#it is in the brewing luminous

[ontheothersideofthehill]

1981

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/14/arts/free-form-jazz-looks-back-to-jump-ups.html

[doorajar]

Luminous Solution, ep 2

Gosh--TWO triangles ? The fun's only starting, l guess ...

[mandalhoerian]

SYZYGY PART I: PERIASTRON / PERIHELION ❥ caleb x reader x xavier | 24K | AO3

SUMMARY:

The summer of your life had a name — Caleb. He was August itself, a world of honey-drenched, cloudless afternoons and laughter of gold-saturated old days echoing through the years, clear as sunlight on water. Gravity, pulling you two together. You orbiting around each other, closer, brighter, almost, almost. Until, just like the dandelion puff of childhood dreams or the sudden drop of a swing going too high — he was gone. Then came Xavier. The quiet glow of the moon, silver constellations scattered against the abyss, not demanding your orbit. He was light without heat, steady and luminous, guiding you through the night Caleb had left behind, illuminating all the spaces where once there had been warmth and wonder instead of emptiness. But what happens when the sun rises again to chase away the moon and stars that endured without it? Can the sky hold them both? Can you? Or must one always eclipse the other?

WARNINGS: pseudocest im embarrassed do NOT look at me, this features an underage caleb getting a hard-on because of an underage reader for the first time. it's not sexualized or detailed, and there is no scene of masturbation. i tried to handle it with care and describe it as vaguely as possible and work around it, grieving/mourning, blood and injury, angst, fluff, the everpresent bittersweet undertones, backshots from xavier at the end. this is (going to be) a threesome fic, not a love triangle in which you choose one, so, proceed with caution.

A/N: yeah, uh. remember this post? i'm writing it now. before i knew it though it grew so much, so i had to separate it into two parts. this one is what i call "parallel lines", in which xavier's presence is heavily present in your life with caleb before they meet through you, and vice versa. this concept is like the gift that keeps giving, and i hope you like it as well. what do you want to happen in the next chapter? please don't be shy to interact and tell me what you think, and help me out by reblogging for the second part to come out faster! thank you so much! <33

For as long as Caleb had known himself, he had been jovially tethered to you, less a brother and more an ever-present guardian, orbiting your life like some self-appointed fairy godmother who had found his life’s purpose in watching over you.

When school was in session, his days began before the sun even thought about rising — dragging himself out of bed at an ungodly hour to help Gran with breakfast, shaking off sleep with the clatter of dishes and the smell of butter hitting a hot pan. The kitchen was always dimly lit, humming with the quiet sounds of the world waking up. He'd scrub down counters while eggs sizzled, sweep the floors before the coffee had finished brewing, steal bites of toast in between flipping pancakes.

And then — your lunch. He always made it just how you liked. If you wanted peanut butter, he spread it thick. If you swore off carrots for the week, he swapped them out for something else, slipping in a treat when Gran wasn’t looking.

Breakfast was always a battlefield. You, groggy and barely functional, glaring at the sight of anything green on your plate, and him, sighing, coaxing, bribing, bending over backwards just to get you to take a single bite of something that wasn’t sugar-coated.

And then, of course, the walk to school.

You always complained, swearing you didn’t need him to take you, that you could find your way just fine. And yet, without fail, you were right there beside him every morning, rubbing sleep from your eyes, shuffling along in whatever oversized hoodie you’d thrown on that day, your shoelaces untied, the imprint of your pillow still faint against your cheek.

The moment you arrived at the school gates, the dynamic shifted. Caleb wasn’t just your gege anymore — he was Caleb Xia, the local celebrity.

Kids greeted him like he was some hometown hero, flocking together in the distance just to get a look at him, either scattering when he noticed them or waving at him if they were brave enough. Teachers nodded at him in approval, a dependable, responsible older brother. And you? You just rolled your eyes, huffing, tugging at his sleeve like you’re embarrassing me, can you leave already? as he lingered in conversation, half-smirking at your impatience.

The highlights of his school day weren’t the classes or the fleeting moments of downtime between them — it was lunch breaks spent calling you, phone wedged between his shoulder and ear as he unwrapped whatever quick meal he’d grabbed from the cafeteria. "Did you eat yet?" was always his first question, followed immediately by, "Did you like it?" as if your opinion on the food he packed for you was the most crucial piece of intel of his day. He could practically hear you rolling your eyes through the speaker, mumbling something through a mouthful of rice or bread. It didn’t matter — he just needed to hear it, to know.

After that, his mind switched gears. Physical training, drills fine-tuned for DAA hopefuls, routines meant to push his endurance to the next level. His uniform stuck to his back, sweat beading along his brow, but he relished the burn, the ache in his muscles a steady reminder of why he was doing this. When training ended, he sprawled out on the bleachers, water bottle pressed against his overheated neck, scrolling through footage of aerospace battleships on his phone. Each sleek design, each launch, every maneuver—it reminded him why he worked so hard. Why he wanted this so badly.

But none of that mattered when late afternoon rolled around.

His friends ribbed him for it, tossing casual jabs his way as they packed up their things. "Ditching us again for babysitting duty?" someone teased. Caleb only smiled from ear to ear and didn't pay any mind to it, pretending the subtle condescension thrown your way didn’t needle under his skin. They didn’t get it. They never did.

Because for him, the best part of the day wasn’t the grind, wasn’t the push toward his future. It was the moment the last bell rang at your school, and he was already there, stationed by the gate, feet bouncing slightly on the pavement, waiting to see you emerge from the crowd.

Nothing compared to that anticipation. The way his breath would hitch for half a second as he spotted you — bag slung haphazardly over one shoulder, uniform slightly wrinkled, the sleeves of your cardigan pushed up because you always ran too warm. The moment your eyes met his, and that immediate, effortless way you gravitated toward him, your first words never hi but something offbeat, something small and inconsequential.

Like it was a given. Like, of course, he’d be here. Of course, you’d find him first.

And as he fell into step beside you, listening to whatever was on your mind that day, the earlier teasing, the exhaustion, the ache of his training—all of it faded into something background, something irrelevant.

Some days, your hand in his felt wrong. Too loose, like you might slip away if he wasn’t careful, or too tight, like you were holding on for something unspoken. Those were the days when your usual chatter dwindled, when your feet dragged instead of skipping along the sidewalk, when your eyes darted past him instead of meeting his.

Caleb never asked outright — he knew just what to do, adjusting, seamlessly redirecting your path before you could even notice, with slight nudge at your shoulder, an easy pivot at the next turn, suddenly you weren’t heading straight home anymore.

The little grocery store on the corner, the one with the faded awning and the soft chime at the door, became your unspoken secret place. The scent of paper and ink mingled with something sweet the moment you stepped inside — an inviting warmth that settled between the shelves lined with pastel notebooks, glittering pens, and delicate origami sets among a handful of aisles, lined with neatly stacked boxes of biscuits, rows of colorful trinkets in plastic bins, glass jars of fruit jellies that caught the light just right.

But it wasn’t just the stationery that did it. It was the back garden, where clusters of hydrangeas bloomed in careful bursts of lavender and blue, their petals shifting with the breeze. It was the way the sun liquidized through the narrow windows, turning the space golden in the late afternoon, a place stitched into memory as a guarantee: no matter how heavy your day had been, you would leave here lighter.

It was the colorful bins of imported candies, the tiny glass jars of trinkets shaped like animals and tiny constellations, the slow rhythm of browsing through things neither of you needed but always wanted. And most of all, it was you, little by little, softening again, your fingers grazing the spines of journals, your lips quirking upward when he held up some ridiculous eraser shaped like a cat with sunglasses.

Someone else might’ve called it a routine. Caleb knew better.

It wasn’t a habit. It wasn’t even a conscious decision. It was instinct, written into his bones, an unshakable part of him. Taking care of you wasn’t something he did — it was something he was.

Caleb dropping to one knee, his uniform pants already scuffed and dirt-streaked from basketball practice, to wordlessly tie your undone shoelaces, his fingers moving with muscle memory before you could even notice they were loose. The sting of fresh scrapes and bruises on his skin ignored in favor of making sure you wouldn’t trip.

Caleb at the kitchen table, the sharp scent of freshly peeled apples mixing with the smell of open textbooks, carving them into little bunny shapes while you scrawled through your homework, utterly absorbed. You never asked him to, but when he placed them next to your notebook, you’d pick them up one by one without looking, popping them into your mouth like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Caleb picking out the tomatoes from your sandwiches, his hands moving with an unthinking efficiency, discarding them onto his own plate before sliding your food back to you. Gran had insisted he leave them in, but he never listened. You never ate them, anyway.

Caleb slinging both your backpacks over his shoulder at the end of a long day, even when you huffed about being a big girl now. Even when you swatted at him in protest. He carried them anyway, adjusting the straps like it was second nature, making it look effortless despite the weight pressing against his shoulders.

Caleb pressing the cool mouth of his water bottle against your arm, nudging it toward you because some quiet alarm in his brain had gone off, warning him that you hadn’t had a sip of water all day. No words exchanged — just the expectant arch of his brow, the silent order in his gaze.

Caleb swiping a thumb across your cheek, brushing away the stray crumbs from whatever snack you had been stuffing into your mouth mid-conversation. His touch was brief, casual, like a passing thought, but it lingered — just for a second — before he pulled away, already moving on to something else.

It was nothing, all of it. Small, everyday things. Thoughtless, maybe, to him. But to everyone else — adults looking on with indulgent smiles, other boys his age shaking their heads with exaggerated groans — it was something more. "God, Caleb, you’re setting the bar too high. You know most guys would trade their little sisters for a corn chip, right?"

Caleb’s instinct to look after you didn’t end at the school gates. Even with the separation of campuses forcing distance between you, his presence lingered in ways you never noticed — woven into the small, seemingly inconsequential moments of your day.

It wasn’t about dictation. You hated being told what to do, slipping through the cracks of authority like water through cupped hands. So instead, Caleb nudged. Shifted. Steered.

A casual mention of someone’s cool Lumiere pencil case turned into you borrowing their markers, which turned into sitting beside them in art class. A passing remark about a classmate’s awesome Lumiere trading card collection suddenly had you talking to them at recess. The kids who shared their snacks without hesitation, who pulled out chairs without asking, who held their ground when pettiness soured the lunch table — those were the ones Caleb quietly nudged you toward.

It never felt unnatural. That was the key. He didn’t force anything, never shoved you in any particular direction. He just made it easy.

A suggestion to invite someone over, tossed out so casually it barely felt like a suggestion at all. A last-minute reminder that some kid — one he had already vetted in the background of his mind — liked the same ridiculous show as you, ensuring you had something to bond over.

And if certain kids seemed off — if their teasing had an edge to it, if they tested boundaries in a way that felt just a little too familiar to Caleb’s instincts—he never said a word. He didn’t have to. He simply didn't encourage those interactions, didn't make space for them, let them wither naturally while something better took root.

You never noticed the quiet maneuvering and how he even knew the information about those classmates despite being an upperclassman. You never realized how your world had been subtly, deliberately arranged in a way that kept you surrounded by good people. People Caleb knew would look out for you when he wasn't there.

And that was the point.

No one had questioned it thus far. Neither had he. There was nothing to be questioned.

Until today.

It was hot. The kind of thick, sweltering summer heat that made the air shimmer and the pavement burn. The wooden porch steps beneath him radiated warmth, baked through by the afternoon sun, carrying the scent of dry wood and dust. Cicadas droned in the distance, their unrelenting hum pressing in from every direction, blending with the tinny sound of the (probably-not-appropriate) streamer’s voice coming from his phone.

You were sprawled beside him, popsiclle stick half-forgotten in your fingers, red syrup trailing down your wrist in slow, sticky rivulets. Caleb’s eyes flicked to it absently, knowing you wouldn’t notice until it reached your elbow. Your bare feet were pressed against his leg, leeching his shade like some smug little barnacle. He groaned, giving your ankle a lazy shove, but it was more for show than any real effort to get you to move.

Every so often, you’d lean against him, cheek brushing his shoulder, the heat from your skin seeping through the fabric of his t-shirt. The scent of artificial cherry clung to your breath, mixing with the toasty cotton and the faintest trace of his own shampoo. It was too hot for this. Too hot for you to be all over him, only to wiggle restlessly a second later, squirming back into place like you had no idea what you were doing to him.

He could’ve moved. Should’ve, probably. But he didn’t. Just huffed like it was an inconvenience, like he wasn’t fighting the stupid grin pulling at his mouth, like he wasn’t waiting for you to settle against him again.

And then the screen door creaked open, and the heavy scent of heat-crisped fabric softener drifted out as Gran stepped onto the porch, hands settling firmly on her hips, and said it.

"You're getting too big to be stuck to Caleb all the time, dear. You're not a baby anymore."

It wasn’t meant to be sharp, wasn’t meant to sting, but the comment lodged in Caleb’s chest like a stone dropped into deep water, sinking fast, heavy and cold.

Not a baby anymore.

Obvious. So obvious it should’ve bounced right off him. He was nearly a grown-up, already edging taller than some of the older boys, his limbs stretching out of last year’s clothes. His tank top, once loose, clung to him now, damp with sweat at the collar. His shorts were scuffed at the knees from a summer spent biking too fast, landing too hard. He was supposed to be out on the blacktop, running plays with the high schoolers, scraping his elbows on asphalt, staying out past the first flicker of streetlights without a second thought, doing something — anything — that didn’t involve a permanent shadow trailing at his heels that would get the upperclassmen laughing. And you…

What were you supposed to be doing? Not hanging off of him, apparently. Not pressing your warmed skin against his in the heat of the day, not reaching for his hand out of instinct, not tilting your head toward him when you laughed, as if his reactions still mattered most.

The stick of his finished popsicle rested on his tongue, sticky-sweet, a lingering taste of artificial apple that felt almost mocking now. His fingers flexed, restless, drumming once against his knee before stilling.

His eyes flicked toward you — kicking your legs lazily against the porch steps.

"Then what is he?" You wrinkled your nose, squinting up at Gran as if the answer should have been obvious. "Just big?"

Gran chuckled, shifting her weight as she leaned against the doorframe, a soft amusement ushering her voice. "Big enough to start weaning you off a little."

And just like that, the rock pressing against Caleb’s ribs sank deeper, like someone had tied it there, pulling everything inside him tight and wrung out.

Weaning you off.

The thought made something in his chest ache, like a muscle being stretched too far, too fast. The thought of you — apart from him, orbiting somewhere beyond his reach — felt foreign, wrong. Not turning to him first? Not following his lead? Where would you even go? And worse — who would you go to?

"That’s dumb," you declared, licking the last of the syrup from your fingers with a casual finality that almost soothed the raw edges of his nerves. "Why would he do that?"

You sounded so sure. So utterly certain, like it was a fact of the universe. Caleb clung to that certainty, let it settle in his chest, tried to believe in it as much as you did. But then Gran hummed, low and knowing, like she had seen this all before, like she was watching something inevitable play out in real time.

She turned to Caleb, fixing him with a look that sat too heavy on his shoulders. "Caleb won’t want you tagging along forever."

Something lurched inside him.

His heart, steady just a moment ago, suddenly pounded too hard against his ribs. The space between his shoulders burned. He parted his lips to argue, but no words came, his throat tight, thoughts tangled.

"No," you huffed, scrunching your face, clear unhappiness bleeding into your voice. "He’s my gege."

Yes. Exactly.

Then why did Gran sound like that? Why did she act like this was some inevitable truth, like he would want you to stop trailing after him, like he would ever just let you go? He didn’t mind it — of course he didn’t.

A flash of heat rolled down his spine, unsettling and sudden, a strange pressure creeping under his skin. His body tensed against it, a shudder running straight through his core before he could stop it.

No. He liked when you followed him. He wanted you there, always half a step behind, always reaching for his sleeve, always seeking him first. That wasn’t weird, was it?

Gran knew exactly what she was doing. The amused curve of her lips, the way she adjusted her stance, arms folded loosely, her gaze warm but knowing—it was the look of someone who had already seen the ending of a story before anyone else even knew it had begun. But she was kind enough not to say it aloud.

"All right," she conceded, her voice easy, lilting, teasing but patient. "If you really think you're okay with being tied to him for life—"

"I am," you declared, not even letting her finish. Not missing a single beat.

It hit Caleb like a struck match to dry air — instant combustion. His pulse faltered, then surged, something white-hot and golden unfurling in his chest. A triumphant, yes, a relief so fierce it made his head spin, his body hum with something too wild to name from you sayingit like it was the most given thing in the world.

But Gran wasn’t done.

"But what if he isn't?" she pressed. "What about when he finds his special someone?"

The concept was an anathema lodged into the gears of his mind. Special someone.

A vague, faceless figure materialized in the space next to him, spectral and wrong. Another girl, maybe. Someone else at his side, standing too close, reaching for his sleeve the way you did now, calling his name with too much familiarity. Someone who would take up space that should be yours — laughing with him over dumb inside jokes, stealing food from his plate, tugging on his hand in crowded spaces without thinking.

Taking care of her. Looking out for her. Ruffling her hair when she did well on a test, cooking for her, walking her home, bringing her gifts without needing a reason—

His stomach twisted sharply, his insides wrung tight like a dishcloth, and suddenly, the popsicle stick in his grip felt foreign, sharp. Slowly, he became aware of the way his fingers had curled around it, tight enough that splinters had bitten into his palm. Too tight.

The porch creaked as you shifted closer, knees bumping against his, your oversized t-shirt — his, actually, stolen ages ago — hanging off one shoulder, damp with summer sweat. You tilted your head, strands of sticky hair clinging to your forehead, blinking up at him with that wide, guileless stare. Your eyes, bright and searching, caught the light, reflecting flecks of gold.

"Caleb…"

There was concern there, nestled between the syllables of his name. An innocent plea, a tug at something deep inside him that he wasn’t ready to name.

His skin prickled.

"Gran’s being silly, pip-squeak," shot out too fast, too forced, but he grinned through it anyway, stretching his face into an easygoing mirror of comfort. With every fiber of his being, he shoved everything back down — buried it under the warmth of the day, under the scent of melting sugar in the air, under the sound of your breathing, steady and trusting beside him. His fingers flexed, then relaxed just enough to let him flick the splintered popsicle stick onto the porch steps. "There’s no way I’m ditching you! Come on, are we finishing the episode or what? We’ve got a lot to catch up on."

He slung an arm around you, dragging you back against his side like it was nothing, like it wasn’t the only thing grounding him in that moment. Your skin was warm, sun-drenched and soft, the scent of your shampoo still clinging to the damp strands of your hair. You leaned into him without hesitation, fitting against him the way you always had.

And yet.

Something inside him stirred, curled its fingers around his ribs, squeezed tight.

He wasn’t supposed to feel this way.

The sky shifted, brilliant blue bleeding into orange, then purple, the air growing thicker as the heat of the day slowly receded. Gran’s voice filtered out from the kitchen window, something about dinner, but Caleb wasn’t listening. He wasn’t here anymore. His thoughts drifted somewhere further, somewhere he didn’t want to go — somewhere you couldn’t follow.

His thumb rubbed absently at the crook of your elbow, tracing slow circles over the softest part of your skin, a mindless habit meant to soothe — himself, that is.

The thought clung to him, a persistent dog at his heels, refusing to be shaken loose. It trailed him through the evening, barking at him nonstop as he moved through the small rituals of routine.

It was there when he set the table, watching you from the corner of his eye as you padded barefoot across the linoleum, the oversized sleeves of your pajama top slipping past your wrists. It was there when you tugged at his sleeve, your voice soft but insistent, grabbing his attention just as he pulled the dish from the oven. Feed me, your eyes seemed to say, mouth already open, waiting. And, like always, he gave in — pressing the edge of a still-hot bite against your lips after he blew on it, pretending not to notice the way your breath hitched as you chewed.

It was there when you curled up beside him later, your body slack with sleep, limbs tangled in the throw blanket you’d stolen from his lap. Your breath tickled against his arm, warm and steady, stirring something deep in his chest that he didn’t want to name. The scent of your shampoo — faint now, laced with the salt of dried sweat from a long summer day — lingered between you. He told himself he wasn’t listening to the soft, rhythmic exhales, wasn’t matching his breathing to yours.

And then, it was there when he tucked you into bed. Just like always.

You blinked up at him sleepily, covers pulled high, cheek squished against your pillow. Your room smelled like you — faintly sweet, warm, something nostalgic he couldn’t describe but had known all his life. His fingers brushed the edge of your blanket as he lingered by your side.

It was normal.

It was always normal.

And yet, the thought, the one he had spent the entire day trying to drown out, pressed against the back of his mind like an uninvited whisper.

He couldn’t imagine not wanting you by his side for the rest of his life.

Years later, Caleb would pinpoint this summer, the summer of his fourteenth year, as the day something shifted irreversibly. The death of whatever childhood innocence had once dressed itself as sibling love.

An apple blossom plucked before its time, its petals discarded in favor of a fruit too heavy, too low-hanging, too wrong to belong among the delicate branches of the family tree.

Xavier never saw you cry at the funeral.

You had stood still, wrapped in black, hands curled into the fabric at your sides, nails pressing half-moon indentations into your palms. The air had smelled like freshly turned earth and incense, the whispers of condolences processed with you nodding along when spoken to, shaking hands, murmuring words that felt rehearsed, felt expected beneath the weight of something heavier, something unsaid. Your face was unreadable, gaze fixed somewhere far beyond the two caskets, one of which was empty, beyond the faces of mourners, beyond here.

He didn’t see you cry when you returned to what was left of home, either. Not when you stood at the threshold of devastation, the scent of charred wood and melted plastic still thick, mingling with the metallic tang of exposed steel. Not when you traced the edge of a broken picture frame with trembling fingers, or when the wind rattled through the skeletal remains of walls that had once held your precious family safe. If grief lived in you then, it had no tongue, lurking behind you like a ghost waiting to be acknowledged.

No, the first time you let him see you cry was months later.

It didn’t loom like an impending storm, didn’t announce itself with thunder and lightning. One moment, the world was steady. The next, the floodgates had opened.

His kitchen was warm, steeped in the golden hues of a sun too lazy to set just yet, its light stretching long across the counter where you sat. One leg was tucked beneath you, the other swinging idly, the heel of your sock skimming against the cabinet with soft, rhythmic taps. The room smelled of burnt sauce — nose-stinging, acrid, clinging to the air like a mistake neither of you wanted to acknowledge, and the pan sat abandoned on the stove, its contents an unappetizing mess of charred edges and failed ambition, but for once, you hadn’t laughed at him yet. That was the first sign.

Xavier leaned against the counter across from you, arms folded, waiting for the inevitable teasing. But it never came.

Instead — your breath caught.

A small thing. Barely there. An inhale cut short, like something had snagged on the way down.

His eyes flickered toward you just as your thumb hovered over your phone screen, frozen in place. The glow of it bathed your face in cold white light, so at odds with the warmth spilling in through the window. You weren’t looking at him. Weren’t looking at anything, really — just staring at the screen, your face blank.

And then, without sound, without warning, you folded into yourself.

Like something inside you held too tightly for too long had given way.

He knew this kind of breaking. Intimately.

It didn’t strike like lightning, didn’t split a person open in a single, violent moment. No, it settled, burrowed deep into the marrow, rewrote the shape of the bones it took root in. He had felt it before, held it before — in another life, in another ending. When your body had gone too still against his. When your breath had slipped against his neck, not with fear, not with struggle, but with something soft. A shaky exhale. A barely-there smile. A release so quiet, it had broken him more than any scream ever could.

He knew how grief hollowed a person out.

How it made ghosts out of the living, how it made you ache for someone even when they were right there, breathing the same air, sitting just an arm’s reach away.

And still — watching you now — it hurt.

You swiped at your face, impatient. Like you could erase the tears before they even had a chance to fully exist. But your hands betrayed you. They shook.

Xavier turned off the burner, the flame vanishing with a quiet click.

Gently, he pried the device from your grip. You let him. No resistance, no glance upward. Just the smallest movement, turning into him, pressing your forehead into his shoulder as if you could fold yourself into the fabric of his shirt, disappear into the steady rise and fall of his breathing.

The screen dimmed in his palm, but the voice still filtered through the speaker, sunny and youthful, threaded with a teasing affection that made Xavier’s throat tighten.

"I’ll be back soon. Be good, okay? Or you’ll be doin’ the cooking this time and I won’t lift a finger to help you."

A promise. A joke. A lie, but not an intentional one.

Then — a sound.

Small. Fractured. Barely more than an exhale, but enough to hit like a wound splitting open.

Xavier didn’t ask. Didn’t need to.

Instead, he shifted, lowering his chin against the crown of your head, his arms curling around you in a hold that wasn’t tight, but anchoring. Until the light from the window cooled into that dusky shade of evening, casting long shadows, making the edges of both of yours melt into one.

The same summer that had been the genesis of Caleb’s anxieties about growing apart, you wouldn’t shut up about the summer camp he was sure Gran had sent you to just to put space between the two of you. Much to his chagrin, you had returned beaming, spirits fiery, smelling like lake water and pine sap, and carrying an entire new world in your hands.

Not that he minded — not really. He had always liked listening to you, always liked the way you told stories with your whole body, hands gesturing wildly, feet kicking the air, voice rising and falling like you were spinning some grand epic instead of just talking about canoe races and bonfire singalongs.

But this time, the stories weren’t about him.

They weren’t about things you had done together.

Instead, they were about them.

Lian. Cass. Milo. Names that meant nothing to him but tumbled so effortlessly from your lips, light and familiar, flung at him like paper planes, each one carrying a piece of you away. Lian said this, Cass did that, Milo was so funny when—

Your laughter filled the space between you, unguarded and bright, the kind that made your whole body move with it — shoulders shaking, hands bracing against your knees as if you needed to physically steady yourself from the force of the memory. You were sitting cross-legged on the couch, your oversized academy hoodie bunching at your elbows, the hem riding up just enough to reveal a sliver of bare skin above your pajama shorts.

Caleb watched, his own smile engaging, practiced — the kind he knew was expected in moments like these. He leaned back against the armrest, stretching his legs out beneath the coffee table, socked feet grazing against yours without thought. Yeah? What’d he say? The words left his mouth before he could register them, autopilot kicking in where his thoughts strayed.

You inhaled sharply, hands flailing slightly as you tried to contain your excitement. "Okay, so we were in the mess hall, and Cass dared Milo to chug this absolutely vile shake we made by spinning this random online wheel, right? Like, I’m talking — smelled like feet and regret. Anyway, Milo, being the overachiever that he is, actually considers it, and then — Lian, oh my god — just looks at him and goes, ‘I hope your digestive system is strong enough for this betrayal because in spirit, you aren’t.’"

You barely got the last words out before dissolving into another fit of laughter, head tilting back, eyes squeezed shut in delight, hands clapping together like a little cymbal monkey, and the sound wrapped around him like the softest parts of childhood.

Caleb nodded, fingers curling slightly against his knee. "Yeah. That’s — uh, that’s funny."

It wasn’t.

The words felt hollow in his mouth, like biting into a fruit that looked ripe but tasted wrong.

This Lian guy — what was his deal? A little too self-aware, wasn’t he? Try-hard humor, the kind that made people laugh at things instead of with them. The type of jokes even Zayne would roll his eyes at.

“You have to hear about this too! One night during campfire stories, Lian started messing with the group by making up these ridiculous prophecies. You had to be there, but trust me, it was so good. He told Milo that he was doomed to trip over a tree root before the week was out and Milo actually did trip! It was insane. So obviously, we decided that Lian was our new oracle and now he gives everyone fake fortunes, like ‘beware the wrath of the cafeteria lady,’ or ‘your socks will mysteriously disappear in the night.’ And honestly? They’ve all come true. It’s freaky. So, everyone thought with his powers, we should overthrow the entire camp and take over as co-rulers, and honestly, I think we could do it."

At one poing, Caleb had turned around, elbow braced against the couch arm, fingers curled loosely against his temple, and giving you that look, the one that said he was listening, that you had his full attention — but if you peered in closer, you’d see the way his gaze had dulled just slightly, like the glimmer behind his pupils had been quietly snuffed out.

"Oh yeah?" His voice came out smooth, too smooth, an autopilot response. "Where’d this revolution come from, exactly?”

"Okay, okay!" You beamed, sitting up straighter, knees bouncing with the effort of holding in your excitement. "So it all started when we got caught sneaking extra marshmallows from the mess hall. Lian was like, ‘This is tyranny, and we must rise up!’ So obviously, we started plotting this whole elaborate scheme to recruit our bunkmates and take control of the schedule board. If we changed the wake-up calls and sneaked into the admin office, we could make it so we got an extra hour of free time every day—”

Your hands waved wildly as you talked, nearly smacking him in the face at one point. Caleb barely blinked, smile thinning out a bit as you continued, oblivious.

"—and then Lian said that if we were in charge, we’d have unlimited access to the snack stash and, Caleb—imagine—unlimited s’mores!"

You looked at him then, eyes wide, expectant, your lips still parted from your last sentence like you were waiting for him to get it, to light up the way you did, to jump in and tell you it was brilliant.

Instead, Caleb nodded slowly, lips pressing together in that familiar, measured way, the one that meant he was choosing his words carefully. "Sounds… revolutionary."

"Right?!" You beamed. "Lian even made a fake list of camp rules with ridiculous demands, like mandatory nap time and designated hammock hours. And you know what? I think he'd make a great leader.”

"Well, I mean, I thought you were supposed to be co-rulers?"

"Oh, we are," you said quickly, leaning back against the couch with a dreamy sigh. "But sometimes I feel like Lian just naturally takes charge, you know? He always has these ideas, and everyone just listens to him. It’s kinda amazing."

“Yeah. Amazing.”

"And Cass invited me to a sleepover this weekend," you announced, dropping the words like a meteor in still water. "Her parents are hosting, please, please, please! Can I go?"

Caleb barely had time to process before his stomach knotted, a visceral, immediate reaction.

No.

The word was right there, balanced on the tip of his tongue, begging to spill out before he could even think. No explanation. No reason. Just no.

His fingers curled tighter around the book in his lap, the spine pressing into his palm, though he hadn't turned a page in over ten minutes.

He didn’t know this Cass. Had never met her, had never had a say in whether or not she was someone you should be spending time with. Hadn’t chosen her for you.

You were watching him, chin propped on your hands, your knees tucked to your chest where you sat at the other end of the couch. Expectant. Like you were sure he would say yes and asking for the sake of asking.

Something in his chest twisted, sharp and unrelenting.

He wanted to be selfish. Wanted to say no because it wasn’t normal for things to be changing like this. Wanted to tell you to stay home, to keep things exactly the way they had always been. That sleepovers weren’t necessary, that you didn’t need to be anywhere else.

But he wasn’t your parent.

He wasn’t your guardian.

But he was your gege. Wasn’t he?

His breath came a little too tight, but he forced himself to smile anyway, reaching out to ruffle your hair the way he always did. The way he should. The way that meant nothing had changed.

"Yeah," he said, swallowing down the frog in his throat. "Have fun."

Your whole face lit up, legs kicking excitedly against the cushions. "I will!"

He forced out a chuckle, the sound barely reaching his ears. "Don't forget to give Gran her parents' contact numbers, okay? I'll drop you off."

That night, long after you had gone to bed, Caleb found himself standing outside your room, barefoot on the floor, staring at the thin ribbon of light seeping out from beneath your door, pale and flickering as your shadow moved beyond it, listening to the soft rustle of fabric the quiet scrape of a zipper, the muffled shuffling as you rearranged the contents of your overnight bag.

He had done this before. Stood in this exact spot, staring at the door separating him from you, listening to the quiet sounds of you existing on the other side. When you were younger, it had been different — he used to do it just to check, just to make sure you were still breathing. A habit formed in childhood, lingering into habit, into routine.

But this time?

The space between him and that door felt vast, like he was standing on one side of a canyon that hadn’t been there before. He wasn’t checking in. He was watching something slip through his fingers, something skittering out of reach.

His fingers twitched at his sides.

He could knock. He could find an excuse — ask if you needed an extra charger even though it was you who usually came asking for one, joke about how you were probably overpacking for just one night, tease you about stuffing half your closet into your bag.

He could say something.

But he didn’t.

He just stood there, letting the seconds stretch long and thin between you.

And then, with a quiet exhale, he turned away, and turned in for the night.

Caleb lay in bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, but he wasn’t really seeing it. The shadows cast by the faint glow of his bedside clock stretched long and distorted as the numbers ticked forward, marking the slow crawl of time. Sleep never came. He didn’t expect it to.

His mind wasn’t drifting — it was pulling, unearthing something he hadn’t allowed himself to think about in years. A memory, worn at the edges but still sharp where it mattered.

The stories you used to tell.

Before camp. Before Gran. Before normalcy wrapped itself around your lives like an ill-fitting skin. Before you both learned how to live outside the sterile, white-washed walls where childhood had been something to endure rather than experience.

Back then, in the cold fluorescence of a place that smelled of antiseptic and something metallic beneath it, you had been the light.

The dreamer.

The one who could take four walls and turn them into something else entirely.

"I don’t belong here, my home is up here in the stars," you had whispered to him once, curled up on the too-thin mattress beside him, your voice hushed like the walls themselves had ears. "But it’s okay. He’s coming any day now."

"Who?" he had asked, because he knew the answer but wanted to hear you say it.

"My knight."

You had said it with absolute certainty, with a conviction so fierce that it almost made Caleb believe it too. "He promised he’d come back for me. But I won’t leave you here. He can take us far away, somewhere safe. Somewhere we don’t have to be afraid anymore."

Somewhere beyond the reach of men in white coats.

Back then, your world had been built on make-believe. On whispered prophecies and stories woven in the dark, each one an attempt to carve hope from the letters making up despair. And Caleb —

Caleb had never put stock in fairy tales, never believed in heroes riding in on white horses, or in distant kingdoms built on wishes and fate. But he had believed in you.

He had believed in the way your voice could soften the sharp edges of reality, the way you could take something cold and sterile and fill it with warmth, make it bearable. He had listened — really listened — memorized every inflection of your whispered stories in the dark, every frantic hope you clung to with tiny, desperate hands. He let you weave the illusion, let you pull him into that world where escape was possible, where you weren’t just waiting for whatever came next, helpless.

Then Gran took you in.

The men in white coats disappeared — gone, dead, buried beneath layers of the Chronorift Catastrophe and things nobody in this household ever talked about again. Life rearranged itself into something resembling normal, into the quiet rhythm of home-cooked meals and school bells and summer nights spent sprawled on the porch. And the stories?

They vanished.

The experiments had left fractures in your memory, gaps where entire years had been pried apart and left disassembled. Somewhere along the way, the knight from the stars had slipped through those cracks. Swallowed by time, forgotten, unspoken, lost to the void.

But Caleb never forgot.

The words still lived in the back of his mind, tucked away in the places he never let himself visit. He could still hear your voice, younger, softer, whispering of a promise made long before you ever met him. He promised he’d come back for me.

For years, that story — your story — had been his greatest nightmare. Not the experiments, not the men in white coats, not the ghosts of the past, but the idea that the princely knight you had once spoken of so fervently would come after all.

Caleb had spent endless nights staring at the ceiling, waiting, listening, dreading. He had imagined it too vividly — some older, stronger man arriving in the dead of night, welcoming himself back into your world, with a voice manlier than his to turn your head and hands steady enough to pull you away from him. He had pictured the way you might look at someone like that — wide-eyed, breathless, smitten — so enamored that you wouldn’t even glance back.

But in the end, there was no celestial rescuer.

No dramatic abduction. No grand, sweeping moment where someone took you from his grasp.

Just this.

Just time. Just life. Just the quiet, inevitable turning point of you growing, changing, stepping further and further outside the world the two of you had built. Not running, not even intentionally leaving him behind — just moving forward in a way that felt naturally inevitable, while he remained standing in place, watching your back drift further away.

He swallowed hard and turned onto his side, the sheets cool against his skin, but the heat in his chest refused to settle. His fingers curled into the fabric, gripping nothing, holding onto air.

The knight from the stars was never real.

But the fear of losing you had always been.

Xavier’s apartment smelled like burnt toast.

Which was impressive, considering toast wasn’t even part of the meal.

Xavier’s second attempt at breakfast was going about as well as the first, which was to say: disastrous. The air purifier was whirring uselessly, struggling to clear out the acrid smoke curling into the walls, your clothes, your hair. The sink had already claimed several casualties — half-peeled vegetables, a cracked egg that never made it to the pan, and a bowl of rice that had turned a color rice should never be.

The only thing that had survived unscathed was the jar of honey.

And even that, apparently, was proving to be a challenge.

You sat at the counter, chin propped up on your hand, watching as Xavier wrestled with the lid and not even lifting a finger to help to see how long he could hold on until he wanted to recruit your help with that rare pleading face of his.

His long fingers, pale and deft, curled around the glass, his knuckles pressing white with effort. The lamplight pooled over the sharp angles of his wrists, catching on the fine bones of his hands, the faint veins trailing up the smooth expanse of his forearms. His skin, impossibly fair, seemed to drink in the light rather than reflect it. He was all silken precision, all effortless control — except for the slight crinkle kissed between his brows, the faint crease of concentration on his otherwise perfectly composed face.

He twisted the lid one way, then the other, then braced it against his hip with the air of someone prepared for battle. The muscles in his forearm tensed beneath the pale stretch of skin, lean and corded, a whisper of restrained strength. His silver lashes lowered, his lips pressed into a flat, determined line.

It was an absurdly regal effort.

And then—

POP.

The lid exploded off like a gunshot.

Honey burst from the jar in a gilded arc, catching the light as it splattered across the counter, his hands, and, most notably, his face.

For a moment, neither of you moved.

A dollop of honey traced a viscous, lazy path down his cheek, catching at the delicate edge of his jaw, slipping past the curve of his mouth. His lips, soft and finely shaped, parted slightly in what could have been a sigh, or maybe just exasperation. The strands of silver hair that framed his face were damp with syrup, sticking to the flawless cut of his cheekbones, glinting like strands of moonlight caught in amber.

And still, his expression remained blank. Like he didn’t quite register what had happened yet.

You were the first to break.

It started as a tremor, something caught in the back of your throat. A choked, strangled sound that barely registered as your own.

Xavier turned to you, silver lake blue eyes impassive.

“Is something funny?” he asked with a pout he was trying to hold back.

It wasn’t.

It wasn’t.

Except—

It was.

The laugh broke free before you could stop it, shaking loose from your chest, raw and unfamiliar. Your shoulders shook. Your head tipped back. It wasn’t just a chuckle, not just a small exhale through your nose — it was real laughter, the kind that knocked the breath from your lungs, the kind that you hadn’t felt in so long it almost startled you.

Xavier did not react.

Did not wipe the honey from his cheek.

Did not reach for a towel.

He simply stood there, deep pink dusting his ears, regarding you with an expression that was entirely too resentful. As if you were the strange one. As if he hadn’t just declared war on a honey jar and lost spectacularly.

You doubled over, forehead pressing to the counter as your fingers curled against the cool surface, struggling to breathe, to ground yourself. And yet, the laughter only came harder.

And then—

Then it hit you.

There were tears in your eyes.

Your breath stuttered, laughter fracturing into something quieter, something softer. Something more fragile. The sound wavered, teetering between joy and grief at laughing in the kitchen with someone else at another time, until it settled somewhere in between.

Xavier didn’t say anything.

He just reached for a napkin and, with surgical precision, wiped the substance from his face, and only managed to smear it around more.

You hiccupped, breath still uneven, as he casually put the jar down on the counter, closing a palm on top of it.

“Well, we’ve got honey at least,” he said, leaning in and turning his soiled cheek closer to you. “Do you want it?”

You nodded, biting your lip as you raised a finger and brushed along his cheekbone, collecting honey in a sticky trail as he kept his quiet-twinkled stare on you. As you pulled back your hand, he turned and licked his tongue over it, taking a taste as he contemplated the flavor thoughtfully.

"Good quality," he noted approvingly, his tone matter-of-fact.

His skin was soft. Soft enough that despite the sugar clinging to him, the warmth and tenderness beneath made you lean forward and kiss him where you touched. Just lightly. Bare lips pressed against his cheek, soft and fleeting before pulling away. You tasted honey and sunshine when you licked your lips, bright like liquid gold melting on your tongue, spreading like butter in your veins.

You looked up just in time to catch his double blink of surprise, eyebrows rising delicately to his hairline as his cheeks flushed deeper rose under all the sticky mess. A moment passed between you in silence — a private eternity.

Avoiding you when he was the one who made the move, Xavier immediately just went on to clean — like nothing had happened, like he hadn’t just unknowingly cracked something open inside you. And you sat there, fingers trembling as you wiped your eyes, pretending you weren’t still smiling.

Falling in love had never felt like this before.

It had never crept in through the cracks, never been this quiet, this steady.

But now, as you watched him move through the kitchen in search of something to put in front of you to eat, all awkward grace and quiet embarrassment, you realized—

Maybe it had been happening all along.

The first time you saw Lumiere, you were too young to understand much of anything beyond the debilitating terror.

The world had cracked apart, splitting open at the seams, spilling its horrors into the streets like a wound that would never close. Sirens screamed through the chaos, their wailing voices swallowed by the greater, more inhuman sounds of the city tearing itself apart. The sky was wrong — a giant hole torn into the middle of it, unnatural and seething, pulsing like something alive.

Buildings didn’t just fall, they folded, twisting in on themselves, steel beams curling like dying fingers reaching for something they would never grasp. The ground trembled beneath your feet, a violent, groaning thing, the earth itself recoiling from the carnage. Wanderers moved through the ruins, warping the space around them, turning the air to something heavy and impossible. They weren’t just there — they were everywhere, shifting, flickering, bending reality like a cruel trick.

People ran. A panicked, mindless stampede, scattering like birds in the wake of a predator as smoke rolled thick through the streets, pressing its fingers against your lungs, squeezing. The streets had become graveyards. Cars sat abandoned, doors flung open in frozen panic, some crushed beneath fallen debris, others twisted into shapes that no longer resembled vehicles at all. Glass littered the asphalt, catching the firelight in fractured glints, like the last remnants of fallen stars.

In mere hours, the city had unraveled into something unrecognizable, like the world was really ending.

And in the middle of it all—

A spectral shimmer against the bruised expanse of the sky, carving through the ruins like a streak of molten silver, like a shooting star descended down to earth. He moved with the force of a video game character come to life, graceful, otherworldly, his blade carving arcs of light through beasts too vast, too nightmarish to fall to mere guns made by men.

You remembered the moment gloved hands — gentle, strong — had pulled you from the wreckage, lifting you out of the chaos as if you weighed nothing at all. The world around you was still crumbling, still breaking apart in ways too enormous for your small mind to comprehend, but in that instant, none of it reached you. His arms curled around you protectively, familiar in a way, shielding you from the twisted bodies of cars, from the distant screams, from the flickering, impossible reality of the Wanderers.

Your tiny hands had clung to his sleeve on instinct, desperate for something solid, something real, and even now, you could remember the way it felt beneath your fingertips — not coarse, not burned, but impossibly luxurious, like something that didn’t belong in this world at all. His white coat, unblemished despite the wreckage, didn’t seem to absorb the destruction the way everything else had, it should have been ruined, torn by shrapnel, dirtied by smoke and fire, but it wasn’t. It was perfect. As if nothing — not the crumbling city, not the collapsing buildings, not the monsters warping the air — could touch him.

He had only looked down at you once, but that was all it took.

Those eyes — deep blue, so calm it felt unreal, like water untouched by wind— had met yours, not with pity, but certainty. His hair, the lightest shade of white gold, caught the glow of the firelight, making it near impossible to tell where the light ended and he began. It was almost holy, a glow that made him seem less like a person and more like something from a fairy tale. A savior carved from light and distance.

And then, without a word, he had pulled you closer and lifted off the ground.

The city fell away beneath you, the fires and spiraling smoke blurring into streaks as the wind roared past your ears, the world that had just moments ago tried to swallow you whole becoming nothing but a smear of color beneath your feet. Up here — wrapped in the warmth of his power, cradled in the cocoon of safety — you were untouchable. Weightless as light itself.

You had never been this high before. Never seen the world like this. Never felt like this.

For a moment, in the middle of catastrophe, it was a dream.

And just as suddenly, it was over.

He descended with effortless precision, the wind dying around you as your feet met the ground, his arms the last thing you let go of. Gran’s trembling hands were there in the next breath, pulling you into a desperate embrace outside the shelter, voice cracking with relief.

You turned to look for him.

But he was already gone.

Not a word, not a trace. As if he had never been there at all.

And that was all it took. You were obsessed.

As you got older, fascination twisted into obsession. The internet sleuth in you wasn’t held back by being fourteen, hunting for everything, books, articles, classified reports that had leaked onto obscure message boards, desperate for any scrap of information on Lumiere. Your search history became a shrine to him, spiraling down a rabbit hole of half-truths and speculation that even explaining porn to Gran would be easier.

You scoured forums where people spoke about him in fanatic reverence in endless threads filled with theories and fragmented testimonies. Some claimed to have seen him in the flesh, accounts breathless and disjointed, warped by awe and that phenomenon where one couldn’t exactly convey what they had gone through in perfect storytelling. Others swore he was nothing but a myth conjured by higher-ups to give birth to hope in the chaos of Linkon’s Catastrophe, possibly a constructed hero for the screens, the latter of which you knew better to entertain at all.

You watched every second of available footage, even the grainy, unstable clips filmed on trembling phones, taken from rooftops, from shattered streets, from whatever vantage point people could find before fleeing for their lives. You rewound, paused, analyzed, frames gone over with meticulous care one by one for anything you could find to get closer to his identity.

How he moved, fluid and precise, inhuman even with evol-user standards, the world around him bent in subtle ways as if the reality itself wasn't sure how to hold him, light distorting at the edges of his body.

You traced backtracked his path through the city, cross-referencing footage with satellite images, tracking where he had been, where he had vanished, where the destruction had ended in his wake, taking scraps of information jotted in the margins of notebooks, highlighted documents saved on your drive, timelines reconstructed in frantic detail.

You tried to reconstruct your own memories, too, for anything related to his face, but they slipped through your grasp like sand through clenched fingers — there for a moment, vivid and raw, before scattering into something blurred and incomplete. Time and trauma had eroded the edges, distorting the details, leaving you with fragments instead of a whole.

You remembered the feeling more than anything.

The glow of his energy swimming around him, a halo of sentient light, illuminating the space between you. It wasn't warm like fire, nor cold like electricity, but something else entirely, brushing against your skin like a cat bumping its forehead into your hand, threading through your bones like a current that recognized you.

You knew, deep in your bones, that you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. And that fact shaped you in ways you couldn’t explain.

Caleb thought it was hilarious.

“You could’ve picked literally anything else,” he teased, arms crossed as he watched you rearrange your Lumiere fanart posters for what had to be the third time that week, but there was an undeniable awe in the way his eyes swept over the sheer dedication on display. You would roll on the floor and kick your limbs just not to do your assigned chores, but the organization skills invested in Lumiere was nothing short of neat.

You barely glanced at him, too focused on making sure the edges of the posters were perfectly aligned. “And you still would be making fun of me.”

He snorted. “Listen, I support you, but you’ve turned this into a lifestyle.”

His gaze flicked around your room, taking in the full extent of your devotion. The shelves were packed — action figures still pristine in their boxes, rare collector’s items standing proudly on display, books and magazines carefully arranged like artifacts in a museum. A limited-edition Lumiere print, framed in glass, hung on the wall like it belonged in a gallery.

He reached over and flicked the head of a small Lumiere figurine on your desk, watching as it wobbled slightly before settling. Then he gestured toward the obscenely priced framed poster you had nearly cried over when it arrived in the mail.

“How much of your allowance have you blown on this guy?”

You turned to him, entirely unrepentant, eyes gleaming with conviction. “Every cent has been worth it.”

Caleb let out a long, dramatic sigh before collapsing onto your bed, bouncing slightly against the mattress as he folded his hands behind his head. His eyes flicked between you and the sheer shrine of Lumiere memorabilia covering your walls, his under-eye puffs creasing somewhere between amusement and mild exasperation.

"You know," he mused, stretching out like he had all the time in the world, "if you ever put this much dedication into something productive, you'd probably rule the world by now."

So much dad-talk with this guy.

"You’re just mad I’m putting my energy into Lumiere and not boosting your ego twenty-four-seven," you shot back, rolling your eyes as you took a step back to assess your latest Tetris-like rearrangement of posters. No visible surface of the wall underneath. Perfect.

Caleb hummed thoughtfully, still watching you with the kind of lazy, calculated interest that always meant trouble. Then, after a beat of silence, his lips curled into a slow, knowing grin.

"Actually," he drawled, tilting his head just slightly, "I bet you have some secret Lumiere fanfic account somewhere, don’t you?"

Your heart nearly stopped. "What—"

“Oh, you totally do.” Caleb was grinning now, wide and victorious, like a cat that had just batted its prey into a corner and was taking its time.

You grabbed the nearest pillow and hurled it at him with everything you had. He dodged effortlessly, laughing as it thudded uselessly against the floor.

“Shut up, Caleb!”

“I’m right, though. I knew it.” He sat up, rubbing his chin as if deep in thought, the way he talked dipping into that slow, calculating tone that made your stomach drop. “Now the question is — what exactly do you write? Reader-insert? OCs? Ooh, or is it those tragic longing glances across the battlefield type deals?”

You peeked through your fingers, glaring from behind your hands. “How do you even know all of this?! You’re — You’re not supposed to know things like this! You’re a guy!”

“Wow. Gender stereotyping? In this day and age? For your information, I listen when people talk. Unlike someone.”

“I never talked about writing!” you shriek cracked in sheer betrayal.

“Please. You definitely have a secret account. Probably one of those edgy usernames, like ‘EclipsedSoul94’ or something.” He snapped his fingers. “Or wait — maybe something romantic. Like… ‘Lightbearer’s Muse.’”

Your entire body locked up.

Caleb’s eyes went wide, and in the split second of silence that followed, you knew you were doomed.

“No. Way.” His voice practically beamed with glee as he shot forward, bracing himself on his hands and knees like he was about to pounce. “Did I actually get close?!"

You scrambled back, heart hammering. "Shut up!"

He was laughing now, leaning into every bit of your suffering. "Wow, this is even better than I imagined. Really though, what do you write? Self-insert where you get rescued by him again? Maybe a little strangers-to-lovers? C’mon pip-squeak, you can share it with me… Oh, wait — do you make him suffer? Tragic backstory rewrite? I’m thinking angst. Big, dramatic, heart-wrenching—”

"Get out of my room!"

This time, you launched the pillow with actual intent to maim. He caught it effortlessly, barely even flinching, his grin unaffected.

“Oh, I’m going to find it,” he declared, tossing the pillow back onto your bed as he stood. “It’s only a matter of time.” He pointed two fingers at his own eyes, then turned them toward you. “Just remember — you can’t hide from me forever.”

And with that, he was gone.

The second the door clicked shut, you collapsed onto your bed, burying your face into the nearest pillow and screamed.

You were so screwed.

Despite the relentless teasing, the smug grins, the knowing looks whenever you so much as mentioned Lumiere’s name, Caleb never actually tried to talk you out of your obsession. Never scoffed and told you to get over it, never dismissed the endless streams of theories and analysis spilling from your mouth. If anything, he made it worse.

Because instead of shutting you down, he fed into it.

Where everyone else might have tuned you out, offering half-hearted nods and vague hums of acknowledgment, Caleb locked in. Not just humoring you—engaging. Matching your energy in a way that no one else ever had.

Somewhere along the way, he had started picking things up. Not just the basics — anyone who spent enough time around you would eventually know Lumiere’s name, his signature abilities, his role in the Catastrophe. But Caleb went further. He started stockpiling trivia, hoarding it like ammunition, waiting for the right moment to use it against you.

And he did. Mercilessly.

"You know, technically, Lumiere’s first recorded appearance after the Catastrophe is actually three years later, he’s not entirely gone," he had dropped casually over breakfast one morning, flipping through his phone like he wasn’t watching your reaction out of the corner of his eye. "A witness in South End reported seeing a guy with light-based powers interfering in a protocore smuggling ring. No solid proof, but some people think—"

You nearly choked on your coffee.

Or the time you were mid-rant about power scaling inconsistencies in an old debate, only for Caleb to lazily stretch his arms and yawn, "Yeah, but Lumiere’s light refraction abilities could inherently be tied to gravitational fields, so if you think about it, it actually makes sense that his speed varies depending on—"

You had thrown a book at him.

He acted like it was effortless, like this knowledge had just naturally embedded itself into his brain, but you knew. He had researched this. Had studied. Absorbed every ridiculous tidbit just for the sole purpose of catching you off guard, slipping it into conversation like he had always been an expert.

And whenever you found out about a rare Lumiere event — an exhibit, a convention panel, a last-minute pop-up experience — Caleb always somehow made time for it. No matter how busy he was, no matter how much he acted like he had better things to do, he never let you go alone.

He was the one dragging you out the door before you could overthink it, nudging you along when your nerves made you hesitate, handing over your ticket with a long-suffering sigh like this was somehow his responsibility. And yet, despite all his grumbling, he never actually looked reluctant.

He took you to Lumiere-themed pop-up cafés, sitting across from you in a booth that was entirely too colorful for his tastes, making some sarcastic remark about how even the food was branded. And yet, when the latte art arrived, he took the picture before you could even reach for your phone, angling it just right to catch the aesthetic lighting.

He cringed at the massive life-sized Lumiere cardboard cutouts at events but still held your bag when you ran up to one, grinning like an idiot as you posed beside it. And then, when you weren’t paying attention, he took actual good pictures, ones where you didn’t look stiff or awkward, capturing the moment exactly as it was — your excitement, your enthusiasm, the way your entire face lit up.

He even tagged along to convention panels, sitting through debates over Lumiere’s greatest heroic moments like he had a stake in them. You expected him to zone out, maybe nap through the more obscure discussions, but he never did, if anything, he leaned into the arguments with the investment of a man lingering before a soap opera he told his partner he wasn’t interested in, standing up with hands on hips.

And when you shot him a look, silently accusing him of enjoying this way more than he let on, he just shrugged.

"Hey, I’ve been forced into this fandom. Might as well commit."

You wanted to argue, call him out on the fact that he was the one feeding into your obsession, not the other way around. But the moment you turned to say something, he was already flipping through the event schedule.

"Alright," he would lock in. "Where’s the merch booth?"

Caleb had made your love for Lumiere feel valid, important — even if he never let you live it down.

One year, on your birthday, Caleb somehow managed to track down the holy grail of Lumiere merchandise—an original, limited-edition plushie from an exclusive release, the kind of thing that had vanished off the market almost as soon as it had dropped. You had spent so much searching for it, scouring secondhand listings, watching auctions climb into absurd price ranges before vanishing altogether and appearing right back in someone else's hands to be auctioned once more, hands in your hair agonizing over the relic of the fandom hardcore collectors would have sold their souls for.

And Caleb, of all people, had found it.

You still remembered the moment you unwrapped it — the weight of the box in your lap, the crinkle of carefully folded tissue paper giving way beneath your fingertips, the instant recognition as soon as you caught a glimpse of soft, familiar fabric. Your breath had hitched, hands going still, heart skittering in the hollow of your throat like jostled dice as the realization sank in.

This wasn’t some replica. This wasn’t just a well-kept version of the later reprints. This was the original.

You lifted it with something close to reverence, fingers ghosting over the embroidered details, the slightly worn tag still attached to its side. It looked untouched, preserved like a piece of history, but you knew better. You knew how old it was, how impossible it should have been to get something like this in such pristine condition.

You had screamed and made him jump, nearly knocking him over with the force of your hug, your hands shaking as you clutched it close to your chest, running your fingers over the embroidered insignia and the carefully-stitched details. "No. No way. NO WAY! Where—how—? Caleb!"

He ruffled your hair in that annoyingly familiar way, his touch light but lingering just a second longer than usual. “It wasn’t even that hard to get.”

You pulled back, still clutching the plushie to your chest, blinking at him in disbelief. “What do you mean it wasn’t hard? Caleb, this thing has been sold out for years. People would kill for it. I would’ve killed for it.”

He just shrugged, all nonchalance, like he hadn’t just gifted you something nearly impossible to find. “Luckily, you don’t need to, because I know people.”

You narrowed your eyes. “You do not know Lumiere merch scalpers.”

“I might.”

You gawked at him. “Wait. Wait. Did you actually—”

Caleb waved you off, leaning back in his chair like the conversation was already over. The birthday cake remnants still sat on the table nearby, plates half-empty. “Just be grateful, gremlin.”

You stared at him, still overwhelmed, your heart all over the place from equal parts excitement and the dawning realization that he had to have gone above and beyond to get this. And he wasn’t even rubbing it in your face like he normally would. Just looking content with himself. 

The warmth of the stove lights flickered against his face, highlighting the soft grin playing at his lips, but beneath all the teasing, there was the unbearable smother of honeyed fondness that made your breath catch for just a heartbeat.

You hugged the plushie tighter, still clutching it like it was the most precious thing in the world. “Caleb.”

He cracked an eye open, raising a brow. “Hmm?”

You didn’t even know what to say. Thank you didn’t seem enough. But you also knew he’d never let you dwell on it too long. He was always like this — giving, caring, yours, in a way that was so deeply ingrained in your life you sometimes forgot to acknowledge it.

Choked up, you nudged his leg beneath the table with your foot. Caleb, ever the instigator, nudged back, his grin widening as your little game escalated into a full-blown under-the-table foot war. The plates and empty glasses clinked slightly as your shins bumped, his movements slow and infuriatingly confident, while you tried to gain the upper hand.

“You’re the worst,” you muttered instead, trying to mask the sudden warmth creeping up your neck.

Caleb, predictably, took the bait, his grin widening as he leaned back, stretching his legs out to trap yours in place. “You love me,” he shot back, effortlessly smug, not expecting anything more from you.

And maybe that was what made it so easy to say what you did next, words slipping out before you could think twice. “I’d probably be miserable without you.”

His foot froze against yours.

You didn’t notice, too focused on reclaiming your space in the ongoing foot war, pushing against his shin again with renewed determination. But across the table, Caleb had gone completely still, his smile faltering just slightly before he recovered, clearing his throat.

“Yeah, yeah,” he murmured, shaking his head, but his ears were red, his voice softer than before.

Another time, he had stayed up with you all night, camping out in a virtual queue just to secure tickets to a Lumiere-themed convention. You had woken up that morning to a confirmation email and Caleb sprawled on your couch, half-asleep with his phone still in his hand.

You had launched yourself at him, tackling him in joy, and even though he had groaned about being used as a human pillow, he had never once pushed you away.

Looking back, you wondered if you had ever truly understood that these memories weren’t just tied to Lumiere. They were wrapped by the safety and happiness of Caleb always making space for your hyperfixations, in the laughter over something only he would ever indulge.

The things you treasured most had never belonged to Lumiere. They had always belonged to Caleb.

The old town, infested with Wanderers and long abandoned by warmth, was colder than expected — not the kind of cold that settled, but the kind that moved, restless and alive, carried on the wind like an unseen force threading through the empty streets, it was something biting, something electric, like static before a lightning strike, like unseen teeth grazing exposed skin.

You had felt it before Xavier did.

Even before the wind cut sharper, before the first true gust sent loose debris skittering across the road, you had known, drawn in on yourself instinctively, chin tucked, shoulders hunched, fighting the chill that threaded through your coat as if the layers meant nothing, arms locked tight around your body, gloved fingers curling against your sleeves, as if bracing for something just beyond the horizon.

And then, you had stopped talking somewhere along the walk back, words trailing off until there was nothing but the sound of your footsteps, picking up pace, pressing forward.

Xavier hadn't noticed — not at first.

Not in the way he should have.

He had just assumed you were cold, that you, like him, simply didn’t want to be caught outside when the storm hit. Had brushed it off as something normal — the logical reaction to impending bad weather.

The place they had taken for the night barely deserved to be called a shelter. It was a husk of a room, abandoned to time, walls bruised with damp stains that crept like ivy, smelling of old concrete and rusted metal. The single window rattled in protest against the wind, its warped frame allowing the night to slip through in cold, sharp breaths, laced with the damp tang of rain that hadn’t yet fallen.

The heater struggled against the chill, wheezing out uneven bursts of warmth that never reached past the center of the room. Its hum was a frail thing, swallowed by the rising howl of wind that curled through the alleyways outside, hissing and whistling through unseen cracks in the foundation.

They had a plan — keep watch in shifts, take turns standing guard. But plans meant nothing when he felt safe enough and wooziness had already sunk its fangs deep, wrapping around his limbs, tugging him down like stones in water.

Sleep took him fast.

Swift. Unfought. Unnoticed.

At some undefined hour of the night, he surfaced from sleep — not to cold, but to warmth.

His mind waded through the haze of exhaustion, sluggish and unwilling, thoughts tangled in the remnants of whatever half-formed dreams had been unraveling in his head. Instinct kept his body still, his muscles coiled, tight, waiting. The room was silent except for the distant hush of wind through the cracks, the faint coughing of the heater struggling against the damp chill.

And then, awareness seeped in.

Something soft. Comfy. Pressed against him.

The warmth wasn’t from the heater.

It was you.

The realization was a breath held too long, burning his lungs. You had curled into him in sleep, your body drawn close as if seeking something — comfort, heat, him.

Even without seeing your face, he felt it in the way you clung, your fingers curled tight in the fabric of his shirt, gripping like something in you needed to hold on. Your knuckles pressed into his ribs, your breath ghosting across his skin in shallow, uneven pulls, whisper-soft, as if shaped from the same air that carried his secrets.

And you were trembling.

Not violently, not enough to wake, but enough that he noticed. Enough that something deep in his chest cavity wilted at the thought of whatever had driven you to this.

Outside, the storm had come in full.

Lightning split the sky in flashing white veins, illuminating the window for a fractured instant before plunging them back into darkness, wind howled through the streets, carrying the sharp, sudden crack of thunder. You flinched in your sleep, whining softly.

And suddenly, Xavier understood.

His body moved before his thoughts could catch up, a quiet, instinctual response written into muscle memory. He shifted — not abruptly, not enough to jostle you awake, but with a frictionless glide as if settling deeper into water without disturbing the surface.

The mattress dipped beneath his weight, adjusting to the subtle pull of your body against his. He could feel the way you fit against him, the way you curled inward, seeking warmth, seeking him. The fabric of his shirt tightened under your grip, your fingers still balling the material as if you weren’t ready to let go, even in sleep.

He could have woken you. Should have.

A gentle shake of your shoulder, a quiet murmur — It’s just a storm. It will pass.

But inexplicably, he didn’t.

Instead, he stayed.

Let you burrow closer, let your breath even out against his collarbone, let the fragile rhythm of sleep attempt to reclaim you, no matter how restless it was. The scent of you — faint traces of perfume and the lingering damp chill from the air outside — mixed with the slow burn of body heat between you, wrapping the moment in something neither of you would acknowledge in the morning.

He told himself he was only waiting. Just for a little while. Just until you settled.

What came next was barely a sound. A breath, a whisper, something fragile enough to be mistaken for the wind rattling through the walls.

“Caleb.”

Xavier froze.

A slow, twisting sickness thrashed in his gut, bitter and ugly, something he had no right to feel.

Outside, the city howled. Wind rushed through the skeletal remains of forgotten buildings, rain lashing against the rattling windowpane in fits of fury. Thunder cracked, deep and rolling, a sound that did not settle — it shuddered through the bones of the earth, rattled the air, tried to shake loose whatever it could.

But inside?

Inside, there was only this.

The press of your body against his. The shape of you molded against his side, fingers still curled into the fabric of his shirt as if you meant to hold onto him. As if he was the gravity keeping you from drifting. As if you were reaching for him — not just in sleep, not just in the thick haze of exhaustion — but truly, blindly, instinctively.

And yet—

It wasn’t his name you whispered.

Xavier’s jaw locked, his breath shallow. He could have let you go. Could have moved away, broken the moment, shaken you gently awake and told you to take the bed. Could have reminded you, in some quiet, necessary way, that he was not the one you were calling for.

But he didn’t.

He couldn’t.

He let you stay there, let himself absorb the warmth of you, the weight of you. Let himself pretend, for just a moment, that this meant nothing. That it was only an exhaustion-born slip of the tongue, a dream clawing through the grave, something fleeting that would dissolve with the dawn.

The storm prowled in late, a hulking beast dragging its belly across the sky, smothering the moon beneath a thick, churning mass, its swollen clouds rolling like restless beasts. Lightning flickered in their depths, a pulse beneath thick, churning skin, illuminating the world in fractured glimpses — a flash of the windowpane, rain-streaked and rattling, a brief glint of an airplane model on the nightstand, the sharp angles of shadows clawing across the ceiling. Then darkness again. The first distant growls of thunder were rolling in low, stretching their echoes across the night.

Caleb barely noticed.

The flickering blue light of the TV played over his face, his body sprawled across the bed in an easy sprawl, one arm slung over his eyes. The hum of voices from the screen blended into the static haze of his thoughts, their weightless chatter filling the space without asking anything of him. A small comfort.

A bolt of lightning ripped the sky in half, flooding the room with a bone-white flash.

CRACK!

A thunderclap like a gunshot split the air, slamming into the apartment with a force that rattled the windowpanes, making the lights flicker, and Caleb flinched, breath caught mid-inhale. And just like that, awareness returned to him.

You were afraid of storms.

It had been years since you’d last crawled into his bed on a night like this, but fear didn’t just disappear — it wore new faces.

Just like life.

Once, fear had been the thunder outside your window. Now, it was subtler, more intangible, abstract. Time itself, pulling you both in opposite directions like a tide too strong to fight.

His world had grown far beyond the childhood walls that once felt endless. The cracked pavement of your old street had given way to stadium lights, the sharp echo of a basketball on concrete replaced with the rhythmic squeak of sneakers on polished hardwood. Grueling practices stole his evenings, high-stakes games consumed his weekends, and the weight of expectation had begun bearing down on his shoulders like a physical thing. Coaches, teammates, strangers — each of them had carved their own demands into him, shaping him into something more than just the boy you used to know.

A name. A talent. A future.

And yet, all of it — every late-night practice, every exhausting sprint, every sacrifice— had been a decision made in the quiet of his own mind.

For your sake.

Because while his world had stretched wide and far, you had remained at the center of it. Home was still in your shadow.

Had it been too much to expect for it to be the same for you?

You were no longer just the kid who used to chase after him, feet barely keeping up, breathless and laughing, wide-eyed and weightless and trusting in the way only children could be.

Your hands had once been so small, always grasping, always finding his wrist, his sleeve, the hem of his shirt—any part of him that anchored you. In crowded hallways, you used to press into his side as if the press of bodies and the rush of voices would swallow you whole if he wasn’t there to hold you tight, fingers curled tight in the fabric of his jacket like you thought he was going to leave you behind.

It was in the way you spoke now. No more sidelong glances in his direction, no more pausing to gauge his reaction before deciding whether to commit to a thought. The kind of confidence that wasn’t borrowed from him but built on your own ground.

It was in the spaces you carved out, the ones where his presence had become optional instead of assumed. The text chains he wasn’t part of, filled with names and inside jokes he didn’t recognize. The weekend plans you no longer ran by him first, the group outings where he wasn’t automatically included. People who had their own memories with you — memories he wasn’t in. Once, your world had overlapped so completely with his that he never questioned whether he had a place in it. Now, it was expanding, growing branches he hadn’t been there to water.

The signs were everywhere, in details so small they almost felt petty to notice — almost. The way you’d tilt your phone away when typing, in the existence of private social media accounts he didn’t have access to. The way you ordered for yourself at restaurants without giving him that familiar look, the unspoken “you know what I like” that used to pass between you. The way your late-night talks had dwindled, from every time something went wrong to only when it was serious.

Once, you would have knocked on his door in a heartbeat — over a bad test grade, a ruined outfit, a stubbed toe. Now, days passed before he even realized something had happened, and by the time he asked, you had already handled it. Solved it. Moved on.

And he told himself it was good. Healthy. A natural part of growing up.

But needing him less was one thing.

Needing him not at all — that was something else entirely.

And then there were the looks — the ones he hadn’t noticed at first, or maybe just refused to.

The first time he really saw it — not just noticed in passing, not just brushed off — was on the court at seventeen, the burn of the game still fresh in his muscles, sweat rolling down his spine in slow, sticky beads. His heart was hammering from the last play, his breath still unsteady, but none of that mattered the second his gaze flicked toward the sidelines.

You were there, exactly where you always were, standing just beyond the edge of the gym floor, your voice still ringing from whatever cheer you’d thrown his way. But he was there too — some near-graduate with too much ego and too little sense, stretching lazily near the bench like he wasn’t watching you, when he very much was.

Caleb saw it in the slow drag of his gaze, the way it traced over you like a hand, the up-and-down appraisal that made his stomach fold in on itself hot and tight.

This fossil wasn’t some kid on the playground getting red-faced and tongue-tied, some middle school idiot stammering through a crush while Caleb loomed over him, effortlessly making himself an immovable wall between you and them.

Back then, it had been easy. He never had to try. A single glance, a well-placed hand on your shoulder, a casual, dismissive she’s busy or oh, she’s not dating yet or she’s got a curfew or we’ve got family plans tonight was all it took to send whatever unfortunate boy packing. Those little guys were no real threat — not to him, not to you. They were children. Awkward, unsure, easily intimidated.

But this?

This was a whole different game.

Fourteen. His baby pip-squeak was fourteen. And that guy was nearly eighteen. A senior. Already filling out college applications. Already halfway out the door with a look that said I know exactly what I want, and I think I can take it.

Caleb felt the arrival of the crunch time before he fully processed it. The way his body tensed. The slow, curling heat that started in his chest, burned its way up the back of his neck and set his entire head on fire. His pulse had just begun to settle, but now it was climbing again for a different reason.

Of course, he didn’t throw a punch. Didn’t snap, didn’t bare his teeth, didn’t let the heat curling in his gut explode into something reckless.

Instead, he did what he always did — smiled.

That same easy, sunlit grin that made people relax. That made them believe he was nothing but warmth, nothing but laughter and good-natured charm. He slung an arm over his teammate’s shoulder, casual as ever, fingers pressing just a little too firmly into the guy’s back — friendly, but firm. A little too much weight in the gesture. A little too much control.

Like a predator playing with its food.

“Oh, man,” he laughed, loud enough to carry, his voice bright and effortless, even as something cold settled beneath it. “You think you can handle her? I live with her. Believe me, you do not want that smoke. She still holds a grudge over a game of Kitty Cards from, like, five years ago.”

His teammate chuckled, but it wavered with the subtle knowledge thrown his way about Caleb’s relation to you. A half-second too slow, a fraction too stiff. Caleb felt it — the subtle crack in his posture, the moment of hesitation.

Good.

Caleb clapped him on the back, kept his grip just strong enough, let the force of it push the guy a step forward, off balance. His grin never slipped, easy and golden, smooth as ever.

“Nah,” he added, shaking his head with a laugh. “You don’t want to stoop to her level and be a child with her. Trust me.”

And that was it.

That was the cut. You’re too grown for her, don’t even think about it.

It wasn’t the thunder that rolled overhead yanked him away from the memories but the knock. Barely more than a dull tap compared to the pelting rain.

A flicker of intent, and his evol pulsed through the air, slipping unseen into the metal of the lock. It gave without resistance, the faintest click swallowed by the storm’.

The door eased open, and there you were.

You stood at the threshold, wrapped in the dim glow spilling from the hallway, shadows pooling at your feet. Your sweater, probably stolen from his closet, if he had to guess, enveloped you like a hug, sleeves too long, hands swallowed in soft fabric, the hem skimming the tops of your bare thighs, and for a moment, he didn’t know if it was the storm making the room feel colder or the sight of you standing there, small and uncertain, like something fragile carried in by the wind. our hair clung to your cheeks, still damp from the shower, no matter how many times he’d told you to dry it properly. The Lumiere plushie — faded from years of love, seams slightly frayed — was clutched tight to your chest, its little embroidered eyes peeking out between your fingers.

For a second, you didn’t move. Just hovered there, framed by the doorway, uncertain. The flickering light from the hallway cast uneven shapes across your face, catching on the tension in your brow, the way your lips pressed together like you were still debating this. Still deciding whether to step forward or turn back.

The storm cracked overhead, a sudden burst of white against the night.

You flinched.

That was all it took.

Before he could say anything, you moved.

A blur of of warmth and familiarity as you darted forward, slipping beneath the blankets in a single, fluid motion, your body curling against his, urgent and instinctive, like you were a mole that could burrow deep enough to escape the storm itself.

The scent of shower clung to you, damp and cooled, mixing with the lingering sweetness of whatever tea you must have abandoned in the kitchen. Your skin, still chilled from the hallway, met the steady heat of his side, and the contrast sent a shiver through you — a quiet tremor he felt before he heard your voice.

“I hate this.”

The words came muffled, half-buried in the plush fabric of Lumière, your cheek pressed into the space between his shoulder and chest. Your fingers tightened around the stuffed toy, nails pressing into worn seams, but your body had already melted against his. Seeking. Settling. Staying.

“It’s too loud.”

He exhaled, measured and steady, adjusting the blankets in a practiced motion. Tucking you in. Smoothing the covers over your shoulder, pulling them snug around you both, layering warmth like a shield against the chaos outside.

But his hands lingered.

Half a second too long. Fingers brushing against the fabric of your sleeve, feeling the shape of your wrist beneath.

Just a hesitation. Just a moment.

Then he let go.

Outside, the storm raged on. Inside, in the dim hush of the room, you had already begun to relax — breath evening out, shoulders losing their tension. Your weight, solid and real, grounding him in ways you probably didn’t realize.

He swallowed, tilting his head slightly, watching the way your lashes fluttered.

“Didn’t you say you’d be fine since Lumiere would protect you?” he teased with the kind of question meant to earn an indignant huff, a half-hearted rebuttal.

You just sighed instead, pressing in closer, tucking yourself into the space between his arm and his chest like you belonged there. Maybe you did.

“Lumiere can protect me in here, as well.”

Caleb let out a short, breathy snort, shaking his head, but didn’t push the moment further. The teasing remark on the tip of his tongue faded before it could form, swallowed by the quiet rhythm of your breathing against him. Instead, he let his focus drift back to the television, the glow of the screen flickering in shades of blue and white, the sound barely more than a murmur beneath the rain. His eyes tracked the movement, but none of it stuck — just colors, light, a meaningless blur against the weight of you snugly close beside him.

He could feel your heartbeat, a tad bit too fast and off-kilter, just beneath the layers of fabric between you. The rise and fall of your breath matched his own, an unconscious sync that had existed for as long as he could remember. The plush weight of Lumière was still crushed between you, your fingers lax around its worn edges. The storm continued, but none of the chaos reached you here. You were safe. You had always been safe with him.

That was the way it had always been.

Since you were small, since the first time a storm had driven you to his room, since the night you’d climbed into his bed without a word and dived beneath his blankets. Caleb had gotten used to it — used to the way you always found your way back to him when you were afraid, as if his presence alone was enough to ward off the things that scared you.

But something was different this time.

It wasn’t the first time you had curled up against him like this. Wasn’t the first time his bed had become your refuge against thunder and lightning. But it was the first time he was aware of it—so painfully, keenly aware.

Of the way your weight settled against him.

Of the way your warmth seeped through his clothes, into his skin.

Of the way his own breath felt suddenly too shallow, on the verge of shaking.

The first time in what felt like forever that he wasn’t just letting you exist beside him, wasn’t just offering quiet comfort out of habit.

It blindsided him, sharp and sudden, like stepping off a curb he hadn’t seen coming. His pulse stuttered — missed a couple beats, even — before picking up again, faster this time, uneven and unsteady. His breath caught, a fraction too shallow, barely making it past his throat.

Heat bloomed low in his stomach, curling, spreading, wrong. A rush of something hot and electric, sharp in its intensity, unwelcome in its timing. The front of his shorts grew uncomfortably tight, and panic — raw, visceral, boiling — shot through him before his brain could even fully register why.

His arm, draped around your shoulders in what had always been an easy, thoughtless gesture, suddenly felt rigid. His fingers twitched where they rested against the soft knit of your sweater, a tremor he hoped you wouldn’t notice. You were pressed so close, body warm and trusting, the scent of your shampoo curling into the space between you, something faintly sweet, familiar. The steady rhythm of your breathing ghosted against his collarbone, peaceful, unaware, safe.

Safe with him.

(You’re too grown for her, don’t even think about it.)

His stomach twisted, shame lashing through him with an intensity that made his skin prickle. He squeezed his eyes shut, jaw locking tight, willing it away. Not now. Not here, not like this.

But it didn’t go away.

If anything, it sank deeper, worse.

Like an itch beneath his skin that he couldn’t scratch, like a wire pulled too tight, like something recalibrating inside him in a way he wasn’t sure he knew how to stop.

One of your arms had somehow found its way under his shirt in the process of shifting closer, your fingers curled loosely against his ribs, barely brushing. The touch was a simple point of contact, yet it may as well have been a live wire pressed against him.

The stuffed Lumière had been shoved between you at some point, an afterthought, its worn fabric smushed and doing absolutely nothing to create any real distance. Your bare leg had tangled with his under the blanket, knee slotted against his in a way that should have been familiar, routine, but wasn’t — not anymore.

You had melted into his side the moment you felt safe, your body losing all tension like a sigh exhaled straight into him. He had felt it happen. The moment your fingers twitched once, twice, then stilled. The way your breathing deepened, evened out, slow and unguarded. The tiny, involuntary nuzzle as you nestled closer, like instinct, like trust.

It was the kind of thing he would have laughed at, should have laughed at — how absurdly fast you had knocked out, how easily you had settled into sleep as if the storm outside had never existed.

But he couldn’t laugh.

Because while you were perfectly at ease, he was staring at the ceiling, pulse jackhammering, dick rigid with something too messy to name and had him going completely, utterly insane.

This can't be happening.

He shouldn’t be thinking about you like this.

Shouldn’t be feeling like this.

Every rational part of him screamed it, pounded it into his skull like a warning siren. This was you — the same person who he had been sheltering even from his own eyes, the same person who had never thought twice before crawling into his space, his bed, his arms, whenever you needed comfort. And right now — right now — you were trusting him to be nothing but safe.

But safe was the last thing he felt.

His skin was too tight, heat licking up his spine, an uncomfortable, cloying pressure settling in the pit of his stomach that refused to ease no matter how many slow breaths he forced past his lips. The sheets felt too warm, the press of your body against his too much.

Then came the thought — the one he didn’t mean to have, the one he tried to shove down the moment it clawed its way into his brain.

It would be so easy to press your hand down firmer.

He crushed it before it could fully form, but the damage was already done.

Not just because of what he was feeling, but because of what he wasn’t feeling. No alarm, no disgust, no immediate, sharp-edged denial cutting through the fog about being your older brother — having to be your older brother. Just this. The slow, creeping horror of understanding that something had shifted long before this moment, that it had been shifting for years, and that he had been pretending not to notice.

The worst part wasn’t that it was happening.

The worst part was that he had spent so long convincing himself it never could.

That he had been so certain he had outgrown it. That he had locked it away, buried it, desensitized himself into something safe, into something good, into the person you needed and wanted him to be.

And yet—

And yet.

Here he was, feeling like this, every nerve in his body betraying him, his own self-control slipping through his fingers like sand.

Like he had never locked those feelings away at all.

Like they had only been waiting.

Touch had always been natural between you, something woven so seamlessly into the fabric of his life that he never stopped to think about it. It had been there since childhood, an unconscious language of familiarity, of belonging. You’d always looped your arm through his without a second thought, fingers hooking around his sleeve as you walked beside him, grounding yourself in his presence. Slipped your hands into his jacket pockets when the wind bit too sharply at your fingertips. Draped yourself over his back with a huff when you were too lazy to move, trusting him to hold your weight like it was nothing.

He could still feel the way you used to pull at the hem of his shirt when you wanted his attention, a silent, wordless request that he never needed to question. The way your forehead would press against his shoulder when exhaustion hit, your body sinking against his like it was second nature. The absentminded way you toyed with the ends of his hair when he was distracted, your fingers twisting through the strands in quiet loops. He had been used to it. To the gentle, fleeting pressure of your foot nudging his under the dinner table. To the way you never seemed to notice how close you sat, legs pressing together without hesitation. To the weight of your head against his chest when the world felt too loud and you needed silence wrapped in the steadiness of him.

It had always been that way. It had always been fine.

But lately — lately, things weren't quite right.

Not in the way you acted. You were the same. Still wrapping your arms around him after games, still slipping beneath his arm when you needed comfort. Still pressing into his side without hesitation, warm and familiar, never second-guessing the space you took up in his life.

But he felt it differently now.

It crept up on him in moments that should have been nothing — the way your warmth seeped through his clothes, the slow drag of your fingertips on the flushed skin of his ribs, the faint pressure of your breath against his skin when you leaned in close. A quiet, unbearable awareness.

You weren’t a kid anymore. He wasn’t your gege anymore.

Too much. Too much. Too much that he could collapse into a black hole right here, right now.

He needed to create space between you before he did something stupid.

But when he stirred slightly, you only sighed in your sleep, nuzzling further into him. The plushie that was basically a barrier between you slipped, letting him feel the press of the plush of your chest against him, your leg sliding firmly between his. He froze, every muscle in his body locking up, sweat beading along his hairline and face absolutely on fire.

No.

He pried your hand from underneath his shirt, the drag lingering on a loop inside his head even after he let go. His hands trembled, barely steady enough to nudge the stupid plushie out of the way, pushing it aside like it had been the thing keeping him pinned in place instead of you.

Slowly, he lifted himself from the mattress, moving inch by inch, muscles taut with the effort of keeping his movements smooth, controlled. Every cell in his body felt raw, hyper-aware of every rustle of fabric, every shuffle of weight. The mattress dipped as he pulled away, but you didn’t stir beyond a faint murmur, too deeply gone into blissed dreamland to notice his absence.

His pulse hammered in his throat as he hovered there, hesitating — watching the way you curled into the space he left behind, seeking warmth, unconsciously reaching for something that was no longer there.

He let out a slow, shaky breath before carefully sliding his pillow into your arms instead. It was an old thing, worn soft at the edges, still faintly carrying his scent. The moment it settled against you, you hummed — a barely-there sound, sleepy and content — as you pulled it close, nuzzling into the fluffy fabric, tucking your face into it the way you had done to him only moments ago.

You didn’t wake. Because as far as you were concerned, nothing had changed.

But Caleb sat there for a moment longer, watching you, fingers curling into loose fists uselessly at his sides, his breathing uneven in his own chest. The covers rose and fell with each peaceful breath you took, oblivious to the way his world had tilted on its axis.

He swallowed hard, throat dry, and reached to pull the blanket higher over your shoulder. Smoothed it down, lingering where it shouldn’t.

Then, without another sound, he slipped out of the room and spent the next hour standing beneath the icy spray of the shower.

The protofield and the Wanderer had vanished. Help was en route.

Xavier’s leg wound that he’d gotten while protecting you, while not fatal, was severe enough that crimson seeped through his dark pants and pulled between your quivering fingers as you applied pressure.

And the insufferable bastard just huffed through his nose, as if this were just another routine mission, another insignificant injury in a never-ending string of perilous nights with barely a flinch crossing his features, the sight of his own blood seemingly less concerning to him than it was to you.

“It’s not as bad it looks,” he repeated, for the tenth time.

The words only worked to ignite an infuriated coil inside, molten and barbed.

Your hands tightened, pushing down harder than you needed to. He barely reacted. Just watched you, lovable and doe-eyed, his body slack in a comfortable way against the broken wall behind him. The dimness of the failing streetlamps trying to reach into the alley you two were in cast his silver hair in eerie light, making him look even more ghostly than usual.

“Stop saying that,” you said, shakier than a house of cards in a storm, accusing.

His breathing was deep. Slower than it should be. Your brain was running too fast, trying to calculate blood loss, survival rates, anything to make sense of what was in front of you. But all you could see was him, pale under the glow, blurred because of the saltwater pooling in your eyes, fading like smoke. Like if you blinked, he might vanish completely with the teardrops.

You started digging through your pack, yanking out the field kit with hands that wouldn’t stop shaking. You needed to stop the bleeding. You needed to make sure he stayed. Stayed with you.

Not again.

The med kit slipped through your fingers, scattering across the pavement. Your ears rung with the loud noise the metal case made, subconscious plunging you back in that day. 

Not again.

You re-experienced the force of the explosion that had thrown you to the ground, had ripped the breath from your body. The world burned. Heat, suffocating, picking at your skin like a vulture, searing your lungs.

Fire, ash, the splintered ruins of what had once been home. And you, crawling through the rubble, reaching for something, anything. Your fingers had closed around metal — small, cool despite the heat — the necklace you'd gifted Caleb, half-buried in dust and debris. What remained of him, worn but still legible, pressed into your palm. It was all that was left.

Not again.

Nausea gripped your stomach as your blood-stained hands hovered in the air, fingers twitching with clumsiness of desperation. But this time was different. You weren't grasping for ghosts, sifting through the ashes of an irreparable past. Could still do something. had to do something.

Reaching for the scattered supplies, your wrist was suddenly caught in Xavier's gentle grip, stapling you to the present moment.

“You’re panicking,” he commented.

Yanking your hand away, you retorted sharply, "Of course I'm panicking. You're bleeding out, Xavier."

He studied you intently, head tilted in that familiar, contemplative manner, searching for the traces of what that had pulled this state out of you. Then, with a hint of misplaced levity, he remarked, "This is nothing. A quick nap will fix me."

It was the wrong thing to say.

Your throat tightened. The world swayed for half a second, the ill-timed attempt at reassurance in his words reduced to a cup of water tossed onto a wildfire.

You thought of all the times before, of wounds that hadn’t healed, of a love confession whispered too late. Too late, after the funeral, when you stood before the empty grave, the one filled with nothing but dirt and a marker with his name. There had been no body to bury, no hand to touch one last time, no real goodbye to be had. Just you, alone, the cold night bleeding your life force, the whisper of your own voice breaking as you knelt, fingers digging into the soil, telling him the words you should have said when he was still there to hear them.

"Please, stop being like that, I can't—" Your voice cracked as you ducked your head, hiding your face from him, palm pressing against your mouth to stifle the words threatening to spill out. I can't do this again.

Xavier let out a fast breath, his posture stiffening in the kind of regret that made people avert their eyes. The joke had fallen flat, misplaced at a time like this, and he knew it. Another inhale, slower this time, he flexed his fingers against his thigh, then stilled, hovering on the edge of movement, caught between reaching for you and holding himself back.

His gloved hand moved, brushing lightly against your cheek.

He was warm. He was still warm.

Your breath caught. The fear squeezed you dry.

You had waited too long with Caleb, naively believing he'd always be there for you just like he promised, naively believing he was invincible just as he was in your childhood self's adoring eyes.

And now, here, with Xavier bleeding in front of you, you refused to wait again.

You didn’t think. You just kissed him.

It was sudden, too quick, too desperate. He stiffened under your touch, startled — but he didn’t pull away, didn’t break the contact, just let you take and take and take because you were drowning and he was the only thing keeping you above the surface.

Your fingers twisted into the front of his coat, pulling him closer like you could hold him together, like you could keep him here. Your hands were still slick with his blood, but you didn’t care. You didn’t care about anything except the way his breath hitched, the way he stayed perfectly still for a fraction of a second before his hands moved.

One to the back of your neck, fingers threading into your hair. The other against your waist, grounding. He kissed you back with a cautious intensity, uncertain at first, but growing decisive, nothing like the way you kissed him. Like he was learning you, like he was mapping out every shaky breath, every fractured sound you made.

When your kiss began to tremble, he seamlessly took control, molding his mouth to yours as if this dance were one he had practiced countless times before.

Slow, gentle, soothing. He chased the taste of salt on your lips, breathing the shuddering sound you made down like it was sustenance. He tasted like earth and ozone, clean in ways that reminded you of starlight, of open skies and safe nights. This moment felt small, private, contained — his body curved into yours, warm, solid, a shelter where you could fall apart and still be held together. His scent washed over you, crisp, like fresh air after a storm, dizzying — reminding you exactly whose mouth was against yours, exactly whose hands were touching you right now, exactly where you were.

Everything ached. It hurt too much, it wasn't enough. You wanted him closer. Always closer. Until all you could breathe, until all you could taste was the shape of his name on the roof of your mouth.

You pulled away, gasping against his parted lips, head spinning.

Before you could apologize — for losing control, for being selfish, for needing someone so desperately you didn't stop to consider whether or not that was what they wanted too, or the shape they were in — he tugged you into the curve of his shoulder, resting his cheek against the top of your head. Fingertips grazed along your arm, tracing your scar tissue like braille. His heart thrummed against your ear, strong, steady. Loud.

"It'll be okay," he said. "I'll be okay. I promise."

The words were hushed. Reassuring. Absolute.

Somehow, you believed him.

As suddenly as it had appeared, the panic drained away. Your muscles uncoiled, nerves steadying. The ringing in your ears faded. Slowly, slowly, everything sharpened back into focus.

In the distance, a siren wailed.

"You better be," you said, shaky as a leaf in winter, brittle, thin, the syllables weak against the night. "You can't make me fall for you only to just die like this."

These words had never left your heart before. Swelled there for years, growing too big, but never leaving, never finding their way out into the cold. They had belonged to Caleb once. Caleb, who smiled wide as a sky at sunset and ran faster than a starship and wore his kindness like armor. But now the words meant something new. Now you didn't have to keep them locked up inside of you, guarded and afraid of what would happen if you let them loose. The shape of them still fit. Differently, maybe, but they weren't lost, weren't strangled or broken. It felt like letting a bird free from its cage after years of watching its wings grow frail in confinement.

The wind sighed softly through the trees. A stray cat hissed. Little glowing spots began floating around like dust particles.

Xavier pulled back abruptly. Stared at you, unblinking, the ink blue of his eyes shining. Evenly. Silent. Still holding you.

For a moment, nothing happened. For a moment, everything stopped. Time slowed around you, caught between one breath and the next. And then—

Light.

Xavier began to glow. Silvery-white, like a miniature star, brilliant enough that he illuminated the entire alley. The color bled outward, pouring down his shoulders in rivulets, streaming over his arms, dripping off his fingertips. He seemed to fold in on himself, bowing his head in embarrassment — but all you could do was watch, transfixed, mesmerized.

Something warm flared within your chest, unfamiliar. Like you could feel Xavier through your heart, humming just beneath your sternum, some part of him pressed close against your pulse point. He wasn't bright enough to blind you, just enough to bathe your surroundings in starlit brilliance, seeping into the cracks in the crumbling pavement, the shadows cast by overgrown hedges, the empty shell of a playground down the street.

"Xavier..."

"Sorry," he mumbled, covering his face with the back of his hand like he could hide somehow, shield himself from his own radiance. His ears were red. "This is... not what I meant to do."

You reached out toward him without thinking, fingertips brushing against the fabric of his glove. He froze. Noticing yourself, you hesitated, realizing exactly what you were about to do — touch a star, an impossible thing, a dream — but then his hand twitched, settling firmly into yours in a way that you were almost convinced it was always meant to belong there. His fingers laced through yours, warm and secure, like he'd done this a thousand times. His grip loosened. Tightened. Loosened. Reassuring both you and himself that this was real. This was happening. Neither of you would drift apart and dissolve like morning fog beneath the light of the sun. You wouldn't blink, and he wouldn't be gone.

Gentle warmth wrapped around you. Comfort. Steadfast support. Starlight in the darkness, chasing away the shadows.

"I love you, Xavier," you told him, echoing the words again, wanting him to hear, wanting him to understand. You placed the shape of them into his upturned palms you pulled down to his lap to see his face clearer, and his grip tightened. "I'm in love with you."

The light emanating from him intensified. A shimmering aura that shone around him like a corona. It pulsated once, twice, before seeming to catch on something and expanding like a burst of fireworks. White orbs of light poured from nowhere, dancing through the empty space between your bodies, suspended in mid-fall. A few fluttered down to land against the backs of your hands covering his.

"Would you be mad if I said that... I must be on the brink of death to imagine hearing these words?" Xavier's confession tumbled from his lips hesitantly. In the starlight, his face looked youthful, vulnerable, younger than you had ever seen before. "Even if this is my brain playing tricks on me before it fails, I'm happy."

Emergency lights flashed against the houses lining the street, probably using Xavier glowing like a midnight sun as a beacon, faint red and blue lights cutting into your vision. Xavier heard it too, since he drew you tighter against him and buried his face against your shoulder. One hand released yours to curl protectively around your head. Even though this embrace didn't smother his shine, Xavier used it like a cocoon to encapsulate you. To guard you, like you were the wounded one in need of protection, and not him.

The ambulance doors opened with a hydraulic whirring sound. Footsteps approached quickly. At least two pairs, judging by the sound. Voiceless words spilled into the alley from the paramedics' radios. The static intermittently cracked between the garbled syllables, distorting some of them into incomprehensibility.

All at once the starlight winked out, plunging the street back into the dark.

"Tell me again once we are home." The words brushed past your ear, carrying an intimacy that made you swallow against the dryness of your throat, made you bury your face more deeply against his shoulder. Home. "Please. So I know I haven't dreamed this up."

The air down in Linkon carried that early autumn crispness that rose from real soil Skyhaven didn’t have — cool enough to sharpen the senses, not quite enough to bite. The first traces of fallen leaves clung to the pavement, the scent of rain in the cracks of the sidewalks. Caleb adjusted the strap of his duffel bag as he stepped off the tram, stretching his shoulders as he took in the city around him. It was familiar, the building-rich skyline cutting pointy shapes against the evening sky, the low hum of traffic filling the streets, but something about it felt...

He had been away too long.

Skyhaven had pulled him into its orbit the moment he arrived, swallowing whole whatever life had come before. Days blurred together in cycles of training, flight simulations, and coursework that left little room for anything beyond forward motion. Every morning began the same: drills before sunrise, sweat stinging his eyes, muscles burning as he pushed himself further, faster. Afternoons were a relentless stream of lectures, technical briefings, theory stacked upon theory until the numbers and flight paths blurred in his mind. Even the nights were accounted for — hours spent in the simulator pods, perfecting maneuvers until the glowing interface was burned into the backs of his eyelids.

There was no room for spontaneity at Skyhaven. No empty spaces to fill with last-minute plans or lazy afternoons. His world had been compressed into systems — routine, structure, efficiency. He knew exactly when to eat, when to train, when to sleep. Knew the weight of his rations down to the last calorie, the time it took to shave a fraction of a second off a flight sequence, the precise moment his body would demand rest before pushing past it anyway.

It was such a whiplash to be home, all things considered.

His room at Gran’s place wasn’t really his anymore. It had the same walls, the same furniture, but it felt more like a museum exhibit than a lived-in space — a carefully preserved snapshot of someone he used to be.

The bookshelves were still lined with old textbooks, pages stiff from time, filled with equations and flight theories he once poured over like scripture. The model airplanes he built by hand sat untouched on his desk, their delicate structures gathering dust, frozen mid-flight. Posters, faded from years of sunlight creeping through the blinds, hung at odd angles where the adhesive had begun to peel. It was all still there, exactly as he had left it.

And yet, it didn’t feel like it belonged to him anymore.

It was more of a storage closet for the past, a collection of objects tied to a version of himself that no longer fit, as if waiting for a version of him that no longer existed to return. But it had a way of creeping in when he least expected it.

Your favorite song playing in the campus coffee shop, breaking through the rigid structure of his day like you’d just knocked on his door, the scent of something familiar drifting through the halls, pulling him back to late nights in Gran’s kitchen, you sitting cross-legged on the counter as he tried to study, chattering about whatever new fixation had taken over your brain that week.

Now, the closest thing he had to those endless summers with you were the five-minute breaks between classes, when he’d glance at his phone and see your name lighting up the screen. A meme, a quick update, a half-formed thought sent without context — small things, fleeting things, but still enough to remind him that you were there.

Sometimes, it was just a single reaction picture in response to something he had said hours ago. Other times, it was a wall of text, a full-fledged rant about something that had clearly gotten under your skin — another debate with some idiot online, a disastrous group project that made you question about how those people had gotten into college at all, an overanalysis of the show you’d decided to watch together. And every so often, it was something quieter. A late-night message, typed out but never sent until morning that meant, “I miss you,” in your language.

You ever think about how weird it is that we don’t live in the same city anymore? Like, I can’t just show up at your room and annoy you :(

He always answered, even if it took him hours to find the time.

Because no matter how much distance stretched between you now, the messages kept him tethered to you like the string did to a kite.

He pulled out his phone, glancing at the last message and location you had sent him: Meet me at the plaza. We’re hunting.

A small, fond smile tugged at his lips.

The “Find Lumiere” campaign had taken the city by storm. A massive scavenger hunt dedicated to the legend himself, the hero who had saved mankind during the Chronorift Catastrophe ten years ago. Clues were scattered across major landmarks, leading participants on a chase to uncover fragments of his legacy, with tickets to the first screening of the new movie they were making about Lumiere promised to the winners.

Of course you were obsessed with it.

Caleb had never said it out loud, but for the longest time, he had been jealous of Lumiere. Or, rather, what Lumiere meant to you.

It was irrational, of course. Lumiere wasn’t real — not in the way that mattered. And yet, Caleb had spent years competing with the idea of him, feeling that strange, sour feeling whenever he saw you fawning over an image of a man who had saved you in more ways than one when Caleb wasn't there to do so. 

Because, at every age, he wanted to be the one you looked at like that. He wanted to be the one you admired, the one who made your eyes sparkle the way they did whenever you spoke about Lumiere. He had been your person for so long, the one you relied on, the one you trusted — but even as kids, there had always been that distance, that unreachable part of you that belonged to a random dude you wrote RPF about.

He shook his head, shoving his hands into his pockets as he made his way to the plaza.

You were already at your rendezvous point, bouncing slightly on the balls of your feet as you checked your phone, your expression focused. Your jacket was too thin for the weather, but you never cared about things like that when you were excited. Caleb took a moment to just look at you, to take in the way you had changed — taller, more sure of yourself, your hair styled differently than he remembered.

“Didn’t even let me settle in before dragging me around the city?” he teased, stepping up beside you.

Your head snapped up, and the moment your eyes met his, a wide grin split across your face. “Obviously. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, Caleb. You should be honored I’m making you my partner for it.”

He scoffed but couldn’t help the warmth that spread in his chest. “Yeah, yeah. So what’s the plan?”

You immediately launched into an explanation, showing him the map on your phone, outlining all the locations where the next clue could be. Caleb listened, but mostly, he just watched you, letting the familiar rhythm of your excitement wash over him.

Maybe you had grown apart. Maybe life had taken you in different directions. But right now, in this moment, it didn’t feel that way. It felt like no time had passed at all.

He would never get tired of watching your face light up when you were truly invested in something. The way it always seemed to catch people off guard, how utterly genuine and open you were whenever you felt strongly about something. It was honest; it was you.

So it wasn't entirely out of character for him to notice how lovely you looked today that he could just lean down and capture your lips with his own. Just the imagination got his mouth dry, throat working hard to swallow as he averted his eyes.

The first clue was hidden near the old Chronorift Memorial, a massive glass sculpture in the heart of the city that stood as a tribute to the devastation. Caleb watched as you practically bounced in place, your breath fogging in the chilly air as you scanned the area for anything that looked out of place.

“Oh! Over there!” You grabbed his arm before he could react, tugging him toward the base of the monument.

Caleb let himself be dragged along, ignoring the way his skin heated at the contact. The crowd gathered around the sculpture was thick, blocking whatever sign you were pointing at. All Caleb could see was you, the shine staining your eyes, your sparkling excitement.

God, he'd missed this. Missed you.

Without thinking, his fingers curled around your wrist, brushing the soft skin beneath. Your pulse fluttered beneath his fingertips, beating fast with energy and excitement, and he let himself savor the feeling. He missed seeing you this happy.

"Look!" you cried, reaching up on your tiptoes for balance. "I think I spotted something there."

Caleb followed your line of sight up toward the top of the monument — and sure enough, just below the highest peak of glass sat a tiny object, glinting in the sun.

"Think I can climb up?" you asked aloud, frowning at the structure as you examined the potential footholds. The memorial's glass surface was polished smooth, with no apparent way of scaling the towering mass, though that didn't stop you from trying.

Caleb reached out a hand though to pluck it easily out of the sky, and the object flew towards him. He waved it back and forth over your head. "How 'bout you just ask for it like normal people?"

Your mouth dropped into a dramatic frown. "Rude. If this was a proper game, you would've given me the illusion of a fighting chance before stealing my loot from under my nose."

"I'll make it up to you," he laughed, spinning the prize between his fingers. “You know, I think I’m a little offended. I saved your life, like, a million times growin' up, and you never obsessed over me like this.”

You snorted, rolling your shoulders back in a casual shrug. "Never crossed my mind. Besides, Lumiere wasn’t an asshat."

It was Caleb's turn to scoff. You motioned with your palm held upright like a customer waving down service.

"Please. Sire. Kind sire." He shook his head at your antics but gave you the small golden thing anyway. Your face lit up as you took it carefully between your fingers. "Thank you, kind sire. May good fortune bless you upon our next meeting."

It was actually a puzzle, which he guessed would contain a clue leading to the next location.

After solving the puzzle, you gleefully tapped at the digital interface attached to your wrist, navigating the device expertly until the next coordinates appeared onscreen. "Found it. Not far from here actually... should only take us a few minutes to walk there."

And so you continued your treasure hunt together.

Time drifted like clouds across the sky, lazy and aimless, broken by quick bursts of purpose. A stroll turned to weaving through foot traffic, hustling in fits and starts as you hunted down your destination and discovered the next hint in line. The setting changed — crowds grew thicker, colors bolder, lights brighter — and yet the pace stayed the same: slow, steady, unhurried. Caleb thought you would have wanted to hurry, but instead, you lingered. Stopping to buy two cups of warming tea along the way. To exchange an old bill for shiny coins. To listen to the music pouring from the doors of a small cafe as passersby filtered in and out.

It was nice.

Really nice, actually.

For a while, Caleb forgot everything beyond the edges of the bubble surrounding you, letting the sounds fade into nothing but white noise.

At one point, when you reached the endpoint, a question suddenly rose to his tongue, breaking the comfortable silence between you.

"Why me?" he asked without meaning to. "I'm not exactly an obvious choice to play tag with."

You lifted an eyebrow at him, glancing over at your map again. "You kidding? Who else would I invite?"

Caleb shrugged, the cold breeze grazing his shoulders, making him fold them in just a little bit closer.

"A friend?" He shot you a playful grin that came easier than he thought possible, earning himself a shove. "I don't think we've done this in ages. What makes today special?"

His stomach did a somersault when you hooked your arm around his elbow, holding onto his sleeve tightly.

"What about spending time with Caleb is so horrible to you? We haven't seen each other much these days. I'd love some quality time before you leave again." You nudged his side gently. Sincerity disguised as banter. He caught your tone of affection rather well, so well he couldn't help but feel giddy from your proximity. How warm your hand was wrapped around his elbow.

Even with the light atmosphere, it struck him like lightning how much he had been craving such small intimacy with you.

And right there, right then, the urge to tell you how he felt nearly consumed his entire being. Like he would crumble from the inside out if he kept pretending to be your brother for a minute longer. Yet, as much as he was dying to let it all out — because that is how bad he had it for you — there was also the more likely scenario of you finding him repulsive.

Just the idea of a life without you by his side made him sick and dizzy.

No, not today. Not anytime soon. He'd rather be by your side until the end of his days and wear the mask of gege than be hated by you.

So he swallowed down those three words, locking them tight in a chest bound by iron chains within the deepest recesses of his heart. And, ignoring the dull ache that remained in their wake, forced himself to brush off the truth like the joke he wished it were.

"You could write me letters if you miss me that much, pip-squeak," he teased, nudging your shoulder with his.

You leaned against him easily, swaying with the motion as you bumped into his side. "Pssh."

Then your hand slid down his forearm, curling around the crook of his elbow as you rested your chin on his shoulder. From here, you looked up at him through lashes streaked in amber sunlight, a happy, contented smile touching the corner of your lips.

Something expanded inside Caleb's heart — hot and painful and aching. He felt suddenly like he might cry, walking down the sidewalk through the throng of people going about their day as the wind ruffled through your hair, the heat of your palm seeping through the sleeve of his jacket, warm and solid where you held onto him.

If he closed his mind to everything else, if he ignored the way you smelled like home, if he could make himself pretend that the shape of your body against his was sister-shaped, just maybe — maybe — he could convince himself that this was enough. It had to be enough. Because even if Caleb wasn't quite certain when his feelings toward you began, or when they evolved beyond the bounds of familial ties — even if he knew you would never see him that way and loved him when he was your gege, that you would never know this small sliver of reality — he still had you. Right now, in this moment, the person most precious in the world to him stood next to him with your head resting on his shoulder. Smiling, trusting, safe.

And that was more important than any label he could slap on it.

Xavier hadn’t meant to stay the night.

He wasn’t even sure when he had fallen asleep.

One minute, they had been sitting on her couch, drinking tea from mismatched mugs, the only sound between them the low hum of the TV and the soft, lazy crackling of rain against the window. It had been late — too late — and you had been curled up beside him, half-draped in a blanket, the fabric of your sweater slipping just past your fingertips as as you scrolled idly through your phone.

Xavier had been reading, an old paperback you had lying around just for his enjoyment, the spine creased from years of use. He never asked where you got them — books with pages instead of screens — but he liked the way they smelled, the quiet permanence of ink pressed to paper.

The next thing he knew, the morning light was slipping in through the curtains, cool and blue, and you were gone.

He blinked, exhaling slowly as he sat up. The couch creaked under his weight.

He wasn’t alarmed — he never was — but his first instinct was to check for you anyway, a quiet, habitual concern that never quite left him. His ears picked up the faint noise of water running. The shower.

He leaned back against the couch, rubbing his fingers over his eyes, then glanced at the time.

6:42 AM.

Too early. But he should go.

He pushed himself to his feet, rolling his shoulders, then went to grab his jacket from where he had tossed it over the chair. He reached for it — then paused.

The bookshelf beside the chair caught his attention.

Not because he had never seen it before — he had been in your place countless times by now, had run his fingers over the neat stacks of old holotapes and datapads, the figurines and the framed pictures —but because one of a drawer, just beneath the shelf, slightly open. A few inches, maybe less.

It hadn’t been that way last night. He was sure of it.

Xavier never pried. He had spent too many years keeping his own secrets to go looking for anyone else’s. But something about that space, about the way the papers inside were just barely visible, about the way they had been tucked away yet left ajar, made his fingers pause against the zipper of his jacket.

Paper.

Not anything digital. Not an emitter. Handwritten pages.

Xavier frowned slightly, spine going ramrod straight. His fingers twitched once against his sides, tingling at the tips.

He should walk away.

Instead, he reached down and pulled the drawer open.

The pages inside were stacked haphazardly, some folded, others crinkled at the edges like they had been handled too many times, as if they had been written, held, then discarded — kept, but never sent. The ink had bled into the fibers of the pages in places where the pressure had been too much.

He pulled out the topmost one, smoothing it with his fingers. Your handwriting. He knew it instantly. A little rushed, pressed into the paper as though you had been writing quickly, too quickly.

Then he saw the name.

Caleb.

His grip on the paper tightened.

The words on the page blurred for a moment, but he forced himself to focus. He forced himself to read.

Caleb, I don’t know how to start this, or even why I’m writing it. Maybe because I don’t know how else to reach you. Maybe because if I put it down on paper, it might cleanse me like one of those full body detox things that I would no longer feel so bloated anymore with this poison I’m trying my hardest to hide from him. I still wake up expecting you to be one call away. I still reach for my phone thinking I can send you a voice message while I wait for my takeout to arrive, tell you something ridiculous that happened, or send you a picture of something stupid just because I know you’d call me to laugh about it. But you’re not here, and I’m talking to an empty space where you used to be. You were always the one I counted on. The one who knew me better than anyone. I could say a single word, and you would know exactly what I meant, what I was feeling, what I needed even when I didn't want to say it out loud. And now, months later, without you, I still feel like I’m missing a part of myself. Like something vital has been cut away, and I am expected to keep going like I don’t notice the absence. But I do. Every second, I do. I should have told you. I should have told you a long time ago.

Xavier’s shallow breaths were loud in his ears.

If I had, maybe things would have been different. Maybe I wouldn’t be here, writing this, trying to hold onto something that has already slipped through my fingers. Maybe if I had been braver, if I hadn’t been so afraid of gran and ruining what we had, you would have known just how much you meant to me. To this day, I don’t know how to move on. Everyone thinks I have. That time is the best medicine there is, after all. But how can I, when so much of me is still tangled in you? When every step I take feels like I’m walking further and further away from you, and I’m terrified that one day I’ll look back and realize you’ve faded from my memory, that I won’t remember the sound of your voice, or the way you laughed, or the exact shade of your eyes in the sunlight. But it’s more than that now. It’s not just the fear of forgetting, it’s the guilt of moving on. Of letting someone else hold me, kiss me, love me in the ways I never got to lov I wonder if you would even care. If it would matter to you at all knowing there’s someone in my life now. Would you look at me the way you always did, like a little sister, someone to protect, to guide, and still feel responsible for even in your big age? Would it even cross your mind that I waited and it’s my biggest regret? But I guess it doesn't matter anymore. I love him. I didn’t wait to tell him until after I was forced to lose him. Confessing before it was too late was the best decision I’ve ever made. And I don’t know what to do with that. Because when I’m with him, there are moments, just flickers, tiny fractures in time, where I forget. And then, all at once, it comes back. The missing piece. You. If you were here, if you could read this, I don’t even know what I’d want you to say. I just know that I’d give anything to hear you call me pip-squeak one more time. I need you to tell me it’s okay. That I’m not leaving you behind. That I can love him and still carry you with me. But you’re not. And I have to live with that.

The ink trailed off there.

There was a crease in the page, like you had pressed the pen too hard until you changed your mind.

Xavier stared at it.

The paper felt fragile between his fingers, like it might tear apart if he held it for too long.

Slowly, he put it back, and pressed the drawer shut.

He turned. His feet carried him soundlessly across the floor, toward the hallway, to where he could hear the steady drumming of water against the bathroom tiles, to where you stood facing the shower wall, head bent, your hair falling in thick wet clumps around your shoulders.

You heard his footsteps — of course you did — and lifted your head as he entered. Water cascaded down your back, collecting briefly at the base of your spine before disappearing. Your skin shone, faintly, the steam curling off the glass, settling in a soft cloud around your body, clinging to the planes and curves of it. You seemed to glow in that tiny space, a radiant centerpiece amongst white tile. You gave him a tired smile as he approached — inviting, questioning.

"Sorry! Did I wake you?" you asked instead, your face flushed pink from the heat, strands of wet hair stuck against your damp neck and collarbones. Your tongue darted over your lips as you moved beneath the spray of water again, turning away from him to put away the shampoo bottle on the built-in soap tray.

Xavier's hand landed against the frosted glass door. The hinges groaned softly in protest when he swung it fully open. Your eyebrows rose high onto your forehead when he stepped inside without asking, closing the space between you in three strides, boxing you in against the marble wall. The shock of hot water bearing down on him didn't quite register through the dead focus he had on you.

Your lips parted, breath catching. In surprise? In interest? He wasn’t sure, and right now he didn't care. Something childish tugged at him. Something that didn't care he was fully clothed, the black turtleneck sticking uncomfortably to his skin, jeans tightening with water. All he could think about was how soft you looked despite everything. How good you smelled, flowery and clean, how your wet skin practically sparkled beneath the fluorescent light of the bathroom.

How badly he wanted to etch himself into you, to have his name spill from your lips like fresh ink, blotting out the ghost of a dead man already written in your past.

Water droplets clung to your eyelashes. On impulse, he reached up to brush them away gently, and they fluttered against his knuckles.

"Xavier, what—"

"I had a nightmare," Xavier cut in smoothly, feeling more like himself, sounding far calmer than he really was. "Will you comfort me?"

"Oh..." The word came out somewhere between surprise and concern, tinted with something sympathetic. Xavier had to be looking half out of his mind, or too pathetic, standing here as soaked as a drowned rat in front of you while you were naked. He was worrying you. The idea snapped him back to reality like a splash of hot oil, and he immediately wanted to turn tail and leave before you demanded he elaborate. He couldn’t. Couldn't admit this was his version of needing affection. You frowned, reaching out to rest your hand over the side of his neck to draw him closer. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," Xavier replied without missing a beat, leaning down to bump his nose against yours. Gingerly, like he wasn't quite sure if this would be welcomed, he rested his hands lightly on either side of your waist, the water sluicing down his back, warm, comfortable despite the situation. His throat bobbed once, twice, and he dipped his head down, unable to keep himself from admitting what he wanted most from you.

Your touch relaxed. It slid behind the back of his neck, fingers curling inward. He felt grounded again with your palms tracing a path down to his back, one palm pressed flat and firm between his shoulder blades while the other ghosted along his nape. It made goosebumps rise on his flesh, a pleasant sensation only you could provide. And when he bowed forward, your frame folded to accommodate, molding against his broader shoulders perfectly, bringing him into a sweet embrace. One that burned into his memory, warming him to the bone in more ways than just physical.

"Okay... Okay. Let's get you out of these wet clothes first," you cooed sympathetically and kissed him right below his ear. That tender, understanding gesture made Xavier's heart squeeze in his chest painfully. He thought about the letters hidden away in the drawer, if you had done anything like this at all with Caleb, but he quickly banished it from his thoughts and focused on the solid feeling of your body slotting so easily into his, like you were always meant to be there. Where no one else was allowed. "Then tell me how I can help, okay? Whatever you need."

Fifteen minutes later, Xavier had your front pressed into the condensation-dripping wall of the shower after he'd stripped off all his clothes and joined you.

You were flattened against the chilly surface as your nails clawed helplessly against the slick tiles, eyes were glazed over, lips swollen. One arm looped securely around your midsection, cupping one breast possessively, while the other braced a forearm beside your head and against the wall, trapping you effectively between Xavier and the marble barrier, each thrust pushing you upward on your tiptoes as he grinded insistently against you from behind. His grunts tickling the shell of your ear amidst his deep, staccato breaths as he buried himself up to the hilt, bottoming out deep within your pulsating core, piercing the misty veil surrounding them in an intimate halo.

Everything felt too intense. Too intimate. It shouldn't have been so overwhelming — this wasn't even a new position or angle. But something about it today made Xavier feel like the world was collapsing around him, and the only thing he could hold onto was your body, writhing beautifully between him and the smooth stonework. And maybe that was exactly what it was, he mused vaguely between driving into you from behind while relishing how hot and wet and tight you were around his cock — a sort of catharsis, releasing emotions he never voiced aloud, able to purge the anxieties he normally swallowed down just from hearing you chant his name incessantly, each moan like honey trickling down his throat and pooling warm in his belly.

You were practically keening underneath him now, rocking backwards as best you could to meet every roll of his hips with matching fervor. Your face angled toward him, seeking a kiss which he eagerly acquiesced, both of you moaning brokenly into one another's mouths at the perfect slide of his tongue against yours, tangling almost lazily in comparison to the frantic rhythm building between you two. Xavier reveled in the sweetness of your taste, licking deeper past your lips with unashamed greediness while enjoying your muffled gasp and subsequent whimpers vibrating on his palate.

There wasn't anywhere else in the universe Xavier would rather be than inside this shower cubicle fucking you senseless until the only thing remaining on your tongue were prayers begging for release and praise echoing throughout the enclosed space, resonating clearly through his ears and straight into his pounding chest.

"Call out my name more," Xavier uttered hoarsely, punctuating each word with a hard slam of his hips that made you choke on your cries of ecstasy. You complied beautifully without question, moans spilling unrestrained from those perfect, kiss-swollen lips alongside declarations of love that had the tempo of his hips speeding up, becoming faster, harder, rougher. "Who's here with you right now?"

"Y—Xavier!"

At this rate, Xavier might end up blowing his load first before being able to feel you tighten around him one last time. The sound of his name in that husky, breathless tone made his balls tingle warningly, pleasure threatening to spill over at any moment. "Again," He growled darkly as his pelvis connected audibly with the supple flesh of your ass. "Who's making you feel good? Who is making you forget your own name right now, hm?"

Your reply came out in between pants. "You, Xavier! Oh god, Xavier! Only you!"

"Yes... Me," he crooned triumphantly, sinking his teeth firmly enough into the meat of your shoulder so you would remember the shape of his mark, leaving red marks that resembled brands branded into your soft flesh. "Only I can give you what you need, isn't that right? No one else. Nobody else will ever do... I'm the one here... Now..."

[w1w2]

could you write super shy and quiet reader meeting the twice members as minas girlfriend?

Shy Hearts and Warm Smiles

Myoui Mina x Fem!Reader

Word Count: ca. 4,5k

Synopsis: Mina invites her shy and reserved girlfriend, Y/N, to meet the members of Twice at a cozy dinner hosted by Jeongyeon.

Notes: Here you go Anon🫶🏻 Happy New Year!

English isn’t my first language so I apologize in advance for any mistakes.

♡ Enjoy! ♡

The soft hum of the city filtered through the half open window of Mina’s cozy apartment, mingling with the gentle rustle of leaves from the park below. Golden sunlight spilled across the room in lazy streaks, catching on the small trinkets Mina had collected from her travels, tiny glass figurines on the windowsill, a framed polaroid of the ocean, and a delicate ceramic vase holding fresh daisies.

The air was warm and inviting, carrying the scent of freshly brewed coffee and the faint sweetness of vanilla candles Mina loved to light in the mornings. The quiet atmosphere felt like a world of its own, tucked away from the bustle outside.

Y/N sat cross legged on the couch, her fingers curled around a warm ceramic mug that seemed to heat her from the inside out. Her favorite sweater, oversized and soft, slipped slightly off one shoulder, exposing a delicate curve of skin. Her gaze lingered on the window, where sunlight glinted off distant rooftops, her thoughts a quiet swirl of reflection. She was always like this in the mornings, calm, introspective, and content in the silence.

From the kitchen, the faint clink of dishes signaled Mina’s presence. Her movements were deliberate, almost rhythmic, as if choreographed to match the serene mood of the morning. When she appeared in the doorway, carrying a small plate of toast and fruit, Y/N’s lips curled into a faint smile, her heart softening at the sight. Mina had that effect on her, a quiet gravity that pulled her into the moment.

Mina set the plate down on the coffee table with a soft clatter, then slid onto the couch beside Y/N. She tucked her legs neatly beneath her, her movements as graceful as a ballet, and leaned slightly toward Y/N. The sunlight illuminated her delicate features, her luminous skin, her expressive doe eyes, and the curve of her gentle smile.

“Good morning,” Mina murmured, her voice a blend of softness and warmth. She reached out to brush a strand of Y/N’s hair behind her ear, her fingers lingering for a moment in a small, affectionate gesture.

“Morning,” Y/N replied, her voice barely above a whisper, though it carried a sweetness that made Mina’s smile grow. She tilted her head slightly, her eyes searching Mina’s as if sensing there was something more to this morning than toast and coffee.

Mina leaned forward just a bit, resting her hands lightly on the couch cushions. “Jeongyeon’s hosting a dinner tonight,” she began, her tone gentle but tinged with anticipation. “At her new house. Everyone’s going to be there. I thought it’d be a nice chance for you to meet the others.”

The words settled in the air between them, and Y/N froze. Her fingers tightened around her mug, as if anchoring herself. Her eyes widened slightly, betraying the nervous flutter in her chest. “Oh… I don’t know,” she said hesitantly, her voice barely audible. “Meeting everyone at once… It sounds… overwhelming.”

Mina immediately noticed the tension in Y/N’s shoulders, the way her lips pressed into a thin line. Without hesitation, she reached out, her hand resting gently on Y/N’s knee. Her touch was light, reassuring, yet firm enough to draw Y/N’s attention.

“I know it’s a lot,” Mina said softly, her gaze steady and calm. Her tone held no pressure, only an invitation wrapped in understanding. “But I want them to meet you. They’ve been so curious about you, and… I want you to be part of this part of my life.”

Y/N’s cheeks flushed a light pink under Mina’s gaze, her heart skipping at the sincerity in her words. Mina’s presence was like a balm, soothing the anxious thoughts that had already begun to spiral. “I’m just… not good at this kind of thing,” Y/N admitted, her voice trembling slightly as she met Mina’s eyes.

Mina’s smile softened, her expression shifting into something playful and sweet. She leaned in, her nose brushing Y/N’s in a gentle eskimo kiss that sent a ripple of warmth through Y/N’s chest. “You don’t have to do anything but be yourself,” Mina murmured. “And if it gets too much, just squeeze my hand. I’ll be right there the whole time, okay?”

Y/N stared at her for a moment, Mina’s words wrapping around her like a blanket. The tension in her shoulders eased, and she gave a small, almost shy nod. “Okay,” she whispered, her voice carrying a hint of newfound courage. “For you.”

Mina beamed, her eyes crinkling slightly at the corners as she tucked a strand of Y/N’s hair behind her ear once more. “That’s my girl,” she said softly, pressing a kiss to Y/N’s temple before settling back against the couch, her hand still resting lightly on Y/N’s knee.

In that moment, Y/N realized that as daunting as the evening seemed, Mina’s quiet strength and unwavering support made it all feel a little more possible.

As Y/N quietly sipped her coffee, her thoughts drifted to how it all began.

She’d met Mina during one of her rare ventures out with friends. It was a quiet café, one of Mina’s favorite haunts, and Y/N had been tucked into a corner, sketching absentmindedly in her notebook. She hadn’t noticed Mina watching her from across the room, captivated by the way Y/N’s shy smile lit up when her friends teased her gently.

It was Mina who approached her first, her calm confidence breaking through Y/N’s initial hesitation. Their conversation had started slow, both of them naturally reserved, but as the minutes stretched into hours, Y/N found herself opening up in ways she hadn’t with anyone else.

What started as quiet coffee dates turned into walks through parks, late night talks under city lights, and shared moments of unspoken understanding. Mina’s nurturing warmth drew Y/N out of her shell, while Y/N’s thoughtful presence grounded Mina, giving her a safe space to simply be.

Y/N smiled faintly at the memory, her heart swelling with affection. Mina had a way of making the world feel less daunting, her gentle strength a constant source of comfort.

And now, Mina wanted to share her world, her group, her family with Y/N.

The thought was intimidating, but as Mina nudged her playfully, offering her another piece of toast, Y/N realized she couldn’t say no.

The car pulled up to Jeongyeon’s new house, nestled in a quiet neighborhood that blended modern sophistication with homey charm. From the outside, the house stood proud with sleek, minimalist lines, a warm-toned wooden façade, and large windows that reflected the twilight sky. Fairy lights adorned the front porch, casting a soft, welcoming glow that contrasted with the crisp evening air.

As Mina parked, Y/N stared at the house, her nerves bubbling to the surface. Her fingers, already clasped in Mina’s hand, tightened slightly. Mina gave her a reassuring squeeze, her thumb brushing lightly over Y/N’s knuckles.

“It’s going to be fine,” Mina said softly, her calm tone steadying Y/N. “Just stay close to me. They’re going to love you.”

Y/N nodded, though her heart was racing. She followed Mina up the short path to the front door, the sound of laughter and chatter spilling out as Mina rang the doorbell.

The door swung open almost immediately, revealing Jeongyeon with an easygoing grin. Her casual outfit, a relaxed sweater and jeans, matched the laid-back vibe of the house. “Finally!” she exclaimed, her voice brimming with warmth as she pulled Mina into a quick hug. Then her gaze shifted to Y/N.

“And this must be the famous Y/N,” Jeongyeon said with a teasing smirk, her eyes glinting mischievously. “Mina’s been talking nonstop about you.”

Y/N flushed, a shy smile creeping onto her face. “H-Hi,” she stammered softly, clinging to Mina’s hand as if it were a lifeline.

“Come in, come in,” Jeongyeon said, stepping aside to let them in. The interior of the house reflected Jeongyeon’s personality perfectly, cozy yet modern, with a mix of clean lines and inviting textures. Soft rugs and throw blankets softened the sleek furniture, and personal touches like framed photos and a guitar propped in the corner added warmth to the space.

As they stepped into the living room, the energy of the Twice members hit Y/N like a wave. The group was gathered around a large sectional couch, their laughter filling the space. The smell of home cooked food wafted from the kitchen, mingling with the faint scent of Jeongyeon’s signature sandalwood candles.

“Yah, Mina! Finally, you’re here!” Nayeon called, her bright voice carrying over the group’s chatter. She stood and crossed the room quickly, her confident stride and radiant smile making Y/N instinctively shrink back a little.

“So, this is the girlfriend!” Nayeon said dramatically, hands on her hips as she looked Y/N up and down with an exaggerated, playful squint. Y/N opened her mouth to respond, but Nayeon was already grinning. “Don’t look so nervous. I don’t bite. Mina’s taste is impeccable, obviously.”

Y/N blinked, unsure whether to laugh or retreat, but Mina’s soft chuckle beside her eased the tension.

“Nayeon, don’t scare her,” Jihyo said, appearing beside them with her signature warmth. She gave Nayeon a light swat on the shoulder before turning to Y/N. “Hi, I’m Jihyo,” she said, pulling Y/N into a gentle hug. Her embrace felt like a cocoon of reassurance, and Y/N couldn’t help but relax slightly. “We’ve all been looking forward to meeting you. Thank you for coming.”

Y/N managed a shy smile. “T-Thank you for having me,” she said softly.

“Don’t let her fool you,” Dahyun quipped, appearing with a sly grin. “She’s only been looking forward to meeting you because she needs someone else to babysit Nayeon for a change.”

“I heard that!” Nayeon called from the couch, pretending to glare.

Dahyun winked at Y/N. “See? You’re already fitting in.” She gestured grandly toward the couch. “Come on, let me introduce you to everyone properly.”

As Mina led her further into the room, Y/N’s nerves began to settle. Dahyun’s silly commentary drew a soft giggle from her, and Jihyo’s steady presence felt like an anchor amidst the group’s playful chaos.

From the corner of her eye, Mina watched Y/N carefully. Her chest swelled with pride as Y/N’s shy smile began to peek through more often. This was only the beginning of the evening, but Mina was already certain, it was going to be a night to remember.

The dining table was set beautifully, a mix of casual and elegant that mirrored Jeongyeon’s personality. The centerpiece, a simple arrangement of fresh flowers, was flanked by a variety of dishes, from hearty Korean stews to colorful side dishes. The soft glow of overhead lights made the room feel cozy, though to Y/N, the lively energy felt a little overwhelming.

The members had gathered around the table, their chatter and laughter filling the space as they passed plates and shared jokes. Y/N sat beside Mina, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, her shoulders slightly hunched as she tried to take everything in.

“Eat, eat!” Momo said enthusiastically, her chopsticks already diving into the nearest dish. “You’ve gotta try this. Jeongyeon’s mom made it, amazing as always.”

As the conversation ebbed and flowed around her, Y/N felt a pang of anxiety. The lively atmosphere, though warm, was far outside her comfort zone. She cast a glance at Mina, her quiet unease clear in her eyes.

Mina immediately noticed. Without saying a word, she placed her hand on Y/N’s knee under the table, her thumb brushing lightly in soothing circles. Y/N looked up at her, meeting Mina’s calm, steady gaze. Mina’s smile was soft, encouraging, and just like that, Y/N felt her heartbeat slow a little.

“Try this,” Momo said, leaning over to place an extra serving of japchae on Y/N’s plate. “It’s one of my favorites. Oh, and that one too!” She added a piece of fried chicken, her enthusiasm infectious.

“Thank you,” Y/N said shyly, her voice barely audible over the din. She took a tentative bite and smiled, the flavors comforting and familiar.

“See? Good food fixes everything,” Momo said with a grin.

Sana, sitting across from Y/N, leaned forward with a playful glint in her eyes. “By the way, I love your sweater,” she said, her voice dripping with sincerity. “It’s so cute, and it suits you perfectly! Mina has such good taste, obviously.”

Y/N’s cheeks flushed a deep pink as she murmured, “Thank you.”

“Oh my gosh, you’re adorable!” Sana gushed, clasping her hands dramatically. “Mina, how did you manage to find someone so precious?”

“She found me,” Mina replied simply, a proud smile tugging at her lips.

Jeongyeon, sensing Y/N’s growing discomfort at all the attention, jumped in with her usual wit. “Okay, Sana, let the poor girl breathe,” she teased. Then, turning to Y/N, she added with a smirk, “Don’t worry, they’re always like this. You’ll get used to it, or you’ll learn how to tune them out, like I do.”

The table erupted in laughter, and Y/N found herself smiling, even letting out a quiet laugh of her own. Jeongyeon winked at her. “See? You’re already a pro.”

Mina squeezed Y/N’s knee lightly, her smile growing as she watched Y/N relax bit by bit.

As the meal went on, the members took turns drawing Y/N into the conversation. Dahyun shared a funny story about a clumsy moment during rehearsal, complete with exaggerated gestures that had everyone in stitches. Chaeyoung asked Y/N about her hobbies, nodding along with genuine interest when Y/N mentioned her love for drawing.

“Mina didn’t tell us you were an artist!” Chaeyoung said with wide eyes. “You have to show me your sketches sometime. I bet they’re amazing.”

Mina, noticing the softening of Y/N’s expression, leaned in slightly. “Why don’t you tell them about the time you drew that mural for the community center?” she suggested gently, her tone encouraging.

Y/N hesitated, but the warm smiles around the table gave her a small boost of confidence. “It was… just a volunteer project,” she began softly. “They needed someone to paint a mural for the kids, so I—um, I designed something with animals and flowers. It took a while, but the kids seemed to like it.”

“That’s incredible!” Jihyo said, her eyes shining with admiration. “You’re so talented, and so modest about it.”

“Show off,” Jeongyeon teased with a grin, earning a playful nudge from Momo.

As the laughter bubbled up again, Y/N couldn’t help but feel a little lighter. The warmth and acceptance of the group wrapped around her like a blanket, and though she still felt a bit shy, she began to see why Mina cherished them so much.

Mina watched it all unfold with quiet pride, her heart swelling at the sight of Y/N slowly opening up. She reached for Y/N’s hand under the table, giving it a small squeeze. Y/N looked at her, a shy smile blooming on her lips, and Mina’s heart melted.

By the end of the meal, the table was filled with empty plates, satisfied smiles, and a deeper sense of connection.

The group moved from the dining table to the living room, their energy still high as they settled into the plush couches and floor cushions. Jeongyeon, ever the host, returned with a stack of board games balanced in her arms.

“Alright, what’s the vibe? Competitive or chaotic?” she asked, setting the games down on the coffee table.

“Chaotic, obviously,” Nayeon said, grabbing a box of charades and waving it in the air. “Let’s get moving!”

“Fine, but I’m keeping score,” Jihyo declared, picking up a notepad and pen from the table.

The group quickly split into teams, with Y/N ending up on Mina’s side. She felt a flicker of anxiety but took a steadying breath as Mina leaned in close.

“Just have fun,” Mina whispered, her lips brushing lightly against Y/N’s ear.

As the game began, the room filled with laughter and cheers. Momo’s exaggerated pantomimes and Sana’s inability to stop giggling during her turn brought the kind of chaos only Twice could create.

When it was Y/N’s turn, she hesitated before standing. Mina gave her a reassuring nod, her eyes sparkling with encouragement. Taking a card from the stack, Y/N read it quickly and began miming.

“Uh… a tree?” Chaeyoung guessed, squinting in confusion.

“No, no!” Jihyo shouted. “A giraffe?”

Y/N clapped her hands and pointed at Jihyo, who erupted in a triumphant cheer. The room broke into applause as Y/N sat back down, her cheeks pink but her smile wide.

Mina beamed at her. “You’re doing great,” she whispered, placing a soft kiss on Y/N’s cheek.

As the game wound down, the lively buzz in the room began to soften, the group naturally splitting into smaller clusters of conversation. The sound of laughter lingered, now mixed with the occasional clinking of cups and the rustle of cushions as people shifted into more comfortable positions.

Y/N found herself still seated on the couch, her hands resting in her lap as she observed the group. Despite her initial nerves, she felt more at ease now, the warmth of Mina’s hand on her back grounding her even as Mina moved momentarily to help Jeongyeon clear a few plates.

Chaeyoung slid onto the couch beside Y/N, holding her phone and wearing a bright, curious expression. “So about the art..” she said, her tone brimming with enthusiasm as she tilted her phone toward Y/N. On the screen was a detailed digital sketch of a bird, its wings mid flight. The strokes were confident, but there was a rawness to the shading, as though Chaeyoung hadn’t quite decided how to finish it.

“I’ve been trying to figure out shading,” Chaeyoung continued, leaning closer. “It’s so hard to get it to look soft but not flat. Do you have any tips?”

Y/N’s eyes lit up, her natural shyness momentarily giving way to quiet excitement. She leaned in slightly, her gaze focused on the screen. “This is really good,” she said sincerely, her voice soft but earnest. “The details are amazing. For the shading…” She paused, her brow furrowing in thought. “Maybe… try using softer strokes around the edges? Blend them a little more so the shadows look gradual. It makes it feel more three-dimensional.”

Chaeyoung’s eyes widened, her face lighting up. “Oh! That makes so much sense!” she exclaimed, quickly jotting down notes on her phone. “I knew asking you was the right move. You’ve gotta show me your work sometime. I bet it’s incredible.”

A shy smile spread across Y/N’s face, a small flicker of confidence sparking at Chaeyoung’s genuine interest. “I-I’d love to,” she said softly, her voice carrying a hint of warmth.

Nearby, Tzuyu appeared, her graceful movements as effortless as ever. She held a steaming mug of tea in each hand and offered one to Y/N with a small, serene smile.

“Here,” Tzuyu said, sitting down beside her. “I figured you might need something to help you relax after all this.”

Y/N accepted the mug with both hands, the warmth of the tea comforting against her skin. “Thank you,” she murmured, her gaze flickering to Tzuyu’s.

The tall girl settled beside her, cradling her own mug as she regarded Y/N with her usual quiet confidence. “You’re doing really well tonight,” Tzuyu said after a moment, her voice calm and candid.

Y/N blinked, surprised by the compliment. “Oh,” she said softly, her cheeks warming. “Thank you.”

Tzuyu’s lips curved into a knowing smile, her dark eyes sparkling with mischief. “You’re so kind and gentle, I can see why Mina likes you so much,” she said, leaning back slightly. “You make her smile a lot, you know. I’ve never seen her this happy.”

Y/N’s blush deepened as her gaze dropped to her mug. She traced the rim with her finger, her voice barely above a whisper. “She… she makes me happy too,” she admitted, her words heartfelt and sincere.

Tzuyu chuckled lightly, the sound low and warm. She reached out, patting Y/N’s shoulder with an almost sisterly affection. “Good. Just make sure you keep treating her well,” she said, her tone teasing now. “Or you’ll have eight of us to answer to.”

Y/N laughed softly, the sound surprising even herself. It was light and unguarded, and it earned an approving nod from Tzuyu.

“I mean it,” Tzuyu added with a grin. “We’re protective of our Mina, but you seem pretty perfect for her.”

Y/N glanced up, meeting Tzuyu’s gaze. “Thank you,” she said, her voice carrying a little more confidence now.

Tzuyu leaned back, sipping her tea as the conversation shifted to lighter topics, the earlier intensity giving way to a comfortable camaraderie.

As the evening wore on, the energy in the room began to mellow. Some of the members were sprawled comfortably across the couch, their laughter quieter now as they shared funny stories and inside jokes. Others lingered in the dining area, tidying up plates and cups amidst easy conversation. The soft hum of background music played from a speaker in the corner, blending seamlessly with the occasional bursts of laughter from across the room.

Mina, ever attentive, noticed Y/N shifting slightly in her seat, her eyes starting to wander as the group’s energy began to feel overwhelming again. With a gentle touch on her elbow, Mina leaned in close. “Let’s take a moment,” she whispered, her tone as soothing as a lullaby.

Y/N nodded, letting Mina guide her to a quieter corner of the living room, away from the bustling energy of the others. They found a spot near the large bay window, the faint glow of the city lights beyond casting soft patterns across the floor. Mina turned to face Y/N, her hands naturally reaching out to take Y/N’s in hers.

“Thank you for coming tonight,” Mina said, her voice low and intimate, the sincerity in her tone wrapping around Y/N like a warm embrace.

Y/N looked down at their entwined fingers, her lips curving into a small, shy smile. Her voice was soft as she replied, “I was so nervous… but they’re all so nice. And you were right, this wasn’t so bad.”

Mina smiled, her gaze filled with pride and affection. “I’m so proud of you,” she said, her thumbs brushing lightly over the back of Y/N’s hands in a rhythmic, comforting motion.

Y/N hesitated for a moment, her eyes flickering between Mina’s face and their joined hands. Finally, she took a deep breath, summoning the courage to speak. “Thank you,” she began, her voice trembling slightly but carrying a weight of sincerity. “Thank you for staying by my side tonight. For… everything.”

She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a whisper, as if the words were meant for Mina and Mina alone. “I love you.”

Mina’s breath caught for a moment, her chest tightening in the best way as Y/N’s quiet declaration settled over her like a melody she never wanted to stop hearing. Her lips parted in a soft exhale, her heart swelling with emotion.

She reached up slowly, her fingers brushing against Y/N’s cheek before cupping it gently. The warmth of Y/N’s skin against her palm felt grounding, intimate. Mina tilted her head slightly, her eyes locking onto Y/N’s as if memorizing every detail of this moment.

“I love you too,” she murmured, her voice steady, filled with a depth of feeling that made Y/N’s breath hitch. Mina leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to Y/N’s temple, letting her lips linger there for a moment longer than usual. It was a silent promise, a gesture of everything she felt but didn’t need to say aloud.

Y/N closed her eyes, leaning into Mina’s touch, a faint smile curving her lips. They stayed like that, their foreheads almost touching, the world around them fading into the background. The faint murmur of the group, the clinking of dishes, and the soft music became distant, like a backdrop to their own little universe.

Mina’s hand slipped down to Y/N’s shoulder, pulling her closer until Y/N rested her head against Mina’s. The quiet comfort of their presence filled the space between them, unspoken words of gratitude and love passing through every glance and touch.

For Y/N, this moment felt like an anchor, a reminder that, no matter how overwhelming the world might be, Mina would always be there, steady and unwavering.

And for Mina, seeing Y/N like this, relaxed, happy, and finally at ease, felt like the most precious gift of all.

The evening gradually reached its quiet finale, the earlier liveliness fading into a warm, serene atmosphere. Most of the Twice members had gathered in the living room again, some lounging on the couch while others sat cross-legged on the floor, holding cups of tea or nibbling on the last few snacks. The soft glow of the overhead lights cast a golden hue over the scene, making it feel like a moment frozen in time.

Mina sat beside Y/N on the couch, their hands loosely intertwined. Y/N had relaxed significantly, her shoulders no longer tense, her smile now coming easily. The warmth and kindness of Mina’s friends had finally melted the last of her apprehension, leaving behind only a quiet sense of belonging.

Jeongyeon, who had been scrolling through her phone, suddenly clapped her hands together, drawing everyone’s attention. “Alright, before we call it a night, I think it’s time to make things official.”

The group turned to her with varying degrees of curiosity and amusement. “What do you mean, official?” Nayeon asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jeongyeon smirked, pointing toward Y/N. “Y/N’s basically one of us now. Don’t you all agree?”

A chorus of agreement rose from the group, interspersed with cheers and clapping.

“Yes!” Jihyo said, her voice carrying its usual leader-like authority. She turned to Y/N, her expression softening. “We’re so happy Mina brought you tonight. You’re wonderful, and honestly, it already feels like you’re part of our family.”

Y/N’s eyes widened slightly, the sincerity in Jihyo’s words making her chest tighten with emotion. She glanced around the room, taking in the warm smiles and nods of agreement from the others.

“Totally,” Sana chimed in, scooting closer from her spot on the floor. “You’re adorable, kind, and you make Mina so happy. That’s all we need to know.”

Dahyun grinned, leaning over to give Y/N’s knee a playful pat. “And hey, you survived your first Twice gathering. That alone deserves a round of applause.”

Laughter rippled through the group, and Y/N couldn’t help but smile, her cheeks flushing as tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. “Thank you,” she said softly, her voice trembling slightly. “I… I was so nervous about tonight, but you’ve all been so kind. It means so much to me.”

Mina, sitting beside her, squeezed her hand gently, her expression radiating pride.

“Well,” Nayeon said, standing up dramatically, “there’s only one thing left to do. Group photo!”

Groans and laughs erupted from the group as Nayeon grabbed her phone. “Come on, come on! Everyone squish in!”

The members shuffled around, some squeezing onto the couch while others crouched on the floor in front. Y/N found herself in the center, seated next to Mina, who kept a firm yet gentle grip on her hand.

“Okay, everyone, smile!” Nayeon called, holding the phone up.

As the group leaned in, laughter and playful shouts filled the air. Momo pretended to photobomb, Jihyo threw up a peace sign, and Sana hugged Dahyun from behind, making her burst into giggles. Y/N couldn’t help but laugh, the joy of the moment washing over her.

The shutter clicked, capturing the scene perfectly. Y/N with a radiant, shy smile, Mina holding her hand tightly, and the rest of the Twice members surrounding them with bright, happy expressions.

As Nayeon checked the photo, Jeongyeon grinned. “That’s one for the books,” she said.

Mina leaned close to Y/N, her voice a soft murmur in her ear. “See? They already adore you.”

Y/N turned to Mina, her eyes shimmering with gratitude. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Mina smiled, brushing a strand of Y/N’s hair behind her ear. “You deserve it,” she replied, her voice filled with quiet conviction.

The photo, a perfect snapshot of a night filled with acceptance and love, became more than just a memory.

[levispersonalslave]

I hereby request a pt.2 to your beautifully written blind reader x levi drabble

I NEED MORE- this or just some general Levi fluff, whenever you’re up to it no rush queen ilysfm :3

MY BELOVEDDD IVE MISSED YOUUU

𝐿𝑒𝑣𝑖 𝐴𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛 × 𝐵𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑! 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟 02, 𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝐴𝑙𝑒𝑘𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 & 𝐸𝑚𝑚𝑎 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑉𝑒𝑖𝑙 𝐾𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖, 𝑆𝑓𝑤, 𝑈𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑃𝑒𝑡𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠, 0.6𝑘 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠 ꨄ

“Part of your hair’s gone askew,” he remarks quietly.

He watches as your fingers drift up, searching for the errant strand. Your touch is tentative, uncertain. “Oh, where? I can’t feel a thing,” you ask softly, voice barely above a whisper.

“Here. . .” He lifts his own hand to meet the stray lock, a delicate thread of silk that has slipped against your neck. His fingers glide through it, savoring its softness; he brushes it back with a tenderness that feels both natural and forbidden. “Hold still,” he whispers, stepping behind you with the faintest breath of a pause. His presence looms gently but undeniably. You know well that even if you assure him you can manage on your own, he’ll continue to insist on doing it for you—grumbling that it’s simply to prevent you from making a further tangle of it.

You smile faintly—a silent, knowing smile—your hands clasping together in front of you. You’re aware of his determination, aware that his touch lingers longer than it should, aware of everything left unsaid.

His fingers hover, just long enough to betray him, before smoothing the strands with quiet precision. The faint scent of your lavender soap wafts swirls around him, stirring a feeling he certainly isn’t ready to acknowledge. Your head tilts ever so slightly toward his touch, as if instinctively following the warmth of his hand, and his heartbeat stutters, quickening in that unnoticed moment.

“There you are,” he murmurs; his voice is quieter now, as though the very air between you has thickened. He doesn’t step away—not yet. “All fixed.”

“Thank you.” Your words are simple, but your smile—a small bloom of warmth—is luminous, as though it contains something more. You tilt your face toward him, the movement gentle, as though sensing his lingering presence behind you. “You’re far too kind, you know.”

“Kindness,” he replies, his voice dipping into something reflective, “isn’t much of a chore.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised, dear,” you say softly, a lilting hum in your tone, as your fingers tighten around each other, and a delicate blush tints your cheeks. “But if you’re intent on becoming my personal hairdresser, I think you’ll need more practice. It still feels a bit crooked.”

He chuckles, a quiet huff that’s both amusement and a subtle defense against the vulnerability creeping in. “Really now? I’m sure I fixed it perfectly.” He shifts to your side now, his eyes tracing the contours of your hair with exaggerated scrutiny. A hint of playful indignation lies in his gaze—though he knows you cannot see the expression, only hear the soft smile in his voice.

“Hm, I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it.” Your smile broadens, teasing, but there’s a faint tremor beneath the surface—something fragile that only he notices. It stirs a familiar ache within him, one he’s grown used to denying, though it grows harder and harder to ignore.

“You always take my word for it,” he murmurs, his voice dropping to a low, intimate register, one that barely reaches the space between you, “even when you probably shouldn’t.”

You turn your head towards him, your lips parting as though on the edge of a confession—words teetering on the brink, yearning to escape. But they remain held back, tethered by an invisible thread that stretches between you, taut with the weight of unspoken truths. For a fleeting instant, he contemplates whether this is the moment—if this is when he will finally articulate what has been brewing beneath his ribcage for so long. But just as he gathers the courage, you release a soft, breathy laugh and shake your head, dispelling the moment like morning mist.

“Honestly, Levi,” you say, the lightness in your tone masking the depth beneath, “what would I do without you?”

And just like that, the moment is lost. He exhales, a soft, resigned breath, his hand trailing briefly over the back of his neck. He manages a faint smile, though it bears the weight of what remains unspoken.

“Hopefully,” he replies, his voice tinged with quiet sincerity, “you’ll never have to discover that for yourself.”

⊱ 𝑇𝑎𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 ⊰ @the-traveling-poet , @pinkberryfox , 𝑑𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑑 ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭

[rickybabydacula]

Ive finally made my scary brew to win the election instead of you!

#WriteInRicky

ID: Low res image of a cat looking into a trash can edited to look like a cauldron with green luminous bubbling fluid, there is a steam edited in as well as red streaks over the cats eyes like they're glowing

[alexanderlightweight]

Happy Wednesday! Hope all is well! Give nightshade a scritch and a treat! There is something wrong with my brain because you and saeths have labeled things as 3DNE and I read them and couldn’t figure out what was bad? I’ve been reading fic for too long.

Anyway I love Frost of Fury and All your cracks painted gold so could I prompt an update for either? :)

the night is going a lot better than the day so I think it's good enough ^_^

I have given nightshade several apple slices and some extra fish snacks so i assure you he has been happily pampered with extra care due to this ask. i mean he's spoiled af but he also got extra spoiling (I almost gave him a second chew bone but he's boycotting his kibble and topper again today and I don't want to reward him too much or fill up his stomach when he needs actual sustenance but is being a picky little biscuit). I try to rotate his food enough that he doesn't get bored but the problem is just because I rotate it doesn't mean he wants what I make or he doesn't like the texture the kibble becomes and will refuse. and he will spit it out if he doesn't like it!!! and he won't eat any kibble that falls on the floor and sometimes depending on how tasty the treat is, he won't eat those if they fall on the floor either.

sorry, moving on from my silly pupper. it's taken a while but this is for all your cracks painted gold and I hope you like it. some team immortal in that verse and soft malec ofc

also I mean something is wrong with my brain but I don't think it's that and I agree with you. i'm never quite sure which of my fics are 3DNE myself but I know quite a few of them are so I just assume they'll end up there at some point or another and plan ahead. plus while it's a soft obsession/possessive/violent adoration/literally salt and burn the world for you. it's still not healthy or condoned in real life context so therefore i'd rather be safe with my tags

<3 lumine

Ragnor’s cottage is warm and cozy despite the insidious dampness of the wet wind that presses against the windowpanes and the cold pitter patter of rain on the roof.  The fire dances merrily and Alec watches it, mesmerized in the way only those half asleep can truly be.

“He’s exhausted,” Magnus says from above him and Alec tries to protest but the words don’t make it past his lips, caught on the heaviness of his tongue.  “The Herbal Anthology you sent him had him up all morning. I woke up to find him still in the garden at noon and was going to make him nap when your fire message arrived.  There was no hope for him resting after he asked me not to use magic because he wanted to learn how to harvest the plants from me.” 

Magnus’ voice is soft and soothing, lulling Alec even further from consciousness as he blinks slowly, the room fading under the haze of sleep.

—

“I wasn’t expecting him to find so many of the plants I needed in that wild terrain you call a herb garden.” Ragnor mutters and Magnus finds himself shocked into silence by the sheer gall of his dear cabbage. If Magnus’ rooftop sanctuary is wild than Ragnor’s own garden — herb and otherwise — can hardly be called anything other than rabid. Even the few trails that only exist because of Ragnor’s frequent use can be described as nothing more than a faint impression in a landscape of bedraggled flora.

“Well, Alexander is quite clever in anything he dedicates himself to.” 

For a moment there is a peaceful quiet, the rain and the fire the only noise until Ragnor gets up to go put on another pot of tea and set up his phonograph to play a soft but hauntingly poetic violin. Magnus leans back into the sofa Ragnor had thoughtfully summoned so that it would be easier for Magnus to coax him into slumber.

There is a dreary comfort in the ambiance as Magnus accepts a hot tea from Ragnor, appreciating the warmth of freshly brewed tea through the delicate fine bone china cup.

Alexander makes a soft whuffling snore even as he turns, shoulders digging sharply into Magnus’ thigh before he settles, content to nuzzle his face against Magnus’s belly.

“How is he handling it?”

“Better every day, but still slowly.” Magnus smiles softly as he pets his fingers through Alexander’s hair while taking a sip of tea. “When I first met him I never imagined how wounded and tender he was under all his strength before I found him broken.  It was heartbreaking but also painfully beautiful, to see him find joy and hope again.” Magnus pauses for a minute and his smile turns sharp, “and of course I can’t deny how delicious his ardent devotion and dedication to me is.  I never imagined it would be like this.” 

—

Ragnor watches as Magnus smirk fades and he sighs in contemplation, “I never imagined someone could feel these kinds of things for me, not truly.  Especially not after my father and Camille. To be able to experience it is... indescribable. Whatever comfort I thought I’d found in life I realize now I was merely settling.  I could never give him up and he could never bear to leave and this—” Magnus pauses and then sets his cup down so he can press his own fingers to his heart.

“It’s freedom, Ragnor.  For us both from shades and wounds of the past.  If Camille asked me for help, I’d burn her on sight knowing that her mere presence is a danger for Alexander.” 

The confession is such a shock that Ragnor chokes on his pipe but he recovers easily enough and uses it as an excuse to blow his nose, carefully hiding any tears.  

Magnus would never judge him for crying but it would hurt him to witness just how deeply Ragnor’s relief and joy is.  It would give him a glimpse into how deeply Ragnor and Catarina have both worried and agonized over Magnus’ unhealthy but lingering attachment.  It’s deeply rooted in the night she saved Magnus — the only worthwhile thing Ragnor and Catarina think she’s done and one they are deeply grateful for — but she’d used that against him far too many times for them to ever help her again.

Camille lingers  like a festering wound even with decades upon decades between her and Magnus’ last meeting but finally, finally the stranglehold she’s had on him is gone.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Ragnor cheerfully admits. “Now shall we leave your boy to rest and move to the study?”

Magnus’ glare is downright frosty at the mere suggestion and Ragnor chuckles and instead lifts his hands, summoning a new and larger table while Maguns quickly snatches his cup back up — saucer and all — before it can fall. Magnus' left hand hasn’t left Alec’s hair since the moment he started petting his shadowhunter and Ragnor would lightly mock him if he weren’t still so delighted by it all.

Maybe in a century or two the euphoria of Magnus finally having found someone to truly treasure and love him in the ways that he needs will wear off, but until then Ragnor will gladly enjoy this.

-

so the reason it says Alec stayed up all morning is they should have gone to bed before dawn and magnus fell asleep while alec read in bed and then Alec got too invested and ended up not actually going to bed and going back to the garden where Magnus found him when he eventually woke up because there was no Alexander cuddling against him.

and i've mentioned it before but ragnor, magnus and catarina really truly love and adore each other in a deep ride or die kind of way that will not break and betryal would never happen and they're never going to suspect each other. ragnor and cat were grateful to camille at first until she started fucking with Magnus and then basically gratitude didn't mean she could fuck with their friend.

ragnor is just truly fucking delight and he can't wait to portal over to cat the moment Magnus and Alec leave because he's going to spill everything and share memories so cat too can experience the joy of Magnus healing and being happy and confident in his joy and his own self worth which is all they've ever wanted for him

alec is asleep in an unfamiliar place after basically being tortured and that's part of the reason Magnus won't leave him and also why would he leave when he can pet Alec and keep an eye on his rest and make sure he doesn't have nightmares while also enjoying that it's his touch, voice, scent and magic that comfort Alec enough to let him sleep in a strange location especially unarmed and still learning what kind of powers come with his new runes or weapons he can wield.

ragnor is also thrilled because before Alec got interested in the garden it was a side hobby that Magnus only worked on or in when he remembered about it and was interested or wanted ingredients of higher grade

[kinichval]

game's over, you exist now, to my doom.

level one.

"we'll get one breakfast clubhouse, two chicken fillets, one bacon croissant, one slice of chocolate cake, and four brewed coffee please." xilonen relays the group's order in which the waiter repeats for confirmation, exchanges of gratitude take place before all eyes shoot and fixate at you.

the presence of drowsiness still linger in your body, the slight rush of adrenaline from when you were dashing back and forth in your apartment while getting ready has already expired, now you're fighting for your life not to drop your head and doze off on the cloud nine-like chair.

"did studying for finals screw you up hard or were you playing minecraft the whole night?" lumine interrogates, her brow slightly raised, mualani and xilonen had a similar look plastered on their faces. their stares were heavy on your shoulder, a pressuring weight that wants to force an admission out of you.

"kind of, a couple of subjects are a pain in the ass to deal with." you reason out hoping that their girl instincts would allow this to slide, whatever happened last night was something you don't want to think about.

it's complicated — you convinced yourself it is when in truth; it shouldn't have been that deep. if anything, it was just measly school glue that binded the almost relationship you and kaito had. no commitment happened, just a confession, now empty promises, and a prayer that it'll be the greatest love story of all time.

finally taking the hints of your hesitation, mualani changes the subject to which lumine and xilonen politely listens to, laughing at the hilarious parts and sharing side comments in between.

this gives you an open door to shut out the world, a few seconds of breathing should be enough to get you back in shape even just for this moment, right? you didn't want them to worry about your mental being, moreover you didn't want to open up (and most likely breakdown) just yet.

you remain silent, defending your quiet behavior with the fact that you only have one mouth and it's occupied with eating that you'd rather not speak until you're done. this wasn't your typical self, but they collectively understood that pushing you to the edge will only ruin your composure.

still, they manage to make you feel included and in return, you respond and try your best to just be present.

time check, classes are about to start. after settling the bill and getting ready to face the wrath of uni; lumine and xilonen bid their goodbyes upon the realization that there's exactly five minutes before their afternoon classes. thankfully, there's still around thirty minutes to spare for you and mualani, so she stays beside you, a maternal expression of concern veils on her pretty face. "you alright?" she knows for sure you'll say yes, and you did.

mualani, known for her outgoing persona, stays still in this moment — like a calm beach shore. she has this aura that somehow feels like water washing over your toes and bringing in oddly but prettily shaped seashells along, so you take a deep breath.

"kaito—"

you were cut short when mualani tugs on your arm right after the door opens and the bell chimes as a new customer comes in. oh, maybe the grim reaper couldn't get his hands on you so he sends your ex-almost-boyfriend hand-in-hand with that girl to kill you the second time in less than twenty-four hours.

"let's get ice cream."

previous | home | level up

when yn's gaming hobby fluctuated after (stupidly) getting disappointed with a gamer she fell in love with, she's out there on valorant rage-gaming her heartbreak and ranting out to strangers who try to mock her d-level aiming skills; and kinich, who was just trying a newly released agent, got wired up in her incessant rambling and the unwanted responsibility to teach her how to play.

⚡︎ @animelover100 @fandomfan-102 @bvtterflyyy @viannasthings @mang0515 @aries-afk @xiaomainlmao @usagiarchive @marivaudages @lalalaloveallmydays @jiminscarmex @aetherialcrafter @yelleloww @rattyrattyratty (bold can not be tagged)

[fordpinesthemanyouare]

Ford x Fem!Reader

Math Assistant Pt.3

Summary: Ford needs himself an assistant, Stanley makes an online post for him and BOOM there you are. Warnings: Age gap... but that's what you're here for me thinks A/N: Wanted to get this up before I leave for vacation, still serving nothing sandwiches but HEY were getting somewhere huh? I need that six fingered freak dude, like... it's so bad that I had to bring it up in therapy. Tags <3: @potato-painter

----------

Her car followed behind the red El Diablo that had picked Stanford up from the diner as she was returning to her car. She saw another older man in the driver seat who she assumed must have been the twin brother Stanford mentioned. She didn't get a good look at the driver before she got inside her own car, the late spring sun making its descent over the looming trees turning the sky a deep orange. Had she and Stanford really been talking for that long? The shining red car turned out of the diner parking lot, and y/n followed suit, rolling down her windows and turning up the volume to the music she had been listening to on the long drive to this desolate town. Before leaving the diner together, Stanford had told her to just follow in his car and he would lead them to where she would be spending the next few months. 

Bumping her head along to the music as she drove down the two lane road, her mind began to wonder what her time here in Gravity Falls would look like. She had always been in the lab or classroom working on ever growing math equations for most of her adult life, but she always felt a deep connection to nature, specifically Oregon’s natural woods. Since moving here to complete her schooling she loved the natural aura these woods produced, and now here she was, completely surrounded with the strong trees, she couldn't have felt more at peace. The completion of her master’s was long and grueling work that kept her away from exploring the woods, and being a thirty year old completing another degree, there was not much time for camping. Y/n had a tendency to become completely involved with her work very quickly, locking herself in the apartment she was renting near campus for days without anybody seeing her (not unlike someone else we know).  

The El Diablo turned onto a dirt road into the woods, the lights from the main road fell behind them as they continued their way into the ever growing dark forest. The two pairs of headlights were the only lumination on the long road, and the lights highlighted the seemingly eerie pointed signs nailed to the trees along the road with large question marks hand painted over them. She couldn't help but take in the amount of trees that were covered in these signs, she suddenly felt very nervous about the situation the car was lurching towards. She still had no idea what to expect, even with the long conversation Stanford and her had just been having, and arriving while it was quickly turning dark might not have been the best idea for her nerves. She breathed in through her nose, and out of her mouth to attempt to drown the anxiety brewing in the pit of her stomach as they pulled up to a lone… shack? Cabin? Store? The lights around the establishment lit the area up better for her to read the sign on the side of the building: “Mystery (S) hack”. The ‘S’ of the sign had fallen on the side of the roof; she noticed it now read ‘Mystery Hack’ and smiled a little, as the two cars pulled closer to the side of the house to park. They certainly weren't wrong about having a parking lot in front of their… home? She was certainly confused and was in thought about what she was getting herself into as she turned the car off, rolled up the windows, and began to grab any loose items to put in her purse. 

A loud abrupt knock on the window caused her to gasp and jump in the driver's seat, turning to see what monster had scared her while she was so deep in thought. Her eyes met with Stanford’s… no someone who looked similar but different in the setting sun’s light. His frame was slightly bigger at the almost the same height Stanford is, but he was wearing a shirt that had a few buttons undone from the top revealing his broad and hairy chest; he had similar glasses to Ford as well. He was flashing her a toothy grin before speaking “Well are y’gonna come out and take a tour or what?” She just stared at him, her face flushed from the scare and her mouth opening and closing not unlike a fish from water. The man laughed at her, loud and heartily, before she could hear Stanford say slightly muffled from the windows “Stanley get away from her car please.” The man took a few paces back from the window, while holding his hands up in defense, chuckling still with a smile “I wasn’t even doing anything!” 

Her heart was still racing; she grabbed her purse and stepped out of the car into the dirt parking lot, feeling towered over by Stanford's twins’ stance. She smiled past her nerves and offered her hand, “Hi there, Im Y/n, you must be Stanford’s twin he mentioned”

He gave her a smirk and an eyebrow quirk at that before grabbing her hand in his large calloused one, shaking it he introduced himself as Stanley. His broad hand had completely engulfed hers as he spoke, “He was talking about me huh? Were you excited to meet me or something, doll?” Before she could stutter out a response, feeling her face heat up at the pet name he casually called her, Stanley looked at his brother who was walking towards them “Stanford? You really were trying to seem as serious as you can point-dexter, you should probably try to loosen up a bit with your new assistant.” 

Ford rolled his eyes at his brother as he stood to the side of them, she turned to see him stand beside them with a casual smirk on his face at his brother’s antics. “A cute look on him”, the thought flashed in her mind and she dismissed it as quickly as it came. This was her new boss, that she was going to be living with and working with! She reprimanded herself silently for thinking such thoughts all while still looking at him, still she couldn't stop even when Stanford began speaking, her eyes darting to his lips as they moved.

“I was attempting to maintain professionalism with my new assistant, some of us have to maintain a sense of decorum.” Ford looked at Y/n, he didn’t want her to feel like she was not welcomed from their brotherly bantering, but she was already staring up at him from her stance. “You can also call me Ford if you’d like, I do know we will be spending a lot of time together over the next few months.” She nodded at that and looked between the two brothers. She couldn't help but think they were handsome when the two of them were towering over her like this,  laughing and bantering with each other. Stanley snorted in response to Ford, before she could speak. 

“Ha! Decorum, that's just your fancy word for being stuck up, if you loosen up a bit Y/n might actually take a liking to you.” Stanley jabbed Ford with his elbow in his ribs as he said it and turned to her while looking her up and down now, and she felt like she was put in the hot seat from his gaze raking up and down her body as she leaned against the door to her car. Her face was still slightly red from the last comment he had made, but she didn't falter as she regained some composure. She said nonchalantly to Ford’s twin, “I would love to take that tour if you're still offering, I just have to grab some of my things.”She smirked back at Stanley’s gaze on hers as she turned to walk towards the trunk of her car, popping it open with her keys. She pulled out two large suitcases that looked like they were about ready to burst open, the two men looked towards her things and then waved her towards the shack not mentioning the state her luggage was in.

The trio walked up the steps of the porch as Y/n and Stanley locked their cars almost in unison, they looked at each other and laughed together at the uniform way the cars beeped together. Ford turned over his shoulder and saw Y/n’s beautiful laugh ring out as she looked at Stanley, he couldn't help but feel something pang deep in his chest but he continued onward toward the door ignoring the feeling before she could notice his glance back. They entered the house (shack? cabin? showroom??) and she marveled at all of the large displays that stared right back at her. She was even more confused as they shut the door behind her and flicked the lights on, detailing the displays that were previously shrouded with darkness. As she set her things down by the front door, the large sasquatch model parked in the corner immediately caught her eye and noticed the sign that pointed conveniently between the model sasquatch’s legs and read “Sas-crotch”. She huffed a laugh before looking at Ford, “Does this happen to be the lucrative project we're working on?” gesturing towards the sas-crotch with a grin. 

Ford’s cheeks started to burn a bit at his new assistant’s teasing question, feeling more embarrassed at how his home had now been turned into a tourist trap. He rubbed the back of his neck a little awkwardly before starting, “Ah yes, that is part of Stanley’s… exhibits he curates for tourists to come visit during the day. This room and two others are the only rooms where people could be walking through, and it’s separated from the rest of the house. Let me show you to your room.” He walked through the back door of the showroom as she lugged her two heavy suitcases through the room and down the hallway they entered. Stanley stayed behind, muttering something under his breath about not including him on the tour and making fun of his work. Even though she admired all of the strange things in the front room as they walked through, she marveled at the assortment of displays. They continued farther into the house, it became more evident that she was walking into a home as the freaky displays were left in the front showroom. Down the hall now, pictures hung on the wall of family members and the two brother’s, she quickly passed them following Ford, but made a note to look further into them later following Ford as he continued down the hall. 

He had led her into the kitchen, and Ford had made a point in his mind beforehand to make sure to show her where the coffee machine was. He couldn't help but note that she drank just about as much coffee as him (if not more), and he also made an additional mental note to buy extra coffee grounds the next time they went to the store. “Here is where the fuel is,” Ford said while tapping the top of the coffee maker with his palm. She giggled a little, nodding in agreement “Glad you showed me the night before we begin our work, I might have needed to run to that diner for coffee.” He smiled at her and continued on their small tour of the house, she was still awkwardly rolling the luggage through all parts of the house. 

The pair continued down another hall and up a small flight of stairs until they were stopped in front of a door, he pushed it open and what revealed was a storage closet with a deflated air mattress in one corner. The room couldn’t have been more than eight feet across, and in the opposite corner of the small bed was a desk and chair. The chair contained some folded sheets, blankets, and towels, but otherwise the room looked like nobody had been in it for a long time. There was one window above the bed that was paneled with various geometric shapes, the light in the room showed some light cobwebs in the corners. As Y/n entered the room with her luggage, Ford moved in the hall flicking on more lights in the house letting her get settled in the small room. 

“The bathroom is just across the hall for when you need it, whenever you're settled in tomorrow I can show you more of the house and where we will be working.” Ford approached, leaning on the open door frame of the storage closet/bedroom looking at the way she was taking in the room, and beginning to open up the too-filled luggage. As she knelt in front of the two suitcases on the floor unzipping them she said “I appreciate that, I always forget how tired driving makes me and this town really is in the middle of nowhere.” Y/n turned her head and looked up at Ford with a smile, taking in the sight before her. His hair seemed run through with his hands and his turtle neck sleeves were bunched up around his elbows showing off his broad forearms. She was trying her best not to ogle him, but he wasn’t responding to her statement and just looking right back at her. Their gazes met each other for a few seconds, both just staring at each other through the silence, before Ford realized it was his turn to speak. He cleared his throat as his cheeks dusted pink and brought his hand behind his neck to rub it again, “Y-yes, I’m sure you're tired after a long day today, we'll meet together tomorrow to get started on everything” He turned to walk down the stairs before Y/n gave a half shouted “Wait!”. He stopped and walked the two paces back to the door, where Y/n was standing now in the room. 

“T-thank you Ford, I appreciate you getting me set up here and showing me around, especially that coffee machine.” She suddenly felt a little awkward stopping him just so she could stutter out a thanks, her face grew warm and the pit of her stomach seemed to fill her nerves with anxiety. Ford looked at Y/n again, drinking in her beauty as she was standing there thanking him. He could barely register her words before he smiled again at her, taking one last discreet view of her full body since she was now standing, he nodded. “Of course, I’m hoping we'll be able to make further progress than I have made, now with your help.” At that, he walked from the doorway feeling his sweaty hands finally begin to make their way to just being clammy, once he was half way down the stairs away from her. Once she was left in the room alone with Ford’s footsteps thudding down the stairs towards the kitchen, she let out a breath of air she didn’t realize she had been holding. Turning back to continue unpacking a little bit, grabbing some items for a shower she desperately needed to clear her impure thoughts of the man that just stood in her doorway. 

Downstairs, Ford was deep in thought on why his body was reacting this way as he headed back to the kitchen, leaving Y/n to finish getting settled for the night. He understood that yes, his assistant just so happened to be absolutely stunning, but what he couldn’t understand is that although the interview had opened her up a bit more to him, how could he still be nervous at this point? The two of them had shared several hours together at the diner talking about work and studies, they both had many similar interests and passions for learning and he felt that she was almost too perfect for this situation. As his mind fell deeper and deeper into overthinking the whole situation at hand, Stanley walked into the kitchen to see Ford braced over the counter, his six fingered hands gripping onto the lip of the counter as if it was the only thing tethering him to reality. Stanley cleared his throat and Ford jumped slightly before turning around to face his brother, his mind previously occupied with thoughts of his new assistant. Ford’s face was a bit flushed as he looked at Stan full on now either from his thoughts previously or because Stan had now scared two different scientists within the same day. 

Stanley immediately noticed the flush spread on Ford’s nose and cheeks, if he had no context of what had been happening he would have figured he just scared his twin. Alas, Stanley knew better than to assume he was flustered because he walked into the kitchen and scared him a bit, he knew that something had just happened while the two were touring the house. The shower upstairs distantly turned on, letting both men in the kitchen know you were now completely out of earshot, a shit eating grin pulled on Stan’s lips. Ford preemptively shook his head in disagreement before Stan had even begun speaking, which caused Stan to laugh. 

“I knew I shoulda’ kept her resume from you” He laughed again looking at Ford’s now raised eyebrows at his claim, before continuing, “What? I figured you would be able to maintain, hm, what word did you use earlier? ‘Decorum’ what a load of shit, have you seen her? What happened up there to make you turn this red?”. It had been a long time since Stanley had seen his brother flustered at all, let alone because of an attractive person. That last thought to himself left him feeling a twinge of sadness in his chest. His brother had been gone for so long and had barely had any time to experience a meaningful romantic relationship, at least that he was aware of. Not that Stan wasn't checking out the new assistant earlier by the cars, and he may have been a little charmed at their unison car locking. However Stan wasn't stupid, he had certainly noticed the glances Y/n stole from his twin in the short time the three of them were together. She would look at his jaw or his hands for just a second too long, a second too long for Stan to notice the little hints before Y/n and Ford left to tour the rest of the house without him. 

“Absolutely nothing happened Stanley, I showed Y/n to her room and that was it. She mentioned that she was tired, so I politely took my leave. I am not sure what you are insinuating here Stanley, but whatever it is, it isn’t happening.” Ford’s poker face regarding his heart, definitely needed work, his blush deepened in his cheeks and his eyes couldn’t meet his twins’. Ford seemed to look at anything in the kitchen other than his brother’s incredulous stare, he began organizing the pile of papers on the kitchen table as he almost waited for Stan’s rebuttal. 

Stanley almost laughed at Ford’s feeble attempts at playing stupid, but he figured he wouldn’t pry on Ford especially with how he looked when he walked into the kitchen, as if he was in the middle of solving the world’s hardest equation. “If you wanna leave it at that, then I won’t make you talk” Stanley turned to leave Ford once again, figuring it was time to hit the hay anyways. He mumbled a goodnight to Ford before heading towards his own room, Ford could barely share the same pleasantries before registering Stanley had in fact not broached further on the subject of his new assistant. Ford was quickly left alone with his thoughts again in the empty kitchen, hearing the water trickle in the distant shower upstairs reminding him once again of the time that was yet to be spent together in the lab. 

He stood in the kitchen for a moment thinking over how Stanley had entirely dropped the teasing conversation, and frankly, it seemed like Stanley knew what he was doing by deliberately not asking. Ford groaned at the thought, bringing his hand up to his face to rub the bridge of his nose under his glasses in slight annoyance. He realized it wasn't far out from when everyone typically goes to bed, so he began to head for the basement when he stopped in his tracks when the distant running water stopped in the shower upstairs. Ford’s mind raced for a moment, running through the different courses of action. Should he head upstairs to make sure that you are all settled for the night, or should he continue to the basement for the night letting her get settled in by herself? He was almost paralyzed in thought as his heart continued to beat faster than before in his chest. 

Ford made his decision as he heard the bathroom door distantly open, as he pulled the vending machine door into its hinges and shut it closed behind him. 

---------

[mrsoharaa]

˚₊ ‧ ꒰ა🤍x🖤 ໒꒱ ‧ ₊˚

-` MDNI +18 CONTENT; Slight sexting(?), facetime teasing(?), doggystyle, face shoving, satosugu (x reader), sub!gojo, dom!geto, slightly mean geto (towards gojo) if I missed anything please let me know! '-

Receiving a lascivious pic of Satoru wearing his blindfold, hands tied behind his back and bent forward while Suguru pushes his head down into the foamy mattress beneath him, hips roughly connected with a text beneath it saying "He's been mouthing off to me all day today, it was quite a nuisance...come get your man 🙄" had taken you by surprise, was an understatement.

But you can't help but emit such a small giggle, one that brewed with immense amusement and titillating arousal seeping into your fluttering stomach. You'd nibble softly onto your bottom lip, squishing your thighs together to prevent any excess wetness to pool out from your thin panties. Your fingers hastily roll over the keyboard, all while admiring the filthy image flaunting on your screen.

"I mean this is SATORU we are talking about Suguru...plus, he's your man too (he was your man first babe btw) 😘 and it looks like you're doing a splendid job of putting him in his place (shutting him up lmao). Good job, much applause 🤗👏" another giggle erupts from your lips, a warm tingling feeling searing into your body.

Suguru couldn't help the growing smile seaming onto his cheeks, while holding the phone close to him and typing away, he couldn't help but roll his hips rhythmically into Satoru with a collecting, precise tandem. Earning a few muffled groans and hisses in between thick sheets and fluffed pillows.

"Haha, you're absolutely right angel...and thank you, apparently he likes to be folded over and stuffed...also, keep on with the praising, I think it's doing something for the both of us pretty girl 🖤" the grin on Suguru's face continued to widen, a wave of heat flourishes across his perfectly silky skin. A clash of hounding arousal swimming directly to his hips, bucking them into Satoru that much deeper, harder.

God, how much you've missed your two idiots. And how much they've missed you.

Even away on tedious missions, they knew how to stir up the unwavered feelings that swells inside of you with insatiable temptation and longing. Especially with Suguru's way of words.

"Oh? is the great polite and suave Suguru begging me to throw in some more praises? 👀" Sent. A cheeky smirk stains your cheeks, thighs growing warm, pushing more intently against each other.

Suguru exhales a deep, collective baritone chuckle, typing away on his glowing device in his clasp. How cute, he thinks, and ever so bold of you.

"Keep it up sweetheart and I'll show you just how "polite" I'll be once I return from this mission...but yes" a low groan simmers deep at Suguru's chest, the tightening feeling of Satoru's hole snugging around his throbbing length oh so deliciously, hips rocking back into Suguru with dire desperation and need.

And as Satoru tears his pretty, sweaty messy face that coated with nothing but a gaudy expression, moving along with Suguru's hand deeply entangled through his soft snow tresses, Suguru's phone began to ring. The familiar tune of facetime bouncing through the darken room, into their ears.

"Ah, just in time, here look Satoru, tell your pretty wife how snarky you were being today" Suguru leans forward to Satoru's level, pressing onto the green answering button and angling the phone to his fucked out expression to be met with your luminous face on the other side of the screen.

Glossed over eyes of olympic blue hazes over towards the brighten screen, a streak of drool streaming down the corners of his polished lips.

"Oh Toru, always being the snarky smart ass...now look where that got you" you clicked your teeth, a tender, playful smile knitting on your face.

"N-No...Suguru's jus' m-mean and s-spiteful" Satoru manages to spur words, voice lilt with overstimulation and bliss. Pretty eyes rolling back into the foggy mess of his head, grunting more heavily with a impervious smack of Suguru's hips slapping into him with a piercing thrust. Shoving his head back down into the drenched fabric of the foamy pillows with a ruthless motion, forcing his back into a deep arch as much as he could, to take in all of Suguru's thick length.

A feeble, low chortle pitters off from your tongue from over the phone, watching the intensity in Suguru's pace accelerate more rapidly with each ravenous thrust. You bring your left hand up to gently nibble onto your pointing finger nail, soaking in the delightful sight of Satoru getting his back literally blown out by a surprisingly calm and sweetened Suguru. The image of Suguru's handsome face coming into view.

"You're being mean Sugu" you smile graciously, he scoffs with a pulling smile in return, gazing down at the moaning mess of a man withering below him.

"No, he's just being mouthy brat" Suguru inhales a breath, slurring out a slipped swear from his flushed lips as he feels Satoru's walls clench around him, insinuating a sensational heat to blossom in the pit of your stomach. Still softly chewing onto your bottom lip, you were finally met those beautiful pair of byzantium. A lulling familiar grin festering against his lips, followed by a weighted breath.

"So...about those praises my love, want to help your loving husbands out, hm?"

Oh, how could you say no to them?

[fawnizm]

you may think she's pretty but i think she's enchanting. i think she's as luminous as the sun & the moon, rivaling them in ways that'd make the solar system worship her. i think she was carefully crafted by the delicate & artful hands of aphrodite, gifting her with such ethereal beauty that it'd challenge those around her & make them green with envy. i think she looks like the personification of lullabies sung next to an open window on a warm summer morning, coffee brewing, & the birds singing along. i think poets would write about her, running out of words to describe her because her beauty is simply unmatched & so unique that there's not enough words for it in the english dictionary. i think she's grace & elegance, i think people would fall at her feet, thinking she was some sort of aristocrat, & fawn over her. i think she's alluring, gorgeous, seductive, stunning, angelic, sublime, bewitching, radiant, beguiling, picturesque, colorful, charming, divine, exquisite, perfect, heavenly, celestial, blissful, lovely, seraphic, classy, poetic, flowery, & the epitome of a dream. you may think she's pretty but i think she's so, so much more than that—you couldn't even imagine. we are not the same.

[album-tourney]

Round 1 match ups

Deny Defend Depose by Joe Devito - Todos Juntos by Los Jaivas

Union Maid by the Almanac Singers - Color in your Cheeks by the Mountain Goats

II: The road Giveth by RENT STRIKE - Two Headed Boy by Neutral Milk Hotel

For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield - I'm not a good person by Pat the Bunny

I ain't Marching Anymore by Phil Ochs - Ballad of a Wobbly by David Rovics

Do you believe in magic by the lovin spoonful - Let the Mystery Be by Iris Demont

California Dreamin by the Mama's and the Papa's - I'm a Believer by The Monkees

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen - A Song for a Computer Programmer by Cricket!

Blackbird by the Beatles - The Gambler by Kenny Rogers

Feed the Machine by Poor Man's Poison - Curses by the Crane Wives

Big Rock Candy Mountain by Harry McClintock - Pure Obsession by Mirabai Kukathas

Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls - I want wind to blow, the microphones

War isn't Murder by Jesse Welles - Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker

Place to Be by Nick Drake - The Wrote and Writ by Johnny Flynn

Time in a Bottle By Jim Croce - Ohio by Neil Young

Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons - Space Girl by Shirley Collins

A Horse with No Name by America - Fuck it by Days N Daze

The Galway Girl by Sharon Shannon and Steve Earle - The Chain by Fleetwood Mac

Heave Away by the Fables - Stick Season by Noah Kahan

Rule #4 Fish in a Birdcage by Fish in a Birdcage - Your Heart is a Muscle the Size Of Your fist by Ramshackle Glory

War on the Workers by Anne Feeney - The Funeral by Band of Horses

Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes - Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation by Tom Paxton

Season of the Witch by Donovan - I’m against the government by Defiance, Ohio

Everybody's Talkin' by Harry Nilsson - Kill the Boy Band by She/Her/Hers

Me and my Bobby Mcgee by Janis Joplin - O Valencia by the Decemberists

Wayward Prodigal by Cora Reef - The War Racket by Buffy Sainte-Marie

The Times they are a changing by Bob Dylan - Miracle of Life by Bright eyes

At Seventeen by Janis Ian - Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds

I am a Union Woman by Bobbie McGee - Electricity by Sister Wife Sex Strike

Annie's Song by John Denver - Roll On, Columbia, Roll On by the Highway Men

Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Paul and Mary - Solidarity Forever by Utah Phillipps

I'm Gonna Be an Engineer by Peggy Seegar - Follow Me up to Carlow by the Young Dubliners

Take Me to Church By Hozier - 32 Flavors by Ani Difranco

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman - Murder in the City by the Avett Brother

Mrs. Robinson By Simon and Garfunkel - The Chemical Worker's Song by Great Big Sea

The Fox by Nickel Creek - Oak & Ash & Thorn by The Longest Johns

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald By Gordon Lightfoot - Strangers by Apes of the State

American Pie by Don McLean - Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash, And Young

Everything I own by Bread - Fire and Rain by James Taylor

The Trolley Problem by Windborne - Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

Where have all the flowers gone by Pete Seeger - Dream a Little Dream of Me by Cass Elliot

Glad to be Gay by Tom Robinson Band - The Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton

Vienna by Billy Joel - Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapman

One Kind of People by Amigo the Devil - Brave as a Noun by AJJ

Every Town will Celebrate by Mischief Brew - Wild World by Cat Stevens

Plastic Jesus by Tia Blake - Ho Hey by the Lumineers

Ballad of Ho Chi Min by Ewan MacColl - City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie

Loose Lips by Kimya Dawson - Excursion Around the Bay by Great Big Sea

Who would Jesus Bomb by Jordan Snart - Rhododendron Honey by Leslie Fish

Hungry Dog on the street by the Taxpayers - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band

Mr. Tambourine Man by the Byrds - Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen

You're So Vain by Carly Simon - Ooh La La by the Faces

Budapest by George Ezra - Paradise by John Prine

Tear the Facists Down by Woody Guthrie - House of the Rising Sun by the Animals

One Great City by the Weakerathans - Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez

Bread and Roses by Judy Collins - Angel From Montgomery by Bonnie Raitt

March of the Jobless Corps by Daniel Kahn - There is Power in a Union by Billy Bragg

What a time to be alive by Matt Press - Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell

Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford - All The Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands by Sufjan Stevens?

Not Yet/Love Run by the Amazing Devil - Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers

Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega - It's too Late by Carole King

Hurt by Johnny Cash - Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell

Jolene by Dolly Parton - Have you ever seen the rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival

I'd work for Free by Blake Rouse - You're Dead by Norma Tanega

[zielnxz]

I wrote a short genshin fanfic- but its angsty. i cried.

Title (You are Paimon's whole world.)

Pages (3)

Words (1,177)

Progress (Done)

Contains (Alternate Universe) (Angst) (What if situation)

Notes (Based off of a youtube short by Stephanie_Sslx - art by me)

​​The sky above was bathed in hues of deep blue and violet as the evening sun slipped beneath the horizon, leaving the world in a soft, endless twilight. The wind whispered through the flowers, their petals fluttering like delicate pieces of paper in a world that seemed to be held together by fragile strings. And in the midst of it all, stood Paimon—small, ever-present, and hiding the storm inside. Lumine and Aether, the Traveler twins, stood at the edge of the meadow. Their gazes were fixed on each other, smiles of quiet contentment gracing their faces, their hearts light and filled with something they hadn’t felt in so long—peace. Their journey had been long and filled with struggle, but now, with the stars sparkling above them and Teyvat laid out at their feet, the world felt complete. They were together again, finally, after everything they had been through. This was the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Paimon hovered near them, a small, unwavering presence in their midst. Her usual cheerful demeanor remained in place, her smile bright and her voice light, though beneath it all, something trembled. She had known this moment was coming. She had always known. The twins had always been meant for something greater than Teyvat—meant to return to the stars, to the world they had come from, long before they set foot in this realm. She knew it, just as she knew that her place would always be beside them, guiding them, even as the distance between them grew.

“You’ve made it,”

Aether said softly, his voice warm with affection as he gazed at his sister. Lumine smiled in return, her eyes soft and filled with love.

“We’ve made it,”

she echoed.

“Together. Finally.”

Their hands intertwined, their bond stronger than anything they had faced. Together, they had weathered the storms of the world, overcome every trial, and now, they were ready to step forward into whatever awaited them. The quiet joy between them was palpable, but Paimon’s smile remained fixed. She stood by them, the ever-present companion, her heart aching with an emotion she refused to let show. She had to be happy for them. This was what they wanted, what they had always dreamed of.

“Everything’s just as it should be,”

Paimon said brightly, her voice more cheerful than she felt.

“This is what you two always wanted, right?”

The twins nodded, their smiles unwavering, unaware of the tempest brewing in the heart of their small companion. To them, this was a celebration. The culmination of everything they had fought for—their family reunited, their mission accomplished. To Paimon, however, it felt like the end of her world.

“That’s right,”

Aether said, his eyes alight with excitement.

“We’re finally free.”

The words felt like a quiet goodbye, one that wasn’t spoken, but understood. The twins had always fought for each other, fought to return to one another, and now, the battle was over. They had won. They had found each other. Paimon smiled, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. She hovered just a bit closer, her voice a little too bright, a little too steady

“Yeah! This is great! You two will be happy out there, flying through the stars. I’ll be just fine.”

Her words sounded hollow, even to her own ears, but she refused to let them crack. She had to be happy. She had to show them that she was okay with this, even as her heart shattered into pieces she would never speak aloud.

“Thank you, Paimon,”

Lumine said, her smile warm and knowing.

“For everything.”

Aether echoed the sentiment.

“We never could’ve made it without you.”

The words hit Paimon like a weight, like a reminder of just how much she had meant to them, just how much she had given. She had always been by their side, no matter what. But now… now they were leaving.

“You’re welcome,”

Paimon said, her voice too tight, too rehearsed.

“You two deserve this. I’m happy for you.”

Lumine and Aether shared a glance, and with a final, shared nod, they turned toward the sky. It was time to go. They spread their wings, their silhouettes glowing in the twilight as they lifted off the ground, their figures rising higher and higher, toward the stars. Paimon stayed grounded, her smile still plastered to her face, her hands clasped in front of her as she watched them go. They were free. They were together. And she was happy for them. At least, she tried to tell herself that. The wind swept around her, pulling at her small form, but she stood still, frozen in place. Her eyes never left the twins as they soared higher into the night sky, merging with the stars, becoming one with the constellations that had always been their home. Their journey was just beginning again—without her. She couldn’t hold it any longer. The moment they vanished into the heavens, Paimon broke. Her smile cracked, and the floodgates inside her shattered. She collapsed, her body trembling as she floated down to the ground, a quiet sob escaping her lips. She wasn’t sure when the tears began, only that they came in waves, pouring down her face as her chest heaved with every silent cry. Her world—her everything—was gone. The stars above twinkled, their soft glow a reminder of the distance between them. The Traveler had been her family, her companion, her reason for being. And now, they were gone. She had always known this moment would come, but nothing could have prepared her for the crushing weight of their departure.

“You’re all Paimon has,”

she whispered into the silence, her voice breaking on the words.

“You were… everything to her.”

But the wind didn’t answer, and the stars didn’t come back. They had left her behind. Her sobs echoed in the empty meadow, blending with the sound of the wind as it whispered through the flowers. Paimon had always been the one to cheer others on, to smile for them, to keep them going. But now, there was no one left to smile for. No one left to cheer on. She was alone. The world around her felt hollow, the silence louder than any sound she had ever heard. And in that moment, she knew that no matter how far she traveled, no matter where she went, nothing would ever fill the emptiness that had taken root in her heart. Her world had crumbled around her. And the stars above? They no longer held the same promise. As the night deepened, Paimon wiped her tears away and stood, floating slowly into the air. She had always been the one who stood beside them, a constant through it all. But now, it was just her. With one last glance at the sky, Paimon whispered into the night,

“I hope you find your way. I hope you never forget me.”

And then, she turned away, the sound of her breathing the only noise left in the quiet of the world.

[wasteful-sam]

WIP Whenever!

Thank you so much for tagging me, @graysparrowao3! ♥ Well, currently, my only WIP is "Worthy," and because I've just started the next chapter, there's no interesting stuff to share. (ˊ•͈ ◡ •͈ˋ)

However, I figured sharing a part from the already published chapter would be fine, too, especially if there are those who'd want a sample of my longfic without committing.

All the context you need for this excerpt: Act 2. Rolan realizes he has deeper feelings for Tav (f/drow/Nimriel). Lovesick and overwhelmed by ever-encroaching self-doubt, he nearly drowns.

Once the night had fallen onto the Shadow-Cursed Lands, Rolan left for his routine spellcasting training. He needed a distraction and couldn't wait until dawn. The tiefling found the pier just under the veranda blessedly vacant, the Harpers nowhere to be seen.

For hours, the wizard was standing there, mouthing the incantations in a quiet voice, directing them into the water. Feeling his magic battery getting low, he moved onto the cantrips, switching between rays of frost and fire bolts just to occupy his mind.

For all the time Rolan had been casting cantrips, his eyes stayed shut - perhaps to block out distractions. But shutting them wouldn't silence what churned inside. As if his family's precarious situation wasn't enough to weigh on him.

"What even is this?" the tiefling hissed, his thoughts circling back to their conversation with Nimriel earlier. The buildup of frustration broke his focus. The firebolt in his hands flickered and vanished, leaving his palms empty. He opened his eyes with a sharp breath.

Tonight was uncharacteristically tranquil for the Shadow-Cursed Lands: the moon hung full and luminous, its silver light rippling across the water's surface. Yet, the serene beauty barely registered. It couldn't touch the firestorm brewing within him. Rolan felt feverish, his breath tight and labored. Was he falling ill?

The near-delirium drove him to the pier's edge. Desperation took hold as he yanked off his boots and plunged his feet into the river's cool embrace. Still, the water's cooling embrace evaporated almost as quickly as it came. He let out an irritated tsk, his gaze dropping to the reflection beneath him.

"What do you want?" he muttered, but the reflection offered no reply. It was a question that felt impossible to answer when you were in no position to demand anything from the world.

The burning sensation flared unbearably, searing through him. With a resigned sigh, Rolan began stripping away his clothes. Piece by piece, he cast them aside until he stood bare under the moonlight. Without hesitation, he dove horns-first into the river, the icy water swallowing him whole.

He surfaced moments later, floating on his back, staring up at the night sky. His breathing was still ragged, and he opened his mouth wide, gasping for air. Like a fish flung from water, flailing and suffocating on the shore.

Was it all because of the alcohol, Rolan thought, touching his stomach for signs of discomfort. No, not at all. Slowly, his hand slid upward, tracing the familiar ridges of his body as if hunting for an answer. It stopped just below his chest, where a phantom pressure lingered - a weightless, spherical ache lodged between his ribs. The sensation felt overwhelming, trembling in the void it created within him.

Looking at the moon, the tiefling let his mind drift. Nimriel said she wanted to go back to the Emerald Grove, and Rolan would take her there in a heartbeat. Just to watch her lay there by the Sacred Pool, safe and at peace. The tiefling fell into an even deeper haze, remembering. That night, at the pool, when the drow stirred something deep within him.

So much has changed since then. His longing for Nim had grown, evolving from physical attraction into something far more desperate. It wasn't just about holding her or seeking comfort in her presence. He wanted to shield her, to be the constant that soothed her storm. That need rivaled even his ambition to become a worthy apprentice to Lorroakan.

But this dream was unreachable, just like the moon looming over. Say, he confessed these feelings to her – a woman who's fighting against all odds. Could he extract the tadpole? Protect her? Be a valuable ally on the battlefield? No, Rolan is not a meaningful part of Nimriel's life equation. No number of potions brewed or words of counsel spoken could make him indispensable.

And yet - his fingers reached to the purple mark she left on his neck - the tiefling hopelessly clung to this dream. Making another deep sigh, Rolan submerged his head under the water, his eyes still chasing the moon across the sky.

He couldn't let go of today – the way Nim was looking at him, her touch, her lips…The memory was a flame he couldn't extinguish, no matter how much the cold water tried to smother it.

"It's nothing serious," the tiefling's cruel inner voice interrupted mockingly, "You are a distraction to her, a mere curiosity. She is not even honest with you. And yet, she moves a finger, and you act like a lovesick idiot."

Rolan clenched his fists as the inner voice continued, "Why so hellbent on her? No woman wanted to stick around you before, why bother now?"

The words coiled around Rolan's chest like iron chains. His fingers drifted to the mark again, tracing it as if he could draw strength from it. But even that small comfort felt hollow now, tainted by doubt.

"She's got real warriors by her side. What are you compared to them? A failed apprentice? A tiefling without a home? We both know who you are, oh great and mighty Rolan. A pretender."

Unable to bear it anymore, he opened his mouth, letting the water in. The sheer shock of it sent his instincts into a frenzy, and the tiefling broke the surface with a violent gasp. He clung to the pier's edge, coughing and sputtering, his body trembling as he expelled water from his chest.

When the fit subsided, Rolan took a final look at his reflection - silent, yet again, and lost.

Tired of dealing with himself, the tiefling climbed back onto the pier. He haphazardly put on the clothes and lay down on the wooden floor. Sleep, merciful and long overdue, finally claimed him soon after.

On AO3

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The rules for WIP Whenever: Share a little bit of something you have been working on, and/or pass along the invitation.

I'm tagging to share some of my mutuals, if you want to, of course. (⸝⸝'꒳`⸝⸝) : @shewolfofvilnius, @velocitross, @alrendriablaze, and, of course, anyone else who'd want to participate! <3

[diavolo-is-babygirl]

Reasons Why Diavolo is the Best Obey Me Babygirl:

He’s Diavolo. Just look at him. What other evidence do you need?

Seriously, though, please allow me to explain why I’ve been bouncing all over Tumblr declaring my love for this ridiculously adorable, charismatic, darling character.

I’ve seen a saying that goes ‘the loneliest people are the kindest, the saddest people smile the brightest, and the most damaged people are the wisest. All because they don’t want anyone to see the way they suffer’.

That, to me, describes Diavolo to a T. Every time he’s on-screen, he overflows with charm and sweetness, all the while masking everything brewing within. With the weight of not only one, or two, but three worlds on his shoulders, he fights to keep up a happy facade all the while battling against one hell of a storm.

There’s been flickers of his inner turmoil in the games, most notably Nightbringer. Which leaves an abundance of room to explore what must be going on deep within. Being burdened by an ever-growing list of responsibilities, tirelessly working towards an immeasurably heavy goal, having a strained relationship with his strict father-all of those are causing a storm of incomprehensible fire. Leaving us with plenty of room for fanfiction and headcanons. Yet Diavolo is always luminous with cheer and an insatiable appetite for fun.

Not only that, but Takuhei’s voice for him is perfect.

If you were to peel away enough layers, all of his sweetness, charm and warm energy would evaporate. Not just because he’s a demon, but because of all the burdens he carries. He’s one demon, one entity, carrying three worlds on two shoulders. He has to conduct himself in a certain way, every day and every night, in front of prying eyes. Because he’s to be the next ruler of the Devildom.

He can’t be anything less than regal, wise and dignified or else he’ll be scorned. On some level, he probably feels as though not even Barbatos understands what he’s going through. He goes through such great lengths to hide what he truly feels because no one would ever understand anyway. No one could ever possibly share his burden-nor would he want them to. Diavolo doesn’t even want to pass his burden onto Lucifer, whom he holds in the highest regard.

Whether he sees Lucifer as a boyfriend, husband, partner-in-crime, brother or best friend is entirely up to you. Have fun with your headcanons.

In addition to all of this, he looks either devastatingly sexy or unbelievably adorable in everything he wears.

[xxdemonicheartxx]

The flights and their major exports

Ice: furs, fish, culinary or food grade ice, unique and seasonal herbs, spices and flora that only grow there in the spring, super rich culinary culture has formed here and it attracts tourism and foodies, cooking oils and fats, seeds and nuts for consumption

Nature: lumber, meats, spices, fertile soil, insect cuisine, perfumes, freshwater fish, houseplants, seeds and shoots for farming, decorative plant or wood working, plant based oils for cooking or fuel

Light: wheat, plant based fibers and fabrics, paper and or papyrus, chalk and marble, huge bread and baked goods industry, baskets, porcelain, exotic percivore cuisine, pigments, seasonal fruits

Earth: cactus fruits, minerals and stones, gemstones, terracotta creations or construction pieces, ceramic work, glass tile work, roots and tubers, fossils, pigments,

Wind: rice, grains, construction grade bamboo, paper, rice paper, fabrics, plants and small birds for consumption, instruments (specifically wood-wind), silks, ribbon, sonorous sculptures

Shadow: fungal harvests, wire craft, tactical suits and mantles to conceal the body, iron weaponry with decorative detailing, insect and plant exports, huge root farming industry, lantern exports, candles, woodturned tools/utensils/decor/etc

Water: shells and abalone, fish, seaweed and kelp cuisine, boats and boat blueprints, crustacean cuisine, huge huge huge provider for the pescatarians, opal

Lightning: machinery parts, batteries, cactus harvests, insulation for both heat and electricity, exotic insect cuisine, dried and aged foods, electricity is produced in excess enough to provide immediately to the surrounding territories

Arcane: stained glass, lumber from the starwood strand (has unique properties and could be used for construction or artistic works), magical batteries made from the crystals, tomes and books, lenses, exotic herbivore cuisine, luminous pigments, tapestry work

Plague: immunizers/immunizations, craft and construction grade bones, leather, ale/mead/wine/whiskey/etc because they have the most intricate and detailed brewing and fermenting processes due to the understanding they have surrounding bacteria, pickled foods and pickling kits, surgical grade tools, cheeses, dry aged meats, medical practices unlike any other

Fire: weapons and armor, exotic carnivore cuisine, glasswork and glass blowing, obsidian and basalt export, geothermic energy(they can provide power enough to the surrounding territories) intricate mosaic and tile work, mineral exports, ceramic exports, blackened foods, metal shells and armor for vessels and vehicles and mounts

These are just what I can think of by examining the map and element at face value, there are millions of things these places can produce and export but I think these are the big ones or what they are known for, maybe even just the best quality versions of the export! If you want to use these ideas or add your own feel free!