#just two years and it'll be long enough to fully braid

[ratspider]

i love you furries i love you scene kids i love you cutesy over-the-top fashion i love you hot pink i love you raccoon hair stripes i love you fingerless gloves i love you neon colours i love you i love you i love you

[enchantress-of-words]

FFF183 - Late Night Train

@flashfictionfridayofficial

(Cossack's Bane, University AU - nevermind i haven't even started the normal WIP yet, lol. This is Ksenia's and Marichka's first meeting.)

Ksenia stuffs her hands into the coat's pockets. She's making her way through the wagon. Her lower face is hidden behind the thick woolen scarf, knitted by her mother; it hides a part of her scar, making people less intent on staring at her. She still keeps her eyes on the floor.

Right. She needs to find her seat.

The weather outside is... snowy. It's probably first snow this winter Ksenia intends to fully enjoy, stepping right into the few weeks of winter holidays; she exhales, remembering a few smaller gifts she picked for her siblings, and bites her lips in annayance, remembering she still has to find some for her parents.

Ksenia shakes her head. Her sit is almost there.

She casts a quick glance on the person sitting across her. It's a girl, twenty years at most; she hasn't noticed Ksenia yet. She's staring through the window, fingers tapping the glass obnoxiously.

Ksenia realizes she still hasn't taken her sit yet, and places her bags down. The girl's eyes jolt up, inevitably fixing on Ksenia's face. She resist an urge to roll her eyes.

Ignoring the girl, she takes her phone and starts scrolling.

There are a few messages from the family group. Petro sent a photo of his cat, and a video of his son chasing said cat immediately after. Ksenia remembers Petro with his wife and son will come over for holidays too. Dammit. She adds three more gifts to the list.

(Does she have to find a gift for Petro, though? He's older than her. He's got life, job, and family figured out already. He's the one who has to shower Ksenia in gifts, really.)

She textes a quick "boarded already" in response to her father's message, and takes a photo of sight from the window. It's starting to get dark already, snowflakes dancing in the streetlamps' light.

The train slowly takes off.

There really isn't much else to check. Fesko sent her at least ten messages with screenshots from class' groupchat, each followed by a meme or sarcastic comment that would surely get him harassed by their peers should they ever get leaked.

Ksenia think that's really why they clicked so good. Ksenia never cares about those comments enough to get them leaked, and Fesko would definitely help her hide a body. Fesko's just cool like that.

The girl's still tapping on the window. Her other hand is brought to her lips, eyes staring at the table between them, eyebrows raised; she's either thinking of the tons of unfinished assignments or the fact that someone probably stole her chicken soup from the fridge. You never know.

Ksenia puts her phone back in the pocket and turns her face to the window. They are leaving the city; the buildings become gradually smaller. The snowflakes race behind the train, struggling to keep up.

The girl is the first to break the silence. Unfortunately.

"So, where are you headed to?"

And it's such a banal question, too. Ksenia cuddles into her coat.

"Kovel'", she says. The girl perks up. "You?"

"Liubomyl'", she says, a grin on her face. "I always wanted to move to Kovel', though. Heard it has more opportunities."

Ksenia shrugs. "Bigger cities tend to. Are you... visiting for holidays?"

"That's a one way to put it," the girl laughs. She has two thick long black braids. "Mom's gotten sick, so I'm not sure how much of a holiday it'll be."

Ksenia hums. She's not sure how to show that she's not interested in conversation.

"My name's Mariia, by the way," the girl says, extending her hand through the table. Ksenia unwillingly shakes it. "Most people call me Marichka, though. It suits me best."

"I'm Ksenia."

"Nice to meet you. So- you're a student, too?"

Ksenia tilts her head to the side. There's no escaping small talk, is it?

"Yeah. Third year, economy."

"Oh! I'm second year. History."

"Oh," Ksenia raises her eyebrows. "That's cool."

Marichka smiles. "I know. Hard, but cool."

They fall into silence, occasionally interrupted by few words here and there. Marichka has younger brother and sister, Ksenia learns. Her brother won't be coming home: he'll spend his holidays in Kyiv. It's his first time alone, and Marichka is dead worried about him.

She learns Marichka has picked a fight with half of her campus, at least. That's something Ksenia can relate to.

The train is quiet. Ksenia shows Marichka a photo of her brother's cat. It seems polite.

Marichka laughs a lot, almost always at her own jokes. Her eyes almost always skitter back to Ksenia, flashing with something like fear. Marichka tells her about her younger sister, Melanka. How she likes pretty dolls and horses.

She doesn't talk about her parents, for some reason, and Ksenia doesn't pry. She tells her about Fesko instead. She has a feeling Marichka and Fesko would come along smoothly.

Marichka knows a lot about history and traditions. She perks up talking about them. Her favourite period is the 20th century: she knows hella lot about revolutions, different organizations, cultural activists.

She loves cossacks. Ksenia resonates with that. Cossacks are interesting.

(Marichka doesn't ask about her scar. Ksenia is puzzled, but really doesn't mind.)

The train is quiet. Wheels calmly rattle on the rails. The snow is falling outside the window.

Kovel' is closer and closer.

Marichka falls asleep.

Ksenia's stop is much earlier than hers. She sighs and leaves her number on a piece of paper.

The streets are quiet. The snow glimmers in the light of streetlights.

Ksenia smiles and heads to the bus stop.

[sucuretcannelle]

200 follower special: CJ x Reader

This is my first attempt at a oneshot, let me live, im trying 😭 

Note: In this AU, Vade is CJ’s best friend instead of his girlfriend

And hey, I don’t know how to title this, so heres a pretty gif

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  Where is he?

 The question entered your head as you squeezed your way around the house. There should be a simple answer since you saw him less than thirty minutes ago, but he seemed to have vanished.

 You don't even know why you had to ask such a question at all. If you're hosting a party, you should be talking to the guests, right? He of all people would be downstairs the whole time during events like these.

 The party was loud, almost unnecessarily so. Someone turned up the music because it was "too quiet." Maybe it'll go back to normal when the neighbors call the police because of it.

 You weren't having any luck finding your boyfriend until your hand touched the railing of the stairs.

 Has he gone upstairs?

 Well, you wouldn't be going upstairs if you didn't fully believe that he did, now would you?

 You walked into his bedroom— No, your shared bedroom just to find him sitting on the bed, strumming his guitar slowly. He looked tired

 It's out of the ordinary to see him look that way, so out of concern, you walked up next to him and fell onto the bed with a bounce, "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing," his voice trails off, "I can't get this part right."

 You take a deep breath and look up at the ceiling before closing your eyes. He didn't stop you, he didn't bother you. The faint sound of music from downstairs drifted into your ears. One song, in particular, caught your attention, it was an old one. Where from? You couldn't figure it out at first.

 Then you realized. A library faintly appeared in your vision. It was freshmen year in high school, so why did it feel like it was such a long time ago?

 You two were in the school library, working on a project. He looked so much more focused back then, but he wasn't writing anything or doing the project at all for that matter. You turned your chair to face him as you played with his hair. That same song was playing through his earbuds; pretty loudly at that. He relaxed his shoulders and leaned back a bit, giving in to your touch.

 You quickly sat up from your spot on the bed and turned to face him, "I can braid your hair for you- I mean, only if you want."

 He smiled and shuffled to the side turning the back of his head to you, giving you full access to his hair. It always looked so smooth and fluffy.

 So as any sane person would do, you ruffled it and combed your hands through it to bring it down.

 While you braided his hair, he continued to play on his guitar. The tune he played was much slower and calmer than the songs you usually listened to while he was around. The party music was still loud and muffled, but things felt much slower in general right then and there.

  "This is so... relaxing," you lightly giggled a bit, "is this a love song or something?"

  He goes quiet for a moment, "what if I said yes?"

 You spun him around and hugged him tightly, not before he put his guitar down. Both of you lost track of time as you lightly swayed in each other's arms. He then pulls you into his lap and wraps his arms around you. 

 Both of you sat there in comfortable silence until you picked up something to say, “I think the punch got spiked.”

  “Prolly by Vade,” he says, before lightly pressing kisses onto your neck.

  “Maybe, I saw her walk in with some Bacardi and some weird-looking vodka.”

 You pause, “Shit, we aren’t even old enough to drink.”

 You scooted forward to get off of him before walking towards the door without looking back.

“I should go before everyone gets drunk off their asses-”

 Right before you reached your hand out to open the door, you felt him grab your hand. He stammers for a moment.

  “I think I’m in love with you.”

  “...”

  “...Wait-”

   “CJ, we’ve been dating for 5 years.”

 You looked up at him, and then looked down and started laughing, wheezing even, and he followed suit. You gripped his shirt and hid your face in his chest in an attempt to calm yourself down, while he covered his face with his hand.

“Fuck, that was embarrassing.”

You hug him once more, “at least you proved your point right?”

You slowly let go of him, “but I have to go check up on them. Unless you wanna come with me.”

“Tired,” he said, “but can I kiss you?”

You smiled and gave him a peck on the lips, “you rest up, okay?”

“’ Kay,” he turned his back heading towards the bed, but he swiftly turned back to face you, “love ya.”

“I know,” you said walking out the door and closing it behind you.

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Sorry if my writing skills aren't that good, I've written nothing but hcs since May 2020—