#like at first i thought everything was a misunderstanding and gave so many chances but it only can happen so many times before it looks lik

[jade-curtiss]

"Let me take nothing you care about seriously and make fun of your traumatism on top of creating new others, it'll be fun"

"how come you hate me? It wouldn't have happened if I would have listened you communicated more."

[icycoldninja]

Hello! Can I please make a request for some heavily angsty headcanons for Vergil about his s/o being Mundus' daughter and her also being Nero's mother?

Absolutely!

Vergil x Mundus's Daughter!Nero's mother!Reader headcannons

-Because of the stuff your dad (Mundus) put him through, Vergil was very wary of you when you first met, which was likely in Hell.

-He gave you the cold shoulder most of the time, not wanting to get involved with someone related to his greatest tormentor.

-Through perseverance and by trying very hard to demonstrate how you're not going to hurt him, you managed to prove yourself to Vergil, convincing him that you're not like your father and that you only wanted to help him escape.

-Obviously, your dad knows everything that goes on and was aware of your attempts to make Vergil open up to you. He didn't care at first, thinking you were just having some fun with the half-demon, but then he saw how your relationship was becoming more and more serious, and heard you talking with Vergil about leaving.

-It's an understatement to say he wasn't happy about the idea of you leaving, and threatened to kill Vergil if you kept contacting him.

-That was the last straw for you, and so you decided you would escape from Hell with Vergil. The journey was difficult, and both of you got injured along the way, but you made it in the end.

-After taking a few days to rest, recharge, and recover, you guys ended up drinking too much alcohol to forget the pain and eventually spent the night together. This is how you got pregnant, but you didn't know about it until much later.

-You thought that you and Vergil could go find a nice, quiet place to settle down, hopefully keep out of the public eye and maybe even get married if you were lucky, but your father, Mundus, had other plans.

-He sent some of his servants after you, convienently chosing the middle of the night to do so, forcing you to flee without even getting a chance to say goodbye to Vergil.

-You thought you could explain what happened later, when you returned, but the demons chased you out of the freaking country, and when you finally lost them, you were lost too.

-By the time you managed to sort yourself out and secure passage back to where you and Vergil were staying, he was gone. Though you didn't know it, he'd woken up in the morning, assumed you'd worked up to this point just so you could get in his pants and run away. Hurt, he immediately began packing up and left as well.

-You never got to tell him about the mortal danger you were in thanks to your father, and he had no idea about the son you were now carrying.

-Sadly, you'd hardly get any time to spend with your son either, because once he was born, your impatient jerk of a father (now a grandfather with the advent of Nero's birth) sent his demons after you again, and you were forced to leave him with an orphanage while you fled for your life, distracting the creatures from your son's existence.

-Orphanages shuffle kids around a lot, so by the time it was safe to come out and get your son back, he'd been transferred so many times, no one could remember where he went, and after years of searching, your last lead was found to be an orphanage that had burned down in a tragic accident; all records were destroyed.

-You would never have a happy family reunion until Nero was all grown up, and even then, there were misunderstandings, accusations, and a lot of explaining on everyone's part.

-Vergil was still very hurt, and for a while, refused to believe what you were saying was true. Nero was mad at you for abandoning him when he was a baby, even after you explained yourself, and gave you silent treatment for weeks. It seems that no matter what you do, the boys just won't give you a second chance. In Nero's case, the shock is damaging, and Vergil has carried resentment for years.

-There really may be no saving this family.

[meowmeowmeowmeow4x]

Dark Blue Moon and the Suffering Sun Chapter 13

I hope you all enjoy! please comment and reblog and tell me what u enjoyed <3

MASTAPOST

The reality hit Maddie like a truck, once they’d ferried the kids home, and returned to Fentonworks. Bruce Wayne had excused himself, and went back to his hotel after bidding farewell to them.

That left her and Jack alone on the couch. Jazz was upstairs, probably studying psychology and sciences, on her way to be a genius just like her family.

Just like Danny.

Tears wracked Madeline. Jack was openly sobbing at the couch. Not the silly way he would sometimes cry at small things that he would get over quickly. Maddie could feel the bone-deep anger and grief seeping through her and her husband.

She needed to tell Jazz. Tell her what had happened. But she dreaded the thought of talking to her daughter in this state. It wouldn’t do to give her the news and then break down underneath Jazz’s feet.

That thought didn’t do much to stem the tide. Maddie idly reached for the tea, cold from where they’d left it in the afternoon. The realization that this was happening again, again in the family, rocked her to her bones. Maddie’s mind conjured up images of blood over wooden floors, and red hair spilling out and covering still, dead eyes. Claw marks over a bruised throat.

She had trusted Danny. Loved him more than anything. What mother couldn’t trust their child? That sweet boy whose eyes sparkled with kindness and who jumped up and down on dreams of seeing the stars. His kindness meant he gave anything a chance. She had thought she’d lost him. She had raged and tore through everything and everyone and suddenly, through no result of her actions, he came.

And now he was gone again. Taken, just like her great-great-grandpappy. Just like so many others across the world. Just like Alicia’s son. Never to be seen again.

There had to be a way, an answer. There had to be some kind of inconsistency in the data. Something that could show the path forward, a path where her baby boy could still be out there and able to returned home safe.

Maddie descended the stairs into the labs, ready to look over dusty notebooks, and old journals. Jack followed her soon after, not a word exchanged between them.

To say Bruce Wayne was shaken was an understatement. That girl, Samantha, had no idea what she was talking about. All Bruce was interested in was the safety of his son and Daniel Fenton, and the pursuit of justice.

That didn’t mean she would’ve had a point, once upon a time. How Jason came back, but it wasn’t a joyous celebration, but the beginning of more pain, more misunderstanding and accusation. How Damian first came to them. He had a son who had finally returned home, but there was no celebration then either.

They had just started to get along again. They were this close to being happy.

Bruce held his head in his hands. He needed to review the facts again. The facts, the players, the unknowns and mysteries. Damian just had to be out there, he just had to.

Sirens, the GiW, the Fentons… Where to begin?

A message pinged on his comm. It was from Tim. Had he finished sifting through the files?

Bruce opened his laptop, seeing an email with attached analysis and files. Good work, Tim. He knows how hard it must be for him, to dedicate this effort into saving a brother with whom he had a very rocky start.

The email confirmed many of his suspicions. Tim was able to recover the majority of the files that Tucker Foley had attempted to destroy. Damning evidence showed Samantha and Tucker engaging directly against various sirens, using magic and technology respectively. Daniel Fenton was nowhere near such attacks, but his role as supplier to Phantom was clear. At several points over the last few months, the boy could be seen sneaking into secluded areas with experimental weapons and gadgets stuffed into his pockets, that would later be seen in the webbed hands of Phantom.

Daniel was hardly ever seen in the same vicinity as Phantom, or any other siren. That was not surprising. The kid wasn’t athletic in any way like Samantha, nor did he have her talent for the mystical arts. He didn’t have Tucker’s affinity for technology, either. That, combined with the obvious discomfort around his parents’ grudge against sirens meant that it was reasonable he’d avoid being seen around sirens at all costs, while silently supporting them from the background.

The kid had his convictions, was for sure. But what kind of motive would cause the boy to do such a thing? Going against his parents was normal, almost ubiquitous at that age range. Did this trio harbour desires of becoming a hero, like Dick and Jason and all others that followed?

Tucker Foley kept Tim and the Batcomputer out for half an hour with nothing but a laptop. Sam Manson had an incredible drive to do right, and a less impressive sense of restraint (it pained him how much of his children that reminded him).

It was clear they had the hearts of heroes, and the potential too. But those desires landed his children in immense pain over the years, failures Bruce would regret for the rest of his days, and now those same failures repeated once more.

He needed to do this, for them.

The GiW were suspect. He would need to direct the Batcave into cracking their secrets open. Those men could not be trusted one bit. Not their DNA test, not their documents, not their badges. And certainly not for their CSI skills. They didn’t even report whether there were signs of a struggle on the island where Damian’s blood was found!

And for what motives did the sirens even abduct people in the first place? The more he considered, the more the GiW’s explanation of Damian being devoured seemed like utter bullshit. He hoped that was not denial speaking.

Bruce began to plan.

His phone rang. He ignored it. He formed a list of contacts to call upon for advice and consultation.

His phone rang again. He made a web of connections to the Fentons.

His phong rang, rang, rang again. A collage of every unsolved missing persons’ case ‘from the last twenty years.

The phone answered itself on speaker. It jolted Bruce from his work. Alfred’s stern voice sounded out. “Master Bruce, you are spiraling again, sir.”

Bruce hummed. “I’m working, Alfred.”

“Yes, I know. However, in your pursuit to discover Master Damian’s whereabouts, I must remind you that your other children still need their father. Master Timothy is on his eighth cup of coffee, and Master Richard has sent twelve common crooks to the emergency room. Master Jason had to calm him down, sir. They need you, sir.” Alfred stressed.

Bruce stood up, his back cricking from the strain of hunching over documents and files. He stared at the growing pile of papers on his desk and tabs on his laptop, before sweeping them all to the side.

“You’re right, Alfred. Thank you for reminding me.”

Why? Why? Why, why, why, why why? That was the question running through the Fenton parents’ heads as they combed over observations, data, charts, and historical records. The documents and files sprawled out over the floor of the lab. They had to find the connection, if there was one out there.

Why did the sirens abduct humans?

Despite what the goons in white thought, the biologist in Maddie found herself doubting it was all for food. Considering their latest population estimates, the amount of humans required to sustain siren numbers was completely impractical.

Ok, maybe they don’t have to eat humans, but do it as a luxury?

Such a hypothesis would have seemed more plausible, had there not been a plethora of new data counteracting that point. The Amity Island sirens pursued a number of different goals, very few of which overlapped, very few of which involved eating humans in any way. If there was an incentive to eat humans or even just abduct, then far, far more people would’ve been grabbed off the piers and beaches, even if Phantom could stop them all.

That lead to another question. Why would the sirens of Amity not even bother with abductions for the most part, when the majority of sightings and suspected siren incidents were brought to light because of the missing people?

Maddie kicked the wall. The impact resounded and echoed through the room.

Jack wrapped his arms around her waist tenderly, a calm presence. Maddie’s heart relaxed a little, the scent of chocolate bringing her back to warm nights with the kids. “You know this reminds me of a story grandpa Fenton told me about when he was a kid back during the war.” Jack said quietly. “His grandpa used to be a surveyor or analyst or some kind of smart guy at some big factory, makin’ planes to fight the Japanese. One morning he was banging his head on the desk.”

Maddie wasn’t sure where Jack was going with this, but she nodded for him to continue.

“And so Grandpa Fenton asked him, ‘Gramps, what’s the big deal?’ and great great grandpa showed him these pictures. They showed where bullet holes would appear, said it was to design better armour for ‘em. But the strangest thing was that none of the bullet holes were in the engines or near the tail. Gramps was seriously worked up about it! Spent all day pacin’ back and forth.”

Maddie gasped. Jack continued, although trailing off. “Anyway when Grandpa Fenton told me about it, all I could think of was how nice that they had planes comin’ back anyway. Have you seen the casualty rates for those things? Gave me the stuff of nightmares!”

Information whirled through Maddie’s head.

“And that’s how I gave up my dreams of being a fighter pilot!”

“Jack, you’re a genius!” She shouted. Jack blinked.

“Huh? What for?”

Maddie jumped up and kissed her amazing husband. This was a breakthrough.

It was survivorship bias. The reason none of the planes returning had bullet holes in the engines and lower fuselage was because the planes that had taken hits there were too damaged to return in the first place!

They were too busy looking at what they could see and not spending enough time looking for what they couldn’t. Jack’s great, great grandpa needed to look at the situation holistically, and from there it would all make sense.

What did that mean?

Sirens were crafty. And as they learnt from the attacks on Amity, they were petty, ambitious, power-hungry, lustful, and vengeful, among many other insidious attributes.

She and Jack had been fixating on the missing people cases, but what if those cases were only a small number of the illicit criminal dealings these monsters had been unknowably perpetrating in the human world? And if sirens can commit many, many other crimes than mindlessly violence and murder, then that means there could be any number of other reasons they could abduct a human.

If they wanted revenge or to satisfy their bloodlust, would they not have left a body somewhere? But no such body of either Damian Wayne or Danny was found. If they ate the boys, then the blood would’ve attracted sharks, but no sharks were to be found either.

Terrifying scenarios passed through Maddie’s mind. Slavery, trafficking, arena fighting. Any number of horrendous crimes that would not require any spilt blood. Horrors unimaginable for a woman to see her child suffer through. But a tiny, faint light shone through all of them: hope.

Because she had reason now to believe Danny and Damian Wayne were alive, out there somewhere, praying for their parents to come save them from the nightmare.

Jack blinked, expression blank. “You know I don’t mind staring at your beautiful face for hours, but I feel like there’s something you’ve figured out.”

Maddie’s eyes turned steely and determined. “Jack, get the SAV ready. We’re going on a hunt.”

The only one who knew where the boys were was Phantom, and Maddie would extract every secret that menace kept, even if it meant tearing him apart. Molecule. By. Molecule.

[jetblackromance]

Lately I've been seeing a lot of posts about people reading Neil as being completely exy obsessed, not caring about anything else (including his own possible death).

And that's funny to me because I've never read him like that?😅 just wondering if I'm alone with this but:

In my head, Neil doesn't actually care about exy.

It's about what exy represents to him:

Exy is what his brain latched onto when he had nothing else. Playing exy is probably one of his happiest childhood memories. Then, when they were on the run, to distract himself, he probably thought of exy to escape the real world. He obsessively followed news about Kevin and Riko. It became his coping mechanism to escape from everything that was going on in his real life. Because if he had focused on his daily life, he would have gone insane. No child can grow up normally while being on the run.

So I don't think he actually cares about exy per se. It's just that exy is the only thing that let's him forget. It's the only thing he feels like he can control. If he practices a lot, he'll get better. If he makes his teammates get along, they'll have a better chance of winning the next game. Winning the next exy game is a goal he can actually accomplish if he works hard.

Meanwhile trying not to get caught by his father's men is out of his control. He tried to stay hidden for some time. But without his mother by his side, he had to carry the weight of his decisions all by himself. He had to choose which city he'd go to next. And he simply didn't know what would be the best choice, where he'd be the least likely to get caught. There were no guarantees. So, he was doing what he thought was best but had no way to know whether he was making the right choice. And let's not forget he was only a teenager still!! And he literally had to make choices that could result in his own death. That's a lot of stress for a teen. And despite having to make choices on a daily basis, he had zero actual control about whether he'd get caught or not. It was mostly just luck. So why bother trying to stay on the run?

So, he gives in and starts playing exy, which is probably the only interest he allowed himself to have. And suddenly he had full control over his life again. Going to high school? He could manage that. Signing up for exy? He'd ace the try-outs and have a first whiff of a sense of achievement after years of nothing but angst and stress. Actually playing exy? The more he practiced the better he got, the more goals he scored. Everytime something worked out the way he wanted to, he got hit by endorphins. So his brain latched onto that. He became obsessed with exy.

So, in my head, Neil only likes exy because of the control and distraction it provides him with. It could have been literally anything else. He just needs this one constant in his life, that he can control and that provides him a mental escape when he needs it most.

Am I the only one who thinks that? 😂 or am I maybe misunderstanding all the posts claiming he "wants to play stick ball so fucking bad, he doesn't care how many chances he has to escape certain death" or that "he gave up every rule he ever abided by to play exy".

He doesn't not care about staying alive. He had to fight to stay alive for so long, he just can't think about his father and the mafia any longer without it triggering years of suppressed memories and feelings.

He didn't give up all rules he ever abided by, he was about to break under the weight his mother's rules had put on his shoulders. He gets this first positive experience and he wants more, he gets addicted to exy just like people get addicted to drugs. But he doesn't care about exy, he cares about how exy can make him feel.

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Sometimes I'm still a bit confused about Levi's choice or rather with Isayama's philosophy about death. Like yes Levi let Erwin rest to preserve his humanity and free him from his guilt and suffering right? But that sounds like people that are broken never have a chance of healing, which kinda contradicts Levi's ending because Levi (seemingly) was able to atleast find peace, and also how him and Hange were talking about how Erwin would be excited and try to feed the car carrots and buy the whole ice cream cart. Sometimes it feels like Levi gave up on Erwin, because he clearly didn't believe Erwin is broken to the point he can't heal, am I wrong? Idk I just feel like it contradicts itself sometimes and I don't like this philosophy of death being the only way to heal/save someone especially when it contradicts itself with the ending. Like i realise Levi has a different personality and is stronger mentally but the way Isayama and co. talked about how much Erwin's death affected him and how much Levi loves Erwin and how Levi is Erwin's stronghold, and also that Isayama or Kamiya quote that goes something like "To Levi, as long as Erwin was okay and as long as he was by his side, everything will be ok" it's just kinda hard to believe that death was the only way to save Erwin especially because he didn't neccesarily wanna die? I hope you understand my question, I was kinda rambled a bit there my bad 😭

Anonymous asked

Levi letting Erwin rest feels a bit like he was beyond saving and sometimes I have a hard time accepting the philosophy, especially since Isayama contradicts that mindset in his own writing sometimes. I don't think Levi thinks Erwin was beyond saving, and if he did it seems like he gave up on Erwin kinda? Erwin didn't seem suicidal, he was just burdened with guilt but also Levi was his stronghold? It's hard making sense of Levi's choice sometimes tbh, he himself seems like he thinks life is worth living even if the world is shit, because there are some things worth living for, even though there will always be pain and something missing. I don't know if you get my point hahaha but maybe you can explain your view of this? Especially because Levi says he has no regrets makes me think doesn't he ever think of what could have been or if he did something different? I know he's the type of person to not look back because you can’t change it anyways, but he's still human and we know he thinks of Erwin like "If Erwin was here..." and he misses him. Help, I love eruri but i always had trouble with this.

I’m going to answer both these asks together because I suspect they’re from the same person. The first one has been in my inbox for months now, so I apologise for taking so long to answer. 

So, this is an interesting one.  As Anon has said, there’s a perception among some fans that the reason Levi chose not to give Erwin the Titan serum, is that he had reached such chronic depths of despair and depression that the only way to save him was to let him die.  Some fans are understandably unhappy about this because it implies that people with depression are beyond recovery, or as Anon puts it, “people that are broken never have a chance of healing”.  However there’s a fundamental misunderstanding here about why Levi made the decision to let Erwin die.  It’s true that Erwin suffered from guilt and despair as he struggled to reconcile his desire to fulfil his dream with his duty to save humanity (despite the fact that both goals were entirely in line).  And it’s true that in chapter 80 he said that there were many times that he thought it would be easier to die, however to understand Levi’s decision you need to turn to chapter 84.  Levi’s initial decision is to use the Titan serum to revive Erwin, but there are two things that convince him to change his mind. The first is Floch’s insistence that Erwin is the devil who deserves to spend more time in hell because only the devil himself can destroy the Titans.  (Floch was right about that, but he was wrong about who the devil was.) This is what starts to turn the tide and change Levi’s mind.  Erwin had already become the devil because that’s what humanity demanded of him and Levi did not want to drag him back to hell and compound his torment by turning him into a literal monster. 

The second is his remembrance of Erwin’s pursuit of his dream, and Kenny’s parting words that “everyone is a slave to something”.  Levi knew that Erwin was enslaved by his dream and he understood the toll that had taken on him, but he was able to give Erwin his humanity back by absolving him of his guilt and setting him on the path he knew he had to take. This is why Erwin looks at peace when he thanks Levi, and this is why Levi makes his decision.  In death Erwin would finally be free from the hell of the world and his enslavement to his dream. 

Isayama makes this crystal clear in the Character Encyclopaedia. 

As to whether Levi regretted his decision, that’s a different question. It’s worth remembering that Levi’s no regrets philosophy isn’t that you should never regret your actions, it’s that you should try to take the course of action you’ll least regret, which is a bit different.  By letting Erwin die, Levi took the path he believed he would regret the least, and later in the manga he is unequivocal that he has no regrets about not choosing to revive Erwin.  This is hardly surprising given everything they have been through and the appalling odds they faced attempting to stop Eren’s catastrophic genocide. I don’t think that means he doesn’t miss Erwin though, it’s clear that Erwin, and the vow he swore to him are never far from his thoughts, right to the bitter end.

One thing I’m curious about is why this argument has sprung up in recent years. I don’t remember anyone interpreting Levi’s actions in this light when Midnight Sun was first published.  I suspect it’s partly due to lack of familiarity with the supplementary materials such as the Answers book and Character Guide, where Isayama spells out his intentions, and partly due to the benefit of hindsight. People see Levi living his best life with Gabi, Falco and Onyankopon and are sad that Erwin isn’t there, that he didn’t have the opportunity to live on with Levi after the war.  I understand that, I’m sad that Erwin didn’t live to see the end of the war too, but when I think about how much more of his humanity he would have had to sacrifice in order to get there, I can’t help thinking that Levi made the right decision. 

[sihtricfedaraaahvicius]

Baby Daddy chapter 5

Note: last chapter! tied in request by @synindoodles, I hope you'll like it as you gave me a lot of freedom really. chapter 1 - chapter 2 - chapter 3 - chapter 4.

Warnings: fluff/suggestive/angst.

pairing: modern!Sihtric x you (f)

summary: You and Sihtric needed some counselling to work things out.

wordcount: 5k

Masterlist

The Counselling.

To no one's surprise, you and Sihtric remarried several months after you had divorced the other Dane, Sigtryggr. You certainly felt bad for your second ex-husband, as he had treated you with nothing but love and respect, but your heart simply belonged to your first ex-husband, who was now your husband again.

To everyone's surprise, things seemed to work out rather well between you and Sihtric this time, as years had passed and you were still together. Of course, you still had misunderstandings, disagreements and you argued occasionally, but it was way better than it used to be as you had both learned a lot. Sihtric still struggled to communicate at times, and you still made quite the mess of the house, mainly the kitchen. But you were both determined to make it work, just like you had promised each other. Not just for yourselves, but for Odin too, your now sixteen year old son.

'I don't know, pookie,' Sihtric sighed as he looked at the webpage you showed him, 'are we doing that bad?'

'No, Siht, not at all,' you said and sat down across from him in the kitchen, 'but I don't want us to ever get that bad, so I think it's not a bad idea.'

'I thought marriage counselling was like a last resort?' Sihtric remarked and sipped his coffee, then he leaned back and raked his tattooed fingers through his long, loose, messy hair.

You loved the contrast between his rather rough looking face and haircut, and his expensive, black v-neck sweater with some designer jeans underneath. Financially, things were going great, but romantically things definitely needed to improve.

'Well, for many people it is a last resort,' you agreed and closed the laptop, 'but why not give it a chance? I mean… don't you also feel that there is a distance between us lately?'

Sihtric looked down at his cup and shrugged lightly.

'I guess,' he said softly, 'maybe. Sometimes I just feel… nevermind.'

'No, tell me,' you encouraged him and reached for his hand across the wooden dinner table, 'talk to me.'

'No, it's… it doesn't matter,' he smiled weakly, not knowing how to express his fear of losing you again, 'maybe you're right, maybe it's not a bad idea.'

And with Sihtric's approval, you booked the counselling appointment. What Sihtric didn't know was that it wasn't just a one time appointment, but a whole retreat. A whole week. And you sort of forgot to mention that until one day before you had to leave, at least, that is what Sihtric claimed. You had told him, but he hadn't listened. Everything was arranged already; the trip, your stay, and Odin staying over at Finan for the time being. But the news came as a shock to Sihtric.

'A week?!' Sihtric stared at you with wild eyes, 'what do you mean a whole week? I don't want to be stuck in some… some…' he waved his hands around, 'prison for couples for a week!'

'You think marriage counselling is like prison?' you asked bitterly.

'No! But- but, gods, you could've told me this before!'

'I told you!'

'You didn't!'

'I did!'

'You did not!'

'For fuck sakes!' you yelled, 'this is exactly why we need a whole damn week there!'

'Yeah, well, make it a month,' Sihtric huffed as he stormed off to the bedroom.

And not much later you also stomped your way up the stairs and found Sihtric sitting on the bed, and it didn't take long before you sat on top of him, naked, making it up to each other… again.

'And this is where you will be staying,' a friendly lady named Eadith said as she showed you your luxurious room.

You and Sihtric looked around the large room, which had a king size bed, a big tv with a cosy looking couch in front of it, as well as a spacious bathroom with a heart shaped jacuzzi. You thanked Eadith kindly for the tour and short introduction, and you had about an hour to get ready for the first real counselling session of the week. 

Each day you would have a different sort of session, which should eventually bring you and Sihtric closer again, as well as hopefully sort out the issues you two always had ever since you got together. And today, you would be meeting with Doctor Beocca for your first session..

'Hi, welcome,' Beocca said, 'please, take a seat.'

You and Sihtric sat next to each other, and you both shifted a little nervously on the couch as Beocca took his time to open his laptop and started typing.

'So,' the doctor said after a moment, 'this is the first session each couple here takes part in. I am here to paint a picture of where exactly your relationship is at, its problems and what kind of sessions you will need to improve the marriage. So my first question to you both is; why are you here?'

'Well,' you began, as Sihtric looked at you, 'I wanted to do this retreat because there is a distance between us. It's not too serious yet, I think at least, but I want to prevent us splitting up… again.'

'Again?' Beocca asked.

'Yes, eh,' you chuckled awkwardly, 'we divorced once, then we both married someone else who we also divorced, and then we married each other again.'

'Oh,' Beocca said, and he started to type on his laptop, 'I see. How long was your first marriage?'

'Eh, we split up about two years after we got married, but we didn't finalise the divorce until…,' you looked at Sihtric, 'how much later?' 

'I'm not sure anymore,' Sihtric confessed.

'O…kay,' Beocca sensed you both weren't able to fully recall it anymore, 'we'll just focus on the two years then. So you split up after two years, then what happened?'

'Well, we still tried to do family things with our son,' you said, 'so we saw each other often. But we'd always end up arguing and after that we'd make up again, you know, with… sex,' you cleared your throat, 'and at one point we got back together again.'

'For less than a day,' Sihtric added.

'A day?' Beocca frowned.

'Yeah, then we had a big falling out-' Sihtric continued.

'There was an incident,' you interrupted your husband.

'An incident?' the doctor asked, 'what-'

'It was an accident,' you said.

'She fell off the stairs,' Sihtric said, 'which was kind of my fault, but-'

'She,' Beocca looked at you, 'you fell off the-'

'It really was an accident, I wasn't injured badly or anything,' you quickly said.

'No, but you did call Sigtryggr for help,' Sihtric scoffed and crossed his arms.

'Sigtryggr?' Beocca looked confused.

'I was hurt, Sihtric,' you rolled your eyes, 'and I needed comfort.'

'Wait, who is Sig-' Beocca tried, but you both didn't hear him anymore.

'Was his cock comforting enough?' Sihtric gave you a bitter look.

'Oh, please!' you hissed, 'nothing happened between us that day. He only take us for ice cream-'

'Oh, yeah, that's right!' Sihtric looked at Beocca, 'some strange man took my wife and my then five year old son for ice cream, after I was kicked out of the house.'

'Odin was four,' you corrected him, 'and Sigtryggr wasn't a strange man-'

'Who is-' Beocca tried again, to no avail.

'Oh, he wasn't a stranger because you met him in a bar the same night we met, which was years ago by then?' Sihtric asked, heated.

'Sihtric, please,' you rubbed your eyes, 'I had met up with Sig befo-'

'Sig,' Sihtric mocked the name.

'I met up with him before, and you know that because you read my texts!'

'You- you read your wife's texts?' Beocca asked.

'We were split up,' you said, 'I wasn't really his wife anym-'

'Yeah, I read my wife's texts,' Sihtric talked over you, 'because she left her phone in the kitchen and I just happened to see the message come in.'

'And you decided to freak out over it,' you sighed.

'I did not freak out-'

'You squished a juice pack-'

'It was a kid's juice pack, doctor,' Sihtric informed the wide-eyed man.

'That doesn't matter!' you yelled.

'Okay, okay!' Beocca's voice suddenly rolled through the, previously, zen room like thunder, 'I need you both to please stop talking.'

You and Sihtric both looked at Beocca and clenched your jaw at the same time. Then Beocca got up from his chair and grabbed a stuffed Hello Kitty plushie from a shelf, which he handed to Sihtric, who looked confused at the doctor while you snorted.

'Usually,' Beocca grumbled, 'this technique is used for children,' he sneered, 'whoever holds the stuffed animal gets to talk!'

You and Sihtric nodded in agreement, and you both felt like toddlers again.

'Okay,' Beocca sighed, 'Sihtric, please tell me what happened. How did you get back together before the incident, or accident, whatever, and what happened after that?'

Sihtric cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

'So,' he began, 'it was our son's birthday party that day. I was there too, naturally, and when I went to get a juice pack for my son, I saw her phone screen light up. Of course I looked at it, like everyone would,' he glanced at you for a split second, 'and saw the text was from someone I didn't know, this guy called Sigtryggr, and it said how he was planning on meeting up with my wife again.'

'And how did that make you feel?' Beocca asked, and you chuckled and rolled your eyes.

Sihtric looked at you again, but averted his eyes when you looked up at him.

'I was hurt,' he said quietly, 'and angry. I still loved her,' he swallowed hard, 'I always loved her.'

'And yet you were in your whore era,' you spat.

'No!' Beocca snarled, 'do not speak!'

'Sorry,' you mumbled.

Beocca nodded at Sihtric to continue.

'I was hurt. And I know we were not really together anymore, but I couldn't stand the thought of my wife with someone else,' Sihtric said, 'yes, she's right, I was seeing other people too. Hurting myself in the process, but I only did it because I tried to forget her. I know it wasn't fair of me to get angry that she was seeing someone too.'

'And what happened then?' Beocca asked.

'I confronted her, and we… we,' Sihtric cleared his throat, 'we had sex. Good sex,' he suddenly grinned, 'and by the end of the day we were together again. Then the next morning we got into an argument, again, I walked away and we argued on the stairs. When I tried to walk away again she wanted to take my hand,' Sihtric said and paused.

'Go no,' Beocca encouraged him.

You saw Sihtric's fingers tightened around the Hello Kitty plushie and, to your surprise, when you looked up at him you saw his eyes were teared up.

'I- I flinched,' Sihtric said, quietly, and his voice trembled, 'because I pulled away, s-she lost her balance and she f-fell down the stairs. I- I tried to grab her but-' he choked up and stopped talking.

'I see,' Beocca said softly as he started typing, 'and clearly you are still upset about that.'

'I never wanted to hurt her,' Sihtric sniffled and wiped his tears before they could fall down, 'but of course she was spooked after it happened, as was I, and she… she kicked me out. She wanted the key to the house back, which I gave her, and then I… I left.'

You fought your own tears and reached for Sihtric's hand, giving him a comforting squeeze before the Hello Kitty plushie landed in your hands.

'After Sihtric left,' you told Beocca, 'I called the guy I had gone for a drink with before that birthday party happened. His name is Sigtryggr, and he helped me out that day, after I fell. Nothing happened between us then. But he did accidentally meet our son.'

You explained the rule you and Sihtric had about introducing new people to your son, and then you told the doctor about how you and Sihtric ended up together again for a night, only to fight again and finally get divorced. You told him that Sihtric got married again at some point, only to divorce two months later, and your husband had nothing to add to that.

'Then I got married to Sigtryggr and ended up having sex with Sihtric on my wedding day,' you said, deadpan, 'I divorced Sigtryggr a few days later, married Sihtric again a few months later, and then things went up and down but we stayed together and, I think we just got stuck in a rut, you know? And now we're here, to finally sort things out and to not create more distance between us.'

Beocca stared at his word document, apparently the old man was speechless. He didn't directly say this was one of the wildest stories he had ever heard, but you knew that's what he meant anyway. Despite the story being so wild it would make for a good work of fiction, Beocca promised he'd have a plan ready by tomorrow morning.

And you went to have dinner at the resort's restaurant, before you went back to your room, where you both felt so drained by the conversation with Beocca that you fell asleep together before it was even ten in the evening.

'Bonding?' Sihtric frowned as he looked at the scheduled session the next morning.

You had only just woken up when you saw that Beocca had emailed you the week's planning. Sihtric rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and yawned after he handed you your phone back, and he sat up in bed next to you.

'I also don't know what we'll be doing,' you said, 'I just hope we don't have to talk the whole time like yesterday.'

'Me neither,' Sihtric sighed, 'I mean, it was good to get that all out to someone I suppose, but yeah,' he chuckled, 'I still feel drained.'

'Me too,' you chuckled.

You looked at your husband as he was trying to wake up, and you felt a smile tug at your lips at the sight of his bare, muscular torso and his messy hair. You both had aged a bit, but he still looked so damn good, even when he didn't try. 

'Come here,' you smiled and pulled Sihtric close, then pecked his cheek, 'I love you, sweetheart.'

'I love you too, pookie,' he said and squeezed you in his strong arms, before he kissed your cheek and leaned back, holding your face in his hands, 'we're going to work this out, I promise.'

'I know,' you placed your hands on his, 'I know we will.'

'Welcome,' a soft-spoken lady smiled, 'my name is Thyra, and I will guide your bonding session.'

You and Sihtric both smiled a little nervously again, and Thyra quickly explained what today's session was going to be like.

'So you will sit together in the lotus position-'

'What?' Sihtric snorted, 'eh…'

'Oh, no, no,' Thyra laughed, 'yes, like the sex position, but you will not have intercourse.'

You both chuckled with relief, and slight disappointment, and got in the position as Thyra explained how this should bring you closer together.

'Okay, wrap your arms around each other and hold each other close, then close your eyes,' Thyra said as she sat down, a few comfortable paces away from you.

You did as you were told and easily melted into each other's arms, as you buried your face in Sihtric's neck, and he moved one hand up into your hair, gently resting on the back of your head, holding you close.

'I will ask questions, and you will answer to your partner, so not to me,' Thyra said, 'I will be able to hear your answers, but I will not interfere unless it's needed.'

You both hummed in agreement as you were still wrapped around each other, and Thyra began her session.

'First I want you to focus on each other's breathing, until you both breathe in sync. Become one,' her soothing voice sounded.

You focused on Sihtric's breathing, your chest pressed against his, and you gradually started to find a comfortable breathing pace to keep up with.

'Now, open your eyes and look at each other,' Thyra said, 'and keep your eyes locked when you answer the questions, even if it's strange or uncomfortable. What made you fall in love with each other?'

Sihtric gave you a soft nod, allowing you to go first while you stared into his mismatched eyes.

'I fell in love with your appearance first,' you said softly, 'and I liked your energy and the way you made me instantly feel safe when we met.'

'Naturally I fell for looks first too,' Sihtric smiled faintly, 'when you looked at me, I just felt some sort of… as if I had found something that was missing.'

You felt yourself blush and pouted at Sihtric's sweet answer.

'I never invited anyone to go home with me after I just met them,' you said, 'you were the first guy I took home, without really knowing you. It just felt like we belonged together, and I couldn't let you go.'

'I felt the same, pookie,' Sihtric smiled and cupped your cheeks, 'there was no denying that we felt like we should be together.'

'Very good,' Thyra said, 'now, what four personality traits of your partner are your favourite?'

'I love how passionate you are, and fun-hearted,' you said, 'and how you're protective and actually quite romantic at times.'

'And I love how caring and considerate you are,' Sihtric whispered, 'and how honest you are, and passionate too.'

'Thanks,' you whispered with rosy cheeks, and Sihtric bit down on his lip with a smile.

'I really want to kiss you, pookie,' he whispered, thinking Thyra wouldn't hear it.

'You can,' Thyra said from across the room, 'pretend I'm not here, please, unless you'll take it too far. I'm not watching you two,' she chuckled, 'I'm making notes. The whole purpose of this session is to feel close, so if you want to kiss, hug, nuzzle, go right ahead.'

Sihtric was fast to pull your lips to his, and he captured you in a sweet, gentle kiss.

'I love you,' he smiled against your lips, 'so fucking much.'

'And I love you too,' you breathed, 'so much.'

After Thyra had given you a moment, she continued.

'What physical features are your favourite?'

'Boobs,' Sihtric couldn't resist his first answer, and you couldn't help but laugh at this boyish response.

'Nah, seriously,' Sihtric composed himself, 'your body is fantastic, love, you know I think you look perfect. But, I love your smile,' he said, 'it always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you smile at me. But, again, I love everything about your appearance, your face, your hair, your hands… gods, your hands, it's like you can heal anything with a simple touch sometimes.'

'Your eyes,' you blurted out immediately, 'I love your eyes.'

Sihtric smiled and struggled to keep his eyes locked with yours, as he felt his cheeks heat up again, and he mumbled a shy 'thanks'.

'And I love how you look ridiculously good with every haircut,' you chuckled and pushed a strand of his loose hair behind his ear, 'I love your face, I know that sounds stupid probably, but… the sharp features, your eyes, your lips, the facial hair, and your scars,' you sighed, 'everything about your appearance is just… perfect to me. There is nothing I'd change, Siht, nothing.'

'Good,' Sihtric smiled, 'I'm… I'm glad to hear that.'

'You thought I'd want to change something?'

Sihtric shrugged lightly, 'Maybe… maybe my scars.'

'No,' you cupped his cheeks, 'I wouldn't change anything,' you said, and pulled him in for a kiss, 'you're perfect.'

'You're perfect too.'

'Good, good,' Thyra continued, 'what is something you need from your partner, this can be physical or emotional.'

'I need you to communicate more,' you said, 'you're already doing so much better than years ago, but it's still not enough often. I know it's hard for you, but you need to tell me when things aren't going the way you like it, or when things are difficult or when you're hurting. I don't want you to be ashamed to open up and tell me what you need or want. All you have to do is talk, communicate your feelings and needs. That's really what I need from you.'

Sihtric nodded and swallowed hard.

'I know, sweetheart,' he said, 'I know. But I just,' he teared up, 'I just need you to understand… that when I grew up, there was no… no space for me. No one cared about my needs. And,' he took a deep breath to compose himself, 'I'm really trying…'

'I know you are,' you reassured him, 'and you're doing really well, but this is just me wanting to encourage you to try and be even more vocal and clear. I know your past is different from most people, but I also hope that you truly understand and feel that things are different now too in our own family. You have people around you now who do want to hear you and help you.'

'I guess… maybe sometimes I don't feel that,' Sihtric confessed, 'sometimes when things don't go your way, you get angry. And I'm the same,' he chuckled, 'but then I shut down and run, because I don't know how to solve it or how to say things.'

'We can solve things by talking and listening,' you caressed his cheeks with your thumbs, 'and you're right too. Sometimes I struggle to understand your behaviour and I agree that I should do better. I know I can do better, and I'll work on that.'

'I'd like that,' Sihtric smiled, 'and I'll try to open up more.'

'I'd like that too.'

'Very good,' Thyra said, 'you two are doing really great.'

You and Sihtric smiled at each other, and he couldn't resist stealing another kiss from your lips.

'My next question is usually if you are still attracted to each other, but I think we can skip that,' she chuckled, 'the next question is if you are satisfied with your intimacy.'

'Ehh, for the most part,' you said hesitantly.

'For the most part?' Sihtric raised an eyebrow.

'Well, I'd just like it if, you know, we could have a bit more slow and sensual moments, instead of just going at each other like savages,' you laughed, 'which is great too, don't get me wrong.'

'No, I get it,' Sihtric chuckled, 'you're right. We often go for quickies lately, it's been a while since we really took our time… or weren't angry.'

'Exactly,' you agreed, 'I'd like it if we could make time again. I know things changed too as Odin grew up. But he's often not home these days when we are, so I'm sure we could figure this out.'

Sihtric agreed, and in truth, he wanted nothing more than to pick you up and carry you back to the room you stayed at, to have that slow and sensual sex you both needed and agreed on. But the session wasn't over yet. And everything went well, until Thyra asked if you ever felt cheated on by your partner.

'No,' you answered.

'Yes,' Sihtric said.

'What? Why?' you asked, 'everything I did with someone else was when we were split up. Sigtryggr and I weren't exclusive when I still saw you, before you and I divorced, and never agreed on being exclusive either then. I really only cheated on him, actually, with you.'

'I know,' Sihtric sighed, 'but… I always felt married to you. I- I always felt horrible when I was with someone else, even though we agreed to split up, in my heart I was still married. I always felt like I was cheating on you. And, I know it's not fair, but therefore it also felt like you cheated on me.'

'I'm sorry you felt that way,' you said, 'but I thought we both were clear about the fact we were not together anymore back then.'

'We were, pookie, but y-you're not listening to me now,' Sihtric struggled, 'I'm not saying that you cheated on me, because you didn't. We never cheated on each other,' he stared into your eyes, 'but to me it always felt like we did.'

'Sihtric,' you said with sadness in your voice, 'and that all leads back to communication again. You should've said something back then.'

'I know. I just didn't know how,' he said, 'maybe because I knew no one did anything wrong, but still…'

'It happened, we can't change that anymore. But I'm sorry if I made you feel cheated on. Do you trust me now?' you asked.

'I do,' Sihtric smiled softly, 'I trust you, I do.'

'Okay, good,' you pecked his lips, 'because I trust you too.'

After the intense bonding session, which actually brought you and Sihtric closer together right away, you finally had that slow and sensual sex, just before you went for dinner. You and Sihtric felt more at ease and more connected than ever before, as you both finally seemed to have a better understanding of each other. 

The next day you had a meditation session, which would make you tap into your previous lives. And you had both been sceptical going in, but you were both shocked by the end of the day, when you discussed your results and discoveries during dinner.

Apparently Sihtric was a medieval warrior and a Dane, who fell in love with a Christian "witch". The woman wasn't really a witch, she was just a healer. But the townspeople didn't trust her because of her "healing powers" and ended up burning her alive in her home when she was asleep, while Sihtric wasn't home, as he was preparing for battle. And when he returned home, to a burned down hut and a dead wife, the townsfolk captured him and tortured him, by cutting out his tongue, as they feared he might be able to curse them, and then they killed him. They had only been together for a year, and died young.

'There is no way,' Sihtric said when he looked at your papers, which had your previous life written on it, 'you were a healer and you died in a fire?'

'I guess we really are connected,' you said, after you had read Sihtric's story.

You had to admit you felt just as spooked as Sihtric upon this reveal, but it did make sense as to why you felt you belonged together. And maybe it was also why you got back together again each time you had split up. Something primal inside you kept pulling you back towards each other.

'Maybe we struggle because now that we're actually together for a long time, longer than in our previous lives, we just don't know where to go?' you thought out loud, 'and you struggle to communicate because your tongue was taken.'

'Gods,' Sihtric scoffed, and he ordered another glass of whiskey when a waiter walked by.

'You know,' he then said, 'our home in that life was so messy too,' he chuckled, 'herbs and flowers and spices everywhere…'

'Just like our kitchen now,' you smiled and shook your head lightly, 'I can't believe this.'

'Me neither,' Sihtric said, 'but… it does make sense. And I guess it gives some clarity too, as to why I am possessive and protective at times, maybe more than I should sometimes.'

'And why I keep believing we can work this out, because I just know we can heal.'

With the newfound knowledge and mutual understanding, the last few days of the retreat went by fast. You had one day on which there was no session planned, and you ended up spending all day together in bed, only getting dressed to go out and get some food. And the fire between you and your husband was as bright as it was when you just got together, the first time. 

The day after that, you had a session which consisted of doing an escape room together. It seemed like a pointless game, but it was a test to see if you had already learned to listen and communicate better. And to both your surprise, you solved the escape room without ever raising your voice at each other or getting irritated by your partner, so the retreat proved to be successful once again.

On the last day you had another conversation with Beocca, to see if there had been any progress, and he had been pleasantly surprised by the positive changes he saw. There was no need to pull out the Hello Kitty plush this time, and he said you both seemed more in love and calm, to which you agreed.

'But don't forget that you will still be challenged once you're back home again, back in your daily routine,' Beocca said, 'it is okay to argue and disagree, as long as it's a healthy amount.'

'I know,' you said, and Sihtric agreed, but you were both confident everything would be okay.

And you were right. 

Back home again, things definitely went better. Sihtric opened up more and you paid more attention to his needs, when he finally communicated them with you, and you became closer as a family again, which is all Sihtric ever wanted. 

And as your wedding anniversary was approaching, you and Sihtric decided to renew your vows. The last time you got married to Sihtric you had kept it small, with just your son present and a handful of friends, as everyone was sick and tired of going to weddings by then, but now that everything was finally going as it should, you agreed to throw a big party. 

And at the night of your anniversary party, you ended up in the venue's restroom with Sihtric again. Except this time, before you pulled each other's clothes off, you made sure that all the toilet stalls were empty.

taglist: @clairacassidy @finanmoghra @uunotheangel @hb8301 @bathedinheat @neonhairspray @anaeve @bubblyabs @travelingmypassion @sylasthegrim @andakth @chompchompluke @willowbrookesblog @lady-targaryens-world @skyofficialxx @diosademuerte @elle4404 @alexagirlie @sweetxime @solango @gemini-mama @cheyennep3107 @little-diable @jennifer0305 @drwstarkeyy @mrsarnasdelicious @verenahx @urmomsgirlfriend1 @moonchildrenandflowercrowns @foxyanon @djarinsgirl27 @sigtryggrswifey

[heehoonieluvs]

Please love me

Sunghoon x reader

Angst, fluff

The way that the members are depicted in this story has nothing to do with how they really are or how I feel they are. It is all solely for the storyline so please bear that in mind 🫶

Summary: Too many times already, Sunghoon has messed up. He knows himself that he shouldn’t be given another chance but he just wanted to show that this was all just a misunderstanding. But how can he when everything is just a blur?

F/N = female name

Warnings: cursing, spiking, use of drugs, harassment, violence (please let me know if I need to add any more 🤍)

Series masterlist

Masterlist

“Y/N please! Please don’t leave, let me explain”

Sunghoon ran behind to catch up with you and Niki. Niki found the others and told them that he was going to take you back home without an explanation. They were slightly confused but assumed that it was because you weren’t feeling too well

“Y/N, I swear it wasn’t what it looked like! F/-”

“Sunghoon just stop ok! I don’t want to hear it. Whatever I saw in there was clearly self explanatory” you cut him off with tears in your eyes

Sunghoon froze at the sight of your tears. Seeing you so hurt and him being the cause felt like a stab in the heart

“No Y/N please I’m telling you I di-“

Niki decided to step in after picking up on how uncomfortable you looked from all of the unwanted attention

“Hyung I think you should leave Y/N noona alone. You’re too drunk right now so go back to the other hyungs and go home. I’ll take her back to hers and make sure she’s safe”

He didn’t leave much time for Sunghoon to respond before wrapping his arm around your shoulder to take you back to your flat

As for Sunghoon, he remained frozen where you guys had left him. He wanted to scream out to you about how it was all a misunderstanding but he just couldn’t move. How did he manage to fuck up so bad? It was going so well for you two and he ruined it so fast

He stumbled back into the party in hopes of finding his friends so he can go home and wallow in his sorrows. It didn’t take him too long to find them but when he got closer to the table, he felt a wave of anxiety wash over him. How was he going to explain to them about what just happened?

“Hey Hoon are you good?” Heeseung called out to him

Sunghoon shook his head “No I want to go back now. I’m not feeling well”

His friends looked at him with concern but instantly got up to leave the party. The wait for their ride was silent and Sunghoon didn’t know whether to speak up and explain now before things went south, but Jay beat him to speak first

“So what happened mate? Niki and Y/N left earlier as well. We weren’t sure if you knew about that already?”

Sunghoon froze at his question “Oh. Um. Yea I saw them before they left”

“Really? I thought you would’ve left with them hyung. Y/N wasn’t feeling to well” Jungwon piped up from the back seat

Sunghoon took a deep sigh to calm his nerves. He knew that the best thing to do now was to come clean since after all, he fucked up big time

“Um. S- so, I saw Y/N and Niki before they left and um. They walked into the bathroom when F/N kissed me” his voice trailed off as he lowered his head in shame. He couldn’t stop his bottom lip from quivering, thinking back to your teary eyes when you walked in

“Are you fucking serious hyung?” Sunoo spat “How could you be so fucking stupid? Why do you keep on messing with Y/Nie as if you hadn’t already put her through enough already? I know you guys agreed to take things slow but I didn’t think you’d go fucking low to kiss another girl. And you just had to top it off with it being fucking F/N out of all people. God I don’t even want to look at you right now”

“I know and I’m so sorry Sunoo. Everything was just blank till Y/N came into the bathroom. I don’t even remember how I ended up in there.”

“Hey I think you need to calm down. You’re turning pale” Jake rubbed his back and quickly gave him a bottle of water to sip

Sunghoon felt his eyes getting heavy so decided to go to sleep in hopes that this was all just a nightmare

At Y/N’s flat

You were so thankful for Niki as he took you back to your flat. He helped you to settle in and made his way to your kitchen to get you some water and snacks to make you feel better

“Thank you for doing this Niki. I’m so sorry you had to put up with me being like this”

“Ay don’t worry about it noona. You know I’m always going to look out for you”

You patted his head like he was a puppy and rested your head on his shoulder

“Niki? Do you think it was a mistake for giving Sunghoon a chance? I feel like I’m just overreacting since we’re not actually dating”

“Noona, I know you two haven’t made things exclusive but he should’ve had the respect to not be doing these things after you both confessed to each other. You don’t have to try and justify his actions ok?”

“I guess you’re right. I don’t know. Just seeing them together tonight made them look like they were an actual couple. Technically they’ve known each other for longer so they’re bound to end up getting together at some point”

“Stop thinking like that noona. Yes hyung may be one of the people I value the most in my life, but there are no excuses for what he did. He is clearly head over heels for you so he should’ve shown that, yet here he goes and pulls this shit. You have every right to be mad at him. Because I most certainly am”

“You know I appreciate you Niki, so much. I think I should just sleep it off and that should hopefully clear up my head. Do you want to stay in my spare room for the night? It’s too late and I don’t want you going out on your own at this time”

“Ok! Thank you so much noona”

Back to the other boys flat

The 6 boys filtered back into their flat in silence and they all made their way to different rooms except for Heeseung who quickly said that he had to head out.

Sunghoon didn’t know what to do with himself. Sunoo had already let his anger out whilst the others remained silent. Yet he could feel the lingering judgment towards him, and rightfully so. Jake came over to his room and patted his shoulder with a goodnight before leaving him on his own.

He sat down on his bed and rested his head in his hands. Without even realising, the tears started to pour. The guilt and disgust was draining out and all he could think about was how to get you to talk to him and make things better

It had been about 30 minutes full of tears before there was a knock on his bedroom door. He let the person on the other side know that it was alright to come in and with that, Heeseung walked in. Seeing how distraught his friend looked, Heeseung came over to Sunghoon and engulfed him in a hug to let his friend cry it all out.

“Hyung what do I do? I’m so fucking stupid. I hurt Y/N. I care about her so much but I hurt her” he hiccuped between his words

“Look Hoon, you need to breathe ok? When you calm down, tell me what happened” Heeseung calmly soothed his friend whilst patting the back of his neck

After a few deep breaths, Sunghoon started to try and recall his memories “Most of it was just a blank to me. I remember being with Y/N and you guys but then F/N took me away to have some drinks with her friends. I don’t remember how long we were drinking for but next thing I know, F/N pinned me to the sink and kissed me. And uh, yea, that was when Y/N and Niki came” his voice trailed towards the end after bringing you up

Heeseung listened carefully before responding “You know that I will always be here for you ok Hoon? We’ve all seen each other through our worst times but we get through it together. I’m not gonna act like what you did that hurt Y/N was right, because you know yourself that it isn’t, but I’m never gonna turn my back on you ok? None of us will”

“Thank you hyung. Seriously. I don’t know how I’d be if I didn’t have you guys. I just don’t know what could’ve been going through my head. I like Y/N so much and I never want to be anywhere near F/N so I don’t know what came over me”

Heeseung let out a sigh and brought out a bag that had been in his pocket “Ok I know this is going to sound really weird but just trust me alright Hoon? I didn’t think it have to come to this but something just doesn’t seem right and I want to make sure you’re safe. You need to pee in this tube and take these antibiotics. Don’t worry about what else to do, just let me deal with everything.”

Sunghoon was shocked to say the least

“You don’t think?”

“I don’t know but I’d rather be safe than sorry”

“Ok, I trust you hyung. And really, I cannot thank you enough”

The next day

After getting a fresh start in the morning, you came to the decision that you weren’t going to put up with the way Sunghoon had treated you and this time, there was no forgiveness. You didn’t want him and F/N to think that they won by hurting you, so you kept your head held up high and went about your day like normal. The boys acted how they usually did when you bumped into them in the hallway, and Sunoo stayed by you to fill you in on the daily gossip. The only thing that was different was that you barely saw Sunghoon and when you did, he’d look a lot paler than usual. As soon as you made eye contact with him, you turned to walk the other way

As days went by, you saw him less and less, to the point where he was absent for an entire week. Even though you basically wanted nothing to do with him, you weren’t heartless. So when you saw the boys during lunch you didn’t hesitate to ask

“Hey how is Sunghoon? I swear he’s not been in for a few days”

The boys froze at your question but tried to play it cool

“Don’t worry Y/Nie he’s just not feeling too well” Jake spoke up

“Oh ok that’s fine then”

There was a moment of silence before Heeseung broke it “I know you probably don’t want to talk about it Y/Nie but we want you to know that Hoon really hates himself for hurting you. He truly does care about you, you have to know that. We’re not going to defend his actions but if you ever want to, please talk to him because he’s not doing to good”

“I’m not sure Seungie. There have been so many things that he’s done that have hurt me. Yes I may still like him, but I’m not going to tolerate someone treating me like that.”

“We understand Y/Nie and we’ll never force you to do something you’re not comfortable with”

Heeseung’s POV:

He felt frustrated with the entire situation but at the same time, he wanted to solve things between everyone because it hurt to see everyone so down. As the oldest, he felt obligated to make everyone felt better no matter how hard it was

Everyday, he and the boys would take turns to check up on Sunghoon and keep him a bit of company to show that they had his back. It had been a few days till he finally got a long awaited letter in the post first thing in the morning and his palms were sweating as he opened the envelope. As he read the writing, he felt a bubbling rage before he stormed out of the flat with the paper crumbling in his hand

No one’s POV:

“You are fucking disgusting” Heeseung spat with clenched teeth as he slammed the letter on the desk

F/N was completely startled at the sudden attack

“What do you mean Seungie”

“DON’T call me that you bitch. You are fucked in the head you know. Just read this”

F/N picked the paper up with her shaking hands. Her eyes made her almost look manic as she read through it

“It wasn’t me I swear!”

“Oh don’t give me that bullshit F/N. I can see through your fake innocent act. He was with you the entire night since you wouldn’t let anyone else near him. You better explain everything, and I mean everything to Y/N and Sunghoon. Because if you don’t, I will use this and go to the police”

Y/N’s POV:

You had just finished up in the library as it was your free period and you were making your way to the toilets. The last thing you were expecting was F/N to approach you, and looking worried

“Um, I really need to talk to you. Are you free now?”

You were surprised that she wasn’t screaming at you. Or at least flaunting Sunghoon to you “Uh yeah sure what’s up?”

“It’s about my birthday party with Sunghoon”

“Look F/N if this is your way of bragging to me then I don’t want to know about it. You won ok? Are you happy now”

“No you don’t understand ok Y/N. If I don’t tell you this, I can get in serious trouble. Just please promise that once I tell you this, we sweep it under a rug and just move on”

“What are you on about? I don’t owe you shit”

“Please Y/N! I can’t let Heeseung go to the police. I can’t!”

You were taken aback by her outburst. Your eyebrows furrowed as you questioned her “Why would the police be involved with this”

F/N choked up and took a deep breath before explaining everything

*Flashback*

F/N dragged Sunghoon from his group and brought him over to the mini bar where her friends were. They were all over him, asking him questions and running their hands all over him. It was obvious to anyone that he was extremely uncomfortable but no one came to help him.

Whilst he was distracted, F/N poured a drink for her and Sunghoon before pulling out a small bag of powder from her purse. She didn’t hesitate to pour some of it into his drink before handing it to him

Because Sunghoon felt so overwhelmed with the unwanted attention, he downed the drink, as well as many others the whole night to try and distract himself. He just wanted to get this all over with so he can go back to his friends and cuddle with you. His plan was to take you out the next morning to get breakfast, and hopefully have a date before confessing that he wanted to make things exclusive between you two. But as time went on, he felt like the room started to spin a bit and the noise started to drown out his thoughts

When F/N asked how he was feeling, it was like the sound was echoing as his vision started to blur

“Girlies I’m going to take Hoonie to the bathroom. Don’t miss us too much” she smirked as she grabbed the poor man’s arm and dragged him upstairs

When she shoved him into the bathroom, she instantly pinned him to the bathroom and grabbed his face to try and kiss him. With the limited strength that he had, he pulled his face away to get away from her. His speech was slightly slurred and he wobbled as he moved away.

“What are you doing F/N? Get off me”

“I just want some fun Hoonie. Why would your bore yourself with that bitch when I’m right here”

“I don’t want you why can’t you get that through your head. Y/N is the one that I care about so just leave us be. Whatever the deal is that we had is done. I’m going”

“Why is it always Y/N? She doesn’t deserve you! No one does but me! Why won’t you fucking love me?!”

And with that, she grabbed his face again and forced her lips onto his. At that moment, the bathroom door swung open, revealing you and Niki

Sunghoon felt like someone had thrown ice water at him when he made eye contact with you. He knew what this would look like from you perspective so he instantly shoved F/N with his last bit of strength and went to chase your crying figure

“Y/N wait! Please!”

*End of flashback*

Your eyes were stinging as F/N explained everything that happened that night. You felt absolutely disgusted by her, the more she elaborated on each detail. A burning feeling of rage came over you and before you knew it, you lunged at her and punched her in the face. There was nothing stopping you as you straddled over her and threw constant punches. It wasn’t till two strong arms wrapped around you and dragged your body off her

“Get off me! I’m going to fucking kill her”

“Hey Y/N stop it, ok! You don’t want to get in trouble yourself”

You struggled in the grip but turned around to look at Heeseung

“Y/N you need to calm down. She’s got a lot coming for her so don’t handle this with violence alright? This isn’t you and she isn’t worth it. Just let me handle this all and don’t get your precious hands dirty alright?”

He brought you into a tight hug and stroked you hair as you cried into his chest. It hurt him so much to see you so distraught. But he knew that you had to hear the full story so you would understand everything that actually happened.

F/N struggled to get up but when she saw the deathly glare from Heeseung, she felt a shiver go down her spine and ran off

“Seungie I feel so stupid. He was left so vulnerable and I took it all out on him. I hate myself so much for not letting him explain”

Heeseung sighed as he rocked you side to side

“Y/Nie it’s not your fault ok. No one is at fault here but F/N. I didn’t want to believe it but things weren’t adding up so I got Hoon to do a test. The results only just came in and it confirmed that he was spiked”

“Please tell me he’s ok. He’s feeling better now right?”

“Don’t worry I made him take antibiotics as soon as. He’s just feeling down right now and refusing to eat so that’s why he’s not feeling well enough to come in”

“It’s all my fault. I should’ve just listened to him”

“Hey! I said you have no reason to blame yourself Y/Nie. I know you must be overwhelmed right now, but if you can, please speak to him. He’s not been the same since since that night”

“Ok Seungie. Thank you”

Time skip

You walked back with the boys to their flat as you mentally prepared for how your conversation with Sunghoon would go. Heeseung had updated the rest of the boys about everything that happened and even though they wanted nothing more than to confront F/N themselves, they knew that at this moment in time Sunghoon had to come first

You knocked on Sunghoon’s door and he responded with a weak voice

“I’m not hungry right now hyung, I’ll eat later”

Instead of responding back, you opened his door slowly and peeked your head through a bit

“Sunghoon? Are you ok?”

Instantly, the boy shot up from his bed and looked at you in awe

“Y/N! I, um, what are you doing here?”

You couldn’t find the words to say, so you ran over to him and gave him a hug. The tears were falling non stop and you hiccuped into his shoulder. You felt his arms wrap around you to stroke your back and he tucked his face into your neck

“I’m so sorry Sunghoon. I should’ve been there for you. F/N told me everything that happened that night. And then Seungie showed me your test results. God I’m so stupid”

“Shh it’s ok. You didn’t know Y/Nie, I didn’t either. All I knew was that I didn’t want to be around her and something wasn’t right. Just seeing how upset you were because of me again, absolutely killed me. When Heeseung hyung told me about taking the test, I didn’t want to believe that I could be so vulnerable. And I didn’t want you to see me as weak for getting into that situation in the first place. But please believe me Y/N, I care about you so much. I would never dream of intentionally hurting you like that”

When you felt his shaking shoulders, you stroked the back of his head to play with his hair

“Oh Hoonhoon, you don’t need to explain it to me anymore. I shouldn’t of been so stubborn to ignore you. And you are not weak ok? You are the strongest person I know. F/N took advantage of you and she will pay for what she’s done”

Seeing you so angry for him, he felt so giddy inside. He shouldn’t be thinking about it but you looked so adorable in his eyes, like an angry kitten. He brought his hand up to grab yours and give it a kiss. But he paused when he saw how red and sore they looked

“What happened to your hands pretty girl?” He stroked over each one with his thumb

“Well, when she told me what she did to you… I may have… punched her?”

“Y/N. Why would you put yourself in danger like that? It’s not worth you getting hurt over”

“But it was worth it for me! What I did to her was nothing compared to what she put you through. She deserves more than just a few punches” you pouted as you looked at your interlocked hands “Are you upset with me?”

He couldn’t help but chuckle at your cute antics. Everything that you did made him fall even harder

“Of course not pretty girl. I can never be mad at you. I just don’t want you getting hurt because of me. I care about you so much. You have no idea how much I think about you all of the time. Being away from you was absolute torture”

His heart was pounding in his chest as you looked him directly in the eyes. He brought his hand towards your chin to bring you forward and after what felt like forever, he pulled you in for a long awaited kiss. You could practically hear the fireworks going off around you as you both moved your lips perfectly against each other. It was so sweet and perfect for your first kiss and you didn’t want it to stop. Unfortunately, you started to lose your breath so you pulled away to get some air. He whined at the loss of your lips and quickly chased after them, making you giggle. You let him litter small pecks on your swollen lips with a wide smile

“Sunghoon! I can’t breathe” you giggled

“Sunghoon?!? What happened to Hoonhoon?” He pouted and looked at you with his best puppy eyes “It was so cute! And you never call me by a cute nickname. Everyone but me has one. Call me Hoonhoon from now on ok?”

“Ok ok Hoonhoon I promise”

You two carried on cuddling and kissing on his lap till he reluctantly pulled away

“I had a perfect plan to take you somewhere cute before saying this, but I can’t hold it anymore. Y/Nie, I like you so much and I honestly don’t know how to cope without you. You are the most perfect, beautiful girl I have ever laid my eyes upon and I was such a fool to treat you the way I did in the past. I admit I was a complete asshole to everyone but once I met you, I just knew I had to make you mine no matter what. You bring so much joy into my life and I want to experience this forever. You don’t have to say anything now pretty, but will you be my girlfriend?”

You looked at him in shock as he confessed. Your chest was swelling with joy from his words and you felt the overwhelming feeling to just cry. However Sunghoon took this the wrong way and immediately panicked

“I’m sorry Y/Nie I didn’t mean to make you cry again! Just forget what I said ok y-”

His words were cut off by you smashing your lips onto his

“Hoonhoon of course I’ll be your girlfriend silly. You were just so cute that I couldn’t handle it. You don’t have to take me somewhere cute because this was perfect. Being here with you is all I want”

It was like he was the Cheshire cat the way he smiled so wide. Finally! You were his! And he was never going to let you go

“You don’t know how much this means to me Y/Nie! Thank you for giving me a chance, I’m never let anything hurt you ok baby?

You nodded but he quickly picked up the redness of your cheeks so he instantly teased you for it

“Oh does my pretty girl like being called baby? Oh my baby is so cute I just want to kiss you”

“Hoonhoon! Stop teasing me it’s not funny!”

“But it is baby! Don’t worry I’ll make it up to you” he cooed at you and pressed a massive kiss to your burning cheeks

“Ok well first, you can make it up to me by getting something to eat. The boys have been telling me that you’re refusing to eat”

He looked at you sheepishly and nuzzled his face into your neck and agreed to get some food

The boys cheered as they saw the two of you emerge from Sunghoon’s room, holding hands. You’d expect this kind of reaction when they won their rugby match but to them, this was better

You all celebrated by going for a nice bbq where you had to fight the boys over who would pay for the meal. Unfortunately for you, your boyfriend was quick to hold you back as you reach your card out. They weren’t going to let you pay so they agreed to split it between the 7 of them

At that moment, you realised that this was what true happiness felt like. Surrounded by the people you cared about the most. Looking at your precious boyfriend, you interlocked your hands and gave him a small peck which caught him off guard. He tried to keep his composure though so he returned a kiss which resulted in the boys teasing the two of you. You all laughed as you hid in Sunghoon’s shoulder from embarrassment, but you wouldn’t have it any other way

Sunghoon made it a goal to be the best boyfriend ever and he was doing a good job at proving it. He constantly spoilt you, despite you saying that he didn’t need to. You were always the first thing he thought about in any situation. Did you need a lift? Were you hungry? Should he buy you that plushie you briefly looked at the other day?

Either way, he was perfect. You planned to have date nights every week but it turned to it being almost everyday, not like either of you were complaining. And they would always end in you two kissing and cuddling till you fell asleep.

It was safe to say that your life was perfect

Oh you wanted to know what happened to F/N? Well obviously she wasn’t going to get away with that shit she pulled. Heeseung may have told her that all she had to do was confess everything to you and Sunghoon, but he wasn’t going to leave her unpunished. She messed with his loved ones and she was going to suffer

Whilst you and Sunghoon had your talk, Heeseung left the house briefly to go to the police station where he told them everything they needed to know, alongside Sunghoon’s test results.

A few days later, she was arrested and she never returned to classes

Safe to say, there was nothing for you, Sunghoon and your friends to worry about any more

Author’s note: Ah it’s finally out! Thank you so much for supporting this series and I hope you’re happy with it! 🩵

Ik this may seem quite rushed but I feel that with these situations, there shouldn’t be the need to drag out the horrible situations 🤍 I will be happy to take requests for small drabbles based on this series so feel free to send them to my inbox 🥰

Taglist: @nikikids @vampenha @yjwluver @mrchweeee @satan-223 @dancinginthemoonliqht @yxhdhhdhdhd

[beneathcandycoatedclouds]

Ok hear me out I've been thinking so much about Astarion for obvious reasons but also about consent and how important that is to him as a character

I was talking to my husband about how I love him because he always waits for you to ask for things before doing them (feeding, relationship stuff, etc.) And even tho all the characters do that it feels extra special with him given his trauma and being a vampire, which usually means you hunt people for sport and are not asking permission, and my husband was like "yeah except for the first time"

And here's the thing about that - Astarion is a rogue. A real sneaky boy. Mechanically has sneak attack. His bite bonus action has a 100% chance of hitting. You shouldn't wake up until he has latched on to you already. Which leads me to believe... That he meant to wake you up that first time. He meant to wake you up so that there would be a chance to reveal his nature and to ask if he can have some blood so he doesn't fuckin' die. But given that the dude isn't used to trust or vulnerability and revealing that he is a vampire is already a MASSIVE show of that, he needed to find a way to make it seem like he wasn't asking permission. In a weird way, he wanted to ask for consent without being fully vulnerable. And to me this was the first display, way early on, that he was just waiting for someone to trust him and trust in his abilities to make the right choice. He knows what that choice is he just needs people to trust him to make it (which is also another de-LICIOUS theme with all the other companions as well and the overarching theme of overcoming the darkness within us as a whole).

And on top of all this he later reveals that he has never tasted blood from someone before!!! Only animals!!! Like even when he had to do terrible things for Cazador or was out searching the streets for victims he never caved once! He was living off of the putrid rats Cazador gave him and denied his hunger when out in public because it was important to him that he didn't hurt people when he didn't absolutely have to from evil papa C!

And like yeah. Sometimes he wants murder and chaos and children to die in act I. But also hear me out - one of the things so many approval guides messes up in explaining what he approves of is "is this person typically classified as a monster? Are you killing them without looking for an explanation or giving them another chance, even if they might not deserve it?" And usually it's things like sparing the act I hag or other "monsters". That's why he is so blatantly racist to the Gur - and please don't misunderstand I think it's rough to hear that part - but looking at it from his perspective as well, Gur monster hunters kill "monsters" without a second thought. If Astarion was alone they would have just murdered him without thinking or realizing that he wasn't everything they thought he was or knowing he had never tasted human blood.

Now we are far away from the original post idea from consent but this all leads to the final point of like. People characterizing him as chaotic evil and just how much the alignment system really can do people dirty. Like no! It can all be traced back to a deep good desire of wanting to give people another chance and giving people an opportunity to make their own choices and be better! He has no idea but that desire is there! Basically it's like the option you can say to Minsc - there's good and bad in everyone it's just what people want to listen to

[vinization]

A Poisoned Heart - Chapter 3

AO3 link

First chapter

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Several hours later...

Never in her life did Anne think she'd feel tired after doing nothing other than sit on a chair all day. Yet that was exactly how she was feeling right now, as Marcy pushed her wheelchair through the Newtopia Castle's seemingly endless hallways, the Plantars right beside them. In her defense, she was far from the only one who felt that way, as proven by the loud yawn that escaped Sprig's mouth.

Even if Anne was tired for a completely different reason.

"So much for us having a normal day, huh?" She began, hoping to stave off those feelings and hide them from her companions.

"Tell me about it!" Sprig replied, his voice laced with exhaustion. "I mean, what are the odds of us walking straight into a parade?"

Ah yes, that. Long story short, Anne & co stumbled on a parade honoring a long deceased axolotl named Igor the Brave, and the usual shenanigans ensued. What began as a misunderstanding almost escalated into a full blown riot, after Sprig accidentally destroyed a paper dragon that represented the amphibian in question. Despite everything, however, the affair did give Anne a welcome respite from the whole 'Marcy is awesome' routine that began almost immediately after they left the castle.

And then the ravenette single-handedly fixed the parade goers' dragon with some weird concoction she came up with on the fly, because of course she did. Well, at least the beetle burgers they had afterwards were tasty, so there was that.

"We're here," Marcy's voice snapped Anne out of her thoughts, and the Thai realized she was now in front of a door. "I'll ask again, are you sure you want to move to your bedroom already?" Marcy continued, looking at her bestie with a worried expression. "It'd be easier for me, uh, us to check in on you if you stayed in your hospital room, at least for a few more days."

"I get what you mean, Marbles," Anne countered her friend's gaze with a smile only slightly forced. "But I can't wait to sleep in a real bed again."

Marcy smiled back, a tired and defeated thing, while Hop Pop opened the door. It gave way with a low creak, giving Anne the chance to look into her new bedroom, the one place where she wouldn't need to hide her feelings, for the first time.

She loved it. Between the bed (which was an actual bed, not just some mattress on the floor of a basement like in the Plantar home at first), a shelf where she could put her belongings (and already had most of them), and the fact the room wasn't small enough to feel cramped also but not big enough to feel empty, Anne didn't know which detail she liked the most. There was even a closet too, one big enough to store more than clothes.

"Lady Olivia helped us pick the room," Hop Pop explained. "Somethin' about not overwhelming ya."

"I still think we should've picked the one with the big gold chandelier." Polly quipped.

"It's perfect," Anne replied, voice laced with wonder. "It actually reminds me of..." Her voice trailed off as her mind wandered to better times, but the Thai shook those memories of home out of her head before they overwhelmed her. "I mean, I love it."

"Glad to hear it." Hop Pop smiled, and if he had something on his mind, he didn't say it.

The exchange, however brief it was, was more than enough to Marcy's insides into a knot yet again, for she knew exactly what Anne was about to say. She was right, too: the bedroom was eerily similar to Anne's own room back in Earth, the place where she, Sasha and Marcy had so many sleepovers together.

Pull yourself together, girl. Marcy reminded herself. She had other things to do at the moment, like pushing Anne's wheelchair until she was close enough to the bed.

Alas, Anne had a plan of her own. "Hang on," she spoke before Marcy could push her any closer to her bed. "I wanna try something. Can someone get that crutch over there for me?" The Thai asked, pointing to the object in question, which was leaning on a wall. Sprig retrieved it, and soon enough Anne was gripping the crutch tightly with her left hand.

"Alright..." She took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." Summoning all the strength she could muster, Anne got up at an Earth snail's pace, putting her weight on her right leg before shifting some of it to her crutch. Consciously or not, no one else dared to make a sound, as if even something as basic as too loud a breath could ruin everything.

"You did it," Sprig finally spoke up, his eyes glistening with tears. "You did it!"

"I did?" Even Anne had a hard time believing she was standing up. "Heck yeah, I did it!" She raised her right arm in triumph, but the sudden movement disrupted her balance. She wobbled a bit, a startled "whoa!" escaping her lips.

"Careful!" Marcy exclaimed while she, Sprig and Hop Pop moved in to intercept what looked like an imminent fall, but Anne recovered her footing before that could happen.

"Phew..." She let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, guys." Her gaze shifted from her friends to her future bed, and she took another deep breath. "And now..." Steeling her resolve and muscles, Anne took a step with her good leg. She followed it up by moving her crutch, which made a barely audible thud upon making contact with the stone floor.

Rinse and repeat for what felt like an eternity, every step closely followed by her companions, until Anne was practically next to the bed. She was so close she could almost hear it calling to her, and so the Thai allowed herself to fall.

"Aaah..." Anne tried, and failed, to hide her delight after her body made contact with the fabrics of the mattress, blanket and pillow. She felt like she was on top of a cloud right now, like she could just...

"Um, hello?" A familiar voice snapped Anne out of her reverie, and her heart almost jumped inside her chest after her eyes registered Marcy looming above her. The Plantars were still there, but their diminutive stature meant most of Anne's attention was directed to her fellow human.

"... Sorry, I almost forgot about you guys." Anne's tone was sheepish, and a part of her wanted to sink into the bed until she was invisible.

"It's okay." Marcy gave a reassuring smile, one so sweet she almost didn't look like someone who was hiding a terrible secret. "Do you need anything?" She asked again, trying her hardest to maintain eye contact with her bestie.

"Well, I'm planning to go to sleep right now, so..." Anne snapped her fingers, her eyes widening as she remembered something very important. "Actually, I do! Did any of you guys bring my journal?"

"Ah," Hop Pop perked up at the question. "So you do have one of those things!"

"Well, it's not like Marcy's." Anne shrugged, but the simple act of thinking about that journal left an ugly taste in her mouth. "It's more of a diary, anyway."

"Does it look like a purple notebook?" Sprig asked.

"Yeah, that's the one!" Anne replied excitedly before she considered the implications of her friend's question. "Wait, you didn't read it, did you?"

"What? Of course not!" Sprig bristled, but his angry facade was quickly supplanted by a far more awkward expression. "I was tempted though, and I thought it had..." Realizing he was about to go on a tangent, he shook his head to stop that train of thought, hopped towards the closet and opened one of its drawers.

After a few moments of turning some objects over and tossing others out of the drawer (good thing Lady Olivia wasn't there to see that!), Sprig finally found what he was looking for, and held the purple journal above his head with a triumphant "aha!".

"Thanks dude," Anne spoke once Sprig handed her her journal, along with a pen. "And, um, sorry for doubting you." She finished, her previous apprehension replaced by shame.

"Eh, no problem," Sprig just smiled back. "I did say I was tempted, right?"

"Now, I'm really not one to talk about this," Marcy joined the conversation unexpectedly. "But Anne, don't spend too much time writing on that journal, okay? You need every hour of sleep for your leg to heal properly."

"Don't worry about it, Mar-Mar." Despite everything the Thai knew about her friend now, she could see her concern was genuine. Thus, she had no trouble smiling at her. "I won't be up for long, I'm pretty tired already."

"Right. One last thing, you remember where the bathroom is, don't you? And how to call us if you need any help?"

"Marcy..." It took Anne all she had not to groan.

"Sorry," Marcy could do little except laugh awkwardly at her newfound protectiveness. "Good night, Anna-Banana."

"Good night, Marbles," Anne replied, then turned her attention to the Plantars. "And good night to you guys too. I can't wait to see you all again tomorrow."

The three frogs all replied in their own way, and soon enough they and Marcy were at the door. Sprig was the last one to leave, closing the door behind him after looking at Anne one last time, waving a final goodbye before closing the door.

Anne was finally alone, and the realization of that was all it took for her to collapse on her bed. No longer encumbered by the need to hide her feelings, she let out a long, utterly exhausted sigh. Why, just why was she feeling this way? Sure, Marcy got her stuck here, but it was clear she regretted it. And yeah, the Plantars fawning over the nerdette every five minutes was more than a little annoying, but could she blame them for it? She was freaking awesome!

Why couldn't Anne just be happy for them?

Oh well. At least she had a journal to confide her feelings to, instead of having to bottle it all up. Now, how could she best put her feelings about everything that happened in the last few days into words?

Welp, Anne shrugged to herself, I might as well start from the beginning.

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

Turns out Marcy wasn't the only one who could get into the Zone.

Anne's writing was lethargic at first, since the Thai girl faced two arduous tasks from the moment her pen made contact with the journal's paper: not only did she need to put the maelstrom of thoughts within her head in order, which turned out to be pretty dang difficult, but she also had to remember the chain of events that led to her current situation. This meant Anne had to recall her initial joy at seeing Marcy, the foray into the barbariants' nest and, finally, the moment her life was turned upside down.

It made the deluge that came after Anne wrote her first couple of paragraphs all the more astonishing. Like an old assembly line roaring back to life after years of disuse, Anne's body gained a will of its own, and she found herself unable to stop her hands from scribbling line after line after line. Her brain was just as feverish as her body, minor details she overlooked or forgot during the last few days suddenly materializing in front of her eyes, as if she had visited the various places she saw mere hours ago.

Anne's urge to write about her experiences was akin to a hunger, one that, paradoxically, deepened the more she tried to satisfy it. Writing alone was no longer enough to satisfy her mind's desperate need to rid itself of all the information within it, so she tried her luck at drawing some of the things she saw - she was nowhere near as good an artist as Marcy, of course, but she knew a thing or two about drawing.

Her experience in this front was not too different from writing: small, timid sketches at first, followed by increasingly complex depictions of what she saw, memories pouring from the recesses of her mind like water from a fountain. What started as a few smiley and frowny faces here and there escalated into fully blown miniatures of the murals Andrias showed her yesterday.

And then, as suddenly as it began, Anne's energy ran out. The toll of her body's exertion hit the Thai like a ton of bricks, and she, now aching all over, slumped forward, gasping for air. She feared she was about to black out, her vision blurry as her mind hurriedly snapped back to reality.

"Ugh..." Anne groaned and a hand on her head, feeling what seemed to be the early stages of a headache. She could barely hear her own voice, since it was drowned out by the sound of her heart desperately pumping blood to her weary, sore arms.

It took a few seconds (or minutes, she couldn't tell), but her body eventually calmed down. Even then, it still took a few blinks for reality to set in for good: Anne wasn't sitting on the palm of a giant newt, surrounded by murals that stretched for as far as she could see, but in the bedroom Marcy and the Plantars left her in.

"Holy crud..." She thought aloud. "What was that?" She looked down, towards the journal that was now sitting on her lap, and picked it up.

Anne's mouth opened so wide a part of her was afraid her jaw would fall off. She wanted to write only a couple of pages or so and then go to sleep, yet she had written far, far, far more than that. And there were so many drawings, too!

"So much for me not spending too much time writing..." Anne thought aloud once more as she remembered Marcy's warning. "Speaking of, what time is it?" She picked up her phone, wondering if she had come close to pulling an all-nighter or...

Wait.

What?!

"IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN AN HOUR?!"

What the heck is this?! Since when did Anne write an essay's worth of words, plus all the drawings, in less than an hour?! That sort of stuff was Marcy's department, not hers! Also, how on Earth could she dissociate from the real world this much? Did she seriously need to get those words off her chest that badly? Good Lord, if every future entry is like this, she'll need to-

*knock knock*

...

Oh great. Of course her yell woke someone up. Who could it be on the other side of that door? Were they worried? Did they think she needed help? What was she supposed to say? 'Oh sorry for the ruckus, I was just-'

*knock knock*

... Welp, here goes nothing.

"Come in," Anne says, dreading the possibility of seeing Marcy or, worse still, Sprig rushing into the bedroom, fearing the worst.

The knob turns ever so slowly, as if the person on the other side was scared of making too much noise. The door opens with a creak... but no one walks through it. Huh?

"I said come in," Anne repeated, her dread giving way to confusion.

"I'd love to, kiddo, but I don't think I can fit through the door."

Anne's heart skipped a beat, and a gasp escaped her lips - she knew exactly who that voice belonged to.

"King Andrias!" She called his name with joy, and how could she not since he was the one person she could be completely honest with? "Hang on, just give me a minute!" She continued excitedly, reaching for her crutch and starting the long trek to the bedroom's door. Her efforts were rewarded with the now familiar sight of a gigantic blue newt waiting for her, an appropriately large smile adorning his bearded face.

"I see you don't need a wheelchair anymore," the elderly monarch began. "I have to admit, I'm surprised. I thought you'd need at least a few more days." His smile made it clear this surprise was a very welcome one.

"I'm still a bit wobbly, to be honest," Anne replied. "But man does it feels great to walk again."

"I can imagine." Andrias' expression changed from a happy to an inquisitive one. "So, what was your first day out in the city like? Did you see anything?"

"Oh." Anne felt her heart sink the moment she was reminded of what she went through hours earlier. "We stuck to the streets for the now, mingled with the locals and all that. It was... great."

Andrias didn't buy it, of course. He didn't reply right away, but instead looked pensive for a few seconds. "Great for whom?" He asked with a tone halfway between worried and protective.

"Hey, don't get me wrong now!" Anne replied with an alarmed voice, raising her free hand to emphasize her point. "I did enjoy it, just... not as much as I thought I would."

Andrias' expression softened, to his little listener's immense relief - the last thing she wanted was for him to get angry at someone who didn't deserve it. "What happened?"

"I want to talk about it, I really do, but..." Anne felt her throat tighten before she could finish. "Dang it, why is this so complicated?" She complained, mostly to herself. Her eyes darted to the floor, as if compelled to do so by the weight of her nervousness and gravity itself.

"Do you want us to go somewhere else?" Andrias intervened. "I know a place that's just perfect for you to calm your nerves."

"Are you serious?!" The girl's head snapped upward, her eyes now sparkling with curiosity. "What are we waiting for, let's go!"

Once again, much like when he first met her, Andrias felt his chest warm up upon seeing Anne's smile. It was quite odd, to be honest, how protective he was becoming of the little human, to the point he had to be reminded by the Core of what his true mission was.

He lowered his hand for Anne to climb on, and felt how much stronger she was compared to yesterday when she did. After that, Andrias raised his hand until she was level with his eyes, the gaze emanating from them asking a question he did not need to voice.

"I'm all set, big guy!" Anne answered eagerly. "Let's go!"

Andrias let out a giggle, and although it still rattled Anne to her bones, she found the sensation far less overwhelming than before - indeed, she actually felt her muscles relax, as if her body unconsciously knew she was safe. The king began to walk towards who knows where, and Anne didnt feel an ounce of unease: all she could think about was what he had in store for her tonight.

"Hey dude," she spoke up after Andrias turned a corner and entered a hallway better lit than the others before it. "Do you think I could-"

"Shhh!" The giant monarch interrupted her by putting a finger to his lips. He then pointed that same finger downward, and Anne saw none other than Lady Olivia slumped against an armchair, snoring lightly. One of her hands was holding a book, the other an incredibly suspicious-looking glass bottle.

"... That's not juice, is it?" Anne whispered, and Andrias responded by shaking his head. Truly, no words were necessary.

After tiptoeing his way past the sleeping aristocrat, Andrias entered a room that looked like a very spacious wine cellar. There was a wooden hatch on the floor, and after the dust cloud created by Andrias' opening of it subsided, Anne saw the beginning of a long, dark stairway.

What ancient secret did the king want to reveal this time? Also, couldn't he go down these stairs any faster? This place was creepy...

"So, um, as I was about to ask you," Anne spoke up, hoping to break the eerie monotony of Andrias' footsteps echoing through the darkness. "Do you think I could travel on your shoulder sometime, instead of on your hand? I think that'd be pretty cool."

"Hahahahaha!" Andrias gave a hearty laugh, which was exactly what Anne needed to keep her unease at bay. "You are right, my dear, it would be 'very cool'. We should save it for when you're out of that cast, though - best not to take any risks."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

The stairway finally came to an end, but that didn't mean an end to the ominous ambience, to Anne's dismay. She and Andrias were now in a hallway whose walls were lined up with mirrors of many sizes, which reflected the light from her phone's flashlight in all sorts of unnerving ways.

"Ooookay, what's with all the mirrors?" She couldn't not ask.

"They keep the shadowfish at bay." Came the explanation.

"Shadow what now?"

"Shadowfish," Andrias' tone was calm and didactic. "The creatures you saw yesterday. They can phase through walls and floors with no problem, but as soon as they see a mirror..." He made a 'poof' gesture with his free hand before continuing. "They're powerless. Our scientists learned much from studying them, back in the old days." He finished with a proud smile.

Ah yes, the old days. The golden age Amphibia lived under before the Music Box was stolen, and which Anne had promised to help Andrias restore. The fiery resolve she felt when she made that promise was long dead now, drowned by the steady, painful realization that fulfilling it was a task well beyond her competence. No, this was a job for that adorable, klutzy, brilliant, almost infuriatingly perfect ball of sunshine named Marcy Regina Wu.

Not someone like her.

"Hey," Andrias noticed the change in the Thai's mood almost immediately. "Everything okay there, kiddo?"

No answer.

He frowned. "Don't worry." He tried to reassure the little human, who now looked like a withered flower on his enormous palm. "We're almost there."

Once again, no response. She was so excited a few minutes ago, what was going on? Andrias had no idea, and that distressed him to an unreasonable degree. Or maybe it wasn't that unreasonable, given the stakes involved. Not that it made his master any less annoyed - he was always too emotional for their taste.

An old, wooden door covered in boards, chains and huge red letters stopped the giant king in his tracks. The change in momentum stirred Anne out of her stupor, and she finally spoke.

"What does that say?" She asked with a voice that sounded far too weary for Andrias' liking. It was better than nothing, at least.

"It should be fairly obvious." He explained, his neutral, teacherly expression giving way to a grin that could only be described as smugness given a physical form. "Doesn't apply to me, though." He finished with a mischievous giggle.

Anne smiled back in a way that made Andrias' insides - those the Core didn't replace with cybernetics long ago, at least - roil with anguish. This was not the reaction he wanted, not at all. Well, maybe seeing what was on the other side of the door would change the girl's mood. The door gave way with a creak as he pulled it open, revealing...

"WHAT THE HECK, DUDE?!" Anne yelled once her eyes fully registered the sight in front of her: a flooded room full of floating coffins. "Dark hallways and ominous secret passages are one thing, but what is this even supposed to be?! Some creepy crypt?"

"Hm, more or less." Andrias answered awkwardly. Beneath that façade, however, he was breathing a sigh of relief at seeing Anne not looking so... lost, anymore.

He waded his way through the crypt, the muddy water reaching up to his ankles in some spots. Said water began to glow purple, and Anne gasped in a mix of fear and amazement as she saw shadowfish of all shapes and sizes emerging from it, their ghostly, floating bodies emanating an eerie light. The ghostly animals watched the human and giant amphibian intently, but otherwise kept their distance from the pair.

Another hallway full of mirrors came up, and Anne let out a sigh of relief upon exiting the crypt. She barely had time to recover from that experience before Andrias turned a corner and entered a place so radically different from the one she just visited it took a few seconds for her to realize she wasn't dreaming.

She and Andrias were in a garden that stretched as far as her eyes could see. A huge, underground garden full of plants that didn't need any sunlight to grow.

Andrias took a few steps, each stride covering a vast distance thanks to his size, before sitting down.

"This is it," the king began, beaming with pride and an all too familiar hint of sadness. "The place I go to whenever I need some time for myself. Wonderful, isn't it?"

Once again, just like when Andrias showed her those murals, Anne was speechless. The more her eyes scanned her new surroundings, the more she recognized the word 'wonderful' didn't cut it. It didn't matter where her vision landed, there was always some plant for her to admire, each more beautiful than the last. Some weren't that different from those she'd see back home, with easily distinguishable leaves and branches. Others had a variety of strange, unquestionably alien shapes: some were slender, others bulbous, and some didn't look like plants at all.

And then there were the flowers, which took on a multitude of colors, from recognizable ones like red, yellow and purple to others she didn't know. Some emmitted a dim, low glow, not unlike lampshades in a bedroom.

Even the air itself felt like something out of a dream. It carried a variety of scents Anne had never smelled before, and every breath she took elicited some new reaction from her nose. It was also cold and humid, albeit not excessively so: the Thai was sure she could sleep here, as long as she had a pillow and a blanket.

This garden, full of plants that didn't need sunlight to survive, didn't feel like a part of the real world at all. The word 'wonderful' didn't even begin to describe it.

No, this place was a piece of paradise that somehow found itself in the wrong plane of existence.

Marcy would love it.

Marcy...

There was a time when thinking of the nerdette filled Anne's mind with many years' worth of pleasant memories, from sleepovers to drinking boba until they got sick, playing C&C campaigns Marcy spent all day planning (even if Anne herself wasn't really into that) to saving her from her own clumsiness. Now though, just thinking of her name made Anne's chest ache, like a set of poisonous thorns digging into her heart.

It made her tongue taste a trace of bile, and her eyes well up with tears desperate to be shed.

It stoked a fire within her, wild and furious and eager to-

"So, kiddo, what do you think?" Andrias' voice snapped the Thai out of her thoughts. "Makes you feel like you're dreaming, doesn't it?"

Anne craned her head up in response, and felt an overwhelming urge to scream once she saw how he was looking at her. Here was the mightiest amphibian in the world, looking at a messy-haired girl one tenth of his size with expectant eyes and a fatherly smile.

She didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve the trust he was placing upon her.

"Yeah," Anne wiped her eyes and forced down a sob before it escaped her throat. "It's great."

"Anne..." Andrias spoke up again, and hearing him say her name instead of a more distant word like 'kiddo' made her shiver for some reason. "Look, I won't pretend I know what's going on, but if you have anything to say..." He trailed off, giving his listener a chance to put two and two together.

"It's nothing," Anne looked at Andrias again, and how dare he look so worried for her. "I'm fine."

"We both know you're not." The king replied with a tone that made it clear he wasn't having any of it. He let a moment of silence go by before continuing, his features softening. "Before I brought you here, you told me you didn't enjoy your day as much as you thought you would. Why?"

Anne wanted to do nothing more than explode right then and there, to tell Andrias to save his concern to someone who actually mattered. He deserved better than that, of course, so she didn't act on those feelings. Still, she had to tell him the truth. After everything he entrusted her with, despite knowing her for less than a day, he deserved nothing less.

She took a deep breath to steel herself, and balled her hands into fists in the hopes of getting a semblance of a grip on her tumultuous emotions. Here goes nothing.

"Look, dude," Anne began, using every bit of her strength to keep it together. "You don't really think I can help you, do you? Be honest."

"What kind of question is that?" Andrias replied as if the girl had said something preposterous instead of a simple truth. "I'm sure you can-"

"WILL YOU DROP THE ACT ALREADY?!" Anne roared so suddenly Andrias backed away a little. "You don't need to sugarcoat things for me, I know I can't do it! And I know you know it too!" She pointed a finger at him accusingly.

No audible response came from the giant king, whose face remained frozen in an expression of utter disbelief. For Anne, the lack of a counterpoint was a sign for her to continue.

"You don't need me!" She shouted again, her voice straining. "Why would you, when Marcy's right here?! She's already got a whole freaking list of all the super awesome things she's done, and she can't walk five feet without someone thanking her for them!" Her vocal chords were already at their limit, but she didn't stop - she couldn't. "Even the Plantars can't spend five minutes without kissing the ground she walks on! And what about me?!"

Anne, finally out of energy for the time being, collapsed on Andrias' palm like a house of cards. The myriad of sensors and computers within the king's body were working overtime to make sense of what he just heard, and the more he processed that information, the more horrified he became. He knew Anne was in a bad spot the moment he laid eyes on her, but this was completely beyond what he expected.

And then he heard a whimper.

"What about me?"

He felt something wet on his palm.

Anne was crying.

...

That does it - enough was enough.

"Anne," Andrias spoke as calmly as he could, not wanting the girl to know of his own emotional state. "Please-"

"Don't!" The Thai quickly cut him off, her fire from before reignited, even as tears fell from her eyes. "I can barely do ANYTHING right! Do you have any idea how trouble I caused back in Wartwood?! How long it took the for people there to accept me?!" Anne's lungs were desperate for air, but that was nothing compared to the weight of the words still lodged in her throat. "I can barely hold a sword! I can't even get these stupid leaves out of my STUPID hair!"

"Then how are you still alive?!" Andrias finally found his voice, and it came out like a thunderclap at point blank range.

Anne fell on her backside, her self-directed anger completely gone. Her tears stopped falling, and she stared at the king with wide, terrified eyes, akin to a deer in the headlights. Her instincts were yelling at her to run away, consequences be damned, but her body didn't budge. All she could think about was how the king's voice shook the very air around her, and how completely vulnerable she was right now. She was a broken girl lost in the darkness once again, alone with a stranger who could crush her the moment he felt like it.

"How, Anne?! How?!" Andrias pressed on, and the more Anne stared at him the more she realized what was going on. The king wasn't angry or about to hurt her, not at all. She looked into his eyes and saw only sadness, anguish even.

All for her.

"If you're really as weak and stupid as you say you are, how did you make it here?" The questions continued, each hammering Andrias' point further and further. "How did you hold out against those cannibals, monsters and everything else you told me about? How did you survive for a whole month in the wilderness, all by yourself?"

The king at last stopped, and the silence that settled into the garden afterward was beyond deafening. The sound of the wind, the rustling of the leaves, they all paled in comparison to Andrias' words echoing over and over inside Anne's head.

She had no answer to them.

"I... I..." She tried to come up with something, anything, to say. "I-I thought-- I didn't... I... I never..."

Anne's world suddenly shifted upwards, and before long she was right next to Andrias' face. At this distance she could see the true extent of the giant newt's inner turmoil: how his eyes were laden with tears ready to be shed, the sweat dripping from his forehead, how tightly his jaw muscles were clenched.

Andrias needed a hug just as badly as she did right now, so Anne acted accordingly. She wrapped her arms around his right cheek as best as she could, and felt him lean into her touch as gently as he could. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she felt Andrias' welcoming warmth seep into her body, but she squeezed them shut. She couldn't ruin this moment.

Anne lost track of how long the cuddle session lasted, but she felt like a completely different person after it ended. A huge weight was lifted off of her shoulders, which relaxed accordingly, and her determination to fulfill her promise was rekindled.

"I don't know what to say, except... well, thanks I guess." Anne said tentatively. It didn't express the full extent of her gratitude, but she at least managed to string a sentence together.

Andrias didn't reply immediately. Instead, he took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, his features softening as he did so.

"Kid," he began, his voice and expression serious, but still carrying a fatherly undertone. "Never say those things about yourself again, understand? Never." Visibly satisfied at seeing his little listener nod without hesitation, he continued. "You're strong in your own way, brave and willing to do anything for those you love. You just need someone to teach you how to use that strength." Then, a smile. "And I know just the right person for that."

"Who?" Anne couldn't contain the urge to ask. "C'mon, tell me!"

"Sorry kiddo, but I'd rather keep it a surprise." Andrias' smile took on a mischievous edge, while Anne pouted and crossed her arms. "The one thing I'll say is that she's one of my best generals, even if she's a little... eccentric."

"Eh, I'll be fine." Anne dismissed the king's 'warning' with a carefree wave. "You should've seen some of the people I met back in Wartwood. There's this old lady, Mrs. Croaker, who I'm pretty sure is older then Hop Pop, but man can she fight!"

"Oh!" Andrias squealed like an excited child. "You have to tell me more about her!"

"I don't know..." Anne flashed a mischievous, almost impish smirk. "I'd rather not spoil the surprise."

Andrias could only gasp at the girl's audacity - here she was, trying to beat him in his own game. Unacceptable!

"Oh, come on now!" He protested in a way that sounded far too young for his age, to say the least. "It's not like I'll ever know her in person! Probably..."

Anne put a hand on her chin and weighed her options. "Hm, I guess you're right." She at last gave a verbal answer, one that oozed with the smugness of knowing she had the king eating from the palm of her hand. "Now, where do I start? Guess I'll begin with that one time me, Sprig and Polly broke into her home and learned she used to be super hot."

"... Excuse me?"

"I swear it makes sense in context!"

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

Several increasingly ridiculous stories later...

"I have to admit, I'm impressed." Andrias began, his eyes full of surprise and admiration. "For a place that's supposed to be in the middle of nowhere, this town you made yourself at home in is full of colorful characters."

"They sure are, and I wouldn't have it any other way." Anne replied, her lips curled into a fond smile. "But enough about me. Do you have any crazy stories to tell?"

"Hahahahaha!" Andrias' response came in the form of a loud, bellowing laugh. "You better sit tight kiddo, because--"

He suddenly registered something in the corner of his eye, and his train of thought ground to a screeching halt.

"Huh? What's happening?" Anne looked at the general direction Andrias' gaze focused on. She got her answer soon enough: there was something in the garden with them, and whatever it was it was big enough to rustle the various plants along its path. The intruder came closer and closer to where the pair was, and while Anne wasn't afraid (how could she, with someone like Andrias on her side?), she still felt a bit nervous.

The distance between the stranger and the human-newt duo decreased with each passing second, until the mystery creature finally came close enough for Anne to figure out whatever it was supposed to be from her vantage point. It was a fairly large, quadruped animal, with green, almost plant-like fur and glowing eyes.

Indeed, it looked almost like... wait a second.

There was no way. No freaking way!

Anne gasped once her brain connected the dots.

"Ah," Andrias, unaware of the Thai's past experience with a creature exactly like this one, smiled and began to talk in his usual manner whenever he showed Anne something new. "That, my dear, is-"

"A MOSS MAN?!" He was cut off by a squeal so loud his ears rang for a moment.

"Wait, wha-"

"I can't believe it!" Anne continued, her brain and mouth firing on all cylinders. "A moss man, here?! I know you've shown me a lot of super secret stuff so far, but holy crud I did NOT think I'd see this! What is it even doing down here?"

"Um..."

"Can you get me closer, pleasepleaseplease?" Anne pleaded, using every bit of her willpower to make the best possible expression to tug at the king's heartstrings.

"Hm..." Andrias wondered what the in the absolute heck was happening right now, but decided to save that for later. "Yes, of course. But be careful, okay?" He slowly lowered his hand.

"Heck yeah! Thanks a lot, big guy!" Anne couldn't make her gratitude more obvious if she tried. "And don't worry, I will be!"

Climbing down from Andrias' hand proved to be more awkward a task than Anne anticipated, since, besides having one of her legs in a cast, she had only one free hand - the other was holding her crutch. Still, she accomplished it, and so she made her way to where the moss man was, one step at a time.

The strange animal watched her intently, seemingly ready to bolt at the first sign of danger.

"Shh," Anne spoke with a gentle voice and slowly extended her arm. "It's okay, see? I won't hurt you."

The moss man took a few, cautious steps towards the girl before extending its own hand to her. Anne gasped, her jaw threatening to hit the floor, as a flower sprouted and began to bloom on that very same hand in a matter of seconds.

"Um, Andrias?" She glanced at the giant newt, unsure of what to do. No response came from the amphibian, who was clearly lost in thought.

"Everything okay there, big guy?" Anne asked again, to no avail. She considered raising her voice to get Andrias' attention, but concluded doing so would likely scare the moss man away.

Speaking of, the animal in question gave Anne a gentle nudge with its outstretched arm to get her attention. It also let out a noise similar to a growl, likely a request for the girl to accept its floral offering.

"Soooo, I take it you want me to take this?" Anne asked, the moss man letting out a noise she swore was an annoyed 'what do you think?' in its language. "Yeah yeah, sorry." She replied sheepishly before considering her options. On one hand, she didn't want to get so close to an animal she didn't know without Andrias' approval, and it was clear he wouldn't snap out of whatever was going on inside that big noggin of his any time soon. On the other, she had already encountered a moss man in the wild, and it wasn't dangerous at all - this one was no different.

So Anne steeled herself, extended her arm and plucked the flower from the moss man's hand. Not only did it not show any sign of pain, Anne was sure it was actually smiling at her beneath all that moss it had instead of fur. She looked at the flower on her hand one more time, placed it on her ear and smiled back.

Meanwhile, Andrias was busy connecting the dots in the most plausible way. He had already gathered a lot of interesting information over the last few days, but the revelation that Anne already knew what a moss man was was nothing short of a bombshell, since there was only one way she could've learned that. Add in the fact that 'Sprig' frog she was so fond of was a spitting image of Leif, and, well...

"Ah!" A startled yelp snapped the king out of his thoughts. He knew that voice.

"Anne!" Andrias shot upright in less than a second, his left hand going straight for the secret compartment in his armor that housed his fire sword. His eyes darted in so many directions so quickly they barely had time to process what they were seeing. His brain, meanwhile, was coming up with a million different scenarios for what might've happened. Did Anne trip somewhere? Did a predatory animal from the outside world enter the garden somehow? Did the moss man attack her?

Another sound, this one far more pleasant, reached Andrias' ears, right as he was about to ignite his sword. It was... a laugh?

The king looked down, and at last saw what was going on with clear eyes. Far from being in danger, Anne was having the time of her life: she had begun to pet the moss man's belly, and the delighted animal returned her affection in the form of a hug. A very big hug, appropriate for a creature which was almost three meters tall when standing upright.

"Noooo!" Anne 'protested' in between her laughs. "You goofball, you'll get me all dirty!

Andrias could barely fathom the scale of the discrepancy between his fears and the scene unfolding in front of him. Here he stood, ready to vaporize a foe that only existed in his mind, while the only thing the girl who he had become so attached to in less than two days was in danger of was getting too dirty.

What else could he do but join in on the laughter? What started as half-muted chuckles gave way to guffaws that reverberated throughout the garden so loudly that Anne and the moss man stopped what they were doing.

The latter actually backed away a little, but a few pets from its new friend were enough of a reassurance not to flee.

"Hey, big guy!" Anne called once the king's laughs subsided. "You were kinda spacing out there, everything okay?"

"Ah yes," Andrias scratched the back of his head. "I'm fine. I was just... thinking, that's all."

"About what?"

The king felt his body tense up in the milliseconds that it took him to answer that question. His words and tone had to be perfect - this was the conversation that would make or break his plans.

"A lot of things, actually." He began. "Such as, how did you know what a moss man is before I told you?"

"Oh, that?" Anne replied with a casual tone, unaware of the importance of the information she was about to give. "Believe it or not, I actually bumped into one not far from Wartwood. Nobody believed me when I told them though, except for One-Eyed Wally." She smiled as she remembered her adventure with the frog in question, and the lesson he taught her. "He's cool."

"Near Wartwood, you say?" Something in Andrias' expression changed, and it sent chills down Anne's spine. It looked just like when he told her the story of how the Music Box was stolen, and, consciously or not, revealed a part of the deep seated resentment that still resided within him.

"Y-Yeah," she stammered a little. "What about it?"

"Hmm..." The king looked pensive for a few seconds, stroking his beard in the meantime. He was, Anne could see, no less nervous than she was - in fact, he seemed almost afraid to ask whatever question was dwelling in his mind at the moment, fearing what the answer could be.

Finally, he took a deep breath before taking the plunge. "Anne," Andrias began, his voice betraying his unease. "The Plantars, do they have a dance? Something that mesmerizes any animal that watches?"

The question caught the Thai by surprise, to the point she had to ponder it for a few seconds.

"As a matter of fact, they do!" Anne replied, more than a little curious about where the giant newt intended to go with this. "And it works, too - I actually pulled it off myself, once."

"Oh." Andrias' face lost almost all of its color in the blink of an eye. "Oh no."

"... Andrias?" Anne asked, her chills worsening as she saw the king's pupils shrink to the size of pinpricks.

Andrias didn't answer right away. Instead he averted his gaze from the girl and grit his teeth, as if not wanting to share his discovery with her. He truly didn't, less for her and more for himself - a part of him refused to believe that the person who ruined his life was still around in any shape or form.

Still, he had to say it. Anne had to know, and he had to admit it.

"The Plantars," Andrias began, his tone and expression laying bare the true extent of his horror. "They're... they're Leif's descendants."

...

"What?" Anne could barely comprehend what she just heard. "What?!"

"When Leif stole the Music Box, she fled Newtopia on the back of a moss man." The king explained. "And that dance? She invented it."

"You can't be serious!" Anne protested. "This has got to be a coincidence!" She felt the floor crumble beneath her feet, much like when she read Marcy's journal.

"I had hoped so too," Andrias replied, his voice laden with sadness. "But it can't be. There are just too many things for me to ignore."

"S-S-So what?" Anne spoke up again. "Even if they're related to her, that doesn't mean anything! They aren't her!"

"Wait a minute." If Andrias' ears registered what she said, he gave no sign of it. "Where did you say the Box was, again?" He asked, fear written all over his face.

A lump formed in Anne's throat, and she forced it out of the way with difficulty. "I-I said Hop Pop left it with some contacts back in Wartwood."

"No..." If Andrias looked afraid before, now he seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack.

"Hey!" And Anne was having none of it. "I know exactly what you're thinking, and you better stop right there!"

The king's eyes snapped towards her. They were still full of fear, and that only made the Thai angrier.

"You don't know the Plantars!" She shouted, her own eyes as sharp as daggers. "And you do NOT know Hop Pop! For starters, he took me in when everyone thought I was a monster! Sure, we didn't always get along, but I don't know where I'd be without him!" She stopped to take a breath, though her gaze remained unrelenting. "Even when he made mistakes, he always did his best to make up for them! And he knows I need the Music Box to get home, so I swear to God, if you even suggest he's gonna betray me, I swear I'll--!"

Anne gritted her teeth and shut her eyes before she said something stupid. As angry as she was, she knew she was in no position to threaten someone ten times her size.

By the time she reopened them, Andrias' body language was completely different. His shoulders were slumped, his head low, and his eyes pinned to the floor. There was no panic within him anymore, only shame.

"I understand." The king spoke with a heavy voice. "You're right, I don't know the Plantars. I shouldn't have doubted them like that, and I'm sorry. It's just..." He lifted his gaze and let out a long, tired sigh. "I'm scared, Anne. The Box has been gone for a thousand years, and to think it's now so close I can almost..." His voice trailed off.

"That must be a lot of pressure, huh?" Anne replied, now feeling a little guilty for lashing out the way she did.

You have no idea, Andrias wanted to say. "It is."

A silence settled between the human and amphibian for the time being, both of them opting to enjoy the peace and tranquility the garden offered for a while. It was during this lull that the moss man returned, accompanied by two others of its kind. They sat not far from where the duo was, the newcomers watching them with curiosity.

Anne waved at them, and the first moss man she interacted with returned the gesture - albeit in a slow, childlike manner, as if it didn't fully understand what it meant but knew it was important somehow. It was at that moment that she noticed something rather unnerving about the moss men: they all had chains around their necks.

She'd have to ask Andrias about that later - he had a good reason for it, of that she was sure of.

First things first, though. "So," Anne began, her voice low but still reaching the king's ears due to the silence reigning over the garden. "Did you figure out how to recharge the Music Box yet?"

Andrias let out a long sigh, and put a hand on his head. "Not gonna lie kiddo, I forgot how big our archives were. I must've read a hundred books today, and I barely touched the, um..." His hand moved to his chin. "What do you humans call that again? The 'tip of the iceberg'?"

"Yep."

"Anyway," the king put an end to that little detour. "What I mean to say is, I'll need help if I'm to find anything about the Music Box within the next days instead of a whole year." He really didn't, but he had to keep up appearances.

"Marcy's help, right?" Anne quickly guessed. "I mean, it's not like I can read those ancient runes you told me about." She felt the thorns digging into her heart once more, while the seed of envy continued to spread its foul roots deep within.

Andrias looked on sadly, knowing there was no way he could downplay the nerdette's superiority on this field - for now.

"Look, kid," Anne felt a light tap on her back, and looked up to see a reassuring smile on the king's face. "I promise I'll teach you how to read them one day, okay? I'd love to learn more about that Thai language of yours, too."

What else could she do but smile back? Plus, she could use a break from having Marcy around all the time.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

[kdramalovergirl]

Thinking about this reddit post by wayfaringbibliophile

v nuanced take 10/10

their take on LR and how all im-sol really had to do was accept Sun-jae's love and be happy with him for it to be over 🥺

As for Sol's immaturity when she went back and overall, I really did think that it was because

1. She went back. I assumed her cognitive capacity reduced a bit and she felt teenage angst™ and the lack of plain old sense at times.

2. All along we've seen her be blinded by her love for Sun-jae. She is rational in almost every aspect of her life. She is never overly emotional even about her own disability!! (except for the hospital/depression thing which is absolutely justified) and takes everything in stride.

Couldn't attend the concert? No problem she'll just sit outside and listen.

Lack of employment opportunities due to the disability? No problem, she will try again.

However, something happening to her Sun-jaeya? A bitch is about to get cut 😃

3. The plot.

their post is below the cut!

A Few 'Lovely Runner' Theories and Things I Wish Was Different in the Show.

First of all, thank you everyone for reading and liking my last post. It's amazing that there is a place here for us to go crazy together over our shared love for fictional characters.

As much as I loved the show, I wish it gave us a bit more clarity on some of the plot points. It's a well made show and it has enough layers to make it interesting even when we are rewatching it. That's especially why the lack of clarity bothers me. My obsessed brain just needs some answers and so here I am, trying to connect the dots.

Needless to say it's going to be full of spoilers, so read at your own discretion.

It's going to be a really long post. Here we go.

The two things that bothered me the most while watching the show was Sol's passivity in her fate and the two-dimensional, cardboard cut-out psychopath villain. The killer was scary for sure, but the dedication with which he followed them through timelines didn't feel convincing at all. Why did he have such power over two people's fate? Something was missing.

And Sol was awesome in many ways but it seemed like she left behind a little bit of her maturity and rational thinking power every time she travelled back to the past.

When Sol made that decision to get off the train in Episode 13 without any solid plan to thwart the killer, I was really frustrated. Like girl you know what is going to happen and you are making this stupid decision knowing full well that this is your last chance to change the future!!! What are you doing? Yeah, she couldn't tell anyone what was going to happen. But there are many other ways to handle the problem than getting yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere with no help nearby. She kept viewing fate as inevitable despite her own experience proving otherwise.

But when I thought about it, maybe there's an explanation for both!

I don't think that the psycho killer was the big bad solo villain of the story. Maybe he was in the original timeline and Sol was unfortunate enough to come across him. Once the time travel begins, I think he was just a link in a sequence of events that kept repeating until someone found a way to break the pattern. That someone was Sol. For fate to change , all it required was for Sol to realise that she had the ability to fix the variable that forced them to go round and round in the same circle. The writing hints at this many times throughout the show. Sol's reason to travel back in time was not to 'change' fate but to 'choose' fate. Yes, there's a difference and I will get into that in a moment.

In my understanding, the watch is a symbol of regret - of missed opportunities, misunderstandings, unrequited love and what could have beens. This is applicable to both Sun Jae and Sol. In the original timeline, we see Sun Jae sitting in the hospital corridor sobbing, clutching the watch in his hand. In that moment and for the rest of his life in the original timeline, he was just like that watch - broken and stuck in that moment, unable to move on from his guilt.

Sol had her regrets too.

On the night the loop begins, we see her asking her mom about the person who saved her life in the past. Even though her conscious mind failed to realise that Sun Jae was the person who saved her, I think on some level she always knew. Her mind starts remembering him after she consciously chooses to be with him. When the original timeline Sol was desperately hanging on to that watch in the freezing water, she was not just mourning Sun Jae but also the chance she lost in understanding the pain he went through, the chance to return the hope that he gave her. The watch became the receptacle of the intense desire and regrets of two people who wanted to save each other. So it brought her back to the time where things had a chance to become unbroken.

Even though Sol thinks that she was given a chance to go back to the past just to save Sun Jae, her journey was not as simple as saving someone else's future. When she is in the past, we see her looking at things in a new light. She enjoys going to school, sitting in the classroom listening to the banter of her classmates, does the things that she wanted to do but never got the chance to do, like learning to ride a bicycle, notices the little things that her past self took for granted, builds better relationship with her mother and really truly appreciates the life she had as a teenager. Each time Sol travels to the present, we see that the lives of the people around her have changed significantly - like Tae Sung becoming a detective, her brother and best friend living a happy married life, her mother living a healthy life surrounded by loved ones etc. Through the little choices that she made, she was slowly overcoming the regrets that the original timeline Sol had. She was capable of making these changes because it was 'her' regrets to get over, 'her' decisions that impacted 'her' future.

I don't think Sol could have single handedly saved Sun Jae from dying no matter how many chances she got because it was not in her complete power to do so. When you look at the different lives her loved ones lived in the future, Sol was always the one who got the ball rolling. But she was only the catalyst. Their lives changed because 'they' made the decision to follow that ball. Her best friend and brother chooses each other every time and never regrets their life together no matter what circumstances they are living in. They didn't start loving each other because Sol actively pushed them to do so.

This is exactly why she couldn't change Sun Jae's fate where he loses his swimming career. She thinks that it was a fate that was unchangeable. But no. Despite her umpteen efforts he still ended up having that same fate because he chose it for himself. There's that moment at the bus stop where he says to her that he knows she is worried about him but he is still going to compete and win the medal. He does that successfully because he was determined to do that. The consequences were because of the decision he made for himself. As the saying goes "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink”.

The show is pretty consistent in showing us this several times throughout the course of the story. Whenever Sol makes an active choice to change things where she is the primary agent and there isn't someone else's will affecting the result, she successfully does that. Like the house fire. She requests Tae Sung's help and they douse the fire together. Even though her brother started it, he just leaves the situation altogether and Sol takes the rein. Same with her accident. She took measures to change the outcome and change it did. But when it comes to Sun Jae, he is always in the driving seat of his fate.

When the first time she goes back to the past, Sol is single mindedly focused on saving Sun Jae from having bad thoughts. She is operating from the firm belief that he took his own life. So she actively tries to shield him from painful experiences without realising that she is intricately tied to that pain. If the original timeline Sol had chosen to accept Sun Jae's death (highly unlikely, but still), she might have eventually found the strength to move on and live her life with the resilience she always possessed. If that was the case, she would have never realised that Sun Jae was a part of her past and he always knew and liked her. When Sol wished a different fate for Sun Jae, she was unknowingly wishing for a different fate for her own self. For Sol to change Sun Jae's fate she had to change her own first. One cannot be achieved without the other because Sun Jae was never ever going to stop loving and choosing Sol. He did that in every timeline without fail.

Every time Sol pushes him away, he bounces back to her with double the force. He chooses to die protecting her rather than live with the knowledge that Sol was in danger and he did nothing to save her. Sol tries everything including erasing her completely from his life and still fails to prevent him from finding her again. That's why I say that her going back was not to change his fate. It was for her to choose her own fate - a fate that includes Sun Jae and his love for her.

As I understand, this is what the show intended too. There are many breadcrumbs throughout the show pointing towards this. Her sudden return to the future when Tae Sung asks her out being one of them. We see her taking her earphones out right before she hears Sun Jae's confession. I think she was always meant to hear those words. But she removes the earphones choosing to hear Tae Sung over Sun Jae. Maybe if she heard it at that moment, it might have had an impact on the future. Later when Sun Jae says those words to her himself, that same recording is playing in her ears and she hears it but still she stays in the past.

Sol always saw him as separate, something she had to protect from afar. So she pushes him away again and again. While Sun Jae is very open about his love for Sol, she never really acknowledges her love for him. Apart from the very first time that she sees him in the past, she doesn't say 'I love you' to him. She says she likes him, nods her head when he asks her whether she had feelings for him and doesn't give a verbal affirmative when he asks her whether she still feels the same. Yes, we know she loves him and her actions are more than enough proof of it. But I am not talking about saying the actual word aloud but the reason she is unable to do so. It is about the lack of surety she has about her place in his life. When Sun Jae shows his love for her through his actions, she asks him to be more selfish. She asks him to put his needs first instead of hiding his pain. What she doesn't completely accept is the fact that she is his need. She sees herself as the one factor that needs to be removed from Sun Jae's life for him to have a happy future whereas Sun Jae has that surety that there's no happy future for him without her in it. It is this difference in their understanding that traps them both in the same endless loop.

In this context, Sol's decision in the 13th episode makes sense. She must have been feeling a sense of defeat by that point. She saw the man she wanted to save die three times by that point. No matter what she did, she ended up in the same place she started. So her choice to erase herself from his life made sense to her. She was like a horse with blinkers on, looking straight ahead, seeing things from only one point of view. The one event she needed to erase was her meeting the killer, not her meeting Sun Jae.

If Sol wants Sun Jae to have a happy healthy future then she needs to be his future. She cannot remove herself from him and expect him to have a happy life. Sun Jae realises it when he says that if there's something like a fate that cannot be avoided, then his fate is to fall in love with her again and again in all timelines across the past, present and future.

The show sets these things up beautifully over the course of fourteen episodes. That's why I was a bit disappointed when the show got rid of the killer before Sol realised that she was the fate that Sun Jae was always heading towards. Because inspite of her best efforts to save him, here he was, once again declaring his love for her. That was the moment for Sol to realise that she never had to change fate as much as accept it. The killer was never an unavoidable factor. I loved that it was Tae Sung that got rid of him but when it happened , I couldn't help wonder, why now, why he was able to do that in this timeline? Him being a detective shouldn't have made that much difference because he was aware of the killer's motive in the past timeline too. It would have been perfect if it happened after Sol realised that hers and Sun Jae's fates are one and the same and not separate. When she realises she is the key to break the pattern, she chooses to accept his love irrespective of her fears and thus she chooses her fate and the loop ends. Then the killer could have gone back to rot in hell where he belonged.

It would have been a perfect moment bringing together all the crumbs scattered throughout the show. We got our happy ending and we are saved from being traumatized for the rest of our lives. So no complaints there. But for a show with so many layers, this final detail would have been the cherry on top.

~~I still couldn't find an answer to why Sun Jae's watch reset to three chances again. I think it would have been better if the watch showed four chances from the beginning (three seemed like a random number anyway).~~

Edited to add - Nevermind, three might not be a random number. Please check

u/CircularCausality comment below where it is explained.

Thinking about the linear nature of the time travel has made me realise why Sun Jae's watch reset to three chances again. So here's my theory - His watch reset because it is the exact same watch that became a time travel portal for Sol in the first episode! In the original timeline, Sol bought Sun Jae's watch in an auction. That watch became a portal when OG Sun Jae died, probably for all the reasons I mentioned above. Then that watch remained with Sol throughout her time jumps. Even when the future changed, the watch remained the same because it was already activated. We see Sun Jae holding the two watches together in the first episode. It is the same watch existing in two different timelines. Maybe the watch stayed ordinary until the moment the Sun Jae to whom the watch belonged dies. So when Sol time travelled, she also met the past version of the watch she had in her hands. Each watch activated when it's owner died for the first time in that versions timeline. It is like in 'Avengers End Game' where they collected the stones from the previous timelines.

If the first watch held both of their regrets, this one held Sun Jae's desparation to save Sol and maybe his guilt too. He faced death knowing that she crossed time just to save him. I don't know if I am making sense anymore. Maybe I should take a break. Edit over.

I also wish it was Grandma who gave Sun Jae the time capsule clock in the final timeline instead of him just finding it in her room. She already seemed to be aware of all the timelines and this would have added to the mystery of her role in the scheme of things. Nobody question Grandma ok. She can be the fairy godmother, no questions asked.

In spite of all the plotholes, watching 'Lovely Runner' was a wonderful experience.I am really happy that we now have a beautiful show that we can return to when we need that extra comfort.

If you read it this far, then here are some flying kisses for you, Sun Jae style ☺️

Well, that's all folks.

[tojikai]

Do you think Gojo and Rie relationship would have lasted long? To clarify before Gojo met y/n.

Like if they gotten together during high school years would they still be together?

Or they met years later like in the current timeline but Gojo and y/n never got together in first. So no cheating with anyone. He and Rie just got together but would the relationship work?

Me personally no. Because I think they have we romanticises each other too much and have so many what if that if they did date each other. The fantasy version that they have each other would clash with real version of themselves.

Rie regrets not giving Gojo a chance because she thought he couldn’t commit in a relationship. Only to find out years later he can commit but he alright in a relationship with someone else.

Gojo is sad that Rie did gave him a chance and never really did get over her. Because who throw away a 5 year relationship just to be a high school crush and can’t help wonder if she was the one that got away. But the moment she showed interest in you years later you don’t hesitate to end things with your current girlfriend.

Also what does Rie feel about y/n? Like everything happens in the story. The cheating, didn’t clear up the misunderstanding with gojo between her and y/n at shoko party and humiliating her, telling y/n in the hospital in a serious condition that gojo cheated on her with her. Comfort confront him and accusing y/n of baby trapped him which y/n mom saw and accusing Gojo is still cheating on y/n with Rie and again doesn’t clear up the misunderstanding instead saying nothing in hopes that y/n would give up gojo for good so that her and Gojo can be together but instead it too much for y/n and cause y/n to be rush in the hospital. Y/n suffer a miscarriage and can’t trust Gojo and doesn’t want to be in a relationship with him again so leave the country. Gojo lose y/n and their baby and want nothing to do with Rie. Rie is fired at her job, lose her friends and has a ruined reputation.

Does she hate y/n? Does she blame her or Gojo for this mess? Does she think she is the victim of the situation and she did nothing wrong? Or does she realise how serious her actions were and regret them and the entire situation in general?

to me, gojorie before yn, hmm maybe a couple of years. if they gave each other a chance. tho it would've been a bit rocky, but they could've made it work bc they're really into each other. it's not impossible for them to have a future.

rie's genuinely curious abt yn. bc she's satoru's first serious rs. she felt bad for what they did but she wanted happiness and w satoru dropping his rs, she liked to think that maybe it's just fate doing it's wonders. (but it didn't last long.) and she's also a bit jealous of yn bc of how much satoru cares for her and the lengths he'd go through for her. she was really frustrated w her, to the point where she tried to find reasons to blame yn for what happened to them bc she really thought her and satoru would be together fr that time. she hated that satoru loves yn more than he will ever love her. she's also frustrated w herself bc she allowed herself to be in a situation like that. she regrets that it has to reach that point but she still pities herself bc she thinks she was robbed of what's rightfully hers which led her to do the bad things she's done.

[ghostly-wisteria-tea]

Weird headcannon

I like to think that Khonshu does have the ability to see the future. His domain is the night sky, the stars included. The stars are used for navigation, travelling, and also for fortune telling. Infact, in my AU. Khonshu can see and predict the future. the problem though is that he is seeing every possible future's in the multiverse at once. Like that scene in Endgame where Doctor Strange is trying see into like 14 billion futures. Yeah, Khonshu can do that too.

The only difference is that Doctor Strange have very good control since he is just taking small, healthy servings of the future in a short period of time. Khonshu, since his banishment, have little control over it and it will last from hours to weeks, simultaneously when he is just doing mundane tasks like walking down the streets. It would be like standing in the way of a huge dam being opened. Khonshu, as a god, is meant to handle extremely huge amounts of futures compared to Strange. But his banishment makes it hard for him to handle it at a healthy level.

Another analogy would be like drinking alcohol. Small moderate servings won't kill you, but you do not drink 5 gallons of them at once and continuously for days. It become a huge problem, both to your mental state, and to your own physical health. It would be like trying to do 20 advance math problems at once. And they are not on separat sheets of paper, but layered on top of one another. It would get mixed up so bad you can't even see what the problem even is any more.

This follows the multiverse theory; the possible futures are infinite so there is no guarantee that the future Khonshu is seeing is the right one. It might be in another universe, but it's a 1 in a trillion chance that it will be in that universe he is staying.

And with the existence of free-will, each second will branch out to a billion timelines. And the second after that, and the second after that, and the second after that.

Khonshu is just too narrow-minded, hyperfocus to take all of this, and his banishment prevents him from accurately seeing the "right" series of events that leads to the right outcome. He end up seeing a future from a different universe. Resulting in many misunderstandings where one a prophecy he thought was the correct output, end up not actually happening as he expected. But it may have done in another universe, so it did become true.

Think of it like Schrödinger's cat situation. What Khonshu is seeing, no matter how impossible and ridiculous, is simultaneously true and false. There is a universe where canonically, Ammit did succeed in ruling the world, a universe where all their genders are flipped, or a universe ruled by centipedes, a universe where there is nothing but centipedes, or a universe where Marc didn't have DID or any mental illness in the first place, Khonshu isn't a God of Vengeance and is happily married to Hathor with hawk-cow hybrid god children. Or a future where neither even existed in the first place.

Everything is true, Reality is a lie and predicting the future is completely impossible.

This makes the concept of prophecies completely useless in the end, because all of them are correct and have the possibility of not happening at all.

A random person can just make up something, and there is still a chance that somewhere in the multiverse, it really did become true. And just by looking at the future. Khonshu have already made a billion new routes that started the moment he decided to look into the future, and another billion new routes after looking. So, he needs to look into those, which then branches to another billion new routes for each previously seen billion routes. There is more future possibilities than there are stars in the entire multiverse.

It's practically endless, ever growing that it just circles back to being completely useless. The moon god gave up trying to wrap his head around the ever-growing multiverse now that he is not as strong as he used to be, and went all,

"Fuck all these futures. I'm going to make my own future instead."

It's also one of the reasons he always considers the past actions of his targets, not the future as there is not telling if that future is true or not. Because again, free-will exists.

[blog-name-idk]

Everything Falls (Into Place) | 14

*Banner by the incredible @bangtansmauyeondan

Pairing: OT7 x Fem Reader

Genre: College!AU, Roommate!AU, Fluff, Humor, Smut

Summary: Your new roommates are unbearably nice and unbearably hot. Good thing you're an adult who is fully capable of platonic friendships with the opposite sex, right?

Word Count: 2314

~~~~~

"Here's your hazelnut latte," Taehyung said with a smile, setting the customer's drink on the counter. Instead of taking it, the guy hovered awkwardly in place. "Anything else I can get you?"

"How about your number?" He asked with what was probably supposed to be a smooth grin. It wasn't. Tae internally sighed before pasting his customer-service smile on and producing the answer he had been giving since his first month at the cafe.

"Oh wow, that's really flattering! Thanks, you're really cute, but unfortunately my heart already belongs to someone."

It was a simple response, but one he had perfected to achieve maximum results. Compliment them and tell them they're attractive so as not to bruise any fragile egos. Give a reason for rejection that implies they would have had a chance otherwise. Girls and guys alike swooned at his loyalty to the supposed owner of his heart. It was the perfect defense. And if they reacted poorly, well, it wasn't like that type of person was a real loss as a customer.

However, lately the statement was starting to feel less and less like a lie. Involuntarily, his gaze trailed to the corner of the cafe. You were sitting there with an empty, long-since forgotten coffee mug, scribbling into a notebook. You looked up as if sensing his attention, and when your eyes met his heart gave a happy little stutter at your smile.

"Oh, her."

The customer had followed his line of sight, and Taehyung was glad that his skin was tanned enough to hide his blush. Lately, he had found his gaze landing on you more and more. Something about the guy's tone bothered him, but he was saved the effort of asking what he meant by the boy himself.

"I don't want to be the one to tell you this, but you know she's messing around behind your back, right?"

Taehyung felt his hackles rise at the derisive tone in the customer's voice, though a small, baby monster in his heart demanded to know who and how. It had first awoken that Festa weekend, at your unfortunate (in many ways) admission during Never Have I Ever. Combined with the prior knowledge of your most recent relationship, he had wondered if anyone had ever really treasured you the way he did.

I could do it, the creature had whispered insidiously. I could make her feel special.

The next day, the baby monster had grown, fed by the idea that you and Hobi had fallen into bed together. He didn't know why the thought bothered him so much. He loved the both of you, and his older brother would definitely treat you the way you deserved. But he couldn't deny the relief he had felt when discovering it was a misunderstanding. You had made it clear that first night that you weren't interested in anything other than friendship with any of them. That had been fine - smart, even. But the thought that you had rescinded that initial declaration for Hobi and Hobi alone had made him feel… jealous? Left out? Neglected?

Stop being an idiot, Taehyung scolded himself. Love isn't a finite resource. Her caring about someone else doesn't make your bond any weaker.

The customer apparently took his silence as an invitation to continue.

"I get it, she's really cute, but it's not worth it. She's constantly around other guys, like that Jimin dude. I think she's playing both of you."

The critter relaxed and went back to sleep. So this guy just saw you with other people - likely his roommates - and assumed you were messing around with all of them? He supposed they were all pretty affectionate with you, especially the younger half, but he did not appreciate the disdain in his gaze.

"Oh, I think you have the wrong idea," Taehyung said with a tight smile. "It's not like that. She's actually just one of our good friends. We all live together, you've probably been seeing her with our roommates."

The customer's eyebrows shot up.

"She lives with that many guys? Damn, so she just fucks around with all of you?"

He was starting to get irritated at this guy's judgemental tone. Actually he was far past irritated at this point. You weren't the type of person to toy with others' emotions like that. And even if you were fucking a hundred people, this idiot had no right to talk about you like this.

"It's not really any of your business either way, is it?" Taehyung finally countered, smile completely gone. Fuck getting a tip, he just wanted this guy to leave.

"Geez, I was just trying to help. Well, let me know if you ever come to your senses."

The customer left, and he sagged in relief, though annoyance still simmered in his veins. It was kind of ridiculous how quickly he had gone from feeling jealous about Hobi to feeling righteous indignation at the thought that you shouldn't be allowed to hook up with whoever you wanted. Then again, he was realizing that he had a hard time regulating his emotions in general when it came to you.

"You okay?"

Speak of the devil. You had left your table to check on him, clearly concerned by his interaction with judgey-mcjudgeface. Your presence eased some of the tension in his chest, and he felt flutters replace the irritated bubbles. He tried to summon the smile back onto his face, but you could evidently tell it was forced, because you reached across the counter to rub his head. Taehyung wanted nothing more than to bury himself in your arms, but he contented himself with lacing his fingers in your free hand.

"Tae? What's wrong?" Your eyes were warm, and the clear affection in them drew purrs from his heart-creature.

"Will you stay until I close?" He asked instead of answering. "I want to go home together."

Your laugh was music to his ears, and the monster in his chest grew ever larger as it eagerly devoured the sunlight in your smile.

"Of course, anything for you."

He was a total goner.

~~~~~

You smiled fondly as you watched Taehyung sweep the floors. He had expressly refused to let you help, so you were pretending to work on proofs while watching him out of the corner of your eye.

Just what had that customer said to him earlier? You had seen happy Taehyung, petulant Taehyung, and grumpy Taehyung, amongst many others, but that hard look on his face was completely new. What exactly had the guy said to make your friend look so uncharacteristically pissed?

You hadn't pressed when he deflected, and the way he had relaxed at your touch made your insides melt. When he so sweetly asked you to stay, you had been powerless to resist. How dare he have the audacity to be that adorable?

Finally, he was done with cleanup. By the time he locked the door behind the two of you the sky was a dusky purple. You closed your eyes and inhaled the fresh air, feeling energized by the beautiful evening. When you opened them again, Taehyung was gazing at you with an unfamiliar glimmer in his eyes.

For a moment it was all you could do to stare back, mesmerized by the way the dying sunlight managed to illuminate galaxies in those dark, hypnotic eyes. Then you came to your senses and looked away, hoping it was too dim for him to notice the blush creeping up your face.

Get a hold of yourself, you thought sternly. You've got it bad enough without adding another one to your thirst list.

It was Mina's fault for giving form to the vague affection that had begun swirling in your chest. That had to be the reason you were imagining the specific twinkle in his eyes that only seemed to appear when he looked at you.

When you managed to meet his gaze again, the strange look was gone and he was wearing that warm, familiar smile. Which was just as dangerous in its own way, but it was at least an expression your heart had already developed calluses against.

Taehyung was quiet for the first couple minutes of the walk home. When he finally spoke up, his question surprised you. And made your stupid overactive imagination go into overdrive.

"Are you seeing anyone?"

It took you a moment to register the question, and you paused to formulate your answer.

"Not right now," you finally admitted. "Between you guys, Mina, and schoolwork I'm pretty happy with life right now."

You had another, unmentioned reason for why you currently had zero interest in relationships. Growing feelings aside, you were pretty sure that any prospective suitor would be less than thrilled with the amount of physical affection you displayed with all of the housemates, and you were definitely not ready to give that up. The level of skinship, whether between the boys, or the boys and you, was something you hadn't experienced before and you loved every moment of it.

Well, there was also the fact that it was unlikely anyone you met in the near future would even measure up to them. But hopefully that wouldn't be the case. Oh god, were you going to grow old a lonely spinster just because you couldn't get your head out of your ass?

"Awww [y/n], you're the best," said Taehyung happily, tackling you in a hug and rubbing his nose into the top of your head.

"Ugh don't do that, I didn't wash my hair today," you complained, embarrassed but secretly pleased when he completely ignored you.

Idly you wondered if any of the guys was seeing or interested in anyone, before forcibly stopping your line of thought. It seemed unlikely - they rarely brought anyone over, and with the amount of time they all spent together wasn't conducive to a healthy relationship with anyone else.

Either way, it was none of your business. In a way you'd rather not know - any definitive confirmation that they were single would only give you false hope and serve to make your growing affections more dangerous.

The walk home was pleasant, if quiet. The weather was perfect, and the warm breeze told you summer would be here soon. With finals screaming towards you with the intensity of a thousand of the boys' scariest fangirls, you hadn't taken the time to stop and enjoy the scenery. So when you spied a bench on the way, you slowed and tugged Taehyung's arm, wanting to enjoy this rare moment of peace.

Being the big, clingy baby he was, you fully expected him to snuggle against you. What you didn't expect was for him to throw his arms around you and bury his face into your neck.

"Aw Tae," you cooed, stroking his hair. He looked up at you and you froze, drowning in the deep, dark pools of his eyes. Why was he looking at you like that, like you were his entire world? You couldn't handle this right now, not when your walls were already cracked and crumbling from the extended siege of a war the boys didn't even realize they were waging.

That realization doused you with an icy mixture of disappointment and relief. Taehyung wasn't treating you in some special way - he was just being his normal, lovable self. You were the one reading into things as if you were a high schooler who believed Cosmo tips like "if he looks at you and sneezes, that's his body's involuntary way of saying he's in love."

Ugh. Maybe you couldn't stop yourself from getting too attached in a more-than-friendly way, but you weren't going to inflict them with it. They had enough to deal with without having to feel guilty about not returning feelings you weren't supposed to have in the first place. That you yourself had told them wouldn't occur.

To distract yourself, and because you weren't sure how much longer you could handle those gorgeous eyes without doing something you'd regret, you pulled away slightly and ruffled Taehyung's hair.

"Do you want to talk about that guy earlier?" You asked, and he stiffened.

"What about him?"

"It just seemed like he upset you," you said, worried by your friend's tight smile.

"He just said some things after I turned him down," he explained, smile fading into a small frown. You forced yourself not to put out a hand to smooth the small wrinkle in his brow.

"Ah, one of those," you said in understanding. Why couldn't some people just handle rejection gracefully? Poor Taehyung. "It must be hard to be so beautiful."

"You tell me."

Your mind went blank. You hadn't been expecting that. Especially not coupled with those bottomless eyes and the same undecipherable expression you had seen earlier.

"Haha, very funny Tae," you deflected uncomfortably, trying to stave off the hammering in your chest. It was unfair what just a look and a compliment was doing to you.

"It's true," he protested. He straightened, and his next few actions made your adrenaline spike so high they might as well have been in slow motion.

He cupped your cheeks in his hands.

What is he doing? What is happening?

"You're perfect, [y/n]." He leaned in, resting his forehead on yours.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

And then rubbed the tip of his nose against yours.

Is this a fucking nose kiss? Wait these are supposed to be lame why does this feel so nice?

Before you could physically react, he pulled away and stood up.

"Let's get going," he said with a soft smile, holding out his hand. Speechless and mind still reeling, you took it. God you were so whipped.

You were so preoccupied with your thoughts that you didn't notice the tender glances Taehyung stole your way, or that your hand stayed in his for the remainder of the walk home.

~~~~~

Next | Masterlist

Tags: @singukieee @persphonesorchid @xmochiloverx @taestefully-in-luv @meavie @silscintilla @forpunishers @jnghs

[astupidweeb69]

Unrequited (Yandere! Ticci Toby x Reader) Part 5

Next Chapters: Part 6, Part 7

Links to Previous Chapters: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, & Part 4

Author's Note: Well, I finally added Kate. I don't know how most people interpret her character, so I kind of used my own take on it. I’m thinking she’s probably around 26-27 years old, while Toby is like 20-23? And Tim and Brian are somewhere in between.

I just wanted some evil women to be in this too. And idk if her “advice” makes sense to everybody, but I know a lot of people who are around Kate’s age, and most of them HATE texting. I’ve received lectures similar to what she says so many times in my life lmao.

And this chapter may feel a bit rushed but… let’s just say it’s because I’m very excited to write the plot I set up for the next one. Cross-posted on my Ao3 account.

Warnings: Swearing. Brief descriptions of self-harm (like punching walls? idk if that counts). Sexual themes towards the end. (3,086 words).

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

 Toby was furious.

 His thoughts were incoherent, an angry whirlwind of emotions. Nothing went the way he’d planned.

After he left your home, he marched back to the cabin to process what had happened. Of course, that only ended with him trashing the place. He screamed at nothing, threw everything in sight, and punched holes in the walls until finally, his body gave out.

Now he sat on the floor, back up against the wall, panting to catch his breath. For the first time in a long time, he felt tears threatening to form.

 You had rejected him.

 You didn’t feel the same.

 He was sure you had been flirting back with him. Every glance you took in his direction, all the times you made contact with his skin. He genuinely thought he’d picked up on some clever hint to kiss you. To make a move. A grand gesture of romance.

But he was wrong.

He fucked up.

And then he made the mistake of trying to call your “bluff”. Which only made you angrier.

The shock of being yelled at had been too much for him to deal with. And he reacted like he always did in those types of situations. With wrath. How could you possibly trust him after this?

Oh god, and you’d seen his face.

That horrific scar.

His heart tightened at the memory. He could barely breathe.

Fuck.

He needed to talk to you again.

If he just explained himself and apologized, you’d come around, right?  Give him another chance? It was only a misunderstanding. A tiny blip in what would become an intense love affair between the two of you. Something you’d both laugh at later down the road.

Toby shakily got up from the wooden floor, still exhausted from the outburst. Where was his phone? He had to find it immediately.

Frantically, his eyes scanned over every surface that it could be on. Did he throw it at one point? He couldn’t remember.

Tossing aside a few pillows, he finally recognized the black case on the ground.

The screen was cracked. Relief washed over him when the tiny monitor lit up; it still worked.

There was your name in his contact list, along with a couple others, but your conversation was the only one saved. The only person he wanted to form a real emotional bond with.

His fingers started to type on their own. Toby needed to resolve the issue as soon as possible. He couldn’t take it anymore.

‘I’m sorry about tonight’

The first text. It needed to be an apology. He needed to start off by admitting his fault.

‘I have trouble controlling my feelings. And I get scared when I’m rejected. I like you SO much (Y/N). I feel like such an ass, especially for scaring you. I don’t want you to be scared of me. Please please please give me another chance. I’ll make it up to you I swear.’

He waited for your response.

It didn’t come.

No.

This wasn’t happening.

It couldn’t be happening. He had to see you again. You HAD to be in his life in some way.

Toby paced around his home, chewing on his cheek. Blood gushed down his face from the gnawed flesh.

You were just busy right now. Probably talking to your friend.

That must be it.

You wouldn’t just ignore him like this. After all the moments the two of you shared together, he must’ve meant something to you.

 The phone buzzed.

 A reply.

 ‘Thank you for the apology, but there’s no way for me to know if it’s sincere. I feel like you could be using it to guilt me. I just can’t believe what you say Toby, and I think it’s better for both of us if we don’t see each other again. I wish you the best, and hopefully, you can learn from this in the future.’

His heart stopped.

 ….Oh God no.

 “NO! NO! NO!” He punched the wall next to him until his knuckles bled, painting the plaster with red streaks. “YOU CAN’T! YOU CAN’T! You… can’t…”

He started to cry.

Now the floodgates opened, and an ugly sob came from the boy. Curling up on a ratty couch, Toby shoved his face in the cushions to muffle the sounds.

He never did learn how to manage his feelings properly. He knew that there was some kind of mental illness that made it difficult for him. His fucked-up head, he thought bitterly. Controlled by The Operator and controlled by his disorders. There was always something preventing him from having people in his life.

Would he always be this lonely?

 Bang!

 Bang!

 Bang!

 Someone pounded on the front door.

 Toby peeked his head up from the sofa.

Who could that be?

Shit. He hoped it wasn’t Tim. That was the last person he needed to see in this state. But he had to talk to whoever it was in case there was a job.

A grin settled on his face.

Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea.

A little sadistic fun never hurt, well at least not him anyways. It could help him relieve some of these thoughts. Take them out on somebody else.

Maybe this would prove to be a good thing.

The door swung open, the visitor being too impatient to wait any longer.

Long matted dark brown hair that was almost black, hazel eyes, camping gear strapped to the back.

It was Kate.

“Toby! You home? Sorry, I let myself in I-” She stopped mid-sentence, noticing the mess surrounding her, dark stare settling on the culprit.

“Holy shit what happened here?” She let out a worried laugh. “It looks like a tornado came through. Are you okay? Did you have another episode?”

The older proxy dropped her bags and walked over, kneeling to get a better look at his condition. Toby was slumped over, sluggishly sitting up, refusing to look directly at her. Ashamed to be seen in such a vulnerable way.

Kate was the nicest person he had in his life. Besides you. After all, she was still a proxy.

The problem was that she was hardly ever around. Unlike him, or even Tim and Brian, Kate never settled down in one place for long. She was nomadic, carrying all her earthly possessions in a backpack. Being the fastest and most agile proxy, it was easy for her to hunt individual trespassers and take them down, so she was almost always on the job.

However, once in a blue moon she would stop in to see him. Kate and Toby had a somewhat strong connection. Not unlike how Tim and Brian were attached to each other, and while Brian could be nice to Toby at times, he mostly did it out of necessity. Kate, on the other hand, was kind to Toby in ways that reminded him of his older sibling. Not that he liked comparing her to Laura… or was it Lyra? Sometimes he had a hard time remembering the name. That’s what his journal was for.

“Do you want to talk about it? I won’t make fun of you. No matter how tempted I am.” She sat down next to him, rubbing his back reassuringly.

Toby took a shaky breath, comforted by the gesture. “I-I… fuh-fuck… give me a suh-second…”

He didn’t know how much to share with her. He didn’t want to put you in any danger, and while Kate may have been nice to him, there’s no telling how she’d react to learning about his obsession with a “human”.  

She was more… fanatical when it came to serving The Operator.

Different proxies had different levels of devotion to the being, as well as their own unique reasons for serving it. Brian was more apathetic, not caring one way or the other, viewing it like any other profession. Something to train for and do well. Tim was more complex, a mixture of apathy, fear, and at times enthusiasm, mainly when in the act of killing.

Most proxies had no memory of their past lives, no ways to connect to whoever they were before. That’s why it was easy for them to refer to anyone who didn’t serve The Operator as only being “humans”. It was a way to completely remove themselves from the species, to look at them as nothing but an inconvenience or a tool to gain favor with the malevolent entity dictating their lives.

But Toby was a special case. He could still remember. He hadn’t been a proxy for as long as the others and could still picture the faces of his mother and sister. He even knew what his shithead father looked like, especially after he hacked him to pieces. These were the reasons he found it hard to go on. Pretending to everyone that he didn’t resent The Operator’s control at times. That he never longed to try to have a normal life. Maybe kill the occasional abusive dad he might come across. But other than that, be an average everyday person.

And here you came along. An answer to his prayers.

But things were complicated now.

 He needed advice.

 “I muh-may have… messed up?”

Kate snorted. “Okay… wanna try being more specific maybe?”

Toby picked at the skin of his hands, peeling the areas around his nails.

“I sort of... luh-like somebody…” He trailed off.

It’s not like it was uncommon for proxies or killers to date and hook up with each other. Although everyone knew Toby never had any luck with the others in that department. But despite that, if he kept the conversation vague enough… it should be fine.

“Oh shit! Really?” Caught off guard, the brunette quickly tried to dial it back. “I mean…wow. I didn’t really expect that… who?”

Did he really have that bad of a reputation within their group that it was this much of a surprise to her? It was a little insulting.

“I don’t want to say.” Toby snapped. His temper was starting to get the better of him. And he didn’t want to share any sensitive information.

Luckily, Kate never took what Toby did personally. “Okay- you don’t have to tell me… but watch your tone young man.” She joked.

“Suh-sorry. I’m just really upset. We had a fuh-fight and I don’t know what to do.” He felt like a kid asking their mom for help. But he was desperate.

Toby couldn’t stand the idea of you walking around hating him. Sure, his plans included taking you back to his home, most likely by force, but he thought he would’ve had more opportunities for you to get to know him in a more… conventional way.

“Have you apologized to this… person?” Kate asked, carefully choosing her words. Picking up on how defensive he was being.

“Yeah! I duh-did and-“

She interrupted, “Wait. Did you do it in person or over text?” There was a sternness in her voice at the question. Like Kate was already accusing him of doing something wrong.

“Over text….” He admitted.

“See, that was your first mistake. If you’re going to have an important conversation with someone you need to have it in person. Otherwise, things can get lost in translation. You should speak to them face to face and apologize formally.”

The younger proxy tilted his head, “What if they duh-don’t want to see me?”

Kate sighed. “Well… sometimes you just have to show up. I mean, imagine trying to explain a misunderstanding to someone like Jeff over text…” She paused, scrunching up her face. “Well, that’s not a good example. You would have to call him or else he’d try to stab you. But you know what I mean. People like… us … are quick to just remove people from our lives if we’re hurt. But with our jobs, every connection with other killers or proxies needs to be maintained. Especially since The Operator demands it. So, you should go and see them…. when you’ve calmed down, of course.”

It was clear the brunette was applying her own work experiences to giving Toby guidance. Kate was always well-liked, and in a group full of murderers and malicious beings with untreated mental illnesses, that was no small feat.

But regardless, her explanation made sense. Even though Kate didn’t understand the full context of what happened, her advice probably still applied, right? Sure, you weren’t a killer, but Kate had the best grasp on how to handle disputes out of anyone he knew. If you just took the time to see how sorry he was, and all the effort he was putting in to fix the relationship, then you’d have to forgive him.

“Thuh-thanks. I’ll make sure to do that. I feel like shit that we huh-haven’t gotten the chance to see each other in a while and this….” Toby gestured vaguely to their surroundings. “Is what you fuh-find.”

Kate smiled. “Don’t worry, I get it.”

The fact that it was her that showed up today was very convenient. She was one of the few people who knew Toby well enough to calm him down.

It was almost too convenient.

He narrowed his eyes, looking out the cabin window. Was his boss around? “Anyways, I nuh-never asked you why you’re here.”

“Well, I figured I was long due for a bath. And I wanted to see my favorite proxy. Why, not happy to see me?” She huffed, feigning offense.

“Nuh-no! That’s not it. I just wuh-wasn’t sure if there was a job or something we needed to do.”

The brunette’s eyes glinted with admiration, flashing a small yet strangely sinister smirk. “It’s good you take our work seriously. It’s always best to have The Operator smiling favorably upon us.”

Toby shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Sometimes she spoke like a weird cult member. It made his skin crawl, reminding him that despite her soothing demeanor around her peers, Kate could be one of the most brutal and wild killers when carrying out their boss’s orders. Maybe that’s why she always stayed in the forest.

“I’ll be out of your hair in an hour or two. Sadly, there aren’t any sacrifices to make today. I hate having nothing to do.” She grumbled the last part before getting up to grab her bag. “Mind if I take that shower now?”

“No, guh-go right ahead. Not like I pay the water bill for this puh-place.” Toby quipped, shrugging his shoulders with a crack of his joints.

When Kate left the room, he mulled over what actions he needed to take next. Everything was just “lost in translation” as the older proxy said. His mistake was only in how he delivered his apology.

There was hope for him after all. This could be fixed and then you and Toby could be together again. Have the life he knew you two could have.

After everything subsided and he felt at ease, his mind wandered to that passionate kiss he had shared with you. Sure, in retrospect he definitely shouldn’t have done that, but it was nice in the moment. How your lips felt against his, your warm body squirming under him.

It was electric.

If only things had gone well, if you didn’t find him so… repulsive now. Maybe he could’ve taken things further. But there was always time for that later. When he had more time to convince you that he was made for you.

Your mind as well as your body.

 … Especially body.

 He grinned, getting up to stretch out his muscles. Today was more exhausting than usual after the rollercoaster of feelings he’d gone through. Toby needed rest, and once he felt more confident, he’d pay you a surprise visit. Bring some sort of peace offering. Weren’t guys supposed to give flowers when they wanted to be forgiven? Like those crappy husbands who cheat on their wives.

Not that he wanted to be lumped in with those dudes.

Toby made his way to his room, making sure the door was locked behind him. Even though he trusted Kate, he didn’t want to take any chances.

He could still hear her showering and she would probably be a while. She wasn’t the most hygienic person.

Not that he was one to talk, but he didn’t like having that much blood and dirt caked on him for too long. Kate, however, didn’t seem to mind it. Toby had been assigned on a weeklong mission with her once and as soon as she got “in the zone” the older female was practically feral. Showers just weren’t in her vocabulary at that point.

Lying on his bed, he opened his phone to look through his camera roll. Something he did routinely now before trying to fall asleep… for many reasons.

It was full of photos he’s taken of you over these past months.

Having an outdated phone never really bothered him before, but now he wished he had one that could take better pictures. Especially the ones he took at night. Those always come out too grainy.

Unconsciously, a wistful smile tugged on the corners of his mouth. He couldn’t help it. It always happened when he saw you. He scrolled through each photo, taking in every part of you he managed to capture. His mind had almost everything memorized.

“(Y/N)…” He whispered.

Sometimes he just liked to say it. Simply enjoying the sound. How it tasted with every syllable.

Now that he had time to relax, it occurred to him how surprising his argument with you had gone. Every day there was something new he was learning about you. You were actually kind of brave, even if it was to the point of being stupid. But you had stood up to him when he’d lost his cool. Him. A murderous proxy. A serial killer. You didn’t know that, but it was still obvious he could overpower you.

Yet thinking of the passion and determination in your eyes as you stared him down made him shiver with delight.

He loved it.

Toby could feel himself growing tired, lazily flipping through a couple more photos before he’d call it a night.

He stopped.

A picture of you undressing in front of your bedroom window.

Your underwear even matched that day.

His cheeks reddened, a familiar feeling stirring in the pit of his stomach.

He reached a clammy hand into the case of his pillow, retrieving a pair of plain black panties he’d stolen from your house.

 He figured he could stay awake a little longer…

[darlink-xoxo]

part two for this please? where they see each other's playlists and get jealous bc they think it's for other people 😭❤️

OUR FAVORITE SONG PT. 2!·˚ ༘♡ ·˚ ♡

in which, a simple request for the aux cord leads to some unexpected jealousy

and maybe a long awaited (sloppy) confession too..

GIF isnt mine

─ͥ─ͦ─ͮ─ͤ➼♥″

oh my

forgive me if i didn't do the request right 😓

i haven't done this before (pt 1 is right here)

Warnings: Fluff, Aged up!Enough to have a drivers license, Tiny Misunderstanding, Kinda a rushed ending, Possible ooc bakugou, Light Swearing, Puppy love 🫶.. and spelling mistakes

❥ · ﾟ₊ in you're opinion, you'd say you had good music taste. a little bit of everything, not really sticking to one genre. but you've been on a kick recently, it's been difficult to listen to your songs if they weren't on a certain playlist. yeah, that's right, it slightly bothered you to listen to any song outside of your 'thinking about him <3' playlist. why? you had absolutely zero clue.

maybe it's because you've listened to that playlist on repeat for so long, that it's just abnormal at this point to listen to anything else..

yeah.. maybe that's it. but it isn't your fault. ever since that staredown with bakugou, he was probably the only reoccurring thought in your mind, one which you happily welcomed. not without the secondhand embarrassment of course. i mean, it was probably pretty awkward for him to catch you staring at him in silence.. luckily he never brought it up, after all, how were you going to explain how giddy you were feeling to someone who was probably hearing crickets??

well anyways, for some god forsaken reason, you and the bakusquad had planned an outing earlier today after school. bakugou demanded that he'd be the one to drive, declaring that he'd rather have his vocal cords ripped out than let any of you guys drive. which was reasonable enough.

that just doesn't explain how he managed to pick you up first, didn't you live the farthest away from him??

"will you get in the car already? i'll leave your ass behind if you're still there in the next five fucking seconds."

you knew he wasn't joking about leaving you behind, and you didn't feel like driving yourself. hopping into the passenger seat, you slipped on your seatbelt and shifted to get comfortable. you heard him grunt a small 'finally' before revving up his engine and speeding off to the next house.

once everyone was picked up, the six of you were headed to the arcade. the car was filled with endless chatter from ashido and kaminari, with kirishima joining in and sero simply listening to the conversation. somehow the topic had switched to who's playlist should be played as background noise.

"i'm telling you guys, i should have the aux cord. i've got the best taste here!" kaminari held up his phone, the screen showing off one of his multiple playlists.

sero peeked at the phone screen before snorting and settling back in his chair, "kaminari, just because your songs are all famous tiktok audios, that doesn't make them good."

"thank you sero, clearly we should play my songs. mine aren't limited to tiktok!" ashido childishly stuck her tongue out at a pouting kaminari.

kirishima gave a once over at mina's phone screen, before deadpanning, "y'know ashido, you literally only have like, four main artists on there. i dont think any of us wanna listen to the same songs on repeat"

gasping in a mock offense, she retorted, "maybe you don't, but i'll listen to rihanna and twice till the day i die!"

already crossing out sero, who didn't have many song options, and kirishima, who pretty much only had songs for a workout, ashido whined in frustration. she turned to you and practically demanded your phone. you barely had the chance to unlock it before she grabbed it from you.

ashido immediately dived into your lists of songs, "okay, okay, taste.." she muttered with a satisfied nod before she came to an abrupt pause. you saw her eyes zoom in on something in particular, and a devilish grin appearing on her face.

"hehe, y/n? babe? bestie? what is this playlist?"

"what playlist?"

she shoved your phone in your face, "this one!! what is this 'thinking about him' playlist?!? WITH A HEART TOO AWWWW" your eyes widened as you instantly tried to take your phone back, "ashido give it back!!" you narrowly skimmed the device when she scooted farther away from you.

the coral colored female giggled loudly as she scrolled through the playlist, squealing like a middle schooler with a crush when she saw all the love songs. you could only groan and slump into your seat, hoping the cushion could swallow you whole.

while sero and kirishima were cackling loudly at your demise, kaminari was actually making an attempt to help get back your phone, "ashido, it isn't nice to gatekeep someone else's phone- WAIT IS THAT 'DARARI'?!? DUDE, YOU'RE WHIPPED!!"

now both ashido and kaminari were hogging your phone. you couldn't bring yourself to glance at the spiky haired blonde to your side, the sheer humiliation would be too much..

he was quiet. unusual drop dead silence came from the driver's seat. 𝘺𝘰𝘶.. 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰..? 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 '𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮'.. 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘴 '𝘩𝘪𝘮'??!

you had 'something about you' by eyedress, 'cloud 9' by beach bunny, 'darari' by treasure, and even 'i'm yours' by isabel larosa.. you definitely liked this guy.. tch..

"turn that shit off, you all have shit taste," he lowly demanded with a slight growl to his tone.

without much care, he tossed his own phone behind him towards the pink haired female. his eyes focused on the road, yet his thoughts kept him occupied. his own mind racing at who this guy you thought about was, did you like someone else..? was it really only him who felt sparks during your staredown a while back? did you feel nothing at all?

his grip on the steering wheel tightened as his thoughts got the best of him, he barely registered the annoyingly loud gasp ashido let out.

"oh. my. GOSH AAAAAA!!! BAKU HAS A LOVE PLAYLIST TOO OHMYGOODNESS!!!!"

.

..

𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠..

"NO WAYYYYYY!! he has 'juliet' by cavetown, HE HAS 'JULIET' BY CAVETOWN GUYS!!!" kaminari practically fought ashido for the phone, eagerly scrolling through the songs in the playlist.

kirishima was able to get a peek at the playlist when kaminari tried holding the phone out of ashido's reach, "you named it 'only them' bro? i gotta say, that's pretty manly. you too y/n!"

sero sat frozen in his seat, eyes blown wide with a hand covering his mouth. he had just connected the dots, and didn't wanna say anything in case it made you two uncomfortable. but lord was he trying not to.

ashido managed to yank back bakugou's phone from kaminari, her eyes scanning each and every song, "'babooshka' by kate bush is a little unexpected, 'despair' by leo is a great choice... still in denial i see, any song by chase atlantic was obvious.." she let out a huge dramatic gasp, to the point she started coughing.

kaminari gently rubbed her back and kirishima handed her water. sero subtly backed away, as to not get infected, quietly asking if she swallowed a bug.

after what like, three minutes? ashido muttered a small 'excuse me' before shoving bakugou's phone in an oddly silent y/n's face, "look y/n! this guy has 'overdose' by natori!! HOW ADORABLE IS THAT?!?!"

he side eyed the interaction, eyes slightly narrowing when y/n only gave it a once over before turning away, choosing to let out a short hum of affirmation.

no matter how hard he tried to focus on the road, his eyes kept drifting towards you. you seemed strangely downcast. were you alright? he couldn't bring himself to ask, he didn't trust his voice to be quiet enough to speak softly with you. not when his anger was spiking up because of a certain raccoon eyes and dunce face.

"CAN YOU JUST PICK A FUCKING SONG AND PLAY IT ALREADY??!" he shouted at the two, as a playlist still hasn't been chosen.

ashido giggled, staring at the rearview mirror with a smug grin, pressing play on his love playlist. bakugou could only grunt with a deepened scowl, choosing to be silent so he could engage himself in steering. he didn't feel like getting his ear talked off by the old hag if he were to get a speeding ticket.

sero felt sweat drip down his forehead as 'moment' by vierre cloud flowed loud and clear through his ears. sure it was meant to be background noise, but with the connection already assembled in his mind, his hearing seemed to focus on the radio. he cleared his throat and faced kirishima, no longer wanting to be the only one who knew, and as kirishima wasn't occupied by a phone that wasn't his, he was the best choice.

kirishima looked over when he noticed sero giving him a wide eyed stare, subtly asking if he was alright. the red head could only blink in confusion as sero pointed at bakugou, then y/n, then at bakugou's phone in ashido's hand. he grinned sheepishly when sero stared at him with a 'how tf do you not get it?!?' sorta glare.

sighing and slumping in his seat, sero pulled out his phone and instead texted his thoughts to kirishima instead. making sure to give a pointed look when the red head rushed to check his message. sero watched the shark toothed male's expressions contort from confusion to interest and finally to an 'OH MY GOSH YOU ARE SO RIGHT' kinda look.

sero skimmed his phone when he saw kirishima furiously typing away. sero uread the text that went, 'how did they not figure it out yet??' sero gave kirishima a sharp look. the simple message of 'says the one who needed a dang message to figure it out,' had the red head putting his phone down and instead choosing to take a nap.

when the six of you finally managed to get to the arcade in one piece, you all agreed to go on your own for about an hour before meeting back up to play games that needed more than one person.

you wandered around aimlessly, everything seemed to have a line and you were also deliberately avoiding a certain someone. you settled down at a simple claw machine, just as you thought you were in the clear, a voice rang from behind you.

"oi, if you're just gonna stare at the prizes ya mind moving? i wanna see how many i can win." a sharp demand came from behind, leading you to turn around as you got out of the way.

low and behold, it was the damn person you were trying to avoid..

he stepped forward, slipping two tokens into the slot before beginning to play. silence was all that came out of you two. and it was hella awkward. more awkward than being left alone in an elevator with a stranger.

you were about to speak out, when bakugou's boastful voice cut you off, "HA! think that bastard of yours can do better?" he turned to you with a smug grin, it almost made your heart beat if it weren't for the six prizes he managed to get in the five minutes he'd been playing laid out behind him.

how the hell did he get those prizes so fast?? in a claw machine no less??? and wait, did he say bastard? whomst tf-

"what bastard are you talking about?" you squinted at him with utter shock in your eyes.

"that guy you think of? think he can do any better than this?" he just won two more prizes..

this the guy you had a crush on, did you have a thing for jealous and oblivious men? did he just gloss over the probability that this 'guy you think of' was him in the first place??

"what does it matter? don't you have your own person you think of?" yeah you haven't forgotten, i mean he had 'sofia' by clairo on his playlist. this guy for sure was serious about his feelings. and it stung, already having repeated it to yourself about a thousand times.

the male before you kept silent, seemingly thinking before he abruptly stood up, thrusting the prizes he won into your hands, "they aren't just someone i think about," he glared at the floor beside you with his voice suddenly going quiet, "they're someone i'd do anything for, even if it means winning every damn game in this fucking arcade to prove it." he fiercely stared into your eyes as if he just made some sort of declaration to you.

it took you a second to process what he said, and when you finally got it he was already trudging away. speeding after him, you grabbed him by his arm, "what if, what if you never had competition to begin with..?" goodness your brain was for sure fried..

he scowled at you, "dont even dare think about fucking lying to me just because i told you the truth," gosh you hated and loved his stubbornness.

"dont you get it bakugou? you're the one i made the playlist for, did arctic monkeys not give you any clues??"

bakugou tensed, yet he didn't seem to look at you, opting to look down instead, "you dropped them," his quiet doting tone made you squint in confusion, he better not be ignoring your confession.. deciding to listen, you glanced underneath you, true to his word, they all lay fallen on the floor. you let out a silent sigh as you knelt down to pick up all the stuff he won. the least he could say was a 'no', now he got you doing labor.

just as you were about to get up and kinda run away and maybe bury yourself in the nearest hole, he knelt beside you, and kissed you. although more of a peck, he made sure it was clear how he felt about you. it was soft and gentle, it caught you off guard. you stared at him with wide eyes, and he stared back. suddenly remembering the staredown you both had, yet this was different. first of all, he was up in front of you, right next to your face, and HE HAD JUST KISSED YOU??!?

making sure not to overstep any of your possible boundaries, he lightly traced his fingertips up your arm to get your focus back on him. with his other hand, he cupped your cheek, softly chuckling when he felt your face heat up over his palm. then, he leaned in once more,

"you give shitty clues"

[senjuushi]

Event Translation — Brand New Journey ~Italy Expedition Volume~

Episode 4:  Safehouse

*scene starts in the mafia office*

While the two of them were showering in their respective rooms, Marks suddenly burst into (Player Name)’s private room.

Marks: Master! 

Marks: Master, there’s trouble!

Master: 

Marks!?

I’m still in the shower!

Marks: We need to get out of here! This place is dangerous! It smells like blood... and those two are... Musketeers...!

Master: 

Musketeers!?

The mafia has summoned guns too...!?

Marks: I didn’t realize it at first because my nose still hurt from the seawater... I made a mistake! Come on, Master! We’re getting out of here!

Master: 

W-Wait, hold on a second! 

We can’t escape without clothes! 

Marks: It’s fine! See, you can use this towel like...!

Carcanore: Hey, it’s awfully loud in there— everything okay? Is there some kinda trouble? 

Marks: N-Nothing at all! 

Carcanore: Huh? Weren’t you in the shower room over there? I thought...

Carcanore: Taking a shower together... ah, you have that kind of relationship? Sorry, I’ll see myself out.

Master: 

That’s not it! 

You’re misunderstanding!

Carcanore: Is that so? Well, I’ll leave your change of clothes here, anyway.

Marks: ...Master, what do we do...?

Master: 

...let’s just keep passing time as tourists. 

...let’s be careful not to reveal who we are. 

Marks: Got it... We look for an opening to get away from them. Be careful until then, Master, and stay within my reach whenever possible. 

*scene changes to the CG of Marks’s card*

When (Player Name) was finished with their shower, what looked like a luxury-brand suit had been prepared for them. 

Marks: Master! These clothes are stylish, but still easy to move around in. 

Carcanore: You two look great! The outfits really suit you! 

Benetta: Bella Figura.* That’s one of Milan’s parlors for you. The tailoring is excellent. 

Carcanore: Hmm, which tie would be best? Benetta, what do you think?

Benetta: The red one, of course.

Carcanore: But of course~ I knew that without having to ask.☆

Marks: (Why did you ask, then...)

*scene changes back to the mafia office*

Master: 

You changed clothes too, Cutlery. 

Cutlery: ...yeah. Y’know, since they went to the trouble of preparing these, I was just going with the flow... 

Cutlery: D-Do you have some kinda complaint about it?

Master: 

They suit you well. 

It’s nice to change up your look, huh?

Cutlery: R-Really...?

Carcanore: Alright, first, let’s get you something warm to drink. Then, we’ll go for some food. C’mon, get moving. 

Marks: (There’s no chance to escape...)

Carcanore: Ah, by the way, I haven’t caught your names yet.

Cutlery: Umm... I’m Cathan*! 

Marks: I’m... Max. 

The three used fake names that had been decided in advance. 

Carcanore: You all said you were here for sightseeing, right? What places were you thinking? Do you have a map?

Bonito: ......!

Cutlery: I have this tourist guide... and the map that Mr. Bonito gave us earlier.

Benetta: Oh, this map already has a place marked on it. 

Master: 

Is it a place you’d recommend?

Thank you for your consideration. 

Bonito: O-Oh, that. This city is so beautiful, no matter where you look, it’s impossible to pick just one place! 

Carcanore: Then, shall we take a tour together? I’ll show you around. 

Marks: N-No, we’ll be alright! That would be out of your way, wouldn’t it?

Benetta: Well, we do have to repay you for saving Bonito. And if you’re with someone who knows the area, you’ll be able to enjoy many lesser-known venues. 

Carcanore: Then it’s decided! We’ll go sightseeing in Naples today! First of all, we’ll get some food in us for energy! 

Carcanore: You’ll drive, won’t you, Bonito? We’ll go to the usual pizzeria and catch up. 

Bonito: Yes! 

Cutlery: (A local pizzeria... sounds great! But still...!)

Notes:

*An Italian concept that roughly means "to make a good impression". It's a practice of presenting a proper and pleasing appearance to the world.

*Cutlery actually gives the name “Catherine” here, which is pronounced more or less like his actual name in Japanese. I changed it to “Cathan” because a feminine name seemed out of place.