#last batch before im off for a holiday | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

notnctu · 4 years ago

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under the mistletoe | l.ty

lee taeyong x fem!reader genre - fluff, barely humor idk, very little bit of angst details - enemies to lovers!au, childhood friends that have been apart, high school!au warnings - explicit language, one mention of death, there’s a kiss scene lol word count - 2.7k synopsis - the holiday season brings a change of heart this year. you see your old friend, now enemy, Lee Taeyong at Mark’s Christmas gathering and through snowman shaped cookies, you two re-kindle your old friendship.

a/n - this is for @neoculturechristmas ‘s secret santa collab! this piece is dedicated to @soliverse :) hello lovie!! i’m your secret santa!! i hope you like it and im sorry that it’s not funny LOL thank you for letting me participate in such a fun holiday collab! im so happy to be able to write a fic for another writer:)

Through the heavily crowded Christmas party, through the people that dare walk in your way, you still see him in the midst of the chaos. Lee Taeyong stands only a few feet from you, in a ridiculous Christmas sweater and messy frosty hair. The universe is absolutely obsessed with placing you two in uncomfortable situations, as if the fuming feud between you two is not enough.

His absentminded actions cause him to foolishly knock over someone’s drink, what a fucking clutz. Rolling your eyes, you wander off in search of your good friend to announce your departure for the night.

“Already? Y/N, you got here like, five minutes ago.” Mark mixes the glass bowl that is filled to the brim with red sugary punch. Any forceful spin will have it spilling from the rim, and that won’t be the only mishap of the night that you witness. “What’s the rush? It’s Christmas Eve!”

And before you can utter the blacklisted name to explain your sudden change of heart, the culprit walks in with his stunned puppy eyes that grow sharp and a frown at your appearance. There is a small spark in the shared eye contact until it completely drops and he returns to ignoring your presence.

“Mark, where are your napkins? I spilled something in your living room.” It had to be a whole year since you’ve last heard his voice and you still remember his low cadence whenever he was trying to be cool. Cool and mysterious Taeyong, and how he lives up so perfectly to his title. However, there was a moment in time that you knew him for more than that. He was warm and comforting Taeyong.

While he tried so hard to be winter on the outside, spring bloomed blossoms on the inside and a bright sunshine radiated enough for you to witness its glow. You wished to stay with his spring for as long as you possibly could, but like the changing seasons, Taeyong eventually changed with it.

“It’s in the upper cabinet.” Mark does not realize the initial situation in the room, merrily going back to his large bowl of delicious liquid. It takes one big sigh from you for your friend to finally realize the elephant in the room and the unknowingly stiff tension in the kitchen. Mark’s eyes grow a bit bigger and as subtle as he tried to be, he clears his throat, “I think Christmas is all about joining together and being in each other’s company. Stay, Y/N.”

Mark did not choose his words wisely as Taeyong peeks over his shoulder, catching the last words of his sentence. “You’re leaving already, Y/N?” That is the first time he’s acknowledged you in the past few years.

There is an internal battle of whether or not you should acknowledge him back. Crossing your arms, you grumble something underneath your breath. “Why do you care?”

“I don’t.” Taeyong says sternly, making sure he asserts his nonchalant attitude. “Just sucks that Mark threw such a happy Christmas party for his good friend to leave.” He slings an arm around Mark’s shoulders, snuggling his face into the side of Mark’s chocolate colored hair.

And Mark dares to show a small smile of affection back. “Sorry that Y/N is always walking out on things. She does that quite often.” Before you can give him a piece of your mind, Mark shoves a snowman shaped biscuit in your mouth.

Taeyong gets away laughing, feeling an overwhelming sense of pride as he walks to clean up his other mess. You groan, biting the head of the snowman off and glaring at Mark. “Why did you let him get away with saying that to me? And when did you become friends with him again? And why are your cookies so hard?”

“Taeyong lost a friend, like a month ago. Just be a bit empathetic, please.” Mark wipes his hands on his apron and continues kneading at a random ball of dough. If it’s one thing that Mark always does too well is overachieving at his holiday gatherings. There is a reason why he’s head of the Prom Committee and student officer for event planning at your high school.

Washing your hands, the cold water bites at your skin. It’s been a really cold winter this year. When you dry your hands off, you scoot Mark over to make room for yourself to help with his endless amount of holiday treats.

“We’ve all lost friends, Mark. Sometimes people don’t work out with others and that’s just how it goes.” There is an underlying bitterness that does not seem to fade when you speak.

“Speaking from experience, maybe?” Mark chuckles, but dismisses the brief second of giggles to a more serious and low tone. “Not that kind of lost, Y/N. He lost a friend forever, like this person is in a forever sleep.”

The moment the words hit the air, a chilly draft sweeps at your ankles and you freeze in your place. And as you stand with dry flour on your hands and a person you thought you’d never become warm to again stands in the next room over, your heart softens at the information and immediate guilt preoccupies your system.

“Oh… well you should have started with that, then.” You slightly graze a finger across your nose at the faint tickle. Your mind is running at high speed, merely wondering about all the pain that Taeyong possibly felt this past month and remembering how it’s difficult for him to process his feelings.

“He actually wasn’t going to come tonight, until I mentioned you were coming.” Mark unloads a batch of fresh cookies from the oven and replaces it with another tray. The aromatics take you back to Christmas many years ago and the memory of Taeyong getting frosting everywhere you could remember. It took weeks to get the red and green stains out of the carpet, but the laughter made up for every clumsy mistake.

Not completely sure where the melancholic spirit erupted from, you rinse your hands and grab two cookies off the still hot tray without another response. Hurrying off, Mark yells out, “Wait-- those aren’t decorated yet!” but you choose to ignore his pleas.

Why is it harder to find him in a crowd when you are actually looking for him? Perhaps the saying, the best things in life come when you’re not looking for them, holds some truth to it. But your feet take you directly to him; he sits at the leather couch with the burning embers from the fireplace reflecting in his eyes.

Your abrupt appearance startles him a bit, but his face falls sullen when he sees that it’s you. Shoulders touching, you’ve missed the intimacy you two use to share. The blank snowman shaped cookie feels warm in your hand as you thrust it into Taeyong’s face. “For you.”

Taeyong scoffs, pushing your hand away lightly and looking away from the pitiful undecorated treat. “This feels like a trap.”

“No trap. Just a truce. Remember the time when I got upset at you for forgetting me in the parking lot and I told you the only way to fix it was to buy me food?” Your hand begins to drop, but Taeyong catches your wrist and takes the cookie from your possession. He gently places your hand back onto your lap.

“I know no other love language.” You explain the reasoning behind the old memory.

“Pretty sure food isn’t a love language.” Taeyong chuckles, like Christmas carols to your ears, he sounds like home.

“It’s not, but they all require me to be too emotionally vulnerable and you know how that makes me feel…” Your voice unintentionally trails off the end of your sentence. Does he still know how you feel?

Taeyong’s eyebrow raises subtly, catching your implication. “You’re still the same person you were three years ago?”

Three years, has it really been that long? You nod without needing to ponder the thought. There is a stark difference between change and growth. You are who you’ve always been, that is never going to change, but you’ve grown to be stronger and a little more independent.

“That’s not surprising.” Taeyong bites at his cookie, turning the figure in his hands as he stares off to reminisce about the past. He thinks about his pain. He thinks about his own self growth. “I’ve been thinking about you recently.”

The bold comment causes your chest to burn and your throat to grow a bit dry. Taeyong finally looks up at you, eyes dropping between your own and your lips. He doesn’t shy away from staring, taking in how much you’ve changed appearance wise since you two used to be friends. His eyelashes dance against his skin every time he blinked and the white strands of his hair fall around his crown like snowflakes.

“Why?”

“I learned how important it is to have friends around you. You never know when you’ll never see them again. The falling out we had should not have ruined the friendship we built for so long.” It’s difficult for Taeyong to continue with his feelings. It’s not a secret that he’s liked you since you two were close, probably half of the room is well aware of it. But there has never been a moment where he was out right too vulnerable to you, he was and is afraid of showing his feelings.

It’s an immediate body reaction when Taeyong leans in to you and you defensively back away. The confusion shows on your face very blatantly and his dreamy laugh rattles your bones. Taeyong’s hand softly caresses your cheek as his thumb brushes the tip of your nose. “You have some flour on your face.” This skin to skin leaves you speechless as his hot hand holds your cheek so delicately, making your heart race rapidly.

“Your Christmas sweater is ugly.” That’s all you can utter, out of pure panic too. Your eyes dip away and he retracts away from you, elbows on his knees as he leans forward and ducking momentarily to examine his choice of festive clothing.

He laughs, “it’s called an ugly Christmas sweater for a reason. It’s better than wearing a lame red sweater and calling it festive.” It’s surreal how quick things settle back into being the way that it used to be. As if the last three years of silence and constantly pretending the other didn’t exist disappeared. Taeyong is back, he’s yours again. And you hope that he’ll be by your side for longer than you had let him go.

“Red is not my color, I agree, but green is definitely not yours.” You joke back and Taeyong ruffles your hair, just like old times. The holiday spirit practically wraps its arms around you two. The holidays are really about being in each other’s warmth. In this very cold winter, you’re happy to have found an old flame that kept you from frostbite for many years.

“Y/N, we��re putting up the mistletoe.” An acquaintance interrupts you and Taeyong, quickly grabbing your arm to follow her. Your eyes dart between her and Taeyong. One thing you know no doubt about is that you aren’t leaving Taeyong alone again, so you take his hand without another second thought and drag him along with you.

You’re all ushered into the foyer and Mark is on a step ladder under the frame of his door. He notes Taeyong by your side and discreetly smiles to himself. He securely pins it to the wall and claps his hands together to gather everyone’s attention. “We’re going to blindfold two people and they’re going to have to kiss underneath the mistletoe.”

Your hands grow sweaty at the thought of such a risky game and immediately, you two let go of each other’s hands without realizing the clutching feeling of each other’s anxiousness. “I don’t think I’ll be chosen.” Taeyong mumbles to you as Mark and a few other people unravel the blindfolds. Nevertheless, he doesn’t sound very confident and you notice Taeyong’s shifty eyes.

“Right. Me either.” You shrug off, trying to hide slightly behind Taeyong’s stature. However, Taeyong instantly catches the uncertainty in your voice as well.

“Aren’t there four couples in the room?” Taeyong whispers over his shoulder at you.

Crossing your arms, you roll your eyes at his obvious thinking. “Yeah, but Mark isn’t going to choose a couple to kiss. How boring.”

Taeyong chuckles out of disbelief at your comment. “I’ll volunteer you if you want to really spice things up.”

And your eyes grow wide at his mischievous suggestion, pinching at his arm lightly. Underneath the fleece, Taeyong feels sturdy and strong. It’s only another reminder that you two aren’t kids anymore. “Lee Taeyong, do not. I don’t want to kiss anyone in this room.” That might’ve been a lie, even if you didn’t want to admit it to yourself that you are just a little curious how Taeyong might have matured.

“Everyone close your eyes.” Mark excitedly smiles and everyone obliges. You gulp the pooled saliva in your mouth, trying to manifest every possible hope that you aren’t chosen in this room of twenty people. Mark wouldn’t screw you over like that, would he? The more you pondered that thought, the more you believe that he totally would.

Then, you feel a hand on your arm and you’re being guided somewhere. A cloth covers your eyes and you’re quick to snarl, “Mark Lee, this is your only Christmas present. You get no more favors from me.” your cadence is only loud enough for him to hear and though you’re robbed of your sight, Mark’s boyish laughter says enough about his enlightened facial expression.

“This is what you get for trying to leave five minutes into my extravagant party I tried so hard to put on.” Mark sarcastically comments and pats your shoulders for a last indication of reassurance.

You hear footsteps in front of you and an uncanny presence of another in your close proximity. “Okay, everyone can open their eyes.” Mark cheers and it’s not like you can see much through the dark cloth that covers your eyes, but yours open anyways.

Gasps fill the room, slight hollering and cheering. The reactions cause an unsettling stir in your lower stomach. “Kiss!” and before you know it, the unknown person searches for your face and cups it gingerly. The feeling being very familiar to a scene before.

The both of you lean in and it’s difficult with the lack of sight, but people kiss with their eyes closed right? It’s not your first kiss, but also the sense deprivation is something different. When you tilt your head and go in for it, your noses bump together clumsily. You’re slightly embarrassed, your heart is leaping out of your chest from the sudden display of affection and you’re strangling Mark in your imagination.

“I’m sorry.” You whisper, but there isn’t a response back. Instead, your partner dives in without any trace of struggle. Their lips glide perfectly with yours and it’s almost like you’re kissing snow. Any form of awkwardness melts away; their hand on your cheek feels natural and comforting. Your heart yearns for this sense of security as the same warmth from the fireplace embodies your chest.

When you two pull away, the room bursts into a loud chaos of cheers. Before you can take off your blindfold, you can feel everyone running toward the both of you to give you excited pats on your head and arm.

“I can’t believe that just happened!” Your friend’s voice can be heard in your ear. As you lift off the cloth, you see him in the midst of the chaos. Through the heavy dog pile of overly joyous people, Lee Taeyong stands a few feet from you in his ugly Christmas sweater, messy frosty hair and a pink hue across his pale cheeks.

He looks over at you and shyly smiles. “Hopefully that spiced things enough for you. Happy Holidays, Y/N.” He can barely process everyone else's excitement, but he feels joyous for once. After a long cold bitter winter, he feels warm.

“Happy Holidays, you big goof. Good to have you back.” You push at his arm, laughing happily at the ridiculously wide smile he has on his face. You’re glad to see Taeyong smile again.

#neoculturechristmas #nct-writers #kpopscape #neowritingsnet #neothestars #nct scenarios #taeyong scenarios #nct scenario #taeyong #lee taeyong #nct imagines #nct fluff #lee taeyong scenarios

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silverkoushi · 4 years ago

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haikyuu!! headcanons

⇢ scenario: how you’d spend the holidays with them!! | read pt.2 here! ⇢ feat. : suga, hinata, & kageyama (karasuno) x gn!reader ⇢ wc & warnings: 1.7k, none ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ this is me trying to psych myself up for the holidays aha... thinkin of doing more if i get the inspo and make it in time ><

sugawara koushi ୨୧ ˻˳˯ₑ*॰¨̮ the holiday spirit with him is unsurprisingly soft and domestic!! he’s the kind of guy that loves to uphold traditional celebrations like the holidays, your birthdays, new years— things like that because it’s important for him to create memories that you can look back on many years later. you bet the holiday decorations will be up mid-november, so once you see him struggling to hang multi-colored lights along the exterior of your house, you have no choice but to laugh at him at first but eventually help him out!! his cheerfulness and child-like excitement nearing the holidays becomes contagious so the two of you start matching everything: penguin sweaters, (ugly but comfortable) red/green pajamas, mugs that have those cringey couple labels on them— basically, you name it, you and suga have two versions of it to wear/use!! suga would be in an extra-baking mood, too!!

if there’s a holiday party (probably at the school he’s teaching at) that you would be attending with him, suga will volunteer to be in charge of baked goodies! sugar cookies, brownies, donuts with cinnamon sugar, maybe even a raspberry choco cake roll?? the possibilities are endless with your pastry chef of a man, and ofc you make it your duty to help him out in the kitchen!! baking til 2 or 3am, sometimes just goofing off with the flour, cookie dough on the tips of your noses, and suga stealing a kiss (or a lick) here and there. all the while your favorite holiday playlist hums in the background of your colorfully lit home, pictures of the two of you hanging around a tree, santa hats bouncing up and down atop your heads the way you dance everywhere, his arms snug around your waist. while you wait for the last batch of cookies in the oven, suga has already prepared his original hot cocoa for the two of you, making sure he adds extra mini marshmallows in your elf mug tonight— you sit by the couch overlooking the decorated frenzy of your surroundings. and you know you made the right choice spending it with him. :) when the actual party happens, o god the kids love you!! calls you his partner for lifey!! sth cute like that and u don’t know if suga taught them that or they just made it up lol either way, you’re so very excited to see how the love of ur life interacts with his students as, you guessed it, he’s so so good with them!! they run up to him, bouncing up and down just to get a bite of his baked goodies and while he’s handing them out, he also gives them a handwritten card. for each n every one of them!! when did he do that?? you question to yourself, but when he seesn you giving him an incredulous look, he just sheepishly smiles and says, “when you fell asleep on the couch last night, i wrote them last minute.” o,, that’s why when you woke up, u don’t even remember lying down in the bed but you surmise suga had carried you all the way there too :’)

they sing a lot of holiday songs, play those party games like trip to jerusalem or once the music stops, you have to stop dancing or you’re out type of game and just overall lots of fun filled moments and you feel thankful for witnessing such a pure, innocent sight right around the holidays!! ofc once it’s all done and he bids them goodbye with a hug, a hi five or a pat on the head, suga doesn’t forget about you and puts up a mini mistletoe by the door when everyone had left. he has that teasing smirk on his face and you’d do more than just kiss him bec of it but uh, you’re still in the classroom so you give in with a chaste yet sweet kiss on his lips. he returns it a little deeper, but you push his chest off playfully, and boop! him on the nose. “later, sir,” you reprimand lightly, yet cheeks blushing at your interaction with him in his workplace. he shows that toothy grin, and intertwines ur fingers together as u walk to your car and finally spend more time together again <333 his most favorite part of this season!!

hinata shouyo ୨୧ ˻˳˯ₑ*॰¨̮ be prepared for a very hyper and energetic holiday week with this guy!! imagine you two are still in college, he has a break from playing professional volleyball to spend these times with his family. and he chooses to spend most of those days with you!! he is actually very excited to bring you home to meet his mom and (not-so) little sister, and it’s very nerve-wracking knowing that it’s an important holiday for them to be together as a family— and then you’re just gonna crash it like that??? BUT sho doesn’t see it that way! he already sees you as a person he’ll definitely experience even more holidays the next year, and the one after that, but in order to ease up the anxiety that has been building up in your system, he tells you of his extravagant plans for the two of you before going back to his parents’ house!! think amusement parks in the winter, ice skating in frozen lakes, walking on boardwalks with two styrofoam cups of hot choco for him, and a peppermint mocha for you!!

o, and if there’s some downtime with your adventure, he’ll drag you outside where the snow is ankle deep, tells you to take a picture of him in the cold, earmuffs hugging the sides of his temple so warmly that you find so adorable. you’re about to pull your phone out until you feel cold, wet, melting ice smacked onto your cheek!! “SHO, WHAT THE HECK—” you don’t even have time to protest because WHACK, one more snowball, but he missed and it got to your jacket this time. luckily, your phone was still okay but your boyfriend definitely won’t be once you find him as he had started running, your voice calling out to his name in the breezy wind. so that whole afternoon, you were seen having a ridiculous snowball fight around campus (you guys stayed in the dorms until you were ready to leave), laughing when you threw one directly at his open, cackling mouth. shouyo started choking on the snowball, but you were still wiping tears from your eyes at the hilarity of the situation. “STOTPF IM LITERALYLYL DYUINGGG” “don’t be ridiculous” “JDFSKFDJH” and that’s when you actually run towards him, patting his back rather forcefully because oh god what if you did make him choke and his family won’t have a son coming home this time around?!

while you worry in your head, shouyo had already tackled you to the ground, snow engulfing your bodies together. “let’s take a picture here, this is the perfect spot!” he’d chuckle, peppering you with winter kisses, sending shivers down your arms not just because they were cold but also wow, you’re so lucky to be with a guy like him during this season. suddenly, you anticipate meeting his family :)

kageyama tobio

୨୧ ˻˳˯ₑ*॰¨̮ you know what you’re very excited for that kags isn’t? his birthday falls on the week of christmas, and any other normal person would just think, “ah, i can just combine his gifts into one!” but for you that’s a big no-no. and kageyama knows it, and he’s flustered and shy because everyone in his life up until the point he’s met you had always just given him a 1 for 2 type of gift. not that he minded, that’s all he’s ever known in his life so when you promised him a big birthday bash and a special holiday gift, he’s scared for what’s to come,,, although, you know he’s not big on surprises or bigger gatherings, but you wanted to see his reaction as to how you planned it all out! in reality, you just wanted to spend precious time with your bf on his bday and an early christmas before he leaves to go visit his family :(

after tiring hours of vball practice and finals (he’s gotten better at studying, don’t underestimate this guy!) he sleeps in on the day of his birthday, not even realizing the night prior he’s turning a year older that day!! you creep up to his dorm with the spare key he has given you, place the milk and berries cake you ordered yesterday on his desk, and surreptitiously clasp the paper birthday hat on his sleeping head. the guy doesn’t even stir!! stifling your laughter, you pull out your phone and snap a picture of him and you together, your lips puckering to kiss his cheek and— you forgot to turn your phone into silent mode! apparently the click was loud enough for his eyes to flutter open, and when he realizes you’re next to him he feels a sense of relief, but at the same time the rubber around his face became bothersome… only when you start singing happy birthday did it dawn on him… and he can’t get mad, it’s you, how can he??

you eat a piece of the milk n berries creme cake on his bed, talking about the day you’re gonna spend with him.. and you ask what he wants to do bec it’s his special day!! this gets him blushing since he thought you had this elaborate party with lots of people come, and now he feels guilty and grateful as to how thoughtful you’re being for him… he asks if he can sneak in a practice session for vball for at least an hour and you agree, guessing that would’ve come up sooner or later. anyway, aside from that his birthday was spent strolling around the town center near campus, snow underneath your boots and snowflakes showering your hair,,, he places his beanie on yours so it doesn’t get messed up and you thank him with a nose kiss… rudolph, is that you??

you take him to shops so you can buy matching sweaters <3 and he OBLIGES, seeing the gleeful expression in your eyes and smile, how can he resist the beauty radiating off you today? this is the best birthday gift he can ask for. you end the day by grabbing some milk tea, spending the rest of the night getting cozy under blankets, and watching cheesy romcoms to which kags just shields his eyes away… the embarrassment!! >< you end up sleeping in his arms, the ending credits with christmas music playing in the background. the next day, you both wear your holiday outfits (he has polar bear and yours is a panda!!) and take lots of pictures bec you know you’ll miss him when he goes back home :(( he immediately makes one of the selfies u took as his lockscreen: the two of you squish yourselves in between the snowman you both created. your face is lit up with utmost happiness, and kags is just looking at you with a loving grin to his smile as well. :)

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ladyideal · 4 years ago

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Ficmas~ Day 18

Pairing: Eomer x Gender Neutral!Reader

Word Count: 1042

Warnings: religious tone, mention of Canon violence.

Summary: You, Eomer, Eowyn, and Faramir come together to celebrate (C)hanuk(k)ah.

Requested By: @groovyfluxie

A/N: I hope I did this justice. But if anyone wants to correct me on anything, please throw me a message and I'll fix it.

"Say it slowly again, my love."

You giggled. Teaching Hebrew words to Eomer was becoming a challenge. Sometimes he'd get close, but most of the time his pronunciation was nowhere close. Yet it warmed your heart that the prince would try to learn your religion.

For that, you were grateful.

"Tznuit," You tried once more, fighting the grin off your face as you tried not to laugh out loud. The sun had set over the horizon, and Eomer headed inside after a day of training his men.

He shook his head. "Elvish seems nothing compared to that beautiful language. Forgive me my love, but I'll keep on learning. I am nowhere near modest though."

"Will Eowyn join us?"

"Unfortunately not, Faramir and her have been joined at the hip ever since they've been wed," He shook his head. "She sent gifts in advance for tonight."

You brightened up at the thought. Eowyn always sent thoughtful gifts from jams to tunics. "I'll thank her on the next package over to Gondor."

Of course, it'd been a little more than a year since the Battle of the Pelennor Fields that made your husband King of Rohan. King Theoden passed on the fields, and without an heir, the crown changed to your then fiancé. Within a year, he was crowned King, you married him, and ruled by his side.

Eowyn also married Faramir, the last of the family that stood as the Steward of Gondor. The dead were mourned, the injured were treated, and lives were slowly rebuilt back to its former glory.

Suddenly, a Rohirrim rushed into the hall, breathless as he slid in front of Eomer and you, and bowed. "My Lord, Lady Eowyn and Captain of Gondor have arrived."

Sharing a giddy grin, you bounded out and met Eowyn with a bear hug. "Eowyn!"

"Y/N! Chag urim sameach!" (Happy Festival of Lights.)

You squealed in delight. "You actually learned how to say it! But I thought you weren't coming. Eomer said-."

"Eomer?" She laughed, letting you go and shaking her head. "No, no. Brother wanted it to be a surprise. I wanted to let the gifts arrive early or I would forget to bring them along the trip. I thought it would be nice to learn a little Hebrew, even Faramir knows."

“Hanukkah sameach!” Your brother in law greeted. (Happy Hanukkah.)

Both Eomer and Faramir nodded at one another, hugging each other with a one armed hug.

"We're not late are we?" She peered back at you with a frown. "I told Faramir here to leave earlier."

"No, no," You stepped back to Eomer's side. "Was just about to start actually, so you came just in time."

"Let us change out of our travel cloaks and we'll join you."

Placing the last candle onto the menorah, you took a deep breath.

"Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tsivanu l’hadlik ner shel Hanukkah," You started.

(Praised are You,

Our God, Ruler of the universe, Who made us holy through Your commandments and commanded us to kindle the Hanukkah lights.)

"Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, she-asah nisim la’avoteinu bayamim hahem bazman hazeh."

(Praised are You,

Our God, Ruler of the universe, Who performed wondrous deeds for our ancestors in those ancient days at this season.)

With the shammash in one hand, you lit the last remaining unlit candle. Watching as the candle lit up, you smiled as you replaced the ninth one and turned to your small, but happy family.

"I'm starving, anyone ready for dinner?" You grinned, thankful that everyone you loved was alive and well. King Theoden's death was a hard hit on Eomer and Eowyn, and you understood their grief.

It took a moment for them to shake out of their own stupor. Faramir lost his older brother Boromir to the orcs, and his father on the eve of the battle. Much like your husband, your now sister in law had her own fair share of grief in pain.

But still thankful for the men that died serving for King, country, and Middle Earth.

"Before I forget, I brought your favorite jelly donuts too." Eowyn spoke, smirking as your eyes widened.

"You made sufganiyot?! You're the best Eowyn."

"I know I am," She laughed.

Soon, plates upon plates of latkes, a large pot of brisket stew, and a few dishes of savory kugel were placed on the table. Already you had sneaked in a jelly donut and nearly moaned out loud on how good it tasted. If it wasn't for your husband to literally toll you away from the dessert, you wouldn't have enough room for dinner.

The challah and pretzels were freshly baked. Even gelfite fish and tzimmes made a show this year, courtesy of Eowyn again.

"Thank you for coming," You spoke gratefully. "Edoras can be painfully silent without you. When your brother gets busy during the day, I have learned to find a hobby of my own or go out for some gardening."

"Oh don't I know it, Y/N," She teased back, helping herself to another portion of the potato latkes. "Eomer won't ever admit it, but-."

"Eowyn," Your husband cut in, a warning tone present in his voice.

"Oh come on, tell me. If he's already trying to stop you from telling a secret, I would love to know." You grinned, scooching your chair closer to hers.

"Only if I win the dreidel this year. I don't kiss and tell," She grinned wickedly.

"You're lucky I managed to make some gelts this year, nearly burned down the kitchen when the cooks messed up the first batch," You paused. "You're on."

"I have a little dreidel. I made it out of clay.

And when it's dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play.

Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay.

Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, then dreidel I shall play."

As Eowyn sang the dreidel song, you leaned on Eomer's shoulder with a content smile. It had been a busy day filled with cooking and baking, but everything was all worth it to have the Great Hall filled with warmth and laughter.

"Y/N?"

"Hm?" You answered.

"An L’Dodi V’Dodi Li. Chag Sameach, Y/N.” (I Am My Beloved’s And My Beloved Is Mine. Happy holidays.)

Eats Everything: @asraime @aspiring-ginger @bluesclues-1234 @mournthewicked @keijibum @ladylizzieofdarbyshire @also-fangirlinsweden @fandom-imagination-ss @mysoulshideaway @mayday1284 @sayanythingcreations @lykxzandlove @supergeekfangirl @your-sparklywinnercollection

Tolkien: @im-a-muggleborn @fxngsfogxarty

Urban: @fandomsfeelsandfamily @justa-traaash @yueci

#eomer x reader #eomer #eomer fanfiction #x reader #x gender neutral reader #gender neutral reader #gender neutral #hanukah #hanukkah #chanukah #lotr reader insert #lord of the rings #31 days of ficmas #ficmas2020 #deb writes

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viostormcaller · 4 years ago

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Thinking about it, it kinda sucks just how little new horizons has.

Like... I love the game to pieces and maybe this is just bc im in a shitty mood (which i am) but like... god this is gonna be long and ranty and I'm sorry in advance that mobile tumblr doesnt have the read more feature

For starters, holidays are all scheduled on the company's terms, meaning in 7+ years or so there will be no more in-game holidays because by then they'll probably be thinking about/getting ready to release the next installment of the series on whatever console is out at the time and they won't want to update new horizons anymore. And adding onto this, you need the internet to download the updates. What happens to the players who don't have internet?? Can they just never experience the holidays like bunny day and toy day and turkey day? That takes a HUGE part of the fun of the series out right off the bat. Sometimes making everything rely on the internet is a bad idea. Idk if anyone can like tell me if having no internet means you can't take part in the holidays, but like... god if that's true thats really sad.

They recently took out the hybrid flower and big fish islands, which makes no sense whatsoever why they would do that to a game that has so little, but ok?? It's not like that feature was hindering the gameplay any

There's a lot of furniture but Not a Lot of Furniture, you get me? They took out EVERY set except the classic set (renamed "antique") that you can buy for an insanely high price, and the log and wooden block sets that you can craft, but other that that it's all unrelated items that aren't part of any set, aside from the cute set and diner and throwback sets which as far as I can remember are the only other sets you can buy in the game. No alpine, no ranch, no minimalist, no princess or gracie, no modern or sleek, none of that. And 90% of all the buy-only furniture in the game is just the color variants. You can't even customize them! And it's hard as fuck to find the color variants you want, much less for completing a furniture set

And speaking of which, your starting villagers don't get their default house interiors. Your first three + your two starters from the tutorial days have the same generic layouts. You NEVER see what their houses are supposed to look like, and even if you give them the wallpaper and flooring they're supposed to have (if you figure that out online somewhere), their house doesn't change (I tested this with Sherb and was kinda disappointed).

And stuff is so EXPENSIVE. I know it adds a challenge but my final loan was NEVER 1 mil+ bells in New Leaf. And you can't even expand the extra first floor rooms you get. I'm literally getting less for WAY more. The biggest rooms you get are the basement and upstairs rooms. The first floor rooms aside from the main room really don't have a lot of space and with the different furniture they DO offer, I don't have a lot of room to put things in. But it's not like I can even afford it anyway -- just a freaking air conditioner was 63,000 bells. In New Leaf it was 2500. That's a MASSIVE jump. And the kitchen items are so freaking expensive, as well.

And speaking of houses, for someone who was literally in the real estate industry in the last game, tom nook adds very few house exterior options. And the even more shitty thing is that a lot of the colors straight up don't match. They couldn't even add a plain white roof.

God and the fucking DIY recipes. I know I've said this before on my other tumblr but the RNG for this game is the worst I've ever fucking seen. There is no reason why, two months into the game, I can be given a recipe for a simple DIY bench, which EVERYONE LEARNS IN THE TUTORIAL. Who the fuck am I giving it to?! No one, because literally every player knows it already, and you can't gift diy recipes to villagers! And I keep getting repeats of recipes. My villagers give me fruit DIYs all the time, it's so rare for me to get any new ones. And two days in a row I've gotten the recipe for the deer head mount thing from the same villager. New recipes should 100% take the priority before repeats. This game is slow paced, sure, but that's just frustrating. It doesn't make me excited to learn more recipes, it makes me feel like I'm never gonna learn any new ones because I'll get the same fruit DIYs for a week straight.

And speaking of which, you can't put trees, bushes, or flowers in your storage, which to me makes literally no sense. I can fit a giant ass fountain in my storage but I can't put a flower plant? Really? And speaking of storage, for a game that added 300 whole slots for mail instead of the usual 10, I will never understand why they decided to halve the amount of items a player can order a day from the nook shopping, AND make it so that it takes a whole day to get there instead of making deliveries at 9 am and 5 pm like in New Leaf.

And the fact that they made it so hard to get non native fruit and flowers and shit??? Like they at LEAST added Lief so flowers aren't as much of an issue anymore, but you actually have to travel to other people's islands just to get all the fruits?? I know you have to do the same thing in New Leaf but the reason why this is an issue for me is because you have to pay for online access, meaning most of those nook miles for planting all the fruits are locked behind a paywall unless your villagers can gift them to you. And your mom, when you first start the game, has a chance of giving you the one fruit that's on the non-native fruit mystery island, meaning you'll only get ONE new fruit and not two separate ones (for example, my sis got pears from mom but her non native fruit islands have cherries i believe. I got pears from mom and my fruit islands also have pears. Doesnt help that that's the one fruit i hate lmao). They also took OUT a bunch of fruits, like mangoes, durians, lemons, bananas, lychees, persimmons...

And the fact that your nook miles rewards are ISLAND LOCKED. That is the WORST SHIT. Not everyone has the ability to play with others, bc no internet or no money for the subscription every month. Not everyone WANTS to play with others bc maybe they get social anxiety (like me, which is why i havent asked for things that are impossible for me to get even though i want them for my island or house), or maybe they simply just don't want to. But the fact that each island has their own color variants of the same goddamn rewards that CANNOT BE CHANGED makes me so upset. I do not want nor should I have to rely on others to get the items I want because my game doesn't have my preferred color variations. And it's not like I'm far enough in the game to have anything worth trading for said items, nor do I have the bells.

And Isabelle does next to fucking nothing and I'm really irked about how they made her character in this game. Yeah she's cute, but that's ALL she is. She became more ditzy than anything else. She doesn't let you know about visitors in the town or the plaza or if a bridge or incline was built bc of a completed donation goal. Like really useful info to know would be if Flick or CJ is in town or who is selling stuff in the plaza. Flavor text is nice but if that's all you say 24/7 it loses its charm. In New Leaf she was helpful and hardworking and super focused and on top of things. Idk why they changed that aspect of her. I know her role in New Horizons isn't as big as it was in New Leaf, but still.

And then there's glitches that STILL haven't been patched (as far as I know anyway), like the game-breaking villager corruption glitch (which you'd think nintendo would have made a priority but they're too busy removing other features it seems) or the house exterior glitch.

And it's bad enough that your game saves to your fucking system a la Fantasy Life. But even WORSE, no one can have separate islands on one console. It's not enough to own two copies of New Horizons. Each player has to own one copy of the game and a whole new Switch just so they can play on their own islands. Parents can't usually afford that (aka $360 for each kid give or take) so for a game marketed towards kids, I don't know why they thought that was a smart move (well, I DO know, and that's because money, but still). And to top it all off, cloud saves are not supported normally. If you lose your game or your switch and aren't subscribed to nintendo online, well, it looks like all your progress is gone! And there's nothing you can do about it. And they directly claimed that they did this just so people can't manipulate the game because it's supposed to be played in real time. But people can still fucking time travel by setting the system's clock! They achieved nothing except to make the players frustrated!!! If you make a game you need to accept that the player is going to play how THEY want to. You shouldn't try to make everyone conform to the way YOU want them to play. That just makes you a controlling asshole and the game loses a lot of its fun.

This game was 60 bucks and they took so long to make it and we ended up with less than we got in New Leaf. The main thing they gave us was a shit ton more clothing items (which I really like). Like I said, I love this game to pieces and it's actually one of my favorite games right now. There's so much I love about it -- I certainly don't hate it or anything. But this game has SO MANY flaws, a lot of which are needless. And I think the kid in me just misses the days where you can pay for a game and get the whole game right away. No updates in tiny batches, no content locked behind paywalls, no day one patches, no reliance on internet connection and multiplayer... mainstream companies have all gone really downhill with that shit and it just disappoints me to no end. But because Nintendo is kid-oriented, I think that's where it hurts the most. It was supposed to be accessible, family friendly fun like back during the days of the Wii and the DS. But companies get so wrapped up in competing with each other and trying to make the most money that they forget about all that. I dunno. It just sucks.

If you read all this, god damn I'm surprised XD I got super ranty and I apologize. But I'm in a sad mood and I after learning about features they've taken out I just had to get all this off my chest. It's been weighing on me since the game released, especially since for months prior this game was all I could think about and I was really looking forward to it. It just let me down in a lot of ways, I guess.

#long post #rant #animal crossing new horizons #acnh #vio stormcaller

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lavenderlattaes · 5 years ago

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smitten. | min yoongi

⇒ summary: Min Yoongi had been your best friend for as long as you can remember, and he loves spoiling you rotten. Yoongi loves you more than he probably loves his Audi but you’re not so sure about that, yet. Until your friends start pointing it out to the two of you.

⇒ [college! au, rich kid! au, friends to lovers! au]

⇒ pairing: min yoongi x reader

⇒ word count: 12.9k words

⇒ genre: tooth-aching fluff, I suppose and,,, would u consider this slowburn

⇒ warnings: curse words, 12k words of word vomit lmao, and it’s too sweet for diabetic peeps sksk

⇒ note: hello, tumblr. It’s been a while, lmao. This fic wasn’t supposed to be this long, it was supposed to be a drabble idk what happened. ignore mistakes bc im a bit of a blind bat and enjoy! ＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

You push the car door open, and your beaten-up white Converse hits the gravel as you get out of the car. You close the car door shut behind you, slinging your backpack on your shoulders as you squint up at the massive school buildings standing gloriously underneath the early summer sun. You hear the trunk open and the sound of suitcases hitting the ground snaps you from your daze. You turn around and see your best friend Yoongi unloading your suitcases.

“Oh, sorry!” You apologize, running over to him as you help him unload your suitcases. Yoongi takes his largest suitcase out last, slamming the trunk of his Audi shut, wiping the sweat trickling down his forehead with his forearm. You sigh and pull out your hanky from your pocket as you cup his cheek and wipe the sweat.

“You know that there’s things called towels and handkerchiefs, right? You should know that, you can probably buy an entire department store of it,” you tell him as you finish wiping his face and proceed to fixing his hair.

Yoongi just chuckles as he stuffs his hands in his pockets. You just smile as you finish fixing his hair. If it were some other person, Yoongi wouldn’t have let them touch his hair, but you were Y/L/N Y/N, his best friend, and he loves you a whole fucking lot.

Yoongi takes two of his suitcases in his right hand and holds your hand in his left. You take your suitcases in your left too, and he leads you to the main building where you’ll be getting your dorm keys.

“Are you nervous?” Yoongi leans toward you slightly, noticing your clammy hand as you approach the building and pass by a lot of students. Your shyness tends to resurface in the presence of a lot of people and you were thankful that your best friend was calm, collected, and cool to help you get through it all, ever since you were in high school.

Just as you reach the steps, you hear the familiar loud voices of your other three friends behind you.

“I’m telling you, Hobi, she was looking at ME! I mean, who wouldn’t? I’m obviously the ten out of the three of us here, you and Joon are eights,” the windshield wiper laugh of Kim Seokjin soon follows after his statement, and you and Yoongi turn around to see your friends, Jung Hoseok, Kim Seokjin, and his cousin Kim Namjoon, carrying their own things. Hoseok and Seokjin were both in a very intense conversation about a girl who, according to Seokjin, had the hots for him, despite Hoseok insisting that she was only looking at him because of the amount of pink in his arms. Namjoon, who was shaking his head at his cousin and his other slightly naïve friend, spots you and Yoongi first.

“Hey, Y/N and Yoongi are already here!” He slaps the broad-shouldered guy besides him, who stops talking Hoseok’s ear off before he quickens his pace to greet the two of you. Seokjin and Hoseok follow right behind him. Yoongi lets go of your hand so he can do their handshake, and the boys give you hugs.

“I didn’t think we’d all arrive at around the same time, Seokjin was taking forever,” Hoseok brings up and the boy beside him whips his head to cry out a complaint.

“YAH! I forgot to bring RJ, he was relaxing on my bed and didn’t call out to me, I was starting to think he really didn’t want to come with,” Seokjin hoists the huge, alpaca stuffed toy up higher.

Yoongi rolls his eyes at them. “Whatever. Let’s just go inside and get our keys and room assignments.” The boys nod and Yoongi takes your hand again, leading the way inside.

You twist the doorknob, and take a peek inside the plain, white room that will ultimately be your new home for the next four years. You step inside fully, pulling your suitcase along behind you. You bring it over to the side and Yoongi follows right behind you, carrying a few of your other things.

“I don’t understand why you didn’t get a roommate, won’t you be scared of sleeping in a room alone?” Yoongi speaks up, his eyes roaming around the room. You sit down on the bed opposite the one you’ve chosen to sleep on as Yoongi closes the door behind him. Your friends were all busy unpacking and while you told Yoongi to do the same too, he insisted on accompanying you to your room, saying he “wanted to make sure my best friend felt comfy in her new room”.

You laugh. “Yoongi, I sleep alone at home, remember?” You pull your legs up, folding them underneath you. Yoongi gives you a look. “You know what I mean. College life is stressful and scary, Y/N. Are you ready to face all of that alone?” Yoongi stresses out, making you snort.

“I’m having my classes in lecture halls, Yoongi. Not my dorm room. Besides, Joon and I share most of the same classes together, so I’m not completely alone. Plus, you talk as if I won’t see you and the others everyday.” You point out, and Yoongi nods and shrugs, getting your point.

He stands up and walks over to sit beside you. You twist your body to look at him and he looks at you, sighing, as he pulls your head in close, pressing a soft kiss to your forehead. You smile softly at his gentle action, reaching forward to wrap your arms around his waist.

“Promise me you won’t die before the end of the first semester,” Yoongi whispers and you laugh, punching his stomach lightly. “Tell that to yourself, Min.”

Yoongi starts playing some of his songs while he helps you unpack. You talk occasionally but focus on getting the work done first so you can hang out with the other boys.

Min Yoongi had been your best friend from pretty much the moment you were conceived. Your parents – both moms and dads – were college buddies. They were the literal definition of friendship goals. Yoongi was a year older than you, but ever since you were both born, your parents always made the two of you bond together. Yoongi’s older brother hung out with your older brother, but they weren’t as close as you and Yoongi. When you were born, of course Yoongi’s family came to visit you and your mom at the hospital. Yoongi was barely two years old, but the moment his eyes fell on you, he fell in love. You were adorable and Yoongi already wanted someone to protect at such a young age. Yoongi was smitten for you the moment you were born. So, when you were a few months older, your parents organized play dates for the two of you already. Most of the time, you hung out at Yoongi’s place. His house was larger than yours by about two floors, so you had more playing space.

Yoongi was absolutely smitten for you – whatever it was that you wanted, for as long as you both could remember, Yoongi would hand it to you on a silver platter. You remember when you were both around six years old - you wanted to have his stuffed toy poodle, and even though it was Yoongi’s favorite stuffed toy, he didn’t hesitate to give it to you. No matter though, because years later, Yoongi bought an actual toy poodle that he named Holly.

Growing up, you were the loud, outgoing one, while Yoongi was on the quieter side. It wasn’t until high school when you became good friends with Hoseok, Seokjin, and his cousin Namjoon that Yoongi started breaking out of his shell. Hoseok and Seokjin were especially loud and they always made Yoongi laugh. Namjoon was loud too, but because the boy had a thing for destroying things in his path, he chose to be quieter so he wouldn’t attract too much attention from being so loud and breaking everything along the way. It was also in high school when you started to get shy – you were faced with the reality that you were a teenager already and that soon enough, you’d have to face the world without Yoongi by your side. Everything was starting to overwhelm you, so you turned to writing pieces of literary work. You thought back then that you’d end up alone, but you found yourself hitting it off really well with Namjoon, comparing famous literary works, writing your own pieces, and asking for constructive criticism from one another.

Your fun, lovable group of five stayed together all of high school, and now up until college. You were all so excited and happy to get accepted into the same art university, a three hour drive away from home. You’re taking up creative writing with Namjoon, Hoseok will take up dance, Seokjin with theatre, and Yoongi with music, majoring in piano.

In the middle of a Halsey song, Yoongi breaks your line of thought (which was just you singing along to Roman Holiday, anyway).

“Hey, do you wanna go get some food with the guys? They’re downstairs.” You fix your ponytail and nod, smiling.

“Sure, I’m starving anyway.” Yoongi ruffles your head and grabs his stuff while you do the same.

“Come on, it’s my treat.” Yoongi opens your door and lets you go out first.

“It’s always your treat, Yoongi. When was it not?” Yoongi laughs at that. “True.”

“Make sure to turn them in before the end of next week, okay? I’ll be expecting a lot from you all; you seem like such a promising batch of writers,” Professor Bang says, making you and the rest of the class respond with “yes” and “okay”, just before you stand up to leave.

“Have you thought about what to write for your essay, Y/N?” Namjoon asks you as you both make your way outside the lecture hall along with the other students.

You purse your lips in thought. Professor Bang wanted to start off the semester by making you write about anything that you were comfortable with. He wanted you to show him the things that you were concerned about, the things that were close to you, and you wanted to make sure you left a lasting impression in his class. Professor Bang was someone you could see yourself remembering for a long time, even if the seasons have changed and the days have gone by. He knew how to teach, not because he was smart, but because he was inspired, because he loves what he’s doing, and he wants to share that with students like you and Namjoon. He was a jolly person, but he also wanted to push you to your limits, something you’ve noticed during the hour and a half class with him that morning.

“Hm, I don’t really know yet. Maybe something about transitioning from being a teenager to an adult, the ups and downs that come along with it, the rush of it all. How about you?” You look up at the tall guy beside you, and he pushes his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose.

“I want to write something about self-love, about what it means to love yourself, despite your flaws and imperfections.” You smile; Namjoon has always been the smartest in your group, always contemplating about things. He had a habit of thinking things through properly, instead of making rash or impulsive decisions.

“Professor Bang makes me want to wear my heart on my sleeve and I don’t know why. He’s that kind of teacher that you want to impress and show all your best sides to, but at the same time, you want to show him all your worst points too, because you know he won’t hold it against you or judge you for it,” Namjoon says your thoughts out loud, making you nod in agreement.

“I really want to do well in his class, I’ve already taken a liking to him,” You reply and suddenly, an arm slings around your shoulder. The familiar smell of his cologne wafts through your nose and you smile, turning to the boy standing beside you.

“Taken a liking to who?” Yoongi asks, raising his free hand up to Namjoon as a greeting. The taller boy raises his eyebrows smiling.

“Professor Bang. He’s like, our favorite teacher now.” You explain and Yoongi lets out an ‘aah’.

“Are you up for some lunch right now? Seokjin and Hobi are at this cool diner ten minutes away from here,” Yoongi asks the two of you and Namjoon shrugs.

“Sure, why not?”

When you get to the diner, Seokjin and Hoseok are in another intense conversation again. “I’m telling you, Hobi! She was looking at my broad shoulders!” Seokjin explains dramatically, Hoseok’s eyes were wide as saucers as he sipped on his Sprite, listening to Seokjin. Seokjin leans back in his seat and says casually, “She might even be looking for ways to get my number right now.”

Walking up to them, Yoongi places a hand on Seokjin’s shoulder and says, “She was probably staring at the alpacas resting on both shoulders as if they were your devil and angel.” Yoongi pats the alpaca heads sewn on Seokjin’s shoulders. Seokjin had a weird obsession for alpacas, it was insane.

“Why is it that all of you refuse to believe someone’s actually into me? Why do you all keep on insisting that it’s because of my fashion taste? Tsh,” Seokjin complains, scooting over so you can sit next to him. He pats your head and you bump his shoulder in response. Yoongi sits beside Hobi in front of you, and Joon takes the seat at the end of the table.

You give the exasperated man beside you a side hug as he picks up a chicken wing, groaning under his breath. “That’s okay, Seokjinnie. It’s just because they’ve never seen you actually charm the pants off someone,” You try to console him as he pouts while deboning his chicken.

“Oh, don’t boost his ego any further, Y/N,” Yoongi teases, making Hobi and Joon laugh. You pout and give him a look. “I’m not! You guys just don’t appreciate his visuals, right?” You coo and turn to look at Seokjin who finishes his chicken and puts it down, nodding furiously.

“Ah, come here, Y/N!” Seokjin pulls you in, his greasy fingers reaching out for you as you lean back, laughing. He glares at you but still pulls you in, careful to not stain your baby pink blouse. “I only care about Y/N in this friendship now, she’s the only one that can understand me. Look, she’s even wearing my favorite color!” Seokjin’s windshield wiper laugh starts up.

Namjoon throws his head back, Hobi slams his hands on the table, and Yoongi’s shoulders shake as they laugh at their eldest friend’s antics. “Yes, now give me some love and feed me,” You reply, opening your mouth for Seokjin to feed you. The boy stops laughing, a serious look on his face replacing his huge grin earlier.

“Look, Y/N. I know I said I care about you, but this is MY chicken,” Seokjin explains seriously. You pout at that and Yoongi, your ever-loving best friend swoops in.

“Stop asking for food from him! He only cares about RJ, come on, I’ll get you food,” Yoongi stands up and you follow suit.

“Oh come on, why do you always treat Y/N out for food? What about us?” Your friends protest and Yoongi squints his eyes at them. “This is my best friend we’re talking about here,” he says matter-of-factly. “Then what are WE? Are we just trees to you now?” Hoseok whines and Namjoon snorts at that.

“You’re my friends, duh?” Yoongi shrugs and you laugh. “Come on, Y/N. You want some milkshake too?” Yoongi turns around.

Namjoon lets out an obvious cough. “Whipped,” he mutters and Hoseok and Seokjin laugh. Yoongi turns back around. “What was that?” he asks, and the boys shake their heads at him.

“Nothing,” Namjoon says casually. Yoongi shrugs, turns back around and pulls you with him to the counter.

Yoongi: something’s up with you. Meet me in the parking lot, we’re going somewhere

You sigh when you read Yoongi’s text. You text back a simple ‘okay, be there in a bit’, before making your way to the other side of the school. Even though you knew Yoongi your whole life, it still amazes you how much he can sense when something is wrong. You haven’t texted him yet about how terrible your day went, and here he is, sending the first text. You look up and think back to the events that happened an hour prior.

It’s the week after the deadline of your essay for Professor Bang’s class and during class that day, he returned your essays, red writings scribbled onto your notebooks. On top of yours, in a slightly messy handwriting were the words, “good job, y/n, see me after class please”. You smiled gently at that but then saw the long note he wrote on Namjoon’s. You were starting to doubt your work, so when class ended, you hastily made your way to the front of the room.

Professor Bang was fixing his things and you waited for the last student to walk out, giving Namjoon a close-lipped smile to let him know he should go ahead. He nods and you turn back around to face Professor Bang.

“Y/N, please sit down, kid,” Professor Bang tells you when he looks up, and you nod, grabbing a chair in the front row and bringing it closer to Professor Bang’s table. You gulp. Professor Bang was a short man, slightly on the chubbier side and had small eyes that disappeared whenever he smiled. He was absolutely adorable, but right now, you were starting to doubt that.

“Why did you call me over, Professor?” You ask timidly. Professor Bang scrunches his face up, removing his glasses as he sits comfortably. “It’s about your essay, Y/N.” He answers and you sit up straighter. “Um, what about it, Sir?”

“Do you remember what I told you when I gave you this assignment?” Professor Bang asks and you pause for a bit.

“You, uh, told us to write about anything we were comfortable with; things that we were concerned about, things that were close to us,” You answer.

He nods. “But you know what else I said? I told you to write without restrictions, to write without thinking much about it,” he tells you and you frown lightly.

“I don’t think I quite understand what you mean, sir.” Professor Bang gives you a gentle smile.

“You wrote about something you were concerned about, correct? The transition of being a teenager to an adult,” he begins, and you nod. “You gave a wonderful essay, actually. But it had no soul, Y/N.” He says, leaving you confused. “When I read your essay you know what I thought? ‘This kid is smart, she’s talented, but she’s also trying too hard,” he explains and your heart drops.

Well. That hurt.

“In my class, Y/N, I want you to write for yourself, not for your grades. I want you to write because you want to, not because you want good grades, or because you want me to notice you. Believe me, I notice all of you. I know who you are when I read your essay. I know the kind of person you are, or you want to become. There are things you were keeping from me in your essay. There were also things you shouldn’t have included in your essay. You were keeping your true self from me. I want you to work on that, okay? Stop thinking about things that could happen in the future and start thinking about the things that could happen now. Focus on the now, rather than the later.”

“Penny for your thoughts?” Yoongi’s voice snaps you out of your trance, and you look up, realizing you’ve mindlessly made it to the parking lot, and in front of his car, no less. You sigh and just look at him. Yoongi steps closer to you, extending his arm out to you. He’s wearing all black today, but the rainbow bracelet you made for him during an arts and craft class in the summer when you were only ten rests comfortably on his wrist.

“Come on, just you and me, yeah?” Yoongi asks you gently, and you nod, reaching forward to take his hand in yours. When you look up at him, you see other students from your peripheral vision stopping to look. Yoongi notices and squeezes your hand to get your attention. You look back at him and nod again. “Okay.”

Yoongi leads you over to your side of the car and he opens the door for you. You get in and he closes it behind you, casually walking around to his side. You see him wave to a few girls who soon giggle after the interaction and snort. Yoongi opens the door and gets in. He puts his key in the ignition and starts up the car.

“Who were those girls?” You ask, and Yoongi hums. “Some girls in my class, according to Seokjin they have the hots for me, but I don’t really know what that means.” You laugh as Yoongi pulls out of his parking space and you twist in your seat, folding your legs underneath you.

“Hey, watch it. I don’t want my seat getting dirt on it,” he calls you out, his eyes never leaving the road. You pout at him and drop your legs, a grin spreading across Yoongi’s face.

“Just kidding. You can pull your feet up. I’ll just have it cleaned if ever, anyway.” You roll your eyes at your best friend.

“Wow, Min Yoongi sure loves flexing his limitless credit card in front of me, his very much broke and short on cash best friend, Y/L/N Y/N.” You proclaim sarcastically, and Yoongi laughs at you, casting you a side glance.

“Hmm, I think it’s more like, Min Yoongi loves flexing his limitless credit card in front of you, his very much broke and short on cash best friend Y/L/N Y/N because he loves you and would spend all of it on you anyway.” Yoongi tips his head at you and you shrug, nodding.

“True.”

Thirty minutes later, Yoongi stops at a cliff overlooking the entire town. The sun was just beginning to set, so you can just about imagine the beautiful scene painted in front of you.

You slowly make your way to the edge of the cliff and lean against the metal railings. You stare into the horizon, the wind blowing in your face. You soon close your eyes, your worries melting away as you just take it all in. You feel Yoongi’s presence beside you when his cologne wafts through your nose like usual. You hum softly.

“Why did you bring me here?” You ask him quietly, your eyes still closed.

Yoongi lets out a puff of air and shrugs. “I found this place last week when I didn’t have inspiration for a composition. It helps me clear my mind, you know. Being here. You were going through something, and I just kind of wanted to help ease your worries, I guess.” He explains softly.

You open your eyes and turn to look at him.

To someone who hasn’t known Yoongi their whole life, he was the dark and always angry sort of guy, because he always gave off a dark vibe, wearing fine, expensive clothing that was most of the time black. He stood out among his friends because Hoseok was loud, bright, and giggly; Namjoon was silent, smart, and reserved; and Seokjin…well, he was loud, funny, and attractive. Yoongi was far too different to be part of their circle if you gave them a once over and left it at that alone. But you knew him your whole life. Yes, he did give off that vibe no matter what he did, yes, he stood out among his friends like a sore thumb, but nobody knew how soft and tender he was when it came to you. His friends feared him at times too; when he was in a particularly bad mood (although it was a rare), but never in life were you ever scared of him.

Yoongi always made you feel safe.

And when you look at him now, it didn’t matter that he was wearing all black and probably looked like the typical rich kid bad boy in all those cliché teen novellas. It didn’t matter that he would probably punch someone in the face if they dared touch his Audi. Because when you look at Min Yoongi now, you only saw your best friend since diapers, you only saw the guy who promised to care for and protect you no matter what.

“Thank you, Yoongi. I really needed it,” you whisper, and he smiles at you, something other people don’t see often, but something you saw on the daily. He pulls you in for a hug and you rest your head comfortably on his chest, wrapping your arms around his waist as he wraps his around your shoulders.

“Whatever it was that bothered you, you’ll get through it. I know you can. You don’t have to tell me now if you don’t want to. Whenever you’re ready, I’m all ears.” Yoongi tells you and nod. He squeezes you gently and kisses the crown of your head.

“Thank you, Yoongi.”

“Anything for my Y/N.”

“Hey, guys, where’s Yoongi?” You greet Hoseok and Seokjin, as you and Namjoon sit down beside them at a table in the café your group has been frequenting at lately.

Seokjin stops eating his second serving of the banana muffin to look at you, a disappointed look on his face.

“Yah, Y/N. Are you going to ask about Yoongi first before the people that actually invited you over?” Seokjin dramatically complains and you roll your eyes at your overly dramatic friend. You move to sit beside Hoseok instead and Namjoon sits beside the drama queen.

Just to spite him, you use Hoseok’s fork and stab a piece of his banana muffin, shoving it quickly in your mouth. You smirk when Seokjin gasps dramatically and faints, resting on Namjoon dramatically. No wonder he’s a theatre major. The younger boy rolls his eyes at his cousin but lets him stay there.

“He’s in one of the studios, he’s busy composing,” Hoseok answers your question. You give him a hug and he giggles at your action. “Thanks Hobi, you’re definitely not like that dramatic hoe across from me.”

Upon hearing you call him a dramatic hoe, Seokjin sits up straight. Just as he’s about to cry out another complaint, three girls walk up to your table, stopping Seokjin.

“Hi, Seokjin,” the girl in the middle greets, a sweet smile on her face. You bite your lip to prevent yourself from laughing. Seokjin flashes her a charming smile, which you must admit, does look great on him.

“Hey, Sana,” he greets coolly. Namjoon and Hoseok just watch, and Seokjin revels in the fact that his friends can finally see him charm a girl.

“So there’s this new movie coming out after finals next week, um, do you maybe wanna watch it together sometime?” She asks as her friends giggle.

Seokjin casts his friends side glance, smirking. Hoseok scratches the back of his head, that look on his face, and Namjoon just looks back and forth between Seokjin and the girl.

You can only purse your lips, resisting the urge to laugh.

Seokjin shrugs. “Sure,” Sana bites her lip and smiles.

“And Namjoon and Hoseok can come along too!” Her other two friends nod eagerly, and yours, Namjoon’s and Hoseok’s jaws drop.

“Yeah, they’re coming along too,” Seokjin answers for them and all three of you snap your heads to look at him. What the fuck is he doing? Hoseok slaps a hand to his forehead and Namjoon can only hide his face in his hands.

The girls don’t seem to notice their discomfort about the arrangement because they even ask about Yoongi. “Is he coming along too? My other friend really likes him,” Sana says and just as you’re about to say something, Hoseok jumps in.

“Um, I don’t think Yoongi hyung would appreciate that, he’s already dating someone.”

You, Seokjin, and Namjoon all whip your heads to look at Hoseok.

“Really? But I’ve never seen him out with someone,” Sana’s friend, asks and Hoseok gulps, nodding.

“He’s very private about their relationship, you see,” he chuckles nervously.

The girls pout. “Well, that’s too bad. Anyway, I’ll text you?” Sana turns back to Seokjin who nods. She smiles at him and they say goodbye before walking away.

Once they’re out of earshot, you turn to each other and both Hoseok and Namjoon turn to Seokjin.

“What the hell man?!”

Seokjin raises his hands up in surrender. “In my defense, I scored you guys dates. They’ve been head over heels for you since like, midterms, have you never seen them look at you before?” Seokjin asks and the two groan.

“Of course we have! But we don’t know them!” Namjoon stresses. “Then this is the perfect time to get to know them!” Seokjin rebuts.

“They’re not our type, hyung. Do you even know who likes who?” Hoseok cries out. Seokjin pauses, then looks up in thought. “Well, no… but—” Hoseok cuts him off.

“See! Why would you go out on a date if you’re not sure whether they like you or your friend?” Hoseok asks him. Seokjin snorts.

“Yah! At least I didn’t tell them Yoongi was seeing someone when he clearly wasn’t!” At that, you look up from your phone, having given up on joining their conversation earlier.

What a great way to change the topic.

Hoseok sits back and sighs, closing his eyes, knowing he fucked up too. He rubs his temples, clearly exhausted.

“Yeah, what was that about, Hobi?” Namjoon joins in. You can only sit properly in your seat and turn to look at the boy beside you. Hoseok opens his eyes and decides, ‘ah, fuck it’, as he crosses his hands in front of him.

“Yoongi’s not seeing anyone, sure, but he soon will.”

The three of you furrow your eyebrows, not quite sure what Jung Hoseok meant.

Noticing the confused looks on your faces, he sips his peppermint latte and looks at you. You raise an eyebrow at him and he shakes his head.

“I think it’s obvious enough that he’s smitten for you.” You snort at his statement and turn to look at Namjoon and Seokjin, who both catch on and soon have the same expressions on their faces, one that makes it look like they know something you don’t.

“What are you talking about?” You ask, confused. Namjoon sighs and you turn to look at him. “Yoongi likes you, Y/N. He may not know it right now, but he will.” You laugh nervously and shake your head. “No, he doesn’t. He’s always been like that with me, guys.”

Seokjin shakes his head. “It’s always been you. It’s always been different whenever you were involved. Yoongi’s different when you’re around.”

“But, how?” You ask, still clearly confused. You honestly didn’t know what they were talking about. Nothing made sense to you; what did they mean by Yoongi being different when you were around? Yoongi’s still Yoongi.

“What’s so wrong with Yoongi liking you, Y/N?” Hoseok asks, placing a hand on your shoulder. You shake your head and shrug. “Nothing, I just don’t quite understand. How can Yoongi be different around me?” Seokjin sighs and fixes his hair.

“You’re both so dense, I don’t know why I’m friends with you,” he complains. “You’ll realize it eventually. I won’t spoon feed you both on this. It’s time for you to figure that part out for yourselves.” Seokjin finishes his muffin.

“Okay, I better get going, I have to meet up with some of my classmates, we’re revising for the finals next week,” Seokjin stands up and pats your head as he grabs his stuff. You all say goodbye to him and he heads out.

The three of you stay for a little bit longer before you decide to head out. The sun was already beginning to set. You say goodbye to Hoseok and Namjoon; Hoseok had to stop by the dance studio and Namjoon was heading for the library.

Finals week is next week but you were in no mood to study and review for it just yet. The events from earlier kept clouding your thoughts and you didn’t know what to think of it all. So, instead of heading for the library, you make your way to the field where you see other students sitting together in groups, talking, studying, and hanging out amongst themselves.

You make your way under a huge tree and sit down, placing your books and backpack beside you as you lean on the tree trunk. Folding your legs, you wrap your arms around your shins, resting your head on the space between your knees.

You allow your mind to drift off and think of Seokjin, Namjoon, and Hoseok’s words from earlier. Of course Yoongi likes you, you’re his best friend. But Yoongi liking you in a different sense? You weren’t so sure about that. Sure, he’s affectionate and overprotective with you, but that’s probably because he sees you like a little sister.

But then again, you do notice that Yoongi really is different with how he treats you, ever since you were little.

“Y/N! Come sit beside me, I wanna show you something,” an adorable, 5-year old Min Yoongi with a few missing teeth beckons you to come sit beside him on the piano chair, his small legs dangling underneath him. You make your way over to him, your fingers still slightly sticky from the lollipop you just ate. You clamber up the piano chair, courtesy of the small stool placed next to it.

Yoongi grins at you and you merely look at him, before your eyes drift over to the white music sheets laid out in front of him. Your best friend was a prodigy and you knew that. The slightly shaky handwriting of his musical notes on the sheets were enough evidence for you to know that he composed it himself.

“What’s that, Yoongi?” you finally say, pressing a sticky pointer finger to the white sheet music. Yoongi gently takes your hand off the paper and places it back onto your lap as he looks at you with a bright smile on your face.

“I made this song for you, Y/N! I want you to listen to it carefully, okay?” Yoongi tells you and you grin excitedly.

Yoongi turns to face his piano properly and ever so delicately, he places his fingers on the black and white keys, his fingers dancing over them so effortlessly. It didn’t matter that his hands were still a bit too short for the huge piano, he still hit each and every note with precision. A beautiful melody fills the room and your eyes brighten up at the sound of it.

When Yoongi finishes, you tackle him in a hug, not caring about your sticky face or fingers at all.

“That was pretty, Yoongi!” he giggles at your reaction and hugs you back with the same enthusiasm.

You smile fondly at the memory, that was the very first song Yoongi ever composed, and he was only five. He made it for you and even named it after you. Up to this day, that was your favorite composition of Yoongi’s.

The wind picks up and your hair blows not so gracefully in your face. You sputter after your hair gets stuck in your mouth and a melodious laughter comes from behind you. You turn around and sure enough, your best friend is standing there, a bright gummy smile on his face. His shoulders are shaking slightly as he laughs at your expression and walks closer to you.

You scoot over and make some space for him. Yoongi flops down beside you, letting out a relaxed sigh after doing so. He gives you a side hug, patting the top of your head and you line your head on his shoulder.

“How did composing go?” you bring up and he clicks his tongue. “It went great, I think I’m ready for finals next week. How about you?” Yoongi gives you his full attention.

You shrug and he nudges you to continue.

“I’m having a hard time in Professor Bang’s class. I’m finding it hard to write anything without it coming off as trying too hard or with no effort at all. He wants me to write about me but I don’t quite get it. It’s been on my mind ever since you brought me to that cliff a few weeks ago. I’m never proud with the things I write and although Professor Bang doesn’t say much anymore, I can still feel that he’s still not contented with my work. He’s still looking for something,” you sigh and Yoongi squeezes your shoulder gently.

“You wanna know my secret?” Yoongi begins and you snort.

“What are we, five?” Yoongi laughs. “You need to wear your heart on your sleeve. You need to let your guard down, Y/N. That’s how I compose such great songs. Being an artist kind of means like presenting yourself naked to your audience.”

You give him a look.

“What I’m trying to say is, you shouldn’t hide who you are from your audience. You also shouldn’t try too hard to please or satisfy them. Go for what makes you happy. Go for what makes you sad, or angry, or frustrated, or confused. Don’t go for what makes them happy, sad, angry, frustrated, or confused. Your audience’s feelings will just follow through, you have to make them feel what you feel.”

You look at him in amazement, your lips parting slightly. Yoongi gives you a confused look. “What? Is there something on my face?”

“Now I know why you’re my best friend.” You proclaim and he grins at you.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You better, Min.”

Later that night, you pull out the worn journal that Yoongi gave you for your thirteenth birthday, something he bought on a trip with his family in Greece. You treasured it so much, because most of your favorite writings were in there and it’s been a witness to your best and worst moments. Your fingers trace the worn out pages, a smile growing on your face as you skim through your writings.

You didn’t stick to one kind of literary work; you wrote whatever came to your mind. There were scribbles and doodles, and you even found some pages stained with tears, ink, and… chocolate?

Damn, you were quite the messy kid, weren’t you?

You reach a blank page and pull out a random pen - which turned out to have pink ink, from your pouch.

You pull the cap out and stick it in the other end, your hand hovering over the page, hesitating. You remember Professor Bang’s words and Yoongi’s advice from earlier.

Slowly, you put your pen down and your fingers start writing the first few lines to a new piece.

Maybe it was the way he constantly made me smile,

Maybe it was how he’d always go the extra mile,

“It’s different when you’re involved,” they said,

You started filling up every corner and every crevice of my head.

Was this how it was supposed to be,

Should it have been you and me?

Well, you always left me lost in a trance,

So maybe we should give this love a chance.

You stop writing and your eyes scan what you wrote. Your lips part open slightly at the realization of what you just wrote. Were you writing about Yoongi? Was this what the boys were talking about?

You’re not quite sure about it, but you might just already be in love with Min Yoongi.

Yoongi was nowhere to be seen, and young little Y/N was already bored to death. You and Yoongi were supposed to be in the middle of a game of snakes and ladders, but the young boy had left the playroom to get something from his room. He hasn’t returned for only five minutes, yet you thought it felt like an entire lifetime.

Getting up from your spot on the floor, you make your way over to Yoongi’s grand piano sat in the corner of the large room. You eye pieces of paper lying on the floor, musical notes scribbled on it.

Young, 3-year old you knew nothing about music, but the way the notes were scribbled on the paper left you intrigued. You crouched down, picked one up from the pile and brought it back with you to your previous spot, where your crayons were sprawled all over the floor messily.

You flop down with a huff and lies flat on your stomach, the sheet music in front of you . You pick up your chubby red crayon and bring it over the paper, pressing lightly as you start doodling all over Yoongi’s composition.

In the middle of your artwork, Yoongi walks in the room with a pink box and he gasps when he sees his best friend scribble over the composition he just finished yesterday.

“Y/N, no!” He drops the box and runs over to you as fast as his little feet can carry him.

At the sound of Yoongi’s voice, you stop doodling and turn around, sitting up when you see Yoongi running over to you. Yoongi quickly grabs the sheet, his eyes frantically looking over the sheet music that was now covered with red doodles.

Yoongi’s eyes begin to water and although you didn’t quite understand it all, you knew that your best friend was upset. His bottom lip begins to tremble, and soon, tears flow from his eyes and he lets out a cry as he looks at his destroyed composition.

The sound of footsteps soon come closer and you turn around, seeing your mom and Yoongi’s mom walk in the room with confused looks on their faces. They spot the children sat on the floor and their eyes take in the scene in front of them - Yoongi was clutching a piece of paper in his hands, crying, and you were looking up at them, a confused look on your face mirroring theirs.

“What happened here?” Your mom asks as they both bend down to you and Yoongi.

Yoongi turns to look at his mom as he cries. “Y/N scribbled all over my sheet music.” He crawls over to his mom and hugs her, hiding his face in her chest as he continues to cry.

Both his mom and your mom turn to look at you, and it’s then that you realize it’s your fault. Tears fill your eyes as well and you stand up to hug your mom too.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” you cry, hiding from Yoongi and his mom, ashamed of what you’d done.

At the sound of your crying, Yoongi stops crying and turns to look at you. He steps away from his mom and waddles over to you, his small hands reaching out to grab your arm.

“No, no, don’t cry, too.” He sniffles and he pulls you to face him.

Reluctantly, you turn to face him and you try to stop crying as Yoongi squishes your face in his hands.

“It’s okay, I can do it again,” he tells you and you shake your head no.

“I’m sorry, Yoongi! It won’t happen again,” You cry and Yoongi can only nod. He pulls you with him, and he leads the both of you over to the grand piano. Yoongi gives you a side hug and he places his fingers on the black and white keys. Yoongi begins to play your favorite song, the very first one he wrote for you, snot and tears and all that.

You sniffle and calm down when you hear the familiar comforting melody. You wipe your snot away and rest your head on Yoongi’s shoulder.

Your moms watch the scene in front of them, knowing smiles on their faces.

“If our kids don’t end up together, I don’t know what I’ll do,” Your mom whispers to Yoongi’s mom as they leave the room.

Yoongi’s mom snorts. “Don’t worry, because by the looks of it, my son’s smitten as hell and he’s only five.”

Your mom laughs at that. “True.”

“Woah, are you okay, bubs?” Yoongi asks worriedly when he steps inside your dorm room and takes in the sight before him.

Books and notebooks are open sprawled around your bed and on the floor, your pens and highlighters open and probably all dried up, your hair was tied up in a messy bun that probably hadn’t been brushed properly since this morning, and your laptop open in front of you while you sit on your computer chair, your left leg folded underneath you and your right leg stretched out all the way to your bed. Your laptop was playing Day6’s Congratulations, and you were furiously typing away, cramming through your essays that were also due during finals week.

Your glasses fall down the bridge of your nose and you sigh, taking them off before you turn around to greet your best friend.

“Hey, Yoons, what’s up?” You smile tiredly at him, reaching over your bed to push away your books and notebooks to make room for your best friend to sit down on.

You chuckle as he sits down, scratching your hair. “Sorry about the mess, I didn’t have the time to fix it earlier.”

“It’s okay, Y/N. But you should really take a break, don’t overwork yourself,” Yoongi smiles and ruffles your hair, making you laugh. You spot the gray flask in his left hand and your eyes widen.

“Is that soju?” You gasp and Yoongi nods. You lean forward and snatch the flask from him, twisting the cap open. You pour some of the alcoholic drink onto the cap and down it all in one go, the strong taste burning down your throat. You think that maybe Yoongi meant to bring this for you and not for him, because it’s your favorite flavor, classic. Yoongi could never tolerate the classic flavor of soju and he always opted for the fresh one.

Yoongi simply watches you take shot after shot of the alcoholic drink and smiles, knowing you’ll get a hangover the next day. Nevermind though, because he’ll take care of you anyway, and your first exam isn’t until 2:00 pm tomorrow.

Once you’ve finished the entire bottle, you wipe your lips with the back of your hand, grinning drunkenly at your best friend. He smirks at the sight of you and stands up to save your work. He closes your laptop and crouches down to look at you.

“You’re such an alcoholic, Y/L/N Y/N.” Yoongi comments and you can only giggle.

“Thanks, Yoongi.” You pat his cheek, and knock out dead on your desk, snoring away as your head rests on your laptop. Y/L/N Y/N is out like a light at 5:22 pm.

Yoongi’s gummy smile makes its appearance as you sleep soundly, without a care in the world. He turns around and stares at the mess cluttering around your room. Yoongi bends down and starts cleaning; he picks up your pens and highlighters and puts the caps back on, although he doubts that they’d still work (maybe you bought those kind that would last for up to 48 hours uncapped but he wasn’t so sure, knowing you), and he closes your books, making sure to stick in bookmarks in case those pages were important. He stacks your stuff on the extra table beside your desk and fixes your bed for you to sleep in.

Yoongi turns around and he laughs softly at the sight of your drool running down the side of your arm. Yoongi crouches down and he brushes the hair away from your face. Upon taking a closer look at you, he can see how much you’ve stressed yourself out this week.

The dark circles under your eyes, the messy hair, and the way you snored were enough to tell Yoongi that you were dead tired. Even your drool told Yoongi that you were exhausted, because you only ever drooled in your sleep when you were worn out.

Yoongi carefully helps you out of your chair and onto your bed, where he tucks you in snugly. He turns the lights off and leaves only your night light on. Yoongi sits down beside you and simply admires the way you sleep (it’s not as creepy as you think it is!).

Yoongi watches the way your chest heaves up and down as your breathe slowly, soft snores leaving your lips. He watches the way a small smile is etched onto your lips, making you look so sweet and so innocent, like you didn’t just down an entire flask of soju in one go. He watches the way you shift to a more comfortable position, pushing your face further into your pillow.

And as Yoongi watches you sleep so peacefully, he realizes that he can get used to this - get used to watching you fall asleep, and maybe, just maybe, fall asleep with you. Yoongi thinks that if seeing you fall asleep makes him want to fall asleep with you, then maybe the idea of waking up with you isn’t so bad, either.

A soft mumble leaves your lips and you start to babble nonsense, things like “after the falling action is the denouement, and yay, the end”, and Yoongi smiles.

Without realizing it, Yoongi leans forward, and presses a soft kiss to your forehead. “Good night, Y/N.”

His heart flutters at his own action, and Yoongi smiles when he realizes it.

“I love my best friend. I love Y/N. I love you,” Yoongi whispers to himself, his eyes never leaving your sleeping form.

You are never drinking before an exam ever again.

Your head is throbbing and you can’t move because every small action makes your head feel like it’s about to break. You can totally place the blame on your best friend because he didn’t stop you from downing the entire flask, but at the same time, it’s all your fault for even drinking in the first place when you knew you had an exam the following day.

You close your eyes and shield it with your arm as the 7:00 am sunlight streams in through the bedroom windows. Your stomach is grumbling and you realize that you didn’t even eat dinner last night because you fell asleep at 5:00 pm after drinking.

You badly want to get up and go find something to eat in your stash but like we’ve already established earlier, you can’t. So you endure your hunger until the hangover goes away. If it goes away.

The door opens and your savior walks through the door.

Thank God for Min Yoongi.

“Oh, you’re awake already. I brought you some aspirin and hangover food,” he greets you, closing the door shut behind him gently. Yoongi places his stuff on your chair as he makes his way over to you, helping you sit up. You’re groaning and clutching onto your best friend’s shoulders because you can’t bring yourself to sit up properly.

Yoongi’s arms wound around your waist and - oh, come on, why now - butterflies erupt in your stomach, along with the acid and the hunger (okay that’s kinda gross). You scoot over to the wall and Yoongi places a pillow behind you to separate your back from the cold, hard wall.

Boyfriend material, anybody?

Yoongi opens the bottled water he bought and places a tablet of aspirin on your weakly opened palm. You take the medicine and finish the entire bottle of water, refreshing yourself completely.

Your head feels a bit better now and the pain is now tolerable. “Ugh, don’t make me drink before an exam again,” you groan and lean forward, clutching onto your stomach as you rest your head on Yoongi’s shoulder. Yoongi chuckles and although your head’s aching at his action, you like hearing his laugh. He strokes your hair gently and you scoot closer to him, practically clinging onto him.

“You wanna eat?” Yoongi asks you and you nod from your place in the crook of his neck. Yoongi reaches over to get your food. He starts feeding you saltine crackers and fruits and coconut milk and you think it’s weird but according to him it’s good for a hangover.

While you take small bites from the banana, Yoongi focuses all his attention on you. The sun shines on you in just the right spot; it hits your eyes perfectly that the natural color pops out prettily. Your cheeks are puffed out slightly and you chew on your banana in complete concentration.

You soon feel his gaze on you and your heart speeds up upon realizing it. Your senses are unbelievably heightened while you’re hungover, apparently. You swallow your last piece of the banana carefully before looking up at Yoongi.

When you do, a smile is on his lips and he looks at you with this strange look on his face; you’re not sure what it is, exactly. You raise an eyebrow questioningly.

“What?”

Yoongi shakes his head and he cups your face in his hand, rubbing his thumb gently along your cheek. His action causes more butterflies to erupt in your stomach, and at this point, you’re not sure if you want to vomit or eat some more.

“You’re so beautiful,” Yoongi whispers, his eyes never leaving yours.

You really can’t understand your best friend right now and you also don’t want to get your hopes up, so you laugh it off.

“I know I am, especially when I’m hungover,” you joke and you think Yoongi’s smile falters a bit, but he quickly covers it up with a grin.

He clears his throat, and stands up. You follow his actions, and he pats your shoulder gently.

“Get a few more hours of rest, you’ll feel better just before your exam, okay?” Yoongi tells you and you pout, making him want to just ditch his 8:30 exam to stay with you a little longer.

“Won’t you stay with me?” You tug on the hem of his yellow hoodie (wow, a change if wardrobe for finals week?), and he shakes his head ‘no’.

“Unfortunately, not everyone has exams that start at 2:00 pm. I’ve got my first one at 8:30 and it’s already 7:45. The building’s three blocks away from here, too.” Yoongi explains and you nod in understanding.

“That’s fine, good luck on your exam,” you reply, and Yoongi leans down to give you a kiss on the top of your head.

“Get some rest, love.” Yoongi whispers, making your heart speed up at the endearment.

“I will.” You assure him and he cups your face in his hands, rubbing your cheeks gently with the pads of his thumbs.

“I’ll call you, okay?” Yoongi asks and you smile, nodding.

He stands back up to his full height and makes his way to the door. He gives you one last smile before twisting the doorknob and stepping out.

The door closes and you wait for a few more beats before you sigh.

Yes, you were definitely in love with your best friend and it wasn’t the heightened senses that came with the hangover.

“I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!” Hoseok claps his hands together excitedly, earning an eye roll from Seokjin and a smile from Namjoon. Yoongi can only stare at his friends in confusion.

“What do you mean, ‘I knew it’?” Yoongi asks and the three boys look at each other, sighing simultaneously.

“Hyung, everyone can see how much you’re in love with her, except the both of you. Have you never read those cliché best friends to lovers trope on Tumblr?” Hoseok asks and Yoongi merely shrugs.

“I don’t have time for that shit,” Yoongi deadpans.

“But you have time for Y/N,” Seokjin points out.

“Because he’s whipped, you guys,” Namjoon adds in.

“Whatever,” Yoongi dismisses his friends comments. “All I know is that I love her. I really, really, do.” Yoongi confesses.

“Then tell her!” His friends say in unison.

“I will! I’m just,” Yoongi pauses and they look at him expectantly.

He looks at them before continuing, “I’m just trying to find the right time to confess, I think she feels the same way.”

Seokjin flips his bangs and sighs. “Not think, but know. It’s obvious how much you both love each other, Yoongi. Literally anyone with two eyes and common sense can see that.”

“Except maybe for those girls the other week,” Namjoon coughs into his shoulder and Hoseok bursts out in laughter, holding his hand up for a high five which Namjoon gladly reciprocates.

“Yah, don’t be mean, I think they’re really nice,” Seokjin defends them and Yoongi shakes his head at them.

Namjoon and Hoseok turn their attention to Yoongi and forget about the handsome elder.

“So, do you need our help with confessing?” Namjoon asks.

Yoongi looks up in thought. “I haven’t really thought that far yet, all I know is that I want it to be something she’ll never forget.”

“You can maybe write her a song?” Hoseok suggests.

“I write her songs all the time,” Yoongi points out.

“Maybe you can take her out somewhere and prepare this really extravagant surprise,” Namjoon tries.

Yoongi shakes his head. “Y/N’s not into that, remember? I need this to be perfect,” he stresses.

Yes, Min Yoongi was hands down whipped for you because instead of worrying about his next exam set to happen in thirty minutes, he’s busy worrying about how he’s going to confess to you.

His friends sigh.

“Hyung, I think you should take a break. Go prepare for your exams, yeah?” Namjoon suggests and Yoongi gives in.

“You’re right, I have one in thirty minutes.”

Hoseok smiles and stands up. “I’ve gotta go, mine’s in fifteen minutes.”

“And you’re that chill?” Namjoon looks amazed. Hoseok grins.

“The perks of being a dance major, baby,” Hoseok shrugs casually before slinging his backpack over his shoulder and making his way out of the café.

Seokjin lets out a relaxed sigh. “I’m all done for the day, so I’m going to go eat something somewhere and think of how you can confess to Y/N.” Yoongi gives his hyung an appreciative smile.

“Thanks, hyung, but don’t you have exams to prepare for?” Seokjin snorts.

“I studied all of last week, I think I’m all done. One more and I might actually go crazy.” Yoongi and Namjoon laugh at that.

Yoongi makes his move to stand up. “I’ll see you guys later, good luck.” He pats the guys on the back before he leaves.

On the short walk to his building, Yoongi pulls his phone out and presses on speed dial 1, of course, the one and only Y/L/N Y/N.

Y/N picks up after three rings.

“Hey, why’d you call?” Y/N’s sweet voice rings through the phone and a smile automatically makes its way to Yoongi’s face.

“Hey, how are you feeling, bubs?” Yoongi inquires.

“All better, thanks to you! Although I’m kind of starving, I have an hour and a half before my first test,” Y/N chirps.

“Joon and Jin hyung are at the café, maybe you can go grab something to eat with them, I have an exam in twenty minutes,” Yoongi informs her.

“Okay! Good luck on that, you’ll do great,” Y/N tells him sweetly.

“Aaah, I know I will. You’re my lucky charm,” Yoongi smirks and he can just see Y/N’s blushing cheeks from the way she started to stutter.

“Uh...ha ha, okay, uh, gotta go, Yoons! Bye!” She immediately hangs up and Yoongi chuckles when he hears the line drop dead.

Yoongi shakes his head and slides his phone back into his pocket as he walks inside the music building.

The smile never leaves his face, even as he starts to answer his test all the way until he finishes it. The people he shared that class with started to worry for his mental health, because Yoongi never smiled this much, never smile this genuine. Well, he did smile occasionally, but there was something different with the way Yoongi carried himself that day that left his classmates slightly concerned for him.

“Hey, Yoongi. You alright, man?” Kyungsoo, a friend he talks to occasionally in his class asks.

Yoongi nods, a smile on his lips. “Yeah, why?”

Kyungsoo looks at him weirdly. He laughs it off. “Nothing. Just, if you need someone to talk to, I’m all ears,” Kyungsoo pats him on the back.

It’s Yoongi’s turn to look at him weirdly. “Huh, okay, Soo. Thanks.” Kyungsoo nods and leaves the room, just as a beep comes from his phone.

It wasn’t just any beep, it was your ringtone. Yoongi had set specific ringtones for your texts and calls, so he’d know if he has to answer the call right away or not.

Yes, Min Yoongi was both smitten and biased when it came to you.

lovely best bub [3:07 pm] : hello there

lovely best bub [3:07 pm] : are your exams done? im kinda hungry

Just seeing your contact name — which you set, not him, already sent a smile crawling up his lips.

Yoongi [3:07 pm] : yea, see u

Yoongi [3:07 pm] : hoseok still has one exam left, I’ll meet u and joon there

He begins making his way back to the café, navigating his way through the students and the hallways with his phone in his hands.

lovely best bub [3:08 pm] : it’s just me, joon says he still has something to do

Yoongi wishes he can go give Kim Namjoon a hug (but he would never admit that in front of him) right now.

Yoongi [3:08 pm] : okay lol

lovely best bub [3:08 pm] : see u there :DD

When Yoongi reaches the café,you’re already sitting in your usual spot, going over some of your notes while you sip on your iced latte. Yoongi walks over, a soft smile on his lips. He knocks on the table gentle. You look up, and a smile immediately graces your features.

“Hey, how was your exam?” You greet as Yoongi sits down in front of you.

“It went really well, how about yours?” Yoongi inquires as he reaches forward to hold your right hand, playing with your fingers while he waits for your response.

You blush at the action and Yoongi marvels at your flustered reaction. You soon brush it off like it was nothing and take a sip from your drink to, hopefully, help cool down your flaming cheeks.

“Great, too! I hope I really poured all of my heart into it that Professor Bang will be proud of it,” you reply and Yoongi squeezes your hand gently.

“I’m sure you did, you worked hard last night,” Yoongi reassures you and you laugh.

“I’m pretty sure I got wasted last night, Yoongi.” He laughs at your retort, agreeing with you.

“Yeah, I know, but I think you did study before I arrived with the soju.” Yoongi’s reply makes the two of you laugh.

“Thanks for taking care of me, Yoongi.” You give him a gentle smile.

He returns it with one of his own. “Anything for you, Y/N.”

Were you dense? Or was Yoongi not obvious enough? No, that can’t be it. He’s very transparent with his feelings for you, right? Min Yoongi can’t seem to understand why you don’t seem to notice his advances on you. At all.

Finals week was done and over with, and for an entire week Yoongi has been trying to get you to see how much he likes you. Even during the break, Yoong did everything; he took you out on dates, gave you more gifts than usual, paid more attention to you (if he was attentive before, he got even more attentive now), and flirted with you every chance he got.

But it’s the start of the second semester now and he still hasn’t confessed to you yet.

“I’m telling you, hyung! It’s like she pays no attention to anything I do at all. Are you guys sure she feels the same way?” Yoongi stresses, ranting to the broad shouldered male sat in front of him. The other two younger boys look at each other, giving each other that I’m tired, he’s spewing nonsense again look before grabbing Yoongi’s attention.

“Yes, she does! She probably thinks you’re just being your normal self around her,” Namjoon responds.

“But I’m not being my normal self around her…?” Yoongi trails off.

The boys sigh. “You are, you’re normally affectionate with her, Yoongi. So Y/N thinks you’re just being you,” Seokjin adds.

“Yeah, hyung. Y/N doesn’t think anything’s changed at all. Well, maybe she thinks you’re a bit more affectionate but she’s just probably just brushing it off as you being you.” Hoseok pipes in.

“Then what do I do?” Yoongi asks, clearly pressed about everything.

Just then, the bell to the café’s door rings noisily and the four turn around to see Y/N rushing over to them.

“Speak of the devil,” Namjoon mutters and Yoongi stares a him. “She’s not a devil, Joon.” Namjoon slaps his forehead.

“It’s an expression, hyung --” Namjoon’s cut off when you blurt out, “I need food.”

Seokjin raises an eyebrow at you. “There’s food? Over there?” He points toward the cashier. You look over to where his index finger is pointing before turning back to them, shaking your head.

“I have class in like, 15 minutes, but I was hungry so I ran over here - because my building’s all the way on the other side - to buy something but when I was a few steps away from the door I realized I forgot my wallet at the dorms and the dorms are even farther away and I don’t have much of a choice anymore because if I still tried going back that would take me another 10 minutes or so and like I said, I only have 15 minutes and I’m really hungry so I can’t go back anymore and I just really need money for food.” You finish all in one breath, heaving lightly because you’re out of breath from running and explaining yourself.

The four look at you before Yoongi shifts in his seat, pulling his card out for you.

“Here, go buy something,” he holds it out to you. Your eyes lighten, and just as your about to take it, a light bulb goes off in Yoongi’s head and he withdraws his outstretched hand, halting your actions.

“What?” You ask, slightly agitated.

Yoongi smirks. “Kiss me first.”

Your eyes widen, Kim Seokjin’s eyes widen, Kim Namjoon’s eyes widen, and Jung Hoseok’s eyes widen.

Wait, what?

A blush creeps up your cheeks, your palms start to clam up, and your heart starts beating faster. Oh, and your stomach grumbles for the umpteenth time too.

Yoongi only looks at you, the smirk still on his face, and his credit card resting in between his index and middle finger, just close enough for you to reach if you moved just a tad bit closer.

If you kiss Yoongi, he’ll definitely know your feelings for him. If you don’t it would make things awkward between the two of you. If you kiss him, at least you’d get food, right?

Yoongi’s starting to slightly regret his impulsive decision, but he freezes when you just go for it, and lean down to kiss his cheek, snatching the card in his fingers before you run out.

“What the fuck just happened?” Hoseok manages to speak up and Yoongi snaps out of his trance.

“Dude, what the fuck, go after her!” Hoseok shakes Yoongi who soon realizes what’s really going on. He stands up abruptly and goes after you.

“Wow, they’re a mess,” Seokjin comments as they watch Yoongi through the glass of the cafe.

“Come on, let’s go after them,” Namjoon stands up and Seokjin and Hoseok follow suit.

“Y/N, wait!” Yoongi calls out to you and when you hear his voice, you skid to a halt in the middle of the field, where some dance majors are running a routine. You attract the attention of the dance majors and they stop dancing to look at you. Clutching Yoongi’s credit card in your hand, you slowly turn around to face him.

He’s running over to you and he’s panting. When he’s close enough, he leans forward and rests his hands on his knees.

“You’re going to be late to class anyway, just, listen to me,” Yoongi wheezes out.

You bite your lip, your heart racing as you stare at the boy in front of you. When he finally catches his breath, he stands back up to his full height and looks at you.

“Yoongi, listen,I--” You begin, but he cuts you off.

“Y/N, I know you’re going to be late, I’m sorry but wait, just...let me get this off my chest because I might explode if I don’t let this out anymore, okay?” He holds you by the shoulders and you can only nod, flustered and confused at the same time.

From his peripheral, Yoongi can see a small crowd starting to form, he can see the boys somewhere too and the dance majors all stopped dancing to look at you both.

Oh, well.

Yoongi breathes deeply before he fixes his eyes on you and on you alone.

Here it goes.

“Y/L/N YN, I love everything about you. I love the way you eat your ramen with a spoon instead of chopsticks because you’re always complaining about how your fingers hurt because you’re not the best at using chopsticks even though you’re supposed to be good at it, I mean gosh, you’re Korean you’re supposed to know that shit. I love how you can’t fall asleep without your blue and white flannel blanket because it’s the only blanket your body seems to like. I love how even though it’s beginning to smell so bad because of your drool and the food crumbs and the drinks that fall on it you still choose to use it. I love how you also sleep with that one pillow of yours that’s been there the moment I walked into the hospital room to see you bundled up in Auntie’s arms, eyes closed and without a care in the world because you were just born moments ago, and it’s so old that it’s not so fat and fluffy anymore, and oh, it also smells so bad too, seriously what is it with you and your things in bed smelling bad? Can they seriously not get washed? I love how you never use a brush to fix your hair because you’re that kind of person that just runs a hand through their hair a couple of times and you’re already good to go. I love how you scrunch your face up every time you insult one of the boys, every time you want to tease me, and every time you have your way because yet again, I’ve fallen victim to your ridiculous wishes and ideas. I love how every time you put food into your mouth, you’re pouting and chewing at the same, fuck, do you know what that fucking does to me, Y/N? It makes me go crazier and even more head over heels for you. I love how you always come to me for everything because you know that I’d never ever say no to you, it makes me feel like I matter so much to you. I love that you depend so much on me because yes, I want that so much, I want to spoil you so damn much. I love giving you all that you want, I love spoiling with anything that you want and need, no matter how stupid or out of this world or irrational it may be. I love it so much because I love the way your eyes light up like a thousand stars whenever I say yes, and fuck that’s so, so fucking cheesy but I don’t fucking care anymore because I’m pretty sure I’ve said too much that it’s enough to complete one whole damn song and I know I can’t sing but I can play the piano and compose songs so maybe I can rap too? And dammit, Y/N, I’ve loved you so much since the moment I probably first laid my eyes on you, or maybe when I wrote my first song for you and you asked me to play it for you every day. Hell, I may have even started loving you when you scribbled all over my sheet music with your big fat, red crayon. I love how you’re so selfless, how you get along with my boys, how you’re damn smart and ambitious but you’d much rather watch How I Met Your Mother and listen to angsty Day6 songs for hours on end while you wrote equally angsty prose and poetry. I love you every time you get wasted the night before an exam, drinking your stress and worries away with soju, complain about the hangover the next day and do it all over again despite promising to never do it again. I love that even though it gets you wasted because that just gives me an excuse to take care of you and have I told you that I love taking care of you? I love you for everything that you are and I’d fucking say more but dammit, we’re in public and people…people are beginning to record my confession, they were just looking at us…wait what the fuck? And I’m a blushing, stuttering mess and I’ve just poured my entire heart out to you, all these feelings I’ve kept bottled up since I was, I don’t know, five and you were three, and I’m not even fucking sure if you feel the same way but you just kissed my cheek back in the café so maybe that counts for something? Maybe it really was for the food, I don’t know. But god, I love you so much, Y/N and it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way but I just want you to know that I don’t want things to ever change between us even if my feelings are out in the open already and I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve because I’m just so damn smitten for you. I love you, Y/N.”

Yoongi finishes his rant, and he’s breathing heavily and his heart’s beating out of his chest and he doesn’t know what to do next because you’re just standing in front of him, eyes wide, cheeks a dark shade of red, and your heart ready to burst out of your ribcage at his confession.

For someone who’s a creative writing major, for someone who’s so good with words, you’re speechless. For the first time in your entire life, you’re speechless.

“So,” Seokjin shouts from the crowd, effectively catching both yours and Yoongi’s attention, “are you just going to stand there and keep him waiting or will you tell him you love him too?”

The crowd coos, and your eyes dart back to Yoongi’s.

“Yoongi, I love you too.” You say simply and the crowd interrupts into cheers as Yoongi lets out a relieved sigh, stepping forward and pulling you into his embrace. Yoongi bends down to bury his face in your neck and you wrap your arms around his shoulders as he wraps his around your waist.

“Thank God you love me too, that would’ve been so embarrassing if you didn’t,” Yoongi whispers and you giggle.

You both pull away, and then turn to see that the crowd has dispersed, while your friends shot you thumbs ups before walking away to give you some alone time.

You look up at Yoongi, your smile bright as you see all the love and adoration Yoongi held for you.

“Well, you feed me well, Min Yoongi.” you reply, rising up on your tiptoes to kiss his nose.

“Oh yeah, let’s go get your food, I know you’re hungry.” Yoongi intertwines your fingers with his, leading you both back to the café.

“See, this is why I love you so much,” You grin, swinging your hands together.

Yoongi stops walking and turns to you. He cups your face in his hands, caressing your cheeks softly. “I love you so much, Y/N.”

You hold onto his wrists and give him a mischievous grin. “More than your Audi?” You challenge, and Yoongi laughs heartily, kissing your forehead.

“A billion times more than my Audi.”

⇒ let me know what you think or hmu with anything under the sun here!

62 notes · View notes

comicteaparty · 4 years ago

Text

June 13th-June 19th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from June 13th, 2020 to June 19th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

What is your physical and digital workspace like when you’re working on your story?

🌈ERROR404 🌈

LOL it really depends on what stage I'm in of the process - My storyboarding space is at home, as comfortable as I can be, a beer and some food at the ready and pure silence. The cats have to be freshly fed, otherwise I'll be harassed and lose my headspace entirely LOL. I usually work on my story boards digitally, just at a very small scale, with my script/outline on my computer and working on my ipad! The double screen helps a LOT, although i would just print out the script if I had access to a printer, haha. When I'm working on the actual page itself, it's a very different story. I usually just try and work on it in tiny little batches during the day when I'm stuck at home, and usually work around the animals as best i can, lmao. Truthfully, I really prefer to be in a coffee shop when I'm working on finishing pages, it makes me so much more productive than i am in this house with so many things to take care of right in front of me, but, obviously, that's a bit difficult to do these days. ;; I usually reserve food and drink until after I pass a milestone in inking/sketching to help motivate me to keep going for as much as I can before taking a break, and I need some kind of music or video playing in the background to keep myself from being absolutely bored out of my mind. My shading process, since it's in black and white, is very easy and i can finish it in one setting, easy, no matter what I'm working with. I also work digitally for my pages, of course, although I don't need more than my ipad and clip studio for it!

DaeofthePast

freshly fed cats

🌈ERROR404 🌈

They are BEASTS when hungry, the little bastards (love them)

I may only work in peace when they're post-food napping lmao

DaeofthePast

we only have one, but same

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I work almost entirely in the corner of my IKEA couch at home I used to work at a proper desk with a Cintiq, but when I switched to Procreate on an iPad, I migrated to the couch and surrounded myself with a nest of clothes and blankets and books and... here I am, bein' cozy. With terrible posture But when I was between jobs last year, I did rent a little coworking space down the street so I could get out of my pajamas and go get comic stuff done there. It was a godsend. I like drawing at my favorite coffee shop every so often too, but I tend to hide my work while I draw, and there, everyone can look over my shoulder The coworking space had a tall artist desk that was rarely used, so I often grabbed that one. Not cheap, but to stave off cabin fever, heck yes, worth it.

🌈ERROR404 🌈

Ahhh I've been really thinking about getting a studio space one of these days I really shouldn't rn, with my finances as they are, but I could REALLY make use of one recently

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I loved the space I used last year. They recently had to close for... current-event reasons... and are going to reopen with all sorts of plexiglass barriers between the desks I feel so bad for them. Good studio spaces are wonderful, I would support them again if I ever was out of a job!

🌈ERROR404 🌈

it's good they've found ways to make it safer, though!

carcarchu

My old workspace was in the basement of my home in canada and it was always perpetually freezing even in the summer and i was frequently visited by spiders so my current workspace is a huge improvement in that regard. I do miss my old ergonomic desk chair though. I'm definitely not the kind of person who can draw in bed or on the couch. I need to be in workmode and having a designated space just for that is necessary for me to get in the right headspace for that.

DaeofthePast

my workspace rn is just my desk with my laptop and my drawing tablet. my laptop is stacked on top of a pile of books so i can see the screen (otherwise my tablet blocks my line of sight). it's kinda simple

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Depends. I have a Cintiq Mobile Studio, so I can draw pretty much every where and sometimes in the oddest position, but most of the time I am on my desk with the cintiq hooked up to a second monitor so I don't have to look down so much.(edited)

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

For Wayfinders: Thumbnails are somewhere cozy and the only physical work. Me and Q sit and plan them out together. The rest of wayfinders are made on Photoshop, and flat colors in clip paint studio. In the world I would love a nice studio place in an office with others. During corentine I have been working from home, and I am not that good at it, being quite the extrovert. Before corentine I was in a artist residency where I worked on Wayfinders which had a workstation and all the programs we could need. It is so nice and me and Q are going to return there when it opens up again!

Miranda

I have an iPad so usually on the couch, cozied up with coffee and pillows and blankets. But sometimes at the table. But usually on the couch like the gremlin I am

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I have a large drafting table, a mini drafting table, and a lapdesk in my papasan when we ink/draw! Toning and letters are all done on the desktop in its own space

Miranda

I need to get a good lap desk. But that sounds like a grand setup!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

My first time hearing about a lapdesk

Omg I need one

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

They are the best things ever Mine has just the pencil holder !(some come with cup holders and its a waste of space imo)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Wow I like your setup of the drafting tables

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I wanna show pics of them....if im allowed in this chat?

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I hope so, I'm not sure which channel we can post studio photos at? I did see some did before?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Ill post in shop talk since creator babble gets archived

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

my current space is uh.... a bit better than my last one. I used to work on an old writers desk for a decade and I did most of my comic work sitting there cramped up with my desktop taking most of the space. Now I have an L shaped desk where I have my desktop on the shorter end. The longer end it's my pen, pencils, and watercolor stuff. my display tablet occupy the space at times so switching from digital and traditional without worrying about setup hassle is a lot better than what I dealt with before lol.

I'm glad the days I had to curl up and draw with no privacy are long gone now

kayotics

I’ve got a little drafting table where I draw all my comic pages. I’m messy with my pens so they’re kind of strewn about until I start to lose them. Then I put them back. I’m not particularly neat. I spend most of the comic process off the computer, so most of my digital work is just on an iPad where I can sit anywhere. I try to keep good lighting around my drafting table and there’s always loose eraser shavings all over.

Natasha Berlin (Pot of Gold)

I got myself a lil corner desk by the dining table. Not as well-lit as I'd like, but it's decently ergonomic and I started putting posters on my wall Plus I can leave work mindset easily by turning off my computer and forgetting about the dark corner in the dining room XD(edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My desk is really sloppy and covered in all kinds of junk. I have a harmonica, a ball of yarn, a bunch of ink bottles, etc on my desk. I have my sketchbook under my tablet and usually a notebook somewhere for writing. My tablet sits to the right of my laptop (on top of sketchbook) while I'm not using it and when I'm using it it goes over my computer keyboard. I sometimes have a glass of water or some food sitting to the lefthand side

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

The only thing I wanna share about my workspace is this

once i spent over three hours looking for that damned pen

never again

🌈ERROR404 🌈

Ajkdhfkjs the models for hte magazine im crying

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh my God

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

mad giggling

Deo101 [Millennium]

youre gonna manage to lose the string

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

omg

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i know in my heart deo is right but still i hope

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

You should weld a metal chain to it

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Watch me lose the whole tablet

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh nooo

I believe in you!

TaliePlume

My workspace is a black table with a white, yellow, blue and green tablecloth with 3 black chairs. It's next to the kitchen. On it, is my laptop and the left side is my clipboard, 3 blue folders full of writing. Then above it, is 3 sketchbooks and another blue folder from a class that I took in community college.

June 16, 2020

sagaholmgaard

I have one long desk at almost three meters. On the left side is all my coffee and tea supplies, in the middle is my work space and on the right is my dining table xD I get everything done from there, despite having a mobilestudio so I COULD sit anywhere and work, lol. It's a blessing during holiday seasons to be able to bring it everywhere, but at some I like my designated working space. Although I am moving in a few weeks, so who knows what my new workspace will be

Moral_Gutpunch

My workspace is anywhere I can draw or write. It's more of a "Will I be interrupted over something petty or stupid" issue than space. Not that I don't want more space.

Mitzi (Trophallaxis)

My workspace is a big, broken corner desk I managed to lug out of an old apartment when it was gonna be trashed. Before then, I'd just draw in bed. I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure the folding chair I sit at is a similar affair. It's got a Dollar General throw pillow on it so I can at least say I'm trying to save my back. The top of the desk is a mess of mostly old bottles and cans, pencils, incense ash, and my old tarot deck. I love this setup dearly. This is the first time I've ever had my own desk space, much less a space I can decorate or leave as messy as I want. Got my own art up on the walls with sticky tack and all! Also the cat's scratching post is directly behind me, because we've learned the cat won't use it unless it's as in the way as possible. What can ya do, lol.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Oh cats...

Desnik

I got spoiled with an adjustable desk. It is six feet long, and has a whiteboard top for noodling with dry erase markers

my main computer is set up on an adjustable stand so it floats over the desk, and then I have my cintiq, which we tried to mount on a similar stand but then it was just too heavy

I keep my dice collection nearby because fidgeting helps think things through sometimes

and rolling to make odd decisions never hurts

lately during the quarantine I've been sharing the office with my spouse so we've had to establish rules over when it's okay to bug each other(edited)

oh yeah and we also have a whiteboard installed in the office, and it rules!(edited)

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Mine is pretty simple: I have a laptop that's long stopped being portable and is now mostly just sitting at my desk at all times and a 19 inch Ugee as my display. I usually keep a lot of stuff on top of my desk, but it's mostly just a mess because I have been using it for work too for a while now

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I suppose I'll talk about my setup too :) My main setup is where I do digital art. I share an office with my SO, so we both have workspaces on opposite walls from each other. I work on a corner desk that holds my beefy computer, two monitors, and a Huion Kamvas GT-191. That's where I draw my comic and pretty much everything else done digitally. Ngl, it's a mess right now. I have comic notes and location floor plans in sketchbooks and DnD character sheets spread out all over the surface, and random pens and sticky notes. In the corner of the room, we have a nice large-format printer where I produce prints for conventions. I actually sketch my pages on an iPad pro in Procreate, so during the sketch phase, sometimes I'll just bundle up on my couch and do it, or before quarantine, sometimes I'd sketch on the go. My other workspace (which hasn't gotten much love as of late tbh) is a drafting table in the corner of our living room. I keep a tabletop easel on it and my Copic markers, as well as whatever I'm working on at the moment. (RN it's some ink washes.) The drawers hold all my ink, pencils, erasers, etc. Next to the drafting table is where I keep all my large charcoal, graphite, and oil pastel drawings (mostly school projects), and my large paintings. Other than that, I have a nifty little cart where I keep painting supplies :) I will say, this setup is by far an enormous improvement from my previous setups.

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #creator interview #comic creator interview #creator babble

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arplis · 5 years ago

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Arplis - News: My 22 Goals for 2019 Week 49 of 52

My 22 Goals for 2019

Goal #1 Spend More Time Doing What I Love

Red alert people, RED ALERT. It was 6 degrees this morning when I woke up. SIX!!! That.Is.Chilly. The Girl and I were going to walk Lucy on the beach this morning but those plans have been scraped. Gaaaa. I think if its 6 degrees outside, all bets are off and you can most certainly declare it a pajama day. Whos with me on this?

Goal #2 Garden, Garden, Garden

Garden are done for the year. Yipee!

Goal #3 Plant an Orchard {Calling it Quits on this one.}

Lemon baby #3 is on the way and we are patiently awaiting her arrival.

Goal #4 Gussy Up the Potting Shed Done!

I gussied up the potting shed at our old house, but I would like to add some sort of potting station to the backyard here somewhere, but Im not sure where I would put it yet.

I did come across this photo on Author Susan Branchs Instagram page though of a picture she tooth at Colonial Williamsburg. Isnt it cute? I think I need one of those.

Goal #5 Grow Enough Extra Vegetables, Eggs and Flowers to Earn $1500 at my little roadside vegetable stand.

It was totally my intention to grow a ton of fruits and vegetables to sell at the farm-stand when I made my list of goals for 2019 last winter, but then we moved. So, that whole goal was sort of a bust. I do miss it though.

Goal #6 Finish Every Single Unfinished Rug Hooking Project in My Pattern Bin + 10 Things from back Issues of Magazines/Books Ive Been Meaning to Make.

While I didnt add any new finished hooked rug pieces in my Etsy shop this past week, I did hook 4 totally new rugs {1 of which will become a kit and 2 will be offered as patterns} as well as hand dyed a bunch of wool {that I was able to get listed in my Etsy shop}.

I have decided to go back to my old schedule of only listing new hooked rugs items on the first Friday of every month for next year as it seems less stressful to me. It allows me more time to hook, rather than stopping every few days to take photo, write up description and then post a single piece online. Doing it all in one big swoop seems less chaotic to me.

73 rugs in my pattern bin {now down to 16} < SO CLOSE!

183 hooked flowers {finished 150, now down to 33}

10 things from back issues of magazines {finished 0}

Goal #7 Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns {with at least half of them being large ones} DONE!

So far this year Ive added 12 new rug hooking patterns and 14 beginner rug hooking kits to my Etsy shop. I just added Santa and Rudy 1892 yesterday and am hoping to squeeze one more kit in before the end of the year.

New rug hooking patterns Ive created and added to My Etsy Shop this year:

Santa and Rudy 1892

Tullia and Thomas Turkey

Double Nantucket Whale Runner

Miss Henny and Penny

Miss Penny

Simple Kitty

Primitive Flowers

2 Fat Cats

Annabells Big Day

Old Fashioned Double Tulip

Fat Brown Hen

Busy Little Bee

Queen Bee

Rug Hooking Kits

Busy Little Bee {in 2 different colors}

Folk Art Heart

Small Nantucket Whale

Primitive Crow

Miss Robin {in 2 different colors}

Simple Kitty

Primitive Flowers

Sunflowers

A Basket of Spring Posies

Fat Brown Hen

Chickys Garden

Goal #8 Split and Stack 2 Cords of Wood for Next Winter

All that firewood! We sold it.

Goal #9 Do Something with the 5,002 Photos on My Phone

Currently at 2415 Back up to 2565.

Goal #10 -Lose the Muffin Top Done!

Sweet digity!

Goal #11 Run, Walk or Crawl a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon

As long as its not pouring rain tomorrow. The Girl and I are on for the Half Marathon. Wish us luck!

Goal #12 Read or Listen to 26 New Books {21 down, 5 to go}

No new books this week but we are planning a trip to the library later this week.

Books Ive Read or Listened to So Far This Year:

Marilla of Green Gables #1 Still my favorite

The Great Alone #2

The Aviators Wife #3

Before We Were Yours #4

Secrets of a Charmed Life #5

Whered You Go, Bernadette #6

Carnegies Maid #7

The Gown #8

Unbroken #9

Drama#10

The Alice Network #11

The Shape of Mercy #12

Wills Red Coat #13

Big Little Lies #14

Mr. Churchills Secretary

Born to Run

I Feel Bad About My Neck

Bunny Mellon {Doesnt count because it was my second time}

On Writing {Doesnt count because it was my third time}

Walden

Finders Keepers

Delicious!

50 Things to Do in Maine Before You Die

Following Atticus

Goal #13 Try 52 New Recipes.

39 down, 13 recipes to go. We tried 2 new recipes this week. 1 was a dud and the other I will share on Tuesday. And its a good one!

Goal #14 Clean Up 52 Old Recipes on the Blog

9 down, 44 to go. Why did I make this goal? Note to self: Make fewer goals for next year.

Goal #15 Fill 100 Canning Jars 72 down, 28 to go.

I made a batch of Christmas Jam for gift giving PLUS I tried a new recipe {that was inspired by Mrs. HB} this past week and the HH and I loved it so much, that Ill be making another batch {or maybe 2} of it today {Ill share the recipe on Tuesday}.

So far this year Ive I canned:

9 Jars of..

6 jars Christmas Jam

7 jars Spiced Pomegranate Jelly

7 jars Peach Jam

7 jars of Strawberry Jam

15 jars of Carrot Cake Jam

15 jars of Spiced Pear Jam

4 jars of Almond Pears.

Goal #16 Finish Furnishing Our House

We finished the roman shades for the kitchen nook and kitchen window. I plan on taking a break from making roman shades for the next month so I can finish making kits for my Etsy shop and paint out the entire kitchen area as well as finish a couple of art projects for the walls.

Goal #17 52 Dates with the HH {44 down, 8 to go}

The HH and I went on 2 date days this past week and one of them was to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village for their Shaker Christmas Fair and it was so overwhelming, we left after 5 minutes.

Overwhelming in the sense that although we could tell there was going to be a lot of people at the event by the distance we had to walk to the village, what we werent expecting was that once we walked in the doors of the trustees office {where the craft fair was being held}, it was SHOULDER to SHOULDER.

Like, being at a rock concert crowded. The HH didnt even make it 2 feet in before walking out and it took me nearly 5 minutes to get from the entrance and through 3 rooms and back out the door again without even being able to look or pick up anything it was so crowded. It was nuts. And totally not in the calm, welcoming Shaker spirit and all we wanted to do was leave. And so we did.

I do want to go back though at some point to visit the museum, but it will have to be an ordinary weekday with nothing on the event calendar, thats for sure.

Goal #18 Take One Adult Education Class Done {Ive taken 3!}

Block Printing Class with my neighbor.

Spoon Carving Classwith Heather.

Mini pottery lesson {I loved it! and now I want to sign up for a full class}

Goal #19 Secret Holiday Project{s}

Block print towels

Seed packet wreaths

Tea Bag Trees

Goal #20 Create 12 Wowie Zowie Party Platters

8 down, 4 to go. We are planning on making #9 tonight!

Goal #21 Visit 12 General Stores

10 down 2 to go. We visited a new country store yesterday!! The kind that offers human made {and local} baskets to customers to do their shopping with. Ill tell you all about it next week.

H.B. Provisions in Kennebunk, Maine

Chases Daily {I think it should count}

Squam Lake Marketplace

Harrisville General Store

Dodges Store in New Boston, New Hampshire

Zebs General Store in North Conway, New Hampshire

Dan and Whits in Norwich, Vermont

Husseys General Store in Windsor, Maine

Goal #22 Compete with Carole.. Get on My Front Door Game On

Would you believe not a single person walking by {or even a neighbor} has made a comment about the leg lamp in the window? I think theyre showing restraint, while my husband keeps telling me that they are in such awe of it, they just dont know what to say.

Ummmm Okay.

Front Door Bling Ive Made So Far This Year to Compete with Carole:

Late January : Valentine Heart

Late February : Shamrock

Late March : Giant Carrot

May: White wave petunia hanging basket

June/July: Tin Star and Flag Bunting

August : Sunflower

September: Indian corn and pumpkins

October: Pumpkins and spinner do hickeys

November: Indian corn and big pumpkins

December: Leg lamp and nutcrackers in the window and giant Christmas balls on the porch

**************

How about YOU? What are your goals for 2019? If you told us about them HERE, check in! We want to know how you are doing. Because seriously, its so much easier to get those goals checked off your list when you have people rooting for you!

Have a great day everyone,

Mavis

P.S. If you are looking for a last minute gift for neighbor or a friend, I still have a few ornaments left in my Etsy shop and you can find them all HERE. UPDATE: The barred rock chicken is sold out but there are a few more chicken ornaments HERE.

You can read more about my 22 goals for 2019 HERE.

Have a Great Day!

The post My 22 Goals for 2019 Week 49 of 52 appeared first on One Hundred Dollars a Month.

This content was original published at One Hundred Dollars a Month and is copyrighted material. If you are reading this on another website it is being published without consent.

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My 22 Goals for 2019 Week 48 of 52

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lesbitchka · 7 years ago

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alright, so i worked as a guide for one of the choirs at this competition for choirs from different parts of the world. three other people and i were assigned to the turkish group, which amounted to somewhere around 140 people, because along with the choir kids came their parents and a family run travel agency of 3 people

the choir by itself would have been perfectly fine, but the parents and the agency were set on treating the event as a personal holiday rather than an organized competition, and that’s where majority of the conflict arose

THURSDAY

one other guide and i are going to prague (300+ km) by bus to pick up our half of the group. the dispatcher wrote down the wrong times, so we were running an hour late. the other bus is on its way from germany and hits traffic

my bus driver tells me that he doesn’t like tattoos on women and asks me if it’s true that tattooed women are hornier, slaps my ass, keeps asking tmi questions

we’re an hour late, the other bus is two hours late. we inform Aysen, the lady from the travel agency that’s coming along with our half, together with her son. Ali, the husband, is in the other half of our group that arrived in the morning and went on to have a prague tour

both Aysen and Ali keep calling the respective guides every 10 minutes, asking when we’re gonna be there (Z - the other guide - and me in Aysen’s case, K and D in Ali’s). K and D’s buses weren’t even late or anything

“how much longer” “we’ll be there in half an hour soonest, 45 minutes is more likely” ..... 10 minutes later ..... “where are you” “half an hour away”

finally we arrive and while Z stays to wait for the other bus, i go back with the first bus and the first batch of people. it’s 15:30. the second bus wont be coming for another hour. the opening ceremony of the competition is at 18:00, more than 300 km away (a 4 hours long drive by bus at best)

Aysen demands we stop at the first gas station and wait the hour until their bus catches up. i refuse - the choir is on my bus, we’re gonna try to get to the ceremony

the second bus (with Z and Aysen on it) leaves the airport at 16:30. the ceremony is starting in an hour and half. traffic is bad that day. Aysen announces, that they are gonna make it. “I don’t want to hear any ‘buts’!”

my bus passes by a recent accident on the road, about halfway through. we’re lucky, the road isn’t closed yet, but the police are about to stop traffic. my bus driver calls the other one to inform him of the situation, so they can take a different route instead of getting stuck in a traffic jam for who knows how long

Aysen shoves her phone screen in front of the 2nd bus driver’s face. “why are we going this way? google maps shows that going this route is faster”

this route being the blocked one, of course. this happens three more times

“one child needs to pee” says Aysen. Z explains that there’s no gas station on the way and won’t be for a while and asks if stopping by a tree or bushes is okay. “one child. one child” repeats Aysen

they stop by a cluster of bushes. the bus door opens, five children and four adults get off the bus. “where are they supposed to go here?” Aysen asks

the ceremony ends at 19:30. their bus arrives to the hotel after 21:30

FRIDAY

it’s the day of the competition. there are too many people to transport at once, so we’re going in two halves by two buses. the first half is mostly parents and some children. the other half is most of the children, who are practicing at the hotel still, we’re told they’re gonna leave at 9:00. the children were assigned a changing and rehearsal room at the competition venue for 10:00-10:15

the first bus is ready at 8:30. there are about five people in front of the hotel, standing around and ignoring the bus completely. we finally leave a few minutes after 9

the entrance to the venue is from the main square. the square is pretty spacey, and as soon as we arrive to it, adults and children alike run in all worldly directions. we need them to stay together and get into the building

Ali is part of this half. we tell him to gather everyone and quietly follow us into the building. “okay” Ali says and walks away. everyone scatters even further

other choirs are already competing when K, me and our turks get there. one performance takes about 15 minutes

“parents can go to the competition hall and watch” parents and children both pour inside. the children were supposed to stay in the lobby and have the rehearsal at 10. they can’t leave the hall during performances. it’s 10:10. half of our group is inside the hall, the other is still on the way. another choir takes the rooms

back at the hotel, at 9:00, Z and D tell Aysen to gather everyone and get on the bus. “one more song” she says. the same repeats at 9:15 and 9:30. finally, they agree to get on the bus. one of the parents forgot something at the hotel and runs back inside. at 9:50, the bus hasn’t left the hotel

finally, they arrive to the venue. i grab one of the choir teachers and tell him to dive into the hall and grab the children. they won’t be allowed to compete if they’re not all gathered in the lobby at 10:20, which is when they’re to perform. the teacher is confused, but does what he’s asked. he’s one of the few reasonable people there, but communication is hard, since his english is mostly basic

finally, all the children are in the lobby, all the parents are seated inside. the teacher asks “why all children here? can they not watch?” i explain again that all the children need to be in the lobby if they want to be allowed to compete. we’re all operating on the assumption that all of the children are one choir group. the teacher is confused. i’m confused. finally, we find the root of the problem

“there are two choirs. some children sing in 4 hours in a different cathegory” this is the first time anyone is hearing about this. we had no idea and neither did the management. i let the teacher take the currently not competing children to go sit inside while the competing group gets on stage. they use the wrong doors to both enter and exit. i befriend the doorman and other staff. they sympathise with my misery

we have a lunch reservation for 12:00 for the first third of the group, 12:30 for the second third and 13:00 for the last. i tell Aysha to divide everyone into three groups so we know who’s who, so that we can arrive in time

“we’ll make groups at 12″ she ignores me when i explain that we need to already be seated in the restaurant by then

in the end, the first group are the youngest children along with the choir teachers and Ali + Z and D, second are the older children, Aysen and some parents + K and me, third are the remaining parents + K and D

Ali tells us to move the reservation to 11:30. the restaurant staff tell us that we can arrive whenever, so at roughly 11:15 the first group arrives

a tour of the city was scheduled with Z and D for after dinner and the other half of the competition, so after 14:30. Aysha insists that K and I, who are not prepared for a tour in the slightest, show the second group around

the third group of parents meanwhile scatter everywhere, and they’re due to meet at one spot at 13:00. which is some time after they’re supposed to already be post lunch with the new lunch times

we arrive with our group to the restaurant at 11:40. the first group is still eating. they’re still eating at 12. i ask Ali to speed things up. it takes 10 more minutes. D and Z take the group to visit two local churches

the reservation is inside the restaurant, but everyone gathers on the terrace, which is for other guests. the children are blocking the waiters’ path, children and adults both are taking up tables. then the first group joins in and there’s even more chaos while the staff get the inside ready again. i manage to send the first group off the terrace, but all our children sit down and take up even more outside tables

finally we can go eat, but Aysha and her group of adults refuse to move from the outside table. “our reservation is inside. you wont receive food here” i tell her. “dont organize” she tells me in a crude voice. organizing is literally my job. i leave to have my lunch and tell the staff to not worry and ignore them. they arent getting food unless they go sit inside. the staff are very friendly to me and K and we see the pity in their eyes

10 minutes before we’re supposed to be clearing out, Aysha&co finally find their way inside. when we have about 2 minutes left, i tell the children to go wait outside. i also tell Aysha that their table needs to clear out so the third group can come eat. K had gone to get them. “we leave when we’ve finished eating” says Aysha. i tell the staff to feel free to kick them out. they do. they also find out that we’re coming back for dinner and they wave me goodbye, terrified for me and them both

of course, everyone outside gathers in the middle of the terrace, blocking the path yet again. i tell them to leave. the children listen, but Aysha is ignoring me and an adult sarcastically asks me if she’s allowed to stay as a paying customer and have a coffee. they laugh

im going to meet up with our boss now and i call K that he’s clear to bring the third group inside. K is standing by the meeting spot, but he’s all alone. “guess they wont have lunch then” we’ve resigned

my boss fears whats gonna happen tomorrow, which is when i’m supposed to go to vienna with the adults by myself. so am i. she’s great and stands behind us in everything, already scheduling for us to meet with the director and main manager of the event so we can re-tell everything and see what can be done

then i come back after the second half of the competition to find out that while D was showing the kids feat. Ali the first church, the slovinian choir was inside, singing christian songs. they had it arranged with the church

but in the second church, our turkish bunch decided that they want to sing too. Ali asks D if they can do that, but when she’s explaining that they really can’t sing non-christian songs and wave the turkish flag inside a christian church, the kids have already gathered and are doing exactly that, and filming it on their phones. “one more song” repeats Ali and cheers them on. they sing for a good 15 minutes, while D stands outside, torn between yelling at them and crying

the city is the seat of the archbishop by the way. he’s literally one or two streets away from the church our entitled bunch of morons just desecrated

our boss nearly cries too when D calls her

we let everyone walk freely around the square for the next hour, while we wait for the awarding ceremony to begin on one of the stages standing in one of the square’s corners. we’re fearing dinner, and we have to get everyone to the hotel and back before that starts

Aysen asks about the buses when all four of us guides are standing by and waiting for everyone to gather. i start to answer. “i’m not talking to you” she bats her hand at me and drags K away. we’re all stunned

walking to the bus is a huge problem. we have two buses, so the first one has to drive the first group and come back for the third after. the nearest parking place where everyone can wait is a 10 minute walk away. Ali bitches constantly about the distance. he’s in the first group supposed to get on the bus, but everyone stops about 4 times and drags their feet. they stop traffic while crossing the street twice

in the end all three groups arrive to the parking lot at around the same time. Ali complains that only one bus is ready. there’s no space for the other bus until the first one has left

we plan for dinner differently. we only have one bus at out disposal now and we plan to send it out in 30 min intervals, so the groups aren’t in the city too early. we go over the schedule with Ali and Aysen, who write down the times and leave, saying nothing

dinner is at 18:00, 18:30 and 19:00. 19:00 till 20:30 is an open air concert at the square that everyone wants to go to. the first bus, which i’m coming with, is ready to leave at 17:45, but no one’s getting up, despite some children sitting in the hotel lobby. they tell me that they aren’t supposed to be leaving until 18:00, which is when the teachers who are coming along are coming down. the bus leaves at 18:20 and it’s past 18:30 when we get to the restaurant

Ali comes running to yell at Z when the second group is supposed to be getting on the bus that “everything is fucked up and everything would be great and perfect if he and Aysen were the ones organizing everything”. nor he nor Aysen remember agreeing to our time schedule, or that there was a time schedule

the waiter approaches me as soon as we arrive. Aysen and her table didnt pay for their beers and stuff they had at lunch

the second and third group insist on going right away and then complain that they have to wait on the square while the children finish eating. D joins me with the choir conductor and her right and left hand men, who were meeting with the jury. they help me get the kids seated, pick their food and finish it and leave the restaurant within a reasonable amount of time. they were hanging out with D for about an hour and bought her a perfume to “have something to remember them by”. we love these guys

the second group moves to lunch and my (and now also D’s) group arrive to the open air concert that had already started. the kids are supposed to depart to a children’s party at 20:00. i ask one of the right hand men if we can go there, since it’s 19:50 and the children are standing around and playing, bored. he tells me that the children are tired and won’t be going. i call Z, one of our group goes to talk to Ali

then Ali arrives and commands me to immediately take them to the bus, that everyone’s too tired to attend a party and that everyone’s going home right away. which, hey, good, we don’t have to stick it out with them and drive them to the hotel after the party, but the bus driver wasn’t expecting us to call so soon since we’d be going to the party on foot and so he takes half an hour to arrive for us

Ali is furious again that everything is taking too long and we had to walk too far meanwhile, even after i convince the driver to pick us up at a bus stop closer than the parking lot 10 minutes away

we meet with our boss after sending everyone to the hotel, and after telling her everything, she takes us to the main office to retell everything to the director and main manager. they are furious and leave to yell at Aysen, who stayed behind at the restaurant after dinner. we have no idea how to survive the remaining two days. K is coming to vienna with me

SATURDAY

Vienna

we already know that there’s gonna be a problem, because the travel to vienna is 4 hours. Aysen wants to leave at 16:00. the closing concert and absolute winner competition is at 19:00. there’s no way we can make it, but that’s what’s written in her itinerary. ours say to transfer back at 15:00. we dont care at this point. we’ll tell them that they can either stay longer and miss the show or follow our schedule and they can do whatever the fuck they want

the bus to vienna is supposed to leave at 7am. no one’s even outside the hotel yet. we leave at 7:30. we stop at a gas station before the borders. a ten minute break turns into another half an hour delay. Aysen&co sit inside the station by tables and drink coffee and have breakfast. we have a lunch reservation at Gutenberg at 12:00. they dont care

both K and i try to sleep on the way. at one point i hear Aysen say my name, start talking, then see that im sleeping and leave. when i open my eyes, she’s already gone and i have a tepid chuckle. she comes up again some time later. the driver is having none of it and tells her to go sit the fuck down. she hurries away. we have another tepid chuckle

i’m supposed to give the group a tour of vienna, we’re guides after all. an hour before vienna Aysen shows up again. K is sitting by the window, so she leans over me, totally ignoring me, and shows him her phone. “we have to pick up a guide in vienna. do you know this address?” explaining that she has to show it to the driver and ask him if he can even get there (and stop) by bus takes five minutes

the guide gets on. a woman goes to the front of the bus and asks the driver to stop somewhere. she leaves the bus and never comes back

when we get off the bus at 11:30, we tell the guide that there’s lunch reserved for us at Gutenberg at 12 and that it’s up to the group if they want to show up, but if they do, it has to be on time

Aysen is the one that cooperated with the main manager and our boss on ordering the lunch reservations and meals. she says she has no knowledge of a lunch reservation. the group decides to go

the guide gets us to Gutenberg at 11:45. we cant believe it. we’ve never managed to get anywhere on time with these morons. then the guide tells us to arrange with the restaurant and that he’ll take the group to Stephansdom and come back. we warn the waiter to cash in all additional orders right away so that the paying situation from yesterday doesnt repeat. other guests want to sit down at the reserved tables. the waiter gives us looks of both sympathy and annoyance. the group is 15 minutes late

all the food reservations were pre-paid by vouchers for the main course and one soft drink, anything else has to be paid for by the individual people. except in vienna, where they don’t accept vouchers from foreigners, so we were given cash to pay with after

we give the waiter a tip. he turns on his heel and commands the barman to pour us two shots of homemade strawberry vodka. “we’re gonna need it” we say. it’s delicious and the manager talks to us about the recipe. so far, the staff everywhere we’ve been has been amazing and i wish we could give out more tips. they deserve it for dealing with our shitfest of a choir

the guide asks us to come along, even though he is going to lead the group straight to the meeting place and even though i tell him that i know the centre and we can get there without him showing us the way. we’re stuck awkwardly standing around and listening to Vienna Sights 101 in turkish for the next hour

only half of the people are on the meeting spot by maria theresa platz at 16:00, which is when they decided to go. the bus is picking us up behind the naturhistorische museum, which is like 400 metres away. there’s a bus zone in front of the platz, but it’s for VIP vienna tour buses only

K asks Aysen if everyone’s ready to get up from the grass and go to the bus. she says that they will be once the bus arrives to the bus zone. K tells her that either they’re going or they’re staying in vienna. im proud

the bus arrives at 16:05. it’s only allowed to stand there for 10 minutes. we don’t have everyone until well going on 16:30

we sleep on the way back too. fuck them

there’s a car parked in the bus only zone in front of the hotel. it was there in the morning and it’s still there when we get back. the bus driver wants to call the cops. one of our turks gets off the bus and opens the car door. the bus driver goes off on him, yelling in czech. the man is terrified

“i didnt know” he insists. there’s a giant “BUS ONLY ZONE” sign at the parking place

Castle + nearby caves visit

Z and D are going with the rest of the turks to a nearby castle and caves. the whole thing was organized by Ali and Aysen, technically Z and D dont even have to be there. they were told by boss to go sit in the bus and leave them at it if they continue to be unmanageable

the caves manager said that if they’re not on time, they wont be getting a tour. there’s an hour and a half long delay before they even get to the castle

the reserved tour of the castle had passed and the group cant get one for another hour. Z begs the cashier with terror in her eyes. she knows she’ll be eaten alive by Ali, even though it’s his fault. the cashier agrees to give them a tour in 20 minutes after all. Ali is furious that they have to wait 20 minutes. “why cant they give us a tour now???”

in the middle of the tour, one of the adults goes up ahead. he’s nowhere to be found. the castle guide and Z both are desperate and looking for him everywhere, including closed off zones. they find him later, in front of the castle. he went for a smoke

they’re late to lunch. Z has to reschedule for a later time. 4 times. when they get their meal at last, the kids start throwing potatoes at each other. Ali doesnt care

no photos allowed in the caves. the choir is allowed to sing inside. after, they show Z videos they took of their singing

no touching of the walls or structures in the caves. we joked the day before about someone inevitably trying to break off stalagmites. it almost does happen. the cave guide sees the creeping hands and yells

Ali demands 140 seats for all the turks at the closing event. the director calls Z to ask how many people will be coming after all. Ali says: “probably no one” when D asks again later to be sure, he insists that everyone is coming. eventually, he tells Z to announce around 50 people

Ali and his pointer finger aimed up are infamous by now. it’s his go-to reaction. “okay” he says and walks away. nothing is okay

Back Again

there’s an after party for the choirs and the guides/management that night. everyone walks up to us with pity in their eyes. “you’re the turkish guides, right?” they ask in a solemn voice

“what did the turks do?” those who dont know, a minority, ask. “what didnt they do” we say, every time

thailand won the competition. none of the turks show up to the party. no one wants them there

SUNDAY

60 people are going to prague to have a tour before heading to the airport, the rest is going straight to the airport

the day before, Aysen asked how long we’re gonna need to get to prague. the travel is about 4 hours with good traffic, and the driver needs a 45 minute break on the way by law. Aysen moves the go time from 8:30 to 8:00. the other group is to leave 15 minutes earlier. at 8:00, no one’s outside

there’s space for two buses only. the group going straight to the airport has to leave first. several people keep coming up to us, asking where the bus going for prague tour is and why cant they get on one of these buses

all four of us guides are sitting in front of the bus. Aysen comes up to K with her phone. “we need to pick up a guide on this address” she tells him. K is not going with her group, i tell her. she turns to Z, ignoring me entirely. the conductor hugs us goodbye

at last, it’s time for the first buses to go. K is on one of them. Aysen points at me and the second bus, “you can get on too”. i tell her im not going with those. she looks furious. im happy i ruined her day. K and D leave with their buses a little after 8:30. we only have one 65 person bus. we’re ready to go around 8:45

we make a stop halfway through and i announce the obligatory 45 minutes.

Aysen bitches about the long stop, despite having known about the obligatory stop a day in advance. “it’s your fault we’re running late” she says when we’re on the way again and we say that we wont make it in time for our 13:00 lunch reservation. we explain yet again the obligatory pause

“the driver said the doors are open and we can go in any time” yes. he left the door open while people went out to buy stuff, they could go inside and outside the bus any time. Aysen tells us to do nothing about the reservation. “don’t worry, i’ll organize” she says

we want to call ahead, because it’s polite in the least, but we need to know the time for the reschedule. the driver told us that it will be another hour and half until prague, but then we still need to pick up the guide and we don’t know where he’ll want to take them and how long it’s gonna take to reach the restaurant from there. one of the adults sitting next to us, who until now was pretending he didnt know english, practically yells at us to ask the driver how long it’s gonna take

Aysen comes back a few minutes later, voice all honey. “i talked to the guide and he said to reschedule lunch, so call them” i want to point my finger and say “okay”

one of the women comes up to us to ask for the keys to the bus fridge to get a drink. we explain that the driver has to unlock it. she can’t just take the keys. in the end the driver gives me the keys and i go to unlock the fridge. one bottle costs one €, the woman asks if she can pay in CZK. i say that i’ll have to ask the driver, and she asks how much CZK one € is. a man sitting there says 26CZK. i say that it’s anywhere between 25-28CZK and again, i’ll have to ask the driver. he makes a hand talking gesture at me. im livid

we get off the bus where we picked up the guide. we remind him to take the group to lunch in time. “what lunch?” he asks

Z and I go off on our own and meet the group in the restaurant. they arrive on time, probably because it’s raining hard. after food, people start clearing out and going outside. Aysen is still sitting there, so i ask her what the plan is and where everyone’s going. “we’re meeting the guide in 10 minutes and he’ll take us to the bus” there’s no one outside when we step out

“what are you going to do?” asks Aysen. im confused and tell her that we’re also going back to the bus. “you’re going with us to the airport?” she asks, bewildered and disappointed

we drop them off at the airport, at long last. a few adults thank us and several say bye. Aysen’s son stops to say that he had a great time and to look him up on social media. Aysen pretends that she doesn’t see us, turns on her heel and walks away without a word

overall - dont bring in parents and a travel agency, because they’ll treat an organized competition like a holiday and fuck up the entire schedule. next time i want the thai choir

#guide exp #mod s #this is ok to rb if you wanna for some reason #txt

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qcatter · 7 years ago

Text

The Second Fourth of July

SO with the actual fourth of july and family making this take longer, (and the fact it’s exactly nine pages long in a small font) Shout out to @autumn-sweet-fae for just going thro all of the MIB AU, giving me a reason to just stick this up here on tumblr. Some notes for this, like most holiday specials it fits into the timeline the way DBZ movies do. Also T hasnt made his debut yet. (He’s a scientist that Reigen often goes to for under the counter help, and who’s relationship with Reigen is based on mutual blackmail and good natured ribbing.) IF you read very carefully you can find things mentioned here that Dinner and i havent posted yet either. Oh and pretend i actually know what the laws on fireworks are, i havnt been in this state for three years, or ever bought fireworks.

(once again, this was written for Discord, so the odd symbols are marks of formatting.)

Today was the Fourth of July, ~~Independence Day was never spoken aloud in the MIB faulty after that movie came out, it was bad luck of a sort.~~ It wasn’t one of Reigen’s favorite holidays. Aliens tended to find the Fourth as a wonderful cover up for gang fights since any weapons they might have could easily be overlooked as *fireworks* ment that the mib had to be on top of their game for normal business as well as the police call ins for disturbances. Almost as bad as Halloween, *almost*. *both* of them were set in the evening after dark when reigen’s soaps were on. Actually Reigen didn’t like any of the holidays. As a secret government worker he never got time off for them half the time, and the others he would volunteer since he didnt exactly have loved ones to spend the holidays with. This had changed recently. Unfortunately, Reigen had a pattern, a pattern that was still in the system seeing as he had actually asked for the fourth off and was still scheduled in tonight. He had just spent most of his dinner break going through every floor of the facility to find someone willing to stand in for him. To no avail. Which was why he was currently in the lower floors of the building holding an ear piercing peeping slimey thing that looked like the unholy offspring of emu and a velociraptor. “-and I had *told* them i was even willing to spend one of my vacation days to have today off, even if it was just the evening but they had written me in and no one will take this time slot!” The tiny bald birdthing in his hand shrieked as he half gestured with it and it dug its *not* so small talons into his palm. “Alright that looks like the first batch, hand that fellow over here Raygun. And im sure Sparky will be fine.” T set the kicking birdling next to it’s sibling in a heated box as he returned to egg watch. “He’s gone down to Thyme Square before right? I know he was saying he wanted to see the fireworks, but it’s not like you *have* to take him. Couldnt you spin it as an escort maybe?” Reigen slumped and waved that idea past with far less energy than normal. “Tried that, only works if he’s in danger or *is* a danger, and it’s not just Teru. Serizawa said that he would go with Teru since his classes are canceled and he’s only ever seen fireworks in passing. Apparently the higher ups in Claw never had time to stop and celebrate it, and Touchyrow wasnt even in the country half the time.” T glanced up at Reigen with a *knowing* and growing smug grin. “AH~” “*NO*, T it’s not that. If *teru* goes, and *seri* goes, then *SHOU* is going and you know him. What do you think ’Firecracker’ is going to do!? The kid tried to eat *lava* for petes sake!” “Oh. *oh*” “*exactly!*” Reigen threw his hands up in the air and then wiped the slime from them off on T’s labcoat. “*Thanks* Raygun, just what i needed, *more egg slime.* Seri might be able to keep Shou in check?” “If you said that last month i might have agreed with you, but it looks like Shou’s started to settle in. He *listens* but it seems that we’ve left the period of terrified obedience left over from his father’s influence. Shou’s actually pretty good with rules when they make sense to *him*. The problem is that he takes himself as close as he can to breaking them if he thinks of something interesting. ‘Dont burn the house down because we need it’ apparently translates to ‘ok keep the fires small’. ” with a groan many parents would sympathize with, reigen plopped his head in his hands. T looked thoughtful as he rotated an egg. “‘Dont try to catch the fireworks after they launch in the middle of Central Park because everyone can see you?” Reigen sighed and flopped down in the nearest chair. It tipped backwards and nearly sent him to the floor before he regained his balance in a flurry of limbs. “Cloaking, cant get caught if you cant be seen.” “Well shit then.” “That’s not even mentioning if Mob and Ritsu join them” “OH I’m sure the Kaygeyamas could h-” Reigen raised one finger sharply. “ One, fireworks give their mother a headache and, Two, their father’s lungs are bad enough they dont go. Mob said that this would be the first time since Ritsu was small enough to get piggyback rides that they had a chance to see them in person. And that was only because i said i was going to take Teru down and agree to watch them too.” “Mob might be able to help Seri. Sparky and Ritz listen to him and i know Shou pretends like he doesn't but he *does* defer to Mob” “Not with Ritsu around. Shou is always the wild card here and it’s going to be *crowded* if one of them slips up they’d pull the others with them. We *cant* afford having all of them to get caught like that. It’s why i was hoping you’d be off tonight.” They both looked over at the nest of 20 some eggs. One of them peeped while a few twitched. “I’m probably going to be here all night, we’re low staff as it is. Wish i could go Raygun, i’d love to see the S-Kids react to the fireworks.” “‘Pitty i’m not off, i’d love to see the *fireworks*’ you mean.” “Let’s go with that. And really, they’ll be *fine*. It’s just fireworks, if we have to, tell mob to tell ritsu to make shou *stay*. It’s a little underhanded, but if you just *hint* at the fact the Mib’s on high alert he’ll keep shou from doing anything too flashy.” “I’m still worried. Mob and Seri aren't good with crowds and they’re the ones that have the most sway.” One of the eggs cracked, T clicked his timer and then flipped the watch over for Reigen to see. “Shouldn’t they all be getting set up about now? You better give SherBear a call before your break ends.” Reigen stood up from his chair like a whale ungracefully breaching. Digging for his phone and trying to walk down the hall while kicking his leg to untangle the chair from his foot, he turned to shout back at T. “*RIGHT*, i didnt call him the last few hours, Sh- IT”S JUST SERI! Thanks for letting me rant at you, i hate it when i get stuck unable to *do* anything.” “You and me *both*!” As reigen left T toe-flipped the chair back up and sat down in it by the eggs. “Let’s keep it between us that i only let him talk so long because *you* guys need constant vocalizations and my voice was getting tired. Plus it kept him distracted long enough to stop him from calling Sher for the fifth time since he got in here.”

BY the time reigen got off duty and went home, the fireworks had been over for hours. Turning the key in the lock for the third try the door finally unlocked and he kicked off his shoes into the kitchen. While in the process of shedding his suit coat and wondering for the umtenth time how the MIB really expected you to wear the sunglasses at night, he tripped in the middle of the apartment. Reigen debated if it was worth the effort of getting off the floor in order to move to his bed when the rug seemed to be fairly comfortable. Before he could pass on on the floor the room brightened up greatly as reigen hissed and flung his arm over his glasses. “I’d say ‘morning’ but seeing as the sun hasn’t actually come up i suppose it still counts as night” “Nehh, dont you never wake up before the sun?” “Funny thing, it just so happened that someone stumbled into my house and passed out on the floor.” “Ha ha kid, im just, resting. I’ll be going to bed in a second, could you turn the lights back off though? They’re too bright right now even with the sunglasses on.” “I didnt turn the lights on Boss” Reigen blinked, looked up at Teru through the light glare, and then squinted over his glasses to see that yes, the lights *werent* on at all.“Huh weird, i can sorta see your energy field through the lenses. Very disco hippyish” Teru looked unsure of whether to be sheepish or smug about it, before blinking and then focusing on Reigen “It took us *three* weeks to explain the difference between the outer layers and the field and you could have seen them this whole time if you actually wore *your sunglasses?!*” “Looks like.” Shoving himself off the floor and leaving said glasses behind, reigen made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth while teru seemed to be screaming into his pillow with frustration. Or eating it. Could be both. Most of it seemed to be words at least, since reigen heard some phrases here and there. Such as “THREE WEEKS” and “SHOU”S COAT” with something about “COULDNT EVEN SEE THE DIFFERENCE” followed by “AND I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT HE WAS UP TO TONIGHT” It wasnt until reigen caught “NOT FIVE MINUTES IN HE JUST VANISHES WITH RITSU” that he realized that teru was complaining about more recent things. Pearing out of the bathroom at the array of shredded foam,~~*mauling* pillow in frustration, not eating alright then~~ Regien warmed up his job voice “Shou did *what* now, cause Seri said everything was fine over the phone.” Teru snapped his tail around pulling everything into one pile of foam. “Nothing!” “That didnt sound like nothing, what happened?” “...” “Teruki” “It started out fine! Serizawa picked me up early and we got a good spot out of the way with a good view, and then the Kaygeyama’s showed up and Shigeo brought this big heavy blanket and when we finished setting up he was just gone and so was ritsu. I didnt see them leave but Ritsu told Shigeo they were going to a different spot. Everything after was fine, Seri shifted but we just pulled some of the blanket over him and everyone thought he was a labrador. But when Shou came back he was *covered* in ash because he and Ritsu went up a tree and he was flying through the rockets like dodgeball and catching the remains” “Ok, but no one was seen then?” “What? No of course not! We know better than that!” “Then what are yo-, wait. Are you annoyed that Shou got to eat the fireworks and you didnt?” Teru huffed and picked through the remains of the pillow. “No. I had a nice evening with Shigeo and S- yes and i cant even *buy* them because im not ‘*old’* enough.” “Rockets arnt even allowed in the city teru, *I* cant even buy those.” “*i know*”

“I think the backyard fountains might be ok in some areas, at least, i should be able to find some if it makes you feel better.” “Shou said something about seeing better fireworks before. I think he’s going to be dragging Seri to the store in a few days for a sale. I gave him fifty bucks if he bought extra for me” “Smart, do you think he’d even give them to you?” “He better.”

Seri was helping Reigen pack the car. Even if it was just standing and holding over 80 pounds of meat and three bags of charcoal like they weighed no more than a pillow while reigen shoved stray hamburger wrappers out of the way and stacked the buns and condiments in a way that would still let all the kids sit inside. “There, all we have to do is stack those in the back and we should be able to get all four kids in, they’re still small enough.” “I could shift if you think it’s worth it.” “We have to hit the highway, so you would have to be down in the foot space so no one sees you” “That’s fine! Im used to busses and planes, it’s odd when i have all that room to myself” “I know and it makes *my* back hurt to see you fit in such small spaces” Teru and the brothers were sitting on the steps outside the building and one by one they turned and looked down the sidewalk. “Shou’s here.” “Are you sure Ritsu?” “It must be, who else would be coming this way with that many fireworks” Reigen twisted around to look. There was a stack of colourfull boxes on jeans walking down the sidwalk. *Many* boxes. Possibly more boxes than would even fit in the car. And most of them, from the labels that reigen could see, were very very much not legal in the city. Some of the boxes were *not* colourful and were completely *unmarked* and THOSE were the ones that really made reigen sweat. Because he could see fireworks poking out of them and they were very *large* rockets. Shou dropped the stack by the car with a grin. It went up to his chest which was puffed out proudly “I *told* you i knew some better ones.” Shou crowed, before going to tell the kids *all* about how *big* and *grand* the fireworks *he* got were. Somewhere in there was “bigger and better than the city ones” “On the sidethought, i think you might have to shift Seri, T’s bringing a second car but i dont think his little japoneze smart car has that much room in it.

“Are we there yet?” “...” “Are we there yet?” “I know i asked T about this before, but are we *sure* you guys breathe? *because im pretty sure shou sure doesnt.*” “We dont breath *air*, i spent three hours underwater once.” Mob looked thoughtful. “Didnt he say it was like plants? I think we just filter things.” “ARE WE THERE YET?” Ritsu sighed. “You know he’s just going to keep saying it until you answer” “*odd, that didnt stop him the last 16 times i told him no*” “:3c *ARE WE THERE YET*” “I dont think shou’s been on a road trip before.” “Nah, not since my mom took me out to see the stars” “I’ve never actually left the city at night, what’s that like?” “*more than you can count*” “Does the Milkyway look any different to you guys?” “*>:3c are we there yet?*” “Shishou i think im getting carsick” “ Do you need me to pull over? We’re almost there Mob it’ just arou- wait, how?” “It feels like i left my stomach back at the house.” “I think it’s probably because the car doesnt have a gravitational pull like the Earth does, I know I used to feel queasy on the planes until i figured out how to move with them.” “We’re on a ball of rock flinging itself around the sun at god knows what speed and the *traveling in vehicles* makes you feel sick” “Yeah Boss, *but you dont weight more than the car does*” “ARE WE THERE YET” “Oh for *Yes*. T’s got the grill, dont ask what he uses it for. Dont run off too far, this is a bit of a marshy area, watch out for ticks in the grass, Welcome to *nowhere* PA.”

“*Yesss*” “Shou, wh- DONT PHASE THRO THE CAR!”

While everyone else filed out in a normal fashion, shou was already ‘helping’ unpack the car. What he was actually doing was digging everything out and stacking them in haphazard piles that looked like a sneeze would topple them. Fireworks sorted in some strange system that made sense to shou and only shou, meat and other foodstuffs on top of the car, and what he was apparently after at the bottom, *the charcoal*. T watched in amusement as shou half disappeared into the trunk in order to grab the bag before approaching to snatch him by the pants and hauled him out bag and all. “Thanks for finding the charcoal for me firecracker, i know you werent trying to sneak off with one of the bags before we even got the grill set up.” Shou blinked at T upside down and grinned sheepishly. “Maybe” “That doesnt sound guilty at all, you do realize that if you wait about ten minutes we’ll have them all on fire and the food cooking and *then* you can start raiding the bags. I brought extra just because i know you rather eat the *supplies* than the food.” “THANKS T! Did i ever tell you youre the best? *’cause youre the best*” “I know i am, now go pull out the daytime fireworks and smoke bombs so we dont have bugs in our dinner while i go and stop reigen from confusing seri on the grill. Seri’s a master at this Ikei stuff and reigen still puts his shoes on the wrong feet sometimes.” “That explains *so* much”

Soon the air was filled with the smell of meat and veggie kabobs grilling and the sharp bite of chemicals as the kids set off sparkler wands and clouds of coloured smoke. Shou and ritsu seemed to be having a sword fight with their’s while teru and mob were writing their names in the air. Reigen returned from the piles of dubiously legal fireworks holding a handful of wands which he offered to seri in a flourish and passed a small bag to T. “I dont have a lighter in the car anymore and i think the kids have the matches right now, but i want to know how shou got *that*.” T looked in the bag and pulled out a smallish bottle with masking tape label saying ‘Na’. “Huh, shou’s got the same supplier as the mib” “Wait you know what that *is*? “It’s just pure sodium. There are less shady sources but this guy has a deal with us, we get half off and even print ads for other labs.” T rummaged farther into the bag. “Oh *neat* he’s got all kinds of homemade firework kits in here.” “T THAT IS *NOT* A ‘Neat’ THAT SHOU GETTING ILLEGAL THI-” “Oh none of these are illegal, i think, you just cant really buy them all too easily, it’s not like most stores carry them. Well, this one might be, but it’s just that since shou is underage that means he shouldnt have been able to get ahold of this. Actually on second thought, i’m pretty sure this is his *father’s* supplier. SO you might be more right than i am. I could make a ship with a warp drive and never get it out of atmosphere. I have a permit to buy everything but rocket fuel.”

“Youre not making me feel any better about this, T” T frowned down at the bag of elements and cardboard. “Well this might, Shou at least didnt bring the things that make starkids sick, so he either listens, or he ate them before this so we wouldnt know.” Reigen looked over where shou was gathering a handful of smokebombs and was trying to tie all the fuses together. “Hey! Make sure to save the leftover sticks, we can use those to light the fuses so we save the matches.” Ritsu looked up from where he was trying to light another sparkler, “*We have matches?*” Shou’s smile faltered for a minute.. “Oops?” “What have you been lighting them with then?” Teru shrugged, “phosphorous tastes good, and it’s not like we actually need them to set anything on fire. Sparks are easy enough to do.” Ritsu glared up at teru, “says you. Shou, how does this work again?” “You just pull a bunch of energy in one spot. Like picking things up, only instead of grabbing it, you jab it.” Turning the sparkler over in his hands, ritsu pinched the one end and pushed his thumb against the tip like he was popping the flower off a stem. The sparkler burst into life with a shower of sparks as ritsu jumped and pulled his hand away from the live end. “HA *told* you could do it! now light up my *masterpiece*” With a twist of light not unlike the heat waves on Phoenix roads, shou shifted into his starform. Curling in the air his brighter colours nearly blended into the sunset of the sky. Shou held his rainbow cherry stem collection for ritsu to light before swinging it into orbit around himself and flinging the smokebombs into the air with a mimicked shreeck of launching a rocket. They went up 60 feet before the smoke began leaking out and another 20 before they separated and fell apart leaving trails arcing to the ground like a radial rainbow and landed in the grass still hissing out smoke. Shou darted for the nearest one like a flaming arrow and dove into the blue column. “HEY RITSU LOOK!” Ritsu looked, and saw more blue smoke spreading out from where shou displaced it. “Shou i cant see you.” “Really? Not at all? What about you teru?” Teru glanced up from comparing the colours of the fading smoke to the stripes on his tail. He tilted his head, squinted at where shou’s voice was coming from, and rotated his eyes a degree like switching lenses in a microscope. “You are still in the smoke right? I’m not sure if im spotting your energy there or if it’s just the remains of the sunset reflecting off that cloud behind it. “YES!” Shou flickered into sight a few feet away from where teru was looking. “I’ve *never* managed to disappear into smoke before! Do we have anymore of those?” Mob looked at the empty wrappers shou had tossed in a box. “I think you used the last ones.” “Oh right, oh well, you know that this means?!” Shou floated over to the piles he had left and grabbed an armful of ground fountains. Ritsu handed the last remains of the sparkler to his brother and looked back at where reigen was attempting to fish out a dropped burger from the coals. “Actually i think it’s dinner time” Shou’s eyes got wide as he let the fountains drop limply from his arms. “Oooh right *food.* i forgot. RACE YA.” Zipping to the table only to u-turn on a dime and grab a firework from the bottom of the pile, he tossed it into his mouth before returning to sit next to teru place like the model of the hungry teenager he was. Shou grinned smugly at teru as ritsu and mob sat next to them. After all the only point of winning was to get the food first. “Pass the fruit salad *please~*” Teru looked shou in the eye, scooped some for himself, and passed it to mob. Shou pouted. Mob looked between teru and shou before passing it to ritsu. “Oh *come on* really?” “Oh sorry, it’s just that ritsu likes it and you tend to take what’s left.” “Yeah that’s fair, but i’d *share* with him.” Serizawa looked at the table nearly covered in food. “Um, reigen, what is this table doing out here anyway?” Reigen paused from eating his burger to wipe the sauce from his face and answer. “Donno, We’re not too far off the Poconos and the Appalachian Trail. You can head down almost any dirt road here and find a picnic table, it’s *weird*. Why does anyone wants to eat outside with all the bugs. Well, i guess the grilled hamburgers are worth it.” “Oh! Speaking of, here shou, i salvaged the victims of reigen’s cooking and shifted the ashes from the coals for you.” “Did i say T was the best? Scratch that, *youre the best seri*” “HEY, *You burned some of them too! Dont blame them all on me!” “Yeah Raygun, but seri’s doesnt flip them ten feet into the air for them to land land five feet away from the grill. Where did those go by the way?” “...”

shou had been the second to the table, he was also second last to leave it. The setting twilight and full stomachs had left teru half asleep and shou was stacking the left over plates to encase him. The rest of the group was slowly gravitating to the pile of fireworks placing blankets on the ground to sit on in anticipation. Mob stretched out on the back edge and propped himself up on his side with his tail curled around the right edge like a barrier. Ritsu immediately hauled his blanket over to his side to claim the area in front of him while T dumped a pile of pillows in the center and kicked them apart and dropped onto his back next to where Serizawa joined Mob in starform and was bunching a blanket and laid on top of it like a saint bernard sized sphinx. Reigen surveyed everyone before clapping his hands together. “Alright, everyone’s eaten, garbage has been gathered, or also eaten while i wasn't looking,” Reigen sat down on Seri’s other sit and twisted back to look at the last two remaining kids. ”Someone needs to wake up teru before we can start.”

“I GOT IT”

“I’m not alseep shou *dont you dare*” “K, and since we seem to have misplaced the matches in someone’s stomachs, who wants to do the weird trick to set these off? You can take turns, just be careful.” Shou stopped pulling up grass and sprinkling it on teru to dash over in a blur of orange light. “I DO, I’LL GO FIRST I GOT THEM AFTER ALL” Shou hovered over the pile and grabbed a small thing with a paper bee pattern, flicked the fuse over his wrist like a snap bracelet and threw it at teru. The firework let out a handful of large yellow sparks before giving out a sharp shriek. Teru echoed it as he lit up, tripped over backwards, and glared at shou from where he was tangled in the table as his stripes strobed as if he could give shou a seizure in retaliation. The nearby fireflies begin blinking their way towards him even after he stilled his colours. “SHOU WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE YOU THINKING YOU COULD HAVE HURT TERU” “Nah he’s fine,” Shou had the audacity to look at Reigen like he was crazy. Flicking his tail at the firework which was cheerily spitting sparks at Teru and bouncing off the air eight inches from him Shou went on. “you would have to set one of the bigs ones off and hold it right against his side before he felt it. A little spark like those wouldnt have even gotten through my old coat.” Reigen sighed and rubbed at his face. “It’s not like you could have *known* tha-” Shou puffed out like an angry cat with the low building yowl behind it. “I *do*. The larger sparks are like being bitten by a bug, not that any of us would know what that’s like since we’re *living bug zappers.* “ Teru pulled himself out of the table with the grace of a snake and reached down to crush the now dead firework before somewhat agreeing with Shou. Drifting over to join the others with the cloud of fireflies merrily following him teru tucked himself next to Mob’s spot half curled into a knot and claimed the other two sides of the blanket. His tail perfectly mirrored the six inches from the corner as mob’s did, as if he was trying to hide the fact he was longer in length without letting anyone notice. The bugs continued to flash and attempted to land on him only to veer off at odd angles as they got close. The few that didnt flash managed to touchdown on the bright yellow/green patches and flashed in time as the stripes passed under them in waves. Teru sighed. “They're just as annoying though, at least *those* i can fry out of existence” Mob gave him a look. “*deflect* and strongly encourage to fly elsewhere. And not everyone holds as much energy in their field as you do shou. That’s how you *lose* it.” “If you makes you feel better Sparky,” T grinned, “im sure you're a very *pretty* firefly” Teru flicked his stripes blue for a moment causing the bugs to scatter and circle in confusion like dancing stars. Shou waved his tail into the swarm to show how the lit bugs also failed to make contact with him before giving reigen a challenging look. Reigen sighed as, once again, shou continued to prove normal rules didnt apply to him. “OK, fine. Starkids are mildly firework proof, *im* not. Neither is T, or the grass. Possibly Ritsu.” Ritsu shrugged “It hurts if i let them touch my skin for a few seconds but it builds up to the burn” “Right, so try not to throw any around please. Last thing we want is a fire and i *know* you guys aren't fireproof. Wait, Shou eats fire, T help?” T waved his hand in a iffy motion “It’s the energy transfer, um think sugar glass? If you get enough that makes it hard to break through but it still hurts. Huh, that would make fireworks like candy then.” “YUP.” Shou popped a handful of ground snappers into his mouth and spat out a bit of smoke. Hooking another fountain and tossing it *unlit* to teru as a peace offering, he spun thro the air. “Come on! Everything’s fine, no one’s hurt, you two can stand next to Mob if you’re worried about sparks, he’s got like, a three foot clearance. Seri’s got like, *five*. And i got a *stack* of these shitty fountains we can munch on while we use the *good* ones” Mob and Ritsu glanced at each other. “Wait we’re not setting these off first?” “We used to go in order of size when our dad got them.” “Nah, they arnt worth the gunpower” Shou grabbed a bundle of rockets wrapped around a single pole and stabbed it into the ground. “Now *these*, *these are worth it”* and planting his hands on the ground Shou cracked his tail like a whip across the fuse as it sparked and Blasted one rocket into the air. The head of every starkid snapped to follow it’s movement with all three eyes. The resulting ring of colours was surprisingly large for a three inch rocket. As the white faded from the air the next rocket caught and launched after it. The green jitterbugs spun and wiggled through the air as shou echoed the whistle and followed the movements like a bee dance. The third one shou chased up after as it shot off and he darted underneath it after a purplish ‘bug’ and snapped at it. Twisting around to avoid the next rocket he dove back down to the group and grinned. Then spat out the spark that flashed and fizzled in the middle of the air between them. With the “THLP” signaling the launch shou flipped in the air to go after it only for Seri to lift a paw from the blanket nest. Everyone but Teru missed the explosion in favor of watching Shou squirm in the air as he slowly drifted down and flattened against the ground. “Shou no. You dont want to catch that in the air before they go off, you cant eat them faster than they explode.” “Yeah Firecracker, dont play fetch with the fireworks, i think Raygun’s having a heart attack.” Shou dug his claws into the dirt and huffed. He twitched as another launched and glared at Seri until he put his paw down, letting Shou drift back into the air. Teru was glad that no one could see his second set of hands. While he looked to be sitting perfectly poised, he had his own claws dug into the blankets to stop himself from jerking after fireworks as well. “I wasn- yeah fine. *i still wanna catch it tho*.” “Why dont you just eat the other ones then?” “those dont *move*” Shou fluttered over to the boxes and emptied them out and stuck the rest in the ground before snapping a claw over the fuse of one. “What, do we need to toss them for you? If it makes you stop going after the rockets we can. Not going to light them though.” “Nah im good on food, it’s just that they dart off *fast-*” The next rocket went off and shou *lunged* only for Teru to make a sharp ‘Stri!ik’ sound at him and Shou flipped back like he *wasnt* just about to chase down the firework. T perked up at the sound teru made more than any of the fireworks as he pulled out his phone and clipped a bit of video. “Oooh Sparky that one’s ‘come here’ right?” Reigen stared at T in disbelief. “Have you been recording this whole evening?” Ritsu glanced over from where he was leaning against his brother side. “No that was ‘stay’, this one’s ‘come here’” and ritsu gave a whistle of a quarter note followed by a higher eighth. Shou flashed over to his side and wiggled himself between Mob’s inky darkness and Ritsu’s back with a placating warble. “It’s a bit longer, but i think it’s the same base of ‘here’. ‘There’ is a bit lower and longer than both of them” ritsu frowned. “Or shorter?” Shou settled like an oversized neck pillow and flipped upside down to look at both ritsu and T. “Depends on how *far* ‘there’ is. You say it first and hold it as long as you need to. Pops used to laugh when people asked where he was from and kept it up for ages underneath his words.” “Huh, do the fireworks say anything?” Mob blinked down at T. “Not really? It’s a bit flat, but some of them sound like you startled them and they want you to back off” “Yeah, they do kinda sound angry in a way, but the ones that *pop* are the BEST” Crackling along with the firework pack’s final five rockets, shou’s constant movement made him slip sideways off mob who caught him from tipping over completely in the curl of his tail. Shou peered over at Teru with a grin as Ritsu wrapped an arm over him to hold him still and take advantage of his warmth. “Hey *teru*, you wanna set off the next pack? Or is your tail too jagged to reach that far?” Responding with a “*easily~*” Teru snapped his tail like a lightening bolt and with a fizz the last set burned and started shooting off small white streams. Then shot off one that flew up high. It went off with a thunderous *bang*”that shou mimicked with a bark like a car backfiring. Followed by two more. “Shou this isn’t just flashbangs is it?” “Nah it’s got others in it, there’s just a few in the start first.” Watching the orange trail of the next one everyone was surprised when Teru joined Shou’s echoing with his own electrical short of a bang.“Does th-” Before T managed to ask them what it was about he was cut off by another flashbang as the two of them repeated the sound. Followed hesitantly by a chime of a struck wineglass from Mob. “Do you guys like these or what?” Ritsu looked just as baffled as Reigen did while the sky popped and shrieked with colours. “Niisan normally hates the loud ones.” “Oh, it’s just that Shou and Teruki already responded so i thought i might as well too.” T pounced on that phrasing as he did with any other tidbit about starkids’ natural behaviors. “SO that *means* something? *What?*” *BANG* Seri stopped twisting the blanket into knots as the others continued their chorus. Shou’s immediate smaller echo, teru, who had refined his sound into something more viola based, and mob’s short ringing ping. Tilting his head as he listened he attempted to find words for such a short sound. “I’m not sure if it’s actually asking for a response, it just seems expected, but it’s a bit of a ‘i’m here. Who’s there?” BANG, BaNG, thi!vvvz!, Thri!ing! “That doesn't sound anything like ‘here.’” “I know, it’s *flat* sounding, but you dont have to say* youre there, that’s just implied.” “Yup! ‘Im *me!’ works just fine. All ya have to do is just sorta say something that sounds like you,” Shou twisted out of ritsu’ grasp and swam in the air over Serizawa. Reigen looked over at shou who started poking and “pip”ing at Seri. “Wait so it’s basicly a great big hello?” “It’s not that friendly, the whole game is not getting caught unless you think you can win. I *so* wouldnt announce myself if i didnt know it wasnt’ actually anyone there. Or if you guys werent here. Pops was deeper than ‘feel it in your bones.’” Switching from poking with claws to digging them in and *pulling* Shou kept at his antics at bothering Seri into paying attention. “Come *on* youre the only one that hasn’t done it. And youre the *biggest*, come oooonnnn.” Shou flopped on top of Seri and flailed dramatically as he held the whine longer than humanly possible. “We dont live over here shou, and there isn’t actually anyone there to hear it.” “*That’s the point* it’s just us. It’s not like the *space* police are going to get you.” Shou glanced over at Reigen. “He’d have to eat more veggies than burgers if he ever wanted to pick you up.” “HEY, i resembl- *resent* that statement. So if’s it’s not ‘hello’ than what *does* it mean?” Shou grinned as the final rocket launched and *boomed*. “*POLO*” ~~almost could end it here~~

Epilogue --

Packing the cars was much simpler with only the bedding to toss in. The park may have had a ‘carry in, carry out’ policy, but trash had a habit of disappearing after reigen’s cluster of starkids had last doubled. Reigen did one last head count and coming up short on the shortest one, only for ritsu to tap the green jacket in his lap as shou sprawled over the laps of everyone in the back. “It’s a miracle, Shou actually *sleeps*.” Only for his head to pop back up and hazily face reigen’s voice, and then drop back into Ritsu’ lap. Teru was already passed out and was leaning on mob’s sholder. “Well it was *almost* a miracle.” Seri shook his head. “You can find him tucked into places all over, i think the real miracle would be if he actually slept in his own bed. Im just glad i’ve been finding him in the house more often.” Somewhere off in the woods near the highway another few fireworks lit up the horizon. “So we never did hear what your ‘polo’ was.” “OH, um sorry? I’m not really good with most Starsong-” Shou rolled over and gave a softer version of the sound he made from before, now more recognizable as the ‘pop’ of a fireplace. The sound of a water hitting a stone cliff at *just* the right angle followed it as Seri covered his reddening face with his hands. The silence that followed was only broken by the snickering from Shou attempting to repeat it with the *distinctive* sound of a soaked towel slapping against a wall. Reigen bit back his own laughter as he looked between Seri and the road. “*THAT* was the most *inelegant* sound i have ever heard you make. They’re normally so *serene*.” “It’s. They’re just white noise really. Theyre not that nice.” “Are you kidding? There’s a reason people have hours of recordings waves and noise. Theyre *peaceful*.” Half letting go of the wheel, Reigen started conducting the sounds. “That Shooosh *swisssh*, the bubbly purr you do when you do that thing where you twist your tail when your nervous. That rush of roaring water you make when you angry is terrifying but i like that one too.” “You *like* those sounds?” “Hey, i like them too. I wouldnt copy them if i didnt!” “Shou you made fart noises for the first hour of the car ride, i thought you just liked to copy the most annoying things you hear.”

“Well yeah, *i like them*. Your’s arn’t annoying, it’s your *sound*. Do you know how hard it is to change accents?” “Um, harder than learning a new language?” “Yep, and that’s your’s.” Shou broke off with a squeak of a yawn. “Reigen’s isnt as nice tho, can you keep it down?” “Sure it’s late anyway.” “Oh um Reigen? Could you not tell T? He can be a bit insistent about the alien stuff.” “No problem, he’s just like that with everything it’s his job and his life, 24/7. Tell him no and he backs off, he’s good with lines. Just dont tell him i was the one that ate those burgers i flipped off the grill.” “deal.”

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#mib au #watch me post this and edit little errors fr the next three days before i try rewritting it #it started a a PLAY SCRIPT #nomrmally i do discprictions not DIALODGE

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