#kasey's collection: my hero

[kingdumkum]

i've been so eagerly awaiting this since the moment you said you have an idea for a continuation of Plucked Flower and god of sleep Shinsou and oh. my. gods. it has exceeded my wildest imaginings!!

Patchy, this is amazing. completely gushing (and potentially way too verbose) thoughts below--with the gist being, this is amazing. YOU are amazing, and I am so, so thankful you shared this with us. a wonderful piece written by one of the most wonderful humans I know <3

(review (basically just me rambling about my favorite aspects) below, list of favorite quotes at the bottom, absolute adoration in its entirety):

This completely captures what it means to be a god. Going from blessed creators, worshipped and revered, to being taken advantage of by their own creation, that stewing resentment for mankind and all they entail (ahem, mortality and morality, amongst others) is conveyed so perfectly, from the introduction down to the characterization of Sero and Shinsou in both explicit and implicit ways. You’d already set up a brilliant dichotomy between man and god  in Plucked Flower (specifically how even the gods can fall prey to the pitfalls of human emotion), but continuing beyond Sero’s rather universal feeling of “boredom” and into Shinsou’s very, very humane feelings of jealousy and possessiveness is such a fascinating thread--especially when you note, “how could a God truly value anything if they did not have a finite time to have it? How could they enjoy splendor if they have not known poverty? How could they value a life if they could not know death? And how could they appreciate anything, if all they wanted was more?”

The way my heart DROPPED at, “and despite the many claims he so sweetly whispered within your ear, the many reassurances and acclimations of love, Hanta finally grew bored of you.” On the tail end of having read A Plucked Flower too, the fight he put up and the way he truly seemed to hold some (however little) affection, only to transmute into him doing what gods always do, is brilliantly tragic storytelling.

The slow, longing ache of knowing this would eventually happen but still finding heartbreak when it does is so beautifully conveyed, it actually made me hollow just reading it. The inevitable doom that comes with loving a god, staved off for so long you think it might not happen, coming to fruition. The sweet, sweet way that feeling of abandonment and loneliness is then pushed aside for concern for a love one is a great juxtaposition for reader’s humanity… and the fact you slowly forget that same loved one to be reflective of your loss of humanity (or at least, a further separation from it) is so poetic.

All of Hanta has me insane, by the way. Especially the sleazy way he just—reappears, after abandoning you for who knows how long, to the slightly condescending way he treats/talks to you, as if you really should have known better before getting involved with a god, and the possessiveness at the mere suggestion you might be seeking another god—this is the exact kind of thing I’d expect from god Hanta. I’m a little too in love with a possessive jerk, but with the characters themselves being gods, there’s no way around that—and your Hanta is a perfect god.

I absolutely love the growth of your reader; from the naive little flower in the first piece to how reader so expertly plays Hanta like a fiddle in finding the God of Sleep, it’s such a remarkable journey and, once again, a wondrous commentary on how what you surround yourself with is what you become. No longer is reader as meek and free as the flowers of the forest, but rather conniving, scheming, and as willful as a god. Yet the core of her remains, with the sweetness that once drew Hanta to her in the first place, and the shame that sometimes accompanies her as she’s forced to confront the life she has isn’t the one she wants. This reader is fleshed, relatable without being explicitly defined, and so defined by her surroundings that it elevates the nature of the piece tremendously.

The imagery in this piece is incredible. Describing the Underworld, in particular, with the cries of the lost souls and the darkness of the scenery, does a great job at setting up Shinsou’s character—especially as an antithesis to Hanta. Hanta, who was bathed in light and white and all things a god typically has, who treats his precious nymph like a toy he’s since grown tired of, vs. Shinsou, a dark and unwanted presence, yet existing as an oasis in the chaos, someone who exists to serve reader’s dreams instead of create new ones, is such a brilliant contrast, you can’t help but root for him—and that’s before the strong parallels of his desires and reader’s, of his dreams and reader’s, of the kinship he, as a god, finds in reader, is established. I’m also really partial to the gentleness of Tamaki, and the stark contrast of how Sero refused to share reader, even a little, with anyone, other than to show off her as a prize, vs. how Shinsou relies on Tamaki to help guide reader to and from his cave, and the gentle smiles and reassuring words they both hold. It’s an incredible balance of the two sides of man; the selfish, possessive, hedonistic values that govern the more “godlike” personages, vs the sensitive, humane values that come from the shared feeling of being outcasts, or “Othered.” 

One of my favorite symbols in this piece is, without a doubt, the idea of Hitoshi as a diamond in the rough. Even his home is representative of that, lying within the darkness of the Underworld, having to cross a river of forgotten and lost souls, full of jagged edges and sharp rocks—and yet, at the center, where he exists and reigns, it is calm. It is peaceful, and beautiful, and a safe space for reader to exist and follow her own dreams, for once, and quite frankly I think that’s lovely.

(and here’s where I start screaming…) But at the end of it, Hitoshi is STILL a god, and that’s something so fantastically buried beneath his gentleness, his reassurances, his contrast to Hanta—that’s it’s easy to forget there’s still something feral inside him. Something not meant to be controlled, even by a pretty smile, and when his manipulative side starts to show, it is game over. The story becomes a whole other class of Insane. Hitoshi truly is a god, something so easily forgotten until his scheming manipulations come to fruition, now rendered entirely unforgettable by the mere fact what a god wants, a god will take—consequence be damned.

favorite lines:

- they knew they could not stay within their mortal plane any longer; for they were meant to be treated as divinities, not as servants. - For it is much easier for a mortal to obey the wishes of a God, if they came down to them in a beacon of light and gold. (I am screeching this is so beautiful) - A god has no need for such childish things as dreams, those are silly things we made for mortals to keep them happy. - Knowing of your current plight, one of abandonment and loneliness, he could not help but relate. He found a semblance of sympathy and empathy for the creature before him; for he too found seldom joy with the realm of the Underworld, being placed her and forgotten by the Gods that claimed to be his brothers. He could not help but wish to end your suffering, as well as his. - “I have not had a more peaceful rest since the millennia started… if having you here to admire your sister means I can have more moments of levity like this, then I would be a fool to cast it aside.” - You were so willing to eat from his palm, that you have no time to properly think if his intentions were pure. - Truly, when all was said and done, this was all your own doing. “You could have asked for more!” (I cannot express how this made me feel. It just. My gut and heart and oh everything lurched.) - But what was the strength of a nymph when compared to a God? - And now that he had you, now that he finally had you here, he wished to engulf you completely and enjoy what the Gods above have denied him. - I’ll take much better care of you than he ever will.

word count: ~18.2K

paring: God!Shinso x f!Nymph!Reader

warning(s):  dubcon, marking, slight impact play, somnophilia, oral (f!recieveing), creampie, gods as always being manipulative and cruel.

authors note: hello there, I know I promised this much sooner than it is being granted but as I am sure you can see by the word count, this kind of got away from me. This is actually a sequel to Plucked Flower! And when I was discussing with the lovely @/melodramaticmura about who would be which god, it seemed rather appropriate to have Shinso be the god of sleep. And well, I wanted to make a stand-alone fic of that, perhaps even make a series on it, but it was too tempting to have him steal away Sero's prized nymph so here we are. So please, let Shinso guide you into a peaceful slumber~ 🔮

A long time ago, Gods ruled the world.

Everything that the mortals could see, touch, and know were all controlled by the Gods who blessed them with their divine skills and talents. But, over time, the mortals became more dependent - more greedy - with their reliability on these seraphic creatures. As the demands of the mortals they created, and thus cared for, grew to be overwhelming and abundant, they knew they could not stay within their mortal plane any longer; for they were meant to be treated as divinities, not as servants.

And for once, in a rare moment of solidarity, the Gods worked alongside each other to create a home for which they could call their own; an empyrean realm that only they could have access to, which contained all the splendors known to man and even more. A dwelling where they can find peace and tranquility, and to be finally removed from the demands of the mortals; to finally have the undivided devotion they so craved. For it much easier for a mortal to obey the wishes of a God, if they came they came down to them in a beacon of light and gold.

Serve away they did, the mortals, tending to their temples and bringing forth gifts upon their alters; all the while they would lavish in their heavenly realm of gold and marble, to feast upon delicacies, to relish in the prosperity that the mortals provided to them, and indulge in one another; especially if that indulgence was at the expense of a mortal, to provide them with the vanity and sense of superiority they wished to continue to grasp onto.

Through all this splendor, however, it was easy to grow bored. Hanta, like most Gods, grew bored.

For a God could never cherish anything for too long. An immortal life always paired itself with dissatisfaction; for how could a God truly value anything if they did not have a finite time to have it? How could they enjoy splendor if they have not known poverty? How could they value life if they could not know death? And how could they appreciate anything, if all they wanted was more?

Living forever took the beauty of life away. All the love and heartbreak seemed so meaningless after a while when one could find no reason to hold onto it, that in time it could be replaced by a new adventure, a new thrill, and a new body to make claim to. Why keep something when you could easily abandon the old, and seek out something new? 

And despite the many claims he so sweetly whispered within your ear, the many reassurances and acclimations of love, Hanta finally grew bored of you.

You knew it was bound to happen; there truly was only so much a nymph can do to claim the interest of a God. You knew the thrill he found, the infatuation he grew of you, was within the chase of claiming you for himself; the cat-and-mouse game he so perfectly cast and you so perfectly played into was the thrill he wanted within that moment. 

Of course, there was the thrill after he caught you. How he laid you upon his bed day in and out and claimed his prize in any way he could; whether that be with sweet words, soft kisses, warm and gentle caresses, or have you on your knees to worship his aching cock, to then have it drag in and out of your tight hole as you scream his name for the heavens to hear.

It was to fill his ego, to have the most prized and beautiful creature to claim as his own. To have complete and utter control held over you, the utter and undiverted devotion that he pulled from you constantly as you obeyed and worshipped him however he pleased. To relish in, not only your body but the jealousy of the Gods around him as they grew envious of his little pet.

And once he lost interest, once his fellow Gods grew unbothered and uncaring of his treasures, he would find some other way to gain a boost to his ego; regardless of the feelings he may hurt along the way.

You had to give him credit though, it took him much longer for him to lose interest in you than what every other god that filled the heavenly realms, and even yourself, thought. Many said a few weeks, some said a few months, and you thought perhaps a year. Though it was hard to tell given the way time seemed to matter little the more you stayed there, how it moved so quickly and yet not at all at the same time, to say how long before he lost interest but it was certainly longer than a year.

It was gradual too. Slowly, but surely, he left you alone in that small portion of the heavens he carved out for you. What started with him parting from you earlier some mornings, thus leaving the giant bed he shared with you empty, turned into every morning as you would reach for him only to be met with cold silk and loneliness to sink to your heart. And soon, those daily visits he would give to you so diligently, to allow you some much-needed company as you staved away your boredom, soon started to wane. How he used to share his meals, his laughter and companionship, started to bore him and consequently, he began to leave you with small scraps that were left behind the day before as he neglected yet another meal, and as the weeks progressed, leaving you hungry altogether. 

Though despite all of this, he would still return to you at night; to lull you to sleep in his arms and whisper those sweet nothings into your ear until you fell into a blissful sleep. And it was when he stopped arriving in your bed at night that you knew he no longer cared for you. That those declarations of love were truly just empty words so he could use you as he saw fit, like many a god to a nymph before him. Now leaving you to try and find a semblance of peace all alone in a place you did not belong.

You had no other forms of company either for the other gods barely acknowledged you. Some were spiteful that you would tarnish their realm and way of life by simply existing there as if it was your fault you were placed there. Others tolerated you, though they preferred your silence, wanting merely to look at you and nothing else. Others… they wished to have you in more carnal ways; falsely putting on kind airs only to lure you into their trap - much like Hanta - though luckily none was able to do anything untoward before Hanta intervened; but now you knew not to trust them, and to avoid them altogether.

After Hanta abandoned you, you were left alone to fend for yourself. Granted the small piece of heaven that was made for you was beautiful, and gave you some semblance of peace knowing you would not be bothered here - to which you were eternally grateful to Hanta for such a gift - it left you more lonely than you had ever been in your life. Moreso than when you were cast out from your forest of birth by your fellow Anthousai and forced to find a home, and sisterhood, by yourself.

Because through those trials of loneliness and rejection, you did find a sister. One that loved you, that built a home with you, that kept you company in the best and most nurturing of ways; a companion you adored with your whole heart. And one you were tricked to abandon to come here. 

For as lonely as your life got, at least you had her. Here, you had nothing.

You thought of her often, and the memories you shared together, as you lay upon the clouds of gold and splendor alone and unwanted. Thoughts of her made your lonely days more bearable as you reminded yourself of a time when you were wanted, where you were loved, and where you felt happy and fulfilled as you remembered the bouts of laughter shared between the two of you.

Though Nymphs were ageless, they could die in the mortal realm or transform themselves into the nature they were born to nurture. But here? You had no such release, bound to live amongst the gods until the end of days. And as they progressed, you couldn’t help but worry about your sister; you were safe, but was she? Was she still around in your little home within the mountains? Or was she now gone, lost to the passage of time? 

Your worry grew tenfold when, one morning, you tried to remember her face and couldn’t. She was the only thing that tethered you to happiness in this cruel world you found yourself in; the only thing that brought you warmth as you were surrounded by coldness. Your heart could not help but sink with dread as you frantically tried to think of her face. You had to, for she was the reason your sanity was still intact. She was the reason your heart had not broken fully.

You couldn’t help but weep for weeks on end as you slowly realized you were forgetting her.

You knew you could not sit idly by and let this happen to you; to allow these cruel creatures to break your spirit out of amusement. You had to know, had to remember, for it was all you had left; and you were going to cling to it, to fight for it, for all eternity if you had to.

So you waited, with determination blazing your heart and mind, for the God - the man - who caused all of this. Knowing that at some point he will show up and grant you a visit. He would do so every now and then, seemingly almost out of obligation like an owner would for a pet they cared little for. You knew then, you could ask him for a favor.

~

It was hard to tell how long it had been, how long you had been waiting, but finally, the day had come when you were granted a visit from the winged God; the flapping of his wings signalling you, and thus filling your body with hope, as you heard him approach. Scrambling you got to your feet, unable to hide your excitement as you stood, as you waited with bated breath for him to appear.

Hanta brought with him a tray of food, many delicacies that the Gods would indulge in, ambrosia and wine, you were unsure if this was a way for him to apologize for leaving you for so long without a meal, but the proud smile he garnered on his face when he approached you was clear he felt like he was providing you with a gift.

And though you wished to scowl at him, wanting to allow him to know how unfair it was for him to leave you with little food and company, you knew you had to be your usual sweet self if it meant allowing you to get your way. 

You welcomed him with open arms, clinging to him tightly as you knew he loved for you to do, as you babbled sweetly on how much you missed him, nuzzling your face into his chest as a sign of utmost affection.

You could feel him chuckle before the deep and mirthful sound could fill your ears, as he brought a hand to pet your hair “I miss you too, my beautiful flower.”

His gentle petting of your hair turned into gentle tugging, clearly wanting to have your part so he may rest and enjoy the meal he brought; guiding you gently to do the same and he passed you a goblet of wine; deep purple in colour a far cry from the strawberry wine he used to give you.

You sipped it gently as you listened to him regale tales of what had befallen him while he was away, some excuse as to why he could not visit you before now, as he indulged in your quiet devotion. Though after a while, noticing your lack of enthusiasm or want to partake in the glorious meal, he grew a little concerned as he leaned over towards you to pet at your cheek.

“What is wrong, my sweet love?” Hanta asked of you, moving to push a few strands of hair away from your face “You do not seem yourself.”

You found yourself bashful over his sweet gesture, almost surprised that he still held some tenderness for you. With a timid smile, and huff of a laugh you shook your head “No, no, nothing is wrong.”

“I can tell when you are lying, love” Hanta smiled back, ducking his head to look properly at your face; finding your reaction to him filling his sense of pride. “So please, indulge me”

You took the line he was casting, knowing now would be the only time you could possibly have to pluck the courage to ask him; shyly looking back at him as you tried to find the words, forever grateful for his patience as he looks upon you with tender eyes as he waits for you to speak.

“I was just wondering…” You finally began, “Seeing as I have a few myself these past few nights, if… if you gods ever dream?”

Sero scoffed at you, finding your question as silly and innocent as you were, tone almost condescending as he leaned down closer, a hand continuously stroking your cheek. “Oh my dear, of course we don’t. A God has no need for such childish things as dreams, those are silly things we made for mortals to keep them happy.”

You cannot help yourself from turning your eyes downcast at his almost brutal condescension. Taking a moment to compose yourself before you batted your lashes up at him; your wide and sad eyes a weakness you knew to be his when it came to you, as you asked him again, “Hanta, surely there are times when they are needed, even for a God. If what you say is true, if gods have no need for dreams that mortals do, then there is still a need. Therefore there is a God who provides these, and thus can help another God if needed.” 

Hanta began to draw away from you, clearly figuring out where you were trying to lead the conversation. His eyes could not help but turn darker as jealousy began to cloud his vision of your wanting to seek out another god, as his grip upon your head grew tighter. “You want this God, is that it? The God that provides you these sweet dreams, you want him in your bed?”

You tried to shake your head as best you could, wincing at the slight pain he was now causing you, whimpering out weakly, “No, not at all! I only wish for you to warm my bed!” 

“Then why are you asking me about him?” Hanta could not stop his voice from turning dark, not at all enjoying the fact that you would want to seek another god for any reason; were you truly ungrateful over all that he had done for you that you would find it inadequate?

Though you were not wanting to engage in his wrath, you could not help but become a little elated over the fact that there was a God of Sleep; and Hanta knew of him. But if you ever wished to find him, to be allowed to move freely to do so, you would have to calm, and flatter, the God before you.

“Because I need aid with my dreams,” you whimpered out, eyes turning glassy as they begin to fill with tears - another weakness you knew Hanta to have and for you to exploit. And you almost wanted to smile, to drop the act, at how quickly it worked.

You could see his eyes soften, his grip loosening, as he scanned your face; his other hand coming up to cup your other cheek as he began to fawn over you in concern. “Why? Have you been plagued with nightmarish vision? Have they hurt you?”

You shook your head, though it clearly was not enough to reassure him as his hands continued to stroke your cheeks in a calming manner. You knew you had him in the palm of your hand, as you allowed a few tears to fall from your eyes.

“Then why do you need to seek the Sleep God, my love?” He asked, voice still gentle as he looked down upon you, wanting nothing more than to cease those tears from falling.

“So I can remember my sister!” You blubbered out, and though the tears were falsified before they became honest and true as you reminded yourself of your sister; how the thoughts of forgetting began to cause those tears to fall more freely and stain your delicate face.

“Please, I left her behind for my love for you was stronger. I cannot help but miss her, and if I cannot go to the mortal realm to see her, then I wish to dream of her.” You choked out, as you grabbed hold of his hand, kissing his palm to try and sweeten him and his ego further. “Please Hanta, if you love me as you claim to do, you will allow me this small gift.”

Who was he to refuse you? His good, and obedient nymph. He couldn’t, not when you looked at him so sorrowfully. With a nod of his head, he pulled you into his arms, shushing you as he kisses the crown of your head. 

“Do not cry, my love. I’ll take you to him.” 

~

Though the heavenly realm proved to be a gift above all else, it was not shared equally amongst those that built it. Those whose gifts were heavily tied to the mortals, that dealt with the macabre that their lives would bring, were looked down upon by those whose talents were more serene. It was easier, and more harmonious, to live amongst those that gave love and song than those who had to deal with death and sorrow.

So they were banished to a realm seldom visited unless a favour was needed; a realm filled with darkness that lacked the treasures from above; the Underworld.

Hanta kept you close as you made your way down into the depths of the depressive world, carrying you within his arms and tucking your head into his chest to spare you from the horrors that await a long journey such as this. Needing to protect you, his precious flower, from a dangerous place such as this realm proved to be; a venture no nymph should find herself in, but he was willing to do this for you to cease the sorrow that had befallen you. At times, you yourself couldn’t help but whimper as you clung even tighter to his tunic as the wails of lost souls made your heart stutter with fear.

Soon his wings fluttered to a stop, gingerly setting your feet upon the damp ground, before a cavern-like area. The dark obsidian that lay jagged, almost broken, surrounded the open entrance of the cave and made you question if you should enter, for it seemed far from hospitable. Nonetheless, Hanta pushed you forward, forcing you to take the first step towards what you desired; knowing that he would not be wanted within the rooms of these lands

“Go on, my love” Hanta smiled gently, easing your fear and reassuring you of any falsities your mind could conjure up. “He will not harm you, and I will stay right here should you need me.” 

With a tentative nod, you resigned yourself to your fate as you turned towards the lair before you. With a deep breath, your trembling feet began their stride toward the God who may be able to help you.

The corridor itself was long, lined with those jagged dark rocks and jewels, as you kept yourself small and away from it all as you continued down the winding passage; unsure if it would even allow you to find your way out of its seemingly endless path. A dim light, one of calming blue, rid you of any sense of hopelessness as you approached a room. The room was darker than what you were used to, but that calming blue hue filled the entirety of the space and allowed you to take in the surroundings.

It was more beautiful than you were expecting. An inverse of the pastel and gold that covered the heavenly realm, as dark marble and a silvery mist surrounded you; intricate furnishings with many a carving of stories long past deep within them. Despite the warnings, despite the claims otherwise, this place was not of ruin and decay, but rather of equal splendor that you have become accustomed to from the heavenly realm above.

In the center of all the strange but wonderful opulence sat a giant glass orb propped so beautifully atop of a pillar, woven so intricately like vines, of tourmaline. You couldn’t help but approach it, the alluring purple aura seemed to call out to you, reaching your delicate hand before you, nothing else crossed your mind that your desire to touch the orb's smooth surface.

“You’re a bold little one, aren’t you?” Hitoshi spoke, chuckling deeply as he took in your startled form. 

You jolted your body towards where you heard the God speak, and looked upon his figure that sat on a simple, but elegant, throne of silver; mere feet past the orb. You felt heat rush to your cheeks, flushing them in embarrassment for being so engrossed by a crystalline ball that you failed to notice him. Sheepishly you lowered yourself to your knees - tucking your head close to your chest - as you bowed deeply to him to showcase your respect.

“I apologize for my rude intrusion,” you whimpered, knowing how fickle and quick to anger most Gods were, and hoping your little oversight of his presence would not cause his wrath.  

“Rise,” He tells you, clear from his infliction that he finds boredom in your display of decorum, sitting more upright within his throne to regard your form with interested eyes. “And state your business here. For it is not every day a mortal like yourself so brazenly enters my domain.”

You nervously shift your weight from foot to foot, keeping your gaze downcast as you do as you are told; unable to not find his intense gaze unnerving. “I-I was hoping to seek your skills, to help me with a sorrowful plight I find myself enduring for I-!.” 

His low chuckle made your shoulders tense even further, as the flush that painted your face grew darker. He raised a hand to cease your babbling from continuing; perhaps he found you childish if the condescending shake of his head as he leaned closer to you, was anything to go by.

“I already know what you are here for, little one. Merely wanted to see you squirm in nervousness for a moment longer.” He began to explain. “I already know who you are and your plight; the sad reality of the God of Sleep is that I know every mortal’s dream, and must endure the burdens that come with it.” 

You can tell his words rung true, for as you finally gazed up at his handsome face you could see the dark circles that stained the skin under his eyes, his own sunken deep within his skull, you could tell he suffered the same nightmarish visions, the unease and sorrow, and the sleeplessness you, and the many mortals like you, may find.

“You wish to see your sister, for you are forgetting her,” Hitoshi continued, hand rubbing his forehead as he sighed, watching the elation come forth upon your face as you frantically nodded your head, knowing that now he must aid you in some fashion or else you would not leave him to be alone once more. 

He stood from his throne, his height more imposing than you thought it to be, to stalk his way over to you and the crystalline ball you stand beside; shrinking away from him, you allowed him to pass you with little fuss. With a wave of his hand, the orb filled with a cloud of dark purple smoke. He beckoned you closer to him once it did, and you watched as the smoke slowly cleared away the closer you found yourself to the God and his crystalline glass; soon revealing your sister’s slumbering face.

“She dreams of you often,” He stated, standing aside to allow you the chance to look upon the image without distraction. 

“She does?” You could not help but become overwhelmed with both joy and sorrow as you gazed upon her; elated to know she was still alive and dreamt of you. You just merely wished you could do the same. Tears formed in your eyes as you reached out a cautious hand to gently touch upon the smooth glass, to caress the image of her cheek. “It warms my heart to know that, thank you.”

Hitoshi allowed you a moment to stare, gaze looking upon you in question; pondering what he should do. Knowing of your current plight, one of abandonment and loneliness, he could not help but relate. He found a semblance of sympathy and empathy for the creature before him; for he too found seldom joy within the realm of the Underworld, being placed here and forgotten by the Gods that claimed to be his brothers. He could not help but wish to end your suffering, as well as his. He tried his hardest to garner a plan out of this small act of kindness he would give forth to you in your time of need.

“You certainly act brave,” he called out to you, tone more gentle than before, “but I know you wish to dream of her yourself though pride is stopping you from asking me such a favour. For the Gods that surround you only grant one if you provide something in return.”

He pauses, allowing you a moment to take in his words; speaking once more as he could tell your attention was back on him rather than your sister, watching as your brows furrowed in question, knowing he must speak carefully in order for his plan to work

“I can assure you that I wish nothing in return,” he stated plainly, as he moved to sit on his throne once more. “The end of your sorrowful anguish, to cease the added pain and suffering it causes me, will be payment enough. I only ask for you to visit me here, should you wish to take upon my offer, for it shall be easier for me to provide you with the dreams you want from my throne.”

His response took you by surprise, as you gazed upon him in shock, overwhelmed by his apparent kindness that you could not do anything for a moment but stand there frozen in place - much like the few marble statues that decorated his home.

“Does that suit you?” Hitoshi asked, a brow raised in question as he watched you with amusement.

You nodded your head in a rapid fashion as you scurried your way back to him; unable to stop yourself from taking hold of his hands and squeezing them as you knelt in a bow before him once again; “God of Sleep, truly I wish there were more words I could say and express to you my gratitude and thanks to your kindness, but alas I cannot, but please know from the bottom of my heart that I am so overjoyed to hear you speak those words….” You continued profusely babbling to him your thanks and you kept his hand tightly within yours. 

“Hitoshi, you may call me Hitoshi.” He simply smiled, finding your devotion towards him at that moment welcomed for it rarely happened, relishing in it for a moment longer before removing your hands from his. “I await our next visit, but for now it is time for you to depart.”

You nodded your head in understanding before you bowed your head to him once more in respect, then gingerly walked down the few steps from his throne and towards the long, jagged corridor of obsidian without another word or complaint. 

“I will send my trusted friend Tamaki to fetch you,” Hitoshi called out to you, a smirk playing on his lips. “So there will be no need to bother and bring Hanta back with you.”

~

Hitoshi was true to his word, another surprising moment for you within a land of selfish and deceiving Gods, for when you woke the next morning - alone once more in your vast bed of silk - you caught sight of a man standing within a dark wooden gondola, seemingly waiting for you. Clearly, there was no one else he could possibly be there for, as this small portion of the heavens was made for you, a portion that seldom had visitors. 

Slowly you rose, eyes straining to properly see him, though you knew he was here for you the man situated himself so far away from your slumbering form that you couldn’t help but have a twinge of doubt.

‘Was he perhaps timid?’

A strange notion, and trait, for a God to possess but the closer you approached him, in your barely covered form, the more you began to realize it was true. Another handsome face, as all Gods possess, though his pale skin and dark hair were a striking contrast to the bright flush that stained his face and pointed ears; clearly he was bashful over looking at you in such a state - his eyes never looked upon for more than a brief second before darting away.

“A-are you, Tamaki...?” You asked him, timidness within your own voice as you softly called out to him, trepidation filling your being as you continued to approach him; after all, you had been fooled before by false displays.

“Y-yes I am!” You could see his eyes snap up to you as he stood taller as if bringing forth his name meant bringing forth his station and thus made him want to stand with pride. “I am the Ferryman of the Underworld, I was sent here to get you.”

You watched as he paused, giving you one more look-over before averting his eyes again, letting out a small cough of discomfort over your barely covered body; a reaction you were not used to getting, though perhaps he too was guarded for the fear of unleashing the wrath of a fellow brother was not something he wished upon himself.

“...Though perhaps I should allow you to dress before bringing you before Hitoshi,” he finished, clutching tighter the giant wooden oar he carried and was using for support

Your face flushed in a similar red to the God before you as you nodded your head, perhaps it would have been wiser to dress before approaching the strange presence that entered your little domain, but curiosity always did get the better of you. You nodded your head politely before scurrying off to find suitable garb to wear.

You admired Tamaki’s patience, and his courteous nature for it took you far longer to find a dress that would keep you warm as you stayed in the cooler domain of the Underworld; after all, when Sero brought you here, dressing you in fine clothing was the least of his worries. Every time you looked over at the Ferryman, his eyes were never focused on you, but rather daydreaming as he gazed upon the soft pastel colours of clouds above.

You approached him again once ready, and the kind smile he cast as he gently helped guide you into his gondola put your racing heart at ease; you could not say with certainty that you could trust him, but as he allowed you to sit and get comfortable before slowly descending his vessel down towards the domain he called home you couldn’t help but think that maybe you could.

He was a wonderful guide as well as you made your way back into the treacherous waters and dark world that was the netherworld. His tone, and demeanor, always reassured your every need; from when your shoulders would tense as the gondola grew a little too close to the sides of a cavern, or how your hands would grasp the side of the vessel tightly as the descent moved a little too quickly, or when the screams of the wailing souls became almost unbearable causing you to cover your eyes - he would gently reassure your fears every time.

“Do not fret, fair nymph,” Tamaki’s soft voice rang out above the screeching souls that lay below you, effectively stealing your attention away from their pity. “They will pass in due time, they merely wish to make those suffer alongside them; once they see you will not befallen to their tricks, they will leave you be.”

“They will..?” Your voice was barely above a whisper, unable to properly hear yourself as you continued to try and close your hearing off to the cries of the lost souls, scooting yourself towards the middle of the gondola to avoid their reaching hands.

Yet he still heard you, as if the deafening keenings meant nothing to him, as he nodded his head; using his long oar to steer his vessel down a long stretch of water, away from that of the river Styx. “And do not fear them, as long you are in my care they will not harm you nor snatch you from my boat.”

Slowly the gondola came to a stop, the motion as smooth as the silvery water below, in front of a familiar obsidian cave - the entrance still as daunting and inhospitable as you remembered it being the day before, even if now you knew you were wanted within those walls. He helped guide you, with a courteous hand, up from your seat and out of the dark wooden craft he had grown accustomed to; only pulling his hand from your grasp, and thus support, once your feet were firmly planted on the ground before you. 

“Thank you, Tamaki,” You said, eyes gleaming with genuine sincerity as you gazed upon him, your hand taking his once more to give it a small squeeze of gratitude. You almost giggled when you noticed his cheeks began to flush once more, as his bashfulness took hold and caused him to turn away from you yet again and focus his attention elsewhere.

“I shall be here to guide you back once you are done,” he muttered, his voice never before sounding so small since you met him, as he tugged his hand from your grasp. “Now go. Hitoshi can become impatient if you make him wait too long.”

With a nod of your head, you turned to face the mouth of the cave, dread setting in once more as you swallowed thickly the anxiety that began to bubble up within you; praying that you had not caused the God of Sleep ire for taking so long to get to him as you made your first steps back to his throne.

The blue light guided you as before, calming the gnawing apprehension that made a purchase into your heart for you felt as if you were a lamb being led to slaughter despite the generosity and kindness you were shown merely moments before. Tamaki had said that he would not have harm be brought before you, therefore he would not lead you to harm. You were not a lamb being led to slaughter, as you so felt at that moment, by merely approaching and being within Hitoshi’s lair.

Just as you did before, with timid and apprehensive steps, you stepped through the threshold of silver smoke and jagged obsidian into the room he resided and called home; eyes downcast, feeling smaller than ever before, you took gingered steps to where he sat upon his pearly throne, kneeling before him as a mortal should before a God. His imposing figure, one that loomed over you, caused you to lower your bow further until your head laid upon the cool marble your feet once stood upon.

“Not as bold today, are we?” Hitoshi chuckled, releasing you with an unhurried motion of his hand, his eyes staying with your figure as you moved to stand before him.

He watched as you simply shook your head in response, gaze still downcast as if too nervous to meet his eye; a frown formed upon his lips in disappointment over your timid display, wishing for you to be more excited, more jubilant like you were in your last meeting. Though perhaps it was because of your actions yesterday that you felt the need to be more apprehensive of your every move, not wanting to accidentally offend or upset him.

Hitoshi hummed, finding your continued lack of response telling of his assumptions. He stood from his throne and gracefully sauntered down the few imposing steps before it, regarding you and your smaller form for a brief moment before he ushered you to follow him, to which you did so dutifully; to come before the crystalline ball and its swirling clouds of violet haze. 

Once more, when the smoke began to tire of its own billowing dance and wished to retire away, images of your sister arose causing you to sigh out in quiet joy and behold her sweet and slumbering form. 

“You may stay for as long as you wish,” Hitoshi whispered out, finding that if he were to speak louder he may spook you from the charming trance he had put you under, as he placed his hand upon the small of your back to guide you closer to where you truly wished to be.

He almost chuckled at how you merely nodded in response to his generosity, too engrossed with your sister to think of anything else; even the gracious God providing you such a spectacle. Perhaps if he was in a worse mood, he may have been offended, perhaps even telling you to leave. And yet, he found it rather amusing, endearing even. He could tell why you were plucked from the mortal realm and kept amongst the gods as a pretty rose to gaze upon for eternity - you were certainly an interesting creature, at least as far as he could tell.

“Enjoy it for as long as you may like,” he spoke again, settling down once more onto his throne, chin within his palm as he gazed at you wondering if your response would change. He chuckled to himself when he saw the small rise and nod of your head; clearly too enraptured still to even think of a single word.

Time was frozen still for you, at least that was how you saw it, when you gandered down upon your sister; eyes filled with warmth as your fingers delicately outlined her face with thoughts that raced through your mind. You wondered what she dreamt of, what the days ahead of her looked like, and if she remembered you. A faint smile painted your lips as you thought of all the possibilities that could befall upon her.

Though time at that moment was still for you, it still marched onward.

For Hitoshi, he watched you for hours. His chin never left his palm, as his eyes just softly gazed at your form; curiosity further seeped into his being the longer you stayed. He was almost disappointed when he had to have this little visit come to an end, something he could not help but find odd as no words were spoken between the pair of you. Yet he could feel he missed your presence already.

“The sun is about to rise, little one,” he called out as he sat more upright upon his throne, “which means your sister will wake, and thus we will no longer be able to see her in my crystalline orb.” 

“Has it really been that long?” You softly answered, voice barely above a whisper as your hand dropped from the item in question back to hang limply at your side.

“Afraid it has.” 

“Then I thank you kindly for allowing me such a prolonged gift as this,” You said, casting forth to him a smile of gratitude; though despite your efforts not, you could tell sadness seeped through. You bowed once more, kneeling upon the ground you had spent hours standing upon. “It was more than I could have hoped for.”

“You are welcome to come back here if you so choose,” He watched as you stood once more, an amused smile gracing his handsome face. “For you have been nothing but a quiet and respectful guest.”

“I-I can…?” You questioned, hands coming forth to clasp together nervously; wondering if his amusement was genuine due to your company or if he had a trick he wished to play and had accidentally shown his hand.

“I have not had a more peaceful rest since the millennia started.” He began, gracefully taking a pause so he may walk over to you. “If having you here to admire your sister means I can have more moments of levity like this, then I would be a fool to cast it aside.”

Hitoshi took your hand in his, bringing it forth to place a tender kiss upon the back of it before turning it over to place a small golden bell within your palm, before letting it go. 

“Should you ever wish to return, ring this bell twice. It shall signal to Tamaki that you will be in need of his services, and thus will return you here.”

It was the jubilation on your face, he could only assume, that was what made him wish to provide you this sanctuary in the first place. Your smile beamed forth a ray of light as you gazed up at him, clasping tightly the small gift he had provided to you close to your heart.

“Thank you!” You gushed, feet almost stumbling over themselves as you didn’t know if you wanted to go forth to him and take his hand to showcase your gratitude, or if you wanted to leave to ensure further rest for this God before you (as well as showcase your prize to Tamaki, the man the bell was tied to).

In the end, you chose to scamper away, your gratitude and declarations of thanks echoing within the long and winding hallway. Hitoshi merely shook his head, breathing a sigh of mirth as he returned to his throne; his mind raced with thoughts of you. He wondered if he would get to see more moments of your bubbling personality showcased to him, more so than the small snippet he was blessed with at that moment. 

Ultimately all of his thoughts led to one conclusion, that he hoped you would ring the bell very soon.

~

Despite your desire otherwise, it took you a little more than a fortnight to call upon Tamaki once more; not at all for the reason that you were no longer interested in visiting the Underworld once again and indulging in the gifts brought before you, but rather you would feel horrible if you were to summon a God such as he to take you to and fro on whatever whim you had. Knowing he had far more important tasks to uphold, not simply to take care of you.

Yet, Tamaki greeted you with that same kind smile, one that grew wider when you apologized for being such an inconvenience as you clambered into his boat. 

“Nonsense.” He chuckled, using his oar to steer his vessel. “Your company is a highlight to my day, a far better kind than the souls that screech for my attention. So you need not worry about calling me forth.”

“Is that so?” You hummed, leaning forward towards him with a smile, placing your chin in your palm.

“Yes.” His face flushed that familiar shade of red, yet his eyes remained on you - clearly less shy than before as he grew more accustomed to your presence. “So, call upon me whenever you wish, for I know Hitoshi would prefer if you did as well.”

His eyes then looked away from you to instead focus on successfully steering you to where you were to be; back to Hitoshi. You took the time to survey the surroundings, as it was clear the ride was to remain in silence until the end, taking into account all the small jewels and gems that littered the dark walls of the nether realm. A small glimmer of beauty and hope in an otherwise bleak and dreadful world as you continued your descent. 

Though this time, after the boat had slowed to a stop, a visitor was there waiting for you. 

Hitoshi stood tall, making the daunting entrance of his lair seem small and almost meek. He approached the gondola with purposeful steps. His eyes glimmered with mirth as he nodded his head towards his old friend Tamaki before he bowed before you.

“As always, you have arrived safe and sound.” Hitoshi’s deep voice mumbled out, as he stood to his full height once more. “I am grateful to be able to have Tamki provide such a service.”

“As am I.” You managed to get out, voice meek, as you looked over at the ferryman in question. “He certainly puts me at ease and makes this descent more palatable.”

“Yes, well, I cannot argue with such a statement,” Hitoshi mumbled again before presenting his hand for you to take. “But a ride is not why you are here, now is it? Come along, little one, we cannot keep Tamaki from his duties any longer.”

You nodded your head, giving one last grateful smile towards the God who brought you here, before gingerly placing your hand upon his; finding Hitoshi’s gentle strength almost dizzying as he lifted you from the gondola with ease.

With practiced ease, surely muscle memory for him at this point, he guided you through the caverns towards his home; not at all bothered by the sharp stones that jutted from the walls or the rocky terrain as you were. You leaned into him often, finding his presence and body a needed support, as you tried to keep up with his quick pace.

You wished that the path toward his throne room would be more kind, less abrasive, and less aggressive toward those that wished to seek his help. But much like those gemstones hidden amongst the cavern walls of the Underworld, once you got through all the dread and unpleasantness, you were greeted with something wonderful. And the vast room he called his own always seemed to comfort you in some way whenever you entered it.

This time, when you passed through the haze of silver smoke that always permeated the air around his threshold, like a door to keep his privacy intact, you already found your sister’s slumber face illuminating the giant crystalline ball you had grown so fond of.

Hitoshi allowed you to break free from his hold of you to dart towards your sister, following after you at a much more leisurely pace. He could not blame you for your eagerness to see her, after all her slumbering form was a beauty to behold in and of itself, however he did wish he could hold you and your attention just a moment longer before it was diverted elsewhere.

Nevertheless, he had a plan today. One that he knew you would adore above all else, even more so than any gift the Love God had ever given you previously, or since you entered the realm of the Gods. Unhurried, he followed behind you, taking in the image of your admiring eyes for a moment longer before deciding to break the peaceful silence that had befallen.

“Do you wish to visit her?” He asked, placing his hand to the back of your neck to stroke the hair that laid there.

“More than anything…” You whispered, smiling fondly at the image before you, an action you had grown accustomed to doing. “However, such a wonder cannot happen, nor be granted to me while I am here.”

Hitoshi chuckled, an almost sinister grin forming upon his lips as he gazed down at you, lowering his head to whisper in your ear, “What if I told you that you could?”

He delighted in the way your body shivered at his action, the way your eyes finally were diverted from your sister and thus focused upon him; that he finally was the one to capture your whole attention.

“Can you?” You breathed out, having lost all the air within your lungs and body over his words; unable to breathe at not only the possibility of perhaps being able to hold your sister in your arms again, but the price it might cost for such a miracle.

“Dreams are an amusing thing, little one.” Hitoshi smiled, taking hold of your shoulders so you could face him fully. “A reality that is not fully our own, a realm in and of itself that is not beholden to the same rules as ours.”

He paused, and watched as your little brain tried to understand fully what he was saying. Finding it adorable when your brows furrowed together in concentration as you tried to put the pieces he was alluding to together. He brought his hand up to pat your head, stroking his palm down your hair soothingly as he continued.

“I can control that realm, a gift given to me by my mother.” He muttered those words, his smile growing wider as he saw your eyes light up in hope. “If you allow me your trust, to give forth your sleep to me, I shall be able to connect your dreams together and thus allow you a brief moment to be together again.”

It was almost comical to him how trusting you were, how you would so easily give up something so precious as the ability to command your own sleep to him. How you practically threw yourself into his arms, in both desperation and shock that such a gift could exist, as you quietly begged him for that chance.

“Please Hitoshi!” You said, hands clinging tightly to his tunic as you felt your eyes well with tears as your feelings overwhelmed you. “I beseech you, please, take me to her. I would ask nothing more of you, of your skills, gifts, or time, if you allowed me this. My anguish would cease being your burden if you allowed me to speak with her just this once.”

You turned your face away from him as you felt the warmth of your tears begin to stain your cheeks. Wanting to lessen your humiliation, you focused back on the image of your sister, and you asked him once more to take you to her, even if only for a brief moment.

Your naivety, your utter trust in him after all you had known and learned from the Gods, made Hitoshi’s smile grow even darker as mischievousness tainted it. You were so willing to eat from his palm, that you had no time to properly think if his intentions were pure. So blindsided by the love of your sister and desire to see her, you would do anything - even if it meant being at his mercy. 

He almost felt pity for you, such a sweet creature like yourself being taken advantage of by a more powerful being. 

Almost.

“Hush, little one,” he cooed, almost in condescension, as he pulled you against him once more to dry the tears that fell so freely from your eyes. “I would have not have offered such a gift if I had no intention of giving it to you.”

He continued to brush your tears away as he listened to you hiccup and sob, trying your best to form a response to him and his kindness but failing; shushing you once more as he pulled your head to rest against his chest, allowing you a moment of reprieve to calm yourself down.

“Now, now.” He began after silence had enveloped the pair of you for a breath. “Whenever you are ready, please lay yourself down in any place you deem comfortable within my home.”

He allowed you to pull away once more, watching as you sniffled and nodded your head, your hand wiping away the last of your tears as you looked about the abode. Deciding that his throne would be the most comfortable spot to choose if you were to lay down. However, you could not bring yourself to gain the courage to sit upon his throne. Instead, you chose to lean your body upright to sit comfortably against it, your head settled upon the arm of his chair to further ensure that you would slump over once sleep overtook you.

Hitoshi wanted patiently as you made your decision, finding your bold action to use his throne in some fashion entertaining, a refreshing outcome from your usual polite and timid nature. He approached you once it was made clear you were comfortable, kneeling down to your eye level as he brushed your hair away from your face.

“Close your eyes for me… there we are, that’s good,” he whispered out, eyes turning a pale silver, like the mist that surrounded his room, before he brought his hand up to your face. “Now, I must warn that you may feel nauseous once being thrust from one realm to the next, do your best to focus on where you are headed, for it will help, alright?”

You nodded your head in acknowledgment over his words, shifting one last time in a more comfortable position. “Alright.”

“Good, and do not fret, I will watch over you”

With that, his hand made contact with your brow as his power surged through your being. Your eyes rolled back into your skull, as you felt your consciousness being violently thrust from this plane, this realm of existence. You fought back the turning of your stomach, the urge to fetch up the bile that sat in your stomach, as you gripped tightly to your robes; to ground yourself into the reality you wished to be in most, a dream with your sister. Abruptly, your world and soul stopped moving, lurching you forward to fall into a soft and grassy field; a meadow that reminded you of when you used to run through and create flower crowns with your sister, a long time ago.

You turned, and turned, and turned, trying to find your bearings as well as anything of importance or familiarity within the giant landscape of flora you had been transported to. Your eyes tried their best to adjust to the bright light that had been thrust upon you from a sun that was nowhere in sight; but after all the disorientation that you had suffered, your mind eventually cleared. Gone was the haze that clouded it, and now you could finally spot, far in the distance, a sight that made your heart warm. Your old home.

You picked up your skirts with a watery smile, doing your best to hold back the tears of happiness that were about to fall, as you began to run towards it. Elated was how you felt for at last you made it back to the one place you felt joy within your long life. Back to the place where you felt love and adoration; back to her. 

When the rundown cabin, filled with trinkets and coin from travelers long past, became far more than a small speck on the horizon, your voice came to you. Shouting your sister’s name, screaming out your presence here, as you continued to sprint as quickly as you could to her.

You caught sight of her after a few calls of her name, her head poking out from the bedroom window you used to share. Your pace quickened, far past your own abilities but you found little use to care of the pain when the person you loved most was in view, as you called out even louder; an arm waving to allow her to notice you promptly. You became jubilant as the realization of who you were came across her face. You almost tripped over your own feet as laughter began to pour out of you, as you took in the actions of her throwing open the cabin door with abandon, her not bothering to care of any damage she caused, before she ran to meet you.

The embrace you shared with one another was so forceful and tight that it caused you both to fall to the ground, pain and soreness subsided by the sounds of each other's laughter over finally being together once more; to hold one another and feel whole again. Sobs soon mixed in with the laughter, tears of joy understandably shed, as you both clung onto each other tightly. You were the first to pull away, certain that she would not disappear once doing so, wanting to see her face fully for the first time after all these years.

“There you are,” you breathed out, pressing your forehead against her with a relieved sigh “Oh, how I missed you terribly! My thoughts while we were apart were only of you.”

“As were mine!” She huffed out a laugh, bringing forth her hand to dry the flowing tears from her eyes. “I have been dreaming the same dream for years, hoping that one day you would return back to me.”

“I’m sorry it took so long!” You sobbed, leaning into her to wrap your arms tightly around her, burying your face within her shoulder as you babbled out another apology; finding comfort as she gingerly played with your hair as she used to do whenever you were upset.

“There is no need to apologize, my dear sister.” She uttered, resting her head atop yours. “All that matters right now is that we are finally together. After so long, after so much time apart, we are together again.”

She felt more so than saw your head nod in agreement, taking yet another moment to bask in the warmth that was your glow (as you did the same) before she patted at your back, an action that caused you to pull away slightly. With a warm smile, she caressed your cheek, humming in delight when she felt the heated skin upon her fingertips as her eyes searched yours.

“Come with me,” she finally spoke, standing with an outstretched hand for you to take. “Let me bring you home.”

With an ecstatic nod of your head, you agreed. Tears formed in your eyes at the mere thought of entering the home you once shared with her again as you took hold of her hand, allowing her to pull you to your feet. Together you walked alongside each other, pulling on each other’s arms, as nostalgia washed through you both - like a warm blanket on a winter’s eve - as you remembered a time when this was the existence you lead.

Meanwhile, as you slept, Hitoshi dutifully watched over you; finding your slumbering face rather beautiful as you allowed him to keep guard. He wondered if you were also so trusting, so naive about the world and the nature of Gods. Surely you must be if a few simple words of affirmation by another would allow you to be swallowed up by him; to follow willingly into a world not your own. Even more so, trust a God like him, after staying in this unforgiving place for so long.

Regardless, he stroked your cheek with a fond smile, knowing that this would not be the last time he would see you, to relish in your serene beauty, and enjoy your company; already his mind had raced with the many ways he wished to spend it.

~

The Gods within the Underworld barely get any company, as the Gods in the realm above them would rather steer clear of their domain; a sense of haughtiness as they turn their noses up at the prospect of spending their precious time with Gods they deem lower than them.

Therefore it cannot be helped that Hitoshi grew rather fond of you so quickly; a meek and sweet little nymph like yourself was more than a welcomed guest in his domain. Truly he would do anything in his power to have you keep visiting him and wanting his company. And, being the naive little thing you were, you so easily gave him the control he needed to ensure you would come crawling back to him; the power to manipulate your dreams and sleep. 

He wasn’t going to be cruel, after all, he wanted you to trust him and to do so of your own free will. At first, he only took an hour or two of sleep away, a simple ploy set in action for whenever you arrived back to him, he was able to easily coerce you to stay even longer; to catch up on the rest you had missed. Of course, you did not mind in the slightest, for that merely meant allowing you the chance to spend more time with your sister in the small way you could.

Once you woke, you always repaid him in kind, indulging him further with your awakened company; answering his questions, both of simplicity (like the times you recalled what your favoured the most) and those of a more personal nature (like the many stories of your previous life within the mortal realm). As well, you allowed him to showcase to you more of his domain and home, taking his arm with little fuss as he regaled the histories of the items that surrounded you, explaining to you how everything worked within the Underworld; from the souls, Tamaki would bring through, to the decisions Shigraki would make to keep things in order, to his own duty of keeping mortals well rested so they may continue their devotion to the many Gods they adored.

At the end, before he set you free to leave with Tamaki, he would always find the small pleasure of kissing the back of your hand; heart thrilling as you would cast before him your sweet smile before bidding adieu. He longed for you to gaze at him so lovingly, to hold and keep that precious smile with him forever.

Though, after a while, your stays with him became less frequent. Hitoshi used to be blessed by your company almost every other day. Before he knew of it, those frequent days together dwindled down to merely a couple of visits every few weeks. Now? Now Hitoshi would be lucky if he got to enjoy your presence once a month. And the worst of it was, whenever you finally did show your pretty face, there never was an explanation as to why you were gone from him for so long. With a wave of your hand, you would brush it aside, as if starving him of your companionship was nothing to be of worry, as you approached his throne. 

Truly, when all was said and done, this was all your own doing. 

Hitoshi simply could not have you vanish like the silver mist that enveloped his throne, he doubted he could survive if you did. So, he just had to make things a little bit worse for you; to slowly deprive you of more and more sleep. And the times he would gift you with slumber, they would be filled with dreams unpleasant and cruel.

He just had to have you crawl back to him, to stay with him. He simply had to.

~

It wasn’t as if you did not want to visit Hitoshi, you wished with every fiber of your being that you could; you really did. You enjoyed the time spent with him, both he and Tamaki were very kind and always sought to make you comfortable - never to leave you bored or feeling unwanted. Unfortunately, someone else decided for you that visiting was no longer to be.

Hanta had a renewed interest in you just as you were starting to get comfortable within the God of Sleep’s domain; monopolizing your time more and more, almost unbearably so, with his presence and touch. As if he was making up for lost time, doing his best to renew the interest he once captured so easily. Though he claimed otherwise, you knew that his actions were simply made from jealousy; he wanted you to be his pet, whom he called upon at any moment, to give your utter devotion to. Now your devotion seemed to be turned elsewhere, and his pride simply could not have it. 

He couldn’t keep hold of you at all times; duties had to be done, and other men and women needed to be blessed by his presence and touch. Only then were you able to slip away from his hold to visit the Underworld. Though every time you entered, you felt more and more ashamed of who you were, about the marks that were left upon your skin, and the reasons you could not see Hitoshi more frequently. Embarrassment always filled your being when you felt the Sleep God’s eyes upon you, taking in your dishevelled and messy form, knowing you were a sore sight to see; and you could never find the strength to confide in him as to the reasons why.

You simply wished to forget all that transpired while away, even if for a moment.

That moment of levity would simply be that; a moment. For once you returned to the clouds above, Hanta would be waiting for you; wings twitching in agitation as the scowl upon his beautiful face would cause you to shrink in fear. Anger, agitation, would fill his being at your deliberate disobeying of his rule to stay where you were until he was to return; dragging you to the bed you shared. Though you tried to plead with him that it wasn’t nearly anything his mind could conjure up, that he need not be so harsh with you, it never sunk into him - merely falling onto deaf ears. Despite protesting thus, he would bend you at the waist, pinning you to the silk sheets so you could not move, or fight him, before he would fill you with his cock; ignoring your squeals of pain as he stretched you completely. To slap his hand upon your skin until your skin was red and raw as he teethed marked you with the last mementos of his lovemaking. Actions never ceased until your voice became hoarse from the pleasured screams, and your body became limp with his marks of strength; making it clear to any gods nearby that you were his.

After which, the vicious cycle would continue.

Moreover, to add insult to the injury you were currently plagued with, you could not find a sense of slumber; a moment of rest and the peace that paired with it. Oh, how you wished you did, you wished for a moment of sanctuary from the torture you were in, and yet it never came. Always just slipping past your fingertips, like mist in a dense fog. Hanta and his insatiability, much like when he first claimed you for his own, took from your body and sense of strength and repose needed to even sit up. It left you ragged and begging to melt into the clouds that surrounded you; chanting silently to the God realms away to grant you what you desired most. A reprieve from this world, no matter how small it was to be. But once you felt it ebb at the corners of your consciousness, Hanta would ultimately rouse you to continue his ravishings.

The fair few times you could allow yourself to sink into the inky abyss of slumber, your being finally being so worn down it had no choice but to relent to it, the dreams within it would be far more cruel than the fate currently abusing you. Dreams so conniving and hurtful, of fears locked so far away, that you not help but wake with tears in your eyes; whimpering and wailing sobs into the vastness of the heavens around you. With your cries growing more intense when you found your only comfort against all this pain and suffering was Hanta and his touch; one that would ultimately lead to salacious things.

You began to resent him. His voice, his touch, his presence even remotely near you. You wished he had never caught sight of you, never gave you all those gifts, and most important of all, never brought you here to the heavens. As the days passed you felt stuck in an endless cycle of hell, one seemingly by his own hand. You were once so exuberant, full of life and wonder, and now you could feel yourself wasting away into nothing. No longer able to skip and frolic into fields of flowers or clouds, your body was too weak; barely even able to lift your arm to grab hold of anything. Your eyes, ones that were bright and filled with wonder as they looked upon the many majesties of the world, could barely be forced to open; a stinging pain would follow as any glimmer of light would cause you pain. And your head. Your poor head that would read and listen to the stories of old, now suffered from severe throbbing pain as your mind pulsed against your skull - trying to free itself from the prison it found itself in.

You could not escape it, nor Hanta - especially after he had taken the golden bell gifted to you as his own. Your life seemed to be regaled to misery as you lived every waking moment in pain. You wished that death could find you and turn you into an everlasting rose, then be subjected to spend more time with him; the cause of all the suffering.

Hanta could sense it all too. The indignation that filled your very being and thus cast forth onto him. He became less patient with you, his temper flaring considerably as he found your irritability insufferable; finding your whining and aversion to his help a scornful cross he felt he had not deserved, not after all he had done for you. The rage within him would burn even brighter whenever you would implore him to allow you to see the God of Sleep, to ask for his aid in the matter that had been plaguing you instead of him. Bitterness filled him over being replaced by a God lesser than him; for being a fool to allow you the freedom to visit that domain and become dependent on someone other than him.

“Hanta, please!” You wept, palms coming to press against your eyes to relieve some of the unbearable pressure behind them. “I cannot keep going like this. Can’t you see that I am in pain? That I am suffering?”

You removed your hands from your eyes, your feeble attempt to try and soothe the pain found in your body futile, having them fall into your lap in defeat. You looked over at him, back turned to you, as he tried to ignore your wails once more in favour of sharpening the many golden arrows he possessed. 

“I thought you loved me!” You called out again, trying in vain once more to garner his attention, the declaration working as you saw his shoulders tense.

“I do love you.” Hanta began, turning to give a look of scorn when you tried to argue otherwise “But it is clear that your reliance on another God caused you this misery. If you stayed here, and allowed me to take care of you, you would not have found yourself in such a state.”

“Take care of me?” You huffed out a laugh in scorn, hands balling into fists over his claims “You left me here. Abandoned me once I no longer suited your fancy, with no food, drink, or company. Alone is a place where I did not belong! How could you blame me for wanting to be cared for!”

“You could have asked for more!” Hanta stood, his wings twitched as he did his best to control the fury bubbling within him “Have I not given you everything? Have I not provided you splendor that no other creature, mortal or otherwise, could have dreamed? Have I not carved out of the heavens a home for you? You are acting like a petulant child, one that has been so spoiled that they cannot find it within themselves to have an ounce of gratefulness or gratitude.”

You could not help yourself, could not fight the urge otherwise. How could he claim all those things about you, to compare you to a mollycoddled child, when he was the one that would abandon anything once he got bored. To pin the pain you are under as something of your own fault, and not bother to care about trying to lessen the burden.

“I hate you.”

The words slithered out in a vengeful hiss, marking them as true and honest as you looked away from him in scorn; finding yourself so disgusted by him that you wished not to acknowledge his presence. You had never said those words before, never been pushed to think that way of anyone, even the nymphs that casted you out. Yet, you felt the need to let that be known and you sat and seethed.

You did regret those words after you spoke them, finding a moment of levity as your mind cleared from the anger and pain it had been placed under. Though it was too late. A final straw had been broken, after weeks of being placed under the pressure of a bend, within Hanta.

He marched towards you, to where you sat so pitifully, to take hold of your arm; not bothering to care over the cry of pain he inflicted as he dragged you to your feet to follow him to the edge of the heavenly clouds that you called home. Bringing forth the golden bell from his tunic to hold it menacingly over the border that kept the Gods in the heavens, and the mortals within the earth.

“Apologize at once.” He demanded, tugging you even closer to him to cease your struggling against his hold “Say that you are sorry or I will drop it.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I had not meant to say! Please Hanta, believe me! I could never hate you! Don’t do this!” You begged, falling to your knees as you clung to his waist

But despite obeying, despite always doing what he said like the sweet-natured nymph you were, it did not matter. In a moment of vexation, a moment to showcase his power over you, Hanta still did not relent (as he always did to your cries) as his fingers let slip the golden bell. Allowing it to sink away for all eternity.

You collapsed in a heap, fingers digging deeply into the cloud below you, as you wept and sobbed; despite the pounding in your head telling you to stop, you couldn’t. Your one saving grace, the one thing that brought a semblance of happiness to you in this realm was gone. And with that revelation came the doubt that you would ever see your sister again nor get a decent night’s rest until the end of time - or until your ultimate banishment from here, whenever that mercy may come.

You couldn’t help but kick and scream when you felt Hanta’s arm wrap around you as he picked you up from the ground. Using the last morsels of strength within you to try and fight him off and away, for his touch was the last thing you ever wanted upon your skin.

But what was the strength of a nymph when compared to a God? 

He laid you in bed, and though he tried to join you, to hold you close and whisper those sweet nothings in your ear as he knew you used to love, you kept pushing him away. Instead choosing to curl up into a tight ball and weep until sleep ultimately took your anguished form. All Hanta could do was watch as guilt gnawed at him - latching onto his soul like roots of a tree that took purchase into the earth - as he reaped what he had sown. 

~

The anguish you felt is what finally caught Hitoshi’s attention towards you and your ever-growing plight, for it had seeped through into your dreams when your body finally tired out from all it had been fighting. He could sense your pain, your sorrow, the distress that filled every ounce of your soul; it caused his breathing to labor as he could not help but panic over what had transpired. He rushed to look into his orb of dreams to search for you and to understand what had transpired for your soul to give up and to become on the verge of death; something impossible for a creature like you to do within the heavens.

You were always surprising him, weren’t you?

He wanted to find a semblance of admiration over you achieving such a feat, but all he could find was fear over the thought of losing you. Your blurry appropriation finally came forth to him within the haze of smoke so familiar to him, blurred lines turned clear as he turned more of his attention towards you; and subsequently, the memory you had gripped so tightly to. That of your precious gift, your golden bell, being taken away from you.

Histoshi wasted not another moment. Summoning forth Tamaki with urgency, as he began to move through his labyrinth hurriedly; meeting the other god at the riverbed to his home. Tamaki could tell from the distressed look within the other God's eyes, that something was amiss.

“Go gather the nymph.” Hitoshi instructed, voice hardened with ice as he tried to keep his composure “And bring her back here to me, as swiftly as you can”

“Has something happened?” The meeker God questioned, worry gathering within his heart as his eyes scanned Hitoshi’s features.

“Go and get her.” Hitoshi reiterated voice hissing at the accidental stalling his friend was causing. “And do so swiftly! Though, be wary of that Love God, for he is watching over her.” 

Without another word, or hesitancy otherwise, Tamaki nodded his head before hastily setting his vessel in motion. There was something wrong, for his oldest friend would not have treated him so coldly, would not be so fearful of a wasted moment. Something had happened to you, and Tamaki feared it was something awful.

Bravery was never something that came naturally to the ferryman, he was far too meek and worried of causing ire from his fellow brothers and sisters; especially those few that lived among him. He felt it course through him as he ascended to the heavens to retrieve you, determination settling within his heart as he made up his mind to bring you to the Underworld for good.

Tamaki was quiet when he approached your little piece of heaven; heading the advice to be wary to ensure a safe recovery of you. Though when he appeared, he found you surprisingly alone. You lay curled up like a baby bird in its nest upon your bed, but he knew it wouldn’t be for long. For the Love God was clearly only absent to gather your items of comfort, and with his powerful wings to swiftly guide him through the air, Tamaki knew it was only a matter of moments before he would return; there was no time to dawdle. 

Gently he scooped you into his arms, taking note to cradle your weak head gently against his chest, as he carried you to his gondola. Setting you upon the bench you so eagerly used to sit upon, he allowed you to rest as he took you back down to the Underworld; to your new home.

~

You awoke, mind filled with a disorienting haze as you tried to recall how you ended up blessed enough to find slumber. To garner a restful enough sleep and avoid the terrors your mind could come up whenever you were in that realm. However, that wonderment of how you could have become so blessed after so agonizingly long was drowned out by confusion as your brows furrowed as it tried to comprehend what this odd weight upon your body was.

It was familiar to you, like an old friend, one soothing and reassuring. Yet at the same time, it did not feel like something you knew. The hand that stroked your hair, and scratched gently upon your scalp in a manner so gentle, was not one that you knew. The arm that held you so tightly to a broad, lithe, chest did not feel at all similar to the one you cuddled up against night after night.

It wasn’t familiar to you, thus you could only assume that you were no longer in the arms of Hanta, but rather someone else. Now that you were in this hold, you were afraid you could never go back to what you were used to. How you preferred the more tender hold of the arms that embraced you, how they held you with your comfort in mind, not to keep you trapped; a hold that you could not help sink deeper within. Finding the soft tunic a welcomed reprieve to warm and bare skin as you clung to it.

Though despite your wanting to sink back into the inky abyss that was the realm of slumber, your mind did not allow it; far too concerned with whoever was holding you. Though it felt nice, something about it still did feel right. Your brows furrowed more so together as you began to push against the embrace, your tired eyes burning as they opened to gain clarity of your situation.

A frightful gasp left your lips as you looked upon a familiar pair of violet eyes, those accompanied by the almost charming dark circles of deprivation. Despite your best efforts to pull away from him, knowing just how irate Hanta would be if he were to catch you with him in such a manner, Hitoshi kept you in place; his arm tightly digging into your sides to keep you against him.

“Hush, and be still little one,” Histoshi shushed you, hand moving from your hair to stroke upon your cheek in a manner meant to calm you further. “Your body is still destitute of slumber, it cannot handle your struggles.”

You relented, body falling more limp within his hold, though you fought the urge to fall back into his chest; wanting answers to the racing questions that ran through your mind as they managed to take precedence over your want of sleep.

“How…. how did I get here?” You finally asked, voice cracking and sore from your wails just hours prior, as you kept your gaze downcast. “From what I can recall, I needed the bell you gifted me to summon Tamaki; one of the few that knew how to get to you”

“As you know,” he began with a sigh, tugging at the ends of your hair in an effort to get your pretty eyes to gaze back at him; disappointed that you wouldn’t relent and do so, “I can feel all the anguish that the mortals are beholden to as they sleep, you are no exception. I felt all your pain and suffering, and I could sense that you were unable to escape the grasp of the Love God. So, I figured the only course of action to end your distress that I could provide was to gather you myself so you may get the rest you sorely needed.”

He watched as you buried the palms of your hands into your eyes gently, trying in vain to allow your muddled mind to come to terms and piece together what he had just said. After a moment of silence, he pulled your hands back down to rest in your lap.

“Are you alright now?” He asked, voice barely above a whisper, as he watched you nod your head. Dissatisfied over your lack of response he placed his forefinger under your chin to force your head up to face him. “Are you sure?”

“Y-yes.” 

Your meek response was good enough to appease him as he let go of your face to instead pull you closer within his hold; his hand once more moving your head to place it against the crevice between his neck and shoulder. Hand once more absently played with your hair as he continued to soothe and strived to relax your body.

“Sleep, little one,” he mumbled into your brow, “Stay as you need so you may regain all that you lost. I promise to look over you.”

Instead of gratitude, instead of your body falling heed to his request, he felt your body shake as you silently sobbed. You wished you could allow yourself such a sweet reprieve, but you knew better now. Once you garnered enough strength to walk, you would have to be taken back to the heavens once all this was over. If not by the God before you, then by the God you have surely angered and left in a cold bed. You felt Hitoshi move your body to sit upright, his hands resting upon your heated cheeks as he attempted to dry them from your ever-falling tears. 

“Why are you upset, my darling one?” He asked, searching your eyes for a response, only to find you closing them and looking away.

“If I do stay, if I do as you ask of me and regain my strength and rest, it will not matter.” You blubbered, shaking your head to rid yourself of his grasp on your face.

“And why do you say that?”

“After I do, I will have to return back to Hanta. And I do not want to suffer the false hope that will befall me if I stay, for once I go back I will suffer as I had before. Sleepless and filled with horrid visions!”

Hitoshi did his best to hide the smile that was yearning to break free. He found he was grateful this one time that your glossy eyes would not look at him. Here you were, like a child, in his lap as you wept over the fear of another bad dream that may fall upon you again. It was clear your state of mind had been broken, that your resolve had been shattered, and now you were at the mercy of him and his plan; thus now he could finally strike. 

“Who has declared that you must go back?” He whispered as he kissed the crown of your head to soothe you further. “You could just stay here with me, you will never have to worry about sleep and nightmares again. And your sister, I’m sure she missed you.”

With the mention of your sister, you finally looked up at him, your sobbing quieted down as you hiccuped your response. “Y-you w-would let me stay...?”

“I would.” He nodded his affirmation alongside his words, ensuring you would believe him. “And you may visit your sister as often as your heart desires, to wander the Underworld and beholden to their treasures whenever you please. You would just have to keep me company whenever I request it.”

“And Hanta? W-what of him?”

“You would never have to worry about being taken away from him if you did not want. Wherever silver mist gathers, especially within the archways of this domain, he cannot enter nor breakthrough. He may charge his way here, but he will never be allowed to enter my throne.”

You took a moment to gaze upon the familiar archway you had walked through countless times, watching as the silver smoke twirled languishingly amongst itself as if it had a mind of its own. It brought back the memory of when you first came here, how Hanta pushed you to make the journey to the God of Sleep alone. It was not done to test your bravery, but rather for the reason Hitoshi claimed; he was not welcomed here and therefore could not follow you.

It all made sense why Hanata hated that you would visit Hitoshi, for he could not keep an eye on you. He could not control you and whatever you did while here.

Now you were presented with an offer. A tempting one that promised you everything you had been deprived of while you were up in the heavens; to be taken care of fully. To be able to enjoy the spoils found here, to sleep, and to see your sister. Your exhausted mind could not help but agree that his terms and conditions to be his companion within the Underworld was a far better offer than what you were granted within the Heavens.

“I’ll stay…” You murmured out, as you allowed your body to fall limp into his arms in acceptance. “...I’ll stay.”

“Good, now rest little one, you are safe now.”

Hitoshi was unable to cease holding back the triumphant smile that wished to come forth, relenting to it as it spread across his beautiful face in an almost sinister manner before he pressed a kiss to your forehead. He had won, and now he was hoping to reap the rewards he waited so patiently for; grinning more widely as he heard a whine slip passed your lips, the sound going straight to his cock as he shifted you within his lap.

“What is the matter now?” He muttered into your brow, pressing another kiss there as he watched you squirm.

“I can’t sleep...!” You murmured out, clearly exasperated over your mind telling you of desires that you wanted while your body continued to betray you.

“Never fear of things such as that my darling.” His kiss slowly descended down your face before they paused at your lips; brushing against them in a manner much like a butterfly’s kiss. “I can help you, you need only ask me to do so.”

“Please help me Hitoshi…” You breathed out as you clung to his tunic once more.

He knew you were ready to plead further to him, he could hear the hitch in your voice as you made an attempt to do so. But he could not wait any longer, not after all the work he placed into his efforts, nor after hearing you consent to him; even if he desired to hear you beg for him further. His lips pressed against you in a kiss he has waited far too long to enjoy.

But greed swiftly appeared and possessed him, taking his kisses from sweet and small - tiny pecks to showcase his love and adoration for you - to ones more consuming as he melded your lips into his; not caring about breathing more so the want to feel your lips against his. His hand came to hold your jaw in place, craning your neck upward so that he may deepen the kiss to his desire.

It was not harsh, nor hurried, as one would expect from being consumed by the throws of passion and lust; especially the kind that had been suppressed for so long. Hitoshi could not recall in most recent memory, or memory long passed, ever having a lover by his side. And now that he had you, now that he finally had you here, he wished to engulf you completely and enjoy what the Gods above have denied him.

His motions were languid as he continued to hold your lips against his, he relished in how pillowy they felt as he continued to suck and smack upon them; not bothering to care of your whimpers of discomfort over how lewd the sounds had become, or how the mixture of saliva would drip down your chin. He still refused to relent as he found himself possessed over you and this feeling of domination. He slipped forth his tongue into your pliant and sweet mouth; how he delighted in the way your strength left you and caused you to go limp within his hold. 

With the knowledge that you would not fight against him further, rather allowing yourself to succumb to him and his desires instead, his hands began to roam your body; no longer afraid of angering you and your possible attempts to fight otherwise.

You couldn't say that you did not enjoy it. 

The unhurried, leisurely manner in which Hitoshi was making love to you was a far cry from the throws of quickened and almost brutal passion that you had grown used to. Such a contrast made your head dizzy and lightheaded as you allowed the God before you to do as he pleased; yet uncertainty filled the distant corners of your mind, how the ebbed and flowed almost as a warning bell, as you wondered if your body was going pliant to his advances due to your own building want or if he somehow placed you in a dream-like trance.

Regardless, you still found yourself in bliss as your hands began to roam themselves; how they gripped and tugged at his tunic as you allowed your voice to be heard. The small noise of pleasure did nothing more than spur Hitoshi on as his lips began to drag from your own and down to your jaw. You felt a shiver run down your spine as you heard his groan of delight when your hands found purchase underneath his tunic. The contrast of your warm hands against his cool and bare chest was a wondrous thing, one that made the both of you flush deeper in heat.

Though, after a while, it was not enough. Your mind still pounded against your skull, a brutal reminder that you needed slumber, and despite Hitoshi’s claims that he could bring that forth to you, he had so far made ill on that promise.

“Hitoshi…” You whimpered out, voice strained as you found it difficult to even speak in your current state.

“Yes, my darling?” Hitoshi mumbled into the skin just below your jaw as he placed a kiss there to try and encourage you to speak more.

It did not work, all he was met with was your continuous stream of discomforted whimpers; the way your brows pinched and furrowed in displeasure was a clear sign to him that he must move faster if he wished to come true with his promise and grant you the sleep you requested.

He tugged at your dress, being mindful of how precious the silk must be for you and thus not wanting to ruin it. Using a tender hand to glide the fabric of your sleeves down your arms to your wrists to allow the material of your bodice to slip under your ribs; effectively it released your breasts and allowed him to gaze in hunger at your chest; his cock stirring as he watched your nipples harden when greeted with the cold air of his home.

He wasted no time, like a man possessed, to trail his lips over your newly exposed, supple flesh. The softness he found caused his cock to twitch harshly as he took the time to kiss up and down the valley between your breasts, as he inhaled the scent of your skin; committing it to memory should he never have the chance to have you like this once more. His dexterous hands began to roll and squeeze at your mounds, biting his lip as he watched the flesh shake in a tantalizing manner before he slipped one of your hardened nipples into his awaiting mouth; his tongue circling around it as he sucked gently upon it. 

Hitoshi wanted nothing more than to garner more noises of pleasure from you as he absently rocked his hips against yours, and groaned into your skin. His other hand undertook the task to play with your skirts, to work in a quickened manner while you were too preoccupied from his mouth to question him as he dragged them up and over your hips so he may have access to your most sacred place; your sweet cunt. 

His teeth, though blunt, left a stinging pain in their wake as he marred and nipped at your supple flesh. It caused your eyes to shoot open as you looked down upon him, his lavender eyes were filled with a lustful haze as they connected with yours; it made your body shudder in his hold as you whined at his cruel action. You could feel him smile upon your skin as he laved over your newly found mark with his tongue.

“Stay awake for just a little longer, my darling,” he cooed, nipping at your skin once more to hear you call out his name in that adorable whine he was starting to love. “That’s it, look at me, keep your eyes open and on me, alright?”

“I-it hurts…!” You jerked your body away from his pinching teeth, your mewl of displeasure following suit.

“Keep looking at me, and do not fall into the grips of dozing.” Hitoshi muttered, pressing a few kisses over the red marks he had given you. “And I promise you that it shall not hurt anymore.”

His deft fingers found your cunt,  spreading your folds open so he may be able to gently pet and coax out further pleasure from your body; to showcase to you that he meant as he said. His middle finger explored, dipping briefly into your leaking entrance, before slowly stroking your little bundle of nerves; groaning at how violently your hips bucked over his slow and deliberate act, how they seemed to follow his hand, greedy for more of his sinful touch. 

Despite his desires otherwise, how he wished to rub harshly upon your puffy clit to hear you wail and cry out for him as you became overwhelmed with ecstasy, he knew you were not restive enough for such a thing. As well, he wanted nothing more than to see your pretty eyes, half-lidded with lust for him, to stay focused upon him. 

He continued his tortuous petting, whispering his fingertips upon your clit but never pressed down before they swiftly moved to poke at your fluttering hole; all the while he smirked into your chest as heard your panting breath. A guttural groan left his parted lips as he finally relented and sunk a finger into you; relishing in your keen of pleasure as your hand came to tug upon his wild mane of violet locks.

You pulled him closer once he breached your weeping cunt, mewling quietly in delight at his skillful and gently petting; though you found that it wasn’t enough. The burning ache of need deep within your core was calling out for release, it heightened the pining to find slumber, as your hips moved against his hand in urgency for him to grant you something more. Your fingernails dug into the skin of his chest and dragged them down toward his hips; it left an angry trail of red in their wake, as your other hand tugged harshly on his mane once more. Calling out his name in a prolonged whine of frustration, not caring over this hiss of pain that sucked through his teeth.

“Getting impatient, are we?” Hitoshi growled, nipping at your neck to feel your yelp beneath his tongue.

“Y-you promised!” You wailed, hands moved to grip his shoulders as you felt his fingers spread within you.

“To not hurt you, indeed I did.” Hitoshi teased, leaning his head back to enjoy the blissful looks upon your face. “Do you not feel good, darling?”

“N-no!” You shook your head before you cried out his name, unable to finish your thought before being lost to the pleasure he brought forth.

“No?” He teased, slowing his fingers until they barely moved within you, chuckling at your bucking hips as you attempted to gain back the stimulation you craved. “Well, my darling, your body is telling me something different.”

If you were more awake, you would feel the heat of embarrassment taking over the flush of desire upon your skin, though at the moment you could not seem to care about decency; your desire to follow through and ultimately find and form of reprieve to your aching body.

“No, you promised to guide me to sleep.” You stuttered out, finally being able to find your voice now that his actions upon your body subsided. “And you’re prolonging that now.”

Hitoshi hummed, stifling another laugh over your petulant state, as his lips kissed upwards your neck and jaw before meeting their intended destination; kissing you languidly like before to placate your rigid state.

“Apologies,” he murmured, breath mingled with yours as he allowed you a chance to catch it. “I was merely just preparing you appropriately so you take my cock with ease. Though you are right; you have waited long enough.”

You squirmed at his words, finding a sense of awkwardness in how crude yet honest, not something you were yet used to from him, as you gripped tightly to the fabric at his shoulders when you felt his fingers leave your cunt; kissing your teeth in a quiet hiss as you feel yourself tighten around nothing.

“Go on now,” Hitoshi whispered, leaning so his back may sit flush against his silver throne, a smirk tugging at his lips. “If you so wish for relief so badly then you may take my cock out to have it.”

He admired the way you so timidly nodded your head at his request before your hands, one filled with trepidation, shook as they lowered to where they needed to be. He felt how gingerly you worked as you adjusted and shifted his robes to unbound his hardened member; he groaned in relief once he felt you delicately free his leaking cock.

If you were not so in need of him at the moment, he would ask you to stroke him; to pump your hand up and down his length until he guided you toward his own euphoria. He supposed he now had more than enough time for such salaciousness at a later date. Instead, he grabbed your waist as he pulled you to sit higher, hovering you over him as he properly aligned himself against your heated core.

Slowly, agonizingly so, he guided your hips downward to impale yourself on him; pressing his lips to yours to shush the aching whimpers that tumbled forth as you felt yourself being stretched to your limit by him; and though you had experience with Hanta, his cock was far thicker than you were ever used to. Hitoshi muttered your praises, telling you of how well you were doing as he slowly filled you full of him.

“You’re doing so well.” He groaned out, teeth gritted as his jaw clamped tightly shut as he did his best not to spill his load into you before he barely had begun to have his fun. “You’re so close, almost there my darling.”

He could tell why Hanta was so fond of you, so unwilling to let you venture off on your own and out of his sight. Your cunt was truly heavenly as it swallowed his cock greedily, already spasming and milking him for what he was worth. He let out a strangled breath, a mixture of a moan and a sigh, once you were fully seated; taking note of your discomfort once more, he rocked your hips back and forth in a lazy, slow, manner until your brows became unpinched and your huffs turned to sighs of pleasure.

“That’s it, good girl…” He sighed out once you took control and swayed your hips on your own, hands glided to your waist to help lift your hips to bounce upward upon him; showcasing to you the gentle rhythm he wanted you to ride him. 

“L-like this?” You asked, as you placed your hands in a more steady position upon his chest as you rolled your hips to glide him in and out of your heat; moaning alongside him when you hit a particularly tender spot within you.

“Fuck yes.” He groaned as he threw his head back for but a moment to relish fully in the euphoric feeling of your tight, dripping, hole.

His hands began to wander again as the slow and unhurried lovemaking progressed. Fingertips took hold and dug into your supple flesh anywhere he could, from the plush of your beautiful thighs, to pinching at your waist, to massaging and groping your breasts. Hitoshi had to distract himself from his more primal urges, to find a use for his body to ensure that his hips didn’t snap up into you. For he was aware of what your exhausted body needed, and that was not being rough.

You cried out sharply when you felt his hand make swift contact with your backside, your supple cheek radiating heat from the pain, as your eyes snapped back onto him; tears formed in your lashes as you blubbered out “what did I do wrong?”

Hitoshi did feel a little guilty, your sad eyes were not something he wished to see, but it was a far better cry than how they drooped just moments prior. His fingers brushed over the sore flesh, as he pressed more soft kisses to your jaw as a way of an apology; taking hold of it, in his other hand, after the peppering of affection

“Look at me, my flower.” He whispered, brows furrowing as he felt you tighten around him. “I need you to look at me, alright?”

You nodded in affirmation to his request with a sniffle, tears still formed upon your lash as you continued to rock your hips against his own; the pleasure overwhelmed you as repeatedly hit the small spongy button within you that made you feel dizzy. Matched that with the fabric of his tunic that caught your clit every time you moved made stars dance across your eyes. It caused you to ascend to your release far quicker than you ever thought possible, as your mewls and babbles of “more” filled the air.

He could tell you were close, given how your walls clamped sporadically around him while you gushed and leaked down onto his thighs. His quiet moans of pleasure melded with your own as he hugged your body tightly against his, as his hips bucked into your own; taking control over you in that primal manner he wished to suppress but could not any longer.

His grip tightened the harsher his hips snapped into you, his heavy cock bullying its way into you to perpetually hit that special spot that made you breathless and squirm within his hold. He was so close to letting go, but he could not do so before you, for he wished for nothing more than to feel your sweet cunt around him as you came.

Your eyes shut tightly as your body seized and gave into the surmounting pleasure and pressure in your core. You wailed out, as those waves crashed into you over and over; your eyes rolled back into your skull as white danced across your vision before you felt yourself go limp against him.

Hitoshi felt your breath against his nape as he held your shaking body against him as he continued to chase his own high. He could tell you were doing your best to stay awake, but how could you? After all, you had climbed a mountain of pleasure before jumping down from it, not even the most powerful of Gods could sway from exhaustion from something such as that.

Yet, despite being stuck between the realm of awake and napping, he could still feel your warm walls clenching in response to his bucking hips. With the knowledge that despite you not being awake you were still reacting to him, your body still obeyed him in some fashion, causing his teeth to clench as he hissed out a final breath before he spilled inside you; filling your pussy completely with his cum.

Hitoshi took a moment to hold your body flush against him as clambered down from his high; placing kisses upon your brow and temple in a prolonged manner to showcase to you his appreciation. He shifted your body to lay more comfortably against his chest once the mood suited him, staying buried deep inside you to ensure that when you woke you would still be filled with his cum, as his hands ran up and down your tired body in a soothing and loving manner.  

“There’s a good little flower,” Hitoshi muttered into your hair, pressing a final kiss to your crown, as he pulled you higher in his hold as he admired your sleeping form. “I’ll take much better care of you than he ever will.”

stay tuned for more~

[love-bokumono-fics]

Fresh Crops! Week of June 19 - 25, 2023

This week's newest fics and chapter updated for Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons on AO3!

Sugar and Spice - by Chibimiie; WIP, 57/?, 150k

Rating: Mature; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M Fandoms: Animal Parade Relationships: Chase/Molly the Farmer, Angela/Luke; Characters: Molly | Hikari, Angela the Farmer, Chase, Luke, Kasey the Farmer Additional Tags: Slow Burn, oh god how do you tag fics, mentions of eating disorders, alternating povs, Friends to Lovers, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, bumped up the rating because i honestly should have a little bit ago, burn so slow it's honestly a simmer Summary: Wanting to get away from past hurts of the city, sisters Molly and Angela decide to respond to a flyer advertising an abandoned farm on the faraway island of Castanet. Leaving behind their closest friends and brother Kasey, the two take a chance and move to the tiny island hoping for a new chance at life.

I'll Be My Own Hero Anthology Collection - by PrinceErose; WIP, 1/?, 2.2k

Rating: Not Rated; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: Other Fandom: Tree of Tranquility Relationship: Luke/Owen | Ose; Characters: Luke the Carpenter, Owen Additional Tags: Luke is gay (surprise), he's in denial tho Summary: Aside from the main plotline of the "I'll Be My Own Hero" work, the other residents of Waffle Island also have their own goings on. Gill is not the only person with goals and motivations, after all.

37. Bow tie - by late_night_writer; Complete, 1/1, 100

Rating: General Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M Fandom: Animal Parade Relationship: Angela/Luke; Characters: Angela the Farmer, Luke the Carpenter Additional Tags: Drabble, Weddings, Fluff Summary: Bow tie. Luke can't tie a bow tie.

South of the Mountain - by KonekoLili; Complete, 1/1, <1k

Rating: General Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M Fandom: The Tale of Two Towns Relationships: Cam/Farmer, Cam/Reader; Characters: Cam, Farmer Additional Tags: Short One Shot, Short & Sweet, Childhood Trauma, Childhood Memories, writer insert, Self-Indulgent, I love Cam, Cam is the best Harvest Moon marriage candidate, No Dialogue, I wrote this to vent lol, I'm Sorry Summary: A short story about Cam and the new farmer during childhood.

The Heart of a Westown Cowboy - by Mya_Stone; WIP, 25/?, 34k

Rating: General Audiences; Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply; Category: F/M Fandom: Trio of Towns Relationship: Female Farmer/Wayne; Characters: Frank, Ford, Carrie, Brad, Megan, Hector, Colin, Daryl | Darius, Marlena, Lynn, Wayne, Miranda Additional Tags: Slow Burn, Romance, Romantic Friendship, Guy Falls First, famiy drama, I Wrote This For Me But I'll Share It With You Summary: Wayne is Westown's perpetually single lady's man. He'd like to settle down but he just hasn't found The One and he's fairly certain he's met everyone in town. Then Melody moves in, taking a plot of her uncle's ranch to fulfill her dream of being a rancher. A college-educated business woman, Melody doesn't accept failure - especially not her own. As Wayne falls hard for her, she struggles to return his affections until she has what she came for - and when she continually comes up short at the cow competitions, she begins to wonder if Westown is really the place for her.

[dbssh]

can you please in extreme detail describe all of your ocs to me and their story if they have one so i can understand all of your oc posts

so im gonna do like a general summary and then under the cut will be the longer stuff ok 💙💙 okay

so the idea is essentially this magical world with all this crazy stuff happeing all the time and all these people with crazy powers and as a result the concept of superheroes are kind of made into a sport! Kasey, the peppy teen hero, and her family (aja(the tough quiet one), hutch(the funny dad one), and victor(the smarg inventor one)) are a brand-new hero team funded by this rich old man trying to build himself a cool legacy. Nina, kaseys rival, is a teenage demon employed by the villain Arkangel, who is using the games to accrue power and resources for her own mysterious plans. ok? ok.

BE WARNED THERE ARE 4500 WORDS UNDER THE CUT

soooooooo character by character breakdowns:

kasey:

the protagonist and my special little girl, Kasey is a 14 year old girl with incredible yet unpredictable powers who dreams of being a great hero! She's peppy and athletic and super excitable, though due to her reclusive upbringing she's not super socially in-tune. her heroic persona is Wildcard, her gimmick is playing cards, and her powers include teleportation, enhanced speed and senses, limited flight, glow-in-the-dark freckles, and a large variety of seemingly random abilities.

hutch:

kaseys dad and ajas wife, Hutch is a pretty chronically normalguy. when they were younger they dreamed of being a famous musician, but these days theyre just trying to be a supportive parent, which apparently includes dressing up in funny costumes and fighting evildoers these days, and thats fine. they're kind of an anxious guy whose happiest when theyre working on something with their hands, wether thats cooking, playing music, or working on their old pickup truck. idk their hero name yet but their costume is going to be cowboy themed and theyre going to essentially be the bard of the group. no natural powers, except their hair, which gets pinker when theyre in a good mood.

victor:

resident mad scientist working as a tech guy for kirby (aforementioned rich old man that runs the team), victor likes to work on magitech and fancies himself probably the greatest wizard to ever live, ever. spends most of his time in his workshop building gear for the team and working on one of his dozens of pet projects. He's a shit communicator and arrogant as all hell, is prickly and generally bad at interacting with others, though hes genuinely very intelligent, well-intentioned, and often very high-energy when it comes to his work. And don't tell anybody this, but he's also technically undead, and on a sensitive parole with the "gods" due to his tendency to get fucky with the natural order of things. he's essentially working on borrowed time, with a lot of dubious machinery just barely keeping his body from completely rotting away. His greatest accomplishment, though, will always be aja.

aja:

my best friend and the most important girl in the world ^^^^ kaseys mom and the second most enthusiastic about this whole superhero thing. not alive nor dead but a special third thing. a tendency to get overwhelmed by her emotions has led her to be a pretty reclusive, quiet person. a little mopey and pretentious, she likes literature, photograohy, and sorting her cassette collection. she's also the most efficient in a fight, as shes kind of been using martial arts and that kind of stuff as a sort of therapy for most of her life, she likes the feeling of being in tune with her body and the amount of self-control that comes with it. she adores her wife and daughter, and has a bit of a contentious relationship with victor - though she wants to be closer with him, the gap between them caused by their past feels a bit insurmountable for them both.

as for the villains, mainly we have

arkangel:

arkangel was, a very very long time ago, a human alchemist and magican studying the Grand Cosmos, the realm of what are believed to be the gods. When plague struck and, despite her prayers, killed her young daughter, she swore to tear her way into the cosmos and bring her daughter back to the world of the living. That mission has not gone so well, and centuries upon centuries later Arkangel has lost the plot a bit, her magics able to preserve her body at the expense of her mind and soul, and in-between cartoonishly evil shenanigans she's orchestrating a plot to bring down the cosmos entirely. Despite her tendency towards nonsense and general gullibility, Arkangel is a sharp and often cruel woman who holds those in her employ under high standards with little regard for the opinions of anyone except herself.

nina:

known primarily by her villain name Prophet, nishkanona prorok is a teenage demon, having used a pact with Arkangel to escape hell and a doting, yet overprotective father to live out her edgy teenage punk years smashing shit and swinging cool swords around. eager to prove her abilities, Nina was involved one of arkangels many attempts to destroy the world, this one in particular involving drawing on an ancient and mysterious power known as the Comet to open a gateway to the cosmos and release the Judge, a massive cosmopolitan beast said to be the only thing capable of destroying an entire realm. the process failed, and the intense strain of using her body as the gateway injured her significantly. Her desperation to prove herself, combined with Arkangels refusal to accept failure, have refused to let the injury heal and given Nina a pretty major dent in her pride coming into her second season as a competitor.

morningstar/luci:

the luc1-4 project is an experimental copycat AI designed to mimic an opponents strategy and siphon their powers through the nodes on its palms, and was used as Arkangel's primary footsoldier and representative before Nina's arrival left it obsolete, and it remained in storage, only acknowledged for training excercises or occassional maitenence. That is, until Nina abandons Arkangel, and Morningstar is needed once more. but years of sitting in the dark have left it resentful and beginning to question its true purpose in this world.

THOSE ARE ALL THE MAJOR CHARACTERS I HAVE DEVELOPED RN...theres a few more late-game villains and supporting cast members i want to flesh out and some worldbuilding stuff i want to explore more.

AS FOR THE PLOT. well. its all a bit vague but i have the general structure so lets lay it out!

starting out in the status quo with K/A/H going about their daily lives in the quaint small texas town they live in when kasey gets a letter in the mail inviting her to professional league of heroics and villany (note: im gonna try and come up with a catchier name but im bad at names) tryouts in New york city in response to her video audition (i think it would b cute to have the opening pages be her video audition but idk). ANYWAYS obviously they go and they do tryouts, and kaseys nervous but she does okay, but every time she needs to use one of her powers on command she just cant quite get them to cooperate and most of the teams there write her off as not pro potential. except for this weird old man, stanley kirby, who is trying to scrape together a hero team with his legacy money. see, his granddad managed an incredibly famous and successful team, but when he died kirbys father didnt see the business as worth the cost and shut it all down, and kirby wants to revive that legacy. problem is, hes never done anything successfully on his own in his life and nobody has faith in him. but he has money, and he offers to take kasey on if her family comes along to round out the team because literally nobody else wants to work with him. They agree, and when theyre touring the facility discover that victor, ajas estranged father, actually works for kirby, as kirby throws money at any project victor wants in exchange for v developing any inane comic book tech project kirby sets his heart on. aja lies and tells kasey victor is her brother, mostly because she isnt sure how to explain the. complicated history between them. more on that later. anyways, kirby cajoles victor into agreeing to be on the team because you need a 4-person team to be eligible for the maximum amount of events possible. so theyre all working together yippieeeee.

a few months pass and they do qualifiers, a team-based event that decides the rank you start the season in, and due to shoddy teamwork and general inexperience team kirby comes dead last. thats okay, theyll figure it out! the first event of the season is the opening tournament, one-on-one hero v villain brackets to show the audience and judges what youre made of. see, heroism and villany are judged on a combination of skill and style. theres gotta be balance between being a good fighter and a good performer, flashy combos, witty banter, and showstopping signature moves are the kind of thing people come here for (think fighting game-esque). victor goes in the first round and completely wipes his opponent, knocking them out of the ring in two seconds flat by cutting them off in the middle of an opening monologue. despite winning and winning efficiently, victor gets a shit score because there was absolutely no spirit or performance at all, and the guy he beat actually gets a better score just for his flashy entrance. aja and hutch also do some battles and teach us some more about how the game works, but the other important one is Kaseys opener, because she's pitted against Prophet(nina), who turns out to be a deathly efficient fighter with perfectly practiced form and a Silent Sentinel vibe that bounces pretty well against Wildcard (k)s chaotic, bubbly energy. It's a good fight, and in the end kasey barely wins, something that is INCREDIBLY frustrating for nina, and the first spark of their rivalry.

a few more events happen that set up the range of the games, establish some supporting cast, ect, kasey starts coming into her own with her powers, theres a b-plot about her school life, aja and victor have some family baggage and drama ect. but the major conflict of this season is arkangel. remember when i mentioned she wanted to use the Comet, an ancient well of mysterious cosmic power, to summon the Judge, an ancient destructive cosmic beast? yeah she hasnt given up on that, but shes needing to change her strategy. see, the comet is mysterious and everybody has a different theory about how it works, but its known that it doesnt give its power to just anybody. according to legends, it only grants itself to someone of pure heart in moments of pure need, and according to some magicians it needs something of equal power to pull its energy out. arkangel tries a few different things to pull out the energy she needs and i havent quite ironed out all the details of that stuff yet have mercy but. Somehow, She Figures It Out and summons the judge and it starts wrecking shop and there is a big awesomesauce chaotic battle. nina runs away, just fully ditchihg arkangel, and in a moment where it looks like shes about to lose, arkangel stabs aja and causes some of her hero gear to backfire and . well she is dead. this causes 2 things - 1, kasey summons the full power of the comet and just completely annihilates the judge, reducing it to an egg (its a wishing star type deal, power bends to the users truest desire and kaseys desire was to stop it from hurting anyone, which leaves it in a harmless form. she doesnt want to kill anything :( ) 2, victor freaks out. remember how hes on parole with the death gaurdians? yeah well one of these spirits is his "warden", basically this creepy ghost thing only he can see that follows him around and criticizes his life choices and makes sure hes not, yknow, damaging the fabric of reality or whatever. well AAs whole thing is that she wants 2 tear reality to shreds, so victor makes a deal that the warden will lend him its power and in exchange he'll let them arrest her, and this works out, he goes full necromancer and wipes the floor with her in seconds. its awesome. she gets arrested and dragged to spirit jail by a bunch of creepy ghosts.

after that is the next major "season". in this bit we learn a lot more about the grand cosmos and the things that live there. theyre not strictly gods, just beings of a different realm with higher concentrates of magical energy, letting them get even bigger and even crazier than stuff on the earthly realm can, and a few of the residents (which im debating on a catchy name for, cosmopolitan or cosmonaut both sound fun to me) decided to use their power to kind of sheperd the mortal realm. some are predators that eat souls, others try to maintain balance, others try to keep up the divide between the worlds, some want to tear it all down. but the section our heroes are involved with fancy themselves universe cops basically, arbiters of justice to souls who defy the natural order of life and death including, yknow, people artificially inflating their lifespans through magicks and whatnot. this is all organized by a being called the pale lady [or aomething idk] who operates this big cosmic courtroom, which is where arkangels "trial" is held to kick off the season.

i say "trial", but the question isnt really if if shes done anything wrong, its more of a character thing, like, people she knew in life who were affected by her actions weighing in on if they think she was right or wrong. this is where she explains her sad backstory, and the big conflict here is with victor. arkangel wanted to tear the system down for the sake of her daughter, and, well. his pet project, the thing hes spent most of his time working on for centuries? it isnt too different from what shes doing. a little less violent, yeah, but fundementally... well. the trial continues on and our heroes return to earth with arkangel officially condemned to sit around in heavenly prison, presumably forever.

aja is still dead. this is a bummer. bringing people back from the dead is hard, its simply not done, but if anyone could do it its victor. he explains, though, that souls are just collections of energy and that after death, souls dont really "go" anywhere, they just disperse back into the environment. this process takes some time, but because aja was kind of a patchwork project and was never technically fully alive, he has no idea if her soul could exist without her body at all, let alone if it would last, or if using the same process he used to bring her to life would actually bring her back or if it would just create a new soul in its place. so hes sort of. stuck. and his special project? well, thats not ready yet. its so, so close, but he just doesnt have the power he needs.

he wouldnt, at least. but after the trial the warden offers to make him a deal. if he agrees to hunt bounties for the pale lady and act in service when hes needed, the wardens power is granted to him to use as he'd like. much more freedom, more power, a cool new form with like a crazy scythe hand that im super excited about and will eventually draw someday. he agrees.

victor uses his power to finish his project, which he swears will fix all of this. see, hes been working on a time machine.

time travel isnt really a thing you can just DO, yknow, time doesnt really work like that, its not a tangible thing you can touch and trace and go backwards and forwards in. so its not really technically time travel. its a much more elaborate form of a type of technology he'd been tinkering with earlier in the comic, a sort of holodeck-style simulation that creates simulations based on the users memories and desires. so basically he creates this dream universe for himself, and uses it to go back to a little while before he'd brought aja to life, waaay back when.

see, the first time victor did this, he was only 19. he knew what he was doing, but he didnt know what he was doing. he was going to create life, a spark, a new soul. but you cant create something out of nothing, and the process of bringing aja to life fully killed him. upon his death, in that brief period before souls fade away, he begged the pale lady to give him more time, just to go back and see his creation, make sure she was safe. and she agreed, but when he woke up, it was far too late. six months had already passed and aja was long gone. he assumed she was dead, until a few years later she turned up on his doorstep begging him to help her. see, shes horribly lonely, completely outcast in a world she doesnt understand by people who dont know any better except to be afraid of her. she wants a little sister, someone to take care of and nurture and be with.

from this point on, the story is never quite clear. neither of them like to talk about it, and the most we see as an audience is brief flashbacks, sillouhettes and vague implications. but it ended with two people dead, aja down an arm and victor an eye, and both with blood on their hands.

victor holds a lot of guilt for everything that happened, and hes never really been able to get over it. he only ever really sees aja as this kind of... not mistake, really, he just had all these wonderful plans for her and for the life he wanted to give her and it all just. fell apart. because he wasnt prepared. he knows he couldve done, and shouldve done better, and hes going to prove it, hes going to do everything right and shes going to be so so happy this time.

but its not really real. he can kind of convince himself it is, for a little while, and he can live out this perfect life with his daughter and husband and everything is exactly how it was supposed to be. but its not right, its not her, its not his family. hes not fixing anything by doing this, hes just wallowing in his guilt and shame and abandoning the real, actual aja, his actual kid who needs him to be there. thats kind of always been his blind spot. he loves her, but his guilt keeps him from forming a real relationship with her because he can only think about how he hurt her even when shes basically begging him to come be a part of her life.

he snaps out of it and comes back, to find that, whoops, he miscalculated something and its actually been almost four months that hes been gone, literally just dissapeared into thin air one day leaving hutch alone with a dead wife and a bunch of spellbooks they could never in a million zillion years hope to understand, trying to figure out how to cope. bit of a dick move. they talk it out. they bond. eventually they do bring aja back, and as a little bonus shes actually really, fully alive this time. thats that haircut with the white streak in it, thats Alive Aja. she also gets more special powers now that shes alive and can actually use her magics(ill explain this fr one day but for now i digress)

OH slight digression at some point around this area - probably after or as a b-plot during victors stuff, the judge egg transforms again into bucket, my adorable little octopus girl who i love with all my heart i dont have a picture on hand but just trust me shes so cute and swag.

after this bit the next season of the game picks up and we start to get back to kasey, and nina. kaseys been having a hell of a time through those last four months, with crazier new powers from the comet, crazy teenage angst and relationship drama, and crazy weird dreams. crazy.

nina, on the other hand, has been totally fucked. see at some point in season1, during one of the games, she allied with this other villain, a low-level grunt called Bruiser. its a battle royale type game competing for a magic prize that gives the winner a wish yadda yadda and after becoming friends with bruiser and winning she stabs him in the back to take the prize, but feeling guilty uses her wish to make sure hes okay. hes kind of been watching out for her since, as he just kind of happened to live around the same area of the arizona desert that arkangels base is at, and hes kind of a big brother figure for nina. so when she ditches arkangel, she turns to him, knowing she cant really go home. he lets her crash on the couch in his shitty trailer, and does his best as a loser 30something who doesnt get paid enough to make sure shes mostly taken care of. and he lets her team up with him in games so she can still compete, because, despite her injury getting worse and worse, shes still determined to prove she can do this.

over the course of the games, nina and kaseys relationship gets kind of explored in some cool fun ways and they get to start to be actual friends in-between ninas "i hate you i have to be better than you fuck you" complex, and this climaxes in a big battle where nina slips kasey a fusion ring (something used for an event in s1 because its swag) and they fuse to take down like a big evil robot. its an awesome fight, but. during the battle with arkangel nina had left before kasey channeled the comet, so this is when she really realizes just what kasey had done. and it pisses her the fuck off. the one thing nina couldnt do and kasey is whipping it out like its nothing? why? why her? nobody wanted it more than nina did. nobody worked harder or needed it more. so why didnt she deserve it? what makes kasey so special? its not fair. so she punches her in the face, hard, and truly and honestly tells her how much she fucking hates her. eventually after some more Events they have a heart-to-heart about it and nina opens up about everything, about her injury and how badly she fucked up, and mostly about the fact that shes been lying about... everything.

see, ninas been telling people shes this ancient demon princess with royal hell powers, but shes actually just. some kid. her dad is like the chairman of the city council in their circle of hell or something, and shes just his daughter. she lied to sound cool. hes overprotective of her, because when she was born he was told she was particularly fragile, and so he kept her away from a lot of the things she wanted to do, making her a bit of an outcast and when his overprotectiveness turned away from just "dont participate in bloodsport" to the kind of music she listened to or clothes she wore, she decided to just get out. she made a pact with arkangel that if AA could convince her dad to let her go to earth for a "boarding school", she'd be her servant and blah blah blah. eventually it worked and ninas been keeping up the lie for the past like, three years now or however long its been. but the thing about demonic pacts is that theyre not just like, a pinky promise, theyre super dense legalese and theres a lot of consequences for breaking them, and nina is being chased down by hellhounds trying to get her arrested for breaking her pact with AA, so she has to come clean to her dad. this results in a fun little adventure down to hell for K and nina and also, nina and her dad work things out. he tells her hes just worried about her she tells him she feels like he doesnt believe in her or support her, her arc about proving herself kind of culminates in being able to accept her limits and that "pushing past" is only ever going to hurt her, you have to take care of yourself if you want to keep doing the things you love longterm, blah blah art burnout sports injuries ecetera. eventually they decide she can keep doing the villain thing, but she has to do it like, fucking safely and stuff. frm this point forward shes an ambulatory wheelchair user because i think it would be fun and awesome

theres some endgame stuff but its all a bit fuzzy! AA is busted out of space prison by an even eviler villain who wants to destroy even more stuff (so much to the point that even arkangel who was totally onboard with "destroy the great cosmos" kind of goes "hey we cant really destroy the earth i have to live there" and "wow this guy is a freak"), luci gets to be a villain and have her little arc too, kaseys aforementioned crazy dreams and crazy comet powers build up to something, but like, this is all pretty rough.

theres a lot more details.like the actual games themselves and some of the filler stuff, sidecast, some cool episode concepts, some of the more interpersonal sideplots especially a lot of the ones with hutch and all the kasey normal teen bplot which i adore but dont fit in neatly to a more concise linear summary and are also again a bit fuzzy. ANYWAYS.

also one last thing nina is a skateboarder and if kasey was playing a normal sport and not This Bullshit i think she would be either a baseball player or a track runner. also aja gets a motorcycle and she loves it to death.

OKEYYY if you havr any further questions plsz feel free to ask this was SO MUCH FUN i hope it more or less made sense!!!! thank youuuuuuuu i love youuuuuuu goodbyeeeee

[fruitcoops]

Can you write a thing about the first time remus looks into the stands during a game, and he realizes that people are holding up a sign for him, or wearing his jersey? i just need him to be so loved by the lions fans

Yes, yes, YES. He deserves all the fans, every single one. SW credit goes to @lumosinlove, but Annie is mine!

Remus still couldn’t believe it. He had already played three games with the team—as a player, a real-life, on-the-ice, paid-to-skate player—but it still felt like a dream every time he stepped into the rink. His parents had flown back home the previous day after a million and a half promises not to get hurt and to wear his mouthguard, and while Remus was used to them being gone, it felt different playing without them in the stands.

He fist-bumped Sirius on the way out of the locker room and knocked the fronts of their helmets together; his ‘captain mode’ had already taken over, but Remus still saw a smile as he passed. “Let’s go!” James whooped as the roar of the fans ahead deafened them.

Remus grinned, wild and broad, as his pulse picked up and adrenaline burned hot in his throat. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. The ice was smooth beneath his skates, made perfect just for them—he did one loop around the goal, two, and a third before snagging a puck and lining up across from James for a quick passing game. The rhythm soothed him; his wrists relaxed. Let’s go.

Talker whacked the backs of his legs as he passed and Remus checked him lightly, earning himself a bark of laughter. “Watch it, Loops!”

“Square up, Talkie!”

“Careful, you’ve gotta set a good example for your admirers,” he teased.

Remus paused, bewildered. “What?”

Talker tilted his chin toward the row of seats to the right and Remus turned, only to stop cold as red and gold filled his vision. There were jerseys for James, Sirius, Kasey, Finn, Kuny—

And him.

Dead center in a group of kids was a young girl with two missing front teeth, jumping up and down in excitement. The bright 6 on her jersey shone like new and she waved to him with both hands. To him, as if he was some sort of hero.

Her eyes widened when she saw him watching, and though her shriek was lost in the noise of the crowd, her joy reverberated through the plexiglass. He was moving before his brain caught up to his skates; in his gloves, his hands had begun to shake. “Hi!” he called, crouching down to her level with a tentative wave.

She whipped around and grabbed a woman—her mother, perhaps—by the hand, pulling with all the strength in her body.

“Hi,” Remus said again. He was too stunned to think of anything witty.

She beamed at him and pressed both palms to the glass, speaking too fast for him to hear. He glanced up to the woman next to her. You’re her favorite, she mouthed.

“Me?” He looked back to the little girl and pointed to himself, and she nodded frantically. “I like your jersey!”

She bounced on her toes and held the front of it out for him to see; he grabbed a stray puck off the ice, nearly fumbling it in his hurry.

“One second!” He held up one finger to make sure she understood before skating as fast as he could to the bench and snagging a silver pen from the collection, yanking his glove off with his teeth and signing his name. He didn’t have an official signature or anything—sloppy cursive would have to do. He tossed the pen toward his seat, not sparing any of his racing thoughts to wonder whether it landed.

The girl lit up when he returned, and her dark eyes grew huge when she saw the puck.

“For you!” he said as loud as he could, pointing to her. He gave her a clear count of three before tossing it over the boards; she caught it, almost dropped it, then hugged it close to her chest. Her whole face folded and tears began pouring down her cheeks. Remus’ heart plummeted.

His horror must have shown on his face, because the kid’s mother waved to get his attention and shook her head with a smile. She’s happy, she said. At least, Remus hoped he was reading her lips right. The little girl stepped back to the glass and shouted ‘thank you’ loud enough that he heard her through the glass.

“You’re welcome!” Remus yelled back, giving her a thumbs-up. He gestured toward the tunnel. “Come over after the game, okay?”

The kid looked to her mother, who smiled, then turned back to Remus and nodded enthusiastically. He high-fived her through the glass and headed back to the team, still grinning like an idiot.

“Head in the game, Loops!” Logan laughed.

“She’s got my jersey,” he said, running through his drills on muscle memory, lighter than air. “Tremzy, she had my jersey.”

“Who?”

He pointed to the gang of children; his fan was still near the front, clutching her puck. “Aw, Loops,” Logan cooed. “You’ve got a secret admirer.”

“She’s got my jersey,” he repeated.

Logan’s smile turned soft and he nudged him. “You’re part of the team, remember? Always have been, always will be.”

“Part of the team,” Remus muttered absentmindedly.

“Now come on, Lightning McQueen, we need you!” Logan smacked him on the helmet and took off, cackling. Remus rolled his eyes, though he didn’t lose the floaty feeling for the rest of warmups.

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

They won the game. Remus broke the land-speed record showering and all but sprinted to the mouth of the tunnel, sending a silent prayer up that the kid’s mom knew where to go. Come on, come on—

There.

She was still bouncing on her toes, though it looked more like she was searching for someone. The mother saw him first, and gently turned her around; Remus tried to stay calm and collected when she gasped loud enough that he heard it ten feet away.

“Hey, kiddo,” he said, crouching down to her level.

“Hi,” she squeaked.

“What’s your name?”

“This is Annie,” her mother informed him after a moment of silence.

“Nice to meet you, Annie. Nice jersey.” Her round cheeks flushed bright pink. “Did you know you’re the very first person I’ve seen wearing my number?”

She finally blinked. “Really?”

“Yep. It made my day.”

“You’re my favorite,” she blurted.

“Thanks,” he laughed. “Not a lot of people cheer for the rookies, so that means a lot.”

“You’re the fastest one on the team, and—and my mama says you’re really smart ‘cause you were on the bench an’ I know people were mean about you on the team but I don’t think that’s fair because you and Pots and Cap are the best line ever and yeah.” The flood of words left her a little breathless. “Yeah. Oh, and six is my lucky number.”

“Mine, too. Do you play hockey?”

“I want to. I think I’m too short.”

Remus felt his heart twist a little. “Annie, I was the shortest, scrawniest kid on my team until I was seventeen. You can do whatever you want to do. Don’t let anyone tell you different, okay?”

She stared at him for a long moment, then launched herself forward and threw her arms around his neck. “Annalise!” her mother gasped.

“It’s okay,” Remus assured her, holding down a laugh as he balanced himself to gently return her hug. “My little brother does this all the time.”

“You’ve gotta win the Cup this year,” Annie said—demanded, really—as she stepped back.

“I’ll do my best,” he promised. A mob of reporters hurried down the hallway toward the locker room, and he caught several staring at them as they passed. “Alright, I think that’s my cue to go.”

“What do you say?” Annie’s mother prompted quietly.

Annie smiled at him, brighter than sunshine. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome. Thanks for coming to the game, and drive safe.”

“We will.”

People liked him. They liked him, he was someone’s favorite. It was an astounding thought, and he only paid half-attention to the few interview questions that went his way. Some of the hashtags he had seen were awful—many people were calling favoritism, and the number of rude DMs seemed to increase every day—but the look of pure happiness on Annie’s face when he passed her a simple puck made them insignificant.

Who cared what assholes thought when he could make someone smile like that?

“What’s on your mind?” Sirius asked as they headed home, exhausted.

Remus shook his head, unable to keep his grin off his face. “She had my jersey.”

[jacksonroseroth]

Welcome To The Neighborhood Chapter 3

A/N: Here it is y’all! The third chapter of mine and @badwolf-in-the-impala ‘s SOA collab! I hope everyone enjoyed reading the first few Chapters, and that you’re excited to keep following this story! As stated before, we will be alternating chapters, so previous chapter links will be linked below! New chapters will be posted EVERY Monday! Happy reading ^-^

Warnings: Flirting, Kissing

Words: 4,494

Moodboard made by @badwolf-in-the-impala , none of the pictures are ours.

~

Previous Chapter

Just as Gemma and the sisters set down the last plate on the buffet style set up in the backyard, members and their families began filing in. Kacey and Harper stuck mostly to themselves, interacting with a few Old Ladies that came up to them, otherwise, they were with a few of the guys. As the party wound down, only Clay, Gemma, Jax, Opie, Half-Sack and Piney still there, Harper and Kacey joined the guys at the table after helping Gemma clear away the food. Clay and Piney sat inside enjoying a late night cup of coffee. Kacey had gotten quite comfortable with Opie and ended up in his lap as she sucked down the last of her beer while Harper sat next to Jax, an arm tossed over the back of her chair.

“Okay...One more and then you need to cut me off, Sis.” Kacey said, setting her bottle down a little harder than intended, making a loud clank against the glass table. Half-Sack jumped up and went to the cooler, fishing around for a few cold beers before he came back, sliding one to Kacey and two over to Jax and Opie. “Awe. Thanks, Half-Sack. I wanted my sister to get it...But thank you.”

Her voice turned honey sweet, a very sensitive drunk, she was. And wiggled in Opie’s lap as he took it from her, twisting off the cap and handing it back to her with a smirk. Harper took a drink from the beer still in her hand, tilting the bottle toward him a little, and said, “Yeah. By the way, why do they call you Half-Sack?”

Half-Sack chuckled and stood, a little drunk himself, he started to undo his belt as he said, “Well, I was in Iraq. Lost my left nut to an aper frag-”

A collective shout and protest erupted the second they heard his belt clank. With a sheepish smile, Half-Sack buckled himself back up and sat down, picking up his own beer and sipping on it. The girls giggled and exchanged looks and a shake of their heads while Opie and Jax merely chuckled. Harper took one last sip and set her bottle down as she stood.

“Well, as much fun as that would have been…” She started with a chuckle, looking to her sister, then Jax, with a sweet smile. “I think we should be heading home. Unlike some people…”

Harper gave her sister a look accompanied by a smirk and finished, “I got a few interviews today and we desperately need jobs.”

“Want us to walk you home?” Jax offered, standing up as well. Harper smiled and gave a small nod.

“Sure. Thanks.” She said, sweetly. Jax followed Harper inside to say goodbye and thank you to Gemma and Clay while Kacey giggled and slid off Opie’s lap. Opie kept a hold of her arm as she swayed a little, helping her back into her jacket. With a hiccup and a giggle, she said, “Thank you, Opie.”

Opie chuckled and said, “Let’s get you home, darlin’.” Kacey gave a small ‘hmm’ of approval as she wrapped an arm around Opie’s waist for support; tucking herself into his side as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and urged her forward. Pausing a few times on their way through the house as Kacey said goodbye to Gemma, Clay and a few of the guys before they finally made it outside.

Opie was careful not to walk too fast, not just due to their height difference and the fact Kacey was more than a little drunk. But also because he wasn’t quite ready for the night to be over yet, especially since it was such a short walk from Gemma and Clay’s.

“Doin’ alright?” He asked, slowing down a little bit more as Kasey stumbled over her feet a little. Opie tightening his grip to keep her from falling, chuckling a little as she glanced up at him with a drunken crooked smile.

“Mhm...I’m good.” She sighed, leaning her head against his side. It was only a few more steps she was able to take before she missed the crack in the sidewalk and was suddenly gone from Opie’s side. Thankfully, Opie saw it just as she went down and scooped her up before she could hit the ground.

“My hero.” She snorted with a laugh, her hand flying up to cover her mouth as she tried to muffle the fact she had actually just snorted. Embarrassed when it happened a second time, and she buried her face against his chest in an attempt to hide.

“Let’s get you to bed, hm?” He chuckled as they started walking again, the vibrations of the laugh rumbling through his chest, making Kacey snuggle closer as she closed her eyes. The motion of his strides almost lulling her to sleep until he paused outside her front door. “Shit... I need your keys.

Kacey fumbled around in her pockets for a couple seconds before she finally found them, holding them up a couple inches from Opie’s face before getting herself comfortable again as he found the correct key and managed to get the door unlocked. Kicking it closed with his boot as he stepped inside and started hunting for a light switch; finally coming across a lamp near the couch and clicking it on.

“You still with me?” He questioned, shifting her around in his arms a little as he moved around the front of the couch.

“Yeah.” She nodded against his chest, sounding a little less than coherent as Opie lowered her onto the couch carefully. He was almost certain she had passed out when he felt the toe of her boot catch the side of his foot and take it out from under him, causing him to fall forward; his face a couple inches from hers as he caught himself.

Kacey bit her lip lightly as she stared up at him, Opie chuckling softly, meeting her gaze as he allowed his hand to move up and caress her cheek gently. Staring for a few more seconds before Kacey closed the gap and pressed her lips to his. Her own hand finding its way into his hair as she made a move to further the kiss, groaning as Opie’s phone started going off in his pocket and forcing them to break away so he could check it.

“Shit…” He muttered as he looked at the screen before silencing it, about to apologize when Kacey raised a hand to silence him.

“It’s cool.” She chuckled drunkenly as she sat up slightly. “Harper will be here soon anyway; I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” Opie asked, the corners of his lips turning down slightly. “I can stay till she gets here if you want me to?”  

“Nah, I’m sure.” Kacey shook her head lightly with a small smile as she dismissed the offer. Knowing herself better than to accept an offer like that when she was this drunk. Not wanting to screw things up quite so soon. “I’ll be fine. Promise.” She drunkenly crossed her finger over her heart. “I’ve been left in a lot worse condition.”

“Ouch, guilt trip much?” Opie chuckled before pressing his lips to hers again for another kiss, half mumbling another ‘You’re sure?’ into the kiss.

“Mhm.” Kacey nodded.

“Positive?” He teased, pulling away briefly before pressing another kiss to her lips. Ignoring his phone that was vibrating again inside his pocket.

“Positive...that if you don’t leave soon, I’m gonna start taking my clothes off...and that’s not good for anybody.” She chuckled, finally breaking the kiss. “Besides,” She pointed at his pocket. “They’re jus’ gonna keep calling.”

“Valid point.” Opie sighed, pecking her on the lips on more time before he stood, grabbing the blanket off the back of the couch and laying it over Kacey as she laid back down and got comfortable.

“Thank you.” She smiled softly, closing her eyes with a sigh.

“Goodnight,” Opie said quietly as he moved around the couch and reached for the front door, glancing back at Kacey one more time as he opened it before stepping out. Making sure it locked behind him and descending the steps of her front porch.  

~

“Gemma. Hey.” Harper said as she approached the trio at the table. Gemma turned and smiled.

“Oh, hey. Are you girls heading home?” Gemma asked, already pulling Harper into a hug. Harper smiled as Gemma kissed her cheek and sat back.

“Yeah. I’ve got some interviews tomorrow and Kacey’s one beer away from running through the street.” Harper said. “Or at least getting the idea.”

Clay and Piney chuckled as Gemma shook her head. “Well, it was good to have you girls here. I hope we’ll see more of you. Don’t be strangers.” She said. Harper smiled and thanked Gemma and Clay again before heading out. As they walked, a cold breeze snapped past them, making Harper shiver in her shorts and curse herself for not thinking to bring a jacket. Jax saw the shiver, even though she tried to hide it as she rubbed a hand over her arm. Jax finished his cigarette and stamped it out before he stopped and took off his Kutte then his zip up. Harper turned to him and smiled as he put it around her shoulders and zipped it up halfway. He looked at her and smirked.

“Looks good on you.” He said. Harper stuck her arms through and smiled, taking Jax’s arm as they continued walking. It wasn’t a long walk, but Harper rested her head on Jax’s shoulder anyway. Her beers were slowly beginning to soak into her every fiber and she was feeling a little flirty. As they got to the start of her driveway, Jax called out to Opie, who sat on his bike, starting it.

“Hey, man. Uh, your sister’s in the house already. She’s a little drunk though.” Opie said with a chuckle. Harper nodded and said, “Thanks, Ope.”

“Hey, I’ll catch you at the clubhouse,” Jax said as Opie saluted two fingers at him and took off down the street. Harper gave a soft sigh as she took a step past Jax, heading up her walkway. As her hand trailed down his arm, she caught his hand and Jax stayed right along with her until they reached the door. Harper let go of Jax’s hand and dug through her pockets for her keys. Once she had them in her hand, she turned to Jax and smiled, letting herself move a little closer.

“Thanks for walking me home. And for giving me a ride today.” Harper said. Jax smiled and pushed a few curls behind her ear.

“Anythin’ we can do to help. We’re all about the service, darlin’.” Jax said. Harper bit her lip and gave his Kutte a small tug, glancing down at his patches, moving a step closer. She looked up at him and lifted up on her toes to press a soft, light kiss to his lips. Once her heels clicked on the concrete, Jax licked his lower lip and smirked, slipping a hand over her hip to pull her closer. Harper giggled as Jax pushed a hand into her curls and pulled her closer for a longer, deeper kiss. Harper gripped the leather of his Kutte and sighed into the kiss as she pressed herself against him. The kiss would have continued if Harper didn't hear stumbling and a crash inside that made them break the kiss, Harper giving a small groan.

“Jesus. I need to get in there before Taz comes out.” Harper said with a chuckle, turning and unlocking the door. Jax snickered and said, “I thought it was when she got pissed?”

Harper tilted her head back with a small giggle fit. She glanced back at him and said, “You really think the Tasmanian Devil wouldn’t do the same if he got drunk?”

Jax snickered and shook his head. “Alright, well...I’ll see you around then?” He asked, shoving his hands in his jean pockets, biting his lip, slightly and giving her a quick once over with a smirk. Harper bit her lip and turned to him again, taking a step closer and kissing him once more.

“I’m sure you will.” She said, softly, her hand reaching behind her to open the door and slip inside. “Night.”

Jax nodded at her and smiled. “Night.” He said. Harper smiled and closed the door, leaving Jax to smirk to himself as he went back to his bike. As he strapped on his helmet, his phone buzzed in his pocket. Jax took it out and answered the call. “Yeah?”

“*Hey, Jax, we need you back at the clubhouse, man. We just got a call from Clay.*” Tig’s voice chimed in. Jax raised an eyebrow and looked back down the street at Gemma’s to see Piney and Clay heading to their bikes. Jax sighed and said, “Yeah, I’m on my way.”

He snapped his phone shut and waited until Clay got closer to fall in line behind him.

~

Harper turned, taking off Jax’s hoodie and watched as her sister hopped around trying to pull off the boot that was tied around her leg. She chuckled and shook her head before going over to her and pushing her back onto the couch.

“Hey!” Kacey shouted, then crossed her arms and said, “Fuckin’ rude.”

“You’re going to kill yourself doing that shit, Kacey. Or worse, break your ankle.” Harper said, unlacing her boot and pulling it off. Kacey furrowed her eyebrows as she watched her sister.

“How is breaking my ankle worse than dying?” She questioned. Harper looked at her sister and said, with a smirk, “Because if you’re dead, you’ll haunt me and I can’t kill you. If you’ve broken your ankle, I have to hear you bitch and I can kill you.”

“How is that worse?” Kacey asked. Harper threw her boot at her and said, “I didn't say it was worse for me.”

Kacey launched the boot right back at Harper, though she ducked out of the way, as she made her way into the kitchen. Harper stood in front of the almost empty fridge for a while before Kacey wandered over and hung off her sister’s shoulder. She grimaced at the limp lettuce and cheese in their fridge. “We need to go shopping,” Kacey said. Harper nodded and swung the door shut, turning to her sister with a smirk.

“Chinese?” Harper offered. Kacey’s drunk eyes lit up and she smiled.

“Yes!” She squealed with a clap, bouncing over to her phone and falling onto the couch. “Do you think they have a good Chinese place here?”

“I’m not sure. But we’re not too far away from the next city over. There’s gotta be a place that delivers.” Harper said, grabbing her phone and searching.

Within the next half hour, the girls had changed into just their panties and a shirt, Harper grabbing Jax’s hoodie to answer the door. She paid the delivery boy, tipping him a little extra for delivering so late, and brought the bag over to the coffee table, lounging in the armchair next to the couch. Kacey had fallen asleep just after Harper ordered, so with a nudge of her foot to Kacey’s knee that was hanging off the side of the couch, she said, “Hey. Wake up before I eat it all.”

Harper snickered as Kacey grumbled at her, rubbing her eyes and sitting up. Harper handed her a pair of chopsticks then asked, “Chow Mein or fried rice?”

“Chow mein. Duh.” Kacey said with a chuckle, Harper smirking and handing the box to her. Harper sat back with a box of walnut shrimp and set the fried rice on the side table next to her. Around her bites of food, Harper managed to ask, with a smirk, “So...Did Opie kiss you?”

Kacey nearly choked on the bite of noodles she had just shoved in her mouth. “Excuse you?”

Harper snickered and glanced at her as she picked her way around the walnuts. “You heard me.” She said, shifting in her seat, shoving another shrimp into her mouth with a little wiggle.

Kacey paused from taking her next bite as she narrowed her gaze at her sister; swallowing what was left in her mouth before speaking again. “Did you kiss Jax?” She replied mockingly.

Unfortunately, the smile never left Harper’s face as she looked up at her and said, “Yeah. Twice.”

“Hm…” Kacey mused with a small smirk before shoving another bite of chow mein in her mouth. “I beat you by two then.”

Harper gave her sister a mock scandalized look before giving a soft chuckle and picking up the fried rice. “Well...It was only cause we were drunk.” Harper said, picking through the rice, looking up at her as she added, “You’re not...Planning on letting it get any further...Right?”

Kacey cleared her throat awkwardly as she stared into her box of chow mein, not wanting to lie, but also not knowing exactly how to answer. “I don’t know…” She shrugged, picking at her food. Harper blinked and shifted in her seat, dropping her legs down from the arm of the chair. She gave a short laugh and said, “What do you mean, you don’t know? Kacey...We cannot get involved with them. I mean, come on! We barely got Marcus off our backs about Bastien and Nico. I don’t know about you but Clay scares me a little bit more than him. I don’t wanna fuck with him.”

“Quite frankly, I’d be more afraid of Gemma.” Kacey joked lightly, trying to lighten the mood a little. Harper rolled her eyes after delivering a death glare at her.

“Oh, yeah, sure. You can joke. Opie is Jax’s best friend, and Jax is Gemma’s son. Yes. Thank you for reminding me that I’d be doubly fucked!” she shot at her, picking angrily at the rice. Kacey snickered and didn't bother to hide her smirk as she said, “Technically, you’d be triply fucked, but...You know…”

Harper huffed as she set the box down in her lap, staring at her sister as she laughed into her chow mein. She flicked a piece of rice at her and said, “Just promise me if you do it, it’s the one time? Don’t get involved with them, Kace. I’m sure there are other nice guys in this town for us.”

“Yeah. That’s true.” Kacey said, nodding along in agreeance. She quickly looked at her and said, “If it weren’t for the fact we attract bikers.”

Harper rolled her eyes and sighed, shoving rice into her mouth and sinking a little in her chair. After a while, Harper sat up as Kacey grabbed the orange chicken and said, “Please just promise me it’d be the one time?”

“Yeah, yeah. I promise. I mean, I can’t guarantee it’ll ever happen, but yes. If it does, it’s the one time.” Kacey said, crossing her heart and rolling her eyes. Harper gave her a look but dropped the subject as she shook her head and dug back into the shrimp. A few more minutes passed before Kacey looked up and said, “So did you see that chick Tig brought along?”

Harper’s gaze pierced under her lashes at her sister, before her lips curled in a smirk and they both laughed, descending into their routine of breaking down the night.

~

Early the next morning, Kacey woke up and dressed for her shift. Last night at the party, Chibs and Juice managed to rope Clay and Kacey together and convinced Clay to let her come on part-time, if at first, in the clubhouse, and with a little help from Opie, Clay also agreed to let Kacey work on Harper’s truck. As Kacey walked out the door, having left Harper a note, she saw Half-Sack pull up in the tow truck, giving a wave. Kacey gave a nod and waved back as she hurried down the walkway and climbed in.

“Morning!” Half-Sack said cheerily as he put the truck in gear. Kacey cringed inwardly, but she held a polite smile as she tried to pretend she was at least somewhat of a morning person...and that her brain wasn’t about to pound it’s way out of her skull.

“Morning…” She replied.

“Sleep good?” Half-Sack asked, attempting to make small talk as they pulled out onto the road and started for the Clubhouse.

“Dunno if you can call three and a half hours of sleep good,” Kacey replied. “But sure. We’ll go with that.” She chuckled lightly and turned her attention to looking out the window, taking in the scenery as it passed by; Half-Sack rambling on about something completely random in the background as she attempted to tune him out. Any form of sound making her headache worse at this point. Her and Harper really needed to hit the store for essentials...Excedrin being number one on her list right now.

But as they pulled into the parking lot at TM, Kacey drew a deep breath and composed her thoughts. Preparing herself for all the information and learning that was about to go down...so early in the morning...while she was battling a hangover.

“So,” Half-Sack started as they approached the Clubhouse. “Can’t give you a key yet, Clays orders, but one of us is always around if you get locked out or something. And Gemma is usually one of the first people here and unlocks things if the guys aren’t up and movin’ yet.” Kacey nodded as they stepped inside.

“You got to see where most everything is at behind the bar, yesterday...that’s pretty basic. Cooler is back through here.” He took her towards the back entrance and gestured to a big metal door before pulling it open. “You’ll find everything you need for restocking in here. Kegs, bottles, cans, mixers; hard liquor is kept in a separate locked cabinet behind the bar.” He added.

“Pretty basic.” Kacey chuckled with a nod. Half-Sack nodded in return as they made their way back out front to the bar, right as Clay and Opie were making their way inside.

“Everything is pretty simple, cleaning wise and whatnot. Anything you don’t know or have questions on, I’ll show you as we go along. Sound good?” Half-Sack smiled and Kacey gave another nod.

“I think I can handle it.” She replied. “Either way, I’m a fast learner.”

“Glad to hear it.” Clay chimed in as he grinned down at her, motioning towards the door. “C’mon. We’ll show you around the garage real quick before you get started.”  

Kacey was quick to fall in stride beside Opie as they followed Clay outside and across the lot to the Garage; Opie giving her a grin as he slowed his pace a little, but otherwise remained quiet as Clay continued on with the tour, pointing out a few things along the way before they stepped inside the shop.

“It’s your pretty basic setup.” Clay motioned around the garage. “If you need help finding somethin’ just flag down one of the guys, or give a holler at Gemma in the office.” He added. “Aside from that, rules are simple; part time for now until we see if you’re a good fit. I’ll have Gemma make you a schedule. You’re free to come and go on your days off to work on your sister’s truck. Other than that, just listen and follow instructions and you’ll be jus’ fine...welcome to TM, Kid.” Clay grinned and patted her on the shoulder before steering her back in the direction of the Clubhouse, just the two of them as Opie got to work.

~

The morning breezed by as Kacey got to work; her headache eventually dulling as she worked alongside Half-Sack most of the morning as he showed her the ins and outs of the working the bar at the Clubhouse. Most of it was pretty simple and not much different than the last bartending job she had. Though she had to admit, the company here was a lot better and her favorite ‘customer’ by far had to be Piney; who as it turns out, was actually Opie’s father. Kacey becoming pretty well acquainted with the old man as he spent most of the morning sitting at the bar, poking fun of Half-Sack and telling her stories.

“Jesus, Pop, you’re not harassing the new bartender already? Are you?” Opie groaned as he and Juice came in for a beer later that afternoon. Kacey trying her best to hide her grin as she grabbed a couple of beers and opened them before placing them on the bar.

“As a matter of fact,” Piney stated in a gruff tone; turning to his son with a smirk. “We were talkin’ about you.” Piney chuckled softly, watching in amusement as Opie slunk forward on his barstool and took a sip of his beer.

“Don’t worry.” Kacey chuckled, meeting Opie’s gaze with a wink as he looked up at her; cocking an eyebrow curiously. “He only told me the good bits.” She teased.

“‘Cause that makes me feel so much better,” Opie replied sarcastically, though he was unable to stave off the grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth and eventually spread into a smile. Kacey returning the gesture shyly before turning her attention to wiping down the bar and making Piney another drink. As Juice and Opie fell into conversation with Piney, the door swung open and Harper bounced inside, soon followed by Jax. Harper quickly sought out her sister and grabbed her hands, startling her.

“Jesus, Harper. Don’t make me break stuff on my first day!” Kacey chuckled. Harper shook her head and said, “Sorry. Sorry. But-I got a job! My very first interview today, and I fuckin’ nailed it!”

Kacey’s face lit up and the two girls let out a squeal and hugged. “No shit! Where at?” Kacey asked as Harper went back around the bar, her mission complete; To find her sister and tell her the news. She slipped into a seat next to Jax, who stood behind her, saying hi to Opie and the rest.

“The diner in town. Waitress.” Harper said with a shrug. “At least it’s something.”

Kacey smiled and slid both her and Jax a beer, before wiping down the bar. “Well, that’s great, Sis. At least now we have jobs.”

Harper held up her bottle and said, with a giggle, “Amen.” Kacey chuckled before moving off to grab more beers from the cooler, calling down to Half-Sack as he went down the hall to bring up another case. Harper turned to Piney and Jax, starting up a conversation with them. Throughout the rest of Kacey’s shift, and a few hours after, every now and then the sisters exchanged glances and a secret smile, finally having hope that they found their place in Charming and among the Sons.

 ~

Next Chapter

Hope you guys liked it! Feel free to drop a comment! If you want to be tagged in future fics/chapters, let me know! I’ll add you to the list!

@tephi101 @shieldmaiden25 @staystrongsoa @badwolf-in-the-impala @captstefanbrandt @imgoldielikehawn @grungyblonde @courtrae89 @romanchronicles @crazyanonymous4u

[piratefalls]

Oh I'll take some book recs! Any genre is fine 😊

the one thing I miss about college is talking about books. getting this ask made me so happy.

SO

i'll start with my current genre of choice which is thrillers/mysteries. I just finished reading the Rizzoli & Isles series by Tess Gerritsen. if you've seen the show, know they're very very different. I also recently finished The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and the ending very much surprised me. Ten Dead Comedians by Fred Van Lente is a funny take on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, which I also highly recommend. Final Girls by Riley Sager and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson are also A++. And finally, maybe the creepiest book I've read in the last year is UNSUB by Meg Gardiner. I made sure the security system was on every night lol.

to my other longstanding favorite genre, we have romance. I'm a big fan of Jennifer Crusie, Kasey Michaels, and Rachel Gibson because I'm a huge sucker for early 2000s mass market paperbacks. They're funny, light reads if you just need something to distract you for a while. I absolutely adore The Kiss Quotient series by Helen Hoang, excellent representation of mental health issues and neurodivergence in general. Also, did you know that Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams writes romance novels as Selena Montgomery? You should read them. My favorites are Reckless followed by Deception, and I am eagerly waiting for the third in the trilogy. For something more modern and a little steamy, The Shameless Series by Rosie Danan is super fun.

I don't generally read historical fiction, but I finally caved to peer pressure and read The Nickel Boys by Coulson Whitehead and I had to sit with that one for a minute because whew.

I went on an essay collection/memoir kick for a bit. some of my favorites were The Awkward thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell, both I Can't Date Jesus and I Don't Want to Die Poor by Michael Arceneaux, Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh, Coming Out Like a Pornstar by Jiz Lee (editor), I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual by Luvvie Ajayi-Jones, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying by Bassey Ikpi, and anything by Samantha Irby.

I have to be in a mood to read some contemporary fiction, but ones that stuck with me were Do This For Me by Eliza Kennedy, The Divorce Party by Laura Dave (who is a favorite of mine), The Book of Joe and anything else by Jonathan Tropper, Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple, and A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

for political satire, books by Christopher Buckley. that's all.

a genre I read almost exclusively for a while but I've strayed from is YA. Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro, Monday's Not Coming and Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson, Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles, Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram, Slay by Britttney Morris, Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.

I haven't read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy, but for funnies I did like the Midnight, Texas series by Charlaine Harris.

and finally, books that made me cry. Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello, They Both Die at the End, More Happy Than Not, and History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

send me random asks!

[theartofreadingbykyla]

ARC Review: The Ones We're Meant To Find

One of the most twisty, surprising, engaging page-turner YAs you’ll read this year—We Were Liars meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Studio Ghibli. Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay, and it’s up to Cee to cross the ocean and find her. In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara lives in an eco-city built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return. Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But nevertheless, she decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

ꜱᴇᴇ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ ʙᴇʟᴏᴡ: (with spoilers)

HONESTLY, I'M BLOWN AWAY. It's been on my tbr for a week and I just finished it in 3 hours lmao! But let me tell you, this story completely blew me away. I feel like I rode a rollercoaster for 3 hours straight. It's beautiful and thrilling to read. I'm in love with the sisters' love for each other. "Home means a city in the sky, sometimes. Or another island. Home could be here, for all I care, if she were with me." The story would left your jaw hanging for real. But seriously, I still can't get over it. Wait, let me just collect my thoughts... OK. I'm good. I really love how this story was written, it's sad but beautiful.

My heart aches for Cee, not Celia, because of how her mind works even despite of being different. I love how she loved and longed for the people in her life. This last paragraph really broke me "It's my turn, and I choose the one person who didn't receive all of Celia's unconditional love, who has her for me, in these three years, before U-me and before Hero. A girl dead to the world, but alive to me. She was looking for meaning. For something bigger than her. I can give it to her. I can find her. A girl lost at sea. Not anymore." WHO WOULDN'T CRY??? This is not a drill, it's a masterpiece!! Cee and Hero fell in love with each other despite everything and I think that's beautiful. You will know what's 'everything' once you've read it. I don't want to spoil too much.

I'm sorry I doubted you at first, Kasey. You were emotionless and I thought you didn't care much about your missing sister. But thank you for creating Cee. For reliving the memories of Celia in her. And thank you for creating Hero, Actinium. You guys created a beautiful story even without realizing it.

"I love you. And even if you failed me, I'd never replace you."

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS!

About the Author:

Joan He

Joan was born and raised in Philadelphia but still will, on occasion, lose her way. At a young age, she received classical instruction in oil painting before discovering that stories were her favorite kind of art. She studied psychology and Chinese history at the University of Pennsylvania and currently writes from a desk overlooking the city waterfront. Descendant of the Crane is her young adult debut. For updates, please sign up for her newsletter: http://eepurl.com/c5rvdL. For business related inquiries, please contact her literary agent, John Cusick of Folio Lit.

[kingdumkum]

a daydream dressed like a daydream 😰

Prohero Red Riot

[yahoo-the-dagger-blog]

PK80 Report Card: Grading the performance of all 16 teams that participated

Florida was among the most impressive teams at the PK80 Invitational. (AP)

It’s a shame this past weekend’s marquee college basketball event honoring Nike founder Phil Knight is a one-time only thing.

The two simultaneous eight-team tournaments held adjacent to one-another in Portland featured some outstanding basketball.

Duke rallied from second-half deficits of 16 and 17 points against Texas and Florida to capture the title in one of the two brackets. Michigan State stifled North Carolina with an outstanding defensive effort to win the championship in the other bracket.

For some of the 16 Nike schools that participated, the weekend was a clear success. For others, it was a major disappointment. Here’s a report card with grades and comments for each of the 16 teams in the field:

ARKANSAS (2-1) 

If the SEC is exceeding expectations as a league so far this season, then Arkansas is certainly one of the teams fueling that. The Razorbacks appeared Top 25-caliber this weekend in Portland as they sandwiched emphatic victories over Oklahoma and UConn around a loss to North Carolina. What’s especially encouraging about Arkansas is the way it’s shooting from the perimeter. The Razorbacks are hitting 41.7 percent of their threes as a team and leading scorers Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon are both connecting at clips of over 50 percent. That’s encouraging for a team that lost elite big man Moses Kingsley and sharpshooter Dusty Hannah to graduation last spring. GRADE B-PLUS

BUTLER (2-1)

What an escape from Butler to close out the weekend with an emotionally gratifying victory against their former coach. The Bulldogs rallied from 15 down at the under-4 timeout against Ohio State and won the game in overtime on Kelan Martin’s game-winning layup. That show of resilience salvaged an otherwise concerning weekend for a Butler team that was outclassed by Texas in its opener and barely escaped Portland State in its second game. The Bulldogs lack sufficient outside shooting and don’t appear to have too many scoring threats behind sophomore Kamar Baldwin and seniors Kelan Martin and Tyler Wideman. GRADE: C-PLUS

CONNECTICUT (1-2)

While UConn’s opening victory against a revamped Oregon team was encouraging, the two losses that followed provided a reality check. At this stage of the season, the Huskies simply aren’t any match for upper-echelon opponents like North Carolina and Arkansas. UConn’s big men are serviceable at best this season and its collection of talented guards too often resorts to hero ball when adversity hits. The Huskies don’t shoot it particularly well from the perimeter and on the season they’ve tallied 76 turnovers compared to only 53 assists. GRADE: C-MINUS

DEPAUL (1-2)

DePaul was a late addition to the field after Georgetown recognized it wasn’t going to field as strong a team as usual this season and pulled out at the last minute. One win in three games was the expected result for the Blue Demons, but they showed progress by taking Oregon to overtime on Friday and handling Portland with ease on Sunday. One big bright spot was a combined 41 points in those two games from 6-11 center Marin Maric. If the Croatian senior can provide an interior complement to guards Max Strus and Eli Cain, DePaul has a real chance to escape the Big East cellar this season. GRADE: B-MINUS

DUKE (3-0)

Here’s the most encouraging aspect of Duke’s comeback victories to stun Texas and Florida and claim the PK80 Motion Bracket title: The Blue Devils can get so much better. Their outside shooting remains erratic, their rim protection was inconsistent and their transition defense was practically nonexistent. But talent and resilience can mask a lot of flaws, and Duke has plenty of both. Marvin Bagley averaged 27.3 points and 15 rebounds and singlehandedly spearheaded Duke’s rally from a 16-point second-half deficit against Texas. He had more help guiding the Blue Devils back from 17 down against Florida as Grayson Allen, Trevon Duval and especially Gary Trent Jr. all made big plays. GRADE: A-MINUS

 FLORIDA (2-1)

In three games at the PK80 Invitational, Florida proved it’s college basketball’s most entertaining team. The Gators also made a strong case they’re one of the sport’s best too. They piled up 108 points against overmatched Stanford, outgunned Gonzaga in double overtime and led No. 1 Duke by 17 before squandering a potential signature victory. Chris Chiozza’s playmaking instincts, blazing speed and desire to have the ball in his hands late in close games make him a huge upgrade over Kasey Hill at point guard. Jalen Hudson and Egor Koulechov bring perimeter shooting that Florida has sometimes lacked. And while defense is a concern, the eventual return of injured center John Egbunu should boost the Gators’ rebounding and rim protection. GRADE: A-MINUS

GONZAGA (2-1)

With Saint Mary’s floundering this weekend and BYU doing nothing of note so far, Gonzaga knows its marquee wins this season may have to come outside its conference. The Zags got off to a strong start in Portland with wins over Ohio State and Texas sandwiched around an oh-so-close loss to Florida in a double-overtime classic. While Gonzaga misses the scoring and leadership of Nigel Williams-Goss, the outside shooting of Jordan Mathews and the rim protection of Przemek Karnowski and Zach Collins, the Zags’ replacements have been impressive. They displayed resilience battling Florida shot-for-shot and bouncing back from a late-game meltdown against Texas, though 3-point defense, free throw shooting and breaking a press are potential areas of improvement. GRADE: B-PLUS

MICHIGAN STATE (3-0)

Whatever buzz Michigan State lost with its Champions Classic loss to Duke, the Spartans regained it with a dominant showing this weekend. They outclassed DePaul and UConn before stifling North Carolina in Sunday’s Victory bracket title game to emphatically end Roy Williams’ streak of dominance over Tom Izzo. Michigan State’s defense was the story of the week as the Spartans held their three opponents to 28 percent shooting collectively and 21 percent from behind the arc. They held North Carolina to its worst shooting percentage in program history, shutting down its vaunted transition attack, keeping the Tar Heels off the offensive glass and altering many of their shots around the rim. GRADE: A

NORTH CAROLINA (2-1) 

For the first two weeks of the season, North Carolina didn’t look like a team that lost nearly last year’s entire frontcourt to graduation or the NBA. Joel Berry and Theo Pinson performed like they always have, Luke Maye played like an All-American and the Tar Heels’ trio of freshman post players showed flashes of potential. Sunday’s 63-45 loss to Michigan State was a reminder it won’t always be so easy. The Tar Heels shot 1-for-18 from behind the arc and got nothing easy at the rim en route to the worst shooting night in program history. So which team is North Carolina? The one that blitzed Arkansas or the one that couldn’t score against Michigan State? Probably somewhere in between. The Tar Heels will also improve as their freshmen post players develop and Cam Johnson returns from injury. GRADE: B 

OHIO STATE (1-2)

They were outclassed by Gonzaga. They were just good enough against Stanford. Sunday’s matchup with Butler figured to determine how Ohio State felt about itself as it flew home from Portland, and for awhile it appeared that flight would be a happy one. Then everything changed in an instant as the Buckeyes squandered a 15-point lead in the final four minutes of regulation and lost at the buzzer in overtime. Ohio State’s undoing was its poor shooting and inability to take care of the ball, both month-long issues for the Buckeyes. They committed 24 turnovers and appeared to lose their poise as Butler made its late run. GRADE: C-MINUS

OKLAHOMA (2-1)

My goodness, Trae Young. What a way to introduce yourself to college basketball. Oklahoma’s prized freshman point guard dropped 43 points and 7 assists on Oregon on Sunday afternoon and averaged 34.7 points and 6.7 assists in three games in Portland. Young is the dynamic engine of a fast-paced, high-octane offense that should fuel a return to the NCAA tournament for Oklahoma this season. The Sooners fell to Arkansas in their opener, but recovered to dominate Portland and handle Oregon for a pair of consolation-bracket wins. GRADE: B

OREGON (1-2) 

Even though Oregon lost six of its seven leading scorers from last year’s Final Four team, there was reason to believe the Ducks could still be nationally relevant again this season. They added an influx of talented freshmen and transfers and coach Dana Altman has consistently shown an ability to reload on the fly. Oregon may yet be a player in a wide-open Pac-12 race, but this weekend showed the Ducks have a ways to go. They were outplayed down the stretch against UConn and Oklahoma and they were fortunate to survive against DePaul in overtime. All five Oregon starters are averaging double figures, but the Ducks’ defense has some holes. They’re at their best when freshman Kenny Wooten avoids foul trouble long enough to provide a boost with his shot blocking. GRADE: C 

PORTLAND (0-3) 

Three losses by a combined 59 points were the expected outcome for a Portland team that’s loaded with freshmen and sophomores. The Pilots finished last in the WCC in Terry Porter’s debut season and have nearly an entirely new roster this season as they look to rebuild post-Alec Wintering. The play of Franklin Porter, one of Terry’s two sons on the roster, was an encouraging sign for Portland. The younger Porter averaged 16 points per game against North Carolina, Oklahoma and DePaul, though he also showed his youth by committing too many turnovers. GRADE: C-MINUS

PORTLAND STATE (1-2) 

For a program that finished seventh out of eight teams in its half of the bracket, Portland State had a heck of a weekend. The Vikings led top-ranked Duke at halftime, pushed Butler to the final buzzer in a two-point loss and outgunned Stanford behind the sweet-shooting backcourt of Bryce Canada and Deontae North. Portland State’s revved-up tempo, lethal outside shooting and willingness to crash the offensive glass make it a challenging matchup for opponents. The Vikings have the look of a Big Sky contender and a potential tough out in an opening-round NCAA tournament game. GRADE: A-MINUS

STANFORD (0-3)

Hailed as a potential breakout team entering the season, Stanford has utterly failed to live up to that hype. Three straight losses in Portland dropped the Cardinal to an underachieving 3-5 this season, a mark that includes a pair of upsets against Big Sky opponents. Bruising all-Pac-12 candidate Reid Travis averaged 21.7 points and 8.3 rebounds at the PK80, but once again he didn’t have enough help. The Cardinal turn the ball over far too frequently because they still don’t have a reliable point guard. Talented but inconsistent center Michael Humphrey had three quiet, foul-plagued games in Portland and the Cardinal missed the outside shooting and perimeter defense of injured wing Dorian Pickens. GRADE: F

TEXAS (1-2) 

Off-target outside shooting and inept point guard play were key culprits in Texas’ 22-loss nosedive in Shaka Smart’s second season in Austin. The Longhorns won’t scare anyone with their outside shooting this year, but the arrival of freshman Matt Coleman and Tulane transfer Dylan Osetkowski makes their offense run more smoothly. Coleman gives Texas a true point guard and Osetkowski is a slick-passing forward the Longhorns can play through in the high post. Did Texas leave Portland disappointed that it couldn’t close out Duke or finish off its comeback against Gonzaga? Sure. But this is a Longhorns team with an improved offense and an elite defense, and that’s an encouraging combination. GRADE: B

– – – – – – –

Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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