#jun who I think is the most into this subject would get the most annoyed

[chynandri]

Ibahaji but if ibara was annoying about it

[redjayson]

winter shizun au? ❤️

winter shizun au! my best beloved problem child of a fic, currently sitting in time-out because it became way longer than I meant for it to. it was originally meant to be one of my febuwhump prompts, but for obvious reasons, it...did not get posted in february. currently it's at 27k, and every so often I go and toss another few hundred words onto the pile, but it's still going to take a bit to finish

the idea behind the fic is exactly what you would expect from a winter soldier au: luo binghe returns after two years in the endless abyss and joins huan hua to find out that his shizun disappeared about a year after he did, while out on a mission in the borderlands, and no one has been able to find him. so lbh is being pulled in a bunch of different directions, trying to build up his reputation for when shizun returns, trying to find shizun in the first place, and dealing with his annoying demon subjects, who keep coming to him to complain about the assassinations scattered throughout the demon realm. (meanwhile, the old palace master is having fun and being himself. if you have total control over a peak lord, why wouldn't you use that to your advantage?)

He does hear strange rumors through his demon contacts. Not Mobei-Jun himself—he’s too far North to care, but Luo Binghe has taken over most of the North by now, so all the demons in that region answer to him and come to him now with their petitions or information. None of his demons have been able to tell him anything about whatever happened a year ago, when Shizun disappeared, but they’re fonts of information about current matters.  Apparently there is a wraith haunting the border, occasionally diving deep into the Demon Realm. North, South, it doesn’t seem to matter to them.They kill, and then they escape. An assassin.  A human one, by all accounts. A cultivator, given their use of talismans. No sword, but a pair of wicked knives.  Luo Binghe frowns as he thinks about it. If this assassin were targeting only one of the kingdoms, it might be easier to figure out what their end goal is. Were they attacking the North, Luo Binghe could assume either an attack on Mobei-Jun or himself; conversely, were it the Southern Kingdom, Luo Binghe would assume—well, he would have assumed an attack against Sha Hualing’s father, but there have of late been whispers of a new power in the South. Or perhaps an old one, rebuilding.  These attacks have been occurring for well over a year. Perhaps that makes sense for the South, matching up neatly with what Luo Binghe has been able to piece together regarding the powers shifting and reconsolidating there, but the North…it has to have started as a move against Mobei-Jun, which neatly transitioned to opposing Luo Binghe.  Their only purpose seems to be causing chaos. There’s nothing cohesive about these attacks.  It bothers Luo Binghe.  It also bothers him that they decided to attack now. Was the Immortal Alliance Conference a catalyst? Certainly Huan Hua Palace seems violently opposed to all demons. Then again, most cultivators are. Even Shizun had— Well.  Whoever this assassin is, they’re making it significantly more difficult for Luo Binghe to investigate his shizun’s disappearance. Too many ripples in the water, when he needs it to be still and calm enough to reflect the past. 

[hoshi-u-love-me]

TTT

Group : Seventeen

Pairing : Seventeen × Reader

Genre : Drabble

Word count : 1.7k

Warning : Randomness, absurdity, 🐴이 안되는 컨텐즈, perverted tendencies (it's ok tho it's not harrassment)

a/n : I saw this one video where hannie literally stashed mentos and dalgona in his front overall pocket and I just !!!!!!! EUREKA

One thing you love about your friend group is that nothing ever happens twice. Meaning life is never boring. It is never flat. There is always something you can expect but you don't know what.

Kind of like anxiety.

But better.

So when Kim Mingyu came to your place, pack YOUR bag with YOUR clothes and YOUR other essentials and claimed that he's kidnapping you, you weren't even surprised.

He had taken every one to an impromptu road trip, going as far as renting a minibus without anyone knowing.

"Yah, Kim Mingyu, you forgot my phone charger!" You whined, throwing a crumpled piece of snack wrapper at him, who was driving.

He snaps his head in your direction for a split second before refocusing on the road, "I'm sorry, but you had a lot of things to begin with"

Chan, who was seated next to you, leaned in and whispered, "that and he was totally distracted by your drawer full of panties and bras" he smirked when he saw you widening your eyes in horror.

"Waaaaaaaaaah, Kim Mingyu is a pervert!" Jeonghan yelled from behind you, teasing the younger, "Kim Mingyu saw (Y/N)'s panties and he likes it!" He continued.

Mingyu stammered, trying to explain himself, "y-yah! No! I mean, I-I did saw it but- but- I was helping her! She wouldn't do it herself and someone has to do it! (Y/N)! You should be thankful of me, if I didn't pack them, you'd have no underwear for the rest of the trip!!" He yelled back.

This time, it was Jun who quipped at him, "so the choices were you seeing her undergarments or us knowing she's not wearing anything underneath? Mingyu-yah, you're selfish"

You groaned at their childish behaviour, "that's it! I'm looking for girl friends to hang out with"

You had hoped that would shut the conversation down but your poor choice of words only resulted in most of them ooh-ing you, "girl on girl action, nice" Seungcheol joked from the front seat next to Mingyu.

At Seungcheol's words, the car went to a whole new level of crazy.

It took 15 minutes before the subject of the conversation changed and boy were you relieved.

Seokmin leaned forward from his seat to tap on your shoulder, "(Y/N), I don't feel so good, do you have anything to help my nausea?" You reached into your bag, trying to look for anything that could help his carsickness but found nothing.

Before you can tell him the bad news though, Jeonghan who was seated next to him had shoved something to his hands, "here, I figured someone might be getting sick of MINGYU'S SHITTY DRIVING SKILLS," he yelled the last part to make sure Mingyu heard him, "so that should help"

"Anything for back pain, hyung?" Soonyoung quipped, "I think I pulled something during yesterday's practice" he pouted.

Jeonghan reached into his bag for a second before producing a patch that could help Soonyoung's problem, "don't worry, it's the brand you like that doesn't smell so bad" he said as he leaned back and hand the small item to the younger guy.

Chan got curious and decided to test Jeonghan, "what about something to nibble on? I think I'm kinda hungry" he said. Jeonghan raised an eyebrow at him, "you think you should snack right now? When we get to the town we're gonna have something to eat and it's in like- wait, Mingyu, how much longer 'till we get there?"

Instead of Mingyu, it was Seungcheol who answered him, "an hour and a half-ish, might as well get comfy back there" he said.

"See? Come on hyung, I'll be splitting some of the snack with (Y/N) anyways and I'll still be able to eat there!" Chan whined. Jeonghan was already convinced by Seungcheol's answer anyways so he thought, 'why not?' Before reaching back into his bag and took a bag of chips and handing it over to Chan, "but share with (Y/N), I don't want to lose my place as her favorite member" he said, winking at you when you turn your head towards him.

"Who said you're my favorite member? It could easily be Chan or Vernon since both of them have my back most of the times" you retorted at him which elicit a "yup yup, cool guys squad never dies" from Vernon at the very back while pumping his fist at you in which you returned. Chan on the other hand was laughing.

This time, Jeonghan raised an eyebrow at you, as if daring you to say more, "I said so because if you won't admit it, I won't lend you one of my chargers" he lifted up a phone charger from his bag.

You squinted your eyes at him and scoffed, "that's an iphone charger." He feigned a shocked look, going as far as putting a hand to his chest, "dear baby (Y/N), I am trully shocked that you don't think I know you at all" he shook his head with mock sadness.

It was until he reached back into his bag again and lifted up a type-C charger proudly with a smirk, "m'lady" he dangle the charger for a bit in front of your face before dropping it on your lap.

"Okay, no, you're right, you're my favourite member" you grinned and shot him a flying kiss which he pretended to catch and press to his heart.

"Woah, hyung, that's awesome! What else do you have in your bag?" Seokmin exclaimed, leaning closer to Jeonghan to take a peek inside his bag.

Jeonghan hummed and scanned the content, "basic things that you guys might need I guess, like... earplugs?" "Oop- that's for me I think" Minghao said from next to Vernon, making Jeonghan toss the items to him so he could sleep.

He then returned to name some other things which entices Seungkwan to say the least. "I bet you don't have EVERY 'basic needs' though" he scoffed, crossing his arms.

This made Jeonghan slightly offended. He turned in his seat to glare at the younger, "I so do!" "Nuuh, you couldn't have" "what if I do?" "Okay, if you have 5 items that I ask for then I'll pay for your next meal" "Done!" "Done!"

Seungkwan narrowed his eyes for a few momenta before clapping his hands, "ah, this, eyemask" Jeonghan took out two eyemasks from his bag before shoving it back in.

"That's easy... what about... masks?"

Jeonghan shoved his hands in and pulled out two items, "which one? Anti-covid or beautifying your face?"

You 'ooh'-ed at him, "oh yeah, we're DEFINITELY having a beauty night tonight" he said.

"Does that mean-"

You were cut off when he took out a jar of facemask that you both loved. Seeing the item in his hand made you squeal in delight.

"Damn it, that was my next guess," Seungkwan muttered under his breath, "okay so, I'll play fair and call it 3 out of 5... but next is... iphone earbuds!" He exclaimed, trying to trick his hyung since he knew his hyung uses a samsung phone.

(Not so) shockingly, he had one in his bag, holding it proudly.

While Seokmin and Soonyoung were whooping in excitement and wonder, Seungkwan was muttering curses under his breath.

Jeonghan looked extremely proud of himself, he had a grin permanently etched on his face which irked Seungkwan even more due to his smugness.

"Okay, okay, one more, you don't have this then I won't have to pay for your damn meal" he said. Jeonghan just shrugged and motioned for Seungkwan to go forth with his guess.

It took him a moment to think of something. Eyebrows were scrunched and eyes flitting, indicating that he's thinking hard.

A look of revelation suddenly appeared on his face. With a smirk, he bravely said, "sanitary pads"

The whole car 'boo'ed at him and his absurd guess. "That is just absurd!" Jihoon said, "hey, I played fair! He said anything!" Seungkwan retorted, defending himself.

Everyone was split between supporting Seungkwan's guess and saying that he was misusing the loophole, some were just straight up calling him nasty, in which you replied with, "how is it nasty ? YOU're nasty"

"Everyone, everyone!" Jeonghan called out, effectively shutting everyone up, "Seungkwan may have found a loophole and it is within his rights to use it, because let's be honest I would've too if I were him," he chuckled.

"However! What he did not realize is that I'm amazing" he smirked.

"No way..." Seungkwan said under his breath.

Jeonghan only nodded victoriously. He reached into his bag for the last time, grab the thing he wanted and held it up proudly.

The whole car went crazy.

Even the driving Mingyu got curious and looked back and forth between the back seat and the road ahead, earning a scolding smack from Seungcheol.

Seungkwan yelled out in disdain, screaming "this is unfair!" Multiple times.

"You forgot it's nearing (Y/N)'s time of the month and she seem to always have it at the most unconvenient time" he smirked.

This made you scrunch your face at him, "how did you know about my cycle??" "You seem to forget that I know a lot of stuffs about you" he smiled proudly. That didn't make you feel any better initially though.

You turn to look at Chan, "does he really know my cycle?" You asked. Chan nodded with a tight-lipped smile at you, "he remind everyone to take precautions whenever it's your period or nearing your period so that you wouldn't lash at anyone for being annoying, he even mark it on his calendar"

Now his constant sweet texts, food delivered, desserts bought, and hoodies lent during your period makes much more sense.

Knowing what you learnt, you look at Jeonghan with puppy dog eyes, batting your lashes at him, "awww you really do care about me don't you, Hannie ?" He squealed and grab your face in his hands, "awww of course I do, you're our baby, my baby" he spoke as if he was speaking with a baby.

Chan frowned at the sight before him, "I thought I was supposed to be the baby around here"

[redevenir]

faintheart in the dark

hoshi x reader

wc : ~ 1800

a/n : @tearsofsyrup let’s just say it’s for you dear, since your tiger agenda blog inspired me. i wish you the best as usual, and hopefully this will feel like a little treat after a good day! not at all a horror au bc that dumb fucker doesn’t know what fear is anyway. Very self indulgent. Also I didn’t proofread so sorry for the faults! 

The bus ride is quiet, a nice relief after Soonyoung’s busy day. Still, it’s not as satisfying as it would be to go home, cook up something quick and warm, drown himself under the shower and crash into his bed. He wonders when he became like that. Working for school after working for a minimum wage, and feeling like this is it. The bus stops pass one after the other until he finally reaches the humanities’ campus. Despite his fatigue and his hunger, he wastes no time in going to the cafeteria – it’s almost closing hour and he knows how annoying last minute customers are – and makes his way directly toward the library. He mindlessly watches the humanities’ building as he passes by. He notices the glass door of the library, goes in, allows himself a brief nod of the head to whoever is at the front desk – maybe a new one ? And they still haven’t fixed that broken ceiling light. He heads to the history of art section, he takes his things out of his bag and sets them up on a table, his pencil case, his notebook, takes out an imposing History of rural theater from the shelves and resumes to work. The pipes are unusually squeaky, but he manages to focus on his task, takes notes for his paper. There is a charm to his subject, he thinks. It is a nice change, to be able to talk about less conventional art, a more popular one. It reminds him of home. He allows himself a quick look over the rest of the tables. A usual, empty Tuesday night. The light flashes in irregular patterns. There are enough others so it’s far from dark, but it is annoying enough to distract Soonyoung from reading. Sighing, he scans the hall again, as a treat. Far away, in the medieval History section, he notices your bag and his lips twitch upward. It’s true you chose that Colors from the Middle-age class, but it’s so unexpected he keeps forgetting about it. Jun sometimes reminds him when he talks about whatever assignments the professor gives you. It’s still weird to think that you and Junhui see each other every week, regardless of Soonyoung, whereas he would go out of his way to go the same parties as you, to get a chance to see you. He closes his eyes, just for a bit. Once he’ll be done, he’ll come over and say hello. As a treat.

When Soonyoung wakes up, he is in the dark. He narrows his eyes in hopes of seeing through, and notices the flickering light by the entrance. Pressing his lips together, he rubs his fingers on his temples. There is no point in staying any longer. He doesn’t bother to look at the time on his phone, puts everything back in his back, leaves the history of theater on the table, and, before leaving, tries to remember where the bathrooms are. Following his foggy intuition, he slaloms among the tables, bumping a few chairs on the way. There is something unsettling about being there after hours. Libraries are supposed to be quiet places for sure, but the dark silence in which he is really far from his habit. He licks his lips, tries to be careful, and with a yawn he reaches the corridor. The soft green light of the emergency exit illuminates it. Here is his way out.

Dum. Dum. Dum. The sound of your heart is deafening. Your bronchi burn, yet you try to control the rhythm of your breathing, the sound of it, even though the alarm ringing in your head shrieks there is no time for this. From what are you even hiding yourself? Sweat runs cold down your spine, you smell it. You want to go home. You want to get out. You want to slap Soonyoung and you want him to pay for a fucking well-deserved brunch. No, you want him to ask you out on a brunch. In an attempt to get a hold of yourself you hide your face in your clammy hands, close to your nose to mute the sound of your fear. Nothing is heard but your restrained breath. One, inhale, one two three four five, six, exhale. You try to change the focus of your mind. You close the toilet seat and sit on it, swallowing saliva. You press your finger on your temple, all trace of sleepiness long forgotten.

Sometimes, Seungcheol says you’re dumb. It’s true. You are. You think back to where you left your belongings, earlier, and that essay on red pigments. Hopefully no one will steal it.

You were already in the last bus when he had called you, voice loud and way too urgent for your state of mind. Asking where you were, and if you had seen Soonyoung or not. You knew very well who Soonyoung was. Jun’s roommate, a theater kid. Phases out a lot, cute. Even though you’re both humanities’ students, you barely see him on campus – you assume it has to do with your respective part time jobs taking up most of the free time you have. But you meet at parties. It feels like whenever you go out, he’s always there, and you usually spend most of the night with him, talking until you stop feeling your head and catch yourself staring at him. That’s when you go home. Dizzy, happy, horny. The feelings linger a few days, until obligations push them out at the back of your brain again. Yet, every now and then, when you are free enough, you remember how vibrant it is to be with him and your skin becomes a boiling veil and your head is full of colors.

So when Seungcheol asked you if you had seen Soonyoung, you told him you had, he was working at the library tonight too. And when he asked when he left you told him you didn’t know – your bus line ends before the library closes, and he was asleep on his table when you left. You heard Junhui’s Oh my god in the back and began to chew on the inside of your lip. And sure enough, they had asked you to come back for him, just in case. And when you had arrived back at the library, all lights off and dark, you had known it was not going to go well. From breaking a window to get back in to the rush of adrenaline induced by the flashlights of the security agents you’d noticed outside, you felt your evening spiraling in a very wrong, irrational way. You didn’t know the library as well as you thought, lost your way of few times, until exhaustion, the fear of getting caught and and increasing worry about Soonyoung’s whereabouts had you disheveled and hiding in the bathroom for a lonely brainstorming session.

Until you hear the flush. The sound of falling water crushing your train of thoughts – you hadn’t even noticed someone came in. Noticing your little cry of surprised, a very tired voice asks who is there, and you give up. Trying to make up a story that wouldn’t make you look like a lunatic, you stand up and push the door open with your feet, wondering how high would the fine be for breaking into the library – and mostly breaking that window.

Only to face Soonyoung, eyes wide, drying his hands with toilet paper. Your mouth agape, you let out a sigh. Your heart skips a beat, maybe because of him, maybe because you’re dead. You feel the embarrassment soaking in. He watches as you close your eyes, lower your head, biting your lips with a little, uneasy smile. You twist your finger until your knuckles are white, licking your lips one last time before clearing your throat.

« Sorry, hum, sorry about… That, I guess. You don’t look at him. Apparently Jun got worried about you and they asked me to check if you were okay… So I-I hum, I, hum, I came back and got scared wandering in the building… Hum. »

You hear your name in a whisper. Two warm hands cup your face, their heat on your frozen ears. They pull you a bit until you gently bump against his chest. Soonyoung whispers your name again. You feel his warmth, and you smell the sweat of his day at work. The soft fabric of his sweater hugs your cheek and you restrain yourself from leaning in more.

« I’m alright, fell asleep, that’s all. His left thumb gently strokes your cheek. Don’t you work morning shifts ? » You shoot him a surprised look from his shoulder, long enough for him to meet your gaze.

« I do. Why do you ask? » He feels your uneven breathe on his lips, it’s warm and shaky. He should kiss you now, but there are fireworks in his head, still in awe at your apparition. His hand goes to your hips, hugging you for good. He then softly takes your hand.

« Let’s go home. You can crash at my place, he tugs at your hand and you hum in agreement. Quick, he makes sure you’re not looking at him as you both head out the bathroom. I’ll call for you tomorrow. To tell them you’re sick. » He avoids your eyes before you can meet his. You should ask him more. You should refuse. Both of his offers. You watch him as he opens the fire escape door – of course – and you watch his hand holding yours. You say nothing and you walk closer to him until you arrive to the bus stop. Sure enough, your bag’s still there, on the floor, where you’ve thrown it the same way you’ve thrown your hours of sleep away. You ponder and you ponder, and Soonyoung looks at you an your face doesn’t look too bad so he doesn’t push you.

« Okay then, let’s do that. I’ll sleep at your place, and before my shift you call them saying I’m sick or dead, as you please. » He smiles and it’s like dawn already.

« Don’t you want to go back ? After, I mean ? I mean, to keep working there ? »

« I’ll do it Jesus style then. » He laughs and you finally look at him again. Even now, as you sit on the bench and he stands right in front of you, he still has your hand in his. He shifts his balance, holding your gaze, and how many times did he get the occasion to kiss you ? Proper occasions, not intoxicated ones. His free hand reaches to cup your face once more, the tips of his fingers caressing greasy strands of your hair.

He really should kiss you now.

[ibijau]

Hi I hope you are well! in Worse engagement AU, does NHS ever find out about LXC getting longer-lasting incense, or LQR intentionally failing him his first year in Cloud Recesses? Poor NHS just can't catch a break, and I love the angst

Worst engagement AU

He does! And I may or may not have pushed myself to write nhs failing his year just because of how badly I wanted to write this, ahah.

Set soon after they get married :D

warning for... I guess he’s having a panic attack of sorts?

Unpacking is a terrible chore, worse in some ways than the packing that preceded it, but at least Nie Huaisang gets some help from his...

His face heats up. It's going to take a while to get used to the fact that they're married. It's only been a few days, and half the time it doesn't feel real. Which is the entire reason why Lan Xichen insisted that Nie Huaisang unpacked his things so they could put everything in its proper place and turn the Hanshi into something that's home for both of them. Even more than Nie Huaisang, it's obvious that Lan Xichen can't believe he gets to have this. It shows in the way he looks at Nie Huaisang when he enters the room where he's working, always half surprised to see him there. It shows also in the way he clings to him at night, as if Nie Huaisang might disappear otherwise, or run away, or do whatever other insane thing Lan Xichen might be imagining.

“What are those?” Lan Xichen asks, having opened a chest and found it full of various papers.

Nie Huaisang abandons the books he was trying to organise and comes to sit next to his husband, a little closer than necessary perhaps, but he knows Lan Xichen will appreciate it.

“This... Ah, it's a bit of everything,” Nie Huaisang admits. “Things I’ve done for fun these last few years. Most of it is bad poetry. Some of it about you, actually.”

“Did you?”

“I got very creative with insults at one point. I made Jin... I made someone read them, he found them very funny. Jiang Cheng saw them too, but he made a fuss about me being rude.”

Lan Xichen's smile freezes into that very annoying, very polite expression he has when he's unhappy about something. They usually avoid talking about Jin Zixuan, really, but Nie Huaisang was so taken by nostalgia for a moment that he half forgot. Besides, the poems really were funny.

Still, Nie Huaisang takes pity on Lan Xichen, and quickly digs into the chest to find something that will let him change the conversation. There's some half finished paintings, some calligraphy attempts, even notes from his time as a student and...

“Oh, right, I kept that,” he mutters, grabbing a neat little stack of paper. “That's probably good for a laugh.”

“Poems?”

“Even worse,” Nie Huaisang chuckles. “It's that exam I failed, my first year in the Cloud Recesses. I really thought I'd done great, you know? Well, maybe not great, but decently at least. Heavens, sometimes kids are so stupid they can't even see how stupid they are.”

Lan Xichen tenses next to him, and rather than to laugh along, throws him a concerned look.

“You kept that? Why?”

Nie Huaisang shrugs, grinning, and looks over the failed test. It always just felt like an important reminder that he’d never manage to play by the rules of others. A good chunk of the paper is unreadable because Lan Qiren had crossed over those wrong answers, but suddenly Nie Huaisang feels curious to see if he'd figure out how he got it so wrong.

“May I see?” Lan Xichen asks, his tone almost too careful, as if he fears he might offend.

“Sure, why not,” Nie Huaisang replies, handing him the papers and turning his attention back to the chest. “You know, I think I have a few portraits of you somewhere in there. Let me just find them, I think one at least is pretty good.”

While Lan Xichen deciphers the physical incarnation of all of his failures, Nie Huaisang continues digging into the chest. He does find a few portraits, but not the one he wants. These are doodles of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, and this he must get rid of discreetly because it's Jin Zixuan, smiling, so Lan Xichen won't like it, and this... well that's a painting of Lan Xichen alright, but he doesn't know how his husband might feel about, ah, imaginative depicting of what Nie Huaisang had once thought their married life might become. Besides, aside from the faces, everything was copied from one of his artful books, so it hardly counts as his own work. And this...

“Huaisang, are you sure this is the test you took back then?” Lan Xichen asks in a strange voice.

“It's not something I'd forget, is it?” Nie Huaisang replies with more bitterness than intended.

He half regrets it when he looks at Lan Xichen. Nie Huaisang almost can't figure what sort of an expression is on his husband's face except that it's an intense, rarely seen one.

Then it hits him.

Lan Xichen is furious.

“If you're having second thoughts because you're realising that I'm really an idiot after all...” Nie Huaisang starts, an old, half forgotten rage and terror already welling in his guts.

“Huaisang, I wouldn't have passed that test.”

Nie Huaisang stares. It's all he can do, when nothing makes sense. 

"And I'm not saying I would have failed it when I was the age you were," Lan Xichen continues, blind to Nie Huaisang’s growing panic, his hands clenched on the papers, nearly tearing them apart. "As I am today I would probably not pass this test. The questions are made to look simple and to have easy answers, but they are actually on complicated subjects that only a scholar would know.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Nie Huaisang mumbles, fear still curling in his chest, though a little less tight now. Lan Xichen is angry, but not at him.

Possibly for him. 

But it makes no sense, none of this makes sense, because if his exam was really this hard and tricky, then…

“Uncle set you up for failure,” Lan Xichen states, almost a hiss.

Nie Huaisang stares.

This is. This is important. This changes. It just. It changes everything. It should make him angry, and it should make him happy. It should make him feel something, but instead he’s just numb.

It changes everything.

It changes too much.

Nie Huaisang doesn’t even know how to start unpacking everything this discovery means. It’s too much, it’s all at once, it’s the very basis of everything he’s done and felt those last few years being shaken on its foundations so badly that it threatens to crumble.

He can’t breathe.

He can’t think, he can’t breathe, because it’s too much, it’s too much, it’s too much, it’s…

He feels hands on his and that grounds him. One of the hands move to his face, wiping tears he hadn’t realised started flowing down his cheeks, just as he doesn’t know when he closed his eyes. He opens them when a gentle, worried voice calls his name.

“Huaisang,” Lan Xichen whispers. “Huaisang, I’m sorry. I swear I didn’t know.”

Nie Huaisang nods, trying to remember how to breathe. He doesn’t doubt that Lan Xichen didn’t know. Neither of them wanted to be forced to spend time together at that time, Lan Xichen wouldn’t have played along if he’d known, not even for his uncle. 

But this is still…

“I didn’t fail,” Nie Huaisang manages to gasp. “I didn’t fail.”

“You didn’t.”

“I’m not stupid.”

He hears Lan Xichen make a noise almost like a wounded animal, feels himself being pulled into a tight hug that he doesn’t, cannot resist.

It’s not.

It’s not that he actually thinks he’s stupid. Nie Huaisang has learned, has accepted, that he’s quite smart, in his own way. He’s good at reading people, and at becoming friends with them, and he knows about literature and poetry and art and, and he’s nearly as good as Jiang Cheng for mixing patterns, and he understands animals and how to tame them. Nie Huaisang is clever, and he’s forced everyone who matters to see how clever he can be, but he knows what some people still say.

Even now, there are some who think that Lan Xichen should be pitied for their marriage. He’s heard them say that Nie Mingjue should have released his sworn brother from that ridiculous engagement, now that there are no Wens left to justify the need for an alliance. That a man as brilliant and respected as the mighty Zewu-Jun deserves a better spouse than that kid who somehow managed to fail when studying in the Cloud Recesses, something nearly unheard of.

But he’s not stupid.

He didn’t fail.

“You’re the smartest person I know,” Lan Xichen whispers against the top of his head, fierce and sincere in a way that Nie Huaisang doesn’t know how to handle. This, also, is too much, but in a way that hurts less. “I will go talk to Uncle. He owes you an apology.”

It’s almost funny. The idea that Lan Qiren might have to say sorry to Nie Huaisang… 

Not so long ago, he would have said that it was impossible. He would have suspected that Lan Xichen would never dare confront his uncle, least of all on Nie Huaisang’s behalf. But now, if Lan Xichen says he will obtain an apology for him, his husband believes that he’ll really fight tooth and nail to get it. He’ll probably still fail, because that’s Lan Qiren and he isn’t one to admit mistakes, least of all when he can argue that things turned out fine for Nie Huaisang, but it doesn’t matter. The apology doesn’t matter. What does matter is knowing Lan Xichen is on his side, and the fact that he didn’t actually fail.

“Don’t go now,” Nie Huaisang demands, pressing himself closer to his husband. “I want… stay with me for now? I don’t care, I really don’t care, just stay with me.”

“Anything you want, my love. I wouldn’t have gone until you felt better, don’t worry.”

Nie Huaisang sighs, and closes his eyes again. He’s breathing easier now, the worst of the shock has passed. Later he’ll feel angry, he suspects. Furious even.

Later.

For now he is at relative peace, in his husband’s arms, loved and protected and seen, the way he always wanted to be, even back when he was a child too shy to dare want anything.

The rest doesn’t matter not really, not when he’s proven his worth in spite of what others say, but…

He didn’t fail, and an old wound he didn’t know he still carried stops itching.

[grapefruitsketches]

Untamed Spring Fest - Day 14: Butterfly

2,601 Words

The Junior Quartet, fluff, hurt/comfort, post-canon. 

“Whoa - Zizhen, be careful! If you can’t even make this step, we’ll start to think you’re a fierce corpse yourself!” Lan Jingyi laughed as he caught the Ouyang heir before he tripped over Sizhui’s doorstep.

“She is beautiful like the dawn, kind like a… a… like ripples on the pond!” Zizhen sang, off any key he might have been trying to hit.

“I didn’t think it was possible for you to be any worse at poetry than you usually are, but good for your drunk-self for proving me wrong!” Jingyi dragged his friend over to the table and sat him down. “Why did you even challenge that old man to a drinking contest? You’re the lightest light weight I know.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Sizhui said cheerily as he entered his room behind his friends, grinning as if at some private joke. He turned to Ouyang Zizhen, “Who are you talking about, Zizhen?” Sizhui asked kindly, but had a hint of amusement in his eyes.

“Only the most beautiful, the loveliest, the…” Zizhen paused, scrunching his face and scratching his chin, “I can’t remember.”

Jin Ling shook his head, sighing heavily, “I don’t know why I’m friends with you.” Zizhen only shrugged in response, grinning.

The four of them had just come back from the annual Spring festival in Gusu, planning to stay over in Sizhui’s room given that Jin Ling and Ouyang Zizhen would not (could not, given Zizhen’s current state) travel back that night. Jin Ling rolled his eyes, and took a glance around the room.

His eyes widened.

Zizhen, who had followed Jin Ling’s gaze but didn’t have the benefit of a sober man’s restraint, blurted, slurring his words almost incomprehensively “What’s up with all the butterflies, Sizhui?” He gestured vaguely at the dozens of grass butterflies decorating the room, disrupting the otherwise very-Lan appropriate, minimalist aesthetic.

Jingyi whacked him over the head, “He invites you to stay in his home and you ask such rude questions? You should have stayed away from that special Emperor’s Smile brew when you had the chance.”

But Sizhui only smiled, deciding to answer Zizhen’s question, “They’re stories,” he said, as though this explained everything.

Jin Ling turned to him, “Stories?” He raised an eyebrow.

Sizhui nodded, and sighed, “They’re all from…” he pursed his lips and glanced quickly at Jin Ling, then the floor, “They’re from Wen Ning.”

Jin Ling gaped. Zizhen swayed, though only from the wine. Jingyi glared at Jin Ling, challenging him to comment.

Sizhui explained, “He made all of these for me.”

Jin Ling looked around the room, taking in the various colours and sizes of the butterflies, “He made… all of these?” he asked, incredulous.

Sizhui nodded, a bashful smile on his face.

“They’re so pretty!” Zizhen remarked.

Jingyi rolled his eyes, jabbing Zizhen in the side, “Of course they are! Did you expect an uncle to give his nephew an ugly gift?”

Sizhui hadn’t taken his eyes off of Jin Ling, worried at his reaction to the subject of Wen Ning. Jin Ling didn’t seem bothered, though, just curious.

“Why did he make you so many?” the Jin Clan Leader asked.

Sizhui flushed, “They’re each… Well, he makes them, and he tells me a story each time he gives one to me. A story of one of my… my family members.”

Jin Ling blinked, understanding dawning on his face, “What kind of stories?” he asked.

Sizhui glanced around at the various figures, smiling softly, “All kinds of stories. What they were like, things we did together, life in the Burial Mounds, memories from Dafan Mountains, that kind of thing.” His smile faltered as he finished. He looked back to Jin Ling, who had unconsciously reached for Suihua, touching it gently and nodding.

Jingyi steadied Zizhen in a seated position, and made his way to Sizhui, touching him lightly on the shoulder, “Sizhui…” he said.

“I’m ok, Jingyi.”

Something that sounded like choking came from the other side of the room, and the three junior cultivators closest to the door looked up to see tears streaming down Zizhen’s face.

“So each of these,” he blubbered, looking around, “Each of these is one of your clan members?”

Sizhui nodded, “I know it makes things seem a bit messy in here, but it’s nice to have them around.”

“Sizhui…” Zizhen cried, “That’s so… so beautiful…”

It was Jingyi’s turn to roll his eyes, “Be quiet. You’re making Sizhui think about depressing things. Tonight is supposed to be about having fun.”

But Jin Ling was intrigued. “What were they like?”

Lan Sizhui leaned forward, “I’ve heard so many stories.” He looked around the room, and stood up to grab a butterfly dyed a vibrant orange, “This one is Fourth Uncle. He used to carry me on his back when I was little, while he planted vegetables.” He put the butterfly down, and picked up deep red one, adding excitedly, “This one is Wen Ning’s sister, Wen Qing. She was apparently the best at getting me to stop crying, and the best doctor in the world.” He blushed, looking around to see if the thought of him wailing like an infant would make his friends laugh, but they all looked on, nodding, or, in Zizhen’s case, leaning forward on the table, chin supported by both hands, smiling dopily. Encouraged, Sizhui reached for a pair of butterflies sitting side by side, one blue and white, the other red and black, “Uncle Ning made these to be my fathers, so they could always be with me even when they were away.” He paused, stroking the two tiny sculptures softly before returning them to their perch.

He shook his head, “I mean, each one has a story but…” he sighed, looking around fondly at the display, “Well, I don’t want to bore you. Like Jingyi said, we should be having fun.”

“Family memories are never boring.” Jin Ling said firmly. His grip on Suihua tightened. Jingyi, who was currently trying to force Zizhen to drink some water, nodded vigorously.

Sizhui smiled at the two of them, “Well if the two of you agree on something, that must mean it’s true.”

“I disagree though.” Zizhen barely avoided falling flat on the table as he pointed forward wildly. The three others turned to him, one curious, one angry, one annoyed. Zizhen went on, “Yours might be interesting but… my family story is…” he exhaled heavily, “Very. Boring.”

“Why do you say that, Zizhen?”  Sizhui asked. Jin Ling and Lan Jingyi, who had seemed set to ignore this interjection, looked to Sizhui, mirroring each other’s single raised eyebrows. Sizhui cast them a glance that prevented any interference.

“Where do I start?” Zizhen grumbled, “I mean, my dad’s a coward - you saw him at the Burial Mounds. At least your uncle,” he looked at Jin Ling, “actually had personal stuff going on with the Yiling Patriarch, and wasn’t just siding against him because everyone else was.” He bit his lip, “And my mother? I mean, I love her, but she’s hardly as intense as all of your ancestors - Lan Yi, Madam Yu. They were awesome.” He took another look around at the butterflies, “And look at all these! Sizhui, your family’s story is incredible! Refugees, wrongfully accused! Your fathers are the Yiling Patriarch and Hanguang Jun, who have the most incredible love story in history!” He looked around to his friends, then down to his lap, “I mean… it’s stupid, but… I don’t know, it’d be nice to have some epic story like that as my legacy, you know?”

A silence worthier of the Jingshi’s name fell on Sizhui’s quarters, before Jin Ling broke it.

“Yeah. It is stupid.” The other three looked up at Jin Ling’s harshness. He sounded more like Clan Leader Jiang than ever, “You want a legacy? You want a family tragedy worthy of those stories you spend all your time reading? You want the heroic deaths of your parents put up on a wall by the person who orchestrated their murders? You want to grow up with one uncle who’s too sad to talk about them and another who worshipped them too much to tell you anything meaningful about their lives? Fine. I’d trade you in an instant.” Jin Ling huffed, crossing his arms. Tears grew out of the corner of his eyes, and he wiped them away fiercely, sitting down on the floor. He gritted his teeth, “An. Instant.”

Zizhen gulped. “Jin Ling, that’s not… I-“ He looked helplessly around to his friend, his inebriated mind only now catching up with what he had said, and what it must have sounded like to the others, “I’m sorry, of course I wouldn’t…”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way.” Jingyi jumped in. Zizhen looked to him gratefully. Sizhui was trying to look anywhere but any of the other Juniors’ faces, choosing instead to linger on a few of the more prominently placed butterflies.

Jin Ling’s shoulders shook as he tried to hold back his frustration, “I know… I just… I mean…” he looked to Zizhen, “Your dad sucks,” he said bluntly. Zizhen recoiled in surprise, Sizhui blinked, torn away from his thoughts and contemplating jumping in given the turn to more personal attacks. Jin Ling went on, his desperate expression and the group’s understanding of this subject’s significance to him preventing further interruptions, “But at least he’s there, you know?”

Zizhen put a hand over his chest, nodding earnestly, “You’re right,” he said, genuinely apologetic, “I shouldn’t be so selfish.” He paused, following Jin Ling’s eyes, which had drifted towards Suihua, “But Jin Ling?” he added, “Your parents were amazing. I wouldn’t trade my parents for anything, but I’m still jealous of the ones you got.” Jin Ling didn’t look up, but the corner of his mouth twitched in appreciation. Zizhen took this as a sign to keep going, looking up as his voice shifted to the tone he usually used when he was reciting his most recent love poem to them, though his voice was more garbled than usual, “They had the most epic romance. They fought to the end to protect the things they loved.” He looked at Jin Ling, “To protect you.” He pointed sloppily at the golden-clad teen.

Jin Ling coughed, once, twice, but this was only a fruitless attempt to stop the tears that came anyway. Sizhui placed a hand on each of his shaking shoulders.

“You’re still stupid, but… thanks, Zizhen,” the Jin Clan Leader managed, “Sorry I said your dad sucks.”

Zizhen shrugged, and clasped his hands together, going into a bow which only ended with a faceplant into the table. He was asleep immediately.

Jingyi rolled his eyes, “Idiot.” But he smiled, alongside Sizhui and Jin Ling (although the latter still had tears streaking his face). Jingyi stood up. “I’m gonna go grab some blankets for all of us, and I guess we can just cover him up there if he’s comfortable. No use in him catching a cold before our night hunt tomorrow.”

Sizhui nodded, arms still wrapped around Jin Ling’s back comfortingly, “Thanks Jingyi.” Jingyi nodded, and left.

“Jin Ling?” Sizhui tilted his head, trying to catch his friend’s eye, “Are you okay?”

Jin Ling sniffed, wiping his nose with his sleeve, “Yeah. Yeah it’s nothing. It’s no big deal. I shouldn’t have yelled like that - Zizhen was just being his stupid drunk self anyway.”

Sizhui patted his shoulder before standing up. “I have something for you,” he said.

Jin Ling looked up, watching Sizhui as he walked towards a shelf not far from the butterfly-Yiling Patriarch and butterfly-Hanguang Jun’s places. The Lan disciple stood there for a moment, scanning the various figures before reaching for one that Jin Ling couldn’t quite see. Sizhui cupped it in his hands and made his way back around the table to Jin Ling.

“I want you to have this.” Sizhui said, opening his hands to reveal a delicate grass butterfly, light purple with what looked like dried lotus leaves weaved decoratively into its wings.

Jin Ling looked to Sizhui in confusion, but reached out and took the butterfly anyway.

Sizhui smiled. “While I was still living in the Burial Mounds, my uncle, the Ghost General, he brought me a bowl of soup one day. He had brought it all the way from Yiling. When he told me this story, I tried to think back. I think I can remember that day just a bit - it was a delicious, but stone-cold soup, better than anything I’d eaten in a long time.” He sighed. Jin Ling was confused, wondering if Sizhui was just getting pointlessly sentimental so far past the Lan bedtime, “When he gave me this butterfly, my uncle told me that the soup had come from the nicest woman he’d ever met, and the best cook too. He told me that it had been from Wei Wuxian’s sister, that she had given it to Uncle Ning but that he couldn’t eat it so he had wanted me to have it instead.” Sizhui looked up at Jin Ling in time to see realization dawning on the other boy’s face, “I only remembered the taste of the soup when Uncle Ning told me this story. When he gave me this.” Sizhui held up Jin Ling’s hands, which were still clutching the carefully woven insect. “I think he’d want you to have it.”

Jin Ling held the butterfly up to his face, stroking the sides tenderly, “This…” he gulped, “The Ghost General made one of these… this one is… my mother?”

Sizhui nodded, smiling. “He almost cried when he told me about her. Jin Ling…” Sizhui caught his gaze, “She was an amazing person, kind even to someone like Wen Ning who most of the world hated at that point.” Sizhui sighed, “I’m sorry I don’t know more about your father but, knowing you? He must have been amazing too.”

Jin Ling smiled, though his chin trembled, “Sizhui…” he held the butterfly close to his chest, “Thank you.”

Sizhui smiled, “No need. We all need something to remember people by, right?”

Jin Ling nodded, looking around at the memories of all the people who had been incredible enough to be related to Sizhui.

By the time Jingyi got back, heavy blankets gathered from the guest rooms, he had to cover up not just one but three cultivators. He would make fun of Jin Ling for drooling on his sleeve the next day, but was happy to see the peaceful expressions on all three of their faces.

--

“I am never. Drinking. Again.” Zizhen groaned, holding his head and plodding along behind the others. The four of them followed Wei Wuxian and Hanguang Jun for what was sure to be an exciting night hunt.

Wei Wuxian laughed, “I’ve said that to myself more than once. It never works out.” He punched his husband lightly on the arm, “Right, Lan Zhan?”

Hanguang-Jun only said “mmm” in response, but Wei Wuxian could see the hint of a smirk on his face. Wei Wuxian glanced back at the Juniors. All except Zizhen, who was still too hungover to offer more than a half-hearted grin, laughed with him. It was then that Wei Wuxian noticed, contrasting sharply against the golds of his robes, a little purple butterfly dangling from Suihua’s hilt. Sizhui, who had followed his father’s eyes, looked to him and smiled, confirming Wei Wuxian’s suspicions.

Wei Wuxian sighed happily, turning to look forward again. I’m glad you can still be at his side, Shijie.

[sluggybasson107]

The Christmas Gift

Digimon

Pairing: (Gen) Ken and Yamato

8041 Words

Warnings: None

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. All Digimon related content belongs to Akiyoshi Hongo and Toei Animation

Summary: As Christmas comes closer, the Chosen Children decide to do Secret Santa this year. Both Yamato and Ken learn two things. One, there’s always more to a gift than it seems. And two, friends can come from places you least expect it.

A/N: Wow, this is my first Digimon fanfic! I was a little uncertain about posting it, but I thought it would be a fun read! It was written for NaNoWriMo2020. The only thing I want to mention is that I did not use honorifics only to make it easier for me.

Hope you enjoy it!

Part One

Ken

Winter was here. The cool breeze was soft and cold, carrying fluffy snowflakes to the ground. The sunset creates an atmosphere of a warm, fuzzy evening. The sidewalk is moist with the snow on the ground. Parts were a mixture of snow and water. Mush? It sure feels like it. Kids were outside together, building snowmen and snow angels. Adults chatted, holding containers of lattes and coffee which gave them warmth. I thought that I could enjoy a silent, peaceful walk. And it was for the most part, except for-

“Ken, are you even listening?” Daisuke asked, with annoyance in his tone. He looked at me with a glare, waiting for an answer that he knew well.

“Um, I’m sorry Daisuke, I zoned out.” A blush crept on my face. “I want to hear what you said. Do you mind if you repeat it?” Daisuke’s face became soft, forgetting about the little incident. He started to repeat what he said.

“Well, I was thinking that all the Chosen Children should do a Secret Santa this year. December is starting in a few days. And this way, we don’t need to worry about getting everyone a gift.” He paused, then he frowned. “I thought it was a good idea, but apparently to you, it wasn’t that important for you to listen to!”

“Look, I didn’t mean too! It happens sometimes!” I proclaimed. Daisuke grinned at my response.

We stopped in front of his apartment building. I pushed open the lobby door. “What do you think about it? You feel like it’ll be fun?” I felt his eyes on me, waiting for an answer. 

Is Secret Santa a good idea? There is so much that I don’t know about the other Chosen Children. Even after we defeated BelialVamdemon, I felt distant with some of the Chosen Children, especially the older six. What if I got one of them? This whole thing could end up embarrassing me in front of everyone.

“Earth to Ken! Are you there?” Daisuke was waving his hand in front of my face. “You’re daydreaming again. If you are going to do this all night, then what’s the point of you coming over?” Daisuke’s teasing tone said otherwise.

“I need to think.” A grin grew on my face as we entered the elevator. “Besides, who’s going to help you with your homework?”

Daisuke pressed his floor number. Then he started to tap his head with one hand and put the other on his chin, exaggerating a thinking expression. “I could ask my sister. She loves to help me!” Daisuke deadpanned. We both looked at each other, then burst out laughing as we left the elevator. “Seriously though, what do you think about it?” He opened the door to his apartment for me.

“We’ll worry about that later. We need to focus on your homework for now.” Daisuke groaned in response. After a quick hello from his parents, we walked inside his room. Daisuke dropped his bag on the ground, and we sat down to work.

Daisuke was looking down at the math problem, his face covered with concentration. He was struggling with finding the median and interquartile range. I’ve been helping him understand how to figure it out. I agreed that if he got this problem correct, we could take a break.

“Daisuke, it’s been five minutes. I need an answer.” I poked him with a pencil. Daisuke sighed, then repositioned himself. He continued to stare at the piece of paper with concentration, not giving me an answer.

Suddenly, his eyes widened and he snapped his head up. “Thirty-four! Both are thirty-four!” A grin grew on his face as he saw my nod of approval. “I did it, Ken!” He got up and did a little dance, pointing to the sky. I couldn't help but feel happy for him too. I neatened up his papers as Daisuke headed for the door. “Come on, Mom should be done with dinner.” As we walked out of the room, the smell of soba hit me in the face. My stomach made quiet grumbling noises in response. I glanced at the clock. It’s already six? That explains a lot.

I pulled out a chair next to Daisuke as his mother came over with dinner. Soon after, Jun and her father joined us at the table. Everyone started to dig in after they were ready. I brought my chopsticks holding soba to my mouth. Once I had one bite, I wanted more. I looked around and saw that everyone thought the same. Except for an exchange or two, everyone was too busy stuffing food in their mouth.

Daisuke took a break from slurping his noodles. “Wow, this is great Mom! Those cooking lessons are paying off, aren't they?” Jun nodded in agreement.

I stopped eating, resting my chopsticks on the bowl. “It was delicious, Mrs. Motomiya. I’m impressed.”

His mother beamed from all the compliments. “I’m glad you’re enjoying it! It took a lot of work to put the right amount of salt and flour in it.”

Everyone seemed to finish up their soba because Daisuke’s family left the table. Daisuke turned to me. “Did you make up your mind? About my idea?”

Great. I sighed as I was bracing myself for backlash because of my answer. “I’m too scared,” I stated. Daisuke’s face filled with confusion. He waited for me to expand more. He must have thought that it was a dumb response. I don’t blame him.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine Ken. You won’t be the only one who gets assigned someone that they are not close to.” Daisuke’s face went dark and he started to shudder. “What if I get Mimi? Or worse, Jyou?” I laughed in response, feeling better about the idea. I suddenly felt Daisuke’s hand on my shoulder. “You can be honest with me Ken. If you don’t want to, I’ll drop the subject.” Daisuke gave me his famous smile as he spoke.

“No. I'll do it. I want to get to know everyone better.” I said with a burst of courage. “Besides, I’m dying to see what you get for your person.” I grinned. But secretly, I felt that this will go bad.

Yamato

Taichi is always happy after school. Always. But Taichi was way too cheerful today. The way he bounced over and sat next to me on the bench was a dead giveaway. He must have been holding in some ‘exciting’ news. He kept on glancing at me as we waited for Sora. It was starting to annoy me.

It was one of those rare days where Sora, Taichi, and I had no activities after school. I ignored Taichi as I watched the school entrance. Well, I tried.

“Can you please stop staring at me like a weirdo?” I snapped at Taichi. A smile grew on his face because he had my attention.

“What do you mean? I’m not staring at you!” He put on an innocent face. “It’s only in your imagination Yamato!” I tried moving away from him, but he leaned on me in such an exaggerated way. He had all of his weight resting on the left part of my body. Most people passing by were probably thinking that he was trying to snuggle with me, which was not the case.

As Sora walked out of the school entrance and headed towards us, I slipped off of the bench, making Taichi fall off the bench and yelled a high pitch scream.

“Yamato! I’m gonna get you back for that!” Taichi got up from the ground and headed towards me, with revenge in his eyes. Before I could react, he grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled his hand back for a punch.

Smack!

I suddenly saw Taichi fly from my vision, and Sora replaced him. “What are you doing!” Sora yelled.

“What am I doing? You should ask your boyfriend! He made me fall on the ground!” Taichi countered, having an over dramatic look on his face.

“It was probably for a good reason!” Sora glared at Taichi, and he returned it. Sora offered her hand to Taichi and he took it. She then pulled him up. Her attention shifted to me. “Yamato, are you okay? Did Taichi hurt you anywhere?” She looked me over.

“Sora, this is only Taichi we’re talking about. He’s as dangerous as a puppy.” I said with a smirk. Taichi was about to retort, but Sora stood between us.

“Okay boys, settle down. We need to start heading home.” Sora walked away from us, and not wanting to get on Sora’s bad side, Taichi and I followed quietly.

After some awkward silence between us as we headed to our homes, Taichi suddenly lit up with the same energy as before.

“I forgot! Did any of you guys hear from Daisuke recently?” Taichi’s face was etched. Sora was baffled as she glanced at me. We both shook our head no. His smile grew. “Well, Daisuke came up with the spectacular idea of doing Secret Santa! Doesn’t that sound fun!” Taichi ran ahead as he turned our way, walking backwards. “The anticipation of figuring out who your Secret Santa is! Getting the perfect gift for your assigned person!” Taichi added many hand movements along with his reasoning. “I thought it was a great idea. What do you guys think?”

Sora had a soft smile on her face. “That sounds wonderful. I’m sure everyone will agree. Right, Yamato?” Both of them stared at me, waiting for me to agree. But I didn’t feel like this was a good idea.

“Uh, maybe I’ll sit out.” frowns immediately replaced their smiles. “You guys can do it though!”

Taichi went up to me and hugged my arm. “Come on Yamato! What’s the worst that can happen? It’s just for fun!” Taichi’s face was pleading. I shook him off of my arm.

“No Taichi.” Both of them looked at me, waiting for me to break and say yes. Both plodded and frowned.

“Yamato, I want to participate. You can’t expect me to do it alone, without my boyfriend?” Sora complained, with a pout.

“I’m sorry, but it’s no. And that’s final.” Taichi and Sora stopped walking and looked at me, giving me puppy eyes. I wanted them to be happy, but I do not want to participate in Secret Santa. No way.

But the way they looked at me in such a sad way. This was one of my closest friend and girlfriend crying out loud. I can’t say no.

Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say-

“I’ll do it.” 

They both cheered and did a high five.

Date: December 3rd, 2004

From: Miyako

To: Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Koshirou, Mimi, Jyou, Takeru, Hikari, Daisuke, Iori, Ken

Subject: Secret Santa

Hello everyone!

I don’t know if all of you heard, but Daisuke came up with the idea yesterday of doing Secret Santa this year! I asked my siblings to mix up all of your names and send you an email of your assigned person. You should get them tomorrow if everything goes right!

We’re planning on exchanging gifts on the 23rd of December, so be ready then!

Please email me today if you do not want to participle (but please take part in it!)

See you later~

Miyako ♡

Ken

“What are you doing with your friends Ken?” Mom asked as she turned off the television. 

“We’re doing a Secret Santa this year.” I informed her while I helped her collect the dishes from the dinner table, “They’re announcing the person we got tonight.” Mom grabbed the plates out of my hand and placed them in the sink.

“That sounds fun! Who’s announcing the names?” I grabbed my schoolbag, checking through all my homework to see if I completed it all.

“The Inoue siblings are!” Wormmon announced, waddling towards us. “Not including Miyako of course.”

Mom glanced at a nearby clock and frowned. “You would think that they would have told you already. It’s getting late.”

Right as she said that, I received an email on my D-Terminal. Both Wormmon and Mom walked over, wanting to know who it’s from. I grabbed it and saw the messenger.

“They announced it.” I looked away, not wanting to see who I got. What if it was someone bad? Even if I know the person well, what if they don’t like what I get them? I should have never agreed to this. 

I shoved the D-Terminal to my mother. “You read it.” 

She grabbed the D-Terminal, and she let Wormmon see. 

“‘Congratulations! You got Ishida Yamato as your assigned person! Hopefully, he’ll like your gift!’ Signed, Chizuru, Momoe, and Mantarou.” Mom read out loud. She furrowed her eyebrows. “Who’s that?”

“He’s part of the older Chosen Children. He was the one who helped out in Mexico with me, Ken, and Gabumon!” Wormmon elucidated. Then they started to go back and forth, talking about Yamato.

I headed into the bathroom and took out my toothbrush and toothpaste. Is he a good person or a bad person to get? I know he’s into music. I could ask Takeru or Sora his favorite band of his at the moment and get him some merchandise for them, but would that seem too generic? His first reaction to that would be that I put little thought into it. He’s just too hard to read. I guess it could be worse. Maybe I can get him some cooking utensils, or a new guitar strap. I spat out the remaining toothpaste in my mouth. Wouldn’t he want something that he can be emotionally attached to, instead of some gear?

“Ken?” Wormmon grabbed onto my leg. “You okay, you’ve left the water running for a while.” I snapped back into reality and turned the faucet off. There was suddenly a knock on the door frame. I glanced over to see Mom with her hand extended out towards me with the D-Terminal.

A soft smile grew on her face. “Here,” I took the D-Terminal. I realized that there was some money with it. “you can use this to get him something.”

“You don’t need to do that! Mom, I have some money.” I tried to hand her back the bills, but she shook her head.

“It’s fine. I want you to use it all. Goodnight Ken.” Before I could protest, she headed out of the bathroom. Wormmon headed for my room and motioned to follow.

“Are you glad you got Yamato?” Wormmon climbed up the ladder leading to my bed.

I shut the door and took off my shirt and pants. “I don’t know,” I responded. I slid on my pajamas.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Wormmon looked down at me, leaning on the pole surrounding the bed.

I sighed while climbing up the ladder. “I don’t know how he’ll react to my gift.”

“He’ll love it Ken, no matter how bad it is.” I pulled the covers over us.

“I hope so Wormmon.”

Yamato

Since when did it get this cold? I know it’s past dinner time, but the temperature dropped tremendously. There was barely anyone on the sidewalks. Not that I thought there would be.

I crossed the last road as I approached the apartments. Walking inside the lobby was like being in summer. I took off my guitar case and jacket as I nodded to the attendant and headed towards my room.

I unlocked and opened the door. “Dad, I’m home!” I announced. I flicked on the lights. Was he home? I dropped my stuff inside my room. “Dad?”

I guess he was working overnight again. Then I’ll have to prepare his lunch tomorrow. What’s something that we haven't had in a while?

My phone starts to ring. 

“Hello?” I spoke into the receiver.

“Hi, Yamato! Have you checked your inbox lately?” Sora’s voice came from the phone.

“No, I haven't. Did they announce the names?” I wedged my phone between my shoulder and neck as I started to gather ingredients to make yakiniku. 

“They did!” Sora informed me. I pulled up my recent emails. “Who’d you get?”

“I’m not going to tell you Sora!” A laugh was heard from the other side. “I’m checking right no-”

Congrats! You have been chosen to be Ichijouji Ken’s Secret Santa! Have fun getting him a gift!

From, Chizuru, Momoe, and Mantarou

Ken was my person.

I dropped my soy sauce on the floor.

Part Two

Ken

I faced the entrance to a clothing store. Yes, the boy genius Ichijouji Ken can’t seem to figure out what Yamato would like for Christmas, so he resorted to clothes. You might think that he knows exactly what he’s looking for, but he doesn't have a clue.

I took a deep breath as I entered the store with the sixty dollars that my mother gave me.

“Welcome! Do you need help finding anything?” A store employee said, greeting me as I walked into the clothes store.

“No, I’m fine.” I walked away before they could ask me anything more. What does Yamato wear? Every single time I’ve seen him, he’s wearing black. I guess I can get him some black clothes, but wouldn’t that seem like a plain gift? Are there black clothes that pop out more? 

I walked up to the cashier who was folding some clothes. “Hello. Do you have any clothes for men that are black?” 

The woman looked up with a smile. “Can you get a little more descriptive? There are too many clothes that are black here.”

“Uh, shirts or jackets for men that are edgy?” Is that what Yamato’s into?

The store clerk smirked at me. “I see. You’re into that style of clothing.”

My face went red as a cut watermelon. “No, it’s for a friend. He seems to wear clothes that are black a lot,” I sighed. “But I can’t tell what he exactly wants.”

Her face turned sympathetic as she put away the clothes that she folded. “Maybe you try looking at this.” She went in the back and came out with a bunch of coats.

I picked up the top one. It was a dark grey leather jacket with a fuzzy inside. It seemed decent, but would Yamato like it? I looked at the next few, but none of them stuck out to me.

“Do none of them seem good?” The clerk started to grab the clothes that I set aside.

“I don’t think he’ll like any of them.” I glanced around the store, but nothing seemed good enough for him.

“Well, I can look at more dark colored shirts and jackets if you give me his shirt size.” She stood there, waiting for an answer. I didn’t know his shirt size! I felt my face go back to a dark red.

“Um, well…” I trailed off. She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know his size. For anything.”

The store clerk broke out in a laugh. I couldn’t help but laugh along at my ignorance. “I’m afraid I can’t help you much then. Maybe you could visit later.” 

“I’ll do that. Thank you.” She gave me a friendly wave and smiled as she went in the other direction. 

I felt that I failed as I walked out of the store. What was I thinking, going to a clothing store unprepared like that? All I learned from that was that this was going to be arduous.

Yamato

“Yamato? What’s the matter?” Takeru’s voice came through the phone.

I sat on the couch. “What’s been popular with boys your age.”

“Um, what do you mean by that?”

I thought about my word choice. I can’t give away that I want ideas for Secret Santa. “What new games or toys or whatever has been popular with the kids in your grade?” Why do I have to sound so obvious?

Takeru’s side went silent. Did he make the connection that I have Ken?

“Well, there is something.” I heard Takeru boot up his computer.

“I’ve-I mean, other boys have been wanting this new game that came out a week ago.” My phone got a notification. “I sent you the name by email. You can look at that. I gotta go, bye!” He hung up before I could respond.

I checked the game’s name and I typed it into our computer. The game seemed to be different from your average game. It at least seemed interesting. Maybe Ken would like it. I decided to look into it more. I read the description of the game.

And saw what this particular game contained.

Let’s just say, I yelped as I closed the tab as quickly as possible.

“You know, you used to complain about me leaving piles of stuff out in the open. Now, look at you.” Dad came inside the apartment to me being surrounded by magazines.

“This is a one-time thing, Dad.” I flipped the page of the magazine I had in my hand to see some soccer gear that was being advertised.

He walked over and peered at my magazines. “What are these for anyway?”

“I’m looking for a gift for Ken. We’re doing a Secret Santa this year.”

“Is Ken that intelligent kid? Wouldn’t he want something that has to do with school?” He headed for the fridge and took out last night’s meal.

I shut the magazine and sighed. “Dad, no kid wants a textbook for Christmas. Even smart ones.” I started to think of the possibility of getting Ken a textbook for Secret Santa. If I did that, everyone would laugh at me. And Ken would be there disappointed in me. I can’t do that.

“Well, what does he like to do in his free time? You can’t think too much about it.” Dad patted my shoulder. “You’re his friend. You can do this.”

“We haven't talked much since we went to Mexico. I don’t know if I can say I’m his friend.”

“Then use this opportunity to become his friend.” Dad headed into his room, leaving me at the table alone. I started to clean up my pile of magazines until I saw one contain news about the new manga that got released, and that’s when it hit me. A book! How come I didn’t think of that? I darted to the computer as I looked up new books for adolescents.

I finally felt like I was on to something.

Ken

I sat in front of my computer, typing all sorts of things in the search engine. From ‘best gifts to give to teens 2004’ to ‘mom Christmas ideas for boys’

If anyone saw me do this, I would be dead.

“Ken, you’ve been typing for more than an hour, you must have found something for him.” Wormmon hunched over the computer top, blocking my view of the screen.

“Nothing seems to be good enough.” I pushed myself away from my desk and crossed my arms. “What would Yamato like?

“Well, Yamato loves to perform. He spends loads of time on gigs. What’s something that you can get him for that?” Wormmon crawled off of the computer and jumped on my lap.

“It’s not like I could buy him a new guitar.”

“Then get him something he can have while performing.” Something while performing? I can’t get him a new outfit for concerts, I learned that the hard way. I can’t get him any gear because that could be way too expensive. What could he use on stage? It can’t be too noticeable. Then an idea came to me. I scooted my chair to the computer then searched up ‘Teen-Age Wolves Japanese band concert’ and images of Yamato’s band came up. It took a glance at Yamato’s hand for me to realize that my new idea can work.

Yamato

Deep breaths Yamato, deep breaths. You’re just going to go inside a school. You do this every day, what’s the worst that could happen? I pushed open the school doors. It’s not like you are going to be arrested. Hopefully.

The male at the window looked at me and motioned me to come over. “Hello! What are you here for?”

“I was wondering if I could look at the books Ichijouji Ken checked out recently.” I felt my cheeks turn into a cherry as I spoke. “I need him to get a gift for Christmas, and I thought he would like a book. But I don’t know what he reads.” I knew this was a horrible idea. I don't know how I’m going to live with this.

Everyone in the room stared at me. “You’re kidding me, right?” The male started to laugh, and everyone joined in. “You don’t even go here!”

“I know it’s such a weird request, but if you could at least have the librarian say what types of books he enjoys, I’ll leave without any trouble.” The people in the office shared a look, and one of them shrugged. The man turned around to face me.

“If the librarian allows it and you give me your name, then we could.” The man smirked at me. “The story behind this is way too absurd to ignore.”

Relief flooded through me. “Thank you so much. I’m Ishida Yamato. I attend Odaiba Middle School.”

“Ishida Yamato? The singer from ‘Teen-Age Wolves’?” A woman in the office spoke.

I nodded. “Yes. You know us?”

“Yes, my daughter loves your band! Do you mind if you...” The woman held out a piece of paper with a faint blush. I grabbed it and looked at her with an eyebrow raised. “To Yutsuko.” I finished the message and gave it back. “Thank you, she’ll love it.”

“Ichijouji Ken? Let me see.” The librarian typed in his name into the computer. “Oh! I know exactly what he loves to read!” The librarian got up from her desk and grabbed two books. She placed them in front of me. I’ve never heard of these titles before.

“He loves these books?” I asked, examining the top book.

“He does! He’s already read those two though.” The librarian paused, thinking. “The third and final book comes out in a week. He’s super excited about it. The school is going to get a copy, but I don’t know when we can because the books are flying off the shelves. The series is popular at the moment. If you want me to, I can find different books that he likes.”

“No, this is perfect!” I blurted. People in the library stared at me with disapproval. “Thank you so much,” I whispered.

The librarian nodded. “He’ll love it.”

Ken

I gripped my piece of paper with vice as the car pulled to a stop. My mother in the driver seat unbuckled her seatbelt and I followed.

“You ready?” She gave me a reassuring smile. I nodded as I opened the car door.

We walked into the jewelry store and the cashier greeted us. I felt the weight of the sixty dollars in my pocket as I walked up to him.

“Hello! Do you need help with anything?” The employee asked with a smile.

“Could I make an order for a custom necklace?” I passed the piece of paper to him, and he nodded.

“It could be done.” He grabbed some sheets of paper. “Here are your options.” There were different designs on the paper for custom necklaces. They all looked great, but the one on the third row stood out to me the most. 

I looked at Mom. “You think the third one looks good?” She nodded. I looked back at the employee. “The third one please.”

We gave him the information that was required. At the end of the transaction, he told us the price. “Okay, that’ll be eighty-five dollars and sixty cents.” I froze. That’s more than what I had!

“Here.” My mother pulled out some bills and the man accepted. Before I could protest, she took the receipt and dragged me out of there. What was she doing?

Right when we entered the car, I shouted at her. “Mom! Why’d you paid for that? Eighty dollars is way too much!”

She smiled at me. “Yamato will love it.”

“I know that! But that’s going too far!” I put the sixty dollars I was planning on spending in her purse. “Nobody pays that much for Secret Santa. Let’s go back and cancel the order.” Before I could leave, she spoke.

“It’s just that,” she sighed. “I’ve never seen you so excited.” My face turned red. “You’ve been trying so hard to get a gift for him. You don’t want that to be wasted, do you?”

I shook my head.

“I’m glad that’s settled then.” She pulled out of our parking spot before I could stop her.

Yamato

Right when I went home, I went to the author’s website. She’s doing a signing near here. It also comes with her new book for free. If I could get her to sign a copy to Ken, he’ll love it! I clicked on the signing information page and was greeted with a disheartening sight.

Seventy dollars? Seventy dollars is the price to go and meet her? I know the librarian said that the series was super popular, but really? That’s when I checked the book preordering, and there was none left to preorder! I felt the opportunity for a good gift slip from my hands. There were only twelve more days to get Ken a gift. The signing was in five days. I groaned as I put in the information to pay for signing. 

This better be worth it.

Taichi

“Hey, Sora! Yamato!” I ran up to the couple, who were walking to a lunch table with food. I was also holding a tray of food that seemed indigestible.

“Hey, Taichi!” Sora gave me her smile as we sat down at a table. “What’s up?” I had to ask the question that has been burning in my mind.

“How are you guys doing with Secret Santa? There are only ten days until the twenty-fourth.” I asked. I stabbed my fork into the mystery meat. I didn’t know who Sora and Yamato got, but I bet they’re easier than Mimi.

“Great! I got everything I needed, and all I need is to package it up!” Sora said. She looked at her boyfriend. “How about you Yamato?”

All Yamato did was stare in the distance with his facing giving off an I want to murder look. You could feel the negative energy coming from him. He didn’t respond to her.

“Hey Yamato, you doin’ okay?” I poked him with the bottom of my fork.  

He didn’t budge.

All I and Sora could do was look away awkwardly and continue eating.

Yamato

I handed my ticket to the employee at the door. They looked at it and handed it back to me, giving me a nod of approval. I walked inside to see a crowd of people waiting in a line. I joined in. It felt like the line moved every ten minutes. It must have been two hours until I was able to see the author at her table signing books. I impatiently tapped my foot as each person got their book signed.

When it was my turn, an employee had me go up to the author.

She gave me a friendly smile as she got a copy of her new book and opened it. “Hello! Who’s the book for?” She asked.

“Ichijouji Ken,” I answered. I suddenly felt many eyes in the room look at me. Maybe I should have just said Ken instead of his full name.

Her eyes narrowed. “You sure don’t look like him. You related?”

A blush formed on my face. “No, I’m his friend. We’re doing a Secret Santa, and I wanted to get him a copy of your book.”

Everyone in the room seemed to stop staring. The author gave me a grin. “This seems to be a little overboard for a Secret Santa.” She joked.

I did an awkward laugh. “I know he would like it. He talks about your books all the time.” The author finished her message in the book, then she handed it to me.

“That makes me so happy to hear that. Tell him I appreciate it.” I nodded as I was ushered out of the way for the next person. I left the building and headed home in the cold. I only checked the message that the author left after I stepped foot into our apartment. As I read it, a grin grew on my face.

He’ll love it.

Part Three

Ken

I walked up to the Inoue’s door and knocked. I felt the weight of the box inside the paper bag that I held. I kept on reassuring myself that he would like it. I took a deep breath as the door to the apartment was opened.

“Ken!” Miyako hugged me by the neck. “So glad you came!” She moved away and held open the door for me. “Taichi and Daisuke were just about to see who could stuff the most marshmallows in their mouths!” She ran ahead, taking my hidden gift with her. I looked under the tree to see a bunch of trashy bags. It seemed that everyone followed the rule of keeping your gift a secret by hiding it inside a bag.

I took in the surroundings as I wandered inside the Inoue apartment. Taichi and Daisuke were both stuffing marshmallows in their mouths, Jyou was trying to prevent them from choking, Koshirou and Iori were playing cards, Miyako and Mimi were admiring the Christmas tree while gossiping, Takeru and Hikari were frosting cookies, and Sora and Yamato were watching the current events unfold on the couch.

I felt my cheeks go pink as I saw Yamato. What if he doesn’t like it? Is it as good as I thought it was? I thought of the many ways this could go wrong. I shuddered. He’ll never like it. He’s not gonna like-

“Uwwaagghh!” I suddenly saw Daisuke, teary-eyed, spit out all the marshmallows in his mouth. “I give up!” Daisuke dabbed his mouth with a napkin.

Taichi spat out the marshmallows in his mouth into the trash. He pumped his fist upward. “Aw yeah! What did you expect was going to win?”

Hikari spoke up. “Not going to lie, but I thought Daisuke was going to win big brother.” 

“Same here,” Koshirou added. Everyone nodded in agreement. Taichi faked a look of betrayal.

Then Chizuru entered the room. “Well, are we going to start or what?” Chizuru asked. Momoe and Mantarou with a camera followed. “You all go into Miyako’s room, and we’ll remove the gifts out of their bags. We’ll call you in when we’re ready.” We all went into Miayko’s room. It was awkward as everyone sat around waiting for the Miyako’s siblings to prepare the gifts

“Mimi, do you think your assigned person will like their gift?” Sora asked.

Mimi winked at her. “I’m sure they’ll love it.” Everyone laughed in response and I chuckled. How can she be so confident?

Miyako turned to me. “Ken, do you think the person you were assigned will like your gift?”

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. Will Yamato like it? I felt my whole body go red and my eyes start to water. “I don’t know,” I whispered. I gripped my pants.

I felt someone’s hand go on mine. I looked up to see Sora in front of me. “I’m sure they’ll like it, Ken. Just have faith in yourself.” Everyone was staring, so I only nodded in response.

“Everyone come out! We’re ready!” Momoe hollered. Everyone got up and headed back. Mantarou started to record us walking inside. All the gifts, from big to small, were laid out under the tree.

We all sat in a circle as Chizuru and Momoe handed out our gifts for everyone.

“I think Daisuke should go first since he came up with the idea. Then, everyone to his left can go after.” Iori proclaimed. Everyone agreed. That’s when I noticed that I was on Daisuke’s right. I was going to go last! I couldn’t help but wonder what my gift held.

Daisuke ripped open his wrapping paper and took a look at the gift. “Oh my gosh! I love love love love love love it!” Daisuke turned it around, revealing a few soccer posters with his favorite players on it. “Thank you Secret Santa!” He called out, holding his posters in the air.

Next was Koshirou. He took a long, good stare at his wrapped box, then he unwrapped it. His face filled with delight as he saw what it was. “A computer cleaning kit! Thank you so much!” Everyone shared an of course he would love that look.

Then, it was Yamato.

I felt my body heat up as he picked it up. Then, he slowly unwrapped the gift. Everyone shared a glance when Yamato revealed a jewelry-like box. He slowly lifted the cover of the box.

His face was covered with awe as he gently held the necklace in his hand. His mouth was left open. Everyone ‘oohed’ and ‘awed’ as they looked at his gift. It was a necklace that was Yamato’s name. If you turned it around, it had a song lyric inscribed on the back. “Yamato Ishida. ‘I’ll even walk on the edge of a knife’” Yamato read. He gently touched the inscribed words before putting it around his neck. A smile formed on his face. “I love it so much. I don’t even know what to say.” His face went pink with embarrassment. “Thank you so much.” The way he reacted was better than I imagined. I couldn’t help but grin. He loved it!

After that, everyone went through the gifts. After Yamato, Jyou got a mug that read ‘World's Best Dad’, Miyako got a shirt that read ‘Bingo’ on it, Takeru also got a shirt that read ‘I Love Hats’, Iori got a new kendo bag, Mimi got high-quality makeup pallets, Taichi got some deodorant (everyone laughed at that one), Sora got a flower show ticket that started in February, and Hikari got a brand new collar for Miko.

It was finally my turn.

Everyone’s eyes were on me as I took my gift out of a Christmas themed bag. Right when I saw it, I almost dropped it. “No. Way.” My excitement grew so much. It was a book from my favorite author! I wanted to get a copy, but it was sold out! “I don’t know what to say! I love it! Thank you” I traced the spine with my finger. I wanted to head home and start to read it right away!

“There’s a note!” Koshirou pointed out. I looked at the piece of paper lying on the ground.

“It says ‘Look inside, there’s a surprise!’ on it.” I read out to the group. I put down the note as I opened the cover of the book.

I gasped as I saw what was on the page. A signed copy! “This can’t be real! Those signings were super expensive!” I exclaimed.

“Read it out loud!” Sora requested. I then started to read the message.

“‘To Ken Ichijouji. I feel honored to be writing to one of the smartest kids in Japan! Your friend went all the way to Tokyo and waited in line for three hours just for me to say Merry Christmas to you. That’s when you know you have a true friend standing by you. They told me how much you love to read my series, which makes me so happy! I hope you have an amazing Christmas and an amazing time reading this!’ Then her signature follows.” I almost went to tears. I couldn’t believe they went through all this effort for a silly game! “Thank you to whoever is my Secret Santa.”

“Okay, now that’s done, we revealed who was your Secret Santa. When we say go, point to the person who you were assigned.” Mantarou announced. Who did mine? Who would have gone through the effort to get me a signed copy of my favorite book series? Daisuke? No, he wouldn’t get me a book. Koshirou? I don’t think he would have had the courage to talk to the author and get the book signed. “Three,” I turned to Yamato, who made eye contact with me and looked away in a bashful way. That’s when it clicked. “Two,” I looked down at my book and smiled to myself. “One...”

“Go!”

I pointed to Yamato, who had a surprised face as he saw me pointing at him. I gave him a shy smile, and I returned it. The room suddenly was filled with laughter as I looked around and saw…

Everyone got each other? Mimi and Taichi, Jyou and Daisuke, Iori and Sora, Koshirou and Hikari, and Takeru and Miyako were pointing to each other.

“Was this done on purpose? Why’d you guys do that?” Miyako asked. Everyone quieted down to hear the answer.

“We thought it would be fun if everyone got each other. That way, it felt like more of an exchange.” Momoe explained. Miyako just huffed in response.

Everyone started to mingle then, talking about their gifts to their Secret Santas.

I grabbed my present and admired it. I couldn’t believe that Yamato, a Chosen Child that I don’t have the best relationship with, gave me this. I stood up. I wanted to find Yamato, but he wasn’t in the room. Where was he? I asked around, but it seemed like nobody knew.

“I saw him exit the apartment. At the moment, I didn’t think much about it.” Chizuru informed me. “I don’t know where he would have gone, though.”

Why’d he leave? I opened their door and walked into the hallway with my book. That’s when I saw the floor number for the elevator go upwards. The roof? I clicked the up arrow and waited for the elevator to go on my floor. When it did, I entered it and sent it upwards.

The doors shuffled open as I walked onto the roof. The cool breeze felt nice as it hit my face. That’s when I saw Yamato leaning on the fence surrounding the edge. He was facing the other way.

“Yamato?”

He didn’t answer.

I walked up to him and leaned on the fence next to him. He turned to face me with a soft smile. “I love the view up here. With the stars and the city lights.” He said. He then pulled out the necklace. “This is the best gift I’ve ever received Ken.” We both blushed. “Besides my harmonica and guitar.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

The breeze picked up, grabbing onto my sweater. You could hear people below talk and sing about Christmas. Snow fell from the sky, covering the city with white. I was tempted to stick my tongue out and catch one. It was a beautiful sight.

“Uh, thank you so much, Yamato.” I sputtered out. “I didn’t expect you to get me this book.” He gave me a confused look. I realized what I said then. He must have taken it the wrong way. “Not that I didn’t like it! I love it!” Somehow, my blush became a darker shade. “I’m sorry.”

That’s when Yamato turned and faced the city. “To be honest, I freaked out when I saw your name. I didn’t know what you liked.” A smile formed on his face. “Because I’m so smart,” he said with sarcasm. “I went to your school to see what books you read in the library.”

What? My eyebrows raised with shock. “You’re serious? They must have rejected you!”

“No, they actually let me ask your librarian what you love to read! I was thinking I was going to get rejected.” He threw his hands up. “But school, out of all the places, let me in!”

I grinned. “I had a similar experience! I also panicked. I went to a store to get you black leather clothes.” He whipped his head around to face me with shock on his face. “The thing is that I didn’t know your clothing size! You could tell that employee thought I was so dumb.” We both laughed.

“I’m glad you didn’t do that.” He grinned. “Sora always teased me that I wore ‘edgy’ and ‘emo’ clothes. If you gave me those, she would never let me alone.” His face suddenly lit up. “I also forgot. At the signing of the book, the author wanted to let you know that she was extremely grateful that you support her.”

“Wow, I don’t know what to say.” Did she really think that? That’s when I remembered that I was still known in Japan. I’ve tried to disappear from the news and the internet, but it seems like people recognize me.

“Yet again, she also said that the Secret Santa gift was super dumb. You could hear it in her voice.” Yamato joked, imitating her voice. It was really impressive, especially since he has such a low voice.

Then, he laughed. I couldn’t help but join in. I never knew how fun it could be to talk with Yamato. I looked down at my book. I finally understood why he was well-liked.

“Thank you. For everything.” Yamato said, gripping onto his necklace. “But I think we should head inside.” I forget that there was a party going on. How much time has passed? We both headed into the elevator and headed into Miyako’s apartment.

When we opened the door, everyone was hanging out.

“Where did you two run off to?” Taichi asked, who was playing cards with Jyou, Miyako, Koshioru, and Takeru. “We’ve been waiting for you two.”

Yamato shrugged. “The roof.”

Well, I’m glad that you two came down now. We’re about to start caroling!” Daisuke announced, holding bells. He passed them to me. He went around, giving the Chosen Children bells and sheets of paper with song lyrics.

“We’re now able to see if the famous Ichijouji can sing!” Mimi exclaimed, doing over dramatic gestures. “He’s going to start us off doing a solo in Jingle Bells!”

“I didn’t know about this! I’m not ready!” I protested. “I’m a horrible singer!” Nobody was buying it. I don’t want to sing! Especially in front of everyone.

That’s when Yamato spoke up. “Ken and I will both sing.” He smiled at me. “Besides, what’s the point of caroling if you’re doing it alone!” He grabbed the paper handed out to everyone.

That’s when I realized that I was going to be leaving tonight with something that I never knew I had.

Something that I never knew I needed.

Epilogue

Yamato

The crowd screamed as I went on stage. The flashing lights blinded me, but I was used to it. I looked at Takashi, Yutaka, and Akira. They nodded at me, saying that they were ready.

I grabbed the microphone. “You ready?” I asked. The crowd responded in screams. I waved, telling them to quiet down. “We have a treat for you all. For the first time, we’re going to be performing our two new songs. The first is Tobira (Door), then after Hitoribocchi no Seesaw (Alone On The Seesaw)!” They got louder as I positioned myself and my guitar.

I looked out into the crowd. I found the Chosen Children sitting in front of the stage. I gave Sora a smile, which she returned. I looked at Gabumon, who did a thumbs up.

Then, there was Ken, sitting by all the Chosen Children and their partners. He was bookmarking his new book. He already got through a fourth of the book. He peered at my neck and saw the necklace that he gave me. I grabbed onto it, made eye contact with him, and smiled at him. I gave the signal to my bandmates to start up the music. I didn’t know how everyone would react to the two new songs, but I decided to perform it.

Besides, it’s not fun to restrain yourself. It’s better to take the risk and walk on the edge of a knife.

[soundofseventeen]

Someday Pt. 10 (Jeon Wonwoo)

Hello! Last part! This was a trip to write! Thank you to everyone who read! I hope you enjoyed this chaos!! I have no idea what I’m doing next!! Have a good holiay and rest of your day! 💛

Masterlist

Turns out, the distance didn’t help. You still had your crush on Wonwoo. It was still there, going strong, annoying the hell out of you. 

And it felt even worse because you missed him so much. 

And now, today was the day you had been looking forward to and dreading since Seventeen left for their tour. 

You received a text from Soonyoung that morning saying they had just landed back in Seoul. 

You found yourself looking at your phone every ten minutes, checking to see if Wonwoo had texted you yet. Every single time was a relief and a disappointment that he hadn’t yet. Honestly, you didn’t know what you would do when he did, but it had bugged you all day. 

Part of you wanted to just tell him. A really big part wanted to tell him. Just get it out in the open and see what happened. That way, you would end up with either closure or… a boyfriend. But another part of you was extremely scared to do this. Scared enough that you just couldn’t do it. 

You jumped as you heard your phone go off, laughing to yourself as though you hadn’t been waiting for it to do that all day. You took a deep breath, opening the message on your phone. 

<Hey!! We’re back!! Do you want your present?>

You raised an eyebrow at the message. Wonwoo got you a present? 

<A present????????? :O> 

You stared at the screen, waiting for Wonwoo to reply. He was taking such a long time responding. Or it at least felt like it was taking a long time. 

<Yeah??? Of course I did??? You free tonight?> 

You took a deep breath. You could do this. You would tell him yes, he would come over, and you would confess. It was simple. You could do this. You typed out a reply, hitting send and putting your head on the table in front of you. 

<Actually, I’m pretty sick again. Don’t want to get you sick. Maybe another time. Rest up!> 

…

God, you were such a chicken. 

You let out a groan that lasted until you heard your phone ding again, picking your head up to rest your chin on the table. 

<..Oh. Okay. Feel better!> 

You groaned again, putting your forehead back on the table. Why couldn’t you do this? 

*

You paused the movie you had started watching, getting up to answer the door. Being dramatic about your chickening out earlier, you were too upset with yourself to actually cook dinner. So, you ordered take out. Considering you felt like a chicken right now, maybe some chicken would make you feel better. You looked at the time on your phone, raising an eyebrow. 

Damn, the delivery guy was quick. 

You skipped to the door, opening it up, the smile on your face falling once you saw who was standing on the other side of the door. 

“Hey you.” Wonwoo smiled, walking into the apartment. You had a whole deja vu moment, frozen in the doorway as Wonwoo set a plastic bag on the counter. You blinked a few times, turning to look at him. “You don’t look as sick this time, so at least that’s good.” Wonwoo commented, looking back at you. He saw you staring, rolling his eyes and coming up to close the door. You quickly jumped back as he shut the door, Wonwoo eyeing you. “What?” 

“...Nothing.” You said, walking to sit by your counter. 

“So what kind of sick are you? Like, do you feel like you’re going to throw up?” You shook your head. “Pass out?” You shook your head again. “...Lady stuff?” 

“What are you doing here?” You asked, rolling your eyes. He pulled out soup from the bag, opening up the top. 

“You said you were sick, and no offence, but you don’t take care of yourself very well.” He smirked, causing you to pout at him. 

“I do too.” You muttered, causing Wonwoo to give you a look. “Okay, sometimes I let things slide, but I try.” 

“Of course you do.” Wonwoo smiled, looking for a bowl. “So, do you have any medication to take or-” Wonwoo stopped as there was a knock at the door. You both turned towards the door, Wonwoo confused, you panicked. 

Your Chinese food. 

“Who’s-” 

“I got it.” You said, quickly standing up. “Can uh… Can you go get me some tylenol? It’s in the bathroom.” You smiled, Wonwoo giving you a look but walking down the hall. You quickly went to the door, opening it and quickly taking the food. You scattered around your kitchen, trying to figure out where to hide the food. 

Unfortunately, you were about 2 seconds too late. 

“Okay…” You froze, hearing Wonwoo’s voice. “If you’re sick, why are you getting Chinese food?” You looked up at Wonwoo, who looked at you with an amused look on his face. 

“Uhm…” You straightened up, clearing your throat. “When you feel bad… You do small things to make yourself feel better. So.” You held up the bags. “Egg rolls.” Wonwoo blinked at you a couple times, tilting his head. 

“...You’re not sick, are you?” Wonwoo asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“...Not really.” You said, setting the food on the counter. 

“Why did you say you were?” 

“Uhm…” You felt all the butterflies in your stomach, looking away from Wonwoo. You went back to sit at your counter, scratching your head. “Well, I knew you just got back and were probably tired and uh… As much as I wanted to see you I wanted you to be able to rest from all the traveling you were doing. So I said I was sick so that you would stay at the dorm and rest.” Wow, you could lie fast. 

“Bold of you to assume I’d be able to rest with the 12 boys back at the dorm.” Wonwoo sat on the stool next to yours. “That’s fair though. I’d still rather be here, a little quieter.” He smiled at you, causing your heart to burst just a little bit. “Plus... Jun wanted me to check on the grill. He wants to use it.” Wonwoo grinned, causing you to laugh a bit. You heard Wonwoo chuckle next to you, both of you internally happy with each others laughs. 

Oof, you both had it bad. 

“So uh… Did you say something about a present?” You said, looking away and quickly changing the subject, hoping to direct it away from your heartbeat. 

“Oh yeah!” He leaned forward, pulling a box out of the bag. He set it in front of you, looking at you expectedly. “Open it!” You let out another laugh, seeing how childish your best friend was being.

You pulled the top off the box, moving some of the tissue paper. At the bottom of the box, you saw a charm bracelet. There were a handful of charms around it, each one different from the next. 

“Wonwoo…” You held it, closely examining it. “What is this?” 

“It’s a charm bracelet, you goof.” Wonwoo chuckled, leaning closer to you to point at the charms. “See, each charm is from a different spot on the tour. I was able to pick out most of them, but some got picked out by that one staff member who really likes you and keeps asking to adopt you, so you should say thank you next time you see them.” He grinned, looking at you. “Do you like it?” 

You didn’t know what to say. You were just… He did that for you? That means he thought about you throughout the whole tour? Your heart was thumping in your chest as you looked up at Wonwoo, realizing now that he was only a couple inches from your face, looking at you with a soft expression, waiting for your response. 

Before you could stop yourself, you put a hand on Wonwoo’s cheek and leaned forward, lightly kissing him. You made not have had many kisses in your life, but this one felt… different. It almost felt natural. 

Then you pulled away and saw Wonwoo staring at you, eyes wide. 

“Oh my god.” You said, realizing what you had just done. Your mind was catching up with your heart, and it went into immediate panic mode. “Oh my god!” You quickly got up, dropped the bracelet on the counter and ran to your room. You quickly shut the door, leaning against it, silently cursing yourself. 

Meanwhile, Wonwoo sat frozen at the counter, trying to figure out what just happened. You just kissed him. Out of nowhere. That meant…

“Holy shit, Soonyoung was right.” He muttered, a grin forming on his face. He grabbed the bracelet, walking down the hallway towards your room. 

“Y/N!” He called, knocking on the door. You didn’t answer, still silently cursing yourself. “Y/N, please open up! Look I… I mean I…” He looked back at the kitchen, getting an idea. “If you don’t come out I’ll eat your dinner.” He said, causing you to pick up your head. You knew he would too… 

You said a few more curses under your breath, punching around the air a bit, then slowly turned to open the door. You opened it very slow, not looking directly at Wonwoo. You tried so hard not to think about how embarrassed you probably looked. 

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know what-” You got interrupted by Wonwoo cupping your cheeks and pulling you towards him. You jumped a bit as Wonwoo kissed you, a little deeper than the kiss you gave him. As he pulled away, he kept his hands holding your face, keeping your foreheads together. 

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that…” Wonwoo muttered, a chuckle coming from him. You looked up at him, seeing his cheeks turn red. 

“...Really?” You asked, Wonwoo nodding his head. You were almost caught up in the moment, then blinked a few times, stepping back. 

“Woah, wait.” You pointed at Wonwoo, who now looked at you half scared, half amused. “You have a crush on me? And you knew about my crush on you?” 

“...Uh yeah… Hoshi kind of mentioned something a while ago.” He rubbed the back of his head, a shy smirk on his face. 

“I’m going to kill him.” 

“Or…” Wonwoo said, stepping forward and putting his hands on your shoulders. “You could stay here and we could hang out as…” He got a lost look on his face, quickly thinking. “Wait, if we have feelings, and we both know about it, what are we?” 

“Uh… We’re…” You thought about it. “Are we dating now?” 

“Don’t we have to go on a date for that?” 

“...Could this be considered a date?” You raised an eyebrow at him, watching him think. “I mean, we have food and uh… I don’t know about you but I hate first dates.” 

“So this… is our first date?” Wonwoo asked, you nodding your head. “So we’re dating?” You nodded again. “So I guess… Do you want to be my girlfriend?” He asked, a slight chuckle to his voice. 

“...Do you want to be my boyfriend?” 

“...Yeah?” 

“...Okay.” You patted his shoulder, taking a step to the side and walking down the hall away from him. You barely made it back down the hallway before Wonwoo caught up to you, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you into a hug. 

“Not so fast…” Wonwoo pulled your arm up. He carefully wrapped the bracelet around your wrist, clasping it shut. “Look at that, it fits.” He smirked, kissing your cheek and letting go of your waist. “Now… I call the Chinese food.” 

“Jeon Wonwoo!” 

*

“Y/N…” Wonwoo groaned, leaning his head on his arms ahead of you. “Do you seriously have to do that now?” 

“I just have to finish this chapter, then I will be done.” You said, holding up a finger. “We have discussions in class and it’s awkward if you can’t participate.” 

“When do you graduate again?” Wonwoo blinked at you, causing you to throw a napkin at him. 

“Soon.” You laughed, shaking your head at your boyfriend. “Now let me finish.” You said, turning back to your book. 

“How many more pages?” Wonwoo asked, propping up on his elbow. 

“...32.” 

“That’s it, I’m going back to the studio.” Wonwoo sighed, standing up. 

“Babe…” You pouted at him, causing him to let out a sigh. 

“We don’t have a crazy day today, so call me when you’re done. You could come watch rehearsal and realize how I feel watching you do this every day.” He smirked, shaking his head. “But first, tea. Do you want anything?”

“No… I think I should be okay for now.” You sighed, twirling your cup. Wonwoo nodded, going up to order his drink. You continued to read your book, attempting to absorb the words. You managed to get a good groove going, until you saw something land on the table. You blinked at the bag on the table, looking up as Wonwoo kissed the top of your head. 

“See you later, love.” He smiled, walking towards the exit. As he left, he turned and gave you one last wave before disappearing around the corner. 

You pulled the bag towards you, smiling at the cookie inside, covered in red sprinkles, with a single chunk missing. 

Yeah, you were pretty happy.

(also hi i kept picking this gif for motivation whoops)

[orderofthedyingstar]

RECAP: SESSION 14

The party is off on the road to Asaraoi, the last major town before it’s just the Long Road between them and the capital city of So’Joh. Rhododendron asks Jun about how his journey out of So’Joh went, but he doesn’t supply too much information beyond saying that there were bandits and a druid colony in the forest near the Long Road. He also supplies some information about the upcoming ‘Night’ of Endless Rains, and how they’ll probably end up getting stuck in Asaraoi since they’re so close to Yulong’s Fingers and that entire portion of the country will be completely flooded (and underwater). Rhododendron also tries to ask Junzabout a dance show he’d attended a while back but like always Jun is very reluctant to talk about his time as the Royal Seer, but does mention that Inigo was at the show with Umbra. He keeps making the noise from the horses’ hooves louder to avoid talking, much to Marlee and Verrix’s confusion.

Rhododendron: “VERRIX!” 

Verrix: “Hmm? What?” 

Rhododendron: “What do you think we need? Verrix?!” 

Verrix: “What??” 

Rhododendron: “What do you think we need in Asaraoi??” 

Verrix: “What did you call me?!”

The party plans on getting their final round of supplies before the Long Road, including a map of So’Joh. Verrix is still bitter about his cloak, which got fixed when Dilong saved their lives in the temple, but with silver stitching. While reviewing their supplies, Inigo says that he has a tinder box and then immediately drops it over the side of the cart. Jun mentions that he wants to break into the palace for the supplies he needs, including a glass eye worth 100gp. They also debate asking bandits on the road about Umbra, to which Jun offers to pick through the brains while Rhododendron suggests that Verrix use his powers of persuasion - which Marlee expresses some doubt in. Inigo still isn’t able to recall very much from his past memories.

Jun supplies a little more information about So’Joh and Nartai, including the fact that the criminal organization the Masks are a prominent figure in the capital - but Verrix isn’t worried about them. Rhododendron asks Jun if he’s worried about running into anyone in So’Joh, and but he says that he wouldn’t be recognized since he had someone help him (“paid a lot of money to”) change his appearance. Rhododendron pesters Jun about his appearance, and he continues to avoid giving an answer. Eventually, after repeated bothering (and some guilt-tripping) from Rhododendron, Jun gives a bare description of what he looks like, including that he has a tail. Rhododendron asks Jun if he thinks that the royalty in So’Joh are looking for him, to who he says that he doesn’t think that they care. Rhododendron thinks that the Emperor is probably looking for Jun on some level (and assumes that the child who died was the crown prince, which isn’t true since the child was a princess and wasn’t first in line to the throne, but Jun doesn’t correct her*). He tells her that he’d rather be dead than be the Royal Seer again.

*he usually uses ambiguous pronouns w no descriptions when giving info about ppl he doesn’t want to talk about, and rhododendron has a habit of filling in the blanks w her assumptions and he just tends to go along w them lmao

Rhododendron also manages to remember that the 80-day timeline on Queen Lunette’s return reward has passed, but the party hasn’t heard anything yet about the outcome of that. They wonder about who her replacement might be, and Jun expresses some concern that the Emperor of So’Joh might try to get involved with Gosha.

The party finally arrives in Asaraoi, where Verrix stocks up on some explosive crossbow bolts and Rhododendron gets rations and basic supplies for the road. She also asks around about a glass eye but doesn’t find anything even close to what she’s looking for. Marlee pesters Verrix about working on the book he’s ‘writing’ again, and Rhododendron gets him a forgery kit and a bracer for Inigo (but she doesn’t give them those gifts yet). Inigo looks at the wanted posters and wonders if he knows any of the people on them, while Verrix manages to recognize Jun’s description of what he actually looks like - and finds out his legal name; he points it out to Rhododendron.

The party also finds out that the people of Asaraoi sacrifice a volunteer from the town every year during the week of the flood, and are understandably horrified by this (or, Rhododendron and Verrix are). They talk to one of the clerics at the local church about it, and she’s very nonchalant about the whole thing. She also mentions that the town (as well as the town of Moyoto) pay the ‘Bloody Price’ (in sacrifice, again)  to the local giants of Giant’s Pass to keep them from attacking their towns. Marlee gets increasingly annoyed/bored with the cleric’s retelling of the Night, and she insists on being the one to talk about the myths behind it.

Marlee: “Anyways, she didn’t know what she was talking about.”

Marlee talks about how Yulong, the goddess of the ocean and storms, worked with Laoteng and Nyvarstra to give people life. She’s known for having a volatile temper, shifting just as frequently as the ocean’s tides used to. Yulong once fell in love with a mortal (that Marlee says was probably ‘young and hot’) and Yulong’s grief was so much that she flooded the entire world for weeks until Ardrin and Nyvarstra punished her for harming mortals indiscriminately and trapped her deep in the ocean. Marlee thinks that Yulong was being overly dramatic.

Rhododendron: “Have you ever been in love, Marlee?” 

Marlee: “Y - no, but I would like to.” 

Rhododendron: “I don’t really think you’re an expert on the subject.”

Marlee: “She still took it way too far, like it couldn’t have been that good. Like two weeks? She was like, drowning people, oh my gods. She needs to, like, chill.”

Marlee also mentions that there are different versions of the story, such as their love being forbidden by Laoteng or Zelia also having been in love with the mortal and killing them for revenge over not choosing her. Rhododendron remembers that the party still needs a map, and Marlee points to an excessively massive one on the wall, saying that they’re easier to read (and glossing over the fact that she might actually need glasses).

Rhododendron: “We don’t need more details, we’re going straight to Nartai, which is the biggest detail on the map since it’s the capital - ” 

Marlee: “Oh my gods, we can go shopping??” 

Rhododendron: “How about we go shopping after we find Raz?” 

Marlee, delighted: “Oh! Ah, your little boy-toy, oh that’s cute.”

Rhododendron: “I…don’t want Raz to be my boy-toy…”

Rhododendron escapes the conversation after that, taking Jun with her and leaving the rest of the party behind with Marlee at the tavern. She also wants to investigate the church again to see if they can find the town’s sacrificial volunteer.

Rhododendron: “We’ll have to explore the realm of your available emotions eventually.” 

Jun: “I’m good, we can stick with none.” 

Rhododendron: “I don’t know, it’s probably be good to know if you can feel…certain things…” 

Jun: “Hmm, no, not really, I can’t really see any benefits.” 

Rhododendron: “You don’t want to know the spectrum of pain you can feel?” 

Jun: “Uh. What I felt in the temple was enough. Don’t gotta experiment with that.” 

Rhododendron, upset: “Okay, whatever. Let’s just go. To the church.”

Rhododendron talks to Asaraoi’s sacrifice, who seems pretty calm about the whole situation. They ask her about where she grew up, and whether or not she loved the people in that town and what she’d be willing to do to prevent her family from getting hurt - what lengths she’d go through to keep the people she loved safe. They never really reach an understanding over the matter, especially since worship of Yulong is very limited or nonexistent in most of Gosha. The volunteer cleric tells Rhododendron that she looks lost, and that maybe she needs some sort of Guidance. Rhododendron is relived that the sacrifice is willing rather than forced, and also decides that they need to bunker down their horses in one of the warded stables before the floods come. They return to the party to discuss where to store the horses and Marlee offers to pay for them since the rest of the party is ‘so broke’.

The party decides to stay in the cart outdoors for now, and Rhododendron gives Verrix the paper and ink she bought (for writing the book) in front of Marlee before taking it back later. Marlee tries to teach Inigo some basic hand games (like patty-cake). Rhododendron tries to get through another section of the book Marlee lent her, getting progressively more embarrassed as the material gets increasingly strange. Jun lends Rhododendron his spellbook to hide the cover of the smut book from curious passerby, which she snoops through - she finds out that it’s a very old children’s textbook on Arcana that he’s written notes in and shoved extra papers into. She asks him about why he’s carrying a children’s spellbook with him, and he admits that it hurts to think about too much and would rather not continue on with the topic.

Rhododendron: “Why are you a wizard still?” 

Jun: “Cause it’s useful.” 

Rhododendron: “…And why does that matter?” 

Jun: “Cause there’s probably people that want to kill me.” 

Rhododendron: “But you’re not in a country where people want to kill you anymore.” 

Jun: “Kind of about to be, though.” 

Rhododendron: “Yeah, but you don’t have to be, is the thing. Why are you here?  Why are you helping me? Why have you stayed so long? Why are you still seeking magic when you don’t have a heart?”

Her line of questions triggers an emotional response in Jun (very bad CON save), who doubles over in pain while his eyes roll in the back of his head. Both Verrix and Rhododendron freak out, with Verrix insisting that she’s killed him. It takes about an hour and half before Jun’s pupils reappear and he passes out. Marlee checks in on them a few times during this, and tries to ask about what happened but Rhododendron refuses to give her an answer (even though Marlee says she is “the epitome of good”).

Marlee: “Do you need me to heal him?” 

Rhododendron: “I don’t think so, I tried a few times and it didn’t do anything. It just kind of burned up in my hands.” 

Marlee: “Ow, always kind hurts though, like a slap.” 

Rhododendron: “That is not how I cast Cure Wounds.” 

Marlee: “Oh, well. Maybe one of us is doing it wrong. Could be me.” 

Verrix: “Yeah, maybe.”

After turning down Marlee’s offer to cast Cure Wounds or Lesser Restoration on Jun, the party decides to take a long rest, leaving Inigo and Verrix on the first watch. Inigo teaches him the hand games that he and Marlee were doing (both of them roll extremely well). Marlee and Rhododendron take over the watch after them, and Rhododendron tries to ask Marlee about the smut book…

Rhododendron: “YOU’RE INTO THIS?!” 

Marlee, completely deadpan: “Ya, it’s hot.” 

Rhododendron: “Are…you hoping this will happen to you at some point???” 

Marlee: “It could.” 

Rhododendron: “Oh my gods, oh my gods. I don’t even know what to say to you right now. I’m not even halfway done.” 

Marlee: “Oh my gods, you’re not even at the best part.” 

Rhododendron: “What’s…the best part…?” 

Marlee: *winks*

There’s a day left before the rains start, and Jun still won’t wake up. The party heads into a room at one of the inns in town, crowding into a room with a couch and a bed. They debate trying to protect the door against thieves before deciding that they 1) have way too many people in here for a thief to want to rob them and 2) don’t look rich. Verrix still sets up a simple trap to make noise with some spare junk to rattle if someone tries to get through the doorway. When they look out the window they can see the sacrificial cleric walking through the town as the rain starts to pour. It takes a few hours for the rain to start flooding the town about four feet from the ground. Rhododendron, Inigo, and Marlee play go-fish and strip poker while Verrix stares out the window and watches fish (and jewelry) and shapes in the darkness float past.

As the next few days pass the party splits up to spend time away from each other in the main hall downstairs, with Marlee trying to pair random strangers up with each other. Rhododendron spends some more time going through Jun’s spellbook. On the forth day Jun finally wakes up, and he admits that he’s having a hard time telling what is real after having prophetic dreams for the past few days. After Rhododendron spends some time doting on him, they speculate about Inigo and Umbria’s connection to Zelia, a whether or not that’s going to come up at all as they get closer and closer to confronting Umbra. Jun still struggles with understanding how much information to share, and doesn’t really want to share things about the future that might not come to pass.

Rhododendron: “You don’t have to lie to me.” 

Jun: “I just don’t really know what to say, there’s just stuff you shouldn’t have to worry about.” 

Rhododendron: “I mean…you don’t really have a stake in my heart, though.” 

Jun: “I don’t understand…?” 

Rhododendron: “You don’t get to decide how I feel, is what I’m saying.”

Jun: “That is true, I can’t even decide how I feel.” 

Rhododendron (after Jun’s tried to escape the conversation several times): “……Jun? Remember that I trust you.”

Verrix goes around and pickpockets some merchants while Marlee continues to cause personal drama amongst the others trapped in the tavern with them. He also uses his weighted dice to scam some people out of a few silver, and then runs up to the room to hide out from people in case they figure it out. When a merchant knocks at their door Verrix ducks under the bed to hide with Marlee’s armor while Rhododendron (poorly) attempts to lie to the merchant. Verrix refuses to crawl out from under the bed even after the merchant leaves, insisting that he’s totally fine down there. After failing to convince Verrix to come out from under the bed, Rhododendron leaves the room to search for Jun, who left a while ago to go get tea. Verrix gets bored and tries to put on some of Marlee’s armor, but he can barely even drag the helmet halfway out from under the bed (and critically fails to shove it back under the bed, so he just kicks a blanket over it).

Rhododendron fines Marlee and Jun talking about all of the ‘couples’ that she’s helped create, and both of them tell her that they haven’t seen Inigo in a while. She goes looking for him and finds him up in the attic, which is used for storage. He says that he just wanted some space to think, since he saw someone downstairs with a tattoo he recognized - a skull with a dagger through both of the eyes - since he also has the same tattoo. Inigo isn’t able to remember anything about the significance of the symbol, but mentions that Marlee suggested Remove Curse or Lesser Restoration to try and fix his amnesia, although he’s hesitant since the memories he’s gotten back haven’t been the most pleasant.

Rhododendron: “Listen, Inigo, I have heard quite a lot about the person that you used to be, but I think you should keep in mind the kind of person that you are now.” 

Inigo: “Stupid?” 

Rhododendron: “I, uh - ” 

Inigo: “I’m kidding! I mean, I’m not but I am.” 

Rhododendron: “I just mean that at your core this is the person that you are, and you shouldn’t forget that, even when you remember who you are.”

Inigo: “That’s a lot of forgetting and remembering, but I’ll try.”

After talking about Inigo’s lack of memory and who he might have been for a while, they briefly touch on Raz’s situation and Inigo asks if her ‘little wizard’ is awake yet.

Rhododendron: “Do you not know his name?” 

Inigo: “No, I know his name, it’s just - you kind of dote on him a little.”

Rhododendron: “I don’t dote on him!” 

Inigo: “I’m just saying, you don’t see Verrix doing the same thing.”

Both of them also express their frustration with being stuck in the inn for the better part of a week, and Inigo admits that he’s been helping her with her chaotic destroying and re-pairing up of the couples in the building. Rhododendron begins to worry that Marlee will get this bored while they’re all trapped out on the Long Road together, and try to start things amongst the party members. The two of  them leave the attic, and Rhododendron goes to investigate the halflings downstairs to see if any of them have the tattoo that Inigo was talking about. She eventually finds them, but they aren’t exactly forthcoming on information (CRIT MISS Persuasion).

Rhododendron goes back up to the attic to send up a quick prayer to Yulong while the rest of the party regathers in their room to watch the floodwaters slowly receded. She returns to the room afterwards, and then reminds Inigo, Marlee, and Verrix that they need to wait until most of the crowd has left the building until they try to get their horses back since they’d spent too much time causing trouble. Marlee offers to officiate some weddings to fix some of the broken up couples, but Rhododendron tells her that would probably just make things worse. Rhododendron and Jun find their horses (Tulip and Carnation) just fine, although there are a few less lucky steeds that got partially eaten by the creatures that were moving around during the floods despite the magical wards on the stables.

The party reunited after the crowd has left the inn, and Rhododendron gives Inigo the bracer she got for him (and he starts to feel a little bad about causing trouble in the tavern), making Marlee and Verrix suspect that she has feelings for him.

Verrix: “Did she give you a present too?” 

Marlee, delighted: “She. Did. Not!”

As the last of Yulong’s tears of grief dissipate from the Material Plane, the party prepares themselves to head into So’Joh and begin their months-long journey on the Long Road.

[ka-chaaow]

BLACKMAIL | KUROO TETSUROU X OC

fluff; Kuroo x OC, slightly suggestive

Part One | Part Two 

The following day in class, Mikasa sat in her assigned seat as she studied her notebook in front of her. Her conversation with the Nekoma captain kept playing over and over in her head as if on loop. To make matters worse, after his conversation yesterday with Yaku, Jun confirmed that the Nekoma volleyball club was in fact looking for a new manager - as if almost an unfortunate coincidence. 

Her brother wasn’t aware, but Mikasa wanted nothing to do with the volleyball club or their rooster-headed captain. After her brother’s club activities were cut short because of the accident, she wanted to avoid the thought of volleyball completely. 

“Can anyone identify the prepositional phrase in this sentence?” the teacher asked as she projected an example on the screen. 

English studies wasn’t her best subject, but Mikasa still managed to do exceedingly well compared to the rest of her class. She distracted herself from thinking about the captain’s blackmail and turned her attention back to her studies. She narrowed her eyes as she inspected the sample sentence before her. The answer was relatively simple…

Mikasa began to raise her hand to answer her teacher’s question when-

“The prepositional phrase functions as an adjective phrase.” a familiar voice several desks down loudly blurted out. Mikasa whipped her head to the side to identify the source of the voice, furious that someone dared to not raise their hand first. Her eyes widened as she recognized the voice to belong to the brooding boy from yesterday, his body slumped against the chair and his right cheek resting against his hand.

“He’s in my class too?!” she thought. 

“That’s right.” the teacher responded with a soft smile. Mikasa rolled her eyes at the captain of the volleyball team who managed to just nonchalantly shrug at the teacher’s response. She then grimaced at the sight of his hair —did he even bother to brush it this morning? 

Before Mikasa could properly dissect her current situation, her thoughts were immediately interrupted by the sound of her teacher’s voice. “I’m going to hand back last week’s exams.” she stated as she began to hand out each student’s exam paper one by one. 

As the teacher approached Mikasa’s desk, Mikasa’s eyes lit up as she eyed the mark stamped across the top of the page. All of her studying landed her at the top of her class once more. Her small victory was short-lived, however.

“Teacher.” came Kuroo’s familiar voice once more. “I think there’s an error on my paper.”

Mikasa turned to him as he pointed out the mistake on his exam paper.

“Ah, you’re right. My apologies!!”

The teacher grabbed her red pen and corrected the captain’s paper. Mikasa leaned over in her seat to get a better view. Although Kuroo sat several seats away, she was still able to (ever so slightly) catch a glimpse of his score. 

“9-98?!” she thought, widening her eyes. The score now placed him five points ahead of her own grade. Mikasa’s eyes travelled away from the paper and unintentionally into the satisfied stare of the Nekoma captain, who was now looking directly at her. He appeared smug, gazing at her with a triumphant grin.

Mikasa swallowed, quickly turning her attention back to her desk.

“D-Did he catch me staring?!” she thought nervously, “Shit.”

Mikasa settled back into her seat for the rest of the class and did her best to avoid the direction of the smug Kuroo at all costs. She could tell that every now and then the captain would sneak a glance her way. The teacher continued to lecture for several more minutes up until the final bell rang. 

“Looks like I scored five points higher than you this time, eh?” hummed a confident voice from behind as the teacher dismissed the class and Mikasa began packing her bag.

“Eh?” Mikasa retorted, pursing her lip in an effort to assert her dominance. She turned around to see the same looming presence from yesterday standing before her once more. “Why is this guy so god damn tall…” she thought to herself as her eyes traced up his body to meet his eyes. Even standing at full height, she still had to raise her head up to make eye contact with him. And Mikasa was relatively tall herself.

“Prepositional phrases can be tricky.” he sang out as he shrugged. “English grammar isn’t the easiest either. Do your best next time.” He eyed the exam paper that was displayed on her desk. 

Mikasa quickly grabbed her paper and placed it in her bag. 

“I wouldn’t worry so much about me, Kuroo-san.” she grinned. “I feel more worried about the poor students who sit behind you.” She pointed to her head and mimicked Kuroo’s hairstyle. “You’re always blocking the chalkboard with that crazy hair of yours.”

Kuroo’s breathing paused for a moment. From the silence that followed after, Mikasa was quick to notice his expression as she bent down to pick up her school bag. Kuroo Tetsurou most likely wasn’t used a response like that from the opposite gender. 

“I had no idea we were in the same class.” he continued to tease. “You following me or something Matsunaga-san?” Kuroo chuckled and flashed a smile. “Did you make your decision yet?”

Mikasa shrugged and stepped closer to him. She rested a hand on his shoulder, making his body tense, “Come see me at the same spot after classes.” she replied with a wink. 

Mikasa knew that if she was going to play his game, she was going to play it hard. 

Kuroo only gulped as she squeezed his shoulder and walked out of the classroom. Leaving behind the snide whispers of her other classmates:

“Tch, she was totally flirting with him.” 

“Great, she’ll probably seduce him next like how she seduced that teacher.”

“A girl like that is only good for one thing.”

Kuroo shot the gossiping students a glare, causing them to immediately fall silent. He looked over to the window, his mind racing. Was she that playful with everyone? Why was he getting worked up over a shoulder touch?!?! More importantly, all the captain could think about was how he wanted to see her again, even if it meant that he would be putting his reputation on the line.

Mikasa headed down the hall with an annoyed expression on her face. She was not going to let Kuroo Tetsurou get to her, nor would she let her guard down in front of him. Then again, Mikasa had no choice but to actually consider joining the club - she couldn’t afford to get kicked out of school.

“English grammar isn’t the easiest either.” echoed Kuroo’s voice. Mikasa was not going to lose. If she could keep a better eye on her competition, she would jump on the opportunity. As she turned the corner still deep in thought, Mikasa was greeted by a frenzied Jun - who appeared to look as though he had just finished a ten mile marathon. He happened to turn the corner so quick that he almost knocked his sister to the ground. 

“WHAT HAPPENED?!” he shouted.

Mikasa blinked and tilted her head in confusion, onlookers giggling at Jun’s disheveled appearance. He frowned and leaned in closer to his sister, “My senses were going crazy, WAS SOMEONE HITTING ON YOU?!”

Mikasa rolled her eyes in response, “Some rooster head tried to provoke me in English studies.” She replied as she shrugged her shoulders and walked past her brother, continuing down the stairs to her locker. Jun moped behind, following Mikasa’s lead. He jumped up suddenly, as if everything clicked in his head.

“W-WAIT, rooster head?!” he gasped, “You talkin’ about Kuroo from the volleyball club?!”

Mikasa stared straight ahead.

“Yup. He wants me to become the team’s manager.”

“M-Manager?!” Jun clenched his fist and cursed under his breath, “Bastard, that guy was always up to no good. How dare he hit on my precious baby sister?! I mean, he must know who you are! You were always at my games.” He paused and pointed at his sister. “No way you’re going to join that club!”

“I don’t have a choice.” Mikasa replied bluntly. 

“Don’t have a choice?!” “That son-ofa-bitch better not be blackmailing you or somethin’!!”

Mikasa couldn’t admit that blackmail was exactly what the captain was doing. Although her brother knew of her bad habit, she wanted to avoid another doting brother lecture at all cost, and if Jun found out she could possibly get kicked out of Nekoma, he would flip. As Mikasa grabbed her shoes from her locker, she turned over to her brother who was sulking.

“Wait here, there’s something I have to do.”

Jun shot her a suspicious look. 

“I’ll meet you at home for dinner.” continued Mikasa as she closed her locker behind her. She flashed Jun a smile to reassure him that everything was okay. She then parted ways with him and disappeared around the corner.

With a deep exhale, Mikasa closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing to slow the rapid beating of her heart. She normally feared no one, but Kuroo Tetsurou had a way of keeping her on edge. In hindsight, maybe Mikasa should have really quit her smoking habit a long time ago.

Could it be blamed for her current predicament? Perhaps. She had no choice BUT to accept the third-year captain’s terms. What else could she have done? Kept her pride and turned him down? Disappoint Jun? Prove to everyone at Nekoma that she was just the delinquent who they made her out to be?

“If you squeeze your eyes so tight your eyeball will pop out.” a deep voice joked in front of her. Mikasa opened your eyes and was met with the self-satisfied stare that caused her current predicament in the first place.

Mikasa grumbled beneath her breath as she glared at the looming boy standing before her. Kuroo said nothing, staring intently at Mikasa with an indecipherable look on his face. What was he thinking? His brows were just a little furrowed, lips parted slightly and the same intense look still present in his captivating eyes. Having had enough of his unnerving gaze, Mikasa marched over to him, pointing her finger only inches away from his face.

“I’ll join the team as manager.” she snapped, punctuating each word as she felt the pride within her crumbling within. “And I’ll do it to defeat you.”

Kuroo blinked. A low chuckle rumbled from his chest, which soon erupted into a loud laughter. “D-Defeat me?” he wheezed between laughs as he tried to calm himself down. “Miss Second Place, you’re too funny.” he continued once he regained his composure. 

“S-Second place?” Mikasa nearly screeched out loud. Her hands clenched into a tight fist. Kuroo scoffed as he took a step closer, looking down at Mikasa from above. 

“Great to have you manager. Let’s go talk to Coach.”

[smileyjaeminies]

The artist with the golden hands

Synopsis: With spending more and more time with the boys, you become closer and closer. When Renjun is struck by heartbreak, how are you going to help?

Word Count: 3,4k

Genre: slow burn, angst, fluff

Warnings: none

Member: 00z, ft. Yangyang

A/N: Okay guys this is it! This is the actual beginning of the series! I hope you can enjoy this and the drama that is going to follow!

~Series Masterlist~

  Time was an illusion indeed. There would be hours that dragged on endlessly, dragging you along with them, tired and sleepy. There would minutes that ticked by in a heartbeat, minutes of happiness and smiles that you wanted to hold on to, but slipped through your fingers.

  It had been weeks since you had broken up with Kyle. You wanted to say that you were getting better every day, but that would be a lie. It still hurt seeing him in the cafeteria with his friends, it still hurt when he brushed past you in the hallways. You were thankful you hadn’t changed your schedule to fit his, because that would have just driven you mad.

  “Don’t Need Your Love Club” or “DNYL” for short, surprisingly did help. Hanging out with boys that weren’t Kyle or his group of friends and genuinely had fun getting to know you and spend time with you was more refreshing that you had ever anticipated.

  You had gotten very close with both Renjun and Yangyang, with Renjun sending you every meme he stumbled upon and Yangyang joining you in many of your dance lessons. You shared a couple classes with Jeno, who always managed to make you laugh in the most inappropriate situations. Jaemin was just… Jaemin. He flirted with you constantly and you made an effort to always have something to say back to him.

  Renjun had slipped one day, telling you how upset Donghyuck had been when he learnt you had joined. You had tried your best to keep a straight face and allowed Renjun to console you. All the boys were certain Donghyuck would come around sooner or later.

  You couldn’t be as certain. Due to this uncertainty, you always left the club early, a few minutes after Donghyuck arrived. You declined invitations to hang out with all of them and you did all you could to avoid him.

  And life went on.

  Elena was sitting next to you, her eyes focused on her laptop screen as she furiously copied the information from the book she had borrowed from the library. Music was flowing from the café’s speakers, not too loud to bother you while you worked, but loud enough to provide a nice background noise. You took a sip of your latte as you let your eyes skim over your best friend’s familiar features. Your mind trailed off, but Elena’s voice snapped you back into reality.

  “Sorry, what was that?” you asked.

  Elena gave you a small smile, turning to look at you properly.

  “I said, ‘you’re doing it again.’” She answered you.

  “Doing what again?” you asked.

  “You’re getting stuck in that pretty head of yours. I can’t follow you there. It’s annoying, really.” She replied.

  You let out a small “oh”. It was true that you got stuck in your own head a lot. Your thoughts would run around and around spinning you in circles and you couldn’t help but follow. It was worse that, once snapped out of your reverie, you couldn’t even start to explain what you were thinking about.

  “I’m sorry. I really can’t help it” you apologized.

  “I know you are. It makes it even worse somehow, I can’t even be mad at you.” She answered you.

  “Please! You can’t be mad at me anyway, you love me too much” you said, grabbing one of her hands and bringing it to cup your face.

  You weren’t quite sure how it started, but that was a sign of affection, saved for only you and Elena. You would cup the others face with one hand, letting the other melt into the touch. You would look at each other in the way best friends often do and talk without using words.

  You did that just now, allowing your look to say how sorry you were and that you didn’t mean to shut her out. Elena’s own look spoke of how much she loved you and that she simply wanted you to be okay.

  Your moment was cut short by your ringtone, singing loudly to one of your favorite songs. You glanced at the screen and weren’t surprised to see Renjun’s name popping up. You shot a look at Elena who just stretched while mumbling something that sounded like “You and your boys”.

  “Hello~” you say in a sing- song voice.

  “Y/N! Where are you?” Renjun shouted at the microphone, almost out of breath.

  “Lower your voice, you idiot! I almost lost an ear! I’m with Elena, we’re working on an assignment.” You replied.

  “Are you finishing up? I’m bored, let’s grab some coffee!” he proposed.

  “Give me one second” you told him, lowering your phone from your ear and covering the microphone.

  You turned to Elena who was watching you with mild amusement.

  “That was Renjun” you started.

  “So I heard. Probably the whole café too.” She cut you off, teasing.

  “Oh shut up. He wants coffee. Do you mind if I tell him to come here?” you asked.

  “Sure thing! Finally I’ll get some time to actually talk to the guy before he snatches you off from me” she said.

  “Hey Jun, you still there?” you asked.

  “I’ll have you know, that was exactly 24 seconds. 24 seconds of my life I will never get back” Renjun said dramatically.

  “I’ll text you an address. Come here and I’ll buy you coffee in exchange for your 24 seconds.” You answered.

  “Sounds like a deal to me! I’ll see you in a while.” He said, hanging up immediately.

  You had a smile on your face as you put your phone down. Elena looked as if she was about to say something, but thought better of it. You tried to finish off your work, putting your heads together and concentrating. You were pretty satisfied with the result if you could say so yourself, saving only a quick run-over for later.

  As Renjun walked in the café, you got up to greet him with a hug. He held you close as you exchanged your hellos, taking a seat right next to you and ordering a slice of cake.

  “What about coffee?” you jokingly asked.

  “Meh, I’m not really crazy about coffee to be honest. I like sweets though. And tea when I’m sketching or painting.” He said.

  “You draw?” Elena asked, surprised.

  “Yes I do! Calms me down a ton.” Renjun answered.

  The conversation flowed from there. Elena didn’t miss her chance to get to know Renjun and he was very excited to see Elena’s art. You talked about art, school, movies, books and exes. You didn’t know how the conversation got there, but it did.

  You didn’t want to shut down on them, get lost inside your head again so you tried your best to listen. Elena was talking about that one girl that broke up with her because she refused to have sex. Renjun was listening, but you could tell he wasn’t ready to share.

  You did your best to change the subject, gaining a grateful look from Renjun. If he didn’t want to say, then you weren’t going to ask.

  Taking note of the darkness that had quickly spread outside Elena proposed that you should be heading out soon. Her parents called, offering to drive you all home. Renjun politely declined, so you did too.

 Renjun of course offered to walk you home and as you walked, you took your chance to ask him if he had liked Elena.

  “She’s really nice. A very good artist too. I don’t think I know her enough to like her or not but… She’s nice” he repeated.

  You nodded walking next to him with your pinkies linked. The silence was comfortable, as it always was with Renjun.

  Soon enough, you arrived in front of your house. Squeezing him tight, you said goodnight and promised to see each other at school tomorrow.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The next day your arrival to the school gates was followed by a frantic Jeno walking up to you.

  “Y/N, finally you’re here!” he said.

  “Hey Jeno! What’s got you so worked up this early?” you asked.

  “Have you spoken with Renjun at all?” he asked as an answer.

  “Yes! We were together yesterday.” You replied.

  “Of course he’d be with you. I’m going to kill him.” He said.

  “Jeno, slow down. What happened?” you asked.

  Jeno wavered for a few seconds, opening and closing his mouth. He looked away from you and failed to meet your eyes as the- seemingly- right words came to him.

  “It’s not exactly my place to say. I’m sorry Y/N. You should talk to Jun. He trusts you, maybe you can help him better than we can.” He said finally.

  “Jeno, seriously, what’s going on? How can I help if I don’t know what’s wrong?” you asked.

  Jeno was about to say something but the school’s bell cut him short. It also seemed to snap him out of his thoughts. He shook his head and started walking away from you.

  “Talk to Renjun. Please.” He said over his shoulder, rushing past other students and leaving you alone in the hallway.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  You weren’t sure how you managed to sit through your first hour but miraculously, you did. Looking at your teacher’s mouth moving, your attention clearly elsewhere you willed your mind to rewind to Renjun’s behavior yesterday.

  He had seemed fine, more than fine really. He was smiling, cracking jokes, talking animatedly as he always did. He had met Elena, he had walked you home. Maybe he had hugged you a little tighter than usual? Maybe there were words left unsaid between the two of you.

  He wasn’t replying to texts. He wasn’t even reading them. You wanted to believe that he was in class, too preoccupied to look at his phone. A little voice in the back of your mind told you otherwise and you couldn’t help but listen.

  The bell signaling the end of the first period also signaled your salvation. You had a free period now, which meant you could be useful. You had mentally made a list of a few places in town where Renjun could be. You were getting more and more worried by the second. You had planned to text Jeno to get Renjun’s address in case everything else failed.

  Lost too deep in your thoughts, you almost missed the sounds of soft piano drifting from the music room. You retraced your steps, finding the door to be ajar. You pushed it open, popping your head inside and sure enough, Renjun was sitting in the piano, grazing the keys softly as if they were fragile.

  You let yourself in, trying not to make a sound as you shut the door. You dropped your bag next to the door and stood, listening to the music. You never really liked classical music, or more precisely, you never paid too much attention to it. However, seeing Renjun play, you understood why people were enchanted by it. The line of his shoulders was stiff while his fingers were working over the keys.

  You tried to focus on the music, working hard to determine what it was trying to convey. You felt a whirlwind of emotions, too vast to put into words. There was loss and longing, there was hope and fear. And pain. So much pain, that you felt like your breath was knocked out of your lungs.

  The music raised itself to a crescendo and your heart felt like it was fighting to break out of your chest. You realized that tears were streaming your face, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered in those moments was that the song was ending, Renjun was hurting and you didn’t know what to do.

  Renjun stopped and the room wrapped itself in silence. He gave a long sigh and rested his head on the piano.

  “Like the emotional turmoil? Do I need to put it into words again?” Renjun asked, his voice a whisper.

  “Jun… I’m sorry for barging in here” you whispered back.

   He didn’t move. He didn’t show any sign of having heard you at all. Seconds passed slowly and you were about to grab your things and leave when he moved slightly, making some room for you to sit on the bench with him.

  You reacted immediately, but kept your moves silent and soft. You sat next to him on the narrow bench, bodies stuck together. Without you knowing you were holding your breath, a breath you let out as he moved, getting more comfortable next to you.

  “I was looking for you” you said, voice still low.

  “I know. One of those bastards ratted me out. Who was it?” he asked.

  “Jeno.” You said, and then “Renjun, he was really worried. He came up to me first thing in the morning. I don’t need to know what’s going on to see you are hurting. That song you played-”

  “I’m fine. Or, I will be soon.” He cut you off.

  “You don’t have to be.” You answered.

  “It’s just… She left Y/N. She left, and I didn’t get to say good bye. I only said goodnight. It’s not fair.” He said.

  You were quiet for a while. You didn’t have anything to say, what could you say? You had no idea what was happening, why he was hurting so much, but you desperately wanted to help.

  Suddenly, Renjun sat straight, meeting your eyes.

  “Can I try something?” he asked carefully.

  You didn’t know what to expect. Your voice would surely fail you, so a simple nod would have to do.

  He wasted no time, bringing his hand up and close to your face. He was inching closer and closer and you realized that he was about to kiss you.

  You let him.

  The kiss was soft and sweet. He moved slowly, testing the waters, pressing his lips on yours. You felt his hand shake on your face and you almost wanted to smile.

  Before the kiss got any deeper, Renjun broke away. You tried to read his eyes but came up with nothing. Without speaking, you curled up on his side. He leaned on you and the silence wrapped you up once more.

  “Did it help?” You asked, your voice as low as possible.

  “No. No it didn’t.” Renjun replied, squeezing your hand.

  “I’m sorry.” You said.

  “I am too” he said.

  You sat there for a while, silently hoping that your presence at least would give him comfort. Renjun slowly untangled himself off of you and you watched as he stood, gathering his things. You followed his lead, picking up your bag and walking away from the music room.

  You shared the next class so it wasn’t difficult to follow Renjun, despite the flow of students now walking the halls. You entered the classroom just as Renjun sat down. You took the seat next to his, dropping down your bag and half lying on the desk, looking at him. He mirrored your movements and your eyes locked.

  It was a very peculiar stare, one you had never shared with anyone before. You couldn’t exactly read Renjun’s eyes, but one thing was for sure: Whatever happened in the music room, was over and done with.

  Your mind wandered, your thoughts focused on the boy facing you. You took in the curves and edges of his features as he looked directly at your eyes, his own thoughts carrying him away from you. You cared for him a lot, you realized in those moments, more than the little time you had spent together would indicate. It hurt knowing nothing you could do or say would help him.

  Renjun was safety. Renjun was small smiles and giggles in silent rooms. Renjun was hand holding, entwined pinkies and walking side by side. Renjun was playfully shoving each other, teasing and joking. Renjun was silence and serenity.

  Renjun was a lot of things. But he wasn’t good for you. And you weren’t good for him.

  The day went on. You managed to catch up with Jeno, telling him that you had seen Renjun but keeping out unnecessary details.

  “So he didn’t tell you anything?” Jeno asked again.

  “No, not really. I think he just needs some space right now, just to breathe” you answered and Jeno slowly nodded at your words.

  “I’ll try to give him space but… I’m worried.” He said.

  You reached out and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, earning a small smile from him.

  “He knows all of you are there for him. I’m certain he’ll ask for help soon… When he’s ready to receive it. Does that make sense?” you finished.

  “It does. Thank you, Y/N, really.” He answered you.

  You were about to respond, when a figure caught up with you. His steps were heavy and his expression showed his anger. Shooting you a stormy look and disregarding you completely after that, he turned to Jeno.

  “Have you talked to him?” Donghyuck inquired.

  “No, Y/N is the only person he talked to the whole day” Jeno responded.

  “I’m going over to his house” Donghyuck announced after a moment of consideration.

  “Donghyuck wait!” you said, pulling him back.

  He graced you with a stare that pierced through you completely. If looks could kill, you’d be dead ten times over right now. The familiar nervousness that came with being in the same room as him surfaced, but you tried to push it down as fast as you could.

  “This was exactly what I was telling Jeno right before you came. I think Renjun doesn’t need this right now. He doesn’t want us, hovering around him every second, trying to help him feel better. He needs to figure out what he’s feeling on his own first, and then he’ll ask for help. I’m sure of it.” You said.

  Donghyuck didn’t even ponder your words. You doubted he even really heard them.

  “Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do with my best friend? You’ve known him how long? A couple of years? Now all of a sudden you’re kind of close?” he asked, his tone mocking.

  “I’ve known him almost all of my life. We’ve gone through ups and downs and we’ve grown together okay? So, no, I’m not going to follow your stupid advice. I’m going to go be with my best friend and help him” he finished.

  You were expecting Donghyuck to snap back, but you weren’t expecting this. Using the little time you had spent with the boys was a low blow, and you were pretty sure he knew exactly what he was saying.

  You couldn’t even reply, not really. All of the things he said was true, and that pissed you off even more.

  Donghyuck, who seemed to read your thoughts was about to smile, perhaps mock you some more, when Jeno’s voice interrupted him.

  “That’s bullshit” he said.

  Donghyuck turned to look at Jeno, dumbfounded and hurt. Jeno just shrugged.

  “I think she’s right man.” He added.

  You wanted to smile, to thank Jeno for backing you up. You didn’t have time, as Donghyuck’s outburst was instant.

  “You’re taking her side? What the fuck does she know?” Donghyuck asked, raising his voice.

  “For the record, I’m taking Jun’s side. Not that there are any sides to take. We are all just trying to help our friend. So calm the fuck down, stand back, and leave Renjun alone for a while.” Jeno said, giving you an encouraging smile.

  You returned the smile. Your gaze went to Donghyuck, who just stood there, anger boiling inside of him.

  “Hyuck, listen” you started but he cut you off immediately.

  “Don’t use that nickname. You have no right to it. Only my friends call me that.” He said, turned around and left.

  You and Jeno shared a look. You were hurt by Donghyuck’s words, but Jeno looked like he was about to laugh.

  “What?” you asked him.

  “Well that was ridiculous! ‘You have no right to it’, he says. It’s a nickname bro, you don’t own that shit.” He said, laughing lightly afterwards.

  You smiled at him.

  “Don’t pay too much attention to Donghyuck, okay? He just likes having things under his control. It’s driving him crazy that he can’t control you” he added.

  “Donghyuck is… a lot. I’m going to try though.” You answered.

  “You always do” Jeno said, smiling at you.

[markley]

amortentia — wjh

summary — where complicated feelings are so easily revealed with a simple potion

genre — hogwarts au, fantasy, fluff, comedy

warnings — n/a

word count — 2.5k

a/n — my first harry potter au! if u arent a slytherin im sorry :(

“hello class,” your potions proffesor says, looking out to the rest of the tired morning class. “for the next few days we are learning about amortentia. can anyone tell me what it is?”

many hands raise, not including your own. you knew, but didnt really care enough to answer the question, opting to read the section on the strong love potion in the textbook in front of you. suddenly, something hits the back of your head, and you turn to face wen junhui, or jun, balling up another piece of small parchment in his hands.

if there is one word to describe jun, it’s infuriating. normally, students from the same house tend to get along, but that definitely did not occur between you and jun, both headstrong slytherins with a need to be right— not traits for a good friendship.

it started when junhui questioned whether you were talented or not, as you were always so quiet and never showed any particular skill in wizadry. he challenged you to a duel, and lost. ever since then he has made it his duty to bother and annoy you until school ends, while you make sure to never give him the last laugh.

honestly, the bickering has just become a game of cat and mouse, and although its tiring, you wont lose. besides, what’s the fun in that?

“uh,” you start awkwardly, fully aware of jun’s silent laugh behind you. “a strong love potion that causes obsession rather than actual love? i believe it also varies in smell.”

“uh,” you start awkwardly, fully aware of jun’s silent laugh behind you. “a strong love potion that causes obsession rather than actual love? i believe it also varies in smell.”

“uh,” you start awkwardly, fully aware of jun’s silent laugh behind you. “a strong love potion that causes obsession rather than actual love? i believe it also varies in smell.”

mr. min looks satisfied, shaking through his dark hair with a hand. “correct, but don’t think i won’t notice you not paying attention ms. kwon.” he continues on explaining the properties of the tonic. you turn around slightly to glare at a smirking junhui, clearly proud. you shake your head, already thinking of ways to get him back.

the rest of the class period consisted of you taking notes on both the actual subject and mental notes on ways to make jun’s life absolutely miserable. the bell finally rings, signaling the end of class, and you jump up before jun is able to talk to you like he always insists.

you hear his annoying—albeit nice—voice from behind you, a teasing pout. with a roll of your eyes, you walk away to find your brother, soonyoung, knowing he’s somewhere in the hallways near you. although he is a hufflepuff, and an annoying as hell brother, you found him much easier to get along with than those of your own house— example? jun. obviously. 

soonyoung giggles as you approach him, a teasing smile playing along his lips. “aw, look at that. mr. slytherin is sad you’re avoiding him.” he says. you punch the redhead’s arm, not even needing to look back to know he’s right. jun always pouts. soonyoung insists he really likes you, but you know better—if the constant teasing and pranking is anything to go by. besides, you hated the boy anyway, even though soonyoung disagrees with that as well.

mr. min yells out a small “remember to be prepared tomorrow” throughout the dungeon hall. you turn to the professor, allowing junhui to finally catch up to you, putting an arm around your shoulder, with soonyoung long gone. “hey babe,” jun says, grinning, “good job on that thing today. fucking hilarious.” rolling your eyes, you shrug his arm off.

“fuck--”

“me?”

“off!” you correct, groaning internally at his constant teasing. he just smiles that same crooked grin before walking away with a mumble you didn't quite catch but sounded something like ‘you would.’ oh, how you hate him. or at least that’s what you tell yourself. 

whether you hated the guy or not, he was undeniably gorgeous and sometimes— only sometimes— kind of funny. but you still hated him. never have you been so easily annoyed with a human being before. 

with a small shake of your head, you walk back to your dorm to think of a way to embarrass junhui after potions today. you get there quickly as its right by potions class, but even by this time you had an idea, and not a pretty one. 

if there was one thing junhui prided himself on, it was his skillset. whether that was charms or potions, he was cocky about succeeding in it all. using this, you think of a great way to embarrass him the way you were embarrassed earlier— making a fool out of himself under mr min’s eye. oh how very fun this will be. 

on the other side of school, jun was bribing soonyoung for information on you, already knowing you were attempting to get back at him. you were known for needing the last word, after all. soonyoung being the kind hufflepuff brother he is, at least tried to avoid jun, but eventually gave up at jun’s offer of endless sweets. can you blame him? well yes, and you do the next day before potions when he lets it slip that he told junhui the name of your old crush— not that junhui knows its old. 

how you and soonyoung are siblings? you will never know.

the only thing giving you solace from punching soonyoung in the face is knowing the prank you are about to pull on junhui. the prank in question is completely fucking up his potion, a prank soonyoung called “absolute evil.”

in class, you were to make your own batch of amortentia, a difficult feat on its own, although quite easy for you and jun. the best part is to soon come, when you throw in something most definitely not in the potion. specifically something to make it explode.

maybe soonyoung was right. mr. min was not an easy teacher to impress but was definitely an easy teacher to disappoint—and jun hates disappointing professors.

you were evil. guess thats why you fit perfectly in slytherin—or atleast according to the rest of the school.

when class starts, mr. min is already talking about failure. “don’t worry,” he says, “i already know most of you will fail.” with that last piece of what was probably meant to be encouragement, everyone begins to work on the difficult potion.

soon after everyone barely makes it to the middle of the workload, you have already finished, and jun is right behind you. he moved away from his cauldron to fetch the last ingredient, and you take it as your time to throw in a little bit of porcupine quills quickly, an easy way to make his potion turn into something not made for love.

with a small smile at no one noticing, you return to your own finished product, mr. min looking at it in satisfaction. suddenly, a small pop is heard from behind you where jun is standing in front of a bright green potion— well, more like covered in it.

you burst into silent giggles at his predicament, mr. min having an opposite reaction, instead glaring at the failure. junhui himself glares too, but instead at you, with eyes full of hatred. you can’t help the feeling of pride spreading across your chest, which then drops at mr. mins snarl.

“who did it?” he asks, looking around and then stopping at you. you throw your hands up in the air with an exclamation of ‘it wasn’t me!’. the professor doesn’t seem convinced, raising an eyebrow. he then plucks a porcupine quill off your robes, and you give up. “that’s what i thought.”

you look over to jun, standing still in the green mess, but with an obvious smirk on his face. you mentally face palm at yourself for failing at making jun an embarrassment. fuck the little shithead...

“the both of you,” mr. min speaks, pointing to a downtrodden and no longer smiling junhui, “are to clean this mess up, as well as the entire class. oh, and the storage while you are at it. don’t break anything.” and with a small groan of protest from jun, the class is dismissed. mr. min struts out of the dungeon classroom, but not before flicking his wand towards jun’s robes, now spotless.

with a slam of the dungeon door, you and junhui are left alone. “this is your fault,” junhui snarls, pointing a perfectly manicured finger in your direction. “why do i always get looped in with you?!”

“because you started it. and you always retaliate.” you say with ever growing frustration. jun groans in irritation, looking as if ready to stab you at any given moment.

“how the hell are you and soonyoung siblings?” he asks, shaking his head while walking to the corner to begin cleaning.

“i ask myself that question everyday.”

after that small conversation, the two of you start cleaning up the green mess and then the rest of the dungeon classroom. it took a good hour or two, and you still hadnt even organized the messy storage yet. the entire time while cleaning you and junhui hadnt talked to each other, only sparing a few hate-filled glances and eye rolls.

the storage closet was a mess of premade potions and ingredients. it was so chaotic you feel the need to ask mr. min the last time he even thought about organizing it. shelves upon shelves held bottles of colors: red to black to clear. almost every potion in existence was held in this small closet.

you can’t help but find your fingertips brushing across the bottles of pretty tonics. jun follows you into the small space to clean after seeing you ogling instead of doing your job. “get to cleaning.” he says, already starting his organization process of what seems to be putting the potions in rainbow order.

rolling your eyes, you begin to help, grabbing the bottles of liquid. a small bright pink vial grabs your attention as you brush through the bottled ingredients. you pick it up, swishing the thick potion within the glass. with a cock of your head, you open it to be met with a strong fume of what seems to smell like... junhui? the boy in question is still diligently cleaning the small closet behind you, unknowingly to you, staring at you from his peripheral vison.

you take another sniff, hoping to be wrong—but no. that smell is distinctly jun; musky yet sweet. a hand grabs the bottle from you, peering at the label. “what does it smell like?” jun asks, raising an eyebrow at your extremely confused expression. “it’s amortentia, dumbass.”

at this, you grab the potion back, not believing him. there is no way in hell amortentia would smell like jun. however, the infuriating guy was right. the bottle was in fact labeled amortentia. your breathing hitches, and you can’t seem to come up with any words— or even look up at the boy in front of you.

jun seems to get more confused every second you dont answer him. “um, y/n? you alive there?” you finally look up, coughing awkwardly and handing him the vial back.

“yeah, im fine dork.”

“ouch. dork? im a nerd at best.”

“shut up, you nerd.” he smiles at your unconscious correction, turning back to the amortentia bottle unaware to the racing thoughts and heart you are currently dealing with internally. why, why would amortentia smell like the one person you hate the most behind soonyoung?!

“i bet it smells like minghao.” at this blunt statement you snap your head to a smirking jun. “i mean, you do like him right?” you remember soonyoung saying how jun bribed him with chocolate for this information and you write a mental note to kill your brother later.

“liked,” you mumble, walking as far away from the grinning asshole in front of you. the last thing you need is junhui teasing you about a crush while the strongest love potion ever smells like him. “as in no longer. over. done with. blah blah blah.”

“anyway, are you almost done with the rest of the potions?” you quickly change the subject of your old crush and the potion that reeks of your number one enemy. the questions in your head still wont end and you want to leave as soon as possible.

“wait wait wait,” jun says, very insistent. “if you dont like minghao anymore, who does it smell like?”

“why the fuck do you care, junhui?”

“i dont,” he says, twidling his thumbs awkwardly, but still staring you down with his dark eyes. “im just... curious.” that isnt entirely true and you can hear it in his hesitant voice.

you groan and glare at the brunet boy. you take the bottle, and pretend to smell it again, but already know your answer. it smells like the forest you found him in one night after curfew, that you just happened to be sneaking out to as well—that was the first time you two ever got along, agreeing to not turn each other in. the potion also smells of the fruity shampoo jun uses, and the mint gum he always chews. you hate to admit it, but the potion smells exactly like how you envision jun. and whatever that may mean, its true.

“the forbidden forest at midnight, mint gum and lemon-y shampoo.” you finally answer after a lot of internal debate of whether to be honest or not. pushing the bottle back to him, you begin to leave the small closet like space. jun reaches out an arm quickly, grabbing on to your wrist.

“that,” he starts, recognizing the scents as his own. “smells like-“

“i know,” you whisper, pulling your arm away. not ready to take his reaction, you start to run away and jun’s next words are the only thing that stop you.

“do you want to know what it smells like to me?” junhui says hopefully, but entirely expecting you to walk away. “hair dye and strawberries.” stopping, you turn back to jun. he had moved closer, now nose to nose with you. your breath hitches, and you almost think you arent breathing. “just like the purple hair dye you put in my shampoo and the strawberries i always see you eat every. single. meal.”

you look up to meet his piercing eyes that bore into yours with such intensity it takes your breath away. you look away for him to softly grab your chin. “look at me, please.” his voice is the softest you’ve ever heard it, just a whisper.

“what does that mean, jun?”

“it means look at me.” you glare up at him, him chuckling in return. he places his forehead against yours, and the exact mint gum scent that you smelled in the love tonic hits your nose. “it means i like you, dork.” jun’s lips move closer to yours every word he speaks until they are just barely touching

“im a nerd at best.” you mumble before pushing your mouth against what you believed to be your enemy’s. mental note: kill soonyoung later, for being right

maybe there really is a thin line between love and hate.

[ateanalenn]

The Untamed / MDZS, resources post, stuff I needed as a writer

ORIGINAL POST AT DREAMWIDTH! (and updates will be there too and maybe on tumblr, if I remember)

(this is a copy paste, the formatting might not survive)

(also available on AO3)

The Untamed / MDZS, resources post, stuff I needed as a writerApr. 11th, 2020 05:46 pm ateanalennFinding info for this show / how to write about / pitfalls to avoid was a pain :( I guess that's part of having fandom on Tumblr. Since Tumblr's search function only works by selling a kidney and sacrificing a goat, I had to rely on Google. Which, not great. Anyway, useful stuff I found to understand this fandom: • MDZS on Dreamwidth: theuntamed_mdzs (active) mxtx (community focused on all the works by the author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Not active, but it's there) theyilingweisect (community sharing fics, meta, discussions. Not active either since jan 2020) • MDZS aka Mo Dao Zu Shi (book) aka Grandmaster of Demobnic Cultivation / The Untamed (drama) (there's also an audio drama, a manhua, a donghua, ...) - the novel's en glish fan translation at Exiled Rebels (complete ) As far as I know, this is the most popular translation, though I would like to know if anyone has another translation that they think fit best. - the drama is streaming on Netflix, Viki, WeTV & Youtube. From what I heard around, Netflix and Youtube are the most accessible, obviously, but Viki has the best subtitles (and a whole lot of annoying pubs though). I think that I heard somewhere that there are fan subtitles made, will update if I find the link again). • About names: • The Untamed: A Primer Basically an overview of what is this drama, a few spoilers (but under arrows to open so less risks to see something you didn't want to see). Useful list of titles for the main charas! (ex: Wei Wuxian:    Young Master Wei    Wei Ying (use of this name denotes “I feel affection for you”)    The Yiling Patriarch (use of this name denotes “I think you are evil”)    A-Xian / Xianxian (use of this name denotes “I am your loving older sister, have some soup”)    Lan Wangji:    Second Young Master Lan    Lan Zhan (use of this name denotes “I feel affection for you”)    Hanguang Jun (use of this name denotes “I respect you, and you are also famously very beautiful”)    Wangji (use of this name denotes “I am your older brother and I wish you’d make a friend”) ) • Another primer tumblr by sonickitty with a few where-do-I-find links • Alexandra Rowland explains What Is The Untamed twitter (with pics) • How Ancient Chinese Names Work - Learn from The Untamed Detailed explanation of what's going on with the names (aka Lan Wangji, Lan Zhan, Hanguang-jun) • Dramatis Personae for Modao Zushi the book dw (another detailed who's who/names list) • Names again, Chinese/Mandarin conventions twitter (aka ex the accents aren't necessary, they're there for pronunciation and some explanation of who would use full name/shortened name) • Infographic: birth name vs courtesy name vs title vs respectful address  twitter • Quick table / honorifics guide tumblr by cleyra • Mo Dao Zu Shi | 魔道祖师 The various adaptions tumblr by gravitydefyingtears • A list of MDZS FanFic Common Misleading tumblr by kazeki • A conversation about linguistic register, Lan Wangji, and I guess Wei Wuxian can come too tumblr (pretty important text to understand how lwj speaks) • Writing Lan Wangji's speech patterns (aka say the most in the least words) and the follow up Lan Wangji moving into the lowest, most vernacular linguistic register to try and get through to Wei Wuxian tumblr by hunxi-huilai • Using "You/I" vs "Title-as-you" tumblr by hunxi-guilai • Sword names tumblr by hunxi-guilai • Honorifics: jun vs zun tumblr by hunxi-guilai • THE spreadsheet: Mo Dao Zu Shi Character Name Chart, recced by flamebyrd (of who uses what for whom) • Misc Info: • 59 slides of awesomeness by chatcolat. Who's who, plot summary, humor. Beware, so full of spoilers you'll cry if you want to keep some mystery, but! concise recap of what happens in the show to keep the timeline in mind. • Everything about those cultivation sects in ‘The Untamed’ Quick who's who of the various sects (Gusu Lan, Lanling Jin, Yunmeng Jiang, Qishan Wen, Qinghe Nie. Protip: first word is basically the location, second is the sect/clan name). • Reference for Modao Zushi Writers: Chinese terms ao3. "This is to provide a reference for writers who are unfamiliar with Chinese literary conventions or terms used in canon." • Resource list dw: Libitina's twitter links for Meta, Linguistics, Costumes, Food, Edits, Art. • Actual drama title vs English drama title twitter • How "Mo Dao Zu Shi" became "Chen Qing Ling" became "The Untamed" tumblr by hunxi-guilai • Very necessary meta about why the novel/extras seems to have so many sex consent issues and how translating to English potentially gives a very different overall feel to the scene (ex: ExR = "you're too much, you're way too much" becomes chiaki_himura's "you're good, you're too good", becomes bigbadredpanda's "you're amazing, you're the best"). Also, Chinese language enables to shorten sentences which makes stuff implied, 's your job to see context clues.) • hunxi guilai's master list of various detailed topics re-Chinese language/customs tumblr • "Wangxian" is such a clever portemanteau tumblr by untamedconnotations • Song Lan didn’t just say that Xiao Xingchen was “nice-looking,” he basically said that Xiao Xingchen was smokin’ hot except like, in two characters and blanketed with literary respectability. tumblr by hunxi-guilai (this is only relevant because xxc IS the most beautiful person, really and needs to be protected at all cost) • The Unclean Realm isn't "unclean" has in dirty/bad, it's most probably to show the difference of way of cultivating vs the other sects tumblr by hunxi-guilai • WuJi, the love song's fan translation tumblr by iarrod • Timeline: • 59 slides of awesomeness by chatcolat. Who's who, plot summary, humor. Beware, so full of spoilers you'll cry if you want to keep some mystery, but! concise recap of what happens in the show to keep the timeline in mind. • A google spreadsheet, via mihanada's GoDC timeline wip (Year/Event/Notes/Ages/...)     • MDZS Timeline, that meta AO3 post on speed by TheWickling. Useful if you want all the details, a bit difficult to navigate/understand when you just landed in the fandom. Still very useful. • And the sequel: On Character's Ages  ao3 "A collection of meta on the possible ages for different  characters in MDZS and what ages they would be during key events in the  timeline." • Modao Zushi, birthdates/timeline dw Dirthdates starting with 0 = wwx's birth year. Succinct & useful. • Maps • Fan made mdzs / untamed worldmap twitter • Places of The Untamed - Where They Are in The Real World • IRL sect locations reddit • Google Map of clan locations in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation tumblr • Lotus Pier really is one of the most underrated but beautiful places. twitter • Gifsets and images: - Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed drama character guide! deviantart picture = name, who's who in pics. - The Untamed sect sigils - In Which LWJ Gives Not A Single Shit, A Thread #LanWangji #WangXian #cql #TheUntamed SPOILERS for most of the show twitter - The various stages of hairstyles + accessories twitter - SongXiao are in love, got married, are living happily ever after,(FITE ME) twitter by shenweiss - Realizing that wwx is wearing lwj's silk undershirt and the follow up: Qiren's face when he notices xD twitter - gingersnapwolves's Untamed tumblr tag - thewickling's mdzs tumblr tag - hunxi-guilai's cql tumblr tag - compilation of wangxian just being gay and making everyone feel like a third wheel twitter by weiwxngji - wwx swoons a lot and he's gorgeous twitter - Alexandra Rowland explains What Is The Untamed twitter (with pics) - grinding ink requires great patience, often represents that one is willing to wait for another’s feelings twitter - sad compilation of wangxian gazing into each other’s eyes that no one asked for, you’re welcome twitter - This frontal view of Wei Wuxian laying on Lan Wangji’s lap is everything. twitter - Lotus Pier really is one of the most underrated but beautiful places. twitter - Sometimes you see something, a picture, a video, just a snippet of a short moment, and you SEE the love. twitter - CQL’s working title was hot murder husbands twitter (this is amazing) - Lan Wangji just looks a thousand times more intimidating with golden eyes twitter - #TheUntamed’s spinoff webmovie #FatalJourney posters twitter (yessss, nhs, one of my fav) - Don’t you love how exactly 0.5 seconds of this video is Lan Zhan explaining that only spouses are allowed to touch the headband and the rest of the entire 2(!) minutes is a complication of Wei Ying touching it anyways... he said I wanna marry you. twitter • Fic Recs: - DW guest Post: Untamed Fic Starter Pack (a few fics for each subject (ex post canon, juniors centric, ...) - Twitter thread starting with Alexandra Rowland asking for fluffy MDZS/Untamed fic recs. (good new-fandom starter too!) - That twitter thread collecting a list of lady-centric Untamed/MDZS fics Which, good, because as much as I love the fandom, once again women don't exactly come out on top. How many are still alive at the end? I can think of one previously Jin sect lady, but that's it on top of my head, soooo. - Libitina also has posted a lot of mdzs fic recs dw - A "they're students in lockdown and socially distancing" WangXian ficlet tumblr by besanii And bonus: a capybara enjoying a good scritch because I love those dog-sized guinea pigs, seriously, that twitter account is my daily dose of cuteness Also, have some guinea pig on a cutesy bridge PS: I thought that this would be fast because I didn't have that much info to collect at one place, buuuut. It's been 5 hours and it turns out that I did lol.   Still, if you have anything else of potential interest, don't hesitate to leave a comment, please :D

[miss-noo-na]

More Than Okay (Minhyuk Oneshot)

Title: More Than Okay

Featuring: Lee Minhyuk (Monsta X) x Reader

Rating: Mature. Smut, angst.

Word Count:  8000

Summary: You have a less than satisfying life, made worse by your miserable long-term relationship. The only bright spot is your bubbly and affectionate co-worker Minhyuk, who may be able to show you that you’re worth more than you believe. 

It was a humid summer night, and even with the swamp cooler and the fan blowing you were drenched in sweat, mostly from his body on top of yours.

It didn’t take much effort on your part, he hardly noticed you were even there anymore, so you had all but given up on trying to make sex any better.

It was nice when you and Jun first started dating, even good sometimes, but now 3 years in and it was more like a chore. You would get into bed at night, once maybe twice a week, he would press himself against your back, lazily sprinkle a few kisses on your neck, then roll you over and get on top of you. Sometimes he didn’t even bother taking his clothes off.

After he was done (which thankfully didn’t take long most of the time) he would roll back into his spot and close his eyes. You used to cuddle up next to him, press yourself against his side and stroke his chest, wondering if he would possibly let you have some fun, too. He would always sigh, and tell you he was tired and maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow never came.

Now, you didn’t even ask for that, you just went to the bathroom to clean up. The first couple times it happened you cried, but after awhile you got over it. You told yourself this is what happens in long term relationships, it wasn’t a big deal, at least you had his companionship.

Although that was starting to suffer now, too. You worked, and when you came home he was there already eating a pack of noodles or a frozen meal, not having thought to make you any. You talked about the mundane aspects of your day, sometimes you watched TV together before bed.

“This is what being in a relationship is all about” You told yourself again and again. “This is normal, it can’t be exciting all the time.”

This is what ran through your mind on that hot, sticky night, so lost in it that you almost forgot where you were until the groan in your ear brought you back. As always, he rolled away onto his back and caught his breath.

“Can I ask you something?” You spoke into the quiet bedroom, and he rolled his head toward you and half-opened his eyes.

“I’m too tired tonight, maybe t-”

You stopped him. “Not that.”

He opened his eyes more and blinked at you, waiting.

“Are you happy?”

He laughed.”What do you mean?”

You shrugged and stared at the ceiling. “I mean just in general, with how things are.”

He leaned over and pressed a kiss to your temple, but it made you feel uneasy.

“You think too much.”

You dropped the subject and got up to head for the shower.

The next day you sat at work, the only interesting part of your life. Technically a desk job, but a desk job at a top tier music company that saw a lot of talent. You organized meetings, made arrangements for talent, fielded phone calls between the company and other big time brands, and got to interact with interesting people. These days, you preferred being at your job than at home.

And through this job, you had made friends in the industry, not only with other behind-the-scenes types, but the musicians themselves, and you were grateful for their company and their loyalty. They appreciated the work you put in to make their jobs easier, and you had forged great connections in the process.

Today, your favorite group of boys were returning from a short vacation after having gone on tour, and it had been 3 months since they had come in. They were gearing up for more recording and comebacks, and you were going to be seeing a lot of them again, and sadly it was the most exciting part of your life right now.

When they shuffled in the door, they all greeted you warmly, and hung around the front receptionist area you worked at to chat and catch up. They looked well-rested, and you were relieved.

“I hope you got a lot of sleep.” You said, and they murmured in the affirmative. Suddenly a voice from down the hall in the practice room called out to them, and you knew they had to get to work.

As they all idled away, Minhyuk hung back for a moment, leaning over your desk and placing a small square box down.

“What’s this?” You asked, picking it up.

“A souvenir” He grinned.

“You guys didn’t have to bring me anything.” You laughed,

“It’s not from them,” He said, shaking his head, “It’s from me.”

You suddenly felt heat in your cheeks and lowered your head in an attempt to conceal it.

“Minhyuk, hurry up!” someone called from the back.

“I hope you like it.” He smiled as he walked backward away from the desk before turning and hopping away.

You stared at the box and felt excitement, though not wanting to get too worked up. It was just a simple gesture, from someone sweet like Minhyuk who had always been that way. In fact, out of all the boys he’d been the most attentive toward you. If he wasn’t busy, he’d come by your desk just to chat. On company outings he always wanted to sit by you at dinner. On more than one occasion, when the choreography had started coming together, he would pull you away from your work and insist you watch “to get a female perspective” on certain moves.

You lifted the lid off the tiny box and there, on a bed of soft cotton, lay a seashell necklace, white with sandy pink across the edge. You took it in your hands and felt it was real, and your stomach did something strange at the sight of it.

You admired it for longer than you’d like to admit, and finally pushed it into a safe spot so you could get some work done, though it had drastically improved your mood for the day.

Just before you left for the day, Minhyuk reappeared, more disheveled than when he’d gotten there as he’d obviously been practicing, but he glowed with warmth and energy.

“Do you like it?” He asked, practically beaming.

You pulled the box out and smiled back at him. “I love it, thank you so much.”

“I found it in a little shop on the beach in Jeju. It reminded me of you.”

You could feel the blush creeping up your neck again. “That’s very sweet of you.”

“Do you want me to help you put it on?” He asked, and before you could reply he was coming around your desk. He picked the necklace up and, standing behind you, brought it around to the back of your neck, clasping it and leaving it to lie perfectly on your upper chest.

“It looks really nice.”

He was dangerously close to your ear and you shivered despite yourself.

You stood abruptly and started to gather your things. “Yeah, it’s beautiful. Thanks again.”

Minhyuk told you goodbye, and insisted on walking you at least to the door, waving enthusiastically through the glass as you made your way to the train station.

When you got home, Jun was predictably perched on the couch eating out of a bowl, and only made a noise of acknowledgment as you entered, not looking away from the TV.

You removed your coat and went into the kitchen to scrounge up something for yourself, and when you turned around he was in the kitchen now, putting his dish in the sink.

“What’s that.” He said, pointing at you with his chin.

You looked down, having almost forgot about the necklace.

“Oh, nothing.” You shrugged as you moved past him to set a pot on the stove, ready to make instant noodles for the 2nd time that week.

“You weren’t wearing it when you left this morning.”

You were surprised he’d even noticed.

“It was a gift.”

“From who?”

You sighed and turned around. “The boys came back from tour today, they brought me something, that’s all.”

You decided to leave out the part about it being from Minhyuk specifically, especially with the way he was acting.

“The boys,” He sneered. “You talk about them like they’re your friends or something.”

“They appreciate me at work,” You started, not able to sound anything but defensive, “Unlike around here.”

You had mumbled the last part as you turned back to the stove.

“What was that?” Jun asked, even though you were sure he had heard you. You could tell he was getting annoyed.

“Can I make my dinner in peace, please?” You snapped, not turning around. He said something under his breath and left the kitchen, back to the couch.

You spent another boring night inside, heading to bed early to forget about the bad mood Jun had put you into with his prying. When he finally came in, you were surprised he had the gall to try and feel up on you in the dark. You quickly pushed his hands away.

“Not tonight.”

You heard him huff and roll over.

The rest of your week got better, if only because you got to interact with your favorite group of guys again. When things got slow at your desk, you would sit in the practice room and do your paperwork there. It was something you had started doing a year ago, on a rainy afternoon when Changkyun felt bad about you sitting at your desk all alone and said you could come watch if you wanted. Since you had grown closer to them, they had gotten accustomed to you being there in the corner at your table. You even helped out by restarting the music at the stereo next to you, or going to fetch them fresh waters and towels when they were too exhausted to stand.

Minhyuk was in especially high spirits today, a ball of energy even when the others grew tired.  A few times when you looked up to watch, he’d smile at you through the mirror. Once, he’d even winked at you, which prompted Jooheon to shove him and tell him to stop showing off.  You laughed and lowered your head, touching your necklace now and then.

Toward the end of your day, he came to sit with you, tossing a towel over his shoulder and trying to calm his panting breath.

“Are you coming this weekend?” He asked, and you furrowed your brow at him.

“The big dinner, the whole company is going to be there.”

“Oh God,” You said, frantically searching through your pile of papers, trying to fish out your day planner. Usually it was you who scheduled these events, and you wondered if one had slipped through the cracks.

“No, no.” Minhyuk laid a hand over your paperwork, laughing. “The company isn’t hosting us, some other big conglomerate is, we’re just invited.”

You closed your eyes for a moment and let out a shaky breath. “Oh.”

“They’re working you too hard,” Minhyuk shook his head, “So that means you definitely have to come.”

“This weekend?” You repeated, and he nodded.

“I’ll have to look at my schedule.” You said, knowing full and well you had nothing going on that weekend. You used to go out often, whether taking in the nightlife with friends or going to daytime events, but in the last year that had all steadily fallen away. Now you just spent all your time at work or staring at your TV next to your lifeless boyfriend.

“I really hope you can make it.” He said, so earnestly that it made your chest ache for a moment.

The closer the weekend got, the more you thought about backing out. You had gone to lots of work events in the past, but you were feeling less inclined to go out these days. One of the reasons being it seemed like Jun always picked a fight with you when you got home, finding that exact moment the perfect time to argue with you about random, miscellaneous pet-peeves he had been holding in. He made it seem so spur of the moment, but you were convinced he was doing it on purpose now. Instead of ignoring him like you should have, you always fell into the trap of letting him upset you, and preventing you from going out again.

Yet, when you recalled those memories you got angry, the kind of angry you should have been at the time but wouldn’t let yourself be in an attempt to keep peace. It was obvious he was going to do it either way, so you might as well go out and enjoy yourself.

Despite it being an event put together by some CEOs, it was remarkably casual, a dinner at a restaurant followed by drinks and mingling at a hotel bar downtown.

When you came to dinner, they were glad to see you, not just the boys but your fellow friends and co-workers who all gushed about not having you around as much anymore and expressing surprise that you had actually shown up. It wasn’t until that moment you realized it really had been a long time.

As usual, Minhyuk had saved you a seat next to him. He was chatty, also as usual, piling food onto your plate for you and pouring you a drink. It was all customary, you were older, but you still felt like he might’ve been paying extra attention to you. It felt nice.

Halfway through eating, he looked down at you, nodding in approval. “The necklace” He grinned, “It looks pretty on you tonight.”

Even if he hadn’t really said you were pretty, it sure felt that way.

A bottle of soju later and you were feeling better than you had in months, laughing like old times and catching up with old friends. The whole atmosphere in the restaurant was cozy, and every now and then you would catch Minhyuk’s eye and felt a strange swimming sensation in your head from the way he looked at you. You didn’t know if it was the booze playing tricks on you or not, but he kind of lowered his eyes and let the corner of his mouth turn up in a way that felt distinctly like flirting. It had been so long since you’d been on the receiving end of that kind of attention, you decided it was just wishful thinking.

After dinner you walked in a group to the hotel bar, which was only a block away. Minhyuk placed a protective arm around your back and guided you down the sidewalk, commenting about not letting you get lost in the fray of the busy streets.

You knew you should probably slow down, but you had another drink once at the hotel, and enjoyed the numbness it provided. It was muting out all kinds of intrusive thoughts and anxieties and you had forgotten what it was like to live without them. Truthfully, you had not been happy in quite some time.

You sat on a sofa and talked with a female acquaintance, and she was trying to convince you to come out with her and her friends next weekend. You were resistant, but she kept waving her hand, just as drunk as you, and saying you were going whether you liked it or not.

When it started to feel a little too stuffy indoors, you decided to take a breather on the balcony, becoming increasingly aware that maybe you had put down a little too much.

You got lost staring at the city lights, watching the orbs expand and blur together, thinking about how there was an entire world out there you had yet to see, but feeling trapped all the same.

The sound of the door behind you startled you out of these thoughts, and you glanced over at Minhyuk.

He draped his jacket over your shoulders. “You’re going to freeze out here.” He said, and you could tell by his voice that he was a little drunk, too.

“Why are you so good to me?” You asked in a drawl as he came to stand next to you at the balcony.

He laughed and shrugged. “I thought I was just being nice.”

“You are.” You nodded, swaying ever so slightly toward him. “But that niceness is the best thing I’ve had lately.”

He gave you a confused look. “Did you break up with Jun?” He asked, and you laughed for some reason.

“No, he’s still around.” You waved a hand dismissively.

“You don’t sound very happy about that.”

“I’m miserable.” You said honestly, but you smiled as you said it.

“Is it that bad?” He asked, coming closer. “Or are you just upset with him right now?”

“Honestly, I’ve been unhappy for awhile.” You started, knowing you were about to spill your guts but unable to stop yourself. “Everything is so different now, you know? He’s nothing like he was when we first met.”

Minhyuk shrugged, “Relationships change after you’ve been together awhile,” He said, and you could tell even in your state that he was trying to cobble together a positive thought for you.

“Yeah, but do you just stop talking altogether? Stop laughing and having fun? He hasn’t given me an orgasm in months-”

You heard the words coming out of your mouth and snapped your lips shut, gripping the edge of the balcony,  as if that would give you some control. When you looked up at Minhyuk, he had a funny array of emotions across his face.  He was surprised and amused, but also...something else.

“Sorry, TMI.”

He laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “No, it’s okay. I’m glad you feel like you can confide in me.”

There was silence for a moment, but you swore you felt him get closer.

“It’s too bad, you know.” He said, and his voice was lower. “You deserve a lot better than that.”

“Do I?” You found yourself asking, looking up at him with dewy, desperate eyes. You could feel it welling up inside you, you craved even more of his attention. Not just his kindness and his friendship, but so much more.

“Of course.” He said, and you could feel his breath now, like his mouth was closing in on yours. “You deserve to be happy, and to,” He swallowed, his eyes searching yours, “Feel good.”

The heat between you was palpable, and the way he lingered there and spoke so gently was driving you crazy. Unfortunately for you, your body had other ideas in mind, namely getting whatever horrible liquids you had ingested out of your system.

“I think I’m-” You started to say, but you couldn’t finish, rushing back inside to find the nearest bathroom. Luckily you were tucked away from the rest of the party, and after you had expelled everything in your stomach, you splashed cold water on your face and tried to exit the bathroom with as much dignity as possible.

You were shocked to find Minhyuk there, waiting in the hall, lounging against the wall. When he saw you, he stood up straight and approached you.

“Are you okay?” He asked, concern painted over his features.

“Yeah, I’m-” Your head pounded as you spoke and you groaned. “Actually, no.”

“Come on, let's get you home.”

You said goodbye to your co-workers, who could tell you weren’t feeling well but didn’t seem to have any idea you had just wasted their very expensive dinner and drinks in the nearest bathroom. Minhyuk let them know he’d be seeing you home, which you thought meant sticking you into a taxi, but actually meant riding with you all the way back to your apartment.

You were utterly spent, mentally and physically, and you still felt sick to your stomach.. You lulled your aching head to one side as you closed your eyes and found yourself resting on Minhyuk’s shoulder, but he didn’t flinch. In fact, he moved closer to you.

You must have dozed off because suddenly the nearly 25 minute ride was over in a flash, with Minhyuk gently coaxing you awake and helping you out. He told the taxi to wait for him as he brought you upstairs.

You were vaguely aware of Jun opening the door and exchanging words with Minhyuk. Jun sounded agitated, and you pat him on the chest and mumbled at him to “chill out”. He started to bring you inside and you reached out for Minhyuk, trying to tell him goodbye. He said something about contacting him tomorrow, but Jun shut the door in his face.

“You’re so rude.” You grumbled as you stumbled into the bedroom. Jun followed you.

“Look at you,” He said in a loud, disgusted tone. “You go out one time and you act like this?”

You sat on the bed and pulled your shoes off, pausing to sigh. “Jun, shut up.”

He was clearly taken aback by your words, and made a big fuss as he gathered up a blanket and made his way to the living room, saying something about not wanting to sleep next to someone in your “state”. You silently praised him for this,  because at least you would get the bed to yourself. You pulled off as much of your clothing as you could and promptly passed out.

The next day, sometime in the late morning, you sat on the bathroom floor, resting your head against the sink cabinet, having expended your insides once more. Jun stood in the doorway, looking down at you disapprovingly.

“You feel good about yourself?” He asked, and you tried to turn around to face him but your whole body felt the repercussions of the sudden movement, especially your skull.

“Jesus Christ, I got drunk, it’s not like I killed someone.”

“You got drunk at a work party and got brought home at 3 AM by some guy.” He said, clearly upset.

“It wasn’t some guy, it was Minhyuk. I know him, we’re friends.”

“I know who he is.” Jun scoffed. “And he’s not your friend. You really think just because you work at that company they care about you?”

You leaned over the cold tile and grabbed the bottom of the bathroom door, swinging it with all your strength and watching it slam shut in Jun’s face.

After a long hot shower and change of clothes you finally left the bathroom to find Jun had gone out, and felt relieved as you collapsed back into bed.  You spent the rest of your Sunday afternoon binge-watching 80’s movies and sipping ginger ale. At around 2, your phone buzzed. You thought it might be Jun checking on you, but instead it was Minhyuk. You had forgotten he even had your number.

Minhyuk: I hope you’re feeling okay, just wanted to let you know you left your purse in the taxi.

You hadn’t even realized it was gone until then, glancing over at a chair in the corner and seeing his jacket.

You: I feel like hell, but thanks for asking. Looks like I kept your jacket, so we’re even.

Minhyuk: I can swing by and bring your stuff, if you’d like?

You smiled at your phone.

You: That’s not necessary, I can get it from you tomorrow at work. Also, I'm way too embarrassed to let anyone see me like this

Minhyuk: Too late, I’m outside

You: Uh, what?”

Minhyuk: Look out the window.

You pulled your heavy bones out of bed and to the window, looking down at Minhyuk standing on the sidewalk. When he saw you, he grinned and waved your purse with one hand, a grocery bag in the other.

Minhyuk: I was already nearby.

You: Well I guess now I have to let you up, huh?

A minute later, you were buzzing him in and opening the front door for him. You had thrown on an over sized hoodie and attempted to wash some of the smudged mascara from your under-eyes.

“Thanks,” You said bashfully as you took the purse from him, then invited him to sit in the living room.

“Oh, I also got this.” He said, setting the grocery bag on the coffee table. He pushed the handles open and brought out a plastic container of clear soup and a candy bar.

“I was walking by this cafe I used to eat at all the time, and I remembered they had this really great soup. Anyway, hopefully you can have some when you’re feeling better. Oh, and chocolate because ...well, who doesn’t like chocolate?” He was rambling a little bit, and you watched him carefully, taken aback by the gesture.  

“Thank you,” You said sincerely, “Again, you’re really too much.”

Minhyuk looked as if he was a little shy about it, and that made you even more melty inside. He glanced around the apartment then.

“Where’s Jun?”

You shrugged, grabbing the candy bar and unwrapping it. “Beats me.”

“You don’t know? Shouldn’t he be here taking care of you?”

You laughed. “Jun isn’t really a caregiver type.”

Minhyuk scowled. “He’s your boyfriend.” He stated matter-of-factly, as if the two concepts should have gone together without thought.

“Yeah, well,” You shrugged halfheartedly, not sure what else to say. You couldn’t defend it, either.

“I’ve only met him a few times, but I think last night was the most he’s ever said to me.” Minhyuk explained, and you tried to recall that part of the night but realized it was all quite blurry by then.

“What did he say?”

Minhyuk looked unsure of himself, eyes darting around the living room. “Not much.”

“You can tell me.”

He let out a sigh. “He was just really mad, started accusing me of stuff.”

“Like what?” You asked, getting more serious as you placed the uneaten candy bar back down.

“I don’t know, none of it made any sense. Saying it was my fault you were so drunk, and telling me to stay away from you.”

You rolled your eyes, “Like he has any right to be jealous.”

“Does he always treat you like that?” Minhyuk asked, voice getting a little quieter.  You gave him an inquisitive look.

“It’s just...the stuff you were telling me last night about being unhappy, and I could hear him yelling at you when he shut the door.” Minhyuk looked down at his hands tapping on his knees. “It doesn’t seem like he treats you very well at all.”

You felt your throat go dry, and tried to swallow back the stinging feeling that his last set of words had caused behind your eyes. He was right.

You cleared your throat and went to stand. “Let me get your jacket.” You said, quickly leaving the room.

You took a moment to gather yourself once you were in the bedroom, wiping away stray tears before grabbing the jacket and leaving the bedroom. When you came back, Minhyuk was standing and he looked concerned.

“Here you go, luckily I didn’t throw up on it.” You forced a laughed, but he didn’t respond or smile, just stared down at you.

He reached up and you flinched a little, until you felt his warm palm against your cheek. He stroked his thumb under your eye. “Are you crying?” He asked quietly.

Before you could answer, the front door swung open and Jun came in, stopping short when he saw the two of you. You backed away from Minhyuk, whose hand still hung in the air where you once were.

Jun didn’t say anything, just put his keys down and shut the door behind himself and went wordlessly into the bedroom.

“You should go now,” You told Minhyuk, pushing the jacket into his hands and ushering him toward the door.

“Are you sure? Are you going to be okay?” He asked as he went. He stopped himself once outside the door and looked down at you intently, demanding a response before he walked any further.

“It’s fine, I’ll text you later.” You nodded, though he could tell it wasn’t fine.

“Call me if you need me, please?” He asked with a worried look in his eyes, and you nodded again, going to shut the door.

“I promise. Thanks for the soup, I really appreciate it.”

With that, the door closed. Unbeknownst to you, Minhyuk laid his forehead against it and sighed, waiting to see if he could hear anything. A long few minutes passed and he thought maybe he was overreacting, so he reluctantly left.

Inside, you paced the living, knowing that what Jun had seen looked bad. You expected him to come out here any moment and start yelling, but more and more time passed and there wasn’t a peep from him. You finally sat down, starting to relax a little, but still a bundle of nerves, too afraid to go in there.

Instead, you took the soup and the spoon packed with it and started to eat. The clear, warm liquid did help, but soon enough either your hangover or your anxiety started to make you feel sick and you put the container down.

It was almost 2 hours later when Jun finally emerged from the bedroom. You stared up at him with wide, expectant eyes, watching as he sat down in a chair near the couch.

“So,” He said, almost too casually. “When were you going to tell me?”

You were quiet, unsure of what he meant. You opened your mouth to ask, and he cut you off.

“When were you going to tell me you were cheating on me?”

You let out a humorless laugh, you couldn’t help it, because the accusation was absurd.

“I’m not cheating on you,”

“Bullshit.” He spat harshly, and it made you clench your jaw.

“I’m telling the truth,” You started firmly, “When would I have ever had time to do that? I’m at work all day and I come straight home every night. I don’t even have a chance to breathe by myself, much less find time to cheat on you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked, his voice dripping in disdain.

“What do you think it means? My life has been a hellhole for the past year, in no small part thanks to you.” You said, and maybe it was going too far to lay all the blame on him. You had let yourself get to this point, let him have all the control and made yourself smaller and easier to manipulate.

“A hellhole? Me paying half of your rent, being here for you when you act like a fool, putting up with all your mood swings and-”

His voice had started to fade out in your ears, becoming totally detached the more he spoke and the angrier he got. Typically in an argument you get upset because you care, but you didn’t care. You had no more room for anger and resentment, because there was nothing here worth saving. You stood up and went to the bedroom.

“Where are you going?” He yelled after you, and you ignored him. You changed your clothes, threw some extras in a tote bag along with your phone and wallet, and headed for the door.

He called after you once more, even getting up to follow you, but you quickly made your way down the apartment stairs as he yelled at you from the top.

As you found your way outside, you realized the sun was setting, and you felt like you could breathe for the first time.

You wandered for a while, mind racing, thinking about what you’d just done. In the past, you would have never walked out on him like that, too afraid he would never take you back. Now, you hoped that he wouldn’t.

You didn’t know where you were going to go, all you knew is that you couldn't stay there, at least not for tonight. You pulled out your phone and scrolled through your contacts. You didn’t want to bother any of your friends on a night before work, and you really didn’t want to explain any of this to your family. You stopped on Minhyuk's name, and before you could decide if it was a good idea or not, you hit “call”.

He picked up almost immediately.

“What is it?  Are you okay?” He asked frantically, expecting the worst.

“I’m fine, we just got in a fight and I needed some fresh air. But, I don’t really have anywhere to go now.” You laughed at yourself.

“Tell me where you are and I’ll send a taxi.”

20 minutes later you were at the dorms.  You hadn’t ever actually been here before, only meeting with the boys at the studio or on outings. Apparently Minhyuk had filled them in about your arrival, and they assured you you could stay there as long as you needed. Technically, being there could get you fired, but they intended to keep quiet about it.

Their dorm was comfy and homey, much more so than your cramped, cluttered, loveless apartment. You sat on the couch with your legs pulled up, curling into one side, watching TV with Hyungwon and  Kihyun, while Minhyuk did something in the kitchen.

When he emerged, he carried a bowl of popcorn and plopped down next to you, offering you some with a smile. You took a handful, finally getting your appetite back from before, and put your attention back to the show.

You tried to focus on the screen, and you did have a sense of warm contentment being surrounded by lively people who actually wanted you around. Every now and then your mind wandered to Jun, to the argument, to what you were going to do, but you’d quickly push it out. There was nothing you could do about it right now, so why dwell?

Dinner was ordered in, and conversation was kept light. You didn’t feel pressured or judged for the first time in so long, just enjoying company and having your company enjoyed. Afterward, you watched a movie, and as it got later into the night, each person filtered out of the room, back to their own quarters.

Finally, you were alone with Minhyuk.

“Thank you for letting me stay.” You said, curling your legs up under you.

“Don’t mention it,” He waved a hand, looking back at the TV. You swore you saw the hint of a pink tinge across his cheeks.

“Do you know what you’re going to do yet?” He asked.

You took a moment to answer, letting yourself slip into those thoughts you had been trying to avoid. You didn’t have all the details worked out, but all you did know was that the last few weeks confirmed to you that you deserved better, and you couldn't stand being with Jun another second. This thought scared you.

“I have to break up with him,” You said quietly, almost to just yourself. Minhyuk let out a breath that sounded like relief.

“Honestly, I’m glad. I mean, I know you’re probably hurting,” He met your eyes, “But I think it’s the right choice.”

You nodded. “It’s just going to be weird, this is the longest relationship I’ve ever had.”

“That alone makes a lot of people want to stay, the familiarity. Not that I’d know.” He laughed. You didn’t know a lot about his past, but you could guess. He’d been in the industry from a young age, he probably didn’t have the time to date anyone long-term.

“You’re not wrong, though. I probably would have left sooner if I knew better.” You said, and he waited with a curious look for you to continue.

“It’s been bad for awhile, but I just thought,” You shrugged, sitting up “that’s how things were supposed to be.”

Minhyuk scoot closer to you, his knee touching your legs. “It’s never supposed to be bad,” He shook his head, “Not perfect, but not bad either.”

You laughed, feeling a little embarrassed about it, how you could stay and put up with it for so long?

“I guess it’s more than that. The way he always talked to me made me feel like he was the only person who was ever going to love me.”

Minhyuk’s eyes narrowed, “You know that’s not true, right?”

You looked down and picked at stray lint on your pants. “It’s going to take me awhile to believe it, but this is a start.”

He shuffled, and you felt him getting closer. When you peered up, he was leaning into you, eyelids drawn down and lips slightly parted. You took in a sharp breath.

“You deserve so much better.” He said so quiet it came out more as a gentle breath. His hand came up and his fingertips touched just under your chin, tilting your head up so your mouth was level with his. He searched your eyes for confirmation and you nodded once before he kissed you.

You had been kissed by the same man for 3 years, that alone made this strange for you. Add to the fact that Minhyuk’s plush lips and tender motions made butterflies explode in your stomach, their beating wings like that of your quickening heartbeat.

The hand under your chin moved to cup your jaw and pull you forward, his tongue pressing your mouth open, sliding across your inner lips. The haze and the shock of it wore off and you became active, pushing into him and laying a hand on his shoulder.

Both of his hands fell down to your hips, tugging on them. It took you a minute to figure out what he wanted, you were out of practice, but eventually you let yourself be pulled into his lap, his mouth detaching from yours momentarily.

“I want to make you feel good.” He whispered against your mouth, “I just-”

He couldn’t finish, you were kissing him again, fervently at that, taking his head in both your hands and ravishing his mouth, which he eagerly received. Hearing his words spurred something in you, thinking back to every kind, caring thing he’d done for you lately or at all. You were overwhelmed by it, you believed him. He wanted you to feel good, in every possible way. You hadn’t felt good in too long.

He slipped his fingers under the hem of your shirt, pushing up inside them toward your chest, taking each mound into his palms and kneading them through the flimsy fabric of your bra. Soon, he was pulling the top over your head and taking in the sight of you in the darkened living room, the only light coming from the TV. It cast colorful tints over his face and his dark eyes practically sparkled as he raked his vision over your body to your face.

“You’re so pretty,” He sighed, and you bit your lip as heat swept over you, curling yourself forward and burying your face into his neck. He laughed low, and it vibrated through you as he turned his head and spoke into your eat.

“Don’t be shy,” He said, and you could hear his smile. “Let me take care of you.”

With that, he laid you back on the couch, pressing a chaste kiss into the center of your chest as he pulled your pants down your legs. You were left in your underwear, suddenly aware of how exposed you were, and how anyone could walk in and see. You forgot all about this when his hand brushed over your core, the pads of his fingertips finding just the right spot through the thin fabric. The fingers moved in gentle, slow circles, and you mewled in response, eyes threatening to close. You were aware of how aroused you were, from months without a proper touch, from the jolt of the situation, from the fact it was him doing it.

You were wet within a minute, his fingers pressing into you harder and feeling it coat his digits, and he made a happy noise.

“Do you like that?” He asked, and when you looked at him he grinned in that cute, devious way of his. “Do you want more?”

You pulled your arms to your chest and nodded, and without another second wasted he was tugging the garment off.

Your eyes fell shut as you anticipated his fingers again, but instead there was a moment of movement and his mouth coming into contact with your delicate skin. You gasped, eyes popping back open as you glanced down to see the top of his head between your legs, his eyes gleaming up at you. He let his tongue lap over the expanse of your arousal, from bottom to top, stopping at the sensitive nub and pressing the tip of his tongue into it, flicking over it.

One of your hands grabbed onto the edge of the couch, sucking in a lungful of air and holding it, not trusting yourself to release it without being too loud. Instead, you pursed your lips and hummed deep in your chest, his mouth now fixed over you, tongue working you into a frenzy. The more you suppressed your moans, the more he tried to draw them out of you.

As if it couldn’t be any better, you felt his middle digit just outside your entrance, stroking over it up and down while his mouth continued at the top. The teasing was getting to be too much, and you reached down to push your hands through his hair.

“Please.” You whined as quietly as you could, and he tortured you for a second longer before pressing it inside you, your hands tightening in his hair a little more with each inch. He waited for a second longer, rolling his tongue over your clit before adding another. His knuckles curled upward and he found that spot inside you, thrusting his fingers into you as he lavished you with his entire mouth.

Your back arched up off the couch, holding his head in place, and he moaned in response, his eyes falling shut as he enjoyed every second of tasting and fucking you. He couldn’t get enough of your scent and your juices on his tongue, and he wasn’t going to quit until you gave it all to him.

Your chest heaved as you teetered on the edge, fighting between keeping it down but too lost to control your labored breaths and tiny whimpers. He encased you in his mouth and sucked, tongue assaulting you in the right spot as his fingers worked you harder. You tumbled, pulling in a high-pitched gasp only to release one hand from his hair so that you could moan into your fist, coming hard against his tongue.

He lapped at you, kitten-like as you came down from your high. You twitched every time and finally broke into a fit of giggles, pushing away the over-stimulation. He pulled himself up and over your body, looking down at you with eyes alight and lips moist.

He pushed some hair away from your forehead and kissed you between your eyes. “Was that okay?”

You could still feel your thighs trembling, and nodded, unable to speak just yet, instead taking him by the mouth and tasting yourself on him.

Despite him having given you more pleasure then you’d had in probably all 3 years of your miserable relationship, it didn’t satisfy your needs. You craved him more, and now had your hands pushed down between you, undoing the front of his pants. He looked down, then back up at you. “Are you sure?”

“I need you,” You said as you looked up at him with pleading eyes, and he couldn’t deny that.

He shimmied out of his pants and pulled his shirt over his head, bringing his knees down on the couch between your legs so he could situate himself. As he leaned over you, you wrapped your arms around him and sprinkled kisses down his neck, sighing as you felt him nudging at your entrance.

Then he pressed, and bit by bit he entered you, still wet and pulsing from your orgasm. He pushed until his hips met the back of your thighs, filled to the hilt and oh so perfect. He let out a soft “ah” sound, closing his eyes for a moment and holding on to the arm of the couch. When he opened them again, he gave you a look that was a mixture of lust and contentment, like he was exactly where he was meant to be.

He rocked his hips forward and back, increasing the pace slowly but surely. Your muscles clenched him from base to tip, the fullness bowing out every time he pressed in, feeling him in the pit of your stomach, causing your fingernails to dig into his shoulder.

“Ah, you feel-” He hissed, “So good.”

You swallowed back a moan, feeling your face get hot. Every time he gazed at you through those half-lidded, lustful eyes you burned all over. You hadn’t felt this desired, this wanted, maybe ever.

His little groans of pleasure increased, eyes squeezing shut as he gripped the couch harder and his thrusts got more insistent. He was close, you could feel how he pulsed with every sinking motion into you, and you pulled him closer, hips rising to meet him.

“I’m close,” He strained, struggling to open his eyes as he spoke. “Where do y-”

“Come inside me.” You begged, clawing at his arms. “Please?”

His eyes pressed closed again as a loud moan fell out of him beyond his control. Your sounds, your touch, everything about you was driving him crazy.

Finally, he shuddered hard, falling forward and whining out his release into your neck to muffle the sounds he couldn’t keep in. His thrusts stilted until he simply rocked himself inside you as he panted, his heart pounding hard through his chest into yours.

You wrapped your arms around him, cradling his head and petting his hair until you both calmed down. His body was warm and you wanted to lay wrapped up in him like that all night, but you knew that wouldn’t look very good to the others in the morning.

When he finally peeled himself way, you let out a small whine of disagreement, and he giggled. As he stood, he presented a hand to pull you up off the couch. You gathered your clothing and he nodding toward the hall, where you tiptoed toward the bathroom.

He made sure the temperature in the shower was just right, after you told him you liked it hot. Under the spray of water, his hands found you once more, smoothing over your skin, more so just to feel you than anything else.

His face looked different though, his eyes turned down, lost in thought. You reached up and  touched his face.

“Are you going to go back to him?” He asked, before you could speak. You blinked and were quiet for a moment.

“No,”

He was still not looking at you. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t want to start believing something, and then have you tell me you came to your senses.”

The hand stroking his cheek made him look at you. “Leaving that apartment was me coming to my senses. Deciding to call you was me coming to my senses.”

You spoke firmly, and it took a moment but he seemed to start to believe it, wrapping his arms around your waist and hugging you to his chest.

You finished washing up and changed clothes, Minhyuk opting to stay on the couch with you that night, draping an old throw blanket over your bodies and cuddling up to your side in the dark. You spoke quietly to one another, about your situation, what you wanted, what he wanted, and even topics beyond that. The sun was beginning to break from the horizon in an orange glow by the time you both finally drifted to sleep, uncertain but okay for now. More than okay.

[peaches-of-1]

Peachtober | Day 12: Striking Midnight

Cinder to Ember

Cinderella!Hoshi x Prince/ FTM!Reader

Warnings: Abusive language, abusive parent, abusive siblings (the stuff that were in the orignal film y’know)

When the kingdom was blessed with a princess almost 30 years go, the peasants and royals rejoiced! Celebrations were held for a month! Years passed, and many servants found the young child enjoyed both dolls and sword fighting and felt just as comfortable in dresses and in chainmail. Even more years passed and the adolescent royal knew they weren’t completely female as his servants believed. He preferred cute things and cute dresses, but did his best to become a good swordsman and wear pants even if he did chafe quite a bit.

The royal seamstresses caught on and began to alter the pants to fit him properly. They also fixed jackets and shirts to account for the amount of breast not repressed by their prince’s binding. Many of the knights bound their chests to help with posture, but this was different. The head knight Mingyu knew this. So he made a unique training regimine to give his prince time to unbind lest the prolonged wear were to hurt him in some way.

Year after year, the training paid off. Prince Y/N had become the most feared and respected swordsman in the 5 kingdoms. He made friends with the other princes and princesses and the subjects adored their transgender prince. So much so that they wanted to marry him. IT became more obvious by the day as more and more proposals came through the mail. Piles of flowers sent from suitors were turned into compost.

“Dearest son,” Said the King. “Whatever must I do to get you to marry a wife?”

“Or a husband.” The Queen added.

“Right. Right. Whatever your preference is. We want you happy more than anything, my child, but...it doesn’t look good for roses to rot so frequently.”

His wife added, “And frankly, it’s pissing off the neighboring kingdoms. Just choose someone and fall for them later.”

You rolled your eyes, “I cannot wed someone I have no interest in. They are my friends or people wanting to marry a prince. What about love, Father? Mother, what is I wanted to marry someone who loved me for me?”

The Queen spoke, “Then you must do it quickly. Your father and I have decided to throw a ball for you to find your spouse.”

“But, how--?” You began to sputter.

Your King, your father said, “We have invited all of the kingdoms as well as the whole of our own to make sure you have tons of options.”

You huffed and went to your room. You had to take your binder off, but also, you couldn’t stand to be around your parents right now.

On the other side of the kingdom, a musical young man by the name of Hoshi was washing the floor in too small brown overalls that had been ripped and repaired so many times. Sometimes they were caught on a stray nail, other times his step siblings would ruin them on purpose. However, it wasn’t like he could speak about it to anyone.

“HOSHI!!!” A regal voice called out to him. “Get your ass down here right now!”

“The young man hurried down the steps after making sure the area was marked as wet, telling the mice to stay out of sight.”

“Yes, sir?” Hoshi bowed to the blonde man who was his father in law.

Draped in a dark red suit, he twirled his hair and glanced at his poor excuse for kin, “You didn’t brush Lucky’s fur, did you?”

“I-I tried to, but they kept running away. I--”

“Excuses, excuses! Did you lure them out like you were taught? Stupi boy!”

“I’m sorry, Mingi!” He flinched. “I...I mean Ren. I’m sorry, Ren!”

The blonde rolled his eyes, “Geez! Why are you so useless?!?”

Soon enough, there was a clatter in the hallway followed by a shriek Hoshi and Ren raced out of the room and towards the source of the sound. Woozi was rubbing his hip in pain as Jun laughed at the top of the stairs.

“What is the meaning of this?” Their father asked.

“The top was wet and I slipped in the puddle.” Woozi whined.

All eyes set on Hoshi who responded, “I set up my drying rags on the border to make sure they didn’t fall. I did exactly--”

“Then why did you still hurt my darling? If he’s hurt, you will be taking care of him, intensively. Now do your work correctly, you insignificant piece of--”

Ding dong.

A rough his, and Ren left to answer the door. Jun and Woozi went to get bathed while the young man finished cleaning the area before drying it and then getting all the elements of breakfast together. He’d have to clean their rooms and set up their clothing for the day.

“My lovely boys, we have some good news! We have all been invited to the Prince’s ball! There is no doubt he’ll be looking for a spouse!” He said, holding them affectionately with their mouths full of break and cream as they were eating breakfast.

Then Ren continued, “The lady gave us 4 invitations, but we only need 3.”

“What about me?” Hoshi said shyly.

“...oh, right.” Jun said. “I’m sure Father didn’t miscount. Someone like you would bring us to shame!”

Woozi agreed, “you wouldn’t want to bring shame to the family of your poor deceased parents, would you? Reputation is important, you know.”

Someone with your stench and matted hair? We’d never be able to live that down!”

The three circled like sharks around fresh and bloody meat. They laughed and the two sons went to go change clothes since they were done eating and had new outfits to buy.

“Well, if you--” The step-child turned maid began.

“If I WHAT?” Ren stared him down. When there was no response, he simply huffed and straightened his cravat. “That’s what I thought.”

As the ball was so soon, Hoshi’s step-father and step-siblings were more irritable than usual. They had to have perfect hair and perfect lips, trying new skin creams and contacts as well. Woozi wanted to be blonde to meet the prince and hopefully become his husband.

“Blond hair will certainly help Prince Y/N to notice you,” Jun said. “He might mistake you for a baby chick because you’re so small, though. Won’t be able to keep his hand off of you.”

He laughed at his own joke, even though Woozi looked like he was going to rip his eyes out.

“Ow!” He then called out and kicked his leg. “Watch where you’re hemming!”

“Sorry!” Filthy black hair bounced to reveal a defensive smile.

Woozi’s cheeks got red with anger, so he shoved him back, “Don’t smile like that. It’s annoying.”

Later that night…

Finally, Hoshi had a moment to himself.  A cute little mousy, S. Coups and friends had a cup of tea and nightgown waiting for their friend. Joshua sat on Hoshi’s shoulder as he had just been freed from a trap by an exhausted tired helper.

“Ah, thank you S. Coups, Jeonghwa, Dino. You’re the most helpful mice a boy could ask for.” He said, setting Joshua among them.

After changing into the stained nightgown, he sighed and was glad the house was mostly quiet.

“What’s the sigh about? Dino asked.

“Why the long face?” Inquired S. Coups.

Another sigh, “Step-father told me there was a ball being held by the prince. I want to go, but I know he won’t let me. He even hid the invitations in his study, probably to hide them until the big day, and...to see the prince just once up close. One night of fun and to see his handsome face. I’d be ever so grateful.”

Joshua giggled, “How do you know the prince is handsome?”

“Well, all princes are handsome to someone, and I just know he’ll be handsome to me.” Hoshi replied with his head in his hands, looking at the flickering candlelight.

“What if you and the prince got to dance together?” Jeonghwa tossed the idea in the air.

The black haired man caught it instantly and ran with it, “Oh, I’d be the luckiest boy in the kingdom!”

The poor young man got up on two feet and began to dance around the room, night birds singing from the windowsill. A few grabbed a clean coat from the closet and helped along with the late night daydream. Joyous orchestral music played in his head as his partner asked him to dance. The two circling around the room as smiles were shared among all the creatures in Hoshi’s bedroom.

That is until a faithful creak on the stairs warned the guests of the imaginary ball to an uninvited party crasher. Quicker than lightning, the coat was stashed under the bed and the candle was blown out by Joshua. Hoshi jumped into bed, facing the wall and pretended to be asleep. He hid the candle blower to his chest to keep him from getting hurt.

A knock, “Ashton?” it was one of his step-brothers using the less than affectionate pet name, but the pounding in his ears made it hard to distinguish with certainty who it was.

A moment later, the door squeaked open and Hoshi shut his eyes tightly. Something rolled up was place on top of the pillow...footsteps...door closed shut...a creaky stair but now in reverse.

The young man let out a breath, letting go of Joshua who scurred over his savior to see what the gift was. Everyone was curious and started to murmer until Hoshi hushed them, using moonlight to make out the words. Then he gasped.

“It’s the invitation!” Quickly, he covered his mouth, hiding the scroll in his trunk at the foot of his bed.

Everyone was ready for the ball and even Hoshi raced down the stairs with invite in hand. He wore his birth father’s coat which he had kept and altered for such an occasion. Then Ren glared at him in the mirror’s reflection.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” He asked.

“T-To the ball with you.”

“Without an invitation? The blonde devil gave a cocky smirk.

Hoshi held up the scroll, “It was placed on my pillow, so I thought--”

“As if Father would let you come with us, Ashton.” Jun said. “And in those rags?”

“You look like utter garbage.” Woozi added.

Then a devious grin crossed the former’s face, “Why don’t we try our hand at some last minute alterations?”

Then the two began to claw and rip and tear the suit of the father Hoshi never knew. AT some point, even the invitation was taken from his hands. Red streaks and marks trailed down the suffering young man’s arms and legs. Ribbons. His clothing had been turned to ribbons of fabric all around him as he cowered on the floor.

The devilish trio weren’t done with their assault just yet as step-father Ren tore up the invite piece by piece in front of his very eyes.

“I don’t know how you thought you were going to get away with stealing from me and invading my private study, but let this be a lesson to you, Ashton. Don’t ever cross me again.” and the paper was thrown over black hair as if it were confetti.

The men left laughing, and Hoshi was left on the floor sobbing and found himself running to his mother’s grave.

Is tears watered the long dead flowers and helped to awaken his mother’s spirit.

“Dear, don’t you cry. Mother will wipe up the wettest eyes. Dearest, don’t you you weep, look into your heart and reveal the goodness you should keep. What does it want~?”

“I want to go to the ball.” He sobbed. “One night where *sniff* I’m not...I’m not forced to clean shoes or mend suits! One night of happiness.”

Wind twirled and picked up his form.

“Then my dearest, I will make your wish come true with a Bippity Boppity Boo. however, come back before midnight because that is when my magic will be through. I do believe what would be best is a bit of gold and blue.”

A crisp power blue suit fell onto Hoshi’s frame, golden Oxfords on his feet, and he looked up just in time to see his mice be turned into horses and a lucky pumpkin turn into the most ornate four wheeled carriage he had ever seen! The young man gasped as Minghao the owl gained human form to become his footman. The torn pieces of the invitation floated out of the home and became whole again.

“Oh, thank you, Mother! Thank you!”

“It’s the least I could do for leaving you with them.” She said, kissing his forehead.

And so off to the ball the crew went.

Bright lights. Loud laughter. Simple chatter. Prince Y/N was having none of it. Of course he was nice and polite and showed off his good upbringing to all that approached. He needed to excuse himself, requiring a moment to breathe as he took off his binder for a few minutes. The appointment would happen before the wedding, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to get rid of these fatter lumps on his chest.

Mingyu asked from the doorway, “Are you ready to return to the party, my prince? There are several suitors waiting to meet you. If you need more time, please let me know. They will wait for you, my prince.”

“No, no. I’m coming. Just give me a few minutes.”

Then his outfit was done up once more. Just in time, it seemed, as the horns announced another guest arrival. No name since they were rather late, but still. His very wide eyed arrival was nothing compared to his dapper suit the color of the sky. Very fashion forward, nothing you as the prince had thought of wearing. Minimalistic and sleek. Golden shoes on his feet.

You weren’t the only one who noticed as all eyes were on the young man who lit up the room. He did not approach anyone himself, but the Queen asked to dance with the young beauty. You knew she was probably asking about status and other unimportant things. Then again, she was very good at partnering with Father to help rule the kingdom.

You would trust Mother to find a great potential husband for her own son. Just as you turned around, an older man and two young men approached you and bowed deeply.

“Your highness, I am Choi Ren from the Pledis sector. These are my sons Woozi and Jun. Both are very eager to meet you.” He basically pushed his offspring towards the royal.

Each grabbed one of his arms and began to bicker over who he should spend time with first.

“Darlings, behave yourselves~” Ren said with a saccharine tone. “I’ll leave you be.”

The prince turned on his charm, “Well, gentlemen, it seems that I’ll have my arms filled with your handsomeness for the foreseeable future.”

“You talk so pretty.” Woozi swooned.

“Your face is so pretty too.” Jun said. “Like a girl--”

The brother wacked his back as the prince made a face, “Don’t say that!”

“What I get the same thing too, especially when I used to have long hair.”

The prince chuckled tensely, “I get that a lot.”

After the dance with the Queen and a few other kind fold who actual wanted to hold Hoshi in their arms for a few turns in the ballroom, the overwhelmed young man went out onto the expansive balcony for a breather. Sitting on a long bench and looking up at the stars.

“Oh, this is so much fun!” he said out loud to himself and casually walking to the bannister. “I do wish it would never end! I still haven’t met the prince, though. I would be an honor to dance with such a man.”

A high alto voice spoke behind him, “Excuse me…”

Hoshi turned around to see a soft and handsome face staring back at him. Who was this man?

“I’ve been wanting to dance with you all night,” the man said. “May I?” and held out his palm.

The lucky young man smiled and gave his hand, “You very much may.” simply wanting to dance with another kind stranger.

This mysteriously good looking man smiled and the two began to twirl to the distant orchestra which played a smooth and melodic waltz. The men gazed into each others’ eyes as if they held the universe, no their own universe in each orb. Not one moment did they look away.

“How are you enjoying the ball?” They asked in sync and laughed.

“You first,” the soft faced one said.

Hoshi replied, “It is the most magical night of my life! I’ve danced with so many people! My feet should be tired, but I am too happy to feel anything but joy.”

“I haven’t seen you around before.” He said sweetly.

“Well, I’m not really allowed to be seen much.” Hoshi bit his lip, “BUt let’s not talk of that for now.”

The kind dance partner nodded, “I do hope I get to see you more often after tonight. It’s been a tiring night for me as well. Some people have decided to call me Miss--”

“Even though you’re very clearly dressed like a Mister?”

“Yes!” He exclaimed.

Hoshi pouted, “Well, I believe the way one puts themself out there is the way they should be perceived. Sometimes perception is wrong, but there’s not much else you can do except talk to the person.”

“Then again, you can’t talk to every person in the world, also some may not want to be talked to anyways.”

“True.” The enchanted boy said. “But I get to talk to you. That’s all that matters to me right now.”

The first strike of midnight tolled, making Hoshi’s eyes go wide.

“I must go. I’m so very sorry. Oh, but I haven’t even seen the prince yet…” Hoshi said as he turned to go.

“The prince?” Y/N himself said to the young beauty clan in a blue suit.

The beauty that was running away at the moment. He at least tried to follow after him asking for a nam, a house, something so he could find his heart again. There was no doubt that Prince Y/N, that you had fallin in love during your time together.

Black hair bounced as the young man ran away, his shoelace getting caught on a broken part of the stairs, causing a golden Oxford to come flying off. Still, the man in blue ran, barely glancing back at his lost shoe.

You picked it up, however. Took it to your nearest guard Mingyu who was always nearby his trusted prince.

“Get Mother and Father. Tell them I have found the one I shall marry. We just...I just have to find him again.”

Back home just in time, Hoshi’s carriage returned back into a pumpkin. The horses back into mice. Footman Minghao reinstated to owl form. Rich looking suit of powder blue back into dust covered rags. The only thing left was a golden Oxford that the young man kept safe as a memento of the night.

And so the next day began with a bit more sunlight in his heart. He sang a bit louder while making breakfast and was in the back garden hanging up clothing to dry when Ren suddenly grabbed his arm.

“The prince is searching the entire kingdom to find someone he danced with last night at the ball and left a show, so I need you to stay out of sight. Wouldn't want you to bring shame upon us.”

So Hoshi was thrown into his bedroom with the door locked behind him

“Wait! Wait! It was me! Let me out!” He yelled and randing already raw fists against the door. “Please, let me out!”

But no reply other than a vicious scream to tell him to be quiet.

Prince Y/N arrived in much splendor. All eyes were on him as he approached the biggest house in the Pledis sector.

“Is everyone present among possible suitors?” Mingyu asked.

“Yes.” Ren said, shooting a warning glance to his children that didn’t go undetected. “Everyone.”

The one known as Jun was the first to try on the show, trying to stuff his foot inside, but it would not go in. his foot was way too big to properly fill it.

“My feet are swollen from dancing last night.” He tried to explain.

You shook your head, “I doubt a foot would swell so much in such a short period of time.”

As Woozi took his turn in the chair to try on the gold show, it was quite clear his foot was too small to wear the  shoe as intended.

“My--my feet were swollen last night from dancing. I assure you that I am the gentleman you are looking for, your highness.”

You looked down at the young sir, quite concerned, “If your feet swole so much, I suggest seeing a physician. Besides, the man I dance with last night didn’t complain about his feet.”

Again, the shoe was taken off and the man discarded. Prince Y/N sighed and said that the person he hat waltzed with must be at the next house. His knight Mingyu said there were no more houses.

The crash of a vase from upstairs. All heads turned to the source of the sound. Ren cursed the boy he had been forced to care for since his wife and Hoshi’s mother died. Why didn’t he stay quiet?

“Everyone?” You asked in your most princely tone.

“It was a mouse--” Ren began.

“Our maid--” Jun said.

“Our brother--” Woozi started.

Glares towards the shortest felt like daggers.

“He was ill last night and didn’t even attend the ball. You shouldn’t go up there. He might still be sick.” Ren put on his doting father facade.

You crossed your arms and smoothed the skirt you were wearing since wearing pants all night had made your legs start to chafe.

“I have the best doctors in the country. Let me see him, your brother maid.”

Begrudgingly, Ren went upstairs with the prince’s knight behind him, shoe in hand. The door opened and Hoshi was picking up the pieces of the broken case with his hands.

Was it really the prince himself I had danced with last night? Hoshi asked himself as he was brought downstairs to stare at the man.

“Sit.” Ren said, struggling to hold back his usual venom in front of company.

He did and the golden Oxford slid perfectly onto his foot with not too much extra space nor half of the foot hanging out. Not only that, but the mice S. Coups, Jeonghwa, Joshua, and Dino worked together to bring the other shoe downstairs as well.

“The other shoe as well!” Prince Y/N gasped. “You are him!”

“Could you not recognize my face?” Hoshi laughed, tying up his shoes.

The prince blushed, “Do forgive me, my love. It was dark and I needed a couple of drinks to get through the night.”

Hoshi smiled, “I forgive you.”

Prince Y/N then got down on one knee, “Will you also marry me?”

“Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!”

The prince and Hoshi shared a loving embrace and a beautiful kiss. Less than a week later, the wedding was held.

As for the step-father and step-siblings, they were thrown in jail for abuse towards the princess. All’s well that ends well.

[elara-moon]

Title: Happy Together (chapter four: BingQiu Week Day Four)

Author: Elara_Moon

Rating: T

Warnings: Mental state altering magic

Summary: As per usual, it was entirely Airplane-bro’s fault! (Luo Binghe is under a strange magic effect, Shen Qingqiu is sick, and this leads to a conversation Shen Qingqiu never wanted to have.)

AO3 Link

Shen Qingqiu was going to kill Airplane-bro when they got off this stupid mountain. It was entirely his fault that they were up here looking for some plant (another of the thousand miracle flowers in the Proud Immortal Demon Way world) to cure some improbable illness.

Shen Qingqiu sneezed.

Okay, so he was the one with the improbable illness (as usual, why is his life like this), but it was still Airplane-bro’s fault for inventing the thing.

The problem was not the illness itself, which so far seemed to be like the immortal’s version of the common cold: annoying, but not overly harmful. It wasn’t even the plant. It was the mountain. Entirely unrelated to the plant, this mountain (with a suitably long and pompous name that Shen Qingqiu refused to remember on principle) had a multitude of other one-of-a-kind and long-lost things.

Including an ancient relic that covered the entire mountaintop in a strange aura. Shen Qingqiu could feel it crackling uncomfortably against his skin, though it wasn’t actually affecting him. It only affected demons, and theoretically, the effect made demons more straightforward: removed every consideration from their minds except their goals and desires. This caused most demons to become vicious monsters who simply attacked and ate anything that approached them.

Which could have ended very, very badly, and if Shen Qingqiu had realized that the mountain with the miracle flower was the same mountain as the one with the ancient relic, he would have insisted that Luo Binghe and Mobei Jun stay away. But he hadn’t known; the miracle flower had, in an amazing turn of events, been a one-off mention with no details about its retrieval. Shang Qinghua also hadn’t known, apparently, even though he was the ******* writer!

Reasons to kill Airplane-bro: he’d invented the immortal-affecting version of the common cold, he’d invented the miracle plant, and he’d invented the ancient relic. Three reasons, and that was giving him the benefit of the doubt that it wasn’t his fault they’d ended up on the same mountain.

Reasons not to kill Airplane-bro: he was the only other person from Shen Qingqiu’s original world and he did reluctantly consider him a friend, and Mobei Jun was inexplicably in love with him and would probably cause trouble for Luo Binghe if Shen Qingqiu killed Shang Qinghua. Two reasons.

Shang Qinghua’s life was forfeit.

...And it was possible Shen Qingqiu was more sick than he’d thought, because he could not keep himself on task.

Anyway, because the mountain was very large and Shen Qingqiu was sick, Luo Binghe had recruited Mobei Jun to the cause of looking for the miracle flower. Completely unrelated to that, Shen Qingqiu had dragged Shang Qinghua into it because he needed his knowledge of what mountain the flower was on. And so all four of them went.

Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe had promptly gotten separated from Mobei Jun and Shang Qinghua through a series of absurd events. For maximum drama points, Shen Qingqiu was pretty sure.

Fortunately for Shen Qingqiu’s continued survival, the effect of the ancient relic did not reduce Luo Binghe to a mindless animal. It did, however, remove all of the things that usually kept him from asking Shen Qingqiu unwanted questions. It seemed that, without inhibitions keeping him away from awkward questions, a lot of things were actually higher on Luo Binghe’s priorities list than getting the miracle flower to cure Shen Qingqiu’s magic cold.

Unfortunately.

“Shizun, please,” Luo Binghe said, eyes dark and serious, crocodile tears nowhere in sight.

He was standing very close, all but looming over Shen Qingqiu. Luo Binghe wasn’t crying for once, but Shen Qingqiu almost wanted to! It was so much easier to deal with Luo Binghe when he was crying and wheedling what he wanted out of Shen Qingqiu. And, of course, when Luo Binghe was avoiding certain subjects.

Wherever Shang Qinghua and Mobei Jun were, Shen Qingqiu hoped Shang Qinghua was suffering as much as Shen Qingqiu was. In a tiny, distant corner of his heart, he hoped that Mobei Jun was as non-violent under the effects of the relic as Luo Binghe was and Shang Qinghua was therefore safe, if massively inconvenienced. But mostly he hoped he was suffering (emotionally).

Shen Qingqiu lifted his fan slightly higher. It did very little good when Luo Binghe was standing as close as he was.

“Binghe, I--” he started, and hesitated.

“Shizun. Why did you push me into the Abyss? Did you hate my demon blood that much?” Luo Binghe said, repeating his questions again. Shen Qingqiu tried not to react. “Do you still?”

That one was new. Shen Qingqiu couldn’t repress a flinch.

“No, of course not,” he said. “I…”

He what? He couldn’t explain why he’d done it! There was far too much that he’d never told Luo Binghe and never wanted to that he’d have to if he wanted to explain why he’d pushed Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss.

But he couldn’t think of a lie to give, either, or any way to convince Luo Binghe to stop asking. His head was full of cotton.

“Then why?” Luo Binghe murmured, leaning in, his eyes intent.

Shen Qingqiu coughed in his face. Not deliberately, it just happened. Luo Binghe barely flinched. He kept staring.

Unfortunately, Shen Qingqiu’s illness only mimicked the effects of the common cold -- it wasn’t actually, and it wasn’t contagious.

“Binghe, this master doesn’t feel well,” Shen Qingqiu said as calmly as he could when he was desperately hoping it would work. “We should keep searching for the…” He cast around for the most recent miracle plant’s name, and couldn’t remember it, “...cure. To my illness.”

Luo Binghe didn’t look swayed. “Shizun will have to forgive this disciple,” he said unapologetically. “We can search later. Please, won’t Shizun answer my question?”

The problem was, the illness Shen Qingqiu had wasn’t immediately life-threatening. Well, no. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Luo Binghe knew it wasn’t immediately life-threatening.

Shen Qingqiu narrowed his eyes a little. Luo Binghe was essentially trying to extort him, wasn’t he? The answers to Luo Binghe’s questions in exchange for the cure to Shen Qingqiu’s illness. How ruthless of him!

“Right now? Surely this can wait until later,” Shen Qingqiu said.

Hopefully once Luo Binghe was away from the effects of the relic, he’d go back to being unwilling to ask!

“It can’t,” Luo Binghe said immediately, crushing Shen Qingqiu’s hopes. “This disciple needs to know. Please, Shizun.”

Luo Binghe’s expression folded somewhat from the steady, cool determination it had been set in for the rest of the conversation. He looked… sad. It wasn’t an uncommon expression on Luo Binghe, because acting sad and pitiful was his preferred (and the most successful) way of getting Shen Qingqiu to agree to anything and everything.

But so far, Luo Binghe hadn’t been acting like he usually did -- he hadn’t been pretending, the way he usually did. So was it… real, then…?

The attack on Shen Qingqiu’s feelings (a critical hit), on top of the overall miserable state he was in, did him in. He crumpled under the onslaught like wet paper.

Luo Binghe knew it, too.

“Shizun, why did you push this disciple into the Abyss?” he repeated again.

Shen Qingqiu was not so out of it that he didn’t notice the pronoun change from the previous times Luo Binghe had asked the question. Trying to seem subservient again, huh? Shen Qingqiu was onto Luo Binghe’s tricks! Not that it actually changed anything.

“I’m sorry,” Shen Qingqiu said.

Luo Binghe’s eyes went wide.

“I’m sorry for what I did. For… pushing you into the Endless Abyss,” Shen Qingqiu said. He closed his eyes, lifting his fan to cover his entire face. “I… I can’t explain why I did it. But I am sorry. I didn’t hate your demon blood.” Not yet, anyway -- he’d certainly had enough reason to hate it at certain times after that… “I don’t hate it.”

“Shizun…” Luo Binghe said, voice wobbly with emotion.

Shen Qingqiu opened his eyes to look at Luo Binghe’s face. Sure enough, the silly man was crying. He sighed.

“Why are you crying now?” he scolded gently, reaching out to wipe at the tears.

Before his hand made it to Luo Binghe’s cheek, however, it was crushed between them as Luo Binghe flung himself forward, wrapping around Shen Qingqiu. Instinct caused Shen Qingqiu to squirm in the hold. Familiarity caused him to go still, because struggling wouldn’t get him anywhere; Luo Binghe would hug Shen Qingqiu until he was ready to let go, and nothing else would free him.

“Shizun!” Luo Binghe repeated. “I love you, Shizun.”

He buried his face in Shen Qingqiu’s hair, probably getting it all wet with tears. Fortunately, as the protagonist who could have no unattractive faults, Luo Binghe always cried in a very pretty, elegant way, so Shen Qingqiu didn’t have to worry about him getting snot in his hair.

With a sigh, Shen Qingqiu shifted to be more comfortable. He wiggled one of his hands free from between them to stroke Luo Binghe’s soft hair.

Shen Qingqiu spoke quickly, before he could give himself the chance to think about it. “I love you too,” he told Luo Binghe’s chest.

It was embarrassing! So embarrassing. To just say it openly like that--! But… Luo Binghe liked it when Shen Qingqiu said it openly. Even if he could only do it on the spur of the moment, without thinking about it, when he didn’t have to look Luo Binghe in the eye.

Luo Binghe’s arms tightened around Shen Qingqiu and he made a content noise. Shen Qingqiu tried not to cough on him again.

He hoped Luo Binghe finished having emotions soon so they could continue looking for the miracle plant.