#it really stands out that sometimes they use si for shi and sometimes they just use shi

[surelynotshirley]

Wrote a review for Mahoyo for work! It was really fun, totally loved the characters, and I liked the way the kinetic novel format was. My one complaint was that I played it with the English localization for work purposes and it was really unpolished. Tons of typos (the most egregious being ‘thongs’ instead of ‘things’), grammatical errors, and punctuation mistakes. All of them were ones that were clear oversights and not just a disagreement over the Oxford comma.

Like, it felt like it needed just more time. Some of the more unnatural-reading lines clashed with the much more natural flow of other sentences, which either meant there were 2+ translators but no editor, or there was only one translator who didn’t have the time to go back and fix these mistakes. Either way, I hope they release a patch soon with an edited translation, but I doubt they will.

[sukifans]

Can I request a small Zuko x Fem!Reader, where the reader can't fall asleep and Zuko offers to cuddle with her, and she falls asleep very quickly?

SLEEP // zuko

WC: 1.2k

WARNINGS: none, pure fluff

A/N: my first request!! let’s gooooo!! hope u like this anon, i am so soft for warm zuko. perhaps i wrote this instead of studying for my lab practical... don’t look at me. also i didn’t proofread so don’t come for my ass okay

⇦ 𝘔𝘈𝘚𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘓𝘐𝘚𝘛

The flimsy silks of your night robes whipped around your calves in the frigid evening wind. Being from a village not too far outside the Si Wong Desert, even the Fire Nation’s winter was enough to chill your bones. As much as you disliked being cold, you still preferred the tropical seasons to the constant abusive desert heat you grew up with. Lucky you that a group of insane kids came through your town talking about finding Wan Shi Tong’s Library all those years ago.

The memories made you smile fondly to yourself and you made a mental note to write Katara in the morning and ask her to send some warm furs. Sure, you could probably get something much quicker from a local vendor, but Sokka always boasted about how his people make the best blankets. You folded your arms across your chest and shuddered in the biting wind, leaning forward against the balcony railing as you looked out over the sleepy city.

The sound of footsteps behind you made you glance over your shoulder and you smiled at the sight of a rumpled-looking Zuko. “Evening, Fire Lord,” you hummed.

“It’s far too late at night for you to address me by my title, Advisor.” He ran a hand through his already mussed hair and came up to stand beside you, leaving a respectable distance between you. Even so, you could feel the warmth radiating from his body and you subconsciously shifted closer.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“Not really,” he sighed. “You neither?”

“Nope.” You shook your head. “Too cold.”

He looked at you out of the corner of his eye with a wry grin. “So you decided to come stand outside, in the cold?”

“The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma, Zuko. Don’t try to keep up.” You laughed at his eye roll. A particularly harsh burst of wind blustered across the balcony and you pulled your arms in tighter around yourself, shivering.

“C’mere, idiot,” he chuckled, reaching out to pull you closer. Your mouth dropped open in faux-outrage.

“That’s an awfully rude way to speak to your top advisor on Earth Kingdom relations,” you huffed. You still let him move behind you and hug you to his chest, wrapping his arms around your middle.

“Yeah, yeah,” he murmured, leaning down to rest his chin on your shoulder. “You’re shaking like a leaf, (Y/N). You need to go back inside.” Despite his words, neither of you made to move away from the railing. You started to feel warm and sleepy, closing your eyes and leaning your head back against his shoulder as you melted into his embrace. He clasped your hands in his own, clicking his tongue when he felt your freezing fingers. You could still feel goosebumps along your skin, but now it was from the way his hot breath danced across your exposed collar bones. He flinched a little when you turned your head to press your cold nose against his neck. You could swear you felt his pulse racing just as hard as yours under his skin.

You opened your eyes again and moved so your lips almost grazed his ear as you whispered, “are you having those nightmares again?” You knew your friend went through sleepless spells plagued by terrible dreams of his father and the war and losing his loved ones. When he’d joined you and the Avatar and your friends, you were the first to notice how he’d sometimes jump awake at night, panting and sweating. One night, not unlike this night, during his first year as Fire Lord, he’d bared his soul to you and described the horrors he faced in his sleep. Ever since, you’d often sought out each other out when rest was evasive.

He simply nodded and buried his face into your hair, declining to elaborate. He didn’t know how to tell you that recently he’d been dreaming about losing you; that sometimes he’d wake up with your name caught in his throat and his cheeks wet with tears. You hummed in understanding and removed one of your hands from his to card your fingers through his hair soothingly. The gentle motion of your nails scratching against his scalp was almost starting to lull him into a trance state. You giggled when he let out a little contented sound.

“Don’t laugh,” he grumbled, “it feels nice. You know what you’re doing to me.”

“You’re like a happy, cute little turtleduck getting a head scratch.”

“I’m one of the most powerful men in the world, (Y/N); please don’t call me a ‘cute little turtleduck.’” He lifted his head from your shoulder with a groan and you turned in his arms to face him, not missing the way the moonlight illuminated the blush on his cheeks.

“Don’t act like a cute little turtleduck and I won’t call you one.” You raised your arms to drape around his neck and pressed closer to his warmth.

In moments like these, when Zuko looked at you like that, you wished he would just throw caution to the wind and kiss you already. You two had been toeing the line of “more than friends” for years at this point. It all drove you crazy—the lingering glances, the brushing fingers, the comforting touches, the tender embraces, the sweet smiles. You loved him and you knew that he loved you but any time there looked to be some progress he’d shrink away. With Zuko, your relationship felt like a complicated waltz of one step forward, three steps back, nine steps forward, twenty steps back. All you could do was follow his lead and wait.

His hands skimming up and down your sides made your heart do somersaults in your chest, knocking around your breath. “You’re lucky I have a soft spot for you.”

“You and I both know you’re all bark and no bite,” you laughed, poking his muscular chest. “All warm and squishy under that big, tough Fire Lord exterior.”

“Just don’t let the bad guys hear you say that.”

“Your secret’s safe with me, my lord.” He felt a pull in his stomach at your use of that title and you again noticed the pink tinge of his face that usually accompanied the nickname.

“Alright, Advisor (Y/N),” he slid his hand down your arm to lace your fingers together, “let’s get you back to bed.”

“You gonna keep me warm, Lord Zuko?” you asked as you walked beside him back inside and through the torchlit palace halls.

“Of course. Can’t have you getting sick, now can I?” Neither of you mentioned that you both slept better with the other in bed.

He led you into his chambers, where the bed was bigger and the sheets were softer and a fire always roared in the hearth. You laid your thin robe over a chair in the room, leaving you in just your nightdress as you followed him under the covers, snuggling up against his chest with his arm around you. As soon as you laid your head down on his shoulder you started to nod off. You smiled to yourself, happy that you were awake enough at least to feel the kiss Zuko pressed to the top of your head and hear the whisper into your hair that sounded suspiciously along the lines of, “I love you.”

ATLA TAGS: @hotgirlazula @octophopi @simpinforsukka

ZUKO/SOKKA TAGS: @fiantomartell @buckywiththagoodhair @hypercakeiii

[soundsaboutrighttumblr]

WBL: Fighting Mr. 2nd episode 3

Meta ramble. I wrote fic too, already.

Well, wasn’t the first thing we heard about Shu Yi’s father, how little Shu Yi told little Shi De - and us - he always causes trouble?

Ep. 3 told us so much about Shu Yi and his Dad and their relationship, how Shu Yi does love and relationships, and why. And also showed us how similarly Shi De and Dad act in certain ways and situations, and Shu Yi’s reactions to that. The scenes where they are mirrored, in front of Shu Yi’s home, after Shu Yi has thrown both of them out? The way they are a mirror image of each other when reaching for their respective glasses of whiskey in that very next scene?

We know now: Shu Yi is not new to the experience of having his boundaries crossed, and being hurt by the decisions and misjudgments of the person he put his trust in. He has been struggling with it for all of his life, because of his relationship with his dad. Like with Shi De, the manipulations stem from a deep love and desire to protect, and Shu Yi knows and loves them for that same care that comes from it, but suffers from when it becomes overbearing and won’t allow for Shu Yi’s own agency in his life and his relationships.

With both of them, Shu Yi’s reactions can go deeply beyond anger, and damn if that doesn’t even hurt more.

Both Shi De and Dad like to take control of a situation, try to make the situation - and Shu Yi – work along their terms. Sometimes all Shu Yi can do to not allow that is to put distance between them and himself. Storm out in anger. Or not in anger. But leave.

For example, the scene in the office, where Shu Yi felt for a minute in control of the situation, hate-seducing Shi De, only for Shi De to take control back, even by offering his help, his submission. But the way it was done, acting more than reacting, it was still giving control back to Shi De, had Shu Yi backing away, so he left that scene, overwhelmed.

In the scene with his Dad, where Shu Yi recounts all the times his Dad’s best intentions have hurt him, he tries and puts distance between them. His Dad follows still, and attempts to take control of the situation again, by joking and trying to get Shu Yi to concede, to signal forgiveness. It hurts because it blurs the lines of who is the adult and who the child, even if they are both adults now. And mind you, those are not conscious manipulations I believe, but mostly learned behavior, infringing on Shu Yi’s boundaries nonetheless. Dad is a business man, good in getting what he wants, after all.

So, Shu Yi has experience and a concept of boundaries, and I believe a sense of being ‘violated’ and it being wrong, too, a clear rational judgment on that, even if the emotional judgment can never be clear or easy, when so much love and attachment is involved.

He accepts some of those transgressions, because he loves the transgressors and their care for him. Is that right? Is that healthy? Is that just life, where people are not islands? He will have to set those boundaries for himself, and decide about his priorities.

He has been allowing his dad those transgressions, which shows in the resignation with which Shu Yi handles that situation. The anger doesn’t even flare up, not outwards, because he’s been doing that dance growing up all the time. Maybe not on that scale of Dad fucking up his happiness, but psychologically, is it really so different from those breaches of trust, those perceived failures of keeping Shu Yi unhurt, isn’t everything like that monumental and shaping somehow when young?

He allows Shi De those transgressions, too. In that couch scene from last ep. In this ep, when he takes the phone from him, and carries him to the bed, against Shu Yi’s demands. Look at his face, Shu Yi seems not even mad, at tops mildly annoyed, possibly even a bit enamored with the dominance and care that lies underneath.

Maybe that is, in a sad way, because he has internalized, that those compromises and concessions come with the kind of passionate and protective and overbearing love he wants.  “You even love his disadvantages? Tue love then, huh?”

Maybe, in a more empowered way, he can accept them, because those transgressions do not shake him in his foundations. Those foundations are built on being loved, by flawed people, but a fierce love nonetheless. Those transgressions do not tell Shu Yi, who he is and what he deserves. That might be idealistic thinking though.

Because that, too, is of course a very complex topic. Because yeah, there’s his headspace, where he can tell right and wrong, and what is respect and what not - just think back to when he overheard Shi De and Doc talking about America and said something along the lines of “Why didn’t you tell me? You should have asked if I was okay with a long-distance relationship. Do you have any respect for me?”

Also the stand he makes in the newest ep, that Shi De did not respect and trust Shu Si’s devotion and commitment, shows that he has a claer mind, that he has been wronged with that.

But. There are also his deeper fears, that his headspace can’t reach, his trust issues with trusting people with all his heart, his readiness for believing Shi De cheated, because it must be what Shu Yi deserves, somehow, right. And Shi De, you know now he thinks that, can you adress it already ffs?

So yeah, that’s why it is so sad, when he realizes Shi De did not believe in his love/forever back then, just like his dad does not believe in his right to make his own decisions, even if he bravely takes a stand. “He told me he would leave me if I didn’t accept it.” Because he apparently still is percieved by them as their inferior, their second, never their equal.

Sad, sad. Hopefully they can all learn from that.

Sorry for the kind of unstructured ramble, just wrote it down as the thoughts game, no claim on it being exhaustive or complete

[michals]

May I request some Allison and Ben and best wishes for your regular projects to get easier, I absolutely love your fics.

Firstly: 🥰🥰🥰 thank you!! Also this was very much inspired by this post by knif2thrower.

-

Nostalgia is tricky for Allison considering, well, everything. As soon as she left the house at 18 the majority of her past took on a harsh, ugly light. She’s always tried to move past it, tried not to look back and especially not let it get to her. But in the wake of two apocalypses and some disorganizing and reorganizing of the timeline and finally everything getting back to the way it should be – with a couple bonuses – she finds the memories don’t leave quite the bitter taste they used to.

A week past the re-righting of the universe finds her absently picking through her old bedroom, searching for nothing in particular except idle thoughts. A rare quiet moment in the house these days. When she finds the stack of old magazines they’d been in as kids she only means to flip through the top one, just a quick glance through. But the picture on the cover of the next one is so cute she has to check out the others inside too, and then naturally she goes through a third and soon enough she’s sitting cross legged on her bed with the magazines spread out in front of her as she browses through them.

They’re mostly teen beat magazines, simple colorful things meant for preteens with articles about dealing with crushes and homework. She laughs when she finds a picture of Lil Bow Wow she’d drawn a heart around. And the pictures of her and the others only make her feel sentimental. They’re smiling in all of them, posing goofily with their arms around each other, pulling mock superhero poses. She couldn’t help but like those photoshoots. They never got to leave the house except for missions and press and unlike the boring, serious articles in the newspapers and Time, when it came to Bop magazine they got to act like kids and talk about their favorite ice cream flavors.

A photo of her standing with the boys around her, her hands posed cheekily under her chin with Luther, Klaus, Diego and Ben around her gets to her. That had been a fun day. She runs a finger over it like she’s trying to smooth down Klaus’s messy lapel when the door whooshes open and Ben rushes into the room, swinging the door shut behind him but making sure it doesn’t slam. He whirls on her with his eyes wide, poised like a frightened rabbit.

Her heart rate immediately picks up. “What’s wrong? What happened?” They think they’re in the clear, almost sure that nothing’s gonna fall on their heads anymore but she can’t stop her mind from preparing for the worst.

“Nothing!” Ben chirps, stepping carefully into the room, scanning it like he’s looking for something, “Nothing’s wrong, I did nothing wrong.”

A smirk comes to her lips. Oh, she knows exactly what’s happening. “What’d you do and who’d you do it to?”

Ben breaks into a sly, knowing look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I would never. Unrelated but can I hide in here?”

Ben was supposed to be the shy one, quiet and introverted. He never spoke much in those interviews, shied away at too much attention. But all of them knew he was actually a little shit who pulled more pranks than any of them.

That he wants to hide tells Allison exactly who he played one on this time. “It was Five wasn’t it? In that case no, you have to deal with that on your own.”

“Really? You won’t help your own brother?” he puts his hand to his chest.

“Against my other brother?”

“You’re supposed to play favorites here,” Ben says shaking his head at her. There’s a distant thump and he practically throws himself on the floor and crawls over to the other side of the bed.

Allison leans over to look down at him. “What’d you do?” More conspiratorial than accusing.

Ben lays on his back, eyes innocent but his smirk giving him away. “Nothing! I just thought, maybe, Dolores might want to change up her look for spring is all.”

Allison reels back, laughing, “Oh you are so in for it!” But then she leans over further, eyes sparkling. “What color eyeshadow?”

“I was thinking pink but blue fit her so much better.”

Allison shakes her head at him. Ben had been one of those bonuses after they got back, a reward even. When they’d all landed on this side of it he’d been here, in the flesh and beaming. And he was the right one, he was their Ben. Allison hadn’t had to wonder if he’d fit in like he hadn’t been dead for so long because he’d dashed any doubts right away. He was bolder, perhaps, probably from years of Klaus’s influence, but he was him. This right here is proof of that.

She props her chin on her hand, “Remember when you told Diego people eat spiders in their sleep and you had just seen a big hairy one crawl into his room?”

Ben laughs. “Oh yeah, he slept with a bandana over his mouth for a month. Remember when I put a pebble in all your socks?”

Oh she remembers it now; she hadn’t noticed until they were in front of the cameras and she’d been on the evening news shuffling awkwardly the whole time. She’s not quite so nostalgic for that. “You little jerk,” but it’s fond.

This is what she likes about those silly teenage magazines, they could never actually show exactly who they were, especially the little hidden things like this, but they were the closest they ever got to appearing like actual kids. Sometimes a picture would manage to capture that mischievous twinkle in Ben’s eye.

“Remember when Luther broke that beaker and you told dad it was you?” she asks.

Ben’s smile is softer. “Yeah. I mean he looked like he was going to have a heart attack.” He shrugs his shoulders against the carpet. “Besides he did all my physics homework for a week.”

He hadn’t done it for that though, Allison knows, he’d been protecting Luther. That was who Ben was too.

“I’m glad you’re back,” she says, gentle sincerity in her voice. Ben smiles back, fond and happy.

Then there’s the distinct ‘thwip’sound of Five blinking from just outside the door and Ben’s eyes go wide and he scrambles to pull himself under the bed.

Allison’s just sitting up as Five suddenly appears in front of her. He looks over the room with narrowed eyes. “Where is he?”

Allison feigns ignorance. “Who?”

Five trains his skeptical gaze on her. “Ben. He’s around here somewhere.”

Allison shrugs, “I haven’t seen him, I’ve been here by myself all afternoon.”

He studies her face for a moment but only frowns deeper in frustration. Five’s shrewd but Allison is an actress after all. “If you see him tell him I’m going to find him.”

And in a flash he’s gone, she can hear him stomping around in the hall. Luther’s voice calls out:

“Five it’s not that bad! It’ll come off.”

“If you like it so much you let him do your eyeliner!” Five shoots back.

Klaus’s voice chimes in with, “Ooh I’d like to see that actually.”

Allison stays quiet for a long moment until the noises outside go away. Ben pops his head up over the side of the bed.

“Coast’s clear I think,” she tells him.

He gets to his feet, peeks outside and doesn’t see anyone.

“Thanks sis,” he says, makes to leave only to turn around and ask: “So tonight, when Luther’s asleep, you’re gonna help me with his eyeliner right?”

“Oh absolutely,” Allison says, as if there were any question.

He gives her a giddy grin before slipping out into the hallway. She shakes her head, chest tight with affection. She turns back to the magazine she has open in front of her. There’s a picture of Ben in it, his face in a big cheesy star graphic, and yeah, there it is, there’s that glimmer in his eye. She’s happy then that nostalgia doesn’t hurt so much anymore.

In the hallway there’s another ‘thwip’ followed by a panicked high pitched yelp.

[twodaysintojune]

Arranging Weddings

The Untamed / Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Grandmaster of Diabolic Cultivation

WangXian, background XiCheng, warnings - None 

Find me at AO3

It had not even been a month since the passing of Jin GuangYao and Lan XiChen was not feeling better at all. If things kept on going that way he might head into seclusion soon rather than half ass all of his work like he was doing right now. He was never feeling like doing anything and right now he was feeling it even less since he had to stand his uncle's outrage for the eleventh time at nine in the morning.

"... Anything could happen to WangJi at any moment and we don't even know where they are right now! The inconceivable, utter disrespect to the most basic premises of morality! He did not only stick his cut-sleeveness on my WangJi but he also… he also forced him to elope! Just like that! Can you believe it XiChen!? The shame he has forced on our Sect by dropping off the last sense of decency by not getting married!???"

Lan XiChen wondered for a moment if it was wise to remind his own uncle of rule number seventy five on the wall of rules: "Causing Noise is Prohibited" to satisfy his own pettiness or if his uncle was in need of another cup of tea before any kind of smart backlash when both men heard a coughing coming up from the exterior of the room.

Lan XiChen beamed as much as his proper upbringing could allow. Standing still and quite elegantly poised, like the Sect Leader he was, was Jiang WanYin.

"Sect Leader Jiang! What a pleasant surprise! We didn't expect you until…" Lan XiChen turned to look at the hour and realized his own mistake of letting his uncle rant for literal hours now "oh, Oh. Please forgive me, Sect Leader Jiang. I have failed to properly receive you at the appointed hour."

"Please, no need to apologize, Sect Leader Lan, Master Lan Qiren." Jiang WanYin bowed to both men as appropriate to the occasion "I would have waited without a problem for you but I must admit your conversation got me quite intrigued. Is master Lan Quiren implying that he wouldn't have that much of an issue with a pair of cut-sleeve relationship were they properly married?"

Lan Qiren scoffed. "I admit that would be a great start."

Jiang WanYin's smile widened wildly for just a glimpse in a way that reminded Lan XiChen of those moments he knew he had the winning hand during the few times they fought together at the Sunshot Campaign. A thing that made him excitedly anticipate the great Sandu Shengshou's upcoming actions.

"I am quite relieved to hear of this. If that is the case, Master Lan Qiren, there's a proposal I would like, no, I would love to discuss with you." 

---

Wei Wuxian was somehow splayed on top of Little Apple, looking at the increasingly brightening sky while Lan WangJi was pulling the reins, walking towards the closest city after being travelling through the mountainside a couple of days.

"Ahahahaha oh Lan Zhan, my Lan Zhan, did you really see that grave digger's face when all the corpses around him began to rise? Ahahahaha~"

Lan WangJi smiled warmly at his husband's figure. How could he deny him of such pleasures when they brought him so much happiness? Especially when it meant they were doing good. Keeping the spirits to their proper rest.

When they arrived at the city, the place was bustling with energy despite being so early in the morning but it was not the usual one from a large place like this, there was some sort of effervescence and giddiness in the way everyone behaved that both men felt was just a tad bit too excited.

Being a naturally curious person, Wei Wuxian asked the nearest steamed buns stall owner.

"Excuse me, Ma'am" he took a couple of buns while Lan WangJi was already taking out the money to pay. "Can you tell us what is going on that the city is so excited about?"

"Oh my boy! Haven't you heard!?" Said the owner, almost jumping on her heels as if she had just been waiting for someone to ask "The leaders of the Lan and the Jiang sects are getting married!"

Wei Wuxian paled and felt like he had suddenly become a walking corpse while he heard a couple of coins dropping to the floor by his side. He forced a smile on his face.

"Surely that's… that's not right? Is it not, maybe, a pair of disciples?"

"Oh, no, no, no. If it was that they wouldn't be announcing it to the whole world, would they? Just look at the announcements board at the plaza! If you can't trust this old hag, then you can surely trust an official document."

Wei Wuxian somehow brought up a more charming smile "My dear lady, I could never not trust someone that has so much more experience that I can ever dream of"

The old lady cackled while receiving the coins Lan WangJi had picked up again "oh my, you're such a flirt. Here, have another bun for the ride."

Wei Wuxian thanked her and turned around with his mouth open only to see that his man was well beyond him, already walking towards the plaza. He ran towards him and reached the board.

There, in the middle of it all, was a very official looking paper with celebratory imagery surrounding the edges of the announcement.

"It is with great pleasure to announce that the leaders of the Jiang and the Lan sects are organising a wedding to be held in Lotus Pier during the auspicious upcoming new moon of the month of Xin Si at sunset where they expect to celebrate a wedding that will tighten up the relations between both regions of Gusu and Yunmeng. All blessings for the grooms to wed."

The announcement ended with a beautiful seal that joined both sects imagery, a lotus flower floating over a cloud. 

Wei Wuxian read the thing three times before anything made any kind of sense and then one time more.

"The upcoming moon of… oh heavens, Lan Zhan. That is in eight days!!! This is… We cannot stay here! We have to stop this nonsense wedding!"

Lan WangJi was looking at his soulmate with a stern glare that was completely agreeing with Wei Wuxian's exclamation.

"Mn."

Soon enough, they were running to the stable where they had left Little Apple and began their journey towards Wei Wuxian's old home.

---

The day arrived, the whole city of Yunmeng was dressed for the celebration, people wandering excitedly throughout the streets, waiting for the announcement that the marriage was completed. Inside of Lotus Pier, two fine figures in relatively simple red robes were alone, kneeling already at the ancient hall, just waiting for the exact hour. A red veil covering the head of one of them.

"After knowing you through all these years and battles, I have to be honest and say that I know I shouldn't, but I am still impressed about your boldness. Sect Leader Jiang."

Jiang WanYin laughed "Turns out I'm not only good at slashing things, eh?" He winked at the elegant face behind the veil. "Also please call me Jiang WanYin, I hope we're well past certain formalities after this."

The veiled man snickered "Very well, then please do call me Lan XiChen. I'd feel quite saddened if you felt there was any need for formalities with me as well, Jiang WanYin."

Jiang WanYin smiled brightly at the man by his side.

A couple of minutes passed when Lan XiChen began to fidget.

"Are you sure they will come?"

"Oh trust me, I don't know about your HanGuang-Jun but Wei Wuxian will definitely be here. And if he is here…"

"Then WangJi is going to be here as well."

Jiang WanYin nodded in agreement. As if they had summoned the chaotic couple, they heard a commotion starting on the Swords Hall.

"It's the Yiling Patriarch and HanGuang-Jun!"

"Somebody stop them!"

Both men heard the sounds of blades and general fighting getting nearer at each second, sometimes yells of pain.

"Will your disciples be alright, Jiang WanYin?"

"Are you kidding me? They were ecstatic when I told them they would be able to test their skills against the Second Jade of Gusu-Lan. Not that they're anywhere near him but that will help them assess their own strengths."

Lan XiChen snickered. Soon enough, the commotion was right behind them and suddenly the doors of the Ancient Hall burst open and in came Wei Wuxian and Lan WangJi.

"JIANG CHENG!"

"XIONGZHANG!"

The pair in red stood up from their kneeling position and turned to look at the newcomers.

"Ah, my dear WangJi! How auspicious that you managed to arrive in time!"

"Yeah, we would have had a real problem if you didn't show up."

The couple at the doors looked at each other in shock and then glared at their counterparts while approaching them. Wei Wuxian fisted Jiang Cheng's robes and pulled him forward while Lan WangJi almost fell on Lan XiChen's arms, almost imperceptibly glazed eyes.

"Can you tell me what sort of nonsense this is!?"

"Xiongzhang, please!"

Both men in red gave their brothers a smile, albeit one would have been considered saintly while the other devilish. Suddenly, the doors of the Ancient Hall closed once more, startling Wei Wuxian and Lan WangJi. They turned around and saw, appalled some very well known faces.

"HanGuang-Jun, Senior Wei, I'm really glad to see you're well."

"I mean, not like we actually cared but…"

"Oh, don't be a liar! You're the one who wanted to see Senior Wei the most!"

"Can we get going with this? We'll be late for the banquet at this rate."

Before he was able to completely understand what the junior quarter was doing there, Lan WangJi heard his brother.

"Please forgive me WangJi, we cannot afford more stalling, you are indeed a little bit late."

And just like that, he clearly sensed how his spiritual energy was blocked by his own brother's hand.

"Alright, you can take him, Jiang WanYin."

"Gotcha!" Exclaimed the man while leaning forward and carrying a very startled Wei Wuxian like a potato sack and jumping through the threshold that the juniors had opened once more, disappearing through the hallways.

"W… Wait a second! What are you doing!? Lan Zhan! LAN ZHAN SAVE ME!!!"

"WEI YING!!!"

Lan WangJi did his best to get away from his brother's grasp while the frantic screams of his lover moved away from them but it was impossible without his spiritual energy. He turned to look at his brother, a pair of tears menacing to roll over his cheek.

"Now, now, don't look like that, let's go get you changed and refreshed, you'll be able to see him soon."

Unable to do much more, he allowed himself to be guided through another hall towards a guestroom with a sigh, shoulders slightly falling.

"Tche, what's all the drama for? It's not like they're gonna be apart forever."

"Look who's talking, Mistress."

"You-!"

"Please guys, let's not do this right now."

"Yes! A wedding is a very important occasion!"

Chided by his brother, Lan WangJi took a quick bath and began to dress himself in layers of increasingly dark blue without paying too much attention but stopped when he finally noticed the outer garment his brother, now properly dressed with his best silver and light blue robes, was providing. He had in his hands a deep red robe accented with dark blue and silver embroidery reminiscing of clouds around the edges that was to be matched with a dark blue, almost black sash. He looked at the clearly elegant garment in awe and then turned to look at Lan XiChen.

"Xiongzhang, this…"

Lan XiChen gave him a soft smile, already holding a comb. "Come on, dress up, let your big brother do your hair."

Lan WangJi's eyes widened up in comprehension. He felt his ears burn when he finished dressing himself and sat down.

"Xiongzhang, I'm sorry. I thought, we thought…"

Lan XiChen let out a soft chuckle.

"We know." Lan XiChen began to brush softly WangJi's hair. 

Both men got lost in the process of brushing and hairstyling, reminiscing childhood days where the older man took care of the younger in the same way. Lan XiChen sighed while pulling up the hair for the bun after being done with the brushing.

"You know WangJi, I'm really glad I'm able to be here for you today."

Lan WangJi frowned. "Xiongzhang?" 

It was barely a whisper but that didn't stop Lan XiChen to feel the worry.

"I'm going into seclusion WangJi… Don't move, you'll ruin the bun…" Lan XiChen sighed once more "Maybe one of the reasons I agreed to this mad scheme was precisely because I did not want to miss this particular day and knowing how erratic your movements can be I was not sure if I was going to be here otherwise."

Lan WangJi looked downwards, faintly blushing, feeling his brother fix the decorative pins. 

"Which is why I also wanted to tell you…" Lan XiChen grabbed Lan WangJi's forehead band,and began to arrange it on the hairstyle he had fixed, oddly out of place in the middle of so much red and dark blue. "That I don't really have much to tell you about the importance of treasuring your soulmate, since I saw you learn that lesson yourself." Lan WangJi saw a tear trailing down his brother's cheek through the mirror. "...But I can tell you that I am happy for you. And no matter where you go from now on, I hope your travels bring you nothing more than bliss and joy. And that I support you, today and tomorrow and all the years to come."

Lan WangJi felt a knot on his throat.

"There, it's done. Let's go back to the Ancient Hall. I'm sure your future husband is there already."

Lan WangJi stood up and turned to look at his brother. Lan XiChen smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Ready?"

Lan WangJi looked at his brother for a second and threw himself at him with a hug. Lan XiChen hugged him back a little startled and felt more than heard his little brother's soft sniffle. He hugged him tighter.

"I love you too."

---

Lan WangJi walked inside the Hall once more. He was shocked when he saw his uncle standing there as well. Feeling overwhelmed, he walked towards him and bowed. The old man scoffed and shooed him towards the altar. Lan WangJi nodded and turned towards the center of the room.

The perfect figure of his husband to be was already kneeling in front of the altar, not slouched or slant but immaculately poised. Bright red gown speckled with gold and lavender motifs of lotus flowers in both the sash and the veil. His face was barely visible but his body showed he was clearly moved. He knelt down by his side.

"Wei Ying" 

His voice had been but a breath but Wei Wuxian had heard him alright. He turned towards him with the brightest smile.

"Look at this Lan Zhan," he whispered "We're finally in front of them… Do you… do you think shijie would have given us her blessing? And Uncle Jiang? And Madam Yu?"

Lan WangJi gave him the softest smile yet.

"Mn."

Wei Wuxian took in a deep breath. Clearly trying to restrain the tears that were already rolling through his face and nodded. Unable to say a thing, very unlike his usual character.

The ceremony went incredibly fast after that. Both Jiang WanYin and Lan XiChen said a couple of words as the ones preceding the ceremony, Jiang WanYin dressed in proper purple, navy and gold robes. The grooms exchanged bows, too short and surprisingly not embarrassing from Wei Wuxian, too long and incredibly bold from Lan WangJi, and then prostrated three times as per the tradition. 

The juniors, the ones acting as witnesses standing behind were all tearing by the end. Jin Ling had been the first to be noticed but Lan JingYi's teasing was not really effective since he was crying as well.

The banquet had been a success. The entire city was celebrating the newlyweds after all so the noise and celebration was everywhere. Around nine, the newlyweds finally bid their goodnight and stepped away from the hall in the middle of catcalling and whistles that Wei Wuxian encouraged, absolutely elated after three bottles of wine. Being carried bridal style by his now very official husband.

The following day they were caught by the juniors before they could run away on Little Apple once more and received a thorough scorn from Jin Ling who screamed at them something about being already married and not seeing the point of acting like a pair of runaway, wanted criminals anyway and that Wei Wuxian better go see him at LanLing or else he would definitely hunt him.

Meanwhile, Jiang WanYin was supervising that not a place had been left uncleaned, with Lan XiChen by his side.

"Are you sure you're not gonna say goodbye?"

"If I say goodbye now, Wei Wuxian won't need to come back later." Jiang WanYin said matter of factly "What about you? I don't see you at the backdoor of Lotus Pier right now."

"I already said all that I needed. Now I feel like I can finally go into seclusion."

Jiang WanYin eyed his counterpart carefully and scoffed. 

"You don't approve of that."

"Obviously Not. You're saying it like you're about to die."

Lan XiChen laughed tiredly.

"You're being dramatic."

"All I'm saying is that this seclusion thing is not going to work for you at all. If you don't come out of your personal coffin after a year I'll come raise you from the dead."

Lan XiChen gave out a tired scoff but said nothing more about it. After all, there was no way Jiang WanYin would know him better than himself. 

"I'll take that as your permission."

Finished the man by his side, ending the conversation.

Both leaders kept on supervising the cleansing of the whole Lotus Pier and making sure it went back to its usual state while, on another side, a figure in black mounted on a donkey waved goodbye to a bunch of sniffling teenagers while a figure in white pulled softly the donkey's reins.

[uoongs]

[translation] MXTX Interview - TGCF questions

this is rlly for everyone to love hc more TT // split by general/book1, book 3 spoilers, and book 5 spoilers via headings (though all are minor spoilers imo, except for the one in bk 5?)

there’s another question that pertains to TGCF’s comments, which I found interesting but have left out for now because it’s very very long. it’s half translated, so maybe i’ll finish it later

CW: domestic violence, Q.21 suicidal thoughts

the mdzs parts were prev translated here by @bigbadredpanda

original interview here

reposts and translations OK, but pls give credit!! twt @/uooongs, tumblr @uoongs, ig @/duoj1ao

GENERAL / BOOK 1 REFERENCES

Q14. TGCF characters’ heights?

Xie Lian 178cm (but can perfectly seem like 180), Hua Chen 190 (first appearance as a cute fresh youth was 185cm), Jun Wu 191, Feng Xin 188, Mu Qing 188, Mo Shui 189, Shi Wudu 187, Shi Qinxuan 186 (woman form 176), Pei Ming 188, Ling Wen 180, Quan Yizhen 184 (but has a very tall presence), Yin Yu 186 (but miraculously no matter how tall he is it’s hard to notice this person).

PS: Yu Shi [rain master?]’s cow is 150 without standing up

Q17. What was XL doing after his second time getting banished to the human realm? What was HC doing? Why couldn’t he find XL? HC previously swore to not let XL know he’s protecting him, so why did he decide to meet XL again after 800 years?

XL tried doing other jobs, but all didn’t go too well, and would bring sadness/strife to others, so could only collect trash by himself.

HC was looking for him while also working on his skills + earning money, expanding his power, and worked hard to become the strongest dude!

Really, it was because XL’s luck was so terrible and stuck to him so closely that he couldn’t meet HC. Actually, many times they almost saw each other, like in Banyue, and also when XL was Fangxin head priest, but both times they just missed each other. Finally XL ascended by himself and CEO Hua couldn’t contain himself and rushed over.

T/N:

strongest dude: the word here used is “jiahuo” 家伙 which is an informal, sometimes affectionate way of calling someone, kind of like “brat” ? but without the parental figure tone

CEO Hua: 花总 “hua zong” the zong here is used as a suffix of respect, usually used for business partners/ ppl holding business positions

Q18. When they first met again, why did HC not let XL touch him?

Because he loved and respected him. He was scared he’d get too excited and do something wrong. Later, the reason was that sometimes if he thought he made a mistake, like not protecting Dianxia well, he would not let himself touch his idol. Even if he wanted to a lot, he wouldn’t let himself touch, because it’s his own punishment for himself.

Q19. What did XL like doing as a kid? Did he whine like a kid?

He liked going on swings, calligraphy, drawing, reading books most people wouldn’t read, building and knocking over golden toy block houses. Whined a lot, and would insist on sleeping with his parents. So when he stopped whining like that the king didn’t find him as cute.

T/N: the “whine” here is the best English equivalent as far as I know, but perhaps you’re more familiar with the term “aegyo”? lol. Original word is 撒娇 “sa jiao”

Q20. Where did HC’s name and San Lang come from?

Why Hua Cheng, only he himself would know, since names are based on intuition and he didn’t tell me anything. San Lang was firstly because he was actually the third child at home, secondly because he fell during the third lap during the Offering to the Gods parade, thirdly because BLABLABLABLA many reasons to guess. Being the third seme of the novels is also an interesting Easter egg, but that wasn’t the main reason. Just as why Lan Wangji is Lan Er-Gege, or why Qiu Chi is called Si Shao, one can find many fitting explanations in the novel.

T/N:

BLABLABLABLA is actually what appeared in MXTX’s response lol

Qiu Chi 秋迟 is the name of a character (not sure MC or ML) for her next novel, and Si Shao 四少 means fourth, or fourth child/youth ?

“Offering to the Gods ceremony” translation is taken from Sakhyulations translation! https://www.sakhyulations.com/novel/heaven-officials-blessing/chapter-1/ bless them uwu

Q22. Why did HC not have confidence in his looks?

Because he was always told he was ugly, a monster, etc as a kid, so there was a deep “I’m ugly” impression of himself. Later he started suspecting that “maybe I’m kind of good looking”. But before the person he likes the most, he would still instinctively be self-deprecating, and sometimes will wonder if he’s an ugly person.

Q24. Why did XL give himself the surname “Hua”? 

Because he likes flowers, and used to be called the Flower Crown Martial God. Also, in the initial character sketch, when XL was banished he became a flower god, in charge of flowers’ blooming and wilting.

T/N: The word for “wilt”, amazingly, is 花谢 “hua xie” which is HC’s surname + XL’s surname (!!!). Also is the fake name XL used in Banyue, and the surname he gave to HC in the amnesia extra.

Q27. When will edits be made on TGCF?

Edits have already started, and when they’re done they will all be added with an announcement. Because it’s a long process, and because JJ has inconvenient limits on edits, Iwon’t know when. Not sure if it’ll be before or after the fourth novel. Also will depend on novel adaptations (of prev novels) and how the fourth book goes.

Q28. Will there be more extras for TGCF?

I’ve been wanting to write a human realm commoner storybook, a collection of short fairytales.

BOOK 3 SPOILERS

Q15. Where was Hualian’s first time? Does Hua Chen know that Xie Lian made the first move in kissing him in Qiandeng temple?

Huangji temple in Taicang mountain! HC didn’t know at first, but later Huahua teased it out + closely interrogated it out of XL.

Q16. What was the last mural and the lying down sculpture of XL in Wanshengku (hundred thousand-gods temple)?

It was that you know. That.

T/N: papapapapapa

Q21. Why did HC always have bandages on his face as a child? Why did he fall from the building? Why was he always getting bullied but still physically very strong/healthy?

He was always beaten up because his right eye is red. Others thought it was scary, and his face had a lot of scars that had to be covered;

One day he was beaten up so much that he wanted to kill himself, and also he’s a very bratty and petty kid, so when he heard there’s going to be a Offering to the Gods ceremony -- which if went wrong will bring strife to the whole country -- he especially chose that day to ruin the ceremony. As in, “if I’m unlucky and having a hard time, I want this entire country to die with me”. But he ended up climbing up there saw his wife and was shook, so he forgot to kill himself. But because he wanted to see more clearly, wanted to be closer so badly, he accidently fell off. 

He is just very tenaciously surviving! He’s strong like XL, won’t die even after getting beaten up hundreds of times, and forever will be able to hold onto a last breath and crawl back up again to return, against fate.

Q23. What did Mu Qing say when he drove HC away?

MQ just speaks like that...like, you brat are not even useful to Taizi Dianxia, you’ll only weigh him down, the army doesn’t need trash like you, don’t think you actually have talent! etc. Also because in the army the youths’ death rate is actually quite high, so MQ didn’t think he was doing anything wrong in driving HC away.

BOOK 5 SPOILERS

Q25. So is Shi Qinxuan a human now? Will his hands and leg ever recover? If he reincarnated, would he still have a hard life? Is Shi Wudu really gone? What did Mo Shui take the water master’s head for? What did he say to Shi Qinxuan on Moshui island at the end?

SQX is human. He can’t recover, and he doesn’t want to. Heavenly Officials won’t reincarnate. SWD is gone for good. The head was used for an oblation. He didn’t say anything in the end, because SQX was very out of it, so even if he said something SQX wouldn’t be able to understand.

T/N: To refer to SWD MXTX uses 15° (15 degrees) because phonetically it sounds like SWD’s name.

[thedisguisedaltruism]

prima donna // jung jaehyun

category: fluff, crack(?), (warning: mentions of explicit words)

pairing:  jaehyun x reader

summary:  you hated him because he ruined your first university week, but you’re too weak to fall for him after what happened that night before their school’s party.

word count: 3553

*author’s note: hey there! i want to thank y’all for giving love on my first au here! this one’s my weirdest au so far, because it’s another character of jae that i imagined and thought it will be fine to write about. but pls @ SM, let nct crossdress on their first concert! (re:edited)

Your second year in college has been sailing smooth so far, though sometimes you want to curl up and cry in your bed at your university’s dormitory from the reports and exams stacking up your schedule. Biology is fun, you thought before getting admitted into the university.

You seem to enjoy the course you’re currently taking but one thing’s for sure—you realized that something’s not good. So you asked your roommate, Shi, about that dilemma that has been clouding up your mind for more than a week. “Shi, do you, by any chance, seemed to notice something different at me?” You ask her.

“You still hate people.” She simply replies as she tore another scratch paper to write. She took creative writing and she does that every single time, and you got used to hearing the smearing sound of paper every night. You zone out once again, and suddenly you remembered the glares you shot to every student who walked past you everywhere before.

“Right. I mean… you know, it’s not my fault why I act like that—it was unintentional though.”

Shi rolls her eyes and adjusts her eyeglasses. “Unintentional… hmm, you think so? Damn it Y/N, if I could only conduct a social research of you glaring everyone you meet I am certain that the results and my assessed hypotheses will do good.” She looks at you with her typical resting bitch face and you only return a peace sign at her, defeated.

Because what she said was true.

You were about to get up from your bed and bring back your laptop from the kitchen when she added, “even my high school classmate was afraid of you.” You turned around and gave her a look. “Who?”

“The heartthrob from radio broadcasting department. You know, the Jung cutie.” Your roommate emphasized the Jung cutie, but you’re still clueless as hell.

“Huh?” You raise your left eyebrow and Shi clapped in front of your face. “Remember during university week last year? You were holding your favorite strawberry ice cream and someone just accidentally pushed your hand and the ice cream fell dramatically in your white polo shirt.”

The memory of that Jung guy who ruined your first university week as a freshman instantly flashed into your mind and your grip tightens as you muttered his name. “Jung Jaehyun.”

Shi snaps her fingers into a clicking sound and continues talking. “And then you glared at him and kicked his ass. Those people who witnessed your badass move just had their best day of their lives, to be honest.” She chuckles and she sits on the futon that your mother brought when you moved there, making you sit on the floor and exhaled deeply.

“I still hate him. It was my favorite polo shirt and I was looking for a cute guy that day but HE ruined it!” the pitch of your voice rose and you swiftly toned it down after you realized that it’s already dawn and continued. “He’s reminds me of that annoying kid in my grade school who crashes everyone’s day, too bad I only got a break during high school then another one appeared at college.”

The mini living room fell in silence, and later Shi talks again. “Actually, he’s a hottie, sis.”

You look at her and it felt like you rolled your eyes the most dramatic way possible and made a disgusted face. “Hell no. He may looked like an innocent one but looks can be deceiving, Shi! Who knows, he already slept with a lot of girls.”

Shi laughs so hard as her eyes form into cute crescents, and she looks so cute when she holds her tummy from laughing when hearing something funny, even if it is really funny or not. “Are you low-key telling me that you have an interest at him—“

“No!” you exclaim. “He’s never my ideal type. Never. Never.” You both shake your hands in protest and head no. “Never.”

“Believe me, he’s a nice guy. Maybe sometimes he looked like a bad boy but he isn’t. He’s one of my classmates in high school and actually doing great in academics. I mean c’mon, I think you two looked good together.”

It was that time when you give up on her annoying antics that you finally stand up and turn to the kitchen. “You’re not a wingman, Shi; you’re a writer in the making.”

-

Today’s weather is partially considerate to you since you’re an avid fan of cold breeze but hated getting soaked as you can feel the exposed part of your feet getting dampen from the fine rain while walking to your school’s building. You forgot to bring your umbrella, resorting you to sprint to the nearest shed and as when you are two steps away from the little shed, the rain poured harder. You cursed at the gods for making them hate you this type of weather.

You sit on the provided bench in the shed and check your backpack, and a relieved sigh escapes your mouth as you see your laptop’s case. There were thunders roaring at an interval and you have no choice left but to stay longer in the shed until the rain stops.

“Hey Y/N, if your class starts soon you can take my raincoat.” You turned around to see the person that you hated the most.

“Keep it.” You replied. His expression remains unchanged and shrugs as he looks at the dark sky for a moment. “It’s my first time seeing you this close though.” He adds.

“You… know my name?” You interrogated. It sounds surprised although you tried hard to shorten your conversation with him.

“Yeah? From Shi, your roommate.” He answered.

You huff as your gaze is fixated to the surroundings. “Considering you pushed me and my ice cream went straight to my white polo shirt, maybe so.” You keep your plain expression without looking at him, and you can see him looking away from you in your peripheral point of view. You tried hard not to laugh because he looked so dumb.

It took fourteen minutes for the heavy rain to stop and as soon as you noticed it pouring lightly, you immediately walked away from the shed and him because perhaps, he just ruined your day.

-

Another day has passed and still, you’re facing the typical activities done in your classes—report, moving exams, online quiz just in case when one of your professors are busy with their personal shenanigans and sometimes, laboratory works.

Sleep uproars to scarcity at your situation recently which is why you’re having a hard time dealing with everyone, especially your classmates’ shits in class and you wound up doing some of the easy activities just by yourself. You easily get irritated so the best way to get yourself away from trouble is to be alone.

Your last period finished earlier than you thought, so you rejoiced as you put your hoodie and walked back to the dormitory, hugging your genetics thick book close to your chest as you mentally plotting your sleeping plans.

Just as you reached the arts and sciences hall, you suddenly feel someone’s arm linked to yours that’s why you swiftly turned around and hit the person with your book at the chest. You gasp audibly as you looked up to see Jaehyun mirroring your expression. He then held his chest and acted as if he’s having a panic attack, and you were panicking when he sat on the ground, struggling as he holds his chest.

You put your bag as you held his shoulders firmly. He’s still in pain and you don’t know how to help him because first of all, he’s twenty centimeters taller and lastly, probably heavier than you. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry that wasn’t supposed to happe—“

“You’re so cute when you panicked.” His sudden change of expression made you halt in your position, deciphering what the hell just happened and you can feel everyone’s eyes on the two of you. Anger build up inside you, picking your book as you hit his chest as hard as you can. You yelled and got up, stomping your way to the dormitory, embarrassed and pissed.

-

“Sis, I swear that glass will shatter and hurt your hand.”

After getting back to the dormitory, you never utter any word; you only sit in silence, taking deep breaths, keeping your heart’s pace normal, and closing your eyes until your roommate arrives. She gave you a glass of water but that didn’t made you feel better because you’re conflicted whether you wanted to hide from embarrassment or wait for him at his first class tomorrow so you can throw your hardest punch at his face that everyone falls for.

“If you were on my position this afternoon, what would you do? Punch his face or leave him?” You asked, still gripping on the glass that she gave to you.

“Leave him? I guess. Then kick his shin the day after.” She folds her arms, watching you and the glass you’re holding—more likely she’s adamant that if she leaves you alone, you would rather break the glass just by yourself.

“You need to sleep, Y/N. That’s all. I swear you really have to cover up those horrifying eyebags of yours or else you’ll end up looking like a serial killer.” She sits beside you and massages your shoulders. “I’m sure he was embarrassed of himself too… trust me, it will be alright. ‘Kay? Let’s sleep.”

You drink the glass of water and sleep, hoping for the better days to come.

---

A week has passed and luckily you were able to regain your sleep since your schedule is quite vacant, and you’re glad that you can rest without stressing for academic works, thanks to the faculty of your department’s trip.

You’re alone tonight in the dorm since Shi is out somewhere. While watching a series on your laptop, your phone rings. It was her calling you so you pick it up.

“Y/N, do me a favor! Please I’m begging you!”

You paused the series and answered. “And that would be?”

“Please go to the other dormitory and bring our make-up kit. I was supposed to do the make-up for my friend on their school’s party and he has to dress up as a drag queen omiglob please Y/N for the love of God do it!”

You groaned in reply since you can’t decline her request because she seldom does that. You know how important it is for her so you’ve got no choice but to run to the other dormitory just with your sweatpants, hoodie and your make-up kit. “Fine. I’ll be at the brick building as soon as possible.”

“The dorm’s room has JJ on the door tag and thank you sis! Have fun!”

You ended the call and instead of wondering where Shi could’ve went, you were walking in a steady pace to the brick building as you try to revive your make-up skills. The stars are gradually appearing as the sky welcomes the darkness.

-

After arriving in the brick building, you searched for the room with a ‘JJ’ tag and knocked as soon as you found it. The door opens, and you wished that a grim reaper will take your life at this moment.

“You?” You exclaimed, and his eyes widen from shock and horror.

Jaehyun was peeking at the door, keeping himself safe from your attacks soon. You stare at him for a good minute, and he realized that he should let you in to turn him into a drag queen just for tonight. “I thought Shi’s going to do it for me.” His voice was soft as he opens the door for you to enter. “She just called me to do it for you.” You said.

Their dorm is partly large, with two beds occupying and a mini living room with kitchen, just like yours and Shi’s. Also, you were surprised from the fact that it was more likely neater than yours. You went to their mini living room where he placed the things he’s supposed to wear and out of the blue, your boisterous laughter echoed the room.

“I can’t imagine seeing you wearing those dresses,” you hold your tummy between laughs, and he tries his best not to blush from embarrassment. “It’s just for tonight. I lost in the draw lots so some of us have to wear like this.” He replies, a wave of panic rushing him as he placed two chairs beside the dresses.

You walked to their mini living room and placed the make-up kit. Fortunately, the lightings are all good and you don’t need to adjust yourself to find for a good light where you can match his make-up. He’s standing beside you, towering you with his height. You turned around at him and he averted his gaze from you. His ears are crimson pink and for the first time in your life, you reached for his face to make him look at you.

“Damn it, you’re so tall.” You retorted as you stood on the chair holding two dresses, one is a long sleeve maroon bedazzled crop top with pencil skirt and the other one with a star-designed dress with ruffles on its sleeve. You looked back on the table to see three wigs scattered and you placed the dresses back to fit the wigs for him.

You placed the first wig which you can liken to Marilyn Monroe’s signature hairstyle, and you think it was the perfect fit for him. You placed the crop top to see if it matches, and you want to jump from excitement as it fits him well. Jaehyun is just busy looking at the wigs, the dresses, and you.

“We have less than two hours to prepare actually.” He said. Worry is evident on his face and you assured him that he’ll stand out.

“I swear, I can make you shine on the spotlight. Trust me.” You look at him straight in the eye and he shies away from your sight.

“It’s okay though. I mean it’s kinda embarrassing to do this… ” He trails off, unknown what to continue. You gestured him to sit down and placed hair pins to clip his fringe away from his forehead.

You mentally cursed, realizing how handsome he really is. It’s effortless to put any temporary remedies on his face since he’s pinkish glowing and has less blemishes. You set aside the primers and search the perfect foundation for his complexion as you juggle the awkward silence by doing some short interrogations at him. “What major are you in?” You start applying foundation on his face, chuckling as you saw his expression obviously crying for help. “Radio broadcasting.”

“Nice,” you paused for a moment and asked him to close his eyes. “Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

He opened his eyes and you brought your eyeshadow kit. You try to contrast the color of your picked dress and the eyeshadow and you started applying for it. You perfect his eyebrows first, leaning closer to him as you gently stroke the brush to his eyebrow line. You lean closer to him to perfect the eyeshadow, slightly feeling the chill breath he exhales on your neck as his eyes are shut. The next thing you did was blending it with some strong colors to his crease line and told him to close for a while since you’re going to apply a liquid eyeliner to add boldness on his eyes.

You held his face as you slowly blow the liquid eyeliner to dry, and he opened his eyes after. He looks deadly gorgeous just with his eyes, and you added more emphasis on its bottom part by applying the same dark shade. He barely have eyebags so you apply a minimal amount of concealer to make it completely hide them. You gestured him to look up and you finally finished the eyes part.

“Amazing.” You muttered. Proceeding next to the contour, you motioned him to dress up first and you waited for a while in the living room. After few minutes, he’s finished and you wanted to cry because he looks so perfect, like a diva.

“Quick, now sit because I have to contour your face.” You commanded, and you opened the contour stick, applying them to his sides of his face, nose, and cheekbones. You can’t stop laughing from imagining what would he looked like after you finish grooming him up. You took the brush and started blending, then applying highlighter on his cheekbones and the tip of his nose. You added more emphasis on the top of his eyebrows, shimmering its part and applied blush for his cheeks.

“I kid you not, I’m going to strangle you if I looked odd.” He muttered as you partly leaned your palm to his face while placing long, fake lashes.

“Do it, I’ll break your bones.” And he fell silent. He opened his eyes afterwards and you motioned him to stand up as you apply lipstick. You picked your personal favorite matte maroon lipstick and you applied it carefully on his lip. You put some lip liners and asked him to spread it a little, creating a perfect lip.

You finalized the look and added some embellishments beside his eyes, and you wished that Shi was here to acknowledge your amazing work. You clapped your hands and placed the wig, retouching his look once again and you removed the piercings on his ears, replacing them with sapphire dangling earrings and necklace. “You’re so short.” He jokes while looking at you struggling to close the hook of the necklace. “Fuck off.” You answered.

You looked at him one last time, and you searched for a big mirror if he has any and found it on his bedroom, placing it in front of him. He’s in awe looking at the drag queen version of himself, and shots you a look in wonder. “B-but… this is so good. What the hell.” He can’t stop looking at his different version in the mirror but you don’t mind.

He keeps touching his face, especially his eyebrows and his jeweled temples. “Will you be able to manage wearing heels?” You asked as you make him wear the black pumps. He shrugged in response, unsure.

“Here, let me help you.” You make him hold your shoulder as he struggle to stand up. He outbalanced for a moment and you make him compose his posture. You guide his walk for some time around their bedroom and after familiarizing the posture and walking, he gathered the things he has to bring and you arranged the make-up kit. Both of you went outside their room and he thanked you for sparing your time to groom him. “You saved my night and I want to thank you for that. But I’ll promise this won’t be happening again.”

You only chuckled and motioned him to lean closer. You fix his hair and after that, you smack your lips to his plump ones and pat his shoulders. Jaehyun is immobile in his position and you pinch his sides, causing him to wince in pain. “Hey, what was that?” He asked, still startled from your kiss.

“I have no idea rather. You looked beautiful tonight!” You exclaimed. Picking up the make-up kit, you tiptoed to kiss his cheeks but this time he took the opportunity as he leaned and cupped your face with his jeweled hands to kiss your lips.

“Seems like you used your lipstick on my lips for a purpose.” His whispered, with his voice deeper unlike his usual and he smirks but you’re unbothered because he looks the usual drop-dead gorgeous diva he is. “You up for tomorrow? We can talk more at the grill house outside at 7 p.m.” He asks with confidence, making you chuckle because he just asked you out in his drag queen attire.

You gave him a thumbs up as you started walking back to your dormitory and winked at him. He laughed and walked behind you as he’s ready to stun everyone from school of communication arts with his transformation.

You walk back to your dormitory, and after seeing Shi using your laptop to watch your favorite series, you placed the make-up kit beside her and grabbed the water bottle she’s holding. “I kissed your heartthrob classmate from radio broadcasting.” With that, you never saw her pausing the series faster than before after you told her what happened.

“Uh, that was fast.”

You lay on your bed, closing your eyes. “I don’t know why I kissed him sis, honestly speaking. Maybe it was because I’m proud of what I did or I instantly fell in love with his charms and I think he’s so adorable.”

Shi hummed and asked one last time. “Well, which of those did you feel?”

“Both.” You simply answered, and Shi clapped her hands. “Good, I’m go for your relationship if that’s the case. Hah, never. Never!” she said, mocking those last bitter words you told her nights ago. “Good night dumbass!”

“Good night, Shi. Thanks.”

At that night, you find it hard to believe that your soon-to-be-boyfriend was the person who never fails to annoy you everytime the two of you meet, and the one who ruined your first university week last year.

[izanyas]

Felled

Shuake one-shot to celebrate finally finishing Persona 5 (I know, it’s been ten years).

Rating: G Words: 3,200 No warnings.

Felled

Coming out of the Metaverse is never as easy as coming out of a dream. The world of cognition grants them power in the way of thrumming energy, grants them abilities that do not carry over to reality; Goro can hold his own in a bare-handed fight well enough, punching and scratching and aiming for groin and eyes with a viciousness he knows no one suspects of him, but he cannot pull off the elegance or inhuman strength necessary to defeat Shadows. He knows without needing to ask that neither do Sakamoto or Okumura. Or any of the other, except maybe Niijima.

He wonders, sometimes, whether Kurusu does. He wonders what Kurusu would look like, sweat dripping from his face and blood spilling out of his split knuckles, under the light of day. The Metaverse doesn't approximate it well enough.

Coming out of a Palace, not simply the never-ending haze in which he usually finds his targets, is a whole new sort of pain.

He's too sore to manage more than a walk. He's too sore to lift his bag. He does it anyway, his back straight despite the aches, watching as the others slump and stumble under the weight of real-world gravity.

"Fuck," Sakomoto expels, never one to miss an occasion to be crass, "I'm fucking beat. Why the hell is a casino so hard to run through?"

Takamaki engages him with a retort that Goro doesn't listen to. He's watching Niijima from the corner of his eyes—she's standing behind Sakura Futaba, as exhausted as the rest of them but carrying it with more grace than most. She is pale, though. Visiting a loved one's psyche, warped as it is beyond recognition, would do that to a person.

Kurusu is looking at her too; in the second that follows his eyes catch Goro's, looking knowing and looking not, and Goro turns his head away.

He still feels the weight of the saber on his arm and shoulder. He shakes it by closing his hand into a fist briefly, masking a wince as pain flares up his arm. He'll be sore in the morning.

There's an awkward shiver in the air around him. He knows it stems from the fact that his face is unmasked now, that his teammates neither know nor trust him, not after a single day. He can feel them staring at him while he takes his phone out of his pocket and scrolls mindlessly through messages. It doesn't seem to matter to most of them that he allowed Kurusu to involve him in every fight without protest, not even as their leader purposefully gave the others rest by making them switch from time to time.

He doesn't complain. Kurusu was part of every fight too, after all. And Goro always knew it would take more than a day to secure a semblance of trust.

"Good thinking with that last one, Sakamoto," he says amiably, once he's looked up from the cover of his phone.

It gives the other boy a startle that Goro finds more amusing than pitiful for once. "Thanks," Sakamoto replies after a second. His reluctance is almost enough to make Goro smile. "You too. You know."

It drags images to Goro's mind that he would much rather forget, but at least Sakamoto relaxes a little. The others do as well. None of them bring up what he did, but then, it must not be something they find weird, even from him.

They're used to having each other's backs.

"I think I'll head straight home," Niijima says in a faint voice. "I'll—make sure Sis doesn't suspect anything."

"Makoto—"

"Good night, Ann," she cuts in. "And everyone."

She parts from them with a curt nod. Takamaki looks pained, but she doesn't insist.

"This sucks," Sakura lets out from her crouch on the ground. "Makoto's not gonna let us talk to her, is she."

Takamaki's lips thin before she answers. "She's just… got a lot on her plate. We should leave her alone for now."

"It seems rather foolish. Sharing with us would lighten her burden."

"Yeah, Inari, you're a real expert at emotional stability."

It's interesting, Goro thinks, to get to visualize the dynamics within the group unfold like this. He hadn't bothered to think of the Phantom Thieves as individuals beyond knowing Niijima through Sae and Sakura through her mother. Kurusu is different. His position as leader makes him Goro's target for once; and Goro had met him first before knowing, had exchanged words and looks and not once felt as though the one standing before him was less than frightfully human.

Sakura and Kitagawa bicker with an energy that comes and dissipates in a blink of the eyes, no matter how hurtful their words. Sakamoto and Takamaki argue almost every minute. So do Sakamoto and Morgana. And Sakamoto and everyone, really, except Kurusu.

No one seems to have a relation of opposition with Kurusu.

Except me, Goro thinks—and when he flicks a glance to Kurusu again, he finds him looking back.

In light of how the evening went, he wonders if that still holds true for Kurusu. He surprises himself with how much he wants it to be. Goro doesn't look away from Kurusu's eyes until he feels his phone buzz in his pocket.

Take care of this tonight, the unknown number tells him.

There is the picture of a man attached to the message. Youthful and bright and surrounded by wife and child.

Goro inhales slowly from his nose as he snaps the case of his phone shut. He forces himself out of the stillness that has tightened the line of his shoulders and in which the strap of his bag digs like a blade. Then he lifts his head to address the group and says, "I should go as well."

"We should all go home," Okumura agrees readily. He barely has the strength to mimic the politeness of looking at her, and she smiles at him a little awkwardly, one side of her mouth lifted higher than the other. "We probably shouldn't go in for so long next time—right, leader?"

"Right," Kurusu replies evenly.

It could be mocking just as it could be sincere, but Okumura beams either way.

Goro can feel the weight of the others' looks as he turns his back and walks away. The need not to leave himself exposed like this runs under his skin and sets each of his nerves alight, but he forces it down, paces himself into the most nondescript walk he can achieve, and turns around the corner of the courthouse with his breath caught between his teeth.

He opens the message again—the picture fits itself into the shape already imprinted in his eyes. This time he reads the rest of the instructions carefully, pushing away the inevitable crawl of exhaustion up his back and down his throat.

He's not getting any sleep tonight.

He's in the process of deleting the message when someone says, "Akechi," behind his back.

Goro's left hand has gone weak from hours of grasping a sword, no matter that the sword is light as a feather from lack of an actual blade; his fingers feel blistered, swollen and slow, and the phone slips from between them in the immediate surprise. Numbness stills him until the time it reaches the ground. Then a jump, a flash of panic at the sound it makes—a phone is an expensive thing to replace no matter how well off he is now, and replacing it would mean potentially replacing the numerous disguised contacts in it that are in fact Shido and his associates—

"Sorry," Kurusu says, walking around him.

"It's nothing," Goro replies out of habit.

Kurusu isn't looking at him. He crouches in front of him, and Goro stares in silence at the top of his head, at the dampness in his hair from the exertion of the day. He only realizes what is happening once Kurusu's hand is on his phone.

For a second he can do nothing but stand and look, his tongue drying in his mouth, apprehension gripping him by the chest.

Kurusu turns the device around in his palm until the screen faces up. The past few seconds have felt like eternity, but they were not enough for it to turn itself off; and Goro is almost too tense to look down and check, but he does. He has to.

The message is deleted. Only an empty conversation sits under Kurusu's watchful eyes.

"I'm really sorry," Kurusu says again. He folds the case back around the phone and hands it over with a small smile. "At least it looks like it's working okay. Not even a scratch."

"They did sell it to me as one of their most solid models," Goro replies, taking it.

"You'll have to give me the reference, I've broken two this year already."

The numbness in Goro's fingers isn't enough to mask the feeling of Kurusu's own, dry and warm against his knuckles. He took his gloves off earlier when they fell back into reality, because he had felt overheated in them. Kurusu lets go after barely a second.

Goro clears his throat. He slips the phone into his pocket. "Did you need something?" he asks, shifting on his feet to face Kurusu fully. "This isn't your way home."

"It's not. I wanted to talk to you."

"Couldn't you do it in front of the others?"

Kurusu's smile turns amused. "No," he answers.

For all that Kurusu's forehead is constantly brushed by soft, messy hair, for all that his eyes are hidden behind useless glasses, he never shies away from looking someone in the eye. His scrutiny feels to Goro like being watched by a cat's gleaming eyes. It feels a lot like wanting to broaden his shoulders and brace his strength.

It feels like a challenge.

"I wanted to thank you," Kurusu says, his words slow and his eyes unfaltering, unblinking, as they peer into Goro's. "For earlier."

"You could've done it in front of the others," Goro says again.

"I didn't think you would want me to."

He can feel his smile faltering, can feel himself strengthen it in place through the rush of adrenaline that shakes him then.

Earlier, Joker made a mistake. The attack he attempted to land on an enemy missed and made him fumble, breaking him out of poise for the barest second; and Goro had jumped forward to tug him out of harm's way with his hands, taking a glancing blow to his shoulder in the process, with no thought at all. His body had moved on its own. Joker had turned to look at him with wide eyes, still caught in that moment of inelegance that had made him looking nothing at all like a thief and made Goro feel very far from what he truly was.

Sakamoto had broken the hazy quality of the moment by rushing out of turn to punch the Shadow through the guts.

"It can't be the first time this happens to you," Goro says. He adds, quickly: "All of you. I'm pretty sure I saw Kitagawa drag Futaba-chan into hiding while she was too busy looking at numbers to look around."

"She does get distracted."

"I can't fault her at all. Her skillset is dreadfully convenient."

Kurusu's grin is sudden and feral. "The others and I've had some time to get used to each other," he says. "I can't say the same about you and I."

You and I. He voices it so easily, as if the words weigh nothing at all.

"It was nothing," Goro manages. "I'm glad you didn't get hurt."

Kurusu drags a hand out of his pocket and extends it between them, crossing the distance too fast, or too slow, for Goro to do anything. He doesn't move at all when it touches the strap of the bag pressed into his aching shoulder, right above his collarbone.

"How's your shoulder?" he asks.

Goro unsticks his voice from the hollow of his throat. "Fine," he says. "Injuries don't cross over into reality, right?"

"Not injuries, no," Kurusu replies lowly. "But fatigue does."

"I can definitely feel that."

The humor in his tone is weak. He feels as though something in him is shaking, right below his chest, warm to the point of queasiness; he shifts on his feet again, catches himself before he takes an actual step backward.

Kurusu lets go of his shoulder. "I have something that can help, if you want."

He doesn't wait for Goro to answer. His hand is busy with his bag, now, though the weight of it lingers on him like glass pressed onto paper. Goro watches him drag a thin vial full of blue liquid out of an inner pocket of the bag, through what he gathers to be a mess of school things and other, less legal items. He gives it to Goro without a word.

"What is it?" Goro asks.

"Medicine. The one I use in the Metaverse."

Goro glances at him with, he hopes, no visible wariness. "It doesn't look like this in the Metaverse," he says carefully.

"Cognition's tricky like this."

"Kurusu, this looks like poison."

Kurusu's laughter is a rarely-heard thing outside of the thrill of battle. There it is driven, weaponized, something that runs up Goro's back and makes him swallow back shivers; here it is a rumble that makes the air between them sizzle with unspent energy, that makes Goro's face flush with blood.

"The doctor I get them it is a bit of a tough love kind of person, but she wouldn't poison me," Kurusu says, making no comment of his blush at all. "Here."

He flicks the stopper off with his thumb and takes a sip. The vial is tiny enough that half of its content is drained in a single go, but Goro isn't looking at it anymore.

He's looking at the lopsided turn of Kurusu's lips when he grimaces from the taste, and he's still warm from hearing him laugh, still shaking through all of himself without allowing it to show.

This time, when Kurusu places the vial in Goro's hand, he doesn't let go.

"It feels awful going down," he says. His fingers are wrapped around Goro's closed hand, the pad of his thumb at the heel of Goro's palm. "But you'll feel better after drinking it."

"Thank you," Goro says numbly.

He doesn't try to take his hand back.

Distantly, he wonders what Kurusu would say if he knew what Goro plans to do with his evening. If he knew of the murder that Goro will use the medicine's added strength for. The weight of the air feels unbearable, his clothes smothering, his bag a chain trying to trap him to the ground.

He thinks of Robin Hood's bright, physical energy thrumming through him as he wields a child's toy in his hands, as he fells monsters come out of a dream; he thinks of watching Kurusu's back as they run through the halls of Niijima Sae's twisted self, and he thinks of never letting go of the sight.

"Akechi," Kurusu says.

He feels so much closer now than he did a second ago.

"Yes," Goro replies. He can't look anywhere but in Kurusu's eyes.

"You once told me that you felt you could tell me anything." The hand around his doesn't move, but Kurusu's other hand comes up slowly, his fingers wrapping around the thinnest of Goro's wrist, right where he knows his shaken pulse beats. "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

There's nothing but kindness to read out of him. His touch is gentle, his words slow, his eyes open. Kurusu is someone Akechi knows in layers; the charismatic leader, the awkward, hunched boy with his hands in his pockets, the person who once met his eyes across a television studio and gave him antithesis. And Goro is used by now to feeling pulled two different ways around him, to wanting to run into him as much as he wants to run from him—but in that moment there is only the pull, only the touch, only the fatigue of the day resting heavy on his shoulders.

He thinks, He knows.

He thinks, Steal Shido's heart for me.

He looks at the gentle curve of Kurusu's lips in the dark of fall, out of light and out of sight, and he doesn't think at all as he leans forward and presses their mouths together.

Kurusu falters for the second time that day. The exhale he lets out is hurried, perhaps a little shaky; it breaks warmly over Goro's face in the second he takes to tilt his head sideways. He collects bitterness from the medicine just at the inside of his lips, gathers heat and nerves inside his throat once Kurusu breaks out of surprise and kisses back, soft and closed-mouthed. Neither of them closes his eyes. He doesn't dare breathe at all through it, afraid that air will come as smoke out of his lungs, like it does out of the lungs of beasts. He doesn't dare burn him.

He thinks, I'm going to kill him, and it is like a spear between his ribs, like a sword at his neck.

He was never meant to be the prince. He has always been the monster.

"Forgive me," he says, pulling away. Kurusu lets go of his wrist without a word, and the vial slips from him and shatters on the floor, spilling its blood between their feet. A fleck of liquid lands at the hem of Goro's pants. "I'm—tired, I think. I should go home."

"Sure," Kurusu replies.

He sounds grave. Resigned. Goro doesn't question it as he turns his back on him—this time with the certainty that he will not be attacked.

"I'm truly sorry if I—"

"Akechi," Kurusu cuts in. "It's fine. I didn't mind at all."

There's a hint right here that Goro could grasp with both hands if he wanted, but the wish from earlier is gone already, the pull faded in their separation. All that's left is the cold night around him. Shadow melded into shadow as far as the eye can see.

When he straightens his back, his only thought is for the aches through his body, and how to navigate them to accomplish his second job of the night. He should have expected that Shido would still make use of him like this even while he carries on his mission alongside the Thieves, but he's never had to go twice through the Metaverse in a day. He isn't looking forward to the way Loki swallows all of his strength and leaves him, afterward, feeling like no more than a child.

"Tell me when we need to go again," he says, walking away.

"I will. Good night."

It makes him smile faintly.

Goro's life would be simpler if Kurusu Akira were no more than the boy who stood up to him by chance in the bright-lit television studio that day. It would be simpler if he were only the Phantom Thieves' Joker.

It would be simpler if he were only the open smile behind the café's counter whom Goro talked about his mother to, whom he could truly share truths with, whom he could afford to kiss at night away from passersby. His lips wouldn't have tasted of sharp and bitter medicine then.

He's lived that long without anyone of the kind in his life, though. Goro licks the taste away from where it sits at the wet inside of his bottom lip, and he thinks, I can live a little longer.