#made it in time for may the fourth!!!! :D my first one!

[bishicat]

I feel like they give each other the best embraces 💖

[crescenthistory]

21. (During a passionate session, A accidentally draws blood while gripping B’s back (A apologizes over and over while tending to B, who just has a shit-eating grin the whole time)) with barty n reader pls

(may I be 🪳 anon?)

hi lovely 🪳 anon, finally i got around to your request<33 i made them have an established relationship because i craved bf!barty, hope it still scratches your itch hihi. enjoy your daily dose of barty!

Prompt: 21. During a passionate session, A accidentally draws blood while gripping B’s back (A apologizes over and over while tending to B, who just has a shit-eating grin the whole time) from this list

Words: 2.3k

Warnings: not proofread, smut (mdni), vaguely described smut, fem!reader, sexual jokes, aftercare, accidental blood kink, scratching, established relationship, praise kink, multiple orgasms, soft!barty, barty is a masochist, reader almost cries, cursing, reader is (jokingly) mean to him and he loves it, the l word is said a lot

Note: i am so soft for this man

If there was one way to describe your relationship with one Barty Crouch Junior, it is all encompassing.

Intoxicating, larger than life, obsessive.

He was not one to act half-heartedly in any regard, to both your chagrin and infatuation. It was not half-hearted when he more or less picked you out of the crowd in your first year, claiming you as his best friend without giving you time to react, dragging you by the hand into the whirlwind of his life. It was not half-hearted when he chased off any romantic prospect for you because they were not good enough for you, baby, even landing some in the infirmary if they dared hurt your feelings. It was not half-hearted when he finally crumbled under the weight of his own feelings, consequences be damned, and brought his lips to yours in the abandoned Slytherin common room late at night.

And it certainly was not half-hearted how he claimed you, body and soul, ever since whenever ample opportunity arose. 

You had no complaints about that aspect of it.

Which is how your skin was shimmery with a light layer of sweat with Barty’s lazy, toothy kisses lathered all over your neck as he worked into you in the solitude of his dorm. Evenings when you could stay over, the other boys were quickly kicked out by Barty, though to no significant inconvenience for them, as Regulus was more than happy to sneak away with James and Evan was in the middle of pursuing some hot heated Ravenclaw. In their absence, Barty’s presence easily dominated the room, hands roving all over your body as his whispers of worship filled your ears and anything other than him became completely erased from your mind.

Your legs trembled where they had him in a death grip as his skillful ministrations and attentive thumb brought you towards your fourth climax of the night. His name spilled over your lips along with a string of curses as your eyes clamped shut. You could feel his smile through his kisses as he worked beautiful marks onto your shoulders – just far enough down to be shielded from view in your uniform, your shared little secret.

“Fuck, such beautiful sounds from my best girl,” Barty’s voice was hoarse from the past hours, which somehow just drove you crazier for him. “Are you gonna come for me, gorgeous? Let go for me?”

No coherent thoughts could be strung together, your mind going blank with just Barty coursing through it. Instead you moaned prettily in a way that made Barty groan and pick up his speed, determined to coax more from you, just a little more.

Your hands had been clinging to his flexing bicep and tugging at his hair, but as your body came undone beneath him, you resorted to clutching onto his shoulders and back instead. Your nails, that you always kept long enough to satisfyingly scratch Barty’s hair and arms, dug into his skin for leverage, and you half-registered the moans of pleasure he gave into the skin of your neck. As your body shook both from your climax and the movements of him against you, your fingers dragged slowly down his back.

“Oh, gods– Barty–” was all you managed to get out as you clambered onto him, seeing stars. You needed him closer, just a little closer, more.

“Love it when you say my name, baby,” he whispered into you as his hips stuttered, finally reaching his own high with a groan. “S’good for me, s’perfect.”

You shakily kiss his shoulder, palms moving to smooth over his back you had just been clawing at, the movement instinctual and dripping with affection. Calming him down, gearing him through his own earth-shattering orgasm.

His movements slowed down, dragging the seconds out, before he finally stilled against you, collapsing with his weight onto you in that way he knew you loved. His hands that had been consuming every piece of flesh, every curve of your body, became almost painfully light now, brushing up your sides, over your arms, a silent thank you. You could read this man without needing to open your eyes or ears.

For a minute you laid there, regaining your breath while also revelling in the smell of him mixed with the haze of sex that filled the room. 

Then, Barty laughed breathily into your shoulder before retreating from his cocoon to look at you with lovesick eyes, propping his weight up onto his elbows.

“That was one for the history books.” His grin was lopsided, sweat still over his eyebrow.

You laughed in turn, giving him a slight roll of your eyes, but you couldn’t disagree. The longer you were together, the more you learned of each other, the more passionate your frequent trysts became. You didn’t think you could love him more.

Still – “You’re deranged, Junior,” you said through a laugh – you couldn’t let the opportunity to tease him slide.

Unfazed, Barty leaned down to press a lazy kiss to your lips and despite your teasing you had no inhibition with kissing him back, passionate and slow. “Maybe,” he said between kisses. “But you love me all the more for it. And I love you too.”

You mumbled an I love you, silly against his lips and you could feel him grin against you. 

All too soon, Barty pulled back and away from you, rolling off your body to reach for his wand on the bedside table to clean the both of you – and the sheets – up. You gazed after him with a look you knew your friends would never let you live down if they were here to see it, studying his features as he laid on his stomach, stretching his arm out. One of his legs were still tangled with yours, as if he couldn’t stand being completely without your touch. The muscles in his bicep flexed deliciously, as did the ripples across his shoulders and back, and –

“Merlin’s tits, Barty, your back!” you exclaimed, instantly snapping out of your daze.

It was normal for you both to be quite marked up after being with each other, especially on nights like this where you could truly take your time. Your hips often had some beautiful bruises grazing its sides, hickies covering your chest and collarbone, sometimes your neck if Barty felt particularly possessive. In turn, you loved giving him your own love bites and his shoulders and biceps often had small indents from your nails digging into them.

But this– Your eyes roved over Barty’s back, the usual pink streaks of teased skin that you left there were now bright red and razor thin, blood piping out at random places. There were many of them, trailing over and around each other, a bloody, angry constellation of your desperation from mere minutes ago.

At your outburst, Barty looked at you over his shoulder with a smug smirk, fingers finally curling around his wand. “What of my back?”

“I– it’s–” you sputtered, one hand wildly gesturing towards him, the other half-covering your mouth as you sat up to get a better view. “You’re bleeding, darling I’m so sorry.”

Barty sat up to match you, grabbing you by your thighs to drag you closer to him. A stupid grin was still plastered over his face. 

“Oh, I know,” he smiled. “It was so fucking hot.”

His words didn’t register with you as you kept fussing over him, attempting to sit at his side so you could see his wounds and his face all at the same time. His hand on your thigh squeezed as he continued to laugh silently.

“You’re bleeding.” You repeated, letting your finger ghost over the skin right beside a particularly bloody scratch. "Gods, I'm so sorry." Your eyes began to sting as they flitted all over his back, and at that Barty seemed to snap out of his humour.

“Hey, no, baby, hey.” He grabbed your hands with his, forcing you to look at him. “It’s fine, love, don’t worry. It’s more than fine actually, I liked it – loved it even. You should really make me bleed more often.”

You stared at him incredulously, as if he was being particularly stupid, eyes still slightly glossy with tears. “What?”

He laughed even more at your confusion, which almost shifted the apologies on the tip of your tongue into scolding. 

“As I said, it was hot. I knew you were drawing blood as you were doing it – didn’t you hear how much I loved it?” His tone was teasing, mischief evident on his face.

You opened and closed your mouth at that, trying to make your post-orgasm brain keep up with the conversation. “I actually didn’t hear anything by that point,” you mumbled, looking between your hands clutched with his and his face, which now looked impossibly more smug.

“Right, that’s on me then,” he teased. You pretended to lightly shove him, but he used your movement against you, trapping you in his arms and dragging you closer to his body.

“You’re so stupid, you know that?” 

“Was I stupid when I made you come once on my fingers, once on my tongue and twice on my–”

You pinched him, making him yelp in a voice so light it made the both of you laugh. You squeezed him in your arms, careful not to let your hands touch his still bleeding back.

“I still wanna say sorry.” You pulled back to look at him. The threat of tears were gone, but your lower lip jutted out ever so slightly, enough that he simply had to kiss it better. So he did, lips softly brushing yours in a way that calmed you down every time.

“Well, don’t,” he murmured against your lips. “Nothin’ to be sorry for, darling. I actually give you blanket consent to please make me bleed again next time. However you want.” He winked at you and you lightly swatted at his arm, though you couldn’t ignore how your blood warmed at his words.

“Shut up,” you mumbled before kissing him again. Your tone made it clear to Barty that he won that conversation.

“As much as I’d love to keep kissing you.” Barty pulled his lips away from yours, holding your face in between his palms. “Can I please clean us up like I wanted, now?”

You simply nodded, leaning back onto your elbows beside him as he quickly flicked his wand over your bodies and the bed. A sigh escaped your lips at the warm feeling across your thighs and stomach, as if somebody had carefully dragged a warm towel over you and immediately dried you off. Barty smiled at you softly when he heard your sounds of comfort.

You reached out to take the wand from his hands and moved to point it towards his back when he snapped out of staring at you and caught the tip of the wand with his hand before you had the time to use it. “What do you think you’re doing?”

You looked at him confused. “Cleaning you up?”

“I already did that,” he retorted. 

“I meant the cuts, Barty.”

He immediately shook his head at that, prying the wand from your fingers – his wand, that wouldn’t even have been as effective when you used it – and giving you an almost offended look. “Nope. They’re staying, if I wanted them gone I would have healed them.”

“Barty–” you began to chide, but he cut you off.

“I want to keep them. Little reminder of you. We don’t heal the hickies I give you, hm?” His voice was equal parts teasing and affectionate now, as if your scratches was something precious to him.

“My hickies aren’t painful and bleeding.” You deadpanned at him. He just shrugged, as if your point was entirely irrelevant. 

“You’ll stain the sheets with your blood,” you tried then. 

“How unfortunate that I’m not a wizard who can remove blood stains without any effort.” He tauntingly waved the wand in your face then before leaning over to place it back on his nightstand.

You just groaned at him, hoping he knew that it meant you are insufferable and impossible. He did, and it warmed his heart.

“C’mon, darling,” he drawled as he snuck back up beside you, pulling the duvet around the two of you, creating your own perfect cocoon. “You should be flattered, if anything.”

You narrowed your eyes at him, but still pulled him further into your arms, limbs entangling and bare chests pressed against each other. A relaxed sigh escaped you, indicating that you were in no way actually indignant. 

“Just don’t want you to be in pain, B.” Your hand moved up to play with his hair, culprits lightly scratching at the nape of his neck.

Barty’s eyes softened at that and he pressed a lingering kiss to your forehead. “‘S not painful, love, I’m good. I’m all good.” His words were whispered against your skin. You closed your eyes at the sensation, the safety of it all.

“You sure?”

“I swear it.”

You hummed, relenting, and finally buried your face in his neck as he pulled you closer. Sporadic kisses were pressed into your hair, your shoulder, as you continued with your soft conversation filled with praises and small declarations of love. You didn’t notice you were beginning to slip away before your breath slowed against Barty’s skin and he glanced down, smiling when he saw your sleeping form. His fingers drawing patterns on your back spelled out I love you as he kissed your forehead, lips lingering on your skin.

“Goodnight, my love.”

[pupuyvs]

lost

pairings: aespa x reader?? idk its not romantic

wc: 1k+

warnings: heavy angst, you’re dead…sorry, mentions of suicide and abuse

a/n i just wanted to test out writing so uhh enjoy this short stuff (and feel free to yell at me in my inbox :D)

Being friends with Jimin felt like an escape, to be in her group you only had to follow one rule: never discuss the past. The rule worked for them, you all had problems and none of you had to discuss them.

No one brought up how you seemed to fear fire more than others, nor how Minjeong seems to have a strange aversion to water. They didn’t discuss how sickly Aeri often was or how Yizhuo seemed to always appear with new bruises, and they especially didn’t mention Jimin’s disdain towards being touched. And it worked that way, at least it seemed it did, that was until you died.

Suicide, the police told them. The note had been severely burnt, the only piece left having the word sorry written on it.

At your funeral they stand before your picture, one they have never seen before, you look happy – it makes Jimin sick.

They stay until your grandmother arrives, Minjeong not wanting you to be alone. It’s silent as they make their way to the old train tracks, the rocks rolling under their feet being the only sound around them. When they arrive at the train cart they made their second home they each grab a drink from the stash they had accumulated over the years, each taking a sip. They come to a silent agreement that this is also something they won’t talk about.

This agreement only lasts a couple weeks, it’s Yizhuo that breaks first. Her bruised hands shaking as she sobs. It was an honest mistake, someone asked where you were and Yizhuo snapped. It took all three of them to pull her off as she screamed at the person for not knowing what happened to you – she broke down when they left the store. Yizhuo leaves them when she stops sobbing and when she appears the next day with a bruise on her bottom lip they don’t discuss it.

Jimin doesn’t know how to deal with these types of things, she tries to get the group to function as it once had without you, but it’s nearly impossible as none of them can remember the time they had without you.

Aeri slips up next, between her bouts of coughs she asks you to pass her some water. She freezes as your name slips out of her mouth, the air in her lungs rattling as she takes a deep breath in. Jimin rushes to give her a water bottle, praying that this passes, that they can move on, but Aeri is already hyperventilating. It takes Minjeong holding her closely to calm her, thanking Jimin softly as she hands her the water. When she sits next to Yizhuo she misses the way she clenches her hands and how the cuts on her knuckles begin to bleed again.

The beach sounded like a good idea to Jimin, but as Minjeong screams at the top of her lungs she realizes that she may have made a mistake. It started off fine, the beach wasn’t packed as it was winter and the girls listened to the waves from the truck Yizhuo had stolen from her father. Then Minjeong brings up how you loved the ocean, a fact Jimin didn’t know. None of them respond, the waves crash against the rock wall nearby, and Minjeong yells.

Jimin is wary, but when she moves to stop her Aeri grabs onto her, she flinches at the sudden touch but listens to Aeri and moves back. She doesn’t stop till her throat gives out and the ocean calms, on the drive home they stop to get her cough drops. They never bring it up again.

Jimin swears that it doesn’t affect her, she had a handle on her emotions — she was fine. But then she dreams of you, it’s nothing crazy, it’s actually laughable how mundane it is. You guys were on a train eating honey bread, she assumes it’s from the movie she watched earlier. But maybe that simpleness is why when she wakes up she calls you, it isn’t until the fourth ring she remembers that you now only exist in the dreams and memories she holds.

When the group comes together that day their regular silence is off, it’s no longer comfortable nor familiar. Now it’s forced and suffocating, and it’s why Jimin speaks up first.

“Let’s go see them.”

Your grave isn’t anything fancy, it has a bouquet and your picture. The headstone only mentions your name and how you were loved, who you were loved by missing, but it doesn’t anger Jimin because she knew her and the others' names were too long to fit on it.

Minjeong cries first, she sobs when Aeri’s shaky hands lay the few flowers they had collected along the way on her headstone. Yizhuo follows right behind, her sobs come out rasped, her throat still rough from her father’s discovery of the car incident. And when Aeri cries, so does Jimin.

They don’t speak, just sob with each other, and they continue that way until a voice pops up behind them.

“Oh, you’ve finally come.”

Your house, or your grandmother’s, is small but comfortable. Your presence is felt in every space as markings of you grace the wall. The friends sit on the old couch in your old living room — Jimin wonders how many times you have sat here too.

Your grandmother comes back with water for each girl, Yizhuo helping her carry them. When Yizhuo sits next to Jimin your grandmother begins to speak.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to greet you guys at the funeral, you were gone before I could say hello.”

The girls don’t respond, all of them feeling bad for leaving the woman alone on the day. But the older woman doesn’t seem to notice as she reaches for the box that was on the table. Pulling out pictures from it, they watch as she goes through them before seemingly finding one and handing it to Yizhuo, who is seated closest to her. When the picture is passed to her Jimin stares at it, an odd feeling fills her.

You were smiling while an older woman held you, there was an innocent light in your eyes, a sight the group had never seen. Jimin passes it to Aeri once it becomes too much for her.

When the picture reaches the last person, Minjeong, your grandmother starts to speak. “This was Y/N and their mother when they were younger,” the older woman sighs heavily. “She had died in a house fire when Y/N was only ten, Y/N had watched as the house had crashed around their mother.”

They watch as your grandmother starts to cry, all wanting to comfort her, but not knowing how to since they were never comforted themselves.

“When my grandchild came to live with me they were a shell, but when you guys came into their life, they became alive once more.” She pauses.

“Thank you for letting them experience happiness once more.”

Jimin rushes out the house with her heart practically jumping out of her chest – she can’t breathe. The world seems to be closing in as sobs rush out of her.

The woman’s words repeat in her head like a broken record, it's practically mocking her as tears fall down her cheeks. Grief rushes through her body before settling in her chest, where it screams, begging to be let out. And Jimin wants it to, she’s begging for it to leave her body.

The weight is unbearable as it pounds on her chest, the sobs tenfold, her ears ring. She wants it to end.

She doesn’t know how long she's sobbing, or panicking, for, but it's long enough for the girls to join her and pull her into a hug. And when she calms she feels relief when she realizes they are crying too.

A few weeks pass by when they find themselves at the beach again. They shiver slightly as the cold bites at any exposed skin that it can.

“Here.” Yizhuo says as she passes each one their envelopes, her fingers rough with the bandages Minjeong had put on them recently.

Jimin stares at the envelope, tracing the ink that engraves your name. Looking up she sees the girls look at her and offers them a small smile.

“Ready?”

They all nod to Aeri’s question before leaning down to attach the papers to the lanterns. When they’re sure it’s snug enough to not fall, Minjeong picks it up and walks closer to the ocean, the others following her closely. Grabbing the lighter from Jimin she lights up the bottom of the lantern, when she feels it’s light enough she puts it up gently and lets the wind take it away.

They hold each other’s hands as they watch the lantern disappear. Aeri is the first to pull away, walking back to the car, and Minjeong follows after her. Yizhuo goes soon after with a pat on her back. Jimin waits until her mind can no longer imagine the white dot in the distance, breathing out; she feels the slight ache in her chest return. She breathes out once more as Minjeong had taught her and feels it dull just enough to whisper out her final words to you.

“Goodbye Y/N.”

[cinnamoonblue]

Chapter IX | W.D.Y.W.F.M?

Summary: You moved to one of the biggest cities in the world - Grand Line to pursue filmmaking career. Soon enough your path will cross with the vocalist of upcoming band called “The Neighbourhood”. At first you decided to be just friends - because it would be easier, but sadly as everything in life sometimes by taking the easy path we regret a lot of things.

Main characters: Portgas D Ace x Reader (female)

Supporting characters: Nami, Usopp, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Law, Deuce, Shanks, Buggy, Sabo, Eustass Kid, Koala, Robin, Dave (OC)

Description: Modern AU | Musician Ace

WARNINGS: explicit language, mentions of alcohol, mentions of cigarettes/nicotine, mentions of loneliness, angst, mentions of of depression

Word Count: 12,3K

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NOTE: Words are not enough to say how much I appologies for taking two months to upload this mid chapter.... I AM EXTREAMLY SORRY, but now that I will be only focused on THE NBHD, I will be able to post every one to two weeks and you guys will have constant updates like in the beginning when I started the story. I hope that there are still some of you left to follow it. I hope you like this short chapter, next one will be quite long. ENJOY ♡

Wiping the last table of the night a tired sigh left my lips. My whole body ached from the long day in university and then the long shift at work. For the past two months now, I have been taking frequently shift’s at ‘The Red Pirates’, as it kept me and my mind busy from everything that had happened.

“Wanna ride home?” Kid approached me as I went to throw away the rag I have been using to clean the tables.

“Sure.” I replied without looking at him. Washing my hands I looked over my shoulder at him. “Are you done?”

Nodding with his head he grunted. “Just have to change and lock.”

“I’ll wait for you outside.” Grabbing my bag from under the bar I made my way outside.

If I have to describe the last two months with one word it would be – odd. I felt like I was being trapped in a never-ending cycle. There were days where everything was fine, and my mind didn’t think of what had happened between me and a certain someone. But on the days like today, I couldn’t stop the memories of that night coming back to me.

I thought that by now I should have been over it, over him. And partly I was or I wanted to believe so. Maybe it was the fact that he rejected me so cruelly that still brings me back to those memories. Or the fact that I still doubt if he was honest with his words, as his actions didn’t match with them… to some extent.

I have been doing everything in my power to avoid knowing or hearing anything about him. Every time Nami or Usopp would mention something about him or the band I had to become more and more creative with excuses to leave the table and go away or change the subject fast. Nami had asked me multiple times what has happened, but never got an answer from me, because it was pointless. I didn’t want to hear ‘I told you so.’ Nor having to recall aloud the memory of him.

If I didn’t occupy my mind all the time with something I was always going back to him and as funny as it may sound, I still find myself crying to sleep some nights. There were many times where I want to pick up the phone and call him and just ask ‘Why?’. Why it had to be this way? Why a part of me had to still be stuck with him while he was out there acting like a big rock star.

The first two weeks, after the whole fight between us had happened, were hard to remember. The first three days, till this day I couldn’t recall as I spent them in some lucid dream stage. Everything was so clouded in my mind that until the fourth day the rumbling in my stomach was so bad that I had to push myself to get up and eat something, which after three bites I couldn’t no longer eat and less than an hour I threw up. I have never had my heart broken before. My mind, my body and my heart were hurting at the same time, and no medicine had the cure for it as cliché as it might sound. The pain was so hard to handle that most of the days I spent on sleeping pills which weren’t helping much as I was barely being able to sleep as he was haunting me in my dreams as well. It was like no matter what I was taking or trying to do to distract myself I couldn’t escape him.

To my own surprise the person who was slowly but steady pulling me of this hole I have fallen into was Kid. This grumpy punk head man was my only source of light in these dark for me days.

It all happened when one night after we had closed, I told him to go and that I would lock the bar to which he, of course, agreed to. Before I left, I went downstairs and changed to my own clothes instead of the ones I was working with and sat for a second on the couch Shanks had put downstairs in the changing room/storage and pulled out my phone, scrolling on it for a bit.

I had avoided using social media as much as possible and just when I was about to close Instagram, a post from some music updates account appeared on my feed and of course the post was about his band. It was all four of them on the picture, but my eyes focused on him only, as always, as a habit, an awful habit.

My hand which was holding the phone had started to shake as I pressed my other hand to my mouth as a loud sob escaped my lips. Dropping my phone on the couch next to me I bent my legs and pull them closer to me, wrapping my arms around them as I curled into a ball on the couch and cried.

I haven’t seen his face for almost a month, I didn’t even open my camera roll just so I didn’t have to look at the last thing saved in it, and it was the video I had taken of him and the stary kitten when we were out, because I couldn’t bear to look at him. I couldn’t bear to look at him and being reminded of all the things we would never be.

I didn’t know how long it was nor when Kid had come back until I heard his grumpy loud voice.

“What are you doing still doing here? What if someone has come in and steal something.” His presence startled me, and I tried to quickly erase the tears from my face. Kid noticed it and his annoyed and angry look on his face softened a bit. “Hey, brat. You alright?”

“I’m fine.” My voice was low and cold. I didn’t want to speak to anyone, let alone him out of all people. I quickly got up from the sofa and sniffed as I looked away. “What are you doing back here?”

“I forgot something.” Opening his locker, he took whatever he had forgotten and closed it. Embarrassed that he had seen me like this, I didn’t dare to look at him as silence took over the room. What broke the silence was his deep sigh mixed with the grunt of his voice. “Come on, brat. Get your stuffs, I’ll drive you home.”

“Thanks, but no.” Grabbing my back from the locker I closed it and quickly made my way to leave the place.

Going outside, Kid was quick to follow me. “I wasn’t suggesting. I’m driving you whenever you like it or not.” He said as he stood in front of me.

“I said no, Kid.” I grit my teeth as I put the alarm and locked the bar. Turning around I walked away which irritated him.

“Stop actin’ like a spoiled child and just come with me.” Coming after me he grabbed my hand and pulled me back to look at him.

“Kid let me go.” I could feel the tears starting to build in my eyes again, not because he was hurting me or anything like this, but because I just wanted to be left alone.

“You don’t need to tell me shit, just let me drive you home.” I didn’t expect such response from him. His voice was still irritated and his whole face was grumpy as always, but not his eyes.

“Why?” Sniffing one more time I pulled my hand away from his grip and this time he let go of me.

“Because it’s too late and if something happens to you, I don’t want to listen to Shanks nagging.” Pulling his car’s key he nodded to follow him.

I knew that I have a choice and if I continued to insist, he would just give up at some point and leave me alone, but I didn’t have the energy for this.

Getting into the car none of us said anything. This felt like a déjà vu. Last time Kid offered me a ride home was on Halloween after I had left the part where I had my first ever confusing situation with the same man I was currently crying over for. And here was I again. Three months later, same car, same seat, same person causing me distress by their actions of rejection.

Glancing at me, Kid exhaled as he returns his gaze back to the road. “Why are you sad?” I was more than surprised that he was first to break the silence, let alone with a question leading straight to the point.

“What happened with ‘I won’t ask questions’ ?” I mocked his voice. Kid only side-glanced me which made me feel intimidated a bit. “I’m not.” I didn’t want to speak mostly because if I did the tears and the sobs, I was fighting so hard, would win over.

“Bullshit.” He chuckled ironically. I just glanced at him without saying anything and turning my eyes back to the window as I observed the streets outside.

“Wait, where we are going?” I looked back at him as none of these streets lead to mine.

“For a drink. You need one.” He mocked me as he side-eyed me once again.

“What?” I turned my body in a way to face his. “I’m not going out for any drink. Drive me home.” Raising my voice at him, thinking that he would listen was quite fullish of me.

“I will. After we grab a drink.” Parking the car in front of one of the many bars in this town which were open until five in the morning he turned to me as he took off his seatbelt. “Come on, brat. Just one drink. You need it.” Winking at me he got out of the car and waited for me to do the same.

Two beers later I was an open book. Telling him everything from A to Z. The fact that I was barely eating these past three weeks and even drinking water to begin with, I was surprised that I didn’t get drunk by the first beer alone.

“And he kissed me.” Slamming the glass a little bit too hard on the table, some of the beer got splashed around. “Like… he ran all the way down to the first floor, k-kissed me like… like I’ve never been kissed bef-” A hiccup interrupted me mid-way. “Ops, sorry. Anyway, kissed me like I’ve never been before and guess what…” I waited for Kid to say something as my pupils had widen from the alcohol and all the emotions I have had been holding onto. He didn’t say anything as he looked at me with an unreadable face.  “He fucking rejected me. The fucking asshole just looked me in the eyes and told me he felt nothing. He felt nothing.” My voice had raised a bit too much and we got a few looks being shot towards us.

“Maybe lower the voice a bit.” Kid mumbled as he didn’t enjoy the praying eyes on us.

Not paying him any attention I continued with my drunken ramble. “He felt nothing Kid… nothing.” I could feel my eyes watering again. “I went there and pour my heart to him like some fool and what did I get back? Nothing. He didn’t even bother to reject me nicely, no.” Wiping the tear that had fallen from the corner of my eye with the back of my hand my gaze locked with Kid and his very judgemental one. “What?”

“Nothing.” He replied before taking sip of his own beer.

“If I hear one more man answer me with nothing I-… I swear to God I will-” Adding aggravation to my sadness wasn’t want I wanted, but this pissed me off.

“Chill, brat.” Kid rolled his dark maroon eyes at me. “I’m just surprise that you were so… pathetic.”

“Pathetic?” Frowning my brows I looked at him questioningly. What did he mean by this?

“It’s the same guy from Halloween, right?” I never mentioned who the guy was. Looking down at the floor to avoid Kid’s eyes, I nodded. “You said that he is acting like an asshole, if that is the case then you should have just done nothing and wait for him to reach out for you again.” Crossing his muscular arms in front of his chest he smirked at me. “If you’ve given him at least a week now you wouldn’t be here.”

“So, I should’ve let him play me instead?” I didn’t really understand the logic behind Kid’s words of advice if I could call it such. “I did this because I got tired of these games.”

“Games or not you want to tell me that if he comes back now you wouldn’t craw back?”

The question made me freeze for a second. He would never do this. He made it clear; I was nothing to him. I was just some ‘doll’ he liked to play with from time to time when he felt bord.

“He would never.” I whispered.

“Yea, sure.” Kid laughed mockingly, grabbing his beer again and taking a big sip of it.

I wouldn’t craw back to him, no matter what. He had hurt me so much and if I was to forgive him, I wouldn’t be able to handle the pain he had caused me one more time. I was barely handling it now. Adding to the pain and the disrespect was also my self-respect which I was willing to protect or at least whatever was left from it. I have forgiven enough.

“I wouldn’t go back to him Kid. Not this time.”

After this night something between me and Kid changed and it turned out that he was in fact an asshole, but whenever he wanted to, he could also be a nice one. We hang out after work from time to time after that night and surprisingly I have found myself being able to share my pain about certain black haired man with only him, because even if he did judge me, he also listened to me.

It also turned out that when he wanted to, Kid could talk a lot. After he had locked the bar, and he drove me home he was telling me about some girl he had met on Saturday while he was out with his friends.

“Someone has a crush.” I teased him and he just side-eyed me with an irritated frown on his face.

“I do not.” He grunted.

“Oh, come on, Kid.” I chuckled. “When you want to you can be a charm you know.”

Glancing at me he raised one brow. “Oh, is that so?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “You know I had a little crush on you when I first started working at the bar.” I couldn’t help but laugh as I just confessed that I used to have a thing for him.

“You did?” He turned his head towards me, and I pushed it back as he was driving.

“Eyes on the road.” I said to him. “And yes, I did. But this was like what, three years ago now? Anyway, it was a very short crush, mostly because you acted like an ass to me.”

“Can a person help it? You’re such a brat.” He grunted, but not with his usual bitterness, but very lightly and jokingly.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I rolled my eyes playfully. The car stopped and we have finally arrived on my street. “Are you free this Saturday?”

“Think so. Why?” Turning his head to face me he gave me a questioning look.

“My friend Sanji is having a birthday party, a very big birthday party, and I was wondering if you want to tag along?”

Nami has bothered me for weeks to go to Sanji’s birthday party. I have been wanting to go but knowing who would be there was stopping me. The whole friend group would be there and as much as I loved them, I also have been avoiding Luffy, and his hundredths attempts, to reach out to me after what had happened two months ago.

“Hell no, brat.”

“Come on, Kid. I need someone to back me up.” I whined as I grabbed his shoulder and shook him.

“The fuck?” He looked at me in disbelief as he pushed my hands away. “I don’t want to hang out with your and the Monkey brat’s friends.” I have always forgotten that he knew Luffy. “And back you up from what?”

“Well, I haven’t really hung out with them recently as I kind of avoid them.” I murmured.

I have stopped going to parties or just causal hang outs with everyone, expect Nami and Usopp from time to time after school. Nami was the only one who has suspected that something had happened, but I have avoided to hang out with only her, afraid that if I do then she would make me speak about it no matter what.

“Why you avoid them?” Kid asked curiously.

I never told him who had broken my heart. He didn’t know that it was Luffy’s older brother who did so. “I’ve avoided them for the past few weeks and in case it is awkward I need some backbone with me there.”

“And you ask me?” The look of his face was priceless. He looked confused, surprised and uncomfortable at the same time.

“Yes, why not?” I was starting to get confused myself, why it was so strange to invite him.

“Why yes?”

“Ha-ha, very funny Kid. You’re so fun and quirky.” Rolling my eyes at him I sighed. “Come on, it will be fun, plus there would be so many people if you don’t want to hang out with me, you can always find somebody else.” I wasn’t sure myself why I insisted on him being there, but I wanted him to come. We have become very close, so it will be nice to go and party.

“Again, if there will be so many people there, why should I be the backbone?” His annoyed grunts made me roll my eyes once more.

“Okay you know what – sorry that I’ve asked in a first place.” Taking off my seatbelt I reached out to open the door, but Kid stopped me as he grabbed me by the arm.

“I’ll think about it, brat.” He let go of my hand and I smiled at him. “Also, is your Romeo going to be there?” My smile immediately disappeared as he mentioned him.

“No.” I swallowed hard. “He shouldn’t he is not close with Sanji.” I opened the door and got out of it, but before I closed it, I turned to Kid and gave him a mischievous smile. “Did you get that girl’s number?” Kid nodded slowly as he knew that I have something in mind. “Tell her to come as well.” I winked at him and shut the door behind me before he could cuss me out.

Last night was the last show of the tenth the band had around the country. At first it was only five shows scheduled, but they sold out so fast that their manager – Marco, had to double book the venues as the demand for the guys was over the roof. When they added the extra night to each city the tickets again got sold out immediately. The guys themselves couldn’t believe how fast their popularity had grown and continued to do so.

On top of it they had released their first single of their upcoming album – Daddy Issues, which was playing everywhere -radio stations, MTV, YouTube, Spotify, TikTok etc. you just named the platform the song was already there, used for an edit or something else. It has even started a trend around social media. It turned into a big hit, maybe even bigger than ‘Sweater Weather’. In between the shows the guys even filmed a music video for it and it has already come out.

But while Deuce, Law and Sabo were enjoying the success of the band, Ace couldn’t say the same. Those two months, since the last time he had seen you have been like a hell for him. Ace never believed in heaven or hell, but he was sure that he has already been living in hell. The only time his mind calms a bit was when he was on stage, but even then, it felt like all the songs he sang were connected to you one way or another.

Everyone around him noticed that he has been carrying some emotional pain for some time now, but he didn’t let anyone close enough to speak with him about it. They all had tried, but they were all met with the same response – “Leave me alone.”

Ace didn’t even bother to spend any time with his friends. If it wasn’t for something related to work the guys didn’t see him at all. Everyone was worried about him.

He was so down since the last time he had seen her, because that night he didn’t only broke her heart, something he would never forgive himself for doing, but he also broke his own. He broke his own heart to a point that nothing really brings him joy. Yes, the shows did, but it was for only what – an hour and a half?

Ace have been regretting what he did since she ran away from him crying that night. He wished he could turn back time and slap himself across the face. To add to his pain, recently he has been living with the thought of – what if…

What if he had told her that the feelings were mutual? What if instead of saying all the hurtful, nasty things that he didn’t mean at all, he had told her exactly what she actually meant to him? What if instead of running after her in the elevator, he had kissed her instead in the middle of his living room? What if instead of causing her all this distress and heartbreak, he had wiped her tears away and just embrace her?  “What if?” This question didn’t leave his mind even for a second.

Laying in the middle of the bed in his hotel room, he just sighed. Ace found himself once again lost in his thoughts for (Y/N). He never stopped thinking about her, and he doubts he ever will. Because of this, he has found himself in a crossroad of a decision – when he got back in Grand Line City to go and beg (Y/N) for forgiveness or continue to live the way he does now. The second one had way more logic and it made much more sense to him than the first one.

She would never forgive him and why would she in the first place? He had literally made a fool out of her and her feelings. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness; he deserved her resentment. But even though he knew what he deserved he couldn’t help but wonder if she could find it within herself to forgive him and maybe with time to give him a second chance so he could make it up to her and her kind heart which he didn’t appreciated enough.

His phone vibrates and he reached with his hand to grab it from the nightstand to see who had texted him.

‘Are you coming? We’re already in.’

It was a text message from Sabo. Yesterday was their last show and after they had finished it, they all have agreed on going out for a drink to celebrate their first successful around the country tour. Even though Ace wasn’t in the mood to go out at all, he didn’t want to argue with the guys, after all none of them put him in the situation he was in and taking his anger on them would be quite unfair.

Sending a quick message back to his brother, Ace let out a deep sigh. It was already ten pm. They had the whole day off as they were to leave tomorrow morning. All he wanted to do was to just sleep like he had been doing it the whole day today. Not like he found any comfort in his sleep nor that he was tired but because even in his dreams she managed to hunt his thoughts.

Getting up from the bed, Ace went to his suitcase and grabbed the first pieces of clothing his eyes landed on.  Unwrapping the towel wrapped around his waist he quickly put the clothes on. Taking glance of himself in the mirror, his hair has grown quite a lot, this was the longest it has ever been, but he didn’t really have the time nor the energy to cut it. Grabbing a pair of sunglasses and putting them on he left the hotel room.

Stepping outside the hotel and on his way to the bar where his friends and their girlfriends were, Ace had to stop a few times as some girls have recognised him when he was passing by them, and they asked him for a quick picture. The idea that he was becoming a recognisable public figure was still something quite new to him and it did sometimes make him uncomfortable, but he couldn’t say “no” to the people who have been supporting him and the band on their way to success.  

Finally, reaching the place where the bar was located, he entered and started looking for his bandmates. The concept of the place was a mixture of piano and cocktail bar, making it quite luxurious. The dim lighting added a touch of warmth and coziness, making the atmosphere quite inviting. Soft music played in the background, creating a relaxing yet vibrant atmosphere.

Greeting all of them once he reached their table, Ace sat down between Deuce and Law on the big round table they had been sitting on. “I’m surprised you choose such calm place.” Taking his glasses off, Ace put them in the middle of his slightly unbuttoned on the chest shirt.

“Don’t you like it?” Koala looked at him with her big light brown eyes pouting a bit. She was the one who had chosen the place and hearing that someone was not pleased by it made her a bit disappointed.

“No, I was joking, Koala.” Ace quickly reassured her as Sabo gave him a warning look. He was in fact messing with them as they usually always go for nightclubs, not calm fancy places, but his brother was sometimes annoyingly protective of his girlfriend and even jokes at times might be taken badly if they happened to make her feel even the slightest bit offended.

A moment later the waitress came to take his order, and Ace just told her to give him something strong and the girl just nodded as she went away. Everyone has gone back to their conversations – Sabo and Law were talking something about the producing of the upcoming album for when they get back to the Grand Line City, Koala and Robin were talking about politics which didn’t surprise anyone as both of them were big human rights activists, and Deuce was speaking with Ace or better said tried to speak with Ace.

“Hey, Ace.” Nudging Ace on the side with his elbow Deuce gave him a questioning look. “Do you even listen to me man?”

Shaking his head and clearing his throat Ace nodded. “Yea, sorry. What were you saying?”

“I was asking how are you?” Ace opened his mouth to answer but Deuce shut him up immediately. “And don’t give me the I’m fine crap. I mean seriously.”

Rolling his eyes at Deuce, Ace ironically chuckled. “I’m fine.”

The waitress came and served Ace the drink he had ordered and thanked her before she went away. Taking a big sip of it he looked back at Deuce, but Koala’s voice made everyone turn to her as she whined. “No Ace, we are supposed to cheer first. Together.” Biting the inside of his cheeks Ace blankly stared at her. Recently she has started to annoy him a bit… a lot.

“Yes, Ace.” Sabo added giving his brother an unpleasant look. “Where are your manners?”

Taking a deep breath in, Ace raised his glass high, looking at Sabo and then the rest of the table, he gave probably the most fake smile he has ever given before as he cheered. “To us guys and many more albums and sold-out avenues.” The sound of the glasses clinking and the cheers from the rest of the table filled the air around the table. Drinking the rest of the drink in one go Ace put the glass down and excused himself and left the table, making everyone wonder if they did something wrong and mostly when his attitude would go back to normal.

“I’ll go after him.” Deuce said as he saw Sabo getting up from his chair to catch up with his brother, which wasn’t the best idea given how much they have been arguing recently. Walking out of the piano bar, Deuce looked around until he spotted Ace walking down the street. He caught up with him fast and grabbed him by his shoulder. “Hey man, wait.”

“Not in the mood Deuce. Go back to the others.” Ace grunted not even bothering to look at his light blue haired friend.

“I’m very aware of that.” Deuce chuckled ironically. “Everyone is.” He murmured to himself, but Ace heard him.

“Then you know I want to be left alone.” Ace continued to walk without glancing at his friend.

“Ace stop this man.” Deuce had enough of this, and he yelled at Ace, making him glance over his shoulder at his friend. “You have been like this for what now? Two months?” He had never seen Ace like this before. Yes, he knew him for a long time, very, very long time, and he was aware of his self-destroying tendencies, but it has never been this bad before. He has been lashing out on people for no reason, barely talking with any member of the band and if he did most of the conversations end up in a fight. He has been acting like a complete asshole, and no one knew the reason why he acted like such. “What has gotten into you? Do you realize how much of an ass you’ve become? And I swear it better not be because of the recent fame we’ve gained because none of us will tolerate your bullshits.”

Ace was too stunned to speak. Deuce was never the type to blow up like this let alone being so frustrated. He was the most collected one of the four, so this behavior that Ace has recently displayed has struck some nerve in the blue haired guy.

“You really think I’m the type to let fame get into my head?” Ace couldn’t believe that Deuce could think of such a thing. “Fame? Really? Off all the things you can possibly think of fame is the one on top of the list?” Ace mockingly laughed in his friend’s face.

“This is our best guess... second best.” Deuce responded and Ace raised his brow at him. What did he mean by ‘second best’? “Look, let’s find some cheap bar, grab a beer and talk? Just us two. Whenever it’s the fame or something else I’ll just listen, man.” Taking a step closer to his friend, Deuce placed his hand on Ace’s shoulder. “You’re clearly not okay. I see it, your brother sees it, Law sees it, we all see it. Just... let me help you at least by listening to whatever bothers your mind so much.”

Deuce expected that Ace would just laugh at his face and tell him to fuck off, but to his surprise Ace agreed. He didn’t have much to lose and the fact that tomorrow they were flying back to Grand Line City was only adding to his stress.  

They walked a bit until they found something quiet and more secretive. Walking in and ordering two beers they sat at the back of the very dark-dimmed old rock bar. Making a silent cheer both took a sip of the beers, but none of them said a word after.

“I fucked up bad.” Ace was the one who broke the silence. Deuce didn’t say a word and he just waited for Ace to continue. “I fucked it up very bad... with (Y/N).” This didn’t surprise his friend at all as this was everyone’s first and best guess which turned out to be the right one. “I don’t think she would ever forgive me nor want to see me.”

Six beers later Ace had poured his heart and soul to Deuce. He had told him everything. From the unofficial ‘date’ to the elevator with the kiss, he had told him about everything with every single detail out there for the story. “And now I don’t know what to do. I don’t deserve her forgiveness, Deuce. I don’t even deserve to share the same air with her to begin with, let alone trying to get her to forgive me.”

Deuce hasn’t said a single word since his friend began telling him what had happened between him and the girl he has fallen hard for, all he did was to listen.

“Is there more to add to the story?” Deuce finally spoke and Ace slightly shook his head. Nodding, Deuce took a sip of his beer before fixing his gaze on his friend, whose head was hanging low, and deeply sighed. “You’re right Ace.”

Ace glanced at his blue-haired friend with a slight arched brow. What was he right about? He didn’t expect Deuce to agree with him, to be honest he thought the quite opposite that his friend would instead encourage him to go after the girl he was desperately in love with and that he hadn’t made such a mess out of himself.

“You don’t deserve forgiveness for what have you done.” Deuce articulated his words deliberately to ensure that his friend would understand and get what he was telling him. “That is why instead of forgiveness maybe you should aim for a new start, a second chance.”

Confusion was written all over Ace’s face. What was his friend telling him by aim for second chance? How could he get one even if she doesn’t forgive him first? Maybe Deuce was more drunk than he looked like.

“Second chance? Do you hear yourself?” Ace was looking at his friend like he had grown a second head.

“What you did Ace is unfixable.” Deuce’s words made Ace’s whole-body ached. He was aware of this and that was why he was in such distress in the first place. “That is why I’m telling you to try start things from the beginning again.”

Running a hand over his face, Ace chuckled ironically. “And how do I do this?”

“Easy.” Deuce mocked his friend. “You find her, you speak to her and instead of begging her like a pussy for forgiveness you tell her to never forgive you nor forget this, but instead to give you the chance start all over again.”

Staring at his friend Ace let a small makeshift laughter escape his lips. “Yea, Deuce. This will definitely be so easy. Cheers.” Rasing their beer bottles the two men shared a toast.

Deuce was hoping that his friend would listen to him and do something to fix the things between him and the girl. He did know (Y/N) but not very well. She was indeed a very kind girl and maybe that was the problem. Deuce knew Ace for years and he wished his friend happiness more than anything but knowing his tendencies he was not surprised how things had turned out. After what he did, (Y/N) would be a fool if she forgave him, but deep-down Deuce has the feeling that if Ace really goes and speaks with her and tells her the same things he has just told him, she would be willing to give him a second chance. Or at least consider to give him a second chance.

“Wouldn’t it hurt more if you never try?” Deuce added and these words slowly nestled in Ace’s mind.

The week rolled fast, and it was already Saturday. I was both relieved and a bit tensed about tonight. Relieved because our debut movies for the year were to start next week and the preproduction and all the preparation for it has taken so much of my energy. The good thing was that after a very long time Nami, Usopp and I were working together in the same team. On top of it we had two weeks to prepare for it and only five days to shoot it, starting from next Monday. It would be quite stressful, but I can’t wait to start as I was asked by the girl who wrote the script to direct it, which surprised me as we weren’t big fans of each other, but I didn’t turn the offer down.

Strangely I wasn’t so tensed nor worried about the debut movie, actually not at all, we had it all under control, but I couldn’t say the same about tonight’s party.

I haven't seen the whole group in a long time, and while I missed them, I also felt anxious. Ignoring Luffy led to ignoring the rest, and I hope they weren't offended. I believe they would understand if they knew the reason behind why I was so reserved in the past two months. Not like they would ever find out why or what happened, but still, the hope mixed with guilt was settled within my gut.

Today I had to wake up extremely early as Usopp and I had to take care of some last-minute things for the film. Thankfully everything went smoothly so it didn’t take much of our time.

On the way back he dropped me to the supermarket close to my place as I had to buy some groceries, but the whole time I felt like someone was watching me. For the past week I have had this weird feeling of being stalked, but every time I turned around there would be no one behind me which gave me the chills to a point where I started to feel a bit paranoid.

Even on the way back home I felt followed, but still every time I turned around there was no one around me. I made sure to get home fast as I wanted to take a quick nap before I got ready for the night.

I haven’t had a party in months. Not like I was very excited about it, but I felt like I needed this. I needed to relax a bit and forget about everything that has happened so far.

I didn’t waste any time when I got home and quickly hopped in the shower and then in bed as I put on an alarm for when I should get up to get ready. Kid had agreed to come to the party with me, but sadly the girl his mind was currently occupied with couldn’t make it as she had to work tonight, but at least he didn’t turn me down.

My alarm rang exactly two hours later, and I got up and slowly started to get ready. I knew that it was a fancy party and on top of it there was a dress code, but I didn’t feel like going over the top tonight, so I just put on a simple little black dress on. My hair and makeup I did as usual again not going over the top as I wasn’t even planning to stay the whole night, at least for now, if the party turned out to be fun, I might stay longer.

By the time I was ready Kid had already come and waited outside for me. Leaving and locking the apartment after me I quickly ran down the stairs.

Getting into the car I greeted Kid with a smile as I put the seat belt on. “You know there is a dress code, right?” I said a bit mockingly as I eyed him and his jeans and T-shirt outfit. His bright red hair was done with gel, and it was facing all directions as aways. His piercings and tattoos all visible and if I didn’t know Kid as much as I have grown to in the past month and so, I would have said that he had put the effort tonight, but I did know him now and that was his everyday outside work aesthetic.

“You’re not as dolled up as usual.” He mocked me.

“Didn’t feel like it to be honest.” I shrugged. “Anyway, we don’t need to stay the whole night if we don’t like the party.”

“Finally, we speak the same language.” Kid exclaimed. I just rolled my eyes and used my secret weapon to make him ease up a bit as I asked about Victoria, the girl he was seeing, and how things were going between them.

Soon we arrived where the party was being held, a big modern-day skyscraper building in the richest part of the city. Its sleek glass façade shimmered under the city lights, reflecting the bustling energy of the metropolis. The entrance was grand, with an expansive lobby adorned in marble and gold accents.

“How rich is your friend again?” Kid bent a bit and whispered in my ear as we stepped into the elevator.

“At this point I’m asking myself the same.” I murmured in awe as we were making our way to the last floor where Sanji’s parents’ penthouse was.

The penthouse apartment itself looked like something from the newest James Bond movie—ultra-modern design with expansive floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a breathtaking panoramic view of the city skyline. The interior featured sleek, minimalist furnishings with a mix of high-end materials such as marble, glass, and polished metal. The open concept living area was filled with guests, their laughter and chatter echoing off the walls.

Kid and I exchanged looks at each other as we stepped out the elevator. “It’s full of people.” I yelled at him over the mixture of loud voices and music.

“I already don’t like it.” He grunted.

Rolling my eyes, I pulled him by the hand to follow me and find Nami and the rest of the group. It didn’t take me long to spot them sitting on a very long white couch by the piano next to the floor-to-celling windows which lead to enormous terrace from which you could see the whole city. Kaya was the first one to spot me and she waved at me.

“Hello, everyone long time no see.” I said once we were standing next to them. They all greeted Kid and me and of course we got some questionable looks which I caught up immediately and I was sure he did as well.

“What are you doing here Jaggy?” Luffy as always went straight to point as he shoot a mixture of questionable and surprised look at Kid.

“Jaggy?” I turned to look at the red-haired man standing next to me confused and ready to make fun of him of the nickname he was given by Luffy.

Grunting at me, Kid rolled his eyes and turned to Luffy. “Don’t call me Jaggy, you monkey head.”

“This doesn’t answer my question... Jaggy.”

Before they had the chance to get each other’s throats I stepped in. “He is my plus one.” I smiled awkwardly as I could see the surprise in everyone’s eyes, even Zoro’s a bit. Realizing that they might have taken it wrong I tried to correct myself, but I was interrupted by Sanji, who showed up behind me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

“I can’t believe my eyes.” He pulled away and a big smile was spread across his handsome face.

“Happy Birthday Sanji.” I hugged him properly and he returned the hug.

“Thank you, beautiful.” He replied as we pulled away from each other. He turned to Kid and reached with his hand for a handshake as they had never met before, at least officially. “I hope you enjoy the party and if my brothers bother you, please don’t pay them any attention.” He said to all of us. “They are just... well... if someone asks, I usually don’t say that we are related.”

We all were aware of the relation Sanji has with his family, but at the end of the day he was a very good person and the only reason why he kept on having any kind of relationship with his father and brothers was because of his mother and sister, otherwise Sanji wouldn’t even go by his father’s last name.

“My sister is somewhere here I need to look for her and I’ll be back with you guys.” Sanji said to us before he disappeared into the crowd of people in his living room space.

“What are you two going to drink?” Nami looked at me and Kid.

“What do we have?” I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to drink tonight or not, but one drink wouldn’t hurt.

“Everything.” Zoro replied as he took a sip of his glass and whatever he was drinking.

“Just go to the kitchen, there you’ll find everything.” Usopp pointed me to the left side of the room where I guessed it would be the way to the kitchen.

I nodded and thanked him before turning to Kid. “The usual right?” He nodded in agreement, and I made my way to the kitchen.

This place was enormous and there were so many people around, but from what I knew Sanji and his brothers were quadruplets so I shouldn’t be surprised that we were so many people here tonight.

As I approached the kitchen it was easy to spot the drinks as everything was placed in the middle of the kitchen bar. I didn’t see any beer, so I had to ask if they had any and one girl pointed at the big two door fridge. I thanked her and went to the fridge which when I opened was full from the bottom to the top with all kinds of different drinks. Grabbing two cans of beer, I closed it and made my way back to the group.

Approaching the group, I noticed that three more people had joined us, and my heart fell to my feet. Freezing on the spot my body couldn’t movie and my mind went on fight or flight mode. What was he doing here? Was he even such a close friend with Sanji? Wasn’t he on a tour or whatever?

The enormous penthouse and the space around me started to feel tight. My heart was beathing so fast, but at the same time my whole body felt numb, while my breath was caught in my lungs.

Two months. I haven’t seen him for two months, almost three at this point, why did I have to see him tonight?

Someone bumped into me, and this made me snap out of it. The person turned to apologize, but all I did was hand them the two cans of beer as I ran in search of the bathroom before anyone could see me.

After many wrong opened doors, I finally found it and got inside, closing the door behind me and locking it, I leaned on the door. My heart was beating fast as I was trying to catch my breath.

Trying to calm myself down, I looked at the mirror in front of me in the bathroom. I saw and felt the first tear rolling from the side of my eye. Biting hard on my bottom lip to suppress the sob ready to escape my lips I also wiped the tear away. I couldn’t afford to cry now. I couldn’t let him see me like this and give him the satisfaction of knowing that I haven’t been entirely over him, yet. I couldn’t let him know how much power he holds over me and the way I feel.

I needed to think clearly. I had two options: First one – I text Kid to get out of here and that way I could just go home and forget about tonight or second one – I try to collect myself, I get out of this bathroom and go there and act like I have never ever in my life met this person and that he was a complete stranger.

I couldn’t let myself being so vulnerable and weak in front of him once again. I needed to stand up for myself and show him that life continued without him, and I was doing fine. I needed to show him that he was nothing more than a stranger.

Going to the sink I washed my hands and fixed my makeup a bit. Taking a few deep breaths in I nodded to myself. “You can do this. Just go there, don’t look at him and… just pretend that he doesn’t exist.” I told my reflection in the mirror. “Don’t forget – you two are strangers now.”

The last thing Ace wanted was to go to a party tonight the same night he had been back in town after a month of being away. But with a lot of convincing from Sabo and Koala he agreed to go, but only to wish Sanji a happy birthday and catch up with his little brother and then he was out.

He knew that (Y/N) would be there or at least he was guessing that she would be, after all she was a good friend of Sanji. The fact that there was a big chance that she might be there terrified him. Ace hasn’t gained the courage to face her, at least not now. He wasn’t even sure what he would do or say once they faced each other again.

He had some time to sit and think about his conversation with Deuce and he came to the realization that his friend was right. Asking her for forgiveness would be foolish but asking her for a new clean start might be worth trying, but at the same time it was also ridiculous. How did someone go and ask for a second chance when they have messed up as badly as he did?

The biggest problem was that Ace wasn’t sure how he should approach her. Was he supposed to just text or call her and be like “You want to speak about what happened two months ago?” or he just wait for her somewhere and try to speak with her? What was the best way to approach someone whose heart you have broken? There was no YouTube tutorial, or book, or a movie to watch which would give him the answer to this question.

Maybe he should try gaining some courage and think through what he would say to her first before approaching her? Or should he say whatever he feels like in the moment when they cross paths again?

He didn’t have much time to answer himself any of the thousand questions he had in mind regardless (Y/N), as he was already at the party. Looking around from the moment he had arrived with his brother and his girlfriend, Ace couldn’t spot (Y/N) anywhere, and this brought him both disappointment and relief.

Disappointed because he wanted to see her. He couldn’t deny that he has been missing (Y/N). It was a very strange feeling. He had never missed someone or something before, so it was still hard for his brain to process this feeling of missing, longing for someone.

And he was also feeling relieved as he wasn’t ready to face her. Because what could he do here in front of so many people who had no idea what had happened between them. He knew her quite well at this point to know that she wouldn’t have told anyone anything. Not like he cared if she did, but it was a bit less awkward to know that this was something no one was aware of. One set of eyes less to judge him and his mistakes.

When they joined Luffy and his friends, Ace was surprised to see Kid – the bartender from Shank’s bar tagged along with them. Ace didn’t know him personally, only had seen him in the bar when he had gone with Luffy there, and on top of it the bartender and his little brother had some not so friendly banter going on, so what was he doing here? Could he have come with (Y/N)?

Usopp and Nami were shooting question after the question at Sabo and Ace about how the tour went to which it was mostly Sabo answering and even Koala from time to time, while Ace remained silent.

With his back turned to the group, he meticulously scanned the room in search of (Y/N). However, she was not immediately visible. It was only upon hearing her familiar voice that he realized how much he had missed her, causing his heart to sink.

Your back was facing him as you were handing Kid a new can of beer as you had gone back to the kitchen to grab new beers as the last ones you had given to some complete stranger. A chill ran down your spine. You could feel the set of deep brown eyes on you, and you had to take a quick moment before turning around again and looking at your friends.

Knowing where he was standing you just turned around and looked at everyone but him. You could feel your pulse increasing and your blood rushing like you were about to faint out, but you tried to collect yourself as much as possible.

Faking a smile, you pointed your greeting only at Koala and Sabo, and this didn’t go unnoticed by some of the people around you. It didn’t go unnoticed by Ace as well. This was childish behavior, according to his opinion, but at the same time he deserved it and couldn’t blame you for it, but he was surprised to see how bold your move was. Addressing only his brother and girlfriend, well played.  

It was harder than you expected. You joined the group only two minutes ago, and it was already hard to resist looking at his direction, especially as you could feel him looking at you. Why, why did he have to be here tonight? Why did you have to cross paths again?

Taking a seat between Kid and Kaya on the couch you take a sip of the beer, focusing your eyes on the beer can in your hands. Your body was so tense, your whole mood, the energy around you changed so fast, and Kid noticed it and it didn’t take him long to figure out why that was. Leaning closer to you he whispered in your year. “You must be kidding me?”

Startled by the unexpected closeness of Kid you turned and gave him a weird look.

“What?” You whispered back confused.

“Monkey head’s brother? Really?” Kid’s voice was loud enough to be heard only by you. You didn’t say anything, but the way you slightly lowered your head, and your eyes shifted to the ground was all Kid needed to know that he was a hundred percent right.

Kid could see the distress in your whole body. Sighing he wrapped his hand around your shoulder and pulled you closer to him.

“The fuck you’re doing?” Putting your best fake smile on your face you hissed at him.

“Shut up and listen brat.” He returned the fake smile and winked at you. “You gonna play him as he played you, if you want some kind of revenge.” Kid pulled you even closer to him so he could whisper in your ear. “It’s enough to make him believe that you’ve moved on to make him go crazy.”

“I don’t want to make him go crazy.” I whispered back. “He doesn’t care Kid. We don’t need to do all this, and I don’t want to.”

This was ridiculous in your mind. Ace didn’t care about you at all, and acting like you were ‘taken’ wouldn’t change that fact nor make him jealous. Plus, Ace knew you well enough more or less, he wouldn’t fall for such a cheap trick. You didn’t want this. You were so tired of all the games, especially the one with Ace in it.

“Trust me, brat. He already is.” Kid pulled away from you and smirked. “Just listen to me.” He continued to whisper something in your ear, and you just sighed. You had nothing to lose so at the end you just agreed to play Kid’s little game of ‘are they a thing or not’ for tonight.

Ace’s blood was boiling. He wasn’t sure if this was some game or if it was for real. The moment Kid had placed his hand on your shoulder and pulled you closer, Ace saw the way your body had relaxed under his touch. The way you two got close to each other and whatever disagreement you had for a second it quickly faded away as you leaned your body on the man next to you.

Was it really that easy for you to move on so quickly? Two months? Or even less? No, it couldn’t be. He knew you. Ace knew you well enough to know that you were not going to jump so fast on someone else. Even if it was just for some kind of rebound, you would not display it so freely especially in front of people so close to you.

But what if he was wrong? He had heard many times that heartbreaks change people. What if this wasn’t an act? What if you had moved on and your heart now belongs to someone else? What if it was too late for a second chance?

All he needed as an answer was just one glance from you at him. The moment he got the chance to lock eyes with yours, he would be able to tell if you had moved on or not, but you haven’t glanced at him even once.

Two hours have passed by, if not more, and you haven’t dared to look at Ace’s direction, afraid that if you did so, you would break and look into his eyes and all the confidence you had slowly built in the bathroom and then thanks to Kid and the little act you decided to participated in, would go out the window the moment you lock your eyes with Ace.

The act between you two so far has been going pretty well. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but you and Kid didn’t do much, you just stayed very close to each other as he had one hand either on your shoulder or your thigh, which alone had won you a lot of questioning looks from everyone, but no one dared to ask anything out loud. Even Nami.

“Are you guys excited for next week?” Kaya question was for Nami, Usopp and you about your debut movie.

“Very.” You responded.

“And we need seven hundred dollars more to reach our go fund me goal.” Nami announced loudly. Usopp and you laughed at her as no one paid attention.

“It’s pointless, they all have already donated.” Usopp patted her shoulder.

You continued to laugh as they started to argue for the budget of the movie once again as Usopp was trying to explain to Nami that the money would be enough, while she was telling him how “Money are never enough.”, and that was when for a first time tonight you slipped. Lost in their ‘money’ banter your eyes shift and locked with the eyes you had been successfully ignoring for the past forty or more minutes.

Your laughter died instantly. He was looking at you and you were looking at him. Your eyes conveyed profound feelings, yet they couldn't grasp the other's intentions.

The one who broke the eye contact first was you. Tonight was the first time ever when Ace couldn’t read your eyes, and this struck a nerve in him. Your eyes were usually giving him all the answers, but not this time. He couldn’t catch what was behind them, nor did he have enough time to do so. He must either wait for a second chance to lock eyes with you again or get somewhere private with you and talk. You two must talk. Tonight.

Getting up from his seat Ace went out onto the big balcony where surprisingly it was empty of guests, and he had the time to collect his mind for a second. Taking his cigarettes from his pocket he lit up one and took a long drag out of it.

He must speak with you tonight or at least try to, but he needed to be only the two of you. No other people around. But how? How could he make this possible? And what does he tell you once he gets the chance to speak with you?

The glass door slid open, and Ace was no longer alone with his thought on the balcony. He didn’t bother to turn around to see who it was as he didn’t really care. He knew that it wouldn’t be you, that was for sure.

“Shit, you’ve got a lighter, man?” Kid asked Ace as his lighter just died and he wasn’t able to light his cigarette.

Glancing at him Ace nodded and handed him the lighter. Perfect, not only he had to deal with watching the man next to him having his hands all over the girl he wanted, but now he had to share his lighter with him, how ironically.

“Thanks.” Kid said as he handed back Ace the lighter.

Both men kept a distance between themselves. Kid could see that Ace wasn’t very happy to have him around and this was making things even more fun for him. “Fancy party, huh?” The bright red-haired man chuckled.

Side-eyeing him Ace hummed with agreement. He wasn’t planning on having small talk with him.

“I wasn’t much into it, when (Y/N) told me ‘bout it.” Kid continued. He knew what he was doing by mentioning your name.

“Didn’t know you two are friends.” Ace said, exhaling the smoke of the cigarette, which filled up his lungs.

“We are not.” The guy next to him smirked, knowing what he was doing.

Glancing at him, Ace couldn’t help but feel his jaw tightening. He knew what the person standing next to him means with this, but he didn’t want to believe it. This couldn’t be it.

Swallowing his pain, his pride and ego came to help. “Then I guess you’re welcome.”

“Oh, I am.” Still with a smirk on him face Kid replied.

Both men looked at each other not saying a single word as they finished their cigarettes at the same time and threw them away from the balcony. Before any of them say anything a group of drunk girls and guys walked onto the balcony. Glancing at them Kid laughed and walked off. He did get what he wanted as a reaction from Ace, which feed up his ego.

Ace on the other hand was mad. He knew this was an act, he wasn’t that stupid, but still, he couldn’t believe that you could be hanging out with such jerk as Kid. Not like he was better than him, but at least he wasn’t that cocky.

Walking in determined to find and speak with you, Ace noticed that you weren’t sitting on the couch, and you have gone somewhere. Luffy wouldn’t know where you have gone, but Nami should, so he made her way to her and lean closer whispering in her ear, asking her for you.

“I think she went to the kitchen.” She told, Ace and he tanked her as he made his way there, before Nami gets the chance to ask any questions.

You have gone to the kitchen looking for something refreshing to drink, but not alcohol. You have had two beers already and you didn’t want to drink any more for tonight. Looking around for a drink, you were also congratulating yourself in your mind as you have managed to ignore Ace successfully the whole time you have been here and when you two finally locked eyes, accidently, you didn’t break your little act. This for you was an achievement on its own. If someone earlier today has told you that this would have happened and you would keep your cool, you wouldn’t have believed them.

Reaching to grab some kind of fruit flavoured soda from the slowly emptying fridge, you freeze for a moment when you heard a painfully recognisable voice behind you.

“We need to talk.” Standing behind you, Ace wasted no time getting to his point.

Taking a deep breath in you straightened your posture and grabbed the drink you wanted before closing the fridge door and walk away as you ignored the presence of the man behind you. If trying to avoid his eyes tonight was hard, this by itself was ten times harder, as your heart was about to explode in your chest.

Ace was left unhappy by your act of ignorance. He understood that you were mad at him and didn’t want to do or have anything with him anymore, but this was slowly breaking his patience, which was never something to exists in the first place.

Making a few steps towards you he caught you before you leave the enormous kitchen and turned you around. “Just two minutes.”

The feeling of his hand wrapped around your wrist so gently, yet in a strong hold, caught the air in your lungs. Not daring to look at him, you tried to pull your hand away, but this made his hold on it stronger.

“I’m not letting you until you give me two minutes to speak with you.” Taking a step closer to you he said quietly as there were quite lot of people in the kitchen, but thankfully most were already drunk and didn’t care what was happening around them.

Two minutes? He wanted two minutes to talk to you? For what? Everything you two had to say was already said two months ago, and there was nothing left to be said. But yet again, this man had the audacity to stand in front of you without any remorse and ask for ‘two minutes’ like you own him something.

Taking all the confidence and power you had in yourself you finally looked at him. You two were close but not that close, and as much as a big part of you missed these deep brown eyes, you have had enough of this man. Pointing with your eyes at your wrist he got the hint and let go of it. Now both of you stood up in front of the other without saying a word in the middle of the kitchen.

Ace couldn’t read you. Your eyes had so many hidden emotions behind them, mostly pain, but apart from that he couldn’t tell what you were currently thinking of. Did you hate him? Probably, he deserved it. Did it hurt you to see him again? The answer to this was probably, yes as well. Was he overstepping your boundaries once again? For sure. But he couldn’t help it. He needed to make things right with you.

He must speak with you and apologies. You must give him this chance and after it, you could tell him to fuck off and he would, but he needed to speak with you at least.

“Please.” His pleading was full of desperation and pain. “Give me two minutes and I swear I will-”

“I’m sorry, do we know each other?” You didn’t let him finish his sentence as you interrupted.

This got Ace taken aback. Were you really going to act like you two didn’t know each other? He thought that you were more mature than this.

“Come on, doll. You’re better than this.” He breathed out annoyed.

Narrowing your eyes with a bit of disgust and annoyance with him, you just hummed and turned around leaving him behind, but Ace was not having it. Forcefully he grabbed you by the arm and lead you in the corridor leading to one of the many bedrooms this enormous penthouse had.

As much as you tried to fight him it was pointless as he was overpowering you no matter how hard you tried.

“The fuck is wrong with you?” You screamed at him once he closed the door behind you.

“A lot of things.” He turned and yelled back at you.

Silenced took over the room. You didn’t know what to do or what was right to do. You didn’t want to listen to him nor to be in the same room with him. You wanted nothing to do with him. You two were strangers now, nothing more nothing less, but he, of course, had to make things complicated as always.

“What do you want from me?” You asked, turning your back to him as you walked to the big windows in the room, overlooking at the big city beneath you. Wrapping your arms around yourself, as a form of protection, you leaned your head on the window.

What did he want from you, really? Could he want something from you? Ace wasn’t sure how to answer this as he didn’t have the answer himself. He just knew that he wanted to speak with you, but he didn’t know what exactly to say.

“I told you.” Ace said in now more calmed tone. “I want to speak with you.”

“And I don’t.” You replied.

“You don’t have to.” He quickly replied. “All you need to do is... listen... I guess.” He wasn’t sure what you need to do in this situation. The only thing that was giving him confidence was that you haven’t run out of the room, yet.

You couldn’t help but laughed. He really did have the audacity. Turning your body slightly towards him but still looking out at the city lights you said, “That’s the thing. I don’t want to speak, listen, see or do anything with you. And why should I? You made it clear last time and now we are strangers. Nothing more nor less.” You were surprised of yourself. You weren’t sure where you found this confidence and cool within yourself, but you were proud of what you just said to him.

The way you said it, so calm and collected, made Ace realised how much he has lost you. You didn’t want to do anything with him, and it was all because of his words and actions.

Walking further into the room, but still keeping his distance from you, Ace slowly nodded. “I don’t want you to forgive me.” Taking a deep breath in he took a few more steps and came closer to you. He tried to collect his thought, but he couldn’t so he went straight to the point. “I just want us to... try again, but from the start?” Hearing himself he couldn’t believe how stupid he sounded.

Hearing him, you were left speechless. There was nothing worth it left between you two to start it all over again.

“You’re pathetic.” You shook your head and start to walk out. “Your two minutes are done.” Walking to the door before he had the chance to say anything more you turned your head to look at him from over your shoulder. “Never bother me again. You are a stranger for me and so am I to you.” With this you left the room and Ace.

Making your way to where your friends were, you went straight to Kid and whispered in his ear that you wanted to go. By the look of your face he knew that something had happened, so he only nodded. Saying a quick goodbye to the rest of your friend group you two left the party.

“He came to speak with you, didn’t he?” Kid asked when it was only you two in the elevator. You only hummed in response. “And?”

“I told you.” You quietly responded. “I want nothing to do with him.”

Or this was what I wanted to believe. That I was done with him. That him mentioning a new start didn’t sound appealing for a moment. But I couldn’t let him in again. He showed me once how cruel and unapologetic he could be towards my feelings, he would and could do it again and I couldn’t overlook this. Despite my stupid heart still longing for him after all he has done, I must listen to my brain and protect it. The fact that I even gave him the two minutes he wanted so bad was enough of a weakness I showed him tonight. I still did what he wanted, he still got what he wanted, but this time I was able to leave with a bit more self-respect than the last time.

“Thank you, Kid. Victoria will be one lucky girl.” I turned and said to the bright red-haired man on the driver’s seat.

“Don’t forget that I’m an asshole, too.” He winked at me with a smirk.

END NOTE: I hope that Reader doesn't come out as some constantly crying girl. She is quite emotional and I also try to show you how much Ace has fucked her mental health up, that just by looking at him all the pain comes back and it is very hard for her to control her emotions. I also know that this chapter might feel rushed, but I promise something big is coming in the next one. Please leave your opinion about how you feel or thing about the chapter, you know I appreciate every like, comment, reblog and message ♡ I want to thank you all for your patience and that you are all amazing lysm ♡♡♡

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writing, format & dividers © cinnamoonblue fanart @a_phu14 on IG ©cinnamoonblue, do not copy or plagiarise my work.

[lennadanvers]

Wish granted

Eddie Munson x Reader

Both Eddie and the Reader are close to their 30's here.

A/N: I miss writing for Eddie so bad. I miss someone real, too. I don't want to spoil anything, but there's angst here. It's based in real events- I'm definitely projecting a little bit. Stay alert, you may have spent your wishes without realizing you did.

You look magical in white.

Eddie spent an ungodly number of nights picturing you in a white dress, and still he wasn’t prepared to see you like this. He suspects the dress isn’t what’s making his voice falter. Any wedding dress would look just as pretty on you. Especially if your eyes shine like that when you look at him.

Someone hands Eddie the microphone and he has to force his knees to stop shaking so he can stand. Your reassuring smile makes it a little easier. He makes an effort not to look around, to all the faces staring at him, and focuses on you. Eddie clears his throat, wincing when the micro amplifies the sound, and starts talking.

“Hello, everyone.”

He makes a pause. There’s no need to introduce himself, everyone here knows who he is. He feels silly, and wonders for a second how long it would take him to get to the door. But, again, you’re looking at him. So he straightens his back and stars talking again.

“As most of you know, I met my best friend when we were nine years old.”

He flashes you a smile, and then whispers loudly into the microphone.

“There’s one thing no-one knows, though- I kept this secret for twenty years. I was saving it for today. I didn’t even tell you!”

Eddie winks at you, trying to appease your curious expression. He’s glad he convinced you to let his speech be a surprise.

“Ready?”

The dramatic pause gives him confidence. This is just like one of his D&D campaigns. More or less.

“I remember the first time I saw you.”

He’s staring right at your bouquet now. It matches the flower in his lapel.

“It was the first day of school. Fourth grade. Early in the morning, t’was a little chilly. I was standing in the hallway. The bell rang, and I turned around. I don’t know why. I was headed the other way. But I turned around, and I saw her… You know how in the movies time slows down, and everyone but the protagonist becomes a blur?”

Eddie chuckles and nods.

“It was just like that. She looked like life revolved around her.”

His tone shifts to a lighter one.

“I have an active imagination, as you may know...”

The laughs all around the room make his shoulders relax a little.

“And she was gone in a second- seriously, like in the movies, the sea of people swallowed her and I was left wondering if I had imagined her.”

He smirks at you.

“Like I said, I have an active imagination.

Sometimes, I convince myself magic is real. That was one of those days. I made a wish- I wished the girl with bright eyes and wild hair I saw for a second was real.”

You’re blushing a little under that makeup, aren’t you? He thinks you are.

“I didn’t see her again that day… But I did spot her in class the next day.”

Eddie can’t help but beam at you. Your nine-year-old self was adorable, all round cheeks and nervous smiles.

“After that, it’s become easier to believe in magic. That’s why, when I saw her cry over a boy for the first time, I asked for a second wish.”

He dares a quick look around, and finds that every person in the room- including a waiter- is looking at him.

“She’s always been so brave. That’s one of the things I admire the most of you, you know? How you keep your heart open for everyone to see. How you tried over and over again to find love, even if you got hurt, even if it didn’t work.”

Your eyes look a little wet now. He pushes forward, trying to remember where he was going with this.

“I wished you’d find the person that would finally be able to love you the way you deserve.”

It’s getting hard to talk with the knot in his throat.

“Once again, I proved magic is real.”

Eddie has to wipe a very embarrassing tear out of his cheek.

“Everybody knows wishes come in groups of three. So, tonight, here, I’m making my last wish. I wish you the happiest of lives. I wish you a long, beautiful marriage. I wish you the life you’ve always wanted, full of the love you deserve.”

He can’t see much through the tears in his eyes- that will hopefully stay there for another two minutes- but he thinks you’re crying too. He raises his glass, hand full of silver rigs shaking, desperate to end this hell.

“To my best friend, the beautiful bride, and her newly acquired husband! To the first day of a very long, very happy marriage!”

You raise your glass with your left hand- the gold band mocking him- because the right is holding your now-husband’s hand. He smiles at Eddie, raising his glass and mouthing “Thank you, man”.

Eddie feels sick. He hands the microphone to one of your bridesmaids, who pats him on the back, and steps away from the table.

It’s hard to breathe. He’s staring at you, at your wide smile as you hug your mom. The DJ started playing a romantic pop song, and people are standing up. He knows he should stay for the first dance. But he’s looking at you, and you’re not looking at him. You’re drying happy tears with your husband’s handkerchief- who carries a fucking handkerchief anymore? – and beaming up at him.

Eddie keeps staring at you until the sea of wedding guests swallow your white dress, your ruined makeup and your bright, happy future.

He steps outside of the venue, full on sobbing now. His van awaits in the parking lot, ready for him to escape again. Out of the two of you, he always knew he was the coward one. Since the moment you declared your love for him- at barely nine years old you were brave enough to bring him chocolates and honesty. Eddie remembers your little hand, your heart open. He remembers his dirty nails, his feelings guarded behind years of abandonment and cruel jokes. Your sad eyes when he didn’t reply. His heavy chest when he kept being your friend, every day up until today.

Too busy wiping tears, Eddie misses a shooting star disappearing in the horizon. When he looks up, the sky is empty- just like his chest, his house, and his future- and he realizes he lied.

Eddie Munson does not believe in magic anymore.

[cherryblossompink303]

Patience: ~Mori-Senpai has an apprentice candidate!~

➼ pairing: Kyoya Ootori x Reader ➼ summary: The host club recieves a peculiar visitor ➼ what to expect:  "Sam finally decrypted those files I got from my contact, he's found proof that our theory is true" ➼ warnings: ➼ Part Twenty | Part Twenty Two

"You know I never thought that Late Edo-Era cosplay would be that popular"

"Come on, you can't be serious. That's like one of the basics" "There are plenty of girls that find late Edo era totally fascinating. Particularly the Shinsengumi."

"And most of the girls who like it are complete maniacs about it!"

"Are they popular because of the noble nature of them sacrificing their own lives for their country or could it be because of their stoic detemination? Their choice to live out their lives by the bushido code? Or could it be that we're intrigued because the worship of this group of renegade young men is somewhat forbidden? The Ikedaya inn may be well-known but it's only because of Hijikata, just imagining him after the battle of Toba-fushimi, his back to the north as he sorrowfully wandered the streets of his homeland attempting to defend the honor of the Shinsengumi all by himself. Oh! I could eat three giant bowls of rice!"

"Woah that was quite the history lesson renge" which is probably the most positive thing you've said to her in a while, not being from japan you really didn't know much about the late edo era at all.

"Not having us cast ourselves in specific roles was good advice, allowing the guests to just be free to fantasize on their own was truly a brilliant idea, renge. I'm very impressed."

"I told you it would work"

You roll your eyes, your temporary positive light on renge diminishing, returning to your work.

Mori suddenly lunged in fornt of the girls, making them fawn.

"Mori-Senpai!"

"Why the sudden lunge?

"Not getting enough attention?"

"Please calm down Mori-Senpai! I know you're upset you only have one line in each part, we're three-fourths through the season and you haven't had your own part. I know Cherry's been skipping flashback heavy episodes but I'm sure we could find a way to get you one! Is that it? I'm sorry!"

"No" Mori mutters, removing his spear, sliding open the door. "We have a trespasser"

"Takashi Morinozuka!" The boy behind the screen rushes to bow "Senpai! Please take me on as your apprentice!"

"Huh?"

♡        ♡        ♡        ♡        ♡        ♡        ♡        ♡        ♡        ♡        ♡

Mori Senpai has an apprentice candidate!

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"Ritsu Kasanoda, first year class D, heir to the third-generation head of the Kasanoda syndicate, the most powerful gang in the kanto area. He was admitted this year into Ouran academy's highschool. He had long red hair and a mean-looking appearance, is reserved and has few friends. It is said if your eyes meet his, you'll have bad dreams for three months. If you bump into him, you'll end up in the hospital, and talking back to him sends you to an early grave. He is so feared by his classmates that they call him the walking blizzard"

"Seriously?But why would a human weapon like yourself need to be mori senpai's apprentice?"

"Well because...look, i may be tough but I'm not a human weapon. I was just born with a face that makes me look mean all the time"

"Well at least you're aware of it Casanova"

"It's kasanoda"

"Bossa nova?"

Kasanoda glares at the twins "I said it was Kasanoda! Do you want to die?"

the boys jump behind the couch "Wow, he really is mean looking"

"Sorry about that. This always happens because of the way I look. I've always had this mean look ever since I was born. Even when I was just a tyke, my dad would say 'Just you wait my son's gonna be the greatest gangster of all time' and so, ever since I was a kid, I've been taught how to be the godfather of a gang. My pops was a good teacher , and he made me a true gangster. That's great and all but everyon's afraid to come near me. Even my fella's are scared of me. So, I'm all alone. It's like they forget I'm young, and sometimes I just wanna play. I wanna get out with my fellas and play a game of kick the can"

"A good game of Kankeri is awesome"

"But I've been livin' the life of a gangster, and I don't know how to interact with regular people. Morinozuka-senpai that's why I need you to show me. How do you manage to have so many friends. When you're just as mean looking as me. You're expressionless, distant, and you hardly ever talk. Plus you've got a mug that looks like a watchdog from hell. So, how come you've got so many friends? What're you doing that I'm not? Please, teach me your secrets! I'm begging you!"

Mori sighs, you grimace as you realise that Kasanoda's issues may also lay in his lack of social skills.

"Hey, Takashi, are you okay?"

"I'm just a little lightheaded"

"What now boss?" "Don't you think that we should do something about this?"

"Just leave him alone. Don't get involved. Like he said, he wants to be Mori-senpai's apprentice, so that means Mori-senpai decides what to do. This isn't something that any of us should be interfering with."

"Tamaki" Mori shoots him a look begging for help.

Tamaki's eyes widen. "Well, in that case, since you insist, Mori-senpai. I, Tamaki Suoh, promise you I will do whatever I can to assist you."

"Yeah right, he wanted to get involved so badly, he couldn't bear it" you laugh at Haruhi's comment.

"Now lift your head, Bossa nova-" "-Listen it's Kasanoda"

"From now on, you may address me as King. Okay, bossa nova?"

Your head falls to the side as you watch the interaction "Do you ever think that Tamaki may have a savior complex?" Kyoya chuckles "I thought that was obvious"

"That's not my name!"

"Are you listening to me Bossa nova? there are many differences between you and our beloved Mori-senpai, but there is also one very definitive thing that you are lacking, and that is a lovely item!"

You sigh, face palming "That is definitely not it"

"Bossa nova, I'd like to introduce you to a lovely item named Mitskuni. Sure Mori-senpai looks kinda mean-looking and he may seem distant when you first meet him. but what if we put Mitskuni on his shoulders? Suddenly, it's like he's a forest teddy bear that all animals ador. In addition, this lovely item also plays up Mori-Senpai's strong and silent character. Even without saying anything just by placing Honey-Senpai next to him, people begin to have a new-found admiration for Mori-Senpai. Suddenly he's seen in a positive light as a nice, quiet, young gentleman. That's the plan. I'm not exaggerating when I say most of Mori-senpai's charm is directly related to his friend honey-senpai"

"Yeah you're right"

"Now that you mention it Mori-senpai doesn't really do anything" "Yeah his position's totally bust."

"Takeshi have you really been using me this entire time?" Honey's eyes start to well up with tears. Mori shoots out of his chair in horror.

"I'm sorry, but Honey-senpai is on a long-term lease to Mori-senpai right now, so I can't let you borrow him"

"Is Tama-chan telling the truth? Are you renting me?"

"Don't worry, i'll come up with something to take his place. So the next thing we need to discuss is your disturbing yankee fashion sense. Now Hitachiin brothers-" "Sir!" "-It's your job to make this man more fashionable!"

The twins tackle him to the ground to begin their 'makeover'

"Poor guy, they're gonna eat him alive"

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"Huh? Somebody's out to get Mori-Senpai?"

"No doubt about it. I was there. I saw everything, he's obviously gotten on somebody's bad side"

"Nah, that's impossible. There's no way that Mori-Senpai would ever be on somebody's bad side"

"How can you be so sure? You don't know that"

"Don't worry your pretty little head about that, Operation: Bossa nova's total image makeover is in full effect as of right now"

"Hold on! What the hell are you talking about!" Kasanoda shoot's out of his seat, running over to where Tamaki, the twins, and Honey are stood plotting.

"This is going to end in tears" kyoya hums to agree with you, flipping through his book. You lean over to speak in a hushed tone. "Where are we at with our little stalker issue"

"They aren't very discrete I must admit, it's a miracle that Kasanoda hasn't put it together yet"

"Yeah well...something tells me that social awareness isn't his strong suit"

As you look over you find that the rest of the host club are tackling Kasanoda once again who was already wearing cat ears and now wrestling him into a maid costume

The door creaks open suddenly "Sorry to bother you, but is the young lord Kasanoda here?"

You all look to Kasanoda where he's stood dressed as a catgirl maid "So here you are" Kasanoda get's in his face "Sir it's no big deal, you can do whatever you want in your spare time"

"What you think this is a hobby of mine? Damn it! I can't take this anymore!" Kasanoda runs out the room with the guy following.

"Well that ended as to be expected"

"Maybe an image change isn't what casanova needs"

"I think you're right" Honey notes.

"I could have told you that days ago"

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"Ah! Haruhi what happened? That's not blood is it?" Tamaki screaches as you all approach her and Kasanoda in the school gardens after following the two men after Kasanoda.

"Would you calm down? It's just a little paint"

"Are you sure you're alright?" Kasanoda stands up.

"Hey let go of me you bastard!"

"Damn it! You big behemoth!" You all look over to the two guys who are now aprehended by Mori, single handedly. "You play dirty Kasanoda, first you go kidnap our gang boss' kid, and then you make us deal with your damn musclebound lackeys? We know that you kidnapped the kid, just give him back, now!"

"We've heard enough out of you! We'll shut you up!" The twins tie them up.

"What the hell's going on here?"

"Don't you get it? See, Takashi wasn't on anyone's bad side these guys were after you. Until we caught them we decided not to say anything to you because we didn't want you to have to mess with them."

"I can't believe it, so you helped me? But how come"

"We can tell who the bad guys are by looking at them"

"I should probably go back and change clothes"

"Want us to come help you?"

"Drop dead"

The guy from earlier suddenly approaches the guys tied up "You dumbasses" he kicks them "Sonny!"

"Shut up! You've said enough today. Don't you get it? The reason I left was cause I was sick of hangin' out with the likes of you. Now get lost, you hear me?"

"Tetsuya, what's going on?"

"I'm sorry I've kept this from you sir. I'm Tetsuya Sendo, i am the son of the godfather of the Sendo syndicate, but i've always been opposed to the cutthroat way the syndicate goes about handling it's business. One rainy day about a year ago, my old man and i got into a fight and i ran away from home. I've never felt as anxious as I did that day, it was terrible I had nowhere to go and the people who passed me on the street just ignored me they pretended like I wasn't even there. And that's when I met you, young lord. The second I saw you I knew exactly what kind of person you were after that when I decided to join the Kasanoda syndicate, you kindly accepted me. Young lord, I know that you're more self-concious and awkward than most people but I also know that you're more kind-hearted than most people. And it's not just me, everybody in the whole syndicate knows it, they just don't say anything 'cause it would embarrass you. I, Tetsuya Sendo, realised that i wanted to become more like you. That's why I cut all ties with the Sendo Syndicate and instead joined the Kasanoda syndicate I hope young lord, that you'll allow me to remain by your side"

"Who'd have thought"

"What a great story, it's so touching"

"Oh I should probably apologise to Fujioka, after all it's my fault he got paint on his clothes"

"Haru-chan went back to change clothes!"

"Yeah? Okay" Kasanoda walks off

"We did a good thing guys"

"What are you talking about? You didn't do anything boss,

"Don't any of you care that Kasanoda went to see Haruhi, who is changing clothes?" The twins and Tamaki's faces fall as they dart off to chase after him.

"This can't be good"

You and Kyoya go to follow but before you do your phone buzzes "Wait" You place a hand on his chest to stop him while you read the message "Shit."

"What is it?"

"Sam finally decrypted those files I got from my contact, he's found proof that our theory is true, the ootori group has been knowingly keeping defunct equipment in circulation to cut costs and inflating perscription costs"

Next time on patience 'Tamaki's unwitting depression!'

Tag list (reply to be added): @skottch @cgmajor @rebirthbunbun @bbybubbles @blueberry19000 @katgirl05 @smellslikelovinglies @veras-fanfic-reblogs @sadprimrose @mirtalikesdr @sleeplesssskeleton @ritzes28 @crackpeole @rory-cakes @renjunniex @II-kita-san-II @angelicwillows @missbrebre1012 @sleep-7372 @strawberrbitch @reticent-writer @eternal-dokja @meme848 @mistyhydrangeagarden @nanaloverz @hyuninslutbbgirl @rebel-author-chick @voyager1fan @bubbabobabubbles

[coquettesophia]

I was feeling bored so for you @joydoesathing fans who wanna join the joy-verse by making a genderbend oc here's my lil (unofficial) guide (?)

This is just how I made my characters (The gender bend Taylor Family) so this guide is unofficial, I'm willing to take any tips and tricks!

Disclaimer: this post is going to just mainly assume you don't already have an og tnmn oc from the original game, this is making a 'genderbend' character fully from scratch and when I have the time I will most likely post abt how to genderbend an already existing oc u have.

1. Pick a gender

Considering the game takes place in 1955, it's common for people to either just go by male or female but your oc's gender/pronouns are completely up to you! This is probably way easier for those people who are just gender bending an already existing TNMN oc they have from the og game.

2. Decide on a nationality

Picking a nationality for your characters is important because that can help you form other aspects of your character such as religion, behaviour and even their name. Most of the characters in Joy's au grew up in America but have originated from somewhere else (e.g; The Sverchzt twins being Russian but living in California (before the apartment))

3a. Come up with a (simplified) backstory

Coming up with a backstory can help contribute to a characters personality and behaviour, your first draft of your backstory doesn't have to be super detailed like a Taylor Swift fountain pen song (iykyk). Just keep it simple for now. Questions I like to think about first are:

1. What is your character's family like? (Family are one of the main things that can influence someone's behaviour)

2. Did they face/suffer any kind of abuse? Whether physically, mentally or emotionally (Take Frances and her abusive parents for example, because of the strict boundaries she received, when she finally found 'freedom' it changed a major aspect of her life) was your character bullied or teased at school?

3. What's their financial situation like? Did your character grow up in poverty or were they privileged? How's their financial situation now compared to when they were younger?

3b. Decide on a personality

Deciding on a personality is one of the most important parts of making a character! One of the things I do to help me decide a characters personality is deciding on their MBTI type (explained below)

The first thing I like to decide on an oc's personality is whether or not they are introverted or Extraverted, then I build off of that.

4. Decide on an appearance

You're probably wondering why I made this the fourth step, but for me personally, deciding on a personality/nationality/backstory is what helps me start on the designs for my characters :D! What I notice about Joy's au is that the characters appearances match their personality whilst still representing their original counterpart. For those who are a bit stuck, here's some questions that can help your character design

1. What's their hair length?

2. Do they have freckles? Birthmarks? Scars?

3. What colour are their eyes (random question ik but this question helps me)

4. What's their clothing style (keep in mind the game takes place in the 50s and fashion was different back then)

5. In case you haven't yet, decide on a name.

You're probably wondering why I left this last, and that's because sometimes you don't know what you want to name your oc if you don't already have a basic base of their character. Their name may have already came to you, but that doesn't mean it would happen to everyone else. What I like to do when I can't decide on a name is I go on Pinterest and search up name ideas.

6. Decide on a Job/occupation

There's four ways I look at this

1. Student

If your characters a student, you also gotta consider stuff such as

How are their grades?

Do they find it easy to make friends?

Are their teachers nice to them?

2. Employed

If your character is employed, I usually like to match my characters' jobs to their personality! If your character is good with kids, try make them a teacher, if they can cook/bake rlly good, make them a chef/baker! If they have good leadership skills, make them a boss! It's all up to you :D

3. Housepartner/retired

Uh the name kinda sums it up, but here are some questions to help you out :3

-Do they like staying at home all day?

-How often do they go out? Whether it's to socialise or just to get groceries?

- What do they do around the house most of the time?

4. Agnes /j

Criminal, to sum it up. I don't have any experience in this field so uhhh just search it up....

Things to look out for

- Keep in mind the game still takes place in the 1955s. Things were different back then, r@cism and s3xism were still quite common, so your oc may or may not be affected by it (e.g; Wilma being discriminated for wanting to have a scientific career because she was a woman and the Glenn having to 'stay in line' at work because he knew some people would find any excuse to get him fired/demoted due to his race.)

- Do research. Trust me, it will help. Did your character fight in WW1 or WW2? Was your character Japanese and sent to an internment camp? Was your character bullied as a child for only having one parental figure (shout-out to you Anatolii you're my 2nd fav GB TMMN character)

- again, it was the FIFTIES, fashion was different than it was today. Try doing some research to help you out, I use Pinterest.

- ALSO KEEP IN MIND THERE ARE HUMAN EATING (?) DOPPELGANGERS YALL-

[tacoma-narrows]

Sha-Bam!

New guy alert!! Meet Kickflip! He's a cool skateboarding skunk guy and I've had him in mind since like, late July lol. Over the past several months, I've seen a lot more people making skunk OCs and every time I saw them, it made me realize how cool of a species they are to make designs out of and I wanted to make one of my own! Also, Kickflip as a name for a character like this first came to me back in February so I'm excited to finally make use of it haha.

I am SUPER happy with this guy's design as well!! (Check out his ref and some additional stuff below the cut!) I am a huge sucker for designs that are a dark base color with bright/rainbow accent markings, so I'm very happy to finally have such a design in my roster hehe.

As for personality, I don't have a ton lined up yet but I do have some key points in mind! Firstly, he's gonna be sorta rivals with Seabreeze, since on a surface level at least, there is a fair amount of similarity between surfing and skateboarding, and I think that opens the door for some rlly fun dynamics in future pieces lol. He'll also be friends with Rye, since they both kinda go for that cool guy attitude, though Kickflip tends to pull it off much better than Rye lmao. I also have relationship plans for him, but that will be revealed at a later point :3c

Anyways, like I said, I REALLY like this guy already so you'll probably be seeing more of him soon hehe. I may take some art trades soon to get some art of him rolling, so keep an eye out for those perhaps :3 Honestly huge year for new Tacoma OCs, with this guy being my fourth new character this year lmao

Hope you all like my new guy here!! Again, ref n stuff under the cut :]

Ref, plus refs for his hat and his skateboard, and an icon for him like I make for all of my OCs! Fun fact, his hat is based on one that I (used to </3) own! :3

And here's the link to his Toyhouse page if you wanna check that out and maybe give him a fav hehe. There's not a whole lot of bio there atm, but there will be more in time! :D

[thisittybittykitty]

Phew! I finally read the first arc myself! No more basing my opinions on MAPs or any of that stuff! And boy do i have a lot to say. Let's start with the man himself. Firestar. Now i want you to note a few things, one, this is gonna be unbearably long, because i ramble a lot about the stuff i'm passionate about. And two, this is only gonna be on the first arc. On second arc, third arc, fourth. No Firestar’s Quest. None of that. Just arc 1 Firestar. Let's start with the questions we should always ask about a character!

'Who is Firestar?' He's an adventurous, curious, strong-willed cat. Brave, conscientious, compassionate, determined. Oblivious and nosy but loyal and understanding. He is the kind of cat that would do what he believes is right even if it's against the Warrior Code. Already, we run into a problem. This argument has been used a 100 times, but it's still kinda valid. Firestar has very few flaws. He literally entered the ThunderClan camp, and got bullied for being a kittypet. Especially by this one warrior named Longtail. Now what does our main character do? A. Ignore him. B. Defend himself calmly. C. Quietly take it. D. Tell Bluestar. E. Jump down and beat him up. Wanna know the best part? Firestar literally won his first ever battle, with no training, or experience. Just pure reflexes and instincts. This meme is literally them.

On one hand, it's good that Firestar defended himself. But violence will make things worse for both parties. That entire scene, for me, felt ridiculous. It didn't make Firestar look strong, just make Longtail look pathetic, and that’s sad.

'What is Firestar's dreams and goals? How is he willing to achieve it? And what is stopping him?'

His dream and goal is to explore and learn and be free, hunt in the wild and run in the wind. The Clan gave him that and gave him another goal to work towards. Being a warrior. Why does he want to be a warrior? What kind of warrior does he want to be? Why not a medicine cat? These questions are...not exactly answered. And then there's the biggest of them all, why did Firestar want to leave at all? Curiosity? Childish impulsiveness? Did he ever miss Smudge or Princess or his kittypet friends? Did he ever miss kittypet life in general with its simplicity and convenience? We have a 'kind-of' answer to that last question. In Fire and Ice, and The Darkest Hour, it tackled how Firestar felt like he's an outcast. Like he didn't belong in the Clan. Princess was able to provide this sense of belonging since...she's his sister. And was also a kittypet. In the Darkest Hour, it talked about how Firestar, he may have missed, and even envied the kittypet life with its simplicity and safety, but also told himself that kittypets would never know the satisfaction of learning warrior skills or fighting alongside his friends. Which is...okay? Everyone is different. Another question i would like to ask is

'What motivates Firestar to do what he does? Why is Firestar the character that he is?'

This is where i'm lost.

You can say that his reasons for doing what he does is because of what he believes is right. Right? Now that can be interesting, when the character isn't right all the time. I'm not sure about that with Firestar. Most of the time, he's right. I say most of the time because, thankfully, there are a few times where Firestar made dumb decisions, as few as they are. Spottedleaf (Enough said) Underestimating Sandstorm and not giving her Tawnypelt. It's not wrong to make a moral compass kind of character. It's just hard to make them interesting. And Firestar is...unfortunately an example of that. Few flaws, few mistakes, little growth. Another thing is that, we don't get much backstory from him. You can say that he was a child when the series started so the backstory is what happened. But i want to know what happened before it. Now, does a character need a backstory? Not really, no. Does Firestar need it? Yes and also no. I'm conflicted if i want him to have one or not. At one hand, i'd appreciate if we got a little story that shows us why he is who he is. But also, i feel like i'm asking for a lot, since characters don't always need a backstory and a reason to be shown or told. Maybe it's more fun when it's up to the fans to interpret it. Maybe that's what the writers were going for? I don't know.

I'll stop here since this is already long. I'll continue it in the future. Just a few things. 1. I'm not a writer. I want to be, but i'm not. I'm just using what i know from videos i watched. 2. It's okay if you like Firestar. I like him too. Just hope there was more done with him. 3. Again, If i got anything wrong or missed anything, please tell me. Anyway, that's all i'll share today. Next topic is gonna be about the relationships Firestar has with everybody. I'll only talk about notable ones though. Toodles!

(edit: i think i should have added this since it is pretty important. But better late than never)

'Did the journey Firestar take in life have any impact? Did he change? Who was he before and who is he now?'

The journey from kittypet to leader was most definitely interesting. Fun fact, Firestar never wanted to be leader in the first place. It's always fun to see characters learn and grow. And Firestar learned, and grew. At the start of his journey, he was ridiculed for something he wasn't able to control. Being born as a kittypet. Even when he became a warrior, that mockery stayed. However, not all of it was negative. He had his friends, his mentors, and apprentices to support him. There was most definitely some hardships. Firestar’s life wasn't easy. He lost a lot of his friends, and experienced horror with the dog pack, and was given responsibility he never asked for. I know that this might be confusing since i sat earlier talking about how Firestar needed this or that, and he does, but that doesn't mean i don't like him. He just, again, feels more like a plot-device than a character. He has his moments, being irrationally afraid of Brambleclaw, being stupidly nosy in Mistyfoot and Stonefur's heritage, being confused on why the Clans always fought for seemingly no reason, being kind to everyone, even to those who he knows dislikes him, helping those from enemy Clans even though it got him in trouble. There's a lot to Firestar and yet little. Which makes me conflicted about him. I always kinda feel like i'm overlooking or missing something, or maybe i'm being too harsh? Maybe i said something contradictory? Someone please tell me if what i said was accurate at all or if i'm making stuff up.

[redhood414]

Intro: The Games

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌: ̗̀➛

Four princes. One princess. Your father, King Clark Kent of Metropolis made a contract with the King of Gotham, Bruce Wayne. The contract said there will be games for his four sons to win and the one who wins will get your hand in marriage.

Prince Dick Grayson is the eldest; it is said he's kindest, most generous and charming of all off them. Loved by the people and humerous. He'll often talk to random people and if he's out of the castle he gives coins to the poor.

Prince Jason Todd is the second eldest, he's the general of the soldiers and is always a winning leading warrior in battle. He has a trauma since an enemy kingdom, Joker's, had taken him and beaten him to death. Luckily the Lazarus Pit ressecuted him, but ever since he's not who he was before. He's rude, grumpy, angry, rough. But inside he's just a boy who needs to be loved and feel safe.

Prince Tim Drake. The second youngest. He's almost as smart as Merlin, really. He isn't a magician, but Merlin, the advisor of king Bruce, helps him with teaching him a lot of things about herbs and to heal, etc. he's always eager to learn, maybe sometime a bit too much since he always looses track of time. He's kind, but a bit moody. And doesn't really socialise well. He's quite distant and his walls (not literally but figeruly.) make sure it stays that way.

The fourth, last but not least, youngest, prince Damian Al Ghul Wayne. The only biological son of Bruce Wayne. He got first teached by his mother, to be a great warrior. Now he's with his father, learning everything he needs to know by a personal tutor because he refuses to be learning aside Prince Tim. (They have always had beef, it'll get only worse now that you'll arrive :d) He's a gentleman, but cold. He'll try to win you over by his charm but is distant and quite easily jealous too.

The games

1. The sword fights. (They'll have to fight till two winners stay over and the winner from that duel wins that game)

2. The joust. (Where each is on a horse, galloping towards each other with a lance and try to get each other off the horse)

3. Arrow and bow. (It's just bow shooting.)

May the best win your hand in marriage, my dear.

[kayoi1234]

Now, people may remember that a few days ago, I made a post about intending to read the Scumbag Villian Novels.

I can now report that since then, I had a chance to read the first 3 stories (which I understand are the main run? the fourth has like. the filler episodes right?). I am now here to give my observations in my "Scum Villian Book Report":

My inital assessment of the series, surprisingly, was correct. This is wild.

I did not expect Shen Qingqiu to die so many fucking times. My man has a K/D ratio of 1/3. Still is the worlds funniest hater though.

There is something critically wrong with Luo Binghe and I hope he continues.

Liu Qingge seems to be consistently losing or at least suffering in every scene he's in. He's a very good swordsman it's just he has to also put up with so much bullshit.

Every character in this series is on a sliding scale of stupid and it's awsome. There is so miscommunication.

I knew this series had gay sex, because of course it did why wouldn't it I just didn't expect Shen Qingqiu to take it up the ass dry. My man has balls but also. Maybe don't do that.

He also keeps cursing out Airplane. This is funny.

Also half-related: Really like Velinxi's art in all this. I should read Countdown to Countdown again.

To condclude: This was great I may write stuff for it who knows. I finally read one of those Chinese novels so my mother no longer has to look at me weirdly for not engaging with them.

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … January 27

1832 – Lewis Carroll (d.1898) is born in Baresbury, England, named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He was an English writer, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon, and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, which includes the poem “Jabberwocky“, and the poem The Hunting of the Snark – all examples of the genre of literary nonsense. He is noted for his facility at word play, logic and fantasy.

Carroll came from a family of high-church Anglicans, and developed a long relationship with Christ Church, Oxford, where he lived for most of his life as a scholar and teacher. Alice Liddell, daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, Henry Liddell, is widely identified as the original for Alice in Wonderland, though Carroll always denied this.

Carroll never married and his sexual identity is the subject of exploration by many historians an biographgers.

1888 - The National Geographic Society was founded In Washington, D.C. They are justly famous for many things but mainly for their magazine and for many gay men, the photographs of naked tribesmen featured in the pages of that yellow-spined National Geographic was their first look at the male form in its glory. ("What? Oh, I'm just interested in ethnography, mother.")

1936 – Troy Donahue, born in New York City (d.2001) was an American actor, known for being a teen idol.

Born Merle Johnson Jr, he was initially a journalism student at Columbia University before he decided to become an actor in Hollywood, where he was represented by Rock Hudson's agent, Henry Willson. According to Robert Hofler's 2005 biography, "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson," Willson tried out the name Troy on Rory Calhoun and James Darren, with no success, before it finally stuck to Donahue.

The blond heartthrob made a name for himself with uncredited roles in The Monolith Monsters (1957) and Man Afraid (1957); leading to larger parts in several other films, including Monster on the Campus (1958), Live Fast, Die Young (1958), and opposite fellow teen idol Sandra Dee in A Summer Place (1959). A Summer Place was a hit and made Donahue a name, especially among teenaged audiences. He signed a contract with Warner Bros., and met actress Suzanne Pleshette on the set of Rome Adventure. They married in 1964 but divorced later that year.

Warner Bros. put him in a TV series, Surfside 6 (1960–62), one of several spin-offs of 77 Sunset Strip, announced in April 1960. On Surfside 6, Donahue starred with Van Williams, Lee Patterson, Diane McBain, and Margarita Sierra in the ABC series, set in Miami Beach, Florida. After Surfside 6 was cancelled, Donahue joined the cast of Hawaiian Eye, another spinoff of Sunset Strip, for its last season from 1962 to 1963 in the role of hotel director Philip Barton.

After the release of My Blood Runs Cold (1965), Donahue's contract with Warner Bros. ended. He later struggled to find new roles and had problems with drug addiction, alcoholism, and his closeted homosexuality.

He was married again in 1966, to actress Valerie Allen, but they divorced in 1968. In 1970 he appeared in the daytime drama The Secret Storm.

By this time, Donahue's drug addiction and alcoholism had ruined him financially. One summer, he was homeless and lived in Central Park. "There was always somebody who could be amused by Troy Donahue", he says. "I'd meet them anywhere, in a park, street, party, in bed. I lived in a bush in Central Park for one summer. I kept everything I had in a backpack."

After his fourth marriage ended in 1981, Donahue decided to seek help for his drinking and drug use. In May 1982, he joined Alcoholics Anonymous, which he credited for helping him achieve and maintain sobriety. "I look upon my sobriety as a miracle", he says. "I simply do it one day at a time. The obsession to not drink has become as big as the obsession to drink. I was very fortunate."

Donahue continued to act in films throughout the 1980s and into the late 1990s. However, he never obtained the recognition that he had in the earlier years of his career.

On August 30, 2001, Donahue suffered a heart attack and was admitted to Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica. He died three days later on September 2 at the age of 65.

1949 – American author, essayist and cultural critic Ethan Mordden was born today. His stories, novels, essays, and non-fiction books cover a wide range of topics including the American musical theater, opera, film, and, especially in his fiction, the emergence and development of contemporary American Gay culture as manifested in New York City. He has also written for The New Yorker, including fiction, "Critic At Large "pieces on Cole Porter, Judy Garland, and the musical Show Boat, and reviews of a biography of the Barrymores and Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus.

His best known fictional works are the inter-related series of stories known collectively as the "Buddies" cycle. In book form, these began with 1985's I've a Feeling We're not in Kansas Anymore. The fifth in the series, 2005's How's Your Romance?, is subtitled Concluding the "Buddies" Cycle. Together, the stories chronicle the times, loves, and losses of a close-knit group of friends, men who cope with the challenges of growing up and growing older. In this circle of best friends, teasing putdowns become performance art, but none of the friends ever attacks any other friend's sensitive spots.

Mordden thus breaks away from the gay model proposed by Mart Crowley's play The Boys in the Band, in which supposed best friends assault one another relentlessly in a style that has bedeviled gay art ever since, for instance in the television series Queer As Folk. Mordden's ideal of Gay friendship presents men who genuinely like themselves and one another. They are unique in Gay lit in that they respect the limits of privacy. This explains their devotion to one another: this "family" is a safe place.

1966 – Taylor Siluwé, popular writer, blogger and activist was born in Jersey City, where he lived most of his adult life. He studied creative writing at New York University, fulfilling what he considered “a burning passion to write.”

Known for his darkly erotic and humorous story telling style, Taylor’s writing has been featured in numerous publications including Details, Venus, Literary New York, Out IN Jersey, FlavaLIFE, and the E-zine Velvet Mafia. His short stories appeared in the anthologies Law of Desire and Best Gay Erotica 2008. In addition, Taylor published two sexually charged short story collections, Dancing With the Devil and Cheesy Porn…and other Fairy Tales.

Taylor’s writing reached new heights of popularity on his blog, SGL Café.Com, which combined a canny combination of the personal and political. Taylor’s blog served has a fiery, and often hilarious, platform for the rights of same-gender-loving men, while also providing insightful and candid asides on his personal life, popular culture and his struggle with cancer.

On Sunday, June 19, 2011, Taylor Siluwé died from lung cancer in his home in New Jersey. He was 43 years old.

Radford with Duhamel

1985 – Eric Radford is a Canadian pair skater. With skating partner Meagan Duhamel, he is a two-time World bronze medalist (2013 and 2014), the 2013 Four Continents champion, the 2014-15 Grand Prix Final champion, and a three-time Canadian national champion (2012-14).

Radford began skating when he was eight years old. He competed with Sarah Burke on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series in 2003 in the Czech Republic and 2004 in Hungary, placing 6th and 5th respectively. He also competed in single skating. At the 2005 Canadian Championships, he became trapped in an elevator just before he was scheduled to skate in the men's qualifying round but eventually escaped and was able to compete.

Radford teamed up with Rachel Kirkland in 2005. They were coached by Brian Orser in Toronto and part-time by Ingo Steuer in Chemnitz, Germany. They competed at the 2007 Canadian Championships where they finished 5th. After finishing 7th at the 2009 Canadian Championships, they ended their partnership.

Radford moved back to Montreal in 2009. He teamed up with Anne-Marie Giroux and finished 8th at the 2010 Canadian Championships.

At a coach's suggestion, Radford had a tryout with Meagan Duhamel and they decided to compete together. They won a silver medal at the 2011 Canadian Championships and were assigned to the Four Continents and World Championships. At Four Continents, the pair won a silver medal. During the short program at the 2011 World Championships, Radford's nose was broken when Duhamel's elbow hit him on the descent from a twist, their first element – she opened up too early. Seeing the blood, Duhamel suggested they stop, but he decided to continue. They finished the program without a pause. Duhamel had not done a triple twist since 2005, and the new pair only began performing it before the Canadian Championships.

In the 2011–12 season, Duhamel/Radford won bronze medals at their Grand Prix events, the 2011 Skate Canada and 2011 Trophée Eric Bompard. They won their first national title and finished 5th at the 2012 World Championships. The next season, Duhamel/Radford won silver at their Grand Prix events, the 2012 Skate Canada International and 2012 Trophée Eric Bompard. They then won their second national title and their first Four Continents title. Duhamel/Radford stepped onto the World podium for the first time at the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario where they won the bronze medal.

In 2014, Duhamel/Radford skated their short program to music composed by Radford as a tribute to his late coach Paul Wirtz. After finishing seventh at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, they returned to the podium at the 2014 World Championships, where they scored personal bests in both the short program and the free skate on their way to a second bronze medal.

In December 2014, Radford publicly came out as gay in an interview with the LGBT publication Outsports. In doing so, he became the first competitive figure skater ever to come out at the height of his career while still a contender for championship titles, rather than waiting until he was near or past retirement; at the 2015 World Figure Skating Championships, Radford and Duhamel's gold medal win in pairs skating made him the first openly gay figure skater ever to win a medal at that competition. He is an ambassador for the Canadian Olympic Committee's #OneTeam program to combat homophobia in sports.

Radford with husband Fenero

Radford became engaged to his boyfriend, Spanish ice dancer Luis Fenero, on June 10, 2017. They wed on July 12, 2019.

Radford coaches skating in addition to competing. He studied music at York University, and plays piano and writes and composes music, and is registered as a member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.

1995 – At a press conference in Washington, DC, the House majority whip, Dick Armey, refers to Representative Barney Frank as 'Barney Fag.' He later apologizes, insisting it was a slip of the tongue.

[jamneuromain]

Wild Child Chapter. 3

Series Summary:

As the granddaughter of the sole Duke in your country, you know that you were going to marry some douche prince, because it is the only way to solidify the grasp the future king has on the Upper House. On the flight home, you come up with a brilliant plan to defy your upcoming matrimony.

Bringing a random man to your grandfather's place, and say you have a boyfriend already.

"Is there anything else I should know about? Before I meet your family?" Ari cocks his head to the side, watching you adjusting your cerulean Valentino dress when you wave your hand dismissively.

"Just say we're in love and help me get out of marrying this D-bag."

Ari Levinson x You

#i didn't know he is my fiance-douchebag-prince

#when i did, it was too late

Ari had to excuse himself to take a phone call after your brief conversation, after he instructed Lana to do as she was told.

When you were sure that he had stepped out to take his call, you stopped Lana from introducing the different shapes and makes of your wedding dress, and smiled sweetly, “My phone battery died. Do you mind if I make an urgent call first?”

Lana nodded and took you to the tiny office in the corner, showing you a landline.

You had to thank this guy, Guy Thomas later.

Or you wouldn’t even go near a phone within three feet.

Telling Lana that you wanted a design with a bit of fluffiness with the flare, you sent her to find something similar in the shop while you made this call in private.

The call was picked up on the other side.

“Caroline Hastings’ office, how may I help you?” A receptionist spoke.

“Patch me over to Caroline.” Your fingers clenched on the edge of the table, before they relaxed, careful not to scratch a trail onto the surface, “Tell her it’s Y/N Y/L/N.”

“Y/N! I didn’t know you were back!” Caroline was patched through fairly quickly, “What do you need?”

Hearing Caroline’s voice, you let out an exhale in silence, finally able to breathe properly. Your gaze zeroed on the nametag on the table “Lana Priester”, and her scattered manuscripts. On those were some most beautiful wedding dresses you had ever laid eyes on, even if they were on paper instead of mannequins. If it weren’t for your obnoxious father and his ridiculous requests, you knew, from these manuscripts only, that she would design the dress you wanted.

“Grab a pen and paper.” You instructed Caroline. “Here’s what I need.”

You were back on the couch when Ari returned, sipping on your fourth glass of champagne and discussing with Lana whether your veil could be sparkling but less heavy.

You were patiently listening to the different fabrics that Lana was introducing to you, comparing the fabric examples in your hand, and asking questions about the features of two pieces that looked similar to you.

“It might be difficult to compare with only one layer in your hand,” Lana collected the book of different fabric examples and placed one over a sheet of white, “but the visual outcome will be much more obvious if the dress is made and we’d have this one on top of four or five layers, since you’d like your dress to be fluffy. We’d be considering at least four layers underneath it – Now the other piece is a bit greyer.” She took the other example on top of the white fabric, “Some of our customers prefer the light-grey-misty look on the dress. And through contrast, it would be shinier than the whiter one I’ve shown you.”

“I think I’ll have the whiter one.” After careful consideration, you picked the first fabric, observing it under the light, “And with these changes, you can have the dress ready in four weeks, right?”

“Yes.” Lana had a gleam of determination in her eyes, “We’d also have time to do another dress fitting, right before the wedding.”

“Excellent. I’ll leave you to it.”

Lana dismissed herself, hugging the pile of fabric examples and her manuscripts back to her office, as Ari approached you.

“How did the dress design go?” He took his seat on the couch, pouring himself a glass of champagne.

“It was wonderful.” You sighed almost dreamily, “Just the way I wanted it.”

Ari grinned not-so-subtly. For that smile on your face, he would do anything in his power to make you happy. Ari understood how you were unwilling to marry him, but he also understood your frustration of not having a choice. He didn’t volunteer to be a prince either, but he appreciated your adaptation to your new role as the future queen of this country.

He was glad he could see you in a different way, other than only judging you based on what had happened on the plane. (Plus the fact that he could command the bridal shop owner to call him Mr. Thomas or Guy instead of Your Highness.) He also wanted to retract the comment he had in mind, about you being a handful for him to deal with. You might be sassy, sure. However, considering that you had accepted your fate, showing up nicely to prepare for the upcoming wedding? You were less of a trouble than he thought you would be.

“Speaking of,” Ari stretched his long legs lazily, with a charming smile for good measures, “I’ve given you my card on the plane, as I recall.” He faked his annoyance, “You never called.”

You chuckled, glancing briefly at the large clock behind him, “I would if I had a phone.”

Ari nearly choked on his spit, “What?” He scoffed at your answer, “You don’t have a phone?”

He seriously doubted that. Since everyone would be glued to their phones and messaging apps, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was an excuse that you use, trying to avoid him as much as possible.

“You already know my reluctance to this marriage.” You said this as if it was a daily part of your life, which it was, in fact. “That was a precaution of …” You nursed over your glass, “guaranteeing I wouldn’t contact any extraction team.”

“An extraction team?” Ari couldn’t figure out if he was ridiculed or shocked, “You don’t want to be married that bad?”

The high-pitched voice didn’t bother you, but you pursed your lips together, slightly regretting your decision to share, “The muscle men at the door were for surveillance, honey, not for my safety.”

Ari could not decide whether he was surprised by the fact that your phone was taken away from you, and some sort of imprisonment was ensured so that you wouldn’t run away, or the fact that when you said “extraction team”, you sounded so sincere that he couldn’t tell if you were joking.

You didn’t answer his question of whether you wanted to get married directly, but your attitude spoke for you.

You didn’t like this marriage. You didn’t want him.

On the one hand, Ari had his ego bruised like you just punched him with a boxing glove; on the other, Ari felt truly sorry for you, about his family dragging you into this royal mess that you didn’t want to be a part of. And that there was no way of getting out.

Technically, you could. If he asked to marry another girl from another noble family. But wedding invitations had been sent. Everything prepared had your name and his name on top of it. They had been planning this for over half a year now, and there was no turning back, not at this point.

If he actually did regret this deal, let aside the disappointment and punishments from the King and Queen of this country, your father would do anything in his power to sabotage Ari’s attempt at the throne’s succession, including using his influence to flare the entire Upper House against Ari.

He felt sad. And pathetic. For the fate of this whole country lied upon whether you would marry him, when he was doubtful that he could survive the Upper House without the marriage, when he read from your file that the only thing that connected you to the Upper House is your last name, while you had yet to participate any meetings in the Upper House, which consisted of only men who were old enough to have their one foot stepped into their casket and the other on a banana peel.

If you were in the Upper House, though, things would be different. He would break the marriage deal in the blink of an eye, in order to earn your support in the Upper House.

Too bad he was still a prince. Too bad he could not administer or initiate any law before he took the throne and became the King of Ballenia. Too bad he could not make changes to the status quo, not now, not with his power.

Being a man in his 30s, all Ari could mumble was, “I hope the King and Queen learn about this.”

You scoffed over the edge of your champagne glass, placing it on the coffee table with a sharp click, “And they’ll what? Let their pathetic son swoop in like I’m a damsel in distress?”

“You are a damsel in distress.” Not looking at you, he mumbled to himself, not intending to let you hear his comment.

You let out a short, amused laugh, patting him on his firm bicep, before standing up to take a closer look at the other wedding dresses in this place.

“Oh baby, I’m not a damsel in distress.” Your fingernails raked over the expensive diamonds and pearls on one of the beautiful dresses, clenching your teeth, you spoke as if a prayer. “I’m a woman in a dress. And trust me, I will have everything I want. Even if it means that I have to murder that wimp.”

Somehow, Ari didn’t feel that his head was about to go off, but rather, his dick.

You sounded like you were going to castrate him.

Okay, maybe also murdering him. He was just glad that you didn’t know he was “Ari Levinson”, or God knows what you were planning for him, or pull a knife out of nowhere.

He made the determination to keep this secret identity as long as he could.

Among the fear of his head and dick being in different places than on his body, his mind turned so quickly that he was hit with a realization, “You are laying your murder plan out in front of me? Am I still going to be alive after this conversation?”

Hearing your name being called at the door in a familiar voice, you grinned, shouting to the front door, “Over here, Caroline!”

Ari gulped. This was probably the moment that he needed to regret his reckless decisions. That he shouldn’t marry a to-be-murderer. He should have known that your families were psychos and you were equally insane as everyone else.

His body was going to be found by his guards in a few hours, laying in a pool of blood, had his throat slit……

“Relax.” You laughed, seeing Ari’s face had gone pale, “She’s my lawyer, not my partner in crime.”

Caroline hugged you and complimented you on how well you looked, but one frown from you shut her up about the upcoming wedding and started gathering files from her brown handbag.

“You are not going out of this shop until I am certain that you won’t spill a thing to anyone.” You sat down on the couch, “Caroline, NDA him.”

Ari knew too well what an NDA is.

It is a non-disclosure agreement, with the signed party swearing on almost everything that they own, that they will not leak a word to a single soul in this world.

“Really?!!” Ari assumed the paperwork was at least 20 pages, if not more. Leaning his head back, being able to see you, he scowled, “I offered you champagne and now you pay me back with this?”

“You said you didn’t care, when I told you I’d get you to sign an NDA.”

“Yeah well, I thought that was a joke!” Ari threw his hands up in frustration.

“Aww, don’t be such a baby. You know I would be hanged if our conversation gets out.” You pouted, almost sympathetically, but the smile on your face betrayed you, “Sorry, Guy, if you want the tea, it comes with the gag. But-” You dragged your voice, gesturing to Caroline to take out another file, “If you agree to sign the other file too, there’s some … perks that I can guarantee for your family business.”

Caroline picked up from where you left off, and started explaining to Ari, “If you choose to sign the second contract with Miss. Y/N, you will be her temporal boyfriend for the time being, and in return, Miss. Y/N would wear the jewellery that your business provides for the next two years over two dozen formal occasions.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Ari thought he had misheard you.

“Two years on twenty-five formal occasions.” Caroline rephrased her lines, “And that is only one of the perks of pretending to be Miss. Y/N’s boyfriend.”

“But why?” Ari looked at you, bewildered, “You were marrying … um, the prince. What do you need a fake boyfriend for?”

“You sure you want to know why?” You raised your eyebrows, “That’s gonna get you another NDA.”

He took all his comments back.

You were not a little trouble. No. No. NO!

You were a fucking huge trouble.

“And what if I don’t sign? Neither of them.” Ari challenged you, pushing you to the edge. He crossed his arms, making his biceps bulge more under that blue shirt, “What are you going to do about it, future Miss. Princess?”

You might fuck him for that slutty arm alone.

“I’d fuck you over.” You smiled, not ashamed of using dirty moves against him, not the slightest, “I’d told the royal family about how poorly you’ve done your service, and what a terrible shop owner you are.”

“What if I had connections?” Ari liked his chances, “What if I-”

“I can let you walk free if you sign the first one. I’d have something in exchange for the second one. Make your decision because my patience is short-lived.” You interrupted him. What was with this man and all his questions? You tapped your foot on the ground, bouncing it up and down, something your father forbade you to do over the years but you broke the rule whenever you can, “I like you, Mr. Thomas.” You said softly, “You seem smart. I like doing business with smart people. Now, smart people walk free when they can. Smarter people take their chances to gain more. Which one are you?”

“But I-” Ari was stalling to sign his name. It might not be as recognizable as in typing, but it was clear whether he would start with an “A” -

The corners of his eyes caught the name on the contract.

It wasn’t Ari Levinson.

The name put on the contract was “Guy Thomas”.

He introduced himself as “Guy Thomas”. Had the royal security forged a name and life experience of “Guy Thomas”, and if you presented this contract in front of him, that means you, in the limited time, did not have the time nor the patience to examine whether his fake identity was true – you must have assumed that it was solid and trustworthy, at least enough for you to bring the second contract. But the question remains – “If I sign this,” Ari signed the first NDA with ease and zero hesitation, pointing at the second one, “you have to tell me what it is for.”

“Simple.” You smirked, asking Caroline to check his signature, before replying with a devious smile, “They made me upset. I’m returning the favor.”

Vengeance towards your family and/or the royal family?

You were more than trouble; you were a fucking menace.

Ari took a sharp inhale as he lowered his head to sign his name on the second contract.

Fuck being a prince and all those rules. If this is the way you want to rebel against your family and the royal family, he’d be your knight in shiny armor, making sure that no harm comes your way.

His sane brain was preventing him from signing, as he was well aware that everyone else would know it was a joke, everyone apart from you. It would be devastating for you when you find out.

And yet, he wanted you to spend your last days before the wedding as a happy woman. You had such a horrible family that he wanted to help. He wanted to make you happy. Which reminded him that he had to call his future father-in-law, and get him on board with your plan, while you could not find out a single thing about Ari and his fake identity Guy … and demand him to return your phone and your freedom to you.

Was it pitying? Or was it that he knew you would find a fake boyfriend to piss off your family either way, and in the deepest darkest pit in the bottom of his heart, Ari wanted to be your boyfriend, and be by your side, even if it was a pretence?

Signing the name “Guy Thomas” on the line of the last page of the contract, Ari capped the black fountain pen and returned both objects to Caroline.

He gathered his thoughts as he ran a hand down his full-grown beard, his heart pumping a little faster than usual, probably because he was going undercover much deeper than he had thought he would, or because that making you happy makes him happy as well.

Or both.

The corner of his lips curled into a smile.

“I’m all yours.”

Taglist (also tagging those who might be interested: @irishhappiness @patzammit @identity2212 @lokislady82 @petalj @thezombieprostitute @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory @magnificentsaladllama @xx-rennyxx @cringeycookies @autumnrose40 @hawkeyes-queen @vonalyn @theliheat

Find the Wild Child Masterlist here 👈

Questions? Comments? Requests? 👉Send them to my inbox 👂

[inkabelledesigns]

Fixing dolls with glue hair is a lot, and I really don't like doing it. XD But yesterday I made an effort to do another oxiclean treatment in my Way Too Wonderland dolls. This is maybe the fourth time I've done it on some of them? I've lost track. Most of them had excessively bad glue hair. But I am thrilled to say that we've almost got it! My Apple on the far left of the first picture still has a little glue, but one more treatment and I think she'll be okay. Apple is my favorite from this line, so it's gonna be all the more satisfying to have her fixed up. But everyone else I think is ready for hair styling and to be dressed up for display! This is my favorite Ever After High line, and I'm so excited I'll finally be able to have them all up!

Briar needs some repairs in terms of getting some body blushing. I made the mistake of not taking off her head when I did one of these treatments, so it got a little bleached, but I'm confident I can fix it. You may be wondering why I have two Apples and why Blondie is here. Well, for Apple, I actually got an incomplete doll back in my early days of collecting, but then I got another for a good price that was less damaged, save for the glue. X'''D So I have two. Contemplating doing a repaint for her, that could be fun. As for Blondie, I know Just Sweet Blondie Locks isn't a part of Way Too Wonderland, but they go together in my head, so I wanna display her with the rest.

Truth be told, part of this is an excuse to display my playset. I'm not usually one for doll playsets, but I really like the art on this one and would like all of my girls together. Currently doing a lot of rearranging, but it looks like my theme for September is a mix of Wonderland and popstars. I really wanna have all my dolls that are singers out for a bit, so it's a lot of MH and RH surprisingly. XD It's just, nice to update the display once in a while.

[onewingedsparrow]

Fandom peeps to get to know better

Tagged by @traveleorzea ! Thanks, friend! :D Last Song: The Mission Impossible Theme, the original and also the trailer theme from Final Reckoning. The latter hits me in the gut because the trailer theme's skillful arrangement of the iconic composition really sings, "We have come so far, so please stay with us unto the end, whatever it may chance to bring." Dead Reckoning made me thrill so hard, and laugh so hard, and cry, and yell...I remember running out of the theater, I was so amazed, so excited that movies today could still carry such deep themes with a character written and acted like Ethan Hunt in Dead Reckoning. I am beyond excited for the next part...and what looks like the finale of Ethan Hunt's impossible missions. I am so ready for Final Reckoning to do the same to me: make me thrill, and laugh, and cry, and yell. I can tell from the trailer that the story is not holding back. I can already sense some of the scenes that will happen, heartwrenching though they may be. And I'm so ready to go on this journey, whatever is ahead. I can hardly wait for May. Favorite Color: Rapid Blue in motorsports terms aka Champion's Blue in Zelda terms. 🔥 Last Book: What was the last book that I finished...? I don't know. But I'm currently in the middle of reading Darkblade Assassin by Andy Peloquin, which is quite fun! Imagine Assassin's Creed meets Jeritza von Hrym meets Castlevania, question mark on that last one because I'm still learning the mystery. I'm so invested. Last Movie x 2 ⤵️ Last good one: Last Breath. Loved the suspense. Loved the actual underwater cinematography. Very little use of CGI! Simu Liu being a grumpy character was entertaining after seeing him be goofy in other movies previously. Last bad one: Borderlands. Specifically to analyze what made it fall flat. It certainly did. The costume design and makeup was good though...makes me sad so much work was put into a movie that was so empty when it had so much narrative potential. It wasn't even a movie so bad that it was fun...it was just...hollow. It had some really cool moments, but then it downplayed what narrative weight it had, and therefore even the few cool moments lost their spark. I don't know how it executed this so...tremendously. But it was definitely fun to watch with a friend and make commentary over. Hehe. Last TV Show: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds...watched the first episode...sighed over the writing that was so determined to dump exposition instead of showing story. Sweet / Spicy / Savory: TRIPLE THREAT. I love things that are flavored with oomph. Last Thing I Searched for Online: These FE Heroes alts I love themmmmmmmmmmmm Look at her jumping rope with the flaming Sword of the Creator, what a silly goose. She contrasts his serious, sensible battle pose perfectly. And she finally gets black armor????? I made her a Dark Knight in my Crimson Flower playthrough so I screamed when I saw her Resplendent Design. It's about TIME SHE GOT TO LOOK COOL WITH DARK ARMOR TO CONTRAST HER FLAMES

Current Obsession: Fire Emblem. Not even one game, I've been Nerding out about ALL OF IT. There's so much care and passion poured into this franchise and Engage in particular is a testament to that. Fire Emblem balances a wacky wild multiverse but it makes it fun rather than tiresome (looking at you for the latter, MCU) through Heroes and Engage, and it just feels like a franchise that's celebrating being alive. Which, considering Awakening was supposed to be its last hurrah, is so beautiful to me. Fire Emblem is always about war and death but within those two things there always brims life and hope—just look to Marth, if you do not believe me—and the franchise's triumphant resurrection after the fittingly named Awakening that was supposed to end it all but only began a new birth of stories is a fourth-wall-breaking phenomenon that only upholds that very wonder, and the way the Emblems kindly speak to and exhort the young fighters in Engage shows how much the franchise takes its lifegiving impact on the real world seriously and in this essay I will— Looking Forward To: Big bang projects taking off. Spring and the flowers it brings. Motorcycles and sportscars emerging from hibernation once again. Meeting a long-ago friend for coffee. Meeting a not-so-long-ago friend to chat for hours once again. ;) More brainstorming and daydreaming an epic storyworld with my brother. So much. There is so much I am looking forward to. This world is crazy, and dark, and sad, and yet...there is so much I am looking forward to, all the same. I always like to add this one to this tag game as well, whenever I get a chance. Things I am Thankful For: My Father's provision when things look bleak. Bumblebee and what he means to me. A name so familiar, heard after so long. @mailrebel . Owl City. Sonic the freaking Hedgehog...I can't believe sometimes when things come full circle, like a loop de loop completed on Green Hill. Tagging @en-busca-de-mi-ikigai-blog @rubiarts @silentsafflina @louwhose @beyo-archives-and-shtuff @larissa-the-scribe @dragongirlie56 @annotated-catastrophe @itsyaboi-lehoe if you would like? :) Here's the template for whoever wants to play next:

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[clairedaring]

Hoàng Thùy Linh dropped her first concert album and it's the BEST Vietnamese EDM Pop Album of 2024

Compiled of 21 songs performed at her first full-scale concert, HOÀNG THÙY LINH's VIETNAMESE CONCERT THE ALBUM is a mixture of songs from Hoàng Thùy Linh's third and fourth studio albums "Hoàng" and "LINK".

With the main genres of the two albums being folktronica, EDM, pop songs, the VIETNAMESE CONCERT ALBUM has succeeded in elevating the original tracks into epic, high-energy performance-based songs for the concert. It would not be a reach to say the concert remixes/rearrangement feel like Hoàng Thùy Linh is giving a metalstep/dubstep rock twist to her repertoire of folktronica songs.

Here are my top 8 favorite tracks from the concert album

1. Kẽo Cà Kẽo Kẹt (The Creeking) - Orchestral Version

note: i previously wrote a mini commentary for the song. this song is always most painful yet beautiful to me because it encapsulates her life story so well even through the borrowed use of a folk tale.

2. Tứ Phủ x Đánh Đố

My life was tormented when he betrayed my love Even heaven could not understand Aah a.. my tears immersed in the Natural Paths Aah .. I’ve longed for you in the middle of life for thousands of years Longed for you in the middle of life for thousands of years I blame nothing but our without-graces destiny. Clouds and water will not drift to their roots Like you didn't come to my lonely life And since I knew the name of sadness. The day I picked up from the old love story, Self-talkful words all night long, Amitabha...

Both original tracks were written by Hồ Hoài Anh, Ngân Vi and produced by Triple D, with the shared depictions of the tragic beauty of Vietnamese woman. I love Tứ Phủ (Four Palaces) which is inspired by Đạo Mẫu - the Vietnamese worship of mother goddesses.

3. Lắm Mối Tối Ngồi Không (Run After Two Hares, Catch Nones)

Sometimes I want to love But I'm not suitable to love anyone

The title is taken from an idiom in Vietnamese to talk about how if you have too many suitors, at the end of the day you will end up with no one.

4. Bánh Trôi Nước (Woman)

My body is white; my fate, softly rounded Rising and sinking like mountains in streams The hand that kneads me may be rough— At center, my heart is red and true

The lyrics of the song is taken directly from the traditional poem 'Bánh Trôi Nước' (lit. translation “floating cake in water”) of female poet Hồ Xuân Hương. The poem describes the life cycle of a floating cake which is used as metaphor for the tragic life of women in the feudalism era, detailed explanation here.

5. Gieo Quẻ (Casting Coins)

Love comes like a miracle, no one can predict We meet up as God's will, then suddenly, we'll fall for each other No one can force love, neither the Gods above Love doesn't ask for anything

6. Để Mị Nói Cho Mà Nghe (Let Mị Tell You Something)

Let Mị tell you something This soul ain't made to dwell in silence Owing the love for father, for mother Might as well surrender to fate

The song was inspired by a Vietnamese classic novella, "Vợ chồng A Phủ" - which is about a young girl who ran away from an abusive marriage. If the original song had given it the novella a modern twist by using the lyrics from the protagonist Mị to express her desire to enjoy her youth to the fullest, I'd say that the anime rock twist in this remix has essentially painted the picture of Mị partying at a festival during Tết after successfully escaping her abusive household.

7. Bắt Vía

This moment is rare Please don't turn away, turn away, away No need for long or forever So even if time fades, as long as you alone stay

While it is the most pop song on the album LINK, I feel like this specific rearrangement elevates the original track by giving room to the strings which were subdued in the og track.

8. Lúc Thấy Lúc Không

I dream, dream for the high clouds Where we had a date, but you didn't come I know you just want to play with my heart, yet I still wait for you, that's why I'm sad Keep waiting for you for what? Waiting for nothing

The rearrangement was so dreamy and fairy tale-like and gave the original track the grand ballroom sound it deserved in the first place.

bonus: See Tình aka Ting Ting Tang Tang being sung by a children choir accompanied by the HCMC Symphony Orchestra is just beautiful 🥺

tldr: hoàng thùy linh dropped a great concert album rearranging all the songs on her two latest full albums. please give it a try if you're into edm, pop, folktronica, traditional music sound like zhongguo feng