 

But Geralt stayed silent and after a moment the bard looked up. He did not look particularly angry...not more than usual, and he had his head tilted. 

A moment later the witcher said, “it’s the dagger, isn’t it?” and turned away as if nothing had happened. Jaskier still did not move, looking at Geralt, who just went around camp in his usual after-fight-routine. Unstrapping his swords from his back and setting them down next to his bedroll, drinking a few gulps from his water bottle, cramming some dried meat in his mouth and getting a rag to clean off the few bits of nekker guts that had landed on his armour. 

Jaskier let his arms fall to the side and said, “aren’t you going to say anything? Yell at me?”

“You want me to yell at you?” Geralt asked.

“No, I’m...ahm… quite okay with not being yelled at.”

“It’s your birthday present you managed to destroy, so you should be the one angry,” the witcher said.

“What?” the bard’s mouth hung open and when Geralt raised an eyebrow at him he continued, “birthday present? But….I thought you didn’t know when my birthday is.” Geralt just stared at him. “You told me three times in the last month,” Geralt said, “I don’t forget that easily.”

Jaskier looked from Geralt to the hilt and sheath in his hands, eyes still wide and damper than a minute ago. “And you got me a present,” his voice was barely audible, “and I just broke it…”

With a sigh the witcher walked over. Jaskier could not bear to look him in the eyes, his own glued to the broken dagger. With the next breath he could barely suppress a sob. Geralt was in front of him and then Jaskier felt Geralt’s hand on his, the one holding the hilt and slowly lifting it. “Jaskier, look at me,” the witcher said softly.

Jaskier looked up and a single tear ran down his cheek. “Just take a deep breath,” Geralt said in his deep voice, “nothing is broken.”

Jaskier did as instructed and Geralt carried on, “you did not break the dagger. You demonstrated how well it works.” 

Jaskier’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “what…”

“I brought this dagger and asked Yen to put a defensive charm on it,” Geralt said, “ it can only be used by the ones I imprint on it, so it cannot be used against you in a fight if someone managed to take it.” Jaskier just looked at his witcher in awe. He had not expected the witcher to even remember his birthday let alone buy him a gift, especially not such a thoughtful, beautiful and expensive one. 

“I planned to give it to you on your birthday next week and to imprint it, so you can use it.” Geralt was still holding his hand and that was somehow grounding Jaskier.

“But…” he managed to say in a small voice, “I already broke it…”

“Yen thought about that, with a simple spell it can be revived,” Geralt said, “that is also how the imprint happens. It has to be broken to be imprinted on someone new.”

Geralt took the sheath from him and said, “put both of your hands around the hilt.” As Jaskier had done this, Geralt covered the bard’s hands with his. He breathed in deep and said a few words that sounded like elder speech, but Jaskier could not quite catch them. With a strong scent of magic small whirlwind started to dance above their hands and after a moment the silver blade was back, gleaming in the sun as if nothing had happened. Jaskier’s smile stretched from ear to ear. 

“Geralt, that’s amazing, I have to thank Yen as well!”

Geralt chuckled and slowly took his hands away from Jaskier’s. Then he had to take a few steps back because Jaskier swished the blade around a bit. With a cheeky smile the bard drew his hands with the blade carefully to his chest as if to hug the degger. 

“Geralt, this is an absolutely amazing present, but wasn’t it… ahm … a bit too expensive?” He looked anxiously at the witcher.

“A cheap dagger would only cause more trouble than it would help,” Geralt grumbled, looking away from the cornflower blue eyes beaming at him. 

Jaskier took a few steps towards the witcher, took the sheath from his hands and pushed the blade safely back in. A moment later he threw his arms around Geralt’s shoulders, squeezing him tightly. After a moment Geralt sighed and also wrapped his arms around the bard and murmurd, “happy birthday, buttercup.”

[swordancer7]

⚠️⚠️SDR2 SPOILERS⚠️⚠️

How I would have done a blackened Sonia

All right, so, I never thought Sonia was going to survive till the end of the game. She seemed suspicious to me in every trial and I felt she always had possible ways of killing the victim that were less far fetched then some of the actual killers.

She also seemed easy to kill, she is a princess with 0 real world experience so fooling her into being in dangerous situations would be easy. Being a foreigner as well, means you could get away with some bullshit saying it was just cultural difference.

I know Kazuichi is the easy route, but I think it would be interesting if she killed him.

I'm thinking specially about chapter 4, where she would have been the killer instead of Gundham. In part because when I played I thought that Gundham is was dumb to make an elaborate kill like Nekomaru's. However, I would make Gundham the most suspect person in this one case.

Since he and Sonia spent a long time together that chapter for the first time, it makes a quick correlation between him, her and Kazuichi.

The circumstances of Kazuichi's death would be:

-He is found dead stabbed on the chest, laying in his own bed;

-He is found with strange blood splatters in his suit. His arm is close to his body, but the blood splatters in his sleeve and chest form a big and unusual angle.

-his knees are pointing to the wall, close to the end of the bed, but the knife is in his chest, so if the person was sat in the bed they would have had to reach around him to kill him, or he really was stabbed while laying on his back.

In my version, I'd add more scenes to the chapter: one of some of the students playing with Gundham's hamsters, probably Hajime, someone from strawberry house and Kazuichi himself, adding a new clue:

-He has white, grey and brown fur on his hand/sleeve.

The other scene would be very minor, Kazuichi would go explore the Straeberry house together (as usual the victim spends more time with the protagonist before their death). Kazuichi and Hajime have a very awkward time since Kazuichi is clearly so suspicious of Hinata since the last trial. They never solve this weird tension and it keeps bugging Hinata after the trial because he knows Kazuichi wanted to believe him because of the talk they had during exploring the house.

During the exploration of the strawberry house/grape house there is a throw away line mentioning that Kazuichi paints his nails very poorly. Which leads me to the new clue about the body:

-Kazuichi's nails are perfectly painted black.

Someone beside's Nagito still has used the final room and someone notes that one of Kazuichi's tools is missing from his toolbox, that Kazuichi has mentioned to Hajime that he is proud to still complete (he is clumsy, he loses stuff sometimes). The elevator is broken in the grape house.

Now to the trial:

Sonia is one of the very first accused, but is quickly considered innocent since she wasnt part of the playing with the 4 devas of destruction scene. She even assumes she isnt as sad as she would be for his death like he was from previous victims, but that is shrugged off since he did bother her a lot and she was never seen being mean to him.

As I said, Gundham is suspect n°1. The fur in Kazuichi's hand/ sleeve is the collor of the 4 devas of destruction, though the other person in the scene and Hajime are also framed and considered suspects (mainly Hajme, since he also searched the houses with Kazuichi).

Out of the ones left, who else wears black nail polish? Gundham of course. Someone reveals that they did see Gundham entering his room, but all the other floors of the house where occupied and no one saw him in them beforehand.

I already told you Sonia is guilty, and I think part of the reason they move away from her so soon would be that often the game comes up with weird complicated tangents that distract from the real case, but the cases are often stupidly complicated as well, so this would get the player off their rithym by actually being one of the easiest things to explain.

"The elevator was stuck in grape house, but he died in strawberry house. The murdered probably made it stop on grape house as a red herring!" How did he do that? Idk, but they assume that's it and latter have to return and remember theres no proof of a way someone in strawberry house could make the elevator stop at grape house.

"Sonia wasnt playing with the hamsters, the fur in Kazuichi's sleeve was probably from that moment" Sonia didnt play with the dark devas, but that doesnt mean she couldn't have done it in another moment, when she was hanging out with Gundham.

"How would have Gundham gotten inside Kazuichi's room?" First conclusion is that he offered to paint Souda's nails as a excuse to get in his room.

And heres the thing: he was indeed the one who painted Kazuichi's nails, it even happened in Kazuichi's room. The someone who saw him enters his room did actually see him coming back from Kazuichi's room, but at that moment Kazuichi was still alive.

What happened was: Sonia went to Kazuichi's room after Gundham left, because she knew Gundham was going there, he mentioned it to her when they explored the houses together.

She gets in the room and plays a little with Kazuichi, pretends to be interested, gives him some affection and he ends up laying on her lap, which makes things easy when she finally stabs him.

Theres 2 ways you could play this out, the Souda x Gundham way and the non shipy way.

So if you are not interest in the shiping side, heres how I would do it: Gundham doesnt like seeing people fight, it's part of his nurturing nature, he offers to paint Kazuichi's nails as a peace offering and to explain he isnt romantically interested in Sonia, as well as to ask him to not doubt Hinata either, since he can sense (as in: knows by his body lenguage) that Hajime doesnt plan on hurting anyone, much less Kazuichi who he considers a friend.

Sonia did approach Gundham for an interest in his obscure aesthetic and the thing about raising animals that is important for courtship rituals in her country, that she mentions in her free time event. But when Gundham tells her he wants to talk to Kazuichi she is an opportunity to frame him for the murder, she is already reached her boiling point with Kazuichi, even if she doesnt show it (like celeste).

Like celeste, she has been desperate to leave the game (as she also mentions in her free time event). She feels the responsibility to come back to her country, that she cant leave her people without a governor and she finally saw a chance of escaping the island.

Ok, shippy way: Sonia is jealous of Kazuichi because Gundham tells her he has a crush on Kazuichi. And Sonia has a crush on Gundham.

She cant stand Kazuichi anymore, all her life people have pretend to be her friends/lovers to gain her trust and favours, she doesnt trust anyone who is too enthusiastic about being close to her. That's why she likes Gundham, he is mysterious and quiet and she feels she has to conquer him instead of having him lead her on for favours.

Gundham is pretty bad at expressing his feelings but (as seen in his free time events) he is also clearly starved for affection. Kazuichi seems to have a grudge against him and Gundham admires that he is so enthusiastic about how much he likes Sonia, and fuck dude, he wants someone to be in love with him like that.

Sonia is completely done with Kazuichi already, and kills him out of anger and jealousy. He got Gundham interested in him despite being annoying all the time and she feels like he was stealing Gundham from her right when she was able to conquer his friendship.

She likes true crime, she has seen lots of stories of people murdering others for love, she even thinks its romantic.

So yeah, that's it. Its kinds dumb but I think it's ok since so many of the cases in the game are already dumb.

[some-dr-writings]

Gonta x Botanist Reader with a hobby of candy making One-shot: Gonta’s Gift

Gonta had awoken to a chill that morning as expected, it was still winter after all. It was still dark out as well. Gonta found himself on that particular morning unable to get up. He had work to do, yet he found himself instead hugging you tightly, nuzzling his face into the back of your neck as he interlaced your finders together. He adored the feeling of your hands within his, something about tracing the lines in your palms or seeing how perfectly the rings fit on those fingers of yours could always hypnotize him. Maybe it was the warmth of them, or the slight clamminess of them, perhaps it was what those rings symbolize, the lifelong commitment you two had taken for one another for many years now. He had seen those rings and his own on the pair of you for so long, one would think he’d just be used to it by now but at times, like that morning he just felt extra sentimental, visions of your wedding day together played in his mind sending his heart to pick up in pace. And then he was blushing, getting embarrassed recalling how when you danced with one another he accidentally took a misstep sending the pair of you to almost crash into a table, and how you simply laughed, told him he was doing great before taking a misstep yourself. Thankfully he was able to catch you and hold you closely as he was doing now, Miu and Kokichi saying something how you two should get a room and your old classmates immediately putting a stop to it. It was such an amazing day.

“Still sleepy I see.” “No, just admiring you.” Alright, it was time to get up. He flipped around, getting his glasses from the bedstand as you playfully patted Gonta’s unruly hair out of his face. “… I feel like being fancy, berries and pancakes and stuff, you want some?” “Yes, I’d love some!” You sleepily smiled before yawning and trotting out of the room.

“The pancakes smell so good, I could smell them all the way from the bedroom.” “That’s just your powerful wolf nose, then again I guess I could finally be going nose blind.” Gonta sidled up beside you, watching as you poured more batter onto the pan. “Ah, you made more jam?” Carefully he took one of the glass jars off the counter beside you, holding it up to the rays of light that had just began to peek through the window. “Yeah, once my raspberry research ended last month, I just decided to make some into jam. Still have a lot extra, but I don’t want to have nothing but raspberry jam for a year. Maybe I could make ice-cream, or… maybe turn it into a flavoring for lollipops?” “Could I give some to my ant friends?” “Sure, most of ‘em are still on the vine. Take the ones from greenhouse three, back left corner of the place, the others aren’t quite ripe yet.” “Third greenhouse, back left corner, thank you!” It would be nice to visit one of your greenhouses. He usually only did so when going to see you, or checking up on the insects you had allowed in there, maybe collect ingredients if you allowed it, but-

“Gonta Dear, you still have a mat in your hair.” “Huh!? I do!?” “Yeah, it’s towards the top… ish. No, I mean lower top? You know what, just bring me a comb I’ll get it for you.” “Thank you so much.” Quickly Gonta trotted back to the bathroom to get a comb, though he did feel a little guilty, he couldn’t even groom himself on his own, but he also could never decline help from you.

“Care to take over pancake duty so I could get to you now?” “I’d like that.” Admittedly Gonta also like this, it always felt so nice when you brushed through his hair, he’d get this pleasant tingling feeling on his head and down his back whenever you did so. “Oh, I just remembered. Oma might be stopping by today.” “Kokichi?” “Said something about coming today to collect the poisoned, exploding berries he had ordered or whatnot. I’m a botanist, not a plant breeder, besides I don’t have the time to experiment on that... although… maybe I could pencil it in next year?... Uh, anyway. Sounded like he also dragged Saihara and some others into his antics so we might see others as well.” “Do you know what time? It’d be ungentlemanly if we didn’t have snacks prepared! And we’re so far out in the countryside, do they have a place to stay at? I’ll go make sure the guest rooms are prepared later.” “I’m not sure, sorry Dear.” “… Perhaps we could make some extra pancakes for if they come in the morning?” “… And if they don’t come by soon enough, I guess we could just snack on the rest through the day.”

Gonta listened to the low hum rumble deep in your throat as you thought it over. He could sometimes puzzle out what you were thinking by the tone of your hum, or at least when your thoughts shifted from one topic to another, like it did just then, shifting to a slightly higher pitch before you spoke. “It’s sometimes weird to think back to our high school days. You always spoke differently back then, but it would be easier than proper Japanese, you hadn’t been back in human society for long. It had this charm to it that was nice. It was simple, not needlessly complicated. I wonder if back then I could have imagined you speaking with proper grammar.” “…” Gonta felt rather silly about it, the heat that arose on his cheeks. “Well… he would speak that way if you told Gonta you wanted him too.” “Oh, no, no, no! You don’t need to do that.” Placing your hands on one of his shoulders you jumped, pushing yourself up, planting a quick kiss on the cheek. “I appreciate the thought though.”

“Y/N, you should slow down, I don’t want you to choke on your food!” Gonta placed his hands on yours, getting you to stop shoveling the pancakes down our gullet. “Sorry Sweetie. I just have lots of work to get done and I don’t want to fall behind! You’re right though, I’ll slow down.” Gonta simply watched as you so excitedly smiled. You certainly were in a good mood, that was for sure, but who wouldn’t be when eating your cooking. He remembered how you always smiled like that on dates. Like your very first date when the pair of you went to a botanical garden together… It had been a while since you had gone on a date together, but you both had been rather busy. You still made time to just laze about in evenings, but you hadn’t gone on a real date and not for lack of trying. It seemed whenever you tried, something always got in the way whether it be the weather, scheduling conflicts, last minute delays and so on. These thoughts came to a halt through hearing the faucet turn on. “Y/N allow me. I’ll clean up so you may get to work.” “Thank you, Gonta.” As you passed by you gave him a kiss dashing away. He wished you had lingered just a little bit longer. You always were so hard working, but it would be hard not to do so when it was for something you loved, Gonta certainly knew what that was like, there had been more than one occasion where he was so absorbed in his research, he didn’t realize it was midnight till you came in, asking him to come to bed. You both really should take a day or two off and just have a date, it’d be a nice change of pace!

And so, another day at work ensued which was occasionally interrupted by daydreams of things to do together, Gonta notating every idea down; dancing under the moonlight, a picknick out in nature, doing some cooking together. True it was just three ideas, but he could come up with more ideas later and even ask for your input, you could probably come up with things he never could have.

As he was dreaming away about the pair of you working together in the kitchen, Gonta suddenly remembered something. He never got those raspberries; he had completely forgotten about that. Gonta had also noticed the time, it was really late in the afternoon, it would be evening soon. Gonta had never eaten lunch and he wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t either. Gonta raced through the house, past the kitchen, past your lab and to the many greenhouses. Gonta picked the raspberries you had told him of, and some strawberries from your designated personal food greenhouse. Gonta didn’t think himself as that great of a cook, but he at least he could make decent, filling meals that you loved! He’d make you some oatmeal, but if you did have lunch and were full, he’d eat it for you, and give you some strawberries as a snack instead.

Just as he was going back to the house, he spotted something in the corner of his eye. “Ah, Shuichi! You’re here!” Eagerly he raced up to the man… who was carrying a box? “You should have told me you were coming. That box looks heavy, I could carry it for you, it will be easy for me.” “G-Gonta! Well, I uh! I-I’m helping Y/N!” “Y/N needs help?” “Yeah! I’m just moving some equipment, nothing big! Just go back to your work, we can talk later.” “Really? You look off, are you coming down with a cold?” “I-” Before Shuichi could answer he was tackled to the ground, sending snow flying. “Shuichi, Kokichi! Are you alright!? You’re not hurt!?” The purple haired clown hopped off the poor detective, gaining a wince from him. “I-I’m fine Gonta.” “GONTA! WHAT ARE YOU DONING HERE!? YOU SHOULD BE WITH Y/N!” “W-what!? Did something happen to them?” Kokichi hopped onto Gonta, gripping the collar of Gonta’s lab coat in his fists, standing on Gonta’s stomach. Gonta kept leaning back as Kokich kept the ends of their noses presses together. “What happened to them!? WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM!? HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR OWN SPOUSE!?” He leaped off, beginning to walk away. “Oh, Poor Gonta doesn’t know how they are or where they are!” “Wh-where are they!?” With his back turned, he simply pointed to the house and the entomologist immediately darted away for it. Slowly Shuichi sat back up. “Well… that was certainly one way to keep him away, but you didn’t have to scare him like that.” Kokichi simply shrugged, taking the box from Shuichi. “It’ll be fine, he’ll be happy to see they’re just fine. Maybe they’ll cuddle for a few hours and be hunky-dory. Besiiiiides, Y/N is the best distraction we could ever ask for. Anyway what else was I supposed to do, let you ruin the surprise!?” Tears formed in the corner of his eyes before he burst into tears. “Y-you don’t want Gonta to have a happy birthday surprise!? HOW CRU-” Suddenly a hand was slapped over his mouth. “Shhhsh! Gonta might hear you! Let’s just go!” “Nishishi! About time you kicked your butt into gear! If you did earlier Gonta wouldn’t have caught you!”

“Y/N!” It was not gentlemanly to go running through the house, but you needed to be safe! “Y/N!” “Gont- OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUDGE! FUDGE-FUDGE-FUDGE!” The kitchen! Gonta immediately raced to the kitchen! “WAIT! DON’T step on the clear liquid, or touch the pot, both are very, VERY hot!” You lightly trembled, holding your hand under the pouring faucet. Seeing how red your hand was Gonta took the first-aid kit from one of the lower kitchen cabinets and snapped off a piece of the aloe vera plant you kept on the windowsill for situations just like this. Effortlessly with one arm he lifted you up to sit on the counter, with his free hand he turned off the faucet. Even though Gonta patted your hand dry as gently as possible it still flinched. “I’m sorry!” “N-no, no, it’s okay.” Taking a knife from the knife block Gonta quickly peeled off the aloe vera skin revealing the clear gel and smeared it over all the burnt parts of your hand, and a little around them just in case before wrapping your hand firmly. “I always forget just how good you are at this.” “When I lived in the forest, I had to know how to heal any injuries, even little cuts can get you sick.” A small sigh had escaped him as he cupped your hand in both of his.

“Hey, what’s wrong? You look shaken.” The moment you placed your uninjured hand on his cheek he immediately leaned into the touch before placing one of his hands on yours, gently pressing you into him. He closed his and kissed your palm not caring at all about it knocking over his glasses. “I saw Kokichi, he said something happened to you and I got scared. He was acting like it was something really bad.” “Oh Sweetie.” You leaned in, giving him a kiss on the forehead. “I’m okay, well aside from the burn, but you’ve taken care of that already. I’m okay because of you.” “So, I was useful?” “Dear…” You sighed, lightly shaking you head. “You are more than useful, you’re amazing. Never forget that, please.” Gonta was confused as you took off his glasses, placing them beside you. Then a giddy laughter bubbled up from him as you peppered his face in kisses. Now all day you had been giving him kisses, it would be ungentlemanly to not give you some love back, so with a determined glint in his eye he peppered your face and neck in kisses earning laughter and squeals from you. Soon you both dissolved into giggling messes, so loving your moment together.

Gonta insisted you stay on the counter while he cleaned up the floor, not wanting to risk you getting another burn or dirtying your bandages. Since it was still hot and hadn’t hardened yet it was somewhat easy aside from the residue of stickiness which seemed to refuse to leave the flooring for a while. “What were you making? Could I help, it might be harder to make it now with a hurt hand.” “… Well… Alright. We’re going to be making some hard candy.” “Hmm?” “Yeah, my lollipop stash in my office has started running low and I thought about making something slightly different this time. You’ll see.” “… You had work, I thought?” “Shuichi and Kokichi are taking over set-up so I have some extra time.” “Ah, that’s good. I must thank them later! Maybe they’d like to have another insect meet-and-greet! I do have some new friends they haven’t met yet!” A smile tugged on your lips seeing how excited he was getting. How you even met such a perfect, sweet, gentleman, you would never know, but you were more than grateful he was a part of your life, let alone him being your own husband.

Thankfully for you, you hadn’t gotten far when you got hurt so getting back to where you left off was rather quick. “See the crystal-like stuff on the sides of the pot? That’s where the wet pastry brush comes in. You just gotta brush it, we don’t want that stuff in the candy.” Gonta nodded, following your instructions. “Oh, didn’t you say we do something at a hundred twenty-six Celsius?” “I can take care of this part; you keep washing the crystals.” It was almost exciting to watch as you dropped in some red dye into the mixture, the boiling bubbles on their own mixing in the color, getting it to swirl around. It felt somewhat strange the fiery heat from the stove and winter’s chill both surrounded him. He was both tempted to roll down his sleeves, despite cooking, to warm up even a little or to at least undo the top buttons of his shirt. Cooking in winter was always a bit odd when the kitchen hadn’t completely warmed up yet.

“Is it at a hundred forty-eight Celsius yet?” “Almost.” “I think I can set up the next batch, we’re going to make one for each base color of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, you get the idea.” “It’s at one forty-eight.” “Take it off the heat! Take it off the heat!” Quickly Gonta did so, placing it on a turned off burner while you shutoff the first one. “Now we add the flavoring! Can you guess what it is?” “Uh… I don’t……” He paused for a moment, as if unsure of what to say. “raspberry?” “Yes! How did you guess?” “I try remembering all of your words. They are all important to me, and you told me this morning about having so many!” “… Damn it, Dear. You’re so sweet.” You passed him a tiny glass bottle. “Here, just dump this into the pot and stir. After that we just have to pour the stuff into the molds and wait for it to cool.”

And so you both repeated the process over and over, past dinner time and even beyond when night had fallen, the sky dark, the only light from those tiny twinkling lights far away in the sky. “Careful. Careful. Careful. Don’t drip now… slowly… and… WE’RE DONE! Almost It’s gotta cool… which will take a while.” The molds were cube in shape so none could see exactly what the shape inside was, and for each you placed a stick in. It seemed a little big for a lollipop unless it was a very big one. “The kitchen will cool down quickly so the candy will too after that.” “Yeah…” You quickly glanced to the clock.” “But it was fun making stuff with you, I don’t want to stop just yet.” “Well, we could make something else.” “… You picked strawberries for oatmeal, right?” “Yes, but… that is a few too many for oatmeal, isn’t it…” You both looked to the two large containers of the stuff. “… Wanna make strawberry ice-cream? We can save some for oatmeal breakfast tomorrow.” “I’ll get the ice cream maker!” “Get the large one!” You adored seeing the delight in your husband’s eyes. No matter the weather or time of year, sweet, sweet ice-cream was always in your freezer. It was one of the first ‘candies’ you had him help make with you. Cooking together like this wasn’t too common with your usually busy schedules, but at least once a month you’d come together to make the sweet treat. And every time you’d be like a pair of children let loose in a sweets shop, wide sparkling eyes, squealing with high pitched voices at every little stage of the process of making. It was always just so fun.

All too soon though your fun had come to an end. “Oh! Dear, we need to go outside. Then everything can cool down much quicker!” “Yes a- Oh Shuichi and Kokichi! I just left them out there!” “Hey, Dear, it’s alright. They actually might be asleep right now, and I know they had some things to snack on. They’re alright, I assure you.” “If you say so… I still feel bad though.” “We can be the perfect gentlemanly hosts tomorrow. They were working all day, so I’m sure they’d like to see us be the ideal party hosts of sorts. How does that sound.” He looked to you for a prolonged moment, then smiled. “I WILL BE THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN HOST!” Suddenly he instantly lost all of his bravado, shrinking down a little. “I should be quiet! It’d be very rude to wake them this late in the night.”

Sneakily, and quietly giggling to yourselves like naughty children you slinked out of the house with the candies and ice-cream in hand. You placed them down by the doors of one the many greenhouses. “Ah, I just love crisp, clear skies like tonight. Just perfect.” You spun around, kicking up some snow as you went. It was even a full moon out, illuminating the whole world in a soft light. Gonta noticed how you soon slowed your twirling, hugging yourself and shivering. “Huh?” “Is this alright?” You looked up to him in confusion, not expecting to suddenly be held so closely. You smiled, nuzzling into him. “More than alright.” “Then… may I have your hand?” Though you were reluctant to do so, you managed to rip one of your arms from him and placed you hand in his which he held up to about chest level. Then you began to sway about, slow dancing to no music but the wind rustling about. Gonta made sure to keep a gentle yet firm grip on you noticing how the snow beneath your feet with slightly slippery. “If we stay close and keep moving, we’ll keep warm.” And so you danced in the world where only the pair of you existed, nothing but your love for one another to keep warm by.

Gonta noticed how you kept glancing to the watch on your wrist, even beginning to count down ever so softly to yourself. Though unsure as to why you were doing so, he joined in, counting down with you. “five.” “four.” “three.” “two.” “one.” “Happy Birthday Dear.” Oh, it must have been midnight already. “Hey, if it’s too cold out here we could go into the greenhouse for a bit.” “… Do you want to go?” “Yeah, but also no.” “If you want to keep dancing, let’s keep dancing. I just want to do what you want.” You playfully smacked him on the chest. “Excuse me! It’s your birthday, not mine. We do what you want.” Gonta fell silent, a bright blush dusting his cheeks. “Gonta… The only gift Gonta could want for his birthday is to make you happy. And Gonta wants to be the one to make you happy. You are the most precious to Gonta.” “… Gonta… you’re just precious, you know that?” His heart began to flutter seeing he had drawn a smile from you. “Though… I-uh! Gonta could want for one other thing. Could Gonta get a kiss from the absolute most precious, amazing love of his life, his only partner?” “Of course.” He lifted you up like it was but nothing, still holding you close. You looked down on him, chuckling to yourself as you draped your arms over his shoulders seeing his glasses starting to fog up. Ever so delicately you took them off, then while closing your eyes leaned your lips into his.

Suddenly Gonta began to panic realizing he was so caught up in the moment he forgot about the snow and slipped. He clutched you as closely as he could, placing a hand on the back of your head to shield it, and threw out his arm so he could brace himself and not crush you in the fall. “Y/N, Are you okay!?” “Y-yeah, just start-” Just as suddenly as the fall happened, several voices appeared. “Guess ice isn’t the only hard thing around here! Am I right boys!” “Oh my God-” “Oh my Atua!” “Miu, SHUT UP!” “Yeah MIU! The insect lollipops are as well, duh!” “Kokichi, you’re not helping.” “Did you expect him to help!?” “Quiet down, Gonta’s going to hear us!” “Kaede, I believe he already has. Shall I turn on the lights now?” “Yeah, just do it Kirumi, please.”

And just like that the lights to the greenhouse burst to life revealing the whole class inside, several of them peaking their heads out the open door, some taking in the molds and ice cream that was left by it. “I- what!?” “Uh, remember that work Shuichi and Kokichi were helping me with? Well, we were working on making a surprise birthday party for you!” Gonta simply stared at you, unmoving, shocked. “Gonta!?” Tears formed in those bright red eyes, but you only saw them for a moment, suddenly being hugged, Gonta burying his face into the crook of your neck. “T-thank you. I love you, so much. Y-you know that, right? Not just for this but everything else too! I love you!” “Hey, at least save this till you see the spread we got you!” “huh?” “Go into the greenhouse!” Slowly the man got up, and once he did, he carried you all the way there. Tables were spread out as far as the eye could see, filled to toppling over with sweets, treats, and wrapped gifts of all kinds. Gonta even spotted Kaito opening the molds revealing beautiful insect shaped lollipops, drops, leaves and other such things.

Even a picknick. Gonta wondered how he ended up with such a perfect person like you, a person who could freaking know him so well as to have this all done at around the same time, he began wanting all this. You truly were the greatest gift in his life.

[the-fiction-witch]

Hey BabyDoll...

TV SHOW: THE QUEENS GAMBIT COUPLE: BENNY WATTS X READER RATING: SMUTTYISH

writers notes: Is this just becoming and Benny watts account? NO! I swear I have other stuff I’m working on I have just been son inspired by this series and by Benny, I’ll also be away over the weekend for a holiday so I’m trying to get stuff done for you guys and all the other stuff im working on isn’t going to be ready in time where as they Benny stuff is.

I smiled sitting at my vanity gently kicking my feet letting my feet swing in my little kitten heels, a couple of the petticoats of my dress tickling my legs as I moved, as I concentrating hard on making sure my lipstick went on properly feeling the eyes of my mother stood on the doorframe to my bedroom as I rubbed my lips together putting my lipstick down "That Okay?" I asked her

"That's enough," she says so I got up and did a little spin in my dress "Take a cardigan"

"Mother..." I whine

"Y/n," She warns so I sighed grabbing my little white cardigan from my bedpost "Put it on" So I sighed slipping it on my shoulders she came over doing up a couple of the top buttons to cover my chest over a little more

"Mother It's just benny"

"yeah well... Benny's getting older, Better cover-up and be warm than be too revealed y/n"

"I know Mother" I sighed slightly rolling my eyes

"Either this or I get your father-" she began

"It's alright, you don't have to bother daddy" I answered

"Then you play by my rules," she says as she noticed the clock "Don't go to the east side of town, No Beer, No smoking, -" she began

"and home by eleven, I know mother" I finished

"And... Be careful"

"I'm always careful Mother, You really think benny's going to try anything?"

"I don't know, I barely know the boy," she says "I'm allowed to worry"

"Mother, The day benny Watt's tries anything with me is the day I'll see pig boarding an aeroplane" I laughed There was suddenly a Knock on our front door so she went down to answer it while I undid a button on the cardigan and added a little more makeup "chance would be a fine thing" I sighed

"Y/n, You have a Visitor" my mother calls from the bottom of the stairs so I fixed my hair and my dress and headed down the stairs blushing a little seeing him stood adorably. His shoes shined, his pants on loosely almost like they where too big for him, his black shirt on done up tightly with his jacket over the top his hair a little messy, he was clearly clean-shaven and obviously had a serious shower. But Like I always saw him when he came home from tournaments, he saw me fixing his hair a little and blushing a little bit

"Uhhh Hey Y/n" He smiled

"Hi benny" I smiled going over to him he took my hand giving it a little kiss "You look nice" I smiled

"You uhh You look beautiful Y/n"

"Your sweet" I smiled

"Go on, Have her home before eleven Mr Watts" My mother warned him

"Yes Mrs Y/l/n" he nodded offering his arm so I smiled taking it and going out the house and down the little dark streets of New York, I smiled waving to my mother as we headed down the street as soon as we where a far enough from the house we both started giggling and running off down the dark streets, We went and got ice cream and went dancing as we usually did before we headed off to the park "They hate me"

"They don't hate you benny" I laughed

"I'm not even allowed to have you out past eleven y/n" He complained, "How can we... have fun if I can't pick you up till nine and you have to be home by eleven?"

"I don't know, I keep begging my father to let me out earlier but he never allows it"

"What are they so scared off?"

"that... you'll try something with me" the second I said it he turned bright red

"T-T-Try what?"

"You know what benny" I smiled hitting him with my hip playfully

"But I-"

"I know you don't but they think you do"

"I hate dating" he sighed

"why?" I asked a little heartbroken

"Ohh no it's not you babydoll, Of course, I love spending time with you, but it's all this stupid stuff at this point I don't actually have to impress you I'm just impressing your parents"

"Umm, Very much so" I nodded "they keep badgering me" I laughed as we headed to the park close by our houses

"Well... I keep saying I'm happy to y/n"

"I know, I just, I don't want you to meet my father yet. He'll destroy you benny"

"Well Maybe if I go, He'll know how serious I am about his daughter" He smiled holding my hand

"I'll think about it, I just know he'll get you into a corner-" I began

"And Make me play against him," he finished

"And You'll beat him" I smiled

"You really think so?"

"Of course I do benny, your a million times better at chess then my father" I smiled "But if you beat him... he's not going to like it" I explain "But if you lose..."

"he might not think I'm good enough for his daughter"

"Umm," I nodded as we walked "So... when am I meeting your family?" I asked

"Uhhhhh Soon" He nods

"Soon?" I asked, "How soon?"

"Soon,"

"I've been asking a while"

"I know... I just, I don't know" he says

"Wouldn't you want me to?" I asked cautiously

"Of course I do, Of course, I want you to meet my family and I wanna meet yours it's just... Complicated babydoll"

"Don't you want to... you know?"

"Of course I do," he blushed so I smiled tugging him to a bench sitting down beside him and nuzzling into his shoulder and giving his cheek a kiss "Y/n! you'll get me in trouble" He blushed as I had left an imprint of my lipstick on his cheek "Your dad will kill me he saw you kissed me"

"Ohh benny Please, come on just a little kissy" I smiled holding his hands gently squeezing his hands a little

"Well... Okay," He blushed squeezing my hands a little too and giving my cheek a peek

"Why are you so nervous around me?" I asked

"Ohh well, I don't know really just not too sure how to act with... girls" He smiled

"Why not?"

"Chess isn't exactly a world full of girls y/n," he says "and... I can't help getting all nervous with you considering... how I feel about you"

"Which is?" I asked

"That I really like you" He smiled "I really do babydoll"

But soon enough his watch went off so we got up and sorted out heading back to my house hand in hand even if I started to shiver a little in the cold wind, he smiled to me slipping off his jacket to put it around my shoulders

"Aww thank you benny" I smiled

"Your welcome Babydoll" He smiled as we headed down my little road till we found ourselves at my front door "So... I have another tournament next week, so Uhh How about I come to see you once I'm home?"

"Id Like that Benny"

"Okay, I'll see you then" he smiled "Could I uhh... Could I kiss you? before I go?" he asked and I nodded he blushed a little moving closer trying to kiss him but before our lips could touch the door opened to my mother looking very very angry

"Get in this house this instant!" she says pulling me inside by my wrist "Young lady you were meant to be back before eleven it is twelve-thirty where were you!"

"I was just at the park with benny mother," I told her

"And what's this?" she asks wiping a rag on benny's cheek noticing the lipstick that came off when she did "and I heard you at the door," She says "You Up to your room now!" she ordered me I sighed heading up the stairs "and you, I don't want to see you near this house again-"

"Mother No Please-"

"Enough! Or I'll call down your father" she warned so I stayed quiet and headed upstairs.

I was so angry with my mother and with my father, they had forbidden me from seeing benny he wasn't even allowed to the house my father threatened to send me away to live with my aunt if he ever found out I had been seeing benny. They had tried making me go out with other boys but none of them ever showed any interest in me not like benny did, and I never showed any interest in them either so I spend my nights at home playing on my father's old chessboard when I heard a noise in the dark making me jump I froze with fear as there was another noise from my window, I turned and looked and noticed the window frame being pushed open and in from the darkness climbed "benny" I smiled in a rather hushed whisper "Benny you can't be here My father will kill you he knows your here," I began

"I know, I know, I just... I had to see you"

"Ohh benny" I smiled giving him a tight hug and he happily hugged me close I smiled pulling him to sit on my bed with me "why did you come?" I asked

"I had to see you babydoll, I haven't seen you in weeks, and I go away tomorrow I don't even know when I'll be back"

"I know, I wish they would let me see you" I sighed nuzzling on his chest

"I promise babydoll I'll figure something out while I'm away"

"You mean it? but there are a hundred other girls?"

"But there not you babydoll"

"Ohh Benny" I smiled blushing a little

"Y/n! what's going on in there!" I heard my mother yell from the other side of my door

"Uhh I was just watching Tv mother!" I lied "You should go... I don't want them to find you here, even if I'd much like you to stay"

"I know, I should go... don't want to get you in trouble but uhh before I go? Could I kiss you?" he asks  blushed a little and nodded holding his hand he blushed a little too before he moved capturing my lips in a quick and passionate open-mouth kiss I smiled happily kissing back he tasted like petricorn and tea and I instantly loved it I kissed back a lot moving my lips against his own our innocent little kiss turning into a teenage snog within seconds till I pulled back

"That uhh that's enough for one-night benny" I blushed even if I wanted so much more after so long of benny seeing me he was finally making some sort of move on me I felt like id waited years go that kiss and honestly... my breaths were short, my heart racing I wanted to push him as far as he would go, at last benny was starting to react to me other then blushing  I wanted to crack open that nervous little boy body and see the sort of man he could be below, I wanted to take everything he was going to give, I wanted to ... let him do anything to let him go crazy, to let him have me, but I knew with my parents just on the other side of the wall I didn't want to imagine the trouble we would be in if they found him here

"Your right, Until next time Babydoll" he smiled kissing my lips sweetly before he went out my window climbing down the drainpipe he even blew me a little kiss as he reached the pavement.

I sat in my room looking out the window to the busy new york streets humming a little tune when suddenly I saw someone come down the street and to out front door I didn't recognize them so I went down curiously as my mother opened the door to this person.

They stood tall, the skinny body wrapped up with things. he wore tight black jeans, a green button-down that was open a little, to reveal some of his bare skinny chest with some golden chains against his skin, a long leather jacket a speckling of facial hair, a messy mop of blonde hair hidden by a cowboy hat,

"Why Hello Mrs Y/l/N" He smiled

"Uhh Hello, I'm sorry who are you?" she asked I couldn't help the feeling I had seen this man before

"Ohh pardon me Madam, Benny Watts. I don't suppose you remember me?"

BENNY! What the hell happened to him! he was a skinny little babyfaced nerd boy when I last saw him, he said he had to go on trips and didn't know when he'd be home but that was over a year ago, I was starting to wonder if he'd ever come back but clearly.. he had and he's uhh grown up.

"Benny Watts? I thought I told you-" she began

"Benny? is that really you?" I asked looking at him so intently he saw me as my mother moved slightly from the doorway he looked as shocked to see me as I did to see him

"Hey Babydoll..." He smiled

"My goodness what... on earth happened to you?" I asked going over slightly and he stepped in smiling at me

"I Grew up" he shrugs "I had a lot of time... to think"

"To think about what?" I asked

"Priorities" he smiled "Now, It's Sunday and I know six O'clock is still dinner time" he smiled fixing my hair for me I looked at him a little confused and he shrugged "it's about time I meet your family" before he went to the coat rack taking off his jacket and hat

"well Uhh dinner will be a while" my mother added

"No worries, We'll go upstairs and catch up won't we babydoll?" he smirked and I nodded grabbing his hand and dragging him up with me to my room "you did grow up didn't you" he smirked shutting my bedroom door behind him

"What the hell happened to you?" I asked

"Hey, Naughty girly no swearing," he says putting his finger on my lips "I should slap the back of your legs you naughty little thing" he smirked

"Benny, I'm serious! what happened to you? why didn't you come to see me? I... I started to think you never wanted to see me again"

"Ohh no babydoll never, it's just... while I was away I thought about us. about everything I grew up, I'm not your cute little nerdy boy anymore babydoll,"

"I noticed" I blushed

"I thought you would" he smirked "I just had a lot of time to think, about you, about me, about...us. it ate me alive that, I didn't speak up the night they took you away from me, I should have stood up for you I should never have let them take you from me. So I grew up, Matured so I could come back here, walk-in and get you back"

"Aww benny, You never lost me, I was waiting for you"

"Well, now I'm a man I hope... good enough for you babydoll"

"Ohh benny, you always were" I smiled hugging him closely I tugged him along to my bed and he smirked a little

"Been a while since I was here" he smirked "it feels like forever ago"

"It does, it hasn't been that long I guess but... it feels longer given how much we've changed" I smiled

"I missed you"

"I missed you too" I smiled intertwining my fingers with his own

"Last time I was here I kissed you" he smirked watching my eyes with those golden brown orbs

"You did" I smiled blushing rather hard

"Could I... Again?" I blushed hard at the thought, I had been replaying that kiss in my mind every day since that night I wasn't sure I mean it had been so long and he had changed so much but I couldn't deny my thoughts from that night came flooding back to me. No matter how much he matured, how much he changed, he was still benny. and I still wanted him. I nodded squeezing on his hand he glanced up and down my body a moment his tongue gently licking across his bottom lip as he did he stared longingly at my lips before he jumped forward kissing me, he felt like I remembered but he tasted like coffee and dust, his hair tickled me and poked me but I had to admit I didn't dislike it, I kissed back as quickly as I could soon enough our kiss returned to the open mouth snog we had had so long ago. his hands moved to hold either side of my waist firmly his fingertips grasping at me wildly I moved my own desperately to his neck gently playing with his hair as I did "Ummm fuck!" he groaned between kisses hardly pulling away to speak tugging my waist and my hips closer to him I moaned in shock overwhelmed with excitement as he pushed on me so I laid flat on my back on my bed his arms the only thing keeping me even a little up from the bed as they wrapped around my waist and he laid down on top of me kneeling himself between my legs "Ummmm babydoll!" he groans pulling me back to kissing him I held him as close as I could never wanting to let him go again, I didn't care about my parents, I didn't care about anything, My benny was back and that's all I cared about, he really was a man now and I was happy to do anything he wanted me too and he began moving a little I wasn't sure why, I don't know if he was trying to push me deeper into the bed, or maybe get more ontop of me I wasn't sure all I knew was he was moving ontop of me and something of his rubbed against something of mine grinding against me like he was trying to hump me or have sex with me

"Uhh benny!" I said in shock

"Ummm fuck! I've waited so long my beautiful girl..." He gasped as he pulled away sitting up over my hips "I can't wait any longer" he smirked moving his hands back to himself and in some strange way of magic I wasn't sure how exactly he undid the rest of the buttons on his shirt revealing the rest of his chest to me and I could have fainted but he captured my lips against forcefully holding me as close to him as he could and I held him as close to me as I could too but as we where moving lost in our passion I suddenly felt gravity as we both fell in a mad mess onto my bedroom floor giggling like crazy and my bedroom door opened

"What on earth was that!" My father yelled

I felt like I was having a heart attack as I saw my father stood at the foot of my bed holding the metal curves in his suit with his hair done I could see in his face he was not happy. But to be fair he did just walk in on us. My hair a little messy  from the hot and heavy kissing and from being laid on my bed, My dress up around my stomach from the fall but it did rather look like benny had done it to me, on my bedroom floor with benny laid over me his shirt open and an obvious erection, benny sat up in shock and I pushed down my dress as quick as I could

"Uhhh Hi daddy" I smiled

"What the hell is going on here!" He yelled

"Ahh Mr Y/l/N Pleasure to meet you, Benny watts. Us chess champion, once banished from your house currently making out with your daughter" Benny smiled getting up leaning on my bed and offering his hand to my father. My father looked at him carefully but shook his hand as I got up

"I remember you"

"I figured you would" Benny smirked

"Ohio If I'm not mistaken," he says and I was a little confused "The last time?"

"Yes sir it was," Benny answered

"Dinner's in five minutes" He says before he left my room

"That worked?" I asked very confusedly

"You'd be surprised how far confidence goes babydoll" benny smirked pulling me by my waist into his chest "Now... where were we?" He smirked trying to kiss me

"what did he mean by Ohio?" I asked

"where he saw me last, come on babydoll" he answered grabbing my arse and trying to kiss me

"Saw you? Benny, what are you talking about?" I asked putting a hand on his chest and gently moving away even if I loved the feeling of his skin on my hand

"He was the visiting master before we started I saw him and spoke to him as I usually do whenever I see him"

"You talk to my father?"

"Course I do, Normally about you babydoll and when he'll let me see you again" He explained, "He didn't tell you?"

"My father barely tells me anything"

"Well you can get him to explain it all at dinner" he smiled kissing my temple "Now, let's get down to dinner so we can get back up here before it gets too late, I wanna make sure they're awake so they hear us"

"Hear us?"

"When we... made your bed creak and bounce babydoll, Come on they kept us apart for so long they missed all our teenage snuggles up here, Your bed pounding the wall, your bed creaking, my pretty little babydoll screaming for me so I’m gonna make them listen to all of it tonight, " He whispered and I blushed hard "Come on" he smirked putting his arm around me and his hand on my waist as he tugged me downstairs...

[superconfusedandreadytorumble]

It is the 23rd July, 2021. The summer heats have finally subsided, the morrows now cool giving us normal folk the ability to catch a breather before the work begins anew. The harvest is-

Yeah no, enough of this. It is the day it is but truth be told all this post is supposed to be is an answer to my darling @laninlurks who has tagged me back in March and did not even have the decency to tell me personally! Yeah girl, how dare you! You know I´m not tech-savvy, I´m old. Well at least I feel like it in my head...

So here I go, playing this little game (this is considered a game, right? I have absolutely no idea. I´ve seen this kind of “introduce yourself” thingies here on tumblr but this is the first time I´m participating. Thanks again LANIN!)

Well, let´s get over this:

Name/Nickname: uhhhhh... Yeah, no I know how this goes. Name equals power so you fae can forget it, I ain´t buying this. You shall have no power over me. Ha! As if I´d fall for such a cheap trick. Hahaha! Nah, but on a serious note I really did not think of anything what people coul call me here... I guess Superconfused works?

Gender: female

Height: 5´8″ (thank you Google for converting cm to feet and inches)

Time: 2.55pm

Favourite Bands: Okay, let me stop you guys right there. I´m not going to go posting a ton of different band names because my music taste is very eclectic and most of the time I either do not know the name of the song/band that I´m into. If I hear it and my brain starts projecting a story it´s a good song for me.

Favourite solo artist: *looks up to the previous point* Yeah, you guys get the message

Song stuck in my head: Ohhh now that is easy! It is currently a mix between “A whole new World” from Aladdin (1992), “Save your Tears” by The Weekend feat. Ariana Grande, “Plastic Hearts” by Miley Cyrus and “Racing into the Night” by YOASOBI

Last Movie: The Avengers: Endgame

Last Show: Loki

When did I create this blog: Good heavens, I have absolutely no idea... Lanin, you´ll probably know that... can I check this somewhere? Somehow? Eh... let´s leave it at that, I have no  clue... may have been 2 or 3 years ago

How it started: After ages of going around and sending myself link after link so I would not lose sight of great posts and until my email inbox was full, I finally decided to make myself an account. That is it. That´s the story.

How´s it going: *looks around* Good, I guess? I mean, I´m still here, so...

What I post: Ufffffffff. Everything and anything that touches or inspires me, I guess? The content here that I reblog is as eclectic as my music tastes. We got witchy stuff, fandom stuff, quotes, life lessons, you name it. I did finally get around to making an additional blog to reblog all of the wonderful pieces of fan content here and leave a comment because till now I have been very neglectful of that. But that is another story...

Aesthetic: Personal? Blog related? I have absolutely no idea... Next question please.

Last thing I googled: That would be the conversion of cm to feet, but if that does not count then it was an anatomical picture of the hymen. There was a conversation ging on in the family and I had to explain the location. It was much easier with visuals, I tell you.

Other blogs: And I just mentioned mine two paragraphs ago xD Well then there´s the @studyblr-beginner where I try to collect info on how to be a more productive student (with mixed efforts I might add) and the @stillconfusedandreadytorumble .

Following: Anything witchblr, studyblr, any blog that feeds into my current obsession of any fandom, cottagecore, academia be it light/romantic/dark, quotes, art, etc. Seriously, anything...

Followers: Eh, I think 2 or 3 poor misguided souls... Yeah, okay so I checked and apparently there´s 44 of you. 44!!!! Like guys, guys, are you okay? What are you doing here? Not that I´m not grateful but I´m also very very VERY confused right now... Hi?

Average sleep: 7 hours, if I have time to sleep in even more

Lucky number: I do not really believe in that... Although if I see a platenumber with three identical numbers beside each other I take it as a good omen

Instruments: I may have tried to learn the piano years ago but it was never really my thing

What I am wearing: an oversized shirt with the wolf medallion logo form “The Witcher” series, black shorts and a dark green dressing gown with flowers and pretty little humming birds. Yes, I´m in my sleep wear. No, I am not ashamed. The last couple of days have been hell, I´m still recuperating.

Dream job: Physician, and I´m working hard to get that damn doctors degree.

Favourite animal noise: wolves howling. That moment when it sends chills down your back, when the hairs on your arms stand? Love it and it gets me every time.

Random: If asked a question I start stuttering and mumbling and warbled bla-bla just comes out of my mouth until I try collecting my thoughts. That may take a couple of seconds though.

Dream trip: Japan, Prague, Venice, these three are from the top of my head but otherwise I´d like to travel and see the world. Yes, vague, I know but the world is big and nobody has time to write long lists about this.

Favourite food: Dumplings. Do not, I repeat, do not make me specify which dumplings cause I´ll eat or at least ry them all if given the change. I already diviate from my normal answer of “There is so much good stuff out there, I could never choose”, okay?

Nationality: Welp, before I make this any more complicated I´ll just stick to what is in my passport: AUSTRIAN 

Favourite song: May I refer you back to the paragraph that says Favourite Band/solo singer, please and thank you.

Last book I read: “Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll

Top 3 fictional universes I would like to live in: Currently it would be either Lord of the Rings, Witcher or Boku no hero academia. Ask me in 3 months and I bet with you that answer might have changed again.

Tagging: Oh boy... who am I supposed to tag that will not shoot me on sight or think of me being a total lunatic, @laninlurks you don´t count, after all you put me in this mess... Who are the last couple of ppl I had a conversation with? Oh okay, if you guys don´t want to do this, just scratch and ignore that but then again all of my 44 followers are very welcome to do this (still can´t warp my head around the amount of ppl). I´ll just tagg @lostoctaviaaugusta and @thewhit3w0lf , but again please don´t shoot on sigth. I promise I´m harmless.

Okay guys, whoever made it this far, I applaud you, cause really you deserve a medal. thank you for reading I guess and have a wonderful day.

Hugs and kisses!

[aphspain-pure]

Spanish Gold in Moscow

@hetaliamondaychallenge September 28: “Chaos isn’t meant to be understood”. 

Category: Fanfic. 

Pair: RusSpa (Russia x Spain).

Words: 2.073.

Genre: Historical, Drama, angst, shounen-ai. 

Note(s): During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) the Sencond Spanish Republic was completely ignored by Europe, while the fascist that had rebealed were helped by some militar forces. Spain was basically used as a test game of the military armament and strategy before the 2WW. The only country that gave real help to the Republic was the USSR. To finance the war, the government spent all the Spanish gold. 

1938

With an absolute ill look in his face, Spain, who still liked to considerate himself as the Second Spanish Republic, moved his gaze to the door that opened a few seconds before.

Nations could perceive other nations in a certain rate, so he wasn’t really surprised when the other entered the room; he had sensed him from far away, knowing he was leading to his position. Weary eyes without the so-called typical Spanish shine looked at the other, a little smile crossing his feverish face.

- Buenos días, Rusia.

Right in front of him, heavy, enormous and clearly powerful, the actual leader of the giant Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Russia, stared back at him with his famous sweet smile. Spain didn’t have known him till a pair of centuries ago, but he knew about this certain characteristic even before personally meeting him. He heard from France, England, Prussia, Austria and even Denmark about this “gentle look monster” that was so big and terrifying in the east.

Anyway, Spain didn’t have really hated this guy even once; he was actually grateful for his performance during the Napoleonic wars, though. If it wouldn’t have been for the Russian forces, France’s troops wouldn’t have retired from his vital territory and he wouldn’t have regained his independence. He sighed, trying to get rid of the thoughts of the past.

He was now, currently, going to lose his independence against his own people, in the middle of the worst civil war he had ever have –and Spain was certainly a country that had endured quite some civil wars-.

A strong ache tortured his mind while he suffered a new wave of deaths. Every time his people died, his body would burn and a painful sensation split him in two. They were dying at that very moment, out there, in the valley of the Ebro, killing each other in a battle that had been going on for months. He nearly cried, but couldn’t afford doing it in front of the power that was standing over there, staring at him with a complicated look in his eyes.

After a few moments, Russia, still smiling even if Spain’s looks were terrible, spoke with a calmed voice. – How are your wounds? –he had asked.

A quick smile was formed in the Spaniard’s mouth, quite ironic.

- Well, my right arm has grown up again, so I can’t complain.

Russia stared at the renewed arm, where a few days ago only a stump could have been appreciated. They, nations, received wounds just like humans but their bodies weren’t actually the same. If they were cut, they would recover; if they lost blood, after resting for a while they’d be up again; if they were burn till ashes, they would start to be reborn just like a Fenix. If they were killed, they wouldn’t die.

Only another nation could kill one.

Even if Spain had lately started to question if a nation could kill itself, just like how he was feeling during these days in which he thought he was actually going to be destroyed by his own people.

Russia’s hand reached him and touched his back. He jumped for a moment, sored. He then relaxed, looking far away and not giving attention to the hands that touched his still bleeding injuries. 

When a certain happening was so bad, so traumatic, that it gave the nations nearly-coma state, the injuries would still remain bleeding some time. Sometimes it lasted days, sometimes centuries. Those were produced by the bombing, the Biltz, in Guernica, and they still bleed after a year.

He trembled, just by remembering it. The hand in his back made him shiver in pain, but it was the most comforting thing he could afford to have those days, so he didn’t say anything.

Then, he gained composure and faced the other.  - What are you doin’ here, anyway? I thought you were going back at your place for some bureaucracy stuff.

Russia remained silent.

That silence made Spain worry.

He didn’t hate Russia at all. He was nice to him, and every time they had met he could only see a true innocence behind the brute and scary dude everyone saw. He liked him quite a bit, and he lately, during his few peaceful years with a Republic, found out that he was such an intelligent and interesting chat partner. Thanks to the leftist ideology of his government the relations with the Soviet Union had been pretty good, so they had become nearly friends at this point.

He even had became the only nation helping him in this suicidal situation.

During civil wars Spain, normally, stayed apart and watched his people decide his fate. He disliked choosing between his beloved people, so que stayed aside.

This time, he couldn’t.

He had seen what happened with Italy after the Great War. The fascism grow up and ate Ita-chan and Romano completely. The brutality that came with it made Spain shiver from his position in the neighbour peninsula. He didn’t recognise his cute Italian brothers with those black shirts and that dark look in their face. Then it expanded to Germany and developed into the National Socialism, which happened to be even worse. A virus was expanding all over Europe and even reached his brother, Portugal.

Spain could have seen it coming. He even spoke with a few general of the army and old requetés, he tried to create a flexible government just to evade the incoming clash. But it was all in vain.

The military coup happened, and while it wasn’t effective, war broke out.

It may be pathetic coming from a country that used to be a world power but, this time, Spain feared his people. That’s why he stayed with the republicans. That’s why he suddenly started dying from the insides.

And while Spain was in that desperate situation, Europe didn’t mind at all and, trying to avoid a Second World War, signed a No Intervention Pact in which 27 countries swore not to intervene in his civil war. That had broken Spain’s heart, who found himself suddenly isolated and left apart, left to die alone. It was even worse when, even if knowing it, the United Kingdom looked away while the Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy broke that pact and helped the rebels. He couldn’t believe England’s coward attitude.

But it was kinda worst when he watched his closest friends actually attack him, help the fascist rebels.

First, the Italian brothers; then, Germany, Austria and Prussia under the name of the Third Reich. Portugal also attacked the Republic by sending his Viriatos and even the American self-proclaimed Hero’s Ford Company sent help to destroy him. All his old friends were against him. He, on the other hand, only received some fusils from Mexico and a few airplanes from a very scared France, who refused to send more help. The only one who lent him it’s power was the Soviet Union, or preferably Russia.

He still remembered when he had met Romano in the site of Toledo. Romano had been excited, he spoke about autarchy, about having a great colonial empire, and about things such as war being the way through the future. His golden eyes sparkled when he had, for the first time in centuries, hugged Spain.

If you join us I promise we’ll bring this to an end.  –he had whispered, while speaking about how great it was being a fascist country.

He had been then, suddenly, pulled apart by a giant body that happened to be his ally, Russia, who looked at Romano with electric violet cruel eyes. Spain could have said something to stop a conflict, but, when he looked at Roma, he couldn’t longer see his cute tomato-like crybaby. In the past Romano would have cried and call him to save him but, then, he held his gaze prideful, strong and dangerous in front of the terrible Russia.

A bombing had made them react and, when he came to himself, he was with the International Brigades heading to Madrid.

Remembering all of that made him feel sick and hided half of his face while looking at the floor with a tired smile.  

He suddenly had an urge to vomit, but he managed to stay calm and recover a moment later. – Sorry, I beg you excuse me. My house is total chaos now, no, wait… EUROPE is a total chaos now, haha…! I don’t understand how or why, but it makes me think things a way too much.

- Chaos isn’t meant to be understood.

That statement made Spain stay quiet and, then, he looked with his nearly dead green eyes at the other.

- I’m going to ask again, Russia. –he said, this time, cautious-. Why are you here?  

- You haven’t paid me to help you lately.

And if he had frozen before, this time Spain had lost all the blood of his veins.

He started sweating. He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t.

- Y-yeah, I-I know… It’s just that all the gold that I’ve been keeping in my reserves has been already taken to Moscow, so I-I…

Russia’s voice was sweet but cold as ice. – You’re not going to pay for my services.

The Spaniard’s eyes opened at his full.

- No! Don’t even think ‘bout that! I’ll pay, I swear it! It’s just that, right now, my people are starving, we don’t have armament and the industry it’s all stopped. I can’t now but, when we win, I’ll return what I owe! A-and I’ll even make it double…! I’ll work hard, I swear. But, now, with all my old gold gone, I…

- So you’re not paying.

The calmed voice made Spain feel like if he were to hyperventilate. He felt like crashing. Like glass about to break.

- I’m not. –he confirmed then.

The taller man stood up, and Spain followed him, clearly desperate.

- Y-you can’t leave me, Russia! If I don’t have your help I’m lost! –after hearing those words the Slavic turned around and faced him, with his so-typical smile in his face.

- So you’ll pay me?

The brunette looked away, clearly ashamed. – I have… nothing to pay you with. B-but I promise..!

- Нет. You can pay me. –response that took an ¿hah..? out of Spain. Russia laughed in a calmed way and then, explained. – Even if you don’t have anything you still possess your body, da?

And Spain’s eyes darkened.

Ah, true. Nation prostitution.

It had been a while.

It used to be so common in the past that he didn’t know why he felt so surprised when Russia suggested it. It may have been ‘cause Russia is fairly younger than himself, or ‘cause the times have changed. He had been so accustomed to it even when he was a child that it wasn’t so much of a surprise finding out that some new power wanted to take advantage of his position to appeal to this. Spain could easily remember when he was forced to be Rome’s or the Islamic Empire’s sex-boy, or even Turkey’s or France’s. Well, he had also been like that with some nations; but, well, let he who is without sin cast the first stone, and he was also a sinner after all.  

He looked back at Russia and sighed. – Is this old damaged body worth all the gold I could have had afford to pay you weeks before? –and Russia’s aura became surprisingly pink, just like a happy kid’s.

- And much more! I’m happy so I’ll help you.

And leaned forward to kiss Spain’s forehead. Spain rised an eyebrow, but let him be, anyway. He needed help and Russia was eager to help him only receiving some affectionate touches here and there in return. There were worst things he could have had to do.

Another wave of pain drove him crazy sored and let himself drown in the straw bed he had been using before. He took a deep breath. 

Then, when the fever started to be stable again, spoke directly to Russia.

- Well, then, how about a quickie? I have to go back to the battlefield in 30 minutes and I think I could come back quite worse than now, ha ha. –he had laughed, with his shiny –and now tiny- smile.

Russia smiled back, getting rid of his Soviet general military hat while getting closer to the sun-burned skinned nation. He sat, and grabbed the other’s cheeks with a gloved strong hand. That tranquil smile crossed his happy face.

- Let me tell you this is going to be a payment in instalments.

[kpop-zone]

Playing with Fire: Ch 2

Word Count: 2,763

Chapter 2

Because you had spent your first night after officially being Blackpink’s producer with pondering, you woke up the next day, feeling like a truck had run you over. You were extremely tired and felt like your head was completely empty. Nevertheless, you had to drag your feet to work and take an active part in all the meetings. Which was a difficult task. Everyone was having different ideas and was constantly talking all at once. After only three hours, your head felt like exploding. Right in time with the most important meeting of the day. The one with the artist.

You were sitting in the conference room next to Teddy, massaging your temples and waiting for the girls. Jennie was the first one to show up. Her gaze immediately fell on you when she entered the room and her face lit up. But when she saw your obviously pained face, her smile disappeared.

“Hi Teddy.”

She greeted the producer hastily before completely focusing on you.

“I’m glad to see you, Y/N. Are you ok?”

Worry was plastered all over her face and you wondered whether she cared about everyone that much.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

You smiled at her, hoping that you were convincing. Jennie’s gaze stayed a little while longer on you and she looked like she was about to talk back, but then the three other girls entered the room, filling it with laughter and loud chatter. Using the distraction, you leaped to your feet to avoid Jennie’s gaze and to greet the others.

After you had exchanged the pleasantries, you went straight to business. Teddy and you presented your ideas for the album and were glad when the members agreed to stick with the girl crush concept. Having talked about the basics, the two of you took turns in presenting your ideas in order to get more into detail.

Although you were busy, making sure that you gave a flawless presentation, you could feel Jennie’s eyes burning on you several times throughout the meeting. You tried your best to ignore it, but every time her feline eyes were on you, you forgot what you were talking about for a second. Much to the dismay of Teddy, who of course thought that you were unprepared or a really terrible public speaker.

You cursed yourself under your breath, when you were finished with your part. You had hoped to impress Teddy right from the beginning, but you hadn’t made a great job till now. Feeling disappointed in yourself, you broodily stared ahead, not even realizing that Jennie had inched closer to you until you could feel her hand on yours under the table. You jumped in surprise, attracting the attention of the others at the table, but you tried to play it off by pretending to be oblivious. When everyone continued to listen to Teddy again, you dared to look to your side and saw that Jennie was looking at you with a smile on her face.

“You did great.”

She whispered before removing her hand, but the damage was already done.

Your head was completely empty, and you couldn’t concentrate on a single word Teddy was saying. Therefore, the rest of the meeting was a blur and you only came back to your senses, when your older colleague closed his laptop and allowed each of you to go back to their other obligations. But although everyone was rushing off, you kept sitting on your chair, deep in thought. What was it with those girls and being touchy? Were they trying to sabotage you on purpose?

Slowly, however, you managed to defreeze. You realized that your tensed relationship with the girls might seem to be your biggest problem right now, but it wasn’t. You had an album to produce and deadlines to meet. Therefore, you pulled yourself to your feet and started to pack your stuff, ready to get to work again. But suddenly an unexpected voice in the room made you jump in surprise.

“You shouldn’t be so harsh on yourself.”

With wide eyes you turned around and saw Jennie standing in the doorway.

“I think you did great today. I really liked your ideas for the album.”

Her features were soft, and you felt a warm, fuzzy feeling inside of you.

Hearing her say those words, probably meant more to you than they should, and a faint blush started to spread on your cheeks.

“You think so? I think, I sounded like a complete idiot.”

Remembering how you couldn’t even finish one sentence without twisting at least half of the words, the feeling of being disappointed in yourself returned again. But Jennie quickly walked closer to you.

“Don’t say that. You are really talented, Y/N. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be standing next to me right now. Or do you think YG would have given just anyone this job?”

Jennie’s words sounded determined and felt like balm for your soul. She was right. You should stop overthinking everything and criticizing your work non-stop. You were a great producer and you had earned your spot in this team.

When you looked at Jennie, a smile played on your lips and you couldn’t believe that she had managed to find the words that you needed to hear after only knowing you for one day.

“Thanks, Jennie. I really needed that.”

Seeing that she had managed to raise your mood, her face lit up and her eyes formed little crescent moons.

“I’m glad, I could help. I know that this industry can be a lot to handle.”

Jennie sighted silently and you remembered that her path also hadn’t been easy.

Maybe you could be there for each other. Be each other’s moral support, even if the world around you went crazy. Therefore, you decided to find some encouraging words for her as well.

“But there are also people that make all the trouble worth it in this industry.”

You said with a grin, but as soon as the words left your lips, you wanted to take them back. Those weren’t the words, you told a person after knowing them for just one day. But Jennie didn’t seem to be bothered. Instead, a soft smile decorated her lips.

“Indeed.”

She stated, lingering her gaze on you before turning around and heading to the door.

Your heart felt like it was jumping out of your chest, but Jennie didn’t seem to be done with you yet.

“Are you coming?”

She suddenly asked over her shoulder and your body automatically followed her like a puppy.

You accompanied Jennie to the room where she had her next meeting in silence. When you arrived at the destination, you stood in front of the door awkwardly.

“Thank you for bringing me.”

Jennie broke the silence eventually and you nodded your head in response. Where was this tension coming from again? You fixed your gaze on your fidgeting fingers, but when you looked up, you saw that Jennie was already looking at you. Your eyes met and Jennie didn’t seem to be embarrassed by the fact that she had been staring at you. Instead, she held your gaze and your mouth went dry.

Her eyes were the prettiest things you had ever seen. They were so dark that you felt like losing yourself in them.

You were about to be hypnotized when you suddenly realized where your mind was going, causing you to quickly shake your head.

This wasn’t something that you should think about your co-worker.

“I...I gotta go.”

You stammered after clearing your throat and already walking backwards.

“Alright. I hope to see you soon.”

Jennie responded calmly and you wondered how you could reach her level of confidence.

Not once had she been awkward when approaching you. She had always simply spoken her mind. Nevertheless, she had never appeared indelicate. Behind that cool demeanor, you were sure to see a soft core. You were granted a glance on it, just a few minutes ago. Someone selfish wouldn’t have sensed your bad mood.

After still staring at her while walking backwards, you eventually turned your back to Jennie aprubtly, rushing off with big steps. You needed some air.

Like you had been under water, you gasped once you stepped outside, trying to clear your head by pumping oxygen into your lungs. But the sight of Jennie’s eyes didn’t leave your brain. And the feeling of her hand on yours was tattooed under your skin.

She was dangerous. And you needed to stay away from danger.

But this was easier said than done. After all, Jennie was your co-worker. Therefore, you had to see her every single day. And she didn’t make your job easy either. Whenever you met her, she smiled brightly and walked up to you, asking you how you were doing. And no matter how hard you tried to fob her off with standard answers, she always wanted to know the truth.

Soon you felt yourself getting closer and closer to her against your will. You shared things with her that you had left unspoken in the past and often caught yourself, asking her for advice.

But you knew it was wrong.

You were supposed to work solely on a professional level. Catching feelings, no matter which kind, would only complicate things.

Therefore, you decided to give the two of you a break. At one point you started to avoid Jennie as best as possible and if you had to meet her, you made sure not to be alone. To facilitate going through with your decision, you chose to increasingly work with Rosé instead of Jennie. You had written a song almost completely alone and you needed a lead singer. You could have chosen Jennie, because you knew that she was capable to take the lead in a song, but you chose to go with Rosé.

When you announced your decision, the disappointment was visible in Jennie’s face and you had to avoid her gaze, because your heart felt heavy, seeing her this way. You knew that it was unfair. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She hadn’t been anything but nice to you. And now you ditched her like she was some worn out toy.

You hoped that she would move on quickly. After all, you were only her producer and there were several other talented people working on this album.

But apparently, you were the only producer that she wanted.

One day, you came into the company earlier than everyone else to get a kickstart. You were just about to enter one of the studios, when you could see a shadow in the corner of your eye. You turned your head, expecting one of the cleaning ladies, but it was Jennie instead who sheepishly made her way over to you. You lost your tongue, simply hoping for her to pass you, but of course she came to a halt only a few steps away from you.

But this time, Jennie didn’t greet you with on of her gummy smiles. This time, her face stayed stern and pensive. Your roles seemed to be switched, because this time it was her who avoided your gaze. Only when you made a move to enter the studio, she grabbed your arm to hold you back.

“Did I do something wrong?”

Jennie looked at you with desperation in her eyes and guilt washed over you. It was you that had made her voice sound so silent and broken.

“No of course not. Why would you think that?”

You asked, although you already knew the answer.

“I feel like you’re avoiding me.”

Jackpot. It had always been just a matter of time till she figured it out, but you still couldn’t let her know the truth.

“I’m not avoiding you, Jennie. Why should I?”

You smiled at her, trying to take away her sadness, but Jennie didn’t seem to be satisfied with your answer yet.

“I don’t know. But we’re not talking anymore like we used to.”

Jennie opted to avoid your eyes and you were suddenly granted a glance on her weak side again. Her confidence seemed to be washed away and all that was left was a girl that felt left alone. All you wanted to do was to hug her and whisper sweet nothings into her ear. But you couldn’t.

Nevertheless, you weren’t cruel enough to let her carry the weight of having messed up your relationship any longer. Therefore, you reached out to grab her hand, causing her to look at you.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve just had a lot of stress lately. And my decision to work with Rosé instead of you, was just based on the fact that I have more experience working with singers than with rappers. My decision was purely professional, not personal.”

This time Jennie seemed to believe you, because her face brightened up a bit.

“So everything’s good between us?”

She asked, giving you puppy dog eyes and your eyes softened.

“Of course.”

Finally, you were allowed to see her gummy smile and you felt your own lips forming a smile in response as well.

“I’m really glad to hear that. I have been worried the past weeks.”

Jennie admitted while nervously looking at her hands that were tightly clasped together.

Avoiding Jennie had been a plan in need for improvement from the start. But now, it was a plan that was no longer executable. You couldn’t make Jennie worry that much ever again. No matter whether it was the right thing to do or not, you cared too much about her to let that happen.

“Don’t worry anymore. You need your energy to focus on the comeback.”

You assured her and Jennie nodded in response.

“I know.”

Silence was surrounding you suddenly, so you gave her a last smile before wanting to enter the studio, thinking that you had talked about everything that needed to be said.

“Do you want to grab something to eat with me this evening?”

Jennie suddenly blurted out and you whipped your head around in shock.

“I...I need some advice because of a song. I know you’re working with Rosé, but I hoped that you could give me some tips too.”

She added nervously and you searched for the right answer in your head, but you were completely baffled.

Was she really only searching for professional advice?

How could you say no then? You weren’t trying to make favorites in the group. Everyone deserved the same amount of attention. Only because you had worked hard on the song that Rosé was taking the lead in, didn’t mean that you could neglect the other girls.

And it wasn’t like she asked you for a date. Therefore, you cleared your throat to make your voice sound more or less steady despite the huge amount of adrenaline that was rushing through your veins right now.

“Yes sure. You can always ask me for advice.”

You smiled and Jennie looked like she was seconds away from jumping into your arms in excitement. But she held herself back and only bowed to you slightly.

“Thank you. I’m going to pick you up here then. Around seven?”

Jennie asked and you gave her an awkward thumps up before finally opening the door to the studio. Flashing you another gummy smile, she waved at you before skipping away. You looked after her until she rounded a corner. Your heart was pounding like crazy again, so you slipped into the studio where you leaned against the door and closed your eyes.

Since the first time you had seen the girls, you knew that they were trouble.

And now you already seemed to be too caught up in it to free yourself.

You needed to brace yourself for tonight. It could either tangle you up further into this mess or loosen the ties that were choking you up. It all depended on how professional Jennie would keep this night. Exhaling a shaky breath, you pushed yourself off the door to go to your desk. Right when you sat down, however, you could hear knocks on the door.

A second later, Rosé stuck her head in the door, and you remembered that you had arranged a meeting to discuss the further steps regarding the song that she was taking the lead in.

With a smile you stood up to greet her. She reciprocated the gesture while entering the room, giving you the chance to let your eyes wander up and down her body.

Had it been a good idea to avoid Jennie by getting closer to Rosé?